Several are famous for their works on theology, e.g. Durandus of Saint-Pourçain, Juan de Torquemada, Sylvester Mazzolini 'Prierias', Thomas Maria Mamachi and Giuseppe Agostino Orsi.
Wojciech Giertych, a Polish Dominican, a former student of and professor of theology at the Angelicum, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 to replace the Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier.
[3] These exegetical lectures were delivered to prelates and to the clerical attendants of cardinals who, as the saint observed, had been accustomed to gather in the antechamber and to spend the time in gossip while their masters were having audiences with the pope.
In the thirteenth century the chief duty of the Master of the Sacred Palace was to lecture on Scripture and to preside over the theological school in Vatican: "in scholae Romanae et Pontificiae regimine et in publica sacrae scripturae expositione" (Echard).
It became customary for the Master of the Sacred Palace, according to Cardinal de Luca, to preach before the pope and his court in Advent and Lent.
As it has assumed its actual form by centuries of development, we may give a summary of the legislation respecting it and the various functions it comprises and also of the honours attaching to it.
x, 4 May 1513) Leo X ordained that no book should be printed either in Rome or in its district without leave from the cardinal vicar and the Master of the Sacred Palace (ibid., IV, 318).
In the Constitution "Officiorum ac Munerum" (25 January 1897), Leo XIII declared that all persons residing in Rome may get leave from the Master of the Sacred Palace to read forbidden books, and that if authors who live in Rome intend to get their works published elsewhere, the joint imprimatur of the cardinal vicar and the Master of the Sacred Palace renders it unnecessary to ask any other approbation.
The Master of the Sacred Palace was made by Pius V (29 July 1570; see "Bullarium", V, 245) canon theologian of St. Peter's Basilica, but this Bull was revoked by his successor Gregory XIII (11 March 1575).
From the time when Leo X recognized the Roman University "Sapienza" (5 November 1513, by the decree "Dum suavissimos") he transferred to it the old theological school of the papal palace.
Instances of papal diplomas implying this power of the Master of the Sacred Palace occur in the "Bullarium" passim (e.g. of Innocent IV on 6 June 1406).
Before Eugene IV issued the Bull referred to above, the Master of the Sacred Palace was in processions etc., the dignitary immediately under the Apostolic subdeacons, but when this pope raised the auditors of the Rota to the rank of Apostolic subdeacons, he gave the Master of the Sacred Palace the place immediately next to the dean who was in charge of the papal mitre.
One of the occasional duties of the Master of the Sacred Palace is performed in conjunction with the auditors of the Rota; namely to watch over the three apertures or "drums" through which the cardinals receive all communications during a conclave.
These were effaced when the Italian kingdom occupied the Quirinal, but copies of them were put in the temporary apartment of the Master of the Sacred Palace in the Vatican.