On Papal Conclaves
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Preface[edit]
This small volume is the expansion (of an article which appeared in So. xc. of the Xortlt BI'itÙ:lt Review. A lengthened residence in Rome made me follow with much interest what has been happening there during the late eventful years. The circumstance which specially prompted me, in the first instance, to begin the inquiries which have led to this treatise was the case of Cardinal Andrea. "lIen the intention was announced of proceeding against this clinitary in a mode as to the legality of which there arose discussion, I sought to satisfy myself about precedents and canon law on this head; and this inquiry quickly led me beyond the merely special point I had originally in view. It thus happens that the present publication falls together in time with probably the closing incident in the matter which first suggested composition; for as these pages are going through the press, the news arrive of Cardinal Andrea having returned to Romp in deference to the Pope's citation of him. Another subject which occupied my attention when once I found myself engaged in the midst of con- stitutional questions lying at the route of the Pope's sovereign prerogatives, was to see how far there might be foundation for the assertion so freely dealt in by the upholders of the ,Kon-Poss1tml.ls(spelling error) principle, that the Pope, in the matter of his temporalities, is bound by oaths of such peculiar stringency that he cannot release himself there from. Although I had been too much alive to the intricate nature of the subject I was trying to inves- tigate, not to seek every assistance within my reach, I became soon painfully aware that I had been guilty of not a few omis- sions and downright errors in the original Issue. 1\ly best thanks are due especially to the criticisms of some Tioman friends, who drew my attention to these slip, I hope that I have now removed these inaccuracies; and that by the additions, which are not inconsiderable, I may have rendered the present publication, what it has been my earnest object to make it, a summary which may be of use to the historical student, wherein he will find con- stitutional facts stated without passion, or desire to subserve party views. I must add that the engraved title-page has been taken from the Histoire des COllclave, Cologne 1 ï03.
J O
DOY. Christmas Eve 186;.
I[edit]
Which has been written about the Papacy, yet the subject of Papal Elections may be said to have been barely grazed. The reason is very simple. The matter out of which alone their history can be constructed has been hitherto inaccessible. It lies buried in Italian archives; and Italian archives, especially in all that touched on Rome, have until recently been closed against inspection with systematic jealousy. In the libraries and archives of individual families, it is indeed often possible to glean an astonishing amount of historical information, which would be little looked for in these quarters, and from such sources Professor Ranke mainly drew his materials. It is astounding how much of the highest value for the historian has been deposited in the muniment-rooms of Italian families of dis- tinction, whose ancestors heM high IJo::;ts. It woulù seem as if it had been the rule with those cunning men of former times to keep for their private use a copy of every important document connected with their official actions. But then these family col- lections are guarded for the most part with a jealousy hardly a whit less inexorahle than that which until recently prevailed in regard to those ùf the State. In Rome, for instance, there are several family archives, about whose wealth in precious documents for the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there are traditions, but whereof no tudent-at least no foreign student-is allowed to see more than the outside. Yet even these family archives would hardly furnish the information for a full insight into the various incidents which marked Papal elections, and caused them to turn in favour of particulaJ." candidates. Every other historical event of the family ancestors would be illustrated rather than their doings in Conclave, because while in all other situa- tions these stood more or less in the character of agents who coulù not avoid cOITespond- ence with their superiors, in Conclave every ancestral Cardinal was actuated with the feeling of a principal, and operated, not through the agency of a surviving instru- ment, but as much as possible through the impalpable element of colloquy and personal persuasion. To preserve tracings of such proceedings it required that a watchful looker-on should be in the position to take notes, which the chief actors had no interest in perpetuating. This is precisely what was done by the confidential agents whom each Italian sovereign kept about a Conclaye. These agents were not mere newsmongers, ministering to a morbid craving for gossip in their reports; they were the selected secret instruments set craftily in motion to effect the election of pet candidates by the ever-scheming individuals who ruled the yarious principalities of Italy, passing their liyes in one perpetual exertion to supplant each other, to smite each other on the hip, and for whom to compass the elevation to the Papal See of a particular individual, at whose hands they had reason to expect per- sonal ach-antage, was always a capital ohject of statesmanship. In the despatches of these agents to their employers can one alone ð,pect to find a revelation of the crafty steps and counter-steps which, springing from no higher source than intrigue of the lowest stamp, have had memorable conse- quences, by lodging at critical moments the supreme prerogatives of the Papacy, and therewith the religious anù political destinies of a large section of the human race, in hands that had too often no title to wield this preponderating authority beyonù the favour and the successful craft of a patron. History presents no more astonishing spec- tacle than the contrast between the mean causes which have frequf'ntIy decided the fate of Papal elections and the momentous issues that have flowed from them. It is to be hoped that students will turn their attention to the great Italian Archives, which now are freely open to inspection, and furnish us with the documentary records for this interesting and unwritten portion of history. The richness of these all but virgin mines of hi:;,torical knowleùge exceeds imagination; for jealousy, and vigilance, and cunning intrigue, were the three car- dinal qualities that entered into the neces- òary constitution of Italian Princes, who spent their Ii yes in incessant correspondence with the a3ents of their cunnin3 ùevices.
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES.
5
But if it is impossible to recover the exact
features of particular Conclaves until the
curious contents of these so long closed
archives be dragged to light, there are yet
other points of interest bearing on the
general subject of Papal elections, which,
though enveloped in no denser mystery than
some amount of intricacy, have been like-
wise very imperfectly dealt with by all
writers short of ponderous canonists. The
points we allude to have reference to the
constitutional fonus of a Conclave-the
modes in which a Pope might be created,
th
provisions devÏsed to meet the exigencies
of an interregnum, and the forthcoming political prerogatives that are called into existence on the occurrence of a Pope's decease. An exposition of these various matters would furnish a concrete view of the organization of the Holy See, for it is only during assembly for the creation of a Pope that the members of that See are in possession of definite powers. As an insti- tution regulated by palpable laws, the Papacy exists only in the season of its creatlOn ; the moment it has been embodied it passes into the state of irresponsible incarnation, above all conditions, all liens, and all obligations.
6
ON THE COXSTITCTIO
,. The privileges and provisions that authorize and limit the actions of a Cardinal are absolutely non-existing for him the instant he has been transformed into a Pope. The proclaimed Pope can at once decree, and suspend and abrogate, as he may please; but as long as there is only a Carùinal in question, his liberties are secured to him by instruments that at the same time define and tie them down. An account of the state of things constitutionally created by the advent of an interregnum-of the char- tered privileges and powers which can then come in question, and of the elements that are recognised as legitimately qualified to intervene in the election of a Pope,-would accordingly furnish a bird's-eye view of the constitution of the Roman See. Here we should have a succinct abstract of the organic outgrowth-in all that concerns inward con- stitution-of the Roman See, as manifested upon its constitue it members in faculties, which are so man) commemorative marks of successive stages of development. An ex- po::;ition of these circumstances could not fail to pos:sess varied interest. It is not the antiquarian alone who would here feel his curiosity attracted to illustrations of histo-
.
OF PAPAL COXCL.\YES.
i
rical incidents. The practical politician,
living only for immediate interests, and
absorbed in the desire of devising the means
of satisfying them, might find much in a
survey of this nature that may serve his
purpose. For amongst the contingencies
which the imagination of busy minds has
been fondest of looking to, as likely to prove
the means for healing the rupture which
has di,ided the Court of Rome from Italy,
none has presented itself oftener than that
Conclave which must follow on the death of
Pius IX. The future Conclave has floated
before the vision of many anxious inquirers
as an inevitable but mysterious fact-loom-
ing on the political horizon \yÏth the same
perplexingly impenetrable certainty with
which the heavy mystery of death hangs
over the boundaries of individual existence.
Everyone indeed has long felt that the
Conclave which must assemble on the de-
cease of the reigning Pope will be invested
with unusual importance. Speculation has
been instinctively attracted towards so
broadly looming and unavoidable a mystery.
It is not our purpose to attempt to cast the
horoscope for the issue of the coming Papal
election-to venture on the task of reduc-
.
8
ON PAPAL CONCLAVES.
ing from a distance to fixity the sensitive
and shifting elements of a purely personal
nature that enter into the actual conforma-
tion of every Conclave; but, at a moment
like the present, it may prove both instruc-
tive and interesting to have an accurate
statement of all the circumstances and in-
cidents which, according to prescription, can
come into play during a Papal interregnum.
II.
I T will hardly be necessary to remind the
reader that the existing mode of Papal
election, by which the prerogative of naming
the Supreme Pontiff is vested exclusively in
those ecclesiastical dignitaries who have at-
tained the rank of Cardinals, is a matter
of comparatively late creation. For centu-
ries, athwart the many political vicissitudes
which, ,vith frightful rapidity, came tum-
bling over Rome in wild confusion, the elec-
tion of its bishop, who was ever growing
steadily in might, remained yet fixedly lodged
in a joint action of the whole community, as
falling into the three classes, of civil authori-
ties, people, and clergy. Ewry other provi-
sion connected with public institutions ,vas
subjected to incessant revolution; but, amidst
this endless influx of change and counter-
10 ox THE COXSTITUTIOX . change, it never occurreù to make the nomi- nation of the Pope, in law, independent of the civil power, stilllf'SS to lodge it in the hands of a select botly of ecclesiastics, whose choice should he entitled to exact the hom- age of clergy and people, until the micltlle of the eleventh century. That was a period when the Church, as represented by the dignitary who presided over the See of Rome, had drifted down the troubled stream of time, to find itself wedged in against the rocky mass of the Empire, hardened by cen- turies of high imperial traditions, and spe- cially sharpened by the indh-idual action of the vigorous princes of the Salic race, who then were its imperious representatives. The sitnation was one in which the timhers of the Church's barque must either push stoutly over obstacles to frrf'r waters beyoml, or that vessel would inevitably wreck itself upon the jagged sides of the hard harrier against which it , as jammed. Such a pre- dicament instinctively inspired a demand for increased motive power to the ecclesiastical machinery in the hreasts of those who might not be disposed to acquiesce in a timid abandonment of the Church to its fate. It happened, by one of those coincidences which
OF PAPAL CO CLA YES. 11
some call prm-idential, and others organic,
that at this conjuncture the destinies of the
Church were lodged in the bands of men,
and especially of one man, pre-eminently en-
dowed with the in:stincts demanded by the
moment. The commanding figure of Hilde-
brand looms before us grandly as the over-
shadowing genius of the Papacy during the
eventful reigns of six Popes, by whose sides
he stands as the unfailing counsellor and
prompter, until at the culminating hour of
time he chooses to seat himself upon that
episcopal chair, which, mainly through his
own fostering efforts, had meantime become
actually transformed into a throne of might.
It was Hildebrand who, taking adyantage
of public discussions in Rome, secured by
adroit management the sudden nomination
of Kicolas II. at Florence in 1059, and then
induced his nominee to issue the Bull which
must be regarded as the original charter of
the College of Cardinals-the :l\Iagna Charta
on which reposes the existing structure of
that body-a deed of abiding importance
for the constitution of the Roman See. By
it the College of Cardinals was called into
creation as an Ecclesiastical Senate, inyested
organically with the electiye franchise which
12 O
TIlE COXSTlTrTIO
.
can gi,-e a Head to the Church. "nat may
have been before the peculiar prerogatives
of the dignitaries bearing this title is a point
difficult to define with certainty; but what
does not admit of doubt is that from the
Bull of
lcolas II. dates first the organic
consummation of a revolution that had long
been working its way underground, by which
the highest constitutional functions in the
government of the Roman See came to be
taken away definitively from the ecclesiasti-
cal body at large, and vested exclusively in
this corporation. The preamble of the Bull
rehearses succinctly the political causes that
moved the Pope to issue the same-the
troubles, namely, which supervened on the
demise of his predecessor, and the great grief
which the Pope felt at the sad consequences
that had befallen the Church through a dis-
turbed election. To obviate similar occur-
rences for the future, Kicolas II. solemnly
decreed, therefore, that the election of Pope
appertains first to the Cardinal Bishops who
officiate for the :l\Ietropolitan, then to the
Cardinal Clerks, and that the remainder of
the Clergy and the People tender but their
acquiescence in the election, so that the
Cardinals have the lead in making choice
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 13
of Popes-the others but following them.'
The innovation thus ventured upon was
two-edged. It was calculated to provoke
at once the resentment of the tumultuous
populace, civil and ecclesiastical, of Rome,
that saw itself deprived of the privileges
which practically it had enjoyed of actively
sharing in the choice of a Pope, and of the
Imperial Crown that had always claimed an
influential, and generally even an absolutely
controlling voice in such an election. To
propitiate these influences Xicolas II. intro-
duced two rather vague provisions. The
Roman populace received the sop that the
Pope should be selected in preference out of
the bosom of the Roman Church, and only
in the event of no fitting subject being there
fùrthcoming, out of that of another congre-
gation. The Emperor was sought to be
conciliated by inserting the proviso, 'saving
the honour and reverence due to our beloved
son Henry, at present King, and who with
God's favour it is to be hoped will become
Emperor, as likewise to his successors, who
may have personally acquired this right from
the
\.postolical See.' This reservation is
memorable, for in after times it was often
invoked in the conflicts between the Papacy
.
14- ON THE COXSTITUTIO:N
.
and the Crown, while a quite recent histo-
rian, Gfrörrer, has fallen into the mistake
of making this special saving clause for
soothing the Emperor's pride the origin of
thp pri,'ilege which certain Catholic Powers
still claim of applying a veto in Conclave
. against the election of some particular Car-
dinal.
The rights so conferred were exercised not
without much contest; but it was not until
after more than a century that the consti-
tution so roughly hewn out received any
further touches at the hands of Alexander
III. This great Pope, the unbending an-
tagonist of Barbarossa, and the protecting
genius of the leagued cities of Lombardy,
won his way to high position, athwart as
various and as persistent hardships as ever
fell to the lot of any Pope. Of a reign of
twenty-two years, during more than half of
which Alexander was an exiled wanderer,
eighteen were spell t in the bitterness of a
schism which was perpetuated through three
anti-Popes, and had commenced at the very
instant of Alexander's elevation. At that
conjuncture the leading divisions between
the Empire and Holy See had penetrated also
into the College of Cardinals; and when
OF PAPAL C05CL.\TES. 15
thO'se whO' represented the ecclesiastical
party cO'mbined to' prO'claim Alexander 'with
a clear majO'rity, the leader O'f the EmperO'r's
partisans, Cardinal Octavius, pulled away
the purple as the new PO'pe was abO'ut to'
be rO'bed, and had it flung over his O'wn
shO'ulders. The CO'nclaye brO'ke up ami<.lßt
wild tumult. Cardinal Octavius, borne in
prO'ces::-:ion to' the Lateran by his friends,
was there installed PO'pe, while the right-
ful O'ne, O'n delivery frO'm imprisO'nment
by Odo Frangipani, fled away frO'm RO'me,
and gO't himself hastily cO'nsecrated in
the parish church O'f Xinfa, that wonclerlul
fO'rsaken tO'wn which stands still in the
PO'ntine ::l\Iarshes, thO'ugh withO'ut O'ne sO'ul
to' dwell in it any IO'nger, wildly O'vergrO'wn
with the rank yegetatiO'n O'f thO'se luxuriant
but pestilential regiO'ns, and mirrO'ring in
the transparent waters
f a hushed mere its
church to'" ers and frO'wning dwelling-hO'uses
and crenellated walls-the silent ghO'st in
stO'ne O'f the barO'nial life O'f the middle ages.
It. is but natural that a PO'pe whO' suffered
sO' much from the persistent O'ppO'sition of
successive pretenders, backing their claims
with an embarrassing shO'w O'f canonical
electiO'n, should have been deeply impressed
16 O
TIlE CO:XSTITUTIOX
'II
with the necessity for surrounding such elec-
tions in future with safeguards against the
recurrence of similar perplexing returns.
Accordingly, when Alexander at last found
himself the acknowledged yictor in the
struggle he had so long waged with undying
spirit, he immediately convoked a Council
in that Lateran Palace which was the official
residence of the Latin
Ietropolitan, and
therein caused a decree to be promulgated
that no Papal election should he valid with
a majority of less than two-thirds of those
voting,-a provision that has remained in
force ever since.
It had thus been solemnly ruled that the
power of making a Pope should reside with
the Cardinals alone, and that no Pope
cOlùd be legitimate except by the vote of
two-thirds of the electors present; but as to
any obligatory conditions of form to be
observed in such election, little, if anything,
had as yet been defined. On this head,
as on the others, the organic laws that
have definitely regulated matters were
plainly dictated by instincts springing out
of practical experiences. The importation
through the direct agency of the Papacy of
a French dynasty into Italy, in the person
OF PAPAL CO CLA YES. 1 7
of Charles of Anjou, led t.o the existence of
t.wo distinct parties in the Roman Curia;
the one favourable t.o the French invasion,
and composed of French elements; the
other not. exclusively Italian in composition,
but yet by its feelings against. Charles of
Anjou identified with the national sentiment.
The ineyit.able consequences of this àivision
were protracted and hotly contest.ed elec-
tions, attended during the interregnum by
a series of comlllsions and tumults which
reduced the Papal authority in Rome to a
shadow. These lamentable circumstances
reached a climax on t.he occasion of the
Cardinals haying to choose a successor to
Clement. IV., who died in Yiterbo on t.he
29th Xovember 1268, one month aft.er the
head of the last Hohenst.aufen had fallen
on a scaffold in
aples, at least with the
assent, if not. by the direct complicity, of the
Pope. In Yiterbo the Cardinals assembled
—eighteen in number,-and for two years
and nine months! Yiterbo became t.he point
on which remained fixed the anxiou
gaze
of Christendom, awaiting t.he nomination of
1 This is the longest interregnum on record. The next
in length was the one on the death of
icolas IT., 1292,
which lasted two years three months and two days.
B
18 ON THE CONSTITUTION
it.s Spiritual Head. The scenes t.hat oc-
curred then at Viterbo were terrible. It
was during this vacancy that Henry of Eng-
land, l returning from the Crusade, was there
st
bbed to the heart at t.he very altar of t.he
Cathedral by Guy de :l\Iontfort, in avenge- ment of his own father's death. In vain did Charles of Anjou t.ake up his residence at Viterho i.n the hope of coercing the re- fractory Cardinals of t.he national part.y into electing a creat.lU'e of his own. His presence only added fuel to t.he flames of this memor- able contest. At last the burghers of Viterbo rose in fury against an intoler- able state of things, which bade fair to convert their city into the st.anùing cock- pit for unquenchable passions, and made their st.reets the scene of daily bloodshed. Under the direction of t.he Town-captain, Rainer Gatti, the citizens proceeded to try the effect of physical hardship upon t.he party-spirit of the Cardinals. The episcopal palace wherein they resided was st.ripped of its roof, so that t.he inmat.es became exposed to wind and weather. There is preserveù a
1 Son of Richarù of Cornwall. Dante, Inferno, Canto
XII. 1. 119.
OF PAPAL CO CLA VES. 19
remarkablp letter 1 dated 'in Palatio dis-
cooperto Episcopatus Viterbiensis vi. Itlus
J unü MCCLXX. Apost. Sede Yacante,' and
adùressed to the Podestà, the Town-captain,
and the Commonalty of Viterbo by seven-
teen Cardinals, whose seals are affixed, in
which it is requested that, on the ground
of sickness, free passage out of the palace
in which they are shut up, be allowed to
their colleague Cardinal Henry of Ostia, it
being expressly stated that he has waived
for this one occasion his right of voting.
The careful insertion of this clause deserves
attention, as proving that at this period it
had not yet been definitively ruled that every
Cardinal's active participation was not an
indispensable condition for setting a Papal
election beyond challenge. The sharp
measures devised by the Yiterbese proved,
however, as powerless as the remonstrances
of kings in making these stiff-necked prelates
concur in a Pope. For more than a year
longer did they quarrel and fight on amongst
themselves, until at last, it is said mainly b)
the fervent words of the great Franciscan
1 See DissertazÎoni StoriC()-Critiche del Canonico
...Yovaes. Rome, 18
2, yolo i. p. l
.
20 O
THE COXSTITUTIOX
.
preacher Saint Bonayentura, they were in-
duced to endow six out of their body with
the absolute power of nominating a Pope,
whom the others stood pledged to aclmow-
ledge. This is the earliest precedent we
ùelieve for a POlJe made by the electoral
process technically termed compromise-a
process that has been put in practice repeat-
ecUy, and which is still held not to have
become obsolete. On the 1st September
1271, the choice of these six Grand Electors
. fell on Theubald Yisconti, Archdeacon of
Liege, and not a Cardinal, who assumed the
style of Gregory X.-a man worthy of his
august position, and whosp conscientious
nature was painfully affected with a sense of
the spectacle which the Church had been
exhibiting during the interregnum. He at
once called together at Lyons a General
Council to regulate abuses, and make provi-
sions for securing harmony in Christendom.
The assembled fathers of the Church solemnly
promulgated a Constitution, 12ï2, wherein,
with elaborate minuteness, are prescriùed
fonus to be observed in Papal elections,
that were manifestly suggested by the sad
occurrences of the last Conclave, and the
desire to establish safe-guards against their
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 21
recurrence. As the Constitutions of Kicolas
II. and Alexander III. are the fundamental
instruments for the organic powers of fran-
chise vesting in t.he College of Cardinals, so
must. that of Gregory x. be held to be the
fundamental in::;trument fÇ>r the ceremonial
which has come to be observed on the occa-
sion of Cardinals meeting in Conclave; for the
modifications that ha,-e been subsequently
introduced affect only points of detail. In
this memorable decree the principle was first
laid down of locking up the Church's electors,
with the view of shutting out the action of
secular influences. It had before happened
that Cardinals suffered imprisonment. at t.he
hands of violence, but now it. was decreed
that they should always be immured as long
as they were engaged in the sacred avocation
of creating a Pope. It was ruled that on a
Pope's decease ten days must. be allowed to
elapse before his successor could be chosen,
with the view of t,riving time for Cardinals
at a distance to come to Conclave; on the
tenth day the Cardinals present COll ld pro-
ceed to an election, the legitimacy of which
could not be impugned on account of the
aLsence of any colleagues. .Meeting in t.he
very palace wherein the Pope died, in the
2:1 O
THE COXSTITrTION
event of the decease happening in the city
which was the seat of the Papal Court, the
Cardinals were enjoined that they might be
accompanied only by one attendant each,
unless for particular reasons in individual
cases a special permission for two were con-
ceded; they were to inhabit one hall in
common, without any division in the shape
of wall or hanging, and so closed on all
sides that no one could get in or out; ex-
communication was to be incurred by who-
ever should presume to look in upon the
Cardinals while engaged in their electoral
labours, although it was lawful, by general
consent of all the assembled Cardinals, to
confer with a person outside, whom it might
be deemed necessary to see in reference to
matters appertaining to the election. One
window alone should be opened upon this
hall of assembly, of sufficient size to admit
the necessaries of life, it being expressly
prohibited under the aforesaid pain of ex-
communication, that this aperture be ever
used to admit any human being. Should
it happen, 'which God forefend,' that no
Pope were chosen within three days, the
Cardinals should then be restricted to one
di::;h each at dinner and supper during the
OF PAPAL CO CLAVES. 23
next five days, and if after that the chair of
St. Peter were still vacant, they should be
furnished during the remainder of their
stay in Conclave with bread, wine, and
water alone; nor should it be lawful for a
Cardinal to profit by any benefice falling
vacant during the interregnum, or to draw
any re\renue from sources appertaining to
the Pontifical Chamber; nor should a Car-
dinal be re-admitted who had left the Con-
clave for any reason except stress of health,
although its doors were to be opened to the
same on recovery from sickness, as to every
Cardinal who arrived after commencement
of the election, it being expressly decreed
that in neither case could absence invalidate
aught that had been done in the interval.
If the Pope's decease occurred away from
his established residence, the Cardinals were
to assemble in the city, or the region de-
pendent on that city in which he had died,
except in the case of these localities being
under interdict; and finally, the faithful
observance of these provisions was intrusted
to the guardianship of the civil authorities
of the locality in which the Conclave met,
under penalty of incurring excommunication
for neglect of this duty. Taken together,
24: ON THE CO STITUTIO
- these three Constitutions of Nicolas II., Alexander III., and Gregory x. comprise all the essential features in the mechanism which is now still in force at Papal elections. In the last quarter of the thirteenth century the Pontifical Court had thus definitively attained its pre:,ent organism, and slid into the groove in which its wheels since have run. Once alone has there been a memorable innovation upon what may be consiùered the principles embodied in these prescrip- tions, though on one other occa::;ion, when the question of the transfer of the Holy See back from A vignon to nome was at stake, a remarkable deviation from the prescribed forms was sanctioned, as will he mentioned. This innovation happened on the occasion of the Papal election which ensued in con- sequence of the resolutions arrived at in the Council of Constance. The Church of Rome has never since beer exposed to trials of the same intensity as those from which she delivered herself by the intervention of this Council. She has indeed been subsequently confronted by difficulties of no slight order, but these have all preserveù more or less the character of an external origin, whereas then
OF P.\PAL COXCL-\. YES. 25
the Church was racked by inward throes
convulsing her very heart, which reduced
her to the condition of a house torn asunder
"ithin itself. "C ntil such time as a sentence
of reversal, accompanied by deliberate rejec-
tion of this precedent in the emergency of
an analogous crisis, shall have been pro-
nounced by the Church against what then
was done, this incident mu&t be taken there-
fore in evidence of what the Homan Estab-
lishment would hold it to be not contrary
to its principles to sanction, in the e,-ent of
equally critical circumstances coming once
more into play. The Council of Constance
is di::;tin
'1lished from every other Council
by its convocation having been due, not to
the individual impulse of a Pontiff, but
to the spontaneous in::;tinct of society in
general, panting for repose from confusion
and discu:ssion, and exhausted by the evils
flowing from the great schism. All the
landmarks of legitimacy had become re-
moveù, and an Egyptian darkness enveloped
society, rival pretenders to the Papacy cir-
culating freely in the world without its
being possible to arrive at a conclusion
who was legitimate and who was spurious.
Against such a be" ilùering state of things
2 G O
THE CONSTITUTIOX
-
the conscience of the Church instinctively
rose, and the Council of Constance is the act
of this uprising by the Churchmen of the day,
in rescue of the institution they cherished,
from what were felt to be exceptional evils
requiring exceptional remèdies. Accord-
ingly, in this assemhly, which restored peace
to the Church, and the proceedings of which
have been recognised without the sound of
protest as legitimate by the authorities of
the Church, two Popes, who then divided
the world-John XXIII. anù Gregory XII. l
-and whose elections, let it be borne in
minJ, were originally so little impeachable
in fonn that they have both continued to
figure as Popes on the list put forth by the
Roman Church-were solemnly compelled
to abdicate, and in their stead a new Pope,
- 1\Iartin Y., was created by a special con-
stituency formed for that occasion, so as to secure for him a broader title than under the deplorable Circumstances of the schism could be furnished by Cardinals alone, all of whom had more or le::;5 participated actively in its incidents. It is this acknowledgment
1 In putting these two Popes' names to
ether, there
is no intention of ranging th
m on a level as to legiti-
macy-a most vexeù question in Church history.
OF P A.P A.L COXCLA YES. 27
of the necessity of special measures for
special situations, and this dispensation from
a pedantic observance of specified forms,
when felt to be hurtful to vital interests-
a dispensation which has been ratified in
the unhesitating acknowledgment by the
Church of what was done on this occasion,
-which renders the election of :l\Iartin v. a
most memorable event. At this time the
exclusive prerogative of the Cardinals to pro-
vide a Pope had been in force nearly four
centuries without challenge. All popular
memory of those other rights of franchise
which once existed had quite passed away.
'K 0 antiquarian reminiscences weighed 'with
the assembled
ivines, but simply the living
instinct of what was demanded by the
gravity of the moment, too great to be
trifled with, and by the claims of interests
too important to be sacrificed from a rigid
spirit of formalism. Accordingly, the Coun-
cil constituted an especial electoral college,
composed of the Cardinals and thirty di\ines,
selected from out of its members, five from
each nation present, who together could
represent the genuine conscience of the
Church; and these were able to supply
a Pontiff who was in a condition to ap-
8 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
. pease the troubles which had so long afflicted ChristenJom. The measure was distinctly proclaimed excf'ptional, and ex- plicitly limiteJ to a particular occasion, whereby its importance as a precedent is heightelll'd; for this involves the princi- ple that the Church considers it::;elf free to invent new forms, when their adop- tion may seem advisable for meeting the exigencies of particular times. The Roman Bllllarillm contains, indeed, a string of Bulls subsequent to the three we have mentioned, that hear on Papal elections; hut where they do more than solemnly confirm the above, they deal with matters of quite secondary importance, modifying points of mere detail. X 0 new organic principle has been importeJ into the machinery of Papal elections since the days of Gregory x. The only subse- quent pontifical utterance on this subject that can lay any claim to the importance of an organic law, i
the Bull i::;sued in 1G21
by Gregory xv., and supplemented in the year after by an elaborate injunction of ceremonial, which is the one still observeJ. To go through these successive enactments in their chronological order would, however, be merely to run through a wearisome cata-
OF PAPAL CONCLAYES.
29
logue, without any but a dry antiquarian
interest.! Our object is not to inquire what
may have been the particular forms and
practices embodied in the Roman Court at
each period, but what are the powers and
forces that come into play in its present
organization; and to this end it will be
enough if we confine our notice of Papal
enactments to such points as may incident-
ally stand in connexÏon with, or tend to
serve in illustration of, the practices and
regulations which at the present day are
still in force.
1 These confirmatory Bulls are to be fGund in the
Bullarium R01r.all2t1n and recent editions of Gregory
- \. v.'s Ceremonial.
III.
A S soon as the Pope's state of health indi-
cates imminent dissolution, the duty
devolves on the Cardinal Secretary of State
to communicate with the Dean of the Sacred
College, that he may summon his brother
Cardinals to hasten to the dying Pope's
residence, and that, with the Cardinal Vicar,
whose functions are tho
e of Prefect of the
ecclesiastical police in the city of nome,
he may is::iue orders for offering up public
prayers in the churches. G pon the Cardinal
Penitentiary, who is the official deposi-
tary of the specifically spiritual powers
vested in the Pope, falls the obligation of
attending him in the last moments, along
with his Confessor, though the special duty
of administering extreme unction devolves on
the :l\Ionsignor Sagrista, the Sacri;tan of the
O
PAPAL CONCLAVES. 31
Pope's Chapel. "Then decease has occurred,
the fact is immediately notified to the Car-
dinal Camerlengo by the Secretary of State,
who then divests himself of his office, which
remains in abeyance until tllf' Cardinals have
actually entered the Conclave, where they
nominate a secretary, who is, however, not
one of themselves. The Cardinal Camer-
lengo is in precedence one of the highest
functionaries in the Roman Court, and
figures prominently on all State occasions
during the interregnum. He is considered
to represent the dignitary who in the earlier
times was entitled Vestiarius, and had in
charge the stewardship of the Church's pro-
perties. Down to very recent times the
Cardinal Camerlengo continued to be a very
powerful, probably the most powerful per-
sonage next to the Pope, in the States of
the Church; for within his attributes fell
the administration of whatever stood con-
nected, however remotely, with the interests
of the Papal Exchequer; while he was
besides possessed of immediate jurisdiction
over all secular cases in the city and district
of Rome. But that process of functional
centralization, which has gradually reduced
the official organization of Rome to a Pope
32 ox THE COXSTITUTIO
mid a Secretary of State, has deprived the Camerlengo of the realities of greatness, and left him a merf' lay figure of his former self. Instead of being, as once he was, a dictator for the time of the interregnum, the real King of Rome during the interval hetween the death of one and the creation of another Pope, whose authority was actively invoked to secure the peace of the city at that season, and .did effectively intervene in the course of general government at all periods, the Camerlengo is now confined to the exercise of mere ceremonial, and the hollow display of a dumb-!'how of authority. From the mo- ment, however, that the Pope has breathed his last, he figures still as the first man in the State, and during the days before the Conclave can be constituted, as its direct representative, inaugurating the exercise of his provisional powers by a tndy quaint piece of cerf'mony, the symboli!'m whereof is ob- scure. At the l ead of the Chierici di Camera, the Camerlengo hastens to hold an inquest on the reported demise of the Pope. Proceeding to the death-chamber, the Car- dinal strikes the door with a gilt mallet, calling on the Pope by name. On receiving no reply, he enters the room, when he taps
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 33
the corpse on the forehead with another
mallet of silver, and falling on his knees
before the motionless boùy, proclaims the
Pope to be in truth no more. It is after
this that he forwards to the Senator the
notification for the ringing of the great bell
in the Capitol, which is to announce to the
Romans that their Sovereign has died. This
bell, which is tolled only on this occasion
and on the opening of the Carnival, has a
curious hi:,tory. It was originally the com-
munal bell of Viterbo. Between this city
and Rome a fierce enmity prevailed in the
twelfth century, which after hot conflicts
ended by the overthrow of the Yiterbese in
the year 1200. By the terms of capitula-
tion, the Romans carried off, as trophies and
signs of supremacy, besides the recovereù
bronze gate of St. Peter's, which the Yiter-
bese had captured in 1167, a chain and city
gate key, which were suspended at the arch
of Gallienus, and the communal bell, which
from that time has been hung in the Capitol.
It was surnameù La Paterina, a denomina-
tion which has been derived, 'with apparent
foundation, from the Paterini, Yiterbo hav-
ing been notorious for harbouring a quantity
of these sectarians.
C
34 O
THE CO
STITUTION
From this moment the whole machinery
of Government is suspended, amI remains so
until the creation of a Pope calls it again
into activity. Formerly the Pope's demise
was practically tantamount to a fact cancel-
ling the titles of existing authorities-as if
an intrusive Government had come to an
end by the demise of its immediate repre-
sentative, and usurped power haù returned
thereon to the people. All the jails in
Rome used to be immediately thrown open,
not by an irruption of the populace, but by
intervention of the old civic magistracy,
which, on the proclamation of an Interreg-
num, stepped forwarù at once on the public
stage and claimed to represent the Roman
people. This tradition of civic authority
in Rome has not died out. On notification
being received Ly the Senator of the Pope's
death, he still summons the senatorial coun-
cillorf: and despatches officers of his OWíl to
open the two chief jails in the city, and let
out, not indeed all the prisoners, but such
as come within the vague category of light
offenders. 1 For all purposes of administra-
1 This "as done on the occasion of the last interreg-
num, and the official paper, the Diana di Rama, of the
2d J_une 1846, contains in its ùry notification of each
OF' PAPAL CO:KCLAYES.
35
tion Rome is as it were placed under seques-
tration. Even the law courts suspend their
sittings, and in every branch of the Executive
there is only that amount of activity which
is indispensably requisite to prevent torpor
from sinking into absolute dissolution. This
state of things proceeds from the strict limi-
tations imposed by Papal decrees upon the
provisional authorities called into existence
during the interregnum-limitations that
were devised with the view of removing
temptations to spin out the tenure of pro-
visional office. Systematically the jealousy
of Popes has carefully circumscribed the
powers to be exercised by the Sacred College
during a vacancy of the Papal Chair until
they have become stripped of all serious
initiatory faculty, and extend only over the
day's events the summons 'of the Capitoline Jlilitia
by the Roman magistracy, according to ancient cnstom,'
and the despatch of the 'noble Signori, the head men
of the quarters of Regola anà Campitelli, with orders
to proceed "ithout delay, attended by the Capitoline
)Iilitia and the faithful (i fedeli) carrying their maces, to
the New Prison and the prisons of the Capitol, to open
them and set free thm;e guilty of slight offenc s who
were detained there.' In former times it was invariably
the custom, just before the Pope's decease, to remove
into the Castle of St. Angelo, for safe keeping, all
prisoners of state, or delinquents of a class the Papal
authorities had an interest not to see set free.
