a. About the First Penalty or about Deposition

14. The first, namely deposition, is the greatest, because it is the total removal from the clerical state. And if degradation be removal from every clerical rank, then deposition and degradation are the same thing. But if degradation is deposition only from a determinate rank, with however some other rank kept (as from the rank of the priesthood with some clerical rank remaining), then degradation is a penalty that is partial with respect to deposition.

15. But how is the one deposed removed from clerical state and rank? I reply: not because the character of order is taken from him, nor consequently the orders he received; but the license to execute the act of any order is taken from him, and he is also deprived of everything that belongs to the ordained. Hence such a one is handed over to secular care so that, as concerns ecclesiastical acts and the protection of ecclesiastical persons and as to forum, he is totally excluded from the number of ecclesiastical persons.

16. How is this penalty inflicted? I say that never by the law, but it has to be inflicted precisely by a judge. And the form according to which it has to be inflicted is contained in Boniface VIII Decretals Book Six, V tit. 9 ch.2. Now the causes for which it is inflicted are enormous sins, as heresy, schism, revealing confession. About the first is Gregory IX Decretals V tit.7 ch.9, about the second Boniface VIII ibid., tit.3 ch.1, about the third Gregory ibid., tit.38 ch.12.

17. How is it remitted? I say only through complete restoration by him who is able to restore, who is posited to be the Pope alone, although someone legitimately deposed is not read to have been restored afterwards.