energies of the breaking Pontiff, who hesitated to act, and by cross currents of a political origin that obstructed a concert of views amongst the dispersed Cardinals—a most serious drawback when it became a question to frame provisions with the view of promoting 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 election of the next Pope should be held. As we have already said, a portion of the Sacred College, comprising its Dean Cardinal Albani, had taken refuge in the kingdom of Naples, while another batch had sheltered itself under Imperial protection. Both governments had received these dignitaries not merely readily, but actually competed against each other for preference by the fugitive Princes of the Church as an asylum. The motive prompting this rivalry was to be found in the disposition ascribed to the Neapolitan 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
