How the Venerable Padre Fra Giovanni da Fano wrote against the poor Capuchins to the Duchess of Camerino

174 Why John of Fano disapproved the Reform 175 Caterina Cibo defends the Capuchins 176 The “Dialogue on Salvation” 117 John of Fano obtains a Brief against the Capuchins 178 He writes to the Duchess

(174) It is obvious that ignorance is often the cause of all evil. The opposite is also clear: that the intellect enlightened by God is the foremost cause of every good. This is because our will by itself is blind and can only want those things that the intellect shows it to be good. Nor can it want something that the intellect clearly shows to be bad. However when physical appetite shows something to be good or at least desirable, the will wants it as something desirable even if it is something bad and forbidden by the Lord God. Already regarded as something delightful the will is deceived and all because the intellect sheds little light on it. This is the cause of all sins. This was why many people through the ages have abandoned the world. They recognised it as completely dark and very powerful in causing sin. They entered some religious Order hoping to enlighten their minds and flee the occasions of doing evil by the means of the good example, teachng and the beautiful ways of holy men; by the study of sacred theology and, more important, through holy contemplation. When they tasted and saw that the Order to be well organised and that everyone, or at least the majority, worked for perfection by being completely detached from the desire for all worldly things, withdrawn to remote and solitary places; with much abstinence from foods and things of comfort, they slept on the bed of high contemplation, they felt compelled to say that there is nowhere in the world worthier, better and more salutary where one can become holy and please God in everything. From experience they knew that by wanting to live in the world and with worldly people it is very difficult, almost impossible, to live a holy life. On the other hand it is almost impossible to save oneself in a lax Order tangled up in vices and worldly things. This is because that Order is joined to both good and evil. When it is lax, to want to lead a spiritual life can’t be done without suffering the greatest tribulations. It is almost impossible to resist. Therefore Father Saint Augustine says that a good and holy religious is the best man in the world and a bad religious is the worst man in the world.

Therefore this was the main reason that Padre Fra Giovanni da Fano railed against the poor Capuchins so much, because the lax Friars still insisted with him, saying: “Know Father that since you are Minister it is up to you to help our Order and to defend it from this hooded sect. If we do not protect ourselves that sect will be a powerful cause of our ruin. And it will be your fault before God and the world. The Major Superiors will probably punish you for it. The other Superiors will have some excuse because they haven’t known about it and it isn’t in their Provinces. It is up to you to undertake this task for the good of the whole Order.”

(175) Hence the poor Father burned with such fury that it clouded his mind and he did not know what to do. He saw the great difficulty of being able to uproot it completely Fra Ludovico, the head of the Congregation, was a couragious man who feared nothing. More importantly he had the strong support of Duchess who was the niece of Pope Clement. She saw with no other eyes but those of the Capuchins. The holy example that those first Fathers gave her was such that she bore them emgraved in her heart. At that time it was a marvel to see Religious who all concentrated on throwing off the world – such perfect Religious who had put the world beneath their feet, dressed in a narrow, shabby habit patched entirely with sacking. It surpassed all the poor of the world for its lowliness and harshness that served more as a hairshirt than a habit. People saw them go barefoot both in summer and winter in the intense cold and ice. They fasted nearly continuously on bread and water. They slept on the ground or on boards. They persevered in holy prayers and contemplation so that it seemed there was no one about. Such was the silence of these servants of God. They were never heard except when they were saying the Office or the Mass. She saw all this in her own palace. For this reason she held them so dear to her heart that nothing pleased her more than to hear her Capuchins spoken of highly, and this woman gave them refuge against all the blows of their adversaries.

