APOSTOLIC DATARIA. — One of the offices of the Roman Curia. The name derives from *dare* (“datum apud S. Petrum”), since its special function was to affix the date to papal documents.
The origin of this office is not well known, because precise historical information on the subject is lacking. It is certain, however, that at first it formed part of the Apostolic Chancery, which for a long time was the only organ through which the Supreme Pontiff prepared and dispatched the acts of the Holy See. Up to the 13th century, among the employees of the Chancery there was one charged with affixing the date to various grants of favours and to the documents of the Holy Father; subsequently (14th century) this office became more important and developed into a special section, headed by a prelate charged with receiving and examining petitions, submitting them for papal approval, and finally affixing the date on which the favour was granted. Later, this section developed further and acquired very great authority, so that by the 15th century it was already a dicastery in its own right, with varied competence and multiple functions.
Information about this office is found during the pontificate of Martin V (1417–31). Under Sixtus IV (1471–84) its competence, already well defined, referred in particular to the granting of certain favours and dispensations, and to the conferment of non-consistorial benefices reserved to the Holy See (v. BENEFICIO ECCLESIASTICO).
Under Sixtus V (1585–90) the Apostolic Dataria reached its greatest importance. On 5 April 1588, indeed, with the brief *Decet Romanum Pontificem*, he defined the competences of the Dataria, which from then on, for a century and a half, were as follows:
1. Conferment of vacant non-consistorial benefices reserved to the Holy See, and of the same benefices not yet vacant, with the right of expectancy.
2. Composition regarding ecclesiastical goods usurped by the lay power, and reduction of the burdens attached to them.
3. Granting of pensions and imposition of burdens upon ecclesiastical benefices and goods; sanation, commutation, and reduction of burdens relating to pious institutions.
4. Dispensations in the external forum from matrimonial impediments and from irregularities, without prejudice to the competences of the Apostolic Penitentiary in the case of the poor.
5. Granting of favours and spiritual graces.
Since, both in the conferment of benefices and in the granting of graces, a tax was imposed, varying according to the importance of the benefice or favour obtained and according to the different economic means of the petitioner, the revenues of the Dataria were very substantial, and served, in the hands of the Supreme Pontiff, for various purposes of good and charity. It was the Dataria that supplied funds for the Vatican and Lateran Penitentiaries; that aided many colleges and pious institutions; that contributed to tribunals, to the Sacred Congregations, etc.; that provided the funds for the numerous annual alms for the poor; that saw to the assistance of ecclesiastics, parish priests, and bishops in need and deserving of the Church. Moreover, in times of public calamities, it was the Dataria that generously aided the stricken populations; and it was always the Dataria that supplied 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, considerably reduced the competences of this dicastery and fixed its limits of jurisdiction with the Secretariat of Briefs. From then on, what referred to the composition of ecclesiastical goods not reserved to the Holy See and of pious burdens; to the licence to grant ecclesiastical goods in emphyteusis *ad tempus*, provided that the annual canon did not exceed the sum of ten gold ducats; to the erection of montes, colleges and provinces for religious, of archconfraternities, etc.; to the faculty of granting portable altars, dispensation from abstinence, commutation of the recitation of the breviary for other prayers, absolution in reserved cases, etc., was assigned in a special way to the Secretariat of Briefs. Among the faculties shared by the two dicasteries, mention should be made of dispensation from irregularities *ex delicto vel ex defectu corporis*; indult to practise medicine and surgery; confirmation of statutes, privileges, etc.; granting of perpetual indulgences for the contrafertories; licence to transfer to an order of stricter observance. For the rest, the constitution left the competence of the Dataria unchanged.
In 1872, with a rescript of 3 March, Pius IX granted to the Dataria the faculty, *nomine ipsius Pontificis*, to interpret the rules relating to the conferment of benefices; and in this way its power was, in a certain sense, 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 conferment of the remaining benefices. As a consequence, the competence of the Dataria was greatly reduced, since the most important part of what had hitherto formed the object of its activity was removed.
