Lawlor — Calendar of the Liber Ruber of the Diocese of Ossorjj. 1G7 



disposed of at the will of the bishop. Those who are disobedient after such 

 punishment are to be deprived. (7) Since it is reported that it is customary 

 to farm ecclesiastical benefices for long periods or for ever (quasi perpetuo) to 

 laymen, who collect the fruits, turning them into lay fees, and allowing the 

 bidldings to fall into ruin, so that the worship of God is diminished, the cure 

 of souls neglected, and the jurisdiction of the ordinary destroyed, and that the 

 wives of the farmers, after the death of their husbands, demand oblations and 

 tithes at the altar during the celebration of Mass, and receive sentences of 

 excommunication, ' p*p° (?) intentantes ' ; it is therefore strictly prohibited 

 henceforth to set to farm any parish church, prebend, vicarage, dignity, or 

 office of jurisdiction to laymen on pain of the greater excommunication. 

 (8) No dignity or benefice shall be farmed to ecclesiastical persons for a long 

 period, except on the ground of urgent necessity and with the bishop's 

 licence, and then for not more than five years ; and a copy of the agree- 

 ment, in such cases, shall be deposited with the bishop. When a benefice 

 is so farmed, if there be no perpetual vicar, a portion of the fruits shall be 

 assigned to a parochial presbyter, who shall be then presented to the bishop, 

 for the performance of divine offices in the church, for his maintenance, and 

 for paying the burdens of the church to the ordinaries. At the conclusion of 

 the period of five years the agreement with the farmer may be renewed if the 

 bishop consents. No vicarage shall be set to farm in any manner. If any 

 benefice be farmed contrary to this statute, it is decreed, with the consent of 

 the Chapter of St. Canice's and of the major part of the clergy of the diocese, 

 that a third part of the revenues thereof shall be applied, in equal shares, to 

 the fabric of the cathedral and to the alms of the bishop. (9) No rector or 

 vicar, or proctor or farmer of the same, shall collect tithes of churches or 

 ecclesiastical fruits outside the land (solum) of the church, turning it into a 

 lay fee, nor sell the fruits collected in gross (so that the ordinaries cannot 

 find fruits to sequestrate, if need be, for the maintenance of those who serve in 

 the same, and for payment of burdens to be raised therefrom), [nor] transfer 

 them in any way, on pain of the greater excommunication. (10) Laymen 

 shall not carry out (?) attachments or secular judgments in churches or 

 cemeteries or sanctuary ; nor shall they lay hands on or convey away 

 ecclesiastical possessions or goods, on pain of the greater excommunication. 

 (11) Those who in any way violently remove persons accused of crime 

 who have fled for refuge to churches, cemeteries, or cloisters, or plunder 

 goods deposited therein for safety, or who shall aid or abet otliers in doing 

 so, shall ipso facto incur the greater excommunication, from which they shall 

 not be released until they have made reparation to the church for the 

 injury which they have done to it, and, having done penance proportionate to 



K.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXVII,, SECT. C. [26J 



