Title XX: On Rents, Exactions, and Procurations

An archbishop wishing to visit the province ought first to visit his own church, city, and diocese and their clerics and laypeople. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 1. After visiting his own diocese, the archbishop visits in part or in whole all ecclesiastical places, clergy, and people of the province, receiving a procuration from the places visited. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 2. An archbishop, after beginning visitation in one diocese and passing to another, cannot return to the first unless he begins again throughout the whole province. Dominicus. — § 3. After completing the visitation, the archbishop does not repeat it without the counsel of the suffragans and a determination first made in writing; he ought, however, to begin again with those who had not been visited in the first visitation. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 4. A visiting archbishop ought to set forth the word of God and inquire, without an oath, into the life of ministers and matters pertaining to divine worship; he shall denounce persons of ill repute to their ordinaries and punish notorious crimes. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 5. The visitor shall receive a moderate procuration not in money but in provisions; his household cannot receive anything even under pretext of office, and neither he nor his people shall receive any gift, even if offered. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 6. The aforesaid form of visitation ought to be observed by bishops and other inferior prelates, excepting the customs of regulars. This states the point. Dominicus.

Innocent IV.

The Roman Church—(And below:) We establish that every archbishop wishing to visit his province shall first take care fully to visit the chapter of his own church and his own city and diocese, and shall be intent not only upon visitation of greater churches but also of lesser ones, and not only of clerics but also of the people. If he cannot conveniently or without difficulty approach each one, he shall endeavor to summon clerics and laypeople from several places to one suitable place, lest visitation in those places be postponed.

§ 1. He may thereafter exercise the office of visitation throughout the whole province or a part of it, freely visiting the cities and dioceses, his suffragans and their subjects, the chapters of cathedral and other churches, monasteries, churches, and other religious and pious places, the clergy, and the people, and receiving procurations only from places visited.

§ 2. But once he has begun to visit one of those dioceses, he shall never afterward, whether he has visited the whole or part of it, return to it for the purpose of visitation before all the remaining dioceses of his province that he can safely visit, in whole or in part, and his own diocese have again been visited. But if perhaps that diocese or some church there needs visitation more than the others, then, interrupting the visitation of the others, he shall return to it if he was requested by the diocesan of the place, or if this proceeded from the counsel and assent of all or the greater part of the bishops of that province. They shall show themselves disposed to this, lest the advancement of souls be neglected in any way. But if they maliciously raise a difficulty in these matters, the archbishop shall confidently petition the Apostolic See for license concerning this.

§ 3. After he has once visited all the dioceses of his province, it shall be lawful for him afterward to repeat the visitation throughout the same province according to the manner noted above, after nevertheless first requesting the counsel of his suffragans and making a determination concerning this before them—which we wish to be reduced to writing so that it can be known to others—even if the assent of those suffragans does not intervene. He shall always employ this foresight: in later visitations he shall first visit those churches and those clerics and peoples who were not visited by him in the earlier visitations, unless the office of visitation is more opportune for others.

§ 4. Indeed, one intending to perform an office of this kind shall, after setting forth the word of God, inquire into the life and conduct of those ministering in churches and other places deputed to divine worship, and into other matters pertaining to the office itself, without any compulsion or exaction of an oath. He shall diligently apply himself to their amendment through salutary admonitions, now mild, now harsh, according to the prudence given him by God. But if ill repute has arisen against any persons, he shall, if he sees fit, denounce them to their ordinaries so that the latter may solemnly inquire into these matters. Notorious crimes, however, which do not require examination, he shall freely correct by inflicting the penalty owed for them, since the negligence of those ordinaries can deservedly be noted concerning them.

§ 5. He shall receive procurations according to what is established in the canons; nevertheless, neither he nor anyone of his household shall receive any money in their name on account of any office or custom, or in any other manner, but only moderate expenses in provisions. Moreover, he shall take care that neither he nor any of his people presume to receive any gift, whatever it may be and however it is offered, so that he may appear to seek not the things that are his own, but those that are Jesus Christ's. If anything is presumed contrary to this, the recipient shall incur a curse from which he shall never be released unless he restores double. For we wish every fraud in these matters to be entirely avoided.

§ 6. We command that this form of visitation be fully observed by all persons, including bishops and other prelates visiting their subjects by ordinary right, saving reasonable and approved customs of religious and regular institutes concerning this.

Because the immediately preceding decretal of Innocent IV was not well observed in the chapter in which he commanded that procurations be received in provisions, not money, that gifts not be received, and that procurations in provisions not be received from places not visited, this decretal confirms it and adds penalties. John Andrew.

