Secretariat of State

SECRETARIAT OF STATE. - It is one of the offices of the Roman Curia, through which the Holy See handles all questions of ecclesiastical policy.

I. HISTORICAL NOTES

The most distant origin of this office can be traced to that Camera secreta established by Martin V (1417-31) with the task of attending to the diplomatic correspondence of the Apostolic See, the handling of which was undertaken, in the early period, by the most illustrious humanists, from Bracciolini to Vegio, from Traversari to Filelfo and Valla, who were extensively employed in it since, as Pastor rightly states (I, p. 237), "they could turn their hand to anything, to composing either bulls and briefs or merely political documents, to welcoming ambassadors and princes, to delivering funeral and festive orations."

Initially indeterminate in number, these papal secretaries were subsequently fixed at six (secretarii numerarii) by Callistus III, with the constitution Decei Romanum Pontificem of 7 May 1456 (ed. in W. v. Hofmann, Forschungen zur Geschichte der kurilen Behörden, II, Rome 1914, pp. 20-21), then raised to twenty-four by Innocent VIII, with the constitution Non debet reprehensibile of 31 Dec. 1487 (Bull. Rom., V, Turin 1860, pp. 330-39), "pro faciliori, celeriori, diligentiori, ac magis accurata expeditione brevium et litterarum apostolicarum," coming to form the College of Apostolic Secretaries. At the same time, however, the Pontiff had reserved for himself and his successors the choice of a secretarius domesticus in Palatio assidue residens, to whom was entrusted the handling of all secret affairs that might be committed to him by the Pope, so that he soon became a person in whom the pontiffs confided and the sole intermediary of the political directives of the Apostolic See; yet from this important position he nonetheless soon declined, once the confidence of the popes, after the office of "cardinal nephew" had become established as a consequence of the nepotism that had insinuated itself into the pontifical Court from the time of Sixtus IV (1471-84), would fatally come to be poured out upon their own relatives. Once the handling of the most important affairs both of the Church and of the State had been concentrated in the hands of the latter, the domestic secretary was lost in the shadow of the cardinal nephew or patron, of whom he became a mere auxiliary, until his suppression, decreed by Sixtus V with the brief Romani Pontificis providentia of 1 Apr. 1586 (Bull. Rom., VIII, Turin 1863, pp. 685-90).

Meanwhile, because of the increased volume of business, determined by the ever broader expansion of the political-diplomatic relations of the Apostolic See with the European States, there arose, under the pontificate of Leo X (1513-1521), a new secretary, called "intimate" or "major," to whom was reserved the drafting in the vernacular of the pontifical correspondence, always dependent on the cardinal nephew, like the domestic secretary, to whom there remained only the drafting of documents in Latin. It is precisely in this intimate secretary, also charged with the formation of the cardinal nephew, that one can discern in embryo the figure of the future "Secretary of State," a title which, moreover, appears for the first time in the times of Paul V (1605-21), attributed to him; thus, in fact, were called Porfirio Feliciani, Francesco Magalotti, Lorenzo Azzolini and others still, all given by the pontiffs as instructors to their nephews.

The necessity first of having a cardinal as head of the S., according to the custom begun with Innocent X (1644-55), and then the suppression of the College of Apostolic Secretaries, carried out by Innocent XI with the constitution Romanus Pontifex of 1 Apr. 1678 (Bull. Romanum, XIX, Turin 1870, pp. 88-95), were in any case the first step toward the organization of the S. di S. in its modern form, so that when at last with Innocent XII nepotism was once and for all suppressed (constitution Romanum decet Pontificem of 22 June 1692, in Bull. Rom., XX, Turin 1870, pp. 440-46), thus bringing to an end the monopoly of government by the Pope's relatives, the transformation could be said to be complete and the S. di S., understood in the modern sense of the word, became a reality in fact, so that in the cardinal placed at its head, now distinguished by the official title of Secretary of State, there came to be concentrated the direction of all affairs of policy, both internal and external, of the Apostolic See.

