NOVICE
145
NOVICE
order; marriage; debts or liability to render accounts;
and for nuns, widowhood. More recently, the decree
"Ecclesia Christi" of 7 September, 1909, with which
must be read the declarations of 4 January and 5
April, 1910, renders invalid, without the permission of
the Holy See, the admission of any person who has
been expelled from a college for immorality or other
grave fault, or of a person who has been dismissed for
any cause whatever from another religious order, a
seminary, or any institution for the training of ecclesi-
astics or religious. A person who has obtained a
dispensation from his vows cannot enter into any
order but the one which he left. This decree applies
both to religious orders, and to congregations with
simple vows, at least to those which are not diocesan,
and its effect has been extended by the order of 4 Jan-
uary, 1910, to religious communities of women. Only
formal expulsion renders admission invalid, but the
fact of leaving college or other institution under cir-
cumstances which would make it equivalent to expul-
sion makes it illicit, and the Holy See requires superi-
ors to make such inquiries as are necessary to prevent
the admission of unflesirable persons. Another decree
of 7 September, 1910, "In articulo", while not ren-
dering t he rccc'ption invalid, forbids the admission of a
young man who presents himself in order to become a
religious cleric, unless he has gone through a course of
at least four years of classical studies. (For these
decrees and their explanation see "De religiosis et
mi.ssionariis", vol. V).
Before the taking of the habit, exact information must he secured to make sure of the qualities and good intentions of the candidates. These precautions are happy substitutions for the rather rude test that had to be undergone in former times (see Postul.\nt). Besides being dictated by the natural law, they have been sanctioned for the orders of men by a Constitu- tion of Sixtus V, "Cum de omnibus", 1587, and by another Constitution, "Cum ad regularem", promul- gated by Clement VHI, March, 1603, and confirmed by Urban Mil. (The ordinances of Clement VIII concern Italy and the adjacent islands only.) In the celebrated Decree "Romani Pontifices" (25 January, 184S), Pius IX laid a strict injunction on all superiors of orders and congregations of men to admit no one to the habit without testimonial letters from the ordi- nary of the diocese in which the candidate was born and of the dioceses in which he has lived for more than a year from the age of fifteen. This year is explained in a later declaration to mean twelve successive months spent in the same diocese. In these letters, the ordinaries ought, in as far as they can, to bear witness to the candidate's birth, age, conduct, reputa- tion, and all other qualities that affect his entry into religion. The obligation of exacting such letters is imposed under penalty of censure, but it does not en- tail nullity. Their receipt does not dispense superiors from making their own inquiries.
II. Juridical Conditiox. — By the fact of his en- trance into an approved congregation, the novice be- comes an ecclesiastical person. If he is a novice in a religious order, he becomes a regular in the widest sense of the word ; as such he is not bound by any vow, but he is protected by the ecclesiastical immunities, and shares in the indulgences and privileges of his order, gaining a plenary indulgence on the day of his admission, at least into an order properly so called. The prelate or superior may exercise in regard to his novices all his powers of absolution in reserved cases, and of dispensations from rules and precepts of the Church. Novices benefit also by any exemption at^ tached to the order to which they belong. The juris- diction communicated by the superior of the congre- gation suffices to absolve them. It follows apparently that a confessor approved only by the ordinary of the place could not give them valid absolution, though this point is disputed. According to the common law XI.— 10
of regulars, the priest who is master of novices is their
only ordinary confessor. The novice is bound to obey
the superior who has jurisdiction over him, and power
as head of the house. He is bound by any private
vows he may have taken, but these may be indirectly
annulled by the superior in so far as they are contrary
to the rules of the order or the exercises of the novi-
tiate. The training of the novices is entrusted to an
experienced religious, ordinarily distinct from the local
superior. The latter, though obliged to respect the
prerogatives of the novice-master, remains the real im-
mediate superior of the novices, and outside that part
of the house which is called the novitiate, the direc-
tion of the entire community belongs exclusively to
him. By canon law, the novice retains full and entire
liberty to leave his order and incurs no pecuniary re-
sponsibility by the mere fact of leaving it. Vows of
devotion do not change the juridical condition of the
novice, and they cease to bind if he is legally ex-pelled.
As soon as one has made up his mind to leave, it be-
comes his duty to inform the superior; and if he fails to
do so, he becomes liable to reimburse the order for any
unnecessary ex-pense it may incur on his behalf after
his decision. This is only natural justice. The order is
obliged to restore to him his personal property and
anything he may have brought with him. As the
order is not bound to the novice by any contract, it
may dismiss him. According to the regulations of 28
Jime, 1901, in new congregations governed by simple
vows, the dismissal of a novice must be approved by
the superior-general and his council. Dismissal with-
out sufficient cause would be an offence against char-
ity and equity, and a superior guilty of such an offence
would fail in his duty to his order.
Although the reception of a novice should be gra- tuitous, theCouncilof Trent (c. 16, Sess. 25, "Deregu- laribus") permits the order to stipulate for the pay- ment of his expenses while in the novitiate. In order to ensure the complete liberty of the novice, the same council forbids him to make any renunciation of his property or any important gift, and annuls such re- nunciation if made. Parents also, to whose property the novice had a right of succession, are debarred from making any considerable donation. By common law, however, a novice may legally renounce his property within the two months immediately preceding his pro- fession, and this renunciation should also be authorized by the bishop or his vicar-general. Th.is formality of authorization is not always insisted upon in practice. The renunciation may extend to property of which he is already possessed, or to such as miist necessarily de- scend to him by right of inheritance; but not seem- ingly to such as he has only an expectation of receiv- ing. He is free to make over his property to his family, his order, or any pious work, or even to pro\'ide for services and Masses after his death. Although the renunciation takes effect only from the dat<' of his pro- fession, and becomes null and void if that profession does not take place, it is not revocable at tnc i)leasure of the novice before his profession, unless he has re- served to himself the right to change the disi)osition of his property. If no renunciation has been made at the time of solemn profession, canon law assigns the property either to the monastery or to the natural heirs of the religious. Common law requires that the solemn profession shall be preceded by a period of simple vows; before making these vow.-;, the novice is bound to declare to whom he commits tlie ailiuinistra- tion of his i):itriniony, and how he wishes the iiu'ome to be emplnyed, and the eon.seiit of the Holy See is generallv required f{ir ariv eliange in tliis arr.'uigeiiient. The religious is enl it kd in provid.' for I lie ailiiiinistra- tion of any addilimiid prujierty which iiKiy come to him after his sim])le profession, and fur the disposal of the income of such i)roi)erty^ The law of Qw Council of Trent does not concern congregations which are governed by simple vows; but in these the power of a
