Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/97

 cabal of hostile interests,—a network of opposing Court influences, in our times called a Camarilla. The Pope might himself flit, indeed, to Rome, and yet, with the individuals composing the Sacred College, in great proportion creatures of the French Crown, and with the existing distribution of political interests, the same might be expected again to occur which already had occurred, namely, that the transfer would be only for so long as the Pope lived. To secure a lasting re-establishment of the See in Rome, Gregory XI. perceived it to be necessary to make, for once, a radical change in the value attached to specified forms in the machinery of Papal elections. By a Bull bearing date 19th March 1378, Gregory XI., at one stroke of the pen, suspended every existing regulation on the subject of Papal elections, set the Cardinals free from the observance of any obligations they might have sworn to in accordance to prescription, and specially empowered them not merely to meet for election on his decease, whenever it might seem convenient, but to nominate by simple majority. This memorable exercise of Papal authority, constituting a true coup d'état, stands justified by the approving voice of