Abbreviator - Erection Into A College of Prelates

Erection Into A College of Prelates

In the pontificate of Pius II, their number, which had been fixed at twenty-four, had overgrown to such an extent as to diminish considerably the individual remuneration, and, as a consequence, able and competent men no longer sought the office, and hence the old style of writing and expediting the Bulls was no longer used, to the great injury of justice, the interested parties, and the dignity of the Holy See. To remedy this and to restore the old established chancery style, the Pope selected out of the many then living Abbreviators seventy, and formed them into a college of prelates, and decreed that their office should be perpetual, that certain emoluments should be attached to it, and granted certain privileges to the possessors of the same. He ordained further that some should be called "Abbreviators of the Upper Bar" (Abbreviatores de Parco Majori; the name derived from a space in the chancery, surrounded by a grating, in which the officials sat, which is called higher or lower (major or minor) according to the proximity of the seats to that of the vice-chancellor), the others of the Lower Bar (Abbreviatores de Parco Minori); that the former should sit upon a slightly raised portion of the chamber, separated from the rest of the hall or chamber by lattice work, assist the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, subscribe the letters and have the principal part in examining, revising, and expediting the apostolic letters to be issued with the leaden seal; that the latter, however, should sit among the apostolic writers upon benches in the lower part of the chamber, and their duty was to carry the signed schedules or supplications to the prelates of the upper bar. Then one of the prelates of the upper bar made an abstract, and another prelate of the same bar revised it. Prelates of the upper bar formed a quasi-tribunal, in which as a college they decided all doubts that might arise about the form and quality of the letters, of the clauses and decrees to be adjoined to the apostolic letters, and sometimes about the payment of the emoluments and other contingencies. Their opinion about questions concerning chancery business was held in the highest estimation by all the Roman tribunals.

Pope Paul II suppressed this college; but Sixtus IV (Constitutio 16, "Divina") reestablished it. He appointed seventy-two abbreviators, of whom twelve were of the upper, or greater, and twenty-two of the lower, or lesser, presidency (Parco), and thirty-eight examiners on first appearance of letters. They were bound to be in attendance on certain days under penalty of fine, and sign letters and diplomas. Ciampini mentions a decree of the Vice-Chancellor by which absentees were mulcted in the loss of their share of the emoluments of the following chancery session. The same Pope also granted many privileges to the College of Abbreviators, but especially to the members of the greater presidency.

Pius VII suppressed many of the chancery offices, and so the Tribunal of Correctors and the Abbreviators of the lower presidency disappeared. Of the Tribunal of Correctors, a substitute-corrector alone remains. Bouix (Curia Romana, edit. 1859) chronicles the suppression of the lower presidency and puts the number of Abbreviators at that date at eleven. The present college consists of seventeen prelates, six substitutes, and one sub-substitute, all of whom, except the prelates, may be clerics or laymen. Although the duty of Abbreviators was originally to make abstracts and abridgments of the apostolic letters, diplomas, etc., using the legal abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, in course of time, as their office grew in importance they delegated that part of their office to their substitute and confined themselves to overseeing the proper expedition of the apostolic letters. Prior to the year 1878, all apostolic letters and briefs requiring for their validity the leaden seal were engrossed upon rough parchment and in Gothic characters (round letters, also called Gallicum and commonly Bollatico, but in Italy today Teutonic) without lines, or diphthongs, or marks of punctuation. Bulls engrossed on a different parchment, or in different characters with lines and punctuation marks, or without the accustomed abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, would be rejected as spurious. Pope Leo XIII (Constitutio Universae Eccles., 29 December 1878) ordained that they should be written henceforth in ordinary Latin characters upon ordinary parchment, and that no abbreviations should be used except those easily understood.