Merry Del Val
RAFAEL, CAR- DINAL, Roman Catholic ecclesiastic; born in London, Oct. 10, 1865, son of the secretary of the Spanish Embassy there.
His family is of Irish extraction, Merry being his father's and Wall, altered into Val in Spain, his mother's name.
He was educated in England and at Rome, and was introduced to the notice of Pope Leo XIII. by his father. He soon gained the Pontiff's favor, being appointed Papal Chamberlain in 1892 and Archbishop of Nicosia in 1900. He acted as secretary to the consistory that elected Pope Pius X. in 1903, who shortly afterward made him his Secretary of State, and created him cardinal. His reactionary policy as adviser to his Holiness led to the estrangement from Rome of both France and Spain, and to much loss of prestige by the Vatican. In September, 1914, following the accession of Pope Benedict XV., he was succeeded as Secretary of State by Cardinal Gasparri, and in October, 1914, was appointed Secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office.