Title VI: On Election and the Power of the Elected

If anything is objected against a provision, election, or postulation made to a personatus, dignity, or canonry, whether against the person or against the form, and an appeal from this has been made to the Pope, the appellant, the defending party, and those whose interest is involved are to set out upon the journey to the Pope within one month from the day of the objection. John Andrew. — § 1. If the other party, after being awaited for twenty days following the arrival of the first, has not come, the business is to be proceeded with. John Andrew. — § 2. One who does not prove what he objects against the form is condemned to the other party in expenses; one who does not prove what he objects against the person is suspended from benefices for three years, and is perpetually deprived of them if in the meantime he intrudes himself into them. These penalties do not apply if it legitimately appears that he was not acting calumniously. John Andrew.

Innocent IV at the General Council of Lyons. We decree that, if anyone attacks an election, postulation, or provision that has been made, objecting something against its form or against the person, and it happens that an appeal is made to us on this account, both the one who objects and the one who defends, and generally all those whose interest is involved and whom the cause concerns, are to set out for the Apostolic See within one month from the day of the objection, either in person or through procurators instructed for the cause.

§ 1. But if the other party does not come, after being awaited for twenty days following the arrival of the first, the business of the election is to be proceeded with as shall be according to law, notwithstanding anyone’s absence. We will and command that these provisions be observed in dignities, personatuses, and canonries.

§ 2. We add that one who has not fully proved what he objects against the form is to be condemned to the expenses that the other party shows that it incurred on this account. But one who has failed in proving what he objects against the person is to know himself suspended from ecclesiastical benefices for three years. If, within that time, he intrudes himself into them by his own temerity, he is by the law itself to be perpetually deprived of them, having no hope or confidence of mercy concerning this, unless it is established by the most manifest proofs that a probable and sufficient cause excused him from the vice of calumny.

Conditional, alternative, and uncertain votes in elections are rejected and are held as not added, and they fall back upon those consenting unconditionally. John Andrew.

The same. In elections and postulations, and in scrutinies from which the right of electing arises, we utterly reject conditional, alternative, or uncertain votes, decreeing that, votes of this kind being held as not added, the election is to be celebrated from unconditional consents, the vote of those who did not consent unconditionally reverting on that occasion to the others.

The reason for the constitution is set forth, and the preservation of the old law. John Andrew. — § 1. It is set forth how the election of the Roman Pontiff ought to be made when he dies in the city in which he resided with his curia. — § 2. What the law is when the Roman Pontiff dies outside the city in which the curia was. — § 3. He appoints executors of this law, with penalties. John Andrew. — § 4. He adjures the cardinals to put aside every private affection in the election of the Roman Pontiff, and annuls all pacts, obligations, and oaths that had been given or made concerning the election of anyone. — § 5. He admonishes all the faithful, immediately upon hearing of the death of the Supreme Pontiff, to celebrate his obsequies and to pray daily for a vigilant, concordant, and useful provision for the Roman Church; prelates, moreover, are to exhort their subjects to this in their preaching and indicate to them the frequency of prayers and the observance of fasts. John Andrew.

Gregory X at the General Council of Lyons. Where the greater danger is apprehended, there without doubt fuller provision must be made. How heavily a prolonged vacancy of the Roman Church is burdened with losses, however, and how full it is of many and great dangers, consideration of time past teaches, and the crises of that time, prudently considered, make manifest. Hence evident reason calls us to ensure that, while our attention is carefully occupied even with reforming lesser matters, we by no means leave those that are more dangerous without an appropriate remedy of reform. Therefore, judging that all the provisions salutarily established by our predecessors—and especially by Pope Alexander III of happy memory—for avoiding discord in the election of the Roman Pontiff are to remain wholly unshaken in their force—for we intend to detract nothing from them, but by the present constitution to supply what experience has proved to be lacking—

§ 1. With the approval of this sacred council, we decree that, if it happens that the same Pontiff closes his last day in the city in which he resided with his curia, the cardinals who are present in that city are to be bound to await those absent for ten days only. When these have elapsed, whether the absent cardinals have come or not, all are then to assemble in the palace in which the same Pontiff resided, each being content with only one servant, cleric or layman, as they shall judge fit to choose. We nevertheless permit those whom manifest necessity suggests should be indulged to have two, the choice of these being reserved to those same cardinals. In the same palace all are to inhabit in common one conclave, with no intervening wall or other covering, which, with free access to a private chamber reserved, is to be so closed on every side that no one can enter or leave it. No access to the same cardinals is to lie open to anyone, nor any opportunity of speaking secretly with them; nor are they themselves to admit any persons coming to them except those who, by the will of all the cardinals present there, should be summoned solely for matters pertaining to the business of the impending election. Nor is it lawful for anyone to send a messenger or writing to those cardinals or to any one of them; one who acts to the contrary, however, by sending a writing or messenger, or by speaking secretly with any one of them, incurs by that very fact the sentence of excommunication. In the aforesaid conclave, nevertheless, a suitable window is to be left through which the things conveniently necessary for the cardinals’ sustenance may be supplied to them, but through it no entrance to them may be open to anyone.

But if—which God forbid—within three days after the aforesaid cardinals have entered the aforesaid conclave as stated above, that church has not been provided with a pastor, for the space of the five immediately following days they are to be content each day with only one dish, both at luncheon and at supper. When those days have passed without a provision having been made, only bread, wine, and water are thereafter to be supplied to them until that provision follows. Moreover, while the business of such provision is pending, the said cardinals are to receive nothing from the Pope’s camera, nor from the other things accruing from whatever source to that church during the vacancy; but throughout the vacancy all those things are to remain in the custody of the person to whose fidelity and diligence the same camera has been committed, to be reserved by him for the disposition of the future Pontiff. Those who receive anything, however, are thereafter to be bound to abstain from receiving any revenues belonging to them until they make full satisfaction for the things thus received.

The same cardinals are to devote themselves so attentively to accelerating the provision that they are by no means to involve themselves in any other business, unless perhaps a necessity so urgent should arise that they would have to make provision for defending the territory of that church or some part of it, or unless a danger so great and so evident should threaten that, by the concordant judgment of all and each of the cardinals present, it would seem necessary to meet it swiftly. Indeed, if any one of the aforesaid cardinals has not entered the aforesaid conclave as expressed above, or, having entered, has departed without a manifest cause of illness, the others are freely to proceed to elect the Supreme Pontiff, without his being sought and without his thereafter being admitted into the business of the same election. If, however, illness supervening, it happens that any one of them departs from that conclave, even while that illness continues the election may be proceeded with without his vote being sought. But if, after health has been restored to him or before, he wishes to return to the others, or if other absent cardinals, whom we have said are to be awaited for ten days, arrive while the matter is still intact—that is, before that church has been provided with a pastor—they are to be admitted into that business in the state in which they find it, and are to observe with the others the foregoing provisions concerning enclosure, servants, food and drink, and all the remaining matters.

§ 2. Furthermore, if at any time it happens that the Roman Pontiff departs from this light outside the aforesaid city in which he was residing with his curia, the cardinals are to be bound to assemble in the city in whose territory or district the same Pontiff died, unless perhaps it is under interdict or persists in open rebellion against the Roman Church. In that case they are to assemble in another, nearer city that likewise is neither subject to interdict nor, as stated, openly rebellious. In this city also, both as regards awaiting the absent cardinals and as regards common habitation, enclosure, and all other matters, the same provisions are to be observed in the episcopal house, or in any other house to be assigned to the cardinals, that were expressed above for the case in which the said Pontiff dies in the city in which he resided with his curia.

§ 3. Furthermore, because it is of little use to establish laws unless there is someone to protect them, we decree in addition that the lords and other rulers and officials of that city in which the election of the Roman Pontiff is to be celebrated, by our authority and by the power delivered to them with the approval of the same council, cause each and all of the foregoing provisions to be observed fully and inviolably, without any fraud or deceit, and that they do not presume to constrain the cardinals beyond what has been set forth. Immediately upon hearing of the death of the Supreme Pontiff, they are corporally to swear an oath concerning the observance of these provisions in this manner before the clergy and the entire people of that city, specially summoned for this purpose. But if they do not diligently observe the foregoing provisions, or commit fraud in or concerning them, of whatever pre-eminence, condition, or status they may be, every privilege ceasing, they incur by that very fact the sentence of excommunication and are to be perpetually infamous; nor are the gates of dignity ever to stand open to them, nor are they to be admitted to any public office. We further decree that they are by that very fact deprived of the fiefs and other goods that they hold from the same Roman Church or from any other churches, so that those goods revert fully and freely to the churches themselves, to be disposed of without any contradiction at the judgment of the administrators of those churches. The aforesaid city, moreover, is not only to be subjected to interdict but also deprived of pontifical dignity.

