Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/433

 ELECTION

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ELECTION

even, it requires two votes. In calculating the ma- jority, neither absent electors nor blank ballots are taken into account; whoever casts a blank vote is held to have forfeited his electoral right for that bal- lot. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority, balloting is recommenced, and so on until a definitive vote is reached. However, not to prolong useless balloting, special statutes can prescribe, and in fact have provided, various solutions, e. g. that after three rounds of fruitless balloting the election shall devolve upon the superior; or again, that in the third round the electors can vote only between the two most fa- voured candidates; or, finally, that in the fourth round a relative majority shall suffice (Rules of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars for congrega- tions of women under simple vows, art. ccxxxiii sq.). Other special regulations provide for the case of two candidates receiving the same number of votes (the voters being of even number), in which event the elec- tion is decided in favour of the senior (by age, ordina- tion, or religious profession) ; sometimes the deciding vote is assigned to the presiding officer. For all these details it is necessary to know and observe the special legislation that covers them.

When the final vote is obtained, whatever its char- acter, it should be made public, i. e. officially com- municated to the electoral assembly by the presiding officer. The decree of election is then drawn up ; in other words, the document which verifies the voting and the election. The role of the electoral college thus fulfilled, the election is closed.

The principal duty of an elector is to vote according to his conscience, without allowing himself to be actu- ated by human or selfish motives, i. e., he must vote for him whom he deems the most worthy and best qualified among the persons fit for the office in ques- tion. External law can scarcely go farther, but mor- alists rightly declare guilty of mortal sin the elector who, against his conscience, casts his vote for one who is unworthy. In order, however, to fulfil his duty, the elector has a right to be entirely free and uninflu- enced by the dread of any unjust annoyance (ivxatio) which might affect his vote, whether such annoyance be in its source civil or ecclesiastical (cc. xiv and xliii, h. t.).

V. After Election. — We are confronted here by two hypotheses: either an election is or is not dis- puted. An election may be disputed by whoever is interested in it, in which ca.se the question of its valid- ity is referred to the superior, in accordance with the same rule as for judicial appeals. Now, an election may be defective in three ways, i. e. as to the electors, the person elected, or the mode of election. The de- fect concerns the electors if, through culpable neglect, one or more of those who have a right to participate in the election are not summoned ; or if laymen, excom- municates vitatidi, or unauthorized ecclesiastics are admitted as electors. The defect lies with the person elected if it can be proved that he was not fit (ifhneus), in which case he may be postulated, or that he was positively unworthy, in which event the election is invalid. Finally, the defect concerns the form or mode of election when the legal prescriptions relative to balloting or compromise have not been observed. The challenged election, with proofs of its imperfec- tion, is judged canonieally by the proper ecclesiastical superior. If the alleged defect is not proven, the elec- tion is sustained ; if it be proven, the judge declares it, whereupon the law provides the following sanctions: An election made by laymen, or with their assistance, is invalid (c. Ivi, h. t.); the one at which an excom- municated person has been admitted to vote, as al.so that to which an elector has not been invited, must be closely investigated, but is not to be annulled unless the absence of the excommunicated person, or the presence of the unsummoned elector might have given a different turn to the vote. The election of a person

who is not unworthy, but simply the victim of an im- pediment, may be treated indulgently ; that of an un- worthy person is to be annulled, while the electors who, knowing him to be such, nevertheless elected him, are deprived for that time of the right to vote and are suspended for three years from the benefices they hold in the vacant church in question. Finally, the election wherein the prescribed form has not been ob- served must be annulled. In all of these cases the right to elect (bishops) devolves upon the Holy See (Boniface VIII, c. xviii, h. t., in VI°) ; the only case in which it devolves upon the immediate superior is when the election has not been made within the pre- scribed time-limit.

If, on the contrary, the election meets with no oppo- sition the first duty of the presiding officer of the elec- toral college is to notify the person elected that choice is made of his person. If he be present, e. g. in the elections of regulars, the notification takes place im- mediately; if he be absent, the decree of election must be forwarded to him within eight days, barring legiti- mate hindrance. On his side, the person elected is allowed a month within which to make known his ac- ceptance or refusal, the month dating from the time of receiving the decree of election or the permission of the superior when such is obligatory. If the person elected refuses the honour conferred upon him, the electoral college is summoned to proceed with a new election, under the same conditions as the first time and within a month. If he accepts, it is his right as well as his duty to demand from the superior the con- firmation of his election within the peremptory limit of three months (c. vi, h. t., in VI°); but if, without legitimate hindrance, he allows this time to pass un- used, the election has lapsed. From the moment of his acceptance, the person elected acquires a real, though still incomplete, right to the benefice or charge, the jus ad rem to be completed and transformed into full right (jus in re) by the confirmation of the election; it is his privilege to exact this confirmation from the superior, just as it is the latter's duty to give it, except in the event of unworthiness, of which fact the supe- rior remains judge. However, until the person elected has received this confirmation, he cannot take advan- tage of his still incomplete right to interfere in any way whatever in the administration of his benefice, the punishment being the invalidity of all administra- tive acts thus accomplished and privation of the bene- fice itself. The ecclesiastical legislation on this point is very severe, but it concerns episcopal sees only. In the time of Innocent III (1198-1210) those elected to an ordinary episcopal see had to seek the confirmation of their election from the metropolitan only. Bishops outside of Italy who had to obtain from Rome the con- firmation of their election (metropolitans, or bishops immediately subject to the Holy See) were authorized (c. xliv, h. t.), in cases of necessity, to enter at once on the administration of their churches, provided their election had aroused no opposition; meanwhile the confirmation proceedings went their ordinary course at Rome.

At the Second Council of Lyons, in 1274 (c. Avari- tice, V, h. t., in VI°), elected persons were forbidden, under penalty of deprivation of their dignity, to med- dle in the administration of their benefice by assuming the title of administrator, procurator, or the like. A little later, Boniface VIII (Extrav., Injunctie, i, h. t.) established the rule still in force for entering on pos- session of major benefices and episcopal sees, accord- ing to which the person elected must not be received unless he present to the provisional administrators the Apostolical Letters of his election, promotion, and confirmation. The Council of Trent having estab- lished the vicar capitular as provisional administrator of the diocese during the vacancy of the see, it became necessary to prohibit elected persons from entering on the administration of their future dioceses in the car