Chapter 10
1Let the brothers who are the ministers and servants of the others etc.
2On the visitation, correction and government of the brothers, on the necessary and spiritual care of the prelates over the brothers, on how frequently they are to visit them, carefully watch over their behaviour, consult, correct and kindly and charitably warn them, and help them by word and example to rise to the perfection that is above, not commanding them anything that is against their soul and the Rule they have professed, Francis speaks as follows in the Earlier Rule:
3In the name of the Lord! Let all the brothers who have been designated the ministers and servants of the other brothers assign their brothers in the provinces and places where they may be, and let them frequently visit, admonish and encourage them spiritually. 4Let all my other brothers diligently obey them in those matters concerning the well-being of their soul and which are not contrary to our life. 5Let them behave among themselves according to what the Lord says: Do to others what you would have them do to you; 6and: Do not do to another what you do not want to be done to you,.
7Let the ministers and servants remember what the Lord says: I have not come to be served, but to serve; 8and because the care of the brothers’ souls has been entrusted to them, if anyone is lost on account of their fault or bad example, they will have to render an account before the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of judgment.
9Keep watch over your souls, therefore, and those of your brothers, because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 10If anyone of the ministers commands one of the brothers something contrary to our life and to his soul, he is not bound to obey him because obedience is not something in which a fault or sin is committed.
11On the other hand, let all the brothers who are under the ministers and servants consider the deeds of the ministers and servants reasonably and attentively. 12If they see any of them walking according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit in keeping with the integrity of our life, if he does not improve after a third admonition, let them inform the minister and servant of the whole fraternity at the Chapter of Pentecost regardless of what objection deters them.
13Moreover, if, anywhere among the brothers, there is a brother who wishes to live according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, let the brothers with whom he is living admonish, instruct and correct him humbly and attentively. 14If, however, after the third admonition he refuses to improve, let them send or report him to their minister and servant as soon as they can; 15and let the minister and servant deal with him as he considers best before God.
16Let all the brothers, both the ministers and servants as well as the others, be careful not to be disturbed or angered at another’s sin or evil because the devil wishes to destroy many because of another’s fault. 17But let them spiritually help the one who has sinned as best they can, because those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
18Likewise, let all the brothers not have power or control, especially among themselves; 19for, as the Lord says in the Gospel: The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and the great ones make their authority over them felt; it shall not be so among the brothers. 20but let whoever wishes to be greater among you be their minister and servant, and the greater among you be as the junior.
22Let no brother say or do anything evil to another; on the contrary, through the charity of the Spirit, let them serve and obey one another voluntarily. 23This is the true and holy obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24As often as they have turned away from the commands of the Lord let all the brothers know they are outside obedience until they depart from such sin. 25When they have persevered in the Lord’s commands, as they have promised by the Holy Gospel and their life, let them know they have remained in true obedience and are blessed by the Lord.
26If the brothers, wherever they may be, cannot observe our life in those places let them have recourse to their minister as soon as they can, making this known to him. 27Let the minister, on his part, endeavour to provide for them as he would wish to be provided for were he in a similar position. 28Let no one be called prior, but let everyone in general be called a lesser brother. Let one wash the feet of the other.
29The intention of Saint Francis, as received from Christ on the highest and most perfect form of obedience, is explained in these words of the Earlier Rule with the support of the Gospel. He commands that it is to be strictly observed by all the brothers, prelates and subjects, so as to drive away all blindness from the consciences of subjects and prelates and to define for those who preside what are the boundaries and limits of the Gospel of Christ and his obedience: 30never to advise, suggest or command anything contrary to the Rule and a soul, anything wrong or sinful, anything inciting or likely to lead one to do what is contrary to a vow and regular observance. 31Hence, not only are they forbidden to place on their subjects anything contrary to the Rule, but even what might impede and corrupt its simple and pure observance; were they to obey such commands they would be disobedient to the Gospel of Christ, the Rule, the Supreme Pontiff, Saint Francis and the Church, and they would put obedience to men before obedience to God.
32In all other things, no matter how difficult, he commands his subjects to be obedient promptly, humbly and with an unfeigned faith, not regarding anything as difficult or impossible provided it lacks any harm or occasion of sin and is conducive to a full observance of the promised perfection. 33This matter has been treated most clearly and fully in divine Scripture, the rules of the fathers, the teaching of the saints, and especially in Saint Basil in his Rule and Saint Bernard.
34Saint Basil in his Rule says:
If indeed a command of a prelate is in accord with a command of the Lord or is directed towards a precept, even if it contains a threat of death, it must be obeyed. 35But if something is beyond or against a command, or does harm to a command, even though an angel from heaven or one of the apostles commands it, and even if it contains a promise of life or even a threat of death, it must never be obeyed, as the Apostle says: 36Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.
