rules and regulations which have ever since governed the conclave. In a
few points, however, its severity has been relaxed, particularly by
Clement VI. in the bull _Licet de Constitutione_, dated December 6,
1351; and in others some small modifications have been introduced, in
accordance with the manners and customs of a more refined age, by
Gregory XV. (Ludovisi, 1621–1623) in his comprehensive ceremonial.[193]
Thus Clement VI. (De Beaufort, 1342–1352), while recommending the
greatest frugality at table during the seclusion of the conclave,
removed the alimentary restrictions and left it to the cardinals
themselves to select the kind, quality, and amount of their food, but
forbade the prandial civilities of sending tidbits from one table to
another. The same pope allowed each cardinal to have his bed enclosed
by curtains, and to have two attendants, or conclavists, in every case.
The monastic simplicity of a common sleeping-room was done away with in
the sixteenth century, when each cardinal was allowed the use of a
separate cell, which Pius IV. commanded should be assigned by lot. When
a cardinal’s name and number have been drawn, his domestics upholster
it with purple serge or cloth, if their master was created by the late
pope; but if by a former one, with green—a difference in color that was
first observed in the conclave for the election of Leo X. A few
articles of necessary furniture, such as a bed, table, kneeling-bench,
and a couple of chairs, complete the interior arrangements. On the
outside of his cell each cardinal affixes a small escutcheon emblazoned
with his arms, which serves as a substitute for that vulgar modern
thing called a door-plate. While great care is still taken to hinder
suspicious communications between the conclave and the outer world, it
is no longer prohibited to visit a cardinal or member of his suite,
although the colloquy must be held at some one of the entries, and
whatever is spoken be heard by the prelates doing duty there. Instead
of the single small window—more like an _oubliette_ than anything
else—which Gregory prescribed, openings in the shape of pivotal or
revolving wooden frames, like those used in nunneries and called
_tours_ in French, were adopted at the suggestion of Paride de’ Grassi,
master of ceremonies to Leo X. Eight of them are always connected on
different sides with the hall of conclave, wherever it may be. The ten
days before the conclave can open begin from the very day of the pope’s
death; but sometimes a much longer time has elapsed—as, for instance,
after the death of Alexander VI., when the violence of Cæsar Borgia and
the presence of a French army in Rome occasioned a delay of thirty
days; and again, when Cardinal Ferreri was arrested on his way from
Vercelli to the conclave by the Duke of Milan, his loyal colleagues
waited for him eight days beyond the usual time. The conclave in which
Julius III. was elected in 1550 was not opened until nineteen days
after his predecessor’s death, to oblige the French cardinals, who had
not yet all arrived at Rome. In early ages, before it became customary
to give the hat to occupants of episcopal sees other than the seven
suburbican ones, and when cardinals were strictly bound to reside _in
curia_—_i.e._, to live near the pope of whose court they were the
principal personages—there was generally no necessity for a
considerable delay. Anastasius the Librarian[194] says that Boniface
III., in the year 607, made a decree forbidding any one to treat of a
future pope’s election during the lifetime of the living one, or until
three days after his death; but, as Mabillon shows,[195] this three
days’ delay was observed in the Roman Church long before the seventh
century, as appears from the despatch sent to the Emperor Honorius
after the death of Pope Zosimus in the year 418. It is not known when
it began to be observed as a law. In many cases an election took place
either on the very same day that a pope died or on the following one,
particularly during the era of persecutions and in the tenth and
twelfth centuries, when the seditious disposition of the populace and
the factions of rival barons made any unnecessary delay extremely
hazardous. During the fifteenth, sixteenth, and following centuries the
conclaves have generally been short, averaging about two weeks each.
But during the greater part of the middle ages, after the supremacy of
the Sacred College during the vacancy of the Holy See was undisputed,
and the cardinals had little to fear from princes or people, their own
dissensions often occasioned an interregnum of months, and even years,
to the discredit of their order and the scandal of the Christian world.
