Prologue

Nicholas, Bishop servant of the servants of God. For an everlasting memorial.

Soriano, Italy: August 14, 1279 A.D.

(1) He who sows went forth from the bosom of the Father into the world to sow His own seed, clothed with the garment of humanity, namely, the Son of God Jesus Christ, to sow the evangelical word among the approved and reprobate, the foolish and the learned, the studious and the slothful, and according to the prophets to be the farmer on earth who would disperse His own seed, the evangelical doctrine, without destruction, among all [men], who drawing all things to Himself had come to save each [of them], who afterwards for the salvation of all [men] immolated His very self to God the Father as the price of human redemption. However He allowed this seed to fall among individuals by the communicative charity of God, not so other [seed which He let fall] dispersed upon in the road namely upon hearts accessible to the suggestions of the demons, [and still] other [seed which He let fall] among thorns namely upon hearts lacerated by the solicitude for riches, and therefore one was trampled by depraved affections, the other by aridity, since it was lacking in the humor of grace, the rest, suffocated by inordinate solicitudes, was overgrown, but good ground received the other [seed] meek and docile in heart.

The Religion of the Friars Minor is founded upon the Gospel and strengthend by the teaching and life of Christ and His Apostles

(2) This is the meek and docile religion of the friars Minor, rooted in poverty and humility by the gracious confessor of Christ, Francis, which sprouting the sprout from the true seed strew the same by [means of] the rule among his sons, whom he generated to be his own and God’s through his ministry in the observance of the Gospel. These very ones are the sons, who by the teaching of Jacob have received the eternal Word, the Son of God, sown by human nature in the garden of the virginal womb [and] powerful to save souls in meekness. These are those professors of the holy rule, which is founded on the evangelical discourse, strengthened by the example of the life of Christ, and made firm by the sermons and deeds of His Apostles, the founders of the Church militant. This is in the sight of [our] God and Father [that] clean and immaculate religion, which descending from the Father of lights through His Son having been handed on to the Apostles verbally and by exemplar, and at last through the Holy Spirit to blessed Francis, and having inspired those following him, contains entirely in itself a quasi testimony of the Trinity. This is that, to which with Paul attesting no one for the sake of [anything] else ought to be molested, which Christ confirmed by the stigmata of His passion, willing [as He did] to notably mark with the sign of His very own passion the institutor [of the said religion].

God, the Pope, and the Church have approved their way of life

(3) But the craftiness of the ancient foe has not on that account ceased against the friars Minor themselves and against [their] rule: indeed shining more powerfully against them to sow cockle among them he has meanwhile stirred up rivals agitated by envy, anger and indiscreet justice to harass the friars, and with the barkings of a dog to lacerate their rule as illicit, unobservable and divisive, not attending [as they do] to this holy rule, as has been said before to have been instituted with salutary precepts and admonitions, strengthened by apostolic remarks, confirmed by the Apostolic See, fortified by so many divine testimonies, which has been made exceedingly credible in so many holy men living and ending their days in the observance of this kind of rule, of whom not a few this same See has made to be inscribed in the album of the Saints on account of their life and miracles, and which in almost these last days themselves by [means of] Our predecessor Pope Gregory X of pious memory has been approved on account of it evident utility, [and] to which, after it was declared in the general council of Lyon, the universal Church on Her own has adhered.

God providence protects the Order

(4) Nor have We been less attentive, indeed We have pondered [this] more profoundly, just as the rest of those who profess the catholic faith should more subtly think [about it], because God Himself looking upon the aforesaid order and the observers of it has thus preserved them with salutary protection from the rancor rising up against them, because the tempestuous wave neither smashed them nor did it terrify the souls of those living in the order itself, rather do they grow more ably in the vigor of regularity and they are increased in the observance of their norms. But however so that the aforesaid order pure and separate from whatever things that would break it up into pieces may flourish with brightness, just as the friars of the same order gathered in general chapter recently provided, after Our beloved sons the ministers general and not a few other provincial of the same order, who convened in the same chapter, have stood together in Our presence, since their intention for a complete remark regarding the same rule is fervently known from the vigor of their spirit; it has seemed to Us [right] to close off the ways of attack to attacks of this kind, to declare other doubts which could appear in the same rule, to scatter with fuller clarity not a few things declared even by Our predecessors, [and] to provide even in other things touching the rule itself for the [sake of] the purity of their consciences.

My personal knowledge of the Rule and the Intention of its Author

(5) Likewise We, who from tender years have aroused our affection for the order itself, growing up in that time have discussed in frequent collations with some of the same confessor’s companions, to whom his life and conversation were known, the very rule and holy intention of blessed Francis himself; and later as a cardinal and shortly afterwards by [choice of] the same See, the order’s governor, protector, and corrector, We have handled the actual conditions of the aforesaid order on account of Our imminent concern; driven to keep Ourselves informed in the duty of the apostolate as much concerning the pious intention of the aforesaid confessor as concerns those things which the rule itself and its observance contain, on account of the aforesaid things and even from long experience We had recourse to the aforesaid order [itself]; and no less those things, which by Our same predecessors are known to have been approved and declared, than even the rule itself and its contingents, which We with full maturity have discussed, in the sequence [of this] present [document] We have established, declared, [and] approved more certainly, [and] We have strengthened, described and conceded those things which have been approved, and even others, by arranging [them] more clearly and in order, which are expressed more fully in the following articles.