What if after the death of Pope Leo X the Papal conclave elected Martin Luther as his successor?
Canon law requires that if a layman or non-bishop is elected, he receives episcopal consecration from the Dean of the College of Cardinals before assuming the Pontificate. So yes, it is possible. However, Brown made one mistake in Angels and Demons: Pope John Paul II abolished vote by acclamation and by selection by committee, so the way Camerlengo Ventresca was "declared" to be Pope was no longer applicable without the pope after John Paul II reinstalling the previous methods.Dan Brown claims in his fiction that theoretically anyone can be elected pope, but I am not sure if that is true
The PoD should be the papal conclave after Leo's death in 1521. So the 95 Theses have been published and Luther had started his bible translation.Can we kill off Pope Leo early or have a point of diversion within his pontificate?