Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/81



It is not lawful for any one holding a Benefice requiring personal residence to be absent, save for a just cause to he approved of by the Bishop, who even then shall, for the cure of souls, substitute a Vicar in his stead, withdrawing a portion of the fruits.

Those inferior to bishops, who hold by title, or in commendam, any ecclesiastical benefices requiring personal residence whether by law or custom, shall be compelled, by their ordinaries, by suitable legal remedies, to reside as shall seem expedient to them for the good government of the churches and the advancement of divine worship, considering the character of the places and persons; and to no one shall any perpetual privileges, or indults, in favour of not residing, or of receiving the fruits during absence, be of avail: temporary indulgences, however, and dispensations, granted solely for true and reasonable causes, and which are to be legitimately proved before the ordinary, remaining in force: in which cases, nevertheless, it shall be the office of bishops, as delegated in this matter by the Apostolic See, to provide that, by the deputing of competent vicars, and the assigning to them of a suitable portion of the fruits, the cure of souls be in nowise neglected; no privilege in this respect, or exemption whatever, being of avail to any.

The prelates of the churches shall apply themselves prudently and diligently to correct the excesses of those in subjection; and no secular clerk, under pretext of a personal [privilege], or any regular, living out of his monastery, shall, under pretext of a privilege of his order, be accounted, if he transgress, exempt from being visited, punished, and corrected, according to the canonical ordinances, by the ordinary of the place, as delegated hereunto by the Apostolic See.