with " municipal " offices. The holders of them were by special ecclesiastical constitution made incapable of receiv ing holy orders. And, on the other hand, clerks or at least such as had no property of their own apart from that derived from any ecclesiastical benefice were exempted
from the duty of accepting the office of "curialis."
Papal Court.—At a later period, probably not earlier than the 12th century, the phrase curia Romano, came to be syno nymous with corte Romana, and was used to signify the entire body of persons employed in attendance ou the Pope and in transacting the business of the Roman see. It seems indeed t_> have been at that time occasionally used in a sense equivalent to the " Holy See," comprising, in the idea signified, the Pontiff himself.
In process of time ; however, a distinction seems to have established itself between the "corte Romana" and the "curia Romana." The former phrase is declared by Lunadoro in his Rdazione della Corte di Roma, first published in 1641, to mean the whole body of cardinals, bishops, and prelates of all ranks who hold office in the Papal court and government ; whereas at that period ahd for some time previously the curia Romana had come to signify what we should call " the bar " practising in the Papal courts of justice. But it is curious that the old wider and less precise signification of the term is found surviving long afterwards in the writings of Lutherans and Jansenists, who found its larger signification convenient to them in attacking and satirizing the Roman Papal system. Thus in modern writings the phrase " curia Romana " will be found very ordinarily to mean different things, according to the sympathies and in some degree to the country of the writer using it. In the mouth of a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Jausenist, or even perhaps of a Gallican, it will mean the whole ecclesiastical and administrative system of Rome. I:i the mouth of the friends of the Papacy, especially of the Italians, it will be found to signify the body of lawyers practising in the Roman courts. The latter is of course, at all events in recent times, the more correct use of the term ; and it will probably be found that in the mouth of a learned writer, even among Protestants, this will be the sense attached to it. Thus Bingham, in a curious passage illustrating the change in the signification of the word " curia," where he is treating of the meaning of the phrase " curise tradi " as an ecclesiastical punishment (Orig. Eccl., lib. 17, ch. 2, sec. 8), shows that the more accurate significance of the word was an entirely legal one. The celebrated controversialist Bergier, on the other hand, in his Tkeolootcal Dictionary, defines " corte Romana " as "a phrase used in our days by modern newfangled writers ia contempt of the dogmatic constitutions and pontifical briefs of the holy Roman apostolic see. If I remember rightly this phrase was first used by Calvin and his followers." Now all the writers thus twitted by the French theologian would have used " curia " as synonymous with " corte." And modern anti-ecclesiastical Italian writers will be found using the word similarly. But the proper present ecclesiastical sense of the term is most accurately rendered in English by the " Roman bar "the body of those privileged to practise in the different pontifical courts of justice.
It will be seen, in short, that the use of the term has been shifting and uncertain to a singular degree, shifting both, as the meaning of other words shifts, by lapse of time, and also not only according to the nationality but according to the views and prejudices of the person using it.
It may be added that the building now occupied by the Italian Chamber of Deputies, was called the Curia Innocenziana, having been built by Innocent XII. for the reuniting of the various " curise " before existing in the city.
For a detailed account of the officials who were at different times comprised in the idea of the Curia, of the duties, orders, and hier archical distinctions and privileges of these, of the story of 1lw ious confraternity into which they formed themselves under the iatronage of St Ivo the Briton, &c., the curious inquirer must be eferred to Lunadoro, Corte di lioma ; Compendia Istorica del pio stituto, conyregazionc, e venerab. arciconfraternita sotto I invocazione cir Immacolata Concezione, e di S. Ivo arocato dc poveri o^n-cssi ; iernini, Del tribunate dclla Rota, ; Cancellieri, Posscsse dc 1 ontijici; and Moroni, Diet, de Erudit. Ecdcs.
CURLEW, in French Courlis or Corlien, a name given to two birds, of whose cry it is an imitation, both belonging to the group Limicolce, but possessing very different labits and features.
1. The Long-billed Curlew, or simply Curlew of most British writers, the Numcnius arqvata of ornithologists, is one of the largest of the family Scolopaddce, or Snipes and allied forms, It is common on the shores of the United Kingdom and most parts of Europe, seeking the heaths and moors of the interior and more northern countries in the reeding-season, where it lays its four brownish-green eggs, suffused with cinnamon markings, in an artless nest on the ground. In England it has been ascertained to breed in Cornwall and in the counties of Devon, Dorset, Salop, and I) er by though sparingly. In Yorkshire it is more nume rous, and thence to the extreme north of Scotland, as well as throughout Ireland, it is, under the name of "Whaup, familiar to those who have occasion to traverse the wild and desolate tracts that best suit its habits. So soon as the young are able to shift for themselves, both they and their parents resort to the sea-shore or mouths of rivers, from the muddy flats of which they at low tide obtain their living, and, though almost beyond any other birds wary of approach, form an object of pursuit to numerous gunners. While leading this littoral life the food of the Curlew seems to consist of almost anything edible that presents itself. It industriously probes the mud or sand in quest of the worms that lurk therein, and is also active in seeking for such crustaceans and mollusks as can be picked up on the surface, while vegetable matter as well has been found in its stomach. During its summer-sojourn on the moorlands insects and berries, when they are ripe, enter largely into its diet. In bulk the Curlew is not less than a Crow, but it looks larger still from its long legs, wings, and neck. Its bill, from 5 to 7 inches in length, and terminating in the delicate nervous apparatus common to all birds of its family, is especially its most remarkable feature. Its plumage above is of a drab colour, streaked and mottled with very dark brown ; beneath it is white, while the flight quills are of a brownish black.
northern range, is the Whimbrel (N. phasapus), called in some parts Jack-Curlew, from its small size May-fowl, from the month in which it usually arrives and Titterel from one of its cries.[1] This so much resembles the former in habit and appearance that no further details need be given of )t. In the countries bordering on the Mediterranean occurs a third species (K tenuirostris), the home of which has yet to be ascertained, Some fifteen other species, or more, have been described, but it is probable that this number is too great. The genus Numenius is almost cosmopolitan. In North America three very easily recognized species are found the first (.V. longirostris] closely agreeing with t European Curlew, but larger and with a longer bill; t second (N. hudsonicus) representing our Whimbrel ; and t third (N. borealis), which has several times found its way to Britain, very much less in size indeed the smallest of
the genus. All these essentially agree with the species
- ↑ The name Spowe (cf. Icelandic Sp6i) also seems to hare been anciently given to this bird (see Stevenson s Birds of Ut vol. ii. p. 201.)
