Subquestion IV: On entrance into the enclosure of nuns

SINCE chastity is endangered not only by the exit of Nuns, but also by the entrance of others to them, therefore both are prohibited with an equal rigor of the laws; whence in the Council of Malisconense I, cap. 2, Arelatense IV, cap. 7, the Seventh Synod, sess. 7, can. 20, and before in the Council of Agathense, cap. 28, it was statutes under various limitations that the Monasteries of Nuns be guarded from the access and speech of men; that they be placed farther from the Monasteries of Monks, and that all be barred from access and entrance, unless paternal or fraternal urgency of kinship. But Bonifacius VIII, cap. unico, de statu regularium, in 6, more universally and strictly bore the precept on this matter, with these words: To no one whatsoever of dishonest person, nor even of honest, unless a reasonable and manifest cause exists, and with the special license of him to whom it pertains, let entrance or access lie open to the same. But since this law at length failed by custom, it is held renewed in the Council of Tridentino, sess. 25, cap. 5, where it is thus said: But let it be licit for no one to enter within the walls of the Monastery, of whatever kind or condition, sex, or age they be. And although the Council at the beginning of the said chapter says: The holy Synod renewing the Constitution of Bonifacii VIII, nevertheless afterwards it shows in what it renews, namely as to exit and entrance; but not as to access, as Suarez notes, loco citato, numero 26, where he also shows that other Constitutions observing a similar mode of speaking renew or intimate nothing about access. Much less are the Minores barred from approaching by force of the rule, since it only says: Let them not enter Monasteries, etc. Nevertheless the counsel of D. Bernardi is most excellent, in the S. Doctore, cap. 38, in the place cited, having regard to the virgin, that she beware of things to be feared, even to dread safe things.

Therefore only the entering within the walls of Nuns is prohibited by the said Decree. But there went out a Decree of the S. Congregat. in the year 1590, prohibiting not only entrance but access for the sake of speaking, to all Regulars, under penalty of privation of offices and of active, and at the same time passive, voice, to be incurred ipso facto; which prohibition is extended even to all Regulars wishing to address any other women whatsoever dwelling within the walls of the monastery: The same very prohibition, obliging under penalty of mortal sin even for a brief time, the sacred Congregation again declared on 11 Maii, in the year 1669, with the approval of the Supreme Pontiff Clemente IX.

Moreover, although the Council says, of whatever age, nevertheless it must not be believed that boys still infants are comprehended there, since they are incapable of precept; but those words seem to be employed on account of others, who by reason of old age or of more advanced age thought no danger impended over themselves or others. But boys, although they have not the liberty of sinning, can nevertheless fall under the end and motive of the law, wherefore those admitting or introducing them are not excused from sin, any more than from the censure, especially if they be of greater age, since by carrying themselves scurrilously and jocosely they can act against due honesty and decency.

But that precept also involved the prelates of the nuns themselves, as also of other Regulars, that they do not enter except under due conditions; wherefore the prelates of nuns entering in an undue mode, even if they flourish in pontifical dignity, are the first time interdicted from the church; for the second they are suspended; for the third truly they are excommunicated: But the prelates of Regulars are deprived of all offices and excommunicated, according to the Bull of Gregory XIII of the year 1581, which begins: Dubiis, quae emergunt; see Lezanam cited, cap. 16, num. 27, with Elizeo cit., num. 5.

Although it is strictly prohibited to the fratres Minores by the rule that they not enter the monasteries of Nuns; nevertheless Leo X conceded to them that, provided they were invited by the visitators of the nuns, they could enter there with the license of their superiors; which privilege P. Elizaeus shows still to prevail, notwithstanding every revocation by the oracle of the living voice, made by Urbano VIII, 2 decembris 1627, because Paulus V, in 1569, and Clemens VIII, in 1597, confirmed with various Bulls the privileges of the Capucins, so that they are no longer reckoned among the oracles of the living voice.

Moreover, in the same place P. Elizaeus reports that the said Urban VIII, before the then General of our order Ioan Maria a Nuto, declared that he had willed to innovate nothing as to the privileges granted to us.

Finally, it must be observed that he or she who, by entering or exiting, should attempt to surmount the claustral walls, although he would sin gravely, nevertheless does not incur the censures until he reaches the place in which he would truly be said to be within the cloister; because only then is that sin held to be consummated: but that place is held to be all the space deputed to enclosure, in which the nuns can freely station themselves, and outside of which they cannot remain without violation of the enclosure. Thus Bonacina, tract. de Clausura, q. 4, with others in common.

Hence you have that, whether a garden (viridarium) or other places even most remote from the coenobium of the nuns, they cannot be approached if they are within the walls of the monastery and deputed to enclosure; I say deputed to enclosure, because if the Monastery is only built, or the common accesses lie open and permit, such places are not held to be deputed to enclosure.

And although the end of the law ceases in a certain mode in women wishing to enter the monasteries of nuns, nevertheless they are not excluded from this law, even if they should wish to enter under religious habit; since it was said: to no one whatsoever of dishonest person, or even of honest, let entrance lie open, and this is extended to the nuns of other orders also, so that they can enter no cloister other than their own. The reason is, because they are externs to such a convent, and against them the same reason militates which excludes the other women; namely that the discipline of each convent be the better conserved without suspicion or scandal among the persons of the same order; wherefore if there be a nun not of another order, that she can licitly enter and be received by the Priorissa or Abbatissa, without any other faculty of the superior, Bonacina judges, loco cit., prop. 2, num. 3.