Title I: On Judicial Proceedings

A delegated judge who does not have a special mandate for this from the Pope cannot compel a party to appear personally before him except for a reasonable cause. John Andrew.

Innocent IV at the General Council of Lyons. It does not appear doubtful in law that a delegated judge who has not received a special mandate for this from the Apostolic See cannot order either party to appear personally before him in a judicial proceeding, unless the cause is criminal, or unless the necessity of stating the truth, taking the oath of calumny, or otherwise of law requires the parties to be presented personally before him.

Women are not unwillingly to be drawn personally to a judicial proceeding for any cause not expressed in law; but if their testimony is necessary in a cause, the judge, at the expense of the producing party, will sometimes go and sometimes send another. A judge who goes fraudulently is excommunicated. Religious women, even if willing, cannot be drawn personally outside their monastery to a judicial proceeding for any cause. What is done contrary to the foregoing is void. John Andrew.

Boniface VIII. We prohibit women, whom it is not fitting to wander about or mingle in assemblies of men, from being personally summoned or drawn unwillingly to a judicial proceeding by authority of letters of the Apostolic See or of its legates, or by any other authority, for the purpose of bearing testimony or for any other cause not expressed in law. But when their testimony is necessary, the judge, at the expense of the party producing them, is to send a notary or another suitable person to them. Or, if perhaps such a case arises in which the reception of witnesses cannot, by prohibition of law, be committed to another, the judge is then to go to them personally for this purpose; or if the condition of the person judging is such that it is not fitting or possible for him to do this, he is to send to them. Provision is to be made that such a case—namely, one in which the judge is to go personally—is not feigned and that no fraud intervenes in this regard. Otherwise, a person contriving or committing such fraud incurs by that very fact the sentence of excommunication.

§ 1. Furthermore, religious women, especially those who ought to remain under enclosure, are not to be summoned or drawn personally outside their monastery or enclosure to a judicial proceeding for any cause, even if their will acceded to this. We also decree that anything it happens is attempted contrary to the foregoing provisions is void and empty by the law itself.

One older than fourteen years can bring and defend a spiritual cause personally and through a procurator; one younger than fourteen does not act personally, but through a procurator or through a curator appointed by authority of the ordinary ecclesiastical judge, and also of a judge delegated for those causes. A son under paternal power brings a spiritual cause without his father’s assent. This is what it says. John Andrew.

The same. If you have completed the fourteenth year of your age, in beneficial and other spiritual causes and in causes dependent upon them you ought to be admitted to bring and defend an action through yourself or through a procurator whom you determine to appoint for this, just as though you were older than twenty-five years. But if you are under the fourteenth year, you will not be able personally to bring or defend an action concerning those matters; rather, either a curator will be given to you by your bishop or his official for conducting litigation of this kind, or you yourself, if you are older than an infant, can with the authority of one of them depute a procurator for it. A delegate of the Apostolic See and a person subdelegated by him can also give you a curator if you do not have one, or furnish authority for appointing a procurator, solely for those causes or litigations that are to be conducted before them. In litigation or causes of this kind, although you are under your father’s power and otherwise cannot as a rule be in a judicial proceeding without his assent, his assent ought by no means to be required, since he has no right to intermeddle in these matters.