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Who’d be in the Jailhouse of Commons?

The Spectator
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EXPLORE THE ISSUE 01 March 2025
issue 01 March 2025

Picking a pope

To choose a new pope, 120 cardinals will be confined in the Vatican until they have reached a decision. To pick Pope Francis in 2013 took two days – but in November 1268, when cardinals gathered in the town of Viterbo to choose a successor to Clement IV, there was deadlock.

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