Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/217

ON REFORMATION. a diligent inquiry, and, having; reported the matter to the ordinary, shall have obtained permission from him so to do.

CHAPTER VIII.

Concubinage is punished with the most Grievous Penalties.

It is a grievous sin for unmarried men to have concubines; but it is a most grievous sin, and one committed in special contempt of this great sacrament, for married men also to live in this state of damnation, and to have the audacity sometimes to maintain and keep them at home even with their own wives. Wherefore, the holy synod, that it may by opportune remedies provide against this so great an evil, ordains that these concubinaries, whether unmarried or married, of what state, dignity, and condition soever they may be, if, after they have been thrice admonished on this subject by the ordinary, even according; to the duties of his office, they shall not have put away their concubines, and have separated themselves from connection with them, they shall be smitten with excommunication; from which they shall not be absolved until they have really obeyed the admonition given. But if, neglectful of these censures, they shall continue in concubinage during a year, they shall be proceeded against with severity by the ordinary, according to the character of the crime. Women, whether married or single, who live publicly with adulterers or with concubinaries, if, after having been thrice admonished, they shall not obey, shall be rigorously punished, according to the measure of their guilt, by the ordinaries of the places, according to the duties of their office, even though no one should call upon them [to do so]; and they shall be cast out from the city or diocese, if it shall seem fit to the ordinaries, the aid of the secular arm being called in, if need be; the other penalties inflicted on adulterers and concubinaries remaining in their proper force.