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 (*const.* *Sapienti Consilio*, 29 June 1908) every faculty of the Dataria regarding dispensations from matrimonial impediments and irregularities, and every granting of graces and favours, was taken away. It was, however, charged with the task of dispatching directly the papal bulls (in matters within its competence), whereas previously they had been sent by the Apostolic Chancery.
The competence of this dicastery was thus defined in the important papal document: “It is the task of the Dataria 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 their conferment; to dispense, in conferring the benefices, from the conditions required by law; to take care of the pensions and burdens that the Supreme Pontiff may have imposed in conferring the benefices.”
The Code of Canon Law confirmed these norms, repeating in can. 261 almost *ad litteram* the words of *Sapienti consilio*.
At the head of the Dataria is a cardinal, who is called the Cardinal Datary. It is uncertain whether this office arose with the Dataria itself, or whether it existed before II. It seems certain that at first the datary was an official of the Apostolic Chancery, charged with affixing the date on papal documents; then he was the official in charge of a special section of the Chancery; and finally this name was given to the prelate at the head of the Dataria, independent of the Chancery, and with a well-defined sphere of activity.
The name “datary” is due to the distinction, introduced from the time of the Western Schism, between the *firma* (signatura) of apostolic letters and the affixing of the date, entrusted to a particular person.
Anciently, this office was mostly a prelatic one, entrusted to one of the Auditors of the Roman Rota. If it happened that a cardinal was appointed at the head of the Dataria, or the datary was raised to the dignity of cardinal, then he took the name of pro-datary. From the time of Innocent X, at the head of the Dataria there was constantly a cardinal, almost *provisionaliter* or *iure eiusdem commendationis*. At present, after the reform carried out by Pius X, and according to the Code of Canon Law (can. 261), the datary is always a cardinal.
The senior officials who were directly subordinate to the Datary and Pro-Datary were formerly: the Sub-Datary, who acted as substitute and had the faculty of replacing the Datary even in papal audiences; a Prefect *per obitum*, for vacant benefices arising from natural or civil death of the incumbent; and a Prefect *per concessum*, for graces and favours. There were also various other minor officials, some of whom were charged with examining petitions for matrimonial dispensations, others with drafting bulls, keeping the money, and so forth.
The Datary, the Sub-Datary and the Prelate *per obitum* formed the *Congress*, which met every morning. All current business was examined in it, and the Datary, having heard the consultative vote of the other two, issued the decree. If the matter 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 more important questions the opinion of certain prelates was also sought; these prelates, together with the Sub-Datary and the Prefect *per obitum*, had a consultative vote.
It was customary in the Datary that the conferment of a benefice could be contested. If an aspirant wished to halt the progress of a grace already granted, he presented himself at the Datary and, with the permission of the Sub-Datary and the Prefect *per obitum*, affixed the *nihil transeat* to the petition of the first applicant. The latter, finding the despatch of the grace delayed, summoned the other party before the Datary so that the *nihil transeat* might be removed. The Datary, having heard the procurators of the two contending parties in contradiction, gave his definitive decision. No appeal or recourse to another tribunal or Congregation was admitted against the decrees of the Datary.
As regards the jurisdiction of the Datary, although it was an axiom that «the Pope, not the Datary, grants graces», it is certain that he possessed a determinate power to grant those graces which were wont to be granted to all, as well as to absolve causes pertaining 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 influence or even annul the concession of graces or append clauses thereto.
With Leo XIII the Datary underwent a new organisation, so that among the officials there no longer appeared the Prefects *per obitum* and *per concessum*, but instead, immediately after the Sub-Datary, we find the Prefect of the Section for 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, who is followed by the Regent, various study assistants and minor employees; and also some theological consultors for the revision of competitions.
Among other innovations, Pius X decreed that, if the Cardinal Datary were prevented from acting, the bulls should be signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State; he further ordered that the Cardinal Datary, or another in his place, should inspect the conditions of deposits at least once every three months.
The Cardinal Datary, as such, is the first of the Palatine Cardinals.
During the time in which the Apostolic See is vacant, the powers of the Cardinal Datary and of the Datary cease entirely.