A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

1. The institution of the office has been ascribed by respectable Roman Catholic writers to Christ himself, to the apostle of their faith, to the Roman bishop Evaristus, to Hyginus, Marcellus, Boniface III., and others. But we only know that cardinals, presbyters, and deacons occur in history about the sixth and seventh centuries, who were, however, not itinerant, but stationary church officers for conducting religious worship. The deacons and presbyters of Rome especially bore this name, who composed the presbytery of the bishop of the place. The title was also conferred upon the suffragan bishops of Ostia, Albano, and others in the immediate vicinity, but without any other rights than those which were connected appropriately with the ministerial office.

2. The import of the term was varied still more in the ninth century, and especially in the eleventh, by Nicolaus II., who in his constitution for the election of the Roman pontiff, not only appointed his seven suffragan bishops as members of the pope’s ecclesiastical council, but also constituted them the only legitimate body for the election of the pope. To these he gave the name of cardinal bishops of the Church of Rome, or cardinals of the Lateran Church.

This is the important period in history when the first foundation was laid for rendering the hierarchy of the Church independent both of the clergy and of the secular power. This period has not been noticed so particularly by historians as its importance requires. They seem especially to have overlooked the fact, that the famous Hildebrand, (Gregory VII.,) in the year 1073, concerted these measures for the independence of the Church, as the following extract will show: “It was the deep design of Hildebrand, which he for a long time prosecuted with unwearied zeal, to bring the pope wholly within the pale of the Church, and to prevent the interference, in his election, of all secular influence and arbitrary power. And that measure of the council which wrested from the emperor a right of so long standing and which had never been called in question, may deservedly be regarded as the master-piece of popish intrigue, or rather of Hildebrand’s cunning. The concession which disguised this crafty design of his was expressed as follows: that the emperor should ever hold from the pope the right of appointing the pope.”

3. As might have been expected, this privilege was afterwards contested by the princes of the German States, especially by those of Saxony and the House of Hohenstaufen. But these conflicts uniformly resulted in favour of the ambitious designs of the pope. A momentary concession, granted under the pressure of circumstances, became reason sufficient for demanding the same ever afterwards as an established right. In the year A. D. 1179, Alexander III., through the canons of the Lateran, confirmed yet more the independent election of the pope, so that, after this, the ratification of the emperor was no longer of any importance. Something similar was also repeated by Innocent III., A. D. 1215, and Innocent IV., A. D. 1254. The former had already, in the year A. D. 1198, renounced the civil authority of Rome, and ascended the papal throne. In the year 1274, the conclave of cardinals for the election of the pope was fully established by Gregory X., and remains the same to this day.

4. The college of cardinals, which, until the twelfth century, had been restricted to Rome and its vicinity, has since been greatly enlarged, so as to become the supreme court of the Romish Church throughout the world. Priests of illustrious name in other provinces and countries have been elevated to the dignity of cardinals. Of this, Alexander III. gave the first example in the year 1165, by conferring the honour upon Galdinus Sala, archbishop of Milan, and upon Conrad, archbishop of Mentz. But, to the injury of the Church, the greater part have ever been restricted to the limits of Rome and Italy.

5. The formal classification of the cardinals into three distinct orders, 1. cardinal bishops; 2. cardinal presbyters; 3. cardinal deacons, was made by Paul II. in the fifteenth century. He also gave them, instead of the scarlet robe which they had worn since the year 1244, a purple robe, from whence they derived the name of the purple; a title indicative, not merely of their superiority to bishops and archbishops, but of their regal honours and rights. Boniface VIII. gave them the title of eminentissimi, most eminent; and Pius V., in the year 1567, decrees that no other should have the name of cardinal.

6. The number of cardinals was at first not less than seven; and, after having ranged from seven to fifty-three, it was reduced again in the year 1277 to the minimum above-mentioned. The General Assembly of the Church of Basil limited the number to twenty-four; but the popes from this time increased them at their pleasure. Under Leo X. there were sixty-five cardinals: Paul IV. and Pius V. decreed that the maximum should be seventy—equal in number to the disciples of our Lord. These were arranged under the following grades: 1. Six cardinal bishops, with the following titles:—the bishops of Ostia, Porta, Albano, Frascati, Sabina, and Palæstrina; 2. Fifty cardinal priests, who were named after the parochial and cathedral churches of Rome; 3. Fourteen cardinal deacons, who were named after the chapels. This number was seldom full; but, since 1814, they have again become quite numerous.—Augusti.

The canons in some foreign cathedrals are called cardinals; as at Milan and Salerno. In the cathedral of St. Paul’s, London, two of the minor canons are still so designated. Their statutable duties are to superintend the behaviour of the members of the choir, in order to the correction of offenders by the dean and chapter, and to see to the burial of the dead, &c.—Jebb.

CARMELITES, or WHITE FRIARS. Monks of the order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They pretend to derive their original from the prophets Elijah and Elisha; and this occasioned a very warm controversy between this order and the Jesuits, about the end of the seventeenth century; both parties publishing several works, and petitioning the popes Innocent XI. and Innocent XII.; the latter of whom silenced them both, by a brief of the 20th November, 1698.

What we know of their original is, that, in the twelfth century, Aimerie, legate of the holy see in the east, and patriarch of Antioch, collected together several hermits in Syria, who were exposed to the violence and incursions of the barbarians, and placed them on Mount Carmel, formerly the residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; from which mountain they took the name of Carmelites. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them rules in 1205, which Pope Honorius III. confirmed in 1224.