§ 4. Moreover, because when either a disordered affection takes judgment captive or the necessity of some obligation drives it toward some definite person, election ceases while freedom of electing is taken away, we beseech the same cardinals through the bowels of the mercy of our God, and adjure them through the sprinkling of his precious blood, that, considering more attentively what hangs over them when the creation of the vicar of Jesus Christ, the successor of Peter, the ruler of the universal Church, and the director of the Lord’s flock is at issue, they put aside every disorder of private affection, and, with the constraint of every pact, agreement, and obligation, as well as every compact and understanding, ceasing, do not turn the gaze of their consideration back upon themselves or their own; do not seek the things that are their own; do not attend to private advantages; but, with nothing constraining their judgment in electing except God, with pure and free minds and the bare conscience of election, freely pursue the public utility. With every effort and solicitude, so far as their ability permits, they are to do this alone: that through their ministry the useful and most necessary provision for the whole world be accelerated, a suitable spouse being swiftly given to the same Church. Those who act otherwise are to lie under divine vengeance, their fault by no means to be effaced unless grave penance has been performed on this account.

And we nevertheless annul, invalidate, and decree to be wholly without force all pacts, agreements, obligations, compacts, and understandings, whether joined to a bond of firmness by oath or by anything else, so that no one is in any way bound to observe them, nor is anyone to fear from transgressing them the mark of faith not kept; rather, he is to merit a title of not unworthy praise, since even human law bears witness that transgressions of this kind are more acceptable to God than observances of an oath.

§ 5. But because the faithful are not so much to trust in any invention, however solicitous, as they are to hope in the urgency of humble and devout prayer, we add to this enactment that in all cities and other distinguished places where certainty of the aforesaid Pontiff’s death first becomes known, after solemn obsequies have been celebrated for him by the clergy and people, humble prayers are to be poured forth to the Lord on each day, until reliable report has conveyed the truth that provision has been made for the same Church. They are to persist before him in devout prayers that he who makes concord in his high places may so bring the hearts of those cardinals into concord in electing that a swift, concordant, and useful provision—just as the salvation of souls demands and the utility of the whole world requires—may follow from their unanimity. And lest so salutary an edict of the present enactment happen to be neglected under the pretext of ignorance, we strictly command that patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of churches, and the others to whom it has been granted to set forth the word of God, diligently exhort the clergy and people, who are to be assembled more frequently and specially for this purpose, in their sermons to multiply the assistance of supplicating prayers for the swift and happy outcome of so great a business, and by the same authority enjoin upon them not only frequency of prayers but also the observance of fasts, as the circumstances to be weighed shall suggest.

Those appealing against elections, postulations, or provisions are bound to express everything that they intend to object against the person or the form, and to swear that they believe those things to be true and that they are able to prove them. They, or those adhering to them, will not be heard concerning matters not expressed, unless those matters newly emerge or come to their knowledge, or an ability to prove them supervenes; concerning this they will have to swear. The statute of Innocent, issued against those who do not prove the things objected against the person or the form, is preserved in its force. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. In order that, so far as possible, we may close the way to malicious devices concerning ecclesiastical elections, postulations, and provisions, lest churches remain vacant dangerously for too long or provision for personatuses, dignities, and other ecclesiastical benefices be delayed, we provide by a perpetual edict that, whenever some persons oppose elections, postulations, or provisions by proposing anything against the form of the election, postulation, or provision, or against the persons of those electing or of the person elected, or of the one for whom provision was to be made or had been made, and it happens that an appeal is made on this account, the appellants are to express in the public instrument or letters drawn up concerning the appeal each and all of the things that they intend to object against the form or the persons. Before authentic persons, or an authentic person, who are to bear witness to the truth concerning this, they are corporally to swear an oath that they believe the matters they thus express to be true and that they are able to prove them.

Otherwise, both the objectors and those adhering to them at the time the appeal is interposed or afterward are to know that the power of objecting anything that was not expressed in letters or instruments of this kind is forbidden to them, unless perhaps something should afterward emerge, or an ability to prove old matters should supervene, or some old matters should newly come to the knowledge of the objectors that the appellants could probably have been ignorant of, and in fact were ignorant of, at the time the appeal was issued. Concerning ignorance of this kind and the supervening ability to prove, they are corporally to establish credibility by their own oath, adding in that same oath that they believe themselves to have sufficient proofs for proving those matters. We will, moreover, that the provisions that Pope Innocent IV of happy memory established against those who do not fully prove the things that they had objected against the form or the person remain in their force.

Before confirmation, one elected ought not to administer, through himself or another, in whole or in part and under any color whatever; those who act to the contrary are by the law itself deprived of the right acquired from the election. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. The blindness of avarice and the wickedness of damnable ambition, occupying the minds of some, drive them to such temerity that they endeavor by contrived frauds to usurp things that they know are forbidden to them by law. For some persons elected to the government of churches, because the law forbids them to intrude themselves, before the confirmation of the election celebrated concerning them, into the administration of the churches to which they are called, procure that this administration be committed to them as though to procurators or oeconomi. Therefore, since indulgence is not to be given to the malicious devices of men, we, wishing to make broader provision, decree by this general constitution that henceforth no one presume, before the election celebrated concerning him is confirmed, to conduct or receive the administration of the dignity to which he has been elected—under the name of oeconomus or procurator, or under another newly contrived color—in spiritual or temporal matters, through himself or another, in part or in whole, or to intermeddle in them. We decree that all those who act otherwise are by that very fact deprived of whatever right may have been acquired for them by the election.

Those electing are to present the election to the person elected as soon as they conveniently can. The person elected is to consent within a month; otherwise he is deprived of the right acquired, unless the condition of the person excuses him. After consenting, he is to seek confirmation within three months; otherwise the election is deprived of force. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. How damaging a vacancy is to churches themselves, and how dangerous it also tends to be to souls, not only the laws attest, but effective experience, the mistress of affairs, also makes manifest. Desiring, therefore, to meet the duration of vacancies with appropriate remedies, we decree by this perpetual enactment that whenever an election has been celebrated in any church, the electors are to take care to present that election to the person elected and to seek his consent as soon as they conveniently can; the person elected, moreover, is to be bound to give that consent within one month from the time of such presentation. If the person elected delays giving it beyond that time, he is thereafter to know himself, by that very fact, deprived of whatever right had been acquired for him from his election, unless perhaps the condition of the person elected is such that, by a prohibition or any provision of the Apostolic See, he cannot consent to the election celebrated concerning him without his superior’s permission.

In that case, the same person elected or his electors are to endeavor, with such speed as the presence or absence of his superior shall permit, to seek and obtain from that superior permission for him to consent. Otherwise, if, after the time to be moderated according to the presence or absence of the same superior, as set forth above, it happens that they have by no means obtained permission of this kind, the electors are thereafter to have free power to proceed to another election. Moreover, every person elected is not to omit seeking confirmation of his election within three months after the consent given to the election celebrated concerning him. But if, no just impediment existing, he omits to do so within this three-month period, that election is by that very fact to be deprived of force.

If an election does not follow, no one is deprived of the power of electing because of consent knowingly given in the scrutiny to an unworthy person. This is what it says. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. We declare by a perpetual pronouncement of enactment that those who knowingly nominate an unworthy person in elections are by no means deprived of the power of electing on account of a vote given in the scrutiny, unless they have persisted in it to such an extent that a common election follows from their votes; although, because in knowingly nominating an unworthy person they act against their consciences, they may not undeservedly fear both divine vengeance and the threat of apostolic punishment that the quality of the act shall suggest.

One who elects, or consents to an election, cannot oppose the person elected or renounce his consent except because of a new cause or one newly disclosed to him. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. We decree that, after someone has nominated a person in the scrutiny and an election has followed, or after he has given consent to an election of that person celebrated by others, it is lawful for no one to attack that person concerning the election itself, except on grounds arising afterward, or unless the depravity of his morals previously concealed is newly disclosed to the objector, or the truth of some other latent vice or defect that he could probably have been ignorant of is revealed. Concerning ignorance of this kind, however, he is to establish credibility by his own oath.

Against a person elected by a party twice as large, or against his electors, nothing can be objected by the remaining party that diminishes the weight of a vote; but something that nullifies the vote may properly be objected. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. If at any time, two elections having been celebrated, one party of the electors is found to be twice as large in number, by the present enactment we forbid the remaining electors, or the person elected by them, every power of objecting anything against the electors who so exceed the remaining party for the purpose of diminishing the weight of their zeal, merit, or authority. But if they wish to object something that would render the vote of the person against whom it is objected null by the law itself, we do not understand this to be forbidden to them.

A judicial or extrajudicial appeal devolves causes concerning elections of bishops and superiors to the Pope if it was interposed in writing and on a probable ground; otherwise it does not. The parties may withdraw from it without depravity before it has been presented to the Pope. Lower judges ought before all else to inquire whether depravity intervened in the withdrawal. If they find it, they are not to take cognizance of the cause, but are to appoint for the parties a term within which they are to present themselves before the apostolic presence with the acts and muniments. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. Although the constitution of our predecessor Pope Alexander IV of happy memory, not undeservedly numbering causes concerning episcopal elections, or causes arising over the elections of bishops, among the greater causes, declares that cognizance of them is devolved by any appeals whatever to the examination of the Apostolic See, we nevertheless, wishing to restrain both the rash audacity of appellants and the unbridled frequency of appeals, have judged that provision should be made by this general constitution. Thus, if in the aforesaid elections, or in elections celebrated to other dignities greater than the episcopate, an appeal happens to be made extrajudicially on an expressly stated ground that is manifestly frivolous, the business is by no means to be devolved to the same See through such an appeal. But when, in the business of those elections, an appeal is made judicially or extrajudicially in writing on a probable ground that, if proved, ought to be reputed legitimate, business of this kind is to be carried to the same See.

