any orders, and yet be promulgated decrees modifying the whole system of Papal elections, which, by his successors, were held to be invested with all the sacredness of pontifical utterances. Adrian V. ruled but twenty-nine days, in which interval be repealed of his authority the electoral constitution of Gregory X., which remained in abeyance until Celestine V., after six stormy elections, revived it in 1294. Undoubtedly such cases must be set down as obsolete in the concrete, yet at a critical moment like the present, when the Court of Rome is again eminently exposed to transformation, it is well to note remarkable instances of exceptional interventions which have been admitted by it, not to be beyond the pale of its principles. The restriction of a candidate for the Papal See within the circle of the College of Cardinals, has become a matter of received custom. Yet as late as 1758, in the Conclave after Benedict XIV.'s death, at several ballots votes were tendered and registered without objection in favour of the ex-General of the Capuchins, Father Barberini, who was not a member of the Sacred College.[1]
- ↑ See Novaes, Storia dei Pontifici. vol. xiv. p. 8. He
