to ecclesiastical benefices, scruple not to select unworthy persons, who have not the suffrage either of correctness of morals, nor of the possession of learning, following the affections of the flesh, not the judgment of reason; from which source, no one of sound mind can be ignorant what heavy destruction results to the churches. Wishing, therefore, to remedy this disease, we enjoin that, passing by the unworthy, they select the deserving, who may be willing and able to bestow on God and the churches a grateful service, and that a careful examination be made annually touching this matter in the provincial council, in such a manner that he who, after the first and second correction, has been found blame-worthy, may be suspended from conferring benefices by the council itself, a provident and reputable person being appointed in the same council, who may supply the defect of the suspended person in conferring benefices. And let this same be observed with respect to the chapters which may have transgressed in these particulars. But let the delinquency of the metropolitan be left to the judgment of the superior, to be reported on the part of the council. But that this wholesome provision may obtain fuller effect, let the sentence of such suspension, besides the authority of the Roman pontiff, or of the proper patriarch, be by no means relaxed, that in this, also, the four patriarchal sees may be especially honoured.
Innocent III. in the Council of Lateran.
From Book 3 of the Decretals, tit, XXXV. on the State of Monks, cap. 7.
(Sess. xxv. de regul. et monial. cap. 8.)
In every kingdom and province, let there be every three years, without detriment to the right of the diocesan pontiffs, a common chapter of the abbots, and of the priors not having their own abbots, who have been accustomed to attend such chapters, at which all not labouring under a canonical impediment are to assemble at one of the monasteries suited for this purpose; this check being applied, that none of them is to bring more than six evictions and eight persons. But at the commencement of this innovation, let them cite in charity two abbots of the Cistercian order, who may be near at hand, to afford advice and timely aid, as by
