CHAPTER III.
Bishops, even as the delegates of the Apostolic See, shall be able to divide the third part of any maimer of fruits and revenues of all dignities, personates, and offices existing in cathedral or collegiate churches, into distributions, to be assigned according to their discretion; in such wise, to wit, that, if those who have the right to receive them[1] should fail, on any appointed day, personally to discharge the duty devolving upon them, according to the form to be prescribed by the said bishops, they shall forfeit that day's distribution, and shall acquire no manner of property therein, but it shall be applied to the fabric of the church, in as far as it may need, or to some other pious place, at the discretion of the ordinary. But if their contumacy increase, they shall proceed against them according to the constitutions of the sacred canons. But if upon any of the aforesaid dignitaries any jurisdiction, administration, or office in the cathedral or collegiate churches, devolves neither by right nor custom; but, out of the city, in the [same] diocese, there is a cure of souls to be attended to [by him], which he, who holds that dignity, is willing to take upon himself; in this case, during the time that he shall reside and minister in the church with that cure, he shall be considered as though he were present and assisted at the divine offices in those cathedral or collegiate churches. These things are to be understood as appointed for those churches only, in which there is no custom, or statute, whereby the said dignitaries, who do not serve, lose something, which amounts to the third part of the said fruits and proceeds: any customs, even though immemorial, exemptions, and constitutions, even though confirmed by oath or by any authority soever, to the contrary notwithstanding.
- ↑ Qui eas obtinent.