36
O
THE CO
STITUTIOX
.
merest matters of indispensahle routine. 1 Of
this routine the pomp and glitter ùevolve, as
we have said, chiefly on the Cardinal Camer-
lengo, who forthwith receIves from the
- l\Iaestro di Camera the late Pope's piscatorial
ring,2 which is broken at the first general meeting of Carùinals, held on the day innue- diately folluwing the Pope's decea::;e. Hi
next ùuty, after consigning the corp::;e to the care of the Penitentiaries of the Yatican Basilica, is to take an inventory of all ohject.; in the Apostolical Palace,-a very
1 See Bull of Pius IV. 111 Eligenrlis, sect. 7.
2 The ring is so called from having engraved on its
stone the figure of St. Peter dra\\ ing in his fisherman's
nt!t. Accorùing to Cancellieri, ' Notizie sopra l'Origine
e ruso dell'Anello Pt!scatorio, Rome, 1823,' the earliest
record of its use is of the year 12t3j. Originally it was
nothing more than tJle Pope's private signet for his own
correspondence. From the middle of the fifteenth cen-
tury its use became reserved to the Pontifical utterances
called Briefs, and bas remained so ever since. The dis-
tinction betwet!n a Brief and Bull lies in degrees of
weight and solemnity. The Bull is the most autllOri-
tath'e expression of the Pontifical infallibility, as such
almost incapable of repeal; whilt! the Brief is directed
to something of comparatively immediate and passing
importance. The name of the former comes from its
leaden seal, which is tied by a hempen cord to Bulls of
ordinary import, and by a silken to those conferring
Sees, and containing matters of grave weight. TIle
style of the Bull runs alwa)'s-' Pius a., Episcopus
Senus Servorum Dei, ad futuram' or 'perpetuam rei
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES.
37
natural proceeding, and deserving notice
only because it owes its origin to the once
customary riots in Rome during an interreg-
num, when it was an established thing for
the moh to rifle the Pope's palace. To
guard against thE' illicit remO"\Tal of Pontifical
property, the Camerlengo stays therefore in
the palace until all has been properly regis-
tered, when, carrying away the key of the
Pope's apartments, he returns in state to his
memoriam,' \\ ith date from the Incarnation, and signa-
ture of the "arious functionaries of the Apostolical
Chancery, the document being written in Latin in
mediæmlletters upon dark rough parchment. A Brief,
which is likewise in Latin, has but the Pope's name at
the beginning-' Pius Papa u.'-is signet! by the Car-
dinal Secretary of Briefs, bears date from tlle Nativity,
and is written in modern letters upon soft white parch-
ment. The die of the leaden seal affixed to Bulls was
kept at the Vatican until Pius YII. solemnly deposited
it at the Cancellaria, with pain of excommunication
against whoever enters \\ ithout express permission the
room in which it is. At one!.eriod the Cistercian
Friars had the privilege of furnishing the keepers of
this seal. There is yet a third form of Papal expres-
sion in writing, called a Chirograph, tlle Hact nature of
which it is difficult to define. It appears indeed to haTe
no binding force except what it may derive from per-
sonal respect for its author, amI resembles in autho-
rity somewhat the minuter; which at times are drawn
up in our offices, or the peculiar expression of Royal
wishes formerly in use in Prussia, and termed Cabinets-
order.
3
O THE COXSTITUTION
private residence, his carriage being escorted
by the Pope's particular body-guard of Swiss
halbeI'd iers, which continues in attendance
on him until the election of a new Pope.
Also all edicts issued during the interregnum
run in his name, and the coin struck by the
mint has on it the Camerlengo's private
arms. And here at this early stage we
already meet the checking contrivances in-
vented against the po:ssibility of some ambi-
tious Cardinal u::;urping what is due only to
the Pope. As soon as the Camerlengo has
reached his dwelling he sees three Cardinals
arrive-the senior members of the three
classes in the Sacred College, bishops, priests,
and deacons-who, during the nine days
that are prescribed to elapse before a Con-
clave can be constituted, remain associated
with him in a special congregation repre-
senting the Executive of the State.! The
prerogatives of this Board are, howe,.er,
again carefully limited to carrying out the
resolutions taken by the general as::;embly of
1 From the moment Conclave is opened, and during
the whole of its duration, the Executive authority is
vested in the Camerlengo, assisted by three Cardinals
called Capi d'Ordine, who are chosen by ballot for
three days.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 39
Cardinals, which meets each day for the
transaction of business that is itself laid down
and defined with extraordinary minuteness.
It comprises the arrangements for the Pope's
funeral, the preparatory disposition for get-
ting the Conclave ready, and the nomination
of various officers specially
harged v.-ith
duties either in the Conclave or for securing
the peace of the town.
Iost of the great
functionaries in the Court of Rome hold
their offices only for the Pope's lifetime.
His decease produces therefore an instan-
taneous absence of authority which the Car-
dinals have to make good, and in former
times, when tumults were the order of an
election season, the appointment of the mili-
tary officer, who, ,,-ith the title of Lieutenant
of the Holy Church, held the Castle of St.
Angelo, and, together with the Bargello, the
chief of the city police, the Sbirri, had the
duty of preserving order in the town, and
of protecting particularly the Trasteyerine
quarter, where lies the Yatican, in which
Conclaves then met, was a matter of very
f,'Teat importance. On all these points the
Board, at the head of which figures the
Camerlengo, has no power of initiative,
while the general assembly is itself bound
40 ox THE COXSTITUTIO
. by prescriptions, the painful minuteness of which is conclusively illustratin' of the spirit of formalism peITading the whole system. For each of the nine preliminary days there is an enjoillell as embly of Cardinals that is limited to go through the form of some minutely prescribed bit of ceremonial mc- chani::;m, not to be departed from, not to be exceeded, not to be innovated upon. Every attribute of these assemblies is rigidly fixed and circumscribed. Here we have the un- mistakahle impress of generations of jealous Popes, who haye been assi<<luously at work in hammering out a system into such ela- borately thin points as cannot he twisted into shapes that might prove dangerous to the perfect absoluteness which Popes 'will anow to reside only in themselves. ' During the vacation of the See,' says Pius IY., in a Bun that is inserted in the latest collection of regulations in force during an interreg- num,! 'in those things which appertained to the Pope when alive, the Collegf' of Cardinals can have no power or jurisdiction whatever, whether of grace or justice, or 'of giving execution to such resolutions of the
1 Bnllin Eligcndis.
OF PAPAL CO:XCLATES. 41
deceased Pope; but it is bound to reserve
them to the future Pope.' There is an
explicit prohibition against this bodyassum-
ing to dispose of any of the properties of
the Church, or any of the moneys belonf,ri.ng
to the Apostolical Chamber or to the Datary's
office, e,-en for the discharge of dehts con-
tracted before the late Pope's death; its
power over the coffers of the exchequer
extending merely to the maintenance of the
functionaries constituting the Papal estab-
lishment, and the payment of what may
be required for the 'defence of the lands
and places of the Church.' It is onìy on
the occurrence of what may be deemed 'a
ave peril' by at least two-thirds of the Cardinals assembled, that the Sacred College can be dispensed from a literal observance of these limitations upon its prerogatives, and proceed to adopt such resolutions and measures as may seem to it demanded by circumstances.! The faculty contained in this provision is of moment, and not to be on rlooked. The more one studies the re-
1 These prescriptions are repeated almost word for
word in the Bull Apostolatlls Officium issued in 1732
by Clement XII., the latest Papal statute on the subject
of Conclaves.
4 2 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
..
gulations of the Court of Rome, the more
will one he impressed by the fact, how,
athwart all the dense accumulation of punc-
tilious formalism which has been the aggre-"
gate deposit of a CUlTent setting in the same
direction for centuries, there is yet preserved
a cunning element of subtle elasticity that
has been shrewdly cherished in secret against
the event of the force of altered circum-
stances, making it some ùay desirable to
seek protection in what has been so jealously
suppressed and scouted in ordinary times-
lilJelty of individual initiative.
Kow-a-days Rome wears during an inter-
regnum no great outer look of change-all
going on pretty much in the same steady
order as before. But formerly the case was
very different. 'Let not him say that he
has been in Rome who has not happened to
be there during the vacation of the See,'
are the words of a contemporary who wrote
a narrative of the Conclave which, in 1621,
resulted in the election of Gregory xv.!
Down to comparatively a quite recent date
entry upon an interregnum was synonymous
1 This manuscript is in the possession of Signor
Carinci, the worthy archivist of the Duke of Ser-
moneta.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 43
with entry upon a periocl of riot and brawl,
which made the streets unsafe for quiet
citizens. Every kind of misdemeanour
revelled at this season in Rome, which
became for the time a perfect bear-garden,
in which criminals let out of jail enjoyed.
themselves mightily at the eÀpense of peace-
loving folks. The lawlessness which then
reigned in Rome was a recognised. order of
things, consecrated by custom, anù looked
upon as a prescriptive right ùuring the
period of Conclave, ju::;t as the right of
mummery during the Carnival season. The
origin of this strange state of things must
be sought in the general want of discipline
that distinguished the armed force kept by
States in the miùdle ages, anù especially in
that kept by the Pope. The trained bands
were so many boùies of mutinous and law-
less brawlers, who seized every opportunity
for indulging their natural disposition to
insubordination, outrage, and crime. Their
pay as a rule was terribly in arrear, and
therefore they hardly ever failed to begin
operations on the decease of a Pope by
a ùemand to have their claims settled
or they would do no duty. These men,
swept together from all corners, true mer-
4 -! O
THE COXSTITUTIO
cenaries amI adventurers of the purest water,
were the dread of all classes-of the Car-
dinals, who couM not di
pense with their
services, and had to huy their good humour;
-of the town::;people, who were at the
mercy of their recklessness. The natural
con::;cquence was that during an interregnum
Rome wore the look of a city armed for
civil war. EYer)" noble in self-defence as-
sumed the prh'ilege of arming his retainers
and of drawing chains across the street in
the neighhourhood of his palace, which was
garrisoned hy his followers, and conyerted
into an asylum. He usurped the right of
keeping his 0"11 quarter of the city free
from all police but his own. Some of the
great families succeeded in ohtaining a re-
cognition of this claim, like the :l\Iattei, who
had the right to hold the briùges of San
Si::;to and Quattro Capi, together with the
intervening region of the Ghetto, with re-
tainers wearing the badges of their house.!
But in most cases the authority exercised
by the various magnates was only the out-
flow of an all-pervading spirit of license and
1 At the corner of the streets running along the
Mattei Palace there can still be seen the stone posts
and rings for drawing chains during Concla\e times.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYE:;.
45
tumult, that wrested as much power as it
could, without any warrant for the peculiar
pretensions advanced. l The llomillalpolice
of nome was vested in two officers, who, to
add to the confusion, were traditionally
jealous of each other's authority - the
Bargello, who was the ordinary head of
the regular city police, the Sbirri; and
the Lieutenant of Holy Church, who, as
commander-in-chief of the soldiery, and
special governor of the Leonine city, held
1 A memorable dispute ensued out of this pretension
on the part of the nobles during the interregnum of the
)'ear 1700. Prince Vaini, a nobleman resident in Rome,
and Knight of the French order of the Holy Ghost,
assumed 011 this occasion the same rrÏ\ ileges as the old
Roman aristocracy, and even something more, it would
appear. He absolutely resenteù the approach, even
\\ithin a street's distance from his palace, of any Sbirri,
and caused one to be beaten within an inch of his life
who had been guilty of so much disrespect to his
privileges. The insolence of the prince's armed re-
tainers grew to be so great that the whole quarter
hecame subjected to a rule of ruffianism which made
it necessary for the authorities at last to interfere. A
body of Sbirri early one morning too
by surprise the
guard-house of Prince Vaini's hangers-on, which "as situated on the ground floor of his re",idence: where- upon the prince prepared for an armeù defence, and at the same time invoketl the protection of the French Ambassador, who was the Prince of Ionaco. The Ambassador, in four state coaches, and a retinue of armed men on foot, proceeded to the prince's palace to
46
O
THE COXSTITUTIO
..
office only for the period of interregnum.
The particular duty intrusted to his charge
was to secure the Cardinals from molesta-
tion, and to this end it became customary
to erect barricades at the limits of the Leon-
ine city, whereby the free circulation through
it was preyented, except for those armed
with a special permit.
One of the most riotous elections on re-
cord is that when, in 1623, Urban VIII.
-Barherini-was raised to the chair of St.
Peter. The disturbances which then hap-
extend to him his sovereign protection, when the Shirri
and Papal soldiers drew up to receive him with due
honours. But the Ambassador took up the matter in
a high tone, and put his hand to his sword-hilt in
ordering the Papal captain to leave the house of a
prince who stood under French protection. This
action of his was imitated by his followers, who all
drew their swords and struck the Sbirri, whereupon
these fired a volley, by which some were killed and
wounderl, and a regular skirmish ensued, in which the
Ambassador himself narrowly escaped being struck.
The Sacred College immediately did all in its power to
apologize for wllat hall happened, but the Ambassador
absolutely refused to be satÜ;fìed, and left Rome two
days after for Tuscany in high dudgeon, nor would he
return to Rome during the interregnum. A full ac-
count, with the official corresponrlence interchanged,
will be found in the second volume, p. 99, E. 6, of the
third edition of the Histoire des Uoncla'Ccs, Cologne,
1703,-a book full of valuable information.
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 4 ï
pened are stated by the contemporary diarist
Gigli to haye l)een such 'as no one could
remember haying eyer witnessed.' 'Sot a
day passed,' he writes, "without many
brawls, murders, and waylayings. l\Ien and
women were often found killed in various
places, many being without heads, while not
a few were picked up in this plight, who
had been thrown into the Tiber. ,Many
were the houses broken into at night and
sadly rifled. Doors were thrown down,
women violated,-some were murdered, and
others rayished j so also many young girls
were dishonoured and carried off.
-\..s for
the Sbirri, who tried to make arrests, some
were killed outright, and others grievously
maimed and wounded. The chief of the
Trasteyere region was stabbed as he went
at night the rounds of his beat, and other
chiefs of regions were many times in danger
of their lives. l\Iany of these outrages and
acts of insolence were done by the soldiers
who were in Rome as guards of the various
lords and princes; as happf'ned especially
with those whom the Cardinal of Savoy
had brought for his guard, at whose hands
were killed several Sbirri who had taken
into cllstody a comrade of theirs. In short,
48 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
from day to day did the evil grow so much,
that had the making a new Pope been
deferred as long as it once seemed likely,
through the di::;sensions of the Cardinals,
there was ground to apprehend many other
strange and most grievous inconyeniences.'
Against such an all-pervading spirit of law-
lessness it was a very inadequate provision
for making the streets safe at night that
every householder was bound to hang out a
lamp before his dwelling during the period
of interrf'gnum. Even now, nome is, of
all capitals in Europe, the least pleasant to
walk ahout in the dark; but scandalously
unsafe as its streets are, their cOlhlition is
yet a very pale copy of the state they were
hahitually reduced to, as it were by privi-
lege,! during the pandemonium season of
former Conclaves.
1 In the Lettere Pacete e Piacevole di dit'ersi Huomilli
Grandi, 2 vols., Venice, 1601, is a letter from l\Ies-
ser Giulio Constantini, Secretary to the Cardinal of
Trani, which give,;; a lively picture of the state of Rome
during the intenegnuru on death of Paul III. (1550.)
It stands t\\ ice in the same collection-as a fragment,
vol. i. p. 389, and in full, vol. ii. p. 1-16. ' N ow,
Signori, I have told JOU about the Papacy all I can
call to mind of the late occurrences,' \\ rites l\J esser
Giulio, 'There remains only for me to tell of the
delight of an interreguum, as Fra Bacio said to Pope
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES.
49
Pius IY., a Pope of a certain reforming
vigour, issued in 15 G:2 a long Bull, repeat-
ing older regulations for a Conclave that
seemed to require being called to mind, and
forbidding a variety of abuses which had
cropped up. The twenty-first clause runs
thus :-' Also we forbid wagers, quas excom-
missas l'Ocant, being made on a pending Papal
election; and decree that if against these
Paul, who, when asked what was the finest festival in
Rome, replied, "\Vhen a Pope dies and a new one is being
made," in which he spoke true. For on occurrence of
the former event you see the whole world run to arms,
the prisons thrown open, the Sbirri fly, and the jailers
hide. In the streets you must not think to find aught
but pikes and partisans and firelocks, and never a man
by himself, but squadrons of ten or twenty or thirty
anù more. Yet "ith all this license you should not
fancy that much harm is done except between special
enemies in the burst of passion, which time soothes
down, so that to-day Rome might be traversed a brlUChe
rolate; and for my part during fifteen barren years that
I have spent in it, never have I enjoyed, and never
have I beheld, a finer time, nor greater liberty, nor
rarer fun; and woulù ye have it otherwise when our
masters are all locked up? while we are at liberty,
eating off our heads, without a thought or an incon-
venience of servitude, until there is such a surfeit of
gooù that we repine at all this freedom. Anù then the
amusement to hear the jabbering brokers in the Banchi
who buy and sell and barter on odds so that whoever
falls among them will never get away till after night-
fall;' anù here the Cardinal's Secretary proceeds to
dilate with a detail not fit for repetition on the publk
D
50 ..
O
THE COXSTITUTIO
presents any should yet be made, they shall
be held and deemed altogether null and void
in court, and out of the same; and that
those thus contravening, anù their brokers,
be punished as it may please the Governor
and the future Pope.' It will create sur-
prise to find such an injunction amongst
the matters considered worthy of particular
llif;play at this season in Carniml show, of certain
ladies whose nistence in Rome it has eyer been the
special duty of the Cardinal Vicar to suppress. 'Do
not fancy,' he continues, in high spirits, 'that the Bar.
gello goes after these; no such thing; for neither Court
nor Tribunal, nor Ruota nor Chancery, are held;
Ad vocate and Procurator and Cursors stanrt with their
hands in their girdles, and everyone enjoys this season
of madness.' The Colounas, who had been banished by
Paul Ill., availed themseh-es of this season of relaxed
authority to recover forcibly their possessions, but this
little act of rebellion
Iesser Giulio thinks nothing of,
as it was unaccompanied by actual bloodshed. ' I
forgot to mention how Signor Ascanio Colonna has
taken again his old estate without the stroke of a lance
or the drawing of a sword. Signor Fabrizio, his son,
and Signor Camillo Colonna, amI Signor Pirro are all
here, and free room is given to whoever would fight in
Piazza Santi Apostoli (tIle site of the Colonna Palace).
'Vhat say you now to a vacancy in the See 1 Does it
not seem finer vacant than filled, and just because it is
so fine you need not wonder that these most reyerend
lords should put U.emselyes into a sweat with efforts
to sit in it? amI sweat they will, so man)' of them are
there who fain would get into it, while it is to be had
only by one.'
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 51
attention by a Pope "hen making regula-
tions for the election of his successors. An
explanation for the importance here attached
to what would seem so irrelevant is to be
found in the incidents that came habitually
to attend these bets. .At one time they
grew to be in Rome "hat the odds given
at Tattersall's are with us-a matter involv-
ing considerable interests,-occupying whole
classes, and producing a standing excitement.
The gambling propensities prevalent amongst
Italians darted upon the conflicting elements
offered by a Conclave to reduce them into a
series of chances on "hich to pitch stakes.
The shopkeepers and merchants of Rome
entered into the game 'with a passion which
resembled the habits of speculation in stock
which have made the Funds a subject of
palpitating interest, and the Bourse a capital
institution for a great section of the society
of our day, more particularly on the Conti-
nent. .As soon as ever a Pope had breathed
his last, the Banchi Yecchii, and X uovi-
streets still bearing these names, and running
from the small square in front of the bridge
of St. Angelo---becamc an improvised Rx-
change, "here the rival chances of candidates
were publicly quoted and eagerly discounted,
52 OX THE COXSTITUTIOX
amidst commotion that commonly was at-
tended with riot. This locality was the
Fleet Street of Rome. Here resided the
chief merchants, especially the golchmiths,
from whom the quarter derived its name;
for in Rome, as elsewhere, the goldsmiths
did busine::;s as money-brokers and bankers,
figuring as the natural agents and go-betweens
in all money operations. 1 'Yhile, in l\Iay
1335, the Cardinal::; were shut up for the
second time in that year, after the death of
l\Iarcelius II., the Pope of reforming promise,
whose abl1.lpt death cau
ed so many hopes to
be dashed, it is on record how the excited
temper of the city as to the issue of the
pending election broke into an e:xtraordinary
1 When Benvenuto Cellini plied his calling in Rome
he had his workshop in this locality; and it was while
sitting in it-probably a dark vaulted chamber in the
ground-floor of a palazzo, with an arch on the street to
serve at once as door and window, such as are many
shOI)S in the older }Jortions of Rome - that he was
affronted by the imulting gestures of the goldsmith
Pompeo, who, swaggering down the street, and infected
with the licentious spirit of an interregnum sea<;on-for
this happened when the Cardinals had just entered
Conclave,-drew up opposite Benvenuto's shop, and
insolently flouted the hot-blooded Florentine, until,
unable any longer to check his passion, he bounded out
after Pompeo, and for his sauciness stabbed him to the
heart. (See Cellini's Autobiography, book i. ch. xv.)
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 53
manifestation of this betting propensity.
The false rumour happened suddenly to run
through Rome that Cardinal Farnese was as-
sured of his majority, and that his elevation
was going to be proclaimed. Thereupon the
people rushed together in such numbers
that, from Campo di Fiori, where is the
Farnese Palace, to the Yatican, 'it 'Was
possible to walk but in a crush, and at risk
of being trampled upon by the throng of
men and horses;' and the Conclave itself
had to be hurriedly protected from invasion
and sack by a reinforced guard. This ex-
citement of course infected the speculators
in the Banchi, so that the Farnese stock ran
up that night to seventy gold crowns, with
so eager a demand for it, from the finn
conviction that the Cardinal's proclama-
tion was beyond doubt, that the contempo-
rary reports declare it due only to the
forced cessation from business by the advent
of night, that its value did not go to a yet
higher figure. The following morning, when
the election 'Was found to be still in sus-
pense, the inevitable reaction brought doW'll
the Farnese quotation to 10 and 1
.1
1 Letter from an anonymous correspondent to Duke
ottavio Farnese, in Lettere di Principi, Vellice, 1581,
5-1
OX THE COXSTITUTIO
The Bull of Pius IV. was not sufficient to arrest the Letting propensities of the inhabi- tants of the Banchi; and in spite of Papal fulminations, the chances of an election were still made the subject of wagers that led to frequent hreaches of the peace. Amongst the many valuable papers preserved in the Gaetani archives, there is one which is singularly illustrative of what used to occur in this quarter. It is the report Ly the Duke of Sermoneta, who, in the interreg- num of 1590, was the Lieutenant of Holy
yol. iii. p. 169:-'V ostra Eccellenza sappi, che'l concorso
delle genti prima ùe plebei, et poi de maggiori fu si
fatto dalle 16 insino aIle 19 hore [at that season of the
- year corresponùing to our 11
and 2 o'clock in the
afternoon] che da Campo di Fiore insino al Vaticano, non si poteva and are senza stretta et pericolo d'esser calpestato dalla turba et da cavalli: et se L'Eccellen- tissimo Signor Duca d'Urbino [who was Captain-General of the Church] non armava per tempo il Conclave di buone guardie, non e' dllbbio, che si correva a rompere et a saccheggiare insieme col palazzo di San Giorgio: Vi fu in tanto in Banchi chi vendé Ie cedule Farnesiane settanta scudi d' oro con tanta concorrenza de compra- tori d' esse, che se non sopragiungeva la notte, Ie face- yano salire piu alto di prezzo, aspettando pur ogn' uno di punto in punto, che si publica&se l'adoratione, come gia fatta della persona di detto Reverendissimo signor suo fratello: pur questa mattina correvano Ie cedule sue a 10 et 12 con tutto, che siano sgal1nati gli aninú dell' impressione presente ill tal successo.'
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 55
Church, of the circumstances that led to a
murderous scuffle between his own soldiers
in guard in the Banchi and a patrol of the
city Shirri. By right the Banchi lay within
the bounds of the Bargello's authority, but
at the request of the shopkeepers the Lieu-
tenant had posted a watch of soldiers in
this street. These had refused, it was
said by mistake, to let pass a round of
Sbirri, whereupon the Bargello had lmrried
in person to the :spot to assert his authority,
hut the soldiers laughed to scorn his pre-
tensions, and a scuffle ensued, with a dis-
charge of fire-arms, which killed several
individuals. The Bargdlo beat a retreat
into the palace of the Governor of Rome,
while the Duke, who happened to be stand-
ing at the Castle gate when the tumult
occurred, hastened across the bridge to ap-
pease it, and draw off into the Borgo his
riotous soldiers. In his report he then re-
commends measures to prevent the recur-
rence of such scenes, and states the cause
that lay at their bottom: 'I have sent,' he
writes, 'another company to be in guard at
the Banchi; but it may be deemed advisable,
on account of what has happened, to remove
altogether this post from there, as the brokers
56 ox THE COXSTITUTIO
and dealers wish and ask for the same only because it affords them protection for laying their wagers, and they are the parties who sow dissensions between soldiers and Shirri. . . . If this stUanl were taken away from the Banchi, the Bargello would then be able to pass there freely, and thus a stop would be put to these wagers, from which proceed all the riots.' Kow-a-days, this moùe of making a Papal election subserve the general love for play has been superseded by the system of the lottery; and whereas formerly heads were often broken in the angry ex- citement caused by the daily rise and fall in the rival chances of favourite Cardinals, the population of Rome at present during an interregnum satisfies its gambling passions by peacefully playing on combinations of numbers formed out of the ages of Car- dinals, or any other circumstances connected with their individualities which human in- genuity may be able to translate into a cabalistic expression. 1
1 It is proverbial that in Italy nothing is sacred from
conversion into some reduction into numbers that are
made available for the lottery. It is not the public
alone, but the Conscript Fathers of the Church them-
selves, who during Conclave-time contrive to indulge
their gambling passions in numbers that are considered
OF PAPAL COXCL.AYES.
57
A Bull of Clement XII., impregnated with
the spirit of economy, abolished, together
with a number of other offices, the Goyer-
norship of the Leonine city. The reforming
hand of the age, quickened by the prickings
of inexorable penury, has been successfully
engaged in paring down the old-fashioned
lavishness of C'\,-en arch-conservative Rome.
At present the peace of the Popeless city is
left entirely to the care of
Ionsignor Go-
vernatore, who with drilled gendarnles in
modern plight has superseded the once riy
I
powers and fantastic archers of the Church's Lieutenant and the civic Bargello,-ruling Rome during an interregnum by the same grim intervention of prowling police that is
to represent the mystical operations of the Holy Ghost.
Stendhal, who gives a very capital account of the Con-
clave in lS
9 in his Promenades dans Renne, has a good
story of hi::, witnessing some inmate of the Conclave
playing in the lottery through the wheel which serves
for conveying meals in: · Just as after the inspection
of two or three dinners all this kitchen-work bored us,'
he writes, · ana we were on the point to withdraw, we
saw a ticket come through the turning-wheel from with-
in the Conclave, with the numbers 17 and 25 thereon,
and the request to put it in the lottery. . . . These
numbers might signify that in the morning's balloting
the Cardinal occupying apartment 25 had 1ì votes, or
any other combination. The numbers 'were faithfully
handed over to a servant of Cardinal P.'
5 8 O
THE COXSTlTlJTlO
ordinarily busy in its streets when an actual
Pope resides in the Yatican. One vestige
alone still figures of the peculiar powers
which started into existence at the beck of
necessities now happily vanished. It is to be
found in the pomp and parade that attend
the :l\Iarshal of the Conclave,-an officer
who is a memher of the great Roman aristo-
cracy, and whose professed duty is to be the
jailer of the assembled Cardinals, having it
on his conscience to keep them tightly shut
off from contact with the outer world. In
reality, this dignity is now become an appan-
age of the Chigi family, though, in strictne
s,
not hereditary, the office being conferred
afresh for life on each new head of the
house. The origin of the creation dates
from the trouhleJ period of Gregory x.'s
elevation. Innocent VI. (13j2-ß2) bestowed
the office on a memher of the great Savelli
family, which from father to son retaineù
it until in 1; 12 this house became extinct,
having held the dignity always by the same
tenure by which it now ùescemls in the
Chigis, on whom it was conferred at this
period. Once the authority attached to this
office was very consiJerable, and not con-
fined only to the season of interregnum, for
OF rAP AL COXCLA YES. 59
the l\Iarshal possessed jurisdiction over all
lay memhers of the Pontifical Court, who
were tried before his special tribunal, the
Corte Sayclla, and lodged in his special
prison. That privilege came to an end
under Innocent X., in whose edict of sup-
pression the grave abuses prevalent in that
Court, and the scandalous state of the
prisons, are expressly alluded to as render-
ing reform indispensable. In spite of these
curtailments úf his powers, the :Marshal
retains all the outward display of high rank,
and figures during a Conclave as second in
l)fecedence only to the Camerlengo. The
essence of his importance has indeed much
waned; about the only real exercise of
authority which he may yet be called upon
to put in practice being tlle legitimate dis-
tribution of pass-medals, which the l\Iarshal
is entitled to get coined in silver and in gold.
K evertheless, in the ceremonial pageant of
Rome, this dignitary makes a prominent
show, although he also has not escaped the
pnming action of that spirit of reduction
which has been in the ascendant of late.
The Diario di Roma of the day gives a
glowing description of the sumptuous mag-
nificence displayed by the first l\Iarshal of
GO O
THE COXSTITUTIO
.
the Chigi family on his first appearance in
this capacity after the death of Clement XI.
in I i:3I:-
, Before his palace in Piazza Colonna there
was drawn up his company of hundred
men enli
ted and clothed in hlue at the
Prince's own co!'t, together with their officers.
Then there went to attend his Excellency a
company of fish-vendors, clothed in gala, in
white and blue calico, and white feathers in
their hats, with trimmings, after which came
a troop of rosary-makers, and then another
from the quarter of La Regola, and these
going in a body before the great standards
with his Excellency's arms, marched along
the whole Strada Papale to St. Peter's, and
mounted guard at the Prince's own apart-
ment, which is at the great staircase of the
Vatican Basilica.'
During a Conclave, the :l\Iarshal still takes
up his quarters in the building where it
meets, and just Jutside the barriers that
shut in the Cardinals, to watch over whose
strict confinement, and to inspect the un-
impeachable nature of the articles passed
through the turning-wheels for the admis-
sion of really indispensahle objects, constitute
the only duties he still has any pretensions
OF PAPAL COKCL-\YES. 61
to perform. The thrifty 8pirit of Clement
XIII. included the gay bands of retainers
amongst the items suppressed by his reform-
ing Bull, so that now the Prince- )Iar::;hal
has a less ostentatious, but also less costly
guard, furnished by a contingent of Papal
regulars. ' On coming home very tired and
dying of coM,' is Stendhal's entry on the
14th February 1829, in his P'J"omenades
dan/; Rome, 'we observed that Don Agostino
Chigi, :Marshal of the Conclave, had at his
door a guard of honour.'
It would be more than tedious to recount
the prescriptive ceremonial for each of the
nine days of preparation before entering
Conclave. The first three are more parti-
cularly devoted to the obsequies of the Pope,
which take place always at St. Peter's-the
chapel of the Pontifical residence, and are
marked by many striking rites, full of ob-
scure symbolism, and quaint mementos of
obsolete customs. Stendhal, who was in
Rome at the death of Leo XII., and curiously
followed the ceremonies of the interregnum,
f,rlves in his Promenades an excellent account
of what is still practised. 'To-day the
obsequies of the Pope began at St. Peter's,'
he "rit
s, 'and we were there from ele" en
ü2 ON THE COXSTITUTION
.
in the forenoon. The Pope's catafalc has
hern raise<l in the Chapel of the Choir, sur-
rounded by the nohle Guards in their hand-
some scarlet uniforms. The body of the
Pope is not yet there. Before the catafalc
a high mass was read. It was Cardinal
Pacca who officiated as suh-dean of the
Sacred College. . . . After mass, the Car-
dinals withdrew to govern the state; their
sitting took place in the chapter-hall of St.
Peter's. . . . . 'Yllile the Cardinals were
busy governing, the clergy of St. Peter's
went to fetch the body of Leo XII. in the
chapel where it was exposed; the JIiserere
being chanted. The corpse lun-ing been
borne into the Chapel of the Choir, tlw
Cardinals returned. The corpse was splen-
didly robed in white; with great state it
was placed, in strict conformity to a very
intricate ceremonial, within a shroud of
purple silk, ornamented with embroidery
and gold fringe. In the coffin were laid
three bags filled with medals, and a parch-
ment scroll, wherein was the history of the
Pope's life. The curtains of the great gate
of the chapel were drawn, but some favoured
foreigners were clandestinely smuggled into
the singers' tribune.' Stendhal adds the
OF PAPAL CO CLA YES. G 3
remark, that' a well-founded spirit of sus-
picion pervades everything that happens on
a Pope's demise; for the poor deceased has
no relatives around him, and those charged
"ith prmiding a successor might possibly
bury a Pope alive.'
The deathbeds of many Popes have indeed
witnessed shocking scenes of destitution
and abandonment, cOuI)led with outrage-
ously indecent treatment of the corpse.
\Yhat can be more lurid in its effect than
the sacrilegious bmwl, by torchlight, over
the dead body of Alexander n., between
drunken soldiers and priest::., within th.e
hallowed area of St. Peter's, just before the
very altar, as it is drily described by the
ceremoniary Burckhardt
-' By four heggars
was the corpse borne into St. Peter's, the
clergy, according to custom, preceding, and
the canons walking by the side of the bier,
which being set in the midst of the church,
they stood awaiting the Non Intl'es in Judi-
. cium to be said, but the book could not be
found, wherefore the clergy began singing
the response Libf'ra Domine. "-hile this
chanting was going on in church, some
soldiers of the palace-guard laid hold of and
snatched the torches from the clerks, where-
6 -! ox THE COXSTITUTION
..
upon the other clergy defended themselves
with the torches in their hands, and the
soldiers made use of their weapons, so that
the clergy, becoming frightened, rushed in a
body into the sacristy, leaving off their
chant, and the Pope's corpse remaining by
itself. I and some others took up the bier
and carried it before the high altar.' Hap-
pily there is no record of any other scandal
of equal magnitude, but yet the deathbeds
of many Popes have been attended by cir-
cumstances of painful neglect, in glaring
contrast with the eminent rank in life of the
individual who was going to his grave.
The last Pope, Gregory XYI., died in a
manner unattended. He had been ailing
with an attack of erysipelas in the foot for
some days, which had confined him to bed;
but the illness had not attracted notice until
his absence from the public service on 'Yllit-
sunday, which fell on the 31st l\Iay (1846).
It was a peculiarity of Gregory XYI. not to
like the subject of death to be mentioned in
his hearing, so that this known feeling on
his part, combined with the ahseilce from
Rome of his chief physician-the German
Dr. Alertz-probably contributed to make
the courtiers and the less experienced medi-
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 65
cal men in charge treat the malady more
lightly than should have been the case. On
the morning of "\Yhitsunday, the Pope, how-
ever, felt his strength failing; he caused a
mass to be read to him before daylight, and
took the sacrament; but even then the
doctors, in reply to his questions, declared
that he would he out of bed in a week, and
pronounced it unnecessary to issue a bulle-
tin. But in the night the Pope's condition
grew much worse, so that when, in the
morning at seven o'clock, the Cardinal
Secretary of State, Lambruschini, came, he
found the Pope speechless, and already
aneled in a hurry by another ecclesiastic
than the one on whom, in the prescribed
order of ceremonial, this duty devolved.
The Pope was actually breathing his last;
and in the absence of the Cardinal Peniten-
tiary, who could not be summoned in time,
the Secretary of State hastily read over him
the appointed prayers for the dying. At
the time, these facts gave r-ise to much com-
ment, both in ecclesiastical and gf>neral
circles, and suspicions were expressed for
which there is no reason to believe that
foundation existed. The only charge to be
brought is that of negligence and want of
E
66 ON THE COXSTITUTION
perspicacity against those who were in attend-
ance on the Pope.
By the ninth day everything requisite
for proceeding to business must have been
terminated; the Conclave must be ready to
receive its inmates, and these must have been
selected. For a Conclave comprises a whole
population locked up in attendance upon
the possible wants of the immured Emi-
nences. It would take pages to give a list
of all the different categories of functionaries
and servants who have to share the privileges
of this imprisonment,-from the
laggior-
domo to the Father Confessor, and from the
Head-Physician down to the Barbers and
Carpenters and Sweepers. All these cate-
gories are carefully indicated in grave Papal
rescripts, as also the exact number in each
which it is allowable for a Conclave to
contain; the nomination always resting with
the general congregation of Cardinals, ex-
cept in the case ')f the Conclavists who are
private secretaries to the Cardinals, and
therefore selected by their patrons within
specified limitations. These Conclavists
have often played a most important part
in Papal elections, many of which have
owed their issue to the adroit practices of
OF P \.PAL COXCLAYES.
