§ 3. Rights and Obligations of Beneficiaries

— Rights. Legitimate possession having been taken, the beneficiary enjoys all the spiritual and temporal rights of his benefice; and he perceives its revenues, which he can expend for his own honest support. He must destine superfluous revenues to the poor or to pious causes by that obligation which has been explained in the treatise on justice.

Cardinals are immune from this obligation, from c. 239, §1, n. 19. For by the very fact that ecclesiastical goods are attributed to ministers of the Church by title of just remuneration, they serve ecclesiastical ends, and satisfaction has been made to the intention of those offering them. Therefore it remains entire for the Supreme Pontiff that, from a just cause, he relieve certain clerics from the burden which the will of the Church alone imposed. Cf. Lehmkuhl, I, 1072, note.

— Obligations. With special obligations of many beneficiaries omitted, such as receiving a certain order and residing, every beneficiary must recite the canonical hours and prudently administer the goods of his benefice, with expenses and lesser repairs made in due time which fall upon him. Cf. cc. 1474-1478. How the annual revenues of a benefice are to be distributed between the successor and the predecessor or his heirs; to whom the fruits of a vacant benefice yield; what must be held concerning the half-annate, is said in cc. 1480-1482, concerning which consult the canonists. Cf. Epitome I. C., II, 801 ff.

Moreover they must bear moderate taxes, such as the cathedraticum (c. 1504), which is paid as a sign of subjection; a tax in favor of the seminary (cc. 1355, 1356); an exaction imposed on account of an extraordinary necessity of the diocese (c. 1505).