**PRELATE** (Prae-latus, antistes, praesul). — A person of dignity superior to others. In present-day canon law, in the strict sense, it designates members of the secular or regular clergy who exercise jurisdiction in the external forum; in a broader sense, clerics invested with this title by the Holy See *honoris causa* (can. 110). *Prelature* is the dignity of a prelate (*praesulis dignitas*) or the territory in which quasi-episcopal jurisdiction is exercised. Prelates are distinguished as major and minor: major prelates include cardinals (v.), bishops (v.), and others who, by virtue of their prelatic dignity, share in the governance of the universal Church (secretaries of Congregations, assessors, etc.); minor prelates include: *prelati nullius*, with full episcopal jurisdiction; abbots (v.), who enjoy the use of papal privileges with jurisdiction; the generals and provincial superiors of religious orders; vicars general and capitular; and, in a certain sense, the superiors of convents, insofar as they exercise external and real jurisdiction, albeit limited, over their subjects, whom they may command and punish. In antiquity, the heads of collegiate churches and the dignitaries of cathedral chapters were also called prelates; even abbesses (v.), insofar as they presided over the governance of the communities entrusted to them (as recognized by the Council of Reims in 813 and the Council of Aachen in 816, though women are incapable of true ecclesiastical jurisdiction).
As for the Roman prelatures referred to here, they followed the vicissitudes and evolution of the papal household and the curial offices of which they were a part. Thus, there were first the *prelati palatini*, who held office and residence in the Apostolic Palace, among whom were numbered some members of the Sacred College. Others were called prelates of the Apostolic Camera, of the Sacred Roman Rota, of the Apostolic Signatura, and so on, from their belonging to these dicasteries. On several occasions, the popes had to intervene to regulate and limit the privileges and remove abuses that had crept into the Roman prelature, and to specify the requirements necessary to attain prelatures. In particular, mention must be made of Alexander VII, who, in the constitution *Inter coeteras* of 13 June 1659 (Bullarium Romanum, XVI, Turin 1869, p. 472), enumerates as necessary requirements legitimate birth, good conduct, irreproachable reputation, and the age of 25; for the prelature of justice, it was further required to have attended at least five years of legal studies at a university or to have obtained a degree in both civil and canon law, and to possess annual income of 1,500 scudi (cf. on the same subject the constitution of Pius VII, *Post diuturnas*, 30 Oct. 1860: Bullarium Romanum, Continuatio, VII, part 1, Prato 1850, p. 59, and the allocution of Leo XII to the Sacred College of 13 March 1826: cf. Moroni, XXVIII, p. 69).
Prelates were often entrusted in the former Papal States with purely civil offices, without ceasing to be ecclesiastical prelatures. Indeed, when Pius IX, by the *motu proprio* of 12 June 1847, established the Council of Ministers, he reserved the sovereign appointments of prelates to the Secretariat of State, from which even today the letters and briefs of appointment are issued. Among the prelates at that time were also the advocate of the poor, the general advocate of the treasury, the general fiscal procurator, and the commissioner of the Apostolic Camera, known as *prelati di mantellone*, as well as the consistorial advocates (cf. Moroni, LV, p. 146). Moreover, in the Papal States there were benefices constituted as prelatures, ordinarily of family patronage and without cure of souls, steward (v.). The Italian law of 15 Sept. 1867, no. 3848, art. 1, no. 9, suppressed them; and this suppression was extended by the law of 15 June 1873, no. 1402, even to those existing in Rome (F. Scaduto, *Diritto ecclesiastico vigente in Italia*, II, Cortona 1929, p. 103).
The occupation of Rome in 1870 brought disruption to many prelature colleges, which, in the administration of the papal government, were engaged in the organization of justice, finances, and other duties pertaining to civil government. Pius IX maintained them, though they were now rendered inactive. Leo XIII, by reducing certain elements of the Curia that had become superfluous, partly restored the duties of the auditors of the Rota, and distributed the other members (about 40) among the more important cardinalitial congregations.
The constitution *Ad incrementum* of Pius XI of 15 Aug. 1934 (AAS, 26 [1934], pp. 497 ff.), which reorganized the Roman prelature, distinguishes two broad categories of prelates: those who belong to a prelatic college and are designated by the title of the college to which they belong; and those who do not belong to any college and are simply domestic prelates.
