Editing Carmelites (section)

=== Mitigation of the rule ===
[[File:חזית מנזר סטלה מאריס.jpg|thumbnail|right|[[Stella Maris Monastery]] on [[Mount Carmel]], [[Haifa]]]]
The mitigation of the Rule came after the great epidemic of the [[Black Death]] in the middle of the 14th century, which brought about a collapse of the European population accompanied by a decrease of members of monastic orders.

During the chapter of Nantes, a majority of Carmelites asked to appeal to Pope [[Eugene IV]] for a second mitigation of the Rule of 1209 of Saint Albert; the reform of 1247 was considered the first mitigation.

The letter, dated 15 February 1432, indicated that {{blockquote|Many professed members of the Order can no longer observe the rule because of its severity and rigor, both because of the fragility human than by weakness of the body.}}

Two Carmelites were sent to convey this request to the Pope. The Pope responded in 1435 with the bull ''Romani Pontificis'', dated 15 February 1432, the date of the petition. Addressed to the Prior General, Jean Faci, the bull granted the Carmelites permission to freely and lawfully stay and walk "in their churches, and in the cloisters of these and in the places adjoining them at the appropriate times", moreover, it granted the faculty to eat meat three days a week, except during Advent and Lent and on other days when this was prohibited by general law.

Pope [[Pius II]] completed this permission on 5 December 1469 by granting the Prior General the faculty of dispensing from fasting on days when abstinence was lifted.

Pope [[Sixtus IV]] granted greater freedom, commonly known as ''Mare magnum'', in the bull ''Dum attendant meditatatione'' of 28 November 1476, which conceded many advantages to the mendicant orders. However, this mitigation of the Rule was somewhat resisted. Even before its promulgation, there was some protest against "a general relaxation" of the Rule.