Introduction 
3 
the matter in hand diminishes, but also his authority must be exercised accord¬ 
ing to established methods. In effect the Pope stands not alone, but as the 
head of the hierarchy. 
After the Pope, comes the Curia or college of cardinals, to a certain extent 
the legislative body of the Papacy. The meetings of the college are known as 
consistories, and are of two kinds. 1 The secret consistory is of regular occur¬ 
rence ; in it, appointments of bishops, the erection of episcopal sees, and such 
matters are dealt with. The public consistories are occasional; in them the 
creations of cardinals, beatifications, and canonizations are announced, papal 
allocutions are delivered, and the speeches of ambassadors, or at times of at¬ 
tending royalties, are received. Since the time of Sixtus V., neither meeting 
has been deliberative, and the unforeseen practically never happens.* Their 
proceedings are important for fact, but not for motive, and the pontifical 
orations are not, like the speech of the king of England in Parliament, an out¬ 
line of policy suggested, but of one adopted. 
Most of the business of the college of cardinals is performed in the congre¬ 
gations.* Here matters to be presented to the consistories are prepared, and 
many affairs of importance finally determined. The system of congregations 
was established by Sixtus V., in 1587, 4 and at once assumed the leading place 
in the organization of the papacy which it has since maintained. A congrega¬ 
tion is practically a standing committee. Its prefect is the Pope or a cardinal, 
and generally other cardinals, sometimes all, are members." In addition there 
is a secretary, not a cardinal, and other outside members or councillors who 
do not vote, 6 and an administrative staff. Membership is of course for life, 
barring contingencies. Each congregation has charge of some great branch 
of business, and the greater portion of its work falls to it as a matter of course ; 
but, as in the American Congress, special cases are sometimes assigned to 
congregations to which they might not naturally fall, and border lands of 
obscure jurisdiction exist; while congregations frequently refer matters, the 
one to the other. In case of a disagreement as to jurisdiction, the intervention 
of the Pope is always to be obtained. Over the subjects that fall to its charge 
the powers of a congregation are extraordinarily great. It is, in fact, an ex¬ 
ecutive and administrative, and at times a judicial body, as well as a legislative 
committee. It is the possession of this final power of determination within 
certain defined limits, its permanence represented by the secretary, and its 
touch with supreme authority, represented by its curial members, which com¬ 
bine to render the congregation so powerful and so distinguished an institution. 
/ 
1 Joseph Korzeniowski, Excerpta ex Libris Manu Scriptis Archivi Consistorialis Ro¬ 
mani, 1409-1590 (Cracow, 1890, pp. 151). See pp. 1-4. 
2 Note the disturbance caused when Cardinal Borgia, on Mar. 8, 1632, violated this 
convention and attacked Urban VIII. 
* See Felix Grimaldi, Les Congregations Romaines, Guide Historique et Pratique 
(Siena, 1890, pp. xii, 556). This is more comprehensive than its name implies, treating 
nearly all the departments of papal government. It is the most useful account of 
present-day administration, though rendered somewhat out of date by the administra¬ 
tive changes of Pius X. 
‘Paul III. (1534-1550) instituted the Congregation of the Inquisition. Sixtus V., 
Jan. 22, 1587, by the bull Immensa aeterni Dei, created fifteen congregations. Grimaldi, 
p. 146. 
6 The Pope is prefect of the congregations of the Inquisition, the Consistory, the Holy 
Apostolic Visitation, and for the Reunion of Dissenting Churches. 
8 In some congregations there are a series of officials, each with special duties, but 
there are always several known as consoltori, or by some similar title, whose functions 
are general. 
