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THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 



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THE FATAL CONCLAVES 



AS THEY WERE AND AS THEY ARE. 



y 

By T. ADOLPHUS TEOLLOPE 

AVTBOB OV '*A BllTOBT OF THB OOlOIOirWMALTH OV FLOBBTOa," **PAUL TBI POPS AXfr 
PAUL TBI PSUB," no., BTO. 



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4•.^^/ 



LONDON 
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY 



1876 



[All rights reserved,] 



Loxvosr: 
PanmD bt ttiitcb ajtd ca, inoTsow 

OTT aOAD. 




PEEFACE. 



Neyeb before, ftinoe a bishop's See was first established 
in Borne, whether by St. Peter or another, has the world 
at the period of the election of one Pope had so long a 
time in which to forget the election of his predecessor. 
St. Peter is said by tradition to have been bishop at 
Borne for twenty-five years. And no Pope of all the 
two hundred and sixty who occupied the See between 
his death and the election of Pius IX. ever reigned so 
long as Peter, the longest reign haying been that of 
Pius VI., who died in 1799, after an incumbency of 
twenty-four years and eight months. 

The present Pope has already reigned more than 
thirty years ; and in the course of nature it cannot be 
long before the world will see yet one more Conclave. 
But not only will the coming Conclave be a newer 
thing to the world than ever was a Conclave before ; it 
will take place under circumstances very essentially 
differing from those under which all former Conclaves 
have been held, for the Pope is no longer a temporal 
sovereign. 

There exists no controlling cause why the Conclave 
which will elect the successor to Pius IX. should not 



yi PBEFACE. 

be in every external circnmstance the exact eoonterpert 
of the Cionclayes which have in these latter days pre- 
ceded it. There is nothing, and it may safely be 
predicted that there will be nothing, to prexoit the 
enactment of all the pride, pomp, circumstance of a 
Conclave according to the description of the institntion 
given in the following pages. The Italian Gbvenmient, 
unless it be changed in spirit very much more entirely 
than appears in any degree likely to be the case, will 
most scrupulously respect and protect tiie perfect inde- 
pendence of the electoral proceedings of the Sacred 
College, and would respect and protect all the exterior 
ceremonial of the occasion, if the princes of the Church 
should think fit to give the world the spectacle of it. 
But such will not be the case. And such a change of 
spirit as would lead them to do so is quite as impro- 
bable as such a change in the disposition of the Italian 
Government as was just now alluded to. The Church 
is undeniably under a cloud at present (to shine forth 
in her own opinion in undiminished splendour, when 
that temporary cloud shall have passed) ; and in her 
displeasure she chooses, probably more from policy than 
from temper, to pretend that the cloud is much heavier 
on her than it really is. She considers herself to be 
sitting in mourning and in captivity, and professes to be 
unable to ^^ sing the Lord's song in so strange a land " 
as her own Bome has become to her. At least, she will 
not sing any portion of it with the wonted accompani- 
ments of stately splendour and ceremonial pomp. Bome 
will not, therefore, see the old external circumstances 
and surroundings of a Conclave. 



PBEFACB. YU 

But the internal and essential business of the election 
willy there can be little doubt, be transacted strictly 
according to the prescribed forms. And if any differ- 
ence shall be observed to exist in those respects which 
have any real influence on the election, it will be found 
in this, that the civil governments of Europe will have — 
to use a vulgar but expressive phrase — ^much less say in 
the matter than has heretofore been the case, and much 
less means of making any say which they may wish to 
utter, heard or attended to. The election will be, it may 
be predicted, an especially pure one — ^that is to say, it will 
be the real object of probably all the electors to choose 
the man whom they think to be the most fitted and the 
most capable of serving the interests of the Church as 
they are understood by the Bomish hierarchy. That 
there may be great differences of opinion among men 
all equally desirous of serving those interests, is exceed- 
ingly probable. But if there be, as it may be with 
tolerable certainty conjectured that there are, two cur- 
rents of opinion in the Sacred C!ollege on the great 
subject of the earnest desires of all its members, it is 
wholly impossible for the lay world — ^nay, it is probably 
impossible for their Eminences themselves — ^to predict 
which of these two currents is likely to prove the 
stronger in the Conclave. 

It is very possible that the future may have disclosed 
what it has in store for us in this respect before these 
pages come beneath the eye of the reader. But be that 
as it may, and be the result of the election which gives 
a successor to Pius IX. what it may, the election of a 
Pope is still one of the most important events of con- 



TIU PBSFAGB. 

temporary history, and one of the most pregnant with 
consequences of deep moment to a very large portion of 
the linman race. And it can hardly be, therefore, but 
that some sufficient account of the mode in which a 
Pope becomes such, must have an interest for those who 
witness the close of the present, in all respects, excep- 
tional papacy. 

It can hardly be necessary to tell any reader that to 
attempt to write, or to pretend to have written, a history 
of all the Conclaves which have elected Popes within 
the compass of such a volume as the present, or of a 
dozen such, would be preposterous. The present writer 
has made no such attempt. What he has endeavoured 
to do has been to give an intelligible account of the 
progress and growth of those abuses and encroachments, 
which led to the institution of the Conclave ; to sketch 
the successive modifications which have built up Con- 
clave law, as it now exists; to show the impotence 
of all those modifying regulations to attain with any 
reality the objects they had in view ; to point out the 
reciprocal action of Popes and Conclaves on each other, 
and the influence of the general tendencies of the times 
on both ; to indicate very generally and summarily the 
successive changes which have passed over the spirit of 
the Papacy itself; to give such a detailed accoimt of 
two or three selected Conclaves as might serve as speci- 
mens of the Conclaves of the ages from which they have 
been taken ; and, lastly, to give a brief account of the 
present method of proceeding in holding a Conclave. 

Possibly the subject is one in which the English 
reader may be interested to such an extent; but I 



PBEFAGE. IX 

liardly think that, even if all conditions of time and 
space had been fEtyonrable, a more lengthy resumS of th& 
tons of volumes which have been written on the subject 
would have been acceptable to the time-pressed Biritisb 
public of the present day. 

BoxB, June 6tk, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 

HIJSRABCET IN 8TATB OF FLVIDITT. 

CHAPTER I. 
Fxxst TentatiTefl 8 

CHAPTER n. 

Latenn Council of 1059. — Order of Oardinals. — Meaning of the Term. — 
First Traces of a Collegiate Body of Cardinals. — Number of the 
Cardinals. — ^Variations in this respect under different Popes. — ^"Titles" 
of the Cardinals. — ^Tbree Orders of Cardinals. — Numbers of Cardinals 
created by different Popes. — Motives for keeping up the Nu mbEgrin the 
Sacred College. — Cardinals in petto, — Anecdote of Alexander YlJLl. . 13 

CHAPTER m. 

Ceremonial connected with the Creation of Cardinals. — ^Practice in the 
Earliest Ages. — Consultation of the College on the Subject. — ^Modern 
Practice. — Communication of his Creation to the new Cardinal. — His 
customary Duties thereupon. — Costume. — New Cardinal's Visit to the 
Vatican. — ^Patronage. — Ceremonial at the Apostolic Palace.— Speeches 
on the Occasion. — ^The " Beretta." — ^The new Cardinal's Reception. — 
Shutting and Opening of the new Cardinal's Mouth. — CardmaUtial 
Ring.— Fees. — Ag^ at which Cardinals have been made. — Anecdotes of 
Odet de Coligny, the Heretio.Cardinal. — ^Laws restricting Popes a Dead 
Letter 29 

CHAPTER IV. 

Steps by which the Papal Election was attributed exclusively to the Sacred 
College. — Ghradual Progress of Encroachment. — ^Abnormal Elections. — 
Early Requisites for the Validity of an Election. — Earliest Examples 
of the Condave. — Notable Conclave at Viterbo in the thirteentiii 
century. — First example of Election by « Compromise." — ^The Fifteen 
« Rules for a Papid Election made by Gregory X. — Basis of Conclave 
liCgifilation ever since 54 



ZU CONTESTS. 

BOOK II. 

NOBZB B0T8 AT PLAY. 
CHAPTER L 

PAOB 

Lttter Tears of the Middle Am, from Oregoiy X. to Phu lY.— Gontnit 
of the Eccleaiaatical World of tboee Bayi with PkeeeQt Timet.— Where 
Modem History commenoee in the Annile of the Fispacj. — ^Yaxiability 
of the Church. — ^Papal History Mb into Groups of Popes« — Osnses of 
this Phenomenon. — Pkol UL. the last of a G^np of Pcqies. — Paol lY. 
the first of a different Qronp.— List of Popes from 1271 to 1649 . . 76 

CHAPTER n. 

Election of Innocent Y. — ^Anecdote of his AchiereBMnts as a IVeacher. — 
Blection of Adrian Y. — Po|ms in the Thirteenth Centnry elected without 
Condave. — Conclave in which Nicholas lY. was elected. — ^Mortalitv of 
Cardinals in Conclave. — Strange Inconsistency of the Anecdotist Can- 
cellierL — Superstition respecting the Duration of St. Peter's Beign.^- 
Anecdote of the papal Physician Matthew Corte. — ^Election of Celestine 
Y. — ^Modem Exception to the Rule requiring a Concla re to he held. — 
Modifications of the early CondaTO Rules. — BonifiuM YHI. — Benedict 
IX. — ^Anecdote respecting his Death.— Conclave held at Perugia. — 
Grossly Simoniacal EleSion. — Monstrous Assertion of the Historian 
Spondanus. — Morone^ Gregory XIY.*s Barber. — The Babvlonish 
CkpUnty of the Church. — Condaye at Avignon in 1334. — ^Ana again 
in 1342. — And in 1352. — And in 1362. — ^Division between the Ghiscon 
Cardinals Subjects of England, and those subject to France.— Election 
of Urban Y. not a Member of the College. — ^Tentatives for restoring 
the Papacy to Rome.— Petrarch.— St. Bridget. — Conclave in 1370, the 
last at Avignon. — Gregory XL— Difficulties of the Restoration of the 
See to Rome. — ^Return of Gregory XI. to Rome. — His Death in 1378 . 82 

CHAPTER nL 

Sacred College at the Death of Gregory XI.— Anecdotes of the Condave 
that elected Urban YI.— Turbulence of the Roman People.— Alarm of 
the Cardinals. — Circumstances which led to the great Schism. — ^Doubts 
respecting the Osnonidty of the Election of Urban YI.— Other Causes 
leading to the Schism.— Irregular Election of Robert of Geneva by the 
dissenting Cardinals as Clement YII., who has always been hdd to be 
an Antipope.— Schism of thirty-nine Years 105 



CHAPTER IV. 

Conclaves during the Period of the Schism.— Council of Pisa.— Abnormal 
and Irregular State of things in the Church.— Council of Constance.- 
Decrees which ])ut an end to the Schism, by the Election of Martin Y. 
^Difficulties arising from the Action of the Council of Constance. — 
Their Efiect as regarding Modem Theories of Infallibility . . .125 



CONTENTS. XIU 

CHAPTER V. 

PAOI 

Otto Colonna Pope as Martin y.~Ck)nclave for tlie Election of Eagenios IV. 
— Contest between Pope and ConndL — Anecdote of tlie Deathbed of 
Engenius IV. — Anecdotes of the Conclave that elected Nicholas Y. — 
Yiolence of the Roman Barons. — Prospero Colonna. — Cardinal Nephews. 
Election of Nicholas Y. — Condition of Italy. — ^Failure of the Attempt 
to unite the Latin and Greek Churches. — Nicholas a Patron of the new 
learning. — Other Doin^ of Nicholas. — Anecdote of his Mother. — Con- 
dave which elected Calixtos III. — Cardinal Bessarion. — Conclave which 
elected .^neas Sylvius Piccolomini as Pins II. — Efforts of the Cardinal 
of Bonen to prevent the Election, and to secure his own. — ^Mode of 
Pins n.'s Election 132 



CHAPTER VI. 

Death of Pins II. — ^Decision to hold the Conclave in the Yaidcan. — ^Election 
of Paul n.— The Handsome Pope.— Election of Siztos lY.— His 
Character. — ^Effect on the Church of the first menaces of Protestantiim. 
—The all-devouring nepotism of Sixtus lY. — ^Peter Biario, his Nephew. 
— Sixtus dies of a broken Heart. — Epigrams on Sixtus. — ^Interrenium 
after the Death of Sixtus. — Conclave which elected Innocent YllL — 
Anecdotes • . . 154 



CHAPTER Vn. 

Intenegnum after the Death of Innocent YIH.— Tumults. — Conclave which 
elected Borgia, Alexander YI.— His Beign and Death. — Scandalous 
Sccme at his BuriaL— Effect of his Papacv on the Church.— Interregnum 
after his Death.— Terrible Condition of Borne. — Conclave, and Scan- 
dalous Election of Pius III.— Another Conclave sixteen Days later. — 
Anecdotes of the Death of Pius III. — Simoniacal Arrangements for the 
Election of Julius II., Delia Bovere. — Character of «inlius II.— Con- 
clave which elected Leo X. — Meeting and Denumds of the Conclavists. 
—A Surgeon in the Conclave. — ^Anecdotes of this Conclave.— 'Election 
of De Medici as Leo X.— His Simoniacal Dealings.— Exhaustion of the 
Papal Treasury at his Death.— Difficulties of the Cardinals.— Election 
of Adrian YI. — ^Dismay produced in Bome by his Election. — Character 
of Adrian 170 



CHAPTER Vm. 

Conclave which elected Clement YH. — Change in the Characteristics of the 
CondaTcs. — ^Anecdote of Adrian's narrow Escape from being killed, and 
of the hatred felt by the Boman Clergy against him. — Homan and 
Florentine rivalry in the Conclave. — Intrigues in the Conclave. — ^The 
Plan of Makinff a Pope by " Adoration.' —Crafty Trick of Giulio de' 
Medici. — ^His Election. — And reign. — Conclave which elected Famese 
as Paul ni. — Gircnmstancee of his election.— His Character, . • 190 



XIY OONTEKTS. 

BOOK m. 

TES ZEALOUS F0FB8. 

CHAPTER I. 

Bemarks of Ranke on the Papal Hiatonr of the Siztaenth Ceniunr. — Jnlhis 
in. — HiB Chaiacter. — Condaye which elected him. — ^View of thip Con- 
ciaTe by the Venetian AmbaaBador. — ^Delay in AMembling of the 
Conclaves after Paul III.'b Death.~Beginald Pole.— The Expectation 
that he would be elected. — Was all but elected. — £Bs own - scruples. — 
His Election lost by them.— Anecdote of his behaTionr in Conclave. — 
Cardinal di San Marcello, afterwards Pope as Marcellus II. — Deter- 
mined to elect Pole, if possible. — ^The Emperor appealed to by Letter. — 
He v§to§» Cardinal SalviatL — ^Election of^Del Monte as Jmius ILL — 
His Character 201 

CHAPTER n. 

Marcellus II. — His Character.— The Conclave which elected him.— The 
Choice lies between him and Cardinal Caraifiu — Hostility of the Im- 
perial Part]r to the Latter. — ^The Meaning and PMtctice of " Adoration,*' 
"Acdamanon," or ** Inspiration." — ^Anecdote of intrusive Conclavist at 
a Scrutiny.- Election of Marcellus XL — His Death, and Conduct at the 
Council of Trent 218 

CHAPTER m. 

The Conclave which elected Paul IV. — ^Imperialist Party. — Osxdinal Pole. — 
Results in practice of the requirement of a two-thirds majority. — 
Cardinal Carpi excluded. — Caidmal D*£ste. — Cardinal Morone.- Objec- 
tions to him. — Cardinal Pozzi. — ^Management of Fameee.^Election of 
Paul IV. — Anecdote of the feeling of Kome on the occasion. — Character 
of Cara£Ea, Paul IV.— Imperial ** Veto " disregarded in this election. — 
Sayinff of CaraffSei respectmg his own elevation. — ^Estimate and descrip- 
tion of Paul by the Venetian Ambassador.— Giovanni Angelo Media : 
his Familv, Brother, Early History. — Character and personal appear- 
ance of Medici, Pius IV. — The inquisition.— Signs of the times. — 
Fraotioe of giviuf complimentary votes. — Anecdote of the craft of a 
Conclavist. — Carcunal Caipi again. — ^Why he was objectionable to 
D'Este.— Medici suddenly elected as a |i»a^2rr 224 



CHAPTER IV. 

Death of Pius IV.— Closing of the Council of Trent. — Banke's Remarks on 
the work of the Council. — ^Action of the work of the Council on the 
Character of the Popes.— Anecdote of a plot to assassinate Pius IV. — 
Michael Gbislieri : his antecedents and character. — Character of the 
Election. — Conclave which elected Pius IV. — ^Rivalry between Cardinals 
Famese and Borromeo. — Bepresentative of the old and of the new time. 
— Cardinal Altemps. — Anecdote of Borromeo at Florence. — Conclavist's 
View of Borromeo's character.— Moroni's imprisonment and acquittal 



CONTENTS. XT 

PAOB 

on Charge of Heresy held in ConclaTe to be sufficient reason against 
his Election. — ^Bonomeo wishes to elect him. — It is foond impossible, 
howeyer, to elect him. — ^Duplicity of Fameee towards Bonmneo.-^ 
Gardinals Ferraia and D'Este hostile to Morone^ and why. — ^Fameee 
and Borromeo agree to the Election of Ghislieri. — ^Dismay in OonoUve 
at the result acoomplished in the Election of Pins Y. . . . 241 



CHAPTER V. 

character and Disposition of dgo Boncompagno is dominated hr the Spirit 
of the Age . — Felice Peretti, Siztos Y. — Saying attributed to him. — 
Urban Vfi.— Sfondrato, Gregory XIY.— His Character and Practices. 
— ^Fachinetti, Innocent IX. — Aldobrandino, Clement YIII. — His 
Character. — Characteristics of the Conclayes that had elected these 
Popes. — Camillo Borghese, Ytad V. — Condave which elected him.— 
Principal Parties in it. — ^Their relatiye Stren^;th, and the Manner in 
which it operated. — ^Attempt to elect Cardmal Saoli. — ^Anxiety of 
Aldobrandino's Party. — Iirst Scrutiny. — Cardinal Bellarmine. — 
Cardinals Baxonius and Borromeo. — ^Motives for putting forward Bellar- 
mine. — Negotiation between Baxonius and Aldobrandino.— Cardinal 
Montalto at Supper. — Cardinal Camerino put forward, and droroed. — 
Cardinal San Clemente put fbrward.^Threatened "EsdusiTa." — 
Cardinal Tosco put forward.— Meeting of Cardinals for the exdusiou 
of San Clemente 259 



CHAPTER VI. 

Continuation of the Condaye that elected Paul V. — ^Aldobrandino deter- 
mines to elect Cardinal Tosco.— Points for and a^piinst him.— Attempt to 
elect Tosco by "Adoration." — Montalto's IndeciBion.—Bemarkable Scene 
in the Cell of Cardinal Acquaviva.- Conference between Aldobran- 
dino and Montalto.— The Latter unwillingly agrees to the Election of 
Tosco, which appears all but certain. — Suspense of Tosco.— Bemarkable 
Step taken by Baronius.— He alone by the Ascendancy of his Character 
prevents the Election of Tosco. — Baronius himself nearly elected. — ^The 
" Sala Bei^ " in the Vatican.— Party Tactics thrown into Confusion.— 
Tosco's Disappointment. — Extraordinary Scene in the Sala Begia and 
the Sistine and PaoHne Chapels. — ^Borghese at length proposed by 
common Accord, and elected as Paul V. - 274 



BOOK IV. 

TJSJB FRINCE F0FJB8. 
CHAPTER I. 



Tlose of the Era of the Zealous Popes.— Characteristics of the Group which 
succeeded them.^Death of Paul Y. — ^Alezandro Ludovisi elected as 
Gregory XY. by the influence of Cardinal Borgheee. — Ludovico 
Ludovisi, the Cardinal Kej^ew.— Regulations of Ghregory XV. for the 
holding of the ConclaYe.-^ather Theiner's Bemarks oonoeming them. 



xn (xusncDRB. 



■— totaimi^iminy Dcsui|iliaii odi— DosKk of Qs^gory XV-y snd Ailrjr of 
Oudiiudi into GoodaTe* — OonebiTe e ip e d ed to be a loag one, and 
why.— Ftetiei in tiie GoodaTe.— Oudiiial SmIi again. -—Gbrdiiial 
Defmonte. — ^Boironeo. — OiTdinak Bandiwi, Giiinarin, and MabiizsL — 
Hie B aiberi ni Fnnfl j.— Chaxacter of Ifafibo Baiberisi, who became 
Urban YUL—Ondmak Gaetani, Saciato, and Saa Sererinow— IIhie« 
in the CoodaTe of Oudittal Borgfaeae.— He xeloaea to kare the Con- 
dave. — Bazberini named in the impowbilitj of anj other Election, 
anddected. — Tcmble mortality of didinale and OondaTJeti . 295 



CHAPTER n. 

Keign and Worki of Urban Yin.— Change in tiiePoiitiQn of tiie FOpee.— 
Ko more PoMibility of obtaining Sovereigntiea for Pa^ial Nephews. — 
Aocomnktion of wealth br tiie Paipal FamilieB.— Sixtos Y • — Grecoiy 
XIY.— Clement Ym.— ftwil Y.— Gregory XY.— Urban YllL— 
▲moont of dotatioii penniMible to a Fipal Nephew. — PerMCotion of 
one papal fomQy by another. — Condaye at the death of Urban. — 
Partiea and inteMt at Rome much dianged nnee the last CoodaTe. — 
Cardinal Fkmphili elected aa Innocent X. — ^The Barberini driven from 
Borne 3U 



CHAPTER m. 

Innocent X.— The Story of his Beign stands alone in Papal History.— 
Donna Olympia ICsidalchinlf his 8ister-in-Law. — Her Inflnenoe oyer 
him. — Her scandalons yendity, greed, and corm^on. — Scandal 
thronghont Europe. — ^Innocent's Ainle Attempt to banish her. — ^Anee* 
doto of her deamigs in the last honrs of the Pope's Hfe.— Innocent's 
Death.— A CondaTe without any leaders. — ^The *' Sqoadrone Yolante." 
Anecdote of Csrdinds Ottobnono and Azzolini — Chigi propoeed. — 
Opposed by the French interest— The Barberini andn. — Chigi dected 
as Alexsnoer VIL— End of the story of Donna Olympia. — Pestilence 
at Eomc. 825 



CHAPTER IV. 

Fabio Chigi, Alexander YII.— His character. — ^His modified nepotism. — 
Difficm^ of entirely abolishing nepotism. — Changing characteristics 
of the I^pacy. — ^Dispute at the death-bed of Alezander. — Bospigliosi 
dected Pope as Clement IX. — His character. — ^The fluctuations in the 
population of Rome. — Curious Connection between these phenomena 
and the decrease of nepotism. — Mixed motive of the Electors in the 
Conclaves of this Period. — Complaints of the dedine of religion and 
morality in Rome. — Qualities now sought for in a Pontiff. — Innocent 
XI. a really capable financier. — Conclaye which dected Clement X. .337 



CHAPTER V. 

Conclave which dected Altieri as Clement X. — Ko fewer than twenty-one 
*' Soggetti Papabili." — ^Barberini — GHnetti. — ^Brancaod.— Carpegna. — 
Faoddnotti. — Grimani. — Gabridli. — OdeschalohL — AlvizzL — (Sbo. — 



CONTENTS. XVU 

TAOm 

Ottobnoni. — Spada. — Bonvisi. — Vidoni. — D*Elci. — Celd. — Litta. — 
Bonelli.— Altieri. — Nerli. — Bona. — Complaint by the Conclaviat of the 
impiety of the Times 346 



CHAPTEE VI. 

No Chief pf a party or party able to make Pope the man they most desired to 
elect. — Fear of enmity much more operative in the Conclave than 
enmity. — ^Multiplicity of considerations ever on the increase. — ^The 
Conclave which elected Clement X. especially long and difficult. — 
Moderation of recent Popes as to nepotism operates to increase this. — 
Saying of the Princess Albani. — ^Abundant evidence in this Conclave 
that negotiations with a view to the election were not checked by the 
Bulls to that effect. — Searching the Dinners of Cardinals a mere 
Farce. — Odeschalchi all but elected. — ^Father Bona wishing to further 
his chance, injures it. — W^ Cardinal Pio could not vote for Altieri. — 
Chigi fetils altogether as Head of a Faction. — Anecdote of Cardinal 
Razzi. — ^Message from the King of Spain to the Conclave. — Remarbible 
results of it — ^Anecdote of Altieri on the Eve of his Election.— Election 
of Altieri. — Anecdote of De Betz 365 



CHAPTEE Vn. 

Letters of the French President De Brosses. — Last Years of Clement XII., 
Corsini — Notices by De Brosses of the then Cardinals : of Cardinal 
Gorsini, of Cardinal Albani, of Cardinal Cosoia, of. Cardinal Fleuri, of 
Cardinal Rohan, of Cardinal Tencin. — How Matters went in the Con- 
c]ave.-^Tencin loses all iofluenoe. — Proposal to elect Cardinal Aldro- 
vandi opposed by Albani. — ^Albani*B treacherous scheme to ruin 
Aldrovimai.---Albimi's treachery ruins the chances of Cardinal Porzia. 
— Plain speaking of Cardinal Acquaviva. — ^Election of Lambertini as 
Benedict XTV.^His character and appearanoe. — Conclaves and Popes^ 
sixteen in number, between that of Clement X. in 1670, and that of 
Pius IX. in 1846.— Saying of Cardinal Albani.— Characteristios of latter 
Popes 378 



BOOK V, 

TSJB CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT FEJBSBNT. 

CHAPTER I. 

The death of a Pope. — Time to elapse before Conclave. — Cardinal Gays- 
ruck*s Journey. — ^The Mode of constructing cells for the Conclave. — 
Localities in the interior of the Conclave. — ^Drawing lots for the cells. — 
Mode of fitting and furnishing the cells. — ^The cell of a Royal Cardinal. 
—The Cammengo.— Mode of living of the Cardinals. — First day in 
Conclave 395 



XVIU COA'IEKTS. 

CHAPTER n. 

PA OK 

The Twenty rales of Gregory XV.—Signal for strangerB to dear out. Scale 

of parent of fees to scnrants and attendants in Conclave. — Death of a 
Cardinal in Condarc. — Business of each meeting of the Cardinals 

between the death of the Pope and the commencement of Conclayo. 

Entry into Conclave.— Bull of Pius YI. dispensing with certain fbnnali- 
ties in the election of his successor.— Next Conckve in all probabilitj 
wLl be quite regular 401 



CHAPTER in. 

Three Canonical modes of Election. — Scrutiny and " Accossit" — Entry of 
the Cardinals into Chapel for the scrutiny. — ^Vestments. — Mode of pre- 
paring the Sixtine Chapel for the scrutiny. — ^The Seats of the Cardinals 
at the Scrutiny. — The " Sfumata." — How the day passes in Conclave. — 
The bringing of the Cardinals' dinners. — Cardinals heads of Monastic 
Orders. — Close of the day in Conclave 409 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mode of Procedure at the Scrutiny. — "Ante-scrutiny." — The Four Actions 
composing it. — Description of the voting papers. — ^The Eight Actions 
composing the Scrutiny more properly so called. — InlSnn Ordinals. — 
The Manner of their voting.— Relatives may not be Conclavists.— 
How this rule is evaded.— The " Accessit."— Tlio *• Post-scrutiny."— 
Different procedure in case an election has or has not beenaooom- 
plishcd. — Care to ascertain that an elector has not made the necessary 
minority by voting for himself^ — Cases of consdence as regards the 
voting.— Objects intended to be ensured by Conclave rules impossible 
of attainment. — Conclusion 418 



BOOK I. 

HIERARCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 



B 



THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 



BOOK I. 

HIERABCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 



CHAPTEB I. 

First Tentatiyes. 

The system by whicli the Pope appoints a body of men 
who become the electors of a new Pope has not been 
invented^ but has grown. Like other social systems and 
arrangements which have succeeded in establishing 
themselves in the world as durable institutions, it grew, 
and shaped itself as it grew, in accordance with the 
nature and tendencies of the body social out of which it 
sprung. The manner in which this system has acted for 
the eflfecting of the purposes for which it was intended 
has been exceedingly curious, very peculiar, and charac- 
teristic of the institution of which it became an impor- 
tant part; often very dramatic, always highly interesting, 
not only to the student of ecclesiastical history but to 
the observer of human nature; and not unfrequently, 
both in past and present times, influential in the highest 
degree on the contemporary history of Europe. It may 

B 2 



4 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

be supposed, therefore, that some brief account of the* 
method and working of this singular and unique institu- 
tion, as it has been shaped by circumstances and himian 
passions, might be not unacceptable to many the course 
of whose reading lies fer out of the track which would 
make these matters necessarily familiar to them. A 
brief account it must be, though the story of several of 
the Conclaves might be so told separately as to occupy a 
volume as large as this, perhaps neither improfitably nor 
unamusingly. But it is much if those whose special 
studies do not lead them in this direction can find time 
to read one small volume on the entire subject. It were 
useless to hope for more. 

It is the purpose of this volume, then, to give such a 
general account of the working of the system by which 
for more than fifteen centuries the Popes have been 
chosen, as may be, it is hoped, made interesting to the 
general reader as distinguished Jfrom the special student. 
To the latter the present writer makes no pretence of 
offering anything that he does not already well know. 

As in the case of other institutions which have grown 
up by a process of development and endogenous growth, 
the beginnings of this institution were rudimentary, 
irregular, confused, and uncertain. Much that in the 
course of generations became fixed, legalised, and in 
process of time fossilised, was in the beginning in a 
fluid and plastic condition. And the imcertainty and 
confused nature of the development in question was all 
the more marked in that it was in every respect abusive^ 
It was, in truth, as has been said, a development, 
an endogenous growth, and natural outcome of the 



HTETIAKCHY IN STATE OP PLXTIDITY. 6 

system from wliicli it sprung. But noile the less was 
the progress of its growth at every stage abusive, and 
in contradiction to the original and true principles of the 
body which developed it. There are organisms thd most 
natural and most to be expected development of which 
is one in contradiction to the organic principles they 
profess. And it may probably be considered that the 
greatest social organism which the world has ever seen, 
the Catholic Church, may be one of these. It will be 
expedient, therefore, to trace very briefly the course of 
those events and arrangements which led to the defini^^ 
tive organisation of the Conclave, as the means by which 
a successor to St. Peter was to be provided. And that 
will be the business of this first book. 

It has ever been a claim of the Catholic Church that 
it is the most democratic society that the world has yet 
seen. Logical accordance with the principles inculcated 
by its Founder and with the purposes for which it exists 
would require that it should be such. And the theory 
of the institution has at no time failed in accordance with 
those principles and purposes. Nor can it be denied 
that the practice of the Church has been in every age to 
a great extent in conformity with its theory in this 
respect. If, at all times — and certainly not less so in 
these later days than in older and less decency-loving 
times — the door of admission to the higher places and 
dignities of the Church has been more freely and more 
easily opened to the great and powerfill ones of the earth, 
yet there has been no age from the earliest to the present 
in which its places of power, wealth, and dignity, in 
every grade, have not been accessible to the lowliest. 



6 THE PAPAL CONCLAYBS. 

If the present Pope be the scion of a noble house, his 
immediate predecessor had been a peasant-bom Mar. 

Nevertheless, although the Church has, to a great 
extent; preserved its characteristic democratic tendencies 
as regards its relations with the lay world outside the 
priestly pale, it is a curious and significant fact that the 
policy of its own internal arrangements and government 
has continually tended to become ever more and more 
aristocratic, oligarchic, and despotic. It has been the 
conscious policy as well as the self-acting tendency of the 
institution to deliver every lower grade in the hierarchy 
ever more and more stringently boimd into the power of 
its immediate superior. Parochial clergy have been more 
and more entirely subjected to their bishops ; and bishops 
have been eflfectually taught to submit, not only their 
conduct, but their souls, to the great central despot at 
Home. And the strength of this tendency, most vigorous 
in that centre ganglion of the system, has singularly mani- 
fested itself there by the invention of an entirely adventi- 
tious order of ecclesisastic nobles — ^the Sacred College. 
And the scope and aim of this invention has been to turn 
the original Apostolic Church democracy into one of the 
closest oligarchies the world has ever seen, as regards 
the highest purposes of ecclesiastical government. * 

Ecclesiastical theory recognises the Bishop of Eome ac( 
the universal Metropolitan of Christendom, because he 
is the successor in that see of the apostle to whom Christ 
said, ^^ Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram eedificabo 
ecdesiam meam!" And the circumstance that Bome 
was the seat of empire and centre of the civilised world 
has produced coincidence between that theory and historic 



HIERAECHT IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 7 

fact. It has been denied by historical inquirers of 
polemic tendencies that St. Peter ever was Bishop of 
Eome, or present there at all. I think, however, that it 
must be admitted that the balance of evidence, though 
certainly not reaching to historic proof, is in favour of 
the truth of the facts as claimed by Eome. But in truth, 
the whole story of the early days of the Church at Bome, 
including the dim and shadowy names of the Fontiffs 
who are chronicled as having succeeded each other in 
the seat of Peter, is in the highest degree legendary. 
Nor have we any means of knowing by what process it 
was settled among the faithfcd that the man who became 
their bishop should be such. For twelve hundred years 
indeed after the first establishment of the see of Bome, 
though the chronological place and identification of the 
majority of the Fopes is sufficiently clear and satisfactory, 
the succession is in many instances so obscure, and so 
far from being historically ascertained that the immense 
amount of learning that has been expended on the 
subject has not availed to bring the learned disputants to 
a common understanding on the subject, or to produce 
any intelligible and trustworthy line of papal succession. 
The main difficulty of the matter arises from the number 
of Antipopes, and the exceedingly obscure questions 
which arise as to many of these whether he is to be con- 
sidered as Fope or Antipope. From all which it will be 
readily understood that little can be said with any degree 
of certainty as to the method of Fapal election during 
those centuries. There is every reason to think that in 
the earliest times the bishop was chosen by the voices of 
all the faithful belonging to that " Church"— to the 



9 THE PAPAL COXGLATBB. 

society, that is, of the Christians who liyed there. 
Ecclesiastical historians are anxious to maintain tiiat 
from the earliest time the clergy alone had the priyil^e 
of voting on ihe subject, while the people were only asked 
for their consent to the choice thus made. Not all eyen of 
the orthodox writers on the subject insist on this ; and 
it is far more probable that the Homan Bishop was in the 
earliest ages chosen by the whole body of the Mthfiil, 
and that most likely by some more or less fixed and 
orderly process, not in perfect accordance with any 
regular system of votation. 

We thus find Boniface I., who had reason to fear that 
the peace of the Church might be troubled after his 
death by the turbulence of an Antipope, one Eulalius, 
writing in 419 to the Emperor Honorius a letter, in 
which he enjoins on him that no one should be elected 
Pope by means of intrigues, but that he only should be 
considered the legitimate Pope who should be chosen 
by Divine judgment and with the consent of all.* The 
vague nature of this recommendation is sufficiently indi- 
cative of the imcertain and unregulated practices that 
prevailed in the election. The address of this letter to 
the Emperor, moreover, and the reply of the latter, mark 
the fact that the Emperors had already begun to exercise 
a more or less admitted and recognised influence over 
the pontifical elections. A few years later, in 461, St. 
Hilarius finds it necessary to decree tiiat no Pope shall 
appoint his own successor. In 499 St. Symmachus, in 
a council held at Eomc, and attended by seventy-two 
bishops, decrees that he shall be accepted as Pope who 

* Labbo, Toncil., tom. iii. col. 1682. 



HTEKABCHY IN STATE OP FLUIDITY. 9 

ahall have united all the suffi^ges of the clergy, or at 
least of the greater part of them. In this same brieff 
we find the earliest promulgation of a rule which sundry 
later Pontiflfe, notably Paul IV., in 1558, confirmed and 
made more stringent, and which to the present day is 
held as one of the fundamental and most important rules 
of all connected with the election of a successor to St. 
Peter. It provides that while the Pope lives no nego- 
tiation or conference shall take place with regard to his 
successor, and this under pain of excommunication and 
forfeiture of all offices. At the death of Symmachus, we 
find Odoacer publishing a law, given by Labbe under 
the year 502 (Concil., tom. iv. col. 1334), by which he 
forbids any pontifical election to be proceeded with 
without the participation in the deliberations of himself 
or a pretorian prefect on his behalf. The barbarian king, 
however, alleged that Symmachus had requested him to 
take this step; and the ecclesiastical historians admit 
that some such request may have been made, but assert 
that Odoacer availed himself of it to usurp a power 
which it had never been intended to confer on him. As 
late as 1072 we find the election of Gregory VII*, the 
great Hildebrand, promulgated in the following terms : 
" We, the cardinals of the holy Eoman Church, and the 
clergy, acolytes, subdeacons, and priests, in the presence 
of the bishops and abbots and many other personages 
ecclesiastical and lay, this day, the 21st April, 1072, in 
the church of St. Peter in Vincuk,^ elect as the true 
Vicar of Christ the Archdeacon Hildebrand, a person of 
much learning," &c., &c., &c., "and we will that he 

. * Labbe, Condi., tom. iv. col. 1313. 



A 



10 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

should have that same authority in the Church of God 
which St. Peter exercised over that same Church by the 
will and ordinance of God."* In short, for more than 
a thousand years the elections of the Boman Pontiffs 
got themselyes accomplished in all sorts of varying and 
irregular ways, as best might be, with now more and 
now less attention on the part of the electors to the real, 
or at least professed, objects and nature of the office, and 
now more and now less intervention of corruption within 
the Church and high-handed lay violence from without. 
In process of time, as the number of clergy became Tcry 
much larger, and disorders in the proceedings at the 
papal elections became more serious, it was thought 
desirable before the close of the eleventh century to 
determine that the election of the Bishop of Bome should 
be entrusted to the leading priests in Bome — " preti 
primari" — ^and the bishops of the immediately neigh- 
bouring sees exclusively. 

The variations of practice during the five hundred 
years previous to this date, 1072, are chronicled by 
Moroni,t who counts up eighteen different methods used 
during this period in the process of election. It will 
hardly be deemed necessary that the points of difference 
which characterize these eighteen modes of election 
should be registered here. It will be sufficient to say 
that the general tendency of them all was to place the 
power of election in the hands of a small clerical 
oligarchy, and to exclude the lay element, especially as 
represented by crowned heads, from any participation in 

* Baronios, ad an^ 1074. Labbe, torn. x. col. 6. 

f Dizionario di Eradizione Storico-ecolesiastica, vol. zxi. p. 199. 



HIERiJtCHr IK STATE OP FLUIDITY. 11 

it. It cannot be denied that this restriction, and the 
practice and claim which grew out of it, were justified, 
and it may ahnost be said necessitated, by the circum- 
stances of the time and the nature of the case. It is no 
doubt a monstrous thing that a handful of Boman priests 
should possess the priyilege and right of nominating an 
individual to exercise such a power in Christendom as 
that of the Popes grew to be. And though the more 
modem practice of selecting the members of the Sacred 
College from a much larger field, while adhering 
nominally to the ancient practice by virtue of the titles 
still assumed by the cardinals, may be held to have 
greatly modified the crude excess of the pretension as it 
was originally put forth, it is still an outrageous claim 
that the creature of such a body as the Sacred College 
should exercise such authority as is attributed to the 
Pope over the entire body of the Church, which claims 
to be de jure co-extensive with the world. But it may 
be safely assumed that neither the better nor the worser 
men of the curiously heterogeneous band of admirable 
saints and turbulent self-seekiag sinners which con- 
stituted the Boman clergy of that time had any clear 
notion of the greatness of the thing they were arrogating 
to themselves. And it is at the same time very difficult, 
whether from the standpoint of the fifth or that of the 
fifteenth century, to imagine any scheme by which the 
end to be attained could have been on the whole more 
advantageously reached. It may be admitted farther, 
that (though the circumstances which determined and 
finally fixed the pontifical election in the method which 
it has followed for more than a thousand years will 



12 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES, 

doubtless be eventually found to operate, like the 
canker at the root of a widely-branching tree, to the 
ultimate destruction of the institution) the amount of 
success which has been achieved by an arrangement so 
little promising in its appearance is one of the most 
interesting and curious problems which the history of 
the world offers to the statesman and sociologist. 



CHAPTER II. 

Xateran Council of 1059. — Order of Cardinals. — ^Meaning of the Term. — 
First Traces of a Collegiate Body of Cardinals. — ^Nmnber of the 
Cardinals. — ^Variations in this respect under different Popes.-*- 
*• Titles" of the Cardinals. — ^Three Orders of Cardinals. — ^Numbers 
of Cardinals created by different Popes. — Motives for keeping up the 
Number in the Sacred College. — Cardinals in peUo, — Anecdote 
of Alexander Ym. 

The first step towards arriying at a fixed oligarchical 
method of election had, however, been taken somewhat 
before that election of the great Hildebrand as Gregory 
VIL in 1073. In the year 1059 Pope Nicholas IL 
had been raised to the throne in fact by the influence 
of Hildebrand, whose commanding figure stands forth 
during all this period as the real and eflteotive ruler of 
the Church. This Nicholas had in the previous year 
held a council at the Lateran, by a decree of which he 
expressly deprived the general body of the clergy and 
the Eoman people of any share in the pontifical elections 
for the future.* *'The right of electing the Pontiff," 
so runs the decree, " shall belong in the first place to 
the cardinal bishops, then to the cardinal priests and 
deacons. Thereupon the clergy and the people shall 
give their consent ; in such sort that the cardinals shall 
be the promoters, and the clergy and the people the 
followers." In the same decree Pope Nicholas orders, 

* Labbe, Concil., torn. ix. col. 101 3. 



14 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

that the future Pontiffs shall be chosen ^^£rom the 
bosom of the Homan Church" (which means, say the 
ecclesiastical writers, "from among the cardinals"), if 
a fitting person shall be found among them ; and if not, 
from the clergy of any other church. He further orders 
that, " if it should happen that the election cannot by 
reason of some impediment be made in Bome, it may be 
performed elsewhere by the cardinals, even though there 
should be but few of them." 

Here we arrive at some degree of fixity in the attri- 
bution to the cardinals of the exclusive right to elect 
the Pope. "We do not quite yet emerge from the fluid 
state of the hierarchical institution ; for farther decrees 
were necessary and farther vicissitudes had to be 
undergone before the solid condition of the institution 
is reached. But all the farther changes and the decrees 
of subsequent Popes regard only the manner in which 
the cardinals are to carry out the task entrusted to 
them. It may be proper, then, here to explain as briefly 
as may be the origin and meaning, so far as it had any 
meaning, of the order of cardinals. 

The dire necessity which constrains every wonder- 
fully learned Dryasdust to find some different solution 
for his erudite problems from that suggested by his 
predecessor Dryasdust, has caused various more or less 
fanciful explanations of the origin of the term cardinal, 
as the title of an ecclesiastical prince, to be put forward. 
There seems, however, to be little room for doubt that 
the simplest of these is the true one. Cardo is the 
Latin for a hinge. The cardinal virtues are those upon 
which the character of a man mainly hinges^ and are, 



HXEEiiBGHY JHf 8TATE OF FLTTIDITr. 15 

therefore, ihe principal yirtaes. "Cardinals" are then 
principal priests. At all events Pope Eugenius IV., 
writing in 1431, supposed this to be the origin and 
meaning of the word. He calls the cardinals those on 
whom all the government of the Church hinges. " Sicut 
per cardinem volvitur ostium domus, ita super hoc sedes 
Apostolic® totius Ecclesiea ostium quiescit et susten- 
tatur." Some antiquaries have endeavoured to show 
that the term is used as early as the second century. 
This seems doubtful.* But it is certain that the word 
was in common use in the fifth century. Various prin- 
cipal and leading priests were then called " cardinals." 
But the name had not yet come to have the signification 



* Bingham, when pointing out that archipreahyieri were by no 
means the same thing as preshyteri cardinales (book ii. chap. 19, 
sec. 18), says that the use of the term cardinal cannot be found in any 
genuine writer before the time of Gregory the Great, i.e. the close of 
tiie sixth century. "For," says he, "the Boman Oouncil, on which 
alone BeUarmine relies to prove the word to haye had a great antiquity, 
is a mere figment." 

I retranslikte from the Latin translation of Bingham, not haying a copy 
of the original English to refer to. Neyertheless, whether BeUarmine 
cites them or not, there are a few other authorities for the earlier use of 
the term. See Moroni, voc. Cardinal. 

In alluding {he. cit.) to the origin of the term, Bingham notices the 
opinion of BeUarmine, that the word was first applied to certain prin- 
cipal churches, and remarks, that others haye supposed that those 
among the priests in populous cities, who were chosen from among the 
rest to be a council for the bishop, were first caUed cardinals. And he 
cites Stillingfleet, who writes, in his "Irenicon" (part ii. chap. 6): 
"When afterwards these titles were much increased, those presbyters 
that were placed in the ancient titles, which were the chief among them, 
were caUed cardinales preabyteriy which were looked on as chief of the 
clergy, and therefore were the chief members of the oouncil of presbyters 
to tibe bishop." The title, howeyer, seems to haye been applied to the 
entire body of the canons in certain churches, as a priyileged use aUowed 
to those special sees. As to the aboye-mentioned council said to haye 
been held at Bome by Sylyester I. in 324, it is regarded as authentic 
by Baronius as weU as BeUarmine, and is judged to be apocryphal by 
Van Espen. 



16 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES* 

it subsequently acquired. The canons of various cathe- 
dral chapters, notably those of Milan, Eavenna, Fermo, 
Cologne, Salerno, Naples, Compostella, &c., were grati- 
fied with the appellation of cardinals. There are pas- 
sages of ancient writers from which it appears clear 
that at one period all the clergy of the Eoman churches 
were called "cardinals." In France those priests em- 
powered to hear confessions and give absolution seem to 
have been called " cardinals."* 

In fact the use of the word, and the practice in 
assuming and conceding the title, seems to have been, 
like so much else in those ages, exceedingly vague. Nor 
for a long time was the restriction of the title to the 
class which now alone uses it decisive and fixed. It 
appears gradually to have been understood to appertain 
only to those whom the Pope specially created cardinals. 
At last, in 1567, Pope Pius V. definitively t decreed 
that none should assume the name or title of cardinal 
save those created such by the Eoman Pontiff; and fi:om 
that time to the present day the name has been ex- 
clusively applied to the body of men who are now so 
called. 

Thus much for the name. That the dignity existed 
in such sort, that the cardinals of the Eoman Church, or 
rather of the Church at Eome, were deemed of far 

• Cave, writmg of Anastasius the Eoman librarian (vol. ii. p. 56. col. 
2.), says that he "was ordained by Leo IV. about the year 848 presbyter 
of the titular church of St. Marcellus, and quotes the words of Pope Leo : 
<< Presbyter cardinis nostri quern nos in titulo, B. Marcelli Martyris atque 
Pontificis ordinavimus." That is to say, continues Cave, that that 
church was specially intrusted to him, that he might continually be 
busied in the care of it, ** Tanquam janua in cardine suo," and so com- 
monly called a cardinal. 

t Moroni, Dizionario, tom. ix. p. 247. 



HXBEABCHY IN STATE OP FLXJIDITY. 17 

superior rank and dignity to those of any other chnrch, 
who more or less abusively called themselves by that 
name, at least several centuries earlier, has been suflGl- 
ciently seen. But it does not appear that the idea of 
the Sacro Collegio — of a collegiate body composed of the 
cardinals, and of them alone — arose till long after the 
earliest mention of cardinals. It is said that traces of 
such a conception may be found in the life of Leo III., 
created in 795, which is extant by Anastasius. Moroni 
cites a variety of writers and documents of the centuries 
between that date and the end of the eleventh century, 
for the purpose of showing that at all events by the end 
of that time the body of cardinals was recognised as a 
collegiate corporation. And he then proceeds, " Having 
fixed the epoch at which the cardinals were known even 
by name as the Sacred College," &c. But in fact his 
citations show nothing of the sort, and appear to me to 
indicate rather the reverse. At all events he fails to 
adduce any instance in which the phrase in question is 
used.* Nor have I been able to discover when the body 
of cardinals was first so called. The institution, indeed, 
seems to have continued in a very fluid state till a much 
later date. And it is not till Sixtus V., by the Bull 
Postquaniy dated the 3rd of December, 1585, finally 



• **Tho institution of cardinals properly so called," says Cave, "is 
xeferred to the middle of this century — ^the eleventh. There were indeed 
cardinals in the Boman Church before this, that is to say, clerks fixed in 
and taking titles from the more celebrated churches of the city. Nor 
were caTdinals wanting in others of the most important churches. But 
aboiit this time they were enrolled — (isciti sunt — ^in an Apostolic College, 
as counsellors of the Pope, assistant judges — conjudices — senators of the 
city and the world, true hinges of the world— reri mundi cardinee.*^ — 
Cave, Scr^, Ec. Hist. Lit, tom. ii. p. 124, col. 2. 



18 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

regulated the composition of the Sagro Collegio^ that 
we find ourselves on solid ground. Up to this time not 
only was the number of cardinals exceedingly variable 
in fact, but the theory of what the number ought to be, 
as far as any theory existed on the subject, was equally 
uncertain. Thus John XXII., when requested to create 
two French cardinals in 1331, replied that there were 
only twenty cardinals, that seventeen of these already 
were Frenchmen, and that he could therefore only con- 
sent then to create one French cardinal. And at the 
death of Clement VI. in 1352, the cardinals determined 
that their number should not exceed twenty. Urban 
VI. {ob. 1389) created a great niunber ; and the College 
made representations to Pius II. [oh. 1464), to the effect 
that the dignity of the purple was diminished by such 
excess. Sixtus IV. {oh. 1484), however, multipfied.the 
niunber of his creations to a hitherto unexampled degree. 
And Alexander VI. {oh. 1503), who drove a very lucrative 
trade in cardinal-making, exceeded him. But Leo X. 
{oh. 1521), having no regard, as we are told, for all 
that had been said or done by his predecessors, created 
thirty-one cardinals at one batch. He created in all 
forty-two in the short space of eight years and eight 
months, and left at his death no less than sixty-five, a 
number unprecedented up to that day. Paul III., how- 
ever, the Fameso Pope {oh. 1549), created seventy-one. 
But Paul IV. {oh. 1559), after consulting the Sacred 
College, issued the Bull called Compactum^ by which it 
was decreed that the number of cardinals should never 
henceforward exceed forty, and that no new cardinal 
should be created till the existing number had fallen to 



TTTRRATICHY IN STATE OF PLITIDITY. 19 

at most thirty-nine. Despite this, however, his imme- 
diate successor Pius IV. (ob. 1565) raised the number of 
the cardinals to forty-six. Finally Sixtus V. (ob. 1590) 
established, by the Bull mentioned above, seventy as the 
fixed number — i.e. the maximum number— of the College, 
" after the example of the seventy elders appointed by 
God as counsellors of Moses." And this number has 
never since been exceeded, and may be considered at 
the present day as representing the complement of the 
Sacred College, though it is expressly laid down by the 
authorities on the subject that no canonical disability 
exists to prevent the Pope from exceeding that number 
if he should see fit to do so. 

By the same Bull, Postquam^ of 1585, Sixtus V. 
also determined that the seventy of the Sacred College 
should consist of six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal 
priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons. The first are 
the bishops of the sees immediately around Bome. 
The deacons take their titles from the diaconie^ es- 
tablished in the earliest centuries, and attached to 
certain churches, for the assistance and support of the 
widows and orphans of the faithful ; and the cardinal 
priests take theirs from the most noted, venerable, and 
ancient of the parish churches in Bome. 

As mistakes are frequently made about the assump- 
tion and " choice " of their titles by newly-created 
cardinals, it may be as well here to give a list of the 
tiUeSj or sees or churches, after which the cardinals 
are designated. The cardinal bishops are the holders 
of the sees of — 1, Ostia and Velletri; 2, Porto and 
St. Rufina; 3, Albano; 4, Frascati; 5, Palestrina; 

c 2 



20 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

6, Sabina. The fifty ^^ titular " churches are St. Lorenzo 
in Lucina, St. Agostino, St. Alessio, St. Agnes, St. 
Anastasia, Saints Andrew and Gregory on Monte Celio, 
the Twelve Apostles, St. Balbina, St. Bartholomew in 
the Island, St. Bernard at the Diocletian Baths, St. 
Calistus, St. Cecilia, St. Clement, St. CSirisogonus, St. 
Cross of Jerusalem, St. John at the Porta Latina, Saints 
John and Paul, St. Jerome of the Slaves, St. Laurence 
in Damaso, St. Laurence in Panispema, Saints Marcel- 
linus and Peter, St. Marcellus, St. Mark, St. Mary of 
the Angels, St. Mary of Peace, St. Mary of Victory, St. 
Mary of Piazza del Popolo, St. Mary in Aracoeli, St. 
Mary in Traspontina, St. Mary in Trastevere, St. Mary 
in Via, St. Mary sopra Minerva, Saints Nereus and 
Achilleus, St. Onophrius, St. Pancras, St. Peter in 
Montorio, St. Peter in Vincula, St. Prassede, St. Prisca, 
St. Pudenziana, the Four Crowned Saints, Saints Quiricus 
and Julietta, St. Sahina, Saints Sylvester and Martin 
on the Hill, St. Sylvester in Capite, St. Sixtus, St. 
Stephen on Monte Celio, St. Susanna, St. Thomas in 
Parione, the Holy Trinity on Monte Pincio. The 
fourteen deaconries are as follows: St. Mary in Via 
Lata, St. Adrian in the Forum, St. Agatha alia Suburra, 
St. Angelo in Peschiera, St. Cesareo, Saints Cosmo and 
Damian, St. Eustache, St. George in Velabro, St. Mary 
ad Martyres, St. Mary della Scala, St. Mary in Aquiro, 
St. Mary in Cosmedin, St. Mary in Dominica, St. Mary 
in Portico, St. Nicholas in Carcere, Saints Vitus and 
Modestus. 

As regards these different orders of cardinals, it may 
be said that for most practical purposes, specially for all 



mEBABGHY IN. STATE OF FLXJIDITT. 21 

purposes of the election of a Pontiff, they are in modem 
times equal. All have an equal vote. All are equally 
•eligible ; but are not, as is often imagined, exclusively 
•eligible. Any fit and proper person, whom the cardi- 
nals may in their consciences think the most likely to 
rule the Church to the greater glory of God and welfare 
of his Church, may be elected. It is hardly necessary 
to say that such person has almost invariably been 
found among the members of their own body, and that 
there is not at the present day the smallest probability 
that any other should be chosen. One important point 
of difference there is between the cardinal deacons and 
their colleagues. The former need not be in full and 
irrevocable holy orders. But as regards the choice 
of the Pope and the business of the Conclave, this 
difference signifies nothing. Should a cardinal deacon 
be chosen Pope, he must receive priest's orders. 

Since the time of Sixtus V., at the close of the 
sixteenth century, there have never been more than 
seventy cardinals at the same time. But inasmuch as 
the great majority of those promoted to that dignity are 
men far advanced in life, the succession is somewhat 
rapid; and it is recorded that Clement VIII. {ob. 1605), 
during a pontificate of thirteen years, created fifty-three 
cardinals. Paul V. {oh. 1621), during his reign of 
fifteen years, made sixty. Urban VIII. {ob. 1644) 
advanced no less than seventy-three persons to the 
purple, besides four left in petto ♦ at his death, thus 
entirely renewing the Sacred College during his pon- 
tificate of twenty years. This Urban VIII. was the 

* This phrase will be explained at a future page. 



22 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

great Barberini Pope, whose zeal for the Mth is seen 
in the celebrated College de Propaganda Fide, and whose 
nepotism may be read in the vast Barberini palace 
and galleries and collections, and in the great number of 
buildings still marked by the bees, which were his 
cognizaiice. This was the man who stripped the bronze 
from the dome of the Pantheon to turn it into a canopy 
for the tomb of St. Peter, who used the Coliseum as a 
stone quarry for his building operations, and was the 
barbarian of whom scandaUzed Bome said, ^^ Quod non 
fecerunt barbari, id fecere Barberini !" 

Nevertheless, this notable Pope, whose ^* creations'^ 
in stone and mortar were about as numerous as those in 
"purple," was almost equalled in the latter respect by 
several of his successors. Clement XI. (ob. 1721), 
during a pontificate of twenty years, created seventy 
cardinals. Benedict XIV. (ob. 1758), during his reign 
of seventeen years, made sixty-four; and Pius VI. 
(ob. 1799), in the course of his pontificate of twenty-four 
years and eight months (the longest reign in all the 
long list till it was surpassed by that of the prei^nt 
Pope), sixty-three. Thus Urban VTII. (Barberini) 
would have remained on record as the most prolific 
creator of cardinals, were it not that Pius VII., during 
his papacy of twenty-three years and five months— the 
next longest to that of his predecessor Pius VI. — created 
no less than ninety-eight, besides leaving ten in 
petto at his death — ^a number which is the more 
remarkable from the fact, that, by reason of the dis- 
turbed condition of the times and the misfortunes 
aioned to the world by the first French Empire^ 



^ooasio 



HIEEAECHT IN STATE OF PLX7IDITT. 23 

he was not able to create any cardinal from the 26th of 
March, 1804, to the 8th of March, 1816. The number 
of creations due to Pius IX. will no doubt be large ; 
but it is hardly likely, though his reign has been 
so much longer, that he will reach the number of 
Pius VII. 

It may be observed, however, that it has not been 
without some show of good reason that the later Popes 
have been desirous of leaving a well-filled College of 
Cardinals at their death. The smallness of the number 
of Cardinals in Conclave has frequently been the occa- 
sion of diflGlculty in coming to an election, and consequent 
long duration of the Conclave — a circumstance which 
has always been held to be, and may readily be believed 
to be, injurious to the Church. In old times, indeed, 
when the period during which the Holy See remained 
vacant was one of utter anarchy and lawlessness in 
Eome, it was a matter of the highest importance that 
the election should be made as quickly as possible. 
And even in more recent times, a prolonged Conclave 
was always the cause of disorders both in Kome and 
to a certain degree in the Church generally. It may 
also well be believed that scandalous elections and 
simoniacal bargainings and promises were much more 
likely to occur in a College composed of but a small 
number of individuals. 

Having had occasion to speak of the creation of 
cardinals in petto^ it may be as well to take this op- 
portunity of explaining the meaning of that phrase, 
before proceeding to speak of those regulations, customs, 
and specialties which are essential to a sufficient under- 



24 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

standing of the nature of the august body to which the 
making of the Pope is entrusted. 

Various causes occasionally arose to lead a Pontiff 
to deem it undesirable to name openly to the world the 
person whom it was his wish and purpose to create a 
cardinal. Sometimes the opposition, or at all events 
the discontent, of some one among the sovereigns of 
Europe, sometimes jealousies and ill-will among the 
members of the Sacred College themselves, and some- 
times the consideration that the individual to be 
promoted might for a time be more serviceable to the 
Holy See in the less exalted dignity from which he 
was to be elevated to the purple, induced the Pontiff 
to keep his nomination secret. Martin V. (oJ.*1431) 
was the first who thus created cardinals in secret. 
And the usage as practised by him and sundry of his 
successors is to be distinguished from the subsequent 
plan of creating in petto to which it led. Pope 
Martin created in one batch fourteen cardinals, naming 
and publishing only ten, and confiding in secret Con- 
sistory to the members of the Sacred College the names 
of the other four, who were thus secretly created but 
not published. The Pope further took the precaution 
of confirming his secret nomination in a subsequent 
Consistory, and not only strictly enjoined the cardinals 
to publish the creation of the persons in question and 
to consider them as cardinals in case he, the Pope, 
should die without having published them, but made 
them swear solemnly that they would do so. The case 
the Pope had looked forward to happened. Martin died 
without having published the names of the cardinals 



HTRRARCHY IN SliiTE OF FLUIDITT. 25 

thus secretly created. But the College, their promises 
and oaths notwithstanding, refused to recognise the 
persons in question as cardinals, or allow them to take 
any part in the election of the new Pope. In some 
similar cases, the succeeding Pope created a&esh the 
secretly named cardinals of his predecessor out of 
regard for his memory. In more cases, those who 
remained impublished when their patron died never 
obtained the purple. The cardinals themselves always 
set themselves strongly against these secret nomina- 
tions. 

But as time went on the absolutism of the Popes 
always went on increasing, and the power of the 
cardinals to resist it diminishing. And Paul III., the 
Famese (ob. 1549), a very powerful and high-handed 
Pontiff, pushed the practice of secret nomination a step 
in advance. Up to that time the Popes had always 
named the cardinals whose promotion they were un- 
willing to publish in secret Consistory, taking the 
Sacred College into their confidence. Paul simply 
declared that besides those named as cardinal there were 
one or two others, as the case might be, whose names he 
reserved in his own breast (inpetto)^ to be named when 
he should think proper. And, further, it became the 
practice for a cardinal created in this fashion to take 
precedence in the College according to the date of his 
secret nomination, whereas previously the secretly 
named cardinals had taken rank according to the date 
of the publication of their dignity. 

The form used at present in the practice of this secret 
nomination is as follows. The Pope in Consistory, after 



26 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

naming those whom he publicly creates, adds, ^^ Alios duos 
[or more or less] in pectore reservamns, arbitrio nostro 
quandocumque declaxandos.'' The Popes, however, have 
never succeeded in obtaining with any degree of certainty 
the recognition of cardinals thus made if they should be 
surprised by death before the publication of them. 
Sometimes they have been allowed to take their places 
in the Sacred College. Sometimes their title to do so 
has been rejected. More frequently, perhaps, than 
either, the succeeding Pope has given them admission to 
the College by a nomination of his own. It is now, 
however, a recognised maxim of the Boman Curia that 
no Pope on succeeding to the see of St. Peter is in any 
wise bound to recognise any nominations left by his pre- 
decessor in this incomplete condition, even if he should 
find the document in which his predecessor had registered 
his act in this respect, or if the facts of the case should 
become known to him in any other manner. 

Sometimes it has been the Papal practice to cause 
some entirely confidential person of those about them to 
make out a list of those intended to be comprised in a 
coming creation of cardinals. And the secret history of 
the Vatican has many anecdotes connected with this 
practice. Bonifacio Vannozzi, of Pistoia, well known 
in the history of the Eoman Court as having served it as 
secretary for more than thirty years, had been employed 
by Gregory XTV. (ob. 1591) to draw up such a list of 
contemplated promotions. Having subsequently passed 
into the service of the Cardinal di Santa Cecilia, the 
Pope's nephew, the latter, anxious to know the names of 
those who were to be promoted, succeeded in wrenching 



HIEEAROHT IN STATE OF PLTJIDITY. 27 

them from his secretary Yamiozzi, whose own name 
was in the list. The Pope soon found out that his 
nephew knew all about the new creations^ and, sending 
for Yannozzi, told him that he had misinformed the 
Cardinal di Santa Cecilia in one respect at least, and so 
saying handed him the list and bade him erase his own 
name! 

On another occasion it is related * that Pope Alexander 
VJJLl. (ob. 1691) sent for his secretary Gianfranceso 
Albani, who afterwards became Pope as Clement XI., 
that he might prepare an allocution to be spoken by the 
Pope on the following day but one, when a Consistory 
was to be held for the creation of twelve new cardinals- 
As the secretary proceeded with his work, the Pope, 
walking up and down the room the while, told him 
with many injunctions of profound secrecy the names 
of the cardiQals to be made, one by one as the secretary 
came to that passage in the allocution which concerned 
them ; for in Papal allocutions upon these occasions it is 
the practice for the Pope to utter some words of eulogy 
and record of services rendered to the Church with 
reference to each of the new nominees. The Pope had 
thus gone through the first eleven on his list, and then 
stopping in his walk said, " Well ! why don't you go 
on with your notice of the twelfth ? '' " But who is the 
twelfth, your Holiness ? " returned Albani. "What! 
don't you know how to write your own name ? " said the 
Pope. " Thereupon," says the Jesuit biographer, who 
was, when he wrote. Bishop of Sisteron, "Albani pro- 
strated himself before the Pope and conjured him to 

. • Lafiteau, Life of Clement XI., p. 27, 2 vols. 12mo, 1752. 



28 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

nominate some more worthy person" — a little bit of 
hypocritical comedy which the Jesuit deems necessary 
to the due exaltation of his subject. But the Pope, who 
was virtually making him not only a cardinal, but his 
own successor next but one — Innocent XII. (ob. 1700) 
having reigned nine years in the interim — ^toldhim that 
he had made many changes in the list of those whom he 
purposed to elevate to the purple, but that he had never 
once thought of omitting his name. 



CHAPTER III. 

Ceremonial connected with the Creation of Cardinals. — ^Practice in the 
Earliest Ages. — Consultation of the College on the Subject. — Modem 
Practice.— Communication of his Creation to the new Cardinal. — 
His customary Duties thereupon. — Costume, — New Cardinal's Visit 
to the Vatican. — ^Patronage. — Ceremonial at the Apostolic Palace. — 
Speeches on the Occasion. — The '' Beretta." — ^The new Cardinal's 
Beception. — Shutting and Opening of the new Cardinal's Mouth. — 
Cardinalitial Bing. — Fees. — Ages at which Cardinals have been 
made. — ^Anecdotes of Odet de Coligny, the Heretic Cardinal. — ^Laws 
restricting Popes a Dead Letter. 

It would occupy too much time and space to attempt to 
give a complete account of the ceremonies attendant on 
the creation of the members of the Sacred College. But 
as these ceremonies, both the strictly ecclesiastical por- 
tion of them and the social accompaniments of them, 
were for three or four hundred years, and up to the time 
of the recent revolution, which put an end to the tem- 
poral power of the Papacy, a prominent and leading 
feature in the routine of practices which constituted the 
life of the Apostolic " Curia," and in the social life of 
Eome, it is necessary to say a few words upon the 
subject. For unless the ecclesiastical and social dignity 
and position of a cardinal, and the sort of place he fills, 
or rather filled, in the eyes of the Koman world, be clearly 
understood, the meaning and significance of a Conclave 
will not be rightly apprehended. 
In the earlier ages of the Church the ceremonial 



^ 



30 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

observed in the creation of a cardinal was not only much 
more simple than it became at a subsequent period, 
which might have been expected, but it indicates also 
that there was in those days a very much greater reality 
in the theory which represents the Sacred College as 
an assisting and, to a certain degree, controlling Council 
established for the guidance of the Holy Father. And 
this, too, indeed, might be expected to have been the 
case by those who have paid any attention to the progress 
of Church history. 

The creation of cardinals in the earlier centuries 
usually took place on the first Wednesday of the " Quattro 
Tempera '* or fast, with which each of the quarters of 
the year began; and the first act of the creation took 
place mostly at Santa Maria Maggiore. There after the 
Introit and Collect of the Mass had been said, a reader 
ascended the pulpit, and turning towards the people, 
said in a loud voice, "Cognoscat caritas vestra quia 
(N. N.) de titulo (N. N.) advocatur in ordine diaconatus 
ad diaconiam (N. N.) et (N. N.) diaconus de titulo (N. N.) 
advocatur in ordine presbyteri ad titulum (N. N.). Si quis 
habit adversus hos viros aliquam querelam exeat confi- 
den^ propter Deum et secundum Deum, et dicat." ♦ 
If any objection was stated, inquiry was made ; and if 
it was found to be well founded, a diflterent person was 
raised to the cardinalate. On the following Friday the 

* ** Be it known to your charitable consideration that N. N., of the title 
of N.N., isoallodintheorderof deaoonBto thedeaconryofN.N.,andN.N., 
deacon of the title N. N., is called in the order of priests to the titie N. N. 
If any man hath any complaint against ^ese men, let him step forth 
with confidence, in behalf of Qod, and according to God's Word, and 
teU the same." 



HIEBABCHY IN SXIIE OF FLUIDITT. 31 

same thing was repeated in the church of the Twelve 
AposHes. The next day, the Saturday, at the mass 
at St. Peter's, after the Introit and the Collect, the 
FontiJBf, turning to the people, pronounced these words : 
^* Axcdliante Domine Deo, et Salvatore nostro Jesu Christo 
eligimus in ordinem Diaconi (IT. N.) de titulo (N. N.) ad 
diaconiam (N. N.) et (N. N.) Diaconum di titulo (N. N.) 
in ordine Presbyteratus ad titulum (N. N.). Si quis autem 
habet aliquid contra hos viros, pro Deo et propter Deum 
exeat et dicat. Yerumtamen memor yit conditionis 
su».''* Then there was a pause for a short period, and 
if nobody came forward with any objection, the Pope 
proceeded to celebrate mass, and then declared the pro- 
motion of the persons named to the cardinalate, and 
gave them the scarlet hat then and there. 

At a somewhat later period the Pope asked of the 
Sacred College assembled in secret Consistory whether 
in their opinion there should be a creation of cardinals, 
and of how many. Then on receiving an afl&rmative 
reply to the first question, he pronounced the words : 
" Nos sequimur consilium dicentium quod fiant." f Then 
according to the tenor of the replies to the second 
question, he said : ^^ Nos sequimur consilium dicentium 
quod fiant," — such or such a number. He then 
requested the members of the College to give the choice 
of persons their best consideration, and so dismissed the 
meeting. A second Consistory was held on the follow- 
ing Friday, and the first thing done was the deputing 

* '* Let him however be mindful of his own condition.'* A hint not to 
speak lightly or presomingly. 

t ** We follow the adyice of those who say that there should be a 
creation." 



32 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

by the Pope of two cardinals to go to the residence of 
all those who were too infirm to attend the Consistory^ 
and collect their votes as to the persons to be promoted* 
When the deputation returned the Pope said : "Portetur 
nuda cathedra I " ♦ Thereupon all the cardinals rose 
and ranged themselves against the wall of the hall so as 
to be out of ear-shot of the Pope's seat. The chair was 
placed at the Pontiffs right hand, and the Dean of the 
Sacred College seated himself in it. The Pope then in a 
low voice told him whom he thought of creating, and 
concluded with " Quid vobis videtur ? " f One by one 
in order of seniority the whole College was thus consulted. 
When this was completed the Pope said aloud: "Deo 
gratias, habemus de personis creandis concordiam omnium 
fratrum," or "quasi omnium," or "majoris partis," J as 
the case might be. And then the Pontiff at once pro- 
claimed the new dignitaries with the following formula : 
" Auctoritate Dei omnipotentis, sanctorum Apostolorum 
Petri et Pauli, et nostrfi. creamus Sanctse Eoman» 
EcclesieB cardinales presbyteros quidem(N. N.), diaconos 
vero (N. N.), cum dispensationibus derogationibus et 
clausulis necessariis et opportunis." &c. On the follow- 
ing Saturday a public Consistory was held, at which the 
Pope addressed a hortatory allocution to the new 
cardinals, placed the hat on their heads, and kept them to 
dine with him. Soon, however, we find all semblance of 
consulting the Sacred College dropped ; and long before 
the intricate mass of rules for the ceremonial at present 

• *' Let an empty cliair be brought." 
t " What do you think of it ?" 

I *< Thanks be to God, we haye the consent of aU our brethren," or ** of 
nearly all of them/' or ** of the majority," 



HIERABCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 33 

prevailing were invented, the Pope simply announced 
to the assembled cardinals, ^* Habemus fratres ; " ♦ and 
then proceeded to declare the names of those he chose 
to promote. 

It will be observed that from a very early time secrecy 
as to the names of those who were to bo made cardinals, 
formed, as it still does amid so much else that has be- 
come changed, a very prominent feature in the method 
of proceeding. And we gather from this fact an indica- 
tion of the difficulty the Popes had to steer their way in 
this matter amid all the jealousies, enmities, intrigues, 
which this exercise of their patronage brought into play, 
and which in the earlier times were always tending to 
break out into open violence and even warfare. Thoy 
had also to guard against the embarrassments arising 
from the requests of those whom it might often have 
been difficult to refuse. 

In later times, when the Pope has determined on the 
creation of a batch of cardinals, he calls a secret Con- 
sistory — an assembly, that is to say, of the Sacred 
College. He then proceeds to read the allocution, the 
preparation of which was described in the last chapter, 
and at the conclusion of it says, " Quid vobis videtur ? " 
— *^ How seems it to you ? " The words are as unreal a 
form as the " in pace " which consigned an erring nun 
to her living grave. For any expression of opinion on the 
subject by any member of the assembly would be as much 
out of the question in the one case as the hypocritical 
farewell is meaningless in the other. The assembled 
cardinals all rise, take off their purple caps (ben-ettu} 

* " We have as brothers." 



84 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

and gravely bow their heads. Thereupon the Pope pro- 
ceeds to the creation in the following solemn form of 
words : " Auctoritate omnipotentis Dei, sanctorum Apos- 
tolorum Petri et Pauli ac nostra, creamus Sancta Eomanee 
EcclesieB, cardinales presbyteros quidem (N. N.), diaconos 
vero (N. N.), cum dispensationibus, derogationibus, et 
clausulis necessariis et opportunis." ♦ If any cardinals 
are to be created in petto j he here adds the form of words 
above given in the former chapter. He then thrice 
makes the sign of the cross with his right hand, saying 
as he does so, *^ In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus 
Sancti. Amen." And the Consistory is at an end. 

It is supposed that no one of the newly made Cardinals 
has any idea that such greatness is about to be thrust 
upon him. Of course it is almost always all perfectly well 
known beforehand. There have been cases, however, in 
which the news of the promotion was wholly unexpected 
by the subject of it, but they are so few that Moroni 
gives a list of all the recorded cases. There are also many 
cases, occurring in times when communications were not 
so rapid as they are now, of persons having been created 
cardinals who were dead at the time of their creation. 

With regard to those cardinals who are in Home, and 
who are supposed to be entirely ignorant of the coming 
greatness, a master of ceremonies clothed in a purple 
mantle proceeds immediately after the termination of 
the Consistory to announce this promotion to each of 

* **By the authority of Omnipotent Gk>d, and by that of the Holy 
Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, we create cardinals of the 
holy Boman Church, in the rank of priests (So and so), and in the 
rank of deacons (So and so), with all the necessary and fitting dispen- 
sations, limitations, and roseryations." 



HIEBABCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 35 

them vivd voce at their own residences, informing them 
at the same time at what hour that same afternoon they 
are to go to the Apostolic Palace to receive the purple 
cap. In feet, however, this is not the first notice the 
new cardinals have received of their promotion, for a 
servant of the Cardinal Secretary of State, carrying a 
note from his master, has outrun the Master of Ceremo- 
nies in his purple mantle and anticipated him. A third 
messenger, however, bringing the same glad tidings, 
comes to each of the new Eminences. For the Cardinal 
Vice-Chancellor, being by virtue of his office the only man 
who can authentically certify the acts done in the Consis- 
tory, his substitute starts even before the Consistoiy is 
quite at an end, that is, as soon as ever the bell sounds 
which announces the utterance of the creating words, and 
is thus the first of all to carry the tidings. All this is 
settled prescriptively and perfectly known to all Kome — 
to all Bome as it was, for the greater part of the Kome 
of the present day knows no more of such matters than 
Londoners do. And it was not without reason that it 
should have been so, for all these various annunciations 
were the occasion of receiving large fees — a valuable 
part of the emoluments of the different offices, which, 
in some cases, had been bought on careful calculation 
of such profits. 

As soon as ever the first announcement has been 
received, the new cardinal places himself clothed in 
purple cassock and band on the threshold of his residence, 
there to receive standing the so-called visite di cahre^ 
— ^the first heat visits, as we may say, of the prelates, 
nojbles, military officers, and cardinals' gentlemen, who 

D 2 



36 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

come to offer their congratulations. Other and more 
formal visiting will follow in due time; but these visite 
di calore are supposed to represent the enthusiastic 
rush of friends breathless with delight at the unexpected 
news. On this occasion the new cardinal is to have a 
black skull-cap on his head, which he is not to take 
off to anybody, and he is to hold a somewhat larger 
black cap in his hand the while. The article which I 
have called a skull-cap is the beretUna. The berretta^ 
which the cardinal holds in his hand, is the square- 
cornered cap which the clergy use in church. The 
berretta of a cardinal is of silk for the summer and 
of cloth for the winter, save in the case of members of 
the monastic orders, who wear merino in the summer. 
And if the new dignitary be a canon regular, or a member 
of any of the monastic orders, his cassock, instead of 
being purple, must be of the colour of the dress of his 
order. To those of the newly-created cardinals who 
are not in Eome, the purple berretta is sent by the 
hands of a papal ablegate, but the purple berettina 
by those of one of the Pope's Noble Ghiard. In some 
cases where it has been intended to show special favour 
and distinction, the Hat itself has been sent to cardinals 
created at a distance from Eome. But this has been 
very rarely done. 

Paul II. {pb. 1471) was the first Pope who granted to 
the cardinals the use of the purple, or rather scarlet, cap. 
Bonanni, in the 106th chapter (!) of his learned work 
on the cardinal's berretta says this colour reminds the 
cardinal not only of his superior dignity, but of the 
martyrdom for which he must be ever prepared for the 



HIERARCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITT. 37 

defence of the Ghurch ! A somewhat better known 
author, Petrarch, in a letter to the Bishop of Sabina,* 
speaks of certain cardinals who, "being not only mortal, 
but well-nigh moribund, are rendered oblivious of their 
mortality by a little bit of red cloth ! " 

For a long time the members of the monastic orders 
were spared this danger, and used caps of the same 
colour as their cassocks, which they still wear of the 
colour proper to their order. Gregory XIV. (ob. 1591), 
however, being moved thereto by the entreaties of 
Cardinal Bonelli, a Dominican, nephew of Pius V., 
thought seriously of granting the red cap to the 
cardinals of the monastic orders, and ordered the " Con- 
gregation of Eites" to examine the question. Five 
cardinals constituted the congregation, of whom the three 
oldest reported in favour of the measure. As they were 
not unanimous, however, on the question, Gregory 
thought it desirable to take the opinion of the entire 
College of Cardinals on the point; and a majority of 
three-quarters of the College being in favour of the inno- 
vation, the monastic cardinals got their red caps, and 
have worn them ever since. Accordingly, Gregory 
summoned the four monastic cardinals, who at that 
time belonged to the Sacred College, to the Quirinal, on 
the 19 th of June, 1591, and there, having caused four 
red caps to be brought on a silver salver, placed them on 
the heads of the four cardinals kneeling before him 
without more ado (sema ultra ceremonia) ; and thus, with 
•their red caps on their heads, they appeared at the mass 
■celebrated that morning at the Church of the Apostles, 

• Lib. XV. Epist. 4. 



i 



38 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

with the applause, says the special historian* of this im- 
portant concession, of the whole cotirt, no less than if there 
had been a creation of new cardinals. The importance of 
this event at Kome maybe measured by the fact that tho 
volimie above cited by no means contains the whole liter- 
ature of the subject. Father Tommaso Gonziani pub- 
lished a letter on the same topic addressed to the Car- 
dinal Alessandrino. There appeared also in 1592, and 
again in a second edition in 1606, a book "De Bireto 
rubro, dando S.K.E. Cardinalibus regularibus, responsa 
prudentum divini, humianique juris, ab Antonia Scappo, 
in Eomana Curia advocate coUecta, uno etiam addito ejus 
response." We have also, "Eesponsum divini humanique 
juris consultorum de Bireto coccineo lUustriss, S.K.E, 
Card, regularibus aPontifice conferendo. Eome, 1606." 
Indeed, it was time that this matter should be satis- 
factorily settled. For already a Franciscan friar, Cardinal 
of Aracoeli, had been so discontented with the black cap, 
given him by Paul IV. (ob. 1559), that, after wearing it 
a year, he had sadly scandalized all Eome by audaciously 
assuming a red one on no authority but his own, " it 
being found impossible to make him understand that 
he ought not to wear red as well as the others " ! " For 
how otherwise," said this Franciscan friar, ^^ should he 
be saved from coming into contact with the populace ? " 
To return to the ceremonial of the day on which the 
new cardinals have been proclaimed. Half an hour 
before the time named for their arrival at the Papal 
palace to receive the berretta^ each cardinal sends a 
carriage — ^not his state carriage but a more ordinary 

* Oatenfty " Discorso deUa berretta rossa di darsi ai Oardinali rcligiosi." 



