CONSERVATORE, JUDGE. - Name given to a particular category of delegated judges, which the supreme pontiff was accustomed to grant to moral persons and pious institutions (particularly to religious orders, universities of studies, colleges of doctors, chapters, hospitals, associations of the poor), with the task of defending them from "injuries and manifest violence," that is, when, because of the notoriety of the unjust act, the ordinary judicial inquiry was not required. By this the entity was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the ordinary judge.
This institution was widely used by the regulars for the protection of their privileges and exemptions, and in their favor it was subsequently expanded with further papal indults (c. secundum privilegium) in derogation of the grant as it stood under common law (c. secundum iura).
The g. c. certainly existed before the 13th century. They were granted by means of litterae conservatoriae, which generally determined their duration in office and indicated their attributions. The popes Innocent IV (c. 1, I, 14 in VI) and Boniface VIII (c. 15, I, 14 in VI) were the first to regulate their competence and functions.
From the 14th century onward every religious order had its own c., and the privilege of appointing them, granted by Sixtus IV to certain mendicant orders, later became universal by communication. Various norms, mostly restrictive, were then issued by Leo X at the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17), by the Council of Trent (sess. VII, c. 14 de ref.; sess. XIV, c. 5 de ref.), by Clement VIII (const. Sanctissimus, 19 March 1592), Gregory XV (const. Sanctissimus, 20 Sept. 1621) and, lastly, by Clement XIII (const. Cum Omnium, 23 Apr. 1762). Subsequently, even among the religious orders, the practice prevailed of seeking the protection of their rights by direct recourse to the Holy See. At present the institution may be said to be abrogated through desuetude.
The competence of the c. was restricted to judging only de manifestis et notoriis, thus excluding doubtful and contestable cases in which the ordinary judicial inquiry was necessary (c. 1, I, 14, in VI). They could not act criminaliter, although they had the faculty of availing themselves, if necessary, of censures.
Bibliography5 works
Zaccaria da San Mauro