855 profession of simple vows Spirit, as well as to Mary, the ever-Virgin Mother of God, and to you, Very Reverend Fr. Alexander of St. Bernard,15 in the place of God and representing the Most Reverend Fr. General John of Jesus and Mary,16 and to all his successors who are [yet] to be chosen according to the law, three simple vows: poverty,17 chastity, obedience, and in accordance with this, particular concern for the education of boys, according to the example given in the brief of Paul V and contained in our Constitutions.18 In addition, I promise that I will persevere in the same Congregation until the end of my life, according to the formula of the brief of Alexander VII.19 I desire that this profession and the vows, without regarding anything to the contrary which I now freely and entirely renounce, be always lasting, binding, and valid. In evidence of this, I give my signature on July 22, 1656, in Warsaw. In addition, I promise that I will never undertake any activity nor will I attempt, nor for any reason will I agree to it, that the prescriptions regarding poverty in the Constitutions of our Congregation be modified, except, if for a worthy reason, it should seem that such poverty should be stricter and more severe. Beyond this, I promise that I will never undertake any activity nor will I attempt, even indirectly, to be elected or elevated to the position as a Superior or any other dignity in the Congregation. I also promise that I will never seek any dignity or position as a Superior outside the Congregation, nor will I agree to it, except that I be forced by order of obedience through the one who could 15 Fr. Alexander Novari (d. 1657), Vicar Provincial for Poland, residing in Warsaw since 1653. 16 Fr. John Garcia del Castillo, Superior General of the Piarists fromMarch 12, 1656 until his death in 1659. 17 Before the brief Dudum felicis recordationis received in 1656, the Piarists, in the spirit of the founder, took the vow of “highest poverty,” the restoration of which Fr. Papczyński probably demanded in his Apologia pro summa paupertate, the contents of which we do not know, since this work did not survive. Cf. below, HW, pp. 890-891, n. 6 (Apologia), § 35. Cf. SH, p. 60, n. 124. 18 Cf. ConstSP, pp. 111-113, where we find the text of the brief Ad ea, per quae (March 6, 1617). 19 Cf. Dudum felicis recordationis (January 24, 1656) in: BullRom 16 (1869), 118a-122b.
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