Regulae Cancellariae Apostolicae

REGULAE CANCELLARIAE APOSTOLICAE. - They were a body of norms given or confirmed by each pontiff to the Apostolic Chancery (v.) and concerning the determination of the subject matter of apostolic letters, their dispatch, the extent of concessions, the conditions and the clauses.

They were divided into four kinds or classes: expeditoriae, those which prescribed the form to be observed in the despatch of business and of cases; reservatoriae, that is, those which dealt with benefices, their conferment, their reservation; revocatoriae, those which rendered null the faculties granted by the preceding pontiff; iudiciariae, those which defined the procedure to be observed. To these were added the r. which fixed 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 they also bound the tribunals in delivering judgment concerning a pontifical concession, especially in the case of obreption or subreption of rescripts (v. RESCRITTO). In themselves they ceased at the death of the Roman pontiff. From the time of Urban VIII (1623-44) they bound even before their promulgation, from the moment of the approval granted by the new pontiff; but this only as regarded the validity of acts, certainly not with respect to penalties.

Promulgation was effected by communication to the Chancery itself, and at one time the r. were written in the Liber Cancellariae. The directive or dispatch rules given for the officials retained their force, not only in the Chancery but in all the dicasteries, offices and tribunals. For the use of the officials there were furthermore the Summae dictaminis and the Libri Cancellariae. The former gave the rules for writing; the latter provided the formulae to be used, the Constitutions concerning the ordering of the Roman Curia and also some constitution on the reservation of benefices; however, they concerned more than anything else the ordering of the Chancery itself, the competences of the officials, the formal aspect of the letters; yet they also treated matters intimately connected with the R. C. A. themselves.

Already before John XXII (1316-34) certain R. C. A. had been fixed. Nevertheless the first collection of them was made by John XXII and reformed by Gregory XI (1370-78) and then corrected by Urban VI (1378-89). During the Western Schism numerous r. were introduced, very different from one another as well. On the other hand, from the time of Eugene IV (1431-47) and of Nicholas V (1447-55) the r. were fixed in a somewhat stable form, although changes were not lacking afterwards.

All the R. C. A. issued from the pontificate of John XXII to that of Nicholas V were published; those of certain other pontiffs were only printed, such as Clement XI (1700), Clement XII (1730), Clement XIV (1769) and Pius VI (1775). They were no longer changed after Clement XII. They bound from the moment of promulgation; with Urban VIII, as has been said, they began to bind from the moment of approval, before promulgation. Indeed after Pius VI (1775-99), at the beginning of a new pontificate they were no longer promulgated. Some governments raised difficulties against certain of these r. and did not receive them; others obtained derogations by concordats. The reform of the R. C. A. was decreed by Pius X, on 29 Sept. 1908, together with the formulae of the bulls for the conferment of benefices and of those which constituted dioceses and Chapters (Ordo servandus in S. Congregationibus..., part 2, ch. 9, art. 1: AAS, 1 [1909], p. 103). The Formulae bullarum were then confirmed on 8 Dec. 1910; the Nova Regula Cancellariae was established on 15 Apr. 1910 (AAS, 2 [1910], pp. 939, 287). After the CIC, on the basis of can. 6, no. 6 the R. C. A. were abrogated. They remain in force only insofar as they are preserved and reformed in the Code of Canon Law. Thus cann. 36-62 in many parts retain and in others change the R. C. A. in the matter of the concession of rescripts; thus cann. 396 § 1, 1431, 1435, 1486 and 1487, after abrogating them, determine the norms to be observed in the reservation of benefices; and cann. 1446-47 renew the ancient r. of the annual and triennial prescription. Moreover, for the Chancery too there applies what is prescribed in can. 243 § 1, whereby business must be treated according to the general and particular norms which the reigning pontiff may eventually prescribe. Therefore 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 whole forms what is called the Stylus Romanae Curiae. Outside the juridical field the R. C. A. have had a certain influence also as reflex principles (v.) employed to resolve doubts of conscience.

Giuseppe Palazzini