Cardinal

Cardinal

The Lat. cardo means a hinge; its adjective, cardinalis (from which we get cardinal), meant originally "pertaining to a hinge." hence "that on which something turns or depends," hence "the principal, the chief." Hence, in Christian Rome, a "cardinal church" (ecclesia cardinalis) was a principal or parish church as distinguished from an oratory attached to such, and the chief priest (presbyter cardinalis) was the "cardinal," the body (or "College") of cardinals forming the Council of the Pope, and electing the Pope from their own number.

This did not become a stabilized regulation until after the third Lateran Council ( 1173); since then the College of Cardinals consisted of six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons. From the thirteenth century on the majority of the cardinals were Italians. In 1945 this tradition was broken by the Pope's nomination of a number of additional cardinals.

The cardinals' "red hat" was made part of the official vestments by Innocent IV ( 1245) "in token of their being ready to lay down their life for the gospel."