Article 6

Concerning inheritances and sources of revenue

For since it pertains to the truth of life, that that which is done externally, present the interior disposition and habit of mind: the Friars, who have withdrawn themselves by such expropriation from temporal goods, have need to abstain from every thing, which may be or might seem to be contrary to the said expropriation.

Therefore because in inheritances not only the use of the thing, but even the dominion passes to the heirs in its proper time: the aforementioned Friars however can acquire nothing for themselves in particular, or for their Order, even in common:

We say by clarifying, that they are in no way capable of inheritances of this kind, which even from their own nature extend indifferently to money, and even to other mobile goods, and to immobile (having considered the purity of their vow): nor is it licit to them to receive the value of such hereditary goods, or so much as a part thereof, because this can be presumed to become fraud, as if receiving under a manner and form of a legacy that has been abandoned to them, or things so remitted: We simply prohibit such things to them lest they thus become more desirable.

And since the annual returns among the immovable goods may be appraised by law, and the possession of this kind of return is repugnant to poverty and mendicancy, there is no doubting, that it is not licit to the aforesaid Friars to receive or enjoy (their condition having been considered) from the return whatever things as either possessions or even the use thereof (when the concession to them is not ascertained). Further, when not only because it is discerned to be evil, but because it has ever species of evil, it must be especially avoided by perfect men: however from such presentations and instigations in the law courts, when concerning the affairs it is pleaded that they be turned into their own advantage, they are truly believed by those, who stand outside (concerning which men outside enjoy to judge), that in the very affairs the by- standing Friars are seeking something as their own: by no means should the professors of this kind of vow and rule mix themselves up in such law courts, and litigious acts: that they may both be thought well of by those who stand outside, and satisfy the purity of their vow, the scandal of neighbors in such a manner is to be avoided. But indeed since the Friars of the said Order are to be strangers not only from reception, propriety, dominion, or use of the money itself, but even from whatever kind of handling of the same, and from these may they be entirely strangers, just as Our said predecessor often said plainly in clarifying this same rule: and since the said professors of the Order cannot seek for any temporal thing before a judge, it is not licit to the aforesaid Friars nor are they competent, nay rather more ably having considered the purity of their own state they ought to know it to be forbidden to themselves, since by executions and dispositions of this kind they expose themselves, when more frequently they cannot settle these without litigation and the handling or administration of money. But however giving counsel in these things which must be prosecuted is not opposed to their own state, since from this act which concerns temporal goods no jurisdiction or action before a judge, or dispensation is attributed to them.