Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/74

 ordinarily busy in its streets when an actual Pope resides in the Vatican. One vestige alone still figures of the peculiar powers which started into existence at the beck of necessities now happily vanished. It is to be found in the pomp and parade that attend the Marshal of the Conclave,—an officer who is a member of the great Roman aristocracy, and whose professed duty is to be the jailer of the assembled Cardinals, having it on his conscience to keep them tightly shut off from contact with the outer world. In reality, this dignity is now become an appanage of the Chigi family, though, in strictness, not hereditary, the office being conferred afresh for life on each new head of the house. The origin of the creation dates from the troubled period of Gregory X.'s elevation. Innocent VI. (1352-62) bestowed the office on a member of the great Savelli family, which from father to son retained it until in 1712 this house became extinct, having held the dignity always by the same tenure by which it now descends in the Chigis, on whom it was conferred at this period. Once the authority attached to this office was very considerable, and not confined only to the season of interregnum, for