MAJORDOMO OF HIS HOLINESS. - He is the first of the palatine prelates and supervises the Apostolic Palaces.
It was Alexander V (1410) who created the new office of magister domus, who shared with the master of the Holy Hospice the supervision of the Apostolic Palaces. But a few years later Martin V, in order not to leave the papal household in the hands of a layman, established the praefectus S. Palatii, detaching the governance of the Holy Palace from the Apostolic Camera. And with the title of prefect of the Holy Palace he is found recorded in a roster of personnel of the year 1460 under Pius II (cf. G. Marini, Archiatri pontifici, II, Rome 1825, p. 152). Later, however, the title of prefect was changed to that of majordomo, by order of Urban VIII; by a brief of Clement XII of 3 Aug. 1731, he was numbered among the prelates of the fiocchetto. The same Pontiff, in the constitution Apostolatus, created in perpetuity the m[ajordomo] of H. H. "gubernatorem conclavium pro bona directione conclavium" and decreed that his jurisdiction and his faculties should continue to be in force even during a vacancy of the see (cf. G. Moroni, XLI, pp. 247-80).
The m[ajordomos] of H. H. were always invested with patriarchal or archiepiscopal dignity: raised to the cardinalate, they left the office or took the title of pro-majordomo, having a majordomo alongside them. With the restoration of Pius VI the title of prefect of the Holy Apostolic Palaces and majordomo of Our Lord returned (Notizie per l'anno 1818, Rome 1818, p. 187). The duties of the majordomo came gradually to be ever better defined. Besides the supervision of the Apostolic Palaces, where the majordomo also had civil and criminal jurisdiction, extended as well to the territory of Castel Gandolfo, he also had the supervision of the Hospice of the Converts, of Castel S. Angelo, of the furriery, of the central palatine office, over the master of the household, the quartermaster, the chief equerry, the legal office and the medical corps. He was a kind of governor. His attributions were then better determined by the motu proprio of Gregory XVI of 16 Dec. 1832. On 1 Nov. 1848 Pius IX invested with the office, under the title of prefect of the Holy Apostolic Palaces, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, then pro-secretary of State, creating him a palatine cardinal. Alongside him he placed a majordomo with reduced powers. Thus the prefecture of the Holy Palaces together with the general Administration of the goods of the Holy See became an office distinct from the majordomo and almost always entrusted to the cardinal secretary or pro-secretary of State.
Leo XIII, by a twofold motu proprio, on 11 Dec. 1880 separated the office of prefect of the Holy Apostolic Palaces from that of administrator of the patrimony of the Holy See, creating the Cardinalitial Commission for the administration of the goods of the Holy See, and again sanctioned the organic norms concerning the office of prefect of the Holy Palaces and m[ajordomo] of H. H. But the former title soon disappeared again, to give place later (1906) to an office of sub-prefect or vice-prefect of the Holy Palaces, whose holder Benedict XV, by a brief of 10 Sept. 1914, elevated to the rank of palatine prelate. But in 1918 he again united the prefecture with the majordomo, appointing his own majordomo as its holder.
By a brief of 16 Dec. 1926 Pius XI suppressed the prefecture of the Holy Apostolic Palaces and the majordomo, dividing their attributions between the master of the Chamber and the general Administration of the Goods of the Holy See (v.).
Although he still appears in the Annuario pontificio, the attributions of the majordomo are combined with those of the master of the Chamber.
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe Palazzini.