One of the claims of the church is that of a Divine Promise of Her Maintenance until the end of the world. It is interesting to the student of history to notice that, from time to time, Her responsible authorities comport themselves as though they had no faith in the validity of that prediction. They seem to think that its fulfilment solely depends upon their own exertions. The strange conviction of the necessity of his present existence, which is innate in the ordinary man, is perhaps the explanation of the extraordinary expenditure of energy to avert death, to invalidate the most fervent and frequent professions of belief in The Life Of The World To Come, to consolidate human institutions and human plans, which obtains on such occasions as the close of a prelacy or the end of a pontificate. If it be true that actions speak louder than words, then the confusion attendant on a Pope’s death must tell a sorry tale. On the sixth of August 1458 the Lord Calixtus P.P. III lay dying in the Vatican. Rome was in a turmoil. Colonna and Orsini were sharpening their swords. The banished cardinals were hurrying back for the ensuing Conclave. The four loyal cardinals were fortified in their palaces. Only the Cardinal-Nephews attended at the Pope’s bedside. The curious privilege which was accorded to these last, at this period, could not be exercised in the present case. By the very conditions of their juniority in the Sacred College, added to the powerful influence which they were supposed to hold over the reigning Pontiff, the Cardinal-Nephews were the objects of intense dislike (to put it mildly) on the part of their colleagues. Their elevation was an offence; their enrichment, a matter for envy; their indifference to opinion, a matter for positive hatred. The only consolation to the other cardinals, creatures of previous Pontiffs, which their situation held, was that it must end with the demise of their creator. When their Pontifical Uncle ceased to live in this world, the Cardinal-Nephews sank at once to their proper place in the Sacred College. Under these circumstances, the said Cardinal-Nephews were used to make their hay while yet the sun was shining, to avail themselves of their opportunities for securing a satisfactory future, as junior cardinals, by the acquisition of property, real estate, benefices, jewels, or money, at the pleasure of the Pope. And when their time was drawing near its close, when their August Uncle was entering His last agony, it was the custom for the Cardinal-Nephews to plunder the apostolic palace of any valuables which already had not passed into their hands. This privilege was their last chance; for, at the instant of the Pontiff’s death, the Cardinal-Chamberlain assumes possession as representative of the curia; and, in an age when self aggrandisement was not less a ruling passion than at the present hour, the practice was at least connived at, on the principle that every dog should be allowed to have its day.