ROMAN
150
ROMAN
The Papal Cancelleria, Rome
Formerly the Palazzo Riario
Pius VII, after
designated. The purchaser Wiis also allowed to
change the life hazard from one person to another,
providing this were done forty days before the death
of the hist i)receding intestatary.
The othcesof tlie Chancery- which were transformed into vaMhili by Sixtus V were those of the regent, of the twenty-five sohcitors, of the twelve notaries, auditors of the'causes of the Holy Palace, and others. Sixtus V assigned the pro- ceeds of these sales to the vice-chan- cellor (see below) as part of the lat- ter's emoluments; but this too liberal prescription in fa- vour of the cardinal who presided over the Chancery was revoked by Inno- cent XI, who as- signed the revenue in question to the Apostolic Camera. Alexander VIII re- stored these rev- enues to the vice- chancellor, who, at that time, was the pope's nephew, Pietro Ottoboni. Under Napoleon I the Government re- deemed many of the vacabili, and but few remained. his return to Rome, undertook a reform of the Chan- cery, and wisely reduced the number of the offices. But, as he himself granted to the vacabili the priv- ilege that, by a legal fiction, time should be regarded as not having traas[)ired (quod tempus et tempera non currant), and many proprietors of vaca- bili having obtained grants of what was called sopravvivenza by which deceased intestataries were considered to be living, it came to pass that certain of- fices remained vaca- bili in name, but not in fact. Fi- nally, Leo XIII (1901) suppressed all the vaaibili of- fices, ordering hia pro-datary to re- deem them, when necfsisary, the da- tary's office being Bubstituted for the proprietors.
Since the Consti- tution of Pius X, the
Chancery has been reducod to a forsvarfling <)lii(;c {Uffici/j di Spedizione) with a small personnel; there are, bf^idf* the cardinal who presidfs over the Chan- cery, the regent, with the college of A post olir j)r()tliono- tanes, a notary, secretary and archivist, m j>n)tof()]iHt, and four amanuensfw. The presiding canlinal, j)rior to the recent O^jnstitution, was e.iiled viee-elianeellor. The authors who wrote on the Chancery gave many ingpniouH reawms why that dignitary Khonid not have received thr- more obvious title of chancellor. Car- dinal De Luca regarded thr-.se exi)Ianati()nH as sc-nse-
tion of his own, without, however, insisting on its
correctness. According to him, it was probable that the
title of vice-chancellor arose in the same way as the
title of pro-datary, the custom having been to call the
head of the datary office {dalaria) the datary (dalario),
if he were not a cardinal, and the pro-datary {pro
datario), if he were a cardinal. The reason for this
must be souglit in the fact that the office of datary was
really not, that" of a
cardinal, but rather
of minor dignity;
wheiefore it did not
seem well to give
the title of datary
to a cardinal. The
same custom still
obtains in the case
of a nuncio who is
elevated to the car-
dinalate: he retains
liis position for a
time, but with the
title of pro-nuncio.
Ihis theory of De
I.uca's, if not alto-
fi(>ther certain, is at
least probable. The
n e w Constitution,
liowcvcr, establishes
that the head of the
Chancery shall
hereafter be called
chancellor, a very
reasonable pro-
vision, seeing that this office has been filled for cen-
turies by cardinals. For the rest, the office in question
was always regarded as one of the most honourable
and most important of the Curia, as may be seen from
Moroni's account of the funeral of Cardinal Alexander
Farnese, vice-chancellor, and arch-priest of the Vati-
can Basifica. The
authority of the
vice-chancellor was
increased when, un-
der Alexander VIII
in 1(390, there was
added to his office,
in perpetuity, that
of compiler {som-
mista).
At present the chancellor retains little of his former influence and attri- butes. He acts as notary in the con- sistories and directs the office of the c h a n c e r y . The greatest splendour of the chancellor was under Leo X, from whese successor, Clement VII, this f 1 1 ctionary re- as residence the Palazzo Riario, long known the Cancelleria Apostolica, where he resides at the present day. His former residence was in the Palazzo Borgia, from which he moved to the Palazzo Sforza Cesarini, the latter palace being, on this account, known for a long time as the Cancelleria Vecchia. The removal of the vice- chancellor's residence and office to the majestic Palazzo Riario, in the Campo di Fiori, was due to the confiscation of the property of Cartlinal RafTaele Riario for his share, with Cardinals Petniccd,
less («m/>^icito(e«c</a6eite), and proposed an explanar Sacchi, Soderini, and Castellesi, in a conspiracy
