Can Priests Go Hunting? The Council of Trent provides an answer...

Canterbury Tales ^ | November 30, 2011 | Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

It's hunting season, and with all the clamor about "guns and Christian men" in the previous post about "manly Christmas gifts," I did a quick search and found an interesting article about "hunting" in the Catholic Encyclopedia over at NewAdvent.org.

There has never been a prohibition against hunting for laymen. However, there is quite a controversial history concerning clerical hunting. The Council of Trent, for example, made the formal distinction between clamorous (clamorosa) hunting and quiet (quieta) hunting. (Session XXIV, 12). "Clamorous hunting" is forbidden to priests. However, "quiet hunting" is allowed.

Clamorous hunting likely refers to the large hunting parties that are sometimes associated with dogs, drinking, and lasciviousness. It is clear that this type of gathering would not be proper for a priest. "Quiet hunting" would be more like laying traps in the woods or going out alone with a deer rifle.

In the "Corpus Juris Canonici" (C. ii, X, De cleric. venat.) we read: "We forbid to all servants of God hunting and expeditions through the woods with hounds; and we also forbid them to keep hawks or falcons." The Fourth Council of the Lateran, held under Pope Innocent III, decrees (can. xv): "We interdict hunting or hawking to all clerics." It seems here that there is a worry that hunting and hawking takes too much time for recreation. We imagine modern canons to read "golfing."

I don't know where canon law stands today, but I thought you might find the history of the questoin to be rather interesting.

Happy Hunting,

[NYer]

In case you were wondering, ping!

[Joe 6-pack]

My uncle’s a priest. He hunts.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Is the good padre waiting for the mailman?

[WayneS]

“Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

Genesis 9:3

[mrmeyer]

Genesis 1:29-30

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Acts 10:3, Acts 11:7

“Arise, Peter! Kill and eat”

[Alex Murphy]

There has never been a prohibition against hunting for laymen. However, there is quite a controversial history concerning clerical hunting. The Council of Trent, for example, made the formal distinction between clamorous (clamorosa) hunting and quiet (quieta) hunting. (Session XXIV, 12). "Clamorous hunting" is forbidden to priests. However, "quiet hunting" is allowed.

Clamorous hunting likely refers to the large hunting parties that are sometimes associated with dogs, drinking, and lasciviousness. It is clear that this type of gathering would not be proper for a priest. "Quiet hunting" would be more like laying traps in the woods or going out alone with a deer rifle.

Oh fer cryin' out loud - more evidence that the Council of Trent had nothing better to do.

Related thread:
Priest hunts free of moral conflict - but only when they're in season.

[Victor]

"....Acts 10:3, Acts 11:7 “Arise, Peter! Kill and eat”...."

LOL. And that includes pork chops...!!!

By the way, how does one go about "clamorously" hunting?

[Tax-chick]

LOL! It looks like a historic rifle. Maybe he’s a reenactor ;-).

[FourPeas]

ROFL!

[Campion]

The kind of "clamorous hunting" they're prohibiting was the pastime of the very rich (and still is, in England and parts of the U.S.). They were the people who could put together hunting parties with hounds, horses, bugles, servants, etc.

I should think you'd be all in favor of the CofT prohibiting priests from living like members of the minor nobility and insisting that they practice evangelical poverty.

[Campion]

This is what they had in mind by "clamorous hunting".

[AnAmericanMother]

That actually is relatively quiet hunting, compared to what Trent was talking about. There was a lot of wine, women and song connected with the medieval hunt, particularly stag and boar:

Fox hunting is relatively quiet and serious, you also have to be a pretty darned good rider to keep up with the field.

But the issue of whether a priest can fox-hunt has always been an issue, and was taken up by no less a personage than Anthony Trollope (himself a very keen rider to hounds until age and health got the better of him):

The Hunting Parson

[IYAS9YAS]

Is the good padre waiting for the mailman?

Looks like it, and the trap is baited, too (flag's up on the mailbox).

[Brass Lamp]

As a matter of fact, the modern percussion cap was invented by a churchman to improve the ignition rate of his fowler.

[Jeff Chandler]

How about women religious?

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[Lee N. Field]

There has never been a prohibition against hunting for laymen. However, there is quite a controversial history concerning clerical hunting. The Council of Trent, for example, made the formal distinction between clamorous (clamorosa) hunting and quiet (quieta) hunting. (Session XXIV, 12). "Clamorous hunting" is forbidden to priests. However, "quiet hunting" is allowed.

I can't find an image online, but in the 2003 Luther movie, at one point they show Pope Leo and his party involved in "clamourous hunting", chasing a bore down with dogs and men on horseback with javalins.

[Tax-chick]

... chasing a bore down with dogs ...

I'm rather sympathetic to that, actually.

[nonsporting]

I'm a priest and I hunt:

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

According to scripture ALL believers are members of this priesthood because they are in Christ.