Papal Eelection Before 1059
Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles!
There was no fixed process for papal selection before 1059.
Popes, the bishops of Rome and the leaders of the Catholic Church, were often appointed by their predecessors or secular rulers.
While the process was often characterized by some capacity of election, an election without the meaningful participation of the laity was the exception to the rule, especially as the popes' claims to temporal power solidified into the Papal States.
The practice of papal appointment during this period would later give rise to the jus exclusivae, a veto right exercised by Catholic monarchies into the twentieth century.
