NO CERTAIN RULE FOR ELECTING POPES. 133 We may alsonote, that the election of Cornelius being contested, he more solemnly acquainted all the bishops of the world with his case, and so obtained their approbation in a way more than ordi- nary.Euseb. 13. If God had designed this derivation of universal sovereignty, it is probable that he would have prescribed some certain, standing, immutable way of election, and imparted the right to certain per- sons, and not left it at such uncertainty, to the chances of time, so that the manner of election has been often changed, and the power of it tossed into divers hands: "At several times there have been observed several ways as to the election of the Roman pontiffs, according as the necessity and expediency of the church required."' Of old it was, as other elections, managed by nomination of the clergy and suffrage of the people. Afterward the emperors assumed to themselves the nomination or approbation of them: " For then nothing was done by the clergy in the choice of the pope, unless the emperor had approved his election."' " But he, seeing the prince's consent was required, sent messengers with letters, to entreat Mauritius that he wouldnot suffer the election made by the clergy and people of Rome in that case to be valid."' " Leo VIII., being tired out with the inconstancy of the Romans, transferred thewhole power and authority of choosing the pope from the clergy and people of Rome to the emperor."' At some times the clergy had no hand in the election, but popes were intruded by powerful men or women at their pleasure.' Afterwards the cardinals, that is, some of the chiefRoman clergy, appropriated the election to themselves, by the decree of Pope Nicholas II. in his Lateran synod.' Sometimes, out of course, general synods assumed the choice to themselves; as at Constance, Pisa, and Basil. 14. From the premises, to conclude the pope's title to St Peter's 1 Et licet diversis temporibus diversi modi super electione Romanorum pontificum observati aunt, prout necessitas et utilitas ecclesiæ exposcebat, &c.Conc. Bas., sees. xxxvii. p. 98. Vide Grat. Dist. lxiii. per tot. 3 Nil enim tuna a clero in eligendo pontifice actum erat, nisi ejus electionem impe- rator approbasset.Plat. in Pelag. II. Is autem, cum principie consensus requireretur, nuncios cura literie miserat, qui Mauritium obsecrarent, ne pateretur electionemcleri et populi Romani ea in re valere. Plat. in Greg. M. Vide Grat. Dist. lxiii., &c. + Cone., tom. vii. p. 182, Leo VIII. Romanorum inconstantiam perteesus, auctori- tatem omnem eligendi pontificis a clero populoque Romano ad imperatorem transtulit. Plat. in Leo VIII., p. 291. Nusquam cleri eligentis, vel postea consentientis aliqua mentio. Baron., ann. cxii. § 8, ann. cxxxi. § 1. " There was nowhere any mention of the clergy electing, or afterward consenting." 6 Grat. Dist. xxiii. cap. 1; Plat. in Ric. IL
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