Gregory X, in the General Council of Lyons.

The audacity of the perverse requires that we not be content solely with prohibition of offenses, but also impose a penalty upon offenders. Therefore, wishing that the constitution of Pope Innocent IV, our predecessor of happy memory, issued concerning procurations not being received in money and prohibiting visitors and their households from receiving gifts—a constitution that the temerity of many is reported to transgress—be inviolably observed, we decree that it is to be aided by the addition of a penalty. We establish that each and every person who presumes, on account of a procuration owed to him by reason of visitation, to exact money or even receive it from one willing to give, or otherwise to violate the constitution itself by receiving gifts, or by receiving a procuration in provisions or anything else on account of a procuration when the office of visitation has not been performed, is bound within one month to return double what he received to the church from which it was received. Otherwise, from that time patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops who defer restoring that double beyond the aforesaid time shall feel entry into a church interdicted to them. Inferiors shall know themselves suspended from office and benefice until they render full satisfaction concerning such double to the burdened churches, no remission, liberality, or grace of those giving having force for them in this matter.

A visitor can receive a procuration in money when those visited are willing, but in one day he shall not receive more than one procuration, although he visits several places. This states the point. Dominicus.

Boniface VIII.

Pope Gregory X of happy memory, our predecessor, prohibited in the Council of Lyons anyone from presuming to exact money on account of a procuration owed to him by reason of visitation, or even from receiving it from one willing to give. But because experience of affairs has instructed us that many harmful inconveniences arise from this both for persons visiting and for places and churches visited, we grant that patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and others to whom it belongs by office to visit may lawfully receive money from willing rectors or persons of the churches and places visited for moderate expenses to be made in provisions on the days on which they personally exercise the office of visitation. We add that it shall not be lawful for a visitor to receive more than one procuration in one day, whether he visits only one place or several, even if every place visited by him would suffice to pay a full procuration, since it ought to suffice for him that he reap temporal things from the places personally visited for the days on which he supplies them with spiritual things. We wish the other provisions contained in the constitution of the same predecessor to endure in their force.

If a community or individual person compels churches or ecclesiastical persons to pay tolls, conduct fees, or exactions for their persons or for their property that they are not carrying for trade, the individuals are excommunicated and the community is interdicted; a contrary custom does not benefit them. The final Clementine in this title adds that diocesan bishops who establish that any persons incurred these sentences ought to publish their names and cause the sentences to be observed, in the same title, “By the present.” John Andrew.

The same.

Although exactions of tolls are as a rule deservedly condemned by both canon and civil law, nevertheless it is necessary to prohibit such things from being exacted from churches and ecclesiastical persons all the more strictly because, if this is done, guilt for a greater transgression is thereby incurred and a more manifest offense is proved. Since, therefore, churches, ecclesiastical persons, and their property are immune from the exactions of secular persons not only by human law but indeed by divine law, we wish to assist by the aid of a penalty, on account of the insolence and abuse of many, the constitution of Pope Alexander IV, our predecessor of happy memory, who established that churches and ecclesiastical persons are entirely not bound to tolls and conduct fees, nor to render or pay such things for their own property that they do not carry, cause to be carried, or transmit for the sake of trade.

We add, by strictly prohibiting—any contrary custom of any persons whatsoever, which is more truly to be called a corruption, notwithstanding—that neither a college, community, nor any individual person, of whatever dignity, condition, or status, shall personally or through another, in his own name or another's, exact or extort such things from the aforesaid churches or persons for those persons themselves or the aforesaid property, or compel them to pay such things. Those who act contrary, if they are individual persons, shall by the fact itself incur sentences of excommunication; but if they are a college or community of a city, town, or any other place, the city, town, or place itself shall incur a sentence of interdict. They shall not obtain absolution from such excommunication or relaxation of the interdict until they have fully restored what was exacted and made suitable satisfaction for the transgression.

An archbishop can visit the province and also repeat the visitation although the suffragans are not negligent, and then hear everyone's confessions, absolve them, and impose penances. This states the point. Dominicus.

The same.

By a perpetual edict we declare that an archbishop can freely visit his province according to the tenor of the constitution of Pope Innocent IV, our predecessor of happy memory, issued concerning this, although his suffragans are not negligent; repeat the same visitation; and receive procurations from places visited, notwithstanding any custom contrary to the foregoing that is perhaps alleged by the suffragans themselves or by others. The same archbishop can also, while he visits, hear the confessions of the suffragans' subjects, absolve those confessing, and enjoin salutary penances upon them.