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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Cardinal |
 | | The cardinals were, therefore, from a very early period, assistants of the pope in his liturgical functions, in the care of the poor, the administration of papal finances and possessions, and the synodal disposition of important matters. |
 | | Inimical persecution of a cardinal, personal injury to, or imprisonment of, him, are counted high treason (crimen læsæ majestatis); not only the principals, but also those intellectually responsible for the wrong (originators, participants, auxiliaries), and their male descendants incur the canonical penalties of infamy, confiscation, loss of testamentary rights and civil offices, and excommunication. |
 | | It was granted to the secular cardinals by Innocent IV at the Synod of Lyons in 1245, and to the religious cardinals by Gregory XIV in 1591; the latter, it must be noted, continue to wear the distinctive habit of their order (Barmgarten, "Die Uebersendung des rothen Hutes" in "Hist. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/03333b.htm (7811 words) |
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