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first named if he had enough votes to elect, and to the second inscribed if the first should not so have, was abolished by Gregory XV.; and at the present day any voting paper which contained more than one name would be considered null and void.

The acts of the "anti-scrutinium " having been thus duly performed, we proceed to those of the "scrutinium" itself, which are with equally pedantic minuteness divided by the ecclesiastical writers into eight operations: 1. The carrying of the schedules. 2. Taking the oath. 3. Placing the vote in the urn. 4. Mixing up all the votes in the urn. 5. Counting the schedules. 6. Publishing the result to all the cardinals present. 7. Filing the schedules. 8. Putting them away separately.

First, carrying the voting papers. Each cardinal, habited in the "croccia," or long mantle, which has been described, and beginning with the Dean of the Sacred College, walks from his place to the altar, carrying the schedule folded and sealed in the manner specified, held high between his finger and thumb. Arrived at the step of the altar, he kneels and (second act) pronounces the following oath: "Testor Christum Dominum, qui me judicaturus est, me eligere quem secundum Deum judico elegi debere, et quod in accessu prestabo." "I call to witness Christ our Lord, who shall be my judge, that I am electing him whom before God I think ought to be elected, and the same as to the vote, which I shall give at the 'accessit.'" On the altar there is a large urn or chalice, covered with a patina; and the elector, having thus sworn, places his

schedule on the patina, and taking that in his hand, throws the vote into the chalice with it.

Should any one of the cardinals present be unable to walk from his stall to the altar, the junior of the three scrutators goes to him at his seat, and having received from him his voting paper, after he has pronounced the oath, carries it in the manner described to the altar, and deposits it in the urn. With regard to such cardinals as are not able to come into chapel, being ill in their cells, the mode of proceeding is as follows. The three cardinals chosen by lot for this purpose place their votes in the urn immediately after the Dean, in order that they may be free to attend to the sick. Then taking from the above-mentioned table the box with the slit in the lid, they open it, and hold it up to show to all present that there is nothing in it. Then they lock it and deposit the key on the altar. Then the three deputed to attend the sick depart on their errand to the cells of the sick men, a cardinal opening the door of the chapel for them, and chaining it up again as soon as they have passed. They go to the cell of each sick man in turn, hear him pronounce the oath, and receive his vote in the box. If any cardinal is unable to write, he may depute any one of his colleagues to write his voting paper for him, in which case the person so deputed swears solemnly that he will never divulge the secret of the vote he has written, the breach of which oath involves ipso facto the greater excommunication. Or the person deputed to write the vote may be the conclavist of the infirm man; and in such cases it is very usual for a cardinal to be attended by some near

relative as conclavist; for though the constitutions forbid any cardinal to take a relative with him into Conclave as conclavist, this is very easily evaded by two cardinals agreeing together to appoint each the relative of the other.

The fourth act of the scrutiny, to be performed when all the votes, including those of the sick, have been placed in the chalice, is the mixing them up together; and this is done by the senior of the three scrutators. The fifth act is the counting of the schedules. This is done by the junior scrutator, who counts them, taking them one by one from the chalice, and dropping them into another similar receptacle. If the counting should show that there has been any mistake, and that the number of votes given does not correspond with that of the cardinals in Conclave, all the votes are burned, and the work must be begun again. Next comes the "sixth act," which is in fact the scrutiny itself, and is performed in this manner. The three scrutators sit at the large table which has been described, with their backs to the altar, so that they may be in full view of all present, and the first of them takes a voting paper from the chalice, and leaving the seals which seal down the name and the motto of the voter intact, opens the other folds, and reads the name of the person in whose favour the vote is given. He then passes it to the second scrutator, who also takes note of the person voted for, and passes it on to the third, who declares the vote in a loud voice readily to be heard by all the cardinals present; and each one of them, as it is uttered, marks the vote on a register before him, which is prepared for

the purpose. These large sheets of paper, of which there are a number in each of the little tables in front of the cardinals' seats, are used one for each scrutiny. They contain a printed list of all the members of the Sacred College, with spaces for the record of the votes given, both at the scrutiny more properly so called and at the "accessit." When this voting and counting, which each cardinal does for himself on his own register, and the scrutators do more formally, recording the number of votes given to each cardinal who has been voted for at all in a separate paper, has been accomplished, the assembly proceeds to the seventh operation of the scrutiny. This is the threading of the schedules on a file, and is done by the junior scrutator, each paper being pierced exactly at the word "Eligo." The eighth and last act of this the second portion of the scrutiny consists in the tying together, by the junior scrutator, of the two ends of the thread on which the votes have been filed, and the placing of the whole of them apart on the great table.

Then comes the third and last operation of the scrutiny, which has three divisions in case an election has been accomplished, which are-1st, the counting of the votes; 2nd, the verifying of the votes by three other cardinals, drawn by lot, and called "ricognitori;" and 3rd, the burning of the votes in the manner which has already been described.

But if no election has been achieved, the last portion of the operation, the "post-scrutinium," consists of seven acts," of which the first is the "accessit." The meaning of the phrase is evident enough, and the

act is performed in the same manner as in giving the first vote, save that "accedo ad" is printed in the schedule instead of "Eligo," and if the elector remains fixed in his original intention, he writes the word "nemini" in the place of the name of one of the cardinals. The numbers written on the paper, the motto, and the seals must be the same as in the first voting, otherwise the vote given will be void. Further, no cardinal can be voted for by "accessit" who has not had at least one vote in the first voting. Nor can an elector give an "accessit" for the same person for whom he voted in the first voting, otherwise he would vote twice for the same man. And as regards the invalids who have remained in their cells, the three cardinals deputed to attend them carry round together with the box for receiving their votes a statement of the results of the first voting.

The mode in which this method of the "accessit " operates, and the nature of the motives which will influence the electors in proceeding to it, are readily intelligible. If the candidate A, for whom I have voted, shall be shown to have received four or five votes only, while B has received twenty, and C thirty, it will become a delicate question whether I shall transfer my vote to one of these latter, and, if so, to which of them. If failing my own favourite candidate, who has been shown to have no chance, I am contented to have C, my course is clear; I "accede" to him. If he is objectionable to me, I may still prefer to do so if it shall seem to me that his election is inevitable. If B is one with whom I could be contented, and if I think

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