ROMAN
152
ROMAN
Pelletier, Instructions pour Ics ejcpdditions de la cour de Rome
(Paris, 1680); Castel P]fiR.vRD, Paraphrase du commentatre de
M Ch. Du Mouiin sur les r^les de la Chancellerie romaine (Paris,
16S5); CiAMPixi, De S. R. E. Vicecancellarui (Rome, 1697);
Anon, Compendiaria notilia abbreriatoris de curia (Rome, 1696);
OCZEXVSSEK, Pral. iur. can. seu comm. in regulas Cancellariv
dementis XI (Vienna, 1712); Bovio, La pietd trionfante sulle
distrutte grande::e del gentilismo . . . e degh uffi.ci% deUa
CanceUeria Apostolica e dei Cancellieri delta 6. R. Chiesa
(Rome, 1729); Riganti, Commentaria in regulas, constitutiones et
ordinationes Cancellarim apostolicw, opus posthumum (Geneva,
1571); Hedderich, Dispuiatio ad regulam Cancdlarim de non
toUendo ius gua-situm in Germania, diss. XVII (Bonn, 1783);
Erler, Der Liber CanceUeriw apostolica: v. J. 1380 (Leipzig, 1880) ;
V Ottenth^l, Die papstlichen Kanzleiregeln von Johann
XXII bis Xikolaus V (1888); Tangl, Die p&pstlichen Kanzlei-
ordungen ron leOO-lSOO (Innsbruck, 1894); Kehr, Scrinium und
Palatium. Zur Geschichte des papstlichen Kamleiwessens im 11
Jahrh. in Mitt, des Instit. fur dsterr. Geschichtsf., suppl. VI;
Goller, Miiteilungen und Untersuchungen iiber das pdpstliche
Register- und Kamleiwessen im 14. Jahrh., besonders unter
Johann XXII und Benedikt XII in Quellen und Forschungen
des Preuss. histor. Instiluis in Rom., VI, 272 sqq.; Chiari,
Memoria giuridieo-storica sulla Dataria Cancellaria, rev. Camera
apostolica, Compenso di Spagna, vacabili e vacabilisti (Rome,
1900) • Anon., Die Vacabilia d. papstl. Kanzlei u. d. Datarie in
Arch. f. k. KR., LXXXII (1902), 163-165; vox Hofmann,
Zur Geschichte der papstl. Kanzlei vornehmlich in der 2. Hdlfte
des 15. Jahrh. (Berlin, 1904); Schmitz-Kallbnberg, Pmctica
CancMarice apostolicw seculi xv exeuntis (Miinster, 1904); Baum-
GARTEN, Aus Kanzlei u. Kammer (Freiburg, 1905) ; Goller, Die
Kommenlatoren der papstlichen Kanzleiregeln von Ende des 15.
bis zum Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts in Arch. f. k. KR., LXXXV
(1905), 441 sqq.; LXXXVI (1906), 20 sqq., 259 sqq.; Idem,
Von d. apostol. Kanzlei (Cologne, 1908).
B. The Apostolic Dataria. — According to some authorities, among them Amydenus (De officio et ju- risdictione datarii necnon de stylo Datariae), this office is of verj' ancient origin. It is not so, however, as ap- pears from the fact that the business which eventually fell to it was originally transacted elsewhere. The Dataria was entrusted, chiefly, with the concession of matrimonial dispensations of external jurisdiction, and with the collation of benefices reserved to the Holy See. To this double faculty was added that of granting many other indults and graces, but these additions were made later. Until the time of Pius IV matrimonial dispensations were granted through the Penitentiaria; and as to the collation of reserved bene- fices, that authority could not have been granted in very remote times, since the establishment of those reservations is comparatively recent: although some vestige of reser\^ations is found even prior to the twelfth century, the custom was not frequent before Innocent II, and it was only from the time of Clement IV that the reserA'^ation of benefices was adopted as a general rule [c. ii, "De pract. etdignit." (Ill, 4) in 6°]. It may be said that, while this office certainly existed in the fourteenth centur>', as an independent bureau, it is impossible to determine the precise time of its creation.
