PORTUGUESE DECREE abolishing all Convents, Monasteries, Colleges, Hospices, and all Religious Houses of Regular Orders.- Lisbon, May 28, 1834.

(Translation.)

HAVING taken into consideration the Report of the Minister and Secretary of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice, and having heard the Council of State, I am pleased to decree, in the name of the Queen, the following:

ART. 1. Are abolished forthwith in Portugal, Algarve, adjacent islands, and Portuguese dominions, all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices, and all religious houses of any regular Orders, whatever may be their denomination, doctrine, or rules.

2. The property of the convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices, and any religious houses of regular Orders are incorporated in the possessions of the National Treasury.

3. The sacred vessels and vestments which serve for divine worship shall be placed at the disposal of the respective Ordinaries, to be distributed amongst the churches of the dioceses most in want of them.

4. To each of the religious members of the convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices, or of any suppressed houses, will be paid by the Public Treasury, for their subsistence, an annual pension, so long as they do not obtain the equivalent or a higher income from a benefice or public employment, with the following exceptions:

(1.) Those who take up arms against the lawful Throne or against national liberty;

(2.) Those who in favour of the usurpation took advantage of their ministry in the confessional or pulpit;

(3.) Those who accepted a benefice or employment from the Government of the usurper;

(4.) Those who denounced or directly persecuted their fellowcitizens for their sentiments of loyalty towards the lawful Throne and adherence to the Constitutional Charter;

(5.) Those who followed the usurper's troops;

(6.) Those who, on the re-establishment of the Queen's authority, or after such, in the locality of their residence, did abandon their convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices, or respective houses. 5. All laws and provisions to the contrary are hereby revoked. The Minister and Secretary of State for the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice shall thus understand and cause the same to be carried out.

Palace of Necessidades, May 28, 1834.

JOAQUIM ANTONIO D'AGUIAR.

D. PEDRO, Duque de Bragança.

PORTUGUESE DECREE enforcing the Execution of the Provisions of the Decrees of August 5, 1833,* and May 28, 1834,† with regard to Religious Orders and Novitiates.Lisbon, March 10, 1901.

(Translation.)

REPEATED Complaints having been brought forward setting forth that, in contravention to the laws of the kingdom, institutions of religious Orders and establishments, organized and managed by corporations or individuals bound by religious vows, have been established in various parts of the country, and it being necessary to carry out the legal provisions in force with regard to such institutions, as also to take, with reference to such establishments, the measures most in conformity with law and public convenience, for which purpose it is indispensable to ascertain without delay, though with exactitude, the existence, organization, object, and conditions of such institutions, in order that in this respect proceedings may be taken with a full knowledge of the facts:

I hereby decree that the Civil Governors of the several districts of the kingdom shall, with the greatest speed and with the most zealous care, investigate and report—

1. Whether in the districts under their charge there really exist religious institutions under regular Orders, of whatever denomination, doctrine, or rules, whose object is to lead a monastic life, to the end that they may be suppressed in compliance with the Decree of the 28th May, 1834.

2. Whether in the said districts there exist institutions of education, propaganda, beneficence, or charity, conducted or managed by any religious community or congregation, or in whose direction or management individuals belonging to such communities or congregations take part, the said Magistrates exacting that within eight days the Statutes under which they have been established and the regulations by which they are governed should be produced, in order that such as do not produce the same be immediately closed, and due proceedings taken with regard to all others.

3. Whether in any religious establishments in their districts improper admission is given to Holy Orders and monastic novitiate of any doctrine or nature, in order that prompt and full compliance may be given to the provisions of the Decree of the 5th August, 1833, which formally forbids vows and novitiates.

The President of the Council of Ministers, Minister and Secretary of State for the Home Department, and Minister and Secre

tary of State for the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice, shall accordingly cause the same to be carried into execution.

Palace, March 10, 1901.

ERNESTO RODOLPHO HINTZE RIBEIRO.

ARTHUR ALBERTO DE CAMPOS HENRIQUES.

THE KING.

PORTUGUESE PORTARIA containing Special Instructions to the Civil Governors for the Observance of the Decree of March 10, 1901.*-Lisbon, March 12, 1901.

(Translation.)

