Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/140

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108
SESSION XIV.

shall be the defendant, it shall happen that the conservator chosen by him shall be declared by the plaintiff to be one suspected by him, or if any controversy shall have arisen between the judges themselves, [that is to say,] the conservator and the ordinary, concerning competency of jurisdiction, the cause shall not be proceeded with, until by arbitrators, chosen in legal form, a decision shall have been made relative to the said suspicion, or competency of jurisdiction. Neither to the said party's domestics, who are in the habit of screening themselves under these letters conservatory, shall they be of any avail, save to two only, and this provided they live at his own proper cost. Nor shall any one enjoy the benefit of such letters longer than for five years. It shall also be unlawful for conservatory judges to have any fixed tribunal.

But in causes relating to wages and to persons in a state of poverty, the decree of this holy synod thereupon shall remain in its full force. But general universities, and colleges of doctors or scholars, places belonging to regulars, as also hospitals actually exercising hospitality, and persons belonging to the said universities, colleges, places, and hospitals, are not [to be understood as] included in this present canon, but are, and are to be considered wholly exempted.

CHAPTER VI.

A Penalty is decreed against Clerks who, being in Holy Orders or holding Benefices, do not wear the Dress beseeming their Order.

But forasmuch as, although the habit doth not make the monk,[1] it is nevertheless needful that clerks always wear a dress suitable to their proper order, that by the decency of their outward apparel they may show forth the inward correctness of their morals; but, in these days, to such a pitch has the rashness of some, and their contempt of religion grown, as that, making but little account of their own dignity, and of the clerical honour, they wear even in public the dress of laymen, setting their feet in different paths, one divine, the other of the flesh; for this reason, all ecclesiastical persons, howsoever exempted, who are either in holy

  1. The usual proverb is "cucullus non fecit monachum."