(176) Being a judicious man Padre Fra Giovanni realised that he could not succeed against them if this woman did not against them. So with letters he tried to persuade the Court Procurator and other suitable Fathers to do all they could to persuade His Holiness not to believe her: as a woman, she was deceived. Those Fathers pressed this matter for many months but she had men of importance near His Holiness who convinced him of the opposite. Furthermore His Holiness was aware that all this was born of resentment since he had been very well informed by many trustworthy Fathers that the Rule was not observed in the Order. The Holy Father wanted that Reform as a good thing for the whole Order. However it seemed to Padre Fra Giovanni that the Friars would observe the Rule. Therefore he sat down and wrote a book on the Rule in the form of a dialogue. He introduced into the book the interlocutors Brother Enthusiastic and Brother Reasonable, demonstrating as much as he could that the Rule was being observed, though with privileges. He strongly censured the Capuchins as some kind of extremists. He quickly had the book printed, thinking that he would calm down the Friars so they wouldn’t join the Capuchins. On the other hand he wanted His Holiness and everyone else to know that the Rule was observed and the Capuchins were mistaken in doing another Reform. With all this, however, he didn’t salve the wound, rather he increased the inflammation. For the more the book was read and the Rule discussed, the zealous friars became more aware of deficiencies and how the Rule was not observed. After he came to the Capuchins he demonstrated the error of that exposition with another one. For it seemed to him that he could not undo the harm without writing down how the Rule should be observed for everyone to see.

(177) The difficulty this venerable Father faced is remarkable. He did not do all this because of malice or with the intention to persecute his neighbour. He thought he was doing the right thing even for the Capuchins in order bring them back to the Order. He believed that flight and detachment from one’s General was not safe in conscience. When he saw that all he had done was not enough and that the Congregation still made progress, and that his Friars were hopping mad about it, he decided to obtain a Brief that threatened excommunication to any of his Friars who joined the Capuchins. With great effort he obtained this from His Beatitude. That is how he kept so many of them. However the Capuchins revoked it not long after.

This Father immersed himself in wanting to destroy this Congregation. He said this when Padre Fra Ludovico took his leave at the General Chapter, as will be described in its place later. When Padre Fra Giovanni saw this he was deeply saddened. He called Fra Ludovico to his cell and said, “When I persecuted you and the Congregation I was blind and completely benighted by the devil and by passion. I thought I could obstruct the work of God. You exhorted me so that I would be enlightened by God and not persecute the Congregation. Now that God has enlightened me and you are blind and benighted by passion, it is my duty to help you to be patient and let yourself be governed. You know how much good you have done and now you want to forfeit it for no good reason. Thank God that your efforts have been pleasing to God. Because of you Saint Francis’ habit and way of life have been introduced and raised up again in the world today. There has been no other Reform like this one. You cannot deny that your original intention was not to do a Reform, and now God has brought it to perfection. Why do you want to turn against your work? Therefore be glad and give thanks to God?”

Padre Fra Ludovico answered, “Everything you say is true and this is what grieves me. This Reform was carried out with great effort. It will pass into the hands of young Friars and those who have only been in it a short time. The will fill it with ceremonies and these will be the cause of its ruin.”

It was an amazing thing that even though Padre Fra Ludovico would have received so many difficulties from Padre Fra Giovanni, he always liked him nonetheless, knowing of his goodness. However he was unaware of the secret judgements of God who, as was the case in the primitive Church, always used weak instruments to establish it, just as he did in founding all the religious Orders. As our Father Saint Francis says, God has done this so that His work might be known and that He receive the honour for it and that the honour due to the Creator not be attributed to the creature. Francis said, “I am the vilest creature there is in the world. Therefore God chose me to found this holy Order so that it would be known that His Majesty founded it and not me.” That is how our Congregation began. Padre Fra Giovanni poorly understood this. He worked so furiously in persecuting the poor Capuchin Congregation. However the favour of God never failed and this is well known because of those poor fellows resisted him. Nor could he ever defeat or overcome them.

(178) Nor did Fra Giovanni fail to do as much as he could. So he wrote to Lady Caterina again that she would not regret it if she did all she could to remove the hooded sect (as he called it) from the face of the earth. If she considered the matter well (she would realise) that this sect would succeed in the final extermination of the Order. “You have always been mother of the Order and as such you should not give them the support you do. Rather, you too should persecute the sect. But because they have given you to understand a lot of lies and they do appear that way to you, you support the sect. I am not about to go back on what I promised you about not bothering Fra Matteo. As for the others I will continue because I do not wish to fail my Order.” Her Ladyship told him he could do what he wanted. Howver if it was a work of God, as she felt certain it was, neither he, nor his Order, nor the whole world together would be able to bring it down.

Not long after, when Padre Fra Giovanni knew that the Capuchins were still at the place of the Duke he went there personally. With his prudence he hoped to take them from that nest where they were safe. Then he would have won an easy victory over them.