Title X: On Supplying the Negligence of Prelates

Latin source headnote: If the diocesan bishop, when requested, is unwilling to bless a Cistercian abbot, the abbot himself will be able to bless his monks.

Alexander III, to the Cistercians.

We establish, furthermore, that if a bishop, having been requested a third time with humility and devotion, as is fitting, should perhaps refuse to bless your substituted abbots, it shall be permitted to those abbots to bless their own monks and to exercise the other things that pertain to an office of this kind, until the bishops themselves reconsider their hardness and do not refuse to bless the abbots [who are to be blessed]. [Indeed, etc. Given at Benevento, on the fourth day before the Nones of July, in the second indiction, 1169.]

Latin source headnote: Regulars cannot convert to their own uses churches in which they possess the right of patronage; and if, when those churches are vacant, they do not present rectors to them within the time of the Lateran Council, the superior will ordain those churches.

Clement III.

As your fraternity has made known to us, certain monks and canons regular, having in your bishopric churches that pertain to their presentation, strive to assign them to their own uses, and, when they have become vacant, are unwilling to call persons [suitable] to them. Rather, on the occasion of a grant by certain bishops, they institute and remove vicars in them according to their own will, so burdening those admitted with pensions that they can neither competently serve the churches in their excessive poverty, nor answer to the bishop in episcopal dues, nor bestow hospitality upon travelers, as is fitting.

But, unwilling that the due and ancient condition of a church be overturned through anyone's indolence, we command that, unless the aforesaid churches are exempt from your jurisdiction, you take pains reasonably to correct the aforesaid excesses; and, unless the aforesaid persons present suitable persons to you for the vacant churches within the time established in the Lateran Council, from then on it shall be permitted to you, appeal being removed, to ordain in those churches rectors who know how both to preside over and to benefit them, yet in such a way that from this no prejudice is engendered for the patrons in the future. [Given at the Lateran, on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, in the second year of our pontificate, 1199.]

Textual note: The source attributes the decretal to Clement III but dates it to 1199, during the pontificate of Innocent III. Both printed statements are preserved rather than silently reconciled.

Latin source headnote: A superior supplies the negligence of an inferior in conferring benefices if the time of the Lateran Council has elapsed, and a collation afterwards made by the inferior is not valid.

Innocent III.

Although our beloved sons Master H., Archdeacon of H., and R., procurator of R. of Saint Cadimundus, litigated for a rather long time before us concerning the archdeaconry of Richmond, nevertheless it was afterwards made known to our ears that it belonged to neither of them by right, inasmuch as it had been granted to neither within the time defined in the Lateran Council.

Therefore, lest we seem to neglect our own right, we who sustain others in their justice, we command your discretion by apostolic writings that, after summoning the same men so that they may set forth whatever they decide should be set forth in opposition, you inquire more diligently into the truth. And if it is established for you that the archdeaconry of Richmond had been vacant for a year, but that the period of six months during which the grant pertained either to the archbishop or to the chapter was computed not from the vacancy but from knowledge of it, since, because the Archbishop of York has no other superior, the grant had from that time devolved upon us, you shall, with the obstacle of appeal removed, impose silence upon both men concerning it, publicly declaring that the archdeaconry pertains to our grant, and decreeing void and empty whatever anyone should afterwards presume to ordain concerning it.

Latin source headnote: If the one to whom the collation of a benefice belongs confers after the time of the Lateran Council has elapsed, the collation is not valid, unless it is tolerated out of mercy.

The same, to Master P. of Châteauneuf and R., monk of Fontfroide, legate of the Apostolic See.

We have received the letters of your discretion [in which you implore an apostolic response concerning those matters that are doubtful for you, namely], that, when in certain churches subject to your legation certain benefices and dignities had been vacant for so long that both the prelates and the chapters were deprived of the right of instituting according to the tenor of the Lateran Council, after your arrival became known [to them], they presumed to institute less suitable persons in those benefices.

