Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/149

 Rh a point of principle with Boniface to wield his power for extermination of the Colonna influence, if not for the actual extinction of the race. Solemnly degraded from their rank, these Cardinals, on the death of Boniface, found themselves excluded from the Conclave, and vainly sought from his successor restitution to rights which they declared to have been taken away in defiance of justice. The consequence was a protracted state of angry feelings, rendered formidable by the material power of the malcontent Colonnas, and accompanied by muttered protests against the canonical legality of a situation in which dignitaries of the Church were arbitrarily deprived of their inherent prerogatives. A sense of the danger to be apprehended from the recurrence of arbitrary acts of the same nature was awakened. It was felt that a Pope of headstrong passions like Boniface must absolutely be precluded from exposing the Church again to grave peril for the sake of purely personal hatreds and ambitions. Accordingly, just thirteen years after the memorable degradation of the Colonna Cardinals, a Bull in reference to Papal elections was issued by Clement