In the category of the members of the College of Cardinals in the central Middle Ages (11th to 13th century), an external cardinal (as opposed to a "curial cardinal"Ganzer, p. XI. See also Maleczek, p. 53, 125 and 295–296; Zenker, p. 248–249; Loud, p. 241.) was a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church who was not a member of the Roman Curia, being either the bishop of a non-suburbicarian diocese or the abbot of an abbey not in Rome.Ganzer, p. XI; Maleczek, p. 53 In the wider sense, it may also concern cardinals who were appointed to the external episcopal sees and resigned their memberships in the College of Cardinals with this appointment. The term can be used also of cardinals who were generally curial cardinals, but for some time exercised the posts of administrators or prelates of the external churches.Ganzer, p. 186, 189, 193–194; cf. Zenker, p. 249
Today, the great majority of the cardinals are archbishops of the main metropolitan dioceses of the world and reside in their countries. Apart from the exclusive right of the election of the new pope, their dignity is purely honorific. However, originally the College of Cardinals was simply a college of the clergy of the City of Rome, constituted of the bishops of the seven dioceses (called suburbicarian sees) bordering the diocese of Rome (cardinal-bishops), priests of the parochial churches of Rome (cardinal-priests) and deacons heading the ecclesiastical regions of the city of Rome (cardinal-deacons). Unlike today, the cardinals had real jurisdiction over the dioceses, parochial churches (called tituli) or deaconries to which they were attached.Salvador Miranda General list of Cardinals: 5th Century (492-498) (note) and Guide to documents and events. Florida International University. Retrieved on August 27, 2009. This jurisdiction has been finally suppressed only in 1692 see Salvador Miranda The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.Guide to documents and events. 17th Century (1605–1700) Florida International University. Retrieved on August 27, 2009 The phenomenon of the external cardinalate in the late Middle Ages constituted the first exception to the rule, that cardinals – members of the clergy of the diocese of Rome – cannot serve simultaneously in another, external church, which is now common practice.
History
Origins and development
The College of Cardinals originated from the college of the main clergy of the city of Rome. The title of cardinal initially concerned only the priests of the 28 parochial churches of the Eternal City (tituli), who were required to assist the pope in the liturgical service in the four Basilicas of Rome (Vatican Basilica, Liberian Basilica, Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls and San Lorenzo fuori le Mura).Klewitz, p. 47. Later (probably in the 8th century) the term was extended to the bishops of the seven dioceses bordering the diocese of Rome: Ostia, Porto, Albano, Palestrina, Silva Candida (1079 replaced by Segni), Gabii-Lavicum (whose name later changed to Tusculum, and later to Frascati) and Velletri (after 1060 replaced by Sabina). These bishops (cardinal-bishops) performed the liturgical service in the Lateran Basilica.Klewitz, p. 24–36. Finally, the deacons serving in the papal household or heading the ecclesiastical regions of the city (and later attached to the churches called deaconries), also became the cardinals (cardinal-deacons).The term “cardinal-deacons” is known already in the 6th century, but in the official papal documents does not appear before the last quarter of the 11th century. Hüls, p. 17; Klewitz, p. 88.
