CHAPTER X. THE ELECTORS, MINISTERS, AND COURTS OF THE POPE, CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO FOREIGN STATES. CCCCXXIII. THE ambition of the Emperors of Germany, which at one period, as we have seen, claimed the absolute power of nominating the Pope, produced a reaction both in favour of a free election to the spiritual throne and in favour of the independence of the temporal principality; for it became evident to Catholic Sovereigns that the Sovereign who nominated the supreme Pontiff would indirectly govern the whole of Christendom (a). At all times, indeed, the rule and manner of succession to that throne, which claims, without reference to territorial limits, a spiritual allegiance, theoretically from all Christians, practically from all co-religionists, of whatever country they may be subjects, must be a question of grave general international importance. But at no time, perhaps, can this be more truly predicated than at the present. It will be found on inquiry that most of the questions which in these days agitate nations have religion for their object or their pretext. The difficult problem which the union of a temporal sovereignty with an universal spiritual dominion so long presented to Europe has indeed been solved for the present certainly, perhaps for the future also, by the Parliament of the Italian Kingdom; nevertheless the peculiar condition of the Papacy still involves political and international considerations interesting to all States (b). (a) Portalis, Introd. v. vi. (b) Farini, Lo Stato Romano, vol. iv. Lettera XV. al G. Gladstone. "Nè ciò dipende tanto dalla natura dei Governi che prevalgono in CCCCXXIV. It is therefore expedient to inquire:1. What qualifications render a person eligible to be elected Pope? 2. Who are the electors and the ministers of the Pope? 3. What is the mode and law of such election ? 4. May the Pope be deposed for any offence, and by whom? CCCCXXV. (1.) According to rule and usage, no one is eligible, and no one is elected to be Pope, except a Cardinal (c); but according to the Canon Law, the election of another person (d), even, it is said, of a layman (e), would not be null. So that Maximillian's (f) expectations were not without the pale of possible gratification. But the throne of Rome may not be filled, as other thrones are, by a female. One must be a Protestant, says the French canonist who has been already cited, or be blinded by other fanatical prejudices, " pour croire à la fable de la Papesse "Jeanne' (g). As to the age of the Pope, it must not be less than that of the canonical age required for the Episcopate, namely, thirty years (h). In the year 1770, it was remarked that of the successors of St. Peter three only had reached that elevation under the age of forty. CCCCXXVI. (i) The Electors of the Pope are the Cardinals. Europa quanto dalla natura stessa del problema, il quale è implicato nelle più gravi ed universali questioni religiose, internazionali, e politiche." Vide post, Lettera XVII. (c) D. de Maillane, ii. 551. "Pape." (d) Can. oportebat et seq. dist. 79. (e) Glos. in cap. si quis pecunia eod verb. non Apostolicus. (f) Vide ante, s. cccxxix. note 7. (g) D. de Maillane, ii. 551. "Pape." (h) Ibid. ii. 552. "Pape." Ibid. i. 113. "Age." Ibid. ii. "Episcopat." (i) Pachmann, Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts, ss. 175-8. Vide post, Lord Palmerston's observations. Who are the persons eligible for an order possessing such an important suffrage? How are the members of this order elected or appointed? What is their history?-what are the functions of this order ?— are questions which immediately present themselves for solution. CCCCXXVII. Originally every Church was governed by a Bishop, who was assisted by a synod or senate of the clergy, that is, of the priests and deacons in his diocese. Those of the clergy who were attached by institution to certain cures of souls, to certain Churches, were at first designated Incardinati, as a name of distinction from the temporary and auxiliary clergy not attached to any particular Church. The name Incardinatus (k) was afterwards exchanged for that of Cardinalis, and in early times every Church possessed its Cardinales, though probably the appellation was generally confined, as it was in France, to the clergy of the city, or suburbs of the city of the diocese, in fact to the chief advisers of the Bishop, and was not bestowed