THE GREAT PONTIFICATE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 180, 4 September 1914, Page 8

THE GREAT PONTIFICATE.

THE ELECTION OF A POPE. [Written for THE SUN.] A Pope is dead, and a Pope has been elected. In the Conclave in Borne, immured from the world, fifty-seven. Cardinals have deliberated, voted, and voted again, amidst ceremony and ritual to decide which of their number should become the head of the Roman Church. IN THE MIDDLE AGES. It has not always been as it is now with the Roman Church—change that makes different circumstances demands new customs to meet them. The election of a chief deacon ol that fugitive, persecuted band of Christians that worshipped in the gloom of the catacombs two thousand years ago was a simple matter, but as the years sanctify customs so do they transform them into ceremonies, and from the choosing of a leader by the early Christians to the election of a Pope in the middle ages, when princes were vassals to the Church, marks a transition from the simplicity of need to the magnificence of Imperial power.

But other times other needs. The Popes are now elected from amongst the Cardinals by the" members of the Sacred College. Yet even now, according to the strict letter of the law of the Roman Church, any layman professing allegiance .to that. Church is eligible for election ,as Pope. John XIX;, .elected Pope in 1024, Hadrian V., elected in 1276, were laymen, and. the Anti-Pope, Felix V., who reigned from 1430-1449, was Duke of Savoy, and therefore a layman. During the' first eleven centuries of the papacy deacons and priests were frequently elected Popes, and, in fact, up to the end of the Ninth Century only one bishop was elected to the charge of the Holy See. But since the time of Nicholas 11., elected in 1059, there have been onlynine Popes who were not previously Cardinals, and since Urban VI., in. 1378,' there has been but one Pope who was not a Cardinal.

Before the Great Schism, which lasted from 137S to 1409 all the Popes except three, Calixtus 111., Alexander VI., and Hadrian VI., have been Italians, though previously numerous 'foreigners had been elected. In Roman and tine times there were twenty-two Oriental Popes, and when the seat of the Papacy was at Avignon many Frenchmen became Popes, There is no clause in the Canonical Law stipulating that the Pope should be an Italian or that the place of election should be Rome, but custom has long since crystallised into law in these matters, and many modifications of the Canonical Law by Papal Bulls has made the present method of election, and fixed place, regulations, and ceremonies. It,was Pius YI. (1775-1799) who first authorised a two-thirds majority of the Sacred College to make any modifications necessary in the procedure for the election of a new Pope, and Clement XII. (1730-1740) who created the constitution insisting on the secrecy and Seclusion of the electoral Conclave.

THE CONCLAVE. The Pope dies, and the intricate ceremony of burial and election commences. On ,the day after death those of the College of Cardinals'assembled in Borne meet together, arid after reading Gregory X.'s rules of Conclave, proceed to the election of the necessary officers, a task which occupies them nine days. During the vacancy of the Holy See the Church is ruled by the Sacred College, which possesses jurisdiction wherever the Pontiff possessed it. When the< congregations . are all oyer the Cardinals seat themselves to give audience to> the Ambassadors of the various nations, and in the meantime the erection of the Conclave (from which the assembly, takes its name) —the building wherein the electors are to be imprisoned until a new Pope is appointed froiji their number, is being proceeded with. The provision of this Conclave arises from a period when, owing to intrigues, the Sacred College sat for over two years without electing a Pope, and were at last compelled to do so by being im : prisoned and made to fast on a very meagre diet. For a couple of centuries Papal decrees made this procedure imperative, but it was afterwards relaxed considerably, though even now the rule of secrecy and confinement is enforced. After the congregations the Cardinals attend the. Mass of ; the. Holy Spirit, which opens the Conclave, in St. Peters, and are then addressed by a learned ecclesiastic on the situation of the Church, and < are exhorted to lay aside all their preoccupation and preferences in order to have nothing before their eyes but God alone. Then, in a procession preceded by the Swiss Guard, they move solemnly to the Conclave and on entering the doors are shut and bolted behind them. In the Conclave each Cardinal is provided with a room to himself, and one for his attendant, and each attendant must be examined and approved by the officers appointed in order to prevent any undesirable person gaining admittance by this means. After the Cardinals are installed and the two doors which give admittance to the building are bolted and barred within and without the chief officers, accompanied by the Master of Ceremonies, proceed by torchlight through every part of the building to ascertain that 110 interloper is concealed therein. This done the .Cardinals proceed to their rooms for prayer. THE METHOD OF THE BALLOT.

