Folia Theologica 3. (1992)

Charles Duggan: Decretal letters to Hungary

DECRETAL LETTERS

25

XI. To the bishop of Osor

Ad audientiam apostolatus

Clement III to the bishop of Osor and the abot of St Andrew of

[?...], on the priest who inadvertantly wounded a member of his household, who later died

Ad audientiam apostolatus is listed in JL among the letters of Clement III (1187-91), with the address Episcopo Abserenti (Absorensi ?) et abbati sancti Andreae de Bergis, suggesting as recipients the bishop of Osor/ Oser/Ossero on the Dalmatian island of Kres/Cres/Cherso, a suffragan of Zara, and the head of an abbey of uncertain location. This reading was derived from the Lucca collection (Luc. 3): abseren. episcopo et abbati sancti andree de b’gis. Otherwise, of the nine collections known to transmit the letter, only the Siguænza manuscript (Seg. 11) provides a territorial designation for the bishop, but it omits the name of the co-recipient abbot’s house — abseren. episcopo et abbati sancti andree de [...]; and the Reims collection (Rem. 30) has the garbled reading episcopo et abbati sancti andree. Holtzmann considered the possibility that the place- name spellings were corruptions of Oslo and Bergen in Norway, but noted the absence of an abbey of St Andrew in the latter; and in his analysis of Seg., he accepted the identification of Osor as the recipient bishop, and suggested the emendation abbati sancti Andree de Pelago, for his colleague. There seems little doubt that Osor was the recipient bishop (Absa- rensis/Absorensis), and the more precise date 3 July — 16 September 1189 is provided by the register derivative in Seg.

The recipients had sought the pope’s advice in the case of a priest who, when correcting a member of his household, struck him with his belt, from which a knife accidentally slipped from its sheath, and wounded him. But when the man survived for some time and recovered from his wound, he was stricken by a more grave infirmity and died. Since doubt arose whether the wound was the cause of death, the priest was suspended from office and benefice, and the recipients consulted the pope. The pope replied that, since the safer course should be followed in doubtful matters — cum in dubiis semitam debeamus eligere tutiorem, they should enjoin the priest not to minister in holy orders in the future, but they can allow him to minister in minor orders after appropriate penance. On the other hand, if