Canon 285. §1 Clerics are to shun completely everything that is unbecoming to their state, in accordance with the provisions of particular law.

§2 Clerics are to avoid whatever is foreign to their state, even when it is not unseemly.

§3 Clerics are forbidden to assume public office whenever it means sharing in the exercise of civil power.

§4 Without the permission of their Ordinary, they may not undertake the administration of goods belonging to lay people, or secular offices which involve the obligation to render an account. They are forbidden to act as surety, even concerning their own goods, without consulting their proper Ordinary. They are not to sign promissory notes which involve the payment of money but do not state the reasons for the payment.

§1. Clerici ab iis omnibus, quae statum suum dedecent, prorsus abstineant, iuxta iuris particularis praescripta.

§2. Ea quae, licet non indecora, a clericali tamen statu aliena sunt, clerici vitent.

§3. Officia publica, quae participationem in exercitio civilis potestatis secumferunt, clerici asssumere vetantur.

§4. Sine licentia sui Ordinarii, ne ineant gestiones bonorum ad laicos pertinentium aut officia saecularia, quae secumferunt onus reddendarum rationum; a fideiubendo, etiam de bonis propriis, inconsulto proprio Ordinario, prohibentur; item a subscribendis syngraphis, quibus nempe obligatio solvendae pecuniae, nulla definita causa, suscipitur, abstineant.