COURT FEES. – These are the contributions that the Dicasteries of the Holy See require from petitioners or litigants, for the purpose of defraying, at least in part, the expenses incurred for individual administrative, judicial, or merely executive acts. They belong to the category of ecclesiastical taxes (v.) and have a counterpart in the fees prescribed by the diocesan curia.
They may be divided into administrative fees, which include benefice fees and judicial fees. The former consist of chancery or seal fees, which, according to laws or internal regulations, or by custom, may be levied for various acts of voluntary jurisdiction, especially for the granting of papal rescripts, letters, or bulls of appointment. Judicial fees, on the other hand, are levied for court costs from those who proceed in a contentious manner before the Tribunals of the Holy See or before the Sacred Congregation of Rites in beatification and canonization causes.
I. HISTORICAL NOTES
These fees were gradually introduced due to the dwindling revenues of the patrimony of the Roman Church, caused by the turbulent historical events and the increasing volume of business that flowed more and more abundantly to the Dicasteries of the Holy See. It was an ancient custom for newly elected bishops to offer a gift to their consecrator and to those who took an active part in the consecration. The pope consecrated all the bishops of central and southern Italy and those of other places immediately subject to him. Similar gifts were made to the pope by metropolitans on the occasion of the granting of pallia. These gifts, which were originally voluntary, became, through custom, true profits for the benefit of the Curia, and eventually true and proper fees in the 13th century. Gradually, the so-called Peter’s Pence also came into use, a fixed contribution paid by the inhabitants of England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Bohemia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Aragon, Portugal, and the territories conquered by the Teutonic Knights between the Baltic Sea and the Kingdom of Poland. To these revenues were added the census payments made by the kingdoms vassal to the Apostolic See: Naples, Sicily, Aragon, England. In addition, monasteries, various institutes, and castles paid annual census to the Apostolic Chamber insofar as they were considered included in the *tres et proprietatem S. Petri*, or by virtue of particular agreements. (See in this regard the *Liber Censuum Ecclesiae Romanae* by Cencio Camerario: ed. P. Fabre-L. Duchesne, with indices by G. Mollat, 3 vols., Paris 1889–1952).Other income came from tithes (v.), which the Holy See imposed on benefices on the occasion of Crusades or other extraordinary events. These were collected in each territory by collectors, assisted in turn by sub-collectors, who gathered and sent the funds to Rome, where a general report was compiled annually or semi-annually (cf. for Italy the volumes of the *Rationes Decimarum Italiae* in the 13th and 14th centuries, published in the collection *Studi e testi* of the Vatican Library, nos. 60, 69, 84, 96, 97, 98, 112, 113, 128, 148, Vatican City 1933 ff.). Other revenues of the Curia included the *annates* (v.), based on the *ius spolii*, which consisted in the right to take possession of all that an ecclesiastic left at the time of his death. These were also collected by the collectors and sent to the Curia. From the time of Avignon, when papal reservations took regular shape, the collectors were also charged with collecting the fruits of the benefice that accrued during the vacancy period (*fructus medii temporis*) and those that the beneficiary did not appropriate because his appointment had not been regular (*fructus male percepti*).
A kind of succession tax, under the name of *servitium*, for consistorial benefices was the *servitium commune*, which (after 23 December 1334) was divided between the pope and the cardinals present in the Curia, consisting in the payment of one-third of the annual income of the bishopric or abbey, computed once and for all. The *servitia minuta* were gratuities for the familiars of the pope and cardinals and were proportionate to the *servitium commune*; they were three in number at first, during the time of Benedict XI, but were increased to five and remained so thereafter. During the 15th century, the practice of imposing, in addition to the usual *servitium*, a supplement when a new incompatible benefice was conferred upon an incumbent became increasingly common. This supplement was called *compositio* and was agreed upon each time with the Datary, going directly to the profit of the pope. This system gave rise to bitter complaints due to the abuses it engendered. As for the officials of the Curia, they did not receive a fixed salary but shared in the emoluments accruing to their Dicastery. The fees paid in the office of the bulls for the issuance of bulls themselves went to the Apostolic Chamber (v.), not to the Curia officials. Moreover, at times the letters themselves were issued free of charge *pro Deo*, especially if they concerned the pope’s familiars or employees. The officials of the Curia, however, could receive small gratuities (*minuscola munera*) from petitioners for the prompt dispatch of their cases, and here too abuses were not lacking. The Council of Trent, in addition to other reforms in the benefice system, including the insistence on the duty of residence, emphasized the gratuity of dispensations (sess. XXV, c. 18 de reform.). This gratuity did not exclude compensation for so-called chancery expenses but aimed to exclude payment as a price for the dispensation and also any remuneration given as a form of decent sustenance. Nor did it intend to negate the concept that the fee also served as a penalty for the *vulnus legis* inflicted by the dispensation. When new ecclesiastical Dicasteries were created, such as the Holy Office, the Congregation of the Index, of the Council, of Bishops and Regulars, these too had to support themselves for expenses and employees. It was then that the so-called Court Fees began to be levied more properly on rescripts, graces, letters, and decrees. These fees were then distributed among the officials attached to the Dicastery, since there was still no salary. The Apostolic Chamber granted, at most, an allowance to the Prelate in charge of each Dicastery.
