Chapter VII — On irregularity in general and in particular, from delict and from defect

I. QUESTION I. What is irregularity, and what are its effects? ANSWER. It is a canonical impediment by which a baptized man is directly interdicted from the reception of Orders, and secondarily from their use. It is an impediment and not a penalty, that it may be distinguished from a censure, which supposes a fault. Canonical signifies that this impediment has been brought in by ecclesiastical right. A baptized man betrays that neither an unbeliever nor a woman lies subject to irregularity. The last particles again distinguish irregularity from censures.

II. There are three effects of irregularity: 1. It hinders the reception of Orders and of the first tonsure; 2. It deprives one of the use of all Orders if it be total, but of certain ones if it be partial; 3. It renders one unfit for receiving any benefice whatsoever if it be total: for if it be partial, very many contend that by it the reception of a benefice is not hindered whose duties the irregular man can perform. Irregularity supervening upon a benefice already obtained does not induce the privation of the same, but those who possess it can only be deprived by a judge's sentence.

III. QUESTION II. Of how many kinds is irregularity? ANSWER. There are two kinds of irregularities. One from defect, the other from delict. From defect nine are numbered: 1. From defect of soul; 2. From defect of body; 3. From defect of birth; 4. From defect of age; 5. From defect of liberty; 6. From defect of obligation; 7. From defect of sacrament; 8. From defect of good repute; 9. From defect of lenity.

IV. Irregularity from delict is eightfold: 1. From voluntary and unjust homicide; 2. From unjust and voluntary mutilation; 3. From casual homicide or mutilation; 4. From the iteration of Baptism; 5. From the violation of censures; 6. From the unworthy reception or administration of Orders; 7. From apostasy from the faith, or from external heresy; 8. From a delict to which infamy is annexed. It is divided also into total and partial. The former deprives one of every Order to be received and of the exercise of an Order received, as is that which is contracted from homicide. The latter deprives one of some exercise of an Order only, as if a priest's thumb be cut off, he cannot celebrate, but he can hear confessions. Similarly a deacon deprived of a thumb is unfit for the priesthood, but fit for the office of deacon.

V. A delict inducing irregularity must be an external mortal sin, since a most grave penalty cannot be contracted save for a grave delict. Nor does it matter that it be occult. There are excepted nevertheless delicts to which infamy and notoriety are annexed, which if they were occult do not induce irregularity. But other delicts — as voluntary homicide, heresy, the iteration of Baptism, the violation of a censure by the exercise of an Order — beget irregularity even when occult. Concerning occult homicide there is no dispute.

VI. QUESTION III. What things excuse from contracting irregularity from delict? ANSWER. All those things which excuse from mortal sin, as ignorance, inadvertence, grave fear, and so forth. Doubt does not excuse, as is had in chapter Ad audientiam, title on homicide: Since in doubtful matters we ought always to choose the safer part, it befits us to enjoin upon the aforesaid presbyter that he minister not in sacred Orders. Here there is no distinction of a doubt of right or of fact.

VII. QUESTION IV. Whether irregularity from delict be taken away by Baptism, by religious profession, or by dispensation? ANSWER. Irregularity from delict ceases through Baptism. That it ceases also through religious profession the common opinion affirms. Lastly that it ceases through dispensation all confess. The Supreme Pontiff for a just cause can dispense from any irregularity whatsoever. He who is entangled in several irregularities of diverse species ought in seeking a dispensation to express them all; if they be of the same species, he ought to manifest that he has contracted these irregularities several times.

VIII. Besides the Supreme Pontiff, bishops with their own subjects, and regular Prelates with their own, can dispense from irregularities from an occult delict which has not been brought to the contentious forum, homicide excepted, as the common opinion teaches.

IX. QUESTION V. What is required that a man contract irregularity from voluntary homicide? ANSWER. That homicide is called directly voluntary which is perpetrated with a direct will of killing, whence death necessarily follows, as if a deadly wound be inflicted, if poison be given, and so forth. He who directly posits like causes is called a voluntary homicide. Hence it follows that he who kills an assailant in defending himself with the moderation of a blameless defence does not incur the irregularity of directly voluntary homicide. But it is required that death follow, that the said irregularity be contracted. Wherefore even if a mortal wound be inflicted, or poison be given, if death do not follow, irregularity is not incurred. The Salmanticenses, chapter 8, no. 4, add that he who after a mortal wound or the giving of poison should repent of the delict does not incur irregularity in the forum of conscience. But this opinion to me is false.

