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 synodaticum (this name is found in two texts of 1506 and 1218 in c. 20, X, III, 39, and c. 16, X, I, 31), because in ancient times it used to be paid on the occasion of the diocesan synod which was supposed to be convened every year.
The amount of the tribute is not determined by the CIC, which refers to long-standing pre-existing custom (held to be at least forty years), or, if this is lacking, establishes that the measure be fixed in the provincial council or in the bishops' conference of the province, and approved by the Holy See (CIC, cann. 1504 and 1507 § 1); the CIC limits itself only to saying, in conformity, moreover, 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 in equal measure for all those who are subject to it, not in proportion to income.
Obliged to pay the c. are all the entities indicated 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, since this is contrary to can. 1504. Neither extinctive prescription (can. 1509 n. 8) nor, it seems (as the Rota, the S. Congr. of the Council and doctrine had already recognized for several centuries), desuetude can exempt from the obligation (although in fact there are places where it is not customary to pay the c.), which therefore can be removed only by pontifical provision.
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. S. Congr. of the Council, 20 Aug. 1917). But the obligation exists, 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 seem, however, to exist in apostolic vicariates and prefectures, notwithstanding the provision of can. 294 § 1.
It is to be classified among generic taxes or tributes (v. TASSE ECCLESIASTICHE).
The Italian legislation in force does not protect the Church's right to compulsory collection of the c.; it does, however, recognize the existence of such a 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 T. U. 29 Jan. 1931).
The term c. is already found in the Latin epitome of Justinian's Novels (115, § 431), to indicate the tax that the bishop on the occasion of his consecration paid once and for all, partly to the consecrating bishops, partly to the clergy and notaries who had taken part in the ceremony, in conformity 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 oldest known text seems to be can. 2 of the Second Council of Braga of 572 (c. 1, 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 reproduced also in c. 16, X, I, 31), and which confirms the measure of two solidi.
The almost symbolic character of this tax must have been sometimes forgotten, if Benedict XIV could number among the purposes of the c. also 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 be paid also to the patriarch.