Subquestion III: How the enclosure of nuns is violated by going out

I SUPPOSE the rigid precept given to Nuns, that once professed they contain themselves within the cloister, as was proved in quaest. 4, both from the ancient Constitutions of the Church and from the Council of Tridentino, which thus precepts: But let it be licit for no one of the Sanctimoniales after profession to go out of the Monastery, even for a brief time, under whatever pretext, except for some legitimate cause to be approved by the Bishop, any indults and privileges notwithstanding. Hence you have that only Nuns who have emitted the three vows are comprehended in this decree, not Tertiaries, or even Novices, as Suarez shows at length above; although regarding Tertiary Nuns there must be observed the Constitutio of Pius V, beginning: Circa pastoralis officii, namely that they be admonished by Prelates to emit the essential vows of Religion, and thereupon to observe enclosure; but if they should refuse to render this, let them be interdicted from admitting any more into their Congregation.

You HAVE also that Convers Sisters, duly professed, are included by that decree; since they are truly Nuns, differing from the others only as to certain servile ministries and the want of the Veil.

Yet Pius V, by the said Constitution, limited certain things around these, namely that in places where the other Nuns have need of being sustained by the alms of the faithful, certain ones from the conversae be deputed to collect those alms, and therefore may go out and dwell in a certain contiguous house, four conditions being kept. The first is, that they be at least in their fortieth year. The second, that the place in which they dwell be very near to the other nuns. The third, that they do not enter the Cloister of the Nuns (whom they are accustomed to call Choriste by difference from the Conversae) except in the cases named in that constitution. The last is, that they do not go out of their domiciles except with the license of the Superiors.

But if the religious women cannot be sustained otherwise than by the collection of alms, this faculty of going out ceases: wherefore Gregory XIII in his Constitution, beginning: Deo sacris, enjoins upon the Bishops or Ordinaries that they provide: for as S. Bonavent. relates, lib. 1, phar., cap. 37, from D. Cypriano: She is not to be counted a Virgin of Christ who so lives and goes about that she can be loved by men.

From these you have it concluded that a Nun going out against the tenor of the Decree of Tridentino and the limitations of Pius V sins most gravely; and that this is true also of the militant Orders, as P. Elizzus notes, tract. 10, de poenis et delictis, cap. 23, and Rodriguez, tom. 1, quaest. 49, art. ult., and Lezana, tom. 1, cap. 25, num. 19; for the Virgin seeking Christ (says D. Bonav., cited below, from D. Ambrosio) ought not to be vulgar, ought not to be in the forum, not in the streets.

But the CAUSES of going out are specified by Pius V in Constitutio 100, Decori, and are reduced to a great fire and infirmity, which is there called Epidemia, under which name Suarez understands not only that sickness which for the most part infects and kills others by its contagion, but any other whatsoever which can be a scandal or danger to the community. Likewise under the name of fire other dangers cognate to this can come, as war impending, a sudden inundation, and similar ones, which are scarcely met otherwise than by exit.

But P. Elizzus noster observes, in the place cited, from Gregory XIII, that a professed woman having gone out with both feet and body beyond the door violates the enclosure, even if it be for a short time; yet Diana excuses such a one, if she has gone out only by two or three palms, as is had in tract. 5, part. 5, resol. 22.

MOREOVER the aforesaid Constitutions are to be observed, according to the doctrine delivered by me in the treatise on laws, tomo 4; for they are not received everywhere, since in several Provinces, from even light causes, the exit of nuns and their dwelling for a long time in the houses of their parents is tolerated by the Ordinaries, I know not by what custom: And it seems iniquitous to the laws that they be more easily borne than cared to be kept, since nevertheless, as D. Bonavent. has in the cited place, it does not befit, is not expedient for, is not incumbent upon a Religious to be implicated in the obligations of his parents, or to be bound by the pernicious familiarity of strangers.