College of Cardinals

Those who were assigned to the latter roles were given the titles of Legatus a latere (Cardinal Legate) and Missus Specialis (Special Missions).

Stephen decreed that all cardinal-bishops were bound to sing Mass on rotation at the high altar at St. Peter's Basilica, one per Sunday.

The first class to form was that of the cardinal-deacons, direct theological descendants of the original seven ordained in Acts 6, followed by the cardinal-priests, and finally, the cardinal-bishops.

[5] The college played an integral part in various reforms within the Church as well, as early as the pontificate of Pope Leo IX (1050).

[8] The Council of Basel (1431–1437, later transferred to Ferrara and then Florence) limited the size of the college to 24,[9] as did the capitulation of the 1464 papal conclave.

[9] By the papacy of Sixtus V (1585–1590), the number was set at seventy on 3 December 1586, divided among fourteen cardinal-deacons, fifty cardinal-priests, and six cardinal-bishops.

[17] The total size of the college lost its significance when Paul VI decided to allow only cardinals under the age of 80 to vote in a conclave from 1971 onward.

Pope John Paul II reiterated the 120 maximum in 1996,[24] yet his appointments to the college resulted in more than 120 cardinal electors in four of his nine consistories, reaching a high of 135 in February 2001[25] and again in October 2003.

[41] For the Middle Ages, sources concerning the size of the College of Cardinals are most frequently those relating to papal elections and conclaves.

[42] A function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory,[43] a term derived from the Roman Emperor's crown council.

Churchmen involved in what has become known as the Gregorian Reform took advantage of the new king's lack of power and in 1059 reserved the election of the pope to the clergy of the Church in Rome.

Reserving to the cardinals the election of the pope represented a significant shift in the balance of power in the Early Medieval world.

Except for presiding and delegating administrative tasks, they have no authority over the cardinals, acting as primus inter pares (first among equals).

[47] Under the terms of Pope Paul VI's 1970 motu proprio Ingravescentem aetatem, cardinals who reached the age of 80 before a conclave opened had no vote in papal elections.

Pope John Paul II's Universi Dominici gregis of 22 February 1996 modified that rule slightly, so that cardinals who have reached the age of 80 before the day the see becomes vacant are not eligible to vote.

The two who did not participate were Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja (for health reasons) and Keith O'Brien (following allegations of sexual misconduct).