Council of Vienne (1311–1312)

Canon 1

The council confesses that the only begotten Son of God, subsisting eternally in the essence of God, took a true human body from the Virgin, suffered in it and having expired was pierced by a lance. It condemns the doctrine that the substance of the rational or intellectual soul is not vere et per se the form of the human body. Asserting that we must confess one baptism as we confess one God and one faith, it approves the opinion that in baptism the virtues and the gratia informans are infused in children and adults alike.

Adhering firmly to the foundation of the Catholic faith, other than which, as the Apostle testifies, no one can lay,”* we openly

20 C, un., De sequest, poss. et fruct., II, 6.

21 There are in the Clementines altogether 52 titles and 106 decrees. Of these decrees, sr bear the superscription Clemens V in concilio Viennensi; 10 idem in eodem, and 45 simply idem.

24 See I Cor, 3:11.

confess with holy mother the Church, that the only begotten Son of God, subsisting eternally together with the Father in all those things in which God the Father exists, assumed in time in the womb of a virgin ad unitatem suae hypostasis et personae, the parts of our nature at the same time united (from which He in Himself true God became true man), namely, the human passible body and the intellectual or rational soul vere per se et essentialiter informing the body. And that in this assumed nature the Word of God wished for the salvation of all not only to be nailed to the cross and to die on it, but also, having already breathed forth His spirit, suffered His side to be pierced by a lance, that from the water and blood issuing therefrom, there might be formed the one, immaculate, and holy mother Church, the spouse of Christ, as from the side of the first man while asleep Eve was formed in wedlock to him, that thus to the figure of the first and old Adam, who according to the Apostle is a figure of him who was to come," in nostro novissimo Adam, id est Christo, veritas responderet. This, I say, is the truth, fortified by the testimony of that huge eagle which the prophet Ezechiel saw flying over the other animals and the testimony of St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist, who narrating the fact and order of this union (sacramentum) says in his Gospel: "But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came forth blood and water. And he that saw it, hath given testimony and his testimony is true, and he knoweth that he speaketh the truth, that you also may believe." *’ We, therefore, turning our Apostolic attention to such clear testimony and to the common teaching of the holy fathers and doctors, with the approval of the holy council declare that the aforesaid Apostle and Evangelist St. John spoke the truth when he stated that one of the soldiers with a spear opened the side of Christ after He was already dead.

Moreover, we condemn with the approval of the same holy council every doctrine or exposition rashly asserting or expressing doubt that the substance of the rational or intellectual soul is not vere ac per se the form of the human body as erroneous and opposed to the truth of the Catholic faith, at the same time declaring, in order that the truth may be known to all and the approach to universal errors precluded, that anyone who shall in the future presume obstinately to assert, defend, or hold that the rational or intellectual soul is not per se et essentialiter the form of the human body, is to be regarded as a heretic.

25 Rom. 5:14. 1*Tn all of these decrees it is the Pope that is speaking. V Seo 19: 33-35.

From the fact that all must faithfully confess that a single baptism, as one God and one faith, administered in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, regenerates all those baptized in Christ, we believe that it is a perfect remedy unto salvation for adults as well as for infants. But while some theologians are found to have contrary opinions regarding the effect of baptism in infants, some of them saying that by baptism sin is indeed remitted in infants but grace is not infused, while others maintain that in them by baptism both sin is remitted and the virtues and the gratia informans infused quoad habitum though for the time not guoad usum, we, considering the general efficacy of the death of Christ (which by baptism is applied equally to all baptized), with the approval of the holy council choose the second opinion (which says that in baptism the virtues and the gratia informans are infused in children and adults alike) as the more probable one and more in accord with the teachings of the saints and of the modern doctors of theology.?*

Canon 2

The Friar Preachers and the Friars Minor may preach without hindrance in their churches and in public places, that hour excepted during which the prelates preach. In parochial churches they may not preach or hear confessions unless invited. They may bury in their churches and cemeteries all who shall freely choose to be buried there; of the stipend, however, and of all gifts and bequests of every description they must give one fourth and no more to the parochial church of which the deceased was a member.

The following decretal published by our predecessor, Boniface VIII, was by decree revoked by our predecessor, Benedict XI. Since, however, as results have proved, this latter has not brought about the peace hoped for by its author, but rather has added fresh fuel to the conflict for the pacification of which it was designed, we absolutely annul it and with the approval of the holy council renew that published by the aforesaid Boniface, which is as follows:

“Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the future memory hereof.

“Having been elevated by the favor of divine clemency to the chair of pastoral pre-eminence, and burdened though we are with many and arduous affairs that everywhere rush like a torrent onto the Roman curia, and overwhelmed with innumerable cares and distracted by many considerations, nevertheless, for this we earnestly and readily disengage ourselves and to it devote ourselves with untiring solicitude, that for the glory of the divine name, for the exáltation of the Catholic faith, and for the advancement of faithful souls, peace may live, charity reign, harmony prevail, and unanimity of mind endure between the bishops charged with the care and government of the flock of the Lord, and other persons included in the ordo clericalis. For we know and from the evidence of facts we gather that only in time of peace is due worship given to the Author of peace. Nor are we ignorant that dissensions and scandals prepare the way for evil actions, stir up rancor and hatreds, and furnish occasions for forbidden morals. For a long time past there has existed between the bishops and the parochial clergy throughout the different provinces of the world on the one hand, and the Friar Preachers and the Friars Minor on the other, a grave and dangerous quarrel in the matter of preaching, of hearing confessions and of burying the dead who choose to be buried in the churches or the

46 Peter Lombard speaks of the two opinions without, however, committing himself to a decision in favor of either one (IV Sent, dist. 4, c. 7). So also does Pope Innocent III in a brief to the Archbishop of Arles in 1201 (c.3, X, De baptismo, III, 42).

cemeteries of the friars. Now, considering and weighing carefully in our mind how full of danger this strife is, how fraught with losses, and how odious in the sight of the divine Majesty, and moreover, having in mind to remove and completely eradicate it, so that it may with the help of God at no future time ever be revived, and desiring also that this matter be brought to a speedy and satisfactory termination by Apostolic authority, we, after careful deliberation of this matter with our brethren, for the honor of God and the exaltation of the Catholic faith, for a state of peace between the aforesaid parties and the advancement of the salvation of souls, with the advice of the same brethren and by Apostolic authority decree and ordain that the friars of the aforesaid orders may in their churches and their other places of worship and in public places freely preach and expound to the clergy and people the word of God, that hour alone excepted during which the prelates of the localities wish to preach or have some one preach for them; during this hour they shall not preach except by previous arrangement with and special permission of the prelates. In the studia generalia, where it is customary to give a special sermon to the clergy on certain days, at funerals and on special feasts of these religious, the friars are permitted to preach, unless perchance during the hour in which it is customary to preach to the clergy in the aforesaid places, the bishop or superior prelate should for certain and urgent reasons assemble the clergy before himself. In the parochial churches, however, the friars may not and shall not dare preach unless they shall have been called or invited by the parish or parochial clergy or with their permission sought and obtained, unless the bishop or superior prelate should command them to preach.

“By the same authority we decree and ordain that in every city and diocese in which the friars have convents, and in neighboring cities and dioceses in which they have no convents, the masters and priors provincial of the Dominicans or their vicars general and the ministers provincial and guardians of the Friars Minor must either per se aut per fratres quos ad hoc idoneos fore putaverint, present themselves before the prelates or bishops of those localities and humbly request that with their permission and good will the friars who have been chosen for this work may in their cities and dioceses freely hear the confessions of those of their subjects who wish to confess to them. For executing so salutary a ministry the masters, priors provincial, and ministers of the aforesaid orders shall strive to choose able and competent persons, of approved character, discreet, virtuous, and skilled, whom they shall present or have presented to the bishops, that with their permission and good will they may in their cities and dioceses hear the confessions of those who wish to confess to them, as has been said above. In cities and dioceses other than those to which they have been sent or appointed, that is, those in which they have no episcopal permission to labor, they may by no means hear confessions, for we wish that permissions or faculties granted for a certain diocese apply only to that diocese and not to an entire province. The number of persons to be chosen for exercising an office of this kind must be in proportion to the number of clergy and people to be served. If the bishops grant the permission sought for hearing confessions, let the aforesaid masters, ministers, and others receive it with thanks and let the persons chosen execute the office committed to them. But if perchance any bishops should be unwilling to accept for this office any one of the friars presented to them, then another may and ought to be substituted but similarly presented to the same bishops. Should the bishops again refuse the necessary permission, then we ourselves from the plenitude of Apostolic power graciously grant it to them that they may freely and licitly hear the confessions of those desiring to confess to them. By this concession, however, we do not by any means intend to bestow upon the friars chosen for such work more extensive powers in this matter than is conceded by law to the parochial clergy, unless the prelates themselves should suggest that in this matter a larger power ought to be granted them.”

“To this decree and ordination of ours we add, moreover, that the friars of the aforesaid orders may have free burial in their churches and cemeteries wherever located, that is, they may bury all who should wish to be buried in their churches or cemeteries. However, that the parochial churches and their clergy who have charge of the administration of the sacraments and to whom it belongs by law to preach and to hear confessions, may not be defrauded of their due and necessary means, since laborers are worthy of their reward, we by the same Apostolic authority decree and ordain that the friars of the aforesaid orders shall be obliged to give to the parochial clergy one-fourth of the income accruing from funerals and from everything bequeathed to them in any manner whatsoever for any fixed or definite purpose, even of such bequests of which it has hitherto not been customary or by law established to give or demand the canonical portion; also of all bequests made to them in mortis articulo or during the illness which caused the death of the donor. Of such gifts or bequests also that have been left to the friars through a third party, a fourth part shall be given to the parochial clergy." In order to enforce the observance of these provisions, we make it on the part of the friars a matter of conscience, so that if (which God forbid) it should happen that fraud or deception has ‘been practiced in this matter, they will be held to a strict account on the day of judgment. Beyond the portion fixed above, the parochial

4^ This concession precludes absolution from reserved cases.

11 This does not include gifts and legacies left to the friars when the donor chooses to be buried elsewhere. Bull. Ord. Praed., II, 67, no. 36.

clergy may not demand anything, neither are the friars bound to give more, nor can they be compelled to do so by anyone. All privileges, favors, and immunities, verbal or written in any form, expression, or conception of words, granted by us or by our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs, to the aforesaid orders, as well as all customs, agree. ments, and decisions in so far as they militate against the foregoing provisions or against any one of them, we revoke and declare ab. solutely null and void.

"We pray, exhort, and strictly command all prelates, whatever their pre-eminence, status, or dignity, and all the parochial clergy that, inspired by reverence toward God and the Apostolic See, they hold in benevolent esteem the aforesaid orders and their members, treating them not harshly and cruelly but exercising toward thema spirit of agreeableness and generosity, and enlist them as colaborers in the field of preaching and expounding the word of God, that thus their reward of eternal happiness may be augmented and the furtherance of the salvation of souls procured. Nor let them forget that should they act otherwise in this matter, the Holy See, which holds in great favor and harbors in the bowels of charity the orders and their members, will be not unjustly aroused against them, nor could it calmly tolerate such things without applying the proper remedy; and over and above, the just indignation of the heavenly King, whose generous support ever accompanies the devotedness of the friars, in making awards for merits, will surely not prove remiss in regard to them."

Canon 3

Mendicants who in future, even with Apostolic authority, pass over to non-mendicant orders and those also who already have passed over, have no voice n the chapter; nor may they hold office of any kind, or even exercise the cura animarum.

That those who profess poverty in any order may the more willingly strive to persevere in the vocation in which they have

59 Seppelt, “Der Kampf d. Bettelorden an d. Universitat Paris seit d. Mitte d, 13. Jahrh," in Kircbengeschl. Abbandl., Ill. (Breslau, 1905), 199-241; VI (1998), 75-139; Bierbaum, Bettelorden u. Weltgeistlicbkeit an d. Universität Paris.

91 ]bid., no. 244.

