in this capacity it controls the famous manufacture of the Vatican mosaics. It also formerly enjoyed certain spiritual Fabric of St Peter’s. powers for the reduction of the obligations imposed by pious legacies and foundations, the objects of which, for want of funds or any other reason, could not be fully carried out, and for the condonation of past omission of such obligations, e.g. of priests to celebrate the foundation masses of their benefices. In 1908 these powers were taken away from it by Pius X., and transferred to the Congregation of the Council, which already exercised some of them.
(14) The Congregation of Loretto (Congregatio Lauretana) discharged the same functions for the sanctuary of that name; its temporal administration was latterly very much reduced, and in 1908 it was united by Pius X. with the Congregation of the Council.
(15) The Congregation for extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs (Sacra Congregatio super negotiis ecclesiasticis extraordinariis), established by Pius VI. at the end of the 18th century to study the difficult questions relative to France, was afterwards definitively continued by Pius VII.; Extraordinary affairs. and there has been no lack of fresh extraordinary matters. It also dealt with the administration of the churches of Latin America, not to mention certain European countries, such as Russia, under the same conditions as the Propaganda in countries under missions. Since the constitution Sapienti, its competency has been confined to the examination, at the request of the secretary of state, of questions which are submitted to it, and especially those arising from civil laws and concordats.
(16) The Congregation of Studies (Congregatio pro Universitate studii Romani, Congregazione degli Studi), founded by Sixtus V. to act as a higher council for the Roman university of La Sapienza, had ceased to have any functions when in 1824 it was re-established by Leo XII. to supervise Studies. education in Rome and the Papal States; since 1870 it has been exclusively concerned with the Catholic universities, so far as the sacred sciences are concerned. With this should be connected the commission for historical studies, instituted in 1883 by Leo XIII., at the same time as he threw the Vatican archives freely open to scholars.
III. The Tribunals and Offices.—Though it has been relieved
of the functions allotted to the Congregations of cardinals, the
old machinery of the ecclesiastical administration has
not been abolished; and the process of centralization
which has been accentuated in the course of the last
Tribunals
and offices.
few centuries, together with the facility of communication,
ensured for them a fresh activity, new offices having even
been added. The chief thing to be observed is that the prelates
who were formerly at the head of these departments have almost
all been replaced by cardinals. The following is the list of the
tribunals and offices, including the changes introduced by the
reorganization of the Curia by Pius X. in 1908. The tribunals
are three in number: one for the forum internum, the Penitentiary;
the other two for judicial matters in foro externo, the
Rota and the papal Signatura.
(1) The Penitentiary (Sacra poenitentiaria Apostolica) is the tribunal having exclusive jurisdiction in matters of conscience (in foro interno), e.g. dispensations from secret impediments and private vows, the absolution of reserved cases. These concessions are applied for anonymously. Penitentiary. It also had, previously to the constitution Sapienti, a certain jurisdiction in foro externo, such as over matrimonial dispensations for poor people. Its concessions are absolutely gratuitous. Since the 12th century, the papal court had already had officials known as penitentiaries (poenitentiarii) for matters of conscience; the organization of the Penitentiary, after several modifications, was renewed by Benedict XIV. in 1748. At the head of it is the cardinal grand penitentiary (major poenitentiarius), assisted by the regens (It. regente) and various other functionaries and officials.
(2) The court of the Rota (Sacra Rota Romana) used to be the supreme ecclesiastical tribunal for civil affairs, and its decisions had great authority. This tribunal goes back at least as far as the 14th century, but its activity had been reduced as a result of the more expeditious and summary, and less costly, Rota. procedure of the Congregations. The constitution Sapienti restored the Rota to existence and activity: it is now once more the ecclesiastical court of appeal for both civil and criminal cases. Pius X. also made special regulations for it, by which its ancient usages are adapted to modern circumstances. The tribunal of the Rota consists of ten judges called auditors (uditori), of whom the most senior is president with the title of dean. Each judge has an auxiliary; to the tribunal are attached a promotor fiscalis, charged with the duty of securing the due application of the law, and an official charged with the defence of marriage and ordination; there is also a clerical staff (notaries, scribes) attached to the court. Cases are judged by three auditors, who succeed each other periodically (per turnum) according to the order in which the cases are entered, and in exceptional cases by all the auditors (videntibus omnibus). Under the jurisdiction of the Rota, in addition to cases of first instance submitted to it by the pope, are such judgments of episcopal courts as are strictly speaking subject to appeal; for petitions against non-judicial decisions are referred to the Congregations. Appeal is sometimes allowed from one “turn” to another; if the second sentence of the Rota confirms the first, it is definitive; if not, a third may be obtained.
(3) The supreme tribunal of the papal Signatura (Signatura Apostolica). There were formerly two sections: the Signatura Justitiae and the Signatura Gratiae; by the constitution Sapientis they were suppressed and amalgamated into one body, the Signatura Apostolica, which is the Signatura. exact equivalent of other modern courts of cassation. This tribunal is composed of six cardinals, one of whom is the prefect, assisted by a prelate secretary, consultors and the necessary inferior officials. It judges cases in which auditors of the Rota are concerned, such as personal objections, but especially objections (querelae) lodged against sentences of the Rota, with a view to their being annulled or revised (restitutio in integrum).
Next come the offices, now reduced to six in number.
(1) The Chancery (Cancellaria Apostolica), the department
from which are sent out the papal letters, has for a long time
drawn up only those letters written in solemn form
known as bulls. The bull, so called from the leaden
seal (bulla), is written on thick parchment; the special writing
Chancery.
Bull.
known as Lombard, which used to be used for bulls, was abolished
by Leo XIII., and the leaden seal reserved for the
more important letters; on the others it has been
replaced by a red ink stamp bearing both the emblems represented
on the leaden seal: the two heads, face to face, of St
Peter and St Paul, and the name of the reigning pope. Bulls
are written in the name of the pope, who styles himself “(Pius)
Episcopus servus servorum Dei; (Pius), bishop, servant of
the servants of God.” They were formerly dated by kalends
and from the era of the Incarnation, which begins on the 25th
of March, but in 1908 Pius X. ordered them to be dated according
to the common era. It is practically only bulls of canonization
which are signed by the pope and all the cardinals present in
Rome; the signature of the pope is then “(Pius) Episcopus
Ecclesiae catholicae,” while his ordinary signature bears only his
name and number, “Pius PP. X.” Ordinary bulls are signed
by several officials of the chancery, and a certain number only
by the cardinal at its head, who until 1908 was styled vice-chancellor,
because the chancellor used formerly to be a prelate,
not a cardinal; but since the constitution Sapienti has been
entitled chancellor. He is assisted by several officials, beginning
with the regens of the chancery. To the chancery were attached
the abbreviatores de parco majori vel minori (see Abbreviators),
formerly charged with the drawing up or “extension” of bulls;
they were suppressed by Pius X., and their functions transferred
to the Protonotarii apostolici participantes (i.e. active).
Further, Pope Pius confined the functions of the chancery
to the sending out of bulls under the leaden seal (sub plumbo),
for the erection of dioceses, the provision of bishoprics and
