Septimo iam

Concerning the First Order of St. Francis, not a few things are established in perpetuity

Pius X

Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God

As a perpetual remembrance

Transcribed from Acta Apostolicae Sedis, An. I., Vol. I., Die 4 Oct. 1909, Num. 18, pp.725-738

WITH THE SEVENTH CENTENARY already passed, after which the beginnings of the Franciscan Order were happily founded, rightly indeed do, as many as acknowledge Francis as their author and parent, celebrate together this glad event, and with the display of a grateful piety do very many, most holy men commemorate his memory and immortal benefactions in common. But although there is a certain, chief reason, why the Minorites keep this day solemn more than any other; it is, however, fitting that all, who enter Franciscan Institutes for the sake of merit, come to share in this solemnity and gladness, and most of all it is fitting that this Apostolic See (do so); since with Her always singular favor and grace, and in great esteem and judgment, have these very same Institutes flourished. Innumerable and brilliant monuments to this stand forth among the acts of Our Predecessors. At the beginning Gregory IX, who both studiously cultivated the friendship of the Seraphic Patriarch, and as a cardinal, acted as the first legitimate patron of the Franciscans: « The holy planting, he said, of the Order of Friars Minor began under blessed Francis of good memory, and it did wonderfully progress, through the grace of Jesus Christ, proffering its flowers and scents of holy comportment far and wide ». [1] And he, after he was pressed with the heavy weight of solicitudes and cares, writing in this manner to the disciples of Francis gathered in general chapter, declared how thoroughly he trusted in the patronage of their blessed Father and in the prayers of his very sons: « Among unnumbered pressures and infinite anguishes, which we can bear more than relate, resuming the matter for consolation and joy, we return thanks and praise, as we can, to the Redeemer who with remarkable gifts of grace was going before blessed Francis, Our father and yours, but perhaps more Ours, than yours, while he yet lived in the flesh, now does make him shine with Himself with such glory, . . . that We, enkindled in a greater and greater pious love for the same Saint, delight with all Our affections in his praises; hoping, that he may embrace now more clearly both Us and those, whom he, while living in the world outside of the world, did love with his whole mind, as much as he more closely gazes upon Him, who is true charity, not ceasing to intercede on Our behalf; and that We, with profound charity of heart, may aspire ardently to advance your Order, you whom, the same, regenerating in Christ unto an abundance of riches, did leave as heirs of most high poverty, with the hope offered to Us, that by the suffrages of your prayers, the bearing of our sufferings will result in our salvation. »:. [2]

2. Moreover the same Pontiff, in commending the Franciscan families to the Bishops (which Honorius III, while Francis lived, had already done), used these very ennobling words: « Since iniquity has abounded and the charity of very many has grown cold, behold the Lord has stirred up the Order of Minors, our beloved sons, who seek not what is their own, but what is Christ's, as much against heresies to be overcome, as against other mortiferous pests to be uprooted, they dedicate themselves to the evangelization of the word of God in the abjection of voluntary poverty . [3]

3. After Gregory, Nicholas III plainly agreed saying: « This is the meek and docile religion of the Friars Minor, rooted in poverty and humility by the kind confessor of Christ, Francis, which sprouting the sprout (cf. Is. 35:2) from that true seed, strew the same by (means of) the Rule among (his) sons, whom he generated for himself and for God through his ministry in the observance of the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor 4:15). These very ones are the sons, who by the teaching of Jacob (cf Gen 49:1-27) have received the Eternal Word, the Son of God, sown by human nature in the garden (Gen 2:8; Dt 11:10; Ct 6:2; Jer 61:11; Lk 13:19) of the virginal womb [and] able to save souls in meekness (Heb. 7:25). These are the professors of that 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 [that] clean and immaculate religion in the sight of [Our] God and Father, (James 1:27b) which descending from the Father of lights (James 1:17) through His Son, having been handed on to the Apostles verbally and by example, and at last through the Holy Spirit to blessed Francis, and having inspired those following him, contains in itself, at it were, a testimony of the whole Trinity (vulg. of Jn 5:7). It is this, to which with Paul attesting no one for the sake of the rest ought to be molested (Gal 6:17), which Christ confirmed by the stigmata of His own Passion, willing [as He did] to notably mark with the signs of His own Passion the institutor of that very (religion). ». [4]