37The Lord says: My sheep know my voice and follow me, but a stranger they do not follow, but fly from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
38The authority of prelates and the subjection and obedience of subjects have their source in Christ who is the head of the Church and the beginning and end of the goods of grace and glory. 39For this reason all authority and power in the Church and in all prelates is subject to his laws and statutes, nor may it extend itself to what is beyond or against Christ, and so it is the greatest stupidity and blindness of mind to believe that obedience exists where there is antichristian perversity. 40The limit of obedience, as Saint Basil says, is death, after the example of Christ who became for us obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, by which he destroyed the works of the devil and of sin. 41The first limit or measure of perfect obedience is to observe obedience in what is good until death, and for the honour of Christ joyfully to bear death, no matter how bitter, for the sake of obedience; 42and, for fear of punishments or death, in no way to turn against a command of Christ for the sake of obedience to a precept of any person and so commit a clear and manifest sin.
43So Saint Bernard in his Epistola ad Adam monachum, speaking against those who are obedient to their abbot in what is evil, says:
The general sentence on such people is, such as turn aside into bonds, the Lord shall lead out with the workers of iniquity. 44Should anyone strive to be free of the curse of obeying an abbot in what is evil, hear another and clearer text: The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the son’s. 45From this it is clear that those who command what is evil are not to be obeyed, especially when, in conforming to evil orders, you are seen to be obedient to a man, but to God, who forbids every wrong that is done, you show yourself clearly to be disobedient. 46It is extremely perverse to profess obedience to a person whom you know sets aside a higher for a lesser obedience, that is, a divine for a human. 47What indeed does it imply when a man commands but God forbids and I listen to the man but am deaf to God? 48This is not what the apostles cried out when they said: We ought to obey God, rather than men.
49Hence, the Lord rebuked the Pharisees, saying: Why do you transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? 50And through Isaiah: In vain do they worship me when obeying the commandments of men. 51And further to the first man: Because you have obeyed the voice of your wife rather than me, cursed is the earth in your work. 52Therefore, it is clear that to do evil by obeying any prelate is not obedience but disobedience.
53Saint Bernard says this to show that obedience is not to what is evil but to what is good, and sins are not to be committed but destroyed by obedience.
56And he adds in the same Epistola:
Some things are completely good, others completely evil in which no obedience is to be given to men, because neither good is to be avoided when forbidden nor evil committed when commanded. 55Between these, some things, because of proper limits, place, time or the person, can be evil or good, and for these a law of obedience is laid down as in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
56And further on he says:
Therefore, how can a command of an abbot or a permission of a pope be made licit when it is completely evil, as is proven without a doubt, when above it has been asserted that complete evil is never commanded lawfully, so it cannot be obeyed lawfully?
57But while a subject has a reasonable doubt as to whether what is ordered is a sin, he must obey.
58Wherever the brothers may be who know and feel they cannot observe the Rule, etc.
59When brothers have learnt from experience and are certain that, in the places where they are and live, they are not able to observe the Rule according to its pure intention and true value, as laid down in it, because of bad customs, associated conditions, various unavoidable occasions leading to violations of the Rule and the promised life, 60and these can be many from, on the one hand, the places and persons who own the places, or, on the other hand, from the brothers in charge who live carnally, not feeling it against their conscience to introduce customs contrary to a vow, order their subjects to obey them in matters forbidden in the Rule, and are manifestly contrary to their state, 61the brothers, from a precept and the authority of the Rule, must and can have recourse to the ministers and superiors. 62The ministers, or custodians or the general himself, who can all be understood under the title of ministers, are bound from a command of the Rule, to receive them charitably and kindly so as to hear them familiarly and reverently, to act faithfully, as they are obliged by the debt of obedience promised in the Rule to the Church, to the Supreme Pontiff and to Saint Francis, as debtors are servants of their masters, and to carry out this command from the heart and with good will. 63For so it must be that the ministers are the servants of all the brothers.
64On the evidence of Brother Leo, who with Brother Bonizo was present when Saint Francis, at the command of Christ, presented this second Rule to the lord Pope Honorius for confirmation, and, when the Supreme Pontiff had studied more carefully everything contained in the Rule, he said to Saint Francis: 65Blessed is he who, strengthened by the grace of God, faithfully and devoutly observes this Rule until the end, since everything written in it is holy, Catholic and perfect. 66The words of chapter ten state that wherever the brothers may be who know and feel they cannot observe the Rule purely and simply to the letter and without gloss, can and should have recourse to their ministers, 67and the ministers, moreover, are bound under obedience to grant charitably and liberally to these brothers what they request. 68If they are unwilling to do this, the brothers have the freedom and obedience to observe the Rule literally, because all the brothers, both ministers and subjects, should be subject to the Rule, and they may be an occasion of ruin and a source of division and scandal in the Religion to any brothers not fully founded in the love of virtue; 69for this reason I wish these words to be changed in this way so that all dangers and occasion of division are taken away from the brothers and from the Religion.
