Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/150

 134 in which the following most remarkable clause was inserted:—'But in order that, as concerns the before-mentioned elections, dissensions and schisms be so much the more avoided, as the occasion for dissent is removed from those elections, we decree that no Cardinal may be expelled from the said elections on the ground of any excommunication, suspension, or interdict whatsoever.' The provision thus made has been subsequently confirmed by Pius and Gregory  in so full a manner as to remove all ambiguity on this head, for not only have those under sentence been declared relieved at election times from the disabilities involved thereby, but, what was quite as necessary, their colleagues were dispensed, during this interval, as regarded the case in point alone, from the obligation to hold no intercourse with excommunicated and censured individuals. There are instances of Cardinals who, since this enactment, have undergone extreme penalties, even decapitation; but we know of no instance in which this particular provision in regard to the indelible right of franchise has been set at nought. In the time of Leo several Cardinals were convicted of a conspiracy against