POSSESSION, TAKING OF. — It is one of the subsequent acts by which canonical provision is carried out.
I. GENERAL CONCEPT
To prevent harmful uncertainties in the fulfillment of duties and the exercise of rights inherent in an ecclesiastical benefice, office, or dignity, canon law generally provides for a rite of investiture, called institutio corporalis or missio in possessionem (can. 1443 § 2), upon which, in many cases, it makes the very juridical effectiveness of subsequent acts, or in any event their legitimacy, dependent, according to the particular norms in force in the various places. The corresponding act on the part of the holder is the so-called taking of p. The principle that no one in the Church may, on his own authority, occupy an office, dignity, or benefice, even if he possesses the title thereto, is firmly established in doctrine and is implicitly sanctioned in can. 2394, which imposes severe penalties on arbitrary occupants. But, with regard to benefices, it is also explicitly expressed in can. 1443, where it is further specified that only the local Ordinary may deliver possession of them, unless they are benefices customarily conferred by the pope in consistory, for which the missio in possessionem is reserved to the Holy See, according to the special norms established by the CIC. For simple offices or non-beneficed dignities, general law does not provide for a genuine taking of p.; thus a vicar general, an episcopal chancellor, or a consultor pastor enjoys full possession of his office from the moment of appointment: but if no installation rite is prescribed, this does not remove the principle that makes the exercise and commencement of the new functions subject to the competent authority.For the taking of p. of ordinary benefices, no form is determined by a general law, but can. 1444 requires Ordinaries to observe the rite prescribed by particular norms or customs in the various places; the same canon, however, authorizes a derogation for a just cause. In such a case the bishop issues an express dispensation which, for all purposes, takes the place of the taking of p., according to the various cases contemplated in cans. 81, 82, 291. When it is instead carried out in the ordinary forms, the bishop establishes in advance, if it has not already been fixed by law, the time limit within which it must take place; unlawful failure to observe the time limit renders the benefice vacant ipso facto and nullifies the candidate’s title (can. 1444). The holder of the benefice has the faculty, if absent or impeded, to delegate for the taking of p. a priest provided with a special mandate (can. 1445), but he may not delegate to him the task of making the profession of faith that is often prescribed as a preliminary act to the p. (can. 1406), since such profession is always reserved to the person of the holder (can. 1407).
A particular form is established for the taking of p. by bishops, apostolic administrators, coadjutor bishops, and auxiliary bishops. For the former, possession of the diocese takes place through the presentation of the apostolic letters of appointment to the Chapter of the cathedral church, recorded in a special report by the chapter secretary or the chancellery secretary (can. 334 § 3); the time allowed for this act is fixed at four months from the appointment (can. 333). For apostolic administrators, on the other hand, and for coadjutor bishops with the right of succession or assigned to the see (can. 313, 353 § 2), the letters must be presented to the bishop of the diocese if he is sui compio and present in the territory, and also to the Cathedral Chapter. Under the legislation currently in force, this is sufficient for coadjutors with the right of succession, in the event of a vacancy, to acquire immediately the full and ordinary pastoral government of the diocese, and for apostolic administrators and coadjutors assigned to the see to continue in their functions without any further formality (can. 355 § 1). Finally, in the case of simple auxiliaries, that is, bishops assigned to the person of the incumbent, the taking of p. is completed by the presentation of the letters to the local bishop. Particular importance attaches to the taking of p. by apostolic vicars and prefects, who present the document of appointment only to the pro-vicar or pro-prefect who, in accordance with can. 309, temporarily succeeds deceased or impeded holders and is designated from the very beginning of ordinary government.
The effects of the taking of p. of a benefice are established in can. 1472 and following. Rights and duties find therein their point of origin, and the powers themselves their juridical effectiveness. Thus every jurisdictional act issued by the bishop before that rite is deprived of all effect (can. 334 § 2); from that rite arise the pastoral duties sanctioned in cans. 336, 338, 339, etc., as well as the episcopal privileges that are not acquired by simple appointment.
