APOSTOLIC DATARIA. - It is one of the offices of the Roman Curia. The name derives from datare (datum apud S. Petrum), since it was its special task to affix the date to pontifical documents.
The origin of this office is not well known, because precise historical information on the matter is lacking. It is certain, however, that at first it was part of the Apostolic Chancery, which for a long time was the only organ used by the Supreme Pontiff for the preparation and dispatch of the acts of the Holy See. Until the 13th century, among the employees of the Chancery there was one with the task of affixing the date to the various grants of favors and to the documents of the Holy Father: later (14th century) this office became more important and developed in such a way as to give rise to a special section, placed under a prelate with the task of receiving and examining petitions, submitting them for the pope's approval, and finally affixing to them the date of the day on which the favor was granted; later still, this section developed even further and acquired very great authority, so much so that by the 15th century it was already a dicastery in its own right, with a varied and manifold competence.
There is record of this office under the pontificate of Martin V (1417-31). Under Sixtus IV (1471-84) its competence, already well defined, related in a special way to the granting of certain favors and dispensations, and to the conferral of non-consistorial benefices reserved to the Holy See (v. BENEFICIO ECCLESIASTICO).
With Sixtus V (1585-90) the D. A. reached its greatest importance. On 5 April 1588, in fact, with the brief Decet Romanum Pontificem, he defined the competences of the D., which, from then on, for a century and a half, were the following:
1. conferral of vacant non-consistorial benefices reserved to the Holy See, and of those same benefices not yet vacant, with the right of expectancy.
2. Composition regarding ecclesiastical property usurped by the lay power, and reduction of the related burdens.
3. Granting of pensions and imposition of burdens upon benefices and ecclesiastical property; sanatio, commutation and reduction of burdens relating to pious institutes.
4. Dispensations of the external forum from matrimonial impediments and from irregularities, without prejudice to the attributions belonging to the Sacred Penitentiary for the poor.
5. Grants of spiritual favors and graces.
Since, both in the conferral of benefices and in the granting of favors, a tax was imposed, which varied according to the importance of the benefice or of the favor obtained, and according to the different economic means of the petitioner, the revenues of the D. were very substantial, and served, in the hands of the Supreme Pontiff, for various purposes of good and of charity. It was the D. that supplied the funds for the Vatican and Lateran Penitentiaries; that assisted many colleges and pious institutes; that gave contributions to the tribunals, to the Sacred Congregations, etc.; that provided the funds for the numerous annual alms for the poor; that saw to assisting ecclesiastics, parish priests, bishops in need and benefactors of the Church. Moreover, in times of public calamity, it was the D. that generously assisted the populations struck; and it was always the D. that provided the means for the ordinary needs of the Supreme Pontiff.
Benedict XIV, who gave new norms to the Sacred Congregations, with the constitution Gravissimum, dated 26 November 1745, reduced no little the attributions of this dicastery and fixed the limits of its competence with the Secretariat of Briefs. From then on there was assigned in a special way to the Secretariat of Briefs what related to the composition of ecclesiastical property not reserved to the Holy See, and of pious burdens; to the license to grant ecclesiastical property in emphyteusis ad tempus, provided that the annual canon did not exceed the sum of ten gold ducats; to the erection of monti, of colleges and provinces for religious, of archconfraternities, etc.; to the faculty of granting the portable altar, the dispensation from abstinence, the commutation of the recitation of the breviary into other prayers, of absolving in reserved cases, etc. Among the faculties that the two dicasteries had in common, mention should be made of the dispensation from irregularities ex delicto vel ex defectu corporis; the indult of being able to practice medicine and surgery; the confirmations of statutes, privileges, etc.; the granting of perpetual indulgences for confraternities; the license to pass to an order of stricter observance. For the rest, the constitution left the competence of the D. unchanged.
In 1872, with a rescript of 3 March, Pius IX granted to the D. the ability to interpret nomine ipsius Pontificis the rules that related to the conferral of benefices; and thereby its power was, in a certain way, enlarged.
But in the years 1878-93 Leo XIII, with three different acts, suppressed many benefices reserved to the Holy See, and established precise norms regarding the conferral of the remaining benefices. Consequently, the competence of the D. was greatly reduced, because the most important part of what until then had formed the object of its activity was lacking.
The same Supreme Pontiff, on 11 June 1901, ordered and divided the office into three different sections: one for the collation of benefices; another for matrimonial dispensations; and a third for the administrative part.
