The Order may acquire, possess and administer temporal goods, and so too may each province and convent.

1. Economic administration has to do, first of all, with whatever is needed for the daily life of the brothers and their apostolate. It has to do too with the buildings in which the brothers live and pray, with their furnishings and their maintenance. Prudent administration also requires the accumulation, in due time, of a capital reserve for unforeseen expenses.
2. While we gratefully accept donations from benefactors, the primary source of all of this property is the constant work of the brothers, and their moderation in its use and disposal.

For someone to be eligible as a diffinitor of a general chapter or a socius of a diffinitor or of a prior provincial, it is required that:

1. he is a member of the province or, if he is not a member of the province, he has been assigned there for at least six years;
2. he has not served as diffinitor, nor as an elector, under the same title in the immediately preceding general chapter.
3. he is not directly assigned in a house convent under the immediate jurisdiction of the Master of the Order.

1. A diffinitor of a general chapter is a brother elected in a provincial chapter of any province, to whom active voting rights in a general chapter are conferred by law.
2. The socius of a diffinitor, elected in the same manner, has the right to take his place in case of necessity.
3. The socius of a prior provincial going to a general chapter is elected in the same way, and with the same right to take his place.
4. In an elective general chapter, the socius of a diffinitor, as in n. 407, § I, 5, and the socius of a prior provincial, as in n. 407, § I, 6, have voting rights.

The election of diffinitors needs no confirmation; thus their authority begins immediately after their election and acceptance.

1. The election of diffinitors is held on the day appointed (see n. 357), under the presidency of the vicar of the province or the prior provincial in accordance with n. 507.
2. It shall be decided by secret vote whether they shall be elected simultaneously or consecutively.
3. With the consent of the majority of the voters, a discussion [tractatus] about those to be elected may be held before the election.
4. All postulation is excluded; and the election shall be carried out in the following manner:
   1. if the diffinitors are to be elected simultaneously, the election ends in the seventh ballot in which a relative majority suffices;
   2. if, however, they are to be elected consecutively, and if for the election of any diffinitor nobody secures an absolute majority in the first three ballots inclusively, in a fourth and
      final ballot only those two may be presented who received the greater number of votes in the previous ballot as in n. 494, § III.
5. No document of election shall be drawn up; the results of the election shall be recorded in the acts of the chapter.

1. To be eligible as a diffinitor of a provincial chapter, besides the conditions stated at n. 443, § I, it is required that:
   1. he shall not have served as a diffinitor in the immediately preceding provincial chapter;
   2. he is not the prior provincial who completed his term of office immediately before the chapter;
   3. he is assigned in the province, or is a member of the province assigned to a convent under the immediate jurisdiction of the Master of the Order, provided that he does not belong to the general council.
2. Even brothers who are not members of the chapter may be elected diffinitors; in this case they have a vote in all the elections of the chapter except in the election of the prior
   provincial if it has to be repeated.

The diffinitors of a provincial chapter are the brothers who are elected by all the voters of a provincial chapter to decide, together with the president, the more important affairs of
the chapter.

1. The election of a prior provincial always needs the confirmation of the Master of the Order.
2. The Master of the Order may confirm or cassate the election as he judges what is for the good of the Order.

The election of a prior provincial cannot be extended beyond seven ballots. Even in the last ballot an absolute majority is required; however, if it is a postulation, n. 450, § IV, must be observed.