CARDINAL, in a general sense, an appellation given to things on account of their pre-eminence. The word is formed of the Latin cardo, a hinge; it being on these fundamental points that all the rest of the same kind are supposed to turn. Thus, justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude, are denominated the four cardinal virtues, as being the basis of all the rest.

Cardinal Points, in Cosmography, are the four intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle. Of these, two, namely, the intersections of the horizon and meridian, are called North and South, with regard to the poles they are directed to. The other two, viz. the intersections of the horizon and first vertical, are called East and West.

The cardinal points, therefore, coincide with the four cardinal regions of the heavens, and are 90° distant from each other. The intermediate points are called collateral points. Cardinal Points, in Astrology, are the rising and setting of the sun, the zenith, and nadir.

Cardinal Signs, in Astronomy, are Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricon.

Cardinal Winds are those that blow from the cardinal points.

Cardinal Numbers, in Grammar, are the numbers one, two, three, &c. which are indeclinable; in opposition to the ordinal numbers, first, second, third, fourth, &c.

Cardinal, an ecclesiastical prince in the Romish church, being one who has a voice in the conclave at the election of a pope. Some say that the cardinals were so called from the Latin incardinatio, which signifies the adoption in any church of a priest of a foreign church, driven thence by misfortune; and that the use of the word commenced at Rome and Ravenna, which, as the revenues of the churches of those cities were very great, became the common refuge of the unhappy priests of all other churches.

The cardinals compose the pope’s council or senate. In the Vatican there is a constitution of Pope John, which regulates the rights and titles of the cardinals, and declares, that as the pope represents Moses, so the cardinals represent the seventy elders, who, under the pontifical authority, decide private and particular differences.

Cardinals, in their first institution, were only the principal priests, or incumbents, of the parishes of Rome. In the primitive church the chief priest of a parish, who immediately followed the bishop, was called presbyter cardinalis, to distinguish him from the other petty priests, who had no church or preferment. The term seems to have been first applied to them in the year 150; but some say that this took place under Pope Silvester, in the year 300. These cardinal priests were alone allowed to baptize and administer the cucharist. When the cardinal priests became bishops, their cardinalate became vacant, as they were then supposed to be raised to a higher dignity. Under Pope Gregory, cardinal priests and cardinal deacons were only such priests and deacons as had a church or chapel under their particular care; and this was the original use of the word. Leo IV. in the council of Rome held in 853, calls them presbyteros sui cardinis; and their churches, parochias cardinales.

The cardinals continued on this footing till the eleventh century; but as the grandeur and state of his holiness then became exceedingly augmented, he wished his council of cardinals to make a better figure than the ancient priests had done. It is true that they still preserved their ancient title, but the thing expressed by it ceased to exist. It was a long time, however, before they had the precedence over the bishops, or got the election of the pope into their hands; but when they once became possessed of those privileges, they soon got the red hat and purple; and growing still in authority, they became at length superior to the bishops, by the sole quality of being cardinals.

Du Cange observes, that there were originally three kinds of churches; the first or genuine churches were properly called parishes ; the second, which were chapels joined to hospitals, and served by deacons, were denomi- [7:6:139]nateà deaconries ; the third were simple oratones, where private masses were said, and were served by local and resident chaplains. He adds, that to distinguish the principal or parish churches from the chapels and oratories, the name cardinales was given to them. Accordingly, parish churches gave titles to cardinal priests; and some chapels also, at length, gave the title of cardinal deacons.

Others observe, that the term cardinal was given not only to priests, but also to bishops and deacons who were attached to certain churches, to distinguish them from those who only served them en passant, and by commission. Titular churches, or benefices, were a kind of parishes, or churches, assigned each to a cardinal priest, with some stated district depending on it, and a font for administering of baptism, in cases where the bishop himself could not administer it. These cardinals were subordinate to the bishops; and accordingly, in councils, particularly that held at Rome in 868, subscribed after them.

It was not, however, only at Rome that priests bore this name; for we find that there were cardinal priests in France. Thus, the curate of the parish of St John de Vignes is called in old charters the cardinal priest of that parish.

The title of cardinal is also given to'some bishops, quatenus bishops, as, for instance, to those of Mentz and Milan. The Archbishop of Bourges is also, in ancient writings, called cardinal; and the church of Bourges a cardinal church. The abbot of Vendome used to style himself cardinalis natus.

The cardinals arc divided into three classes or orders, containing six bishops, fifty priests, and fourteen deacons, and making in all seventy, who constitute what is called the sacred college. The cardinal bishops, who are as it were the pope’s vicars, bear the titles of the bishoprics assigned to them, and the rest take such titles as are given them. The number of cardinal bishops has been fixed, but that of cardinal priests and deacons, and consequently the sacred college itself, is always fluctuating. Till the year 1125 the college consisted of fifty-two or fifty-three, and the council of Constance reduced them to twenty-four; but Sixtus IV. without any regard to that restriction, raised them again to fifty-three, and Leo to sixty-five. Thus, as the number of cardinal priests was anciently fixed at twenty-eight, new titles were to be established, in proportion as new cardinals were created. As for the cardinal deacons, they were originally no more than seven for the fourteen quarters of Rome; but they were afterwards increased to nineteen, and at a subsequent period were again diminished.

According to Onuphrius, it was Pope Pius IV. who first enacted, in 1562, that the pope should be chosen only by the senate of cardinals, whereas till that time the election was by all the clergy of Rome. Some say the election of the pope rested in the cardinals, exclusively of the clergy, in the time of Alexander III. in 1160. Others go higher still, and affirm that Nicholas II. having been elected at· Sienna, in 1058, by the cardinals alone, occasioned the right of election to be taken from the clergy and people of Rome, leaving them only that of confirming him by their consent, which was at length, however, taken from them. (See his decree for this purpose, issued in the Roman council of 1059, in Hardouin’s Acta Conciliorum, tom. vi. part i. p. 1165.) It appears, indeed, that the cardinals who had the right of suffrage in the election of his successors, were divided by this pontiff into cardinal bishops and cardinal clerks, meaning by the former the seven bishops who belonged to the city and territory of Rome, and by the latter the cardinal presbyters, or ministers of the twenty-eight Roman parishes or principal churches. To these were added, in process of time, under Alexander III. and other pontiffs, new members, in orde r to appease the tumults occasioned by the edict of Nicholas II.

At the creation of a new cardinal, the pope performs the ceremony of opening and shutting his mouth, which is done in a private consistory. The shutting his mouth implies the depriving him of the liberty of giving his opinion in congregations; and the opening his mouth, which is performed fifteen days after, signifies the taking off this restraint. However, if the pope happens to die during the time a cardinal’s mouth is shut, he can neither give his voice in the election of a new pope, nor be himself advanced to that dignity.

The dress of a cardinal is a red soutanne, a rocket, a short purple mantle, and a red hat. The cardinals began to wear the red hat at the council of Lyons in 1243. The decree of Pope Urban VIII., by which it is appointed that the cardinals be addressed by the title of eminence, is of the year 1630; till then they were called illustrissimi.

When cardinals are sent to the courts of princes, it is in quality of legates α latere; and when they are appointed governors of towns, their government is called by the name of legation. Cardinal has also been applied to secular officers. Thus the prime ministers in the court of the Emperor Theodosius were called cardinales. Cassiodorus, lib. vii. formul. 31, makes mention of the cardinal prince of the city of Rome; and in the list of officers of the Duke of Bretagne, in 1447, we meet with one Raoul de Thorel, cardinal of Quillart, chancellor, and servant of the Viscount de Rohan, which shows it to have been an inferior quality.