With the reform of Pius X (constitution Sapienti Consilio of 29 June 1908) there was taken away from the D. every faculty regarding dispensations from matrimonial impediments and from irregularities, and every grant of favors and graces. It did, however, have the task of sending bulls directly (in matters within its competence), whereas previously they were dispatched by the Apostolic Chancery.
The competence of this dicastery was thus defined in the important pontifical document: «It is the task of the D. to examine the suitability of those who aspire to non-consistorial benefices reserved to the Holy See; to draw up and dispatch the apostolic letters for the conferral of the same; to dispense, in conferring benefices, from the conditions required by law; to have care of the pensions and burdens that the Supreme Pontiff may have imposed in conferring benefices».
The CIC has confirmed these norms, repeating in can. 261 almost ad litteram the words of the Sapienti consilio.
At the head of the D. is a cardinal, who is called precisely the cardinal datary. It is doubtful whether this office arose with the rise of the D., or whether it pre-existed it. It seems established that at first the datary was an official of the Apostolic Chancery, with the task of affixing the date on pontifical documents; then it was the official placed at the head of a special section of the Chancery; and finally this name was given to the prelate, head of the D., independent of the Chancery, and with its own well-determined sphere of activity.
The name of datary is due to the distinction, introduced from the times of the Western Schism, between the signature (signatura) of apostolic letters and the affixing of the date, entrusted to a determined person.
In ancient times, for the most part, this office was prelatial, entrusted to one of the auditors of the Rota. If it happened that a cardinal was appointed at the head of the D., or the datary was elevated to the cardinalitial dignity, then he took the name of pro-datary. From the times of Innocent X, at the head of the D. there is constantly a cardinal almost provisionaliter seu iure eiusdem commendationis. At present, after the reform carried out by Pius X, and according to the CIC (can. 261), the datary is always a cardinal.
The major officials, who were directly dependent on the datary and pro-datary, were in former times: the sub-datary, who acted as a substitute, with the faculty of substituting for the datary even at pontifical audiences; a prefect per obitum, for benefices vacant as a result of the natural or civil death of the beneficiary; and a prefect per concessum, for graces and favors. There were then various other minor officials, some of whom had the task of examining petitions for matrimonial dispensations; others again of writing the bulls, of safeguarding the money, etc.
The datary, the sub-datary and the prelate per obitum constituted the congress, which assembled every morning. In it all business in progress was examined, and the datary, having obtained the consultative vote of the other two, issued the decree. If the question presented a certain difficulty, it was sent pro-voto either to the Congregation of the Council, or of Bishops and Regulars, or of Rites, and sometimes even to the Sacred Rota. In the most important questions the opinion was also sought of certain prelates, who together with the sub-datary and the prefect per obitum had the consultative vote.
It was the practice of the Datary that the conferral of a benefice could be contested. If a claimant wished to halt the course of a grace already granted, he appeared at the Datary and, with the permission of the sub-datary and of the per obitum, placed the nihil transeat on the petition of the first petitioner. The latter, seeing the dispatch of the grace held back, cited the other party before the datary, so that the nihil transeat might be removed. The datary, having heard in adversarial proceedings the procurators of the two contenders, gave his definitive decision. From the decrees of the datary no appeal or recourse to another tribunal or Congregation was admitted.
As regards the jurisdiction of the datary, although it was an axiom that "Papa, non datarius concedit gratias", it is certain that he had a determinate power both to grant those graces that were customarily granted to all, and to settle contentious causes belonging to his dicastery. Moreover it was the datary who, by the constitution of Urban VIII, In supremo, attested and drew up in suitable form the graces granted by the Pope, and could exert influence either to annul the concession of graces or to attach clauses to them.
Under Leo XIII the Datary received a new organization, whereby among the officials the prefects per obitum and per concessum no longer appear, but instead, immediately after the sub-datary, we see the prefect of the section of benefice collations, the prefect of matrimonial dispensations and the administrator, besides other minor officials.
The present organic constitution of the Apostolic Datary comprises, besides the cardinal datary, whom the regent follows, various study assistants and minor employees; furthermore some theologian consultors for the revision of competitions.
Pius X, among other innovations, established that, if the cardinal datary were impeded, the bulls should be signed by the cardinal Secretary of State; he further willed that the cardinal datary, or others on his behalf, should check the conditions of the deposits, at least once every three months.
The cardinal datary, as such, is the first of the palatine cardinals.
During the time when the Apostolic See is vacant, the powers of the cardinal datary and of the Datary cease entirely.
Bibliography10 works
Sebastiano Fraghi