we might discuss the election of a pontiff, thus great being the necessity for holding the said discussion with all due deliberation, and coming to a conclusion after using the most guarded circumspection in so doing. Accordingly, after the solemn service of the mass had been performed in honor of the Holy Ghost, the wishes of all directed their views upon ourselves, insufficient as we are, perhaps thinking, in their human sagacity, to find the silver cup in the sack of Benjamin ; although many of them might, on the grounds of age, rank, and merit, have been more worthily called to the elevation of a dignity so ex alted. And, although our sense of our inefficiency utterly recoiled from the weight of a dignity so great, as being a burden unsuited to the weakness of our shoulders, still, confiding in the example of Him, who strengthened the weakness of Saint Peter, which had been previously tested by his three denials, after the words of his thrice-reiterated confession, by bestowing on him the guidance of His sheep ; that which the manifold imperfections of our nature declined, we accepted at their desire, lest our opposition thereto might produce injury, by reason of prolonged divisions, or we might seem, in a measure, to be struggling against the ordinance of God, hoping that He who giveth to all abundantly and grudgeth not, and who raised the youngest son,'6 the man after His own heart, to be king, will raise up from the stones a son to Abraham, calling the things which are not, even as the things which are, and that by raising up the weak, He will put the strong to confusion. "Wherefore, we, undertaking the onerous duties of the government of the church, and placing no small confidence in you; whom the Lord hath willed to be partakers in our cares, to the end that the weight of a burden so great may press the more lightly upon us1, do ask, advise, and exhort the whole of you, in the Lord, to aid our inefficiency with your prayers unto the Lord, and, diligently and profitably watching over the flock of the Lord that has been entrusted to us and to you, to show yourselves ready to make up for our defects, and with watchful zeal to aid in supporting the weight of the ecclesiastical dignity which has been conferred upon us. And further, it is our earnest intention to show to you all honor as being distinguished members of the church, and, so far as the Lord shall aid us in so doing, to assist you in your emergencies. Given at the Lateran, on the fifth day before the ides of January." '6 King David.