X. The Salmanticenses with others also deny, no. 6, that he who kills a man in a sudden brawl incurs the irregularity reserved to the Supreme Pontiff. But the more probable opinion affirms it. And this irregularity is incurred also by those commanding, counselling, and so forth, as has already been said above.

XI. That the Supreme Pontiff can dispense from this irregularity all confess, yet from a most grave and most singular cause, on account of the highest unseemliness which such a delict bears. That bishops cannot absolve from this irregularity Trent established. That regular Prelates can dispense from this irregularity, if the homicide be occult, the Salmanticenses teach, no. 17, pontifical privileges being adduced; but these privileges are to me suspect.

XII. This irregularity is contracted also by the mutilation of some member of the body, as if a man should pluck out an eye, cut off an ear, a foot, or any part whatsoever which has a distinct office in the body. He who out of anger should cut off his own finger, or another part lacking an office, or should basely deform himself, would become irregular; otherwise if he did this in another, as is had in chapter Quidam, and so forth. He who should so weaken some member that it remained dead — it is the more probable that he would incur irregularity. From this irregularity, when occult and not brought to the contentious forum, bishops can dispense.

XIII. QUESTION VI. When is irregularity contracted from casual homicide or mutilation? ANSWER. That homicide is casual which happens beyond the intention of the slayer, both direct and indirect; and then, just as the slayer is immune from fault, so he is from irregularity: and the same is of mutilation. But he who posits a cause whence he foresees, or is bound to foresee, homicide or mutilation, becomes irregular. He who does a lawful work, and employs all diligence lest homicide or mutilation follow, would not then become irregular, even if homicide or mutilation happen. But if that action in some way flowed into the homicide or mutilation, it would not now be good and lawful; and if the actor were negligent in guarding against the effect, he would become irregular, unless the negligence were light. Hence if a master should strike a disciple, or a father a son, only lightly, he would not become irregular, even if death or mutilation supervened beyond his intention. The same is to be said of him who should ride a fierce horse, if the killing of a boy should happen; or of one ringing bells, if the clapper should fall and kill a man; or of a keeper of a wild beast breaking its bonds and killing a man. Nor does a physician become irregular if a sick man die without his grave negligence.

XIV. He who gives his labour to an unlawful thing, whence death comes about, becomes irregular; but if the thing be unlawful and brings by its own nature no danger of death, he would not become irregular, provided there were no negligence in guarding against the effect. He who is bound by office to hinder a killing or a mutilation, if he omit it by a mortal fault against justice, becomes according to the more probable opinion irregular: because he who omits to defend him whom out of justice he was bound to defend is a true homicide, for he morally concurs to such a death; otherwise he who is bound only out of charity.

XV. QUESTION VII. When is irregularity contracted from homicide or mutilation by cause of defence against an unjust assailant? ANSWER. He who kills an unjust assailant, exceeding mortally the mode of a blameless defence, becomes irregular. On the contrary those who observe the moderation are immune from irregularity, just as from fault. Similarly defenders of this kind do not contract irregularity if they observe the moderation for the avoiding of a grave wound; otherwise if the wound which is feared were light. But then a defender is seen to observe the moderation of a blameless defence when the one assailed can by no other way — neither by entreaties, nor by flight, nor by clamour — decline death or a grave wound. For if by these ways he could decline death or a grave wound, he would not observe the necessary moderation.

XVI. He who steals, or perpetrates adultery, being caught in the delict and assailed by the master or the husband, if to defend himself he kill the husband or the master, incurs irregularity, because he gives his labour to an unlawful thing, and the homicide is voluntary in its cause. So affirms the more probable and true opinion.

XVII. From the iteration of Baptism, but not of Confirmation, irregularity is incurred. This irregularity is incurred by the one rebaptized, by the one rebaptizing, by one ministering to the one rebaptizing, and by him who outside necessity permits himself to be baptized by a heretic. This irregularity hinders ascent to other Orders, but not ministering in those received, as the common opinion teaches. Very many nevertheless require for the contracting of this irregularity a solemn rebaptism, and say that a private one does not suffice.

