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diff --git a/18787.txt b/18787.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f22bc8b --- /dev/null +++ b/18787.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18118 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Paul Sabatier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life of St. Francis of Assisi + +Author: Paul Sabatier + +Translator: Louise Seymour Houghton + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18787] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Victoria Woosley and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + +LIFE OF + +ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI + +BY + +PAUL SABATIER + + +_Quivere monachus est nihil +reputat esse suum nisi citharam_ + +GIOACCHINO DI FIORE _in Apoc. 182 a 2_ + + +TRANSLATED BY + +LOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON + +LONDON +HODDER & STOUGHTON + +1919 + + +Copyright, 1894, by Charles Scribner's Sons, for the +United States of America. + +Printed by the Scribner Press +New York, U.S.A. + + * * * * * + + + + +_TO THE STRASBURGHERS_ + + +_Friends!_ + + +_At last here is this book which I told you about so long ago. The +result is small indeed in relation to the endeavor, as I, alas! see +better than anyone. The widow of the Gospel put only one mite into the +alms-box of the temple, but this mite, they tell us, won her Paradise. +Accept the mite that I offer you to-day as God accepted that of the poor +woman, looking not at her offering, but at her love_, Feci quod potui, +omnia dedi. + +_Do not chide me too severely for this long delay, for you are somewhat +its cause. Many times a day at Florence, at Assisi, at Rome, I have +forgotten the document I had to study. Something in me seemed to have +gone to flutter at your windows, and sometimes they opened.... One +evening at St. Damian I forgot myself and remained long after sunset. An +old monk came to warn me that the sanctuary was closed._ "Per Bacco!" +_he gently murmured as he led me away, all ready to receive my +confidence_, "sognava d'amore o di tristitia?" _Well, yes. I was +dreaming of love and of sadness, for I was dreaming of Strasbourg._ + + * * * * * + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE +INTRODUCTION, xi + + CHAPTER I. +YOUTH, 1 + + + CHAPTER II. +STAGES OF CONVERSION, 15 + + + CHAPTER III. +THE CHURCH ABOUT 1209, 28 + + + CHAPTER IV. +STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS, 53 + + CHAPTER V. +FIRST YEAR OF APOSTOLATE, 71 + + CHAPTER VI. +ST. FRANCIS AND INNOCENT III., 88 + + CHAPTER VII. +RIVO-TORTO, 103 + + CHAPTER VIII. +PORTIUNCULA, 120 + + CHAPTER IX. +SANTA CLARA, 147 + + CHAPTER X. +FIRST ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE INFIDELS, 168 + + CHAPTER XI. +THE INNER MAN AND WONDER-WORKING, 183 + + CHAPTER XII. +THE CHAPTER-GENERAL OF 1217, 198 + + CHAPTER XIII. +ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS, 217 + + CHAPTER XIV. +THE CRISIS OF THE ORDER, 239 + + CHAPTER XV. +THE RULE OF 1221, 252 + + CHAPTER XVI. +THE BROTHERS MINOR AND LEARNING, 271 + + CHAPTER XVII. +THE STIGMATA, 287 + + CHAPTER XVIII. +THE CANTICLE OF THE SUN, 297 + + CHAPTER XIX. +THE LAST YEAR, 308 + + CHAPTER XX. +FRANCIS'S WILL AND DEATH, 333 + + +CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES, 347 + + APPENDIX. +CRITICAL STUDY OF THE STIGMATA AND OF THE INDULGENCE + OF AUGUST 2, 433 + + * * * * * + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +In the renascence of history which is in a manner the characteristic of +our time, the Middle Ages have been the object of peculiar fondness with +both criticism and erudition. We rummage all the dark corners of the +libraries, we bring old parchments to light, and in the zeal and ardor +we put into our search there is an indefinable touch of piety. + +These efforts to make the past live again reveal not merely our +curiosity, or the lack of power to grapple with great philosophic +problems, they are a token of wisdom and modesty; we are beginning to +feel that the present has its roots in the past, and that in the fields +of politics and religion, as in others, slow, modest, persevering toil +is that which has the best results. + +There is also a token of love in this. We love our ancestors of five or +six centuries ago, and we mingle not a little emotion and gratitude with +this love. So, if one may hope everything of a son who loves his +parents, we must not despair of an age that loves history. + +The Middle Ages form an organic period in the life of humanity. Like all +powerful organisms the period began with a long and mysterious +gestation; it had its youth, its manhood, its decrepitude. The end of +the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth mark its full +expansion; it is the twentieth year of life, with its poetry, its +dreams, its enthusiasm, its generosity, its daring. Love overflowed with +vigor; men everywhere had but one desire--to devote themselves to some +great and holy cause. + +Curiously enough, though Europe was more parcelled out than ever, it +felt a new thrill run through its entire extent. There was what we might +call a state of European consciousness. + +In ordinary periods each people has its own interests, its tendencies, +its tears, and its joys; but let a time of crisis come, and the true +unity of the human family will suddenly make itself felt with a strength +never before suspected. Each body of water has its own currents, but +when the hurricane is abroad they mysteriously intermingle, and from the +ocean to the remotest mountain lake the same tremor will upheave them +all. + +It was thus in '89, it was thus also in the thirteenth century. + +Never was there less of frontier, never, either before or since, such a +mingling of nationalities; and at the present day, with all our highways +and railroads, the people live more apart.[1] + +The great movement of thought of the thirteenth century is above all a +religious movement, presenting a double character--it is popular and it +is laic. It comes out from the heart of the people, and it looks athwart +many uncertainties at nothing less than wresting the sacred things from +the hands of the clergy. + +The conservatives of our time who turn to the thirteenth century as to +the golden age of authoritative faith make a strange mistake. If it is +especially the century of saints, it is also that of heretics. We shall +soon see that the two words are not so contradictory as might appear; it +is enough for the moment to point out that the Church had never been +more powerful nor more threatened. + +There was a genuine attempt at a religious revolution, which, if it had +succeeded, would have ended in a universal priesthood, in the +proclamation of the rights of the individual conscience. + +The effort failed, and though later on the Revolution made us all kings, +neither the thirteenth century nor the Reformation was able to make us +all priests. Herein, no doubt, lies the essential contradiction of our +lives and that which periodically puts our national institutions in +peril. Politically emancipated, we are not morally or religiously +free.[2] + +The thirteenth century with juvenile ardor undertook this revolution, +which has not yet reached its end. In the north of Europe it became +incarnate in cathedrals, in the south, in saints. + +The cathedrals were the lay churches of the thirteenth century. Built by +the people for the people, they were originally the true common house of +our old cities. Museums, granaries, chambers of commerce, halls of +justice, depositories of archives, and even labor exchanges, they were +all these at once. + +That art of the Middle Ages which Victor Hugo and Viollet-le-Duc have +taught us to understand and love was the visible expression of the +enthusiasm of a people who were achieving communal liberty. Very far +from being the gift of the Church, it was in its beginning an +unconscious protest against the hieratic, impassive, esoteric art of the +religious orders. We find only laymen in the long list of master-workmen +and painters who have left us the innumerable Gothic monuments which +stud the soil of Europe. Those artists of genius who, like those of +Greece, knew how to speak to the populace without being common, were for +the most part humble workmen; they found their inspiration not in the +formulas of the masters of monastic art, but in constant communion with +the very soul of the nation. Therefore this renascence, in its most +profound features, concerns less the archaeology or the architecture than +the history of a country. + +While in the northern countries the people were building their own +churches, and finding in their enthusiasm an art which was new, +original, complete, in the south, above the official, clerical +priesthood of divine right they were greeting and consecrating a new +priesthood, that of the saints. + +The priest of the thirteenth century is the antithesis of the saint, he +is almost always his enemy. Separated by the holy unction from the rest +of mankind, inspiring awe as the representative of an all-powerful God, +able by a few signs to perform unheard-of mysteries, with a word to +change bread into flesh and wine into blood, he appeared as a sort of +idol which can do all things for or against you and before which you +have only to adore and tremble. + +The saint, on the contrary, was one whose mission was proclaimed by +nothing in his apparel, but whose life and words made themselves felt in +all hearts and consciences; he was one who, with no cure of souls in the +Church, felt himself suddenly impelled to lift up his voice. The child +of the people, he knew all their material and moral woes, and their +mysterious echo sounded in his own heart. Like the ancient prophet of +Israel, he heard an imperious voice saying to him: "Go and speak to the +children of my people." "Ah, Lord God, I am but a child, I know not how +to speak." "Say not, I am but a child, for thou shalt go to all those to +whom I shall send thee. Behold I have set thee to-day as a strong city, +a pillar of iron and a wall of brass against the kings of Judah, against +its princes and against its priests." + +These thirteenth-century saints were in fact true prophets. Apostles +like St. Paul, not as the result of a canonical consecration, but by the +interior order of the Spirit, they were the witnesses of liberty against +authority. + +The Calabrian seer, Gioacchino di Fiore, hailed the new-born revolution; +he believed in its success and proclaimed to the wondering world the +advent of a new ministry. He was mistaken. + +When the priest sees himself vanquished by the prophet he suddenly +changes his method. He takes him under his protection, he introduces his +harangues into the sacred canon, he throws over his shoulders the +priestly chasuble. The days pass on, the years roll by, and the moment +comes when the heedless crowd no longer distinguishes between them, and +it ends by believing the prophet to be an emanation of the clergy. + +This is one of the bitterest ironies of history. + +Francis of Assisi is pre-eminently the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing +nothing to church or school he was truly _theodidact_,[3] and if he +perhaps did not perceive the revolutionary bearing of his preaching, he +at least always refused to be ordained priest. He divined the +superiority of the spiritual priesthood. + +The charm of his life is that, thanks to reliable documents, we find the +man behind the wonder worker. We find in him not merely noble actions, +we find in him a life in the true meaning of the word; I mean, we feel +in him both development and struggle. + +How mistaken are the annals of the Saints in representing him as from +the very cradle surrounded with aureole and nimbus! As if the finest and +most manly of spectacles were not that of the man who conquers his soul +hour after hour, fighting first against himself, against the suggestions +of egoism, idleness, discouragement, then at the moment when he might +believe himself victorious, finding in the champions attracted by his +ideal those who are destined if not to bring about its complete ruin, at +least to give it its most terrible blows. Poor Francis! The last years +of his life were indeed a _via dolorosa_ as painful as that where his +master sank down under the weight of the cross; for it is still a joy to +die for one's ideal, but what bitter pain to look on in advance at the +apotheosis of one's body, while seeing one's soul--I would say his +thought--misunderstood and frustrated. + +If we ask for the origins of his idea we find them exclusively among the +common people of his time; he is the incarnation of the Italian soul at +the beginning of the thirteenth century, as Dante was to be its +incarnation a hundred years later. + +He was of the people and the people recognized themselves in him. He had +their poetry and their aspirations, he espoused their claims, and the +very name of his institute had at first a political signification: in +Assisi as in most other Italian towns there were _majores_ and +_minores_, the _popolo grasso_ and the _popolo minuto_; he resolutely +placed himself among the latter. This political side of his apostolate +needs to be clearly apprehended if we would understand its amazing +success and the wholly unique character of the Franciscan movement in +its beginning. + +As to its attitude toward the Church, it was that of filial obedience. +This may perhaps appear strange at first as regards an unauthorized +preacher who comes speaking to the world in the name of his own +immediate personal inspiration. But did not most of the men of '89 +believe themselves good and loyal subjects of Louis XVI.? + +The Church was to our ancestors what the fatherland is to us; we may +wish to remodel its government, overturn its administration, change its +constitution, but we do not think ourselves less good patriots for that. + +In the same way, in an age of simple faith when religious beliefs seemed +to be in the very fibre and flesh of humanity, Dante, without ceasing to +be a good Catholic, could attack the clergy and the court of Rome with a +violence that has never been surpassed. St. Francis so surely believed +that the Church had become unfaithful to her mission that he could speak +in his symbolic language of the widowhood of his Lady Poverty, who from +Christ's time to his own had found no husband. How could he better have +declared his purposes or revealed his dreams? + +What he purposed was far more than the foundation of an order, and it is +to do him great wrong thus to restrict his endeavor. He longed for a +true awakening of the Church in the name of the evangelical ideal which +he had regained. All Europe awoke with a start when it heard of these +penitents from a little Umbrian town. It was reported that they had +craved a strange privilege from the court of Rome: that of possessing +nothing. Men saw them pass by, earning their bread by the labor of their +hands, accepting only the bare necessities of bodily sustenance from +them to whom they had given with lavish hands the bread of life. The +people lifted up their heads, breathing in with deep inspirations the +airs of a springtime upon which was already floating the perfume of new +flowers. + +Here and there in the world there are many souls capable of all heroism, +if only they can see before them a true leader. St. Francis became for +these the guide they had longed for, and whatever was best in humanity +at that time leaped to follow in his footsteps. + +This movement, which was destined to result in the constitution of a new +family of monks, was in the beginning anti-monastic. It is not rare for +history to have similar contradictions to record. The meek Galilean who +preached the religion of a personal revelation, without ceremonial or +dogmatic law, triumphed only on condition of being conquered, and of +permitting his words of spirit and life to be confiscated by a church +essentially dogmatic and sacerdotal. + +In the same way the Franciscan movement was originally, if not the +protest of the Christian consciousness against monachism, at least the +recognition of an ideal singularly higher than that of the clergy of +that time. Let us picture to ourselves the Italy of the beginning of the +thirteenth century with its divisions, its perpetual warfare, its +depopulated country districts, the impossibility of tilling the fields +except in the narrow circle which the garrisons of the towns might +protect; all these cities from the greatest to the least occupied in +watching for the most favorable moment for falling upon and pillaging +their neighbors; sieges terminated by unspeakable atrocities, and after +all this, famine, speedily followed by pestilence to complete the +devastation. Then let us picture to ourselves the rich Benedictine +abbeys, veritable fortresses set upon the hill-tops, whence they seemed +to command all the surrounding plains. There was nothing surprising in +their prosperity. Shielded by their inviolability, they were in these +disordered times the only refuge of peaceful souls and timid hearts.[4] +The monks were in great majority deserters from life, who for motives +entirely aside from religion had taken refuge behind the only walls +which at this period were secure. + +Overlook this as we may, forget as we may the demoralization and +ignorance of the inferior clergy, the simony and the vices of the +prelates, the coarseness and avarice of the monks, judging the Church of +the thirteenth century only by those of her sons who do her the most +honor; none the less are these the anchorites who flee into the desert +to escape from wars and vices, pausing only when they are very sure that +none of the world's noises will interrupt their meditations. Sometimes +they will draw away with them hundreds of imitators, to the solitudes of +Clairvaux, of the Chartreuse, of Vallombrosa, of the Camaldoli; but even +when they are a multitude they are alone; for they are dead to the world +and to their brethren. Each cell is a desert, on whose threshold they +cry + + O beata solitudo. + O sola beatitudo. + +The book of the Imitation is the picture of all that is purest in this +cloistered life. + +But is this abstinence from action truly Christian? + +No, replied St. Francis. He for his part would do like Jesus, and we may +say that his life is an imitation of Christ singularly more real than +that of Thomas a Kempis. + +Jesus went indeed into the desert, but only that he might find in prayer +and communion with the heavenly Father the inspiration and strength +necessary for keeping up the struggle against evil. Far from avoiding +the multitude, he sought them out to enlighten, console, and convert +them. + +This is what St. Francis desired to imitate. More than once he felt the +seduction of the purely contemplative life, but each time his own spirit +warned him that this was only a disguised selfishness; that one saves +oneself only in saving others. + +When he saw suffering, wretchedness, corruption, instead of fleeing he +stopped to bind up, to heal, feeling in his heart the surging of waves +of compassion. He not only preached love to others; he himself was +ravished with it; he sang it, and what was of greater value, he lived +it. + +There had indeed been preachers of love before his day, but most +generally they had appealed to the lowest selfishness. They had thought +to triumph by proving that in fact to give to others is to put one's +money out at a usurious interest. "Give to the poor," said St. Peter +Chrysologus,[5] "that you may give to yourself; give him a crumb in +order to receive a loaf; give him a shelter to receive heaven." + +There was nothing like this in Francis; his charity is not selfishness, +it is love. He went, not to the whole, who need no physician, but to the +sick, the forgotten, the disdained. He dispensed the treasures of his +heart according to the need and reserved the best of himself for the +poorest and the most lost, for lepers and thieves. + +The gaps in his education were of marvellous service to him. More +learned, the formal logic of the schools would have robbed him of that +flower of simplicity which is the great charm of his life; he would have +seen the whole extent of the sore of the Church, and would no doubt have +despaired of healing it. If he had known the ecclesiastical discipline +he would have felt obliged to observe it; but thanks to his ignorance he +could often violate it without knowing it,[6] and be a heretic quite +unawares. + +We can now determine to what religious family St. Francis belongs. + +Looking at the question from a somewhat high standpoint we see that in +the last analysis minds, like religious systems, are to be found in two +great families, standing, so to say, at the two poles of thought. These +two poles are only mathematical points, they do not exist in concrete +reality; but for all that we can set them down on the chart of +philosophic and moral ideas. + +There are religions which look toward divinity and religions which look +toward man. Here again the line of demarcation between the two families +is purely ideal and artificial; they often so mingle and blend with one +another that we have much difficulty in distinguishing them, especially +in the intermediate zone in which our civilization finds its place; but +if we go toward the poles we shall find their characteristics growing +gradually distinct. + +In the religions which look toward divinity all effort is concentrated +on worship, and especially on sacrifice. The end aimed at is a change in +the disposition of the gods. They are mighty kings whose support or +favor one must purchase by gifts. + +Most pagan religions belong to this category and pharisaic Judaism as +well. This is also the tendency of certain Catholics of the old school +for whom the great thing is to appease God or to buy the protection of +the Virgin and the saints by means of prayers, candles, and masses. + +The other religions look toward man; their effort is directed to the +heart and conscience with the purpose of transforming them. Sacrifice +disappears, or rather it changes from the exterior to the interior. God +is conceived of as a father, always ready to welcome him who comes to +him. Conversion, perfection, sanctification become the pre-eminent +religious acts. Worship and prayer cease to be incantations and become +reflection, meditation, virile effort; while in religions of the first +class the clergy have an essential part, as intermediaries between +heaven and earth, in those of the second they have none, each conscience +entering into direct relations with God. + +It was reserved to the prophets of Israel to formulate, with a precision +before unknown, the starting-point of spiritual worship. + + Bring no more vain offerings; + I have a horror of incense, + Your new moons, your Sabbaths, and your assemblies; + When you multiply prayers I will not hearken. + Your hands are full of blood, + Wash you, make you clean, + Put away from before my eyes the evil of your ways, + Cease to do evil, + Learn to do well.[7] + +With Isaiah these vehement apostrophes are but flashes of genius, but +with Jesus the interior change becomes at once the principle and the end +of the religious life. His promises were not for those who were right +with the ceremonial law, or who offered the greatest number of +sacrifices, but for the pure in heart, for men of good will. + +These considerations are not perhaps without their use in showing the +spiritual ancestry of the Saint of Assisi. + +For him, as for St. Paul and St. Augustine, conversion was a radical and +complete change, the act of will by which man wrests himself from the +slavery of sin and places himself under the yoke of divine authority. +Thenceforth prayer, become a necessary act of life, ceases to be a magic +formula; it is an impulse of the heart, it is reflection and meditation +rising above the commonplaces of this mortal life, to enter into the +mystery of the divine will and conform itself to it; it is the act of +the atom which understands its littleness, but which desires, though +only by a single note, to be in harmony with the divine symphony. + +_Ecce adsum Domine, ut faciam voluntatem tuam._ + +When we reach these heights we belong not to a sect, but to humanity; we +are like those wonders of nature which the accident of circumstances has +placed upon the territory of this or that people, but which belong to +all the world, because in fact they belong to no one, or rather they are +the common and inalienable property of the entire human race. Homer, +Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Michael Angelo, Rembrandt belong to us all +as much as the ruins of Athens or Rome, or, rather, they belong to +those who love them most and understand them best. + +But that which is a truism, so far as men of genius in the domain of +imagination or thought are concerned, still appears like a paradox when +we speak of men of religious genius. The Church has laid such absolute +claim to them that she has created in her own favor a sort of right. It +cannot be that this arbitrary confiscation shall endure forever. To +prevent it we have not to perform an act of negation or demolition: let +us leave to the chapels their statues and their relics, and far from +belittling the saints, let us make their true grandeur shine forth. + + * * * * * + +It is time to say a few words concerning the difficulties of the work +here presented to the public. History always embraces but a very feeble +part of the reality: ignorant, she is like the stories children tell of +the events that have occurred before their eyes; learned, she reminds us +of a museum organized with all the modern improvements. Instead of +making you see nature with its external covering, its diffuse life, its +mysterious echoes in your own heart, they offer you a herbarium. + +If it is difficult to narrate an ordinary event of our own time, it is +far more so to describe the great crises where restless humanity is +seeking its true path. + +The first duty of the historian is to forget his own time and country +and become the sympathetic and interested contemporary of what he +relates; but if it is difficult to give oneself the heart of a Greek or +a Roman, it is infinitely more so to give oneself a heart of the +thirteenth century. I have said that at that period the Middle Age was +twenty years old, and the feelings of the twentieth year are, if not the +most fugitive, at least the most difficult to note down. Everyone knows +that it is impossible to recall the feelings of youth with the same +clearness as those of childhood or mature age. Doubtless we may have +external facts in the memory, but we cannot recall the sensations and +the sentiments; the confused forces which seek to move us are then all +at work at once, and to speak the language of beyond the Rhine, it is +_the essentially phenomenal hour of the phenomena that we are;_ +everything in us crosses, intermingles, collides, in desperate conflict: +it is a time of diabolic or divine excitement. Let a few years pass, and +nothing in the world can make us live those hours over again. Where was +once a volcano, we perceive only a heap of blackened ashes, and +scarcely, at long intervals, will a chance meeting, a sound, a word, +awaken memory and unseal the fountain of recollection; and even then it +is only a flash; we have had but a glimpse and all has sunk back into +shadow and silence. + +We find the same difficulty when we try to take note of the fiery +enthusiasms of the thirteenth century, its poetic inspirations, its +amorous and chaste visions--all this is thrown up against a background +of coarseness, wretchedness, corruption, and folly. + +The men of that time had all the vices except triviality, all the +virtues except moderation; they were either ruffians or saints. Life was +rude enough to kill feeble organisms; and thus characters had an energy +unknown to-day. It was forever necessary to provide beforehand against a +thousand dangers, to take those sudden resolutions in which one risks +his life. Open the chronicle of Fra Salimbeni and you will be shocked to +find that the largest place is taken up with the account of the annual +expeditions of Parma against the neighboring cities, or of the +neighboring cities against Parma. What would it have been if this +chronicle, instead of being written by a monk of uncommonly open mind, a +lover of music, at certain times an ardent Joachimite, an indefatigable +traveller, had been written by a warrior? And this is not all; these +wars between city and city were complicated with civil dissensions, +plots were hatched periodically, conspirators were massacred if they +were discovered, or massacred and exiled others in their turn if they +were triumphant.