In late 1269, after several months of deadlock during which the cardinals had met only intermittently,Bellitto, Christopher M. 2002. The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-one Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II. Paulist Press. . p. 61. Ranieri Gatti,Trollope, 1876, p. 61. the Prefect of Viterbo, and Albertus de Montebono, the Podesta, ordered (some sources say, at the urging of Saint BonaventureBidwell, Walter Hilliard, and Agnew, John Holmes. Eds. 1876. Eclectic Magazine. p. 476.) the cardinals sequestered in the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo until a new pope was elected. On 8 June 1270, the cardinals addressed a Diploma to the two magistrates asking that Henry of Segusio, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, be dismissed from the "Palatio discooperto" ("the uncovered Palace") owing to his ill health and his having already renounced his right to vote. Some sources say that a makeshift roof was reassembled after the cardinals threatened to put the entire city of Viterbo under interdict.
