57 the aim of the community and admission to it departed subjected to expiatory pains — especially the souls of soldiers and those who died of pestilence. 3. Since the contemplative life is not binding you so strictly, although you are founded in the eremitical status, those gifted with such talents will not be prevented from humbly helping pastors in their church work, if they would be called upon by pastors, and have previously obtained faculties from the Ordinaries and the Superiors.2 4. Those seeking to enter your Society should be well known to you, or at least they should have been recommended. They should, as well, present letters of legitimate birth. They should come with the intention of living their life in a more perfect way, of accommodating their conduct to the norms, of striving toward the goal of their vocation; entangled by no censures, debts, or lawsuits. 5. In the education of novices, let the Apostolic Constitutions3 be followed, nor let novices be judged fit for the profession of vows and the oath of perseverance before they have been proven in every kind of mortification, prayer, penance, interior silence, or in zeal for all other virtues. Let them know that having made profession, the way of deserting their vocation is perpetually blocked (except to go to a stricter observance of an approved Order, with the permission of the Superior of the Congregation and with Apostolic dispensation).4 If anyone is found incorri2 While the Marians are still called “Hermits” by reason of their juridical status as hermits, which proved to be the only way to bring about their canonical foundation within the structure of the Church, right from the beginning, Fr. Stanislaus tried to free himself and his religious from the restrictions imposed upon their apostolic activity by the eremitical status. Thus, he succeeded in having the right of the Marians to external pastoral activity recognized even in this Rule of Life. It is a rather timid formulation, but we know that in the last decade of the 17th century the Marians were already de facto a full-fledged active Institute, with members engaged in extensive missionary and pastoral work outside their own monasteries 3 This refers to Clement VIII’s constitution Cum ad regularum, 1603. 4 This declaration was intended to counteract the growing phenomenon of desertion from the ranks of the Marians. We can easily understand how difficult it was to observe this austere and strict Rule of Life and how, after the initial period of spiritual zeal, the temptation to give up this kind of strict life came to the minds of quite a number of Marians. Father Stanislaus knew that some canonists and
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