64 Finke, Rom. Quartalscbr., IX (1895), 171-82; Hitzfeld, "Krise in den Bettelorden im Pontifikat Bonifaz VIH, in Hist. Jahrbuch d. Gérres-Gesellschaft, XL VIII (1928), 1-30; Hefele-Leclercq, VI, Appendix II, 1472.

been called, and those who pass over to a non-mendicant order may live in the same more quietly the more the ambition productive of discord and schism is repressed in them, we, with the approval of the holy council, decree that any mendicants who in the future, even with Apostolic authority, pass over to non-mendicant orders, and those also who thus far have passed over, though these now hold therein the office of prior, administrator, or any other office, or have charge of the cura animarum, have no seat nor a voice in the chapter even though this be willingly granted them by the others. We decree, moreover, that they may not continue in or hold the office of ptior or any other office previously held by them even as vicars or ministers or Jocum tenentes, and that they may not exercise the cura animarum either pro se vel pro aliis. Any action in contravention of this decree is ipso jure null and void, quovis privilegio non obstante. The present constitution, however, we do not wish to be extended to those mendicant orders that have been forbidden by the Apostolic See to receive henceforth any more persons to profession, and to whom it has granted general permission to pass over to other approved orders.**

Canon 4

Bishops must each year make a visitation of all monasteries of nuns in their diocese; those exempt and subject only to the Apostolic See, to be visited by the authority of that see; those not exempt, by their own authority, and others that are exempt to be visited by those to whom they are subject.

Considering that where discipline is despised religion becomes shipwrecked, we deem it imperative to make some provision, lest through such contempt on the part of those who espouse themselves to God by vow, something inconsistent be found that may place a stain on the regular life and justly offend the divine Majesty. Wherefore, with the approval of the holy council, we decree that bishops must each year make a visitation of all monasteries of nuns ii their diocese; those exempt and subject only to the Apostolic See, tó be visited by the authority of that see; those not exempt, by their own authority, and others that are exempt, by those to whom they ere subject. The visitors shall exercise particular care that the nuns (some of whom, we regret to say, we have heard practice excess in this) do not wear silk garments, sandals, long and braided hair, and variegated headdress; that they do not attend dances and the banquets of seculars, do not during the day or night go through villages and public places or otherwise lead a luxurious life. They shall diligently remove them from the evil ways and allurements of the world and exhort them to the cultivation of the virtues in their monasteries. For the observance of all these things we command the visitors to compel the nuns by suitable measures, notwithstanding exemptions and privileges of whatever nature; by which, however, we do not wish to create hardships quoad alia. We decree, moreover, that anyone chosen to the office of abbess in monasteries in which the custom prevails that abbesses be blessed, that such a one must receive that blessing within one year from the time of her confirmation, otherwise (unless there be a reasonable cause for further delay) the one so chosen shall be deprived of the office by those to whom such power of deprivation belongs. Canonical provision covering this point ought to be made in the monasteries. We command that those women also who are commonly called secular canonesses (canonicae saeculares) and who, like the secular canons, make no renunciation of their private possessions and no profession of any kind, be visited by the ordinaries of the localities; ĉ if they are not exempt, by their own authority, if exempt, by the authority of the Apostolic See; by this, however, we do not intend to approve their status, rule, or order. We command the visitors, in making their visitations, to be content with two notaries, two clerics from their own church, and four other upright and competent men. Those who presume to hinder the visitors in the aforesaid task or in any part thereof, unless, on being warned, they desist, are ipso facto excommunicated, all privileges, statutes and customs to the contrary notwithstanding.”

Canon 5

Women, commonly known as Beguines, are forbidden, under penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto, to continue the form of life chosen by them or to return to it at any time in the future. The same penalty is incurred by those religious who in any way show them favor or encourage that life.

It has become known to us on trustworthy authority that among the women commonly known as Beguines (who, since they promise obedience to no one, do not renounce their possessions and do not make profession of any approved rule, are not religious at all though they wear the garb of Beguines and are attached to certain religious to whom they are especially attracted), there are some who, as if led by a peculiar insanity, argue and preach on the Holy Trinity and the divine essence and, in regard to the articles of faith and the sacraments of the Church, give expression to opinions that

67 This decree concerns itself with the female branch of the Order of St. Benedict, as the decree Ne in agro Domiinico, no. 12 of the second series of this council, deals with the male branch of that order.

are contrary to Catholic belief, thereby deceiving in this matter many simple people and leading them into divers errors, and under the cloak of sanctity do many other things productive of danger to souls. From various sources we have learned of the pernicious character of their teaching and justly regard them with suspicion. Therefore, with the approval of the holy council, we forever prohibit their mode of life and absolutely remove it from the Church of God, and expressly enjoin these and other women under penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto that they do not any longer follow the mode or manner of life chosen by them at an earlier period or return to it in the future in any form. Under a similar penalty of excommunication to be incurred ipso facto, we strictly forbid the aforesaid religious who are said to have favored and encouraged these women to embrace the Beguinage state, that they do not by aid, advice, or in any manner induce any women to embrace the aforesaid mode of life or to assume it de novo, notwithstanding any privilege against which the aforesaid provisions might militate. If, however, there are some faithful women among them, whether vowed to chastity or not, who live uprightly in their hospices and wish to serve God in the spirit of virtue and humility, this may be permitted them according as the Lord inspires them and we do not wish that this instruction should affect them.

Canon 6

The sect known as Beghards and Beguines, existing in Germany, and eight of their errors are condemned. Diocesan authorities and inquisitors are warned to exercise vigilance in regard to them.

Cherishing the desire that the Catholic faith should prosper and that heresy should be extirpated from among the faithful, it was not without preat displeasure we heard that an abominable sect of wicked men, commonly called Beghards, and of faithless women, known as Beguines, has sprung up in Germany through the father of evil deeds, holding and maintaining in its sacrilegious and perverse teaching the following errors: (1) Man can in the present life acquire such a degree of perfection that renders him absolutely impeccable and unable to progress further in grace; for, as they say, if incessant progress were possible, then one could become more perfect than Christ; (2) man need not fast or pray after he has arrived at such a degree of perfection, because then sensuality is so perfectly subject to the spirit and to reason that man may freely concede to the body whatever it desires; (3) those who have attained the aforesaid degree of perfection and spirit of liberty, are not subject to human obedience, nor are they bound to any precepts of the Church, because, as they say, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; (4) man can in this life attain the same final beatitude secundum omnem gradum perfectionis that he will attain in the life hereafter; (5) every intellectual nature is in itself naturally blessed (beata), and the soul does not need the light of glory to elevate it to see God and to enjoy him blissfully (beate); (6) to practice the virtues is an act that belongs to the imperfect man, the perfect soul divests itself of the virtues; (7) to kiss a woman is a mortal sin since nature is not inclined to it; but anactus carnalis, since nature is inclined to it, is not a sin, especially when the one performing it is tempted; (8) at the elevation of the body of Christ one ought not to rise or exhibit reverence toward it, for, as they say, it would be a sign of imperfection to descend from the height and purity of contemplation in order to think about the sacrament of the Eucharist or about the sufferings of Christ. Under the cloak of sanctity they say and do also other things that offend the divine Majesty and constitute a grave danger to souls. But, since the duty of the office committed to us obligates us to rid the Catholic Church of that detestable sect and its errors, that it may not by further dissemination corrupt the hearts of the faithful, we, with the approval of the holy council, absolutely reprobate and condemn it with all the above mentioned errors, strictly forbidding any and every one to hold, approve or defend them in the future. Those who act in contravention of this shall be punished in accordance with the canonical prescriptions. Moreover, the diocesan authorities and inquisitors of the localities in which the Beghards and Beguines are known to reside, shall exercise their office with painstaking care in regard to them, making inquiries regarding their life and teachings and what they hold concerning the articles of faith and the sacraments of the Church. On those who are found guilty, unless they repent by an immediate abjuration of the aforesaid errors and make suitable satisfaction, they shall impose due punishment.

Canon 7

Charitable institutions must not be permitted to go to ruin or their revenues to be squandered. Their rectors are to be compelled by the ordinaries to obtain the return of their rights and possessions. In future no such institution may be granted to the secular clergy as a beneficium except in two cases. This constitution does not apply to institutions of religious and military orders. Old customs regarding the divine offices and the sacraments in these institutions are to be preserved.

It happens occasionally that the rectors of pilgrim-houses, leper-houses, and almshouses or hostelries—the care of these instio Schnürer, Kirche und Kultur im Mittelalter, II (Paderborn, 1929), 483; Decker, Die Stellung d. Predigerordens zu d. Dominikanerinnen (1207-1267), Vechta, 1935; Finke, Die Frau im Mittelalter, Kósel, 1913; Bücher, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter, Tübingen, 1910. |

10 Archiv, V, 616 ff.

71 C. un., Extravag. comm., IH, 9.For the more recent literature: Greven, Die Anfänge det Beginen, Münster, 1912; id., "Der Ursprung d. Beginenwesens,” in Hist. Jahrbuch, XXXV (1914), 26-58, 291-318; Endres, Hist.-polit. Blatter, 1915, II, 19-28; Asen, “Die Beginen in Köln,” in Annal. d. Hist. Vereins v. Niederrhein, CXI (1927), 81-180; CXII (1928), 71-148; CXIII (1928), 13-96; Dict. de théologie cath.

tutions having been much neglected—make no effort to obtain the return of their rights and possessions from the hands of usurpers, and indeed permit them to go to loss and the buildings to ruin, and, forgetting that these places have been founded and endowed by the generosity of the faithful that the poor and those afflicted with leprosy might find a home therein and be supported by the revenues thereof, do not hesitate to arrogate these revenues to their own uses when those things that have been given by the faithful for a certain purpose ought to be applied to that purpose and to no other (salva quidem sedis apostolicae auctoritate). Detesting such negligence and abuse, with the approval of the holy council we therefore decree that they whose duty it is by right or by law, by legitimate custom or by privilege of the Holy See, strive to reform those places in the matters aforesaid, recover what has been usurped and alienated, and compel the rectors to receive the poor people and maintain them to the extent that the revenues of those institutions will permit. Should they prove negligent in this matter, we enjoin the ordinaries of the localities that, even though the aforesaid institutions should enjoy the privilege of exemption, they carry out per se ipsos vel alios each and all of the aforesaid instructions and compel the rectors, those not exempt, by their own authority, those exempt et alios privilegiatos, by the authority of the Apostolic See, to observe the foregoing directions; those acting in contravention, whatever may be their status or condition, and their abetters shall be restrained by ecclesiastical censure and other legal means. By this, however, we do not wish to create any disadvantages in the matter of exemptions and privileges quoad alia.

That the foregoing instructions may be the more promptly observed, none of these institutions shall in the future be handed over to the secular clergy as a beneficium, even though this has been the custom in the past (a custom that we condemn), unless it is provided otherwise in the documents relating to their foundation or unless the office of rector is filled by election. But their management shall be entrusted to prudent, competent, and reputable men, whose knowledge, willingness, and ability will assure a just administration and protection of these institutions, their possessions and rights, and who are not likely to divert their revenues into other channels. All of these things we make a matter of conscience in the case of those to whom the appointment of administrators of such institutions belongs. Those to whom the administration is entrusted shall be bound by oath that they will take proper care of the institutions, make an inventory of their properties, and give an account each year of their administration to the ordinaries or to those to whom the institutions are subject or their representatives. Any action in contravention of these instructions we declare null and void.

The foregoing instructions we do not wish to be applied to the hostelries (hospitalia) of religious and military orders, the rectors of which, however, we command in virtue of holy obedience that in them they exercise due hospitality and provide for the poor in accordance with the rules and old observances of their orders, to the carrying out of which provision they shall be compelled by severe disciplinary measures by their superiors, statutes and customs to the contrary notwithstanding.

Moreover, if there are hostelries having from olden times an altar or altars and a cemetery, and priests celebrating and administering to the poor the sacraments of the Church, or if the parochial rectors have been accustomed to exercise these ministries therein, it is our intention that this old custom be continued.

Canon 8

If the ordinary accepts anyone presented to any church by one having the right of presentation and the latter does not assign to the one presented a suitable portion of the revenues of that church wherewith to meet his obligations, then the ordinary himself shall make such assignment.

That the constitution *2 be observed which forbids that anyone etiam ad exemptorum praesentationem be admitted to some church, custom to the contrary notwithstanding, unless a portion of the revenues of that church has been assigned to him in the presence of the ordinary, wherewith he may be able to meet his obligations to the ordinary and also have a suitable means of livelihood for himself, we, with the approval of the holy council, take occasion to explain it and to add a few considerations. Ordinaries are strictly forbidden to accept anyone presented by any ecclesiastical person having the right of presentation, unless within a certain convenient period of time to be specified by the ordinaries, the praesentantes in their presence have assigned to the ones presented a suitable portion of the revenues of the church. If within the time specified the praesentantes fail to assign such a portion, that their failure may not prove injurious to the ones presented, we decree that the ordinaries ought then (unless another canonical obstacle stands in the way) to accept those presented, and the authority of assigning such a portion shall devolve upon them in poenam praesentantium. We command the ordinaries, moreover, that in assigning this portion they exercise due moderation and be not influenced knowingly by likes, dislikes, or otherwise. In the churches of priories or in the churches of other places, regular as well as secular, in which the religious or others, to whom the revenues of such places belong, have been accustomed to fulfil the aforesaid obligations, the above instructions do not apply, but all the obligations that might encumber the priests

12 Suscepti regiminis of Clement IV, c.1, VI°, De praeb., III, 4.

or vicars of those churches, if the said assignment has been made, the aforesaid religious or others shall be bound to bear fully, to treat in a becoming manner the priests or vicars, and to supply them with sufficient and suitable subsistence. To the full observance of all this, especially of what has been said with regard to the assignment of a suitable portion by the ordinaries, we wish that the aforesaid religious and all others be compelled by the ordinaries by ecclesiastical censure, exemptions or privileges or statutes notwithstand. ing.