II. PRESENT STATE
This system continued until the reform of the Roman Curia by Pius X, who assumed the obligation of maintaining the major, minor, and servant officials, while reserving the fees for the Holy See. Based on this reform, which has remained almost unchanged to this day, in every request for a grace, dispensation, or the initiation of a cause before the Apostolic Tribunals, the Ordinaries, after obtaining information from the respective parish priests, must spontaneously or upon invitation of the competent Dicastery indicate the financial status of the petitioner or litigant (cf. *Sapienti consilio*, chap. II, 3: *AAS*, I [1909], p. 55). For the poor, in administrative matters, if the grace is morally necessary and not lucrative, the fee must be reduced by half or even entirely remitted, depending on the circumstances, except for postal and other incidental expenses (ibid., art. 2: loc. cit.); in judicial matters, free legal assistance (v.) or a reduction of expenses is granted.For the computation of the taxes that must be recorded in the rescript, each Congregation must have one or more officials assigned to this task. Today, in the Dicasteries, the administrative duties (which are limited to the collection of taxes) are normally handled by a cashier, who collects the taxes, and sometimes by an accountant, who records them, based on the minute-taker’s report. Oversight belongs to the Prelate superior of the Dicastery, who, with his approval, periodically transmits the proceeds to the administration of the property of the Holy See.
Ecclesiastical fees consist of: the proper tax, fixed for each rescript and the same for all; the composition fee, which was used by the Apostolic Datary, proportionate in matrimonial dispensations, for example, to the nature of the impediment and the gravity of the cause and the wealth of the petitioners; the agency fee, which is the remuneration for the person acting as expediter; and the actual expenses, such as postage, paper, etc. In general, all are required to pay the actual expenses and the agency fee; the middle classes are also required to pay the tax; the wealthy are also charged the composition fee.
On 10 February 1920, Benedict XV approved the revision of the fees to be applied to rescripts following the devaluation caused by the war; this revision was carried out by a cardinal commission headed by Cardinal G. De Lai.
Another revision, though not uniform in all Dicasteries, was made after the Second World War in 1946. The rota fees, also revised after the last war, vary according to the scope and gravity of the cause. They are set out in a special table that lists the minimum and maximum fees that lawyers may charge their clients. Free legal aid or at least a reduction in court costs is granted not infrequently (for the determination of costs in the sentence V. areze).
The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura performs certain acts free of charge, such as the sending of matrimonial sentences and dispensation rescripts to the Courts of Appeal in Italy and in other countries that, by virtue of Concordats, recognize the civil effects of ecclesiastical sentences. For other matters within its competence, under the decree of 6 August 1946, still in force, an initial deposit is made and then a modest fee is paid for the decision, the rescript, the commission, and sometimes for the extension of the decision.
More substantial than all others are the fees paid for the papal bulls of appointment to benefices of papal reservation: if minor, they go to the Apostolic Datary; if major or consistorial, to the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory or to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith or to the Congregation for the Eastern Church and to the Office of Apostolic Briefs, which depends on the Secretariat of State for briefs of appointment to prelatures and to papal honors. The fees for the causes of the Servants of God, discussed
TASSE DI CURIA – TASSO TARQUATO
owed to bishops (can. 1909); and the stole fees (v. diritti di) belonging to parish priests. Rodolfo Danieli