Moreover, in all the foregoing cases it is to be lawful for the parties to withdraw from appeals of this kind, provided no depravity intervenes, before they have been presented to the aforesaid See. The lower judges to whom cognizance of those causes belonged if the appeal were to cease are before all else diligently to inquire whether depravity intervened in this; and if they find that it did intervene, they are in no way to intermeddle in the causes themselves, but are to appoint for the said parties a suitable peremptory term within which they are to present themselves before the apostolic presence with all their acts and muniments.

If, among the other things objected against one to be promoted to a dignity, an evident defect of learning or of the person is objected, that objection will have to be examined before all else. And if it is found false, the objector is repelled from prosecuting the business and is punished just as if he had failed in proving all the objections. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. If perhaps, among the other things objected against a person elected or postulated, or otherwise to be promoted to some dignity, an evident defect of learning or another defect of the person happens to be objected, we decree that the following order is to be observed unchangeably in the examination of the objections: the person to be promoted is before all else to be subjected to examination concerning that defect, and the outcome of this examination will either give a beginning to the examination of the others or deny it. But if the outcome of the aforesaid examination shows objections of this kind to be destitute of truth, we wholly exclude the objectors from prosecuting the cause in which they made such objections, and decree that they be punished just as if they had entirely failed in proving all the things they had objected.

One who burdens an ecclesiastical person, or his blood relatives, or churches or goods, because he refused to elect the person on whose behalf he had been asked, is excommunicated by that very fact. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. Let all those who presume to burden clerics or any other ecclesiastical persons to whom election in any churches, monasteries, or other pious places belongs because, although asked or otherwise induced, they refused to elect the person on whose behalf they were asked or induced—or presume to burden their blood relatives, or those churches, monasteries, or other places themselves, by despoiling them of their benefices or other goods through themselves or others, or by otherwise unjustly persecuting them—know themselves bound by the sentence of excommunication by that very fact.

First, he punishes those who newly usurp the custody of vacant churches. Second, he punishes clerics and monks who procure that this be done. Third, he punishes clerics who do not oppose such persons. Fourth, he sets forth how those who have such custody from antiquity ought to conduct themselves. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. We decree by a general constitution that all and singular persons who, endeavoring newly to usurp regalian rights, custody or guardianship, or a title of advocacy or defense in churches, monasteries, or any other pious places, presume to occupy the goods of the churches, monasteries, or places themselves while vacant, of however great a dignity they may bear the honor, are by that very fact subject to the sentence of excommunication. We decree the same concerning clerics of the churches, monks of the monasteries, and other persons of those places who procure that this be done. We strictly forbid those clerics who do not oppose persons doing such things, as they ought, to receive anything from the proceeds of the churches or places themselves during the time in which they permit the foregoing things without due opposition.

But those who claim for themselves rights of this kind from the foundation of those churches and other places, or from ancient custom, are so prudently to abstain from abusing them, and are diligently to cause their ministers to abstain in them, that they do not usurp the things that do not pertain to the fruits or revenues arising during the time of vacancy, nor permit the other goods whose custody they assert themselves to have to fall into decay, but preserve them in good condition.

A parish church is to be conferred upon no one who is not suitable in learning, morals, and age; and if it is conferred upon one who has not reached his twenty-fifth year, the collation is not valid. One upon whom such a church has been conferred is bound to reside personally and to become a priest within one year; but if he has not been promoted when the year has elapsed, he is deprived by the law itself. His prelate, however, will be able to dispense him from residence for a time. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. Although a canon issued by our predecessor Pope Alexander III of happy memory decreed, among other things, that no one is to undertake the government of a parish church unless he has reached his twenty-fifth year of age and is commendable in learning and morals, and that if one thus assumed to such government, after being admonished, has not been ordained priest within the time fixed by the canons, he is to be removed from the office of that government and it is to be conferred upon another, nevertheless, because many show themselves negligent in observing the aforesaid canon, we, wishing their dangerous negligence to be supplied by execution of the law, decree by the present enactment that no one is to be assumed to the government of a parish church unless he is suitable in morals, learning, and age. We decree that collations of parish churches henceforth to be made to those who have not reached their twenty-fifth year are to be wholly without force.

Also, one who is assumed to government of this kind, so that he may be able more diligently to exercise care of the flock entrusted to him, is to be bound to reside personally in the parish church whose rector he is, and, within one year to be counted from the time the government was committed to him, to cause himself to be promoted to the priesthood. But if he has not been promoted within that time, he is, by the authority of the present constitution and without any previous admonition, to be deprived of the church committed to him. The ordinary, however, may grant the favor of a dispensation from the residence to be made as aforesaid for a time, as a reasonable cause requires it.

A parish church is not to be commended to anyone unless he is established in the lawful age and the priesthood, and not more than one is to be commended even to such a person; and that one only when necessity or utility requires it. Such a commenda is not to endure beyond six months. Whatever is done contrary to the foregoing is void by the law itself. John Andrew.

The same, at the same council. Henceforth no one is to presume to commend a parish church to anyone who is not established in the lawful age and the priesthood, nor more than one even to such a person, and then only when the evident necessity or utility of the church itself recommends it. We declare that a commenda of this kind, duly made as aforesaid, does not endure beyond the space of six months, decreeing that whatever shall have been done otherwise concerning commendations of parish churches is void by the law itself.

This decretal was very useful in its time, before the Pope reserved provisions to bishoprics to himself. The first gloss sets forth the summary, and the second the division. Dominicus.

Nicholas III. Desiring to meet dangerous vacancies of churches and to obstruct the evasions of malicious persons, to the remedies already provided we add other, tested remedies that the very experience of affairs has manifestly indicated to be useful for expediting them. We will that the provision that our predecessor Pope Gregory X of happy memory salutarily established concerning the presentation of elections to the persons elected, and concerning seeking and giving the consent of those persons elected, remain in its force, with the moderation of the time written below for presenting elections. But, tempering as regards confirmations that are sought, or ought to be sought, from the Apostolic See the provision that he established concerning the three-month period after consent for seeking confirmations—since at times the nearness of some places requires a shorter time, while the distance of others demands a longer time—we decree by this general constitution, to remain in force perpetually, that all persons elected to cathedral or regular churches whose elections an immediate subjection brings to the examination of that See for confirmation or invalidation, or an interposed appeal devolves there, are to set out upon the journey to the same See within one month after consenting, or after obtaining knowledge of their election if it did not happen to be presented in due time.

And thereafter, whether they have set out within the prescribed time or not, they are to be bound, without fraud, to appear personally before us as soon as they conveniently can, the distance of the places being considered, with all their acts, rights, and muniments and the things concerning their proceedings, in order to seek confirmation of their elections or to prosecute their elections by such lawful means as they can. But if, during the twenty days after the lapse of the awaited time to be moderated according to the character of the places, whether the electors or the opponents have come or not, they have, without the intervention of a just cause, disdained to appear personally and to seek the confirmation, prosecution, or execution of their elections, they are to be bound to establish full proof of that cause at the same See before us, or another or others to be deputed by us, within fifteen days following this period, provided it was proposed within the aforesaid twenty days and shall seem admissible. This is unless, either within those same twenty days or within the aforesaid fifteen days—the latter only in the case in which those fifteen days were granted for proving the aforesaid cause proposed and admitted as stated—matters should happen to be proposed of such a kind and so probable that, in the judgment of the person presiding, they would deservedly excuse those persons elected from the penalty written below, and on account of which it would perhaps seem that a longer time for the aforesaid appearance should be indulged to them.

Furthermore, even in the case in which some just cause for excusing the personal appearance of the persons elected happens to be proposed or admitted, unless within that same time, the just impediment ceasing, they present themselves through a procurator sufficiently instructed for all the foregoing matters, and nevertheless present themselves personally when that cause has ceased, as set forth above, we deprive the elections made concerning them of force by that very fact and decree those persons deprived of every right, if any had been acquired for them by an election of this kind.

We will that persons elected who have presented themselves, personally or through a procurator as set forth above, without their acts, rights, and muniments and the things concerning their proceedings be struck in that case with the following penalty for contempt of this constitution: for producing those things elsewhere than at the same See they cannot obtain another delay, unless for a just cause.

In addition, in order that diligent inquiry concerning the elections, the electors, and the persons elected, and full information concerning the other things relating to the foregoing matters, may be had—information that the course of causes does not find easily to result through procurators who, for the most part, are appointed while absent and ignorant of the proceedings—when the election happens to be concordant, at least two persons from the electors themselves, sufficiently instructed concerning the business itself as was set forth regarding the persons elected, are to be sent within the same time, fully instructed in all matters, by the chapter. Their expenses are to be paid from the goods pertaining to the prelate of the church whose election is at issue, if those goods are separate; otherwise, from the common goods, or from goods otherwise provided by the chapter if the expenses cannot then be obtained from the separate or common goods.

