Title XIV: On the Age, Quality, and Order of Those to Be Placed in Authority

Latin source headnote: No summary is given.

From the Council of Poitiers.

Let abbots, deans, and provosts who are not priests become priests or lose their prelacies; let those who hold archdeaconries become deacons, and those who hold archpresbyterates become priests or lose the honor. But if, because some just cause prohibits it, they cannot be priests or deacons, let them lose the prelacies.

Latin source headnote: A church granted by dispensation to a minor ought to be governed not by laymen but by clerics until he reaches the proper age.

Alexander III, to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

By reason of the dignity committed to you and in consideration of your legation, you ought to extend the edge of your solicitude to all the churches of your legation, and with pastoral care to correct and amend the things that have been done enormously or contrary to justice, so that you may be able to render a full account before the father of the household concerning the sheep committed to you, and an abundant reward may be accumulated for you in heaven for your labor and solicitude.

We have learned, however, that the Bishop of Coventry, not attending to what the statutes of the sacred canons decree, nor preserving pontifical moderation, granted several churches to boys who are constituted below their tenth year in the archdeaconry of our beloved son R., Archdeacon of Chester, which are administered and disposed not by clerics but by laymen. Hence, because this is hostile to ecclesiastical utility and contrary to reason, and therefore ought not to be tolerated in any way, we command your fraternity by apostolic writings, under precept, that, if the matter stands thus, you rebuke and chastise the aforesaid bishop with a living rebuke; and, all occasion and appeal ceasing and the laymen having been removed, commit the administrations and custody of the aforesaid churches to suitable clerics until the aforesaid boys reach a fitting age.

You shall prohibit the same bishop more strictly from hereafter granting churches to be governed except to persons who possess age and knowledge. But if he acts otherwise, imposing the due punishment upon him, you shall decree his institution and grant altogether to lack force.

Latin source headnote: Governance of a church ought not to be committed to one under fourteen years of age.

The same, to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans.

It is exceedingly indecorous and absurd that those who do not know how to govern themselves should govern churches, since such persons are to be admitted to the governance of churches as excel in discretion and shine in uprightness of morals. Therefore, unwilling to endure that at the prayers or insistence of any persons, as is frequently accustomed to be done in your regions, the governance of a church should be committed to little children, we command your fraternity by apostolic writings, [under precept], that you do not presume, for anyone's favor or with a view to it, to grant the personatus of any church to anyone constituted below his fourteenth year. You are to know for certain that, if you presume to contravene our precept in this matter, with the Lord as author we will entirely invalidate what you have done as a result, and will punish your disobedience gravely.

Latin source headnote: One unworthy in knowledge, morals, or age ought not to be instituted to the governance of churches; and one who has two churches is compelled to relinquish one, unless a cause supports him.

The same.

It befits you to employ such care in ordaining the churches of your diocese that no cleric is ordained in them contrary to the decrees that we promulgated in the Lateran Council, or even contrary to the ancient enactments of the sacred canons; rather, take pains to place in them such persons as can suitably conduct the care of the flock committed to them and invite them to virtues by the example of a good work.

Hence it is that by the present letters we more strictly prohibit you from instituting in those churches persons who are to be ordained to the care of souls in the churches of your episcopate, or permitting them to be instituted on any occasion or even with a view to our letters, if they do not conform in knowledge, morals, and age to the institutions of the council. But you shall also be permitted, appeal being set aside, to compel those having several churches that do not depend upon one another to relinquish whichever one of them they prefer, unless those churches are so slender in substance that they cannot suitably support their own priests. But those, etc. [cf. c. 22, On the Right of Patronage, III.38.]

Latin source headnote: One who is not yet in sacred orders, if otherwise suitable, can by dispensation be assumed to the governance of a parish church.

The same.

Furthermore, although no one ought to be admitted to the governance of a parish church unless he is at least a subdeacon, nevertheless those constituted in minor orders are customarily assumed by dispensation, provided that they are such as can be ordained priests within a short time.

Latin source headnote: Because of the necessity and utility of the church, its clerics are compelled to receive orders not annexed to their benefices.

The same.

You ask us what is to be done concerning clerics committed to your jurisdiction who, although they abound in many ecclesiastical benefices, after being admonished by you are unwilling to be promoted to greater orders, saying that they have secretly committed something of such a kind that it does not permit them to be ordained with conscience safe. Therefore, since the sacred canons appear to disagree concerning this case—some saying that they are by no means to be compelled, while others assert the contrary—we resolve every bond of contrariety by the present page, establishing that, if the aforesaid clerics confess themselves to be unworthy to receive greater orders because of their secret sins, their inferiors in the same church whose life is approved shall, according to canonical institution, be preferred to them. And, unless perhaps those who refuse to be ordained for the already-mentioned cause are very useful in other services of the church, let their benefices be taken away and canonically conferred upon others.

But if from their will alone they refuse to be ordained, and the utility of the church counsels it or necessity altogether requires it, provided that they are suitable, you shall, with appeal ceasing, compel them to receive greater orders through loss of the places or orders that they possess and withdrawal of their benefices.

