Chapter IV — The decrees of the Council of Trent and the constitutions of the Supreme Pontiffs urge Regulars to an exact common life, private purses being driven out

I. Of the decrees of the Councils and of the Pontiffs which prescribe the common life to Regulars, I shall transcribe only those which Trent prescribes, session 25, chapter 1: “Since the holy Synod is not ignorant how much of splendour and of utility arises in the Church of God from Monasteries piously instituted and rightly administered, it has judged it necessary, that the ancient regular discipline may the more easily and maturely be instituted where it has collapsed, and may more constantly persevere where it has been preserved, to command, as by this decree it does command, that all Regulars, both men and women, order and compose their life to the prescript of the Rule which they have professed; and above all that they faithfully observe those things which pertain to the perfection of their profession — as the vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and if there be any other vows and precepts peculiar to some Rule and Order, respectively pertaining to their essence, AND ALSO TO THE COMMON LIFE, FOOD, AND CLOTHING to be preserved; and let all care and diligence be employed by superiors, as much in general and provincial Chapters as in their visitations, which at their own times they should not omit to make, that they depart not from these things: since it is established that these things which pertain to the substance of the regular life cannot be relaxed by them. For if those things which are the base and foundations of the whole regular discipline be not exactly observed, the whole edifice must needs fall.”

II. Again the same Council, chapter 2, adds: “Let it therefore be lawful to no Regulars, whether men or women, to possess or to HOLD as their own, or even IN THE NAME OF THE CONVENT, immovable or movable goods of whatsoever quality they be, and in whatsoever manner acquired by them; but let them straightway be delivered to the superior and incorporated into the Convent. Nor let it hereafter be lawful for superiors to grant stable goods to any Regular, even for USUFRUCT, or USE, ADMINISTRATION, or COMMENDAM. But the administration of the goods of Monasteries or Convents shall belong to the officials of the same alone, removable at the nod of superiors. But the use of movables let superiors so permit that their furniture may befit the state of poverty which they have professed; and let there be nothing superfluous in it, nor let anything which is necessary be denied them. But if anyone be found or convicted of holding anything otherwise, let him be deprived for a biennium of active and passive voice, and let him also be punished according to the constitutions of his rule and order.”