70Saint Francis replied to him: I did not put these words in the Rule, but Christ, who knew better everything useful and necessary for the salvation of the souls of the brothers and for the good condition and preserving of the Religion, and to whom everything, that would happen in the Church and in the Religion, is evident and present; nor should I, nor am I able to change the words of Christ. 71For in the future, ministers and those over others in the Religion, will make many bitter troubles for those who want to observe the Rule literally and faithfully; 72because, as it is the will and obedience of Christ that the Rule and this life, which is his, be understood and observed literally, so it should be your will and obedience that it be understood and observed as it is written in Rule.
73Then the Supreme Pontiff said to him: Brother Francis, I will act in such a way that, preserving the sense of the words fully, I will so moderate the letter of the Rule in this passage, that the ministers may understand they are obliged to do what Christ wants and the Rule lays down, and understand that the brothers have the freedom to observe the Rule purely and simply, and no ground will be given now or later as an occasion to those seeking to offend under the pretext of observing the Rule.
74The Supreme Pontiff changed the words of this clause by saying: Wherever the brothers, etc.
75Obviously, all the commands in his final Testament given to all his brothers, namely, that they are not to ask for letters from the Roman Church and that they are to observe the Rule simply and to the letter, clearly manifest and prove this.
76It is proved also by the reply given in Saint Mary of the Angels to the brother from Germany, a master in theology, who said to Saint Francis with much reverence: 77My firm intention is to observe simply and faithfully, with the help of his grace until the end, the Gospel and Rule I have promised according to its pure intention that Christ clearly spoke through you. 78But I ask one grace from you, namely, that if in my days the brothers depart so much from a pure observance of the Rule, as much as you through the Holy Spirit have said they will depart, that with your obedience I alone or with some other brothers wishing to observe it purely, may be able to withdraw from those not observing it and observe it perfectly. 79On hearing this, blessed Francis was deeply pleased and blessed him saying: Know that what you have requested is given to you by Christ and by me. 80He placed his right hand on his head and said to him: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, 81showing that all the promises Christ gave him about his Religion would be fulfilled in those who strove with all their strength, with joy and love, to observe the Rule simply and to the letter without gloss.
82When Saint Francis forbids putting glosses on the Rule, he did not mean that reasons, examples and the authorities of saints declaring the spiritual and true meaning of the Rule and Testament, should not be put forward, written and made; 83but, moved by the Spirit of Christ, he forbids it to be distorted to a contrary meaning and imperfection, or that in any way impurities and relaxations be allowed in.
84However, because he foresaw by the Spirit of Christ the one who, out of pride, would seek to induce his bothers finally to pride, vainglory, envy and greed, of care and solicitude for the things of this world, of detraction and murmuring, he had to turn all his attention to this. 85So, after having given expressly to the ministers and servants of the brothers the style of visitation, correction, and admonition, namely, charitably and kindly, he exhorts all in charge and the subjects, and touches on and explains the things about which they ought to be particularly careful because in these they would be tempted by malign spirits at the time of the approaching trouble.
86And in so far as they are exalted by pride and inflated from vanity, they go around to appear superior to all in works and word; to show this they are not ashamed to preach, so that having lost the joy of charity, they display that it is a zeal of justice both to envy their betters, and to extinguish and persecute cunningly the Spirit of God in his brothers and in others outside. 87For those who lose the life of charity, fall from the solid base of humility, and while by pride they put themselves before others, or want to be regarded as better than others, they serve a lie through vanity and deny the truth.
88From this, agitated with envy, deprived of the joy of charity, they involve themselves insolubly in the worries and cares of life out of avarice and a love for what is visible, they incur wickedly out of greed a hatred of poverty and the poor, and from a shameless and foolish mind they turn their tongues bitterly to detraction and murmuring that are hateful to God. For this reason he warns and exhorts all without exception and says: I admonish and exhort the brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ to beware of all pride, etc.
