CARDINAL
334
CARDINAL
as is possible in the papal court, all conflicts between
laymen and ecclesiastics. The pope, he says, is like
Moses in gentleness of government, while the admin-
istration of the cardinals recalls the paternal charac-
ter of the seventy elders who sat as judges under the
patriarch's control. The pope also entrusts to them
the administration of vacant abbeys and the filling of
the vacant abbatial offices, but not without his fore-
knowledge.
Moreover, in virtue of a papal provision as old as the reign of Pope Simplicius (468-S3), these car- dinal-priests were wont to conduct Divine service at the three principal cemetery churches (St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Laurence), and later on at the same churches raised (with St. Mary Major) to patri- archal rank. To each of these four churches were assigned seven cardinals; the latter were therefore twenty-eight in number. This is the sense of the "Liber Pontificalis" when it says (ed. Duchesne, I, 249 sqq.): "Hie [Simplicius] eonstituit ad sanctum Petrum apostolum et ad sanctum Laurentium mar- tyrem ebdomadas, ut presbyteri manerent, propter- penitentes et baptismum: regio III ad sanctum Laurentium, regio prima ad sanctum Paulum, regio
VI vel septima ad sanctum Petrum" (cf. Duchesne, "Les tit res presbyteraux et les diaconies", in "Me- langes d'archeol. et d'hist.", VII, 17 sqq.; J. Zet- tinger, "Die alt est en Nachrichten iiber Baptist erien der Stadt Rom", in " Romische Quartalschrift ", XIX, 326 sqq.). For the twelfth century we have the statement of Johannes Diaconus in the sixteenth chapter of his work " De ecclesia Lateranensi" (ed. J. Mabillon. in "Museum Italicum", Paris, 1724, II, 574): "Cardinales Sanctae Maria? Maioris sunt ii: SS. Apostolorum, S. Cyriaei in Thermas, S. Eusebii, S. Pudentianae, S. Vitalis, SS. Mareellini et Petri, S. Clementis. Cardinales Sancti Petri sunt ii: S. Ma- ria? Transtiberim, S. Chrysogoni, S. Caecilise, S. Anas- tasiae, S. Laurentii in Damaso, S. Marci, SS. Martini et Silvestri. Cardinales Sancti Pauli sunt ii: S. Sa- binse. S. Prisca?, S. Balbinae, SS. Nerei et Achillei, S. Sixti, S. Marcelli, S. Susannas. Cardinales Sancti Laurentii sunt ii: S. Praxedis. S. Petri ad Vincula, S. Laurentii in Lucina, S. Crucis in Jerusalem, S. Ste- phani in Caelio monte, SS. Joannis et Pauli, SS. Quattuor Coronatorum." The eldest of these cardinal-priests acted as their head; he was known as arehipresby- ter, and was the chief and immediate assistant of the pope at all ecclesiastical functions; from the twelfth century he was known as prior cardinalium presbyterorum.
II. Cardinal-Deacons. — Besides the clergy at- tached to each Roman Church, there was in the city a "regionary" clergy of almost equal antiquity, so called because of its relations to the ecclesiastical regiones or quarters into which, after the fashion of the municipal regions, Christian Rome was at an early date divided. For the care of the poor the city was divided into seven regions, each of which was administered by a deacon. The "Liber Pontificalis" dates this division into seven regions from the time of Clement I, and ascribes to Popes Evaristus and Fabian the assignment of the regions to as many deacons. It says of Clement I (88-97): "Hie fecit
VII regiones, dividit notariis fidelibus ecclesiae, qui gestas martyrum sollicite et curiose. unusquisque per regionem suam, diligenterperquireret" (ed. Duchesne, I, 123), i. <■., he divided tin- city into seven regions and assigned them to as many faithful notaries of the Church, whose duty it was earnestly and carefully to collect in each region the acts of the martyrs. And of Evaristus (99-107'.'): "Hie titulos in urbe Roma dividit presbyteris et VII diaconos ordinavit qui custodirent episcopum pracdicantem, propter stilum veritatis" (op. cit., I, 126), i. e., he divided among the priests the " titles" of the city of Rome, and ordained seven deacons to bear witness to the preaching of the
bishop. Much more credible is the statement in the
life of Fabian (236-250): "Hie regiones dividit dia-
conibus et fecit VII subdiaconos, qui VII notariis
imminerent, ut gestas martyrum in integro fideliter
colligerent, et multas fabricas per cymeteria fieri
pnecepit" (op. cit., I, 148), i. e., he divided the
"regions" among the deacons and created seven sub-
deacons, whom he placed over the notaries, that the
latter might collect with fidelity and completeness the
acts of the martyrs; he also commanded many build-
ings to be put up in the cemeteries. In this way
there arose in each of the regions an edifice (diaconia)
for the reception of the poor, and close by a church.
