Did you know there were once four popes in the same year?
In 1276 the Catholic Church saw four different pontiffs in one calendar year: Gregory X died Jan 10, Innocent V was elected Jan 21, Adrian V on July 11, and John XXI on Sept 8. Gregory X had reformed the papal conclave with the constitution Ubi periculum, tightening the election process and confining cardinals in Viterbo. Each successor served only a few months – Innocent V died after five months, Adrian V after 38 days, and John XXI after a short illness – before the next election. John XXI remains the only Portuguese pope in history, a physician‑scholar who studied in Paris, Salerno and Palermo.
about 1 month ago
In 1276 the Catholic Church experienced an extraordinary succession of four popes within a single calendar year, a rarity not seen since the modern era’s brief double‑papacy in 2025 and the triple‑papacy of 1978. The rapid turnovers stemmed from a series of short‑lived pontificates following the death of Pope Gregory X, each reflecting unique backgrounds and circumstances that together highlighted the challenges facing the medieval papacy. 1
Pope Gregory X, elected after a protracted three‑year conclave (1268‑1271), instituted the constitution Ubi periculum, which locked cardinals in seclusion and limited their food to hasten future elections. He died on 10 January 1276, ending a four‑year reign and triggering the rapid succession of his successors. 1
Just one day after the new conclave began, Peter of Tarentaise was elected Innocent V on 21 January 1276. A Dominican scholar and former professor at the University of Paris, he continued Gregory X’s crusade advocacy and introduced the white papal cassock. His pontificate lasted five months before he died on 22 June 1276. 1
Cardinals chose Ottobono Fieschi as Pope Adrian V on 11 July 1276. Though he suspended Gregory X’s strict conclave regulations, he died after only 38 days on 18 August 1276, never having been ordained a priest. 1
Pedro Julião of Lisbon became Pope John XXI on 8 September 1276, the sole Portuguese pontiff. A trained doctor, he promoted education, mediated royal disputes, and built a papal library. He died on 20 May 1277 after a study roof collapse. 1
The “year of the four popes” underscored a period of crisis for the Church, marked by political conflicts with figures such as Charles I of Sicily and Rudolf of Habsburg, as well as internal decay evident in a three‑year sede vacante preceding 1276. The swift succession of short pontificates ultimately reinforced the need for stable election procedures, paving the way for Pope Nicholas III’s reforms beginning in November 1277. 1*
Investigate how 13th‑century conclave reforms shaped papal succession
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The 13th-century conclave reforms transformed papal succession from a politically exposed, often protracted contest into a regulated electoral process controlled by the College of Cardinals. Their central instrument was Gregory X’s constitution Ubi periculum, issued at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274. Although the reform was briefly suspended after Gregory’s death, its restoration and later incorporation into canon law gave the conclave enduring institutional form.
Before the conclave system, papal elections could be delayed by factional conflict, Roman political disorder, imperial influence, and disputes among the electors. The most dramatic example occurred after the death of Clement IV in 1268. The cardinals remained divided for nearly three years before electing Teobaldo Visconti, who became Gregory X in 1271.
This vacancy revealed a serious constitutional problem: the Church possessed a method for electing a pope, but no sufficiently effective mechanism to compel the electors to reach a decision. The delay weakened central governance and risked leaving the universal Church without an effective head for an extended period.
Gregory X’s own experience shaped his response. His election followed the unusually long vacancy, and his pontificate was marked by efforts to strengthen ecclesiastical governance amid political conflict. He convened the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, whose agenda also included Church reform, the Crusades, and attempted reconciliation with the Eastern Church.
The reform established the basic features of the conclave:
The historical account describes the cardinal electors as being “secluded from the world under exceedingly stringent regulations,” with the enclosure continuing until they had fulfilled their duty of providing the Church with a supreme pastor.
The term conclave itself derives from the idea of a gathering held “with a key”—that is, a body locked away from external interference. The enclosure was not merely ceremonial. It was a constitutional device intended to protect the freedom of the election and to make prolonged indecision increasingly difficult.
Later legislation summarized the procedure as follows: after the period of mourning and the waiting period for absent cardinals, the cardinals present were to celebrate Mass invoking the Holy Spirit and then enter the conclave without further postponement.
The reform thus combined spiritual symbolism and institutional coercion. The Mass of the Holy Spirit expressed the theological character of the election; enclosure and procedural deadlines addressed the political and administrative realities.
The medieval College of Cardinals was not a politically neutral body. Cardinals were often connected to powerful Roman families, European monarchies, ecclesiastical factions, or competing territorial interests. A public or loosely regulated election could therefore be influenced by:
Enclosure aimed to separate the electors from these pressures. The regulations even threatened serious penalties against those who violated the rules or interfered with the liberty of the election. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports that those who disregarded the conclave laws or tampered with its freedom incurred penalties, including automatic excommunication under the older discipline.
This reveals an important principle: the reform did not treat papal succession simply as a matter of political negotiation. It presented the election as an ecclesial act requiring freedom, responsibility, and accountability before God.
The first conclaves appeared to confirm the practical value of the reform. According to the historical account, the first conclave lasted only one day and the next seven days.
The first election under the new system followed Gregory X’s death in 1276 and produced Innocent V. His pontificate was brief—only about five months—but his election was achieved quickly. He was a Dominican and represented the growing influence of the mendicant orders in the leadership of the Church.
However, rapid elections did not automatically produce long pontificates or political harmony. The year 1276 became one of the most turbulent succession periods in medieval papal history:
The list of popes records this rapid succession from Gregory X through Innocent V, Adrian V, and John XXI.