upon the rural clergy. When the Church of Rome claimed pre-eminence over all other Churches, it was an evident consequence that her Cardinals should be equally distinguished above all others. It was the duty of the Roman Cardinals not only to govern the Churches of the metropolis of the world, but also to form the council of the chief pastor of that metropolis. They were not Cardinals (1) merely because Incardinati to different parishes in Rome, but also, and principally, because these parishes constituted in their aggregate that (k) Also Intitulatus. (1) C. 1. Dist. xxii. C. 13, Dist. lxi. C. 3-5, Dist. lxxix. Roman Church which was the head, the centre, the hinge (cardo) of all the Churches of the world. These Cardinals, though but simple priests and deacons as to their order, claimed jurisdiction over the inferior Bishops of the Roman See. Afterwards the Bishops of seven contiguous and suburban sees (episcopi suburbicarii) were added to the number of Cardinals. The Pope was at first, like other Bishops, elected by the clergy and laity of the city, the choice being ratified by the Emperors; then, as we have seen, for a time the Emperor usurped the right of nomination, and finally the election was left to the regulations of the Roman See. In the Council held at Rome under Pope Nicolas II. (A.D. 1059), the principal authority in electing the Pope was conferred on the Cardinal Bishops; Pope Alexander III., in the third Council of Lateran (A.D. 1179), excluded the people and the clergy from all share in the elections, and made equal the right of the Cardinal Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Thus the election of the Pope fell into the hands of the College of Cardinals, with whom it has ever since remained (m). CCCCXXVIII. The appointment of the Cardinals is made by the Pope. To borrow the language of a learned French canonist (n): "Comme il n'y a que les Cardinaux qui créent le Pape, il "n'y a aussi que le Pape qui crée les Cardinaux; c'est un principe établi par tous les canonistes." 66 Nevertheless, as a matter of usage, the Pope does not create cardinals before the advice and the suffrages of the College of Cardinals, have been obtained in consistorio secreto. The Council of Basle required that the election of Cardinals should be conducted by the way of scrutinium and (m) D. de Maillane, i. 403. " Cardinal." Ibid. ii. 509. "Pape," contains the new regulations of Alexander III. at length. (n) Ibid. i. 408. “ Cardinal." publicatio, with the suffrage in writing of the majority of the Cardinals assembled in their collegiate capacity, non autem per vota auricularia. This rule has been only partially followed. The creation of Cardinals is not held to resemble the election of prelates. The number of Cardinals has greatly varied; originally it was about fourteen or fifteen, commensurate with the Churches and parishes served by the priesthood and diaconate of Rome; others were added by Pope Marcellus, who fixed the number at twenty-five. The schism at Avignon (A.D. 1307-77) led to the extension, as both the French and the Roman Popes were anxious to increase the number of their partisans. After the death of Pope Martin V. (A.D. 1431), the Cardinals agreed in conclave upon certain articles, the effect of which being to admit the Cardinals to share the revenues and the jurisdiction, both spiritual and temporal, of the Papacy, did, according to high authority, permanently alter the conditions both of the sovereignty itself (Signoria stessa) and of the temporal government of the Popes (o). The Council of Basle (A.D. 1434), among various other regulations with respect to the Cardinals, fixed their number at twenty-four, and forbad any increase, "nisi pro magna "Ecclesiæ necessitate vel utilitate" (p). The Popes, however, utterly disregarded this rule; Leo X. created twentyone in a single day, in consequence of a conspiracy formed against him, the leader of which was a Cardinal. Paul IV. fixed the number at forty (q). Sixtus V. made what was intended to be a final regulation on this subject by a Bull promulgated in 1586, fixing the (0) Farini, Lo Stato Romano, iv. 323-5. Lettera IX. al G. Gladstone. See these important articles in extenso; he calls them the Magna Charta of the Papal Monarchy. (P) Tit. xx. De Numero et Qualitate Cardinalium.-Koch, Sanctio Pragmatica, &c., Sylloge Doc. p. 143. (9) By an Indultum, which is known by the name Compactum. |