i.e. minores viginti quinque annis. While the tutor, the guardian of the pupillus, was said to be appointed for the care of the person, the curator took charge of the property. The term survives in Scots law for the guardian of one in the second stage of minority, i.e. below twenty-one, and above fourteen, if a male, and twelve, if a female. Under the Roman empire the title of curator was given to several officials who were in charge of departments of public administration, such as the curatores annonae, of the public supplies of corn and oil, or the curatores regionum, who were responsible for order in the fourteen regiones or districts into which the city of Rome was divided, and who protected the citizen from exaction in the collection of taxes; the curatores aquarum had the charge of the aqueducts. Many of these curatorships were instituted by Augustus. In modern usage "curator" is applied chiefly to the keeper of a museum, art collection, public gallery, &c., but in many universities to an official or member of a board having a general control over the university, or with the power of electing to professorships. In the university of Oxford "curators " are nominated to administer certain departments, such as the University Chest.

CURCI, CARLO MARIA (1810-1891), Italian theologian, was born at Naples. He joined the Jesuits in 1826, and for some time was devoted to educational work and the care of the poor and prisoners. He became one of the first editors of the Jesuit organ, the Civiltà Cattolica; but then came under the influence of Gioberti, Rosmini and other advocates for reform. He wrote a preface to Gioberti's Primato (1843), but dissented from his Prolegomena. After the events of 1870, Curci, at Florence, delivered a course on Christian philosophy; and in 1874 began to publish several Scriptural works. In his edition of the New Testament (1879-1880) he makes some severe remarks on the neglect of the study of Scripture amongst the Italian clergy. In the meantime he began to attack the political action of the Vatican, and in his Il Moderno Dissidio tra la Chiesa e l'Italia 1878) he advocated an understanding between the church and state. This was followed by La Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi Zelanti (1881), another attack on the Vatican policy; and by his Vaticano Regio (1883), in which he accuses the Vatican of trafficking in holy things and declares that the taint of worldliness came from the false principles accepted by the Curia. His former work at Naples drew him also in the direction of Christian Socialism. He was condemned at Rome, and in a letter to The Times (10th of September 1884) declares that it was on account of his disobedience to the decrees of the Roman Congregation: "I am a dutiful son of the Church who hesitates to obey an order of his mother because he does not see clear enough the maternal authority in it." He was cast out of the Society of Jesus and suspended, and during this time Cardinal Manning put his purse at Curci's disposal. Finally he accepted the decrees against him and retracted" all that he said contrary to the faith, morals and discipline of the Church." He passed the remainder of his life in retirement at Florence, and, a few months before his death, was readmitted to the Jesuit Society. He died on the 8th of June 1891. (E. IN.) CUREL, FRANÇOIS, VICOMTE DE (1854- ), French dramatist, was born at Metz on the 10th of June 1854. He was educated at the École Centrale as a civil engineer, the family wealth being derived from smelting works. He began his literary career with two novels, L'Été des fruits secs (1885)and Le Sauvetage du grand duc (1889). In 1891 three pieces were accepted by the Théâtre Libre. The list of his plays includes L'Envers d'une sainte (1892); Les Fossiles (1892), a picture of the prejudices of the provincial nobility; L'Invitée (1893), the story of a mother who returns to her children after twenty years' separation; L'Amour brode (1893), which was withdrawn by the author from the Théâtre Français after the second representation; La Figurante (1896); Le Repas du lion (1898), dealing with the relations between capital and labour; La Fille sauvage (1902), the history of the development of the religious idea; La Nouvelle Idole (1899), dealing with the worship of science; and Le Coup d'aile (1906).

See also Contemporary Review for August 1903.

