TheApostolic Chancery[1] (Latin:Cancellaria Apostolica;[2] also known as the "Papal" or "Roman Chanc(ell)ery") was adicastery of theRoman Curia at the service of thepope. The principal and presiding official was theGrand Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church,[1] who was always the cardinal-priest of theBasilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso. The principal function of the office was to collect money to maintain thePapal army and to produce documents and correspondence for the pope.Pope Pius VII reformed the office when EmperorNapoleon I of France obviated the need for Papal armies. In the early 20th century the office collected money for missionary work.Pope Paul VI abolished theApostolic Chancellary on 27 February 1973, transferring its functions to theSecretariat of State.
The role ofbibliotecarius first appears in 781, and was responsible for thepope's books as well as redacting documents. The role ofcancellarius first appears under Silvester II. Thecancellarius produced documents for the pope, while thebibliotecarius would date them. Subsequently, both roles tended to be filled by the same person. The use of the termbibliotecarius ended underCelestine II (1143–1144). From Honorius III (1216–1227) onwards the head of the chancery was called thevicecancellarius.[3]
TheCancellaria Apostolica was of ancient origin in its essence, but it derived its name from that of civil "chanceries", including that of the Imperial Chancery. Theprimacy of the Roman pontiff required that he have in his service officials to write and transmit his answers to the numerous petitions for favours and consultations addressed to him.[4] Throughout its duration the office was reformed numerous times.
TheApostolic constitutionEtsi ad Singula ofPope Clement VII of 5 July 1532 provided the cardinalatial title of theBasilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso to the chancellor.
AfterPope Martin V had instituted a large number of offices in theCancellaria,Pope Sixtus V placed many of them in the class of "vacabili", i. e. venal offices (a practice also of secular courts, e. g. those ofFrance, even under the absolutist KingLouis XIV). The reclassification of many of the offices of theCancellaria asvacabili was motivated by the need of the pope for money. Thepope was often compelled to defend the Church by waging war, equipping martial expeditions, or at least financially assisting the princes who waged such wars at his exhortation, but the Papal treasury was often insufficient to defray even the expenses of thePapal States. Accordingly, the popes resorted to the expedient of selling several lucrative offices of theRoman Curia to the highest bidder;[4] however, these sales were not of the officesper se, but of the receipts of the offices, e. g., the taxes paid for the favours that were granted through the pertinent office.
Some of the offices thatPope Sixtus V classified asvacabili were of minor importance and therefore did not require special competence were sold with a grant of the right of succession to the heirs of the purchaser. Offices that entailed grave obligations and for which only pious and learned men were eligible were sold without this right and therefore reverted to theRoman Curia on the death of the purchaser. Analeatory contract, therefore, was formed, its uncertainties being the amount of the income of the office and the length of the life of the purchaser. The prices of the offices, especially of the more desirable ones, were considerable:Lorenzo Corsini, afterwardsPope Clement XII, bought the office of regent of theCancellaria for 30,000 Romanscudi, a large fortune at the time. The disadvantage of these uncertainties might not be confined to the purchaser because he was free to condition the purchased office on the life of another designated person, named the "intestatary". The purchaser was also permitted to substitute a different intestatary if this substitution was expressed 40 days before the death of the immediately preceding intestatary.[4]
Other offices thatPope Sixtus V classified asvacabili were of greater importance, including that of Regent and those of the 25 solicitors, 12 notaries, and auditors of the Causes of the Holy Palace.Pope Sixtus V assigned the liberal proceeds of these sales as part of the remuneration of the cardinal vice chancellor of theCancellaria (see below), but laterPope Innocent XI rescinded them and assigned the revenue to theApostolic Camera.Pope Alexander VIII restored the revenue to the vice chancellor, who at that time was his nephewPietro Ottoboni.
The authority of the vice chancellor increased when in 1690Pope Alexander VIII added to his office that of Compiler (Sommista) in perpetuity.