[8] When we picture to ourselves this state of things +dominated by the grand struggles of the papacy against the empire, +heretics, and infidels, we may understand how difficult it is to +describe such a time. + +The imagination being haunted by horrible or entrancing pictures like +those of the frescos in the _Campo Santo_ of Pisa, men were always +thinking of heaven and hell; they informed themselves about them with +the feverish curiosity of emigrants, who pass their days on shipboard in +trying to picture that spot in America where in a few days they will +pitch their tent. + +Every monk of any notoriety must have gone through this. Dante's poem is +not an isolated work; it is the noblest result of a condition which had +given birth to hundreds of compositions, and Alighieri had little more +to do than to co-ordinate the works of his predecessors and vivify them +with the breath of his own genius. + +The unsettled state of men's minds was unimaginable. That unhealthy +curiosity which lies at the bottom of the human heart, and which at the +present day impels men to seek for refined and even perverse enjoyments, +impelled men of that time to devotions which seem like a defiance to +common sense. + +Never had hearts been shaken with such terrors, nor ever thrilled with +such radiant hopes. The noblest hymns of the liturgy, the _Stabat_ and +the _Dies Irae_, come to us from the thirteenth century, and we may well +say that never has the human plaint been more agonized. + +When we look through history, not to find accounts of battles or of the +succession of dynasties, but to try to grasp the evolution of ideas and +feelings, when we seek above all to discover the heart of man and of +epochs, we perceive, on arriving at the thirteenth century, that a fresh +wind has blown over the world, the human lyre has a new string, the +lowest, the most profound; one which sings of woes and hopes to which +the ancient world had not vibrated. + +In the breast of the men of that time we think sometimes we feel the +beating of a woman's heart; they have exquisite sentiments, delightful +inspirations, with absurd terrors, fantastic angers, infernal cruelties. +Weakness and fear often make them insincere; they have the idea of the +grand, the beautiful, the ugly, but that of order is wanting; they fast +or feast; the notion of the laws of nature, so deeply graven in our own +minds, is to them entirely a stranger; the words possible and impossible +have for them no meaning. Some give themselves to God, others sell +themselves to the devil, but not one feels himself strong enough to walk +alone, strong enough to have no need to hold on by some one's skirt. + +Peopled with spirits and demons nature appeared to them singularly +animated; in her presence they have all the emotions which a child +experiences at night before the trees on the roadside and the vague +forms of the rocks. + +Unfortunately, our language is a very imperfect instrument for rendering +all this; it is neither musical nor flexible; since the seventeenth +century it has been deemed seemly to keep one's emotions to oneself, and +the old words which served to note states of the soul have fallen into +neglect; the Imitation and the Fioretti have become untranslatable. + +More than this, in a history like the present one, we must give a large +place to the Italian spirit; it is evident that in a country where they +call a chapel _basilica_ and a tiny house _palazzo_, or in speaking to a +seminarist say "Your Reverence," words have not the same value as on +this side of the Alps. + +The Italians have an imagination which enlarges and simplifies. They see +the forms and outlines of men and things more than they grasp their +spirit. What they most admire in Michael Angelo is gigantic forms, noble +and proud attitudes, while we better understand his secret thoughts, +hidden sorrows, groans, and sighs. + +Place before their eyes a picture by Rembrandt, and more often than not +it will appear to them ugly; its charm cannot be caught at a glance as +in those of their artists; to see it you must examine it, make an +effort, and with them effort is the beginning of pain. + +Do not ask them, then, to understand the pathos of things, to be touched +by the mysterious and almost fanciful emotion which northern hearts +discover and enjoy in the works of the Amsterdam master. No, instead of +a forest they want a few trees, standing out clearly against the +horizon; instead of a multitude swarming in the penumbra of reality, a +few personages, larger than nature, forming harmonious groups in an +ideal temple. + +The genius of a people[9] is all of a piece: they apply to history the +same processes that they apply to the arts. While the Germanic spirit +considers events rather in their evolution, in their complex becoming, +the Italian spirit takes them at a given moment, overlooks the shadows, +the clouds, the mists, everything that makes the line indistinct, brings +out the contour sharply, and thus constructs a very lucid story, which +is a delight to the eyes, but which is little more than a symbol of the +reality. + +At other times it takes a man, separates him from the unnamed crowd, and +by a labor often unconscious, makes him the ideal type of a whole +epoch.[10] + +Certainly there is in every people a tendency to give themselves a +circle of divinities and heroes who are, so to say, the incarnation of +its instincts; but generally that requires the long labor of centuries. +The Italian character will not suffer this slow action; as soon as it +recognizes a man it says so, it even shouts it aloud if that is +necessary, and makes him enter upon immortality while still alive. Thus +legend almost confounds itself with history, and it becomes very +difficult to reduce men to their true proportions. + +We must not, then, ask too much of history. The more beautiful is the +dawn, the less one can describe it. The most beautiful things in nature, +the flower and the butterfly, should be touched only by delicate hands. + +The effort here made to indicate the variegated, wavering tints which +form the atmosphere in which St. Francis lived is therefore of very +uncertain success. It was perhaps presumptuous to undertake it. + +Happily we are no longer in the time when historians thought they had +done the right thing when they had reduced everything to its proper +size, contenting themselves with denying or omitting everything in the +life of the heroes of humanity which rises above the level of our +every-day experience. + +No doubt Francis did not meet on the road to Sienna three pure and +gentle virgins come from heaven to greet him; the devil did not overturn +rocks for the sake of terrifying him; but when we deny these visions and +apparitions, we are victims of an error graver, perhaps, than that of +those who affirm them. + +The first time that I was at Assisi I arrived in the middle of the +night. When the sun rose, flooding everything with warmth and light, the +old basilica[11] seemed suddenly to quiver; one might have said that it +wished to speak and sing. Giotto's frescos, but now invisible, awoke to +a strange life, you might have thought them painted the evening before +so much alive they were; everything was moving without awkwardness or +jar. + +I returned six months later. A scaffold had been put up in the middle of +the nave; upon it an art critic was examining the paintings, and as the +day was overcast he threw upon the walls the beams of a lamp with a +reflector. Then you saw arms thrown out, faces grimacing, without unity, +without harmony; the most exquisite figures took on something fantastic +and grotesque. + +He came down triumphant, with a portfolio stuffed with sketches; here a +foot, there a muscle, farther on a bit of face, and I could not refrain +from musing on the frescos as I had seen them bathed in sunlight. + +The sun and the lamp are both deceivers; they transform what they show; +but if the truth must be told I own to my preference for the falsehoods +of the sun. + +History is a landscape, and like those of nature it is continually +changing. Two persons who look at it at the same time do not find in it +the same charm, and you yourself, if you had it continually before your +eyes, would never see it twice alike. The general lines are permanent, +but it needs only a cloud to hide the most important ones, as it needs +only a jet of light to bring out such or such a detail and give it a +false value. + +When I began this page the sun was disappearing behind the rains of the +Castle of Crussol and the splendors of the sunset gave it a shining +aureola; the light flooded everything, and you no longer saw anywhere +the damage which wars have inflicted upon the old feudal manor. I +looked, almost thinking I could perceive at the window the figure of the +chatelaine ... Twilight has come, and now there is nothing up there but +crumbling walls, a discrowned tower, nothing but ruins and rubbish, +which seem to beg for pity. + +It is the same with the landscapes of history. Narrow minds cannot +accommodate themselves to these perpetual transformations: they want an +objective history in which the author will study the people as a chemist +studies a body. It is very possible that there may be laws for historic +evolution and social transformations as exact as those of chemical +combinations, and we must hope that in the end they will be discovered; +but for the present there is no purely objective truth of history. + +To write history we must think it, and to think it is to transform it. +Within a few years, it is true, men have believed they had found the +secret of objectivity, in the publication of original documents. This is +a true progress which renders inestimable service, but here again we +must not deceive ourselves as to its significance. All the documents on +an epoch or an event cannot usually be published, a selection must be +made, and in it will necessarily appear the turn of mind of him who +makes it. Let us admit that all that can be found is published; but +alas, the most unusual movements have generally the fewest documents. +Take, for instance, the religious history of the Middle Ages: it is +already a pretty delicate task to collect official documents, such as +bulls, briefs, conciliary canons, monastic constitutions, etc., but do +these documents contain all the life of the Church? Much is still +wanting, and to my mind the movements which secretly agitated the masses +are much more important, although to testify to them we have only a few +fragments. + +Poor heretics, they were not only imprisoned and burned, but their books +were destroyed and everything that spoke of them; and more than one +historian, finding scarcely a trace of them in his heaps of documents, +forgets these prophets with their strange visions, these poet-monks who +from the depths of their cells made the world to thrill and the papacy +to tremble. + +Objective history is then a utopia. We create God in our own image, and +we impress the mark of our personality in places where we least expect +to find it again. + +But by dint of talking about the tribunal of history we have made most +authors think that they owe to themselves and their readers definitive +and irrevocable judgments. + +It is always easier to pronounce a sentence than to wait, to reserve +one's opinion, to re-examine. The crowd which has put itself out to be +present at a trial is almost always furious with the judges when they +reserve the case for further information; its mind is so made that it +requires precision in things which will bear it the least; it puts +questions right and left, as children do; if you appear to hesitate or +to be embarrassed you are lost in its estimation, you are evidently only +an ignoramus. + +But perhaps below the Areopagites, obliged by their functions to +pronounce sentence, there is place at the famous tribunal for a simple +spectator who has come in by accident. He has made out a brief and would +like very simply to tell his neighbors his opinion. + +This, then, is not a history _ad probandum_, to use the ancient formula. +Is this to say that I have only desired to give the reader a moment of +diversion? That would be to understand my thought very ill. In the grand +spectacles of history as in those of nature there is something divine; +from it our minds and hearts gain a virtue at once pacifying and +encouraging, we experience the salutary sensation of littleness, and +seeing the beauties and the sadnesses of the past we learn better how to +judge the present hour. + +In one of the frescos of the Upper Church of Assisi, Giotto has +represented St. Clara and her companions coming out from St. Damian all +in tears, to kiss their spiritual father's corpse as it is being carried +to its last home. With an artist's liberty he has made the chapel a rich +church built of precious marbles. + +Happily the real St. Damian is still there, nestled under some +olive-trees like a lark under the heather; it still has its ill-made +walls of irregular stones, like those which bound the neighboring +fields. Which is the more beautiful, the ideal temple of the artist's +fancy, or the poor chapel of reality? No heart will be in doubt. + +Francis's official historians have done for his biography what Giotto +did for his little sanctuary. In general they have done him ill-service. +Their embellishments have hidden the real St. Francis, who was, in fact, +infinitely nobler than they have made him to be. Ecclesiastical writers +appear to make a great mistake in thus adorning the lives of their +heroes, and only mentioning their edifying features. They thus give +occasion, even to the most devout, to suspect their testimony. Besides, +by thus surrounding their saints with light they make them superhuman +creatures, having nothing in common with us; they are privileged +characters, marked with the divine seal; they are, as the litanies say, +vials of election, into which God has poured the sweetest perfumes; +their sanctity is revealed almost in spite of themselves; they are born +saints as others are born kings or slaves, their life is set out against +the golden background of a tryptich, and not against the sombre +background of reality. + +By such means the saints, perhaps, gain something in the respect of the +superstitious; but their lives lose something of virtue and of +communicable strength. Forgetting that they were men like ourselves, we +no longer hear in our conscience the command, "Go and do likewise." + +It is, then, a work of piety to seek behind the legend for the history. +Is it presumptuous to ask our readers to try to understand the +thirteenth century and love St. Francis? They will be amply rewarded for +the effort, and will soon find an unexpected charm in these too meagre +landscapes, these incorporate souls, these sickly imaginations which +will pass before their eyes. Love is the true key of history. + +A book has always a great number of authors, and the following pages owe +much to the researches of others; I have tried in the notes to show the +whole value of these debts. + +I have also had colaborers to whom it will be more difficult for me to +express my gratitude. I refer to the librarians of the libraries of +Italy and their assistants; it is impossible to name them all, their +faces are better known to me than their names, but I would here say that +during long months passed in the various collections of the Peninsula, +all, even to the most humble employees, have shown a tireless +helpfulness even at those periods of the year when the number of +attendants was the smallest. + +Professor Alessandro Leto, who, barely recovered from a grave attack of +influenza, kindly served as my guide among the archives of Assisi, +deserves a very particular mention. To the Syndic and municipality of +that city I desire also to express my gratitude. + +I cannot close without a warm remembrance to the spiritual sons of St. +Francis dispersed in the mountains of Umbria and Tuscany. + +Dear dwellers in St. Damian, Portiuncula, the Carceri, the Verna, Monte +Colombo, you perhaps remember the strange pilgrim who, though he wore +neither the frock nor the cord, used to talk with you of the Seraphic +Father with as much love as the most pious Franciscan; you used to be +surprised at his eagerness to see everything, to look at everything, to +thread all the unexplored paths. You often tried to restrain him by +telling him that there was not the smallest relic, the most meagre +indulgence in the far-away grottos to which he was dragging you, but you +always ended by going with him, thinking that none but a Frenchman could +be possessed by a devotion so fervent and so imprudent. + +Thank you, pious anchorites of Greccio, thank you for the bread that you +went out and begged when I arrived at your hermitage benumbed with cold +and hunger. If you read these lines, read here my gratitude and also a +little admiration. You are not all saints, but nearly all of you have +hours of saintliness, flights of pure love. + +If some pages of this book give you pain, turn them over quickly; let me +think that others of them will give you pleasure, and will make the name +you bear, if possible, still more precious to you than it now is. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The mendicant orders were in their origin a true + _International_. When in the spring of 1216 St. Dominic + assembled his friars at Notre Dame de la Prouille, they were + found to be sixteen in number, and among them Castilians, + Navarese, Normans, French, Languedocians, and even English and + Germans. + + Heretics travelled all over Europe, and nowhere do we find them + checked by the diversity of languages. Arnold of Brescia, for + example, the famous Tribune of Rome, appeared in France and + Switzerland and in the heart of Germany. + + [2] The Reformation only substituted the authority of the book + for that of the priest; it is a change of dynasty and nothing + more. As to the majority of those who to-day call themselves + free-thinkers, they confuse religious freedom with irreligion; + they choose not to see that in religion as in politics, between + a royalty based on divine right and anarchy there is room for a + government which may be as strong as the first and a better + guarantee of freedom than the second. The spirit of the older + time put God outside of the world; the sovereignty outside of + the people; authority outside of the conscience. The spirit of + the new times has the contrary tendency: it denies neither God + nor sovereignty nor authority, but it sees them where they + really are. + + [3] _Nemo ostendebat mihi quod deberem facere, sed ipse + Altissimus revelavit mihi quod deberem vivere secundem formam + sancti Evangelii._ Testamentum Fr. + + [4] The wealthiest monasteries of France are of the twelfth + century or were enlarged at that time: Arles, S. Gilles, S. + Sernin, Cluny, Vezelay, Brioude, Issoire, Paray-le-Monial. The + same was the case in Italy. + + Down to the year 1000, 1,108 monasteries had been founded in + France. The eleventh century saw the birth of 326 and the + twelfth of 702. The convents of Mount Athos in their present + state give us a very accurate notion of the great monasteries of + Europe at the close of the twelfth century. + + [5] St. Petrus Chrysologus, sermo viii., de jejunio et + eleemosyna. _Da pauperi ut des tibi: da micam ut accipias totum + panem; da tectum, accipe coelum._ + + [6] By what right did he begin to preach? By what right did he, + a mere deacon, admit to profession and cut off the hair of a + young girl of eighteen? That is an episcopal function, one which + can only devolve even upon priests by an express commission. + + [7] Isaiah i. 10-17. Cf. Joel 2, Psalm 50. + + [8] The chronicles of Orvieto (_Archivio, storico italiano_, t. + i., of 1889, pp. 7 and following) are nothing more than a list, + as melancholy as they are tedious of wars, which, during the + thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all the places of that + region carried on, from the greatest to the smallest. + + [9] Do not forget that in the thirteenth century Italy was not a + mere geographical expression. It was of all the countries of + Europe the one which, notwithstanding its partitions, had the + clearest consciousness of its unity. The expression _profectus + et honor Italiae_ often appeared from the pen of Innocent III. + See, for instance, the bull of April 16, 1198, _Mirari cogimur_, + addressed particularly to the Assisans. + + [10] Note what the Fioretti say of Brother Bernard: "_Stava solo + sulle cime dei monti altissimi contemplando le cose celesti._" + Fior., 28. The learned historian of Assisi, Mr. Cristofani, has + used similar expressions; speaking of St. Francis, he says: + "_Nuovo Christo in somma e pero degno d'essere riguardoto come + la piu gigantesca, la piu splendida, la piu cara tra le grandi + figure campeggianti nell' aere del medio evo_" (_Storia + d'Assisi_, t. i., p. 70, ed. of 1885). + + [11] It remains open all night. + + * * * * * + + + + + LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER I + +YOUTH + + +Assisi is to-day very much what it was six or seven hundred years ago. +The feudal castle is in ruins, but the aspect of the city is just the +same. Its long-deserted streets, bordered by ancient houses, lie in +terraces half-way up the steep hill-side. Above it Mount Subasio[1] +proudly towers, at its feet lies outspread all the Umbrian plain from +Perugia to Spoleto. The crowded houses clamber up the rocks like +children a-tiptoe to see all that is to be seen; they succeed so well +that every window gives the whole panorama set in its frame of rounded +hills, from whose summits castles and villages stand sharply out against +a sky of incomparable purity. + +These simple dwellings contain no more than five or six little +rooms,[2] but the rosy hues of the stone of which they are built give +them a wonderfully cheerful air. The one in which, according to the +story, St. Francis was born has almost entirely disappeared, to make +room for a church; but the street is so modest, and all that remains of +the _palazzo dei genitori di San Francesco_ is so precisely like the +neighboring houses that the tradition must be correct. Francis entered +into glory in his lifetime; it would be surprising if a sort of worship +had not from the first been centred around the house in which he saw the +light and where he passed the first twenty-five years of his life. + +He was born about 1182.[3] The biographies have preserved to us few +details about his parents.[4] His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a +wealthy cloth-merchant. We know how different was the life of the +merchants of that period from what it is to-day. A great portion of +their time was spent in extensive journeys for the purchase of goods. +Such tours were little short of expeditions. The roads being insecure, a +strong escort was needed for the journey to those famous fairs where, +for long weeks at a time, merchants from the most remote parts of Europe +were gathered together. In certain cities, Montpellier for example, the +fair was perpetual. Benjamin of Tudela shows us that city frequented by +all nations, Christian and Mohammedan. "One meets there merchants from +Africa, from Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Gaul, Spain, and England, +so that one sees men of all languages, with the Genoese and the Pisans." + +Among all these merchants the richest were those who dealt in textile +stuffs. They were literally the bankers of the time, and their heavy +wagons were often laden with the sums levied by the popes in England or +France. + +Their arrival at a castle was one of the great events. They were kept as +long as possible, everyone being eager for the news they brought. It is +easy to understand how close must have been their relations with the +nobility; in certain countries, Provence for example, the merchants were +considered as nobles of a second order.