ABBREVIATORS

This term was generically applied to one who drew up the first draft of a document, from which a good copy would be made to serve as the original. The ecclesiastical abbreviators were officials of the Apostolic Chancery, one of the oldest and most important offices in the Roman Curia. Their function was two fold: to compose the first, rather abbreviated, draft of papal letters, which were transcribed in proper form by copyists, and then to inspect the finished letter before it received the papal seal.

The origins of this office are uncertain. Mention is made of the existence of abbreviators in the Curia of Innocent III (1198–1216), but the first explicit use of the title abbreviator of apostolic letters occurs in the acts of John XXII (1316–34).

Whatever may be the date of the institution of the office of abbreviator, it is certain that it assumed greater importance upon its erection under Pius II (1458–64) into a college of prelates divided into a higher and a lower rank.

By decree of Leo X (1513–21) abbreviators were created nobles, counts palatine, and members of the papal household. They and their clerics and properties were exempt from all jurisdiction except the immediate jurisdiction of the pope. He also empowered them to confer the degree of doctor, to create notaries, to legitimize children, to ennoble three persons, and to make knights of the Order of St. Sylvester.

In the reforms of Pius VII (1800–23), the abbreviators of the lower rank were suppressed. The abolition of those of the higher rank in the reorganization of the papal chancery under Pius X (1903–14) brought to a close the long history of this institution.

Bibliography: e. fournier, Dictionnaire de droit canonique 1:98–106. l. pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages 4:38–39. m. lega, Praelectiones in textum iuris canonici, 4 v. (Rome 1896–1901) 2.1:289–290. g. ciampini, De abbreviatorum … statu … (Rome 1691).

[l. a. voegtle]