Question — Decretum of Gratian
Question V
GRATIAN. Concerning the fifth question, the following is found to have been determined in the Third Council of Carthage, [c. 7]:
GRATIANUS. De quinta uero questione in Concilio Cartaginensi III. [c. 7.] sic inuenitur diffinitum:
Friedberg, col. 541/542
C. I. One who was unable to arrive for a case on the appointed day is not to be suspended from communion.
Whoever among the bishops is accused, let the accuser refer the case to the primates of that province. Nor shall the person against whom the crime is alleged be suspended from communion unless, after being summoned by letters, he has not appeared before the chosen judges to plead his case on the appointed day, that is, within the space of a month from the day on which it is established that he received the letters. But if he has proved some true causes of necessity by which it is manifest that he was unable to appear, let him have the unimpaired faculty of pleading his case within another month. Nevertheless, after the second month, let him not communicate until he is cleared. But if he has been unwilling to appear at a universal council so that his case may at least be concluded there, let him be judged to have spoken the sentence of condemnation against himself. During the time, to be sure, in which he does not communicate, let him not communicate in his own church or parish either. But if his accuser has never been absent on the days for pleading the case by withdrawing himself, let him not be removed from communion. But if he was at some time absent by withdrawing himself, let the accuser be removed from communion when the bishop has been restored to communion, yet in such a manner that the faculty of prosecuting the case shall not be taken from the accuser himself if he has proved that he was not unwilling but was unable to appear on the appointed day.
C. I. Non est a communione suspendendus, qui die statuta ad causam peruenire non potuit.
Quisquis episcoporum accusatur, ad primates prouinciae ipsius causam deferat accusator. Nec a communione suspendatur cui crimen intenditur, nisi ad causam suam dicendam electorum iudicum, die statuta, litteris euocatus minime occurrerit, hoc est infra spatium mensis ex ea die, qua eum litteras accepisse constiterit. Quod aliquas ueras necessitatis causas probauerit, quibus occurrere non potuisse manifestum sit, suae causae dicendae intra alterum mensem integram habeat facultatem. Verum tamdiu post mensem secundum non communicet, donec purgetur. Si autem ad uniuersale concilium occurrere noluerit, ut uel ibi causa eius terminetur, ipse in se dampnationis sententiam dixisse iudicetur. Tempore sane, quo non communicat, nec in sua ecclesia uel parrochia communicet. Accusator autem eius, si numquam diebus causae dicendae defuerit subtrahens se, a communione non remoueatur. Si uero aliquando defuerit subtrahens se, restituto in communione episcopo, remoueatur a communione accusator, ita tamen, ut nec ipsi adimatur facultas causae peragendae, si se ad diem constitutam occurrere non uoluisse, sed non potuisse probauerit.
Friedberg, col. 541/542