the instinct of the Church as a means to put an end to the intolerable state of affairs which weighed upon it in the interminable Conclave held at Viterbo. The expedient of delegating to a small committee of Cardinals the power which the whole body found itself too much torn by dissension to exercise, has been resorted to on several occasions, and is still considered in Rome as not obsolete. The most memorable instance of its application was furnished when the impossibility for the Cardinals assembled in 1304 to agree on a candidate induced them to intrust the election to a delegation out of their own body, which gave to the Church Pope Clement V., who then transferred to Avignon 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 held at Venice, after the decease of Pius VI., 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-
- ↑ Notizie Biografiche del Card. St. Borgia, del Cav. Constantino Borgia, 1843.
