Since, in the judgment of the prelates and other ecclesiastics, the decrees of the holy council of Basel seemed to afford a suitable The decrees of Basel accepted with some modifications remedy for all these evils, after mature deliberation, we have decided to accept them—some without change, others with certain modifications—without wishing to cast doubt upon the power and authority of the council, but at the same time taking account of the necessities of the occasion and of the customs of the nation.
1. General councils shall be held every ten years, in places to be designated by the pope.
2. The authority of the general council is superior to that of the pope in all that pertains to the faith, the extirpation of schism, and the reform of the Church in both head and members.[543]
3. Election is reëstablished for ecclesiastical offices; but the king, or the princes of his kingdom, without violating the canonical rules, may make recommendations when elections are to occur in the chapters or the monasteries.[544]
4. The popes shall not have the right to reserve the collation of benefices, or to bestow any benefice before it becomes vacant.
5. All grants of benefices made by the pope in virtue of the droit d'expectative are hereby declared null. Those who shall have received such benefices shall be punished by the secular power. The popes shall not have the right to interfere by the creation of canonships.[545]
6. Appeals to Rome are prohibited until every other grade of jurisdiction shall have been exhausted.
7. Annates are prohibited.[546]