In the Roman Catholic Church, a "lay cardinal" was a cardinal who had never been given major orders, i.e. who had never been ordained a deacon, priest, or bishop.
Properly speaking these cardinals were not laymen, since they were all given what was called first tonsure, by which at that time one became a cleric, and cease to be a layman. In addition they were given minor orders, which were no obstacle to marrying or to living in a marriage previously contracted. The freedom to marry and to live in marriage is doubtless the reason that cardinals who were not in major orders were popularly, though inaccurately, referred to as lay cardinals.
Read more about Lay Cardinal: Examples, Confusion Concerning The Title of "cardinal", Changes in Canon Law
Famous quotes containing the words lay and/or cardinal:
“The acorn’s not yet
Fallen from the tree
That’s to grow the wood,
That’s to make the cradle,
That’s to rock the bairn,
That’s to grow a man,
That’s to lay me.”
—Unknown. The Cauld Lad of Hilton or, The Wandering Spectre (l. 2–8)
“To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be Unjust. The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no place. Where there is no common Power, there is no Law; where no Law, no Injustice. Force, and Fraud, are in war the two Cardinal virtues.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)