Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/180

 164 industrious swarming up the ladder of ecclesiastical routine, are the three safest means of reaching the Pope's throne.

In canon law there are no limitations restricting the selection of a Pope within the body of Cardinals. It is true that since Urban in 1378, no one below this rank has mounted the chair of St. Peter, but still it is worthy of note that this now established practice exists in virtue of no higher sanction than custom, and that there is nothing in canon law to render invalid the choice even of a layman for the Papacy. John and Adrian  were certainly laymen, and the latter furnishes the conclusive precedent establishing that a Pope acquires all the plenitude of his supreme authority by the simple act of election, for Adrian  died without taking