CARDINAL RAPHAEL MERRY DEL VAL 309 



Shortly after his return to Rome he was made President of 

 the Accademia dei Nobili Ecclesiastici and served until 1901, 

 as the head of the institution in which he himself had been 

 educated. On April 19, 1900, he was consecrated titular Arch- 

 bishop of Nice, and two years later was translated to be titular 

 Archbishop of Nicosia. In this latter year he also published 

 his first book, "The Truth of the Papal Claims," and in 1902 

 revisited London as the Papal Envoy at the coronation of King 

 Edward VII, where he was well received. 



Owing to the death of Mgr. Volpini a few days before 

 Leo XIII died in 1903, a new Secretary, for the Consistory 

 assembled to elect a new Pope, was required, and the choice 

 by the vote of the College of Cardinals fell upon Mgr. Merry 

 del Val. He was thus brought into daily personal contact with 

 the new Pope, Pius X, to whom after his election as Pope 

 he acted as Secretary of State pending a permanent appoint- 

 ment. One day in the early part of October, 1903, as Mgr. 

 Merry del Val was leaving the Pope's room with a basketful 

 of correspondence and papers which had just been dealt with, 

 Pius X called him back for a moment and handed him another 

 letter, remarking casually, "Monsignor, this is also for you." 

 Mgr. Merry del Val jammed it down on top of the pile in the 

 basket and passed on into his own apartment, where he emp- 

 tied the basket on his table and began to go through the vari- 

 ous papers and letters. When he came to the last letter given 

 him, he found to his surprise that it was a letter written by the 

 Pope's own hand, appointing him permanent Secretary of 

 State, and stating that His Holiness was convinced from the 

 way in which the business of the office was handled that he 

 would look no further for a competent Secretary of State. 

 The surprise and shock were so sudden that the newly ap- 

 pointed Secretary of State almost fell from his chair, and a 

 friend who was in the room ran to assist him, picked up the 

 letter, and thus its contents became known. 



On the 1 2th of November, 1903, at the first public consis- 

 tory held after his election, Pope Pius X created the young 

 Secretary of State a cardinal priest in the Sistine chapel 

 with the title of the Church of Saint Praxedes. The cardinals 

 represent the original archdiocese and province of Rome, with 

 the six cardinal bishops, suflfragan to the Pope as archbishop; 

 the fifty-four cardinal priests representing the ancient par- 



