133 Apostolate or Contemplation: 1677-1723 legacy of Fr. Papczyński. The response from the Franciscan vicars was punitive decrees. For example, the General Chapter of 1710, presided over by the Franciscan Fr. Bonaventure Klein, passed thirteen decrees, seven of which threatened the Marians with severe penalties: solitary confinement for up to six months, flogging, and fasting on bread and water. The other six also had a punitive nature, though less severe. The punitive decrees spoke of rebellion, disobedience, and malitiosi conspiratores, a definition under which various accusations and opinions of confrères could fall.245 The penalties were intended to silence the murmurs of Fr. Papczyński’s supporters. As a result of these measures, both the discord among the Marians and their dependence on the Franciscans deepened. For instance, in 1725, the Chapter led by the Reformate, James Wolski, issued a decree prohibiting any changes in Marian legislation without the consent of the minister general of the Reformed Franciscans. According to some preserved opinions, the Reformates treated the Marian Order as a Franciscan province or “as if the Third Franciscan Order.” The Chapter in 1712, under the leadership of Fr. Klein, despite the Marian title “the Order assisting parish priests,” prohibited, under the penalty of suspension, the superior from sending Marians for any pastoral work outside, except for missions and that for a maximum of two to three weeks.246 The Rule of the Ten Virtues commanded: “The Superiors are bound to ask the Holy Father for one of the cardinals of the Roman Church to be the Protector of this Order. The members will owe obedience and reverence to him.”247 However, until 1785, the Marians did not have their own cardinal-protector because Fr. Kozłowski, in collaboration with the Reformates, introduced the following sentence into the Constitutions: “[...] the Congregation (not an Order) should have the same cardinal-protector as the Seraphic Order.”248 Father Spourny explained this decision: “He did this so that we would always be unknown to the Holy See and the entire Church and so that our Order would not have support and protection in its affairs. Thus, if we were to approach 245 Cap. Gen., Decreta-Ordinationes 1710/1-13. 246 Cap. Gen., 1712/1. 247 The Rule of Ten Virtues, chapt. 4, p. 50, in: padrimariani.org/resources/ MIC_library 248 Statuta Patrum Marianorum Ordinis BMV, Warszawa 1750, Chapt. IX/3. “Quae Congregatio habere debet eundem Protectorem Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem, quem Ordo Seraphicus de Observantia habet, eiusque protectione semper gaudere debet.”
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