REGULAE CANCELLARIAE APOSTOLICAE. — These were a body of norms issued or confirmed by each pontiff for the Apostolic Chancery (v.), concerning the determination of the subject matter of apostolic letters, their dispatch, the scope of concessions, and the conditions and clauses.
They were divided into four kinds or classes: expeditoriae, those prescribing the form to be observed in the handling of affairs and procedures; reservatoriae, namely, those dealing with benefices, their conferment, and their reservation; revocatoriae, those that rendered null the faculties granted by the preceding pontiff; iudiciariae, those defining the procedure to be observed. Also added were the r. establishing the rights and duties of the vice-chancellor. They had the force of law during the pontificate in which they were issued. They directly bound the Chancery, but consequently also bound the tribunals when delivering judgment concerning a papal concession, especially in cases of obreption or subreption of rescripts (v. RESCRITTO). In themselves, they ceased upon the death of the Roman pontiff. From the time of Urban VIII (1623–44), they were also binding before their promulgation, from the moment of the approval granted by the new pontiff; but only insofar as this concerned the validity of acts, certainly not with regard to penalties.
Promulgation was effected by communication to the Chancery itself, and formerly the r. were written in the Liber Cancellariae. The directive or dispatching rules given for officials retained their force, not only in the Chancery but in all dicasteries, offices, and tribunals. For the use of officials there were also the Summae dictaminis and the Libri Cancellariae. The former provided rules for writing; the latter supplied the forms to be used, the Constitutions concerning the organization of the Roman Curia, and also certain constitutions concerning the reservation of benefices; however, they dealt above all with the organization of the Chancery itself, the competences of officials, and the formal aspect of letters; nevertheless, they also treated matters intimately connected with the R. C. A.
Some R. C. A. had already been established before John XXII (1316–34). Nevertheless, the first collection of them was made by John XXII, reformed by Gregory XI (1370–78), and subsequently corrected by Urban VI (1378–89). During the Western Schism, numerous r. were introduced, differing considerably from one another. From the time of Eugene IV (1431–47) and Nicholas V (1447–55), on the other hand, the r. were established in a somewhat stable form, although changes continued to be made thereafter.
All the R. C. A. issued from the pontificate of John XXII through that of Nicholas V were published; those of certain other pontiffs were merely printed, such as those of Clement XI (1700), Clement XII (1730), Clement XIV (1769), and Pius VI (1775). They were not changed after Clement XII. They were binding from the moment of promulgation; under Urban VIII, as stated, they became binding from the moment of approval, before promulgation. Indeed, after Pius VI (1775–99), at the beginning of the new pontificate they were no longer promulgated. Certain governments raised objections to some of these r. and did not receive them; others obtained derogations through concordats. The reform of the R. C. A. was decreed by Pius X on 29 September 1908, together with the forms of the bulls conferring benefices and of those establishing dioceses and Chapters (Ordo servandus in S. Congregationibus..., part 2, chap. 9, art. 1: AAS, 1 [1909], p. 103). The Formulae bullarum were subsequently confirmed on 8 December 1910; the Nova Regula Cancellariae was established on 15 April 1910 (AAS, 2 [1910], pp. 939, 287). After the CIC, on the basis of can. 6, n. 6, the R. C. A. were abrogated. They remain in force only insofar as they are retained and reformed in the Code of Canon Law. Thus, cann. 36–62 in many respects retain and in others modify the R. C. A. concerning the granting of rescripts; likewise, cann. 396 § 1, 1431, 1435, 1486, and 1487, after abrogating them, establish the norms to be observed in the reservation of benefices; and cann. 1446–47 renew the ancient r. concerning annual and triennial prescription. What is prescribed in can. 243 § 1 also applies to the Chancery, according to which affairs are to be handled in accordance with the general and particular norms that the reigning pontiff may eventually prescribe. Consequently, the manner of proceeding of the Roman dicasteries is determined by the general laws of the Church, by the special rules of each dicastery, by custom, and by practice itself. Their totality forms what is called the Stylus Romanae Curiae. Outside the juridical sphere, the R. C. A. also exercised reflected principles (v.) employed to resolve doubts of conscience.