Question — Decretum of Gratian
Question II
C. I. No one is compelled to remain in a monastery unless he made profession into the hand of the abbot.
Cosaldus the priest, once oppressed by illness in the heat of suffering, promised that he would become a monk, yet he did not hand himself over to a monastery or abbot, nor did he write a promise, but he renounced the benefice of the church into the hand of the advocate. But after he recovered, he immediately denied that he would become a monk. Wherefore, because both the Rule of blessed Benedict and especially the canonical institution of our father and predecessor Saint Gregory the Pope forbid a man to be made a monk before a probation of one year, we judge and by apostolic authority command that the aforesaid priest receive, have, and quietly retain the benefice and altars.
C. I. Non cogitur aliquis in monasterio manere, nisi professionem fecerit in manu abbatis.
Cosaldus presbiter, quondam infirmitate feruore passionis pressus, monachum se fieri promisit, non tamen monasterio aut abbati se tradidit, nec promissionem scripsit, sed beneficium ecclesiae in manu aduocati refutauit. At postquam conualuit, mox se monachum negauit fieri. Quapropter quia et B. Benedicti regula, et precipue patris et predecessoris nostri S. Gregorii Papae canonica institutio interdicit monachum ante unius anni probationem effici, iudicamus et auctoritate apostolica precipimus, ut prefatus presbiter beneficium et altaria recipiat, habeat, et quiete retineat.
Friedberg, col. 813/814
C. II. A wife taken after a purpose of continence ought not to be dismissed.
Likewise Augustine to Count Boniface, [letter LXX]. We know, we are witnesses, that you desired to relinquish all the public activities by which you were occupied, to betake yourself to holy leisure, and to live in that life in which the servants of God, the monks, live. Therefore, while we rejoiced that you were in this purpose, you sailed away and took a wife. If you did not have a spouse, I would say to you what we also said to the people of Tubunae: that you should live continently in chastity. But a wife is an impediment to my exhorting you to that life, without whose consent you are not permitted to live continently; because, although you ought not to have taken her after those words concerning Tubunae, nevertheless, knowing nothing of them, she innocently and simply married you. GRATIAN. Behold, this man conceived in his heart that he would become a monk and pronounced with his mouth that he wished to betake himself to holy leisure; nevertheless, he was not afterward compelled to undertake what he conceived in his heart and pronounced with his mouth. That authority of Alexander, following the institution of blessed Gregory and blessed Benedict, grants a year to those to be tested who are known; but to the unknown it concedes three years. Hence in the Council of Toledo:
C. II. Uxor post propositum continentiae ducta dimitti non debet.
Item Augustinus ad Bonifatium Comitem. [ep. LXX.] Nos nouimus, nos testes sumus, quod omnes actus publicos, quibus occupatus eras, relinquere cupiebas, et te in otium sanctum conferre, atque in ea uita uiuere, in qua serui Dei monachi uiuunt. Cum ergo te esse in hoc proposito gauderemus, nauigasti, uxorem duxisti. Si coniugem non haberes, dicerem tibi quod et Tubanis diximus, ut in castitate continenter uiueres. Sed ut te ad istam uitam non exhorter, coniunx est inpedimento, sine cuius consensu continenter tibi uiuere non licet, quia, et si tu eam post illa uerba Tubanensia ducere non debueras, illa tamen nichil eorum sciens innocenter tibi et simpliciter nupsit. Gratian. Ecce iste se corde concepit monachum fieri, et ore pronunciauit, se uelle in otium sanctum conferre, non tamen postea coactus est suscipere quod corde concepit, et ore pronunciauit. Auctoritas illa Alexandri, secuta institutionem B. Gregorii et B. Benedicti, probandis annum indulget, sed notis; incognitis uero triennium conceditur. Unde in Concilio Tolletano:
Friedberg, col. 813/814
C. III. Let no unknown person assume the monastic habit before three years.
If any unknown person shall wish to enter a monastery, let the habit of a monk not be furnished before three years. And if within three years he is sought by his lord as either a slave, a free person, or a tenant, let him be restored to him with everything he brought, yet after a pledge of impunity has been received. But if he shall not have been sought within three years, afterward he cannot be sought, unless he is so far away that he cannot be found.
C. III. Nullus qui incognitus est monasticum habitum sumat ante triennium.
Si quis incognitus monasterium ingredi uoluerit, ante triennium monachi habitus non prestetur. Et si infra tres annos aut seruus, aut liber uel colonus queratur a domino suo, reddatur ei cum omnibus, que attulit, fide tamen accepta de inpunitate. Si autem infra triennium non fuerit requisitus, postea queri non potest, nisi sit tam longe, quod inueniri non possit.
Friedberg, col. 813/814