4. Likewise, Clement V, who accommodated the verse from Ecclesiasticus 24:42, I went forth from paradise, I said: I will water the garden of plantings, as a public commendation of the Seraphic Order: « This garden is indeed the holy Religion of the Friars Minor, which firmly enclosed by the wall of regular observance, contented within herself with God alone is adorned abundantly by new seedlings of sons. The beloved Son of God coming upon this reaps the myrrh of mortifying penitence with aromatics, which with a marvelous sweetness sprinkle about in all places an odor of attracting holiness. This is that heavenly form of life, and rule, which that excellent Confessor of Christ Saint Francis wrote down; and taught equally by word and example to be observed by his sons. [5]

5. Likewise did Leo X also extol this Order: « This is that sacred Religion of the Friars Minor, which, with the greening leaves of holy deeds, through apostolic men, as through palms extended from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the Earth, has irrigated the mountains with the wine of wisdom and science, and has filled full the earth. This is the holy and immaculate Religion, in which, through the mirror without spot, the presence of the Redeemer is contemplated, the form of life of Christ and the Apostles is gazed upon, through which the norm of the first founders of the Church is brought back before the eyes of the Christian people; which, in short, represents nothing but what is divine, angelic, filled with every perfection, and naught but in conformity to Christ, so that it not undeservedly called His own. ». [6]

6. Similarly Sixtus V: « To inflame Our hearts anew, the Father of mercies and lights, sent His blessed servant Francis, and went before him in such a large blessing of sweetness, that not only did He make him celebrated by the prerogatives and merits of virtue, but He renewed in his flesh the sacred Stigmata of Christ, and in a manifold manner gave a live demonstration in him of the wonderful mysteries, bonds and poverty of the Cross, for this, to be able to truly introduce Christ by means of Francis: " Thou hast investigated my path and my cord, and all my ways Thou hast foreseen ". Whence it happened, that with the merits of the said blessed Francis, the sacrosanct Mother Church, amplified with the birth of a new offspring, and driven onward by the merits, virtues, examples and miracles of many saints of his Institute, and decorated with not a few Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Kings, and Supreme Pontiffs, could not but be propelled to follow in the footsteps of his devotion and imitation.». [7]

7. But concerning Francis and his institutes, neither has the preaching of the Apostolic See ever been completely silent. Moreover from the monuments of more recent memory, there must not be passed by those Letters of Gregory XVI, in which he writes of the shrine of St. Mary of the Angels at Assisi: « In that temple, the chief ornament of Umbria and to that extent of the whole Western World, Saint Francis of Assisi, working greater things every day, having progressed in exceptional sanctity, and accepting wonderful carisms from the Omnipotent God having been molded in continual meditation of heavenly things, impelled by a divine instinct, laid the foundations of his Order, and was made worthy of gazing upon Our Divine Repairer and His Most Holy Theotokos, and of the sweetest conversations (with them). » [8] -- But most of all the acts of Leo XIII, which are remembered well, are worthy (of mention), he who in a certain Encyclical Letter Auspicato, where he pursues the praises of the Father of Assisi with grandiloquence and grave prayer, has this (to say): « Those wonderful things of his, (which) must be celebrated with angelic rather than human proclamation, sufficiently demonstrate how great and how worthy was that Man, whom God destined for the recalling of his contemporaries to Christian morals. Indeed at the shrine of San Damiano a greater than human voice was heard by Francis: Go, watch over My House (which is) falling down. Nor is there less admiration for the sight divinely offered to Innocent III, when he himself seemed to see Francis sustaining the wavering walls of the Lateran Basilica on his shoulders. The strength and reason for which portents is evident: undoubtedly it was to signify, that Francis was not a light-armed guard of the Christian republic throughout those times and would be a future column (of support). In truth there is no delay for the one who is unequipped. Those twelve, who were first to bring themselves together under his discipline, stood forth like a scanty seed, which with the nod of God and the auspices of the Supreme Pontiffs, swiftly was seen to grow up into the most bountiful crop. ». -- Likewise in the Constitution Misericors Dei Filius: « All of the Franciscan institutes have already been set up to observe the precepts of Jesus Christ: for neither did (that) most holy author intend any other end, than that the Christian life be more diligently exercised in them, as in a certain gymnasium. Truly did the first two Franciscan Orders, formed with the disciplines of great virtues, follow after him more perfectly and divinely ». -- And in the Constitution Felicitate quadam; « For that, which is named the family of the Friars Minor, is remarkable as one being most worthy of the benevolence and attention of the Apostolic See. For her, indeed, her own Begetter commanded all those laws, which he himself gave as precepts for living, so that she would guard them most religiously in the perpetuity of subsequent times; nor did he command this in vain. For there is scarcely any society of men, which has brought forth so many rigid guardians of virtue, or has given forth so many heralds of the Christian Name, martyrs for Christ, citizens of Heaven, and/or in which there has assisted so great an issue of men, who brightened Christian and civil society with those arts, by which they are judged to stand before all others who excel (in them) ».

