Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/107

 to its own influence. In July 1798 eleven Cardinals were in the Neapolitan States, one of them being Dean of the College, and the fear was entertained, in some quarters, lest, in the event of the Pope dying without having made special dispositions for the convocation of Conclave, in accordance with the exceptional circumstances of the times, the minority, in part composed of Neapolitan Prelates, might proceed to an uncanonical election, under the influence of royal pressure, on the plea that the Cardinal Dean's presence constituted them the legitimate representation of the Sacred College. There is no proof that Cardinal Albani, the Dean, was prepared to lend himself to a move so full of risks, and than which a more disastrous one could not be conceived in the plight in which the affairs of the Church then stood. But the apprehension did undoubtedly exist that the Court of Naples might be disposed to avail itself of the presence of a knot of Cardinals in its dominions to make these proclaim themselves in Conclave, and attempt to impose their individual choice on the Church; and the effect of this apprehension was to stimulate those members of the Sacred College,