11 - Of Those to be Admitted to Ecclesiastical Benefices

Summary

Just as the condition of the state is ruined when it is governed by men who are stupid, demanding and burning with ambition, so in these times the church of God is struggling, since it is committed to the care of those who are totally incompetent to assume so important a task, in which respect it has fallen very far short indeed of those rules of the blessed Paul, which he prescribed to Timothy and Titus. Therefore we must find an appropriate remedy for so serious a plague on our churches.

Ministers [are] to be carefully examined.

Everyone who obtains a living in any way whatsoever shall be most carefully tested and examined according to the form and procedure of our laws, lest a bishop lay his hand suddenly on someone and so become a partner in the crimes of others. Nor shall anyone be allowed to run a church, unless he has been duly examined beforehand.

The duty of patrons.

Furthermore, we order patrons of ecclesiastical benefices to put aside any feeling that they are beholden to particular interests and constraints, and to ensure that those who are to be appointed to this sacred task can and will fulfill it in every respect. For livings are not entrusted to patrons so that they may reduce them or make a profit from them, but so that they may rest in their safe keeping and trust.

Patronorum deliquentium poena.

Vehementer patronorum interest, ne turpiter et avare sibi quacunque conventione praecaveant in beneficiorum collationibus, de retinendis aedificiis, subducendis decimis, aut ullo se contaminent huiusmodi flagitioso quaestu qualis a nobis in illo conferendis'.7 Quorum si quicquam in hoc genere fuerit contra leges nostras quacunque ratione conventum, patronus collocationis ius illius temporis amittet. Deinde, qui iure fuerat collocationis usurus, quoniam ad iniquam transactionem suam voluntatem accommodavit, et sacerdotio carebit, quod illi designabitur, et ab illis omnibus, qua consequi poterat, excludetur.

Sacerdotia vacua non esse oportere, neque antequam vac﹛a﹜verint conferri.

Sacerdotia diu vacua iacere non debent. Itaque nisi spatio sex mensium postquam vacua facta sunt, patroni novos il[29b]lis ministros designaverint, ipso beneficio designationis illo quidem tempore carebunt; et tamen in collocandis sacerdotiis nimium properari nolumus, nec patimur ut patroni certam illorum spem cuiquam ulla scriptorum, aut pignorum, aut pactorum cautione faciant, priusquam vacua sint.