The Dataria consists, first, of a cardinal who is its chief and who. until the recent Constitution, was called the pro-datary, but now has the official title of datary. There was formerly as much discussion about the title of pro-datary as about that of vice- chancellor (see above). Some are of ojjiiiion that it is derived from the fact that this ofncc dated the re- scripts or graces of the soverfign pontifT, while others hold it to be derived from tlio riglit to grant and give (dare) the graces and indults for which petition is made to the pope. It is certain that, on account of these functifjns the datary enjoyed great prestige in former tirnfs, whf-n he was called the eye of the pope (ficuluH jhijxf). After the cardinal comes the sub- datary, a prelate of the Curia who assists the datary, and takf« the latter's place, upon occasion, in almost all of his functions. In the old organization of the Dataria there came after the sub-datary a number of Bubcjrdinate officials who, as De Luca says, bore titles that were enigmatical and sibyllic, as, for example, the prefect of the per ohilum, the prefect of the cono'ssum, the cashier of th(r componerula, an officer of the miHHVi, and the like.
Leo XIII had already introduced reforms into the
organization of the Dataria, to make it harmonize
with modern requirements, and Pius X, reducing the
competency of the office, gave it an entirely new
organization in his Constitution "Sapienti consilio",
according to which the Dataria consists of the cardi-
nal datary, the sub-datarj^, the prefect and his surro-
gate {snstituto), a few officers, a cashier, who has also
the office of distributor, a reviser, and two writers of
Bulls. The new Constitution retains the theological
examiners for the competitions for parishes. Among
the Datary offices that have been abolished mention
should be made of that of the Apostolic disjititcliers,
which, in the new organization of the Curia, has no
longer a reason for being. Formerly these officials
were necessary, because private persons could not
refer directly to the Dataria, which dealt only with
persons known to, and approved by, itself. Now,
however, anyone may deal directly with the Dataria,
as with any of the other pontifical departments.
The Dataria, which, as noted above, was commis-
sioned to grant many papal indults and graces, has
now only to investigate the fitness of candidates for
Consistorial benefices, which are reserved to the Holy
See, to write and to dispatch the Apostolic Letters for
the collation of those benefices, to dispense from the
conditions required in regard to them, and to provide
for the pensions, or for the execution of the charges
imposed by the pope when conferring those benefices.
It would be both length}' and difficult to retrace the
former modes of procedure of this office, all the more
as it was mainly regulated by tradition, wliile this
tradition was jealously guarded by the officers of the
Datary, who were generally laymen, and who had in
that way established a species of monopoly as detri-
mental to the Holy See as profitable to themselves;
thus it happened that these offices often passed from
father to son, while the ecclesiastical superiors of the
officials were to a great extent blindly dependent upon
them. Leo XIII began the reform of this condition
of things so unfavourable to good administration,
and Pius X has totally abohshed it.
Amydexus, De officio et jurisdiclione Datarii nee non de stylo Dalarioe; Macaxar, Pedimento sobre abusos de la Dataria (Madrid, 1841); Axon., Die Vacabilia d. papstl. Kanzlei u. d. Datarie in Arch. f. k. KR, 82, 163 (1902).
C. The Apostolic Camera. — In the Constitution "Sapienti consilio" Pius X provided that during vacancies of the Holy See its property should be ad- ministered by this office. The cardinal-cainerlengo (see Camerlengo) presides over the Camera, and is governed in the exercise of his office by the rules established in the Constitution, "Vacante sede apostolica", of 25 December, 1906. (For history and general treatment see Apostolic Camera.)
D. The Secretariate of State. — After the promulga- tion of the Constitution of Innocent XII, in 1692, the cardinal nephews were succeeded by the secretaries of State. Of the cardinal nephews many authors have written with grejitcr severity than is justified by the facts, although the dignitaries in question may on more than one otrcasion have given cause of complaint. In times when the life of the jjope was in jeopardy from conspira(!ies formed in his own court (such, for instance, as that against Leo X mentioned above, under A. The Apoxtolir Chancery), it was a necessity for the sovereign pontiff tf) have as his chief assistant one in whom Ik; might repose implicit confidence, and such h(> could nowhere more surely find than in his own family. The cardinal nephew was called ' ' Sccre- tarius Paptc et superintendens status ecclesiastic!". The cardinal secretary of State, who fills the place of the nephew, has been, and is, in the present day, the con- fidential assistant of the pope. Hence the office is vacated upon the death of the reigning pontiff. Be- fore; the promulgation of the recent Constitution of Pius X, this office of Curia comprised, besides the cardinal secretary himself, a surrogate, also called
