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 PROBA

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PROBA

pus). Sacred objects {res sacrce) are immediately connected with Divine worship, and are set apart from all other things by an act of worship or con- secration as things consecrated {res consecrate), and by benediction as tilings blessed (res benediclce). To res consecratce belong churches, altars, chalices, and patens; to res benediclce a series of ecclesiastical utensils and cemeteries.

As the ecclesiastical property serves for the pubhc good, it was exempted by the Roman emperors from all the lower and extraordinary burdens, but not from the regular taxes (1. 3, C. de episc. I, 3). This example was followed in the Prankish empire, in which church propertj' was subject to all the or- dinary public burdens. In addition, however, many extraordinarj' burdens were imposed, such as the dona graluiia to the king, the furnishing of accommoda- tion for him on liis journeys, the rendering of court and war sen-ices to him as their feudal lord, and many arbitrarj- forms of oppression. Consequently, the Third Lateran Council (1179) demanded the complete exemption of church property from taxa- tion, and that onh' in case of pubUc need, and then only with the consent of the bishop or of the pope, should it be subjected to public burdens (cc. 2, 4, 7, X de immun. Ill, 49; c. 1, 3, in Vlto h. t. Ill, 23; c. un. in Clem. h. t. Ill, 17; c. un. Extrav. commun. Ill, 13). Frederick II accordinglj' granted church property exemption from all taxation (Au- thentica "Item nulla" ad 1. 2, C de episc. I, 3). After the close of the Middle Ages, however, secular rulers subjected to a great extent church property to public burdens; the Council of Trent therefore admonished them to respect the old privilege of im- munitas realis (Sess. XXV de Ref., c. xx), but with- out much success. In modern and recent times the tendency has everj'where been to subject church prop- erty more and more to public taxation. The asser- tion that the privilege of immunitas realis was of purely secular origin was declared erroneous by Pius IX in the Syllabus, n. 30. Here and there, as in Germany and Austria, the State laws accord partial freedom from taxation to ecclesiastical property. In Italy the papal propertj' is alone exempt; in France exemption ceased with the separation of Church and State. In the United States the Church shares in the exemption generally granted to all institutions labouring for the public good. The con- ditions varj- much in the other lands.

For places and things consecrated to the Divine ser- vice no rights can be claimed which involve a profane use. Consequently, such objects are in this sense extra-commercial. Otherwise, in sharp distinction from the res sacrce among the Romans and contrary to the practice of the early Christian centuries, they may, in accordance with the Germanic conception of private churches, be pos.sessed by private individuals and even enter into civil transactions and commerce. In churches and cemeteries, however, no judicial trans- actions, political meetings, markets, banquets, theatri- cal performances, secular concerts, dances etc., may be held. The bishop maj' in all cases sanction their use outside of Divine service, proxided that all scan- dal be avoided. Similarly, the use of the church- bell for secular purposes may be allowed or tolerated apart from cases of need, where the propriety of its use is g»lf-evident (cc. 1, 5, 9, X. de immun. Ill, 49; c. 2 in Vlto h. t. Ill, 23). Mischief, disorder, and disturbance in the church (especially during Divine service), robbery of the church, the injur>' or destruc- tion of things or buildings con.secrated to the Di\'ine service, disturbance of the peace proper to the ceme- terj' or churchyard, are punished by the State as qualified crimes.

To the ecclesiastical local immimity belongs the right of asylum of churi'hes. Even in the Old Testa- ment it was decreed that the murderer or homicide

might be safe from vengeance in certain places, until the public had come to a decision concerning his sur- render (Ex., xxi, 13; Num., .xxxv, 6 sqq.; Deut., xix,

