Chapter VIII: The Prosperous Times of Alexander III. 1248-1286
Let no one presume to demand or extort from you tithes of your newly-reclaimed lands which you cultivate with your own hands, or at your own charges, of which no one has hitherto received tithes, nor from your animals' food. It shall be lawful also for you to receive as converts, free and unfettered, clerical or lay, persons fleeing from the world, and to retain them without any contradiction. However, we forbid any of your brethren, after making his profession in your Monastery, to depart thence without leave of his abbot, unless he joins a stricter Order. But let no one dare to detain a person departing without authority of your common letters. It shall also be lawful for you, when a general interdict is laid on the land, provided that you yourselves do not give cause of interdict, to perform Divine services, with shut doors, and having excluded excommunicated and interdicted persons, but with suppressed voice and without ringing of bells. You will receive also chrism, holy oil, consecration of your altars and churches, the ordination of priests for administering rites, from the bishop of the diocese, if he is Catholic and has the favour and communion of the Holy Roman See, and is willing honestly to give them to you. We forbid anyone to dare to build chapel or oratory within the bounds of your parishes without your consent and that of the bishop of the diocese, reserving the privileges of the Roman Pontiffs. We prohibit entirely to be made against you all new and unjust exactions by archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, deans, and all ecclesiastical or secular persons. We decree also the burial ground of that place to be free : that no one resist the burial of those who, in their devotion or by their last will, have desired to be buried there, unless they are interdicted, or excommunicated, or publick usurers, saving the just rights of those churches by whom the bodies of the dead are claimed. You are also permitted by our authority to recall to the use of the churches to whom they belong the tythes and possessions pertaining to your churches, which are detained by laymen, and to redeem and lawfully to free them from their hands. And when you, Abbot of this place, or any of your successors go away, no one shall be placed there by cunning or by violence, except by consent of the majority of the brethren or wiser part, according as the election is provided by God and the rule of St. Benedict. We, wishing with paternal solicitude for the future to provide also for your peace and tranquility, prohibit by apostolic authority, within the enclosures of your places or granges, all rapine or theft, fire-raising, blood-shedding, rash seizure or slaying of men, or exercise of violence. Moreover, we confirm all the liberties and immunities made to your Monastery by our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs ; also, liberties and exemptions from secular exactions granted you for good reason by kings or princes, or by others of the faithful, and we fortify this privilege by this writing. We therefore decree that it shall not be lawful for anyone soever rashly to disturb the said Monastery, or to take away any of its possessions, or to retain them when taken away, to diminish them, or to annoy it by any vexatious acts ; but that all things which have been granted for any future purpose whatsoever shall be preserved entire for the discipline and maintenance of its inmates, reserving the authority of the Holy See and the bishop of the diocese. If, therefore, in future any secular or ecclesiastical person, knowing this writ of our constitution, shall attempt rashly to contravene it, let him, after being twice or thrice admonished (unless he shall atone for his fault by a suitable satisfaction), be deprived of the. dignity of his power and honour, and let him know that he stands charged by Divine justice with the iniquity so committed, and let him be cut off from the most sacred Body and Blood of our God and Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ, and let him lie under His severe vengeance at the last judgment. But on all who shall preserve for the said place its rights let the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest, so that here they may receive the fruit of their good deeds, and obtain at the hands of the Righteous Judge the rewards of eternal peace. Amen.