Canon 9

If rectors, whose duty it is to correct, shall prove negligent, then their superiors ought to be concerned that the canonical hours are chanted with devotion in cathedral, regular, and collegiate churches and that in other churches the officium diurnum et nocturnum be properly celebrated.

We are greatly disturbed over the fact that as a result of the negligence of some rectors, which is usually productive of much mischief among the inferior clergy, many ministers of the churches have discarded the modesty of clerical decorum. While they ought to offer to God a sacrifice of praise with purity of conscience and devotion of mind, they presume to say or chant the canonical hours by hastening through them, by omitting portions of them, and by intermingling vain, vulgar, and worldly conversation. They come late to the choir, frequently leave it without good reason before the office is finished, absent themselves through a desire to hunt, and, as if having no regard for the clerical office, presume to celebrate the divine offices or to be present at them with an utter lack of devotion, Some clerics as well as laymen, especially on the vigil of certain feasts, when they ought to be in the church occupied in prayer, do not hesitate to hold indecent dances in the cemeteries of the churches and at times to sing ballads and perpetrate many other ex. cesses from which result sometimes the violation of churches and cemeteries and various other crimes, to say nothing of their evil effects on the ecclesiastical office; all of which is an offense to the divine Majesty and a scandal to the people of the neighborhood. In many churches, moreover, the vessels, vestments, and other articles necessary for divine worship are improperly cared for. Therefore, that such transgressions may not flourish and serve as an example to others, we, with the approval of the holy council, forbid that this be done in the future and decree that those whose duty it is, namely, the local ordinaries in the case of such transgressions on the part of those not exempt, and in the case of those exempt or otherwise privileged, the superiors of these, exercise special care that the above mentioned irregularities be corrected ; that in cathedral, regular, and collegiate churches the canonical hours be chanted with devotion and in the other churches the divinum diurnum et nocturnum officium be duly and consistently celebrated if they wish to escape the anger of God. and of the Apostolic See. Those who resist corrections shall be punished with ecclesiastical censure and other suitable measures. In all things that pertain to divine worship and to the reformation of morals, as well as to the inviolability of churches and cemeteries, the ordinaries and local superiors shall see to it that the sacred canons are strictly observed."

Canon 10

Clerics who are members of the household of a cardinal or bishop may say the same divine office as they.

With the approval of the holy council we grant to clerics, religious as well as others, who are members of the household of a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church or of a bishop in communion with the Apostolic See, the privilege of saying validly the same canonical office that is said by the cardinal and the bishop, nor are they obliged to say any other.'*

Canon 11

Directs that schools be established in the Roman curia, at Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca, where Catholic magistri shall teach the Hebrew, Greek, ‘Arabic, and Chaldaic languages, and gives ways and methods for the support of these instructors.

Among thé cares that weigh heavily upon us, not the least isour solicitude to lead the erring into the way of truth and with the help of God to win them for Him. This is what we ardently desite, to it we zealously direct the energies of our mind, and about it we are concerned diligenti studio et studiosa diligentia. We realize, however, that for the attainment of our purpose an exposition of the Holy Scriptures is particularly appropriate and a faithful preaching thereof very opportune. Nor are we ignorant that even these will prove of no avail if directed to the ears of one speaking an unknown tongue. Therefore, following the example of Him whose representative we are on earth, who wished that the Apostles, about to go forth to evangelize the world, should have a knowledge of every language, we earnestly desire that the Church abound with Catholic men possessing a knowledge of the languages used by the infidels, who will be able to instruct them in Catholic doctrine

8 The Second Council.of Lyons dealt with same subject in canon 25.

'^ The reason for this privilege was the circumstance that the form and text of the daily office of the Breviary were not uniform in the different dioceses and religious orders, which made the saying of the office in common a difficult, and at times an impossible, task.

and by holy baptism form them into a body of Christians. There. fore, that a knowledge of these languages may be easily obtained, we, with the approval of the holy council, direct that for the teaching of the languages named below, schools be established wherever the Roman curia may happen to reside” and also in the Universities of Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca, decreeing that in each of these Catholic men possessing a sufficient knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek,* Arabic, and Chaldaic languages be engaged, two for each language, who shall direct the schools, translate books from these languages into Latin, and teach these languages to others who, on being sufficiently instructed in them, may propagate the faith among the infidels. As regards the support of these instructors, we direct that those in the Roman curia be maintained by the Apos. tolic See, those at Paris by the King of France, those at Oxford by the King of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, those at Bologna and Salamanca, by the prelates, monasteries, chapters, exempt and non-exempt religious communities, and rectors of churches of Italy and Spain respectively, a tax in proportion to the needs to be imposed on each, privileges and exemptions to the contrary notwithstanding, by which, however, we do not wish to create a disadvantage quoad alia.

Canon 12

Christian princes should restrain the Saracens subject to them from publicly invoking the name of Mohammed and from making pilgrimages to a certain shrine.

It is an insult to the Holy Name and a disgrace to the Christian faith that in some parts of the world subject to Christian princes, in which the Saracens live sometimes apart from and sometimes intermingled with the Christians, their priests, each day at a certain hour, in their temples or mosques in which the Saracens assemble to worship the false Mohammed, invoke and extol in a loud voice and in the hearing of Saracens and Christians the name of Mohammed and there make public profession of their faith in him. Moreover, great multitudes of Saracens from far and near flock to a place where formerly a Saracen was buried, whom they venerate and worship as a saint, a performance that is a detriment to our faith and a grave scandal to the faithful. Since these things are offensive to God and therefore not to be tolerated, we, with the approval of the holy council, strictly forbid that such things be done hereafter in Christian lands, and command each and all of the Christian princes under whose jurisdiction the said Saracens are

7 Altaner, Die Dominikanermissionen d. 13. Jabrb. (Habelschwert, 1924), pp. 91 ff.; Denifle, Die Universitäten, pp. 495 ff. It may be mentioned that Pope Pius m in his encyclical De studiis rerum orientalium provebendis of September 8, 19:8, points to the decree-of Vienne, in which he finds the program of his own newly created Oriental Institute foreshadowed. The text of the encyclical is in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1928. English translation in 4m. Ecclesiastical Review, LXXX (1929), 62-74, which, however, has erroneously "Vienna" for "Vienne," and "Bonn" for "Bologna."

60 Altaner, "Die Durchführung d. Vienner Konzilsbeschlusses über d. Errichtung v. Lehrstühlen f. orientalische Sprachen,” in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengeschichte, LIE (1933), 116-36; id., "Sprachstudien u. Sprachkenntnisse im Dienste d, Mission," in Zeitscbr. f. Missionswissenschaft, XXI (1931), 122 ff.

and the above mentioned performances are carried on, that they as zealous promoters of the Catholic faith, considering the disgrace that is heaped not only upon them but upon the Christians as well, remove that disgrace from their territories by expressly forbidding that any of the aforesaid performances be attempted or carried on in the future by anyone residing within the limits of their territory. Those who presume to do otherwise shall be punished by the princes for their irreverence, so that others, filled with fear by their example, may be deterred from a similar presumption.

Canon 13

The inquisition must be conducted by the bishops and inquisitors, and one may act and make inquiries without the other. However, one without the other may not consign anyone to harsh imprisonment. Each prison shall have two chief guards and for each room there shall be two keys. The guards, before assuming office, must take an oath that they will perform their duties conscientiously; the oath must be taken also by their assistants. Bishops and inquisitors who prove delinquent or knowingly perpetrate an injustice are to be punished.

Many complaints have come to the Apostolic See that some inquisitors, deputed by us to suppress heresy, sometimes so exceed the authority of their office that what has been wisely provided by us as an instrument for the well-being and increase of the faith, has in reality become a detriment.

(1) Wherefore, that the work of the inquisition may be the more successful the more earnestly and cautiously it is executed, we decree that it be conducted by the diocesan bishops and by the inquisitors appointed by the Apostolic See (temporal advantage and partiality of every description being excluded), so that either one of the above mentioned may without the other cite, arrest, and hold for safe-keeping, even by shackling with chains if this should be deemed necessary, and may make inquiries about those in regard to whom inquiry may be considered advisable. However, the bishop without the inquisitor or the inquisitor without the bishop or his representative, or, episcopali sede vacante, the one delegated by the chapter, may not consign anyone to harsh and cruel imprisonment, which would be punishment rather than custody, or subject anyone to torture or proceed to pronounce sentence on anyone, if they are able to co-operate within a period of eight days after they have sought each other’s co-operation; any action in contravention of this is ipso jure null and void. But if the bishop or, sede vacante, the one delegated by the chapter, cannot or will not personally meet the inquisitor, or if the inquisitor cannot or will not personally meet either of the above mentioned, the bishop or his representative may send to the inquisitor and the inquisitor may send to the bishop or his representative proxies, or either may make known to the other his counsel and approval in writing.

(2) Since, in regard to the custody of the prisons in which heretics are confined, much fraud has lately been committed, we decree that all such prisons, which we wish in the future to be for the common use of the bishop and inquisitor, shall have two chief guards, discreet, diligent, and trustworthy, one to be appointed and provided for by the bishop, the other by the inquisitor, and each of these guards may have a competent and reliable assistant. For each room within the prison there shall be two keys, of which one shall be held by each of the aforesaid guards, who may entrust the keys to their assistants for the purpose of ministering to the incarcerated.

(3) Moreover, the guards, before they assume office, must, in the presence of the bishop or, sede vacante, the chapter, and the inquisitor, or those substituted by them, take an oath on the Gospels that in their duties as guards they will exercise the utmost care and solicitude; that one guard will not speak to an incarcerated person in secreto except in the presence of the other guard; that they will administer faithfully and without any deduction the provisions allotted to those incarcerated by the rule or what is given them by relatives, friends, or other reliable persons (unless the furnishing of provisions by outsiders is forbidden by the bishop and inquisitor), and that they will not resort to fraud in this matter. The same oath must be taken in the presence of the same persons by the assistants of the guards before they take up the duties of their office. But, since it often happens that bishops have their own prisons which are not at the disposal of the inquisitors, we wish and strictly command that the guards appointed by the bishops or, sede vacante, by the chapter, as well as their assistants, shall take a similar oath in the presence of the inquisitors or their representatives. Notaries of the inquisition also shall take an oath in the presence of the bishop and the inquisitor or their representatives to the effect that they will perform the duties of their office faithfully. The same shall be applicable to other persons necessary for the proper performance of the duties connected with the aforesaid office.

(4) While it is a grave matter not to act in the extermination of heresy when its enormity demands action, it is equally grave and deserving of the severest punishment maliciously to impose or anchor that perverseness on the innocent. Wherefore, in virtue of holy obedience and with the threat of eternal malediction, we command the bishop and the inquisitor and those whom they may choose as substitutes, that they proceed discreetly and promptly against those suspected of heresy and do not maliciously or fraudulently anchor that stain of iniquity upon an innocent party. If, through hatred, affection, or temporal interests, and contrary to justice and their own conscience, they fail to proceed against anyone against whom they ought to proceed, or, actuated by the same impulses, presume to annoy anyone in any way by stigmatizing him with the stain of heresy, besides other punishments to be imposed in accordance with the nature of the offense, the bishop or superior shall incur eo ipso suspension from office for a period of three years, others, excommunication, from which, except in mortis articulo, they can obtain absolution only from the Roman pontiff and then only on condition that they have made due satisfaction. No privilege in this matter shall avail.

(5) Lastly, we decree, with the approval of the holy council, that all statutes of our predecessors dealing with the inquisition and not in conflict with the above, shall remain in force.*’

Canon 14

Determines the age of inquisitors. Those who under cover of their office extort money or on account of the delinquency of clerics seize Church property are to be punished. Notaries, officials, and associates who know of such acts being committed are commanded to report them to superiors. Inquisitors are forbidden to abuse the concession of carrying arms.