But if the election or elections proceeded in discord, then at least two persons are to be sent from each party when there are several parties, or from the party of the person elected when a single election proceeded, and at the necessary and moderate expense of the persons elected. If the persons elected disdain to furnish these expenses, unless perhaps lack of means excuses them in view of the character of the business, they are to be deprived of every right acquired for them from such an election.

And when there is a single person elected against whom someone or some persons oppose themselves, in that case both an opponent, if there is one, and the opponents of this kind, if there are only two, or, if there are more, at least two from those opponents, are to appear, at the opponents’ own expense, fully instructed, as has been said, with the acts and muniments. Thus, through the aforesaid persons, either the business may be fully explained or the same See may be able to be informed whether—after the utility of the churches has been weighed and the other circumstances considered—a commission is to be made elsewhere for obtaining some proofs or for any other matters whatever, or whether, as equity counsels, the parties should instead be constrained at the same See with respect to proofs and the other matters.

Moreover, if the electors have delayed presenting the elections themselves, whether celebrated concordantly or in discord, to the persons elected within eight days after they conveniently could do so, we wholly exclude those of them who were culpable in this, so far as concerns themselves, from prosecuting the proceeding, and will that by that very fact they be suspended, for three continuous years beginning thereafter, from all their benefices that they hold in the church whose election is at issue. If within that time they intrude themselves into those benefices by their own temerity or under another contrived color, they are by the law itself to be perpetually deprived of them.

Or if they have neglected to send the instructed persons as set forth above—even if the opponents or the persons elected disdain to send them or to come, or to supply the expenses—unless the small number of the chapter or of the contradicting parties, or another just and probable cause, manifestly excuses them, in which case they are to be bound to send a sufficiently instructed procurator and nevertheless, when the cause ceases, to send the said persons, they are to be deprived, so far as concerns themselves, both of the entire prosecution of the proceeding and of the receipt, for three continuous years, of the proceeds of the benefices that they hold in that church. When there is a single person elected, the contumacy of the opponent or opponents is to be struck with a similar penalty. Nevertheless, in the foregoing cases in which the electors or opponents, so far as concerns themselves, are deprived of prosecuting the proceeding, no prejudice is thereby to be generated for the persons elected in prosecuting their right.

Finally, when it happens that a concordant or discordant postulation is proceeded to and persons suffering from a defect in orders or age, or similar persons, are postulated—not persons who, bound to other churches, do not have free flight without our permission, concerning which persons so bound we alter nothing of the observance of the old law—we bind the persons thus postulated, and those postulating them, with the following moderated strictness. Saving this, that persons so postulated are bound neither to give consent to their postulations nor to furnish any expenses, as was said concerning persons elected, but the persons postulating them, concordantly or discordantly, are themselves to supply those expenses to such persons: the aforesaid moderation is to bind in all respects, as set forth above, the persons postulated in coming, if they have not dissented, and the persons postulating in sending instructed persons, as in a concordant or discordant election, and a similar penalty is to strike those who neglect the provisions established there. Nor, by what is established concerning persons postulated for the swift expedition of churches, are the postulations themselves to be understood to depend upon grace any less than they depended upon it before.

Furthermore, in each of the cases stated above, we decree that, in recovering or repaying the expenses of the electors, the persons elected, the persons postulating, and also the person postulated, that is to be observed which shall be just or which the equity of the canons shall adjudge.

The first gloss divides and summarizes the whole text. See it. Dominicus.

The same. Recalling that the foundations of the Church militant are in the holy mountains, the Prophet manifestly signifies by the mountains the Apostles and preachers, upon whom the entire fabric of this building confidently rests. As firm bases of the Church, they are made solid upon the foundation other than which no one can lay another—which is Christ Jesus—as upon the supreme cornerstone, so that the truth, which previously was carried by the proclamation of the law and the Prophets, might go forth through the apostolic trumpet for the salvation of all, as it is written: “Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” The Lord willed the sacrament of this office so to pertain to the duty of all the Apostles that he placed it principally in blessed Peter, the chief of all the Apostles, so that from him, as from a kind of head, his gifts might be diffused as though into the whole body. For the Lord willed that this man, assumed into the fellowship of indivisible unity, be named that which he himself was, saying: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my church,” so that the structure of the eternal temple, constructed by God as builder, might by the wondrous gift of the grace of God stand firm in Peter. To him the wonderful providence of our Savior joined blessed Paul in the apostleship of the gentiles through the right hands of fellowship.

These are they through whom the Gospel shone forth at Rome. These are its fathers and true pastors. These are they who, suffering together on one day for merit, in one place for glory, under one persecutor with equal virtue, consecrated that City to Christ the Lord with the glorious blood of martyrdom. These are they who advanced it to this glory: that it should be a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly and royal city, made the head of the whole world through the sacred see of blessed Peter.

And lest Mother Church herself lack temporal aids in the gathering and pasturing of the faithful, but rather, assisted by them, always advance in spiritual increases, it is understood not to have happened without a miracle that the illness of Constantine the monarch, providentially supplied by God as an occasion but cured by the ministrations of baptism, added, as it were, a certain firmness to the Church herself. For on the fourth day after his baptism, together with all the satraps and the entire senate, the magnates also and the whole people, he left the Roman City to that Church by granting it to her in the person of blessed Sylvester, and decreed by a pragmatic constitution that it was to be disposed of by him and his successors. He thereby declared the monarchy of both powers in that City to belong to the Roman Pontiffs, judging it not just that where the heavenly Emperor instituted the primacy of the priesthood and the head of the Christian religion, there the earthly emperor should have power; but rather that the See of Peter itself, now placed upon its own Roman throne, should enjoy full liberty in conducting all its affairs and be subject to no man, since it is known to be set by divine authority over all the sheep.

For it is fitting that free counsels should come to the Roman Pontiff from his brothers, the cardinals of the sacrosanct Roman Church, who stand beside him as coadjutors in executing the priestly office. It is fitting that his judgments should waver in no way: that no fear of secular power should terrify those brothers, no temporal favor engulf them, no terror threaten them, and nothing remove them from the solidity of true counsel, but that whenever it happens that their counsels are sought by the Roman Pontiff in any affairs, they, entirely free in counseling, should freely counsel and assist that Roman Pontiff in all matters arising at the time. And the election of the Roman Pontiff, the vicar of God, whenever it shall occur in their time, and the promotion of those cardinals to be made when expedient, should proceed in every freedom.

Rightly, therefore, we extend the line of our consideration to that City and its government, so that, preserved from harmful things under a happily conducted government, it may always advance in the increases desired. Has forgetfulness covered over the notorious losses that foreign governments have thus far inflicted upon the City and its inhabitants? Does not the destruction of the walls, and the deformity arising from ruins, manifest them more clearly than light? Do not the deposits of the faithful that were mishandled proclaim them? Do not the venerable temples of God themselves, wickedly violated in our days by the sacrilegious hand of the person presiding, proclaim them? Why say more? Was not the uncorrupted constancy of the City itself in past times overthrown under the nefarious government of its ruler at that time, and was not that City, the mirror of faith, besprinkled with so much infamy that, compelled as a beloved daughter to deviate from her mother, the Roman Church, it openly received, in contempt of God and of its mother and to the reproach of that City itself, the former Conradin—who appeared to have sprung as a little serpent from the poisonous root of Frederick, formerly Roman emperor, that twisting serpent condemned by the just judgment of the Church herself, and who together with his supporters was manifestly aspiring to the extermination of Mother Roman Church—and, having received him, favored him, thereby making itself the assisting daughter of so manifest an enemy of its mother the Church?

Unknown senators and unforeseen governors furnished these things to Rome herself, so that the glorious city was rendered inglorious, its stability called unstable, and the ancient solidity of its constancy called infirm by the tongues of men. Therefore, raising the debt of our office concerning such dangerous events to the balance of moderation, we cut off the occasions of so great an overthrow by applying a salutary remedy in such a way that we may not seem to disparage the glory or merits of those who have laudably governed that commonwealth until now; the merits acquired for them by the labors already borne remain secure before the infallible Rewarder who knows all things.

Therefore, so that such solicitous care with discretion may be applied in all matters concerning that government that full liberty—which is owed to the Roman Church herself in all things and through all things—may come to her as desired, dangers already experienced may be avoided, and the Roman people, protected from the assaults of oppressors, may sit, and in sitting may rest in the beauty of peace, in tabernacles of confidence and in an abundant repose of temporal things, with the counsel of our brothers we decree by this irrefragable constitution, to remain in force perpetually, that whenever and as often as the election of a senator, or of another person by whatever name he is designated who in any manner or by any title is to preside over the government of that City, shall arise in the future, no emperor or king of the Romans, or other emperor, king, prince, marquis, duke, count, or baron, or anyone else of notable pre-eminence, might, power, excellence, or dignity, nor a brother, son, or grandson of theirs, is to be nominated, elected, or otherwise assumed as senator, captain, patrician, or rector, or to the government or an office of that City, for a time or perpetually; nor is any other person to be so nominated, elected, or assumed for a period beyond one year, in any manner, under any color or cause, through himself or another person to be interposed in any way, without the special permission of the Apostolic See expressed through letters of that See specifically granting permission of this kind.

