Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/79

 remark, that' a well-founded spirit of suspicion pervades everything that happens on a Pope's demise; for the poor deceased has no relatives around him, and those charged with providing a successor might possibly bury a Pope alive.'

The deathbeds of many Popes have indeed witnessed shocking scenes of destitution and abandonment, coupled with outrageously indecent treatment of the corpse. What can be more lurid in its effect than the sacrilegious brawl, by torchlight, over the dead body of Alexander VI., between drunken soldiers and priests, within the hallowed area of St. Peter's, just before the very altar, as it is drily described by the ceremoniary Burckhardt?—'By four beggars was the corpse borne into St. Peter's, the clergy, according to custom, preceding, and the canons walking by the side of the bier, which being set in the midst of the church, they stood awaiting the Non Intres in Judicium to be said, but the book could not be found, wherefore the clergy began singing the response Libera Domine. While this chanting was going on in church, some soldiers of the palace-guard laid hold of and snatched the torches from the clerks, where-