[5] + +Bernardone often made these long journeys; he went even as far as +France, and by this we must surely understand Northern France, and +particularly Champagne, which was the seat of commercial exchange +between Northern and Southern Europe. + +He was there at the very time of his son's birth. The mother, presenting +the child at the font of San Rufino,[6] had him baptized by the name of +John, but the father on his return chose to call him Francis.[7] Had +he already determined on the education he was to give the child; did he +name him thus because he even then intended to bring him up after the +French fashion, to make a little Frenchman of him? It is by no means +improbable. Perhaps, indeed, the name was only a sort of grateful homage +tendered by the Assisan burgher to his noble clients beyond the Alps. +However this may be, the child was taught to speak French, and always +had a special fondness for both the language and the country.[8] + +These facts about Bernardone are of real importance; they reveal the +influences in the midst of which Francis grew up. Merchants, indeed, +play a considerable part in the religious movements of the thirteenth +century. Their calling in some sense forced them to become colporters of +ideas. What else could they do, on arriving in a country, but answer +those who asked for news? And the news most eagerly looked for was +religious news, for men's minds were turned upon very different subjects +then from now. They accommodated themselves to the popular wish, +observing, hearkening everywhere, keeping eyes and ears open, glad to +find anything to tell; and little by little many of them became active +propagandists of ideas concerning which at first they had been simply +curious. + +The importance of the part thus played by the merchants as they came +and went, everywhere sowing the new ideas which they had gathered up in +their travels, has not been put in a clear enough light; they were +often, unconsciously and quite involuntarily, the carriers of ideas of +all kinds, especially of heresy and rebellion. It was they who made the +success of the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Humiliati, and many other +sects. + +Thus Bernardone, without dreaming of such a thing, became the artisan of +his son's religious vocation. The tales which he brought home from his +travels seemed at first, perhaps, not to have aroused the child's +attention, but they were like germs a long time buried, which suddenly, +under a warm ray of sunlight, bring forth unlooked-for fruit. + +The boy's education was not carried very far;[9] the school was in +those days overshadowed by the church. The priests of San Giorgio were +his teachers,[10] and taught him a little Latin. This language was +spoken in Umbria until toward the middle of the thirteenth century; +every one understood it and spoke it a little; it was still the language +of sermons and of political deliberations.[11] + +He learned also to write, but with less success; all through his life we +see him take up the pen only on rare occasions, and for but a few +words.[12] The autograph of Sacro-Convento, which appears to be +entirely authentic, shows extreme awkwardness; in general he dictated, +signing his letters by a simple [Greek: tau], the symbol of the cross of +Jesus.[13] + +That part of his education which was destined to have most influence +upon his life was the French language,[14] which he perhaps spoke in his +own family. It has been rightly said that to know two languages is to +have two souls; in learning that of France the boy felt his heart thrill +to the melody of its youthful poetry, and his imagination was +mysteriously stirred with dreams of imitating the exploits of the French +cavaliers. + +But let us not anticipate. His early life was that of other children of +his age. In the quarter of the town where his house is still shown no +vehicles are ever seen; from morning till night the narrow streets are +given over to the children. They play there in many groups, frolicking +with an exquisite charm, very different from the little Romans, who, +from the time they are six or seven years old, spend hours at a time +squatting behind a pillar, or in a corner of a wall or a ruin, to play +dice or "morra," putting a passionate ferocity even into their play. + +In Umbria, as in Tuscany, children love above all things games in which +they can make a parade; to play at soldiers or procession is the supreme +delight of Assisan children. Through the day they keep to the narrow +streets, but toward evening they go, singing and dancing, to one of the +open squares of the city. These squares are one of the charms of Assisi. +Every few paces an interval occurs between the houses looking toward the +plain, and you find a delightful terrace, shaded by a few trees, the +very place for enjoying the sunset without losing one of its splendors. +Hither no doubt came often the son of Bernardone, leading one of those +_farandoles_ which you may see there to this day: from his very babyhood +he was a prince among the children. + +Thomas of Celano draws an appalling picture of the education of that +day. He describes parents inciting their children to vice, and driving +them by main force to wrong-doing. Francis responded only too quickly to +these unhappy lessons.[15] + +His father's profession and the possibly noble origin of his mother +raised him almost to the level of the titled families of the country; +money, which he spent with both hands, made him welcome among them. Well +pleased to enjoy themselves at his expense, the young nobles paid him a +sort of court. As to Bernardone, he was too happy to see his son +associating with them to be niggardly as to the means. He was miserly, +as the course of this history will show, but his pride and self-conceit +exceeded his avarice. + +Pica, his wife, gentle and modest creature,[16] concerning whom the +biographers have been only too laconic, saw all this, and mourned over +it in silence, but though weak as mothers are, she would not despair of +her son, and when the neighbors told her of Francis's escapades, she +would calmly reply, "What are you thinking about? I am very sure that, +if it pleases God, he will become a good Christian."[17] The words were +natural enough from a mother's lips, but later on they were held to have +been truly prophetic. + +How far did the young man permit himself to be led on? It would be +difficult to say. The question which, as we are told, tormented Brother +Leo, could only have suggested itself to a diseased imagination.[18] +Thomas of Celano and the Three Companions agree in picturing him as +going to the worst excesses. Later biographers speak with more +circumspection of his worldly career. A too widely credited story +gathered from Celano's narrative was modified by the chapter-general of +1260,[19] and the frankness of the early biographers was, no doubt, one +of the causes which most effectively contributed to their definitive +condemnation three years later.[20] + +Their statements are in no sense obscure; according to them the son of +Bernardone not only patterned himself after the young men of his age, he +made it a point of honor to exceed them. What with eccentricities, +buffooneries, pranks, prodigalities, he ended by achieving a sort of +celebrity. He was forever in the streets with his companions, compelling +attention by his extravagant or fantastic attire. Even at night the +joyous company kept up their merrymakings, causing the town to ring +with their noisy songs.[21] + +At this very time the troubadours were roaming over the towns of +Northern Italy[22] and bringing brilliant festivities and especially +Courts of Love into vogue. If they worked upon the passions, they also +made appeal to feelings of courtesy and delicacy; it was this that saved +Francis. In the midst of his excesses he was always refined and +considerate, carefully abstaining from every base or indecent +utterance.[23] Already his chief aspiration was to rise above the +commonplace. Tortured with the desire for that which is far off and +high,[24] he had conceived a sort of passion for chivalry, and fancying +that dissipation was one of the distinguishing features of nobility, he +had thrown himself into it with all his soul. + +But he who, at twenty, goes from pleasure to pleasure with the heart not +absolutely closed to good, must now and then, at some turning of the +road, become aware that there are hungry folk, who could live a month on +what he spends in a few hours on frivolity. Francis saw them, and with +his impressionable nature for the moment forgot everything else. In +thought he put himself in their place, and it sometimes happened that he +gave them all the money he had about him and even his clothes. + +One day he was busy with some customers in his father's shop, when a man +came in, begging for charity in the name of God. Losing his patience +Francis sharply turned him away; but quickly reproaching himself for his +harshness he thought, "What would I not have done if this man had asked +something of me in the name of a count or a baron? What ought I not to +have done when he came in the name of God? I am no better than a clown!" +Leaving his customers he ran after the beggar.[25] + +Bernardone had been well pleased with his son's commercial aptitude in +the early days when the young man was first in his father's employ. +Francis was only too proficient in spending money; he at least knew well +how to make it.[26] But this satisfaction did not last long. Francis's +bad companions were exercising over him a most pernicious influence. The +time came when he could no longer endure to be separated from them; if +he heard their call, nothing could keep him, he would leave everything +and go after them.[27] + +All this time political events were hurrying on in Umbria and Italy; +after a formidable struggle the allied republics had forced the empire +to recognize them. By the immortal victory of Legnano (May 29, 1176) and +the Peace of Constance (June 25, 1183) the Lombard League had wrested +from Frederick Barbarossa almost all the prerogatives of power; little +was left to the emperor but insignia and outward show. + +From one end of the Peninsula to the other visions of liberty were +making hearts beat high. For an instant it seemed as if all Italy was +about to regain consciousness of its unity, was about to rise up as one +man and hurl the foreigner from its borders; but the rivalries of the +cities were too strong for them to see that local liberty without a +common independence is precarious and illusory. Henry VI., the successor +of Barbarossa (1183-1196), laid Italy under a yoke of iron; he might +perhaps in the end have assured the domination of the empire, if his +career had not been suddenly cut short by a premature death. + +Yet he had not been able to put fetters upon ideas. The communal +movement which was shaking the north of France reverberated beyond the +Alps. + +Although a city of second rank, Assisi had not been behind in the great +struggles for independence.[28] She had been severely chastised, had +lost her franchise, and was obliged to submit to Conrad of Suabia, Duke +of Spoleto, who from the heights of his fortress kept her in subjection. + +But when Innocent III. ascended the pontifical throne (January 8, 1199) +the old duke knew himself to be lost. He made a tender to him of money, +men, his faith even, but the pontiff refused them all. He had no desire +to appear to favor the Tedeschi, who had so odiously oppressed the +country. Conrad of Suabia was forced to yield at mercy, and to go to +Narni to put his submission into the hands of two cardinals. + +Like the practical folk that they were, the Assisans did not hesitate an +instant. No sooner was the count on the road to Narni than they rushed +to the assault of the castle. The arrival of envoys charged to take +possession of it as a pontifical domain by no means gave them pause. Not +one stone of it was left upon another.[29] Then, with incredible +rapidity they enclosed their city with walls, parts of which are still +standing, their formidable ruins a witness to the zeal with which the +whole population labored on them. + +It is natural to think that Francis, then seventeen years old, was one +of the most gallant laborers of those glorious days, and it was perhaps +there that he gained the habit of carrying stones and wielding the +trowel which was destined to serve him so well a few years later. + +Unhappily his fellow-citizens had not the sense to profit by their +hard-won liberty. The lower classes, who in this revolution had become +aware of their strength, determined to follow out the victory by taking +possession of the property of the nobles. The latter took refuge in +their fortified houses in the interior of the city, or in their castles +in the suburbs. The townspeople burned down several of the latter, +whereupon counts and barons made request of aid and succor from the +neighboring cities. + +Perugia was at this time at the apogee of its power,[30] and had already +made many efforts to reduce Assisi to submission. It therefore received +the fugitives with alacrity, and making their cause its own, declared +war upon Assisi. This was in 1202. An encounter took place in the plain +about half way between the two cities, not far from _Ponte San +Giovanni_. Assisi was defeated, and Francis, who was in the ranks, was +made prisoner.[31] + +The treachery of the nobles had not been universal; a few had fought +with the people. It was with them and not with the _popolani_ that +Francis, in consideration of the nobility of his manners,[32] passed the +time of his captivity, which lasted an entire year. He greatly +astonished his companions by his lightness of heart. Very often they +thought him almost crazy. Instead of passing his time in wailing and +cursing he made plans for the future, about which he was glad to talk to +any one who came along. To his fancy life was what the songs of the +troubadours had painted it; he dreamed of glorious adventures, and +always ended by saying: "You will see that one day I shall be adored by +the whole world."[33] + +During these long months Francis must have been pretty rudely undeceived +with respect to those nobles whom from afar he had so heartily admired. +However that may be, he retained with them not only his frankness of +speech, but also his full freedom of action. One of them, a knight, had +always held aloof from the others, out of vanity and bad temper. +Francis, far from leaving him to himself, always showed him affection, +and finally had the joy of reconciling him with his fellow-captives. + +A compromise was finally arrived at between the counts and the people of +Assisi. In November, 1203, the arbitrators designated by the two parties +announced their decision. The commons of Assisi were to repair in a +certain measure the damage done to the lords, and the latter agreed, on +their part, to make no further alliances without authorization of the +commons.[34] Rural serfage was maintained, which proves that the +revolution had been directed by the burghers, and for their own profit. +Ten years more were not, however, to elapse before the common people +also would succeed in achieving liberty. In this cause we shall again +see Francis fighting on the side of the oppressed, earning the title of +_Patriarch of religious democracy_ which has been accorded him by one of +his compatriots.[35] + +The agreement being made the prisoners detained at Perugia were +released, and Francis returned to Assisi. He was twenty-two years old. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Eleven hundred and one metres above the level of the sea; + the plain around Assisi has an average of two hundred, and the + town of two hundred and fifty, metres above. + + [2] As in the majority of Tuscan cities the dimensions of the + houses were formerly fixed by law. + + [3] The biographies say that he died (October 3, 1226) in his + forty-fifth year. But the terms are not precise enough to make + the date 1181 improbable. For that matter the question is of + small importance. A Franciscan of Erfurt, about the middle of + the thirteenth century, fixes the date at 1182. Pertz, vol. + xxiv., p. 193. + + [4] A number of different genealogies have been fabricated for + Francis; they prove only one thing, the wreck of the Franciscan + idea. How little they understood their hero, who thought to + magnify and glorify him by making him spring from a noble + family! "_Quae rero_," says Father Suysken, S. J., "_de ejus + gentilitio insigni disserit Waddingus, non lubet mihi attingere. + Factis et virtutibus eluxit S. Franciscus non proavorum + insignibus aut titulis, quos nec desideravit_." (A. SS. p. + 557a.) It could not be better said. + + In the fourteenth century a whole cycle of legends had gathered + about his birth. It could not have been otherwise. They all grow + out of the story that tells of an old man who comes knocking at + the parents' door, begging them to let him take the infant in + his arms, when he announces that it will do great things. Under + this form the episode certainly presents nothing impossible, but + very soon marvellous incidents begin to gather around this + nucleus until it becomes unrecognizable. Bartholomew of Pisa has + preserved it in almost its primitive form. _Conform_., 28a 2. + Francis certainly had several brothers [3 Soc., 9. _Mater_ ... + _quae cum prae ceteris filiis diligebat_], but they have left no + trace in history except the incident related farther on. Vide p. + 44. Christofani publishes several official pieces concerning + _Angelo_, St. Francis's brother, and his descendants: _Storie + d'Assisi_, vol. i., p. 78 ff. In these documents Angelo is called + _Angelus Pice_, and his son _Johannectus olim Angeli domine + Pice_, appellations which might be cited in favor of the noble + origin of Pica. + + [5] Documentary History of Languedoc, iii., p. 607. + + [6] The Cathedral of Assisi. To this day all the children of the + town are baptized there; the other churches are without fonts. + + [7] 3 Soc., 1; 2 Cel., 1, 1. Vide also 3 Soc., edition of + Pesaro, 1831. + + [8] The _langue d'oil_ was at this epoch the international + language of Europe; in Italy it was the language of games and + tourneys, and was spoken in the petty princely courts of + Northern Italy. Vide Dante, _De vulgari eloquio_, lib. I., cap. + x. Brunetto Latini wrote in French because "the speech of France + is more delectable and more common to all people." At the other + end of Europe the Abbot of Stade, in Westphalia, spoke of the + _nobility of the Gallic dialect_. _Ann._ 1224 _apud_ Pertz, + Script. xvi. We shall find St. Francis often making allusions to + the tales of the Round Table and the _Chanson de Roland_. + + [9] We must not be led astray by certain remarks upon his + ignorance, from which one might at first conclude that he knew + absolutely nothing; for example, 2 Cel., 3, 45: _Quamvis homo + iste beatus nullis fuerit scientiae studiis innutritus_. This + evidently refers to science such as the Franciscans soon came to + apprehend it, and to theology in particular. + + The close of the passage in Celano is itself an evident proof of + this. + + [10] Bon., 219; Cf. A. SS., p. 560a. 1 Cel., 23. + + [11] Ozanam, _Documents inedits pour servir a l'histoire + litteraire d'Italie du VIIIe au XIIIe siecle_. Paris, 1851, 8vo, + pp. 65, 68, 71, 73. Fauriel, _Dante et les origines de la + litterature italienne_. Paris, 1854, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 332, + 379, 429. + + [12] V. 3 Soc., 51 and 67; 2 Cel., 3, 110; Bon., 55; 2 Cel., 3, + 99; Eccl., 6. Bernard de Besse, Turin MS., fo. 96a, calls + Brother Leo the secretary of St. Francis. + + [13] See page 357, n. 8. Bon., 51 and 308. + + [14] 1 Cel., 16; 3 Soc., 10; 23; 24; 33; 2 Cel., 1, 8; 3, 67. + See also the Testament of St. Clara and the Speculum, 119a. + + [15] _Primum namque cum fari vel balbutire incipiunt, turpia + quaedam et execrabilia valde signis et vocibus edocentur pueri ii + nondum nati: et cum tempus ablactationis advenerit quaedam luxu + et lascivia plena non solum fari sed et operari coguntur.... Sed + et cum paulo plusculum aetate profecerint, se ipsis impellentibus, + semper ad deteriora opera dilabuntur._ 1 Cel., 1. + + [16] 2 Cel., 1. Cf. _Conform._, 14a, 1. There is nothing + impossible in her having been of Provencal origin, but there is + nothing to indicate it in any document worthy of credence. She + was no doubt of noble stock, for official documents always give + her the title _Domina_. Cristofani I., p. 78 ff. Cf. _Matrem + honestissimam habuit_. 3 Soc., Edition of Pesaro, 1831, p. 17. + + [17] The reading given by the _Conform_., 14a, 1, _Meritorum + gratia dei filium ipsum noveritis affuturum_, seems better than + that of 2 Cel., 1, 1, _Multorum gratia Dei filiorum patrem ipsum + noveritis affuturum_. Cf. 3 Soc., 2. + + [18] Bernardo of Besse, Turin MS., 102 b.: _An integer carne + desiderans ... quod non extorsisset a Sancto ... meruit obtinere + a Deo quod virgo esset_. Cf. _Conform_., 211a, 1, and A. SS., p. + 560f. + + [19] "_In illa antiphona quae incipit: Hic vir in vanitatibus + nutritus insolenter, fiat talis mutatis: Divinis karismatibus + preventus est clementer." Archiv._, vi., p. 35. + + [20] Vide p. 395, the decision of the chapter of 1263 ordaining + the destruction of legends earlier than that of Bonaventura. + + [21] 1 Cel., 1 and 2; 89; 3 Soc., 2. Cf. A. SS., 560c. Vincent + of Beauvais, _Spec. hist. lib._, 29, cap. 97. + + [22] Pierre Vidal was at the court of Boniface, Marquis of + Montferrat, about 1195, and liked his surroundings so well that + he desired to establish himself there. K. Bartsch, _Piere + Vidal's Lieder_, Berlin, 1857, n. 41. Ern. Monaci, _Testi + antichi provenzali_, Rome, 1889, col. 67. One should read this + piece to have an idea of the fervor with which this poet shared + the hopes of Italy and desired its independence. This political + note is found again in a _tenzon_ of Manfred II. Lancia, + addressed to Pierre Vidal. (V. Monaci, _loc. cit._, col. + 68.)--Gaucelme Faidit was also at this court as well as Raimbaud + of Vacqueyras (1180-1207).--Folquet de Romans passed nearly all + his life in Italy. Bernard of Ventadour (1145-1195), Peirol of + Auvergne (1180-1220), and many others abode there a longer or + shorter time. Very soon the Italians began to sing in Provencal, + among others this Manfred Lancia, and Albert Marquis of + Malaspina (1162-1210), Pietro della Caravana, who in 1196 + stirred up the Lombard towns against Henry VI., Pietro della + Mula, who about 1200 was at the court of Cortemiglia. Fragments + from these poets may be found in Monaci, _op. cit._, col. 69 ff. + + [23] Soc., 3; 2 Cel., 1, 1. + + [24] _Cum esset gloriosus animo et nollet aliquem se + praecellere_, Giord. 20. + + [25] 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc., 3; Bon., 7. Cf. A. SS., p. 562. + + [26] 1 Cel., 2; Bon., 6; _Vit. sec. apud_, A. SS., p. 560. + + [27] 3 Soc., 9. + + [28] In 1174 Assisi was taken by the chancellor of the empire, + Christian, Archbishop of Mayence. A. Cristofani, i., p. 69. + + [29] All these events are related in the _Gesta Innocentii III. + ab auctore coaetaneo_, edited by Baluze: Migne, _Inn. op._, vol. + i., col. xxiv. See especially the letter of Innocent, + _Rectoribus Tusciae: Mirari cogimur_, of April 16, 1198. Migne, + vol. i., col. 75-77. Potthast, No. 82. + + [30] See Luigi Bonazzi, _Storia di Perugia_, 2 vols., 8vo. + Perugia, 1875-1879 vol. i., cap. v., pp. 257-322. + + [31] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1. Cristofani, _op. cit._, i., p. 88 + ff.; Bonazzi, _op. cit._, p. 257. + + [32] 3 Soc., 4. + + [33] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1. + + [34] See this arbitration in Cristofani, _op. cit._, p. 93 ff. + + [35] Cristofani, _loc. cit._, p. 70. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER II + +STAGES OF CONVERSION + +Spring 1204-Spring 1206 + + +On his return to Assisi Francis at once resumed his former mode of life; +perhaps he even tried in some degree to make up for lost time. Fetes, +games, festivals, and dissipations began again. He did his part in them +so well that he soon fell gravely ill.[1] For long weeks he looked +death so closely in the face that the physical crisis brought about a +moral one. Thomas of Celano has preserved for us an incident of +Francis's convalescence. He was regaining strength little by little and +had begun to go about the house, when one day he felt a desire to walk +abroad, to contemplate nature quietly, and so take hold again of life. +Leaning on a stick he bent his steps toward the city gate. + +The nearest one, called _Porta Nuova_, is the very one which opens upon +the finest scenery. Immediately on passing through it one finds one's +self in the open country; a fold of the hill hides the city, and cuts +off every sound that might come from it. Before you lies the winding +road to Foligno; at the left the imposing mass of Mount Subasio; at the +right the Umbrian plain with its farms, its villages, its cloud-like +hills, on whose slopes pines, cedars, oaks, the vine, and the olive-tree +shed abroad an incomparable brightness and animation. The whole country +sparkles with beauty, a beauty harmonious and thoroughly human, that is, +made to the measure of man. + +Francis had hoped by this sight to recover the delicious sensations of +his youth. With the sharpened sensibility of the convalescent he +breathed in the odors of the spring-time, but spring-time did not come, +as he had expected, to his heart. This smiling nature had for him only a +message of sadness. He had believed that the breezes of this beloved +country-side would carry away the last shudders of the fever, and +instead he felt in his heart a discouragement a thousand-fold more +painful than any physical ill. The miserable emptiness of his life +suddenly appeared before him; he was terrified at his solitude, the +solitude of a great soul in which there is no altar. + +Memories of the past assailed him with intolerable bitterness; he was +seized with a disgust of himself, his former ambitions seemed to him +ridiculous or despicable. He went home overwhelmed with the weight of a +new suffering. + +In such hours of moral anguish man seeks a refuge either in love or in +faith. Unhappily the family and friends of Francis were incapable of +understanding him. As to religion, it was for him, as for the greater +number of his contemporaries, that crass fetichism with Christian +terminology which is far from having entirely disappeared. With certain +men, in fact, piety consists in making one's self right with a king more +powerful than any other, but also more severe and capricious, who is +called God. One proves one's loyalty to him as to other sovereigns, by +putting his image more or less everywhere, and punctually paying the +imposts levied by his ministers. If you are stingy, if you cheat, you +run the risk of being severely chastised, but there are courtiers around +the king who willingly render services. For a reasonable recompense +they will seize a favorable moment to adroitly make away with the +sentence of your condemnation or to slip before the prince a form of +plenary absolution which in a moment of good humor he will sign without +looking at it.