But if it is done otherwise, we decree a nomination, election, and assumption of this kind null and devoid of every strength of firmness. Not only the nominators, electors, and those making the assumption, but also the persons nominated, elected, and assumed—if they have consented to such nomination, election, or assumption, or have intermeddled in them in any manner—and those giving heed and obedience to them, and in this all persons who publicly or secretly give aid, counsel, or favor to those nominators, electors, those making the assumption, or persons nominated, elected, or assumed, of whatever dignity, pre-eminence, condition, or status they may be, incur by that very fact the sentence of excommunication.

And nevertheless, if the persons nominated, elected, or assumed have consented to the aforesaid nomination, election, or assumption contrary to the present constitution, or have intruded themselves into those matters in any way, we judge them and their descendants perpetually deprived of all fiefs, privileges, liberties, immunities, graces, and honors that they hold in the aforesaid or other churches. Thus, those to whom their collation, grant, or disposition pertains are to have free power to resume or retain them, to grant or confer them upon others, or also to dispose of them, as pertains to them.

And lest persons thus nominated, elected, or assumed be able to glory in their pertinacity or contempt, we now pronounce entirely invalid and void every mandate, precept, ordinance, and statute that they shall make, all sentences that they shall pronounce, and absolutely everything that they shall transact in contracts and obligations or in any other matters in the name of the City or as its senators, captains, patricians, rectors, or officials. Judges and notaries who presume perhaps to give legal support concerning these things or any of them, or to draw up instruments contrary to the edict of the present constitution, are to know themselves deprived of the offices of judge and notary.

The contemners or violators of the foregoing provisions, or of any or any one of them, cannot be absolved from a sentence of excommunication of this kind, except at the point of death, save by the Roman Pontiff or after his special permission has been sought and obtained, notwithstanding any privileges, indulgences, grants, constitutions, customs, and statutes fortified by firmness of any kind. We will that these aid no persons or person in any of the foregoing matters, but decree them all not to hold as regards those matters.

So that Roman citizens who are known to have derived their natural origin from that City, or any others who have existed in it or its territory not as newcomers but as continuous inhabitants, may enjoy the gracious exercise of its honors or government, we do not intend that the present constitution exclude such persons. Rather, they may be nominated, elected, and assumed to its government and office for one year only or for another shorter time, even if they are brothers, sons, or grandsons of the aforesaid princes and others, or even if outside the City and its territory, under the name of a county, barony, or any other title, they hold some temporal or perpetual jurisdiction or power over any persons or places; provided that the aforesaid jurisdiction or power, existing outside the City and its territory, is not of such pre-eminence or notable might that, by occasion or reason of it, those holding it are reasonably included by the pronouncement of the present constitution with the others excluded from the government of the City as set forth above.

When the canons of a cathedral church are deprived of the power of electing by the law itself or by sentence, except in a case of negligence, the right of electing devolves upon the Pope; in inferior churches it always devolves upon the nearest superior. This is what it says.

Boniface VIII. Although in a case of negligence it is established by law that, when a cathedral church is vacant, if those to whom it belongs have not celebrated the election of a prelate within the time due, the power of electing devolves upon the nearest superior, nevertheless this is not to be extended to another case. Therefore, if the electors in a church of this kind are deprived of the power of electing either by the law itself, when they knowingly elect an unworthy person, or by sentence, when they do not observe the form handed down in the general council, that power will devolve not upon the said superior but upon the Roman Pontiff. It is to be judged otherwise, however, in inferior churches.

Under the constitution “Ut circa,” an appellant who swore disjunctively that he believed the things opposed to be true, or such of them as ought to suffice, did not satisfy the requirement. John Andrew.

The same. One who, objecting certain things against the form of an election or the person elected, appealed to the Apostolic See, having corporally sworn an oath that he believed the things he had expressed in his appeal, or such things from among them as ought to suffice, to be true and that he was able to prove them, is not to be heard concerning matters objected or expressed in this way. For he did not swear simply, as he was bound to do according to the constitution of our predecessor Pope Gregory X of happy memory, issued at the General Council of Lyons, that he believed those same matters expressed or objected to be true and that he was able to prove them, but indeterminately that he believed either those matters, or those from among them that ought to suffice.

One who appeals against a definite person so that he not be elected is bound to observe the constitution “Ut circa.” John Andrew.

The same. One who, before an election is made, determines to appeal to the Apostolic See against a definite and named person so that he not be elected by others ought in every respect, in making the appeal, to observe the form of the constitution “Ut circa” of our predecessor Pope Gregory X of happy memory, issued at the Council of Lyons, just as if it happened that he was appealing after the election had already been made. Otherwise, if he does not observe it, he is to know himself subject to the penalty of that constitution.

If a compromise has been made in favor of several persons so that they elect, the pronouncement of the election is to be made through one person, just as when the procedure is by the form of scrutiny; an election made otherwise does not hold. John Andrew.

The same. Just as, when an election is proceeded to by the form of scrutiny, the common election is to be pronounced and made through one person according to the canonical institutes, so also it ought to be made through one when the procedure is by the form of compromise, although human law indicates that a pronouncement is to be made by all the arbiters chosen by compromise. Otherwise, an election made at the same time by several compromisarii does not by that very fact subsist in force.

The decretal above, under the same title, “Licet canon,” has no application in collegiate parish churches and to persons assumed to their government. John Andrew.

The same. The statute of our predecessor Pope Gregory X of happy memory concerning persons assumed to the government of parish churches, requiring them to be promoted to the priesthood within one year and otherwise to be deprived of those churches, is penal and therefore ought to be restricted rather than enlarged. We declare that it is not extended to collegiate churches, even if they are otherwise parochial, or to persons assumed to their government, but that the ancient laws ought rather to be observed in those churches.

If a compromissarius, according to the limit handed down to him, after the wills of the individual persons have been scrutinized and reduced to writing, elects the person upon whom not the greater part of the chapter, but more persons in comparison with the others, had agreed, the election does not hold, since it was celebrated outside the forms of the council. John Andrew.

The same. If the power of electing has been given to someone under this form: that, after the votes of the individual members of the chapter have been secretly and individually ascertained and reduced to writing, he is to elect the person upon whom more members of the chapter have agreed in comparison with the smaller parties, even though those agreeing do not attain the greater part of the whole chapter; and if, after a scrutiny of this kind has been made and reduced to writing, he determines, according to the form handed down to him, to elect the person toward whom not the greater part, but more of the said chapter than toward any other person, had directed their votes: such an election does not obtain the strength of firmness, since it was attempted outside the forms that the general council decreed were to be observed in celebrating elections, decreeing that elections would not be valid if made otherwise.

From a calling, made in any manner in discord, of a mendicant religious to a prelacy outside the administration of his order, no right is acquired for him, nor will he be able to consent even with the permission of his prelate. The same applies to a calling, made by the smaller numerical party to any prelacy, of a non-mendicant religious; and he decrees that an act done otherwise is void. He establishes that this chapter is a special rule concerning mendicants. John Andrew.

The same. The vice of ambition so blinds the eyes of some that, as though forgetful of their profession, by which, honors contemned, riches cast aside, and delights spurned, they subjected their own judgment to the dominion of another, they look back after putting their hand to the plow. They do so when they plunge headlong into the windings of litigation, involve themselves in the clamor of causes, and strive to ascend the throne of a prelacy outside the administrations of their own order, imprudently giving consent to elections, postulations, or provisions concerning themselves celebrated in discord, with permission to give assent sometimes extorted from their superior rather than obtained. We know that losses to souls and churches have arisen from this, and we reasonably fear that greater losses will arise in the future.

Wishing, therefore, to meet this plague with a salutary remedy, we decree by the present constitution that henceforth no right is acquired for any religious of the Orders of Preachers, Minors, Hermits of Saint Augustine, or any mendicant orders from an election, postulation, provision, or calling concerning him, made in discord, to any prelacy outside the administration of his order. Nor can any one of them consent in any manner to such an election, postulation, provision, or calling, even if the permission or consent of the master, minister, or prior general of those orders has acceded to it.

Concerning other religious also, of whatever condition or status they may be, we will that this be observed: they are not to dare to give their consent to elections, provisions, or callings concerning them made by the smaller numerical party to any prelacies—which acts, by the very fact that they have proceeded from the smaller party, confer absolutely no right upon them—even if the assent or permission of their prelates has intervened concerning this. For we decree wholly void and empty whatever it happens that anyone attempts contrary to the foregoing provisions or any one of them.

A person elected cannot prosecute two elections by seeking confirmation from them, even if he protests that he is content with the one through which he can obtain the effect of his intention. He therefore necessarily has to choose one; once he has chosen it, he will not be able to return to the other. John Andrew.

The same. We do not judge it consonant with reason that anyone should prosecute at the same time two elections concerning him celebrated in some church and seek confirmation from them, since he can have a right from only one of them, even if at the beginning he protests that he wills to be content with the one through which he can obtain the effect of his intention. Therefore, lest he wander in uncertainty to the danger of the church itself or of his adversary, if he has one, he must choose which of them he wishes to prosecute and seek confirmation from that one alone. He is by no means to have a return to the other, which, by choosing the one, he is seen to renounce and to profess that no right from it belongs to him.

If the person elected does not consent, or after consenting renounces, or dies, or the election is annulled because of a hidden vice of his, the electors will thereafter have the entire period for electing, unless they acted fraudulently concerning it. John Andrew.

