Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/46



S soon as the Pope's state of health indicates imminent dissolution, the duty devolves on the Cardinal Secretary of State to communicate with the Dean of the Sacred College, that he may summon his brother Cardinals to hasten to the dying Pope's residence, and that, with the Cardinal Vicar, whose functions are those of Prefect of the ecclesiastical police in the city of name, he may issue orders for offering up public prayers in the churches. Upon the Cardinal Penitentiary, who is the official depositary of the specifically spiritual powers vested in the Pope, falls the obligation of attending him in the last moments, along with his Confessor, though the special duty of administering extreme unction devolves on the Monsignor Sagrista, the Sacristan of the