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Show THE OFFICE OF CARDINALS Its DerivationBelong to the Senate of the Church Three Divisions Dean of Sacred College Consecrates New Pope Cardinal Gibbons' Rank How Cardinals Car-dinals Are Created, Past and Present-Meaning Present-Meaning of Cardinal "In Petto" Significance Sig-nificance of Creating Cardinals Meaning Mean-ing of "Sealing of the Lips" Sacred College Seed of the Papacy Modes of Papal Election. (Special Correspondence.) 5 The aproaching visit to Salt Lake of His Emi- J , V nence Cardinal GobbonsY will bo a unique and-a- 1 distinguished compliment paid to our city and to , ' our Right Reverend Bishop. We have been asked so many questions by so many people about the office and duties of Cardinals and 'how they are r ' S ('reated. that we. deem it well, to furnish our readers read-ers with some interesting details on "the subject. I. According to that reliable source, the "Gerar-chia "Gerar-chia Catholica," there have been, from St. Peter I to Pius X., two hundred and sixty-two Popes. The f Senate and Sovereign Council of the Pope in the ' government and administration of the affairs of the church in Home and throughout the world, is composed of a number of very distinguished eccle-i-iasties who are called Cardinals. The office and ' dignity of a member of this body is known as the Cardinalate. There is some dispute among the learned about the precise origin and meaning of the word Cardinal. Cardi-nal. The Catholic Encyclopedia says: ''By th'e priest permanently attached to a church. It bc- came the usual designation of every priest belong- ! ing to a central or Episcopal church, an ecclesias tical cardo. the latin for hinge. Then it became in time equivalent to principalis, that is, excellent, eminent, superior and is so used by St. Augustine in his treatise on baptism. In our own time a Car- ! dinal is a dignitary of the Roman church and a I counsellor to the Pope." While all Cardinals are equal among themselves in all matters of importance, yet in many points of costume, privilege, local office and rank, there are distinctive and differences established by law and fustom. the most important of which follow from the division of the Cardinals into three grades namelv. of bishops, priests and deacons. II. Although the whole number of Sees, of titles r.nd deaconrics, that is, of Cardinals, amounts to seventy-two (six Cardinal bishops, fifty Cardinal priests and sixteen Cardinal deacons), the membership member-ship of the College of Cardinals or Sacred College, is limited since the time of Pope Sixtus V.. 15S5. to seventy. There can be no doubt that the Episcopal Episco-pal sees or dioceses lying nearest to, and, so to fpeak, at the very gates of Rome, have enjoyed ffrom remote antiquity some special pre-eminence; . but it is not easy to determine at what epoch their incumbents began to form a part of the body of Cardinals. It is certain that they belonged to it a thousand vears ago, for it is recorded by Mura-f Mura-f ; tori ( Annals of Italy) that when Anastasius had absented himself from his title for five years without with-out leave, and was residing in Lombardy, three bishops went from Rome to persuade him to return, and the Emperors Louis and Lothaire also interposed inter-posed their good offices to the same effect. These suburban dioceses all received the faith from St. Peter himself. The number of these sees was in ancient times seven, but now and for a long time has been only si . The first of this order is the Bishop of Ostia, near Rome. As Dean of the Sacred College, he has the privilege of consecrating consecrat-ing the Pope. The titles of the carmdal-pnests axe fiftv. some being held by priests who have been con-aerated con-aerated Bishops but have no diocese, or by Bishops snd Arcbishops at the head of dioceses or archdio-rees. archdio-rees. Archbishop Gibbons is is of this order. The most illustriaus; though not the oldest, of the sees filled bv a cardinal-priest is that of St. Lawrence in Lucina, which, by right of senionty, gives its Cardinal precedence in his class. III. The manner of creating Cardinals has differed in different ages. In the earliest period of which there are any details, we know that the Popes created the Cardinals on the ember days of Advent. Ad-vent. In the Middle Ages. Cardinals were created bv the Pope at his residence of the Latern, but before be-fore that period their creation took Plaf.mf three churches, St. Mary Major that of the Twche a Apostles or in the Basilica of St. 1 eter In the mediaeval creations three meetmgs, called l Consistories, were held in the Pope's Palace, of l which two were private and one public In the nr i I J consistory the Pope deputed