HIEBARCHT IN STATE OF FLXnDITT. 39 

one — with two cliaplaiiis and two chamberlains in it to 
the palace. One of the chamberlains carries wrapped in a 
purple cloth garnished with a golden fringe the rochet, 
the band, and the violet-coloured cape, and ordinary epis- 
copal hat of his master. He consigns all these things 
to the master of ceremonies of the Sacred Palace, who 
places them in a chamber of the apartment of the 
cardinal nephew. All these dependents of the new 
cardinals then wait in the first ante-chamber, and the 
eldest among them places himself near the door in readi- 
ness to open the door of his master's carriage on his 
arrival. Why rehearse all this trash? Because at 
Bome, as Home was, all these matters were deemed 
worthy of being minutely and irrevocably settled and 
appointed; and they are described authoritatively in 
the learned volumes of those whose mastery of the 
intricate and complex science of the etiquette of the 
Pontifical Court made them highly necessary specialists 
in their own branch of learning. A whole crowd of 
such facts are needed to give a nineteenth-century 
Englishman some notion of the social state and pecu- 
liarities of the old Papal Rome. And all these minute 
little services and duties were privileges carrying with 
them advantages in one kind or another. And the 
distribution of these privileges and the possibility of 
sharing in these advantages were matters that came 
home in one shape or another to half the homes in Eome, 
in every social class, and formed topics of conversation 
and interest in that strange little world so curiously 
shut out from all the subjects that were interesting the 
other big world outside ! The Princess's tirewoman, 



% 



40 THE PAPMi CONCLAVES. 

while dressing her mistress's hair, would seek to induce 
her to move her brother the Cardinal to appoint as his 
senior chamberlain some relative, or more probably some 
client who had feed the waiting- woman for her 
advocacy. Some family poor to the extent of all but 
wanting bread, but respectable by virtue of some family 
connection with somebody who held some post or office 
in the retinue or household of some prelate, would specu- 
late on the contingent advantages that might arise to 
them through certain promotion that might fall to the 
lot of uncle Beppo, or cousin Giuseppe, Monsignore's 
intendente di casa^ in case Monsignore should be raised 
to the purple. One gossip calls upon another in quest 
of a favour. " Cava mia^ I should so like to get a look at 
the new cardinals as they come for their herrette ! Now 
you know your husband's brother is decano in the family 
of his Eminence of San Pietro in Vincula that is to be. 
He will of course be at the carriage door at the Quirinal. 
If you could get him to let me have a little place in a 
comer — eh?" These things are patronage, and ai-e 
valued, and make safe topics of interest and talk for. a 
people ! 

Well! At the appointed hour the new dignitaries 
arrive at the palace in their state carriages, accompanied 
each by his master of the chambers and cupbearer, ^' or 
gentleman." The carriage must have its blinds down, 
and be preceded by one single servant "without 
umbrella" (the umbrella which always precedes a 
prelate on state occasions), and all the other servants of 
the household (men of course) follow the carriage, 
except the "sub-dean" {i.e. the servant second in 



HIERAECHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 41 

Beniority), who walks at the right hand of the carriage 
door. The "dean," we remember, is waiting to open 
the door of the carriage for his master on his arrival. 
The new cardinal is received at the palace doors by a 
master of the ceremonies and the chief of the out- 
runners, and proceeds to the ante-chamber, where the 
cardinal nephew meets him and conducts him to his own 
apartment, where the master of ceremonies takes the 
prelate's band oflf him, and girds him with one 
adorned with tassels of gold. He also puts on him, 
unless he be a member of a monastic order, a rochet ♦ 
and mantle. And thus accoutred he is presented by 
the cardinal nephew to the Pope, whom he finds seated 
on his throne clothed in rochet and cape,t and sur- 
rounded by all the dignitaries of his court. The new 
dignitary approaching kneels three times at intervals, 
and on arriving at the foot of the throne, led by the 
master of the ceremonies, he prostrates himself to Ids 
the papal slipper. The master of the ceremonies then 
brings the scarlet mossetta which the Pope places 
on the shoulders of the new cardinal with his own 
hands. He then similarly places the " berretta " of like 
colour on his head. But the master of the ceremonies 
who brought the mozzetta must not touch the berretta. 
The latter is brought by a prelate, "Monsignore 
Guardaroba," or at least by his deputy. As soon as 



• The " rochet " is the linen garment reaching about half-way down the 
"body, with sleeyes covering the entire arm to the wrist, generally richly 
laced, which in the Boman Catholic Church answers to our surplice. 

t Mo2SEetta. The mozzetta is that cape of fur or of silk peculiar to the 
Pope, cardinals, bishops, abbots, and canons, which the latter are 
ordinarily seen wearing in the choir during scrricc. 



42 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

this has been done, the new cardinal again kisses the 
foot and also the knee of the Pontiff, who then gives 
him the kiss of peace on both cheeks — lo ammette al 
dupltce amplesso. Then the Pope makes a speech, in 
which he speaks of the shining merits of the new 
dignitary, of the motives which have moved him (the 
Pope) to make the creation, and reminds the new 
cardinal of the duties and responsibilities, which that 
dignity brings with it. The cardinal — or the senior of 
the group in the name of all, if, as is ordinarily the 
case, there are several — ^makes a speech in reply, full 
of promises and thanks, and concluding, says Moroni, * 
as if he were giving a receipt for the performance of 
this task, with a declaration that it is only to the 
Pontiff's indulgence that the promotion is due. Indeed^ 
Parisi, the writer of a work entitled, " Instructions,'^ 
respecting all these points of ceremonial, gives a collec- 
tion of forms for these thanksgiving speeches! 

As soon BB the speech is finished the first master of 
the ceremonies pronounces "Extra omnes," and the 
Pope and the new cardinals and the Cardinal Secretary 
of State are left for awhile alone together. "When they 
are dismissed they return to the outer room, where they 
find the "Monsignore Sotto Guardaroba" waiting for 
them, ready to present to each on a silver salver the 
berettina^ or scarlet skull-cap, to be worn under the 
berrettay which they have already received in the 
Pope's presence ; after which they return to the apart- 
ment of the Secretary of State, and after a little conver- 
sation depart in their carriages as they came. Arrived 

• Vol. V. p. 160. 



HIBRAECHY IN STATE OF FLTHDITY. 43 

at his own residence, the new cardinal lays aside his 
rochet and mantle, and clad in cardinal's cassock and 
cape, and " with his red herretta in his hand," proceeds to 
receive the congratulatory visits of the Boman world. 

The laws and regulations prescribed respecting the 
honorific custody, and, one may say, attendance, on this 
talismanic scarlet cap (not to to be confounded, it should 
be observed, with the still more majestic and awftd Hat)^ 
are curiously illustrative of the ways and tone of the old 
Boman society. Even after the day of which we arc 
speaking, th6 herretta is to bo placed on a little table 
all to itself in the cardinal's throne apartment. His 
Eminence uses it whenever he is in a cardinal's 
canonicals. And on these occasions, when he takes it 
from his head, he gives it to his " gentleman of the 
chamber" to hold. When, however, his Eminence 
attends collegiate service in the Papal or Cardinal's 
Chapel, at the entrance to the sacristy, the gentleman 
of the chamber consigns the cap to the cardinal's train- 
bearer, who never quits his master, and hands it to him 
.every time he covers himself during the service, which 
is very frequently, and when he receives incense. But 
on* those occasions when the cardinals wear the mitre, 
the gentleman of the chamber always carries the 
herretta^ and in processions holds it in his hand 
walking by the side of his master, " as an ensign," says 
Moroni,* of the cardinalitial dignity. Caraccioli, 
Bishop of Lecce, in the fifteenth century, strongly 
recommends the kissing of the herretta every morning 
and every evening. 

• Loc. cil. 



44 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

When any one of royal blood, or a brother or a 
nephew of the Pope, is created cardinal, the guns of 
St. Angelo fire a salute ; and at the Consistory in which 
the publication is made the oldest member of the Sacred 
College rises immediately on the declaration of the 
name by the Pope, and prays the Pontiff to give him 
the scarlet herretta instantly on the spot, which, in ac- 
cordance with duly registered precedent, his Holiness 
does. 

The receptions held by newly-created cardinals on 
the evening of the day of their creations, as mentioned 
above, were always one of the great features in the old 
Koman society, and the evening in question was looked 
forward to as a time of high festival by all the city. 
There was a general illumination of the city, with fire- 
works and burning of tar-barrels, specially in front of the 
palaces of the cardinals and the representatives of foreign 
sovereigns. The fronts of the residences of the new 
cardinals were ornamented with illuminations in elabo- 
rate designs, and vast sums were spent on these decora- 
tions by the richer dignitaries, specially by such as 
were desirous of ingratiating themselves with the 
Roman people. It was a great matter for fine-drawn 
political speculations to watch carefully who went and 
who omitted to go, or who went early and eagerly 
and who late and perfunctorily, to the new cardinal's 
reception on the night of his creation. As a rule, " all 
Rome " was there, and his Eminence's rooms were all 
a-glitter with the crosses and stars of diplomatists, the 
gorgeous robes of ecclesiastical princes, and the diamonds 
of the Roman ladies, to whom these receptions were 



HIERABCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 45 

occasions for displaying their utmost magnificence. 
The appearance of (say) the Imperial ambassador's wife 
with less than the full array of diamonds she was 
known to possess, still more, of course, her non- 
appearance, would at once have made a ground for 
speculating on the probability that the newly-mado 
cardinal would be struck by the Imperial " Yeto ''* at 
the next papal election. The doors of the new Eminence 
were understood to be open on this occasion ; and any 
stranger in Home, or indeed anybody to whom the 
tailor or milliner had given a satisfactory ticket of 
admission, might enter. 

There is one other curious ceremony which must bo 
noticed before this, it may be feared tedious, chapter of 
the mode of cardinal-making can be concluded — ^tho 
closing and opening of the mouths of the new cardinals. 
In the first secret Consistory after the creation, before 
laying before the members of the Sacred College the 
business in hand, the Pope addresses these words to the 
lately promoted dignitaries : ^^ Claudimus vobis os, ut 
neque in consistoriis, neque in congregationibus, aliisque 
functionibus cardinalitiis sententiam vestram dicero 
valeatis." f -^d ^^ the end of the same Consistory he 
says : " AperJ^us vobis os, J ut in consistoriis, &c., &c., 
sententiam vestram dicere valeatis. In nomine Patris, 
et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." And so saying, ho 
makes the sign of the cross thrice with his right hand. 

* An account of the origin, nature, ^nd practice of this usage will be 
found in a subsequent chapter. 

f *' We close your mouths, so that you have no power to speak your 
opinion in consistories or congregations, or any cardinalitial functions." 

X ** We open your mouths," &c. &c. 



i 



46 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

It used to be the custom for the new cardinal, vhoso 
mouth had been shut, to leave the hall of the Consistory 
while the Pope consulted the Sacred College as to the 
opening of the mouth of their new colleague. There- 
upon the novice came in and had his mouth opened. 
But this form has been disused of late times : an indica- 
tion, even in such little matters of mere formality, of 
the general tendency to erect the pontifical power into 
a pure and absolute despotism, uncontrolled even by the 
semblance of any consultative authority in the College. 
At a still more remote period, the mouths of new 
cardinals were shut in one Consistory, and were not 
opened till the following meeting of the College. 

Pope Eugenius IV. (ob. 1447) decreed that'^if any 
cardinal had not had his mouth opened at the time of 
the Pope's death, he could not take part in the following 
Conclave. But there are signs that there was previously 
some idea that such ought to be the case. For it is on 
record that the English Cardinal Winterbum was in 
this plight at the death of Benedict XI., in 1304, and 
that his mouth was opened by the Dean of the Sacred 
College, authorised to do so by a vote of the entire 
College. Pius Y., however, by a decretal dated 26th 
January, 1571, repealed the decision of Eugenius. 

After the opening of the mouth, the Pope places on 
the new cardinal's finger the cardinalitial ring of gold, 
with a sapphire, and at the same time assigns to each 
the church from which he is to take his title. In early 
times the ring of a deceased cardinal was given to the 
newly-created one. Nevertheless, there exist contem- 
poraneous notices of cardinals disposing of the ring 



HIBRAECHT IN STATE OP FLUIDITY. 47 

in question by will; so fhat it should seem that also 
in this respect the institution was, in the fourteenth 
century, in a state of fluidity. In modem times it has 
"been the custom for each new cardinal to pay for his 
ring five hundred crowns to the College de Propaganda, 
Fide^ which till the money was paid did not despatch 
the brief (which it is the function of the College to do), 
on which depends the commencement of drawing the 
cardinal's allowance. 

A few words may be added as to the age at which 
persons can be, or have been, made cardinals; and it 
will be seen that, in this respect also, the institution 
remained in a state of fluidity up to a comparatively 
recent period. It seems to have been generally under- 
stood that the rule was that thirty years of age should 
be requisite to the cardinalate. Yet Sixtus V., in the 
Bull which professed to regulate the requirements for 
eligibility to that dignity, decrees that no cardinal 
deacon shall be created under twenty-two years of 
age. He also declares that if one so created be not 
already in deacon's orders, he must receive them within 
the year, or remain without any voice in the College. 
Many Popes have, by dispensation, permitted the interval 
allowed before the necessity of taking deacon's orders 
to be greatly extended. But if the Pontiff happened 
to die during the time thus allowed, the cardinal who 
was not in orders could not, save by forthwith receiving 
them, enter the Conclave or vote for the new Pope. 

In this matter of the age, however, at which a 
cardinal could be created, as in so many others, it has 
been found impossible to bind one infallible Vicar of 



48 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

CHrist by the decree of aaother. Despite all rules and 
precedents to the contrary, each Pope created such 
persons cardinals as it was convenient to him to create. 
Giocinto Bobo Orsini was created cardinal at twenty 
by Honorius II. in 1126, and became Pope as Celes- 
tine III, sixty-five years afterwards ! Clement VI., in 
1348, created his nephew, Peter Eoger, cardinal at 
seventeen ; and this young cardinal also became Pope 
in 1370 under the name of Gregory XI. Eugenius IV., 
in 1440, made his nephew, Peter Barbo, cardinal, who 
also subsequently became Pope as Paul II. Sixtus FV^^ 
in 1477, created John of Arragon, the son of Ferdinand, 
King of Naples, cardinal at the age of fourteen, but 
gave him the hat only four years later. The same 
PontiflT, at the same time, created his nephew, Eaflfaelle 
Eiario, cardinal when he was seventeen and a student 
at Pisa. 

Innocent VIII. {oh. 1492) created Giovanni Medicis, 
who afterwards became Leo X., and who had been 
Apostolic Protonotary ever since he was seven years 
old, cardinal at the age of fourteen, adding the con- 
dition that he was not to wear the purple till three 
years later, evidently indicating his (Pope Innocent's) 
opinion that a cardinal of seventeen might be created 
without scandal, as indeed such a step was, as we have 
seen, not without precedent. Alexander VI. {oh. 1503) 
created Ippolito d'Este a cardinal at seventeen, having 
the excuse indeed that Ippolito had at that time been 
an archbishop for [the last nine years, Sixtus IV. having 
appointed him to the archiepiscopal see of Strigonia at 
the age of eight ! At the same time Alexander created 



TTTRRAKCHY IN SIATE OF FLUIDITY. 49 

Erederio Casimir Jagellon, the son of the King of 
Poland, when he was nineteen, and had already for 
some little time been Bishop of Cracow. 

Leo X. {ob. 1521) was hardly grateful to the Pope 
who had made him a cardinal at fourteen, for, when 
Pope, he made Innocenzo Cibo, the nephew of his old 
patron, wait till his twenty-first year for the pnrple. 
Bnt he created "William de Croy a cardinal at nineteen, 
and Alfred of Portugal, the son of the King, at seven 
years old, on condition that he should not assume the 
outward marks of the dignity till he should have 
reached the mature age of fourteen I He also made 
John of Lorraine, son of Duke E6n6 II. of Sicily, 
cardinal at twenty, Alexander VI. having previously 
made him coadjutor to the bishopric of Metz at four 
years of age ! Hercules Gonzaga, who had been made 
bishop of his native Mantua at fifteen by Leo X., was 
made cardinal by Clement VIL at twenty-two. The 
poor Bishop must have almost despaired by that time 
of ever reaching the purple I Clement made his own 
cousin Ippolito at eighteen, and Odet de Coligny, at 
the request of Francis L of France, when he was in 
his twelfth year. 

This promotion, however, turned out ill. For 
Coligny, though he became Bishop of Beauvais in his 
thirteenth, and Archbishop of Toulouse in his four- 
teenth year, and held many abbeys into the bargain, 
fell eventually into heresy, and had to be formally 
deposed from the purple. His heresy, indeed, was of 
the most flagrant sort. At Beauvais, one Easter, he 
received the Holy Communion in both kinds, which^ 

£ 



i 



50 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

though he was a bishop and an archbishop, not being in 
ftdl priest^s orders, it was sacrilege to do. Then he " took 
to the profession of arms, giving thereby terrible scandal 
to all. Catholics." Yet those who remembered the 
history of their Church, and the example of Julius II., 
and many another Pope and cardinal and bishop, need 
not have been so scandalized at this. But he fought 
on the wrong side! And still worse married, or, as 
the ecclesiastical writers are careful to point out, 
pretended to marry, a wife, Isabelle di Lor6, Lady of 
Hauteville, "whom, deacon as he was, he lived with 
as a concubine." Thereupon Pius lY. (oJ. 1565), on 
the 11th of September, 1563, proclaimed his deposition 
from the cardinalate throughout all France. He was 
exiled thence, escaped to England, where Elizabeth gave 
binn and his wife Sion House to live in. He died and 
was buried at Canterbury, in 1568, poisoned, as was 
said, by his servants. 

How fearful and wonderful a thing, that one whom 
the Church had so marked for her own that she made 
him a cardinal at eleven, a bishop at twelve, and an 
archbishop at thirteen, should have been so little 
seriously impressed by the sacred nature of his respon- 
sibilities and respect for his Church ! Truly marvellous 
and incomprehensible are the ways of Providence ! 

There seems to bo reason, however, to doubt whether, 
despite all that has been stated, Coligny, if he had 
presented himself at a conclave for the election of a 
Pope, could have been canonically excluded and 
deprived of his vote. But this is a subject to which 
we shall have to return in a later chapter. 



HIERARCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 51 

Paul IIL, Famese (ob. 1549), made his nephew, 
Alexander Famese, a cardinal at fotirteen ; his grand- 
son, Guide Ascanio Sforza, son of his daughter 
Gostanza, at sixteen; his cousin, Niccolo Gaetani, at 
twelve; and a second grandson, Eanucio Famese, at 
fifteen, to whom he had a year before given the arch- 
bishopric of Naples! He also created Charles of 
Lorraine, son of the Due de Guise, and brother of 
Mary Queen of Scots, cardinal at twenty-two, although 
he had at the time a brother in the Sacred College, 
which was contrary to the constitutions and the decree 
of one of his predecessors. Lastly, he made his relative, 
Giulio Feltre della Eovere, brother of the Duke of 
Urbino, a cardinal at eleven ! 

Julius III. (ob. 1555) created Innocenzo del Monte 
cardinal at seventeen, and his two nephews, Eoberto 
dei Nobili at fourteen, and Girolamo Simoncelli at 
twenty-one. The latter is noted as having been a 
cardinal during sixty years ! The zealous and earnest 
Pius IV. (ob. 1565), besides creating several cardinals 
at from twenty to twenty-three, made Ferdinand de 
Medici a cardinal at fourteen. Gregory XIII. {ob. 
1585) made Andrew of Austria, a natural son of 
the Archduke Ferdinand, a cardinal at eighteen; and 
Albert of Austria, son of Maximilian II., at the same 
age. He also created Charles of Lorraine at sixteen, 
and Francesco Sforza at twenty. The high-handed 
reformer, Sixtus V. (ob. 1590), made his nephew, 
Alexander Peretti, cardinal at fourteen ; and Innocent 
IX. (ob. 1591), found time in his two months' papacy 
to create his nephew, Antonio Fachinetti della Noce, 

E 2 



52 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

at eighteen. Innocent was aware, probably, that he 
had no time to lose I 

Clement VIII. (oh. 1605) made Wilhelm, son of the 
Duke of Bavaria, a cardinal at twenty: but he had 
been Bishop of Batisbon ever since he had been in the 
cradle I Clement also created his relative, Gio. Battista 
Deti, cardinal at seventeen, and his nephew, Silvestro 
Aldobrandini, at sixteen, although he had previously 
raised to the purple his brother, Pietro Aldobrandini, 
at the age of twenty-two, despite the papal decree 
forbidding two brothers to belong to the Sacred College 
at the same time. 

Paul V. (ob. 1621) created Maurice of Savoy at four- 
teen; Carlo de Medici at nineteen; and Ferdinand of 
Austria, son of Philip III. of Spain, at ten ! 

Urban VIII., Barberini (oh. 1644), although he had 
already placed in the Sacred College Francesco and 
Antonio Barberini, his brother and his nephew, created 
his other nephew, Antonio, at the age of twenty. 

Innocent X., Pamphili (ob. 1655), made the nephew 
of his sister-in-law, the celebrated Olympia, cardinal 
at seventeen; and Clement IX. (ob. 1669) made Sigis- 
mimd Chigi, the nephew of Alexander VII., a cardinal 
at nineteen, in return, we are told, for the purple which 
he had himself received from Alexander VII. 

Alexander VIII. (ob. 1691) created Lorenzo Altieri, 
the nephew of Clement X., cardinal at nineteen; 
Clement XII. (ob. 1740) made Luigi di Borboni,] son 
of Philip V. of Spain, archbishop of Toledo and 
cardinal at the age of eight; and, finally, Pius VII. 
(ob. 1823) created Luigi di Borboni, the son of the 



HTERABOHY IK STATE OF FLUIDITY. 53 

aboye-mentioiied Archbisliop of Toledo^ cardinal at 
twenty-three. 

I haye somewhat grudged the space that has been 
needed to complete the list of these precocious 
dignitaries, but I have thought that it was worth 
giving for the sake of the illustration it affords of 
the genuineness, sincerity, and state of mind generally 
of those, ecclesiastical writers and others, who on the 
same page which records these monstrous promotions, 
tell us of the infallibility and, in many cases, of the 
saintly virtues of the Pontiffs who made them, and of 
the awful sanctity and tremendous responsibilities of 
Hiose who are called to the assumption of a dress 
whose colour is the symbol of their being ever ready 
to shed their blood in defence of the Church ! It is 
also curiously illustrative of the utter futility of 
attempting by any rules, canons, or constitutions 
whatever to bind the hands of one who may at his 
pleasure " dispense " with all laws and rules. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Steps by which the Papal Election was attributed exclusively to the* 
Sacred College. — Cfradual Progress of Encroachment. — ^Abnormal 
Elections. — Early Eequisites for the Validity of an Election. — 
Earliest Examples of tiie GonclaYe. — ^Notable Conclave at Yiterbo in 
the thirteenth century. — First example of Election by " Compro- 
mise." — ^The Fifteen Bules for a papal Election made by Gregory X« 
— ^Basis of Conclave Legislation ever since. 

Me. Caetwbight, in his able and interesting little 
volume, " On the Constitution of Papal Conclaves," says, 
quite correctly in my opinion, that, " from the Bull of 
Nicholas II.," which I have spoken of at the beginning 
of my second chapter, " dates the first organic consum- 
mation of a revolution that had long been working its 
way underground, by which the highest constitutional 
functions of the Eoman See came to be taken away 
definitively from the ecclesiastical body at large." He 
adds, however, " and vested exclusively in this corpora- 
tion " (the Sacred College), which cannot, I think, bo 
said with accuracy. Indeed he goes on to state with 
entire correctness, what shows this not to have been tha 
case. Quoting the same Bull, which I have referred to, 
he adds, ^^ so that the cardinals have the lead in making 
choice of Popes, the other but following them." But it 
may be seen from the words of promulgation used in 
declaring the election of Hildebrand in 1073, already 
cited above in the first chapter, " we the cardinals, and 



mEEAECHY IN STATE OF FLTJIDITY. 55 

the clergy, acolytes, subdeacons, and priests elect," 
&c., &c., that fixity of election, by the Sacred College, 
had by no means been yet reached. The language of 
the Bnlls and decrees on the subject, and that of the 
very many writers who have striven to throw light on 
the question, all go to show that no clear and certain 
rules or practice in the elections of the Popes had yet 
been attained. The impression left on the mind by 
reading these declarations, and the commentaries on 
them, is that it was the wish and purpose of the Popes 
and of the cardinals to vest the election exclusively in 
the latter body ; but that they were not able, or could 
not venture to aflBirm distinctly that such was the case, 
or to decree that it should be the case. The utterances 
both of Bulls and decrees and of the subsequent eccle- 
siastical writers seem to be studiously wavering and 
imcertain ; such, in short, as it might be expected to be 
in registering and describing the advance of an abusive 
encroachment. The Bull of Nicholas II. declares the 
assent of the clergy to be necessary to an election. To 
demand an assent implies the power of refusing that 
assent. An election made without that assent would 
according to the terms of the Bull of Nicholas have 
been void. 

Moroni, quoting the commentaries of Panvinius on 
Platina, tells us that Celestine II. (ob. 1144) was the 
first Pope elected without the intervention of the Koman 
people. And Sigonius,* quoted by Moroni, says of 
Celestine's predecessor. Innocent II. (ob. 1143), "Popu- 
lum Pontificiorum jure comitiorum, cujus a primis tem- 

• Be regno Italioo, lib. x. an. 1143. 



66 IHE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

poribus ad earn usque diem particeps faerat, spolia- 
Terat."* Pagi says that Innocent II., already before 
the election of Celestine, had been elected by the 
cardinals alone, without the "assistance" of the clergy 
and people. Otto of Freisingen declares in his chro- 
nicle, that Eugenius III. (ob. 1153) was elected in 
1445, " communi vote cleri et populi." And he says 
that in 1154 the *^clerici et laici pariter conclamantes 
intronizarunt Kadrianum quartum," the English Pope. 
The fact is not only that apparently contradictory state- 
ments by the dozen may be found, but that the language 
of aU these statements is so yague, uncertain, and plastic, 
that it is impossible to say what the precise meaning 
was which the writer intended to convey; or useless 
rather, as it might perhaps be better put, to attempt to 
extract from their words a precision of statement, which 
the subject they were treating of did not admit, and the 
necessity or desirability of which they had no concep- 
tion of. This at least is clear, that during all that period 
of fluidity, as I have ventured to call it, the line of 
demarcation between de jure and de facto was oscil- 
lating, changeable, and vacillating ; but that the general 
tendency was always advancing towards the recognition 
of an exclusive right to elect the Popes, in the College 
of Cardinals. 

So far, however, was the matter from being defini- 
tively settled by the Bull of Nicholas II., or by the 
practice that had prevailed during the next hundred 
and twenty years, that the first attempt made to effect 
an election, that of Alexander III. (ob. 1181), without 
* Breyiar., torn. i. p. 669. 



HIEEAJtCHY IN STATE OP FLUIDITT. 57 

the participation of the clergy and people, led to a 
schism among the cardinals, and the election of an 
Antipope, who called himself Victor IV. Four Anti- 
popes in succession sprung from and supported the 
schism, and contested the election and the soyereignty 
of Alexander III. He lived, however, to overcome his 
enemies, and heal the wounds of the Church in the 
course of a papacy of all but twenty-two years. And 
before his death, he assembled the third Lateran 
Council, which among other matters decreed that no 
fature election to the Papal Throne should be deemed 
valid without the votes of two-thirds of the College of 
Cardinals, a regulation which has been observed ever 
since, and is the law which regulates the proceedings of 
the Conclaves to the present day. 

Nevertheless we have not yet by any means reached 
the latest case of an altogether abnormal election, though 
we have made considerable progress towards ascertaining 
what the norma was to be. As late as 1417, Martin V. 
{oh. 1431) was elected for the closing of the schism, 
which had so deeply wounded the Church, not only by 
the members of the Sacred College, created by Gregory 
XII. (renounced, 1415), and those of the deposed John 
XXIII. (deposed, 1415), and those created (or rather 
professed to be created) by the Antipope Benedict XIII. ; 
but also by thirty other prelates, slk for each of the five 
nations which contributed to the Council. 

As fer, however, as regards the final attribution of the 
power of electing the Pontiff to the College of Cardinals 
exclusively, we may consider that the practice of the 
Church was fixed, as it has ever since remained, by the 



58 THE PAPAL COyCLAYES. 

constitutions of Alexander III. (oh. 1181). It remains 
to be shown that the practice thus ordained did not 
succeed in getting itself carried out with satisfactory 
regularity till a yet later epoch. Nothing had yet been 
established, as a matter of rule, as to the mode in which 
the cardinals were to elect, save that, as has been seen, 
it needed two-thirds of the votes to make a valid elec- 
tion. We find early instances of the shutting up of the 
cardinals, for the purpose of the election ; but in most 
of these cases the imprisonment seems to have been 
involuntary, and imposed on them by force ab extra. 
Thus Honorius III. {oh. 1227) was elected on the 18th 
of July, at Perugia, by nineteen cardinals, whom the 
Perugians constrained to enter into Conclave, on the day 
after the death of Innocent III., who died in that city, 
keeping them imprisoned till the election should be 
completed. Such a case very clearly indicated that by 
that time the idea, that the body of cardinals and they 
alone could create a Pope, had entirely entered into the 
popular mind, and been recognised and accepted. The 
people of Perugia, in their anxiety to avoid the terrible 
evils of an interregnum, are determined to have a Pope 
elected with the least possible delay. But they con- 
sider that the only possible means of accomplishing this 
is to catch the cardinals and compel them to do their 
work. 

His successor Gregory IX. {ph. 1241) was elected 
nnder somewhat similar circimistances, the Romans 
apparently thinking that the experiment made at 
Perugia had answered so well as to deserve imitation. 
The chronicler Eainaldi relates, on the authority of 



HIEBAHGHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 59 

Biccardo di San Germano, that the cardinals, who had 
assembled in Kome for the election of a Pope, were shut 
up at the Septisolium (the hill on which the Church of 
St. Ghregory stands, near the Coliseum) by the Senator 
of Bome and the people, that they might against their 
will proceed to the creation of a Pope,* which expedient, 
says Cancellieri,t was perhaps adopted to avoid the 
inyasions of the Emperor Frederick, who, encamped at 
Grotta Ferrata, was devasting all the neighbourhood of 
Bome. 

Gregory IX. died in 1241. Celestine IV., who suc- 
ceeded him, reigned seventeen days only. Innocent IV., 
who came next, reigned eleven years and nearly a half. 
The papacy of his successor Alexander IV. lasted 
six years and nearly a half. The next in the list, 
Urban IV., reigned three years and a month. Clement 
IV. succeeded him, and, after a reign of three years 
and nine months, died in 1269. These twenty- 
eight years, from the death of Gregory to that of 
Clement, had been disastrous and stormy ones for Italy, 
mainly by reason of the contests between different pre- 
tenders to the crown of Sicily, and by the pretension of 
the Popes to have the nomination of the sovereign in 
their hands. Clement IV. introduced a new and fatal 
element into the troubled skein of Italian politics by 

* Cardinales qtd in Urbe ad Papse eleotionem conTenerant, per Sena- 
torem et Bomanos apud Septisolium inoluduntur, ut at creandum 
Pbpam inyiti procedant. 

f Notizie Istoriche delle Stagioni e de' Siti diyersi in cui sono stati 
tennti i Ck>nclaYi sella CittiL di Boma, &c. Baccolta da Francesco 
Cancellieri. Boma, 1823. A yery rare tract, as are many of the great 
number of gossiping and amusing tracts on very various subjects, 
written by the same author. 



/ 



60 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

conferring this crown on Charles of Anjou, thus bringing 
a French dynasty into Italy, and, what is more to our 
immediate purpose, causing thus a profound and irrecon- 
cilable division in the College of Cardinals, some of 
whom attached themselves to the French interest, and 
some feeling the most bitter resentment against the 
French prince, and against the policy which had called 
him into Italy. At the death of Clement IV. in Viteirbo, 
just a month after the last of the Hohenstauffens, the 
hapless Conradin, had lost his head on a scaffold at IT^aples 
— (he had never once during his pontificate of three 
years and nine months been at Eome) — ^the discrepancy 
of opinion between the cardinals led to a most bitterly 
and obstinately contested struggle for the election of the 
next Pope, which resulted in an interregnum, the longest 
on record in the annals of the Church, of two years and 
nine months. Seventeen* cardinals went into Conclave 
in Viterbo, which small town, as Mr. Cartwright truly 
says, " became the point on which remained the fixed and 
anxious gaze of Christendom." Sevein of the cardinals 
in Conclave were in the French interest, and seven as 
entirely opposed to it. Moroni remarks that perhaps 
the length of the interregnum was due to the division of 
parties! — ^the "perhaps" being introduced in deference 
to the theory and claim that let what may be the motives 
and intentions of the electors, the result is due to the 



*Mx. Cartwright says that they were eighteen; but I cannot find 
that more than seyenteen are recorded as being present. Moroni says 
fifteen, or seyenteen. Perhaps the circomstanoe of the Cardinal Henry 
of Ostia having quitted the Conclave on account of illness, may account 
for the discrepancy, one reckoning having been of those who went into 
OondavOi and the other of those who participated finally in the election. 



HIERABCHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 61 

direct action of the Holy Spirit. He adds that the delay 
could not be due to the want of any person among their 
own body fitted for becoming Pope, inasmuch as no less 
than four of those then present became subsequently 
Popes, under the names of Adrian V. {ob. 1276), Nicholas 
in. (ob. 1280), Martin IV. (ob. 1285), and Honorius IV. 
(ob. 1287). Unquestionable, however, as the "papa- 
bility," — ^to use a word which has become a cant one in 
Conclave language — of aU [these four may have been^ 
the cardinals at Viterbo could not come to an election, 
for the opposing parties were so evenly balanced, and 
the interests at stake so great, that neither side would 
yield. Charles of Anjou came to Viterbo, and remained 
there, hoping that by throwing the weight of his personal 
presence into the scale, he might intimidate the cardinals 
on the opposite side. He had not calculated on the 
patient obstinacy of an Italian who trusts for victory to 
the policy of doing nothing ! The desired election was 
none the nearer for the presence of the foreign prince, 
who was so odious to all save his own creatures in the 
College. 

The citizens of Viterbo, and the town captain, oneEanieri 
G^tti, who as such had the custody of the Conclave,, which 
seems to have implied the imprisonment of the car- 
dinals, in his hand, understood their countrymen better. 
Despairing of seeing an end put to the shocking condition 
of disorder and anarchy, which always, down even to quite 
modem times, made the Pontifical States a hell upon 
earth during the period of every interregnum, they re- 
sorted to the novel expedient of unroofing the palace in 
which the Conclave was sitting, at the same time gradually 



02 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

diminishing the rations supplied to the cardinals. But 
not even did this strong measure succeed in producing 
the desired result. There is a curious letter extant, ad- 
dressed by the cardinals to Gte-tti, the town-captain, the 
purpose of which was to request him to allow one of 
their number, the Cardinal Henry of Ostia, to quit tho 
Conclave on the ground of illness. This letter is dated 
in Palatio discoperto Episcopatus Viterbiensis, VI. Idus 
Junii MCCLXX., Apostolic89 sede vacante : * — " From 
the xmroofed episcopal palace of Viterbo." — ^The letter 
in question is curious, moreover, from the statement 
specially made in it, that the cardinal, whose release 
from Conclave is requested, has altogether renounced 
his right to vote on this occasion-t But not for more 
than a year after this incident, — ^and more than a year, 
therefore, after the unroofing of the palace, — did the 
imprisoned cardinals, exposed to the elements as they 
were, come to an election. At last, moved, it is said, 
not by any threats or persuasions from without, nor by 
their own sufferings within their prison, but by the per- 
suasions of the Cardinal Bishop of Porto, and those of 
the Franciscan Saint Buenaventura, the Conclave was 

• Oancellieri, p. 6. 

f Mr. Gartwright remarks that the *' insertion of this clause in the 
letter deserves attention, as proving that, at this period, it had not yet 
been definitely ruled that every cardinal's active participation was not 
an indispensable condition for setting a papal election beyond challenge.'* 
It does not seem likely to me, that the insertion of the clause in question 
was dictated by any such intention. I am not aware that it was ever 
held, that the active participation of every cardinal is necessary to a 
canonical election. And it seems to me, that the notification that His 
Eminence of Ostia had renounced all right and purpose of voting, was 
intended to assure those outside that his departure from the Conclave 
need not be speculated on as exercising any influence over the result of 
the contest. 



HIERABGHT IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 63 

persuaded, not to elect in the usual way, — ^that would 
haye involved an abnegation of which those fierce 
partisans and good haters were incapable, — ^but to con- 
sent to appoint six of their number to nominate a Pope, 
pledging themselves to agree to and confirm the nomina- 
tion so made. 

These six electors, thus empowered, named Theobald 
Visconti, at that time Archdeacon of Liege, who was 
not a cardinal, and who at that time was at Acre, 
having left England, where he had contributed to the 
successful establishment of Henry III.'s throne, for the 
purpose of accompanying the crusaders as Papal Legate; 
an election which has been commemorated in Uie follow- 
ing characteristic lines, by Giovanni of Toledo, the then 
Bishop of Porto : — 

*< Papatus mtmiis tulit Archidiaconus unus 
Quern Patrem Patrum fecit discordia fratrum.*' 

This was the first instance of that mode of election, 
which has since taken its place as one of the three 
recognized methods by which a Conclave may elect a 
Pontiff, and which is known as Election by Compromise. 
But of this it will be necessary to speak by-and-by in 
its proper place. 

This Theobald Visconti, whom the Bishop of Porto 
somewhat superciliously thus speaks of as "one arch- 
deacon," being recalled by the news of his totally un- 
expected elevation to the Papacy, reached Viterbo on 
the second of February, 1272, and was subsequently 
crowned in Kome as Gregory X. {ob. 1276). 

Mindful of the evils which had in very terrible abun- 



64 THB PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

dance visited the Church and the States of the Church 
by reason of the interregnum, and of the difficulties 
and scandals attending such a Conclave as the last, 
Gregory called a General Council of the Church (the 
fourteenth), at Lyons, in 1274, by which the following 
code of laws for the regulation of future Councils was 
established. Here at last, then, we do touch solid 
ground, and the fluid state of the institutions on which 
the elections of the Popes depend may be said to come 
to an end with the constitution of Gregory X. 

The rules in question are somewhat lengthy, and all 
of them are not of equal importance. But inasmuch as 
they are the f oimdation and charter of that which has 
been, for the last six centuries, the practice of the Con- 
claves, it will hardly be thought unnecessary to give 
them — ^not quite in extenso^ but with considerable fulness. 

" I. When the Pope is dead, the cardinals shall wait 
for those who are absent ten days only ; at the end of 
which, having for nine days celebrated the obsequies of 
the deceased Pontiff in the city in which he resided 
with his Court, they shall all shut themselves up in the 
palace which the Pope inhabited, contenting themselves 
each with one sole attendant, either clerk or lay, unless 
there shall be evident necessity for two, for whom 
permission may be in such case granted ; the choice of 
such attendant being left to each cardinal for himself." 

Pius IV. by Bull bearing date 9th October, 1562, 
declared that the day of the Pope's death should be 
counted as one of the ten days. And ecclesiastical 
writers maintcdn that it is within the competency of 
the College to defer the election beyond the time 



HTERARCHY IN STATE OP FLUIDITY. 65 

specified, in case any danger threatening the interests 
of the Church should require it. 

" n. In the palace in which the Pontiff dwelt, let a 
Conclaye be formed in which let all the cardinals live 
in common, without any wall, or curtain, or veil to 
separate them from one another, one secret chamber 
being reserved. Let this Conclave be so closed on every 
side that nobody can enter or go out of it." 

The rigour of this rule was in some degree moderated 
by Clement VI., by a Bull dated 6th December, 1351, 
permitting the beds of the cardinals in Conclave to have 
simple curtains. 

"III. Let there be no access to the cardinals shut 
up in Conclave. Let no one have the possibility of 
speaking to them secretly ; nor let it be possible for 
them to receive anybody, save such as may be summoned 
by the consent of all present solely on matters pertaining 
to the election. Let no one have the power of sending 
messages or writings to the cardinals, nor to any of the 
conclavists,* under pain of excommunication." 

The strictness of this well-intentioned rule also has 
been modified in practice, to the facilitating of intrigues, 
which it was the object of Gregory to render impossible. 
In modem times, whoso wishes to speak with a cardinal, 
or with any of those shut up in Conclave, is not pre- 
vented from doing so, except, as regards the cardinals 
themselves, during the actual time of the voting. Such 
speaking must take place, however, in public, that is 

* These are the attendants provided for in the first rule. They are 
in practice always clerks, are always two if not more (the latter very 
rarely), apd are very important personages in the conduct of all tho 
afiDurs of the Condavo. 



66 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

to say, at the ^^ rota " * in the presence of the officials 
appointed for the service of the Conclave on the inside, 
and on the outside the prelates and others appointed for 
guarding the assembly. But it will be very readily 
understood that, if a private communication were 
desired, there would be little difficulty in shutting the 
ears of undesired hearers, especially when the person 
desiring so to shut them may, within a few hours, be 
the despotic sovereign of the hearers in question. 

"IV. Nevertheless, let an opening of the Conclave 
be left, by which food may be conveniently passed in 
to the cardinals, but such that no one can pass in to 
them by that means. [The ^rota ^ spoken of.'] 

"V. If at the end of three days from the entry 
into Conclave the election of the new Pope has not 
been accomplished, the prelates and others deputed to 
guard the Conclave shall, during the next five days, 
prevent more than one single dish from being served at 
the table of the cardinals either at dinner or at supper. 
And when these five days shall have passed, they shall 
after that not permit the cardinals to have aught save 
bread and water until such time as the election shall be 
completed." 

Clement VI. modified this rule also. Such severity, 
it is stated, was found to injure the health of those in 
Conclave; and Clement therefore contented himself 
with recommending a "moderate frugality '^ during 

• The **rota," of wliich much will be heard in connection with the 
interior arrangements and practices of the Gonclaye, are the apertures, 
with turning tables, after the feishion of the means proyided for receiving 
infants at continental foimdling hospitals, which are used for passing 
food into the Conclave, and other necessary communications. 



HIERiUtGHY IN STATE OP FLXJIDITY. 67 

the entire time of the Conclave. He laid down rules, 
however, for the more precise defining of this moderate 
frugality. Meat or fish, or eggs, together with salted 
things, vegetables, and fruit, might be used, whether at 
dinner or supper. But Clement expressly forbad the 
fflTdinalfl from accepting any of these things one from 
another. It would seem that the object of this last 
prohibition must have been to prevent their Eminences 
from dubbing their provisions together, and so securing 
a more varied repast. Pius IV., an ascetic and zealous 
man, recalled into vigour these rules, decreeing that 
the cardinals should be content, as they were bound 
to be, with one sole dish, whether at dinner or supper. 
Whereupon an erudite prelate* wrote a long and learned 
work on papal elections, in the course of which he 
treats at great length on the permissible component 
parts of this one dish. 

"VI. The cardinals shall, during the time of the 
Conclave, take nothing from the apostolic treasury or 
from its revenues, which shall during the vacancy of 
the see remain in the custody of such faithful and 
upright person as shall have the custody of them. With 
the death of the Pope let all ^ecclesiastical ofl&ces and 
the tribunals of the Courts cease and determine, with the 
exception of the Chief Penitentiary and the Treasurer, 
who shall continue in ofl&ce during the vacancy of the 
see. 

"Vn. Let the cardinals treat of no other business 
in the Conclave save that of the election of a new Pope, 
unless the necessity of defending the territory of the 

• Monoigr. Oumarda, De Elect. Pont. 
F 2 



68 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Church from imminent danger should make it neces- 
sary for them to do so. 

" VIII. If any cardinal shall not enter into Conclave, 
or shall by reason of sickness quit the Conclave, let 
the election be proceeded with all the same without 
such cardinal. If, however, he that has quitted the 
Conclave should recover let him be readmitted. Let 
the cardinals also who shall arrive after the others 
have entered the Conclave be admitted, for no one shall 
give any vote in the election except in Conclave, 
besides which entrance cannot be denied even to 
cardinals who may have been censured or excommuni- 
cated. No one can be declared Pope unless at least 
two-thirds of the electors shall have concurred in 
electing him. Not only the cardinals, even those 
absent from the Conclave, but any other person, not 
incapacitated by just impediment, may be elected to 
the Papacy in this manner." 

The provision as to the admission to the Conclave 
of cardinals under censure or excommunication is a 
very important one ; and at one time during the present 
Pontificate it seemed likely to become very inunediately 
important. And it will be necessary to return to the 
subject in a subsequent chapter. Evidently the inten- 
tion of the rule was to put it out of the power of a Pope 
to ensure the election of such or such a successor by 
excluding from the Conclave all such cardinals as were 
not disposed to vote for him, which a Pope might easily 
have accomplished if his censure could suffice to deprive 
a cardinal of his vote. 

As to elections of persons not present in Conclave, 



HIEBAECHY IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 69 

it may be noted that the last instance of the election of 
an absent cardinal was that of Florenz the Fleming as 
Adrian VI. in 1522 ; and the last instance of the elec- 
tion of a Pope who had not been a cardinal was that 
of Frignani, a Neapolitan, and Archbishop of Bari, as 
Urban VI. in 1378. 

" IX. If the Pope shall have died outside the city in 
which he was residing with his court, the cardinals 
shall hold the Conclave in the city within whose territory 
the Pope died. But if this city be under interdict or in 
rebellion, they shall hold the Conclave in the nearest 
city. 

" X. The governors and officials of the city in which 
the Conclave shall be held shall see to the observance 
of the prescribed rules. 

" XI. As soon as ever the tidings of the Pope's death 
shall be received, such governors shall swear, in the 
presence of the clergy and people, who shall be assem- 
bled for that purpose, that they will observe the above 
rules. 

"XII. If such governors should not observe such 
rules, let them be excommunicated, and perpetually 
infamous ; let them lose their charters, and let the ciiy 
be placed under interdict and lose the rank of an epis- 
copal see. 

"XIII. Let the cardinals engaged in the election 
lay aside entirely all private affections, and let them 
take heed solely to the common welfare of the Church. 

" XIV. No one of the sacred electors shall speak to, 
make promise to, or entreat in any sort any one of the 
other cardinals with a view of inducing such cardinal 



70 THE PAPAL GONCLAYES. 

to incline to their own wishes in the matter of the 
election, under pain of excommunication. Let, on the 
contrary, all bargains, all agreements, all undertakings, 
even though they may have been corroborated by an 
oath, be held to be of no validity; and let him that 
breaks them be deemed worthy of praise rather than 
of the blame of pequry." 

This rule, all-important, were it not that all hope of 
the observance of it is absolutely futile and vain, was 
confirmed by Innocent VI. in 1353 ; and Julius II., in 
1505, issued a Bull against the simoniacal election of a 
Pope, in which it is declared that "the election of a 
Pope tainted by simony must be considered to possess 
no validity; that the man so elected, even though he 
should have the vote of all the sacred electors, must be 
considered a heresiarch, and deprived of all honour and 
dignity; that a simoniacal election does not become 
valid either by enthronement, by adoration, by the 
lapse of time, nor by the obedience of the cardinals ; 
that, on the contrary, it shall be lawful for the cardinals, 
for the clergy, and the Boman people to refuse obedience 
to a Pope simoniacally elected." 

The enactment of such a law is surely a very curioua 
instance of the simple-minded, imreasoning, unforesee- 
ing, naivete of the medieval mind, which is thus shown 
to us as childlike as that of a Bed Indian. ITo pro- 
vision is made for the authoritative decision of the 
question whether an election have been vitiated by 
simoniacal bargainings or not; but each unit in the 
whole social body is empowered to do his best towards^ 
breaking up the whole framework of society if the 



HISBABCHT IN STATE OF FLUIDITY. 71 

election of a Pope have been simoniacal — that is, 
necessarily, if he, the nnit, think so. The French 
ecclesiastical historian, Jean Sponde,* better known by 
the Latin form of his name, Spondanns, remarks (a.b. 
1505), obTionsly enough, that the remedy provided by 
Julins n. would be of considerably difficult application ; 
"wherefore," he proceeds to add, with an amount of 
audacious and brazen-fronted hypocrisy and falsehood 
hardly to be paralleled, " God has provided that there 
has never been need of it." The perhaps most grossly 
and notoriously simoniacal election, that of Alexander 
VI. in 1492, was still fresh in men^s minds, besides 
numerous other examples in more remote times. The 
very next election after that of Julius II. himself, when 
these denunciations and threats of his were brand new 
and fresh, that of Leo X., was unquestionably simoniacal. 
And the probability is that scarcely one, if one, election 
could be adduced during the last three centuries which 
has not been tainted by simony as understood and 
defined by Julius II. 

" XV. In all cities and places of importance, as soon 
as the death of the Pope is known, solemn obsequies shall 
be celebrated ; and during the vacancy of the see 
prayer shall be every day made to God for the speedy, 
unanimous, and judicious election of a new PontiflP, 
which the prelates shall also strive to promote by pre- 
scribing days of fasting." 

Such are the constitutions of Gregory X., which, 



* Sponde was bom at Maulgon in 1568. His <* Ecclesiastical Annals " 
are in fact an abbreyiation of tbo great work of Baronius, who was 
his intimate friend. 



72 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

though modified by subsequent PontiflEs in many respects, 
and supplemented by more minute regulations in yet 
more, remain to the present day the foundation and 
origin of all the law and usage observed in the papal 
elections up to this time, and may therefore be considered 
as putting an end to the fluid state of matters which has 
been described in the preceding chapters, and to this 
our first book. 



BOOK n. 

NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 



BOOK n. 

NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Latter Years of the Middle Ages, from Gregory X. to Pius IV . — Oontrast 
of the Ecdeaiastical World of those Days with Present Times. — ^Whero 
Modem History commences in the Annals of the Papacy. — ^Variability 
of the Church. — Papal History falls into Groups of Popes. — Causes 
of this Phenomenon. — Paul m. the last of a Group of Popes. — Paul 
IV. the first of a different Group.— List of Popes from 1271 to 1649. 

We start fair, then, from the constitutions of Gregory 
X., made in the Council held by him at Lyons in 1274. 
But it was easier in those days to make " constitutions '^ 
than to get them observed. This, though unfortunately 
not a peculiarity of the Middle Ages, was yet a charac- 
teristic belonging to them in a special manner. His- 
torians have considered these Middle Ages to last from 
the fifth to the fifteenth century — a thousand years. 
And though the days of Gregory X. were comparatively 
near the end of them, we are, therefore, not out of them 
yet when we arrive at that point. And the last quarter 
of the spa<50 so designated is, of course, that of which 
we know most, and which is infinitely the most impor- 
tant to us. We get weU out of the epoch of the Middle 
Age before reaching the time when Pius IV. (ob. 1565) 
found it necessary to add a string of supplementary 



76 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

regulations to the Gregorian constitutions. And this 
second book of my story shall consist of such notices of 
the Conclaves during this period of two hundred and 
seventy-nine years, from the death of Gregory X. to' the 
election of Paul IV. (1555) as can be found, and seem 
to offer any points of interest. 

Eegularity is an essential characteristic of modern 
times, of an adult state of society, that is to say. And 
regularity means, in the case of an individual, the subjec- ' 
tion of his impulses to rule, and in the body social the 
subjection of all that makes and marks individuality to 
rule. And regularity has a tendency to degenerate into 
that condition of senile induration in which custom is 
held to be the most sacred of all rules. This, to a 
curiously marked degree, has been the condition of the 
ecclesiastical world at Eome in these latter generations. 
Hence the inunense contrast between its ways and doings 
in the last two centuries, and those ages with which we 
have now to occupy ourselves. Some poet* of our 
days has likened the ways and works of the men of the 
times in question to those of "noble boys at play." 
Unquestionably there is a nobility of its own about 
marked and strong individualism. And so much of it 
as may be discoverable in the Church we may attribute 
to those masterftd Churchmen of the medieval times 
who were men first and priests afterwards, instead of, 
as their successors of a more tranquil time may be said 
to have been, priests fiirst and men afterwards. 



* I beg his pardon for forgetting the name of a writer whose expres- 
sion struck me by its justness. I haye not, imfortunately, the means of 
Torifying the references at hand. 



NOBLB BOYS AT PLAT. 77 

For these reasons the ecclesiastical ^^fo' of this period 
offer an interest of a different kind, and one marked off 
from those of the subsequent period. 

There is also another reason for drawing a line at the 
death of Paul III. (ob. 1549), and making a fresh start 
thence, I have spoken above of the election of Paul IV. 
as the point from which what may be called the modem 
history of the Papacy may be held to begin. There may 
seem, therefore, to be some inconsistency in making the 
death of Paul III. the closing event of the former period. 
For Paul III., Famese, was not the immediate pre- 
decessor of Paul IV. ; and I have, moreover, referred to 
the new set of supplementary rules for the holding of 
the Conclaves promulgated by Pius IV. as a reason for 
closing the one period and opening a new one. 

The matter stands thus : — 

Paul m., Famese, died 1549. 

Julius m., his successor, Giocchi, died 1555. 

MarceUus n., wlio came next, Ceryini, died the same year, 1555. 

Paul IV., succeeding MarceUus, Caraffa, died 1559. 

Pius IV., his successor, Medichini, died 1565. 

Nevertheless, I close an epoque with the death of 
Paul III., and open the next with the accession of 
Paul IV., although it was his successor, Pius IV., who 
enacted the new constitutions which, in some degree, 
placed the Conclaves on a new basis. And my reasons 
for doing so are as follows. 

Despite the favourite boast of the Church that she has 
been semper eadem — always the same — the fact is, that 
the Church has varied from age to age almost as much 
as most other human institutions, having been ever the 



78 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

same only in this : that it has never varied in or lost 
sight of its object to make clerical power dominant in the 
world — an object that was abundantly beneficent in days 
when clerks were more fit than laymen to rule, but 
which has become still more largely noxious when the 
relative positions of clerk and layman in this respect 
were manifestly reversed. In all other points the 
Church has been by no means semper eadem. But 
although it is true that the character of the reigning 
Pope has often influenced to a very important degree 
the character, policies, and practices of the institution, 
as might be expected to be the case, yet the fact that 
the Church has been to a fSar more important degree 
influenced in all these respects by the general com- 
plexion of the times and the character of the age athwart 
which it was at the time passing, is curiously proved by 
a circumstance which must suggest itself to the obser- 
vation of the most superficial reader of ecclesiastical 
history — ^the singular and marked divisibility of the 
long lino of Popes into groups. Apostle Popes, warrior 
Popes, priest Popes, mundane Popes, pagan Popes, bigot 
Popes, faineant Popes, easy-going Popes, respectable 
Popes, occur in the list not singly, but in groups ! To 
a certain degree this tendency may be perceived to have 
been assisted by the fact that the creatures* of each 
Pope are mostly they who, in their turn, create his suc- 
cessor. But the ruling cause of the phenomena will be 
found in the aspect and bearing of the time. 

* I use the word not in the common depreciatory sense, but according 
to the technical use of the word, as referring to the members of the 
Sacred OoUege. The cardinals created by each Pope are said to be his 
cTtaturt9. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 79 

Now Paul m. was in a very marked manner the last 
of a group of Popes. He was the last Pope whose 
nepotism soared to the height of making his descendants 
sovereign princes. Subsequent equally mundane Popes 
ambitioned the founding of princely Boman houses, and 
founded plenty such. Paul the Famese was the last 
who sought to carye out of Italy a sovereign principality 
for those of his name. He was the last, too, for the 
nonce, of the thoroughly mundane and ffrand seigneur 
class of Popes ; and is followed by a group of Popes of 
a very different and contrasted class — ^the earnest, 
zealous, bigot Popes, of which group I consider the 
Paul IV. as the first. For in fact the two intervening 
Papacies of Julius III., who reigned five years, and of 
Marcellus II., who reigned twenty-three days, were 
historically unimportant, and may be left out of the 
account. 

And we will make the story of the modem Papacy 
begin with Paul IV., and not with his successor Pius IV., 
notwithstanding that it was the latter who enacted the 
new constitutions for the regulation of the Conclaves, 
because Caraflfe, Paul IV., was in a very marked and 
emphatic degree the beginner of a new epoch. In this 
case both the especial aspect of the times, and the 
strongly marked character of the man himself, con- 
tributed with a singular similarity and coincidence of 
tendency to bring about the change which at that time 
came over the spirit of the Papacy. The ruling cause, 
of course, is to be found in the growling of that Ultra- 
montane tempest which, with so terrible a voice, was 
warning Eome to put her house in order. But Caraffa 



80 TBDB PAPAL CONCLAYES* 

was, if any dyke was to be erected to save a remnant 
of the Chnroh from the advancing waves of heresy, 
eminently the right man in the right place ! Not at all 
the right man if the object were so to obey, and while 
obeying use, the tendencies of the time, as to avail him- 
self of them, for such refitting of St. Peter's barque as 
should make it seaworthy for many a century to come ; 
but eminently the right man to force it through the 
breakers with an unflinching eye and iron-strong hand 
on the helm, on the sint ut sunty aut non sint prin- 
ciple. And Paul was, in accordance with the apparently 
historic law which I have indicated, the first of a group 
of such Popes. 

These, then, are my reasons for considering the death 
of Paul III. as the closing event of an epoch in Papal 
history. And I will occupy the other chapters of this 
second book with such extant notices of the elections of 
the thirty-eight Popes who ruled the Church during the 
two hundred and seventy-three years which elapsed from 
the death of Gregory X. (ob. 1276) to that of Paul III. 
(ob. 1549) as may seem to have any interest in them. It 
will be observed that these thirty-eight Popes reigned a 
fraction more than seven years each on an average. I 
will conclude this chapter by giving a list of them, which 
may be found useful. 

Elected. Died. 



Gregory X., Visconti • 1271 

Innocent V., Champagni 1276 

Adrian v., Fiesque 1276 

John XXI., Julien 1276 

Nicholas m., Orsini 1277 

Martin IV., De Brion 1281 

Honorius IV., Sayelli 1286 

Nicholas IV., D'Ascoli 1288 



1276 
1276 
1276 
1277 
1280 
1285 
1287 
1292 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAT. 



81 



Elected. 

8. Oeleetine y., De Moron .... 1294 

Boni&oe Yin. Gaetani 1294 

Benedict XI. Boocasini 1303 

dement y. De Got 1305 

John XXn. d'Ense 1316 

Benedict Xn. Foumier 1334 

Clement yi. Eoger . ...... 1342 

Innocent yi. Aubert 1352 

Urban y. Grimoard 1362 

Gregory XI. Boger 1370 

Urban yi. Prignani 1378 

Boni&ce IX. Tomaelli 1389 

Innocent yil. Meliorati 1404 

Gregory XQ. Conrario 1406 

Alexan der y . Philarge 1409 

John XXm. Cossa 1410 

Martin y. Colonna 1417 

Engenios ly. Condolmero .... 1431 

Nicholas y. Parentucelli 1447 

Calistos ni. Borgia 1455 

Pins n. Piccolomini 1458 

Panin. Barbo 1464 

Sixtus l y. De la Eovere 1471 

Innocent ym. Cibo 1484 

Alexander yi. Borgia 1492 

Pius m. Piccolomini 1503 

Jnlios n. De la Boyere 1503 

Leo X. Medici 1513 

Adrian yi. Beyers 1522 

Clement yil. Medici 1523 

Panl m. Famese 1534 





Died. 


resigned 1294 


died 1303 


... 1304 


, 


. 1314 


, , 


. 1334 


, , 


1342 


, , 


. 1352 


, , 


. 1362 


, , 


. 1370 


, , 


. 1378 


. 


. 1389 


, , 


1404 


, , 


. 1406 


resigned 1409 


died 1410 


deposed 1415 


died 1431 


... 1447 


, 


. 1455 


. . . 


1458 


... 


1464 


, , 


1471 


. . . 


1484 


. . . 


1492 


... 


1503 


• 


1603 


. . . 


1613 


. 


1621 


... 


1623 


... 


1534 


. . . 


1549 



A glance at this list will show that a small defalcation 
must be made from the ayerage time of each Pope's 
reign on account of the time lost in the yarious 
interregnums, some of which, as the list shows, haye 
been prolonged to a considerable duration. 



i 



CHAPTEE II. 

Election of Innocent Y. —Anecdote of his Achieyements as a Preacher. — 
Election of Adrian V. — Popes in the Thirteenth Century elected with- 
out Ck>nclaye. — Condaye in which Nicholas IV. was elected. — 
Mortality of Cardinals in Condaye. — Strange Inconsistency of the 
Anecdotist Cancellieri. — Superstition respecting the Duration of St. 
Peter's Beign. — ^Anecdote of the papal Physician Matthew Corte. — 
Election of Celestine Y . — ^Modern Exception to the Bule requiring a 
Condaye to be held.— Modifications of the early Condaye Bules. — 
Boniface Ylll. — Benedict IX. — ^Anecdote respecting his Death. — 
Condaye hdd at Perugia. — Grossly Simoniacal Election. — Monstrous 
Assertion of the Historian Spondanus. — ^Morone, Gregory XlY.'s 
Barber. — ^The Babylonish Oaptiyity of the Churdi. — Condaye at 
Ayignon, in 1334. — And again in 1342. — And in 1352. — ^And in 
1362. — Diyiflion between the Gascon Cardinals Subjects of England, 
and those subject to France. — ^Election of Urban Y. not a Member 
of the College.— Tentatiyes for restoring the Papacy to Borne. — 
Petrarch. — St. Bridget. — Condaye in 1370, the last at Ayignon. — 
Gregory XI. — ^Difficulties of the Bestoration of the See to Borne. — 
Betum of Gregory XI. to Borne. — His Death in 1378. 

Innocent V., a Savoyard, the successor of Gregory X., 
was elected according to the rules laid down by his 
predecessor, with a regularity and celerity which seem 
to axgue strongly in favour of the judiciousness of the 
Gregorian constitutions. Gregory died in the episcopal 
palace of Arezzo ; and there the Cardinals entered into 
Conclave, and elected Pietro di Tarantasia* — as he was 
called, from the name of his native province — ^Pope by 
the name of Innocent V., on the 22nd January, 1276, 
the day after the cardinals went into Conclave, and in 

• His family name was de' Champagni. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 83 

the first scrutiny, as the new Pope failed not to tell the 
princes and prelates in the letters announcing his 
election. It is true that the Savoyard Cardinal must 
have been strongly recommended to his colleagues by fi 
truly unparalleled feat, which he had, as we axe assured, 
ahortiy before performed. At the second Council of 
Lyons, the Cardinal Saint Bonaventura died, and Pietro 
di Tarantasia was appointed to preach his funeral sermon, 
in the presence of the Pope, the whole of the members 
of the Sacred College, two patriarchs, five hundred 
bishops, sixty abbots, the ambassadors of many foreign 
princes, and above a thousaud priests, from the eyes of 
every one of which illustrious assembly his discourse 
drew tears, as is clearly set forth in the introduction to 
the last edition of the works of S. Bonaventura, a 
success which he followed up by baptizing a Turkish 
ambassador and two of his suite. Clearly the maa for 
St. Peter's successor ! 

Adrian V., Fieschi, a Genoese, the successor of the 
above Innocent, was elected at Viterbo, on the 10th July, 
1296. He had been somewhat of a pluralist, holding 
contemporaueously archdeaconries in the churches of 
Canterbury, Eheims, and Parma, and a canonry in that 
of Piacenza. St. Filippo Benizzi, the Servite Saint, 
to whom Cardinal Fieschi had been sent by the Sacred 
College to oflfer the papacy on the death of Clement IV., 
1269, refusing that elevation for himself, foretold 
to the ambassador that he himself should rise to that 
dignity, but should not enjoy it long. Adrian, firmly 
believing the prophecy, said to those who came to 
congratulate him on his elevation, "Would to Heaven 

G 2 



84 THE PAPAL CONGLAYES. 

you had come to congratulate a cardinal in healthy 
instead of a moribund Pope ! " and died at the end of 
a reign of one month and nine days. He had found 
time, however, to do at least one important act. He 
suspended the constitutions of Gregory, regulating the 
papal elections. What his motiye for this step was, I 
do not find recorded ; but it must be presumed to have 
been on some ground or other a cogent one, for his suc- 
cessor, John XXI., revoked the constitutions entirely. 
And the next three Popes, Nicholas III., elected in 
1277, Martin IV., elected in 1281, and Honorius IV., 
elected in 1285, were accordingly elected without any 
Conclave. A Conclave, however, assembled for the 
election of the successor of the last of these, and chose 
Nicholas IV. ; but his successor, St. Celestine V., was 
again elected without any Conclave.* 

Eespecting this Conclave of Nicholas IV., some 
curious particulars have been preserved. The repeal of 
the Gregorian constitutions did not prohibit the holding 
of a Conclave, and, as we have seen, that mode of 
election had been in use before the time of Gregory. 
The decree by John XXI. only made it no longer im- 
perative to assemble a Conclave. 

The Conclave that ultimately elected Nicholas was 
held in the then papal palace at Santa Sabina ; and it 
assembled immediately after the death of Honorius, 
which happened in the middle of the hottest season of 
the year. Their eminences, unable to agree in an 
election, remained till six of their number died of 
malaria fever, and many of the survivors were very ill. 

* CanoeUieri, p. 8. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 85 

They still would not come to an election ; but they 
left the Conclave and Eome, all except the Cardinal 
Oirolamo Masci de Alessiano, sometimes called d' Aseoli, 
Bishop of Palestrina. He, " keeping fires burning con- 
tinually, to purify the air," remained alone in Conclave 
at Santa Sabina over ten months. At the end of that 
time, the pestilence having ceased, the other cardinals 
returned and elected him Pope, by the name of If icholas 
IV. ; — as surely he well deserved ! 

It is singular enough that Cancellieri, who relates 
this story, opens his work by declaring that " although 
many Conclaves have chanced to take place in the 
hottest months, yet no example is found of any epidemic 
sickness having happened during the continuance of 
them ; it being the case that almost always those who 
have journeyed to Eome in the dog-days for this 
purpose, and have entered into Conclave, have come 
out thence without suffering in any wise in their 
health." The worthy old gossip evidently means to 
give the reader to understand that a special protection 
is accorded by Providence to those engaged in the holy 
work of making a Pope. The truth, however, of the 
matter is rather remarkably the reverse of his state- 
ment ; and he himself has proceeded but a few pages, 
before he contradicts himself in the above remarkable 
manner. 

On the same page with the above-cited passage, Can- 
cellieri has an amusing note on the well-known supersti- 
tion (now destroyed for good and all !) to the effect that no 
Pope could reach the length of Papacy said to have been 
^enjoyed by St. Peter. " Among all the two hundred and 



86 THE PAPAL C0KCLAYE8. 

fiffcy-fonr Popes/* says he, writing in 1823, immediately 
after the death of Pius VII., a number now to be 
increased by four more, " Pius VII. had been exceeded 
in the length of his papacy only by Adrian I. {ph. 795)^ 
who ruled the Church twenty-three years, ten months, 
and seven days, and Pius VI., who held the papacy 
twenty-four years, six months, and fourteen days. 
Only the Antipope Benedict XIII. reigned more than 
twenty-eight years, of whom St. Antonine, in his 
Chronicle, remarks that, ^ He exceeded the duration of 
the pontificate of St. Peter, to the heaping up of his 
own damnation; and no wonder, since he was in 
reality not in Peter's* seat.'" The good saint's idea 
that the wicked Antipope, damned already for being an 
Antipope, is extra-damned for living so long, is amusing 
enough. ^^ Hence^^ continues Cancellieri, "one may 
say with Bzovius, in his history of the Boman pontiffi, 
* Sint licet assumpti juvenes ad Pontificatum — ^Petri 
annos potuit nemo videref tamen!" Cancellieri 
rambles on with his pleasant gossip to an anecdote 
(which Tiraboschi also tells in his history of Italian 
literature) of the papal physiciau, Matthew Corte, who 
professed to have discovered the means of prolonging 
life to a hundred and twenty years, and wrote a book 
specially on that subject. He used to present a copy 
of this work to each new Pope, taking the precaution^ 
however, to substitute on every occasion a new title- 
page, with the assurance to each jiew patron, " Videbis 

* " Transiyit annos Petri ad ctunnlum buss damnationis ; neo mirom, 
qtiia non in sede Petri."— iS<. AnUmin, Chron. p. 8. tit. 22. 

f " Although young men haye been raised to the Pontificate, yet no on& 
has been able to see the years of Peter." 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAY. 87 

dies Petri et ultra."* Tiraboschi says that he has seen 
copies that had been thus presented to Julius III., Pius 
IV., and Paul IV. 

This Conclave, in which Nicholas IV. was elected, 
was the first that was guarded — custodito — ^by a Savelli. 
The privilege of holding this ojfice was granted to the 
head of the Savelli family ** for ever " by Gregory IX. 
Prince Chigi is now the hereditary " custode " of the 
Conclaves. 

Celestine V., the successor of this Nicholas IV., 
elected in 1294, abdicated the papacy after a reign of 
five months and eight days ; but found time to re-enact 
the Gregorian constitutions, which were further con- 
firmed and established by his successor, Boniface VIII. 
And since that time these constitutions have without 
intermission ruled the papal Conclaves, save when Pius 
VI. (ob. 1799) dispensed the cardinals from the observa- 
tion of them by reason of the bondage in which the 
Church was held by Napoleon Buonaparte. There is 
also the ever-memorable and all-important case of Pope 
Martin V., elected by the authority of the Council of 
Constance, which has already been referred to in the 
fourth chapter of Book I. The Gregorian constitutions 
have with these exceptions formed the rule of the Con- 
claves in all essential matters iminterruptedly for the 
last six hundred years ; but they have been frequently 
modified as to points held not to be essential by various 
Popes, mostly in the sense of mitigating the rigour of 
them as regards the personal comfort of the cardinals 
during their seclusion. These modifications will be 

* ** You shall see the days of Peter and more." 



88 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

noticed in their proper places, but it may be conrenient 
to give here a list of them : — 1. Clement V. (ob. 1314) 
confirmed the constitutions, adding some small modifi- 
cations. 2. Julius XL (ob. 1513), and Pius IV. (ob. 1565), 
put forth other constitutions confirmatory of those of 
Gregory, and adding minatory sanctions and explanatory 
regulations. Gregory XV. (ob. 1623) approved and con- 
firmed the whole of these, adding a minutely elaborated 
ceremonial of his own. Urban VIII. (ob. 1644), and 
Clement XII., issued confirmatory Bulls, with small 
additions of ceremonial directions. And the various 
Bulls here rehearsed form the whole body of Conclave 
law as it exists at the present day. 

Celestine seems to have been an unlucky name for the 
pontiffs. The first of the name was a fifth-century Pope. 
The second (ob. 1144) reigned only five months and 
thirteen days. The third (ob. 1198) had, indeed, a fair 
length of reign — six years and nine months; but the 
fourth (ob. 1241) was Pope for seventeen days only ; and 
the fifth abdicated in 1294, as has been said, at the end 
of a reign of five months and eight days. Since him no 
Pope has called himself Celestine. 

Celestine V., taken from his hermitage to be made 
Pope, was elected at Castel Nuovo, near Naples, and, as 
contemporary writers assure us, accepted the papacy very 
imwillingly. The number of Popes of whom this was 
declared to be the case is worthy of notice. Notwith- 
standing Dante's phrase respecting the " gran' rifiuto," 
if we are to consider that the poet had Celestine's abdi- 
cation in his mind, which seems to be improbable — ^this 
unwillingness, or the profession of it, was evidently 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 89 

looked upon as meritorious : and our " nolo episcopari " 
is a surviyal of the same sentiment. The modesty, 
howerer, which prompted Celestine to shrink from the 
supreme dignity, did not characterize his successor, nor 
prevent him from pushing his greatness to the utmost. 
He went from Naples to Eome to be consecrated, accom- 
panied by Charles II., King of Sicily, and his son Charles, 
Song of Hungary ; and proceeded, when consecrated at 
St. Peter's, to the Lateran Palace, to be enthroned there, 
with an unprecedented amount of state and magnificence, 
mounted, we are told, on a palfrey, whose bridle was 
held on either side by the above-mentioned two monarchs 
on foot. 

On the death of Boniface VIII., his successor, Benedict 
IX., was elected regularly and normally. Boniface died 
on the 11th of October, 1303 ; the cardinals went into 
Conclave on the 21st, and at the first scrutiny, on the 
22nd, elected the new Pope by a unanimous vote, given, 
as it would seem, in genuine recognition of his merit. 

But Benedict reigned only eight months and five days, 
and the Conclave which assembled on his death was in 
marked contrast to that which had elected him : one of 
the most scandalous in its incidents, and most disastrous 
in its results, of any that has ever been held for the 
election of a pontiff. The received account of Benedict's 
death attributes it to poison. He was dining in the 
Dominican Convent at Perugia, when a lad, dressed as 
a girl, and pretending to be a maid servant of the nuns 
of St. Petronilla, presented him with some figs of a kind 
he was known to be fond of. They were poisoned, and 
the Pope died. Such is the received story. It has been 



90 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

said, especially by French writers, that there is no satis- 
factory evidence for the tmth of the statement. And, 
while it cannot be denied that poison was in those days 
very commonly used, and that there is abundant reason 
for thinking^ both that many persons may have wished 
the removal of the Pope, and that those so wishing were 
men who would by no means have scrupled to reach 
their object by such means ; it must, on the other hand, 
be admitted that the medical science of the period was 
totally inadequate to ascertain whether a death had, or 
had not, been occasioned by poison, and that the con- 
sciousness of this inability, together with a knowledge 
of the frequency of the crime, no doubt caused suspicion 
to be roused in many cases where the truth did not 
justify it. It must, however, also be conceded that the 
conduct of the cardinals, who had the making of the 
new Pope, was such as very strongly to suggest the 
notion that some of them may have determined on 
making the vacancy, respecting the filling of which pas- 
sions ran so high, and such weighty interests were at 
stake. 

Civil war was raging throughout the north of Italy 
and in Tuscany between Guelphs and Ghibelines, Bianchi 
and Neri. The Pope sent the Dominican cardinal, 
Niccolo da Prato, as his legate to make peace between 
the parties. But his reception was such, that the Pope 
thought himself obliged to place Florence under inter- 
dict, and to excommunicate the Gbelphs, the Neri, and 
the people of the cities Lucca and Prato. Hence it was 
thought probable that the Florentines might have been 
guilty of his murder. But other quarrels as bitter, and 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY- 91 

enmities as irreconcilable, divided the members of the 
Sacred College. Benedict had liberated Philippe le Bel 
from the censures which Boniface had fcdminated against 
him ; but the cardinals were on many grounds divided 
into two parties — ^the one favourable to the French King, 
the other entirely Italian in its proclivities. That other 
and more intimate causes of hatred and partisan feeling 
divided them may be sujficiently learned from the fact 
that the friends of the Orsini were on the one side, and 
those of the Colonnas on the other ! 

The cardinals went into Conclave at Perugia, and 
remained there more than ten months without coming 
to an election, so even was the balance, and so great 
the animosity between the two parties. At last the Con- 
clave agreed to make an election "by compromise," 
intrusting the nomination of the pontiff to the two heads 
of either faction, the Cardinal Albertino da Prato and 
the Cardinal Gaetani. The latter, who was opposed to 
the French interest, and wished to favour the party of 
the cardinals created by Boniface VIII., proposed that 
they should agree to elect one of the three archbishops 
created by Boniface. Now one of these was Archbishop 
of Bordeaux, who was known to be on bad terms with 
the King, on account of ofltences given to the Arch- 
bishop's femily at the time of the war in Gascony — the 
lure to Gaetani being, of course, the prospect of thus 
electing either an enemy to the French King, or, in any 
case, one of Boniface's creatures. But Cardinal Albertino 
being a man, as Moroni teUs us, of very acute shrewd- 
ness — di Jinissma poUtica — determines that the Arch- 
bishop of Bordeaux shall be the real man, and sends off a 



92 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

messenger to him in all secresy to strike a bargain with 
him for his elevation to the papal throne. The messenger 
found the Archbishop, Bertrand de Got, in the monastery 
of St. John at Saintonge, and there quickly came to 
terms with him. De Got promised on oath that, if he 
were made Pope, he would grant to Albertino six farours. 
Four of these had reference to the matters which had 
been in dispute between the French King and Pope 
Boniface ; the fifth was that the clergy of France should 
be excused from paying tithes to the Boman See for the 
next five years ; and the sixth not to be declared till 
after the Archbishop should be crowned Pope ! This 
bargain was successfcdly struck, and Bertrand de Got 
became Pope by the name of Clement V. 

This grossly simoniacal bargain and election was 
made just thirty-one years after Gregory X. had in his 
celebrated constitutions above quoted * ftdminated 
excommunication against all who should in any way 
by promise, entreaty, persuasion, or bargain, tamper 
with a papal election ! It is needless to point out how 
flagrantly such bargaining was in violation of the 
solemn pledges given by a cardinal at his creation, 
or how shamelessly it contradicts the whole theory and 
professions on which the election by the cardinals is 
based. Yet the recognized and ojficial historian, Sponda- 
nus, as has been shown, declares that God's providence 
has ordained that the case of a simoniacal election 
should never occur ! And the writer f who has quoted 

* Chapter iy. book L 

f Moroni. It is perhaps inaccurate to speak of Moroni as a ** writer." 
The cayaliere Moroni was the barber who attended the Camaldolese 
prior, who became afterwards Gregory XYL Moroni followed the 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAY. 93 

this passage from Spondanus narrates the history of 
this simony with no word of remark, save that it was an 
act of ^^finissima poliUca ! " It is utterly out of the 
question to suppose that any of these men, either the 
purchaser or the seller of the papacy, could have had 
any real belief in any portion of the matter, — either in 
their own solemn pledges ; or in the yet more solemn 
declaration, that the work of the election proceeded 
under the special influence of the Holy Ghost ; or in 
the validity and significance of the excommimication 
pronounced by their own Pope when they had elected 
him I What could this Bertrand de Got's own idea of 
his own Bulls and falminations and declarations of the 
fedth, when he had ascended the seat of St. Peter, 
have been ? 

The election thus scandalously brought about was as 
disastrous to the Church, and especially to Italy, in its 
result, as it was unblushingly infamous in its initiation. 
For it was this Frenchman, Bertrand de Got, who trans- 
ferred the See to Avignon, which "Babylonish cap- 
tivity," as the ecclesiastical writers have been fond 
of calling it, endured till the death of Gregory XI. in 

fortones of his patron, was a great fietYourite with the late Pope, became 
his first " C^enUeman of the Chamber/' and was, or was supposed in 
Bame to be, able to obtain any favour from Gregory. Boman gossip 
tellfl that the good-natured but not scrupulously conscientious Pontiff, 
wofold say to his fietYourite, when disposing of some benefice or office at 
his solicitation, " you mal^e 'em pay for it, I hope P They pay well, I 
hope ! " Thence when it came into the head of the first gentleman of the 
Chamber to bring out a " Dizionario diErudizione Storico-ecdesiastica," 
(in 103 Yolumes, 8yo. 1840-1861), he had no difficulty, as may easily be 
imderstood, in obtaining all his articles from the men most competent to 
treat each subject. And the barber's book is thus an extremely Yaluable 
one ; gzioYOUi^y in want of an Index, which, it is said, he has caused to 
be pr^mied, but wiU not print because of the « perYcrsity of the times." 



94 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

1378, a period of seventy-three years. Dnriiig this 
time the See was held in succession by seven French- 
men, John XXn., Bendict XII., CJlement VI., Inno- 
cent the VI., Urban V., and Ghregory XI. That 
nothing might be wanting to the sinister auguries 
with which this papacy, the first of the "Babylonish 
captivity," commenced, the ceremony of the French 
Pope's coronation was marked by a terrible catastrophe. 
Clement refused the prayer of the cardinals that he 
would go to them at Perugia, and insisted that on the 
contrary they should come to him at Avignon. They 
did so, and the tiara was transported thither from Bome 
with immense ceremony by the Cardinal Kanieri, as 
Camerlengo of the Holy See. Clement was desirous of 
imitating the pompous progress made by Boniface from 
St. Peter's to the Lateran. There was no St. Peter's 
and no Lateran at Avignon. But still he could ride 
from one church to another in Avignon ; and this he 
did, or at least attempted to do, with the Duke of 
Brittany, and Guglielmo de Got his brother, holding the 
bridle of his palfrey on either side. But the concourse 
of people and the crush were so terrible in those narrow 
streets that a waU was thrown down, as the Pope was 
passing, which killed twelve of the barons who were 
nearest to him in the procession, the Duke of Brittany 
and the Pope's brother among them, wounded the TTing 
of France, and Charles of Valois, and many others, and 
threw the Pope himself from his horse, causing the 
sacred tiara to roll from his head, and thereby to lose 
from it a ruby worth, says the chronicler, six thousand 
golden florins. 