90In the Earlier Rule there was written on this: ‘The clerical brothers may have only the books necessary to fulfill their office’. 91Blessed Francis wanted all the brothers not to be anxious about learning and books and that those who are illiterate not be anxious to learn, 92but that both clerics and lay pay attention to what they are bound to have and must desire above all else, namely, what makes them pleasing to God when they have it and, full of grace and truth, leads them without hindrance to the kingdom of glory, 93namely, to have the Spirit of the Lord and its holy activity, to pray always to the Lord with a pure heart, to have humility and patience in persecution and infirmity, and to love those who persecute, rebuke and find fault with us, etc.
94Blessed Francis foresaw that by the seduction of the ancient serpent his Religion would be corrupted, like Eve with the excuse of knowing good and evil and to have the perfection of the gods, that is, of the exalted doctors of the Church and of the wise masters, 95and that at the end it would be far from the innocence of simplicity for which it was singularly created and founded and that was to be held and loved as the form and likeness of its fullness and integrity; instead it would be left exposed to innumerable troubles and many hardships, having lost its own dignity. 96For this reason, he protested for as long as he was alive, by denouncing in chapters, before prelates of the Church and the brothers, the evils and dangers about to come on the Religion from the envy of demons and the infidelity, impatience and disobedience of the brothers.
97Brother Leo says:
But, foreseeing the future, he knew through the Holy Spirit and even repeated it many times to the brothers, that many brothers, under the pretext of edifying others, would abandon their vocation, that is, pure and holy simplicity, holy prayer, and our Lady Poverty. 98And it will happen that, because they will afterwards believe themselves to be more imbued with devotion and enflamed with the love of God because of an understanding of the Scriptures, they will occasionally remain inwardly cold and almost empty. And so, they will be unable to return to their first vocation, 99especially since they have wasted the time for living according to their calling; and I fear that even what they seem to possess will be taken away from them, because they have lost their vocation.
100When the brothers, who had suggested to lord Hugolino, bishop of Ostia, to persuade him to follow the advice of so many wise brothers, whom God had given him, in what he does and lays down for the Religion, he took the hand of the lord Cardinal and replied before all saying:
101My brothers! My brothers! God has called me by the way of simplicity and showed me the way of simplicity. And the Lord told me what he wants: He wants me to be a new fool in the world. God did not wish to lead you by any way other than this knowledge, but God will confound you by your knowledge and wisdom.
102While Brother Crescentius was minister general he condemned with great injustice those holy brothers who worked for a pure observance of the Rule. 103The study of secular sciences introduced in the Religion, ‘the evil arts of Aristotle, like the evil plagues of Egypt’, according to Gregory Nazianzus, the corruptions of the excellent ecclesiastical state claimed for themselves the place of honour and dignity, and in that they began to fulfill what had been foretold by the Founder. 104And the gold of wisdom and seraphic love has become dim in the brothers who in disobedience enjoyed the tree of forbidden fruit and lost the taste for Christian wisdom and charity, for which reason if a man should give all the substance of his house, in comparison with the good found he will know he has given nothing. 105And the finest colour of humility and a love of evangelical poverty is changed; withdrawing from a pursuit of holiness, they are distracted and choked with innumerable worries and cares, they are dispersed in the beginning of the watches, divided by the weight of causes, involvements, affections, and human and secular works.
106From this, there comes to all sanctified in the womb of the holy Roman Church, who possess the spirit of Jeremiah, a cause of sorrow, distress, lamentation, exile and death. 107For Jeremiah himself was taken and moved from his home to Egypt, a place with a different way of life and because of his witness to the truth he was subjected to stoning. The judgment and punishment on those stoning him are reserved for the suitable time, when the Lord will have completed by the little ones what was prophesied by him, whom, whether the world wants or does not want it, the Spirit of Jesus Christ will raise up.
108The reason already touched on is why, among other important reasons, Christ wanted him to put in the Rule that those who are illiterate not be anxious to learn, but let them pay attention to what they must desire above all else: to have the Spirit of the Lord and what follows. 109And he adds the most blessed end and unspeakable reward of all good and of all perfection promised by Christ to his disciples who persevere in the promises: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.
110Blessed Francis said:
They will set up a shelter for the great harlot and they will bring their sons to her and they will live voluptuously from her wages, 111and the simplicity they promised will be contemptible and despised in their eyes, they will become bold and presumptuous, they will glory in the praise of man, in a reputation for knowledge and will trust in the work of their prudence; 112then, for the upright of heart, most bitter and intolerable will their way of life be, even to the extent that ‘the religion loved by God will have such a bad reputation because of bad example that it will be embarrassing to go out in public’.
