All Vatican elections

1216 Papal Election

elected Honorius III

18 July 1216 · The first papal elections · Perugia

The 1216 papal election was convoked in Perugia on 18 July 1216 following the death of Pope Innocent III two days earlier. The troubled social and political climate in Italy, including the threat of schism and foreign invasions, led the assembled cardinals to adopt the procedure of compromissum, delegating the election to a committee of cardinal-bishops.

Elected pope

Honorius III

Cencio Savelli

Succeeded

Innocent III

Duration

1 day

Cardinal electors

pre-conclave election

Key officials

DeanNicola de Romanis
CamerlengoStefano di Ceccano

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.