1
December 1312
Our redeemer, the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, loved so much the daughter of Zion, the holy Land, that
he chose her as his inheritance and his own patrimony. He therefore,
clothed with our flesh, honoured her with his presence and consecrated
her by the shedding of his precious blood. But we mourn and bitterly
lament that so noble an inheritance of our redeemer has been turned
over to strangers and laid low by the frenzy of the Babylonian persecutor,
trampled underfoot by the feet of the defiled. She is dishonoured
by the vile grasp of the unclean Saracens, faithless enemies of the
Christian name. She has been occupied and wretchedly retained, the
Christian people have been savagely slaughtered. To the insult of
the creator, to the outrage and sorrow of all Christendom, the name
of Christ is horribly blasphemed by the filthy and detestable conduct
of the enemy. This sad region therefore weeps under the lash and repeatedly
laments to the vicar of Christ about this intolerable persecution.
Wounded by her disgrace, she pleads with Christian princes and the
catholic people. She uncovers her wounds to those from whom she awaits
the work of the healer. She demands liberation from those for whose
salvation the author of salvation bore within her borders the suffering
of the cross. All this and more besides, which the mind cannot fully
conceive nor the tongue tell, rose to our heart and roused our mind
as soon as we were called by divine favour, though unworthy, to the
summit of apostolic dignity. We gazed tenderly at the doleful state
of the holy Land and we applied ourselves to think out remedies by
which, with the aid of heaven, that Land, freed from the enemy's criminal
hands, might see, after the darkness of so many tribulations, the
bright times of longed-for peace.
For this and other holy works acceptable to God, to be advanced by
his almighty power, we convoked a general council in the city of Vienne{3}.
Then, together with our brothers the cardinals of the holy Roman church,
the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and other prelates and our beloved
sons in Christ the illustrious kings Philip of the Franks and Louis
of Navarre, who were present at the council, as also some other eminent
men and the procurators of the remaining absent prelates and of chapters,
convents, churches and monasteries, assembled at the council, we held
a long, complete and careful discussion on bringing aid to the holy
Land. At last we resolved, with the council's approval, to succour
the holy Land by a general crusade. Intending to use our apostolic
power zealously to this end, and having duly weighed all we have said,
we judged, with the approval of the sacred council, that a tithe should
be imposed by our apostolic authority on all ecclesiastical revenues
and incomes throughout the world. Only the persons and places belonging
to the Hospital of saint John of Jerusalem and the other military
orders were to be exempted. The tithe was to be collected and paid
for six years to be reckoned from 1 January last, in fixed installments,
as we should find best, and to be directed to helping the holy Land
and opposing the infidels and the enemies of the catholic faith.
But actually we reflected of late that our letters concerning the
imposition, collection and payment of the tithe had not reached you
by 1 January, nor could easily do so in a short time, on account of
the great distance of those parts from the Roman curia. Wishing, then,
to consult your ease and convenience, we have decreed that the six
years are to begin in your region on 1 October next. We therefore
ask, admonish and earnestly exhort you, also commanding you strictly
by apostolic ordinance in virtue of obedience, to pay without difficulty
the tithe for six years beginning from 1 October. The tithe is to
be paid in the customary way, namely for the first half of the first
year on 1 October next, and for the second half on 1 April immediately
following, and in the same way for each of the remaining five years.
Each of you is to pay it in full from your ecclesiastical revenues
and incomes. If you fail to pay the tithe within the above periods,
each of you automatically incurs sentences similar to those pronounced
for nonpayment by you or by the suitable and trustworthy persons delegated
by you to collect the tithe in your cities and dioceses.
Furthermore, you are to collect the tithe from our beloved sons, the
abbots, priors, deans, archdeacons, provosts, archpriests and other
prelates of churches, the chapters, colleges and convents of the Cistercians,
Cluniacs, Premonstratensians, of saint Benedict and saint Augustine,
of the Carthusians, Grandmontines and other orders, and other non-exempt
secular and regular ecclesiastical persons, in your cities and dioceses,
that is, each of you in each city and diocese. The priors, preceptors,
masters and other persons and the places of the Hospital of saint
John of Jerusalem and of the other military orders are to be the only
exceptions made. The tithe is to be collected by you or by other suitable
and trustworthy persons delegated by you for this service in each
of your cities and dioceses. It is altogether our wish and command
that you should delegate such persons. We entrust to them and command
them by this document to claim and collect it in full by our authority,
in each of the cities and dioceses where they are delegated, from
our beloved sons the abbots, priors, deans, provosts, archdeacons,
archpriests and other prelates of churches, and the exempt chapters,
colleges and convents of the above-mentioned orders, in your cities
and dioceses. Only the priors, preceptors, masters, persons and places
of the Hospital of saint John of Jerusalem and of the said other military
orders are to be excepted.