CURÉLY, JEAN NICOLAS (1774-1827), French cavalry leader, was the son of a poor peasant of Lorraine. Joining, in 1793, a regiment of hussars, he served with great distinction as private and as sous-officier in the Rhine campaigns from 1794 to 1800. He was, however, still a non-commissioned officer of twelve years' service, when at Afflenz (12th of November 1805) he attacked and defeated, with twenty-five men, a whole regiment of Austrian cavalry. This brilliant feat of arms won him the grade of sous-lieutenant, and the reputation of being one of the men of the future. The next two campaigns of the Grande Armée gained him two more promotions, and as a captain of hussars he performed, in the campaign of Wagram, a feat of even greater daring than the affair of Afflenz. Entrusted with despatches for the viceroy of Italy, Curély, with forty troopers, made his way through the Austrian lines, reconnoitred everywhere, even in the very headquarters-camp of the archduke John, and finally accomplished his mission in safety. This exploit, only to be compared to the famous raids of the American Civil War, and almost unparalleled in European war, gained him the grade of chef d'escadrons, in which for some years he served in the Peninsular War. Under Gouvion St Cyr he took part in the Russian War of 1812, and in 1813 was promoted colonel. In the campaign of France (1814) Curély, now general of brigade, commanded a brigade of "improvised " cavalry, and succeeded in infusing into this unpromising material some of his own daring spirit. His regiments distinguished themselves in several combats, especially at the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. The Restoration government looked with suspicion on the most dashing cavalry leader of the younger generation, and in 1815 Curély, who during the Hundred Days had rallied to his old leader, was placed on the retired list. Withdrawing to the little estate of Jaulny (near Thiaucourt), which was his sole property, he lived in mournful retirement, which was saddened still further when in 1824 he was suddenly deprived of his rank. This last blow hastened his death. Curély, had he arrived at high command earlier, would have been ranked with Lasalle and Montbrun, but his career, later than theirs in beginning, was ended by the fall of Napoleon. His devoted friend, De Brack, in his celebrated work Light Cavalry Outposts, considers Curély incomparable as a leader of light cavalry, and the portrait of Curély to be found in its pages is justly ranked as one of the masterpieces of military literature. The general himself left but a modest manuscript, which was left for a subsequent generation to publish.

See also Thoumas, Le Général Curély: itinéraires d'un Cavalier léger, 1793-1815 (Paris, 1887).

CURES, a Sabine town between the left bank of the Tiber and the Via Salaria, about 26 m. from Rome. According to the legend, it was from Cures that Titus Tatius led to the Quirinal the Sabine settlers, from whom, after their union with the settlers on the Palatine, the whole Roman people took the name Quirites. It was also renowned as the birthplace of Numa, and its importance among the Sabines at an early period is indicated by the fact that its territory is often called simply ager Sabinus. At the beginning of the imperial period it is spoken of as an unimportant place, but seems to have risen to greater prosperity in the 2nd century. It appears as the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, but seems to have been destroyed by the Lombards in A.D. 589. The site consists of a hill with two summits, round the base of which runs the Fosso Corese: the western summit was occupied by the necropolis, the eastern by the citadel, and the lower ground between the two by the city itself. A temple, the forum, the baths, &c., were excavated in 1874-1877.

See T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, iii. 34. (T. As.) CURETES (Gr. Κούρητες and Κουρήτες). (1) A legendary people mentioned by Homer (Il. ix. 529 ff.) as taking part in the quarrel over the Calydonian boar. They were identified in antiquity as either Aetolians or Acarnanians (Strabo 462, 26), and were also represented by a stock in Chalcis in Euboea. (2) In mythology (unconnected with the above), the attendants of Rhea. The story went that they saved the infant Zeus from his father Cronus in Crete by surrounding his cradle and with

