§ IV. On Excommunications *latae sententiae* Reserved to No One

1736. - I. "Those commanding, or compelling, notorious heretics, or those excommunicated by name, or interdicted by name, to be handed over to ecclesiastical burial." From L. V. T. II. c. 2 in 6°, and Clem. L. III. T. VII. c. 1.

1° "Those commanding, or compelling to be handed over," but not others, who accompany, carry the Cross and lights; nor those who put them into burial: for odious things are to be restricted.

2° "To ecclesiastical burial," i.e., burial in any place whatever which, for the burial of the faithful or at least for divine offices to be performed, has been assigned either by the Bishop's blessing or by his designation, or by common use and custom.¹

3° In this article burial is forbidden under pain of excommunication for notorious or public heretics; likewise for those excommunicated by name; likewise for those interdicted by name. - Under the name of heretic there also come notorious apostates from the Faith.²

1737. - II. "Those injuring or terrifying Inquisitors, denouncers, witnesses, or other ministers of the Holy Office; or tearing away or burning writings of its Sacred Tribunal; or furnishing aid, counsel, or favor to any of the aforesaid." St. Pius V. C. Si protegendis.

Understand this as being for the cause of impeding, lest they bring causes to the Sacred Tribunal, or of impeding the sentence, or in hatred of the Sacred Tribunal itself; because if they do not know them as such, they may perhaps incur another censure, but not the censure of this article.

1738. - III. "Those alienating, and those presuming to receive, ecclesiastical goods without Apostolic beneplacitum, according to the form of the Extravagant Ambitiosae, de reb. Eccl. non alienandis." C. unic. under the said title (L. III. T. LV. in Extravag. Comm.).

1° "Those alienating," provided the administration of those goods has been entrusted to them, and there is not question of Bishops, although they are administrators, since these in the cited Extravagant are restrained by the Church only with an interdict.¹

But to the word alienate, as is clear from the Extravagant itself, here a very broad notion is subjected; for it contains all contracts by which: either 1) ownership is transferred, as to give in payment, to exchange, etc.; or 2) some real right withdraws from the Church, or a real burden is imposed on the things of the Church, e.g., a census, hypothec, servitude, or a servitude owed to it is remitted; and 3) leases beyond a useful or fruitful three-year term.²

2° "Presuming to receive," but not those consenting, counseling, favoring, destroying ecclesiastical things, stealing, etc. Nevertheless by those alienating and receiving, understand those by whose mandate and in whose name alienation is made, but not the mandataries.³

3° "Ecclesiastical goods" here are understood in the strict sense, namely: 1) those which are in the patrimony of some Church or Monastery; 2) ecclesiastical benefices (nn. 628-630); 3) goods of any Pious Place, for example an academy, seminary, college, school, hospital, orphanage, provided they have been erected by ecclesiastical authority.⁴ But goods are taken as either immovable or precious movable goods. Which things are to be regarded as precious is to be determined especially by the judgment of a judge.⁵ Under immovable and precious movable goods, however, are not comprehended money, nor counted coins, nor money placed in administrations of governments, or of railroads and the like, except if the monies proceed from alienations of immovable things, or were given or left with a perpetual burden of Masses or with an express obligation of buying an immovable thing, as Bouix asserts and proves more fully.¹

4° "Without Apostolic beneplacitum," which nevertheless is not required if: either 1) the thing is of slight value; or 2) is such that its revenues do not suffice for conserving it; or 3) is of such a kind that it will probably not endure for a three-year term without notable deterioration, for example a garment; or 4) necessity urges, which does not allow delay, or there is an occasion which otherwise would pass. [In these two cases, however, of necessity and utility, the consent of the Bishop is required, unless there is question of exempt Regulars]; or 5) the thing was left or donated to the Church under that law, that it may be alienated, which sometimes, but prudently, Bishops or pastors will be able to procure.² Privileges contrary to this law, if they are general, and likewise particular customs, even immemorial ones, have been abrogated by force of the derogatory clause at the end of the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis (p. 360, col. 2): but not special and personal privileges. S. Inq., December 22, 1880.³ Moreover, among us at least ordinarily, there will be one of the other causes on account of which alienation without Apostolic beneplacitum can lawfully be made, for example 4°.

5° "According to the form of the Extravagant," etc., i.e., with a legitimate cause and with the solemnities prescribed by law for alienation having been observed. - But a legitimate cause is either necessity, or utility, or piety (for example grave necessity of the poor), or inconvenience (as if the thing to be alienated is very distant, etc.). - The solemnities, if you please, see in St. Alph.⁴

1739. - IV. "Those neglecting, or culpably omitting, to denounce within a month confessors, or priests, by whom they have been solicited to shameful things in any of the cases expressed by our Predecessors Gregory XV, Constitution Universi, August 20, 1622, and Benedict XIV, Constitution Sacramentum Poenitentiae, June 1, 1741." Cf. above, nn. 1407-1412.

1° "Those neglecting, or culpably omitting," etc. Therefore the month useful for denouncing, lest the censure be incurred, begins from the day on which there has certainly become known both the obligation of denouncing, and the time within which it is to be satisfied, and the censure; for there is question of an omitted denunciation on account of culpable negligence, which supposes knowledge of the whole of the same obligation.

2° What was already sufficiently probable to St. Alphonsus,¹ today is certain, namely, that once denunciation has been made, even after the time prescribed by ecclesiastical law, the reservation ceases. Thus S. Poenit. p. LXI. II. ad 3, and it is clear from the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis itself, in which this excommunication is enumerated among those which are reserved to no one.²

3° When the penitent can be absolved, either absolutely or prudently, although he has not yet denounced, see n. 1412. e).

The Constitution Apostolicae Sedis continues:

"Besides these thus far enumerated, those also whom the Most Sacred Council of Trent excommunicated, whether with absolution reserved to the Supreme Pontiff or to Ordinaries, or without any reservation, We likewise declare to be thus excommunicated; with exception of the penalty of anathema established in the Decree of Session IV, On the Edition and Use of Sacred Books, to which We will that only those be subject who print books treating of sacred things without the approval of the Ordinary, or cause them to be printed." - Hence let there be: