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Summary: Clerics, especially
those in sacred orders, shall live chastely and virtuously. Anyone suspended
for incontinency who presumes to celebrate the divine mysteries shall be
forever deposed.
Text: That the morals and
general conduct of clerics may be better let all strive to live chastely and
virtuously, particularly those in sacred orders, guarding against every vice of
desire, especially that on account of which the anger of God came from heaven
upon the children of unbelief, so that in the sight of Almighty God they may
perform their duties with a pure heart and chaste body. But lest the facility
to obtain pardon be an incentive to do wrong, we decree that whoever shall be
found to indulge in the vice of incontinence, shall, in proportion to the
gravity of his sin, be punished in accordance with the canonical statutes,
which we command to be strictly and rigorously observed, so that he whom divine
fear does not restrain from evil, may at least be withheld from sin by a
temporal penalty. If therefore anyone suspended for this reason shall presume
to celebrate the divine mysteries, let him not only be deprived of his
ecclesiastical benefices but for this twofold offense let him be forever
deposed. Prelates who dare support such in their iniquities, especially in view
of money or other temporal advantages, shall be subject to a like punishment.
But if those. who according to the practice of their country have not renounced
the conjugal bond, fall by the vice of impurity, they are to be punished more
severely, since they can use matrimony lawfully.
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