PROCURATORI DEI SACRI PALAZZI APOSTOLICI (Sacri Palatii Apostolici causarum e Collegio patroni or Patroni decuriales Sacri Palatii). — A college of persons (currently 12), selected from the entire Order of the Curial procurators, who are authorized to set forth and defend the rights of litigants, and especially of the poor, before ecclesiastical judges and, in ancient times, also before cardinals and the Pope.
These procurators are mentioned under Innocent II (1130–43); Benedict XII (constitution Decens et necessarium of 7 October 1340: Bultarium Rom., IV, Turin 1859, p. 461 bis) brought them together in a college. Martin V (constitution In apostolicae of 1 September 1418: ibid., IV, p. 680) established the requirements necessary for their appointment; Leo X reformed them and approved their statutes (constitution Pastoralis officii, 13 December 1513). In 1538, Paul III established that the deputies of these procurators could take part in the Pontifical Chapel and in public processions and ceremonies (v. T. Mancinelli, Summorum Pontificum acta, quae ad Patronos decuriales causarum S. P. A. spectanti, Rome 1887, p. 1). Paul V (motu proprio Cum pro pastorali, 16 October 1618: ibid., p. 3) established that the College should consist of 24 patrons, also confirming their statutes and declaring them qualified to act as advocates in Rotal cases and in any other matter without any further examination or approval; their admission was to take place at the University of Rome by a majority of the votes of the members of the College. Once the evasion had been followed, the person elected had to undergo an examination, swear to serve justice faithfully, and undertake the defense of the poor. The venerable Innocent XI (15 October 1678) established that only the procurators of the College should be employed to compile summaries and draw up the information in facto in causes of beatification and canonization. Clement XIII (constitution Superni dispositione consilii, 30 March 1785) declared that the offices of Apostolic Camera (v.), prefect Apostolic Dataria (v.), civil lieutenant of the Tribunal of Government, secretary or administrator of the monti and of the three procurators of the Rev. Apostolic Camera, and fiscal procurator of the Congregation of the Rev. Fabric of St Peter should henceforth be granted permanently to the College of the procurators of the PP. AA. Under Clement XI (brief of 26 August 1708), they also obtained a certain degree of supervision over the public treasury. They received other privileges from Benedict XIV (constitution Romanae Curiae, 21 December 1744) and from Clement XIII (brief of 30 March 1765), who again approved their statutes. The procurators examined notarial candidates and possessed the exclusive right to be chosen as curators of fideicommissa or primogenitures.
Gregory XVI (constitution Amplissimum Patronorum, 31 March 1835: V. Mancinelli, op. cit., p. 26) granted the procurators the office of fiscal officers for roads and waterways. The College of the procurators of the SS.PP.AA. was reformed by Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI (protocol between the Holy See and the Italian government for the implementation of art. 10 of the Lateran Treaty, 6 September 1932).
The latest pontifical provisions, contained in the Normae S. R. Rotae Tribunalis of 29 June 1934, establish (art. 54) that the procurators of the SS.PP.AA. enjoy the right to defend causes — vi officii — before the S. R. Rota. This right is confirmed in no. 85 of Pius XI’s constitution Ad incremen-
tum decoris, dated 15 August 1934 (AAS, 26 [1934], p. 497). It should be recalled that Pius XI abolished quaternus opus sit the privilege of enrollment in the College for candidates without the title of Rotal advocate (v. letter of the Cardinal Secretary of State of 23 March 1933, no. 121216).