ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of how the funeral of a pope is carried out, the way in which another pope is chosen, and to what great and universal applause Sixtus V was proclaimed pope. After the death of Pope Gregory XIII and the performance of his funeral rites, almost fifty cardinals came together in order to provide a new pope to replace him. Their first meeting was held on 21 April, and on the twenty-fourth of the same month, to the great joy of all, the most illustrious Cardinal Montalto, a man most advanced in the study and practice of virtue of every kind and of arts and letters, who had previously been a member of the Franciscan order, was proclaimed pope by general acclamation, and decided to be known by the name of Sixtus V. Pope Sixtus is of Italian birth, from the lands of Piceno, now commonly known as the Marches of Ancona.