67
these subaltern agents. The position of a
Conclavist is confidential-one of intimacy.!
Each Cardinal may be accompanied by two,
who must be neither engaged in trade, nor
stewards to princes, nor lords of a temporal
jurisdiction, nor brothers or nephews of their
patron Cardinal, in whose household they
must have been domiciled for a twelvemonth
before. The feeling of jealous precaution
which is plainly dominant in all these regu-
lations, has caused their conditions to be care-
fully observed. In 1758 Cardinall\Ialvezzi
attempted to smuggle in a favourite, Canon
Bolognini, and underwent the mortification
of seeing him denied admission by the Sacred
College, on the ground of his not having been
a bond fide member of the Cardinal's house-
1 The obligation of slXrecy is as incumbent in law on
the Concla\ists and officials as on the Cardinals. In
1829 the violation thereof was visited '\\ith public
expulsion and imprisonment. ' A Conclavist (I believe
the one of Cardinal Ruffo Scilla) and a porter (fachino),'
writes the l\Iodenese Envoy Ceccopieri, 'have been
expelled and put in prison for having, in defiance of
the oath of secrecy by which all are bound when setting
foot in Conclave, caused it to be distinctly kno'\\n that
Cardinal de Gregorio would be chosen in ten days'
time,-an election which, however, went off in smoke,
through Cardinal Albani's entrance.'-Bianchi, Diplo-
ww,zia Europea in ltalia, vol. Ü. p. 430.
(j
O THE CO
STITUTIO
hold for the prf'scrihed period, and its being therefore apprehended that he had been selected for the purpose of serving as the instrument to promote particular influences. On thi::; occasion another curious exclusion was witnessed. The appointment of Physi- cian-in-Chief was ahout heing conferred on a Dr. Guattani, who is specially mentioned to have been a practitioner of renown, when Cardinal York expressed his tàther's hope that the acred College, in deference to his royal wish, would not make this nomination -a wish which was accordingly acceded to. I The Conclavists constitutefl and still con- stitute a corporation conscious of power, and invested with recognised privileges. They have in fact acquired the sub::;tantial posi- tion which useful subalterns always do ac- quire. From an early period they appear to have been in the receipt of considerable gratifications, 'which they stoutly exacted, and finally reduced to a legalized tariff.
] 'Vhat may have been the particular ground of com-
plaint against Guattani we have not been able to learn.
The Chevalier de St. George enjoyed in Rome all the
privileges conceded to a sovereign, and as such recom-
mended Cardinals for nomination; it was tl> him that
Cardinal Tencin owed the red hat, according to the
President de Brosses.
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 69
Amongst themselves they fixed a formal
code of regulations in reference to perqui-
sites, to which every Conclavist was bound
to adhere, although such stipulations were
distinctly contrary to Papal bulls. It was
an established abuse that the cell of the
newly-elected Pope should be sacked by the
Conclavists, each man carrying off what
booty he was lucky enough to secure. This
mon::strous perquisite was once subjected to
reform by the Conclavists meeting on the
13th March 1513 in the Sistine Chapel,
and discussing the point as if it were the
most canonical right. The determination
arrived at is preserved in a very business-
lik{' procès-verbal, giyen in full by )Ioroni,
just as if it had been a legal document,
instead of the expression of triumphant
license. It was ruled that in lieu of the
Pope's cell being offered up to common
plunder, it should be the perquisite of his
Conclavist on payment by the latter to his
colleagues of 1500 ducats in gold, for which
these became bound bodily to each other.
But a custom of old date, however illegiti-
mate, is not abolisht:d at a blow; and the
Conclavists continued their tumultuous and
extortionate proc-eedings without alteration,
7 0 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
in after Conclayes.. Down to the time of
Alexander YII. (1655) the sacking of the
newly-elected Pope's cell seems to have been
the rule. It appears that its contents are
now the perquisites of his Cameriere, an indi-
vidual who stands in the po::,ition of familiar
menial. The Conclavists are at present
in the enjoyment of perquisites secm'ed by
Papal rescripts,-conclusive evidence of the
peculiar influence possessed by this body of
men. Fifteen thousand scudi (about Æ3000)
are allotted as a fee after election, to be
divided amongst the Conclavists, who be-
sides are allowed the privilege of becoming
full citizens in any town" ithin the Pope's
dominions, are admitted to the rank of
nobility, and, if members of a religious order
(every Cardinal must have one ecclesiastical
Conclavist), are empowered to bequeath, by
will, away from their brotherhood. It is in-
telligible how active secretaries of this stamp,
thoroughly conver<,ant with the inner minds
of the Sacred College, often shoulù have had
great influence in deciding Papal elections.
On one occasion the sl.} ness of the Con-
clavist Torres all but deprived Pius IV.
of his election. Torres was in attend-
ance on Cardinal Cueva. Clande:stillely he
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 71
canvassed one night the Cardinals, speaking
to each man singly as if he did so only to
hinlself. His language was that it would
be gratifying as well as proper that Cueva,
who, he said, could never be elected, should
have the honour of the testimony of respect
invoh-ed in the vote of the particular Cardinal
whom he was addressing. The vote would
be a barren, but yet a pleasing distinction, he
averred. By such representations, cunningly
addrf'ssed singly to each Cardinal, Torres
had actually got the promise of thirty-two
votes out of the thirty-four in Conclave, and
was inwardly chuckling over the astonish-
ment which would follow on the opening of
the ballot-box, when the trick is said to
have been defeated by Cardinal Capo di
Ferro accidentally asking his neighbour for
whom he was about to vote, and being told
for Cueva, to pay him a compliment at
Torres' suggestion. Still seventeen votes
had already been given in his favour before
the exposure of the trick.
An interesting narrative is preservedl of
the election of :l\IarcelIus II. by a Conclavist of
1 In a letter without signature and without address,
in 3d volume of the Lettere di Principi, Venice, 1581.
loroni ascribes it to Atanagi on authority not stated.
7'.) O
THE COXSTITUTIO
more than ordinary audacity, inasmuch as he
ventured first, on peeping upon the very mys-
teries of the sacred vote constituting a Pope, at
which Cardinals alone should he present, and
then on divulging in a letter the scene he had
looked upon. On this occasion the Cardinals
appear to have had special ground::; for ùeing
on their guard against the possible presence
of unqualified C
nclavists, for the day after
the closing of the gates and the formal
expulsion of strangers, they proceeded to
an exceptional scrutiny of all who had re-
mained within. The whole population of
the Conclave was got together in the Pauline
Chapel, at the door of which the three
Cardinals, Capi d'Ordini, with the Cardinal
Camerlengo, took their seats and scrutinized
each individual as he passed out singly
before them, the result of the inspection
being the ejection of fifteen interlopers.
Those who remainpd did not, however, show
any greater dispo:,ition for this purgation to
humour the assemLled Cardinals, for we are
told that two days later the Conclavists
chose eight of their number as 'defenders to
secure the observance of their privileges,
that are many,' though the' nature of these
privileges is not stated. After an unusual
OF PAPAL COXCLAYE:-;. 73
and unexplained delay, the Cardinals., who
had formally entered Conclave as long ago
as the 5th, proceeded to a first ballot on the
9th April, when the suffrages were found
divided between Caraffa (Paul IY.), Ferrara,
and Cervini, Cardinal by the title of
ta.
Croce, and in the end the victorious candi-
date. The second of these Cardinals was
particularly obnoxious to the Imperialists;
but his following 'was considerable, his influ-
ence formidable, and his elevation to the
Papal chair, out and out the resul
most
deprecated from an Imperialist point of view, seemed not merely possible, but was con- sidered likely to be assured if the election were protracted another four-and-twenty hours. To defeat Ferrara's chance of success became, accordingly, the object abo,e every other of the efforts of those Cardinals who had at heart the Emperor's interest. To this end they quickly concerted to throw their influence without loss of time on the side of Cervini as the most generally popular candidate, e,en though there were grounds why he could not be specially agreeable to the Emperor, whom he had displeased during his presence as Legate at the Council of Trent. But the danger of Ferrara's elm"a-
7 -1 O
THE COXSTITUTIOX
...
tion was so imminent that a sacrifice had to
be made without loss of time. "G nder these
circumstances it was resolved to carry the
election by surprise before F<>rrara and the
French party had the opportunity to counter-
act the move next morning.
\.ccordingly
Cardinals 1\Iadruzzi and Caraffa stole pri-
vately to Cervini's cell to prepare him for
what was coming, while the Cardinals were
assemhl('d within the Pauline Chapel in
debate, which became eager and hot. Sud-
denly up jumped Cardinal Crispo, a con-
federate, and exclaimed, 'Up and let us be
going; I for one will not rebel against the
Holy Ghost,' and with these words he led
the "ay, followed by most Cardinals, to the
cell of Cervini, who was carried forcibly
into the chapel amidst the vociferous ac-
clamations 110t merely of his supporters,
but even of most of his opponents, when
they saw tllf' day lost for them. Still,
success had been snatched so far only
by a hold stroke; and to confirm the
adverse p
rty in disorganization, the Con-
clavists were employed to make the fact of
Cervini's election known at once in the city,
with the view of eliciting popular demon-
strations that might effectually suppress any
OF PAPAL CO: CLAVES. 7.1
awakening tenùency to opposition. For
what had occurred, though of unmistakable
force, was yet quite informal, and before the
acclaimed Cervini could legitimately call
himself Pope, it was still necessary to go
through certain elaborate and punctiliously
enjoined formalities. In the heat of the
moment the proposal was indeed heard to
hoist Cervini without more ado into the
Papal chair, and to proceed forthwith to the
act of adoration, but :l\Iedici, though a warm
supporter, interfered, and drew attention
to the necessity for observing carefully in
this case every enjoined prescription, as a
safeguard against later challenge of the
election. At this admonition the Cardinals
calmed their excitement, and relapsing into
a proper air of gravity, proceeded to their
seats, while the Conclavists were ordered
out of the chapel. 'I alone went behind the
altar,' writes the anonymous Conclavist,
'when the others were being driven out,
and after the door had been closed came
back again and put myself behind the Pope's
chair, without anything being said to me,
though I had been perceived by Cardinals j
and so all of them being seated, the Car-
ùinal of Kaples (Caraffa), as Dean, stood up
7 G O
THE COXSTITLTIO
aml said, "Ego J oannes Petrus Cardinalis
Episcopus Hostiensis X eapolitanus Decanus
digo in Summum Pontificem Reyerelldis-
simum Dominum meum Cardinalem Sanctre
Crucis," and in the same manner did the
others giye their yotes, a secretary writing
down each like a notary; when, just as they
had finished, the ,Axe :J\Iaria sounded, which
having heen repeated by all as if in thanks
to God for the cunsummation of the election,
the Pope rose and made a little Latin speech
thanking the College for its choice, and ex-
pressing his resolve, though conscious of
unworthiness and insufficiency for such a
charge, to do his duty, with an engagement
to attend to no private interest, but only to
the good of all, and seyeral other words
very much to the point, and of great gravity.
Hereupon the Cardinal Dean of X aples got
up and said that, in observance of the
ancient rulf's, a ballot should be taken the
following morning, with the voting-papers
open, in order that his Holiness might see
the good affection of all towards him, and
this without prejudice of the present elec-
tion, which was approved of by all, who
unanimously would have the Pope speak
the words, "Acceptamus sine præjudicio
OF PAPAL COXCL\TES.
I I
præsentis electionis." Mter this all the
Cardinals kissed the Pope, and the doors
having been opened I was of the first who
kissed his feet, which he would not have me
do, saying that it would have been better
next day. Xm-ertheless I did kis:; them, and
then all left the chapel, attending the Pope
to his room, which he found so thoroughly
gutted by the Conclavists that he was
forced to betake him:::;elf into that of Car-
dinal 1\Iontepulciano, when he at once re-
solved on getting crowned next day in St.
Peter's. "
hile an this noise was going on,
the gates of the Conclave were forced, and a
mob entered, so that but for 1\lesser Ascanio
della Cornia l the whole Conclave had a
chance of being gutted. .As soon as he had
come in, measures of precaution were, how-
ever, taken for everything, and no one
1 He was a nephew of Paul III., invested with the
uncommon title of Conslll for this Conclave, not with-
out umbrage having been taken by the Roman nobility,
according to the same Conclavist :-' K el medesimo
giorno aIle 21 hore, delli Cardinali, che si trovav.ono in
RODla fu fatta congregatione sopra Ie cose et gO\-erno
della Citta, dell a quale i1 Signor Ascanio dell a Cornia
fu eletto Consule, benche questi Baroni Romani al-
quanto conteudessero, dicendo essere officio loro haver
cura dell a Citta, poi hebhero pazienza.'-Lettere di
Principi, vol. iiL p. 160.
'i8 O
PAPAL COXCLAYES.
.
entered more but a few Prelates, who came to
kiss the feet of his Holiness. All that night
long one slept but badly from the sound
and noise maùe by those who were remov-
ing their goods out of the Conclave. Kext
morning, 'Yerlnesday the 10th, the Pope
and Cardinals entered the chapel an hour
before day, according to the regulations;
and mass having been read by the Sacrista,
all gave their votes open in behalf of Car-
dinal Sta. Croce, who, not to vote for himself,
gave his for the Cardinal of :x aples. Mter
this he was adored by all, and Cardinal
Pisani, as senior deacon, went, according to
custom, to a window, and said to the people,
Papam lwbemus
.-his name being :l\Iarcellus
the Second, which he bore before, and would
by no means change.'
IV.
D eRIXG these latter years of Pius IX.'s
reign the question has been frequently
mooted in whi::ipered talk, how far this pre-
scription of nine days' ceremonial preliminary
to the creation of a Pope might not he dis-
pensed with by a simple Papal injunction.
The idea has, in fact, been entertained in
circles 'worthy of credit, that, in view of the
political dangers besetting the Holy See,
some Papal instrument has been duly pro-
vided by Pius IX., absolving the Cardinals
from the obligatory observance of the pre-
scribed forms of election, and empowering
them to make, if they saw fit, a new Pope
over his yet warm corpse. There can be
no question as to the Pope's perlect com-
petency in principle to authorize so grave a
departure from the custom of ages by an
80 O:S THE COXSTlTrTIO
.. individual act, even without the concurrence of any Cardinals. There are precedents for similar proceedings. Adrian v. (12 ï 6), who reigned only a few days over a month, actually abrogated the great Bull of his predecessor Gregory x., and this repeal re- mained in force through six elections, until the scandalous consequences of the abolition of disciplinary provisions induced Celestine Y., with his hermit nature, to revive the law of Gregory x. Still more in point would be what was done by Gregory XI. It was the time when the Holy Bee, for nearly three quarter::; of a century, had been pining in self-willed exile at hignon. It was felt by aU devout minds that the situation into which the Church had got herself, through tl1Ïs step, was nlÏnous to her interests. The Pope himself, although a Frenchman, was fully alive to the fact that to save the Church it was indispensable to satisfy the outraged conscience of Christendom, by carrying back to its natural seat, Rome, the Holy See, from its spurious residence in A vignon. But to do this effectively it re- quired an effort of force, for the Pope in those days was in the same plight as many of his successors, of being surruunded by a
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 81
cabal of hostile interests,-a network of
opposing Court influences, in our times
called a Camarilla. The Pope might himself
flit, indeed, to Rome, and yet, with the indivi-
duals composing the Sacred College, in great
proportion creatures of the French Crown,
and with the existing distribution of political
interests, the same might be expected again to
occur which already had occurred, namely,
that the transfer would be only for so long
as the Pope lived. To secure a lasting re-
estahlishment of the See in Rome, Gregory
XI. perceived it to be necessary to make, for
once, a radical change in the value attached
to specified forms in the machinery of Papal
elections. By a Bull bearing date 19th
l\Iarch 1378, Gregory XI., at one stroke of
the pen, suspended every existing regulation
on the subject of Papal elections, set the
Cardinal::; free from the observance of any
obligations they might have sworn' to in
accordance to prescripticn, and specially
empowered them not merely to meet for
election on his decease, whenever it might
seem convenient, but to nominate by simple
majority. This memorable exercise of Papal
authority, constituting a true coup d'état,
stands justified by the approving voice of
F
2 ON THE COXSTITUTIO
all ecclesiastical authorities, who have ac- cepted it, without, so far as we know, one ol)servation conveying an insinuation of usurpation against this Pope for what he did on this occasion. He dealt with a special emergency, as the Council of Con- stance did, by the application of measures drawn from the inspiration of the moment, and fashioned without slavish deference for precedent; and in both cases the result proved the wisdom of such bold action. A more recent and far more pointed prece- dent for an instrument such as Pius IX. has been supposed to have secretly made, is furnished in certain provisiuns taken by Pius YI. to secure the free election of a successor when he found him:::;elf exposed to personal violence at the hands of the French!tepu blicans. The little known history of the Papal measures aùopted to meet the threatening exigencie:::; of that serious crisis is full of curious instruction. I
1 The authorities are-Baldassari, in his Relazione
delle A vversitá e Patimenti del glorioso Papa Pio Fl.
'Mgli ultimi tre anni del suo Pontificato, Ed. seconda,
- Modena, 1840; ::\Ioroni, in article 'Conclave,' who,
however, is very confm,eù and inaccurate on the sub. ject; and N ovaes, Stori(t dei Pontefici, vol. xvi. parte seconùa, p. 131. Besides, we have been favoured "ith
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 83
In the beginning of 1797 the States of the
Church were invaded by the French armies,
which carried all before them with so great
rapidity that, on the 19th February, the
Pope's plenipotentiaries signed the politi-
cally-disastrous treaty of Tolentino. Yet
humiliating as its terms were for the Sove-
reign of nome, the Pope could accept them
'with a feeling of relief, for the conditions
imposed involved merely secular losses;
whereas he had been threatened with a
demand for the recantation of the solemn
Pontifical Brief condemnatory of the ch-il
constitution of the French Church. The
acquiescence in this demand would have
been tantamount to a sacrifice of prm-
ciple which the Church could not have
made without denying her nature altogether.
The Pope conyened the Cardinal::, in Council,
and their vote was distinctly against gi,ing
way on this head; rather than )ielJ there-
on, they were of opinion that the worst
the perusal of manuscript letters of various Cardinals,
and especially AntoneHi, on the matter. Baldassari's
book abounds in valuable material-he having been an
attendant on
Ionsignor Caracciolo, who acted a part
in these transactions, and from whom Baldassari ob-
tained much precious information, which he transcribed
faithfully.
! ON THE COKSTITUTIOX
should be confronted with the spirit of
martyrdom. In this state of affairs it was
natural that measures shouIù have been re-
volved to render possible the unbroken
action of the Church as a hidden institution
in that season of persecution which then
seemed tù threaten her public existence with
extinction. To this end it was considered
primarily essential that tho
e provisions
shouIù be modified, the observance of which,
as enjoined by the statutes of the Church as
they then stood, would unavoidably surround
the election of a Pope with formalities that
must increase the difficulty of effecting it in
the teeth of an overwhelming conqueror who
did not recoil from the use of physical force
to extort moral concessions. In the month
of February, therefore-the very time when
the French troops were pressing on rapidly,
and no one in Rome could say at what point
their chief would arrest his triumphant ad-
vance,--the draft of a Brief was indited,
suspending, for the sole occasion of the next
election, the provision which, for the benefit
of Cardinals at a distance, imposf's an obli-
gatory delay of nine days after the Pope's
decease before a ballot can be taken in
Conclave. There can be no amhiguity as
OF PAPAL CO CLAYES. to the intention that prompted this very concise Pontifical utterance in derogation from previous statutes. The course of events, however, rendered its promulgation superfluous. It was never transcribed from the draft; all knowledge of which would ha,?e passed away but for Baldassari, who saw the original, as he believes, in Pius VI.'S own handwriting, and gave the text in his memoirs of that Pope's captivity. 1 The hopes of Pius Yr., that he had pur- chased peace by the heayy sacrifices he had
85
1 This Brief begins-' "Yos Pius Papa Sextus, attentis
peculiarib1ls præsentibus Ecclesiæ circwnstantiis,' and is
to be found in Baldassari, vol. ii. p. 219, note. Moroni
quotes the opening words, but ascribes them to the
Bull issued in the following year, and is altogether
wrong in what he says, mixing up two totally distinct
occurrences. Baldassari, who here, as generally, is
painfully minute, gives details which speak for his
accuracy :-' A questo affare importantissimo aveva
egli rivolto Ie sue cure apostoliche anche nel febbrajo
dell' anno medesimo quando i soldati di Bonaparte
marciavano alIa volta di Rama e giunsero sino a Foligno.
!IIi é ignoto il giorno ch' egli sottoscrisse e muni del
suo sigilIo privato un decreto a cio. Ben so di certo
che il decreto fu ultimato ed antenticato nel detto modo,
perche mi 10 disse persona degnissima di fede, chi vide
quel foglio ; come ancora ne so il tenore, perche n' ebbi
fra Ie mani la minuta che mi parve fosse scriUa di mano
del Papa ed é precisamente tal quale io la pongo nel
Inogo delle annotazioni.' It was dated simply Romæ
apud S. Petrum die. . . . mensis Februarii anni 179ï.
86 ON THE COXSTITUTION .. made, were quickly dissipated. Before the year 17gi was out, on the 28th December a tumult occurred in the streets of Rome, when the French general Duphot was killed, and Joseph Bonaparte, the diplomatic re- presentative of tllf' Republic, left thp city, in spite of the Papal Government having offered to make every apology that might be required for the crime that had been per- petl'ated. It was manifest that a fixed in- tention was entertained to make the worst of an untoward incident, and that the French authorities meant this time to avail them- selves thereof to push the Pope against the walL Accordingly, two days after the out. rage, on the 30th December, a Bull, beginning with the words 1 Christi ecclesiæ regendæ, was issued by Pius VI. to give formal validity to the provisions contemplated in the former Brief. There can be no doubt as to the authenticity of this instrument; for although it is not to be found in the Bullarium, it is
1 This Bull was not seen in the Latin text hy Bal-
dassari. who. at p. 222. vol. ii.. gives an Italian summary
of its contents. We have been favoured with a précis
from the Latin in MS. Baldassari says that all his re-
searches failed to make him find R Latin copy, which
he ascribes to the losses that the Papal archives ex-
perienced at that period.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 87 referred to in the second Bull issued by Pius Y1. in the year after on the same matter. The rapidity with which its l)romulgation followed on the outrage, is also evidence of its having been duly prepared beforehand, and in the anticipation of emergencies. Mter a preamble, to the purport that novel cir- cumstances call for novel provisions, 1 and that an inflexible law cannot meet the needs of an unsettled time, Pius VI. empowers those Cardinals in situ at his death to act, as may seem best to their wisdom, in the observance of the prescribed nine days' inter- val before electing a Pope. The Cardinals on the spot are authorized, without taking account of their colleagues at a distance, either by unanimous vote or on mere ma- jority, to put off indefinitely, or to any period they may appoint, the election, in the event of grave dangers threatening, and 110 safe place offering for assembly, as likewise to proceed offhand to an instan- taneous election if deemed expedient,-such extraordinary dispensation from the ancient customs of the Church being, however, expressly declared to be limited to the
1 , K ovis incidentibus rebus nova parari iisdem de-
bent accoIDodarique consilia,'
88 OX THE COXSTITUTION .. event of grave peril. Between the be- fore-mentioned draft for a Brief and this Bull there is only one difference of conse- quence. The validity of the proposed Brief was expressly limited to one occasion, p1'O 'we 1-,iee, whereas the provisions in the Bull are as expres::;ly appointed to hoM good on the recurrence of any like state of public affairs that would threaten the legitimate action of the Church's grant! electors. 'Yhat in the former document wa:::. expresset! as a mere act of dispensation, in this deed assumed the expression of an organic law, modifying permanently the practice of the Church under given circumstances, and promulgated with the formally-declared concurrence of its princes-the Cardinals. Grave peril was not slow in overtaking the Holy See. On the 20th February 1798, Pius YI. was carried away a prisoner into Tuscany by the French, the Cardinals were dispersed, and Rome converted il1to a Rrpublic. After a short sojourn at Siena, the Pope was finally deposited in tht old Carthusian monastery near Florence, under strict guard, with the smallest conceivable retinue, ant! cut off from free intercourse with his ministers and the scattered Sacred Coll{'ge, the most of
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 8ü
whose members were dhided between the
states of the King of Xaples and of the
Emperor of Germany. The situation was
of a nature that unavoidably imposed the
necessity of taking thought for the future,
for the health of the Pope, stricken "ith
years, indicated an approaching demise,
while the complete dispersion of the Papal
Court utterly unhinged and disjointed its
machinery. There was a general sweep of
established organism, and a state of things
had been produced like a void, wherein the
dispersed atoms of the Court of Rome had
to steer themselves as they best could by
lights adapted to the novel atmosphere. If
the Pope expired in the Certosa, as there
was every reason to anticipate, his death
would occur away from all Cardinals, and
under conditions that would rel1l1er every
formal summons to a Conclave impossible.
To provide, therefore, means calculated to
meet the exigencies of this unprecedented
situation was a thought that could not but
anxiously occur to the conscientious digni-
taries of the Church; but the serious
difficulties naturally inherent to this task
of framing forms suitable to the occasion
were materially increased by the failing
90 ox THE COXSTIT("TIO
energies of the breaking Pontiff, who hesi- tated to act, and hy cross currents of a poli- tical origin that ohstructed a concert of views amongst the rlispersed Cardinals-a most serious drawback when it became a question to frame provisions with the view of promot- ing the union of the Church in this season of extraordinary trial. The capital difference of opinion which divided the Cardinals had reference to the locality in which the elec- tion of the next Pope should be held. As we lun"e already said, a portion of the Sacred College, comprising its Dean Cardinal Albani, hacl taken refuge in the kingdom of Kaples, while another batch had sheltered itself under Imperial protection. Both go- vernments had received these dignitaries not merely readily, but actually competed against each other for preference by the fugitive Princes of the Church as an m ylum. The motive prompting this rivalry was to be found in the disposition ascribed to the Keapolitan Court to turn the presence in its territory of the Church's Electors to the advantage of its interests, by inducing the choice of an accommodating Pope, and the very natural desire of the Imperial Cabinet to defeat a project so detrimental
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 91
to its own influence. In July 1798 eleven
CarJinals were in the Neapolitan States, one
of them being Dean of the College, and the
fear was entertained, in some quarters, lest,
in the event of the Pope dying without
having made special dispositions for the
convocation of Conclave, in accordance with
the exceptional circumstances of the times,
the minority, in part composed of Nea-
politan Prelates, might proceed to an un-
canonical election, under the influence of
royal pressure, on the plea that the Car-
dinal Dean's presence constituted them the
legitimate representation of the Sacred Col-
lege. There is no proof that Cardinal
Alhalli, the Dean, was prepared to lend
himself to a move so full of risks, and
than which a more disastrous one could not
be conceiveJ in the plight in which the
affairs of the Church then stood. But the
apprehension did undoubtedly exist that the
Court of Xaples might be disposed to avail
itself of the presence of a knot of Cardinals
in its dominions to make these proclaim them-
selves in Conclave, and attempt to impose
their individual choice on the Church; and
the effect of this apprehension was to stimu-
late those members of the Sacred College,
!) 2 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
who haa most at heart the independence of
the Church and her freedom from schism, to
get the Pope to promulgate an instrumcnt
which might effectually obviate the danger in
question. Of the Prelatcs so minded the
most prominent for energy ana rf'solution
was CarJinal Antonelli. l On the great dis-
persion of the Court of Rome, he had taken
refuge neither with the Emperor nor with
the King of Naples, but on the coast of the
Tuscan :i\laremma,2 until, after the capture
of :l\Ialta, he proceeded to Vellice at the ex-
press desire of the Pope. On his way
thither, Cardinal Antonelli passel! through
Florence, where he contrived to obtain two
audiellces of Pius VI., but only by an artifice, and
became painfully impressed with the Pope's
decaying powers of body and mind, and the
isolation in which he was placed from inter-
1 'l'his Carflinal Antonelli was in no manner con-
nected with the one { f the same llame in our day.
2 Up to June the Cardinal found a retreat with the
Pa:.<sionists at Monte Argentaro. But the Republican
l\Iagistrates of Viterbo threatened these friars with con-
fiscation of property if they continued to give shelter in
their dependency to the Cardinal, who then betook him-
self to San Stefano, a small fortified place on the coast—
the same whereon Garibaldi, while sailing for Sicily, made
a descent, and whence he carried off a couple of rusty can-
non-the whole artillery with which he landed at Marsala.
OF PAPAL CO CLAYES. 93
course with men equal to giving him counsel
in his delicate position. The Cardinal made
the best use of his opportunity, therefore, to
urge on the forlorn Pope the necessity of
taking measures, without loss of time, to
guard effectually against the not improbable
danger of a controverted election, in the
event of matters being left in so novel a
situation to the undirected instincts of a dis-
perseù and disorganized 8acred College.
Pius VI. shrank at first, with the timidity
of his advanced years, from the energetic
counsels of the resolute Cardinal, who, how-
ever, pressed him so vigorously that before
leaving Florence he had succeeded in obtain-
ing the Pope's acquiescence in his proposals.
These were to the purport that a special
Bull was indispensable to give the Cardinals
the requisite facilities for securing the cer-
tain election of a Pope under existing cir-
cumstances; and for a Bull to meet the
case a sketch was accordingly submitted
by Cardinal Antonelli 1 to the Pope, who
expressed his agreement with its suhstance,
and charged his secretary, the ex-Jesuit
- l\Iarotti, to draw it out in a formal shape.
1 Baldassari distinctly fixes the authorship of the
draft.- V 01. iii. p. 147.
9 -1 ox THE CO STlTUTIO
This draft was' seen and copied' by Bal- dassari, who affirms its contents to have empowered the Dean, with two or three colleagues, tu name the locality for the elec- tion of the new Pope, the Cardinals being authorized to give their votes in Conclaye by proxy left with one of their hody, and to llaye dispensed from all enjoined rites and prescriptions connected with a Pontifical elec- tion, except the ubligation of a majority of two-thirds to render a result canonicaL The innoyation in this Bull is sufficiently great to impress us with a sense of the counsellor's daring who conceiyed it, and to render in- telligihle the repugnance which the proposal met with. It has been ruled oyer and oyer again in Pontifical canons, that the major penalties should befall any Cardinal presum- ing to concert for a Pontifical election-the Pope heing yet alive and not priyy thereto; 1
1 The very earliest of canons on record about Papal
elections, issued by Symmachu& in A.D. 499, is directelt
against all treating and dealing in the matter of elect-
ing a Pope while one is alive, in full health (Ùlcolumis),
and excluded from knowledge of what is going on. But
the capital act on the subject is the Bull Gum SeCllndllm
apostolllm nemo deheat 8ibi honorem aSSll7ltcre of Paul
IV. (1558), which is le,-elled in the fierce tone of tllat
truculent Pope against every act savouring of human
ambition and human exertion to attain the dignity of
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES.
95
whereas l)y this Bull such a proceeding was
directly incited; while the proposed power
of proxy is quite without precedent. In
the end of August, Cardinal Antonelli had
arrived ill Yenice, and was congratulating
him::;elf on this act, the final promulgation
of which he thought that he lolad secured.
But the hesitation of old age reverted on
Pius YI., when in his lonely cell he saw
brought to him for ratification the instru-
ment wherein, l)y a stroke of his pen, he
was so grayely to modify ancient constitu-
tions. The Bull of the previous year had
l)een promulgated in concert with his Car-
dinals; but this one, involving far more
the Papacy. In the spirit of an ecclesiastical Cato,
every proceeding flavouring of this nature is savagely
stigmatized as a crime, and subjected to all the severities
of ecclesiastical punishment. Amongst the many cases
repudiated, that of canvassing for a Pope, without
the knowledge of the living one, is considered so hein-
ous as to have a whole clause specially devoted to its
absolute condemnation. The object of the Bull is
laudable; it was inspired by a just indignation at tIle
interests of a manifestly secular nature which had de-
cided, elections in more than one recent ConcIM-e; but
its tone and fierce denunciations are signallJ cnarac-
teristic of that intemperate zeal which has made the
name of Paul IV. sunive only as the ill-sounding
synonym of cruel and precipitate passions; whereas
once it was hopefully expected to express the fearless
uprightness of a genuine man of God.
Ð G O
THE COXSTITlJTIOX
radical changes, had been the work of one
single daring Cardinal, who, the Pope was
uncomfortahly conscious, had used in some
degree over him the ascendency of an im-
perious naturc that coerces rather than con-
vinces. Pius \'1. became uneasy at the
consequences of what he had engaged him-
self to do of hig own authority, and post-
poned the issue of the Bull until he had
obtained on its contents the opinions of a
certain number of Cardinals, especially of
thos{' in Venetia, according to Baldassari.
)Ieans were found to communicate with
them, and their replies reached the Pope.
The impression made on the minds of the
consulted Prelates by the ùocument was
undi::;guisedly unfavourable. The notion of
proxies was particularly condemned; and
the poor oM Pope, frightened and troubled
at the angry feelings excited by the draft,
timidly drew hack, and determined to drop
entirely a Bull wnich he himself had been
so loath to entertain at first. But a com-
pletc ab::;tention of this kind from remedial
legislation was not what was wanted by
those whose criticisms had so painfully
moved the Pope. They had objected, in-
deed, to the Bull as framed, but they had
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 9ï
not intended to advise that nothing should
be done against a manifestly threatening con-
tingency. The feeling prevalent was in favour
of some special measure to put the Church
in a condition to deal effectively with its
unprecedented situation; and for the Pope
not to act at all in this sense, simply because
the radical propo::;als of Cardinal Antonelli
had been deemed excessive, was contrary to
the general desire. Accordingly, a seconJ
forthcoming draft for a Bull to meet the
needs of the case came to be taken into
consideration. This one 'Was due to the
inspiration of a Prelate-who haJ shown
him:-::elf all along a fervent advocate for tak-
ing steps to obviate the dangers of a pro-
tracted, or, still worse, a disputed Papal
election-)lonsignor )lichele Di Pietro, then
resident in Rome as the Apostolical Delegate
of his expellcll master. It is not clear whether
he knew what had occurred on the subject-
communications with the Pope and Cardinals
being in tho
e days difficult; or whether it
was a spontaneous composition made by him
sugW'sti,'ely, and in ignorance of Cardinal
Antonelli's draft.
\.nyhow, he drew up an
outline of what he con::;idered requisite to
provide for the safety of the Church under
G
Ð8 O
THE COXSTITUTIOX
impending eventualities; and this paper ,vas
taken to Florence for the Pope's inspection
by an ecclesiastic, hrother to Cardinal Sala.
There was then in Florence :Monsignor Em-
manuel Di Grf'gorio, a Prelate of consiùerable
resoluteness, who strongly sympathized with
those who strove to get the Pope to i::;sue a
mo<lifying Bull, and had heen a channel of
communication for Cardinal Antonelli, whom
he had gone to visit several times in his
retreat in the ::\Iaremma. To :Monsignor Di
Gregorio the emissary from nome aù<lre88ed
himself, and received from him pressing
advice not to say a word to the Pope about
his errand until he had obtained tlle opinions
of the Ca1'llinals in Venetia on the paper
he had brought. This counsel was followed;
the I
oman emissary proceeded to Yenetia,
consulted the Cardinals on the instrument
he had in charge, and brought back to
- l\Ionsignor Di Gregorio the as::;urancc of
thcir willingnes> to agree to the same. Thereupon Di Gregorio addrcssed Cardinal Antonelli, stating the oppo::.ition advanced to his draft, and the concurrcnce expressed in the other, and finally persuaded him, although hardly with good grace, to ac- quiesce in the general view. 'Yith this
OF PAP \.L COXCLAVES. 99
concurrence of favourable opinion, the diffi-
culties in the way of inducing the Pope
to act were materially lessened. 'Yhat he
shrank from was responsibility and inde-
pendent action; but as soon as the approval
of the Cardinals had been given he again
felt safe to proceed; and on the 13th
X ovember, accordingly, he formally executed
his second and last Bull l for the regi<;tration
of his successor's election. In virtue thereof,
eyery preyious Papal edict on the matter,
without exception, was derogated from-
such derogation to hold good for the Con-
clave immediately following, and every other
that might unhappily occur under the aus-
pices of equally adverse circumstances. To
insure, therefore, the object of this act of
legislation-the quick and safe election of a
successor,-the Cardinals were empowered
forthwith to confer amongst themselves on
all points of importance for the election, as
the appointment of a suitable locality to
hold it in, anù the mode in which to conduct .
it, the faculty of dispensing, if they saw
1 This Bull stands in Barberi's Bullarii Romani Con-
tinuatio (Rome, 1845). It begins 'Quum nos superiori
an no,' and decides the point of the actual and formal
promulgation of that other Bull of 30th December li9ï.
