distinction — Decretum of Gratian
Distinction LIII
GRATIAN. Curiales, moreover, as was written above, are prohibited from being ordained because frequently, when they are reclaimed from the Church, very many disadvantages follow for the Church, or because those same curiales transfer themselves to churches not from a vow of religion but so that they may escape the accountings of their offices. Hence Gregory, in Book VIII of the Register [Indiction I, epistle 11], writes to all the Bishops concerning the law of Emperor Maurice:
GRATIANUS. Curiales autem, ut supra scriptum est, ideo ordinari prohibentur, quia frequenter, dum ab ecclesia repetuntur, plurima incommoda ecclesia sequitur, uel quia iidem curiales non uoto religionis, sed ut offitiorum suorum ratiocinia fugiant, ad ecclesias se transferunt. Unde Gregorius scribit libro VIII. Registro [Indict. I. epist. 11.] omnibus Episcopis de lege Mauritii Augusti:
Friedberg, col. 205/206
C. I. Why it was established that curiales should not be ordained.
I have taken care to transmit to your fraternity the law that the most pious emperor issued, lest perhaps those who are bound to military service or public accounts, while fleeing the peril of their causes, should come to the ecclesiastical habit or be converted in monasteries, especially for this reason: those who are entangled in the affairs of the world are not to be received precipitously among the clergy of the Church, because while they live in the ecclesiastical habit no differently than they had lived before, they by no means strive to flee the world, but to change it. But if any such persons also seek a monastery, they are by no means to be received unless first released from public business. §1. But if any from among military men hasten to be numbered in monasteries, they are not to be received rashly unless their life has been subtly investigated. And when they have been tested for three years in their own habit according to the norm of the rule, then, with God as author, let them receive the monastic habit.
C. I. Quare sit constitutum, ne curiales ordinentur.
Legem, quam piissimus inperator dedit, ne forte hi, qui miliciae uel rationibus sunt publicis obligati, dum causarum suarum periculum fugiunt, ad ecclesiasticum habitum ueniant uel in monasteriis conuertantur, uestrae studui fraternitati transmittere, maxime ob hanc causam, quod hi, qui seculi actionibus inplicati sunt, in clero ecclesiae prepropere suscipiendi non sunt, quia, dum in ecclesiastico habitu non dissimiliter quam prius uixerant uiuunt, nequaquam student seculum fugere, sed mutare. Quod si etiam tales quique monasterium petunt, suscipiendi nullo modo sunt, nisi prius a negociis publicis fuerint absoluti. §. 1. Si qui uero ex militaribus uiris in monasteriis annumerari festinant, non sunt temere suscipiendi, nisi uita eorum subtiliter inquisita fuerit. Et iuxta normam regularem in suo habitu per triennium probati, tunc monachicum habitum Deo auctore suscipiant.
Friedberg, col. 205/206