Question II: How the prelate of a religious order is to be chosen

ELECTION is made in three ways, according to the chapter, Quia propter de Elect. The first way is by public acclamation, which takes place when, without any preceding consultation, but by a sudden impulse, all agree as one, and at the same time name him and elect him: but this mode, since it depends on a divine impulse, has no rules prescribed by law.

The SECOND way of electing is by Scrutiny, which is made when those who must, will, and can be present are there, two or three trustworthy men are taken from among the rest, who diligently inquire into the votes of each, set them down in writing, and publicly announce them: in which case he is held to be elected in whom the greater part of the electors, or voters, has consented.

The THIRD way is by Compromise, and it takes place when several more suitable men are chosen by the whole assembly, into whose hands all the rest transfer their whole power of electing, according to a certain norm.

BESIDES these modes another is sometimes admitted, which is made by the nomination of a successor; yet this is not in use in ecclesiastical election, lest the prelacy seem to be possessed by succession or hereditary right, and lest various inconveniences be invited which would arise from the perverse affection of someone choosing a successor for himself at pleasure. In some Religions, however, someone is named who, as soon as the General or Provincial Superior dies, supplies his place until the Chapter is celebrated.

The mode MOST USUALLY employed in Religions is by Compromise, whose norm, like that of the scrutiny, is prescribed in the said chapter Quia propter, in these words: When the election is to be celebrated, all being present who must, and will, and can conveniently attend, three men of proven fidelity are to be taken from the college, who in secret and one by one diligently inquire into the votes of all, and, having reduced them to writing, straightway publish them in common, with no obstacle of appeal at all interposed, so that, the scrutiny having been held, he may be elected in whom all, or the greater and saner part of the Chapter, consents.

ALTHOUGH mention is made here of the College, nevertheless the election of any Prelate is included, whether of a Church or of a Religion, as all the expositors approve, at Suarez cap. 5, just as is had more expressly in the Council of Trent, session 25, cap. 6 de reformatione: In the first place the holy Synod strictly commands that all the aforesaid (whether Abbots, namely, or Generals) must be elected by secret votes, in such wise that the names of the individual electors are never published, nor may provincials or abbots in the future constitute priors, or others with any title whatever, for the purpose of carrying out an election, or supply the voices or suffrages of the absent, etc.

Hence, all having been convoked who can, will, and must attend by citata duly issued, according to the words of the said chapter Quia propter, before all else the conditions for electing are to be examined, especially for the General: these however are either canonical or moral; these latter I reviewed above with the Saintly Doctor, in the disp. de prudent., the former I shall briefly indicate here, with Suarez treating at length in cap. 3.

The first condition, therefore, required by the Canons, is that the one elected have the legitimate age, which according to the chapter Cum in cunctis, de elect. is twenty-five years, as you also have repeated in the Council of Trent, session 24, cap. 12. And although in the said places the talk is of those who hold ecclesiastical dignities with the care of souls, we need not doubt that regular prelacy is comprehended there, since it is truly a dignity gravely annexed to the ordinary care of souls, as Suarez teaches, loco citato, num. 7.

Yet since in Bishops an age of 30 years is required in the same place, both on account of the episcopal dignity and on account of the graver causes which it falls to them to expedite, a similar age seems to be demanded also in regular prelates holding a quasi-episcopal power, such as Generals and provincials. But since the law speaks only of Bishops, who are indeed inferior in dignity to the said Prelates, although they often surpass them in the gravity of affairs on account of the diversity of provinces, that law is not to be extended beyond the proper signification of the words, especially because it renders ipso facto null the contrary act, which in that case is odious, and therefore to be restricted, as Suarez notes, loco cit., adducing Panormitanus, who shows that the common law said nothing definite even about an Abbot, although not rarely he holds a quasi-episcopal power, and accordingly that he is comprehended under the inferior dignities, insofar as the disposition of the law demands.

Nevertheless, although the common law determined nothing about these; the common usage of all Religions seems indeed to have provided for them abundantly; for since a Generalate or Provincialate requires long experience of affairs, which is acquired only over the course of many years, they are not wont to be elected to those dignities below the fortieth year of age, and we know only of the Seraphic Doctor Bonaventure, who, as Suarez observes, cit. loco, on account of his singular gifts and the excellence of his doctrine, in the 35th year of his age and the 13th of his Religion was elected General of the whole Order of Minors; for in him the maturity of spirit and genius had long outgone the gray hairs of years: not unlike is the example of Claudius Aquaviva, as Suarez has in the same place, elected Prefect General of the Society while he was in the thirty-ninth year of his age and the fifteenth of his Religion.

The second condition is solemn profession in the same religion: it is had in various chapters of the ancient law, as cap. Cum ad nostram, cap. in magistro, cap. Cum causam de electione; and it is confirmed anew in the Council of Trent, session 14, cap. 10 de reformat. and session 25, cap. 21 de Regular.

Some cry out that this condition is so necessary that they assert it to be of natural law, at Suarez, num. 12, and it seems to be figured in those prohibitions of the old law, Deuteronomy 22, by which it was forbidden to plough with an ox and an ass together, or to take a garment woven of wool and linen; for where the profession is unequal, the bond of love cannot be equal; for unlike things, by a certain natural tedium, do not long sustain one another, but seek divorce: thus argues Clement V, Clementina I, and the Second Council of Seville, saying: In one and the same office the profession ought not to be unequal, for those cannot cohere and be joined whose vows and studies are diverse.