NOBLB BOYS AT PLAT. 95 

Clement proceeded to fill the Sacred College with 
French cardinals, whose scandalous quarrels and grossly 
fiimoniacal proceedings caused, at his death in 1314, an 
interregnum of two years, five months, and serenteen 
days. Two Conclaves were held during this time, one 
in Carpentras and one in Lyons ; at the last of which, 
a ^^ compromise" haying at length been agreed to, and 
the French Cardinal Jacopo d'Euse having been intrusted 
with the nomination of the Pope, and the cardinals 
having bound themselves, as is the essential condition 
of an election by " compromise," to accept his nonunee 
as the legitimate Pope, he forthwith declared ^^ Ego sum 
Papa!" "I am the Pope," and was elected accord- 
ingly. The reasons assigned by Novaes * for not be- 
lieving this story seem to mo extremely futile. They 
consist mainly in the new Pope^s declaration in a letter 
to Bobert of Sicily that he had been elected " nenune 
discrepante," and in the declaration of a Portuguese 
bishop, writing to another Pope, to the same eflfect. 
But this D'Euse, John XXII., was in perfect truth 
elected unanimously by all the cardinals, in accordance 
with their agreement so to elect his nominee. 

The Conclave which assembled at Avignon, on the 
death of John XXII., who after ruling the Church for 
eighteen years and three montiis, died in his ninety-first 
year, on the 13th of December, 1334, was almost as dis- 
graceful an one as that which elected the Pope who led 
the Church into " Captivity," Clement V. The spirit 
which animated its members is sufficiently shown by the 
offer which they made of the Papacy to John de Com- 

* ** DiBsertazioiii Storico-chticlu." Diss. iii. sec. 47. 



9.6 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

minges, on condition that he would not restore the Papacy 
to Rome. This offer, however, having been declined, 
the Conclave elected, to his great surprise, the Carmelite 
monk Jacopo del Fomo, who became Pope, as Benedict 
XII., and turned out a better Pontiff than might have 
been expected. 

Pierre Eoger, of the noble house of Beaufort,* was 
elected regularly by Conclave, assembled at Avignon, on 
the 7th of May, 1342, which was the thirteenth day 
after the death of Benedict XII., and became Pope, as 
Clement VI. He, too, made a triumphal procession on 
horseback, the bridle rein of his palfrey being held by 
the Count of Normandy, afterwards King of France. 
One of his first acts was to proclaim that, for two 
months, all graces and favours demanded of the Holy 
See should be, in the granting of them, free from the 
usual fees and charges. And we are told that in con- 
sequence of this announcement more than a hundred 
thousand ecclesiastics flocked to Avignon from aU parts 
of Europe, during those two months, and returned home 
" filled with graces and benefits ! " This was the Pope 
who excommunicated Cola di Eienzi, and caused him to 
be brought to Avignon, and there imprisoned. The 
Eomans dispatched two embassies to Pope Clement, 
at the head of the second of which was Francesca 
Petrarcha, the object of which was to prefer three 



* It is strange that the writer of the article on Olement VI. in Moroni's 
Dictionary, should say that he took the Benedictine habit in the monas- 
tery of Alyemia ; whereas that celebrated retreat in the Tuscan Apennines 
is and always was a Franciscan conTont, and was one of the most noted 
haunts of St Francis, and the scene of many of the legends connected 
with him. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 97 

petitions : 1. That he would accept, not as Pope, but 
as Pierre Boger, the places of Senator and Captain of 
Borne ; 2. That he would come and fix himself at the 
Lateran ; 3. That he would reduce the period elapsing 
between one jubilee and the next to fifty years instead 
of an hundred. To the first Pierre Eoger replied that 
he had no objection, seeing that he was the ^piaster of 
the city, to all intents and purposes, as he was. To the 
third he gave his entire adhesion. But to the second, 
which was the important point and main object of the 
embassy, he replied that ho could not do as was wished, 
because he was so much occupied in endeavours to make 
peace between the diflterent warring princes of Europe — 
which was true. 

But in his reign of ten years and a half he accom- 
plished little or nothing towards that end, and at his 
death in 1352, twenty-eight cardinals went into Con- 
clave at Avignon, and on the third day elected the 
Cardinal Stephen d'Albret, a native of the parish of 
Brissac, in the diocese of Limoges, by the name of 
Innocent VI. This Conclave was, though a short, a 
busy one. For on going into Conclave a large number 
of the cardinals wished to elect the General of the 
Carthusians : a proposed election which seems to indi- 
cate the existence of an improved spirit in the Sacred 
College, for the Cardinal de Talleyrand, we are told^ 
fearing the severity of that holy monk, dissuaded the 
cardinals from their choice. Another attempt was then 
made to elect a Cardinal de Cannillac, who had, how- 
ever, only fibfteen votes. This having failed, the cai'- 
dinals in Conclave found it necessary to lose no more 

H 



98 THE PAPAL CONCLAYBS. 

time; for it was known that the king, John II., was 
approaching Avignon, by forced marches, with a view to 
exercise a pressure on the Conclave. Stephen d'Albret 
was, therefore, made into Innocent VI. in a hurry, and 
turned out a very good Pope, as the times went, though 
somewhat more of a reformer of abuses, specially in the 
matter of non-residence and the holding of benefices in 
commendanij than their eminences much liked. 

It is to be observed that all the tentatives made in the 
Conclave were in favour of Frenchmen only. 

Innocent's successor, William Grimoard, resembled 
Homer, as the ecclesiastical historians remark, at least 
in one respect — ^that seven places contend for the honour 
of having given him birth, and each of these has found 
writers to maintain its claim. He was certainly a 
Frenchman, and was most probably bom at Grissac, in 
Languedoc, in the diocese of Mende. Twenty cardinals 
went into Conclave at Avignon, after the death of 
Innocent, on the 22nd of September, 1362 ; and it soon 
appeared that a new line of division, and consequently 
of strife, had manifested itself among them. The great 
majority were French; but a considerable number of 
their eminences were Gascons, and subjects therefore of 
the King of England, and these placed themselves in 
opposition to those of their colleagues, who were subjects 
of the King of France. The ecclesiastical historians, in 
recording this, do not seem to be at all struck by the 
fact that such a division implies a total forgotfulness of 
the sacred duties and functions for the discharge of 
which they professed to have been called altogether. 
But, in trutK, it would have been well-nigh impossible 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 99 

for any Catholic writer to have treated of the history of 
the elections of the Popes at all, if he were to make any 
attempt to meddle with considerations of this order ! 
The twenty cardinals, however, despite their diflferences 
and jealousies, contrived to agree, after six days' seclusion, 
to elect Cardinal^Hugo Eoger. But he, to the infinite 
surprise of his colleagues, took the almost unprecedented 
step, not of merely professing unwillingness, but of 
absolutely declining, to'accept the tiara ! And the diffi- 
culties of the Conclave recommenced, and the discus- 
sions broke out with redoubled violence. It was found 
indeed impossible to agree in the election of one of their 
own body ; and it was not till the 28th of October that 
a way out of the difficulty was found by the election, as 
Urban V., of the Abbot William, who was no cardinal, 
and had been sent as Legate to Sicily, and was at that 
time at Florence. It is a curious illustration of the con- 
dition of things and of men's minds at the time, that it 
is recorded that the cardinals, instead of sending to him 
to announce his election, sent a message to the eflfect 
that they desired to consult with him ; the motive for 
the step being that they feared lest, had it been known 
that he was the Pope, the Italians might have forcibly 
detained him, with a view to the re-cstablishment of the 
Papacy in Eome! In truth repeated indications arc 
found that all the Avignon Popes felt a more or less 
decided consciousness that they were in some sort doing 
wrong in holding the Papacy out of Eome, and that it 
would be a good and meritorious act to restore it to the 
seat of Peter. Petrarch again interceded strongly by 
letter wifli Urban V. on this point ; and Urban, who 

h2 



100 THE PAPAL GONCLAYES. 

seems to have been a really conseientions man, was 
much minded to do as all Italy implored him to do. 
The diflSculty of doing this, however, with a College of 
Cardinals now almost entirely French, was very great. 
How much greater it was felt to be by a Pope than it 
could be imagined to be by any other, is curiously shown 
by a recorded expression which fell from Urban V., 
long before he had any thought that he should ever be 
Pope, to the effect that if he could only live to see the 
next Pope restore the see to Eome, he should be well 
content to die the next day ! Yet when he himself had 
become that next Pope, he did not do it ! He did deter- 
mine, however, to at least give Eome the consolation of 
his presence temporarily. He arrived there, to the im- 
mense joy of the Eomans, on the 16th of October, 1367. 
He remained in Eome and its neighbourhood three years 
and nine months, and then departed on his return to 
Avignon, on the 26th of August, 1370, despite all the 
entreaties that could be brought to bear on him ; despite 
the warnings of the sainted Minorite friar, Peter of 
Aragon, to the effect that his residence in Avignon 
would lead to a schism in the Church ; and those of St. 
Bridget, who, when he was at Montefiascone, on his 
way to embark at Cometo, assured him that the Blessed 
Virgin had revealed to her that if the Pope returned to 
Avignon he might at once prepare for his death, for 
that he would not long survive it. Urban, however, 
replying to all these entreaties and persuasions that the 
interests of the government of the universal Church 
made it impossible for him to yield to them, returned to 
Avignon, which he reached on the 24th of September, 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 101 

1370, and died on the 19th of December of that year, 
in complete fulfilment, as the historians do not fail 
to point out, of the prophecy of St. Bridget. 

The Conclave assembled at Avignon on the canonical 
tonth day after the death of XJrban, and immediately, by 
the nnanimons vote of all the nineteen cardinals present, 
■elected Pietro Eoger of Maumont, in the diocese of 
Limoges, Pope, by the name of Gregory XI., the 
seventh and last of the line of French Popes. Gregory 
seems to have been a conscientious man, and, like his 
two or three predecessors, made some nearer approach 
towards the character and conduct that might be sup- 
posed fitting in a ruler of the universal Church, as the 
■duties of such a position were then understood by the 
best members of that Church, than any of the Popes 
shortly preceding the "Babylonish Captivity" had 
done. And these last Popes had been chosen almost 
•entirely by French cardinals. Was it the case, that, 
rude, rough, and violent as the times were among those 
Gascon and Languedocian populations, there existed in 
the social atmosphere of those races a somewhat nearer 
approach towards an adequate conception of the meaning 
-and significance of the office to be filled by the Supreme 
Buler of the Christian Church, than was the case among 
the invincibly and permanently Pagan tendencies of the 
Italian people ? The discussion of such an idea would 
lead us very much too far afield from the proposed 
subject of this volume. It is sufficient to have suggested 
it to the speculative inquirer interested in the study of 
national characteristics. 

Gregory XI. was, as I have said, to all appearances a 



102 THE PAPAL COKCLAVES. 

conscientious man, and he like his predecessor seems to 
have felt strongly on the subject of restoring the Papacy 
to the Eternal City. Indeed he had made up his mind 
to do so, not merely by his temporary presence in Eome, 
as his immediate predecessor had done, but by defini- 
tively re-transferring the Papal Court to Rome. This- 
is proved by the fact that when he left Avignon for 
Rome, on the 10th of September, 1376, he was ac- 
companied by all the cardinals, save six, and by the 
whole of the members of the Pontifical Court. 

But this restoration was a very difficult matter — a 
much more difficult matter than it had been to carry the 
Apostolical Court from Rome to Avignon. The diffi- 
culties in the way of returning to Rome may be easily 
understood in a great degree ; and it is equally easy to 
feel assured that other obstacles and difficulties must 
have existed besides those which we can now descry. 
Further, there is no reason to doubt that the assertions 
of Gregory's predecessors, to the effect that the interests 
of the Church and the work of administering it required 
their presence in France, were made in all good faith and 
entire persuasion that such was the fact. They were 
Frenchmen, and were naturally convinced that France 
was the true centre of the Christian world, as indeed it 
had for the last century or so been becoming more and 
more. England and English affairs, the wars of her 
kings, and the heresies of her people, had contributed 
much in those latter times to the cares of the Popes. 
And they felt themselves to be more at hand for the 
supervision of them at Avignon than at Rome. Then,, 
again, if Aquitainian and Languedocian barons were 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 103 

masterful and high-handed, if times were rude and men 
violent in France, the men into the midst of whom the 
Popes were importuned to return were a herd of raging 
ruffians, cut-throats, and poisoners. The former were 
men who could always be awed into reverence by a due 
exhibition and administration of Papal Miunbo-jumbo. 
The latter were men whom no Mumbo-jumbo could awe 
into a reverence which was alien to their nature, or into 
superstition which too long a close acquaintance with, 
and handling of, Mumbo-jumbo had utterly liberated 
them from. 

And the great and all-important fact of a definitive 
restoration of the Papal Court to Eome was accordingly 
brought about by an accident after all. 

Gregory XI., having left Avignon, as has been said, 
on the 10th of September, 1376, celebrated his Christmas 
mass at Cometo, on his arrival in Italy. He was received 
with the utmost possible enthusiasm by all classes, and 
with the greatest pomp and magnificence ; and at once 
began active endeavours to repair the evils, material and 
moral, which had resulted from the absence of the Popes 
from Eome. But it was uphill work ! The Florentines 
were at open war with him. The petty tyrants of the 
papal cities joined themselves to them, whenever they 
were disposed to rebel against the Pope. The Eoman 
barons showed not the smallest disposition to obey him. 
And the Gascon and Breton troops, whom he had brought 
with him to protect him, found it hard work to do so. 
Gregory, we are told, was stricken with melancholy from 
the day of his arrival in Eome. How well we can imagine 
that it should have been so ! A gloomy, savage-looking, 



i 



104 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

and half-mined city grovelling amid the majestic ruins 
of the Paganism which still survived in the blood of the 
descendants of those who had raised them ; lawless and 
Imowing no authority save that of the ruffian barons and 
their retainers, who were ever snarling over the carcass ; 
desolate in the midst of the ever sad and dreary 

Campagna! Yes! It maybe understood that 

the Languedoc Pope should have been stricken with 
melancholy at the sight of the surroundings, and the 
life, and the work before him. 

He seems very soon to have begun to make up his 
mind that it would not do, and that he must return ! 
That, however, was far more easily said than done. The 
Eomans, who would not obey him, were by no means 
willing that he should depart. It is probable that they 
would have attempted, and probably succeeded, in de- 
taining hiTn by violence. And it is to be remembered 
that his death at Eome would have suited their plans 
and wishes just as well as his continuing to live there. 
For in that case there would bo a Conclave at Eome, 
and the probability of a Pope who would continue to 
reside there. 

Gregory had, however, determined to return. But he 
was continually tormented by an incurable and painful 
illness, and he began to foresee that he might never see 
his Languedoc again ! And his last act seems to indicate 
a conviction, not only that he had make a mistake in 
moving to Eome, but that it would be desirable for his 
successor, be he whom he might, to continue to keep 
the Papacy in France; for his last act was tiie pre- 
paration of a dispensing Bull, empowering the cardinals 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 105 

to elect his successor either in or away from Eome, 
wherever the greater number of the members of the 
College might be. Now as the major part of the cardinals 
were then in Eome, and as they had all been most urgent 
with the Pope to return to France, this Bull would seem 
to contemplate their going away from Bome to make the 
election elsewhere. 

Ghregory indeed was destined never to leave Eome. 
His last illness overtook him before he could put his 
intention of returning into execution ; and he died on 
the evening of the 27th of March, 1378, having reigned 
seven years and all but three months, of which the last 
year and three months were passed in Italy. 

And thus ended the "Babylonish Captivity." 



i 



CHAPTEE III. 

Sacred College at the Death of Qregory XI. — ^Anecdotes of the Condavd- 
that eleciked Urban VI. — Turbiilence of the Boman People.— Alarm 
of the Cardinals. — Circumstances which led to the great Schism. — 
Doubts respecting the Canonicity of the Election of Urban YI. — 
Other Causes lea£ug to the Schism. — ^Irregular Election of Bobert of 
Geneva by the dissenting Cardinals as Clement YII., who has always 
been held to be an Antipope. — Schism of thirty-nine Tears. 

The death of Gregory XI., which overtook him at Eome 
when he was meditating his return to Avignon, was the 
means of restoring the Papacy to the Eternal City, but 
by no means smoothed away or cut the knot of the diffi- 
culties by which that restoration was surrounded. The 
details of the story of the Conclave which elected his 
successor, Bartolommeo Prignani, Archbishop of Bari, 
who was not a cardinal,* as Urban VI., are curious and 
strongly marked by the characteristics of the times. 
They have been preserved in the Latin relation of a con- 
temporary, probably a "Conclavista,"f which is printed 
in the collection published in 1691, by G. L.J 

* Since him no Pope has been elected who was not at the time a 
member of the Sacred College. 

t Le,, one of the " attendants " proyided for in the constitutions of 
Qregory. They may in accordance with them be either clerks or laymen. 
In practice they are always clerks. 

X Gregorio Leti. The edition cited is a reprint made at Cologne, 
and is in 12mo. The original edition in 4to. has no date of place or year. 
Gregorio Leti was bom in 1630. His inexactitude as an historian is 
notorious. But in the case of these relations of the Conclaye, he is 
merely the collector of the accounts of others. That of the Conclave of 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 107 

Gregory left the Sacred College consisting of twenty-^ 
three cardinals, of whom four only were Italian. There , 
was one Spaniard, and all the others were French. Some 
of these had remained at Avignon ; and sixteen only (as 
Moroni says, reckoning one Spaniard, eleven French, 
and four Italians ; or seventeen, as the old Conclavista 
says) entered into Conclave on the 7th of April, 1378.* 
But, as the Conclavista relates, without the smallest 
appearance of any consciousness that he is telling that 
which vitiated the whole election, t they met before 
entering into Conclave to discuss the matter, and see 
what prospect there was of coming to an agreement. 
This at once appeared to be but small. For although 
the eleven French cardinals were strong enough to have 
elected one of their own body, who would have carried 
the Papacy back into France, as they ardently wished, 
if they had been unanimous, there was a principle of 
division among them which deprived tiiem of their 
power. The difficulty arose from the fact that the 
French cardinals, though all French, were not all from 
the Diocese of Limoges ; as (from the circumstance of 
three out the line of seven French Popes, Clement VI., 
Innocent VI., and Gregory XI., having been natives of 

Urban YI. is shown to be by a contemporary, by the statement that 
Joanna of Naples *'was and is*' a person much esteemed by the 
cardinals. 

* Oancellieii, with his usual carelessness, says on the 11th of September, 
which could in no wise have been the case ; a blunder which is the more 
strange in that in the same passage he quotes Leti*s Conclavista, who 
gives the date correctly. 

f His words are, *' Oardinales ante ingressum Condavis simul in certo 
loco aliquando congregati inter se colloquium habuerunt super 
persona («ic) futuri Pontificis tractantes et colloquentes, qui tamon nou 
potuerunt concordare." Compare this with the 14th of Gregory X.*s 
rules. 



108 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

that diocese) was the case with a considerable number 
among them. The other French cardinals, determined 
that the Papacy should not become the hereditary pro- 
perty of the Limoges clergy,* were ready to unite with 
the Italian cardinals eyen in the election of an Italian, 
if by no other means could they prevent the election of 
a Limoges man. In this frame of mind they cast their 
eyes upon the Archbishop of Bari, — ^' unum Archiepis- 
copum Barensem," as the Boman Conclavista somewhat 
contemptuously calls him, — ^no other indeed than our 
Bartolommeo Prignani, who, if to a Eoman conclavist 
he was " one Archbishop of Bari," was suflGlciently well 
known in the ecclesiastical world of Christendom, and 
who eventually became Urban VI. The reasons for the 
choice are given as follows by the conclavist : It was 
hoped that the Italian cardinals would agree to elect 
him, an Italian, rather than another Frenchman; 
while it was thought on the other hand that the TJltra- 
montanef cardinals would agree ^^ because the Baii 
Archbishop was a very learned man, used to business, 
erudite, and instructed in the style of the Curia and 
Chancery,"t and from his early years the familiar com- 
panion and domestic chaplain of the Cardinal Vice- 

* *' Concordarunt cum cardinalibus Italicis do habendo potius Italicuni 
quam unum Lemovicensem, dicentes aperte quod totus mundus admodum 
crat attediatus do LemovicenBibus, qui tanio tempore Papatum possido- 
rant quasi bereditarium ;" saying openly tbat all the world was Tery 
tired of the Limogians, who bad possessed tbe Papacy so long as tbough 
it were bereditary among tbem. — Condavi dei Pontific, Colonia, 1691. 
V. i. p. 24. 

t /.e. tbe cai'dinals from tbe noHhem side of tbe Alps. Tbe cbange 
of meaning and relatiye position in tbe current talk of tbe day is not 
unwortby of notice. 

X " Instructus in Stylo Curiae et CancellaruB." 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLIY. 109 

Chancellor, who was himself of Limoges. So much so 
that the French cardinals considered this Bishop of Bari 
to be as it were one of themselves, and conformable* to 
their ways. Lastly, it was a reason in favour of the 
choice that the Archbishop was a Neapolitan, ^^ of which 
kingdom the Serenissima Joanna^f who was exceedingly 
devoted to the Holy Church, and very acceptable to and 
beloved by the cardinals, was mistress. These grounds 
for the choice appeared to have approved themselves to 
the majority of the cardinals, and it was well understood 
before they went into Conclave that the Archbishop of 
Bari was to be the man. So much so that on entering 
Conclave, as soon as the appointed mass " De Spiritu 
Sancto" had been performed, the Cardinal de Agrifoglio, 
addressing his colleagues, said, J ^^ Let us set to work at 
once, for I feel sure that we shall make an election out 
of hand." But the Cardinal Orsini, who was believed 
to be himself an aspirant to the Papacy, and who saw 
that the election of the Archbishop of Bari was imminent, 
wishing to gain time, and ut creditur, to get rid of it 
altogetiier, spoke thus, or to this eflfect: "Let us, your 
eminences — Domini md — defer this election to another 
time, that we may elude — ut deludamus — ^this Eoman 
people, who wish to have a Eoman citizen for Pope; 

• '* Ipsonun moribus conformem." 

f It may be as weU to remind the reader that this most Serene favour- 
ite of the cardinals was the woman who incited her loyer to murder 
her husband, who used means of nameless infamy to escape public 
denunciation for the crime, who was the consistently adulterous wife of 
four husbands, who espoused subsequently the cause of the Antipope 
against the Pope, and was ultimately stifled under a feather bed in a 
remote castle in the Apennines by the order of her munlercd husband*s 
nephew. 

I *< Dixit haeo verba," says the condayist. 



110 THE PAPAL CONCLAYBS. 

and let us summon some Minorite friar, and let us put 
the papal cope and mitre on liim,^and pretend that we have 
elected him for Pope ; and so let us get away from this 
place, and elect somebody else elsewhere." For, explains 
the conclavist, there was a crowd in the Piazza in 
front of the palace, "not violent, however, or making 
any threats " (this, as will be seen, was an important 
point); but imprudently — incauU — crying out, "We 
want a Eon^an for Pope," their real object being rather 
to run oflf to plunder the house of the new Pope, accord- 
ing to custom, as soon as the election should be 
announced, than really to influence in any way the 
election; as in truth they did nothing when subse- 
quently one who was not a Eoman was elected. But 
the other cardinals, in reply to the Cardinal Orsini, said, 
" Certainly we will not do this thing. For we will not 
make the people idolaters — (as they would be, that is to 
say, if we deceived them into adoring as Pope one who 
was not so in reality), — ^nor will we deceive them to the 
damnation of our own souls. On the contrarj^, it is our 
intention forthwith to elect, and we will elect a true 
Pope ; and for the words and clamours of those people 
we care not." 

Cardinal Orsini, however, making one more attempt 
to prevent the election of the Archbishop, attempted to 
persuade his colleagues to elect Francesco, Cardinal of 
St. Sabine, a Roman, upon which one of the Limoges car- 
dinals said that although the Cardinal of St. Peter's (his 
Eminence of St. Sabine was so called) was a good and 
holy man, they would not elect him ; in the first place 
because he was a Eoman, and by doing so the Conclave 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. Ill 

would seem to have been influenced by the clamour of 
the mob, and, in the second place, because he was too 
infirm to sustain the weight of the Papacy ; then, 
turning towards the Florentine Cardinal, he said, " You 
tire of Florence, a city at war with the Holy See. There- 
fore we will not elect you. His Eminence of Milan is 
from a country that was always opposed to the Church. 
The Cardinal Orsini is, again, 'a Eoman, a partisan, and 
too young for the Papacy. Therefore wc will elect none 
of these." (These were the only four Italians in the 
Sacred College. It only remained, therefore, to find a 
Pope outside the College, or to elect one from one or 
other of the two hostile factions of Frenchmen, a course 
which the hostility of cither party was sufficient to 
render impossible.) Having thus spoken, continues the 
conclavist, "Cardinalis ipse Lemoviconsis,''* in the pre- 
sence and hearing of all the other cardinals, and before 
them all, chose as Eoman Pontiff Monsignore Bartolom- 
meo, Archbishop of Bari, using words to the following 
effect, " I purely and freely elect and assume to be Pope 
Monsignore Bartolommeo, Archbishop of Bari." And 
on that same spot, without any inter\'al of time,-|' all the 
other cardinals acting and constituting a part much 
larger than the two-thirds of the number of cardinals 
in Conclave, freely elected similarly the said Archbishop 
of Bari to be the Eoman Pontiff, t The Florentine 

* It is not clear which of the cardinals from Limoges is intended. But 
it is of no importance. 

t It is evident from this and many other of the points insisted on in 
the narrative, that it was composed in view of the schismatic election of 
un Antipope, to which the proceeding of this Conclave gave rise. 

X He says aU the other cardinals, and thus in fact contradicts himself. 
But I have accurately translated his words, and his meaning is clear. 



4 



112 THE PAPAL GONCLAYES. 

Cardinal seeing that there was a majority of more than 
the requisite two-thirds for the Archbishop of Ban, 
joined his vote to theirs, and "so the election was 
celebrated." 

The Conclave having remained duly closed all this 
time, and the election thus canonically* made, their 
eminences began to have misgivings as to what they had 
done so bravely, and begsen to question among themselves 
whether it were expedient to proclaim the said election 
forthwith to the people. " And at length they came to 
a conclusion to put off this publication till the time of 
dinner had passed, and they should have dined ; the 
object of which was that, inasmuch as the dignitary 
elected was not then in the palace where the Conclave 
was held, there was reason to fear that if the election 
were then proclaimed before he ha^ had time to come to 
the cardinals in the palace, something impleasant — 
aligua sinistra — ^might happen to the said prelate by the 
way, inasmuch as he was not a Eoman, which the popu- 
lace were bent on having." Another reason, adds the 
conclavist, was that their eminences were anxious to 
get their silver plate and other valuables that they had 
with them in the Conclave, carried to their houses, or to 
some other place of safety, which they feared they might 
not be able to accomplish after the election had been 
declared. 

So, " ne aUquis posset suspicari vel preesumere, ipsum 
esse electiun," they sent for several prelates, known to 

* Except in 80 far as it was vitiated by tlie simoniaoal proceedings 
preceding the C!onclaYe, as before observed, which nobody seems to baye 
thought anything fibout. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 113 

be then in Borne, desiring them to come and eonfer 
recfpecting certain arduous aflS^ of the Church. The 
oonclayist names five thus sent for besides the Arch- 
biflhop of Bari. They all came, and the cardinals gave 
them a dinner, not inside the Conclaye where they were 
dining themselyes, but in the palace. After dinner, the 
Conclaye being still closed, and all semblance of pressure 
from without haying ceased, they again, for greater 
security, safety, and precaution — " concorditer ac unani- 
miter "♦ — elected Bartolommeo, Archbishop of Bari, to 
be Pope. 

When that had been done, a rumour got out — " cepit 
exiie et dici " — ^that the Pope had been elected. But 
nobody could say on whom the election had fallen. 
Thereat tiie people began to be clamorous, and going to 
the Bishop of Marseilles, who had been appointed keeper 
of the Conclaye, insisted that it should be told to them 
who the Pope was. The Bishop answered that he would 
go to St. Peter's and ascertain, and that the result of the 
election should then be published. But some of the 
people misunderstanding him, thought that he said he 
would go to the house of the Cardinal " de Sancti Petri " 
(Orsini), and concluded at once that he had been elected. 
Whereupon the populace rushed off to that cardinaPs 
dwelling, and to show their joy at haying a Boman for 
Pope, plundered the house according to custom. When, 
howeyer, the hours went on and no proclamation of the 
election was made, an idea began to gain ground that the 

* I presume that he means that those who had before done so onani- 
monaly repeated the election. It is not likely that the others who had 
refdsed before dinner to concur in the election should haye now agreed. 
to it. The sequel of the history makes this yery improbable. 



d 



114 THE PAPAL OOKOLAYES. 

people had been deceived, and the notion was confirmed 
by some who had obsery^ some of the plate of the car- 
dinals being carried away out of the Conclave, where- 
upon a portion of the populace made an irruption into the 
Conclave, intending to insist on the cardinals remaining 
where they were until an election should have been 
made. 

The French cardinals, seeing the people rushing into 
the Conclave, " were exceedingly frightened because they 
had not elected a Boman Pope ; " and forgetting not 
only the bravery with which they had declared that 
they would elect without regard to the clamour of 
the people, but also all that care for the welfare of their 
own souls which had induced them to reject the pro- 
posal of Cardinal Orsini, they induced that Cardinal 
to permit himself to be clothed with the insignia of 
the Pope, " ad placandiun populum." And the people, 
believing him to be the Pope, adored him as such ; so 
that, to use the expressions of the Limoges cardinal 
who had spoken so bravely when the walls of the 
palace were between him and the populace, "the 
people " were " made idolaters," and the souls of the 
cardinals acting the fraud were " damned,'^ as his Emi- 
nence had said. 

While these things were being done in a tumultuous 
manner, all the cardinals got away out of the Conclave 
and reached their own houses in safety, except the real 
Pope, who had hidden himself in the palace, and the 
mock Pope, Orsini, who was receiving the salutations of 
the people. When, however, this had been going on 
for some little time, Cardinal Orsini, beginning to feel 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 115 

uncomfortable in his strange position, cried out,* ^^ I am 
not the Pope, and I don't want to be an Antipope. A 
better man than I has been chosen Pope — the Archbishop 
ofBari." 

Meantime most of the cardinals had become so much 
alarmed at the aspect of things that they thought they 
could not venture to remain in their own houses. A 
few, three or four, did so in perfect safety; of the others, 
some hid themselves in the city, some escaped to strong 
places out of the city, and some took refage in the Castle 
of St. Angelo. The conclavist gives the names of all 
those who adopted each of these courses. That same 
evening those who were in Castle St. Angelo wrote to 
the elected Pope recommending him, inasmuch as he was 
not a Boman, to escape to some safe place ; but the new 
Pope, on receiving this message, consulted Cardinal 
Orsini, who alone had remained in the palace, as to the 
course he should adopt. Orsini told him that he was 
well and truly made Pope, and that nothing could hurt 
him if he remained where he was. He accordingly did 
pass that night in the palace, and on the morrow it was, 
*^by the counsel and will of" the Cardinal Orsini, 
announced to the official personages of the city that the 
Archbishop of Bari had been elected Pope. Whereupon 
they, the official personages, were much astonished, but 
were highly contented, and wished to approach the Pope, 
and did go to him for the rendering to him that reverence 
which is usually sTiown to the Popes. But he, the new 
Pope, was unwilling that such reverence should be 
shown him by the said officials, or by anybody else, 

* " Hsec verba protulit in effectu," says the Conclavist. 

I 2 



116 THE PAPAL OOKCLAYES. 

saying, among other things, that for the present he did 
not choose to be called other than the Archbishop of 
Bari* 

This statement is very important as indicating that 
TTrban VI. was not himself contented with his election, 
and had doubts as to its validity. It is, at the same 
time, evidence of the impartial good fedth of the con- 
clavist who has preserved the story of the Conclave. 
Many of the passages which have been quoted, in which 
he insists upon small facts that go to show that the 
election was canonical according to the rules, might lead 
to the suspicion that, writing his account of the election 
after it had been disputed, he wrote merely as a par- 
tisan. But it is impossible to suppose that he could 
have failed to perceive the very damaging inference to 
be drawn from the conduct of Urban himself. 

The writer goes on to relate that, on the morning after 
the election, the five cardinals who had remained in 
their own homes came to the new Pope to congratulate 
him and implore him to accept his election. They 

* This passage is so important, in view of the disastrous schism which 
the circumstances of this memorable Conclave led to, that I think it 
worth while to give the text of the original. 

<* In crastinum autem de oonsilio et yoluntate Domini Oardinalis Sancti 
Petri (Orsini) fiiit electio Dom. Barensis intimata officialibus Urbis, qui 
de electione higus modi remanserunt ; et faerunt yalde oontenti, et yolue- 
runt accedere et accesserunt Dominum electum ad exhibendum ei 
reverentiam ezhiberi solitam summis Pontificibus ; qui noluit sibi talem 
reyerentiam fieri per dictos officiales, nee per alium quempiam, dioendo 
inter caetera, quod pro nunc nolebat nominari, nisi Archiepisoopus 
Barensis." 

The reader wiU have remarked the peculiar use of the word << reman- 
serunt." Nobody could understand it who was not familiar with 
modem Italian colloquialisms — <* lo rimango I " '* Sono rimasti ! " (*' I 
am amazedl " << They were much astonished! ") which may be heard any 
day in the mouths of Italians. A quaint instance of the perslstenoe of a 
popular, almost slang, phrase. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 117 

persuaded him also to allow a message to be sent to the 
six cardinals who were in Castle St. Angelo, requiring 
them to meet their colleagues, and that the Elected 
might give his consent to the election made in his 
person, as is customary. He, however — the new Pope 
— wishing to he secure in his conscience^ asked all* the 
cardinals, each one separately, whether in truth he was 
elected Pope, "sincerely, purely, freely, and canonically," 
by all the cardinals in Conclave. And they replied that 
:assuredly he was so elected as much as any one could 
be, persuading him by no means to refuse or delay his 
assent to his election on account of the danger of a long 
interregnum, considering that it would be very difl&cult 
for the cardinals to be again assembled together. The 
cardinals who had remained in St. Angelo, moreover, 
gave 1^ publicly executed instrument full and free 
power to the five who were at St. Peter's with the 
Pope to enthrone him, and do all things that they could 
by their own presence do. When, however, this instru- 
ment was shown to the Senate of Bome and the other 
officials of the city, they went to Castle St. Angelo, and 
humbly prayed the cardinals there to come out and join 
their colleagues at St. Peter's, assuring them that they 
would be there in a perfectly safe, free, and secure place ; 
and that although they had not chosen a Eoman, yet the 
Boman people were contented with the election of the 
Archbishop of Ban, and were perfectly quiet and peaoe- 
ftdly disposed. Thus reassured, the six foreign cardinals 

* That is, all the five who had come to him. For it appears imme- 
diately afterwards that the six who were in St. Angelo did not as yet 
-come out to join their colleagues. 



118 THE PAPAL COirCLAyB& 

came out of the castle and joined the Pope elect and the 
other five cardinals at St. Peter's ; and there the whole 
eleven together in the chapel, " a second time and for 
the greater surety," elected the Archbishop Pope, " or 
purely, freely, agreeingly, and unanimously consented 
that he should be elected." 

Here again the narrative of the conclavist is very 
damaging to the cause of Urban VI. It is clear that if 
he had not been duly, fully, and finally elected in the 
Conclave, nothing that could be done afterwards could 
canonically make him Pope. And yet the cardinals by 
their conduct show that they must have had doubts upon 
the subject. The eleven constituted, it is true, two- 
thirds of a Conclave consisting of sixteen (if seven- 
teen entered into Conclave the eleven did not make a 
two-thirds majority) ; but a canonical election could not 
be effected by first getting rid of a portion of the electors 
by means of an erroneous statement that the election 
was consummated, and then proceeding with the real 
effective election in their absence. It would seem, in- 
deed, that from the first, the circumstances attending 
this Conclave did inspire a certain degree of doubt and 
misgiving in all those who were actors in it. Neverthe- 
less, the sequel of the story, as narrated by the contem- 
porary writer whom I have followed, and who in all 
probability was, as I have supposed, a conclavist, seems 
to show that the pretences on which the terrible schism 
that followed were founded were in truth insincere and 
merely colourable. My impression, too, from a very 
carefol reading of the narrative, is strongly in favour of 
the truthfulness and sincerity of the writer. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 119 

He goes on to show at great length that every part of 
the usual ceremony of enthronement, and of the practices 
that according to custom follow after it, were duly, fully, 
and undisputedly done and complied with in the presence 
and with the assent and assistance of all the sixteen car- 
dinals who had taken part in the Conclave,* those who 
had fled from the city having returned. He proceeds 
to show that for three months all these cardinals treated 
Urban as Pope in every respect and particular, no word 
of doubt having been breathed on the subject. The 
writer then mentions various papal acts done by Urban, 
such as holding a Consistory, appointing a Bishop of 
Ostia, granting graces and dispensations, and some others. 
But among the things done he tells us that the cardinals 
wrote letters to the different princes of Christendom, 
informing them of the election, and warning them to give 
faith to none who should assert the contrary^ or insinuate a 
doubt as to the election — again a very damaging admission; 
for certainly such a warning implies, if not that objec- 
tions to the election had already been put forward, at 
least a conscious fear that such might be likely to arise. 

We soon come, however, to matter that was much worse 
than simony, or any possible formal objection that could 



^ *< Cardinalibtis omnibas nnmero xyi. assistentibus, presentibus, et 
sic fieri yolentibtis, ipsique Domino TJrbano minisfxantibiis. Omnes 
enim dicti cardinales nnmero xyi., qni in electione fuerunt, in hoc 
Coronationis festo interfuerunt, purdque et liberd consenseront, et 
qnatuor illi cardinales, qui ab urbe recesserant jam fuerant ad nrbem 
reyersi, ubi omnes dicti cardinales per tres menses continues stetenint, 
ipsi domino TJrbano assistendo et ministrando, Concistoria et alia per 
cardinales sommis Pontificibns consneta faciendo . . . et durante tem- 
pore dictorum trium mensium dicti D. Cardinales semper traotarunt, et 
habaenmt Dominum Urbanum pro yero, unico, et indubitato sumo 
Pontifioe." 



120 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

be brought against the electioii. " One day the Pope, 
Urban, haying summoned all the cardinals, addressed to 
ihem many admonitions for the good goyemment of the 
Church, and respecting their setting a good example to 
the people. For he warned them to abstain and hold 
their hands from all gifts, declaring that he detested and 
would seyerely punish all guilty of simony,* and all 
seekers after gain ; forbidding them to accept presents 
either great or small on whatsoeyer account, as it was 
his intention that all affiurs that came before him should 
be despatched gratis, no man thence hoping anything. 
Poor Urban ! He was by no means the right man in the 
right place. One sees in truth that they ought to haye 
diosen a Boman for the position. Ke admonished them 
farther as to exemplary liying, speaking strongly against 
superfluous expense, and numerous retinues, and expen- 
diture in horses, garments, and conyiyiaUty ; asserting 
that all such pompous and puffed-up ways of liying 
tended to injure rather than support the Church and the 
Papacy. He said further that it was his intention that 
justice should be rendered to all seeking it without dis- 
tinction of persons; and added that since the Diyine 
Proyidence had placed the ApostoKc See in Eome, his 
purpose was to reside in the city and there to Uye and 
die, and he deemed it an offence to God to do otherwise. 
Here, indeed, were groimds enough for disputing the 
election ! Surely it was clear that this man was not the 

* It is fiedr to observe, inasmuch as I haye spoken of the vitiation of 
XJrban*s election as simoniacal, that no shadow of such an accusation 
rests on him. The simony which vitiated the election consisted in tho 
bargaining among the cardinalii which preceded it. In fact but few 
papal elections, if any, have been other than simoniacal. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 121 

man for a Pope ; and that the cardinals must haye been 
acting nnder some pressure^ or at all events some hallu- 
cination, in electing him. The writer, indeed, of the 
impartial and passionless narrative which I have followed 
evidently is much of this opinion. He tells us that the 
cardinals who rebelled against the Pope, and were the 
authors of the schism, were tired of TJrban's * morality ; 
and that his too great severity, rather than any flaw in 
his title to the Papacy, caused the cardinals who rebelled 
against him to do so. And a little farther on he tells us 
that it was generally thought that he was himself the 
cause of all the persecution he suffered, because he was 
unduly severe,! and that out of his own head, and had 
more confidence in himself than in others. 

Ugly symptoms, in fact, of rebellion and disaffection 
exhibited themselves immediately after this solemn 
monition. The Bishop of Aries, who had been Chamber- 
lain to Gregory XI., and had the custody of all the 
jewels belonging to the papal treasury, went off with 
them to Anagni, carrying with him also the tiara, with 
which Urban and many of the Popes, his predecessors, 
had been crowned. One Peter, the commandant of the 
OasUe of St. Angelo, at the instigation of another of the 
French cardinals, refused to render up possession of the 
fortress. The Cardinal of St. Eustace, after having 
treacherously J persuaded the Pope to give a large sum 
of money to a company of Breton free-lances, induced 

* " Attediati moribus TJrbani." 

f *'Propterea quod homo ultra qnam decebat seyenis erat, et sui 
capitis, et dbi magis qnam caeteris credens." 

} ** Per soas yirtotes, et subtiles tractatus, ac deceptoria verba, et falsas 
ao dolosas inductiones." 



122 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

them as soon as ever they had received the money to 
turn their arms against the Pope. They too, of course, 
were desirous of having a French Pope, and were easily 
made to believe that Urban had not been duly elected. 
In a word, things were beginning to look very ugly. 
And at the end of June the Pope seems to have been 
guilty of a mistake and an imprudence. The cardinals 
who were hostile to him, making a pretext of the heat 
in Bome, asked permission to retire to Anagni, which 
Urban, "wishing to please them," conceded, and at 
the same time forgetting what he had so recently said 
about living and dying in Bome, or, perhaps, coerced 
by fear, he himself went to Tivoli. 

Thus two hostile camps were formed; and very shortly 
afterwards the disaffected cardinals, breaking into open 
and avowed schism, declared the election of Urban to 
have been ah initio void, on the ground that the Conclave 
had not been held in a safe place, and that the electors 
had acted under the influence* of fear. And possibly 
the reader of the foregoing pages may be under the 
impression that such a statement was not altogether 
unwarranted by the facts of the case. The northern 
cardinals, who were not to the manner bom, may not 
have understood the playful ways of the Eoman popu- 
lace, or comprehended that when the crowd in the 
piazza were bawling Papa Romano volemoy they were 
only waiting to oflfer their congratulations to the new 
Pope by losing no time in wrecking his house. But in 
reply to all this it must be remembered that the election 

* ** Quia per impressionem, et quod electio non fait celebrata in loco 
tuto." 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 123 

was completed before the irruption of the populace. 
Besides, there was the still more conclusive fact of the 
perfect adhesion of the cardinals to their choice during 
three months. The rebels, however, proceeded to hold 
a Conclave, which professed to elect the Cardinal Eobert 
of Geneva Pope, by the name of Clement VII., " but in 
truth," says the conclavist, " rather erected an idol, and 
called him so." 

And thus began the great schism, which lasted thirty- 
nine years, and was only closed by the irregular election 
of an undisputed Pontiff in the person of Martin V., by 
the authority of the Council of Constance, in 1417. 

This election, or pretended election, of an Antipope 
divided all Europe, and was the cause of a long and sad 
series of evils, as those who engaged in it must have 
known that it would be. AU Italy (except the Coimt of 
Fondi and the prefect of the city, who had from the 
first joined the rebel cardinals in their conspiracy against 
Urban), all Germany, all England, and Portugal, main- 
tained their allegiance to Urban. France and Spain 
adhered to the Antipope. " And thus," says the Con- 
clavist, "followed difficulties and very many errors 
among Christian people. And what one Pope bound 
the other loosed. And hence arose legal processes, and 
deprivations, and anathematizations, to the great dis- 
grace of the Church and of Christendom. From the same 
cause it came to pass that the same benefice often was 
given to two persons, and the matter was frequently 
settled by force of arms, whence followed the deaths of 
many men, the depopulation of the coimtry, and the 
destruction of many. Hence, too, followed the great 



124 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

war between the Duke of Burgundy and him of Liege, 
in which, as it is said, thirty thousand men perished.'' 

The very important results that followed from the 
circumstances of this Conclaye, and the singularity of 
them, have seemed to afford a reason for relating the 
details of it at greater length than can be afforded to the 
story of many of them. But the history of this Con- 
clave of Urban VI., and of the terrible results of it, will 
be worth remembering when we come to the descrip- 
tion of the minute and elaborate precautions and cere- 
monies, the main object of which has been to render any, 
even the smallest, irregularity in the action of the Con- 
claves impossible. 

The whole tone and style of the proceedings which 
have been related contrasts amusingly with the more 
staid and solemn, but not a whit more sincere or honest, 
doings of the Conclaves of later times. And there is a 
flavour of masterftd directness and reckless violence 
mingled with a sort of na'fve semi-barbarian simplicity, 
which, as characteristic of the times, has suggested the 
heading of this book of my story. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CondayeB during the Period of the Schism. — Coonoil of Pisa. — ^Abnor- 
mal and Irregular State of Things in the Church. — Council of Con- 
stance. — Decrees which put an end to the Schism, by the Election 
of Martin Y. — ^Difficulties arising from the Action of the Council 
of Constance. — ^Their Effect as regarding Modem Theories of In- 
fallibility. 

The notices that have been preserved of the Conclayes 
which elected the Popes during the period of the schism 
— ^firom the election of Urban VI., that is to say, in 1378, 
to that of Martin V., in 1417 — contribute nothing of 
special interest to a history of the Conclaves. The story 
of the Church, indeed, during those disastrous years is 
ftdl enough of interest. But it would require the 
entirety of a volume as large as the present to give a 
detailed and intelligible account of the stniggles, plottings, 
and counter-plottings, of the rival Popes, of whom there 
were at one time three in the field. For the Council of 
Pisa, 1409 (the legitimacy of which is itself disputed, on 
the ground that no Pope summoned or presided over it), 
deposed, or pretended to depose, both Gregory XII. and 
the Antipope, Benedict XIII., and elected Alexander V. 
But neither Ghregory nor Benedict would consider them- 
selves to be deposed, though the former renewed the 
offer which he had before made as regarded Benedict, 
to resign the Papacy if both his rivals would do the 



i 



126 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

same. The cardinals who elected his predecessor, Inno- 
cent VII., in 1404, had in Conclave all sworn, each for 
himself, that if elected Pope he would pledge himself to 
resign if the Antipope would do so also. But Innocent 
no sooner was elected than he dispensed all the cardinals, 
himself included, from the observance of the vow ! — a 
notable instance of the futility of any attempt to bind a 
Pope by any moral sanction. In the Conclave which 
elected Gregory XII. the same oath was taken by all 
the cardinals, and one cannot but feel astonishment that 
they should have had the face, each in presence of his 
fellow, to go through such a solemn farce so shortly 
after the experience they had had of the eflBlcacy of 
the oath in question, and astonishment still greater at 
the simplicity of those, if such there were, who could 
imagine that they were binding an infallible being, 
armed with such authority as a Pope wields ! 

Gregory XII. did not, indeed, forthwith repudiate his 
oath, as Innocent did. On the contrary, he continued 
to protest his readiness to abdicate if his rival would do 
so too. But the promise was one which it was very 
safe to make. He promised also on oath in Conclave to 
create no more cardinals than such as should be sufficient 
to keep hi8 College of Cardinals as numerous as that of 
the Antipope. But as soon as ever it became convenient 
to him to do so he violated his oath, declaring that he 
was not guilty of any perjury because circumstances had 
changed since he made the promise. 

Alexander V., the Pope elected by the self-constituted 
Council of Pisa, died in 1410, after a reign of only ten 
months and eight days. His name appears in the official 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 127 

lists of the Popes, and he is recognised by the Church as 
having been such ; — strangely enough ! For it follows 
that there were two legitimate Popes (beside the Anti- 
pope) at one and the same time. The list published in 
the official Pontifical Calendar declares Ghregory XII. to 
have resigned in 1409, the date of his deposition by the 
Council of Pisa ; and places the election of Alexander in 
the same year, avoiding the appearance of two contem- 
porary Popes on the face of the list. But in the list of 
the Popes given in the ^^Eelazione della Corte di Eoma," 
by the CavaUere Lunadoro — a useftd little work recog- 
nised by the ecclesiastical authorities, and reprinted 
again and again in Home — ^the following is the state- 
ment made respecting Gregory XII. : " His Pontificate, 
according to the opinion of those who think that it 
terminated in the fifteenth session of the Council of Pisa, 
lasted two years, six months, and four days; and 
according to the opinion^of such as prolong his reign till 
the fourteenth session of the Coimcil of Constance, at 
which time Ghregory solemnly renoimced the Papacy, it 
lasted eight years, seven months, and three days." And 
in truth the resignation of Gregory did not take place 
till he sent it by his plenipotentiary, Carlo Malatesta, to 
the Coimcil of Constance, at the fourteenth session of 
that body on the 14th^of July, 1415. And during all 
the time from the election of Alexander by the self- 
created Council of Pisa, in 1409, to the 14th July, 1415, 
there were two Popes, neither of whom has the Church 
agreed to consider spurious and illegitimate. For 
though Alexander V., the first creation of the rebellious 
and schismatic cardinals, died at Bologna ten months 



128 THE PAPAL COKGLAYES. 

after his creation, another Pope, Giovanni XXIII., was 
forthwith created by them in that city, in the person of 
Baldassare Coscia. The Chnrch considers both these 
Popes, Alexander V. and Giovanni XXIII., to be 
gennine. But it is difficult to understand the theory 
on which it does so. For they were the creations of 
cardinals who had created an Antipope, or of cardinals 
who had been themselves created by an Antipope. The 
Council of Constance, which had been itself summoned 
by a Pope, John XXIII., who had been created by 
seceding cardinals in opposition to an accepted and 
recognised Pope contemporaneously reigning, Gregory 
XIL, and the authority of which, as summoned by a 
Pope so created, had been expressly repudiated and 
denied by Gregory, ordained that both Gregory and 
John should be deposed and a new Pope elected. This 
election was made in a wholly novel and abnormal 
manner. It was decreed by the Council that a Pope 
should be elected by a specially constituted body, 
consisting, firstly, oiF the cardinals of the College of 
Gregory XII. ; secondly, of those created by his rivals 
John XXIII. and his predecessor Alexander V.; thirdly, 
of those created by the Antipope Benedict XIII. ; and 
fourthly, by thirty other prelates, six for each of the 
five nations which took part in the Council. 

Such an election involved, it will be seen, nothing less 
than a new departure for the Church. All continuity 
with the traditional past is wholly and definitely severed. 
And though, Martin having been elected, it was thought 
fit to return with all possible accuracy into the old 
grooves, and to speak and act as though no continuity 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 129 

had been broken, nothing can be more indisputable 
than that the legitimacy of the whole scheme and con- 
stitution of ecclesiastical government thenceforward 
reposed aad reposes on the innate authority of a self- 
constituted* General Council. No better ground accord- 
ing to the veritable nature of things and of a constituted 
Church can be imagined. But various difficulties, then 
unforeseen, have arisen from the course pursued by 
that Council at Constance in the fifteenth century, and 
ultimately, therefore, from the disastrous action of those 
schismatic cardinals who rebelled against Urban VI., 
because he menaced them with the suppression of their 
simoniacal gains, luxurious habits, and loose lives. 
From that rebellion, and from the series of events to 
which it directly led, arose a condition of things, the 
only outlet from which, as found by the Council of 
Constance, has made it exceedingly difficult for the 
defenders of the Eoman Curia to support in its 
continual encroachments the ever-growing and advanc- 
ing theory of papal infallibility. Could the Council 
have foreseen to what a length these claims of infalli- 
bility would one day rise, they might have managed 
better. The better course — ^the only possible consistent 
course — ^would have been to declare the cardinals who 
rebelled against Urban VI. schismatic, and all their 

* Self-constituted, inasmnch as (Gregory absolutely refused to recog- 
nise tlie Council as summoned by Jobn XXTTT. — and not unreasonably, 
for John could be deemed to be Pope only by a seceding portion of 
cardinals and of Christendom. But Gregory did not refuse to recognise 
and submit to the Council, considered, not as summoned by John, but as 
a spontaneous meeting of the bishops of the XJniyersal Church. As ix> 
the summoning of it by this or that lay prince, of course such summon- 
ing could impart no sort of authority to the Council in ecclesiastical eyes» 



130 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

acts null, and the Popes elected by them, Alexander V. 
and John XXIII., Antipopes, and to have placed 
Gregory XII. upon an undisputed throne. Probably it 
was out of the power of the Council to pursue any 
such course. Probably no exit from the dead-lock 
could have been found save by compromise. But the 
compromise was fetal to a theory of papal infallibility, 
which, as matters have by the action of the Coimcil 
been made to stand, not only bases the world of papal 
authority on an elephant which rests upon a tortoise, 
but takes that same elephant for the support on which 
to place the tortoise ! 

The intricate details of the vexed questions to which 
the proceedings of the Council of Constance have led, 
and of the all-important bearing of them on the con- 
temporary controversy to which the imprecedented 
pretensions and claims of the present Pontiff have 
given rise, cannot be held to belong to a story of the 
Papal Conclaves, and would lead us into fields much 
too far away from our subject. The facts of the case, 
as well as the bearing of them on the claims advanced 
in accordance with the decrees of the late Vatican 
Council, have been as succinctly as lucidly set forth in 
Mr. Gladstone's tract on " The Vatican Council and the 
Infallibility of the Pope," and may there be read by 
those who are interested in the subject. 

It is more germane to the scope of the present volume 
to point out, that all the disasters of a schism which 
divided Europe for thirty-nine years, all the heroic 
remedies applied by the Council of Constance to an 
intolerable state of things, from the violence of which 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 131 

remedies the constitution of the Church yet suflfers, and 
all the insuperable difficulties imported into the theory 
of the existence and government of the Eoman Church, 
were caused by small circumstances in that fourteenth 
century Conclave which elected Urban VI., such as it 
has been the object of all the voluminous ceremonial and 
minutely precise regulations which govern those assem- 
blies to render impossible. 



k2 



CHAPTEE V. 

Otto Colonna Pope as Martin Y. — ConolaYe for the Election of Eugenius 
rV. — Contest between Pope and Council. — ^Anecdote of the Death- 
bed of Eugenins IV. — ^Anecdotes of the Condaye that elected 
Nicholas Y. — Yiolence of the Boman Barons. — ^Prospero Colonna. — 
Cardinal Nephews. — Election of Nicholas Y. — Condition of Italy. 
— ^Failure of the Attempt to unite the Latin and Greek Churches. — 
Nicholas a Patron of the new learning. — Other Doings of Nicholas. 
— Anecdote of his Mother. — Conclaye which elected Calixtus m. — 
Cardinal Bessarion. — Conclaye which elected .^Bneas Sylyius Piooo- 
lomini as Pius n. — ^Efforts of the Cardinal of Bouen to preyent the 
Election, and to secure his own. — ^Mode of Pius n.'s Election. 

Otto Colonna, Pope Martin V., thus elected by the 
authority of the Council in the November of 1417, was 
then in soimd health, and fifty years old, and he reigned 
thirteen years and three months, not without some 
success in reducing the confused state of things in the 
Church to some degree of regularity and order. It was 
but little he could do or even attempt towards achieving 
as much for Italy, which was torn by war from end to 
end. But as has mostly been the case, the Eoman 
Colonna Pope, object of jeers* as he may have been 
elsewhere, was liked, and seems to have done well at 

• The rhymes sung under his window at Florence by the Florentine 
street boys, then as lawless, and as incapable of reyerendng aught saye 
cash, as now, are well known. 

** Papa Martino 
Non vale wa. quattrino," 

screamed the boys, imputing to the new Pope the only fault which they 
could comprehend to be such. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 133 

Eome, where, as an old contemporary diarist tells us, he 
^^kept his dominions quiet and tranquil, so that one 
could go about with gold in one's hands for a couple of 
himdred miles around Eome, and be safe by day or by 
night ; and he did great good to the city of Kome."* I 
should not have liked to make the experiment suggested. 
But the statement may be taken to indicate the general 
impression made at Rome by the pontificate of Martin V. 
He died on the 13th of February, 1431; and on the 
2nd of March, six days, it will be observed, after the 
due time, thirteen cardinals went into Conclave at Santa 
Maria sopra Minerva, and on the following day elected 
the Venetian Gabriel Condulmieri Pope as Eugenius IV. 
If Pope Martin had kept Eome quiet while he lived, 
all law seemed to have come to an end there at his 
death and during the pontificate of his successor. 
The Colonnas, the late Pope's kinsmen, seized on the 
treasure of the Church, and very nearly succeeded in 
their rebellion against Eugenius. They had to be, and 
by the assistance of Florentine and Venetian troops were, 
put down ; and the Pope laimched against them the first 
of those excommunications of which he had to make 
such frequent use in the course of his pontificate of all 
but sixteen years, for the whole course of it was one 
continual struggle with opponents and rival authorities 
of all kinds. The history of his reign, a very interesting 
one, cannot be entered on here. And it must suffice to 
remark that the story goes to show that the Church had 
learned nothing of moderation, of prudence, or of the 
duty of preferring the welfare of Christendom to the 

* Diario del Cercmoniere Paolo Benedetto Nicolai. 



134 THE PAPAL O0KGLATE8. 

most paltry piiyate interests, by the tenible misfortunes 
throngh which it had so recently passed. Anewschism, 
though, as it chanced, a less important one than the last^ 
was created. Pope and Council were again opposed to 
each other, the Pontiff dissolving the Council by Bull, 
and the Coundl deposing the Pontiff! Neyertheless, 
Eugenius did contriye to liye and die as Pope, exclaim- 
ing, we are told, on his death-bed, as weU he might, 
"Ah, Gabriel! How much better for thee it would 
haye been, instead of being either cardinal or Pope, to 
live and die in thy cloister,* occupied with the exercises 
of the monastic rule ! '' 

Eugenius lY. died on the 28th February, 1447 ; and 
on the 4th of March their Eminences went into Con- 
clave-— too soon this time, as on the last occasion the 
Conclave had been deferred too long, possibly in 
deference to words which fell from the dying Pope in 
his last address to the cardinals whom he had assembled 
around his bed. " Further," he concluded, after many 
exhortations to unity and concord, " I earnestly beg of you 
all that, as soon as I shall have passed from this life, you 
lose no time in matters of pompous exequies." It may 
have been considered that these words constituted a dis- 
pensation from the exact observance of the Gregorian 
rule, which required a lapse of nine days between the 
death of a Pope and the entrance of the cardinals into 
Conclave. Eugenius IV. left a College consisting of 
twenty-foiur cardinals, all save one created by himself, 
of whom eighteen (all who were then present in Bome) 

* He had bebnged to fhe congregation of Oelestines of St. Giorgio, in 
Alga, at Yenice. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 135 

entered into Conclave, in the dormitory of the monks 
of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, much against the will of 
that body, who maintained that the Vatican was the 
proper place to hold the Conclave in. It is recorded 
that on this occasion the cells for the cardinals were not 
constructed; as was usual, of wood, but of green or 
violet-coloured cloth, save only that of the Cardinal of 
Bologna, who gave especial orders that his cell should 
be of white material — "perhaps," says slily the con- 
clavist who has written an extant account of this Con- 
clave, "because his mind was neither more white nor 
more black than that of the others." 

The first incident in this Conclave was an irruption 
of several of the Roman barons, who pretended the right 
of taking part in — or perhaps the word used may signify 
only being present at — ^the election. But the cardinals 
would not submit to this, and succeeded in getting rid 
of the intruders, the most obstinate of whom was the 
aged Gio Baptista Savelli, who furiously protested that 
he had a right to be there by virtue of a special papal 
grant. What the old blockhead had got in his thick 
baron's head was the privilege granted to his family by 
Gregory X. to hold the hereditary position of keepers 
of the Conclaves, which duty required him to be on the 
outside and not on the inside of the door ! 

When the cardinals went into Conclave, the universal 
opinion was that Prospero Colonna would be elected. 
He must have been the Dean of the Sacred College, 
for it is recorded that all the cardinals save one were 
of the creation of Eugenius IV. ; and Colonna must have 
been that one — a creation of his kinsman, Martin Y. — ^for 



136 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

he waa certainly a cardinal at the time of the election of 
Eugenius, and was then thought to have a good chance 
of the Papacy. He had at the first scrutiny ten votes — 
twelve, it will be observed, being needed to elect, i.e. 
two-thirds of eighteen — ^the other eight being given 
to the Cardinal of Fermo. The next day Prospero 
Colonna still held his ten votes, though many attempts 
were made on the part of the other eight to entice away 
from him some of his ten, by putting forward a variety 
of other candidates, several even who were not cardinals, 
as the Archbishops of Benevento and of Florence, and 
others. Prospero Colonna^s ten supporters, however, 
stood firm, and nothing was done on that second day. 

There were reasons, indeed, for electing Colonna, but 
they were reasons of a kind which indicate the fatal con- 
sequences which have fallen upon the Church from the 
universal sovereignty of its head— reasons of European 
policy, and in no wise reasons having any regard to his 
fitness as a supreme bishop of souls, nor even to a right 
recommending him as a governor of Rome. He was 
acceptable to the French party in the Conclave, and was 
deemed more likely than any of his colleagues to com- 
mand the means of compelling the obedience of the 
different Italian States. But, Colonna as he was, he 
was not the favourite candidate of the Roman people. 
They wished the Cardinal of Capua to be Pope, perhaps 
from having had too much experience of Colonna's high- 
handed and lawless violence. On the third day, the 
6th of March, the steady phalanx of Colonna^s ten sup- 
porters still continued imassailable ; and on that day, 
after the first of the two scrutinies that take place daily. 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAT. 137 

the Cardinal of Fermo, seeing matters thus at a dead 
lock, and that his own eight voices could do nothing for 
him, and thinking that the next best thing to getting 
the tiara for himself was to be the conspicuous means of 
obtaining it for another, rose and addressed the meeting. 

"Why," exclaimed he, " are we thus losing time, see- 
ing that there is no greater danger to the Church than 
a long delay in the election of a Pontiff! The city of 
Bome is divided into parties ! The King of Aragon is 
close at hand on the sea with an army ! Duke Amadeus 
of Savoy is in opposition to us ! The Count Francis is 
our enemy I Suffering, then, from aU these evils, why 
do we not rouse ourselves to give to the Church of Christ 
a pastor and a guide ? Here is that angel of God, the 
Cardinal Prospero Colonna, mild as a lamb — mansueto 
affnello—^whj do we not elect him Pope? He has 
abeady ten votes. He needs only two more!* Why 
do not some of you rise and give him these two ? If 
only one will do so, the thing is done; for then a 
twelfth is sure to follow ! " 

But not a man moved ! It was a trying moment, for 
any one of the eight, acceding to Fermo's call, might 
have had, in the eyes of Colonna, the merit of giving 
him the Papacy. 

" Mansueto agnello ! " — a mild lambkin ! — ^his Emi- 
nence of Fermo had called him ! And of course that was 
a characteristic that always recommended itself very 

* It seems, therefore, that the Cardinal of Fermo, although yoted for 
himself at the first scrutiny by eight cardinals, must haye been him- 
self one of Colonna's original ten supporters. Otherwise he could not 
have said that Colonna needed two more votes, seeing that he, Fermo, 
would have been the eleventh, and only twelve were needed. 



138 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

strongly to those who were setting over themselves an 
indefeasible and despotic master. But probably some of 
those present may have called to mind that this mild 
lambkjii was the man who, at the death of Martin Y., 
had, in company with two of his lawless kinsmen barons, 
seized on the papal treasure chest and carried it off; and 
had had to be excommunicated for the deed by Eugenius 
lY., till, on disgorging the plunder, the sentence was 
removed. Prospero Colonna, in fact, belonged to a 
category of cardinals from which more Popes were chosen 
in the subsequent centuries than had hitherto been the 
case — ^the category of "cardinal nephews." The evil 
wrought by them in and to the Church has been well- 
nigh fatal to it ; and it continued to increase till increas- 
ing danger warned the Pontiffs to abstain. The worst 
cardinals, providing, of course, the material for the worst 
Popes, have been for the most part cardinal nephews, 
the temptation to the creation of such having been 
rendered too great to be resisted by the exorbitant great- 
ness of the power, dignity, and wealth attributed to the 
members of the Sacred College. The value of these 
great " prizes " was so enormous, that the *^hat" became 
an object of ambition to princes, and it was a primary 
object with a long series of Popes to bestow it on their 
kinsmen. If among these there was none fitted by 
character, education, and antecedents for the position, 
the dispensing power was called into requisition, and the 
Pope's relative, however unfit in all these respects, be- 
came one of the princes of the Church. Of course pre- 
cedents once made were eagerly quoted, and it became 
an understood thing that a "prince of the Church" was 



KOBLB BOTS AT PLAT. 13& 

not to be expected to have the virtues or professional 
character of a private in the ranks. And thus the insti- 
tution went from bad to worse ; the invention of the 
Sacred College having been, on the whole, perhaps, the 
most fertile source of corruption in the Church, especially 
of the Church as it has existed in Bome. 

This Prospero Colonna had been a cardinal nephew, 
and^e Church very narrowly escaped having him for a 
Pope! ' 

The speech of the Cardinal of Fermo took the Con- 
clave by surprise, and all remained mute and motionless 
and watchfully expectant. Then, after a pause, the 
Cardinal of Bologna rose, and was on the point of giving 
Colonna the eleventh vote, which the Cardinal of Fermo 
had said would surely draw after it the twelfth, when the 
Cardinal of Taranto brought him to pause. 

*^Be not in so great a hurry," he said, *^to do so 
great a thing ! Pause a little ! The matter we have 
before us is a very weighty one ; nor will a short delay 
matter, so that the business be well done ! Think what 
you are doing ! We are not here to choose the ruler of 
a town, but one who is to rule the entire world — one, 
remember, who is to bind and to loosen, to open and to 
shut ; one, in a word, who is to be a God on earth ! 
Much consideration is necessary; and he who sees 
quickly sees little ! " 

Hereupon the Cardinal of Aquileia cried out in anger, 

" Cardinal of Taranto,* all that you have said, and 

• Not Otranto, as has been somotimes written. The see of Otranto 
was not at tliat time, or at any other, so for as I know, occupied by a 
cardinal. 



140 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

all that you liave done, has been said and done with 
the sole object of preventing the election of Cardinal 
Colonna, and forcing one of your own choice I Say at 
once, whom do you wish to see elected ? " 

This was an exceedingly impolitic outburst of temper, 
such as, it is safe to say, no member of any of the Con- 
claves of the following century, when policy had become 
more subtle, dissimulation finer, and manners more 
urbane, would have been guilty of. There is nothing 
which an Italian more sorely dislikes and resents than 
an attempt to put a pressure on him by outspoken plain- 
ness of language, which tries to break through the cob- 
webs of conventional surface smoothness, and fiction. 
The frankness which among northern people may often 
engage sympathy and disarm opposition is sure to be 
deemed rustic and ill-mannered violence by the Italians, 
and resisted accordingly. And the Cardinal of Aquileia 
had soon cause to perceive that he had made a mistake. 

Instead of waiting for the Cardinal of Taranto, who 
had been addressed, to reply, the Cardinal of Bologna 
struck in dexterously : " And I follow the lead of the 
Cardinal of Aquileia " (who had, of course, never meant 
to lead in any such direction) ; " I am ready to give my 
vote for any one, whom you" (i.e. the Cardinal of 
Taranto) " may select." " Then," said Taranto, " I give 
my vote for you ! " The Cardinal of Aquileia, thus 
caught, did not care to back out from the position in 
which he had placed himself, but seconded the nomina- 
tion of the Cardinal of Bologna. Thereupon one after 
another followed till the Cardinal Marino gave the 
eleventh vote ; and then, after a pause, the Cardinal 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 141 

San Sisto rose and added, "And I, Thomas" (the 
name of the Cardinal of Bologna was Tommaso di 
Sarzana) "make you Pope this day, which precisely 
happens to be the Vigil of St. Thomas ! " ♦ Thus the 
election was made; and once again was verified the 
Boman saying, that he who goes into Conclave a Pope 
(ie. one whom everybody expects will be elected) 
comes out of it a simple cardinal, as was on this 
occasion the case with the Cardinal Prospero Colonna. 

An election would not have been made in this direct, 
open, caxds-upon-the-table fashion a hundred years 
later ; and the whole style and tone of the proceedings 
show them to belong to the period which has been 
characterized by the heading given to this book. 

This election was one of the few to which those who 
maintain that in these Conclaves the unwisdom of men 
and their purposes^ are overruled by the special provi- 
dence of God and the operation of the Holy Ghost, may 
point in exemplification of their contention. It was 
intended that Colonna should, and everybody supposed 
that he would have been elected ; and he would, doubt- 
less, have made a very bad Pope. On the other hand, 
Thomas of Sarzana, who was elected as Nicholas V., 
against the original will of the majority, apparently by 
a sort of accident, and to the surprise of all parties, 
turned out one of the best Popes who ever sat on the 
Papal throne. 

Italy, and especially the Church, was in a dreadful 
state when Nicholas became Pope. The schism en- 

• Not St. Thomas the Apostle, but St. Thomas Aqninas, the 6th of 
Haich. 



142 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

gendered by the CouBcil of B^e was still causing 
mischieyoiis divisions. The union of the Latin and 
Greek Churches, so much wished for, seemed farther 
than ever from accomplishment. Italy was desolated 
from end to end by factions and the lawless troops 
which supported them. The Boman barons had 
made themselves the despotic tyrants of the cities 
and provinces which had been entrusted to their rule, 
BB vice-regents for the Church, and were in rebellion 
against the Pontiff. Venetians, Genoese, and Floren- 
tines were all in arms. The Holy See was oppressed 
by debt. Nicholas applied himself from the first day of 
his pontificate to meet this sea of troubles with energy, 
zeal, industry, and a degree of enlightenment in advance 
of his age. In the course of the eight years of his * 
reign he extinguished the schism growing out of the 
Bale Council ; endeavoured much, and accomplished 
somewhat, towards composing the differences which 
were lacerating Europe ; and had the infinite pleasure 
of leaving Italy at peace. He did not, as we all know, 
succeed in uniting the Latin and Greek Churches. He 
had warned the last Constantino that the result of 
continued schism would be the final fall of the Eastern 
Empire, and he saw his prophecy verified in 1453. It 
would be difficult, perhaps, to show that this event 
would have been avoided by union of the Churches ; 
and the accomplishment of his prophecy was anything 
but a source of satisfaction to the Pontiff. The Turk 
was at last the master of the Eastern world, and the 
fact was lamented by all the Christian world with a 
genuineness of grief which men do not often feel for 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAT. 143 

public disasters. But Kioholas was among the most 
active in turning to the best account the circumstances 
that followed from the misfortxme. He received with 
open arms and was largely beneficent to the crowd of 
acholars and men of learning and letters who were 
driven by the Turkish conqueror to seek refuge in 
Western Europe, and more especially in Italy. He 
eagerly availed himself of the occasion to acquire manu- 
scripts of the ancient writers ; and the modem world, 
which profits by that revival of learning which became 
then or never possible, may thank Nicholas for his 
enlightened activity. He was a great builder and 
founder of universities. He largely improved that of 
Bologna, and founded those of Treves, Barcellona, and 
• Glasgow, and conferred many privileges on that of 
Cambridge. He was the founder of the Vatican library ; 
and the Medicean library at Florence, if due to the 
money of the Medici, was planned and carried out in 
accordance with the suggestions of Nicholas. He built 
the palace at the Lateran, and was the first of the long 
series of Popes to whom the rebuilding of St. Peter's is 
due, who conceived that noble ambition. He rebuilt 
the Milvian bridge, and largely improved many parts of 
Bome. Sarzana, Viterbo, Fabriano, Civita Vecchia, 
Orvieto, Spoleto, were all enriched by him with new and 
useful buildings. He was not chargeable with any 
tendency to nepotism ; and aji interesting anecdote has 
been preserved of a visit paid to him in Eome by his 
aged mother, who had come up from far-away little 
Sarzana, among the Tuscan Apennines, to see her two 
sons, one the Pope and the other a cardinal of the 



144 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

Church. The poor old woman thought it necessary to 
present herself to his Holiness in very gorgeous attire, 
resplendent with gems and brilliant colours. But the 
Pope, as soon as ever he saw her, left the room, desiring 
his chaplain to tell the stranger that it was a mistake ; 
that bedizened lady could not be his mother, and was, 
indeed, hardly a fitting visitor for the Apostolic palace. 
"He well remembered," he said, "his dear mother, who 
was a very plain and decent body, and whom he would 
fain see again, but had no desire to speak to the 
magnificent lady who had entered his room ! " The old 
lady took the hint, returned in her own homely dress, 
and was received with open arms. 

Fifteen cardinals entered into Conclave at the due 
time after the death of Nicholas, and on the fourtli or 
fifth day elected, to the general surprise, the Spanish 
Cardinal Alfonso Borgia, by the name of Calixtus III. 
The purpose of the majority of the cardinals was to 
elect the learned Bessarion, who had come from Con- 
stantinople at the time Eugenius IV. was endeavouring 
to effect the union of the Eastern and Western Churches* 
He was unquestionably the man whom attainments and 
character marked as the fittest man in the Sacred 
College for the papacy. And had the cardinals held 
firmly to their first purpose, they would have spared 
the Church the indelible shame of having for ever on 
her list of Pontiffs Alexander VI., the second Borgia 
Pope ! But the Cardinal of Avignon, who hoped that 
he himself would be elected, succeeded in arousing the 
jealousy and the bigotry of his colleagues by a violent 
speech, in which he dwelt upon the disgrace which it 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 145 

would be to the Latin Churcli to confess, by putting a 
Greek on the Papal throne, that there was no man 
among themselves fitted for the Papacy ; and, further, 
threw doubts upon the genuineness of Bessarion's " con- 
version," and on the orthodoxy, in any case, of a 
" Greek neophyte." The cardinals, however, would not 
have his Eminence of Avignon, and elected Borgia as a 
compromise.* This Conclave, as has been said, was 
held in the Vatican ; and from this time the Conclaves 
were held there uninterruptedly until the present 
century. 

Calixtus III. (ob. 1458) reigned three years and three 
months ; and on the due day after his death, on the 16th 
of August, eighteen cardinals went into Conclave, and 
on the third day elected -ZEneas Sylvius Piccolomini of 
Siena. In this case again the believers in the super- 
vision of a special providence, controlling the actions of 
the electors, may point to this election as a notable in- 
stance of the truth of their theory. Few Conclaves have 
been more disgracefully conducted than was this, and 
few have concluded by making a better choice among 
the persons before them. After the first unsuccessful 
scrutiny the cardinals went to dinner, and after dinner 
there were, we are told, many meetings of groups and 
knots of cardinals, each intriguing in favour of different 
candidates, in which, as the chronicler of the Conclave 
says, " they hunted the Papacy either for themselves or 

* This was the first election made in the manner which was subso* 
quently recognised as one of three ways in which a Pope may be elected, 
and called an election ** per accossnm," the manner of which will be 
explained when wo come to speak of the processes and ceremonial of the 
Conclaye. 



146 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

for their friends, and spared not either prayers, promises, 
or threats. And some there were who, without any 
sense of shame or modesty, made speeches about them- 
selves, and pointed out their own fitness for the Papacy; 
as did the Cardinal of Eouen, Barbo, Cardinal of Santa 
Maria Nuova, and Castelli, Cardinal of Pavia. 

The Cardinal of Eouen seems to have been the chief 
of these audaciously simoniacal self-praisers, and was 
thought, when the cardinals went into Conclave, to be 
the most likely candidate. Though .tineas Sylvius of 
Siena took no steps to obtain the tiara for himself, say- 
ing at the opening of the Conclave, " It is Gbd who 
appoints to the Papacy, not men I " his Eminence of 
Eouen perceived that he was his most dangerous rival. 
The writer of the story of this Conclave which I have 
before me declares that the Cardinal of Siena himself 
(-tineas Sylvius) did not disdain to recommend his own 
merits to the electors, despite what he had said. But 
other writers do not so represent the matter. And the 
writer in question seems to contradict himself in this 
respect, for he says presently that the Cardinal of Eouen 
feared the silence of the Cardinal of Siena more than 
he did all the much talking of the others. So "he kept 
calling aside now one and now another, saying to them, 
^ What can you want of this -ZEneas ? Why do you 
think him worthy of the Papacy ? Would you elect for 
Pontiff a gouty old man, as poor as Job ! How can he, 
infirm and in poverty, support or succour the Church ? 
But recently he has returned from Germany ! ' " (Pic- 
colomini had nearly passed his life in various missions 
and embassies entrusted to him by the last and previous 



NOBLE BOTS AT PLAT. 147 

Topes, and having had no time to care for his own for- 
tunes, was in truth a very poor man.) " ^ How do we 
know that he will not transfer thither the Papal court ! 
What literature has he? Shall we put a poet on the 
seat of St. Peter ? ^ " (Mieas Sylvius had that defect.) 
" * Shall we govern the Church by the statutes and laws 
of the Gentiles ? ' " (Alluding to Piccolomini's reputed 
acquaintance with the ancient literature.) ..." ^Know, 
then, that I am not unworthy of consideration, and am 
no fool ; nor am I imworthy of the Papacy in point of 
learning.^ " (-ffineas Sylvius, it may be remarked, was 
one of the most distinguished scholars of his day.) " * I 
come of royal race, and am in want neither of Mends, 
nor power, nor wealth, by which means it will be in my 
power to be of service to the poor Church. I hold many 
benefices, which, when on my elevation to the Papacy I 
give them up, will be divided among you.' " He con- 
tinued, says the chronicler, to insist with many en- 
treaties, mingled with threats. He went on to observe 
further, with an unblushing frankness which is the most 
amusingly audacious touch in his whole discourse, that 
should any one maintain that he could not fitly aspire 
to the Papacy by reason of the simony which he had 
practised, seeing that he had bought all the benefices he 
held, he would not deny that for the past he had been 
smirched by that foul stain, but that he promised and 
swore that for the future he would keep his hand clear 
of all such wickedness ! And this while he was in the 
act of committing the most heinous simony conceivable 
by the persons he was addressing! As it appeared, 
howevCT, that he failed to prevail on a sufficient number 

l2 



148 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

of the electors to secure his election, the knot of sup- 
porters who were bent on making him Pope, finding it 
very difficult to meet for the concocting of their ulterior 
plans in any comer of the space enclosed for the Con- 
clave (very far inferior in accommodation of all sorts to 
that provided in later times) where they would be safe 
from the danger of interruption, betook themselves to a 
certain inconveniently small and otherwise disagreeable 
but sufficiently remote and private apartment. There 
all the conspirators mutually bound themselves by oath, 
and the would-be Pope promised to each benefices and 
offices and appointments in the provinces ! " And a 
very fitting place it was," concludes the narrator, ** for 
the election of such a Pope, seeing conventions and 
bargains so base and so foul could not have been pre- 
pared and accepted in a spot more adapted to them ! '^ 

This notable meeting took place at midnight, but 
before the morning the fact that it had taken place and 
the general nature of the bargains made at it had be- 
come known to all in the Conclave. One of his friends 
came to the Cardinal of Siena at a very early hour, and 
warned him that the Pope was as good as made, and 
counselled him to go at once and offer his vote and 
interest to the French Cardinal (Eouen). But JEaeas 
not only absolutely refused, with the greatest disdain, to 
do anything towards the election of such a man, but 
spoke so forcibly that he induced the friend who had 
come to counsel him to abandon his own intention. He 
went to several others of the midnight conspirators, and 
by the sheer force of his eloquence made them ashamed 
of their promises, and determined them to break them. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 149 

The main arguments he used were the exceedingly bad 
character of the French Cardinal, and the danger that 
he might again remove the seat of the Holy See to 
France, and fill the Sacred College with Frenchmen, so 
that it might become impossible that it should ever 
return to Italy. 