III. Clement VIII confirmed the decrees of Trent by a constitution given in the year 1599, in which these things are prescribed: “I. That the decrees of the Tridentine Council concerning the guarding of the vow of poverty may be more faithfully observed, it is commanded that no one of the brethren, even if he be a superior, can possess immovable or movable goods, or money, proceeds, rents, ALMS, whether from sermons, or from lectures, or for MASSES to be celebrated both in his own Church and anywhere, or acquired by any other just labour of theirs, and by whatsoever cause and name, even if they be the subsidies of blood-relations, or the largesses of pious persons, legacies, or donations, as his own, or even in the name of the Convent; but let them straightway be delivered to the superior and be incorporated, and be confounded with the other goods, revenues, moneys, and proceeds of that place, that thence common food and clothing may be supplied to all. II. Nor let it be lawful IN ANY WAY to superiors, whosoever they be, to grant to the same Brethren or to any of them stable goods, even for USUFRUCT, or USE, ADMINISTRATION, or COMMENDAM, even under the name of DEPOSIT or CUSTODY. III. But of those things which shall have been granted for necessity, let no one possess anything as his own, nor use it as his own. IV. He who shall have offended in any of the aforesaid, let him incur not only the penalties prescribed by the Tridentine Council, but others also much graver to be imposed at the arbitration of superiors. V. NO DISPENSATION of any superiors whatsoever, NO LICENCE as regards immovable or movable goods, can excuse them from being obnoxious to the faults and penalties imposed by the decrees of the same Council and to be incurred by that very deed, EVEN IF SUPERIORS SHOULD ASSERT THAT THEY CAN GRANT DISPENSATIONS OR LICENCES OF THIS KIND: to whom in that matter we will that credence be by no means given. VI. Let the clothing of the brethren and the furniture of the cells be procured from the common money, and let it be altogether uniform for the brethren and for superiors whosoever they be, and befit the state of poverty which they have professed. Nor let anything which is necessary to anyone be denied. VII. Let all the garments of the brethren, whether woollen or linen, and all other furniture, be carried to some convenient place of the Convent, and there be diligently guarded by one or two brethren deputed to this office, that thence, at the superior's arbitration, they may be opportunely supplied according as each shall have need. VIII. Let all superiors also, whosoever they be, feed on the same bread, the same wine, and the same relish, or (as they say) portion, at the common table, first or second, unless they be hindered by cause of infirmity; nor let anything singular be able in any way to be offered, which anyone may use privately for food. If anyone shall have sinned in that matter, let him receive no nourishment that day save bread and water. IX. Let all superiors, even Generals, or those who have particular revenues or provisions by reason of their offices, take care that their receipts and expenses be faithfully and diligently noted in a distinct book; nor let them expend anything for other uses than those necessary by reason of their office. But when it shall happen that they tarry in some Convent, let them confer into the common stock that quantity of money out of which food may be supplied to themselves and to those who shall be with them according to the prescript of the rule and constitutions. X. Let no one of the superiors of places be able by himself to have or exercise the administration of goods or of other things, and the dispensation of moneys and of the revenues of his Convent; but let this whole burden be so committed by the General to three brethren of the same Convent, that one may have the care of collecting and exacting things, goods, and revenues; another, as depositary, may faithfully and exactly keep the moneys and the rest collected and exacted by the former; another may provide from the moneys and things received from the depositary for the Prior and the Brethren and the whole Convent in necessaries, the Prior nevertheless commanding, not according to his own affection but according to the rule of charity, as a good dispenser — the confusion of offices of this kind being utterly interdicted. XI. But let these three render an account of expenditure as well as of receipt every month to the local Superior, two or three Brethren of the same Convent, of the more approved and skilled in the use of things, being also employed. Then let them again render it in the presence of the Prior and the aforesaid skilled men to the General when he shall have come. Lastly let the General himself in any next general Chapter, at least before three Judges to be constituted by the Chapter itself for this, be bound to render an account of all these things, and of his whole administration both public and private, of which also an authentic copy shall be written out from the acts of the Chapter, to this end that it may be transmitted at every mandate of ours or of the Apostolic See. XII. In each Convent let that number of Brethren henceforth be constituted and retained which either from its own proper revenues, or from common ones, or even from the alms of individuals and any other receipts whatsoever to be conferred into the common stock as aforesaid, can conveniently be sustained. But let the revenues and all the aforesaid be diligently kept in a common and safe place. XIII. But to superiors we interdict and forbid that they can declare, interpret, or relax in any way at all the decrees of the Tridentine Council or these ours, decreeing, and so forth. But if anyone shall have presumed to attempt the contrary, let him by that very deed be deprived of every grade and office, and remain perpetually unfit for them.”

IV. Urban VIII confirmed the aforesaid constitution of Clement VIII, as is had in the Roman Bullary, Vol. IV, page 63. And Paul V, Gregory XV, Alexander VII, and Innocent X confirmed the constitutions of Clement and Urban. The testimonies of these Pontiffs I pass over, that I be not long.

V. Lastly Innocent XII confirmed the decrees of Trent and the constitutions of the preceding Pontiffs, and strengthened them against false and erroneous comments, and rooted out every root of tergiversating and cavilling. These decrees are had in the Bullary of the same Pontiff, page 167 and following. The beginning of the decrees is this: His Holiness, and so forth. That regular discipline may be kept whole and entire and may flourish for the salvation of Religious and for the edification and utility of the whole Christian people, and that if anywhere it has collapsed it may, the Lord helping, be repaired; he constituted and declared that the licence of receiving Novices in individual approved Orders was benignly granted, provided nevertheless that those things which have been salutarily constituted for the right instituting of the regular life, both by the most holy Tridentine Synod and by the Roman Pontiffs our Predecessors, chiefly by CLEMENT VIII of happy memory in his general decrees for the reformation of Regulars, and also by INNOCENT X and ALEXANDER VII for the reception of Novices and the education of the Professed — to all which His Holiness firmly adheres, and so far as need be confirms and renews them, saving nevertheless in this part the statutes or ordinations of individual Orders approved or published by the Apostolic See in FORM SPECIFIC after the same decrees — be exactly and inviolably observed.

