CATTEDRATICO. — It is a tribute that all churches (including public oratories) and benefices subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop, as well as all confraternities, must pay annually to the bishop in recognition of their subjection (in signum subiectionis: CIC, can. 1504). It is also called *sinodatico* (this name is found in two texts of 1206 and 1218 in c. 20, X, III, 39, and c. 16, X, I, 31), because formerly it was usually paid on the occasion of the diocesan synod, which was to be held every year.
The amount of the tribute is not determined by the CIC, which refers to the long-standing custom (considered to be at least forty years old), or, if this is lacking, it provides that the measure be fixed in the provincial council or in the episcopal conference of the province, and approved by the Holy See (CIC, can. 1504 and 1507 § 1); the CIC merely states, in accordance with the purpose for which the *c.* was instituted, that it must be moderate. Some authors hold (with good historical and logical arguments, but in contrast with practice and with a part of the doctrine prior to the CIC) that the tribute should be established at an equal rate for all those subject to it, not proportionally to income.
Those obliged to pay the *c.* are all the entities mentioned above, including benefices united to another ecclesiastical entity, provided they are not exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop; and it would not be legitimate to exempt some or all of them, as this is contrary to can. 1504. Nor can prescription (can. 1509 n. 8), nor, it seems (as the Rota, the Sacred Congregation of the Council, and doctrine had already recognized for several centuries), desuetude, exempt from the obligation (although in fact there are places where the *c.* is not paid), which therefore can only be removed by a papal decree.
The *c.* must be paid only while the bishop is in office; during the vacancy of the episcopal see there is no such obligation (cf. Sacred Congregation of the Council, 20 Aug. 1917). But the obligation subsists, unless otherwise provided by the Holy See, not only in dioceses, but also in abbeys and prelatures *nullius* (cf. can. 215 § 2); it does not, however, seem to exist in apostolic vicariates and prefectures, despite the provision of can. 294 § 1.
It is to be classified among the taxes or generic tributes (v. TASSE ECCLESIASTICHE).
Current Italian legislation does not protect the Church’s right to the coercive collection of the *c.*; it does, however, recognize the existence of this tax, when it allows its deduction as a liability for determining the net income of benefices, for the purposes of granting the supplementary congrua allowance (cf. art. 21 n. 227 and art. 12 n. 228 of the Consolidated Text of 29 Jan. 1931).
The term *c.* is already found in the Latin epitome of Justinian’s Novels (115, § 431), to denote the tax that the bishop paid on the occasion of his consecration, once and for all, partly to the consecrating bishops, partly to the clergy and notaries who had taken part in the ceremony, in accordance with the custom reported in Nov. 123, cap. 3.
The origin of the present *c.* is commonly traced back to Spanish synodal customs or decrees of the 6th–7th centuries. The earliest known text seems to be can. 2 of the Second Council of Braga of 572 (c. I, C. X, q. 3), which supposes a maximum amount of two *solidi* (a limit that is then found almost constantly in legislation and doctrine: cf. can. 4 of the Seventh Council of Toledo of 646, in c. 8, C. X, q. 3). The tribute is then mentioned in various texts of particular councils (cf., among others, can. 2 of the Council of Ravenna of 998), and in many medieval ecclesiastical writers, as well as in a decretal of Alexander III of 1180 (c. 9, X, III, 39).
The first legislative text for the whole Church was very probably a decretal of Honorius III of 1218, which had the force of universal law at least from 1226 (later also reproduced in c. 16, X, I, 31), and which confirms the measure of two *solidi*.
The almost symbolic character of this tax must sometimes have been forgotten, if Benedict XIV could list among the purposes of the *c.* even that of contributing to the burdens weighing on the office of the bishop.
The *c.* also exists, under the name of *canonico*, in Eastern canon law, where, indeed, in some rites, it must also be paid to the patriarch.