List of Ecclesiastical Abbreviations - Administrative

Administrative

The first class of abbreviations includes those used in the composition of Pontifical documents. They were once very numerous, and lists of them may be seen in the works quoted below (e.g. Quantin, Prou). It may be well to state at once that since 29 December 1878, by order of Leo XIII, the great papal documents (Litterae Apostolicae) are no longer written in the old Gothic hand known as bollatico; all abbreviations, with the exception of a few obvious ones, like S.R.E., were abolished by the same authority (Acta Sanctae Sedis, XI, 465–467). In the transaction of ordinary business the Roman Congregations are wont to use certain brief and pithy formulas (e.g. Negative = "No"; Negative et amplius = "No with emphasis"). They are not, correctly speaking, abbreviations. For a list of these see Canon law. This class includes also the abbreviations for the names of most sees. The full Latin titles of all existing (Latin) dioceses may be seen in the Roman annual, "Gerarchia Cattolica", a complete list of the Latin names of all known dioceses (extant or extinct) is found in the large folio work of the Comte de Mas Latrie, "Trésor de chronologie, d'histoire et de géographie" (Paris, 1884). For the same purpose the reader may also consult the episcopal catalogues of the Benedictine Pius Bonifacius Gams, "Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae" (Ratisbon, 1873–86), and the Franciscan Conrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Ævi (Münster, 1898–1902). Under this general heading may be included all abbreviated forms of addresses in ordinary intercourse, whether of individuals or of members of religious orders, congregations, institutes, to which may be added the forms of addresses usual for members of Catholic lay societies and the Papal orders of merit. (See Catholic societies, orders of merit.) The abbreviations of the titles of Roman Congregations, and of the individual canonical ecclesiastical authorities, belong also to this class.