[2] + +Such was the religious basis upon which Francis had lived up to this +time. He did not so much as dream of seeking the spiritual balm which he +needed for the healing of his wounds. By a holy violence he was to +arrive at last at a pure and virile faith; but the road to this point is +long, and sown thick with obstacles, and at the moment at which we have +arrived he had not yet entered upon it, he did not even suspect its +existence; all he knew was that pleasure leads to nothingness, to +satiety and self-contempt. + +He knew this, and yet he was about to throw himself once more into a +life of pleasure. The body is so weak, so prone to return to the old +paths, that it seeks them of itself, the moment an energetic will does +not stop it. Though no longer under any illusion with respect to it, +Francis returned to his former life. Was he trying to divert his mind, +to forget that day of bitter thought? We might suppose so, seeing the +ardor with which he threw himself into his new projects.[3] + +An opportunity offered itself for him to realize his dreams of glory. A +knight of Assisi, perhaps one of those who had been in captivity with +him at Perugia, was preparing to go to Apulia under orders from Count +Gentile.[4] The latter was to join Gaultier de Brienne, who was in the +south of Italy fighting on the side of Innocent III. Gaultier's renown +was immense all through the Peninsula; he was held to be one of the most +gallant knights of the time. Francis's heart bounded with joy; it seemed +to him that at the side of such a hero he should soon cover himself with +glory. His departure was decided upon, and he gave himself up, without +reserve, to his joy. + +He made his preparations with ostentatious prodigality. His equipment, +of a princely luxury, soon became the universal subject of conversation. +It was all the more talked about because the chief of the expedition, +ruined perhaps by the revolution of 1202 or by the expenses of a long +captivity, was constrained to order things much more modestly.[5] But +with Francis kindliness was much stronger than love of display. He gave +his sumptuous clothing to a poor knight. The biographies do not say +whether or not it was to the very one whom he was to accompany.[6] To +see him running hither and thither in all the bustle of preparation one +would have thought him the son of a great lord. His companions were +doubtless not slow to feel chafed by his ways and to promise themselves +to make him cruelly expiate them. As for him, he perceived nothing of +the jealousies which he was exciting, and night and day he thought only +of his future glory. In his dreams he seemed to see his parents' house +completely transformed. Instead of bales of cloth he saw there only +gleaming bucklers hanging on the walls, and arms of all kinds as in a +seignorial castle. He saw himself there, beside a noble and beautiful +bride, and he never suspected that in this vision there was any presage +of the future which was reserved for him. Never had any one seen him so +communicative, so radiant; and when he was asked for the hundredth time +whence came all this joy, he would reply with surprising assurance: "I +know that I shall become a great prince."[7] + +The day of departure arrived at last. Francis on horseback, the little +buckler of a page on his arm, bade adieu to his natal city with joy, and +with the little troop took the road to Spoleto which winds around the +base of Mount Subasio. + +What happened next? The documents do not say. They confine themselves to +reporting that that very evening Francis had a vision which decided him +to return to Assisi.[8] Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to +conjecture that once fairly on the way the young nobles took their +revenge on the son of Bernardone for his airs as of a future prince. At +twenty years one hardly pardons things like these. If, as we are often +assured, there is a pleasure unsuspected by the profane in getting even +with a stranger, it must be an almost divine delight to get even with a +young coxcomb upon whom one has to exercise so righteous a vengeance. + +Arriving at Spoleto, Francis took to his bed. A fever was consuming him; +in a few hours he had seen all his dreams crumble away. The very next +day he took the road back to Assisi.[9] + +So unexpected a return made a great stir in the little city, and was a +cruel blow to his parents. As for him, he doubled his charities to the +poor, and sought to keep aloof from society, but his old companions came +flocking about him from all quarters, hoping to find in him once more +the tireless purveyor of their idle wants. He let them have their way. + +Nevertheless a great change had taken place in him. Neither pleasures +nor work could long hold him; he spent a portion of his days in long +country rambles, often accompanied by a friend most different from those +whom until now we have seen about him. The name of this friend is not +known, but from certain indications one is inclined to believe that he +was Bombarone da Beviglia, the future Brother Elias.[10] + +Francis now went back to his reflections at the time of his recovery, +but with less of bitterness. His own heart and his friend agreed in +saying to him that it is possible no longer to trust either in pleasure +or in glory and yet to find worthy causes to which to consecrate one's +life. It is at this moment that religious thought seems to have awaked +in him. From the moment that he saw this new way of life his desire to +run in it had all the fiery impetuosity which he put into all his +actions. He was continually calling upon his friend and leading him +apart into the most sequestered paths. + +But intense conflicts are indescribable. We struggle, we suffer alone. +It is the nocturnal wrestling of Bethel, mysterious and solitary. The +soul of Francis was great enough to endure this tragic duel. His friend +had marvellously understood his part in this contest. He gave a few rare +counsels, but much of the time he contented himself with manifesting his +solicitude by following Francis everywhere and never asking to know more +than he could tell him. + +Often Francis directed his steps to a grotto in the country near Assisi, +which he entered alone. This rocky cave concealed in the midst of the +olive trees became for faithful Franciscans that which Gethsemane is for +Christians. Here Francis relieved his overcharged heart by heavy groans. +Sometimes, seized with a real horror for the disorders of his youth, he +would implore mercy, but the greater part of the time his face was +turned toward the future; feverishly he sought for that higher truth to +which he longed to dedicate himself, that pearl of great price of which +the gospel speaks: "Whosoever seeks, finds; he who asks, receives; and +to him who knocks, it shall be opened." + +When he came out after long hours of seclusion the pallor of his +countenance, the painful tension of his features told plainly enough of +the intensity of his asking and the violence of his knocks.[11] + +The inward man, to borrow the language of the mystics, was not yet +formed in him, but it needed only the occasion to bring about the final +break with the past. The occasion soon presented itself. + +His friends were making continual efforts to induce him to take up his +old habits again. One day he invited them all to a sumptuous banquet. +They thought they had conquered, and as in old times they proclaimed him +king of the revels. The feast was prolonged far into the night, and at +its close the guests rushed out into the streets, which they filled with +song and uproar. Suddenly they perceived that Francis was no longer with +them. After long searching they at last discovered him far behind them, +still holding in his hand his sceptre of king of misrule, but plunged in +so profound a revery that he seemed to be riveted to the ground and +unconscious of all that was going on. + +"What is the matter with you?" they cried, bustling about him as if to +awaken him. + +"Don't you see that he is thinking of taking a wife?" said one. + +"Yes," answered Francis, arousing himself and looking at them with a +smile which they did not recognize. "I am thinking of taking a wife +more beautiful, more rich, more pure than you could ever imagine."[12] + +This reply marks a decisive stage in his inner life. By it he cut the +last links which bound him to trivial pleasures. It remains for us to +see through what struggles he was to give himself to God, after having +torn himself free from the world. His friends probably understood +nothing of all that had taken place, but he had become aware of the +abyss that was opening between them and him. They soon accepted the +situation. + +As for himself, no longer having any reason for caution, he gave himself +up more than ever to his passion for solitude. If he often wept over his +past dissipations and wondered how he could have lived so long without +tasting the bitterness of the dregs of the enchanted cup, he never +allowed himself to be overwhelmed with vain regrets. + +The poor had remained faithful to him. They gave him an admiration of +which he knew himself to be unworthy, yet which had for him an infinite +sweetness. The future grew bright to him in the light of their +gratitude, of the timid, trembling affection which they dared not utter +but which his heart revealed to him; this worship which he does not +deserve to-day he will deserve to-morrow, at least he promises himself +to do all he can to deserve it. + +To understand these feelings one must understand the condition of the +poor of a place like Assisi. In an agricultural country poverty does +not, as elsewhere, almost inevitably involve moral destitution, that +degeneration of the entire human being which renders charity so +difficult. Most of the poor persons whom Francis knew were in straits +because of war, of bad harvests, or of illness. In such cases material +succor is but a small part. Sympathy is the thing needed above all. +Francis had treasures of it to lavish upon them. + +He was well requited. All sorrows are sisters; a secret intelligence +establishes itself between troubled hearts, however diverse their +griefs. The poor people felt that their friend also suffered; they did +not precisely know with what, but they forgot their own sorrows in +pitying their benefactor. Suffering is the true cement of love. For men +to love each other truly, they must have shed tears together. + +As yet no influence strictly ecclesiastic had been felt by Francis. +Doubtless there was in his heart that leaven of Christian faith which +enters one's being without his being aware; but the interior +transformation which was going on in him was as yet the fruit of his own +intuition. This period was drawing to a close. His thought was soon to +find expression, and by that very act to receive the stamp of external +circumstances. Christian instruction will give a precise form to ideas +of which as yet he has but vague glimpses, but he will find in this form +a frame in which his thought will perhaps lose something of its +originality and vigor; the new wine will be put into old wine-skins. + +By degrees he was becoming calm, was finding in the contemplation of +nature joys which up to this time he had sipped but hastily, almost +unconsciously, and of which he was now learning to relish the flavor. He +drew from them not simply soothing; in his heart he felt new compassions +springing into life, and with these the desire to act, to give himself, +to cry aloud to these cities perched upon the hill-tops, threatening as +warriors who eye one another before the fray, that they should be +reconciled and love one another. + +Certainly, at this time Francis had no glimpse of what he was some time +to become; but these hours are perhaps the most important in the +evolution of his thought; it is to them that his life owes that air of +liberty, that perfume of the fields which make it as different from the +piety of the sacristy as from that of the drawing-room. + +About this time he made a pilgrimage to Rome, whether to ask counsel of +his friends, whether as a penance imposed by his confessor, or from a +mere impulse, no one knows. Perhaps he thought that in a visit to the +_Holy Apostles_, as people said then, he should find the answers to all +the questions which he was asking himself. + +At any rate he went. It is hardly probable that he received from the +visit any religious influence, for his biographers relate the pained +surprise which he experienced when he saw in Saint Peter's how meagre +were the offerings of pilgrims. He wanted to give everything to the +prince of the apostles, and emptying his purse he threw its entire +contents upon the tomb. + +This journey was marked by a more important incident. Many a time when +succoring the poor he had asked himself if he himself was able to endure +poverty; no one knows the weight of a burden until he has carried it, at +least for a moment, upon his own shoulders. He desired to know what it +is like to have nothing, and to depend for bread upon the charity or the +caprice of the passer by.[13] + +There were swarms of beggars crowding the Piazza before the great +basilica. He borrowed the rags of one of them, lending him his garment +in exchange, and a whole day he stood there, fasting, with outstretched +hand. The act was a great victory, the triumph of compassion over +natural pride. Returning to Assisi, he doubled his kindnesses to those +of whom he had truly the right to call himself the brother. With such +sentiments he could not long escape the influence of the Church. + +On all the roadsides in the environs of the city there were then, as +now, numerous chapels. Very often he must have heard mass in these +rustic sanctuaries, alone with the celebrant. Recognizing the tendency +of simple natures to bring home to themselves everything that they hear, +it is easy to understand his emotion and agitation when the priest, +turning toward him, would read the gospel for the day. The Christian +ideal was revealed to him, bringing an answer to his secret anxieties. +And when, a few moments later, he would plunge into the forest, all his +thoughts would be with the poor carpenter of Nazareth, who placed +himself in his path, saying to him, even to him, "Follow thou me." + +Nearly two years had passed since the day when he felt the first shock; +a life of renunciation appeared to him as the goal of his efforts, but +he felt that his spiritual novitiate was not yet ended. He suddenly +experienced a bitter assurance of the fact. + +He was riding on horseback one day, his mind more than ever possessed +with the desire to lead a life of absolute devotion, when at a turn of +the road he found himself face to face with a leper. The frightful +malady had always inspired in him an invincible repulsion. He could not +control a movement of horror, and by instinct he turned his horse in +another direction. + +If the shock had been severe, the defeat was complete. He reproached +himself bitterly. To cherish such fine projects and show himself so +cowardly! Was the knight of Christ then going to give up his arms? He +retraced his steps and springing from his horse he gave to the astounded +sufferer all the money that he had; then kissed his hand as he would +have done to a priest.[14] This new victory, as he himself saw, marked +an era in his spiritual life.[15] + +It is far indeed from hatred of evil to love of good. Those are more +numerous than we think who, after severe experience, have renounced what +the ancient liturgies call the world, with its pomps and lusts; but the +greater number of them have not at the bottom of their hearts the +smallest grain of pure love. In vulgar souls disillusion leaves only a +frightful egoism. + +This victory of Francis had been so sudden that he desired to complete +it; a few days later he went to the lazaretto.[16] One can imagine the +stupefaction of these wretches at the entrance of the brilliant +cavalier. If in our days a visit to the sick in our hospitals is a real +event awaited with feverish impatience, what must not have been the +appearance of Francis among these poor recluses? One must have seen +sufferers thus abandoned, to understand what joy may be given by an +affectionate word, sometimes even a simple glance. + +Moved and transported, Francis felt his whole being vibrate with +unfamiliar sensations. For the first time he heard the unspeakable +accents of a gratitude which cannot find words burning enough to express +itself, which admires and adores the benefactor almost like an angel +from heaven. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1 Cel., 3; cf. Bon., 8, and A. SS., p. 563c. + + [2] It is enough to have lived in the country of Naples to know + that there is nothing exaggerated in this picture. I am much + surprised that intelligent and good men fancy that to change the + religious formula of these people would suffice to transform + them. What a mistake! To-day, as in the time of Jesus, the + important matter is not to adore on Mount Moriah or Mount Zion, + but to adore in spirit and in truth. + + [3] 1 Cel., 3 and 4. + + [4] 3 Soc., 5. In the existing state of the documents it is + impossible to know whom this name designates, for at that time + it was borne by a number of counts who are only to be + distinguished by the names of their castles. The three following + are possible: 1. _Gentile comes de Campilio_, who in 1215 paid + homage for his property to the commune of Orvieto: _Le antiche + cronache di Orvieto, Arch. stor. ital._, 5th series., 1889, + iii., p. 47. 2. _Gentilis comes filius Alberici_, who with + others had made donation of a monastery to the Bishop of + Foligno: Confirmatory Bull _In eminenti_ of April 10, 1210: + Ughelli, _Italia Sacra_, 1, p. 697; Potthast, 3974. 3. _Gentilis + comes Manupelli_; whom we find in July, 1200, assuring to + Palermo the victory over the troops sent by Innocent III. + against Marckwald; Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._, i. p., 46 + ff. Cf. Potthast, 1126. _Gesta Innocenti_, Migne, vol. i., + xxxii, ff. Cf. Huillard-Breholles, _loc. cit._, pages 60, 84, + 89, 101. It is wrong to consider that Gentile could here be a + mere adjective; the 3 Soc. say _Gentile nomine_. + + [5] 1 Cel., 4; 3 Soc., 5. + + [6] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 8. + + [7] 1 Cel., 5; 3 Soc., 5; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 9. + + [8] 3 Soc., 6; Bon., 9; 2 Cel., 1, 2. + + [9] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2. + + [10] These days are recalled by Celano with a very particular + precision. It is very improbable that Francis, usually so + reserved as to his personal experience, should have told him + about them (2 Cel., 3, 68 and 42, cf. Bon., 144). On the other + hand, nothing forbids his having been informed on this matter by + Brother Elias. (I strongly suspect the legend which tells of an + old man appearing on the day Francis was born and begging + permission to take the child in his arms, saying, "To-day, two + infants were born--this one, who will be among the best of men, + and another, who will be among the worst"--of having been + invented by the _zelanti_ against Brother Elias. It is evident + that such a story is aimed at some one. Whom, if not him who was + afterward to appear as the Anti-Francis?) We have sufficient + details about the eleven first disciples to know that none of + them is here in question. There is nothing surprising in the + fact that Elias does not appear in the earliest years of the + Order (1209-1212), because after having practised at Assisi his + double calling of schoolmaster and carriage-trimmer (_suebat + cultras et docebat puerulos psalterium legere_, Salimbene, p. + 402) he was _scriptor_ at Bologna (Eccl., 13). And from the + psychological point of view this hypothesis would admirably + explain the ascendency which Elias was destined always to + exercise over his master. Still it remains difficult to + understand why Celano did not name Elias here, but the passage, + 1 Cel., 6, differs in the different manuscripts (cf. A. SS. and + Amoni's edition, p. 14) and may have been retouched after the + latter's fall. + + Beviglia is a simple farm three-quarters of an hour northwest of + Assisi, almost half way to Petrignano. Half an hour from Assisi + in the direction of Beviglia is a grotto, which may very well be + that of which we are about to speak. + + [11] 1 Cel., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 5; 3 Soc., 8, 12; Bon., 10, 11, 12. + + [12] 3 Soc., 7; 1 Cel., 7; 2 Cel., 1, 3; 3 Soc., 13. + + [13] 3 Soc., 8-10; Bon., 13, 14; 2 Cel., 1, 4. + + [14] To this day in the centre and south of Italy they kiss the + hand of priests and monks. + + [15] See the Will. Cf. 3 Soc., 11; 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; A. SS., + p. 566. + + [16] 3 Soc., 11; Bon., 13. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CHURCH ABOUT 1209 + + +St. Francis was inspired as much as any man may be, but it would be a +palpable error to study him apart from his age and from the conditions +in which he lived. + +We know that he desired and believed his life to be an imitation of +Jesus, but what we know about the Christ is in fact so little, that St. +Francis's life loses none of its strangeness for that. His conviction +that he was but an imitator preserved him from all temptation to pride, +and enabled him to proclaim his views with incomparable vigor, without +seeming in the least to be preaching himself. + +We must therefore neither isolate him from external influences nor show +him too dependent on them. During the period of his life at which we are +now arrived, 1205-1206, the religious situation of Italy must more than +at any other time have influenced his thought and urged him into the +path which he finally entered. + +The morals of the clergy were as corrupt as ever, rendering any serious +reform impossible. If some among the heresies of the time were pure and +without reproach, many were trivial and impure. Here and there a few +voices were raised in protest, but the prophesyings of Gioacchino di +Fiore had no more power than those of St. Hildegarde to put a stop to +wickedness. Luke Wadding, the pious Franciscan annalist, begins his +chronicle with this appalling picture. The advance in historic research +permits us to retouch it somewhat more in detail, but the conclusion +remains the same; without Francis of Assisi the Church would perhaps +have foundered and the Cathari would have won the day. The _little poor +man_, driven away, cast out of doors by the creatures of Innocent III., +saved Christianity. + +We cannot here make a thorough study of the state of the Church at the +beginning of the thirteenth century; it will suffice to trace some of +its most prominent features. + +The first glance at the secular clergy brings out into startling +prominence the ravages of simony; the traffic in ecclesiastical places +was carried on with boundless audacity; benefices were put up to the +highest bidder, and Innocent III. admitted that fire and sword alone +could heal this plague.[1] Prelates who declined to be bought by +_propinae_, fees, were held up as astounding exceptions![2] + +"They are stones for understanding," it was said of the officers of the +Roman _curia_, "wood for justice, fire for wrath, iron for forgiveness; +deceitful as foxes, proud as bulls, greedy and insatiate as the +minotaur."[3] The praises showered upon Pope Eugenius III. for +rebuffing a priest who, at the beginning of a lawsuit, offered him a +golden mark, speak only too plainly as to the morals of Rome in this +respect.[4] + +The bishops, on their part, found a thousand methods, often most out of +keeping with their calling, for extorting money from the simple +priests.[5] Violent, quarrelsome, contentious, they were held up to +ridicule in popular ballads from one end of Europe to the other.[6] As +to the priests, they bent all their powers to accumulate benefices, and +secure inheritances from the dying, stooping to the most despicable +measures for providing for their bastards.[7] + +The monastic orders were hardly more reputable. A great number of these +had sprung up in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; their reputation +for sanctity soon stimulated the liberality of the faithful, and thus +fatally brought about their own decadence. Few communities had shown the +discretion of the first monks of the Order of Grammont in the diocese of +Limoges. When Stephen de Muret, its founder, began to manifest his +sanctity by giving sight to a blind man, his disciples took alarm at the +thought of the wealth and notoriety which was likely to come to them +from this cause. Pierre of Limoges, who had succeeded Stephen as prior, +went at once to his tomb, praying: + + "O servant of God, thou hast shown us the way of poverty, and + behold, thou wouldst make us leave the strait and difficult path + of salvation, and wouldst set us in the broad road of eternal + death. Thou hast preached to us (the virtues of) solitude, and + thou art about to change this place into a fair and a + market-place. We know well that thou art a saint! Thou hast no + need to prove it to us by performing miracles which will destroy + our humility. Be not so zealous for thy reputation as to augment + it to the injury of our salvation. This is what we ask of thee, + expecting it of thy love. If not, we declare unto thee by the + obedience which we once owed to thee, we will unearth thy bones + and throw them into the river." + +Stephen obeyed up to the time of his canonization (1189), but from that +time forward ambition, avarice, and luxury made such inroads upon the +solitude of Grammont that its monks became the byword and scoff of the +Christian world.