Distinction CI

GRATIAN. But in one province there ought not to be two metropolitans, as was established in the Council of Chalcedon, [c. 12]:

It has come to us that certain persons, seeking power contrary to ecclesiastical ordinances, divide one province into two by a sacred pragmatic rescript, and from this two metropolitan bishops are found to exist in one and the same province. Therefore the holy synod established that henceforth nothing of this kind is to be attempted by any bishop, but that those who attempt any such thing are to fall from their own grade. GRATIAN. Thus far we have treated the election and ordination of clerics. Now let us pass to the ordinations of simoniacs; and so that it may readily be clear what the authority of the holy Fathers decreed concerning this heresy, let a case be brought into the midst whose matter contains both those knowingly ordained by simoniacs, those unknowingly consecrated by simoniacs, and ordinations which are made through money.