16 - Of Alienating or Letting Church Property

Summary

Nothing may be alienated from the church without the consent of the bishop and patron.

Those who have been warned, appointed to run churches shall not sell, exchange, give or alienate either the houses, the fields or any possessions or fruits of the churches by any form of contract or agreement at any time, unless the patron and the bishop have given their consent.

How letting should take place.

Any let of ecclesiastical revenues shall be for a period not longer than ten years, and shall not extend beyond a decade nor into the time of successors. For very often experience shows that such lets are a bad idea, because through them the right of successors is openly violated by those who previously held that office, unless by chance there was a necessary or advantageous reason for letting, e.g. because of the ruins of the buildings or the infertility of the fields, and the renters have committed themselves to repair the houses and cultivate the fields, and meanwhile they are paying the full annual assessment to the church which was regularly offered in earlier times. But they shall not proceed even with this in any way, unless the patron and the bishop agree to it.

Four reasons for alienation.

We do not want anyone to resort to the alienation of church property except for one [cause of the four causes] which makes alienation necessary. The first of these shall be understood as occurring when a church is so ruined by debt that it cannot sustain itself on its lawful annual income. The second is if a great and obvious advantage shall suggest it, [for] we allow that the [annual] state of the church shall be easily improved thereby. The third cause is that of the godliness of freeing Christian people from slavery when they have fallen into the power of the enemies of our religion. The fourth and final reason for alienation occurs huiusmodi in quo premebatur ecclesia potius quam adiuvabatur. Neque tamen ex his ipsis causis alienationem ecclesiae bonorum sequi placet, nisi sententiam episcopus suam et patronus ad [e/caus]am accommodaverint.