Article 2

Whether it is permitted for the Brothers to receive anything from the goods of those who enter the Order?

The Blessed Confessor of JESUS CHRIST, Saint FRANCIS, prescribing to the Brothers the manner in which they must conduct themselves with regard to those who are received into the Order, says these words in one place of the Rule: that the Brothers and their Ministers should take care not to meddle with the temporal goods of those who are received; so that they may have the freedom to dispose of them as the Lord inspires them: nevertheless, if they should ask for advice on this matter, it will be permitted for the Ministers to direct them to some pious person, whose counsel they may follow in distributing their goods to the poor.

On this point, several of the Brothers have doubted, and still doubt, whether they may lawfully receive for themselves and for their Convents anything from the goods of those who enter the Order, if it is given to them, and whether they may, without sin, encourage them to give it to them. Furthermore, whether the Brothers or the Ministers ought to give them counsel regarding the disposition of their goods, when there are other persons capable of doing so, besides the Brothers to whom they are sent to receive the Habit.

But having observed, after serious reflection, that Saint Francis, who wished that those who professed his Rule should be grounded in a very strict poverty, intended by the aforesaid words to remove from them all attachment they might have to the temporal goods of those entering the Order; so that it may be recognized that this reception was holy and most pure on the part of the Brothers, that they had no regard for the goods of those they received, and that their sole intention was to engage them in the service of God.

We say that the Brothers and the Ministers must in no way urge them to give anything, and that they must even abstain from advising them in the distribution of their goods; for the Brothers must direct them on this matter to virtuous persons of another state, and not to any among themselves, so that everyone may see that they are exact, zealous, and perfect observers of so holy an Institute of their Father.

Nevertheless, since the Rule itself wills that those who enter the Order may freely dispose of their goods as the Lord inspires them, if there be someone who, of his own accord, wishes to give something to the Brothers by way of alms, as to other poor persons, it does not appear that they are forbidden to receive what is offered to them, considering their needs and the provisions made in the Declaration of Nicholas III. However, it is appropriate that they take care not to receive so much that they might be suspected of having contributed to it through self-interest.