The election should take place in Rome, if possible, because Rome is,
or ought to be, the ordinary residence of the Sovereign Pontiffs; but
both before and after Pope Gregory’s constitution many elections have
been held elsewhere, according as the Curia was in one place or
another. Urban II. was elected in Terracina; Calixtus II. in Cluny;
Lucius III. in Velletri; Urban III. in Verona; Gregory VIII. in
Ferrara; Clement III., Alexander VI., Honorius III. in Pisa; Innocent
IV. in Anagni; Alexander IV. and Boniface VIII. in Naples; Urban IV.,
Gregory X., and Martin IV. in Viterbo; Innocent V. in Arezzo; Honorius
IV., Celestin V., and Clement V. in Perugia. During the stay of the
popes in France John XXII., Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent VI.,
Urban V., and Gregory XI. were elected at Avignon. John XXIII. was
elected at Bologna, and Martin V. at Constance, since whom all his
successors, except Pius VII., have been elected in Rome. The law of
Gregory X. commanded that the conclave should be held there where the
last pope died—_Statuimus ut, si eundem pontificem in civitate, in quâ
cum sua curia residebat, diem claudere contingat extremum, cardinales
omnes conveniant in palatio, in quo idem pontifex habitabat_—because in
one sense, as of ancient Rome,
... Vejos habitante Camillo,
Illico Roma fuit;
and of modern Rome, _Ubi Papa, ibi Roma_. When, however, he was absent
only on some extraordinary occasion, the election was to be held in
Rome itself, no matter where he died. Gregory XI., who brought back the
see from Avignon, intending to return to France on business and to
better his health, but wishing to assure an Italian election and the
permanent re-transfer of the Holy See to Rome, made a decree on March
19, 1378, ordering a majority of the cardinals, should his death occur
during his absence, to meet in any part of Rome, or, if more
convenient, in some neighboring city, and there elect a successor.
Clement VIII. restricted the place of holding the conclave to Rome
alone, in a bull issued October 6, 1529, on occasion of his journey to
Bologna to crown the Emperor Charles V., and in another one, dated
August 30, 1533, when going to France to confer with Francis I.
When Pius IV. had a mind to go to Trent and preside in person at the
council, he declared on September 22, 1561, that a papal
election—should one become necessary by his death while away—was to be
held in Rome, unless it were under an interdict, in which case in
Orvieto or Perugia. Clement VIII., when going to Ferrara to receive
back the fief which had reverted to the Holy See on the death of
Alphonsus d’Este, declared on March 30, 1598, that, should he die
before returning, the subsequent election was to be held nowhere but in
Rome. Long usage, continued up to the beginning of the present century,
has consecrated the Vatican as the most proper seat of the conclave.
The first pope elected there was Benedict XI. in 1303, and the next was
Urban VI. in 1378. When Honorius IV., of the great house of Savelli,
died where he had lived and held his court, in his family mansion on
the Aventine, some remains of which are seen near the convent of _Santa
Sabina_, the cardinals, in scrupulous observance of the first law of
Gregory’s constitution, met there and elected his successor, Nicholas
IV., on February 22, 1288. Eugene IV. in 1431, and Nicholas V. in 1447,
were elected in the Dominican convent of the Minerva, the great
dormitory of the friars being fitted up for the cardinals, and the
election itself being held in the sacristy behind the choir, over the
door of which a large fresco painting and a Latin inscription
commemorate the event. There were several projects on foot in the
seventeenth century to establish with every possible convenience, and
in accordance with the prescriptions of the Roman ceremonial of
election, a hall of conclave which should serve for all future
occasions. The venerable Lateran and the more modern Quirinal each had
its advocates, and Pius VI. is said by Cancellieri to have intended the
vast and magnificent sacristy building which he erected alongside of
St. Peter’s for such a purpose; but his immediate successor was elected
in Venice on account of the French troubles, and all of _his_
successors have been elected in the Quirinal palace.
On the pope’s death the Sacred College, or apostolic senate of Rome,
succeeded to the government of the States of the Church. All the
officers of the government were instantly suspended until provision was
made to carry on the public business. Only the chamberlain of the Holy
Roman Church, the grand penitentiary, and the vicar-general, who are
always cardinals, continued to exercise their powers by a privilege
granted to them by Pius IV. The chamberlain (camerlengo) was the
executive or head of the government, acting as a quasi-sovereign, and
was consequently honored with a special guard and allowed to coin money
stamped with his family arms and the distinctive heraldic sign of the
vacancy of the see, which is a pavilion over the cross-keys. With him
were associated three other cardinals, each for three days at a time,
one from each of the three orders, beginning with the dean, the first
priest, and first deacon, and so on in turn of seniority. The secretary
of the Sacred College, who is always a prelate of very high rank, was
prime minister and transacted all the correspondence and other
relations of the cardinals with foreign ambassadors and the
representatives of the Holy See at foreign courts. Clement XII.
provided that if the chamberlain and grand penitentiary should die
during the conclave, the cardinals are to elect a successor to him
within three days; but if the cardinal-vicar die, the vicegerent, who
is always a bishop _in partibus_, succeeds _ex-officio_ to his
faculties. The Sacred Congregation of Rome are privileged to transact
business of small importance through their secretaries, and even to
finish affairs of whatever importance, if at the pope’s death they were
so far advanced as to need only the secretary’s signature.
