The Election and Coronation of a Pope.
THE ELECTION AND CORONATION OF A POPE. By JOHN DEMORGAN. NEARLY a generation has passed since Cardinal Pecci, archbishop of Perugia, was elected Pope by the vote of forty-five members of the College of Cardinals, and ascended the papal throne, assuming the name and title of Leo XIII. The late Pope was born in March, 1810, and his active life, his piety, his strong encyclicals which commanded the attention of the entire world and proved his masterly ability as a statesman, as well as a divine, combined with his steadfast belief in the Roman Church as a civilizing and spiritual power made him stand out prominently as one of the most remarkable men of the last century. When only thirty-three years old, he was selected, by Pope Oregon', to fill one of the most important positions in the church, that of papal nuncio to Brussels. Descended from an old patrician family, Gioacchino Pecci, inherited the aristocratic principles of his fathers, but his early life be ing spent among the poor in the village of Carpineto, in Central Italy, he learned the lessons of democracy, and in his life has tried to harmonize the two extremes. He studied at the Collegio Romano, grad uated in law and theology, and became a favorite with Pope Gregory XVI., who named him a prelate of his household. Had not Gregory died, Pecci would have been cardinal in 1846, but it was not until 1853 that Pius IX. saw fit to confer on him the cardinal's hat. Pius IX. died in 1878, and on the eigh teenth of February the conclave of cardinals convened; and on the twentieth, Cardinal Pecci, archbishop of Perugia, received fortyfive votes, and was declared Pope. For over twenty-five years he was
the head of the Roman Catholic Church, wielding supreme power over 250,000,000 followers of that faith, having more author ity and commanding more willing obedience than any monarch in the world. Anything relating to the election and coronation of his successor must be of interest to the entire community of nations and of more than passing importance to the Christian world. The election of the Pope was vested in the College of Cardinals by a decree of Pope Nicholas II. in 1059. Prior to that date the Pope was elected by the bishops, priests and people of the Roman Catholic Church. Kings and rulers often interfered in the elec tion, and Nicholas took steps to prevent any such scandal in the future. In the College of Cardinals provision was made for the representation pf all the ancient electoral bodies, the cardinal-bishops repre senting the bishops of the Roman synod, the cardinal-priests, the parish clergy, and the cardinal-deacons, the heads of the popular electoral districts of the city. The College consists, when at its full strength, of seventy members, vis.: six bishops, fifty priests and fourteen deacons. It is very seldom, how ever, that the College is full, for the Pope is usually too good a politician not to leave a number of vacancies to be filled in case of a special emergency. Ten days after the death of the Pope the College of Cardinals is convened to elect his successor. The cardinals are shut up, in what is called "the conclave," the entrance to the building being walled up, preventing all communication with the outer world, until the election shall have been effected. An election requires a two-thirds vote of the entire college. Twice a day, during the conclave, each
