CURIA FEES. — These are the contributions that the Dicasteries of the Holy See require from petitioners or plaintiffs, in order thereby to cover, at least in part, the expenses incurred for individual administrative, judicial, or merely executory acts. They belong to the category of Ecclesiastical Fees (v.) and correspond to the fees prescribed by the diocesan curia.
They may be divided into administrative fees, including benefice fees, and judicial fees. The former consist of chancery or seal fees which, according to laws or internal regulations, or according to custom, may be collected for the various acts of voluntary jurisdiction, especially for the granting of pontifical rescripts, letters, or bulls of appointment. Judicial fees, on the other hand, are collected as procedural expenses from those who pursue contentious proceedings before the Tribunals of the Holy See or before the Sacred Congregation of Rites in causes of beatification and canonization.
I. HISTORICAL NOTES
The t. were introduced gradually as a result of the dwindling revenues of the patrimony of the Roman Church, owing to turbulent historical events and to the multiplication of affairs that increasingly flowed to the dicasteries of the Holy See. It had been an ancient custom for elected Bishops to offer a gift to their consecrator and to those who had an active part in the consecration. And the pope consecrated all the bishops of central and southern Italy, as well as those of other places immediately subject to him. Similar gifts were madeto the Pope by metropolitans on the occasion of the granting of the pallia. These gifts, which were originally voluntary, were transformed by custom into genuine profits for the benefit of the Curia, and finally into actual taxes, in the thirteenth century. The so-called denarius of St Peter had also gradually come 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. These revenues were later supplemented by the censuses paid by the vassal kingdoms of the Apostolic See: Naples, Sicily, Aragon, and England. In addition, monasteries, various institutions, and castles paid annual censuses to the Camera, since they were considered to be included in ius et proprietatem b. Petri, or by virtue of particular conditions. (See in this regard the Liber Censium Ecclesiae Romanae of Cencio Camerario: ed. P. Fabre-L. Duchesne, with indexes by G. Mollat, 3 vols., Paris 1889–1952).
Other revenues came from the tithes (v.) imposed by the Holy See on benefices on the occasion of Crusades or other extraordinary events. They were received in each territory by collectors, assisted in turn by subcollectors, who gathered them and sent them to Rome, where the general account was drawn up, every year or every six months (cf., for Italy, the volumes of the Rationes decimarum Italiae in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, published in the Studi e testi collection of the Vatican Library, nos. 60, 69, 84, 96, 97, 98, 112, 113, 128, 148, Vatican City 1933 ff.). The revenues of the Curia also included the annates (v.), by virtue of the ius spoli, which consisted in the right to take possession of everything left by an ecclesiastic at the moment of his death. This too was collected by the collectors and sent to the Curia. From the time of Avignon, when papal reservations began to operate regularly, they were also charged with collecting the fruits of the benefice accrued during the period of vacancy (fructus medi temporis) and those which the beneficiary did not make his own because his appointment had not been regular (fructus male percept).
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, and consisted in the payment of one third of the annual income of the bishopric or abbey, as calculated once and for all. The servitio minuta were gratuities for the members of the households of the pope and the cardinals and were proportional to the servitium commune; from three, as they had previously been, they were increased to five under Benedict XI, and remained so thereafter. During the fifteenth century, the practice increasingly spread of imposing, in addition to the customary servitium, a supplement when a new benefice incompatible with the first was conferred upon an incumbent. This supplement was called compositio; it was agreed upon from case to case with the datary and went directly to the profit of the pontiff. The most bitter complaints were raised against this system because of the abuses to which it gave rise. As for the Officials of the Curia, they did not receive a fixed salary, but shared in the emoluments accruing to their dicastery. The taxes paid in the office of the bulls for the dispatch of the bulls themselves Apostolic Camera (v.), not to the officials of the Curia. Moreover, at times the letters themselves were dispatched gratis pro Deo, especially when they concerned the relatives or employees themselves. The officials of the Curia could, however, receive from petitioners minuscula manera for the prompt handling or dispatch of the matter. Here too there were abuses. The Council of Trent, in addition to its other reforms in the sphere of benefices, including its insistence on the duty of residence, insisted on the gratuitous nature of dispensations (sess. XXV, c. 18 de reform). Gratuitousness did not exclude compensation for the so-called Chancery expenses, but it was intended to exclude the payment of a price for the dispensation, and also any compensation given in the form of honest sustenance. Nor did it intend to deny the notion that the t. also had the function of a penalty for the vulnus legis inflicted by the dispensation. When the new ecclesiastical Dicasteries were created, such as the Holy Office and the Congregations of the Index, of the Council, and of Bishops and Regulars, these too had to support themselves, for expenses and personnel. The t. of the Curia, more properly so called, then began to be levied on rescripts, graces, letters, and decrees. These t. were subsequently distributed among the employees assigned to the Dicastery, since there was not yet any salary. The Apostolic Camera in fact granted, at most, an allowance to the senior Prelate of each dicastery.
