Malabar ; and the hemp raised is said to be of a stronger quality than that grown above the Ghats. The coast has a straight general outline, but is much broken into small bays and harbours. This, with the uninterrupted view along the shore, and the land and sea breezes, which force vessels steering along the coast to be always within sight of it, rendered this country from time immemorial the seat of piracy ; and so formidable had the pirates become in the 18th century, that all ships suffered which did not receive a pass from the chiefs of the pirates. The Great Mogul maintained a fleet for the express purpose of checking them, and they were frequently attacked by the Portuguese. British commerce was protected by occasional expeditions from Bombay, commencing about 1756 ; but the piratical system was not finally extinguished until
1812.
According to ancient traditions, this country was inhabited by a tribe of savages, till they were conquered by the Hindus, who gave it to a tribe of Bralimans ; and it was held by them until it was taken possession of by the Mahometan kings of Bijapur. It was conquered in the 17th century by Sivaji, the founder of the Mahratta empire. Towards the close of the same century Konaji Angria established a kingdom on this coast, extending 120 miles from Tannah to Bankut, together with the inland country as far back as the mountains. The dominion of this prince and his family over a portion of the tract continued till the line became extinct, and the territory lapsed to the paramount power. The remainder of the Concau had been already incorporated with the British dominions since the fall of the Peshwa in 1818.
CONCEPCION, a city of Chili, the capital of the pro vince of the same name. Founded by Pedro de Valdivia, it was originally situated where the small village of Penco now stands, on the Bay of Talcahuano ; but having been first pillaged and destroyed by the Araucanians, and in 1730 levelled to the ground by an earthauake, the town was removed to its present site, 36 49 S. lat., 72 50 W. long., in a fertile plain on the north side of the Bio-Bio, about five miles from the sea and 270 miles south-west of Santiago. In the year 1835 it was again laid in ruins by an earthquake, which so terrified the inhabitants that for a long time the place remained partly unoccupied. After wards, however, the streets were rebuilt, and the area occu pied by the town has been greatly extended. The main streets and squares are broad and spacious ; the dwelling- houses (mostly of only one floor) are among the best planned and constructed in Chili ; and the cathedral, churches, and public buildings are handsome edifices. Powerful flour- mills are in the town and neighbourhood, as well as immense cellars (bodegas) for the storage of wheat and wine. It is connected by rail with, its two ports Tome and Talcahuano, and with all the important towns of the interior. Population, 19,200.
CONCLAVE. The word conclav^ is used to signify any company of persons gathered together in consultation ; its proper meaning is any such gathering of persons locked up together (from the preposition cum, and davis, a key) ; and the technical meaning, which has superseded all other uses of the word, save where some other significance is specially indicated, is the meet ing of the members of the Sacred College of Cardinals lor the purpose of electing a Pope.
The Pope, who is simply the bishop of Rome, was originally chosen by the entire body of the people con stituting the church at Home. Gradually, and by a process of encroachment, the several steps of which are, as might be expected, very obscure, the right of nomination was confined to the clergy, the people still retaining a right of objection, exercised very much in the same manner as the forbidding banns of marriage is now exercised. The grasping tyranny of the clergy combined with the lawless turbulence of the laity, consisting no longer, as originally, of a select body of religious men, but of the entire popula tion, to cause this participation of the laity also to fall into disuse. The next step was to allow the privilege of the vote only to the chief among the clergy cardinales the cardinal clergy, so called as the principal virtues were called cardinal virtues (see Cardinal). During some centuries the emperor was understood to have a controlling voice in the election, in such sort that his approbation was necessary for the validity of it. But the practice varied much in this respect, according as the emperor was or was not strong, near at hand, or interested in the election. The history of this part of the subject is exceedingly obscure ; but it is certain that at least one Pope provided that the consent of the emperor should be necessary for the election of his successor, and on the other hand that other elections were made about the same period without the emperor s par ticipation.
It was not till many years after the right of election had been abusively confined to the cardinals, that the practice of shutting up those dignitaries for the purpose of exercising that right was resorted to. And in the earliest instances the " conclave " seems to have been an involuntary im prisonment imposed on them ab extra. In 1216 the Perugians constrained the nineteen cardinals who elected Honorius III. to enter into conclave the day after the death of Innocent III., who died at Perugia, keeping them imprisoned till the election should be completed. Gregory IX. was similarly elected at Rome in 1227, the cardinals having been shut up against their will by the senators and people of Rome. In 1272 Gregory X. was elected at Viterbo by seventeen cardinals, who had not only been shut up against their will, but from over whose heads the roof of the building in which the conclave was held wa$ removed by the citizens in order to hasten their delibera tions.
This Gregory, in a council held at Lyons in 1274, promulgated a code of law for the conducting of the Papal election, comprised in fifteen rules. And these rules, though modified by subsequent pontiffs in some respects^ and supplemented by a vast number of more minute regulations, remain to the present day the foundation and origin of all the law and practice of Papal elections. The text of this code is too lengthy to be given here. It may be read in the original Latin in the Life of Gregory X. t by Pagi, as in many other works, the Notes to Platina by Panvinius, &c. ; or in English, slightly abbreviated, in a volume on the Papal conclaves by T. A. Trollope (p. 64). The substance of some of the more important provisions may be given summarily, as follows. Cardinals to go into conclave on the tenth day after the Pope s death, attended by one person only, unless in a case of evident need, when two may be permitted. Cardinals to live in conclave in common without separation between bed and bed by wall, curtain, or veil (modified by subsequent rules to the present practice of a wooden cell for each cardinal). No access to conclave to be permitted. An opening to be left for food to be passed in. No vote shall be given save in conclave. Cardinals who quit the conclave by reason of sickness cannot vote. Those who arrive after the closing of it may enter and vote. Cardinals who may have been censured or excommunicated cannot be excluded from conclave. An election can only be made by a two- thirds majority of those present. Any man, lay or ecclesiastic, not a heretic and not canonically incapacitated, may be elected Pope. No entreaties or promises to be made by one cardinal to another with a view of influencing the vote. All bargains, agreements, undertakings, even though corroborated by an oath, having such an object to be of no validity ; and " let him that breaks such be deemed worthy of praise rather than of the blame of perjury."
