fatal to him.

CHAPTER XV.

PETER OF MURRONE.

A.D. 1294.

In that age the papacy was sometimes long vacant, because the cardinals,
who were the highest in rank of the Roman clergy, and to whom the choice
of a pope belonged, could not agree. In order to get over this
difficulty, rules were made for the purpose of forcing the cardinals to
make a speedy choice. Thus, at a council which was held by Pope Gregory
X. at Lyons, in 1274 (chiefly for the sake of restoring peace and
fellowship between the Greek and Latin Churches), a canon was made for
the election of popes. This canon directed that the cardinals should
meet for the choice of a new pope within ten days after the last pope's
death; that they should all be shut up in a large room, which, from
their being locked in together, was called the _conclave_;[82] that they
should have no means of speaking or writing to any person outside, or of
receiving any letters; that their food should be supplied through a
window; that, if they did not make their choice within three days, their
provisions should be stinted, and if they delayed five days more,
nothing should be given them but bread and water. By such means it was
thought that the cardinals might be brought to settle the election of a
pope as quickly as possible.

[82] _Con_ meaning _together_, and _clavis_ meaning _a key_.

We can well believe that the cardinals did not like to be put under such
rules. They contrived that later popes should make some changes in them,
and tried to go on as before, putting off the election so long as seemed
desirable for the sake of their own selfish objects. At one time, when
there had been no pope for six months, the people of Viterbo confined
the cardinals in the public hall of their city until an election should
be made. At another time, the cardinals were shut up in a Roman
monastery, where six of them died of the bad air. But one cardinal, who
was more knowing than the rest, drove off the effect of the air by
keeping up fires in all his rooms, even through the hottest weather; and
at length he was chosen pope.

On the death of this pope, Nicolas IV. (A.D. 1292), his office was
vacant for two years and a quarter; and when the cardinals then met, it
seemed as if they could not fix on any successor. But one day one of
them told the rest that a holy man had had a vision, threatening heavy
judgments unless a pope were chosen within a certain time; and he gave
such an ac