Folia Theologica 3. (1992)
Charles Duggan: Decretal letters to Hungary
18 C. DUGGAN defamed, but accuser and witnesses are lacking, the bishop should submit him to purgation, unless he appeals to a superior judge, whose ruling he must then obey. Secondly, in the case of a manifest fact, the depositions of witnesses are unnecessary; but if the matter is not manifest and the accused denies it, the witnesses should, by the custom of the Roman Church, be advised, though not compelled, to bear witness, unless it is clear to the judge that they are restrained from bearing witness through fear of the adverse party — though by secular law they may be compelled in some areas to do so. Thirdly, if a priest or clerk brings a property claim against a layman, who asserts that the possessions at stake are his own, the issue should be brought to the secular court, following the maxim actor semper forum rei debeat sequi}9 though in many places the custom is otherwise. Fourthly, the subject of a bishop can be freed from his jurisdiction on grounds of enmity, or opposition, or any evident grounds for suspension — nullus a suspecto iudice debeat iudicari. The letter was listed by Holtzmann among the decretals to Genoa in his „Kanonistische Ergänzungen zur Italia Pontificia” in 1958, but by the time of its publication he had decided against that attribution — „Genua ist sie jedenfalls zu streichen.”19 20 Having considered Chur, Gurk, Evora, Orense, Genf, Cracow and Győr as possible interpretations of the various manuscript readings, he decided at that time for Cracow or Győr, and his final unpublished preference was apparently for Győr, though with a mark of interrogation. The assignment to Győr is almost certainly correct, on the basis of two early Italian collections: the primitive collection at San Ambrogio has the address G. euricen. epo. (legi: Ambr. 45-47, but cf. Holtzmann and Holtzmann/Cheney: G. curicensi episcopo, the basis for the Cracow proposal);21 and Bernard of Pavia’s early systematic collection Parisiensis secunda (Bologna, 1177-78) reads G. eurien. episcopo (2 Par. 29.7). Additionally, a fragment of Bernards 1 Comp in Paris MS nouv. acq. 2622 reads G. erűre epo., and three manuscripts of the Frankfurt collection have the corrupt derivations Geriensi (wrongly altered to Genuensi in Frcf.Rot.) and Giriensi for the recipient bishop. The probable ancestry of the many variations in Gueriensisl Jauriensis (Győr) is persuasive. 19 Cf. Ad apostolice sedis, to Esztergom, V above. 20 QF 39 (1958) 101-03 no. 115. 21 HOLTZMANN/CHENEY, 41 nos 45-7.
