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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:curia romana:204ccdc6b959",
    "title": "CURIA ROMANA",
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    "verified_text": "curia romana, the name given to the whole body of administrative and judicial institutions, by means of which the pope carries on the general government of the church; the name is also applied by an extension of meaning to the persons who form part of it, and sometimes to the holy see itself. rome is almost the only place where the word _curia_ has preserved its ancient form; elsewhere it has been almost always replaced by the word court (_cour_, _corte_), which is etymologically the same. even at rome, however, the expression \"papal court\" (_corte romana_) has acquired by usage a sense different from that of the word _curia_; as in the case of royal courts it denotes the whole body of dignitaries and officials who surround and attend on the pope; the pope, however, has two establishments: the civil establishment, in which he is surrounded by what is termed his \"family\" (_familia_); and the religious establishment, the members of which form his \"chapel\" (_capella_). the word curia is more particularly reserved to the tribunals and departments which actually deal with the general business of the church. general remarks. i. in order to understand the organization of the various constituent parts of the roman curia, we must remember that the modern principle of the separation of powers is unknown to the church; the functions of each department are limited solely by the extent of the powers delegated to it and the nature of the business entrusted to it; but each of them may have a share at the same time in the legislative, judicial and administrative power. similarly, the necessity for referring matters to the pope in person, for his approval or ratification of the decisions arrived at, varies greatly according to the department and the nature of the business. but on the whole, all sections of the curia hold their powers direct from the pope, and exercise them in his name. each of them, then, has supreme authority within its own sphere, while the official responsibility belongs to the pope, just as in all governments it is the government that is responsible for the acts of its departments. of these official acts, however, it is possible to distinguish two categories: those emanating directly from the heads of departments are generally called acts of the holy see (and in this sense the holy see is equivalent to the curia); those which emanate direct from the pope are called pontifical acts. the latter are actually the apostolic letters, i.e. those documents in which the pope speaks in his own name (bulls, briefs, encyclicals, &c.) even when he does not sign them, as we shall see. the apostolic letters alone may be _ex cathedra_ documents, and may have the privilege of infallibility, if the matter admit of it. there are also certain differences between the two sorts of documents with regard to their penal consequences. but in all cases the disciplinary authority is evidently the same; we need only note that acts concerning individuals do not claim the force of general law; the legal decisions serve at most to settle matters of jurisprudence, like the judgments of all sovereign courts. division. the constituent parts of the roman curia fall essentially into two classes: (1) the tribunals and offices, which for centuries served for the transaction of business and which continue their activity; (2) the permanent commissions of cardinals, known by the name of the roman congregations. these, though more recent, have taken precedence of the former, the work of which they have, moreover, greatly relieved; they are indeed composed of the highest dignitaries of the church, the cardinals (q.v.), and are, as it were, subdivisions of the consistory (q.v.), a council in which the whole of the sacred college takes part. roman congregations. ii. _the roman congregations._--the constitution of all of these is the same; a council varying in numbers, the members of which are cardinals, who alone take part in the deliberations. one of the cardinals acts as president, or prefect, as he is called; the congregation is assisted by a secretary and a certain number of inferior officials, for secretarial and office work. they have also consultors, whose duty it is to study the subjects for consideration. their deliberations are secret and are based on prepared documents bearing on the case, written, or more often printed, which are distributed to all the cardinals about ten days in advance. the deliberations follow a simplified procedure, which is founded more on equity than on the more strictly legal forms, and decisions are given in the shortest possible form, in answer to carefully formulated questions or _dubia_. the cardinal prefect, aided by the secretariate, deals with the ordinary business, only important matters being submitted for the consideration of the general meeting. to have the force of law the acts of the congregations must be signed by the cardinal prefect and secretary, and sealed with his seal. practically the only exception is in the cases of the holy office, and of the consistorial congregation of which the pope himself is prefect; the acts of the first are signed by the \"notary,\" and the acts of the second by the assessor. we may pass over those temporary congregations of cardinals known also as \"special,\" the authority and existence of which extend only to the consideration of one particular question; and also those which had as their object various aspects of the temporal administration of the papal states, which have ceased to exist since 1870. we deal here only with the permanent ecclesiastical congregations, the real machinery of the papal administration. some of them go quite far back into the 16th century; but it was sixtus v. who was their great organizer; by his bull _immensa_ of the 22nd of january 1587, he apportioned all the business of the church (including that of the papal states) among fifteen congregations of cardinals, some of which were already in existence, but most of which were established by him; and these commissions, or those of them at least which are concerned with spiritual matters, are still working. a few others have been added by his successors. pius x., by the constitution _sapienti consilio_ of the 29th of june 1908, proceeded to a general reorganization of the roman curia: congregations, tribunals and offices. in this