CENSUS
533
CENSUS
with which they are issued. Condemnations coming
from th<> seat of infallibility, pope or council, and
vested with the usual conditions of an ex cathedrd
pronouncement are themselves infallible, and conse-
quently require both our external obedience and in-
ternal assent. There is no reason for restricting the
infallibility of the censures to the sole note hceretica,
as some theologians would do. The difference between
the note of heresy and other inferior notes is not
one of infallibility, but of different matters covered
by infallibility. The note of heresy attached to a
proposition makes its contradictory an article of
faith, which is not the case with other notes even if
they arc infallible. Condemnations coming from an
official source which, however, is not infallible are to
be received with the external respect and implicit
obedience due to disciplinary measures, and, more-
over, with that degree of internal assent which is jus-
tified by circumstances. In every case the extent of
outward compliance, or of interior submission, or
of both is determined by a proper interpretation of
the censures: —
I. Sometimes, as in the condemned propositions of Pistoia, there is little room for doubt, the precise meaning of the condemnation being explained in the very tenor of it.
II. When categorical propositions are condemned in their import, and not in their wording or conse- quences only, their contradictories present them- selves for our acceptance as de fide, proximce fidei, certce, or communes as the case may be.
III. Condemnations issued on account of bad word- ing or evil consequences should at least put us on our guard against the hidden falsehood or the noxious tendency of the proposition.
IV. Modal propositions require special attention. The principal modalities in use are in individuo, in globo, Tprout iacent, >n sensu ab nucloreintento. Propo- sitions are not always, as was the case for the errors of Pistoia, condemned one by one, the proper quali- fications being attached to each individually (in individuo). In the case of Wyclif, Hus, Luther, Baius, Molinos, Quesnel, etc., to a whole series of propositions a whole series of censures was attached generally {in globo). This mode of general censure i- tint ineffectual. To each of the propositions thus condemned apply one, or several, or all of the cen- sures employed — the task of fitting each censure to each proposition being left to theologians. Again, some propositions are censured according to their obvious tenor and without reference to their con- text or author (prout iacent); while others, v. g those of Baius, Jansen, etc.. are stigmatized in the sense intended by their author {in sensu "'■ a
intt nto). Obviously the Church does not claim to read into the mind of a writer. What she claims is an operative doctrinal power including the double
faculty of pointing out to her children both the error of a doctrine and the fact that such an erroneous doc- trine is contained in such a book written by such an author. In such cases a Catholic is bound to accept the whole judgment of the Church, although some theologians would make a difference between the assent due to the condemnation of the error and the assent due to the designation of the book or author.
V. Vague censures of this kind, Damnandas el pr<>- ' 'las esse, are more in the nature of simple pro- hibitions than censures. They mean that a Catholic ought to keep clear of such teachings absolutely, but they do not point out the degree of falsehood or dan- ger attached to them.
VI. In a general manner censures are restrictive law-, and. as such, to be interpreted strictly. A
Catholic is not debarred from the right of ascertain- ing, for his own guidance or the guidance of others, their legitimate minimum; but the danger, not always unreal, of falling below that minimum should
itself be minimized by what Newman calls "a gener-
ous loyalty towards ecclesiastical authority" and the
pietas fidei.
Sbssa, Scrutinium doctrinarum (Rome, 1709); D'Argentre, CnlUvtin iufliriontm (Paris, 17js>; Viva, Damnatarum thesium theoloffica trutina (Padua, 1 7 ;7 ■ ; Montagne, De censuris seu n,,ti.< thrnlm/in.-;, e< 1 - MicxK l Paris, ls:>7!; 1)1 Hahtolo, Les criteres thiol., I'r. tr. (Pans, ls.S'.n, nn the Index; DlDIOT, Lngii}ue surnaliiretle sulijeeti-e (Pari-, ISi'll), No. 1177; MANNING,
The Vatican Council in Pi U p on Petri (London, 1871); Newman. A Letter to On h ei Vo folk in Certain Difficulties
of Antiliraiis (London, 1892 . [I; Choi pin. Vnlrur ,lr* 'l<ri*i,,n.s dortrin,ilr.s ,l,i S,n„f-S:, .,,, 1' a; i-. P.M)7i; Ferraris, Proposil i,,u, s damnattB in I',-,',,., • I: -),,r,i; Qrn.i.iKT, Crnsures doctri-
nntr.s in Diet. ,1, "' ■ ' c.kwiie, Le decret "Lamenta-
bili" in Rev, Bibi. (Oct., 1907). See also treatises in moral theology, De fide, and in dogma tie theology, De ecclesia, chiefly
SCHEEBEN, WlLHELM AND ScANNELL, HUNTER.
J. F. SOLLIER.
Census, a canonical term variously defined by different writers. Zitelli (Appar. Jur. Eccl.) calls it a real obligation or annual tribute imposed on a pious institute by the bishop and payable to himself or others. Aichner (par. 79) says that it is an offering to be made by a benefice in sign of subjection, or for some exemption or other right conceded to it. Lau- rentius (III, p. 70) defines it as the obligation of an annual payment in money or kind perpetually im- posed upon a benefice. Ferraris (s. v.) considers census as the right of receiving an annual payment from something that is fruitful and on which it is founded. He insists that the census is not the thing itself or the property which affords the tribute, but the right of drawing the annual tribute from it. Other authorities, however, as Von Scherer, seem to consider census to be the property itself or its equiva- lent in money, viewed as giving to some one a right to draw revenue from it.
Census canonically considered must be distin- guished from pensio. The latter is the right which a superior concedes to a person of receiving a portion of the revenues of a benefice in the possession of a third party. Later canonists sometimes use the words cen- sus and pensio as practically synonymous. A census is called ancient if it is imposed on a benefice at its very foundation and has been approved by the bishop. It is called new if it is placed upon a benefice already erected. According to a canon of the Third Council of the Lateran (1179) no one but the pope can impose on a benefice a new census, or increase an ancient one. A census is said to be reservative when a person trans- fers the property to another, keeping only the right to an annual revenue for himself. It is named consigna- tive when he sells or consigns to another the right to an annual pension from something of which he him- self retains the dominion. Such consignative census is reducible to a species of buying and selling, and is I as such in the decrees of Martin V and I 'allistus
III embodied in the Corpus .Juris Canonici.
The imposing of a census upon a benefice is con- sidered as equivalent to dismemberment or division, inasmuch as it diminishes the revenues. If the cen- sus be perpetual il is looked on as a species of aliena- tion of church property and as such falls under the ecclesiastical laws governing such alienation. Gen erally the census is imposed by the patron <>f a new benefice retaining the right to a pari of its revenues,
or by a bishop requiring licit a portion of the income of a church which lie incorporates with a monastery be paid to himself, or the census may take the form of a tribute paid to a mother church by one of its daughter
establishments which has become independent. The " Liber Censuum Romans Ecclesise", edited byFabre and Duchesne (Paris, 1889 sqq.), not only throws light i.n the subject at issue but also affords an explanation of many historical events of th.- Middle Ages.
Laurenttos, hwtiluti I reiburg, 1903); Per-
nuns. Bibliotheca [Rome, 1886); Aichner, Compendium Jur. Eccl. (Brfaten, 1895).
\\ n.i.iwt II. \\ . Fanning.