100 O:N THE CO:NSTITUTIO
fit, even with the pracLice of immurement in Conclave heing concedl'd, though not that of canvassing in behalf of a specific candi- date during the Pope's lifetime. 80 direct an approach to election was absolutely for- bidden. The death of the Pope was to be notified hy any Canlinal, or the senior amongst the Priests with him at the time of de:>cease, the Conclave heing constituted by the larger number uf Cardinals who might be together in the tenitory of one Catholic sovereign. To this Conclave summons shouM be issued by the Cardinal Dean, if one of this majority, or, in his ahsence, hy the senior Car- dinal; and on this acting Prelate should de- volve the selection uf the place for assembly.
- Moreover, the Cardinals compo::;ing a majority
under the said conditions of resiùence were declared to constitute a Conclave de facto, amI empowered to proceed to a canonical election ofthemselw's without any summons, provided ten days haù been allowed to ela!J::.e, after noti- fication of the Pope's death, for Cardinals at a distance to join their colleagues. Under no circumstances, however, was an election to be valid without the majority of two-thirds of the Cardinals in Conclm'e. Such were the ample and very carefully-considered
OF PAPAL CO CLAYES. 101
clauses in this important piece of Papal
legislation, which dropped out of general
memory in a manner difficult to understand.
In comprehensivene:::,:" it cannot be said to
have fallen behind Cardinal Antonelli's re-
jected draft; the only provision in which
that was not adopted being the questionable
proposal for proxies. In every other respect
the llew Bull was even larger anù more
defined in its dispensing clauses; so that
certainly the duration of Conclave, when it
actually met after the death of Pius VI., was
llot due to its having been forcibly tied down
hy dictatorial forms hampering independent
action. In the Chancery of the Yatican, the
precedent thus afforded was, however, not
allowed to pass out of mind. It has not been
forgotten by the men who are charged
with the custody of the machinery of the
Papacy, that there exists this authority
for flispensing with old-established for-
malities for a Papal election when deemed
inexpedient, and the authority, we know,
has been appealed to at least on one occasion
hefore Pius IX.'S time. "
e have it on the
authority of one yet alive, and who was
admitted to Gregory XYI.'S especial inti-
macy, and, in yirtue of his position, attended
102 ON PAPAL COKCL_\TEK
him in his last moments, that this Pope left
behind him a document, under his own hand,
empowering the Cardinals to proceed to an
immediate election on his demise if they
saw danger to the free action of Conclave,
in observance of the traditional formalities.
This document, we are informed, was indited
at the period of the insuITectionary moye-
ments in the early part of this Pope's
reign, which were formidaùle, and required
Austrian intervention for suppres::;ioll. It
was ever after kept hy Gregory XVI. in the
drawer uf his '\ITiting-table (where it was
found after his death) with so great solicitude,
that every time he moved from one palace
to another, the individual who is our infor-
mant was specially charged to watch over the
transfer of the precious document. 1 '\-hat
may be the precise form of document which
Pius IX. is believed to have prepared we
cannot say; but we cannot doubt his having
been f,'1lided by these preceùents in the Papal
archives in any provisions he may have taken
to meet exigencies of an analogous nature.
1 The fact that a document of t1IÏs nature was found
amongst Gregory XVI.' s papers is mentioned incidentally
by Emil Rutb.-Geschichte von Italien 'Vom Jahre 1815
bis 1850. Heidelberg, 1867. Y 01. ii. p. 80.
Y.
P rcs YII. expired in the Quirinal, and, in
accordance with the letter of the law
prescribing a Conclave to be held in the
very palace in which the Pope dies, the Car-
dinals congregated there. Since then, how-
ever, they have continued to do so on each
vacancy, without any warranty of the kind.
The Yatican is now therefore deserted as re-
gards those Conclave doings with which its
llame stands so closely associated. Not that
Papal elections were uniformly held there.
The churches of Rome abound in historical
memories' connected with the scenes of Con-
claves. Several memorable Popes were
created in the Church of the :J\Iinerva; and
even Sta. Sabina, that stands in solemn
loneliness upon the unpeopled heights of
the desolate Aventine, once was the scene
1 04 O
THE COXSTlTUTlO
of eager contests after the death of Honorius
IY. of the Bavelli hlood in the adjoining
family palace, the picturesque remains of
which constitute still such a striking feature.
The earliest Conclave recorded to have met
within the Vatican precincts is that of 1303 ;
and not till the election of Frban YI., 1378,
did a second a
semble at the same spot.
Then there followed again a series in various
localities, until, in 1455, a succession of
Yatican Conclaves hegan with Calixtus III.
that was not broken until this transfer to
the Quirinal in 1823.
Although apparently the Yatican has now
hecome obsolete for electoral uses, its name
stands so closely associated with the event-
ful traditions of Conclaves, that the reader
will excuse a few words on the arrange-
ments which on such occasions were made
in this celebrated locality. The whole of
the fir
t floor of the pontifical palace was
strictly shut off for the accommodation of
the Cardinals and of the throng of indi-
viduals of various degrees who were ap-
pointed to share their imprisonment. Each
Cardinal was lodged in a booth by him-
self, technically termed a cell, and erected in
the vast halls constituting the Vatican apart-
OF PAPAL COXCLATES. 105
ments, each of 'which halls contained a num-
her of these wooden huts that comprised a
couple of small ground-floor rooms, occupied
hy the Cardinal, and similar accommoda-
tion ahoye for his confidential attendants.
The Cardinal:; created by the late Pope had
their cells hung with violet cloth, in sign
of mourning, while the others had theirs
draped in green; and this distinction is
still obserye(P \Yhen the Sacred College
1 The ascetic regulations promulgated by Gregory x.
(1272) probably remained a dead letter. At all events,
in 1351 Clement VI. already modified their stringent
restrictions sensibly in his Bull Licet in Const. a feZ.
record. Gregorio Pap't X. Whereas," originally, Car-
dinals were bound to live and sleep in one common hall
with no division of any kind, they were then authorized
to stretch plain curtains round their beds-' ut honestius
po:>sint quiescere in suis lectis.' So also were they
secured the indulgence of one dish a meal however long
the election might be protracted, and in addition a
good many other gastronomic luxuries, so long as they
could be made to pass for condiments. The language
of the Bull is amusingly detaileJ: 'Ae etiam singulis,
præter panem, vinum, et aquam in prandio et in cæna,
unum duntaxat ferculum, seu missum carnium unius
speciei tantummodo, aut pif>cium, seu ovorum cum
uno potagio de carnibus vel piscibus principahter non
confectis et decentibus salsamentis habere valeant,
ultra carnes salitas et herbas crudas ac caseum, fructus
sive electuaria. Ex quibus tamen lllIllum specialiter
ferculum conficietur, nisi ail. condimentum fieret vel
saporem.' But no Cardinal was to be so greedy as to
106 O
THE COXSTITITIO
was so numerous as to cause a pressure for
accommodation, the gallery mer the ve::;ti-
hule of Rt. Peter's used to he also given to
the Cardinals, as was the case in the Con-
daye of 1 'i 4:0, witnessed by the President
de Brosbes.
The distribution of thes(' diminutive
houses was always hy lot. The one who
had fin'ed hest in the raffle on the ahoye
occasion was Cardinal Tencin, who had
drawn the hut in the middle uf the gallery,
so that the niche of its big central window,
walled up until a new Pope has to he pro-
claimed therefrom, formed a spacious extra
apartment at the back of his l)ooth. 'But,'
adds the President, 'for this convenience he
will be prettily rifled and pulled to pieces
when the new Pope comes to the balcony to
give his ble::;sing to the people in the square
helow.' The great hall at the top of the
Scala Reggia, which serves as a ve
tilmle to
the
istine and rauline chapels, remained
always free, and was the playground of the
imprisoned Cardinals,-the spot in which
taste of a colleague's mess: 'K uUus vero eorum de
alterius ferculo vesci posset.' At present it is unneces-
sary to add that the Cardinals give themselves all the
comfort and culinary luxuries they may like.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 107
they met and walked up and down together
for recreation or for consultation. Also,
the same hall has been the scene qf many
stirring encounters and sly colloquies. In
the Pauline Chapel it was usual to erect si..x
supplementary altars, whereat each Cardinal
and Conclavist performed his appointed daily
mass, while the Sistine was always set apart
for ,'oting operations. It wa.s the polling-
booth of the Conclave, anfl popular tradition
even ascrihes the injured condition of the
painting
on its walls and ceiling in great
degree to the effect of the smoke from the balloting-papers regularly set on fire in the chapel after e,-ery unsuccessful ballot. X 0 plea could enable a Cardinal, or anyone be- longing to the establishment in Conclave, to extend his steps beyond the precincts of the fir::;t floor, all windows and apertures in which-especially the arches of the Loggie, running round the court of Saint Damasus -were jealously walled up, "ith only so much window left as must needs be pre- seITed to let in an indispensable amount of light,-the spared panes being, however, protected against an illegitimate gaze by a covering of oilcloth. The doors at the top of the Scala Reggia, leading into the great
108 ox TIlE CO STITUTIO
.
hall between the two chal'els, were alone
ll,ft unwalled, for the admittance of Cardinals
who might arrive after the commencement
of busine
s, or the ceremonial visits conceded
as a privilege to royal persons who might
happen to pass through Rome auring a Con-
clave. But these doors, except on such
occasions, were kept carefully closed with
four locks, two on tIll' out
iùe, the keys of
which were intrusted to the l\Iarshal, as
portf'r of this gate; two on the inner side,
the key uf one being in charge of the Camer-
lengo, and of the other in charge of the
l\Iaster of Ceremonies. By the side of the
door there were two wheels, or rather turn-
ing-hoxes, for the admi
- -;ion of objects de-
clared free from suspicion, after inspection hy officers on guard against the introduction of correspondence, and in other parts of the huiltling there were six other wheels of thf' same kind, similarly guarded, for the admis- sion of the many articles without which it was physically impossihle for ::;0 large a con- gregation of human beings to ::,uhsi t. The shape of these wooden turning-wheels is the same as those used in the parlatories of nunneries, and their application is ascribed to the ingenuity of Paris de Grassis, who
OF l'APAL COXCLA YES. 109
officiated as )Iaster of the Ceremonies at the
Conclave which elected Julius II., 1303,-
up to which time everything admitted had
to be let through an aperture in the wall, as
prescribed in the Bull of Gregory x. Out-
side the palace there were posts of soldiers
around its walls, and at every approach, no
one being permitted to pass the barriers
erected on the Bridge of St. Angelo and at
the gate of the Leonine city who was un-
furnislH:,d with a pass-medal, so that the
quarter of the Borgo was practically shut
off from circulation during the sitting of a
Conclave.
In the locality now used there occurs no
longer any need for the erection of wooden
booths. The portion of the Quirinal Palace
devoted to the accommodation of a COll-
clave is that l\,-hich runs from
Ionte Ca-
vallo to Quattro Fontane. Here there is
probably the longest corridor in the " world,
upon which opens at Niual intervals a range
of doors—exactly like those of monks' cells
in a com-ent corridor-that lead into apart
ments comprising each three or four rùoms.
These form the habitations of the Cardinals
during Conclave, who draw lots for them as
they did for the booths. On all points vf
11 0 O
THE COXSTIT17TION
form and ceremonial, however ohsolete for
practical purposes, there is ohserved a minute
imitation of what was the rule in the Vati-
can. As formerly the Borgo, so now the
street running towards Porta Pia, is clused
1y chains, while at the top of the great stair-
case are met the same turning-hoxes that
figured at the head of the Scala TIeggia. At
these whf'els Cardinals are now allowed the
privilege to hold conversation with visi-
tors,l though subject to being overheard
hy attendant guardians, as also to receive
letters undf'r the restriction of their being
first perused by these. It is superfluous to
add that in spite of the severe lwnalties
launched with the full weight of Pontifical
anathema against every violation of the com-
mand that an inmate of Conclave should
hold no intercourse with the world, and
the non-repeal of these Papal enactments,
the correspondence hetween the Cardinals
within and their political friends without has
1 Noone is permitted access to these wheels-termed
le rote nobile-unless provided with a small staff painted
green or violet, and bearing some Cardinal's arms, or
with a pass-medal from the Camerlengo, or Maggior-
domo, or Governatore, or
Iarshal, or General Auditor
of the Apostolic Chamber.
OF PAPAL COXCLA VE8. 111
yet at all times be(>n general. 1 As a rule,
the secret of sitting Conclave::; has not been
denser to penetrate for those having an
interest to do so than the secret of pend-
ing conferences generally are for parties
engaged in working and counter-working
political plots. In Father Theiner's elaborate
history of Clement XIV., for the vindication of
his election against the charge of uncanoni-
cal engagements taken beforehand to sacri-
fice the Jesuits, we have been furnished
with the confidential correspondence day by
day Letween immured Cardinals and their
confederates outside. Also it is amusing
to read the involved explanations through
'which the perplexed author tries to extenuate
this flagrant ,iolation' of the plain letter
of Papal Bulls. There is no publication
'which sheds so full a light into the whole
proce::;s of Conclave proceedings as these
1 , '\Ve may here notice,' says ::\1. Bergenroth, 'that
the idea that the Conclan>s in the sixteenth century
were really secret must be dismissed at once. The
ceremony of walling up some entrances was obsen-ed,
but, as the Duke of Sessa 'wrote on occasion of t.ùe next
election (Clement the Seventh's), only as an empty
form. Other doors remained open, and the Cardinals
assembled in the Conclave communica\eù freely with
the outer world.'-Calendar of Xe[Jotiatioll
, '01. ii.,
Introduction, p. cxxx\Ìi.
112 O
THE COXSTITUTIOX
pages in Fathf'r Theiner's hook. ' It mu
t
nen'r he forgotten that tllf' election itself is
a human act, anrl that human impulses and
weaknesses uf all kinds come here into play,'
writes the present Keeper of the secret
Record::; uf the Yatican. 'Apo
tolical con-
stitutions of more recent times,' he contimlf'
,
'i'pecially that of Pius IV. (Eligendis, 9th
Octohf'r l;)(j
), those of Gregory xv. (Eterni
Pat7.is Filius, 15th Xoyemher 1G21, and
Decet Romanwn Pontifirem, 15th l\Iarch
1G2
), amI of Urhan YIII. (Ad Romam
Pontificis,
th January 1 G23), have imIef>ù strictly forbirltlen Cardinals from conferring with any Ollf', even with their colleagues, on the Pope to be elected, or from forming factiuns, and likewise from writing anything about the course of the election to those without the Conclaye.' 1 These regulations Father Theiner does not scruple to affirm to have been in exct'
- of" hat was humanly
feasihle; and to the fact of this exaggerated stringency he "ùuM ascribe the correspon- dence from which he quotes so largely.2
1 Theiner, Geschichte des Pùntificats Clemens XIV.
Leipzig, 1853, vol. i. p. 139.
2 Still he makes the distinct admission that in their
correspondence the Cardinals \ iolated obligations by
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 113
In our time Conclaves have certainly no pre-
tensions to greater secrecy than generally per-
,-ade Cabinets and their proceedings, only
the received forms in Conclave are such as
to afford
pecial facilities for operating in
secrecy when its members may he so disposed.
'Yhen all preliminary ohservances are
over, the Cardinals assemble in the Church
of St. Syh-ester, on the Quirinal, opposite
the Rospigliosi Palace, known to visitors
of Rome for the paintings it contains
by Domenichino, but possessed of a yet
higher interest, as haying been the scene
where Yittoria Colonna, who resided in
the adjoining convent, used on Sundays
to hold deep colloquies with :Michael An-
gelo and other choice spirits, of which a
striking recorù has been strangely preserved
in the diary of a Flemish painter, which
which they had bound themselves. 'How, it "ill be
asked,' he writes, 'could some Cardinals venture on
such open violation of the above constitution as to
communicate so freely to their Court all that passed in
Conclave, as was the case with the French Cardinals
and with Orsini? '-a question Theiner vainlj- tries
to meet satisfactorily, for all he can say in palliation
of the practice is, that the Cardinals specially in fault
happened to stand in specific official relation with their
Courts, which is tantamount to invoking an accumula.
tion of abuses as justification for further delinquencies.
H
114 O
THE CO
STITUTION
some years ago was discovered in the Lis-
bon Library.1 In this church they attend
a mass of the Holy Ghost, and listen to
a SeI1110n, after which, precedeJ by their
attendants, and the full string of office-
bearers, the Cardinals walk in procession
across the Piazza, and solemnly cnter Con-
clave, which, however, is not finally closed
until a late hour in the evening. Till that
moment strikes, the Conclave presents a
scene of busy activity; for it is customary
for evcry person of rank in Rome to pay
his respects to each Cardinal ill his cell.
The Conclave therefore offers the gay ap-
pearance of a public state reception such as
every ambassador holds in Rome on his
arrival, and every Cardinal on his nomina-
tion, with this difference, that only the male
sex is present at the Quirinal. But there is
more done on this afternoon than merely to
whisper words of compliment. The swarm-
ing hive of bu"y beings hurrying from cell
to cell is pregnant with political emotions;
and on this evening a Conclave is pervaded
with the palpitating excitement that vibrates
through anxious committee-rooms on the
1 It has been printed in part in Les A rts en Portugal.
Par le Comte A. Raczynski, 1846.
O}<' PAPAL COXCLAVES. 115
night before polling-day. Hither hie, then,
all the ambassadors, and envoys, and poli-
tical agents in Rome, to snatch the last
opportunity afforded for unrestricted confer-
ence, to give the last stroke to eager appeals
of soft persuasion, or deterring menace, the
last touch to cunning combination, and par-
ticularly to deposit in the hands of an
intimate confederate the knowledge of those
whose nomination their Courts will ab-
solutely not brook, before, at the third ring-
ing of a bell, three hours after sunset, the
- \Iaster of the Ceremonies makes lùs appear-
ance, and calling aloud 'Extra omnes,' obliges strangers to withdraw beyond the sacreù precincts. Then is every ingress jealously walleù up, except the door at the head of the principal staircase, on which bars and bolts are drawn, and heavy locks are turned, with due formality-those on the outside in presence of the Prince ::\Iarshal -those within, of the Camerlengo and his three Cardinal colleagues; and now is pro- claimed the commencement of that solemn confinement, which by law should be abso- lute until a new Pope has been created, or at all events, according to the constitution of Gregory X., until a vote of two-thirds of the
_ 116
O
PAP
\.L COXCL-\. YES.
immured Cardinals shall have ruled its sus-
pension. Often, however, this preliminary
work of clearance has proyed a task of
trouble, and l\Iasters of the Ceremonies have
been driven distracted by the occasional ob-
duracy of ambassadors in not giving heed to
the tingling summonses, and their haughty
disregard of earnest supplications to conclude
final conferences with confidential Carùinal::;.
YI.
BEFORE proceeding to actual business,
the Cardinals go through the formalitJ?
of proying their identity and right to attend
Conclaye. In reality, this is nothing more
than a form glibly run through, for there can
be no danger of personation in this small
constituency. But this ceremony affords the
opportunity of saying a few words on a
point about which, more than on any other
connected with Roman ceremonial, there
preyails misapprehension-the real nature
and position of a Cardinal. That laymen
can he made Cardinals is generally known,
but much confusion of ideas exists on the
nature of the Cardinalitian dignity, and of
the difference of standing between Cardi-
nals with and without orders. The Sacred
College, according to a rule in force since
1383, is fixed at seventy members-divided
into six Cardinal Bishops, fifty Cardinal
118 O
THE CO
STITUTION
..
Priests, and fourteen Cardinal Deacons.!
The first popular misapprehension in regard
to these dignitaries is that their rank is an
ecclesiastical one. The Cardinalitian title,
properly speaking, is not a grade in the
Church, but merely a dignity in the Court
of Rome. The Cardinal is a high personage
in the Pope's Court, which being strictly
ecclesiastical, it is incumbent on all who are
members thereof to conform, for as long as
they continue so, to the garb anù fashion of
an ecclesiastical character. 2 For the Car-
dinal, as such, there is no specific ordination;
1 It adds much to the confusion on this sulJject, that
this division into categories is often only nominal,
a Cardinal being put. by favour, or for other reasons,
into an order he does not belong to. The present Dean
of the College, Cardinal l\Iattei, for a long time figurefl
as a Cardinal Deacon, although he had taken priest's
orders. ::\Iore perplexing is it to find Cardinal Priests
who have never taken these orders. Such was the case
with Cardinal Dandini, who, when merely a deacon,
was made in 1823 a. Cardinal Priest and Bishop of
Osimo. ' Only nine years later,' says ::\Ioroni, 'did he
taka prie<;t's orders, having in the interval taken part
in three Conclaves as a Cardinal Priest, without really
having that character.' N or is this all. l\Ioroni speaks
of persons having rankerl amongst the six Cardinal
Bishops when they had never been more than deacons.
2 This is the position of the lay l\Ionsignori so plenti-
ful in Rome. They are merely functionaries. wearing
the priestly dress as a uniform, and debarreù from having
a legitimate wife as long as they remain in their posts.
OF PAPAL CO CLAVES. 119
he is simply created by the sovereign. It
is true that the Council of Trent, in its
twenty-fourth session, ruled that the same
canonical conditions required from Bishops
should be incumbent on Cardinals. But this
prescription has been habitually disregarded,!
anù it would seem as if celibacy were the
only palpable qualification which is absolutely
indispensable. Let a man have no wife
living and there appears to be no tangible
obstacle to aITest a Pope, if so disposed, from
naming him Cardinal. It wouIel, however,
seem that a lay Cardinal becomes de facto
so far subject to ecclesiastical discipline as
to require the Pope's consent to return
legitimately into secular life and to lay
aside the insignia of his rank. There is a
long list of Cardinals who have done so, but
with the exception of rebellious ones like
Chatillon, they all had sought and obtained
the Pope's sanction. 2 On the other hand,
1 To give one striking example of what liberties have
been taken with this prescription, it is enough to men-
tion the case of Don Luis of Bourbon, who in 1735,
when only eight years old, was named Art"hbishop of
Toledo and Cardinal by Clement XII. Even the stern
Si'ítus v. was not immaculate on this score, for he
made a Cardinal of his nephew Alessandro Damasceni
Peretti, as a youth of fourteen.
2 In Crétineau Joly"s edition of Consalvi's :\Iemoirs,
there is a French version of a letter "Titten by Pius VI.
120 ox THE COXSTITUTIO
.
the instances on record of Cardinals who
were relieved from their ecclesiastical obli-
gations are extremely curious, and testify
strikingly to the wonderful elasticity in the
regulations of the Church. These dispensa-
tions constitute a highly instructive, but
al
o a little read chaptcr in the history of
the Romi:::;h organization. Cardinals even
in orders have repeatedly been permitted to
divest themselves of tllf'ir dignity and to
marry; but in every such case well-defined
political influences appear to have Leon the
predominating cause that induced the Pope
to concede the favour. Thus in 1588 we
find Ferdinand l\Iedicis authorized. to throw
off the purple, and becomp Grand Duke of
Tuscany; in 1 G-!2 Cardinal :ðIaurice of
Savoy to take a wife and a duchy; in 1 G93
Cardinal Rainaldu of Este to make the same
change in his condition. On the death of
King Ladislas of Poland, his brother Casimir,
to Cardinal Altieri, when he insisted on throwing off
the purple, wherein the Pope gives it as his opinion
(subject to correction, as writing from prison, and
without the means to consult the canonical authors),
that a Cardinal has not the power to divest himself
of his faculty of Papal Election, that faculty being
summe publicum.-,J/ém. d'u Card. Consalvi, t. i. p.
203. The editor says that the original ùraft of this
letter is in his possession.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 121
a member of the Society of Jesus, and
named Cardinal in 16-16, received a dispen-
sation not merely to ahandon the purple, hut
also to marry the King's widow, his sister-
in-law, :l\Iary Gonzaga. Still more aston-
ishing were the favours conceded to two
brothers of this lady's house. To prevent
extinction of the family, Paul '-., in 1613,
permitted Cardinal Ferdilla
d Gonzaga to
go back into the world. On this change he
became enamoured of a woman of inferior
rank, Camilla Erdizzani, and married her;
but becoming afterwards tired of his wife, he
sought and procured the Pope's authority
for repudiating her, when he espoused
Catherine l\ledicis, daughter of Duke Cosmo
II. But there was at the same time, a second
Cardinal Gonzaga- Yincenzo, the brother
of Ferdinand,-and he also succeeded in
obtaining permission to give up the Church
for the sake of indulging his passiun for a
kinswoman, Isabella Gonzaga.! In all these
1 A very remarkable dispensation was granted by
Alexander III. for the express purpose of preventing
the extinction of the Giustiniani family, then reduced
to one male member, Kiccola Giustiniani, a Benedictine
monk who has since been beatified. In virtue thereof
Kiccola left bis com'e]]t, married the daughter of the
Y cnetian Doge Micheli, and when he had begotten a
122 O
THE CO
STlTUTIO
cases, however, it is clear that some orders had been taken; and therefore, in the strict sense of the term, these Cardinals were no longer laymen. The real state of the case is that the rank of Cardinal is, as every degree in the Pope's Court should strictly speaking he, ecclesiastical, though it is no sacred order, but that practically it has been conferred on laymen by the interven- tion uf a fiction like that invented to make
sufficient number of sons to sccure the continuation of
the line, went bltck to his religious profc8sion. A yet
more singular example of the length to which a Pope
may venture on stretching his assumed authority to
dispense from the ob8ervance of the funrlamental rules
of morality, would seem to be furnished by Spanish
history. Henry IV. of Castile had no children by his
wife, Dona Blanca of Arragon, sister to Ferdinand the
Catholic. Being desirous of having offspring, he sought
the Pope's dispensation to marry another wife, and
obtained it, but with the extraordinary condition that
if no children were born from her within a fixed term,
then King Henry must separate from his second spouse
and rpturn to the original one. This second wife was
the Infanta J uan.l. of Portugal. The appointed ternl
passed without any offspring having been actually born,
but shortly after there came into the world a girl. This
girl King Henry declared legitimate, and his heir; but
on his death his sister, Isabella the Catholic, success-
fully disputed the succession on two grounds,-that
Dona Juana was no child of her brother's, but of a
certain Don Beltran de la Cueva, and that having come
into the world at the period she did, she ne.er could
claim to be legitimate, inasmuch as the marriage had
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 123
Protestants capable of wearing the cross of
St. Louis in France, 'which was given only
for ninety-nine years to heretics, who for-
feited it, if still unconverted at the end of
that period. Laymen were nameù Cardi-
nals only for twelve months, being bound
within that perioù to take Deacon's orders;
but then the same plenary power which
elevated them could extend its favours to
an indefinite renewal of the expired dis-
then ceased to be valid. This disputed right reacted on
Charles v., if we can trust a State-paper recently re-
covered out of the dusty records of Simancas, by weigh-
ing among the grounds that induced him to wed the
Portuguese Infanta Isabella, with the view of conciliat.
ing the friendship of the King of Portugal, under whose
protection the disinherited Dona Juana was then still
Iiving.-See Bergenroth, Calendar of Kegotiatialls, vol.
ii. p. cxni. and p. 396. [See Appendix A.]
Amongst the curiosities of Papal history that are
little borne in mind, is the fact that the chair of St.
Peter has been occupied by father and son-Pope
Silverius (536) having been son to the canonized Pope
Horrnisdas. In this instance the Pope had become
a widower before election. But in the third por-
tion of the Annales BerlÏllianarum, written by the
celebrated Archbishop Hincmar, and to be found in
Pertz, Jlon..Germanica, vol. i., there is ginn an ac-
count of the ahduction of the daughter and the wife
Stephania of Pope Adrian in 868-that is to say, a
period to which the Archbishop was a contemporary
witness. The story is narrated i with much detail, anù
with the n'lmes of all the parties implicated.
1
-1 O THE COXSTITUTIO
ppnsation at the end of each year. By the
Bull of Pius IV. it was, however, distinctly
ruled that no Cardinal still a layman shoultl
e-x:ercise tlw privileges of his dignity in Con-
clan'. To be entitled to yote in the election
of a Pope he must haye taken deacon's orders,
and this rulf has heen observed in practice
until in Rome it is the general off-hand state-
ment that this is laid down in canon law.
Rut here we find, on going to the funda-
mental authorities, that, as if'; so often the
case in matters connecteJ with the subject
of Conclaves, the current yersion is not
accurate. In Gregoryxv.'s (lG21) elaborate
Bull and Ritual, which are at the present
moment the ruling statutes for Papal elec-
tions, it is distinctly laid down that this
exclusion is only against such lay Cardinals
as may not be furnished with a specific
Papal dispensation. The power of especial
fa.Your here recognisell has not been ex-
erciseJ generally, and it may be practically
correct to say that lay Cardinals have,
as a rule, to take orders before heing ad-
mitted to a Conclave. In this century, this
was certainly the case with Cardinal Alhani,
who became a deacon only when in 1 b2 3
the Pope's death offered the opportunity of
OF PAPAL COXCLATES. l j
giving a vote.! One instance of a lar Car-
dinal admitted to Conclave did, however,
certainly occur when Si.xtus Y. was elected.
The Cardinal A.rchduke Albert (who en
ll-
tually malTied) arrived in hot ha::;te from
Innspruck, and having exhibited his license
from the late Pope, was permitted to co-
operate with his fellow-Cardinals in gi\ing a
new chief to Catholic Christendom, although,
as is explicitly stated, he never had taken
any orders. At the pre::;ent moment there
are no lay members of the Sacred College;
but this is so only since, quite recently, the
reigning Pope e
"Pressed his desire that
those amongst the Card.inals who had. not
taken deacon's orders should do so.
A fre::;hly-named Cardinal is subject to a
form of nmitiate, during which he is techni-
cally said to be cum ore clallso, being invested
'",ith the symbols of his rank, but precluded
1 Cardinal Albani's proceedings are recounted in the
follo\\ ing way by Crose, Sardinian Envoy to Rome, in
a confidential despatch :-' Another historical observa-
tion is supplied by Cardinal Albani, who at the period
of Conclave was not yet ordained. Until the'll he had
always expressed an intention to abandon the purple
and to marry, \\ith the view of not letting his most
noble family become extinct. While in this state of
hesitation, he had always obtained from the Pope a
prolongation of the terms \\ithin which he had to come
12 G O
THE COXSTITUTIO
..
from uttering an opinion on, or taking an
actiye part in, any matters falling within a
Carùinal's sphere, until he shall have heen
relieve<l from apprenticeship by the Pope
solemnly unsealing lâs rnout/t. Of late this
phase of preparatory state has in practice
been reùuced to a mere form-the closing
injunction and the opening confirmation in
full rights being performed in one consistory.
Still, this is as yet an innovation, without
written authority, and a return to stricter
observance of primiti,-e custom is at any
moment quite possible. At the time when
this novitiate was a reality, it was a matter
of importance to decide whether this limita-
tion of powers in a Cardinal actually created
could extend even to the suspension of the
franchise belonging to his rank in the event
of the Pope's demise before his mouth had
been solemnly unsealed. Eugenius IV., by a
to a decision; but it happened that this term woulù
have expired just during Conclave, so that he would
lJave been obliged to go out of it, inasmuch as, during
the vacancy of the See, there existed no authority
which could renew the requisite authorization. From
a sense of this, Cardinal Albani maùe up his mind to
ùecome Sub-deacon on entering Conclave, and thus he
was qualified to exercise his influence on behalf of the
Imperial Court.'-Bianchi, Diplomazia Europæa in
ltalia, vol. ii. p. 389.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 127
Constitution, prohibited Cardinals in this
state from taking part in elections; but
that prohibition was repealed by Pius IY.,
and the qne;:;tion must he considered ab-
solutely set at rest by the confirmatory
ruling of Gregory XY., that every promul-
gated Canlinal (in distinction to those in
pett-o) has an inalienable right to participate
in Conclaves, which ruling has been con-
firmed by the circumstances that marked
the Conclave convened on the death of
Clement IX. in 16 ï o. At that moment there
were seven Cardinals cum ol.ibus clausis.
All went into Conclave, and one of their
number, Altieri, came out of it as Pope.
The condition of Cardinals in petto is alto-
gether different. X othing can indeed be
conceived more anomalous than the status
of Prelates who in principle must be con-
sidered Carùinals, because mentally pro-
mulgated by a Pope, while yet liahle to
pass their lives in ignorance of their own
eminence, should the same Pope either
change his mind or die without having
made a record of the names of those he has
inwardly appointed Cardinals, as a direction
for the honourable obligation of his suc-
cessor. It appears that at one time the
12 8 O
TIlL COXSTlTUTlO
· Popes used to name Cardinals in private
when it was thought that their public
promulgation might be attended with in-
jurious consequences. In the Sf' cases, how-
ever, the Cardinals in Consistory were
informed hy the Pope of the names of
those whom he designated fur participation
in this honour. Consequently, there wa:5
here an estahlished clandestine concert
among::;t the principal parties interested in
the matter, so that the secret was one only
against the outer world. K everthele::;s it
was ruled that a nomination of this nature
did not suffice to entitle an individual to act
as Cardinal. On two occasions :l\1artin v.
made such nominations, admitting duly
the Sacred College to a knowledge of them.
Yet when, on the Pope's decease (1431),
Dominic Capranica, one of the prelates so
named, in the name of himself and his com-
panions, claimed the right to take part ill
the Conclave, the claim was rejected, though
the authenticity of the alleged nomination
was not disputed. This precedent was
rendered the more conclusive for the indis-
pensable necessity of a promulgation in
public to constitute a full Cardinal, that
Iartin v. shortly before death had held
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 129
a Consistory, wherein he recalled to mind
the fact of his secret nominations, and speci-
ally enjoined. the Cardinals to admit those
included in them to all the privileges of
their quality. In the face of this solemn
injunction the Cardinals nevertheless refused
to recognise the right to vote of the prelates
in question, and their decision was con-
firmed in a constitution by Eugenius IV.,
the Pope next in succession. Still there is an
affirmed instance of an unpromulgated Car-
dinal having been admitted, through special
protection, to a Conclave. Frederick Sanse-
verino, created by Innocent YIII. in secret,
obtained the privilege of voting for Alex-
ander YI. through the intervention of Car-
dinal Sforza; but this occurrence is only
another example of the reckless license pre-
"ailing in these times. "nen, in 1550, on
the death of Paul III., Bernardino della
Croce, named, but not promulgated, Cardi-
nal, demanded to exercise his supposed
right, the claim was absolutely repudiated;
and the decision in this instance seems to
have finally put a stop to the habit of going
through the process of a clandestine nomina-
tion, instead of which the Pope since has
adopted the practice of merely intimating to
I
130 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
.
the Cardinals in Consistory the fact of his
having mentally resoh-ed on a stated number
of promotions, but without making any
intimation of the names, the only apparent
effect of which announcement lJeing to limit
the range of this Pope's power of creation,
inasmuch as those whom he has announced
to have reserved in lJetto are thenceforth
counted in the number of the Sacred College,
and therefore swell its ranks hy so much.
It is indeed the custom for the Pope to
write down in sealed papers the names of
those whom he has mentally promoted, and
the same custom makes it usual for the
successor to fulfil these intentions should
death have intervened to prevent their exe-
cution by his predecessor. But both this
writing down of names and the observance
of a predecessor's expressed wishes are quite
arbitrary, and there are well-established pre-
cedents of Cardinals in petto who never were
promoted into the full-fledged state.!