The election proceeds by ballot, the forms being folded in three, on the top part of which each Cardinal writes his name, writes the name of his nominee in the second, and on the bottom fold inscribes a device and a number, the form is then folded, and is fastened with a seal which will not betray the identity of the voter. Three scrutineers are appointed, and then three overseers of the sick whose duty it is to collect the votes of any Cardinals who may be confined to their rooms through sickness. The ballots having been filled in the Dean of the Sacred College then advances first towards the Altar, and, elevating his ballot above his head, calls on God to witness that he gives his vote to him he judges most worthy of election, and after him the others, in order of the offices they hold, do likewise, and drop their ballots into a chalice on the altar. The scrutineers counting the votes can see nothing but the name of the Cardinal for whom the

vote is cast, the seals cover the Test. It is seldom that the yotes cast give the necess&ry two-thirds'* Majority, and ukless they do another ballot is taken immediately, this being done in order to transfer the votes of those who have no chance of election to one of the Cardinals with the largest number of votes at the first ballot. THE VOTE OF ACCESSION.

The ballot forms are marked as before, except that the part of the form visible to the scrutineers bears the words, "Accedo Reverendis D. me and D. Card ... ." which signifies ''l transfer my vote to Cardinal So-and-So. . . ." Electors desiring to adhere to their first vote, as they do when their nominee is leading iii votes, write << Nemini ,, after this, which signifies that the voter does not wish t<> transfer his vote to anyone else. The transferred votes are called '' votes of accession,'' and if these, combined with, those of the first ballot, give any Cardinal his two-thirds majority, a minute verification commences. The scrutineers, who have preserved the ballots of the first vote, by comparing J;he devices on the lower part of the votirfg papers of those who have transferred their votes, are able to prove that they have not already voted for the samp name in the first ballot,-for a Cardinal is not allowed to vote for the same name both in the first ballot and the "vote of accession," since the votes of accession are transferred in order to accumulate the two-thirds majority necessary for one nominee to be elected. The upper part of the ballot form which conceals the identity of the voter is opened in two cases only. Should:'the seals and devices adopted by the several Cardinals be so alike that they caii hardly be distinguished and doubts should arise as to the correctness of the transfer, the top fold of the doubtful forms are opened. The second case is when a Cardinal,appears to be elected by two-thirds of the votes and not one more—then he is asked to reveal his number and device in order to prove that he has hot voted for himself, which would invalidate his majority. THE POLITICAL VETO.

e One curious portion . of this ceremony i 3 the destruction of the ballots, which, after examination, are burned in a grate, and if the voting should be indecisive a quantity of damp straw is thrown on the flames, thus causing thick smoke to pour from the chimney, and this, called the sfumata, being, seen by those waiting outside, gives them the information that the Tope has not yet been elected. Should the result be decisive",* however; the people are given no information. Many ballots are required as a rule, in order to get the requisite two-thirds majority, and even when a Cardinal is leading, his election may be objected to-by one or other of the Catholic States, which are represented by one of the Cardinals, and in that case,, immediately his chance of election becomes apparent, the representative announces the veto, and that Cardinal's chance is gone. This happened to Cardinal Rampolla, Secretary of State to Pope Leo XII., who was vetoed by the Emperor of Austria on account of political differences, and • who, therefore, had to give place to Cardinal Sarto, who became Pope Pius X., the Pope who has just died. PINAL CEREMONIES.

The election at last having been confirmed, the new Pope is conducted first to the altar, and then to the vestry, where he is given the Pontifical vestments. He is then conducted to his x of the- CardjiialS. Thfen the Deaii of tlie't Order of Cardinal Deacons proceeds to;, the balcony of St. Peter 's, and announces the,result of the election, and the The accession qf ,the* Pope is, 'however,-;' dated from tie coronation ceremony, not from the date of his election, and " the "triple coronet may not be assumed for perhaps weeks after election. But the Pope is the supreme Pontiff of the Church immediately after his election, and the adds nothing to his powers or ',; his dignities. After tho ceremonies attendant on his installation as head of the Church the Pope proceeds to St. Peter's, and appears before the people. There, facing the populace in the Square, he intones a ritual, the voices of the people giving the responses; he then raises his hand bearing the Fisherman's Ring, chief, emblem of the dignity St. Peter held as first head of the Apostles, and three times makes the sign of the Cross, turning to the four quarters of the earth with words, '' God Almighty, Father, "Son, and Holy Ghost, bless you," and so ends the first benediction "urbi et orbi," the blessing of the city and the world. There are more ceremonies and rituals—the assumption of the symbols of authority in the Basilica of the Vatican, long, splendid, and solemn, and then the reception of the Ambassadors.

The new Pope reigns until death shall relieve him, but it is almost as a recluse that he wields his authority, for the rest of * his days retired within the magnificent v'astness of the Vatican, for not since 1870 has a Pope left the precincts \of the Vatican, and outside the gates stand the Papal guard of stalwart Swiss, facing a squad of Italian Carabiiiieri, which guard this little frontier of the King of Italy's dominion—symbols of the conflict of temporal powers.