concurrence of favourable opinion, the difficulties in the way of inducing the Pope to act were materially lessened. What he shrank from was responsibility and independent action; but as soon as the approval of the Cardinals had been given he again felt safe to proceed; and on the 13th November, accordingly, he formally executed his second and last Bull[1] for the registration of his successor's election. In virtue thereof, every previous Papal edict on the matter, without exception, was derogated from—such derogation to hold good for the Conclave immediately following, and every other that might unhappily occur under the auspices 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, and the mode in which to conduct it, the faculty of dispensing, if they saw
- ↑ This Bull stands in Barberi's Bullarii Romani Continuatio (Rome, 1845). It begins 'Quum nos superiori anno,' and decides the point of the actual and formal promulgation of that other Bull of 30th December 1797.
