St. Landry democrat., 1885-09-12
THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS
An Element of Ecclesiastical Power and
Security.


The College of Cardinals is ostensibly
recruited from persons who pretend to
the honor of its membership on the
strength Of extraordinary virtues, piety,
learning. or spiritual achievement; and
the Council of Trent. in addition to de-
manding from candidates for the Cardi-
nalate the same religious distinctions
and ecclesiastical qualities which were
desiderated in the occupants Of the
episcopate, made it an instruction to the
Pope that they should be chosen, so far
as possible, from among the most capa-
BILE persons in all parts of Catholic
Christendom. Gifts of birth and of rank
presently came, however, to count for
eligibility as if they were gifts of the
spirit; and even Kings sought for the
relatives of Kings a distinction which
only by the attraction of mundane acct
dents of pomp and splendor could be
considered as at all belonging to this
world. For every Cardinal was q po-
tential Pope; and every Pope was a po-
tential partisan or arbitrator in cases
where sovereigns disputed with each
other In former times, indeed, Kings
had right of presentation, and Cardi-
mails who had been created in accordance
with such royal nominations were known
as Crown Cardinals. The family pride
and social pretensions of the Popes
themselves tended to aggravate this
abuse of selection; and the result was
nepotism and other faYorisn1. Paul v,
e, \ I, L.
a particular aim throughout the whole
course of his Popedom, 1605-21, to
ennoble the Corte R0maaa, to impart 8
new and singular majesty into the sa-
cred college, and to select such persons
as were proper by their own grandeur
to defend the honor of the church. Ac-
cordingly IN those promotions, he adj
vanced five Princes s'of very great quail
ityn to the Cardinalate Maurizio, son
of the Duke of Savoy, who renounced it
afterward in favor of marriage which
better suited his ideas of the eternal fit-
ness of things; Ferdinando and Viscenzo
Gonsaga, both sons of the, Duke of Mo
dena; Carlo di Medici, son of the Duke
of Tuscany, and Ferdinando, Infante di
Spagna, who, as historians report, inn
mortalized the honor of the Cardinalate
by fighting for the faith of Christ. Still,
the grander the enthatrage the less the
relative glory of the Supreme Pontiff;
and other Popes made it a matter of
principle and practice TO keep Princes
and mobiles aloof from a dignity to
which, judging by the debased standard
Of expediency, they seemed entitled for
at least the secular ease, influence, and
prosperity of the church. That the ma
tive and hereditary nobility or royalty
Of the members of the Sacred College
was an element of ecclesiastical power
and security was recognized even by
reforming writer's within the Roman
communion, who were keen to espy the
abuses of the Papal system. And this
recognition has taken place to such an
extent that the exclusion of noble and
princeIy candidates from the Cardinal
ate has been brought forward as kind
of petty treason against the church, over
which they had been called to rule, on
the part Of pontiffs why grudged that
the shadow of their throne should be
relieved or irritated by the g1eFy of too
near q rival. - London Society.