At the scrutiny of that morning it so chanced that 
the Cardinal de Eouen was one of those scrutators who 
received the votes at the altar. His agitation was ex- 
cessive ; and when the Cardinal of Siena, whom he knew 
to be his most dangerous rival, stepped up to the altar to 
put the paper containing his vote into the chalice, he 
lost all sense of dignity or decorum, and was mean 
enough to say, as his rival passed him, " -Sneas, have 
compassion on me ! Be kind to me ! Do not forget 
me ! '' " Words,^^ says the chronicler, "truly rash and 
inconsiderate, specially as they were spoken when the 
vote that had been written could no longer be changed. 
But his longing blinded him and made him lose his 
head." " What ! " replied Piccolomini, " appeal to a 
worm like me ! " When the votes had been counted — 
cv^ry name that he was compelled to utter being a 
dagger thrust in the heart of his Eminence of Eouen — 
it was found that Piccolomini had nine votes and the 
French Cardinal only three ! The blow was a terrible 
one. But nothing was yet lost or won; for twelve votes 
were needed to make the election, and the Cardinal of 
Eouen and his supporters were by no means willing 
to despair. Unless at least three of their own friends 
deserted them Piccolomini could not be elected. 

Then conmienced a sitting to see whether an election 



160 THE PAPAL C0KCLAYE8. 

could be made, as in the last Conclave, by accession. 
The pause for this purpose is ordinarily occupied by 
busy talk and negotiations, but upon this occasion the 
tension appears to have been too great to admit of this. 
" They all sat/' says the narrator of the scene, evidently 
an eye-witness, and in all probability a conclavist, " pale 
and silent, in a sort of amazement, and as if beside them- 
selves. No one of them dared to speak or to open his 
mouth, or so much as to stir a finger, or any other part 
of the person save the eyes, which rolled around, now on 
this side of the meeting, now on that. The dead silence 
was wonderful. Wonderftd, too, was the aspect and 
appearance of all of them as they sat like so many statues, 
not a sound or a movement to be heard; and so they 
remained for a while, the juniors in the College waiting 
for the seniors to begin their work of the accessus. At 
length Eoderigo, the Vice-Chancellor (he who afterwards 
became Alexander VI.), rose and said, * I join the party 
of -^neas ! ' The word stabbed the Cardinal of Eouen to 
the heart to such a degree that he was like one dead. 
Then a second silence fell upon the assembly, while each 
looked in his neighbour's face with expressions produced 
by the conviction that Piccolomini was already as good 
as Pope. Then the Cardinal of San Sisto and another 
rose, and, making an excuse for leaving the room, went 
out, in the hope of avoiding instant defeat by breaking 
up the assembly, but finding that no man followed them, 
they shortly returned to their seats. Then James, Car- 
dinal of Santa Anastasia, got up and said ^ I too accede 
to the Cardinal of Siena.' (This, it will be observed, was 
the eleventh vote given for Piccolomini. One more only 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 151 

was needed to make the required majority of two-thirds 
of the Conclave.) Again a thrill of agitation ran through 
the whole assembly I They seemed like men in a maze 
and without power of speech I Then, at length, the Car- 
dinal Prospero Colonna (he who had once so very nearly 
been made Pope himself) rose, and promising himself the 
glory of giving the Papacy, was about to record his vote. 
Pausing, however, a moment in order to do so with 
becoming gravity, he was at that moment seized by the 
cardinals of Nice and Eouen, one on each side of him, 
and violently reproached by them with the intention of 
giving his vote to the Cardinal of Siena ; but when they 
found that they could not divert him from his purpose, 
they strove to drag him from his place by main force,* 
and one taking him by the right arm and one by the left 
they struggled to force him out of the assembly. But 
in the midst of all this, Colonna, who, although he had 
at the first scrutiny given his vote to his Eminence of 
Bouen, was an old friend of JEneas Sylvius, turning his 
head towards the other cardinals, cried aloud, ^And I 
accede to the Cardinal of Siena, and thus make him 
Pope I ' " 

The deed was done, and neither persuasion, plotting, 
intrigue, or violence could thenceforth undo it ! Suddenly 
the losing party fell back into their seats as if paralyzed. 
For a minute another dead silence and stillness fell upon 
the assembly, and then all with a sudden rush threw 
themselves at the feet of the new Pontiff, and the usual 
confirmation of the election and adoration followed. 

But the Cardinal Bessarion thought fit to make a 

* '* Si Bforzarono cayarlo k Tiya foiza dal suo luogho.'* 



152 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

speech before the assembly separated in explanatioii of 
the part which he and those who had acted with him 
had taken. He had all through supported the Cardinal 
of Eouen, and it is odd enough that he should have done 
so considering the characters and tendencies of all the 
three men — ^himself and the two rival candidates. He 
and ^neas Sylvius were essentially book-men, scholars, 
and held high and acknowledged rank among the learned 
men of Europe. The French cardinal was a thoroughly 
vicious and depraved man of the world, notorious for his 
immoralities and scandalous simony. Are we to see in 
this the jealousy entertained by one celebrated scholar of 
another ? Did some infinitesimal question of criticism, 
or the interpretation of a greek passage, or the relative 
value of the Aristotelian and Platonic philosophies (a 
fertile source just then of learned enmities) cause hate 
between those two erudite Eminences ? " Tanteene animis 
Eniinentihus iree ! " The ground, however, on which 
Bessarion chose to motive his opposition to jEneas 
Sylvius was that the latter was afflicted by gout. " We, 
Supreme Pontiflf, rejoice in thy election, being well 
assured that it comes from God. And truly we have 
always in the past as well as now judged thee to be well 
worthy of so great an office ; and if we did not give thee 
our votes, the reason was thy not robust health. For, 
afflicted as thou art by gout, we judged that that alone 
stood in the way of thy complete fitness for the Papacy, 
seeing that the Church has need of an active man, and 
one who fears not the fatigues of joumeyings and dangers 
which threaten us from the Turk. Thou, on the other 
hand, hast need of repose ; and this alone has moved us 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 153 

to support his Eminence of Eouen. For hadst thou been 
sound of body, there is none whom we should have 
judged preferable to thee. But since it has pleased God 
that it should be thus, it must needs please us also. The 
Lord, who has promoted thee, wiU supply the defects of 
thy feet, and will not chastise us for our ignorance. We 
adopt thee as Pope ; we elect thee as much as it lies with 
us to do, and we will serve thee faithftdly." 

Thus was completed the election of Pius II. Again, 
we may remark, after a fashion, if no purer or more 
elevated as regards motive, yet simpler, rougher, more 
direct and open than would have been the case had the 
actors in it lived a hundred years later. They were 
still boys — ^if rather naughty than noble boys — at play. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Death of Fins IL — ^Decision to hold the Gondaye in the Vatican. — 
Election of Paul 11. — ^The Handsome Pope. — ^Election of Sixtos lY. 
— "HiB Character. — ^Effect on the Ohnrch of the first menaces of Pro- 
testantism. — The aU-devoxiiing nepotism of Sixtus IV. — Peter 
Biario, his Nephew. — Sixtus dies o£ a Broken Heart. — Epigrams 
on Sixtus. — ^Interregnum after the Death of Sixtus. — Conclaye 
which elected Innocent Vm.— Anecdotes, 

Pius II. died on the 14th* of August, 14W, at Ancona, 
whither he had gone to hasten the sailing of the fleet 
which he had assembled there for the war against the 
Turks. His entry into Ancona, together with the other 
main incidents of his life, may be seen very grandly 
represented on the walls of the Piccolomini Chapel, 
generally called the library, in the cathedral of Siena, 
by the frescoes of Pinturicchio. Some of the cardinals 
had accompanied him to Ancona, and they brought the 
Pope's body to Eome, and the Conclave took place duly 
on the appointed day. It is said by the historians that 
the Conclave was not held at Ancona because it was 
difficult for many of the older cardinals to go there. 
But I do not find that any notice was taken of the fact 
that, according to the Gregorian prescription, the Con- 
clave for the election of the next Pope ought to have 
been held in the city where his predecessor died. 
There was some question between the cardinals as to 

* Some authorities say the 7th of August. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 15& 

where the Conclave should be held ; for a party among 
them alleged, that inasmuch as the castle of St. 
Angelo was held by a lieutenant of the Pope^s nephew, 
who was the governor of it, and this nephew was at a 
distance from Eome, and that they were not certain 
what his intentions might be, the Conclave could not 
be held with due independence and liberty in the 
immediate vicinity of the fortress. But those who had 
these scruples, having been assured of the perfect loyalty 
of the intentions of the governor, and another nephew 
of the Pope, a brother of the governor, and a cardinal, 
imdertaking to answer for him, the Conclave was held 
at the Vatican, and the idea of holding it in the convent 
of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which had been pro- 
posed, was abandoned. 

The Conclave was a very short and uneventful one, 
the Venetian Pietro Barbo, a nephew of Eugenius IV., 
and great nephew of Gregory XII., by his mother 
Polissena Condulmieri, having been elected, as Paul II., 
almost without opposition, by accession^ after the first 
scrutiny. One amusing incident followed, however, 
after the election, but before the Conclave broke up. 
Barbo, when asked, according to custom, by what name 
he would become Pope, said that he would be called 
Formoso — a not unprecedented name, though the one 
precedent had to be sought as far back as the ninth 
century. Now it so happened that Pietro Barbo was a 
very remarkably handsome man,* and their Eminences, 



* A contemporary chronicler says of T^itti that, ** not haying succeeded 
ifoll in literary culture, he determined to make his pontificate reputable 
by ornamental pomp, in which his majestic presence and pre-eminently 



f 



156 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Bomewhat scandalised at the proposal, and taking into 
consideration the marked accordance of the name with 
the fact, demurred, declaring that such an appellation 
would savour too much of mundane and personal vanity. 
Pietro Barbo, perhaps a little ashamed of his choice of 
appellation, made no difficulty about giving it up, but 
was unlucky enough to choose a second name which 
was also objected to. He said, well then, he would be 
called Marco. But to this it was objected that a 
Venetian choosing such a name would seem imprudently 
to declare too strong a partiality for his own nation. So 
he submitted to take a commoner appellation, and was 
enthroned as Paul II. 

But this splendid lay-figure of a Pope died after a 
reign of six years and ten months, at the comparatively 
early age of fifty-three, quite suddenly in the evening of 
a day in which he had celebrated a consistory with 
much pomp and in high spirits. It was the 18th of 
July, 1471. The suddenness of the Pope's death caused 
the number of cardinals in Eome to be smaller than it 
would otherwise probably have been, and only seven- 
teen cardinals went into Conclave at the Vatican, on 
the tenth day after Paul's death, and almost immediately 
and unanimously, after an entirely uneventful Conclave, 
elected Francesco della Eovere Pope by the name of 
Sixtus IV. 

• But if this Conclave was short and its work easily 
accomplished, few Conclaves have ever done a deed of 



tall and noble person helped liim not a little, giving him, as it did, the 
appearance of a new Aaron, venerable and reverend beyond that of any 
other Pontiff." 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 157 

more far-reaching importance in the history of the 
Papacy. 

Historians and antiquaries have been much troubled 
by doubts, which appear to be insoluble, as to the 
parentage of Francesco della Eovere, and the position in 
life of his parents. He is said, in all probability with 
good reason, to have been a poor fisher-boy, the son of 
parents following that occupation on the Ligurian coast 
at or near to Savona, on the Genoese riviera. But this, 
the sole point of similarity between him and that first 
predecessor of his, in whose seat he was so proud to 
sit, was indignantly repudiated by his biographers and 
chroniclers as soon as he had been invested with the 
fisherman's ring. It was then discovered that he was a 
scion of the old and noble house of della Eovere, and 
the illustrious bearers of that name were glad enough to 
enroll a Pope among the glories of their house. The 
matter in dispute has been the object of much learned 
research; but I do not know that any one of the 
supporters of either opinion has put forward the theory 
that both statements may well have been true, and are 
by no means incompatible. 

Let his birth, however, have been what it may, it is 
certain that during his early youth and manhood he was 
a Franciscan Mar, and the learning which enabled him 
to acquire that fame as a preacher and theologian, which 
obtained the Papacy as its reward, was obtained by con- 
vent teaching. And it cannot be denied that Sixtus, 
when he was made Pope, had the qualities, character, 
and antecedents which rendered him no unfitting 
object of the suflfrages of his colleagues of the Sacred 



i 



158 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

College, and seemed to afford a reasonable hope that he 
would be a fair Pope, as Popes were at that day. Nor, 
further, can it be denied that Francesco della Eovere, 
let his forefathers have been what tiiey might, was 
in many respects a bom ruler of men. 

Wadding, in his great history of the Order of St. 
Francis, writes of him in the following terms: "In 
truth," says the Franciscan historian, writing some 
century and a half after the death of this great Pope, 
"he appeared made by nature to govern. He was 
affable, a speaker of infinite efficacy, and quick and 
witty in reply. He was a common father, revered by 
the good, feared by the bad. With the learned he was 
erudite, with the simple forbearing. He reproved the 
faults of those guilty of them not by abuse but by 
reasoning. He was a prudent man, too, temperate in 
eating and drinking, and pleasant to look upon." Of 
course the Franciscan historian's account of the great 
Franciscan Pope must be taken with a grain — ^nay, 
with many grains — of salt. But it may be accepted as 
the truth that the fisherman's son had many of the 
qualities needed to make him a worthy wearer of the 
fisherman's ring. 

And Sixtus would have, doubtless, continued eminently 
well fitted for the Papacy if he had never been made 
Pope. With the possession of worldly power, the 
demon of worldly ambition seems to have entered his 
soul, and to have worked till it obtained entire posses- 
sion of the whole of it. Of Sixtus IV. I wrote as 
follows now nearly twenty years ago,* and I do not 

♦ "A Decade of Italian Women," London, 1859. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 159 

know that anything would be gained by attempting to 
recast what I then said. 

^^ This barefooted mendicant Mar, the vowed disciple 
of that St. Francis whom no degree of poverty would 
satisfy short of meeting his death, naked and destitute, 
on the bare earth — ^this monk sworn to the practice of an 
humility abject in the excess of its utter self-abnegation — 
was the first of a series of Popes who one after the other 
sacrificed every interest of the Church, waded mitre 
4eep in crime and bloodshed, and plunged Italy into 
war and misery, for the sake of founding a princely 
family of their name." 

It is curious to observe that generally throughout 
the pontifical history, scandalously infamous Popes and 
tolerably decent Popes, are found in bimches or series 
•of six or eight in succession — a striking proof of the 
fact that when they have been of the better sort the 
amelioration has been due to some force of circumstance 
operative firom without. Never were they worse, with 
perhaps one or two exceptions, than during the century 
which preceded the first quickly-crushed efforts of the 
Beformation in Italy — ^firom about 1450, that is to say, 
down to 1550.* Competing Protestantism then began 
to act on the Eoman Church exactly as competing 
Methodism acted on the Anglican Church three cen- 
turies later, and a series of Popes of a different sort was 
tiie result. 

But the conduct of the great family-founding Popes, 



* Paul m., whose death I have assigned as the break at which this 
book of the story of the Condayes ahcdl close, for the reasons given in 
the first chapter tiiereof, died in 1549. 



160 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

wliicli strikes us, looking at it througli the moral atmo- 
sphere of the nineteenth century, as so monstrous, wore 
a very different aspect even to the gravest censors 
among their contemporaries. The Italian historians of 
the time tell us of the " royal-mindedness " and "noble 
spirit " of this ambitious Franciscan, Pope Sixtus, in a 
tone of evident admiration. And the gross worldliness^ 
the low ambition, and the unscrupulous baseness of 
which he may fairly be accused, did not seem, even to 
Du Plessis Momai * and the French Protestant writers 
of that stamp, to be sufficient ground for denoimcing 
him and the system which produced him. Otherwise 
they would not have disgraced themselves and their 
cause by asserting that he was guilty of hideous and 
nameless atrocities, for which, as the less zealous but 
more candid Bayle t has sufficiently shown, there is no 
foundation either in fact or probability. 

The new Pope lost no time in turning the Papacy to 
the best possible account in the manner which had for 
him the greatest attractions. And it so happened that 
he was singularly well provided with the raw material 
from which the edifice of family greatness he was bent 
on raising was to be famished forth. He had no less 
than nine nephews, five of them the sons of his three 
brothers, and four the sons of his three sisters ! — a field 
for nepotism sufficiently extensive to satisfy the " high- 
spirited " ambition of even a Sixtus IV. ! But among 
all this wealth of nephews, the two sons of his eldest 
sister, Girolamo and Pietro Eiario, were distinguished 

• Du Plessis Momai, ''Myst^re d'lniquitfe," p. 555, et seq. 
t Bayle, Diet, article Sixte IV. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 161 

by him so pre-eminently that a great many contempo- 
rary writers, thinking it strange that he should prefer 
them to those of his own name, have asserted that they 
were, in fact, his sons.* Giuliano della Kovere, the 
eldest of all the nine, who received a cardinal's hat from 
his uncle, but could obtain from him no further favour, 
was, nevertheless, destined, as Pope Julius II., to become 
by fer the most important pillar of the family greatness. 
His sister's son, Peter Eiario, was, like his uncle, a 
Franciscan -f monk, and was twenty-six years old when 
the latter was elected. "Within a very few months 
ho became Bishop of Treviso, Cardinal- Archbishop of/ 
Seville, Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop of Va- ( 
lentia, and Archbishop of Florence ! From his humble 
cell, from his ascetic board, from his girdle of rope and 
woollen frock, baked yearly to destroy the vermin bred 
in its holy filth, this poverty- vowed mendicant suddenly 
became possessed of revenues so enormous, that his 
income is said to have been larger than that of all the 
other members of the Sacred College put together I 
The stories which have been J preserved of his reckless 
and unprecedented expenditure at Home would seem 
incredible, were they not corroborated by the fact that 

* Corio, the contemporary annalist of Milan, writes; <<Hobbe due 
ohe egli chiamava Nipoti. — Istoria Milaneai, p. 974. Macbiavolli 
BBkjB, ''Secundo che dascuno credeya, erano suoi figliuoH." — Storta, 
Lib. yiL 

t Those who haye had an opportunity of beconung acquainted with 
the nature of the tie which usually binds a friar to his order, and with 
the amount of feeling and sentiment frequently generated by it, wiU bo 
likely to find in the fact mentioned in the text a sufficient motive for 
the preference shown to Peter over the other nephews of Siztus. 

X "Papiensis Cardinalis," Epis. 548; but especially, "Infossunk 
Diario," p. 1144. 



162 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

he had in a very short time, besides dissipating the 
enormous wealth assigned to him, incnrred debts to the 
amonnt of sixty thousand florins. He gave a banquet 
to the French ambassador, which cost twenty thousand 
crowns, a sum equal to more than ten times the same 
nominal amoimt at the present day. "Never," says 
the Cardinal of Pavia, "has pagan antiquity seen any- 
thing like it. The whole coimtry was drained of all that 
was rare and precious, and the object of all was to make a 
display such as posterity might never be able to surpass. 
The extent of the preparations, their variety, the number 
of the dishes, the price of the viands served up, were all 
registered by inspectors, and were put into verse^ of which 
copies were profiisely circulated, not only in Bome but 
throughout Italy, and even beyond the Alps.'^ 

The diarist Infessura, in his valuable chronicle of the 
events which occurred at Eome from a.d. 1294 to a.d. 
1494, the events of the latter years pf which period are 
recorded with groat and most amusing detail, says that 
the viands on the occasion of this remarkable festival 
were gilt ! He especially notes, as a marked indication 
of reckless extravagance, that sugar was lavishly used. 
In recording another equally magnificent festival given 
by this mendicant friar to Leonora, daughter of King 
Ferrante, who passed through Eome on her way north- 
wards to be married to the Duke of Ferrara, Infessura 
tells us ♦ that this Franciscan mendicant turned cardinal 
caused the bed-chamber of the princess, and those of all 
the ladies of her court, to be furnished with certain im- 
plements, of a kind generally deemed more useful than 

• Eerum Ital, Scrip., torn, iii., pars ii, p. 1144. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 163 

ornamental, made of gold! "Look now," cries the 
diarist, as he well might, " in what things the treasure 
of the Church has to be squandered ! '' ♦ 

Such was the great Sixtus IV., the first of the Popes 
who conceived the ambition of making the imiversal 
bishopric of souls subservient to the schemes of leaving 
their kinsmen in the position of sovereign princes ! — 
an example but too readily followed by the more power- 
ful among his immediate successors, with results to Italy 
fatal, though it may be hoped not finally fatal ; but to 
the Church, if not so perceptibly and unmistakably, and 
immediately, yet probably more ultimately fatal still, 
in their far-reaching consequences. He had lived (as 
Pope) but for one object, and despair of obtaining it 
seems to have killed him. 

On the 10th of August, 1484, he " was seen at vespers 
with his hands clasped together, and very sad. The 
next day the ambassadors of the confederated Italian 
States, thinking j" to bring him news that would cheer 
and comfort him, came to him and set forth how that 
peace had been concluded in all Italy, and aU the powers 
of the League and Confederation had come to an agree- 
ment ! At which, marvelling much that this should 
have been done without him, he was amazed ; and find- 
ing, on questioning them, that he had no power to undo 
what had been done, he was smitten with great grief. 

* *< Oh ! goarda I in quale cosa bisogna che si adoperi lo tesauro della 
Chi^sa." 

f The genuineness of their thoughts upon this subject appears to me 
not a little questionable. Doubtless in addressing the Pope they pre- 
tended to tiunk that their news would be acceptable to him, but they 
must have known right well, that they were plunging daggers into his 
heart. 

M 2 



164 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

And the cause of his sorrow was, as all men deemed,, 
this : " that whereas he had lived, and lighted war in 
Italy, and spent the treasure of the Church only to 
secure the greatness of his family, he now saw that all 
had been done in vain. " So crushed, both by the first 
of these sorrows (the ruin of his hopes for his family), 
as well as by the second (the consideration of all the 
terrible ill he had done to secure that object), he was 
seized by fever, took to his bed, and said never a word; " • 
and on the evening of the 12th of August breathed his 
last. "All," continues the recorder of the Conclave 
which assembled on his death, who writes in Latin worse 
even than that of the conclavist at Urban VI.'s election 
a hundred years before, from which I quoted in a former 
chapter, " all spoke ill of him, nor was there any man to 
say a word in his favour, save a certain Franciscan friar, 
who alone watched the body during that day, despite 
the dreadful effluvium. Many verses were made against 
him, perhaps because he had always been the enemy of 
literary men, and of all who lived good lives. Here is a 
specimen." t 

It may be worth while, inasmuch as one very notable 
speciality of the Conclaves for the election of the Popes 
has always been the social condition of the city of 
Eome while the cardinals were engaged in the choice 
of a new sovereign, to give here a few notices of the 

• " Conclavi de' Pontifici," V. i. p. 119. 

f I wiU give the specimen in this note, because it is also a spedmen of 
the times, and of the feeling which the Pontificate of Sixtus had created 
among the Eomans. But I do not think it necessary to translate it. 

*< Leno, Vorax, Pathicus, Meretrix, Idolater, Adulter, 
8i Bomam yenerit, illico Croesus erit.'' 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 165 

state of things that followed the death of Sixtus, as a 
specimen of an interregnum in the fifteenth century. 

No sooner was the death of the Pope known than a 
band of young men, armed to the teeth, rushed to the 
palace of the Count Girolamo — ^the Pope's other favourite 
nephew, the brother of that Cardinal Peter, of whose 
magnificence some full account has been given — ^hoping 
to find him there. But he had not waited for the 
bursting of the storm, and the house was found deserted. 
Thereupon, with a cry of " A Colonna ! a Colonna ! " 
they proceeded to wreck the palace, destroying and 
despoiling everything, "smashing the doors and the 
marble window-frames with two-handed axes, and carry- 
ing off everything. They destroyed the greenhouse, 
pulling up the trees by the roots, so that not a door nor 
a window was left, as may be seen at the present time. 
On the same day the young men of the city, with similar 
^clamour, went into the Trastevere ; and there, finding 
near the river bank two magazines full of goods, the 
property of certain traders from Genoa, they, as is said, 
sacked them entirely. Then they entirely carried off 
two boats, the property of a citizen of Genoa, together 
with all the nautical apparatus belonging to them. Then, 
returning to the city, they similarly treated every house 
or goods that could be found belonging to any Genoese.* 
And some went to the villa of the Countess (the wife of 

• The sort of "solidarity" recognized as existing between aU the 
^citizens or natives of any one of the riyal Italian cities during the 
Middle Ages, is worthy of notice. The instance in the text is one of a 
thousand such ; and the feeling is one of the most constant and curious 
•factors among the causes of events in Italian history. The Genoese were 
deemed legitimate objects of plunder because the Pope had belonged to 
that province. 



166 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Girolamo) and carried oflf a hundred cows, and an equal 
number of goats, mules, pigs, donkeys, geese, and hens, 
which belonged to the Countess, together with an im- 
mense quantity of salt meat and Parmesan cheese and 
furniture. Then the greater part of the band broke 
open the granaries of Santa Maria Noya, and took thence 
an enormous quantity of grain, which the Pope had not 
been able to sell last year, but hoped to sell it here- 
after." The Colonnas, meantime, were engaged in re- 
covering the strongholds which Sixtus had taken from 
them. In one place the constable whom the Pope had 
placed there, together with all the garrison, were mas- 
sacred either by the sword or by being thrown from tho 
battlements of the fortress. At Cafraria, another hold 
of the Colonnas, the whole of the garrison was slain* 
The Countess escaped into Castle St. Angelo, her hus- 
band, with some of the Orsini, escaping to some other 
place of safety. Such was the state of Eome during an 
interregnum in the fifteenth century. 

On the day following the Pope's death his exequies 
were commenced at St. Peter's, but very few cardinals 
took part in them, ^^ because they were afraid of the 
Castle of St. Angelo," still in the hands of the kinsmen 
of Sixtus. At last, however, it having being agreed that 
the Castle should be given up to the cardinals, the 
Countess having got off in safety on the 25th— on the 
thirteenth day, that is, after the Pope's death — ^and both 
the Orsini and the Colonna factions having agreed to quit 
the city, and not return to it for two months after the 
new Pope should have been elected, the cardinals, to the 
number of twenty-five, three only of the entire College- 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 167 

being absent, ventured to come forth from their fortified 
dwellings, and entered into Conclave at the Vatican on 
the 26th, a day or two later than they ought to have 
done so. 

At the first scrutiny the Cardinal of St. Mark had 
eleven votes, whereupon the Cardinal of St. Peter ad 
Vincula went to him and said that if he would promise 
to give his palace to the Cardinal of Aragon, the son of 
King Ferdinand, he (his Eminence of St. Peter ad Vin- 
cula) would give him three votes, maMng with those he 
had already, fouiieen. But the offer was rejected on the 
ground, first, that an election so brought about would 
not be canonical, and, secondly, that the palace in ques- 
tion commanded the Castle of St. Angelo to a very great 
degree, so that the giving it to the "Kiug^s son might bo 
very "prejudicial to the city, and to the whole of 
Christendom. For the King might easily come there 
and make himself master of the city, and disturb the 
state of the Church." So on these grounds, temporal 
and spiritual, the Cardinal of St. Mark refused the offer 
made to him ; and this simoniacal Eminence of St. Peter 
ad Vincula went off with his votes to sell to the Vico- 
Chancellor — i.e.^ to Eoderigo Borgio, afterwards Alex- 
ander YI. But it is worth notice that he did not offer 
them to him with a view to any aspirations of his oyra. 
It would seem that Borgia had as yet conceived no hopes 
of the Papacy, or at least no expectation of fulfilling 
such hopes yet. Probably he was not yet rich enough 
to attempt the purchase of votes which he afterwards 
effected. The offer of the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vin- 
cula was that they two should put their forces together 



168 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

and make the Pope between them. Borgia, who espe- 
cially hated the Cardinal of St. Mark, agreed to any plan 
which should exclude him. So that night, while all the 
Conclave slept, the two conspirators arose and went from 
one to another of the younger cardinals who had no hope 
for themselves, making them large promises of all kinds. 
All save six of the seniors and leading men in the Col- 
lege,' who were carefully left sleeping, were thus nego- 
tiated with, and the election of Cardinal Cibo, as Innocent 
VIII., was thus, by sheer simony, effected before 
morning. 

" In the morning they called the sleepers, and said to 
them, * Come, we have made the Pope ! ' But the others 
said, ' Whom ? ' They replied, ' The Cardinal of Melfi! ' 
The seniors said, * How ? ^ They replied, * Why during 
the night, while you were asleep, we collected all the 
votes save those of you sleepers ! ' But the others per- 
ceiving that those who had played this trick were eighteen 
or nineteen, and that they were too few to disturb what 
had been done, consented; and Cibo was accordingly 
proclaimed." 

The writer of the narrative goes on to specify in detail 
what each of the electors, who had thus sold their votes, 
received as the price of this simony. "May God grant 
him (the new Pope, he concludes) His grace that he may 
lead a good life, and administer the Church well ; which, 
however, it seems very difficult to expect, looking to his 
past life, and considering that he is a young Genoese 
who has seven children, male and female, by various* 

• Any little irregularity of this sort was, however, abundantly com- 
pensated in an ecclesiastical point of yiew by his haying condemned two 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 169 

mothers ; and considering also the manner of his election, 
which was worse than that of Sixtus IV." 

But where then was the overruling influence of the 
Holy Ghost, which if avowedly absent from one election, 
there can be no reason to expect to preside over others ? 
For the all-important nature of the choice to be made, 
which is the ground on which it is hoped that the voices 
of the electors are specially controlled by the Holy Spirit, 
is as great in one election as in another ! In truth, the 
mere enunciation of such a theory, in the face of the long 
story of the Papal Conclaves, extending over so many 
centuries, needs a cynical audacity of confidence in the 
capacity of the lay world to swallow any amount of the 
grossest absurdities and falsehoods if put forth with a 
sufficient amount of imction and solemnity, which is no 
less astounding than revolting. 

men, Domenico di Viterbo and Francesco Maldento, to be burned aliye, 
for liaTing said that according to Innocent's opinion such matters were 
not prohibited. << And those who had said so were burned."— Bernini, 
Staria di ttdle VEreeie, tom. iy. p. 213. 



^ 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Interregnum after the Death of Innooent Viil. — ^Tomnlts. — Condave' 
wMch elected Borgia, Alexander YI. — ^His Beign and Death. — 
Scandalous Scene at his Burial. — ^Effect of his Papacy on the 
Chnrch. — ^Interregnum afber his Death. — Terrible .Condition of 
Bome. — Oondave, and scandalous Election of Pius IH. — ^Another 
Conclave sixteen Days later. — ^Anecdotes of the Death of Pius IIL — 
Simoniacal Arrangements for the Election of Julius 11., Delia Boyere. 
— Character of Julius IE. — Condaye which elected Leo X. — ^Meeting 
and Demands of the Condayists. — ^A Surgeon in the Condaye. — 
Anecdotes of this Condaye. — ^Election of De Medid, as Leo X. — ^His 
Simoniacal Dealing8.«-Exhaustion of the Papal Treasury at his 
Death. — Difficulties of the Cardinals. — ^Election of Adrian YI. — 
Dismay produced in Bome by his Election. — Character of Adrian. 

Pope Innocent VIII., "the young man from Genoa," 
died, after a reign of nearly eight years, on the 26th of 
July, 1492. The interregnum which followed was a 
very short one, but it was an even more than usually 
tempestuous and lawless one. 

"Alas! for the miseries of humanity!" cries the 
moralizing historian of the Conclave of Alexander VI., 
speaking of his predecessor Innocent ; " his body lay ex- 
posed to the crowd and the rude cries of the populace, 
whose ears had ever been shut to the prayers of the poor; 
and a small coflin of perishable wood enclosed him, who 
had deemed the gilded halls of the Vatican too narrow 
for him! But Eome the while was up in arms, and 
bands of lawless malefactors overran the city in every 
direction, and many murders were committed because the 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 171 

tribunals listened to no complaints, the judges having 
shut themselves up for fear of their lives. . . . Gangs 
of robbers, murderers, and bandits, the very scum of the 
earth, ranged freely in every part of the city ; and the 
palaces of the cardinals were guarded by archers and 
troopers or they would have been sacked and wrecked. 
But although all Eome was in arms, there did not occur 
any notable tumult;* only a great number of people 
were killed from private enmity. The streets of the 
Borgo (the part of the city between the Ponte St. Angelo 
and St. Peter's) were barred and guarded by companies 
of soldiers and cavalry." 

Twenty-three cardinals went into Conclave, and elected 
Boderigo Borgia Pope by the name of Alexander VI. 
almost immediately and without any divisions. The 
account given by the chronicler of the Conclave is on this 
occasion extremely meagre and short. There was, in 
fact, but little to bo said upon the disgraceful subject. 
The voices of the electors had been simply bought before 
they went into Conclave. The Vice-Chancellor, says the 
writer I have quoted, " used his utmost industry and art 
for the satisfaction of his immoderate ambition, having 
conciliated by all sorts of means, good and bad, the minds 
of the more powerful among the cardinals." The elec- 
tion afforded a striking instance of the way in which a 
bad Pope prepares the way for a yet worse than he. 

This infamous man, the worst probably of all the 
Popes, reigned eleven years, and died on the 18th of 

* A curions etaiement indicating the sort of thing that might bo 
expected on these occasions. The state of matters described "was not 
held to constitute any notable breach of order. 



172 THE PAPAL OONOLAVBS. 

August, 1503, poisoned, as there is every reason to 
believe, by the mistake of a servant, who handed both to 
him and to his son Cs&sar some poisoned wine which had 
been prepared by their orders for the poisoning of several 
cardinals who had been invited to sup with them ; the 
object of the intended murder being that the " hats " 
thus vacated might be resold to others ! The writer of 
the story of the Conclave of his successor, Pius III., 
who tells us that he was a Papal Master of the Chambers, 
and seems evidently to have been a conclavist also, gives 
a terrible and horrible account of the death and burial 
of Alexander. Hardly was the breath out of his body 
before the servants and soldiers plundered his private 
apartments. This search for plunder was not very 
thorough or successfiil, however, for subsequently stores 
of valuables were discovered to a very large amount, 
as also " a writing desk covered with green cloth, which 
was full of gems and precious stones to the value of 
twenty thousand crowns," worth something like fifty 
thousand pounds at the present day. 

The mortal remains of the Popes were very generally 
utterly deserted and left to the care of the lowest people 
about the palace ; and it was not likely that the body of 
such a Pope as Alexander should be treated with more 
respect than those of the most detested of his predecessors. 
When the body had been carried into the Church of St. 
Peter's there was no priest ready to begin to read the 
service ; and some soldiers took advantage of the pause 
to begin wresting the wax torches out of the hands of 
the attendants around the bier. The latter defended 
themselves, using the torches for the purpose, and the 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 17B 

soldiers using their arms. At last the clerical party, 
getting the worst of it, ran away into the sacristy! 
" Then leaving off their singing ( of the burial psalms) the 
Pope was left alone ; and I and some others took the 
bier and carried him to a spot between the high altar and 
his seat, and placed him there, turning his head towards 
the altar." The body was left there till the evening, 
when a change came over the appearance of it, which the 
Master of the Chambers describes with a loathsome 
minuteness of particulars into which I will not follow 
him. "He was," continues he, "horrible and fearful to 
look on; and after nightfall he was carried to the 
mortuary chapel by six porters and two carpenters who 
chanced to be gambling together near at hand. And 
inasmuch as the coffin had been made too short, they 
pounded the corpse and stamped on it with their feet to 
make it go into the coffin, having first despoiled it of the 
mitre and the grave-clothes, and covered it instead with a 
dirty old bit of green carpet." 

Such was the end of him whose existence on the earth 
the English poet deemed might be a stumbling-block to 
those who attempt to scan the providential government 
of the world, and whom the fathers of the Church 
selected as the vicegerent of God upon earth — ^Pope 
Alexander VI. ! 

It was the inevitable tendency of the combined mode 
of electing the Popes and creating the cardinals, that a 
bad Pope should, as has been said, pave the way for a 
worse successor. Alexander effectually provided an ex- 
ception to the rule, for a worse than he could hardly 
have been found. But there can be no doubt that the 



174 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

manner in which he filled the Sacred College prepared 
the way for a period of Church history which was the 
lowest in the whole annals of the Church as regards the 
character of the Popes, and the utter and audacious 
shamelessness of the prostitution by them of their posi- 
I tion and their power to the pursuit of objects which the 
great and powerful have often pursued unscrupulously, 
but which have never been pursued with such reckless and 
monstrous wickedness as by the successors of St. Peter I 
The condition of Eome during the interregnum between 
Alexander and Pius III. was terrible. No man's life 
was safe in the streets : murder, plunder, and open fight- 
ing were rife in every part of the city. The hands of 
Orsini and Colonnas were against all men, and all men's 
hands were against them. The Holy City was a veritable 
pandemonium. At last thirty-eight cardinals went into 
Conclave on the 12 th of September, twenty-five days 
after Alexander's death, a delay which was contrary to 
all rule, but was necessitated by the state of Eome and 
the violence of Csesar Borgia, who had possession of Bt. 
Angelo, and could not sooner be got rid of out of Eome ; 
and on the 22nd of the same month they elected the 
Cardinal of Siena, Piccolomini, nephew of Pius II., by 
the name of Pius III. 

" On the 14th of the same month," notes the Master 
of the Ceremonies — ^also, no doubt, a conclavist — ^who 
relates the story of this Conclave, "I found a billet 
hidden in a dish which was going in to the Cardinal of 
Bologna, which I plainly saw, but held my tongue, con- 
sidering it for the best." He then goes on to give the 
story of the Conclave as follows : ^' The divisions and 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 175 

parties among the cardinals were manifold, concerning 
which I am silent by reason of the ugliness of the busi- 
ness, and the simony which then took place among them 
without blushing or shame. At last on the Thursday, 
by the help of God(!), the Cardinals Ascanius, Volterra, 
and Eouen took counsel together to elect the Cardinal of 
Siena, who had promised them many things if, by their 
means, he should be made Pope. Many cardinals pur- 
posing to elect him, went to congratulate him, and, on 
the following day, the Sacristan made a little hole in 
the walling-up of a door that was in his room, and sent 
a note to the house of the Cardinal of Siena, announcing 
that he was elected ; " — ^in order to give friends of his 
own a hint to take time by the forelock in plimdering 
the new Pope's house. 

Further particulars of this very disgraceful Conclave 
have been preserved, and are with singular candour 
recounted by the modem writer of the article on Pius 
III. in Moroni. The friends of Ceesar Borgia, and crea- 
tions of his father, were a very strong party in the Con- 
clave, and they wished to make the Cardinal Antoniotto 
Pallavicini, Pope. But there was a certain Nicolo 
Bonafede, Bishop of Chiusi,* who, having a special 
enmity against Pallavicini, and being at the same time a 
friend of Piccolomini, and in the confidence of Ceesar 
Borgia, succeeded in persuading the latter that it would 
bo impossible to get Pallavicini elected ; and proposed to 
him that the Borgia party should support Piccolomini, 
who was specially hostile to the Petrucci (who were 

* A life of him, in great part written by himself, is extant, and was 
printed at Fcsaro, in 1832. 



176 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

endeayourmg to make themselves tyrants of Siena, 
which Caesar Borgia wanted for himself), and whose 
candidature, as Bonafede pointed out, would not awaken 
any suspicions or animosities, because there had never 
been any intimacy or alliance between Piccolomini and 
the Borgias, whereas if now elected by their influence 
he would ... be grateful. Bonafede went off ta 
Piccolomini, who gave him full power to promise in his. 
name all that was wished — "always safeguarding his. 
own honour and that of the Holy See." 

How one can see the decorous faces of the two bargain- 
ing dignitaries, and the mutually understood expression 
of the eye beneath the drooping eyelid, as this saving 
clause was stipulated and accepted with an " Of course ! 
Of course ! " and a deprecatory raising of outstretched 
palms ! 

Ceesar Borgia, however, knew what he was about, 
and drew up articles of agreement, which he made Pic- 
colomini sign before assenting to running him as the 
Borgia candidate. All this was duly settled, and then 
Bonafede set himself to detach some of the Italian 
cardinals (the Borgia party consisted mainly of 
Spaniards) from Pallavicini, in which he succeeded so 
well, that " Pallavicini found the 50,000 ducats whicL 
Ceesar had lent him, and the 30,000 which he brought 
into the Conclave in banker^s notes, of no avail ! " 
"Pallavicini," the writer goes on to say, in the very 
next sentence, " was a most worthy cardinal, and some 
exaggeration may be suspected therefore in this state- 
ment." Perhaps the sum destined to the purchase of the 
Papacy by this most worthy cardinal was only fifty or 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 177 

sixty thousand, and not eighty, as his enemies would 
have it ! " True it is, however," adds the writer, " that 
we often have to deplore similar human weakness." 

And thus, after ten days of Conclave, Francesco 
Piccolomini was made Vicegerent of Christ upon earth, 
" by God's help " and that of CsBsar Borgia, being at 
the time unable to stand from infirmity, and having one 
foot so far advanced into the grave that he died on the 
sixteenth day after the election — Shaving had time, how- 
ever, it is pleasing to hear, to make that faithful creature, 
Bonafede, governor of Eome. 

And so the work of the Conclave, with all its base 
bargaining and hypocrisy, had to be done over again ! 
It was pretty well accomplished, however, before going 
to Conclave, and was achieved in a very business-like 
manner without much diflficulty. We have an account 
of the Conclave written by "me, Giorgio Broccardi, 
Clerk of the Ceremonies." The writer relates that he 
was sent for immediately after the death of Fins III., 
and assisted in putting on the body the pontifical gar- 
ments, and laying it out " on a mattress under a cover- 
ing of green velvet, nothing being wanted save the cross 
on his breast, to supply which I made him one out of 
the four tassels that hung from the comers of the green 
velvet pall, which I pinned on his breast with four 
pins." Fifteen cardinals were present at the funeral 
service, the Spanish and French cardinals excusing 
themselves for their absence on the ground that they 
could not venture to pass through the Borgo * because 

* The street tliat runs between the Bridge of St. Angelo and tha 
Yatican. 

N 



178 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

it was full of the Orsini. The Clerk of the Ceremonies 
tells us that; on the 29th of October, he was sent to 
warn all the cardinals that the Conclave would begin 
on the following day. And "on that same day the 
Cardinal of St Pietro ad Vincula (Guiliano della Eovere, 
nephew of Sixtus IV., who was about to become Pope 
as Julius II.) had an interview with the Duca Valentino 
(Cesare Borgia) in the Vatican Palace ; and, together 
with the Spanish cardinals of his party, came to certain 
terms of agreement between them, among which, besides 
many others which cannot be told, the Cardioal San 
Pietro promised the Duke that if he were elected 
Pope by his (the Duke^s) means, he would create him 
Gonfaloniere and General of the Holy Church. And 
the Duke, on the other hand, promised many things to 
the Cardinal. And all the cardioals present promised 
and obliged themselves by oath to give their votes to 
the said Cardinal of St. Peter." In Conclave an agree- 
ment was at once come to as to what they were going to 
do, and "I," says the Clerk of the Ceremonies, "went 
to his cell to congratulate him, and he promised me the 
church of Orti, and his mule with its trappings, and 
his cope and rochet." And when, after the unanimous 
election, the new Pope was, according to custom, 
divested of his robes, our friend George tells us that 
^* his Holiness was disrobed of his rochet and cassock, 
which I took for myself, despite the opposition of the 
Sacristan." 

In the whole list of the Conclaves, there is not one 
more decidedly and notoriously black with simony than 
this of Julius II. Guicciardini, though strongly prepos- 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 179 

-sessed in favour of Julius, and writing favourably of him, 
yet speaks of his sinioniacal elevation to the Papacy as 
a notorious thing — ^which, however, Guicciardini was 
not a man to have deemed any very serious accusation. 
But the defence put forward by the recent writer of his 
Life* is not a little amusing. " It would suffice for his 
disculpation," says this very na'^ defender, "to cite the 
constitution, cum tarn dzvinoj which the Pope published 
against the simoniacal election of a Pope ! " It is per- 
fectly true that Julius II. thundered against simony in 
the Conclave as loudly, or more so, than any Pontiff on 
the list. His Holiness knew well what he was talking 
of, and, on the principle of setting a thief to catch a 
thief, was certainly so far the right man in the right 
place. His conduct in the matter reminds one of those 
apostles of universal peace and liberty who demand a 
little war and sharp coercion as a preliminary means for 
enabling them to enter on their mission. Julius felt 
that a scruple respecting a little simony ought not to be 
allowed to stand in the way of the election of one 
minded to enforce such salutary reforms. 

Julius, a great Pope in his way, though that was a 
way more fitted for a lay than an ecclesiastical ruler, 
reigned nine years and three months ; and then another 
Conclave elected Leo X., the great Mecsenas of the arts 
and of literature, to whom literature and the arts have 
been more than sufficiently grateful — ^the jovial Pope, 
who, as soon as he felt the tiara on his head, expressed 
his sense of the tremendously awful nature of the posi- 
tion to which he had been raised by ejacxilating, " Since 

* Moroni, vol. xxzi. p. 161. 
N 2 



180 THE PAPiJi CONCLAYES. 

God has given us the Papacy, let us enjoy it I " — and 
proceeded to do so accordingly. 

Julius II. left thirty-two Cardinals in the Sacred Col- 
lege, of whom twenty-five entered Conclave on the 4th 
of March, 1513. But some days passed before the first 
scrutiny was held, during which their Eminences were 
engaged in settling various matters of regulation for the 
internal management of the Conclave, and especially the 
rights and privileges of the body of conclavists. The 
majority of these, who in this Conclave must have been 
at least fifty, held several meetings of their own, in 
which they drew up a statement of their demands, espe- 
cially as to their presentation to certain benefices, all 
which were agreed to by the cardinals. They also 
arranged among themselves, by legally executed instru- 
ment, that the conclavist of the cardinal who should be 
elected Pope should pay to the others, his comrades, the 
sum of 1,500 ducats as the price of their share of the 
contents and furniture of his patron's cell, which had 
hitherto been scrambled for in a tumultuous marmer. 
All that the cell of the Pope elect contained was in con- 
sideration of this payment to be the sole and legitimate 
property of the new Pope's conclavist. 

Other abuses of the Conclave seem to have engaged 
the attention of their Eminences before they began their 
scrutinies, for we learn that the Cardinal Camerlengo, 
and the Cardinals of Aragon and Famese, made a search- 
ing examination of all the cells and every part of the 
locality of the Conclave, for the purpose of assuring 
themselves that there were none present save the car- 
dinals and their conclavists. Nor do I find any mention 



NOBLE B0T8 AT PLAT. 181 

of those other oflBcers and functionaries who, by subse- 
quent regulation, made a recognised part of the Conclave 
world. Perhaps, however, these, or the more important 
among them, were not mentioned by the writers as 
having been there as a matter of course. It is noted, 
however, that the Cardinal de' Medici required the 
presence of a surgeon, one Giacomo di Brescia, in the 
Conclave for the performance of an operation on an im- 
posthume ; and that the said Giacomo, despite his urgent 
entreaties, was not permitted to leave the Conclave until 
its conclusion. 

It was not till the 10th that the first scrutiny took 
place ; and then, before proceeding to the votation, the 
recent Bull of Julius against all simoniacal practices in 
the election of the Pontiff was solemnly read. Then all 
the conclavists were turned out, and the cardinals 
remained alone for the transaction of their all-important 
business. At the first scrutiny the "Cardinal Albo- 
rense " had thirteen votes. It was probably perfectly well 
known that he would not be elected. But the number 
of votes given to him seems to have somewhat startled 
those who had the management of the Conclave mainly 
in their hands. And immediately after dinner (on one 
dish apiece only, those charged with the custody of the 
Conclave on the outside appearing to have adhered on 
this occasion to the rules provided on that subject) the 
work of secret conversing and bargaining became very 
active throughout the Conclave. In the evening the 
€ardinals De^ Medici and Eaffaello Eiario, the nephew of 
Sixtus IV., were seen in close conversation in the great 
ball. But though the fS^t of their taking counsel 



182 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

together was patent enough, it was even more impossi- 
ble to overhear any syllable of what passed between 
them than if they had had their interview in the cell of 
either of them ; for as they walked together in the 
ample space of the hall, it was impossible for the 
sharpest ears of the most enterprising conclavist to 
catch even a tone of their cautious voices. And it was 
in that conversation that the Pope was made, and that 
" the age of Leo X.," with all its manifold and inter- 
minable series of consequences, was from a potentiality 
made into an actuality. 

Those who were, with anxious and understanding 
eyes, watching that colloquy, in which two of the most 
intensely worldly and unspiritual-minded men on earth 
were deciding the spiritual conditions of unborn millions, 
well knew the decisive nature of such a combination of 
forces. And it was assimied as certain that one of 
those two was to be the Pope. And the older cardinals, 
we are told, were in much dismay, for the influences 
which it was felt would suffice to make one of those 
two the new Pope lay mainly among the younger men. 
The Cardinal de' Medici himself was only thirty-seven. 
The intrigues among the latter, however, had been con- 
ducted so secretly, that the few older and more promi- 
nent cardinals were mystified, and felt that they had 
been left out in the cold. The result of the all-important 
colloquy in the great hall was soon, however, allowed to 
leak out ; and it became known throughout the Con- 
clave that night that De^ Medici was to be Christ's Vicar 
on earth ! And all the cardinals thronged to his cell to 
congratulate him, prostrate themselves before him, and 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 183 

kiss his feet ! Allj for it is ill voting against a man 
to-day who is to be the despotic master of your fate and 
fortunes on the morrow ! And on the following morning 
Giovanni de^ Medici walked forth from the scrutiny 
duly elected without a dissentient voice. 

A very decently conducted election ! For no human 
ear heard what passed between the gay and gallant 
young Medicean Cardinal and that infamous and needy 
spendthrift the Cardinal Eiario, of whose modes of life 
something has already been said in these pages. No 
indiscretest of conclavists has ventured to whisper that 
the universal bishoprick of souls was then bought and 
sold. But I will here again venture to quote from a 
volume of my own on the life of a contemporary, con- 
nection, and friend of the new Pope, Filippo Strozzi. 
"The Cardinal was accompanied," I wrote, " on his 
hurried journey to Eome " (from Florence, on the occa- 
sion of the death of Julius II.) "by Filippo Strozzi. 
What on earth could a grave Churchman, going on such 
a mission, want of such a companion as the gay, hand- 
some, pleasure-seeking young banker? Some silver- 
haired and venerable confessor, who should have be- 
guiled the way by his exhortations as to the awful 
nature of the responsibilities the Cardinal was hoping to 
assume — such an one, it might have been supposed, 
would be the companion of a dignified priest boimd on 
such an errand. But a dissipated young banker ! Yet 
the young banker's brother, disciple of austere Savona- 
rola as he was, tells us as simply as if it were the most 
ordinary business in the world what Filippo went to 
Eome for with the Cardinal. " Inasmuch as the latter 



184 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

aspired not without good reason to the Papacy, it was 
likely enough that he might have to avail himself of 
Filippo^s credit ! ♦ So that it seems to have been quite 
as much a recognised thing, even among the strictest, 
in those admirable ^ ages of faith,' that a candidate for 
heaven's vicegerency should come up to Eome with his 
banker to support him, as that in our days a candidate 
should seek similar aid in presenting himself to a select 
borough constituency.'' But the simoniacal Pope Julius's 
solemn TUill against simony had been solenmly read in 
this the Conclave immediately following his death ; and 
the authoritative French Church historian, t quoted in a 
former chapter, assures us that the Holy Ghost has 
eflfectually provided that no case has ever arisen calling 
for the penalties fulminated by sundry Popes besides 
Julius against simony I 

Leo X. reigned eight years and eight months, and 
died somewhat suddenly, not without veiy strong 
reasons for believing that he was poisoned.J The 
Venetian ambassador believed it ; and the Pope's phy- 
sician, Bernardino Speroni, was a subject of Yenice and 
in confidential intercourse with the ambassador. 

The interregnum which succeeded the death of Leo 
was, as on former occasions, a time of trouble. But 
already the nature of the troubles begins to wear a more 
modem aspect. The interval between the death of the 
Pope and the entry of the cardinals into Conclave was 

* " Life of Filippo Strozzi," by his brother Lorenzo, p. xxxiv. 

t Henri de Spend, generally quoted as Spondanus. 

J See the very curious particulars recorded in the summary of Luigi 
Gradenigo's (the Venetian ambassador) report to the Senate (Belat. 
Ambas. Ven., series ii. vol. iii. p. 71). 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 185 

prolonged beyond the prescribed time; Leo having 
died on the 1st of December, and the Conclave not 
having been begun till the 27th. Despite the immense 
sums which Leo had received mainly from the sale of 
profitable offices,* he left the Papal treasury absolutely 
empty at his death. There was not even money enough 
to pay the expenses of his faneral. And the Papal 
palace was stripped of everything of value, the moment 
the breath was out of his body, by his sister, who had 
been living in the Vatican.t The wax candles that 
had been prepared for the funeral of the Cardinal di San 
Giorgio, who died shortly before the Pope, were taken 
to serve for the Pope^s obsequies, for there was no 
money to buy others. On the 14th the cardinals got a 
loan of two thousand ducats from the Jews on the 
security of the dues payable to the Sacred College ; and 
they obtained a loan of a similar sum from Monsignoro 
Tomaso Eighi, the. Clerk of the Chamber, which was 
advanced gratia. Other sums were borrowed on the 
above-named security. And, in truth, their Eminences 
were very hardly pressed for the means of carrying on 
the government of the city. Two noble barons of the 
Colonna family and two of the Orsini having been ap- 
pointed as guardians of the Sacred Palace and Conclave 
during the interregnum, they came to the cardinals and 
declared that they could not imdertake the duty unless 
six thousand ducats were paid them in advance, to 
which their Eminences were obliged to submit. 



• And that qxiite recently. See the relation of the Venetian amba 6- 
sador, he, cit, 
f Ibidem, 



186 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

On the 27th of December thirty-eight cardinals went 
into Conclave at the Vatican, but it was not till the 30th 
that the first scrutiny took place. The intervening time 
had been employed in receiving the envoys of the 
different Powers, and in making rules now observed for 
the first time as to the method of voting and Hie pre- 
paration of the voting papers. It was on this occasion 
finally decided that the voting should be secret, and the 
papers so arranged as to disclose the name of the person 
voted for without allowing the name of the voter, also 
written in the paper, to be seen. Minute precautions 
also were adopted to prevent firaud in giving the votes 
per accessumy as will be more fully explained in a future 
page. Besides the arrangement of these matters, after 
considerable debate, the Bull of Julius against simony 
was solemnly read, and all present swore by their hope 
of eternal salvation to observe its provisions to the 
letter ! Then on the 30th the bargaining began, " with- 
out any reserve" (sensa rispetto^ says the Venetian 
ambassador. 

The election in which this Conclave resulted was 
assuredly as pure from all taint of simony as any in the 
whole long roll of the Popes. But none the less did the 
Conclave reek with simony ; only the chapmen in the 
field were so numerous that they spoiled the market, 
and rendered simony for once ineffective. Gradenigo, 
the Venetian ambassador, gives the process and result 
of the Conclave in compendious form thus : ^^ All the 
cardinals received the Eucharist, and forthwith all began 
bargaining for the Papacy without any regard for 
decency. The cardinals in Conclave were thirty-eight ; 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 187 

fifteen of whom were in favour of Cardinal de' Medici, 
(Ginlio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII.*) and 
twenty-three against him ; of which twenty-three eight- 
teen wished each to be Pope himself. And after the 
first scrutiny the Cardinal Grimani, seeing that he had 
no chance, left the Conclave." (The conclavist, who 
has left a narrative of the Conclave, says that Grimani 
went out from the Conclave because his conscience 
revolted from the things he saw done there.) "The 
Cardinal Famese" (he who was afterwards Paul III.) 
" had twenty-two votes ; but the Cardinals Egidio and 
Colonna would not give him their votes. Had they 
done so, he would have been Pope. Famese gave a 
promise to Medici to secure to him all he had, and to 
make hinri greater than ever. But the Cardinal Adrian, 
who was in Spain, was elected." But the conclavist, 
less exclusively interested in the result, gives at length 
the particulars of nine scrutinies which took place be- 
fore the election was effected. It would be wearisome 
to give all these details of the various fluctuations of the 
votes among eighteen different names, most of which are 
now wholly forgotten. There absolutely were at least 
eighteen candidates, and the statement of the Yenetian 
was no mere exaggerated phrase. At each new voting 
the numbers varied, and the chances of the election 
seemed to defy all prognostication. The only remaining 
interest in the facts, however, is this — ^that it was only 
as an escape from insoluble difiGiculties, and when their 

* Sometimes called the couam and sometimes the nephew of Leo X. 
He was in feust not legally related to him in anyway, being of illegitimate 
birth. He was the son of the Giuliano who was killed in the conspiracy 
of the Pazzi. 



188 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

Eminences were truly at their wits' end, that they deter* 
mined on electing a man who had no recommendation 
whatever save his real fitness for the promotion. In feet, 
this poor Flemish professor, Adrian, who had come to be 
a cardinal in consequence of having been Charles Vs. 
tutor, was wholly unknown at Eome, save by the 
general report of his piety and worth. And, to cite 
again the Venetian ambassador, "When they had elected 
him, the cardinals were like dead men at the thought 
that they had elected one whom they had never seen. 
And as they came out of the Conclave, a terrible outcry 
was raised against them by the people, who cried out, 
why could you not elect one of yourselves ! And so strong 
waB this feeling that placards were stuck up about the 
city with Bama est hcanda^* that is to say, Eome is to 
be let ! because all thought that Adrian would take the 
Papacy to Spain." f 

But the cardinals soon found that they had brought a 
worse fate upon themselves and upon Eome than even 
such a second Babylonish captivity. Adrian came to 
Eome, but came in all the simplicity of his northern 
piety, actually taking the duties and responsibilities of 
the Papacy au sirieux^ and minded, as far as was in him, 
to act up to them ! The astonishment, dismay, and 
disgust of all the cardinals, and all the Apostolical 
Court, and indeed of all Eome, at such an incredible 
and unprecedented phenomenon may readily be imagined. 
Of course poor Adrian was an utter failure ! No doubt 

* The words stiU used in Borne to Bignify that any tenement is to be 
let. 

f Loc, citf p. 74. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAT. 189 

it was as liappy a fete for himself as it was a source of 
immense rejoicing to Bome, when he died, after an 
unhappy reign of one year and eight months. And 
never, since that time, have their Eminences of the 
Sacred College made the mistake of electing any save 
an Italian to the chair of St. Peter ! 



CHAPTEE Till. 

OonolaTe which elected Clement YII. — Chftnge in the Characteristics of 
the CondaTes.— Anecdote of Adrian's narrow Escape from being 
killed, and of the hatred felt by the Boman Clergy against him. — 
Boman and Florentine rivalry in the Conclaye. — Intrigues in the 
Conclave. — ^The Plan of Malong a Pope by " Adoration." — Crafty 
Trick of (Hulio de' Medici. — ^His Election.— And reign. — Condaye 
which elected Famese as Paul TTI. — Circumstances of his election. 
— ^His Character. 

The Conclave which elected Giulio de' Medici as 
Adrian's successor, by the name of Clement VII., was 
an interesting one, as being, probably, the first in 
which the more modem spirit of finesse and intrigue 
seems to have prevailed over the nakedly simoniacal 
method of proceeding of earlier times. The menacing 
growlings of the storm that was about to break over the 
Church were beginning to be heard from the other side 
of the Alps. That word of dread — as it was to the 
Popes of those days — ^*an (Ecumenical Council," had 
been heard ; and the Church began to aflfect a show of 
decency. The motives which produced the election of 
Clement VII. were as far removed from any such as 
should have dictated the choice of a vicegerent of 
God upon earth as they well could be. But the 
election does not seem to have been an openly simo- 
niacal one. 

Adrian died on the 14th of September, 1523. When 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 191 

the Bomaos learned that he was dead, ^4t was an 
incredible pleasure and contentment to them ; the feet 
being, that he was universally disliked by the whole 
CoTirt, because his Holiness diflfered much from the 
greatness, magnificence, and splendour which his more 
immediate predecessors were wont to manifest in the 
pontificate, though he was, in truth, more inclined to 
those good qualities which one is wont to seek and look 
for in the elections of the Popes in the primitive ages 
of the Church." * The writer goes on to relate how, 
on one occasion, when the architrave of the doorway of 
the Sistine Chapel fell just as the Pope was entering, 
killing some of those around him, while he very nar- 
rowly escaped, a certain prelate amongst those present 
scrupled not to curse Fortune and inveigh aloud against 
the ill fate which had saved the Pope from destruction. 
Nor, adds the writer, ^*was that prelate in any way 
blamed for his words by the cardinals who heard him, 
but was rather praised and petted for them. So thai 
this holy man was little fitted for governing worldly 
aflEEiirs." 

Thirty cardinals went into Conclave on the proper 
day after the death of Adrian. A large portion of them 
were young men, the creations principally of Leo X., 
who had no pretentions to the Papacy. But there were 
among them four men, the bearers of great names, the 
heads of powerful factions, and each anxious to be 
Pope, and with claims to the throne equal to those of 
his rivals. These were Pompeo Colonna, Alessandro 
Famese, Giulio de' Medici, and Francesco Orsini. Among 

• " Conolayi de* Bomani Pontifici," vol. i. p. 194. 



192 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

these, the favourites — to use the word in its turf sense — 
were Colomia and Medici. Medici, however, the con- 
clavist writes who has left a narrative of this election, 
" was in truth the more powerful, from the great number 
of cardinals who followed him; as, indeed, might naturally 
be expected from the fact of his kinsman's unscrupulously 
partizan papacy having so recently come to a conclusion. 
Colonna, on the other hand, had all the more strictly 
Eoman world in his favour, as well as the strong pruden- 
tial consideration arising from the fact that he was known 
to be in close relations with the Emperor Charles V. 
Upon the whole, the older members of the College 
were for Colonna, the younger for Medici. In the 
beginning of the Conclave, at the first scrutiny, Colonna 
had more votes than Medici, and had, indeed, nearly 
been elected, two votes only having been wanting to 
him to make the twenty necessary for an election in a 
Conclave of thirty. Now Colonna and Orsini were well 
known to hate each other bitterly ; which was quite as 
naturally and inevitably the case as that cats and doga 
should hate each other. They had been the Montagues 
and Capulets of Eome for many generations, and enmity 
was traditional between all the numerous members of 
either family. And Orsini had a compact little party of 
his own in the Conclave. Medici, therefore, fearing the 
result of a contest with Colonna, and alleging the urgent 
necessity of not prolonging the interregnum and the 
Conclave, declared his intention of bringing it to an 
end by giving his support and that of all his friends to 
Orsini ; for he doubted not that, while this hope would 
prevent any of Orsini's friends from deserting him — 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 193 

Medici— it would be impossible for Colonna to obtain 
the necessary majority among his own followers; And, 
on the other hand, he felt perfectly sure that Colonna 
would rather see him (Medici) Pope than an Orsini. 

When this was reported to Colonna, he set to work 
actively to procure the exclusion of Orsini, declaring 
that he would be content with any election that might 
be made save that one. Eleven voters, on whom he 
could perfectly depend, would suffice to render the 
election of Orsini impossible, and so many he was, ho 
thought, able to command. But votes are given 
secretly. Should an election not be accomplished in 
that scrutiny for which they are tendered, the names of 
the givers are never known. And should an election be 
effected, the value of treason which has availed to make 
a Pope is apt to be so highly assessed by him who has 
profited by it, that defection from him who might have 
been, but is not. Pope, is not likely to count for much. 
In the state of dead-lock to which this policy of De' 
Medici had brought the Conclave, an attempt was made 
to elect Famese, who was popular in Eome and with 
the members of the Sacred College. There was no very 
valid or ostensible ground for refusing to join in such 
an election, and the heads of the other parties were 
obliged to pretend that the welfare of the Church, and, 
pro tantOj the speedy election of a due and fitting suc- 
cessor to the Papacy, were the main and paramount 
objects they had in view ; and for a moment it seemed 
likely that Farnese would have carried the day. He 
did succeed, as we know, at the next election, ten years 
subsequently, and then held the Papacy for fifteen years^ 





194 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

But he always was wont to say that Giulio de' Medici had 
robbed him of ten years of his reign ! 

Meanwhile, the days went on; scrutinies took place 
twice every day, and continued to give results not very 
much varying from eajoh other, and all equally futile. 
The Conclave had lasted more than a month ; and indi- 
cations of the discontent of the people and of the Koman 
world generally, at the prolongation of the interregnum, 
were made to reach the cardinals in their retreat. And 
still Colonna, though perfectly sincere in his declaration 
that he would rather see De' Medici, or any other 
member of the Sacred College, in St. Peter's Chair, than 
his hereditary foe, Orsini ; and fully decided to give his 
support to the Medicean cardinal, if there was no hope 
of placing himself there ; could not yet quite bring himself 
to believe that there was no such possibility. The 
contest, in short, between Colonna, Orsini, and De' 
Medici, had assumed very much of similitude to a game 
of brag ; with, however, the additional complicating and 
disturbing element, — ^that there was a continual danger, 
a danger of every day and every hour, that the car- 
dinals who were not mainly and personally interested in 
the elevation of either of the three great rivals, might 
suddenly and secretly coalesce and make a Pope of their 
own, Famese probably, or possibly even some outsider, 
whom nobody had seriously thought of. That " adora- 
tion" plan of making a Pope was such a dangerous 
thing, and so difl&cult to be guarded against! The 
thing might be done by sudden impulse, in a moment, 
without any warning, except such as was afforded by 
observing any unusual and suspicious gathering together 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 195 

of cardinals ! And then, if such a thing were to happen, 
the disadvantage of having taken no part in it was 
obvious and much to be avoided. 

Still Colonna, though he had caused it to be whis- 
pered to De' Medici that he was ready to give him his 
vote and interest, rather than that Orsini should be 
olected, was not willing to give up ; and in order to gain 
time, and at the same time to make it appear that he 
was really anxious to bring the injurious prolongation 
of the Conclave to an end, caused his followers to put 
forward sundry other candidates whom he knew well 
would not have the necessary majority of votes. One of 
these, the Cardinal di Santiquattro, however, was very 
nearly elected in this manner, and instances are not 
wanting in the history of the Conclaves of precisely 
similar accidents having happened. 

But one morning, when this sort of work had been 
going on for nearly fifty days, De' Medici determined on 
a plan to make Colonna declare himself one way or 
another. Having caused his friends to assemble in the 
vicinity of Orsini's cell, he himself paid a visit to his 
rival, and so contrived as to come out of the cell, he and 
Orsini together, and the latter apparently in high good 
humour and jovial mood. They walked towards the 
great hall, and a crowd of the special friends of either 
following them. Care had, moreover, been taken that 
all this should be breathlessly reported to Colonna on 
the instant. " At last, we are going to elect a Pope ! " 
cried De' Medici in a loud voice as Colonna came out of 
his cell. " Are you going to elect Orsini ? " asked one 
of Colonna's friends of one of those who were following 

2 



196 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

liiTTi and De' Medici. " Well, it looks very like it ! '' 
replied the dignitary questioned. "But," cried Colonna, 
who felt that, if he was to avoid having his old enemy 
Orsini as a master over him and all the other Colonnas, 
there was not a moment to be lost, " I thought it had 
been understood that we — I and my Mends — ^were ready 
to give our votes to the Cardinal De' Medici ! I am not 
the man to promise what I do not mean. We are ready 
to elect De' Medici Pope on the spot, and this instant ! '* 
Whereupon a shout was raised for De' Medici, and an 
" Adoration " followed, unanimous, or nearly so, on the 
part of all present. Giulio De' Medici, however, who 
was as careful and cautious a man, as his relative, 
Leo X., was the reverse, begged his Mends to proceed 
to the more regular process of a scrutiny, which was 
done accordingly, and he was duly elected as Cle- 
ment YII. by an unanimous vote, on the fiftieth day of 
he Conclave, the 18th November, 1523. 

Clement reigned ten troublous and disastrous years. 
His life as Pope was like that of a hunted hare. He 
lived in perpetual fear — fear of the lawless bands of 
the Constable Bourbon, who sacked his capital and 
threatened his life ; fear of the raising of the question 
of the canonical validity of this election, on the ground 
of his illegitimacy ; fear of the rivals Charles V. and 
Francis I. ; fear of the treacheries by which he strove 
to cheat and deceive both of them being found out; 
fear, perhaps the worst of all, of the General Council, 
which he did manage to stave off, but which could no 
longer be staved off by his equally unwilling, but bolder 
successor. 



NOBLE BOYS AT PLAY. 197 

The Papacy of that successor, Paul III., was a notable 
and highly important one. But the Conclave which 
preceded it was one of the shortest and most uneventful 
in the whole list. 

The cardinals went into Conclave on the 11th of 
October, 1534, and elected Alessandro Famese Pope by 
the name of Paul III. unanimously, and at the first 
scrutiny. In fact, there are few, if any other, instances 
in the history of the Popes, of its having been so well 
known, and so entirely a foregone conclusion, who the 
Pope was to be, as in the case of Paul III. All Home 
knew perfectly well that Famese was to be Pope, before 
the Conclave was begun. In fact, he was abundantly 
marked out for the choice of his colleagues. Ho was 
then in his sixty-eighth year, and he had been forty 
years a cardinal ! He was a man of good character, 
bom to rule, and of a very noble presence. And had 
he had no nephews or sons, would have made a very 
good Pope. As it was, he made one very fatal to the 
interests of the Church. 

This election was certainly untainted by simony. The 
Famese proceeded with refractory voters otherwise than 
by buying them. It is related that, having heard that 
one of the younger cardinals in the Conclave was 
speaking against him, and striving to organize a party 
in opposition to his election, he proceeded straight to 
the cell of the offender, and there — voice, eye, and mien 
assisting him — ^administered such a verbal castigation 
to the offender, that he professed repentance, implored 
pardon, and on receiving it became one of Famese's 
fastest friends. 



198 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

And so ends that portion of our story which falls 
within the period that has been called the Middle Ages ; 
if not quite accurately so according to the almauac, yet 
sufficiently so in respect to the animating spirit of the 
times, and the influence of that spirit on the Papal 
Conclaves,, to justify the adoption of it as a story-shed 
dividing the old time from the new. 



BOOK m. 

THE ZEALOUS POPES. 



BOOK m. 

THE ZEALOUS POPES. 

CHAPTEE I. 

Bemarks of Banke on the Papal History of the Sixteenth Century. — 
Julius III. — ^B^s Character. — Conclave which elected him. — View 
of this Conclave by the Venetian Ambassador. — Delay in Assem- 
bling of the Conclaves after Paul in.'s Death. — ^Eegiuald Pole. — The 
Expectation that he would be elected. — ^Was all but elected. — His 
own scruples. — ^His Election lost by them. — ^Anecdote of his beha- 
viour in Conclave. — Cardinal di San MarceUo, afterwards Pope as 
MarceUusn.— Determined to elect Pole, if possible. — ^The Emperor 
appealed to by Letter. — He vetoes Cardinal Salviati. — Election of 
Del Monte, as Julius III. — His Character. 

I HAVE given in a former chapter my reasons for 
drawing a line of division at the death of Paul III. 
Banke says,* that the sixteenth century was especially 
marked by the spirit of religious creation. Even yet, 
in our own days, we are living on the struggles between 
various creeds which first broke out in that age. But 
if it is desired to fix with greater precision the epoch at 
which the separation of the creeds was consummated, we 
must not fix it at the first appeai'ance of the reformers. 
For their opinions did not so soon succeed in establish- 
ing themselves ; and for a long time there was room to 
hope for an agreement on the controverted points. Bui 

* Hist. Popes, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Book ili. 



202 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

it was about the year 1552 that all attempts at con- 
ciliation were seen to have completely failed. A little 
farther on he remarks, that the most immediate obstacle 
which the Catholic Church had to contend against, in the 
effort to effect such a renovation of itself as should avail 
to stem the advancing tide of reformation, arose, at the 
very first, from the Popes themselves, from their cha- 
racter and their policy. And it is impossible to take 
even the most cursory view of the reign of Paul III. 
without arriving at the conviction that he, though not 
wholly opposed to the Council of Trent, and not by any 
means altogether without care for the spiritual interests 
of the Church (though he was far more prone and more 
fitted to consider its temporal affairs), must yet be 
counted among those Popes whose character and policy 
formed a terrible obstacle to any such renovation. 

Nor can it be said that the successor of Paul III., 
Julius III., in any degree deserved a place in that series 
of Popes whom I have grouped together, as the subject 
of this division of my story, under the denomination of 
The Zealous Popes. In truth Giovanni Maria Del 
Monte, who became Pope as Julius III., was one of the 
last of the Popes who could be called ^^ zealous" in 
any sense. And if I had been writing a compendium of 
the history of the Popes, with reference to that remark- 
able tendency to group themselves into series which I 
have before spoken of, I should certainly have assigned 
him his place as the last among the preceding group, 
though he cannot be said to have belonged to the series 
of sovereign-family-founding Popes. But inasmuch as 
our business is more especially with the Conclaves that 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 203 

elected the Pontiffs, than with the Popes themselves, 
and as the rising spirit, characterised by Eanke in the 
above-cited passage, may be plainly discerned in the 
Conclave which elected Julius III., I have preferred to 
draw my dividing line at the death of that great and 
memorable Pontiff, Alessandro Famese, Paul III. 

The conclavist indeed, who has left a narrative of the 
proceedings of the Conclave which elected Julius, re- 
presents the motives of all concerned to have been 
exactly of the old sort, purely and exclusively worldly, 
and proceeding from low personal ambitions and enmities. 
He was doubtless an old hand; had probably held a 
similar position in other previous Conclaves, and, as one 
can imagine readily would be in such case the result, 
was utterly incapable of conceiving any other motives, 
or any other scheme of conducting a Papal election. 
But we have an accoimt of this Conclave by a very dif- 
ferent sort of person ; who, if he made no part of the 
little Conclave world, and had therefore not the means 
of observing, as the Conclavist had, every conversation 
and every report, and spying every wish, was able to 
take a much larger and higher view of the entire 
matter, to interpret in a more just, as well as in a more 
liberal, spirit the motives of the chief actors, and to 
comprehend the forces which influenced them. The 
person in question was the old and experienced Venetian 
statesman, Matteo Dandolo, who had been sent by the 
Senate as ambassador to Paul III., and who remained at 
Eome during the Conclave which elected his successor. 
The " relation " or report of his embassy, which he read 
before the Senate in accordance with Venetian law, on 



204 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

his return, is an extremely valuable and interesting 
dociunent, and is printed in the third volume of the 
second series of Sign. Alberi's collection.* It has been 
much used by Eanke. Now, that improvement in the 
spirit of the Conclave, which was invisible to the 
conclavist, is unmistakably to be read in Dandolo's 
account of the election of Julius III. 

Paul III. died, truly broken-hearted at the misconduct 
and treachery of those relatives for the aggrandizement 
of whom he had risked everything and sacrificed so 
much, on the 10th of November, 1549, having reigned 
fifteen years. An unduly long time elapsed before the 
cardinals entered Conclave at the beginning of December; 
the cause of the delay having probably been that some 
of the absent cardinals, especially the French, were 
waited for. Nevertheless some of these had not arrived 
when the Conclave commenced. The Venetian ambas- 
sador reports that the interregnum was an unusually 
orderly one; so much so that ^^save during the first 
days, when the shops were all shut, and some murders 
were committed, all passed in the quietest manner, as 
though the Sec were not vacant ! " Seven thousand good 
troops, the same authority tells us, brought for the most 
part from Perugia, kept the city in order. 

As the procession of cardinals passed to the Conclave, 
says Matteo Dandolo, the marked deference shown by 
all of them to the Cardinal of England (Keginald Pole) 
was much commented on; and the opinion was very 



V 



• It may bo useful to students referring to this report, to mention 
that a very misleading misprint of ** Paul IV.'* for Paul HE. occurs 
twice in the index to this volumo . 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 205 

common throughout the city that he would be the new 
Pope. The Conclave was mainly divided into three 
parties. The first consisted of those who were partisans 
of the Emperor (Charles V.) ; the second was composed 
of the friends of the French King (Francis) ; the third, 
perhaps the most powerful of the three, consisted of the 
" creatures " of, i.e.^ the cardinals created by, I^aul III. 
Inside the Conclave the opinion was, that the making of 
the new Pope would, at the upshot, lie with the members 
of the latter. Nor was this party altogether averse to 
the election of Pole. So that, at the beginning of the 
Conclave, it was calculated that, if the election were 
made instantly, it would be found that the English 
Cardinal had three votes more than were sufficient 
to make the requisite two-thirds' majority. Cardinal 
Famese, [the recognised leader of the third of the 
above-named j^parties, and certainly the man of by far 
the greatest influence among the members of it, had 
made up his mind to elect Cardinal Pole. The Venetian 
ambassador gives three reasons for that determination of 
his ; in the setting forth of which he amusingly places 
last that, which few, and least of all the ambassador, 
could fail to recognise as, not only the first, but in truth 
the reason that motived his decision. He had made up 
his mind to place the English Cardinal on the throne, 
says the Venetian, " because of the remarkable purity of 
his life and morals ; because also of the great degree of 
authority he enjoyed, having been a cardinal for many 
years ; and, lastly, because of the hope he had that the 
English Cardinal, if he became Pope, would be disposed 
to secure to him the dominion of Parma." In fact, 



206 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Famese seems to have made the latter point the ruling 
motive of his conduct in the Conclave ; for there is no 
trace of his having attempted to secure the Papacy for 
himself, to which his position in the College might have 
well justified him in aspiring. To be sure, such an 
election would have been as scandalous an one as any 
of those of the days, which were already beginning to 
be considered at Bome as the good old times. And the. 
fact that Famese does not seem to have conceived any 
hope or plan of the sort, may be accepted as an unmis- 
takable indication of the improved spirit of the times. 

But there were still plenty of men in the College, to 
whom the sanctity of life of the English Cardinal was 
no sufficient recommendation. The Cardinal of Ferrara, 
immediately on the opening of the Conclave, made an 
effort to prevent an election which seemed imminent, 
by making overtures to the Cardinal di San Giorgio, who 
was an intimate friend of Famese, to the effect that he, 
Ferrara, was ready to make Famese Pope, if he would, 
for that he could bring a sufficient number of the French 
party to concur in such an election, as, joined with the 
'^creatures" of Paul III., would make it a certainty. 
But he only got a snubbing* jfrom Farnese for his pains. 
He then went off to two others of the Paolini party 
with similar proposals, which were equally ill-received 
by both of them. And therewith his power and that of 
the French party to nominate the Pope by a coalition 
with the Paolini '' creatures " was at an end. For after 
the loss of three votes out of the latter party, any such 

• ** Lo ribatt^ con accorta risposta." — Vm, Rdat. Vol. iii. Series 2nd. 
p. 346. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 207 

coalition would have had one vote less than was re- 
quisite. 

Meanwhile Famese was endeavouring to unite all the 
Paolini and the Imperialists in favour of Cardinal Pole. 
It was proposed to elect him on the spur of the moment 
by adoration ; and there can be little or no doubt that 
the attempt would have succeeded, and all the subsequent 
course of European history have been most impor- 
tantly modified, if it had been made. The ambassador 
of Charles V., Don Diego Mendoza, "had," says the 
Venetian reporter, "the strictest, most resolute, and 
most efficacious orders from the Emperor, that his friends 
shoidd consent to no election save that of the Cardinal 
of England.* So that when on the night of the election 
thousands of voices were shouting Monte ! Monte !'\ 1 
believed rather in the one voice, which cried England ; " 
the voice, that is to say, of the Emperor's ambassador. 
But the result was a notable instance of the proverbial 
impossibility of foretelling, under any circumstances, the 
most probable upshot of a Conclave. The Emperor, his 
ambassador, the Venetian resident, and the whole of the 
Imperialist party were on this occasion mistaken. 

Within the Conclave, in the meantime, what had been 
going on was certainly of a nature to throw out the 
previsions of the old hands. When the proposal to 
secure the election of Cardinal Pole, by proceeding to a 
sudden adoration, was made to him, and his supporters 
wished to hurry him into the chapel for the purpose, he 
could not be persuaded to accompany them, saying that 

• Eolat. Ven., ib. p. 147. 

f In anticipation that the Cardinal Del Monte would be elected. 



