The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-02-17

worldly motives, whose aim was to behol'
1.-The Church prosperous and glorious, ant
whose charity being yet warm, sought no
their own end but that s0hich Is another's
the whole body of Christians who has
+ reached mature years and belonged to tha
sex which alone had q voice In the Churci
gave their testimony and assent in favor o
that one whom it was proposed to elect
but the evils of anything like popula
election in q great city we're 80 nantes
that attempts were soon made to leave th'
cheice of such on the part both of clergy
and laity-but earlier in the case of the
latter order-to select body or committee
a general suffrage being gradually super
seded by the votes of approval given by the
rich only and the high in station.
We find, perhaps germ of this even IL
the earliest times. The Council of Laodi
cea "a. d. 1861 clearly desired that tht
choice should be made by some definitely
2organized body, and not bv mere mass
meeting st. Leo and the Roman counci
4 of A. ID. 442, and again the former in Epist
4lxxxix. cvi., expressly mention the "Hon
sOrai." the magnates at snch elections
The influence of the principal personages
lin city was not to be ignored through
the clamor of those who too often formed
( only a mob. A letter of Pope Carnelius to
4 Fabus, Bishop of Antioch, has fortunately
been preserved by Eusebius. which gives
aof every grade, and clue to what may
have been tie Christian population of Rome
in the middle of the third century. Ac-
zcording to these precious statistics there
were then belonging to the Roman clergy
t46 priests, deacons, z subdeacons, AZ AGO
4lytes, 50 exOrcists. readers and 0Sfiarii.
Fifteen hundred widows and orphans were
provided for by the Church, whose chill
dren composed an immense population in
haO fkoI< fhn vtoo "
]rest assured that deliberations for the
election eff the Roman pontiff could not
have been open to all of either clergy or
|laity, but must necessarily, in the interests
|of good order, and by reason of the small
size of places of public meetings then pos
|sessed by the Christians, have been confined
Ito q select number.
The ancient records of the Roman Church
reaching back to the beginning of the early
middle ages, which have been published by
|Mabillon and Galetti, show US its clergy
divided into three distinct classes-viz >
priests, dignitaries and inferior ministers. i
The priests were the seven cardinal subur-
blcan bishops and the twenty eight cardi
nal priests; the dignitaries were the arch :,
deacon and the seven pRlatine judges (pro
thonOtaries apOetolic); the interior minis
ters were the subdeacons, acolytes andI
notaries without office at court. The laity
was likewise divided into three classes
viz: citizens, soldiers and cOmmoners; e.,
the nobility, the army and the Third Estate.
After the death of Pope Z9zimus, on the
26th of December, AIS, majority of the
clergy and people elected the cardinal
priest Boniface to succeed him. A serioueI
dispute Immediately arose. Eulaius, thes
archdeacon, who, as such, had beeL prac L
tically the most important parsonage of theE
holy See after the pontitf himself, and feltE
indignant at having been passed over in thes
election, held possession of the Lateranb
Palace, where tie was chosen pope by q fewh
of the clergy, to whose faction, however,l
1lt tho deacons and three bishops belonged l
The fear of future contests suggested toE
Pope Boniface l., who is described by
Anastasius as unambitious, of mild charac
ter, and devoted to good works, to obtain {
from the Emperor Honorious, in the year.
40, roscript by which it was decreeos
that, ic the contingency of q double elec
tion, neither rival should be pope, but that
the clergy and people should proceed tOt
another choice. The decree was almost
textua,ly inserted in the canon law. This diff +
ference between st Boniface and Eulaliue 1
or rather tho lstter's schism, gave occasion
TO the first in ,erterence of the secular armE
IN the election of the Roman pontiffs. St.
Hilary. who was elected in the year 46l l.
a council of forty eight bishopsE
At Rome, and, among other provisions fort
uillhB "OrChily CNe holy See declared th0tE
no pope should erer appoint his own sue
ceSsor. Despite this recent enactment,
Bonlfsce lin whose favor, however, i'll
must be said that he sought to preclude,
as even a greater evil than q passing vlo
lation of the canons, the threatened inter
ference of the Gothic king, who wanted toI
put a partizan on the paPal throne-caliedI
a council at st. Peter's in the year 53l, audi
there designated the celebrated deaconI
Vigilius as his coadjutor with future cue
cession. Subsequently, repenting his &C
tion, he called another council, and With
mis- own hand burned the paper appointing
him. Strange TO say, Vigilius did, although
not Immediately, succeed to the Papacy, !,
and is reckoned the sixty first in the series
of pontiffs.
Although the actual naming of his cue
cessor by the pope has never been tolerated.
there have been several, and some very
Iopportune, cases in which pope on the
point of death has recommended parSic
olar person, more or less efficaciously, to-
the body of electors as one we'll fitted to-
succeed to the vacant throne. This was
done by Gregory VII, who proposed three
candidates to the cardinals-uamely, De-
lsiderius, Cardiual-Abbot of Monte Casino !;
sOtho, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia; and Hugh,
ArChbishop of LVOus-aud particularly