The church officially recognizes St. Peter, the first pope, as the longest-serving, with at least 34 years. However, many historians dispute that as impossible to verify, and instead say the ...

Papal conclaves have featured calls of election fraud and bribery so gauche that riches were wheeled in on donkey carts.

The first official rules date back to 1059, when Pope Nicholas II gave the right to elect the pope exclusively to the cardinals. Before that, it was a messy blend of Roman clergy, nobility, and ...

It was not until 1059 that Pope Nicholas II introduced a reform granting the right to elect popes exclusively to cardinals. However, the lack of precise procedures often led to prolonged elections ...

written by Pope Nicholas II, which established the practice of having cardinal-bishops be the only ones responsible for electing the pope. There have been others from around that time period that ...

Pope Nicholas II overhauled the process in 1059 to give cardinals the vote, establishing the church’s independence from nobility. He allowed for the possibility that “the perversity of ...