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240 aforesaid shall, nevertheless, be bound, in the court of conscience, to the restitution of the fruits which they have received contrary to the institution of the said hospitals; which [restitution] shall not be pardoned them by any remission or composition: nor shall the administration or government of such places be henceforth intrusted to one and the same person longer than for three years, unless it be found to be otherwise provided in the foundation thereof; notwithstanding, as regards all the above-stated matters, any union, exemption, and custom, even from time immemorial, to the contrary, or any privileges or indults soever.

CHAPTER IX.

In what manner Right of Patronage is to be proved, and to whom granted. Forbidden Accessories.

Even as it is not just to abolish the legitimate rights of patronage, and to violate the pious intentions of the faithful in the institution thereof, so also neither is it to be permitted, that, under this pretence, ecclesiastical benefices be reduced to a state of servitude, as is impudently done by many. To the end, therefore, that fitting reason may be observed in all things, the holy synod decrees, that the title to the right of patronage shall be [derived] from a foundation or endowment; which [title] shall be shown from an authentic document, and the other [proofs] required by law; or, also, by repeated presentations during a course of time of such ancient date that it exceeds the memory of man; or, otherwise, according to the directions of the law. But as regards those persons, or communities, or universities, by which that right is for the most part presumed to have been arrived at rather by usurpation, a fuller and more exact proof shall be required to show a true title; nor shall the proof derived from time immemorial be otherwise of avail in their regard, unless, besides other things necessary for that proof, presentations, even continuous, during the space of at least not less than fifty years, all of which presentations have been carried into effect, shall be proved from authentic writings. All other rights of patronage, in regard of benefices, as well secular as regular, or parochial, or in regard of dignities, or any other benefices soever, in a cathedral or