Maximos IV accepted the title of
cardinal in February 1965. Previously he had refused three times the honor on the grounds that "for a patriarch to accept a cardinalate is treason". Maximos IV's objections were rooted in history and ecclesiology: he argued that the patriarchs of the Eastern Churches were heads of their respective churches and successors to their respective apostolic sees only subordinate to the Roman Pontiff but were not subordinate to the cardinals whose position was that of being members of the principal clergy of the diocese of Rome. Maximos also argued that the rank of patriarch being only subordinate to the pope had been repeatedly confirmed by past ecumenical councils and never explicitly revoked by any pope. As such it would be inappropriate for him or other Eastern Catholic patriarchs to accept the rank of cardinal which implied being made a titular member of the Latin Church with a subordinate clerical rank as opposed to their being leaders of their respective churches and successors to their respective apostolic sees united under the leadership of the Supreme Pontiff. On 11 February 1965,
Pope Paul VI decreed that Eastern patriarchs who are elevated to the
College of Cardinals would belong to the order of cardinal-bishops, ranked after the suburbicarian cardinal-bishops; that they would not be part of the Roman clergy and would not be assigned any Roman suburbicarian diocese, church or deaconry; that their sees as cardinals would be their patriarchal see. Pope Paul VI's decree satisfied many of the concerns of Maximos and he accepted his elevation to the rank of cardinal. He was created
cardinal-bishop patriarch in the consistory of 22 February 1965 and received the red biretta on 25 February 1965. The patriarch's acceptance was protested by
Elias Zoghby, the Patriarchal Vicar for the See of Alexandria, Cairo and the Sudan. The vicar opposed the acceptance of the status of a Roman cardinal by the Melkite patriarch, on the grounds that "the leader of an Eastern Catholic church should not hold a subordinate Latin-rite office" and in protest of Maximos' acceptance Zoghby resigned as vicar. The patriarch gave a speech on 14 March 1965, clarifying his reasons for accepting and how the Pope Paul's decree altered the nature of the College of Cardinals: it was no longer just an institution within the Latin Church but was now the senate of the entire Catholic Church and an Eastern Catholic patriarch who became a cardinal was no longer accepting a subordinate position in the clergy of the Latin church. It was now a way for the pope to extend to the Eastern patriarchs an additional role in helping him govern the universal church. On 22 November 1965, he was assigned the church of
Santa Maria in Cosmedin for religious celebrations while he was in Rome. He was not assigned the Roman deaconry title associated with the church as he would have been were he not an Eastern patriarch. The title of cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin was retained by Cardinal
Francesco Roberti, who held the titular church from 15 December 1958 until 26 June 1967. ==Death==