8. But We now, who, as Leo himself confirmed on his own, [9] « have been accustomed to admire Francis of Assisi and to foster from adolescence his chief religion, and We glory in being adopted into the Franciscan family », certainly not of the Minors, which We, as any of Our Predecessors, esteem as the great Work of the blessed Father, nor otherwise than that particular other, which we have judged worthy of Our own certain involvement. Therefore in this fame of the seculars, when We have illustrated with the words of Our Predecessors the great merits of the Order, divinely founded by Francis, for Christian society, it seems to Us, that to publicly make and prove by enduring testimony the fullness of Our paternal charity, by which We embrace the three families, from which the principal Order of Franciscans is established, without any discrimination. Certainly indeed with the mobility of human genius and the various changing of times it has gradually happened, that the Franciscan members have departed one after another from a most harmonious community of life and manner of living into diverse disciplines. « The most high penury of things, which the most holy Man fell uniquely in love with through his whole life, not a few of his students preferred in a very similar manner; not a few, to whom this seemed heavier, in a moderately tempered manner. Wherefore with the secession of some from others accomplished, on this side there arose the Observants, on that side the Conventuals. Similarly the rigid innocence, and the high, magnificent virtues, with which he had shown forth as a miracle, some indeed wanted to imitate courageously and severely, others more leniently and mildly. After the family of the friars Capuchine coalesced from the first of these, there resulted a tripartate division ». [10] -- But that the variety of legitimate disciplines obstructs nothing, still less that which those who had joined whichever of these, all rightly defended, (namely) that they are the genuine progeny of Francis, has been sanctioned very many times by the authority of the Apostolic See. Thus Leo X: « That the very Friars of the Observance and the Reformati, have always been the true and undoubted Friars of the Order of Blessed Francis and observers of his Rule, and, by the favor of divine grace, may always be (such), without any interruption or division, they have from the time of the publishing of the Rule by Bl. Francis even to the present also served as soldiers under the Rule of Bl. Francis, and do also serve even to the present; and in this manner We discern and mandate that they ought to be held and observed and judged ». [11] And Clement VIII protected the Friars Minor of the Stricter Observance, called the Reformati, from injuries from certain persons. And the Reformati themselves, he declares to be « true sons and undoubted Friars of the Order of Saint Francis ». [12] Moreover concerning the Capuchines, Paul V, [13] Urban VIII, [14] (and) Clement XIII, [15]established them « to be truly Friars Minor », and « to be really their origin and beginning and to be effectively counted (as such) from the time of the primeval and original institution of the Seraphic Rule, the observance of which the Friars Capuchin themselves always continue without any interruption », and that the same « were and are from a true and never interrupted line, both true and undoubted Friars of the Order of Saint Francis, and observers of his Rule, and that they have served as soldiers and do also served at the present under the Rule of Bl. Francis himself ». -- Affirming these very things, We will (and) order, that as many are of the three disciplines of the first Franciscan Order, they are to be regarded both among themselves and by all, as not only genuine but twin Brothers, as all having been born from the same Francis and as having been carefully cultivated by the same documents of religious life according to his one Rule. And so that for this fraternal charity, which among the sons of the most blessed Father ought to rule as one, there may be more safe and sure laws, and for the reason that the Franciscan Institutes may bear more abundant fruit for the holy Church, We concerning the common reasons of the whole Minorite nation, discern these things to be valid in perpetuity, as certain principles and sources, and We precept with the plenitude of Our Apostolic power that those things which are written below are to be observed in a holy manner by all:

I. St. Francis' first Order, whether you consider the lawgiver-Father by whom it was founded, or the Rule, which it uses, is one family of religious: but if the reckoning of its government and the Constitutions, by which it is governed from the prescript of the Apostolic See, it is divided into three families: of which one is the Friars Minor, which once used to be called of the Regular Observance, and which when it had been separated into four groups [sodalitia], that is into the Observants, the Reformati, the Alcantarines, (and) the Recollects, it was, by Leo XIII, of happy memory, recalled to unity, having been given the one name Order of Friars Minor; the other is the Friars Minor who are spoken of as Conventuals; the third the Friars Minor who are named the Capuchins.

