Father Confessor, and from the Head Physician down to the Barbers and Carpenters and Sweepers. All these classes are carefully indicated in grave Papal rescripts, as also the exact number in each which it is allowable for a Conclave to contain; the nomination always resting with the general con

Stendhal adds the remark, that a wellfounded spirit of suspicion pervades everything that happens on a Pope's demise; for the poor deceased has no relatives around him, and those charged with providing a successor might possibly bury a Pope alive.' The deathbeds of many Popes have indeed witnessed shocking scenes of destitution and abandonment, coupled with outrageously indecent treatment of the corpse. What can be more lurid in its effects than the sacrilegious brawl, by torchlight, over the dead body of Alexander vi. (1504), between drunken soldiers and priests, within the hallowed area of St. Peter's, just before the very altar, as it is drily described by Burckhardt? By four beggars was the corpse borne into St. Peter's, the clergy, according to custom, preceding, and the canons walking by the side of the bier, which being set in the midst of the church, they stood awaiting the Non intres in Judicium to be said, but the book could not be found, wherefore the clergy began singing the response Libera Domine. While this chanting was going on in church, some soldiers of the palace guard laid hold of and snatched the torches from the clerks, whereupon the clergy defended themselves with the torches in their hands, and the soldiers made use of their weapons, so that the clergy becoming frightened, rushed in a body into the sacristy, leaving off their chant, and the Pope's corpse remaining by itself. I and some others took up the bier and carried it before the high altar.' Happily there is no record of any other scandal of equal magnitude, but yet the funerals of many Popes have been attended by circumstances of a painful nature, in glaring contrast with the eminent rank of the individual who was being borne to his grave. By the ninth day everything requisite for

the Conclavists who are private secretaries to the Cardinals, and therefore selected by their patrons within specified limitations. These Conclavists have often played a most important part in Papal elections, many of which have owed their issue to the adroit practices of these subaltern agents. The position of a Conclavist is therefore confidential and influential.* Each Cardinal may be accompanied by two, who must neither be engaged in trade, nor the stewards of princes, nor lords of a temporal jurisdiction, nor the brothers or nephews of their patron Cardinal, in whose household they must have been domiciled for a twelvemonth before. The feeling of jealous precaution which is plainly dominant in all these regulations, has caused their conditions to be carefully observed. In 1758 Cardinal Malvezzi attempted to smuggle in a favourite Canon Bolognini, and underwent the mortification of seeing him denied admission by the Sacred College, on the ground of his not having been a bona fide member of the Cardinal's household for the prescribed period, and its being therefore apprehended that he had been elected for the purpose of serving as the instrument to promote particular influences. On this occasion another curious exclusion was witnessed. The appointment of Physician-in-Chief was about

The obligation of secrecy is as incumbent in law on the Conclavists and officials as on the Cardinals. In 1829 the violation thereof was visited with pub'A Conclavist (I lic expulsion and imprisonment. believe the one of Cardinal Ruffo Scilla) and a poreri, have been expulsed and put in prison for ter (fachino),' writes the Modenese Envoy Ceccopihaving, in defiance of the oath of secrecy by which all are bound when setting foot in Conclave, caused it to be distinctly known that Cardinal de Gregorio would be chosen in ten days' time, an election which, however, went off in smoke, through Cardinal Albani's entrance.'-Bianchi, Diplomazia Europea in Italia, vol. ii. p. 430.

being conferred on a Dr. Guattani, who is specially mentioned to have been a practitioner of renown, when Cardinal York expressed his father's hope that the Sacred College, in deference to his royal wish, would not make this nomination-a wish which was accordingly acceded to.*

