Council of Trent: Session VII, Reformation, Chapter X

CHAPTER X. When a See is vacant, Chapters shall not grant 'reverends' to any unless straitened because of a Benefice obtained, or about to be obtained: various penalties on contraveners.

It shall not be lawful for Chapters of churches, when a see is vacant, to grant,-whether by ordinance of common law, or by virtue of any privilege or custom whatsoever,-a license for ordination, or letters dimissory, or "reverend," as some call them, within a year from the day of that vacancy, to any one who is not straitened (for time), by occasion of some ecclesistical benefice received, or about to be received. Otherwise, the contravening Chapter shall be subjected to an ecclesiastical interdict; and the persons so ordained, if they have been constituted in minor orders, shall not enjoy any clerical privilege, especially in criminal causes; whilst those constituted in the greater orders shall be, ipso jure, suspended from the exercise thereof, during the pleasure of the next appointed prelate.

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