Why can it not also make him a pope? The world is
indeed so strange!"(*)
(*) Juan Angelo Braschi, whom Pope Clement XIV. made a
cardinal, was in fact Ganganelli's successor, and took
possession of the papal chair as Pius VI. He was chosen
after a very stormy conclave and indeed the different
parties voted for him on the ground that he belonged to no
party, and because they thought he was so very much occupied
with his own beauty that he would think of nothing else,
and, while occupied with the care of his face, would leave
the cares of state to others.
"What dreams those are," murmured Lorenzo, shrugging his shoulders; "the
idea that a Braschi could be the successor of the noble Ganganelli!"
Many cardinals and princes of the Church, many noblemen and foreign
ambassadors, were assembled in the pope's audience-room, and as
Ganganelli entered, they all received him with joyful acclamations,
and humbly fell upon their knees before the head of the church, the
vicegerent of God, who, with solemn majesty, bestowed upon them his
blessing, and then condescendingly conversed with them. That was a
ceremony to which the pope was obliged to subject himself once a week,
and which he reckoned as not one of the least of the troubles attendant
upon his exalted position.
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