The Church protects the principle set forth above with severe sanctions; it immediately incapacitates the arbitrary occupant and imposes other penalties upon him (can. 2394), just as it punishes electors who, before superior ratification, when required by law, install the person elected. The usurper must in every case leave the benefice, nor may he aspire to it again unless the incapacity is dispensed. Good faith, however, can remedy the illegitimacy of the p. if it lasts peacefully for three years and there has been no simony (can. 1446). The period may be interrupted by the intervention of third parties; in that case prescription is impossible, the p. must be annulled judicially and replaced by a new provision
which will follow the ordinary rule of canonical investiture (can. 1447).
coronation (v.) of the new Pontiff was followed by a magnificent procession from the Vatican to the Lateran, which proceeded along the via Papae—that is, to use modern topographical terminology, after crossing the Borgos, it passed before Castel S. Angelo, then took the Via dei Banchi Nuovi and the Via del Governo Vecchio, passed before the Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Della Valle and the Church of the Gesù, reached the magnificently decorated Campidoglio, where the senator of Rome offered the new Pope the homage of the Urbs; it crossed the Roman Forum, skirted the Colosseum, and finally reached the Lateran. At times, however, the p. was postponed for some time, as was done for the first time by Julius II. The author of the Ordo Romanus XIII (1271–76) has left a complete description of the papal procession. It was organized by the prior diaconorum cum ferula. At its head was a papal horse covered with a cloth; following were a subdeacon with the cross, twelve standard-bearers with as many red banners, the group of lay dignitaries, the singers, the ecclesiastical dignitaries, the bishops, the archbishops, and finally the group of cardinals. Surrounded by the subdeacons with the canopy, the Pope came last. All the participants in the procession, including the Pope, were on horseback. E. S. Piccolomini (later Pius II) relates that, in the procession for the coronation of Nicholas V, the Blessed Sacrament was carried, surrounded by many lights. The custom of carrying the Blessed Eucharist was repeated also in subsequent takings of p., as is found in the taking of p. of Leo X. All the preceding sumptuous processions were surpassed by that for the p. of Leo X, prepared by sixteenth-century Rome and described by the Florentine physician Giovanni Penni.
Along the streets through which the procession passed, the Romans spread carpets and tapestries, set up statues, and raised triumphal arches. The Ordo XII records that the procession took place cum honore arcuam. The Renaissance raised arches designed by the most talented artists and decorated with statues representing, in accordance with the spirit of the age, Christian and pagan subjects. During the route, near the churches, the clergy prepared altars and incensed the pontiff as he passed. The same Ordo XII says that clerici omnes romani occurrunt eidem induti undecunque possunt cum turbolo. The Ordo XIII and XIV recall the custom of throwing money to the people, especially in the narrow streets, in order to disperse the crowd. This practice was often the cause of quarrels and sometimes even deaths, as happened when, once the Pope had reached the Lateran, the Romans seized the horse and the canopy. Near Monte Giordano, the chief of the rabbis customarily presented the new Pope with the Code of the Law, requesting respect and protection for his people. The Pope replied that he venerated Sacred Scripture, but not rabbinical interpretation. Later this practice was carried out within the bastions of Castel S. Angelo, to spare the Jews mistreatment by the Romans; subsequently, it was abolished altogether. When the Pontiff reached the Lateran Basilica, he was received by the cardinal archpriest and the canons: ibi ante porticum stat prior Laterani et canonici cum eorum comitiva, induti solemniter (Ordo XIII). The cardinal archpriest, in the name of the entire Chapter, addressed words of homage to the new Pope and then offered him the Crucifix to kiss.