clashing of sword and shield preventing his cries from being heard, and thus became the body-guard of the god and the first priests of Zeus and Rhea. In historic times the cult of the Curetes was widely known in Greece in connexion with that of Rhea (q.v.). Its ceremonies consisted principally in the performance of the Pyrrhic dance to the accompaniment of hymns and flute music, by the priests, who represented and thus commemorated the original act of the Curetes themselves. The dance was originally distinguished from that of the Corybantes by its comparative moderation, and took on the full character of the latter only after the cult of the Great Mother, Cybele, to which it belonged, spread to Greek soil. The origin of the dance may have lain in the supposed efficacy of noise in averting evil. The Curetes are represented in art with shield and sword performing the sacred dance about the infant Zeus, sometimes in the presence of a female figure which may be Rhea. Their number in art is usually two or three, but in literature is sometimes as high as ten. Of their names the following have survived: Kures, Kres, Biennos, Eleuther, Itanos, Labrandos, Panamoros, Palaxos; but no complete list of names is possible because of their confusion with the names of the Corybantes and other like deities. Their origin is variously related: they were earthborn, sprung of the rain, sons of Zeus and Hera, sons of Apollo and Danais, sons of Rhea, of the Dactyli, contemporary with the Titans (Diod. Sic. v. 66). Rationalism made them the mortal sons of a mortal Zeus, or originators of the Pyrrhic dance, inventors of weapons, fosterers of agriculture, regulators of social life, &c. A plausible theory is that of Georg Kaibel (Göttinger Nachrichten, 1901, pp. 512-514), who sees in them, together with the Corybantes, Cabeiri, Dactyli, Telchines, Titans, &c., only the same beings under different names at different times and in different places. Kaibel holds that they all had a phallic significance, having once been great primitive deities of procreation, and that having fallen to an indistinct, subordinate position in the course of the development and formalization of Greek religion, they survive in historic times only as half divine, half demonic beings, worshipped in connexion with the various forms of the great nature goddess. The resemblances, especially between Rhea and her Curetes and the Great Mother and her Corybantes (q.v.), were so striking that their origins were inextricably confused even in the minds of the ancients: e.g. Demetrius of Scepsis (Strabo 469, 12) derives the Curetes and Rhea from the cult of the Great Mother in Asia, while Virgil (Aen. iii. 111) looks upon the latter and the Corybantes as derivations from the former. The worship of both was akin in nature to that of the Dactyli, the Cabeiri, and even of Dionysus, the special visible bond being the orgiastic character of their rites.

Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Remains of a very Ancient Spicilegium Syriacum, containing Remains of Bardesan, Meliton, Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, hitherto unknown in Europe; Ambrose, Mara Bar Serapion; The third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus, which was translated by Payne Smith; Fragments of the Iliad of Homer from a Syriac Palimpsest; an Arabic work known as the Thirty-first Chapter of the Book entitled The Lamp that guides to Salvation, written by a Christian of Tekrit; The Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects, by Muhammed al Sharastani; a Commentary on the Book of Lamentations, by Rabbi Tanchum; and the Pillar of the Creed of the Sunnites. Cureton also published several sermons, among which was one entitled The Doctrine of the Trinity not Speculative but Practical. After his death Dr W. Wright edited with a preface the Ancient Syriac Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity in Edessa and the neighbouring Countries, from the Year of our Lord's Ascension to the beginning of the Fourth Century; discovered, edited and annotated by the late W. Cureton.

That

CURETUS, a tribe of South American Indians, inhabiting the country between the rivers of Japura and Uaupés, northwestern Brazil. They are short but sturdy, wear their hair long, and paint their bodies. Their houses are circular, with walls of thatch and a high conical roof. They are a peaceable people, living in small villages, each of which is governed by a chief. CURFEW, CURFEU or COUVRE-FEU, a signal, as by tolling a bell, to warn the inhabitants of a town to extinguish their fires or cover them up (hence the name) and retire to rest. This was a common practice throughout Europe during the middle ages, especially in cities taken in war. In the law Latin of those times it was termed ignitegium or pyritegium. In medieval Venice it was a regulation from which only the Barbers' Quarter was exempt, doubtless because they were also surgeons and their services might be needed during the night. The curfew originated in the fear of fire when most cities were built of timber. it was a most useful and practical measure is obvious when it is remembered that the household fire was usually made in a hole in the middle of the floor, under an opening in the roof through which the smoke escaped. The custom is commonly said to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror, who ordained, under severe penalties, that at the ringing of the curfewbell at eight o'clock in the evening all lights and fires should be extinguished. But as there is good reason to believe that the curfew-bell was rung each night at Carfax, Oxford (see Peshall, Hist. of Oxford), in the reign of Alfred the Great, it would seem that all William did was to enforce more strictly an existing regulation. The absolute prohibition of lights after the ringing of the curfew-bell was abolished by Henry I. in 1100. The practice of tolling a bell at a fixed hour in the evening, still extant in many places, is a survival of the ancient curfew. The common hour was at first seven, and it was gradually advanced to eight, and in some places to nine o'clock. In Scotland ten was not an unusual hour. In early Roman times curfew may possibly have served a political purpose by obliging people to keep within doors, thus preventing treasonable nocturnal assemblies, and generally assisting in the preservation of law and order. The