208 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

" he did not wish to enter by the window, but by the 
door, if it should please God that he should do so."* 
The conclavist, however, who has left us a narrative of 
the proceedings of this Conclave, says that the proposed 
adoration of Pole was deferred until the following morn- 
ing, because the Cardinals St. Marcello and Verallo, 
belonging to the Imperial party, were ill, and it was 
deemed necessary to wait for their concurrence in the 
election. So the cardinals of the Paolini and Imperial 
parties went to bed with the understanding that His 
Eminence of England was to be elected on the following 
morning. But the upshot showed the value of the Italian 
proverb, which tells you that you may give your enemy 
anything rather thail time! Some members of the 
French party learned the fact that all had been arranged 
for the election of the Cardinal of England the following 
morning, and spent the night in going privately from 
cell to cell, and endeavouring to persuade a few — some 
two or three would suffice — of the coalesced parties to 
desert their friends. And this they succeeded in doing. 
So that the next morning it was found that, whereas 
thirty-three votes were needed for an election — the entire 
number of cardinals in Conclave being forty-nine — Car- 
dinal Pole had only twenty-six ! The opportunity had 
been lost, not to return again. After this failure the 
votes became more and more scattered at every succeed- 
ing scrutiny ; and there was scarcely one of the older 
cardinals who did not conceive hopes, and put forward 
pretensions of his own. Scrutiny after scrutiny followed 
unavailingly, and there seemed little prospect of coming 

* Belat. Ven., ihidevu 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 209 

to an election. Amid all this, however, there was one 
man who remained unalterably firm in his determination 
to elect Pole if it were possible. This was the Cardinal 
di San Marcello, who became Pope, as Marcellus II., in 
the next Conclave. And the circumstance is worth 
mentioning as a testimony in favour of Reginald Pole ; 
for the Cardinal di San Marcello was in all probability 
by far the best man in that assembly, and was undoubt- 
edly one of the best who ever sat on the Papal throne. 

This state of things, says the conclavist, enabled also 
the Cardinal Salviati to make an attempt for himself, 
for there were many who were ready to vote for him. 
His friends accordingly went to Famese to see if he 
could be got to support such an election. Famese 
showed himself much averse to it. But on the Cardinal 
Sforza going to him on the same errand, he got him to 
promise that if they would write to the Emperor and 
obtain his approbation, he (Famese) would make no 
further opposition. So the Cardinal of Mantua, one of 
the Gonzagas, who was a warm supporter of Salviati, 
wrote to King Ferdinand, the Emperor's brother, beg- 
ging him to use his interest with his brother to induce 
him to consent to the election of Salviati. Ferdinand 
did write to the Emperor on the subject, but received 
so bitter* an answer, that he wrote back to the Cardinal 
of Mantua that he could not favour the election in 
question in any way. So there was an end of Salviati's 
hopes and candidateship ! All which is curious as. 
showing the sort of way in which the elections were 
carried on in that day, and how very far the Conclava 

• <« F{k cosi acerba la risposta." — Conclav, vol. i. p. 227. 
P 



210 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

was jfrom being impervious to communications with and 
from the outer world ! A cardinars dinner was to be 
examined, lest some written communication should be 
introduced into the Conclave hidden in the interior of a 
capon; and letters were openly addressed to and received 
from the potentates of Europe. It will be observed, 
however, that nothing is heard as yet of any regularised 
and formal veto. 

Gradually, in sheer despair apparently of coming to 
any more satisfactory election, an increasing number of 
votes began to drift towards the Cardinal Del Monte. 
Cardinal de Guise, however, did his utmost to oppose 
him, pointing out his defects, which were generally 
supposed to be a quickness to wrath and passion, and 
writing to France to warn the King that if his friends 
concurred in such an election, "he would directly he 
should be Pope give everything to the Emperor, to 
the great prejudice of his most Christian Majesty." 
The Cardinal do Guise, too, made an attempt on behalf 
of his uncle, the Cardinal of Loraine, and obtained a 
promise of support fi'om Famese. But the leaders of 
the Imperial party, getting scent of this conjunction, 
rushed off to Famese, and pointed out to him so strongly 
the objections of the Emperor to such an election, that 
Farncse withdrew his promise. Here again there is no 
sort of mention of any veto on the part of either the 
Emperor or the French King; yet the one was evidently 
anxious to exclude Del Monte, and the other to exclude 
de Guise. 

It was not till the 8th of February that the cardinals 
could agi'co to an election. And then a sufficient 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 211 

majority was found to make the Cardinal Del Monte 
Pope by the name of Julius III. His election was 
oaused wholly by the apparent impossibility of making 
any other. It was by no means because any party of 
those who concurred in the choice considered him to 
be the most fitting man among them for that supreme 
position, but because he was deemed the least objection- 
able of those whom it was possible to elect. The 
electors might fairly answer to their own consciences 
that, if they had not placed on the throne any one of the 
men, who might have been supposed to be the most fit 
man to be chosen, if in truth the Holy Ghost were the 
veritable controller of the election, they had endeavoured 
but had found it impossible to do better than they had 
done. And the election does not seem to have been 
vitiated by simony. It is related, indeed, that on one 
occasion, when a knot of cardinals, of whom Del Monte 
was one, were standing around the altar, after an un- 
successful scrutiny, discoursing of the apparent hope- 
lessness of the effort to come to any election at all, Del 
Monte said, " Well ! make me Pope, and the next day 
I will give you as a colleague my Prevotino " — a sort 
of clerkly official and intimate attached to a cardinal — 
words which seem to have been uttered jestingly, and 
to indicate, if they can be considered to indicate any- 
thing, that the speaker had little thought of being taken 
at his word. 

Julius III. was placed at the helm of St. Peter's 
barque when it was struggling in a very troubled and 
tempestuous sea; and he was utterly inadequate to 
assume the management of it. The duties he was en- 

p 2 



212 THE PAPAJf CONCLAVES. 

trusted to do in that state of life to which he had been 
called would have been very terribly arduous ones to 
any man. Julius cut the knot by doing nothing ! He 
assuredly has no place, by his own right, in a series 
called that of the " zealous Popes ! " There has hardly, 
perhaps, been one of the long line to whom such title 
would less apply ! But, as has been explained, our 
division has been adopted as much with an eye to the 
Conclaves as to the Popes. And the Conclave which 
elected Julius was a great improvement on its pre- 
decessors. Earnest attempts had been made to elect the 
truly best man there. They had miserably failed. But 
we shall see that the next Conclave shows a further im- 
provement, and marks clearly enough the change that 
was coming over the spirit of the Church. 



CHAPTER II. 

llaroellus 11. — ^His Character. — The Conclave which elected him. — The 
Choice lies between him and Cardinal Caraffa. — ^Hostility of the 
Imperial Party to the Latter. — ^The Meaning and Practice of * * Adora- 
tion," " Acchunation," or "Inspiration." — Anecdote of intrusive 
Conclavist at a Scrutiny. — ^Election of Marcellus 11. — ^His Death, 
and Conduct at the Council of Trent. 

Maecelltjs II. was the first of a very remarkable series 
of " zealous Popes "—of Pontiflfs, that is to say, who, if 
their conceptions of the functions, duties, and position 
of a true and supreme bishop of souls was still such as 
might have made philosophers smile and angels weep, 
were yet true and faithful Popes in so far as the main 
and earnestly pursued object of their lives was the 
prosperity, welfare, and advantage of the Church, as 
they understood the nature of these things. Marcellus 
was the first of these; but he, and he alone, was some- 
thing more. Marcello Cervini, of Montepulciano — ^for 
his baptismal name was Marcello, and having the pre- 
cedent of a predecessor of that name, a Pope and martyr 
at the beginning of the fourth century, he declined to 
change it on his elevation — ^was not only a zealous 
Pope, but a true, faithful, and pious bishop, and exem- 
plary man and Christian. 

" After the death of JuKus III.," says Kanke, " the 
religious party, composed of the defenders of strict 



214 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

principles of duty and conduct, for tiie first* time exer- 
cised an influence on the election of a Pope." " It was 
an election," he adds, " which already manifested the 
change of spirit that had begun to be dominant in the 
Church." And any one who reads the notices of the 
election which have reached us, with a somewhat larger 
appreciation of men and things than a conclavist can be 
supposed to have possessed, will hardly fail to recognise 
that such was the case. But the same remark has to be 
repeated here which was made on a former occasion 
with reference to the conclavist's narrative. He is 
evidently an old hand ; and such a person would be one 
of the last of mortals to comprehend or admit the exist- 
ence of any such changed spirit. Eeformation in such a 
matter, if it may be said, looking largely over the face 
of Europe and the progress of the world, that it came, 
and had to come, from below as regards the social supe- 
riorities and inferiorities, yet in Eome, in clerical Eome, 
and in that inmost heart and sanctuary of clerical Eome, 
the adepts of the Cuiia and the Conclave, clearly had 
to percolate from above. Little trace, accordingly, will 
be found of any other feeling than the old ti^aditional 
notions of intrigue, cunning, bargaining, and interest in 
the narration of the conclavist who has recorded the 
incidents of the Conclave that elected perhaps the best 
and purest man in the long line of Pontiffs. 

It is not to be imagined, however, that improvement 

* I haye said that to a certain degree a similar improyed tone and 
feeling may be observed to have characterized the motives of the electors 
in the preceding Conclave. The manifestation of the improved spirit of 
the time was, however, undoubtedly, far more marked in the Conclave 
which elected Marcellus. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 215 

had yet proceeded to the extent of inducing the 
members of the Sacred College to place the considera- 
tion of their duty towards God before that of their 
deference for the Emperor or the French King; but 
there was a disposition to elect the best and fittest 
man, should it turn out to be impossible to do that 
which the Emperor or the King desired — for, as may 
be supposed, the desires of King and Emperor were in 
diametrical opposition to each other. The Cardinal of 
Ferrara was the head of the French faction in the 
College, which was very numerous; and when the 
cardinals went into Conclave the general opinion was 
that he would be Pope. But the more authoritative 
cardinals were attached to the interest of the Emperor ; 
and many of the Italian cardinals took part with his 
Eminence of Ferrara, considering, as the conclavist tells 
us, that ^^ however the matter went they would be 
clear gainers by doing so ; since, if they should fail of 
making him Pope, they would at least profit by this 
demonstration of their good will, as they would have 
merited the favour of the King, from whom they might 
expect various marks of recognition." But such sup- 
porters were of course likely to fall away as soon as 
ever it became evident that the cause they had espoused 
was not going to be the winning one. 

I borrow the following statement of the result from 
Mr. Cartwright's book on Papal Conclaves.* 

• I do so because the author seems to hayo had an ampler narratiYe 
than that before me, which is in the collection of such relations by 
Gregorio Loti. The narrative quoted by Mr. Oaitwright is evidently 
the same as that which I have, for he cites certain passages which are 
almost — not quite — word for word the same. Yet he gives several 
particulars not to be found in my copy of the old conclaviflt's story. 



216 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

" On this occasion the cardinals appear to have had 
special grounds for being on their guard against the 
possible presence of unqualified conclavists " (Mr. Cart- 
wright means unqualified persons ; if they were con- 
clavists they were qualified), for the day after the 
closing of the gates and the formal expulsion of 
strangers they proceeded to an exceptional scrutiny 
of all who had remained withio. The whole population 
of the Conclave was got together in the Pauline Chapel, 
at the door of which the three cardinals, Gapi d* Ordine 
(i. e. the Dean of the College, who was the senior of the 
cardinal bishops, the senior of the cardinal priests, and 
the senior of the cardinal deacons), with the Cardinal 
Camerlengo, took their seats and scrutinized each in- 
dividual as he passed out singly before them, the result 
of the inspection being the ejection of fifteen interlopers. 
. . . After an unusual and imexplained delay, the 
cardinals, who had formally entered Conclave as long 
ago as the 5th, proceeded to a first ballot on the 9th 
of April, when the suflErages were found divided between 
Carafia (who subsequently became Paul the Fourth), the 
Cardinal of Chieti, and Cervini, Cardinal of Santa Croce. 
The first of these three was particularly obnoxious to 
the Imperialists; but his following was considerable, 
his infiuence formidable ; and his elevation to the Papal 
chair, out and out the result most deprecated from an 
Imperialist point of view, seemed not merely possible, 
but was considered likely to be assured, if the election 
were protracted another four-and-twenty hours. To 
defeat Ferreura's chance of success became accordingly 
the object above every other of the efforts of those 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 217 

cardinals who had at heart the Emperor's interest. To 
this end they quickly concerted to throw their inflnence 
withont loss of time on the side of Cervini, as the most 
generally popular candidate" (this hardly states the 
matter correctly. Cervini was in no wise a candidate 
at all, save in so far as he was a cardinal ; nor was the 
resolution of the Imperialists so immediately taken. 
Other attempts were made first, but Cervini was found 
to be the man on whom most votes could be united 
among those who might be supposed not utterly dis- 
tasteful to the Emperor), "even though there were 
grounds why he could not be specially agreeable to 
the Emperor, whom he had displeased during his 
presence as legate at the Council of Trent. But the 
danger of Ferrara's elevation was so imminent, that a 
sacrifice had to be made without loss of time. Under 
these circumstances it was resolved to carry the election 
by surprise before Ferrara and the French party had the 
opportunity to coimteract the move the next morning. 
Accordingly Cardinals Madruzzi (Trent) and Carafia 
stole privately to Cervini's cell to prepare him for what 
was coming, while the cardinals were assembled within 
the Paoline Chapel in debate, which became eager and 
hot. Suddenly up jumped Cardinal Crispo, a confede- 
rate, and exclaimed, ^ Up ! and let us be going ; I, for 
one, will not rebel against the Holy Ghost ! ' and with 
these words he led the way, followed by most of the 
cardinals, to the cell of Cervini, who was carried forcibly 
into the chapel amidst the vociferous acclamations not 
merely of his supporters, but even of most of his oppo- 
nents, when they saw the day lost for them. ^ Still 



k 



218 THE PAPAL COKCLAYBS. 

success had been snatched so far only by a bold stroke ; 
and to confirm the adverse party in disorganisation, the 
conclavists were employed to make the fact of Cervini's 
election known at once in the city, with the view of 
eliciting popular demonstrations that might efiectually 
suppress any awakening tendency to opposition. For 
what had occurred, though of unmistakable force, was yet 
quite informal, and before the acclaimed Cervini could 
legitimately call himself Pope, it was still necessary to 
go through certain elaborate and punctiliously enjoined 
formalities.' " 

The above passage, which is marked as a quotation, 
contains of course a statement of Mr. Cartwright's own 
views, and not the substance of any information given 
by the conclavist. And the view expressed in them is 
an entirely erroneous one. After the acclamation de- 
scribed, one thing, and one thing only, was needed to 
make the election complete, final, irrevocable, and 
canonical — the acceptance of the individual so acclaimed. 
Mr. Cartwright seems to fall into the same error when 
at another page of his usually accurate book (p. 152, 
note) he says, after citing the names of sundry Popes, 
whom the ecclesiastical writers consider to have been 
elected by " inspiration," " acclamation," or (more 
properly) " adoration," among whom Marcellus II. 
figures, "this list confounds acclamation, such as might 
follow discussion, with the little shout of miraculously 
spontaneous imanimity exacted by canonical prescrip- 
tions for an election by inspiration." The list rightly 
and properly " confounds " acclamation with inspiration. 
The two words in Conclave language mean the same 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 219 

thing ; but the term " adoration," still meaning the same 
process and the same thing is preferred by the best 
authorities. It is quite true that such a spontaneous 
unanimity as the canons contemplate for an election of 
this sort would be, not "little short of," but clearly 
"miraculous," and the Church considers it as such. 
It is quite true, further, that an unanimous acclamation 
or adoration following and produced by discussion and 
planned arrangement is a very different thing, and need 
have nothing at all miraculous about it. But it would 
seem to argue an ingenuousness, which a small amoimt 
of ecclesiastical reading would, it might be thought, 
dissipate for ever, to suppose that, because a plotted 
acclamation can, in truth, have none of the essential 
characteristics and qualities contemplated by the canons 
as constituting the real meaning and virtue of an elec- 
tion by adoration, therefore an election brought about 
by such planned and plotted acclamation cannot be the 
same thimg as that intended by the "inspiration" re- 
cognised by the Church. Of course there never was an 
election made by sudden and spontaneous unanimity of 
choice. That is the theory of what might conceivably 
be. The practice has always been to bring about these 
supposititious sudden impulses by previous plotting. 
It is true that unanimity is necessary to the validity of 
the process ; and it may at first sight seem to the un- 
initiated that if the members of the College in Conclave 
are or have after discussion become unanimous in their 
choice, there can be no need for plotting, and it can 
matter little by what process the votes of the electors 
are expressed. But the expression of such a notion 



220 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

would cause a smile of a very significant character to be 
visible in the eyes at least of every old conclavist. The 
proper and skilful management of the vote by adoration 
was one of the most delicate, subtle, and difficult por- 
tions of the science of a conclavist ; and an explanation 
of the methods in which it was worked, and of the 
nature of the dangers and difficulties which surroimded 
it, will be foimd at a subsequent page, where the 
doings of the Conclave which elected Paul V. are 
described at length. The necessity of a further and 
more orderly process in the case of Marcellus, whom 
nevertheless the Church has always considered to have 
been one of the Popes elected by "adoration," was 
doubtless occasioned, not by any fear that the validity 
of the election by adoration might be endangered by the 
fact that it was planned and not spontaneous, but by 
doubts respecting the unanimity of it. 

Mr. Cartwright proceeds : " In the heat of the 
moment the proposal was indeed heard to hoist Cervini 
without more ado into the Papal chair, and to proceed 
forthwith to the act of adoration ; but Medici, though 
a warm supporter, interfered, and drew attention to the 
necessity for observing careftdly in this case every en- 
joined prescription, as a safeguard against later chal- 
lenge of the election. At this admonition the cardinals 
calmed their excitement, and relapsing into a proper 
air of gravity, proceeded to their seats, while the con- 
clavists were ordered out of the chapel. * I alone went 
behind the altar,' writes the anonymous conclavist, 
* when the others were being driven out, and after the 
door had been closed came back again and put myself 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 221 

behind the Pope's chair, without anything being said to 
me, though I had been perceived by cardinals ; and so, 
all of them being seated, the Cardinal of Naples (CaraflEa), 
as Dean, stood up and gave his vote vivd voce for the 
Cardinal of Santa Croce ; and in the same manner did the 
others give their votes, a secretary writing down each 
like a notary, when, just as they had finished, the Ave 
Maria soimded, which having been repeated by all, 
as if in thanks to God for the consummation of the 
election, the Pope rose and made a little Latin speech, 
thanking the College for its choice, and expressing his 
resolve, though conscious of unworthiness and insuflfi- 
ciency for such a charge, to do his duty, with an en- 
gagement to attend to no private interest, but only to 
the good of all, and several other words very much to 
the point, and of great gravity. Hereupon the Cardinal 
of Naples as Dean got up and said, that, in observance of 
the ancient rules, a ballot should be taken the following 
morning, with the voting papers open, in order that 
his Holiness might see the good affection of all towards 
him, and this without prejudice of the present election, 
which was approved by all, who xmanimously would 
have the Pope speak the words, "Acceptamus sine 
prejudicio preasentis electionis." After this all the 
cardinals kissed the Pope ; and, the doors having been 
opened, I was the first who kissed his feet, which he 
would not have me do, saying that it would have been 
better next day. Nevertheless I did kiss them, and 
then all left the chapel, attending the Pope to his cell, 
which he found so thoroughly gutted by the conclavists 
that he was forced to betake himself into that of the 



222 THE PAPAL OOSCLATES. 

Cardinal of Montepnlciano, when he at once resolved on 
getting crowned next day in St. Peters. While all 
this noise was going on, the gates of the Conclave were 
forced and a mob entered, so that, but for Messer 
Antonio Comia,* the whole Conclave had a chance of 
being gutted. As soon as he had come in measures of 
precaution were, however, taken for everything, and no 
one entered more but a few prelates, who came to kiss 
the feet of his Holiness. All that night long one slept 
but badly from the sound and noise made by those who 
were removing their goods out of the Conclave. Next 
morning, Wednesday, the 10th, the Pope and cardinals 
entered the chapel an hour before day, according to the 
regulations ; and mass having been read by the Sacristan, 
all gave their votes open in behalf of the Cardinal of 
Santa Croce, who, not to vote for himself, gave his vote 
for the Cardinal of Naples. After this he was adored 
by all ; and Cardinal Pisani, as senior deacon, went, 
according to custom, to a window, and said to the people, 
^ Papam habomus' — his name being jVIareellus II., which 
he bore before, and would by no means change." 

Marccllus II. reigned twenty-three days only ! Men 
applied to him the words of Yirgil with reference to 
another Marccllus, and said that earth not being worthy 
of him. Heaven had but shown him for a moment to the 
world ! How infinite might not the consequences have 
been had it been otherwise ? He came cxactlv at the 
moment when such a man in Peter's seat was most 
wanted, and when the consequences of its occupation by 
such an one might have been most momentous. Look- 

• Tho '*Cu8tode" of tho Conclave. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 223 

ing at liis character, opinions, and conduct previously 
to and at the Council of Trent, it is hardly too much to 
suppose that, had the guidance of the Church remained 
in his hands as many years, as, from his age, might have 
been hoped, the divisions which have torn the Church 
might even then have been- healed, and the great schism 
avoided ! 

But worn out by previous travels and labours, and 
called on immediately after his elevation to perform his 
laborious part of the functions of the Holy Week, which, 
though suffering much, he would in no degree spare 
himself, he was attacked by a new access of fever, which 
assailed him while he was in the act of washing the 
feet of the thirteen pilgrims according to custom, and 
put an end to his life, on the twenty-third day of his 
pontificate, on the 1st of May, 1555, in the fifty-fourth 
year of his life. 



L 



CHAPTER III. 

The Conolaye which elected Paul lY. — ImperiaUst Party. — Cardinal 
Pole. — Besults in practice of the requirement of a two-thirds 
minority. — Cardinal Carpi excluded by Cardinal D'Este. — Cardinal 
Morone. — Objections to him. — Cardinal Pozzi. — Management of 
Famese. — Election of Paul lY. — ^Anecdote of the feeling of Bome 
on the occasion. — Character of CaraflGet, Paul IV. — Imperial " Veto '* 
disregarded in this election. — Saying of Caraffa respecting his own 
elevation. — Estimate and description of Paul by the Venetian 
Ambassador. — Giovanni Angelo Medici : his Family, Brother, 
Early History. — Character and personal appearance of Medici, 
Pius IV. — ^The Inquisition.-— Signs of the times. — Practice of giving 
complimentary votes. — ^Anecdote of the craft of a Conclavist — 
Cardinal Carpi again. — ^Why he was objectionable to D'Este. — 
Medici suddenly elected as a jn's aller. 

The Conclave which elected Paul IV., who ascended 
the Papal throne as successor of Marcellus on the 23rd 
of May, 1555, was in fact little other than a con- 
tinuation of the Conclave which elected his predecessor. 
The three and twenty days which separated the two 
were insufficient to have changed any of the conditions 
or removed any of the difficulties which existed when 
they were solved by the election of Marcellus. They 
were increased by the removal of that solution of them. 
The Imperialist party had made the last Pope, and their 
authority and influence having naturally been increased 
by that success, it was supposed that the creation of his 
successor would lie mainly in their hands. Their party 
was rendered yet further the more powerful, and had 
the greater chances of success, in that the most proper 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 225 

and fitted persons in the College — ^the most papdbili in 
Conclave slang — ^belonged to their fection. Eeginald 
Pole, who had been so nearly elected in the penultimate 
Conclave, was still a member of the Sacred College. 
The Cardinals Carpi and Morone were also among the 
most papdbili of the College, and were either of them 
acceptable to the Imperialists. But Pole had been 
present on the former occasion, and he was now absent — 
a very important and significant difference. It was felt, 
moreover, that the lapse of time that must occur before he 
could be expected to reach Eome, should he be elected, 
might be prejudicial to the interests of the Church. 
As for Carpi, his election was specially objected to 
by the Cardinal d'Este (Ferrara), the recognised head of 
the French party. And the fact that this circum- 
stance constrained the Imperialists to pass him over 
in their plans for filling the Papacy with one of their 
party is a good illustration of the manner in which 
party politics worked in the papal elections. 

If, indeed, the Impelrialist party had been strong 
enough to elect a candidate of their own without any 
reference to their adversaries — if, that is to say, they 
could securely count on constituting a two-thirds ma- 
jority of the electors — then, of course, none of the con- 
siderations in question would have come into play. But 
this was rarely the case. One party, for instance, might 
number, say, twenty-eight votes out of forty-five. Their 
adversaries would have the command of seventeen* 
Thirty votes axe needed to make an election. It is clear 
that if every man is perfectly true, and all of them per- 
fectly obstinate, no election could ever take place. And 

Q 



226 THE PAPAL C0NCLATS8. 

it is an approach to sucli conditions that has caused 
some Conclaves to be dragged out to such inconyenient 
lengths. But their Eminences are not perfectly obsti- 
nate, and still less are they all and each of them per- 
fectly true to their party engagements, not to mention 
that there may be some who have never assumed any 
party engagements. Then it is of course exceedingly 
easy to imderstand that a variety of other secondary 
considerations must exist to modify the individual 
wishes of each member of a party. TTis Eminence A, 
we will say, desires that some one of, say, the Imperial 
party should be made Pope. But seeing that that can- 
not be accomplished, he makes up his mind to vote for 
a member of the opposite faction, but not for any 
member of it. He can be induced to vote for B because 
he is the nephew of the Pope who created himself a 
cardinal, or for C because there is a connection between 
their families, &c., &c. But nothing will induce him to 
vote for D. When, therefore, a party, not quite strong 
enough to elect their own man, are determining who 
shall be the candidate to be put forward by the party, 
it behoves them to consider with the most minute and 
detailed care all the causes that may exist for rendering 
this or that man among the opponents likely to yield so 
far as to give his vote for such a candidate, whereas 
he would by no means desert his party for another. 
Sometimes also it will occur that, although a man may 
wish that some member of his faction should be elected, 
ho will prefer that a member of the opposite party 
should be made Pope rather than some one particular 
member of his own party. And all such motives have 



THE ZEAIiOXTS POPES. 227 

to be carefully considered by the party leaders who 
would avoid desertions among their followers at the 
critical moment. 

• Now, in the present instance, Cardinal Carpi was 
known to be especially objectionable to the Cardinal 
D'Este, the head of the French faction. And this was 
quite sufl&cient to prevent the leaders of the Imperial 
&ction from selecting him as the candidate of the party. 
In the language of the Conclave, he had an esclusiva from 
the Cardinal di Ferrara, and it was therefore useless to 
attempt to elect him. 

There was a difficulty, too, about Morone. There had 
been whispers as to the soundness of his orthodoxy. 
The awful word heresy had been heard in connection 
with his name, and these were times when such an 
accusation could not be disregeurded — when, indeed, any 
mere suspicion of a tendency to laxness on any of the 
points that were then making the dividing line between 
orthodoxy and the tenets of the sectarians would have 
been quite sufficient to prevent the greater number of 
the assembled cardinals from giving a vote to one labour- 
ing imder such an accusation. Curious enough to mark 
how far both the accusation and the importance of it 
shows the Church to have floated down the stream of 
tune during the last hundred years. Fancy anybody 
accusing Leo X. or Julius II. of heterodox opinions, 
or of his finding anybody to listen to him if he had 
done so ! 

Under these circumstances the leaders of the Impe- 
rialist party cast their eyes on Cardinal Pozzi, a mode- 
rate man, who was esteemed by all parties, and who, 

q2 



228 THE PAPAL GOKGLAYES. 

being a man of low birth, would not give any cause of 
jealousy on that ground to his princely fellow-cardinals. 
It seemed as if the election was as good as made ; and so 
it probably would have been, had not Cardinal FamesCi 
who, as the conclavist remarks, had been accustomed in 
so many Conclaves to dictate the law instead of being 
dictated to, suddenly taken offence at a decision having 
been come to, as he &ncied^ without due reference to 
his views on the matter. He immediately went into 
the Paoline Chapel, where the French party were as- 
sembled, very much out of heart and despairing of pre- 
venting the election of Pozzi by their adversaries, and 
offered to lend them his aid to elect Cardinal Fano. 
There were reasons, however, why the French leaders 
could not accept that proposition. Whereupon Famese 
at once proposed to them the Cardinal of Chieti (Caraffa), 
who was accepted by them, and was, by a coalition of 
the Paolines, or creatures of Paul III., under Famese 
and the cardinals in the French interest, elected Pope. 

The Cardinal of Chieti (Caraffa), who became Pope 
under the name of Paul IV., is on the list of those who 
are recorded to have been elected by adoration or accla- 
mation. And, in truth, it would seem as if their Emi- 
nences had been " inspired," or hurried into doing what 
they would hardly have done in a calmer manner and 
after more reflection. For the conclavist concludes his 
narrative by the remark, that " it is beyond belief what 
a melancholy fell, not only on all Eome, but on those 
who had themselves done the deed, as soon as ever it 
had become irrevocable!" Their "melancholy" was not 
perhaps wholly unreasonable, or, at least, was not unin- 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 229 

telligible. For this Giampietro CaraflEa, who was now 
Paul rV., came to his high office with at least a suffi- 
ciently high conception of its importance, and a stem 
determination to do his duty, as he understood it, in the 
state of life to which God had called him ! And he 
had, perhaps, more excuse for believing that he had been 
so called in a special and extraordinary manner, for he 
had gone into Conclave banned by the especial veto of 
the Emperor Charles V. Of all the cardinals composing 
the Sacred College, this was the one man whom the 
Emperor would be least willing to see Pope ! The veto 
had not yet come to be exercised with the regular 
forms and in the matter-of-course manner which pre- 
vailed a few years later. It ^as abusively growing into 
an admitted custom. And the failure of the Emperor's 
especially urged veto on this memorable occasion is a 
notable proof that the growth of the thing was abusive. 
Very highly characteristic of the man CaraflEa, too, was 
his reply, when it was signified to him, before the com- 
mencement of the Conclave, by the Emperwr^s ambassa- 
dor, Mendoza, that his master could not consent to his 
elevation to the Papacy. " If God wills that I should 
be the Pope," said CaraflEa, " the Emperor cannot 
prevent me from becoming such. And should I become 
such, I shall be the better pleased to have done so 
despite the imperial vetoy because it will be the more 
clear that my elevation will have been the work of God 
alone ! '^ 

It can hardly be doubted, looking at the matter from 
any standpoint of merely human policy and wisdom, 
that the sagacious old Emperor was right in his estinuite 



230 THE PAPAL COKCLATXS. 

of the cliaracter of the man, and of the results that would 
be likely to follow firom his elevation to the Papacy. If it 
is not unreasonable to conjecture that a prolongation of 
the reign of Marcellus II. might not impossibly have 
healed the great schism which divided the Church, it is 
at the least equally permissible to hold the conviction 
that Caraffa's mode of wielding the power of the keys 
and governing the Church finally destroyed any hope of 
such a consummation. Banke* says of him : ^^ If there 
was a party which proposed to itself the restoration of 
Catholicism in all its severity, he who now mounted the 
Papal throne was, not a member of, but the founder of 
that party. Paul IV. was already seventy-nine years 
old ; but his deep-set eyes still burned in their sockets 
with the fire of youth. He observed no rule in his 
daily life, often sleeping by day and studying all night. 
And woe to the servant who entered his room when he 
had not called him ! He was very tall, very thin, and 
his carriage and movements were full of vivacity. He 
seemed to be all nerves ! In everything he obeyed the 
impulse of the moment. But these impulses were 
dominated and produced by sentiments which had been 
developed in his mind during a long life, and which had 
become a part of his nature. He seemed to know no 
other duty, no other occupation, than the re-establish- 
ment of the ancient faith with all the absolute supre- 
macy which it had ever enjoyed." And the means 
which appeared to him most fitted for the attainment 
of this end were always of the most violent kind, and 

* Banke's description is taken mainly from the relation of the Venetian 
ambassador, Bemu^do Nayagero. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 231 

the freest use of both the spiritual and the material 
sword. He reigned somewhat more than four years, 
and died specially recommending to the assembled car- 
dinals whom he had called about him the Inquisition, 
which he had re-established and armed with new and 
more terrible powers ! 

It is a noteworthy indication of the efficacy of the 
spirit of the time in fashioning the characters and quali- 
fications of the Popes, thus causing that tendency 
observable in their history to group themselves into 
series, that the man who succeeded to Paul IV. also 
deserves to be ranked among "the zealous Popes," 
although it is impossible to conceive two men more com- 
pletely contrasted in temperament, character, opinions, 
and habits. This successor to the ferocious bigot Caraffa 
was Giovanni Angelo Medici, no recognised relative of 
the great Florentine family of that name, though doubt- 
less the imknown adventurer, Bernardino Medici, who 
settled in Milan, and there acquired a small fortune as a 
farmer of the taxes, was a member of it. This Bernar- 
dino had two sons, Giovanni Angelo, who became Pope, 
and Giangiacomo, who, beginning life as a " gentleman's 
gentleman," found means subsequently to thrust himself 
into positions yet more incongruous than that of own 
brother to a Pope ! His first essay towards " bettering 
himself" was to become a hravo. He hired himself to 
certain persons of high position in Milan as an assassin 
to murder a certain Visconti, which he duly accomplished. 
Thereupon his employers, desirous of making away with 
him too, sent him with a letter to the governor of the 
castle of Mus, on the Lake of Como, the tenor of which 



k 



232 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

was an order to that fdnctionary to put the bearer to 
death. But Giangiacomo, conceiying certain suspicions 
as to the nature of his errand, opened the letter, and 
haying thus obtained an accurate comprehension of the 
nature of the position, formed his plans for making him- 
self master of it with all promptitude. He collected a 
band of desperadoes like himself, presented himself at 
the castle, and having by means of his letter obtained 
admittance, overpowered the governor and his garrison, 
seized and held the castle for himself; and com- 
menced life as an independent chieftain, supporting 
himself and his men by raids on the Milanese, the 
Venetians, and the Swiss in the true spirit of an old 
border moss-trooper ! Getting tired of this after a while, 
he assumed the "white cross," and entered into the 
service of the Emperor, who made him Marquis of Marig- 
nano, and sent him to conduct the siege against Siena. 
In the imperial service he distinguished himself as the 
right man in the right place. As prudent as audacious, 
and as implacable as either, he was fortunate in all his 
undertakings, and did thoroughly the work he was sent 
to do. There was not a tree in the vicinity of Siena on 
which he had not caused some wretch, who had attempted 
to convey provisions into the leaguered city, to be hung; 
and it was calculated that five thousand persons had been 
put to death by his orders ! Such was the worthy whose 
rising fortunes formed a stepping-stone for his clerical 
brother to the Papacy. For when the Marquis of Marig- 
nano married an Orsini, who was the sister-in-law of the 
infamous Pier Luigi Farnese, the connection obtained for 
his brother a cardinal's hat ! 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 233 

Giovanni Angelo, howeyer, must have well seconded 
his fortune by his own merit. He is found constantly 
employed in the government of the different cities of the 
ecclesiastical States, and everywhere wnming golden 
opinions by his prudence, ability, and the goodness of his 
disposition. Paul IV. alone could not endure him ; and 
it is intelligible enough that the contrasted nature of the 
two men must have made them antipathetic to each 
other ; and when Caraffa mounted the throne, his des- 
tined successor deemed it prudent to absent himself 
from Bome. He lived at Milan or at the baths near 
Pisa, in both which places he beguiled his exile with 
literary occupations, and in the employment of his 
means in works of beneficence on a scale which, in 
either place, obtained for him the title of "father of 
the poor ! " 

Such was the man who followed the terrible Caraffa 
in the Papal throne. But the striking contrast between 
the two men was completed even in their personal appear- 
ance. "Picture to yourself," says Banke, drawing as 
usual from the Venetian ambassador, "an old man of 
extreme corpulence, but so active withal that he arrives 
at his country villa before the dawn of day. Serene of 
countenance, bright of eye, conversation, the pleasures 
of conviviality, and witty discourse are his favourite 
recreations. As soon as ever he is recovered from a 
dangerous illness we find him on horseback, and out at 
the favourite house which he had occupied when a car- 
dinal, briskly running up and down the stairs as he 
chuckled to himself, * No, no, no, we are not going to 
die yet ! ' He was as easy, as simple in his manner, as 



234 THE PAPAL CONCLAYBS. 

afiGable, as accessible to all, as his predecessor had been 
the reverse of all this. And although the sentence of 
death passed by him on the in&moxis nephews of 
Paul IV., whom their uncle himself had been forced to 
driye from Bome and to deprive of all employment^ 
showed that he could be severe when his duty required 
it, he was to the utmost of his power kind and indulgent 
to all. He hated the Inquisition, blamed the monkish 
narrowness and hardness of its proceedings, and very 
rarely attended any of its sittings. But ^Ae did not 
dare^ * to attack it ! He used to say that he understood 
nothing about it; that he could not call himself a 
theologian; and in fact he left it with all the power 
that Paul IV. had attributed to it.^^ 

It would not be easy to conceive a more striking testi- 
mony to the change that had come over the spirit of the 
times, than that statement that the Pope, little as he 
liked it, dared not to stretch out his hand against the 
ark of the Inquisition ! The Church had become once 
again a Church militant. Wicliff, Luther, and the con- 
sequences of their work had done the Church this alto- 
gether inestimable service. The days of struggle, of 
competition, had come back again with all their puri- 
fying, animating, arousing properties. Therefore it was 
that easy-going, jovial-tempered Pius IV. dared not 
move a finger against the Inquisition; and therefore 
that, though his natural temper and disposition would 
have tended to make of him a second, more kindly- 
tempered, more refined, more conscientious Leo X., it 
was still, as the Venetian ambassador tells us, ^^the 
* These are the words of Banke. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 235 

inmost and dearest thought and desire of his heart to 
exert all his power for the good of the Church ; " there- 
fore he "hopes, by the grace of God, to accomplish some 
good in the world." 

The election of the Cardinal Medici, however, as 
Pius IV. was, as that of his predecessor may be said to 
have been, a pis alkr, resulting from the same diffi- 
culties as those which had perplexed the former Con- 
clave but a few days previously, arising from the 
opposing interests of the Imperialists and the French 
parties. Of course these were complicated by a host 
of personal sympathies and antipathies, and were farther 
intensified by the newly arisen necessity of thinking also 
of the fitness of the man chosen for the duties to be 
entrusted to him. 

It was soon seen that the Conclave was, under these 
circumstances, likely to be a long one. And " you must 
know," writes the conclavist who has left us a narra- 
tive of this Conclave, " that it is customary in the Con- 
clave, when it is clearly seen that the election will be a 
long busin60% for the cardinals to give each other a 
good number of votes, not with any intention of arriving 
at a real election, but merely as a complimentary dis- 
tinction, and a means of showing to the outside world 
that the persons so honoured were held in consideration 
by their colleagues."* It thus came to pass that the 
Cardinal di Cueva, who was a man of pleasing manners 

* It will be observed, that the conclayist who writes this contem- 
plates the nnmber of the votes given in each abortive attempt at an 
election being perfectly well known as a matter of coarse outside, de- 
spite the burning of tko voting papers and the sworn secrecy of the 
Ocmdave. 



I 



236 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

and popular in the College, ihougli very fiur from pos- 
sessing any such qualities as would fit him for being 
made Pope, sent his conclavist, Fernando di Torres, to 
ask sundry cardinals, both of the Imperial and the 
French party, to pay him this compliment. But Torres 
did his work so well and zealously, going round to each 
of the cardinals privately in his cell, that he obtained 
the promises of a number of votes sufficient to make the 
election, while each of those who had promised him 
theirs did so in the firm persuasion that nobody had 
the slightest idea of electing Cueva, or that there was 
the remotest chance of such a result It was, however, 
the merest chance that prevented such a result from 
having been realised ! On going into the chapel for the 
scrutiny, the Cardinal Capo di Ferro in an otiose sort of 
manner asked those who chanced to be next to him for 
whom they were going to vote, which he would by no 
means have done if it had not been perfectly well 
understood on all sides that the business in hand was 
not serious, but merely a formal and complimentary 
voting. " Oh ! I am going to vote for Cueva ! " said 
the man asked. " So am I ! " said the man on the other 
side of Capo di Ferro ! " Per Bacco ! And so am I ! " 
cried Capo di Ferro. And a sudden suspicion darted 
into the minds of all three, that if they did not mind 
what they were about, that might happen which so very 
nearly had happened! The three cardinals, whose 
chance communication had thus saved the College from 
doing what it had not the smallest intention of doing, 
instantly destroyed the voting papers they had prepared 
and made new ones, openly declaring their reasons for 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 237 

doing so amid the general laughter of the assembly, in 
which his Eminence Cardinal Cueva heartily joined ! 

" Many other kinds of tricks were tried," says the 
conclavist, some of which being in connection with can- 
didates qualified to aspire in earnest to the Papacy were 
much praised,* and carefully recorded of the authors of 
them. Such was the plot of some of the leaders of the 
French party with a view to the election of Cardinal 
Toumon, a man, says the conclavist, very worthy of 
being elected by reason of his exemplary life, prudence, 
discretion, and administrative abilities, especially (as he 
notably adds) now that the fear that a French Pope 
might again take the Eoman Court to Avignon has 
vanished. Now the French party were able to muster 
about twenty-four votes among themselves; and they 
had reason to think that they could rely on four or five 
"accessits^t fr^^ among the Imperialists. But still 
the twenty-eight or nine votes thus obtained were not 
enough to make an election — ^all which calculations were 
perfectly well known to everybody in Conclave. Their 
plan was therefore to obtain the secret promise of some 
four or five accessitSy besides those which they could 
count upon as merely complimentary and given by men 
who were convinced that no election would be the re- 
sult, which might be given unexpectedly at the last, 
after the others had been recorded, and thus an election 

* It is fair to say that the word lodate is often used in snch a manner 
as to justify the translation of it as simply ** talked about,'' chiefly in 
the use of ** sulodate ** in the sense of ** aforesaid." 

f The exact meaning of this term, and the method of proceeding to 
the ** accessit,'' will be described at a future page. After each scrutiny 
the voters were at Liberty to change the vote they had just given for an 
** accession " to the numbers of those who had voted for ano^er. 



238 THE PAPAL COKCLAYZS. 

he attained. But they failed in getting enough of these 
secret promises ; and therefore, for the sake, as the con- 
clavist says, of not exposing their candidate to such an 
indignity as the discovery of an unsuccessful trick, did 
not make the attempt. 

Of those whose election was openly and avowedly put 
forward and canvassed, it was thought at the beginning 
of the Conclave that the Cardinal di Carpi was the most 
likely to succeed. He had been the only cardinal who 
had lived on terms of intimacy with the late Pope ; and 
as there was not a member of the Sacred College who 
was not in continual fear of the ever- vigilant severity of 
that terrible Pontifi*, so there was hardly one who had 
not striven to be on good terms with Carpi ; and, " in- 
asmuch," says the Conclavist, " as nothing is so pleas- 
ing to an old cardinal as to give him to understand that 
you wish him to be the living Pope's successor," all the 
members of the College living in Eome had more or less 
promised him their votes. He himself thought himself 
sure of the tiara. But it was a great blow to Cardinal 
D'Este, the head of the French faction — ^who, being on 
bad terms with Paul IV., had long been absent from 
Eome — to hear that Carpi was likely to be Pope; for 
that cardinal, so called from the name of his native city, 
which had once been an independent principality, but 
was now part of the domains of the D'Este family, was 
exceedingly anxious to restore the separate independence 
of Carpi, and was therefore a special enemy of the Duke 
of Ferrara, the brother of the Cardinal. In this danger 
the Cardinal Ferrara wrote to the Duke of Florence, 
who had recently become connected with the Duke of 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 239 

Perrara by marriage, promising that if he (the Duke) 
would induce the Cardinal Camerlengo, who was the 
leader of the Imperialist party, to oppose the election 
of Carpi, he (the Cardinal of Ferrara) with all the French 
party would give their votes to the Cardinal Medici. 
The Duke of Florence accepted the offer, and forthwith 
opened negotiations with the Cardinal Camerlengo, 
whom he found well prepared to fell in with his views, 
from a cause which, as the eonclavist remarks, might 
at first sight seem likely to have had quite a contrary 
effect. This was, that negotiations for a marriage 
(secret negotiations, the narrator says, though it is diffi- 
cult to understand why they should have been secret, 
save from the general tendency of those classes of people 
and those times to be secret in everything !) had been 
going on between the brother of the Camerlengo and 
the sister of Cardinal Carpi. For the Camerlengo 
argued that Carpi, " being a man of a very proud dis- 
position," would, if he became Pope, assuredly break off 
the marriage, for the sake of making some grander 
match ! The Camerlengo, therefore, and Ferrara found 
themselves agreed in the determination to exclude carpi. 
The former, indeed, seems to have had some difficulty in 
finding any valid reason to give him for declining to 
support his candidature. He told him, says the con- 
clavist, that if he was observed to show marked anxiety 
for his success, the secret of the proposed connection 
between their families might be suspected! Eeally 
this puts one in mind of the French burlesque of a 
melo-dramatic mystery, " Feignons a feindre, k fin de 
mieux dissimuler!" And the incident is only worth 



240 THE PAPAL COKCLATES. 

mentioning as a good example of the sort of considera- 
tions that often inflnenced the elections, and of the 
motives of their conduct which were put forward in 
the discussions between the electors. 

However, so large a number of cardinals were more 
or less hampered by the promises they had given, or at 
least the expectations they had held out, to Cardinal 
Carpi, that even after the coalition between the Card- 
inal D'Este and the Camerlengo the way to the election 
of Medici was by no means clear. And it was once 
more the veteran Famese who took the matter in hand, 
and was finally the maker of the new Pope. " At last," 
concludes the conclavist, " the Cardinal Famese, seeing 
all the confusion, and the struggles it gave rise to, 
resolved energetically to end the business; otherwise 
the Conclave would have lasted much longer. He 
therefore threw all his weight and that of his Mends 
into the scale in favour of Medici, who by virtue of this 
powerful assistance was elected all of a sudden, on the 
23rd of October, 1559, at eight o'clock in the evening ;" 
being thus the third Pope in succession elected by 
*^ Acclamation'^ or ^^ Adoration." 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Death of Pius IV. — Closing of the Council of Trent. — ^Ranke's Eemarks 
on the work of the Council.— Action of the work of the Council on 
the Character of the Popes. — ^Anecdote of a plot to assassinate 
Pius rV. — ^Michael Ghislieri : his antecedents and character. — 
Character of the Election. — Conclave which elected Pius IV.-:- 
Eivalry between Cardinals Famese and Borromeo. — Bepresontatiye 
of the old and of the new time. — Cardinal Altemps. — Anecdote of 
Borromeo at Florence. — Conclavist's View of Borromeo's character. 
— Moroni's imprisonment and acquittal on Charge of Heresy held 
in Conclave to be sufficient reason against his Election. — Borromeo 
wishes to elect him. — It is found impossible, however, to elect him. 
Duplicity of Famese towards Borromeo. — Cardinals Ferrara and 
D'Este hostile to Morone, and why. — ^Famese and Borromeo 
agree to the Election of Ghislieri. — Dismay in Conclave at the 
result accomplished in the Election of Pius V. 

Pius TV. reigned very nearly six years. He died 
on the 10th of December, 1565, having had the great 
pleasure and triumph of closing the Council of Trent 
two years previously. It has often been said that the 
work accomplished by the great Council was a fatal one 
for the Church. It was called for the reformation of 
abuses which it failed to reform ; and it finally fixed 
and clenched doctrines which must ever act as a burning 
of their ships by the heads of the Church. The Council 
has cut off the possibility of retreat from positions which 
the Church has assumed ; it has consolidated and fixed 
doctrines which must sooner or later be exploded and 
abandoned ; and it needs but a sufficiently far look into 
futurity to see and understand the justification of thosa 

B 



242 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

who maiiitain that the work of the great Council was, 
and will in time be seen to have been, suicidal. But 
for the time being it unquestionably strengthened the 
Church. There had ever been, as Eanke well remarks, 
a certain alloy of Protestantism within the Church. 
The Council expelled that virus. If it failed to accom- 
plish aught towards healing the schism which had cut 
Christendom in half, but had on the contrary made the 
gulf between the two halves so wide that it seemed im- 
possible to the men of those days — and might well so 
seem — that any one should pass from the one bank to the 
other, it at least marked out the frontier lines of tiie 
Church's dominion with no faltering or uncertain 
tracings, and thus enabled the rulers of the territory 
within the lines to govern it with a firmer and more 
vigorous sway and a more perfect uniformity of dis- 
cipline. It also left the Church at peace and accord 
with the civil powers of the countries which remained 
faithful to it ; and though this prepared the -way for 
the sleepy epoch, when zeal was once more to run low, 
the more immediate effect was to leave the Popes free to 
i, labour for and to stimulate them in the work of more 
and more completely catholicizing the Church, and 
enabling their clergy to fasten a surer and tighter grip 
on the social life of the people. 

The results of this intensification of Church action 
and Church feeling made themselves very sensibly felt 
by, and were very unmistakably visible in the conduct 
and fortunes of, the Popes and the makers of them. 
Pius IV., the third "zealous" Pope in succession, was 
already found not to be up to the mark. A Boman 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 243 

fanatic, conceiving himself to have a mission from God 
to give the world a worthier and more vigorous Pope, 
tind consequently, to make way for such by removing 
the occupant of the throne of St. Peter, had determined 
to assassinate Pius IV. He found an accomplice ; and 
the two men — ^their names were Accolti, the principal, 
and Canossa, the assistant — armed took up their positions 
in a spot which the Pope was about to pass in a pro- 
cession. Pius, unguarded, and whoUy unsuspicious of 
any man in a city, to all whose inhabitants he had ever 
•done good and not evil, came on tranquilly walking in 
the ranks of the procession. Nothing could have been 
easier than to strike him down. But the majesty which 
hedges a Pope was too much for the intending assassin. 
He trembled, turned pale, and stood as if paralyzed, 
while the Pope passed unharmed and unconscious. But 
Canossa, the original fanatic's recruit, was not only 
unnerved by the Pope's presence, but was moved after- 
wards by his conscience to confess the design ; and both 
he and Accolti perished on the scaflfbld. The value of 
the anecdote consists only in the indication afforded 
by it of the religious temper of the time, which had 
been heated to such a pitch of fanaticism, that the 
religious zeal of a Pope who, eager for the interests 
of the Church as he was, disliked the Inquisition, and 
would fain have persecuted no man, was not enough to 
satisfy it. 

The next Conclave found the means of contenting the 
temper of the times, for it gave as the fourth in the 
series of zealous Popes, and the culmination of it, one 
whom the Church has canonized — ^the last Pontiff whom 

b2 



Z44 ^*^gg ^%^%r. 'joaCLA: 

abe 2sm j^ -siniLetL in. itsr jec -nf snnsw f *^*jrfi not 

dnae ia. lo72 tf Priis* 3irv 5ftiar PinsL T. Tbl this 

r.j *: ranariaii* ± r^cim nf ^ae 'i-errTTarfng pendahim 
•/ pG^tfe W;^:r iz. ±e issceuisac. ssir wick drfrojit 
and trr=npcL i ri=s»s:2ri»3i of dte spcrit of Ptal lY. 
Bofn of LTTT.Kr- j<iret3 fa Ae TEIIa« of Bo6c«x near 
Alcxazkdna. z: P»iT:tT,t. be had enretei a Dominican 
rron^ect at tLe :l^ -if fo^o^iai. azid Iiad firtm tlie rery 
tegmT^mg of hfs career giTisi himself bcdr and soul to 
the most iig<c*roiL3 pnctice of all the austrnties^ and 
heart and mind to the assimilation of the sternest and 
most nnbending maxJTn^ of the moist fiercely intolerant 
of all the orders. This was at the time when the 
doctrines of the reformation were beginning to make some 
little show of jirogrc-ss in Italy — when an Olympia 
Morata had to fly across the Alps^ and a Tittoria 
Colonna might have had to accompany her had heresy 
lK;on as easy in a palace as in a professor s garret, or 
lia/1 the velleiUs of a princess been scrutinised as 
cloHoly as those of a poor professors wife ; and it was 
to do the work that had to be done in such times 
that Michael Ghislieri, while yet at an early age, was 
(hujined the fitting instrument, and was intrusted with 
the t(^rril)le powers of an Inquisitor. Called on to 
i^xcToiso his functions in the districts aroimd Como 
aiid Hcrgumo, where the communications of the people 
wilh llie Bwiss and Germans made the task an especially 
unluouH one, ho allowed no consideration to interfere 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 245 

with the uncompromising discharge of his harshest 
duties. No danger to life, often imminent, ever caused 
him to pause or spare to strike. And when the cause 
he thus supported became the victorious one, when the 
last spark of free thought was quenched by faggot 
and sword in Italy, Michael Ghislieri was naturally 
carried upward by the rising fortunes of his party. 
He was named Commissary of the Inquisition in Eome; 
and that kindred spirit, Paul IV., was not slow to per- 
ceive that Fra Michele was in truth a great servant of 
God, and worthy of being called to the high places in 
his Church. He named him Bishop of Nepi, and in 
1557, Ghislieri being then fifty-three, made him a 
cardinal. In the purple he in no degree relaxed the 
poverty and austerity of his life, telling those of his 
household that those who lived with him must live as if 
they were in a convent, and giving his own life wholly 
to ascetic practices and the duties of his position as 
inquisitor. 

Such was the man whom the Conclave which as- 
sembled on the death of the kindly Pius IV. set over 
themselves and over Christendom. And it was certainly 
one of the few elections to which the historians of the 
Church may point in justification of their theory, that 
the results of them are overruled by the special provi- 
dence of the Almighty. 

More than fifty cardinals went into Conclave after the 
death of Pius IV ; and it was thought that a number 
of electors so imusually large for those days would have 
made the election very difiBlcult, and the Conclave 
consequently a long one. But those, remarks the con- 



246 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

davist who has left a narrative of this Conclave, who 
so judged did not consider that "in these Conclaves, 
at least as far as has hitherto been seen, the Popes have 
always been elected by the heads of parties," and the 
other cardinals, be they as numerous as you will, have 
followed their lead. And the reason of this has been, 
either because the less distinguished members of the 
College have been in some way bound to the leaders of 
it or have feared to separate themselves from them, or 
because they have found that united in groups they 
were strong, but were powerless when isolated. The 
greater or less length of Conclaves has thus been seen to 
depend, says the conclavist, not on the larger or smaller 
number of the cardinals, but on the greater or lesser reso- 
lution and obstinacy of their leaders. 

The present Conclave, he goes on to show, was re- 
markable as having been wholly iminterfered with by 
any power or influence foreign to it. It was not sur- 
prising, he says, that neither the Emperor nor the King 
of France took much heed of what was being done in 
Eome, for both were too much occupied by the troubles 
and difficulties which surroimded them. But it was 
strange that Philip of Spain, the son of such a father as 
Charles V., who had always so well imderstood the 
importance of keeping a watchful eye on the papal elec- 
tions, being, too, as the conclavist says, free from 
trouble at home, and, moreover, having such large and 
important interests in Italy, should have made no at- 
tempt to meddle with the election in any way. Those 
who arc now better acquainted with Philip II. and his 
doings than the conclavist could have been, will pro- 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 247 

bably not agree with him in supposing that Philip did 
not interest himself in the result and management of the 
election, however little his hand may have been seen in 
it at Eome. 

The leaders of pai-ties, to whom the conclavist attri- 
butes all the responsibility of the election, were on this 
occasion two, who were such in a more marked and 
special degree than usual. These were the Cardinal 
Famese, whom we have already seen as the controlling 
spirit of so many Conclaves, and Carlo Borromeo, the 
celebrated Archbishop of Milan, and still more celebrated 
Saint Charles. It would be difficult to imagine to 
oneself two men more strikingly — one might say more 
picturesquely — contrasted than these two. They were 
so not merely, perhaps even not so much, by reason of 
their own distinctive characters, though these were dis- 
similar enough, as by the position and surroundings in 
which the circumstances of the time had placed them. 
Famese was markedly the representative of the old, 
and Borromeo of the new day, and that at a period when 
the change in the spirit of the time had been most rapid 
and most strongly marked. One might wish that Landor 
had thought of giving us an " Imaginary Conversa- 
tion" between these two men. How wonderfully he 
would have brought before us the contrast between the 
two representatives of epochs so near to each other, and 
yet so far asunder! How strange, how new-fangled, 
how pitiably enthusiastic and fanatical, must Borromeo^s 
ideas of the business upon which they were met have 
seemed to the old veteran of so many Conclaves, satu- 
rated from his earliest youth upwards with the very 



248 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

quintessence of thoroughly mundane poKcy and intrigue, 
which had in his day made the social atmosphere of 
Eome ! It was hardly possible that there should not 
have been some bitterness in the smile with which he 
saw this saintly young archbishop from the north come 
to upset all the old Eoman ideas, and turn the Boman 
world of his day upside down! Famese's day was 
nearly done now ; and we can fancy him saying to him- 
self that it was well that it should be so ! 

The position and authority of these two most influen- 
tial cardinals in the Conclave was analogous to that 
which their age and circumstances had caused them to 
exercise in the world in general. And Borromeo's in- 
fluence was by the nature of it the more powerful of the 
two. His following, consisting mainly of the yoimger 
men, the " creatures " of Pius IV., who was his tmcle, 
of his own cousin, the Cardinal Altemps, also a nephew 
of the late Pope, and his friends, were disposed to be 
led by him implicitly. The old cardinals, who were 
attached to Famese, many of them men of high and 
princely birth and station, were so mainly by virtue of 
old ties and friendships, of habitual respect for the great 
Famese name, and from having acted with him on many 
another occasion, rather than from any of those more 
active motives which are connected with plans and am- 
bitions and hopes and fears. And it is evident that such 
a following could not be led with that assumption of 
authority and certainty that Borromeo could exercise 
and coimt upon with regard to his own party. The 
passage of the conclavist's narrative in which he sums 
up the value in the Conclave of these differences is not 



THE ZEAXOUS POPES. 249 

a little amusing, as showing how far the new ideas and 
feelings which were moving the world were from having 
yet penetrated to that inmost sanctuary of the old, in 
which a Eoman conclavist lived and breathed and had 
his being. "But if Borromeo," says he, "was thus 
superior to Famese in his authority over his followers, 
the latter far excelled him in calmness of disposition, in 
resoluteness of will, in abundance of connections, and 
in having been in many Conclaves, and well accustomed 
for many long years to the various accidents of fortune, 
and all the diflBlculties incidental to the government of 
men. Borromeo, besides the want of dexterity which 
always accompanies the novice in any business, was of a 
subtle mind, and by nature extremely obstinate, which 
made negotiating and acting with him very difficult; 
and all the more so because his designs were fixed and 
rooted in a rigorous zeal for religion, making, as he did, 
open profession of an excessive goodness in such sort 
that it was impossible to move him from any impression 
he had received, either by persuasion or any regard for 
civil considerations." Evidently a very impracticable 
fellow to deal with ! When he was coming up to Eome 
from Milan on the news of the Pope's illness, with the 
probability that he could not recover, he had an inter- 
view with the Duke of Florence; and it would have 
been natural and proper, says the conclavist, seeing that 
the Duke was on terms of intimate friendship with the 
King of Spain, whose subject Borromeo was, that the 
latter should have consulted with the Duke respecting 
the election to be made when the vacancy of the Papal 
throne should occur. But though he had every oppor- 



250 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

tunity, and though news reached him at Florence that 
the Pope's condition was desperate, he wonld not speak 
a single word with the Duke respecting the coming 
election. " And this, it is said, was because there is a 
Bull prohibiting, under pain of excommunication, all 
negotiation or consultation respecting the election of a 
new Pope before the death of his predecessor." Such 
nonsense, you know I we cannot help hearing the old 
conclavist muttering to himself as he wrote. "When 
he got to Eome, and when the Pope was dead," con- 
tinues the narrator, " he showed the same harshness to 
Signor Marc Antonio Colonna, whose son had married 
his sister. Signor Marc Antonio was so offended by his 
harshness and ways of going on, that he left Home and 
went away to Marino. Afterwards, however,* being 
apparently ashamed of himself, the Cardinal begged 
him to return, and told him what he purposed to do, not 
to consult with him, as any one would have said was 
due to Signor Marc Antonio's intelligence and know- 
ledge of Eome and its affairs, but simply to pay him the 
compliment of showing confidence in him." 

How are you to deal with a fellow whose crabbed 
harshness is such that he takes the threatenings of a 
Bull menacing excommunication au serteuzj and declines 
consultation with his lay family connections as to his 
vote in the Conclave ? 

Borromeo seems to have gone into Conclave with the 
intention of giving all his support to Cardinal Moroni, 
and the general opinion was that he would be the new 
Pope. Moroni was, indeed, a man with probably higher 
claims to the suffrages of the electors, his colleagues, 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 251 

than any other member of the Sacred College. He had 
spent a long and laborions life in the administration and 
diplomatic business of the Holy See, had shown himself 
an able and indefatigable servant of the Church, had 
been remarkably successful in all the important affairs 
entrusted to him, including the very difficult, very 
delicate, and thorny task of presiding as legate ♦ at the 
great Cotmcil, and was a man of irreproachable life. 
But, as it is very easy to conceive might have been the 
case, especially as the result of the position in which he 
had been placed, the envious tongues of more narrow- 
minded and bigoted men had raised against him an 
accusation of heresy. And a whisper of the sort, when 
the terrible Paul IV. was sitting in St. Peter's seat, 
was sufficient to hurl down any man from any eminence, 
however high and however deservedly occupied. Paul 
threw the Cardinal Moroni, who had been his nearly 
successful rival in the Conclave which elected him, 
into prison ia the Castle of St. Angelo, in 1557. Four 
cardinals, one of whom was the rigid and inflexibly severe 
Ghislieri, who became Pope as Pius V. in the Conclave we 
are now describing, were appointed to examine the accu- 
sations, and him with reference to them. The Inquisitor 
examined him most rigorously on twenty-one articles 
(which may be seen printed in the " Literary Ameni- 
ties " (!) for the year 1729, vol. xii., printed at Leipzig), 

* It had originally been intended that he should haye opened the 
Council as legate at the commencement of it. But when the Council 
was after some delay assembled, this purpose was changed, it is not 
known for what reason, unless, perhaps, it may have been that somo 
difference of opinion arose between him and the Emperor Charles V. at 
a conference which took place between them at Innspruck. 



252 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

and finally pronounced him innocent and perfectly 
sound of faith, and gaye emphatic testimony to that 
eflEect to Paul IV. Paul thereupon said that he might 
leave his prison. But Moroni refused to do so till he 
should be formally and publicly absolved by Paul from 
the charges brought against him. This, to his eternal 
disgrace, the savage bigot would not do, but left him in 
prison till his own death ; — ^perhaps, says an ecclesiastical 
writer, for fear of condemning himself! A sincere 
firiendship, creditable to both of them, had always united 
Cardinal Medici — ^who became, as has been seen, Pius 
IV. — and Cardinal Moroni, despite their rivahy as can- 
didates for the Papacy in the Conclave which elected 
the former. Pius IV., of course, at once gave him fiill 
and exemplary absolution. But, though Moroni had 
since that time added to the brilliant list of his services 
to the Church the most important one of bringing the 
great Coimcil to a satisfactory close, though he was the 
candidate for the Papacy especially favoured by the 
Empire and by the Duke of Florence, and though he 
was supported by the whole weight of the influence of 
Carlo Borromeo, which was believed at the beginning of 
the Conclave to have been sufficient of itself to make 
the Pope, the taint which even the false, and proved 
false, accusation of heresy had left upon his name still 
so far clung to it, that even in the opinion of those who 
best knew the utter falseness of the charge, it was held 
to be a sufficient reason for not placing biTn in St. 
Peter^s seat ! 

Carlo Borromeo was not among those who so judged. 
KJaowing the man well, truly desirous above all things 



•the zealous popes. ' 253 

of elevating to the Papal throne the man whom he con- 
sidered most fitted in the interests of the Church and of 
the Faith to fill it, and deeming that the substantial issues 
at stake were far too important to be sacrificed or jeopar- 
dized for the sake of a shadow of a prejudice, he went 
into Conclave fully minded, as has been said, to elect 
Moroni; and for awhile it was the general opinion in 
the Conclave that he would assuredly be the Pope — 
a result that seemed the more certain when, on Bor- 
romeo's first opening himself on the subject to Famese, 
the latter appeared perfectly disposed to second his 
views, giving as a reason why such a nomination must 
be acceptable to him the curiously characteristic one 
that, in that case, no man would ever have left a 
Conclave with so much honour as he should leave that 
one, inasmuch as he would then have seen five Popes 
in succession, all cardinals the creatures of his great- 
uncle, Paul III. 

Notwithstanding all these favourable circumstances, 
the Conclave was not many days old before it began to 
be apparent that there were difficulties, perhaps insur- 
mountable ones, in the way of the election of Moroni. 
He had the reputation of being a man of great intellect 
and "profundity of mind.'' And this "profound intel- 
ligence, which few had been able to fathom, led many 
to fear that he might have desires equally profound;" 
that, however affable and benignant he might always 
have appeared, "this might have been assimied only 
for the attainment of his ends, whereas it might turn 
out that he was in reality of a haughty and proud 
disposition, deep and reserved in his designs, and likely 



254 THE PAPAL CONCLAYEIf. 

to show himself very different in power from that which 
he had been when under the authority of others." And 
then he had been accused of heresy. In fact, the case of 
Moroni was a signal instance of what has been often 
said of the papal elections, that too eminent a reputation 
for ability, learning, or intellect is not a recommen- 
dation to the majority of the electors. In a word, they 
were afraid of him ; and, as is wont to be the case with 
men so influenced, acting on the natural antipathy of 
small minds to large ones, in selecting one of their own 
calibre, they gave themselves a master who in very 
truth was one to be feared I 

The first symptom of these rising difficulties showed 
itself in the conduct of Famese. When first Borromeo 
went to him with the proposal to elect Moroni, the 
veteran received his overtures, as has been seen, with 
professions of his entire readiness to coincide with his 
younger colleague's views. But when, having spoken 
with his cousin Altemps of his confidence in their 
power to place Moroni on the throne since Famese was 
willing to assist them, he and Altemps returned together 
to Famese, they found his manner of speaking on the 
subject much changed. He said coldly that as far as he 
was concerned, he was ready to give his vote to Moroni, 
but that he warned them that they would find it a 
more difficult matter than they imagined to procure the 
election of Moroni. Whatever the cause may have 
been, he was evidently very differently disposed from 
what he had been a few hours ago. Either his first 
reception of Borromeo had been merely a specimen of 
the all-pervading and ever-present dis.-imulation which 



-THE ZEALOUS POPES. 255 

a long course of Conclave practice had made a portion 
of his nature, or he had had an opportunity in the 
interval really to become acquainted with the temper 
prevailing in the Conclave, and had really arrived at 
the conclusion that the attempt to elect Moroni would 
not be a successful one. If so, the omen was a bad one 
for Moroni and his supporters ; for if there was a man 
in the Conclave able to form a shrewd opinion as to the 
probable issue of the election, that man was Famese. 

Borromeo, however, though disappointed, would not 
by any means admit that it was a hopeless case ; and 
when Famese told him that he had reason to believe that 
Cardinal Medici and his Mends would oppose Moroni, 
replied that he gave himself no concern about that, as 
he felt sure that Medici would rather assist him than 
otherwise— a sort of answer in which the young Conclave 
hand is very apparent ! On leaving Famese, Borromeo 
at once betook himself to the cell of the Cardinal of 
TJrbino, where most of the older cardinals happened to 
be assembled, and had there an opportunity of discover- 
ing that they were almost to a man ill disposed towards 
the election of Moroni. The Cardinal d'Este and the Car- 
dinal di Ferrara, his uncle, finding that the report that 
Moroni was to be the new Pope had really some sem- 
blance of truth in it, began to exert themselves to avert 
a consummation which, for a very unworthy reason, 
would have been distasteful to them. Years before 
Moroni had been legate at Bologna, and in that capacity 
had taken part with the Bolognese in a quarrel with the 
people of Ferrara respecting some question of water 
right, and had reported in the same sense to Paul III. 



256 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

This letter feU, years afterwards, into the hands of the 
Cardinal of Ferrara, and he never forgave the writer of 
it ! He therefore now exerted all his influence to pre- 
vent the election of Moroni. As the opposition to him 
gathered strength and consistence, other private grudges 
were remembered, and those who had treasured them up 
saw their opportunity for gratifying a spite which they 
would have been ashamed to confess the existence of 
had there been none others to countenance their base- 
ness. In a word, Borromeo began to find that old 
Famese's experienced tact had not deceived him when 
he had said that it would be found more difficult than 
had been imagined to make Cardinal Moroni Pope. 
Nevertheless, Borromeo would not abandon his hope^ 
and was determined to push the matter to a scrutiny — 
evidently much to the disgust of the narrating con- 
clavist, who, strongly prejudiced as he shows himself aU 
through against this saintly young cardinal from the 
north, who "makes open profession of excessive good- 
ness," considered such a proceeding to be foolhardy, 
and against all the recognised rules of Conclave strategy. 
He pushed his audacity to the point of demanding, too, 
that this scrutiny should be by open vote. But the 
Cardinal of Ferrara publicly objected to this, saying 
that it was an undue curtailment of the liberty of many 
who might have reason to fear the consequences of 
letting their votes be known. Famese, notwithstanding 
his coldness and his warnings, stood true to his promise, 
saying that he was willing to give his vote openly or 
secretly for Moroni in any way that Borromeo might 
wish, and could only say that he was sorry if he had 



. THE ZEALOUS POPES. 257 

"been unable to induce his friends to follow him. Never- 
theless, he perhaps gave his vote in the full confidence 
that the abstention of his friends would suffice to make 
his doing so useless ; for it is pretty certain that Famese 
was not without hope of the tiara for himself. The 
scrutiny accordingly took place, and the result was, that 
with first votes and accessits together Moroni had 
twenty-nine votes, whereas thirty-five were needed to 
make an election. So there was an end to Moroni's 
chance, and to the chance which had been offered to 
the Church of escaping from the iron sway of one of the 
most ferocious bigots who ever made the pretensions of 
Komanism hatefiil to humanity. 

Some further attempts on the part of the friends of 
Famese to make a Pope from among their own faction 
only served to show that, if Borromeo could not effect an 
election without the aid of Farhese, so neither could Far- 
nese make the Pope without the aid of Borromeo. The 
result was that those two leaders in concert cast their 
eyes on Ghislieri — ^the Cardinale Alessandrino, as he 
was called, from Alexandria, near which was his native 
place. Borromeo made a point of consulting Moroni 
before giving in his adhesion ; but finding his friend 
altogether well inclined to such an election, assented. 
The Cardinal Alessandrino was suddenly proposed by 
the leaders, and was elected by adoration almost before- 
the electors knew what they had done. Never, perhaps,, 
was a Pope elected so much by a leap in the dark, so- 
entirely by the operation and will of two or three 
members of the Conclave alone, as in this case. It was 
a result that could not have been brought about by any 



258 THE PAPAL CONGLATES. 

other process of yoting fhan that of sudden adoration — 
a scheme made, as if purposely, for the fiu^ilitation of 
elections made by surprise, and without wisdom or con- 
sideration. In this instance the cardinals were fright- 
ened at what they had done the instant the act was 
completed I And well they might be ! For Pius V. 
was the man who, when the crop of condemnations by 
the Inquisition was small in any district, immediately 
drew the conclusion, not that the faith was pure and 
heresy rare in those parts, but that the inquisitors had 
been slack in doing their duty ! 

Borromeo had in all probability, as the conclavist 
who narrates the story of the Conclave plainly intimates, 
mismanaged the election in his inexperience of such 
matters. It seems probable that had he reversed the 
order of his tactics, and made his first proposal in favour 
of the Cardinal Alessandrino, reserving his efforts in 
favour of Moroni till the results of the struggle in the 
Conclave should have demonstrated the impossibility of 
arriving at any election without a cordial agreement 
between him and Famese, Moroni might have been 
Pope, for Famese had no special objection to him. 



CHAPTEE V. 

Character and Disposition of TJgo Boncompagno is dominated by the 
Spirit of the Age. — ^Felice Peretti, Sixtua V. — Saying attributed to 
him. — ^Urban Vn. — Sfondrato, Ghregory XTV. — His Character and 
Practices. — Fachinetti, Innocent IX. — ^Aldobrandino, Clement Vill. 
— ^His Character. — Characteristics of the Condayes that had elected 
these Popes. — Camillo Borghese, Paul V. — Conclave which elected 
him. —Principal Parties in it. — ^Their relative Strength, and the 
Manner in which it operated. — Attempt to elect Cardinal SaoH. — 
Anxiety of Aldobrandino's Party. — First Scrutiny. — Cardinal 
Bellarmine. — Cardinals Baronius and Borromeo. — Motives for 
putting forward Bellarmine. — Negotiation between Baronius and 
Aldobrandino. — Cardinal Montalto at Sapper. — Cardinal Camerino 
put forward, and dropped. — Cardinal San Clemente put forward. 
— Threatened ** Esdusiva." — Cardinal Tosco put forward. — Meeting 
of Cardinals for the exclusion of San Clemente. 

TJao Boncompagno, of Bologna, succeeded Pius V. as 
Gregory XIII., after the latter had reigned six years, 
in 1572. He was a man diametrically opposed in 
character and disposition to the ascetic Pius, his imme- 
diate predecessor, and much of the same nature as the 
penultimate Pope Pius IV. Though a good and con- 
scientiously religious man, he loved life and its enjoy- 
ments, and was of a cheerful disposition. But, as 
Eanke well remarks, Gregory was a very notable 
instance of the power over individuals of the dominant 
spirit of an epoch. An hundred years earlier he 
would have lived and ruled after the fashion of an 
Innocent VIII. As it was, he was subject to the 
tendencies of the time ; his mind was dominated by the 

s 2 



260 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

ascetic atmosphere of the men about him — ^the Jesuits, 
the Theatines, and such men as Frumento, Comaglia, 
Tolet, and Contavell ; and the jovial-tempered Gregory 
takes his place deservedly in the list of the " zealous 
Popes." Those who followed him did less violence to 
their natural dispositions in classing themselves in the 
same category. 

The celebrated swineherd, who became SixtusV. — 
that Felice Peretti, whose reply to some blockhead 
reproaching him with his humble origin, "Yes, but if 
you had ever been a swineherd, you would have been 
one still ! " has been preserved — had a more marked 
character of his own — one of those, indeed, which un- 
mistakably stamps its possessor as a ruler of men. He 
was very far from being a mere monastic ascetic or 
narrow-minded bigot; but he, too, very incontestably 
deserves a place in the group of zealous Popes. 

Urban VII. (Giambattista Castagna) was a man more 
of the kind of Pius V., without his force of character. 
But he reigned only thirteen days. The Conclave which 
elected him and that from which his successor, the 
Cardinal Sfondrato, came forth as Gregory XIV., may 
be considered to have been one and the same assembly. 
Sfondrato was also, as the Popes of this period seem to 
have almost all been by an invincible law, a pious and 
fanatic devotee. He was a man who fasted twice 
a week, celebrated mass every day, constantly went 
through the offices in his breviary on his knees, and 
then spent an hour with his favourite author, St. Bernard. 
But Gregory XIV. reigned only ten months; and the 
Conclave had to begin their work, which had been 



THE ZEALOUS POPES* 261 

difficult enough, over again where they had left it; 
and again to little purpose, for Giannantonio Fachinetti, 
who was elected as Innocent IX., reigned only two 
months. When his successor, the Florentine Ippolito 
Aldobrandino, ascended the throne as Clement VIII. 
in 1592, the era of the zealous Popes had not yet closed, 
and Clement was such, not only as a bishop but as a 
sovereign. He was a man of great abilities, of great 
power of work, and thoroughly conscientious. His 
reign of thirteen years was eminently useftd to all the 
best interests of the Church. 

The characteristics of all these Conclaves had been 
very much alike. The main influence which had shaped 
and ruled them had been the struggle between the 
Spanish and the French interests, varied, of course, by 
a multiplicity of considerations arising out of mere 
private and personal sympathies and antipathies. In all 
these rapidly recurring struggles the Spanish influence had 
been victorious. The spirit of Philip II., and that which 
he had succeeded in impressing on the Spanish people, 
were more in conformity with those tendencies which 
recent ecclesiastical events had imparted to the Church 
than were the ideas and tendencies prevailing in France. 

The often observed tendency of a long Papacy to 
bring about the election of a Pope antagonistic to his 
predecessor resumed its influence after the close of the 
reign of Clement ; and the French interept was successful 
in procuring the election of the Florentine Cardinal de' 
Medici as Leo XI. ; but he reigned only twenty-seven 
days, and the same men had to return to the Conclave to 
begin a second struggle. 



262 THE PAPAL CONGLAYES. 

The main features of all these Conclaves were, as 
has been observed, very similar ; and the limits assigned 
to the present volume must have been very considerably 
extended for it to have been possible to give the reader 
as detailed an account of each of them as has been 
attempted in the case of the first Popes of the zealous 
group ; while at the same ' time it would have been 
difficult to interest him in the ever-recurring plots, 
dissimulations, and manoeuvres which make the staple of 
the history of all of them. But the Conclave which 
elected Leo's successor, Camillo Borghese, as Paul V., 
was a curious and remarkable one, a detailed account 
of which will serve well as a specimen of the way 
in which the business of an election was transacted in 
the early days of what may be called modem times — 
in the period of Church earnestness which intervened 
between the audacious scandals and overt heathenism of 
the Italian renaissance time, and the sleepy times of 
comfortable easy-going orthodoxy and decorous propriety 
which succeeded. 

Such a detailed account of the Conclave which elected 
Camillo Borghese I have already written. And as on 
reading what I then wrote I do not find that I can 
better it, though doubtless it might be easily bettered, 
I may as well borrow the passage from the volume 
entitled *^ Paul the Pope and Paul the Friar," in which 
it first appeared. 

On the 11th of May, 1605, fifty-nine cardinals went 
into Conclave. They were divided into no less than 
four principal parties. The strongest seemed to be 
that of Cardinal Aldobrandino, the nephew of the last 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 263 

Pope, and was composed of his uncle's " creatures.'^ 
Of course there was also to a certain extent a natural 
bond of union and sympathy between the cardinals 
made by the same Pope ; and they naturally gathered 
around the man who had held the place of favourite, 
cardinal nephew, and prime minister during the time 
of their promotion. But ttie great and all but unlimited 
power which was always enjoyed by a cardinal nephew 
rarely failed to excite against him an immense amoimt 
of enmity and jealousy among the other cardinals of 
the creation of preceding Popes. None in that position 
had ever possessed this authority to a greater degree, 
during at least the latter years of the pontificate of 
Clement VIII., than the Cardinal Aldobrandino, who 
was in many respects a very able man. The creatures 
of former Papacies were equally naturally banded 
together in the Conclave against him. The strength 
of Cardinal Aldobrandino's party in the present Conclave 
was estimated at twenty-six votes. 

Next in force came the independent party of his 
opponents and enemies. They were chiefly under the 
influence and lead of the Cardinal Montalto, and counted 
twenty-one votes. 

Then there were thirdly and fourthly the cardinals 
wholly in the interest of the Court of Spain, and those 
wholly in the interest of the Court of France. The total 
number of votes, as we have seen, was fifty-nine. Of 
these, forty-seven have been already accoimted for; there 
remain twelve. And as the conclavist tells us, though 
without mentioning the numbers, that these two latter 
parties were of equal numerical strength, we must 



264 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

suppose them to have commanded six votes each ; bear- 
ing in mind, however, that some of those who owed 
their primary allegiance to their leader in the Conclave 
were doubtless also attached by preference either to the 
Spanish or the French interest. The action of the two 
great Catholic Powers in the Conclave generally was 
exerted to secure the exclusion of certain possible can- 
didates especially obnoxious to them. And a much 
smaller number of devoted adherents, of course, sufficed 
to attain this object, than would have availed to secure 
the election of any given individual. The number of 
votes necessary to make an election in the Conclave in 
question was, it will be observed, forty, that being the 
nearest possible approach to the requisite majority of 
two-thirds* 

It is clear, therefore, that, if all the members of the 
two strongest parties had remained obstinately true to 
their colours, no election could be efltected, even if the 
strongest of them, that of Aldobrandino, could have 
united to itself all the voices commanded by both Spain 
and France — a consummation entirely out of the question, 
inasmuch as any candidate acceptable to the one Power 
would be precisely the one whom the other would be 
most desirous of excluding. But it is not to be imagined 
that there was ever any chance that all the adherents of 
a party should remain perfectly staunch and to be trusted 
by its chief. Too great a number of subsidiary motives 
influenced different individuals, in a vast variety of ways, 
for this to be possible. One man would wish a Pope of 
his party to be elected, but not this or that particular 
individual; and if such a result appeared probable he 



THE ZEiXOUS POPES. 265 

would desert Ms party to avert it, more especially as he 
could do so without detection, unless it so happened that 
the scrutiny in which he had done so turned out to be the 
successful and final one ; for if the scrutiny of that voting 
resulted in no election, the papers containing the votes 
were burned without further examination. It will be 
readily imagined how tangled and vast a mass of hypocri- 
sies, false promises, and cross purposes such a system, to- 
gether with all the variety of motives and interests at work 
in those scarlet-hatted old heads, must have occasioned. 

