Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/152

 136 is that of the notorious Cardinal Coscia, who, under Benedict wielded the whole power and dipensed the whole patronage of the State. On this Pope's death, his favourite was so universally an object of detestation, from his iniquitously corrupt proceedings, that he fled from fear of popular vengeance to Cisterna, then, as now, the family seat of the Duke of Sermoneta, who, in a letter to Cardinal Barberini, preserved in the Gaetani archives, describes him to have arrived more dead than alive from fright. Under the protection of a safe-conduct from the Sacred College, Coscia stole back into Conclave. The new Pope, Clement (Corsini), was unable to withstand the clamour of denunciation which from all sides was raised against this member of the Sacred College. Cardinal Coscia was brought to trial for fraud, malversation, and peculation of the most scandalous kind; the charges were fully established, and he was sentenced to a fine of 200,000 crowns, to ten years' close confinement in St. Angelo,