Cureton's most remarkable work was the edition with notes and an English translation of the Epistles of Ignatius to Polycarp, the Ephesians and the Romans, from a Syriac MS. that had been found in the monastery of St Mary Deipara, in the desert of Nitria, near Cairo. He held that the MS. he used gave the truest text, that all other texts were inaccurate, and that the epistles contained in the MS. were the only genuine epistles of Ignatius that we possess-a view which received the support of F. C. Baur, Bunsen, and many others, but which was opposed by Charles Wordsworth and by several German scholars, and is now generally abandoned (see IGNATIUS). Cureton supported his view by his Vindiciae Ignatianae and his Corpus Ignatianum,-a Complete Collection of the Ignatian Epistles, genuine, interpolated and spurious. He also edited a partial Syriac text of the Festal Letters of St Athanasius, which was translated into English by Henry Burgess (1854), and published in the Library of

in some Protestant countries, originated in that of the curfew-bell. In 1848 the curfew was still rung at Hastings, Sussex, from Michaelmas to Lady-Day, and this was the custom too at Wrexham, N. Wales.

CURIA, in ancient Rome, a section of the Roman people, according to an ancient division traditionally ascribed to Romulus. He is said to have divided the people into three tribes, and to have subdivided each of these into ten curiae, each of which contained a number of families (gentes). It is more probable that the curiae were not purely artificial creations, but represent natural associations of familief, artificially regulated and distributed to serve a political purpose. The local names of curiae which have come down to us suggest a local origin for the groups; but as membership was hereditary, the local tie doubtless grew weak with successive generations. Each curia was organized as a political and religious unit. As a political corporation it had no recognized activities beyond the command of a vote in the Comitia Curiata (see COMITIA), a vote whose nature was determined by a majority in the votes of the individual members

Division.

The constituent parts of the Roman Curia fall essentially into two classes: (1) the tribunals and offices, which for centuries served for the transaction of business and which continue their activity; (2) the permanent commissions of cardinals, known by the name of the Roman Congregations. These, though more recent, have taken precedence of the former, the work of which they have, moreover, greatly relieved; they are indeed composed of the highest dignitaries of the church, the cardinals (q.v.), and are, as it were, subdivisions of the consistory (q.v.), a council in which the whole of the Sacred College takes part.

Roman Congre gations.

II. The Roman Congregations.-The constitution of all of these is the same; a council varying in numbers, the members of which are cardinals, who alone take part in the deliberations. One of the cardinals acts as president, or prefect, as he is called; the congregation is assisted by a secretary and a certain number of inferior officials, for secretarial and office work. They have also consultors, whose duty it is to study the subjects for consideration. Their deliberations are secret and are based on prepared documents bearing on the case, written, or more often printed, which are distributed to all the cardinals about ten days in advance. The deliberations follow a simplified procedure, which is founded more on equity than on the more strictly legal forms, and decisions are given in the shortest possible form, in answer to carefully formulated questions or dubia. The cardinal prefect, aided by the secretariate, deals with the ordinary business, only important matters being submitted for the consideration of the general meeting. To have the force of law the acts of the congregations must be signed by the cardinal prefect and secretary, and sealed with his seal. Practically the only exception is in the cases of the Holy Office, and of the Consistorial Congregation of which the pope himself is prefect; the acts of the first are signed by the notary," and the acts of the second by the

assessor.