The first move in the Conclave was an attempt on the 
part of the allies — i.e. the creatures of Popes anterior 
to Clement VIII. — ^to elect Cardinal Saoli, one of their 
number. Cardinal Visconti, who belonged to Aldobran- 
dino's camp, had lately, it was known, felt less well 
disposed towards his leader ; and as Saoli was Visconti's 
mother's cousin, he was easily induced to enter warmly 
into the scheme for electing him, and he succeeded in 
drawing several of the Aldobrandino party with him. 
Moreover, San Marcello, another of Aldobrandino's 
friends, though adhering to him firmly in every other 
circumstance, had declared that he could not vote against 
Saoli, because that Cardinal's brother, when Doge of 
Genoa, had favoured the reception of the San Marcello 
family as patricians of that republic. 

Aldobrandino, it must be observed, was very far 
from well at the time of entering into Conclave. It had 
been feared and hoped that he could not have joined it. 
He would not give up, however, and went in with the 
rest, but immediately retired to bed in his cell. 

Under these circumstances the friends of Saoli thought 



266 THE PAPAL CONGLAYES. 

that there was a very good chance of carrying his election 
by a sudden "adoration" at the very outset of the 
Conclave. But the Cardinal Saoli himself was unwilling 
to risk it. He was fully persuaded, says the conclavist, 
that Aldobrandino's illness would compel him to quit 
the Conclave, in which case he would have been sure of 
his election by the ordinary means of voting. He was 
mistaken in his calculation, and lost a chance which, the 
conclavist thinks, would have in all probalbiity turned 
out successful by his timidity. Some whisper, however, of 
the projected step had reached Aldobrandino and his 
friends, and kept them in great anxiety all the first day 
and all the first night ; so much so that Cardinal Cesi 
went to him about ten o'clock at night, and told him 
that he must get up, iU as he was, and go round among 
their Mends and show himself. Had he not done so, 
the conclavist thinks, the attempt at adoration would 
have been made by Saoli's Mends. The Aldobrandino 
faction, however, " in order to give the opposite faction 
something to chew," as the conclavist expresses it, in 
the meantime put about a rumour that very possibly an 
" adoration " of Cardinal Tosco, a favourite candidate of 
their own, would be attempted in the course of the night; 
and this had the effect of causing many of the allies to 
quit their beds and remain on the alert. 

The next morning after mass, said by the oldest Car- 
dinal, Como, the Conclave proceeded to the first scrutiny, 
in which, to the general surprise, fourteen votes were 
given to Cardinal Bellarmine. 

The only names in all the Conclave that have retained 
any place in history, besides that of the successful can- 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 267 

didate, were the Cardinals Baronius, Bellarmine, and 
Borromeo. All tliree of them belonged to the party of 
Aldobrandino. This unexpected result of the scrutiny 
puzzled the *majority of the assembly exceedingly. The 
Conclave, says the conclavist, was all in the dark ; for 
though Bellarmine was of the Aldobrandino or Clementine 
faction, that party had not thought of making him Pope. 
Though he was much beloved, and his character stood 
high, still, as our author remarks, his being a Jesuit, 
and being known to be " delicate of conscience," did not 
recommend him for the Papacy. The fact was that the 
motion of putting him forward had originated, not with 
his own party, but with that of Montalto and the allies. 
Sforza was his relative by the mother's side; and to 
Acquaviva, a nephew of the General of the Jesuits, his 
quality of Jesuit was a recommendation. The plan was 
originated by these two, who easily persuaded several of 
their own party to join them by the considerations that, 
as matters stood, there was no hope of electing Saoli ; 
that it was certain that the elevation of Bellarmine would 
not suit the views of Aldobrandino ; and that, let the 
matter turn either way, they could not but be gainers ; 
for if a sufficient nimiber of his own party joined them 
to elect him, they would have the merit of having given 
him the Papacy ; and if, on the other hand, the attempt 
failed, they would in all probability cause disunion among 
the Clementines, and very likely obtain Bellarmine's 
support for their own candidate Saoli. The whole of that 
day was spent in the intrigues to which this unexpected 
move gave rise. Baronius was an intimate Mend of 
Bellarmine, and was known to have spoken with Bor- 



268 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

romeo, who was also fevourable to him, of the expediency 
of such an election, though without any idea of realising 
it. Sfondrato, one of the knot of the allies who had 
started the candidature of Bellarmine, went' to Baronius 
and persuaded him to go, as on his own idea, to Aldo- 
brandino, and point out to him that if he and his Mends 
would vote for Bellarmine, he might be sure of sufficient 
support from the party of the allies to elect him. Aldo- 
brandino cautiously requested to know from Baronius 
his grounds for such an opinion; to which the latter 
replied that he might trust him, as his information was 
from a perfectly trustworthy source. Aldobrandino, 
however, divining how matters really stood, as soon as 
ever Baronius had left him, sent Cardinal San Giorgio 
to Bellarmine to assure him of his (Aldobrandinb's) per- 
fectly favourable disposition towards him; but, at the 
same time, to point out to him that the move in his 
favour was merely a trick of the other party, set on 
foot with the hope of sowing division among them, and 
to beg of him not to play into their hands, and be duped 
by lending any encouragement to their project. He, at 
the same time, sent two other of the younger cardinals 
round to all his adherents to warn them that the pro- 
posal to elect Bellarmine was only a trick of the 
adversaries, and to advise them "to go to bed and pay 
no attention to any rumours on the subject." All the 
cardinals belonging to the monastic orders were already 
astir, we are told, at the first report of a possibility of 
the election of Bellarmine, ready to exert themselves to 
the utmost to prevent the choice of a Jesuit Pope. 
Cardinal Sfondrato in the meantime, as soon as he 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 269 

had sent Baronius to Aldobrandino, as has been seen, 
himself proceeded to the cell of Montalto, the leader 
of his party, who was just sitting down to supper, 
and told him that intrigues were on foot in the Condaye 
for the election of Cardinal Como« The object of this 
&lsehood was, the conclavist tells us, to prevent 
Montalto from hurrying off to prevent the election of 
Bellarmine if any rumour of it should reach him. But 
the precaution was needless, our historian assures us, 
" for Montalto, seduced by the sight of the good things 
before him, replied that they might intrigue for any one 
they liked, for he did not mean for his part to leave his 
supper ! " So Sfondrato left him ; but on returning to his 
colleagues in the attempt to elect Bellarmine found that 
Aldobrandino^s vigilance and activity had put an end to 
all hopes of success. So there was an end to the chance 
of a Jesuit Pope, and of the first day of the Conclave. 

The next move was another attempt on the part of 
the allies to put forward Cardinal Camerino, who, 
though one of themselves, was thought not to be 
strongly objectionable to many of the other party. 
Aldobrandino had a conference with Montalto on the 
subject, and pretended to be desirous of inducing his 
party to accept this new candidate. But Montalto was 
not deceived by his professions. He saw that the 
Clementines did not intend to allow the elevation of 
Camerino, and dropped the attempt; not, however, 
without determining to avenge himself by opposing any 
candidate of Aldobrandino to the utmost of his power. 

Hitherto the active tentatives had been all on the 
part of the allies. Aldobrandino and his friends had as 



270 THB PAPAL C0NGLATE8. 

yet contented themselves with standing on the defensiye. 
But the real and earnest wish of the late cardinal 
nephew and minister was to bring about the election of 
Cardinal San Clemente, his intimate Mend and con- 
fidant. He had begun by securing the co-operation of 
the French party in return for his promise to insure the 
exclusion of the cardinals especially objected to by 
France. He had next applied to the Spaniards ; and as 
San Clemente was not among those whom they had 
orders to exclude they also promised their assistance. 
This seemed, therefore, to offer a better chance of 
coming to an election than any that had been yet pro- 
posed to the Conclaye. But, as has been seen, aU the 
Clementines, united to all the French and aU the 
Spaniards, only amounted to thirty-eight votes — ^two 
short of the number requisite. If, therefore, the allies 
held firmly together, they could prevent the possibility 
of San Clemente's election. And upon this occasion 
they not only seemed inclined to do so, but, not content 
with that, succeeded in inducing Cardinal Sordi, one 
of the French party, to break his engagement with 
Aldobrandino, and join them. They determined, more- 
over, to take the violent step of openly and by solemn 
resolution excluding San Clemente, declaring frankly 
that it was their determination not to vote for him — a 
very strong and decisive measure, because the cardinals 
taking part in it having thus declared themselves hostile 
to San Clemente, were definitively bound to struggle to 
the last against the election of a Pope in the person of 
one whom they had already rendered their enemy. 
Aldobrandino, therefore, was extremely anxious to 



THE ZEAXOUS POPES. 271 

avert this threatened measure, and did succeed in 
causing it to be delayed for one day— a respite which 
he calculated on emplo3ring in putting his adyersaries 
on a false scent. While still continuing every effort to 
seduce some one or two voices firom the allied party, he 
caused it to be rumoured in the Conclave that he had 
abandoned the hope of electing San Clemente, and was 
now intent on electing Cardinal Tosco, another of his 
adherents. With a view to throw dust into the vigilant 
eyes around him, he induced the Cardinal San Marcello, 
who had not entered the Conclave ip consequence of 
serious illness, to come in. One does not see how this 
could have been compatible with the strict prohibition 
of all intercourse with the world outside the Conclave. 
The conclavist, however, states the fact without 
observation; and we are left to suppose that the 
non-intercourse supposed to be assured by so many 
ostentatious precautions had become, like so many other 
pretensions and forms at Eome, a mere sham. 

The sick man was known to be a very intimate friend 
of Cardinal Tosco ; and Aldobrandino meant it to be 
supposed by everybody that San Marcello would never 
have thought of coming into the Conclave in his state 
were it not for the purpose of securing the election of 
his friend. Indeed, the poor invalid himself was duped 
by Aldobrandino, and supposed that it was really to 
elect Tosco that he was so urgently wanted. But if 
the sick man was deceived, the lynx-eyed watchfulness 
of the rest of the Conclave was not. Indeed, the study 
of these prize-matches of duplicity, and cunning, in 
which the sciences of simulation and dissimulation were 



272 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

carried to the most polished pitch of perfection, would 
lead us to the conclusion, that among masters of the craft 
the arts of defence were generally more than a match 
for those of attack. The unceasing efforts to deceive 
seem rarely to have succeeded. Unsleeping perpetual 
suspicion of every word spoken, and of every apparently 
insignificant detail of conduct, joined to life-long practice 
in the knowledge, estimate, and calculation of all the 
littlenesses, meannesses, selfishnesses, and hypocrisies of 
human, and more especially of priestly nature, sufficed 
almost invariably to guard against the strategy of a craft, 
every turn and double of which was &miliar to the 
objects of it. The open dealing of an honest man might 
probably have thrown them out entirely. 

The allies discovered that it was still San Clemento 
who was advancing to the Papacy under the mantle of 
Tosco, as the conclavist expresses it. They determined, 
therefore, on the next day to proceed, as they had 
threatened, to the open and avowed resolution of ex- 
cluding him. This they accordingly did. And oui* 
conclavist's account of the meeting held for the purpose 
gives us a dramatic little peep at Conclave life. 

The meeting was held in the cell of Cardinal 
Bevilacqua, one of the less notable members of the 
party. And their Eminences were just about to begin 
the business in hand when two of the youngest cardinals 
of Aldobrandino's party, Pio and San Cesareo, entered 
the cell, as if strolling in by chance to visit its 
occupant. They had been sent on this errand by 
Aldobrandino in the hope that their imwelcome presence 
might drive the allies assembled there to put off the 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 273 

business they were engaged in, and thus gain a little 
time, which he might be able to put to profit. The 
young intruders began joking and talking on all sorts 
of irrelevant matters. But the veterans with whom 
they had to deal were not to be beaten in that manner. 
Visconti, Sforza, and Sfondrato turned away together 
for a moment, and having rapidly decided on their 
course returned to the general circle; when Visconti, 
addressing Pio and San Cesareo, said plainly that they 
were there for the purpose of formally agreeing to the 
exclusion of Cardinal San Clemente, and that if it pleased 
their Eminences to remain they would at all events servo 
as witnesses of the declaration about to be made. Ho 
then proceeded to declare, in his own name and in that 
of all their friends, that they boimd themselves together 
not to elect San Clemente. He rehearsed the names of 
the allies agreeing in this resolution one by one. When 
he named Montalto, San Cesareo interrupted him, saying, 
"Nay, his Eminence of Montalto is present; let him 
speak for himself ! " " No, no ! '' returned Montalto, 
smiling ; " let Visconti be spokesman ; I ratify all ho 
says ! " Cardinal Esto, when Visconti came to his name, 
added, " I confirm it; and only wish that I had a dozen 
votes to make the exclusion more overwhelming.'^ 
"And now," said Visconti, when he had finished,, 
"we may go to bed!'' "Ah, we may!" exclaimed 
Sfondrato, turning to leave the cell; "and your 
Eminences," he added, looking towards Pio and San 
Cesareo with a laugh as he went, "may now go and 
elect a Pope, if you can ! " 



CHAPTEE VL 

Contmiiation of the CondATe tliat elected Fknl Y. — Aldobnadino 
determines to elect Ceidiml Tosco. — ^Pointa for and egmmst him. 
— Attempt to elect Tosco by " Adoration." — ^Mbntallo's Indecision. 
— Remarkable Scene in the Cell of Cardinal AoqaaTiva. — ConfiBrenoe 
between Aldobrandino and Montalto. — The Latter unwillingly 
agrees to the Election of Tosco, which appears all bat certain. — 
8aspense of Tosco. — ^Remarkable Step taken by Bazonins. — ^He 
alone by the Ascendancy of his Character preyents the Election of 
Tosco. — Bazonios himself nearly elected. — The " Sala Regia " in 
the Vatican. — Party Tactics thrown into Confusion. — ^Tosoo's 
Disappointment. — Extraordinary Scene in the Sala Regia and the 
Sistine and Paoline ChapelB. — ^Borghese at length proposed by 
common Accord, and elected as Paul Y. 

Bitter was Aldobrandino's anger and mortification 
when his two emissaries retnmed and made their 
report. He immediately collected all his own ad- 
herents, among whom might now be counted most of 
the French and Spanish supporters, to consider what 
was next to be done. The first measure determined on 
was to proceed to an exclusion of Cardinal Saoli, yet 
more solemn and formal than that pronounced by theii' 
adversaries against San Clemente — a step which would 
seem to have been prompted entirely by i)ique and 
anger, as the election of Saoli had already entirely 
failed, and there does not appear any indication that the 
allies had any thought of bringing him forward again. 
The meeting, however, to the number of twenty-two, 
decreed the exclusion; and then, having taken the 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 275 

precaution of causing the door and outside of the cell to 
be so guarded by their conclavists that there was no 
danger that a trick should be played them, such as they 
had played on the meeting for the exclusion of San 
Clemente, they bound themselves by an agreement to 
give their votes unanimously to any one of those then 
present whom Aldobrandino might designate. 

It was farther determined that the whole strength of 
the party should be exerted to elect Cardinal Tosco, 
this time in earnest, and not as a blind to other designs. 
This was a candidature that seemed to offer much more 
chances of success than any other which had yet been 
tried. Tosco was not objected to by the representatives 
in the Conclave of either Spain or Prance. It was 
known that his election would be agreeable both to the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany and to the Duke of Savoy. He 
was, moreover, by no means objectionable to many of the 
party of the allies. The Cardinals D'Este and Sfondrato 
were both favourable to him; and even Montalto had 
promised the Grand Duke that he would give Tosco his 
support if he should be imable to elect any one of his 
own party. In short, says the conclavist, it seemed 
as if he had no opposing influences against him, save 
those of a few scrupulous consciences — especially Baro- 
nius and one or two of his friends — ^who objected to 
him that he was licentious in his conversation and 
negligent of his pastoral duties, so much so that, having 
been for many years Bishop of Tivoli, he had never 
once been near his see. But, as the conclavist re- 
marks, such objections were nothing against so large an 
amount of favour. 

T 2 



276 THE PAPAL CONCLATBS. 

Montalto, however, was by no means willing to 
concur at once in Tosco's election. He still nourished 
hopes of electing some one of his own special adherents. 
He did not, however, wish to take any step towards a 
formal exclusion of Tosco, and contented himself, there- 
fore, with exacting a promise from the cardinals of Ms 
party that they would do nothing towards his election 
before the expiration of a delay of ten days, thinking 
that this would give him time to try the chances of his 
own special friends. 

Having obtained this, Montalto had gone to bed on 
the night of the 16th, tranquil on the subject of Tosco's 
candidature, when he was suddenly waked by the noise 
of Aldobrandino, accompanied by all his adherents and 
the Spanish and French parties, coming into the 
corridor, where he was urging them to hurry Tosco 
at onco into the chapel, and try for an election by 
^^ Adoration." In this conjuncture, those of the allies 
who were favourable to Tosco hurried to Montalto to 
press on him the immediate necessity of resolving on a 
line of action. There was great probability that the 
^^ Adoration" might succeed; and, in that case, would it 
be worth while for them to risk showing hostility to 
one so likely to be Pope merely to oppose an election, 
to which after all they had no strong dislike? The 
allies were gathered in the cell of Acquaviva, says the 
conclavist, in great trepidation, urgently pressing 
Montalto to come to a decision. He complained bit- 
terly that they were breaking their engagement to do 
nothing in the matter of Tosco for ten days. In vain 
they pointed out to him that there was no hope of his 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 277 

making a Pope from among his own special adherents ; 
that they were still willing to follow his lead ; but that 
by their present position of indecision at so critical a 
moment they were only risking the election of a Pope in 
spite of them, when it was in their power, without any 
sacrifice of principle, by yielding graceftdly, to take their 
share in the election, and by so doing make the future 
Pontiff their friend instead of their enemy. Those, 
however, who thus argued were the members of the 
party who had themselves no hope of or pretensions 
to the Papacy. The three or four among the party of 
the allies who each hoped that he might be the man 
stood by, in the words of the narrator, in icy silence, 
while the others were thus warmly urging Montalto, 
and by their reserved and cold demeanour increased the 
irresolution of his naturally slow and hesitating dispo- 
sition. At length the urgency of the case, and the 
approaching voices of the crowd accompanying Aldo- 
brandino, who seemed on the point of proceeding 
to the chapel to perform the "Adoration," produced 
symptoms of a mutiny among some of the followers of 
Montalto. What was the use, they said, of talking 
about ten days, even if there were any prospect of doing 
anything at the end of them, when the Pope would be 
made there and then before their eyes in ten minutes. 
They should yield to necessity, they said, and join in 
an act they were unable to prevent. They could still 
have prevented it, if every man of them had stood firm, 
and if each of them could have trusted all the rest. 
But this was just what was impossible to them. And 
the smallest defection was fatal; for only a voice or 



278 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

two was wanting to make those intent on electing Tosco 
a majority of the necessary amount. 

Famese and Sfondrato were standing at the door of 
the cell in which the rest of their colleagues had been 
enacting the scene described; and when they heard 
some Toices of the party expressing their intentions as 
aboye, they adopted the strong measure of going 
instantly to Aldobrandino, where he stood in the midst 
of his followers, and inviting him to a conference with 
Montalto. The measure, it will be observed, was sud- 
denly adopted without any authorisation from that 
Cardinal himself. Famese and Sfondrato took each an 
arm of the hostile chief, and led him to the cell where 
Montalto and the allies were. Sfondrato took upon 
himself to be spokesman. They all ought to thank the 
Almighty, he said, who had providentially led them to 
agree in so excellent an election. All ought to join in 
it alike, and forget past animosities. Montalto stood 
leaning against a table, with downcast eyes and strongly 
working features, in which the agony of abandoning his 
own hopes and the bitterness of yieldiag himself to the 
accomplishment of those of his adversary were violently 
expressed. Concentrated rage contributed also to throw 
his mind off its balance, for he felt that he had been 
betrayed by his Mends. He knew that if only they 
had all been true to their promises and to each other, 
the adversaries could not have accomplished an election. 
He knew also that in yieldiag thus tardily and reluc- 
tantly, hCy at least, would have none of the merit of 
yielding in the eyes of the new Pope. Those who had 
made his doing so necessary might claim the merit of 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 279 

their defection ; but it was too clear that the Pope to be 
thus elected was elected in his despite. 

In answer to Sfondrato's address he replied no word ; 
nor did he raise his eyes or turn towards Aldobrandino^ 
but he silently put out his hand to him. And they 
went forth together into the hall, where the crowd of 
cardinals, now consisting of nearly all the Conclave, 
were waiting to proceed to the chapel for the " Adora- 
tion." For it is observable that, notwithstanding the 
apparent union of the parties, the Clementines, who had 
prevailed, did not deem it advisable to trust to a 
scrutiny, but were still bent on hurrying to the qtdcker 
and more open process of " Adoration." 

And now the election of Cardinal Tosco seemed 
certain. He himself, meanwhile, was walking up and 
down with the Cardinals San Giorgio and Diatristain 
in a distant part of the vast Vatican galleries. His 
companions urged him to go with them at once to the 
chapel; but he shrunk from doing this, preferring to 
wait till Aldobrandino or some of the others came to 
bring him thither, according to the custom in such cases. 
But as the minutes went on, and nobody came. Cardinal 
San Giorgio sent his conclavist to see how matters were 
going on. He came into the hall just as Aldobrandino 
and Montalto, hand in hand, came forth to the body of 
the cardinals from the cell of Acquaviva. Eetuming 
therefore in all haste, he told his master and Tosco what 
he had seen, and said that both the chiefs were coming 
with a large number of their followers to bring Cardinal 
Tosco to the chapel. At the same time a timiultuous 
crowd of conclavists came rushing towards the cell of 



280 THE PAPAL C0KCLAYE8. 

the Pope elect, to make booty of all that it contained, 
according to recognised and tolerated custom. Indeed 
the election seemed as good as if already made. 

Bnt now came a sudden slip between the cup and the 
lip, which changed the whole face of things in the 
Conclave, ai;id produced as strange a scene as had ever 
been witnessed in any of those remarkable assemblies, 
which had enacted and seen so many curious dramas. 

While Aldobrandino and Montalto were on the point 
of going to bring Cardinal Tosco to the spot where the 
crowd of cardinals were waiting to conduct him triumph- 
antly to the chapel for the " Adoration," two cardinals 
held aloof, and were walking up and down the gallery 
together at a little distance, in deep and evidently not 
well-pleased conversation. These were Baronius* and 
Tarugio, an intimate Mend of his, who were, as the 
conclavist says with an evident sneer, " professors of a 
scrupulous conscience," and as such could not approve of 
the elevation to the Papacy of such a man as Cardinal 
Tosco. While the negotiations had been going on that 
resulted in the all but certainty of his election, Aldo- 
brandino had sent no less than seven successive messages 
to Baronius, urging him to join the rest of the party — 
and now, since the accession of Montalto and his friends, 
it might be said the rest of the Conclave — in the proposed 
"Adoration" of Tosco. This persistence on the part 
of Aldobrandino is remarkable. After the yielding of 
Montalto and his party, there could be no doubt about 



^ I have used here and elsewhere the Latin instead of the Italian form 
of the great Church historian's name, because it is so familiar to the 
English reader. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 281 

the sufficiency of the votes to carry the election. The 
abstention of Baronius and his friend could in nowise 
have affected the result. Yet Aldobrandino, before pro- 
ceeding to the chapel, made another — the eighth — effort 
to carry Baronius with him. If we are to suppose that 
this anxiety was caused simply by respect for the high 
character and reputation of Baronius, and by an uneasy 
sense of the responsibility of proceeding to the election 
of the Pope despite the manifest disapprobation and silent 
protest of the man whose character had greater weight 
than that of any other there, it deserves noting as an 
example of conscientiousness so rare and strange in that 
world of sacerdotal princes, as to seem almost incredible 
to us, and quite so to the bystanders who witnessed it. 
So much so, that our conclavist guide to these mysteries 
declares that Aldobrandino's imprudence could only be 
accounted for on the supposition of an immediate inter- 
position of Providence, thus working out its own designs 
for the election. 

On receiving this eighth message, which begged that 
Baronius and Tarugio would come and confer with 
Aldobrandino, without any reference to the matter inmie- 
diately in hand, Baronius yielded, and following the 
messenger to the great hall, found himself there in the 
midst of the unanimous assembly of nearly the whole 
Conclave, bent on proceeding at once to the "Adoration." 
Aldobrandino had evidently calculated on his not having 
sufficient moral courage to stand out alone and con- 
spicuously beneath the eyes of his assembled colleagues. 
But his calculation had been based on an insufficient 
estimate of the man. Kot only did he adhere to his 



282 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

refusal to join in the Tote, but proceeded openly to state 
his reasons for doing so. Their first and absolute duty, 
he said, was to elect a man of irreproachable character ; 
and for his part it should be written in his Annals * that 
he was the last to concur in the choice proposed. It 
was answered by those around that the election was 
good and respectable, and the subject of it certainly a 
worthy one ; an assertion which he repudiated, says the 
conclavist, by the most expressive gestures, ^^ beating 
his breast, and shaking his head, and uttering broken 
words and sighs." 

Conduct so frank and vehement, a manifestation of 
sentiments so open, public, and fearless, was almost 
unprecedented in that world of cautious reticence and 
simulation,' and the result produced by it on the dig- 
nified crowd around was remarkable. Montalto first, 
who saw in this unexpected diversion a possibility of 
escaping from the election which a moment ago seemed 
inevitable, and which was fatal to aU his cherished hopes, 
was, or pretended f to be, extremely agitated, and cried 
out that in truth it were well to lay to heart the words 

• The ** Annali " is the great work by which Baronius is known to 
the world. The conclavist makes a ludicrons and inconceivable error 
in his record of this declaration of the great Church historian. He 
protested, says the conclavist— or the printer for him — that it should 
be written in his hoots, — " negli suoi stivali." The real phrase is supplied 
by the Venetian ambassador's account of the Conclave. 

f Montalto was one of the last men in the Conclave to have been 
really touched by any such appeal. Here is a character of him, as he 
was thirteen years before the present time. " A handsome young man, 
luzuiious, with no firmness of character, broken by debauch, with an 
income of an hundred thousand crowns, and debts to the amount of four 
hundred thousand, it was impossible that he should be his own master. 
His passions, his vices, constrained him to be dependent upon the courts 
of Europe. Ho had offered himself to the King of Spain, and had been 
accepted." 



THE ZEAXOUS POPES. 283 

they had just heard I Sordi, who stood next to him, and 
who was one of the representatives of the French interest, 
to which Baronius was especially acceptable, cried out 
that a saint of God had spoken, and that the words of 
such a man should not be let &11 to the ground. Mon- 
talto, finding himself thus seconded, ^4ost his head alto- 
gether,'' says the conclavist ; and forgetting that in the 
last Conclave, which had closed little more than a month 
ago, he had especially excluded Baronius, cried aloud, 
*' Let us elect Baronius ! I go for Baronius I " Some 
of his own Mends took up the cry ; and all the French 
adherents shouted ^^ Baronius ! Baronius ! " and the 
conclavists outside the circle raised the same cry. On 
this the Mends of Aldobrandino, and several of the party 
of the allies, began to shout " Tosco I Tosco ! " to the 
utmost power of their lungs. " And thus," in the words 
of our narrator, ^^all screaming together, and moving 
on together, divided in cry and in mind, but with their 
bodies closely jammed together by reason of the narrow- 
ness of the passage, they reached the Sala Begia, into 
which they burst confusedly, shouting more loudly than 
ever the names of Tosco and Baronius." 

The Sala Begia is a noble hall in the Yatican, at one 
end of which is the entrance into the Sistine Chapel, and 
at the other that into the Paoline Chapel. It is neces- 
sary to the understanding of the sequel of this extra- 
ordinary scene to bear in mind this explanation of the 
locality. 

The result, it will be observed, of the sudden gust, 
which had thus in a moment blown to the winds the 
chances of an election so nearly consummated, and had 



284 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

the germ in it of so many modifications of the subsequent 
history of Europe, was at the moment to throw all the 
party arrangements and tactics of the Conclave into 
utter confusion. Baronius, whose leading supporter was 
now Montalto, was a member of the opposite party, of 
which Aldobrandino was the head. On the other hand, 
many of the allies who recognised Montalto as their 
chief remained firm in their resolution to elect Tosco, 
and thus found themselves joined with Aldobrandino 
against their own leader. In this state of things the 
confusion in the hall was extreme. Montalto and Baro- 
nius and their adherents made for the Paoline Chapel, 
and Aldobrandino wavered for a moment whether he 
should follow them. But determining, after a short pause, 
not to give up the game, he shouted at the top of his 
voice, " This way, all Mends of mine I " pointing as he 
spoke towards the Sistine Chapel. Acquaviva also, and 
some others of the same party, cried out as loudly as 
they could, ^'Let all friends of Tosco come this way !" 
And the move, says the conclavist, was a very prudent 
one, "for if they had all gone in disorder into the 
Paoline Chapel together, it might very easily have 
happened that the * Adoration' of Baronius had fol- 
lowed, without their being able to oppose it, amid all 
that confusion and mixing up of the different parties." 
The extent of this confusion, and of the violence of 
the emotion among those holy and reverend old men, 
may be estimated from the circumstance that Cardinal 
Visconti was thrown down in the meUe^ and Cardinal 
Serapino got a sprained arm before the two factions 
oould disengage themselves from each other. And even 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 285 

then two Cardinals, Pinelli and Ascoli, found themselves 
on the Sistine side of the hall with Aldobrandino, whereas 
their intention was to vote with Montalto. 

All this time Cardinal Tosco, who "deemed his great- 
ness was a-ripening," had been awaiting the expected 
arrival of the cardinals to bring him into the chapel to 
his " Adoration ; " but at last his mind began to mis- 
give him. He sent again, therefore, the same conclavist 
to see what was going on, and soon received the tidings 
of the sudden wreck of all his high hopes at the 
moment when the realisation of them seemed to have 
been placed beyond danger. " The good old man," says 
the conclavist, forgetting what he had above written of 
his unfitness for the Papacy, or more probably, perhaps, 
deeming that there was no incompatibility between that 
and the epithet he now bestows upon him, " turned 
deadly pale ; " but determining not to give up all for lost, 
proceeded, with shaking steps, and leaning on the shoulder 
of his conclavist, to the Sala Begia. " Behold the Pope ! " 
cried the conclavist aloud as he entered the hall, thinkins: 
that even then, perhaps, the sudden announcement might 
lead to an " Adoration." The crowd of his supporters, 
who had by that time grouped themselves before the 
doors of the Sistine Chapel, received him among them, and, 
the keys being at that moment brought, they took him 
with them into the chapel. The other party had taken 
possession of the Paoline Chapel. But in the first confusion 
the keys of the Sistine Chapel had been missing, and 
the Aldobrandino and Tosco faction had been obliged to 
content themselves with grouping themselves before the 
doors. 



k 



286 THE PAPAL GONGLATES. 

Thus the two parties occupied the two opposite chapels 
as hostile camps, with the neutral ground of the Sala 
Begia between them. Thirty-six cardinals went into 
the Sistine Chapel in favour of Tosco, and twenty- 
five into the Faoline in favour of Baronius ; for the 
entire number was now sixty-one, having been in- 
creased by two cardinals — San Marcello, as has been 
mentioned, and another who had been ill at the be- 
ginning of the Conclave^ and had been subsequently 
able to join it. 

And now an infinity of negotiations, messages, per- 
suasions, and seductions began to be put on foot between 
the two opposite camps. Those in the Faoline Chapel 
were quite open to proposals ; for though the name of 
Baronius had been used for the breaking up of the 
unanimity which was on the point of electing Tosco, 
and the dissentients had entered the Paoline Chapel 
shouting his name, no sooner had it served their 
purpose than they abandoned all thought of really 
electing him. 

Visconti having risen from his fall in no very pleasant 
mood, and entered the Paoline Chapel with Baronius 
and his friends, began to vent his ill humour on the 
first mover of the disturbance, accusing him of sowing 
divisions in the Conclave. 

"I neither wish to sow divisions, nor have I any 
desire to be Pope," replied Baronius ; "only put for- 
ward some good and proper candidate." 

Visconti thereupon would have left the chapel, but 
the others crowded around him and would not let 
him go. 



THE ZSALOUS POPES. 287 

"I protest," he cried, "that I am subjected to 
violence!" and turning to the master of the cere- 
monies bade him draw up an official protest to that 
effect. 

"Pooh, pooh!" said Montalto; "are not my two 
friends, Ascoli and Finelli, detained against their will 
in the Sistine Chapel ? Let every one be left at 
Uberty ! " 

So Visconti went out and sat down by himself in the 
Sala Eegia, protesting that he would join in no election 
that day. " I would not make St. Peter himself Pope 
after this fashion ! " grumbled he. But he had sat only 
for a very little time in the Sala Begia before Acquaviva 
slipped out of the Sistine to him, and after a little 
persuasion carried him off into that chapel to join the 
camp of the enemy. 

"Gioiosa," as the Italian writer calls the French 
Oardinal Joyeuse, seeing that there was no chance of 
electing Baronius, wished to leave the Paoline Chapel to 
return to his allegiance to Tosco ; but he made several 
attempts to get away in vain, for " Montalto and the 
others threw their arms around him and stayed him 
with violent entreaties." 

Then Aldobrandino goes in person into the enemies' 
camp in the Sistine to try negotiations. Montalto 
promises his support to any other candidate if only 
Aldobrandino will abandon Tosco. This inclines the 
chief of the Clementine party to recur to his former plan 
of electing San Clemente ; but when he returns to the 
Paoline Chapel his own party rebel against this, and 
insist on remaining firm to Tosco. Montalto makes a 



288 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

sortie from the Sistine for the purpose of getting his 
two adherents, Pinelli and Ascoli, out of the Paoline 
Chapel. But he fails in his attempt, as these two 
cardinals are detained, much against their will as it 
would seem, in the hostile camp. 

All the rest of that day was occupied in negotiations 
on a variety of propositions. The leaders of parties and 
men of most weight on either side are continually 
passing to and fro from one chapel to the other, trying 
new combinations, and gradually limiting their pre- 
tensions on either side to making sure of the exclu- 
sion of those especially obnoxious to them. But every 
fresh proposal finds some knot or other of cardinals 
sufficiently strong to secure its rejection. 

There was not one of the elder cardinals, remarks the 
conclavist, who had not for awhile conceived hopes of 
being elected. But when night overtook the jaded but 
still busy Conclave in the two chapels, they appeared to 
be as far from the election of a Pope as ever. Yet both 
parties seemed determined not to quit their present 
position before the work was done. 

Both the chiefs were afraid that, if they allowed their 
camp to break up and disperse for the night, some fresh 
scheme or combination would bo hatched before the 
morning. At present, though neither party could ac- 
complish anything, at least each held the other in check. 
Some of the older and more infirm cardinals retired to 
their cells, leaving directions that they should be called 
instantly should any change in the condition of things 
take place. Beds and supper were brought into the 
chapels for many of the others. 



THE ZEALOUS POPES. 289 

Those to whom the Sistine Chapel is familiar as it 
appears at the pontifical service, when it is the theatre 
of all the magnificent pomp of the Eoman Church, with 
its purple dignitaries ranged in decorous order along its 
sides, may amuse themselves with fancying the picture 
presented by it, when the same holy, but cross, hungry, 
weary, bothered, and well-nigh exhausted seniors were 
picnicking and bivouacking on its pavement — here a 
knot of three or four snatching a makeshift supper; 
there a tired eminence snoring on a makeshift pallet ; 
here a trio of the staunchest in earnest whispered talk ; 
and there again a portly dignitary sleepily doffing his 
purple and scarlet in front of the altar for a few hours' 
rest at its foot. 

At last Aldobrandino and Montalto came once again 
to a conference, and agreed that, as all combinations for 
the election of any one of the older cardinals had failed, 
and there appeared no hope of uniting the suffi*ages of 
the Conclave on any one of them, the only solution was 
to look among the younger men. Several of these were 
suggested, discussed between them, and for one reason 
or another rejected. At last Borghese was named ; and 
both the rival chiefs agreed that there seemed to be no 
objection to him. He was a member of Aldobrandino's 
party, the "creature" of Clement VIII., personally a 
Mend of Montalto, and was known to be acceptable to 
the Spanish party. It only remained to ascertain 
whether the French cardinals would make any strong 
opposition to his election ; for Montalto had, in the 
course of the various tentatives that followed the break- 
ing up of the regular party divisions at the time of the 

u 



290 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

proposal of Baronius, become so bound up with Joyeuse 
by promises and agreements, that he felt himself bound 
to make his acceptance of Borghese contingent on the 
consent of the French party. 

Cardinal Joyeuse was one of the few who, tired out 
with the day's work, had left the battle-field of the two 
chapels and the Sala Eegia, and gone to his cell. Aldo- 
brandino accordingly hurried off to find him there ;* and 
meeting on his way Borghese, who was returning to the 
Paoline Chapel after having been to snatch a morsel of 
supper in his cell, told him that his present errand was 
to make him Pope, and conjured him to say no word of 
the matter till his return. Borghese, who probably put 
no great faith in the success of any such scheme, even 
supposing Aldobrandiao was sincere in the statement 
that he intended to attempt it, composedly thanked him 
for his good will and passed on. 

Aldobrandino was, in truth, earnest enough in the 
matter. It appeared his last chance of making one of 
his own party Pope. He fell in with Joyeuse in his 
cell ; and findrag him, though not altogether indisposed 
to Borghese, rather cold upon the matter, actually flung 
himself on his knees before him to entreat his consent. 
Joyeuse replied that he must first consult Montalto, 
and at that moment the latter entered the cell. Aldo- 
brandino sprang to his feet, not a little ashamed, says 
the conclavist, at having been caught in such an 
attitude by his rival leader in the Sacred College. 
Montalto, however, joined his representations in favour 
of Borghese, as his election seemed to offer the least 
objectionable issue from the difficulties in which the 



THE ZEAXOUS POPES. 291 

Conolaye found itself. Joyeuse thereupon at once con- 
sented on behalf of the French interest ; and it seemed 
at last — ^if, indeed, no such strange incident were to 
occur at the last moment as that which had pushed 
Tosco from the steps of the throne when he seemed 
already to have his foot on them — that the Pope was 
found. 

And thus the history of Europe was made in that 
little fir-plank cell by those three old men, neither of 
whom was fitted by any quality of head or heart for 
the good and righteous government of a parish I And 
those Venetian interdicts-^preposterous papal preten- 
sions leading to the consolidation of a Gallican Church — 
Borghese palaces, Borghese gardens, Borghese galleries, 
the " great '' Borghese family — so great as to repudiate 
Avith indignation the imputation of blood alliance with 
St. Catherine of Siena, all canonized saint as she is — 
Borghese " alliances " and princesses, with so much 
else — all loomed into potential existence, selected out of 
the many possibilities around them, as the things that 
were to be, to the exclusion of the thousand other combi- 
nations that were 7iot to be, by the passions, jealousies, 
and low hopes, cupidities, and fears of those three 
narrow-hearted old men ! 

So, on the 10th of May, 1606, the Eoman world 
learned that it had a new Prince and Pope ; the cardinals 
dispersed to set their minds to new politics, new hopes 
and fears, new schemes, speculations, and intrigues ; all 
Europe began to canvass the likes and dislikes, dis- 
positions, passions, and character of the obscure Cuiia 
lawyer who had mounted St. Peter^s throne, as about 

17 2 



292 THE PAPAL C0NCLA7ES. 

the most interesting and important subject that could 
occupy the attention of sovereigns and their counsellors ; 
and the crabbed^ rigid, ignorant, pedantic, but in the 
main conscientious old lawyer himself came forth tiaraed 
Paul v., in his own honest belief by far, very far, the 
greatest man on earth. 



BOOK IV. 

THE PRINCE POPES. 



BOOK IV. 

THE PRINCE POPES. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Close of the Era of the Zealous Popes. — Characteristics of the Group 
which succeeded them. — ^Death of Paul V. — Alexander Ludoyisi 
elected as Gregory XV. by the influence of Cardinal Borghose. — 
Ludovico Ludovisi, the Cardinal Nephew. — ^Eegulations of Gregory 
XV. for the holding of the Conclave. — ^Father Theiner's Eemarks 
concerning them. — Interregnum, Description of. — ^Death of Gregory 
XV., and Entry of Cardinals into Conclave. — Conclave expected 
to be a long one, and why. — ^Parties in the Conclave. — Cardinal 
Saoli again. — Cardinal Delmonte. — ^Borromeo. — Cardinals Bandini, 
Ginnasio, and Madruzzi. — ^The Barberini Family. — Character of 
Maflfeo Barberini who became Urban YiU. — Cardinals Gaetani, 
Sacrato, and San Severino. — Illness in the Conclave of Cardinal 
Borghese. — He refuses to leave the Conclave. — Barberini named in 
the impossibility of any other Election, and elected. — ^Terrible 
mortality of Cardinals and Conclavists. 

The Borghese Pope, Paul V., with his reign of fifteen 
years, may be said to conclude the series of " the zealous 
Popes." Not that their successors can be accused of 
having been otherwise than anxious and vigilant for the 
power and greatness of the Church over which they 
ruled, or their more immediate successors ^for the exten- 
sion of its territorial limits. But the Church, at least 
within its own bounds, was no longer a Church militant ; 
and the result of this — ^invariable in the case of all 
churches — ^was that zeal for the faith, as a true faith, 



296 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

slackened; and we have a series of Popes in whom 
the Prince tends ever more and more to supersede the 
Theologian. Scarcely in any Conclave since that which 
elected Paul V. would any Baronius have been found 
to protest, and protest effectually, against the election of 
a candidate deemed a likely man to hold his own among 
the crowned heads of Europe, on the ground that as a 
bishop he had neglected his diocese. Scarcely, on the 
other hand, would there have been found in any subse- 
quent Conclave a necessity for protesting against the 
election of a candidate deemed papahiU that he was 
licentious in his conversation. In the old renaissance 
days such a protest would never have been heard, because 
it never would have occurred to any man that such a 
matter was worth a protest. In the period we are now 
entering on it would not be heard, because no need for 
it would arise. We are entering on an emphatically 
decent epoch ; not an epoch of improved morality, but 
of a higher regard for appearances ; not an epoch when 
any Pope could have talked jovially of " enjoying the 
Papacy," like a Leo X., still less have turned the 
Vatican to the purposes of a casino, like an Alexan- 
der VI. ; nor, on the other hand, an epoch when the 
Inquisition was encouraged to bum and persecute men 
for inexactitude in their orthodoxy, and ascetic practices 
were a recommendation to Papal favour ; but an epoch 
when men^s minds were greatly exercised in matters of 
court ceremonial, and the order of precedence among 
the ambassadors to the Pontiff was a matter capable of 
setting Europe at war, and when Eoman society was 
convulsed by the question of the sort of headgear which 



THE PEINCE POPES. 297 

a cardinal should most properly wear when receiving 
company, and whether he should hold it in his hand or 
put it on his head ! 

This book of my narrative might have been called 
" The Popes of Fribbledom," but that we have not quite 
reached that stage yet. But it may, I think, be feirly 
said that we have reached the age when the Popes 
became princes first and priests afterwards. 

Paul v., whose tall and majestic figure looked a few 
days before his death (as the narrator of the Conclave 
which elected his successor tells us) as if he might have 
attended the obsequies of every member of the Sacred 
College, had a fit of apoplexy during the procession 
which he celebrated in thanksgiving for the victory in 
the famouu3 battle of the White Mountain, near Prague. 
It was not immediately fatal ; but at the distance of a 
few days he had a second, which killed him on the 28th 
of January, 1621. 

The Conclave which followed was not a remarkable 
one. Paul had reigned the, for those days, exception- 
ally long space of nearly sixteen years ; and it resulted 
thence that by far the greater number of the cardinals 
existing at the time of his death were his " creatures," 
and were in the Conclave adherents of his nephew, the 
Cardinal Borghese. His party was also further in- 
creased by the adherents of Montalto and one or two 
more of the oldest cardinals who dated from before the 
elevation of Clement VIII. Opposed to him was Aldo- 
brandino, our old acquaintance, still alive and busy, at 
the head of the survivors of the old Clementine party 
and of the French cardinals. But Borghese commanded 



298 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

forty votes out of the fifty-two cardinals who went into 
Conclave, and the result could not be doubtful. The 
new Pope was the man of his choice, and that fell on 
Alexander Ludovisi of Bologna, who was elected Pope, 
as Gregory XV., on the 9th of February, 1621. 

The selection of Ludovisi marks the tendency of the 
time as distinctly as that of the Caraffas and Ghislieris 
had marked the preceding epoch. He had been known 
as an able and successful diplomatist. But he was now 
an old and broken man, and reigned only two years and 
five months. 

His nephew, the magnificent and splendid Cardinal 
Ludovico Ludovisi, an able, energetic man of only five- 
and-twenty at the time of his uncle's election, exercised, 
in fact, the sovereign power during the short reign of 
Gregory XV. Ludovisi, though a worldly and world- 
loving man, was not negligent of the duties of his 
station as he imderstood them. His tenure of power 
was marked by the establishment of the celebrated 
Propaganda,* and by the canonization of the two first 
generals of the Jesuits — ^both events also marking the 
character of the period. 

The election to be now made was the first under 
the new regulations which had been laid down by 
Gregory XV. in his Bulls of the 15th of November, 
1621, Eterni Patris Filius^ and of the following 



• It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the full title of this 
•world-famous College is the "Sacra Congregatione de Propaganda 
Fide." The first planning of the institution dates from the time of 
Gregory XTTI. — ^but it was not eflfectually founded till the reign of 
Gregory XV., and mainly by the efltorts and munificence of the Cardinal 
LudoTisi. 



THE PEINCB POPES. 299 

15th of March, Decet Romanum Pcmtificem. These 
Bulls of Gregory XV. make no change whatever in the 
principle and theory of the election, but only regulate 
the mode of procedure and ceremonial, and they form 
the basis of Conclave law and practice at the present 
time. The most important innovation made in them 
seems to have been that which orders that the scrutiny 
shall be in future secret. We have seen enough of 
the disorders to which the proceedings were rendered 
liable by the practice of open voting to appreciate the 
motives of Gregory's ordinance. These Bulls also 
repeat and renew the strictest prohibitions to the 
cardinals from conferring with any one, even with 
their own colleagues, on the Pope to be elected, or 
from forming factions and parties in the Conclave, or 
from communicating to the world outside aught that 
passes within it. We have seen how far such rules 
were observed in the Conclaves heretofore — ^what sign 
there has been perceptible that any of the parties con- 
cerned thought any obedience was due to any such 
rules. And it is difficult to understand how Gregory 
himself, who knew well what Conclaves were, could 
have supposed that such rules would or, one may almost 
say, could be observed. 

Father Theiner, in his very able history of the 
pontificate of Clement XTV., declares that these regula- 
tions go beyond what is humanly possible. Still, as 
Mr. Cartwright remarks,* he makes the distinct 
admission that in the correspondence written from the 
Conclave the cardinals violated obligations by which 

* ** Constitation of Papal Oonclayes/' p. 112. 



300 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

they had bound themselves. It might be added that 
they subjected themselves to penalties which it is 
incredible that they would have incurred if they had 
believed in them. " How, it will be asked," says Father 
Theiner, " could some cardinals venture on such an open 
violation of the above constitution (that of Gregory XV.) 
as to communicate so freely to their Court all that passed 
in the Conclave as was the case with the French 
cardinals and with Orsini?" To whicli the author 
attempts so lame an answer, that the reader can hardly 
help feeling that it was imprudent on the part of an 
orthodox writer to have asked it, or to avoid the con- 
clusion that the true answer is, because they had no 
belief in the sacred nature of the command or in the 
punishment of the violation of it, but regarded the 
whole thing as a solemn sham and farce ! 

The constitution of Gregory enjoining the secrecy of 
the votes given in scrutiny was observed on the next 
following election, and has been the rule ever since, 
no doubt to the great increase of order and regularity 
of proceeding in the Conclaves — ^not that the plan is 
otherwise than an immoral one, and the necessity for 
it discreditable to the electors of the Sacred College. 
There should be nothing to prevent a conscientious man 
in that position from declaring openly in the face of his 
fellows the name of him whom, as before God, he con- 
siders most fitted to assume the government of the 
universal Church ; but, as the electors are, and as the 
elections are, no doubt the secrecy of the voting has 
contributed to order and regularity. 

But if the attention of Gregory had been drawn to 



THE PBINCE POPES. 301 

the expediency of providing for the better ordering of 
the proceedings of the Conclaves, he omitted to attempt 
anything towards ameliorating that terrible evil and 
scandal to Eome and its priestly government— the state 
of the city during the interregnum between one Pope's 
reign and that of his successor. ^^ Let no man say that 
he has seen Eome," says the historian of a Conclave of 
this period, " who has not been there during a vacancy of 
the Holy See I The authority of the tribimals is then 
at an end, and every one is free to speak and to write 
and to say openly that which on all accounts at any 
other time it was necessary to keep concealed." The 
remark is very characteristic of Bome and its social 
atmosphere at that period ; but it would have been well 
if the general unloosing of tongues and pens had been 
all the licence to which the interregnum gave occasion. 
Here is a passage from Girolamo Gigli, quoted by 
Cancellieri, who calls him a most accurate writer of the 
things which happened in his time, giving some account 
of the state of things during the interregnum between 
Gregory XV. aud Urban VIII. It is abimdantly con- 
firmed in all respects by other writers. The interregnimi 
in question, as has been seen, did not contiQue beyond 
the normal time. What must the state of Eome have 
been when the period of utter lawlessness was prolonged 
for months ! 

" Not a day passed," says Gigli, " without quarrels, 
homicides, and ambuscades. Mauy men and women 
were found killed in various parts of the city; many 
headless bodies were foimd, many, also headless, which 
had been thrown into the Tiber; many houses were 



i 



302 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

broken into by night and sacked ; doors were broken 
open; women were done violence to, some killed, and 
others carried off by violence ; many young girls were 
dishonoured, forced, and taken away. All the officei-s 
of justice who made any attempt to take any man to 
prison were either killed or badly woimded and maimed. 
The governor of Trastevere was stabbed while making 
the roimd of his district; and other governors of 
districts were in great peril of their lives. But many 
of these disorders and audacious crimes were committed 
by soldiers whom different lords and princes kept at 
Eome for their own protection. Such was the case 
especially with the guards whom the Cardinal of Savoy 
had brought to Eome with him, by whom a large 
number of the officers of justice, who had taken one of 
their band into custody, were slain. In short, the evil 
went on increasing from day to day, till it was thought 
that Eome would be brought to a bad pass indeed if the 
Conclave were to last as long as there was much reason 
to fear it might ! " 

Gregory XV. had died in the Quirinal Palace on the 
evening of Saturday, the 8th of July, 1623 ; and on the 
morning of the 19th fifty-two cardinals, after hearing 
mass in St. Peter's, went into Conclave in the Vatican. 
Three other cardinals arrived in Eome subsequently, 
and entered Conclave, making the number fifty-five; 
but Cardinal Peretti having been obliged to quit it on 
account of illness, the number of those who took part 
in the election was eventually fifty-four. Thirty-six, 
therefore, was the required majority of two-thirds 
necessary to make an election. 



THE PBIKCE POPES. 803 

It was expected that the Conclave would be a long and 
diflBcult one, for the three following reasons assigned by 
the narrator of the story of it. In the first place, it 
was thought that the new rules would have the effect of 
rendering it more dilficult to get together the necessary 
majority. Private and personal opinions and interests, 
it was urged, would have greater sway, and authority 
less, in an tlection in which the votes were given 
secretly. And the expectation seems a reasonable one. 
In the next place, there was very pronounced enmity 
between the two prominent and natural leaders of the 
Sacred College. These were Cardinal Borghese, the 
nephew of Paul V., and Cardinal Ludovisi, the nephew 
and all-powerful prime minister of Gregory XV. Th^ 
two men were so different in character and disposition, 
as well as divided by the circimistances of their position, 
that it was thought that there could be small hope of 
their acting together. The third reason for expecting a 
long Conclave was that there was a specially large 
number of cardinals who, from their age, influence, and 
character, might be deemed papalili^ or who, at all 
events, were such in their own opinion. Yet the objec- 
tions of one kind or another which existed in the case 
of almost every one of them were such as, it was prog- 
nosticated, must render the choice a very difficult one. 

Although the two main factions into which this Con- 
clave (the first held under the rules of Gregory XV., 
which strictly prohibit the formation of factions in the 
Conclave) was divided consisted of the "creatures" of 
Paul v., led by his nephew, the Cardinal Borghese, and 
the " creatures " of Gregory XV., led by his nephew. 



k 



304 THE PAPAL CONCLAYBS. 

the Cardinal Ludovisi, those two categories by no means 
exhausted the whole College. Besides Sfoiza, whom 
nobody thought of for the Papacy, there were still 
surviving three of the creations of Sixtus V., since whose 
day no less than seven Popes had reigned ! These were 
Saoli, whom we have met with before, Delmonte, and 
Borromeo; and all three were considered among the 
probable candidates. Saoli was esteemed ji politician of 
much insight and judgment, but not much of a church- 
man. His chance was thought also to be much injured 
by the unreasonable amount of partiality shown by him 
to a certain favourite of his, who is not more parti- 
cularly mentioned. The circumstance is worth men- 
tioning only as a specimen of the sort of matters that 
were held to influence the Sacred College in the elections. 
Further, Saoli was known to be on bad terms with the 
Aldobrandini family, still powerful in the College in the 
person of a younger Cardinal Ippolito, who had inhe- 
rited a portion of the influence of his elder relative, the 
nephew of Clement VIII. 

Delmonte was known as a man of licentious life ; but 
more injurious to him, says the conclavist writer, than 
this reputation, was the fact that his family was connected 
with that of the French Bourbons. It was also known 
that his election would have given a great lift to the 
Medici, a consideration that would have ensured hiTn 
the utmost opposition on the part of the Cardinal of 
Savoy. Delmonte laboured also imder the disadvantage 
— ^no small one on that occasion — of being somewhat 
over-careful in money matters. Against Borromeo there 
was little or nothing to be said ; but it was thought that 



THE PEINCE POPES. 305 

his election would not have been agreeable to the Court 
of Spain, which had, on more than one occasion, in certain 
matters respecting which it had come into collision with 
him, as Archbishop of Milan, found him more uncom- 
promising and less accommodating than it could have 
wished. 

Among the surviving " creatures " of Clement VIII. 
there were also three deemed papahiliy the Cardinals 
Bondini, Ginnasio, and Madruzzi. The first was gene- 
rally held to be a man of great ability, much adminis- 
trative experience, and brilliant natural talents* " And 
this reputation," remarks the conclavist very characteris- 
tically, "he had continually endeavoured to augment, 
very unwisely, not imderstanding that an exhibition 
of extraordinary merit, no less than demerit, is influential 
in removing the Papacy out of a man's grasp." Ho 
goes on, however, to enumerate a variety of causes of 
private enmity, which would have the eflfect of alienating 
this, that, and the other cardinal jfrom him, which (though 
the enumeration of them is curious as affording glimpses 
of the manners of the time, and especially as indicating 
the minuteness and vast variety of the considerations 
which influenced the elections, and had to be thought of 
by the managers of them) would need too much space to 
be here developed in detail. Ginnasio, though deemed 
a creatura papabzli—^a possible Pope — ^was a man of less 
mark. He had against him a character for being fond 
of money ; and it was thought that during his residence 
as legate in Spain he had rendered himself distasteful 
to the Spanish Court. Of Madruzzo of Trent, we are 
told that, though he strove to the utmost of his power 

X 



306 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

to get himself accepted among the Italians as an Italian, 
the latter would always consider him as a German. It 
is added that, even if he could have succeeded in causing 
it to be forgotten that he was an Ultramontane («/c), he 
would still have been a cardinal named by Spain, which 
came to the same thing as far as exclusion jfrom the 
Papacy went. 

The Papacy of Paul V. was so long an one — over 
fifteen years — and that of Gregory XV. so short — ^less 
than two years and a half — ^that although Gregory was 
the last, and Paul only the last but one, the "creatures" 
of Paul were still more numerous in the College tiian 
those of Gregory. The historian of the Conclave inti- 
mates that the Paoline cardinals were not only the more 
numerous, but the more conspicuous for merit and 
weight. And he enumerates no less than eleven who 
were considered papahili. Barberini is one of them. 
The other ten names are now as unknown as his also 
would have been, had he not been the one among them 
elected Pope ; and it would be tedious to go over all the 
grounds of objection to each one of them, which the 
conclavist, who seems to have been most perfectly 
master of all the public and private history of every 
member of the College, assigns at length. We must 
content ourselves with noting what he and others tells 
us of the winner in the race. 

The Barberini were Florentines, who had thriven as 
merchant adventurers at Ancona. Maffeo, a scion of the 
family, bom in 1568, was taken to Eome, where an 
uncle had risen to a certain position in some one of the 
xidministrative departments of the Apostolic Court. The 



THE PEINCE POPES. 807 

young Maffeo had an opening made for him in the same 
career, and soon gave evidence of possessing considerable 
talent and industry. It was remarked that whatever 
work was given him to do was better done, than that 
entrusted to any of his colleagues. He rose rapidly, 
and eventually had the way to the highest honour 
opened to him by being sent as legate to France. Here 
his tact and judgment succeeded in accomplishing the 
difficult task of impressing the Eoman world with a high 
idea of his zeal for the advancement of the interests of 
the Church, while at the same time he rendered himself 
acceptable to the French Court. Paul V. gave him the 
purple, and at the death of Gregory, the French party in 
the Conclave at once conceived the idea of bringing 
about his elevation to the Papacy. In truth he was the 
man for the time. As far removed from a Leo X. or 
from an Alexander VI. as he was from a Paul IV. or a 
Pius v., he was well adapted for the purposes of the 
period, when the Head of the Church was taking his 
place in the European system as — ^not the Vicegerent of 
Heaven entrusted with the supremacy over all other 
monarchs — ^but one of the crowned heads who had to ma- 
nage the affairs of Europe among them. Clement VIII., 
as Eanke remarks, was ordinarily found occupying his 
leisure with the works of St. Bernard, and Paul V. 
with those of the Venetian lawyer Giustiniani ; but on 
Barberini's table might be seen the last new poems, and 
the drawings and plans of fortifications. It would have 
been well, at least for the finances of the Apostolic 
Chamber, if he had among his othfer worldly knowledge 
possessed a somewhat more trustworthy estimate of the 

X 2 



30& THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

proportion his own power as a sovereign bore to that of 
the monarchs his contemporaries. The fortress which 
he caused to be built on the frontier of the Bologna 
district, and called XJrbano, might more appropriately 
have been called " Barberini's folly ; " and the sums he 
expended in fortifying the Castle of St. Angelo might 
as usefully have been thrown into the Tiber. 

Maffeo Barberini had contrived in France to conciliate 
objects and interests somewhat incompatible — ^in gaining 
the favour of the French monarch and the French states- 
men, and at the same time acquiring at Eome a reputa- 
tion for zeal for the pretensions of the Church. And if 
what is told of his management of his affairs in the 
Conclave be true, he would seem to have availed him- 
self then of the same order of ability. It has been said 
that the ultimate and the penultimate cardinal nephews^ 
the Borghese and the Ludovisi, were at chronic enmity ; 
and it is said that the clever Cardinal Maffeo found the 
means of persuading each of them that the other was his 
especial aversion ! 

The cardinals deemed papabili of the creatures of 
Gregory XV. (the Ludovisi party) were three in 
number, Gaetani, Sacrato, and San Severino. The first 
was a man of literary tastes and habits, and had had 
much experience in the business of courts. It is curious 
to find that the main objection to his election was the fact 
that he was a Eoman baron. The time had been when 
that circumstance would have told in his favour. It 
was also against him that the Borghese, Paul V., and all 
the family, had been much discontented with his conduct 
as nuncio in Spain, where, instead of obtaining the rank 



THE PEINCB POPES. 309 

of fipanisli grandee for a Borghese, as Paul had expected 
of him, he had done so for his own relatiye the Duke of 
Sermoneta. Further than that, he had purposely, as 
was believed, kept from the knowledge of Paul the feet 
that the Duke of Lerma had fallen into disgrace with 
Philip III. of Spain, and had thus caused the Pope to 
oreate him a cardinal, which he would not have done 
had the truth been made known to him. These were 
faults which none of the Borghese faction were likely to 
forget or to forgive ! The second. Cardinal Socrati, was 
considered to be too young ; for " though his boldness 
might have led to his being supposed to be older, it was 
known that he was little more than fifty years old." 
Besides that, he had never been liked by Paul V., and 
was therefore now opposed by the Borghese faction. The 
third, San Severino, though unobjectionable in all other 
respects, was strongly opposed by the Spanish party. 

At the beginning of the Conclave it was calculated 
that Borghese could command twenty-four votes — ^not 
enough to make an election, but abundantly sufficient to 
exclude any nomination they might imite in opposing. 
But it soon became apparent that Borghese could not 
count with any security on the allegiance of all those 
who were deemed to belong to his party. It had been, 
the historian of the Conclave tells us, the constant 
object and effort of Cardinal Ludovisi, during the whole 
time of the Papacy of his uncle, to secretly detach from 
their party the friends of the Borghese interest ; and it 
became evident that an unknown number of those in the 
Conclave could not be depended on. The Paolinc party 
was, moreover, stricken by a great misfortune in the very 



310 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

heat of the battle. Their leader, the Cardinal Borghese, 
was smitten by illness. It was July, and the malaria 
from the low-lying meadows aroimd the Castle St. 
Angelo laid its benumbing hand on him ! He took to 
his bed in his cell, and it was thought that he must 
haye quitted the Conclave. The Gregorian or Ludo- 
\'isian party were in the highest spirits, and thought 
themselves sure of the victory as soon as Borghese 
should be no longer present to overawe and hold to- 
gether the body of his adherents. But he too under- 
stood but too well all that was likely to be the conse- 
quence of his absence, and determined to struggle on, 
dragging himself from his bed from time to time as the 
progress of the struggle rendered it necessary, or the 
alternating cold and hot fits of the fever rendered it 
possible for him to do so. Day by day his struggles 
and his suflterings were marked by hostile and calcu- 
lating eyes, and day by day the conviction grew that, if 
he would not die at the stake, ho must give up and 
leave the pestiferous air of the Conclave. 

What ! succumb ! he at the head of such a body of 
cardinals as no cardinal nephew had ever yet come into 
Conclave with, and live to see Ludovico Ludovisi create 
a Pope ! Not if he died for it ! So still he struggled 
on. Day after day he was at his post in the Sistine 
Chapel, though looking as if he must have died on the 
benches of it. And the Ludovisians began to lose hope. 
If the fever would but kill him at once ! But it would 
not ! That is not Malaria's modus operandi^ and it was 
evident that Borghese would strike to no force less than 
that of death ! 



THE PEINCB POPES. 311 

Still the Ludovisians, though they could not make, 
could yet mar any possible election. The days dragged 
on in various futile attempts till all were tired out ; and 
many feared that, if the Conclave were prolonged at that 
season of the year, the same fate would overtake them 
that had stricken Borghese. 

So at last Barberini was named, as upon the whole 
the candidate to whom the greatest number had the 
least objection ; and thus Urban VIII. became yet one 
more pis aller Pope. The election was so far a triumph 
for Borghese and the Paoline party that Barberini was 
among the number of his adherents ; and it was in so 
far a triumph for the Ludovisi faction, as that they had 
compelled their adversaries to be content with one 
against whom Paul V., and, by that law of inheritance 
which no statute of limitations ever sets aside in the 
priestly world of Eome, his nephew the Cardinal 
Borghese, had sundry old grudges of long standing. 
As it was, the election was, by virtue of an under- 
standing between the parties, unanimous, with the 
exception of three of the oldest cardinals, who, remain- 
ing in their cells, had bpen unaware of what was being 
done. 

But this account of the result of the Conclave gives 
but a very inadequate idea of what a Conclave in the 
month of July — or August or September — ^was (and 
would be again) at Eome. The obstinacy and jealousies 
of the rival factions needed to be backed and sustained 
in their Eminences by a degree of determined tenacity 
of purpose which was proof against suffering of no 
ordinary kind, and which almost deserves to be called 



312 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

heroic. The result of the Conclave, as regards the elec- 
tion, has been told. Here are some of the results of it 
from another point of view, as given in CancellierPs 
gossiping and curious little volume. 

"On Wednesday, the 29th of July, 1623, about sixty 
cardinals entered into Conclave, and were shut up that 
same night. But it appeared as if the election of the 
new Pope would be an abnormally long affair. Never- 
theless the heat of the weather, in the severest (ptit 
aspro) season of the year, and the discomfort which the 
cardinals suffered in Conclave, and the imminent danger 
of falling ill and of dying, made them determine to 
despatch the business more quickly than they would 
have otherwise done. The see was vacant twenty-eight 
days. On the 4th of August Cardinals Peretti and 
Girardi went out from the Conclave ill. And a great 
many of the others, including the Cardinal Borghese, 
began to suffer. 

" On the 6th of August, the festival of the Transfigu- 
ration, which was a Sunday, Cardinal Maffio Barberini 
was elected Pope, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and 
assumed the name of Urban VIII., and was proclaimed 
at the nineteenth hour {i.e. about three o'clock in the 
afternoon). As soon as they came out of conclave 
nearly all the cardinals fell ill ; many were at death's 
door, and some died. As for the conclavists, they 
almost all died. Shortly Pope Urban himself fell ill. 
On the 14th of August Cardinal Pignatelli died, in his 
forty-third year, and his body was buried at the Minerva. 
Ho was a man of low birth, but a very clever negotiator, 
and therefore much esteemed by Borghese, who caused 



THE PBINCE POPES. 313 

his elevation to the purple, and whose most intimate 
counseller he was. On the 19th of August died Car- 
dinal Serra, of Genoa, in his fifty-third year, and was 
buried at the Pace Church. On the 23rd of August 
Cardinal Saoli, of Genoa, the Dean of the Sacred College, 
died in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried at the 
church of La Madonna del Popolo. On the 1st of 
September Cardinal Gozzadino, of Bologna, died in his 
fifty-first year. It had been many years previously 
predicted to him by an astrologer that he should die 
from imprisonment. He was much in debt, and it was 
supposed that the astrologer took his hint from that. 
But when his uncle, Gregory XV., was elected Pope, he 
said that he now felt safe from the prediction. But on 
his death-bed he declared that the astrologer had spoken 
the truth, for that, in fact, the imprisonment of the Con- 
clave had killed him ; for, in truth, the Conclave was a 
prison, and a prison of the very worst description for 
him and for the others ! Finally, the Cardinal Girardo 
died, in the forty-seventh year of his age, on the 1st of 
October." 

The worthy gossip gives us the chronicle of this 
terrible mortality on the fifty-fifth page of his volume, 
utterly and very amusingly forgetful that he had begun 
his work by the statement that, " although many Con- 
claves have occurred during the hot months, yet no 
example of epidemic infection has happened in them; 
all those who have taken part in them having almost 
always come out from them without any injury to their 
health." 



CHAPTEE II. 

Boign and Works of Urban VHE. — Change in the Poedtion of the Popes. 
No more Possibility of obtaining Soyereignties for Papal Nephews. 
— Accumulation of wealth by the Papal Families. — Sixtus V. — 
Greg ory XIV.— Clement Vm. — Paul V.— Ghregory XV. — ^Urban 
VlJJL. — Amount of dotation permissible to a Papal Nephew. — Per- 
secution of one papal family by another. — Condaye at the death 
of Urban. — ^Parties and interest at Borne much changed since the 
last Conclaye. — Cardinal Pamphili elected as Innocent X. — The 
Barberini driyen from Bomo. 

Ubban VIII., who left so large a material mark at 
Home, both by what he built and by what he destroyed, 
is he of whom and of whose kinsmen it was said, and is 
remembered, that " Quod non fecerunt Barbari, id fecere 
Barberini." Even to the present day it is impossible^ 
to walk through the streets of Eome without being 
reminded, almost at every turn, of the building pro- 
pensities of Urban and his enriched family by the 
frequent appearance of the bees, his family cognisance. 
And when these same ^^busy " creatures are recognised 
on the colossal bronze canopy over the high altar in St. 
Peter's, we are reminded of the above-quoted sarcasm, 
and of the fate of the Pantheon robbed of its bronze 
covering to deface the nave of Michael Angelo's church 
by a tasteless monstrosity. But there are no bees at 
the Coliseum to record the irreparable mischief done by 
Barberini hands in carting away the materials for their 
modem buildings ! 



THE PBINCE POPES. 315 

Urban reigned all but twenty-one years, and the con- 
ditions of the Papacy were more changed during this 
period than had been the case during any previous 
Pontiff's reign for a very long time. It was the begin- 
ning of the long down-hill course on which the power 
and importance of the Popes has been moving ever 
since, till the entire loss of temporal dominion, reached 
at the bottom of that long incline, has, in the opinion 
of many, opened the way for a return to extended power 
by a different path. The long hill which has been 
spoken of was somewhat steep in the earliest portion of 
it, and became very steep just before the bottom was 
reached. But the intervening slope was long and very 
gradual. 

The change, of course, necessarily produced a series 
of prince Popes, as I have called^them — of sovereigns who 
were temporal princes first and churchmen afterwards ; 
for the Popes could only play a great part in European 
state affairs as Churchmen. The Vicegerency of Heaven 
had to be put prominently forward in advancing a claim 
to supremacy over crowned heads. From the time of 
Urban the Popes became resignedly the petty sovereigns 
of a petty state ; or if, theoretically, not resignedly, 
their protests against being considered only such were 
made but for theory and form's sake. 

With this decadence from a position of European 
importance, the completion of the dominions of the Church 
as they have existed in modern times coincided. For it 
was not till the reign of Urban VIII. that the duchy of 
Urbino formed part of the possessions of the Apostolic 
See. The family of the Delia Eovere Dukes — about the 



316 THB PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

best of all the mcdiaBval Italian soyereign families in 
all respects — ^became extinct under very unfortunate 
circumstances during the papacy of Urban; and the 
Pope was able to exercise a degree of moral pressure on 
the old, discouraged, unhappy, and childless Duke, which 
ended by inducing him to give up his duchy to the Holy 
Father. Urbino thus fell to the Apostolic See, and 
completed the Papal dominions as we of this generation 
have known them. 

Contemporaneously with that change in the condition 
of European aflfairs which operated to reduce the power 
of the Pontiffs to that of mere Italian princes, the 
political conditions of Italy assumed a form and settle- 
ment which made it impossible for the Popes to con- 
template, or at all events to succeed in, carving out 
from the body of Italy hereditary principalities for their 
families. Paul III., the Famese, was the last who 
accomplished this. It is true, as has been seen, that 
the Papal See became possessed of Urbino subsequently 
under the pontificate of Urban VIII ; and had that 
pontificate and that Pope existed a century earlier, the 
world would doubtless have seen a series of Barberini 
dukes at Urbino. But the times were changed. And 
to put other difficulties — ^which, however, would have 
been found insuperable — out of the question, so strong a 
feeling had grown up in the Church, and especially in 
the Sacred College, the authority and power of which 
was now far more able to counterbalance that of the 
Pontiffs than it had been in earlier times, against dis- 
membering the territory of the Holy See, that Urban 
did not dare to make the attempt. 



THE PEINCB POPES- 317 

It remained, then, for the ambition and family feeling 
of the later Popes to find some other means for the 
gratification of passions, which were no less strong in 
them than they had been in their predecessors. And 
these means were found in the foundation of princely 
&milies, claiming, indeed, no higher rank than that of 
Eoman nobles, but each striving to eclipse, and in many 
cases succeeding in eclipsing, the relatiyes of former 
Popes in splendour, wealth, and the accumulation of 
real property. 

Here are a few particulars of what was accomplished 
by the successive Popes of the nephew-enriching group ; 
for neither has that phase of Church corruption sur- 
vived the changes of the times and of public opinion, 
and we do not find the family names of the more recent 
Popes familiarized to the world by the immensity of 
their possessions. 

Paul III. was, as has been seen, the last of the 
sovereign-family-founding Popes. He died in 1549. 
Sixtus V. was the first of the group we are now 
speaking of. He ascended the throne in 1585. The 
interval was occupied by the " zealous Popes," whose 
minds were bent, as has been seen, on other things. 

Sixtus V. conferred on his cardinal nephew eccle- 
siastical revenues to the value of 100,000 crowns a year. 
He negotiated a wealthy matriage for another nephew, 
created him Marchese di Montana, and gave him the 
principalities of Venafro and Celano. 

Gregory XIV. reigned but ten, and Innocent IX. but 
two months. 

Then came Clement VIII. with his thirteen years of 



318 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

papacy and the Aldobrandino greatness. Pietro Aldo- 
brandino, the cardinal nephew, abeady in 1599, when 
only the first half of his sunshine and haymaking period 
had elapsed, possessed ecclesiastical revenues to the 
amount of 60,000 crowns a year ; and these were sub- 
sequently immensely increased. The Cardinal Pietro 
was a careful man, bought property largely, and had 
moneys in the Bank of Venice. All his accumulations 
were destined to pass to Gianfpancesco Aldobrandini, 
his sister's husband, who had himself, in 1599, 00,000 
crowns a year from lay offices in the Pontiffs gift, 
and who, besides, was constantly receiving presents 
in cash from the Pope. Eanke tells us that he had 
found a statement of accounts, according to which 
Clement VIII. gave to this Gianfrancesco more than 
a million (of crowns, I presume, is meant) in cash. 
Gianfrancesco also was a careful and thrifty man. 
He bought a property which rendered to its owner 
3,000 crowns a year, and shortly drew from it 
12,000 ! He married his daughter Margherita to 
Ranuccio Famese, and gave her a dower of 400,000 
crowns. 

Leo XI., Clement's successor, reigned only twenty- 
seven days ; and then came Paul V. and the day of the 
Borghese greatness. Of course it was the object of 
each one of these Popes, and yet more perhaps that of 
their nephews, to eclipse the fortunes and the grandeur 
of the family of the preceding occupant of the throne ; 
and as the scandalous nepotism and lavish expenditure 
of the treasure of the Church by each Pontiff in a certain 
sense legitimatised such practices, and rendered it pos- 



THE PRINCE POPES. 319 

sible for the next in the line to go yet a little (or not 
a little) further, this was not difficult of accomplish- 
ment. The ecclesiastical revenues possessed by Cardinal 
Borghese were yalued in 1612 at 150,000 crowns. But 
Marcantonio Borghese was the layman to whom the 
transmission of the family name and greatness was 
intrusted. He received from the Pope the principality 
of Sulmona, several palaces in Eome, and many of the 
most valuable villas in the environs. In this case, 
again, Eanke has found a list of the " gratifications " 
given by Paul up to the year 1620. They consist in 
property of almost every conceivable kind, very much of 
it taken from the treasure-chambers and storehouses of 
the Apostolic Palace. But the sums in hard cash which 
Marcantonio Borghese is stated to have received up 
to 1620 amount to 689,727 crowns in ready money; 
24,000 crowns of titles in the public debt, according to 
their nominal value ; and 268,176 crowns in offices, 
calculated at the price for which they could have been, 
and ordinarily were, sold by the Apostolic Chamber ! 
The Borghesi also bought lands on a large scale. It is 
calculated that they purchased about eighty estates in 
the Eoman Campagna, sold by Koman nobles who found 
that they could increase their revenues by putting the 
purchase-money of their lands in the public fimds. 
They established themselves also in various other parts 
of the States of the Church ; and the unscrupulous Paul, 
who was so scrupulous an asserter of the rights of the 
Church against others, did not hesitate to damage the 
revenues of the State, as well as his subjects, by granting 
to his relatives special privileges as to the holding of 



320 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

markets, and the granting remission from and levying- 
of taxes. Upon the whole, Paul V., the Borghese, was 
the most unscrupulous and unconscientious of the Popes 
since Paul III. in his nepotism; and the Borghesi 
became the wealthiest and most powerful family that 
had yet risen in Eome. The Famesi, Paul III.'s kin^ 
had passed beyond those limits, and become sovereiga 
princes, to the infinite auction and misery of the sub- 
jects they governed. 

Then came the turn of the Ludovisi. Gregory XV. 
had only two years and five months to work in for the 
enrichment and establishment of his family, but he used 
them to this end so energetically that the Ludovisi, from 
being small provincial nobles at Bologna, have ever 
since taken their places among that higher Boman aris- 
tocracy, every family of which has a hotbed of simony^ 
robbery, corruption, perjury, and shameless greed at its 
root ! 

The Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi was even more abso- 
lutely master of the Pope and the Government during 
his uncle's pontificate than the preceding cardinal 
nephews had been. He received, or rather took for 
himself, the two greatest and most lucrative offices of 
the Ecclesiastical Court — those of Vice-Chancellor and 
Camerlengo. The Church revenues monopolized by him 
amounted to 200,000 crowns a year ! As Eanke re- 
marks, the very apparent probability that Gregory 
would not live long only impelled him and his kins- 
men to a more energetic and more shameless rapidity 
in the work of enriching their family. The Pope's 
brother was made General of the Church, and received 



THE PEINCB POPES. 321 

various other very lucrative appointments. In the short 
space of the two years and five months which contained 
the whole reign of Gregory XV., the Ludovisi accumu- 
lated a revenue of 800,000 crowns on the public debt. 
The dukedom of Fiano was bought for them from the 
Sforza family, and the principality of Zagorolo from 
the Famesi. Niccolo Ludoviso, the heir to the family 
honours and possessions, added to them Venosa by a 
first marriage, and Piombino by a second ! 

Then came Urban VIII. with his twenty years of 
Papacy and the day of the Barberini. Urban had three 
nephews, two of whom were made cardinals, while the 
thiid, Taddeo, was to be the founder of the new family. 
It is stated that the regular income of the three brothers 
amounted to half a million of crowns annually. All 
the most lucrative posts were in their hands. Calcu- 
lations of the time show that the Barberini, during 
the pontificate of Urban VIII., received in one way 
or another the almost incredible sum of 105,000,000 
crowns ! Gregory himself seems to have been assailed 
by some scruples of conscience as to the enormity of 
the sums he was turning from their proper uses to the 
enrichment of his family. He named a commission in 
1640, charged to examine into and report upon the pro- 
priety and legitimacy of the Pope's doings in the matter. 
As might easily have been predicted, the commission 
found that it was all perfectly right. In order, how- 
ever, to make assurance doubly such to the most delicate- 
conscience, Vitelleschi, the General of the Jesuits, was 
also consulted upon the point ; and when he expressed 
his opinion that the Pope had not exceeded the bounds* 

Y 



322 THE PAPAL OOKCLATES. 

of moderation (!), of course there could be no farther 
misgiying. 

" Thus," says Banke, " from one pontificate to another 
new families were always rising into hereditary power, 
and at once taldng their places among the upper 
aristocracy of the country. It could not be but that 
enmities should arise among them. The struggle that 
had at one time existed between fections in the Conclave 
raged henceforth between the nephews of successive 
Pontiffs. The new family which had attained to power 
clung to supremacy with jealous tenacity, and entered 
at once into hostility, pushed even to the extent of 
persecution, against the family which had preceded it in 
power. Despite all that the Aldobrandini had con- 
tributed towards raising Paul V. to the Papacy, they 
were attacked, persecuted, and assailed by ruinous legal 
proceedings at the hands of the kinsmen of that Pope. 
The nephews of Paul V. were no better treated by the 
Ludovisi ; and Cardinal Ludovisi was in his turn driven 
from Eome when the Barberini came into power." 