If a cardinal fall ill and choose to remain in conclave, provision is
made to take his vote; but he may retire, if he wish, losing his vote,
however, which cannot be given outside of the conclave or by proxy. If
he recover he is obliged in conscience to return, because it is a duty
of his office, and not a mere personal privilege, to take part in papal
elections. All cardinals, unless specially deprived by the pope before
his death of the right of electing and of being elected, can vote and
are eligible, even if under censures. Thus, cardinals De Noailles and
Alberoni were invited to the conclave at which Innocent XIII. was
elected; but cardinals Baudinelli-Saoli and Coscia had been deprived,
the one by Leo X. and the other by Clement XII., of what is called in
canon law the active and passive voice. The cardinals may elect whom
they please; nor is it necessary to be either a member of the Sacred
College or an Italian to become pope. In former ages the choice of
subjects was more confined than it is at present; for we learn from the
acts of a council composed chiefly of French and Italian bishops,
convened at Rome in 769 by Stephen III., _alias_ IV., to condemn the
anti-pope Constantine, who was not even a cleric, that no one who was
not either a cardinal-priest or deacon could aspire to the
Papacy—_Nullus unquam præsumat ... nisi per distinctos gradus
ascendens, diaconus aut presbyter cardinalis factus fuerit, ad sacrum
pontificatus honorem promoveri_.[196]
Nevertheless, in view, presumably, of the greater good of the church,
many persons have since been elected who did not answer to this
description. This was the case with Gregory V. in 996; Sylvester II. in
999; Clement II. in 1046; Damasus II. in 1048; Leo IX. in 1049; Victor
II. in 1055; Nicholas II. in 1058; Alexander II. in 1061; Calixtus II.
in 1119; Eugene III. in 1145; Urban IV. in 1261; Gregory X. in 1271;
Celestine V. in 1294; Clement V. in 1305; Urban V. in 1362, and Urban
VI. in 1378, since whom no one not a cardinal has been elected,
although several have come near being chosen. At the conclaves at which
Adrian VI. and Clement VII. were elected Nicholas Schomberg, a
celebrated Dominican and archbishop of Capua, received a number of
votes; and as late as the middle of the last century, at the conclave
from which proceeded Benedict XIV., Father Barberini, ex-general of the
Capuchins and apostolic preacher, was repeatedly voted for. No matter
what may have been a man’s previous condition, he can be elected; and
there are not a few instances of persons of ignoble birth or mean
antecedents having been exalted to the Papacy, which they have
illustrated by their virtues or their learning: “Choose the best, and
him who shall please you most of your mother’s sons (_children of the
Catholic Church_), and set him on his father’s throne”[197] (_as
vicegerent of God in his kingdom on earth_).
However, since Sixtus V. (1585–1595), who is said to have been a
hogherd in his youth, all the popes have belonged to noble families;
for, says Cardinal Pallavicini, the celebrated Jesuit and historian of
the Council of Trent, nobility of birth, although no necessary
condition, adds dignity and splendor to the pontificate—_reca
grandecoro ed ornamento al pontificato_.[198] But then he belonged to a
princely family himself and wrote two centuries ago.
Almost every European nationality has had a representative on the papal
throne; but for several centuries the Italians have jealously guarded
its steps from any one but themselves, and perhaps with reason so long
as the pope was temporal sovereign of a large part of the Peninsula.
