CURIA ROMANA, the name given to the whole body of administrative and judicial institutions, by means of which the pope carries on the general government of the Church ; also applied by an extension of meaning to the persons who form part of it, and sometimes to the Holy See itself. Rome is almost the only place where the word curia has preserved its ancient form ; elsewhere it has been almost always replaced by "court" (tour, corte), which is etymologically the same. Even at Rome, how ever, the expression "papal court" (corte romans) has acquired by usage a sense different from that of the word curia; as in the case of royal courts it denotes the whole body of dignitaries and officials who surround and attend on the pope; the pope, however, has two establishments: the civil establishment, in which he is surrounded by what is termed his "family" (familia) ; and the religious establishment, the members of which form his "chapel" (capella). The word curia is more particularly reserved to the tribunals and departments which actually deal with the general business of the Church.
Powers and Responsibility.—The modern principle of the sepa ration of powers is unknown to the Church ; the functions of each department are limited solely by the extent of the powers dele gated to it and the nature of the business entrusted to it ; but each of them may have a share at the same time in the legislative, judicial and administrative power. Similarly, the necessity for referring matters to the pope in person, for his approval or ratifi cation of the decisions arrived at, varies greatly according to the department and the nature of the business. But, on the whole, all sections of the Curia hold their powers direct from the pope, and exercise them in his name. Each of them, then, has supreme authority within its own sphere, while the official responsibility belongs to the pope, just as in all governments it is the govern ment that is responsible for the acts of its departments. Of these official acts, however, it is possible to distinguish two categories: those emanating directly from the heads of departments are gen erally called Acts of the Holy See (and in this sense the Holy See is equivalent to the Curia) ; those which emanate direct from the pope are called Pontifical Acts. The latter are the Apostolic Letters, i.e., those documents in which the pope speaks in his own name (bulls, briefs, encyclicals, etc.) even when he does not sign them, as we shall see. The Apostolic Letters alone may be ex cathedra documents, and may have the privilege of infallibility, if the matter admit of it. There are also certain differences be tween the two sorts of documents with regard to their penal consequences. But in all cases the disciplinary authority is evi dently the same ; we need only note that acts concerning indi viduals do not claim the force of general law ; the legal decisions serve at most to settle matters of jurisprudence.
The constituent parts of the Roman Curia fall essentially into two classes: (i.) the permanent commissions of cardinals, known by the name of "Congregations" (see CARDINAL) ; these are the real machinery of the papal administration. They have taken precedence of, and greatly relieved the work of (ii.) the "Trib unals" and "Offices," which for centuries served for the trans action of business, and which still continue their activity.
The Roman Congregations.—The constitution of these is the same; a council varying in numbers, the members of which are cardinals, who alone take part in the deliberations. One of the cardinals acts as president ("prefect"), and the congregation is assisted by a secretary and a certain number of inferior officials, for secretarial and office work. They have also consultors, whose duty it is to study the subjects for consideration. Their delibera tions are secret and are based on prepared documents bearing on the case, written, or more often printed, which are distributed to all the cardinals about ten days in advance. The deliberations follow a simplified procedure, which is founded more on equity than on the more strictly legal forms, and decisions are given in the shortest possible form, in answer to carefully formulated ques tions or dubia. The cardinal prefect, aided by the secretariat, deals with the ordinary business, only important matters being submitted for the consideration of the general meeting. To have the force of law the acts of the congregations must be signed by the cardinal prefect and secretary, and sealed with his seal. The organization of the congregations begins with pope Sixtus V. By his bull Immensa of Jan. 22, 1587, he apportioned all the business of the Church (including that of the papal states) among fifteen Congregations of cardinals, some of which were already in existence, but most of which were established by him; and these commissions, or those of them at least which are concerned with spiritual matters, are still working. A few others have been added by his successors. Pius X., by the constitution Sapienti Consilio of June 29, 1908, proceeded to a general reorganization of the Roman Curia—Congregations, tribunals and offices. In this constitution he declared that the competency of these various organs was not always clear, and that their functions were badly arranged ; that certain of them had only a small amount of business to deal with, while others were overworked; that strictly judicial affairs, with which the Congregations had not to deal originally, had developed to an excessive extent, while the tribunals, the Rota and the Signatura, had nothing to do. He consequently withdrew all judicial affairs from the Congregations, and handed them over to the two tribunals, now revived, of the Rota and the papal Sig natura ; all affairs concerning the discipline of the sacraments were entrusted to a new Congregation of that name ; the competency of the remaining Congregations was modified, according to the nature of the affairs with which they deal, and certain of them were amalgamated with others ; general rules were laid down for the expedition of business and regarding personnel; in short, the work of Sixtus V. was repeated and adapted to later conditions.
Gerarchia cattolica, an annual directory pub lished at Rome; Lunadoro, Relazione della torte di Roma (Rome, 1765) ; Bouix, De curia romana (Paris, 18S9) ; Grimaldi, Les Congre gations romaines (Sienna, 1891) ; Catholic Encyclopaedia, art. "Curia," and many articles on the related topics; Vacant and Mangeot, Diction naire de thEologie Catholique, art. "Cour romaine"; and articles in Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexicon. Among publications of the Roman Congregations, the following may be mentioned:—Bizzarri, Collectanea in usum Secretariae (Rome, 1866, 1885) . Council: the Thesaurus reso lutionum has published all business since I Too ; a volume is issued every year, and the contents have been published in alphabetical order by Zamboni (4 vols., Rome, - 812 ; Arras, 186o) and by Pallottini (18 vols., Rome, 1868, etc.). Immunity: Ricci, Synopsis, decreta et resolu tiones (Palestrina, 1708). Propaganda: De Martinis, Juris pontificii de Propaganda Fide, etc. (Rome, 1888, etc.) ; Collectanea S. C. de Prop. Fide (end ed., Rome, 1907) . Index: Index librorum prohibitorum (Rome) . Rites: Decreta authentica (Rome, 1898) . Indulgences: Decreta authentica (Regensburg, 1882) ; Rescripta authentica (ib., 1885).