Henry Joseph Schroeder

“ We condemn absolutely those detestable jousts or tournaments in which the knights usually come together by agreement and, to make a show of their strength and boldness, rashly engage in contests which are frequently the cause of death to men and of danger to souls. If anyone taking part in them should meet his death, though penance and the Viaticum shall not be denied him if he asks for them, he shall, however, be deprived of Christian burial.
Comment. The tournament had its origin in France in the middle of the eleventh century, whence it found its way to Germany and England. ”

“ It is beyond doubt that ecclesiastical honors are bestowed not in consideration of blood relationship but of merit, and the Church of God does not look for any successor with hereditary rights, but demands for its guidance and for the administration of its offices upright, wise, and religious persons. ”

“ In 1031 the Synod of Bourges in canon 8 decreed that the sons of priests, deacons, and subdeacons, born after the reception of these orders, are excluded from the clerical state, because they and all others born of illegitimate unions are stigmatized by the Sacred Scriptures as semen maledictum. They are deprived of all hereditary rights in accordance with the civil law, and their testimony is not to be accepted. Those who already are clerics are to remain in whatever order they are, but are not to be promoted to higher orders. ”

“ If anyone, impelled by the execrable vice of avarice, has by means of money obtained a prebend, priory, deanery, or any ecclesiastical honor or promotion, or any ecclesiastical sacrament, as chrism, holy oil, or the consecration of altars and churches, he shall be deprived of the honor thus illicitly acquired, and buyer and seller and intermediary agent shall be stigmatized with the mark of infamy. ”

“ For as one guilty of all sins will not enter the gate of eternal life, so also if one be guilty of only one sin. A penance, moreover, is false when the penitent does not resign a curial or commercial occupation, the duties of which he cannot perform without committing sin, or if he bears hatred in his heart or does not repair an injury or does not pardon an offense, or if he carries arms in contravention of justice. ”

“ During the tenth and two succeeding centuries the number of women's communities increased rapidly, with the unfortunate result that not all who entered were inspired by the proper religious motives. The present canon, it seems, was directed chiefly against those canonicae seculares who lived outside the convents, in their own private houses, and who, from the character of the guests they entertained, left themselves open to well-grounded suspicion regarding their morals. ”

“ But that the law of continence and purity, so pleasing to God, may become more general among persons constituted in sacred orders, we decree that bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, canons regular, monks, and professed clerics (conversi) who, transgressing the holy precept, have dared to contract marriage, shall be separated. For a union of this kind which has been contracted in violation of the ecclesiastical law, we do not regard as matrimony. Those who have been separated from each other, shall do penance commensurate with such excesses.
CANON 8 ”

“ We absolutely forbid that those who have been excommunicated by their own bishops be received by others. He who shall dare communicate knowingly with one excommunicated before he is absolved by the one who excommunicated him, shall incur the same penalty.
Comment. The first part of this canon is an old ordinance and is met with again and again in the synods of this and preceding periods. The second part also is a reaffirmation of the ancient and traditional policy of the Church toward those who hold unlawful intercourse with one excommunicated, as is attested by Rom. ”

“ CANON 22
Summary. Bishops and priests are admonished to instruct the people against false penances.
Text. Since among other things there is one that chiefly disturbs the Church, namely, false penance, we admonish our confrères (that is, the bishops) and priests that the minds of the people be not deceived by false penances, lest thus they should run the risk of being drawn into hell. A penance is false when it is performed for one sin only and not also for the others, or when only one is avoided, and the others are not. ”

“ Women, however, lay brothers, etc., living the common life, who should maliciously strike or injure another member of the community or even clerics, could obtain absolution from their ordinary. [27] The penalty of the canon was incurred not only by the real perpetrators of the deed, but also by abetters and accomplices.
The second part of the canon deals with the right of asylum. It threatens with excommunication anyone who should inflict injury on those who have taken refuge in a church or cemetery. ”

“ Christians need no holy place in which to pray. Their prayers, if worthy, are heard in a barn as well as in a church; hence churches must not be built, and those already built must be destroyed. This doctrine harmonizes with the teachings of the spiritualistic sects of the preceding century. ”

