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The primitive Senate is credited with two standing powers—the patrum auctoritas and the initiation of an interregnum. Neither of these prerogatives was directly contemplated by the constitution, and the Senate never becomes a corporation possessing powers in its own right until the time of the Empire. Tradition mentions the “authority of the fathers” as being necessary for the appointment of a new king; it leaves it to be inferred that it was required for the validity of laws as well, an inference probably not true of the period of the monarchy. As we have already explained, it was a legal right only in so far as it was an extreme instance of the necessity the magistrate was under of taking advice. Perhaps towards the close of the monarchy, with reference to the choice of a successor to the throne, custom had made it a standing prerogative. The interregnum rests on a somewhat different basis; it was a power which religion enjoined should be in the hands of the whole patrician community—usage had delegated the power to the patrician Senate; so here again we have a prerogative which rested wholly on custom.