Crown-cardinal explained

A crown-cardinal (Italian: cardinale della corona)[1] was a cardinal protector of a Roman Catholic nation, nominated or funded by a Catholic monarch to serve as their representative within the College of Cardinals[2] [3] and, on occasion, to exercise the right claimed by some monarchs to veto a candidate for election to the papacy.[4] More generally, the term may refer to any cardinal significant as a secular statesman or elevated at the request of a monarch.

Francis Burkle-Young defines a crown cardinal as one "elevated to the cardinalate solely on the recommendation of the European kings and in many cases without having performed any service at all for the advancement of the Church."[5]

According to conclave historian Frederic Baumgartner, the crown-cardinals "rarely came to Rome except for the conclaves, if then, and they were largely unknown to the majority of the College. Usually unable to take part in the pratiche, they were not papabili and rarely received more than one or two votes".[6] Crown-cardinals generally opposed the election of crown-cardinals from other kingdoms, although they tended to unite against the election of cardinal-nephews.[6]

Opposition to national cardinal protectors arose in the fifteenth century due to the perceived conflict of interest, and Pope Martin V attempted to forbid them entirely in 1425. A reform of Pope Pius II dated 1464 regards national cardinal protectors as generally inconsistent with curial responsibility, with several exceptions. Such protectorships were first openly permitted by popes Innocent VIII and Alexander VI, both of whom required the explicit written consent of the pontiff for a cardinal to take up a "position of service to a secular prince".[7] An unnamed cardinal even suggested elevating national cardinal protectors to a full and official position in the Roman Curia, equivalent to an ambassador.[7]

History

The institution of a cardinal protector of a nation-state may have originated in the 14th century, serving as a predecessor for the diplomatic institutions of the Holy See developed in the 16th century.[8] The institution of the crown-cardinal first became a dominant one within the College of Cardinals with the consistory of Pope Eugene IV on December 18, 1439 (on the heels of the election of Antipope Felix V by the Council of Basel), which nominated an unprecedented number of cardinals with strong ties to European monarchs and other political institutions.[9]

Monarch/NationCardinalNotes
Charles VII of FranceRenaud de ChartresChancellor of France
Charles VII of FranceGuillaume d'EstoutevilleRoyal cousin, constructor of Mont Saint-Michel
Henry VI of EnglandLouis de Luxembourg de BeaurevoirChancellor for France
Henry VI of EnglandJohn Kempformer chancellor of England and archbishop of York
Afonso V of PortugalAntónio Martins de ChavesBishop of Porto
Kingdom of Hungary (interregnum)Dénes SzécsiPrimate-designate of Hungary
Władysław III of PolandZbigniew OleśnickiArchbishop of Kraków
Holy Roman Empire (interregnum)Petrus de SchaumburgImperial Counsellor
René I of NaplesNiccolo d'AcciapaccioArchbishop of Capua
MilanGerardo Landriani CapitaniBishop of Como
GenoaGiorgio Fieschi di LavagnaArchbishop of Genoa
Philip the GoodJean Le JeuneAmbassador to the Council of Ferrara-Florence
The first explicit reference to protectorship pertaining to a nation-state dates to 1425 (the Catholic Encyclopedia says 1424) when Pope Martin V forbade cardinals to "assume the protection of any king, prince or commune ruled by a tyrant or any other secular person whatsoever."[10] This prohibition was renewed in 1492 by Pope Alexander VI. This prohibition was not renewed by Pope Leo X in the ninth session of the Lateran Council of 1512.

Some crown-cardinals were cardinal-nephews or members of powerful families; others were selected solely on the recommendation of European monarchs, in many cases with little previous ecclesiastical experience.[11] During the reigns of Avignon Pope Clement VI and Pope Urban VI in particular, it was acknowledged that monarchs could select retainers and expect them to be elevated to the College of Cardinals.[11] The going rate for the creation of a crown-cardinal was about 2,832 scudi.[2]

Pope Alexander VII had to elevate crown-cardinals in pectore.[12] Pope Urban VI (1378–1389) forbade crown-cardinals from receiving gifts from their respective sovereigns.[13]

World War I cemented the decline of the institution of the crown cardinal, as many monarchies either became extinct or declined in power.[11]

Role in conclaves

See main article: Jus exclusivae. In the case of Spain, France, and Austria, from the 16th to 20th centuries, crown-cardinals had the prerogative to exercise the jus exclusivae, that is, to veto a candidate for the papacy deemed "unacceptable" by their patron. Crown-cardinals usually arrived with a list of such candidates but often had to confer with their patrons during conclaves via messengers and attempt, with varying degrees of success, to delay the conclave from proceeding until they received a response. For example, Pope Innocent X (elected 1644) and Pope Innocent XIII (elected 1721) survived late-arriving veto instructions from France and Spain respectively.[1] Austrian crown-cardinal Carlo Gaetano Gaisruck reached the papal conclave of 1846 too late to exercise the veto against Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, who had already been elected and taken the name Pius IX).

List of cardinal protector crown-cardinals

The following includes a complete list of crown cardinal-protectors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:[14]

Of Hungary

Of Austria

Protectors:

Vice-protectors and co-protectors

Of England

See main article: Cardinal protector of England.

