Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-26
NEW CARDINALS
is LOSS TO ITALY

This weeks consistory at the Vat
lean will be epochal. 1t will see the
Disappearing. for the first time in
history, of the Italian majority in the
Sacred College, and the equal division
OF that body between Italian and
non-I Italian prelates.
The newly organized college will
contain thirty-three Italians, thirty
two non-Italians and one of doubtful
place If Cardinal Falconio, an
American by naturalization, is
counted as an American, as he COM
monty is, the college will be equally
dlvided-thirty-t three on each side.
This is a circumstance of unique and
extraordinary interest which may
prove to be of much political impor-
lance, particularly in view of the
changing relations between the Vat
lean and various European govern
mentS.
Another interesting fact will be
that, with the seating of Monsignor
Serafini, the assessor of the holy
office, and of Abbot Gasquet, the Or
der of Benedictines will have three
representatives. In the college, while
the great Order of Dominicans will
have not one. Francis Aidan Gasquet
is an Englishman, born and bred, and
has for years been at the head of the
Benedictine Order in that country.
He is one of the most distinguished
living writers of English prose. For
some wears past he has been the head
of the international Commission for
the Revision of the Yulgate, and in
connec zion with that work has re-
GENTLY spent much time in the United
States.
The Sacred College consists of
three classes or orders, namely: Six
cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal
priests and fourteen cardinal dea-
cons.
While the title of cardinal is very
old, dating at least as far back as
the early part of the fourth century,
the rank of office and the authority
of the Sacred College are things of
comparatively modern development.
In the fourth century there were in
Rome certain principal or cardinal
churches, and those who had charge
of them were called cardinal priests,
or cardinal deacons, if they were of
only that order. The College of Car
dinals was not established, however,
until the reign of Pope Gregory VII,
Its number was limited to seventy
by SiXtus V, who followed the ex-
ample of Moses, who "chose out
seventy elders from the whole peo-
pie TO take counsel with them"
The color of the robes worn by car
dinals has also changed from time
to time. 1t was Pope Innocent w.,
at the general council at Lyons in
1850. who finally ordered them to
wear purple robes and red hats, Sin
token of their readiness to spend
their blood for the service of Christ
the head of the Church." He also
ordered them to go about the city not
afoot but on horseback, in order to
command more respect. The red hat
is a Enthusiastically formed thing, with
tassles, quite unwearable, and is not
to be confused with the biretta, which
is the ordinary headgear of car
dinal. The biretta is indeed worn
by all Roman ecclesiastics. differing
in color according to the rank of the
wearer. That of the Pope is white,
of cardinal scarlet, of a bishop pur-
pie, of a canon black with red piping
and tassel. and of a priest black.
Consistories have greatly changed.
In the middle ages they were held
frequently; under Innocent III. three
times a week At them the Pope
held a sort of common pleas court
hearing all kinds of complaints and
administering Justice 10 all COlllelS'
Later they We're held once week;
In the sixteenth century only twice
a month, and now only three or four
times a year Nowadays their chief
function is the investiture and proc
lamation of new cardinals, and they
are of two kinds-secret and public
In the former only the cardinals take
part; sometimes grave ecclesiastical
affairs are discussed and determined.
TO the latter the whole public is ad-
nlitted, and nothing is done at them
but the investiture and proclamation
of cardinals.
IN a consistory the Pope and cardi-
nails are seated in circle. At the
Pope's right hand sits the senior
cardinal bishop, beyond whom are
the others of that order, according to
seniority After the last cardinal
bishop comes the senior cardinal
priest, and so on through that order.
Finally. after the last cardinal priest
comes not the senior. but the junior
cardinal deacon, and so on in reverse
order finishing with the senior
deacon at the left hand of the Pope