XVIII. Those entangled in the greater excommunication, those suspended, those interdicted personally or in an interdicted place, who exercise an act of a major Order, become irregular. But he who is suspended from one Order, and exercises the office of another Order from which he is not suspended, does not become irregular. From the said irregularity when occult a bishop can dispense, and similarly regular Prelates can absolve their own subjects.

XIX. Those who receive sacred Orders by stealth — for instance without examination and approbation; those who on the same day receive several Orders, of which one is sacred, without a dispensation; those who after matrimony contracted, even before consummation, receive a sacred Order, the wife resisting — incur irregularity. Similarly clerics become irregular who usurp a sacred Order which they have not, and knowingly minister in it with the solemn rite.

XX. Irregularity is also contracted from a delict to which infamy is annexed, as are in clerics perjury with false testimony in judgment, sodomy, and simony: which crimes, if they be notorious, induce irregularity.

XXI. From an office likewise irregularity is contracted, as from the profession of a stage-player: for stage-players are infamous, as is had from chapter Definimus, cause 4, question 1, and from laws 1 and 2 on those who are noted with infamy. Very many teach that the offices of executioners, of lictors, and of butchers also have infamy annexed; and in fact in the common estimation of men those offices labour under infamy.

XXII. Infamy which arises from a personal delict is taken away by an amendment which is as notorious as the deed which begot the infamy. But infamy of right is not taken away by amendment, but by dispensation. The Supreme Pontiff for a just cause can dispense from this irregularity. But infamy which has been induced by a judge's decree can be taken away by his dispensation or by a superior's. That regular Prelates can dispense from this irregularity, whether before or after entrance into Religion, authors commonly teach.

XXIII. QUESTION VIII. What are the irregularities from defect of soul? ANSWER. Three, namely defect of reason, of knowledge, and of faith. Boys before the use of reason, the demented, the possessed, the furious, lunatics, epileptics, and those who are seized by the falling sickness unexpectedly, are excluded from sacred Orders. Defect of knowledge is an impediment to receiving sacred Orders, from which not even the Supreme Pontiff can dispense. By industry and study alone can it be taken away. Irregular from defect of faith are the sons of heretics whose parents are irregular from delict.

XXIV. QUESTION IX. What are the defects of body which beget irregularity? ANSWER. Those who lack an arm or a hand; a presbyter who lacks two fingers with half the palm, if the fingers be the thumb and index; likewise those who lack the light of the left eye, and those who lack all hearing, are reputed irregular. If nevertheless privation of hearing supervene, it is not reputed an impediment. If the light of the right eye can supply the defect of the left, it is not reputed an impediment. Defects which beget a notable deformity induce irregularity, as the privation of an eye, of the nose, of a foot; or those having eyes too deformed, labouring under excessive weakness of body, a hump, leprosy, or the French disease, are held irregular. But here all things are permitted to the judgment of the bishop. Eunuchs and hermaphrodites, even occult ones, are irregular. All the illegitimate, whether bastards, or spurious, or incestuous, or sacrilegious, are irregular. Those nevertheless born of a matrimony contracted in good faith in the face of the Church, but void on account of some occult impediment, are not held irregular, as is gathered from chapter Cum inter, and so forth. It is to be said otherwise if the matrimony were contracted in bad faith.

XXV. This irregularity ceases: 1. Through a subsequent matrimony; 2. Through absolute legitimation; 3. Through a dispensation which the Supreme Pontiff alone can impart.

XXVI. QUESTION X. Who are called irregular from defect of liberty, of age, and of obligation? ANSWER. Bondmen or slaves are irregular so long as they dwell in the state of servitude. If a slave, with his master knowing and not contradicting, receive Orders or even the first tonsure, he becomes free; but if he do it with his master contradicting or unknowing, he sins mortally, and remains a slave. If a bishop conscious of the servitude confer major Orders, he is bound to satisfy the master. Of defect of age it has been said above. Defect of obligation is when a man is bound to render accounts, or is found implicated in …

… secular businesses by office, as courtiers, soldiers, and so forth, until they free themselves from such an obligation.

