The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-01-03
THE SPIRITUAL. PEEHAGE.
Cardinals and How They Are Made-TTIefr
Powers and ProroRhtives-A Glance nj
Roman Church History.

Cardinals and How They Are Made-Thefr
Powers and ProrogntIves-A Glance nt
Roman Church History.
The Cardinal statesman OF the type Of
Wolsey, Richelieu and De Retz has
ceased to exist; with Cardinal Antonelli
may be said to have died the last Of the
race. 1t can, perhaps, be understood
what peculiar significance attaches to
the dignity OF Cardinal when it is re-
membered that, though 1t is the Pope
who elects the Cardinals, 1t is the Cardi-
nails who, in their turn, elect the Pope,
for they form the Sacred College from
which on the death OF a holder of the
Holy See Is elected successor to tho
chair Of st. Peter. 1t ia a point not per-
haps generally realized that important
as are the privileges enjoyed by the Col
lege of Cardinals, the cardinalate in
itself is not an ecclesiastical rank, but
is only in reality spiritual peerage
which represents degree at the papal
court In our own time the position
enjoyed by Antonelli, in point of fact
not an ecclesiastic, will be remembered,
and numberless similar instances can be
pointed to in the story Of the Ro-
man Catholic Church. Children have
been appointed Cardinals. Paul w., 500
years before, startled even the then
somewhat lax traditions OF the Sacred
College by bestowing the scarlet hat on
his nephew, Carlo Caraffa, ferocious
outlaw, whose misdeeds we're the talk
of all Italy; Leo y. is known TO have
desired Raphael, the painter, to be a
Cardinal, and as late as the reign of
Louis XIV. the scarlet hat was offered
to so essentially an unecclesiastical a
parsonage as Marshal Turenne. But to
enjoy the chief privilege of the car
dinalate, the right to assist in the papal
elections, the members forming the
college must have entered holy orders.
Once provided with this qualification, it
is singular to think that neither crime
nor hersey are able to deprive the titu-
lar of the right to sit and exercise the
vote. OF this franchise no power can
rob him; he may, indeed, be imprisoned
for fraud and peculation, as was the
case with Cardinal Costa in this plight.
on the election of a successor to Clement
Nj, temporarily set free to take part in
the councils of the college, released from
the Castle of st. Angelo, and, carefully
guarded in coach, conducted to the
Quirinal, whence, after registering his
vote, he was reconducted to his cell.
In the history of the Roman Catholic
Church the institution of Cardinals is
comparatively modern. 1t was not un-
til the end OF the twelfth century, at
the so-called Lateran Council, that in
order to stop the many abuses which
accompanied the election Of the Popes,
this duty was henceforth intrusted to
the College of Cardinals, the constitu-
ton of which, with slight alterations
has existed from that time, when the
primitive election by popular vote, and
later by the clergy only was restricted
to even smaller limits in the hands of
the seventy Cardinals normally forming
the Sacred College. The repositories of
this august privilege, in an age when
the papacy enjoyed undisputed political
power and preponderance, it can be
understood that the Cardinals welded
an influence which serves to explain
the Importance accorded their person.
ality in the history of the past When
the holder of the keys of st. Peter was
still power before which kings and
emperors bowed, the knowledge that
ing the ruler on tho banks of the Tiber,
might one day assume the triple crown,
and with it its peculiar privileges in the
ordering of matters temporal as we'll as
spiritual, there were reasons why Cardin-
ais such as Wolsey, Richelieu, Mazarin
and DeRetz found themselves implicitly
obeyed-reasons why kings and queens
intrigued so cunningly to have elected
TO the college their relatives and
partisans. But though now so shorn of
it's old power-no longer one of the rec.
ognized powers of Europe-its temporal
sway confined to the area of a portion
only of the city which at one time was
the capital of vast estates, the throne Of
ST. Peter still exists, and the election
of it's occupant when vacant still excites
the interest of the world. 1t is at mo-
ments such as these, recurring from
time to time that the Cardinals emerge
from their modest retirement and as.
semble to elect successor to st. Peter.
The College of Cardinals, when COM
plete, numbers seventy members, rep.
resenting in equal proportions the three
orders of the priesthood - deaoons,
priests and bishops-but the presence
of the entire body is not necessary. In
1916 when the best known of all the
modern Popes, Plus IX, was elected, the
College numbered only sixty-two on its
roll; while only fifty Cardinals took
part in tho conclave which placed the
l tiara on the brow of Cardinal Mastal
Ferretti A pale reflection of the old
political influence enjoyed by the Car
dinals in the past still fingers around
these conclaves in which the traditions
of the papaCy are handed down to one
moro successor to St. Peter; and it is,
doubtless, with this view that the Ital-
ian element still prevails so strongly in
tho Sacred College, though the cosmo-
politan character of that body nowadays
offers a singular contrast to the past
Only one-half of the Cardinals are now
of Italian origin. Austria, Germany
and Poland are we'll to the fore; France
comes next-St. Louis Globe Democrat
THE SCHOOLS AT FAULT.
The Unnatural Methods of Instruction In
Use.
A lady Of wide educational experience
told the other day this story of a small
schoolboy whom she found in great dis
tress over his lessons. When she asked
what had been his particular trouble
that day, he stated his arduous problem: