CCRETES CURLEW. 



honey, wax, manna, and gall-nuts, exported by the 

 way of Smyrna. Curdistan 1ms sangiacks at Bayazid, 

 Mouch, Van, Julamerk, Amadia, Suleilimanieh, 

 Kara-Djiolan, and Zahou. Of all these sangiacks, the 

 Porte appoints only that of Van. Each sangiack 

 governs a number of the tribes of his nation, who 

 obey his commands in war, but are wholly indepen- 

 dent of him in time of peace. The Christians, who 

 constitute the principal population of the plains of 

 Armenia, suffer every year from the incursions of the 

 Curds, and, the Porte being unable to protect them, 

 they are compelled continually to remove farther to 

 the south, where they are also liable to be plundered 

 by the Bedouins or Wechabites. Their only hope is 

 in the increasing power of the Russian army on the 

 Turkish, Curdish, and Persian frontiers, and in the 

 expectation that the Russians will at last put an end 

 to the robberies of the Turks and the oppression of 

 the pachas. 



CURETES. See Corybantes. - 



CURIA, PAPAL, is a collective appellation of all 

 the authorities in Rome, which exercise all the rights 

 and privileges the pope enjoys as first bishop, 

 superintendent, and pastor of Roman Catholic Chris- 

 tendom. The right to grant or confirm ecclesiastical 

 appointments is exercised by the dataria. This body 

 receives petitions, draws up answers, and collects the 

 revenues of the pope for the pallia, spolia, benefices, 

 urinates, &c. It is a lucrative branch of the papal go- 

 vernment, and part of the receipts go to the apostolic 

 chamber. There is more difficulty attending the 

 business of the rota, the high court of appeal. In 

 former times, the cardinal grand penitentiary, as 

 president of the penitenzieria, had a very great in- 

 fluence. He issues all dispensations and absolutions 

 in respect to vows, penances, fasts, &c., in regard to 

 which the pope has reserved to himself 'the dispensing 

 power ; also with respect to marriages within the 

 degrees prohibited to Catholics. Besides these au- 

 thorities, whose powers extend over all Catholic 

 Christendom, there are, in Rome, several others, 

 occupied only with the government of the Roman 

 state ; as the sagra consutfa, the chief criminal court, 

 in which the cardinal secretary of state presides ; the 

 tignatura di giustizia, a court for civil cases, consist- 

 ing of twelve prelates, over which the cardinal-prov- 

 veditore, or minister of justice of the pope, presides, 

 and with which the signatura di grazia concurs ; the 

 apostolic chamber, in which twelve prelates are em- 

 ployed, under the cardmale camerlingo, administering 

 the property of the church and the papal domains, and 

 receiving the revenue which belongs to the pope as 

 temporal and spiritual sovereign of the Roman state ; 

 also that wliich he derives from other countries that 

 stand immediately under him, and are his fiefs. Be- 

 sides these, there is a number of governors, prefects, 

 procurafori, &c., in the different branches of the 

 administration. The drawing up of bulls, answers, 

 and decrees, which are issued by the pope himself, or 

 by these authorities, is done by the papal cliancery, 

 consisting of a vice-chancellor and twelve abbrevia- 

 tori, assisted by several hundred secretaries ; the 

 breves only are excepted, and are drawn up by a 

 particular cardinal. All these offices are filled by 

 clergymen ; and many of them are so lucrative, that 

 considerable sums are paid for them, somewhat in the 

 same manner as commissions are purchased in the 

 British army. At the death of Sixtus V. there ex- 

 isted 4000 venal offices of this kind ; but this number 

 has since been diminished, and many abuses have 

 been abolished. 



The highest council of the pope, corresponding, in 

 some measure, to the privy council of a mon- 

 arch, is the college of the cardinals convened when- 

 ever the pope thinks fit. The sessions of this senate, 



wliich presides over all the other authorities in Rome, 

 are called consistories. They are of different kinds. 

