Roman bibliophilists anxious to possess—what is rare indeed—a complete set (_una biblioteca_, as the Italians say) of the funeral orations pronounced over the popes, and of the hortatory discourses addressed to the Sacred College about to enter conclave, eagerly contend at book-sales for these pamphlets, which are always in the choicest Latin of the age, and sometimes have a sentimental value on account of the subsequent fortunes, or misfortunes, of their authors. They are much more than mere literary curiosities for book-worms to feed upon. The form of the title-page, excepting of course in proper names and dates, is about the same in all; for instance, _Oratio habita ad Collegium Cardinalium in funere Innocentii IX., Pont. Max., vi. Id. Januarii, 1592_: Romæ, 1592, in 4to: by Father Giustiniani, a famous Jesuit; and _Oratio habita in Basilica SS. Apostolorum Petri et Pauli pridie Kalend. Aprilis, 1721, ad Emos. et Rmos. cardinales conclave ingressuros pro Summo Pontifice eligendo_: Romæ, ex Typographia Vaticana, 1721, in 4to: by Camillo de Mari, Bishop of Aria. Footnote 33: Arnulfus of Seez apud Muratori, _Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, tom. iii. p. 429, says that on this occasion the cardinals told the elect of their choice: _Si acquiescis, exhibemus obsequium; si recusas, exigimus de inobedientia pœnam_; and on his still hesitating _parabant excommunicationis præferre sententiam_. Footnote 34: This notarial function which the first master of ceremonies here performs is the reason why he is always an apostolic prothonotary; but his title to this prelatic rank rests entirely on _custom_, since he is not appointed by papal brief, as others are. It is by a similar analogy, although in matters theological, that the master of the Sacred Palace, who is always a Dominican, ranks with the auditors of the _Rota_. Footnote 35: “Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses: they shall worship thee with their face toward the earth, and they shall lick up the dust of thy feet.”—Isaias xlix. 23, which St. Jerome interprets of the apostles; but in Peter’s successors all honors and prerogatives continue. A very learned writer of the last century, Gaetano Cenni, has gone profoundly into the historical and antiquarian part of this singular and most venerable custom, in his dissertation _Sul Bacio De’ Piedi Del Romano Pontefice_, which is the thirty-fourth of the third volume of Zaccaria’s great collection of dissertations on subjects of ecclesiastical history—_Raccolta Di Dissertazioni Di Storia Ecclesiastica_.... Per cura Di Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, etc. Seconda edizione. Four vols. Rome, 1841. Footnote 36: The celebrated antiquarian Cancellieri has written with his usual diffuseness and erudition on this matter in a little work, _Notizie sopra l’Origine e l’uso dell’ Anello Pescatorio_, etc., etc., published at Rome in 1823. Footnote 37: