ests.

The second order of cardinals is that of the cardinal priests. It
represents and is a continuation of the ancient _presbyterium_; but in
Rome the process of evolution was different from that in the other
episcopal towns. In the latter, the division into parishes was but
slowly accomplished; there is no authority for their existence before
the year 1000; the bishop with the higher clergy, now developed into the
chapter, were in residence at the cathedral, which formed, as it were,
the one parish in the town. At Rome, on the contrary (and doubtless at
Alexandria), certain churches, to which were attached certain districts,
were at an early date entrusted to one or more priests. These churches,
in which the liturgy was celebrated, or certain sacraments administered,
were called _tituli_ (titles). According to the _Liber Pontificalis_
(ed. Duchesne, i. pp. 122, 126, 164), the titles of Rome, numbering
twenty-five, were already established as early as the 1st century; this
seems hardly probable, but it was certainly the case in the 5th century.
The priest serving one of these churches was the priest of that title,
and, similarly, the church which he served was that priest's title. When
several priests were attached to the same church, only the first, or
principal one, had the title; he alone was the _presbyter cardinalis_.
This practice explains how it is that the Roman presbyterium did not
give rise to a cathedral chapter, but to cardinal priests, each attached
to his title. As the higher clergy of Rome gradually acquired a more
important status, the relations between the cardinal priest and the
church of which he bore the title became more and more nominal; but they
have never entirely ceased. Even to-day every cardinal priest has his
title, a church in Rome of which he is the spiritual head, and the name
of which appears in his official signature, e.g. "Herbertus tituli
sanctorum Andreae et Gregorii sanctae romanae ecclesiae presbyter
cardinalis Vaughan." When the attachment of the cardinal priest to his
title had become no more than a tradition, the number of cardinal
titles, which in the 11th century had reached twenty-eight, was
increased according to need, and it was held an honour for a church to
be made titulary. The last general rearrangement of the titular churches
was begun by Clement VIII. and completed by Paul V.; Leo XIII. made a
title of the church of San Vitale. To-day, according to the _Gerarchia
Pon