Being unwilling that the splendor of the faith be obscured by indiscreet and unjust acts of some inquisitors, we, with the approval of the holy council, decree that in the future the office of inquisitor be committed to no one who has not attained the age of forty years, and we strictly command all commissaries of inquisitors and bishops, that they do not under cover of the office of the 1nquisition extort money from anyone in any manner whatsoever, no knowingly attempt on account of the delinquency of clerics to seize Church property and apply it to the treasury of a church. In any action to the contrary in these matters, we decree that they incur Ip$0 facto excommunication from which, except in mortis articulo, they cannot be absolved until they have made full satisfaction to those from whom the money was extorted, nullis privilegiis, pactis, aut remissionibus super hoc valituris. Notaries and officials of the aforesaid office and associates of inquisitors and their commissaries, Who know that inquisitors or commissaries have secretly committed such acts, shall earnestly endeavor to correct them in secreto if they wish to escape the anger of God and avoid giving offense to the Apostolic See. If, however, they know those things in such a way that they can

81 This decree is an adjustment of the relations between the tribunals of the gm tion and those of the bishops. The extraordinary powers acquired by the papal ul " nals of the inquisition during the latter half of the thirteenth century, rcsulted Tat little friction and entanglements with the episcopal tribunals. The bishops ruled E he without their co-operation no inquiry could be undertaken or sentence imposed by the inquisition. The popes on the other hand, especially Benedict XI, by decrees made t w inquisition independent of the bishops and responsible to themselves only, which n2 urally led to bitter and incessant conflicts.

prove them should they be called on to do so, it is their duty to make them known to the superiors of the inquisitors and their commissaries, who shall be bound to remove from office those found guilty and otherwise duly punish them. Superiors proving negligent in this matter shall be reminded of the above instructions by the local ordinaries whom we strictly command in virtue of holy obedience to make known those things to the Apostolic See. Moreover, we strictly forbid inquisitors to abuse any concession in the matter of carrying arms or to have more officials than are necessary for the proper discharge of their office. Usur €

Canon 15

Officials of communities who favor statutes permitting the demand and compelling the payment of usury with no obligation to make restitution, incur excommunication, They incur the same censure if within three months they do not remove such statutes from the books. Money-lenders must exhibit their account books. Anyone asserting that usury is not a sin is a heretic. ndi Aene AMD

It has come to our knowledge that certain communities, in violation of the law, human and divine, approve the practice of usury and by statutes juramenta quandoque firmata not only permit the demand and payment of usury but compel debtors to pay it; thus imposing grave hardships on those who demand the return of the usurious money, and by resorting to other species of fraud in this matter, hinder the return of such money. We, therefore, wishing to Put an end to these pernicious practices, with the approval of the holy council, decree that all civil officials of these communities, be they rulers, judges, lawyers, or any others, who in the future make, write, or dictate statutes of this kind or knowingly decide that usury may be paid or in case of having been paid may not be freely and fully restored when its return is demanded, incur the sentence of excommunication. They shall incur the same sentence if they do not within three months remove such statutes from the books of those communities (if they have the power to do so), or if they presume effectively to observe those statutes or customs in any manner. Moreover, since money-lenders enter secretly and deceitfully Into usurious contracts so frequently that they can scarcely be con- Vinced of the evils of usury, we decree that they be compelled by *cclesiastical censure to exhibit their account books for the purpose of ascertaining whether they practice usury.

f anyone should presume obstinately to affirm that it is not a sin to practice usury, we decree that he be punished as a heretic and we strictly command the bishops of the localities and the inquisitors to proceed against those suspected of such error in the same way as

*y would proceed against those suspected of heresy.

Canon 17

Archbishops journeying through exempt localities of their province may have the cross borne before them, may bless the people, and hear or celebrate the divine offices.

With the approval of the holy council we permit an archbishop journeying through exempt localities of his province to have the cross borne before him, to bless the people, to hear the divine offices there publicly or privately, to celebrate them in pontificalibus and to have them celebrated in his presence sine pontificalibus, any privilege to the contrary notwithstanding. Likewise, we permit a bishop in similar places of his diocese to bless the people, to hear the divine offices, to celebrate them and to hive them celebrated in his presence, with the understanding, however, that under cover of this concession the archbishop or bishop exercise no jurisdiction in the places exempt, nor in any way annoy the persons exempt or restrict the privileges of exemption. No other right does the archbishop or bishop acquire by this concession.”

Canon 18

Anyone having struck or forcibly seized a bishop, commanded or approved that this be done, been an accomplice or given counscl, is excommunicated. He shall be deprived of all fiefs and of all spiritual and temporal ofhccs and benefices. His mare descendants to the second generation are ips to disqualified from holding ecclesiastical benefices. His estate and the place in which the bishop is detained shall be placed under interdict till he has made condign satisfaction.

If anyone has at the instigation of the devil rashly and with injurious effect struck or forcibly seized any bishop or commanded that these things be done or approved them when done by others or been an accomplice or given advice in this matter or knowingly defended one guiity of such conduct and did not incur excommun™ cation under decrees already published, let him be excommunicate by the authority of the present constitution, any custom to the contrary notwithstanding, a custom which we with the approval of the council regard as a corruption, from which censure he may not outside the case of mortis articulo, be absolved except by the Roman pontiff. He shall, moreover, be deprived of all Gefs and of all spiritual and temporal offices and benefices which he holds from the Church over which the bishop thus offended presides and all these d secular clergy- Its of archbishops ar d in annoying an rcise jurisdiction g, for the malice

82 This decree is an echo of the struggle between the regular an restrictions indicate that it was the outcume of abuses on the part bishops when passing through exempt territory, abuses that consiste oppressing religious in one way or another and attempting to exe where they had none. At times papal exemption meant little or nothin and machinations of the prelates were often more powerful than a papal decreta.

shall revert to the same Church. His male descendants, even to the second generation, shall without any hope of dispensation be ipso facto disqualified from holding ecclesiastical benefices in the city and diocese in which the same bishop resides. His estate also (when it is within one diocese), as well as the piace in which the bishop is detained and as long as his detention in that place continucs, shall be placed under ecclesiastical interdict till he has made condign satisfaction. If his estate comprises two or more dioceses, that wherein his principal domicile is and th3t also whercin the crime was committed, if the territory belongs to him, and iwo other dioceses which belong to the territory of the assailant and which are nearest to the place where the crime was committed, shall be subject to the same interdict. And since his confusion and embarrassment will be in proportion to the extent his offense becomcs known, till he has made suitable satisfaction, the one excommunicated and his offense shall be announced publicly in all the churches of the locality in which the crime was committed and in the churches of neighboring cities and dioceses on all Sundays and festival days amid the ringing of bells and the burning of candles. And when he presents himself for absolution, let him come prepared to submit to the punishment to be inflicted and with the help of God to perform the penance imposed. The city that has committed any cf the above-mentioned offenses against its bishop, shall be placed under interdict till it has made due satisfaction. Its officials, by whatever name they may be known, if guilty of like offenses, shall incur excommunication from which, outside the case of mortis articulo, they may not be absolved except by the Roman pontiff. All of these instructions are to be observed particularly in the case of those who are slayers of bishops, since the punishment in their case ought to be severer than in the case of the aforesaid.

Nor let anyone wonder that we do not inflict severer punishment on those guilty of the aforesaid offenses. It is true that these offenses occur frequently and for many perpetrators an example is necessary, and it is also true that the punishment of the offender ought to be in proportion to the dignity of the one offended, for the bishops are the legates of Christ, they are spiritual fathers, our brethren and co-bishops, the acknowledged pillars of the Church.

'vertheless we wish for the present to temper the rigor of the infliction of many penalties and procecd to impose others if the im- Pudence of the delinquents should demand this.

f anyone in the aforesaid cases has been absolved from the Sentence of excommunication in mortis articulo, unless, as soon as Possible after the recovery of his health, he presents himself to the

Oman pontiff to receive his command, he shall again incur ipso facto the same censure. Though sufficient provision has been made in the law to govern this matter, we nevertheless take occasion to

404 DECREFS OF THE COUNCILS call attention to it here, lest someone should plead ignorance of the law on this point.??

Canon 19

Those who capture ecclesiastical persons and detain them till they resign their benefices or prevent those summoned to the Apostolic See from going there, if prelates, shall be suspended for three years from collecting the revenues from their churches; if clerics of lower rank, they shall be deprived of their benefices. The same penalty is to be incurred by those who bring about their own capture to cvade a summons to the Apostolic Sec.

Many serious complaints have come to us that some having temporal authority do not hesitate frequently to capture ecclesiastical persons and to detain them till they resign from their benefices, or prevent those summoned to the Apostolic See ab homine vel a jure from going there, seizing them at their departure. Considering, therefore, how derogatory such actions are to our honor, to the honor of the Apostolic See, and to the peace and welfare of ecclesiastical persons, we, with the approval of the holy council, decree that in addition to the penalty of the decree ** which they incur who do or cause the aforesaid things to be done, they who cause or bring about such things, if they be prelates, shall be suspended for a period of three years from collecting the revenues of their churches. If, on the other hand, they are clerics of lower rank, they shall be deprived eo ipso of the benefices obtained; the same penalty to be incurred by those who bring about their own capture by secular authorities in order to have an excuse for disregarding their summons to the Apostolic See. The resignations of benefices extorted i the above manner, though they were accepted and sanctioned by tne prelates of those who resigned, are absolutely null and void, ane we command the local ordinaries that, after it has become evident to them that some persons subject to their jurisdiction have n : curred the aforesaid penalties, they do not delay to publish thos penalties and see to it that they are duly complied with.”

Canon 20

Seculars who compel clerics to celebrate the divine offices T cts even that is under interdict and invite and compel people of interdicred 1S , those excommunicated, to attend such services, are excommunicated. i . ome

Grave complaints have come to us from bishops that ical nobles and temporal lords whose territory is under eccles ab interdict have masses and the other divine offices celebrated P licly and solemnly not only in the chapels of their districts but also in collegiate and other churches of prominent localities, inviting and, what is worse, at times compelling now this one now that one to celebrate those offices; and not content with these excesses, they have the people even of the interdicted districts called together by the ringing of bells and by public criers to attend these masses. Some of them also do not hesitate to command, especially their own subjects, though they are under excommunication and interdict, not to leave the churches while the masses are being celebrated therein, even when the celebrants request them to leave; whence it often happens, not without offense to God and scandal to the clergy and People, that the masses remain incomplete. Wherefore, that excesses so grave may not go unpunished and serve as an example to others, we, with the approval of the holy council, restrain with the sentence of excommunication, from which they can be absolved only by the Apostolic See, all who in the future presume to compel anyone in any manner to celebrate the divine offices in places under interdict, or who in the aforsaid manner shall call together any persons who are under excommunication or interdict for the purpose of hearing the divine offices, or who shall forbid those under excommunication or interdict to leave the churches in the course of divine service, and those also who having been warned by the celebrants to leave presume to remain.

Canon 21

Bishops visiting Cistercian monasteries from motives of hospitality, must be content with the food that is set before them. They are forbidden to oppress exempt and other religious in their canonical visitations. In monasteries from which they may receive procurations, they may, on the days permissible, have meat, but m a house outside the walls of the monastery. If this is inconvenient, then in the monastery but outside the cloister.

With sorrow, we declare, it has come to our knowledge that prelates visiting the monasteries of the Cistercian order, though they are hospitably received and extended every attention, are nevertheless not content with the food prescribed for the monks by the Rule; that contrary to that Rule and the order's privilege, they demand meat and, if their demands are not complied with, have re- Se to violence to enforce them. Moreover, while the alms they Teceive are sufficient, they procure more for themselves against the Will of the religious, even in places which by custom or de jure are free from the obligation of supplying procurations.'^ For their

9rses and wagons they demand iron, though none is needed; their —————

°° By procuration is understood the sustenance which was due to the bishop and his Companions in the course of his canonical visitation of the churches of his diocese and

Which the churches visited had to provide.

cooks demand and extort money, and they do not observe the arrangements existing between the prelates and the monasteries concerning procurations. If they have the right to procurations on such a visit, they become oppressive and consume in one brief hour what would last the community a long time. Though they receive procurations, they have with them hunting dogs, falcons, and sparrow hawks," and unless their demands in regard to these are met, they often break open the doors of the monasteries and churches and carry off the valuables of the church. Contrary to the laws, they teceive several procurations in one day, sometimes also a specified sum of money," though no visitation was held, and under cover of procurations they demand things to which they have no right, thus placing upon the monasteries and churches an intolerable burden. There are also others who impose upon the exempt and other religious the burden of furnishing the major portion of procurations due to nuncios of the Apostolic See and of meeting other extraordinary expenses, so that they themselves and the secular clergy need not supply them from their own resources. In many other ways do the aforesaid prelates oppress exempt monasteries and their churches in the matter of procurations and the imposition of unusual burdens. We, therefore, wishing to provide a suitable remedy for these evils, with the approval of the holy council, decree that when the bishops visit monasteries, not on occasion of a canonical visitation, but solely through a spirit of hospitality, they receive with gratitude the food that from a motive of charity is set before them. When, however, they come to monasteries from which they have a right to receive procurations, either by common law, custom, privilege, or by special indult, then they may, on days on which it is permitted, have meat, but in a house outside the wall of the monastery; if this 1s Inconvenient, then in the monastery but outside the porta regularis, that is, outside the cloister (privileges to the contrary notwithstanding). Nor do we consider it unbecoming if the fragments that are collected from the tables of the bishops and their familiares, be given by the eleemosynaries of the bishops to the poor of the locality. From all other above mentioned oppressions the prelates shall diligently abstain, if they wish to escape the anger of God and of the Apostolic See.

