Prawo ekskluzywy jako sposób politycznego wpływu na wybór głowy Kościoła katolickiego. Przypadek konklawe z 1903 r.

Dawid Pieniężny

doi:10.31261/spus.19282

Published: 2025-10-15

2025

The Right of Exclusivity As a Means of Political Influence on the Election of the Head of the Catholic Church. The Case of the 1903 Conclave

Dawid Pieniężny

Section: Artykuły

https://doi.org/10.31261/spus.19282

Abstract

In force until 1904, the right of veto over the outcome of the conclave was vested in the cardinals, who, exclusively on behalf of the rulers of Spain, France and Austria, could lodge a protest known as an exclusivity. The aim of the present study is to analyse the right of exclusivity as an attempt to politically influence the election of the pope as head of the Catholic Church, using the example of its last use during the 1903 conclave. The paper poses three main research problems: 1. What was the right of exclusion and who could use it? 2. Why did the Church allow interference in the election of the Pope? 3. How and why was this possibility used during the 1903 conclave? The answers to these questions made it possible to show that the use of the right of exclusivity in 1903 by the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna on behalf of Emperor Franz Joseph I, prevented the election of Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro as Pope, and therefore constituted a direct political influence of the ruler on the election of the head of the Church.

Keywords:

law of exclusivity , political influence , Holy See , conclave , political power

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Pieniężny, D. (2025). The Right of Exclusivity As a Means of Political Influence on the Election of the Head of the Catholic Church. The Case of the 1903 Conclave. Studia Politicae Universitatis Silesiensis, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.31261/spus.19282

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2025
Published: 2020-12-21

ISSN: 1895-3492

eISSN: 2353-9747

10.31261/spus

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