Only a few dozen cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have been excommunicated. A cardinal is a Roman Catholic priest, deacon, or bishop entitled to vote in a papal election, collectively known as the College of Cardinals. Excommunication—literally, the denial of communion—means that a person is barred from participating in the Sacraments or holding ecclesiastical office. Ne Romani (1311), promulgated by Pope Clement V during the Council of Vienne, extended suffrage in papal election to excommunicated cardinals in an attempt to limit schisms.