Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/218

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ON THE CONSTITUTION

been in the highest degree careful in the selection of members for the Sacred College whose minds are not given to new-fangled teachings; but let it not be forgotten that in their human natures these invulnerahle giants of orthodoxy are liable to be swayed by the same currents of personal passions as their fellows and predecessors; and that the same, and, of its kind, even a more powerful instrument for irritation, is forthcoming at present, in the shape of a minister whose grasping, and avid, and all-usurping nature has been most poignantly felt, nay, has thrown into the shade the hateful memory of Lambruschini.

We have now brought to a close our survey of the elements that are forthcoming in the living organization of the See of Rome in relation to that capital function of its system—Pope-making. Much which is curious might still be added on a subject so vast and abounding in strange incident. The object, however, has not been to write a history of Papal elections, but only to point out the provisions existing in the constitution of the Court of Rome to this end, and the facilities these may furnish for new combinations, if recommended as