Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-06
METHOD OF ELECTION
Ceremony in Choosing New
Head of Church.
BODY OF CARDIN AIS
ASSEMBLE I'M CONCLAvE AND Re-
MAIN UNTIL ELECTION.
Are Under Lock and Key Until Their
Duty is Performed-Seventy
Take Part.

OuLY Is
Take Part.
The following description of the form
pursued in selecting pope Is from the
New York World:
Few elections. political or religious, have
ever called into service so much subtlety
and diplomacy as those which have made
the popes.
AS. however. twenty-five years have now
elapsed since the last election. it may rea-
sonably be suspected that the members OF
the Sacred College are not SO well practiced
in the electioneering arts Of the conciave
as those of past times. when two elections
would take place in a year. and even four
have been recorded as having taken place
in eighteen months.
Nevertheless. distinguished conclavists as
the electioneering agents of the conclave
are called. have drawn up treatises on the
art of pope-making. founded on and Illus
trated by their own experience, in which
the theory of the tactics for managing con-
cIaves and electing popes is minutely set
forth and copies of which are doubtless in
the libraries of the majority of the Roman
cardinals
Originally the clergy and people united
in the election of the pope until Nfcho-
las II, in 1857. restricted the quality of the
elector to the body of cardinals and Alex
ander III in 1119 declared that a majority
of two-thirds of their number should be
necessary for the election of a pope.
Seventy Take Part.
The cardinals are of three orders-bishops,
priests and deacons-and there are, as
rule six bishops, fifty priests and fourteen
deacons. The whole number or plenum Of
the College of Cardinals ought not, accord
{ror 20 hy,1I oS IN
but the bull has not always been scrup-
ulously observed. and indeed Paul ~ medi-
tated increasing their number to a hundred.
The present number of cardinals Is sixty
two.
The custom of locking up the cardinals
cum clave. from which the conclave gets
its name. dates from the long contested
election of Gregory x, and became law by
a bull of that pope after his election to the
papacy in 1870.
A Two Years Conclave.
The conclave Of Gregory x was one Of
the longest on record. lasting two years.
Clement ", the predecessor Of Gregory.
died at Viterbo and the cardinals. not
being able to agree upon the choice of a
successor were preparing to leave the
town when st. Buonaventura- the disciple
of st. Francis of Assist. persuaded the in
habitantS to shut their gates and not to
let the cardinals go until the pope was
made.
The people took the saints advice, and
not only shut the gates of their town, but
set guard over the cardinals at the door
of the palace in which they met, and in
formed them that they could not even leave
the palace until they had elected their
pope. -.r
The cardinals. however. failed to come
to an agreement and went on voting from
month to month without producing the
requisite majority till one day the Cardinal
di Porto exclaimed that the Holy Ghost
could never come down and inspire their
choice as long as they had a roof over
their heads.
The people of viterbo took this profane
joke seriously and unroofed the palace
This measure. too. proved Intellectual, and
it is probable that the cardinals would never
have arrived at any determination had the
device not been hit upon of diminishing the
supplies of their tables. Hunger effected
more than rain and wind had done, and
Gregory x was elected.
Under Lock and Key.
Shortly after his election Gregory x
issued a bull that all future popes should
be elected in conclave-that is. by any body
of cardinals locked up together and subject
to specified restrictions as to diet and at
tendance until the election was over.
Numerous additions have been made to
the legislation Of the conclave by success
sive pontiffs, the most important of all, per-
haps, being the bull "Aeterini Patris,"
issued in 1921 by Gregory XIV, containing
minute directions, which are still observed.
concerning the system of voting and other
details
An important reform, rendered necessary
by the loss OF temporal power after 1870
and by the fear (unfounded it is true, but
not wholly unjustifiable) that undue po-
litical influence or intimidation might be
brought to bear on the carinals, was pro-
posed In 1877 by Cardinal Pecci, then
chamberlain of the church. who arranged
that the cardinals, instead of being forced
to hold the conclave wherever the pope
died. choose any town they thought more
convenient.
This innovation was sanctioned by Plus
TX, who even expressed the hope that in
view of the changed political conditions
the future conclave should be held out Of
Italy,"
The present rules regulating the conclave
consist OF thrty-two articles, and were
signed by Plus TX on January 10. 1873. only
a few days before his death.
Attendants on Cardinals.
Everybody shut in the conclave is con-
clavist, but all conclavists are not necessa-
rily voters. In fact. the word conclovist is
more especially applied to the attendants
on cardinals, who are Of two kinds, those
particularly attached to them 1.-TWO attend
ants to each cardinaD and those who are
the general functionaries Of the conclave
such the physician, the notary, the
theologian, the confessor, the chaplain and
the secretary Of the conclave. The con-
clavists attached to each cardinal are pri-
vate secretaries or agents, and as through
them most of the pourpariers and negotia-
lions of the conclave are carried on, a
good. willy diplomatic and cautious con-
clavist is of invaluable assistance to his
cardinal.
During Leo Kills pontifical jubilee fes-
tivities forty-two cardinals were present
In Rome out of total of fifty-eight then
living.
AS ten days elapse between the popes
death and the commencement of the con-
clave for the election of his successor,
II is possible that considerably larger
proportion of cardinals would be able to
take part in the proceedings, Including
Cardinal Gibbons
When Leo XIII was elected several car
ciinals arrived too late from different states,
but the present highly improved systems Of
locomotion would render such an eventual
ity highly improbable in Cardinal Gibbons
case.
Supposing the cardinals in the conclave
to be sixty in number. 1t will be seen
that the whole body Of conclavists who
must remain shut up together until cleo
ton win be close upon two hundred, and
the Inconvenience of such q hfe espe-