OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL COLLECTIONS IN ROME. 
In the following sketch of the other ecclesiastical collections, the several 
institutions are discussed in the order in which they are given in the Gerarchia 
Cattolica. 
THE CONGREGATIONS. 1 
Sancti Officii. 
The Congregatio Sancti Officii, or, as it is more commonly known, the Holy 
Roman and Universal Inquisition, should not be confounded with the various 
inquisitorial bodies which preceded it. In its present form it was established 
in 1536 by Paul III., and fully organized by Paul IV. in 1558. Its general 
function is the preservation of the faith in relation to heresy and heretics. As 
a powerful congregation it attracted to itself many matters not necessarily 
pertinent to it, and in particular its reputation for secrecy caused it to be given 
the handling of many affairs of delicacy. A great deal of English business 
passed through its hands, and with it possibly something relating to America. 
The material relating to Spanish America is scant because of the extraor¬ 
dinary independent powers granted to the more venerable Spanish Inquisi¬ 
tion, 2 but still the correspondence of the Holy Office contains something. 3 
Matters relating to the Indies were also occasionally referred here by the 
Propaganda. At the present time the Holy Office has ceased to deal with 
matters not strictly falling to it; and its jurisdiction has been reduced by the 
creation of the Congregation de Disciplina Sacramentorum, and by the trans¬ 
fer of all that relates to abstinence, feasts, etc., to the Congregation of the 
Council, and of everything relating to the election of bishops to that of the 
Consistory. 
The archives of this congregation suffered severely at the time of their 
transfer from Paris, 4 when a great mass of them was destroyed under the 
Nearly all the facts relating to the activities of the several congregations are taken 
from Les Congregations Romaines, by Felix Grimaldi ( Siena, 1890, pp. xii, 556), and 
from Constitutio Apostolica de Rotnana Curia, by Pius X. (Rome, 1908. pp. 69). Gri¬ 
maldi at the time he wrote this work had a wide practice before the congregations and 
was well acquainted with all the details and technicalities of their methods. Owing to 
an over-indulgence in a rather characteristically Roman love of sarcasm, he was led 
into statements which caused his book to be placed on the Index ; but it remains the 
one modern work on the subject. Since its publication changes in organization have 
been numerous and important, but it seemed hardly within the subject to follow them 
in detail. The new state of affairs is summarized in the bull and laws included in the 
above-mentioned pamphlet of 1908, which represents a condition that will probably 
be fairly permanent. For the earlier period there are several works chiefly formal in 
character. In addition to those mentioned in connection with specific references, the 
following were of some use; Cohellius, Notitia Cardinalatus (Rome, 1653, pp. 328), 
particularly pp. 41-153 on the congregations, and 192-198 on the vice-chancellor; and 
Colomiatti, Codex Juris PontiUcii seu Canonici, vol. II. (Turin, 1893), which gives 
the bulls incorporating and regulating the congregations. The information obtained 
from these sources was supplemented by conversations with many of those now actually 
engaged in affairs, and by the particular references which follow. 
2 Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. liii. 
3 See Barberini 6334-6336. 
4 See inventory of the archives, in the Archives Nationales, Paris, cartons 390-395,. 
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