Chapter 7

IIf any brother, at the instigation of the enemy, sins morally etc.

2The foregoing six chapters on regular perfection, dealt primarily with the fundamental state in which the first concern before any others was the ordered discipline and governing of the Religion. Due to our weakness and great necessity, the seventh chapter on sacramental penance, as the medicine and discipline of those who sin mortally, is placed, 3so that through the mercy of Christ and by the remedy of penance, we might rise again to life from death of the soul, from a slavery to sin and a return to the freedom of grace.

4The kindness and grace of our Redeemer shine and are illustrious in all the works of our rising again. 5The impenetrable and immense abyss of the mercies of God in the resurrection from mortal sins after the rebirth of baptism is opened up to all in the sacrament of penance; and its remedy is graciously granted by the unspeakable kindness of God in virtue of and by the merits of the death of Christ. 6By it we are brought down by humility and are consoled lest we despair; by the gift of penance we open our eyes to a knowledge of the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, suffering and patience, so that whiter than snow in a second life in union with Christ, whom we have treated with contempt, we are raised up and reunited by grace alone.

7Despising and judging ourselves, we are careful and vigilant against the snares of the enemy. We invoke divine help without ceasing, cleansing our conscience by works that are the opposites of offences and sins, we are raised up through penance by a trust of hope, and we give thanks unceasingly for God’s inexplicable kindness in our reconciliation. 8By this kindness we are freed from the deadly poison of self love that through pride gives birth in us to a hatred and contempt for God. 9By evangelical hatred, it makes us enemies of our wills, the vanities of the world and the concupiscence of the flesh, and it makes us humble lovers with thanksgiving of sorrows, sufferings and reproaches for the name of Christ.

10And because such great good and such an exalted and singular remedy is given to us by God in the sacrament of penance, 11so Christ instructs and graciously commands us through his servant Francis that in regard to those mortal sins concerning which it has been decreed among the brothers to have recourse only to the provincial ministers, let him have recourse as quickly as possible and without delay.

12It was the intention of Saint Francis that this way of recourse to the ministers was to be observed in cases of evident mortal sins, and brothers who sinned in this way, that is, the sins were evident and known to many, are ordered to have recourse only to the ministers; 13such sins would be receiving money, a sin of fornication or other evident acts of impurity, any heretical deviance, evident and notable theft of goods and alms given to the brothers to be used for the necessities of life and for the divine liturgy, for threats with arrogance and blows inflicted on brothers or any other persons, and for all other public mortal sins for which it is laid down by the brothers themselves in general chapters. 14This can also be applied and understood of some other secret mortal sins concerning which it has been decreed among the brothers that recourse must be made in secret only to the ministers for absolution, or to others to whom the ministers have appointed to act as their representatives in this.

15That Saint Francis referred principally to the sins listed above can be satisfactorily deduced from the situations of his time and from what he wrote in the Earlier Rule. 16For he says in it about receiving money:

If, by chance, which God forbid, it happens that some brother is collecting or holding coin or money, let all the brothers consider him a deceptive brother, an apostate, a thief, a robber, and as the one who held the money bag, unless he has sincerely repented.

17He lists theft, robbery, the receiving of money and the collection of coins as serious matters and lays down that pardon with penance is not to be given lightly nor indifferently nor by any priest, should such sins occur, but only by the ministers, and then to brothers truly contrite of their sin who seek to undertake and carry out every penance.

18Similarly, he stated in the same Earlier Rule about fornication or other evident impurity and lapses of the flesh:

19If, at the instigation of the devil, any brother commits fornication, let him be deprived of the habit he has lost by his wickedness, put it aside completely, and be altogether expelled from our Order. Afterwards he may do penance.

20According to the Rule, such a rebuke and separation is to be imposed only by the ministers.

