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.
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. Division. 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.
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 Roman Congregations. 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.
(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, The Holy Office. 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.
(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 Consistorial. 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.
(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 The Visitation. 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,
