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 by the obedience of the cardinals; that it is lawful for the cardinals, the clergy and the people of Rome to refuse obedience to a pope so elected.  On all which Monsignor Spondano in his ecclesiastical annals, remarks, with a naivete of hypocrisy which is irresistibly amusing, that inasmuch as there would be considerable difficulty in applying the remedy proposed, God has specially provided that there should never be any need of it.  How far Monsignor Spondano can have supposed that such was the case will become evident from the account of the doings of a conclave which I propose giving to the reader presently.

Together with the cardinals there are shut up in the conclave two attendants, called “conclavisti,” for each cardinal, or three for such of them as are ill or infirm; one sacristan, two masters of the ceremonies, one confessor, two physicians, one surgeon, one carpenter, two barbers and ten porters.  Any conclavist who may leave the conclave cannot on any account return.  The different cells prepared in the Quirinal, Vatican or other place in which the conclave may be held are assigned to the cardinals by lot.  The election may be made in the conclave in either of three different manners—­by scrutiny of votes, by compromise, or by acclamation.  A vote by scrutiny is to be taken twice every day in the conclave—­once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  All the cardinals, save such as are confined to their cells by infirmity, proceed to the chapel, and there, after the mass, receive the communion.  They then return each to his cell to breakfast, and afterward meet in the chapel again.  The next morning at 8 A.M. the sub-master of the ceremonies rings a bell at the door of each cell; at half-past eight he rings again; and at nine a third time, adding in a loud voice the summons, “In capellam Domini!”

The arrangement of the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, in which the voting takes place, is as follows:  The floor is raised by a boarding to the level of the pontifical throne, which stands by the side of the altar, and which is left in its place in readiness for the newly-elected pope to seat himself and receive the “adoration” of his electors.  All around the walls of the chapel are erected as many thrones as there are cardinals, and over each of them a canopy, so arranged that by means of a cord it can be suddenly let down; so that at the moment the election is pronounced all the canopies are suddenly made to fall except that of the new pope.  In front of each throne and under each canopy there is a little table covered with silk—­green in the case of all those cardinals who have been created previously to the pontificate of the pope recently deceased, and purple in the case of those created by him.