Editing Abbreviator (section)

== Institution of the College of Abbreviators ==
In the pontificate of [[Pope Pius II]], their number, which had been fixed at twenty-four, had overgrown to such an extent as to diminish considerably the individual remuneration, and, as a consequence, competent men no longer sought the office, and hence the old style of writing and expediting the bulls was no longer used, to the great injury of justice, the interested parties, and the dignity of the [[Apostolic See]]. To remedy this and to restore the old established chancery style, the Pope selected out of the many then living Abbreviators seventy, and formed them into a college of prelates denominated the "'''College of Abbreviators'''", and decreed that their office should be perpetual, that certain remunerations should be attached to it, and granted certain privileges to the possessors of the same. He ordained further that some should be called "Abbreviators of the Upper Bar"<ref name="Catholic"/> (''Abbreviatores de Parco Majori''; the name derived from a place in the Chancery that was surrounded by a grating, in which the officials sat, which is called higher or lower (major or minor) according to the proximity of the seats to that of the Vice Chancellor<ref name="Chisholm"/>), the others of the Lower Bar (''Abbreviatores de Parco Minori''); that the former should sit upon a slightly raised portion of the chamber, separated from the rest of the chamber by lattice work, assist the [[Cardinal Vice-Chancellor]], subscribe the letters and have the principal part in examining, revising, and expediting the Apostolic letters to be issued with the leaden seal; that the latter, however, should sit among the Apostolic writers upon benches in the lower part of the chamber, and their duty was to carry the signed schedules or supplications to the prelates of the Upper Bar. Then one of the prelates of the Upper Bar made an abstract, and another prelate of the same bar revised it. Prelates of the Upper Bar formed a quasi-tribunal, in which as a college they decided all doubts that might arise about the form and quality of the letters, of the clauses and decrees to be adjoined to the Apostolic letters, and sometimes about the payment of the remunerations and other contingencies. Their opinion about questions concerning Chancery business was held in the highest estimation by all the Roman tribunals.<ref name="Catholic"/>

[[Pope Paul II]] suppressed the college, but [[Pope Sixtus IV]] (''Constitutio'' 16, "Divina") re-instituted it. He appointed seventy-two abbreviators, of whom twelve were of the upper, or greater, and twenty-two of the lower, or lesser, presidency ("parco"), and thirty-eight examiners on first appearance of letters. They were bound to be in attendance on certain days under penalty of fine, and sign letters and diplomas. Ciampini mentions a decree of the Vice Chancellor by which absentees were mulcted in the loss of their share of the remuneration of the following session of the Chancery. The same Pope also granted many privileges to the College of Abbreviators, but especially to the members of the greater presidency.<ref name="Catholic"/>

[[Pope Pius VII]] suppressed many of the offices of the Chancery, and so the [[Tribunal of Correctors]] and the Abbreviators of the lower presidency disappeared. Of the Tribunal of Correctors, a [[substitute-corrector]] alone remains. Bouix (''Curia Romana'', edit. 1859) chronicled the suppression of the lower presidency and put the number of Abbreviators at that date at eleven. Later the college consisted of seventeen prelates, six substitutes, and one sub-substitute, all of whom, except the prelates, were clerics or laity. Although the duty of Abbreviators was originally to make abstracts and abridgments of the Apostolic letters, diplomas, et cetera, using the legal abbreviations, clauses, and [[Formulary (model documents)|formularies]], in course of time, as their office grew in importance they delegated that part of their office to their substitute and confined themselves to overseeing the proper expedition of the Apostolic letters. Prior to 1878, all Apostolic letters and briefs requiring for their validity the leaden seal were engrossed upon rough [[parchment]] in Gothic characters or round letters, also called "Gallicum" and commonly "Bollatico", but in [[Italy]] "Teutonic", without lines, diphthongs, or marks of punctuation. Bulls engrossed on a different parchment, or in different characters with lines and punctuation marks, or without the accustomed abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, were rejected as spurious. [[Pope Leo XIII]] in his ''Constitutio Universae Eccles.'' of 29 December 1878 ordained that they should be written henceforth in ordinary Latin characters upon ordinary parchment and that no abbreviations were to be used except those easily understood.<ref name="Catholic"/>