[8] + +Pierre of Limoges was not entirely without reason in fearing that his +monastery would be transformed into a fair-ground; members of the +chapters of most of the cathedrals kept wine-shops literally under their +shadows, and certain monasteries did not hesitate to attract custom by +jugglers of all kinds and even by courtesans.[9] + +To form an idea of the degradation of the greater number of the monks it +is not enough to read the oratorical and often exaggerated reproofs of +preachers obliged to strike hard in order to produce an effect. We must +run through the collection of bulls, where appeals to the court of Rome +against assassinations, violations, incests, adulteries, recur on +almost every page. It is easy to see that even an Innocent III. might +feel himself helpless and tempted to yield to discouragement, in the +face of so many ills.[10] + +The best spirits were turning toward the Orient, asking themselves if +perchance the Greek Church might not suddenly come forward to purify all +these abuses, and receive for herself the inheritance of her sister.[11] + +The clergy, though no longer respected, still overawed the people +through their superstitious terror of their power. Here and there might +have been perceived many a forewarning of direful revolts; the roads to +Rome were crowded with monks hastening to claim the protection of the +Holy See against the people among whom they lived. The Pope would +promptly declare an interdict, but it was not to be expected that such a +resource would avail forever.[12] + +To maintain the privileges of the Church the papacy was often obliged to +spread the mantle of its protection over those who deserved it least. +Its clients were not always as interesting as the unfortunate +Ingelburge. It would be easier to give unreserved admiration to the +conduct of Innocent III. if in this matter one could feel certain that +his only interest was to maintain the cause of a poor abandoned woman. +But it is only too evident that he desired above all to keep up the +ecclesiastical immunities. This is very evident in his intervention in +favor of Waldemar, Bishop of Schleswig. + +Yet we must not assume that all was corrupt in the bosom of the Church; +then, as always, the evil made more noise than the good, and the voices +of those who desired a reformation aroused only passing interest. + +Among the populace there was superstition unimaginable; the pulpit, +which ought to have shed abroad some little light, was as yet open only +to the bishops, and the few pastors who did not neglect their duty in +this regard accomplished very little, being too much absorbed in other +duties. It was the birth of the mendicant orders which obliged the +entire body of secular clergy to take up the practice of preaching. + +Public worship, reduced to liturgical ceremonies, no longer preserved +anything which appealed to the intelligence; it was more and more +becoming a sort of self-acting magic formula. Once upon this road, the +absurd was not far distant. Those who deemed themselves pious told of +miracles performed by relics with no need of aid from the moral act of +faith. + +In one case a parrot, being carried away by a kite, uttered the +invocation dear to his mistress, "_Sancte Thoma adjuva me_," and was +miraculously rescued. In another, a merchant of Groningen, having +purloined an arm of St. John the Baptist, grew rich as if by enchantment +so long as he kept it concealed in his house, but was reduced to beggary +so soon as, his secret being discovered, the relic was taken away from +him and placed in a church.[13] + +These stories, we must observe, do not come from ignorant enthusiasts, +hidden away in obscure country places; they are given us by one of the +most learned monks of his time, who relates them to a novice by way of +forming his mind! + +Relics, then, were held to be neither more nor less than talismans. Not +alone did they perform miracles upon those who were in no special state +of faith or devotion, the more potent among them healed the sick in +spite of themselves. A chronicler relates that the body of Saint Martin +of Tours had in 887 been secretly transported to some remote hiding +place for fear of the Danish invasion. When the time came for bringing +it home again, there were in Touraine two impotent men who, thanks to +their infirmity, gained large sums by begging. They were thrown into +great terror by the tidings that the relics were being brought back: +Saint Martin would certainly heal them and take away their means of +livelihood. Their fears were only too well founded. They had taken to +flight, but being too lame to walk fast they had not yet crossed the +frontier of Touraine when the saint arrived and healed them! + +Hundreds of similar stories might be collected, statistics might be made +up to show, at the accession of Innocent III., the greater number of +episcopal thrones occupied by unworthy bishops, the religious houses +peopled with idle and debauched monks; but would this give a truly +accurate picture of the Church at this epoch? I do not think so. In the +first place, we must reckon with the choice spirits, who were without +doubt more numerous than is generally supposed. Five righteous men would +have saved Sodom; the Almighty did not find them there, but he perhaps +might have found them had He Himself made search for them instead of +trusting to Lot. The Church of the thirteenth century had them, and it +was for their sakes that the whirlwind of heresy did not sweep it away. + +But this is not all: the Church of that time offered a noble spectacle +of moral grandeur. We must learn to lift our eyes from the wretched +state of things which has just been pointed out and fix them on the +pontifical throne and recognize the beauty of the struggle there going +on: a power wholly spiritual undertaking to command the rulers of the +world, as the soul masters the body, and triumphing in the end. It is +true that both soldiers and generals of this army were often little +better than ruffians, but here again, in order to be just, we must +understand the end they aimed at. + +In that iron age, when brute force was the only force, the Church, +notwithstanding its wounds, offered to the world the spectacle of +peasants and laboring men receiving the humble homage of the highest +potentates of earth, simply because, seated on the throne of Saint +Peter, they represented the moral law. This is why Alighieri and many +others before and after him, though they might heap curses on wicked +ministers, yet in the depths of their heart were never without an +immense compassion and an ardent love for the Church which they never +ceased to call their mother. + +Still, everybody was not like them, and the vices of the clergy explain +the innumerable heresies of that day. All of them had a certain success, +from those which were simply the outcry of an outraged conscience, like +that of the Waldenses, to the most absurd of them all, like that of Eon +de l'Etoile. Some of these movements were for great and sacred causes; +but we must not let our sympathies be so moved by the persecutions +suffered by heretics as to cloud our judgment. It would have been better +had Rome triumphed by gentleness, by education and holiness, but +unhappily a soldier may not always choose his weapons, and when life is +at stake he seizes the first he finds within his reach. The papacy has +not always been reactionary and obscurantist; when it overthrew the +Cathari, for example, its victory was that of reason and good sense. + +The list of the heresies of the thirteenth century is already long, but +it is increasing every day, to the great joy of those erudite ones who +are making strenuous efforts to classify everything in that tohu-bohu of +mysticism and folly. In that day heresy was very much alive; it was +consequently very complex and its powers of transformation infinite. One +may indicate its currents, mark its direction, but to go farther is to +condemn oneself to utter confusion in this medley of impulsive, +passionate, fantastic movements which were born, shot upward, and fell +to earth again, at the caprice of a thousand incomprehensible +circumstances. In certain counties of England there are at the present +day villages having as many as eight and ten places of worship for a few +hundreds of inhabitants. Many of these people change their denomination +every three or four years, returning to that they first quitted, leaving +it again only to enter it anew, and so on as long as they live. Their +leaders set the example, throwing themselves enthusiastically into each +new movement only to leave it before long. They would all alike find it +difficult to give an intelligible reason for these changes. They say +that the Spirit guides them, and it would be unfair to disbelieve them, +but the historian who should investigate conditions like these would +lose his head in the labyrinth unless he made a separate study of each +of these Protean movements. They are surely not worth the trouble. + +In a somewhat similar condition was a great part of Christendom under +Innocent III.; but while the sects of which I have just spoken move in a +very narrow circle of dogmas and ideas, in the thirteenth century every +sort of excess followed in rapid succession. Without the slightest +pause of transition men passed through the most contradictory systems of +belief. Still, a few general characteristics may be observed; in the +first place, heresies are no longer metaphysical subtleties as in +earlier days; Arius and Priscillian, Nestorius and Eutychus are dead +indeed. In the second place, they no longer arise in the upper and +governing class, but proceed especially from the inferior clergy and the +common people. The blows which actually threatened the Church of the +Middle Ages were struck by obscure laboring men, by the poor and the +oppressed, who in their wretchedness and degradation felt that she had +failed in her mission. + +No sooner was a voice uplifted, preaching austerity and simplicity, than +it drew together not the laity only, but members of the clergy as well. +Toward the close of the twelfth century we find a certain Pons rousing +all Perigord, preaching evangelical poverty before the coming of St. +Francis.[14] + +Two great currents are apparent: on one side the Cathari, on the other, +innumerable sects revolting from the Church by very fidelity to +Christianity and the desire to return to the primitive Church. + +Among the sects of the second category the close of the twelfth century +saw in Italy the rise of the _Poor Men_, who without doubt were a part +of the movement of Arnold of Brescia; they denied the efficacy of +sacraments administered by unworthy hands.[15] + +A true attempt at reform was made by the Waldenses. Their history, +although better known, still remains obscure on certain sides; their +name, _Poor Men of Lyons_, recalls the former movement, with which they +were in close agreement, as also with the Humiliants. All these names +involuntarily suggest that by which St. Francis afterward called his +Order. The analogy between the inspiration of Peter Waldo and that of +St. Francis was so close that one might be tempted to believe the latter +a sort of imitation of the former. It would be a mistake: the same +causes produced in all quarters the same effects; ideas of reform, of a +return to gospel poverty, were in the air, and this helps us to +understand how it was that before many years the Franciscan preaching +reverberated through the entire world. If at the outset the careers of +these two men were alike, their later lives were very different. Waldo, +driven into heresy almost in spite of himself, was obliged to accept the +consequences of the premises which he himself had laid down;[16] while +Francis, remaining the obedient son of the Church, bent all his efforts +to develop the inner life in himself and his disciples. It is indeed +most likely that through his father Francis had become acquainted with +the movement of the _Poor Men of Lyons_. Hence his oft-repeated counsels +to his friars of the duty of submission to the clergy. When he went to +seek the approbation of Innocent III., it is evident that the prelates +with whom he had relations warned him, by the very example of Waldo, of +the dangers inherent in his own movement.[17] + +The latter had gone to Rome in 1179, accompanied by a few followers, to +ask at the same time the approbation of their translation of the +Scriptures into the vulgar tongue and the permission to preach. They +were granted both requests on condition of gaining for their preaching +the authorization of their local clergy. Walter Map ([Cross] 1210), who was +charged with their examination, was constrained, while ridiculing their +simplicity, to admire their poverty and zeal for the apostolic life.[18] +Two or three years later they met a very different reception at Rome, +and in 1184 they were anathematized by the Council of Verona. From that +day nothing could stop them, even to the forming of a new Church. They +multiplied with a rapidity hardly exceeded afterward by the Franciscans. +By the end of the twelfth century we find them spread abroad from +Hungary to Spain; the first attempts to hunt them down were made in the +latter country. Other countries were at first satisfied with treating +them as excommunicated persons. + +Obliged to hide themselves, reduced to the impossibility of holding +their chapters, which ought to have come together once or twice a year, +and which, had they done so, might have maintained among them a certain +unity of doctrine, the Waldenses rapidly underwent a change according to +their environment; some obstinately insisting upon calling themselves +good Catholics, others going so far as to preach the overthrow of the +hierarchy and the uselessness of sacraments.[19] Hence that multiplicity +of differing and even hostile branches which seemed to develop almost +hourly. + +A common persecution brought them nearer to the Cathari and favored the +fusion of their ideas. Their activity was inconceivable. Under pretext +of pilgrimages to Rome they were always on the road, simple and +insinuating. The methods of travel of that day were peculiarly favorable +to the diffusion of ideas. While retailing news to those whose +hospitality they received, they would speak of the unhappy state of the +Church and the reforms that were needed. Such conversations were a means +of apostleship much more efficacious than those of the present day, the +book and the newspaper; there is nothing like the _viva vox_[20] for +spreading thought. + +Many vile stories have been told of the Waldenses; calumny is far too +facile a weapon not to tempt an adversary at bay. Thus they have been +charged with the same indecent promiscuities of which the early +Christians were accused. In reality their true strength was in their +virtues, which strongly contrasted with the vices of the clergy. + +The most powerful and determined enemies of the Church were the Cathari. +Sincere, audacious, often learned and keen in argument, having among +them some choice spirits and men of great intellectual powers, they were +pre-eminently the heretics of the thirteenth century. Their revolt did +not bear upon points of detail and questions of discipline, like that of +the early Waldenses; it had a definite doctrinal basis, taking issue +with the whole body of Catholic dogma. But, although this heresy +flourished in Italy and under the very eyes of St. Francis, there is +need only to indicate it briefly. His work may have received many +infiltrations from the Waldensian movement, but Catharism was wholly +foreign to it. + +This is naturally explained by the fact that St. Francis never consented +to occupy himself with questions of doctrine. For him faith was not of +the intellectual but the moral domain; it is the consecration of the +heart. Time spent in dogmatizing appeared to him time lost. + +An incident in the life of Brother Egidio well brings out the slight +esteem in which theology was held by the early Brothers Minor. One day, +in the presence of St. Bonaventura, he cried, perhaps not without a +touch of irony, "Alas! what shall we ignorant and simple ones do to +merit the favor of God?" "My brother," replied the famous divine, "you +know very well that it suffices to love the Lord." "Are you very sure of +that?" replied Egidio; "do you believe that a simple woman might please +Him as well as a master in theology?" Upon the affirmative response of +his interlocutor, he ran out into the street and calling to a beggar +woman with all his might, "Poor old creature," he exclaimed, "rejoice, +for if you love God, you may have a higher place in the kingdom of +heaven than Brother Bonaventura!"[21] + +The Cathari, then, had no direct influence upon St. Francis,[22] but +nothing could better prove the disturbance of thought at this epoch +than that resurrection of Manicheism. To what a depth of lassitude and +folly must religious Italy have fallen for this mixture of Buddhism, +Mazdeism, and gnosticism to have taken such hold upon it! The Catharist +doctrine rested upon the antagonism of two principles, one bad, the +other good. The first had created matter; the second, the soul, which, +for generation after generation passes from one body to another until it +achieves salvation. Matter is the cause and the seat of evil; all +contact with it constitutes a blemish,[23] consequently the Cathari +renounced marriage and property and advocated suicide. All this was +mixed up with most complicated cosmogonical myths. + +Their adherents were divided into two classes--the pure or perfect, and +the believers, who were proselytes in the second degree, and whose +obligations were very simple. The adepts, properly so called, were +initiated by the ceremony of the _consolamentum_ or imposition of hands, +which induced the descent upon them of the Consoling Spirit. Among them +were enthusiasts who after this ceremony placed themselves in +_endura_--that is to say, they starved themselves to death in order not +to descend from this state of grace. + +In Languedoc, where this sect went by the name of Albigenses, they had +an organization which embraced all Central Europe, and everywhere +supported flourishing schools attended by the children of the nobles. In +Italy they were hardly less powerful; Concorrezo, near Monza in +Lombardy, and Bagnolo, gave their names to two congregations slightly +different from those in Languedoc.[24] + +But it was especially from Milan[25] that they spread abroad over all +the Peninsula, making proselytes even in the most remote districts of +Calabria. The state of anarchy prevailing in the country was very +favorable to them. The papacy was too much occupied in baffling the +spasmodic efforts of the Hohenstaufen, to put the necessary perseverance +and system into its struggles against heresy. Thus the new ideas were +preached under the very shadow of the Lateran; in 1209, Otho IV., coming +to Rome to be crowned, found there a school in which Manicheism was +publicly taught.[26] + +With all his energy Innocent III. had not been able to check this evil +in the States of the Church. The case of Viterbo tells much of the +difficulty of repressing it; in March, 1199, the pope wrote to the +clergy and people of this town to recall to their minds, and at the same +time to increase, the penalties pronounced against heresy. For all that, +the Patarini had the majority in 1205, and succeeded in naming one of +themselves consul.[27] + +The wrath of the pontiff at this event was unbounded; he fulminated a +bull menacing the city with fire and sword, and commanding the +neighboring towns to throw themselves upon her if within a fortnight she +had not given satisfaction.[28] It was all in vain: the Patarini were +dealt with only as a matter of form; it needed the presence of the pope +himself to assure the execution of his orders and obtain the demolition +of the houses of the heretics and their abettors (autumn of 1207).[29] + +But stifled at one point the revolt burst out at a hundred others; at +this moment it was triumphant on all sides; at Ferrara, Verona, Rimini, +Florence, Prato, Faenza, Treviso, Piacenza. The clergy were expelled +from this last town, which remained more than three years without a +priest.[30] + +Viterbo is twenty leagues from Assisi, Orvieto only ten, and +disturbances in this town were equally grave. A noble Roman, Pietro +Parentio, the deputy of the Holy See in this place, endeavored to +exterminate the Patarini. He was assassinated.[31] + +But Francis needed not to go even so far as Orvieto to become acquainted +with heretics. In Assisi the same things were going on as in the +neighboring cities. In 1203 this town had elected for podesta a heretic +named Giraldo di Gilberto, and in spite of warnings from Rome had +persisted in keeping him at the head of affairs until the expiration of +his term of office (1204). Innocent III., who had not yet been obliged +to use vigor with Viterbo, resorted to persuasion and despatched to +Umbria the Cardinal Leo di Santa Croce, who will appear more than once +in this history.[32] The successor of Giraldo and fifty of the principal +citizens made the _amende honorable_ and swore fidelity to the Church. + +It is easy to perceive in what a state of ferment Italy was during these +early years of the thirteenth century. The moral discredit of the clergy +must have been deep indeed for souls to have turned toward Manicheism +with such ardor. + +Italy may well be grateful to St. Francis; it was as much infected with +Catharism as Languedoc, and it was he who wrought its purification. He +did not pause to demonstrate by syllogisms or theological theses the +vanity of the Catharist doctrines; but soaring as on wings to the +religious life, he suddenly made a new ideal to shine out before the +eyes of his contemporaries, an ideal before which all these fantastic +sects vanished as birds of the night take flight at the first rays of +the sun. + +A great part of St. Francis's power came to him thus through his +systematic avoidance of polemics. The latter is always more or less a +form of spiritual pride; it only deepens the chasm which it undertakes +to fill up. Truth needs not to be proved; it is its own witness. + +The only weapon which he would use against the wicked was the holiness +of a life so full of love as to enlighten and revive those about him, +and compel them to love.[33] The disappearance of Catharism in Italy, +without an upheaval, and above all without the Inquisition, is thus an +indirect result of the Franciscan movement, and not the least important +among them.[34] + +At the voice of the Umbrian reformer Italy roused herself, recovered her +good sense and fine temper; she cast out those doctrines of pessimism +and death, as a robust organism casts out morbid substances. + +I have already endeavored to show the strong analogy between the initial +efforts of Francis and those of the Poor Men of Lyons. His thought +ripened in an atmosphere thoroughly saturated with their ideas; +unconsciously to himself they entered into his being. + +The prophecies of the Calabrian abbot exerted upon him an influence +quite as difficult to appreciate, but no less profound. + +Standing on the confines of Italy and as it were at the threshold of +Greece, Gioacchino di Fiore[35] was the last link in a chain of monastic +prophets, who during nearly four hundred years succeeded one another in +the monasteries and hermitages of Southern Italy. The most famous among +them had been St. Nilo, a sort of untamed John the Baptist, living in +desert places, but suddenly emerging from them when his duties of +maintaining the right called him elsewhere. We see him on one occasion +appearing in Rome itself, to announce to pope and emperor the unloosing +of the divine wrath.[36] + +Scattered in the Alpine solitudes of Basilicata these Calabrian hermits +were continually obliged to retreat higher and higher into the mountain +fastnesses to escape the populace, who, pursued by pirates, were taking +refuge in these mountains. They thus passed their lives between heaven +and earth, with two seas for their horizon. Disquieted by fear of the +corsairs, and by the war-cries whose echoes reached even to them, they +turned their thoughts toward the future. The ages of great terror are +also the ages of great hope; it is to the captivity of Babylon that we +owe, with the second part of Isaiah, those pictures of the future which +have not yet ceased to charm the soul of man; Nero's persecutions gave +us the Apocalypse of St. John, and the paroxysms of the twelfth century +the eternal Gospel. + +Converted after a life of dissipation, Gioacchino di Fiore travelled +extensively in the Holy Land, Greece, and Constantinople. Returning to +Italy he began, though a layman, to preach in the outskirts of Rende and +Cosenza. Later on he joined the Cistercians of Cortale, near Catanzaro, +and there took vows. Shortly after elected abbot of the monastery in +spite of refusal and even flight, he was seized after a few years with +the nostalgia of solitude, and sought from Pope Lucius III. a discharge +from his functions (1181), that he might consecrate all his time to the +works which he had in mind. The pope granted his request, and even +permitted him to go wherever he might deem best in the interest of his +work. Then began for Gioacchino a life of wandering from convent to +convent, which carried him even as far as Lombardy, to Verona, where we +find him with Pope Urban III. + +When he returned to the south, a group of disciples gathered around him +to hear his explanations of the most obscure passages of the Bible. +Whether he would or no he was obliged to receive them, to talk with +them, to give them a rule, and, finally, to instal them in the very +heart of the Sila, the Black Forest of Italy,[37] over against the +highest peak, in gorges where the silence is interrupted only by the +murmurs of the Arvo and the Neto, which have their source not far from +there. The new Athos received the name of Fiore (flower), transparent +symbol of the hopes of its founder.