conclave

1. (Roman Catholicism)Examples: "On Friday, St. John's Day, the 27th of December, the cardinals entered the conclave. […] Two hours before nightfall, the whole body met again in a chapel within the conclave, and after the bull of pope Julius [II] against simoniacal practices had been read, every cardinal, in the presence of the foreign ambassadors, took his corporal oath upon the Holy Evangelists to observe the bull to the best of his abilities."

2. (Roman Catholicism)Examples: "Of the ten Cardinals now forming the Conclave, five voted for Cardinal Geoffredo Castiglione [later Pope Celestine IV], a Milanese, nephew to Urban III, and three for Cardinal Romano [da Porto]."; "Two years afterwards Pius IX died, and the Conclave met in the Vatican to choose his successor. Its deliberations were short."

3. (Roman Catholicism)Examples: "[Thomas] VVol[sey]. […] Rome (the Nurſe of Iudgement) / Inuited by your Noble ſelfe, hath ſent / One generall Tongue vnto vs. This good man, / This iuſt and learned Prieſt, Cardnall Campeius [Lorenzo Campeggio], / VVhom once more, I preſent vnto your Highneſſe. / Kin[g Henry VIII]. And once more in mine armes I bid him vvelcome, / And thanke the holy Conclaue for their loues, / They haue ſent me ſuch a Man, I vvould haue vviſh'd for."broadly

4. (Roman Catholicism)Examples: "in conclave"; "papal conclave"; "The ſaid Duke Ferdinando [I de’ Medici] vvas reputed a vviſe and vvarie Prince, and it vvas a ſolid vviſdom rather than a Formall. He had been long a Cardinall, and at tvvo or three Conclaves (as they call them) or Elections of Popes."

5. (Roman Catholicism)Examples: "The morrow after which was the thirde daye of the Counſayle, as the Archbiſhop was ſitting beneth in a conclaue with his felow Biſhops about him, conſulting together, the ſayde Biſhops labored by ſundry wayes and meanes, and with verie vehement perſwaſions and learned arguments to wyll him to obedience and to ſubmit himſelfe to the king, […]"; "The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim / In cloſe receſs and ſecret conclave ſat / A thouſand Demy-Gods on golden ſeat's, / Frequent and full."; "Appalled the astonished conclave sate; / With stupid eyes, the men of fate / Gazed on the light inspired form, / And listened for the avenging storm; […]"broadly

6. (obsolete) A private chamber or room.Examples: "[W]e in Europe, (notvvithſtanding all the remote Diſcoueries, and Nauigations of this laſt Age) neuer heard any of the leaſt Inkling or Glimſe of this Iſland. […] [W]ee neuer heard tell of any Shipp of theirs, that had been ſeene to arriue vpon any ſhore of Europe; […] For the Situation of it (as his Lordſhip ſaid,) in the ſecret Conclaue of ſuch a vaſt Sea mought cauſe it."; "[…] John Zonaras [Joannes Zonaras] […] vvriteth […] That the Interpreters of the Lavv [the translators of the Septuagint] vvere divided into couples, and that they vvere placed every one in a ſeveral Conclave: […]"; "[P]lacing the Caſes, Pots, &c. under this Shelter, vvhen either at the firſt Peeping out of the VVinter Concleave, or during the increaſing Heat of Summer, they ſo are ranged and diſpoſed, as to adorn a noble Area of a moſt magnificent Paradiſian Dining-Room to the Top of Hortulean Pomp and Bliſs, ſuperior to all the artificial Furniture of the greateſt Prince's Court."Synonyms: closetobsolete