II. The family, or Order, of the Friars Minor, to whom formerly the name "of the Regular Observance" belonged, after it had been brought back to unity from various groups [sodalitiis] by Leo XIII, if it was named of the Leonine Union, it was rightly named. Indeed « from the concession of the Apostolic See it anteceded in place and honor » the other Franciscan families, and of its members « retain the worthy name, Friars Minor, received from Leo X, as Our Predecessor said in the Constitution Felicitate quadam: but, however, not this name is not to be interpreted, as if it seemed that every Minoritic Order consisted in only that family. It is clear that an interpretation of this kind is far from the true one, and very injurious to the not few, remaining Minorites. Therefore as often as the appellation of Order of Friars Minor without any other determination is ambiguous, We establish and sanction that it is proper that this family of which We are speaking, and its Moderators and members, especially in public acts, be designated by a proper and peculiar term [adiecta nota], and to be (thus) called the Order of Friars Minor of the Leonine Union, (its) Moderators and members, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Leonine Union.

III. The title of Minister General of the whole Order of Minors, which the Minister General of the same family, which be have named "of the Leonine Union", uses as a title, is merely honorific, nor does it denote any jurisdiction or authority over the all the other families of Franciscans.

IV. The names Capuchin, Conventual, of the Leonine Union distinguish Franciscans not by noting that, which pertains to their reckoning and nature as Friars Minor: for this consists in the Seraphic Rule which among all Franciscans of the first Order is one and the same: but by designating those things which accede to the nature in this genus; and these are the Constitutions, which each family follows as its proper and peculiar (norms) in observing the Rule, from the prescript of the Apostolic See.

V. The Minister General of the Friars Minor of the Leonine Union, likewise from the concession of the Apostolic See, in all sacred and public gatherings, wherever a law obtains from the superiority of a place, precedes the Minister General of the Conventuals, but the Minister General of the Capuchins both of these. But it has been defined by very many decrees of the Apostolic See, that the families from each convent are to have a mutual [inter se] place in parades and other sacred public functions.

VI. All the Minister Generals of the three families of Franciscans are and are to be held as equals in dignity and authority, as Vicars and furthermore true successors of Saint Francis, that is each on behalf of his own family, and also on behalf of the members of the Second and Third Order, however many families have either been subjected or aggregated to their own jurisdiction: the same all rightly stand in the perpetual line of their predecessors from the Seraphic Father himself.

VII. The three families of the Minorite Order, as so many branches belong to a most noble tree, whose root and trunk is Francis. On this account the Friars Minor, both of the Leonine Union, the Conventuals, and the Capuchins, both are and ought to be held equally and most rightfully true Franciscans and true Friars Minor. And none of the same are to be called more ancient than the others, when indeed it is true that their origin is traced back to the time of the Seraphic Rule's very institution, which all continued to observe without any interruption.

VIII. Of the temples of the Franciscans it is nearly pointless to say that that is to be held most sacred, in which the blessed lawgiver-Father himself rests: the shrine which on that account was opportunely renamed the Head and Mother of the Seraphic Order by Gregory IX, [16] and which moreover was raised by Benedict XIV by the Letter Fidelis to the dignity of a Patriarchal Basilica and Papal Chapel. -- But there is a remarkable dignity in the Shrine of St. Mary of the Angles of the Portiuncula; of which Benedict XIII (said): « Finally so that no one may extol and praise, with words or writing, the Basilica of blessed Francis in the city of Assisi, where his sacred body lies, enriched with various privileges by Our Predecessors, the Roman Pontiffs, so above all the other churches of the same Order, as to deny the honor and reverence due the Basilica of Blessed Mary of the Portiuncula, outside the walls of the same town, in which is established, that the Seraphic Father began his Institute; We precept and mandate, that both Basilicas, though for divers reasons, indeed that of Bl. Mary on account of the primordial times of the Order, but that of Assisi on account of the sacred body of the most holy Institutor, be acknowledged and observed as mother (churches) by all the Friars Minor » [17] But the very Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels We non long ago reckoned as Mother and Head of the Order of the Minors with the publishing of the Letter Omnipotens ac misericors Dominus, and We have honored it with the title of Patriarchal Basilica and Papal Chapel. Wherefore it is proper that however many of the sons of Francis glory in that name, they guard each Basilica, as a common patrimony: let all trustingly and gladly celebrate both as their paternal home, and let them there sense themselves renewed by every office of fraternal charity, how good and how jocund that brothers dwell as one.

