CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER XXVII.

Reform of the Older Orders.—The Capuchins.

While the new foundations of the Theatines, Somaschi, and Barnabites were rising into existence, the older orders also were awakening to the necessity of reform. In their case also the movement started from small and obscure circles. In order to withdraw themselves from the spirit of the world, which was now too generally prevalent, the better spirits in the older orders sought out a life of solitude. Paolo Giustiniani of the Camaldolese had already introduced in this way improvements in the Order under Leo X, for he had erected at Pascelupo in the Apennines and Massaccio in the province of Ancona, hermitages of Camaldolese under very strict regulations. Each member lived by himself in a small separate hut, and together with a strict observance of the vows, Giustiniani attached a high importance to complete seclusion. In one of his letters he extols this manner of life, far apart from the movement of the world in a sublime isolation, as the best way to attain the peace of the soul and spiritual perfection. Like Adrian VI, Clement VII also gave encouragement to this congregation of Camaldolese hermits. Giustiniani’s (d. 1528) second successor, the recluse Giustiniani of Bergamo, made Monte Corona at Umbertide in the upper valley of the Tiber the headquarters of the foundation, which has given the whole congregation its name. The industry of these hermits changed the inhospitable slopes of the mountain into one of the most picturesque settlements of recluses in the world. Here also Clement VII gave his support by graces and privileges, and confirmed the statutes.

Among the Augustinian hermits the learned General, Egidio Canisio, also pursued under Leo X the reforming activities on which he had previously entered, while the congregation of Benedictines of Monte Cassino settled at S. Justina in Padua were led in the same direction by the classical scholar, Gregorio Cortese.

Serious efforts at reform had also already been made by the Franciscan Observants under Leo X. Their excellent General, Francesco Lichetto, in 1517 advised those of stricter aspirations to follow the Spanish example and make use of the houses of so-called Recollects, that is, convents to which they might voluntarily repair in order without disturbance there to carry out as strictly as possible the rules of the Order, and to devote themselves especially to penitential exercises and continual meditation. The oldest houses of this kind, Fonte Colombo and Grecio, lay in the valley of Rieti, hallowed by the sojourn of St. Francis himself. The inmates were called Brothers of the Stricter Observance, and later, Riformati. They found, however, more resistance than encouragement from the cismontane commissary-general Ilarione Sacchetti, who was a strong upholder of the unity of the Order. On the other hand, the earnest Spanish reformer, Quiñones, chosen General in 1523, was a great friend of the Brothers of the Stricter Observance, to whom he at once gave a strict rule in Spain, and assigned five houses of Recollects. When Quiñones came to Italy in 1525 he supported these special reforms, as well as all others in the Order. Two high-minded fellow-countrymen, Martino di Guzman and Stefano Molina, could congratulate themselves on his special favour. He appointed them to plant the new institution of the Stricter Observance—afterwards known as that of the Riformati—in the Roman province. These Riformati led an exceptionally hard life. Only on two days of the week did they eat cooked food; for the rest they were satisfied with bread, fruit, and vegetables; their bed was either the bare ground or a board, and the day began and ended with prolonged meditation; at night there was prayer in common. Had Quiñones remained longer at the head of the Observants this institution would certainly at that time have risen to great importance, for, especially in the years of terror after the sack of Rome, the number of those Observants who were working for the most exact possible compliance with the rule, increased greatly. Unfortunately the new General, Paolo Pisotti, was an opponent of this and every other tendency to strict observance.

At this critical moment Clement VII, on the advice of Carafa, took up the cause of the Riformati. In a Bull of the 14th of November 1532 he ordered the General and Provincials of the Observants to abstain from molesting in any way the Riformati, but rather to give them every assistance and to reserve for them an adequate number of convents. The Riformati were now privileged to receive novices, and to choose for themselves a Guardian in each province. But their dress and hood were not to differ from those of other Observants, and they were to be subject to visitation from the Provincial.

Although the Pope thus showed his favour towards the new institution, it did not at first make much way in Italy. All the more remarkable was another reform which grew up among the Italian Franciscan Observants. This was begun by Matteo da Bascio (born about 1495, died 1552), a native of the hill-country of Umbria. Nowhere else in Italy did the mystic and yet popular spirit of St. Francis survive with such vitality as among the poor, contented, believing, and brave-spirited populations dwelling in the remote valleys and gorges of this picturesque district, which, in a wider sense, included also the territory beyond the Apennines. Here, on a hill not far from Pennabilli, lay the market town of Bascio, politically under the Dukes of Urbino and ecclesiastically within the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Montefeltro.

