The Cologne Gazette has published this week a Papal Brief
on the subject of the Conclave to be held on the death of the pre- sent Pope, for the election of his successor, the authenticity of which has been vehemently denied by the Germania in Berlin and the Univers in Paris, and reaffirmed during the week, the Latin text having been given on Friday. It seems pretty clear that no such Brief has yet been issued,—that it has not been received by the Cardinals resident in France, for instance, as it must have been if issued,—but most probable that the draft of such a Brief really exists, and that some such Brief is in contem- plation by the present Pope. We have commented on its dubious portions and on its general policy elsewhere. Here we may add that it does not go nearly so much into detail as the famous Bull of Pius VI., issued from his prison on the 13th November, 1798. This Brief refers to that Bull as a precedent, declares that the enemies of the Church are so strong that a free election at Rome is hardly to be hoped for, and directs that all rules may be dispensed with which, like that imposing the necessity of electing the new Pope in the place where the last Pope died, or otherwise regulating usages and ceremonies, "may be omitted, without detriment to the canonical
validity of the act." On the whole, we believe the Brief to be a copy (perhaps annotated with marginal suggestions which, in the copy, have got embodied in the text) of a rough draft really under the Pope's consideration.
