The Dataria was principally entrusted with concession of matrimonial dispensations of external jurisdiction and with collation, i. e., conferral, of benefices and rescripts that were reserved to the Apostolic See.
It is certain that, on account of these faculties, the Datary enjoyed great prestige during the flourishing of the office, when he was denominated the "Oculus Papae" ("Eye of the Pope").
Pope Pius X reduced its faculties and re-organized it in his apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio, according to which the Dataria consisted of the Cardinal Datary, the Subdatary, the Prefect and his Surrogate (Sostituto), a few officers, the Cashier who was ex officio the Distributor, the Reviser, and 2 scribes of Papal bulls.
Thus it happened that its offices often descended from father to son, while the ecclesiastical superiors of such officials were to a great extent blindly dependent upon them.
After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI reformed the Roman Curia by the apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae of 15 August 1967, which included the abrogation of the Dataria Apostolica.