The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Guide to documents and events (76-2005)

The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

Guide to documents and events

13th

14th

15th

13th Century
(1198-1303)

Numerical summary of the cardinals created by the 18 popes of this century.

Innocent III (1198-1216) - 33 Cardinals
Honorius III (1216-1227) - 5 Cardinals
Gregory IX (1227-1241) - 13 Cardinals
Celestine IV (1241) - did not create any Cardinals
Innocent IV (1243-1254) - 15 Cardinals
Alexander IV (1254-1261) - 1 Cardinal (?)
Urban IV (1261-1264) - 14 Cardinals
Clement IV (1265-1268) - 1 Cardinal (?)
B. Gregory X (1271-1276) - 5 Cardinals
Innocent V (1276) - did not create any Cardinals
Adrian V (1276) - did not create any Cardinals
John XXI (1276-1277) - did not create any Cardinals
Nicholas III (1277-1280) - 9 Cardinals
Martin IV (1281-1285) - 7 Cardinals
Honorius IV (1285-1287) - 1 Cardinals
Nicholas IV (1288-1292) - 6 Cardinals
St. Clestine V (1294) - 13 Cardinals
Boniface VIII (1294-1303) - 15 Cardinals
Total: 138 cardinals.

Of these cardinals, 10 were declared saint or blessed; 14 became popes; 2 were deposed; and 80 occupied episcopal sees.

Sources: Annuaire Pontifical Catholique. XXXII (1929), p. 137; Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, I. Edited by Conradus Eubel. 8 vols. Munich: Librariae Regensbergianae, 1913-1978. Reprint edition: Padua: Il Messaggero di S. Antonio, 1960-1982.

Per venerabilem, decree, 1202, Innocent III (1198-1216).

Sources: Pennington, Kenneth. "Pope Innocent III's views on Church and State: A gloss to Per Venerabilem." Law, church and society: Essays in Honour of Stephan Kuttner. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977, pp. 49-67.; Tierney, Brian. "Tria quippe distinguit iudicia... A note on Innocent III's decree Per Venerabilem". Rights, law and infallibility in Medieval thought. Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain: Variorum; Brookfield, Vt., USA: Ashgate Pub. Co., 1997. (Variorum collected studies series ; CS578), VII, 48-59; Watt, John A. "Hostiensis on Per Venerabilem: The role of the College of Cardinals." Authority and power: studies on medieval law and government presented to Walter Ullmann on his seventieth birthday. Edited by Brian Tierney and Peter Linehan. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 99-113.

Summi providentia principis, bull, 1225, Honorius III (1226-1227).

Established severe punishment for anyone offending a cardinal, making it equivalent to a crime of "lesa maestà".

Source: Galazka, Grzegorz. Cardinali del terzo millennio. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1996, p. 16.

The red hat is granted to cardinals, First Lyon Ecumenical Council, 1245, Innocent IV (1243-1254).

The red hat was used by the cardinals for the first time in the famous abbey of Cluny, France. It is said that Innocent IV and King St. Louis IX of France had an interview there in November 1246, a year after this distinction had been granted to the members of the Sacred College. Tradition in the archdiocese of Lyon is that the red color was inspired by the red hats of the canons of Lyon. According to Noonan, Pope Innocent IV wanted his favorites (the cardinals) to be distinct and recognizable in the lengthy processions at the council.

Sources: Pascal, Jean Baptiste Etienne. Origines et raison de la Liturgie catholique en forme de dictionaire ... suivies de la Liturgie arménienne, traduite en français sur le texte italien du pére Gabriel Avedichian, par l'abbé J.B.E. Pascal. Paris: J.P. Migne, 1859, col. 302; Noonan, Jr., James-Charles. The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the Roman Catholic Church. New York : Viking, 1996. p. 191.

Ubi periculum, constitution, Second Lyon Ecumenical Council, July 7 (or 16), 1274, Bl. Gregory X (1271-1276).

After the tumultuos and prolonged conclave of 1271 which elected Pope Gregory X, this Pontiff issued an apostolic constitution intended to avoid similar disorders in the future. The constitution Ubi periculum, Council of Lyon, Constitution II, n. 2, determined that after the pope dies, the cardinals should wait ten days for the beginning of the conclave. Each cardinal could bring a single assistant, priest or layman. If possible, the election should take place where the pope died. If not possible, it should be held in the bishop's palace or a similar location in a nearby city. The cardinals will gather in a single room, without dividing walls or curtains, and lead a communal life, apart from the free access to one reserved room. These two apartments were to be closed so securely that no one could enter or leave without being observed; no one could talk to another cardinal except publicly and with the permission of the Sacred College. No messages, letters or goods might be admitted. The keys of the conclave were to be guarded: the internal keys by the Cardinal Chamberlain, the external by the Marshal of the Conclave. Provisions were to be brought in through a carefully guarded revolving window and were to be examined for illegal letters and packets. If after three days the cardinals had been unable to reach agreement, they could have a single dish for lunch and another for supper; after five days, they were to be limited to bread, wine and water. Prayer, silence and listening for the word of God were to prevail.

