CHAPTER VI
A BRIEF HISTORY OF VOWS IN THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION

"We have resolved to seek His Holiness' approval of our vows unceasingly." (SV XIII, 327)

1. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FOUNDER AND THE FIRST MISSIONARIES
Our vows have their origin in the experience of St. Vincent and the first confreres. According to St. Vincent himself, as early as 1627 or 1628, some of the first members freely chose to make vows. Partly because of his positive appraisal of this experience and partly because of his concern about the loss of good missionaries, St. Vincent began to formulate the idea of introducing vows into the Congregation as a norm for all the members (SV V, 457).
From the start, this project raised the juridical problem of how to introduce vows into a "secular" Congregation like ours without its becoming another religious order in the strict sense of the term. Resolving this question would require some "holy, ingenious means" (SV III, 246); that is, a way of combining the secular character of the Congregation of the Mission with some of the values of religious life, such as the evangelical counsels, without sacrificing our apostolic nature in the process.

2. YEARS OF SEARCHING AND CLARIFICATION (1639-1640)
The letters from these years illustrate how clear St. Vincent was about the need for vows, but also how uncertain he was about what type of vows and their number. In November 1639, he wrote to Fr. Lebreton, to whom he had assigned the task of obtaining approval of the vows in Rome, saying: "We thought it advisable to request that solemn vows not be made. Those who have completed their two years in the seminary will make the four simple vows and those who have completed their first year in the seminary will make a good resolution to live and die in the Company in poverty, chastity, and obedience to the bishops circa missiones and to the Superior General circa disciplinam et directionem societatis" (SV I, 600).1
Three months later, on February 28, 1640, St. Vincent again wrote to his agent in Rome: "I find myself perplexed about the doubts that occur to me and the decision to make concerning the last method I suggested to you: whether it would be sufficient to make a vow of stability and, with regard to the observance of poverty and obedience, to proclaim a solemn excommunication against those who have laid money aside in their own keeping or elsewhere. This should take place in Chapter on a certain day of the year (at which everyone would be obliged to be present and to hand over what he had to the Superior). That is what the Carthusians do. The same could be done against the disobedient; or else, whether, instead of excommunication, we were to have them make a solemn oath every year to observe the rule of poverty, chastity, and obedience." He goes on to ask Fr. Lebreton to find out from the experts if the vow of stability would give the Congregation the character of a religious order (SV II, 28).
By the end of the same year he had changed his opinion again. On November 14, 1640, Vincent wrote to Lebreton: "I think we shall decide to make the Good Purpose of living and dying in the Mission, the first year in the seminary; the simple vow of stability in the second year of the said seminary; and of making it solemnly in eight or ten years, as the Superior General sees fit" (SV II, 137-138).
At least five or six other variations were sent to Rome in these years as Vincent struggled to find the most convenient structure for vows in the Congregation of the Mission.

3. ORDINANCES OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS (1641)
Finally, after many changes of direction, St. Vincent submitted a request for approval of the vows to the archbishop of Paris. According to the bull of foundation, Salvatoris nostri, the archbishop of Paris had been delegated to approve the norms for the Congregation which the Superior General might think necessary. After some delay, Paris approved the norms for vows on October 19, 1641. This document stated that:
- after the first year of the internal seminary, good purposes of living and dying in the Congregation and of observing poverty, chastity and obedience were made;
- after the second year of the seminary, simple vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability were made;
- the vows would be simple and could be dispensed only by the pope or the superior general;
- the vows would be made during mass in the presence of the superior, without anyone's "receiving" them in the name of the Church;
- the Congregation would not be considered as a religious order because of these vows, but would remain as part of the secular clergy (SV XIII, 285).
If St. Vincent thought that the approval by the archbishop would settle the question of vows and make them normative for the whole community, he was surprised by the reaction to the ordinances. Many confreres opposed the introduction of vows as a requirement for all. Some thought that the archbishop's action changed the nature of the Congregation. Others thought that he had no authority to act in the case. Some considered the vows taken under the ordinances as null since the Holy See had refused to approve the vows. Still others felt that the reservation of the dispensation to the pope and the superior general had no basis in canon law. Whatever the reason, many confreres chose not to make vows under the ordinances of 1641.

