Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title XIX: On Whether Those Bound to Render Accounts Are to Be Ordained
Sole Chapter
Latin source headnote: One bound to render accounts can be ordained after laying aside the burden and rendering an account, but not before.
From the Council of Carthage.
Magnus, Bishop of Augusta, said: “What seems good to your affection? Ought procurators, agents, executors, or guardians of wards to be ordained?” Bishop Gratus said: “If, after their burdens have been laid aside and their accounts rendered, the acts of their life have been approved in all things, they ought, if they have been postulated, to be furnished with the honor, with praise to God. For if, before freedom from their businesses or offices, they have been ordained by someone without consideration, the Church is defamed.” Everyone said: “Rightly, indeed, has your holiness established this, and therefore such is our judgment.”
DE OBLIGATIS AD RATIOCINIA ORDINANDIS, VEL NON.
Obligatus ratiociniis, deposito onere et reddita ratione, ordinari potest; prius vero non.
Ex concilio Carthaginensi.
Magnus episcopus Augustensis dixit: Quid dilectioni vestrae videtur, procuratores, et actores, et exsecutores seu curatores pupillorum si debeant ordinari? Gratus episcopus dixit: Si post deposita onera et reddita ratiocinia actus vitae ipsorum fuerint comprobati in omnibus, debent et cum laude Dei, si postulati fuerint, honore munerari. Si enim ante libertatem negotiorum vel officiorum ab aliquo sine consideratione fuerint ordinati, ecclesia infamatur. Universi dixerunt: Recte quoque, statuit sanctitas vestra, ideoque ita est nostra sententia.