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Lay cardinal

Layman appointed as a Catholic cardinal

Summary

Layman appointed as a Catholic cardinal

deacon]]. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1858, a few months after becoming a cardinal.

In the historical practice of the Catholic Church, a lay cardinal was a man whom the Pope appointed to the College of Cardinals while still a layman. This appointment carried with it the obligation to be ordained to a clerical order, meaning that "lay cardinal" was not a permanent state, but a term in reference to a man who was appointed cardinal prior to taking on the clerical state corresponding to that appointment.

The current law of the Catholic Church is that a man must be first ordained at least a priest in order to be considered for appointment as a cardinal.

List of laymen who were created cardinals

Name	Year created cardinal	Highest clerical order received
Pope Paul III	1493	Pope
Pope Leo X	1489	Pope
Charles Borromeo	1560	Archbishop
Ferdinando I de' Medici	1562	title=On Papal Conclaves	first=William Cornwallis	last=Cartwright	author-link=William Cornwallis Cartwright	year=1868	publisher=Edmonston and Douglas	publication-place=Edinburgh	pages=120–122}}
Maurice of Savoy	1607	Minor orders
Francisco Gómez Rojas de Sandoval	1618	Priest
Ferdinand of Austria	1620	Minor orders
Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino	1641	Minor orders
	1801	Resigned before being ordained
Teodolfo Mertel	1858	Deacon

Discontinuation

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV promulgated the first edition of the Code of Canon Law, which included a provision that a man must be first ordained a priest prior to being considered for appointment as a cardinal.

According to The New York Times, Pope Paul VI considered making the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain a cardinal in 1965.

References

Cartwright, William Cornwallis. (1868). "On Papal Conclaves". Edmonston and Douglas.
Cartwright, William Cornwallis. (1868). "On Papal Conclaves". Edmonston and Douglas.
(1983). "Code of Canon Law".
Cartwright, William Cornwallis. (1868). "On Papal Conclaves". Edmonston and Douglas.
Feros, Antonio. (2006). "Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III". Cambridge University Press.
"Francisco Gómez Cardinal Rojas de Sandoval".
Miranda, Salvador. "Consistory of July 29, 1619". [[Florida International University]].
Miranda, Salvador. "Consistory of February 23, 1801". [[Florida International University]].
"Mister Marino Carafa di Belvedere".
"Teodolfo Cardinal Mertel".
(1917). "Code of Canon Law".
(April 29, 1973). "Jacques Maritain Dies at 90". [[The New York Times]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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