Election After the death of Pope Leo XII in 1829, Castiglioni, who had all the qualities and skills required to be pope, was again considered to be a major candidate, though was questioned due to his frail health and age. Despite these concerns, he was elected as pope in the papal conclave of 1829. Given that both Popes Pius VII and Leo XII had referred to him as Pius VIII, it seemed only suitable that it was the pontifical name that he chose. He was
crowned on 5 April 1829 by Cardinal
Giuseppe Albani. When the conclave opened, the French cardinals were told that the French court would support seven cardinals for the papacy, which included Castiglioni. King
Charles X had a very positive opinion of Castiglioni, and favored either Castiglioni,
Placido Zurla,
Emmanuele de Gregorio, or Cesare Brancadoro to become pope. Castiglioni led in the first ballot with eleven votes, and on 4 March in his capacity as the
Major Penitentiary distributed ashes to the cardinals since it was
Ash Wednesday. While there were whispers of a faction supporting de Gregorio, a faction consisting of Cardinals Antonio Maria Frosini, Carlo Maria Pedicini, Antonio Palotta, Tommaso Maria Raimondo Leopoldo Arezzo, and
Agostino Rivarola was said to have started shoring up support for Castiglioni. On 6 March, de Gregorio was still in the lead, with Castiglioni receiving fifteen votes in the afternoon scrutiny. Due to a series of controversies surrounding de Gregorio throughout the day, de Gregorio's votes had fallen on 7 March, while Castiglioni received fourteen in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon. On 14 March, Castiglioni received 20 votes in the morning and 23 in the afternoon, while fluctuating on 15 and 16 March. Castiglioni received 22 votes in the 20 March morning vote while
Bartolomeo Pacca's votes increased that afternoon from 11 to 19 in a bid to end the deadlock and elect a compromise candidate. Castiglioni's voting total remained the same on the following day. In the morning vote on 23 March, he had received 24 votes and received 26 in the afternoon. Meanwhile,
Cappellari received 19 votes that had originally been cast for Pacca due to his supporters deciding upon him as an amenable compromise and because Pacca was officially
vetoed. On 24 March, Cardinals
Carlo Oppizzoni and
Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata, from different factions, were both privately in agreement to canvass additional support for Castiglioni. While Cappellari received 22 votes in an indication that his candidacy was improving, Castiglioni received 23 votes while de Gregorio had sunk to two votes. On 26 March, in the afternoon scrutiny, de Gregorio had suddenly risen to 24 votes while Castiglioni had sunk to 14 or 15. He sunk to 13 on 28 March, though the results changed on 30 March in which de Gregorio had secured 23 votes and Castiglioni had secured just over 25 in the morning, only for both candidates to sink in the afternoon scrutiny. On 31 March, he had secured 28 votes with a clear lead, and barely had two-thirds majority in the morning ballot. In the next ballot, Castiglioni was elected as pope with 47 votes. and modernist biblical translations. A further letter of pastoral concern sent to the Upper Rhineland bishops, which Pius wrote at the end of June 1830, is referred to by his successor
Gregory XVI in the latter's
papal brief Quo Graviora of 1833. Gregory refers to a request for information on the bishops' actions in response, which he says "though three years have elapsed", had not yet been received.
Marriage Pius accepted the situation on
mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but he opposed changes in Ireland and Poland, which were still strongly Catholic. In his brief
Litteris altero abhinc, he declared that a mixed marriage could only be blessed by a priest if proper promises had been made to educate the children of the marriage as Catholics. However, the brief also which allowed priests to offer "passive assistance" at a mixed marriage ceremony when the non-Catholic party declined to make the oath providing for the children of the marriage to be brought up as Catholics. The provision for "passive assistance" meant that a priest could conduct a wedding, acting as a witness, but the marriage would not be blessed or seen as a
sacrament.
Organisation of Catholic dioceses The
Holy See's website refers to three papal briefs ("breve") bearing the name
Inter multiplices: • a brief of 15 May 1829 establishing the
Diocese of Mobile, at that time covering the states of
Alabama and
Florida. • a brief of 11 August 1829 separating the pastoral care of
Prince Edward Island (PEI),
New Brunswick and the
Magdalen Islands in Canada from the
Diocese of Quebec, creating a
new episcopal see based in
Charlottetown, PEI. • a brief of 4 September 1829 separating the territory of
Cape Breton from the Diocese of Quebec and placing it in the care of the
Apostolic Vicar of
Nova Scotia. In the last of these letters, he wrote that his concern for "the state of the
Dioceses distributed over the entire earth" occupied a place second to none among his cares. Pius VIII also nominated eight cardinals "
in pectore" in the March 1830 consistory, however, he never publicly revealed the names before his death hence rendering the appointments moot.
Beatifications He canonized no saints during his brief pontificate but he
beatified two individuals. On 23 December 1829 he beatified
Benincasa da Montepulciano, and on 4 March 1830 he beatified
Chiara Gambacorti. Pius VIII proclaimed Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux a
Doctor of the Church on 20 August 1830, titling him as "
Doctor mellifluus" ("Mellifluous Doctor").
Other activities of Pius VIII in the
Sedia gestatoria Pius' brief pontificate saw the
Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom and the
July Revolution in France, which occurred in 1829 and 1830, respectively. Pius VIII recognised
Louis Philippe I (1830–48) as French king and allowed him to use the French king's customary title "Roi Très Chrétien", which means "His Most Christian Majesty". Also of remarkable importance to the future is a letter of his to a French bishop, in which he allowed the taking of moderate
interest (under the principle of foregoing a profit by investing the lent capital; see
Vix pervenit for the discussion of the topic). Being, at that time, head of the Papal States, he remained popular for decades for removing the so-called
cancelletti (grids) from the taverns, which Leo XII had ordered to be put there to hinder the consumption of wine unless accompanied by a meal. A poem was written about him that ran thus:which in English roughly reads: At the time when the highest Pius / approached God in the highest / He asked him: What have you got done? / He answered: "There's nothing I've got done." / But the angels present knew better: / "He cancelled the cancelletter".
Health and death Pius VIII was in very poor health during most of his papacy. He became very ill in early November 1830, developing
fistulas on his neck and knee while his entire body became covered with
pustules, which the doctors were able to manage by 15 November. Pius VIII became seriously ill again on 23 November, had difficulties in breathing for the following three nights, and was given the
Viaticum on 28 November and the
Extreme Unction later that day at 9:30pm. He died on 30 November 1830 at the age of 69 in the
Quirinal Palace in Rome. Certain theories have emerged suggesting that Pius VIII was poisoned, but no proof has been found to verify this claim. Cardinal
Camillo di Pietro gave the funeral oration for the late pope, before the cardinals entered the conclave to choose a successor. Pius VIII was succeeded by
Pope Gregory XVI. ==Episcopal lineage==