The same. If an election does not obtain effect because the person elected refuses to consent, or after consenting renounces his right, or perhaps closes his last day, or because of a hidden vice of his it is invalidated, the electors, who had already done what pertained to them by electing within the term of law, will have, from the aforesaid dissent, renunciation, death, or invalidation, the entire period for celebrating another election, just as if there were a new vacancy, provided they did nothing fraudulently in the foregoing matters.

If a religious, without obtaining permission, consents to an election concerning him made outside his monastery, the consent is not valid and the election is void. — § 1. The superior alone, without the convent, can give his religious permission to consent and to transfer. This is what it says.

The same. If a religious—whose judgment depends not upon his own will, since he does not possess the power to will or not to will, but upon the will of the one whom he has placed over his head in the place of God and to whose command he has subjected himself—presumes to consent to an election concerning him celebrated to some prelacy outside his monastery or his church, without the permission of his superior, who is able to give it, having been sought and obtained, the consent so given is not to hold; and as a penalty for that presumption the same election is by that very fact to be wholly deprived of force.

§ 1. But because it is sometimes doubted whether permission can be given by their superiors without the counsel of the brothers to religious to consent to elections concerning them and to transfer to the prelacies to which they have been elected, since the laws concerning this are diverse, we, to remove a doubt of this kind and so that the ordering of the churches and monasteries in which such persons have been elected may be expedited more swiftly and easily, decree that the same superiors, without consulting their convents, can give such persons elected free power to consent and to transfer.

A monk cannot be elected abbot unless he has expressly professed; such a person, however, can be elected to episcopal dignity in both a secular and a regular church.

The same. Henceforth no religious is to be elected to an abbacy or prelacy of his own or another religious order unless he has previously made express profession of the regular order. But if it is done otherwise, it is by that very fact to be held void. We by no means prohibit such a person from being elected to episcopal dignity, to which novices are sometimes elected, in secular or regular churches.

The form of election handed down through the decretal above, under the same title, “Quum dilectus,” was not abolished by the subsequent council “Quia propter.” This is what it says. John Andrew.

The same. Since it is expedient to reconcile laws with laws, and to avoid corrections of them if they can be sustained, we declare that the decretal of our predecessor Pope Innocent III of happy memory, which indicates that a compromise may lawfully be made in elections under this form—that the compromisarii, after secretly and individually inquiring into the wills of all, are to be bound to elect the person upon whom the greater and sounder part of the chapter has agreed—was not abrogated by the subsequent general council. Rather, elections may lawfully be proceeded with through that same form as before.

One who goes to the Apostolic See to give information concerning the business of an election under the decretal “Cupientes,” while going for this reason, remaining there, and returning, receives in full, apart from daily distributions, the fruits of the benefices that he could receive by residing in that church. John Andrew.

The same. Since it is not fitting that anyone’s office should be damaging to him, we decree that those who, according to the constitution of our predecessor Pope Nicholas III of happy memory issued concerning this, have come to the Apostolic See to give it information concerning the business of impending elections—since such persons, prosecuting the utility of their churches, ought to be judged resident—are to receive in full the fruits of their benefices that they hold in the churches whose business they prosecute, and also the fruits of other benefices that they would receive or could receive by residing in those churches, excepting daily distributions only. They are to receive them while coming to the same See for this reason, remaining there for this cause, and returning to those churches, as if they resided personally in those churches, notwithstanding any contrary customs or statutes of their churches, or any privileges through which the effect of the foregoing provisions could be impeded in any way.

One who objects an evident defect of learning or of the person against someone to be promoted to a dignity cannot repent of doing so. He gives the reason. John Andrew.

The same. The objection to the defect itself, or to its character, cannot afterward be revoked by one who, among the other things that he objects against a person elected, postulated, or to be promoted to some dignity, objects an evident, notorious, or manifest defect of learning or another defect of the person. For since the objector, if what he objected concerning a defect of this kind happens to be destitute of truth, ought to be wholly excluded from prosecuting the cause and punished just as if he had failed in proving all the things he had objected, it is just that, after he proceeds to that objection, he cannot afterward repent of it to the prejudice of the person against whom he objected.

A canon below the age of puberty who was not summoned to an election does not bring an action for contempt. — § 1. Those not professed ought not to take part in an election with those professed, nor lay conversi with clerics. This is what it says.

The same. Because you were not admitted with the other canons of that church to the election of a bishop celebrated in your church while you were of pupillary age, you cannot complain of contempt or attack that election, since it is a matter both of law and of reason that such persons, because they lack discretion, are by no means to be admitted to give a vote in an election.

§ 1. In regular churches or monasteries also, those who have not made tacit or express profession ought not to take part in elections with those professed, nor lay conversi with clerics.

If an appeal is made to the Pope in writing on a probable ground from an election in a cathedral or regular church, a confirmation made by the ordinary while it is pending is not valid. The decretal “Cupientes” requires not only that the person elected come, but that he prosecute the business to its end, and it also applies when an appeal is made from a confirmation or provision. John Andrew.

The same. If, after an appeal has been made to the Apostolic See in writing on a probable ground that, if proved, ought to be reputed legitimate from an election celebrated in a cathedral or regular church, it happens that the election itself is confirmed by the ordinary, such a confirmation will obtain no strength of force unless there has first been a canonical withdrawal from that appeal, since it was presumed in fact by one who had no power to make it.

But if the person elected, who according to the constitution of our predecessor Pope Nicholas III of happy memory had come to the said See to prosecute the business of his election, departs from the Roman curia without permission before that business has been concluded, his election, by authority of that constitution—which requires not only that one come but also, according to its intention, that he prosecute the business to its end—is by that very fact wholly emptied of force. When, moreover, an appeal is made to the same See from the confirmation of an election or from a provision made by one to whom the power of electing had devolved because of the negligence of inferiors, the aforesaid constitution is to be observed in coming, sending, and the other matters embraced in it.

Bishops and superiors can dispense those who have parish churches subject to them so that, while studying for up to seven years, they are not bound to be promoted to the priesthood; nevertheless, they ought to be promoted to the subdiaconate within one year, otherwise they are deprived. During that seven-year period, a suitable vicar, to be maintained from the fruits of the church, ought to be placed in those churches. When the seven years have elapsed, the rector ought to be promoted priest within one year.

The same. Our predecessor Pope Gregory X of happy memory decreed at the Council of Lyons that persons assumed to the government of parish churches are to cause themselves to be promoted to the priesthood within one year, counted from the time the government was committed to them, and are to reside personally in those churches; otherwise, if they have not been promoted within that time, they are to be deprived of such churches without another admonition. Because, after that provision, some persons refused to accept parish churches, and the opportunity for reading and advancing was taken away from them when their means did not suffice and the prelates of churches in many parts of the world sometimes did not provide for them from other benefices, to the great loss and detriment of the universal Church, which is known greatly to need learned men for its government, we, frequently stirred concerning this by the insistence of many and wishing usefully to provide for those desiring to advance in learning so that in their time they may be able to bear fitting fruit in the Church of God, decree by the present constitution as follows.

Bishops and their superiors can freely dispense those who hold or in the future shall hold churches of this kind subject to them, so that, while devoting themselves to the study of letters for up to seven years, they are by no means bound to be promoted except to the order of subdiacon only. We will that they be entirely constrained to receive that order within the aforesaid year—lest, as is known formerly to have been done by many raised up from the patrimony of Christ, they be able to withdraw from the clerical state—and, if they do not receive it, that they be struck by that very fact with the penalty contained in the said council.

Moreover, during the aforesaid seven years, the same bishops and superiors are to take diligent care to provide that the care of souls be diligently exercised and divine services laudably performed through good and sufficient vicars deputed by them in churches of this kind, and that the necessary things be suitably supplied to those vicars from the proceeds of the churches themselves. When the said seven years have elapsed, those with whom a dispensation was made as set forth above are to cause themselves to be promoted to the orders of diaconate and priesthood within one year; otherwise, unless they omitted this for a just cause, they are thereafter to know themselves to have incurred the said penalty by the law itself.

It states four things. First, that the full year must be completed for the penalty of deprivation of a rector of a parish church who has not been promoted. Second, that this year does not run against one who is justly impeded. Third, that after deprivation the church cannot be conferred upon the same person. Fourth, that one not promoted, if he had received the church with the intention of receiving its fruits for a year, is bound to restore them. And one who conferred it with that intention ought to preserve the church harmless. John Andrew.

The same. Although so much of the year has passed that within it you cannot be promoted to the priesthood according to the statute of the General Council of Lyons, the parish church committed to you is not to be judged vacant until the whole year has elapsed, nor can it previously be conferred upon another against your will. A year of this kind, which began from the time when the government of the church itself was committed to you and you had peaceful possession of it—or it was due to you that you did not have it—does not run against you if, detained by a just impediment, you could not be promoted within such time.

Moreover, if you have not been promoted within the said time when no reasonable cause existed, the church itself, of which you have already been deprived by authority of the said statute, can by no means on that occasion be conferred upon you again. Otherwise, the statute itself would be made a mockery and frustrated of its due effect, and the imposed law would seem to consist in words and not in things, when the contrary should rather be done.

