Can. 265 Every cleric must be incardinated in a particular church, or in a personal Prelature, or in an institute of consecrated life or a society which has this faculty: accordingly, acephalous or 'wandering' clergy are in no way to be allowed.
Of course this legislation is in line with the Council of Trent and its prohibition against Vagus priests and bishops.
1.4 The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
The Council of Trent, a counter-reformation Council, attempted to make broad reforms in ecclesiastical discipline. Some of those reforms sgnificantly affected the movement of the clergy. One such reform was aimed at completely eliminating clerici vagi. The Council attempted to do this in several ways.
First and foremost, the Council limited the use of the title of patrimony as a condition for the ordination of a candidate to the clerical state and gave priority to the title of benefice. Some of the bishops who were participating in the Council suggested that the title of patrimony be abolished altogether so that they would revert to the earlier legislation promulgated in c. 6 of the Council of Chalcedon.94 Bishops from poor
92 Ibid.
93 MCBRIDE, Incardination and Excardination of Seculars, 133. 94 See footnote 63 on page 26.
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dioceses objected to this proposal on the grounds that, since they did not have enough church funds in the form of benefices, their Christian faithful would be deprived of priests. So, the bishops agreed on a compromise position of retaining the title of patrimony but restricted how it was granted to the clergy.95 Canon 16 of session 23 stipulated that candidates, who were seeking ordination based on the title of patrimony, could only be ordained if the bishop judged that they would be necessary and useful for his diocese. It further stated that someone could not be ordained a cleric unless he was assigned and obligated to reside in a church or religious place for which he was being ordained. The same canon prescribed a penalty for a cleric who left his place of ministry without the consent of his bishop. He was to be suspended from the exercise of sacred orders.96
In order to save the Church from the disgrace of clerics roaming around begging or getting involved in some secular trade, c. 2 of session 21 forbade the ordination of a candidate until it was proven that he possessed a church benefice. He was not to be ordained even if he was suitable in character, education, and age unless there was concrete evidence that there were enough resources to support him. The candidates who possessed patrimony would only be ordained if the bishop judged that, apart from having
95 F.X. WENZ, P. VIDAL and F. AQUIRRE (eds.), Ius canonicum, vol. II, Romae, apud aedes Universitas Gregorianae, 1938, 70.
96 “No one should be ordained unless his bishop judges that he will be useful or necessary for his churches. Hence the holy council, following the example of the sixth canon of the Council of Chalcedon, decrees that no one is to be ordained henceforth without being assigned to the church or place of piety for the needs and advantage of which he was being advanced, and where he may fulfill his functions and not wander about in a homeless fashion. And if he deserts that post without the bishop’s consent, he is to be banned from sacred ministry. And furthermore, no wandering cleric is to be allowed by any bishop to celebrate the liturgy and administer the sacraments without commendatory letters from his own bishop”(COUNCIL OF TRENT, session 23, c. 16, in TANNER, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 2, 749-750).
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sufficient wealth to support themselves, they were also needed to offer service to the Church.97
Another way the council attempted to eliminate acephalous clerics was by requiring foreign priests to have commendatory letters (litterae commendatitiae) from their bishops before they could celebrate liturgy and administer sacraments in another diocese.98 A bishop had the right to deny a priest this letter under three conditions: firstly, if he needed the service of the cleric in his diocese; secondly, if the cleric’s reason for departure was unjust and unreasonable; and thirdly, if the bishop himself was willing to support the cleric out of an assured church fund.99
Furthermore, the Council imposed upon diocesan bishops the obligation of erecting a seminary or a special institution devoted to the formation of candidates for the local secular clergy.100 It was the responsibility of the bishop to set up a seminary administrative fund for the maintenance of the seminary and the welfare of poor seminarians. Richer seminarians were expected to sustain themselves from their own resources. The boys admitted to these seminaries were required to be at least twelve years
97 “It is not fitting that those enlisted for the service of God should bring disgrace on their order by begging or plying some mean trade, but it is public knowledge that many are admitted to holy orders with hardly any process of selection, who pretend by various tricks and deceits that they possess a church benefice or have sufficient means of their own. Hence the holy council lays down that in the future no secular clerk should be advanced to holy orders, however suitable he may otherwise be in character, learning and age, until it first legally established that he has unchallenged tenure of a church benefice sufficient for respectable living” (Ibid., session 21, c. 2, in TANNER, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol.2, 728-729).
98 Ibid., session 23, c. 16 in TANNER, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 750.
99 MCBRIDE, Incardination and Excardination of Seculars, 172.
100 The Tridentine seminary legislation is contained in c. 18 of session 23 of the Council of Trent. See COUNCIL OF TRENT, session 23, c. 18, in TANNER, Decrees, vol. 2, 750-751. For a detailed study of this legislation see J.A. O’DONOHOE, Tridentine Seminary Legislation: Its Sources and Its Formation, JCD diss., Louvain, Publications Universitaires de Louvain, 1957, 17-162 (= O’Donohoe, Tridentine Seminary Legislation).
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old and had to know how to read and write competently. Since the formation of priests was a diocesan enterprise, it was naturally expected that, after the candidates had been ordained priests, they would serve the diocese that paid for their training throughout their life.101
The Council of Trent attempted to regulate the ministry and movement of clerics by ensuring that a candidate was ordained a cleric only after he been judged to be useful to and needed by his diocese.102 Similarly, if a cleric was to be transferred from one diocese to another, it would have to be because of the usefulness of the cleric and the need of the diocese, and not just because the cleric had his own wealth to support himself. Secondly, by strengthening the norms on benefices, the Council intended to guarantee that clerics remained in their churches, carrying out their ministry, and not wandering from place to place.103 Thirdly, by requiring every diocese to have its own seminary, the Council of Trent intended to attach the future priests from a very young age to the service of a particular diocese.104
https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/36717/1/Obel_Andrew_Kinarah_2017_Thesis.pdf
Twenty-Second Session of the Council of Trent
Decree Concerning The Things To Be Observed And Avoided In The Celebration Of Mass
What great care is to be taken that the holy sacrifice of the mass be celebrated with all religious devotion and reverence, each one may easily conceive who considers that in the sacred writings he is called accursed who does the work of God negligently.[30] And since we must confess that no other work can be performed by the faithful that is so holy and divine as this awe-inspiring mystery, wherein that life-giving victim by which we are reconciled to the Father is daily immolated on the altar by priests, it is also sufficiently clear that all effort and attention must be directed to the end that it be performed with the greatest possible interior cleanness and purity of heart and exterior evidence of devotion and piety.[31] Therefore, since either through the depravity of the times or through the indifference and corruption of men many things seem already to have crept in that are foreign to the dignity of so great a sacrifice, in order that the honor and worship due to it may for the glory of God and the edification of the faithful be restored, the holy council decrees that the local ordinaries shall be zealously concerned and be bound to prohibit and abolish all those things which either covetousness, which is a serving of idols,[32] or irreverence, which can scarcely be separated from ungodliness, or superstition, a false imitation of true piety, have introduced.
And that many things may be summed up in a few, they shall in the first place, as regards avarice, absolutely forbid conditions of compensations of whatever kind, bargains, and whatever is given for the celebration of new masses; also those importunate and unbecoming demands, rather than requests, for alms and other things of this kind which border on simoniacal taint or certainly savor of filthy lucre.
In the second place, that irreverence may be avoided, each in his own diocese shall forbid that any wandering or unknown priest be permitted to celebrate mass.
What is the upshot of these sensible decrees and canons?
Well, the upshot is the Novus Ordo Watch Schismatic Sedevacantist Sect can do whatever it wants.
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