Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title IV: That Prelates Are Not to Grant Their Deputed Powers or Churches Under an Annual Rent
Chapter I
Latin source headnote: He who gives money in order to exercise episcopal or spiritual jurisdiction is deprived of his office, and the one who thus confers it will no longer be able to confer it and will be canonically punished. This it says together with the following chapters.
Alexander III, in the Lateran Council.
Furthermore, since in certain regions some persons who are called deans are appointed for a price and exercise episcopal jurisdiction for a fixed sum of money, by the present decree we establish that anyone who shall henceforth have presumed to do this is to be deprived of his office, and the bishop is to lose the power of conferring this office.
NE PRAELATI VICES SUAS VEL ECCLESIAS SUB ANNUO CENSU CONCEDANT.
Qui dat pecuniam, ut episcopalem vel spiritualem iurisdictionem exerceat, officio suo privatur, et sic conferens illud amplius conferre non poterit, et canonice punietur. Hoc dicit cum sequentibus.
Alexander III. in concilio Lateranensi. Praeterea, quoniam quidam in quibusdam partibus sub pretio statuuntur, qui decani vocantur, et pro certa pecuniae quantitate episcopalem iurisdictionem exercent, praesenti decreto statuimus, ut, qui de cetero hoc praesumpserit, officio suo privetur, et episcopus conferendi hoc officium potestatem amittat.
Chapter II
Latin source headnote: It is summarized above in the immediately preceding chapter.
The same, in the Council of Tours.
Since in certain regions some deans or archpriests are appointed for an annual price to exercise the functions of bishops or archdeacons and to determine ecclesiastical causes, which beyond doubt redounds to the burden of priests and the subversion of judgments, we [most strictly] prohibit this from being done any further. But if anyone shall henceforth have done it, let him be removed from the clergy by our authority. The bishop, moreover, who in his diocese shall have tolerated this and through his dissimulation permits ecclesiastical jurisdiction to be perverted, is to be struck by canonical severity.
Summatum est supra cap. proximo.
Idem in concilio Turonensi. Quoniam in quibusdam partibus decani quidam vel archipresbyteri ad agendas vices episcoporum seu archidiaconorum, et terminandas causas ecclesiasticas sub annuo pretio statuuntur, quod ad sacerdotum gravamen et subversionem iudiciorum non est dubium redundare: id ulterius fieri [districtius] prohibemus. Quodsi quis de cetero fecerit, nostra auctoritate removeatur a clero. Episcopus autem, qui in sua dioecesi hoc sustinuerit, et ecclesiasticam iurisdictionem sua patitur dissimulatione perverti, districtione canonica percellatur.
Chapter III
Latin source headnote: The governance of a church ought not to be committed under an annual rent.
The same, in the same council.
Since a certain enormous custom has gained force in some places contrary to the institutions of the holy Fathers, namely, that priests are appointed to the governance of churches for an annual price, we prohibit by every means that this be done, because, while the priesthood is made venal for a recompense of this kind, no consideration is had for the reward of eternal recompense.
Regimen ecclesiae sub annuo censu committi non debet.
Idem in eodem.
Quoniam enormis quaedam consuetudo in quibusdam locis contra sanctorum Patrum institutiones invaluit, ut sub annuo pretio sacerdotes ad ecclesiarum regimen statuantur, ne id fiat, modis omnibus prohibemus, quia, dum sacerdotium sub huiusmodi mercede venale disponitur, ad aeternae retributionis praemium consideratio non habetur.
Chapter IV
Latin source headnote: The fruits of churches can be granted under an annual rent.
The same, to the Bishop of Exeter.
We received the complaint of Master G. that, although he had received the church of Chephalai from G., the parson of the same church, to be held for seven years at an annual rent, the latter presumed to take it away from him before he had held it for the space of one year, although the same G. had confirmed by pledged faith [to him] that until the appointed term he would inflict no molestation or burden upon him on this account. Therefore, commanding by apostolic writings, we command your fraternity that, if you find it to be so, with appeal removed, you strictly compel him to restore the aforesaid church to the said G. and, until the term established between them, permit him peacefully to possess it according to what they agreed between themselves.
Fructus ecclesiarum sub annuo censu concedi possunt.
Idem Exoniensi Episcopo.
Querelam magistri G. recepimus, quod, quum ecclesiam de Chephalai a G. persona eiusdem ecclesiae ad annuum censum tenendam per septennium suscepisset, ipse sibi, antequam eam per unius anni spatium tenuisset, auferre praesumpsit, quanquam idem G. praestita [sibi] fide firmaverit, quod usque ad statutum terminum nullam ei exinde molestiam vel gravamen inferret. Ideoque frater**nitati tuae per apostolica scripta praecipiendo mandamus, quatenus, si tibi constiterit ita esse, appellatione remota eum districte compellas, ut praefatam ecclesiam dicto G. restituat, et usque ad terminum inter eos constitutum, secundum quod inter se convenerint, ipsum eandem permittat pacifice possidere.