CONCISTORIAL OPTION. - The concistorial option is a request that cardinals may make in consistory, that is, before the Holy Father and their colleagues, to pass 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 the concistorial option to take effect, it must be approved by the pope and the cardinals must observe seniority of order and of promotion. The passage to the Order of priests cannot moreover be obtained except after a decade has 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 concistorial option of the suburbicarian episcopal sees is reserved to cardinal priests who are present in the curia at the moment of the vacancy of the suburbicarian episcopal see or are absent from it on an assignment 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, ed. cit., p. 643). Such an option may be made only once, since it is expressly forbidden to cardinals to whom a suburbicarian see has been assigned to opt for another (cf. can. 236 § 4 and the cited constitution). It should be noted that the suburbicarian episcopal see of Ostia is cumulated with the suburbicarian episcopal see already proper to 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. 507; the motu proprio Edita nobis of Pius X of 5 May 1914; CIC, Fontes, III, ed. 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 "By the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop," proper to bishops, but rather that: "By divine mercy bishop," inasmuch as it was not the Holy See that granted him the episcopal see, but he himself obtained it through his option. Once the option has been made and accepted, the opting cardinal has precedence in the new Order over all the other cardinal priests who were adorned with the purple after him (can. 236 § 2).
From the CIC it must be deduced that at present the possibility of opting is reserved to cardinals alone. Indeed can. 396 § 2 forbids option to the dignitaries of Chapters both of cathedral churches and of collegiate churches, their law of foundation however remaining in force. But even if the option belongs to them by virtue of such a law, the jubilated chapter can never make it (cf. can. 422 § 3).
The first pontifical document in which this option is mentioned 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 concistorial option are found in the constitution Postquam of Sixtus V dated 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.