All Vatican elections

1145 Papal Election

elected Eugene III

15 February 1145 · The first papal elections · San Cesareo in Palatio, Rome

Pope Lucius II, during the whole of his pontificate, had to face the municipal commune at Rome, hostile towards the secular rule of the popes in the Eternal City. The republican faction elected Giordano Pierleoni, brother of the former Antipope Anacletus II, to the post of senator, and demanded that Lucius relinquish all temporal matters into his hands.

Elected pope

Eugene III

Bernardo Pignatelli

Succeeded

Duration

1 day

Cardinal electors

pre-conclave election

Key officials

DeanCorrado Demetri della Suburra

Ballot-by-ballot tallies are destroyed by design — the paper is burned in the stove whose smoke announces the result — so this entry records what the Church documents: the dates, the electors, the number of ballots where known, and the man who walked out onto the balcony.