numerous added to my own. They are at Nice, and propose to be

F R O M M A N N 21 J A N U A R Y
1775
73
numerous added to my own. They are at Nice, and propose to be
here in March, if the weather and Lady Lucy's health (which, I hear,
is bad) will permit her to set out so soon.
T h e Conclave is as busy as ever, not in choosing a pope, but in
defeating the cabals that each party3 forms. M a n y of the cardinals
are ill. Cardinal Colonna, the Vicar, left it,4 and all are tired of their
confinement and of their childish play of making a pope twice a day,
which they are obliged to assist at, though each old boy well knows
that he should be severely scourged, should he attempt to do anything of his o w n head. W h a t do you say to the drama^ which I sent
you? A n d what will you say w h e n I n o w tell you that the real author
of it is no less a great m a n than Prince Ghigi, the Marshal of the
Conclave, w h o is a poet?6 W h a t zealous Catholick at a distance would
believe that under the very wings of the Holy Ghost anyone should
dare to put the sacred members of the Church, from w h o m a god
upon earth is to turn out, with such ridicule? In the meantime,
however, the poor Florentin A b b e 7 remains in prison. His person
has already cost the Conclavefivehundred crowns. M u c h more will
be required to indemnify him for so long a false imprisonment.
(ante i. 137, 481). T h e head of that family claves, had been confirmed in this position by Clement X I V in 1770 (Encicloin 1775 was Carlo's grandson, Carlo Maria
pedia italiana, sub Chigi; Gaetano M o Giuseppe Rinuccini (ante i. 473, n. 15;
Gazzetta toscana 17 July 1790, xxv. 113). roni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ec3. 'The two parties in the Conclave [are] clesiastica, Venice, 1840-79, xiii. 84). Sertor is now accepted as the author of II
called the Bourbonists and the Zelanti;
Conclave (ante 13 Dec. 1774, n. 4). 'Dans
the chief view of the latter is to be totally
la nuit du 21 au 22 novembre, le Prince
independent of those Courts' (Mann to
Chigi, marechal du Conclave, eut ordre
Rochford 21 Jan., S.P. 98/80 f. 10).
d'en ouvrir la porte au juge Gabrieli, qui
4. Marcantonio Colonna (1724-93), cardinal, 1759 (ante ii. 545, n. 34; Enciclo- y entra avec une escorte de soldats, et fit
pedia cattolica, Vatican City, 1948-54, iv.des recherches chez plusieurs conclavistes,
que l'on soupconnait avoir pu participer a
20). 'In the last week, Cardinal Colonna,
w h o is Grand Vicar of the See of R o m e , quelques-unes des satires . . . mais la
visite fut sans effet' (Gazette de Leyde 17
was obliged to leave the Conclave on acJan. sub Bologna 25 Dec. 1774).
count of his health' (Mann to Rochford
7. Gaetano Sertor, imprisoned 25 July
21 Jan., loc. cit.). O n 10 Dec. it was re1775 at Cori (ante 27 Dec. 1774, n. 5;
ported that Colonna had left his cell for
Gazette de Leyde 22 Aug.), was eventually
the vacant one of Cardinal de Rossi; then
released, and returned to Florence in 1776
'Le Cardinal Vicaire Colonna en est
(Gazzetta toscana 6 April 1776, xi. 55),
sorti . . . le 9 Janvier, pour aller se
having been exiled from R o m e . Cardinal
retablir a son hotel,' on pretext of a
'fluxion sur les yeux' (Gazette de Leyde Zelada, one of the most injured personages in // Conclave, nevertheless gave him
3 Jan., 3 Feb., 28 Feb.).
100 scudi to retire to Florence (Gazette de
5. II Conclave (ante 13 Dec. 1774).
6. Principe Sigismondo Chigi (1736-93), Leyde 5 March 1776; Moroni, op. cit. liii.
whose family had been declared in 1712
89)to be hereditary marshals of the con-