Since the 15th century, popes have made in pectore appointments to manage complex relations among factions within the Church, when publication of a new cardinal's name might provoke persecution of the individual or of a Christian community or, when the identity of the new cardinal is an open secret, to signal defiance of government opposition or stake out a diplomatic or moral position.
Over the centuries, popes have made in pectore appointments in consideration of government and political relations in a wide variety of nations, from Portugal and several European states to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
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 in pectore appointments.
[1][a] A century later, Pope Paul III created Girolamo Aleandro a cardinal on 22 December 1536 and published his name on 13 March 1538.
On 23 June 1777 Pope Pius VI created two cardinals in pectore and lived another 22 years without publishing their names.
[12] When the reign of Pope Pius VIII ended unexpectedly after just 19 months, he had created six cardinals, and another eight in pectore whose appointments died with him.
Belo's appointment was revealed on 25 May 1914, the last time Pius created cardinals three months before his death,[15] though the Holy See did not recognize the government of Portugal until 1919.
Pope Benedict XV made two in pectore appointments in 1916: one, possibly Paul von Huyn,[16] was never published and the other was Adolf Bertram, a German bishop, whose country was at war with Italy.
[17][18][19] In 1933, Pope Pius XI created two cardinals in pectore: Federico Tedeschini, Nuncio to Spain, and Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.