APOSTOLIC CAMERA. - By the word C. A., which with the beginning of the 11th century prevailed over the other similar terms fiscus, palatium, arca, saccus, it was intended to indicate the administrative body of the Roman Church.
The revenues and possessions of the Church were anciently entrusted to the college of deacons, who in this task were assisted by the colleges of the notarii and the defensores; but the organization changed gradually with the progress of the age and in a particular way when the whole Curia took on a new appearance, as a consequence of the struggle over investitures and of the new tasks that it was assuming. When in 1073 Gregory VII was elected pope, who had been archdeacon, the office of the archdeaconate ceased without leaving a trace, and there appeared instead that of the camerarius, manager of the C. A., which acquired primary importance in the Curia. Cardinal Cencio de' Savelli, called precisely camerarius, who was later Pope Honorius III, felt the need to compile in 1192 the Liber censuum, a kind of ledger in which are listed, province by province, the contributions that ecclesiastical institutions, countries and persons were bound to pay to the C. A. To this list he also added a collection of illustrative documents (ed. P. Fabre and L. Duchesne, Le liber censuum de l'Eglise Romaine, 2 vols., Paris 1910, with rich notes) which was later enlarged. At this moment the C. A. was a financial and administrative organism, which had the care of all affairs, rights and material interests and the government of the temporalities of the Roman Church. When later, during the 13th century, the cardinals constituted as a college had their own nucleus of goods and revenues, they also had their own C. A., distinct from the C. A., headed by their own camerarius whom the pope chose from among them. The Camerarius domini papae was the pope's particular counsellor in administrative affairs and was also the custodian of the money, of precious objects, of provisions and of whatever arrived in the storehouses of the Curia; he checked the income and the outgoings and kept a regular record of them. Under the C. A. fell all the lower personnel assigned to the Curia: bakers, cellarmen, farriers, porters, armed men, guards and also the condottieri with their militias. Under it likewise fell the collectors whom the camerlengo (as the camerarius was called in common usage) appointed in the individual countries for the collection of the tributes owed to the Holy See. The entire management of the papal mint also depended on the C. A. When the camerlengo was absent on some mission, the pope deputed a lieutenant or a vice-camerlengo to take his place.
The camerlengo, who at first was a high prelate invested for the most part with episcopal dignity, was as a rule named cardinal, and with this promotion he did not cease from the office; indeed, in the second half of the 15th century it was conferred only on a cardinal. Such a fact, however, had as a consequence the widening of the attributions and responsibilities of the subordinate officials.
Gregory X, well understanding that for the administration of the temporalities of the Church to be good it must not suffer interruptions or periods of uncertainty, had established, at the Council of Lyons of 7 July 1272 (Ubi periculum), that the camerlengo should continue even during a vacant see to have custody of the C. A. This provision was followed by that of Clement V (Clementine, ch. 2: Ne Romani), according to which the office of camerlengo was not to cease with the death of the pontiff. Pius IV (const. 4 In eligendi) established that the cardinal camerlengo together with the three cardinal heads of order should provide for the government of the conclave and see to its closing.
The camerarius availed himself in the dispatch of his manifold activities of the work of certain clerics, later called clerics of the C. A. Their number, at first not well determined, was fixed at seven by Eugene IV (const. Inter cetera gravia). Innocent VIII (const. Cum sicut accepimus) and Alexander VI (const. Etsi ex pastoralis) granted them the faculty of judging, even summarily, causes concerning the exaction of things and goods belonging to the C. A., and entrusted to them the government of many cities subject to the temporal dominion of the Holy See and the faculty of inspecting every year all the lands of the Pontifical State. The last pontifical document concerning the clerics of the C. A. is the const. Ad incrementum decoris of Pius XI, dated 15 Aug. 1931, in which are fixed: their appointment and taking of possession, their functions and their privileges.
The office of vice-camerlengo, having become permanent, came to enjoy all the attributions, jurisdictions and honours proper to the camerlengo, and to it was assigned, though at first not permanently, the government of Rome; indeed, after Sixtus V, the vice-camerlengo was the ordinary governor of Rome.
Besides a judicial competence in civil matters, the vice-camerlengo, as governor of Rome, had a very extensive one in criminal matters, to which moreover various pontifical norms referred (const. Etsi pro cunctarum of Leo X, const. Universi agri of Paul V), it comprising also preventive functions of police and surveillance to maintain public quiet and prevent crimes: functions which he discharged with a corps of birri, commanded by a bargello. The vice-camerlengo was assisted in the exercise of the said jurisdictions by a civil lieutenant, two criminal lieutenants and various other officials. Even while exercising all these jurisdictions and functions, the vice-camerlengo always took part in the usual activity of the C. A.
The camerlengo, who at first entrusted the office of treasurer to a cleric of the C. A., later made such a designation permanent, and thus there came to be created the office of treasurer general, whose power was ever more extended by the pontiffs, since there was needed for the administration of the goods of the Holy See and for the surveillance of the sub-collectorships, scattered throughout the Catholic world, an authority that should control the introitus and exitus of the moneys, that is the state of the cash, keeping itself in direct contact with the mercatores romanam Curiam sequentes, that is with the bankers who were the depositaries and the exchangers of the coinage. The treasurer general thus had to render account every six months to the C. A. of all the money received and spent, and in his turn could summon before himself all the collectors, sub-collectors and officials, so that they should render account of their acts.
