The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

REFORM OF THE DATARIA. I73
be allowed without sin/ and in the following year theologians
and canonists were appointed to discuss the matter. ^ The
conditions under which such resignations or renunzie were
lawful were laid down in detail, and were to be expressed in
accordance with a dehnite formula in the briefs which granted
them ;2 only in certain very limited cases could the bishops
receive such permission ;* nobody who was not in major
orders could renounce his benefice without making restitution
of the fruits he had already enjoyed.^ In dealing with offices
with a cure of souls attached to them, the Datary was not to
allow the resignation of such an office except on the grounds
of old age or illness.^
Pius V. not only issued these orders for others, but con-
^ *Arco, May 25, 1566, State Archives, Vienna.
2 *Avviso di Roma of February 22, 1567, Urb. 1040, p. 362b,
Vatican Library.
^ Motu proprio of May 13, 1567. Bull. Rom., VII., 552 seqq.
The resignations, *states Arco on February 22, 1567, were allowed,
but there must be no admission of unworthy candidates, or of such
as had given rise to the least suspicion of simony (State Archives,
Vienna). The acceptance of such resignations had been forbidden
to the Roman authorities and to the ordinaries pending a definite
regulation of the question. Bull of August 8, 1567, in Laderchi,
1567, n. 4.
* Bull of April I. 1568, Bull. Rom., VII., 664 seqq.
* *" S. B°^ ha prohibito al datario le resignationi di quelli che
hanno beneficii et non sono in sacris, et vogliono lasciarli, volendo
che col lasciarli restituiscono anco i frutti percepti accioche a
piacer loro non habbino di quel della chiesa o fatto acquisto et
pensino hora di scaricarsene." B. Pia to Luzzara, Rome, May,
1568, Gonzaga Archives, Mantua.
* *" S.S continua a restringere anco un poco piu le cose della
riforma et particularmente nella Dataria, non volendo che si
possi piu far resegni de beneficii curat i per qual causa che sia, non
amettendo ne vecchiezza ne infirmita " (Avviso di Roma of
November 3, 1571, Urb. 1042, p. 145b, Vatican Library). Age
and illness are naturally recognised as a judicial reason for a
resignation ; see Bull. Rom., VII., 665, 3. The *Avvisi frequently
insist upon the Pope's strictness in the granting of matrimonial