two Cardinals to visit A? the homes of every sick or Intimately abje nt Car-'?V( Car-'?V( dinal and obtain his opinion on these Pf t t there to be a creation r And if so ofhmt I On the return of the deputies the Pope asked the Cardinals present the same questions. All then I voTed bv ballot, and when the votes were counted. on the number to be created and the P ope cr eatcd or made them Cardinals. The next daj a p nbhc con Pistorv was held in which the names of the Cardi nals were "solemnly proclaimed, and received from the Pope the tJ Hats," with the designation of j their churches m Rome. In more recent times, that is, about iehon Lundoro rcte his celebrated account of the Ro man court, the manner of creating Cardinals was almost the same as at present, except that the now unknown Cardinal-nephew (who was called in Italian Ital-ian "ie Cardinale Padrone") had a large share in the ceremonies, as he doubtless had a decided in-, fluence in the nomination of those to be appointed Cardinals, and that the red "berretta" or hat, was placed on the head of the chosen one by the Pope himself, saying at the same time, ''Esto Cardinalie thou art a Cardinal," and making over him the sign of the cross. ELECTIX OF CARDINALS TODAY. According to the modern ceremonial, the Pope summons a Consistory, and, after delivering an appropriate ap-propriate address, asks the Cardinals their opinion with the customary formula, '"What think ye?" Then, all present, except the Pope, rise, take off their scarlet "berrettas" or caps, and bow assent: whereupon the Pope proceeds to create the new Cardinals with the words: "By the authority of Almighty God, of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul, and of our own we pronounce, etc." The absent ab-sent creations, or appointees to the Cardinalate, receive re-ceive the insignia of their rank by the hands of two Papal messengers; one of whom is a layman and a member of the 'Xoble Guard.''-carrying the "zuc-chetto," "zuc-chetto," or skull-cap, the other, an ecclesiastic of some minor prelatic rank in the Pope's household, bringing the berretta. If the head of the country to which the messengers are sent be a Catholic, he is authorized . to place the cap (brought by the Mon-signor Mon-signor Ablegate) upon the head of the new- Cardinal, Cardi-nal, the function taking place in the Royal or Imperial Im-perial chapel; but in other countries, like England or the United States, a Bishop or an Archbishop is nominated by the Pope for the ceremony. V. The expression applied to a Cardinal of being or having been reserved "in petto," means to be created a Cardinal, but for reasons known only to the Pope, not published at once or promulgated as such. It is not certainly known when this practice began, and the subject has been so ofter confounded with secret or private creation-, that it is difficult to state a precise time. The "secret" creation was simply the creation of a Cardinal without the customary ceremonial. It originated 1417 with Pope Martin Mar-tin v. of the Princely Collona House probably urged thereto by the jealousies and dangers which still lingered after the great schism of the West was happily ended. The other Cardinals were consulted, con-sulted, and when notice was 'then given to the honored hon-ored person, who was not, however, yet allowed to assume the distinctive dress, or the station of his rank. In the "in petto" appointments, only the Pope and some confidential dignitary knew the names of those reserved. It is related of a certain prelate (Vanozzi), who was much esteemed by Gregory XIX. for his great learning and faithful service, that having been commissioned one day to take note of the names of a few Cardinals to be created in the next Con sistory, he had the satisiaction to De oraerea 10 write his own name in the list. Although bound to secrecy, he yielded to the importunities of the Cardinal-Xephew and showed him the list. This violation of his trust coming to the Pope's ears, he summoned the prelate and ordered him to erase his own name from' the paper and that was the end of Vanossi. The celebrated Jesuit (also a Cardinal) Cardi-nal) and the historian of the Council of Trent, Sporza Pallavicini, gives a curious reason one that certainly shows how great was the idea entertained in his day, the middle of the seventeenth century, of the Roman Cardinalate why the epression "creation" of a Cardinal is officially used. He says, in the first volume of his "Historia," that it meant to intimate by the word that the excellence of the dignity is so exalted that all degrees of inferior rank are as though they were not ; so that when the Pope makes a man a Cardinal, it is as if in the sphere of honors he called him out of non-existence into being. In the first Consistory held after the creation of the new Cardinals, the Pope performs on them the ceremony of "Sealing of the Lips," that is to say, he imposes on them the honor and obligation of withholding their opinions until questioned. At the end of the Consistory, when the junior Cardinal-deacon rings a little bell, the Pope unseals their lips by saying (in Latin), "We open your months that in Consistories, congregations and in ecclesiastical eccles-iastical functions ye may be able to speak your opinion. