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
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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\".