Canon 22

The following is the big constitution Exivi de paradiso. ]t is an explanation of the Rule of St. Francis along stricter lines than those contained in the consti: tion Exiit qui seminat of Nicholas HI (August 14, 1279) and was intended to po | end to the dissensions between the community and the Spirituals or rcform PT Though in many points it was favorable to the latter, it failed nevertheless © purpose. Owing to its length, abbreviations will be made in the following wherever possible.

1 have come out of paradise. I said: I will water my garden of plants, said the celestial husbandman who is the source of wisdom, the Word of God, begotten of the Father from eternity, remaining in the Father, in these latter days made flesh in the womb of a virgin through the action of the Holy Ghost, He went forth, a man, to accomplish the arduous work of the redemption by giving Himself to man as an exemplar of the heavenly life. But because man, harassed by the cares of this mortal life, turned his mind away from the consideration of this exemplar, the celestial husbandman, among other gardens in the Church militant, made one removed from the tempestuous waves of the world, in which man might devote himself more peacefully and securely to contemplating and practicing the works and precepts of the exemplar. This garden is the holy reiigion of the Friars Minor which, content with God alone, is firmly enclosed within the walls of regular observance. Coming into this garden, the beloved child of God gathers the myrrh and aromatic spices of mortifying penances, which by their wonderful fragrance diffuse the odor of sanctity over the whole world. This is that form and Rule of heavenly life which that illustrious confes- Sor of Christ, St. Francis, drew up and taught by word and example to be observed by his children. But though his devout followers in former times have striven to observe that Rule faithfully in its purity and plenitude, they were nevertheless convinced that in a few Points it was susceptible of more than one interpretation, for the elucidation of which they prudently had recourse to the Apostolic See that, the true meaning of such passages being established and all doubts dissipated, they might serve God in charity and with a Peaceful conscience. Many of our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs, heeding their pious and just supplications, defined those points of the Rule, retaining some interpretations and rejecting others, according as they seemed suitable or unsuitable to the consciences of the brethren and to the state of regular observance. But because there are timorous souls that greatly fear any deviation from the way of God and sometimes find obstacles where there are none, the Consciences of all the brethren have not been wholly quieted by the above mentioned elucidations, for in regard to some things pertaining to their Rule and state doubts still arise and agitate them, as we àve often been told in public and in private consistories.

. Wherefore, after having submitted the disputed points for examination to many prudent and discreet archbishops, bishops, masters of theology, and other learned men, we, having from our youthful days held the followers of that Rule and the whole order in the ighest esteem, and now by reason of our pastoral office are the more ardently encouraged to aid and favor them the more we consider the abundance of fruit that accrues to the universal Church from their exemplary lives and wholesome teaching, shall now, at the humble entreaty of the brethren, explain and decide those doubtful points that have been raised and may be raised in the future. As to the doubt whether the brethren are bound by their Rule to all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel, or whether they are bound only to the three counsels, namely, vivere in obedientia, in castitate et sine proprio, and to those things that are placed in the Rule sub verbis obligatoriis, we, following the footsteps of our predecessors, declare that, since a vow implies something definite and limited, it follows that he who by vow subscribes to a Rule cannot be said to be bound ex vi voti hujusmodi to those evangelical counsels that are not contained in the Rule. That this was the intention of St. Francis is evident from the fact that he embodied in the Rule some evangelical counsels and excluded others. Had he intended to bind them to all evangelical counsels, his inclusion in the Rule of some and his exclusion of others would be meaningless. But, since the nature of the restriction demands that everything foreign to it be excluded and everything related to it be included, we declare that the brethren by their acceptance of the Rule are bound not only to those three vows nude et absolute accepta, but they are bound also to the fulfilment of all those things that are related to or implied in those three vows. For, if they were bound only to the three vows, promising to observe the Rule praecise et nude by living in obedience, chastity, and poverty, and not bound also to all the things contained in the Rule and which in one way or another affect the vows, then the words, promitto semper hanc regulam observare, would be pronounced pro nihilo et vane. Nor must it be maintained that St. Francis intended that the followers of his Rule should be bound equally to all the things contained in it without distinguishing between those things that constitute ex vi verbi a mortal sin and those that do not, since he himself applies to some things the word precept oF its equivalent, while in the case of others he makes use of different expressions.

Likewise, since in those things that concern the salvation of the soul the safer course is to be pursued, we declare that though the brethren are not bound to the observance of all things contained in the Rule sub verbis imperativi modi as they are bound to the observance of precepts or to the equivalents of precepts, it is to their benefit, in order to observe the purity and rigor of the Rule, to kno” that they are bound to the things indicated below sicut ad aequipo™ lentia praeceptis. Wherefore, that these may be had in a brief form, we declare that what is said in the Rule about not having more tunics than one with a capuche and another without a capuche, about not wearing shoes, not riding on horses except in cases of necessity, about wearing cheap clothes, about the obligation of fasting, that clerics say the divine office according to the order of the Holy Roman Church, that superiors be solicitous about the necessities of the sick and attentive regarding the clothing of the brethren, about the attention that the brethren owe a sick member of the community, about the brethren not preaching in a diocese when they have been forbidden to do so by the bishop, about no one attempting to preach unless he has been examined, approved, and appointed to this work by his superiors, about brethren who knowing that they cannot ob- Serve the Rule specialiter ought to have recourse to their superior; then, about what is said in the Rule regarding the form of the habit for the novices and the professed members, and lastly what pertains to the manner of reception and profession; all these things the brethren are bound to observe tanquam obligatoria. Furthermore, wherever the word teneantur occurs in the rule, this the order has traditionally regarded as having the force of precept and must be observed as such.

Again, since many of the brethren have doubts whether they are permitted to receive temporal goods from those entering the order if freely given, and whether they may without fault induce them to give such goods or any portion thereof to convents in case they Should be asked to give advice in regard to such distribution, we, considering that St. Francis established his order in extreme poverty and wished that his followers should entertain no desire for the worldly goods of those entering the order, declare that in the future the brethren may not by any method seek to obtain such goods for themselves nor may they act as advisers in regard to its distribution. But, since the Rule leaves those entering the order free to dispose of their goods according as they are moved by God, it seems permissible to the brethren, considering their necessities, to receive something of such goods if those entering wish to give it per modum eleemosynae.

Though we have declared the provisions of the Rule regarding the number of habits and the quality of material to be used for them and Other garments to be equivalent to a precept, yet this matter must ina large measure be left to the judgment of superiors and must also be dictated by the custom of each country or locality, since it is im- Possible to make a rule that would be applicable to all countries. To the judgment of superiors we leave also the matter under what circumstances the brethren may wear shoes. Outside of the fasts from the feast of All Saints to the Nativity of our Lord and Quadragesima the brethren are not bound to any fasts except those instituted by the Church. For it is not likely that the author of the Rule or he who approved it intended to absolve them from observing those fasts to which the other Christians are bound by the common law of the Church. In reference to the receipt of money either per se vel per personam interpositam, the brethren must be cautious and not appeal to persons for money for other reasons and by cther procedures than those indicated by our predecessor Nicholas III, lest they become transgressors of the precept and the Rule. For, where something that is not expressly granted is in a general way prohibited, it is understood to be prohibited. Wherefore, any acquisition of money and the reception of pecuniary offerings in the church or any other place, receptacles designed for pecuniary offerings, as well as any other method for obtaining money not granted by our predecessor, are absolutely forbidden. Since recourse or appeal to special friends is permitted by the Rule in two cases only, namely, to supply the needs of the infirm and the needs of the brethren in regard to clothing, and this, as our predecessor has pointed out, may be reasonably extended to other needs at times when alms are few or their bestowal should cease altogether, in no other cases are they permitted to appeal to such friends either directly or through intermediaries. Lastly, since the holy founder desired that the followers of his Rule be totally divested of all desire of and attachment to earthly things and that they be especially detached from money and completely cut off from the use of it, it is necessary that they be cautious, that while for the aforesaid reasons they may make appeals for money to meet their urgent needs, they should in all things so conduct themselves as one possessing nothing. Wherefore, to command when and in what manner money is to be spent, to demand an account of expenditures, to deposit it or cause it to be deposited in any manner, to place money in a coffer and to carry its key, these and similar acts we wish the brethren to know are illicit. Hence when the holy man, giving expression in the Rule to the form of the aforesaid poverty, said: "the brethren shall make nothing their own, neither house nor land nor anything else, but as pilgrims and strangers wandering on earth and serving the Lord in poverty and humility, shall support themselves entirely by alms," this has been explained by our predecessor as applying to the individual religious and to the order as a whole; neither may possess anything; whatever is given to them in any way or form belongs not to them but to the Roman Church, and they have only the use of such things. To our examination have been directed also things that are said to be done in the order and that are apparently at complete variance with the vow of poverty and the purity of the order, though the brethren as a body and especially the superiors maintain that such things, at least many of them, do not take place. The following espe cially call for a remedy: the brethren not only permit but actually cause themselves to be made heirs; they sometimes receive annual revenues in such large amounts that convents receiving them can subsist on them alone; when affairs of theirs, even in temporal matters, are conducted in courts, they assist the lawyers and agents an are present personally to encourage them; they act as executors of wills and mix themselves in the disposition and restitution to be made in matters of usury; they have extensive gardens and vineyards from which they receive much produce and wine for the market; in times of harvest they gather such an abundance of grain and wine by begging and buying and store them away in granaries and cellars that they can live for the remainder of the year without asking for alms; their churches and other buildings exhibit such lavish expenditures that they appear more like the dwellings of the rich than those of poor friars; ecclesiastical vestments also in many places are of such quantity and quality that they outdo the great cathedrals. We reply to the foregoing as follows: since it is a truth of everyday life that what is outwardly done is but the expression of an interior disposition, it is necessary that the brethren who have freely and by vow stripped themselves of all temporal things, abstain from everything that is or appears to be contrary to that vow. Inheritance implies ownership, consequently in consideration of this vow they are incapable of inheritance, which of its very nature extends itself to money and ad mobilia et immobilia, Similarly, it is repugnant to the vow of poverty to receive the income of such inheritance or such part thereof that it can be presumed it was perpetrated in fraud. The same applies to annual revenues from whatever Source they come. Furthermore, since not only that which is known to be evil but also everything that has the appearance of evil must be avoided a viris perfectis, it is but natural that the brethren should abstain from acting as assistants to lawyers and agents in court when the matter considered reverts or may revert to their temporal interest, for in such cases people are led to believe that they are seeking something that is their own, which is not only derogatory to their vow but also a source of scandal to their neighbor. Since they are forbidden not only to receive and own money but also the handling of it and may for nothing temporal engage in court action, they are forbidden also to act as executors of wills. However, their advice in such matters is not opposed to the statute, since in that case they exercise no jurisdiction. While it is lawful and consistent With reason that the brethren who devote themselves to prayer and Study should have suitable gardens and fields for recollection, recreation, and the cultivation of the necessary vegetables for themselves, it is, however, contrary to their Rule to dispose of such products for a monetary consideration. As has been explained by our predecessor, even if lands, vineyards, etc., should be bequeathed to them to cultivate for their own use, they may not accept them, since their Possession, considering the value of the produce, partakes of the nature of an income. Their holy founder wished that they, like the birds of the air, should have no granaries or cellars, but should rely 9n divine Providence for all things. Churches and other buildings must not exceed in number and size the requirements of the community and in the future must be consistent with the vow of poverty. God, who knows all secrets, takes into account chiefly the intention, not the outward act, of those serving Him. He does not wish to be honored with things that are out of harmony with the condition and state of His servants. Superfluity and extreme costliness in the matter of ecclesiastical vessels and vestments partake of the nature of treasure and abundance, and are in the judgment of men manifestly inconsistent with the Rule and profession of the Friars Minor.