II. PRESENT-DAY STATUS
This continued until the reform of the Roman Curia carried out by Pius X, who undertook responsibility for the maintenance of the major and minor officials and servants, while at the same time reserving the fees to the Holy See. On the basis of this reform, which has remained almost unchanged to the present day, in every request for a favor or dispensation, and at the initiation of a case before the Apostolic Tribunals, the Ordinaries, having obtained information from the respective parish priests, must indicate, spontaneously or upon being asked by the competent Dicastery, the economic status of the petitioner or plaintiff (cf. Sapienti consilio, chap. 11, 3: AAS, 1 [1909], p. 33). For the poor, in administrative matters, if the favor is morally necessary and not lucrative, the fee must be reduced by half or even entirely remitted, according to the circumstances, apart from postal and other actual expenses (ibid., art. 2: loc. cit.); in judicial matters, legal aid (v.) or a reduction of expenses is granted.For the calculation of the fees, which must be recorded in the rescript, each Congregation must have one or more persons assigned to this task. Today, normally in the Dicasteries, the administrative function (which is limited to collecting the fees) is carried out by a Cashier, who collects the fees, and sometimes by an accountant, who records them, following notification by the Minute-writer. Supervision belongs to the superior Prelate of the Dicastery, who, with his countersignature, periodically transfers the receipts to the administration of the Holy See’s assets. The ecclesiastical fee is then composed of the fee properly so called, fixed for each rescript and the same for all; the componenda, which was used by the Apostolic Dataria and, in matrimonial dispensations, for example, was proportionate to the nature of the impediment, the seriousness of the cause, and the wealth of the petitioners; the agency fee, consisting in the remuneration of the person acting as dispatch agent; and actual expenses, such as postage, paper, and so forth. In general, actual expenses and the agency fee are required of everyone; the middle classes are also charged the fee; and the rich are additionally charged the componenda.
On 10 February 1920 Benedict XV approved the revision of the fees to be applied to rescripts following the devaluation caused by the war: the revision was carried out by a commission of Cardinals headed by Cardinal G. De Lai.
Another revision, though not uniform in all the Dicasteries, was carried out after the Second World War, in 1946. The Rotal tariffs, also revised after the last war, vary according to the scope and gravity of the case. They are published in a special table stating the minimum and maximum fees that attorneys may charge their clients. Free legal aid is granted, or at least the benefit of a reduction in judicial expenses is allowed, not infrequently (for the determination of expenses in the Judgment V. SPESE).
The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura performs certain acts free of charge, such as sending matrimonial judgments and rescripts of dispensation to the Courts of Appeal in Italy and in other countries that, on the basis of Concordats, recognize the civil effects of ecclesiastical judgments. For the other matters within its competence, under the decree of 6 August 1946, still in force, an initial deposit is made, followed by payment of a notably modest fee for the decision, the rescript, the commission, and sometimes the drafting of the decision.
(fol. Alinari)
TASSO, TORQUATO – Portrait. Painting by A. Allori (perhaps in 1590). Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi.
at the Sacred Congregation of Rites are governed by particular regulations. The taxes in force at the Vicariate of Rome are of the same nature as those in force at any diocesan Curia.