The earliest accounts of Matteo’s youth as well as of his later years already bear a legendary character; it is no longer possible to examine their statements, but the historical residuum may be given as follows:—At an early age, about his seventeenth year, as alleged, Matteo entered the Order of Franciscan Observants at Montefalcone in the March of Ancona. Here he was conspicuous for piety and his strong grasp of his vocation. On his entry into the Order he brought with him little education, nor did he afterwards make much progress beyond what was necessary for the immediate tasks of his calling. Perhaps it was exactly on this account that the homely sermons of the simple peasant’s son won the hearts of the poor folk dwelling among the hills. Matteo became known to a wider circle by the spirit of self-devotion displayed by him in 1523, when Camerino was visited by the plague. Voluntarily he left his convent at Montefalcone and hastened to the above-named town, where he shrank from no peril of death in order to succour the sick and dying. This self-denying activity of Matteo drew at once the attention of the Duke of Camerino, Giovan Maria Varano, and his wife Caterina Cibo to the humble Franciscan.

Caterina Cibo belonged, like Vittoria Colonna, to that class of women of the Italian Renaissance who combined wide cultivation with deep piety and a great purity of life. She knew Latin and Greek, and also took lessons in Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament in the original. As a niece of Leo X and Clement VII she often visited Rome, where she came into contact with the men of letters living there. She was interested in an exceptional degree in religious matters, and especially in the reform of the clergy in her husband’s duchy. Herself a rough and almost virile character, she must have been attracted by Matteo’s strong qualities.

After the plague had ceased at Camerino, Matteo returned to his seclusion at Montefalcone; while there he often withdrew into the woodland solitudes so beloved of St. Francis. The life of his brethren seemed to him to correspond less and less to the original severity of the Order. He seemed to hear the voice of the seraphic Patriarch calling to him in threatening tones, “I wish my rule to be observed, to the letter, to the letter, to the letter.” Deeper and deeper grew Matteo’s resolve to live entirely according to the holy rule in the utmost possible solitude and in strictest poverty. While such thoughts were working in his inmost soul he learned by accident from a pious countryman that his dress was not in keeping with that of the founder of the Order, who had worn a habit of the coarsest sort on which was sewn not a round but a four-cornered pointed hood. After receiving this information Matteo did not rest until he had procured for himself this new habit. All his fervour for the strict observance of the rule was now concentrated on this one point; wearing his new hood, he started without leave on the road to Rome in the Jubilee year 1525. He had to endure much on this journey on account of his unusual attire. Nevertheless, he reached Rome safely and made his way into the presence of Clement himself. He made his petition that he might retain his new habit, live as a solitary according to the rule of St. Francis, and preach the Word of God. Clement VII—so it is related—gave his consent, but imposed the condition that Matteo should annually declare his adhesion to the Observant Order by presenting himself before the Provincial Chapter.

When Matteo, in April 1525, obeyed this injunction, but could produce no written authorization from the Pope for his new manner of life and garb, the Provincial of the March of Ancona, Giovanni da Fano, who was as energetic as he was learned, ordered the too simple-minded brother to be incarcerated as a runaway and contumacious. Giovanni could appeal to the authority of John XXII, who had already forbidden the introduction of a new hood, while Leo X and Clement VII had forbidden any absence without leave from the society of the Order.

Matteo’s misfortune did not long remain unknown; even the Duchess Caterina Cibo became aware of it. Through her powerful intercession Matteo was free again by July; he now betook himself to Camerino, and had a great success as a preacher of penance, and was soon joined by other Observants. Among the first were the two brothers Lodovico and Raffaello da Fossombrone, the first a priest, the other a lay brother. Matteo had no thought of founding an order; all he desired was to carry out to the very letter the rule of St. Francis. In Lodovico he was joined by a kindred spirit, who by his energy and boldness was well fitted to carry far what Matteo had set in motion.

At first, indeed, the co-operation of the two brothers with Matteo led to a serious crisis. The Superiors, bent on maintaining the unity of the Order, threatened the former with excommunication for having left their convent without leave, and even tried to get permission from Rome to arrest them. Lodovico da Fossombrone, convinced that his case was a thoroughly sound one, himself made haste to Rome in the beginning of 1526 with letters of recommendation from the Duchess of Camerino, and there addressed himself to Carafa, “the friend of all reforms.” The latter, on principle, was by no means favourably disposed to those religious who separated themselves from their Order; but he very soon perceived that in this case the cause of separation was not laxity but its opposite, and this, like all other efforts at reform, also received his support. Through Carafa’s influence Lodovico soon attained his object. The Cardinal Grand Penitentiary, Lorenzo Pucci, on the 18th of May 1526, gave vouchers to Lodovico and Raffaello da Fossombrone as well as to Matteo da Bascio by which, in the case of their Superiors refusing the permission asked for, they were empowered by Papal authority to lead the life of anchorites under the rule of St. Francis outside the houses of their Order in the new district, but certainly subject to the supervision of Bishop Giangiacomo Bongiovanni of Camerino.