This summary statement of facts that for several 
Papacies past had made up the principal part of the 
history and politics of the Eoman Court, furnishes a 
very intelligible explanation of the conduct of the 
Barberini faction in the Conclave which was held on 
the death of Urban VIII. At the close of a Papacy of 
twenty years things were very much changed in Eome. 
The French interest had been dominant during the whole 
of that long reign ; and the length of it gave reason at 
first sight to think that the same ascendancy might 
continue to prevail, for out of sixty-nine cardinals who 



THE PBINCE POPES. 323 

i^ent into Conclave on the 18th of January, no less than 
forty-eight were creatures of Urban VIII., and formed 
the faction of his nepheVs adherents. Forty-six were 
sufficient to elect the Pope, and Barberini might have 
named his own man if only he could have trusted all 
the professing adherents of his party ; but his attempt 
to cause the election of Cardinal Sacchetti, who would 
have entirely suited him, soon showed that he could not 
so trust them. The party of the older cardinals were 
strong enough, if not to elect a Pope, at least to exclude 
any one of his proposing. Under these circumstances it 
was vital to them to secure, at least, the exclusion of a 
declared adversary. And thus the Barberini party were 
at last driven to consent to the election of one who was, 
indeed, nominally a member of their party, and who 
had been a " creature " of Urban VIII., but was one of 
the last of those " creatures " whom they would have 
chosen if they could have done otherwise; for the 
Cardinal Pamphili had shown himself inclined to favour 
the Spanish party, and he had been formally excluded 
by France. Nevertheless, he was elected on the 16th of 
September, 1644, and took the name of Innocent X. 

But the Barberini very soon found that the modicum 
of success which they had achieved in the Conclave in 
securing the election at least of one nominally of their 
own party was in the result worse than worthless. 
Pamphili, as has been said, inclined to the Spanish 
interest, which, though it had been altogether eclipsed 
and under a cloud during the twenty years of Urban's 
Papacy, was by no means dead in Eome, but ready to 
revive and reassume its activity in every ramification of 

t2 



324 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

the complicated machine of the Papal Court in the 
returning warmth of pontifical favour. And one of the 
first manifestations of this resuscitated activity was a 
war to the knife against the Barberini and all that was 
theirs. Their palaces were occupied by the Papal 
troops; their property was sequestered; confiscations 
rained upon them; demands of accounts respect- 
ing their administration of the public moneys were 
threatened; and Antonio Barberini deemed it prudent 
to fly from Bome. But for one of those sudden changes 
in the whole Papal sky, to which the peculiar nature 
of the government renders it liable, the Barberini were 
wholly ruined I 



CHAPTEE III. 

Innocent X. — ^The Story of his Beign stands alone in Papal History. 
— ^Donna Olympia Maidalchini, his Sister-in-Law. — Her Influence 
oyer him. — ^Her scandalous yenaHty, greed, and corruption. — 
Scandal throughout Europe. — Innocent's futile Attempt to banish 
her. — ^Anecdote of her dealings in the last hours of the Pope's 
life. — Innocent's Death. — A Conclave without any leaders. — ^The 
'*Squadrone Yolante." — Anecdote of Cardinals Ottobuono and 
Azzolini. — Ohigi proposed. — Opposed by the French interest — 
The Barberini again. — Chigi elected as Alexander YII. — ^End of 
the story of Donna Olympia. — ^Pestilence at Eome. 

Such was the punishment of the nepotism of Urban VIII. 
But what was the conduct of Innocent himself, who 
thus raged against the nepotism of his predecessor, 
when he was in his turn exposed to similar temptation ? 

The story of the reign of Innocent X, is in this 
respect a very singular one. It stands alone among the 
stories of the long line of Popes, reminding the reader 
of the old fables of a Pope Joan, which took their dim 
rise from the metaphorical accounts of the scandals of a 
Papal Court, not wholly dissimilar from those which 
Innocent reproduced in more entirely historical times. 

A very singular change came over the spirit of the 
Papal Court. Innocent X. was guiltless of all nepotism, 
and yet,' strange to say, after all that has been told of the 
Papal favourites of the preceding reigns, the pontificate 
of Innocent was in this matter of favouritism the most 
disgraceftd of them all ! Innocent X. was ruled by no 



326 THB PAPAL GONGLAYES. 

cardinal nephew; but he was ruled, more despoticaUy 
than ever a Pope was ruled before, by a sister-in-law- 
This was the too celebrated Donna OlympiaMaidalchini, 
the widow of Innocent's brother ! 

Fifteen centuries * of Papal government had habitu- 
ated mankind to see without surprise in Heaven's Vicar 
on earth an amount of dereliction of duty, and an 
enormity of distance between profession and practice^ 
such as has never been recorded in history or exhibited 
to the world in any other department of its afiOairs. 
Yet Europe was startled at the novelty of the position 
assimied by Olympia immediately on Innocent's eleva- 
tion. She accompanied the new Pope to the Vatican, 
and established herself there as its mistress ! !N^o step 
of domestic government or foreign policy decided on, na 
grace, favour, or promotion accorded, no punishment 
inflicted, was the Pope's own work. His invaluable 
sister-in-law did all. He was absolutely a puppet in 
her hands. The keys of St. Peter were strung to her 
girdle; and the only function in which she probably 
never interfered was blessing the people ! 

The great object of her imceasing care and diplomacy 
was to keep at a distance from Innocent every person 
and every influence which could either lessen her own 
or go shares in the profits to be extracted from it ; for 
this, after all, was the great and ultimate scope of her 
exertions. To secure the profits of the Papacy in hard 
cash, this was the problem. No appointment to oflBce of 
any kind was made except in consideration of a propor- 

* The foUowing account of this extraordinary woman is taken from a 
life of her by the present author. 



THE PBINGE POPES. 327 

tionable sum paid down into her coffers. This often 
amounted to three or four years' revenue of the place to 
be granted. Bishoprics and benefices were sold as &st 
as they became vacant. One story is related of an un- 
lucky disciple of Simon, who, on treating with the 
Popess for a very valuable see, just fallen vacant, and 
hearing from her a price at which it might be his far 
exceeding all that he could command, persuaded the 
members of his family to sell all they had for the 
purpose of making this profitable investment. The 
price was paid, and the bishopric was given to him; 
but, with a fearful resemblance to the case of Ananias, 
he died within the year, and his ruined family saw the 
see a second time sold by the insatiable and shameless 
Olympial The incident only served her as a hint 
always to exact cash down, and not to content herself 
with a yearly payment from the accruing revenue. The 
criminal judges in Home were directed to punish crimi- 
nals of all degrees in purse instead of person, and the 
fines were all paid over with business-like exactitude to 
the all-powerful favourite. 

At last the discontent of Bome, the remonstrances 
of the cardinals, and the contempt and indignation of 
foreign courts we robeginning to render the position of 
Innocent and Olympia hardly tenable. One day a large 
medal was conveyed into the Pope's hands, on the 
obverse of which was represented Olympia with the 
pontifical tiara on her head and the keys in her hand, 
while the reverse showed Innocent in a coif with a 
spindle and distaff in his hands. Another day a report 
was brought to him from England that a play had been 



328 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

represented before Cromwell called "The Marriage of the 
Pope," in which Donna Olympia was represented reject- 
ing his addresses on account of his extreme ugliness, 
till, having in vain offered her one of the keys to induce 
her to consent, he attains his object at the cost of both 
of them! The Emperor again had said to the Papal 
nuncio, "Your Pope, my lord, has an easy time of it 
with Madame Olympia to put him to sleep." 

Driven by these and many other such manifestations 
of public feeling, Innocent determined to make a great 
effort. He announced to Olympia, with every expres- 
sion of regret for the hard necessity, that she must quit 
the Vatican ; and knowing well what he would have to 
endure if he exposed himself to her reproaches and 
entreaties, he forbade her to come for the future into 
his presence. 

But the weak and infirm old man had far over- 
calculated his moral strength. The prop on which he 
had relied during his years of best vigour could not be 
voluntarily relinquished now in the time of his decrepi- 
tude. Very soon Olyinpia obtained permission to make 
secret visits to the Vatican. These were made generally 
every night ; and this nightly secret coming and going 
at untimely hours threatened to become more ridiculous, 
if not more seriously scandalous, in the eyes of the lam- 
pooning Eoman world than an acknowledged residence 
in the Vatican. Besides, such an arrangement did not 
adequately meet the necessities of the case. Olympia 
pointed out to the infirm old man that her constant care 
and superintendence were necessary to his personal 
comfort — perhaps to his safety. So Eome very shortly 



THE PBIKCE POPES. 329 

saw the " Papessa ^' once again at her old home in the 
Vatican ; and, as from the nature of the circumstances 
must necessarily have been the case, her power and 
entire disposal of the functions and revenue of the 
Papacy became more absolute than ever. 

But the rapidly declining health of Innocent warned 
her that her time was short, and prudence might have 
coimselled her to make some preparation for the storm, 
which she must have well known she would have to 
face after his death, by moderation if not relinquishing 
the corrupt and offensive practices of all sorts which 
were daily added in the minds of the Eomans to the 
long account against her. Her observation and reading 
of the world had, however, suggested to her a different 
policy. If more danger had to be encountered, more 
money would be needed to meet it. Donna Olympiads 
faith in the omnipotence of money was unbounded. 
Only let her have money -power enough, and she 
doubted not that she should be able to ride out the 
storm. 

So she applied herself with more energy and assiduity 
than ever to the two objects which shared her entire 
care — ^the collection of cash by the most unblushing and 
audacious rapine and venality, and the keeping the 
breath of life to the last possible instant within the 
sinking frame of the aged Pontiff. The latter task was 
so important, that, both for the insuring of proper atten- 
tion and for providing against the danger of poison, she 
kept the Pope almost under lock and key, attending to 
his wants with her own hands, and allowing him to 
touch no food that had not been prepared under her own 



330 THE PAPAL OOKGLAVES. 

eyes. During the last year of his life she literally 
hardly ever quitted him. Once a ^eek, we read, she 
left the Vatican secretly by night, accompanied by 
several porters carrying sacks of coin, the proceeds of 
the week's extortions and sales, to her own palace; and 
during these short absences she used to lock the Pope 
into his chamber and carry the key with her ! 

At last the end was visibly at hand. During the last 
ten days of his life the Pope's mind was wholly gone. 
And in these ten days, by rapidly selling off for what 
she could get for them nominations to vacant benefices 
and " Prelature," Olympia is said to have amassed half 
a million crowns! Her last transaction was with a 
canon, who had been for some time previously in treaty 
with her for a " Prelatura/' He had offered fifty, while 
she had stood out for eighty thousand crowns ; and the 
bargain had gone off. In the last hours of Innocent's 
life she sent for this man and told him that she would 
take his fifty thousand. He said he had dissipated 
twenty thousand of the sum since that time, and had 
only thirty thousand left. " Well ! " said the unblush- 
ing dealer, "since you can do no better, hand them 
over, and you shall have the ^ Prelatura.' " So the 
money was paid, and the nomination obtained from the 
dying Pope in extremis. 

Innocent died on the 7th January, 1655, having 
reigned ten years and three months. His body re- 
mained three days utterly abandoned. Donna Olympia, 
who had of course left the Vatican the moment that 
breath left Innocent's body, said that she was a 
poor widow, whose means were entirely inadequate to 



THE PBINC£ POPK:^. 881 

the expense of the obsequies of a Pope. At last a 
canon, who had been in the Pope's service for many 
years, but who had for a long time past been out of 
favour, came forward, and at the sacrifice of a consider- 
able sum paid the last honours to his old patron. 

For the first time for many years there had been a 
Papacy without nepotism, and without a reigning card- 
inal nephew. And though, as regarded the administra- 
tion of the Holy See, the credit of the Papacy, and the 
general tone of morality in the Apostolic Courts, 
matters had, in this absence of nepotism, changed for 
the worse, yet at Innocent^s death the change that 
hence arose was seen to be a very important one. The 
Conclave was without a natural leader, nor was there 
any bond which as usual banded together the 
" creatures " of Innocent X. An anecdote was current, 
which has been preserved by Eanke, that when a pro- 
posal was made that they should choose a leader — a 
*^head" whose captaincy they sliould follow in the 
Conclave (most naturally the Cardinal Medici, who was 
the senior of Innocent's creatures) — some of them replied 
that each man had a head as well as feet of his own, and 
needed no other. The conclavist who has narrated the 
story of the Conclave that followed the death of Inno- 
cent declares that no less than twenty-two of the 
*^ creatures" of Innocent aspired to the Papacy, each 
for himself! The Spanish ambassador, the Duca di 
Terranuova, gave them the name of the "squadronc 
volante," and to a certain degree they seem to have 
acted together. 

It is said that the Cardinal Ottobuono, one of tibiem. 



832 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

exclaimed at the death-bed of Innocent, "What we 
have to do is to elect an honest man ! " " If you are in 
search of an honest man," replied Cardinal Azzolini, 
another of " the squadron," " there is one there," point- 
ing to the Sienese Cardinal Chigi as he spoke. Chigi, 
in fact, in the course of the aflfairs, mainly diplomatical, 
which his life had been passed in transacting for the 
Apostolic See, had acquired the reputation of an upright, 
able, and moderate man, of blameless life, and was 
farther known to condemn very strongly the corruptions 
and abuses which had characterized the pontificate that 
had just come to a conclusion. The way to elect Chigi 
Pope, however, was by no means clear. He was strongly 
opposed by the whole force of the French interest. 
Chigi had been nuncio at Cologne when Mazarin, driven 
from France by the fronde^ was in Germany striving to 
prepare the means of recovering the power and position 
he had lost ; and Mazarin perceived, or imagined him- 
self to perceive, that Chigi had not given him the sup- 
port which he had expected from him. From that time 
Mazarin was his enemy, and did his utmost to prevent 
his election to the Papacy. 

But there was another strong influence and power in 
the Conclave — that of Cardinal Barberini. We parted 
from him and his when, vanishing behind a cloud, they 
wont down in the first days of Innocent's Papacy. But 
now was the time for them to raise their heads, bruised 
but not crushed by the storm, once again. It might 
have been supposed that the least likely of all alliances 
would have been one between the Barberini and the 
popess of the Pope who had so severely punished them. 



THE PBINCE POPES. 333 

But a common misfortune, like a common failing, makes 
one wondrous kind and forgiving. Olympia, as has 
been said, had an unlimited faith in the omnipotence of 
money. Barberini was a fervent worshipper at the same 
shrine. To Olympia it was all important that a Pope 
should be elected who should condone her past; and 
Barberini was deeply interested in the election of one 
who would not be likely to pursue and renew the severe 
measures against his family to which Innocent had lent 
himself at the beginning of his Papacy. And Olympia 
had contrived, it must be supposed by the influence of 
the god which she trusted and placed her faith in, to 
make a party of friends in the Conclave, mainly, of 
course, among the members of the " squadrone volante." 

Chigi was not the man, however, that either Barberini 
or Olympia would have chosen could they have had 
their way. But though strong enough to prevent, they 
were not strong enough to secure the election of a Pope. 
And this is the most constantly recurring phenomenon 
in the history of the Conclaves. No party, no person, 
is ever able to obtain that the person they wish to make 
the Pope becomes such. Each party has to limit his 
hopes to the exclusion of such candidates as are espe- 
cially obnoxious to him. And at last the efforts of the 
strongest party leader in the Conclave content them- 
selves with securing the election of him who stands 
perhaps the fifth or sixth on their list drawn up in order 
of preference, who may probably also be sixth or seventh 
on the list of a rival party. Thus the majority of the 
Popes have been elected by force otpis aller. 

In the Condave of which we are now speaking, it was 



334 THE PAPAL COKCLAYES. 

discoyered at an early day, to the entire conviction of 
all who understood the work they were about, that no 
Pope could be elected against the will of Barberini. 
The question was, not whether that will should be set 
aside, but to what extent it should be allowed to prevaiL 
The French interest was powerful; and it was this 
struggle which caused the Conclave to be of unusual 
length, at least for recent times. It lasted over three 
months, at the end of which the ^^squadrone volante," 
with the acquiescence and help of Barberini, elected 
Fabio Chigion the 7th of April, 1655, 

As so much has been said of Donna Olympia Famfili, 
and her influence was so largely felt in the Conclave, this 
chapter may be concluded by giving in a few words the 
end of her story. Ag Chigi was one of the " creatures" 
of Innocent, and was considered a moderate man, it was 
thought that he would not be likely to molest the sister- 
in-law, favourite, and (/overnante of his old patron. It 
never seems to have occiiiTed to her or her friends that 
the new Pope might demand a strict account from her 
merely from considerations of abstract right and justice. 
She was among the first to compliment him on his 
accession, and at an early day asked for an audience. 
The answer was not calculated to reassure her. 
Alexander sent her word that it was not his inten- 
tion to receive ladies except on important matters of 
business. Still she determined not to give up the game, 
and repeated her application to be allowed to speak with 
his Holiness with increased urgency ; but she only 
obtained the still more alamung reply that "Donna 
Olympia had had but too much conversation with Popes, 



THE PBIKCE POPES. 835 

and that she must understand that things would hence- 
forth be very different" 

So much time elapsed, however, before any step was 
taken with regard to her, that Olympia began to hope 
that she would be left alone with her enormous hoards. 
But Alexander, unwilling to incur the blame of acting 
passionately or hastily upon the subject, was listening 
to the innumerable proofs of her ill-doings, and quietly 
making up his mind on the matter. Suddenly an order 
reached her to quit Bome within three days, and to be 
at Orvieto within eight. It came upon her like a 
thunderbolt, for she felt that it was the beginning of 
the end. 

A commissary was sent after her thither to require a 
strict account from her of all the State moneys that had 
passed into her hands, immediate restitution of the 
jewels and other valuables carried off by her from the 
Vatican, and her answer to the innumerable charges 
against her of selling offices, benefices, and pardons. 
She answered by general denials, and by asserting that 
whatever money had passed into her hands had been 
paid over to her by Innocent. The next step, it was 
expected, would have been her imprisonment. But at 
this stage of the business an imexpected and terrible ally 
stepped in to save, not the wretched woman herself, but 
at least her infamously gotten wealth to the Pamfili 
family. This ally was the pestilence, which invaded 
Italy, and specially Bome, with such violence, that it 
threw other matters into abeyance by concentrating on 
itself all the care and attention of Alexander and his 
government. 



336 THE PAPAL COKGLAYBS. 

But the pestilence, which thus saved her money-bags^ 
did not spare her to the enjoyment of them, for on its 
appearance in Orvieto Olympia was one of the first 
victims. 

No further steps were taken by the Government in 
the matter; and Camillo Pamfili, her son, inherited 
quietly the almost incredible sums she had amassed* 
It was said that, besides the vast estates she had 
acquired, and an immense amount of precious stones 
and gold uncoined, more than two nuUions of crowns 
in money were found in her coffers ! 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Fabiol Chigi, Alexander YH. — His cliaracter. — ^His modified nepotism. 
— Difficulty of entirely abolishing nepotism. — Changing charac- 
teristics of the Papacy. — ^Dispute at the death-bed of Alexander. — 
Eospigliosi elected Pope as Clement IX. — His Character.— The 
fluctuations in the population of Bome. — Curious Connection 
between these phenomena and tho decrease of nepotism. — Mixed 
motive of the Electors in the Conclaves of this Period. — Complaints 
of the decline of religion and morality in Bome. — ^Qualities now 
sought for in a Pontiff. — Innocent XI. a really capable financier. 
— Conclave which elected Clement X. 

Fabio Chigi had been all his life a well-conditioned 
ecclesiastic, of decent conduct, doing his duty in that 
state of life to which it had pleased God to call him, and 
doiag it well according to his lights and tho lights of 
the times in which he lived. He was a well-read, 
active-minded man, of industrious and active habits, and 
had gained a reputation for moderation, practical wis- 
dom, and sagacity. Some of these good qualities he 
retained as Pope. The influences of power and pomp, 
or the declining energies of advancing age, or both these 
causes, seem to have deprived him of others. His 
private conduct continued to be all that could be desired 
in a dignifled ecclesiastic, and his pleasures were such 
as were suitable to that character. He began his 
Papacy, too, with all that vigour of good intentions 
which has been proverbially Ukened to the action of new 
brooms. He would have no nepotism! He forbade 

z 



338 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

his relatives — a brother and his sons — ^to come to Borne. 
But .... it was soon represented to him by those about 
him that such rigour was not necessary, was not 
desirable, was not even right as a matter of conscience ; 
and Alexander VII. was only too well inclined to give 
ear to such representations. His family affections 
pleaded for his kinsfolk, and his own decreasing 
activity longed for the assistance and prop of a cardinal 
nephew. 

The nephew came and was made a cardinal; the 
brother came, and had the best things that the Apos- 
tolic Court had to give to a layman ; and a new family 
was founded. But the Chigi were enriched more mode- 
rately, and not in such a manner as to cause scandal or 
reprobation in that age. It is however worth remarking, 
as an illustration of the feeling of the time, that Cardinal 
Pallavicini, the historian of the Council of Trent,* 
writing while Alexander was still keeping his kinsmen 
at a distance from Kome, promises him immortality on 
the strength of that heroic piece of virtue. But the 
worst consequences of Alexander's fall into the old ruts 
of nepotism were seen in the increasing tendency which 
he manifested to throw all the burden of business on 
the shoulders of those about him. He became a very 
faineant Pope, occupying his leisure hours, not dis- 
creditably, with literature and learned men, but making 
of those hours a far larger portion of his life than was 
consistent with the duty of a supreme head of the 
Church. 

* Pallayicim wrote the orthodox history of that great eyent in oppo- 
sition to the history of Fra Paolo Sarpi. 



THE PRINCE POPES. 839 

But Alexander's inclinations in this respect, and the 
general tendencies of the Apostolic Court and Church at 
that period, played into the hands of each other. The 
Sacred College was, day by day, acquiring a greater 
weight in the State, and a larger share of authority and 
self-assured importance. The Popes were becoming less 
autocratic, and more controlled and controllable by a 
body which was assuming the real position and con- 
ditions of a Council of State. We have lived to see the 
pendulum swinging back again in the contrary direction. 
But the Popes of the latter half of the seventeenth, the 
whole of the eighteenth, and the first half of the nine- 
teenth centuries, were priests of decent life, sovereigns 
surrounded by, and to a great extent the slaves of, 
ceremonial and etiquette, and autocratic rulers rather in 
theory and outward appearance than in reality. 

Together with propriety and decency, smallness begins 
more and more to characterize the doings, the interests, 
and the life of the denizens of the Apostolic Court and 
its rulers. Terrible hatreds give place to little spites. 
One cardinal no longer plots the murder of another 
because he interferes with his pretensions to sovereign 
power; he only plans to aflEront his rival because he 
has been himself offended in some infinitesimal ques- 
tion of privilege, precedence, or dignity. Alexander 
VII. was not deserted by his relatives and attendants 
on his death-bed, and no more stories of lurid horrors 
impart a morbidly melodramatic interest to the Papal 
annals. But a sharp dispute arose by the dead Pontiff^s 
bedside between two cardinals, who quarrelled over the 
special privilege, which each claimed, of enacting some 

z2 



340 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

particular part in the ceremonial of the obsequies. And 
the incident is a significant illustration of the new epoch 
on which we are entering. 

Alexander and his nephew the cardinal were no 
haters or persecutors. The custom, which usage had 
almost erected into a law, that the family of the preced- 
ing Pope should be pursued by the unrelenting hostility 
of the kinsmen of his successor, was no longer observed 
during Fabio Chigi^s pontificate. Family, indeed, Inno- 
cent had left none to be persecuted, save the layman 
Camillo Pamfili. But neither did any hostility arise 
between the ** creatures " of Innocent and those of 
Alexander. And the "squadrone volante," which had 
mainly decided the election of Alexander, was also 
chiefly instrumental in placing his successor, Eospigliosi, 
on the throne as Clement IX. Cardinal Chigi wished 
at first to have brought about the election of Cardinal 
D'Elci, a Florentine, because the Grand Duke of 
Tuscany had set his heart on that election. But finding 
that none of the other factions in the Conclave would 
join him in doing so, he allowed himself, without much 
difficulty, to be persuaded by Barberini and the 
*^ squadrone volante," to agree to the election of 
Eospigliosi, who was elected on the 20th of June, 1667, 
by sixty-one votes out of the sixty-four which con- 
stituted the entire Conclave. Eospigliosi, for form and 
decorum sake, gave his own vote to Chigi, and it was 
not known what became of the two others. 

Giulio Eospigliosi was conspicuous for all the good 
qualities which can be insured by the absence of evil 
ones. He was a man of blameless life, and the kindest. 



THE PEINCB POPES- 



341 



easiest-tempered man that could be met with. And 
these are the qualities which seem mainly to have 
caused his elevation to the Papacy. Clement IX. was the 
first Pope for a very long time who could not be accused 
in any degree of nepotism. A fair share of prefer- 
ment fell to his relatives, and the Eospigliosi became 
greatly enriched, but mainly by a rich marriage with a 
Oenoese Pallavicini heiress. Cardinal Chigi was not 
even displaced from his position of Minister of State, 
and his advice and representations were, as Banke 
remarks, almost as much attended to by Clement as 
they had been by Alexander. 

The same historian gives from a MS. in the Barberini 
library an extremely curious statement of the popula- 
tion of Eome at various dates about this period, which 
illustrates in a very remarkable manner one of the 
results of this cessation of nepotism on a large scale, 
and of that successive persecution of one family by 
another which arose from it. The facts are given in 
tabular form as follows : — 





Inhabitants. 


EuniliM. 


inieoo . . . 


. 100,729 . . 


. . 20,019 


In 1614 . . . 


. 115,643 . . 


. . 21,422 


In 1619 . . . 


106,050 . . 


. . 24,380 


In 1628 . . . 


115,374 . . 


. . 24,429 


Inl644 . . . 


110,608 . . 


. . 27,279 


In 1653 . . . . 


118,882 . . 


. . 29,081 


Inl666 . . . 


120,596 . . 


. . 30,103 



Now the curious &ct in this statement is, that 
while the number of the population varies in a very 
capricious manner, the increase in the number of fami- 
lies is constant and steady. And the explanation of so 
singular an anomaly is to be found in the diminution 



342 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

in the numbers of mere adventurers— ecclesiastical, and 
consequently bachelor, seekers of fortune — and the con- 
tinual increase in the number of permanent and settled 
citizens. And this change is imquestionably the result 
of a cessation of the state of things, when at every 
demise of the tiara everybody was turned out from his 
position, and the whole field was open to the hopes and 
ambitions of new comers. A constant movement of 
coming- and going was thus produced, which accounta 
for the apparently capricious variations in the popula- 
tion; while the steady, though by no means rapid 
increase in the number of families indicates the greater 
degree of stability of those who for any reason had once 
fixed their residence in Eome. 

While the general character of the Conclaves, begin- 
ning from about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
shows a very marked and increasing improvement, not 
only in external decency, but in a real sense of the 
paramount duty of electing a successor to the throne of 
St. Peter who might be hoped to turn out a ruler 
devoted to and calculated to secure the interests of the 
Church, these aims were not so unanimously understood, 
and these motives were not so unmixed with others, 
that were in some of the electors secondary and in not 
a few even primary, as to render the choice of the 
Pontiff and the management of the Conclave a simple 
matter. On the contrary, the increased numbers of the 
Sacred College, in the first place ; the increased number 
of soggetti papahili^ which was the natural result of an 
age when at least decency of ecclesiastical conduct had 
become common, and when a fair character, a reasonable 



THE PBINCE POPES. 84S 

amount of talent for business, and industry in the trans- 
action of it, were held to confer a right to aspirQ to the 
tiara, in the second place ; thirdly, the infinitely increased 
number of wires and wire-pullers produced by an age 
when audacious violence was no longer the order of the 
day, when the interests of all European States had 
become much more complicated and bound up together, 
and diplomacy was universally understood to signify 
dissimulation and craft; and lastly, the increased num- 
ber and variety of the considerations which went to the 
choosing of a really good and fitting Pope — ^all tended 
to complicate the business of the Conclaves. The out- 
lines which mark the doings within them become less 
bold and distinct. They are finer, more intricate, more 
constantly crossing each other, and more blurred by the 
secrecy and frequently imavowed nature of the motives 
of the actors. 

I have said that the amount of virtue to be found in 
the Sacred College about the period of which we are speak- 
ing had greatly increased. And, indeed, I think that the 
remark might have been made of an epoch beginning 
somewhat earlier — ^from the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century perhaps. But I find the narrator of the 
Conclave which elected Clement X. in 1670 complain- 
ing in no measured terms of the exceeding wickedness 
of the Koman world — of its avarice, luxury, worldli- 
ness, and above all of its irreligion. But such com- 
plaints will be recognised by those who have the history 
of that century and its neighbouring centuries before 
their eyes, instead of the immediate view of the life 
around them, as evidences of that improvement which a 



344 THE PAPAL GONCLAYES. 

sense of the necessity of improvement always implies. 
But the writer, who seems to have composed one division 
of his narration previously to, and in anticipation of, 
the Conclave, says much, in a curious exposition of the 
qualities of the possible candidates — ^the papdbili — and 
the motives that may be expected to influence the electors, 
of some considerations of an order entirely new in the 
history of the Papacy and the Conclaves. No quality 
has hitherto seemed to all the persons concerned, includ- 
ing the historians of the Conclaves, to give so good a 
title to aspirations to the tiara as a reputation for bound- 
less "liberality." A Pope who would open wide his 
hand, and fling the exhaustless treasures of the Church 
broadcast over all the open-mouthed expectants high 
and low who were gaping for them — ^this was the man 
Eome and the Holy See wanted. But the narrator of 
the Conclave which elected Clement lY. in 1670 has 
a singularly changed note. What is wanted is, almost 
above all else, an economical Pope — one who will not 
squander the revenues of the Church either by spending 
or giving. The character which more than one of the 
soggetti papdbili had acquired for parsimony as a private 
individual is cited as no bad qualification for his election. 
And in truth such considerations were beginning to 
make themselves felt at Kome not a moment too soon. 
The reckless and inordinate profusion of the recent 
Popes, together with an absolutely ignorant and ruinous 
financial system, had brought the Apostolic Court almost 
to the verge of bankruptcy ; and had it not been for 
the rare and little to have been expected good fortune 
which, six years subsequently to the time we are now 



THE PBIKCE POPES. 346 

speaking of, placed a really capable financier on the 
Papal throne in the person of Innocent XI., that verge 
would infallibly have been passed. 

In the two hundred years which have elapsed since 
the elevation of Innocent XI. till the present day, six- 
teen Popes, includiog Innocent and Pius IX., have 
reigned, and accounts which might be rendered both 
intelligible and amusing might be written of each one 
of the sixteen Conclaves which have elected them. But 
at least eight such volumes as the present would be 
needed for the purpose. It is out of the question, 
therefore, that any such attempt should be made. To 
give, however, such a mere statement of names, votes, 
and the results of them as could be given within any 
reasonable limits, would be neither intelligible to any 
good purpose nor amusing, but on the contrary intole- 
rably tedious. It has seemed better, therefore, to endea- 
vour to treat this Conclave which elected Clement X. 
with some little degree of detail, taking it as a specimen 
of the sort of elections which have prevailed under the 
new conditions which the changed face of things in 
Europe had imposed on the Papacy. 



CHAPTEE V. 

Conclave which elected Altieri as dement X. — ^No fewer than twenty- 
one "Soggetti Papabili." — Barberini. — GinettL — Brancacci. — 
Carpegna. — Facehinetti. — Ghimani. — Gabrielli. — Odeschalchi. — 
Alyizzi. — Cibo. — Ottobuoni. — Spada. — BonYisL — ^VidonL — ^D'Elci, 
— Celsi. — ^Litta. — ^Bonelli. — ^Altieri. — ^Nerli. — ^Bona. — Complaint by 
the Condayist of the impiety of the Times. 

The Conclave from which Cardinal Emilio Altieri came 
forth as Clement VI. was an unusually long one. 
Clement IX. died on the 9th December, 1669; the 
cardinals went into Conclave duly on the twentieth of 
that month ; but the election was not made till the 29th 
of April in the following year. Morone says that at the 
beginning of the Conclave every one was in favour of 
the Cardinal Altieri, and the whole Roman world ex- 
pected him to be elected. But this seems to bo hardly 
consistent with the fact that the Conclave was so long 
an one. And in fact the special narrator of the Conclave, 
in all probability a conclavist as usual, gives a very 
different account of the matter. According to his con- 
temporary statement, no fewer than twenty- one of the 
cardinals who went into Conclave were deemed to 
belong to the category of soggetti papahilL It is very 
intelligible that such a condition of matters should lead 
to a severe struggle, to manifold complications, and 
consequently to a Conclave of long duration. But it is 



THE PRINCE POPES. 347 

impossible to believe that all, or nearly all, the electors 
irere from the first minded to elect the same man, and 
yet were four months about it. 

The conclavist gives us the list of these one-and- 
twenty papahilij together with the qualities which re- 
commended and the objections which impeded each of 
them. And the list thus commented serves to afford 
an excellent insight into the nature and variety of the 
considerations which were operative on the minds of 
the electors. 

The first on the roll is Cardinal Barberini, now Dean 
of the Sacred College, by force of seniority, not of years, 
it will be understood, but of his standing in the College, 
and eminently papahile by virtue of his character, as 
well as his connections, influence, and social standing in 
Eome. He was bom in 1597, and was therefore now 
seventy-three years old. In the words of the conclavist, 
"his kindness of heart, his wisdom, his experience, 
vigilance, and zeal, his charity to the poor, his imwearied 
industry in business, are qualities which would not only 
merit the Papacy, but in the present conjuncture of 
circumstances would necessarily fix the choice of the 
electors on him, if they were not coimterbalanced by his 
obstinacy, capriciousness, instability, and too great self- 
confidence." In fact, as the writer goes on to show, 
both the cardinals and the crowned heads of Europe 
were too much afraid of him to wish to see him Pope. 
" Besides, prone to anger as he is, men think that were 
he to fijid himself with the tiara on his head and the 
pontifical mantle on his shoulders, he would not be apt 
to spare any of those around him if things did not go 



348 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

to his mind, or if he were surprised by one of his fre- 
quent outbursts of passion." 

Cardinal Ginetti, of Velletri, the next on the list, was 
bom in 1585, and was therefore eighty-five years old. 
The large experience of Courts which he had acquired 
from a long residence at the Court of the Emperor as 
legate from Urban VIII., his well-known industry, the 
blamelessness of his life, are all strongly in his favour. 
"Nor will his reputation for parsimony injure him in 
an age when there is need of a Pontiff who will repair 
the too reckless liberalities of the past." He has a 
nephew, too, the most eminent man among the body of 
Eoman prelates, who is a clerk of the Papal Chamber — a 
thoroughly well-conducted man, liberal and open-handed, 
and in this respect might be a useful complement to 
the qualities of his imcle. Cardinal Ginetti has, in 
Conclave language, the exclusive of nobody, and the in- 
clusive of Barberini — ^which means that no cardinal nor 
any sovereign has declared that he shall not be Pope if 
they can help it, and that Barberini has declared him 
one of those whom (failing perhaps other combinations) 
he would willingly see Pope. It is known that the 
Medici would make no diflS.culty in acquiescing in his 
election, and Cardinal Caraffa, one of the Chigi group, 
is a family connection of the Ginetti. The Spaniards 
would be very willing to accept him; and Cardinal 
Chigi would, in case he should not be able to bring 
about the election of any of the " creatures'' of his 
uncle, Alexander VII., probably consent to his election 
rather than to that of any other outside the circle of his 
own faction, because his great age would still leave 



THE PBDfCB POPES. 349 

Chigi the hope that he might place one of his uncle's 
"creatures" on the throne at the next election. On 
the whole, it was thought that Ginetti's chance was a 
very good one. 

Third on the list is his Neapolitan Eminence Bran- 
cacci, bom in 1592. He is a man of decent character 
and studious habits, and attentive to business, and his 
nephew, a prelate, if not distinguished in any way, is 
inofltensive, good-natured, and well-liked. He is put 
forward by Barberini as one of his uncle's "creatures," 
and Chigi, if obliged to seek a Pope beyond the circle 
of his own faction, would not object to him. He has 
some friends among the "squadrone volante," which 
still exists and is influential. The French would be 
well contented with his election ; and Cardinal Eospig- 
liosi, the last Pope's nephew, would vote for him if he 
should fail in securing the election of a Clementine 
cardinal. But all these favourable circumstances are 
probably more than neutralised by the fact that he is 
specially excluded by the Spaniards, which might pos- 
sibly not suffice to render his election out of the ques- 
tion were it not that the Spaniards have named to Chigi 
four of Alexander's creatures, in the election of either 
of whom they would be willing to concur. Still it was 
on the cards that Brancacci might become Pope as the 
result of a failure of other combinations. 

Fourth is Carpegna of TJrbino, about seventy years of 
age. He is not a man who has much to recommend 
him in point of intelligence or political knowledge ; but 
he is a very good sort of man, who would be content 
to live and let everybody else live in peace. He has 



350 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

exactly that in his favour which Barberini has against 
him — ^nobody would be afraid of him. He would be 
safe to avoid all innovations and novelties ; and for this 
reason the crowned heads would be well content with 
his election, which is especially desired by the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany. On the whole, however, his chance is 
a very poor one. 

Fifth comes the Bolognese Facchinetti, bom in 1608 ; 
and he is the man whom Barberini will strive with all 
his power to place on the throne. Facchinetti had been 
nuncio in Spain under Urban VIII., and had been 
thought to acquit himself well upon that occasion. He 
had made himself agreeable to the Spanish Court, not- 
withstanding which, however, the Spanish interest in 
the Conclave would be opposed to him merely on the 
ground of his age, sixty-two years only, the maxim of 
that Court beiag in favour of electing an older man. 
Medici, if unable to have either D'Elci or Carpegna, 
would vote for Facchinetti. Cardinal d'Este also would 
vote for him from private friendship. The " squadrone 
volante" would be divided concerning him. ^^But," 
says the conclavist, '' Chigi, if he be well advised, will 
oppose him with all his power, nor take any heed of 
whatever promises may be made to him ; for besides that 
Cardinal Facchinetti is of such an age and constitution 
as to make it probable he may outlive all the Alexandrine 
creatures (and so prevent for ever the hope of raising a 
Chigi cardinal to the throne), it would come to the 
same thing as making Barberini himself Pope, since 
Facchinetti recognises him as the sole author of his 
fortunes. The loud report of this cardinal's (Facchi- 



THE PBDfCB POPES. 851 

netti^s) amiable qualities," the conclavist goes on to say, 
^^ resounds everywhere ; for he has made it his sjpecial 
aim to gain universal popularity, after the fashion of 
Cardinal Giulio Eospigliosi, who, by being hail-fellow- 
well-met with everybody who sought him, and by never 
failing to answer the letters of even the most obscure 
and low persons (filling his letters, too, with all the 
same courteous expressions that he used to persons of 
quality), found the means of winning everybody's heart 
in such sort that he made everybody believe that he was 
his special confi.dant and Mend. In the same manner, 
Facchinetti has as many Mends as Eospigliosi had 
adherents ; but as these tricks are generally played oflf 
by persons more ingenious than ingenuous, it might be 
feared (were it not for his well-known virtue) that if 
he should ascend the throne his confidants and Mends 
might find themselves deluded and neglected." That 
last parenthesis is delicious, and one fancies that one 
can see the expression of the sly old conclavist's face as 
he wrote it ; but I think it may be assumed, without 
much fear of mistake, that the writer was not one 
of those whom Facchinetti's popularity-hunting had 
captivated. 

Next came, .sixth on the list, the Genoese Cardinal 
Grimani, who was bom in 1603. The conclavist says 
that he was injured as a candidate for the Papacy by the 
belief that he was French in his sympathies ; but that, 
if the truth were known, that would be found so far 
from being the case that the Spaniards would under- 
stand that he is the man they would most wish for. 
Indeed, says the conclavist, "the Church, the State, 



352 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

nay the whole world, could desire nothing better than 
the exaltation (i.e. election) of this great man." 

Gabrielli, a Boman cardinal, is the seventh of the 
papdbili. "And if St. Paul had been Christ's Vicar, 
he might justly pretend to be his successor by reason of 
his personal likeness to that apostle. He is," continues 
the writer, " of Portuguese origin, and his sordid mode 
of life gives testimony to that fact in the most remark- 
able manner." Barberini names him B&papahile merely 
as being one of Urban's creatures. Medici is favourable 
to him " with a superficial adherence." But his Emi- 
nence Gabrielli has no acquaintance with state affairs, 
and he does not enjoy either esteem or favour in public 
opinion. "And this is all," concludes the conclavist, 
" that there is to be said about him ! " 

Odeschalchi comes next, the eighth. His " rare excel- 
lencies in point of holiness of .life would make him an 
excellent Pontiff, if he were in other respects fitted to 
the present needs of the Church." In the first place, he 
is only fifty-eight, and in such robust health that if he 
were elected a long Papacy might reasonably be counted 
on ; and this alone is sufficient to make the crowned 
heads hostile to him. He is a great lover of study, of 
excellently good intentions, charitable to the needy to 
the utmost limit of his means, and if the people of Kome 
had votes he would be Pope to a certainty ; but he is 
reserved and ungenial in his manners, and scrupulous to 
excess in matters of conscience, which stands much in 
his way. The Spanish faction object to him on various 
grounds ; and the French would be very sorry to see a 
Pope so austere, both in reality and in appearance, as 



THE PEINCB POPES. 353 

the conclavist says, on the throne of St. Peter. Cardinal 
Imperiale is a great enemy of his, but that would rather 
be of service to him than otherwise. On the whole, it is 
hardly likely that he should be the successful candidate. 
He was not so on this occasion ; but from the next Con- 
clave, six years later, he came forth as Innocent XI., 
and showed himself to be the right man in the right 
place, as regarded the needs of the Church at that time, 
to a degree which the elections of the Sacred College 
have rarely equalled. 

Albizzi, ninth on the list, is a very different sort of 
man. Haughty, bold, enterprising, ambitious, every man 
in the Sacred College is afraid of him. The Spaniards 
would absolutely refuse to accept him. The French 
would not object to him because he is objected to by the 
Spaniards, and because " they have nothing to lose 
in Italy." The Florentines would naturally be in his 
favour as a countrjrman of their own, but that they are 
afraid of him. He is one of Barberini's candidates, as 
having been a " creature " of Urban ; but neither Chigi 
nor RospigKosi with their respective adherents would 
hear of him, deeming him " a man too terrible and 
exceedingly learned." 

Cardinal Cibo, the brother of the reigning. Prince of 
Massa, is the tenth of the papdbili. There is little else 
than good to be said of him. He is a man of exceeding 
pleasing and popular manners, and would, the conclavist 
thinks, make a very good Pope. He would be accept- 
able to the crowned heads, who in his case probably 
would not be rigorous in adhering to their maxim of 
requiring a Pope to be not less than seventy. Barberini 

A A 



354 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

could, the conclavist tliinks, have no objection to him. 
And the squadrone volante^ of which he is a member, 
could not but be pleased to see so creditable a member of 
their party raised to power. The Medici, too, would not 
refuse to concur in his election. Nevertheless, with all 
this, he will not be proposed by the leader of any faction, 
and " therefore he must recommend himself for aid to 
the Holy Ghost, since he has an objection to anything 
simoniacal." The reader is left to conclude that his 
chance is a desperate one. 

Of the Venetian Cardinal Ottoboni the conclavist 
writes only this: "So many are the writings current 
in Kome respecting the Venetian Ottoboni, that it is 
imnecessary to say anything here about him, save that, 
during all the time that he governed the Dataria^ he has 
shown himself so hostile to princes and to men of merit, 
that it is hardly likely, despite his sardonic grin, that 
he should ever at any time attain to the Papacy." Nine- 
teen years subsequently, however, after Altieri had 
reigned more than six as Clement X., and Odeschalchi 
had reigned more than twelve as Innocent XI., this 
Ottoboni was elected Pope, " despite his sardonic grin," 
as Alexander VIII. But promotion came to him, as to 
so many another, too late, and he reigned only sixteen 
months. 

We come next to Cardinal Spada, a Lucchese, in his 
seventy-third year. He was the favourite candidate of 
the squadrone volante^ and was probably the man whom 
Barberini would most willingly have contributed to 
elect, if he should be unable to secure the election of 
Facchinetti. The whole of the squadrone would vote 



THE PRINCE POPES. 355 

for him; and it was thought that Cardinal Azzolini, 
one of their number, would very possibly be able to 
persuade Eospigliosi and the Clementine cardinals to 
acquiesce in his election. Chigi and the Alexandrines 
would oppose him; but it was calculated that, unless 
the French party and the Medici party joined Chigi in 
his opposition, he would hardly succeed in preventing 
his election. In short, Spada's chance was thought a 
good one. 

Another cardinal from Lucca is the thirteenth on the 
list, his Eminence Bonvisi, now in his sixty-third year. 
He is described as naturally candid, open to conviction, 
liberal, kindly, and sincere. He is said to possess a 
very intimate knowledge of the European Courts and 
of the poKcy of their rulers, though, as clerk of the 
Apostolic Chamber, his own special business had led 
him to be more versed in legal matters. It is remarked 
that he is, as a Lucca man, specially well informed of all 
that is going on in Europe, from the particular care 
which that republic takes to keep itself well acquainted 
with such matters. And " as the people of that nation 
(the Lucchese) are known to be industrious, affable, and 
courteous," it would, says the conclavist, be much for 
the advantage of the Church and the city of Eome to 
have a Pope with such qualities. The chief objection 
to so admirable a candidate (" such is the perversity of 
the world !" ejaculates our conclavist) is, that Francesco, 
his nephew, is too clever by half ! On the contrary, our 
author maintains, the nephew would furnish an excellent 
complement to the qualities of the uncle, who, by reason 
of failing health, might be found to be slow, and too 

AA 2 



356 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

much inclined to let things take their own course; 
whereas Francesco Bonvisi is a man of an active, reso- 
lute, frank, and bold turn of mind, well versed in public 
affairs, industrious, assiduous in the despatch of busi- 
ness, in such sort that " the conjunction of the suavity 
of the uncle with the authority of the nephew would 
form such a compound," that it would be the very thing 
wanted. Chigi would be opposed to him, at least till 
after proof of the impossibility of electing either D'Elci 
or Celsi. Neither the French nor the Spaniards would 
specially oppose him. The squadrone would be divided 
as regarded him; but this, remarks the writer, might 
do him more good than harm with all those who, dis- 
gusted with recent events,* wish for a Pope capable of 
managing his own affairs. 

Next comes Vidoni, fourteenth on the list, bom in 
Cremona, and now in his sixtieth year. He, apparently, 
would be the Pope, if our conclavist had the making of 
one in his hands, notwithstanding all the grand things 
he has said of others. ^^He alone," says the writer, 
^' possesses all those grand qualities which are needed to 
constitute a great Pontiff." The austerity of his aspect 
does not interfere with the remarkable affability of his 
behaviour to all who are brought to speak with him ; 
and the better he is known the more surely do those 
who know him find that this kindly manner is the out- 
come of genuine goodness. His well-known parsimony 
is, in the present condition of circumstances, a recom- 
mendation, since " the Church does not need a Pontiff 

• He is alludiog to the pontificate of Pamfili, Innocont X., and the 
Bcandals of Olympia. 



THE PEINCE POPES. 357 

whoso liberalities would consummate her ruin, expe- 
rience having taught us how pernicious to the people 
is the prodigaKty which gives away the property of 
others." He would be a most vigilant and zealous 
Pope in ecclesiastical matters, and absolutely indefa- 
tigable in the transaction of business. It is not true 
that he is an unduly severe man. On the contrary, he 
is prone to pardon — ^too prone, indeed, as it is asserted 
that he was when legate at Bologna — a defect which is 
objected to him with absurd inconsistency, at the same 
time that he is accused of harsh severity. He has had 
much experience in the management of State affairs, and 
the registers of the Papal Secretary's ofl&ce furnish 
abundant testimony of his diplomatic successes when 
employed as nuncio in Poland. It cannot be supposed 
that he would be otherwise than acceptable to Barberini, 
seeing that Urban made an uncle of his a cardinal. It 
was Innocent X. who sent him to Poland, and it must be 
beUeved, therefore, that the squadrone volante^ would 
be favourable to his candidature. The good opinion of 
the Emperor, which he won on that occasion, would 
probably serve his cause with the Spaniards, while the 
fact that he was made cardinal at the request of the 
King of Poland might dispose the French to look 
favourably on his candidature. This phoenix of a car- 
dinal is the. only one in the list to whose candidature 
our conclavist finds nothing to oppose, and intimates no 
hostility as threatening. But Cardinal Vidoni did not 
become Pope. 

* The group of cardinals so called, and so often referred to, consisted 
mainly of the " creatures" of Innocent X. 



358 THE PAPAL CONGLAYES. 

Cardinal D'Elci, a Tuscan, though bom at Madrid, 
comes next. He is seventy years old. He was nuncio 
at Venice and at Vienna before he had the purple; 
and even in those days, on his return from those em- 
bassies, shrewd judges had had their eye on him as a 
man who might some day reasonably aspire to the 
Papacy, so much credit had ho gained in those employ- 
ments. He is a kindly and popular mannered man too. 
The greastest objection to him is the character of his 
nephew, the Archbishop of Pisa, who is well known in 
Bome as an austere, punctilious, and severe man, very 
difficult to deal with — ^not the sort of man, in short, 
whom the Church needs at the present conjuncture, 
which demands above all a man vigilant and zealous for 
the interests of the Holy See, and at the same time well 
fitted for treating with foreign Courts, a man who will 
be ready to act stiavifer in modo sed fortiter in re. Such 
qualifications were truly indeed desirable in the struggle 
with Louis XIV. and the growing pretensions of the 
Gallican Church, which was then rising menacingly 
on the Papal horizon ; and our author judges that they 
would not be found in a sufficient degree in D'Elci and 
his nephew. The elements of success which he has in 
his favour are the good wishes of the Spanish party, 
secured to him by his Spanish birth and his connection 
with that Court, the support of Medici and the Tuscan 
party, and his place as first on the list of those whom 
Chigi and the Alexandrines would strive to place on the 
throne. An obiter dictum of our conclavist, the spiteful 
significance of which is amusingly illustrative of a phase 
of Italian feeling which is met with again and again 



TIIE PRINCE POPES. 359 

throughout the whole course of Italian and above all of 
Papal history, shows, however, that this Tuscan favour 
was not to be reckoned on entirely as an element of 
success in the Conclave. So highly is D'Elci thought 
of at Florence, and so celebrated in all Tuscany is the 
memory of Count Orso, the father of the Cardinal, 
that it is to be expected, if D'Elci should be elected, 
that " all that country would be depopulated by reason 
of the numbers who would throng to Eome to applaud 
and pay their court to so excellent a sovereign." And 
although Chigi would rather see him on the throne than 
any other, that cautious leader will not venture to put him 
forward as a candidate, unless some opportunity should 
seem to show greater chances of success than are at 
present apparent. 

Cardinal Celsi, aEoman, hornlike D'Elciin 1600, and 
therefore now seventy, is the sixteenth on the list of 
papahili. This "subject" — qtiesto soggetto — such is the 
constant Conclave style, where it would be as much out 
of place to talk of a candidate as to speak of water in a 
brewery — this subject would have a better chance if he 
knew less of the "paragraphs of the Eota," and more of 
the aflfairs of the great world. His reputation of being 
a man of immoral life is also against him "with tho 
scrupulous." The only persons anxious to elect him are 
the Spaniards. Barberini, on these as well as other 
grounds, would be strongly opposed to him. Many of 
the squadrone would not vote for him ; and even Chigi's 
adherents would give him an exclusivaj despite what has 
been said above that Chigi* himself would prefer him 
next to D'Elci. It has been explained that this strongest 



360 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

form of opposition consisted in an open declaration that 
under no circumstances would the person or party giving 
the exclusiva vote for the candidate in question, thus 
finally and decisively placing enmity between them. 
Under these circumstances, concludes the conclavist, it 
is not necessary to pay any further attention to him. 

Cardinal Litta, of the noble Milanese family of that 
name, is very briefly dismissed with the remark, that 
the Spanish party have such a fear of his indiscreet zeal, 
that they would oppose him with such determination 
that, as he strangely phrases it, " it would be superfluous 
to hope for his election." 

Bonelli comes next, eighteenth on the list, a Boman, 
bom in 1613, and accordingly only fifty-seven. " And 
certainly," says the conclavist, " if ardour in the hunt- 
ing field were equally appKcable to the pursuit of the 
Papacy, Bonelli might hope to run it down." The vio- 
lent and passionate temper of his nephew, the Cardinal 
Imperiale, who would, if he were made Pope, be the 
ruling power, is felt to be a great objcotion to him. 
Nevertheless, Barberini would perhaps accept him because 
of the decided hostility of the French party to his can- 
didature; the Genoese cardinals would vote for him 
because he is connected with nearly all of them by ties 
of relationship ; the squadrone would not be opposed to 
him ; and Chigi and his party would remember that he 
is a " creature of Alexander YII. ; and, finally, the 
Spaniards would probably vote for him in consequence 
of his having been nuncio at Madrid. Despite all these 
points in his favour, however, it does not seem that this 
Nimrod had ever much chance of being elected. 



THE PKINCB POPES. 361 

The next, nineteenth in the list, is a more serious can- 
didate. Cardinal Altieri, who, though eighty years old 
or thereabouts, is the last on the list of the Sacred 
College, having been created by Clement IX. when he 
was almost in extremis. " His aspect is noble, his cha- 
racter angelic!" writes the conclavist; "for kindness, 
affability, generosity, and integrity he has not his 
equal! He was nuncio at Naples; and had it not 
been that the Divine Providence specially reserved for 
Clement IX. the glory of recognising and rewarding 
Altieri's merit, he would have been a cardinal much 
sooner.'^ Clement IX., however, almost let this glory, 
so specially reserved for him, slip though his fingers, 
for it was only in his last hours that he gave Altieri the 
purple. The principal objection to him as a candidate 
for the Papacy is to be found, the conclavist thinks, in 
his age. But, he adds, he is in such health, so strong 
and vigorous, that he may well be expected to live for 
half a dozen years to come (an anticipation which was 
exactly verified by the event). In other respects, th^, 
chances of this the oldest man, though youngest member 
of the Sacred College, appear to be very favourable. 
Neither Spain nor France could object to him. Medici 
and his Tuscan adherents would be favourable to him. 
It cannot be supposed that Barberini would have any 
invincible objection to him, since a brother of Altieri 
had been made cardinal by him. The Cardinal D'Este 
would not refuse to concur in his election ; and though 
among the adherents of Chigi there would be some 
opponents, they would probably not stand out against an 
election so generally desirable. There would also be a 



362 THB PAPAX CONCLAVES. 

strong feeling generally among the Eomans, prompting 
them to consent to an election which would "restore to 
Eome its former splendour, and show the world that it 
was still capable of producing the material from which 
great Pontiffs are made I " For with the exception of 
Innocent X., Pamfili, whose pontificate was assuredly in 
no wise calculated to do credit to Eome and the Apostolic 
See, there had not been a Boman Pope for half a 
century. 

Cardinal Nerli, Archbishop of Florence, is the twentieth 
on the list. An excellent man, of entirely blameless 
life, he is yet hardly fitted for the .Papacy, both by 
reason of his failing health and his inexperience of State 
affairs. Though four years younger than Altieri, any- 
body would suppose him to be much his senior. Inno- 
cent X. made him a cardinal and Secretary of the Briefs, 
and in that position he had remained ever since — an 
excellent canonist, but wholly ignorant of the politics 
and interests of Europe. He has a hypochondriac, im- 
practicable man for a nephew too — a consideration 
much against him. In short, it seems that the Arch- 
bishop of Florence has hardly any place on the list of 
the papabilL 

The twenty-first and last on the list (for the concla- 
vist seems to have made some error in his reckoning, 
and though he speaks of the papdbiU as twenty-two, 
names only twenty-one) is the monk, Father Bona. 
^^ His holiness of life, his highly conscientious upright- 
ness, his profound knowledge of the canon law, his ac- 
quirements as a theologian, would render him the choice 
of all who recognise the imminent need of reformation 



THE PEINCE POPES. 363 

in the Church, and of a bulwark against the rising flood 
of Atheism." For, as the writer goes on to complain, 
"there is no sort of impiety which the utter absence of 
Christian charity and a connivance at heretical interests 
does not lead to. So that Bome, formerly so holy, has 
become the very asylum of heresy. Papal censures are 
no longer feared. Divine worship is neglected. The 
saints are maltreated and their images trampled on to 
such a point, that the sacred songs and psalms, with 
which in better times praise and thanksgiving were ren- 
dered to God and his Holy and Immaculate Mother, are 
in these days reduced to pasquinades!" "And what 
wonder is it," he proceeds, " if territories are lost, if the 
Turk advances, if heresy is accredited, and if Christ 
scourges the world with pestilence, war, and famine, 
and uses the Turks, his most . implacable enemies, to 
chastise those who place him under the necessity of 
again purging the Christian world, which has become 
worse than the Jews who crucified him." 

One is curiously reminded of the complaints of an 
earlier censor : — 

^^ Delicto majorum immeritm lueSj Romane^ donee templa 
refeceris, cedesgue lahentes Deorum^ etfceda nigro simulacra 
famo^^ and the rest, in a singularly similar tone of 
thought and mind. 

These are considerations, pursues our author, which 
would tend to direct the choice of the electors to Father 
Bona. But .... such a thing is hardly to be thought 
of. The government of monks has always been abhor- 
rent to the secular priesthood ; and least of all would 
their Eminences place so austere a reformer over them 



364 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

in days when there is so much that needs reforming ! 
And his comparatiye youth and robust health are against 
him ; for he would be likely enough to live till he had 
filled the Sacred College with friars. Besides, the 
crowned heads would never consent to the election of 
a Pope whose austerity they would dread, and who 
would prove inflexible in upholding ecclesiastical privi- 
leges and immunities. 

It will have been seen that from this list of the soggetti 
papahili — of those, that is to say, who might by possi- 
bility be thought of by the electors — several might 
fairly be erased on the score that their election was 
hardly on the cards. But it is abundantly clear that, 
when this has been done, the papahik material remains 
sufficiently copious to make the work of election a long, 
difficult, and extremely uncertain one. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

No Chief of a party or party able to make Pope the man they most 
desired to elect. — ^Fear of enmity much more operative in the 
Conclave than enmity. — Multiplicity of considerations ever on the 
increase. — The Conclave which elected Clement X. especially long 
and difficult. — ^Moderation of recent Popes as to nepotism operates 
to increase this. — Saying of the Princess Albani. — ^Abundant 
evidence in this Conclave that negotiations with a view to the 
election were not checked by the Bulls to that effect. — Searching 
the Dinners of Cardinals a mere Farce. — Odeschalchi all but elected. 
— ^Father Bona wishing to farther his Chance, injures it. — Why 
Cardinal Pio could not vote for Altieri. — Chigi fails altogether as 
Head of a Faction. — Anecdote of Cardinal Bazzi. — Message from 
the King of Spain to the Conclave. — Bemarkablo results of it. — 
Anecdote of Altieri on the Eve of his Election. — ^Election of Altieri. 
— Anecdote of De Betz. 

I HAVE gone through the long list of candidates given 
in the last chapter, with their qualifications, disqualifica- 
tions, and reckoning up of their probable supporters and 
opponents, because the detail, which has in this instance 
been preserved to us, seemed to afford the means of 
forming a very fair notion of the sort of considerations 
on which the preferences of the electors were, or were 
supposed to be, based, of the extreme complexity of- 
these considerations, and of the remarkable indirectness 
of the methods by which they operated to an eventual 
election. It will have been made clear to the reader 
that it hardly ever occurred, or could occur, especially 
in the more recent centuries of the Papal history, that 
any one, or any one group of the electors, was able to 



\ 



366 THE PAPAX CONCLAVES. 

place on the throne the man that he, or it, most wished 
to place there. The necessity of a two-thirds majority, 
which makes, in Conclave language, exclusion so very 
much easier than inclusion — ^makes it, that is to say, so 
very much easier for any party in the Sacred College to 
say that such or such a man shall not be Pope than to 
secure the election of any individual — ^necessarily pro- 
duces the result that has been mentioned. The election 
is always, at least as regards many if not most of the 
electors, of the nature of a. pis aller. It in some degree 
resembles the election of that ofl&cer to be general-in- 
chief, who, as the story goes, was chosen by the secretly 
given second votes of all the voters. But in the case of 
the Conclave these second votes are not given till more 
or less overt tentatives have convinced the voter that 
the attainment of his first preference is hopeless. 

Another characteristic of these elections and of the 
men engaged in them, which is curiously brought out 
by the stories of the Conclaves, is that the fear of 
enmity is more largely and widely influential than 
enmity itself. An elector will not vote for this or that 
^^ subject," because he is conscious of having at some 
former period of his life done something for which he 
takes it for granted that the individual in question 
must owe him a grudge. The candidate has never in 
any way expressed any feeling of the sort. But none 
the less does the man who is conscious of having in- 
jured or affronted him feel that it would bo unsafe for 
him that that man should become Pope ! It may well 
be that he himself would be capable of forgiving snch 
an ill turn received from another, but he is utterly 



THE PEINCB POPES. 367 

incapable of believing that another should so forget or 
forgive it ! A very large and long experience of the 
Italians of all classes has shown the present writer many 
an honest man among them, but he never met with 
one who believed in the honesty of his fellows. Thus 
one reads again and again that Cardinal So-and-so might 
be counted on as a supporter of such a candidate, not 
because he, the candidate, had done some good thing to 
the voter, but because the latter, the voter, had in 
some way or other, and at some time or other, conferred 
a favour on the candidate ! " I placed him under an 
obligation to me, therefore I can venture to contribute 
towards raising him to the throne." 

It will be observed, further, that, as the years roll on, 
and we begin to approach modem times, the diversity of 
considerations which an elector has present to his mind, 
and must be in greater or lesser degree ruled by, 
become infinitely more numerous, and the weighing of 
them a more complex business. At the same time each 
one of these considerations is less all-important and 
paramount, less likely to drive the elector swayed by it 
to violent courses, more capable of being neutralised by 
antagonistic motives. The considerations belonging to 
the category, which may be denominated legitimate, are, 
equally with those of the opposite description, multi- 
plied by the tendencies and complexities of modem life. 
Not only was the elector, whose object in the exercise of 
his privilege was the pushing of his own fortunes, the 
furthering of his own ambition, the gratification of his 
sentiments and passions, compelled to take a much wider 
and more detailed survey of all the circumstances of the 



368 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

lives around him than vras the case in an earlier and 
simpler if less decorous age, but also he who was 
anxious to vote with a single-minded desire to promote 
the best interests of the Church had a no simpler matter 
before him. Father Bona is as holy a man as any the 
Church ever canonized. But what if his zeal for reli- 
gious reformation should, by pulling the rein too tight, 
operate in the contrary direction ? Cardinal Odeschalchi 
is a man of sound judgment as well as the most fervent 
and sincere piety. But what of that, if he is unversed 
in matters of State, and not likely to be able to hold his 
own against the encroachments of France and her high- 
handed sovereign ? And it is not only a question of 
what one would, but of what one can do ! Even if the 
man be found fitted in all respects for the manifold and 
heterogeneous necessities of the Church, is he one whom 
it will be possible to induce the electors to accept ? And 
these are the difficulties that presented themselves to an 
entirely single-minded elector, either of the conscien- 
tious or unconscientious sort. How much more was the 
matter confused and complicated for those who were not 
single-minded in either direction. And this probably 
was the case, to a greater or lesser degree, with every 
man in the Conclave ! It could hardly be otherwise, 
indeed, than that the business of electing a Pope should 
have been becoming ever more and more difficult ! 

The Conclave which resulted in the election of 
Clement X. was a specially long and difficult one. The 
moderation of the last Popes in the matter of nepotism 
tended very powerfully to complicate matters. In the 
old days of the Aldobrandini, the Borghesi, and the 



THE PRINCE POPES. 3G9 

Ludovisi, each successive nephew and family had waged 
such a war to the knife against the previous one, that 
when a Conclave came the nephew of the last deceased 
Pope was the influential man in it, who was at the head 
of the largest following. But Innocent, who followed 
Urban the Barberini, had left no nephews. The nephew 
of Alexander VII., Cardinal Chigi, had exercised his 
power with such moderation that his recommendations 
had often had as much weight with Clement, Alex- 
ander's successor, as with that Pontiff himself. Of the 
Eospigliosi, during the short pontificate of their Pope, 
Clement IX., the same may be said. And it thus came 
to pass that Barberini, though three Popes had reigned 
during twenty-six years since the death of Urban 
VIII., was still, perhaps, the most powerful man in the 
Conclave. And though, of course, the Cardinals Chigi 
and Eospigliosi were both at the head of parties, there 
was no such internecine enmity between them as to 
shut out possibilities, or even probabilities, of coalition 
and co-operation. These old enmities were softened and 
in some sort civilised, not, however, appeased entirely ; 
for the President De Presses in his letters wiitten from 
Italy, in 1739-40, tells us of a Princess Albani, who 
used to say that people of Papal families died twice, 
once at the death of theii* uncle and once at their own 
natural demise. 

It is probable, also, that on the occasion of the Con- 
clave of which we are speaking, the season of the year 
at which it was held contributed to the inordinate 
length of it. Their Eminences went into Conclave in 
December. There was, therefore, no malaria demon to 

B B 



I 



370 THE PAPAL CX)NCLAyB8. 

drive them to a decision by constant reminders of the 
probable results of tarrying long at their work. We 
hear some talk about the severity of the season; and 
doubtless their Eminences would have passed the 
December days and nights more comfortably in their 
own palaces than in the fir-plank cells erected in the 
cold bleak halls of the Vatican. But a little discomfort 
is one thing, and a danger of death, greater than that 
of the soldier on the field of battle, is another ! So the 
cardinals, perplexed by the embarras de rtcAessey offered 
by a Sacred College containing over twenty aoggetti 
papabiliy did not hurry themselves ; and at the end of 
the first two months the Conclave had done nothing 
beyond convincing most of the heads of parties that no 
one of them was strong enough to secure the election of 
any one of the candidates who stood first or even second 
on their lists. 

A detailed but very confused and ill-written narrative 
of this election of Clement X. has been left by some 
conclavist, who tells us that he has had a long experience 
of such matters, and has been shut up in many a Con- 
clave, but confesses that all his practised knowledge of 
the subject has but very imperfectly enabled him to read 
all the riddles and disentangle all the cross-purposes in 
which this long Conclave was fertile. One thing, how- 
ever, is abundantly clear from it, that despite all the 
bulls and threatened excommunications on the subject, 
^nd despite all the ostentatious and formal ceremonial 
pretending to secure the absolute isolation of the car- 
dinals from the outside world, negotiations had been 
<3ntered into and plans arranged for the coming election, 



THE PRINCE POPES. 871 

r 

in anticipation of the reigning Pope's death, and com- 
munications of the most avowed and open description 
were going on, apparently almost uninterruptedly, with 
the outside world. While roasted capons were being 
ostentatiously prodded by the examining probes of the 
custos of the Conclave at the turntables, where the 
dinners of the cardinals were with much ceremonial 
passed in to them, to ascertain that no letter or hidden 
message of any kind was concealed within them, we find it 
stated, as if it were completely a matter of course, that 
the Conclave suspended its operations while a reply was 
awaited from some Court or some ambassador who had 
been consulted as to such or such probabilities or possible 
solutions ! 

At one moment, towards the end of the Conclave, the 
chance of the austere and saintly Odeschalchi seemed a 
good one ; and we hear of his adherents waiting the 
return of a messenger sent to Prance with the hope of 
securing the adherence of the Prench party ! And Car- 
dinal Bona, the ascetic monk, went about the Conclave 
speaking of Odeschalchi's exalted virtue, and declaring 
that the Holy Ghost at the end of so wearisome a con- 
flict was about to conclude it once for all by an election 
of his own making, which would tend to the sure 
reformation so much needed in the Church — discourses, 
says the conclavist, which set so many tongues wagging 
about such a tendency, that the combined intentions 
which arose from them amoimted to an exclusion for the 
proposed reforming Pope ! 

Gradually the ideas of the leaders of factions began to 
draw together towards Altieri as a man to whom nobody 

BB 2 



372 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

had any special objection. Nobody, or nearly so — ^not 
quite. For we read that Barberini, who had now made 
up his mind to try for the election of Altieri, showed 
Cardinal Pio one day a paper on which was written the 
name of Altieri. Whereupon Pio, having cast his eyes 
on the paper, did not give him time to add a word, but 
told him at once that " he had had a long litigation with 
that person in the court of the Eota, that the Eminence 
.whose name was written there had lost his cause, and 
that he (Pio) had made him pay the damages. So that 
your Eminence must excuse me ! " " True ! " said 
Barberini ; " excuse me ; I had forgotten it. Let us say 
no more about it." And it is notable, in accordance 
with a remark that, has already been made, that the 
grounds on which Cardinal Pio states that he cannot vote 
for Altieri, and which Barberini at once accepts and con- 
siders to be quite as a matter of course unanswerable, are 
not that Pio, the winner of the cause, owes Altieri a 
grudge because of the lawsuit, but that he takes it so 
much for granted that Altieri owes him such a grudge 
on that account, that common prudence requii'es that he 
should do nothing towards putting into that man's hands 
the supreme power of the Papacy. 

Chigi, who had entered the Conclave, in his own per- 
suasion and in that of most others, both within and 
without the Conclave, the most likely man to have iii 
effect the nomination of the new Pope, had become 
entirely convinced not only that such power was entirely 
out of his reach, but that he might be well content if he 
could succeed in averting the election of one whose 
elevation would be especially objectionable to him ; and 



TIIE PRINCE POPES. 373 

he was accordingly contented to accede to that of Altieri. 
Meanwhile one of those curious little accidents which 
often produced large results in the semi-obscurity and 
studied silence of the Conclave world, whore the echo of 
a whisper in circulating through those mysterious corri- 
dors frequently did more than any loud-voiced announce- 
ment might have effected, reduced to nothing the chances 
of Odeschalchi, on whom just previously to the final 
decision of the Conclave the voices of the electors seemed 
to have been on the point of concentrating themselves. 
Cardinal Bazzi one evening, while he was imder the 
hands of his barber, and was chatting the while with his 
conclavist, said, puzzling out the probabilities of the 
upshot in his own mind rather than intending to make 
an assertion, that Spinola would be the Pope. The 
conclavist soon betrayed what he conceived to have been 
a secret confided to him, and the statement very shortly 
came to Spinola's ears. He immediately rushed to 
Bazzi's cell and implored him "for heaven's sake not to 
place him in a discreditable position by attributing to 
him pretensions and expectations which he was far from 
entertaining, and which were wholly out of the ques- 
tion." Eazzi was taken aback, and, not knowing how to 
excuse himself, declared that what he had said was that 
"Odeschalchi would be the new Pope," making the 
statement in a way which led to the supposition that he 
was in the secret of the real wishes of the Spanish party. 
And this had contributed, at a period of the Conclave 
when all began to feel the necessity of putting an end to 
it, to recommend the election of Odeschalchi to many. 
But almost immediately afterwards there came a com- 



374 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

munication from the ambassador of Spain, bearing a 
strong remonstrance to the cardinals from the King his 
master on their protracted delay, and nrging them, 
laying aside the supposed wishes of any crowned head, 
to exercise their unquestioned right and elect indepen- 
dently any fit and proper person, adding that the Xing 
was the more scandalized at the delay from reports that 
had reached him to the effect that " a certain number of 
the cardinals, called the ^squadrone,' would not con- 
sent to any election from motives of private interest." 

The conclavist's accoimt of the result of this com- 
munication is remarkable. "The Conclave became on 
a sudden a gathering of dumb men j " All talking and 
intriguing for this or that candidate ceased. The elders 
felt that the time was come when the business must be 
brought to a conclusion; and the younger men pro- 
fessed their readiness to follow the lead of their elders. 
At the same time reports came to the Conclave (JioWy 
we are not told ; but the fact is mentioned in the most 
matter of course way possible, and it shows how great a 
farce the isolation theory had become) that there was 
a great outcry throughout Eomc against the election of 
Odeschalchi ; and it is intimated that this was by no 
means without influence upon the purposes of the electoi-s. 
So it appears, therefore, that not only were those shut 
up in Conclave aware of what was being thought and 
said in Eome, but that those outside the hermetically 
sealed Conclave walls were instructed — in a certain 
degree — of what was passing inside them. 

Thus gradually Altieri became designated as the man 
against whom the least amount of objection could bo 



THE PBINCE POPES. 375 

found. One evening Altieri chanced to look in on 
Cardinal Bazzi in his cell, and the latter offered him 
some refreshment. Altieri drank a glass of water, and 
filled his glass again. Upon which Eazzi's conclavist 
ventured to caution his Eminence, remarking that the 
water he was drinking was exceedingly cold. Altieri 
replied that he was of robust constitution, and that icy 
drinks agreed with him ; whereupon the conclavist 
took occasion to wish that such a constitution might 
give the world a long Papacy. Altieri left the cell, 
snuling, as was thought, significantly. The writer of 
the narrative, which has been preserved, however gives 
a different interpretation to the smile, believing that 
Altieri was far from expecting or desiring the Papacy. 
Unless indeed he deems the self-depreciatory speeches 
Budpapari nolo shrinking of the octogenarian, when the 
cardinals came to his cell to announce their resolution 
of electing him, to have been mere matter-of-course dis- 
simulation and hypocrisy. 

The thing was settled at last at a conference between 
Barberini and Chigi, while, according to the conclavist, 
a great many of the younger cardinals still thought that 
Odeschalchi was the man they were going to elect. 
Having, however, agreed on the course they were about 
to take, those two chiefs went round to their adherents, 
and it was understood that there was to be an "adora- 
tion" the next morning. It is remarkable, however, 
that even during that night and the few intervening 
hours before the " adoration " could take place, an extra- 
ordinary degree of secrecy seems to have been observed. 
Even though all, or nearly so, were told what was in 



37C THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

hand, they were told it as a profound secret. It seems 
as if each man was allowed to know that the head of 
his faction had resolved to vote for Altieri, and that an 
attempt to elect him was to be made, but that he was 
not permitted to know that it was a settled and well- 
nigh certain thing. And the reason of this was pro- 
bably the fear that such a knowledge might have led 
to the attempted formation of some new combination 
during the night by malcontents. 

All, however, passed in perfect quiet. On the even- 
ing of the 28th of April tidings were conveyed to 
the ambassadors of the Powers to the effect that the 
Pope would in aU probability be elected the next 
morning, in the person of an hitherto unproposed 
candidate, against whom no objection of any sort could 
be found. The same night also the relatives of the pro- 
posed candidate " received notice that they would do well 
to pray to the Divine Majesty for the election of his 
Eminence Altieri." And the next morning Clement X. 
was made Pope, despite his own declarations of his 
insufficiency, and his recommendations of other names 
(Avhom he must have perfectly well known could not 
be by any possibility elected), by a perfectly orderly 
and unanimous ^^ adoration." 

Before quitting the subject of this selected specimen 
of the Conclaves of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, I may give the reader a rather amusing 
anecdote of the man perhaps the best known to history 
of all the purple jBgures in that gathering. Cardinal de 
Eetz was among their Eminences, active for evil in some 
way we may be very sure, although our conclavist does 



THE PEINCB POPES. 377 

not speak of him save to correct a certam report current 
in Eome respecting him. It was commonly said that 
he went about the Conclave by night in a mask, and 
that his fellow cardinals had been much scandalized by 
the practice. The conclavist, however, assures us that 
he had had opportunities of observing him very closely 
on such occasions, and that his Eminence wore no mask 
properly so called, but a pair of spectacles with a certain 
garniture attached to them, which might easily be mis- 
taken for a mask ! As if De Betz needed any mask, 
even among Italian cardinals, save his own features ! 



CHAPTER yil. 

Letters of the French President De Brosses — ^Last Years of Clement Xn» 
Corsini. — ^Notices by De Brosses of the then Cardinals : of Cardinal 
Corsini, of Cardinal Albani, of Cardinal Cosda, of Cardinal 
Fleuiy, of Cardinal Eohan, of Cardinal Tencin. — ^How Matters 
went in the Conclave. — Tencin loses all influence. — ^Proposal to 
elect Cardinal Aldroyandi opposed by AlbanL — ^Albani's trea- 
cherous scheme to ruin Aldroyandi. — ^Albani's treachery ruins the 
chances of Cardinal Forzia. — Flain speaking of Cardinal Acquayiya. 
— ^Election of Lambertini as Benedict XIY. — His character and 
appearance. — Conclayes and Popes, sixteen in number, between 
that of Clement X. in 1670, and that of Pius IX. in 1846. — Saying 
of Cardinal Albani. — Characteristics of latter Popes. 

The President De Brosses, in his. amusing volumes of 
"Familiar Letters," written from Italy in 1739 and 
1740, gives a lively account of the Conclave which took 
place at the death of the Corsini Pope, Clement XII., 
which happened in the latter year, on the 16th of 
February. Clement was in his eighty-eighth year ; he 
had been blind for the last eight yeai-s, and the gout, 
from which he had long been a great sufferer, con- 
tinually menacing the vital parts of his system, had 
for some time past indicated that the end was near at 
hand. So that, as the French President, innocent of 
any knowledge or thought of canons or excommunica- 
tion-fulminating Bulls on the subject, says naively, 
there had been plenty of time for the electors to con- 
spire, combine, and intrigue with a view to the coming 
election. 



THE PEINCB POPES. 379 

De Brosses gives a list of the entire College of 
Cardinals, with a short notice of each of them, reflect- 
ing the opinions of the Eoman world, as a winter'a 
residence there had enabled him to become acquainted 
with them. With regard to the greater nimiber of 
these names, oblivion has in a great measure destroyed 
the interest that no doubt attached to the President's 
remarks when he made them. But it may be worth 
while to give a glance at what he says (and of course 
all Eome was then saying) of a few among them — of 
the heads of factions especially. It was known that 
the Conclave would be divided into two parties, led — ^the 
one by the nephew of the Pope who had just died, 
Clement XII., Cardinal Corsini, and the other by the 
Camerlengo, the Cardinal Albani, the nephew of Clement 
XI. The Corsini party was the most numerous, and 
it was thought that if, as was considered probable, the 
Spanish and French factions joined him, the making of 
the new Pope would lie with him. But, says De 
Brosses, he is a man of no capacity ; he has neither 
intelligence nor vigour. Public aflEairs have been going 
very badly in his hands ; the finances especially have 
fallen into a deplorable condition. "We shall see," 
adds the President, " what he can do in the Conclave. 
Superiority of numbers ought to assure him the victory. 
But he has for his opponent a master mind." 

Of the man whom he so characterizes. Cardinal Annibale 
Albani, the Camerlengo, he says, that "he enjoys a very 
high reputation for capacity, but is excessively hated and 
feared. Without belief, without principles, an implac- 
able enemy, even when feigning to be reconciled, he has 



380 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

true genius in transacting affairs, is inexhaustible in 
resources and intrigues, is the most able man in the 
College and the worst in Eome. His party is not 
numerous, the creatures of his uncle diminishing natu- 
rally in number from day to day. But he will put himself 
at the head of the Zelanti (i.e. the professedly devout 
men, who declare that they wiU give their votes in 
Conclave truly according to the dictates of the Holy 
Spirit), and will attack Corsini with all his forces. An 
army of deer commanded by a lion is more powerfiil 
than an army of lions commanded by a deer. Albani 
governs in the College by the superiority of his genius, 
the authority of the place he holds {that of Camerlengo), 
and his imperious and formidable manners. He knows 
well that he can never be Pope ; but he hopes to have 
one of his making, and if he cannot accomplish that by 
himself, he will at least prevent anybody else from 
making one without him. It would be unfair to Albani 
not to add the last words of the President's character of 
him: ^^He is the enemy of the French!" 

Another member of this Conclave may be mentioned, 
because the circumstances under which he entered Con- 
clave were peculiar, and his case is a leading and very 
important one in Conclave law. This was his Eminence 
Cardinal Coscia, who had been the prime minister of 
Benedict XIII., a saintly Pope, who might possibly have 
been trusted advantageously with the government of 
the monastery in which he had spent his days, but who 
was utterly unfit for any more extended rule. In his 
innocence and ignorance he selected for his confidential 
minister the greatest scoundrel he could have chosen. 



THE PRINCE POPES. 381 

It is needless to go into the story of the misdeeds of this 
Coscia, because all writers of every party are xinanimous 
in stigmatizing them. De Brosses says of him that he 
deserved the gallows and had been condemned to per- 
petual imprisonment in the Castle of St. Angelo. None 
of his colleagues or contemporaries of any class said or 
thought otherwise. But the right of a cardinal to take 
part in the election of a Pope is entirely indefeasible, 
and Cardinal Coscia was liberated from his prison in 
order that he might enter Conclave, and did so. 

Of Cardinal Fleury De Brosses writes : "He enjoys 
the highest degree of consideration, specially since the 
late war and the peace of Vienna. They regard him 
here as the oracle of Europe. Major e longinquo reve- 
rentia ! " adds the President slily. 

