12. Penance and austerity 13. Silence 14. Familiarity with seculars 15. About Provisions 16. About peculiar things

(12) Let it be sufficient to recognise the great good that our Lord Jesus Christ drew forth and produced in His Church from the penance of these holy men and from and their contempt for the world. Just as a holy old man called Brother Feliciano of Foligno said to some Religious who were laughing at the Capuchins because they had made a salad with garlic for the eve of carnivale. The holy old man said, “Enough. You will never find that Our Lord has ever despised penance. Instead, the Lord will bring great good from these poor men.” And he began to weep. And so it was. Their suffering was so effective and acceptable to the Lord God that even though they had powerful adversaries – both demons and wicked men who fought against them – nonetheless they could bring all their adversaries down just with prayer alone. In fact they continued to prosper, going from good to better.

They also exercised a remarkable austerity in regard to sleep in that, except for the old or sick, they all slept on bare boards and many of them used a piece of wood as a pillow. In winter some of them put some straw on the boards. Throughout the entire Congregation one usually saw them sleep in this way.

(13) The silence in the friaries was such that you would think there was no one there. The avoid conversation, even among themselves. Each tried to have an oratory in the forest. There they spent most of the time in prayer, especially during summer. Sometimes when they came together, they felt happy the one who was the first to initiate some spiritual discussion. They willingly discussed the ways and life of Father Saint Francis and holy men of the Order, or indeed the holy virtues. Months passed without ever hearing a useless or idle word from the mouth of those servants of God. Whenever a humorous word escaped from a friar’s lips, his companion would kneel down immediately and say, “My brother, you have spoken idly.” On hearing this, the other also knelt down and kissed the ground and acknowledged his fault. The two together said three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys so that God might forgive them and give them the grace not to fall again. This was a great help in removing the wrong of vain speech.

(14) They avoided the seculars and too much familiarity with them. When the Superiors came on visitation they did not reprimand anything as severely as they did too much familiarity with seculars. They said that it was impossible for a worldly Friar to have spirit. Those servants of God said that familiarity with seculars has always caused great harm to the Order. So then familiarity of the seculars and their conversation with us should not be because of worldly friendship but because of devotion. When the Friars go to the home of seculars they should not go there because of friendship nor in order to eat nor for recreation but in order to lead them along the way of God with good words and with good example. Similarly seculars should not come to our houses out of friendship or to eat with the Friars or recreate with them. They should come out of devotion in order to hear their Masses and Offices and to receive some good instruction from them. Those venerable Fathers said that all the holy men have avoided worldly conversation, just as one sees in the lives of the holy Fathers. Anyone who could distance himself from seculars more by going into the harsh desert and never saw anyone else called himself blessed. As blessed Giles said, “Many go fishing but because they don’t know how to fish they drown.” He was referring to preachers who do not have that perfection which seeks to deal with seculars in a praiseworthy manner. Many think that they are converting seculars to the spiritual life. However the seculars are pulling them into the carnal life. Where they think they are converting others, they are killing there own souls because they take so much delight and pleasure in the things of the world that the things of the Order become tiresome for them and they are only happy when they are recreating with seculars.

Alms given out of friendship have little merit before God. Secular friendships are the cause for missing many Masses, saying the Office badly, making a shambles of prayer and filling the mind with vane things to the extent that when they want to come together for prayer they can’t. For whether they want to or not, during prayer we can’t help but recall the things that we have just thought about or discussed. And so it happens that the spirit is lost. Once spiritual delight is list, one easily seeks out carnal and delights and amusements and falls into every kind of vice little by little.

Therefore this is what those holy and true Superiors reprimanded the most.

(15) They also reprimanded stores of fruit. When they found onions, garlic nuts and other fruit stored in a friary they made a great inquiry about them and ordered that these things be given to the poor. Very few things were kept in the friaries for more than eight days. They obtained everything like bread, wine, oil, vinegar, salt or a small amount of vegetables by begging and of these things they found enough to last them until the next questing. They did not go questing for anything else. They cited Nicholas III who says, “Where one thing is enough, two are superfluous and the church only accepts ownership of the necessary things that we use.” Therefore it follows that if there are superfluous things, however lowly these may be, the Friars would be owners. Therefore with all diligence they kept watch so that there be no superfluous things in the friaries. The venerable Father Bernardine of Asti said that storing a lot of wood for a long time would make that friary an owner.

(16) In the sacristy too they only wanted enough cloths that was necessary for just one change. In the beginning the Capuchins used pewter chalices. However because they saw that this easily stained the corporal and soon turned filthy and black, it pleased those venerable Fathers that all the friaries have a chalice with a guilt silver cup out of reverence for the most holy body and blood of Our Lord. They did not want the friars to have strange candelabra, nor silk nor any kind of brocade. They wanted clean, poor cloths. In the tabernacle where our Father Saint Francis kept the Blessed Sacrament one sees it was made of painted cardboard and it is still used a reliquary in the friary of the Carcere in Assisi. They cited the declarations of the Supreme Pontiffs who say, “Lat the Friars guard against having too many precious vessels in their sacristies, knowing that Our Lord takes more delight in pure hearts rather than precious vessels. Also let them keep guard not to have many precious statues in their churches, but simple and poor ones instead. For the observance of the Rule and the splendour of holy poverty and simplicity inspires the devotion of seculars and Friars more than do precious and curious statues.