Since the thirteenth century it has been customary at Rome to confide to some particular
Cardinal a special solicitude in the
Roman Curia for the interests of a given religious order or institute, confraternity, church, college, city, nation etcetera. Such a person is known as a
Cardinal Protector. He was its representative or
orator when it sought a favor or a privilege, defended it when unjustly accused, and besought the aid of the
Holy See when its rights, property or interests were violated or imperiled.
Antecedents
In ancient Rome a similar relationship had existed between the client (
cliens) and his
patronus (hence 'patron'); as Rome's power grew, a still closer analogy is visible between the Roman institution and the modern ecclesiastical protectorate. Nearly every provincial city had its
patronus, or
procurator, in imperial Rome, usually a Roman
patrician or
eques, and such persons were held in high esteem. Thus
Cicero was patronus of
Dyrrachium (later Durazzo, now Durrës) and of
Capua, in which
Campanian city a gilded statue was raised to him. In time the office became hereditary in certain families;
Suetonius, in his life of
Tiberius, says that the [imperial] Claudian family (
gens Claudia) was from ancient times protector of
Sicily and the
Peloponnesus.
Church history
The Roman Church adopted this, with many other imperial institutions, as one serviceable for external administration, not that the popes who first conferred this office and title sought to copy an ancient Roman usage, but because analogous conditions and circumstances created a similar situation. The office is conferred by the
pope through the
Cardinal secretary of state, sometimes by spontaneous designation of the Holy Father, sometimes at the request of those who seek such protection. Such a cardinal protector had the right to place his
coat-of-arms on the church or main edifice of the institute, or on the municipal palace of the city in question.
The first to hold such an office was Cardinal
Ugolino Conti (later
Pope Gregory IX), who sought thereby to paralyze the intrigues of his many enemies at Rome; at the request of
St. Francis himself, he was named protector of the
Franciscans by
Pope Innocent III, and again by
Honorius III.
Alexander IV and
Nicholas III retained for themselves the office of protector of the Franciscans. Indeed, the latter were long the only order that boasted of a cardinal protector; it was only in the fourteenth century that gradually the office was extended. As early as 1370
Pope Gregory XI was obliged to restrain the abuses committed by the cardinal protector of the Franciscans;
Pope Martin V (1417-31) forbade the acceptance by the protector of a religious order of any payment for his protection. While
Sixtus IV and
Julius II defined more particularly the limits of the office,
Pope Innocent XII (1691-1700) must be credited with a lasting regulation of the duties and rights of a cardinal protector.
Kingdoms, empires etc. must have had cardinal protectors until
Pope Urban VI (1378-89) forbade such cardinals to receive anything from the respective sovereigns of these states, lest through love of money they should be led to abet works of injustice. In 1424
Martin V forbade the cardinals to accept the protectorate of kings and princes, which prohibition was renewed in 1492 by
Alexander VI. This prohibition was not renewed by
Pope Leo X in the ninth session of the
Lateran Council of 1512; the cardinals, however, were urged to exercise the office in an impartial way and without human respect. At present [written early 20th century; Portugal meanwhile became a republic] the only state with a cardinal protector is the Kingdom of Portugal.
See also
Sources and references
- HIERONYMI PLATI, Tractatus de cardinalis dignitate et officio (Rome, 1836), xxxiii
- HUMPHREY, Urbis et Orbis (London, 1896).
Category:Ecclesiastical titlesCategory:Roman Catholic Church organisationCategory:Holy SeeCategory:Roman CuriaCategory:College of Cardinals* 
