Sagro Collegio, that
Up to this time not

regulated the composition of the we find ourselves on solid ground. only was the number of cardinals exceedingly variable in fact, but the theory of what the number ought to be, as far as any theory existed on the subject, was equally uncertain. Thus John XXII., when requested to create two French cardinals in 1331, replied that there were only twenty cardinals, that seventeen of these already were Frenchmen, and that he could therefore only consent then to create one French cardinal. And at the death of Clement VI. in 1352, the cardinals determined that their number should not exceed twenty. Urban VI. (ob. 1389) created a great number; and the College made representations to Pius II. (ob. 1464), to the effect that the dignity of the purple was diminished by such excess. Sixtus IV. (ob. 1484), however, multiplied the number of his creations to a hitherto unexampled degree. And Alexander VI. (ob. 1503), who drove a very lucrative trade in cardinal-making, exceeded him. But Leo X. (ob. 1521), having no regard, as we are told, for all that had been said or done by his predecessors, created thirty-one cardinals at one batch. He created in all forty-two in the short space of eight years and eight months, and left at his death no less than sixty-five, a number unprecedented up to that day. Paul III., however, the Farnese Pope (ob. 1549), created seventy-one. But Paul IV. (ob. 1559), after consulting the Sacred College, issued the Bull called Compactum, by which it was decreed that the number of cardinals should never henceforward exceed forty, and that no new cardinal should be created till the existing number had fallen to

at most thirty-nine. Despite this, however, his immediate successor Pius IV. (ob. 1565) raised the number of the cardinals to forty-six. Finally Sixtus V. (ob. 1590) established, by the Bull mentioned above, seventy as the fixed number-i.e. the maximum number-of the College, "after the example of the seventy elders appointed by God as counsellors of Moses." And this number has never since been exceeded, and may be considered at the present day as representing the complement of the Sacred College, though it is expressly laid down by the authorities on the subject that no canonical disability exists to prevent the Pope from exceeding that number if he should see fit to do so.

By the same Bull, Postquam, of 1585, Sixtus V. also determined that the seventy of the Sacred College should consist of six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons. The first are the bishops of the sees immediately around Rome. The deacons take their titles from the diaconie, established in the earliest centuries, and attached to certain churches, for the assistance and support of the widows and orphans of the faithful; and the cardinal priests take theirs from the most noted, venerable, and ancient of the parish churches in Rome.

As mistakes are frequently made about the assumption and "choice" of their titles by newly-created cardinals, it may be as well here to give a list of the titles, or sees or churches, after which the cardinals are designated. The cardinal bishops are the holders of the sees of-1, Ostia and Velletri; 2, Porto and St. Rufina; 3, Albano; 4, Frascati; 5, Palestrina;

6, Sabina. The fifty "titular" churches are St. Lorenzo in Lucina, St. Agostino, St. Alessio, St. Agnes, St. Anastasia, Saints Andrew and Gregory on Monte Celio, the Twelve Apostles, St. Balbina, St. Bartholomew in the Island, St. Bernard at the Diocletian Baths, St. Calistus, St. Cecilia, St. Clement, St. Chrisogonus, St. Cross of Jerusalem, St. John at the Porta Latina, Saints John and Paul, St. Jerome of the Slaves, St. Laurence in Damaso, St. Laurence in Panisperna, Saints Marcellinus and Peter, St. Marcellus, St. Mark, St. Mary of the Angels, St. Mary of Peace, St. Mary of Victory, St. Mary of Piazza del Popolo, St. Mary in Aracoeli, St. Mary in Traspontina, St. Mary in Trastevere, St. Mary in Via, St. Mary sopra Minerva, Saints Nereus and Achilleus, St. Onophrius, St. Pancras, St. Peter in Montorio, St. Peter in Vincula, St. Prassede, St. Prisca, St. Pudenziana, the Four Crowned Saints, Saints Quiricus and Julietta, St. Sabina, Saints Sylvester and Martin on the Hill, St. Sylvester in Capite, St. Sixtus, St. Stephen on Monte Celio, St. Susanna, St. Thomas in Parione, the Holy Trinity on Monte Pincio. The fourteen deaconries are as follows: St. Mary in Via Lata, St. Adrian in the Forum, St. Agatha alla Suburra, St. Angelo in Peschiera, St. Cesareo, Saints Cosmo and Damian, St. Eustache, St. George in Velabro, St. Mary ad Martyres, St. Mary della Scala, St. Mary in Aquiro, St. Mary in Cosmedin, St. Mary in Dominica, St. Mary in Portico, St. Nicholas in Carcere, Saints Vitus and Modestus.

As regards these different orders of cardinals, it may be said that for most practical purposes, specially for all

purposes of the election of a Pontiff, they are in modern times equal. All have an equal vote. All are equally eligible; but are not, as is often imagined, exclusively eligible. Any fit and proper person, whom the cardinals may in their consciences think the most likely to rule the Church to the greater glory of God and welfare of his Church, may be elected. It is hardly necessary to say that such person has almost invariably been found among the members of their own body, and that there is not at the present day the smallest probability that any other should be chosen. One important point

of difference there is between the cardinal deacons and their colleagues. The former need not be in full and irrevocable holy orders. But as regards the choice of the Pope and the business of the Conclave, this difference signifies nothing. Should a cardinal deacon be chosen Pope, he must receive priest's orders.

Since the time of Sixtus V., at the close of the sixteenth century, there have never been more than seventy cardinals at the same time. But inasmuch as the great majority of those promoted to that dignity are men far advanced in life, the succession is somewhat rapid; and it is recorded that Clement VIII. (ob. 1605), during a pontificate of thirteen years, created fifty-three cardinals. Paul V. (ob. 1621), during his reign of fifteen years, made sixty. made sixty. Urban VIII. (ob. 1644) advanced no less than seventy-three persons to the purple, besides four left in petto* at his death, thus entirely renewing the Sacred College during his pontificate of twenty years. This Urban VIII. was the

This phrase will be explained at a future page.

great Barberini Pope, whose zeal for the faith is seen in the celebrated College de Propaganda Fide, and whose nepotism may be read in the vast Barberini palace and galleries and collections, and in the great number of buildings still marked by the bees, which were his cognizance. This was the man who stripped the bronze from the dome of the Pantheon to turn it into a canopy for the tomb of St. Peter, who used the Coliseum as a stone quarry for his building operations, and was the barbarian of whom scandalized Rome said, "Quod non fecerunt barbari, id fecere Barberini !"

Nevertheless, this notable Pope, whose "creations" in stone and mortar were about as numerous as those in "purple," was almost equalled in the latter respect by several of his successors. Clement XI. (ob. 1721), during a pontificate of twenty years, created seventy cardinals. Benedict XIV. (ob. 1758), during his reign of seventeen years, made sixty-four; and Pius VI. (ob. 1799), in the course of his pontificate of twenty-four years and eight months (the longest reign in all the long list till it was surpassed by that of the present Pope), sixty-three. Thus Urban VIII. (Barberini) would have remained on record as the most prolific creator of cardinals, were it not that Pius VII., during his papacy of twenty-three years and five months-the next longest to that of his predecessor Pius VI.-created no less than ninety-eight, besides leaving ten in petto at his death-a number which is the more remarkable from the fact, that, by reason of the disturbed condition of the times and the misfortunes occasioned to the world by the first French Empire,