ROMAN
149
ROMAN
excerpta, praxim quogue officii S. Paenitentiariw Urbis iuxla illius
ordinationem novi status complectens (Venice, 1669); Syrus,
Dilucidalio facultatum minorum poenitentiariorum basilicarum
Urbis et praxis executionum ad litteras et rescripta S. poenitentiarire
(Rome, 1699) ; Petra, Tractatus de pcenitentiaria apostolica
(Rome, 1717); Gibbings, The Tax of the Apostolic Penitentiary
(Dublin, 1872) ; Ddpin de St-Andr£, Taxe de la Penitencerie
apostolique d'apres V edition publiee d Paris en 1620 (Paris, 1879) ;
Denifle, Die dlteste Taxrolle d. apostol. Ponitentiarie v. Jahre
1338 in Arch. f. Litt. u. Kirchengesch. d. MA., IV, 201 sqq. (1888);
Eubel, Der Registerband d. Kardinal-Grossponitentiars Bentevenga
in A. f. k. KR., LXIV, 3 sqq. (Mamz, 1890) ; Lea (ed.), A Formu-
lary of the Papal Penitentiary in the Thirteenth Century (Philadel-
phia, 1892) ; Batiffol, Les pritres penitentiers romains au Ve
siicle, Compte-rendu du Congrks internat. des catholiques a Bruxelles,
II (1894), 277 sqq.; Lecacheux, Un formulaire de la penitencerie
apostolique au temps du cardinal Albornoz (1357-8), in Melanges
Arch. Hist. Ecole Franc, Rome, XVIII (1898), 37 sqq.; Lang,
Beitr&ge zur Geschichte der apostol. Ponitenciers in Mitt. d.
Instil, f. Oesterr. Geachichtsf., VII, Supplementary Number, 1904;
Haskins, The Sources for the History of the Papal Penitentiary
in American Journal of Theol., LIX (1905), 422 sqq.; Tarani a
Spalannis, Manuale theorico-practicum pro minoribus pceniten-
tiariis (Rome, 1906) ; Goller, Die papslliche Ponitentiarie von
ihrem Ursprung bis zu ihrer Umgestallung durch Pius V (Rome,
1907); Chouet, La sacree penitencerie Apostolique (Lyons, 1904).
B. The Sacred Roman Rota. — See Rota, Sacra Ro- man a.
C. The Apostolic Signatura. — In former times, there was only one Signatura, i. e. there were a few assist- ants who were commi.ssioned by the sovereign pontiff to investigate the petitions addressed to the Holy See, and to report concerning them. These functionaries were called Referendnrii apostolici. Vitale, in his "Comm. deiuro signature justitiaj", says that there is record of the referendaries as such in 1243. Innocent IV mentions them. As time went on, recourse to the Holy See bcHioming more and more frequent, whether to obtain graces or to submit cases to the decision of the pope, the number of the referendaries increased considerably. Alexander VI deemed it expedient to define their office better, which he did by creating a double Signatura — the Signatura of Grace, and the Signatura of Justice — to which the referendaries were severally assigned. As the office of rcfcrcndar>' wa,s a very honourable one, it came to be conferred fre- quently as a merely honorary* title, so that the number of the referendaries was unduly increased ; and Sixtus V was constrained, in 1586, to limit the referendaries of the Signatura of Justice to KM), and those of the Sig- natura of (irace to 70. AlcxandcT VII combined the referendaries of both Signaturas into a college, with a dean. These were called "voting referendaries", and actually exercised their ofTice. The others remained as "supernumerary referendaries" {extra numerum). In 1834 Gregory XVI gave a new organization to the Signatura of Justice. On the other hand, the Signa- tura of Grace gradually disappeared: no mention is made of it after 1847 in the catalogues of the tribunals and officials of the Curia.
The Signatura of Grace, also called Signatura of the Hol}^ Father (Signatura Sanclissimi) , was held in the presence of the sovereign pontiff, and there were pres- ent at it some cardinals and many prelates, chief among the latter being the voters of this Signatura. At the invitation of the Holy Father, the voters voted upon the matters under consideration, but that vote was merely consultative. The Holy Father reserved to himself the decision in each case, announcing it then and there, or later, if he chose, through his "do- mestic auditor", as Do Luca calls him, or "auditor of the Holy Father ' ' (a iiditor sanctissimi) , as he was called later. The Signatura of Justice was a genuine tribu- nal, presided over in the name of the pope by a cardinal prefect. The voters of this Signatura were present at it, and their vote was not consultative, but definitive. As a rule, the cardinal prefect voted only when his vote was necessary for a decision.