The quiet hill town now became the centre of the new movement, which Giovanni da Fano continued to look upon as an unlawful act of separation. Firmly convinced that he was dealing here with a case of apostasy, he did all that lay in his power to compass its suppression. He had no idea that the reform of the Order, which even he was striving for, was to come from below, from very simple and insignificant men. The position of the Franciscan hermits, as Matteo’s associates at first were called, became so bad that for some time they had thoughts of going out as missionaries to the infidels. In this time of distress, the Bishop of Camerino, the like­minded Camaldolese, and especially the ducal family stood by the persecuted community. But these simple men won the love of the people in the terrible times of trouble which broke over Camerino after 1527. When all others fled before the plague they remained steadfast at their posts. On the 10th of August 1527 the Duke himself fell a victim to the disease.

In consequence of the continued hostility of the Observants, Lodovico da Fossombrone put himself into communication with the Provincial of the Conventuals in the Marches, who later took him and his colleagues into his province, on condition that they reported themselves once a year either to him or to the Chapter and submitted themselves to visitation. Through the influence of the Duchess Caterina Cibo, Lodovico obtained the Pope’s confirmation of this ordinance. This was contained in a Papal brief addressed from Viterbo on the 3rd of July 1528, to Lodovico and Raffaello da Fossombrone. It conveyed the ecclesiastical confirmation of the branch of the Franciscans, subsequently known, from their habit, as the Capuchins. This document sanctioned the mendicant life in hermitages or other places according to the rule of St. Francis; the beard was permitted to be worn as well as the new habit with the four-cornered hood. Finally, new members were permitted to be chosen from the ranks of the secular clergy and the laity. At the same time, all the privileges of the Conventuals and of the Camaldolese hermits were extended to the new congregation.

The Bishop of Camerino ordered this Brief to be solemnly published, and then followed the foundation of the first settled establishment outside the gates of the episcopal city. Within the territory of the latter a second convent on Monte Melone very soon arose.

Though the number of Franciscan hermits at that time was comparatively small, yet their activity must be described as exceptional. Bernardino da Colpetrazzo, who had personally known the earliest fathers, has left a sketch of their first entrance on their mission, which is striking in its bare simplicity. Their garments were the roughest that could be procured. They went barefoot always, even in winter, holding the crucifix in their hands. Their nourishment consisted of water, bread, vegetables, and fruit; flesh was eaten only very seldom; the fasts were kept rigorously—many fasted almost continually. Their dwellings, built by preference in lonely places, were as inconspicuous and poor as possible; they were composed only of wood and loam. A board served for a bed; for those who were weaker there was a mat; the doors of the cells were so low that they could not be entered without stooping; the windows were very narrow and small, and unfurnished with glass. This simplicity extended even to the churches. Everything, even outwardly, was to preach the utmost poverty in an age in which not only the worldly, but also many great ecclesiastics, and even members of the mendicant Orders themselves, worshipped the lavish display of wealth.

The inmates of these literally poverty-stricken convents had, in the first period of their existence, two main objects in view, and, above all, to be preachers of repentance to the common people. The plain speaking of these simple men, which spared no man, had such power that the hardest hearts quailed and the most stubborn sinners were converted. People often went five or six miles to hear the Franciscan hermits. “They preached,” says Bernardino da Colpetrazzo, “the Holy Scriptures, especially the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, exhorting their hearers to fulfil the commandments of God.” The same chronicler mentions as strange novelties that they brought with them a crucifix into the pulpit and urged a frequent reception of the Blessed Sacrament.

