Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Exemption is the whole or partial release of an ecclesiastical person , corporation, or institution from the authority of the ecclesiastical superior next higher in rank, and the placing of the person or body thus released under the control of the authority next above the former superior, or under a still higher one, or under the highest authority of all, the pope.
Originally, according to canon law, all the subjects of a diocese , and all diocesan institutions, were under the authority of the bishop. On account of the oppressive manner in which bishops at times treated the monasteries , these were soon taken under the protection of synods , princes, and popes.
The papal protection often developed later into exemption from episcopal authority. Since the eleventh century, papal activity in the matter of reforms has been a frequent source or occasion of exemptions; in this way the monks became more closely bound to the popes , as against the bishops , many of whom were often inimical to the papal power.
It thus came to pass that not only individual monasteries , but also entire orders, obtained exemption from the authority of the local ordinary. Moreover, from the reign of Urban II , the broadly general "protection" of the Holy See libertas Romana , which many monasteries enjoyed, came to be regarded as exemption from the authority of the bishop.
From the twelfth century, it may be said the exemption of orders and monasteries became the rule. Exemptions were also granted to cathedral chapters, collegiate chapters, parishes. Under these circumstances the diocesan administration of the bishops was frequently crippled Trent, Sess. XXIV, De ref. The Council of Trent sought to correct the abuses of exemption by placing the exempt, in many regards, under the ordinary jurisdiction of the bishops , or at least under the bishops as papal delegates.
