Essential Distinguishing Mark
Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. As noted below, dispensations began to be granted in later times, but originally not even the Pope could dispense from them. If for a just cause a religious was expelled, the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so rendered invalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedience obliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than to the religious superior, and the vow of poverty was modified to meet the new situation but the expelled religious "could not, for example, will any goods to another; and goods which came to him reverted at his death to his institute or to the Holy See".
Read more about this topic: Catholic Religious Order
Famous quotes containing the words distinguishing mark, essential and/or mark:
“Constant fervor for a cause, though it may be the loftiest and our very own, betrays, like all things that rest on absolute faith, a lack of spiritual nobility: whose distinguishing mark is always—the cool glance.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Whether talking about addiction, taxation [on cigarettes] or education [about smoking], there is always at the center of the conversation an essential conundrum: How come we’re selling this deadly stuff anyway?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)