1 It has been resened to Pius IX. to furnish a case in
the history of Carùinalitian nominations that is unique.
It has nenr been before known for a nomination not
to be encuted after the Pope has gone so far as for-
mally to intimate by letter to an inrli\'idual his inten-
tion to make him Cardinal at the next promotion.
Yet this is "hat happened to the illustrious Rosmini,
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 131
A Cardinal's right to record his vote at
Papal elections is regarded as so sacred that
it has been guarded by perfectly exceptional
provisions, such as seem to constitute in
canon law the single limitation set on the
Pope's plenary authority. It has been dis-
tinctly ruleJ that no censure, suspension,
interdict, nor even excommunication, can in-
volve forfeiture by a Cardinal of his right to
exerci:5e this specific privilege of his order.
There is no more startling provision in the
whole Roman organization; indeed it is so
startling that many Catholics will be dis-
posed at the first blush to doubt its authen-
ticity. Yet does this enactment stand not
merely as an obsolete curiosity on some for-
gotten page in the statute-book; Roman
Curialists hold it to be still in full force,
and when the last case in point occurred, in
174:0, with Cardinal Coscia, it was invoked,
and strictly acted upon without discussion.
certainly the most distinguished man whom the Church
has proùuced in Italy in this century. He received
the Pope's formal intimation of his promulgation
and
"as directeù to make the preparations for his public reception, when the efforts of the Jesuits succeeded in defeating the Domination and in initiating a course of persecution, 'Which elided in the inçlusion of Rosmini's book, The Wounds of the Church, in the Index.
132 ox THE COXSTIT{;'TlOX
The principle dictating this provision is to
be found in the feeling (very natural in
times of bitter feuds) that, unlc::;s this parti-
cular prÏ\ ilege of Cardinals were set beyond
the reach of confiscation, a Pope of strong
partisan views would have only to impose
from his plenary authority eccle:siastical
penalties to disable Cardinals of a faction
opposed to his own from having any weight
in the choice of his successors. Xor were
such apprehensions without their warrant in
facts. Like all the organic laws concerning
the mode of Papal elections, this provision
was due to no a1stract theory, but was
simply the outcome of a want that had
been practically encountered. On the 10th
Iar 12Ð7, Boniface nIl., blinded 1y furious pas;:;ion against the house of Colonna, ex- communicated and degraded from their rank the Cardinals James and Peter Colonna, declaring them stripped of every privilege appertaining to their dignity. The extra- ordinary severity of a sentencf', manifestly imposed by the bitter hatred of family feuds, because not justifie<l at the moment of promulgation by adequate canonical delin- quencies on the part of these prelates, pro- duced a profound sen:sation. It was evidently
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 133
a point of principle with Boniface YIII. to
wield his power for e:.\.i:ermination of the
Colonna influence, if not for the actual ex-
tinction of the race. Solemnly degraded
from their rank, these Cardinals, on the
death of Boniface, found themseh-es excluded
from the Conclaye, and yainlr sought from
his successor restitution to rights which they
declared to have been taken away in defi-
ance of justice. The consequence was a
protracted 8tate of angry feelings, rendered
formidahle by the material power of the
malcontent Colonnas, and accompanied by
muttered protests against the canonical legal-
ity of a situation in which dignitaries of the
Church were arbitrarily deprived of their
inherent prerogatiyes. A sense of the
danger to be apprehended from the recur-
rence of arbitrary acts of the same nature
was awakened. It was felt that a Pope
of headstrong passions like Boniface nIl.
must absolutely be precluded from eÁl?os-
ing the Church again to graye peril for
the sake of purely personal hatreds and
ambitions. Accordingly, just thirteen years
after the memorable df'gradation of the
Colonna Cardinals, a Bull in reference to
Papal elections was iSimeù by Clement Y.,
134 ox THE CûXSTITUTIO
in which the following most remarkable clause was inserted :-' But in order that, as concern::; the before-mentioned elections, dissensions and schisms be so much the more avoided, a
the occasion for dissent
is removed from those elections, we decree that no Cardinal may be e:xpelled from the said. elections on the ground. of any excom- munication, suspension, or interdict whatso- ever.' The provi:sion thus made has been subsequently confirmed by Pius IV. and Gregory xv. in so full a manner as to re- move all ambiguity on this head, for not only have those under sentence been de- clared relieved at election times from the dis- abilities involved thereby, but, what was quite as necessary, their colleagues were dispensed, during this interval, as regarded the case in point alone, from the obligation to hold no intercourse with excommunicated and cen- sured individuals. There are instances of Cardinals wIll), since this enactment, have undergone extreme penalties, even decapita- tion; but we know of no instance in which this particular provision in regard to the indelible right of franchise has been set at nought. In the time of Leo x. several Car- dinals were convicted of a conspiracy against
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 135
his life. Of these, one, Cardinal Petrucci,
was strangled in the Castle of St. Angelo
on the 6th June 1517; while Cardinals
Saoli and SoJerini were indeed degraded,
and declared stripped of both active and
passi-ve voice in a Conclave-that is, of the
power of either 'voting or being elected
. but
this sentence was cancellf'd before the Pope's
demise tested its validity. Under Leo's suc-
cessor Cardinal Soderini again stood con-
victed of conspiracy, and was imprisoned in
the Castle of St. Angelo; but on the last
day of the Pope's obsequies he was let out
hy the Sacred College, and gave his vote in
Conclave for Clement VII., by whom then
he was restored to all the honours of his
rank. 1 But the ruling case on this head
1 The c?se of Cardinal Soderini is doubly important,
because Adrian YI. tried to enforce his authority for
proclaiming exclusion, and the attempt, though made
with the exceptional solemnity of a Pope speaking
from his deathbed, was disallowed by the Cardinals.
'The last official act of Pope Adrian was that, almost
at the hour of his death, he gave a Bull 7TWtu proprio,
ordering that the Cardinal of Volterra (Soderini) should
on no condition be released from prison. The 'College
of Cardinals, however, which had not shown much
respect for his la\\ful orders whilst he was alive, en.
tirely disregarded his commands, which were of very
doubtful legality, when he was dead. The prison of
the Cardinal of Volterra was opened, and it was he
136 O
THE COXSTITUTIO:N
is that of the notorious Cardinal Coscia,
who, under Benedict XIII., wielded the
whole power and di
pensed the whole pa-
tronage of the State. On this Pope's åeath,
his favourite was so universally an ohject
of detestation, from his iniquitously corrupt
proceedings, that he fled from fear of popu-
lar vengeance to Ci
terna, then, as now, the
family seat of the Duke of Sermon eta, who,
in a letter to Cardinal Barberini, pre
erYed
in the Gaetani archives, de
cribe::) him to
have arrived more dead than alive from
fright. {; nder the protection of a safe-
conduct from the Sacred College, Coscia
stole back into Conclave. The new Pope,
Clement XII. (Corsini), was unable to with-
stand the clamour of denunciation which
from all sides was raised against this member
of the Sacred College. Cardinal Coscia was
brought to trial for fraud, malversation, and
peculation of the most scandalous kind; the
charges were tully estal)lished, and he was
sentenced to a fine of 200,000 crowns, to
ten years' close confinement in St. Àngelo,
who said the
[ass of Spiritus Sanctlts on the 18t of
October, when the Cardinals were entering the Con-
clave.'-Bergeurotb, Calendar of Letters relating to
J,Yegotialions between England and Spain, \"01. ii., In-
troduction, p. clxxviii.
OF PAPAL COXCL..\TES. 137
deprivation of his See of Benevento, and to
absolute degradation from the rank and
privileges of the Cardinalate. Before long
the Pope felt misgivings about the sentence
so pronounced, and wrote a Chirograph, bear-
ing date lIth December 173-:1, to regulate
and modify the conditions of Coscia's penal-
ties. This ChirogTaph will be found in a
yolume 1 of manuscript documents in the
Corsini Library, relating to the Conclaye
held on the Pope's death, which is mani-
festly composed of papers that belonged to
the Cardinal-Xephew of Clement XII. There
does not exist a more remarkable Papal
utterance than this document, wherein the
Pope explains fully the afterthought that
induced him to revoke his fìr
t sentence
as objectionable, if not actually faulty in
principle, in spite of his haring pronounced
it, as he admits, with the deliberate inten-
tion of cancelling the binùing force of pre-
vious Papal edicts of limitJ.tion. That a
person labouring under such grave com-.Ïc-
tions as Coscia should have part in creating
a Pope was contrary to propriety; therefore,
saiù Clement XII., it had been orit,rÏnally
pronounced that every election in which he
1 Yol. lûlS in Catalogue of MSS. in Corsini Library.
138 O
THE COXSTITrTIO
intervened should be ipso jure null and void,
, every power and faculty being taken away
of calling the said Cardinal Coscia to give
his vote in such election on the ground of
any claim or motive specified in canon law,
or in virtue of any constitution whatsoever
of Pius IY., Gregory xv., and other our pre-
decessors.' A more carefully worded ex-
pression of Pontifical plenitude, so as to
effectively override every apparently oppos-
ing enactment, cannot be conceived. Yet
Pope Clement goes on to state that, having
reflected on the grave consequences that
might fullow on such annullations and in-
validations, he feels himself bound to put
forward the declaration that he did not in
any way pretend of his authority to im-
pugn the validity of a yet future election.
herefore,) writes the Pope, 'we declare
that never has it been our wish or intention
to prejudice the canonical election of our
successor, or "he supreme dignity and autho-
rity of the Church, which, after our demise,
shall he lawfully vested in the person of him
who has been chosen with the accustomed
forms, it being neither according to reason
nor equity that the transmission to his person
of a penalty attaching to the delinquent he
OF P.trAL COXCLAYES. 139
assumed capable of occurrence, and that in-
jury should befall the freedom and union
of the .Apostolical College in its so needful
mystic body.' By this Chirograph the Pope
accordingly abrogated the sentence striking
"ith invalidity an election in which Coscia
took part, with the proviso, howeyer, that
an election, to be canonical, must not gain
its obligatory majority of two-thirds by his
indi\iùual yote; and that during his ten
years of strict confinement this Cardinal's
electoral priyileges shoulù be restricted to
yoting, and not entitle him to obtain the
suffrages of the Sacred College, because it
would be unseemly to consider eligible for
Head of the Church an individual let out of
prison only for as long as Conclaye lasted.
This is what happened, therefore, on the
death of Clement XII. In the same volume
containing this Chirot,1J'aph, there is the auto-
graph letter of Cardinal Coscia, dated the
6th February 1 ï 40, from the Castle of St.
Angelo, and written to the Cardinal-Nephew
of the late Pope, in which he claims to be
set free for admission to Conclave, a request
which was at once concedeù. The President
de Brosses, as he was going home from wit-
nessing the procession of the Cardinals walk-
140 ox THE COXSTIT{;TIO
ing to Conclave, met 'Coscia in the shut chariot of Cardinal Acquaviva, who had heen to fetch him from prisun in the Castle of St. Angelo, and 'Was taking him to his cp II.' 1 The precedent furnished by this case has never heen reversed, although sentences of flegradation ha,.e since hf'en launched against Care linals. In a secret Consistory of the 13th February lï8ß, Pius YI. su pended and declared stripped of both active and pa8sive 1.'oice in Papal elections, Cardinal Rohan, for having violated his duties hy acknowledging the jurisdiction of tllf' Parlia- ment of Paris, a lay tribunal,2 unlebs within six months he exculpated himself before the Holy See for this dereliction of his ohliga- tions. Far more sweeping and ahsolute was the condemnation pronounced by the same Pope, on the 26th f'ptemher 1791, against Cardinal Lomenie de Brienne, for having sworn the civil constitutiun of the
1 'Coscia, :\1inister under Benedict XII!., meriting
the gallows-condemned to imprisonlll
nt for life in
St. Angelo, where, it is said, he throve wonderfully,
because it cr,:>t llim nothing, and he was hoarding
money,' is the character given of this notorious Car-
dinal by the President.
In tlle matter of the Diamond Kecklace.
OF PAP.\L CöXCLAYES. 1-11
clergy that had becn voted in France.
He was pronounced to be a schismatic,
and as such perjured, degraded, and wholly
stripped of all his dignities and privileges.
But it happened that both these Cardi-
nals died before there had been any oppor-
tunity for testing the validity of these
sentences to di::;able them from admission at
election time to the exercisf' of indelible
rights. The stormy days in the wake of
the French Revolution furnished also some
instances of Cardinals smitten with the pre-
yailing passion for repudiating old-fashioned
institutions, and indulging in a display of
new ideas. During the heyday excitement
of a repuLlic that seemed triumphant on
the Capitol, two Cardinals, of whom one
belonged to a great and princely family in
Rome, thought it good policy to turn their
backs on what looked like a foundering
fortune. In
Iarch 1798, Cardinal Altieri
wrote to the Pope expressing his wish to
divcst himself of the purple, on the ground
of a growing sen
e of bodily infirmities.
But Pius n., who knew that other Illotives
prompted the unusual application, addressed
a letter to the Cardinal, remonstrating
against his setting an e
ample of faint-
14
O THE CONSTITUTIO
hearted desertion. Before this appeal
reached Cardinal Altieri, he had, however,
alreaåy taken an irrevocable step, by send-
ing his ahsolute renunciation of the Cardi-
nalate to the Pope, in imitation of Cardinal
Antici, who, on the 7th ::\Iarch, had done
the same in two letters, one addresseù to
the Pope, and the other to the two consuls
of Rome.
till Pius YI. declined to accept
these renunciations. He l)ersi
ted to regard
the two renegades as still Cardinals, and
canonically not relieved from their obliga-
tions, until the consideration of the con-
sequences that might follow from their
claiming, in virtue of this refusal on his
part, to take part in the Conclave, induced
him from his prison at the Certosa, hy two
briefs of the 7th Septemher 1798, to declare
Altieri and Antici, on their own renuncia-
tion, stripped of all the pririleges and rights
appertaining to their former dignity, especi-
ally of any voice, acth-e or passive, in Papal
elections. The Pope's decisive step was
brought about mainly by Carùinal Anto-
nelli's energetic representations. Altieri
died soon after, in 1 tiuO, without seeing
any turn in Pontifical fortunes which might
bave made him regret his step as hasty.
OF PAPAL COXCL-\. YES. 143
X ot so Antici, who not only witnessed the
restoration of Pius VII. to his dominions,
and of the
acred Collf'ge to its good estate,
but when he looked on all tllis pleasant
recovery, desired himself to participate in it.
On the death of Pius VII., _\..ntici addressed
the Sacred College to be admitted to the
Conclave, on the plea that hi::; privileges had
been merely superseded. The request was
at once rejected, and :\Ioroni says that the
letter written in reply to the communication
of this decision was signed Thomas Åntici,
late Cardinal. He ended his days in ob-
scurity at Recanati. There is still another
important instance of a Cardinal who, in
this century, placed himself in opposition
to the Pope, and thereby became the object
of proceedings on the part of the highest
ecclesiastical authorities. The well-known
defender of royalist principles in the French
Xational.A:::.::;embly, .Abbé )Iaury, was created
Cardinal in 1794, and Bishop of l\Iontefias-
cone in the Papal States. He attended the
Conclave in 1799 in Yenice, where, on the
testimony of Consah-.i, he had much' to do
mth bringing about the election of Pius nI.,
to whom he was afterwards accredited as
envoy by the then titular Louis xnll. of
1-!-! O
THE COXSTITlTTIOX
...
France. The assumption of the Imperial
Cro-wn hy X apoleon made a conversion of
this, up to that moment, fanatical royalist.
Having gone to Paris in 1806, he courted
the new sun with so much effect, that in
1810 the Emperor conferred on him an
uncanonical nomination to the See of Paris,
which the Cardinal accepted, distinguishing
himself as a fiery advocate of the Imperial
Government in all its discussions with the
Holy See. His conduct on this occasion
was certainly that of a priest who defied
his ecclesiastical superior. On the Restora-
tion, Cardinal :\Iaury was ejected from the
Paris See he had usurped. He went then
hack to Italy, hut Pius YII. deprived him
likewise of his old See of l\Iontefiascone,
and forhade him coming into his presence,
or appearing at any Consistory or Congre-
gation of which he had before been member.
- Maury took all these sentences very quietly,
and coolly dwelt on in Rome, until, in l\Iarch 1815, the Pope left the city in consequence of Kapoleon's return from Elha. Then Car- dinal :\Iaury likewise abandoned the reserve he had hitherto observed, and manifested political feelings, which induced the Junta left behind hy Pius VI. to seek the Pope's
OF P AP.\.L COXCLA YES. 145
permission to lay hands on the Cardinal;
and he was accordingly arrested and lodged
in St. Angelo. Here he still sat, when the
Pope came hack and instructed his Secretary
of State, Pacca, to take the necessary steps
to proceed criminally against the seditious
Cardinal. For this purpose a special Con-
gregation was appointed, and began to in-
Yesti
ate the case, when suddenly the pro-
ceedings dropped by sovereign injunction,
and the prisoner left the castle restored
to all the privileges of his rank, and ad-
mitted to take part in those consistorial
and other duties from which he had before
been steadily excluded.! He died in 1817-
that is, before another Conclave. 2
'Yith such precedents, it might have been
1 It is evident that we do not know the secret motives
which brought about this mysterious change. Moroni
would seem to hint at some action of Consal vi in the
cessation of all proceedings. See the Dizionario Storieo
Ecclesiastico, sub voce MAURY. This bulky Encyclo-
pædia (103 volumes) is a crude jumble of good, bad,
and indifferent matter; but it is of value in so far
as it may be regarded to express what are considered in
Rome to be orthodox views on the topics treated.
- ! The latest case of a Cardinal divesting himself of
the purple occurred in 1838, when Cardinal Odescalchi insisted on entering the Society of Jesus, and would not be content until the Pope in Consistory had acquiesced in his ascetic desire to abandon the purple. K
146 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
deemed that the fact of a Cardinal's privilege
of franchise being beyond any Pope's power
of confiscation was irrevocably determined.
Every sacred guarantee conceivable against
the arbitrary action of an authority which
claims to be above limitation might well
have seemed to surrounù this point of law,
that a Pope, though perfectly empowered to
interdict, excommunicate, degrade, anù even
send to the scaffold a Cardinal, was abso-
lutely debarred from depriving him of his
prerogative to vote at a Papal election. It
must therefore be the suhject of no small
surprise that this apparently inviolable prin-
ciple should have been completely set aside in
the Papal Brief of the 29th Septemher of this
year, against Cardinal Andrea. Although it
would be out of place, in thes
pages, to enter
into the controversy as to the canonical validity of the course pursued against this Cardinal, the precedent which would be established b T this Papal statute, if finally accepted and acted upon, involves so great an innovation on what hitherto has been held the law in regard to the degree in which Cardinals can be dependent for their prerogatives on the Pope's mere goodwill, that it is necessary here to state the bare facts of
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 147
the case. Cardinal Andrea, who is, or at all
events was, Bishop of Sabina, after having
vainly sought several times the Pope's con-
sent to his going to his native city, Xaples,
on the ground that impaired health required
this change of air, finally went thither, in
June 1864, of his own authority. This step
was branded in Rome as an act of illegal
flight and desertion, and after minor pre-
liminary proceedings, the Pope, in a Brief of
12th June 1866, sU5;pended Cardinal Andrea,
in his quality of Bishop, from his See, on the
ground of insubordination and a violation
of his official oaths. Against this sentence
Cardinal Andrea, on the 6th July 1866, pro-
tested from Xaples, in an appeal addressed
to Pius IX., amI made public, wherein he
'respectfully anù solemnly appealed to His
Holines::) meliw; informandlls.' If the Cardi-
nal was ever sanguine enough to think that
the pleas put forward by him in this appeal
would have any effect in making the Pope
pause in his proceedings, this expectation
must have been rudely dispelled. After an
interchange of several more or less formal
summonses and replies between the respec-
ti,-e parties, Pius IX., on the 29th September
1867, i
sued a Brief, which, seryed on Car-
148 O
THE COXSTITuTIO
dinal Andrea the 12th October, and puh-
licly promulgated in Rome the 4th December,
declared him to have forfeited all the privi-
leges of his Canlinalitian dignity, with the
explicit inclu
ion of his vote, unless he pre-
sented himself in person before the Pope
within three months from date of the Brief;
and furthermore imposed on the Sacred Col-
lege the solemn obligation not to admit the said
Canlinal into Conclave, if, after continuing
contumaciously to disregard this citation, he
were to venture on claiming a right of fran-
chise. The gravity of the sentence is self-
evident, and without straying into the deli-
cate region of pleadings replete with points
of controversy, it is undeniable that in utter-
ing this injunction to bind the Sacred Col-
lege after his demise, Pius IX. has gone
against not only historical precedent, but
the explicit ruling of predecessors; and that
llere is a stretch of authority, which at all
events one rope acknowledged to lie be-
yond the attributes of his power, after hav-
ing himself sought to assert the same. The
reader will call to mind the declaration of
Clement XII. in the Chirograph whereby he
repealed his own sentence of exclusion from
Conclave against Cardinal Coscia, on the
OF PAPAL COXCL..,\YE . 149
ground that, in having pronounced this, he
had practically presumed on assuming a
power of control over 'the freedom and
union of the Apostolic College in its so
needful mystic boùy.' In other words,
Pope Clement recognised a divine instinct
re
ident in the Church as ever embodied in
its living representatives, which it must be
beyond the legitimate authority of a Pope
to presume on superseding anù controlling
from out of his grave in yirtue of some
decree of his own. This power of super-
scsÛon and control has now however been
laid claim to by Pius IX. in this no teworthy
Brief, which must be held to mark an epoch
in the discipline of the Roman system, amI
in the de\-elopment of Papal autocracy, if
the dictatorial sentence promulgated in it for
Cardinals assembled in Conclave comes to
be really accepted by them as of binding
force. l
1 The unexpected retllrn of Cardinal Andrea to
Rome in obedience to this citation, has reduced the
- >cope of the i3sues immediately under adjudication.
Still, the whole transaction is calculated to effect so great modifications in the hitherto received system of discipline, that we refcr the reader to further observa- tions on it in Appendix B.
.
VII.
A s the Quirinal Palace contains only one
chapel, the Paolina, this has to be ar-
ranged so as to serve the Cardinals both for
mass and voting. The balloting accordingly
takes place in the presbytery, in front of the
altar, the floor of which, covered with a green
carpet, is brought on a level with the base
of the pontifical throne, which is remm-ed ;
while on the Gospel si( le of the altar a l:hair
is put for the new Pope from which to re-
ceh-e the adoration of the Cardinals imme-
diately after election. Inside the railing of
the presbytery are the seats of the Canlinals,
each with a canopy of green for those of
older date, anù ùf violet for those createù by
the late Pope. As soon as an election 11308
taken place, these are lowered; the canopy
over the new Pope remaining alone aloft.
Before each Cardinal is a table, 'with all the
materials required for writing and. register-
O
PAPAL COXCLAVES. 151
ing his vote, while in the mid(Ue six similar
tables stanel apart for those Cardinals who
may fear heing overlooked if they wrote
nd folded their ballot-papers at their own stalls. On the Gospel side the Cardinal Dean occupies the first seat, being foliDwed by the others in the order of precedence, so that the senior Deacon sits opposite to him on the Epistle side of the altar, in front of which is a large table, with the chalice serving as a ballot-box, while at the back is the fireplace, wherein, after an inconclusive ballot, the papers are burned, whose smoke, issuing through the chimney, is watched for at a set hour by the crowd on the Piazza as the signal that Rome is still without a Sove- reign,-the Church still without a Head. The ingenuity of some ecclesiastical anti- quaries has amused itself in fancifully re- cognif';ing infinite variations in the modes of Papal elections. But even if warranted in fact, these distinctions must be held to be without any living value, for the Bull of Gregory XV., which is the capital statute on the subject, explicitly declares that there are only three modes in which a Pope can be la" fully created: by in piration, by compro- mise, and by ballot. The first, which re-
152 ON THE COXSTITUTIO
quires that, spontaneously, without any kind of previous conference, all the electors of one accord shouM simultaneously proclaim the same individual, may be dismisseJ with- out further comment as an altogether ideal conception,-in spite of ecclesiastical writers giving a list of Popes created by this pro- ce s.l Of much greater practical importance are the condition;:; regulating the second form, which" e have seen was invented hy
1 Gregory VII., Clement VII., Paul III., Julius III.,
Marcellus II., Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius v., figure on
this list, which confounds acclamation, such as might
follow discussion, with the little short of miraculously
spontaneous unanimity exacted by canonical prescrip-
tions, for an election by inspiration. The following
will show, for instance, what kind of inspiration was at
work in the case of Clement VII. : -' At last Cardinal
Colonna was won over by the united efforts of the Duke
of Sessa and of the Cardinal di J/cdicis. After having
arranged 1lis tactics with some of his friends, he sud-
denly rose on the night of the 18th of Sovember, and
exclaimed in a loud voice, "All who "ish to have
J ulins for Pope, anù to preserve the unity of the Christian
Republic intact, follow me!" The Cardinals, surprised
by this appeal, discontinued their disputes,!ind, after
a short deliberation, the Cardinal di :\ledicis was elected
Pope "by the inspiration of God." That God had
inspireù his election: the author of the protocol of the
proceedings in the Conclave obsernd, 'was clear, as
neither the Emperor nor the King of France had been
able to influence even such Cardinals as had their
bishoprics in their States.'--Bergenroth, Calendar of
).,Yeg. bctu)een England and Spain, Introduction.
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 153
the instinct of the Church as a means to put
an end to the intolerable state of affairs
which weighed upun it in the inteTIllinahle
Conclave held at Yiterbo. The expedient
of delegating to a small committee of Car-
dinals the power which the whole body
found itself too much torn by dissension to
exercise, has been resorteù to on several
occasions, and is
till considered in Rome as
not ob:;olete. The most memorable instance
of its application was furnished when the
impossibility for the Cardinals assembled in
1301 to agree on a candidate induced them
to intrust the election to a delegation out uf
their own boay, which gave to the Church
Pope Clement Y., who then transferred to
A vignon the Holy See. It is affirmed by
the Cavaliere Borgia, in the life he 'wrote of
his uncle, Cardinal Borgia,1 that when the
Conclave helù at Yenice, after the decease
of Pius YL, reached the third month, it
was contemplated to invest nine Cardinals,
amongst whom was his uncle, with the duty
of selecting a Pope, and that the idea 'Was
not followed up only because at the nick of
time the votes of the College happily con-
1 Xoti.:ie Biografiche del Card. St. Borgia, del Oav.
Constantino Burgia, 1843.
154 O
THE CO:XSTITUTIO
curreù in creating Pius YII. It is true that
Consalvi's )Iemoirs fail in speaking to the
correctness of this as:sertion; but as these
- Memoirs are avowedly but fragmentary, anù
eyen not quite free from suspicion, the absence of such confirmation in this quarter does not seem to us of itself necessarily to invalidate its authenticity. Gregory XY. has closely prescribed the form to be employe,l for the mode of election, but they are not of his own invention, being only an adaptation of those already contained in an ancient ritual hy Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi, to be found in l\Iabillon's JIw eurn Italicllm. The onlinary election by ballot is per- formed by two processes repeated daily, in general,-one in the forenoon, which is a simple ballot; the other in the afternoon, which consists in the process technically called of acceding, whereby an elector, re- yoking his morning's ballot, transfers his vote to some one w ILose name had that morning already come out of the ballot-box. l Hence
1 There is no law fixing that only one ballot of each
kind be held the same day. This is a point left to the
discretion of the Cardinals, who regulate their decision
according as procrastination or expedition may suit
best their humours. In the last centuries the pre,oail-
ing practice was as stated above, but in the very latest
OF PAPAL CO CLAVES. };);)
the designation of the supplementary ballot,
for in it the faculties of electors are strictly
limited to the power of adhering to some
Cardinal whose name at the early ballot
has been drawn. The voting papers are
square and folded down, so as at each end
to have a sealed portion, within the upper
one of which is written the voter's name,
to be opened only under special circum-
stances; and in the other, sealed with the
same seal, some motto from Scripture, which,
once adopted, must be the same at all
ballot
, and serves ordinarily as the means
for identification of the vote. In the middle
space, which is left open, stands the name
of the candidate. Advancing to the altar,
after a short prayer in silence, and an oath
aloud, wherein the Saviour is called to wit-
ness that the vote about to be given is
dictated by conscientious convictions alone,
each Cardinal drops his paper in the chalice
upon the altar. "
hen all have voted,
the examination of the papers is made by
the scrutators, three Cardinals selected by
Conclave it happen"d that both parties thought expedi-
tion the best move, so that on this occasion the innova-
tion was practised by general consent of holding a
double set of ballots on the two da)-B which the Con-
clave lasted.
15 G O
TIlE COXSTITUTIO
.
lot, who succe
- ,iyely hand to each other
every paper, which the last files on a pin. Should a candidate come out with just a majority of two-thirds, it then becomes neces ary to open the upper folded portions of the hallot-papers, with the view of ascer- taining that this majority is not due to the candidate's own vote; it heing not lawful for a Pope to be the actual instrument of his own creation. In the case of no ade- quate majority, thesp papers are preserved, so as to lJe ahle to check, through the mottoes, the votes given in the supple- mentary ballot, it lJcing, of course, unlawful for a Carùinal to repeat a second vote in behalf of the candidate for whom he had already voted in the morning. The fonn of tendering this second vote is hy writing , Accedo domino Cardinali,' while those who persist in their morning's choice insert the word' Xemini.' Should hoth ballots fail in producing the legal majority, then the papers are burnt, while in all cases the portion containing the yoter's name is to he opened lJY the scrutators only in the event of some suspicion of fraud or of a vote being invaliù, through some violation by the elector of the prescribed forms. In the Conclave of 1829
OF PAPAL COXCL.ATES. 13';
Cardinal Castiglione tame out of the ballot
with thirty-fiye voth, against twenty for
Cardinal Gregorio, and twelve for Capellari,
afterwards Gregory XVI. On examining the
papers, the scrutators, however, found two
,'otes dropped into the afternoon ballot with
mottoes that did nç>t tally with any amongst
the morning's ,potes. Two Cardinals are
named as suspected of having committed
this act, probahly \\ith the vain hope of
defeating Castiglione's election. All it
effected was to vitiate the hallot of the day,
and on the following morning Castiglione
hecame Pius YIII. by an increaseù majority.
The election of ë rban YIII. was put off for
a day by a yet more unworthy trick. 'Yhen
the papers were being lookeù through one
was found wanting, and, although the can-
onical majority had been secured, the elec-
tion was nevertheless void-as every Car-
dinal in Conclave must lodge his vote.
Suspicion fell on one of the scrutators, who
is believed to have abstracted the paper
from the chalice, and dropped it into his
sleeve, solery to prevent an otherwise in-
e\itable result from being arrived at that
mornmg.
The narratives of Conclaves are filled
15 8 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
.
with accounts of election manæuvres prac-
tised by plotting Cardinals with the view of
bringing ahout, by underhand tactics, some
preconcerted result. The whole system of
these proceedings bears the visible impress
of that cautious and cunning temperament
which never operates but under a mask, and
never contemplates to work otherwise than
by stratagem. Of thes(' tricks the most
common-indeed so common as to be an
established feature in Papal elections-is
the naming of sham candidates l)y the rival
sections. l The general object of this device
is to elicit the exercise of the veto '-ested in
certain Catholic sovereigns, and which can
be :;riycn but once. If it be intended to
carry a Cardinal known to be obnoxious to
1 It has been gravely discussed by canonists "hether,
with the oath sworn by each Cardinal, it can be
lawful thus from strategy to give votes in behalf
of one who in conscience is not deemed worthiest-
secundum hewn eligi debere. At the end of the article
'Elezione' in l\Ioroni's Encyclopædia, will be found the
opinion of an anonymous divine that it is not lawful
to give a vote at a Papal election for one of "horn it is
not inwardly belie\ ed that he is worthiest, unless it be
for the sake of promoting harmony in the case where it
is positive that a candidate of this iuferior kind is
actually sure of election. A vote given umler sach
circumstances, it is laid down, would be a peace-offer-
ing on the part of him who recorded it.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 159
a sovereign posse
sed of this priyilege, then
some other Cardinal also known to be dis-
tasteful to him, i
started and pushed to the
yery verge of the required majority, in the hope of causing the yeto to be pronounced, when no obstacle from that quarter can any longer stand in the way of the concealed candidate, who had all along been the real object of predilection. The origin of this priyilege of excluding from the Papacy is inyolyed in mystery, but its existence is formally recognised by the Court of Rome in the Crowns of France, Austria, and Spain. l The privilege is absolute; and its exercise ii' surrounded with all the accurate formality of a publicly admitted right. On the occur- rence of a Conclave, the secret determination to protest against particular Cardinals is confided by each Court to some member of the Sacred College, who is trusted with the duty of making this known at the proper moment; or, in the event of a Court having no Cardinal on whose fidelity it can rely, then this knowledgf' is deposited with the Cardinal Dean. For a protest to ha, û effect
1 The Crown of Portugal claims the same right of
veto, but the claim is contested by Rome.
1 GO ox THE COX!-;TITL'TIOX
it must, howe\
er, be lodged before a canoni-
cal majority has been actually obtained;
for a Pope, once created according to the
prescrihed forms, cannot be unmade hy the
intervention of any power.
o it is said
that in 1823 Leo XII. owed his election to
a surprise-the French Cardinals, Clermont
and De la Fare, who were instructed to
exclude him, having heen outwitted by the
stealthy suddenness of the final hallot. The
latest instance of actual exclusion was in
1831, when Cardinal Giustiniani was ex-
cluded by Spain, at which Court he had
heen Kuncio. ::\Ioroni gives a detailed ac-
count of the proceedings observed on this
occasion. The Cardinal was visibly on the
verge of election; on the day's ballot he
counted twenty-one votes, and it wanted
only twenty-nine to secure his triumph, when
Cardinall\farco-y-catalan informed Cardinal
Ollescalchi, nephew to Giustiniani, and the
Dean Cardinal Pacca, that he was charged to
exclude him lJY order of the King of Spain.
The communication was not expected, and
doubt was expre::;sed as to the seriousness
of this expressed intention. Thereupon
Cardinal :Marco produced a letter from
the Spanish ambassador, Gomez Labrador,
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 161
dated 24th Decemher 1830, instructing him,
'at the express order of his Catholic l\Ia-
jesty, to exclude his Eminence Cardinal
Giustiniani from the pontifical throne.' This
despatch the Cardinal Dean then read out
to his assembled colleagues before proceed-
ing to the morning ballot on the 9th J anu-
ary, after which Cardinal Giustiniani ad-
dressed them, expressing ignorance of what
he could have done to make the King of
Spain take this step, but professing to thank
him for the greatest favour he could have
bestowed by keeping him from the Papal
throne. In spite of his professions of thank-
fulness at being freed from an infliction by
this royal veto, it is mentioned by the K eapo-
litan Envoy in Rome, in a despatch '\Titten
three days after his exclusion, that the effect
had been to make the Cardinal take to his
bed with an attack of fever.!
There has since been, however, yet an-
other veto levelled, though not actually
launched, which, but for the accidental cir-
cumstance of a short clelay in its transmis-
sion, would have materially changed the
1 ,Memorie dei Conclavi da Pio Vll. a Pio IX. (da E.
Cipolletta, Milano, 1863),-a little book with curious
documents found in the Keapolitan Foreign Office.
