Catholic Church. Signatura Apostolica

In the mid-thirteenth century the popes used the services of referendarii apostolici (official reporters) to prepare petitions for the signature (signatura) of the pope, or his delegate, or to refer questions involving favors or matters of justice to the cardinal or chaplain auditors. With the passage of time and the increase in requests, the number of referendarii increased considerably.

Eugene IV (1431-1447) made the Signatura a permanent office and gave to the referendarii the faculty of signing certain supplications, but always in the presence of the pope. This led to a gradual division of the Signatura into two distinct but parallel bodies: the Signatura Gratiae, competent in administrative matters, and the Signatura Iustitiae, competent in judicial matters. For lack of documentation it is difficult to say just when this division took place. Some authorities hold that it was with Innocent VIII's constitution Officii nostri debitum (Jan. 25, 1491). Others attribute it to Alexander VI (1492-1503) who, some say, did it in order to define the functions of the office more clearly. By the time of Julius II (1503-1513), however, the division of the two Signatures had been completed, each had its own prefect, and the Signatura Iustitiae had become a genuine tribunal.

In his curial reorganization (constitution Sapienti consilio and Lex propria, Jun. 29, 1908), Pius X formally suppressed the Signatura Gratiae and the Signatura Iustitiae as originally established and restored the latter as a new body, called the Signatura Apostolica, to be the supreme tribunal of the Holy See. Its province is confined to questions relating to auditors of the Rota and to the sentences pronounced by them. This revised Signatura is a genuine tribunal with jurisdiction in four kinds of cases: (1) accusations of suspicions against an auditor of the Rota; (2) accusations of violation of secrecy by an auditor of the Rota; (3) appeals against a sentence of the Rota; and (4) petitions for the nullification of a decision of the Rota that has already passed into a res iudicata. It has other duties related to the juridical organization of the Vatican City State, and from certain concordats. The Lex propria was more clearly defined by the Regulae servandae approved by Benedict XV on March 6, 1912, to which that pope also added an appendix on November 3, 1915.

Benedict XV reestablished the college of votanti and that of the referendaries as consultative organs of the tribunal (chirograph Attentis expositis, Jun. 28, 1915). The faculties and privileges of the voting prelates and of the referendary prelates were determined by Pius XI's constitution Ad incrementum, August 15, 1934.

Paul VI's Regimini Ecclesiae universae (Aug. 15, 1967) changed the name to Supremum Tribunal Signaturae Apostolicae and divided the tribunal into two sections: (1) strictly judicial affairs--to oversee the administration of justice in the lower tribunals, resolve disputes over judicial authority, erect regional and interregional tribunals, hear cases involving accusations of nullity against rotal proceedings, try cases assigned to it by the pope, and enjoy the rights recognized by various concordats; and (2) service as an administrative court--to resolve conflicts of authority among Roman offices, deal with questions about the exercise of administrative jurisdiction in the church, and examine administrative questions referred to it by the pope or the congregations. The Signatura is governed by its own proper law.

To see a general agency history for the Curia Romana, enter "FIN ID VATV214-A". For a general agency history of Vatican City, enter "FIN ID VATV881-A"

From the description of Agency history record. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 145567126