Dist. 24, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 4
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/24/q/bon-sent-IV-d24-p1-a1-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether the prelates of the Church are bound to clerics as to temporal stipend.*

In the fourth place inquiry is made whether the prelates of the Church are bound to clerics as to temporal stipend. And that they are, seems [to be so]:

1. First to the Corinthians, chapter nine: *Do you not know that they who work in the sacred place eat the things that are of the sacred place; and they who serve the altar partake together with the altar?* if therefore clerics now serve the altar: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, master Hugh says in the book *On the Sacraments*: «After one has been made a cleric, he ought thenceforth to be sustained from the stipends of the Church».

3. Likewise, a decretal, in the third book, *On the ordaining of clerics*: «Let it not be lawful for any bishop to ordain any clerics and to furnish them no maintenance; but of two things let him do one: either let him not make clerics, or, if he has made them, let him give them the means whereby they may live». Whence another decretal of Innocent under the same title: «We will that provision be made for the ordained, through the ordainers or through their successors, so long, until through them they obtain ecclesiastical benefices».

**On the contrary:**
1. Clerics are not bound to give up their patrimony: therefore neither is the Church bound to provide for them in necessities.

2. Likewise, simple clerics are not bound to serve the Church: therefore neither are the prelates of the Church bound to furnish them necessities.

In connection with this it is asked whether clerics who are sustained from the goods of the Church, inasmuch as they have a prebendal benefice, are bound to the canonical hours. And that they are, seems [to be so]: because, since they live from the altar, they ought to serve the altar; but the service of the Church was established by the Fathers in the saying of the canonical hours: therefore etc. — But on the opposite side of this is that, since they are not constituted in sacred orders, they do not seem to be bound to this, since [otherwise] they can [do] all the things which lay liberty is recognized to be able [to do].

### Conclusion.

> For clerics promoted to sacred orders, not having the means whereby they may live, the bishop who ordained them is bound to provide in necessities; otherwise not, for those not promoted to sacred orders, or not in need.

**I respond:** It must be said that a cleric ordained is either promoted to sacred orders, or *not*. If he be promoted to sacred orders and have not the means whereby he may live: since the Church is bound to him as to a minister deputed to the service of the Church, and he himself is in need: I say that the bishop who promoted him is bound to provide for him in necessities. But if he is *not* promoted to sacred orders, or if he has a patrimony; the Church or the bishop is not bound to provide for him: first, because he is not obligated to serve the Church; second indeed, because he is not in need. And although no one is bound *to war at his own expense*, yet because he himself wished to be promoted, he is bound to serve the Church by reason of order; nor is the prelate bound necessarily to provide for him, since he cannot allege need. — And all this is confirmed by that which is said in that decretal of Alexander, in the third book *On Prebends*: «A bishop, if he has ordained someone without a fixed title from which he may receive the necessities of life, into a deacon or presbyter, let him furnish him the necessities of life for so long, until he assigns him in some church suitable stipends of the clerical warfare, unless such an ordained man can have the supports of life from his own or his paternal inheritance». — And if the reason of this be asked, the divine law renders [it], because, since such a one is obligated to serve the Church, the Church too on the other hand ought to be obligated to provide for him in necessities. — And thus are to be understood the authorities which speak of this matter; and the reasons for the opposite are plain, because they proceed concerning the simple cleric.

But as to what is asked last, whether they are bound to the saying of the canonical hours, it can be solved by that same [principle]. For some are obligated to the Church, because the Church is obligated to them, inasmuch as they receive benefices of the Church. In others it is the other way round, because the Church is obligated to them, because they themselves first, through the reception of sacred orders, are obligated to the Church. Whence it appears, according to the common law, that clerics constituted in *sacred orders* are bound to the canonical hours by *office*; but *below* sacred orders the *beneficed* are bound by *benefice*; those *constituted in sacred orders and beneficed* are bound *by both*; and this the canon law dictates, and the divine [law] concords.

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