2 The is Dead! Rumor and Ritual in the Vacant See

No other event in early modern inspired so much consternation and curiosity on the part of the populace as the vacant see. Initiated by the pope’s death, the vacant see ended with the of the new pope and his corona- tion in St ’s three days later. The coming of the vacant see was her- alded by rumors, as the populace discussed the possibility of the pope’s death, especially if he was afflicted by serious illnesses or ailments. Once the pope died a series of rites, centered at both the Capitol and the Vatican, announced his death to the city, marked the end of his regime, and highlighted the tempo- rary vacancy of the . The pope’s death also saw the divisive break with the relationship between ruled and ruler. Rumor and rites served to tie Romans together in a collective moment of reflection as the people of the city reassessed the pope and his regime, and looked forward to the possible ben- efits of the new pontificate. This collective moment might be seen as having three phases, each playing some role in announcing the pope’s death and the coming of the vacant see. Rumors surrounding the health of the pope and the anticipation (or in some cases dread) of his eventual death marked the first phase of this three-fold process. The eagerness for the pope’s death was particularly evident if the pope had enjoyed an especially long pontificate or had promulgated unpopular mea- sures that had antagonized his subjects. In this atmosphere, gossip and rumor at the papal court and in the streets kept the city informed about the pope’s health and sometimes generated false reports of his death.1 This stage was the most informal of the three phases and did not necessarily lead to the next two: the announcement of the pope’s death through a series of rites, and his burial. Nevertheless, rumor was a collective assessment of the dead pope’s , and therefore an aspect of the political culture of early modern Rome. The second phase of this process was the actual death of the pope. A series of civic and papal rites announced his death and underscored the end of his regime. These rites were also important in heralding the newfound yet

1 On ritual moments, see Turner, The Ritual Process, especially chapters 3 and 5.

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­ephemeral power of the Popolo Romano and the .2 This official announcement made it apparent to all that the pope had really died, although this process was fraught with confusion and disorder. The final phase—the burial of the pope in the Vatican—highlighted his mortal nature and the ephemerality of his worldly power.3 By the , the papacy had fully adopted the Novendiales, the nine days of funeral obse- quies that further proclaimed his death to the entire city and world, and that gave nonresident cardinals the opportunity to travel to Rome to participate in the papal election. For three of those days, masters of ceremonies displayed the pope’s body up in St Peter’s for the public to venerate by kissing its foot. Paradoxically, this last rite emphasized the sacredness of the pope and the ­people’s connection to their , which juxtaposed sharply with the pre- vious rites and customs that severed the bonds between the prince and his subjects. As we shall see in chapter 5, it also jarred with the that some experienced in death.

Rumors and the Pope’s Death

Throughout a pope’s reign the possibility of his demise sparked rampant dis- cussion among a populace ever attuned to visible signs that his reign was draw- ing to an end. The watchful eyes and attentive ears of the populace focused on changes in the daily activities of the popes and gossip coming from the papal court. This information disseminated as rumors through the streets and squares by word of mouth, and eventually to a wider audience via newsletters.4 Public discussion centered on the pope’s poor health. Persistently ill popes

2 On these civic and papal rites announcing the vacant see, see Nussdorfer, Civic Politics, pp. 228–35; and Paravicini-Bagliani, The Pope’s Body. 3 For a good background on early modern papal burial rites, see Visceglia, Morte e elezione del papa, pp. 28–40. 4 On rumor surrounding the popes in early modern Rome, see Renaud Villard, “Incarnare una voce: Il caso della (Roma, XVI secolo),” Quaderni storici 121(2006), 39–68; and John M. Hunt, “Rumour, Newsletters, and the Pope’s Death in Early Modern Rome,” in News in Early Modern : Currents and Connections, eds. Simon Davies and Puck Fletcher (Leiden, 2014), pp. 143–58. On rumor in general, see Jean-Noël Kapferer, Rumors: Uses, Interpretations and Images, trans. Bruce Fink (New Brunswick, 1990); Tamotsu Shibutani, Improvised News: A Sociological Study of Rumor (Indianapolis, 1966); James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, 1990), pp. 144–48; Adam Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500–1700 (Oxford, 2000), pp. 335–405; Massimo Rospocher and Rosa Salzberg, “An Evanescent Public Sphere: Voices, Spaces, and Publics in during the