Pope Gregory XVI succeeds Pope Pius VIII,…

Pope Gregory XVI succeeds Pope Pius VIII, as the 254th pope, on February 2, 1831.

Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, named Mauro as a member of the religious order of the Camaldolese branch of the of the Benedictines, had unexpectedly been elected to succeed Pope Pius VIII (1829–30) in the papal chair; on his accession in early February 1831, he takes the reign name Gregory XVI.

His election had been influenced by the fact that the cardinal considered the most qualified, Giacomo Cardinal Giustiniani, had been vetoed by King Fernando VII of Spain.

The other major candidates, Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca, had been candidates in the previous conclave.

When a deadlock arose between them, the cardinals had turned to Cappellari, but it took as many as eighty-three ballots for a decisive result to be obtained.

Gregory XVI is the last man (to present times) elected Pope who was not already a bishop.

In fact, of subsequent Popes, only Pius XII was never the bishop of a diocese.

According to Joseph McCabe, "It was a scandalous choice, for Gregory was notoriously a vulgar glutton, of disputed morals, a heavy wine bibber, fond of erotic novels and of salacious gossip."

Strongly conservative and traditionalist, he opposes democratic and modernizing reforms in the Papal States and throughout Europe, seeing them as fronts for revolutionary leftism, and seeks to strengthen the religious and political authority of the papacy.