How was the rank of Cardinal created?

[Matthewmatt]

I was in my 10th grade world history class today and my teacher, who im not sure but i can sorta feel in the way he talks about the Holy Roman Catholic Church’s role in history, said that “around the 1300s one of the Popes had run the Church almost bankrupt and in an effort to raise money he made a new office called cardinal and charged to be put in that position”. He stated that the Church no longer does this though.
Is there any truth to this statement and if not how did the Cardinal position come into play?

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

Here’s a resource

famvin.org/en/2001/01/23/history-of-college-of-cardinals/

 

[MarkThompson]

There is also a lot more information in this article from the old Catholic Encyclopedia.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

I was in my 10th grade world history class today and my teacher, who im not sure but i can sorta feel in the way he talks about the Holy Roman Catholic Church’s role in history, said that “around the 1300s one of the Popes had run the Church almost bankrupt and in an effort to raise money he made a new office called cardinal and charged to be put in that position”. He stated that the Church no longer does this though.
Is there any truth to this statement and if not how did the Cardinal position come into play?

This is a useful website.

 

[Spirithound]

I was in my 10th grade world history class today and my teacher, who im not sure but i can sorta feel in the way he talks about the Holy Roman Catholic Church’s role in history, said that “around the 1300s one of the Popes had run the Church almost bankrupt and in an effort to raise money he made a new office called cardinal and charged to be put in that position”. He stated that the Church no longer does this though.
Is there any truth to this statement and if not how did the Cardinal position come into play?

Hey Matt^2,
I want to start off by assuring you that the position of Cardinal came about very organically and naturally. Now the bad news…
The Middle Ages was a pretty corrupt in the Church and in the State as well. Some/many men were indeed buying bishoprics, and collecting taxes from the people through those positions. Later, Rome began more aggressively selling positions in Rome and around the continent. This no longer goes on, and is viewed as a terrible sin, called simony.

Back to the good news: the cardinals today are essentially what they were in the early centuries, that is, priests of Rome and surrounding area, except now they hold those positions in title only. In the early years of the Church, the pope was elected by the priests of the diocese of Rome. This arrangement began its shift to the modern system when the pope started to bring in well-known holy men from around Europe to be his advisors, and then, as priests of the diocese, they would help decide who the next bishop of Rome would be.

So, the cardinals have always been equivalent to papal advisors.