Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/180

 ROMAN

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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the lat- ter's emoluments; but this too liberal prescription in fa- vour of the cardinal who presided over the Chancery was revoked by Inno- cent XI, who as- signed the revenue in question to the Apostolic Camera.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)rtliono- 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)IanatinH 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