1903 conclave

A conclave was held from 31 July to 4 August 1903 to elect a new pope to succeed Leo XIII, who had died on 20 July. Of the 64 members of the College of Cardinals, all but two attended. On the seventh ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, the patriarch of Venice. After accepting his election, he took the name Pius X. This was the first conclave to host a representative from North America—James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore—and the first to incorporate a non-European born cardinal since the 1471 papal conclave that featured Cardinal Bessarion of Trebizond. Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria asserted the right claimed by certain Catholic rulers to veto a candidate for the papacy, attempting to block the election of the leading candidate, Cardinal Secretary of State Mariano Rampolla. The Secretary of the Conclave, Archbishop Rafael Merry del Val, reported later that Cardinal Puzyna de Kosielsko came to see him, demanding to announce his veto against Cardinal Rampolla in the Emperor's name. Merry del Val protested and refused even to accept the document. Rampolla, according to Merry del Val, in fact actually attracted further votes subsequent to the veto. However, Merry del Val later told Ludwig von Pastor that he thought Rampolla was unlikely in any case to have won since a majority of the cardinals wanted a more conservative direction following the relatively liberal pontificate of Pope Leo XIII, an opinion he himself shared.