THE MANNER OF PROCEEDING AGAINST CLERICS WHO KEEP

CONCUBINES IS PRESCRIBED
From the Council of Trent

How shameful a thing, and how unworthy it is of the name of clerics who have devoted
themselves to the service of God, to live in the filth of impurity, and unclean bondage, the
thing itself doth testify, in the common scandal of all the faithful, and the extreme disgrace
entailed on the clerical order. To the end, therefore, that the ministers of the Church may be
recalled to that continency and integrity of life which becomes them; and that the people may
hence learn to reverence them the more, that they know them to be more pure of life: the holy
Synod forbids all clerics whatsoever to dare to keep concubines, or any other woman of
whom any suspicion can exist, either in their own houses, or elsewhere, or to presume to have
any intercourse with them: otherwise they shall be punished with the penalties imposed by
the sacred canons, or by the statutes of the (several) churches, But if, after being admonished
by their superiors, they shall not abstain from these women, they shall be ipso facto deprived
of the third part of the fruits, rents, and proceeds of all their benefices whatsoever, and
pensions; which third part shall be applied to the fabric of the church, or to some other pious
place, at the discretion of the bishop. If, however, persisting in the same crime, with the same
or some other woman, they shall not even yet have obeyed upon a second admonition, not
only shall they thereupon forfeit all the fruits and proceeds of their benefices and pensions,
which shall be applied to the places aforesaid, but they shall also be suspended from the
administration of the benefices themselves, for as long a period as shall seem fit to the
Ordinary, even as the delegate of the Apostolic See. And if, having been thus suspended, they
nevertheless shall not put away those women, or, even if they shall have intercourse with
them, then shall they be for ever deprived of their ecclesiastical benefices, portions, offices,
and pensions of whatsoever kind, and be rendered thenceforth incapable and unworthy of any
manner of honours, dignities, benefices and offices, until, after a manifest amendment of life,
it shall seem good to their superiors, for a cause, to grant them a dispensation. But if, after
having once put them away, they shall have dared to renew the interrupted connexion, or to
take to themselves other scandalous women of this sort, they shall, in addition to the penalties
aforesaid, be smitten with the sword of excommunication. Nor shall any appeal, or
exemption, hinder or suspend the execution of the aforesaid; and the cognizance of all the
matters above-named shall not belong to archdeacons, or deans, or other inferiors, but to the
bishops themselves, who may proceed without the noise and the formalities of justice, and by
the sole investigation of the truth of the fact.

As regards clerics who have not ecclesiastical benefices or pensions, they shall, according to
the quality of their crime and contumacy, and their persistance therein, be punished, by the
bishop himself, with imprisonment, suspension from their order, inability to obtain benefices,
or in other ways, conformably with the sacred canons.

Bishops also, if, which God forbid, they abstain not from crime of this nature, and, upon
being admonished by the provincial Synod, they do not amend, shall be ipso facto suspended;
and, if they persist therein, they shall be reported by the said Synod to the most holy Roman
Pontiff, who shall punish them according to the nature of their guilt, even with deprivation if
need be.