Article 6

On the exchange of movable goods

As it is sometimes appropriate to sell or to exchange books, or other movable goods whose use is permitted within the Order of Friars Minor, and whose ownership belongs specifically to the Roman Church when there are no other owners: We, wishing at once to provide for the needs of the Friars and for the security of their conscience, allow by the same authority that the exchange of such things for others of which they may likewise make use be carried out by order of the General and Provincial Ministers, according to what they shall determine jointly or separately in their Provinces; and we further grant them the power to regulate everything that concerns the said use.

But if it is necessary to sell these things with an assessment of their just value: since the Rule forbids the Friars to receive money or coin either by themselves or through a third party, We order and will that this money be received by a Syndic who must be appointed by the Apostolic See, or by the Cardinal to whom the same Holy See has given the governance of the Order; and that it be employed for things of which the Friars may make use, according to what has been stated above concerning past and future needs.

As for certain goods of low or little value, it is permitted to the Friars by this present Constitution to give them within the Order and outside the Order for motives of piety or for some other reasonable cause, having obtained the permission of their Superiors, and observing what shall have been ordained in their General or Provincial Chapters both with regard to the nature and price of these things, and to the manner of requesting this permission, and to those to whom one must apply in order to obtain it.