he chalice,--communion-plate and communion-cup playing a
part in the ceremony which has made more than one good Catholic groan
deeply in spirit. The votes are then counted, care being taken that they
correspond in number to the number of cardinals present, and if any
candidate is found to have two-thirds of the votes cast, the election is
complete. If, however, the legal two-thirds are not reached, any voter
may change his vote by saying that he accedes to the votes thrown in
favor of any other candidate. This mode of election is called
_accession_, and has often been found successful where the prominence of
any candidate was sufficient to make it evident that two or three votes
would secure a choice.

_Inspiration_ is another mode of election, not so common as the ballot,
but which, whenever any candidate has succeeded in forming a strong
party, is not without its advantages. Several cardinals call out
together the name of their candidate, and if many of them agree in
calling the same name, the rest are seldom willing to hold out in open
opposition to a choice which after all may be made without them: the
successful candidate always being expected to remember those who
favored, and seldom known to forget those who opposed his election.

A fourth and last mode, never resorted to except in desperate straits,
and when the contest seems interminable, is by _delegation_: the power
of choice being delegated by the cardinals to one or more of their
number, and all solemnly pledging themselves to abide by the decision.
It was thus that Gregory X. was chosen by a delegation of six,--and that
John XXII. became Pope after two years of regular voting had failed to
procure a successor to the Prince of the Apostles. It has been said,
however, that John, who, partly by his talents and partly by fraud, had
raised himself from the lowest walks of life, had no sooner secured a
pledge of concurrence than he announced his own name as that of the
candidate of his choice. Surprised, but not edified, the cardinals made
no opposition to his elevation, for Christendom and folio crammed with
projects and reports: bishops and missionaries transport him in a moment
from England to China, from Egypt to Peru. If you could look into those
piles of papers which are awaiting his signature, you would find
petitions and remonstrances, death-warrants and pardons, political
processes and criminal processes, schemes for a new bishopric or a new
canonizati