Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/198

166 before the said ordination, or when the bishop shall think fit. And the bishop, taking to his aid priests and other prudent persons, skilled in the divine law, and practised in the sanctions of the Church, shall diligently investigate and examine the parentage, person, age, education, morals, doctrine, and faith of those to be ordained.

CHAPTER VIII.

How, and by whom, each ought to be ordained.

Ordinations of sacred orders shall be celebrated publicly, at the times ordained by law, and in the cathedral church, the canons of that church being invited and present for that purpose; but, if they are celebrated in some other place of the diocese, the clergy of the place are to be present; and the leading church shall always, as far as is possible, be made use of. But each one shall be ordained by his own bishop. And if any one seek to be promoted by another [bishop], this shall by no means be allowed him, even under the pretext of any general or special rescript or privilege soever, even at the appointed times; unless his probity and morals be recommended by the testimony of his own ordinary. If it be otherwise, he who ordains him shall be suspended from the conferring of orders during a year, and he who has been ordained from exercising the orders received, for as long a period as shall seem expedient to his ordinary.

CHAPTER IX.

A Bishop ordaining one of his own Household shall forthwith and really confer upon him, a Benefice. A bishop may not ordain one of his own household, who is not his subject, unless he has lived with him for the space of three years; and he shall really, and without fraud of any kind, straightway confer on him a benefice; any custom, even though immemorial, to the contrary notwithstanding.