On Papal Conclaves/Chapter 5

by W. C. Cartwright

V.

PIUS VII. expired in the Quirinal, and, in accordance with the letter of the law prescribing a Conclave to be held in the very palace in which the Pope dies, the Cardinals congregated there. Since then, however, they have continued to do so on each vacancy, without any warranty of the kind. The Vatican is now therefore deserted as regards those Conclave doings with which its name stands so closely associated. Not that Papal elections were uniformly held there. The churches of Rome abound in historical memories' connected with the scenes of Conclaves. Several memorable Popes were created in the Church of the Minerva; and even Sta. Sabina, that stands in solemn loneliness upon the unpeopled heights of the desolate Aventine, once was the scene of eager contests after the death of Honorius IV. of the Savelli blood in the adjoining family palace, the picturesque remains of which constitute still such a striking feature. The earliest Conclave recorded to have met within the Vatican precincts is that of 1303; and not till the election of Urban VI., 1378, did a second assemble at the same spot. Then there followed again a series in various localities, until, in 1455, a succession of Vatican Conclaves began with Calixtus III. that was not broken until this transfer to the Quirinal in 1823.

Although apparently the Vatican has now become obsolete for electoral uses, its name stands so closely associated with the eventful traditions of Conclaves, that the reader will excuse a few words on the arrangements which on such occasions were made in this celebrated locality. The whole of the first floor of the pontifical palace was strictly shut off for the accommodation of the Cardinals and of the throng of individuals of various degrees who were appointed to share their imprisonment. Each Cardinal was lodged in a booth by himself, technically termed a cell, and erected in the vast halls constituting the Vatican apartments, each of which halls contained a number of these wooden huts that comprised a couple of small ground-floor rooms, occupied by the Cardinal, and similar accommodation above for his confidential attendants. The Cardinals created by the late Pope had their cells hung with violet cloth, in sign of mourning, while the others had theirs draped in green; and this distinction is still observed.^[1] When the Sacred College was so numerous as to cause a pressure for accommodation, the gallery over the vestibule of St. Peter's used to be also given to the Cardinals, as was the case in the Conclave of 1740, witnessed by the President de Brosses.

The distribution of these diminutive houses was always by lot. The one who had fared best in the raffle on the above occasion was Cardinal Tencin, who had drawn the hut in the middle of the gallery, so that the niche of its big central window, walled up until a new Pope has to he proclaimed therefrom, formed a spacious extra apartment at the back of his booth. 'But,' adds the President, 'for this convenience he will be prettily rifled and pulled to pieces when the new Pope comes to the balcony to give his blessing to the people in the square below.' The great hall at the top of the Scala Reggia, which serves as a vestibule to the Sistine and Pauline chapels, remained always free, and was the playground of the imprisoned Cardinals,—the spot in which they met and walked up and down together for recreation or for consultation. Also, the same hall has been the scene of many stirring encounters and sly colloquies. In the Pauline Chapel it was usual to erect six supplementary altars, whereat each Cardinal and Conclavist performed his appointed daily mass, while the Sistine was always set apart for voting operations. It was the polling-booth of the Conclave, and popular tradition even ascribes the injured condition of the painting on its walls and ceiling in great degree to the effect of the smoke from the balloting-papers regularly set on fire in the chapel after every unsuccessful ballot. No plea could enable a Cardinal, or anyone belonging to the establishment in Conclave, to extend his steps beyond the precincts of the first floor, all windows and apertures in which—especially the arches of the Loggie, running round the court of Saint Damasus—were jealously walled up, with only so much window left as must needs be preserved to let in an indispensable amount of light,—the spared panes being, however, protected against an illegitimate gaze by a covering of oilcloth. The doors at the top of the Scala Reggia, leading into the great hall between the two chapels, were alone left unwalled, for the admittance of Cardinals who might arrive after the commencement of business, or the ceremonial visits conceded as a privilege to royal persons who might happen to pass through Rome during a Conclave. But these doors, except on such occasions, were kept carefully closed with four locks, two on he outside, the keys of which were intrusted to the Marshal, as porter of this gate; two on the inner side, the key of one being in charge of the Camerlengo, and of the other in charge of the Master of Ceremonies. By the side of the door there were two wheels, or rather turning-boxes, for the admission of objects declared free from suspicion, after inspection by officers on guard against the introduction of correspondence, and in other parts of the building there were six other wheels of the same kind, similarly guarded, for the admission of the many articles without which it was physically impossible for so large a congregation of human beings to subsist. The shape of these wooden turning-wheels is the same as those used in the parlatories of nunneries, and their application is ascribed to the ingenuity of Paris de Grassis, who officiated as Master of the Ceremonies at the Conclave which elected Julius II., 1503,—up to which time everything admitted had to be let through an aperture in the wall, as prescribed in the Bull of Gregory X. Outside the palace there were posts of soldiers around its walls, and at every approach, no one being permitted to pass the barriers erected on the Bridge of St. Angelo and at the gate of the Leonine city who was unfurnished with a pass-medal, so that the quarter of the Borgo was practically shut off from circulation during the sitting of a Conclave.

