Question XXXIII: Which vows can be commuted by the ordinary power of prelates

I suppose, with Sanchez cap. 52., that Prelates can change all those vows which have power to dispense. But which these are, I said in question 26.

VOTA: but that the Pope's reserved vows, reserved to him as regards dispensation, are reserved to him also as regards commutation, all acknowledge. For in the Extravagant Et si Dominicus, la 2. de paenitentia, et remissi., where the reservation of these vows is supposed, there is speech of their commutation. This reservation of commutation extends even to their not being able to be changed for the better; So Suarez Tract. de voto, lib. 6. cap. 21., Sanchez lib. 4. cap. 52., although others hold the opposite.

IN the vow of religion, however, all things can be changed into it, as is had in cap. Scriptura de voto. See Sanchez loc. cit. Unless, however, such a vow has been accepted by the Supreme Pontiff or a Bishop. See Diana part. 3. tract. 6. miscell. resol. 65. Wherefore if a prince should vow the liberation of the Holy Land, it would not suffice for him to change it into a vow of Religion. Hence the Supreme Pontiff must be consulted, as Bassaeus notes V. Votum 6. num. 1., with D. Thomas quaest. 88. artic. 12., Suarez tom. 3. de relig. lib. 6. cap. 14., Lessius lib. 2. cap. 40. dubio 16., Vecchio disp. 13. dub. 4.

SI: Yet if they are changed evidently for the better, it is not an act of jurisdiction. So Bonacina Tom. 2. d. 4. quaest. 7. puncto 7. §. 3. num. 9., Tolet. lib. 4. cap. 18., Faustus lib. 4. quaest. 5., and Bassaeus cit. num. 5.

THIS faculty is delegable even by those having the privilege.

But to the confessors of the Society of Jesus, and, by communication, to other Mendicant confessors approved by the Ordinary for hearing the confessions of seculars, Paul III granted the faculty of changing all Vows. And Gregory XIII extended it even to the oath-bound, except the five reserved, which Eugenius IV had previously granted in the Congregation of Saint Justina, in the year of the Lord 1437. See Sanchez lib. 8. de matr. d. 16., Compend. Privil. Mendic. V. Absolutio quoad saeculares 2., Crousers on cap. 7. Reg. min. lec. 29., and Bassaeus num. 5.