Democratic messenger., 1894-12-08
A GREAT EVENT.
WHEN THE POPE DIES.
Fhe Scenes and Forinalities which Attend
liis llenfhbesl.

it'6 W - SiGO'
The Scenes and Forinalities Which Attend
Iiis Deathbed.
AS soon as il ia clear that the pope
Inust die soon all the cardinals compoS-
ing the sacred college who are i'll Rome
gather at the bedside and on their knees
wait for the end The sacristan bishop
administers the viaticum and the ex
treme JUNCTION; the grand penitentiary
gives alsOlntion; the penitential psalms
are thcr intoned; the sacristan bishop
pronounces the consccratcd formula; the
dying pope, if he has the strength to do
SO, gives his benediction to the assem-
bly,, and the dirge of the hymns for the
dead continues To the last. Then the
camerlengo, To make the official record
of the death, with small silver ham
mer strikes three light blows on the
dead mans head and calls him by his
Christian name
Wnen i'll 1878 the dead pope was Plus
IX (Aiovanni Mastai- Ferretti). the cam
erlengo, Cardinal Pecci. tho present
pope, after striking the three blows with
the hammer, called, Giovanni! Clio
yannil Giovanni then. turning to the
assembly, said. The pope is really
dead +" Thcreupon, while the assembly
is kneeling, the camerlengo intones the
DE Profundis The master of the
chambers then removes from the dead
pope's S finger the fisherman ring" and
hands il to the camerlengo. n symbol OF
the temporary transfer of the authority
of the holy see At the first plenary
meeting of the sacred college this ring,
the seals and other insignia of Office
connected with the late pope are broken
mp and destroyed The temporary sover-
eighty has passed into the hands of the
sacred college
In its choice of q pope the sacred col
lege is not limited by any law or regu-
lation to Italians, though it is $40 years
since pope Of any other nationality
has been elected. The last was Adrian
Florent, a Netherlander, Pope Adrian
VI, i'll l522-3, whose nearest non-ltal-
ian predecessor was the infamous Rod
r;go Borgia. Pope Alexander vi, elect
ed the year of Columbus discovery of
America Neither is the college restrict
ed by law to cardinals or to priests.
Any faithful Catholic. even though he
be- layman. is eligible. The conclave
has the whole Catholic world to choose
from. but for a precedent for layman
pope it would have to go back to 1924,
when the Patrician Crescentius became
Pope John Mn The only indispcnsa-
BILE rules are that a majority of all the
cardinals living shall be present. and
that of those present "A majority of two
thirds is required TO elect. Thus if the
sacred college had its full number of 30
cardinals. which il rarely has (the latest
list contains only az namesl. 81 of these
must be present at the conclave, and ut
least 20 of these would then have to
agree on the same candidate. There
were 30 cardinals present at the con-
clave which elected Plus TX and GO ut
that which made Leo NH pope. OF
the 60 cardinals now living who will
have the right to elect the next pope 32
are Italians and 80 belong to other ma
tionalities.
The bull issued TO regulate the next
conclave confirms to the sacred college
the exclusive right to elect the pope,
absolutely excluding any Intervention
ON the part of the secular power. All
previous rules as to the duties of civil
and municipal magistrates i'll connec
tion with the conclave are done away
with. leaving the regulation of all mat
tiers concerning it i'll the hands of tho
cardinals. Should the pope die ut Rome
the cardinals present must decide at
once by majority vote whether the
conclave shall be held out of Rome and
out of Italy, or not, if held i'll Italy.
the moment any pressure is brought TO
bear OH II either by private persons or
by the government, the conclave must
dissolve and reassemblc out of Italy.
The pope expresses his personal wish
that, considering the peculiar position
of the holy see, the next conclave bo
held out of Italy.
In times past France, Austria and
Spain have vetoed papal elections. and
these countries still claim the right To
Veto If any one of them We're to try to
exercise it, it is very likely that Italy
would claim the right too The papal
zee has never a. !ciged the legality
of these cla;! Ike possibility of
the intcrpoSiii, veto undoubted-
ly has weight i: selection of can
didatc New Vol. sun