Renouncing Common Property at the Council of Trent

When the Council of Trent granted religious orders the right to own property collectively, a Capuchin friar stood up to renounce the privilege on behalf of his order. Inspired by his example, a friar of the Observants did the same.

Council of Trent, Session 25: “The Holy Council grants permission for the future possession of real property to all Monasteries and to all Houses, both of men and of women, even of the Mendicant orders, including those to whom, by their Constitutions, it had been forbidden to possess such goods, or who until now had not had permission to do so by Apostolic privilege; excepting the Houses of the Religious of Saint Francis, the Capuchins, and those who are called the Minors of the Observance.”