Thirty-nine years of Schism. Three claimants deposed or resigned; the last, old Pedro de Luna, still calls himself Benedict XIII on his rock at Peñíscola. On 8 November 1417 fifty-three electors climb the stairs of the merchant hall above the Bodensee: twenty-three cardinals of three broken obediences and thirty deputies of the five nations. A pope needs two-thirds of the Sacred College and two-thirds of every nation — sixteen cardinals and four votes from each of five benches. Six locks. One throne. Christendom is waiting outside in the snow.
DoctorsCanonists and theologians: drawn toward learning, conciliar procedure and a credible reform settlement.
DiplomatsLegates and negotiators: drawn toward reconciliation and candidates acceptable to courts as well as colleges.
ReligiousMonks, friars and regular clergy: drawn toward discipline, reform and candidates known for prayer or learning.
Not in the Kaufhaus: Baldassare Cossa, the deposed John XXIII, sits in a Palatine prison; Pedro de Luna keeps his tiny court at Peñíscola, and his last loyal cardinals — Murillo, Urriés, Carrillo de Albornoz and Fonseca — with him. Louis de Bar, Morosini, Carbone and Isolani (John's legate holding Rome) are absent; Repington of Lincoln never took his hat. The autumn buried the rest: Hallum of Salisbury on 4 September, Cardinal Zabarella on the 26th, old Gregory XII himself at Recanati on 18 October, and Cardinal Stefaneschi on the month's last day.
· all fifty-three electors — cardinals and deputies alike — are playable Enter a seed to replay the same conclave.
The electoral rule, the roster of fifty-three, the daily chronology, the recorded per-college tallies of St Martin's morning, the accession of the twenty announced by Adimari and the final accedimus nos duo of Fillastre and de Foix follow Cardinal Fillastre's daybook and the council records. Individual simulated ballots, the first scrutiny's detail and most personal affinities are modelling choices, clearly not claims about lost mediaeval votes.