I
DECREE OF 1059 CONCERNING PAPAL ELECTIONS.
(Doeberl: "Monumenta Germauiae selecta," 3rd vol.)
(a.) Papal Version.
In the name of the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the year of his incarnation 1059, in the month of April, in the 12th indiction—the holy Gospel being placed before us and the most reverend and blessed apostolic pope Nicholas presiding, while the most I'everend archbishops, bishops, abbots and venerable priests and deacons assisted —in the church of the Lateran patriarch, which is called the church of Constantine, this same venerable pontiff, decreeing by apostolic authority, spoke thus concerning the election of the supreme pontiff: Ye know, most blessed and beloved fellow bishops and brothers—nor has it been hidden from the lower members also—how much adversity this apostolic chair, in which by God's will I serve, did endure at the death of our master and predecessor, Stephen of blessed memory: to how many blows, indeed, and frequent wounds it was subjected by the traffickers in simoniacal heresy; so that the columns of the living God seemed almost to totter already, and the net of the chief fisher to be submerged, amid the swelling blasts, in the depths of shipwreck. Wherefore, if it please ye brethren, we ought prudently to take measures for future cases, and to provide for the stace of the church hereafter, lest—which God forbid—the same evils may revive and prevail. Therefore, strengthened by the authority of our predecessors and of the other holy fathers, we decree and establish:
- That, when the pontiff of this Roman universal church dies, the cardinal bishops, after first conferring together with most diligent consideration, shall afterwards call in to themselves the cardinal clergy; and then the remaining clergy and the people shall approach and consent to the new election.
