PART ONE

INSPIRATION AND INSTITUTION

SECTION FOUR

MODUS VIVENDI: FORMULARIES AND CEREMONIALS OF PROVINCIAL CUSTOMS
(1536-1641)

OVERVIEW
by
COSTANZO CARGNONI

I FRATI CAPPUCCINI. Documenti e Testimonianze del Primo Secolo. Edited by COSTANZO CARGNONI. Rome 1982, 1167-1171.

(Original Italian version is here)

Following a period of profound incubation, influenced by various historical and spiritual factors, the inspiration of the Capuchin reform gradually took shape. Cultural and environmental vicissitudes shaped a system of life, a modus vivendi that immediately required its autonomy, original expression, and diversity.

The first vital experience, driven and enlightened by the spiritual charism of the reform, underwent an initial attempt at reflection and planning, which was soon translated into the legislative outline of Albacina. This outline established the preferential connotations of the Capuchin modus vivendi.

^[1] However, these indications were meagre and dictated by an evangelical and Franciscan radicalism without intermediate nuances, reflecting a total dedication to the ideal that shone forth from the soul.

Experiences were enriched, multiplied, and intertwined. The first pioneers of the reform immersed this predominantly eremitical idealism in spiritual and apostolic, communitarian, and ecclesial discernment. This was facilitated by the exceptional intervention of eminent Franciscans, primarily from the group of recollects or reformers who were then challenging the powerful Order of the Observants. The foundational constitutions of St. Euphemia in Rome of 1536 were its most prominent and enduring fruit. Consequently, the main lines of Capuchin life were permanently established and projected into a secure future.

^[2]

In this documentary section, we intend to explore the depth and diversity of this concretization and standardisation of Capuchin life in the first century of its existence. As the discoverer of a treasure, one naturally guards it with care, and we commence, almost as an introductory chapter, with a series of documents and texts that, from 1536 to 1628, express in varying tones, linked to distinct circumstances, a system of defence, resistance, and promotion of Capuchin life. This provides us with the opportunity to recover some significant “memorials” that strove to safeguard the Capuchin reform and its iconography, that is, its external physiognomy as its manifestation, from the pressure of the influx of Observant friars to the reform. Furthermore, we will revisit two distinctive texts that, in accordance with the modus vivendi outlined by the Order’s constitutions, endeavour to exalt the authenticity and veracity of the Franciscan filiation of the reform or the reasons for its triumph in the annals of the first century (I. Defence and Endorsement of the Capuchin way of life, documents 1-8).

The pioneering friars of the reform disseminated the novel Franciscan experience throughout the various regions of Italy. Consequently, the provinces gradually acquired their own distinct “local” characteristics, even within the uniformity of spirit. Distinctive methodologies were devised. The reflection upon and systematisation of these dynamic local experiences were realised, however, during the period in which the Order engaged in self-examination of its history, characteristics, and identity. This was done especially towards the latter part of the 16th and the commencement of the 17th centuries, commencing after the Council of Trent.

The general chronicles of the Order

^[3] presupposed and consequently led to the formation of provincial chronicles. The Capuchin typology was specified in various Italian localities, from North to South: the typology of the Marche and Calabria emerged, as did that of Lombardy-Veneto, Sicilia, and other regional inculturations that warrant in-depth study. All this found its natural outlet in the so-called ‘provincial customs or traditions’. To this end, we have compiled a series of testimonies collected from various manuscripts or printed books from the end of the 16th century to approximately 1626. These testimonies reveal the pedagogical lines adopted by the Order. Consequently, ample space is dedicated to the period of the novitiate, which serves as the permanent cradle of Capuchin life. It can be likened to its baptism, encompassing its death and resurrection, that is, its radical practices of exterior and interior penances aimed at destroying the old self and progressively developing the ascetic and mystical spiritual life until the birth of the new man, created in the justice and holiness of God.

It unfolded firstly with the way of life of the Capuchin friar from the Marches, who significantly influenced the typology of the reform, and then in the practices of the novitiate and the formation of the young friars in the tradition of the Lombard-Venetian provinces. These practices were also introduced to Bohemia through the austere method of Mattia Bellintani da Salò. Furthermore, we proffer a genuine ceremonial, still unpublished, written by Bartolomeo Vecchi da Bologna for the novitiate year. This document serves as a comprehensive guide for the novice master and, while rooted in the tradition of the Bologna province, synthesises the accumulated experience of the Capuchin novitiate, initially transmitted orally and subsequently found to be substantially valid for other provinces. It is presented in an organic treatise titled: Modo d’incamminare i novizi. Within this treatise, the spiritual motivations underlying all the gestures, exercises, and practices of Capuchin life in the past are elucidated (II. Traditions and Customs of the Provinces and Noviciate, doc. 1-8).