“ Even in the Old Law and among the Greeks and Romans, temples and certain specified districts were places of refuge where the criminal fled for protection from revenge or death without due trial. The right of asylum is based on the natural feeling or consciousness that it is unjust to injure anyone who places himself under the protection of the Deity. ”

“ Those guilty are to lose what they illicitly obtained; buyer, seller, and intermediary, that is, the one who conducts the transaction between the contracting parties, are to be branded as infamous. Nothing shall be demanded for chrism, holy oil, or the consecration of altars and churches. This is an old prohibition. In 813 a synod held at Châlons-sur-Saône in canon 16 ruled: Omnes uno consensu statutmus, ne sicut pro dedicandis basilicis et dandis ordinibus nihil accipiendum est, ita etiam pro balsamo sive luminaribus emendis, nihil presbyteri chrisma accepturi dent. ”

“ What is offered daily in the mass is pure nothing. Christ gave His flesh and blood to His disciples once and it cannot be given again. (5) Prayers and good works by the living cannot profit the dead, and God ridicules all ceremonies and chant. The reference in the canon to the rejection of matrimony does not seem to apply to the Petrobrusians. ”

“ We forbid, moreover, that the aforesaid honors be bestowed upon young men, even though they are constituted in sacred orders; but let them be conferred on those who are noted for prudence and rectitude of life. ”

“ And so the Church was compelled to formulate more stringent measures for their protection. In canon 13 of the Synod of Reims (1131) Innocent II issued the celebrated decree Si qais madente diabolo, by which he enacted that anyone maliciously laying hands on a cleric or monk incurred ipso facto anathema, absolution from which, except in danger of death, was reserved to the Holy See and must be sought by the offender in person. The present canon renews that of Reims and gives it a universal application. ”

“ The three foregoing decrees are clearly only one, as is evident from canon 13 of the Synod of Clermont, with which they are identical and which Innocent here renews. [29] Arson was one of the crying evils resulting from those petty strifes and private wars that raged among the princes of Europe. Hatred and revenge frequently found expression in the destruction of crops and dwellings by fire, at times also of churches, thus reducing helpless and innocent people to misery and dire want, which often proved detrimental not only to their bodies but to their souls as well. ”

“ In the anarchy of the centuries that immediately followed, and especially during the anticlerical disturbances created by Arnold of Brescia in the twelfth century, ecclesiastics and religious, forbidden to carry weapons, were constantly exposed to physical harm and frequently suffered bodily injury from the violence of men and mobs. ”

“ The first part of this decree forbids monks and canons regular to engage in the practice of civil law, while the second makes the same prohibition in regard to the practice of medicine. In early times it was common for clerics to devote a portion of their time to these avocations, nor was such practice disapproved by the Church. Later, however, when abuses multiplied, especially in the practice of medicine, the Church took steps in the twelfth century to express its disapproval of such occupations by clerics. ”

“ Text. Since the decrees of the fathers insist that on the death of bishops the Churches be not left vacant more than three months, we forbid under penalty of anathema that the canons of cathedrals exclude from the election of bishops viros religiosos (that is, monks and canons regular) , but rather with the aid of their counsel let a capable and trustworthy person be chosen for the episcopal office. If, however, an election has been held with such religious excluded and held without their assent and agreement, it shall be null and void.
CANON 29 ”

“ In subsequent periods the application of this decree has been extended or restricted according to the needs of the times, but it has continued in force to our own day with this difference, that the absolution of the guilty party is reserved to the ordinary. [23] The terms cleric and monk in the canon must be understood in a wide sense and embraced all clerics in major and minor orders, tonsured persons, monks, nuns, [24] lay brothers, [25] novices [26] and tertiaries living the common life and wearing the habit. ”

“ Masses celebrated by members of the clergy who have wives or concubines arc not to be attended by anyone.
Text. Following in the footsteps of our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs Gregory VII, Urban, and Paschal, we command that no one attend the masses of those who are known to have wives or concubines. ”