Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/256

224 CHAPTER XIII.

All disputes concerning precedence, which very often, with the greatest scandal, arise between ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, as well at public processions, as at those which take place in burying the bodies of the dead, or carrying the canopy, and on other similar occasions, the bishop shall settle, all appeal being set aside, and any circumstances notwithstanding. And all exempted persons soever, as well secular as regular clerks, and even monks, on being summoned to public processions, shall be obliged to attend; those only being excepted who live perpetually in more strict enclosure.

CHAPTER XIV.

By whom Punishment is to be inflicted on a Regular who offends publicly.

A regular who, not being subject to the bishop, resides within the enclosures of a monastery, and has, without that enclosure, transgressed so notoriously as to be a scandal to the people, shall, at the instance of the bishop, be severely punished by his own superior, within a time to be appointed by the bishop; and [the superior] shall inform the bishop concerning such punishment. If not, he shall himself be deprived of his office by his own superior, and the delinquent may be punished by the bishop.

CHAPTER XV.

Profession shall not he made except after the Elapse of a Year's Probation, and at the Age of Sixteen Years completed.

In no religious body soever, shall the profession, whether of men or women, be made before the sixteenth year is completed; nor shall any one be admitted to the profession, who has been less than a year under probation since taking the habit. And any profession made earlier shall be null; and shall not bring with it any obligation to the observance