II.

Harry the Second, King of France, writ to his am- CHAP. bassador at Rome, Monsieur D'Urfé, that he wished that the election of the future Pope might not be so hastened nor so quickly dispatched as that the Cardinals of these parts might not have time to come to Rome to assist in the conclave as well as others; otherwise that in regard to the place which he held in Christendom, and the quality which he had of being eldest son of the Church, he neither would nor could admit of such an election, where his Cardinals, who represent the Gallican Church, should be despised and neglected: upon the receipt of which order from the King the ambassador went to the door of the conclave, and six Cardinals deputed to that purpose came to him, to whom he declared that the Cardinals of France were upon the way, and would probably be there in a few days; and therefore he prayed the conclave to stay and suspend the election until the next week, in which time the French Cardinals might be there; and in case they would deny that request, and frustrate the voice of the King's Cardinals, he did protest on his Majesty's account (according to the power that he had given him) a nullity of all which they should do, and not to approve of their election. The Cardinals desired that they might see his power; upon which he delivered the order above mentioned into the hands of Cardinal Tracy, who promised to communicate that and all that he had said to the whole conclave upon which and the like importunities there was such a dissension amongst the Cardinals, that the election was put off so long that both the Emperor and the

• Memoires de Monsieur Ribier, tom. îi. p. 254.

D3

King

CHAP. King of France complained of the delay; and the II. King of France writ to the Cardinal de Guise that every body there laughed at the combustions in the conclave, which he said did every day increase the errors in religion, and that for one Lutheran that was in Germany before the vacation of the holy chair, there were now many; and the conclave continued from the beginning of November till the middle of February before Julius the Third was chosen.

Manage

ment of

It is a part of the will and last advice that the conclaves. Wise King Philip the Second of Spain gave to his son who succeeded him, that he should always keep a good correspondence with the Pope and the Cardinals, gain what number of voices he can in the conclave, and order his pensioners to be well paid by secret and faithful hands. But there needs now none of that caution or reservation; the Cardinals are as ready to receive as any prince can be to give pensions; and it is as much known in Rome of what faction they are as where their palaces are; and though it would be too much levity to believe all that is scattered abroad in those relations which are usually published of the corrupt transactions in the conclaves, yet there are such authentic accounts privately transmitted to princes by their subjects who are in the conclave, that there can be no kind of doubt of the truth thereof. To omit the several relations made by the Cardinals Joyeuse Perron and D'Ossat to the King in their several dispatches (since unwarily published) of the conclaves in which Clement the Eighth and Leo the Eleventh were chosen, and other very faithful accounts of other conclaves, that which the Cardinal Joyeuse writes to Harry the Fourth of the con

II.

clave which succeeded the short reign of Leo the CHAP. Eleventh (which continued but twenty-seven days) deserves to be very particularly remembered, in the very words it was contained in his letter of the 19th of May, 1605, which are these : "The Cardinal Al"dobrandini and the Cardinal Montalto (which were "the two great factions) with all their creatures came ❝ to us,” (Cardinals Perron and D'Ossat being in the same conclave,) "desiring us to join with them to "make the Cardinal Tosco Pope. After we had dis

coursed a great while on this affair, we had much fador to resolve upon it; because the said Cardinal was looked upon as a man who had lived a life not "too exemplary, very apt to be choleric and angry, "who had always in his mouth unchaste and immo"dest words, and who was given to other customs "unbecoming not only the head of the Church, but 66 any person whatever who had but the least advan"tage of an honest education. In a word, he was a "man from whom we could expect no good to the * Church, the election of whom would go against ❝ the conscience of many pious persons of the col"lege, and might perhaps gain us nothing but dis

grace and reproach from all the assembly of Cardi"nals. Nevertheless the little hopes that we had of "having a Pope to our mind, the fear of falling on ff.one of those who were excluded by your Majesty, the desire of not displeasing the Cardinal Aldobrandini, and the opinion which we had that this fbman would be inclined to favour the affairs of your Majesty, made us resolve to assure Aldofbrandini that we gave our full consent to this elec"tion." tod

CHAP.

11.

Paul V.

There hath never been the least doubt made of the truth of this relation, most of it being likewise included in the letters of the other two Cardinals upon this occasion, and therefore we will not enlarge farther upon the integrity and piety of those elections. It is very true the singular courage and conscience of Cardinal Baronius, who protested against so infamous a person, prevented the election of Tosco notwithstanding so scandalous a combination; and the conclave ended in the choice of Cardinal Borghese, Election of called Paul the Fifth, who shewed so much folly and mettle against the republic of Venice, and repented it. But from this short review of the absence of all religious and sincere cogitations, and the sinister practice of such unrighteous ways in those elections for politic and worldly ends, the Catholic Church itself may easily discern how impossible it is that a person so chosen can be of the essence of Catholic religion; and how ridiculous it is that any particular Catholic shall expose his life and fortune as a sacrifice to maintain and defend the imaginary jurisdiction of a man so imposed upon the Church against the established laws and government of his own country. If it were fit that there should be such an universal submission of all Christian nations to such a magistrate, reason and justice would require that there should be an equal impartial and incorrupt way prescribed for the election of him; and that every catholic nation in succession might have a Pope chosen of that nation, who might by his particular knowledge of what is wanting administer to the defects which that national Church labours under, and that such a little corner of the world as Italy,

and

II.

and a handful of persons of that nation, so unac- CHAP. quainted with the world, may not prescribe religion to the whole Church of Christ, by making a Pope who must declare it. And so from this cursory prospect upon the course and practice of the election we return to the history of their assuming, and the general contradicting, of that authority which is now unreasonably made a vital part of Roman Catholic religion.

CHAP.