Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title IX: On Apostates and Those Repeating Baptism
Chapter I
Latin source headnote: A cleric who, having cast aside his habit and tonsure, involves himself in enormities loses the privilege of the canon If anyone, at the devil's persuasion; whence those who apprehend him do not fall under the canon, namely, the excommunication.
Alexander III.
Moreover, we do not command that clerics who, having abandoned the clerical order and their habit, live in apostasy as laypersons, if they are apprehended while involved in crimes, are to be freed by ecclesiastical censure. For the statutes of the holy Fathers declare that such persons are to be numbered among apostates. [Concerning priests, etc.; cf. c. 2, That Clerics or Monks, III. 50.]
DE APOSTATIS ET REITERANTIBUS BAPTISMA.
Clericus, qui dimisso habitu et tonsura immiscet se enormitatibus, perdit privilegium canonis: Si quis suadente, unde eum deprehendentes non incidunt in canonem. scil. excommunicationem.
Alexander III. Praeterea clerici, qui, relicto ordine clericali et habitu suo, in apostasia tanquam laici conversantur, si in criminibus comprehensi teneantur, per censuram ecclesiasticam non praecipimus liberari. *Tales enim inter apostatas numerandos sanctorum Patrum statuta declarant. *[Sacerdotibus etc. cf. c. 2. Ne cler. vel mon. III. 50.]
Chapter II
Latin source headnote: If the crime of an acolyte who furnished ministry to one rebaptizing is hidden, he can be promoted; if public, he cannot, unless, when he enters religion, dispensation is granted to him.
The same, to the Abbot of Saint Geneviève.
From the tenor of your letters we have perceived that a certain man, exhausted by a long illness, believing the insane counsel of women who practiced sorcery, in order that he might be healed did injury to the sacrament of baptism through repetition. But a certain youth of good character, as it appears—an acolyte and the natural brother of him in whom baptism is asserted to have been repeated—stood by at this sacrilege, furnished ministry in responding to the priest who baptized, and became a cooperator in the impious deed. Therefore, because your prudence led you to consult us as to how the acolyte ought to be punished or purged, whom also his younger age and the intention of his brother's bodily salvation appear to excuse somewhat, by the present letters we respond to your discretion that, although he does not appear to deserve to be struck with a severe penalty, nevertheless, if what is proposed is public, he will not be able to be promoted to higher orders unless he shall have wished to pass to religion, so that by favor of the religious state dispensation may be granted to him. But if it is hidden, he can be promoted and expiate his excess with worthy fruits of penance.
Si crimen acolythi, qui rebaptizanti praebuit ministerium, est occultum, promoveri potest; si publicum, non, nisi cum eo religionem intrante dispensetur.
Idem Abbati S. Genovefae.
Ex literarum tuarum tenore perpendimus, quod quidam, aegritudine longa confectus, insano sortilegarum mulierum credens consilio, ut sanaretur, per iterationem fecit iniuriam baptismatis sacramento. Adstitit autem huic sacrilegio adolescens quidam bonae, ut videtur, indolis, acolythus, frater carnalis illius, in quo baptismus asseritur iteratus, et ministerium in respondendo exhibuit presbytero baptizanti, et cooperator exstitit rei nefandae. Quia ergo tua nos duxit prudentia consulendos, qualiter puniri debeat vel purgari acolythus, quem etiam minor aetas et intentio fraternae salutis corporeae excusare videtur aliquantulum, discretioni tuae praesentibus literis respondemus, quod, quamvis multum non videatur poena plectendus, ad superiores tamen ordines promoveri, si publicum est quod proponitur, non valebit, nisi ad religionem transire voluerit, ut favore religionis ipsius circa eum valeat dispensari. Si vero occultum est, promoveri poterit, et excessum suum dignis poenitentiae fructibus expiare.
Chapter III
Latin source headnote: One defamed concerning apostasy is compelled to purge himself.
Innocent III.
To your fraternity. (And below: [(cf. c. 3, On Pilgrim Clerics, I. 22.) Others also, whom public report asserts to be monks or canons regular, proceeding in secular dress, falsely represent themselves as secular men though they are monks. Concerning them, since it cannot be proved that they professed the religious life, you sought an apostolic response whether they ought to be sent back to the regions on this side of the sea and, by letters of the bishops and abbots of those monasteries in which they are said to have assumed the regular habit, demonstrate that they are not monks or canons regular, or rather ought to be tolerated in secular dress. But we, etc. (cf. c. 3, On Pilgrim Clerics, I. 22.)] Concerning the second article however, we have considered that response should be made to your inquiry that clerics who are defamed of the crime of apostasy—namely, those who cast aside the clerical habit—are not to be tolerated in secular dress, but are to be constrained by ecclesiastical severity until, when proof is lacking, they take care to furnish canonical purgation to abolish the infamy. [You asked, etc. Given at Rome at Saint Peter's on the second day before the Kalends of February, in the ninth year, 1207.]
Infamatus de apostasia compellitur se purgare.
