In the early history of the
College of Cardinals, all cardinals appointed were published as a matter of course. Under pressure to maintain a delicate network of alliances in the last years of
Western Schism, beginning in 1423
Martin V withheld the names of some he created cardinals, the first appointments. A century later,
Pope Paul III created
Girolamo Aleandro a cardinal on 22 December 1536 and published his name on 13 March 1538. Paul III later named five more cardinals , all of whose names were published within a few years.
Pope Pius IV created a cardinal on 26 February 1561 and became the first to fail to publish such an appointment. Although appointments were not uncommon in the 17th century, all such appointments were soon published until
Pope Innocent XII named two cardinals in 1699 whose names were never published. On 26 April 1773,
Pope Clement XIV created 11 cardinals , none of whom were published. As anti-Catholic hostility among various governments became common, appointments became much more common during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Previously cases of unpublished appointments had only occurred when a pope died shortly after creating the cardinal, but popes began to wait much longer to publish such appointments, creating a greater likelihood that a name would remain unpublished. On 23 June 1777,
Pope Pius VI created two cardinals and lived another 22 years without publishing their names. In the course of 23 years,
Pope Pius VII created 12 cardinals whose names he published and none whose names went unpublished, though two others died before he published their names.
Pope Leo XII made eight appointments in just six years, and all were published. When the reign of
Pope Pius VIII ended unexpectedly after just 19 months, he had created six cardinals and another eight , whose appointments died with him.
Pope Gregory XVI created 81 cardinals, 29 of them , of which six were unpublished.
Modern practice The frequency of appointments declined later in the 19th century.
Pope Pius IX made only five such appointments out of 123 cardinals, and all were published within four years of creation.
Pope Leo XIII named only seven cardinals out of 147 and all were published. The only appointment by
Pope Pius X was
António Mendes Belo, Patriarch of Lisbon. The
Portuguese Republic established in 1910 had adopted
severely anticlerical policies. Belo's appointment was revealed on 25 May 1914, the last time Pius created cardinals three months before his death, though the
Holy See did not recognize the government of Portugal until 1919.
Pope Benedict XV made two appointments in 1916: one, possibly
Paul von Huyn, was never published and the other was
Adolf Bertram, a German bishop, whose country was at war with Italy. His name was published in December 1919 after the war ended. In 1933,
Pope Pius XI created two cardinals :
Federico Tedeschini,
Nuncio to Spain, and
Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites. They were made public in the
consistory of 16 December 1935. Although several cardinals from
Communist states could not attend his consistories,
Pius XII was the first pope since
Innocent XIII over two centuries previously to create no cardinals , but
Pope John XXIII made three appointments on 28 March 1960 and never published them.
Pope Paul VI made four appointments. One of them,
Iuliu Hossu, died without his appointment being published, though Paul revealed it a few years later. Paul made appointments of
Štěpán Trochta on 28 April 1969, published 5 March 1973, In the case of
Joseph-Marie Trịnh Như Khuê, Paul made the appointment on 28 April 1976 when announcing his next consistory. When the government of Vietnam granted Trinh-Nhu-Khuê a visa to travel to Rome, Paul published the appointment as a surprise by having Trinh-Nhu-Khuê's name called as the last of twenty cardinals created at that consistory on 24 May.
Pope John Paul II named four cardinals , three of whom he later revealed:
Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei,
Bishop of
Shanghai,
People's Republic of China, appointed 30 June 1979, published 29 May 1991;
Marian Jaworski,
Archbishop of
Lviv,
Ukraine; and
Jānis Pujāts of
Riga,
Latvia, both of whom were appointed on 21 February 1998, and published 29 January 2001. John Paul created the fourth in 2003, but never revealed the name, and the appointment expired with the pope's death. Had the name been discovered in the pope's will, the appointment would still have operated under rules, and would have been considered expired.
Popes Five cardinals who were later elected pope were created cardinals . In each case, publication followed closely upon their appointment. They were: •
Pope Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, appointed 9 March 1489, published 23 March 1492 by
Pope Innocent VIII •
Pope Innocent X, born Giovanni Battista Pamphili, appointed 30 August 1627, published 16 November 1629 by
Pope Urban VIII •
Pope Benedict XIV, born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, appointed 9 December 1726, published 30 April 1728 by
Pope Benedict XIII •
Pope Gregory XVI, born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, appointed 21 March 1825, published 13 March 1826 by
Pope Leo XII •
Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, appointed 23 December 1839, published 14 December 1840 by
Pope Gregory XVI ==In popular culture==