XXVII. QUESTION XI. What is irregularity from defect of sacrament? ANSWER. It is that which arises from bigamy, or from matrimony contracted several times. A threefold bigamy is distinguished: true, interpretative, and similitudinary. True is when a man has had several lawful wives successively. Another species of bigamy is called interpretative, which, although it be not true, is so named from a fiction of law, and is contracted in four ways: 1. When a man contracts two marriages, one valid, the other void; 2. When a man contracts two marriages in fact void; 3. When a man has married a widow, or one corrupted by another; 4. When a man has married a virgin who after the nuptials committed adultery, and nevertheless after the adultery he knew her. He who married a corrupt woman thinking her in good faith to be a virgin becomes, according to the more probable opinion, irregular. The third species of bigamy is called similitudinary, which a man contracts when after solemn profession, or after a sacred Order received, he contracts matrimony, whether with a virgin or with a corrupt woman.

XXVIII. Bigamy is called a defect of sacrament, because it does not represent the union of Christ with the Church. Bigamists are reputed irregular both on account of incontinence, and on account of the division of affection which they transfer from a deceased wife to another, and on account of the defect of sacrament. From this impediment the Supreme Pontiff can dispense, but not bishops.

XXIX. QUESTION XII. How is irregularity contracted from defect of lenity? ANSWER. A baptized man, but not an unbeliever, becomes irregular if he voluntarily and proximately concurs to the death or mutilation of his neighbour, from defect of lenity. Hence irregular are judges passing sentence, assessors of judges, fiscal promoters, procurators, officers, apprehenders, accusers, advocates, denouncers, and necessary and voluntary witnesses, when by force of such actions the accused is killed; but not those who testify in favour of the accused. Temporal and ecclesiastical lords do not become irregular when, having jurisdiction, they commit causes of blood to others, and admonish that their ministers be vigilant against malefactors and punish them according to the laws. Ecclesiastical judges delivering the degraded to the secular arm, entreating that they treat them kindly, do not become irregular; nor clerics consulted by a judge, if they answer that such a delict is to be struck by the laws with the penalty of death. The same is to be said of confessors, who can deny absolution to a judge unwilling to punish malefactors according to the laws.

XXX. Those who fight in a just war by public authority against enemies, if with their own hands they kill or mutilate, become irregular. But the rest of the soldiers in such a just war assisting at the battle, who kill or mutilate no one with their own hands, do not become irregular, as all commonly confess. If the war be unjust, and someone be killed or mutilated, all become irregular, because all concur to the unjust slaying. That a soldier defending himself in a just war with the moderation of a blameless defence does not become irregular very many teach, because this defence is to him just. Physicians and surgeons who according to the rules of their own art amputate a member do not become irregular. Clerics and monks exercising the art of medicine and surgery become irregular from defect of lenity if they amputate some member, because these arts are forbidden them, with cutting and cauterizing. They can nevertheless open a vein for the diminishing of blood without becoming irregular. The Church deservedly removes men from sacred Orders on account of defect of lenity, because meekness and lenity is a prerogative and character of the Priesthood of Christ, who as a meek lamb came into the world sent by the Father. Bishops cannot dispense from irregularity from defect of lenity, even if it be occult, as the more probable opinion defends. He who desires more, let him read the canonists and moralists, who have compiled thick and great volumes upon this argument.

I repeat what I have indicated elsewhere, namely that all desire that superiors would recall to a mature examination the multitude of excommunications and censures, and would restrict them to that small number which their wisdom should judge more consonant. This is certain to all the wise, that a multitude of precepts is by no means fit for coercing the malice of men. St. Augustine adverts, epistle 118 to Januarius, that our Lord Jesus Christ, as he himself speaks in the Gospel, has subjected us to a light yoke and a light burden; whence with sacraments very few in number, most excellent in signification, he has bound together the society of the new people. More fully in epistle 119 to the same Januarius he suggests that the precepts of the Church are to be cut back, in these words: Without any doubt I reckon that they are to be cut away. For although neither could this be found how they are against the faith, yet they press down with servile burdens Religion itself, which the mercy of God willed to be free with most few and most manifest celebrations of sacraments, so that the condition of the Jews is more tolerable, who, even if they have not acknowledged the time of liberty, are nevertheless subjected to legal burdens, not to human presumptions. But the Church of God, constituted amid much chaff and much cockle, tolerates many things; and yet those things which are against the faith or against a good life she does not approve, nor keep silence about, nor foster.