[17.] ITEM, priests, whatever their estate, should behave themselves honorably, openly, and well, and should faithfully abide by and follow the terms of their [parish] endowments,* also the rules and ordinances of their monasteries. They should set aside all lay business, identity, clothing, and other dishonorable residences; they should provide the laypeople a pious, honorable, and good example; and they should apply themselves so that there are no complaints about them. For we will not suffer or endure things from them, as we have done up to now. Let each of them conduct himself accordingly.
[18.] ITEM, in times of dying, every priest should stay with his parishioners, attending to them and comforting them according to Christian ordinances, on the penalty of losing his endowment.
[19.] ITEM, every cleric, whether priest, chorister, or chaplain, who possesses an endowment shall occupy it and carry out [versechen] its duties himself; and from now on, no one, no matter who he might be, shall either allow or take absences from his endowment. And anyone who does not himself occupy the endowment and carry out its duties, or who is not capable and suitable for such duties, shall return his endowment to no one other than his collator and endower, who appointed him to it.
[20.] Also, no one should make or accept secret contracts with others concerning such absent priesthoods or endowments, on the penalty of losing the endowment.
[21.] But if a youth, who was still a minor and too young to be ordained as a priest, should hold an endowment, then he should be allowed the use of the endowment, but under the condition that he provides another suitable priest, who is old enough to perform its duties. And if he should not become a priest [when he is old enough], or is not capable and suitable for it, then the endowment should be taken from him and given to another capable and suitable priest.
[22.] ITEM, since various priests now undertake to have women in marriage, our opinion is that those who have taken wives should henceforth receive no endowments, and shall be forbidden to exercise their priestly office.
[23.] Likewise, one should take away the endowment and forbid the exercise of his priestly office to any priest holding an endowment who takes a wife, so that he may henceforth earn his living through labor, like other laymen.
[24.] ITEM, any members of religious orders, male or female, who leave their cloisters and orders or who undertake to marry should also lose their endowments and their monasteries; with the reservation that every canton and the lordship where this takes place may deal further with them, and offer them mercy or not.
[25.] ITEM, concerning the obligation to attend clerical courts,** and concerning the ban, we have regarded the matter and ordained for now, since matters are so perilous, and no one pays any attention to them now, that no cleric shall cite, call, or burden a layperson, nor any layperson a cleric, nor one layperson another, before a clerical court; not concerning debt, nor insult, nor criminal offences, nor concerning dues, tithes, rents and obligations, with no exceptions for any temporal or worldly matter, with the sole exception of marital matters and disputes and conflicts touching on the holy sacraments or the cloisters and churches, or matters that touch on the soul, or on account of religious error and unfaith, which we allow to proceed before the clerical judges. But otherwise, for all secular goods and human actions, the clerical courts and the ban should not be used against anyone, but instead every party should seek and call the other party in the jurisdiction where the defendant is seated or lives; and there they should give and take the law, as is the general custom everywhere, and as some of our Leagues provide.
[26.] And should it happen that our subjects should come before a clerical court in marital matters or other spiritual matters as described above, then we desire that the clerical judge should carry out the suit and bring the matter to an end briskly and with minimum costs, so that the poor people are not inconvenienced and subjected to great costs, as happened earlier and was customary. For we shall not endure such things any more, and should any complaints reach us on this account and truly show such delays, we will look into the matter further in order to assist our subjects.
* Most priests were supported materially by a parish endowment, which was legally a benefice [Pfründe], the income of which they collected as long as they remained in office. Very often, however, the incumbent was in fact an absentee who hired a poorly paid substitute (vicar) to reside and perform the pastoral duties that were the object of the endowment: saying Mass, providing the sacraments, and attending the sick and the dying – trans.
** Before the Reformation, a broad range of cases were reserved for ecclesiastical (or "spiritual") courts, such as marriage, perjury, debt, and other matters with a spiritual component; disputes about such matters had to be heard before the local bishop's court. This requirement was much resented by laypeople and equally by secular judges and magistrates. In this clause, the otherwise traditionalist Swiss authorities who drafted these articles show their intention to reduce spiritual jurisdiction to a minimum – trans.
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