Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/75

 the Marshal possessed jurisdiction over all lay members of the Pontifical Court, who were tried before his special tribunal, the Corte Sayclla, and lodged in his special prison. That privilege came to an end under Innocent X., in whose edict of suppression the grave abuses prevalent in that Court, and the scandalous state of the prisons, are expressly alluded to as rendering reform indispensable. In spite of these curtailments of his powers, the Marshal retains all the outward display of high rank, and figures during a Conclave as second in precedence only to the Camerlengo. The essence of his importance has indeed much waned; about the only real exercise of authority which he may yet be called upon to put in practice being the legitimate distribution of pass-medals, which the Marshal is entitled to get coined in silver and in gold. nevertheless, in the ceremonial pageant of Rome, this dignitary makes a prominent show, although he also has not escaped the pnming action of that spirit of reduction which has been in the ascendant of late. The Diario di Roma of the day gives a glowing description of the sumptuous magnificence displayed by the first Marshal of