constitution he declared that the competency of these various organs was not always clear, and that their functions were badly arranged; that certain of them had only a small amount of business to deal with, while others were overworked; that strictly judicial affairs, with which the congregations had not to deal originally, had developed to an excessive extent, while the tribunals, the rota and the signatura, had nothing to do. he consequently withdrew all judicial affairs from the congregations, and handed them over to the two tribunals, now revived, of the rota and the papal signatura; all affairs concerning the discipline of the sacraments were entrusted to a new congregation of that name; the competency of the remaining congregations was modified, according to the nature of the affairs with which they deal, and certain of them were amalgamated with others; general rules were laid down for the expedition of business and regarding _personnel_; in short, the work of sixtus v. was repeated and adapted to later conditions. we will now give the nomenclature of the roman congregations, as they were until 1908, and mentioning the modifications made by pius x. the holy office. (1) the holy inquisition, roman and universal, or holy office (_sacra congregatio romanae et universalis inquisitionis seu sancti officii_), the first of the congregations, hence called the supreme. it is composed of twelve cardinals, assisted by a certain number of officials: the assessor, who practically fulfils the functions of the secretary, the commissary general, some consultors and the qualificators, whose duty it is to determine the degree of theological condemnation deserved by erroneous doctrinal propositions (_haeretica_, _erronea_, _temeraria_, &c.). the presidency is reserved to the pope, and the cardinal of longest standing takes the title of secretary. this congregation, established in 1542 by paul iii., constitutes the tribunal of the inquisition (q.v.), of which the origins are much older, since it was instituted in the 13th century against the albigenses. it deals with all questions of doctrine and with the repression of heresy, together with those crimes which are more or less of the character of heresy. its procedure is subject to the strictest secrecy. pius x. attached to it all matters concerning indulgences; on the other hand, he transferred to the congregation of the council matters concerning the precepts of the church such as fasting, abstinence and festivals. the choosing of bishops, which had in recent times been entrusted to the holy office, was given to the consistorial congregation, and dispensations from religious vows to the congregation of the religious orders. the holy office continues, however, to deal with mixed marriages and marriages with infidels. consistorial. (2) the consistorial congregation (_sacra congregatio consistorialis_), established by sixtus v., has as its object the preparation of business to be dealt with and decided in secret consistory (q.v.); notably promotions to cathedral churches and consistorial benefices, the erection of dioceses, &c. to this congregation is also subject the administration of the common property of the college of cardinals. pius x. restored this congregation to a position of great importance; in the first place he gave it the effective control of all matters concerning the erection of dioceses and chapters and the appointment of bishops, except in the case of countries subject to the propaganda, and save that for countries outside italy it has to act upon information furnished by the papal secretary of state. he further entrusted to this congregation everything relating to the supervision of bishops and of the condition of the dioceses, and business connected with the seminaries. it has also the duty of deciding disputes as to the competency of the other congregations. the pope continues to be its prefect, and the cardinal secretary of the holy office and the secretary of state are _ex officio_ members of it; the cardinal who occupies the highest rank in it, with the title of secretary, is chosen by the pope; he is assisted by a prelate with the title of assessor, who is _ex officio_ secretary of the sacred college. the assessor of the holy office and the secretary for extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs are _ex officio_ consultors. (3) the pontifical commission for the reunion of the dissident churches, established by leo xiii. in 1895 after his constitution _orientalium_. the pope reserved the presidency for himself; its activity is merely nominal. it was attached by pius x. to the congregation of the propaganda. the visitation. (4) the congregation of the apostolic visitation (_sacra congregatio visitationis apostolicae_). the visitation is the personal inspection of institutions, churches, religious establishments and their _personnel_, to correct abuses and enforce the observation of rules. through this congregation the pope, as bishop of rome, made the inspection of his diocese; it is for this reason that he was president of this commission, the most important member of which was the cardinal vicar. he takes the place of the pope in the administration of the diocese of rome; he has his own offices and diocesan assistants as in other bishoprics. the congregation of the visitation was suppressed by pius x. as a separate congregation, and was reduced to a mere commission which is attached, as before, to the vicariate. (5) the congregation on the discipline of the sacraments (_sacra congregatio de disciplina sacramentorum_), established by pius x., thus comes to occupy the third rank. with the reservation of those questions, especially of a dogmatic character, which belong to the holy office, and of purely ritual questions, which come under the congregation of rites, this congregation brings under one authority all disciplinary questions concerning the sacraments, which were formerly distributed among several congregations and offices. it deals with dispensations for marriages, ordinations, &c., concessions with regard to the mass, the communion, &c. bishops and regulars. (6) the congregation of the bishops and regulars, of which the full official title was, congregation for the affairs and consultations of the bishops and regulars (_sacra congregatio super negotiis episcoporum et regularium_; now _sacra congregatio negotiis religiosorum sodalium praeposita_). it is the result of the fusion of two previous commissions; that for the affairs of bishops, established by gregory",
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