Latin source headnote: The event of the death of a sick person does not impede the promotion of his physician who is skilled, solicitous, and observes the traditions of the art.

Clement III, to R., Canon of Cologne.

Through your report it has reached our ears that, since you are learned in the medical art, you have with diligence furnished medicine to several persons according to the tradition of that art, although the result rather often occurred to the contrary, and those to whom you thought you were applying a remedy incurred the danger of death after receiving the medicines. But because, as you assert, you desire to be promoted to sacred orders and wished to consult us concerning this, we respond briefly to you that, if your conscience stings you concerning the foregoing, by our counsel you should not ascend to greater orders.

Latin source headnote: One who has remained under suspension for a year is deprived of the benefice that he previously had and of that which he acquired in the meantime.

Celestine III.

When Pope Clement of good memory, our predecessor, had summoned I. Buccarum, Melearum, Maius Raofaca, and certain other clerics of Bar to come into his presence to answer H., their archdeacon, whom they had gravely injured, because they scorned to come according to the apostolic mandate, he caused a sentence of suspension to be promulgated against them through the Bishop of Vigilia. Remaining under it, as is said, for three years, certain of those suspended obtained another ecclesiastical benefice.

And because you wished to consult us whether benefices received in this manner can reasonably be retained, we respond to you by the notice of the present letters that they are not permitted to retain in any way either the benefices that they had or those that they afterwards obtained. Hence, we gave a mandate to our venerable brother the Archbishop of Bar that for such great obstinacy and apostolic contempt he should not delay in despoiling them of the benefices that they possess, to be detained in his hands until he receives our letters and mandate concerning what he ought to do about these matters.

Latin source headnote: A subdeacon can be elected bishop.

Innocent III.

Many persons very often doubt whether a subdeacon can be elected bishop. Indeed, Pope Urban I decreed that no one should be elected bishop unless he was found to be in sacred orders and living religiously. “By sacred orders,” he says, “we mean the diaconate and priesthood, for the primitive Church is read to have possessed only these. Subdeacons, however, because they too minister at altars, we permit, when expediency requires, to be elected bishops, provided that they are of excellent knowledge and religion; and we do not permit this to be done without the permission of the Roman Pontiff or metropolitan.” In these words it is intimated that Urban, referring himself to the state of the primitive Church, in which the order of subdiaconate was by no means called sacred, instituted that an election concerning a subdeacon could not be celebrated except for the sake of utility, and even then only with the permission of the metropolitan or Roman Pontiff.

§ 1. But since today the subdiaconate is counted among the sacred orders, as Pope Urban II expressed in these words: “Let the impious blush and understand that, by the judgment of the Holy Spirit, those who are placed in sacred orders—the priesthood, diaconate, and subdiaconate—if they have not lived chastely, are to be excluded from every dignity of those grades”; and again: “Let no one be permitted to approach sacred order unless he is either a virgin or of proved chastity, and he who, up to the subdiaconate, has had one wife and a virgin”; and since, after the likeness of a deacon and priest, a subdeacon ought to observe continence, as was established in the Sixth Synod, that if anyone of those who enter the clergy should wish to be joined to a woman by nuptial law, he shall do this before the order of subdiaconate; and blessed Gregory is read to have established that bishops should presume to make no one a subdeacon unless he has promised that he will live chastely—

§ 2. We, wishing to cut away the matter of dispute concerning this point, establish that a subdeacon can be freely elected bishop just as a deacon or priest can.

Latin source headnote: An irregular person in minor orders can by dispensation be instituted as abbot.

The same, to the Cardinal-Priest of the title of the Holy Cross.

We commend in the Lord your diligence, which you are known to employ in reforming the monastery of Saint Quiricus. By the authority of the present letters we command your devotion that, if you cannot provide better for the same monastery with a suitable person, you institute as abbot that monk whom you commended in your letters for uprightness and industry, through whom it is believed that the condition of the same place is to be reformed. You shall have absolutely no regard for the unlawful petition that certain laymen were making, but shall act solely from the office of your own provision, in such a way, namely, that he does not ascend to sacred orders, since, when the point of necessity presses, one constituted even in minor orders can be assumed as abbot. And let the aforesaid laymen not be joined to the aforementioned monk by consanguinity or affinity, such that from their petition any adverse suspicion ought to arise against him.

Latin source headnote: An abbot, if he is a priest and has been blessed, can confer the clerical order.

The same, to the Archbishop of Rouen.

Since it sometimes happens that laymen flying to monasteries are tonsured by their abbots, you sought an oracle from the Apostolic See as to whether clerical order is conferred in the tonsure. Concerning this we respond to you that, since it was established in the Seventh Synod that each abbot is permitted, by imposition of hands, to make readers solely in his own monastery, provided that it is known that imposition of hands was made upon those abbots by a bishop according to the custom for abbots to be placed in authority, and it is established that he is a priest, clerical order is conferred through the first tonsure, according to the form given by the Church, by abbots of this kind. [Furthermore, etc. (cf. c. 24, On Rescripts, I.3.) Given at the Lateran, on the Kalends of September, in the thirteenth year, 1210.]

