Editing Cardinal (Catholic Church) (section)

==History==
{{Further|Papal selection before 1059}}
[[File:Richelieu, por Philippe de Champaigne (detalle).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Cardinal Richelieu]], chief minister of [[Kingdom of France|France]]]]

There is general disagreement about the origin of the term, but a chief consensus is that the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|cardinalis}} comes from the term {{Wikt-lang|la|cardo}} (meaning 'pivot' or 'hinge'). It was first used in [[late antiquity]] to designate a bishop or priest who was incorporated into a church for which he had not originally been ordained. In [[Rome]] the first persons to be called cardinals were the deacons of the seven regions of the city at the beginning of the 6th century, when the word began to mean 'principal', 'eminent', or 'superior'.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica">Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref>

The name was also given to the senior priest in each of the "title" churches (the parish churches) of Rome and to the bishops of the seven sees surrounding the city. By the 8th century the Roman cardinals constituted a privileged class among the Roman clergy. They took part in the administration of the Church of Rome and in the papal liturgy. By decree of [[Lateran Council (769)|a synod of 769]], only a cardinal was eligible to become Bishop of Rome. Cardinals were granted the privilege of wearing the red hat by Pope [[Innocent IV]] in 1244.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/>{{full citations needed|date=February 2025}}

In cities other than Rome, the name cardinal began to be applied to certain churchmen as a mark of honour. The earliest example of this occurs in a letter sent by [[Pope Zacharias]] in 747 to [[Pepin the Short|Pippin the Younger]], ruler of the [[Franks]], in which Zacharias applied the title to the priests of [[Paris]] to distinguish them from country clergy. This meaning of the word spread rapidly, and from the 9th century various episcopal cities had a special class among the clergy known as cardinals. The use of the title was reserved for the cardinals of Rome in 1567 by [[Pius V]].

In 1059, five years after the [[East-West Schism]], the right of electing the pope was reserved to the principal clergy of Rome and the bishops of the seven [[Suburbicarian diocese|suburbicarian see]]s. In the 12th century the practice of appointing ecclesiastics from outside Rome as cardinals began, with each of them assigned a church in Rome as his [[titular church]] or linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses, while still being incardinated in a diocese other than that of Rome.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

The term ''cardinal'' at one time applied to any priest permanently assigned or [[incardinated]] to a church,<ref name="CE-cardinal">{{CathEncy |wstitle=Cardinal |title=Cardinal |last=Sägmüller |first=Johannes Baptist}}</ref> or specifically to the senior priest of an important church, based on the Latin {{lang|la|cardo}} ('hinge'), meaning 'pivotal' as in "principal" or "chief". The term was applied in this sense as early as the 9th century to the priests of the {{lang|la|tituli}} ([[parish]]es) of the [[diocese of Rome]].<ref name="CE-cardinal" />

In the year 1563, the Ecumenical Council of Trent, headed by Pope [[Pius IV]], wrote about the importance of selecting good cardinals: "nothing is more necessary to the Church of God than that the holy Roman pontiff apply that solicitude which by the duty of his office he owes the universal Church in a very special way by associating with himself as cardinals the most select persons only, and appoint to each church most eminently upright and competent shepherds; and this the more so, because our Lord [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] will require at his hands the blood of the sheep of Christ that perish through the evil government of shepherds who are negligent and forgetful of their office."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Catholic bishops and Pope Pius IV |title=The Council of Trent |date=11 November 1563 |publisher=Tan Books and Publishers}}</ref>

The earlier influence of temporal rulers, notably the [[kings of France]], reasserted itself through the influence of cardinals of certain nationalities or politically significant movements. Traditions even developed entitling certain monarchs, including those of Austria, Spain, and France, to nominate one of their trusted clerical subjects to be created cardinal, a so-called "[[crown-cardinal]]".<ref name="Chadwick">{{cite book |last1=Chadwick |first1=Owen |title=The Popes and European Revolution |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198269199 |page=[https://archive.org/details/popeseuropeanrev0000chad/page/266 266] |url=https://archive.org/details/popeseuropeanrev0000chad |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In [[Early modern period|early modern]] times, cardinals often had important roles in secular affairs. In some cases, they took on powerful positions in government. In [[Henry VIII]]'s England, his chief minister was for some time [[Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Wolsey]]. [[Cardinal Richelieu]]'s power was so great that he was for many years effectively the ruler of France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webster |first=Henry Kitchell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXSqwPFMn3oC |title=Early European History |publisher=Forgotten Books |isbn=978-1-60620-935-6 |language=en}}</ref> Richelieu's successor was also a cardinal, [[Cardinal Mazarin|Jules Mazarin]]. [[Guillaume Dubois]] and [[André-Hercule de Fleury]] complete the list of the four great cardinals to have ruled France.<ref name="Chadwick" /> In Portugal, due to a succession crisis, one cardinal, [[Henry, King of Portugal|Henry of Portugal]], was crowned king, the only example of a cardinal-king (although [[John II Casimir Vasa]] was a cardinal from 1646 until he resigned in 1647, later being elected and crowned King of Poland, in 1648 and 1649, respectively).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Biographical Dictionary - Consistory of May 28, 1646 |url=https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1646.htm |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=cardinals.fiu.edu}}</ref>

While the incumbents of some sees are regularly made cardinals, and some countries are entitled to at least one cardinal by [[concordat]] (usually earning either its [[Primate (bishop)|primate]] or the metropolitan of the capital city the cardinal's hat), almost no see carries an actual right to the cardinalate, not even if its bishop is a [[Patriarch#Catholic Church|patriarch]]: the notable exception is the [[Patriarch of Lisbon]] who, by [[Pope Clement XII]]'s 1737 bull {{lang|la|[[Inter praecipuas apostolici ministerii]]}}, is accorded the right to be elevated to the rank of cardinal in the consistory following his appointment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patriarcado-lisboa.pt/site/index.php?id=6788 |title=Notas históricas sobre o Tricentenário do Patriarcado de Lisboa |language=pt |trans-title=Historical notes on the Tricentennial of the Patriarchate of Lisbon |author=Manuel Clemente |author-link=Manuel Clemente |date=1 July 2016 |publisher=Patriarchate of Lisbon |access-date=17 November 2020 |archive-date=13 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613024252/http://www.patriarcado-lisboa.pt/site/index.php?id=6788 |url-status=live }}</ref>