Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/252

220 the holy synod above all things strictly enjoins, that all the aforesaid ought to be chosen by secret voting, in such wise as that the names of the respective voters shall never be made known. Neither shall it, for the future, be lawful to constitute provincials, or abbots, priors, or any other titularies soever, for the purposes of an election that is to take place; nor to supply the place of the voices and suffrages of those absent. But if any one should be elected contrary to the constitution of this decree, such election shall be invalid; and he who shall have allowed himself, for this purpose, to be created provincial, abbot, or prior, shall from that time forth be incapable of holding any offices soever in that order; and any faculties that have been granted in these matters shall be looked upon as hereby abrogated; and should any others hereafter be granted, they shall be accounted as surreptitious.

CHAPTER VII.

No woman shall be elected abbess, or prioress, or by what other name soever she who is appointed and placed over [others] may be called, who is less than forty years of age, and who has not passed eight of those years in a praiseworthy manner, after having declared her profession. But should no one be found in the same monastery with these qualifications, one may be elected out of another monastery of the same order. But if this also shall seem inconvenient to the superior who presides over the election, with the consent of the bishop, or other superior, there may be one chosen from amongst those, in the same convent, who have exceeded their thirtieth year, and who have, since their profession, passed at least five of those years in an upright manner. But no female shall be set over two convents; and if any one is, in any way, in possession of two or more, she shall, retaining one, be constrained to resign the rest within six months: but after that period, if she have not resigned, they shall be all by the very fact vacant. And he