The 1917 Code of Canon Law introduced the requirement that a cardinal must be at least a priest.[50] Previously, they need only be in minor orders and not even deacons. Teodolfo Mertel, who died in 1899, was the last non-priest cardinal. In 1962, Pope John XXIII made it a rule that a man who has been nominated a cardinal is required to be consecrated a bishop, if not one already,[51] but some ask for and obtain dispensation from this requirement.