These regionary deacons were wont to subscribe the
acts of Roman synods and other documents as diaconi
ecclesia? RomaruF, or deacons of the Roman Church,
sometimes, probably, adding their proper region.
Thereby also were expressed the fixity of their rela-
tions to the church of the Bishop of Rome and their
obligation to assist him at liturgical functions. It
was natural enough, therefore, that the term cardi-
nales should very soon be applied to these regionary
deacons (diaconi cardinales), as well as to the afore-
mentioned twenty-eight priests of the immediate
papal entourage in ecclesiastical functions.
In the Middle Ages the ecclesiastical division of Rome into seven regions disappeared, owing to the changes in Roman topography; consequently, the diaconi cardinales ceased gradually to bear the names of their regions. Of the latter there remain only their number, seven, consecrated by antiquity and their dignity. In the course of time other charitable institutions took the place of the original deaconries. At the end of the sixth century Greg- ory the Great had eighteen deacons. Under Bene- dict VII (684-85) we meet with monasteria diaconiw. Adrian I (772-95) fixed at eighteen the number of the diaconal churches, nor was there any alte- ration of this number until the sixteenth century. In consequence, from the end of the eleventh to the end of the twelfth century, the number of cardi- nal-deacons was fixed permanently at eighteen. The chief source of this enlargement of their number was the addition of the six diaconi palatirii and their archdeacon, i. e., the ecclesiastical officers whose duty it was to serve in turn during the week at the papal Mass (" Liber Pontificalis", I, 364 1 , 504'°, 509"°, and II, 18", 252'; Duchesne. "Les regions de Rome au moyen-age", in "Melanges d'arch^ologie et d'hist.", X, 144). The above- mentioned Johannes Diaconus describes as follows the manner in which these eighteen cardinal-deacons assisted at the papal Mass: "In quibusdam vero dominicis et festivis diebus sanctorumque praecipue sollemnitatibus quandoque sacerdos est regalis et imperialis episcopus, immo patriarcha; et idem apos- tolicus in supradicto sacratissimo altare Salvatoris huius Lateranensis basilica; missam debet celebrare; et quando celebrat dominus papa sancti Petri vicarius . . . debet etiam ibi pnesens esse archidiaconus cum sex diaconibus palatinis, qui in palatio legere debent evangelium et in basilica Lateranensi et alii duo- decim diacones regionarii, qui solent evangelium legere in stationibus ecclesiarum Roma? constitutis. Isti decern et octo diaconi tot idem ecclesias habent infra muros civitatis. Et tamen omnes sunt canonici patriarchalis basilica? Lateranensis" ("De Ecclesia Lateranensi", C. viii, in "Museum Italicum", II, 567), i. e., on certain great feasts, bishops of superior rank say Mass on the altar of the Lateran Basilica. When the pope says Mass there must also be present, with their archdeacon, the six palatine deacons, whose duty it is to read the Gospel in the [papal] palace, and in the Lateran Basilica; also the twelve regionary deacons (diacones regionarii) who are wont to rcadthe Gospel in the ••station" churches of Rome. These eighteen deacons have each a church