Furthermore, if, not intending to be promoted to the priesthood, you received a parish church so that you might receive its fruits for a year and afterward relinquish it, unless, your will having changed, you have been promoted, you will be bound to restore those fruits, since you received them fraudulently. We decree that one who conferred it upon you, when he did not believe that you would be promoted to an order of this kind, is bound—besides the divine offense that he thereby incurs—to preserve the same church harmless.

An exempt abbot is elected bishop, but he cannot transfer without the permission of the Pope or of a legate de latere. — § 1. A legate de latere can confirm elections of bishops and exempt persons; other legates cannot without a special mandate. John Andrew.

The same. If you have elected as your bishop an abbot immediately subject to the Roman Church, you can be reproved for this on no ground. Nevertheless, permission to leave his monastery and transfer to your church cannot be given to him by anyone other than us or a legate of the Apostolic See, if one has been sent from our side into the province.

§ 1. A legate of this kind, who is judged to have in the province decreed to him a command greater than all others after the Roman Pontiff, can by virtue of his office confirm elections of archbishops, bishops, and exempt persons. Other legates, however, cannot do this unless it has been specially committed to them by the same See.

If a compromissarius does not elect within the time of law, the power of making provision devolves upon the superior. If he elects, but elects an unworthy person, it returns without distinction to those making the compromise, unless they knowingly ratified it. The same applies if a suitable person elected does not consent. If the compromissarius knowingly elects an unworthy person, he alone is suspended from ecclesiastical benefices for three years, unless those making the compromise knowingly ratified it. The aforesaid penalty of suspension does not apply to a bishop acting as compromissarius, nor in the election of persons inferior to bishops. That penalty is restricted to the benefices that he holds in the church offended. The same applies to the benefices of one who fails in proving what he objects against the person. John Andrew.

The same. If a compromissarius to whom the power of electing is transferred after the bishop has died negligently omits to elect within the time established by law, the power of making provision devolves upon the nearest superior; and those making the compromise, who transferred such power to such a person, are to impute this to themselves. But if he elects an unworthy person, whether he did so knowingly—since his deceit ought not to be imputed to those who are not at fault—or ignorantly—since he has discharged his office—the power of electing freely returns to the same persons, unless they too knowingly ratified such an election. The same occurs when he elects a suitable person but the person elected refuses to consent.

Moreover, in the case in which an unworthy person is knowingly elected by him, those making the compromise, whom it is not fitting to burden on account of hatred for him, are by no means punished unless, as set forth above, they ratified it; but he himself, so that the penalty may hold its author, is by the law itself suspended from ecclesiastical benefices for three years according to the Lateran Council. A penalty of this kind has no application either to a bishop sinning in this way if he is made compromissarius for electing—since by law he incurs no sentence of suspension unless express mention is made of him—or in elections of persons other than bishops and their superiors when a sin occurs in them. The said penalty is also restricted solely to those benefices that the person sinning in this way holds in the church that he is known specially to have offended by electing in that manner. The same is to be judged concerning the benefices of one who, attacking someone’s election, postulation, or provision, fails in proving what he objects against the person.

A procurator for appealing according to the form “Ut circa” is not suitable unless all the objections and the form of the oath are expressed in the procuratorial instrument. This is what it says, according to Panormitanus.

The same. Henceforth, a procurator for appealing against someone’s election, postulation, or provision is not to be reputed suitable unless all the things that he intends to object against the form or the persons, and on account of which he intends to appeal, are expressed individually and clearly in his procuratorial instrument, and unless he has a special mandate to swear corporally upon the souls of those whose procurator he is that they believe the things so expressed to be true and that they are able to prove them.

When a confirmation has been annulled, or pronounced null because of a defect of jurisdiction or an omitted solemnity, the election is not on that account said to be annulled. John Andrew.

The same. If it happens that the confirmation of an election is annulled, or pronounced null and void, because the due solemnity of law was omitted in the confirmation itself, or because the person who confirmed had no power to confirm, the preceding election, if it is otherwise canonical, is not on that account understood to be invalidated.

If, while a cathedral, regular, or collegiate church is vacant, individual persons of the chapter or convent occupy goods left by the prelate, or accruing during the time of vacancy, they are suspended from office and from all benefices until they restore them fully, notwithstanding privileges, statutes, and customs fortified by firmness of any kind. John Andrew.

The same. Because it often happens that, while cathedral, regular, and collegiate churches are vacant, their chapters, convents, colleges, and individual persons occupy, divide among themselves, steal, dilapidate, dissipate, and consume—to the grave loss and detriment of those churches—the goods left by their prelates or accruing during the time of vacancy, which ought to be spent for the utility of the said churches or faithfully reserved for future successors, we, wishing to repress their audacity and take precautions against damage to the churches, decree that those who henceforth presume to do the foregoing things are by that very fact to be, and to remain, suspended from office and from all benefices until they have fully restored whatever they received from the aforesaid goods.

This is notwithstanding any privileges or indulgences, or contrary customs, constitutions, or statutes fortified by oath, confirmation of the Apostolic See, or any other firmness. All these, as regards this matter, we revoke, annul, and invalidate by apostolic authority, and will them henceforth to have no firmness.

The decretal “Ut circa” applies only to extrajudicial appeals; in judicial appeals, however, the ancient laws are to be observed. This is what it says. John Andrew.

The same. The constitution of our predecessor Pope Gregory of happy memory, issued at the Council of Lyons and expressing the form according to which appeals ought to be made by those who oppose themselves in elections, postulations, or provisions, has no application except only when an appeal is made extrajudicially in those matters. But when it happens that an appeal is made in judicial proceedings in business of this kind, the earlier laws are to be observed, since they were not altered by it.

One having the full administration of a cathedral church in spiritual and temporal matters can exercise jurisdictional acts, but not sacramental acts unless he is a bishop. This is what it says. Dominicus.

The same. One to whom the full and free procuration or administration of a cathedral church in spiritual and temporal matters has been committed by the Apostolic See, to which alone this belongs, can freely exercise all things that belong to episcopal jurisdiction and that a confirmed person elected can execute, excepting only the alienation of immovable goods. Those things that require the ministry of consecration, however, he is to cause to be expedited through other bishops unless he is a bishop.

A nun does not elect unless she has completed her twelfth year and is tacitly or expressly professed, nor is she elected unless she has completed her thirtieth year and has been expressly professed. The first part says this, as far as “Indeed.” John Andrew. — § 1. Notwithstanding any contradiction or appeal, when the procedure is by scrutiny, a woman elected by two-thirds in number is confirmed and blessed by the office of the person presiding after examination has first been made. Likewise, once the scrutiny has been published, before they turn aside to extraneous acts, the electors can accede to the woman who has the greater part of the convent in number. If through accession they reach two-thirds, she will be confirmed and blessed as in the first case; nevertheless, the power of denouncing or accusing will not be taken away from those contradicting once the abbess has been blessed and has obtained possession. Likewise, concerning things objected against a woman elected by the greater part of the convent, who nevertheless has two-thirds neither from the beginning nor through accession, inquiry will be made before confirmation without the clamor and form of a judicial proceeding. In the meantime, however, she will administer, although alienation of goods and reception of nuns are forbidden to her. Likewise, no right is acquired by a woman elected by the smaller party, nor can the others accede to her, and in this matter comparison is made only of number with number. This is what it says. — § 2. A blessing will be bestowed upon a woman elected through compromise notwithstanding the contradiction of the smaller party; but if the greater party opposes her, she will administer freely and will not be confirmed. If, however, a party twice as large opposes her, she will neither administer nor be confirmed, but will await the outcome of the litigation. This is what it says. — § 3. If an appeal is made by the opponents in the foregoing cases, the constitution “Ut circa” will be observed; but the nuns will not come personally to the Apostolic See, but will send procurators according to the constitution “Cupientes.” This is what it says. John Andrew. — § 4. Those who introduce or nourish discord in an election of nuns are excommunicated by the law itself. This is what it says. John Andrew. — § 5. This constitution applies to nuns living regularly and to canonesses regular, except that none but professed women ought to elect or be elected. This cannot claim application among secular canonesses; nevertheless, by this the Pope does not approve the state of the said secular canonesses. This is what it says. John Andrew. — § 6. The laws treating of elections of men have not been changed by this chapter. This is what it says.

The same. Desiring earnestly to meet damage to monasteries of nuns, which frequently suffer great losses in spiritual and temporal matters because of elections celebrated in discord within them, we decree that, when an election is to be made in them, no nun is to be admitted to elect with the others unless she has completed her twelfth year and has been professed tacitly or expressly. Nor henceforth is anyone to be elected abbess, or prioress where the monastery is governed through a prioress, unless she has completed her thirtieth year and has expressly professed the regular order.

§ 1. Indeed, if an election is proceeded to by the form of scrutiny and, the votes being divided in different directions, it happens that several elections are celebrated in discord, the one that was celebrated by two-thirds in number is to be confirmed by the superior, notwithstanding any exception, contradiction, or appeal of the other party, after a diligent examination has nevertheless first been made by virtue of his office, as pertains to him, provided that it is otherwise found canonical. And if the confirmed woman elected is an abbess, a blessing is to be bestowed upon her.

