Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/193

II. in his undertakings. The changes he wrought in the letter of the law were however shortlived, for his immediate successor, Clement VIII., abrogated them by a Consistorial decree of the 26th June 1592, admitted into the body of Alexander VII.'s Bull, in which the very remarkable circumstances are recounted that marked Gregory's act of legislation. Pope Clement tells the world that at 'a secret Consistory held at St. Mark's, on Friday the 13th September 1591, in which the opinions of the Cardinals present, amongst whom was His Holiness (Pope Clement himself), had been not at all asked for, and in spite of many distinctly speaking against, his predecessor nevertheless had declared and decreed that by the Constitution of Pius it was not forbidden to infeoff anew a fief not yet lapsed, when necessity or the manifest and true advantage of the Church demanded this,—that the oath taken to it did not comprehend such a case,—that no one could lawfully swear thus, because it would he contrary to the requirements and manifest advantage of the Church, and that he therefore adjudged and ruled the aforesaid Constitution to he thus understood, that it would be unlawful for anyone hereafter