Conclave

Also 8 -cleave. [a. F. conclave:—L. conclāve, pl. conclāvia, a place that may be locked up, f. con- together + clāvis key.]

  † 1.  A private room, inner chamber, closet. Obs.

a. 1400.  Cov. Myst., 15. Pylat sendyth iiil knytes … To keep the blody body in his dede conclave.

1560.  Rolland, Crt. Venus, II. 591. In ane conclaue all maid of Christall cleir: Inclusit thay war.

1623.  Cockeram, Conclaue, an inner parlour [ed. 1626 adds a priuie roome, a closet].

a. 1646.  J. Gregory, Posthuma (1650), 12. That they [the Septuagint translators] were placed everie one in a several Conclave.

1753.  Mrs. Delany, Corr., 20 Nov. (1861), III. 241. The Duchess has fitted up the little room out of her conclave that opens into the garden in the Gothic taste.

  b.  fig.

a. 1626.  Bacon, New Atl., 11. For the Situation of it (as his Lordship said) in the secret Conclave of such a vast Sea mought cause it.

1664.  Evelyn, Sylva (1776), 147. At the first peeping out of the Winter Concleave.

  2.  spec. The place in which the Cardinals meet in private for the election of a Pope.

1393.  Gower, Conf., I. 254. The cardinals, that wolden save The forme of lawe in the conclave, Gon for to chese a new pope.

1494.  Fabyan, VII. 525. Y^e cardynallys beyng in y^e conclaue or counceyll chaumbre, where y^e pope is accustomyd to be chosen.

1691.  W. B., Hist. Rom. Conclave, i. 1. ’Tis he too that takes care to have the Conclave built with Timber.

1883.  Addis & Arnold, Cath. Dict., s.v., The large halls of the palace are so divided by wooden partitions as to furnish a number of sets of small apartments … all opening upon a corridor … On the tenth day a solemn Mass of the Holy Ghost is said in the Vatican church, and after it the Cardinals form a procession and proceed to the conclave, taking up their respective apartments as the lot has distributed them.

  3.  The assembly of cardinals met for the election of a Pope.

1625.  Heylin, Microcosmos, 181. Allotting it to the Conclaue of Cardinals.

1651.  Reliq. Wotton., 360. He had been long a Cardinall and at two or three Conclaves or Elections of Popes.

1656.  Bramhall, Replic., v. 205. Whom does the Conclave chuse? An uniuersall Pastor? No, but expressely a Bishop of Rome.

1841.  W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 53. A conclave, which opened at Venice in March 1800, had raised to the papal chair Cardinal Chiaramonti.

  b.  loosely. The body of cardinals.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. ii. 100. I … thanke the holy Conclaue for their loues.

1839.  Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 23. When the news … reached Rome, the conclave was furious.

  c.  attrib.

1681.  Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 39. So conclave fathers do conclude. Ibid., 157. A conclave brother.

1686.  J. Serjeant, Hist. Monast. Conv., A iv a. In the Conclave Election of a Pope.

  4.  transf. Any private or close assembly, esp. of an ecclesiastical character.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 60. As the Archbishop was sitting beneth in a conclave with his felow Bishops about him, consulting togither.

1635.  Austin, Medit., 68. The Tenet and Conclusion of the Sanhedrim (the great Councell or Conclave of the Rabbins).

1808.  Scott, Marm., II. xviii. A cresset … dimly served to show The awful conclave met below.

1856.  Miss Mulock, J. Halifax, 329. The respectable conclave above-stairs.

1866.  Motley, Dutch Rep., I. iii. 108. The three … who composed the secret conclave or cabinet.

  5.  Phrase. In conclave (in senses 3 and 4).

1524.  Wolsey, in Fiddes, Life, ii. (1726), 72. The Cardinals then being in conclave.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 795. The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat.

1845.  Disraeli, Sybil, 259. You yourself are ever brooding, and ever in conclave too, with persons who … are the preachers of violence.

1862.  C. Stretton, Cheq. Life, I. 20. The head-master … happened to be sitting in conclave with some of the assistant teachers.