21In his Testament he writes as follows about heretical deviance:

And if some might have been found who are not reciting the Office according to the Rule and want to change it in some way, or who are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may have found one of them, be bound through obedience to bring him before the custodian of that place nearest to where they found him. 22And let the custodian be strictly bound through obedience to keep him securely day and night as a man in chains, so that he cannot be taken from his hands until he can personally deliver him into the hands of his minister. 23And let the minister be bound through obedience to send him with such brothers who would guard him as a prisoner until they deliver him to the Lord of Ostia, who is the Lord, the Protector and the Corrector of this fraternity.

24In the Earlier Rule he says:

Let all the brothers be, live, and speak as Catholics. 25If someone has strayed in word or in deed from Catholic faith and life and has not amended his ways, let him be expelled from our brotherhood.

26From these words it is sufficiently clear that one of the more serious sins and evils he wanted to stamp out of his Religion, lest it be utterly and totally destroyed, was an error in behaviour and in faith. 27So he wished that a brother found to be infected with such a disorder in word or deed, even though it be a small matter, and if, after examining himself truly and prudently over his words and actions, he asks for penance, he is to have recourse only to the ministers.

28He wanted this to apply to anyone striking his brothers or other persons outside the Religion. 29The serious actions of such sins bring a bad name on the Religion and so, moved by Christ in the power of the spirit, he stated with much bitterness of heart that they are to be denounced for having incurred a curse from God.

30He gives to the ministers the manner and form for absolving those held by such bonds of sins or, if they are not priests, the authority to depute others to give them absolution and penance. 31However, this is to be done discreetly, usefully, mercifully and with tranquillity, following the example of the Samaritan who poured wine and oil into the wounds to cure them and as a stricter reproof; 32so that others might fear similar situations, while they were shocked and scandalized by their offences, they are now cheered by the deserved satisfaction, humble acknowledgment, suffering and amendment. 33Quite justly, he laid down that absolution from such sins is to given only by priests of the Order because listening to grave sins of this kind, committed by brothers whom a confessor reverences and esteems, can sadden and scandalize him. 34Moreover, it is worthwhile to wound with the dart of suspicion and to insist strongly lest others become involved in similar sins.

35In the Earlier Rule he wrote that when the brothers have no priests they should confess to secular priests. 36For he says:

Let us consider all clerics and religious as our masters in all that pertains to the salvation of our soul and does not deviate from our religion, and let us respect their life and administration in the Lord. 37Let all my religious brothers, both clerics and lay, confess their sins to priests of our religion. If they cannot, let them confess to other discerning and Catholic priests, knowing with certainty that, when they have received penance and absolution from any Catholic priest, they are without doubt absolved from their sins, provided they have humbly and faithfully fulfilled the penance imposed on them.

39If they have not been able to find a priest, however, let them confess to their brother, as the Apostle James says: Confess your sins to one another. 40Nevertheless, because of this, let them not fail to have recourse to a priest because the power of binding and loosing is granted only to priests. 41Contrite and having confessed in this way, let them receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with great humility and respect remembering what the Lord says: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. 42And: Do this in memory of me.

43But he warns the ministers and brothers, they must be careful not to be angry or disturbed at the sin of another, for anger and disturbance impede charity in themselves and in others.

44We should be sorry and upset over the sins of others just as we are sorry and upset over our own sins when we have a genuine and actual spirit of contrition like our Lord who was upset and shed tears, and seeing the city he wept over it. 45Anger and disturbance are always bad when they are without kindness and the modesty of discretion; they want the force of their severity to be thought of as a zeal for divine justice and, while they are merciless and cruel to others even in the smallest detail, they are mild and kind on themselves even in the gravest matters.

46The ministers who are the servants of the others are then bound to correct their brothers and reproach wrongdoers out of good will and with much leniency, so that before God they might be virtuous, cleansed of sin and defects, and not neglect anything pertinent and useful for their correction and salvation. 47In no way is it suitable to say or do anything out of arrogance, a passion of anger or fury, but out of a heartfelt and paternal love and with an intention of a spiritual benefit and hope of betterment, 48so that the effort and attention to the spiritual salvation of their subjects, something demanded of those who are servants, may bring forth the fruit of the inheritance promised to the saints in the kingdom of heaven.