Hence, although you received counsel from men skilled in law that by apostolic authority you should annul such institutions, made by those to whom it did not belong and who by their own fault had deprived themselves of the right of instituting, you first decreed that you would have our counsel in this. You set forth, furthermore, etc. We therefore, responding briefly to your inquiry, command your discretion by apostolic writings that, if you know the benefices or dignities themselves to have been assigned to suitable persons, through tolerance you permit them to be possessed peacefully by those persons. Otherwise, removing the persons themselves entirely from them, you, supported by our authority, shall not delay in ordaining them as quickly as possible with suitable persons, [with no obstacle of contradiction or appeal], [the contradictors, etc. Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the eighth day before the Ides of December, in the seventh year, 1204.]

Latin source headnote: The one to whom the collation of a benefice pertained in the first place will not be able to confer it after the time of the Lateran Council has elapsed.

The same, to the Bishop of Samo.

Our beloved son P., cardinal-priest of the title of Saint Marcellinus, having been granted as auditor to S. and R., the procurators of P. and G. appearing at the Apostolic See, the same treasurer set forth before him that, when in the church of Salamanca, in which the election of the cantor belongs jointly to the bishop and chapter, the cantorship was vacant, the said chapter had rather often admonished the bishop that he should assemble together with it to celebrate the election of a cantor. When that bishop neglected to do this within the period of six months, the chapter, desiring to use its right, elected as cantor in the chapter of the aforementioned church, as is customary, the above-mentioned Paschasius, a canon of that place, appealing lest anything be done to the prejudice of the same election. The above-mentioned treasurer sought that this election be confirmed by apostolic authority and that the election that our venerable brother the Archbishop of Compostela had made after an appeal of this kind concerning G., a cleric entangled in many crimes and at that time bound by the bond of excommunication, be annulled as less than canonically celebrated.

But the said Dominic set forth on the other side that, after the period of six months had passed, within which the election of the cantor belonged to the bishop and chapter, the dean and certain canons of Salamanca, without consulting the bishop, the archdeacon, and certain canons who were present in the city, presumed to elect very foolishly and inordinately—not at the customary hour or in the chapter according to custom, but rather in the church, with certain laymen having been called. And when they were unwilling to approach the presence of the already-mentioned archbishop, who had summoned them on account of this, he, understanding that the authority of electing had devolved upon him according to the statute of the Lateran Council, elected the above-mentioned G. as cantor and caused him to be corporally invested with the cantorship.

Afterwards, however, the dean and his accomplices, making no mention to us of these matters and suggesting that the bishop—who, though admonished rather often, had been unwilling to elect within six months, to the detriment of the church—had, after the cantor who had been instituted by the same dean with the greater part of the chapter was despoiled, instituted another as cantor, obtained our letters to the dean, archdeacon, and archpriest of Ávila. When, by the authority of these letters, the above-mentioned G. had been summoned by those judges, he prohibited them from proceeding against him by the said letters, since no mention was made in them of his election made by the archbishop; and, both because of this and [also] because he had been cited peremptorily to distant places by the first citation, and also because the judges were related in the line of consanguinity to certain of the electors of the said Paschasius, he appealed to the Apostolic See. But the judges nevertheless, going to the church of Salamanca, contrary to justice inducted the often-mentioned P. into possession of the cantorship as a measure for preserving the matter.

Therefore, when the procurators themselves had litigated for some time before the same cardinal concerning these and other matters, and he had faithfully reported to us what had been set forth before him, because it was established for us that the dean of Salamanca and his followers, after the period of six months had elapsed—within which the bishop and chapter, insofar as it belonged jointly to them, had neglected to proceed to the election of the cantor—celebrated the election of the above-mentioned P. less than canonically, we decree that election void and empty. We also decree that the appeal interposed by the dean and his supporters could in no way impede the act of the archbishop, to whom the authority of electing had already devolved.

But because certain matters were objected against the person of G. himself, concerning which full proof could not be made for us, [we command your discretion by apostolic writings] that, unless some canonical impediment stands in the way of the already-mentioned G., you confirm the election made concerning him, with the obstacle of appeal removed, causing him to enjoy peaceful possession of the same cantorship; the contradictors, etc. [Given at the Lateran, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November, in the thirteenth year, 1210.]