Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/172

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156
ON THE CONSTITUTION

lot, who successively hand to each other every paper, which the last files on a pin. Should a candidate come out with just a majority of two-thirds, it then becomes necessary to open the upper folded portions of the ballot-papers, with the view of ascertaining that this majority is not due to the candidate's own vote; it being not lawful for a Pope to be the actual instrument of his own creation. In the case of no adequate majority, these papers are preserved, so as to be able to check, through the mottoes, the votes given in the supplementary ballot, it being, of course, unlawful for a Cardinal to repeat a second vote in behalf of the candidate for whom he had already voted in the morning. The form of tendering this second vote is by writing, 'Accedo domino Cardinali,' while those who persist in their morning's choice insert the word 'Nemini.' Should both ballots fail in producing the legal majority, then the papers are burnt, while in all cases the portion containing the voter's name is to he opened by the scrutators only in the event of some suspicion of fraud or of a vote being invalid, through some violation by the elector of the prescribed forms. In the Conclave of 1829