Page:Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils.djvu/219

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'Text. ''We decree further that no money shall be demanded for chrism, oil, and burial. '''

'Text.'' If anyone has received a deanery, prebend, or other ecclesiastical benefices from the hands of laymen, he shall be deprived of the benefice thus unjustly obtained. For, according to the decrees of the holy fathers, laymen, no matter how devout they may be, have no authority to dispose of ecclesiastical property. '''

'Text. ''We decree that that pernicious and detestable custom of some women who, though they live neither according to the Rule of blessed Benedict nor according to the rules of Basil and Augustine, yet wish to be commonly regarded as nuns, be abolished. For while, according to the rule, those living in monasteries must observe the common life in the church as well as in the refectory and dormitory, these build their own retreats (receptacula) and private houses in which, contrary to the sacred canons and good morals, they are not ashamed to receive at times under cover of hospitality strangers and persons of little religious faith. Wherefore, since all who do evil hate the light, moved by the same impulse, these, hidden in the tent of the just (that is, under the name of nuns), think they can conceal themselves also from the eyes of the Judge who sees all things, we absolutely and under penalty of anathema forbid that this disgraceful and detestable evil be practiced in the future. '''

Comment. The religious institutes of the time were not immune against the disorders and disturbances born of feudalism. During the tenth and two succeeding centuries the number of women's communities increased rapidly, with the unfortunate result that not all who entered were inspired by the proper religious motives. The present canon, it seems, was directed chiefly against those canonicae seculares who lived outside the convents, ___