Source: Petrucci, Enzo. "Il problema de la vacanza papale è la costituzione Ubi Periculum di Gregorio X", Atti del convegno di studio, VII Centenario del 1º conclave (1268-1271). Viterbo: Azienda autonoma di cura soggiorno e turismo di Viterbo, 1975, pp. 69-96; Manzini, Raimondo. "Papal elections", pp. 183-190, in The Vatican, The Vendome Press, 1980.

Consistorial allocution, 1276, Hadrian V (July 11, 1276-August 18, 1276).

Suspended the constitution Ubi periculum.

Licet felicis recordationis, bull, September 30 (20?), 1276, John XXI (1276-1277).

The strict regulations of the constitution Ubi periculum proved to be too much for the cardinals and they were suspended by this constitution and the promise to provide means to accelerate the election but the pope died without having had time to do so. The result was that the elections that took place afterwards lasted from six months to two years and three months.

Source: Mollien, A. "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.

Text:

Coelestis altitudo, bull, July 18, 1289, Nicholas IV (1288-1292).

Assigned a considerable portion of the papal revenues to the College of Cardinals, to guarantee the cardinals an adequate tenor of life and the possibility of maintain a cardinalitial family, almost a small court, providing the Sacred College of Cardinals security and stability and thus uniting it more closely with the papal policies.

Source: Wilks, Michael. The problem of sovereignty in the later Middle Ages. The papal monarchy with Augustinus Triumphus and the Publicists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. (Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought. New series, vol. IX)., p. 457, n. 2.

Allotted to the College of Cardinals one half the revenues of the Apostolic See, i.e. of the pallium taxes, the dues for confirmation of bishops (servitia communia), the "census" or tribute from countries subject to the pope, the Peter's-pence, the visitation dues (paid in on the occasion of their visits to Rome, visitatio liminum apostolorum, by all archbishops, by bishops immediately subject to the Holy See or confirmed and consecrated by the pope, and by abbots freed from episcopal jurisdiction and immediately subject to the Holy See), besides other sources of revenues.

Source: Sägmüller, Johannes Baptist. "Cardinal", The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1913, p. 340.

St. Celestine V (July 5 to December 13, 1294) issued three bulls to definitively regulate the conclave:

--Quia in futurum, issued in Aquileia on September 28, 1294, by which he renewed the constitution Ubi periculum of Pope Gregory X..

Source: Regesta pontificum romanorum inde ab a. post Christum natum MCXCVIII ad a. MCCCIV edidit Augustus Potthast; opus ab Academia Litterarum Berolinensi duplici praemio ornatum eiusque subsidiis liberalissime concessis editum. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1957. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Berlin : Rudolf de Decker, 1874-1875, II, 1918.

--Pridem dum nobiscum, issued on October 17, 1294, in S. Germano, addressed to King Charles of Sicily, warning him that in the case the pope would die in his realm, the constitution of Pope Gregory X, which he had just renewed, would not be undermined.

--Constitutionem felicis recordationem, issued in Naples on December 10, 1294, three days before his abdication to the papacy, declared that the constitution of Pope Gregory X had full and complete force and should be entirely observed even if the pope abdicates.

These three documents reviewed the regulations and restored the legislation of Bl. Gregory X giving clearer directives on the manner of electing a new pope, offering three possible forms: by inspiration or acclamation (the Pope being acclaimed by the public proposal of one or more cardinals); by compromise (following an elaborate mediation between two or more parties) and by scrutiny (a secret balloting requiring a voting majority of two-thirds). This last procedure was the most common. The first two were abolished by the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis of February 22, 1996, issued by John Paul II.

Source: "Vacance du Saint-Siège." Annuaire Pontifical Catholique de 1900. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1899, p. 61; Manzini, Raimondo. "Papal elections", pp. 183-190, in The Vatican, The Vendome Press, 1980, p. 187.

Confirmation of the constitutions of Celestine V and addition of the constitution Ubi periculum to the Sexti Decretales, Boniface VIII (1294-1303).

This pope, elected in conclave on December 24, 1294, inserted the constitution of Gregory X in the Corpus juris canonici, Sexti Decretal, 1. I, tit. VI, De electione, c. 3. From this moment on, the seclusion of the conclave will never again be abrogated. Boniface's successor, Benedict XI, was elected in 1303 in conformity with these regulations in the first conclave held in the Vatican.

Source: A. Mollien. "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.

Red cassock is granted to the cardinals, 1294, Boniface VIII (1294-1303).

The pope allowed the cardinals to wear the red cassock and also issued the most serious pains to those who offended them by word or deed.

Source: Mollien, A. "Cardinal", 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, column 1337.