CAR 



454 



CAR 



Cardinal, ated in the oratories, they assumed the name of car- 

 w 'V*-' dinales, or cardinal titles, because their functions im- 

 plied the privilege of administering the sacraments, 

 from which the priests of the oratories were preclu- 

 ded. Though this appellation was exceedingly ge- 

 neral, yet in a short time it was confined to those 

 at Rome who assisted the Pope at the celebration of 

 the mass, or attended him wh.-n any public proces- 

 sion took place. 



The number of cardinals has been exceedingly 

 fluctuating. Like all institutions that have existed 

 for a lonf series of years, their number was origi- 

 nally inconsiderable. The deacon cardinals at first 

 only amounted to seven, and were gradually aug- 

 mented to fourteen and eighteen. They were after- 

 wards reduced to fourteen. The priest cardinals are 

 to the number of fifty, which, with the six cardinal 

 bishops of Ostia, Porio, Sabina, Palestrina, Frasca- 

 ti, and Albano, make generally the number of se- 

 venty. It was a favourite object with the church of 

 Rome to render the whole of its rites and ceremo- 

 nies, and even the different orders or ranks which 

 composed the whole, as sacred as possible. As they 

 could derive little sanction from any precedent in the 

 New Testament, they therefore had recourse to the 

 Old ; and, by a singular conceit, a resemblance was 

 supposed to exist between the pope and Moses, and 

 the cardinals and the seventy elders of the people. 

 Till the year 1125, their number was only fifty-two 

 or fifty-three. The council of Constance reduced 

 them to twenty-four. But as the see of Rome could 

 never brook controul, Sixtus IV., totally disregarding 

 the enactment of the council, restored the former num- 

 ber of cardinals, and Leo raised them to sixty-five. 



When the pope purposes to create any cardinals, 

 he causes their names to be read in the consistory, 

 after he has informed those who are present fratres 

 Kabetis, that is, you have for brothers, &c. If those 

 who are elected are not at a great distance, they are 

 immediately sent for, and they receive red caps from 

 his holiness. The cap is sent to those who are ab- 

 sent by a person of distinction, but they must re- 

 ceive the hat from his own hands ; and when they 

 are introduced for this purpose, they are received 

 with great pomp and ceremony. Their dress, like 

 that of all the different orders in the Romish com- 

 munion, is prescribed, and defined with great accu- 

 racy. It consists of a rochet, over which is a short 

 purple mantle ; and, upon extraordinary occasions, 

 the mozette, and a papal cap over it. The colour 

 of their garment is either red or violet, according to 

 circumstances. The regular cardinals wear no silk, 

 nor any other colour, excepting that of their order. 

 The red hat and cap are common to them all. 



Whatever may have been the original occasion of 

 the institution of this singular order, or by what 

 means soever they acquired that ascendency over all 

 the ecclesiastics of the same communion, it must ap- 

 pear evident, that in arranging the various ecclesias- 

 tical and political measures which were deemed most 

 expedient to be adopted, the pope himself was al- 

 together inadequate. His claim to supremacy, as 

 well as that of the city of Rome to be considered 

 as the metropolitan city of the Christian world, 

 naturally gave a precedence, or rather a most 



Cards. 



substantial influence to those of the hierarchy who Cardinal 

 were near to the pope's person, and whose interest 

 so powerfully co-operated with that of his holiness. 

 In the course of time it became an object of the 

 highest ambition to enterprising men to obtain a car- 

 dinal's hat. This was sometimes the reward of li- 

 terary merit, or of having rendered essential services 

 to the papal see ; but, in general, the chapter con- 

 sisted of opulent ecclesiastics, who, in consequence 

 of their own private fortune, and the affluence and 

 high rank of their family, or the political influ- 

 ence which they possessed at the different courts of 

 Europe, rendered them persons upon whom it was 

 expedient to confer honours. The cardinals can be 

 viewed in no other light than that of the pope's pri- 

 vy council. All measures of state, or whatever re- 

 garded the real or supposed interests of the Catholic 

 church, were first the subjects of consideration in the 

 conclave, and the sanction of their authority was ne- 

 cessary to the validity of any measure which related 

 to the interests of the church. Besides the influ- 

 ence that they necessarily possessed as the advisers, 

 and even the leaders, of papal politics in the city of 

 Rome, they were frequently employed in negotia- 

 tions in foreign countries ; and as a proof of the 

 immense power that was vested in the Pope, they 

 were designated legates a latere. They were thus 

 inferior to the Pope, but in rank superior to any one 

 else. Whatever may have been the manner in which 

 the patriarch of Rome was at first elected, it is certain, 

 that for many ages the cardinals have claimed this 

 privilege as their unalienable right. They have even 

 gone farther, and succeeded in establishing it as a 

 settled point in ecclesiastical policy, that the head of 

 the Romish church must be elected from their body. 

 So eagerly did the Pope enter into this right, that 

 Stephen ordered the body of his predecessor to be 

 dug up, because he had only attained to the rank of 

 Bishop when he was elevated to the papal chair. It. 

 was Urban VIII. who expressly commanded, that 

 the cardinals should be addressed by the title of emi- 

 nence. This decree was promulgated in 1630; pre- 

 vious to that period they were called most illustrious, 

 They have long been esteemed as possessing a rank 

 next to the pope. See Du Cange, Onuphritts, Du- 

 areniis, Moreri, Ciaconus, and Mosheim. (R) 



CARDINAL NOTES, in music, are, according 

 to, Ambrose Warren, those with long finger- keys on 

 the organ, otherwise prime notes, viz. A, B, C, D, 

 E, F, and G. The remaining five notes he calls 

 adjuncts, or supplemental notes, (g) 



CARDIOSPERMUM, a genus of plants of the 

 class Octandria, and order Trigynia. See BOTANY, 

 p. 204. 



CARDOPATUM. See BROTERA. 



CARDS, PLAYING. As neither the manufacture 

 of cards, nor the history of card playing, are subjects 

 of any interest or importance, we shall merely refer 

 our readers to those sources from which they may 

 obtain information on these points. 



In the 8th volume of the Archceologia, Daines Bar- 

 rington, Mr Bowler, and Mr Gough, have written 

 essays on the antiquity of card playing. 



An account of the art of making cards by M. Du- 

 hamel, and approved of by the Academy of Sciences, 