VI. That clause (saving nevertheless in this part, and so forth) was omitted in the Apostolico-Monastic Discipline as not necessary, both because it does not regard the exact community, and because the discourse is of an approbation in specific form, by which approbation it is established that no constitutions of Regulars permitting a private purse were confirmed after Clement VIII. This will now be more clearly plain. The things therefore which follow settle the cause.

VII. Wherefore the sacred Congregation specially deputed by the same most holy Lord of ours upon regular discipline … by mandate of His Holiness announces by the tenor of the present decree to the Superiors of all and singular the regular Orders … both Generals and Provincials, by whatsoever name they be named, and to the rest whom it concerns, that in each Province throughout Italy and the adjacent Islands they depute as soon as possible some Convents, such as they shall have judged more fit, or at least one, and there establish by apostolic authority the entire observance of the Rule and Constitutions of each Order, and of the apostolic decrees, but chiefly of the EXACT COMMON LIFE. But after it shall have sufficiently appeared to the same Congregation that the regular observance, signally as regards the exact common life, has been WITH EFFECT established, both from the report of the same Superiors General or Provincial, and from the testimony confirmed by oath of the Superior and of the brethren dwelling in the aforesaid Convents, then His Holiness will benignly grant the aforesaid licence, which he has hitherto deferred, of receiving Novices there. …

Further, lest regular discipline, while it is established in Convents already erected, be relaxed in those to be erected, and what is constituted on the one part be at the same time destroyed on the other, the sacred Congregation, His Holiness likewise approving, willed and decreed that no Monasteries, Colleges, Houses, Convents, or other places of Religious ought henceforth to be founded, erected, or in any way instituted, save under the EXPRESS OBLIGATION of the exact COMMON LIFE to be perpetually and inviolably observed by all the Religious dwelling there; and moreover that no foundations of this kind are henceforth to be admitted, unless, besides the other things required for it, it be first lawfully established that there are annual revenues, or a certain hope of alms, by which at least twelve Religious can conveniently be sustained in the EXACT COMMON LIFE.

VIII. Let him now weigh the things which follow, who writing against me says that I of set purpose passed over the above-indicated clause saving nevertheless, and so forth — let him weigh, I say, what follows in the Innocentian decree.

IX. Notwithstanding as regards ALL and SINGULAR the aforesaid, apostolic constitutions and ordinations, and also the STATUTES, customs, and privileges of any Orders whatsoever, and all other things whatsoever to the contrary. At the last the same sacred Congregation seriously admonishes and beseeches all Regulars, of whatsoever Order and Institute they be, in the words of HIS HOLINESS, that, all delay being postponed, as befits sons of obedience, they institute and compose their life to the prescript of the Rule which they have embraced, and sincerely and faithfully obey the apostolic decrees published FOR THEIR ETERNAL SALVATION. Nor let them suffer themselves to be led away from this obedience by empty interpretations or fallacies, OR UNDER PRETEXT OF RELAXATIONS, TO EXCUSING EXCUSES IN SINS. But, mindful of their profession, by which they made themselves wholly over to God's service, let them briskly pursue the way of Christian perfection which they have undertaken — arduous indeed, but sprinkled with the sweetness of divine charity — the cares of earthly things being cast away.

