ROMAN
147
ROMAN
the basilica, a task by no means light, seeing that
immense sums are expended upon it. Grimaldi
(Les congregations romaines, xxii) asserts that the
ex-pense amounts to 190,000 Ure (nearly $38,000) each
year, which is not surprising, when it is considered
that the lay employees of the basihca and those of
the second class, called Snn Pietrini, alone amount to
nearly 300 in number. Under the authority of this
congregation is also the Studio del mosaico established
by Sixtus V, and famous throughout the world for
the perfection of its work and for the exquisite beauty
of its art.
Vespig.vani, Compendium privilegiorum rev. fabricm S. Petri (Rome, 1674); Cancellieri, De secretariis basilicce VaticancB veteris el novcc (Rome, 1786); de Nicglais, De Vaticana basilica S. Petri ac de ejusdem p'rivilegiis (Rome, 1817).
General Bibliography. — Aubery, Histoire genirale des cardinaux (Paris, 1642); Cohellius, Notilia cardinalatus in qua nedum de S. R. E. cardinalium origine dignitate prweminenlia et privilegiis sed de prwcipuis romance aulce officialibus pertraclatur (Rome, 16.53) ; Lunadoro, Relatione della corte di Roma (Venice, 1664); De Luca, // cardinale pratico (Rome, 1680); Pletten- BERG, Notilia congregalionum el tribunalium curice romance (Hildesheim, 1693); De Luca, Relatio curia: romance forensis eiusque tribunalium el congregalionum (Venice, 17,59); Pl.\tu8, Tract, de cardinalis dignitate et officio (Rome, 1746), cap. xxviii, app.; Bangen, Die romische Kurie, ihre gegenwdrt. Zusam- mensetzung und ihr Geschaftsgang (Miinster, 1854) ; Haine, Synopsin S. R. E. Cardinalium Congregalionum (Ix)uvain, 1857); Idem, De la cour romaine sous le ponlificat de Pie IX (Louvain, 1859); Phillips, Kirchenrechl, VI (Ratisbon, 1864); Simor, De sacr. congr. et illarum auctorilate in Arch. f. k. KR., XI (18()4), 410 sqq.; Grimaldi, Les congregations romaines (Siena, 1890), this work is on the Index; Sag.mijller, Die Tdtigkeit und Stellung der Kardinale bis P. Boni/az VIII (Freiburg, 1896) ; Lega, Prwlecl. in lextum jur. can. de jwliciis ecclesiasticis , II (Rome, 1896), stjq.; Idem, De origine el jiatura sacr. roman. congre- galionum in Anal, eccl., IV (1896), 45 sqq.; Idem, De modo procedendi congregalionibus romanis communi in .Anal, eccl., IV, 277 sqq.; Wernz, Jus decrelalium, II (Rome, 1906), 619 sqq.; HiLLi.NG, Die romische Kurie (Paderborn, 1906); Hofman.v, Die Neuregelung der r6m. Kurie durch Pius X in Zeitschr. f. k. Theol., XXXIII, 198 sqq.; ParaYRE, La noutelle organisation du gouvernement central de VEglise (Lyons, 1908); Focr.veret, La riforme de la curie rom. in Le canoniste cont., 33, 16, 65; Choupi.n in Etudes (1908). 308. 604; Ojetti, De romana curia (Rome, 1910); Simier. La curie romaine (Paris, 1909); Cap- pello, De curia romana juxla reform, a Pio.X sapient, induclam (Rome, 1911).
Benedetto Ojetti.
Roman Curia, strictly speaking, the en.semble of departments or ministries which assist the sovereign pontiff in the government of the Universal Church. These are the Roman Congregations, the tribunals, and the offices of Curia (Ujjicii di Curia). The Con- gregations, being the highest and most extensive de- partments of the Pontifical CJovernment, are treated elsewhere under Roman Congregations. This arti- cle deals in particular with the tribunals and the offices of Curia (Uficii di Curia), in addition to which something will be said of the commissions of cardinals and the pontifical family.
I. Tribunals. — According to the Constitution "Sapienti consilio" of Pius X, the tribunals of the Curia are three: the Sacred Penitentiaria, the Sacred Roman Rota, and the Apostolic Signatura.
