Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title XLII: On Alienation Made for the Purpose of Changing the Court
Chapter I
Latin source headnote: One to whom a thing has been alienated for the purpose of changing the court is sued by a rescript obtained against the alienator.
Alexander III.
We have heard from the certain report of some persons that, when certain ecclesiastical men of your province obtain letters of commission from us for prosecuting their justice, their adversaries, in order to elude our mandate, before our letters reach the judges, or even afterward, before they are cited by them, break forth into a declaration of appeal, or, making an exchange, maliciously introduce certain persons into possession of the things concerning which the controversies are pending. We therefore, wishing with pastoral solicitude to make provision against the aforesaid cunning and craftiness, command your discretion by apostolic writings, by way of precept, that if the adversaries of those between whom and that person a controversy concerning the church has [for a long time] been conducted shall have appealed in this way to nullify our mandate, or shall have made an exchange concerning the possession about which the controversy is pending, or shall have judged that they should maliciously absent themselves, you are, appeal ceasing, to compel those who have thrust themselves into possession of the aforesaid [church] to obey the equity of law under your examination.
DE ALIENATIONE IUDICII MUTANDI CAUSA FACTA.
Is, in quem facta est alienatio rei causa mutandi iudicii, convenitur per rescriptum impetratum contra alienantem.
Alexander III.
Ex quorundam certa relatione audivimus, quod, quum aliqui viri ecclesiastici de provincia vestra pro prosequenda sua iustitia literas commissionis a nobis impetrant, adversarii eorum, ut mandatum nostrum eludant, antequam literae nostrae ad iudices perveniant, vel etiam postea, priusquam illi citentur ab eis, in vocem appellationis prorumpunt, aut commutationem facientes aliquos in possessionem eorum, de quibus controversiae vertuntur, malitiose inducunt. Nos igitur contra praedictam calliditatem et versutiam pastorali sollicitudine providere volentes, discretioni vestrae per apostolica scripta praecipiendo mandamus, quatenus, si adversarii eorum, inter quos et ipsum super ecclesia controversia est [diutius] agitata pro evacuando nostro mandato taliter appellaverint, aut de possessione, de qua controversia vertitur, commutationem fecerint, vel se malitiose duxerint absentandos, eos qui in possessione praedictae [ecclesiae] se ingesserint, appellatione cessante cogatis sub vestro examine iuris aequitati parere.
Chapter II
Latin source headnote: A cleric ought not to receive an assignment from a layman for the purpose of changing the court.
Gregory IX to the Abbot of Saint Nicholas and the Dean of Furnes in the Diocese of Thérouanne.
It was alleged on behalf of the aldermen of Ypres that, when questions arise among the laymen of that place which are to be settled by secular judgment, certain clerics cause rights of action to be assigned to themselves, by gift or for a price, by some of those laymen, so that they may draw the adversaries to the ecclesiastical forum and obtain plunder from commerce of this kind. (And below:) Therefore, since lawful enactments prohibit assignments and purchases of lawsuits in such a way that they visit loss of the case upon those who presume in this manner to summon the patronage of more powerful persons for themselves, and since they are also odious because they appear to proceed from the fountain of cupidity, we command that you restrain the aforesaid clerics from presumption of this kind by ecclesiastical censure.
Clericus causa mutandi iudicium, non debet recipere cessionem a laico.
Gregorius IX. Abbati S. Nicolai et decano Furnensi Morinensis dioecesis.
Ex parte scabinorum Hipretis fuit propositum, quod inter laicos eiusdem loci quaestionibus emergentibus, dirimendis per iudicium saeculare, quidam clerici sibi dono vel pretio ab aliquibus laicorum ipsorum cedi faciunt actiones, ut adversarios ad ecclesiasticum forum trahant, et praedam ex huiusmodi commercio assequantur. (Et infra:) Quum igitur cessiones et emptiones litium legitimae prohibeant sanctiones ita, quod iactura causae afficiant illos, qui sibi potentiorum patrocinium taliter advocare praesumunt, et ex eo sint etiam odiosae, quod ex fonte cupiditatis videntur procedere, mandamus, quatenus clericos memoratos a praesumptione huiusmodi per censuram ecclesiasticam compescatis.