In the locality now used there occurs no longer any need for the erection of wooden booths. The portion of the Quirinal Palace devoted to the accommodation of a Conclave is that which runs from Monte Cavallo to Quattro Fontane. Here there is probably the longest corridor in the world, upon which opens at equal intervals a range of doors—exactly like those of monks' cells in a convent corridor—that lead into apartments comprising each three or four rooms. These form the habitations of the Cardinals during Conclave, who draw lots for them as they did for the booths. On all points of form and ceremonial, however obsolete for practical purposes, there is observed a minute imitation of what was the rule in the Vatican. As formerly the Borgo, so now the street running towards Porta Pia, is closed by chains, while at the top of the great staircase are met the same turning-boxes that figured at the head of the Scala Reggia. At these wheels Cardinals are now allowed the privilege to hold conversation with visitors,^[2] though subject to being overheard by attendant guardians, as also to receive letters under the restriction of their being first perused by these. It is superfluous to add that in spite of the severe penalties launched with the full weight of Pontifical anathema against every violation of the command that an inmate of Conclave should hold no intercourse with the world, and the non-repeal of these Papal enactments, the correspondence between the Cardinals within and their political friends without has yet at all times been general.^[3] As a rule, the secret of sitting Conclaves has not been denser to penetrate for those having an interest to do so than the secret of pending conferences generally are for parties engaged in working and counter-working political plots. In Father Theiner's elaborate history of Clement XIV., for the vindication of his election against the charge of uncanonical engagements taken beforehand to sacrifice the Jesuits, we have been furnished with the confidential correspondence day by day between immured Cardinals and their confederates outside. Also it is amusing to read the involved explanations through which the perplexed author tries to extenuate this flagrant violation of the plain letter of Papal Bulls. There is no publication which sheds so full a light into the whole process of Conclave proceedings as these pages in Father Theiner's book. 'It must never be forgotten that the election itself is a human act, and that human impulses and weaknesses of all kinds come here into play,' writes the present Keeper of the secret Records of the Vatican. 'Apostolical constitutions of more recent times,' he continues, 'specially that of Pius IV. (Eligendis, 9th October 1562), those of Gregory XV. (Eterni Patris Filius, 15th November 1621, and Decet Romanum Pontificem, 15th March 1622), and of Urban VIII. (Ad Romam Pontificis, 28th January 1523), have indeed strictly forbidden Cardinals from conferring with any one, even with their colleagues, on the Pope to be elected, or from forming factions, and likewise from writing anything about the course of the election to those without the Conclave.'^[4] These regulations Father Theiner does not scruple to affirm to have been in excess of what was humanly feasible; and to the fact of this exaggerated stringency he would ascribe the correspondence from which he quotes so largely.^[5] In our time Conclaves have certainly no pretensions to greater secrecy than generally pervade Cabinets and their proceedings, only the received forms in Conclave are such as to afford special facilities for operating in secrecy when its members may be so disposed.

