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CAPUCHIN GENERAL MINISTER PACIFICUS CARLETTI OF SEGGIANO 507 observation that they would not have given their vote to reconfirm Andermatt as general minister had they previously come to know ofhis behaviour" 9 • In the evening of 13 May 1896, the concluding day of the Chapter, the house voted on the two motions concerning the draft of the revised constitutions: wheth– er the constitutions should be revised (motion carried with 98 yes and 31 no) and whether such revision be done through textual modifications or through the ad– dition of notes on the margins of the previous text (82 voted for textual revision and 42 against). Then a commission of twelve friars (and seven substitutes for every eventuality) was appointed. The basic text to be revised would not be the constitu– tions of 1643 then in use in the Order but the draft readied by the general Minister. The printed text with the modifications proposed was to be returned to Rome by the end of October. The commission would meet in November and draft a new text in the light of the modifications that would be proposed and then it would be forwarded to the friars for their placet or non placet. And at its last meeting the com– mission would finally have the definitive text set, which would then be presented to the Holy See 10 • The fact that the way in which the project of the revision of the constitutions was conceived and actualised personally by the general Minister did not find favour with a sizable minority of47 vocals was indicative ofwhat was in the offing. A po– larisation among the capitulars had already taken shape, with one group bent on basing the reform on the draft already readied by the general Minister and the oth– er, headed by the former provincial Minister of Umbria and then-currently general deflnitor and procurator Iucundus ofMontone, adverse to the draft ofthe constitu– tions. There was to follow a war ofwords which would occasion the production of "superabundant" archival documentation, says Fr Criscuolo. Meanwhile the project ofthe revision of the constitutions proceeded according to the roadmap delineated by the general Chapter. In all, the commission appointed for the revision of the constitutions had 29 sessions in Rome between 17 November and 26 December 1896 in the presence of the general deflnitory, during the course of which the 97 fascicles of proposals, observations and corrections were analysed and systematised, and accordingly the text was modified. Some of the friars had also pressed for the erection of an International Study Centre for the Order. The draft with the modifications integrated into it was printed and the copies were sent to the capitulars for getting their placet or non placet marked alongside the individual 9 Criscuolo, Bernardo Christen da Andermatt, 262-263. 10 Criscuolo, Bernardo Christen da Andermatt, 263-264.

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