would serve no purpose, save that of causing amazement at the overgrown mass of frivolity which the constant tendency to extinguish significance under heaps of material forms and show, has led the old men who compose the
Roman court to accumulate.The social portion, as it may be called, of the ceremonial attendant on the creation of a cardinal, in which the city and all the inhabitants are concerned, is as pompous, and as much regulated by a whole code of traditional uses and customs, as the more purely ecclesiastical part of thebusiness. The making of presents and payment of fees to persons of all sorts of conditions, from the high and reverend officials of the Curia to the cardinal s lackeys, makes a great part of it. And the amount of all these payments is minutely regulated. Great illuminations[1] take place in the city, and especially on the fagade of the new dignitary s palace. Bands of music parade the city, and are specially stationed before the residences of the foreign ministers. The new cardinal opens his palace for a great full-dress reception, where all who have a decent coat, and specially all strangers, are welcomed. These are great and noted occasions for the display of the diamonds and toilettes of the Roman patrician ladies.
Before quitting the subject of the method of creating cardinals, the custom of reserving cardinals " in Pectore " must be briefly noticed. Various causes occasionally arose to lead a pontiff to deem it undesirable to declare to the world the person whom it was his purpose to create a cardinal. Martin V. (t 1431) was the first who thus secretly created cardinals. But the practice then and subsequently differed essentially from that which the ever- increasing despotism of the popes brought it to under Paul III. and thenceforward. Martin and his successors, till Paul III. took the members of the college into their con fidence, only strictly enjoining them not to divulge the fact that such and such persons were in fact cardinals. He died leaving four cardinals thus unpublished, having taken the oaths of the other cardinals that they would in case of his death recognize them. Notwithstanding their oaths, however, they refused when the Pope died to do so. And the popes have never been able to secure the admission to the college of those whose creation has been left by their deaths in this inchoate state. Sometimes the college has recognized them, and admitted them to the conclave; sometimes the succeeding Pope has re-created them out of respect for the wishes of his predecessor. Sometimes they have altogether lost the promotion intended for them. The change which Paul III. introduced consisted in confining the secret of the unpublished nominations to his own breast, keeping it " in pectore." His practice was, and that of his successors has been, to add to the form of proclamation in consistory, " Alios duos (or more or less) in pectore reservamus arbitrio nostro quandocumque declarandos."
Before quitting the subject of ceremonial, a word or two may be said of the singular practice of closing and subse- quently opening the mouth of a newly created cardinal. -^ike a ^ mosfc everything else connected with the subject this form had once a real significance, but has become a mere meaningless formality. Some reasonable time was originally allowed to elapse before the pontiff in one consistory formally pronounced the mouth to be opened which he had declared to be closed in a previous con sistory. Now the form of opening is pronounced within a few minutes of the form of closing. As may be readily understood the cardinal whose mouth was closed could not speak or vote in any assembly of the cardinals, but only hear. When it has occurred that a cardinal has been left at the death of a Pope with closed mouth, the college have usually empowered one of their number to open the mouth of the cardinal so circumstanced. But it is a great mistake to suppose, as many have imagined, that a car dinal, whose mouth remained closed, was ineligible to the Papal throne. For not only any such cardinal, but any person whatever, clerk or lay, not being an avowed heretic, and not labouring under any canonical impediment to holy orders, is perfectly eligible as pope.
The chief of the insignia of a cardinal s dignity is the scarlet hat, the original significance of which was, we are told, to remind the wearer that he was to be at all times ready to shed his blood in martyrdom for the faith. At an early period it became, and has since continued to be, a huge unwearable construction of silk and hanging tassels, such as may be seen suspended from the roofs of cathe drals over the tombs of cardinals. So much is the hat the main mark of a cardinal s dignity, that " to receive the hat " is in common parlance equivalent to being made a cardinal. The canonical vestments of a cardinal are scarlet,[2] and in the city and in their homes the hems and such like of their coats, and also their stockings, are of the same colour, in Italian parlance " purple." Hence, "to aspire to the purple," "to receive the purple," is also equivalent to being a candi date for or being made a cardinal. Their Eminences also wear a scarlet " beretta," a four-cornered cap of the shape well known in pictures and engravings, and a scarlet " berettina," or skull-cap. Until the time of Urban VIII. the cardinals were styled " Illustrissimi ; " but that pope decreed that they should for the future be called " Emi- nentissimi," and addressed as " your Eminence."
It remains to add a few words on the privilege of a cardinal as an elector of the pontiff; and though the subject is a large one, a very few words will suffice, because e the treatment of it falls more properly and conveniently under other headings. In perfect consistency with every other portion of the history of the institution, the right and privilege of the cardinals to elect the Pope is an abuse, and has been attained by a long series of encroachments which have gradually eliminated the originally democratic constitution of the Church. The popes were at first chosen by the whole body of the faithful ; then by the whole body of the clergy ; then by the cardinals with the consent of the clergy, and, ultimately, absolutely and exclusively by the cardinals. That the mode of election has passed through these phases is certain ; but the chro nological details of the changes are extremely obscure. The methods pursued in the election belong to another place. And this article may be concluded by a statement of the fact, often misapprehended, that the right of a cardinal to enter conclave with his brethren and vote for the new Pope is indefeasible ; and he is not to be deprived of it by any declaration of the late Pope or deposition by him, or by any amount of unworthiness, however patent. Cases are on record in which popes have sought by every means in their power to prevent certain cardinals from taking part in the election that would follow their death, and some in which monstrous crimes have rendered such ex clusion reasonable and right in every point of view. But in every such case the college has overruled the provisions of the deceased pontiff, and admitted the acknowledged member of their body to take part in the election.
town of Spain, in the province of Catalonia, about 55 miles N.W. of Barcelona, in 41 57 N. lat. and 1 37 E. long.
It occupies the summit of a hill near the banks of the- ↑ It is to be understood that all this applies to the state of things before the Italian Government took possession of Rome. The Church now considers herself to he under eclipse, and all exterior pomp and magnificence are suppressed.
- ↑ Save in the case of members of the monastic orders, whose dress, similar in form to the others, is in colour that enjoined by their special rale.