A. The Sacred Penitenlinria. — The origin of this tribunal cannot be assigned with any rea.sonable cer- tainty. Some authors, like Cardinal De Luca (Re- latio curia; rom. forensis, diss, xii), think that the office of penitentiary dates from the primitive Church; Lega (Pra>l. de judiciis eccl., II, 263, not.) refers it to the time of Pope Cornelius (204), who is said to have appointed penitentiaries pro lapsis. Penitentiaries are certainly more ancient in the East than in the West. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) ordained the establishment of a penitentiary in each cathedral. The Roman Church, if not the first, was at least one of the first in the West to establish penitentiaries. According to some authorities, from the seventh cen- tury, that is from tlie pontificate of Benedict II, the penitentiary of the Roman Church was a cardinal priest; this was certainly the case before Gregory X (d. 1276). Gregory IX calls Cardinal Nicola de Romanis "poenitentiarius felicis recordationis Hon-
p£
Cambrensis mentions Giovanni di S. Paolo, of the
title of St. Priscilla, as one who heard confessions in
the place of the pope; he was probably a cardinal of
that title. The office of penitentiary assumed greater
importance when the reservation of cases to the pope
or the bishops began (see Reserved C.\ses). At the
end of the sixth century (592) St. Gregory the Great
reserved to himself the excommunication with which
he threatened Archbishop John of Larissa for unjustly
deposing Adrian, Bishop of Thebes. The first uni-
versally recognized case of a general papal reservation
of an offence is that of Innocent II, who, at the Coun-
cil of Clermont (1130), reserved to himself in every
case absolution from the crime of striking a cleric.
This reservation was confirmed by him in the follow-
ing year at the Council of Reimg, where he also
reserved to himself the absolution of incendiaries
and their accompUces. Thenceforth reservations in-
creased in number, and an office became necessary to
answer those who, guilty of some offence, asked of the
sovereign pontiff absolution from the censure incurred,
and reserved to the Holy See, or, being unable to re-
pair to Rome, asked to be absolved from some sin re-
.served to the pope by a priest of their own land, who
would of course require a special delegation. In the
time of Cardinal Berenger Fredol, penitentiary from
1309 to 1323, the office of the Penitentiaria was in
existence, with various subordinates and employees,
under the direction of a cardinal penitentiary, whom
Clement V called pcenitentiarius major [c. ii. de
elect, etc. (I. 3) in Clem.]. Under Alexander IV and
Urban IV, Cardinal Hugo of St-Cher (or of San Caro)
was called poenitentiarius summus, or sedis apostolicce
pcenilentiarius generalis. For the earlier history of
this tribunal see the excellent work of P. Chouet,
"La .sacree penitencerie apostohque" (Lyons, 1908),
in which may be found the details of its original con-
stitution. The present article deals only with the re-
cent constitution of this tribunal.
The Sacred Penitentiary consists in the first place of the cardinal chief penitentiary {pcenilentiarius jnajor) appointed by a Brief of the sovereign pontiff. Pius V, followed by Benedict XIV, decreed that this functionary should be chosen from among the car- dinal priests, and must be a master in theology or doctor of canon law {tnagister in Iheologia sen decre- toruin doctor). He must transact the business of his office personally, or if prevented from so doing, he must provide a substitute in another cardinal qualified as above stated, and who takes the title of pro-chief penitentiary. During his term of office he acts in his own name, and not in that of the cardinal by whom he is delegated. To the cardinal chief penitentiary is as- signed a regent of the Penitentiaria. This officer, like the others of whom we shall speak, is selected by the cardinal penitentiary and presented to the pope; and if approved by him is appointed by a letter of the car- dinal himself. After the regent comes the theologian, whom it has long been usual to select from th(> Society of Jesus; then come the datary, the canonist, the corrector, the sealer (sigillatore) , and some copyists, besides a secretary, a surrogate (sostituto), and an archivist. The signatura {Segnatura) of the Peniten- tiaria (its congress) is the meeting at which the most important cases are considered. It is formed of the cardinal penitentiary, the theologian, the datary, the corrector, the sealer {sigillalore), and the canonist, the secretary also taking part in it, but without a vote. The other members of the meeting are only consulted, the decision of the case being left entirely to the cardi- nal penitentiary, who, if in doubt as to the extent of his faculties, refers the matter to the Holy Father.
The minor penitentiaries of certain Roman churches and of the Holy House of Loreto must be mentioned as in some way related to the Sacred Penitentiaria. At Rome, they are attached to the three Basihcas of
