historical writings 892 37. Silence — the guardian of all virtues — was already rather feebly kept. So that there might be greater possibility for rebellion, it was declared that speaking softly does not break silence.179 Yet, nevertheless, these quiet conversations quite often caused murmuring, complaints, gossip, enmity, cunning activities, etc., which — if everybody could clearly speak aloud — would never have been heard. Therefore, for this reason, I was reprimanded, because of this lack of silence, because I wanted to be heard by all as this quiet talking displeased me. Let it be known that what is in the heart is made known by what is on the lips. I never fear shouts, [but] I do hate whispers. 38. Love, which makes of an Order a unique paradise: O how cold [such love] was! I suppose that this line of the Apostle applies to it: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). In truth, it was not so; burdens were not born. Rather, faults were made up against one’s neighbor to harass him. 39. Antipathy and sympathy were prohibited to the utmost degree.180 Yet, these insinuated themselves very much into the Congregation of Pious Schools, such that it was quite often heard: “I am of Peter, and I of Paul.” Cases were not judged according to justice, but according to one’s own goodwill, to such a degree that the most deserving of men were honored by persecutions for this reason, that by their own properly serious conduct, they did not foster fickleness —and one may even say— the insolence of others. 40. [As regards] the elections of the Superiors granted to the Provinces through the first brief of Alexander VII,181 I do not 179 Cf. SH, p. 62, n. 134. 180 Father Papczyński compares the divisions caused among the Piarists as a result of “antipathy and sympathy” to those that arose among the Corinthians and were rebuked by St. Paul. Cf. 1 Cor 1:12. 181 Cf. the brief Dudum felicis recordationis, where we read: “facultatem eligendi Praepositos Provinciales in qualibet Provincia supradictae Congregationis, et Rectores illius Domorum Clericis ipsius Congregationis impertimur…” (BullRom 16 [1869] f. 120). Cf. SH, p. 63, n. 138.
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