198 
Other Ecclesiastical Collections in Rome 
are very extensive, as its rules of pleading were well developed and elaborate. 
There are said to be 16,000 volumes, extending from the end of the sixteenth 
century, 9 but they seem as yet to have been kept secret. In the Borgia col¬ 
lection, numbers 66 , 70 , 71 , and 77 give a compendium and index to the ma¬ 
terial from 1582 to 1644. No cases arising in America were noted. The 
collection is apparently arranged by subjects, as the interest was in cases and 
not in the localities from which they arose. In the records of the Propaganda 
there are notices of cases referred from that congregation to this. 
Super Disciplinam Regularium. 
The particular function of this congregation was to settle cases arising be¬ 
tween two members of the same order, those involving two orders going to 
the preceding congregation. Originally given powers only in Italy, its work 
rarely extended out of that field, although it was given general jurisdiction 
in 1645. At first a rival of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, it be¬ 
came later an adjunct, having the same prefect, and was in 1906 annexed to 
it. 10 The two archives have undoubtedly been joined. 
Super Statum Regularium. 
This congregation, established in 1846 to revise the legislation affecting all 
orders, was in 1906 dissolved by Pius X., as having accomplished its purpose. 11 
It was always connected with the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, and 
their archives are doubtless joined; but those of this congregation would 
scarcely chance to have anything local to America. 
Concilii. 
This congregation was formed originally to interpret the decrees of the 
Council of Trent, and to propose new legislation. Its field of activity was with 
the secular clergy and the people. This gave it supervision of diocesan and 
parochial property, of the observation of feasts and fasts, and of pious unions 
and other ecclesiastical societies not monastic. It acquired other functions, 
such as the examination of bishops and the revision of the decrees of provin¬ 
cial councils. These two latter duties were at one time assigned to subordinate 
congregations; but these need not receive the attention of the American his¬ 
torian, as the jurisdiction of the first did not extend to America, and the latter, 
doubtless with its archives, was in 1908 annexed to the Congregation of the 
Council. The constitutions of 1908 leave this congregation with much the 
same field it has previously occupied, although no specific reference is made 
to the Council of Trent. The duty of examining the reports of bishops, and 
of making recommendations upon them, has been transferred to the Congre¬ 
gation of the Consistory, and all judicial powers, except in linea disciplinari, 
to the Rota. Its archives, which consist of about 4000 volumes, should contain 
a fair proportion of material relating to America. 12 
Super Residentiam Episcoporum. 
This was a congregation, subordinate to the preceding, whose purpose was 
to regulate the residence of bishops. It may well have discussed the cases 
’Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. liii. 
10 Pius X., Pontiticis Maximi Acta, vol. III. (Rome, 1908) ; May 26, 1906. 
11 Ibid. 
12 Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. liii. 
