The consistory was summoned for the twenty-fourth of May. That morning Hadrian woke just on these words of a dream, Oecumenical Council, Pseudopontiff, Heretic. A man with an active brain like His naturally suffers much unconscious cerebration. Very often it happened to Him vividly to dream some scrap or other of something apparently unconnected with the present. He used to wonder at it: mentally note it: generally forget it. Now and then, an event (of which it was the tip) immediately followed; and He scored. Hadrian named to the consistory the Lord Percy of New York as Cardinal-deacon of St. Kyriak-at-the-Baths-of-Diocletian. His Eminency became resplendent in vermilion, tall, refined, reticent, with dark wide dewy eyes. He was admired in silence. The Pope by some accident turned His gaze to Ragna: he had such an aspect as caused His Holiness to look more intently. Ragna's great strong jaw moved as though to munch; and his glance defiantly shifted. "Your Eminency is free to address Us," the Supreme Pontiff said to Him. "I wish rather to address the Sacred College," Ragna answered, rising. Hadrian had an intuition: His face became austere, His voice deliberate. "On the subject of an Oecumenical Council where you may denounce Us as pseudopontiff and heretic?" Ragna hurriedly sat down twitching. Berstein and Vivole muttered of divination and necromancy. "That generally is done," the Pope continued in the tone of one merely selecting fringe for footstools,--"That generally is done by oblique-eyed cardinals" (He meant 'envious' but He used the Latin of Horace) "who cannot accustom themselves to new pontiffs. Rovere ululated for an Oecumenical Council when he found Our predecessor Alexander antipathetic; and there be other examples. But Lord Cardinals, if such an idea should present itself or should be presented to you, be ye mindful that none but the Supreme Pontiff can convoke an Oecumenical Council, and also that the decrees of an Oecumenical Council are ineffective unless they be promulgated with the express sanction of the Supreme Pontiff. Who would sanction decrees ordaining his own deposition? Who could? If We pronounce Ourself to be a pseudopontiff, what would be the value of such pronunciation? Ye were Our electors. We did not force you to elect Us. If We be Pontiff, We will not, and, if We be pseudopontiff, We cannot, depose Ourself. We are conscious of your love and of your loathing for Our person and Our acts. We value the one; and regret the other. But ye voluntarily have sworn obedience to Us; and We claim it. 'Subordination,' so the adage runs" (He was citing the Greek to every Latin's disgust) "'is the mother of saving counsel.' Nothing must and nothing shall obstruct Us. Let that be known. And We should welcome co-operation. Wherefore, Most Eminent Lords and Venerable Fathers, let not the sheep of Christ's Flock be neglected in order that the shepherds may exchange anathemas."