The behaviour of the poor hermits during the epidemic called forth even greater admiration than their preaching. A rich field for heroic acts of genuine Christian charity was opened up during the terrible days of the sack of Rome. The plague was soon followed by scarcity of food and famine, which lasted, according to Bernardino da Colpetrazzo, during 1528 and 1529. Like other contemporaries, this narrator saw in the sufferings by which Italy was visited a punishment of the general wickedness. The streets and roads were covered with dead, some cut off by the plague, some by famine, some by the sword; wolves gnawed the corpses, for in the districts devastated by war there were none left to dig graves. Bernardino da Colpetrazzo, who at that time was also suffering from the plague, was unable in after years to find words to describe the panic that prevailed. As watchers of the sick could not be got in Camerino and its neighbourhood, the Franciscan hermits voluntarily undertook their duties. They carried the Viaticum to the dying and buried the dead; they took care of orphan children and collected alms for the famishing survivors of the population. They refused all offers of gifts to themselves; all was done for the love of God. With heroic self-sacrifice the little band worked on until the plague died out at the close of 1529; half of the population had fallen prey to its ravages.

This example of Christian love, which, to the end of the century, clung to the memory of the thankful people, combined with their inspired preaching, drew to the Franciscan hermits after the extinction of the plague many new members. The two first settlements were no longer sufficient, two more had to be built; one at Alvacina in the district of Fabriano, the other at Fossombrone in the Duchy of Urbino. For these four places, all, with the exception of the last, in the diocese of Camerino, guardians were appointed in 1529 at the first General Chapter held in a wretched hut at Alvacina. At this meeting Matteo da Bascio, in spite of his resistance, was chosen Vicar-General, and at the same time the constitution of the new institute was sketched in outline. The main principle was the closest observance of the rule of St. Francis, particularly in respect of the “virtue of holy poverty.” Therefore, in collecting alms they were never to accept provisions beyond a week’s supply at the utmost. Their cells were to be very narrow, more like jails than dwellings. Their very churches were to reflect their poverty; precious metals and stuffs were banished, and the psalmody was not to be sung. Moreover, the most austere life was prescribed, nightly prayer, severe discipline, the roughest and worst clothing; bare-headed and unshod, they were never to journey except on foot. The duty of earnest preaching for those thus gifted is still a noticeable feature of the rule. They are to avoid all flowers of speech and all subtle speculations, to keep in view the practical needs of their hearers, and to proclaim “purely and simply the Holy Gospel of our Lord.”

The change in the direction of the new community was of great importance. Matteo, who wished to give himself entirely to preaching, resigned his post in a very short time, whereon, with the Pope’s consent, the energetic, self­confident Lodovico da Fossombrone took his place. He entered into communication with a number of Calabrian Observants who were at the same time seeking a stricter compliance with the rule, and established a settlement in Rome. Here also it was Caterina Cibo who, through her brothers, opened a way for these Observants, already known as Franciscan hermits. Her brothers were guardians of the Hospital of S. Giacomo for incurables. The little church of S. Maria dei Miracoli, near the Piazza del Popolo and attached to the hospital, became the first Capuchin settlement in Rome. They now took charge of the hospital, and the care which they there bestowed on the sick drew to them the sympathy of the lower as well as the higher classes in Rome.

The rapid extension of the new community made a deep impression on the Observants, and spurred them on to fresh action against the hermits. Many saw in the behaviour of the members of the new body an excess of enthusiasm on the part of some, on the part of others defiance and rebellion. The latter view found favour with the masterful Giovanni da Fano, who was convinced that he was carrying out a good work in opposing the upstarts. In other Observants the leading motive was simply jealousy, and in Paolo Pisotti, then their General, there was undoubtedly a repugnance to all reform.

To all these antagonists Lodovico now gave good grounds for complaint, for in his unreflecting zeal to obtain as many new members as possible for his community, he drew into it not a few Observants. The reception of the latter was a consequence of the Grand Penitentiary’s indult. The Observants, fearing a gradual dismemberment of the whole Order, made such passionate representations to the Pope of the injuriousness of the indult and of the misuse of it, that Clement VII in May 1530 cancelled all his concessions to the new Franciscan offshoot. But the Papal Brief of July 1528 was not expressly mentioned in this enactment. Lodovico, in his opposition to the new measures, was able to take his stand on the earlier document; besides, he and his patrons did all in their power to show that the complaints raised were unfounded, and to nullify the Pope’s severe regulations. At first they were unsuccessful, but at last they succeeded in having the whole dispute referred by Clement VII to the Cardinals Antonio del Monte and Andrea della Valle for fresh examination; these gave as their decision, on the 14th of August 1532, that in future the Franciscan hermits must not receive any more Observants, but that the Observants must abstain from any molestation of those who had left them for the Franciscan hermits, and of the hermits themselves.

