Red Hats

In an anteroom of the Vatican one morning this week waited two Roman Catholic prelates, Monsignor Eugene Tisserant and Monsignor Giovanni Mercati, while in the nearby Consistorial Chamber gathered Pope Pius XI, his court and resident members of the College of Cardinals. Of this secret consistory, convoked a month ago, the Pope asked ratification of his choice of the two monsignori as new Princes of the Church. When assent was silently and swiftly given, Vatican functionaries entered the anteroom, informed the cardinals-elect that the Holy Father would bestow red hats upon them at a public consistory later in the week in St. Peter's.

Not diplomacy or administrative policy dictated the Pope's latest appointments, which bring the cardinalate to the unprecedented number of 68, two less than full strength. Cardinal-elect Mercati, 69, and Cardinal-elect Tisserant, 52, both come from that august treasure-house of learning, the Vatican Library, of which Pius XI (as Monsignor Achille Ratti) was once prefect and which he still cherishes. Giovanni Mercati is now its prefect, Eugene Tisserant its pro-prefect.

Born in France, Monsignor Tisserant was an eminent Orientalist by the time his nation called him to war. He fought at the Marne, at the Dardanelles, finally became an officer on the French General Staff in Palestine. Associated with the Vatican Library since 1908, he visited the U. S. in 1927 and 1933, returned to reorganize the library with U. S. cataloging and the finest modern equipment.

When Eugene Tisserant was only a boy, Giovanni Mercati was making friends with Achille Ratti, then with the Ambrosian Library in Milan. Last week Vatican politicians were reminding newshawks to watch Cardinal Mercati at the conclave which must some day elect a new pope. One reason: new cardinals make good compromise candidates. Cardinal Mercati has been called the most learned prelate to be elevated to the purple in the past century. Succeeding Achille Cardinal Ratti in 1918 as prefect of the Vatican Library, Monsignor Mercati has published in U. S. and European journals many a scholarly article on theology, literature, archeology, ecclesiastical jurisprudence. Famed in church circles are such authoritative works of his as Paralipomena Ambrosiana, Codices Pholotypici Editi, Studi e Testi.

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