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Cardinal

Next to the Pope, in the Church's hierarchy, come the Cardinals. They are the counsellors of the Pontiff in many important matters pertaining to the government of the universal Church, and some of them exercise extensive jurisdiction in the various " Congregations " and tribunals which have been instituted for the administration of Church law. They form, so to speak, the Senate of the Church. The word Cardinal is derived from the Latin "cardo," a hinge. They are, as it were, so necessary to the government and discipline of the Church that it may be said to revolve around them as a door on its hinges.

The office of Cardinal is a dignity only; the person who holds it has not received any new Order. It merely makes him higher in rank than other prelates. He is second to none but the Pope, and takes precedence of all other dignitaries in the Church. He is considered equal in rank to a prince of a reigning house, and is often spoken of as a "Prince of the Church." He is responsible to the Pope only, and may be deposed by him alone.

In the 11th century the term cardinal appears to have come into use to designate the "bishops collateral to the Pope," those whose sees are in the neighborhood of Rome, and to the clergy of the principal churches, parishes or tituli of the city; but probably cardinalis was at first said of a principal church rather than of its ministers. Nor was the term cardinal at first restricted to designation of churches and their clergy in Rome and its vicinity; for a long time, even down to 1585, date of the bull Postquam of Sixtus V, which forbade the application of the term to any but members of the sacred college, it was customary to call the ecclesiastics attached to mother-churches or to all cathedrals even, cardinalcs.

The use of the word cardo or its equivalent to express the relation of a bishop to his clergy and people is very ancient: Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch (d. about 202), speaks of the bishop of a church as the pivot on which it turned. Till the issuance of the bull Postquam the title of cardinals was currently bestowed, but not by authority from the centre, upon the clergy of cathedral chapters in countries beyond the Alps, as those of the sees of Bourges, Metz. Cologne, Compostella and other cities in Germany, Spain and France; even in Italy the same usage was common; for it was with the name Cardinalis as with the name Papa: they both were originally applied to church dignitaries, to pastors and Church officers generally; later their application was restricted.

Ever since the reign of Pope Nicholas II the cardinals have possessed the privilege of electing the Pope. The decree of Pope Nicholas (1059) provides that on the death of the Pope the cardinal-bishops shall assemble in.council and then the rest of the sacred college shall join them. In naming the Pope the college must take into account the choice of the clergy and people; only in case no Roman priest is found eligible in every way, shall the choice fall upon one that is not a Roman. In the 12th century the sacred college comprised seven cardinal bishops of the "suburbicarian" churches, Ostia, Rufina, Porto, Albano, Tusculum, Sabina and Palestrina; the cardinal-priests were 28, and were the rectors of as many churches in the city; there were 18 cardinal-deacons, of whom 14 belonged to the clerical staff of churches in the city and 4 to the papal court or household.

Like other Church offices and Church dignities, the cardinalate became an object of ambition or of cupidity; popes bestowed the honor, princes and popes bestowed the dignity and the emoluments of episcopal and primatial sees, with the cardinalate annexed upon minors and infants; thus, John de Medici was raised to the cardinalate at the age of 14 years, being already vested with a number of highest Church dignities; and as late as 1740 a prince of the house of Bourbon was archbishop of Toledo and cardinal at the age of eight years.

The Cardinals are appointed solely by the Sovereign Pontiff. By a law made in 1586, the membership of the "College of Cardinals" (or "Sacred College," as it is sometimes called) was not permitted to exceed seventy, and generally there are several vacancies. They are taken from many nations, although the number of Italian Cardinals is usually greater than all the others combined.

They were of three grades by 1917: Cardinal Bishops, who were six in number, being the Bishops of certain suburban sees around Rome; Cardinal Priests, so called, although these, nearly always, are Bishops also; they may number fifty; and Cardinal Deacons, of whom there were fourteen; these are priests, or may be merely in Minor Orders.

The scarlet hat is distinctive of the cardinalitial dignity, and above the double cross in the arms of the archbishop who is a cardinal is the figure of the scarlet hat with its tasseled pendants. The gown of the cardinal is scarlet (purpura, commonly rendered purple, but our "purple" in the language of the ritual is violet, violaceus). Hence "to receive the hat" means to be made a cardinal; and to aspire to the purple is to aim at the cardinalitial dignity. Etiquette requires that a cardinal be addressed as Eminence; in English usually "your Eminence,0 and every cardinal is eminentissimus. A bishop or archbishop who is a cardinal uses such a formula as the following in official instruments (the example is taken from the approbation of a book by an archbishop of Mechlin or Malines in Belgium) : "Engelbert, by the divine mercy, cardinal priest of the holy Roman Church, of the title of Saint Bartholomew in the Island, archbishop of Mechlin, primate of Belgium," etc.

The principal duty of the Cardinals is to assist and advise the Pope in the governing of the Church. This is done in many ways - in "Papal Consistories" (in which details of Church administration are discussed and settled, such as the appointing and transferring of bishops, the division and creation of dioceses, etc.), and in "Congregations," so called, in which are decided questions of discipline, subject to the approval of the Pope. The Cardinals have also a most important function when the Holy See becomes vacant, for, as explained in the preceding chapter, they elect the new Pope.

A Legate, in the practice of the Roman Church, is a person sent as a representative of the Pope to a government or to the bishops and faithful of a country. He may be a Cardinal, or a prelate of lower rank. There are several grades. The highest are Legates properly so called, who have jurisdiction in many things which otherwise would be referred to the Pope, and who act as resident ambassadors of the Holy See in capitals where the Papal Government is recognized. Next comes Nuncios, sent to certain European States, whose duties are much like those of the preceding. Some representatives of the Holy See bear the title of Apostolic Delegate, and of these one of the most important is the prelate who represents the Holy Father in this country. He has broad powers, and from his decision there is no appeal to the Roman See; in other words, an ecclesiastical matter may be appealed from a diocesan or metropolitan tribunal either to Rome or to the Delegate, but if the appeal is made to him his decision is final.

Under the Latin Code of Canon Law 1983, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church constitute a special College, whose prerogative it is to elect the Roman Pontiff in accordance with the norms of a special law. The Cardinals are also available to the Roman Pontiff, either acting collegially, when they are summoned together to deal with questions of major importance, or acting individually, that is, in the offices which they hold in assisting the Roman Pontiff especially in the daily care of the universal Church.

The College of Cardinals is divided into three orders: the episcopal order, to which belong those Cardinals to whom the Roman Pontiff assigns the title of a suburbicarian Church, and eastern-rite Patriarchs who are made members of the College of Cardinals; the presbyteral order, and the diaconal order. Cardinal priests and Cardinal deacons are each assigned a title or a deaconry in Rome by the Roman Pontiff. Eastern Patriarchs within the College of Cardinals have their patriarchal see as a title. The Cardinal Dean has the title of the diocese of Ostia, together with that of any other church to which he already has a title.

Paul VI, with the Motu Proprio Ingravescentem aetatem, of 21 November 1970, established that when Cardinals reached the age of 80: a) they ceased to be members of the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and of all the Permanent Organisms of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State; b) they become ineligible to elect the Roman Pontiff and to enter the Conclave. In the Secret Consistory of 5 November 1973 Paul VI established that the maximum number of Cardinals that have the right to elect the Roman Pontiff be set at 120 (A.A.S., 1973, Vol. LXV, p. 163). John Paul II, in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici gregis of 22 February 1996 reconfirms this directive.