Other Ecclesiastical Collections in Rome 
201 
to be in the future, reserved, for those of no other department are of so con¬ 
fidential a nature. I am unable to state whether any American cases came to 
the Penitentiary or whether they were all arrested in America, by the broader 
faculties given the bishops, and in the Propaganda. 
Sacra Romana Rota. 
The history of this tribunal is summed up in the preamble of the Constitu¬ 
tion of 1908 reorganizing it: “ Ouum Sacrae Romanae Rotae tribunal, ante- 
actis temporibus omni laude cumulatum, hoc aevo variis de causis judicare 
ferme destiterit, factum est ut Sacrae Congregationes forensibus contentioni- 
bus nimium gravarentur Although it remained in theory a sort of supreme 
court for spiritual causes, its work, after the rise of the congregations, was 
actually confined almost entirely to civil causes arising in the Papal States, 
and with the fall of the temporal dominion of the Pope, it became moribund. 
The Constitutions of 1908, with previous letters of Pius X., re-established its 
importance, ordering that “ causae omnes contentiosae non maiores ” come 
before it. Its archives are in the Palazzetta in the garden of the Vatican, and 
are well ordered though not regularly accessible.' 3 As is evident, it is scarcely 
possible that they contain American material.* 4 
Signatura Apostolica. 
This tribunal, formed in 1908 to act as a court of appeal from the Rota, 
succeeds two ancient tribunals, the Signatura Papalis Gratiae and the Signa¬ 
tura Papalis Justitiae, which served to some extent as courts of equity. 25 Their 
archives are in the same building as those of the Rota, but there is even less 
chance than in the case of the latter that American material may be found 
in them. 
OFFICES. 
Cancellaria Apostolica. 
I know nothing of what archives there may be in the keeping of this office 
in its palace on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. It would seem that there could 
be nothing essential, that is, nothing not represented elsewhere, except office 
accounts. One would suppose, however, that there must be preserved here 
warrants or mandates for the bulls which it has issued, and the original min¬ 
utes of the same signed by the Pope. 20 
Dataria Apostolica. 
The extensive archives recently transferred to the Vatican from the Lateran 
would seem to contain all the essential records of this office to a period even 
later than those for which general access is allowed.*' 
23 Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. lii; Sagnori, Relazioni sail’ Ordinamento dell’Archivio 
degli Uffici Rotali (Rome, 1888). 
24 Barberini 1538, containing an index to the decisions of the Rota, 1557-1618, and 
1596, containing selected decisions and index, 1600-1626, were examined and no perti¬ 
nent case found. The decisions of the Rota made popular reading and copies are found 
in almost every library. 
25 Bourgin, Les Archives Pontiffcales, p. 89; A. Gottlob, “Das Vaticanische Archiv ”, 
in Historisches Jahrbuch, V. 272; Hinojosa, Los Despachos, p. lii. 
30 See page 21. 
27 See page 24 for archives. For functions see T. Amyclenus, Tractatus de Officio et 
Jurisdictione Datarii, necnon de Stylo Datariae (Cologne, 1701, pp. 461). 
