Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title XII: On the Scrutiny to Be Made in Ordination
Sole Chapter
Latin source headnote: A bishop questioned in the scrutiny of a bishop to be ordained can answer that he is worthy if he does not know him to be unworthy.
Innocent III.
It was set forth on your part—(And below:) You asked, furthermore, to be taught by the Apostolic See how, with conscience safe, you can respond in questions of this kind when bishops are summoned by an archbishop, or even by another, to the consecrations of bishops, and they present the bishop-elect to the metropolitan himself to be consecrated, saying: “Reverend father, holy mother Church seeks that this elect be consecrated as bishop”; and, when the archbishop asks whether they know him to be worthy, they answer that they know and likewise believe him to be worthy; and you judge that in a response of this kind, lest you offend man, you have offended God, by responding sometimes beyond and sometimes against your conscience, since the conduct of the elect is either less well known or entirely unknown to you.
To this we respond thus to your fraternity: when we promote someone as deacon or priest, the first of the deacons who assists us says: “Holy mother catholic Church seeks that this deacon or subdeacon be assumed to the burden of the priesthood or diaconate”; and, when we ask whether he knows him to be worthy, he answers that, insofar as human frailty permits one to know, he both knows and testifies that he is worthy of the burden of an office of this kind. Hence, in such a response we do not believe that anyone sins, provided that he does not speak against his conscience, because he does not assert simply that the man is worthy, but insofar as human frailty permits one to know, since he ought to deem worthy the one whom he does not know to be unworthy.
Therefore, you will be able to use a response of this kind safely, unless perhaps the unworthiness of the one to be consecrated has been established for you. But if you know him to be unworthy, before the matter comes to a scrutiny of this kind, you should take care secretly to announce or make it known to the metropolitan—although, as we have said, we make a question of this kind not in the consecration of a pontiff but in the ordination of a deacon or priest. [You sought, etc. Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the Ides of March, in the ninth year, 1206.]
DE SCRUTINIO IN ORDINE FACIENDO.
Episcopus interrogatus in scrutinio episcopi ordinandi, potest respondere illum dignum, si non novit illum indignum.
Innocentius III.
Ex parte tua fuit propositum (Et infra:) Quaesivisti praeterea per sedem apostolicam doceri, ut, quum episcopi ad consecrationes episcoporum ab archiepiscopo vel etiam alio evocentur, et ipsi metropolitano electum offerant consecrandum, dicentes: "Reverende pater, postulat sancta mater ecclesia hunc electum in episcopum consecrari, et interrogante archiepiscopo, si sciant, illum esse dignum, respondeant, quod illum sciunt et credunt pariter esse dignum, et te in responsione huiusmodi, ne offenderes hominem, Deum existimes offendisse, quandoque praeter, quandoque contra conscientiam respondendo, quum electi conversatio aut minus tibi cognita aut penitus sit ignota, qualiter in huiusmodi interrogationibus, salva conscientia, valeas respondere. Ad quod Fraternitati tuae taliter respondemus, quod, quum nos aliquem in diaconum vel presbyterum promovemus, prior diaconorum, qui nobis assistit, dicit: "Postulat sancta mater ecclesia catholica hunc diaconum vel subdiaconum ad onus presbyteratus vel diaconatus assumi," et nobis interrogantibus, si eum cognoverit esse dignum, idem respondet, quod, quantum humana fragilitas nosse sinit, et scit, et testificatur, illum ad huiusmodi onus officii esse dignum. Unde in tali responsione aliquem peccare non credimus, dummodo contra conscientiam non loquatur, quia non simpliciter illum asserit esse dignum, sed in quantum humana fragilitas nosse sinit, quum illum, quem indignum esse non novit, dignum debeat aestimare. Huiusmodi ergo responsione secure uti poteris, nisi forte de indignitate tibi constiterit consecrandi. Si autem illum indignum esse cognoscis, metropolitano, priusquam ad huiusmodi scrutinium veniatur, secreto studeas nunciare vel intimare, quamvis, ut duximus, nos interrogationem huiusmodi non in consecratione pontificis, sed in ordinatione diaconi vel presbyteri faciamus. [Postulasti etc. Dat. Rom. ap. S. Petr. Id. Mart. Ao. IX. 1206.]