The Conclavists constituted and still constitute a corporation conscious of power, and invested with recognised privileges. They have in fact acquired the substantial position which useful subalterns always do acquire. From an early period they appear to have been in the receipt of considerable gratuities which they stoutly exacted, and finally reduced to a legalised tariff. Amongst themselves they fixed a formal code of regulations in reference to perquisites, to which every Conclavist was bound to adhere, although such stipulations were distinctly contrary to Papal Bulls. It was an established abuse that the cell of the newly-elected Pope should be sacked by the Conclavists, each man carrying off what booty he was lucky enough to secure. This monstrous perquisite was once subjected to reform by the Conclavists meeting on the 13th March 1513 in the Sistine Chapel, and discussing the point as if it were the most canonical right. The determination arrived at is preserved in a very business-like procès-verbal, given in full by Moroni, just as if it had been a legal document, instead of the expression of triumphant license. It was ruled that in lieu of the Pope's cell being offered up to common plander, it should be the perquisite of his Conclavist on payment by the latter to his colleagues of 1500 ducats in gold, for which these became bound bodily to each other. But a custom of old date, however illegitimate, is not abolished at a blow; and the Conclavists continued their tumultuous and extortionate proceed ings without alteration, in after Conclaves. In 1555 the Cardinals selected Marcellus II., and of his election we have an amusing narrative by the Conclavist Dionigi Atanagi, a Conclavist of more than ordinary audacity -for he ventured on what was little short of sacrilege, in hiding behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel, when all but Cardinals should have left it, and peeping thence upon the very mysteries of the sacred vote which constitutes a Pope. On this occasion the

* What may have been the particular ground of complaint against Guattani we have not been able to learn. The Chevalier de St. George enjoyed in Rome all the privileges conceded to a sovereign, and as such recommended Cardinals for nomination; it was to him that Cardinal Tencin owed the red hat, according to the President de Brosses.

Conclavists, who appear to have been, all through, more than usually overbearing, chose eight of their number as 'defenders to secure the observance of their privileges, which are many. At one time Cardinal Cervini was thought likely to be elected, but this Prelate was not popular, especially with the gentlemen-Conclavists, who, we are told, accordingly contrived to put a stop to his election by secretly causing the report of its probability to circulate through Rome in a degree that acted in the wished-for manner upon the Cardinals' nerves, who then fixed on Marcellus. Then,' writes Atanagi, we all went out of the chapel and accompanied the Pope to his apartment, which he found sacked by the Conclavists, so that he was forced to go into that of Cardinal Montepulciano; at the same time the gates of the Conclave were burst open, and a crowd rushed in. Had it not been for Master Ascanio della Cornia the whole Conclave was in danger of being gutted.' On another occasion the slyness of the Conclavist Torres all but deprived Pius IV. (1559) of his election. Torres was in attendance on Cardinal Cueva. Clandestinely he canvassed one night the Cardinals, speaking to each man singly as if he did so only to himself. His language was that it would be gratifying as well as proper that Cueva, who, he said, could not be elected, should have the honour of the testimony of respect involved in the vote of the particular Cardinal whom he was addressing. The vote, he averred, would be a barren but yet a pleasing distinction. By such representations, cunningly addressed singly to each Cardinal, Torres had actually got thirty-two votes out of the thirty-four in Conclave, and was inwardly chuckling over the astonishment which would follow on the opening of the ballot-box, when the trick is said to have been defeated by Cardinal Capo di Ferro accidentally asking his neighbour for whom he was about to vote, and being told for Cueva, to pay him a compliment at Torres' suggestion. Still seventeen votes bad already been given in his favour before the exposure of the trick. Down to the time of Alexander VII. (1655), the sacking of the newly-elected Pope's cell seems to have been the rule. It appears that its contents are now the perquisites of his Cameriere, an individual who stands in the position of familiar menial. The Conclavists are at present in the enjoyment of perquisites secured by Papal rescripts,-conclusive evidence of the peculiar influence possessed by this body of men. Fifteen thousand scudi*

* About £3000.

are allotted as a fee after election, to be divided amongst the Conclavists, who besides are allowed the privilege of becoming full citizens in any town within the Pope's dominions, are admitted to the rank of nobility, and, if members of a religious order (every Cardinal must have one ecclesiastical Conclavist), are empowered to bequeath, by will, away from their brotherhood.

