Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/105

 whose members were divided between the states of the King of Naples and of the Emperor of Germany. The situation was of a nature that unavoidably imposed the necessity of taking thought for the future, for the health of the Pope, stricken with years, indicated an approaching demise, while the complete dispersion of the Papal Court utterly unhinged and disjointed its machinery. There was a general sweep of established organism, and a state of things had been produced like a void, wherein the dispersed atoms of the Court of Rome had to steer themselves as they best could by lights adapted to the novel atmosphere. If the Pope expired in the Certosa, as there was every reason to anticipate, his death would occur away from all Cardinals, and under conditions that would render every formal summons to a Conclave impossible. To provide, therefore, means calculated to meet the exigencies of this unprecedented situation was a thought that could not but anxiously occur to the conscientious dignitaries of the Church; but the serious difficulties naturally inherent to this task of framing forms suitable to the occasion were materially increased by the failing