[38] It was there that he put the +finishing touch to writings which, after fifty years of neglect, were to +become the starting-point of all heresies, and the aliment of all souls +burdened with the salvation of Christendom. The men of the first half of +the thirteenth century, too much occupied with other things, did not +perceive that the spiritual streams at which they were drinking +descended from the snowy mountain-tops of Calabria. + +It is always thus with mystical influences. There is in them something +vague, tenuous, and penetrating which escapes an exact estimation. Let +two choice souls meet, and they will find it a difficult thing to +analyze and name the impressions which each has received from the other. +It is so with an epoch; it is not always those who speak to her the +oftenest and loudest whom she best understands; nor even those at whose +feet she sits, a faithful pupil, day after day. Sometimes, while on the +way to her accustomed masters, she suddenly meets a stranger; she barely +catches a few words of what he says; she knows not whence he comes nor +whither he goes; she never sees him again, but those few words of his go +on surging in the depths of her soul, agitating and disquieting her. + +Thus it was for a long while with Gioacchino di Fiore. His teachings, +scattered here and there by enthusiastic disciples, were germinating +silently in many hearts.[39] Giving back hope to men, they restored to +them strength also. To think is already to act; alone under the shadow +of the hoary pines which surrounded his cell, the cenobite of Fiore was +laboring for the renovation of the Church with as much vigor as the +reformers who came after him. + +He was, however, far from attaining the height of the prophets of +Israel; instead of soaring like them to the very heavens, he always +remained riveted to the text, upon which he commented in the allegorical +method, and whence by this method he brought out the most fantastic +improbabilities. A few pages of his books would wear out the most +patient reader, but in these fields, burnt over by theological arguments +more drying than the winds of the desert, fields where one at first +perceives only stones and thistles, one comes at last to the charming +oasis, with repose and dreams in its shade. + +The exegesis of Gioacchino di Fiore in fact led up to a sort of +philosophy of history; its grand lines were calculated to make a +striking appeal to the imagination. The life of humanity is divided into +three periods: in the first, under the reign of the Father, men lived +under the rigor of the law; in the second, reigned over by the Son, men +live under the rule of grace; in the third, the Spirit shall reign and +men shall live in the plenitude of love. The first is the period of +servile obedience; the second, that of filial obedience; the third, that +of liberty. In the first, men lived in fear; in the second, they rest in +faith; in the third, they shall burn with love. The first saw the +shining of the stars; the second sees the whitening of the dawn; the +third will behold the glory of the day. The first produced nettles, the +second gives roses, the third will be the age of lilies. + +If now we consider that in the thought of Gioacchino the third period, +the Age of the Spirit, was about to open, we shall understand with what +enthusiasm men hailed the words which restored joy to hearts still +disturbed with millenarian fears. + +It is evident that St. Francis knew these radiant hopes. Who knows even +that it was not the Calabrian Seer who awoke his heart to its transports +of love? If this be so, Gioacchino was not merely his precursor; he was +his true spiritual father. However this may be, St. Francis found in +Gioacchino's thought many of the elements which, unconsciously to +himself, were to become the foundation of his institute. + +The noble disdain which he shows for all men of learning, and which he +sought to inculcate upon his Order, was for Gioacchino one of the +characteristics of the new era. "The truth which remains hidden to the +wise," he says, "is revealed to babes; dialectics closes that which is +open, obscures that which is clear; it is the mother of useless talk, of +rivalries and blasphemy. Learning does not edify, and it may destroy, as +is proved by the scribes of the Church, swollen with pride and +arrogance, who by dint of reasoning fall into heresy."[40] + +We have seen that the return to evangelical simplicity had become a +necessity; all the heretical sects were on this point in accord with +pious Catholics, but no one spoke in a manner so Franciscan as +Gioacchino di Fiore. Not only did he make voluntary poverty one of the +characteristics of the age of lilies, but he speaks of it in his pages +with so profound, so living an emotion, that St. Francis could do little +more than repeat his words. The ideal monk whom he describes,[41] whose +only property is a lyre, is a true Franciscan before the letter, him of +whom the _Poverello_ of Assisi always dreamed. + +The feeling for nature also bursts forth in him with incomparable vigor. +One day he was preaching in a chapel which was plunged in almost total +darkness, the sky being quite overcast with clouds. Suddenly the clouds +broke away, the sun shone, the church was flooded with light. Gioacchino +paused, saluted the sun, intoned the _Veni Creator_, and led his +congregation out to gaze upon the landscape. + +It would be by no means surprising if toward 1205 Francis should have +heard of this prophet, toward whom so many hearts were turning, this +anchorite who, gazing up into heaven, spoke with Jesus as a friend talks +with his friend, yet knew also how to come down to console men and warm +the faces of the dying at his own breast. + +At the other end of Europe, in the heart of Germany, the same causes had +produced the same effects. From the excess of the people's sufferings +and the despair of religious souls was being born a movement of +apocalyptic mysticism which seemed to have secret communication with +that which was rousing the Peninsula. They had the same views of the +future, the same anxious expectation of new cataclysms, joined with a +prospect of a reviving of the Church. + +"Cry with a loud voice," said her guardian angel to St. Elizabeth of +Schonau ([Cross] 1164), "cry to all nations: Woe! for the whole world has +become darkness. The Lord's vine has withered, there is no one to tend +it. The Lord has sent laborers, but they have all been found idle. The +head of the Church is ill and her members are dead.... Shepherds of my +Church, you are sleeping, but I shall awaken you! Kings of the earth, +the cry of your iniquity has risen even to me."[42] + +"Divine justice," said St. Hildegarde ([Cross] 1178), "shall have its hour; +the last of the seven epochs symbolized by the seven days of creation +has arrived, the judgments of God are about to be accomplished; the +empire and the papacy, sunk into impiety, shall crumble away +together.... But upon their ruins shall appear a new nation of God, a +nation of prophets illuminated from on high, living in poverty and +solitude. Then the divine mysteries shall be revealed, and the saying +of Joel shall be fulfilled; the Holy Spirit shall shed abroad upon the +people the dew of his prophecies, of his wisdom and holiness; the +heathen, the Jews, the worldly and the unbelieving shall be converted +together, spring-time and peace shall reign over a regenerated world, +and the angels will return with confidence to dwell among men." + +These hopes were not wholly confounded. In the evening of his days the +prophet of Fiore was able, like a new Simeon, to utter his _Nunc +dimittis_, and for a few years Christendom could turn in amazement to +Assisi as to a new Bethlehem. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Bull of June 8, 1198, _Quamvis_. Migne, i., col. 220; + Potthast, 265. + + [2] For example, Pierre, Cardinal of St. Chryzogone and former + Bishop of Meaux, who in a single election refused the dazzling + offer of five hundred silver marks. Alexander III., Migne's + edition, _epist._ 395. + + [3] _Fasciculus rerum expetend. et fugiend._, t. ii., 7, pp. + 254, 255 (Brown, 1690). + + [4] John of Salisbury, _Policrat._ Migne, v. 15. + + [5] Among their sources of revenue we find the right of + _collagium_, by payment of which clerics acquired the right to + keep a concubine. Pierre le Chantre, _Verb. abbrev._, 24. + + [6] Vide _Carmina Burana_, Breslau, 8vo, 1883; Political Songs + of England, published by Th. Wright, London, 8vo, 1893; _Poesies + populaires latines du moyen age_, du Meril, Paris, 1847. See + also Raynouard, _Lexique roman_, i., 446, 451, 464, the fine + poems of the troubadour Pierre Cardinal, contemporary of St. + Francis, upon the woes of the Church, and Dante, _Inferno_, xix. + If one would gain an idea of what the bishop of a small city in + those days cost his flock, he has only to read the bull of + February 12, 1219, _Justis petentium_, addressed by Honorius + III. to the Bishop of Terni, and including the contract by which + the inhabitants of that city settled the revenues of the + episcopal see. Horoy, t. iii., col. 114, or the _Bullarium + romanum_, t. iii., p. 348, Turin. + + [7] _Conosco sacerdoti che fanno gli usura per formare un + patrimonio da lasciare ai loro spurii; altri che tengono osteria + coll' insegna del collare e vendono vino_ ... Salimbene, + Cantarelli, Parma, 1882, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 307. + + [8] Vide _Brevis historia Prior._ _Grandimont.--Stephani + Tornacensis._ Epist. 115, 152, 153, 156, 162; Honorius III., + Horoy's edition, lib. i., 280, 284, 286-288; ii., 12, 130, 136, + 383-387. + + [9] Guerard, _Cartulaire de N. D. de Paris_, t. i., p. cxi; t. + ii., p. 406. Cf. Honorius III., Bull _Inter statuta_ of July 25, + 1223, Horoy, t. iv., col. 401. See also canon 23 of the Council + of Beziers, 1233; Guibert de Gemblours, _epist._ 5 and 6 + (Migne); Honorius III., lib. ix., 32, 81; ii., 193; iv., 10; + iii., 253 and 258; iv., 33, 27, 70, 144; v., 56, 291, 420, 430; + vi., 214, 132, 139, 204; vii., 127; ix., 51. + + [10] Vide Bull _Postquam vocante Domino_ of July 11, 1206. + Potthast 2840. + + [11] V. _Annales Stadenses_ [_Monumenta Germaniae historica, + Scriptorum_, t. 16], _ad ann. 1237_. Among the comprehensive + pictures of the situation of the Church in the thirteenth + century, there is none more interesting than that left us by the + Cardinal Jacques de Vitry in his _Historia occidentalis: Libri + duo quorum prior Orientalis, alter Occidentalis historiae nomine + inscribitur Duaci_, 1597, 16mo. pp. 259-480. + + [12] V. Honorius III., Horoy's edition, lib. i., ep. 109, 125, + 135, 206, 273; ii., 128, 164; iv., 120, etc. + + [13] _Dialogus miraculorum_ of Cesar of Heisterbach [Strange's + edition, Cologne, 1851, 2 vols., 8vo], t. ii., pp. 255 and 125. + This book, with the Golden Legend of Giacomo di Varaggio, gives + the best idea of the state of religious thought in the + thirteenth century. + + [14] _Recueil des historiens de France._ Bouquet, t. xii., pp. + 550, 551. + + [15] Bonacorsi: _Vitae haereticorum_ [d'Achery, _Spicilegium_, t. + i., p. 215] Cf. Lucius III., epist. 171, Migne. + + [16] Vide Bernard Gui, _Practica inquisitionis_, Douai edition, + 4to, Paris, 1886 p. 244 ff., and especially the Vatican MS., + 2548, folio 71. + + [17] A chronicle of St. Francis's time makes this same + comparison: Burchard, Abbot of Urspurg ([Cross] 1226) [_Burchardi et + Cuonradi chronicon. Monum. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 23], has + left us an account of the approbation of Francis by the Pope, + all the more precious for being that of a contemporary. _Loc. + cit._, p. 376. + + [18] _De nugis Curialium_, Dist. 1, cap. 31, p. 64, Wright's + edition. Cf. _Chronique de Laon_, Bouquet xiii., p. 680. + + [19] See, for example, the letter of the Italian branch of the + Poor Men of Lyons [_Pauperos Lombardi_] to their brethren of + Germany, there called Leonistes. In it they show the points in + which they are not in harmony with the French Waldenses. + Published by Preger: _Abhandlungen der K. bayer. Akademie der + Wiss. Hist. Cl._, t. xiii., 1875, p. 19 ff. + + [20] These continual journeyings sometimes gained for them the + name of _Passagieni_, as in the south of France the preachers of + certain sects are to-day called _Courriers_. The term, however, + specially designates a Judaizing sect who returned to the + literal observation of the Mosaic law: Doellinger, _Beitraege_, t. + ii., pp. 327 and 375. They should therefore be identified with + the _Circonsisi_ of the constitution of Frederic II. + (Huillard-Breholles, t. v., p. 280). See especially the fine + monograph of M. C. Molinier: _Memoires de l'Academie de + Toulouse_, 1888. + + [21] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., p. 238d. + + [22] I would say that between the inspiration of Francis and the + Catharian doctrines there is an irreconcilable opposition; but + it would not be difficult to find acts and words of his which + recall the contempt for matter of the Cathari; for example, his + way of treating his body. Some of his counsels to the friars: + _Unusquisque habet in potestate sua inimicum suum videlicit + corpus, per quod peccat._ Assisi MS. 338, folio 20b. Conform. + 138, b. 2.--_Cum majorem inimicum corpore non habeam._ 2 Cel., + 3, 63. These are momentary but inevitable obscurations, moments + of forgetfulness, of discouragement, when a man is not himself, + and repeats mechanically what he hears said around him. The real + St. Francis is, on the contrary, the lover of nature, he who + sees in the whole creation the work of divine goodness, the + radiance of the eternal beauty, he who, in the Canticle of the + Creatures, sees in the body not the Enemy but a brother: _Caepit + hilariter loqui ad corpus; Gaude, frater corpus._ 2 Cel., 3, + 137. + + [23] _Quodam die, dicta fabrissa dixit ipsi testi praegnanti, + quod rogaret Deum, ut liberaret eam a Daemone, quem habebat in + ventre ... Gulielmus dixit quod ita magnum peccatum erat jacere + cum uxore sua quam cum concubina._ Doellinger, _loc. cit._, pp. + 24, 35. + + [24] Those of the _Concorrezenses_ and _Bajolenses_. In Italy + _Cathari_ becomes _Gazzari_; for that matter, each country had + its special appellatives; one of the most general in the north + was that of the _Bulgari_, which marks the oriental origin of + the sect, whence the slang term Boulgres and its derivatives + (vide Matthew Paris, ann. 1238). Cf. Schmit, _Histoire des + Cathares_, 8vo, 2 vols, Paris, 1849. + + [25] The most current name in Italy was that of the _Patarini_, + given them no doubt from their inhabiting the quarter of + second-hand dealers in Milan: _la contrada dei Patari_, found in + many cities. _Patari!_ is still the cry of the ragpickers in the + small towns of Provence. In the thirteenth century Patarino and + Catharo were synonyms. But before that the term Patarini had an + entirely different sense. See the very remarkable study of M. + Felice Tocco on this subject in his _Eresia net medio evo_, + 12mo, Florence, 1884. + + [26] Cesar von Heisterbach, _Dial. mirac._, t. i., p. 309, + Strange's edition. + + [27] _Innocentii opera_, Migne, t. i., col. 537; t. ii., 654. + + [28] _Computruistis in peccatis sicut jumenta in stercore suo ut + fumus ac fimus putrefactionis vestrae jam fere circumadjacentes + regionis infecerit, ac ipsum Dominum ut credimus ad nauseam + provocaverit._ _Loc. cit._, col. 654. Cf. 673; Potthast, 2532, + 2539. + + [29] _Gesta Innocentii_, Migne, t. i., col. clxii. Cf. _epist._ + viii., 85 and 105. + + [30] Campi, _Historia Ecclesiastica di Piacenza_, parte ii., p. + 92 ff. Cf. _Innoc., epist._ ix., 131, 166-169; x., 54, 64, 222. + + [31] A. SS., Maii, t. v., p. 87. + + [32] Bull of June 6, 1205, Potthast, 2237; Migne, vii., 83. This + Cardinal Leo (of the presbyterial title of Holy Cross of + Jerusalem) was one most valued by Innocent III. To him and + Ugolini, the future Gregory IX., he at this epoch confided the + most delicate missions (for example, in 1209, they were named + legates to Otho IV.). This embassy shows in what importance the + pope held the affairs of Assisi, though it was a very small + city. + + [33] Not once do we find him fighting heretics. The early + Dominicans, on the contrary, are incessantly occupied with + arguing. See 2 Cel., 3, 46. + + [34] It need not be said that I do not assert that no trace of + it is to be found after the ministry of St. Francis, but it was + no longer a force, and no longer endangered the very existence + of the Church. + + [35] This strange personality will charm historians and + philosophers for a long while to come. I know nothing more + learned or more luminous than M. Felice Tocco's fine study in + his _Eresia nel medio evo_, Florence, 1884, 1 vol., 12mo, pp. + 261-409. + + [36] A. SS., Sept., t. vii., p. 283 ff. + + [37] A. SS., Maii, vii.; Vincent de Beauvais, _Speculum + historiale_, _lib._ 29, _cap._ 40. La Sila is a wooded mountain, + situated eastward from Cosenza, which the peasants call _Monte + Nero_. The summits are nearly 2,000 metres above the sea. + + [38] Toward 1195. Gioacchino died there, March 30, 1202. + + [39] A whole apochryphal literature has blossomed out around + Gioacchino; certain hypercritics have tried to prove that he + never wrote anything. These are exaggerations. Three large works + are certainly authentic: _The Agreement of the Old and New + Testaments_, _The Commentary on the Apocalypse_, and _The + Psaltery of Ten Strings_, published in Venice, the first in + 1517, the two others in 1527. His prophecies were so well known, + even in his lifetime, that an English Cistercian, Rudolph, Abbot + of Coggeshall ([Cross] 1228), coming to Rome in 1195, sought a + conference with him and has left us an interesting account of + it. Martene, _Amplissima Collectio_, t. v., p. 839. + + [40] _Comm. in apoc._, folio 78, b. 2. + + [41] _Qui vere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi + citharam:_ Apoc., ib., folio 183. a. 2. + + [42] E. Roth, _Die Visionen der heiligen Elisabeth von Schoenau_: + Bruenn, 1884, pp. 115-117. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH + +Spring of 1206-February 24, 1209 + + +The biographies of St. Francis have preserved to us an incident which +shows how great was the religious ferment even in the little city of +Assisi. A stranger was seen to go up and down the streets saying to +every one he met, "Peace and welfare!" (_Pax et bonum._)[1] He thus +expressed in his own way the disquietude of those hearts which could +neither resign themselves to perpetual warfare nor to the disappearance +of faith and love; artless echo, vibrating in response to the hopes and +fears that were shaking all Europe! + +_"Vox clamantis in deserto!"_ it will be said. No, for every heart-cry +leaves its trace even when it seems to be uttered in empty air, and that +of the Unknown of Assisi may have contributed in some measure to +Francis's definitive call. + +Since his abrupt return from Spoleto, life in his father's house had +become daily more difficult. Bernardone's self-love had received from +his son's discomfiture such a wound as with commonplace men is never +healed. He might provide, without counting it, money to be swallowed up +in dissipation, that so his son might stand on an equal footing with the +young nobles; he could never resign himself to see him giving with +lavish hands to every beggar in the streets. + +Francis, continually plunged in reverie and spending his days in lonely +wanderings in the fields, was no longer of the least use to his father. +Months passed, and the distance between the two men grew ever wider; and +the gentle and loving Pica could do nothing to prevent a rupture which +from this time appeared to be inevitable. Francis soon came to feel only +one desire, to flee from the abode where, in the place of love, he found +only reproaches, upbraidings, anguish. + +The faithful confidant of his earlier struggles had been obliged to +leave him, and this absolute solitude weighed heavily upon his warm and +loving heart. He did what he could to escape from it, but no one +understood him. The ideas which he was beginning timidly to express +evoked from those to whom he spoke only mocking smiles or the +head-shakings which men sure that they are right bestow upon him who is +marching straight to madness. He even went to open his mind to the +bishop, but the latter understood no more than others his vague, +incoherent plans, filled with ideas impossible to realize and possibly +subversive.[2] It was thus that in spite of himself Francis was led to +ask nothing of men, but to raise himself by prayer to intuitive +knowledge of the divine will. The doors of houses and of hearts were +alike closing upon him, but the interior voice was about to speak out +with irresistible force and make itself forever obeyed. + +Among the numerous chapels in the suburbs of Assisi there was one which +he particularly loved, that of St. Damian. It was reached by a few +minutes' walk over a stony path, almost trackless, under olive trees, +amid odors of lavender and rosemary. Standing on the top of a hillock, +the entire plain is visible from it, through a curtain of cypresses and +pines which seem to be trying to hide the humble hermitage and set up +an ideal barrier between it and the world. + +Served by a poor priest who had scarcely the wherewithal for necessary +food, the sanctuary was falling into ruin. There was nothing in the +interior but a simple altar of masonry, and by way of reredos one of +those byzantine crucifixes still so numerous in Italy, where through the +work of the artists of the time has come down to us something of the +terrors which agitated the twelfth century. In general the Crucified +One, frightfully lacerated, with bleeding wounds, appears to seek to +inspire only grief and compunction; that of St. Damian, on the contrary, +has an expression of inexpressible calm and gentleness; instead of +closing the eyelids in eternal surrender to the weight of suffering, it +looks down in self-forgetfulness, and its pure, clear gaze says, not "_I +suffer_," but, "_Come unto me_."[3] + +One day Francis was praying before the poor altar: "Great and glorious +God, and thou, Lord Jesus, I pray ye, shed abroad your light in the +darkness of my mind.... Be found of me, Lord, so that in all things I +may act only in accordance with thy holy will."[4] + +Thus he prayed in his heart, and behold, little by little it seemed to +him that his gaze could not detach itself from that of Jesus; he felt +something marvellous taking place in and around him. The sacred victim +took on life, and in the outward silence he was aware of a voice which +softly stole into the very depths of his heart, speaking to him an +ineffable language. Jesus accepted his oblation. Jesus desired his +labor, his life, all his being, and the heart of the poor solitary was +already bathed in light and strength.[5] + +This vision marks the final triumph of Francis. His union with Christ is +consummated; from this time he can exclaim with the mystics of every +age, "My beloved is mine, and I am his." + +But instead of giving himself up to transports of contemplation he at +once asks himself how he may repay to Jesus love for love, in what +action he shall employ this life which he has just offered to him. He +had not long to seek. We have seen that the chapel where his spiritual +espousals had just been celebrated was threatened with ruin. He believed +that to repair it was the work assigned to him. + +From that day the remembrance of the Crucified One, the thought of the +love which had triumphed in immolating itself, became the very centre of +his religious life and as it were the soul of his soul. For the first +time, no doubt, Francis had been brought into direct, personal, intimate +contact with Jesus Christ; from belief he had passed to faith, to that +living faith which a distinguished thinker has so well defined: "To +believe is to look; it is a serious, attentive, and prolonged look; a +look more simple than that of observation, a look which looks, and +nothing more; artless, infantine, it has all the soul in it, it is a +look of the soul and not the mind, a look which does not seek to analyze +its object, but which receives it as a whole into the soul through the +eyes." In these words Vinet unconsciously has marvellously characterized +the religious temperament of St. Francis. + +This look of love cast upon the crucifix, this mysterious colloquy with +the compassionate victim, was never more to cease. At St. Damian, St. +Francis's piety took on its outward appearance and its originality. From +this time his soul bears the stigmata, and as his biographers have said +in words untranslatable, _Ab illa hora vulneratum et liquefactum est +cor ejus ed memoriam Dominicae passionis._[6] + +From that time his way was plain before him. Coming out from the +sanctuary, he gave the priest all the money he had about him to keep a +lamp always burning, and with ravished heart he returned to Assisi. He +had decided to quit his father's house and undertake the restoration of +the chapel, after having broken the last ties that bound him to the +past. A horse and a few pieces of gayly colored stuffs were all that he +possessed. Arrived at home he made a packet of the stuffs, and mounting +his horse he set out for Foligno. This city was then as now the most +important commercial town of all the region. Its fairs attracted the +whole population of Umbria and the Sabines. Bernardone had often taken +his son there,[7] and Francis speedily succeeded in selling all he had +brought. He even parted with his horse, and full of joy set out upon the +road to Assisi.