The different regulations established in former times by the Holy Fathers concerning ecclesiastical affairs shall be still observed, so far as they are consistent with the interests of the church. As antiquity, which has been the cause of the destruction of many lofty buildings, has not spared the houses of God; it is eminently proper that such of the latter as are in danger of destruction should be repaired. As a result of this necessity it has been made a source of reproach to our organization, that the greed of certain priests has caused their parishes to be oppressed by repeated forced contributions; and that many churches have been impoverished under pretence of repairs. Consequently it has been decreed and confirmed by our Council that the third part of the ecclesiastical revenues, which the ancient canons have set apart for that purpose, shall be used for the repairs of churches, whenever required. And when churches are to be repaired, it is better to learn this fact from the worshippers themselves, and the repairs should then be made under the personal care and direction of the bishop. For, although according to the provisions of the ancient canons, every bishop has the right to reserve for himself the third part of the revenues of his diocese, if he should desire to do so; so, also, he had no right to exact from the parish churches, by means of arbitrary proceedings, the remaining two-thirds of the said revenues; nor was he at liberty to give away any of such property to anyone by way of compensation for services performed. We deem it necessary to decree that a single priest shall never have charge of more than one church at a time; nor hold any other office; nor by ecclesiastical authority act as guardian; nor, in any way, have charge of the property of wards; and any congregation which possesses ten pieces of property is entitled to a priest, but such as have less than ten shall be united with other churches. And if any bishop should disregard this our regulation, and should hereafter venture to disobey it, he shall expiate his offence by two months’ excommunication.[25]
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS WAMBA, KING.
VI. Concerning the Arbitrary Conduct of Bishops.
God, the just Judge, who loves right eternally, does not wish that justice should be subject to time, but rather that time should be governed by the principles of equity. God himself is the personification of justice, and to him should be given whatever is bestowed by the faithful upon the church through motives of devotion; for God, as mediator, accepts the vows of every true and sincere worshipper. And vows should never be renounced which are known to have proceeded from, and been confirmed by, a sense of justice; and, therefore, he commits a fraud upon God who unjustly takes from him his property. He also violates the rules of justice who corruptly interferes with the vows of others. While, as has been said, God is justice, what madness is it for anyone to remove from God’s possession any property under the claim of prescription, alleging that he has held it for thirty years? For many rash bishops, prompted by avarice, are in the habit of bestowing upon their cathedral churches, or upon various individuals, or paying out as wages for labor performed, the donations that have been given to their dioceses by the faithful, and, in this way, they not only break the vows of the donors, but are also guilty of sacrilege, in that they thereby defraud the Church of God; for it has been long established that to defraud the church is sacrilege. And when they are urged to make restitution, they decline to do so, because their predecessors acted in the same manner; or refuse to make amends, because they claim to have held the property in question for thirty years. Thus they attempt to maintain their cupidity and rapacity by right of prescription; and instead of at once making reparation for their fault, they attempt to confirm and legalize it by the operation of time. He must be considered a person of great impiety who asserts such a claim, and acknowledges that, for thirty years, he has done injury to God, and refuses to make amends for the injury after that period has elapsed.
Therefore, since these most iniquitous abuses are defended under a pretence of justice, and as we are not concerned with the past, but with the future, we shall now proceed to make regulations applicable to the time of our own reign. For the reason that, hereafter, all temptation to avarice may be removed, we hereby decree that it shall not be lawful for a bishop to appropriate any property belonging to the churches of his diocese; or, if any has already been appropriated, to allege that he is entitled to the same on account of his possession for thirty years; but, whenever the facts have been established, he must make restitution at once. As, in order that a long period may pass without a claim being made, the nobility sometimes are guilty of such oppression of ministers of the church that the latter do not dare to assert their rights against such eminent persons, concerning property which has been appropriated by the latter, and lest the voice of the despoiled church remain forever silent, we decree that hereafter, it shall be lawful, where this offence has been admitted by the parties or detected by anyone, in any place, that the claim shall be instituted with all possible speed in the following manner, to wit: that the heirs of the founders of the church shall act as prosecutors, if they are present; but, if they should not be present, and even if they should be, but are unwilling to act, then the governor of the province, or the governor of the city, or the deputy of either of them, or anyone else who has legal cognizance of the matter, shall have the right to act as accuser and prosecutor.
Where any bishops who, in past times, have committed the offences hereinbefore mentioned, and have been in adverse possession of church property for thirty years, and declare that they hold said property by the right of prescription; such persons we leave to the justice of God, for we decline to pass judgment upon them. But whoever, up to the time when this law is promulgated, shall not have had possession of such property for the space of thirty years, shall be compelled to restore it intact to the church, but no penalty shall be required of them. And where any bishop, who from the day of the adoption of this law, should appropriate anything given by the faithful to the churches of God, and should use such property for his own benefit, or for that of his cathedral church, or should bestow any of it upon any person whomsoever, his act shall not be confirmed by any lapse of time; and, according to the above-mentioned decree, whenever he shall have been convicted of the commission of such acts by anybody, he shall be compelled to restore the property which he took, along with lawful amends out of his own possessions, to that church which has been defrauded. If he should not have the means to make full restitution out of his own property, on account of his abuse of authority, he shall undergo the penalty of excommunication prescribed by the canon of the eleventh Council of Toledo; that is to say, if the property that was appropriated was worth ten solidi, he shall purge himself of guilt by twenty days of penance. If the value of the property appropriated should be greater or less, the proportion of days to be passed in penance shall always be doubled; and he also shall undergo a similar penalty who retains possession of any property taken from a diocesan church, which has been appropriated by his predecessor.
Any judge who neglects to carry out the provisions of this law, or delays the proceedings without just cause, or does not notify the king that he may take cognizance of the affair, shall be liable to the same penalty as the bishop who committed the offence, and shall pay said penalty out of his own property to the church whose cause he neglected to decide. This law not only applies to property which has been bestowed upon minor and diocesan churches, but to that in which all assemblies included under the general name of churches are concerned; that is to say, monasteries and convents of men and women.
We also think it proper to add the following provisions to this law: that all bishops who ordain priests and rectors in the churches of their dioceses shall give them instructions concerning the rights of the churches to which they are ordained; that is to say, if any bishop should have in his keeping any document defining the rights of any church in his diocese, he shall show it to the rector of that church, so that the latter may be familiar with the rights of said church, as well as with the documents conferring the same, and not be ordained in ignorance of them, and, what is worse, through the wickedness and duplicity of the bishop, the will of the benefactor of the church be not publicly known. It is also decreed that priests and rectors shall not only have the opportunity to inspect such documents, but shall also be entitled to copies of the same, confirmed under the hand of the bishop, to enable them to direct the affairs of the church committed to their care without any uncertainty, and to enforce the rights to which it is justly entitled. Given and confirmed in the name of God, at Toledo, on the tenth day of the Kalends of January, in the fourth year of our reign.
THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS WAMBA, KING.
VII. Emancipated Slaves of the Church, who are still Bound to Render it Service, shall not be Permitted to Marry Persons who are Freeborn.