Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/269

236 CHAPTER VI.

How the Bishop ought to act in regard to the Visitation of Exempted Chapters.

The holy synod ordains that the decree, made under Paul III, of happy memory, beginning Capitula Cathedralium, shall be observed in all cathedral and collegiate churches, not only when the bishop makes his visitation, but also as often as he proceeds, according to the duties of his office, or at the petition of another, against any one of those comprised in the said decree; yet so, however, that whenever he institutes proceedings out of visitation, all the particulars here subjoined shall have place: to wit, that the chapter shall, at the beginning of each year, select two persons belonging to the chapter, with whose counsel and consent the bishop, or his vicar, shall be bound to proceed, both in instituting the process, and in all the other acts thereof, until the end of the cause inclusively, in the presence, however, of the notary of the said bishop, and in his (the bishop's) house, or his ordinary court. The two deputies shall, however, have but one vote; and either of them may give his vote in accordance with [that of] the bishop. But if, in any proceeding, or in any interlocutory or definitive sentence, they shall both differ from the bishop, they shall in such case, within the term of six days, choose, in conjunction with the bishop, a third person; and should they also differ respecting the election of that third person, the choice shall devolve upon the nearest bishop; and the point whereon they differed shall be decided, according to the opinion with which that third person agrees; otherwise, the proceedings, and what follows thereupon, shall be null, and shall have no effect in law. Nevertheless, in crimes arising from incontinency, whereof mention has been made in the decree concerning concubinaries, as also in the more heinous crimes which require deposition or degradation; where there is apprehension of flight, and where, that judgment may not be eluded, it is necessary to detain the person, the bishop may at first proceed singly to a summary information, and to the necessary detention [of the person]; observing, however, in the rest of the proceedings, the order above laid down. But in all cases regard is to be had to this, that the