The “Capuchin booklets of the Rule” also follow a formative direction linked to the study of the Rule and to novitiate and post-novitiate practices. These booklets are translated into concise rules and short texts, making them easily memorisable. From these booklets, several significant pages have been extracted, including III. Ascetical and Devotional Observances in the ancient booklets of the Rule (docs. 1-22).

Another notable feature is a systematic compilation of official documents reflecting the activities of the Order’s general and provincial secretariats. These documents encompass various forms of obedience, letters of resignation, appointments and offices, recommendations and affiliations to the Order. This comprehensive overview provides an insightful perspective on Capuchin life, which is deeply rooted in obedience. It encompasses individuals of all ages, health conditions, educational backgrounds, and roles, from young novices to elderly friars, from learned scholars to simple laymen, from preaching priests to simple priests, from student clerics to lay brothers. Furthermore, the grace of this life extends to benefactors who are spiritually affiliated to the Order and recommended for various journeys or assigned onerous tasks, such as the construction of the friaries or the wool mills (IV. Capuchin life in the formularies of obedience, recommendations and letters of affiliation, docs. 1-115).

It is noteworthy that Zaccaria Boverio of Saluzzo, who successfully synthesised the extensive chronicle material collected in the provinces of the Order according to specific documentary criteria,

^[4] was also the first to codify and print the customs and ceremonies of the Order. Indeed, from 1626, after a century of the experience of Capuchin life, these ceremonials officially took shape and were printed to safeguard against the risk of the richness of this experience being dispersed, its traces lost, and above all its memory. This “Capuchin” flourishing of analytical literature on liturgical and juridical conduct and on the practices of conventual life on an ascetic, religious, penitential, and fraternal level can also be attributed to the climate created after the Council of Trent and, particularly, to the method of applying the decrees of the same Council that held up St. Charles Borromeo as its par excellence example. St. Charles’ detailed and precise prescriptions likely served as the precursors to the Capuchin ceremonials. Furthermore, the prevailing style of the time, characterised by its exasperated procedural law that developed strongly with the method of the inquisition, was applied in part also to the penal law in religious matters. However, this does not imply that such regulations were absent prior to their printing, just that they had not yet been published. Consequently, it is prudent to avoid categorising the Order’s ancient ceremonials as conventualization and monasticization.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding any limitations that this type of literature may have, particularly to contemporary sensibilities, it is imperative to revisit this documentation that flourished during the first century of Capuchin experience and is therefore capable of conveying to us numerous original expressions of the life and charism of the Order, inculturated in a comprehensive portrayal of the arduous and heroic daily routine.

We propose a rereading of certain chapters from Boverio’s De sacris ritibus (Naples, 1626), which accompanied the friar from his novitiate to his death. To this, we add a selection of excerpts from a different type of ceremonial, which is more simple, spontaneous, immediate, and rich in spiritual unction and existential relationships. It is a booklet by a non-Italian Capuchin author, Francis of Chambéry, entitled: Regulares et religiosae patrum capuccinorum exercitationes (first edition: Lyon, 1624). This booklet wonderfully reflects the inculturated mentality of the Order at the beginning of the 17th century and describes the Capuchin’s activities both inside and outside the friary throughout the 24 hours of each day. (V.The first printed ceremonials and ‘Ways of Life’, documents 1-2).

The conclusion, although it partially glosses over the chronological scope, has been left to a great interpreter and protagonist of Capuchin life, but also of the missionary diplomacy of the Church in the early 17th century: Valeriano Magni da Milano. His is a reflection that is both ancient and modern, critical and constructive. On the one hand, in his unpublished project for the reform of the Order, he rereads the ancient legislation that guided the Capuchin experience of the first century and highlights its insufficient, imprecise aspects and the outdatedness of certain “ceremonies” that do not foster the full richness of the Order’s missionary spirit; but also underlines the marvellous fervour of the major superiors, who, despite these legislative and organisational shortcomings, were able to preserve the life of the Gospel and the Rule with their charismatic zeal among an ever-growing multitude of Capuchins. In this simplicity of organisation, this “learned ignorance”, an exceptional holiness flowered as a norm and a paradox. In this sense, Valerianus Magni provides an apologia for such holiness prevalent in all the categories of Capuchin life and presents it to Protestants as a “sign” of holiness and consequently of the veracity of the Catholic Church. This is the fundamental argument of his theological apologetics (VI. Valeriano Magni’s Retrospective Critical and Apologetic Outlook, docs. 1-3).

1. Cf. C. Cargnoni, I primi lineamenti di una “scuola cappuccina di devozione”, in IF 59 (1984) 111-140; also translated into English in the new journal: Greyfrias Review 1 (1987) 41-64: A Capuchin School of Devotion. ↑
2. See above, under section II: Primitive Capuchin Legislation. ↑
3. Cf. part II, section IV: Early Capuchin Chronicles. ↑
4. 4Cf. Antiquae monitiones datae pro compilatione chronicarum Ordinis, in AO 21 (1905) 313-317, 332-337 (re-edited in our collection: part II, sect. IV, at the end). ↑