Of Cardinal Eohan he says : " Magnificent here as in 
France, he has Vair noble and the manners of a grand 
seigneur ; but has nevertheless little credit or esteem. 
Then he does not imderstand Italian manners, and 
chatters of political secrets at the women's receptions in 
the lightest manner. He ruined the hopes of Cardinal 
Olivieri, who had in everybody's opinion a very good 
chance of the Papacy, by saying out loud that he had 
come to Eome to make Olivieri Pope. The Italians 
were piqued at this ; and Olivieri himself, understanding 
Italian ways better than French ones, thought for a long 
time that Eohan had acted as he did with the express 
intention of ruining him." 

Here is what he says of another French cardinal, not 
altogether forgotten by history, Tencin : — 

" Tencin, Archbishop of Embrun, is hard, malevolent. 



\ 



382 THE PAPAL CONCLAYES. 

and revengeful by temperament, grave and politic by 
profession. His natural inclination would be for worldly 
pursuits and gallantry. Supple and ambitious at the 
Court of France, imperious and haughty at that of Borne, 
living with more state than any other here, and under- 
standing well the doing of it, he is much feared, 
highly considered, and has great credit. The people 
here think of him at least as highly as he deserves. In 
addition to all this, the fact that the influence of the 
King of France has become since the war all-powerfdl in 
Italy, and that the French fection in the Conclave is 
more powerftil than that of Spain, despite the superior 
numbers of the latter, by reason of the greater talent of 
the French — ^all this makes people think that the 
making of the Pope will rest with Cardinal Tencin ; and 
in fact such must be the case. His business in the 
Conclave will be to oppose the Camerlengo, to lead 
Corsini by the nose, and to keep himself in strict alli- 
ance with Acquaviva," the head of the Spanish faction. 

Despite the " French talent," however, and the Presi- 
dent's complacent prognostications, Cardinal Tencin did 
not make the Pope, and was quite unable to hold his 
own against Albani, the terrible Cardinal Camerlengo. 
As for the manner in which that " lion " led his " army 
of deer," and the way in which he showed the supe- 
riority of his genius, and the fertility of his talent for 
resource, one or two anecdotes of what passed in the 
Conclave, or what was at the time believed in Kome to 
have passed, are worth repeating. 

A quarrel between Acquaviva and Tencin very soon 
put an end to all the influence of the latter in the Con- 



THE PBINCE POPES. 383 

clave. The former united himself with Corsini and his 
numerous following, and they agreed on the election 
if they could compass it of Cardinal Aldrovandi, a 
Bolognese, of whom De Brosses only says that he was 
well bom, well esteemed, and had nothing against him. 
The terrible Camerlengo, however, was against him, and 
was determined to prevent his election, which, however, 
seemed likely to be beyond his power. Besides the 
allies who have been mentioned, all the eelanii were 
in his favour. He had thirty-three votes at the first 
scrutiny at which he was put forward. One more 
would have made him Pope. Thirty-four was the num- 
ber required for the indispensable two-thirds majority. 
It is recorded that Cardinal Passionei, one of the party 
opposed to him, was as it chanced scrutator at that 
scrutiny, and that when he opened and declared the 
thirty-third vote for Aldrovandi he became pale as a 
sheet. However, no thirty-fourth was forthcoming, and 
the Camerlengo and his party were quittes pour la peur 1 
And they had time before them to work in. 

But all their efforts could accomplish nothing more 
than to keep any one of their own Mends from deserting 
to the enemy. They were unable to detach a single vote 
from the thirty-three. And this state of things continued 
unchanged during many successive scrutinies, a pheno- 
menon almost, if not quite, unprecedented in Conclave 
history. And at each successive scrutiny the Camer- 
lengo's fears were not only repeated but increased, 
for the Conclave had already lasted more than five 
months. The delay was becoming scandalous, and, 
what was worse, the weather was becoming very hot. 



384 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Several cardinals had been obliged to leave the Conclave 
seriously ill; some had died; and all were becoming 
utterly worn out and eager to escape from the un- 
healthy and infected air of the Conclave. And it was in 
the power of any one cardinal twice every day to put 
an end to his own and his colleagues' suflterings by 
adding his vote to those regularly given every scrutiny 
to Aldrovandi. The Camerlengo felt that if such a con- 
summation was to be avoided, he must adopt some strong 
measure, and that at once. This was what he imagined 
and did. 

There was a certain Franciscan friar, " of easy con- 
science," as De Brosses says, whom his Eminence 
Cardinal Albani deemed to be the man for his purpose, 
and to him he gave his instructions. He was to pay a 
visit to Aldrovandi at the " Kota " (the little window 
communicating with the outside world, at which such 
visits were tolerated), and there compliment him on his 
approaching election. Aldrovandi replied that it was 
true the majority had done him the honour of thinking 
of him, but that he did not think that anything was 
Kkely to come of it, seeing that there were opponents who 
seemed determined to exclude him. In reply to this the 
monk told him that he was sufficiently acquainted with 
the sentiments of the Camerlengo to be able to assure 
him that the only feeling which prevented that Cardinal 
fi'om voting for him was a fear that he (Aldrovandi) 
might have an unpleasant remembrance of certain disputes 
which had occurred between members of their families, 
and might feel unkindly towards him (Albani) on that 
score. Aldrovandi at once fell into the snare, declaring 



THE PRINCE POPES. 385 

that if there had ever been any such feeling he had long 
since forgotten it, that he had the highest respect for 
the Cardinal Camerlengo's character, and that so he 
would find if he were kind enough to vote for him. 
The monk declared that since such were his sentiments, 
there was nothing to prevent an immediate election and 
a conclusion to the over- long Conclave, that he should 
make known to Albani what Aldrovandi had said, and 
that there would no longer be any difficulty about his 
election. But just as he was going he turned back, 
seeming to be struck by a sudden thought. " But, after 
all, I am but a poor monk ! " said he. " I know Albani's 
mind well, but it does not follow that he should place 
implicit trust in me. If your Eminence would intrust 
me with a line expressing what you have said . . . the 
matter would be settled ! " Aldrovandi in his eagerness 
wrote the line, putting rather strongly, as was said, the 
point of his gratitude for a service rendered to him. 
The Franciscan clutched his prize and sped with it to 
his employer. Instantly before the next scrutiny Albani, 
with well-acted horror and scandalized propriety in his 
features, sought out the zelanii cardinals. "Look at 
this ! " he cried ; " could you have believed it I Look 
at your model Pope ! Here is Aldrovandi intriguing 1 
— ^making promises ! — guilty of simony ! '^ The good 
men were as much astonished and shocked as Albani 
intended they should be. At the next scrutiny Aldro- 
vandi had lost several votes ; at the next after several 
more. His chance was gone, and the terrible Camer- 
lengo was so far triumphant. 
At an earlier period of the Conclave Albani had 

c c 



386 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

shown his fertility in resources by getting rid of the 
candidature of another soggetto papahile^ whose chance 
was interfering with his designs in another way. 
This was the Benedictine monk Porzia, a Venetian from 
Friuli, who was nearly elected. He was a creature of 
Benedict XIII., and was in many respects a man well 
fitted for the position. But the fact that he was a 
monk was against him in the College; though not so 
much so, as De Brosses remarks, as if he had been a 
member of one of the mendicant orders or a Jesuit. 
Again, he was known as a very severe and hard man. 
" Just the man needed," says the President, " to esta- 
blish order in this State, which has so great need of it. 
He would know how to rule, and would be a second 
Sixtus V. Accordingly he is feared and hated by the 
populace to the last degree." Nevertheless his election 
seemed almost certain. It was probable that it would 
be consummated at the scrutiny to take place on the 
morrow morning. But in the course of that intervening 
night a paper was mysteriously circulated in the Con- 
clave, containing a grossly defamatory libel against his 
Eminence Porzia. Gross and venomous abuse was 
mingled with accusations of the most damning kind. 
The Benedictine, imspeakably outraged, demanded inves- 
tigation and the exemplary punishment of the libeller 
with all the energy and sternness of his character. But 
it was impossible to trace the hand that had spread the 
poison, though all in the Conclave were loud in indig- 
nation against the author and disseminator of the 
calumny. None the less, however, was the mischief 
done, and the slanderer's aim attained. The supporters 



THE PRINCaS POPES. 387 

of Porzia began to fall off from him. Even those 
who most entirely disbelieved the foul accusations, and 
were loudest in their indignation against so base and 
vile a trick, were of opinion that it would not be well 
for the majesty and decorum of the Papacy that St. 
Peter's chair should be filled by one who had just been 
made, however unjustly, the subject of so scandalous 
and public an aflSront. All chance of his election, which 
seemed so certain, was lost; and the poor monk re- 
tired to his cell, with rage and indignation in his heart, 
and died there three days afterwards. 

At last Acquaviva sought an interview with the 
Camerlengo, who was now proposing Cardinal Mosca, 
and addressed him in more straightforward terms than 
were often heard among the cautious negotiators of the 
Conclaves. "It is of no use," said Acquaviva, "to speak 
of Mosca, for we will not elect a Pope of your choice. 
But we wish to make one with your consent and co- 
operation. Aldrovandi is objectionable to you. Very 
well; let us speak no more of him. You will not 
have any one of our cardinals [the creatures of Corsini] ; 
we will not accept any one of yours [the creatures of 
Albani]. It remains then to find a Pope among those 
who belong to neither party [that is to say the crea- 
tures of Benedict XIII., Orsini]. Now among them I 
see no soggetti papdbile save Lambertini or Lercari. 
Which of the two would you prefer? Lambertini? 
Very well. So be it. Let us go and elect him and 
have done with it." 

Of Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who thus became 
Benedict XIV., President de Brosses says: "He was 

cc 2 



) 



388 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

bom at Bologna, of whicli see lie was archbishop, of a 
noble and, I am told, very ancient, but not illustrious, 
family. His age is sixty-four or five. He is somewhat 
below the ordinary height, stout, and of a good strong 
constitution, with a roimd full face, a jovial air, and a 
genial kindly physiognomy. His character is open, 
good-humoured, and easy; his tone of mind gay and 
cheerful ; his conversation agreeable ; his tongue very 
free, and his talk often licentious; but his moral con- 
duct and habitudes pure and perfectly regular. He 
managed his diocese of Bologna with infinite charity 
and to the edification of all. But it will be absolutely 
necessary that he should get rid of his habit of using 
phrases fitted rather for the guard-room than the Papal 
throne." 

Sixteen Conclaves have taken place since that which 
elected Clement X. in 1670— a period which may be 
taken as marking the commencement in the Conclaves of 
Louis XIV. modes of thought and behaviour. 

There were three more within the seventeenth cen- 
tury: 1st., that which elected the Odeschalchi, with 
whom the reader has made some acquaintance in the 
last Conclave, as Innocent XI., in 1676, who was not 
more than sixty-four when elected, and who governed 
the Church for nearly twelve years, with a more happy 
combination of the piety of a bishop with the wisdom 
of a good temporal ruler than any other Pontiff*, at least 
in modem time, if not in the whole list of the Popes ; 
2nd., that which elected Ottoboni of Yenice, as Alex- 
ander VIII., in 1689, who reigned little more than a 
year ; and 3rd., that which elected Pignatelli of Naples, 



THE PRINCE POPES. 389 

as Innocent XII., in 1691, whose reign of little more 
than nine years completed the century. He died in 
1700. 

There were eight Conclaves in the eighteenth century, 
the last of the eighteenth century Popes again closing 
his reign with the close of the century. These were : — 

1st. Albani of Urbino, elected as Clement IX. in 
1700, who reigned a little more than twenty years. 

2nd. Conti, a Eoman, elected as Innocent XIII. in 
1721, who reigned not quite three years. 

3rd. Orsini, a Eoman, elected as Benedict XIII. in 
1724, who reigned nearly six years. 

4th. Corsini, a Florentine, elected as Clement XII. 
in 1730, who reigned nine years and a half. 

5th. Lambertini of Bologna, Voltaire's well-known 
correspondent, elected as Benedict XIV. in 1740, as we 
have seen, who reigned somewhat less than eighteen 
years. 

6th. Eezzonico, a Venetian, elected as Clement XIII. 
in 1758, who reigned ten years and a half. 

7th. Ganganelli, a Bomagnolo, elected as Clement 
XIV. in 1769, who reigned five years and four months. 

8th. Braschi, a Eomagnolo, elected as Pius VI. in 
1775, who reigned twenty-four years and eight months. 

In this nineteenth century there have been five Con- 
claves : — 

1st. That which elected Chiaramonti, a Eomagnolo 
and a native of the same small town from which his 
predecessor Pius VI. had come (Cesena), as Pius VII., 
in 1800, who reigned nearly twenty-tihree years and a 
half. 



890 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

2nd. Delia Genga, bom at the place of that name, the 
manor of his family, near Fabriano, in Umbria, elected 
as Leo XII. in 1823, who reigned five years and four 
months. 

3rd. Saverio, bom at Cingoli, elected as Pius YIII. in 
1829, who reigned twenty months. 

4th. Capellari of Belluno, elected as Gregory XVI. in 
1831, who reigned over fifteen years. 

5th. Mastai of Sinigallia, elected as Pius IX. in 1846, 
who has, up to this present time of writing, reigned over 
thirty years, the only Pope in all the two hundred and 
sixty-two occupants of the Holy See who has over- 
passed the quarter of a century, which is the traditional 
limit of the incumbency of St. Peter ! 

It is impossible, as I have said, and as the reader can 
very well see for himself, to attempt any account within 
the limits of this volume of these Conclaves. It may 
be said of them generally, that more and more they 
approached the nature of arrangements a Vaimdble. If 
the passions of ambition, jealousy, greed, and the love of 
power were by no means extinguished, they were con- 
strained by the decencies of modem manners to show 
themselves less openly, to moderate their violence, and 
to veil themselves beneath a courteous phraseology, and 
at least a theoretical devotion to the objects which 
ought to be those for which cardinals and Conclaves 
exist. The Popes become less and less high-handed and 
despotic. The cardinals, if they have still much to hope 
from the man they agree to set over them, have much 
less to fear from him, and less motive to be swayed by 
those considerations of saving themselves from enmities. 



THE PRINCE POPES. 391 

and the consequences of old grudges which in the times 
we have been traversing played so large a part in the 
Conclaves. De Brosses, however, reports some words of 
the Camerlengo, Cardinal Albani, which may be cited 
on this point: "These gentlemen from France [the 
French cardinals] are always in a hurry. They want 
the work [of the Conclave] done as soon as ever they 
arrive. When the Pope is elected they remain here a 
few weeks to amuse themselves; they are flted by 
everybody, and made much of by the new Pope. Then 
they go home, and hear no more of the Pope, except 
from a distance, for the rest of their lives. But I have 
to remain imder the rod ! He is my sovereign. He can 
put me in prison if he pleases. Messieurs the foreign 
cardinals must be good enough to allow me to take suffi- 
cient time in deciding on my choice to taMT care of my 
own interests." More and more, however, those once 
terrible and mysterious gatherings came to resemble 
in their operation the election to the wardenship of a 
college in an English university. The Popes are in the 
main amiable and easy-going old gentlemen, not distin- 
guished for ability, or for ascetic sanctity, or for laxity 
of moral conduct, or for anything, in short. More and 
more would a man characterized by any one of the 
above notes be felt by members of the Sacred College 
to be one unfitted for occupying St. Peter's seat. There 
have been cardinals of distinguished ability in various 
lines and departments during this period, but they did 
not become Popes. The lives of the men who were 
deemed fitted for the post of the Supreme Pastors of 
Christendom were passed in enacting their parts in a 





392 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

mass of ceremonial and prescriptions of eUchette^ wHch 
had in the course of generations become so intricate and 
complicated that the professional masters of it alone 
could find their way and that of their superiors 
through its mazes, and so onerous that the due per- 
formance of " scenic worship,'^ as Carlyle calls it, might 
entitle an aged mai^to feel that in accomplishing his 

^« task he was labouring severely as well as faithfully in 

9 his high and sacred caUing. 

Of the Conclaves that elected them, what has been 
said must suffice for* a specimen; for the remianing 
pages of this volume are needed for the purpose of 
giving the reader a brief description of the ceremonial 
of a Conclave as it now is — as it was, rather, thirty years 
ago, and as it probably will be in all essentials on the 
next not far-distant occasion. . 



^ 





9 



BOOK V. 
THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PRESENT. 



BOOK V. 

TEE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PRESENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

The death of a Pope. — Time to elapse before Conclave. — Cardinal 
GayBmck's Journey. — The Mode of constructing cells for the Con- 
clave. — Localities in the interior of the Conclave. — Drawing lots 
for the cells. — Mode of fitting and famishing the cells. — ^The cell 
of a Eoyal Cardinal. — The Camerlengo. — Mode of living of the 
Cardinals. — ^First day in Conclave. 

As soon as ever the breath shall have finally left the 
body of a dying Pope, the first thing to be done is to 
advise the Cardinal Camerlingo* of the fact. He has the 
entire government in his hands during the vacancy of 
the see. That dignitary immediately repairs to the 
chamber in which the dead Pope lies, and, striking the 
dead body on the forehead thrice with a little hammer, 
calls him thrice by his name — ^by his original name, not 
without a picturesque significance. " Giovanni Mastai !" 
the Gamerlengo Cardinal will call thrice as he strikes 
on the senseless forehead which bore the tiara with a 
hammer, and getting no answer will take off from the 
dead man's finger the "ring of the fisherman," and 
break it ! 

* Camerlengo, or Camerlingo, derived £rom '' Camera,** meant originally 
a chamberlain, and secondarily a treasurer. It is still used in the latter 
sense in monastic communities. 



396 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

Nine days are allowed according to the ancient con- 
stitutions for the preparations for the Conclave and the 
arrival of those members of the Sacred College who may- 
be at a distance. In these days the time allowed is suflB.- 
cient. But it was in many cases evidently insufficient 
in former times. The present Pope owes his Papacy of 
more than thirty years to the insufficiency of the time 
allowed for the arrival of foreign cardinals. . Cardinal 
Gaysruck, the Austrian, was on his way to the Conclave 
from Yienna, hastening as fast as post-horses could bring 
him and Austria's " veto " against the very man who 
was elected, with which he was commissioned. His post- 
horses did not go quick enough. He arrived too late, 
and foimd the man he was sent specially to exclude 
already elected ! 

The nine days are little enough, too, for the mere 
material preparations for the Conclave. In recent times 
the Conclaves have been always held either at the 
Quirinal or the Vatican. It is evident that the next 
must be held at the latter palace ; and there the neces- 
sary arrangements will have to be made at the death of 
Pius IX. ^' To tell you the matter in one word," writes 
President de Brosses to his correspondent, " they build 
a town in a house, and a quantity of little houses in vast 
chambers, from which you may conclude that of all the 
towns in the world this Conclave town is the stuffiest 
and the least pleasant to live in." 

The first business is for the bricklayer to wall up all 
doors and windows, leaving at the top of the latter one 
or two panes of glass to give a little light to the interior. 
This immense operosity in acting out to the life a comedy, 



THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PRESENT. 397 

which at best is but a symbol, and now a symbol from 
which the significance has departed, is curiously charac- 
teristic of priestly Eome and its ways of being and 
doing! 

The halls in the interior of the Vatican are numerous 
and large enough for the accommodation of a dozen 
Conclaves. The apartments, the walls of which are 
decorated with priceless paintings, are not used for the 
purpose. The great peristyle over the entrance to St. 
Peter's forms, as De Brosses remarks, an extremely 
spacious gallery, where there is room for two ranges of 
cells, and a corridor in the middle between them. Seven- 
teen cells can be constructed in that gallery alone, and 
they are some of the most convenient in the Conclave. 
Each cell is composed of a small chamber in which is the 
cardinal's bed, another small room by the side of it, and 
a stair to climb to a sort of garret above the cell, in which 
space is found for two little rooms for his two con- 
clavists. Constructed thus in different parts of the 
interior of the palace, of course some of the cells are very 
much better than others. Their Eminences draw lots 
for them. Thus, on the occasion described by De Brosses, 
the French Cardinal Tencin, of whom I spoke in a pre- 
vious chapter, had the luck to get the cell immediately 
over the central door of St. Peter's, so that the projection 
of the balcony in that part gave room for an extra cham- 
ber in his cell, which served as a good-sized study. But 
then, on the other hand, as the President remarks, that 
cell would be sure to be wrecked and everything in 
it pillaged when the new Pope should come to give 
his benediction to the people asseinbled in the piazza of 



398 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

St. Peter from that balcony. Also Tencin had been able 
to gain a little space at the expense of his neighbour 
Molto, who, it was known, was not coming to the Con- 
claye. For it is to be understood that a cell must be 
prepared for every member of the College whether he 
comes or not, at the cost of each cardinal for his own — 
a cost which De Brosses at the time he wrote estimates 
at five or six thousand fruncs, remarking that the Boman 
workmen took the opportunity to fleece their Eminences 
outrageously, as indeed must have been the case if such 
a sum as £200 or £250 had to be paid for such a cell as 
is described. If the cost was five or six thousand francs 
in 1740, it would at the same rate be at least double at 
the present day. 

Each little dwelling — cell, as it is called, although in 
fact it consists, as has been said, of three or four celk — ^is 
constructed of ordinary fir planks, covered uniformly on 
the outside with serge of violet colour if the inhabitant 
is a ^* creature " of the Pope who has just died, of green 
if he be of any anterior creation. In the coming Con- 
clave the more sombre of these colours will assuredly be 
the prevailing hue in the Conclave. On the inside the 
cells are fitted up according to the pleasure of the 
individual occupant, and, as may be supposed, are for the 
most part simple enough. On the occasion of the Con- 
clave at the death of Clement XII., the cell of the 
" Infant of Spain," then a member of the Sacred College, 
whom there was no chance of seeing at the Conclave, 
was magnificently fitted up with damask draperies, and 
consoles and marble tables, while the windows in it were 
made as large as possible in order that all this magnifi- 



THE CONCLAYB AS IT IS AT PEBSENT. 399 

^ence might be seen to advantage from the outside. 
" One would say," remarks De Brosses, "that it was the 
cafi of the Conclave." The other cells, which are to be 
really inhabited, have a little square window, which 
admits a small portion of such dubious light as can be 
had from the corridors, themselves darksome enough. 
" There they live," says the lively French President, 
^^ packed like herrings in a barrel, without air, without 
light, burning candles at mid-day, a prey to infection, 
devoured by fleas and bugs I A pretty sort of residence 
it will be if their Eminences do not get their business 
finished before the heat begins ! It is reckoned accord- 
ingly that three or four cardinals generally die of it every 
Conclave ! " If this is somewhat of an exaggeration, it 
will have been seen from such scattered notices as have 
found place in the foregoing pages that the percentage of 
cardinals killed by Conclaves has been by no means a 
small one ! And it will be understood how sincerely 
the members of the Sacred College must pray that the 
heavenward flight of the holy father may be in the 
winter I 

The Cardinal Camerlengo, as Chief of the Apostolic 
Chamber, is Governor of the Conclave, and has all the 
police of it in his hands. In the Conclave of which De 
Brosses has preserved the anecdotes I have availed 
myself of in this chapter, the Cardinal Albani, we are 
told, performed these duties in a haughty and severe 
spirit. He makes his round every evening to see that 
all is quiet and in good order. He places emissaries as 
sentinels to prevent visits by night by one cardinal to 
xmother. But, says De Brosses, they find means to 



400 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

prowl about in the darkness. The anecdotes of other 
Conclaves which have been given, and indeed those 
concerning this Conclave and of Albani's own conduct 
in it, abundantly show that all these pretended precau- 
tions were like so much else — ^may one not say like 
everything else? — connected with the subject, a mere 
sham and solemn farce I When a cardinal wishes to be 
alone in his cell, he causes a couple of rods provided 
for the purpose to be placed crosswise before his door, 
which is understood to be a sign that " he is sleeping^ 
or that at all events he does not wish to be disturbed." 

The first day in the Conclave, or rather the afternoon 
and evening of the day, on which the cardinals, having 
heard the mass and sung the hymn "Veni Creator," 
proceed to their prison-house, is ftdl of bustle. Many 
last words have to be said. The ambassadors of the 
Catholic powers are then paying their last visits to their 
Eminences. It is the very high-tide of intrigues, solici- 
tations, promises, warnings, dissimulations, and lies ! 
Then at the ringing of a bell the master of the cere- 
monies pronounces an ^' Extra Omnes," and the last 
door is shut and walled up, and the Conclave has 
begun. 



k 



CKAJPTEE II. 

The Twenty rules of Gregory XV. — Signal for strangers to clear out.— 
Scale of payment of fees to servants and attendants in Conclaye.— 
Death of a Cardinal in Gondaye. — ^Business of each meeting of the 
Cardinals between the death of the Pope and the commencement of 
Conclave.7— Entry into Conclaye. — ^Bull of Pius VI. dispensing with 
certain formalities in the election of his successor. — ^Next Condaye 
in all probability will be quite regular. 

The rules for regulating the proceedings of the Con* 
clave made at divers times by various Popes, specially, 
as has been seen, by Gregory X., were anew reduced to 
order, confirmed, and set forth by Gregory XV., on the 
15th of November, 1621, by a Bull entitled JEtemi 
Patris Films. These rules may be thus compendiously 
stated : — 

1st. The election of the Pontiff in Conclave, and no 
otherwise, may be done in either of three manners— by 
scrutiny, by compromise, or by acclamation (t.e. the 
manner earlier called and which has been described as 
"adoration"). 

2nd, The number of votes needed to make an election 
is two-thirds of those present in Conclave. And a man's 
own vote for himself shall not be counted in this 
number. 

3rd. No election shall be considered as accomplished 
unless all the votes shall have been published. 

D D 



402 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

4th. If more than one person has two-thirds of the 
Totes, no election has taken place.* 

5th. Before placing his voting paper in the nm, every 
elector shall swear that he has named in it him whom he 
believes to be the most fitting person. He must write in 
the schedule his own name and that of the person to 
whom he gives his vote. 

6th. These schedules must be folded f and sealed in 
order that it may be ascertained by the seal that two 
schedules have not been put into the urn by one 
elector. 

7ih. The schedules, for the scrutiny and for the 
"accessit," J must be alike. 

^ 8th. The name of the p6rsoii voted for must be stated 
in the "accessit" schedule, as in the case of the 
scrutiny. 

9th. He who purposes to "accede" to some one who 
has been nominated at the scrutiny must write the name 
of that person. He who does not purpose to do so 
must write ncmini — to no one — in the place of the 
name. 

10th. In each scrutiny only one "accessit" shall 
take place. 

11th. Both at a scrutiny and at an "accessit" the 
schedules shall be counted before they are opened, to see 

• It seems difficult to understand this at first. The explanation is that 
the cardinals were sometimes in the habit of adding one or more other 
names in their voting papers to the first inscribed, meaning that they 
voted for the second failing the election of the first ; and so on. Thus 
it might be possible for two persons to have two-thirds of the votes. 

t The special method in which these voting papers must be folded 
will be explained presently. 

\ This term will also be explained hereafter. 



THE CONCIAVB AS it IS AT PRESENT. 403 

whether the number of them ii3 equal to that of the 
cardinals in Conclave. 

12th. He who does not observe these rules shall be 
excommunicated. 

13th. Three cardinals chosen out of the whole body 
by lot, previous to the scrutiny, shall together with the 
scrutators go to the cells of such cardinals as are pre- 
vented by illness from going into the chapel to receive 
their schedules in the urn. 

14th. The scrutiny shall take place twice every day 
without exception, once in the morning and once in the 
afternoon, at a convenient hour. 

15th. Let the cardinals abstain, under pain of excom- 
munication, from any agreement, signal, or threat having 
reference to the election. 

16th. Those, whether electors or elected, who contra- 
vene any of the above regulations are excommunicated 
with the greater excommimication. (But the same 
penalty had been enacted again and again for the same 
oJSence in the most solemn manner, with the result, 
probably, of rendering excommunicate every cardinal 
who ever took part in the election of any Pope !) 

17th. The most rigorous secrecy respecting the elec- 
tion of the Pontiff is enjoined. 

18th. Let the three cardinals who are the heads of 
the monastic orders, together with the Cardinal Camer- 
lengo, be the executors of this Bull. 

19th. Every cardinal must swear to observe these 
rules at the time of his promotion to the purple, a second 
time on the first day after the death of the Pope, and a 
third time after his entry into Conclave. 

DD 2 



404 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

20tli, Cardinals under ecclesiastical censnres are niot 
on that account to be excluded from taking part in the 
election of the Pontiflf. 

A Commission was appointed by Gregory XV, to 
draw \tp a manual of the ceremonial of the Conclaye 
based on these rules ; and a few minor regulations may 
be gleaned from the completed document put forth by 
the Commission. The expenses of the obsequies of the 
deceased Pope shall not exceed ten thousands ducats. 
This has nothing to do with the monimient which may 
be raised to any Pope by the members of his family or 
others, but is merely the expense of the ceremonial of 
the funeral. 

When their Eminences have entered the Conclave, 
after three signals on a bell, with the interval of an 
hour between each, nobody shall be permitted to leave 
the Conclave. 

Clement XII. reconfirmed these provisions in a Bull, 
which adds nothing of importance to them, but esta- 
blishes by a subsequent document, which he declared to 
have the same force as if it had made part of the Bull, 
the following scale of payments. Besides the hundred 
crowns a month which are customarily paid to the two 
physicians and the surgeon of the Conclave, a similar 
sum shall be paid to the secretary of the Conclave, with 
the onus, however, of maintaining two assistants, whom 
he may bring into Conclave with him. The six masters 
of the ceremonies in ordinary, and likewise such super- 
numerary masters of the ceremonies as may have 
received permission to come into Conclave, shall receive 
twenty-five crowns a month each. The confessor of the 



THE CONCIAYE AS IT IS AT PBESEITT. 405 

Conclaye and the iinder-sacristaa shall receive thirty 
crowns a month ; and the person whom the imder- 
sacristan may bring with him to serve at the mass shall 
have six crowns a month. If the first master of the 
ceremonies be a bishop, he may have an attendant to 
serve at the mass, as also the sacristan, and to each of 
such attendants ten crowns a month shall be given. 
And it shall be the duty of the first master of the 
ceremonies to keep the keys of the Conclave. No 
article that can be usefiil for future Conclaves shall 
be taken away by the thirty-five sweepers, except the 
bed that shall be given to each of them. The cardinals 
must take care that the doors of communication between 
the Conclave and the remainder of the Vatican be walled 
up. The wood that has been used for the construction 
of the Conclave shall not be taken away without the 
permission of the cardinals who are heads of the religious 
orders. If there is any remainder it shall be used for 
the Apostolic Palace. No mourning garments for the 
deceased Pope shall be given to the Camerlengo, the 
Treasurer, to the Auditor-General, and two Clerks of the 
Chamber, or to the President of the Apostolic Chamber.* 
No profit of any kind shall be given to any official who 
has not bought his office. The servants of the Conclave 
shall not demand new clothes under pretext of a change 

* This prolubition of giving mourning clothes to some of the highest 
placed and richest men in Bome is a curious indication of the uniyersal 
groed, which was absolutely insensible to any sense of shame, and 
shrunk from no depth of meanness. It would probably be found on 
inquiry that the custom of giving mourning to these high officials had 
degenerated into a recognised job, by virtue of which the Cardinal 
Camerlengo's valet put a certain considerable sum of cash into hia 
pocket, the eigoyment of which the Camerlengo grasped at as improving 
the value of his patronage. 



406 THE PAPAL OONCLATES. 

of season unless when the Conclaye has lasted oyer two 
months. 

If a cardinal should die in Conclaye all his attendants 
shall go ont of it.* 

In the first meeting of the cardinals after the death of 
a Pope the constitutions of Gregory X* respecting the 
Conclaye, tiiose of Julius 11. on simoniacal election^ 
those of Pius IV. and Gregory XV. as to the cere- 
monial of the Conclaye, shall be read. At the second 
meeting the o£B[cials of Bome and the State shall be 
confirmed in their places. In the third meeting the 
confessor of the Conclaye shall be elected, and the 
deceased Pope shall be buried, the cardinals, his creatures, 
being present. In the fourth meeting the physicians 
and the surgeon of the Conclaye shall be elected. In 
the fifth the barbers and the apothecary shall be elected. 
In the sixth meeting the junior cardinal deacon shall 
draw lots for the cells of the cardinals in the Conclaye, 
and the masters of the ceremonies shall show the 
brief by yirtue of which each of them is to enter the 
Conclave. In the seventh meeting those cardinals who, 
being in Eome, shall wish to have a third conclavist, 
shall prefer their petitions to that effect. In the eighth 
meeting two cardinals shall be appointed, who shall have 
the duty of scrutinizing all those who shall enter 
into Conclave, and to whom all who are to enter as 
conclavists shall present their names, and the names 

* It znight have been expected that the rule should have been that the 
attendant conclavists and others should in such case fiot have quitted 
the Conclaye. What becomes, under the rule as given, of the absolute 
non-communication to the outside world of what has passed and is 
passing in Conclave ? 



THE CQNCLAYE AS IT IS AT PBESBNT. 407 

of the countries from which they come, and of the 
cardinal to whom they are attached. In the ninth 
meeting three cardinals shall be elected who shall watch 
over the due closing of the Conclave. In the tenth 
and last meeting those cardinals who are not in deacon's 
orders shall present the brief of dispensation by virtue 
of which they propose to enter into Conclave, On tiie 
following day, when the mass of the Holy Ghost has 
been celebrated, and the prayer respecting the election of 
a Pope has been recited, all the cardinals shall proceed 
processionally to the Conclave, where the various con» 
stitutions of the Ponti£G9 respecting the mode of election, 
and at the end of them these present rules of Clement 
XII., shall be read. 

When Pius VI. determined to go to Yienna in 1782, 
he left a Bull by which the Sacred College was enjoined 
in case of his death while absent to hold the Conclave 
in Bome, the same as if he had died there. But when 
in 1798 the same Pope was driven from Bome by the 
French, and taken prisoner to the monastery of the 
Certosa, near Florence, in view of his probable death at 
a time which should find all the cardinals dispersed or 
imprisoned, he gave a Bull to his nunzio at Florence, 
Cardinal Odescalchi, empowering the College to elect 
his successor in whatsoever place the greatest number of 
them could meet together. This Bull, commencing with 
the words, "Attentis peculioribus et deplorabilibus cir- 
cumstantiis," suspends by Apostolical authority all the 
ancient laws for the election of the Pontiff and for the 
holding of the Conclave. It further empowers the 
cardinals to dispense with the usual forms and solem* 



40S THB PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

nities of the Conclave, especially as to shortening at 
their own discretion the time which ought, according to 
rule, to elapse between the death of the Pope and the 
election. Novaes, in his life of Pius VI., declares that 
a chamberlain of Monsignore Carracciolo, who was 
Master of the Chamber to the Pope, carried this Bull 
secretly to the cardinals who were at Naples, at Venice, 
and in other cities near at hand. And it is probable 
that Novaes is right. But other writers maintain that 
this Bull was prepared in Eome before the Pope was 
-compelled to leave it, which was on the 11th of Feb- 
ruary, 1798, and that Cardinal Albani, the Dean of the 
Sacred College, determined with such of the cardinals as 
were accessible that they should meet at Venice, at the 
same time communicating this arrangement to all the 
-Catholic European sovereigns. The precedent is one 
which probably will not have escaped the attention of 
jsome of those who are not Catholic sovereigns, in view 
of the next papal election, which cannot be far oflf, 
although, as far as can be judged from the present 
aspect of affairs, there seems little possibility of doubt- 
ing that the Conclave will be held and the future Pontiff 
elected in exact and scrupulously regular conformity 
with precedent. 



CHAPTER III. 

Three Canonical modes of election. — Scrutiny and " Accessit."— Entry 
of the Cardinals into Chapel for the scrutiny. — ^Vestments. — Mode 
of preparing the Sistine Chapel for the scrutiny. — The Seats of the 
Cardinals at the Scrutiny. — ^The " Sfomata." — How the day passes 
in Conclaye. — The bringing of the Cardinals' dinners. — Cardinals 
heads of Monastic Orders. — Close of the day in Conclave. 

Of the three modes of election recognised as regular 
and canonical in Conclave, that by " adoration," ^* inspi- 
ration," or " acclamation," and that by " compromise," 
have been sufficiently explained in former chapters. It 
remains to give an account of the election by "scrutiny" 
and " accessit," which may be considered as the method 
practised at the present day. These two terms do not 
signify two different modes of performing the election, 
but two portions of the same method of arriving at a 
result, as will be seen from what follows, 
' The afternoon of the first day, after the processional 
entry of the cardinals into Conclave, having been occu- 
pied with visits and adieux, as has been described, and 
the "Extra Omnes" having been pronounced at the 
third ringing of the bell, their Eminences take possession 
of the cells which chance has assigned to them, and 
retire for the night. The next morning at eight o'clock 
the junior master of the ceremonies rings a bell at the 
door of each cell, and a second time half an hour later. 



410 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

At nine he rings a third time, adding this time to his 
bell the call, " In Capellam, Domini ! " — " To chapel, my 
lords!" Then the cardinals, clad in cassock, band, 
rochet, cape, and croecia^^ and with their scarlet herrette^ 
and attended by their conclavists, proceed to the Faoline 
Chapel, where mass is celebrated by the Dean of the 
College, and the cbmmnnion is administered to them. 
The croccia is on this occasion taken off in chapel before 
communicating, and a white stole assumed in place of it, 
which is to be handed to them by the master of the 
ceremonies. The cardinals belonging to the monastic 
orders do not assume the rochet, except the heads of 
certain orders who have the privilege of wearing it. 
Whole pages might be filled with minutiae of this sort, 
all regulated in the most precise manner. The above 
have been given as a specimen of the infinitely numerous 
and infinitesimally small regulations with which the 
whole of the procedure — as well indeed as every other 
portion of Eoman Court life — is surrounded ! 

After the service in the chapel their Eminences retire 
to their cells to breakfast ; after which they go, accom* 
panied by their conclavists, to the Sistine Chapel, 
without their rochets, to proceed to the first scrutiny. 
One of the conclavists at the door of the chapel hands 
to his cardinal a closed desk or box containing the 
ruled and prepared registers for the day's voting, the 
schedules printed and prepared (as will be presently 
described) for giving the votes, the cardinal's seal and 

* A garment specially worn in Conclave. It is a long mantle of serge 
or merino from the neck to the feet, open in front, and with a train 
behind. The latter is tied up in a knot, only loosened when the wearer 
is receiving the Eucharist. 



THE CQNCLAVB AS IT IS AT PBESENT. 411 

materials for sealing, and writing requisites. The con- 
clavists then retire and the doors of the chapel are 
closed. Their Eminences, it is expressly provided, may- 
recite their breviary during the scrutiny, or read any 
book, if they like that better. 

The chapel is divided, as visitors to Borne will no 
doubt remember, into two halves by a balustrade, the 
inner portion, or that nearest to the altar, being called, 
as in other churches, the presbytery. The entire floor 
of this is raised to a level with the dais, on which ordi* 
narily is placed the PontiflPs seat, on this occasion 
removed. The altar alone remains, with its crucifix and 
six candles, which are always lighted during the whole 
time of the scrutiny. All round the walls of the presby- 
tery thus prepared are erected a number of "thrones " 
(for they are all sovereigns during the vacancy of the 
see), equal to that of the members of the College. 
Each has a baldaquin, or canopy, over it, which, as well 
as all the other drapery attached to it, is of green for 
those cardinals not created by the last Pope, and of 
purple for his "creatures.'' These canopies are so 
arranged that they can be removed by pulling a rope 
at a minute's notice, and they are all let down the 
instant the new Pope is chosen, with the exception of 
that one above the seat he has occupied. Under the 
baldaquin, and in front of each seat, is a table covered 
with drapery of similar colour, in front of which is 
written the name of each cardinal, and below the name 
his coat-of-arms. On the table there is what we should 
call a blotting book, which is to be, as we are told, of 
black leather ornamented with lines of gold. The Dean 



412 THE PAPAL CONCLATES. 

of the Sacred College sits under the first baldaquin on 
the gospel side of the altar. All the rest follow, the 
bishops, priests, and deacons, in the order of their crea- 
tion, so that the junior occupies the baldaquin nearest 
to the altar on the epistle side. In the middle of the 
floor are six little tables, similarly furnished with every- 
thing necessary to the business in hand. These are 
for the use of any cardinal who, fearing that he may 
be overlooked by his neighbour when writing his voting 
paper, may prefer to do it in the open space, where 
overlooking is impossible. 

In front of the altar is a large table covered with 
red serge, with the following objects on it : a number 
of papers folded, wafers, sealing-wax, four candles ready 
for lighting, a box with flint,' steel, and matches, a 
quantity of red and another parcel of purple cord for 
filing the schedules on, and a box of needles for the 
same pm^pose. There is also a tablet of walnut wood 
with seventy holes in it, answering to the number of 
cardinals when the College is full, together with a 
purple bag containing as many balls of wood as there 
are cardinals, with the name of a cardinal on each of 
them. From this bag, every morning and every after- 
noon, are drawn by lot by the hand of the junior car- 
dinal deacon the three scrutators, and three cardinals to 
attend the invalids and take their votes in their cells 
if there are any invalids in the Conclave, as is almost 
certain to be the case. And the balls, with the names 
of the six cardinals thus drawn by lot, are placed in the 
respective holes in the tablet above mentioned, and are 
allowed to remain there during the entire time of each 



THE COKCLAVX AS IT IS AT PSESENT. 418 

scrutiny. Finally, there is also on the large table the 
form of oath to be used on putting the voting papers 
into the urn, and two urns with their dishes beneath 
them, which during the time of this scrutiny are placed 
on the altar; also a box with a slit in the lid, and a 
lock and key, which the cardinals appointed to receive 
the votes of their invalid colleagues carry round, locked, 
to the cells of the latter, and into the slit in which the 
sick cardinals put their folded papers containing their 
votes with their own hands. 

Behind the altar there is a little iron fireplace with a 
tube chimney communicating with the outer air. There 
is also a little closed grating and a small quantity of 
damp straw. At the close of each scrutiny in which 
no election has been accomplished all the voting papers 
are placed, together with a portion of straw, in this 
grating, which is then inserted in the iron stove, and 
the whole is set on fire by a match lighted from the 
tinder-box before mentioned, so that the burning occa- 
sions a dense smoke, by the rising of which all Rome, 
eagerly on the watch, is informed that no election has 
taken place at that morning's, or that afternoon's, 
scrutiny. This is the celebrated " Sfumata " of which 
60 much has been heard, and on which so many bets 
have been decided. It serves also as a signal to the 
artillerymen who are on the watch at Castle St. Angelo, 
ready to fire their guns as soon as the election shall 
have been made ; and, further, to the workmen, also on 
the watch, to pull down the walling-up of the great 
balcony from which the new Pope will, immediately on 
his election, give his first benediction, " TJrbi et orbi," 



414 IHB PAPAI. CONCLAVES* 

on the instant that an election shall have been consum- 
mated. 

"When the cardinals have entered the chapel and taken 
their places, the senior master of the ceremonies reads 
the instrument declaring the perfect closing of the 
Conclave, and the other masters of the ceremonies 
distribute to the cardinals little books containing a 
form of prayer to be used during the vacancy of the 
see. The sacristan, who is always a bishop, then in- 
tones the " Veni Creator Spiritus," and the " Oremus ; '* 
and then every one save the cardinals leaves the 
chapel, and one of them fastens the door with a chain, 
which must be no more removed till the end of that 
scrutiny. As soon as it hsB been brought to a con- 
clusion, the Dean of the College rings a bell which is on 
the little table before him, and all the cardinals rise to 
leave the chapel. The first who reaches the door im- 
locks the chain and rings a bell, the rope of which is 
there, to let the conclavists and all the Conclave world 
know that the scrutiny is over. The morning's work, 
including the mass, generally occupies about two hours. 
The afternoon scrutiny, without the mass, takes about 
an hour and a half. 

When their Eminences come out from the morning 
scrutiny it is about time for the mid-day meal — a great 
event in the day, doubtless, within the Conclave walls, 
but a still greater one on the outside ; for the dinners 
of their Eminences are brought to the " rota," or turn- 
table opening, at which they are to be passed into the 
Conclave in great state and with much ceremony. Each 
cardinal has a " Dapifer " — a bringer of the feast — ^who 



THE CONCLAVE AS H? IS AT 1»EESENT. 415 

perfonns that office for his imprisoned master. We 
read in the old constitutions of the one dish to be 
allowed to the electors, and that to be diminished to 
bread and water if the election were not terminated 
within a given number of days. And it might be 
supposed that Dapifer could convey that ^' feast" with 
sufficient convenience in a small hand-basket I But 
such Apostolic simplicity has given way to a cere- 
monial which forms — or perhaps I should say, formed — 
one of the great spectacles of Eome during an inter- 
regnum. The cardinal's state carriage and state liveries 
set forth from his Eminence's palace with much accu- 
rately prescribed ceremonial, under the command of 
"Dapifer," who superintends the passing of the good 
things brought by him through the " rota," after they 
have been duly probed and examined by the officials 
appointed, ad hoc^ to see that no scrap of writing or 
message of any kind is conveyed with or in them. How 
gross a farce all this is has been sufficiently seen in 
the accounts of sundry Conclaves which have been 
given. 

By various other regulations, the utmost apparent 
care is taken that no communications respecting the 
business of the Conclave shall take place between those 
imprisoned and the outside world. The prelates who 
preside at the " rota " are directed to read all letters 
passing in or out, to seal and pass them if there is 
nothing relative to the election in them, and to refuse 
to allow them to pass otherwise. Conversations at the 
" rota," to which any cardinal may be called by those 
who wish to confer with him, may not be carried on in 



416 THS FAPAL COKGLAYES. 

a low voice, but must be perfectly audible to the by- 
standers — ^all absolute farce, nowadays recognised farce, 
and in the days when it was hoped that such regu- 
lations would really secure the end in view, absolutely 
vain for any such purpose. 

At three hours before sunset their Eminences are 
called again to chapel for the afternoon scrutiny with 
the same ceremony, and all the same formalities are 
observed as in the morning. After the second scrutiny 
of the day is over comes the hour for recreation and 
visits in the Conclave world. I find in the writers 
upon the subject the most exact and detailed prescrip- 
tions for the dress of those cardinals who employ this 
evening hour in taking a turn in one of the courts of the 
building or in the corridors, and for that of such as visit 
their colleagues in their cells— how the Conclavista 
shall stand at the door of the cell visited, when the 
visitor departs, with two candles, &c., &c. — matters 
which the reader would hardly thank me for placing 
before him. 

The first evening a solemn meeting of those cardinals 
who ore chiefs of the monastic orders is held, for the 
purpose of administering a solemn oath to the con^ 
clavists and to every other person in the Conclave down 
to the sweepers, that they will never reveal aught that 
they may hear or see in the Conclave touching the 
election! The degree of observance of which oath^ 
administered, as it is, with every circumstance of solem- 
nity and the menace of the most awful penalties to those 
who should break it, the reader has already had abun- 
dant means of verifying ! 



THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PEESENT, 417 

Cardinals who from infirmity are imable to return 
visits received in their cells, "like Cardinal Firmo, who 
went into the Conclave of 1829 at ninety-three years of 
age," must send round their cards to every cell. That first 
evening also the dresses (accurately prescribed) which 
were furnished at the cost of the Apostolic Chamber to 
all the servants in the Conclave are served out by a 
bursar, on presentation of written requisitions from the 
different conclavists. The same bursar supplies fiiel, 
candles, and the like for the cell of each cardinal. But 
"if" (I find it oddly enough stated in connection with 
the above details) "any donatives of eatables which 
ought to belong to the Pope arrive in the Conclave, they 
are distributed to the members of the Sacred College, 
giving a share also to the secretary and sacristan of the 
Conclave ! " It is difficult to imagine how any such 
present intended for the Pope should arrive, at the 
earliest, ten days after his death, and what the nature of 
the " eatables " could be which, after such a delay, their 
Eminences were still desirous of sharing ! 

Finally, the day closes by another ringing of his bell 
by the junior master of the ceremonies two hours after 
sunset, a second time half an hour later, and a third 
time three hours after sunset, the last ringing being 
accompanied by the call, " In Cellam Domini ! " — " To 
your cells, my lords !" 



E E 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Mode of Procedure at the Scmtiny. — "Ante-scrutiny." — ^The Four 
Actions composing it. — ^Description of the yoting papers. — ^The 
Eight Actions composing the Scratinymore properly so called. — 
Infirm Cardinals. — ^The Manner of their yoting. — ^Belatiyes may not 
be Conclavists. — ^How this rule is evaded. — The ** Acoessit." — ^The 
"Post-scrutiny." — Different procedure in case an election has 
or has not been accomplished. — Care to ascertain that an elector 
has not made the necessary majority by voting for himself. — Cases 
of conscience as regards the voting. — Objects intended to be ensured 
by Conclave rules impossible of attainment. — Conduaion. 

It remains to give an account of the mode of procedure 
adopted in the scrutiny and the " accessit," which latter 
operation, however, is more properly considered as a 
portion of the scrutiny, though often spoken of even by 
ecclesiastical writers as a separate act. 

The scrutiny, as defined by the Bull of Gregory XV., 
must be secret, and consists of three portions — the 
^^ante-scrutiny," the ^^ scrutiny" more properly so 
called, and the ^^ post-scrutiny." 

Four actions go to the performance of the ^^ante- 
scrutiny " : 1. The preparation of the schedules or 
voting papers. 2. The drawing by lot of the three 
scrutators and of the three deputed to wait on the 
infirm cardinals in their cells. 3. The writing of the 
voting papers. 4. The folding and sealing of the same. 

Of the second of these nothing need be added to what 
has before been said. 



THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PEESENT. 



419 



The preparing, writing, folding, and sealing of the 
voting papers is done as follows. 

The schedule, or slip of paper on which the vote is 
written, is about eight inches long by six wide. These 
papers have been previously printed and divided 
thus: — 



Ego 




Card. 




o 






o 


Eligo in 
meuzn D. 


Snmmuni Pontificeni Bm, 
Card. 


Dom. 


o 






o 





The voter after " Ego " T^tes his baptismal name, 
and after "Card" his surname; fills the third division 
of the schedule with the name and surname of the 
cardinal to whom he gives his vote, writing these words 
as far as possible in such sort that they shall not be 
recognised by his colleagues as his writing ; writes in 
the fifth division of the paper an Arabic number and 
a motto ; and then folds and seals as described presently. 

E E 2 



420 



IBB PAPAL COKCLATES. 



Here is a specimen of the electoral schedtile duly 
filled:— 



Ego 


Frandscos 


Caid« Barbezini 


o 






o 


Eligo 

meum 


in Suminnm Pontificem Berd. Dom, 
Dom. Ludoyico Ludoyisi 


o 






o 


24. 


Salvnmme 


fac, Deufl. 





The Yoter then folds the first division down over the 
second, and seals it in the two places marked by circles ; 
and folds up the fifth division over the fourth, and seals 
it down similarly ; so that only the words written in the 
middle division, "Eligo in Summum Pontificem," so- 
and-so, remain visible. But before putting the paper 
into the urn, these also are covered by folding the 
two remaining portions of the paper yet once again over 
the central part. 

The practice which formerly prevailed of writing 
more than one name in the voting paper, with the 
understanding that the elector gave his vote to the 



THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PBESENT. 421 

first named if he had enough votes to elect, and to 
the second inscribed if the first should not so have, was 
abolished by Gregory XV. ; and at the present day any 
voting paper which contained more thaa one name 
would be considered null and void. 

The acts of the " anti-scrutinium " having been thus 
duly performed, we proceed to those of the " scrutinium" 
itself, which are with equally pedantic minuteness 
divided by the ecclesiastical writers into eight opera- 
tions: 1. The carrying of the schedules. 2. Taking 
the oath. 3. Placing the vote in the urn. 4. Mixing 
up all the votes in the urn. 5. Counting the sche- 
dules. 6. Publishing the result to all the cardinals 
present. 7. Filing the schedules. 8. Putting them 
away separately. 

First, carrying the voting papers. Each cardinal, 
habited in the " croccia," or long mantle, which has 
been described, and beginning with the Dean of the 
Sacred College, walks firom his place to the altar, carry- 
ing the schedule folded and sealed in the manner 
specified, held high between his finger and thumb. 
Arrived at the step of the altar, he kneels and (second 
act) pronounces the following oath: " Tester Christum 
Dominum, qui me judicaturus est, me eligere quern 
secundum Deum judico elegi debere, et quod in accessu 
prestabo." " I call to witness Christ our Lord, who shall 
be my judge, that I am electing him whom before God 
I think ought to be elected, and the same as to the 
vote, which I shall give at the ^ accessit.' *^ On the 
altar there is a large urn or chalice, covered with a 
patina; and the elector, having thus sworn, places his 



422 THE PAPAL C0KCLAYE8. 

Bchedule on the patina, and taking that in his hand, 
throws the vote into the chalice with it. 

Should any one of the cardinals present be unable to 
walk from his stall to the altar, the jnnior of the three 
scrutators goes to him at his seat, and having received 
from him his voting paper, after he has pronounced the 
oath, carries it in the manner described to the altar, 
and deposits it in the urn. With regard to such 
cardinals as are not able to come into chapel, being ill 
in their cells, the mode of proceeding is as follows. 
The three cardinals chosen by lot for this purpose 
place their votes in the urn immediately after the Dean, 
in order that they may be free to attend to the sick. 
Then taking from the above-mentioned table the box 
with the slit in the lid, they open it, and hold it up to 
show to all present that there is nothing in it. Then 
they lock it and deposit the key on the altar. Then the 
three deputed to attend the sick depart on their errand 
to the cells of the sick men, a cardinal opening the door 
of the chapel for them, and chaining it up again as soon 
as they have passed. They go to the cell of each sick 
man in turn, hear him pronounce the oath, and receive 
his vote in the box. If any cardinal is unable to write, 
he may depute any one of his colleagues to write his 
voting paper for him, in which case the person so 
deputed swears solemnly that he will never divulge the 
secret of the vote he has written, the breach of which 
oath involves ipso facto the greater excommunication. 
Or the person deputed to write the vote may be the 
conclavist of the infirm man; and in such cases it is 
very usual for a cardinal to be attended by some near 



THE COI^CIAYE AS IT IS AT PBESENT. 423 

relative as conclavist ; for though the constitutions 
forbid any cardinal to take a relative with him into 
Conclave as conclavist, this is very easily evaded by 
two cardinals agreeing together to appoint each the 
relative of the other. 

The fourth act of the scrutiny, to be performed when 
all the votes, including those of the sick, have been 
placed in the chalice, is the mixing them up together ; 
and this is done by the senior of the three scrutators. 
The fifth act is the counting of the schedules. This is 
done by the junior scrutator, who counts them, taking 
them one by one from the chalice, and dropping them 
into another similar receptacle. If the counting should 
show that there has been any mistake, and that the 
number of votes given does not correspond with that of 
the cardinals in Conclave, all the votes are burned, and 
the work must be begun again. Next comes the " sixth 
act," which is in fact the scrutiny itself, and is per- 
formed in this manner. The three scrutators sit at the 
large table which has been described, with their backs 
to the altar, so that they may be in full view of all 
present, and the first of them takes a voting paper from 
the chalice, and leaving the seals which seal down the 
name and the motto of the voter intact, opens the other 
folds, and reads the name of the person in whose favour 
the vote is given. He then passes it to the second 
scrutator, who also takes note of the person voted for, 
and passes it on to the third, who declares the vote in 
a loud voice readily to be heard by all the cardinals 
present ; and each one of them, as it is uttered, marks 
the vote on a register before him, which is prepared for 



i 



424 THB PAPAL COKGLATES* 

the purpose. These large sheets of paper, of which 
there are a number in each of the little tables in front 
of the cardinals' seats, are used one for each scrutiny. 
They contain a printed list of all the members of the 
Sacred College, with spaces for the record of the votes 
given, both at the scrutiny more properly so called and 
at the "accessit." When this voting and counting, 
which each cardinal does for himself on his own re- 
gister, and the scrutators do more formally, recording 
the number of votes given to each cardinal who has 
been voted for at all in a separate paper, has been 
accomplished, the assembly proceeds to the seventh 
operation of the scrutiny* This is the threading of the 
schedules on a file, and is done by the junior scrutator, 
each paper being pierced exactly at the word ^' Eligo." 
The eighth and last act of this the second portion of the 
scrutiny consists in the tying together, by the junior 
scrutator, of the two ends of the thread on which the 
votes have been filed, and the placing of the whole of 
them apart on the great table. 

Then comes the third and last operation of the 
scrutiny, which has three divisions in case an election 
has been accomplished, which are — 1st, the counting of 
the votes ; 2nd, the verifying of the votes by three other 
cardinals, drawn by lot, and called '' ricognitori ; " and 
3rd, the burning of the votes in the manner which 
has already been described. 

But if no election has been achieved, the last portion 
of the operation, the ^' post-scrutinium," consists of 
seven "acts," of which the first is the "accessit.'' 
The meaning of the phrase is evident enough, and the 



THE CONCLA.VB AS IT IS AT PEE8ENT. 426 

act is performed in the same maimer as in giving the 
first vote, save that "accedo ad'* is printed in the 
schedule instead of *^Eligo," and if the elector remains 
fixed in his original intention, he writes the word 
*'nemini " in the place of the name of one of the cardi- 
nals. The numbers written on the paper, the motto, 
and the seals must be the same as in the first voting, 
otherwise the vote given will be void. Further, no 
cardinal can be voted for by " accessit " who has not 
had at least one vote in the first voting. Nor can an 
elector give an " accessit " for the same person for whom 
he voted in the first voting, otherwise he would vote 
twice for the same man. And as regards the invalids 
who have remained in their cells, the three cardinals 
deputed to attend them carry round together with the 
box for receiving their votes a statement of the results 
of the first voting. 

The mode in which this method of the "accessit" 
operates, and the nature of the motives which will 
influence the electors in proceeding to it, are readily 
intelligible. If the candidate A, for whom I have 
voted, shall be shown to have received four or five votes 
only, while B has received twenty, and C thirty, it will 
become a delicate question whether I shall transfer my 
vote to one of these latter, and, if so, to which of them. 
If failing my own favourite candidate, who has been 
shown to have no chance, I am contented to have C, 
my course is clear; I "accede" to him. If he is 
objectionable to me, I may still prefer to do so if it 
shall seem to me that his election is inevitable. If B is 
one with whom I could be contented, and if I think 



426 THE PAPAL CONCLAVES. 

he has a chance, I "accede'^ to him. If my main 
object is to prevent if possible the election of either B 
or C I accede to some other cardinal, in the hope that 
the votes given to him, if not sufficient to elect him, may 
at least, in Conclave language, give an exclusion to B 
and C, i.e. prevent either of them from having a two- 
thirds majority. It will be seen that the "accessit*^ 
requires for its management some of the most delicate 
and dexterous play of any portion of the Conclave 
operations. 

The second act of the post-scrutinium, when no elec- 
tion has been made at the first vote, is the opening of 
the seals which seal down that fold of the voting paper 
where the number and the motto are written, to ascer- 
tain that the first and second votes are by the same 
person, and are given either "nemini," or to a different 
candidate from him voted for the first time ; the third, 
the numbering ; and the fourth, the exandnation of the 
votes (only in case an election has been accomplished). 
The fifth act of the post-scrutinium is the adding 
together the votes obtained by the different candidates 
in the scrutiny and the " accessit." The sixth act con- 
sists in the verification by the " ricognitori'^ of the votes 
and the counting of them by the scrutators ; and the 
seventh and last in the burning of the voting papers. 

It should be noted, however, that in the examination 
of the votes, if an election should have been made by 
a number of votes exactly sufficient to constitute the 
required two-thirds majority, the scrutators must ascer- 
tain that the person elected has not voted for himself. 
Otherwise no election would have been made. 



THE CONCLAVE AS IT IS AT PEESENT. 427 

Volumes of subtle casuistry liave been written on the 
exact sense of the terms of the cardinal's oath, that he 
will elect him whom he believes before God ought to 
he elected^ and on the degree of literalness in which it 
must be assumed to be binding on the conscience. At 
the beginning of a Conclave many scrutinies are gone 
through without any thought of coming to an election, 
merely to try the strength of the diflterent parties and 
to explore the ground. Conclave tacticians are of 
opinion that an elector may often injure the final chance 
of a candidate by voting for him from the outset in these 
tentative skirmishes. Is an elector, therefore, to injure 
the chance of the man whom he believes to be the fittest 
by voting for him at such times ? A man may in his 
heart and conscience believe himself to be the fittest 
there to be made Pope. Is he bound to risk invalidating 
his own election by voting for himself? Or must he 
vote for some one whom he does not think the fittest ? 
May a man vote for one whom he deems imfit when it 
is clear that that one will be elected ? Answer : Yes ! 
because it is fitting that an election should be made with 
concord and without giving rise to evil passions. Such 
questions and " cases " might be, and indeed have been, 
multiplied almost ad infinitum. 

But the entire history of the Conclaves in which the 
Popes have been elected, and of the rules which have 
been enacted for the regulation of them and restriction 
of the actors in them, is one long series of demonstra* 
tions of the vanity and futility of endeavouring to bind 
by law the wills of men whose power is above that of 
law, and who recognise no superior. Prescription has 



\ 



428 THB PAPAL CONCLAVES* 

a certain amount of power, which is even greatly- 
increased when it is applied to a corporate body. But it 
breaks down under the strain of the temptations to which 
those are exposed to whom so great a business as the 
election of a Pope is entrusted. Given the necessity of 
having a Pope, it would probably be impossible to devise 
a better means of getting one than that which the 
Church has gradually perfected. But she attempts the 
impossible ; and her efforts to secure her aim, though 
they have been to a great degree successful, have 
resulted in an amount of false pretence, solemn sham, 
hypocrisy, and substitution of pompous appearance for 
reality, the long story of which makes the account of 
these Conclaves somewhat humiliating reading for the 
believer in human perfectibility. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abdication of Gelestine Y., 87. 
Abnormal length of the reign of the 
* Antipope, Benedict XIII., 86. 
« papal elections, 67. 

Abnaes of the secret system of nominat- 
ing Cardinals, 26. 
Accumnlation of wealth by pajMd 

families, 317-322. 
Advantage of a nnmerons College of 

Cardinals, 23. 
Age of candidates for the Cardinalate, 

47. 
Alexander YH., character of, 337. 
modified nepotism of, 

838. 

Alexander Ym., 388. 
and his secretary, 

afterwards Clement XI., 27, 28. 
Amount of dotation permissible to a 

papal nephew, 321. 
Anecdote of Cardinal Altieri on the eve 

of his election as Clement X., 375. 
Anecdote of Cardinal de £etz, 377. 
Giampie^'Carafia 

(Paul IV.), 229. 

Giangiacomo Medici, 



brother of Pius lY., 232. 

Gregory XIY. and Boni- 



£&cio Yanozzi, 2&-27. 

an hereditary condave 



'custode," 135. 

anintmsiye ConclaTist, 221 . 

• Matthew Corte, the papal 



physician, 86. 

Nicholas lY., 85. 

- Nicholas Y. and his mother, 



144. 



. Paul II., 156. 
■ Sixtos Y, 260. 



Anecdotes of the Conclaye at the death 
of Eugenius lY., 137-141. . 

——————— that elected 

Pius n., 146-151. 



Announcement of their creation to new 

Cardinals, 35. 
Antecedents of Moroni, Gregory 

XIY.'s barber, 93. 
Antiix>pes, 57. * 
Ascetic and bigoted character of 

Michael Ghialieri, Pius Y., 244. 

B. 

Barberini Family, down&ll of the, 324. 
Behaviour of newly created Cardinals, 

36. ^^ 
Benedict XIY., character of, 338. 
Beretta, the, 36, 43. — 
Berettina, the;, 36, 42. -^ 
Bitter dissensions in the Sacred College 

(1303), 90. 
Bull of Sixtua Y.,' finally regulating tho 

composition of the Sacrod CoUege, 

18, 19. 
Bulls of Gregory XY. forming the 

basis of Condave Law, 229. 
Pius YI., promulgated in 

1782 and 1798, 407. 
Burial of Alexander YI., extraordinary, 

173. 



Cardinal Albani in the Conclaye after 
the death of Clement XII., cunning 
intrigues of, 385-387. 

nephew of Clement 

XI., sketch of, 380. 

de Coligny, deposition of, by 



Pius lY, 50. 

> deacons, 21. 



Cardinal's hat, the, 36, 37. ~^ 
Cardinal Ludoyisi during the reign of 

XY., infiuence of, 298. 

loroni accused of heresy in 



1557, 251. 



. Nephews," 138. 
, origin of the term, 14, 



430 



INDEX. 



Cardinal Pole, of England, nearly 
elected to the IV^cy, 206-208. 

-^— — lofle8;hia election by hia 
scrupleSj 



381. 



Bohan, Ftench naivete of, 



Gardinals and Cardinal Deaconfl, dif- 
ference between, 21. «-« 

, early, differing ecclesiastical 
rank o^ 16. 

-, fifty churches after which 



they are called, 20. 

-, daring Condave, inaccessi- 



bility of, 66. 

-, juvenile, made by Alexander 



VI., 48. 

by Alexander VHT., 62. 

by Clement VI., 48. 

— by aement Vm., 62. 

by Eugenius IV., 48. 

^—— by HonoriuB II., 48. 

by Innocent VIII., 48. 

by Innocent IX., 61. 

by Innocent X., 62. 

by Julius in., 61. 

by Paul ni., 61. 

by Paul v., 62. | 

by Sixtus IV., 48. 

by Sixtus V., 61. 

by Urban VIII., 62. 

Cardioals, new, receptions held by, 
44, 45. 

— — , newly created, behaviour 
^ expected of, 36. 

, objections to the secret sys- 
tem of nomination to the order of, 25. 

, original number of, 18. 

in pettOf 23, 24. 

, rapid Buccession of, 21, 22. 

, six sees after which they are 

called, 19. 

y , social position in the Koman 

world of, 29. 
y Cardinalitial ring, the, 46. 

Carlo Borromeo, the celebrated Arch- 
bishop of Milan, 247. 

Catastrophe at the coronation of 
Clement v., 94. 

Celebration of public obsequies at the 
death of a Pope, 71. 

Cells prepared for the Cardinals in 
Conclave, 398. 

Change in the position of the Popes, 315. 

Character of Adrian VI., 188. 

Gregory XIIL, 259. 

Pius IV., 233. 

Choice of a locality for Conclaves, 69. 

Chronicle of the diarist Infessura, 162. 

Clement VIII., 261. 

Close of the day in Condave, 417. 



376. 



387. 



312. 



Close of the era of ** the Zealous Popes," 

296. 
Closing of the Council of Treat in 

1663, 241. 
" Closing and opening " of the months 

of new Cardinals, 46, 46. 
Conunenoement of modem Papal 

history, 77. 
Conclave at the death of Alexander 

VI., 176. 
of Adrian VL, 190- 

196. 

of Calistus m., 146. 

of Clement VII., 197. 

-of Clement IX., 346* 

- of aement XIL, 379- 

- of Eugenius IV., 136. 

- of Gregory XI., 106. 

- of Gregory XV., 803- 

- of Innocent VI., 98. 

- of Innocent Vin., 171. 
-of Innocent X., 332, 

-of JohnXXn., 95. 

of Julius n., 180. 

of JuUus HL, 213, 221. 

of Leo X., 186. 

■ of Leo XI., 262-292. 

of Marcellus II., 224. 

of Paul II., 166. 

of Paul IIL, 204-211. 

of Paul IV., 236-240. 

of Pius II., 165. 

of Pius IIL, 178. 

of Pius IV., 245-257. 

of Urban VIIL, 322. 

of Sixtus IV., 167. 

, the modem, 395-428. 

, a modem, how the day 

passes at, 414, 415. 

regulations, futility of, 427. 

at Viterbo in 1269, remark- 



333, 334. 



able, 60. 

Conclaves in the eighteenth century, 
389. 

, modem, internal discipline 
of, 399. 



390. 



in the nineteenth century, 

• during the schism of 1378— 

1417, 125. 
Confusion in Christendom after the 

election of the antipope Clement 

VII., 123, 124. 
Congregation of Kites, the, 37. 
Conspiracy to assassinate Pius IV., 

243. 



INDEX. 



431 



Contests between Eagenias IV. and 

his Council, 134. 
Contrast between tbe ecclesiastical 

world of the Middle Ages and that 

of our day, 76. 
Council of Constance, its results on the 

present Papal pretensions, 130. 
~* the, 125. 



Pisa, th 



^ Creation of Cardinals, ceremonial used 
at the, 29. 

— in the earlier 



centuries, 30. 



tice at the, 33. 



-, modem prac- 



the Saored 

College formerly consulted by, the 
Pope at the, 31. 

the Sacred 



College no longer consulted by the 
Pope at the, 32. 

D. 

Death of Alexander YI., 172. 

Alexander VII., 339. 

Adrian VI., 189. 

Benedict IX., 89. 

Clement IX., 346. 

Gregory XI., 106. 

Gregory XV., 302. 

Innocent Vin., 170. 

Innocent X., 330. 

Marcellus II., 204. 

Martin V., 133. 

Paul n., 156. 

Paul in., 204. 

Paul v., 297. 

Pius II., 154. 

Pius III., 174. 

Pius IV., 241. 

Pius v., 269. 

Sixtus rV., 164. 

Olympia Maidalchini, Inno- 
cent X.'s sister-in-law, from the 
plague, 336. 

De Brosses*s Letters from Italy (1739), 
878. 

Decadence of the despotic power of the 
Popes, 390, 391. 

Decree of Nicholas II. on Papal elec- 
tions, 13. 

St. Hilarius (461), 8. 

St Symmachus (499), 8. 

Democratic professions of the Catholic 
Church, 6. 

Deposition of Cardinal de Coligny, by 
Pius IV., 50. 

Difference between Cardinals and Car- 
dinal deacons, 21. 

Different classes of Popes, 78. ^ 



Differing ecclesiastical rank of the early 

cardinals, 16. 
Dislike of Rome to Adrian VI., 191. 
Dismay in Conclave after the election 

ofKusV., 258. 
Dismay of Rome at the election of 

Adrian VI., 188. 
Dissensions in the Sacred College, on 

the accession of Charles D'Anjon to 

the Italian throne, 60. 
Dual Papacy, a, 127. 
Duration of the Middle Ages, 75. 

E. 

Early method of Papal election, 7* 
Early requisites for the yalidity of a 

Papal election, 57, 58. 
Eighteen different methods of Papal 

election chronicled by Moroni, 10. -^ 
Election by *< accessit, 409. 

"acclamation," 218, 219. 

"adoraUon," 218, 219. 

compromise, first instance 



of, 63. 



-"inspiration," 218,219. 

"scrutiny," 409. 

Election of Adrian V., 83. 

Adrian VI., 188. 

Alexander V., 126. 

Alexander VI., 171.' 

Alexander VU., 334. 

Benedict XII., 96. 

Benedict XTV., 387. 

Calistus III., 144. 

Clement VI., 96. 

Clement VII., 190, 196. 

Clement IX., 340. 

Qement X., 376. 

Eugenius IV., 133. 

Giovanni XXIII., 128. 

Gregory XL, 101. 

Gregory XII., 126. 

Gregory XV., 298. 

Innocent V., 82. 

Innocent VI., 97. 

Innocent VUL, 168. 

Innocent X., 323. 

Julius IL, 178. 

Julius IIL, 211. 

Leo X., 183. 

Marcellus IL, 221. 

Martin V., 67, 132 

Nicholas V., 141. 

Paul IL, 166. 

— --^ Paul ni., 197. 

Paul IV, 228. 

Paul v., 291. 

Pius IL, 161. 

Piqs ni., 174. 



432 



INDEX* 



Election of Pius IV., 240. 

Pius v., 267. 

8ixtu8 rV., 166. 

Urban V., 99. 

Urban VI.. 113. 

Urban VIII., 311. 

■ — Urban VI., curious intri- 

gues at the, 109—117. 
Emptiness of the Papal treasury at the 

death of Leo X., 186. 
End of the ** Babylonish Captirity " at 

Avignon, 106. 
"Middle Ages" period of 

the Papacy, 198. 
EugeniuB IV., dying speech of, 134. 
Examination of the dinner provided 

for Cardinals in Conclave, 416. 
Excommunication of the Colonnas by 

Eugenius IV., 133. 
Extravagance of Pietro Riario, Sixtns 

IV.'s nephew, 161, 162. 



Fall of the Eastern Empire, 142. 

Fatality of "Celestinus" as a Papal 
title,' 88. 

Fifty churches after vrhich the Cardi- 
nals are designated, 20. 

Final definition of the rank of Cardi- 
nals, 16. 

First entry of the Cardinals into chapel 
during a Conclave, 410. 

First Pope elected without the inter- 
vention of Roman clergy and people, 
66. 

First "scrutiny *' at a Conclave, 411. 

traces of the Sacred College, 17. 

/ Food prescribed for Cardinals during 
' Conclave, 66, 67. 

G. 

Gregory XIV., 260. ' 

and Bonifacio Vanozzi, 26, 

27. 
Gregory XV.'s constitutions regulating 

Conclave proceedings, 299. 

• the twenty rules of, 401, 402, 



403. 



H. 



k 



Hereditary "Custodes" of the Con- 
claves, 87. 

Heresy of Cardinal de Coligny, 49. 

Cardinal Moroni accused of, 

(1667), 251. 

Hypocrisy of Spondanus, the French 
ecclesiastical historian, 71* 



Imperial veto at the election of Paul 

IV., disregard of the, 229. 
Iznprisonment of Cardinals by the^ 

Perugians at the election of Hono- 

rius UI., 68. 

■ Cardinals by the 

Romans at the election of Gregory 

IX., 69. 
Inaccessibility, of Cardinals daring 

C<mclave, 66. 
Infirm Cardinals, method of voting 

prescribed for, 422. 
Innocent V.'s aehievements as a 

preacher, 83. 
Innocent VII. repudiates the oaths 

taken by him before election, 126. 
Innocent XI., 388. 
Inquisition, re-establishment by Paul 

IV. of the, 231. 
Interregnum after the death of Cle- 
ment v., long, 96. 
after the death of Inno- 
cent VIII., 171. 
Intrigues of the Cardinal of Rouen at 

the Conclave of 1468, 146, 147. 
Intrigues at the Conclave assembled 

after the death of Paul 1X1.^ 206^ 

211. 



Julius III., nonentity of the character 
of, 212. 



Last of the French Popes, 101. 

instance of election as Pope of a 

Cardinal absent from Conclave, 69. 
instance of election of a Pope, 

not a Cardinal, 69. -^ 
Later modifications of the constitutions 

of Gregory X., 88. 
Leo XI., 261. 
Letter of Boniface I. to the Empress 

Honorius, 8. 
List of Popes between 1271 and 1649, 

80. 
**Lo Ammette al duplice amplesso," 

42. 
Long papacy of Adrian I., 86. *" 

Pius VU., 86. 

Longest Papal interregnum on record, 

60. 

M. 

Magnificence of Boniface VIII., 89, 
Marcellas II., brief reign of, 222. 
Minuto ceremonial at the reception of 
new Cardinals, 39, 40, 41.^ 



U<D£X. 



433 



Mode of procedaro at the ** scrutiny," 

418. 
Modem exceptioxi to the role requiring 

a Conclave, 87. 
Mortality among Cardinals in Conclaye, 

84. 
Mortality among Cardinals after the 

Conclave that elected Urban Yin., 

812, 313. ^^ 

Mozetta, the, 41. r^ 

N. 

Naiv6t6 of Cancelliori, the ecclesiastical 

historian, 85. 

Cardinal Rohan, 381. 

the mediaeval religious mind, 

70. 
Nepotism of Urban VIII., 22. 
Nicholas Y., beneficent reign of, 142, 

143. 
Novel method of election decreed by 

the Council of Constance, 128. 

O. 

Oath taken by the Cardinals at the 
election of Innocent VII., 126. 

Objection of the Cardinals to secret 
nominations to their order, 25. 

Oligarchic policy of the Catholic 
Church, 6. 

Olympia Maidalchini, sister-in-law to 
Innocent X., influence and corrup- 
tion of, 325—330. 

death o^ 336. 

Origin of the term Cardinal, 14. ^ 

Original number of the Cardinals, 18.^ 

Outrages committed in Homo at the 
death of Sixtus lY., 165, 166. 

P. 

Papal disregard of precedent as to the 
age of new Cardinals, 48, 49. 

elections gradually confined to 

the Sacred College, 54—57. 

Parentage of Francisco doUa Bovere 
(Sixtus lY.), 157. 

Patronage in the old Koman world, 
40. 

Paul m., the last of a particular group 
of Popes, 79. 

Paul lY., the first of a now epoch, 79. 

character ot 280. 

Permanent basis of Conclave legisla- 
tion, 72. 

Petitions addressed to Clement Ylt by 
theBoman8,97. 



Piccolomini Chapel, frescoes represent- 
ing the entry of Pius II. into An- 
cona in the, 154. 

Popes elected without a Conclave, 84. x 

who reigned during the ** Baby- 
lonish captivity," 94. 

Post-scrutiny, the, 426. 

Prediction of the early death of Adrian 

Y., 84. 
Presentation of new Cardinals to the - 

Pope, 41. 
Pressure put on the Conclave at Yiterbo 

by the citizens, 61. 
Proceedings consequent upon the death 

of a Cardinal in Conclave, 406. 
Prophecy of St. Bridget as to the early 

death of Urban Y., 100. 

Q. 

Quiet condition of fiomo under Martin 
Y., 133. 

R. 

Rapid succession of Cardinals, 21, 22. 

" Red cap " literature, 38.'^ 

Red caps granted to monastic Car- 
dinals, 37. 

Receptions held by new Cardinals, 44, 
45. 

Re-enactment of the Constitutions of 
Gregory X., 87. 

Regulations for Papal elections pro- 
mulgated by Gregory X., 64-72. 

Remarkable donclave of Nicholas lY., 
84. 

Resignation of Gregory XII., 127. 

Return of Gregory XI. to Rome, 103. 

Revocation of the Constitutions of 
Gregory X., 84. 

Rome, during the interregnum between 
Gregory XY. and Urban YIII., 801, 
302. 

, during a Papal interregnum, 

habitual state of, 301. 

in the seventeenth century, 

population of, 341. 

Routine at the death of a pope, 
modem, 395. 

S. 

Sacred College in 1660, increasing 

power of the, 339. 
Ssia Rogia (Yatican), extraordinary 

scenes in the, 285. 
Scale of payments in Conclave drawn 

np by Clement XII., 404. 
Scandaloiu election of Clement Y., 92. ^ 



F P 



/ 



434 



INDEX. 



Schedule, or voting paper, 419. 
Bdhism caused bv the severe morality 

of Urban VI., 121. 
Scrutiny, eight acts of the, 421-424. 
y Self-election of John XXU., 95. 
^ *< Seremsrima Joanna,*' the friend of 

the Holy See, 109. 
" Sfumata," the, 413. 
Sham investiture of Cardinal Orsini at 

the Conclave that elected Urban YI., 

*' ad plaoandum populum," 114. 
Simoniacal elections, 70, 71. 
practices at the election of 

Innocent VIII., 168. 
Sistine and Paoline Chapels, hostile 

camps in the, 286-289. 
Six sees after which the Oardinals are 

designated, 19. 
Sixtus IV., nepotism of, 160, 161. 
Sixtus v., 260. 
Social position of cafdinals in the 

Boman world, 29. 
«* Soggetti Papabili" twenty-one, 347. 
Superstition as to th» length of the 

Papal reign, 85. 
Suspected poisoning of Leo X., 184. ^ 

T. 

Terms of the promulgation of the 
election of Gregory Vll., 9. 



/ 



Third Lateral Council, 57. 

*' Thrones" of the Cardinals during 

scrutiny, 411. 
Time allowed for preparation for a 

modem Conclave, 896. 
Transfer of the Papal See to Avignon 

by Clement V., 93. 
Trifling origin of the thiity-nino 

years* schism (1378-1417), 131. 
Turbulence of the Bomans during the 

election of Urban VI., 113. 
Twenty rules of Ghregory XV., the, 

401, 402, 403. 

U. 

Unanimous election of Benedict IX., 

89. 
Urban VI. imprudently quits Bome for 

TivoU, 122. 
Urban VII., 260. 
Urban VIII., reign and works of, 314. 



Vatican, great sice of the, 397. 
Vestments worn by Cardinals in Con-^ 

clave, 410. 
Veto, imperial, disregard of the, 229. 
Visite di calore, 35. 



FINIS. 



\ 



PBnrxo BY VIBTUB Aim CO., LZMITBD, CITT BOAD, LOSTDOV. 



r)S 



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