Folia Theologica et Canonica 2. 24/16 (2013)
IUS CANONICUM - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., Gradual Promotion asa Specific Form of Provision of Ecclesiastical Office
GRADUAL PROMOTION AS A SPECIFIC FORM OF PROVISION... 255 III. The Corpus iuris canonici And the Aggravation of General Prescriptions regarding Chapters Provision of prebends could happen in numerous forms, and depended fundamentally on the authority that established the chapter, and on the content of the charter of foundation; on the customs prevailing in the respective country or diocese (on an occurring concordat); on the institutional - that is, laid dawn in the rules - relation of the diocesan bishop and the chapter; as well as on the form of provision fixed in the rules of the chapter. In the collegiate chapters the provision of individual offices of a chapter took place through an election led by the prelate - except when, after the legally allotted time expired without result (e.g., 20 days) and the provision of the vacant office was done by extraordinary form. But in case of vacancy in the various bodies of cathedral chapters we find simple appointment; application of the so called turnus; granting of land; election made by the chapter; appointment on the basis of the patronage right, which happened by a person acting with secular power, following various formal and procedural criteria; as well as the exercise of reservation of right for appointment to the Apostolic See - in this case to the Roman Pontiff.27 We may complete this with the possibility of ius simultanae collationis which is attached to the X 1.6.3128 of the Glossa Ordinaria, composed by Bemardus Parmensis to the Liber Extra and Paul Hinschius analyzed in great details. This could be practiced - depending on the rules and privileges of the given cathedral chapter - either by the bishop or by the chapter itself.29 30 31 But among the possible forms of provision we must mention also the optio and the gradualis promotion In order to understand the general - contemporary - legal content of the previous examples it is indispensable to study numerous places of the Corpus iuris canonici (i.e. X 1.6.1; X 1.6.31; X 3.5.11; X 3.8.15; VI 1.4.4; VI 1.6.18). From among all of these excel Canon 4 of Liber Sextus VI 1.4, which talks in details primarily about the institution of the possible opting, but some of its indications refer explicitly onto the form of process of gradualis promotion It was a vacant prebend - an office that fell vacant in the body of canons - that gave legal basis to the presentation of an optio. Pope Boniface VIII (1296-1303) in a letter refers onto the long standing legal (“antiquus”) custom of the Church which entitles the eldest member of the chapter to announce his intention of stepping over to the vacant prebend without an ordinance of a 27 Hinschius, P., System des katholischen Kirchenrechts mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Detsch- land, II. Berlin 1878.613-614. 28 Friedberg II. 76-77 29 Hinschius, P., System des katholischen Kirchenrechts mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Detsch- land, II. 614. 30 Hinschius, P., System des katholischen Kirchenrechts mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Detsch- land, 11.615. 31 Friedberg II. 944-945.
