Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/143

 Rh Constitution, prohibited Cardinals in this state from taking part in elections; but that prohibition was repealed by Pius  and the question must he considered absolutely set at rest by the confirmatory ruling of Gregory, that every promulgated Cardinal (in distinction to those in petto) has an inalienable right to participate in Conclaves, which ruling has been confirmed by the circumstances that marked the Conclave convened on the death of Clement  in 1670. At that moment there were seven Cardinals cum oribus clausis. All went into Conclave, and one of their number, Altieri, came out of it as Pope. The condition of Cardinals in petto is altogether different. Nothing can indeed be conceived more anomalous than the status of Prelates who in principle must be considered Cardinals, because mentally promulgated by a Pope, while yet liable to pass their lives in ignorance of their own eminence, should the same Pope either change his mind or die without having made a record of the names of those he has inwardly appointed Cardinals, as a direction for the honourable obligation of his successor. It appears that at one time the