IX. The Minister Generals of the threefold family of the Minors are equal in authority over the Third Order. The Tertiaries on this account who serve the Minister General of one Family, enjoy the same privileges and indulgences, and those who are subject to the other two (likewise). Nor will it be licit that those who have joined the Third Order, be named Tertiaries either "of the Leonine Union", or "Conventuals", or "Capuchins", but it will be proper that they be called Tertiaries of St. Francis or Franciscan Tertiaries, without any other description.

X. The ornaments, with which any of the three families of the Minors shines forth; the public commendations, by which any is ornamented by the Apostolic See; the Saints, Blesseds, Venerable men by which any is brightened, although they chiefly belong to that family, rightly, however, pertain to all the others of the fraternity, as common ornaments. But the old glories of the Order, sprung from the past deeds or holy men before the canonical division of the Order itself, accomplished by Leo X, [18] are to be held by none of the three families in particular, but all indiscriminately.

9. Thus We judge that there can be very many things, which We have prescribed by either declaring, defining, or precepting, to mutually join the souls of all Franciscans. Moreover, « He who speaks peace unto His people and upon His Saints, has marked out for His disciples that certain strength and reckoning for averting contention, having urged these with His warnings and examples, so that, he who is greater among them, would be as the minor, and that they, therefore, are to contend not in pre-eminence and primacy, but to be surpassing in the humility of serving and being subject (to others). But these instructions Bl. Francis, the founder of the Seraphic Order, himself both wonderfully grasped and expressed, and he wanted them to be the foundation of the peace kept by his students ». [20] Therefore let all be hearers of their Father's lawgiving saying, being thus precepted: « Let them not argue, nor contend with words, nor judge others; but let them be meek, peaceable, modest, gentle, humble, speaking uprightly to all, as it fitting ». [21] And « let them beware of all pride, vainglory, envy ». [22] Moreover let not those who according to the norm of their own Constitutions follow a rigid poverty in the very worship (that takes place in) the House of God and in the performance of the sacred (rites) and in human affairs, despise all others; of whom Leo X (says): « We declare, that you are to be only the custodians of these things and not the possessors, and on this account, without the stain or violation of your profession, when it may be fitting, in accord with the celebration of the solemnities, that you both honor the Divine Majesty with more solemn offices and more decent vestments, and that you generously offer Him worship, and that you can licitly and freely use and acquire those other things, which both the Order and the Friars use, commonly and/or individually » [23] Because if among the Friars Minor any discrimination of legitimate precedence ought to be acknowledged, that it must be placed not in that which otherwise concerns another family, in which matter We have said that they are to be equal; but (rather) in this, that both in judgments and in words and in deeds one guards fraternal charity towards members, especially of all the other families, better than another; and that one observes the prescriptions of the Seraphic Rule more perfectly than another, according to the Constitutions of its own family. The custom which ought to exist among the Friars Minor, can be understood from those things, which Thomas of Celano wrote of concerning the ancient sons of Francis: « Oh with how much ardor of charity did the new disciples of Christ used to blaze! How much did the love of pious society used to thrive in them! For when they met each other, wherever they would gather together, and/or in the street, as was the custom, there the dart of spiritual love used to rebound, scattering over all the sower's love of true love [dilectionis]. What was that? Chaste embraces, tasteful affections, a holy kiss, sweet conversation, a modest smile, a jocund appearance, a simple eye, a supple spirit, a pleasing tongue, a soft response, likewise a purposeful, prompt obsequium and an indefatigable hand. And indeed, since they despised all earthly things and never loved themselves with a private love, overflowing in common with the affection of complete love, they used to show proof of it to one another, by equally assisting their brother's needs ». -- But, so that the links of charity and fraternity, with which the Franciscans of the three families are mutually contained, may be also more constraining, We give and grant these things in perpetuity:

I. That the dedication of the two Basilicas at Assisi, which of the entire Order of the Minors, though from diverse reasons, are the mother and head, is to be celebrated by each and every cleric of the threefold family with the rite of a double of second class; and that both are to enjoy the same indulgences and the same privileges both now and in perpetuity. Moreover it will be remembered that the Friars assigned to these Basilicas, represent all the members, not only of their own family, but also of the others; on account of which also, let them not cease to daily worship and praise the Omnipotent God, Mary Immaculate, (and their) Seraphic Father, in the name of all.

