PART ONE SECTION ONE
PONTIFICAL DOCUMENTS
Translation and notes by
RENATO GASTALDI
and
COSTANZO CARGNONI
I FRATI CAPPUCCINI. Documenti e Testimonianze del Primo Secolo. A cura di COSTANZO CARGNONI. Roma 1982, 94-97.
5. BRIEF “DUDUM SIQUIDEM” OF PAUL III
Rome, January 5, 1537. – To put an end to the serious conflicts and quarrels between the Observant and the Capuchin, we recall the prohibition of passage from one to the other without written permission from one’s superiors; the Capuchins were forbidden, under pain of excommunication «late sententiae», to move to the ultramontane regions, until a further papal provision.
Source: Published in AM XVI, 498s (423s) and in BC I, 27s. Cf. above, note 47.
37 Pope Paul III, to his beloved sons, the vicar general and the friars of the Order of Minors of the congregation known as the Capuchins.
1. As soon as we learned that serious differences and quarrels had arisen between you and your beloved sons, the friars of the Order of minors known as the Observants, we, wanting to provide appropriately so that similar disputes and quarrels, if they had continued, did not give rise to scandals, we established and ordered, with the advice of some cardinals of the Holy Roman Church,[1] that no professed member of the said Order of Friars Minor of the Observants could move to the houses and places of the aforementioned friars of the Capuchin congregation, and, vice versa, that no one, among the Capuchins, was allowed to go to the houses and places of the same friars, called of the Observants, without a special written license from their own prelates; this until we, in the general chapter of the aforesaid Order, to be celebrated in Rome, had not determined otherwise, as it is said more clearly in the letters issued on the subject in the form of a “brief”,[2] wanting that in the meantime everything remained in the situation in which it was.
38 2. Since we have come to know that some professed of your congregation intend to move to the ultramontane regions, in which until now the professed of your congregation had never entered, we, whose intention is, as stated, that every thing remains as it is in the current situation until the provision that we will adopt in this chapter, with which we propose to give order and form to all these things; by motu proprio and certain knowledge, by apostolic authority, by virtue of holy obedience and under penalty of excommunication latae sententiae, we order, through the present letters, not to dare to transfer youselsves to the ultramontane regions, nor to accept places there.
39 3. We order each and every one of our venerable brother archbishops and bishops, as well as our beloved sons, abbots, priors and other rectors of churches, to see themselves, or one of them, to the inviolable observance of the aforesaid provision and ordinance.
They must not allow anyone to make an attempt in any way against the content of these letters, whatever the dignity, pre-eminence and authority with which he is vested. Opponents of any kind and rebels are to be repressed by censures, ecclesiastical penalties and other juridical remedies, without the possibility of appeal, also resorting, if necessary, to the help of the secular arm.
40 4. Furthermore, other apostolic constitutions and ordinances, nor privileges and indults, apostolic letters even in the form of a “brief”, granted in any way, approved and confirmed, are not an impediment to the foregoing; even if they were such that, for their derogation, a special and indivisible mention of them, and of all their content, word for word, were required, and any mention or expression were not sufficient. Nor is anything else to the contrary an impediment.
5. Lastly, we wish that the transcriptions of these letters, marked with the seal of some person vested with ecclesiastical dignity, and signed by the hand of a public notary, be given the same faith as would be given to the original texts themselves, if they were exhibited or produced.
Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, January 5, 1537, the third year of our pontificate.
PAULUS PP. III
Dilectis filis vicario generali e fratribus Ordinis minorum congregationis capuccinorum nuncupatae.
