Among the offices connected with the Roman Court, there is a certain class, known as _Poste Cardinalizie_, the tenure of which is, in the ordinary course of affairs, a step to the Cardinalate. The chief keepership of the Vatican Library is not necessarily one of these; but it had long been known that Monsignor Mezzofanti was destined for the purple; and, in a consistory held on the 12th of February, 1838, he was “preconized” as Cardinal Priest, in company with three other prelates—Angelo Mai, (who had been “reserved _in petto_” from the former year,) Orioli, and Mellini. The order of Cardinal Priests, as is well known, are the representatives, in the more modern constitution of the Roman church, of the ancient _Presbyteri Cardinales_—the priests of the principal churches in which Baptism was administered, (_tituli Cardinales_) of the ancient city. Their number, which at the end of the fifth century was twenty-five, has been gradually increased to fifty: but the memory of their primitive institution is preserved in the titles under which they are named, and which are taken from the churches over which the ancient Presbyters presided. The title of Cardinal Mezzofanti was derived from the ancient church of Saint Onuphrius, (Sant’ Onofrio,) on the Janiculum, which is probably best known to visitors of Rome as the last resting-place of the poet Tasso. To many persons, no doubt, the office of Cardinal has but little significance, except as a part of the stately ceremonial of the Roman court—a brilliant and enviable sinecure, sometimes the reward of distinguished merit, sometimes the prize of political influence or hereditary family claims. But to well informed readers it is scarcely necessary to explain that the College of Cardinals forms, or rather supplies, the entire deliberative and executive administration of the Pope in the general management of the affairs of the Church; holding permanently and systematically the place of the council of which we so often read in the early centuries. By the ancient constitution of the Sacred College, all matters of importance were considered and discussed in the general meeting of the body, called the Consistory; but, in the multiplication of business, it became necessary to distribute the labour; and, since the latter part of the sixteenth century,[500] under the great administrative Pontiffs, Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius V., and above all Sixtus V., a system of “_congregations_” has arisen, by which, as by a series of committees, the details of all the various departments are administered; yet under the general superintendence of the Pope himself, and subject, in all things, to his final revision. Some of these congregations, (which amount to nearly twenty in all,) consist exclusively of Cardinals; some are composed both of Cardinals and prelates; and a few of prelates only: but, in almost every case, the Prefect, at least, of the congregation is a Cardinal. Some