II. That in sacred ceremonies, processions, and other solemn acts, which are conducted in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, the three Ministers General are to proceed together as one, however observing among themselves the law of precedence.

III. That indulgences, graces, exemptions, (and) all privileges which either have already been or hereafter shall be conceded to one of the families of the Minors, are to be and to be judged as conceded the same to the other families. That if the concession of any of whatever matter pertains to the mitigation of the Seraphic Rule, it shall not be in favor of those, whose constitutions endure no mitigation of this kind. But the faculties, which regard the Way of the Cross, the Scapular of Saint Joseph, the Chord of Saint Francis, (and) likewise the pious societies and sodalities, are to be henceforth granted only by that Minister General, to whom they have until now been reserved.

IV. That the ritual offices, which concern the Saints and Blesseds of the Order and/or which touch upon their own particular sacred acts or devotions, conceded to one family, also by the other families, with the approval of either the General Chapter or General Definitory, may be licitly employed, without an additional indult: the same will also become licit concerning all the other privileges, in liturgical matters, granted to one family.

V. That all the Letters of the Roman Pontiffs and/or of the Apostolic See, in which the Franciscan Institutes are generally praised, embellished, defended, even if these have been given to the Minister General, to the other moderators, (or) to the members of one family, are to be understood, however, as also given to the Minister Generals, the other moderators, (or) to the members of the other families.

10. But We judge that the present Letters and whatever is had in them, at can no time ever from injury of subreption, or obreption, or of Our intention, or in any other manner by whatever defect, be marked and/or impugned; but that they are to be and to remain always valid and in force, and ought to be observed inviolably by all of whatever grade and pre-eminence in their judgment and external behavior; and declaring ineffectual and empty if anything otherwise upon these matters by whoever, with whatever authority and/or pretext, knowingly or unknowingly happens to be attempted; in regard to the aforementioned things, not withstanding all those things which are to the contrary, even those things worthy of special and most special mention, We from the plenitude of power, with certain knowledge and motu proprio, expressly derogate and declare to be derogated.

11. Moreover We will that copies of this Letter, even when printed, subscripted, however, by the hand of a notary and fortified with a seal by a man constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, be regarded with the same faith, which by the signification of Our will, is to be had for these presently being shown.

12. Therefore let it be licit to no man to infringe this page of Our constitution, ordination, union, limitation, derogation, (and) will, and/or by temerarious daring to contravene the same. If anyone however has presumed to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of the Omnipotent God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.

13. Given in Rome at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on he feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 7, 1901, in the seventh year of Our Pontificate.

Pope Pius X

1 The Letter Recolentes, Apr. 29, 1228.

2 The Letter Mirificans, May 16, 1230.

3 The Letter Quoniam, Apr. 6, 1237.

4 The Letter Exiit qui seminat, Aug. 14, 1279.

5 The Constitution Exivi de paradiso, May 6, 1312.

6 The Constitution Ite et Vos, May 29, 1517.

7 The Letter Divinae, Aug. 29, 1587.

8 The Letter Neminem, Febr. 7, 1832.

9 The Encyclical Letter Auspicato.

10 The Constitution Felicitate quadam.

11 The Letter Licet, Dec. 7, 1517.

12 The Letter Ex iniuneto, Sept. 7, 1602,

13 The Letter Ecclesiae, Oct. 15, 1608.

14 The Letter Salvatoris, Jun. 28, 1627.

15 The Letter Ea quae, May 14, 1735.

16 The Letter Is qui, Apr. 22, 1230.

17 The Letter Qui pacem, Jul. 21, 1728.

18 The Constitution Ite et vos.

19 Benedict XIII, Letter Qui pacem.

20 Regula Bullata, ch. III.

21 Ibid. ch. X.

22 The Letter. Merentur, Jan. 2, 1514.

23 Celano's Legenda I, Cap. 15.

The English translation here has been released to the public domain by its author. Items in square [ ] brackets contain Latin terms corresponding to the previous English word(s), or notes added by the English translator; items within round ( )brackets have been added by the translator for the sake of clarity. Scriptural references within parentheses, and the arabic, paragraph numerals have also been added by the English translator.