Crown cardinal

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. 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.

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." 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. 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. The going rate for the creation of a crown-cardinal was about 2,832 scudi.

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

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

Role in conclaves

In the case of Spain, France, and Austria, from the 16th to 20th centuries, crown-cardinals had the prerogative to exercise the jus exclusivae (a veto for "unacceptable" candidates) during a Papal conclave on behalf of their patron monarch. Crown-cardinals usually arrived with a list of such unacceptable candidates but often had to confer with their patrons during conclaves via messengers, and attempt (sometimes unsuccessfully) to delay the conclave until a response arrived. For example, Pope Innocent X (elected 1644) and Pope Innocent XIII (elected 1721) survived late arriving veto orders from France and Spain respectively. Austrian crown-cardinal Carlo Gaetano Gaisruck arrived too late to the Papal conclave of 1846 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:

Of Hungary

Of Austria

Protectors:

Vice-protectors and co-protectors

Of Ireland

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. The crown-cardinal of France was also abbot commendatario of several French abbeys.

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.

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: Protector de España) simultaneously, although traditionally the protector of Castile was the most frequently turned to.

Of Aragon

Of Flanders

Of Switzerland

Of Republic of Genoa

List of non-cardinal protector crown-cardinals