MAESTRO DEL SACRO PALAZZO. - Title of a dignitary of the Pontifical Court, whose duties have undergone various changes. Only modern studies conducted (by Denifle, Altaner, Ehrle, Creytens) on the authentic sources (the constitution Cuna de diversis of Innocent IV, repeated and abridged by Boniface VIII [2, V, 7, in VI] and the Vita d'Innocenzo IV of N. of Carbio) have shed full light on the origins and early developments of this office, created by Innocent IV in the second year of his pontificate (1244-45). In the interest of those who flocked to the apostolic see from all over the world, as well as of the curials themselves, the pope established in his Court, then at Lyon, a studium generale, comprising theology, canon and civil (Roman) law, a studium that followed the court wherever it might be.
The first known master to teach theology in this school was the Dominican Bartolomeo da Vicenza (also called da Breganza), who, having been promoted in 1252 to bishop of Limassol (Cyprus), was succeeded by an archdeacon of Durham (England). In the relevant bulls they are called « regens » and « docens » apud sedem apostolicam. In fact, in pontifical documents the title Magister S. Palatii appears only from the 14th century onward. Another title in the 13th century is lector (= professor) of the Sacred Palace, used for John Pecham and his successor Matthew of Aquasparta and other Friars Minor. In the 13th century the holder was not yet among the curials forming the pontifical "family." He resided afterward as well in his convent, and from the 15th century in the Vatican, sometimes in the Quirinal. From 1306 onward the office was, with some exceptions, generally entrusted to a master of the Dominican Order, to which it thereafter remained exclusively. Once the school of the Sacred Palace ceased, however, in the early years of the 16th century, other duties were assigned to the holders: from Leo X until 1925, he gave the Imprimatur to books printed in Rome; from the 15th century he reviewed the sermons to be delivered on certain days by the procurators general of the mendicant Orders in the pontifical chapels; he was also president of the Theological College of Rome. He also belongs by right today to the Holy Office, just as he is the official prelate of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and trusted theologian of the Holy Father.