Panvinio’s History of Papal Elections

Abstract

This chapter deals with Panvinio’s history of papal elections ( De varia creatione Romani pontificis). Panvinio was the first author to write such a work. He put together an extensive range of relevant historical material to cover 1,500 years of history. Panvinio felt free to criticize past popes for their ‘lust’ for power, while at the same time defending papal primacy. He stated in his preface that he wanted to demonstrate two things: first, that there had been different forms of election from the time of St Peter to his own day; and second, that no variation in the electoral process had taken place without the authority and consent of the popes. One of the key issues was Panvinio’s presentation of change, discord, and diversity in the Church’s past. Panvinio stated ‘What I have written will not please the Christian reader’, and he included some hard-hitting criticism of the papacy’s growing bid for secular power from Gregory VII (1073–85) onwards. Panvinio did not attempt to publish the full version of De varia creatione, but instead presented an abridgement—which still contained much criticism of the Church’s past—to Pope Pius IV and his nephew, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo.