Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. As noted below, dispensations began to be granted in later times, but originally not even the Pope could dispense from them. If for a just cause a member of a religious order was expelled, the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so rendered invalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedience obliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than to the religious superior, and the vow of poverty was modified to meet the new situation but the expelled religious "could not, for example, will any goods to another; and goods which came to him reverted at his death to his institute or to the Holy See."
Weakening of the distinction in 1917 The former
1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the term
religious order for institutes in which the vows were solemn, and used the term
religious congregation (or simply congregation) for institutes with
simple vows. The members of a religious order for men were called regulars, those belonging to a religious congregation were simply
religious, a term that applied also to regulars. For women, those with simple vows were called
religious sisters, with the term
nun reserved in canon law for those who belonged to an institute of solemn vows, even if in some localities they were allowed to take simple vows instead. monks However, it abolished the distinction according to which solemn vows, unlike simple vows, were indissoluble. It recognized no totally indispensable religious vows and thereby abrogated for the
Latin Church the special consecration that distinguished orders from congregations, while keeping some juridical distinctions. The 1917 Code maintained a juridical distinction by declaring invalid any marriage attempted by solemnly professed religious or by those with simple vows to which the Holy See had attached the effect of invalidating marriage, while stating that no simple vow rendered a marriage invalid, except in the cases in which the
Holy See directed otherwise. Thus members of orders were barred absolutely from marriage, and any marriage they attempted was invalid. Those who made simple vows were obliged not to marry, but if they did break their vow, the marriage was considered valid. Another difference was that a professed religious of solemn vows lost the right to own property and the capacity to acquire temporal goods for themselves, but a professed religious of simple vows, while being prohibited by the vow of poverty from using and administering property, kept ownership and the right to acquire more, unless the constitutions of the religious institute explicitly stated the contrary. After publication of the 1917 Code, many institutes with simple vows appealed to the Holy See for permission to make solemn vows. The Apostolic Constitution
Sponsa Christi of 21 November 1950 made access to that permission easier for nuns (in the strict sense), though not for religious institutes dedicated to apostolic activity. Many of these latter institutes of women then petitioned for the solemn vow of poverty alone. Towards the end of the
Second Vatican Council, superiors general of clerical institutes and abbots president of monastic congregations were authorized to permit, for a just cause, their subjects of simple vows who made a reasonable request to renounce their property except for what would be required for their sustenance if they were to depart. These changes resulted in a further blurring of the previously clear distinction between orders and congregations, since institutes that were founded as congregations began to have some members who had all three solemn vows or had members that took a solemn vow of poverty and simple vows of chastity and obedience.
Further changes in 1983 The current
1983 Code of Canon Law maintains the distinction between solemn and simple vows, but no longer makes any distinction between their juridical effects, including the distinction between orders and congregations. Instead, it uses the single term
religious institute to designate all such institutes. While solemn vows once meant those taken in what was called a religious order, "today, in order to know when a vow is solemn it will be necessary to refer to the proper law of the
institutes of consecrated life." The
Annuario Pontificio continues to distinguish between
Ordini (Orders) and
Congregazioni Religiose Clericali (Clerical Religious Congregations). Some other authors use the terms religious order and religious institute as synonyms; canon lawyer Nicholas Cafardi, commenting on the fact that the
canonical term is religious institute, write that religious order is a colloquialism. == Authority structure ==