ELECTION
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ELECTION
the same as in election properly so called; as election,
however, can fall only on one person, so nomination
cannot confer on several a real right to a benefice —
rather, their right is real inasmuch as it excludes third
parties, though none of them possesses the jus ad rem
(c. Quod sicut, xxviii, De elect., lib. I, tit. vi). (d)
Recommendation is the name applied to the desig-
nation of one or several fit persons made to the supe-
rior by certain members of the episcopate or clergy,
chiefly in view of sees to be filled (see Bishop). It
differs from election and nomination in that the bishop
or members of the clergy do not act as electors; hence
the persons designated do not acquire any real right,
the Holy See remaining perfectly free to make a choice
outside of the list proposed, (e) Still further removed
from election is simple request, or petition, by which
the clergy or people of a diocese beg the pope to grant
them the prelate they desire. The authors of this
petition, not being properly qualified, as in the case of
recommendation, to make known their appreciation of
the candidate, it is needless to say the latter acquires
no right whatsoever from the fact of this request, (f)
Finally, free collation is the choice of the person by the
superior who confers canonical institution; it is the
method most in use for appointment to inferior bene-
fices, and the practical rule for the filling of episcopal
sees, apart from some well-known exceptions. Evi-
dently, where free collation obtains, election, properly
so called, is excluded.
II. Electors. — Electors are those who are called by ecclesiastical law or statute to constitute an electoral college, i. e. to designate the person of their choice, and who have the qualifications required for the exercise of their right to vote. The law appoints competent electors for each kind of election: cardinals for the election of a pope; the cathedral chapter for the election of a bishop or a vicar capitular; and the various chapters of their order, etc. for the election of regular prelates. In general, election belongs, strictly speaking, to the college, i. e. the body, of which the person elected will become the superior or prelate; if this college have a legal existence, like a cathedral chapter, it can exercise its right as long as it exists, even if reduced to a single member, though, of cour.se, such a one could not elect himself. Electors called upon to give a prelate to the Church must be ecclesias- tics. Hence laymen are excluded from all partici- pation in a canonical election; it would be invalid, not only if made by them exclusively (c. iii, h. t.), but even if they only co-operate with ecclesiastics, every custom to the contrary notwithstanding. Ecclesias- tics alone, and those only who compose the college or community to be provided with a head, can be electors. This is well exemplified in the cathedral chapter, all of whose canons, and they alone, are episcopal electors. Other ecclesiastics have no right to associate with the chapter in the election of a bishop, unless (a) they are in full possession of this right and it is proved by long prescription; (b) hold a pontifical privilege, or (c) can show a right resultant from the foundation of the chapter or the church in question. To exercise their right, the electors, whoever they may be, must be full members of the body to which they belong, and must, moreover, be in a condition to perform a juridical, human act. Hence natural law excludes the demented and those who have not reached the age of puberty ; ecclesiastical law debars (1) canons who have not attained full membership in the chapter, i. e. who are not yet subdeacons (Council of Trent, Sess. XXII, c. iv, De ref .), and (2) religious who have not made their pro- fession. Moreover, in punishment of certain offences, some electors may have forfeited their right to elect, either for once or permanently, e. g. those excom- municated by name, those suspended, or those placed under interdict. The Constitution of Martin V, "Ad evitanda scandala", permits the excommunicated known as tolerati (tolerated) to take part in an
election, but exception may be taken to them, and
their exclusion must follow; if, after such exception,
they cast a vote, it must be considered null. Apart
from censures incurred, privation of an active share
in elections occurs frequently m the ecclesiastical law
affecting regulars ; in common law and for the secular
clergy, it exists in only three cases; Electors lose the
right to elect, for that time, first, when they have
elected or postulated an unworthy person (c. vii, h. t.) ;
second, when the election has been held in consequence
of an abusive intervention of the cvn\ authority (c.
xliii, h. t.); finally, when it has not been made within
the required time. In all these cases the election de-
volves upon the superior (c. xli, h. t.).
III. Persons Eligible. — Those persons are eli- gible who meet the requirements of common ecclesias- tical law, or special statutes, for the charge or function in question; hence, for each election it is necessary to ascertain what is required of the candidate. In gen- eral, for all kinds of elections, the necessary qualifica- tions are mature age, moral integrity, and adequate knowledge (c. vii, h. t.); for each charge or function de- pendent on an election these conditions are defined with more precision and fullness. Thus, neither a layman nor an ecclesiastic who is not yet a subdeacon can be elected bishop; and no regular can be elected superior, etc., imless he has made his final profession. Some of the aforesaid requirements are easily verified, e. g. the proper age, adequate knowledge, the latter being presumable when the law formally exacts an academic degree (Council of Trent, Sess. XXII, c. ii, De ref.); others, especially an upright life, must usually depend on negative evidence, i. e. on the absence of proof to the contrary, such proof being positive offences, par- ticularly when they have seriously impaired the rep- utation of the person in question or called for canoni- cal punishment. It is principally candidates of cen- surable morality who are termed imworthy ; the sacred canons constantly repeat that the unworthy must be set aside. Such imworthy persons are: (1) all out- side the Church, viz. infidels, heretics, and schis- matics; (2) all who have been guilty of great crimes {crimina majora), viz. the sacrilegious, forgers, per- jurers, sodomites, and siiuoniacs; (3) all whom law or fact, for whatever reason, has branded as infamous {injamid juris aut jacli); (4) all under censure (ex- communication, suspension, interdict), unless said censure be occult; (5) all whom an irregularity, par- ticularly a penal one {ex crimine), debars from receiv- ing or exercising Holy orders. Those also are ex- cluded who, at the time of election, hold several in- compatible benefices or dignities without dispensation (c. liv, h. t.); or who, at a preceding election, have already been rejected as unworthy (c. xii, h. t.), and all who have consented to be elected through the abusive intervention of lay authority (c. xliii, h. t.). There are other cases in which regulars cease to be eligible. The legislation here described was meant for the episcopal elections of the thirteenth century and aims at abuses now impossible.
IV. The Act op Election: Forms and Methods. — In this matter, even more than in the preceding para- graphs, we must consider special laws and statutes. Strictly speaking, the common ecclesiastical law, which dates from the thirteenth-century Decretals, considers only episcopal elections (lib. I, tit. vi, De elect ione et electi potestate; and in VI"). Since an election is held to appoint to a church or an eccle- siastical charge or office that is vacant, it is obvious that the first condition requisite for an election is precisely the vacancy of said church, charge, or of- fice, in consequence of death, transfer, resignation, or deposition; any election made with a view to filling an office not yet vacant is a canonical offence, ^\^len an election becomes necessarj', the first step is to con- voke the electoral assembly in some specified place, and for a certain day within the legal time-limit. The
