Chapter 3

Source: archive.org

(1) The offices are to be assigned in meet ings of the members. These offices shall be held for three years. No one can, without good reason, refuse any office tendered him, nor shall any one discharge negligently the duties of his office.

(2) The curator, who is called the Visitor, shall zealously watch over the observance of the Rule. For this purpose he shall, if possible, visit every year, or oftener, if need be, the place where the societies are established, and shall call a meeting at which all Prefects and all members of the Association have been ordered to attend. Should the Visitor recall any associate to his duty by an admonition or command, or should he assign him any salutary penance, such associate shall receive the admonition with modesty and shall not refuse to perform the penance.

(3) The Visitors are to be chosen from the First Franciscan Order or from the Third Regular Order, and the custodes, or guardians, shall name them when asked to do so. A Lay person is not competent to exercise the office of Visitor.

(4) Disobedient or offending members are to be admonished of their duty three times; in the event of further disobedience they are to be dismissed from the Order.

(5) Those who commit any breach of these Rules do not thereby incur the guilt of sin except in so far as they also offend against the divine law and the laws of the Church.

(6) Should there be any serious and good cause to prevent any one from observing any provision of the Rules, such person may be excused from that part of the Rules, or the regulation may be prudently changed into something equivalent. The faculty and power of granting such dispensation or commutation shall rest with the ordinary Prefects of the Franciscans of the First and Third Orders, and with the above-named Visitors.