**1. Prelates belonging to a prelatic college.** — a) The college of archbishops and bishops assisting the papal throne (v. ASSISTENTE AL SOGLIO); b) the prelates called *di fiocchetto* (vice-camerlengo, auditor and treasurer of the Apostolic Camera, majordomo: V. FAMIGLIA PONTIFICIA), though they do not constitute a prelatic college in the strict sense; c) the College of Apostolic Protonotaries *de numero participantium* (v. PROTONOTARI APOSTOLICI); d) that of the prelates auditors of the Sacred Roman Rota (v. ROTA, S. ROMANA); e) that of the prelates Camera (v.); f) that of the prelates votants of the Signatura, to which are added the prelates referendaries. This papal constitution also establishes the precedence to be observed among the various prelatic colleges; the *prelati di fiocchetto* have the first place, followed immediately by the assessors and secretaries of the Roman Sacred Congregations (v.). Next come the prelatic college of Apostolic Protonotaries *de numero participantium*, that of the auditors of the Sacred Roman Rota, that of the clerics of the Reverend Apostolic Camera, and that of the votants of the Signatura with the referendaries. This precedence applies not only to the prelatic college as a whole but also to each of its members, who take precedence over all those of a lower college. Within each individual college, the dean holds the first place as *primus inter pares*.
The ordinary title of prelates, established long ago, is, in the vast majority of cases, that of “Most Illustrious and Reverend Monsignor.” In the 19th century, the title of “Most Excellent and Reverend” had insensibly come to be used for prelates of princely birth and for some who held the principal magistracies. The aforementioned constitution *Ad incrementum* establishes that, in addition to the *prelati di fiocchetto*, those who enjoy the title of “Most Excellent and Reverend” are the assessors and secretaries of the Sacred Roman Congregations, the dean of the Sacred Roman Rota, the Master of the Papal Household, and the substitute of the Secretariat of State, while all other prelates shall have only the customary title of “Most Illustrious and Reverend Monsignor.” Pius XII, in his cited constitution (chap. I, nos. VII to X), minutely describes the ceremonial habit to be worn in sacred functions, while the *abito piano* is proper to civil ceremonies. In collegial functions and in papal chapels, prelates wear over the rochet the cotta or the woolen cape, with or without ermine fur, according to the season. During a *Sede vacante*, the habit shall be the customary black one with a simple rochet, without lace.
For the privileges enjoyed by prelates in the celebration of both low and high Mass, see P. Martinucci, *Manuale sacrarum caeremoniarum* (VIII, Rome 1879–80, p. 173); for other kinds of privileges, see the constitution *Ad incrementum*, nos. XLI ff., LXXI ff., CV ff., CXXVII ff., CXLII ff.
**2. Prelates not belonging to any prelatic college, or domestic prelates properly so called.** — Appointed by the Secretariat of State from among ecclesiastics who have rendered particular service to Rome and to the various Christian countries, they have the right to wear the prelatic habit; at sung and low Mass they may use the bugia. Their place in solemn papal functions is standing beside the altar, on the epistle side.
They are designated by the name of *antistites urbani* or *antistites domus pontificis maximi*; they are also called domestic prelates (*p. di mantellette*), because the violet *mantelletta* is their distinctive badge. They are members of the Pope’s household with all the prerogatives granted to that dignity. By virtue of the office they hold, the following are domestic prelates: the archbishops and bishops who assist the Holy See, the *protonotarii apostolici participantes*, the *protonotarii apostolici supernumerarii*, and the *protonotarii ad instar* who, before their appointment as protonotaries, were created domestic prelates by brief; the prelates belonging to the colleges of the prelature, and the archbishops and bishops who obtained the concession before their promotion; during their term of office, the canons of the Primatial Church of Pisa, the dignitaries of the metropolitan Chapter of Catania, the senior among the canons of the venerable basilica of St Lawrence in Damaso in Rome, the archpriest of the Chapter of SS. Celso and Giuliano in Rome, and the auditors of the Tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature of Spain are domestic prelates *ad instar*.