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CAPUCHIN

chins, and at this time it was seriously considered at the Roman Court whether they should be suppressed. In fact it was generally said amongst the people that their suppression was already decreed. To dispel this rumour the new vicar-general, Francis of Jesi, assembled two hundred of lus brethren at Assisi for the feast of the Portiuncula, in 1543. But it was Bernardine of Asti who pleaded the cause of the re- form at the Council of Trent and averted the threat- ened disaster. And by his eloquent pleading he saved not only the new reform from extinction, but also the essential character of the Franciscan Order. For the conciliar Fathers had resolved that in future all re- ligious orders should possess common property, and not be dependent upon alms. This resolution struck at the very fundamental principle of the Franciscan life, since, according to the Rule of St. Francis, his Friars were to possess property neither individually nor in common, but to depend for their daily suste- nance upon their labour and upon alms. As St. Fran- cis had pleaded for this absolute poverty before Pope Innocent III, so Bernardine of Asti now pleaded be- fore the council, and with such success that the Capu- chin Friars and the Observants were expressly ex- empted from the general law and allowed the privilege of common, as well as of individual, poverty. By a providential coincidence, whilst the fate of the new reform was hanging in the balance, it received a new recruit in a poor countryman who was destined per- haps more than anyone else to establish the Capuchin family in the love and veneration of the Roman peo- ple: this was St. Felix of Cantalicio, the lay brother friend of St. Philip Neri. But in a short while the cloud passed away, and the Capuchin family grew with amazing swiftness in numbers and in fame. At the chapter of 1536 the reform numbered five hundred friars; in 1.5S7 it had increased to five thousand nine hundred and fifty-three friars. In 1574 Gregory XIII revoked the decree of Paul III, and granted Capuchins the right to establish ultramontane prov- inces; and in 1619 the reform was released from all dependence upon the Conventuals, and given a min- ister general of its own election. It need hardly be said that, as the order increased in numbers and spread to various countries, it was found necessary to modify the stringent regulations of the first con- stitutions. The Council of Trent compelled the Ca- puchins to establish courses of studies for the friars destined for the priesthood; larger convents were built, and the regulation forbidding the friars to hear the confessions of secular people was rescinded. Yet a constant effort was made to maintain the simplicity of the Franciscan life. Notwithstanding the Council of Trent, the Capuchins obtained from St. Pius V for their lay brothers the privilege of voting in the elec- tions of the order, thus conserving the original demo- cratic character of the Franciscan family. In the ordinances of the general chapter of 1613 great stress was laid on simplicity of life, and regulations were made forbidding such innovations as high and the introduction of spiritual exercises for novices, after the manner of the Jesuits. The same spirit and intention are found in the definitive constitutions formally approved by Urban VIII. in 1643. This pontiff had already, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars (30 April, 1i',l!7i. declared the Capuchins to be true sons of St. Francis, and on 28 June of the same year had issued the Bull "Salvatoris et Domini", in which he reaffirmed a former constitution of Paul V, "Ecclesite Militantis", of 15 October. Kids, setting forth that the Capuchins are the spiritual descendants of St. Francis in the direct line, and not a mere offshoot of the Franciscan Order.

In the time <»f Urban VIII the reform numbered over seventeen thousand friars in forty-two provinces; a century later, at the general chapter of 1754, there

were representatives from sixty-three provinces, and the number of the friars was given as thirty-two thou- sand eight hundred and twenty-one. But during the French Revolution the order suffered severely; nearly all the provinces were disorganized or suppressed; and in the subsequent revolutions on the European continent the Capuchins suffered the fate of all the religious orders, being continually oppressed and dis- persed. Yet during the last twenty years a notable revival has taken place. In 1NS9 the order had 636 houses and 7S52 friars; in 1906 there were 731 houses and 9970 friars, divided into 56 provinces.

II. Influence op the Reform upon the Gen- eral History of the Church. — The Capuchins, to- gether with the Jesuits, were the most effective preachers and missionaries of the sixteent h and seven- teenth centuries. We have already seen that the privilege granted by Clement VII to Matteo di Bassi was not only to observe the Rule of St. Francis in its primitive simplicity, but also to go about preaching the Word of God. In this matter the friars of the reform were but reasserting the primitive Franciscan life; and it is to be noted that the method of their apostolate was also thoroughly in accord with what the early legends of the order tell us about St. Fran- cis's method. In their preaching they eschewed arti- ficial orator} - and set forth their message with a sim- plicity and directness which came from the heart. But perhaps what most endeared them to the people, and gave them that singular power with all classes to which the history of the times bears witness, was their all-embracing charity. The picture of the Ca- puchin friar drawn by Manzoni in "I Promessi Sposi " is historical. In their apostolate they not merely preached from the pulpits; the}' mingled in the daily life of the people, ministering to suffering humanity in its temporal as well as its spiritual needs. In the frequent pestilences which devastated Italy and Eu- rope generally in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- ries, the Capuchins were constantly found doing a notable part in the service of the sick. The annals of the order and the chronicles of the times tell us of the heroism of the friars in the pestilences which swept through Northern Italy and Spain in 15S9. through Switzerland in 1609, through Germany in 1611. In the great pestilence of 1630 the friars took charge of the lazarettos at Milan, and acted as confessors, nurses, cooks, and dispensers to the victims. They did the same at Marseilles and Freiburg. At Siena the friars were assembled for a provincial chapter when the pestilence broke out; they prorogued the chapter and went out to nurse the sick, and forty-three of them fell victims to their charity. During the pestilence of 1636 in Franche-Comte, so many Capuchins died in ministering to the sick that Urban VIII allowed young clerics to lie ordained priests before the canon- ical age to take the place of those who had succumbed. St. Laurence of Brindisi, sent as missionary Apostolic to Germany in 1509. began bis apostolate by nursing the sick in the pestilence of that year. Undoubtedly their universal charity, united to tire austerity of their lives, accounts for much of their success as mission- aries, whether with Catholics or non-Catholics.

And not only were they popular with the multi- tude; they had the confidence of the authorities. This is shown in the frequent choice of the friars by the popes and princes to fill responsible positions. Thus, in the wars against the Turks in (lie sixteenth century, it was usually the Capuchins who were ap- pointed chaplains and spiritual directors to the Christian forces. In the Venetian expedition of 1571, a number of Capuchins accompanied the Venetian

navy by command of St. Pius V. and at the battle of

Lepanto, Pat her Anselmo da Pietramolara was in the

thick of the fight, urging on the ( lni-tian forces with raised crucifix; in fact, it was his indomitable bravery which prevented the ship he was in from being cap-