THE CURIA
port every five years. To it there must be referred all requests to establish new foundations. It controls the election of superiors, and must be asked for permission if re-election is desired. It is a general supervising body and intervenes whenever there is disorder. Dis- pensations are obtained from it; complaints and quarrels must be sub- mitted to it. In economic matters an Order exercises freedom of management only in a limited degree, beyond which evety change in economic status is contingent upon Rome's permission.
In the missionary Orders the competency of the Congregation of the Orders is often hard to distinguish from that of the Congregation of the Missions. Every Order as a whole is subordinate to the Con- gregation of the Orders, to which all its inner business must be re- ferred; and it is dependent upon the Congregation for the Missions only in so far as its missionary activities are concerned. The boundary- line between the two is often difficult to find.
The examination of a new religious Rule is entrusted to a special group of councillors. The foundation of a new congregation is per- mitted only when there is reason to believe that the effort rests upon a substantial basis. It must survive a time of probation, in which it is to prove its worthiness, and is then removed very gradually from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which the foundation is made and placed directly under the control of the Pope. Decades may still go by, however, before a preliminary endorsement is trans- formed into a final recommendation. Every monastic society en- deavours to become exempt i. e. to be wholly removed from the control of the episcopal authority. Larger religious societies are customarily represented at the Congregation by a procurator-general. The older Orders enjoy honorary rights in the Curia; not only are one or more of their members recipients of the Cardinal's purple, but they are entrusted in accordance with custom with important positions. Thus the General of the Dominicans and three other members of his Order always belong to the Holy Office. The magister palatii, who is a member of important Congregations, the supreme censor of books, and papal court theologian assigned the duty of reading through the Pope's sermons before these are delivered, is also always a Domini- can. A Franciscan is consultor of the Holy Office, a Capuchin is Papal court preacher, a Servite is the confessor of the Papal "family,"
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