Adrian V., of Utrecht (1522–1523), was the last _foreigner_ ever
allowed to wear the tiara, and he for his relations with the powerful
emperor Charles V., rather than for his undoubted virtues and learning;
and yet so great was the indignation of the Romans when his name was
announced that the cardinals were insulted and some of them maltreated
as they left the conclave. But if a Hollander might be tolerated for
some grave political reasons—not a Frenchman under any condition. In
the conclave of 1458 the worthiest subject to very many of his brethren
seemed the Cardinal d’Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen—the same who
built the magnificent church of San Agostino at Rome. But _Timeo Danaos
et dona ferentes_; so when there was a fine chance of his getting the
requisite number of votes, Orsini and Colonna, as heads of the Roman
party, deliberately turned the tide in favor of Piccolomini, although
his record was bad and his health not good. When Clement V. (Bertrand
de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux, 1505–1514) was elected, he summoned the
Sacred College to Lyons to assist at his coronation. When the order
reached the cardinals old Rosso Orsini, their dean, rose and said: “My
venerable brethren, soon we shall see the Rhone—but, if I know the
Gascons, the Tiber will not soon see a pope again.” And so
D’Estouteville, with all his wealth and learning and high connections,
was made to feel that
Necdum etiam causæ irarum sævique dolores
Exciderant animo.
Gregory X. prescribed that a strict watch should be kept over the
conclave wherever it might be held. When held in Rome the
representatives of the noblest families have a principal part in
maintaining order in the city and protecting the cardinals from any
kind of interference. The marshal of the Holy Roman Church and guardian
of the conclave watches over the external peace and quiet of the Sacred
College. This is one of the highest offices held by a layman at the
Roman court. It is hereditary, and belonged for over four hundred years
to the great baronial family of Savelli until its extinction. It passed
in 1712 to the princely family of Chigi. The very ancient and now ducal
family of Mattei was charged with preserving the peace of the _Ghetto_
and _Trastevere_. For this purpose it used to raise and equip a small
body of troops which was kept up as long as the conclave lasted. The
majordomo of the late pope is _ex-officio_ governor of the conclave
since the time of Clement XII. (Corsini, 1730–1740). Although he also
exercises some external jurisdiction, he is more particularly required
to attend to the domestic wants of the cardinals and preserve order
within the palace where the conclave may be held. Delegations from the
various colleges of the Roman prelacy—apostolic prothonotaries,
auditors of the pope, clerks of the chamber, etc.—taking their orders
daily from the governor, are to be stationed at one or other of the
_Ruote_, or turnstile windows, during the whole of the conclave.
_Prælati_, says Pius IV.,[199] _ad custodiam conclavis deputati, sub
pœna perjurii et suspensionis a divinis, maxima et exquisita diligentia
utantur in inspiciendis ac perscrutandis epulis, aliisve rebus, ac
personis conclavi intrantibus, ac de eo exeuntibus, ne sub earum rerum
velamine literæ, aut notæ, vel signa aliqua transmittantur_.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when every species of
gambling and games of chance was practised with frenzied passion in
Italy, it was very common in Rome, although prohibited under severe
penalties by Pius IV. and Gregory XIV. as a sort of sacrilege, to bet
on the cardinals whose “backers” thought they had a chance of being
elected.
The collect _Pro eligendo Pontifice_—that God may grant a worthy pastor
to his church—is said at all Masses throughout the world from the
beginning of the conclave until news arrives of the pope’s election. In
Rome there is a daily procession of the clergy from the Church of St.
Lawrence _in Damaso_ to St. Peter’s basilica (if the conclave be held
in the Vatican), chanting the litany of the saints and other prayers.
When the procession arrives there a Mass _de Spiritu Sancto_ is said by
a papal chaplain in a temporary chapel fitted up near the main entrance
to the conclave. The singing is by the papal choir.
The literature, if we may call it so, of papal elections is varied and
extensive. Besides the letters, bulls, and conciliar decrees of
twenty-eight popes from Boniface I. in 419 to Pius IX., there is a host
of writers on the subject, some of whom are distinguished for piety and
learning, while others are noted for their hatred of the Holy See.
Almost every conclave from Clement V.’s down has had its chronicler or
historian. The oldest special treatise extant on a papal election is
one written by Cardinal Albericus, a monk of Monte Cassino, in 1050—_De
Electione Romani Pontificis, liber_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE HOLY CAVE OF MANRESA.
_DIGITUS DEI EST HIC!_
It is difficult to bring it home to one’s mind that Manresa is a place
of petty industries and striving for worldly gain; that it ever had a
hand in war or bloodshed, or, indeed, ever took any active part in the
turmoil of ordinary life; for its very name has for more than three
hundred years been almost synonymous with solitude and ascetic piety,
on account of the _Santa Cueva_, or Holy Cave, so celebrated throughout
the Christian world, where, amid the ecstasies of divine contemplation
and the severities of the most rigorous penance, St. Ignatius de Loyola
laid the foundation of the Society of Jesus, and by the infusion of
supernatural light, to use the expression of the Congregation of the
Rota, composed his famous _Spiritual Exercises_—a work which, said St.
