The principal and presiding official was the Grand Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church,[1] who was always the cardinal-priest of the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso.
The primacy of the Roman pontiff required that he have in his service officials to write and transmit his answers to the numerous petitions for favours and consultations addressed to him.
The Apostolic constitution Etsi ad Singula of Pope Clement VII of 5 July 1532 provided the cardinalatial title of the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Damaso to the chancellor.
Some of the offices that Pope Sixtus V classified as vacabili were of minor importance and therefore did not require special competence were sold with a grant of the right of succession to the heirs of the purchaser.
Offices that entailed grave obligations and for which only pious and learned men were eligible were sold without this right and therefore reverted to the Roman Curia on the death of the purchaser.
[4] Other offices that Pope Sixtus V classified as vacabili were of greater importance, including that of Regent and those of the 25 solicitors, 12 notaries, and auditors of the Causes of the Holy Palace.
The majority of the minor offices of the Cancellaria were suppressed and its faculties were reduced only to the expedition of Papal bulls for Consistorial benefices, erection of new dioceses and chapters, and other more important ecclesiastical affairs that required various forms of apostolic letters.
Finally, the motu proprio Quo Aptius of Pope Paul VI of 27 February 1973 completely suppressed the Cancellaria Apostolica.
Prior to the Apostolic constitution Etsi ad Singula of Pope Clement VII of 5 July 1532, the presiding cardinal of the Cancellaria was titled "Vice Chancellor".
Etsi ad Singula prescribed that the principal of the Cancellaria be titled "Chancellor", which was proper because the office had been occupied for centuries by cardinals.
For the rest, the office in question was always regarded as one of the most dignified and important of the Roman Curia, as is evident from Moroni's account of the funeral of Cardinal Alexander Farnese,[4] Vice Chancellor and Archpriest of the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano.
"Sapienti Consilio" further provided that the ancient formulae of papal bulls be modified, and a commission of cardinals consisting of the chancellor, the apostolic datary, and the secretary of the Congregation of the Consistory was charged with the preparation of new ones.
[4] This commission having reformed the bulls for Consistorial benefices, Pius X by a motu proprio of 8 December 1910 approved the new formulae and ordered them to be used exclusively after 1 January 1911.
[4] The rules of the Cancellaria were instituted in various Apostolic constitutions that the popes customarily promulgated at the beginning of their pontificates regarding judicial causes and benefices.
The result was an ancient collection of rules in force, and this mode of governing the Cancellaria continued even after Pope Pius X reformed the Roman Curia.