WITH a view to the prompt and just fulfilment of the provisions of the Decree of the 10th instant in regard to the investigations respecting the existence of monastic institutions, establishments directed or administered by religious communities, or by persons belonging to such communities, and religious houses where there is admission to sacred Orders or novitiates, and it being indispensable that for their due execution the Administrative authorities should proceed not only with the celerity demanded by the said Decree, but also with uniformity, in every district, and be enabled to carry out their inquiries both surely as well as efficiently, His Majesty the King has seen fit to determine that the Civil Governors of the various districts should have particularly in view that, in addition to the faithful observance of what has been there decreed, they should also ascertain

1. In regard to the collective bodies to which Article 1 of the above Decree refers :

(a.) Whether in any building, public or private, any religious institution has been established in which conventional or monastic life is observed;

(b.) The denomination of the respective Orders;

(c.) When and by whom established;

(d.) The sources of revenue by which it is maintained;

(e.) The rules under which it is directed;

(f) To what ecclesiastical jurisdiction it is subordinate;

(g.) Whether it is exclusively destined to religious rites, and how these religious rites are practised.

2. In regard to the institutions mentioned in Article 2, viz. :(a.) What are the educational or charitable institutions, and whether directed or administered by religious communities or congregations; under whose direction or administration, and if the * Page 748.

persons who take part in such occupations or duties, as those of instruction, philanthropy, medical treatment, catechism, and doctrine, belong to communities or religious congregations;

(b.) If these communities or congregations, and the persons who belong to them, are national or foreign;

(c.) When, by whom, and by what Statutes they have been founded, and the regulations by which they are governed;

(d.) Whether they are subject to civil authority;

(e.) If, in spiritual matters, they are subordinate to the Bishop of the diocese, or whether they render obedience to Prelates, Directors, or any other bodies of foreign extraction;

(f) The sources of revenue by which they are supported;

(g.) Whether in the educational establishments the laws and regulations of the country in regard to public instruction are observed;

(h.) In what does the education consist;

(i.) Whether in these and the other institutions referred to by Article 2 anything is practised of a nature prejudicial to physical and moral development or the health of the persons inhabiting them;

(j.) Whether these establishments are carried on in good sanitary conditions, and whether in the hospitals the principles are in accordance with the progress of science, &c. ;

(k.) What are the results which these establishments show from an educational or charitable point of view.

3. As regards the institutions mentioned in Article 3 of the same Decree :

(a.) Whether in any religious house of the respective district there have been, or are, admitted persons, of one or other sex, of minor or major age, to the practice of conventional or monastic novitiate;

(b.) Whether, after the novitiate, vows have been administered, and of what nature were those vows;

(c.) Under what conditions and in what manner were such novitiates and admissions to Holy Orders made.

For the complete verification of the facts which have been indicated, His Majesty charges the said Magistrates, in the exercise of the powers of inspection conferred on them by the provisions of the existing laws, to adopt the most adequate measures to that end:

(a.) Visiting personally the institutions, establishments, and religious houses referred to, or causing them to be visited by the competent authorities, their subordinates, with due circumspection and prudence, but exacting the production of all the information necessary for the fulfilment of their duty;

(b.) Causing the educational establishments to be inspected by the Rectors of Lyceums or persons of recognized capacity and professional competence; and not only these establishments, but all others, by Health Delegates or Sub-Delegates, in order to ascertain what has been specially mentioned above; and

(c.) Making, or causing to be made by competent Magistrates, inquiries in which should be called to depose not only those persons who direct or administer the establishments of education, propaganda, beneficence, or charity, or who belong to them, but also those private persons who can best throw light on the facts; respective reports of such inquiries being drawn up.

Finally, His Majesty the King is pleased to order that the said Civil Governors should be reminded that in case of refusal on the part of the establishments referred to in Article 2 of the Decree of the 10th instant to show the Statutes of their foundation and the regulations by which they are governed within the period of eight days allowed to them for their production, such establishments shall be at once suppressed, and the immediate closing of such institutions effected.

The Civil Governors of the various districts shall send successively and without delay to the Home Department the documents, depositions, and reports, which they have been collecting, giving account of all the acts which they have performed and investigations which they have carried out in compliance with the said Decree and the present Instructions.

Palace, March 12, 1901.

ERNESTO RODOLPHO HINTZE RIBEIRO.

PORTUGUESE DECREE establishing the Form in which Religious Associations may be allowed when exclusively devoted to Instruction or Charity.—Lisbon, April 18, 1901. (Translation.)

HAVING taken into consideration the Report of the President of the Council of Ministers, the Minister and Secretary of State of the Home Department, and of the Ministers and Secretaries of State of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Justice, and of the Department of Marine and Colonies, I am pleased to decree as follows:

ART. 1. No Association of a religious character may be instituted or carried on in the kingdom without the previous sanction of the Government.

(1.) The essential conditions for this sanction are :—

(a.) The production of the Statutes under which the Association