CARDINALS

 With the passing of the current Catholic Pope and the ensuing conclave of Cardinals to elect a new one, you may have wondered, like me, when and where this position of Cardinal began. 

The best explanation is that, early on, from the group of Priests in an area, Bishops were named to oversee the development of the Church and to name, train and ordain new priests.  As the spread of the faith grew, bishops in the most populous areas and those who had been assigned special functions for the Pope, were called Cardinal Bishops.  The name Cardinal Bishop became a formal, distinct office, in the 11th century.  Pope Nicholas II, at the Lateran Synod of 1059, entrusted the election of a new Pope to these Cardinal Bishops.  In effect, this established the College of Cardinals.  We no longer call them Cardinal Bishops.

There is no record to establish whom the first Cardinal was nor does it matter.  Today, to become Pope you must be a man, you must be baptized by the Roman Catholic Church, you must be eligible for ordination.  That's about it.    This all Canon Law requires.