Archivio Segreto 
27 
and usually two quinterna by the same scriptor are together. The total num¬ 
ber of folios is usually 300, and there are in many cases as many as fifteen 
petitions on a single folio. The numbering of the pages is often incorrect. 
In the margin is some brief indication of the class to which the petition be¬ 
longs. The petitions in a single quinternum are often of dates extending 
through the entire year. No method of referring from the register of bulls 
or briefs to the register of supplications or vice versa was discovered. The 
use of these registers is consequently very laborious, and the labor is increased 
by the writing, which is usually very bad. 
The variety of the contents of these petitions is limited practically only by 
the variety of non-spiritual favors which the papacy can grant. 2 ® They in¬ 
clude requests for benefices; for dispensations to receive orders within pro¬ 
hibited ages and conditions of birth; for permission to exercise ecclesiastical 
functions and enjoy pluralities; to reside outside canonical districts; to be 
freed from impediments to matrimony; for the amplification, confirmation, 
and extension of extraordinary privileges ; for the creation and change of 
parishes and dioceses; for privileges regarding the right of patronage, etc. 
They come from individuals, from kings and others asking favors extending 
to classes of the population, and from corporations, as universities. Some¬ 
time similar petitions are grouped by the Dataria for treatment together. 
The American material, of course, corresponds to that described as in the 
Regesta Lateranensia, and the Archivio dei Brevi, but there are more petitions 
than grants of gifts and graces. Considering the formal character of the 
petitions during the modern age, the extreme paucity of American material, 
and the unmanageableness of the series, it would seem that such material as 
does exist, should be left, until the work of those who can expect greater 
return for their efforts shall have rendered the volumes more approachable. 
REGISTER OF BRIEFS. 
The apostolic letter in the form of a brief has been in use from very early 
times. Under John XXII. the office of secretary of briefs came into existence, 
and, with many changes and some interruptions, has continued to the present 
day. 29 Leo X. enlarged that secretary’s powers, making him dependent on 
the Pope alone, or in difficult cases upon a cardinal di segnatura . 30 In effect 
the office of the secretary of briefs was a sort of chancery, subordinate to the 
regular chancery only in dignity. During the modern period an increasing 
amount of business went through his hands, particularly such as was of a 
political or of an exceptional nature, including orders, instructions to nuncios, 
statutes and constitutions, changes of organization, in the sum total making 
the briefs of much more general interest than the bulls. In addition to formu¬ 
lating the will of the Pope and the congregations, the secretary of briefs had 
certain powers which he exercised without reference. These included dis¬ 
pensations with regard to age, private oratories, reservation of the sacrament 
in non-parochial churches, the blessing of crosses, the granting of plenary 
indulgence in certain cases, the conferring of the apostolic benediction, etc.; 
while he had general charge of the subject of papal decorations and titles. 31 
2S Ibid., p. xxxix. 
29 Grimaldi, Les Congregations Romaines, p. 473. 
so Carga, in Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana, pp. 457-468. 
81 Grimaldi, Les Congregations Romaines, pp. 469-489. 