Francis de Sales two hundred years ago, “has given as many saints to
the church of God as it contains letters.”
But Manresa is, in fact, a busy, thriving place of about fifteen
thousand inhabitants, on the direct railway line from Barcelona to
Zaragoza. It is a centre of industry, and contains a number of cotton
and woollen mills by no means in harmony with its mediæval walls and
towers that rise up out of the plain, gray and time-worn, and with many
a mark of ancient conflict. For it is a walled town, and was in
existence before the Roman conquest. We should say _city_, for so it
has been styled ever since the ninth century, at least; and Don Jaime
of Aragon, by a diploma of April 22, 1315, conferred on it, for its
loyal services, the perpetual title of _buena y leal ciudad_. Nay,
more, after Marshal Macdonald came here in 1811, and burned five
hundred houses and factories, and slaughtered many of the inhabitants
with a ferocity almost unequalled, the Spanish Cortes gave it the
qualification of _muy noble y muy leal_ city (for these Spanish towns
have their gradations of titled rank, of which they are as jealous as
an ancient hidalgo of his family quarterings), on account of the
bravery of the people, who rallied in their desperation and madness,
and, pursuing the enemy, amply avenged their dead in true national
fashion.
We arrived at Manresa after dark, and, as there was not a single
vehicle at the station, we gave our travelling-bags to a porter, and
followed after him on foot through narrow, ascending, tortuous,
dimly-lighted streets to the Fonda de San Domingo, very Spanish in
character, with a court full of diligences and stables on the ground
floor, and an enormous dining-room above, out of which opened the
bedrooms—at least, ours did. This was by no means favorable to repose,
for the hilarity of its _habitués_ was kept up to a late hour, to say
nothing of the singing and music in the neighboring streets. This would
not have surprised us in Andalucia, but in an industrious place like
Manresa we expected to find that labor had laid its repressing hand on
the people, as is so often the case with us in the north. But the
elastic temperament of the race causes a rebound as soon as the hour of
toil is over. Then the dance and the song have their time, and
castanets and the tambour take the place of the shuttle and the
spindle. Manresa is noted for the publication of romanceros, ballads,
and complaintes, illustrated with coarse engravings, which are sold
under the general name of _pliegos_. This kind of literature is a key
to the character of the people, and therefore not without its interest;
but the sound of these jolly songs in such a place, and at so late an
hour, was, it must be confessed—unreasonable as we may appear—very much
to our disgust; for not only were we fatigued with our journey, but our
thoughts were continually wandering off to the lonely cave and its
mystic tome.
We were up betimes in the morning, notwithstanding, and, seeing the
tower of a church from our window, we hurried out; for all through
Spain, as in Italy, if there is anything worth seeing in a town, it is
certainly the churches. However, it was not a question of art with us,
though by no means insensible to the grand in architecture or to the
beautiful in painting and sculpture. The church we soon came to had
given its name to the Fonda. It was the church of St. Dominic, an
edifice of the fourteenth century, formerly connected with a Dominican
convent. It is a grim, mouldy church, with a tomb-like atmosphere about
it—and, indeed, it is partly paved with memorial stones of those who
sleep in the damp vaults below. But it was quiet and solemn, and there
was a certain grave simplicity about it peculiar to the Dominican
churches in Spain. A priest was saying Mass in subdued tones at the
very altar where St. Ignatius once saw the glorious Humanity of our
Saviour at the elevation of the Host, and a few people were kneeling
here and there on the flag-stones, praying devoutly. St. Dominic and
the dog with a flaming brand still seemed to be keeping watch and ward
over the place, though his children are banished from his native land.
The adjoining convent often gave St. Ignatius hospitality, and it was
at one of its windows, after being tempted to despair in view of his
sins, that he exclaimed: “Lord, I will not do aught that will offend
thee!” He often made the _Via Crucis_ in the cloisters, bearing a large
wooden cross on his shoulders from station to station, shedding floods
of tears over the divine Sufferer. This cross is still religiously
preserved, and bears the inscription:
Enecvs A
Lohola porta
bat hanc crv
cem, 1522
—Ignatius de Loyola bore this cross, 1522.