L
162 ON THE COXSTITUTIO
character of recent political events in .Italy, in so far as events of such comprehensive force can really depend on merely individual influences. The Court of Vienna intended to veto Cardinall\Iastai-Ferretti at the last Conclave, and the Archbishop of ::\Iilan, Car- dinal Gaysruck, the Austrian agent, received instructions to lodge the formal exclusion in the name of the Emperor, in the event of this prelate promising to obtain his election. The Cardinal proceeded to Rome, but arrived there the morning following Cardinal ::\Iastai- Ferretti's proclamation as Pius IX., after one of the shortest Conclaves on record.! 'Semel
1 At the Conclave of læ3 Austria excluded Cardinal
Severoli through the agency of Cardinal Albani. A
despatch of the Sardinian representati\."e in Rome, pub-
lished in the valuable appendix to the second volume
of Bianchi's Sloria della Diplomazia Europea in ltalia,
gives very curious details of the incidents that marked
this proceeding. The veto was so unpopular, that it
\\ as sought to be set aside on the plea of Cardinal
Alhani's not having been duly invested with the formal
authority to exercise this privilege on its behalf by the
Court of Vienna; so that Severoli continued to poll
votes after the protest had been lodged, until Count
Apponyi, then Austrian ambassador, handed in a note,
the text whereof is given by the Sardinian diplomatist
confirming Albani's authority. The Cardinal's exclu-
sion was conveyed in the following terms: 'In my
capacity of Extraordinary Ambassador to the Sacred
College met in Conclave, . .. I fulfil the displeasing
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 163
exclusus semper exclusus J is a saying not
absolutely true; for Clement nIl. had been
excluded in three Conclaves by Spain, and
Innocent x. -was elected with a French ex-
clusion suspended over him. As for the
category of Cardinals who have the best
chances of gaining the suffrages of their
colleagues, there is a Roman proyerb -which
says that three are the streets leading
straight to the Yatican, those of the Co-
ronan (rosary-makers), Argentieri (sih-er-
smiths), and Lungara (long street) : 1 which
is taken to mean that much outward show
of devotion, expenditure of money, and an
duty of declaring that the Imperial COUlt of Vienna
is unable to accept his Eminence Severuli as Supreme
Pontiff, and gives him a formal exclusion (gli da
mur. forrrw.le esclusiva).' The party supporting Car-
dinal SeveroIi consisted of the opposition to Con-
sah i, the influential Secretary of State during the
pre"ious reign. His enemies were numerous and
resolute. Their candidate ha\ing been checkmated
by this veto, the party avenged itself by asking
SeveroIi to indicate the man of his choice. He
named Cardinal Della Genga, who was then elected
and reigned as Leo xII.-the type of stupid reaction,
and, as against Consalvi, the expression of unmitigated
spite. Consalvi was not a statesman of a high order,
but he was possessed of certain qualities of affability
and knowledge of the world which raised him above
the level of the dull narrow-mindedness of this bigot.
1 There are three streets in Rome with these names.
1 G! O
THE COXSTITUTIO
industrious swarming up the ladder of eccle-
siastical routine, are the three safest means
of reaching the Pope's throne.
In canon law there are no limitations re-
stricting the selection of a Pope within the
body of Cardinals. It is true that since
{; rhan Y1., in 1378, no one below this rank
has mounted the chair of St. Peter, but
still it is worthy of note that this now
established practice exists in virtue of no
higher sanction than custom, and that there
is nothing in canon law to render invalid
the choice even of a layman for the
Papacy.l John XIX. and Adrian Y. were
certainly laymen, and the lattèr furnishes
the conclusive precedent establishing that
a Pope acquires all the plenitude of his
supreme authority by the simple act of
election, for Adrian Y. died without taking
] There is indeed a decree by Stephen III.. 769,
against the electi0n to the Papacy of anyone not an
ordained Cardinal, but this decree, which was levelled
against the anti-Pope Constantine, who happened to
be a layman, has never been invoked on occasions
when the choice of the Sacred College fell on an indi-
vidual not of their body, nor is there any other ponti-
fical utterance on record in the same sense. Moroni
himself admits that J olm XIX. was a layman when
elected, but preserves an ambiguous language in regard
to the case of Aùrian Y.
OF PAPAL COXCh.\YES. 165
any orders, and yet be promulgated decrees
modifying the whole system of Papal elec-
tions, which, by his successors, were held
to be invested ,rith all the sacredness of
pontifical utterances. Adrian Y. ruled but
twenty-nine days, in which interval be re-
pealed of his authority the electoral consti-
tution of Gregory X., which remained in
abeyance until Celestinf' v., after six stormy
elections, revivecl it in 1294:. Undoubtedly
such cases must be set down as obsolete in
the concrete, yet at a critical moment like
the present, when the Court of Home is
again eminently exposed to transformation,
it is well to note remarkable instances of
exceptional interventions which have been
admitted by it, not to be beyond the pale
of its principles. The restriction of a can-
didate for the Papal See "ithin the circle
of the College of Cardinals, has become a
matter of received custom. Yet as late as
1 ï5
, in the Conclave after Benedict XIV.'s
death, at several ballots votes were tendered
and registered ,rithout objection in favour
of the ex-General of the Capuchins, Father
Barberini, who was not a member of the
Sacred Colle
e.l
1 See XO\oaes. Storia dei Pontifici. vol. xiv. p. 8. He
1 G G O
THE COXSTITUTION
,
In general practice, the final ballot is a mere
formality. As soon as it is perceived that a
canonical majority in favour of a candidate
id really commanded, the matter is made
known to the opposing party, so that, acqui-
escing in defeat, its members may join in
waiting on the future Pope the evening
before his actual elevation. The contest
therefore ceases habitually on the night
before proclamation, and when the Cardi-
nals, on the last morning, proceed to ballot,
they do so, as a rule, with the perfect know-
ledge that they are going through a mere
formality. Indeed, the one condition which,
by canon law, renders void the election of
a Pope who has obtaineJ the suffrages of
the Sacred College, brings with it that no
election can be forced. It is laid down that
no man can be constrained to become Pope
at the bidding of the electors; his free ac-
ceptance of this dignity is absolutely neces-
sary to render his election legitimate, and
therefore it never will happen that all the
labour and effort demanded for carrying a
quotes as his authority the register of each day's voting
kept by Cardinal Guadaglli, and which, forming three
volumes, N ovaes examined in the lilJrary of the Collegia
Romano.
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 167
Papal election will be expended on a subject
of whom it has not been previously ascer-
tained that he is ready to accept the position.
As soon as ever the ballot bas furnished
a return with a majority of two-thirds,-
the scrutators have satisfied themselves, in
the event of its being a bare majority, that
this is not due to the successful candidate's
own vote,-and he himself bas accepted the
choice f.ùlen on him, the Conclave is de-
clared at an end, the doors are thrown open
to the world, and in the chapel, where all
the canopies are instantly lowered, except
that over the newly elected, the Pope re-
ceives the homage of the assembled Cardi-
nals, which is called the first act of adoration.
Then, from the re-opened balcony '\Villdow,
which has been walled up, the Cardinal
Dean proclaims the new Pope, whose accla-
mation by the applauding Roman people is
formally attested in a deed drawn up then
and there by an appointed notary. Since
the Quirinal has become the site for Con-
claves, it has been customary to postpone
the remaining ceremonies till the f')llowing
day, when the Pope proceeds first to the
Sistine Chapel, and afterwards down to St.
Peter's, into whicb he is borne upon the
168 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
sedes gestatoria to receive the second and
third adorations. Seated on a cushion
placed upon the high altar, the Pope has
his foot and hand kissed in succession by
each Cardinal, whom he in return embraces
on both cheeks, the Cardinal Dean opening
the ceremony and chanting the Te Deum,
while his colleagues are performing their
parts. This over, the Pope bestows uIJon
the assembled multitude his public benedic-
tion; after which he returns to his residence
every inch a Pope. l There are, indeed, two
other remarkable ceremonies of ancient origin
connected with the installation of a Pope
1 The question as to when the creation of a Pope is
consummated has been accurately discussed hy Catholic
writers, and it has been distinctly laid down by the
highest authorities that election of itself invests a Pope
with plenary powers. 'Qui eligitur Rom. Pontifex,'
says Bellarmine, De Rom. Pont. lib. ii. cap.
2, 'eo
ipso sit Pont. summus Ecclesiæ totius, etsi forte id non
exprimant electores.' Clement v. excommunicated
those who' asserere non verentur quod summus Pon-
tifex ante sure coronation is insignia se non debet
intromittere de provisionibus, reservationibus, dispen-
sationibus et aliis gratiis faciendi::; j' aUfI
loroni, who
enters at length upon the question, and must be con-
sidered the organ of the Court of Rome, declares that a
Pope must necessarily he in possession of all his power
from the instant of election, although he admits that
this opinion has prevailed in the Church only since the
days of Adrian v., the Pope who dit:d a layman.
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 1 G Ð
-which must be noticed; but neither will be
found to inyolye on his part any formula of
oath or obligation. At an early day after
election, in general on the following Sundar,
the Pope is enthroned in St. Peter's, when
he is crowned with the celebrated triple
crmvn, the tiara. The ceremonies obseryed
on this occa:::öion are in part marked \",ith a
strange symbolism. In the Atrium of St.
Peter, opposite the walled-up gate called La
Porta Santa, which is opened only in the
years of Jubilee, the Pope, sitting on a
throne, receives first the homage of the arch-
priest and all the clergy attached to the
Basilica. This oyer, he is carried in pro-
cession up the church to the Chapel of St.
Gregory, which is converted into a robing-
room. On issuing from it a l\Iaster of the
Ceremonies suddenly steps forward, and,
arresting the Pope on bent knee, holds up
to him a :::öih-er rod tipped with a bundle
of tow, which a clerk sets on fire from a
taper in his hand, the former officer singing
aloud 'Sancte Pater, sic traJlSit gloria mundi.'
This curious bit of symbolism is r"'peated
hvÏce. At the high altar the Pope is clothed
with the Pallium; and on the termination
of ma
- " during which occurs the homage
17"0 ON THE CONSTITUTION
of clergy of all ranks, the Pope is borne ill
procession up to the balcony overlooking
the piazza of St. Peter, where, in presence
of the assemhled people, the mitre having
heen first removed, there is placed on his
head the renowned triregnum hy the second
senior Cardinal Deacon, who pronounces the
words 'Accipe tiaram tribus coronis orna-
tam et scias te esse patrem principum et
regum, rectorem orhis, in terrâ vicarium
Salvatoris nostri J esu Christi, cui est honos
ct gloria in sæcula sæculorum. t And with
this ends the coronation, after the giving
of the henediction, which always follows
every Papal appearance in pulJlic. 1 The
other ceremony is the taking possession by
the new Pope of the Lateran Basilica, the
- l\Ietropolitan Church not merely of Rome,
1 A widely accredited error is that the benediction
by the Pope from the balcony of St. Peter at Easter is
givpn urbi et orbi. The phrase does not occur in the
ritual, and has no authority whatever. Another popu-
lar error, to be found especially in the travels of the
last century, is that at the coronation service there is
chanted an anthem with the words' Non videbis annos
Petri.' A curious and little known form was, however,
observed on that day until very recent times. When
the Pope rose in the morning a bronze cock was carried
to him in procession, to call to his mind, at that solemn
moment of elevation, the frailty of which Peter was
guilty, and to which human nature is exposed.
OF PAPAL CO:XCLAVES. 171
hut the Universe, as stands written upon
the inscription on its front. On this occa-
sion, the Pope traverses the whole city of
Rome in solemn procession, accompanied by
all the Cardinals and the representatives
of all the ecclesiastical hierarchy connected
with the Court of Rome. Down to a very
recent time it was customary for the Pope
to ride a white steed, and to be escorted by
the Sacred College on horseback. "Then
Pius IX. made his progress to the Lateran,
he expressed his desire to revive the practice,
hut the idea was abandoned owiug to the
remonstrances of the many very aged Car-
dinals, who protested their incapacity to sit
on their horses for so long a ride. It was
also the custom for the Jews to line the
portion of the way between the Arch of
Titus and the Colosseum, and there to pre-
sent in sign of homage a copy of their law
to the Pope; but since Pius vr.'s time they
have been dispensed from this service. The
ceremony in the church itself offers nothing
that calls for special observation. It is
simply an act of taking posseSSIOn, un-
accompanied by anything which implies a
conditional tenure dependent on the observ-
ance of certain specified and defined vows.
YIII.
IX the controversy waged as to what Pius
IX. shou1cl have done in regard to recent
events, the advocates of a policy of acquies-
cence in what befell his temporal estate,
have heen freely met by the assertion that
as Pope he was bounù by oaths which ab-
solutely interdicted his doing so. On look-
ing into the matter it will appear, however,
that this is not correct. "Thatever oaths
Pius IX. took were sworn to by him freely,
and of his own accord, in the plenituùe of
his authority, alld not at all as conditional
to his acqui:Útion thereof. Cardinals are
invested "ith the berretta only, after ha,ing
repeated a prescribeJ oath, but no Pope is
subjected to any oath whatever, on being
elevated to his supreme dignity, and if, at
a later moment, it has been customary for
O
PAPAL COXCLATES. 173
Popes to swear the observance of certain
ancient Constitutions, there is nothing to
distinguish between the binJing force of
these oaths, and those which Popes are not
only universally heM to be able to absolve
themselves from, but from which, in regard
to the particular points under discussion,
they have actually on several occasions dis-
pensed themselves.
It is a received custom for Popes to
swear the observance of certain Bulls anJ
Constitutions-amongst which is one ha,ing
special reference to the preservation free from
waste of the endowments of the Church,-
but these oaths are taken of their own free
will, and in the exercise of their absolute
powers, and by no means as inJispensably
conditional to their legitimate acquisition of
full Pontifical authority. Soon after election
the Pope holds habitually a Consistory, hut
there is no fixed period ,,,ithin which it
must meet. Its convocation depenùs on his
pleasure, and generally happens not more
than two months after accession. On this
occasion the new Pope has heen in the habit
to record his solemn adherence to divers
regulations and instructions that have ema-
nated from various predecessors, amongst
174: ON THE CO STITUTIO
.. which are to be particularly named a Bull by Julius II. declaring ipso facto "oid a Papal election due to simoniacal practices, and a Bull by Alexander VII. against the alienation of Church property. This is the instrument that has been invoked with so much pertinacity by those who affirm that, in the matter of his temporal estate, the Pope is bound by ties that absolutely deprive him of all power to make any surrender of dominions he has succeeded to. "... e believe that it requires only to look a little into the history of this celebrated Bull to he con- "inced that there is no foundation for the ex- ceptional sacredness thus ascribed to it, and which, if real, would at once limit the Pope's avowedly unbounded dispensing power. The Bull of Alexander YIr. does not pro- fess to be an original statute, but merely a reviyal and confirmation of enactments by former Popes that had been either l'epealed or lo;:;t sight of, and the texts whereof are incorporated at lengtl
in this deed. The
first of these instrum ts, and therefore the groundwork of the wllOle Bull, is one issued by Pius Y. in 15G7, which begins by ex- pressing grief that' divers persons too am- bitious and covetous of rule' should have
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 173
ventured to inveigle several Popes by false
suggestions of policy into the step of in-
feoffing, under various titles, possessions
belonging to the Church, wlwreby these had
become virtually alienated, to the signal im-
poverishment of that institution. Desirous
to remeù.y this state of things, Pius Y., as he
goes on to say, had taken counsel with the
Cardinals, who unanimously had sworn not
only to observe the present Constitution, but
also' neither to assent to any Pope attempt-
ing alienations contrary to its tenor, nor to
seek or accept any dispensation from the
oath they themselves had sworn thereto.'
Accordingly he proceeded to declare and
pronounce all such infeoffments, grants, or
alienations of Church possessions null and
void, any persons guilty of counselling such
hereafter, on any pretext, even of 'necessity
or manifest utility,' incurring pain of ex-
communication by that fact; and to invest
this Bull with the highest character of
sacredness, the Cardinals present in Con-
sistory swore to it by proxy for their
absent brethren, while it was also expressly
ordered that this same oath should be
administered to all future Cardinals before
receiving the hat, and that it should be
1 i 6 O
THE COXSTITUTION
adJed to those taken by the SacreJ College
before entering a Conclave. 'Moreover, it
was enjoined that a new Pope, 'after his
accession, should promise amI sweal- the
same, and after his coronation reiterate his
promise and oath by special confirmatory
rescripts, anJ that if this, which cannot be
believed, were to be refused or postponed
hy the Pope, then, in the first ..,ecret Con-
sistory, the Cardinals, amI specially their
Dean, and with him the Capi d'Ordine,
shoulLl incessantly amI most pre::;singly with
every instance ask, pray, anJ implore the
observance of these presents, and take most
diligent care that this shoulLl happen.'
These very elaborate prescriptions received
solemn confirmation in full from various
subsequent Pope::;, until Gregory XIV. modi-
fied the binding force of the engagements
he had himself sworn on accession, in con-
formity to custom, by the issue of a rescript
highly illustrative of the absolute nature of
Papal authority. Thif:, Pope, who reigneù
only a few months, was a vehement partisan
of Spain in the war of the League, anù was
probably actuated in his relaxation of strin-
gent obstacles in the way of turning property
into money by hi:::; desire to assist Philip
OF PAPAL COXCLA VES. 1 "j 7
II. in his undertakings. The changes he
wrought in the letter of the law were how-
ever shortlived, for his immediate successor,
Clement VIII., abrogated them by a Con-
sistorial decree of the 26th June 1592, ad-
mitted into the body of Alexander VII.'S
Bull, in which the very remarkable circum-
stances are recounted that marked Gregory's
act of legislation. Pope Clement tells the
world that at 'a secret Consistory held at
St. ltlark's, on Friday the 13th September
1591, in which the opinions of the Cardinals
present, amongst whom was His Holiness
(Pope Clement himself), had been not at all
asked for, anrl in spite of many distinctly
speaking against, his predecessor neverthe-
less had declared and decreed that by the
Constitution of Pius it was not forbidden to
infeoff anew a fief not yet lapsed, wILen neces-
sity 01' tlte man
f
t and true advantage of the
Chul'ch demanded this,-that the oath taken
to it did not comprehend such a case,-that
no one could lawfully swear thus, because it
would he contrary to the requirements and
manifest advantage of the Church, and that
he therefore adjudged and ruled the afore-
said Constitution to he thus understood, that
it would be unla'wful for anyone hereafter
M
178 ON THE COXSTITUTION
to speak or ,,,"rite thereof otherwise than aq
was then declared by him, in accorJance
with the contents of this decree and declara-
tion.' The whole of this saving clause by
his predecessor Pope Clement then cancelled,
on the ground that the plea of requirement
and advantage would only serve to leave a
door open to alienations injurious to the
Church, and this severe sentence against
the personal disposition of Popes to enrich
favourites at the expense of the institution
they were elected to preside over was in-
dorsed by Alexander VII., when he especially
included the whole text of Clement's rescript
in his elaborate confirmatory Bull of every
stringent enactment by predece:5sors on this
subject.
From these facts, it results clearly that
however great the solemnity which succes-
sive Popes sought to attach to these pro-
hibitory declarations against alienations of
Church prolwrties, it yet never amounted to
a sacrednes'i inviolable even for pontifical
authority. The very circumstance of so
many repeated confirmations by spontaneous
Papal edicts would of itself be sufficient to
set aside such a hypothesis. .A dogma is
not reaffirmed by successive Popes, but
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 179
takes care of itself when once promulgated
for all time, because its nature is a::;sumeJ
to represent an eternal principle, which,
once recognised, stands for ever an indelible
member in the organism of the Church's
doctrine. )Ioreover, the instance of Gregory
XIY.'S declaration, and the terms of the sen-
tence of reversal pronounced thereon by his
successor, conclusively establish that there is
no exceptional force for a Pope in the obli-
gations attaching to this particular engage-
ment. For Gregory XIY. himself, in accord-
ance with the original prescription of Pius
,-., had confirmed on his accession the terms
of the original Bull, and yet in spite of this
solemn act of adhe::,ion he considered him-
self at liberty to issue a qualifying declara-
tion of its meaning; while Clement YIII.,
who made no effort to Jisf,f1lise irritation at
his predecessor's action, nm-er introduced a
word in the unfriendly language with which
he reproved the proceedings that implied a
charge against Gregory of having exceeded
the hounds of his lawful privileges-of hav-
ing yiolated a fundamental vow-b) those
modifying declarations which he solemnly
repealed in virtue of an identical authority.
But even if it he granted that there is
180 ox THE COXSTITUTIOX
aught in the oath so taken which puts it
beyond the range of the Pope's dispensing
power to absolve himself therefrom, '\ve must
consider it a quite false reading of its obliga-
tions to refer them to a limitation of the
Pope's sovereign authority for surrendering
territory in deference to dictates of policy and
expediency. The whole scope of the Consti-
tution was to set a check upon a l,revailillg
system of scandalous favouritism by which
habitually Popes enriched their relatives
with possessions diverted, it might he said
fraudulently, from their legitimate purport.
The monstrous custom of Xepotism, which
attained proportions that sCOl"ned all pre-
tence to clandestineness, and stood forth in
shameless nakedness, was the object aimed
at in the stringent provisions of these
pontifical decrees, as results conclusively
from the text for everyone who is not
actuated with a sense of special pleading.
It is impossil1e for a candid mind to mis-
take the plain meaning of the very explicit
and precise prohibitions levelled against
making grants of Church property for the
benefit of individuals, and against nothing
else. The limitation of the sense attached
to these decrees is so absolute, and so dis-
OF PAPAL CO:XCLA'VES. 181
tinctly expressed, that only a deliberate spirit
of perversion could venture on pretending
to misunderstand its scope. The ground-
lessness of the interpretations which it has
been sought to set on the oath taken by the
Pope is renrlered still more clear by a second
Bull he swears along 'with the other, and
which is coupled therewith as a sort of
commentary and supplementary illustration.
This Bull, issued in 169
by j..lexander VII.,
and known by the title of 'Constitutio
Ioderatoria Donationum,' is so directly levelled against the immoderate grants made by Popes to their kinsmen as to name these without disguise, and to have put it beyond the stretch of the most wilful casuistry to attempt to tW1st the plain meaning of the text. A more confounding illustration does not exist of the practice once recognised in the Court of Rome than is here indelibly afforded by a Pope writing with all the weight of authority and the studied solem- nity of a clearness of speech to baffle the powers of misapprehension, or extenuation. The preamble states that the Con::,titution is promulgated for 'the moderating of gifts and the distribution of ecclesiastical revenues to the kinsmen and connexions
182 O
THE CONSTIT1JTION
of the Pope, or to those adopteJ as such,
and for the prescribing of safeguards to
be observed in the assignment of favours
which are said to haye been at times granteJ
by deputation, pel' concessllm, during a Pope's
sickness.' Accordingly it is ruled that a
Pope may lawfully assist, should they be in
want, his brothers, nephews, rf'latives, and
conneÀions (consangllinei et ajJines), as also
those whom he may have aJopted as such,
but only in the degree in which he habi-
tually administers to the destitution of the
poor who stand in no particular relation to
him. Should any of the before-mentioned
relatives enter the Church, it is enjuineJ
that they shall be enJowed with but moJe-
rate preferments; anù in the event of any
attaining the Cardinalate, that they shall
not be alloweJ to accumulate benefices ex-
ceeding in value 12,OúO crowns a year, it
being expressly concedf'rl that such income
shall procf'f'd from holdings for life,-aIlY
additional nut insecure income from prefer-
ments held at the Pope's pleasure not being
included in this estimate of the portion ùue
to Papal kinsmen. Furthermore, to obviate
the recurrence of what has happelwd in the
case of favours granted by Jeputatioll dur-
OF PAPAL CONCLAVES. 183
ing a Pope's sickness, in excess of what he
would have sanctioned if acting himself,
Alexander VII. ordered that those invested
with powers of deputation, even though by
a Chirograph signed by the Pope's own
hand, under no circumstances should be
capable henceforth of granting any favour,
except with the assent of two Cardimùs,
subscribing, in the Pope's presence, the deed
of concession, which, without their signa-
tures, shall be null anù void. This Bull,
issued in the first instance to restrain the
arts and practices by which the spirit of the
former prohibitions against K epotism was
evaded, determines, beyond all controversy,
the scope of those earlier Papal decrees with
which it stands connected, and in conjunc-
tion with which subsequent Popes have
sworn to it. The assertion, therefore, that
the Pope (who, in every other respect, is
invested with absolute powers exceeding
those of every other Prince) holds his tem-
poral sovereignty by ties involving a limita-
tion on his executive, for which there is no
preceJent in the conditions attacheCl to the
tenure of any other Crown,-ties that would
reJuce him to the condition of a helpless
bondsman in a matter recognised to lie
184 ON PAPAL COXCLAVES.
.
within the province of every sovereign's
individual discretion by the fundamental
principles of monarchical government,-may
be fearlessly pronounced to be as unfounded
an allegation as the fact would be a glaring
and unparalleled paradox.
IX.
A T a moment when, in the ordinary course
of nature, a Papal election must be
a thing not far distant, it ",ill not be
inopportune to append to this outline of the
constitutional law of Conclaves a summary
of the incidents that marked the last one
helJ. At this season precedents may be
usefully reverted to, and though vast physi-
cal changes, reacting necessarily on Conclaves,
as on all human institutions, have been in-
troduced since 1846, the moral elements
which then came into play cannot be said
to have become obsolete. There was then
no railway communication in Italy, anù no
electric telegraph was then known. fidings
took many days, in 1846, to travel "ith the
greatest expedition from Rome to Yienna or
Paris, whereas now, a few instants after the
186 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
Pope's decease the fact can be brought to
the knowledge of the antipodes, so that
long before the old pre:5crihed nine days of
mourning are elapse.l, every Cardinal in
existence will be ahle to reach Rome with
perfect case. It has not escapf'd ohserva-
tion, therefore, that this Conclave will
assemble under physical conditions entirely
different from former ones. But this does
not hold equally gOOll of the moral elements
in the field. A striking analogy presents
itself at once Letween the kimls of influ-
ence that, on the last occasion, stood, and
again will stand, over against each other.
In 184G the struggle lay between the Car-
dinal who, during the latp Pope's reign, as
Secretary of State, had he en the ahsolute
distributor of patronage-the Grand Yizier,
whose word had been law, and whose smile
had been favour,-and all those who had
been offended at his protracted greatness,
and who de sir. d to supplant him. At the
coming election "e may expect to see once
more in the field a Cardinal who for an even
longer period has been in pos:5ession of a yet
more marked and more detested prepon-
derance, and between whom and his enemies
the struggle bids fair to prove propor-
OF PAPAL COXCLA YES. 187
tionately sharp. On the last occasion this
antagonism decided the election j and mth
intensity not ùiminished, why should it not
again prove the determining element 1 But
the intention here is not to speculate on
the future, but only to narrate facts of the
past. Gregory XVI. died, tben, as has
been said, unex"'Pectedly, although his ad-
vanced years shoJIld have prepared the
public for such an event. He had, however,
been sr> robust that his eighty years had
dropped out of sight. X ot merely the
population of Rome was taken by surprise
on hearing of his death, but likemse the
Catholic Cabinets, who had unaccountably
neglected to be prepared for a sudden emer-
gency with proper candidates, and confiden-
tial agents, instructed how to exercise their
respective vetoes. This was the more extraor-
dinary inasmuch as the relations of the Court
of Rome' and general political considerations
connected with the state of Italy had occupied
not a little the attention of those Catholic
Cabinets which have an especial interest in
the Holy See. The closing years of Gregory
XVI.'s reign had been marked by various in-
cidents that had given ri::;e to much agitation
in diplomatic circles. In 1845,there occurred
188 ON THE CO STITUTIO
.
the rising in the Romagna, which was indeed
suppressed forthwith, but only to revive in a
far more effective shape-in the famous pam-
phlet I casi delle Romagne, which, written
and acknowledged by :Massimo d'Azeglio,
circulated as the testament of a new political
gospel throughout the peninsula. Then
there came the memorable visit of the Czar
Nicholas to Rome, and those interviews in
which the Pope had dared to speak to the
dreaded Autocrat words of firm protest
against the treatment to which he subjected
the Catholic Church in Russia. The interest
excited in the political world at the time
by this remarkable conference was very
great, for on the one hand the religious
agitation in Poland had assumed serious
proportions, while speculation was stimulated
by the mystery surrounding this interview,
at which only two witnesses 1 had been
allowed to be present. Finally, there had
happened the 3tartling nomination as French
ambassador uf
- I. Rossi, a born subject of
the Pope, fugitive professor from Bologna, and notoriously compromised Liberal, who came avowedly to obtain from the Holy See
1 Cardinal Acton and M. Boutenieff, the Russian
Minister in Rome.
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 189
its concurrence in the principles of free
education then being advocated in France,
and its compliance in the desire of the
French Government for the reduction 'within
moderate limits of the establishments that
had been opened in France, more or less
clandestinely, by the Jesuits, in evasion
of the law. All these circumstances had
brought about a degree of inward agitation
which, though still outwardly suppressed,
was sufficiently declared to be acknowledged
by all who had not some special interest in
speaking against the truth.
During his reign of sixteen years, it befell
Gregory XVI. to create no less than seventy-
five Cardinal
, which are five more than the
Sacred College can count, according to the
Bull of Sixtus v., in force. The mortality
amongst his nominees was, however, inordi-
nately rapid, for at the moment of the
Pope's death the whole College did not
amount to more than sixty-two, of whom
two dated still from Pius VII. and seven
from Leo XII.! Those present in Rome
1 Gregory left fh'e Cardinals in pelto, whose sealed-
up names were communicated to his successor by the
Cardinal Camerlengo-the dignitary who takes in charge
the inventory of the Papal palace, and therewith of the
Pope's writing-table, in which it is customary for him to
190 O
TlIE CONSTITrTIO
were but thirty, who, thc day after the
Pope's demise (2d June), met in congrega-
tion as appointed, and dcvoted themselves
to the prescribed fonnalitie:-;. :::;ingularly
enough, im.;tcad of shortening the prelimi-
nary period, they even extended this; for it
was only on the 14th Junc that the Car-
dinal
, who haa been reinforced to fifty in
the interyal, entered solemnly into Conclave.
The state of parties in the Sacred College
had bren sharply definhl, from the moment
of the Pope's decease, between the faction
of the Cardinal Secretary of State and an
opposition which went by tlH
a!)peUation
of the Roman party, from its Ipading mem- bers being Homans, and their assumed opin- ion that the times required the elevation of a born Roman to tllf' throne of the Roman States. In contradistinction, the Cardinals who acted along with Lamhruschini-a natiye of Genoa-went by the appellation of the Genoese party. Between these two sections it wad evident from the first that the contest would lie, and both parties
deposit their names. It was in a drawer of this table
thai Gregory XVI. kept the deed dispensing the Car-
dinals from the obligation to wait nine da
s before
proceeding to election.
OF PAPAL COXCL\.YES. 191
entered Conclave with names in circulation
as likely candidates. The leader of the 80-
called Roman party was Cardinal Bernetti,
who had been twice Secretary of State.
That he himself should be elected Pope
never came into question; but, although
out of the field as a candidate, he was very
forward in it as the active organizer of an
opposition against the colleague who had so
long and so completely supplanted him in
the coveted post of First :Minister. The
n
mes mentioned as of Cardinals who might
be candidates for this party werE' Gizzi,
De Angelis, Soglia, Falconieri, and .J[astai
Ferretti. Of these Cardinal Gizzi was the
best known, and amongst the public, most
popular name, for he had the character of
an opponent to the late Pope's reactionary
system of government; also, in the golllen
days of the new era, this Cardinal became
Secretary of State to Pius IX., the Pope
of amnesties anù refonning action. De
Angelis is the Cardinal who since has made
a figure, as Bishop of Fermo, for his hostile
attitude to the Italian Government, alid
consequent deportation to Piedmont. Fal-
conieri had the aJvantage of being member
of a great noble family in Rome, and a
192 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
prelate of such exemplary nature that, as
Archbishop of Ravenna, he conciliated all.
His funeral (which took place since the
Revolution) was a demonstration of uni-
versal sympathy. Of Soglia, it may be
remembered that, during the ephemeral
period of constitutional government, he
figured as Premier of a Cahinet; while of
Cardinal l\Iastai-Fcrretti little was known
beyond the fact of his having, as Bishop of
lmola, acquired much respect, and of his
having conducted himself in a charitable
spirit on the occasion of re'\- olutionary out-
breaks in that neighbourhood. Of the five
indicated, his was the name least spoken
of, and certainly least familiar. On the
opposite side the moving spirit ought also
to have been aware that it was useless
for him to expect to become Pope. It has
grown into an admitted point of Papal
electoral custom that a Secretary of State
practically forfeits his chances of becoming
Pope.! But in this instance there were
many additional reasons why Cardinal
Lambruschini should never be ahle to ob-
1 The last instance to the contrary is the election of
Carclinal Rospigliúsi, Pope Clement IX., 1667.
OF rAP_\.L COXCL.\.YES. 193
tain a majority. He was a thoroughly
lUlI)Opular man, of a hard, narrow, and
avaricious nature, that weighed tyrannically
on such who::;c timid nerves quailecl, but
could elicit sympathies only from depend-
ants by di
position or lJara:;ites by choice.
He was a man feared and detested. Car-
dinal Lambruschini was, besides, a prelate
incapable of cloaking his passions, or of
checking his tongue in the transports of his
humour. During his administration he had.
governed in concurrence "ith the Court of
Vienna, to which he owed elevation j and
when he entered the Conclave as chief of
a party, it was with the view of maintain-
ing the cou;:;ervative principles of policy he
had clung to for sixteen years, and with the
hope of f'ecuring to himself, at the least, a
renewed lease of his former position if he
were forced to give up the tiara itself to
another. The men who followed his stand-
ard were the incarnations of retrogradism,
or individuals specially bonnd to him j
though it is believed that, in the event of
finding hinlself obliged to forego all hope
of his own election, he contemplated mak-
ing a candidate of Cardinal Franzoni-a
man more open to generous feelings, more
1 Ð 4 OX THE COXSTITUTIOX
likely to secure suffrages, but who proved,
precisely for this reason, in the critical
moment, no trustworthy supporter of the
strictly personal views of the Lambruschini
party. There was also Cardinal J\Iicara,
the Capuchin, who occupied an anomal-
ous position, which made him influential.
He was a man like Sixtus Y., energetic,
hasty, and even violent in his temper j
so that at Frascati, where he was Bishop,
he once forgot himself so far as to strike
in the "face a man he was conversing with
on the square, from whom he fancied
himself to have received a slight. Cardinal
J\Iicara was an oddity, and an object of
terror to his colleagues, but a man of the
people j a true Capuchin of the homely type
in his habits-great in charities and familiar
with the poor: he was so popular, in spite
of his known narrowness of ideas and trucu-
lent temper, that the populace cheered him
as Pope-elect in the streets of Rome. A
different stamp of man was Cardinal Altieri,
who, it was believed, aimed at the Secre-
taryship of State, amI intrigued to secure
that office against the votes of himself
and a few hangers-on. "
hen the Car-
dinals, therefore-fifty in number,-began
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 195
to ballot on the 13th June, they appeared
divided into one compact body at the
beck of Cardinal Lambruschini, and an
opposition, not so compact as to vote
systematically together, but yet sufficiently
united in hostility to the late Secretary,
not to give him any votes; while a
small flying troop, under the command of
Altieri, acted like shrewd electors on the
look-out for a profitable windfall. The first
ballot gave at once the measure of Lam-
bruschini's following, and led to the crisis
that decided the election against him. To
ha,-e thus revealed from the very first the
full strength of his forces was an error in
electoral tactics eminently characteristic of
this Cardinal's inability to control his pas-
sions. Instead of exercising the virtue of
patience until the arrival of reinforcements
to his party, known to be on their way,
Cardinal Lambruschini, driven by an irre-
sistible avidity to clutch the coveted prize,
ventured upon an attempt to snatch its
posse::ision by a coup de main—impossible
of success under the circumstances, and
which had for sole effect to dete'rmine his
final and immediate defeat by the instan-
taneous coalition of all his enemies in a
196 UX THE COXSTITUTIO
common effort. It will be borne III mind that the voting goes through two processes -the first heing an ordinary ballot, at which each Cardinal has to give his vote; the second, termed technically tllP accessus, where it is allowable for a Cardinal to transfer his previous vote to any candidate who may have obtained votf-'S on that same previous occasion. The general practice has been to hold each day only one ballot in the forenoon, and a supplcmental one, the accessus, in the afternoon; but on the present occasion the Cardinals douhled the votings, so that l)oth morning and evening there was a ballot, followed immediately by its supplement. "Then the votcs on the forenoon of the 13th June were cast up, it was found that Lambruschini had come out with fifteen votes on the two proce
- ,t's,
while l\Iastai counted twelve, the other twenty-three Cardinals having scattered their votes in driblets on a variety of names. The importance of these numbers could not escape observation. The fifteen men who had voted for "Lamhruschini would require the addition of only five to make him sufficient master of the Conclave to prevent a canonical majority for any
OF PAPAL COXCLAVES. 197
candidate he did not approve of. That
Cardinal:::, and especially foreign ones, were
on the road who would go along with
Lambruschini was a fact perfectly known.
