IMOLA
692
IMOLA
(Sess. XXV, c. 20, " De Ref .") , that immunities arise by
Divine direction and ecclesiastical sanctions, "divina
ordinatione et ecclesiasticis sanctionibus". To the
partisans of the first view they answer that the cus-
tom of ancient races, the prescriptions of the Mosaic
law, and the practice of the early ages of the Church
prove indeed that immunities are in conformity with
Divine law, but they do not demonstrate the exist-
ence of a law properly so called. What the Divine law
pointed out required to be defined and completed by
positive legislation. To the "regalists" they reply
that all the immunities did not originate from impe-
rial or princely concessions, several of them having
been established positivelj' by the Church, in agree-
ment, it is true, with the secvilar powers; moreover,
that the others have been "canonized" and inserted
in ecclesiastical law and constitute for the Church
an acquired right ; besides they are sufficiently based
on Divine law not to be considered as purely gratvii-
tous favours conferred by the State on the Church.
This middle theory adopts therefore all that is reason-
able in the two extreme opinions.
Brief History of the Immunities. — The history of ecclesiastical immunities is a chapter of the more extensive history of the relations of Church and State. Moreover, some of them, as the right of asy- lum and the privilege of the tribunal, have had spe- cially chequered careers. In general, we may say that the immunities developed with the growth of the Church, then they have been continously restricted in proportion as the separation of the two powers became accentuated and the State became laicized. As long as the civil power, as such, was religious and Catholic, the laws on mixed questions settled by agreement, the clergy the first order in the State, and the public au- thorities helped to enforce the legislation and to carry out the decisions of the officially-recognized ecclesias- tical authority, immunities were, in a certain sense, a social necessity; and that was especially true of a state of society wherein privileges and private laws played an important part, as in the feudal days. The feudal system adopted the immunities of the Roman law. When the Christian religion was recog- nized by the Roman empire, nothing seemed more natural than to grant it immunities and privileges equal to those that had been enjoyed by the religion that had hitherto been the official one. Constan- tine granted immunity to the churches, and to the clergj" an exemption from all public and municipal charges and even certain taxes, as the poll-tax (Cod. Theod., Ub. XVI, tit. ii, " De episcopis", especially lex 2). If the law placed difficulties in the way of the curiales who wished to join the clergy, it opposed the bringing of the clergy into the curia (ibid., leg. 7, 9, 11). As to property, not only could it be freely acquired and held by the churches, but being devoteil to a public service, it was exempted by Constantine from common taxes and extraordinary charges (lib. XI, tit. i and xvi). This legislation maintained by Jus- tinian, was received and confirmed by the imperial German law (Auth. "Item nulla", of Frederick II, according to lex 2 of the Cod. lib. I, tit. iii, " De episcopis"). In the kingdoms of the Franks, the property of the Church did not at first enjoy a general immunity, but it was often granted by a special con- cession of the king; later, the exemption was common, but repaid, doubtless more than equitably, by the contributions of which we have spoken, and which were gratuitous in nothing but the name (dona gra- tuita). The legislation of the Decretals, which corre- sponds, as is well known, with the period of the great- est authority of the Church, represents the greatest extension of the personal and real immunities; it is the legislation explained above theoretically in vigour; it has remained as a kind of ideal, never realized in practice. As early as the fifteenth century, ecclesias- tical immunities had been curtailed more than once by
temporal princes; the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV,
c. 20, "De Ref."), after confirming the canon law con-
cerning immunities, addressed a solemn warning to the
secular powers, the emperor, kings, and princes; it
recalled to them their obligation of defending the
churches, clergy, and ecclesiastical property against
all who attacked their " liberty, immunity, and juris-
diction". But the movement was too strong to be
thus easily overcome; on the contrary, it increased,
and the end of the eighteenth century saw in France
the suppression not only of immunities but even of
Church property. The example was followed sooner
or later by other countries, and there resulted an
almost complete extinction of immunities, as we have
explained above.
Immunities were maintained longer in Italy, and especially in the Papal States, owing to the care of the popes and especially of the Congregation of Immunity. In the movement for a thorough ecclesiastical reform following the Council of Trent, tlie popes could not neglect immunities; Sixtus V had confided this mat- ter to the cardinals forming the "Congregation of Bishops"; but shortly afterwards, Urban VIII, by the Bull " Inscrutabile " (22 June, 1626), established a special congregation, which he called "Congregatio Immunitatis ". This congregation, composed like the others of a certain number of cardinals, one of whom was its Prefect, assisted by a secretary, a fiscal lawyer, two bishops charged with drawing up reports, and a staff of lower officials, was appointed to look after the defence and enforcement of immunities. It was kept busily occupied and gave many decisions; no official collection of these has been made, but the Abbot Gen- eral of Citeau-x, Pierre Andr6 Ricci, published in 1708 a repertory of them, arranged alphabetically, " Synopsis, decreta et resolutiones Sac. Cong. Immunitatis super controversiis jurisdictionalibus complectens"; the work was re-edited with numerous additions by Mgr. Barbier de Montault, Paris, 1868. Although dimin- ished, the work of this congregation continued till the invasion of Rome by the Italian troops in 1870; it was then joined to "the Sacred Congregation of the Council and was suppressed in the recent reorganiza- tion of the Roman Curia by Pius X in 1908.
Commentaries of the cinonists on the title De immunitatibua ecclesmrum, hb. Ill, tit. 49 (same title in VI, Clem, and Eitrav. comm.); Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, s. vv. Bona ecrl., Cleri- cw, Immunitas; Cav.^gnis. Instil. Jurt.-ipitltl. crcien., II {4th ed., Rome, la06), 323; SagmClleh. Lchrhuch des kuthol. Kirchen- Tcchla {2nd ed., Freiburg im Br., 1909). 8§ 55, 194; Tho- MASSIN, Vetua et nova disciplina, pt. Ill, lib. I. cap. xxxiii sq.
A. BOUDINHON.
Imola, Diocese of (Imolensis), suffragan of Bo- logna. The city is located on the Santerno, and was anciently called Forum Cornelii, from the dictator L. Cornelius Sulla, who founded it about 82 B. c. The name Imola was first used in the seventh century by the Lombards, who applied it to the fortress (the present Castellaccio, the construction of which is at- tributed to the Lombard Clefi), whence the name passed to the city itself. According to Paul the Deacon, Imola was in 412 the scene of the marriage of .\tawulf. King of the Visigoths, and Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great. In the Gothic war, and after the Lombard invasion, it was held alternately by the Byzantines and barbarians. W* ith the exarchate it passed under papal authority. In the ninth century it was bravely defended against the Saracens and Hungarians by Fausto .\lidosi. In the tenth century Troilo Nordiglio acquired great power. This and the following centuries witnessed incessant wars against the R.avennatese, the Faentines, and Bolognese, as well as the intestine struggles of the Caslrimolesi (Castro Imolese) and the Sancassianesi (San Cassiano). Amid these conflicts was formed the republican constitution of the city. In the contest between pope and emperor Imola was generally Ghib- elline, though it often returned to the popes (e. g. in
