Decet Romanum

Pope St. Pius V

June 21, 1571

It is right and just for the Roman Pontiff, as the supreme champion of equity and good, to examine all matters with his prudent judgment, so that every scandal should be dealt with, and so that those things which are established for the glory of the Divine Name should receive the increase of vowed participants.

 §1. We have recently learned that the Society of the Holy Name, or the Society of Oaths, had its origin and birth from the Order of Preachers, inasmuch as it was instituted by the professor members of the same Order and, moreover through the intercession of beloved sons, that is, the brothers of the aforesaid Order, many indulgences and other privileges and favors were conferred to said Society by the Apostolic See. However, many clergy and parish priests eagerly desire to erect said Society in their churches so that sometimes there are several in the same city—that is, Societies or Confraternities of the said invocation of the Name of God, or of Oaths—to the diminishment of observance and devotion, which is wont to arise from the frequency of those gathering and to cause some confusion, which tends to arise from that cause [i.e., from the plurality of societies] on the Day of the Circumcision of the Lord, when the feast of the aforesaid Society or Confraternity, ought to be celebrated.

 §2. Wishing to provide in opportune time, in accord with the duties of our Pastoral Office, by our own motion (Motu proprio), not at the mere instances of some petition being placed before us on this matter, but rather from pure deliberation and certain knowledge, and from the fullness of Apostolic authority, we decree that in the cities, towns, and places of the whole Christian world in which there are churches of the Order of Preachers, only there, exclusively in churches of the Friars Preachers in cities, towns, and places of this kind, shall said Society or Confraternity be instituted. In cities, towns, or places where there is no house of said Order, or in neighboring churches, the said Confraternity or Society is to be erected only with the permission of the Prior Provincial or the Conventual Prior of said Order, in whose district the church where the Confraternity or Society is to be erected is located.

§3. If something should be done otherwise, brothers (confratres) so admitted are not to obtain the indulgences of said Confraternity or Society, nor enjoy the favors and privileges it grants to those brothers (confratribus) legitimately enrolled through the aforesaid See. By apostolic authority, by the course of those present, we decree and ordain in perpetuity, and we even more strictly forbid, and thus we so will and command.

§4. We likewise command the beloved sons, the Conservators of the said Order, through these present instructions in this same Motu, that they should prohibit, by our authority, those who contradict or attempt to contradict, and they should also restrain and repress them even by censures and other penalties, including monetary penalties, and by other available remedies of law and fact, excluding an appeal—for which [penalties] We grant and impart to them faculty, power, and authority by the same authority and motion.

§5. Decreeing that the present letters can never at any time be impugned by the fault of deception, or of a failure of our intention, or by some other defect of a scribe, or any other error whatsoever, or in any other way infringed or retracted, but that they should always be valid and effective, having their full effect, and to and to be observed inviolably and in perpetuity by all whom they concern.

§6. And that in the aforesaid matters, all persons should regard these matters as decided above, and that these matters ought to be so judged and decided by whatever judges and commissioners, and even Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and Auditors of cases of Our Apostolic Palace—such that the faculty and authority of judging or interpreting otherwise is hereby removed from them and from each of them individually—and moreover that whatever anyone, by whatever authority, knowingly or unknowingly may attempt to the contrary in these matters shall be considered null & void.

§7. Notwithstanding the foregoing, and notwithstanding the constitutions of Our predecessor Pope Boniface VIII of happy memory regarding one summons, and notwithstanding the constitutions of the general Council regarding two summonses—provided that no one, by force of these present decrees, be brought to trial beyond three times—and notwithstanding Apostolic Constitutions and ordinances, and likewise the statutes and customs of said Order, even solemnized by oath and Apostolic confirmation or any other bond, and privileges granted and Apostolic letters under whatever tenor and form, and with whatever derogatory clauses, even of derogatory clauses, and other more efficacious and unusual clauses, even with a similar motu proprio and knowledge, even consistorially, and otherwise granted, approved, and renewed to the contrary in any way whatsoever—all of which, even if special, specific, individual, and express mention of them were required, or any other precise form were to be observed for this purpose, We, holding the tenors of such things as expressed in these present decrees, as if they had been inserted word for word with nothing whatsoever omitted and the form prescribed in them preserved—with those things otherwise remaining in their own force—derogate specially and expressly this once only, and from all contrary provisions whatsoever; or if it has been granted to any persons jointly or severally by the aforesaid Holy See that they cannot be interdicted, suspended, or excommunicated by Apostolic letters not making full and express mention, word for word, of such an indult.

§8. Furthermore, since it would be difficult to carry these present letters to each and every place where it shall be necessary, We will that the same complete faith be given in formal legal judgments and otherwise to transcripts of these letters signed by the hand of some public Notary and sealed with the seal of some person established in Ecclesiastical dignity, as would be given to the present letters if they were themselves exhibited or displayed.

Given at Rome at St. Peter’s under the Fisherman’s Ring, this 21st day of June in the 6th year of our pontificate.