[8] + +This act was to him most important; it marked his final rupture with the +past; from this day on his life was to be in all points the opposite of +what it had been; the Crucified had given himself to him; he on his side +had given himself to the Crucified without reserve or return. To +uncertainty, disquietude of soul, anguish, longing for an unknown good, +bitter regrets, had succeeded a delicious calm, the ecstasy of the lost +child who finds his mother, and forgets in a moment the torture of his +heart. + +From Foligno he returned direct to St. Damian; it was not necessary to +pass through the city, and he was in haste to put his projects into +execution. + +The poor priest was surprised enough when Francis handed over to him the +whole product of his sale. He doubtless thought that a passing quarrel +had occurred between Bernardone and his son, and for greater prudence +refused the gift; but Francis so insisted upon remaining with him that +he finally gave him leave to do so. As to the money, now become useless, +Francis cast it as a worthless object upon a window-seat in the +chapel.[9] + +Meanwhile Bernardone, disturbed by his son's failure to return, sought +for him in all quarters, and was not long in learning of his presence at +St. Damian. In a moment he perceived that Francis was lost to him. +Resolved to try every means, he collected a few neighbors, and furious +with rage hastened to the hermitage to snatch him away, if need were, by +main force. + +But Francis knew his father's violence. When he heard the shouts of +those who were in pursuit of him he felt his courage fail and hurried to +a hiding-place which he had prepared for himself for precisely such an +emergency. Bernardone, no doubt ill seconded in the search, ransacked +every corner, but was obliged at last to return to Assisi without his +son. Francis remained hidden for long days, weeping and groaning, +imploring God to show him the path he ought to follow. Notwithstanding +his fears he had an infinite joy at heart, and at no price would he have +turned back.[10] + +This seclusion could not last long. Francis perceived this, and told +himself that for a newly made knight of the Christ he was cutting a very +pitiful figure. Arming himself, therefore, with courage, he went one day +to the city to present himself before his father and make known to him +his resolution. + +It is easy to imagine the changes wrought in his appearance by these +few weeks of seclusion, passed much of them in mental anguish. When he +appeared, pale, cadaverous, his clothes in tatters, upon what is now the +_Piazza Nuova_, where hundreds of children play all day long, he was +greeted with a great shout, "_Pazzo, Pazzo_!" (A madman! a madman!) "_Un +pazzo ne fa cento_" (One madman makes a hundred more), says the proverb, +but one must have seen the delirious excitement of the street children +of Italy at the sight of a madman to gain an idea how true it is. The +moment the magic cry resounds they rush into the street with frightful +din, and while their parents look on from the windows, they surround the +unhappy sufferer with wild dances mingled with songs, shouts, and savage +howls. They throw stones at him, fling mud upon him, blindfold him; if +he flies into a rage, they double their insults; if he weeps or begs for +pity, they repeat his cries and mimic his sobs and supplications without +respite and without mercy.[11] + +Bernardone soon heard the clamor which filled the narrow streets, and +went out to enjoy the show; suddenly he thought he heard his own name +and that of his son, and bursting with shame and rage he perceived +Francis. Throwing himself upon him, as if to throttle him, he dragged +him into the house and cast him, half dead, into a dark closet. Threats, +bad usage, everything was brought to bear to change the prisoner's +resolves, but all in vain. At last, wearied out and desperate, he left +him in peace, though not without having firmly bound him.[12] + +A few days after he was obliged to be absent for a short time. Pica, his +wife, understood only too well his grievances against Francis, but +feeling that violence would be of no avail she resolved to try +gentleness. It was all in vain. Then, not being able longer to see him +thus tortured, she set him at liberty. + +He returned straight to St. Damian.[13] + +Bernardone, on his return, went so far as to strike Pica in punishment +for her weakness. Then, unable to tolerate the thought of seeing his son +the jest of the whole city, he tried to procure his expulsion from the +territory of Assisi. Going to St. Damian he summoned him to leave the +country. This time Francis did not try to hide. Boldly presenting +himself before his father, he declared to him that not only would +nothing induce him to abandon his resolutions, but that, moreover, +having become the servant of Christ, he had no longer to receive orders +from him.[14] As Bernardone launched out into invective, reproaching +him with the enormous sums which he had cost him, Francis showed him by +a gesture the money which he had brought back from the sale at Foligno +lying on the window-ledge. The father greedily seized it and went away, +resolving to appeal to the magistrates. + +The consuls summoned Francis to appear before them, but he replied +simply that as servant of the Church he did not come under their +jurisdiction. Glad of this response, which relieved them of a delicate +dilemma, they referred the complainant to the diocesan authorities.[15] + +The matter took on another aspect before the ecclesiastical tribunal; it +was idle to dream of asking the bishop to pronounce a sentence of +banishment, since it was his part to preserve the liberty of the +clerics. Bernardone could do no more than disinherit his son, or at +least induce him of his own accord to renounce all claim upon his +inheritance. This was not difficult. + +When called upon to appear before the episcopal tribunal[16] Francis +experienced a lively joy; his mystical espousals to the Crucified One +were now to receive a sort of official consecration. To this Jesus, whom +he had so often blasphemed and betrayed by word and conduct, he would +now be able with equal publicity to promise obedience and fidelity. + +It is easy to imagine the sensation which all this caused in a small +town like Assisi, and the crowd that on the appointed day pressed toward +the Piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the bishop pronounced +sentence.[17] Every one held Francis to be assuredly mad, but they +anticipated with relish the shame and rage of Bernardone, whom every one +detested, and whose pride was so well punished by all this. + +The bishop first set forth the case, and advised Francis to simply give +up all his property. To the great surprise of the crowd the latter, +instead of replying, retired to a room in the bishop's palace, and +immediately reappeared absolutely naked, holding in his hand the packet +into which he had rolled his clothes; these he laid down before the +bishop with the little money that he still had kept, saying: "Listen, +all of you, and understand it well; until this time I have called Pietro +Bernardone my father, but now I desire to serve God. This is why I +return to him this money, for which he has given himself so much +trouble, as well as my clothing, and all that I have had from him, for +from henceforth I desire to say nothing else than '_Our Father, who art +in heaven_.'" + +A long murmur arose from the crowd when Bernardone was seen to gather up +and carry off the clothing without the least evidence of compassion, +while the bishop was fain to take under his mantle the poor Francis, +who was trembling with emotion and cold.[18] + +The scene of the judgment hall made an immense impression; the ardor, +simplicity, and indignation of Francis had been so profound and sincere +that scoffers were disconcerted. On that day he won for himself a secret +sympathy in many souls. The populace loves such abrupt conversions, or +those which it considers such. Francis once again forced himself upon +the attention of his fellow-citizens with a power all the greater for +the contrast between his former and his new life. + +There are pious folk whose modesty is shocked by the nudity of Francis; +but Italy is not Germany nor England, and the thirteenth century would +have been astonished indeed at the prudery of the Bollandists. The +incident is simply a new manifestation of Francis's character, with its +ingenuousness, its exaggerations, its longing to establish a complete +harmony, a literal correspondence, between words and actions. + +After emotions such as he had just experienced he felt the need of being +alone, of realizing his joy, of singing the liberty he had finally +achieved along all the lines where once he had so deeply suffered, so +ardently struggled. He would not, therefore, return immediately to St. +Damian. Leaving the city by the nearest gate, he plunged into the +deserted paths which climb the sides of Mount Subasio. + +It was the early spring. Here and there were still great drifts of snow, +but under the ardor of the March sun winter seemed to own itself +vanquished. In the midst of this mysterious and bewildering harmony the +heart of Francis felt a delicious thrill, all his being was calmed and +uplifted, the soul of things caressed him gently and shed upon him +peace. An unwonted happiness swept over him; he made the forest to +resound with his hymns of praise. + +Men utter in song emotions too sweet or too deep to be expressed in +ordinary language, but unworded music is in this respect superior to +song, it is above all things the language of the ineffable. Song gains +almost the same value when the words are only there as a support for the +voice. The great beauty of the psalms and hymns of the Church lies in +the fact that being sung in an unknown tongue they make no appeal to the +intelligence; they say nothing, but they express everything with +marvellous modulations like a celestial accompaniment, which follows the +believer's emotions from the most agonizing struggles to the most +unspeakable ecstasies. + +So Francis went on his way, deeply inhaling the odors of spring, singing +at the top of his voice one of those songs of French chivalry which he +had learned in days gone by. + +The forest in which he was walking was the usual retreat of such people +of Assisi and its environs as had any reason for hiding. Some ruffians, +aroused by his voice, suddenly fell upon him. "Who are you?" they asked. +"I am the herald of the great King," he answered "but what is that to +you?" + +His only garment was an old mantle which the bishop's gardener had lent +him at his master's request. They stripped it from him, and throwing him +into a ditch full of snow, "There is your place, poor herald of God," +they said. + +The robbers gone, he shook off the snow which covered him, and after may +efforts succeeded in extricating himself from the ditch. Stiff with +cold, with no other covering than a worn-out shirt, he none the less +resumed his singing, happy to suffer and thus to accustom himself the +better to understand the words of the Crucified One.[19] + +Not far away was a monastery. He entered and offered his services. In +those solitudes, peopled often by such undesirable neighbors, people +were suspicious. The monks permitted him to make himself useful in the +kitchen, but they gave him nothing to cover himself with and hardly +anything to eat. There was nothing for it but to go away; he directed +his steps toward Gubbio, where he knew that he should find a friend. +Perhaps this was he who had been his confidant on his return from +Spoleto. However this may be, he received from him a tunic, and a few +days after set out to return to his dear St. Damian.[20] + +He did not, however, go directly thither; before beginning to restore +the little sanctuary, he desired to see again his friends, the lepers, +to promise them that he would love them even better than in the past. + +Since his first visit to the leper-house the brilliant cavalier had +become a poor beggar; he came with empty hands but with heart +overflowing with tenderness and compassion. Taking up his abode in the +midst of these afflicted ones he lavished upon them the most touching +care, washing and wiping their sores, all the more gentle and radiant as +their sores were more repulsive.[21] The neglected sufferer is as much +blinded by love of him who comes to visit him as the child by its love +for its mother. He believes him to be all powerful; at his approach the +most painful sufferings are eased or disappear. + +This love inspired by the sympathy of an affectionate heart may become +so deep as to appear at times supernatural; the dying have been known to +recover consciousness in order to look for the last time into the face, +not of some member of the family, but of the friend who has tried to be +the sunshine of their last days. The ties of pure love are stronger than +the bonds of flesh and blood. Francis had many a time sweet experience +of this; from the time of his arrival at the leper-house he felt that if +he had lost his life he was about to find it again. + +Encouraged by his sojourn among the lepers, he returned to St. Damian +and went to work, filled with joy and ardor, his heart as much in the +sunshine as the Umbrian plain in this beautiful month of May. After +having fashioned for himself a hermit's dress, he began to go into the +squares and open places of the city. There having sung a few hymns, he +would announce to those who gathered around him his project of restoring +the chapel. "Those who will give me one stone," he would add with a +smile, "shall have a reward; those who give me two shall have two +rewards, and those who give me three shall have three." + +Many deemed him mad, but others were deeply moved by the remembrance of +the past. As for Francis, deaf to mockery, he spared himself no labor, +carrying upon his shoulders, so ill-fitted for severe toil, the stones +which were given him.[22] + +During this time the poor priest of St. Damian felt his heart swelling +with love for this companion who had at first caused him such +embarrassment, and he strove to prepare for him his favorite dishes. +Francis soon perceived it. His delicacy took alarm at the expense which +he caused his friend, and, thanking him, he resolved to beg his food +from door to door. + +It was not an easy task. The first time, when at the end of his round he +glanced at the broken food in his wallet, he felt his courage fail him. +But the thought of being so soon unfaithful to the spouse to whom he had +plighted his faith made his blood run cold with shame and gave him +strength to eat ravenously.[23] + +Each hour, so to speak, brought to him a new struggle. One day he was +going through the town begging for oil for the lamps of St. Damian, when +he arrived at a house where a banquet was going on; the greater number +of his former companions were there, singing and dancing. At the sound +of those well-known voices he felt as if he could not enter; he even +turned away, but very soon, filled with confusion by his own cowardice, +he returned quickly upon his steps, made his way into the banquet-hall, +and after confessing his shame, put so much earnestness and fire into +his request that every one desired to co-operate in this pious +work.[24] + +His bitterest trial however was his father's anger, which remained as +violent as ever. Although he had renounced Francis, Bernardone's pride +suffered none the less at seeing his mode of life, and whenever he met +his son he overwhelmed him with reproaches and maledictions. The tender +heart of Francis was so wrung with sorrow that he resorted to a sort of +stratagem for charming away the spell of the paternal imprecations. +"Come with me," he said to a beggar; "be to me as a father, and I will +give you a part of the alms which I receive. When you see Bernardone +curse me, if I say, 'Bless me, my father,' you must sign me with the +cross and bless me in his stead."[25] His brother was prominent in the +front rank of those who harassed him with their mockeries. One winter +morning they met in a church; Angelo leaned over to a friend who was +with him, saying: "Go, ask Francis to sell you a farthing's worth of his +sweat." "No," replied the latter, who overheard. "I shall sell it much +dearer to my God." + +In the spring of 1208 he finished the restoration of St. Damian; he had +been aided by all people of good will, setting the example of work and +above all of joy, cheering everybody by his songs and his projects for +the future. He spoke with such enthusiasm and contagious warmth of the +transformation of his dear chapel, of the grace which God would accord +to those who should come there to pray, that later on it was believed +that he had spoken of Clara and her holy maidens who were to retire to +this place four years later.[26] + +This success soon inspired him with the idea of repairing the other +sanctuaries in the suburbs of Assisi. Those which had struck him by +their state of decay were St. Peter and Santa Maria, of the +_Portiuncula_, called also Santa Maria degli Angeli. The former is not +otherwise mentioned in his biographies.[27] As to the second, it was to +become the true cradle of the Franciscan movement. + +This chapel, still standing at the present day after escaping +revolutions and earthquakes, is a true Bethel, one of those rare spots +in the world on which rests the mystic ladder which joins heaven to +earth; there were dreamed some of the noblest dreams which have soothed +the pains of humanity. It is not to Assisi in its marvellous basilica +that one must go to divine and comprehend St. Francis; he must turn his +steps to Santa Maria degli Angeli at the hours when the stated prayers +cease, at the moment when the evening shadows lengthen, when all the +fripperies of worship disappear in the obscurity, when all the nation +seems to collect itself to listen to the chime of the distant church +bells. Doubtless it was Francis's plan to settle there as a hermit. He +dreamed of passing his life there in meditation and silence, keeping up +the little church and from time to time inviting a priest there to say +mass. Nothing as yet suggested to him that he was in the end to become a +religious founder. One of the most interesting aspects of his life is in +fact the continual development revealing itself in him; he is of the +small number to whom to live is to be active, and to be active to make +progress. There is hardly anyone, except St. Paul, in whom is found to +the same degree the devouring need of being always something more, +always something better, and it is so beautiful in both of them only +because it is absolutely instinctive. + +When he began to restore the Portiuncula his projects hardly went beyond +a very narrow horizon; he was preparing himself for a life of penitence +rather than a life of activity. But these works once finished it was +impossible that this somewhat selfish and passive manner of achieving +his own salvation should satisfy him long. At the memory of the +appearance of the Crucified One his heart would swell with overpowering +emotions, and he would melt into tears without knowing whether they were +of admiration, pity, or desire.[28] + +When the repairs were finished meditation occupied the greater part of +his days. A Benedictine of the Abbey of Mont Subasio[29] came from time +to time to say mass at Santa Maria; these were the bright hours of St. +Francis's life. One can imagine with what pious care he prepared himself +and with what faith he listened to the divine teachings. + +One day, it was probably February 24, 1209, the festival of St. +Matthias, mass was being celebrated at the Portiuncula.[30] When the +priest turned toward him to read the words of Jesus, Francis felt +himself overpowered with a profound agitation. He no longer saw the +priest; it was Jesus, the Crucified One of St. Damian, who was speaking: +"Wherever ye go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal +the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, +freely give. Provide neither silver nor gold nor brass in your purses, +neither scrip nor two coats, nor shoes nor staff, for the laborer is +worthy of his meat.'" + +These words burst upon him like a revelation, like the answer of Heaven +to his sighs and anxieties. + +"This is what I want," he cried, "this is what I was seeking; from this +day forth I shall set myself with all my strength to put it in +practice." Immediately throwing aside his stick, his scrip, his purse, +his shoes, he determined immediately to obey, observing to the letter +the precepts of the apostolic life. + +It is quite possible that some allegorizing tendencies have had some +influence upon this narrative.[31] The long struggle through which +Francis passed before becoming the apostle of the new times assuredly +came to a crisis in the scene at Portiuncula; but we have already seen +how slow was the interior travail which prepared for it. + +The revelation of Francis was in his heart; the sacred fire which he was +to communicate to the souls of others came from within his own, but the +best causes need a standard. Before the shabby altar of the Portiuncula +he had perceived the banner of poverty, sacrifice, and love, he would +carry it to the assault of every fortress of sin; under its shadow, a +true knight of Christ, he would marshal all the valiant warriors of a +spiritual strife. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 3 Soc., 26. + + [2] 3 Soc., 10. + + [3] This crucifix is preserved in the sacristy of Santa Chiara, + whither the sisters carried it when they left St. Damian. + + [4] _Opuscula B. Francisci, Oratio I._ + + [5] 3 Soc., 13; 2 Cel., 1, 6; Bon., 12; 15; 16. + + [6] 3 Soc., 14. + + [7] This incident is found in the narrative of 1 Cel., 8: _Ibi + ex more venditis_. + + [8] 1 Cel., 8; 3 Soc., 16; Bon. 16. Foligno is a three hours' + walk from Assisi. + + [9] 1 Cel., 9; 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 6. Cf. A. SS., p. 567. + + [10] 1 Cel., 10; 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 17, A. SS.; p. 568. + + [11] 1 Cel., 11. + + [12] 1 Cel., 12; 3 Soc., 17; Bon., 18. + + [13] 1 Cel., 13; 3 Soc., 18. + + [14] 1 Cel., 13. It is possible that at this epoch he had + received the lesser order, and that thus he might be subject to + the jurisdiction of the Church. + + [15] 3 Soc., 18 and 19; 1 Cel., 14; Bon., 19. + + [16] From 1204 until after the death of St. Francis the + episcopal throne of Assisi was occupied by Guido II. Vide + Cristofano, 1, 169 ff. + + [17] _Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore o del vescovado._ + Everything has remained pretty nearly in the same state as in + the thirteenth century. + + [18] 1 Cel., 15; 3 Soc., 20; Bon., 20. + + [19] 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 21. + + [20] 1 Cel., 16; Bon., 21. The curious will read with interest + an article by M. Mezzatinti upon the journey to Gubbio entitled + _S. Francesco e Frederico Spadalunga da Gubbio_. [Miscellanea, + t. v., pp. 76-78.] This Spadalunga da Gubbio was well able to + give a garment to Francis, but it is very possible that the gift + was made much later and that this solemn date in the saint's + life has been fixed by an optical illusion, almost inevitable + because of the identity of the fact with the name of the + locality. + + [21] 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; 13; 21; 22; 3 Soc., 11; A. SS., p. + 575. + + [22] 1 Cel., 18; 3 Soc., 21; Bon., 23. + + [23] 3 Soc., 22; 2 Cel., 1, 9. + + [24] 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 8; _Spec._, 24. + + [25] 3 Soc., 23; 2 Cel., 7. + + [26] 3 Soc., 24; _Testament de Claire_, Wadding, _ann. 1253_ v. + + [27] Cel., 21; Bon., 24. + + [28] 3 Soc., 14; 2 Cel., i., 6. + + [29] Portiuncula was a dependence of this abbey. + + [30] This is the date adopted by the Bollandists, because the + ancient missals mark the pericope, Matt. x., for the gospel of + this day. This entails no difficulty and in any case it cannot + be very far distant from the truth. A. SS., p. 574. + + [31] See in particular Bon., 25 and 26. Cf. A. SS., p. 577d. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FIRST YEAR OF APOSTOLATE + +Spring of 1209-Summer of 1210 + + +The very next morning Francis went up to Assisi and began to preach. His +words were simple, but they came so straight from the heart that all who +heard him were touched. + +It is not easy to hear and apply to one's self the exhortations of +preachers who, aloft in the pulpit, seem to be carrying out a mere +formality; it is just as difficult to escape from the appeals of a +layman who walks at our side. The amazing multitude of Protestant sects +is due in a great degree to this superiority of lay preaching over +clerical. The most brilliant orators of the Christian pulpit are bad +converters; their eloquent appeals may captivate the imagination and +lead a few men of the world to the foot of the altar, but these results +are not more brilliant than ephemeral. But let a peasant or a workingman +speak to those whom he meets a few simple words going directly to the +conscience, and the man is always impressed, often won. + +Thus the words of Francis seemed to his hearers like a flaming sword +penetrating to the very depths of their conscience. His first attempts +were the simplest possible; in general they were merely a few words +addressed to men whom he knew well enough to recognize their weak points +and strike at them with the holy boldness of love. His person, his +example, were themselves a sermon, and he spoke only of that which he +had himself experienced, proclaiming repentance, the shortness of life, +a future retribution, the necessity of arriving at gospel +perfection.