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506 BENEDICTVADAKKEKARA got the impression during the course ofhis visit to the Order's different circumscrip– tions that there was consensus among the friars to have the constitutions compre– hensively updated. Spurred on by this need felt by the friars, he says that he decided to work on such a project all by himself. He was re-elected for a second term of twelve years at the general Chapter held on 7-13 May 1896, receiving 110 votes out of 131. That the question of the revision of the constitutions was uppermost in his mind is evident from his inaugural address delivered at the opening session of the Chapter. He referred to "the revision and reform of the Order's constitutions" as "the heavy and the very weighty business" that awaited the Chapter. He then traced in an orderly manner the raison-d'etre of the draft he had personally drawn up as the basic text for the revision of the constitutions and spoke of his personal role in its preparation: None ofus is ignorant ofthe need for a revision, and hence a restructuring ofour consti– tutions. For this reason, many provinces have asked me, as well as the general definitory that this subject be submitted to this Chapter. The Very Reverend Definitory request– ed me urgently to present the work that I have prepared for the planned revision - a job that has engaged my pen and my mind for years - to the Chapter in the form of a schema in such a way that the Chapter would have it for studying, improving and perfecting. After the desired corrections have been made in this draft, it must firstly be approved by the Chapter, andafter that by the Holy See, and then sent to all the friars of the Order, and will enter into force, not as a new law, but only as the law in a new form. The schema that will be distributed to all the Chapter members is not the official schema presented by the general definitory, but my personal and individual work that was undertaken solely for the purpose of having a basis for the new "drafting' of the constitutions. The house should act according to its will, and in case it should reject the entire draft, I would not in the least get annoyed: I did what I could. I beg and implore you just one thing: that you apply yourselves to carrying out the revision ofthe constitutions with the maximum prudence and diligence, and not to change theform of thepresent or weaken the spirit that blows in them 8 • For many of the capitulars the distribution of the printed text of the draft of the revised constitutions drawn up by the re-elected general Minister came as a big surprise. And some of them literally got cold feet when it dawned on them that the draft on which they were to deliberate had been prepared in secret by the general Minister, with no one, not even the general de6.nitors, participating in the work, and that it had been printed in all secrecy (clam). "It led immediately to the formation ofa climate that was not very serene, provoking certain capitular fathers to make the 8 Analecta OFMCap 12 (1896) 179.