OF PAPAL CONCLAVES
85
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 have 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 purchased peace by the heavy sacrifices he had
- ↑ This Brief begins—'Nos Pius Papa Sextus, attentis peculiaribus præsentibus Ecclesiæ circumstantiis,' 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 le sue cure apostoliche anche nel febbrajo dell' anno medesimo quando i soldati di Bonaparte marciavano alla volta di Roma e giunsero sino a Foligno. Mi é ignoto il giorno ch' egli sottoscrisse e muni del suo sigillo privato un decreto a cio. Ben so di certo che il decreto fu ultimato ed antenticato nel detto modo, perche mi lo 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 1797.
