noviceship, and the subject can be supposed to have received through his life in the community the training which such exercises are designed to give.

It is not necessary for the community to go through the formality of another election unless the invalidating cause has to do with the legality of the previous election.

One invalidly professed is not bound to make further profession. As his profession was void he has the same right of departure from the community as he had while in the novitiate, and the community has the same right of sending him away. Neither party is in any way bound any more than they would be by the terms of any other contract that was found to be void.

If, however, under the binding direction of his conscience, one has been living in what he supposed to be the Religious Life, he may be bound still to follow the dictates of conscience, and to make good the defect in his profession. This must be decided as any other moral question would be,in foro conscientiæ.

In all such cases, however, grave consideration must be given both by the individual and by the community, to the question of scandal. No one has a right to use his freedom in such a way as to give scandal. "All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient "; If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth."'1 These apostolic principles which govern our consciences in other relations, bind in respect to an invalid profession. It may be a grave hurt to souls

1 Corinthians x. 23, and viii. 13.

to see one who had for years lived as a Religious abandon the life merely because it has transpired that there was a technical invalidating defect in his act of profession. No one has a right to use his freedom in such wise as to injure souls. The question, should it present itself, ought not to be decided without taking serious counsel, and seeking God's guidance; but at the same time it should be adjudged without permitting scruples to enter. He who follows his conscience, having sought counsel of wiser men, need have no fear.

If a profession is proved to be invalid, all its supposed effects are void, and all previous obligations that would have been extinguished by vows revive, until the defect be remedied.

When a profession has been effected through deception or fraud, or through fear, exercised by either party, it may involve questions of restitution if injury has been done on either side in matters of property.

When the profession is doubtful, the benefit of the doubt is to be given in favour of its validity. The subject has made a donation of himself and the community is in actual possession. The principle of law therefore holds that he who is in possession cannot be dispossessed without positive and undoubted evidence that his claim is untenable.

III. Of Tacit Profession

In former times what was known as tacit profession was considered as valid. This was quite generally held in the first three centuries. And Constitution 18

of Archbishop Peckham, in 1281, declared that those who had led the Regular Life, wearing the habit for more than a year, were to be regarded as ipso facto professed, and should they abandon the community they were to be treated as apostates.1 Canon law formerly held that if it was tacitly made by taking the habit, which was given only to those professing, it did not pledge the recipient especially to that Order to which the habit belonged, but generally to some form of Religion, i.e., supposing him to be of sufficient age, to have assumed it knowingly and voluntarily, and to have continued to wear it three years.2

We only mention tacit profession as a matter of historical interest. It no longer obtains in any form or sense amongst us, although it was not formally abolished in the West until 1858.

IV. Of the Effects of Profession

Certain effects arise from Religious Profession. 1. It has been held by many that Religious Profession has in some sort a sacramental effect. St. Jerome says that to enter upon a monk's life is "to renew one's baptism by means of the vow.” St. Dionysius calls the monastic consecration or profession a sacrament (μvorýplov). When we consider what is involved in Religious Profession, that it means

1 Johnson, English Canons, Vol. ii, p. 294.

2 Reichel, Manual of Canon Law, Vol. ii, 102; note 135.

3 St. Jerome, Ep. xxxix, ad Paulam, 3. Migne, P. L., Tom. xxii, col. 468.

4 St. Dionysius, De Eccles. Hier. cap. vi, sec. 3.

a total surrender for all time of the will to God, it is not possible to consider it as other than among the greatest occasions of grace open to the soul. St. Thomas considers Religious Profession as an act so meritorious as to secure the remission of all sins, in some such way as sins are remitted by alms-giving ; for in the one case one gives up for love of God a portion of what one possesses, while in the other he dedicates to God absolutely and perpetually not only all that he has, but all that he is, body, soul, and spirit.

1

2. Religious Profession does away with all obligations incurred by previous vows. St. Thomas gives four reasons for this 2

(a) Because, while all other vows pertain to particular works, man in Religion dedicates his entire being to the worship of God; and the particular is included in the universal.

(b) Because by Religious Profession one renounces his secular life and its obligations. If he cannot renounce these he is not a proper subject for Profession.

(c) Because private and individual practices are not fitting in the Religious Life, and are contrary to the community spirit.

(d) Because the burden of Religion is heavy enough in itself, and one is not bound to add to it.

Such promises or obligations are not said to be suspended or abrogated. They are commuted into something better, and in fulfilling a Religious voca

1 St. Thomas, Summa. 2. 2, Q. 189, Art. 3 ad 3.

2 Ibid., Q. 88, Art. 12 ad 1.

tion one does fulfil in spirit, though not in letter, all such obligations that have previously been incurred.

When one takes a vow to do certain things for God's service, or to keep the Rule of a certain Guild or Society, or to fulfil a certain condition of life, as, for example, that of a deaconess, such vows or promises are taken with the tacit understanding that they are not to bar the way to a higher state of service in the Kingdom of God, should one be called thereto. To assume a vow with the intention of permitting it, should the occasion arise, to hinder something that was of greater good, could with difficulty be excused from being a sinful act.1

St. Thomas, as we have seen, holds that all previous vows or promises are commuted by Religious Profession. There is some difference of opinion, however, amongst doctors, concerning previous obligations the fulfilment of which would in no way conflict with duties of Religion. Gautrelet sums up what seems to be the best opinion when he says that such renunciation of the former obligations requires a positive act either on the part of him who made the vow, and is free to commute it into something better, or "on the part of the Superior who, by virtue of the power over the Religious which he acquires by Profession, can annul the vow which the Religious had formerly made. Although there are reasons and authorities pro and con, it is the latter opinion that should be followed in practice, says Suarez, and consequently one who

1 St. Thomas, Summa. 2. 2, Q. 88, Art. 10.