Title — Liber Sextus
Title XVII: On Religious Houses
Chapter I
It is not lawful to create a new order or religious institute, or to create or assume the habit of a new religious institute. And Mendicant orders created after the council and not approved by the Pope are revoked. Dominicus. — § 1. Mendicant religious approved and instituted by the Pope after the council cannot receive anyone to profession, acquire a house or place anew, alienate those acquired without license, preach to outsiders, hear their confessions, or admit them to burial. An act to the contrary has no force, and one acting contrary is excommunicated. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 2. The revocation of Mendicant orders does not include the Preachers, Minors, Hermits, and Carmelites. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 3. A person belonging to the revoked orders can pass individually, but not corporately, to other orders. This states the point. Dominicus.
Gregory X, in the General Council of Lyons.
The General Council, by a carefully considered prohibition, forbade excessive diversity of religious institutes, lest it introduce confusion. But because not only did the importunate eagerness of petitioners afterward extort their multiplication, but the presumptuous temerity of certain persons also devised an almost unbridled multitude of different orders, especially Mendicant orders, which have not yet merited the beginning of approval, we repeat the constitution and strictly prohibit anyone hereafter from devising a new order or religious institute, or assuming the habit of a new religious institute. We subject all the religious institutes and Mendicant orders devised in abundance after the said council that have merited no confirmation from the Apostolic See to perpetual prohibition and revoke them insofar as they had proceeded.
§ 1. Those confirmed by the same See but instituted after that council, whose profession or any rule forbids them to have revenues or possessions for suitable maintenance, but whose uncertain mendicancy customarily provides sustenance through public begging, we decree shall subsist in the manner written below: namely, that professors of those orders may remain in them if they wish, but they shall hereafter admit no one to their profession, shall not acquire a house or any place anew, and shall not be able to alienate the houses or places they have without the special license of the same See. For we reserve those things to the disposition of the Apostolic See, to be converted, through the ordinaries of the places or those to whom the See itself commits this, to the aid of the Holy Land, the poor, or other pious uses. If anything is presumed otherwise, neither the reception of persons, the acquisition of houses or places, nor the alienation of them or of other goods shall have force, and those acting contrary shall nevertheless incur a sentence of excommunication. We also entirely prohibit persons of those orders from the office of preaching to outsiders and hearing their confessions, or even from admitting them to burial.
§ 2. Indeed, we do not permit the present constitution to extend to the Orders of Preachers and Minors, which the manifest utility proceeding from them to the universal Church testifies to have been approved. Moreover, we wish the Orders of Hermits of Saint Augustine and of Carmelites, whose institution preceded the said General Council, to remain in a sound state.
§ 3. In addition, we grant persons of the orders to which the present constitution extends a general license to pass to the remaining approved orders, in such a way that no order shall transfer itself and its places entirely to another order, nor one convent to another convent, unless special permission of the same See concerning this has been obtained.
DE RELIGIOSIS DOMIBUS.
Non licet novum ordinem vel religionem, aut habitum novae religionis creare et assumere. Et revocati sunt ordines Mendicantium, per Papam non approbati, creati post concilium. Dominicus. — §. 1. Religiosi mendicantes, per Papam post concilium approbati et instituti non possunt aliquem ad professionem recipere, domum vel locum de novo acquirere, nec acquisita sine licentia alienare, nec extraneis praedicare, confessiones eorum audire, vel ad sepulturam admittere. Et contra factum non tenet, et contra faciens excommunicatus est. H. d. Dominicus. — §. 2. Revocatio ordinum Mendicantium Praedicatores, Minores, Eremitanos et Carmelitas non comprehendit. Hoc dicit Dominicus. — §. 3. Exsistens de ordinibus revocatis non collegi aliter, sed singulariter ad alios ordines transire potest.
H. d. Dominic.
Gregorius X. in concilio generali Lugdunensi .
Religionum diversitatem nimiam, ne confusionem induceret, generale concilium consulta prohibitione vetavit *. Sed quia non solum importuna petentium inhiatio illarum postmodum multiplicationem extorsit, verum etiam aliquorum praesumptuosa temeritas diversorum ordinum, praecipue Mendicantium, quorum nondum approbationis meruere principium, effrenatam quasi multitudinem adinvenit: repetita constitutione districtius inhibentes, ne aliquis de cetero novum ordinem aut religionem adinveniat *, vel habitum novae religionis assumat, cunctas affatim religiones et ordines mendicantes, post dictum concilium adinventos, qui nullam confirmationem sedis apostolicae meruerunt, perpetuae prohibitioni subiicimus, et quatenus processerant revocamus. §. i. Confirmatos autem per sedem eandem, post idem tamen concilium institutos, quibus ad congruam sustentationem reditus aut possessiones habere professio sive regula * quaelibet interdicunt, sed per quaestum publicum tribuere victum solet incerta mendicitas, modo decernimus subsistere infra scripto, ut videlicet professoribus eorundem ordinum ita liceat in illis remanere, si velint, quod nullum deinceps ad eorum professionem admittant, ne de novo domum vel aliquem locum acquirant, nec domus seu loca, quae habent, alienare valeant sine sedis eiusdem licentia speciali. Nos enim ea dispositioni sedis apostolicae reservamus, in terrae sanctae subsidium, vel pauperum vel * alios pios usus per locorum ordinarios, vel eos, quibus sedes ipsa commiserit, convertenda. Si vero secus praesumptum fuerit: nec personarum receptio, nec domorum vel locorum acquisitio aut ipsorum ceterorumque bonorum alienatio valeat, et nihilominus contrarium facientes sententiam excommunicationis incurrant. Personis quoque ipsorum ordinum omnino interdicimus quoad extraneos praedicationis et audiendae confessionis officium aut * etiam sepulturam. §. 2. Sane ad Praedicatorum et Minorum ordines, quos evidens ex eis utilitas ecclesiae universali proveniens s perhibet approbatos, praesentem non patimur constitutionem extendi. Ceterum Eremitarum sancti Augustini et Carmelitarum ordines, quorum institutio dictum concilium generale praecessit, in solido statu volumus permanere. §. 3. Ad haec personis ordinum, ad quos constitutio praesens extenditur, transeundi ad reliquos ordines approbatos licentiam cedimus generalem ita, quod nullus ordo ad alium, vel conventus ad conventum se ac loca sua totaliter transferat, sedis eiusdem super hoc permissione specialiter non obtenta.;