In the conclave of 1549–50 held to elect a successor to Paul III, fifty-one cardinals, including Marcello Cervini, participated at the opening on 3 December 1549. The initial candidates included Cardinals Pole, Sfondrati, Carpi and Ridolfi (who died on the night of 31 January). Pole, the favorite of the Emperor Charles V, came within two votes of being elected in the first scrutinies, but he failed to attract any additional votes. Juan Álvarez de Toledo, Bishop of Burgos, another Imperial favorite, was proposed, and he too failed, because of strong opposition from the faction of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of the late Pope Paul III and from the French. On 12 December, five more French voters arrived, and though they could not advance the candidacy of their favorite, Ippolito d'Este, they did have Cardinal Cervini on their list of possible candidates. Farnese and his faction were also favorably disposed to him. Unfortunately, the Imperial faction was not. Worst of all, on 22 December, Cardinal Cervini left the Conclave, suffering from a quartan fever. Finally, on 7 February 1550, the cardinals chose Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, who took the name Julius III. Papal election The first conclave of 1555, following the death of Julius III (1550–55), involved a struggle between French interests in Italy (which had been favored by Julius III) and Imperial interests, which were intent on Church reform through a Church council, but with the Emperor controlling the outcome. On 9 April 1555, on the evening of the fourth day of the papal conclave, Cervini was "adored" as pope, despite efforts by cardinals loyal to Emperor Charles V to block his election. Next morning, a formal vote was taken in the Capella Paolina, in which all of the votes cast were for Cardinal Cervini except his own, which he cast for the dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, Giampietro Carafa. The new pope chose to retain his birth name, the most recent pope to do so, reigning as Marcellus II. He was both consecrated as a bishop and crowned pope on the next day in a ceremony that was subdued on account of it falling during the Lenten season. Papacy Though Marcellus II desired to reform many of the inner workings of the Church, his feeble constitution succumbed to the fatigues of the conclave, the exhausting ceremonies connected with his accession, the anxieties arising from his high