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Chapter One The Call to Reform Prior to 1889 An analysis of the encyclical letters which the Ministers General addressed to the friars during the difficult years of the nineteenth century reveals a growing concern that the very foundations of the Franciscan movement were being undermined by secularization and exclaustration. With the passage of time the friars appeared, in the eyes of their leaders, to be forgetting or neglecting three basic values: community life, poverty and the proper education of their younger brethren. In 1827, the Minister General, Giovanni Tecca da Capistrano addressed the Order's sorry plight.1 For Giovanni, the essence of Franciscan life was to be found in the simple life of the hermitage: a friary surrounded by woods and gardens in which the friars, always poor and depending on God's providence, devoted themselves to work and prayer as a community. The abandonment of poverty, even in the face of legitimate dispensations from the vow, lack of concern for the education of the younger brethren, interest in worldly affairs, and immoderate ambition on the part of the friars, had all united to destroy this ideal in much of the Order. The friars were too free in their use of money, too fond of fine clothes and far too accustomed to frequenting the homes of seculars as well as the shops and cafes of the cities in which they lived. The excuse that this was often done in the interests of charity did not justify their neglect of community life. Giovanni called his brethren to reform. In 1827, he ordered the promulgation of a set of General Constitutions approved at a General Chapter of the Order held in Valencia in 1768. These Constitutions were 1Giovanni Tecca da Capistrano, General Minister: 1824-1830, in his introduction to the legislation which he published in 1827. Nuova raccolta delle Constituzioni Generali per la cismontana famiglia dell'Ordine de'Minori, Rome, 1827, p. iii-xii. SICL. In order to understand why this legislation was addressed to the Cismontane family see chapter 5 of the present work. 30 / The Leonine Union intended as an interim measure, to be observed until such time as it might be possible to hold another General Chapter for the purpose of passing new legislation. Giovanni begged the Provincials and local Superiors to promote renewal by insisting on the observance of these laws. In particular, he emphasized the regulations concerning the midnight office, meditation, the observance of the cloister, the habit and life in common.2 These Constitutions were not suited to his purpose. Political and social changes had rendered many of the provisions obsolete and the simplicity of Giovanni's message was lost in a forest of legislation. His analysis of the situation and the remedies he proposed remained relevant, however, as is clearly indicated in the encyclical letters of the friars who succeeded him as Minister General during the course of the century. In 1844, Luigi da Loreto (1844-1850) complained that the provisions of his immediate predecessor in office, Guiseppe Maria d'Alessandria (1838-1844), concerning the proper education of the young friars, were not being observed in all the provinces. These same provinces, he declared, were paying too much attention to the Order's external appearance and too little to the actual observance of the Rule.3 Friars were continuing to live, speak and dress as seculars in order to appear civilized, the great cry of the time. Without the least scruple or necessity, they carried watches, making a scandalous show of them; they spent money in bookshops without the least restraint and used carriages to transport themselves, even on short trips, around the city. They gave scant thought to community activity in the refectory, choir, meditation and religious withdrawal from the world. Luigi realized that many friars were seriously concerned for the reform of the Order but, he pointed out, this would never come about until each individual friar had first reformed himself. Like Giovanni Tecca da Capistrano before him, he emphasized the importance of those 2The legislation compilatio statutorum pro familia cismontana was first compiled in 1765 and approved at the General Chapter in Spain in 1768. It became known as: collectio Valentina. The Chapter was suppressed by the General Minister, Pasquale Frosconi (1768-1791), on account of the separatist attitudes of the Spanish provinces. See: Holzapfel, op.cit., 1909, p. 323. Also: Iriarte, op.cit., p. 378. 3Luigi da Loreto, Encyclical Letter to the whole Order, September 30, 1844. AGOFM, Circolari...

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