But if none of those elections was celebrated by two-thirds, then, notwithstanding that the scrutiny has been published and the election proceeded to, the nuns who had directed their votes toward another woman or other women may lawfully, by consent and before they turn aside to extraneous acts, every depravity ceasing, accede to the woman elected by the others making up the greater part of the convent in number. And if through accession of this kind two-thirds can be reached, counting those who previously consented to her, she is to be confirmed and blessed as though she had had two-thirds from the beginning, as was set forth in the immediately preceding case.

But if there are nuns who, after such a woman in the foregoing cases has been confirmed and blessed and has obtained possession of her administration, wish to propose something against her by way of denunciation or accusation so that she may be deposed from the dignity obtained, the power of proposing it is by no means to be taken away from them by the foregoing provisions.

But if the other nuns do not wish to accede to the woman elected by the greater party as set forth above, or if they accede but not in such number that, with the others previously consenting to her, they make two-thirds, then, before that election is confirmed or invalidated, the superior is first to inquire fully, without the clamor and form of a judicial proceeding, concerning the objections of the other party, if there are any, and the other matters into which inquiry is to be made by virtue of office in such a business. In the meantime, however, by authority of the present constitution she is freely to administer in spiritual and temporal matters, but in such a way that she alienates absolutely nothing from the property of the monastery and does not in any manner receive anyone as a nun.

But if any woman has been nominated or elected by the smaller part of the convent in number, no right is in any way acquired for her from such a nomination or election, which we will to obtain no force by the very fact that the smaller party made it; nor in this case can accession to her by others through consent be had. Moreover, so that concord may more easily be reached in elections of nuns of this kind when the procedure is by the aforesaid form, we decree that in them comparison is to be made not of zeal with zeal, nor merit with merit, but solely of number with number.

§ 2. Furthermore, if the election was proceeded to by the form of compromise and some party opposes the woman elected, then, if it is the smaller party, her election is to be confirmed, as is established for the form of scrutiny, and a blessing bestowed upon her, notwithstanding the contradiction, exception, or any appeal of that party; but by this the way of afterward denouncing or accusing her is by no means to be closed to it. If it is the greater party, her confirmation or invalidation is to be deferred until inquiry has been made concerning the objections and other matters as set forth for the same form of scrutiny; but in the meantime she is freely to administer as stated above, unless perhaps the party of the opponents is twice as large. For then we will her not to administer, but rather to await the outcome of the litigation.

§ 3. Moreover, if in the business of elections of this kind, and only in those cases in which objections are to be admitted according to the foregoing provisions, it happens that an appeal is made to the Apostolic See, the appellants are to be bound to observe more diligently the form of the constitution of our predecessor Pope Gregory of happy memory issued at the Council of Lyons. But since, on account of the modesty of their sex and the state of their condition, it is not fitting for them, nor expedient, to be displayed before a public assembly or to wander outside their monasteries, we will that neither the women elected, nor even the electors or appellants, nor those against whom the appeal was made, come personally to the same See in any manner. Instead, they are to send sufficiently instructed procurators to that See according to the constitution of our predecessor Pope Nicholas III of pious memory, through whom they are to prosecute the business of their elections, appeals, and postulations as justice shall counsel; if they do not do this, they will incur by the law itself the penalty contained in the said constitution.

§ 4. Finally, those whom it happens henceforth to be called to direct those nuns in elections of this kind are wholly to abstain from things through which discord concerning the making of the elections themselves could arise among them or, once arisen, be nourished; otherwise, they are to know themselves subject by that very fact to the sentence of excommunication.

§ 5. We will that the things stated above be observed in all respects not only in monasteries in which there are nuns living under one of the approved religious orders, but also in those in which, according to the custom of certain provinces, there are women who neither renounce their own property nor make regular profession, but live as secular canons do in secular churches. Only the provision stated above—that women not professed are neither elected nor elect—is excepted, since this cannot claim application among them. By this, nevertheless, we neither will nor intend to approve their state, order, or rule.

§ 6. In addition, although for certain reasonable causes we have judged that the foregoing provisions, which in many respects are known to differ from the common law, should be specially established concerning elections to be made in any monasteries of women, it has by no means been our intention that anything should thereby be changed regarding elections to be celebrated in other monasteries of men or in any churches; rather, the preceding laws are to remain wholly in their force.

If an ordinary, after withdrawal from an appeal interposed to the curia, proceeds, confirms, or consecrates in causes concerning elections to bishoprics without inquiring whether depravity intervened, the aforesaid acts do not hold, and he is suspended for one year from the confirmation and consecration of bishops. This is what it says. Dominicus of San Gimignano.

The same. With provident consideration the General Council of Lyons granted that the parties may withdraw, provided no depravity intervenes, from appeals interposed judicially or extrajudicially to the Apostolic See in the business of elections of bishops and their superiors, through which that business is carried to the same See, before those appeals have been presented to the Apostolic See itself. But the lower judges to whom cognizance of that business belongs if the appeal ceases are before all else diligently to inquire whether depravity intervened in this; and if they find that it intervened, they are in no way to intermeddle in it, but are to appoint for the parties a suitable peremptory term within which they are to present themselves before the apostolic presence with their acts and muniments.

But since some, abusing a grant of this kind, interpose their cognizance in that business while omitting the aforesaid inquiry, rashly proceeding to confirm elections and consecrate the persons elected, we, wishing to make more express provision concerning this, decree that such confirmations and consecrations, and any other proceedings that it happens henceforth are attempted in business of this kind without the foregoing inquiry having been held, possess absolutely no firmness. And so that they may be punished in that in which they sinned, those making the confirmations and consecrations are by the law itself to be suspended for one continuous year from the confirmation and consecration of bishops.

If the Pope reserved provision for a cathedral church to himself, prohibited action, and issued a decree, an election that preceded this is not vitiated; nevertheless, everything following the reservation lacks effect. John Andrew.

The same. If at the time when, for any cause, we reserve provision for some cathedral church to the disposition or ordering of the Apostolic See, prohibiting that an election or provision be proceeded to in it in any way, and decreeing void and empty anything that anyone, knowingly or ignorantly, should attempt otherwise concerning this, an election has perhaps already been proceeded to in that church, we decree by the present constitution that, although a reservation, prohibition, and decree of this kind do not affect the election or the other things that precede them, they nevertheless affect the things that follow afterward, so that these lack effect.

An absent person can appoint several procurators severally for the act of election, and not otherwise; and in admitting one of them he establishes three degrees. This is what it says as far as § “Moreover.” Dominicus. — § 2. A procurator appointed to elect cannot elect one person in his own name and another in his principal’s name unless he has a special mandate from the principal concerning a definite person. This is what it says. — § 3. Although no member of the chapter wishes to be procurator for an absent canon, and he cannot, against the chapter’s will, appoint a procurator who is not a member of the chapter, he cannot express his vote by letters, since the vote of each person is to be expressed secretly and individually in the scrutiny. This is what it says.

The same. If anyone, detained by a just impediment, cannot conveniently be present at the business of an election, he can commit his place not only to one person, as is said in the general council, but also to several, provided that he gives full power severally to each of them; and then the condition of the one first taking up the matter will be the better. But if both concur at the same time and ask that they be admitted, it is not expedient that they be heard, because they could direct their votes toward different persons, and thus the matter would have no outcome, and what was done by them in this case would not be valid. Only the person whom the chapter or the greater part chooses is to be admitted; or, if they cannot agree, the one who was named first in the instrument or letters of procuration.

§ 1. But if none of them was deputed severally with full power, then for the same reason none of them ought to be admitted, and the person who indiscreetly appointed them in this way is to impute this to himself.

§ 2. Moreover, when one procurator has been appointed without qualification, if he determines in the scrutiny to nominate one person in his own name and another in his principal’s name, he accomplishes nothing unless the principal gave him a special mandate concerning a definite person to be elected. For then he can lawfully consent to that person in the principal’s name and to another in his own.

§ 3. An absent person also, although no member of the college wishes to be his procurator and, against the chapter’s will, he cannot appoint an outsider, cannot in any way express his vote by letters, since it is not to be expressed before the scrutiny but only secretly and individually within the scrutiny itself.

If a co-elect, or a person opposing the one who seeks confirmation, appears, he will be summoned by name; otherwise a general proclamation will be made in the church that persons wishing to oppose the confirmation are to come within an assigned peremptory term. Otherwise, a confirmation made does not hold. John Andrew.

The same. Because, when an election has not been celebrated in concord, the superior to whom confirmation of that election belongs is sometimes accustomed, by the speed of his confirmation, to supplant a competitor where there is another person elected, or those who wish to oppose when there is a single person elected—preferring his own cupidity to law and a disordered result even to equity—when, no one having been summoned and the business not having been examined, he quickly lays hands upon the person elected through a sudden confirmation, contrary to the Apostle’s teaching, we, wishing to meet this disease and these frauds, decree by the present constitution that such confirmations are wholly without force, and decree them void and empty.

We judge that a summons of this kind must be made by name where there is a co-elect or an opponent appears; otherwise, it is to be made generally in the church in which the election was made, so that any persons who wish to oppose may appear within a suitable assigned peremptory term. We will that this also be observed even if the election was celebrated in concord.