Pope John Paul II Cardinals would be the ones who would give him most support at his eventual election to the papacy In August 1978, following the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Wojtyła voted in the papal conclave, which elected Pope John Paul I. John Paul I died after only 33 days as pope, triggering another conclave. The second conclave of 1978 started on 14 October, ten days after the funeral. It was split between two strong candidates for the papacy: Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, the conservative Archbishop of Genoa, and the liberal Archbishop of Florence, Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, a close friend of John
Ostrogothic Papacy money that could be spent during a papal election (an early example of campaign finance reform). In fact, Athalaric himself was able to engineer the election of Pope Silverius, the son of Pope Hormisdas, upon John II's death. Theodahad threw his support behind Pope Agapetus I and was thus "well placed to coerce the new pope Agapetus, for he had been elected with his support." Theodahad also played a decisive role in the selection of Pope Silverius (536-537), the legitimate son of Hormisdas. After Justinian I retook Rome in the Gothic War (535–554), "to interfere in the papacy had been