1. Dudum siquidem per nos accepto, quod inter vos et inter dilectos filios fratres Ordinis minorum de Observantia nuncupatorum, graves contentiones et lites exortae erant, nos, ne si lites et contentiones huiusmodi diutius duratent, scandala inde provenirent, opportune providere volentes, de consilio nonnullorum sanctae romana Ecclesiae cardinalium statuimus et ordinavimus, quod nullus eiusdem Ordinis frattum minorum de Observantia nuncupatorum professor ad domos et loca dictorum fratrum congregationis capuccinorum nuncupatorum, et e converso nullus dictorum capuccinorum ad domos et loca eorumdem fratrum de Observantia nuncupatorum, absque praelatorum suorum speciali licentia in scriptis habita, done per nos in generali capitulo dicti Ordinis, in hac alma Urbe nostra celebrando, aliud determinatum foret, quovis pretextu se transferre posset, prout in nostris in forma brevis desuper confectis litteris plenius continetur; intendentes interim res omnes in eodem statu, in quo exsistebant, permanere.
2. Cum autem ad nostram notitiam devenerit, nonnullos ex vestrae congregationis professoribus, ad partes ultramontanas, ad quas hactenus nullo modo vest rae congregationis professores penetrarunt, se transferre locaque de novo inibi acceptare intendere: nos, quorum mentis fuit, ut praefertur, usque ad provisionem per nos in capitulo praedicto faciendam, omnia in eo statu quoque manere, intendimus in dicto capitolo omnibus his ordinem et formam dare; motu proprio et ex certa scientia, vois congregationis vestrae huiusmodi, in virtute sanctae oboedientiae et sub excommunicationis latae sententiae poena, per praesentes auctoritate apostolica praecipimus et mandamus, ne, donec per nos in dicto capitulo generali aliud super hoc determinatum fuerit, ad partes ultramontanas huiusmodi vos transferre, aut loca inibi de novo acceptare praesumatis.
3. Mandantes universis et singulis venerabilibus fratribus nostris archiepiscopis et episcopis, necnon dilectis filiis abbatibus, prioribus, ceterisque ecclesiarum rectoribus, quatenus ipsi, vel eorum alter, statutum et ordinationem praedictam inviolabiliter observari faciant. Non permittentes aliquid per quoscumque quacumque dignitate, praeminentia et auctoritate fungentes, contra praesentium tenorem quomodolibet attentari. Contradictores quoslibet et rebelles per censuras et poenas ecclesiasticas et alia opportuna iuris remedia, appellatione
postposita, compescendo, invocato etiam ad hoc, si opus fuerit, auxilio brachii saecularis.
4. Non obstantibus praemissis ac aliis constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis, privilegiis quoque et indultis, ac litteris apostolicis, etiam in forma «brevis», quomodolibet concessis, approbatis et innovatis, etiamsi talia forent, quod pro illorum sufficienti derogatione, de illis eorumque totis tenoribus specialis et individua, ac de verbo ad verbum, non autem per clausulas generales idem importantes, mentio seu quaevis alia expressio habenda foret, ceterisque contrariis quibuscumque.
5. Volumus autem, quod praesentium transumptis sigillo alicuius personae in dignitate ecclesiastica constitutae signatis, et manu alicuicus notarii publici subscriptis, eadem prorsus fides adhibeatur, quae originalibus ipsis adhiberetur, si forent exhibitae, vel ostensae
Datum Romae apud S. Petrum, sub annulo Piscatoris, die V ianuari MDXXXVII, pontificatus nostri anno tertio.
- These cardinals, who formed the commission created by Paul III to solve the problem of the Capuchins, were: Card. of S. Croce Francesco Quiñones (†1540), protector of the Franciscans; Card. Lorenzo Campeggi (†1539), from Bologna, bishop of Prenestina; Card. Antonio Pucci (†1544) of the Quattro Santi Corananti, major penitentiary; Card. Giacomo Simonetta ((†1539), canonist, prefect of the Signatura of Grace; the Venetian Card. Gaspare Contarini ((†1542) and Sense Girolamo Ghinucci ((†1540). ↑
- This is the brief Regimini universalis Ecclesiae of 4 January 1537, reported in full, even with the phrases later deleted, by Edward of Alençon according to the minute preserved in ASV, Arm. 41 vol. 5: Minute dei Brevi odi Paolo III, ep. 262, f. 253 (cf. Eduardus Alenc., Tribulationes, 48-51). ↑