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, bearing date 11th December 1734, to regulate and modify the conditions of Coscia's penalties. This Chirograph will be found in a volume[1] of manuscript documents in the Corsini Library, relating to the Conclave held on the Pope's death, which is manifestly composed of papers that belonged to the Cardinal-Nephew 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 first sentence as objectionable, if not actually faulty in principle, in spite of his haring pronounced it, as he admits, with the deliberate intention of cancelling the binding force of previous Papal edicts of limitation. That a person labouring under such grave convictions as Coscia should have part in creating a Pope was contrary to propriety; therefore, said Clement XII., it had been originally pronounced that every election in which he
- ↑ Vol. 1618 in Catalogue of MSS. in Corsini Library.