Yet I do not deny, with Suarez, that these inconveniences can be otherwise remedied, namely when necessity presses, and the abundance of grace persuades in the professed of another Order, who can easily make himself conformable to the rest and conciliate their minds benevolently; but this case, being extraordinary, is not subject to the present determination of the laws.

But if the Council of Trent determines concerning an Abbess that she is not to be elected unless she has lived laudably in religion for eight years, or at least five; yet this is not to be extended to the election of men, either from the same precept or from the nature of the thing: both because the masculine genus is not comprehended under the feminine, although not conversely; and because the law is odious, therefore to be restricted. Moreover, a longer probation of morals is demanded in women, in whom an experience of more frequent frailty has been found.

Yet by various constitutions several Religions have provided that some years pass after profession before any professed member is eligible, so that in the meantime he may devote himself to devotion and study; for the practices of religion are not all learned offhand, nor is it seemly that a young neophyte be set over his elders; yet it can be that these defects of age and experience be more happily compensated elsewhere, as if a passage is made from one religion to another, where he has seen equal practices on account of the proximity of the two religions; and there be in the one to which he passes necessity, and in himself sufficiency; wherefore we have said that that condition is not of the nature of the thing.

The third Condition is the Priesthood; for since regular prelates are now ordinary pastors of souls, it is necessary that they obtain not only the dominative power founded in religious profession, but moreover spiritual jurisdiction. Thus cap. 1 de aetate, et qualitate, where it is required that the one elected Abbot, necessity pressing, be at least constituted in minor orders; therefore with no necessity pressing he ought to be a priest: but if the election were not of a priest, the election is not to be rendered null, but the one elected is to be ordained, so Suarez, num. 21.

But if we regard only regular observance and religious subordination; this condition will not be necessary, since the Religion can be well governed with the sole power of dominion, as is plain at the beginning of the Order of Minors, which the holy Patriarch Francis happily instituted and governed, although he was not a priest; and he commands in cap. 7 of the rule, that if the superiors, to whom recourse must be made for Reserved cases, are not priests, they cause penance to be enjoined through other priests of the order.

The fourth condition is that there be no Irregularity in the one elected; we saw this above, while treating of irregularity.

Just as many conditions can be assigned on the part of the elector: for first it is required that he be of the same Congregation with the one elected; the common law indeed enacts that the prelate of any congregation be elected by the members of that one, thus cap. 1 de electione, as also 2, 3, 4 and the following, quest. 8, 2. Secondly it is required that he be professed in that congregation, for novices are excluded from elections in the law; yet an express profession is not required in the elector, although it is required in the one elected, as the law provides, because more is exacted of him who is elected than of him who elects. Thirdly it is required that the elector be a cleric and initiated into the sacred orders, whence converts are not admitted, by which name only those religious are understood who are not destined for the priesthood or sacred orders; it is had in the Clementina Ut i de aetate, et qualitate, where it is decreed: that no one henceforth in cathedral or collegiate churches, secular or regular, have a voice in chapter, even should this be freely conceded to him by others, unless he have been at least constituted in the order of subdiaconate, which Suarez says is to be understood of all chapters, general, provincial, and conventual, cap. 6 num. 5.

If, however, we regard the ancient law, while the old monasteries were made up almost entirely of lay monks, it is certain that the power of electing was in the hands of the laics by equal right as in those of clerics, since the latter were fewer, and sometimes none: but since the monastic body was for the most part at length raised to the dignity of the priesthood, and spiritual jurisdiction itself was conferred on them, it seemed unseemly that this be contributed by laics, who indeed in no way possess it, nor will possess it; as is touched upon in cap. sacrosancta, and cap. Massana de electione.

Nevertheless there prevailed among some Orders the custom, or rather the Privilege petitioned from the Pontiff, that in certain minor Chapters the converts have a voice in electing one whom they call the Discretus, that he may bring to the provincial chapters the needs of the brothers, and in their name, together with the local superior, give his own voice.

Fourthly, Finally, it is required that the elector be entangled in no censure or ecclesiastical incapacity; and if he be secretly incapable, by intruding himself he sins mortally; but if the others knowingly consent to him, beyond the sin the election will be vitiated, and therefore will have to be rescinded; yet if he be such an excommunicate that the others are not bound to avoid him, nor do they reprehend him intruding himself; the election will not be vicious on this account, since no one is bound to reprehend him. Thus it is determined in the Extravagant Ad evitanda.

Further, although these conditions are specially understood on both sides of the general Prelate and those electing him, yet by a similar proportion they can be applied to the election of an inferior Prelate, both active and passive; so that there is no need to say anything in particular about this matter; especially since the said chapter, Quia propter, must be observed by all as far as possible, in which are certain restrictions substantial, others accidental, which see described at length at Suarez, loco citato.

To this chapter Quia propter have been joined various constitutions, more or less, varying according to the Pleasure of each religion; and they prescribe the manner in which one is to proceed in each Religion for establishing prelates in it; yet for such elections to be valid or invalid in law, it is necessary that constitutions of this kind be approved by the Sovereign Pontiff, otherwise they will be able to add nothing to, or subtract anything from, the common law.