Consequently the immediate feelings un the
part of the opposition were of alarm lest the
arrival in time for voting of these Cardinals
should confirm Lambruschini's ascendency,
and of in:::tinctive desire by drawing together
in quick support of the same man to carry the
election by the very stratagem of surprise
which Lambruschini had vainly sought to
ply. ""ho that man might be, most pro-
perly, was sufficiently indicated under the
circumstances by the morning's poll; and
thus br general consent Cardinal )Iastai,
from the mere fact of the votes that had
been recorded in his favour, in part pro-
hably without serious intentions, came to
occupr the position of a natural candidate
for the opposition. The afternoon's poll
already gave evirlence of the work that had
been in operation in the interval of
few
hours. Cardinal Lambruschini' s following had been broken in upon; two of his 'ldherent:; had been induced to fall away; and while he now counted only thirteen votes, Iastai came out with his numbers rai ed to seven-
198 O
THE COXSTITUTIO
teen. From that instant Lambruschini's
chances were gone, as regards his own elec-
tion, and it only remaineJ a question whether
he might still succeed in averting a conclusive
votp until the arrival of those Cardinals
who would combine to prevent the complete
victory of tlH' opposite faction. But this
hope was not destined to be realized. The
incidents of the day had produced a deep
impression. The Cardinals felt that they
were eÀposed to an indefinite Conclave if
they allowed it to be spun out until the
intervention of their still absent colleagues;
and a protracted Conclave in the peculiar
condition of the nomagna, and the revolu-
tionary agitation throughout Italy, all Car-
dinals who postponed personal to general
interests concurred in deprecating as a
most disastrous event. X ext morning the
action on the Cardinals of the night's con-
sultation was unmistakable. On the ballot
papers being examined, :i\Iastai was found
with twenty-six votes, while Lambruschini
had gone down further to eleven. So suc-
cessful a progress instinctively elated the
opposition with hope of being able by an
energetic effort to complete their victory, and
this much desired consummation ,vas really
OF PAPAL COXCLA YE . 199
achieved the same afternoon. 'Yhen Lam-
bruschini had hccome aware of his having
no chance of coming out of the contest as
the winning man, he thought of pushing
forward Cardinal Franzoni, in the hope that
his milder nature might counteract the rising
opposition. But just because the Cardinal
was a man of conscience, he was little fitteù
for the party character which he was ex-
l)ected to assume. He declined to be lured
away from giving his adhesion to
Iastai
when he perceived the real drift of the
manæmTe, and his example had much influ-
ence on others. Cardinal Franzoni refused
to serve as the puppet of factious ambition,
and in the afternoon ballot l\Iastai's name
came out with the addition of one vote,
numerically, indeed, a small, but in reality
a ,-ery substantial addition, while Lam-
bruschini once more had gone along his
downward course to eight. Things there-
fore stood thus :-In Conclave there were
fifty Cardinals, requiring thirty-four votes
on the same head for a canonical elec-
tion. Accorrlingly seven were wanting to
make Cardinal l\Iastai a Pope when the
supplemental ballot was entered upon in
the afternoon of the 16th June 1846, and
200 ox THE COX TIT{)TIO
. resulted in the decisive addition of nine to his former numbers; Lambruschini's eight proving faithful tu the last. The gain was therefore on the floating portion of the con- stituency; and it is believed that Pius IX. owed his election to the adhesion of Car- dinal Acton, who is credited with having commanded nine votes, which at this crown- ing moment he carried tu Cardinal Ia tai Ferretti. The day following divers Car- dinals arrived, and amongst these was C,'\r- dinal Gaysruck, with those secret instruc- tions from his Court which would have arrested this momentous election had they only been in Rome twelve hours earlier. The whole duration of the Conclave was not more than fifty hours, and the last of these were marked by a singular incident. In the afternoon of the 1 Gth June, it tran- spired that the Cardinals were un the point of proclaiming a Pope, and the report spread through the city with the rapidity of elec- tricity; but tin midnight the population, mid even the highest and he t informed personages, remained under the firm convic- tion that the Pope was to be Cardinal Gizzi. "Then therefore the error was exploùed, the anllouncement of a name so little known
OF P_\.PAL COXCLAYES. 201
added to the universal :",urpri'5e at the change
of scene that had been happening with such
extraordinary quicknesi". One point may
be worth drawing attention to in this Con-
clan', as illustrative of the difficulties at-
tending an estimate of the nature and
temper of the constituency of Cardinals.
If ever there was a Sacreù Collegp which
would have appeared to give every guarantee
for its strictly conselTative composition, it
lllight have seemed the one composed under
the selecting influence, during sixteen rears,
of a Pope like Gregory XVI., acting band
in hand "ith a minister of Lambruschini's
stamp, not to speak of the no less pronounced
\ conservative dispositions of the preceding
sovereigns, Leo XII. and Pius nIl.
urely
the door might have been deemed to have
been tightly enough closed against the ingres.s
of liberal elements under the vigilant watch
of keepers of such uncompromising rigidity.
Yet out of a
acred College of ;:,ouch carefully
exclusi,-e construction there sprung up the
element of opposition, which carried the elec-
tion of Pius IX., under the sole reaction of
personal feelings against the gallillg ascen-
dency of a grasping, an avid, and an im-
perious minister. "C ndoubtedly Pius IX. has
02 OX THE COXSTITUTIOX
been in the highest degree careful in the
selection of member::) for the Sacred College
VdlOSC mine Is are not given to new-fangled
teachings; but let it not be forgotten that
in their human natures these invulnerahle
giants of orthodoxy are liable to be swayed
hy the same curr('nts of pcr::;onal passions as
their fellows and predece
sors; and that the
same, and, of its kind, even a more power-
ful instrument for irritation, is forthcoming
at pre::;ent, in the shape of a minister who
e
grasping, and avid, and all-usurping nature
has be('n most poignantly felt, nay, ha
thrown into the shaJe the hateful memory of Lam hruschini. 'Ye have now brought to a close our survey of the elements that are forthcom- ing in tllP living organization of the See of nome in relation to that capital function of its system-Pope-making. l\[uch which is curious mi ht still be addeJ on a subject so vast and abounding in strange incident. The object, however, has not been to write a history of Papal elections, hut only to point out the provisions existing in the constitution of the Court of Rome to this end, and the facilities these may furnish for new combinations, if recommended as
OF PAPAL COXCLAYES. 203
expedient hy circumstances. It will have
heen seen that an organism which at first
sight appears framed on principles of the
most rigid formalism, contains within it a
vast stock of elasticity and capacity for
aùaptation to new forms. This faculty
has been called into play on various and
capital occasionF':, and such departures from
precedent, under a wise regard for l)olicy,
have been approved of by the concurrent
conscience of generations in the Church.
The great schism was healed by one of the
boldest and most revolutionary measures
on record,-the creation of what was a
religious Constituent Assembly for the
nonce,-calling into eÀi::;tence for a special
purpose an electoral boùy without prece-
dent. On other occasions, Popes have of
their mvn authority dispensed with the
most time-honoured and the most care-
fully enjoined pre::;criptions, when these were
found contrary to sound policy; and the
Church has never considered them to have
exceeded their legitimate attributes by such
stretches of authority. The constitution of
the Court of Rome is therefore so far from
being what it is popularly supposed, a thing
of strictly limited nature, over- weighteù
04 ON PAPAL COXCLAYER.
. with the encumhrance of ahsolute InJunc-
tions, that it will 1)(> founa, when the heart
of the system is reached, tv be actually one
of the most elastic in existence. Let only
the instincts of the hody repre
enting tIll'
Church he alive to a necessity, however
new, and that hody can at once, without
taint of illegal and revolutionary preten-
sion, recognise the call for new conditions.
There is in fact no limitation on the plenary
power of the governing hÜ(ly, in spite of the
stringent formalism within which at first
sight it seems to he tightly hound. If,
then, it be the ca:::.e that the circumstance
now besetting the Papacy exact concessions from it for the removal of otherwise insuper- able difficulties, it is certain that there is nothing in the nature of its tenure which must on principle put it out of the power of him who holds that dignity to make freely any such concesc:;ion as may be demawle(l h,} reasons of sound policy.
APPEKDIX.
APPEXDIX A.
IT may perhaps be thought by some that )Ir.
.Bergenroth has been hasty in giving credence to the
existence of so astounding a dispensation, on the
mere testimony of a posterior Spanish State-paper,
however grave its nature may be. But in a collec-
tion of documents drawn from the Vatican Records,
etlited by their Keeper, Father Theiner, printed in
the Yatican Palace, and issued with the imp1.imatIlT
of the Court of Rome, we possess irrefragable evi-
dence of two Papal utterances in the matter of
marriages, which certainly fall very little short of
this dispensation in la"mess of morality. They are
to be found in the retera .Jlollumenta Poloniæ,
4 vols. folio, Rome, 186-1. The first case is that
of Casimir the Great of Poland (l3:J3-70), who
married Anne, daughter of the Duke of Lithu-
ania, and, on her death, Adelaide of Hesse, who,
1336, returned to her father, being indignant at
her husband.s infidelities. Casimir then became
enamoured of his cousin, Hedwig, daughter of
Henry Duke of Sagan, and, though Adelaide was
alh-e, went through a marriage ceremotJ) with her.
At first he vainly sought, through his nephew,
Louis of Hungary, to get a dispensation from
Rome. For a while Urban v. would not hear
08
APPEXDIX.
.. thereof. 'Yhat argument induced him to yield in
the end is unknown; bnt that the marriage be-
tween Casimir and Hedwig came to be recognise.l
by him as valid, during Adelaide's lifetime, is
now proved Lya Brief from Urban v. to Casimir,
certifying that the charge brought against the lat-
ter, of having forged the dispensation for his mar-
riage, was unfounded, and which Brief is printed
in ret.
lIon. Pol. vol. i. p. 649. In it the Pope
writes :-.' Cum itaque, sicut accepimus ab aliqui-
bus tuæ celsit11l1inis emulis famam Regii nominig
denigrare conantibus, tam in judicio quam extra ju-
dicium, minus veraciter asseratur certas apostolicas
litteras per quas tecum fuisse dispensatum diceba-
tur, quod cum dilecttL in Christo filiíl. nobile muliere
. . . . natt
(liketi filii lIobilis 't,iri JIenrici dllCis
Za[JallÍf'nsis . . . . matrimonillm contrahere posses, falso fuisse tuo nomine fabricatas, nos ad famam ips ius tui nominis conservandam omnem infamiam, si qu!l. forsan contra celsitudinem tuam occasione premissorum, a quibus te reputavimus insontem, foret exorta, velutfrh'olam, et inanem tenore pre- sentium penitus abolemus, ita quod nihil ex præ- dictis contra excellentiam tuam in judicio vel extra in perpetuum possit objici vel opponi.' " hile the term matrimonill?n is conclusiye of the light in which the tie b ;tween Casimir and Hedwig was considered by the Pope, it is remarkable, that though certifying to their authenticity, he guards himself against expressing approval of these same , litteras prædictas.' The second case given is that of an authoriza- tion to Alexander Duke of I..ithuania, and after-
APPR.,DIX.
209
wards King of Poland, to put away 11is 'Wife,
merely because she belonged to the Eastern Church,
in rlirect violation of his solemn oath 'When wedding
her, that he never would subject her to any com-
pulsion on account of their difference in faith.
At p. 288, voL ii. of the j[on. Pol. 'Will be found
a Brief from Pope Alexander YI., with date 8th
June 1501, in which we read,-' Declaravit orator
tuus quod cum nohilem Helenam in uxorem tuam
acciperes, per medium oratorum tuorum patri ejus-
dem inter cetera pollicitus es, quod etiam jura-
mento forte dictornm oratornm su b nomine tuo
confirmatum extitit, nunquam eandem compul-
surum ad ritnm Romanæ ecclesiæ suscipiendum.'
This promise the Pope commends Alexander for
having observed during five years, but as in spite
of his indulgence the said Helena persisted in re-
maining an obstinate schismatic he absolves him
from his pledge (':X on obstantibus promissionibus
et juramentis ]wædictis, qui bus te nullatenus teneri
tenore præsentium declaramus '). The Duke is
directed, however, once more to seek the effect of
kind llersuasion to induce his "ife to fall a'Way
from the 'pessima Ruthenorum secta,' but if she
still proves recalcitrant, then the Bishop of 'Vilna
'eandem Helenam a cohabitatione thori tui separet,
et aliis maritalibus obsequiis prh'et, ac penitus a te
dimoveat.' But in spite of this Papal authorization
there 'Was a practical difficulty about effecting this
repudiation. Helena 'Was the daughter of the
powerful Duke of )!uscovy, who was likely to
resent an affront to his child in a manner the
force of Poland might be unable to defy. Accord-
o
210
APPEXDIX.
ingly, Duke Alexander, who had meanwhile suc-
ceeded to the throne of Polanù, deemed it prudent
to defer repudiation, at least until the death of his
father-in-law, who was ad,-anced in years, anù
applied to the reigning Pope, Julius II., to sanction
a postponement of his persecuting zeal. This re-
quest Julius granted in a Brief, also given by
Theiner, vol. ii. p. 319, which, from its ingenuous
language, is the most astonishing Papal clocument
we know. "Tithout circumlocution, the Pope gives
expression to thc purely secular consideration that
weighed in his ùecision,-' Considerans quod, . . . .
illius patcr l\Ioscoviæ dux præfatns, (1 ui tiùi finiti-
mus dicionis amplitudine ac virilms est potentior,
iniquo id ferens animo, facile rursus belia et
damna intolierabilia tibi ac terris regnicolisque
ejus inferre posset ;' the Pope graciollsly listens to
the King's humble requcst that, by apostolical kind-
ness, he might be inùulgetl to put up with his wife
(' uxorem præfatllffi tolierantli') until the death of
the already ùecrepit Duke of )Iuscovy, or some
other opportunity, by God's favour, should render
repudiation free from risk (' donee per obitum dicti
)Ioscoviæ ducis, qui jam etate decrepitus est, vel
per aliam aliquam occasionem, dispensante Altis-
simo opportunitas offeratnr aliter in hac parte pro-
videnùi '). Accordingly, Pope J 11lius assents, unùer
certain provisos, to his retaining Helena as his
wife until such time as he can sen.! her away
without fear of unpleasant consequences (' uxorem
tuam velut hactellus tolierare et habitare cum
eâdem libere et licite valeas, nec ad ipsam dimitten-
dam tenearis, donce aliqna opportuna occasio aliter
APPEXDIX.
211
in Mc parte deliberandi, ut premittitur offeratur ').
Of course, in all these practical dissolutions of
marriage, the Church which pronounces marriage
a sacrament never professes to dissolve this, but
always puts forward some flaw which it is the
duty of canonists to invent as the gl'ound for de-
claring ipso fncto null and voill the contract in
question. This may be distinctive of the ability
of the doctors, but tIoes not remove the immorality
of the })roceeding. It would be desirable, how-
ever, to see the original text of the dispensations
in the cases of Henry of Castile and Casimir of
Poland, and so to judge by what quibble acts were
justified which, so far as we can judge, are in-
finitely more outrageous than the concession to
grave expediency once made by Luther, and which
Romanists are never tit'ed of hurling at his head.
See also Gesclticltle Polens in Heeren amI Ukert's
Collection, vol. xi. p. 332, for some c1'Ìticisms on
Theiner's documents.
12
APPE
"DIX.
APPEXDIX B.
THE case of Cardinal Andrea presents so many
important bearings, eyen though his return to
Rome within the term of citation should, in all
probability, quash further prosecution, that it will
not be inopportune to state briefly the chief pleas
on which the Pope relies in his comminatory
Brief of degradation. The canonical authorities
invoked in this document as affording a legal basis
for the decisions promulgated are the Blùls Ad
ttnit'ersæ Cltristiallæ Reipublicæ of Benedict XIV.
and Cum Juxta of Innocent x. As regarùs the
first of these Stat
tes, it must be observed that
its scope is strictly confined to simply recalling
to mind the residential obligations imposed on
Bishops by the Council of Trent, and that the
only clause which touches on Cardinals does so
only in so far as they are Bishops. The fol-
lowing is the text of this clause :-' Ceterum
intendimus sub præsentium Literarum K ostra-
rum ordinatione et dispositione etiam ipsos Yen-
erabiles Fratres Kostros Sanctæ Romanæ Ecc1e-
siæ Cardinales, qui Patriarchalibus Primatialibus
Archiepiscopalibus et Episcopalibus Ecclesiis præ-
dictis ex concessione et dispensatione Apostolica
nunc præsunt, et in futurum pneerunt comprehendi,
ac comprehensos esse et fore.' It is manifest that as
far as the provisions of this Bull come in question,
APPE..'\DIX.
213
they can touch Cardinal Andrea only in his capacity
of Bishop. It is therefore his suspension from th
See of Sabina which alone can be sought to be justified on the authority of this Bull. The sentence of absolute deprivation of all the attri- butes of the Cardinalitian dignity which is in- volved in the Bt'ief of the 29th September, consequently shmùd find its justification in the provisions of the other Statute invoked, the Bun Gum Juxta. '() ndeniably this decree was levelled at Cardinals, anù notoriously at the Cardinals Barberini in particular, who, greatly to the anger of Innocent X., left his dominions and sought the hostile protection of Mazarin. This personal motive in its inspiration caused the Pope ex- pressly to make the Bun retrospective in its action, so as to strike the case of these fugi- tive Barberinis. But clear as daylight though it be that this Statute lays Cardinals under penal- ties who leave the Pope's dominions without his license, there is nothing in it to warrant the ex- treme sentence which Pius IX. has deemed him- self empowered to formulate. Roman canonists have indeed attempted learnedly to prove that Cardinal Andrea has never come within the action of the Bull Gum Juxta, his departure having been rendered necessary for the preservation of life, which, in canon law, is a paramOlmt obligation no Pope has the power to traverse. This technical objection we are content to ignore. 'Vp are quite ready to admit the ground for proceedings against Cardinal Andrea that is afforded by this Bull Cum Juxta, and ;yet we are unable to extract frûm
214
APPEXDIX.
... its wording an adequate authority for the peculiar
sentence in question-a sentence without prece-
òent since that pronounced against the Colonnas by
Boniface YIlT., and subsequently so clearly con-
demned and reversed. The penalties reserved hy
Innocent x. for Cardinals who desert the Papal
States and disobey the Pope's summons to return,
comprise loss of temporalities and a general depri-
vation of the Cardiualitian dignity; but in the
whole of this very detailed Statute of pains and
penalties there is not a word implying the for-
feiture of franchise. By the provisions of this Bull
the Pope is empowered to do merely that which
there never could he a question hut a Pope has
perfect autllority to do to contumacious Cardinals,
namely, punish them with the kind of degradation
ultimately inflicted on Caròinal Coscia, that in-
volved loss of outward signs of rank, and even
partial disability of franchise, but not do" might
forfeiture-this last sentence originally pronounced
against this Cardinal being acknowledged by Pope
Clement XII. to labour under integral vice. The
importance of this point makes it well to give the
very words of that portion of the Bull Cwn Juxta
which comes in question, and then to append the
text of the Brief which Pius IX. addressed to Car-
dinal Andrea :-
'Si autem tam Cardinales, qui jam sine nostrt\
licentitl, ut præmittitur, e"-.tra Statum Ecclesiasti-
cum se trastulerunt, quam illi, quos in futurum, ut
supra extra eumdem Statum absque nostrâ, et pro
tempore existentis Romani Poutificis licentiâ se
transferre contigerit, per alios tres menses imme-
APPEXDIX.
215
diate sequentes, quos pariter pro tribus canonicis
monitionibus, peremptoriisque dilatiûnibus, et ter-
minis assignamus et sic in totum infra quindecim
menses personaliter, et cum effectu ad Romanam
Curiam non redierint, decernimus deveniri posse
ad alias pænas, etiam quantumlibet majores, et
graviores, ac indivillua mentione, specialique not9.
dignas per K os, et successores nostros Romanos
Pontifices declarandas, ac etimn US(l'le ad pænam
prÏl1Utionis dignilatis CardinalatÛs inclu8i
'e.'
The text of the Brief runs thus :-
C SanctisÛmi Domini .:.Yostri PI I, Dil"ina Prod-
dentia P AP...E IX. litteræ Apostolicæ quibu8
Hieronymus D'Andrea Cardinulis SllSpe1l8U8 de-
claratur ab insi!Jnibus et prit'ilegiis Cardinaliliæ
dignitatis alia Jue in eum decernwztur.
PH'S PP. IX.-Quamquam Illius Xos gerentes
in terris ,'ices, qui patiens et misericors est,
benignitatem clementiamque libenter sequamur,
tamen quia judicium et justitiam facere Apostolici
etiam muneris esse intelligimus, ad enllenda, quæ
in perniciem fidelium suboriantur, scandala, eOr-
umque auctores compescelldos supremæ nostræ
auctoritatis vim et robur exerimus. Id nos spec-
tantes jam inde ab anno proxime superiori 1866,
per similes in forma Brevis Litteras, die ] 2 mensis
J unii datas, auditis antea Yenerabilibus Fratribus
Nostris S. R. E. Cardinalibus, de eorumdem con-
silio omne jurisdictionis exercitium in
piritualibus
ac temporalibus tam in Ecclesiam Sabinensem,
quam in Abbatiam Sublaquensem ad nostrum et
216
.ArPE
"DIX.
S. Sedis beneplacitum Hieronymo D'Andrea Car-
dinali suspemlimus atqne interdiximus, quippe qui
mense Junio anno 1864, noLis justisbirnas ob causas
abnuentibns, aliasque ut oras ad confirmandalll
yaletl1dinem })eteret suadentiLus, Urbem repente
deserens Xeapolim profugisset, ihique adhl1c im-
morari pergeret contra Sacrorum Conciliorum de
piscoporum residentia sallctiones, contraque Ro- ruanornm Pontificum Prædecessorum
ostrorum
decreta de eadem re edita, et potissimum Bene- dicti XIV. COllstitntionem, qure incipit "Ad uni.- 1'ersæ Cltrisfianæ Rdpublicæ," ubi scilicet dpcernitur nOll licere Episcopis a Diæcesi sua recedere legi- tima ql1alibet ex causa etiam tuendre recreandæque valetudinis, nisi prius a Romano Pontifice pro tem- pore existente veniam fnerillt expresse consecuti. Keque minus severe de Cardinalium residentia statuerunt Prædecessores item X ostri Romani Pon- tifices, atque in primis Innocentius x. in sna Con- stitutione" Cum Juxta," die I!) Februarii anno 1646 edita. Is enimvero, qUl1m S. Eeclesiæ Romanæ Cardinales in partem Apost')licæ sollicitl1dinis vocati adstarc continenter Romano Pontifici, eiqne in regimine ulliversæ Ecclesiæ studil1m snum oper- amque præstare debeant, graves eisdcm, multipli- cesque indb..it pcenas, ipso facto, et absque judicis declaratiolle incurrendas, si extra civilem Ecclesiæ Statum demigrare ausi fuerint quacl1mque ex causa etiam puLlica et favorabili, et in corpore juris cIausa, nisi eadem causa a Romano Pontifice pro tempore existente expresse antea fuerit et probata et admissa. Jam vero hujusmodi inobedientire, atque irre-
APPEXDIX.
217
\'erentiæ exemplo adversus nos et Apostolicam
Sedem per memoratum Cardinal em edit 0, procul-
catisque tam atulacter ab eo sacrornm canonum
sanctionibus, et Pontificiis Constitutionibus, diu
multumque, sed tamen frnstra expectavimus dRm
ille resipiscens errati veniam postularet j frustra
illum per Cardinalem publicis l1egotiis præpositum,
ac deillde per Cardinalem Sacri Collegii Ðecallum
admollendum curavimus de gravissimis pænis, qui-
bus juxta sacros canones, et pontificias constitu-
tiones obnoxius evasisset. Ipse etenim adhibitas
admonitiones nihili faciens, actionem illam snam
tamquam culpa vacnam tueri pertinaciter institit,
e\'ulgatisque in earn rem litteris, amplissimorum
nonmùIorum Cardinalium, et spectatissimorum
Antistitum nomen famamque l}roscindere non
dubitavit iniquissimis conviciis et contumeliis,
omni posthabito et humanitatis et christianæ etiam
charitatis officio. Tanta hæc agendi scribendique
Iicentia viro potissimum indigna, qui et Cardillalitia
et Episcopali dignitate bonestaretur, maximum
nobis dolorem inussit j sed tamen nequid intenta-
turn relinqueremus ad ejus animum permovel1dum,
ac ne ullæ nostræ benignitatis et clementiæ partes
in hujusmodi re desiderarentur, Iitteras ei mitten-
das duximns manu nostra conscriptas, quibus hor-
tati eumdem sumus, ut consideraret etiam atque
etiam quam gra,.e fidelibus scandalum intulisset,
et quantam idcirco culpam sustineret, æternæque
sure sainti consulens in rectam ",iam redire ne
moraretur j ac postremo ùemmciavimus, nisi pa-
terna nostra monita Iibens voIensque audiret, et
sequcretur, i},SO Apostolici muneris officio nos fore
18
APPE
'"DIX.
eogendos, ut judicis tandem partes suseiperemus.
At enim nihil de animi sui pertinacia atque elatione
remittens, tam procaciter Xobis atque injuriose
respondit, ut id expectare vÏx potuissemus ab
homine, cui nulla sit erga Apostolicam Sedem fides
et observantia.
· Tam gravibus, tamque reprobandis admissis
æqua lance perpensis, et spectata prædicti Deces-
soris X ostri Innoeentii x. COl1stitutione, nemo non
videt, quanto gravior per Nos fuisset animadver-
sionis adhibenda. senritas.
iquidem in eadem
Constitutione memoratus Predecessor X oster sta-
tuit decernitqne ut omnes et singuli S. Rom. Ece.
Cardinales, qui non ohtenta a Romano Pontifice
pro tempore existente licentia extra temporalem
Ecclesiæ ditionem se transferant, statim eo ipso
absque alir1\la judicis vel alterius præcedente de-
claratione omnibus et quibuscumque prh-ilegiis,
immunitatibus, exemptiouibns et imlultis a
ede
Apostolica concessis privati sint et eJ\.istant; atque
insuper poenam interdicti ingressus Ecclesiæ eo
ipso pariter incurrant; nee non et aliis per Ro-
manos Pontifices quovis modo arbitral1dis pænis
subjaeeant, et etiam ad sequestrum omnium et
singulorum fructunm, reditnum, proveutuum, tam
quorumcumque officiorum et munerum etiam majo-
rum et consistOl ialiter concessorUID, specialiq ue
expressione dignorum, quam monasteriorum et
aliornm quorumlibet beneficiorum s..-ecularium et
cujuscumque ordinis regularium etiam jurisdic-
tionem sive spiritnalem siye temporalem baben-
tium, nec non pensionum super quibusvis fructibus
ecclesiasticis, contra eosdem Cardinales etiam sine
APPEXDIX.
219
aliqua citatione vel declaratione dcveniri possit ac
debeat. Et si Cardin ales prædicti per sex menses,
qui pro tribus canonicis monitionibus peremptor-
iisque dilationibus et termiuis assignantur a die
eorum recessus computandi ad TIomanam Curiam
personaliter, et cum effectu non redierint, ultra
pænas prædictas, et cumulative cum illis, atque
eo ipso pænam incurrant privationis omnium et
singulorum fructuum, reditunm, proventuum, tam
quorumcumque officiorum, nlUnernm etiam ma-
jorum et consistorialiter concessorl1m, specialiqne
nota dignorum, quam monasteriorum et aliorum
quorumlibet beneficiorum sæcularium et cujns-
cumque ordinis regularium, quæ in titulum, com-
mendam, administrationem, et alio qnocnmqne
modo obtineant, nec non pensionum super qui-
busque fructibus ecclesiasticis eisdem Canlinalibus
assignatarum. Quod si lapsis præclictis sex mensi-
bus, per alios sex menses immediate sequentes,
qui pariter pro tribus canonicis monitionibus et
peremptoriis terminis assignantur, ad Romanam
Curiam personaliter, et cum effectu minime re-
dierint, cumulati,-e cum singnlis præd.ictis IJænis,
etiam pænam privationis omnium prædictorum
officiornm, munerum etiam majorum et consis-
torialiter concessorum, et beneficiorum (luorum-
Ii bet tam sæcularium, quam regularium eo ipso
itidem, et absque alia declaratione in currant. Si
autem Cardina.les prædicti per alios tres menses
immediate sequentes, qui pari tel' pro tribus ca.no-
nicis admonitionibus, peremptoriisque dilationibus
assignantur, et sic in totum infra quindecim
menses ad Romanam Curiam personaliter, et cum
220
APPEXDIX.
.. effectu non reclierint, decernitur deveniri posse
ad alias pænas etiam qnantumlibet majores, et
graviores, atq ue indh-idua mentione dignas, per
Romanos Pontifices declarandas, atque etiam usque
ad pænam privationis Cardinalatus inclusive. Jam
vcro, quum exeullte mense Sel'tembri anni ISG3,
quindecim mensium spatium effiuxisset, postquam
memoratus Cardinalis a civili Ecclesiæ :)tatu
illicitfJ recesserat, nullisque monitis atque borta-
tiOllihus l)ermotus in eadem contumacia perstaret,
diguus profecto censelldus erat qui, juxta Canoni-
cas sanctiones, et prædictam Innocentii x. Consti-
tutionem, Carrlinalatus honore, et Episcopatu
Sabinensi, aliisque, quibus gauderet, beneficiis
privaretur. Yerum ut ante grave illud animad-
versionis genus adhuc ei spatium relinqueremus
colligendi se, et salliora cOllsilia suscipiendi, utque
securitati consuleremus fiùelium Sahinorum et
Suhlaquensium, quibus datus aù salutem pastor
ob prava illa exempla lapis offensionis evaserat, et
petra scaudali, per memoratas superius nostras
litteras, nulla ex parte derogando Innocentii x.
Constitutioni, prædictum Cardinalem suspensioni
dumtaxat subjecimus, omnis jurisdictionis in Ec-
clesiam Sabinensem, et A1)batiam Hublaquensem,
eisque Alltistites præfecimus, qui ad
ostrum et
S. Sedis llutmn (0mmissas sibi Diæceses admilli-
strarent. Hac porro irrogata suspensionis pæna,
quæ levior multo esset, quam culpæ gra\Ïtas pos-
tularet, sperahamus quidem futurum, ut is ad
bonam meutem, voluntatemque converteretur.
Sed tamen concept a spes in irritum cessit; quippe
eo temeritatis de venit, ut ab Apostolicis N ostris
APPEXDIX.
221
litteris ad mclius informatum Pontificem provoca-
tionem palam interjecerit; atque ad eludendam,
si fieri posset, Apostolicæ Sed is auctoritatem illud
adhibuerit effugii genus, quod ii plerumque ad-
Libuerunt, qui S. Sedis sententiam declinare niter-
entur; quam quid em appellationem prædecessores
nostri Romani Pontifices merito rejecerunt ac re-
probarunt. Atque in Llljusmodi causa absurda
prorsus erat ea provocatio, quippe quod memorati
Cardinalis admissa sic erant extra dubitationem
posita, ita certa atque explorata omnibus, ut nulla
possent tergiversatione celari.
'Xeque vero hie se continuit, sed Litteris ad
utrumque Clerum, et Populum Sabil1ensem et Sub-
laquensem missis, et vero etiam quaquaversus dif-
fusis, asseruit, ae propngnavit irritas prorsus esse,
et nullius vis ac roboris ad quoslibct canol1icos
efrectus ApostoIicas nostras Litteras, quibus inter-
dictum illi est jurisdictionis exercitium; nulla legi-
tima potestate lJOllere præpositos a '!\ obis admillis-
tratores, eosque tamquam furtive, ae l)er vim suum
in ovile iUllnissos existimandos ; se unum legitimum
pastorem ha1Jendum, sibi proinde obcùielltiam præ-
standam. At(!ue eo progressus est, ut per epistolam
typis editam audacter a Nobis pctierit, ut memora-
tas Kostras A.postolicas Litteras revocaremus, utpote
injustas ac nulIius vis, atque efficaciæ ; absisteremus
aliqualldo ab ipso injuste insectando; sibique inte-
grum esse affirmaverit interdictam per Nos juris-
dictiollcm in utraque Diæcesi exercere tam in foro
interno, quam externo.
, Quid quod suis in seriptis in lucem eclitis plura
congessit ad minuendam deprimendamque Aposto-
22:3
APPEXDIX.
. licæ Sedis auctoritatem pertinentia, et X os partim
privatis littcris, partim etiam in vulgus emissis
omui incessere contl1melia minime veritus in per-
sona Humilitatis :s ostræ Apostolicæ Sedis sancti-
tatem dignitatemque violan>rit? quid quod 1mblicas
commendaverit ephemerillas, quæ pravis infectæ
doctrinis, et Sanctæ Sedi ma..ximopere adversæ
civilem illius principatum oppugnarent, atque alleo
non obscure significanrit assentiri se nonl1ullis per
suos falltores evulgatis lihcllis, qui propositiones
falsas et omnino damnandas complecterentur ?
, Gravia bæc q uidem sunt, et reprobanda, in eo
tamen reproballda maxime, planeque non ferenda,
qui Episcopali et Cardinalitia dignitate insignitns,
Catbolicam tueri ac propagare d0ctrin3T),}, pecnli-
arem erga Beatissimi Petri Sedem eJ\.bibere reve-
rentiam, ejusùemque bonorem, jura, privilegia
servare ac promovere omni ope ùcbeat, quemad-
modum sese interposita juramenti fide in accipi-
cndis Cardinalitiis insignibus obstrinxerat. Itaque
quum tres et eo amplius anni elapsi fuerint, ex quo
ruemoratus Cardinalis pertinaciæ culpa, aliisque
excessibus insordescat, nullamque faciat spem ad
honam se frugem recipienùi, quumque scriptis in
vulgus editis perversis ac turbulentis fidelium
animos perturhet, ac transversos agat; quaque
ornatus est dignit l.te in religion is detrimentum, et
Romanæ Ecclesiæ dedecus ablltatur ; ne boc tantum
malum serpat latins, ac roboretur, Nobis qui rlati
SlmlUS speculatores domui Israel providendum
omnino est, aliaqne præcavenda pericula, quæ
Ecclesiæ Dei exinde impendere noscamt1s. Proinde
ipso vigilantiæ pastoralis officio, quantum vis inviti,
ArPE DIX.
3
uti in illum cogimur severitatc pænarum, quns ad-
versus hujusmodi cOlltumaces Sacri Canones, et
Pontificiæ Constitutiones decernunt ; quippe animo
etiam reputamus verissima ilIa S. Siricii Præde-
decessoris Nostri ad Himeriu1ll Episcopum Tarra-
conensem verba "K ecesse est ut ferro abscindantur
vu]nera, quæ fomentorum nonsenserint medicinam."
Attall1en cum prædicto Cardinali mitius agere aù-
huc volelltes, auditis VenerabililJUs FratribusX ostris
S. E. R. Canlillalibns, superseùendnm a ùictarull1
gravitate pænarum, et sl1spensionem aL insignibus,
et privilegiis Cardinalitiis aùversus ipsnm decernen-
dam in præsens existim:wimus. Quapropter certa
scientia ac matura deliberatiolle K ostra, deque
eorl1mdem Cardinalil1m consilio, auctoritate 110stra
Apostolica memoratum Hieronymum D'Andrea
Carllinalem suspendiml1s, ac sl1spensum declaramus
ab honoribus, illsignibns, et juribus dignitatis
Cardinalitiæ, et signanter a voce acti,-a et passiva
in electione Summi Pontificis, sic ut ejusmodi pænæ
subjectus evocari non debeat, nec possit ad Con-
clave, neque admitti, quam evocationem et admis-
sionem Cardinalibus eorumque Collegio prorsus
probibell1us, sublata penitus quacllmque ad suffra-
gandum, et votum pro dicta electione dandum
babilitatione, eumque ad Conclave evocandum
facultate, quam quovis titulo, et ratione in corpore
juris clausa, aut vigore ql1arumcumque Constitu.
tionum Pii PP. IV., Gregorii XV., aliorumque Præ-
decessorum Kostrorum allegari contigerit, quibus
omnibus et singulis, quorum tenores hic pro ex-
pressis et contentis habemus et plenaria nostra
auctoritate derogaml1s, et pro derogato haberi
224
APPE
DIX.
volumus et mandamus. Præterea memorato Car-
dinali D'Andrea trium mensium peremptorium
terminum adsignamus, a ùatis hisce K ostris Litteris
computandnm, infra quem non per procuratorem
sed personaliter et cum effectu coram nobis et hac
Apostolica ;:;ede sistere se debeat ad recipienrla
humiliter mallilata Kostra. Quo termino inutiliter
elapso, ad declaration em privationis Cardinalatus,
Episcopatus sui Carllinalatns, nempe
abinensis,
nec non ALbatiæ Suhlaquensis, aliorumque Bene-
ficiorum, quiLus ipse fruitur, devel1iemus.