Of Ireland

Of Scotland

See main article: article and List of Cardinal protectors of Scotland.

Of France

The King of France historically had only one cardinal protector at a time, chosen by a complicated process that involved the King, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, the French ambassador to Rome, and other French power brokers, but not the Pope.[16] The crown-cardinal of France was also abbot in commendam of several French abbeys.[17]

There was traditionally at least one resident French cardinal in the Roman Curia during the first half of the sixteenth century, but Louis XII and Francis I chose three successive Italian cardinals as protector of France thereafter.

Of the Holy Roman Empire

The protector of the Holy Roman Empire was often the protector of the Austrian hereditary lands.

Vice-protectors and co-protectors

Of Poland

Of Sweden

Cardinal-protectors of Sweden were appointed by king of Poland Zygmunt III Waza, who had claimed the rights to the Swedish Crown.[27]

Of Portugal

Of Savoy/Kingdom of Sardinia

Protectors of the Duchy of Savoy

Protectors of the Kingdom of Sardinia

Of Naples

Of Sicily

Of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies

Of Castile/Spain

The King of Spain could have as many as five or six cardinal protectors (Spanish; Castilian: Protector de España|links=no) simultaneously, although traditionally the protector of Castile was the most frequently turned to.[30]

Of Aragon

Of Flanders

List of other national cardinal protectors

Of Switzerland

Of Republic of Genoa

List of non-cardinal protector crown-cardinals

Of Austria
Of Bavaria
Of England
Of France
Of the Holy Roman Empire
Of Poland
Of Portugal
Of Spain
Of Tuscany

See also

References

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Book: Chadwick, Owen . The Popes and European Revolution . registration . 265–267 . 1981 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-826919-9 . 5 December 2017.
  2. Cardinal.
  3. Reinerman, Alan J. 1989. Austria and the Papacy in the Age of Metternich. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. p. 59.
  4. Right of Exclusion.
  5. Francis A. Burkle-Young. 1998. "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Papal elections in the Fifteenth Century: The election of Pope Eugenius IV (1431)."
  6. Baumgartner, 2003, p. 150.
  7. Wilkie, 1974, p. 9.
  8. Bireley, Robert. 2007. Book Review. The Catholic Historical Review. 93, 1: 172–173. A manuscript list of cardinals appointed at the request of Crowns can be found in the Vatican Library in the Borghese collection, Borg. lat. 376, pp. 131-141: Pietro Francesco de Rossi, De cardinalibus electis ad preces Principum, ab anno 1294 usque in finem pontificatus Pauli III.
  9. Burkle-Young, Francis A. 1998. "The election of Pope Nicholas V (1447)."
  10. Signorotto and Visceglia, 2002, p. 161
  11. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "The election of Pope Eugenius IV (1431)."
  12. Pastor, 1940, p. 133.
  13. Cardinal Protector.
  14. Wodka, Josef. Zur Geschichte der nationalen Protektorate der Kardinäle an der römischen Kurie. [publisher omitted]: Innsbruck and Leipzig, 1938, 46–130.
  15. Gillis, Clive. 2004. "Days of Deliverance Part 9: Rome makes the New Irish Confederation invincible."
  16. Signorotto and Visceglia, 2002, p. 164.
  17. Salvator, Miranda. 1998. "Consistory of November 7, 1689."
  18. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of May 3, 1527 (I)."
  19. Signorotto and Visceglia, 2002, pp. 164–165.
  20. Yardley, Jonathan. 2005, June 26. "The Cardinal's Hat." Washington Post. BW02.
  21. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of December 10, 1607 (III)."
  22. Signorotto and Visceglia, 2002, p. 29
  23. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of March 3, 1599 (IV)"
  24. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "September 2, 1686 (II)"
  25. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of September 23, 1513 (I)"
  26. [:pl:Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589)]
  27. Wodka, p. 124
  28. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of July 1, 1517 (V)."
  29. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of October 1, 1732 (IV)"
  30. Signorotto, Gianvittorio, and Visceglia, Maria Antonietta. 2002. Court and Politics in Papal Rome, 1492–1700. Cambridge University Press. . p. 163
  31. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of February 26, 1561 (II)"
  32. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of March 12, 1565 (IV)"
  33. Minnich, Nelson H. 2003. Book Review. The Catholic Historical Review. 89, 4: 773–778
  34. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of December 18, 1587 (V)"
  35. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of February 21, 1578 (V)"
  36. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of September June 5, 1596 (II)"
  37. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of May 17, 1706 (II)."
  38. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of January 31, 1560 (I)"
  39. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of January 19, 1626 (III)"
  40. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of January 19, 1626 (III)"
  41. Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Consistory of October 7, 1624 (II)"
  42. Trollope, 1876, p. 51.
  43. Trollope, 1876, p. 52.
  44. Wilkie, 1974, p. 8.
  45. Wilkie, 1974, p. 16.
  46. Baumgartner, Frederic J. 2003. Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 173
  47. Minor, Vernon Hyde. 2005. The Death of the Baroque and the Rhetoric of Good Taste. Cambridge University Press. . p. 138
  48. Burke-Young, Francis A. 1998. "The election of Pope Alexander VI (1492)"
  49. Pastor, 1941, p. 405

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