Adrian V’s pontificate was especially significant for the reform’s early history. He annulled Gregory X’s strict conclave regulations but died before replacing them with a revised system. John XXI then formally suspended Ubi periculum. The result was immediate: prolonged elections and long vacancies returned.
This episode demonstrated both the strength and weakness of the reform. The conclave could accelerate succession when enforced, but because the norms were still relatively new and subject to papal suspension, they had not yet acquired complete constitutional permanence.
Between the suspension of Ubi periculum in 1276 and its restoration in 1294, papal vacancies again became lengthy. Some lasted six to nine months, and the vacancy before the election of Celestine V lasted two years and nine months.
The contrast is historically revealing:
With enforced enclosure, elections could be completed within days; without it, factional disagreement could immobilize the Church for months or years.
The sequence showed that the problem was not simply a shortage of suitable candidates. The deeper problem was the absence of a procedure capable of containing rivalry among the electors.
Celestine V restored the conclave, and Boniface VIII confirmed that restoration. Boniface further ordered Ubi periculum to be incorporated into the canon law of the Church. From that point, the conclave became the ordinary and legally established form of papal election.
That incorporation was decisive. It moved the conclave from being a recent disciplinary experiment to being part of the Church’s recognized legal tradition.
The 13th-century reform did not arise in isolation. It completed a process of centralization that had begun earlier.
In 1059, Nicholas II’s decree In nomine Domini substantially restricted the effective right of papal election to the cardinals, particularly the cardinal bishops, while the Roman clergy and people retained a more limited acclamatory role.
Then, in 1179, Alexander III’s constitution Licet de vitanda established the requirement of a two-thirds majority to prevent disputed elections. This rule addressed a different problem from Ubi periculum: the two-thirds requirement sought to prevent rival claimants, while enclosure sought to prevent indefinite delay and external manipulation.
Together, the reforms created a more coherent electoral system:
The result was a shift from a relatively open and politically vulnerable election toward a cardinal-based, majority-controlled, enclosed electoral process.
The most direct effect was greater regularity in the transfer of papal authority. The Church no longer had to rely solely on the goodwill of competing cardinals to end a vacancy. The conclave created an institutional expectation that the electors would assemble, remain together, and continue deliberating until a valid election occurred.
The conclave also strengthened the principle that papal succession should be determined by the Church’s own electors rather than by secular rulers or urban factions. The earlier history of papal elections had been deeply entangled with imperial and Roman political power. The 13th-century rules sought to protect the independence of the Church’s central office.
This did not eliminate political influence. Cardinals continued to have political interests, and later conclaves would face interference from monarchies and governments. Nevertheless, enclosure created a legal and ecclesial framework within which such interference could be identified as an intrusion rather than treated as a normal element of succession.
The conclave enhanced the institutional importance of the College of Cardinals. Since the cardinals were the electors, their collective identity became more significant. The succession of the pope was increasingly understood as an act entrusted to the College rather than to the Roman populace, the emperor, or a general ecclesiastical assembly.
This also contributed to the continuity of papal government. Even when the papacy was vacant, the cardinals represented the body responsible for securing a successor. A later papal document describes the Church during a vacancy as anxiously laboring for the substitution of another pastor, while insisting that the delay should serve the search for a suitable candidate rather than result from negligence.
The reforms sought to balance two dangers:
The older papal legislation expresses this balance through the image of the Church awaiting a suitable pastor. It warns against both careless delay and “inconsiderate haste,” suggesting that the election must be prompt but also prudent.
Thus, the purpose of the conclave was not merely speed. It was free and mature decision-making under conditions designed to prevent obstruction.
The 13th-century system did not make papal succession entirely peaceful or predictable.
First, the rapid succession of 1276 showed that a conclave could produce a pope quickly without guaranteeing political stability or a lengthy pontificate. Innocent V, Adrian V, and John XXI all had very short reigns, and their deaths required repeated elections.
Second, the strictness of the system provoked opposition. Adrian V’s attempt to annul Gregory X’s rules illustrates the criticism that excessive enclosure and deprivation might be too severe. His death before promulgating a replacement left the Church in an unstable legal position.
Third, the rules required continuing legislative development. Later popes repeatedly confirmed, modified, or supplemented the conclave regulations. The fact that subsequent legislation continued to regulate such matters as the waiting period for absent cardinals, the timing of the funeral rites, and the place of election shows that the basic structure was durable but not mechanically fixed.
The lasting importance of the 13th-century reforms lies less in every individual procedural detail than in the constitutional principle they established:
The pope is to be elected by the cardinals in a protected ecclesial process that is insulated, as far as possible, from external pressure and compelled toward completion.
The reform also clarified that papal succession is not simply a dynastic or territorial transfer of power. It is an act of ecclesial governance, entrusted to a defined body and governed by law.
The system was later adapted in response to new circumstances. The Council of Constance modified conclave participation during the resolution of the Western Schism, and later popes legislated concerning elections held during councils, the place of the conclave, enclosure, and possible secular interference. But these later modifications generally presupposed the basic structure created by Gregory X rather than abandoning it.
The 13th-century conclave reforms shaped papal succession in three decisive ways:
The experience of 1276 proved the point by contrast: when Ubi periculum was enforced, elections were rapid; when it was suspended, prolonged vacancies returned. Its restoration by Celestine V and confirmation by Boniface VIII secured the conclave’s place in the continuing tradition of papal governance.
The reform therefore did not eliminate political conflict from papal elections, but it gave that conflict a controlled institutional setting. In doing so, it provided the basic framework through which the Church would achieve continuity of papal succession for centuries afterward.