It has been of late a not unfrequent topic of whispered talk in Rome, how far these prescribed nine days of preliminary ceremonial are obligatory, and might not be dispensed with by a timely fiat of the Pope. The idea is in fact entertained by persons deserving consideration, that in view of the extraordinary difficulties to which the Holy See is exposed, a Chirograph of the Pope is in actual existence, absolving the Cardinals from the obligation of observing the customary form of election, and empowering them to proceed to the nomination of a Pope coram cadaver. The report has an air of unlikeliness, but yet it is heard in serious whisper from lips not favourable to hasty gossip, and which persist in calmly affirming the existence of the document with the accent of conviction. There can be no question as to the strict competency in principle of the Pope to authorise such a grave departure from the custom of ages, by an individual act, without the formal concurrence of the Cardinals. There are precedents for similar proceedings. Adrian v. (1276), who reigned only a few days over a month, actually abrogated the great Bull of his predecessor Gregory X., and this repeal remained in force through six elections, until the scandalous consequences of the abolition of disciplinary provisions induced Celestine v. (1294), with his hermit nature, to revive the law of Gregory x. Still more in point would be what was done by Gregory XI. (1370). It was the time when the Holy See, for nearly three quarters of a century, had been pining in self-willed exile at AvigIt was felt by all devout minds that the situation into which the Church had got herself, through this step, was ruinous to her interests. The Pope himself, although a Frenchman, was fully alive to the fact that to save the Church it was indispensable to satisfy the outraged conscience of Christendom, by carrying back the Holy See to Rome. But to do this effectively it required an effort of force, for the Pope in those days was in the same plight as many of his successors, of being surrounded by a cabal of hostile interests, a network of opposing Court influences, in our times called a Camarilla. The Pope might himself flit, indeed, to Rome, and yet, with the individu

non.

als composing the Sacred College-in great proportion creatures of the French Crown, and the existing distribution of political interests, the same might be expected again to occur which already had occurred, that the transfer would be only for so long as the Pope lived. To secure a lasting re-establishment of the See in Rome, Gregory xt. perceived it to be necessary to make, for once, a radical change in the value attached to specified forms in the machinery of Papal elections. By a Bull bearing date 19th March 1378, Gregory XI. at one stroke of the pen suspended every existing regulation on the subject of Papal elections, set the Cardinals free from the observance of any obligations they might have sworn to in accordance to prescription, and specially empowered them not merely to meet for election on his decease, whenever it might seem convenient, but to nominate by simple majority. This memorable exercise of Papal authority, constituting a true coup d'état, stands justified by the approving voice of all ecclesiastical authorities, who have accepted it, without, so far as we know, one observation conveying an insinuation of usurpation against this Pope for what he did on this occasion. He dealt with a special emergency, as the Council of Constance did, by the application of measures drawn from the inspiration of the moment, and fashioned without slavish deference for precedent; and in both cases the result proved the wisdom of such bold action. Indeed, if we believe a writer whose authority it is difficult to reject, the Papal records would furnish a yet more recent, and, in some respects, a yet more pointed precedent for the issue of an enactment such as Pius IX. is supposed by some to have secretly made. When Pius vi. (1775-1799) was himself a state prisoner in the Certosa of Florence, he is said to have deposited with Monsignor Odescalchi, then Nuncio in that city, a Bull dispensing the Cardinals from the obligation of meeting for Conclave in Rome, and sus pending all existing prescriptions of form and ritual, for the express purpose of facilitating an accelerated election, at a season so pregnant with peril to the Church.* the demise of Pius VI., a Cameriere of Monsignor Caracciolo-Maestro di Camera-is affirmed to have been despatched to the Cardinals in Venice and Naples to make them

On

*This story is given by Moroni in his voluminous Ecclesiastical Encyclopædia. This work, composed in Rome, with every possible assistance from the highest authorities, must be regarded as embodying the official views of the Court of Rome on all the

subjects treated in its pages, and therefore is a composition of capital importance.

