Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/22

 The privileges and provisions that authorize and limit the actions of a Cardinal are absolutely non-existing for him the instant he has been transformed into a Pope. The proclaimed Pope can at once decree, and suspend and abrogate, as he may please; but as long as there is only a Cardinal in question, his liberties are secured to him by instruments that at the same time define and tie them down. An account of the state of things constitutionally created by the advent of an interregnum—of the chartered privileges and powers which can then come in question, and of the elements that are recognised as legitimately qualified to intervene in the election of a Pope,—would accordingly furnish a bird's-eye view of the constitution of the Roman See. Here we should have a succinct abstract of the organic outgrowth—in all that concerns inward constitution—of the Roman See, as manifested upon its constitue it members in faculties, which are so man) commemorative marks of successive stages of development. An ex- position of these circumstances could not fail to possess varied interest. It is not the antiquarian alone who would here feel his curiosity attracted to illustrations of histo-