4. THE ASSEMBLY OF 1651
His good experience at the assembly on the Common Rules in 1642 moved St. Vincent to convoke another to resolve the problem of the vows, which had caused some division in the community. In July 1651 he called eight superiors and a few older confreres to Paris to discuss the issue. They were asked to treat the question of whether the practice of pronouncing vows should continue and to resolve the difficulties which had arisen.
The members of the assembly spoke with great frankness during their sessions. In the end, the assembly decided that it was good to keep the vows, but that approval from the Holy See was necessary. The Acta state: "The first point was on the difficulty that has arisen in regard to the practice of making vows, which the entire assembly agreed should be kept. And in order to make it more authentic, we have resolved to seek His Holiness' approval of them unceasingly" (SV XIII, 326-27).

5. Ex commissa nobis - THE PAPAL APPROVAL OF VOWS (1655)
It was not easy to obtain from the Holy See what the general assembly had decided. Difficulties arose which put the tenacity of St. Vincent and his envoys in Rome to the test. Finally on September 22, 1655, Pope Alexander VII approved the vows of the Congregation of the Mission with the brief, Ex commissa nobis (SV XIII, 380-382).
The vows approved in the brief are substantially those that the Company had been making and that had been approved in the ordinances of the archbishop of Paris: simple vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability which could be dispensed only by the pope or the superior general in the act of dismissal. These vows did not alter the secular nature of the Congregation.
With the issuing of this brief, the practice of making vows ceased to be a point of debate and became the norm for the whole Company.

6. Alias nos - THE FUNDAMENTAL STATUTE ON POVERTY (1659)
Until nearly the end of St. Vincent's life, the meaning of our vow of poverty remained a disputed question. Since, according to Ex commissa nobis, members of the Congregation of the Mission were not religious and did not make solemn vows renouncing all property, they could maintain personal possessions. This subtlety had the potential for dividing the community. In order to foster common life and our mission, Vincent submitted a statute on poverty to the Holy See. Alexander VII, in the papal brief, Alias nos, approved the fundamental statute on poverty, which recognized the right of missioners to own things, but restricted how they might use them.

7. SUBSEQUENT HISTORICAL QUESTIONS
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the reservation of the dispensation from vows to the pope and the superior general became a question. Some members left the community claiming that their confessors had granted them a dispensation. A variety of other reasons were presented as justifications for voluntary departure. In 1670 in the brief, Alias felicis recordationis, Clement X declared that no confessor could give a dispensation from the vows of the Congregation of the Mission. Benedict XIV reaffirmed the reserved status of our vows in 1742 with his bull, Quo magis uberes.
In the twentieth century the Congregation had to find new ways to formulate the vows consonant with developments in canon law. The Constitutions of 1954, trying to bring our proper legislation into line with the Code of Canon Law of 1917, described our vows as privileged, non-public, simple, and perpetual (Art. 161, § 1). The moral consequences of the vows were set forth in detail, as well as the requirements for validity (Art. 161, 162 and Chapters 3-4). In line with the tendency of the Code of Canon Law and the Roman Curia in those years to make all communities similar to religious, the Constitutions of 1954 also added the new practice of making temporary vows.
The General Assembly of 1968-1969 began to adapt our norms, as well as the life of the Congregation, to the directives of the Second Vatican Council and later ecclesial documents. This work was finished by the 1980 General Assembly. The Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, taking into account the new Code of Canon Law, approved our new Constitutions on June 29, 1984.
The present Constitutions define our vows as: "perpetual, non-religious, and reserved, so that only the pope or the superior general can dispense them" (C 55, § 1). This new formulation abandons the classification of our vows as not public, privileged and simple for a new term: non-religious. Although this formula is negative, it clearly distinguishes our vows from those of religious.

Chapter VII

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