Section — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
§ III. On Wearing the Habit and Tonsure
- Clerics, at least those initiated in major Orders, are obliged to wear the tonsure and clerical dress. This is clear from the whole of Canon Law, especially from the Council of Trent, sess. 14, ch. 6, De Reformat., where it is said: “But because, although the habit does not make the Monk, nevertheless clerics must always wear garments congruent to their own Order, so that by the decency of the exterior habit they may show the interior honesty of morals.” Moreover in the same place it is enjoined on Bishops that they seriously admonish transgressors, and if they do not obey, remove them from sacred functions.
But the clerical habit varies for various regions. Therefore one must stand both by custom and by the particular statutes of places.
- Questions. - QUESTION 1º. Do clerics sin gravely by not wearing the habit?
Resp. Yes, of itself, unless there is present a just reason, or lightness of matter excuses, or the smallness of the time. - St. Ligorius, Bk. 6, n. 825; Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, bk. 11, ch. 8; Ferraris, v. Clericus.
But they commonly admit that it is venial only once or again to leave off the habit. But how much space of time is required for mortal sin can be determined not in general, but only from the circumstances.
But for those making a journey a shorter habit is permitted, but of black color, and one in which the decorum and honesty of the clerical state shine forth. But the clerical habit can be totally left off for a grave cause, for example, if persecution is imminent, or if one must pass through places of heretics, infidels, or impious men, etc.
- QUESTION 2º. Are clerics not constituted in sacred Orders also bound under grave or under light obligation to wear the clerical habit?
Resp. It seems one must deny as to each. For from the common opinion they are not bound to this under grave obligation, scandal being excluded; nor probably under light obligation, strictly speaking and of itself, because the obligation seems to have been imposed only on clerics constituted in sacred Orders. Nevertheless attention must be given to particular laws and to the custom of places. Besides, even simple clerics, as long as they wish to be clerics, must wear garments redolent of clerical modesty 1.
1 A cleric not wearing the habit and tonsure, if after being admonished a third time by the Bishop he is not corrected, loses the privilege not only of the forum but also of the canon. St. Alphonsus (Bk. 6, n. 827).
Nevertheless beneficed clerics must be excepted, who, although they are not in sacred Orders, are bound by the same law as higher clerics to wear the habit, and indeed under the penalty of suspension from benefices and every ecclesiastical dignity, as is clear from the Bull of Sixtus V, Cum sacrosanctae, 9 Jan. 1588 2.
2 ** This suspension seems to have been abrogated by force of the Constitution of the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX.
- QUESTION 3º. Do clerics sin gravely by not wearing the tonsure or crown?
Resp. 1º Clerics who are not constituted in sacred Orders never sin gravely, unless they are beneficed. - Thus most commonly.
Resp. 2º Even clerics initiated in sacred Orders at least do not sin gravely unless they omit wearing the tonsure for a notable time 3, such as is not the time of one or another month. But whether it is grave not to wear the tonsure for a whole year is not clear. Theologians more commonly affirm; but it is not clearly proved. - See St. Ligorius, Bk. 6, On Order, n. 820.
3 What the Author above, n. 46, warns, that for a grave cause the clerical habit can licitly be put aside, this same thing must be held about the tonsure, and all the more easily, because it is not the case that, just as garments can be put off and changed quickly when danger is imminent, so the tonsure can be put off quickly when there is need.