There has, moreover, sprung up among the brethren a troublesome question concerning the usus pauper, that is, whether by the profession of their Rule they are bound to the strict and simple use of things. Some there are who maintain that as quoad dominium they are bound by vow to an absolute non-proprietorship, so also quoad usum are they bound to a rigid and austere use of things. Others, on the other hand, maintain that by their profession they are not bound to any usus pauper that is not expressed in the Rule, though by the nature of their state they are bound ad usum moderatum temperantiae, sicut et magis ex concedenti, quam ceteri Christiani. Wishing to put an end to these conflicts, we declare that the Friars Minor are by the profession of their Rule in a special manner (specialiter) bound ad arctos usus seu pauperes which are contained in the Rule and bound eo obligationis modo, sub quo continet seu ponit regula dictos usus. But to say, as some are reported to have done, that it is heresy to hold that the simple use (usus pauper) is included or not included in the vow of evangelical poverty, we declare presumptuous and rash.

Finally, since the Rule specifies where the election of the minister general is to be held and who are the electors, but makes no mention of the election or institution of provincial ministers, we declare, decree, and ordain in this constitution, which we wish to be observed in perpetuum, that when any province is to be provided with a minister, the election of that minister is in the hands of the provincial chapter, which that chapter is bound to hold the day following its assembly ; the confirmation of the election, however, pertains to the minister general. If the election is conducted per formam scrutinii and the votes are divided, it may happen that several ballots are necessary ; the election of the one who has received the majority of capitular votes, notwithstanding the exceptions and opposition of the other party, is then referred to the minister general who, with the advice of discreet and experienced fathers of the order, confirms or rejects it according as he sees fit. If it is rejected, it is returned to the provincial chapter. But if the aforesaid chapter neglected on the day specified to elect a minister, then the duty to provide one falls upon the minister general. If for good reasons the minister general and the chapter should deem it expedient that in distant provinces where hitherto for good reasons a different method of providing a provincial minister has prevailed, the latter be appointed by the minister general, this may be done, to the exclusion, however, of fraud and partiality.*? (C.1 in Clem., De verb. signif., V, rr.)

We have thus far considered onlv those decrees which unquestionably emanated from the deliberations of the council. That, in addition to these, others were issued by the Pope with the approval of the council, though without expression of such approval, there has never been any doubt. The omission of such expression and the confused state of the Clementines have made it extremely difficult and in many cases impossible to determine with certainty what is what in regard to these decrees. The recent discovery of long lost material pertaining to the council’s work of reform, has done much to clarify the situation and bring us a step or two nearer to the solution of the problem, hogh a great deal remains to be done and, until something of yastly greater importance than we have úr disposal comes our way, the exact number of decrecs isthé concurrence of the council, must necessarily ind conjecture. As already stated, the most important remain a matter o 1 I contribution to the solution of the problem is that of the learned Franciscan, Dr. Ewald Miiller.°° With the aid of this new material and his fortunate discovery in the Staatsbibliothek in Munich of a MS that in its origin antedates the final redaction and publication of the Clementines by John XXII on October 25, 1317, he has thrown a flood of new light on some of the preceding twenty-one decrees, and has also unearthed eighteen others in the Clementines, some of which se-withsut doubt concllay while others carry a greater or lesser degree of probability in this respect. The MS consists of less than two octavo pages and contains only brief notes, that is, the bare titles of the decrees. Its list is not complete, for it omits some of the twenty-one decrees we have just quoted, for instance, DOS. 15, 14, 17, and 18, which, by the way, are mentioned by the papal master of ceremonies; ?! and vice versa, it includes in its list some that are not mentioned by the master of ceremonies; for instance, nos. 5, 6, and 16 of our series of twenty-one. To avoid complicated details and technicalities, I shall in the following list of eighteen decrees give briefly in each

Aor — case the reasons that prompted Dr. Müller to include them in his list of fairly certain and probable conciliar enactments. Students desiring greater detail in the matter are advised to consult his work.

— p 9 Ehrle, Vorarbeiten z. Constitution “Exivi de paradiso," Archiv, VII, 41 ff.; Müller, P: 310-52.

°° Das Konzil v. Vienne, Münster, 1934. 91 Archiv f. Literatur- u. Kircbengescb. d. M-A., V, 580.

Further decrees

Canon 1

Directions concerning the use of papal rescripts by abbots and other religious prelates.

Abbots and other religious holding major ecclesiastical offices may not, when it is question of priories and other houses subject to them, bring court action against anyone on the authority of Apostolic rescripts or letters of papal legates (except in such places and before such persons as is permitted to the priors and other officials of the priories and other houses; this observation applying also to places ad mensas praelatorum pertinentes). Whoever presumes to act in contravention of this and to annoy others, shall be condemned by the judge before whom the matter is brought, to pay the expenses and make good the damage to the other party. Any judicial process disregarding the aforesaid provision is ipso jure null. (C.1, in Clem., De rescript., I, 2.)

Canon 2

A rural official or a prior of a cloistered monastery may not be delegated in judicial matters.

Though the city official of a bishop °° or a religious obtaining the office of conventual prior (though that office is not customarily an elective one) may in judicial matters be delegated by the Apostolic See or by a papal legate, in the case, however, of a forane (rural) official ** or of a prior of a cloistered monastery, We do not wish this to be observed. (C.2, in Clem., De rescript., I, 2.)

Canon 3

No religious is to be clected abbot or superior of an order other than that of which he himself is a member.

Since it is not in accordance with reason that men of different religious profession and habit dwell together in the same monastery, we forbid that in the future a religious be elected abbot or superior of an order other than that of which he himself is a member. Where this has taken place, the action is invalid. This provision, however, we do not wish to be an impediment to the election of a religious to the bishopric of a Church entrusted to the secular or any of the regular clergy. (C.1, in Clem., De elect., I, 3.)

Canon 4

Local ordinaries are authorized to fill vacant benefices the disposition of which belongs to regular prelates, whenever these neglect to do so within the time prescribed.

Since prelates of religious orders sometimes neglect, within the time prescribed by the Lateran Council,” to fill vacant ecclesiastical benefices that pertain to their disposition, the right is hereby

Ut... de electione omnes post primam." Müller, pp. 574 f. 9? Third Lateran Council, canon 8, which prescribed six months.

conferred upon local ordinaries who will meet such negligence by bestowing non-exempt benefices by their own authority, and those exempt by the authority of the Apostolic See, in such a way that those that have been customarily taken care of by the secular clergy be assigned to those clergy, and those that have been taken care of by the regulars be assigned to the regular clergy whose prelates have been negligent in this matter. By the same authority the ordinaries shall not permit prelates to apply or add such benefices to their table maintenance, or impose new taxes on them or increase old ones, and that the new ones imposed or the old ones increased be refunded. By the aforesaid benefices we mean those that are not de mensa prelatorum, but have their own priors or rectors, though these may at any time be freely recalled to the monastery should occasion so require. In connection with this matter we call attention to the observance of the constitution of Boniface VIII, prohibiting that the goods of vacant benefices be appropriated by the prelates or others," and likewise that other constitution of Boniface VIII forbidding any religious to have several benefices with the cura animarum annexed, even though that cura is not exercised by himself but by another and is furthermore receiving proper attention." (C. un., in Clem., De suppl. neglig. praelat., I, 5.)

Canon 5

Anyone not a subdeacon has no voice in the c secular collegiate churches. He who has a benefice to whi order, must within a year be promoted to that order or lose and also half of his allowance. 100 C.o, VIo, De off. ord., I, 16. 101 (7,32, VIo, De praeb., HI, 4. : 102 He was bishop of Mende Languedoc, and a nephew of the famous canon and ritualist of the same name, with whom he is often confused. He was presens at the council. By order of Clement V he wrote: Tractatus de modo concilii gener Pd celebrandi et de corruptelis in ecclesia reformandis. Ix consists of three boo. odeals with the canonical process of convoking and conducting general counei a at gether with attacks on the corruptions and abuses prevalent among ecclesiast that time.

That those who hold or in the future will hold offices in cathedral and secular collegiate churches may the more promptly receive the corresponding sacred orders, we decree that no one in the future shall in these churches have a voice in the chapters (even though this be freely granted him by the others), unless he has received at least the subdiaconate. If those, however, who now hold or in the future will obtain dignitates, personatus, officia vel praebendas to which certain orders are annexed, do not within a year from the time of their appointment, unless a just impediment excuses them, receive the corresponding order, they shall have no voice in the chapter and shall, moreover, receive only half of the allowance allotted to those who are present at certain hours of the divine office, till they have been promoted to such orders; customs and statutes to the contrary notwithstanding. All penalties decreed by law against those who refuse to be promoted to orders, shall remain in force.

(C.2, in Clem., De aetat. et qualit. praefic., I, 6.)

Canon 6

A shorter course of procedure in cases of benefices, tithes, matrimony, usury, and other matters related to these, is decreed.

Desiring to restrict the harmful prolongation of disputes in the cases mentioned below, which experience teaches arise from an over-scrupulous observance of the rules pertaining to the judicial Order, we decree that in the future a shorter course of procedure (simpliciter et de plano, ac sine strepitu judicii et figura) be adopted in elections, postulations, and provisions; also in the matter of dignitates, personatus, canonicates, prebends, and all other ecclesiastical benefices; of tithes, even when, after an admonition, re- Course is had to ecclesiastical censure to compel payment; lastly, in the matter of matrimony and usury and all other matters in any way related to these. The foregoing provisions we wish to be applied not only to future cases but also to current ones, and to matters connected with the procedure of appeals. (C.2, in Clem., De judiciis, II, Ir.)

Canon 7

Bishops who have been driven from their secs, may, under certain conditions, from the neighboring dioceses in which they are temporarily located, legally proceed against their persecutors and also exercise jurisdiction over thcir subjects.

Though it is generally forbidden by the ecclesiastical canons that a bishop exercise jurisdiction in a diocese other than his own, we nevertheless grant to the bishops who, having been expelled from their sees by the impudence of the ungodly, do not dare on account of the fear of consequences reside in their cities or dioceses or any part thereof, or exercise their jurisdiction therein per se vel per alium, that the wrongs done to their Churches may not thus remain unpunished, permission, from other dioceses or from prominent cities or localities near their Churches, in which they can reside securely and exercise freely their jurisdiction, to proceed legally, as justice may dictate, against their persecutors and their counselors and abetters, provided a legal citation has preceded. If, however, by reason of fear the bishops will not risk citing their persecutors In the aforesaid manner, or if these maliciously adopt means to frustrate such citation, then they may on Sundays and festivals during the public services in the churches of the neighboring diocese cite them or have them cited, so that in this manner the accused may learn of the citation. If within a reasonable period of time they do not appear before the bishops, procedure against them may nevertheless be legally begun. We moreover grant to these bishops au- 197 "Fuerunt lecte etiam alie constitutiones . . . quod in causis ecclesiasticis, pn in episcopalibus, personatibus et ceteris beneficiis summarie, sine strepitu et fig judicii procedatur." Archiv, V, 580.

109 Id., bp. 626f.

thority to exercise from the dioceses in which they are temporarily located (in case they cannot do it per se vel per alium in their own dioceses) their full jurisdiction over their own subjects, so, however, that these subjects, excepting the persecutors, their counselors, and abetters, may not be cited to a place that is distant more than a two days’ journey from the boundary of their diocese. In all these matters the bishops must seek the permission of the ordinarius loci in whose diocese they happen to reside. In case it is not granted, they may in spite of such refusal proceed as was indicated above. If the aforesaid bishops should say that they did not dare personally cite the persecutors and their abetters to their houses or publicly to the cathedral, or that the persecutors and their abetters maliciously interposed an obstacle so that they could not be thus cited, or brought about that they (the bishops) could not or dared not exercise jurisdiction against them in their dioceses either per se vel per alium, we wish them to be honest in their statements, strictly commanding them under threat of the divine judgment that they do not in regard to the preceding matters state anything that is false and deceitful.!!'* The processes conducted and the sentences imposed by the bishops in the dioceses in which they temporarily reside, they must make known to the bishops of those dioceses should they request them. In none of the aforesaid matters either at any time or in any manner, shall the jurisdiction of the local ordinaries or of anyone else having jurisdiction in the dioceses in which the aforesaid expelled bishops reside, be endangered or curtailed. (C. un., in Clem, De foro competenti, II, 2.)

Canon 8

Jews and Saracens may not be granted privileges whereby to escape conviction by Christians of misdemeanors.