In the same portico, the Pope was made to sit, or almost recline, on a throne, while the verse
from the canticle of Hannah was sung: suscitat de pulvere egenum et de stercore elevat pauperem. For this reason the chair was called stercoraria, and it is mentioned for the first time in the Ordo XII of Cencio Camerario (late twelfth century). Having risen, the Pope took a handful of coins from his chamberlain three times and threw them among the people, saying: argentum et aurum non est mihi ad delectationem, quod autem habeo hoc tibi do. Immediately afterward, the Pope, accompanied by the cardinals, his court, and the Lateran Chapter, entered the church and sat on a throne prepared in the apse, admitting all the canons to the kissing of his foot. From the fifteenth century onward, documents speak of a blessing to the people that the Pope supposedly gave at this moment in the Basilica, but it is not mentioned in the Ordines. When this ceremony had ended, the solemn p. of the Lateran Palace began. The Pope entered it from the Basilica and was received by a group of nobles and dignitaries, who accompanied him through the palace to the Oratory of S. Silvestro. At a later period, as Burcardo attests, he was led into the Council Hall, adorned with a central tribune, where the cardinals renewed for the Pontiff the laudes already sung at St Peter’s. The Oratory of S. Silvestro was located on the first floor of the Lateran Palace. In the oratory itself were two porphyry seats. The new Pontiff first sat on the one to the right: the prior of the Basilica of S. Lorenzo in Palatio (today the Oratory of the Scala Santa) gave him the ferula, a kind of staff, signum regimint et correctioni, and at the same time handed him the keys of the Basilica and the Lateran Palace. The Pope then rose and went to sit on the other seat placed on the left. Shortly afterward, the same prior girded the Pope with a red silk belt, from which hung a small purse containing twelve seals of precious stones and a small flask of musk. Finally, the Pontiff went to S. Lorenzo in Palatio, where he remained for a brief prayer. Afterward, he returned to the Oratory of S. Silvestro, where he distributed the presbyterium, that is, a gift to the clergy in coins or gold and silver medals. The entire ceremony of the p. concluded with the banquet, at which, before the sixteenth century, the Pope, cardinals, and bishops sat in sacred vestments. At other times the Pope preferred to remain alone; in that case, tables were set in the canons’ halls, as happened for the taking of p. of Innocent VIII.
The solemn cavalcade remained in use until Pius VI. Pius IX took p. of the Lateran on 8 November 1846 in a carriage, preceded and followed by a procession of dignitaries on horseback. The taking of p. was not repeated after the occupation of Rome in 1870. After the Conciliation, Pius XI, having gone to the Lateran privately, took official p. in a rather simple form (1929). Pius XII, on the Feast of the Ascension in 1939, took p. of the Lateran solemnly, but with the formalities greatly reduced. He concluded the ceremony by blessing the Roman people from the loggia of the Basilica’s principal façade.
III. TAKING POSSESSION BY THE CARDINALS
After the creation of the cardinals, the pope assigns each of them a titular church. For cardinal bishops, the taking of possession is carried out in a manner identical to that of bishops. Cardinal priests and cardinal deacons have iura pontificalia in their titular churches, but they cannot exercise jurisdiction over the faithful.The taking of possession may have originated in the solemn reception that, from the 4th century onward, the clergy and parish people of the respective titular church accorded to the newly ordained priest on the Saturday of the Ember Days of September. Once the Ordination had taken place, the clergy and people of the titular church triumphantly led the presbyter to his own see. The newly elected man proceeded on a white horse covered with a white cloth. During the procession, the cantors performed the laudes of the pope’s consecration. The celebration concluded with a solemn banquet. In the Middle Ages, since it was commonly held that the titular churches were to be regarded as the dioceses of the cardinal priests and deacons, with their own clergy and people (v. TITOLI),
the taking of possession by the latter was conducted like the taking of possession by bishops, with the necessary variations. The same was repeated during the Renaissance and thereafter (cf. Sixtus V, const. Religiosa Sanctorum, 1587). At present, taking possession of a cardinal’s titular church takes place either privately or solemnly. In the private form, the rector of the titular church, wearing a surplice, receives the cardinal at the door of the titular church and hands him the aspergillum with which to sprinkle those present. A visit to the Blessed Sacrament and to the church’s patron saint follows. Having gone to the sacristy, the bull of appointment is read, and the clergy present render an act of obedience. After an exchange of speeches between the rector and the cardinal, the act of taking possession is signed. In the solemn form, by contrast, the cardinal, accompanied by several prelates, proceeds solemnly to his titular church, where he is received by the rector in a cope and by all the clergy. At the entrance he kisses the Crucifix presented to him by the rector; he then sprinkles those present and is incensed three times by the rector. A small procession is formed and leads the cardinal to the altar of the Blessed Sacrament for a brief prayer. The cardinal then proceeds to the throne, where he listens to the reading of the bull of appointment. This is followed by the clergy’s act of homage and obedience; once it is completed, the rector delivers an address, to which the cardinal replies. The ceremony concludes with the singing of the Te Deum and the blessing imparted by the new titular cardinal. In the sacristy or another room, the act of taking possession is signed.