remarkable letter[1] dated 'in Palatio discooperto Episcopatus Viterbiensis vi. Idus Junii MCCLXX. Apost. Sede Yacante,' and addressed to the Podesta, the Town-captain, and the Commonalty of Viterbo by seventeen Cardinals, whose seals are affixed, in which it is requested that, on the ground of sickness, free passage out of the palace in which they are shut up, be allowed to their colleague Cardinal Henry of Ostia, it being expressly stated that he has waived for this one occasion his right of voting. The careful insertion of this clause deserves attention, as proving that at this period it had not yet been definitively ruled that every Cardinal's active participation was not an indispensable condition for setting a Papal election beyond challenge. The sharp measures devised by the Viterbese proved, however, as powerless as the remonstrances of kings in making these stiff-necked prelates concur in a Pope. For more than a year longer did they quarrel and fight on amongst themselves, until at last, it is said mainly by the fervent words of the great Franciscan
- ↑ See Dissertazioni Stories-Critiche del Canonico Yovaes. Rome, 1822, vol i. p. 12
