one who is constituted in. the sacred orders of the priesthood, even unto his condemnation, as also to his verbal deposition; and he shall by himself be able to proceed even to actual and solemn degradation from the said ecclesiastical orders and degrees, in the cases wherein the presence of other bishops, in a definite number, is required by the canons;[1] abbots, however, who have the right of using the mitre and crozier by apostolic privilege, if so be that they can be found in the city, or diocese, and can conveniently be present, being called in, and assisting him in this matter; or, in their default, other persons constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, who are of weight by their age, and recommended by their knowledge of law.
CHAPTER V.
The Bishop shall take Summary Cognizance of Graces referring to the remission of a Sin, or a Punishment.
And because it sometimes happens that, under false pleas, which yet seem probable enough, certain persons artfully get possession of[2] graces, by which the punishments inflicted upon them by the just severity of the bishops are either wholly remitted, or are mitigated; whereas it is a thing not to be borne, that a lie, which is so exceedingly displeasing to God, should not only itself go unpunished, but even obtain the pardon of another crime for him that tells it; [the synod] hath for this cause ordained and decreed as follows:—A bishop, residing at his own church, shall of himself, as delegate of the Apostolic See, even summarily take cognizance of the surreption or obreption of any grace, obtained under feigned pleas, for the absolution of any public crime or delinquency, concerning which he himself had commenced inquiry, or for the remission of a punishment to which the criminal had by himself been condemned; and he shall not admit the said grace, after that it shall have been lawfully evinced, that it was obtained by the statement of a falsehood, or by the suppression of the truth.
