Question III: From what things a census can be sold by natural law

By this natural law it can be made even from movable things, for instance a flock or a herd, as Medina says quaest. 11. de Usura, Valencia puncto 2. He adds also from money, provided it be exposed to profit, from Soto lib. 6. quaest. 5. art. 1. It is rarer, because from this thing too, like other consumables existing in such a fruit-bearing state, one has the right to receive utility.

A census CAN likewise be sold from other censuses, as Medina and Valencia note. Add that a census is counted among immovable goods by Clement V. Clementina prima.

It CAN be sold also from all the goods of someone, determining none certain one, as many Doctors note at Valencia.

BESIDES, a Census can also be sold from a person, when the person is lucrative, and it is a personal census, as I said quaest. 1. See Casas sect. 3.

NOTE, however, that a census cannot be sold from a thing which yields at the least not so much fruit as the payment to be paid is; for if the thing is not such, the lord does not have the right to receive from it so much utility. But the opposite is admitted without cause by Soto lib. 9. Covarruvias lib. 3. var. cap. 7. Conradus de contract. quaest. 88. concl. 12. at Diana p. p. Tract. 8. resol. 44.

LET THESE things be said by natural law; for by positive law, Extravagant of Pius V. of the year 1568. 14. of the Calends of February it is prescribed that a census not be sold unless from an immovable thing, fruit-bearing by its nature, certain, and assigned with determinate boundaries. Yet this Bull is in force where it flourishes in green observance. Although Navarrus in Comment. de Usuris, numero 106. and Valencia say that the Extravagant, since it proceeds from a presumption of usurious intention in those who do not observe all the conditions required there in the buying of censuses, does not bind in the forum of conscience private individuals who without iniquity before God would buy censuses without those conditions required there, beyond certain necessary conditions, which are of natural law. For there is no place for a presumption in the forum of conscience where the truth is contrary to the presumption, as is had in cap. Tua de sponsal. and cap. Humanae aures, 22. quaest. 5. Yet it binds Judges not to admit in judgment purchases of censuses celebrated otherwise than is prescribed there.

WHICH things being so, Diana p. p. Tract. 8. resol. 44. holds that a census can be constituted from money previously owed, or by handing over some merchandise as the price of the census, and he adduces Maldonado 2. 2. tract. 5. cap. 5. dub. 6. Joan. de la Cruz in direct. part. 1. praecepto 7. quaest. 6. dub. 3. Lessius lib. 2. cap. 22. num. 80. Navarrus in comment. de usuris, num. 88. and 121. Boninsegna de cens. cap 5. Bartholomew of St. Foust in speculo, disp. 18. quaest. 29. who cites Valencia, Salonus, and Palatium. The erudite Megalaeus subscribes 2. 2. lib. 2. cap. 7. quaest. 2. num. 57. on account of the reason of Navarrus brought forward. Sà taught the same verb. Census.

THEREFORE if without fraud in the census contract you find those things which are due by natural law, they conclude it to be licit.

THESE things, however, are from Lessius lib. 2. cap. 22. dub. 12. num. 74. Equality according to estimation between the census and the price. But if any burdens are imposed here and there, beyond the nature of the contract, by accessory pacts; they must be duly compensated at the judgment of the prudent.

NOTE that Soto de Iustitia, lib. 6. quaest. 5. art. 1. asserts that a census can be constituted even from money lent, but Lopez de comtrov. lib. 3. cap. 59. and Bartholomew of St. Foust in spec. disp. 18. quaest. 32. num. 2. deny it, he thinks more probably. Finally Diana admits the opinion of Soto only where the Bull is not in force.