Papal conclave, 1304–05

Coat of arms during the vacancy of the Holy See
Dates and location
July 1304 – June 1305 Perugia Cathedral
Key officials
Dean	Giovanni Boccamazza
Camerlengo	Teodorico Ranieri
Protodeacon	Matteo Rosso Orsini
Elected Pope
Raymond Bertrand de Got Name taken: Clement V
← 1303 1314–16 →

The papal conclave from July 10 (or 17), 1304 to June 5, 1305, held in Perugia, was the protracted papal conclave that elected non-cardinal Raymond Bertrand de Got as Pope Clement V and immediately preceded the beginning of the Avignon Papacy.

Of the 19 living cardinals, only 15 were present in the conclave. Exactly 10 of these, constituting the minimum two-thirds necessary, voted for Bertrand de Got, who became Clement V. Two other cardinals, Giacomo and Pietro Colonna (uncle and nephew), had been deposed by Pope Boniface VIII and were thus ineligible to participate in the election; their cardinalates were subsequently restored by Clement V.

All four cardinals left early as a result of illness.

The Sacred College of Cardinals was divided into two factions: pro-French and anti-French ("Bonifacians"). The smaller, pro-French party counted six cardinals under the leadership of cardinals Napoleone Orsini Frangipani and Niccolò Alberti. They looked for the reconciliation with France and Colonna. The larger party, anti-French, led by Cardinal Matteo Orsini Rosso and Francesco Caetani, cardinal-nephew of Boniface VIII, demanded atonement for the outrage committed on the person of Boniface VIII by French Chancellor Nogaret at Anagni, and rejected any concessions towards Philip IV of France. It counted 10 electors. At the beginning of the conclave the cardinals arbitrarly decided to annul the most restrictive rules of the Constitution Ubi periculum about the conclave, which made it possible to prolong the proceedings. During the first months of the conclave both parties voted mainly for their leaders: Matteo Orsini and Napoleone Orsini. But old Matteo Orsini (aged 74) fell ill and couldn't take an active part in the conclave. Lack of effective leadership eventually led to division in the anti-French party. Some of its members, looking for a compromise, proposed archbishop Bertrand de Got of Bordeaux. Napoleone Orsini initially was sceptical about this candidature but finally he had accepted it. His opinion was decisive for the result, because an alliance of pro-French party with the "Bonifacian dissidents" gave exactly the required majority of two thirds. On June 5, 1305, after 11 months of deliberations, Bertrand de Got was elected to the Papacy.