INCARDINATION. - Canon law presupposes and requires that every cleric be enrolled in a diocese or a religious institute, and in no way admits clerics who are stateless or wandering, that is, lacking this specific title of clerical citizenship. The act by which a candidate for the ecclesiastical state is enrolled in the clergy of a diocese and officially assigned to its service is called incardination.
The practice of not ordaining to sacred orders except for the service of a particular church (titulus, cardo), to whose clergy or presbyterium the ordained was thereby permanently attached (titulus, incardinatus), with the registration of his name in the canon or register of those enrolled, dates back to apostolic times. Absolute ordinations, that is, those made without a title, were strictly forbidden from the outset. Beginning with the Council of Nicaea in 325 (c. 19, C. 7, 9, 1), many councils severely sanctioned this prohibition. Wandering clerics without a title (vagi, acephali) were barred from exercising Orders, and indeed their ordination was held to be juridically invalid. This invalidity was first expressly sanctioned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which definitively established the principle, now reproduced in can. 111 of the CIC, that no one could be promoted to Orders unless he was enrolled in a church or monastery (c. 1, D. 70; c. 2 ibid.). The prohibition against bishops conferring Orders on subjects of other dioceses is linked to this discipline.
Even at that time, however, it was customary to authorize, albeit only exceptionally, the transfer from one diocese to another by means of special dismissal letters (litterae formatae), often drawn up with elaborate ciphering for greater security (cc. 1, C. 19, q. 2; 1, C. 21, q. 2; 1, D. 73).
Against the relaxation of this discipline, which occurred in the Middle Ages with the gradual abusive introduction of absolute ordinations, the Council of Trent, in can. 6 of sess. XXIII, recalled the norm of Chalcedon and reaffirmed its sanctions. The custom, however, which gradually developed of authorizing transfers from diocese to diocese through the process of excardination, and of admitting ordinations of subjects of other dioceses upon presentation of the dismissal letters of their respective Ordinaries, was approved by the Sacred Congregation of the Council in the decree *Ad primam* (20 July 1898) and is now reproduced in the CIC.
Incardination is distinguished into original (prima incardinatio) and derived (subsequent incardinatio). Original incardination, which is proper to the lay candidate who receives it for the first time, is effected by the conferral of the first tonsure by the proper Ordinary or by another Ordinary authorized thereto by the latter’s dismissal letters (can. 111 § 2).
Derived incardination is that which pertains to a cleric already incardinated elsewhere and is further subdivided into formal, implicit (equivalent), and virtual.
Formal derived incardination occurs when a cleric, already regularly incardinated elsewhere, is enrolled in another diocese through the process of excardination, that is, by the simultaneous concurrence of two formal written acts: one of perpetual and unconditional acceptance by the new Ordinary, and the other of dismissal (litterae dimissionis), likewise perpetual and unconditional, by the Ordinary of the diocese of origin. For the validity of this incardination, it is required that the two acts correspond to each other, so that neither does the new incardination take place unless it has been preceded by regular excardination, nor, on the other hand, does the excardination produce its full effect before the formal incardination by the accepting Ordinary has occurred. The relevant documents, duly signed by the two Ordinaries, are required *ad validitatem* and not merely *ad probationem* (can. 112, 116). For the legal effects of incardination and excardination, under the term "Ordinary" here one cannot include the vicar general, except by special mandate, nor the capitular vicar, except in the case where the diocese has been vacant for more than a year and the consent of the Chapter is obtained (can. 113).
For the liceity of formal incardination, it is prescribed that the accepting Ordinary cannot proceed to it unless there are reasons of necessity or utility for the diocese, the new incumbent’s due support is assured by the assignment of a suitable title for ordination (v.), the authentic document of prior excardination is in hand, the necessary information has been requested from the curia of the diocese of origin, and the cleric to be incardinated has taken the prescribed oath to dedicate himself in perpetuity to the service of the new diocese according to canon law (can. 117).
Implicit or equivalent incardination occurs when a cleric has obtained in another diocese a residential benefice, even if removable, with the written consent of his Ordinary, or with the latter’s written license to leave the diocese in perpetuity (can. 114). Should the benefice relationship subsequently be dissolved in any way, the incardination revives *ipso facto* in the diocese of origin.
Virtual incardination occurs in the specific case of a religious who, having obtained a brief of secularization (v. ESCLAUSTRAZIONE E SECOLARIZZA- ZIONE), has been admitted by a bishop into the clergy of a diocese with an unconditional formula, or, if received *ad experimentum*, has not been sent back within the proper time, before the expiration of the second triennium of probation (cann. 112, 614 § 2).
For the layman who, upon entering a clerical religious institute, is promoted to tonsure, this does not effect incardination in any diocese. For the Religious, incardination is replaced by enrollment in his own religious institute, which takes place with the first profession and becomes definitive with perpetual profession (simple or solemn), by which the juridical bonds that tied him to his diocese are severed (cann. 115, 585).
For the cleric who has embraced the religious state after having previously received clerical tonsure, the relationship of incardination with his diocese, although suspended and rendered inoperative by first profession, survives in root until perpetual profession, so that, if before making such profession he leaves the religious state, he automatically returns to belong to the clergy of his diocese. With the emission of perpetual profession, formal excardination takes place and the relationship is definitively extinguished (ibid.).
As an effect of incardination, the incardinated cleric acquires first of all a specific juridical status as a cleric; he incurs the bond of subjection to the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the particular obligation of obedience and respect toward his bishop; he remains bound to the obligation of residence in the diocese (cann. 111, 127, 128, 143, 144).
Incardination ceases only as a result of formal excardination and simultaneous formal incardination in another diocese or in a religious institute. This occurs, as has been seen, either *ipso iure* (cann. 114, 115, 585, 641), or by decree of the competent authority (cann. 112–117, 641).
Zaccaria da San Mauro