Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/248

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The same sacred and holy synod, pursuing the subject of Reformation has thought fit that the things following be ordained.

CHAPTER I.

Insomuch as the holy synod is not ignorant how much splendour and utility accrue to the Church of God from monasteries piously instituted and rightly administered; it has,—to the end that the ancient and regular discipline may be the more easily and promptly restored, where it has fallen away, and may be the more firmly maintained, where it has been preserved,—thought it necessary to enjon, as by this decree it doth enjoin, that all regulars, as well men as women, shall order and form their lives agreeably to the requirements of the rule which they have professed; and especially, that they shall faithfully observe whatsoever belongs to the perfection of their profession; such as obedience, poverty, and chastity, as also all other vows and precepts that may be peculiar to any rule or order, respectively appertaining to the essential character of each, and which regard the observing a common mode of living, food, and dress. And all care and diligence shall be applied by the superiors, as well in the general and in the provincial chapters, as in their visitations, which they shall not omit to make in their proper seasons, that these things be not departed from; since it is certain that those things which appertain to the substance of a regular life cannot be by them relaxed. For if those things which are the basis and the foundation of all regular discipline be not exactly preserved, the whole edifice must of necessity fall.

CHAPTER II.

Property is wholly prohibited to Regulars.

For no regulars, therefore, whether men or women, shall it be lawful to possess, or hold as his own, or even in the