A.—The Bull "Clericis Laicos."
Boniface, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual remembrance of this matter. Ancient writings declare the hostility of laymen to clerics in a city, and the experience of these present days confirms it, for laymen, not content with their own, strive to enter a forbidden sphere, and cast off restraint in quest of unlawful power; nor do they prudently remember that jurisdiction over clerics and ecclesiastics and their goods is prohibited to them; on the contrary, they impose heavy burdens on prelates of churches, churches, and the regular and secular clergy, talliage them, ... and compel them to undergo all manner of servitude ...; further, ... some prelates, ... seeking a transitory peace, ... acquiesce in such abuses, without obtaining the authority of the Apostolic See. We, therefore, wishing to prevent such occurrences, by the advice of our brethren, decree by our apostolic authority, that all prelates or clerics, ... who pay or promise to laymen imposts or talliages, a half, a tenth, a twentieth, or a hundredth, of the goods and revenues belonging to themselves and their churches ... without the authority of the same see; likewise all Emperors, Kings, Princes, Dukes, Earls, ... and any others ... who impose, exact, or receive such payments, ... thereby incur the sentence of excommunication.