, where the election moved The eleven electors were relatively evenly divided between the factions of
Colonna and
Orsini, two powerful Roman families, led by
Giacomo Colonna and Matteo Orsini, respectively. The three Orsini cardinals were pro-French and pro-
Angevin, while the two Colonna cardinals supported competing
Aragonese claims in
Sicily.
James II of Aragon had bankrolled the Colonna faction with gold, but it is unknown whether
simony actually transpired. After ten days of balloting in
Rome, without any candidate approaching the requisite two-thirds, the cardinals adjourned until June and changed the location of the election from
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore to
Santa Maria sopra Minerva. As balloting continued into the next summer, the disorder in Rome increased dramatically (even by the standards of a
sede vacante, during which, based on the biblical example of
Barabbas, all prisoners were released). Consensus was achieved by 5 July 1294, when Morrone was elected. As with the selection of
Pope Gregory X by the
papal election, 1268–1271, the choice of an outsider, non-cardinal, in this case an "octogenarian hermit," was seen as the only way to break the stalemate between the deadlocked cardinals. That election also could have resulted in the selection of a hermit, had
Saint Philip Benizi not fled to avoid his election after he urged the cardinals to speed up their deliberations. ==Coronation==