he is simply created by the sovereign. It is true that the Council of Trent, in its twenty-fourth session, ruled that the same canonical conditions required from Bishops should be incumbent on Cardinals. But this prescription has been habitually disregarded,[1] and it would seem as if celibacy were the only palpable qualification which is absolutely indispensable. Let a man have no wife living and there appears to be no tangible obstacle to arrest a Pope, if so disposed, from naming him Cardinal. It would, however, seem that a lay Cardinal becomes de facto so far subject to ecclesiastical discipline as to require the Pope's consent to return legitimately into secular life and to lay aside the insignia of his rank. There is a long list of Cardinals who have done so, but with the exception of rebellious ones like Chatillon, they all had sought and obtained the Pope's sanction.[2] On the other hand,
- ↑ To give one striking example of what liberties have been taken with this prescription, it is enough to mention the case of Don Luis of Bourbon, who in 1735, when only eight years old, was named Archbishop of Toledo and Cardinal by Clement XII. Even the stern Sixtus V. was not immaculate on this score, for he made a Cardinal of his nephew Alessandro Damasceni Peretti, as a youth of fourteen.
- ↑ In Crétineau Joly's edition of Consalvi's Memoirs, there is a French version of a letter written by Pius VI.
