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Show . THE SACRED COLLEGE. Only Four Bed Hats to be Distribut- I ed at Next Consistory. j Unless some cardinal dies between j this and the assembling of the con- j sistory usually held by the Pope about Christmas time, there will be only j four red hats to be bestowed by His Holiness then. The Sacred college, j when filled, consists of seventy card- ! inals, corresponding to the seventy dis- j ciples, divided among the three orders, j thus: Six cardinal bishops, fifty card- inal priests and fourteen cardinal deacons. dea-cons. Seldom is the college filled, and when once its ranks are completed. they do not remain so long. For most of their eminences are old men when they receive the red hat. and do not long retain it. Not before, since the election of Leo XIII.. has the college had so many members as now. In 1S92 it had but fifty members: in lS3i and again in 1SS9 it had sixty-five cardinals. In his reign of nearly twenty-four years Leo XIII. has created cre-ated at least 139 cardinals, of whom nearly eighty have died. Only three of those who took part in his election still survive. It is said that the Am- erica n candidates for the eardinalituil f dignity have poor chances, as the Pope does not want more than one cardinal jj in the United States, fearing if there j were two princes of the church there would be friction and antagonism be- I tween them that would be harmful to j Catholicism here. Boston Republic. |