The government of EmperorNapoleon I of France redeemed many of thevacabili, which resulted in few remaining.Pope Pius VII, after his return toRome, reformed theCancellaria and decreased its offices.[4] But as he granted to thevacabili the privilege that, by a legal fiction, time of their tenures was regarded as not having transpired ("quod tempus et tempera non currant"), and many proprietors ofvacabili having had obtained grants ofsopravivevza, by which deceased intestataries were regarded to be alive, some offices remainedvacabili nominally, but not factually. Finally, in 1901Pope Leo XIII suppressed all thevacabili offices and ordered hispro-datary to redeem them, when necessary substituting the office of theApostolic Datary for their proprietors.[4]
TheApostolic constitutionSapienti Consilio ofPope Pius X of 29 June 1908 reduced theCancellaria Apostolica to a forwarding office (Ufficio di Spedizione) consisting only of the cardinal chancellor, regent, apostolic prothonotaries, a notary, a secretary and archivist, a protocolist, and fouramanuenses. The majority of the minor offices of theCancellaria were suppressed and its faculties were reduced only to the expedition ofPapal bulls for Consistorialbenefices, erection of newdioceses and chapters, and other more important ecclesiastical affairs that required various forms ofapostolic letters.[4] Thus Pius X restored the title of "Chancellor of Holy Roman Church" from the previous "Vice Chancellor" (see section below). The cardinalatial title of the chancellor remained theBasilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso, as it had been since 5 July 1532. However, the chancellor retained little of his former authority. He acted as notary of the cardinalatial consistories and directed the office of theCancellaria Apostolica.
Finally, themotu proprioQuo Aptius ofPope Paul VI of 27 February 1973 completely suppressed theCancellaria Apostolica.
Prior to theApostolic constitutionEtsi ad Singula ofPope Clement VII of 5 July 1532, the presiding cardinal of theCancellaria was titled "Vice Chancellor". Scholars writing of theCancellaria provided many ingenious reasons why that dignitary did not have the more obvious title of "Chancellor". The Italian jurist Giovanni Battista Cardinal De Luca regarded these explanations as senseless (simplicitates et fabulae) and proposed an explanation of his own, without insisting on its correctness: it was probable that the title of "Vice Chancellor" arose in the same way as the title of "Prodatary" ("Prodatarius"), the custom having been to title the principal of theDataria Apostolica the "Datary" ("Datarius") if he were not a cardinal, and the "Prodatary" ("Prodatarius") if he were. The rationale for the titular customs of the Dataria was that the office of Datary was not in essence cardinalatial but rather of minor dignity; wherefore it was improper to entitle a cardinal with "Datary". The same custom still obtains in the case of anapostolic nuncio who is elevated to thecardinalate: he retains his office for a time, but with the title of "ProNuncio". This theory of De Luca is not certain, but is at least probable.Etsi ad Singula prescribed that the principal of theCancellaria be titled "Chancellor", which was proper because the office had been occupied for centuries by cardinals. For the rest, the office in question was always regarded as one of the most dignified and important of theRoman Curia, as is evident from Moroni's account of the funeral of Cardinal Alexander Farnese,[4] Vice Chancellor andArchpriest of theBasilica di San Pietro in Vaticano.
The most splendid occupant of the office of Chancellor was the futurePope Leo X, who received as residence from his successorPope Clement VII thePalazzo Riario, long known as the "Cancellaria Apostolica", where he remained. His former residence was in thePalazzo Borgia, from which he moved to thePalazzo Sforza Cesarini, the latter palace being, on this account, long known as the "Cancellaria Vecchia". The removal of the residence and office of the Vice Chancellor to the majesticPalazzo Riario in theCampo di Fiori was due to the confiscation of the property of CardinalRaffaele Riario for his share, with CardinalsPetrucci, Sacchi,Soderini, and Castellesi, in a conspiracy against the life ofPope Leo X.[4]
Contiguous to theCancellariaqua edifice, in fact forming part of it, is theBasilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso. WhenPope Clement VII assigned this palace as the perpetual residence of the Vice Chancellor, he provided that the Vice Chancellor should always have the title of the Basilica; as the Chancellors were not always of the same order in theSacred College, being either cardinal-deacons, cardinal-priests, or cardinal-bishops, this basilica could not follow the rule of the othercardinalitialtitular churches that had the fixed grade of "titular" (a church over which a cardinal of the order of priests was placed) or "deaconry" (a church over which was placed a cardinal-deacon).[4] The Basilica, on the contrary, became a titular for a Chancellor of the order of priests and a deaconry for one of the order of deacons; when the Chancellor was a suburbicarian bishop, he retained the Basilicain commendam.
