That the heads of the churches should not intend to work more on their own than on the ecclesiastical estates.

 

It is unseemly for the heads of the churches to be diligent about their own property but negligent of the ecclesiastical one. There are some who report that some priests trouble the familia of the church with labour on their own estates to increase profits from their private property, while they finance their expenses from the Lord's property. Therefore, whoever, due to negligence defers work on the divine estates should be stopped with this special order so that if he increased revenues or labour on his own property using the property or revenues of the church, and because of that neglected the labour on the ecclesiastical property or caused decrease and loss to it, he should restore everything to the church whose property or revenues he used to increase his own income. But if he spent something or suffered loss for the use of the church and its property, and can prove it, it should be restored to him in full from the property of the church for whose profit he incurred costs.

 

(trans. M. Szada)