CONSISTORIAL OPTION. — A consistorial option is a request that cardinals may make in consistory, that is, before the Holy Father and their colleagues, to move from one to another of the three Orders (deacons, priests, and bishops) into which the Sacred College is divided (cf. can. 231), or from one title or deaconry to another within the same Order (can. 236 § 1). For a consistorial option to take effect, it must be approved by the pope and the cardinals must observe the seniority of order and promotion. Moreover, the transfer to the Order of Priests cannot be obtained unless a full ten years have elapsed among the cardinal deacons (can. 236 § 1 and the decree Sanctissimus of Clement VIII of 18 Aug. 1597; CIC, Fontes, I, Rome 1923, p. 351).
The consistorial option of the suburbicarian sees is reserved to cardinal priests who are present in curia at the time of the vacancy of a suburbicarian see or are absent therefrom by reason of an office entrusted to them by the Supreme Pontiff (cf. can. 236 § 3 and the constitution Pastorale officium of Clement XII of 10 Jan. 1731, § 68; CIC, Fontes, I, loc. cit., p. 643). Such an option may be made only once, since cardinals to whom a suburbicarian see has been assigned are expressly forbidden to opt for another (cf. can. 236 § 4 and the cited constitution). It is to be noted that the suburbicarian see of Ostia is cumulated with the suburbicarian see already held by the cardinal who becomes Dean of the Sacred College (cf. can. 236 § 4 and the constitution Romani Pontificis of Benedict XIII of 7 Sept. 1724, § 8; CIC, Fontes, I, p. 597; the motu proprio Edita nobis of Pius X of 5 May 1914; CIC, Fontes, III, loc. cit., p. 830 and the constitution Ex actis of Benedict XV of 1 Feb. 1915; CIC, Fontes, III, p. 846). The suburbicarian cardinal bishop does not use the formula «Dei et Apostolicae Sedis gratia episcopus», proper to bishops, but the formula: «Miserantem divina episcopus», inasmuch as it was not the Holy See that granted him the episcopal see, but he himself obtained it by his consistorial option. Once the option has been made and accepted, the opting cardinal takes precedence in the new Order over all other cardinal priests who were created cardinals after him (can. 236 § 2).
From the CIC it must be inferred that at present the right of option is reserved to cardinals alone. Indeed, can. 396 § 2 forbids option to the dignities of the chapters of both cathedral churches and collegiate churches, except insofar as their own statutes provide otherwise. Yet even if option is permitted by such statutes, it may never be exercised by a jubilated capitular (cf. can. 422 § 3).
The first pontifical document in which mention is made of this option is the constitution Cum venerabiles of Paul IV of 22 Aug. 1555 § 1 (Bullarium Romanum, VI, Turin 1860, p. 502). Other norms relating to the consistorial option are found in the constitution Postquam of Sixtus V of 3 Dec. 1586, §§ 7 and 8 (op. cit., p. 538) and in the cited constitutions of Clement VIII, Clement XII, Benedict XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV.