advantage of religion, of liberty, of the arts, of letters, and of whatever else is most essential to Christian civilization, for now considerably more than a thousand years.-Vol. iii, pp. 641, 642. London. 1850.

This fulsome panegyric of the papal government has even been surpassed by the extraordinary statements recently attributed (with how much truth we know not) to an American literary gentleman who has traveled more extensively, perhaps, than any other of our countrymen. The substance of his plea is condensed in the following sentence: "The government is an elective monarchy; it has a liberal Constitution, light taxation, very little pauperism, an economical administration, a cheap and free education for all classes, abundant institutions of charity for the needy and suffering." Some of the more specific assertions are these:

For many years there is a smaller proportion of clergymen holding office in the Roman States, than in some of the states of the Union. The salaries of the higher officers of state do not exceed $3,000 a year, and the whole civil list costs about $600,000. The Papal States, with a population of less than 3,000,000, have seven universities, and the city of Rome has more free public schools than New York, in proportion to her population, and what is better, a larger proportion of children attend them. Holland, France, and other free and enlightened countries, have from three to ten times as much pauperism in proportion to the population. The city of New York supports more paupers, has more uneducated children, and suffers from more crime, year by year, than the whole nearly 3,000,000 of people of the States of the Church.

We do not intend to enter into any minute examination of the particulars of this broad and bold defense of the pontifical government. The very circumstance that statements so paradoxical are advanced, may serve as a sufficient excuse for an investigation of the character and practical operation of that much lauded system. For the present let the revolt of the Romagnoli and the inhabitants of the Marches, comprehending about two thirds of the entire number of the pope's subjects, and the subsequent annexation to Sardinia, confirmed by an almost unanimous vote, be regarded as a sufficient rejoinder. The popular voice, with which that of posterity will accord, has already pronounced upon the character of an administration that has had a thousand years in which to develop its

true nature.

In the "liberal, constitutional, elective monarchy" of the Roman States, the supreme authority, legislative, judicial, and executive, is vested in the single person of the pope. In all these three departments, although he may seek the counsel of his subordinates, his decision is unrestricted and final. He is neither checked nor assisted by any representative body chosen, directly or indirectly, by the people or by any select portion of the people. In the temporal affairs of his kingdom the pope claims to be as absolute, as in the spiritual concerns of the world he is infallible. There is no such bill of rights as to deserve the name of a constitution; still less are there deputies chosen by the people, and sworn to watch over its execution. Nor does the pope owe his election to the people, or any body representing the people. He is chosen by the "Sacred College" of cardinals, who themselves were designated to this office by the sole appointment of previous popes. The pontifical monarchy can consequently be termed elective only in the sense that it is not hereditary, but that the new pope is created by electors who are themselves the creation of preceding popes. In this respect, as in many others, it is notorious that the Romans of our day are deprived of privileges which their ancestors possessed. It was an incontestable right of the people to participate in the election of the bishop of the city, and this prerogative was constantly exercised throughout long ages. "The Roman primate was elected," says Anastasius Bibliothecarius, who wrote in the latter part of the ninth century, "a cunctis sacerdotibus seu proceribus, et omni clero nec non et optimatibus, vel populo cuncto Romano." When the German empire became powerful, the pope was constrained, previous to consecration, to await the imperial sanction, and Otho I. prescribed that he should swear solemnly to preserve intact the rights of the clergy, the people, and the emperor. It was not until A.D. 1059 that an edict was issued empowering the conclave of cardinals to elect the Pope out of their own number.

Uniting in his own person such extensive and absolute powers, the pontiff could not find the requisite time, even if he possessed the administrative ability, to discharge the multifarious duties attaching to his office. His jurisdiction must necessarily be delegated. Both in ecclesiastical and in civil matters

he must have his advisers, whose authority emanates from him alone, but is virtually ultimate in all except the most important cases. In conformity with the idea of an ecclesiastical state, these assistants are drawn from the subordinate officers of the Church. The body of cardinals, which supplies the early felt want of a privy council, to assist the monarch in the consideration of all questions requiring deliberation, was originally composed of the chief priests of the several parish churches of the Roman metropolis. Their name, in the earlier part of the middle ages not appropriated exclusively by them, but applied as well to the principal ecclesiastics of other great capitals, undoubtedly arose from their connection with a Church upon which all Christendom was supposed in a certain measure to hinge; and their induction into office, as also that of clergymen into other important charges, was expressed by the Italian term incardinare.

