Council of Trent: Session XXI, Reformation, Chapter VII

CHAPTER VII. Bishops shall transfer, together with their obligations, churches which cannot be restored; others they shall cause to be repaired.

Whereas, also, very great care ought to be taken, lest those things which have been dedicated to sacred services, may, through the injury of time, cease to be so employed, and pass from the memory of men; the bishops, even as the delegates of the Apostolic See, may transfer simple benefices--even those that are under a right of patronage-from churches which have fallen into ruin by age, or otherwise, and which cannot, by reason of the poverty thereof, be restored, to the Mother Churches, or others of the same or neighbouring places, as they shall judge fit, after having summoned those who are interested therein; and they shall raise, in the said churches, altars, or chapels, under the same invocations; or transfer them, with all their emoluments and with all the obligations that were imposed on the former churches, to altars or chapels already erected. But, as regards parish churches which have thus fallen into decay, they shall, even though they be under a right of patronage, make it their care that they be repaired and restored, out of any fruits and proceeds whatever, in any way belonging to the said churches; and if those resources should not be sufficient, they shall compel, by all suitable means, the patrons and others who receive any fruits derived from those churches, or, in their default, the parishioners, to provide for the aforesaid repairs; setting aside every appeal, exemption, or reservation whatsoever. But if they should be all too poor, those churches shall be transferred to the Mother Churches, or to the neighbouring churches, with power to convert both the said parish churches and others that are in ruins, to profane, though not to sordid uses; a cross, however, being erected there.

Translation: J. Waterworth, The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (1848), Hanover Historical Texts Project transcription (1995).