Each cardinal has a schedule about eight inches long by six wide, divided by printed lines into five parts.  On the topmost is printed “Ego, Cardinalis——­,” to be filled up with the name and titles of the elector using it.  On the second space are printed, toward either side of the paper, two circles, indicating the exact place where the paper when folded is to be sealed.  On the middle space is printed the words “Eligo in Summum Pontificem R’um D’um meum Dom.  Card.,” leaving only the name of the person chosen to be filled in.  On the fourth space two circles are printed, as on the second, indicating the places of two more seals, which, when the paper is folded and sealed down, make it impossible to see the motto which is written, together with a number, on the last space.  On the back of the second and fourth divisions are printed the words “nomen” and “signum,” denoting that immediately under them are the name and motto of the elector.  There are also printed certain ornamental flourishes, the object of which is to render it impossible to see the writing within through the paper.  Thus, the schedule, with its top and bottom folds sealed down, can be freely opened so far as to allow the name of the cardinal for whom the vote is given to be seen, but not so far as to make it possible to see the name or motto of the giver of the vote.

When the voting papers have been thus prepared, the senior cardinal, the dean of the Sacred College, rises from his throne and walks to the foot of the altar, holding his schedule aloft between his finger and thumb.  There he kneels and passes a brief time in private prayer.  Then rising to his feet, he pronounces aloud in a sonorous voice the following oath:  “Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est, me eligire quem secundum Deum judico eligi debere, et quod in accessu praestabo” ("I call to witness the Lord Christ, who shall judge me, that I elect him whom before God I judge ought to be elected, and which vote I shall give also in the accessit").  The last words allude to a subsequent part of the business of the election, to be explained presently.  It is hardly necessary to point out to the reader that this oath, solemn as it sounds, might just as well be omitted.  It is as a matter of course evident that each elector will give his vote for the person who ought in his opinion to be elected.  But as to the motives of that opinion, as to the grounds on which it seems best to each elector that such and such a man ought to be elected, the oath says nothing.  The cardinals whose votes Alexander VI. bought thought, no doubt, that in all honesty they ought to give their voices for the man who had fairly paid for them.  But, putting aside such gross cases, let the reader reflect for a moment how extensive a ground is covered by the celebrated “A.M.D.G.” formula ("Ad majorem Dei gloriam").  The conscience of an elector may be supposed to speak to him thus:  “It is true that I know A.B. to be a profligate and thoroughly worldly man, but his influence with such or such a statesman or monarch will probably be the means of saving the Church from a schism in this, that or the other country.  And that assuredly is A.M.D.G.  And he is the man, therefore, who ought to be elected.”