When all preliminary observances are over, the Cardinals assemble in the Church of St. Sylvester, on the Quirinal, opposite the Rospigliosi Palace, known to visitors of Rome for the paintings it contains by Domenichino, but possessed of a yet higher interest, as haying been the scene where Vittoria Colonna, who resided in the adjoining convent, used on Sundays to hold deep colloquies with Michael Angelo and other choice spirits, of which a striking record has been strangely preserved in the diary of a Flemish painter, which some years ago was discovered in the Lisbon Library.^[6] In this church they attend a mass of the Holy Ghost, and listen to a sermon, after which, preceded by their attendants, and the full string of office-bearers, the Cardinals walk in procession across the Piazza, and solemnly enter Conclave, which, however, is not finally closed until a late hour in the evening. Till that moment strikes, the Conclave presents a scene of busy activity; for it is customary for every person of rank in Rome to pay his respects to each Cardinal in his cell. The Conclave therefore offers the gay appearance of a public state reception such as every ambassador holds in Rome on his arrival, and every Cardinal on his nomination, with this difference, that only the male sex is present at the Quirinal. But there is more done on this afternoon than merely to whisper words of compliment. The swarming hive of busy beings hurrying from cell to cell is pregnant with political emotions; and on this evening a Conclave is pervaded with the palpitating excitement that vibrates through anxious committee-rooms on the night before polling-day. Hither hie, then, all the ambassadors, and envoys, and political agents in Rome, to snatch the last opportunity afforded for unrestricted conference, to give the last stroke to eager appeals of soft persuasion, or deterring menace, the last touch to cunning combination, and particularly to deposit in the hands of an intimate confederate the knowledge of those whose nomination their Courts will absolutely not brook, before, at the third ringing of a bell, three hours after sunset, the Master of the Ceremonies makes his appearance, and calling aloud 'Extra omnes,' obliges strangers to withdraw beyond the sacred precincts. Then is every ingress jealously walled up, except the door at the head of the principal staircase, on which bars and bolts are drawn, and heavy locks are turned, with due formality—those on the outside in presence of the Prince Marshal—those within, of the Camerlengo and his three Cardinal colleagues; and now is proclaimed the commencement of that solemn confinement, which by law should be absolute until a new Pope has been created, or at all events, according to the constitution of Gregory X., until a vote of two-thirds of the immured Cardinals shall have ruled its suspension. Often, however, this preliminary work of clearance has proved a task of trouble, and Masters of the Ceremonies have been driven distracted by the occasional obduracy of ambassadors in not giving heed to the tingling summonses, and their haughty disregard of earnest supplications to conclude final conferences with confidential Cardinals.

1. The ascetic regulations promulgated by Gregory X. (1272) probably remained a dead letter. At all events, in 1351 Clement VI. already modified their stringent restrictions sensibly in his Bull Licet in Const. a fel. record. Gregorio Papa X. Whereas, originally, Cardinals were bound to live and sleep in one common hall with no division of any kind, they were then authorized to stretch plain curtains round their beds—'ut honestius possint quiescere in suis lectis.' So also were they secured the indulgence of one dish a meal however long the election might be protracted, and in addition a good many other gastronomic luxuries, so long as they could be made to pass for condiments. The language of the Bull is amusingly detailed: 'Ac etiam singulis, præter panem, vinum, et aquam in prandio et in cæna, unum duntaxat ferculum, seu missum carnium unius speciei tantummodo, aut piscium, seu ovorum cum uno potagio de carnibus vel piscibus principaliter non confectis et decentibus salsamentis habere valeant, ultra carnes salitas et herbas crudas ac caseum, fructus sive electuaria. Ex quibus tamen nullum specialiter ferculum conficietur, nisi ad condimentum fieret vel saporem.' But no Cardinal was to be so greedy as to taste of a colleague's mess: 'Nullus vero eorum de alterius ferculo vesci posset.' At present it is unnecessary to add that the Cardinals give themselves all the comfort and culinary luxuries they may like.
2. No one is permitted access to these wheels—termed le rote nobile—unless provided with a small staff painted green or violet, and bearing some Cardinal's arms, or with a pass-medal from the Camerlengo, or Maggiordomo, or Governatore, or Marshal, or General Auditor of the Apostolic Chamber.
3. 'We may here notice,' says M. Bergenroth, 'that the idea that the Conclaves in the sixteenth century were really secret must be dismissed at once. The ceremony of walling up some entrances was observed, but, as the Duke of Sessa 'wrote on occasion of the next election (Clement the Seventh's), only as an empty form. Other doors remained open, and the Cardinals assembled in the Conclave communicated freely with the outer world.'—Calendar of Negotiations, vol. ii., Introduction, p. cxxxvii.
4. Theiner, Geschichte des Pontificats Clemens XIV. Leipzig, 1853, vol. i. p. 139.
5. Still he makes the distinct admission that in their correspondence the Cardinals violated obligations by which they had bound themselves. 'How, it will be asked,' he writes, 'could some Cardinals venture on such open violation of the above constitution as to communicate so freely to their Court all that passed in Conclave, as was the case with the French Cardinals and with Orsini?'—a question Theiner vainly tries to meet satisfactorily, for all he can say in palliation of the practice is, that the Cardinals specially in fault happened to stand in specific official relation with their Courts, which is tantamount to invoking an accumulation of abuses as justification for further delinquencies.
6. It has been printed in part in Les Arts en Portugal. Par le Comte A. Raczynski, 1846.