Writings Concerning the Franciscan Order

Explanations of the Constitutions of Narbonne (1266)

Explanations of the Constitutions of Narbonne (1266) The publication of a new fundamental code of law for the Order at Narbonne in 1260 raised many questions regarding its interpretation. No legislator can foresee every contingency, and soon there were friars wondering if certain provisions applied to them. Within a few years ministers and visitors, charged with t h e enforcement of the constitutions, were looking for clarifications. The result was this document, which may be viewed as an act of t h e minister general's supreme judicial function. It has the character of a reportatio, i.e. notes taken on an oral presentation. No date is given in the manuscripts, but the chapter of 1266 seems the most likely time for it.1 The constitutions were still fairly new at the time, and the succeeding chapters of 1269 and 1274 would have provisions, entitled 'responses to inquiries,' which like this are clarifications o f existing legislation rather than new decrees. To modern readers, this document seems pharisaical in its casuistry. As Brooke observes, "many of the questions which St. Bonaventure thought it necessary to answer show that t h e enthusiasm for constitution-making had fostered a reliance on literal observance to the statutes rather than common sense and had given some an amusing academic exercise picking holes in them."2 The concern of the questioners was not simply academic, however. Franciscans set great store in the strict observance of their constitutions, and accusations for failure in that regard - whether by oneself or by others - were a prominent feature of the medieval friar's life. There was a weekly chapter of faults in every house, where penances were assigned by the guardian for breaches in observance; friars who left the premises of the house were expected to report on one another's misbehavior; general visitors conducted a 1They were edited subsequent to the Quaracchi edition by F. M. Delorme, AFH 18 (1925): 511-24. Three of the four surviving manuscripts attribute the work to "to the Lord [Cardinal], Brother Bonaventure, then general of our Order." Cf. also Distelbrink, pp. 46-47. 2EFG, p. 282; see also Burr's perceptive remarks (Olivi and Franciscan Poverty, pp. 910 ). 206 / Dominic Monti, O.F.M. chapter in which all friars were to report on any malfeasance.3 Friars naturally wanted to protect themselves against overlyzealous accusers. Furthermore, most of the questions posed here involved those sections of the constitutions to which penalties were assigned by law,4 so friars were especially anxious about w h a t seemed doubtful cases. In his responses, Bonaventure's judicious and practical temperament is evident. He certainly wanted to uphold a serious observance of the constitutions, but also avoided an intolerant literalism. 1. Under rubric one – concerning those entering the Order, it says that "no one may be received into our Order unless he first renounces a l l his possessions."5 A question has arisen as to whether this should be understood as referring to reception into the state of probation or to reception into the state of profession? If is the former, it is prejudicial to those wishing to test the Order. – My reply: reception into the Order is understood here. The candidate must expropriate everything he has, as long as he is in the Order, but he does not have to renounce those things he might yet receive, if he chooses to leave during the year of probation. 2. Also under the same rubric it says that "we ordain that no one may be received into our Order unless he is the kind of cleric who has been competently instructed in grammar, etc."6 There is a question here as to how much grammar constitutes 'competent instruction'? Is i t enough to know how to speak Latin correctly and grammatically, thus demonstrating one understands grammar, or must one also know the rules and the art of grammar? For many candidates who have forgotten the rules have the skill of speaking correctly. – My reply: it suffices if the candidate knows enough grammar to enable him to go on to become a confessor or preacher or lector, lest 3Const. Narb. 7.20, 5.2, 8.9-10. 4Ibid., 7.22. 5Const. Narb. 1.1. 6Ibid., 1.3. Explanations of the Constitutions of Narbonne / 207 through a lack of such knowledge he be unable to carry out these offices. 3. There is another question...