The tithe is to be claimed and collected in full from the ecclesiastical
revenues and incomes, by our authority, in the customary way according
to the years and periods mentioned above. The delegates are to collect
it from both the exempt and the non-exempt: each is to hand over and
assign it for each period to the person among you by whom he was delegated,
without delay or as soon as he conveniently can. You are to compel
them by ecclesiastical censure, without any appeal, to give you an
account of the money claimed and collected from the aforesaid non-exempt
persons, as well as to hand over and assign the tithe claimed and
collected from both the exempt and the non-exempt. Public instruments
are to be drawn up and other due precautions taken concerning the
handing over and assigning of the tithe. In this way, when needed,
it can be established how much, from whom, when and for what period
the delegates received the money and how much, when and for what period
they handed over and assigned it to each of you.
The money which has been duly claimed and collected by you and your
delegates from the exempt and non-exempt persons and has been handed
over to you, including that which has been claimed and collected by
your delegates from the said exempt persons, as mentioned above, and
also the money which you will pay from your own revenues and incomes,
is to be put away by each of you, together with your cathedral chapter,
beneath the church or even elsewhere, as you think best, in some more
becoming and safe place. Here, at your expense and that of the chapter,
you will have it guarded carefully and faithfully, to be consigned
by each of you to our delegates as and when shall seem good to us,
for the business of the holy Land and the service of the faith.
In order that you may more easily and effectively collect this tithe,
we grant by this document full and unrestricted power to each of you
to constrain by ecclesiastical censure directly or through your delegates,
disregarding any appeal, the abbots, priors, deans, provosts and other
aforesaid non-exempt persons, in your cities and dioceses. We grant
the same power to your delegates, in each city or diocese for which
they have been delegated, with regard to the abbots, priors, deans,
provosts and other aforesaid exempt persons. This power may also be
used to constrain any opponents and rebels. In addition, we grant
full and unrestricted power to you to absolve in your cities and dioceses,
after satisfaction has been made, the aforesaid non-exempt persons,
and to your delegates regarding the aforesaid exempt persons who,
because of non-payment of the tithe in due time, are bound by sentences
of excommunication, suspension or interdict; also to dispense from
irregularity contracted by celebrating divine worship or taking part
in it while bound by one or more of the above sentences. In order
that you and your delegates may have a reward for the labours undertaken,
we enjoin on you the above things in remission of your sins.
The tithe is to be paid even if the apostolic see has granted an indult
to you or some of you, or to the abbots, priors and other aforesaid
exempt or non-exempt persons, or to anyone else, that you are not
obliged and compelled to pay, or that you cannot be laid under interdict,
suspension or excommunication by apostolic letters which have not
made full and express mention of this indult and its tenor word for
word, or of the names of your orders, localities and persons. The
same applies to any privileges, indulgences, exemptions and apostolic
letters which have been granted generally or specially in any form
of words by the said apostolic see to any dignities, orders, places
or persons, and of which and their whole tenor there should be made
in our letters word for word, special, full and express mention. Consider,
besides, that in these duties you are engaged in God's business, and
that you are acting in the sight of him who sees all. You will therefore
be obliged to render an account to him and to us; we intend to use
all diligence in this matter. You will receive due reward from both
him and us. You should therefore act prudently and carefully, not
only to avoid the danger of punishment and confusion, but also to
gain the glory of praise and well-deserved reward.
It is our wish also that each of you oblige the persons delegated
by you for collecting the tithe, to swear that they will be diligent
and careful in their work and to use this formula: "I swear by you,
lord, who am delegated by the authority of the apostolic see and by
the same see itself to claim, collect and receive a tithe of all ecclesiastical
revenues and incomes from all exempt and non-exempt ecclesiastical
persons in your city and diocese, that I will faithfully claim, collect,
receive and guard this tithe which has been imposed by the apostolic
see for the business of the holy Land and of the catholic faith. Only
the priors, preceptors masters and other persons and places of the
Hospital of saint John of Jerusalem and of the other military orders
are excepted. I shall not give way in this to any person, of whatever
dignity, status or condition, whether from entreaty, fear, gratitude,
favour or any other cause. I shall restore and consign the full tithe
to you at your order. I shall render a final and integral account
concerning everything in detail, namely to you regarding what I have
claimed, collected and received from non-exempt persons, and to the
delegate or delegates of the holy see regarding exempt persons. If
you lay down your office in this matter, I shall do the same according
to the orders of your successor. So may God help me and these holy
gospels of God.
Given at Avignon on 1 December in the eighth year.
VOLTAR