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

LAST SESSION OF THE COUNCIL. 363
on Purgatory, the invocation of the Saints, and the venera-
tion of their relics and images, were read and almost unani-
mously accepted. The same was done with the decree on
the reform of the regulars, the twenty-two chapters of which
contained regulations on the observance of the rales of the
orders, the property of communities as well as of individuals,
the number of the members, the foundation of monasteries,
the enclosure of convents of nuns, the election of superiors,
the visitation of convents, whether exempt or non-exempt,
the confessions of nuns, the exercise of the cure of souls by
regulars, the settlement of suits, criminal procedure, vows
and novices, freedom of entry, the treatment of " apostates "
and benefices held in commendam. With regard to these
last, some of the fathers wished that they should be entirely
abolished, but Guise had already prevented this in the General
Congregation.
The general reform decree comprised the most various
subjects in twenty chapters. It insisted on simplicity in
the houses of the bishops and also of the Cardinals, recommended
caution in imposing the sentence of excommunication,
made rules as to the profession of faith to be made by
prelates and other ecclesiastical officials, as well as the pro-
fessors in Catholic universities, foundations for masses, the
visitation of exempted chapters, the abolition of expectancies
of ecclesiastical benefices, the administration of hospitals,
the right of patronage, the settlement of lawsuits, the lease
of ecclesiastical property, the payment of tithes, burial fees,
the administration of benefices entailing the cure of sou's,
and the punishment of clerical concubinage. The nineteenth
chapter pronounced excommunication on duellists, their
seconds and supporters, and forbade Christian burial to
those who fell in a duel. Even the onlookers at a duel were
subjected to excommunication. There next followed, as
the twentieth chapter, a " strong exhortation to all the princes
to maintain and protect the rights and immunities of the
Church." In this respect all the earlier canons and coii-
stitutions were renewed, and the princes were exhorted to
make it possible for the bishops to reside in their dioceses