The cardinals of the Holy Roman Church up to the 11th century had strictly liturgical duties and generally took no part in the government of the Church. Cardinal bishops were equal to the other bishops, even if celebrating the rite of consecration of the new pope gave them considerable prestige, while the dignity of the cardinal priest or deacon was considered lower than that of a bishop. The liturgical service in the five patriarchal basilicas of Rome, as well as day pastoral duties in constant presence of the cardinals at Rome.On the early Roman cardinalate see Klewitz, p. 14–31, 47–60 and 79–87; Hüls, p. 3–44; Robinson, p. 33–34; Ganzer, p. 4–6; and
This situation started to gradually change with the ascension of Pope Leo IX (1049–1054) and the beginning of the Reform Papacy. This pope, in order to reform the corrupted Roman clergy, appointed several new cardinals from the monastic centers outside Rome, such as Monte Cassino, Remiremont and Cluny. These new cardinals became his close advisors. Leo's successors continued this trend and Nicholas II in 1059 gave the cardinals the exclusive right to elect a new pope.Robinson, pp. 57 ff. At the end of the 11th century they formed a single College of Cardinals, which became the main body of the papal government — they served as experts or judges in the legal causes (auditors), countersigned the solemn papal privileges, acted as governors of the cities or provinces of the Papal States or were sent by the popes on important diplomatic missions. The cardinals became the most important members of the Roman Curia, and as such were still required to reside in the papal court, unless they were dispatched for a legatine mission in the name of the pope.For the development of the role of cardinals in the 11th century and the establishment of the College of Cardinals see Robinson, p. 35–41; Ganzer, p. 6–11; Klewitz, p. 31–47, 60–79 and 88–114. For the detailed study about the engagement of the cardinals in papal government in 12th and 13th centuries see Maleczek, pp. 297–351; and Robinson, pp.90–120.
Almost simultaneously to the development of the College of Cardinals as a body of papal advisors, the popes started to elevate to the cardinalate some "external" abbots. After such appointments, they continued to reside in their abbeys and did not become members of the Papal curia. On the other hands, the elections of the cardinals to the posts of abbots of external monasteries were also ratified by the popes.Ganzer, p. 176. The main goal of such appointments was probably to strengthen the ties between some important monastic centers with the Roman Church. The first known instances of such appointments concerned the abbey of Montecassino, one of the main centers supporting reform of the Church.Klewitz, p. 103, described Monte Cassino as "spiritual armoury of the reform papacy" In 1057 cardinal-deacon Frederick de Lorraine (the future pope Stephen X) was elected abbot of Montecassino; Pope Victor II confirmed his election and simultaneously named him cardinal-priest of S. Crisogono.Ganzer, p. 15–16 no. 1; Hüls, p. 168–169 no. 2. His successor as abbot of Montecassino, Desiderio, was also quickly promoted to the cardinalate, but continued to act also as abbot.Ganzer, p. 17–23 no. 2; Hüls, p. 154–155 no. 1. From 1057 until 1259/62 at least eight abbots of Montecassino were simultaneously members of the College of Cardinals.Ganzer, p. 185 Also some other Italian (e.g. Subiaco, Farfa, Vallombrosa, S. Sophia in Benevento) and French abbeys (St Victor at Marseille) were for some time ruled by the cardinal-abbots.
During the Investiture Controversy, both the legitimate Popes as well as Antipope Clement III developed another, not entirely new, practice.For example, already in 1050 cardinal-priest Airardus was appointed bishop of Nantes (Hüls, p. 212 no. 3; cf. Gams, p. 581) They appointed their cardinals to the important Episcopal sees in Italy in order to assure their government by their own trusted collaborators.Ganzer, p. 189–190 Antipope Clement III named cardinals Hugo Candidus and Roberto of S. Marco bishops of Fermo and Faenza respectively.Ganzer, p. 38–39 no. 10 and p. 190; Hüls, p. 185 no. 3 Popes Victor III and Urban II appointed their cardinals to the episcopal sees of Brescia (Herimanus) and Reggio-Emilia (Bonussenior). The practice was continued by successive popes, who named their cardinals particularly to the recently reestablished Latin archiepiscopal sees in southern Italy (Siponto, Brindisi, Salerno, Benevento).Loud, p. 216–217; Ganzer, p. 55–69, 72–75 and 190–191. The southern Italy for several hundred years belonged to the Byzantine Empire and was ecclesiastically subordinated to the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople, not to Rome. It was only after the Norman conquest of southern Italy in the 11th century, when the papacy was able to regain the control over this region and to replace the Greek hierarchy with the Latin one; see Klewitz, pp. 137–205. Also, three successive archbishops of Pisa: Uberto Rossi Lanfranchi (1133–1137/38), Balduino (1138–1145) and Villano Caetani (1146–1175) were initially the cardinals.Ganzer, p. 86–91, 97–99; Robinson, p. 91; Zenker, p. 248