12 - Of The Resignation or Abandonment of Benefices

Summary

Causes may arise making it possible for livings to be given up voluntarily, and renounced, as it is popularly known, or for them to be exchanged, but whenever this occurs, we decree that all trickery, greed and simony - not only the crime itself but also any suspicion of it - shall be as far as possible excluded.

In a resignation and exchange the agreement of the ordinary is necessary, and anyone who makes a transaction without it, is a simoniac.

No ecclesiastical benefices of any kind whatsoever may be surrendered or exchanged for any promise made of money or payment, nor shall anything done in transactions of this kind be valid until the ordinary proper to that church has considered the whole matter and confirmed it by his authority. But if someone dares to act in this case without obtaining the agreement of the ordinary, or has made some financial arrangement, he shall stand accused of simony on that account, and shall not receive any emolument whatever from the abandoned benefice.

The process of resignation may not be started without the authorization of the ordinary.

And since it is highly desirable that not only all causes but also all occasions of wrongdoing shall be cut off, we do not allow any mention to be made of benefices which are about to be given up or transferred to others, on the basis of which information a financial arrangement may be made with someone, until the ordinary has freed it by his power. Nor shall the ordinary for his part try to advance the matter unless the one who intends to surrender the benefice swears an oath that in this matter no money nor any element of simoniacal perversity has intervened, or shall intervene.

Non licet sententiam cessionis mutare.

Si quis semel beneficio cesserit, et post consilium mutans ad illud reditum habere voluerit, frustra sit haec illius secunda et sera voluntas, nisi forte talis aliqua subsit causa, superiorem ut ordinarius cessionem retexendam, et pro nulla putet habendam.

Cedi non posse beneficiis ecclesiasticis per procuratores.

Et ut omnia prorsus in hoc negotio sincera sint, procuratores excludimus, nec eos ullo modo patimur ad sacerdotiorum dimissionem admitti. Quod si aliquando contra constitutionem hanc nostram obrepserint vel irruperint, frustra sit illorum cessio, vel (ut vulgo loquuntur) resignatio.