The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-29

of whom Alexander Pasquin said the sum
total of his pontifcate consisted in doing
very great things for himself, great things
for his family, bad things for the sovereigns
of Europe, very bad things for the cardinals,
and nothing for God" Albizzi, in fact, was
but Pssquin inside the conclave.
In the conclave which met to elect this
Alexander the Seventh, Albizzi was more
than usually brilliant. One of his mots
deserves record when Cardinal Spada said
that he must vote in such and such a way,
since he had debt OF gratitude to pay, 'T
presume it is gambling debt, then, said
Albizzi. Spada had the reputation of paying
only gambling debts, and not always these.
There we're a good many cardinals to
whom this election was no laughing matter,
and it was none certainly to Donna OLYMPIA,
who was busy working the CO onclave to the
best of her power from without, and making
secret promises of all sorts, and giving secret
brides in ready money, to get pope elected
to her choice; but with little effect, for the
cardinal she strained all her resources to
keep out was Chigi, and Chigi was elected. In
this conclave of sixty-nine cardinals there
were, indeed, twenty-six who were recognized
as passable, that is, possible popes but not
one OF them but was, for some reason or
other, considered by some great authority as
impossible. France and Spain fought des-
perately in this conclave against each other,
by the aid of bribes and promises, in order to
get Pope to their liking; and neither would
accept as Pope cardinal known to be de-
voted to its rival. The Grand Duke had his
agents in the conclave, the Emperor of Ger
many had his, and each was determined on
keeping out different set of candidates; Mode
ma pulled one way, Parma another; one cardinal
could not be elected because no had sister,
in-law of whom all were afraid; and all the
cardinals had had enough of Donna OLYMPIA
in the way of sisters-in-law. This man was
too poor, that man was too ill; this man was
too well, that man was too dissolute, and that
man was too devout troppo santone, too
much of q saint. Barberini would not hear
of one, and Medici would not hear of an
other.
The delay and difficulties of the con-
clave excited the humorous fancies of some
peasants at Arquato, near AscoG. They
dressed themselves up as cardinals, and
held a mock conclave, in which they chose
an unfortunate shepherd for pope, who
began his mock pontifcate by abelishing the
tax on grinding corn at the mill, and fixed
the price of salt at giulio for ten pounds.
Taxes had, indeed, been laid very heavily ON
the Roman poor of late, and bread and salt
had been forced up to starvation prices to
enable the popes to lavish away millions on
Unsuitable nephews and nieces, and sisters-in-
law, and parasites of all descriptions; SO the
poor shepherd was not q bad legislator ac-
cording to his lights of political economy,
though his amateur legislation cost him dear,
for the Inquisition laid hands upon him
and put him in prison, where he died in
less than three days of very speedy natu-
raj death.
However, after nearly four months of
one of the most entangled and confused
of all papal elections, the conclave did, like
all human things, come to an end at last.
| The game of conclave is on such occasions q
game of patience; the parties try to tire each
other out, for which purpose, doubtless, one
| Of the best lines of conduct you can adopt is,
to try and prove to your adversaries that you
rather like conclave life than otherwise, and
ae ready to wait any time for them to come
round. On this occasion the French car
dinals, at last seeing that Medici had made
terms with Chigi, out of sheer weariness, and
in despair, withdrew their opposition to
Chigi, and Chigi was elected unanimously.
! Up to that time his opponents had always
managed to secure one-third of the votes of
the conclave, the necessary number to force
exclusion against him. Chigi, according to
| strict precedent, shed abundance of tears on
his election-the lachrymatory glands
of the cardinals were always in good
condition for this purpose - and
asked the cardinals to be so kind as not to
press the tiara upon him. He knew, he was
so modest as to say, that he was not fit for it;
however, they were inhuman enough to insist,
| anu pfOceoueQ 10 auOfaJiOu, AZ tn6 rlt6 ID
called, falling on the knees, kissing of the
feet, hands, etc. while the chief of the cellege
went to the loggia of st. Peters, and an
nounced in the regular Latin phrase,
a mighty JOY" "gaudium magnum, to the
people, the election of new Pope, Alexander
the Seventh. He was not any worse,
nor much better, than the popes
Immediately before and after
him; they were nearly all decrepit, worn-out
old men, in the hands of relatives who preyed
upon them. Clement the Tenth (Alteri)
was eighty when he became Pope, and his
faculties were 30 feeble that the poor old
dotard promised the same offices over and
over again to different persons in the con-
claye in order to become Pope. The gene
raj motto of all the Popes about this period
was ''Tutto per la casa Q niente per la chiesa. VI
"All for the house, and nought for the
church"
Alexander the Seventh was only pope for
about two years, when Maidalchini, Albizzi,
and the rest, went into conolave again to elect
another pope, and their practical and other
jokes were as lively in that as in the pre-
ceding conclave; however, this time the car
dinals had less need of amusement than
before, for they only remained shut up to-
gether about month. Rospigliosi Clement
the NINTH was elected, but he, poor man,
only enjoyed his papacy about two years.
The tiara jumped from head to head very
quickly in those days.-AR tie Year Round.
r.