We may pass over those temporary congregations of cardinals known also as special," the authority and existence of which extend only to the consideration of one particular question; and also those which had as their object various aspects of the temporal administration of the papal states, which have ceased to exist since 1870. We deal here only with the permanent ecclesiastical congregations, the real machinery of the papal administration. Some of them go quite far back into the 16th century; but it was Sixtus V. who was their great organizer; by his bull Immensa of the 22nd of January 1587, he apportioned all the business of the Church (including that of the papal states) among fifteen Congregations of cardinals, some of which were already in existence, but most of which were established by him; and these commissions, or those of them at least which are concerned with spiritual matters, are still working. A few others have been added by his successors. Pius X., by the constitution Sapienti Consilio of the 29th of June 1908, proceeded to a general reorganization of the Roman Curia: Congregations, tribunals and offices. In this constitution he declared that the competency of these various organs was not always clear, and that their functions were badly arranged; that certain of them had only a small amount of business to deal with, while others were overworked; that strictly judicial affairs, with which the Congregations had not to deal originally, had developed to an excessive extent, while the tribunals, the Rota and the Signatura, had nothing to do. He consequently withdrew all judicial affairs from the Congregations, and handed them over to the two tribunals, now revived, of the Rota and the papal Signatura; all affairs concerning the discipline of the sacraments were entrusted to a new Congregation of that name; the competency of the remaining Congregations was modified, according to the nature of the affairs with which they deal, and certain of them were amalgamated with others; general rules were laid down for the expedition of business and regarding personnel; in

(1) The Holy Inquisition, Roman and universal, or Holy Office (Sacra Congregatio Romanae et universalis Inquisitionis seu Sancti Officii), the first of the Congregations, hence The Holy called the supreme. It is composed of twelve cardinals, Office. assisted by a certain number of officials: the assessor, who practically fulfils the functions of the secretary, the commissary general, some consultors and the qualificators, whose duty it is to determine the degree of theological condemnation deserved by erroneous doctrinal propositions (haeretica, erronea, temeraria, &c.). The presidency is reserved to the pope, and the cardinal of longest standing takes the title of secretary. This Congregation, established in 1542 by Paul III., constitutes the tribunal of the Inquisition (q.v.), of which the origins are much older, since it was instituted in the 13th century against the Albigenses. It deals with all questions of doctrine and with the repression of heresy, together with those crimes which are more or less of the character of heresy. Its procedure is subject to the strictest secrecy. Pius X. attached to it all matters concerning indulgences; on the other hand, he transferred to the Congregation of the Council matters concerning the precepts of the Church such as fasting, abstinence and festivals. The choosing of bishops, which had in recent times been entrusted to the Holy Office, was given to the Consistorial Congregation, and dispensations from religious vows to the Congregation of the Religious Orders. The Holy Office continues, however, to deal with mixed marriages and marriages with infidels.

Consistorial.

(2) The Consistorial Congregation (Sacra Congregatio Consistorialis), established by Sixtus V., has as its object the preparation of business to be dealt with and decided in secret consistory (q.v.); notably promotions to cathedral churches and consistorial benefices, the erection of dioceses, &c. To this congregation is also subject the administration of the common property of the college of cardinals. Pius X. restored this Congregation to a position of great importance; in the first place he gave it the effective control of all matters concerning the erection of dioceses and chapters and the appointment of bishops, except in the case of countries subject to the Propaganda, and save that for countries outside Italy it has to act upon information furnished by the papal secretary of state. He further entrusted to this Congregation everything relating to the supervision of bishops and of the condition of the dioceses, and business connected with the seminaries. It has also the duty of deciding disputes as to the competency of the other Congregations. The pope continues to be its prefect, and the cardinal secretary of the Holy Office and the secretary of state are ex officio members of it; the cardinal who occupies the highest rank in it, with the title of secretary, is chosen by the pope ; he is assisted by a prelate with the title of assessor, who is ex officio secretary of the Sacred College. The assessor of the Holy Office and the secretary for extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs are ex officio consultors.

(3) The Pontifical Commission for the reunion of the dissident Churches, established by Leo XIII. in 1895 after his constitution Orientalium. The pope reserved the presidency for himself; its activity is merely nominal. It was attached by Pius X. to the Congregation of the Propaganda.

The Visit

(4) The Congregation of the Apostolic Visitation (Sacra Congregatio Visitationis apostolicae). The Visitation is the personal inspection of institutions, churches, religious establishments and their personnel, to correct abuses ation. and enforce the observation of rules. Through this Congregation the pope, as bishop of Rome, made the inspection of his diocese; it is for this reason that he was president of this commission, the most important member of which was the cardinal vicar. He takes the place of the pope in the administration of the diocese of Rome; he has his own offices and diocesan assistants as in other bishoprics. The Congregation of the Visitation was suppressed by Pius X. as a separate Congregation,