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CAPUCHIN GENERAL MINISTER PACIFICUS CARLETTI OF SEGGIANO 505 the powers guaranteed by Benedict XIV to the procurator. The new draft was to be presented to the general Chapter that would be following. The text, once approved by the Chapter, was to be forwarded to the Holy See. Accordingly the commission was appointed by the general definitory in its session of 30 October 1907 and on 9 December 1907 the Holy See communicated its approval of the commission 6 • Therefore, it was now up to the convoked general Chapter to evaluate the draft of the revised constitutions that would be drawn up by the commission, modify it wherever necessary, approve it and then submit it to the Sacred Congregation for the Bishops and Regulars. Thus it was all too clear that having the revision of the Order's constitutions high on the agenda ofthe general Chapter of 1908 was nothing but the sequel to the instruction of the Holy See of27 August 1898, the wide time-gap between the two events notwithstanding. However, there was more to this instruction of the Holy See than meets the eye. In actual fact, the text of the constitutions that was then in force among the Capuchins was the one that had been revised way back in 1643. And needless to say, the text had become obsolete in several instances especially be– cause of the numerous decrees emanated by the Holy See and the various norms and decisions introduced by the Order's general Chapters in the course of the two and a half centuries subsequent to the promulgation of the constitutions. That the constitutions needed to be revised was, therefore, indisputable. Thanks to the ini– tiatives of the then outgoing general Minister Fr Aegidius of Cortona, the general Chapter of 1884 had approved an ordered corpus of 87 norms by way of responding to the exigencies created by the lack of applicable laws in the constitutions. These Ordinationes would be personally promulgated by Pope Leo XIII on 28 May 1886, expressly recognising their "force oflaw in the manner proper to their Order's con– stitutions"7. However, Fr Bernard of Andermatt, who started his first mandate of twelve years as general Minister of the Capuchin Order with his election on 9 May 1884, 6 Analecta OFMCap 24 (1908) 10. 7 Criscuolo, Bernardo Christen da Andermatt, 262, lists the main innovations that had in the meantime found their way into Capuchin lifestyle. Felder, Ministro generale e arcivesco– vo Bernard Christen, 261, paints a bleak picture of the Capuchin reality then weighed down by an outdated rulebook: "Vari usi si erano radicati, che erano contrari alle Costituzioni, ma che le condizioni del momento avevano reso necessari. Era spesso quasi impossibile accertare quali leggi dovevano essere abrogate e quali fossero ancora in vigore. Era una condizione caotica, nella quale superiori e sudditi, educazione e disciplina soffrivano severamente. La nuda lettura delle Costi– tuzioni induceva molti, specie i giovani religiosi, a stupirsi e a volte a scandalizzarsi, perche non potevano discernere quale elemento fosse da mantenere e quale da tralasciare".