Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/128

 112 pages in Father Theiner's book. 'It must never be forgotten that the election itself is a human act, and that human impulses and weaknesses of all kinds come here into play,' writes the present Keeper of the secret Records of the Vatican. 'Apostolical constitutions of more recent times,' he continues, 'specially that of Pius (Eligendis, 9th October 1562), those of Gregory  (Eterni Patris Filius, 15th November 1621, and Decet Romanum Pontificem, 15th March 1622), and of Urban  (Ad Romam Pontificis, 28th January 1523), have indeed strictly forbidden Cardinals from conferring with any one, even with their colleagues, on the Pope to be elected, or from forming factions, and likewise from writing anything about the course of the election to those without the Conclave.' These regulations Father Theiner does not scruple to affirm to have been in excess of what was humanly feasible; and to the fact of this exaggerated stringency he would ascribe the correspondence from which he quotes so largely.