Let him be damned by anathema and excommunication, and be counted among the impious in the resurrection of condemnation; may the wrath of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and the fury of the Apostles Peter and Paul, whose Church he shall dare to disturb, be poured out upon him in this life and in the life to come; may his habitation be made desolate, so that there may be none to inhabit his tents; may his children be made orphans, and his wife a widow; he and his sons; and may he beg his bread, and be driven out of his habitation; may the usurer consume his substance, and the stranger reap the fruit of his labours; may the world be at war with him, and all the elements array themselves against him; and may the merits of all the saints at rest confound him, and even in this life hold the sword of vengeance suspended over him.[440:1] The history of the cardinals is very interesting. The word cardinal seems to come from _cardo_, a hinge, and contains the idea of principal or important.[440:2] The term was early applied to the priests of the first dioceses in Rome and in 308 there were twenty-five in the Eternal City. Under Gregory I. (604) the word was plainly and commonly used. Stephen IV. in 771 extended the title to suburban dioceses. Anastasius' life of Leo III. (died 816) seems to indicate the germs of a College of Cardinals. It was not, however, until the time of Nicholas II. that the institution was definitely created. The number of cardinals varied greatly--thirty in the twelfth century, seven in the thirteenth century, twenty-four by the act of the Council of Basle, thirteen in 1516, seventy-six in 1559, and finally Sixtus V. fixed the number once for all at seventy to correspond with the seventy elders of Israel.[441:1] The number, however, was seldom complete. The paternal solicitude and indefatigable labours of Nicholas II. for the restoration and maintenance of the unity and authority of the Church met with unexpected success. All western Europe, even distant countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, felt the firm hand of this strong Pope. In Milan Peter Damiani humbled the mighty archbishop and lesser ecclesiastics to repentance for simony and immorality. Robert Guiscard, King of the Normans, acknowledged papal suzerainty.[441:2] From many standpoints he must be accounted the greatest Pope between Gregory the Great and Gregory VII.