The number of the cardinals, which of course fluctuated with the number of the great parishes within the Roman walls, was not definitely fixed until Sixtus V., in 1586, limited it to seventy. Its members are not, however, precisely equal in point of dignity, for the college when full consists of six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons. The first class contains the bishops of six dioceses in the immediate vicinity of Rome, and in a special manner dependent upon it: Ostia, Porto, Sabina, Frascati, Albano, and Palestrina. The second class is composed of the titular rectors of the urban parish churches. The cardinal deacons, constituting the third class, correspond in number to the fourteen regions into which the city is divided, and likewise derive their titles from some of the more influential churches. The terms bishop, priest, and deacon do not, however, accurately describe the ecclesiastical rank of the cardinals, for many of the cardinal priests are in reality bishops of other sees, and most of the cardinal deacons belong to the higher orders of the Church. An established law or usage, on the other hand, makes it "obli

* Or because, as said Eugenius IV., "like as the door of the house turns on its hinges, so the Apostolic See, and the door of the whole Church, rest upon them." The same derivation is given in the Corpus Juris, and in the decrees of the Council of Basle. In 1569 Pius V. forbade the canons at Ravenna, Compostella, Milan, etc., from assuming the name of cardinals. (Abbé de Valette in the Ami de la Religion, Oct. 1850, quoted in the Dict. des Cardinaux of the Abbé Migne.)

gatory upon a cardinal to receive the holy order befitting his rank, within twelve months from the date of his appointment, under pain of rendering his nomination void." But the pope occasionally dispenses with the execution of this law, and even laymen have been admitted into the college of cardinals when they have been found well qualified for the discharge of the office of secretary of state.* Thus at the present moment Cardinal Antonelli, who, in the capacity of prime minister, has been the evil genius of the administration of Pope Pius IX., is a layman, having never received ordination. Cardinals Mezzofanti and Mai-the one celebrated for his unexampled success in mastering an almost incredible number of languages and dialects, the other for his literary researches in the domain of palimpsests hidden in the Ambrosian and Vatican librarieswere both members of this division of the Sacred College. The latter, we have heard it stated, was never ordained. In respect to nationality, a cardinal may belong to any country. It has been asserted that a rule now obtains that the number of for eigners shall not exceed ten, so that in a full college at least sixty of the cardinals must be native Italians;† but from the Dictionnaire des Cardinaux we learn that this is a mistake. Of sixty-six cardinals recently constituting the Sacred College, only forty-five are Italians, and twenty-one are strangers to Italy. Thirty are natives of the pontifical states; nine of these were born at Rome. France and Naples claim nine each, Austria six, Sardinia four, Tuscany and Germany two each; while Spain, Belgium, England, and Portugal, are respectively represented by a single cardinal. None but an Italian can now aspire to be chosen pope, although the history of the papacy, in times past, furnishes a number of pontiffs of French, Spanish, German, and even English origin. Between citizens of Rome and cardinals from other portions of the peninsula no distinction is made. The full number of cardinals is rarely reached, for the Pope always reserves a certain number of vacancies, which he destines for candidates whose names he keeps for the present in petto.§

*Bishop England, Ceremonies of Holy Week, (Rome, 1854,) p. 11.

The Roman Exile, by Prof. Guglielmo Gajani, (Boston, 1856,) p. 311. Dict. des Cardinaux. Quoted from the Bilancia of Milan. Paris, 1857. In 1858 the actual number of cardinals belonging to their several classes was six cardinal bishops, forty-eight cardinal priests, and twelve cardinal deacons.

The entire body of cardinals constitutes, as was long since discovered, too numerous an assembly to be available for all the purposes for which a privy council is indispensable to the ruler of the States of the Church. It was accordingly divided into congregations, that is to say, boards or standing committees, to whom are referred for consideration, and practically for final decision, almost all matters relating to the triple domain of the pope in his offices of universal pontiff, bishop of Rome, and temporal monarch of Central Italy. In the number of these boards there has been a considerable fluctuation. They are at present somewhat more numerous than they were in the time of Sixtus V., who in 1587 fixed their number at fifteen.* A few years ago there were twenty-two congregations. Many bear names which to the uninitiated convey no definite idea of their proper functions; for instance, the Fabrica di San Pietro has jurisdiction over all those cases where fraud is suspected in matters relating to legacies bequeathed to the Church. Among the more famous congregations whose deliberations relate to spiritual matters are that de propaganda fide commonly called "the propaganda," connected with which is the well-known missionary college of the same name; that on sacred rites, etc. Others are purely secular in their provinces, such as those on the public health, waters, finances, the buon governo, etc.

It must here be noticed that these boards, to whose control so much of the civil government of the pontifical states is confided, do not, for the most part, consist exclusively of cardinals, or nominally, indeed, of clergymen. Under the presidency of a cardinal are frequently associated a number of prelates, who join in the consideration of all questions with their superior, and have a certain weight in the decision. Now this matter of the prelatura is one which by many is not fully understood, and of which much has been made by those apologists of the Roman government who maintain that the pope has actually, as he recently asserted, given a considerable influence in public affairs to the laity. The prelatura is a dignity peculiar to the Roman States. The requisite qualifications for its attainment There were consequently four vacancies. (cf. History of the Church of Christ, in Chronological Tables, by Prof. H. B. Smith, D. D. 1860. P. 66.) * Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, III, 82, note.