The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-03-14
many CARDINALS
HAVE DIED |MIDECADE
Forty-six Members of Sacred COLLEGE
Pass Away Under Plus X
Thirty-seven Cardinals Appointed
by Holy Father Five of
These Dead
Number of Deaths During Present
Pontifcate not Unusual

The motto attributed to the sue
cessor OF Plus x. in st. Malachy's
Prophecy Concerning the Future
Roman Pontiffs," is "Religio depopu.
lata." AS rule no attempt is ever
made at guessing the hidden meaning
of such notices before the death of
the reigning Pope, since obviously it
is only after the election Of his sue.
cessor that it can be ascertained
whether the motto is applicable. Ex-
ceptionally, however, the motto for
the next Pope is already being ex-
planned during the lifetime of Plus x,
and it is said by many that "depopu-
lated religion" refers to the small
number of Cardinals who will assem-
BILE in conclave to elect the new Pope.
1t is. of course, risky to attempt an
explanation of a prophecy beforehand,
but it must be admitted that during
the ten years pontifcate of Plus X
forty-six Cardinals have died and that
the Sacred College has now been re.
duced to only fifty-four Cardinals, one
of whom is still to be named. Now,
considering that eight Cardinals are
octogenarians, seventeen septuagenar-
ians, and that only eight are under 60
years old, it is safe to assume that If
conclave were to happen within
short space of time and before new
Cardinals are created, old age, bad
health and possibly some deaths will
contribute to decrease still further the
number of Cardinals who will Assem-.
BILE to elect the new Pope. Under
such circumstances the explanation
found for St. Malachy's motto does not
seem to be far fetched.
AS matter of fact, however, the
number of deaths among the members
of the Sacred College during the pom.
tificate of Plus x is not extraordinary.
Out of the forty-five Cardinals who
died since 1903 only five had been Gre
ated by the Present Pope, viz: Car
dinals Spinola. Callegari, Samassa,
Nagi and Garcia. The remaining
had been created by Leo Kill, with
the single exception of Cardinal Greg
liza, dean of the Sacred College, who
had received the red hat from Plus
TX. Plus x. has created thirty-seven
Cardinals during his pontificate and
all but five are still alive.
The number of Cardinals was defini-
lively fixed at 20 by Sixtus v. in 1886,
but the Sacred College, with but one
exception, under Plus w., when the
Cardinals numbered rs, never reached
its full number, and from 10 to Is red
hats" are always vacant Although
the rule laid down by Sixtus v. has
not been modified since, before him
the number of Cardinals was far from
being constant.
In the fourteenth century the mum.
Der of Cardinals averaged 20. Later
this number increased, and it was re-
duced to "a by the Council of Basel.
In 1917 Leo x. created 81 Cardinals at
the same time.
The composition of the Sacred Col
lege was never subject to definite
law, but efforts were made from time
to time to limit the number Of Cardi.
nails of the same nationality. Thus the
Councils of Constance and Basel for
babe that more than one-third Of the
Cardinals should belong to the same
country. After the return Of the Pope
from Avignon, the ancient customs
were resumed, and whereas formerly
the majority of Cardinals were
French, since then they have been for
the most part Italians, and the total
number of hats conferred on repre-
sentatives of other nations has always
been minority.
The Council of Trent which re.
formed the College of Cardinals was
concerned more over the qualifications
than the number Of nationality of
Cardinals, and the law was laid down
that only men Of learning, holiness and
an honorable life should be selected as
Cardinals, irrespective Of their nation
atty. AS regards nationality, the Sa-
cred College at present consists of %
Italian and 26 foreign Cardinals, in
Guiding the Cardinal yet unprecedented,
who is known to be the ex-Patriarch
Of Lisbon. The foreign Cardinals are
divided as follows:
Six French, s Austrian, 4 Spanish, 4
American, including Cardinal Fal.
COMO, 2 Portuguese, Dutch, /
Irish, English, Belgian, Brazilian.
Out Of the twenty.eight Italian Car.
dinals there are twenty who are So
l