This decision, pronounced in the Pope’s name, was a striking success for the new institution over the old. The Franciscan hermits now spread their settlements not only through the Marches and in Calabria, but in other parts of Italy and even in Sicily. A certain increase of difficulty as regards admission into their ranks was nothing but beneficial, for there were some who presented themselves from motives which were not without worldly alloy. All the storms through which the new foundation had to pass served only to impart inward strength. The defection of the Observants was mainly due to the aversion of the General, Pisotti, to all plans of reform. When Clement VII was in possession of the proofs of this man’s bad government, he insisted on his resignation (December 1533). By neglect of the lax and persecution of the strict, Pisotti had brought his Order to the brink of ruin; no wonder that the better spirits passed over to the Franciscan hermits. In 1534 they were joined by the most famous preachers in Italy, Bernardino Ochino and Bernardino of Asti. In the same year the man who had been their most violent opponent, Giovanni da Fano, took the same step.

The Observants were as much convinced as ever of the danger in which their Order was placed; their complaints were so importunate that Clement thought that he must once more give them a hearing. On the 9th of April 1534 a Brief was addressed to Lodovico and to all his associates forbidding them henceforward, without special Papal permission, to receive any Observants or take over any convents belonging to them. This prohibition was also  extended to those who had gone over to the Conventuals or had left the Order entirely. To this document the first use of the expression “Capuchin,” in the mention of Lodovico, can be traced.

The opponents, emboldened by this success, now hoped to achieve the overthrow of the whole hermit congregation. But Clement VII positively refused to repeal the Bull of 1528, although he consented to the banishment of the Capuchins from Rome. On the 25th of April 1534 appeared the edict enjoining their departure. The fathers were just about to partake of their simple midday meal when the order was brought to them; without a moment’s demur they obeyed the command of the Head of the Church, and without touching their food they went forth. Thirty in number, they walked, two and two, with the cross carried before them, through the city to S. Lorenzo outside the walls, where they were kindly received. While the majority stayed there temporarily, a few, among them Giovanni da Fano, went into upper Italy, there to found new settlements. Thus the misfortunes of the Capuchins turned eventually into a blessing.

The banishment of the worthy friars from Rome caused a storm of indignation among the people, who had come to value them as the succourers of the sick. As interpreter of public opinion the hermit Brandano, so well known during the sack, appeared on the scene. “All the wicked, all the sinful,” he exclaimed, “can come to Rome; the good and the virtuous are driven out.” At the same time many of the Roman nobility came forward on behalf of the exiles. It was precisely the utter poverty and entire contempt of the world of the Capuchins that had made an ineffaceable impression on the nobler characters. Among the Roman aristocracy, Vittoria Colonna hastened from Marino, and she and Camillo Orsini made representations to Clement as frank as they were touching. Caterina Cibo also made her way to Rome, but when she reached the city Clement VII had already sanctioned the return of the Capuchins.

So this storm also passed over happily. Others, heavier still, were to arise under Clement’s successor, but they too had their hour, and the Capuchin Order grew up in the Church to be a great instrument of reform and restoration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Poor themselves, they became the friends of the poorer classes, whose needs and sufferings they knew as few others did, and to whom in the time of trouble they brought aid with heart and hand.

The pursuit of practical aims, before all others the care of souls, preaching, and the tending of the sick to which the Capuchins, as well as the Theatines, Somaschi, and Barnabites, in accordance with the needs of the age, had devoted themselves, was to reappear even more sharply accentuated in another company of regular clergy which, in activity and diversity of aims, in inward power and outward range of influence, was far to surpass the older orders as well as their more recent successors.

The days of Clement VII were drawing to a close when this new organization started on its career. It was on the Feast of the Assumption, 1534, that Ignatius Loyola, on the height of Montmartre, on the spot where the first Apostle of Paris had met a martyr’s death, unfolded to a gathering of six trusted friends his plan of enlisting a spiritual army “whose leader should be the Saviour Himself, whose banner the Cross, whose watchword God’s honour, and whose meed of victory the salvation of men and the glory of the Church.” Only one of these inspired men was a priest, Peter Faber, a Savoyard. From his hands, on consecrated ground, the group of friends received Holy Communion; into his hands, together with the vows of poverty and chastity, they laid yet another—to go, at the close of their theological studies, to Jerusalem, to engage in the conversion of the infidels, or, if this were not possible, to place themselves at the disposal of the Pope for any apostolic mission on which he might choose to send them.

Such was the origin of the Society of Jesus, destined to attain to a world-wide importance in the history of the Church as the most powerful bulwark of the Papacy during the catastrophe of the sixteenth century.

The Capuchins : a contribution to the history of the Counter-Reformation