by Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, Cardinal Secretary of State of Pope Leo XIII. In 1902 he was the papal representative to the coronation of King Edward VII, accompanied by Eugenio Pacelli. He served as secretary of the conclave of 1903 that elected Pope Pius X. By a coincidence, the secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, who was also the secretary of the College of Cardinals and therefore of the conclave, had died almost at the same time as Leo XIII. In haste, the cardinals chose as his successor Archbishop Merry del Val, who had been ordained a bishop only three years before. The choice had been made from a pool of three names. The two rejected candidates were the substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, Giacomo Della Chiesa, and Pietro Gasparri, then serving as the secretary for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. The preference shown to the youngest and least experienced of the three was interpreted as the first defeat of the Rampolla coalition, and a foreshadowing of what would happen at the conclave. Austrian veto at papal conclave According to Rafael Merry del Val, during the conclave of 1903, in which he served in the role of Secretary of the Conclave, Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko of Kraków came to see him, demanding to announce his veto against Cardinal Rampolla in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. Archbishop Merry Del Val protested and refused even to accept the document, which in the heat of the debate fell onto the floor and was picked back up by Cardinal Puzyna. Cardinal Puzyna announced the veto anyway, in the presence of the Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel. The College of Cardinals was outraged. Rampolla, according to Merry del Val, actually gained votes after the veto. Yet later, Merry del Val opined to the historian Ludwig von Pastor that Rampolla would never have had a chance of being elected even if the veto had not been announced, because the cardinals wanted a new direction after the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII, and Rampolla had been permanently associated with that pontificate. After his election, the new Pope Pius X decreed automatic excommunication for anyone trying to influence a conclave with a threat or veto. Cardinal Secretary of State After a two-month trial period, Pius X named Merry del Val pro-Secretary of State. That November he became the first cardinal