ROSMINIANS
200
ROSMINIANS
both number and endowment for its rightful dis-
charge.
Again, charity which is one in essence, is three- fold in exercise, and according as good things regard the bodily and sentient life or the intellectual or the moral, the charity which bestows them is divided in the institute into temporal, intellectual, and spiritual. The temporal is the lowest and gives the lowest kind of good. Inconceivably far above it stands that which seeks to increase the life of the understanding by the knowledge of truth; and above both there is the spiritual charity which tends to make men good and happy by loving the known truth. Hence we see that the topmost point of the institute's activity is the cure of souls. Its whole theory leads to the religious and the pastoral life wedded together, as the crowning achievement of charity. The blending of the two types in the rule consists in this, that the brethren have to choose and prefer a private state in the Church. They are of the ecclesia discens. The restless disposition which indirectly seeks honours or powers would be treason to their whole spirit. Passive in privacy till public work summons them, they must then be all courage, confidence, perseverance, and work.
There are three classes of persons who more or less strictly belong to the Institute of Charity. The first is of those who, led by a desire to keep the Evangelical law perfectly, take on themselves the discipline of the society and bind themselves by vows. The second is of Christians who desire per- fection, but are so bound by earlier engagements that they cannot make these vows, yet desire as far as po.ssible to co-operate with the society, and these are "adopted children". The third is of "ascribed members", good Christians who do not aspire to the life of the counsels, yet according to their condition desire also to co-operate. But since only the relig- ious are of the substance of the society, it is of their formation and regulation alone that we will here add a few words.
The institute neither soUcits nor insinuates voca- tions, but leaves the initiative to Divine Providence, being from its fundamental principles just as per- fect when small and hidden as if it was large and famous. Of the care used in examining and instruct- ing the postulant and in implanting firm roots of piety and charity in the novices and in trying his vocation in many ways we need not here give de- tailed notice. After two years of noviceship his first profession is made, obedience being understood to comprehend the acceptance of any grade that superiors may assign. He thus becomes an "ap- proved scholastic", who is not, however, definitively incorjKjrated with the institute until he has fitted himsfilf by study or other j)reparation for taking the coa^liutor's vows. Coadjutors, spiritual or tem- poral, add the further promise of not seeking any dignity either within the society or outside and of not accepting and not refusing the spontaneous offer of it except under obedience. They are divided moreover into internal coadjutors if living in houses of the institute, and external if elsewhere, the latter fitat^; being from the universality of charity quite in harmony with the rule. From among the internal spiritual coa^ljutors presbyters are chosen, and these take a fourth vow of special obedience to the sover- eign pontiff. Thus the Vxjdy of the society con- sists of prmbyters and coadjutors, but it is the presbyters who give life and movement to the rest and to whom the more univ(!rsal works of charity are fX)mniilted.
Vows in the institutx; are life-long, and ordinarily, though not nectrHsarily, simple. Its form of poverty permits the retention of bare ownership in the eye of the civil law, but eaf;h memh(!r must be ready to surrender even that at the call of obedience, and
none may keep or administer or use one farthing at
his own will. Strenuous opposition was offered in
Rome to this form of religious poverty, which was
declared by one party to be merely affective, not
effective. Rosmini answered by indicating the con-
ditions just named and also the nature of property
itself; that it is a complexus of rights, that rights
are relations, and are divisible; that they may be
relative to the State or to the Church; and that a
religious keeps property relatively to the State only,
and not absolutely. It is absolute ownership, not
relative, that offends Evangelical poverty. The
founder's sagacity in leaving property under the
legal dominion of individuals has been abundantly
illustrated since his time; the spiritual gains of the
occasions thus given for continually renewed acts
of sacrifice are no less obvious. The true facts of
the rule are that board, lodging, and clothing are to
be those of poor men, and that all, even superiors,
do much of their own servile work. Chastity next,
considered as a vow, is understood in the sense of
the subdeacon's obligation. The virtue of obedience
is regarded as a director of charity and, therefore, aa
quite universal; as a vow, however, though its field
is still unrestricted, it comes more seldom into play.
The institute is governed by a provost-general elected for life by certain presbyters according to a minutely prescribed form. He has full powers except for a few exceptional cases. It is he who admits to the various grades in the society and who ajjpoints all the superiors. The institute is divided into provinces, and each province, at least in theory, into dioceses, and each diocese into parishes; and there may be rectories besides for more particular works of charity. Having in view only the fullness of Christian law, it has followed as nearly as possible the organization of the Christian Church. Being ordered to charity, the institute chooses a way of living that will not sunder the brethren too far from other men. No habit and no special bodily mortifi- cation is prescribed them, but in lieu of further aus- terities they embrace the lasting hardness of their chosen lot. Not the hedge of a multitude of regula- tions, but a strong conviction of lofty principles is to make men such as the institute desires.
The institute as such holds no property and takes no kind of civil action. From the State it does not seek exemptions, but only common right. If guar- antees of association were refused it, it could still live privately and contemplatively, and attain its whole end. Its members remain citizens, with a citizen's interest and duties. Towards the Church it has this chief relation, that it lives for her, not for itself, in- sists on not confounding the interests of one religious society with those of Chrislcndom, and is so con- structed as to be alt()g<'flicr ancillary to the Christian episcopate. Any exclusive esprit de corps is banned throughout the rule and is (juile contrary to its spirit; for "the one gi'oundwork of the institute," said its founder, "is the Providence of CJod tlie Father, and to lay another would be to destroy it." Instead of seeking its own aggrandizement, its tendency is to render the union of all Catholics more intimate and sensible, to make them feel their own greatness, and that they are stronger than the world and are fellow- workers with Providence in putting all things under Christ.
History and Activities. — The institute is too young to have much history yet. As was to be expected from its principles, it has progressed but slowly. Its chief houses in Italy are Monte Calvario, which has long been both a novitiate and house of theological stiuly; the college foiuided in 1S;59 for young l)oys at Stresa, and tlie large college for older ones at Domo- doHsola built in lS7;i and taking the place of a school Iianded over to the institute by Count Mellerio in 1837. Rosmini founded a house at Trent in 1830 at
