859 declaration of the one departing for rome “The Polish Province in the next Provincial Chapter is to elect for itself [candidates for Superiors] (Fr. Wenceslaus, who was at that time a delegate, but later on became Provincial, limited the number of candidates for the position of Provincial to only three), whom shall be confirmed by the General and his Assistants.”34 When therefore the time came near for the Provincial Chapter,35 I insisted that it take place. But because this matter [of conducting this Provincial Chapter] seemed to undermine the ideas of my Superiors (who certainly wanted to delay elections, so that they could govern for a longer period of time), they wrote to the General, that there is no need for such a chapter.36 Therefore, already after designating the place where it ought to take place, namely in Podoliniec, the Provincial declared that it would not occur, and he wrote that if anyone should want it to take place, he should turn to Rome, so as to be granted permission for it to take place, since he himself did not want to prevent the Chapter [from taking place].37 3. I read the Provincial’s letter to the fathers of the Warsaw house, for whom I served as Superior in place of the gravely ill Fr. Jacob.38 Everybody became livid, and some proposed that we ought to reject the yoke of the present Superiors, who impeded this matter in accord with the law, as if incited by an explicit desire to run for office. A Pole, Fr. Casimir of the Annunciation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary39 and a Silesian, Fr. Nicholas of St. Frankovič. Cf. Positio, p. 94 (intr. A, 2), Ad tertium. 34 Cf. Positio p. 94 (intr. A, 2), Ad tertium. 35 According to the Constitution of the Piarists, the Provincial Chapter was to be held every three years. As the last Provincial Chapter in Poland took place in August 1664, the next one should have taken place in August 1667. 36 Cf. Positio, pp. 295-296 (Kr. 6, 1667 A.D., § 3). The aforementioned letter, no longer extant, must have been written in early April 1667. 37 This circular letter from the Provincial, no longer extant, must have been written around mid-July 1667. Cf. Positio, p. 98 (intr. B, 1). 38 Father Jacob Wezyrka was the Superior of the Warsaw house from May 1665 until his death on April 23, 1668. The gathering of members of the Warsaw home, where the circular letter from the Provincial was read and discussed, probably took place around July 20, 1667. 39 Father Casimir Papczyński (1641-1711), ordained a priest in October 1666, was a member of the Warsaw house since 1663. Cf. Positio, p. 130, n. 17.
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