The Supreme Pontiffs receive in their own name and that of the Roman Church the dominion of those things of which it is licit for the Friars to have the use. The Friars Minor are not capable of inheriting since in these things dominion passes to the heirs. The Friars cannot receive annual returns nor possessions nor their use.

10.

 Hence since the holy man expressing the manner of poverty professed in the rule said in the same: "The Friars are not to appropriate anything to themselves, neither house, nor place, nor any thing: but as pilgrims and foreigners in this age, in poverty and humility waiting upon the Lord, let them go about confidently for alms": and so it stands declared by some of Our Predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, that this expropriation ought to be understood as much in particular as also in common, on account of which They receive in Their own name and that of the Roman Church the property and dominion both of all the concessions, offerings, and donations to the Friars (those things the enjoyment of which and the use in fact of which certainly is licit to the Order and to the Friars), it having been given over to the Friars themselves in those things only to the extent of use in simple fact. Those things had been conveyed to Our examination which in the Order were said to be done, and seemed to be repugnant to the aforesaid vow and the purity of the Order: clearly, I have established to pursue these further according to the things themselves which We believe stand in need of a remedy, that the heirs not only sustain but take care of themselves: likewise that the Friars receive the annual returns sometimes in a very notable quantity, on which thenceforth the inhabitants of the convent live entirely: likewise that when business is conducted even for temporal goods in the law courts, they attend with lawyers and procurators, and present themselves personally in the same matter to instigate them: likewise that they take up the execution of last wills, and conduct them, and introduce themselves whenever dispositions or restitutions are to be made concerning their use, or worse, their removal: likewise that in some places they have not only excessive gardens, but even great vineyards, from which much is harvested from olive trees and grapevines to be sold: likewise that at the seasons of grain and grape harvest so copiously are grain and wine gathered by the Friars begging or selling other things, and both stored up in cellars and granaries, with which throughout the remainder of the year they can even pass their life without begging them: likewise that they build churches or other buildings or take care to have them made in quantity and curiosity of figure and form, and in a notably excessive sumptuosity, so that they do not seem to be little dwellings of the poor, but of magnates: they even have so many ecclesiastic vestments in very many places, and so notably precious, that they exceed the great church cathedrals in these things: moreover they receive indistinctly horses and arms offered to them in funerals: however the community of the Friars and especially the rectors of the Order itself asserted, that the aforesaid things, or many of them are not done in the Order, that even if the things are discovered to be such they are rigidly punished: and also that something be done against such things, very many statutes in the Order have been made quite strict from ancient times. Desiring therefore to provide for the consciences of the Friars themselves, and to remove all doubts (as much as is possible to Us) from their own hearts, We shall respond to the aforesaid things, in order, which follow: For since it pertains to the truth of life, that that which is done externally, present the interior disposition and habit of mind: the Friars, who have withdrawn themselves by such expropriation from temporal goods, have need to abstain from every thing, which may be or might seem to be contrary to the said expropriation. Therefore because in inheritances not only the use of the thing, but even the dominion passes to the heirs in its proper time: the aforementioned Friars however can acquire nothing for themselves in particular, or for their Order, even in common: We say by clarifying, that they are in no way capable of inheritances of this kind, which even from their own nature extend indifferently to money, and even to other mobile goods, and to immobile (having considered the purity of their vow): nor is it licit to them to receive the value of such hereditary goods, or so much as a part thereof, because this can be presumed to become fraud, as if receiving under a manner and form of a legacy that has been abandoned to them, or things so remitted: We simply prohibit such things to them lest they thus become more desirable. And since the annual returns among the immovable goods may be appraised by law, and the possession of this kind of return is repugnant to poverty and mendicancy, there is no doubting, that it is not licit to the aforesaid Friars to receive or enjoy (their condition having been considered) from the return whatever things as either possessions or even the use thereof (when the concession to them is not ascertained). Further, when not only because it is discerned to be evil, but because it has ever species of evil, it must be especially avoided by perfect men: however from such presentations and instigations in the law courts, when concerning the affairs it is pleaded that they be turned into their own advantage, they are truly believed by those, who stand outside (concerning which men outside enjoy to judge), that in the very affairs the by- standing Friars are seeking something as their own: by no means should the professors of this kind of vow and rule mix themselves up in such law courts, and litigious acts: that they may both be thought well of by those who stand outside, and satisfy the purity of their vow, the scandal of neighbors in such a manner is to be avoided. But indeed since the Friars of the said Order are to be strangers not only from reception, propriety, dominion, or use of the money itself, but even from whatever kind of handling of the same, and from these may they be entirely strangers, just as Our said predecessor often said plainly in clarifying this same rule: and since the said professors of the Order cannot seek for any temporal thing before a judge, it is not licit to the aforesaid Friars nor are they competent, nay rather more ably having considered the purity of their own state they ought to know it to be forbidden to themselves, since by executions and dispositions of this kind they expose themselves, when more frequently they cannot settle these without litigation and the handling or administration of money. But however giving counsel in these things which must be prosecuted is not opposed to their own state, since from this act which concerns temporal goods no jurisdiction or action before a judge, or dispensation is attributed to them.