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen"; making over them, the meanwhile, three times the sign of the Cross. This ceremony of closing the mouth must be very old, for it is mentioned in the thirteenth century bv Cardinal Gastani, nephew of Pope Boniface Boni-face YIIL, as existing before his time. By this ceremony it is intended to impress upon the newly elected cardinals the wisdom of prudence and reserve re-serve of speech in august assemblies of thir order. ' The College of Cardinals is the seed and germ of the Papacy, and the greatest act that one of its members can perform is to take part in the election of a Pope. This is done in a convention called the "Conclave," which is subject to many regulations when in session. The present order of this assem-blv assem-blv dates from the Pontificate of Gregory XV., in lGl. When the city of Rome was not in possession of "some foreign invader, or terrorized by some native na-tive scoundrel' like Rienzi, the election of a Pope took place in the Quirinal Palace, and by secret vote When the ballots were all in, the urn was carried to a chapel, called from the circumstance. "Capella Scrutinii," and there the votes were counted count-ed When the election was completed; the senior Cardinal-deacon, whose office corresponds to that of the ancient sub-deacons of the Roman church, j announced the result to the people. : OrHnallv, however, the Cardinals were not the onlv electors of the Pope. Any foreign bishop in communion with the Holy See who happened to be in Rome during a vacancy in the Pontificate was permitted to vote for a successor to the chair of Peter. Thus when Cornelius was elected Pope m t I it is" rnnri'iirMrearanCsg.' 254, sixteen foreign bishops, of whom two were from Africa, voted for his exaltation. In 1179, Alexander Alexan-der III., by the advise of the bishops assisting at the third Council of Laterany, decreed that, for the future, Cardinals alone should have the right to elect the Pope, and that a two-third vote would decide de-cide the choice. Lucius III., his successor in 1181, was the first elected under the new rules governing the Conclave. Since then, with one exception, that of Martin V., 1417, the Popes have been elected by the" Cardinals. Since the year 1378, no one not a Cardinal has been chosen Pope; but before that time many were elected who were not Cardinals. Of these were St. Celestine V., and before him, Gregory X. A curious circumstance attended the election of the latter, for the Cardinals were treated as are jurymen to day, and locked in a room until they agreed on a choice. Toward the end of the thirteenth century it became be-came the custom for Cardinals residing at Rome to act as "Protectors" (to take under their protection) protec-tion) of religioue orders, universities and other great institutions, which were liable, in those times, to be misrepresented to, or to come into relations with the Holy See more often than at present. To anticipate the suspicion that the Cardinals were liberally rewarded for their advocacy of these orders, or institutions, Urban VI., in 1378, prohibited prohib-ited Cardinals to accept any remuneration or gifts from those whose interests they guarded. Martin V., 1424, Alexander VI., 1492 and Leo X. in 1517, renewed the prohibition of Urban VI., contending that the acceptance of gifts might easily, under certain conditions, stand in the way of that impartial im-partial counsel to the Pope, and interf ere with the equity of action and of impartial justice to which the Popes were bound before God and His church. The Cardinalate or the office of a Cardinal is in no way related to the Sacrament of Holy Orders or the priesthood. Men not in Holy Orders have been created Cardinals. It is, Pontifically, the greatest honor the Pope can confer on a bishop or priest, and is only bestowed on those who, by their learn-. ing, scholarship or distinguished service, have rendered ren-dered valuable aid to their fellow men in the natural nat-ural or supernatural order, or who, by their exalted character and devotion .to duty, have shed lustre on Christianity itself. A -b "J xc-ntra-Deei!r no--'T5mann8sir'io-proviaeTne-"nTean3- |