Page:Vactican as a World Power.djvu/411

 POSITION OF A CARDINAL 397

there is a red baldachino fringed with gold and under that stands a podium covered with red on which there is an armchair turned (so that no one else can use it) toward a wall on which hangs a picture of the reigning Pope. Here the Pontiff would sit if he were to visit his cardinal. Perhaps we should also mention the reception room (there may be more than one), the library, the study, the dining- room and the bedrooms, the house chapel and the servants' quarters. All in all the household is ample enough for these modest times. A number of the offices of the Cardinals of the Curia are situated in the beautiful old palaces Delia Concellaria, Delia Dataria, and others, in which the offices of the Congregation are likewise housed.

All these prescribed expenditures cannot be def rayed rO.ut of the modest official income, the piatto Cardinalizio (cardinal^ keys) alone. The offices in the Congregations, several of which each cardinal oc- cupies, bring in incomes of varying size, and so some of the "Por- porati" have respectable sums of money at their disposal. But too great affluence in worldly goods is prevented by certain laws govern- ing the distribution of income, and in necessary cases by impressive salary cuts. Every cardinal can make a will as he sees fit.

The ecclesiastical position of the cardinal is naturally a very lofty one. His privileges and his priority are valid everywhere no matter what diocese he may enter, and rank him above all other ecclesiastical dignitaries. Cardinals who travel do not always find it easy to com- bine observance of their rank to which they are in duty bound with friendly regard for the episcopal master of the diocese they visit. The jurisdiction of every bishop who is not a cardinal, as well as his right to his own throne and baldachino, are abrogated in the presence of a cardinal; for every cardinal is a crown prince of the Church, and may be elected the next Pope. The cardinals, creatures of the Pope who has been, are the creators of the Pope who is to be. The Sacred College is permanent: in it there is comprised the continuity of Church history. The whole fullness of the power and significance of the Sacred College is revealed when after the death of a Pope the vacancy is followed by a Conclave.

A Pope dies amidst the prayers of those who surround him. The humble appeal to God's everlasting mercy, and the last moving wish of the Church which begins: "Go forth, Christian soul," accompany

398