acquainted with this document. In Gonsalvi's recently published Memoirs there occurs no confirmatory notice of such a rescript; but from their fragmentary nature this fact would not suffice by itself to disprove a statement made with so much circumstantial detail by a writer in so favoured a position as Moroni for intimate knowledge of Vatican secrets. Our own efforts have indeed failed to glean any additional evidence for this curious story, which would be of evil omen for the purpose which alone could prompt Pius IX. to the step he has been credited with, since, in spite of the special privileges thus supposed to have been extended to it, the Conclave which met in Venice was neither short nor harmonious. Pius VII. expired in the Quirinal (1823), and, in accordance with the letter of the law prescribing a Conclave to be held in the very palace in which the Pope dies, the Cardinals congregated there. Since then, how ever, they have continued to do so on each vacancy, without any warranty of the kind. The Vatican is now therefore deserted for those Conclave doings with which its name stands so closely associated. Not that Papal elections were uniformly held there. The churches of Rome abound in historical memories connected with the scenes of Conclaves. Several memorable Popes were created in the Church of Minerva; and even St. Sabina, that stands in solemn loneliness upon the unpeopled heights of the desolate Aventine, once was the scene of eager contests after the death of Honorius IV. of the Savelli blood (1288), in the adjoining family palace, the picturesque remains of which are still so strikingly conspicuous. The earliest Conclave recorded to have met within the Vatican precincts is that of 1303; and not till the election of Urban vi. (1378), did a second assemble at the same spot. Then there followed again a series in various localities, until, in 1455, a succession of Vatican Conclaves began with Calixtus III. that was not broken until this transfer to the Quirinal in 1823.

Although apparently the Vatican has now become obsolete for electoral uses, its name stands so closely associated with the eventful traditions of Conclaves, that the reader will excuse a few words on the arrangements which on such occasions were made in this celebrated locality. The whole of the first floor of the pontifical palace was strictly shut off for the accommodation of the Cardinals and of the throng of individuals of various degrees who were appointed to share their imprisonment. The Cardinals were lodged each in a booth by himself, technically termed a cell, erected in the vast halls

constituting the Vatican apartments, each of which contained a number of these wooden huts that were divided into a couple of small ground-floor rooms, occupied by the Cardinal, and similar accommodation above for his confidential attendants, the Cardinals created by the late Pope having their cells hung with violet cloth, in sign of mourning, while those of the others were draped in green; and this distinction is still observed. When the Sacred College was so numerous as to cause a pressure for accommodation, the gallery over the vestibule of St. Peter's used to be also given to the Cardinals, as was the case in the Conclave of 1740, witnessed by the President de Brosses.

The distribution of these diminutive houses was always by lot. The one who had fared best in the raffle on the above occasion was Cardinal Tencin, who had drawn the hut in the middle of the gallery, so that the niche of its big central window, walled up until a new Pope has to be proclaimed therefrom, formed a spacious extra apartment at the back of his booth. But,' adds the President, for this convenience he will also be prettily rifled and pulled to pieces when the new Pope comes to the balcony to give his blessing to the people in the square below.' The great hall at the top of the Scala Reggia, which serves as a vestibule to the Sistine and Pauline chapels, remained always free, and was the playground of the imprisoned Cardinals, the spot in which they met and walked up and down together for recreation or consultation. Also, the same hall has been the scene of many stirring encounters and sly colloquies. In the Pauline Chapel it was usual to erect six supplementary altars, whereat each Cardinal and Conclavist performed his appointed daily mass, while the Sistine was always set apart for voting operations. It was the polling-booth of the Conclave, and popular tradition ascribes the injured condition of the paintings on its walls and ceiling in great degree to the effect of the smoke from the balloting papers regularly set on fire in the chapel after every unsuccessful ballot. No plea could enable a Cardinal, or any one belonging to the establishment in Conclave, to extend his steps beyond the precincts of the first floor, every window and aperture in which-especially the arches of the Loggie, running round the court of Saint Damasuswere jealously walled up, with only so much window left as must needs be preserved to let in an indispensable amount of light,— the spared panes being, however, protected against an illegitimate gaze by a covering of oilcloth. The doors at the top of the Scala Reggia, leading into the great hall between