Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 188 rior General to be released from the obligations imposed by the sim- ple vows. 137 If we read the response to this request, which Fr. Pa- pczynski received from the General Curia of the Piarist Fathers, we discover that Papczynski wrote to the Superior General saying that he did not want to belong to an institute which he described as a “new order with solemn vows,” that he did not intend to take solemn vows and did not want to stay with the Piarists while re- maining in simple vows. Therefore, he reiterated his request to be released from the Order of the Piarist Fathers through which he would become a diocesan priest subordinate to the local bishop. It seems that his superiors in Rome did not understand that Papczyn- ski had intended to place himself under the jurisdiction of the Or- dinary of Cracow even before he received a dispensation from his vows and from the oath to persevere in the congregation. He re- vealed this intention in his letter to Provincial Superior Opatowski, dated December 11, 1669. 138 Father Angelo of St. Dominic Morelli, the Superior General’s first assistant, gave Fr. Papczynski a response on behalf of the General Council, dated February 8, 1670. He wrote that in order for Fr. Stanislaus to obtain a dispensation from his vows and from the oath of perseverance, he should send a request to the Holy See via the General Curia. He added that such a request would not be consid- ered until after the election of Pope Clement IX’s successor. 139 While he was waiting for a response from Rome, Fr. Stanislaus, assured by experts in church law that, having taken only simple vows he was no longer subordinate to the Piarist superiors, placed himself under the jurisdiction of Andrew Trzebicki, Ordinary of Cracow (†1679), in whose diocese he had remained since September 1669. Kraus writes that after the promulgation of the pope’s breve Ex iniuncto nobis (of October 23, 1669) in the Polish Province, 140 Fr. Papczynski made a statement before a notary of the public that he was no longer obliged to be obedient to the Piarist superiors and to adhere to the rules and regulations of this institute and that he