 The secret consistory is held, generally, twice a- 

 month, after the pope has given private audience to 

 :very cardinal. In these sessions, bishops are elected, 

 pallia granted, ecclesiastical and political affairs of 

 mportance transacted, and resolutions adopted on 

 the reports of the congregations delegated by the 

 consistory : beatifications and canonizations also 

 originate in this body. Different from the secret 

 consistories are the semi-secret ones, whose deli- 

 berations relate principally to political affairs, and 

 the results of them are communicated to the ambas- 

 sadors of foreign powers. The public consistories are 

 seldom held, and are, principally, ceremonial assem- 

 blies : in these the pope receives ambassadors, and 

 makes known important resolutions, canonizations, 

 establishments of orders, &c. According to rule, all 

 cardinals residing in Rome should take part in the 

 consistories ; but, in point of fact, no one appears 

 without being especially summoned by the pope. 

 The pope, if able to do so, always presides in person, 

 and the cardinal secretary of state (who is minister of 

 the interior and of foreign affairs) is always present, 

 as are likewise the cardinals presidents of the au- 

 thorities. At present, there are twenty-two congre- 

 gations of cardinals at Rome : 1. the holy Roman 

 and general inquisition, or holy office (santo officio) ; 

 2. visitaapostoiica ; 3. consistoriale ; 4. vescovi regoluri; 

 5. de concilia (Tridentino) ; 6. residenza di vescovi ; 7. 

 immunita ecclesias'tica ; 8. propaganda ; 9. indici (of 

 prohibited books) ; 10. sagri riti (of the holy rites) ; 

 11. ceremoniale ; 12. disciplina regolare (orders of 

 monks); 13. indulgenze e sagre reliquie ; 14. esame 

 dei vescovi; 15. correzimi dei libri delta chiesa Orient- 

 ale i 1C. fabbrica di S. Pietro (who have charge of 

 the repairs of St Peter's) ; 17. consulta; 18. Buon- 

 governo; 19. Loretto ; 20. hydraulic works and the 

 Pontine marshes ; 21. economica; 22. extraordinary 

 ecclesiastical affairs. Few, however, of these con- 

 gregations, are fully supplied with officers. 



CURLE ; certain divisions of the Roman people, 

 wliich Romulus is said to have established. Accord- 

 ing to Liv. i. 13, he divided Rome into 30 curies, and 

 assigned to each a separate place, where they might 

 celebrate their feasts, under their particular priest 

 (curio). At the comitia, the people assembled in 

 curia, to vote on important matters. The whole 

 Roman people were divided by Romulus (Dionys. 

 Halic. ii. c. 62) into three tribes, each tribe into 10 

 CMrz<,each curia into 10 decurice. To vote curiatim, 

 therefore, is to vote by curies. The division into curiee 

 was founded on locality, and therefore contradistin- 

 guished from the division according to tribes (a num- 

 ber of families of the same descent). Niebuhr, in his 

 Roman History, treats this subject with uncommon 

 erudition and perspicuity in vol. i., chapter The Patri- 

 cian houses and the Curiee. Curia also signified a 

 public building ; as, curia municipalis, &c. 



CURIATII. See Horatii. 



CURIUS DENTATUS, MARCUS ANNIOS ; an il- 

 lustrious Roman, who was three times consul, and twice 

 obtained the honours of a triumph. He vanquished 

 the Samnites, Sabines, and Lucanians, and defeated 

 Pyrrhus, near Tarentum, B. C. 272. When the de- 

 puties of the Samnites appeared before him for the 

 purpose of concluding a peace, they found him on his 

 form boiling vegetables in an earthen pot. They at- 

 tempted to purchase his favour by offering him ves- 

 sels of gold, but the noble Roman disdainfully refused 

 their offers. " I prefer," said lie, " my earthen pots to 

 your vases of gold. I have no desire for wealth, and 

 am satisfied to live in poverty, and rule over the rich." 



CURLEW (numenius, Briss.) ; a genus of birds 

 belonging to the order grallcc, or waders, and family 



