Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/62

 office only for the period of interregnum. The particular duty intrusted to his charge was to secure the Cardinals from molestation, and to this end it became customary to erect barricades at the limits of the Leonine city, whereby the free circulation through it was prevented, except for those armed with a special permit.

One of the most riotous elections on record is that when, in 1623, Urban VIII. —Barherini—was raised to the chair of St. Peter. The disturbances which then hap-