2 sqq.). Among the Greeks, and especially among the Romans, the temples, the altars, and the statues of the emperor were places of refuge (1, 1, C. de his qui ad statuas confugiunt I. 25). Thus, when Christianity became the rehgion of the State, it followed as an inevitable consequence that the emperor should also raise to the right of sanctuary the chiu-ches and bishops (C. Just, de his qui ad ecclcsias confu- giimt I, 12). But, as the ecclesiastical right of sanctuary was still very limited, the Synod of Car- thage (399) asked the emperor to remove these limita- tions. In the German empires it was the Church which founded the right of asylum as a protection against the rude conception of justice then prevalent and against savage revenge, by decreeing with the assent of the State that a criminal, who had reached the church or its immediate neighbourhood, might be delivered up only after he had performed ecclesiastical penance, and after the secular judge had promised that sentence of death or maiming would not be in- flicted upon him (cc. 19, 36, C. XVII, q. 4, Capitulare de partibus Saxoniae, 775-90, c. 2). The right of asylum, which had its origin in this manner and which was subsequently extended to the siu-roundings of the church, the cemeteries, the dwellings of bishops and parish-priests, seminaries, monasteries, and hospitals, was upheld especially by the popes, although they excluded from the privilege very great criminals, such as highway robbers, murderers, and those who chose the church or chiu-chyard as the scene of their crimes 80 as to enjov immediately the right of asylum (cc. 6, 10, X de immun. Ill, 49'; c. 1, X de homic. V, 12).

Since the close of the ^liddle Ages, however, State legislation has been opposed to the ecclesiastical right of asylum, so that the popes have been compelled to modify it more and more (Gregorv XIV, "Cum alias" of 24 "May, 1591; Benedict XIlI, "Ex quo divina", S June, 1725; Clement XII, "In suprema justitiae", 1 Feb., 17.34; Benedict XIV, "Officii Nostri", 15 March, 1750). The modern penal codes no longer recognize an ecclesiastical right of asylum, and the Church can all the more readilj' acquiesce therein, as modern justice is humane and well-regulated. How- ever, even to-day those who violate "ausu temerario" the ecclesiastical right of asylum incur excommuni- caiio latce sentenlim simplv reserved to the pope (Pius IX, "Apost. Sedis moderationi", 12 Oct., 1869, II, 5).

KoLB, Aquila certans pro immunitaie ei exemptione eccUsiarum, monasleriorum et statii:s ecclesiastici a poteslate sacuiaris (Frank- fort, 16S7): Fattouni, Theatrum immunUatis et tibertatis eccte- siastica; (Rome, 1704-30); Bclmbrixcq, Das Asylrecht in seiner geschichtl. Enlwicklujig u. die Auslieferung fliichtiger Verhrecher (Dorpat, 1S53); H&ffer in Archiv f. k-aih. Kirchenrechl. Ill, 755 sq.; Grashoff in ibid., XXXV, 3 sqq., 321 sqq.; XXXVII,

3 sqq., 256 sqq.; XXXVIII, 3 sqq.; WiDDEB in ibid., LXXVIII. 24 sqq.; PoxcET, Les privileges des clercs au moyen-Age (Paris, 1007): Bindschedler, Kirchtiches Asytrechl (Immunitas ecdesiarum localis) u. Freistatten in der Schweiz (Stuttgart, 1908) ; HiNSCHius, Das Kirchenrecht der Katholiken u. Protestanten in Deutschland (Berlin. 1S69-88), I, US sqq.; IV. 156 sqq., 306 sqq.; Wernz, Jus decretalium (2nd ed., Rome. 1905-8), II, i, 236sqq.; Ill, i, 167 sqq.; Ill, ii. 966 sqq.; Laurentius. Inslilutiones juris ecclesiastici (2nd ed., Freiburg, 190S), 83 sqq., 354, 559, 641; Sagm^ller, Lehrbuch des kathol. Kirchenrechts (2nd ed., Freiburg, 1909), 205 sqq., 731 sqq., 861 sqq.

Johannes Baptist SAGMtiLLER.

Proba, Faltonia, Christian poetess of the fourth century. The name Faltonia is doubtful and is apparently due to a confusion, as the MSS. call the author siiiiply Proba. As granddaughter of Probus, consul in 310, daughter of Pctronius Probianius, con- sul in 322, wife of Claudius Celcinus Adalphius, pre- fect of Rome in 351, and mother of C. Clodius Hermo- genianus Olvbrius, consul in 379, and of Faltonius .\lvpius, Proba belonged to that Romim aristocracy wiiich upheld the old pag.an religion so long against Christianity. Proba was at first a pagan, as was her