X. Lastly, lest under pretext of the silence or toleration of the Apostolic See anyone should be able to follow a corruption contrary to honesty, the same Supreme Pontiff Innocent XII published the following decree, inserted in the cited Bullary, page 309, whose beginning is Debitum pastoralis officii, in which among other things these things are had:

XI. As we have not without grave trouble of soul learned, although the observance of decrees of this kind has been prosperously and happily introduced in very many Monasteries or Convents of religious men, and thence a richer harvest of holy works daily arises there, the Lord blessing it; yet the same seed does not elsewhere bear the same fruits: for neither has the enemy of the human race ceased, nor does he yet cease, to oversow in the field of the Lord cockle which chokes the mind of the Father of the family: hence it is that we, mindful of that prophetic admonition, Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet — that our constant and unshaken will of pursuing a work of this kind with peculiar study and the highest contention of soul may more and more become known, and that to ALL TRANSGRESSORS every occasion of excusing themselves UNDER THE VAIN AND FALSE PRETEXT OF OUR SILENCE may utterly be cut off — of our own motion approve in perpetuity by the tenor of the present the aforesaid Congregation of Cardinals and Prelates upon regular discipline, and so forth. … But let the faculties of the same Congregation thus confirmed by us be these … of designating and deputing Convents, Monasteries, Colleges, and Houses for Noviceships and Professorships, and so forth. … Of promoting the decrees both of CLEMENT VIII of happy memory, our Predecessor … chiefly upon the reformation of Regulars, and above all the observance of the EXACT COMMON LIFE; and to this effect alone of diligently examining new foundations of any Convents, Monasteries, Colleges, and Houses of this kind, lest henceforth it happen that places of religious men be founded, erected, or in any way instituted, save in those in which the same COMMON LIFE according to the prescript of the last of the said decrees can be perpetually and exactly observed, and so forth. Notwithstanding, and so forth, the statutes and customs of any Orders, Congregations, Societies, and Institutes whatsoever, and any others whatsoever strengthened even by oath, APOSTOLIC CONFIRMATION, or any other firmness whatsoever, and also privileges, indults, and apostolic letters granted, confirmed, and renewed to the same Orders, Congregations, Societies, and Institutes, and to their superiors and persons, and to others whatsoever, under whatsoever tenors and forms of words, and with any derogatory clauses whatsoever, even derogatory of derogatories, and other more efficacious, most efficacious, and unusual annulling clauses, and with other decrees in general or even in special, or in any other way whatsoever to the contrary, and so forth.

XII. Lastly Innocent XII instituted a peculiar Congregation which should receive the oath of the exact community to be observed, to be furnished by Regulars, before it impart the faculty of admitting to Religion. I reckon it worth the labour to subjoin the form of that oath. It is of the following tenor:

We the undersigned make faith, and testify IN THE WORD OF TRUTH, that in this Convent of N. a perfect community of goods has been established, and that all the goods of the particular Brethren, both as regards ALL MONEYS, and as regards clothes and other things, whether they be life-rents, or alms, whether proceeding from sermons or from whatsoever source, ARE ALL CONFOUNDED with the goods and revenues of the Convent, and incorporated with them, according to the decrees of Clement VIII of holy memory and of Innocent XII and of the sacred Congregation of Discipline, so that out of all these provision is equally made both in time of health and in time of infirmity. And a common Wardrobe has been established, in which are laid up the garments of all the Brethren, and all things which are for common use: out of which Wardrobe provision is equally made for all according to the need of each Brother. In this Convent also, besides the perfect community of the aforesaid goods, regular observance flourishes according to the rigour of our constitutions. And the Novices in this Convent are religiously nourished and educated in all the exercises pertaining to the state of our Religion, and are proved both by day and by night. Wherefore the undersigned humbly supplicate, affirming all the aforesaid WITH AN OATH, the sacred Congregation of regular Discipline for licence of receiving youths to the habit. Done on the day, and so forth, in the year, and so forth.

XIII. This is the oath which the Superiors of Regulars exhibit to the sacred Congregation upon regular Discipline every second or third year, that they may obtain from the same sacred Congregation the faculty of receiving youths to the habit of Religion. Let us form a hypothesis in which the Roman See could and would prescribe a common life void of every private purse. In this hypothesis could it have employed clearer words, more luculent and more urgent clauses, than those which it employed in the recounted decrees? Whither therefore will those who opine the opposite betake themselves? Can they themselves find either more luculent expressions or more efficacious formulas of prescribing the observance of an exact community? Will they deny to the Roman Church the power of prescribing a perfect community of things? No chink lies open here for escape.