Article 1

On the observance of the commandments and the Evangelical counsels

Regarding what is said at the beginning of the Rule: The Rule and life of the Friars Minor consists in observing the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, by living in obedience, without property and in chastity: and further below, the year of Probation being finished, let them be received to make their Profession of obedience, promising always to observe this manner of life and this Rule: and at the end; that we observe poverty, humility, and the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we have firmly promised to observe: there is doubt whether the Friars of the said Order are obliged, by virtue of their Profession, to keep all the precepts and all the counsels of the Gospel.

There are some who claim that they are obliged to do so; others maintain that they are bound only to the three counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and to those things which are set forth in the Rule in terms that imply obligation.

As for us, who wish to adhere to the decisions of our Predecessors, and at the same time provide some clarification on this Article; we have judged it appropriate to respond to the present difficulty, that just as a determinate vow made by a person must concern something determinate and fixed, one cannot say that he who vows to keep the said Rule is obliged by virtue of his vow to observe the counsels of the Gospel which are not included in it.

And indeed, what proves that Saint Francis, who is its Author, had no other intention, is that he has specified some of them and has not spoken of the others: for if he had intended to bind his Friars to the observance of all the Evangelical counsels by these words, the Rule and life of the Friars Minor consists in observing the holy Gospel, it would have been useless and without reason for him to have expressed only a part of them without mentioning the rest.

However, since a term that restricts meaning is of such a nature that it includes everything that relates to it while excluding everything that does not: we declare and say that the aforesaid Friars are obliged by their Profession not only to keep the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience purely and simply, but also to fulfill all the things that relate to them and that are set forth in the said Rule.

For if those who promise to keep it by living in obedience, without property and in chastity, were bound only to these three vows precisely, and not to all the other things contained in the same Rule which determine and specify them, it would be in vain to say, I promise always to keep this Rule; since thereby no obligation would be contracted.

Nevertheless, one must not believe that Saint Francis intended that those who profess the said Rule should be equally obliged either to all that serves to specify the three vows, or to the other things contained therein: on the contrary, he clearly shows that in certain Articles, by the very force of the word, transgression is mortal, and that in some others it is not; since he expresses some by a term of command or equivalent to a command, and with regard to the others, he contents himself with using different terms.

Moreover, besides the things that are set down in the Rule in terms of command, warning, or exhortation, there are some others that are expressed in the imperative with negation or affirmation; concerning which it has been doubted until now whether the Friars are bound to these as to precepts. Now, as this doubt increases rather than diminishes, as we have learned, on account of the fact that Pope Nicholas III, our Predecessor of happy memory, declared that the said Friars are obliged by the Profession of their Rule to observe the Evangelical counsels that are set forth in terms of command, or prohibition, or other equivalents: they have entreated us to be pleased to declare, in order to set their conscience at rest, which are the Articles they ought to regard as having the force of precepts.

We therefore, who are delighted to see the purity of their sentiments, reflecting that in matters concerning the salvation of the soul it is fitting to take the safer course in order to avoid severe remorse of conscience, say that the Friars Minor are not obliged to observe as commandments or as things having the force of precepts all those that are expressed in their Rule in the imperative; nevertheless, in order to preserve the purity of this Rule and its strict Observance, they must know that they are obliged to observe as such those which are set forth below.

Now, in order that one may see at a glance, in summary, the Articles that may appear equivalent to precepts, either by the force of the word, or by the subject matter in question, or by both, we declare that they are the following.