A new aspect was assumed by the S. di S. under Gregory XVI, who instituted, with a chirograph of 20 Feb. 1833, a second Secretary of State, called "for affairs of internal State" and defined by the aforementioned document as "organ of communication to the various ministries and dicasteries of the State of all orders concerning internal affairs," with the task of providing for the administrative affairs of the Papal State. The Gregorian reform, however, had only a temporary character, inasmuch as it was determined by the precarious health of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tommaso Bernetti, and lasted only throughout the pontificate of that Pope. In fact Pius IX, on 8 Aug. 1846, again provided for the reuniting in a single person of the two offices, while nevertheless preserving the division of the S. into two distinct sections, which would continue to occupy themselves, the first with all foreign affairs and the second with internal ones. By a motu proprio of 29 Dec. 1847, moreover, Pius IX attributed to the cardinal Secretary of State also the functions of president of the Council of Ministers and of minister of Foreign Affairs, a post, however, that the latter had to abandon when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was transferred into lay hands, when there was implemented, also in the Papal State, the formation of a constitutional government, which was followed by the ephemeral Roman Republic of '49.

When all the past institutions finally came to life again with the restoration of the temporal power, the S. di S. too was reinstated in its ancient functions, which were nevertheless specified by an Edict of 10 Sept. 1850, where it was said: "The relations of the government of the Holy See with the other powers are entrusted to a cardinal of Holy Church, who retains the name and the attributions of Secretary of State. The cardinal Secretary of State is the organ of the sovereign also in the issuing of legislative acts. Any affair that has or may have a connection with foreign countries, even though dependent on one of the five ministers, must be treated in concert with the S. di S. The cardinal Secretary of State alone corresponds with foreign governments or representatives. There belongs especially to the cardinal Secretary of State all that concerns diplomatic treaties and conventions of whatever kind, including commercial ones, and their execution; the just demarcation and the protection of the boundaries of the State; the protection of papal subjects who go or reside abroad; the issuing of passports for abroad, the admission of foreigners to settle in the State and their naturalization, the legalization of documents to be transmitted outside the State."

The year 1870 marked an inevitable halt in the manifold activity of the S. di S., which, having soon adapted itself to the changed course of things, was nevertheless not exempt either from that confusion to which a sound remedy was finally to be applied by the general reform of the Curia introduced by the blessed Pius X with the constitution Sapienti consilio of 29 June 1908 (Pii X P. M. Acta, IV [Rome 1914], pp. 146-61).

In his capacity as the highest representative of the political activity of the Holy See and as prime minister of the Roman Pontiff, the office is presided over by the Cardinal Secretary of State, who is also prefect of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, because of the intimate connection between the attributions of the two dicasteries. He is a cardinal palatine. The three sections mentioned above are directed respectively by the secretary for extraordinary affairs, assisted by one or more undersecretaries, by the substitute for ordinary affairs, who is also secretary of the cipher, and by the chancellor of apostolic briefs, assisted in the discharge of their functions by a certain number of minor officials (minutanti, archivists, attachés, writers, etc.).

An unspecified number of diplomatic officials lend their service in the various sections of the Secretariat of State; they form a separate roll, detached from the rest of the clerical body, not assigned to diplomatic missions. These officials, who may at any moment be sent to representative posts, serve in the

Secretariat of State, retaining their own rank of nuncios, counsellors, auditors (1st and 2nd class), secretaries (1st and 2nd class), attachés. A kind of personnel director in the Secretariat of State is the head of protocol.

Diplomats are now ordinarily prepared for their mission in the Pont. Ecclesiastical Academy (formerly the Pont. Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, founded by Clement XI in 1701 with its own statutes, reformed by Pius VI in 1775, by Leo XII in 1829, and by Leo XIII in 1879), whose protector is the Cardinal Secretary of State pro tempore (cf. Pius XI, Chirograph to Card. E. Pacelli, 8 Sept. 1937: AAS, 29 [1937], p. 382).

An office collateral to the Secretariat of State, but standing by itself, is the Secretariat of Latin Letters (v.).

BIBL.: sources

R. Ancel, La Secrétairerie pontif. sous Paul IV, in Rev. des quest. hist., 79 (1906), pp. 408-70; P. Richard, Origines et développement de la Secrétairerie d'Etat apostolique, in Rev. d'hist. eccl., 11 (1910), pp. 56-72, 505-29; 728-54; Wernz-Vidal, II, 507; A. Serafini, Le origini della pontif. S. di S. e la Sapienti consilio del b. Pio X, in Apollinaris, 25 (1952), pp. 165-239.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec11_segreteria_di_stato,
  author    = {Del, Re Niccolò},
  title     = {Segreteria Di Stato},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {XI},
  pages     = {247--252},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1953},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/segreteria-di-stato}
}