has not been violated; repressing, by ecclesiastical censures and other penalties, any appeal soever being set aside, the disobedient and gainsayers, and even calling in unto this end, if need be, the aid of the secular arm. The holy synod exhorts Christian princes to furnish this aid, and enjoins it, under pain of excommunication, to be by the very fact incurred upon all civil magistrates. But for no holy nun, after her profession, shall it be lawful to go out of her convent, even for a brief period, under any pretext soever, except for some lawful cause, to be approved of by the bishop; any indults and privileges soever notwitnstanding. And it shall not be lawful for any one, of what birth, or condition, sex, or age soever, to enter within the enclosures of a monastery,[1] without the permission of the bishop, or of the superior, obtained in writing, under the pain of excommunication to be by the very fact incurred. But the bishop, or the superior, ought to grant this permission only in necessary cases; nor shall any other person be able by any means [to grant it], even by force of any faculty, or indult already granted, or hereafter to be granted. And inasmuch as those monasteries of nuns which are established without the walls of a city or town, are exposed, often without any guard, to the plunder and other deeds of wicked men, the bishops and other superiors shall, if it seem expedient to them, take care that the nuns be removed from those places to new or old monasteries within cities or populous towns, even calling in, if need be, the aid of the secular arm. But those who hinder them or disobey, they shall by ecclesiastical censures compel to submit.
CHAPTER VI.
The Manner of choosing Superiors.
To the end that everything may be conducted uprightly and without any fraud, in the election of all manner soever of superiors, temporary abbots, and other officials, and generals, and abbesses, and other women set over [others],
- ↑ It is well to observe that in the decrees of the Council of Trent the popular distinction between a convent and a monastery is not preserved, both terms being indiscriminately applied to any place of religious retirement for either sex.
