Storia do Mogor 358.5
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 358.5
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- English
358.5.1
You can see this again, gentlemen, in an extract from the Register [227] of the Council of State, inscribed in the Rule of the Capuchin fathers, already referred to; and if you read you will find the following words: 'His Majesty ordained that their first place of establishment should be the city of Paris, in a spot adjoining his royal palace, the Louvre, in order that France, from the position of that site and the situation of that first foundation of the said Capuchin fathers in the realm, might hold in greater veneration the memory of the prince to whom the public were thus indebted. This desire was felicitously carried into effect by the said King Charles IX. selecting a site in the Rue St. Honoré, close to his palace of the Tuileries, adjoining his gardens.' The Pope Gregory XIII., having received a report of the above fact, sent some Capuchins as a mark of his joy to found this establishment in France, praising and holding up to admiration in a Brief the zeal and piety of the above-named king, who for furthering the glory of God possessed a zeal which passed on to Henry III., and equally to the Queen Catharine dei Medici, his mother, and to the princes of his house, as is apparent and results from the Letters Patent of the King Henry III., granted in the month of July, 1576. These prove with precision that the introduction of the Capuchin fathers and their convents into France was secured by the common desire of the royal family.
358.5.2
Following them all the kings, predecessors of his Majesty now happily reigning, have approved of and imitated the said zeal, and above all, his Majesty just referred to, who has conceded a general permission to the Capuchin fathers. But without having recourse to our Letters Patent or privileges, which debar the Lord Bishop of San Thomé from thus making us over to the secular arm, you will see by turning to the Sacred Council of Trent, Cap. 14, Sess. 25, 'De Regularibus et Monialibus,' that his Lordship should have sent the case to our superior and head, and not to other persons, as he has done : 'Regularis non subditus Episcopo, qui intra claustra monasterii degit, et extra ea ita [228] notorie deliquerit, ut populo scandolo sit, Episcopo instante, a suo superiore intra tempus ab Episcopo praefigendum, severe puniatur.' [A regular who, not being subject to the bishop, and residing within the enclosure of a monastery, has out of that enclosure transgressed so notoriously as to be a scandal to the people, shall at the instance of the bishop be severely punished by his own superior, within such time as the bishop shall appoint.]
358.5.3
And as if it were not enough to make these entirely innocent Capuchin fathers over to the secular arm, in the teeth of the decrees of the Council of Trent, his Lordship goes on to direct that they should be punished with all possible severity. 'With all possible severity!' These words are formally opposed to the same Council, Cap. I, Sess. 13, 'De Euchar,' of which the exact words are: 'Quos tamen si quid per humanam fragilitatem peccare contigerit, illa Apostoli est ab eis servanda praeceptio, ut illos arguant, obsecrent, increpent in omni bonitate, et patientia; cum saepe plus erga corrigendos agat benevolentia, quam austeritas; plus exhortatio, quam comminatio; plus charitas, quam potestas.' [Towards whom, however, should they happen to sin in any manner through human frailty, that injunction of the apostle is to be observed by them [the bishops], that they reprove, entreat, rebuke them in all kindness and patience (2 Tim. iv. 2), seeing that benevolence towards those to be corrected often effects more than austerity, exhortation more than menace, charity more than power.]
358.5.4
Gentlemen, although I have set before you much more than was necessary, I have done it to show you that it is nothing but simple passion, and not the Holy Spirit, which drives his Lordship to such acts against the Capuchin fathers. Yet I cannot refrain from calling your attention to the manner in which a bishop ought to bear himself in committing a priest or friar to the secular arm, to be degraded and receive chastisement according to his offences. Those provisions are to be found in the Roman Pontificals of Clement VIII. and Urban VIII.: 'Tum Pontifex degradator efficaciter, et ex corde, et omni instantia, pro misérrimo illo derelicto intercedit apud judicem Saecularem, ut citra mortis periculum, vel mutilationis, contra degradatum sententiam moderetur, dicens: Domine Iudex, rogamus vos cum omni affectu quo possumus, ut amore Dei, pietatis et misericórdiae intuitu, et nostrorum