THE ORIGIN AND OFFICE OF CARDINAL, 2-^7, 
ses, SO the cardinals represent the 70 elders, who, under the ponti- 
fical authority, decide private differences. Cardinals, in their first 
institution, were only the principal priests of the parishes of Rome, r 
In the primitive church, the chief priest of a parish, next the bishop, 
was called presbyter cardinalis, to distinguish him from the other 
petty priests, who had no church. The term was first applied to them 
in A. D. 150 ; others say, 300. Under pope Gregory, cardinal priests 
and deacons were only such as had a church or chapel under their 
care ; and thus was the original use of the word. Leo IV. in the coun- 
cil of Rome, held in 853, calls them presbyteros sui cardinis ; and their 
churches, parochias cardinales. The cardinals continued on this 
footing till the eleventh century ; but as the grandeur of his holiness 
became exceedingly augmented, he would have his councils of cardi- 
nals make a better figure than the ancient priests had done. It was 
a good while, however, before they had the precedence over bishops, 
or got the election of the pope into their hands; but they soon after 
got the red hat and purple, and became at length superior to the 
bishops, by the sole quality of being cardinals. 
Du Cange observes, that originally there were three kinds of 
churches : the first, or genuine churches, were properly called 
parishes ; the second, deaconries, which were chapels joined to hos- 
pitals, and served by deacons ; the third, oratories, where private 
masses were said, and were discharged by local and resident chap- 
lains. He adds, that to distinguish the principal churches from the 
chapels and oratories, the name cardinales was given them. Accord- 
pRi’ish churches gave titles to cardinal priests ; and some 
chapels also, at length, gave the titles to cardinal deacons. Others 
are of opinion, that the title was given not only to priests, but like- 
wise to such bishops and deacons as were attached to certain 
churches, to distinguish them from those who only served them en 
passant, and by commission. Titular churches, or benefices, were 
a kind of parishes, i. e. churches assigned each to a cardinal prdest, 
with some stated district, and a font for administering baptism, in 
cases where the bishop himself could not do it. These cardinals 
were subordinate to the bishops ; and accordingly, in councils, parti- 
cularly that held at Rome in 868, subscribed after them. It was not, 
however, only at Rome, that priests bore this title, for there were 
cardinal priests in France ; thus the curate of the parish of St. John 
de Vignes is called in old charters the cardinal priest of that parish. 
The title is also given to some bishops, — quatenus bishops, e. g. to 
those of Mentz and Milan ; the archbishop of Bourges is also, iiji 
ancient writings, called cardinal. The sacred college consists of 
seventy cardinals, divided into three classes, viz. bishops, priests, 
and deacons. The cardinal bishops, who are the pope’s vicars, bear 
the titles of the bishoprics assigned to them ; the rest take such 
titles as are given them ; the number of cardinal bishops has been 
fixed, but that of cardinal priests and deacons, and consequently 
the sacred college itself, has often fluctuated. Till 1125, the col- 
lege only consisted of fifty-two or fifty-three ; the council of Con- 
stance reduced them to twenty-four ; but Sixtus IV., about 1480, 
raised them again to fifty-three, and Leo X. to sixty-five, Thus, as 