113Saint Gregory Nazianzus, in his Sermo on Saint Athanasius, notes with sorrow that in the Church of God in his lifetime a similar thing happened and for the same reason; 114he says:
At times things went well in our quiet when this overflow of dialectic activity and a talkative and artificial work of theology had neither access nor entry in the divine halls. 115But it was the same as a move to deceive sight by the speed of moves made in a hidden way, or an appearance of change, or to leap and to be bent into every shape before the eyes of men and women; it was similarly curious to speak or hear about God. 116However, whatever existed as simple and very generous was thought to be a piety. 117But the Sexti and Pirones are corrupted by an opposing language of objections, like some hard and malignant languor that they have introduced in our churches, when verbosity is considered to be teaching or method, similar to what the book of Acts says about the Athenians: they employed themselves in nothing else, but to say or hear something even newer. 118O, who may sing the lamentation of Jeremiah over our confusion and darkness other than one who knows how to match the lamentation to the sufferings!
119He says the same in his Sermo XVII that begins: ‘Since you have come together promptly and in large numbers’ etc. He says:
120What is this envy of a laudable ascent and who does not regard such a case as something to be extolled with joy and who does not know the weakness of human progress, and how far one remains from the true height that is above all?
121Such a person is small in mind, poor in language, does not know the subtleties of words, the speech and enigmas of the wise, the vehemence of Pirone, the solutions to the syllogisms of Crisippus, the evil skill of the arts of Aristotle, or the seduction of the sweet eloquence of Plato, all of which, like the plagues of Egypt, have been wrongly and corruptly introduced into our Church. 122How can one be saved from these and with what words? 123You should not ascend into heaven to bring Christ down, nor descend into the deep to bring him up from there, nor should you enquire with curiosity into the first nature or the final dispensation; the word is near to you, the mind has this treasure and a tongue believing these and confessing those. 125What is easier than these divine statements? What is easier with the one utterance than to confess Jesus Christ and to believe that because he rose from the dead you will be saved? 126Indeed, it is justice to believe on its own; but to confess and add confidence to the confession is perfect salvation. 127However, you search for something greater than salvation and the glory and the brightness associated with it; for me nothing is greater than to be saved and also to avoid torment there. 128You travel on an inaccessible and uncertain path, but I have a sure path on which he has saved many.
129A person who is poor in speech and knowledge but trusts in the simple words is saved by these, as on a small yacht, unlike the perverse person who is foolish with his lips and while trusting in verbal proofs, thinking a word is better because of the power in words, is in reality making void the cross of Christ. 130Where a proof is weak, truth is diminished. 131How can you think of flying to heaven with your feet still walking on the earth? 132Why do you build a tower when you do not have what is needed to complete it, etc.
133Words of Gregory.
134Athanasius writes in a similar way in his Epistola ad monachos, Saint Jerome in Super Epistolam ad Colossenses, and Saint Basil in his Epistola ad Gregorium Nazianzenum already mentioned, and in Amphiletium.
135Saint Francis foresaw and foretold that a strong temptation for his brothers, like a violent wind from the side of the desert, was sure to arise from a love of learning to shake the four corners, overturn the foundations of the house of his first followers, and oppress all his sons and daughters. 136And that the danger of such ruin be avoided, like another Rechab, he ordered his sons to lead a pilgrim life, not to build palaces, nor live in the middle of the cities, not to plant vines of diverse studies, nor drink the wine of secular knowledge and worldly philosophy, 137and, moved by the life giving warmth of the Holy Spirit, he imposed on his sons the law of the most perfect life of Christ.
138But between the sign of Rechab in the Old Testament and Francis, the one prefigured in the New, there is a difference, namely, that he has a direct connection and harmony with Christ whose wounds he bears. 139The sons of Rechab kept his command against the command of the Lord, but the sons of blessed Francis’ flesh did not want to obey his command, neither on account of signs, nor for the honour or reverence due to their father, nor from a desire to inherit a paternal blessing, nor for the love of Christ and the glory of his Spirit living in him, nor did they want to obey his command or observe the Testament. 140This happened so that by a just judgment of God the inheritance might pass to the ones who are reproached, cursed and persecuted; the faces of those persecuting will be filled with shame, and the remnant shall be saved. When the inflicted trouble has given understanding to what is said, over the humble and contrite the blessing of God will rest.
141Whoever will have the Spirit of the Lord, the source and origin of all virtues, gifts and light, and its holy activity through union with God and the service of divine worship, the effect and affection of sincere love for neighbour and for those cursing and persecuting, patience and joy of spirit in infirmity and various temptations that come from the corruption of one’s flesh and soul, from the envy of demons and the malice of perverse people, 142and whoever humbly and with perseverance will carry Christ the Saviour in their body and soul conformed to him, will obtain happily the blessed joys of eternal salvation, promised to whoever perseveres to the end.