Page 88 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 87

CHAPTER 14 THE PRAESIDIUM 87
question, a period of three years from the vacating of the
office must elapse before appointment to that same office.
“The question of tenure of office must be decided on
grounds of general principle. The danger to be kept in view
from first to last in any organisation — above all in a
voluntary religious organisation — is that it, or any particular
unit of it, would become fossilised. The danger of this is really
great. It is the human tendency for enthusiasms to die down,
for a spirit of routine to creep in, for methods to become
stereotyped, whereas the evils to be met change constantly.
This process of deterioration ends in ineffective work and
indifference, so that the organisation fails to attract or retain
the most desirable type of member. A state of half-death
supervenes. At all cost, this must be guarded against in the
Legion. The springing up of perpetual enthusiasm must be
ensured in each and every one of its councils and praesidia.
Obviously, one’s first care must be for the natural sources of
zeal, the officers. These must be kept always in the grip of first
fervour; and this is best effected by change. If the officers fail,
everything withers. If they lose fire and enthusiasm, the body
they control will reproduce the same process. And worst of
all, the members are satisfied with the state of affairs, to
which they have become accustomed, so that, except from
outside, there is no hope of remedy. In theory, such a remedy
would exist in a rule providing for periodic renewal of the
period of office. But in reality, this would not be efficacious,
as even the governing bodies would fail to realise that a
settling down process was at work, and would in practice
automatically grant extension after extension.
It would seem, accordingly, that the only certain course lies
in a system of changing the officers irrespective of merit or
other circumstances. The practice of religious orders suggests a
model upon which to shape Legion practice, that is a
restriction of the period of office to six years, subject to the
requirement that, after the first three years, a renewal would
be necessary.” (Decision of the Legion limiting the period of
office of officers)

13. “There are no bad soldiers,” said Napoleon, “only bad
officers”; which is a biting way of saying that the soldiers will
be as the officers make them. Legionaries, too, will never rise