RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Curia Curione
institutions of the Curia are the College of Cardinals, the Poenitentiaria, the Dataria, the secretariate of briefs, and the chancery.
Their position has, however, been altered to a considerable extent by the erection of a number of permanent committees of cardinals for definite branches of business. All these " con-
4. Congre- gregations," besides the cardinals gations. strictly composing them (of whom the
head is called the prefect), have a number of expert subordinates who have a voice, though not a vote, in their meetings, and really do the detailed work. These are usually called consuitors, sometimes qualificators, relators, etc. The Congregation of the Inquisition, of which the pope himself is prefect, is the oldest congregation, founded in 1542 in consequence of the Reformation, for the repression of all sorts of heresy. It was reenforced by the Congregation of the Index under Paul V., to supervise the publication of books (see Censorship AND Prohibition of Books). On the proclamation of the decrees of the Council of Trent, 1564, Pius IV. established the Congregation of the Council for the enforcement of these decisions; and Sixtus V. in 1587 gave it the express right to decide questions (not of a dogmatic nature) which might arise in regard to their interpretation. At the sarhe time he erected three more, the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, for the oversight of bishops and monastic orders in general and in their mutual relations; the Congregation of Rites, for the supervision of public worship in all its details, canonization, etc. ; and the Congregation of the Consistory, for the preparation of business to come before the whole body of cardinals. In 1622 was added the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, for the centralizing of missionary work among both the heathen and non-Catholics, and for the government of the Church in non-Catholic countries. In 1626 originated the Congregation of Ecclesiastical Immunities, for the protection of the rights of the Church in relation to the State; after 1815 a large part of its business was transferred to the Congregation on Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. In 1669 was erected the Congregation of Indulgences and Relics; and others have since been founded, sometimes for a temporary purpose. In most current business these various Isodies are competent to decide independently, in accordance with their faculties and their traditional practise; only the most important affairs come before the pope personally.
The requirement that every petitioner shall appear either in person or by proxy before the body with which he has business has led to the gradual evolution of a vast system of petty diplomacy, in which personal influence and ex-
5. Diplo- perience count for much. For many matic centuries each diocese had its agents
Agents and accredited to the Curia, the same one Solicitors, frequently representing several bishops.
They attended not only to the matters brought up by the bishop himself, but also to all that came through him, such as requests for dispensations. The minor details were left in the hands of a subordinate official called spedizionere. The diminutionin the volume of business after 1808,
and the establishment of embassies of a modern type in Rome, through which many bishops found themselves for the time obliged to treat with the Holy See, led by degrees to the effacement of the distmction between the agent and the spedizionere ; and the official who discharges both functions, now that the bishops treat once more directly with the pope, is commonly known as a solicitor of pontifical briefs. See Consistory; Papal States; and Pope, Papacy. (J. F. von Schulte.)
Bibliography: The best single volume is P. Hinsehiua, Kirchenrecht der Katholiken . in Deutschland, vol. ii.', Berlin, 1871-78, to be supplemented by reference to F. H. Vering, Lehrbuch des katholischen . . . KirchenrechU, Freiburg, 1876. Consult also: J. H. Bangen, Die romische Curie, Miinster, 1854; F. Grimaldi, Les Congregaiions romaines. Sienna, 1890; L. Lector, Le Conclave, Paris, 1894; idem, L'Election papale, ib. 1896; A. Pieper, Zur Entsiehungsgeschichte der standigen Nuntiaturen, Freiburg, 1894; P. A, Baart, The Roman Court, New York, 1895 (useful); A. R. Pennington, Papal Conclaves, London, 1897; W. Plumplirey, Urbs et orbis: the Pope as Bishop and as Pontiff, ib. 1899 ("the purpose . is to set forth the Papacy in action "); P. M. Baumgarten, Der Papst, die Regierung und die Verwaltung der heiligen Kirche in Rom, Munich [1904]; D. Sladen, The Secrets of the Vatican, London, 1907; N. Helling, Procedure at the Roman Curia, ib. 1907; and the annual semiofficial publication, Gerarchia cattolica,
CURIONE, cu-ri"o-ne', CELIO SECONDO: Italian Reformer; b. at Cirie (13 m. n.w. of Turin) May 1, 1503; d. at Basel Nov. 24, 1569. Early left an orphan, relatives had him carefully educated, especially in the classics. A monk of the Augustinian monastery at Turin provided him with Luther's writings, and these and Melanchthon's Loci theologici led him into freer paths. With two like-minded friends he undertook to cross the Alps to meet Erasmus and the Germans, but the bishop of Aosta obstructed their way and sent Curione to the monastery of San Benigno. At a festival at which relics were usually shown he put a Bible into the shrine with the superscription: " This is the ark of salvation." When it was discovered he saved himself by flight. In 1530 he was teacher in Milan, then at Casale, where he became intimately associated with Fulvio Pellegrini, called Morato, the father of Olimpia Morata (q.v.), famous in the history of the Italian Reformation. He went to Pavia, where he spent some years at the university teaching grammar and rhetoric. Being obliged to leave in 1538 by the Inquisition, he went to Venice, where he felt " in a safe haven of rest." At the instance of Morato he was called to Ferrara, and afterward removed to Lucca in 1541. The following year became decisive for Curione and many other friends of the Reformation in the Italian peninsula. On the same day (June 10, 1542) on which he dated the preface to a work, De liberis pie christianeque educandis, he wrote to ^lorato that he was no longer safe. In July the bull Licet ab initio was published, which inaugurated a general persecution, and in August men like Bernardino Ochino and Peter Martyr Vermigli (qq.v.) had already taken to flight. Curione escaped when the bailiffs stood before his door, left his family, and crossed the Alps. After serving a long time as private tutor, he was appointed professor at Basel in 1547. In the mean time he composed his best-
Currier Cusa