Document 2/143/183 (Balm. Lib., no. 58)
- Description
- Pope Innocent IV takes the monastery of Balmerino into his protection; all the possessions and goods which the abbot and brethren possess canonically and other privileges and goods which they have or may acquire by papal permission, by the liberality of kings or the gifts of the faithful, shall remain with the abbot and his successors, including the place where the monastery is situated; the lands of Coultra (FIF) and Balmerino in Fife, Ballindean (FIF), Grange (‘Ballindard’) (FIF), Corbie (FIF), Barry (‘Fetmureth’) in Angus, Torr of Kedlock in Fife, Pitgorno (FIF) and Drumdreel (FIF); the houses which they have in the villas of Crail, St Andrews, Forfar, Dundee, Perth and Roxburgh; and the rents which they have in the church of Angus [with pertinents] and with its liberties and immunities. The abbey is exempt from tithes on new lands brought under cultivation by them or at their expense. They are also exempt from tithes on the offspring of their animals. They are permitted to take in whatever clerics or laymen have fled from the secular world and have converted freely, and to retain them without any contradiction. None of the brothers, after making their profession, shall be permitted to depart without the permission of the abbot; no one may intend to depart without the surety of common letters; they may promulgate regular sentences on monks or converts they presume to retain. No lands or ecclesiastical benefices having been collated to the church may be given or alienated by other means without the consent of all the chapter or a major or sound part of it, if this shall happen, he shall decree it invalid. The pope prohibits any of the monks or converts under profession, without the consent and licence of the abbot and a major part of the chapter, to guarantee or accept some borrowed money beyond the price of the chapter unless it is useful to the house. But if by chance he presumes to do [this], the convent shall not be made to answer for it to a certain degree. They are permitted in their own cases, whether civil or criminal, to maintain disputes, to use testimonies of their brethren, lest through the absence of witnesses justice is lost. He prevents any bishop or another persona to go to synods or foreign convents, or to subject their possessions to secular justice, nor may he impede the regular election of the abbot against the statutes of the Cistercian order. If the bishop in which parish the house is founded should bless an alternate bishop and refuse to confer on the abbot others which pertain to the episcopal office, the abbot is permitted, if he is still a priest, to bless his own novices and others. For the consecration of altars or churches, whether by holy oil or another ecclesiastic sacrament, no one may extort from the abbot by any means. If the seat of the diocesan bishop shall be vacant in the meantime, they may receive all ecclesiastical sacraments from a neighbouring bishop freely and without contradiction. If that bishop shall be in communion with the apostolic see, they shall receive from him the benedictions of equipment and vestments, consecrations of altars, and ordinations of monks. If bishops, or rectors of other churches, promulgate sentences of suspension, excommunication or interdict in the monastery, or on personae established in that place, or their mercenaries, for whom they do not pay teinds, which have been indulged by apostolic kindness to the abbot, or if they had brought forward the same sentence upon his benefactors, this was against the indults of the apostolic see. During a general interdict in the land, they are permitted to celebrate divine office privately and quietly. Within their enclosures or granges, no one may commit theft, robbery, arson, shed blood, or seize or murder men. He establishes all the liberties and immunities granted by his predecessors and those liberties and exemptions of secular exaction indulged by kings, by princes or other faithful. The pope directs that no man is permitted to disturb the monastery or carry away its possessions; saving the authority of the apostolic see. Should any secular person attempt to go against this, after three warnings if he should not make amends, he may lost his honour and be liable to divine justice, and subject himself to retribution.
- Firm date
- 28 June 1243 X 7 December 1254
- Dating Notes
- Consecration × death of Innocent IV
- Source for Data Entry
- Balmerino Liber, no. 58
- Trad. ID
- Balm. Lib., no. 58
- Calendar number
- 2/143/183
- Charter type
- Papal privilege: general confirmation
- Language
- Latin