The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

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14th Century
(1303-1404)

Numerical summary of the cardinals and pseudocardinals created by the 10 popes and 3 antipopes of this century.

Benedict XI (1303-1304) - 3 cardinals
Clement V (1305-1314) - 24 cardinals
John XXII (1316-1334) - 28 cardinals
[Antipope] Nicholas V ( 1328-1333) - 9 pseudocardinals
Benedict XII (1334-1342) - 7 cardinals
Clement VI (1342-1352) - 25 cardinals
Innocent VI (1352-1362) - 15 cardinals
Urban V (1362-1370) - 14 cardinals
Gregory XI (1370-1378) - 21 cardinals
Urban VI (1378-1389) - 43 cardinals
[Antipope] Clement VII (1378-1394) - 34 pseudocardinals
Boniface IX (1389-1404) - 8 cardinals
[Antipope] Benedict XIII (1394-1423) - 19 pseudocardinals
Total: 188 cardinals and 62 pseudocardinals

Source: Hierarchia catholica medii aevi sive Summorum Pontificum, S.R.E. cardinalium ecclesiarum antistitum series. Edited by Guilelmus van Gulik, Conradus Eubel, Ludovicus Schmitz-Kallenberg, Remigius Ritzler, and Pirminus Sefrin. 8 vols. Munich: Librariae Regensbergianae, 1913-1978. Reprint edition: Padua: Il Messaggero di S. Antonio, 1960-1982, vol. I, pp. 13-26.

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Ne Romani, constitution, during the Council of Vienne, 1311, Clement V (1305-1314).

Strengthened the organization of the conclave by reaffirming the limits of the cardinals' powers during the vacancy of the See while maintaining those of the camerlengo and the penitentiary; ordering the celebration of the conclave in the diocese where the pope died or in the location of the Pontifical Audience of Causes and Petitions if different from the former; and giving the right to vote to cardinals who had been excommunicated or suspended thus avoiding dissensions or schisms.

Source: Lector, Lucius. Le Conclave. Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1894, p. 98; Spinelli, Lorenzo. "La Constituzione Ne Romani e la sua applicazione pratica" and "La Costituzione Ne Romani nella letteratura canonistica fino a la vigilia del Concilio di Trento", chapters VI and VII of his La vacanza della Sede Apostolica dalle origine al Concilio tridentino. Milan: A. Giuffré, 1955, pp. 131-154 and 155-228.

Text: Clementinarum Liber I. Titulus III, De electione et electi potestate, Clemens V in Concilio Viennensi, cap. 2, in Corpus iuris canonici. Editio lipsiensis secunda, post Aemilii Ludouici Richteri curas, librorum manu scriptorum et editionis romanae fidem recognouit et notatione critica instruxit Aemilius Friedberg. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1959. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published: Lipsiae : Ex officina Bernhardi auchnitz, 1879-1881. Issued in 15 fasciculi, 1876-1881, cols.1135-1136.

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Licet in constitutione, December 6, 1351, Clement VI (1342-1352).

Softened the strictures of Ubi periculum allowing the cardinals to bring two domestics into the conclave, increasing the dishes of the frugal meals mandated by Pope Gregory X and permitting the use of curtains to give some privacy to the cardinals' dormitory.

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First papal election capitulations, conclave of December 16-18, 1352.

Although it only lasted two days, the conclave at Avignon following Pope Clement VI's death made a determined attempt to restrict the pope's autocracy and augment the influence of the sacred college. All twenty-five cardinals present swore, several with reservations, that the pope should not create cardinals until the total fell below sixteen, that there should be no more than twenty, and that the choice of new cardinals should require the consent of the existing ones. Such consent should also be necessary for proceedings against a cardinal or for the alienation of any part of the papal state; half the revenues of the holy see, as allotted by Pope Nicholas IV in 1289, should be guaranteed to the college. These and other provisions having been agreed, the conclave, anxious to preclude the interference by the French king, speedily elected Étienne Aubert.

Source: Kelly, J.N.D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 221; Ullmann, Walter. "The legal validity of the papal electoral pacts", Ephemerides iuris canonici, XII, no. 3-4 (1956), 246-278.

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Sollicitudo pastoralis, July 6, 1353, Innocent VI (1352-1362).

Condemned the attempt of the cardinals to modify the laws of the conclave.

Source: A. Molien. "Conclave". Dictionnaire de droit canonique, contenant tous les termes de droit canonique, avec un sommaire de l'histoire et des institutions et de l'etat actuel de la discipline. Paris, Letouzey et Ané, 1935-1965, columns 1319-1342.

Showed his independence by soon (6 July 1353) declaring the compact or capitulations agreed by the conclave, to which he himself had assented subject to its being lawful, null as violating the rule restricting business during a conclave to the election and as infringing the plenitude of power inherent in the papal office.

Source: Kelly, J.N.D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 221.

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Periculis et detrimentis, March 19, 1378, Gregory XI (1370-1378).

Applied only to the specific case of the death of this pope allowing the cardinals attending his funeral in Rome to proceed with the election of the successor without waiting for their 6 colleagues in Avignon, France. Most of the cardinals were in Rome and 11 of the 16 in attendance were French. The others were 4 Italians and 1 Spaniard. There was another French cardinal who was not in either in Rome or Avignon.

Source: Lector, Lucius. Le Conclave. Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1894, p. 101.

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