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TheSacred Congregation of the Consulta orSacra Consulta was adicastery of theRoman Curia. It was set up as a 'special commission' bypope Paul IV in 1559 and officialised on 22 January 1588 byPope Sixtus V in thepapal bullImmensa Aeterni Dei. Sixtus named it the 'Congregation over the consultations of the ecclesiastical state' (Congregatio decimoquarta pro consultationibus negociorum Status Ecclesiastici)^[1] and established its composition of four cardinals, the Secretary of State as prefect and a suitable number of prelates (around eight), one of whom would act as secretary.^[2]

It interpreted laws and resolved administrative, jurisdictional and feudal questions such as vassals' appeals against their barons regarding their feudal obligations. It acted as a supreme court for disputes between cities and their governors, making it a forerunner of the modernItalian Council of State.Pope Clement XII (1730–40) built thepalazzo della Consulta on the piazza del Quirinale as its headquarters, housing eight prelates, though the court actually held its sessions in thepalazzo di Montecitorio or in rooms in thePalazzo apostolico.^[2]

It was suppressed in 1809 but revived in 1814 after the French releasedPope Pius VII. In 1833Pope Gregory XVI did not abolish the court when he abolished all the other competencies of theSecretariat of State. It finally ceased to operate on 20 September 1870 when thePapal States were abolished.

Generally acardinal nephew held the office of prefect, though there were two exceptions to this rule:

• Domenico Pinelli, made prefect by Gregory XIV in 1590^[3]
• Bonifazio Bevilacqua, appointed by Clement VIII in 1599.^[4]

Pope Alexander VII (1655–67) ended the cardinal nephews' influence on the Consulta.^[1] The other prefects were:

• Nicola Grimaldi † (1707 - 1716, died in office)
• Niccolò Maria Lercari (1724-1730), as Secretary of State
• Antonio Banchieri † (1730 - 1733, died in office)
• Silvio Valenti Gonzaga † (1740 - 1756, died in office)
• Alberico Archinto † (1756 - 1758, died in office)
• Ignazio Gaetano Boncompagni Ludovisi † (1775 - 1789, resigned)
• Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphilj † (1797 - 1799, resigned)
• Ercole Consalvi † (1800 - 1806, resigned)
• Tommaso Bernetti (1831-1836), as Secretary of State
• Mario Mattei † (1841 - 1848, resigned)

• (in Italian)Gaetano Moroni,Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica,vol. XVI, Venezia 1842, p. 181-185.
• (in French) Philippe Bountry,Souverain et Pontife. Recherches prosopographiques sur la Curie Romaine à l'âge de la Restauration (1814-1846), Publications de l'École française de Rome, 2002, pp. 140–149.

• 1588 establishments in the Papal States
• 1870 disestablishments in the Papal States
• Congregations of the Roman Curia
• Former departments of the Roman Curia

• Articles with Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with French-language sources (fr)