The office of regent, the next office in the order of precedence of theCancellaria Apostolica after that of the chancellor, was instituted in 1377, whenPope Gregory XI returned fromAvignon,France to his see. Cardinal Pierre de Monteruc, the chancellor at that time, refused to follow the pope fromAvignon toRome; as it was necessary that someone should direct the office of theCancellaria, the pope, leaving the title of vice chancellor to Montéruc, appointed the Archbishop of Bari,Bartholomew Prignani, as regent. At the death ofPope Gregory XI in 1378, Prignani was elected pope, and he appointed a successor to himself in the office of regent, which was thereafter maintained, even when the vice chancellor re-established his residence in Rome.[4]
There were four modes of issuingpapal bulls: by way of theRoman Curia (per viam Curiae), by way of theCancellaria (per Cancellarium), secretly (per viam secretam), and by way of theApostolic Camera (per viam Camerae); because while some bulls were taxed, others were not, and it was necessary to determine upon what bulls the proprietors of thevacabili offices (see above) had a right to receive taxes. Thus papal bulls concerning the government of the Roman Catholic Church, being exempt from all taxation, were said to be issued by way of theRoman Curia; those of which the expedition was by way of theCancellaria were the common bulls, which, after being reviewed by theabbreviators of the greater presidency, were signed by them and by the proprietors of thevacabili, the latter of whom received the established taxes; the bulls said to be issued secretly were those in favour of some privileged persons, e. g. thepalatine prelates, auditors of theSacra Rota, and relatives of cardinals, and were signed by the vice chancellor, also exempt from taxation; finally, the bulls of which the expedition was said to be by way of theApostolic Camera were those that concerned it. Because the style and the rules of theCancellaria could not be adapted to these bulls, they were issued by theSommista, whose officePope Alexander VI instituted and later united byPope Alexander VIII with that of the vice chancellor.[4]
AfterPope Leo XIII suppressed all thevacabili in 1901, the aforementioned modes of expedition ceased. A little later, theapostolic constitutionSapienti Consilio ofPope Pius X of 29 June 1908 provided that all bulls be issued through theCancellaria, by order of theCongregation of the Consistory for all matters of its competency and by order of the pope for all others, in keeping with the new organization of theCancellaria as merely an issuing office. "Sapienti Consilio" further provided that the ancient formulae of papal bulls be modified, and a commission of cardinals consisting of the chancellor, theapostolic datary, and the secretary of theCongregation of the Consistory was charged with the preparation of new ones.[4]
This commission having reformed the bulls for Consistorialbenefices, Pius X by amotu proprio of 8 December 1910 approved the new formulae and ordered them to be used exclusively after 1 January 1911. The College of the Abbreviators of the greater presidency having been suppressed and the abbreviators of the lesser presidency having become extinct in fact, the apostolic prothonotaries in actual office were appointed to sign the bulls.[4]
The mode of dating papal bulls was also changed. Formerly they were dated according to the year of theIncarnation, which year begins on 25 March, theSolemnity of the Annunciation, which liturgically celebrates theConception of Jesus. This mediaeval mode of dating remained peculiar to papal bulls, and over time caused much confusion. Pius X ordered that in the future these documents had to be dated according to the secular calendar year that begins on 1 January.[4]
The rules of theCancellaria were instituted in variousApostolic constitutions that the popes customarily promulgated at the beginning of their pontificates regarding judicial causes andbenefices. In many cases the pope merely confirmed the provisions of his predecessor, but in others added or suppressed provisions. The result was an ancient collection of rules in force, and this mode of governing theCancellaria continued even after Pope Pius X reformed theRoman Curia. These rules were usually divided into 3 classes: rules of direction or expedition that regarded the expedition of papal bulls; beneficial or reservatory rules that regarded benefices and reservations; and judicial rules that regarded specific prescriptions for judicial matters, especially appeals. The rules of theCancellaria had the force of law unless exception was made by aconcordat. In ancient times, these rules lost their force on the death of the pope, and revived only upon the express confirmation of his successor, butPope Urban VIII declared that without an express confirmation the rules of theCancellaria were restored to validity on the day after the election of the succeeding pope. The commission of cardinals responsible for the reformation of the formulae of papal bulls was responsible also for revising the rules of theCancellaria.[4]
Note: some chancellors before 1144 used the ancient title "Bibliothecarius" instead of "Cancellarius". This office should not be confused with that of theCardinalCamerlengo of Holy Roman Church, which is a cardinalatial office with competence regarding the vacancy of theApostolic See.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Ojetti, Benedetto (1912). "Roman Curia". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company.| International | |
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