Since some Jews and Saracens, as we have learned, to escape conviction by Christians of civil and criminal misdemeanors, protect themselves by privileges obtained from kings and princes, which is not only contrary to law but also at variance with and a disgrace to the Christian religion, we exhort kings and princes to grant no more such privileges in the future nor permit those already granted to be made use of. Should the Jews and Saracens, however, presume to make further use of such privileges, then the Christians shall be compelled, if need be by ecclesiastical censure, to abstain from all intercourse with them. (C. 1, in Clem., De testibus, II, 8.)

Canon 9

Bishops shall punish clerics engaged in the butcher's trade and in the conduct of taverns, who after the third admonition do not abandon such pursuits. Other clerics also who are engaged in any business inconsistent with the clerical state, shall be canonically proceeded against.

We strictly command local ordinaries to warn by name three times those clerics who publicly and personally engage in the butcher's trade or who conduct taverns, that they abandon such pursuits within a period of time to be specified by the ordinaries, and not to resume them in the future. Those who after such warning do not discontinue such practices or at any time resume them, if they be married, shall lose eo ipso all clerical privileges; if unmarried, lose their privileges in so far as these are of a real or tangible nature (in rebus), and if in addition they wear the garb of laymen, lose eo ipso also their personal rights as clerics so long as they are engaged in the aforesaid pursuits. In regard to other clerics who are engaged in secular commercial activities or in any business inconsistent with the clerical state, and those also who carry arms, the ordinaries shall so strive to observe the canonical statutes that the aforesaid clerics be restrained from such excesses and they themselves be not guilty of reprehensible negligence in these matters. (C. 1, in Clem., De vita et honest. cler., III, 1.)

Canon 10

A cleric who, having a benefice, publicly wears unbecoming garments, loses for six months the usufruct of that benefice; if he has no benefice, he becomes for the same length of tune disqualified from obtaining onc. “Phe same applies to regular and secular priests with and without benefices.

Since he who lays aside the garb proper to his order and without good reason adopts and publicly wears another, shows himself to be unworthy of the privileges of his state, we ordain in the present constitution that any cleric who, possessing a benefice, publicly and without reasonable cause, wears strange and variegated garments, is eo ipso suspended for a period of six months from the Usufruct of his benefice. If he does not possess a benefice, but is constituted in sacred orders below the priesthood, he becomes for the same length of time eo ipso disqualified from obtaining a benefice. The same penalty applies to those clerics who, having the tonsure, wear such clothes in public. He who has a dignitas or personatus or other benefice to which is annexed the cura animarum, as also all other priests and religious, who in their whole exterior deportment ought to be an example of interior virtue, if without reasonable cause they publicly wear clothes of this kind, or appear in public wearing woolen or linen variegated headcover, they are eo ipso suspended for one year from the usufruct of their benefices in case they have such, otherwise they, and the religious also, are for the same length of time disqualified from holding an ecclesiastical benefice of any description. These and all other clerics who wear an expensive outer garment so short that the garment beneath it is exposed, whether secular clerics or religious, if they have the cura animarum, are bound to give within a month that outer garment to the poor. Religious, however, who have not the cura animarum, are bound within the same period of time to turn it over to their superiors and it is to be applied to charitable purposes, otherwise those having benefices incur ipso facto the aforesaid penalty of suspension and the others the aforesaid disqualification. We furthermore forbid clerics, espe- —V . 121 Müller, pp. 614 f.

4.24 DECREES OF THE COUNCILS cially those having benefices, to wear publicly red or green shoes. (C. 2, in Clem., De vita et honest. cler., III, r.)

Canon 11

Religious who burden or defraud churches of tithes due to them, if they do not within two months make full restitution, are suspended from all offices and benefices till a just settlement has been made; if they do not hold offices or benefices, then in place of suspension they incur excommunication.

Religious who presume to appropriate or by fraud or under any colored title usurp tithes of newly broken land or other tithes belonging to churches, to which they have no legal claim; or who do not permit or prohibit that a tithe be paid to the churches on animals that belong to their familiares and shepherds and others whose animals intermingle with their own flocks; or who defraud the churches by buying animals in many places and then leave them in the care of those from whom they bought them or in care of others; or who refuse to pay or hinder the payment of tithes on lands the cultivation of which they entrust to others, if after a just demand on the part of those whom it concerns, they do not within a month desist from such practices, or if they do not within two months make full restitution to the churches thus defrauded, are suspended from all offices and benefices till a just settlement has been made. If these religious hold no offices or benefices, then in place of suspension they incur excommunication from which they can be absolved only after they have made full satisfaction, privileges to the contrary notwithstanding. The foregoing, however, we do not wish to be extended to animals that are held by the donors (benefactors), in case these have given themselves and their effects to the religious. (C. 1, in Clem., De decimis, III, 8.)

Canon 12

The decree gives detailed directions governing the entire exterior and interior life of the Benedictine monks.

That nothing unbecoming may find its way into the order of the black monks and nothing dishonorable develop side by side with the good, but rather that the flowers of worth and esteem may produce fruit in abundance, we decree as follows:

(1) The upper garment next to the habit may be of black, brown, or white color, according to the custom of the locality in which they reside. The quality of the material must be in keeping with Monastic moderation. Not what is expensive and fine must be used, but what is practical. Moreover, the garment must be round and closed, not too long or too short, having large sleeves extending to the hands, not sewed together or in any way buttoned. Let them be content with a headcover of black material or of fur in place of the capuche with the capuche of the habit which they have been wearing, or according to the disposition of the abbot they may also wear shoulder capes of modest design.’*4 In the garment they may not Wear silk in place of fur. They may use large and high boots in place of shoes, They shall not presume to wear ornate belts, knives, and spurs, or highly decorated saddles and other superfluous and expensive riding accouterments. Where there is a community of twelve monks or more, the abbot, prior, or the one in charge may wear within the walls of the monastery a habit with long and full Sleeves of material customarily used in that monastery. The other monks in monasteries in which it is customary to wear a habit with long sleeves, may use them also. In other monasteries, however, in houses and priories that have not the above number of monks, they may wear a long habit without sleeves. Outside the monastery, abbots, Priors, or those in charge, and other monks may have a habit without sleeves or one with long and full sleeves or a mantle, and underneath the mantle they may wear the habit without sleeves, or, if they prefer, the scapular. The mantle must be closed. At the divine Office, in donning the sacred vestments and also when engaged in

123 lbid. p. 540. This decree was renewed by the Synod of Valladolid (1322) in

Canon 11. Mansi, XXV, 707. . : i 124 The text reads as follows: Almutiis de panno nigro vel pellibus caputiorum loco cum caputiis habitus, quem gestaverint, sint contenti, juxta tamen dispositionem abbatis scissis super humeros et honestis caputiis uti possint.

manual labor, they may wear the scapular. But lest, from different acceptations which the words focus and cuculla are said to have in different localities, doubts may arise, we here declare that by cuculla is understood a long and full habit without sleeves, and by focus a habit with long and full sleeves.

(2) All monks, whether in the monastery or outside, must go to confession at least once a month, and on the first Sunday of each month all must receive communion in the monastery; any ground for doubt as to whether one should receive or abstain must be made known to the abbot or prior or to a confessor in the monastery, by whose decision such a one shall abide. The Rule, when it is read in the chapter, is, for the sake of the younger members, to be explained by him who presides or by the one appointed by him. A competent instructor shall be assigned to instruct the novices in the divine offices as well as in regular observance.

(3) Hunting and fowling as well as the keeping either per se or per alios of dogs and birds for such purposes, are forbidden, nor may they permit their friends (familiares) temporarily residing in the monastery to keep such dogs and birds, unless the monastery possesses a forest or an animal park or has the right to hunt on property belonging to others, in which case they are permitted to keep dogs and birds, provided they do not keep them in the monastery or in the houses in which they live or within the cloister, and the monks themselves do not personally take part in the hunt.

(4) Whoever acts in contravention of the foregoing provisions regarding the matter of wearing apparel, shall be subject to the regular discipline of the monastery. If he be an abbot or a prior having no abbot, he is ipso facto suspended for one year from the collation of benefices; if anyone else, he shall for one year be suspended from exercising his administrative office if he has one. In case he has none, he is ipso facto disqualified from obtaining one and disqualified also from holding an ecclesiastical benefice. Those who deliberately transgress the prohibition against hunting and the keeping of dogs and birds, incur ipso facto for a period of two years the penalties of suspension and disqualification according to the aforesaid distinction of persons. In case the abbot or prior incurs the penalty of suspension from the collation of benefices (as was said above), such collation devolves with the counsel and consent of the community or the greater part thereof on the prior claustralis.^

(s) Some monks, as we understand, having grown weary of the Sweet yoke of regular observance, have left their monasteries, feel- 128 The prior claustralis is the prior in an abbey. He holds the first place after the abbot, whom he assists in the government of the monastery and whose place he supplies in his absence. The prior conventualis is the superior of a smaller an independent monastery that has not yet attained the rank of an abbey.

ing that they could not safely remain therein, and at times left also from motives that were not honest. These sometimes roam about the courts of secular princes and, unless their plea for money and aid is heeded by their superiors, conspire against them, betray them, cause them to be captured and imprisoned and their monasteries to be burned, and at times also presume with the aid of the princes to seize the possessions of the monasteries either wholly or in part. Therefore, wishing to put an end to their boldness in this matter, we by this decree forbid monks and canons regular to betake themselves to the courts of princes without special permission of their superiors. If, however, they act in violation of this provision for no other Purpose than to inflict injury on their superiors or on the monasteries, we wish that they incur ipso facto the sentence of excommunication, and we urge upon their superiors to compel them to remain away from the aforesaid courts and to punish severely those who refuse obedience. The same sentence we decree is to be incurred by those who without the permission of the abbot carry arms within the walls of the monastery.

(6) Following in the footsteps of our predecessors, we strictly forbid individual monks to live alone in priories and places of which they have charge. If the revenues of such places are not sufficient to Maintain two, then, unless the abbots provide for such sufficiency, let the local ordinaries in agreement with the abbots unite such Priories to others in the vicinity belonging to the monasteries, or to the monasteries themselves, or unite several such places in one, whatever way is more convenient and practical. The monks of those Places that have been united to other priories are to be recalled to their monasteries, and, for the maintenance of the clergy who are to serve the united priories, due provision is to be made from the revenues of such places.

(7) Conventual priories cannot be conferred on anyone who has not attained the age of twenty-five years, and non-conventual ones having the cura animarum annexed, though exercised by secular clergy, cannot be conferred on anyone unless he has attained the age of twenty years. In each case the incumbents of the priories must within a year from the time of collation or occupancy, or within the twenty-fifth year of age, if before that year they have held non-conventuals priories, have themselves raised to the priesthood. If without reasonable cause this is neglected, they are eo ipso, even without previous warning, deprived of the priories, which may ea vice not be conferred on them again. Such priories, moreover, must not be conferred on anyone except those who have expressly made Profession in an ordo monachalis. Those who have been appointed to priories or houses outside the monasteries are not permitted to live in the monasteries, but must dwell in the places which they have charge of (custom to the contrary notwithstanding), unless they are excused for a time from such residence ex studiorum causa or for some other good reason.

(8) For the increase of divine worship, we decree that every monk, on being so commanded by his abbot, provided no legitimate obstacle exists, must have himself raised to all the sacred orders. Moreover, that there may not be wanting to the monks an opportunity to acquire knowledge, let there be in every monastery that has sufficient means a competent master who may instruct them in the sciences.!?*

(9) All the foregoing and also those things which our predecessor, Innocent III??? of happy memory, has decreed in regard to a more fervent cultivation of regular observance in the matter of clothing, poverty, silence, food, the triennial chapter, etc., all of which we approve and renew, we wish and decree to be strictly observed. (C. 1, in Clem., De statu monach., III, ro.)

Canon 13

Religious are bound to meet the obligations of churches and convents that they have under any title obtained, unless excused by Apostolic privilege, exemption, or otherwise.

Since it is in accordance with nature that those who enjoy advantages should also bear the burdens connected with them, we decree that religious who have under any title obtained churches and convents, strive to pay promptly to the papal legates the procurations due to them from these churches and convents, and also fulfil their duties toward the bishops in matters that pertain to their rights, for all these obligations rested upon the churches and convents before the religious received them, and by passing into their hands the obligations were not canceled but naturally passed with them, unless the religious can by Apostolic privilege, exemption, or other legitimate reason excuse themselves. Such privileges and exemptions, however, we do not wish to be extended to future acquisitions of churches and convents. (C. 1, in Clem., De cens., III, 13.)

