isolation of the members of the Sacred College, greater
latitude and indulgence having been permitted as we approach modern
times. Sundry means also were devised for hastening the deliberations of
their Eminences. The old rule of Gregory X. prescribed that if an
election were not made in three days, the cardinals should be supplied
during the following five days with one dish only at dinner and one at
supper; and if at the end of those five days the election was still
uncompleted, the electors should be allowed only bread and water till
they had accomplished their task. But, as may be readily supposed, all
this has been materially modified. Many of the minute and rigorous
precautions for preventing communication with the world outside the
conclave have also fallen into desuetude. The purpose of these,
however--that is, the absolute prevention of any possibility of
consultation between those in conclave and those outside--is still
sought to be, and probably is, maintained. Cardinals obliged to leave
the conclave by ill-health, on sworn certificates of the two physicians
who are shut up with them in conclave, may return to it, if able to do
so, before the election is made. No censure or excommunication or
deposition of any cardinal by the pope whose successor is to be elected
can avail to deprive such cardinal of the right to take part in the
conclave and in the election. No cardinal under pain of excommunication
may say anything, or promise anything, or request anything, to or from
another cardinal for the purpose of influencing him in the giving of his
vote. It may safely be asserted, however, that pretty much all that is
done in the conclave from the beginning to the end of it is one long
contravention of this rule. The whole--at all events, the
main--occupation of those in conclave consists of exactly what is here
forbidden. The rule proceeds to declare that all such bargains,
agreements and obligations, even sworn to, are _ipso facto_ void,
and "he who does not keep them merits praise rather than the blame of
perjury." This merit elected popes have usually been found to strive
after with all their strength. Julius II., by a bull issued in 1505,
declared that any pope elected by means of bargains or promises is
elected simoniacally; that his election is null even if he have the vote
of every cardinal; that he is a heresiarch and no pope; that such an
election cannot become valid by enthronation, or by lapse of time, or