Pius X, in the Constitution by which he reor- ganized the Curia, abolished the two ancient Signa- turas, and created a new one that has nothing in common with the other two. The Signatura now con- sists of six cardinals, appointed by the pope, one of
whom is its prefect. It has a secretary, a notary, who
must be a priest, some consultors, and a few subor-
dinate officers. The present Signatura is a genuine
tribunal which ordinarily has jurisdiction in four
kinds of cases, namely: accusations of suspicions
against an auditor of the Rota; accusations of viola-
tion of secrecy by an auditor of the Rota; appeals
against a sentence of the Rota; petitions for the nulli-
fication of a decision of the Rota that has already be-
come res judicata. As a temporary commission, the
pope gave to the Signatura the mandate and the
power to review the sentences passed by the Roman
Congregations before the Constitution "Sapienti Con-
silio". This commission was given to the Signatura
through an answer by the Consistorial Congregation
on the subject of a doubt relating to a case of this
kind. Of course the Holy Father may on special oc-
casions give other commissions of this nature to the
ApostoUc Signatura.
Gomes, Compendium utriusqum signatures (Paris, 1547); Sta- PHlL.eus, De litteris gratia:, de signatura gratice et litteris apostolicis in forma brevis (Paris, 1558); Mandosius, Praxis signaturce gratice (Rome, 1559); Marchesani, Commissionum ac rescrip- torum utriusqite signaturce S. D. N. Papce praxis (Rome, 1615); De Matienzo, Tract, de referendariorum, advocatorum, iudicum officio, requisitis, dignitate et eminentia (Frankfort, 1618); De Fatinelus, De referendariorum votantium signatura; iustitice col- legia (Rome, 1696) ; Vitale, Comm. de iure signaturm iustitice (Rome, 1756).
II. Offices op Curia. — These are five in number: The ApostoUc Chancery; Apostolic Dataria; Apos- tolic Camera; Secretariate of State; Secretariate of Briefs.
A. The Apostolic Chancery (Cancelleria Apostolica). — This office takes its name from civil law and from the imperial chanceries, and is certainly of very an- cient origin in its essence. The primacy of the Ro- man See made it necessary that the sovereign pontiff should have in his service officers to write and to trans- mit his answers to the numerous petitions for favours and to the numerous consultations addressed to him. This office, in course of time, underwent many trans- formations, to the most important of which only we shall refer. After Martin V had instituted a large number of offices in the Chancery, Sixtus V placed many of them in the class of vacabili, as they were then called. The origin of this institution was as fol- lows: The pope was often compelled, in defence of Christendom, to wage war, to fit out expeditions, or at least to give financial assistance to the princes who waged such wars at his exhortation. But the pontifi- cal treasury, on the other hand, was often without means to defray even the expenses of the Pontifical States, and it became imperative to raise funds. Ac- cordingly, the popes resorted to the expedient of sell- ing several lucrative offices of the Curia, and, as a rule, to the highest bidder. It should be observed, however, that what was sold was not the office itself, but the receipts of the office, e. g., the taxes for the favours granted through the office in question. Some offices were sold with the right of succession by the heirs of the purchaser. This, however, could be done only in the case of an office of minor importance, in the exercise of which no special ability was required. Those offices which entailed grave responsibilities, and which could be filled only by pious and learned men, were sold on the condition that they should revert to the Curia at the death of the purchaser. An aleatory contract, therefore, was made, the uncertainty being, on the one side, the amount of the income of the office and, on the other, the length of life of the pur- chaser. The prices of the offices, especially of the more desirable ones, were considerable: Lorenzo Cor- sini, afterwards Clement XII, bought the office of re- gent of the Chancery for 30,000 Roman scudi — a large fortune for those times. The hazard was not neces- sarity confined to the life of the purchaser; he was free to establish it upon the life of another person, pro- vided the latter (called the intestatary) were expressly
