the Cardinals in Consistory the fact of his having mentally resolved on a stated number of promotions, but without making any intimation of the names, the only apparent effect of which announcement being to limit the range of this Pope's power of creation, inasmuch as those whom he has announced to have reserved in petto are thenceforth counted in the number of the Sacred College, and therefore swell its ranks by so much. It is indeed the custom for the Pope to write down in sealed papers the names of those whom he has mentally promoted, and the same custom makes it usual for the successor to fulfil these intentions should death have intervened to prevent their execution by his predecessor. But both this writing down of names and the observance of a predecessor's expressed wishes are quite arbitrary, and there are well-established precedents of Cardinals in petto who never were promoted into the full-fledged state.[1]
- ↑ It has been reserved to Pius IX. to furnish a case in the history of Cardinalitian nominations that is unique. It has never been before known for a nomination not to be executed after the Pope has gone so far as formally to intimate by letter to an individual his intention to make him Cardinal at the next promotion. Yet this is what happened to the illustrious Rosmini,