'Hæc volumus ac mandamus, decernentes has
litteras etiam ex eo quod illi quorum interest,
minime consenserint, et ex alia quacumque causa
lùlo unquam tempore de subreptionis aut oLrep-
tionis vitio, sive intentionis Kostræ defectu im-
pugnari posse, sed ipsas l'ræsentes litteras firnlas,
validas et efficaces existere et fore, suosque plena-
rios effectus sortiri et ohtinere, et ab omnibus ad
quos sIlectat seu spectaLit inviolabiliter observari;
sicque et non aliter per quoscumque q navis RUC-
toritate et I'otestate fungentes suhlata eis aliter
judicandi et interpretandi facultate, judicari et
definiri debere, atque irritum futurum et inane si
secus super his a quocumque quavis auctoritate
scienter vel ignoranter contigerit attentari. Xon
obstantibus nostra pt Cancellariæ A postolicæ regula
de jure quæsito non toll end 0, nec non quibusvis
etiam in Universalihus Conciliis editis Constitu-
tionihus aliisque ordinatiouibus etiam favore Car-
dinalium evulgatis, pri\ilegiis quoque et indultis,
quibuscumque person is quavis dignitate etiam
Can.liualitia fulgentibus concessis, et pluries etiam
APPE ìHX.
2j
confirmatis et innovatis, ceterisque in contrarium
facientibus, quamvis specifica et individua men-
tione dignis, quibus omnibus illorum tenores pro
plene ac sufficienter expressis, atque verbo ad ver-
bum insertis habentes, illis tamen alias in suo robore
permansuris ad præmissorum effectum plene t't ex-
pre sse derogamus. Datum Romæ apud S. Petrum
sub Annulo Piscatoris die XXIX. Septembris anno
)IDC'CCLXVII. Pont. XXII.
,
. CARD. PARACCIAXI-CLARELLI.'
The anomalous nature of the proceedings insti-
tuted against Cardinal Andrea comes out yet
more clearly on comparison with what was done
by the Holy See in two other cases of Car-
dinals in opposition, which we have not men-
tioned in the text. The publication of the Bull
lJnigenitu8 led in France to a dispute with the
Holy See, on the part of a large portion of the
clergy, which brought that kingdom to the brink
of schism. At the head of those who refuseel
to accept that Bull without satisfactory explana-
tion of its intent was Cardinal Noailles, Arch-
bishop of Paris; and the Jesuits set in motion all
their influence to have him brought to condign
punishment. The object they had at heart was
to secure the blind acceptation of the Pope's Bull,
and the degradation of the Prelates who had ven-
tured on demurring; and they induced Pope Cle-
ment XL to address a brief to Cardinal K oailIes
in April 1714, summoning him to accept the Bull
within fifteen days' purely, and simply, and with-
out comment,' after the lapse of which term, if
P
22G
APPE
DIX.
still refractory, the Pope 'declared that he would
strip him of the dignity of Cardinal.' 1 Louis XIV.,
though in favour of the acceptation of the Bull,
resented, however, this threatened exercise of the
Pope's authority against the Archbishop of Paris,
and would not permit the Brief to have public
course. But this did not quash the dispute,
which became more and more envenomed, until, in
X oyember 1716, the Pope coerced the Cardinals
into suhscribing a letter he had himself drawn up,
whereby they professed to exhort their colleague
N oailles to submit, and which was accompanied
by a Brief, directed to the Regent Orleans, '\\- herein
the Pope declared that if this appeal were dis-
regarded, no further mercy could be expected.
This Brief the clerg)T were inhibited by royal
veto from receiving, and ill March 1717 four
Bishops lodged with the Sorbonne a formal appeal,
in the matter of the Bull Uni[Jenitus, to a future
General Council, and this appeal Cardinal K oailles
approved as quite canonical, although he himself
still abstained from the same step. But when it
seemed certain that in Home the proceeding of the
Bishops was about to be censureù, :N oailles himself
lodged, though for a time secretly, a similar appeal
to the Pope, melius informandulI, and to a General
COllncil in the m:1tter of the Bull, and of the Pope's
rifusal to explain it. Manifestly here was an act
1 SeeJournaZ/Ù L'Abbé Dorsanne contenant tout ce qui s'est
passé à Rome et en France dans Z' Affaire de la Constitution I Uni-
genitus,' vol. i. p. 192. This is the most complete and official
account of this curious quan-el.
APPL,DIX.
2
j
of possibly very deferential, but decidedly very dis-
tinct, resistance to the '\\ ill of the Pope, who was, on
his part, little disposed to put up with it. Agents
were now despatchecl to and fro between Paris
and Rome, but no form of explanation which
KoailIes cOlùd suggest found acceptance with the
Pope, and at last, on the 3d :March 1718, there
appeared a decree of the Holy Office condemning
severely thf' appeal of the four Bishops and
Cardinal X oailIes. This was folJowed up by
tidings of the imminent issue of a Brief declaring
tbose schismatics who did not accept the Blill
simply and purely, whereupon l' oailIes, to have
the start of the Pope, convened a General Assembly
of the Chapter of :x otre Dame where he made
public bis appeal, which next day was stuck
against the cburch-doors in his diocese. This led
to a furious decree of the Inquisition of the 12th
August 1719 against the Cardinal, and in J lÙY,
Dorsanne tells us, the Pope's mind wa.'! wholly set
on the project of stripping X oailIes of his hat and
stockings. Yet with all the passions excited
against the recalcitrant obstinacy of the French
Prelate in refusing to accept Papal dictation im-
plicitly, the desire to wreak the uttermost ven-
geance on his head was arrested by the sense of
the practical difficulties that stood in the way of
its accomplishment. In spite of the Pope's ani-
mosity and the fanning action of the Jesuits, it
was found desirable to let the matter drcp.
Cardinal X oailies, though censured and tulminated
against, escaped further prosecution, and con-
tinued Archbishop of Paris to his death, before
8
Al'rE
'"DIX.
which he had reconciled himself with his adver-
saries by a compromise, due mainly to the Regent
Orleans's influence.
The other case that offers a remarkable con-
trast to the mode in which Pius IX. has acted,
is that of the protest signed on 6th April 1803,
in London, by the French emigrant Bishops,
headed by Cardinal Montmorency-Laval against
the Bulls Ecclesia Christi and Qui Cltri
ti Domini,
which Pius VII. had issued with the view of super-
seding them in their Sees after the conclusion
of the Concorùat. If there be such a thing
3S canonical obedience due to a Pope's utterance,
simply because uttered by a Pope and irrespec-
ti,-e of its subject, then certainly these Prelates
who dIstinctly impugned solemn Bulls must have
been guilty of it; anù yet it does not seem that
Pius VII. in any manner proceeded against Cardinal
,Montmorency-Laval.
.ACCE'>SUS, tbe,-the second of the two ]'TQcesses by which election by ballot is performed, 15-1. Acqua\Ì\a, Cardinal, 140. Acton, Cardinal, 188. OO. Adorations received by newly eleeted Pope, ll;" 168 .Adri.ln II. ( tij"-7 ), abduction of his daughter and his wife Stephania, 123" Adrian v. 11276), elected when a la) man, 16-l, and died so, 168; his abrogation of Gregory x's Bull constituting Conclaves, bO, 16.';. Adrian n (15
-23), 135. Agents, contidential, kept about a Condan'. 3. .Albani, CamiJiaJ, 67, 12.H26, lô2. .Albani, Dean Carùinal of the Sacred College, PO, 91. Albert, Cardinal Archduke, a lay- man admitted to Concla, e, 125" Alertz, Dr., physician tu Gregory X\'I., 64. Ale--.:ander m. (1159-81). troubles of his reign, 14, 15; his decree as to Papal elections, 16, 24; his dis- I,pnsation to Xiccola Giustiniani. 1 1. .Ale"(ander >1. (149:1-1503), grants authorization to the King of Pohnd to put awar his \\ ife, 208-210; bmwl at his funeral, 63,64. Alexander VII, (1655-67), 70; his Bull as to the alienatiQn ofChnrch property, 1,4; the Ccmstitutio .Mod ratoriaDonationtlm.181-183. AJe--.:ander, Duke of Lithuama. afterwards King of Poland, authorized by .All' "{antler 'I. to repudiate his "ife, OS-210.
IXDEX.
Altieri, Cardinal (under Pius \'1. "
his renunciation of the purple,
l:.!l\ HI, 142.
-\ltieri, Cantina! Emi1io (Clement
x.), 127.
.Altieri, Cardinal, tactics of, in the
Conrlave after Gregory xn.'s
death, 194, 195.
-\ntlrea, Cardinal. case of, 146-149 ;
see also Appendi"!: B.
\ngelo, :Michael, 113.
Anti-Popes during the reign of
.Alexander III., 14. 15.
Antici, Cardinal, his renunciation
of the purple, 142, 143.
Antonelli, Cardinal (under Pius
VI.),83.
Appon
i, Count, Austrian ambas-
sador at Rome, lû2. Archins, Italian, materials in, for history of Concl:n"es, 1, 2; now open to in<;pection, 4. .Arrangements of Vatican Conclaves described, 105 seq. Austria, Crown of, possesses the right of \ eto in Papal elections, 159. Avignon, residence of the Holy See at, in 14th centur), 80, 153. .Azeglio, }Iassimo d', his pamphlet, I ca.si IÙlle Rom.agne, 188.
B-\LDASSARI'S work on the times of
Pius VI., S:! seq., 96.
Ballot, election of a Pope by, 154-
157, 166.
Banchi. the. betting propensitie<; of
its inhabitants durmg rapal elec-
tions, 51-56_
Barbarossa; see Frederick 1.
Barberini, the Cardmals, 136, 213.
Barberini, Father, ex-General of
the Capuchins, 165.
Q
30
Benedict XIII. (Iï:!-i-29), 136, 140.
liJenedict XIV. (l;olO-58), 165, 212.
Bernetti, Cardinal, 191.
lllanca (Dona), sister of Ferdinand
the Catholic, and wife of Henry
IV. of Castile, 122.
Bonaparte, Joseph. 86.
Bonaparte, N:lpoleon, 144.
llona,entura, I:\t.. 20,
lloniface VIII. (129ol-1303), degrada-
tion of the Colonna Cardinals by,
132, 133, 2H.
Bouths for Cardinals in Conclave,
104, 109.
Borgia's (Cardinal) Life by his
nephew, the Cavaliere Borgia,
153.
Boutenieff, :\r., Russian minister in
Rome, 11;8.
Brienne, Cardinal Lomenie de, de-
gradation ot", HO.
Brusses, President de. 68, 106, 139.
lllùls, Briefs, an.l Chirographs-
the difference between them, 36,
37,
Burckhar(lt, his account of the
brawl at the obsequies of Alex-
ander VI., 63, 6ol.
IXDEX.
81. degradation of Cardinals,
132-149 (see also Appendix B. ;
renunciation of the Cardinal-
ate, HI-145; description of the
('hapel wllt
re the Cardinal'! vote,
150, 151; choice of a Pope not
necessarily limitetl to the body
of,16ol.
Casimir, a Cardinal, received a dis-
pensation to marry his ùrother's
"ltlOW, 121.
Casimir the Gre'1.t, of Poland, re-
ceive'! a Brief from Urban ". con-
firmin:; validity of his marriage
,\ ith a second ,\ ife, the first being
yct alive,
Oi, 208.
Ca.'!tiglione, Cardinal, 15;.
Celestine v. 1294" 165.
Celibacy indispensahle in a Cardi-
nal, whether in Orders or not,
119; remarkable instances of tlis-
pensation accortled, 120-122.
Cells of Cartlinals during Conclave,
104.
Cellini, Benvenuto, insulted l)y
Pompeo, 'I 110m he stabbetl, 52.
Ceremonial preliminary to the c!"ea-
tion of a Popp, ,9, 113-116; pre-
('eden ts fur it" motlification, 80-
CAU"i:TUS III. (H5.'i-.'i8" 10.1. 102.
Cameriere of the POI'e, ,0. Ceremonies ('on'!equent on eledion
Camerlengo, the Car(linal; llis du- of Pope, 167 se'].
ties on the demise of a Po,pe, 31, Cervini, Cartlinal Sta. Croce; see
32. 36-38. 108, 115, 189. }Iarcellu'i II.
Capellari, Cardinal (Gregory XVI"), Charles of Anjou, 17.
157. Charles v., 123"
Capitol, great bell of the, 33. Chatillon, Cardinal, 119.
Capranica. Dominic, s
('retly nomi- Chigi family, the, and the marshal-
n,lted Carùinal by Martin v., ship of the Cone lave, 58, 60.
128. Chiro:,rraphs, Papal, 36, 37.
Caraffa, Cardinal (Paul IV.), 73 s(]. Choice of a Pope not limited within
Cardinals, College of, original ('hal"- the body of Canlinals, 16ol.
tel' of, n; membership of, 118, Church property, Bull.. of
-\le}"an-
189; ,estcQ '11th power to elect del' VII" an,l of Pius v" against
the Pope, 12 :see Papal E'actions'; the alienation of, l;ol, li5; see
their po" ers during intt'rregllum, Clement VIII. ami Gregory XIV.
38-40; proof of identity befnre Clement IV. )21)5-68', the Conclan
the business of Conclave begins, after his death, 17.
117; rea] nature of a Cardinal's I Clement v. (1305-l-i', 153; his Bull
dignity, 118, 119; lay Cardinals, on Papal eleetinlls, 133, 13-1, 11)8.
12J-125; aCardinalclImoreclauso, I Clement VI. (13ol2-52), his Bull
125, 126; Cardinals in petto, 12;, modifying the regulations of
IS
); secret nominations in for- Gregory x. regarding Papal elec-
mer times, 128-30; thdr right of tions, 105.
franchisc absolutely sacred, 131 Clement VII" (1523-3-1), Ill, 135, 152.
Clement DII. (159 -1605'. 163; his confinn'ltion of Bulls against alienation of Church property, Ii;", liS. Clement IX" 1667-70" 127, 192. Clement x. ,1670-76),12,. Clement XI, (I 700-21),60 ; threatens to degrade Carùinal S oailies, 226.
,. Clement XII. (1730-40), 41, 119; his Bull abolio;hing the go
crnorship
of the Leonine city, 57; his treat- ment of Cardinal Coscia, 136-40, 148, 214_ Clement XIII. (1758-69), reforming Bull of, 61. Clement XIV. (1769-75), 111. Clerg-y. the, their part in p,\pal elections, 12. Clennont, Cardinal, 160, Colonna, family of, 50. Colonna, Cardin 'lIs James and Peter. degT'lded by Boniface VIII., 132, 133
:!1.t
Colonna, l:ardinal(in 16th century), 152. Colonna, yittoria, 113. Compromise, electoral process called, 20, 152-54. Couclan, dnings in, kept secret, 2, 3; Bull of Gregory x. eonstituting Conclaves, 20-2-1; lawless state of Rome during Conclave-time, 42-48; office of )larshalof, 58 Sf'l.: nine days of preparation before entering, 61 sc'l." congregations preliminary to, 66; que tion as to how far preliminary ceremonials can be dispensed with, 79; various pre- cedents in point, 81; especially the pro,isions made by Pius vr., 82-101, and b) Gregory XVI., 102; present site of Concla\e in the Quirinal, 103; description of former locality in the YatiC'an, 1040; arrangements of Vaticau Concla\"C", 105seq.. last moments !Ire,ious to proclamatIOn of Con- clan. 113-11ti; ceremony of pro v- ing identity before proceeding to business, II 7; Cardinals secretly nominated, but unpromulgated, 1Iot allowed to vote. 128, 129 (see Cardinals); declaration of close
IXDEX.
231
of Concla,'e, 167; narrative of
the proceedings at election of
Pills IX., 185-200; importance of
next Caucla, e, 5, 7, 82"
Concla,ists, their position and in-
ßuence, 67-70.
Congregations preliminary to Con-
clave, 66.
Consalvi, Cardinal Secretary of
State under Pius \"11., 119, 120,
143, 163.
Constance, Council of, 2-1-29.
Constantine, an anti-Pope in 8th
century, 16-i.
Constantini, Giulio (Cardinal Se-
cretary), his account of Rome
during interregnum after death
of Palll IlL, 48-50.
Constitutio Moderatoria Do-natio-
1tUm, the,-a Bull of .Alexanùer
VII. against immoderate grants
by Popes to kinsmen, 181-183.
Cornia, Ascanio della, nephew of
Paul IV., 7;.
Coronation service oC newly elected
Pope, 169, 170.
Corsini Library, 137.
Coscia, Cardinal, 131, 136; degrada-
tion of, 137-140, 148,
14.
Cosmo II. I JI, cdicis) Duke of Tus-
cany, I
L
Council of Alexander III., 16.
Council of Constance,
4-29.
Council at Lyons,
jì,
Court of Rome, it;; rupture with
Italy, i; its dispersiou rluring
the reign of Pius VI., 88, 89; thp
Cardinals, dignitaries in, 118,
119.
Creation of a Pope, question as to
when actually consummated, 168.
Crispo, Cardinal, 74.
Croce, Bernardino della, a named
but un promulgated Cardinal, 1
9.
Cue, a, Cardinal. 71.
Cueva, Don BeltraJl de la, 122.
Cum Juxta, the Bull, and its ap-
plication to the case of Cardinal
Andrea, 212-215.
Curia, Roman. division in tbp, 1..
Curiosities 01 Papal history, 12J.
ÐAXDIXI, Cardinal, 118.
De Angelis, Cardinal, Bishop of
Fermo, 191.
GaysMlck, Caròinal, Archbishop of 101 ilan, l() , 200. Genga, Cardinal Dl'11a ; see Leo XII. Gfrorrer. a recent historian, a mis- hke of, 14. Giustiniani, Cardinal, 160; hi
election to the Papal chair vetoed b} pain, ItH. Giustiniani, Xiccola, a Benedictine monk, \\ ho reeeh'ed a dispensa- tion to marry, 121, 122. Gizá, Cardinal, Secretary of State to Pius IX., 191, 200" Gonzaga, Carùinals Ferdinand and \ïcenzo, permitted to go back into the worl.l. 121. Gonzaga, 1I1.ny, willow of Ladislas, king of Poland, married his brother. 121. Grao;sis, Paris de, and his im en- tion of tuming-\\heels for the admission of articles for the use of the Conclave, 108. Gregorio, Emmanuel Di, 98. Gregorio, Car.linal. 15ï. GregoI1 HI, Hildebrand, ï3.85;, U, 1':'2. Gregory x. (Theobald Visconti, l ïl-ï6), election of, 20; his Dull constituting Conclaves, 21-24, 5S, 105, U5, abrogated by Adrian v., SO, 100. Gregory XI. (1 'jO-i8), 80; his Bull on Papal elections, 80-82. Gregory XII. (14U6-9), 26. Gregory XIV. (1590-91), his modifi- cation of Pius v"'s Bull as to alienation of church propert), lit); see Clement VIII. Gregory '"{v. (lû21-23), 42; his Bull as to P.lpal elections, 28, U2, 1:24, 12ï. 134. 1:18, 151. 154. Gl"('gory '{\ I. (1831-46), election of. 15ï ; his deathbed, 1>-1. H.í: docu- ment left by him bearing on Papal election,>. 101, 102, 190; circumstances under which his death occurred, ISï, 188; state of partie'! in the Sacred College GAETANI archives, 54, 136. at that time, HIO. Gallienus, Arch of, 33. Guadagni, Cardinal, 166. Gamhling, amI its results, during Guattani, Dr., 68. Papal elections, 51-':'7. I G'!tti, Rainer, town-cal'tain of 1I"'RY, son of Richard Planta- \ïterbo, 18. genet, and nephew of Henry
23
De radation of Cardinals, 132-149;
ases of Cardinal Andrea, 212- 22-1. and of Cardinal Koailles, 225-228. Dignity of a Cardinal, real nature of, 117-119. Dispensations relie\ ing Cardinals from their ecclesiastical obliga- tions, remarkable instances of, 120-122" DomenÜ'llino, 113. Duphot, a French General. killed in a tumult at Rome, 811.
EI FCTION of Popes, 9 stq,: see
Papal Elections"
Emperor's part in Papal elections
curhiled by thc Bull of Kicolas
II., 14.
Enthronement of a newly elected
Pope, 109, liO.
Eugenius IV. (1431-47), 126.
E...ecutive authority during inter-
regnum, 34-&),
FALCONIERI, Cardinal. Archbishop
of Ravenna, 191.
Fare, Cardinal De la, 160.
Farnese, Cardinal, 53.
Ferrara. Cardinal, i3.
Ferretti \
Iastai : see Pius IX.
Ferro, Cardinal Capo di, 71.
France, Crown of. possesses the
right of veto in PaV.ll elections,
159.
Franchise, Cardinal<;' right of, in
deIible. 131 s.q.; this principle
set aside by Pius IX. in the case
of Cardinal Andrea, 146-149; see
also Appendix B.
Frangipani. Odo, 15.
Franzoni, Cal'dinal, 193; his con-
!>cientinus acts in Conch'-e, 199.
Flederick I. \Barhaross'!), Emperor
of Germany, opposed b) Pope
Alexander III., 14"
French Re\'olution. effect of, on the
Papacy. 82-101.
IXDEX.
IXDEX.
233
the Third of England, slain at LABRADOR, Gomez, Spanish ambas-
\ïterbo, If\. I sador at Rome, 160.
Henry, Cardinal, of Ostia. 19. Ladislas, king of Poland, 120.
Henry IV. of Castile, received ß I Lamhruschini, Cardinal Secretary
di;:pensation to marry a second under Gregory XVI., 65, 186;
wife, 122, 211; his daughter I f'haracter of, 190, 193; his at-
Dona Juana, 122, 123. tempt at a coup de main in Con-
Hildebran<.l; see Gregory VII. cla..e, 196 stq.
Hincmar, Archbi"hop, 123. Lateran Basilica, taken possession
lIohenstaufen, the last of the house I of by newly electe<.l Pope, 1.0,
of (Konradin of Rwabia), e:<..e- 171.
cuted in
aples, 17. Lateran Palace, the, 15, 16.
Honorins IV" (I
S5-S.', 10-1. Law-courts suspen<.led during in-
Hormisdas (51-l-
3), and his son terregnnDl. 3.';.
Sih'erius, 123. Lay Cardinals, 123-125.
Le'lgue, war of the, 17ò.
bSOCEXT VI. {1352-62), 58. I Leo x. 1513-21, conspiracyagainst,
Iunocent VIII. (148-1-92), 129. 13-1-6.
Innocent x. (16+1-55 , 59; his Btùl Leo XII" (1823-29), election of, 160,
Cum Juxta, 212-:H5" 163.
Inspiration, election of a Pope by, Lombardy, leagued cities of, pro-
151, 15:t tected by Barbaro!'sa. 14.
Installation of newly elected POI)e, Lott.ery in Concla,,'e times. 56, 57.
and atten<.lant ceremonies, 167 Lonis XIV. of France, 226.
seq. I Louis XVIII. of France, 143.
Interregnum in the Papary, 6, S; Lonis, King of Hungary, 20;.
that after the death of Clement Luis, Don, of Bourbon, named
IV. the longest on record, lì; I Archbishop of Toledo and Car-
complete suspensiou of the exe- dinal, 119-
rutive Juring, 3-1, 35; lawle')s Lyons, general council at, called by
state of Rome during, 42, 50; Gregory x., 20.
riot in 1590. 55.
Intrigue of the Concla..'Ïst Torres
at Pius IV. 's election, jO, i1.
Isabella the Catholic, sister of
Henry IV. of Castile, 122.
Isabella, Infanta, of Portugal, wife
of the Emperor Charles v., 123.
J ArLS thrown open (for light offen-
ders) during intel'regnum, 3-1, 35.
Je\\s, a custom of, in Rome, at the
Pope's inst'!llation, 1 i1.
John ,,{IX. (102-1-33), 164.
John X.'XIU. (1410-15). 2ò.
Juana, Infanta, of Portugal, and
her daughter, Dona Juana, 12:?,
133.
Julius II. ,1503-12, 109, 208; hi')
I3ripf granting to Alexander,
King of Poland, inrluJgence to
put up .....ith his wife until her
father's de'lth, 210. ,
J UlillS III" (1550-j5), election of,
152.
J[ADRrZZI, Cardinal, Ï-I.
Jlal\"ezzi, Cardinal. 6i.
Marcellus II. ICe.... ini, 1555), 52,
152; narrative of his election,
.2-i8.
)[n.rco-y-CataIan, Cardinal, 160.
)[arotti, 93"
}Iarshal of the Conclave, office of,
58 se'}., 108, lI5.
)[artin v. (1417-31), election of, 26,
2ï; his secret nomination of
Cardinals, 128.
)Ia')tai-Ferretti, Cardinal; au Pius
I"{.
)Iattei, Cardinal, lIB.
)[aurice, Car,1inal, of Savoy, 120.
)Iaury, Cardinal, case of, 143-14õ"
)Iedicis, Cardinal di ,Clement VII.),
153.
)Iedicis, Catherine, married a Car-
dinal, 121.
}Iedicis, Cosmo di, Duke of Tus-
cany, 1:?1"
234
1IIe,1iris, Ferdinand, once a Car-
inal, alill became Grand Duke
IIf Tusrany, 120.
?llicara. Cardinal, a Capuchin, 194.
1\lieheli, a Doge of Yen ice, 12l.
1\lol!es, the three, of election of a
Pope, 151, 152.
1\lonaoo, Prince of. French ambas-
sador at Rome (1700),45,46.
Jllon"ignllri, the lay, 118.
lontepulciallo, Cardinal, ii. 1\luntmorency-La"al, Cardinal, 228.
KAPLE!;, kin
dom of, a portion of
till' Sacred College take refuge
there in 1798, 88 seq.
Kapoleon Bonaparte, 144_
Kepotism of the Popes, 180-183.
Kieholls, the Czar, his memorable
visit to Rome. 188.
Kicolas II. ,1058-60" his ele,'ation
to the Papal Hee, 11; his Bull
ve,>ting Papal elections in the
College of Cardinals, 11-13, 24.
Kicolas IV" (12
S-92), 17.
Kine da) s' interval before electing
a Pope, 61 se'f., 87.
Kinfa, Alexander III. consecrated
in its parish church, 15.
Koailles. Cardinal, Archbishop of
Paris, heads opposition in France
tt) the Bull Unigenitus, 225-2
S.
Kobles of Rome, pretensions put
forth by, during Conc1aT"e, 44.
OATHS sworn to by Popes, nature
of, 1i3"
Obsequies of the Pope, 61, 62.
Orta, ius, Cardinal, his opposition
to
-\le"ander III., 15.
Otlescalchi, Cardinal, 160; 1'1'-
lIounces the purple, 145.
P ArCA, Cardinal Secretary (f State
under Pius VII., 14:>"
P,lcra, Dean Cardinal, 1GO.
P,lllium, the. ne" ly elected Pope
clothed \\ ith, 169.
Paolina, the.-"here the Cardinals
,ote,--desrribed, 150, 151.
Papal'
, the, as an institution re-
gulated by laws, exists only in
the season of its creation, 5;
"cl1bm in the reign of _\lexander
IXDEX.
III., 14-16; the Papacy rluring
the Frenl'h Re, olution, 82 selJ..
Papal chair, Roman proverb as to
the three safest means of reach-
ing, ltJ3, 164"
Papal eleetions, su
iect of, little
understood, and why, 1 ; points
of interest bearing on, 5; mode
of, at present in force. 9; not in-
dependent of the cÏ\ illlower till
middle of eleventh century, 10 ;
vested in the College of Cardinals
by decree of Kicolas II., 11, 12;
decree of AleJ\.ander III. as to, 16 ;
Constitution promulgaterl by a
General Council at L, ons under
Gregory x", 21 ; exceptional mea-
sure adopted by the Council of
Constance, 27, 28; Bulls of Cle-
lIIent V., 13
, of Gregory XI., 80-
8:!, of Gregory J\.v., 28, 1::!4, 134
(see Preliminary Ceremonial), of
Pins VI., 87 seq., an,l of Paul IV.,
9-1, 95; right of Cardinals to ,ote
at, ahsolutely sacred, 131 seq.
(
e Andrea, Cardinal); the three
modes by which alonl' a Pope
can 1)1' created, 151, 15:); tricks
practised at, 157, 158; the veto
vested in certain Crowns, 159;
proclamation of newly elected
Pope hr the Cardinal Dean, 167 ;
ceremonies consequent on elec-
tion, 168-171.
Pa;;sionists, Ule, at Monte Argen-
taro, 92"
Paterini. the, 33"
Palù III. (1534-50), 15
- state of
Rome after his death, 48-50; his nephew, ... Paull\". (Caraff.\, 1555-59), 73, 152 ; his BillIon Papal elections, 94, 95. Paul v. (1605-21), 12l. l'eople. the, their part in Papal eledions, 12. Peretti, Alessandro Damasceni, nephew of Sixtus v", 119. 'Perquisite;; of Condavists, 69, 70. Petrucci, Cardinal, strangled, 135" Pietro, Michele Di, 97. Pisani, Cardinal, 7S. Pius IV. (1559-û:>), election of, iI, 1 )
- his Bull regulating the
VO\\ ers of Cardinals during in-
terregnum, 40; his Bu)) (1562) forbidding" agers, 49 seq., 112; as to lay Cardinals, etc., I:!!. 127; as to Papal elections, 13!, 138. FlUS v. (1566-;2), election of, 152; Bull of, as to alienation of Church propert , 1;5: see Gregory JL.IV. and Clement \"In. Pius VI. (1 ;;5-99), pro\ isiol1s made by him as to the election of a succe'<sor, 82-101 : hi!! treatment of refractor
Cardinals, 119, Hl-
1-14. Pius VII. (18(){}":!31, 103, 143, 144, 1M, Iln, 22R. Pius '\ III. (IS29-31), election of, 15;,201 Pius IX" (l8!6- ), wms:Ial import- ance of the Concla\ e to fullow on his death, 7, 82; his treat- ment of Rosmini, 130, and of Canlinal Andrea, H6-149; the intended application of the veto by Austria at his clertion, 162; the Concla\"e in \\ hich he was elected, 185; his election, 198: Austria's veto IIgainst it arrived too late, 200. See Appendix B. Police of Rome, and its officers, 45. Pope, the; election of-see Papal Elections; what haJlpens imme- diately upon his dece'lse, 30 seq. ; obsequies of, 61, 62. Portugal, Cro" n of, claims a right of \ eto in Papal elections, which is contested by Rome, 159. Preliminary ceremonial attending Papal elections, 66; question how far this may be dispensed with, ;9; variuus precedents in point, 80: l,rO\;"ions made by Pius VI., 82-101, and by Gregor ' X\I., 102. Proclamation of Concla\'e, ll.j. Proclamation of a new Pope by the Cardinal Dean, 16;. QClRIXAL PALACE, present site of Concla\"e in the, 103; descrip- tion of arrangements at, 109 Sf'q..- the Chapel ,the Paolina' where the Canlinals \"ote, de cribed, 150, 151.
IXDEX.
233
R-\lXALDO, Cardinal, of Este, 120.
Ranke, Professor, 1.
Richard Plantagcnet, Earl of Corn-
wall, 18.
Ring, l.iscatorial, of the Pope, 36.
Rohan, Cardin.!.l, suspension of,
140.
Rome, lawless state of, during Con-
clave, 42-50; riut in 1590, 55.
Rosmini, nominated. Cardinal br
Pius IX., but nomination de-
feated by the Jesuits, 130.
Rospigliosi, Carùinal; see Clement
IX.
Rossi, Jr., an Ihlian professor,
nominated French ambassad.or
to Rume, 188.
SACRED College, the, its member-
ship, 118, 119; no lay Carùin'lls
at present, 12.'1.
Sala, Cardinal, 98_
Salic Tare. Priuces of the, 10.
San Stefano, 92.
Sanseverino, Frederick. an unþro-
mulg-.!.ted Cardinal, 129.
Saoli, Cardinal, degradation of,
135.
Sanlli family, the, 58, lO.t
Schism in the Papacr in tile reign
of _\le'ì:ander HI., H-Iô.
Scilla, Canlinal Ruffo, I>;.
Scope uf present publication, 6, ;.
Scrutators of the voting in Con-
clave, 155-15;.
Secrecy incumbent on Concla\;st;;,
67; imperfect observance of the
rule, HI, H2"
l::5ennoneta, Duke of, 42, 5!, 136.
Se\ eroli's (Cardinal election to the
Papal chair vdoed by Austria,
162, 163,
f';forza, Carllinal, 129.
Sham canrlidates at Papal elec-
tions, 158.
Silveriu3 /536-535 , a Pope, the son
of a Pope, 123
Sixtus v. .1585-90', 119, 125, IS9_
Snderini, Cardinal (of Volterra',
case of, IN).
SogIia, Carò.inal, 191.
Spain, Crown of, has a rigl)t of
veto in Papal elections, l;;t).
St. George, Chevalier de, fu.
St" Louis, cross of, 1:!3"
3G
I
l)EX.
h. Croce, Cardinal 'Ceryini. aft.er- {;rl)an v. 1362-70' grant
a Drief
arùs lIhrcellus 11.), 72-78. to Casimir the Gnmt, of Poland, Stat s of the Church, invasion of, confirming validity of his mar- by the French (li9i . 83. riage with a second wife, the Rtefaneschi, Cardinal G. G" 15-1. first being 'et aliye, :!O7, 208.
t
,II.tal quoted or referreù to, UrlJan VI. 1 ì8-89, the last, under
- )/. iiI. the rank of Cardinal, who \\a.;j
Stephen III. (768-772', 11Ïs decree el cted Pope, 10-1, lû-l.
- !gainst thc election to the Urban VIH. .I6
- 3-4-.r, riots at hi;;
Pap:!!':\, of anyone not an oro , election. 41),47, 1:;7; his Bull on d.line,l Cardinal, 16-1. Papal elections, H2. Stock Exchange, imprO\ iserl, dur- Urbino, Duke of, 5-1" ing interregnum, 51. S
ffimadllls -198 :;13'. his canon I VA 1"1, Prince,-dispute with the
on I'apaI elections, II!. Rbirri during an iuterregnum, I 45,46. TENCIN, Cardinal, 6'i, 106" Yaticl\n. the, the former locality Theiner, Father. keeper of the of Conclave, described 10! se'!. Yati,"m Records-his I Clement Venice. Conclave at. after the XIV.' lII, ll:!; his Vetera .Monu- death of Pius VI.. 1:'13. 71unta Poloniæ, 207 srq" 'eto on Papal eledions \"e;;te<l in Tolentino, treaty of, 8;1. certain Crowns, 158, 159; its in- Torres. a Cmwla\ist, hi;; intrigue telllle.l application at the el c- at the eleetion of PlUS IV., 70, tion of Pius IÀ., II 2 71. Visconti, Theobal<l, Archdeacon of Tricks pr'lctised at Papal elections, Liege; see Gregory x. 1:'17, 158. Viterùo, llrotracted election I,t, Turning-\\heels for the admission 17-20. 153; communal bell of. of artil"les neeess:!ry for the use 3:3 ; cIJllflict between Romc and of Conela\"e, 108, lIO. the Vit rbcse, 33.
CNIGENlTt"S, the Bull. opposition
to it in France, 225-228.
WAGERS, Rulll'Tohilliting, in timc;;
of Papal dection, 49 sUI.
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE,
PRI
TER TO THE QUEEN, AKD TO THE UKIVERSIT\".