CAUDATARIO. - I. THE POPE'S C. - This c. or train-bearer must always support the hem of the pontifical cassock. He is appointed by a note of mons. majordomo, as soon as the new Pontiff is created, who is accustomed to declare as such the c. chaplain, who served him during his cardinalate, who becomes secret chaplain and c.
The c. in the cavalcades (v.), or when the Pope went out in the noble or semi-public or city train, was part of the papal cortège. He has, among other things, the task of carrying the vessel with the entrails of the deceased Pontiff, when his body is embalmed, to the church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius at Piazza di Trevi, to be entombed in the appropriate sepulchre. The c. has also discharged some office in the Apostolic Palace; in 1720 he was appointed pontifical ablegate to carry to Spain the cardinal's birettas for the bishop of Murcia and the patriarch of the Indies.
II. CAUDATARIO OF THE CARDINALS
The c. who supports the hem of the cardinalitial vestment in the papal chapels. On the morning of the public consistory for the imposition of the galero he puts on for the first time the habit that he will thereafter always wear in the said chapels, namely a collar, cassock and sash of purple silk, over which he wears the croccia of serge of the same color, with a hood, short sleeves and silk facings. Over these garments, when the cardinals take the sacred vestments, he assumes the cotta. The c. sits on the second step of the bench, where the cardinals take their places in papal functions.
The c. wears the same habit also when a cardinal performs pontifical functions.
III. CAUDATARIO OF BISHOPS
He holds the hem of the bishop's cope or cassock during sacred functions, vested in the surplice over the black cassock.