CONCLAVE
conclave
Noun
- The set of apartments within which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are continuously secluded while engaged in choosing a pope.
- The group of Roman Catholic cardinals locked in a conclave until they elect a new pope; the body of cardinals
- It was said a cardinal, by reason of his apparent likelihood to step into St. Peter's chair, that in two conclaves he went in pope and came out again cardinal. —
- A private meeting; a close or secret assembly.
- The verdicts pronounced by this conclave (Johnson's Club) on new books, were speedily known over all London. —
The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: conclave
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.