Innocentius III. Tuae fraternitati (Et infra: [(cf. c. 3. de cler. per. I. 22.) *Alii quoque, quos fama publica monachos asserit vel canonicos regulares, in saeculari habitu incedentes se saeculares monachos mentiuntur, de quibus, quum probari non possit, quod vitam religiosam sint professi, responsum apostolicum expetisti, utrum ad partes remitti debeant cismarinas, et episcoporum illorum et abbatum monasteriorum illorum, in quibus dicuntur regularem habitum assumpsisse, literis doceant, se non esse monachos vel canonicos regulares, vel debeant potius in saeculari habitu tolerari. Nos autem etc. *(cf. c. 3. de cler. peregr. I. 22.)] Super secundo vero articulo inquisitioni tuae duximus respondendum, quod clerici, qui sunt de apostasiae crimine infamati, qui videlicet abiecerunt habitum clericalem, non sunt in saeculari habitu tolerandi, sed per districtionem ecclesiasticam coercendi, donec deficiente probatione, ad infamiam abolendam purgationem canonicam curaverint exhibere. [*Quaesivisti etc. Dat. Rom. ap. S. Petr. II. Kal. Febr. Ao. IX. *1207.]
Chapter IV
Latin source headnote: Baptized persons are compelled to abandon the rites of another sect or faith.
The same, in the general council.
Certain persons, as we have learned, who voluntarily approached the water of sacred baptism do not wholly put off the old man so that they may be more perfectly clothed with the new, since, retaining remnants of their former rite, they confound the comeliness of the Christian religion by such a mingling. But since cursed is the man who enters the land by two ways, and one ought not to be clothed in a garment woven of linen and wool, we establish that an observance of the old rite of this kind is to be restrained in every way by the prelates of churches, so that those whom the choice of free will offered to the Christian religion may be preserved in its observance by the necessity of saving compulsion, since it is a lesser evil not to know the way of the Lord than, after knowing it, to turn back.
Baptizati alterius sectae vel fidei ritus dimittere compelluntur.
Idem in concilio generali. Quidam, sicut accepimus, qui ad sacri undam baptismatis voluntarii accesserunt, veterem hominem omnino non exuunt, ut novo perfectius induantur, quum, prioris ritus reliquias retinentes, Christianae religionis decorem tali commixtione confundant. Quum autem maledictus sit homo, qui terram duabus viis ingreditur, et indui veste non debeat lino lanaque contexta: statuimus, ut per praelatos ecclesiarum talis observantia veteris ritus omnimode compescatur, ut, quos Christianae religioni liberae voluntatis arbitrium obtulit, salutiferae coactionis necessitas in eius observatione conservet; quum minus malum exsistat viam Domini non agnoscere, quam post agnitam retroire.
Chapter V
Latin source headnote: Apostates can be imprisoned and afflicted so that they reassume the habit.
Honorius III, to the Archbishop of Tours.
Your fraternity sought to be instructed by us what is to be done concerning apostates when those who can in no way be induced by threats or blandishments to reassume the cast-off monastic habit are detained in custody. To this we respond briefly to you that, if you wish, you will be able to imprison such persons under severe custody, so that a miserable life alone is preserved for them, until they come to their senses from the wickedness of their presumption. [Given at Rome on the second day before the Nones of May, 1218.]
Apostatae incarcerari et affligi possunt, ut habitum reassumant.
Honorius III. Archiepiscopo Turonensi. A nobis expetiit tua fraternitas edoceri, quid de apostatis sit agendum, quum in custodia detinentur, qui minis vel blanditiis nullatenus possunt induci, ut abiectum monachalem habitum reassumant. Ad quod tibi breviter respondemus, quod tales, si volueris, poteris sub gravi custodia carcerare, ita, quod solummodo vita sibi misera reservetur, donec a suae praesumptionis nequitia resipiscant. [Dat. Romae II. Non. Mai. 1218.]
Chapter VI
Latin source headnote: A monk ordained while in apostasy cannot minister in the order received without a dispensation of the Pope.
The same, to the Archbishop of Lyon.
We respond briefly to your consultation that a monk receiving any sacred order while in apostasy, however much he shall have been reconciled to his abbot and received penance, nevertheless cannot minister in the order thus received without a dispensation of the Roman Pontiff. To the inquiry, etc. (cf. c. 7, On the Use and Authority of the Pallium, I. 8.) [Given at Rieti on the fourth (third) day before the Ides of August, 1225.]
Monachus, in apostasia ordinatus, non potest sine dispensatione Papae in suscepto ordine ministrare.
Idem Archiepiscopo Lugdunensi. Consultationi tuae breviter respondemus, quod monachus, aliquem sacrum ordinem in apostasia recipiens, quantumlibet suo fuerit reconciliatus abbati, et receperit poenitentiam, absque tamen dispensatione Romani Pontificis ministrare non poterit in ordine, sic suscepto. Inquisitioni etc. (cf. c. 7. de usu et auct. pall. I. 8.) [*Dat. Reate IV. *(III.) Id. Aug. 1225.]