were but thirty, who, the day after the Pope's demise (2d June), met in congregation as appointed, and devoted themselves to the prescribed formalities. Singularly enough, instead of shortening the preliminary period, they even extended this; for it was only on the 14th June that the Cardinals, who had been reinforced to fifty in the interval, entered solemnly into Conclave. The state of parties in the Sacred College had been sharply defining, from the moment of the Pope's decease, between the faction of the Cardinal Secretary of State and an opposition which went by the appellation of the Roman party, from its leading members being Romans, and their assumed opinion that the times required the elevation of a born Roman to the throne of the Roman States. In contradistinction, the Cardinals who acted along with Lambruschini—a native of Genoa—went by the appellation of the Genoese party. Between these two sections it was evident from the first that the contest would lie, and both parties
deposit their names. It was in a drawer of this table that Gregory XVI. kept the deed dispensing the Cardinals from the obligation to wait nine days before proceeding to election.