Latin source headnote: If a canon regular, having become a monk, has returned for a just cause to a canonry where he is afterwards placed in authority, he will lawfully be able to hold the prelacy.

The same.

We have understood that, before you were assumed to the governance of the abbey, although you had conducted yourself laudably in your monastery, you went to the monastery of Saint Innocent of such an order. When you had remained for some time in that order, at length, returning to your heart, with the counsel of the metropolitan and other [religious men], you took care to return to the first house. There at length, under the discipline of regular observance, you so pleased God and men that, at the requirement of your merits, your brothers unanimously placed you over themselves as abbot.

Therefore, lest on the occasion of the stay that you contracted in the aforesaid monastery your conscience, as it were, sting you, [and] you grow lukewarm in the care of the administration undertaken, we attend to what is provided in the canon: that no canon regular should become a monk unless perhaps—which God forbid—he has publicly fallen; and, if he has become one, he shall return to the order of canons, remaining last in choir and bearing the cowl as a memorial. We command your discretion that you take pains to exercise indefatigable solicitude concerning the care committed to you, and so continue the subsequent good things with the prior ones that you may be able to expect from God a worthy reward. [Given at the Lateran, on the seventh day before the Kalends of March, in the thirteenth year of our pontificate, 1210.]

Latin source headnote: One ordained to sacred orders without a title justly seeks a benefice from the one who ordained him.

The same.

We have learned through your report to our ears that certain clerics who were promoted to sacred orders without a title harass you concerning the obtaining of benefices in the church of Braga, although you could not then suitably furnish them from all the revenues of your church, especially since we command provision in necessary things to be made for those who by neither merits nor knowledge deserve ecclesiastical benefices even in parish churches, much less in the church of Braga, and whose life and knowledge are altogether unknown to us. If we had certainty concerning them, we would not command provision to be made for them in either greater or lesser churches. And although, according to the apostolic mandate, you are willing to provide for suitable persons in your chapels and in other parish churches outside the city, since you cannot provide for everyone in the greater church, nevertheless they disdain to receive provision in those churches. The judges also, and the admonitors or executors, to whom they carry our letters, do not admit your lawful exceptions that you set forth in their presence; hence you sought from us that we provide for you more kindly in this matter.

§ 1. Therefore, although in the ordinations of clerics you and your predecessors ought to have employed such diligence that less suitable persons were not ordained by you, and for this reason after their promotion you will not be able to put forward an exception of this kind against them, unless perhaps after they were promoted they rendered themselves unworthy, nevertheless, from superabundance, when it is fitting that we write for such persons, we cause this to be placed in our letters: that if the ordained person for whom we write is held to be suitable and not unworthy of an ecclesiastical benefice, a competent benefice shall be granted to him by the one who ordained him or that man's successor. For, even if we wished to proceed against you at law, we could deservedly compel you to provide for those whom it was established had been ordained by you or your predecessors, especially because you ought to regard as suitable to obtain an ecclesiastical benefice those whom you received into orders. Hence you ought not to bear it gravely, but rather are bound devoutly to incline to us, if we cause those to be examined by others whom we do not believe were ordained without examination, before we wish to compel you to provide for them.

§ 2. We therefore command your fraternity by apostolic writings under precept that you not delay in providing, in the greater church or other parish churches of the diocese of Braga, for those concerning whom it should happen that you receive our mandates in the common form, since we do not will that you be compelled for less suitable persons. But if you put forward any exceptions against such impetrators of our letters in the presence of the delegates, we command that they be heard.

Latin source headnote: One less suitable ought not to be promoted as priest or assumed to the governance of souls.

The same, in the General Council.

Since the governance of souls is the art of arts, we strictly command that bishops diligently instruct and inform those to be promoted as priests, either personally or through other suitable men, concerning the divine offices and ecclesiastical sacraments, and how they may celebrate them rightly. For if hereafter they presume to ordain the untrained and ignorant—which indeed can easily be detected—we decree that both those ordaining and those ordained are subject to grave vengeance. For it is holier, especially in the ordination of priests, to have few good ministers than many evil ones, because, if the blind leads the blind, both slip down into the pit.

Latin source headnote: A defect of knowledge casts down one already promoted.

Honorius III, to the Chapter of Bremen.

Although many matters were set forth against our venerable brother the Bishop of Calinum, even if none of them had been proved, nevertheless, because he confessed before us that he had never learned grammar nor even read Donatus, and through the evidence of the fact his illiteracy and insufficiency are established to such a degree that it would be contrary to God and the canonical enactments to tolerate so great a defect in a bishop, by the common counsel of our brothers we have decided that he must be removed altogether from execution of the pontifical office and from administration of the church of Calinum, invalidating whatever he shall hereafter attempt in the name of that church or concerning its goods.