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. Before August 6. Acre. [Cardinal-Bishop Odo (Eudes de Châteauroux) of Tusculum (Frascati), papal legate, issues the following statutes in Acre (Accon) with the advice and consent of the prelates of Syria.] The legate wishes to eradicate certain things that the Celestial Father did not plant. He hears many loud complaints against the clerics of Outremer and certain abuses and perverse customs that stain the integrity of the church of Outremer, in which many churches sell the sacraments, which is the plague of simony. When one chooses burial in the cemetery of Saint Nicolaus of Acre (Acconensis), or in another cemetery of Outremer, canons or clerics will not join the procession without first obtaining a fixed payment that they later divide among themselves. If the deceased's relatives have a stone monument made in the cemetery, they are forced to pay a gallon of oil, which is four quarts, or some other price, to the clerics of the church that owns the cemetery, or else they cannot have the monument. The person who makes the monument in the cemetery receives a fixed price, keeping two thirds and giving one third to the church that owns the cemetery, and sometimes more. Thus it appears that the administrators of the church sell holy land. Some also demand a fixed price for baptizing a child, and when the person bring the child is poor, they rent for a fixed price the holy cloth, white or shining, for the ceremony. They also demand the candle that is lit and carried with the child to its house, for the honour of the baptized and the parents, and they will not allow them to carry it without receiving a security so that the candle is given to them at the end. Some prelates demand three solidi, or one raboinus, or some other price, for contracting engagements, or else they will not attend. Some prelates extort 43 denarii or some other price from those wishing to solemnize their marriage in the eyes of the Church, or else they will not perform the office or duty at the wedding, or perform the ceremony, or allow it to be celebrated. They also extort from the bride and groom a plate of food and two cups of wine, or some other price, to perform their duty in the celebration of the nuptials. The above should canonically be done for free, just as the prelates receive orders, posts, and benefices for free. When some people wish to contract an engagement for a future marriage, a money fine is established for contracting the marriage, with or without predetermining the time. If the time is fixed and passes without the marriage yet contracted, even if the parties wish to marry later, the prelates demand the fine and force the parties to pay it. If the parties decide not to marry, the prelates extort the fee from both parties. If one still consents, they demand the fine from the dissenting party, but sometimes they even demand it from the one who still consents, thus greedily punishing the innocent. These things are against the holy regulations that marriage must be free, following free and peaceful consent, and in which there is no place for the fear and coercion of a fine, resulting in unwanted marriages. The legate condemns at length this practice, in which the Church, which completely condemns other coercion in marriage, turns it into profit for herself. When a marriage has been celebrated, a priest carries holy water and sometimes lit candles to the house where the couple will live, and approaching the door he places the water at their feet, demanding twelve denarii or another price for this objectionable task, which involves the sin of divination. It is also asserted that some priests and other clerics in orders keep girls in their houses, ostensibly as servants, with whom some are said to associate disgracefully, or through whom other girls are procured. Thus, on papal authority, the legate strictly prohibits the above abuses, which have become customary through long use, establishing, proclaiming, inviolably decreeing, and commanding by virtue of obedience that nothing shall be demanded henceforth on the basis of past agreement or convention for burials, processions for the dead, funeral rites and monuments, benedictions for those getting married, receiving chrism and oil, baptizing and registering the faithful, white cloth, wax, or any other ecclesiastical sacrament. If, however, something is freely given after the function has been carried out, the clerics are not forbidden from receiving what is offered as a gratuity or out of devotion. The white cloths must be taken back, however, so that they are not put to elicit use. Regarding the exaction of money fines, called repetailles in the vernacular or other names, imposed for marriages and engagements, which are such a common evil that it is difficult to remove them, anyone going against this statute or committing any fraud with respect to it, once they are aware of it, shall be ipso facto suspended from his duties. Nevertheless, the prelates shall impose a suitable punishment for perjury or breaking faith on the unwilling party in the marriage. The legate also forbids in his legation the demanding of the raboinus or any price for engagements or the 43 denarii or any price for marriages on pain of twenty days' suspension from entering church ipso facto. In order to avoid danger to souls, however, the legate grants the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops in his legation, or their vicars, the power to absolve clerics in their dioceses from the above sentences, after the guilty have taken an oath not to attempt such things in the future and have restored the money they have taken from people, if they can find them, or otherwise pay it to the bishop for the needs of the poor. If they cannot repay this, a penance shall be enjoined on them that will strike such terror that it will restrain them and others in the future. Priests and others in holy orders are forbidden from maintaining any women in their houses, for any reason, on pain of loss of benefices, unless the women are persons canonically permitted. For where men and women live together, the stimulation of the flesh is not far away. Those who go against, although warned by their superior, are ipso facto deprived of their benefices, which can be freely given to others by those who have the power. If they do not have benefices, they shall be restrained with sentences of suspension or excommunication. The legate also establishes that each patriarch, archbishop, and bishop shall hold a diocesan synod at least once a year, in which this statute shall be read publicly, and they shall have the statute written in the books of the cathedral church for the permanent record.