CARDINALS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 836, 26 April 1878, Page 3

CARDINALS.

‘ ■ —o—(From the Gentleman’s Magazine.) The seventy members of the Sacred College are divided as follows Six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons. This division is in many' cases only nominal. Bishops frequently hold the rank of cardinal priest, and priest that of cardinal deacon; whilst, on the other hand, there are cardinal priests who have orily taken deacon’s orders. The six cardinal bishops are the suffragans of the Pope in his cpiality of the Metropolitan of the Roman “province.” The sees are those of Ostia, Santa Rufina et Porto, Sabina, Palestrina, Albano, and Frascati. The cardinal priests and deacons bear the title of some church in Rome. Several are bishops of particular dioceses in their own countries at the same time, still they bear the title of the church of which they were made cardinal. The cardinal of Sta. Prudentiana, for exampley need have little more to do with the church dedicated to that saint than the Duke of Wellington lias to do with the town of that name in Somersetshire. During the time of the temporal power of the Holy See many cardinals resided at Rome, employed in either the temporal or spiritual administration. Those who were without sufficient private means or valuable benefices were supposed to receive from the papal exchequer an allowance of LSOO a year, on which, however, they had to pay a heavy income tax of 10 per cent. The privilege of wearing the red hat is said to have been granted by Innocent I\ T ., in the thirteenth century, as an emblem of their readiness to shed their blood for the Catholic faith. For a century and a half before, they had been allowed to wear red slices and red garments. In the year 18,10 they were given the title of Eminence, having been previously designated Most Illustrious, and this title they shared with the Grand Master of Malta and the ecclesiastical electors of the Holy Roman (German) Empire. Cardinals may, with the consent of the Pope, lay aside their rank and return to secular life ; and many have done so. Even those in holy orders have been permitted to divest themselves of both rank and orders, and to marry. Ferdinand Medicis was authorised to quit his rank as cardinal, to become Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and Cardinals Maurice of Savoy and Rainaldo of Este to succeed to high secular place, and to marry. Casimin, brother of Ladislas, King of Poland, on the death of that monarch, was permitted, though a cardinal and a member of the Society of Jesus, to return to secular life and to marry his deceased brother’s widow. More than once permission has been granted to a cardinal to resign his state and marry, for the purpose of preventing the extinction of the family of which he was a member. Cardinal Ferdinand Gonzaga received such permission, and married a worn n of inferior rank. Becoming tired of his low-born wife, he obtamed the Pope’s authority to repudiate her and marry a daughter of Duke Cosmo Medicis. To Cardinal Vincenzo Gonzaga, a brother of Ferdinand, it was granted to give up the Church that he might marry a lady, a relation of his, of whom he was enamoured.