Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/220

 204 with the encumbrance of absolute injunctions, that it will be found, when the heart of the system is reached, to be actually one of the most elastic in existence. Let only the instincts of the body representing the Church be alive to a necessity, however new, and that body can at once, without taint of illegal and revolutionary pretension, recognise the call for new conditions. There is in fact no limitation on the plenary power of the governing body, in spite of the stringent formalism within which at first sight it seems to he tightly hound. If, then, it be the case that the circumstances now besetting the Papacy exact concessions from it for the removal of otherwise insuperable difficulties, it is certain that there is nothing in the nature of its tenure which must on principle put it out of the power of him who holds that dignity to make freely any such concession as may be demanded by reasons of sound policy.