Fundamental for the competences of the treasurer general of the C. A. is the constitution of Sixtus V In conferendis praecipuis of 23 Jan. 1590. According to that constitution he could compose and settle questions concerning spoils, fruits, revenues, proceeds, goods and rights belonging to the C. A.; absolve, upon payment, even from censures or from penalties, those who had incurred them for not having paid them, etc. For a certain time, moreover, the treasurer general, under the pontificate of Benedict XIV, combined in himself the offices of superintendent of the pontifical customs, of castellan of the fortress of Castel S. Angelo and of commissary general of the sea.
Since fiscal operations often gave rise to litigation, on account, for example, of disputes between taxpayers and collectors, malversations of collectors, refusal of payments, extortions of officials, protests, etc., within the C. A. itself a tribunal was constituted, which judged such questions with summary procedure. It was presided over by a magistrate who was called the auditor general of the C. A., and was assisted by a vice-auditor and judged in first instance both in civil and in criminal matters; appeals went to the camerlengo.
The auditor general of the causes of the reverend C. A., already under Innocent VIII (const. Apprime ad devotionis), judged cases and could punish with ecclesiastical penalties those who did not obey apostolic mandates (the personal trial against Luther was prepared before this tribunal), or did not pay their debts (const. Ad eximiae devotionis of Pius IV). This office was suppressed in 1558 and its functions and competences entrusted to the regent of the reverend C. A.; in 1561 Pius IV, with the const. Ad eximiae devotionis, re-established it, abolishing the ephemeral one of the regent.
Other cameral offices were: the advocate of the poor (one of the consistorial advocates), who was the gratuitous defender of the indigent and had, by taking part in the visitation of the prisons, the duty of watching over ensuring that prisoners were not burdened by judges, executors and prison guards; the commissary general of the C. A., deputed to intervene in the handling of affairs and to oversee cameral interests; the procurator of the fisc, who had to introduce cases concerning the advantage of the fisc and functioned as public prosecutor in criminal cases.
It is easy to understand how the C. A., in order to draw up its public acts, had among its members certain notaries who were also the secretaries and chancellors of the C. A. itself.
When the C. A., on the eve and on the morning of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, assembled in the Chamber of Tributes to receive the tributes of the vassal states, the procurator of the fisc had the right to protest against those who did not pay and, before the pope, read an oration of protest.
Also in the judicial field the attributions of the C. A. grew to the point of forming, with the assembly of all its members, a tribunal that was called precisely the Tribunal of the full C. A. or simply the Tribunal of the C. A. Its competence extended to cases directly or indirectly concerning the pontifical fisc or having as their object the collections, the gabelles, relative to the Chapters of the farms or pertaining to fiscal affairs or to the devolution and caducity of ecclesiastical fiefs. It then judged on appeal the sentences and decrees of the governor of Rome, of the C. A., of the treasurer general and of the clerics of the C. A. presidents (so called because among other things the presidencies and prefectures of the annona, of the grascia, of the roads, of the banks, of the archives, of the prisons, of the mint and the seal, of gold and silver, of the customs, and the commissariats of arms and of the sea were also entrusted to them). It finally judged in third instance cases having as their object "coercive removals, building and servitudes." As can be seen, the jurisdictional character of this tribunal was purely temporal and lay.
Under Pius IX the C. A. underwent profound modifications. With the motu proprio of 12 June 1847 he constituted the Council of Ministers, calling to be part of it the cardinal camerlengo, as Minister of commerce, of fine arts, of industry and of agriculture.
With the end of the temporal dominion of the popes, on the other hand, any activity of the C. A. in full session ceased.
At present the reverend C. A. consists of the cardinal camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, the vice-camerlengo, the treasurer general, the auditor general, a college of eight prelate clerics, and two notaries of the C. A. Its functions are fixed in can. 262 of the CIC, which refers to the const. Vacante Sede Apostolica of Pius X, of 25 Dec. 1904, now replaced by the const. Vacantis Apostolicae of Pius XII (8 Dec. 1945). According to this constitution the cardinal camerlengo, during the vacancy of the Apostolic See, has the care and administration of the goods and temporal rights of the Holy See, with the help of the cardinal heads of order. Having therefore learned from the master of the C. A. the news of the pope's death, he must go to the Vatican palace to take possession of it, exercise governance of it, just as he takes possession and exercises governance of the Lateran palace and of the palace of Castel Gandolfo, and affix the seals to the private rooms of the deceased pontiff, providing, with the advice of the cardinal heads of order if nothing has been established by the deceased pontiff, for the suitable preservation of the corpse. At the beginning of the conclave the camerlengo must ensure that all the conclavists take the due oath de secreto servando and that none of them communicates with the outside, thus providing that the enclosure of the conclave is not violated. The competence of the clerics of the C. A., during the conclave, concerns the custody of the various parts of the Vatican palace, of the Piombo of the Chancery, of the Secretariat of Briefs and of the Dataria.
Bibliography3 works
Guglielmo Felici