Canon 14

Ordinaries, when the matter becomes known to them, shall publish the sentences of excommunication and interdict incurred by those who extort taxes from clerics while traveling.

By the present constitution we decree that the local ordinaries, when the matter becomes known to them, publish or have published by their subjects the sentences of excommunication an interdict incurred a jure by those who either on their own initiative or at the behest of another demand or extort from ecclesiastical persons while on a journey a tax or impost on goods that they carry with them or have carried by others, goods that are their own and will not be made the object of barter or sale, doing this to the danger of their own soul and to the disadvantage and loss of those from whom such tax is demanded; and they shall continue to publish such sentences of excommunication and interdict till restitution and suitable satisfaction have been made. (C. 3, in Clem., De cens., III., 13-)

Canon 15

The decree enumerates thirty complaints of religious against episcopal pression, and commands bishops and dther-préfatés to abstain absolutely from giving further cause for complaints and to respect the rights and privileges of rcligious.

Complaints come to us frequently from religious that many bishops and their superiors, as well as other ecclesiastical prelates, in many ways and unjustly disturb their peace. Some seize and incarcerate exempt religious in cases not legally permitted. {Others by threats of severe penalties hinder laymen from paying to religious the tithes and revenues due them;|they even go so far as to forbid them to attend their masses. Those who work in their mills and cook their food, their vassals and domestics, in short, all who in any way have relation with them, they arbitrarily and without reasonable cause suspend, penalize with interdict and excommunication, and at times unlawfully sequester their properties. Those who make complaints or with good reason have recourse to appeals against injustices, they sometimes seize or cause to be seized and cast into prison. There are prelates, moreover, who without legitimate reason do not permit chaplains, appointed by the religious superiors, to celebrate in the churches rightfully and legally belonging to the religious, or to administer the sacraments to the people of the parish.\ Others without justification suspend, excommunicate, seize, and incarcerate exempt abbots, monks, lay brothers, and even secular clerics who are in the service of the monastery, and place under interdict ` their churches and houses if they refuse obedience to them in those things in which they are under no obligation to obey.\Moreover, in their demands for charitable aid from the exempt and those subject to them, the prelates exceed all reasonable measures.\Contrary to law they impose on them unusual and excessive exactions. They burden their parochial churches in which they have the jus patronatus with new taxes and undue obligations.\Just legal judgments or decisions made by the delegates of the Apostolic See or by the conservators in favor of the exempt, they do not permit to be made public or they withhold instructions to their subjects for their execution. hey restrain public notaries from drawing up instruments, judges from administering justice, and attorneys from giving counsel and aid in legal matters of the religiousNWhen superiors of exempt orders present their subjects for promotion to orders or benefices,

Hefele-Leclercq, VI, 628, 1427.

^ -—-— _ it happens that bishops turn them away unless in the document by which such presentation is made they pledge obedience to them. For vacant churches in which the monasteries have the Jus patronatus, bishops reject competent persons properly presented and appoint persons who are incompetent and unworthy. Again, churches with the cura animarum annexed, belonging to the maintenance of the abbots, the revenues of which are sometimes granted ad firmam to secular clergy, on the death of these are conferred by the bishops on their own clerics, though these churches are not on account of the death of these clerics really vacant. Some bishops unjustly appropriate to themselves the rights of the religious and so regulate matters in regard to revenues belonging to the churches that not enough remains for the livelihood of their rectors. At the behest of prelates, armed bands in violation of justice destroy the mills and other properties of exempt religious. They frequently send to the monasteries their relatives and nephews and sometimes also their animals together with the shepherds with the demand for free maintenance. Frequently also prelates compel abbots and priors of monasteries to grant to their relatives and nephews monastic properties or possessions either in perpetuum or ad tempus, concessions which we wish to be considered ipso jure invalid. The same abbots and priors they sometimes compel to present to them for vacant churches, in which they (the abbots and priors) have the jus patronatus, and at times even to receive into the order, their friends, relatives, or nephews. They also frequently permit and tacitly consent to the seizing of movable and immovable properties of monasteries in their territory with violence by soldiers, vassals, and even their own temporal officials in cases not permitted by law, and various other injustices they perpetrate against ecclesiastical persons and the people of the monasteries. Sometimes also, under pretext of privilege which they claim to possess for a certain time, they collect from vacant benefices the revenues of the first year and thus unjustly deprive abbots, priors, and others of revenues belonging to them. Not content with that, they unlawfully seize the horses, cattle, treasury, and other properties of monasteries and vacant benefices, all of which should be reserved to the successors. Some sel for a specified time the incomes of their dignities to soldiers and influential persons that by these the exempt religious located in the neighborhood may be more vigorously oppressed. Others destroy mqnasteries. There are not wanting those who seize houses, hosp! tals, and other movable and immovable properties of monasteries without thought of restoration. Moreover, many prelates without just cause prevent religious from repairing their places. Statutes are enacted derogatory to the privileges of exempt religious. In gen eral, very many prelates inflict grave injuries and losses on religious especially on those exempt and privileged, on their people and prop"

erties, and on their spiritual and temporal rights, and these things they do in violation of justice and of the privileges of the religious.

Wherefore, since for the regulars as well as for the secular prelates, for the exempt and non-exempt, there is one universal Church, outside of which there is no salvation, for all of whom there is one God, one faith, and one baptism, it behooves that all who are of the same body, be also of one mind and one will and as brothers be united to one another by the bond of charity. It behooves that the prelates and the exempt and non-exempt religious be content with their rights and avoid the perpetration of injuries and losses on one another. Therefore, by the present decree we strictly command all the prelates that they abstain absolutely and also see to it that their subjects abstain from giving further cause for complaints of the aforesaid nature, but let all exercise kindness toward religious men and treat them charitably, exempt, privileged and non-privileged, mendicant and non-mendicant, and let them inviolably respect and preserve their rights and privileges. And, since what is specially forbidden is usually feared more than what is generally forbidden, we, in the strictest and most emphatic manner, prohibit prelates to hinder in any way whatsoever abbots, priors, and other religious from attending their general and provincial chapters. (C. un., in

Clem., De excess. praelat., V, 6.)

Canon 16

The Pope enumerates seven complaints of bishops and prelates against religious, and prescribes the penalties in case they do not desist. Mb "Dixit etiam (papa), quod si prelatis esset grave, quod tot penc poneren"; in constitutionibus, paratus est minuere ad dictum prelatorum; nam sibi place is vs placebat; et quod dimitterent aliquos, qui viderent illas constitutiones. , > $81. 141 Cc. 16, 17, X, De excess. praelat., V, 31. Müller, pp. 552-54-

Religious who without special permission from the parish priest administer to,clerics and laymen the sacrament of extreme unction or Viaticum,|solemnize matrimony,’*-/or who absolve anyone canonically excommunicated outside the cages expressed in law or granted to them by privilege of the Apostolic See, lor who absolve from sentences imposed by provincial or synodal statutes, or who presume to absolve a poena et culpa (to use their own words neu ipso facto the sentence of excommunication from which they can be absolved only by the Apostolic See. The local ordinaries, as soon as they have become aware of the fact of excommunication, shall publicly announce the name of the one excommunicated till it has been certified to them that he has obtained absolution: no appeal to exemption or other privileges shall avail in this matter. —— ~ 7

In virtue of holy obedience and under threat of eternal malediction, we strictly forbid religious to speak in their sermons disparagingly of the prelates, Nor to lure their people away from their churches; No publish false or fraudulent indulgences Nin the execution of testaments to influence testators to withhold from other churches legacies or what is due them in the way of restitution Nto bring about that legacies, money owed or perhaps unjustly obtained, be bestowed on themselves or on other individual members of the order or on convents to the detriment of others ;NO absolve anyone from cases reserved to the Apostolic See or to the local ordinaries; wlanreasonably to annoy ecclesiastical persons who prosecute to maintain their rights against religious, especially before judges delegated by us\and to bring no one before a court in several places or before such a$ are too distantly located. Those who presume to act in contravention of the foregoing provisions or any part thereof, shall for a period of two months be subject to the penalties pre- Scribed in the Rule or statutes of the order for grave crimes or offenses, dispensation from which may not be granted without a manifest necessity. Their prelates (that is, superiors), unless, on Occasion of such excesses, Within a month they make plenary satisfaction to churches or ecclesiastical persons for the damage or loss sustained when they are requested to do so by the parties concerned, Incur eo ipso suspension till they have made such satisfaction, notwithstanding statutes or privileges of whatever tenor. .

To those religious, however, who have been granted permission by the Apostolic See to administer the sacraments of the Church to their domestics or to the poor in their hospitals, the above provisions do not apply. (C. 1, in Clem., De privileg. et excess., V, 7.)

— VU

12 The Synod of Trier (1310) in canon 86 ordained that no priest may, without the permission of the pastor, bishop, or archbishop, solemnize marriage, perform burial rites, baptize, hear confessions, or administer the sacraments. Absolution im- Weed in violation of this is, except in cases of necessity, invalid. Mansi, XXV, 269;

e

-Leclercq, V], 618. 8 Cf, Synod of Rouen (1299), canon 6. Mansi XXIV, 1206; Hefele-Leclercq, VI, 458.

Canon 17

Mendicants who transgress the constitution of Boniface VIII and those religious also who in their sermons and otherwise advise their hearers to withhold the payment of tithes, are ipso facto excommunicated. AH religious must in their sermons and in the confessional exhort the people to pay their tithes, otherwise they shall be subject to severe penalties. Religious and secular clerics who influence people in their choice of a burial place, incur ipso facto excommunication.

Desiring, by the addition of new penalties and the fear of their application, to restrain the boldness of those whom the rewards of virtue do not lead to the observance of the law, we decree that transgressors of the constitution !® which forbids mendicant orders to acquire new houses or any places whatsoever, or to exchange those already acquired, or to transfer them to others under any title of alienation (without special permission from the Apostolic See), and those religious also who in their sermons or on other occasions Presume to advise their hearers to withhold the payment of tithes due to the churches, incur ipso facto the sentence of excommunication. But, since it does not suffice to abstain from evil unless, concurrently with that abstention, something good is accomplished, we, under attestation of the divine judgment and under threat of eternal damnation, command all religious that whenever they preach to the people on the first, fourth, and last Sundays of Quadragesima, and on the feasts of the Ascension, Pentecost, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Assumption, and the Nativity of the most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, they explicitly exhort their hearers, if they have been requested to do so by the rectors of the churches, their vicars, or loca tenentes, to fulfil their obligations in the matter of paying their tithes. The same explicit admonition is to be given them in the confessional. Any deliberate omission of this on the days mentioned, shall be severely punished by their superiors. We also in virtue of holy obedience strictly command the superiors to enact laws in accordance with which such transgressors be so severely punished that their penalty may be an example to others.

The constitution of Gregory IX dealing with this matter is to remain in force.'*' Those, however, who deliberately neglect to impress upon those who confess to them the obligation of paying tithes, shall so long remain suspended from the office of preaching till they have advised the penitents in the matter of their obligation of paying tithes, if they can conveniently do this. Should they presume to preach without having fulfilled the aforesaid condition, they incur ipso facto the sentence of excommunication. This, however, we do not wish to apply to religious monasteries or rectors of churches who themselves have the right to receive tithes. Moreover, we decree that those bold violators of the constitution !"2 which forbids religious and secular clerics to induce people to bind themselves by vow, oath, promise, or otherwise in their choice of a burial place in their churches or not to change their decision in regard to the one already selected, also incur ipso facto the same penalty (the penalty contained in the aforesaid constitution remaining in force), from which, except in mortis articulo, they can be absolved only by the Apostolic See, privileges or statutes of whatsoever tenor notwithstanding. (C. 3, in Clem., De poenis, V, 8.)

Canon 18

Friars Minor who during the time of an interdict admit to their churches for divine services members of their third order, are excommunicated, privileges to the contrary notwithstanding.

Since the admittance by the Friars Minor to their churches for divine services of the brothers and sisters of the third order, established by St. Francis, is a source of scandal to those who are excluded, thus creating in the minds of these a feeling of disrespect for ecclesiastical consures in general and of indifference to the effects of an interdict in particular, we strictly forbid the Friars Minor to admit in the future any of the aforesaid persons to their churches for the divine offices during the time of an interdict (even though the former or the latter should have privileges regarding this point, which, however, we do not wish to be applied in this case), Those who act in contravention of this incur eo ipso the sentence of excommunication from which they can be released only by the Roman pontiffs, or if they have made satisfaction, by the local ordinaries (who, however, must act in this matter by the authority of the Apostolic See). (C. 3, in Clem., De sentent. excomm.,

V, 10.)