Council of Trent: Session VII, Reformation, Chapter XIV

CHAPTER XIV. The civil causes of exempted persons which may be taken cognizance of by bishops.

In the causes of exempted persons, the Constitution of Innocent IV., beginning Volentes, set forth in the general Council of Lyons, shall be observed,-which Constitution this sacred and holy Synod hath thought ought to be renewed, and doth hereby renew it; adding further, that, in civil causes relative to wages, and to persons in distress, clerics, whether Seculars, or Regulars who live out of their monasteries,-howsoever exempted, and even though they may have upon the spot a special judge deputed by the Apostolic See; and in other causes, if they have no such judge,-may be brought before the Ordinaries of the places, and be constrained and compelled by course of law to pay what they owe; no privileges, exemptions, commissions of conservators, and inhibitions therefrom, being of any force whatever in opposition to the (regulations) aforesaid.

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