4 
Introduction 
The procedure of the several congregations is much the same. There are 
regular meetings or congregations, which may adjourn from date to date, 
much in the fashion prescribed by English parliamentary law. The regular 
pontifical congregations often appoint congregationes particulares' or special 
committees, some of which are for the permanent reference of branches of 
the work, and others temporary, for special cases. Thus under the Propa¬ 
ganda, there has long been a special congregation for the East Indies, and 
there was at one time a special congregation on certain temporary conditions 
in the Western Indies. These subordinate congregations have, of course, no 
organic powers, and their action is effective only when approved by the parent 
congregation. It is difficult to distinguish precisely between these congrega¬ 
tiones particulares , and the commissions which also exist under the general 
direction of the regular congregations; possibly it is that the latter need not 
have a cardinal member. 8 
The congregations whose range of activity may possibly have included the 
United States and Canada will be dealt with separately later, and their func¬ 
tions briefly described. 9 
Individually the cardinals act as “ protectors ” of kingdoms, monastic or¬ 
ders, and other institutions, thus being brought into contact with the whole 
life of the Church; but this relationship has been during the modern period 
largely a formal one. 
To put into prescribed form, as bulls, to register, and to expedite the formal 
decisions of the Pope and the Curia, is the work of the chancery. The head 
of this department, the vice-chancellor, is always a cardinal. He is assisted 
by the college of abbreviators di parco maggiore, who enjoy ex officio the rank 
of prelate, and who aid in the preparation of the bulls. There is also a staff 
of secretaries and clerks. 10 It is plain that a department of this character may 
assume an importance far beyond that indicated by its obvious functions. As 
is well known, the vice-chancellor was at one time one of the leading factors 
in determining papal policy. In the registers of chancery are found, in the 
time of Alexander VI. and Julius II., instructions to nuncios. The rise of the 
congregations and of the secretary of state has, however, tended to relegate 
the chancery to the performance of its immediate duties. Pius VII. decidedly 
reduced the number of its employees, 11 and while its dignity remains, its powers 
are merely those arising directly from the work assigned it. 
Somewhat similar functions are performed by the office of the secretary of 
briefs, which might almost be termed a subordinate chancery. 12 Briefs are 
less formal in character than bulls, but it is difficult to trace the line of division. 
Vital offices of the Church, bearing emoluments, are conferred by bull, hon¬ 
orary ones by brief. Usually the decisions of the congregations in those mat¬ 
ters over which they have final authority, take form in briefs. In addition to 
the duty of giving expression to the will of others, this office itself has a deter¬ 
mining power over a few subjects, as dispensations with regard to the age 
for taking orders, and the use of private oratories. It has been in existence 
7 La Gerarchia Cattolica, la Famiglia e la Cappella Pontificia, le Amministrazioni 
Palatine, le Sacre Congregazioni, e gli altri Dicasteri PontiUci (Rome, 1907, pp. 626). 
See pp. 464-504. 
8 Ibid. 
9 See pp. 196-200. 
10 Grimaldi, pp. 431-447; Gerarchia. 
11 Grimaldi, p. 441. 
12 Ibid., pp. 469-487. 