[1] It is not easy to realize how many waiting souls there +are in this world. The greater number of men pass through life with +souls asleep. They are like virgins of the sanctuary who sometimes feel +a vague agitation; their hearts throb with an infinitely sweet and +subtile thrill, but their eyelids droop; again they feel the damp cold +of the cloister creeping over them; the delicious but baneful dream +vanishes; and this is all they ever know of that love which is stronger +than death. + +It is thus with many men for all that belongs to the higher life. +Sometimes, alone in the wide plain at the hour of twilight, they fix +their eyes on the fading lights of the horizon, and on the evening +breeze comes to them another breath, more distant, fainter, and almost +heavenly, awaking in them a nostalgia for the world beyond and for +holiness. But the darkness falls, they must go back to their homes; they +shake off their reverie; and it often happens that to the very end of +life this is their only glimpse of the Divine; a few sighs, a few +thrills, a few inarticulate murmurs--this sums up all our efforts to +attain to the sovereign good. + +Yet the instinct for love and for the divine is only slumbering. At the +sight of beauty love always awakes; at the appeal of holiness the divine +witness within us at once responds; and so we see, streaming from all +points of the horizon to gather around those who preach in the name of +the inward voice, long processions of souls athirst for the ideal. The +human heart so naturally yearns to offer itself up, that we have only to +meet along our pathway some one who, doubting neither himself nor us, +demands it without reserve, and we yield it to him at once. Reason may +understand a partial gift, a transient devotion; the heart knows only +the entire sacrifice, and like the lover to his beloved, it says to its +vanquisher, "Thine alone and forever." + +That which has caused the miserable failure of all the efforts of +natural religion is that its founders have not had the courage to lay +hold upon the hearts of men, consenting to no partition. They have not +understood the imperious desire for immolation which lies in the depths +of every soul, and souls have taken their revenge in not heeding these +too lukewarm lovers. + +Francis had given himself up too completely not to claim from others an +absolute self-renunciation. In the two years and more since he had +quitted the world, the reality and depth of his conversion had shone out +in the sight of all; to the scoffings of the early days had gradually +succeeded in the minds of many a feeling closely akin to admiration. + +This feeling inevitably provokes imitation. A man of Assisi, hardly +mentioned by the biographers, had attached himself to Francis. He was +one of those simple-hearted men who find life beautiful enough so long +as they can be with him who has kindled the divine spark[2] in their +hearts. His arrival at Portiuncula gave Francis a suggestion; from that +time he dreamed of the possibility of bringing together a few companions +with whom he could carry on his apostolic mission in the neighborhood. + +At Assisi he had often enjoyed the hospitality of a rich and prominent +man named Bernardo di Quintavalle,[3] who took him to sleep in his own +chamber; it is easy to see how such an intimacy would favor confidential +outpourings. When in the silence of the early night an ardent and +enthusiastic soul pours out to you its disappointments, wounds, dreams, +hopes, faith, it is difficult indeed not to be carried along, especially +when the apostle has a secret ally in your soul, and unconsciously meets +your most secret aspirations. + +One day Bernardo begged Francis to pass the following night with him, at +the same time giving him to understand that he was about to make a grave +resolution upon which he desired to consult him. The joy of Francis was +great indeed as he divined his intentions. They passed the night without +thinking of sleep; it was a long communion of souls. Bernardo had +decided to distribute his goods to the poor and cast in his lot with +Francis. The latter desired his friend to pass through a sort of +initiation, pointing out to him that what he himself practised, what he +preached, was not his own invention, but that Jesus himself had +expressly ordained it in his word. + +At early dawn they bent their steps to the St. Nicholas Church, +accompanied by another neophyte named Pietro, and there, after praying +and hearing mass, Francis opened the Gospels that lay on the altar and +read to his companions the portion which had decided his own vocation: +the words of Jesus sending forth his disciples on their mission. + +"Brethren," he added, "this is our life and our Rule, and that of all +who may join us. Go then and do as you have heard."[4] + +The persistence with which the Three Companions relate that Francis +consulted the book three times in honor of the Trinity, and that it +opened of its own accord at the verses describing the apostolic life, +leads to the belief that these passages became the Rule of the new +association, if not that very day at least very soon afterward. + + If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to + the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and + follow me. + + Jesus having called to him the Twelve, gave them power and + authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them + to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said + unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor + scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats + apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and + thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go + out of that city shake off the very dust from your feet for a + testimony against them. And they departed and went through the + towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. + + Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after + me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. + For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever + will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man + profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own + soul?[5] + +At first these verses were hardly more than the official Rule of the +Order; the true Rule was Francis himself; but they had the great merit +of being short, absolute, of promising perfection, and of being taken +from the Gospel. + +Bernardo immediately set to work to distribute his fortune among the +poor. Full of joy, his friend was looking on at this act, which had +drawn together a crowd, when a priest named Sylvester, who had formerly +sold him some stones for the repairs of St. Damian, seeing so much money +given away to everyone who applied for it, drew near and said: + +"Brother, you did not pay me very well for the stones which you bought +of me." + +Francis had too thoroughly killed every germ of avarice in himself not +to be moved to indignation by hearing a priest speak thus. "Here," he +said, holding out to him a double handful of coins which he took from +Bernardo's robe, "here; are you sufficiently paid now?" + +"Quite so," replied Sylvester, somewhat abashed by the murmurs of the +bystanders.[6] + +This picture, in which the characters stand out so strongly, must have +taken strong hold upon the memory of the bystanders: the Italians only +thoroughly understand things which they make a picture of. It taught +them, better than all Francis's preachings, what manner of men these new +friars would be. + +The distribution finished, they went at once to Portiuncula, where +Bernardo and Pietro built for themselves cabins of boughs, and made +themselves tunics like that of Francis. They did not differ much from +the garment worn by the peasants, and were of that brown, with its +infinite variety of shades, which the Italians call beast color. One +finds similar garments to-day among the shepherds of the most remote +parts of the Apennines. + +A week later, Thursday, April 23, 1209,[7] a new disciple of the name +of Egidio presented himself before Francis. Of a gentle and submissive +nature, he was of those who need to lean on someone, but who, the needed +support having been found and tested, lift themselves sometimes even +above it. The pure soul of brother Egidio, supported by that of Francis, +came to enjoy the intoxicating delights of contemplation with an +unheard-of ardor.[8] + +Here we must be on our guard against forcing the authorities, and asking +of them more than they can give. Later, when the Order was definitely +constituted and its convents organized, men fancied that the past had +been like the present, and this error still weighs upon the picture of +the origins of the Franciscan movement. The first brothers lived as did +the poor people among whom they so willingly moved; Portiuncula was +their favorite church, but it would be a mistake to suppose that they +sojourned there for any long periods. It was their place of meeting, +nothing more. When they set forth they simply knew that they should meet +again in the neighborhood of the modest chapel. Their life was that of +the Umbrian beggars of the present day, going here and there as fancy +dictated, sleeping in hay-lofts, in leper hospitals, or under the porch +of some church. So little had they any fixed domicile that Egidio, +having decided to join them, was at considerable trouble to learn where +to find Francis, and accidentally meeting him in the neighborhood of +Rivo-Torto[9] he saw in the fact a providential leading. + +They went up and down the country, joyfully sowing their seed. It was +the beginning of summer, the time when everybody in Umbria is out of +doors mowing or turning the grass. The customs of the country have +changed but little. Walking in the end of May in the fields about +Florence, Perugia, or Rieti, one still sees, at nightfall, the bagpipers +entering the fields as the mowers seat themselves upon the hay-cocks for +their evening meal; they play a few pieces, and when the train of +haymakers returns to the village, followed by the harvest-laden carts, +it is they who lead the procession, rending the air with their sharpest +strains. + +The joyous Penitents who loved to call themselves _Joculatores Domini_, +God's _jongleurs_, no doubt often did the same.[10] They did even +better, for not willing to be a charge to anyone, they passed a part of +the day in aiding the peasants in their field work.[11] The inhabitants +of these districts are for the most part kindly and sedate; the friars +soon gained their confidence by relating to them first their history and +then their hopes. They worked and ate together; field-hands and friars +often slept in the same barn, and when with the morrow's dawn the friars +went on their way, the hearts of those they left behind had been +touched. They were not yet converted, but they knew that not far away, +over toward Assisi, were living men who had renounced all worldly goods, +and who, consumed with zeal, were going up and down preaching penitence +and peace. + +Their reception was very different in the cities. If the peasant of +Central Italy is mild and kindly the townsfolk are on a first +acquaintance scoffing and ill disposed. We shall shortly see the friars +who went to Florence the butt of all sorts of persecutions. + +Only a few weeks had passed since Francis began to preach, and already +his words and acts were sounding an irresistible appeal in the depths of +many a heart. We have arrived at the most unique and interesting period +in the history of the Franciscans. These first months are for their +institution what the first days of spring are for nature, days when the +almond-tree blossoms, bearing witness to the mysterious labor going on +in the womb of the earth, and heralding the flowers that will suddenly +enamel the fields. At the sight of these men--bare footed, scantily +clothed, without money, and yet so happy--men's minds were much divided. +Some held them to be mad, others admired them, finding them widely +different from the vagrant monks,[12] that plague of Christendom. + +Sometimes, however, the friars found success not responding to their +efforts, the conversion of souls not taking form with enough rapidity +and vigor. To encourage them, Francis would then confide to them his +visions and his hopes. "I saw a multitude of men coming toward us, +asking that they might receive the habit of our holy religion, and lo, +the sound of their footsteps still echoes in my ears. I saw them coming +from every direction, filling all the roads." + +Whatever the biographies may say, Francis was far from foreseeing the +sorrows that were to follow this rapid increase of his Order. The maiden +leaning with trembling rapture on her lover's arm no more dreams of the +pangs of motherhood than he thought of the dregs he must drain after +quaffing joyfully the generous wine of the chalice.[13] + +Every prosperous movement provokes opposition by the very fact of its +prosperity. The herbs of the field have their own language for cursing +the longer-lived plants that smother them out; one can hardly live +without arousing jealousy; in vain the new fraternity showed itself +humble, it could not escape this law. + +When the brethren went up to Assisi to beg from door to door, many +refused to give to them, reproaching them with desiring to live on the +goods of others after having squandered their own. Many a time they had +barely enough not to starve to death. It would even seem that the clergy +were not entirely without part in this opposition. The Bishop of Assisi +said to Francis one day: "Your way of living without owning anything +seems to me very harsh and difficult." "My lord," replied he, "if we +possessed property we should have need of arms for its defence, for it +is the source of quarrels and lawsuits, and the love of God and of one's +neighbor usually finds many obstacles therein; this is why we do not +desire temporal goods."[14] + +The argument was unanswerable, but Guido began to rue the encouragement +which he had formerly offered the son of Bernardone. He was very nearly +in the situation and consequently in the state of mind of the Anglican +bishops when they saw the organizing of the Salvation Army. It was not +exactly hostility, but a distrust which was all the deeper for hardly +daring to show itself. The only counsel which the bishop could give +Francis was to come into the ranks of the clergy, or, if asceticism +attracted him, to join some already existing monastic order.[15] + +If the bishop's perplexities were great, those of Francis were hardly +less so. He was too acute not to foresee the conflict that threatened to +break out between the friars and the clergy. He saw that the enemies of +the priests praised him and his companions beyond measure simply to set +off their poverty against the avarice and wealth of the ecclesiastics, +yet he felt himself urged on from within to continue his work, and could +well have exclaimed with the apostle, _"Woe is me if I preach not the +gospel!"_ On the other hand, the families of the Penitents could not +forgive them for having distributed their goods among the poor, and +attacks came from this direction with all the bitter language and the +deep hatred natural to disappointed heirs. From this point of view the +brotherhood appeared as a menace to families, and many parents trembled +lest their sons should join it. Whether the friars would or no, they +were an unending subject of interest to the whole city. Evil rumors, +plentifully spread abroad against them, simply defeated themselves; +flying from mouth to mouth they speedily found contradictors who had no +difficulty in showing their absurdity. All this indirectly served their +cause and gained to their side those hearts, more numerous than is +generally believed, who find the defence of the persecuted a necessity. + +As to the clergy, they could not but feel a profound distrust of these +lay converters, who, though they aroused the hatred of some interested +persons, awakened in more pious souls first astonishment and then +admiration. Suddenly to see men without title or diploma succeed +brilliantly in the mission which has been officially confided to +ourselves, and in which we have made pitiful shipwreck, is cruel +torture. Have we not seen generals who preferred to lose a battle rather +than gain it with the aid of guerrillas? + +This covert opposition has left no characteristic traces in the +biographies of St. Francis. It is not to be wondered at; Thomas of +Celano, even if he had had information of this matter, would have been +wanting in tact to make use of it. The clergy, for that matter, possess +a thousand means of working upon public opinion without ceasing to show +a religious interest in those whom they detest. + +But the more St. Francis shall find himself in contradiction with the +clergy of his time, the more he will believe himself the obedient son of +the Church. Confounding the gospel with the teaching of the Church, he +will for a good while border upon heresy, but without ever falling into +it. Happy simplicity, thanks to which he had never to take the attitude +of revolt! + +It was five years since, a convalescent leaning upon his staff, he had +felt himself taken possession of by a loathing of material pleasures. +From that time every one of his days had been marked by a step in +advance. + +It was again the spring-time. Perfectly happy, he felt himself more and +more impelled to bring others to share his happiness and to proclaim in +the four corners of the world how he had attained it. He resolved, +therefore, to undertake a new mission. A few days were spent in +preparing for it. The Three Companions have preserved for us the +directions which he gave to his disciples: + + "Let us consider that God in his goodness has not called us + merely for our own salvation, but also for that of many men, + that we may go through all the world exhorting men, more by our + example than by our words, to repent of their sins and bear the + commandments in mind. Be not fearful on the ground that we + appear little and ignorant, but simply and without disquietude + preach repentance. Have faith in God, who has overcome the + world, that his Spirit will speak in you and by you, exhorting + men to be converted and keep his commandments. + + "You will find men full of faith, gentleness, and goodness, who + will receive you and your words with joy; but you will find + others, and in greater numbers, faithless, proud, blasphemers, + who will speak evil of you, resisting you and your words. Be + resolute, then, to endure everything with patience and + humility." + + Hearing this, the brethren began to be agitated. St. Francis + said to them: "Have no fear, for very soon many nobles and + learned men will come to you; they will be with you preaching to + kings and princes and to a multitude of peoples. Many will be + converted to the Lord, all over the world, who will multiply and + increase his family." + +After he had thus spoken he blessed them, saying to each one the word +which was in the future to be his supreme consolation: + + "My brother, commit yourself to God with all your cares, and he + will care for you." + + Then the men of God departed, faithfully observing his + instructions, and when they found a church or a cross they bowed + in adoration, saying with devotion, "We adore thee, O Christ, + and we bless thee here and in all churches in the whole world, + for by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world." In fact + they believed that they had found a holy place wherever they + found a church or a cross. + + Some listened willingly, others scoffed, the greater number + overwhelmed them with questions. "Whence come you?" "Of what + order are you?" And they, though sometimes it was wearisome to + answer, said simply, "We are penitents, natives of the city of + Assisi."[16] + +This freshness and poetry will not be found in the later missions. Here +the river is still itself, and if it knows toward what sea it is +hastening, it knows nothing of the streams, more or less turbid, which +shall disturb its limpidity, nor the dykes and the straightenings to +which it will have to submit. + +A long account by the Three Companions gives us a picture from life of +these first essays at preaching: + + Many men took the friars for knaves or madmen and refused to + receive them into their houses for fear of being robbed. So in + many places, after having undergone all sorts of bad usage, they + could find no other refuge for the night than the porticos of + churches or houses. There were at that time two brethren who + went to Florence. They begged all through the city but could + find no shelter. Coming to a house which had a portico and under + the portico a bench, they said to one another, "We shall be very + comfortable here for the night." As the mistress of the house + refused to let them enter, they humbly asked her permission to + sleep upon the bench. + + She was about to grant them permission when her husband + appeared. "Why have you permitted these lewd fellows to stay + under our portico?" he asked. The woman replied that she had + refused to receive them into the house, but had given them + permission to sleep under the portico where there was nothing + for them to steal but the bench. + + The cold was very sharp; but taking them for thieves no one gave + them any covering. + + As for them, after having enjoyed on their bench no more sleep + than was necessary, warmed only by divine warmth, and having for + covering only their Lady Poverty, in the early dawn they went to + the church to hear mass. + + The lady went also on her part, and seeing the friars devoutly + praying she said to herself: "If these men were rascals and + thieves as my husband said, they would not remain thus in + prayer." And while she was making these reflections behold a man + of the name of Guido was giving alms to the poor in the church. + Coming to the friars he would have given a piece of money to + them as to the others, but they refused his money and would not + receive it. "Why," he asked, "since you are poor, will you not + accept like the others?" "It is true that we are poor," replied + Brother Bernardo, "but poverty does not weigh upon us as upon + other poor people; for by the grace of God, whose will we are + accomplishing, we have voluntarily become poor." + + Much amazed, he asked them if they had ever had anything, and + learned that they had possessed much, but that for the love of + God they had given everything away.... The lady, seeing that the + friars had refused the alms, drew near to them and said that + she would gladly receive them into her house if they would be + pleased to lodge there. "May the Lord recompense to you your + good will," replied the friars, humbly. + + But Guido, learning that they had not been able to find a + shelter, took them to his own house, saying, "Here is a refuge + prepared for you by the Lord; remain in it as long as you + desire." + + As for them, they gave thanks to God and spent several days with + him, preaching the fear of the Lord by word and example, so that + in the end he made large distributions to the poor. + + Well treated by him, they were despised by others. Many men, + great and small, attacked and insulted them, sometimes going so + far as to tear off their clothing; but though despoiled of their + only tunic, they would not ask for its restitution. If, moved to + pity, men gave back to them what they had taken away, they + accepted it cheerfully. + + There were those who threw mud upon them, others who put dice + into their hands and invited them to play, and others clutching + them by the cowl made them drag them along thus. But seeing that + the friars were always full of joy in the midst of their + tribulations, that they neither received nor carried money, and + that by their love for one another they made themselves known as + true disciples of the Lord, many of them felt themselves + reproved in their hearts and came asking pardon for the offences + which they had committed. They, pardoning them with all their + heart, said, "The Lord forgive you," and gave them pious + counsels for the salvation of their souls. + +A translation can but imperfectly give all the repressed emotion, the +candid simplicity, the modest joy, the fervent love which breathe in the +faulty Latin of the Three Companions. Yet these scattered friars sighed +after the home-coming and the long conversations with their spiritual +father in the tranquil forests of the suburbs of Assisi. Friendship +among men, when it overpasses a certain limit, has something deep, high, +ideal, infinitely sweet, to which no other friendship attains. There was +no woman in the Upper Chamber when, on the last evening of his life, +Jesus communed with his disciples and invited the world to the eternal +marriage supper. + +Francis, above all, was impatient to see his young family once more. +They all arrived at Portiuncula almost at the same time, having already, +before reaching it, forgotten the torments they had endured, thinking +only of the joy of the meeting.[17] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1 Cel., 23; 3 Soc., 25 and 26; Bon., 27. Cf. _Auct. Vit. + Sec. ap._, A. SS., p. 579. + + [2] 1 Cel., 24. We must correct the Bollandist text: _Inter quos + quidam de Assisio puer ac simplicem animum gerens_, by: _quidam + de Assisio pium ac simplicem_, etc. The period at which we have + arrived is very clear as a whole: the picture which the Three + Companions give us is true with a truth which forces conviction + at first sight; but neither they nor Celano are giving an + official report. Later on men desired to know precisely in what + order the early disciples came, and they tortured the texts to + find an answer. The same course was followed with regard to the + first missionary journeys. But on both sides they came up + against impossibilities and contradictions. What does it matter + whether there were two, three, or four missions before the papal + approbation? Of what consequence are the names of those early + disciples who are entirely secondary in the history of the + Franciscan movement? All these things took place with much more + simplicity and spontaneity than is generally supposed. There is + a wide difference between the plan of a house drawn up by an + architect and a view of the same house painted by an artist. The + second, though abounding in inexactitudes, gives a more just + notion of the reality than the plan. The same is true of the + Franciscan biographies. + + [3] 1 Cel., 24. Bernard de Besse is the first to call him B. di + Quintavalle: _De laudibus_, fo. 95 h.; cf. upon him Mark of + Lisbon, t. i., second part, pp. 68-70; _Conform._, 47; _Fior._, + 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 28; 3 Soc., 27, 30, 39; 2 Cel., 1, 10; 2, 19; + Bon., 28; 1 Cel., 30; Salimbeni, ann. 1229, and _Tribul. Arch._, + ii., p. 278, etc. + + [4] 1 Cel., 24; 3 Soc., 27, 28, 29; 2 Cel., 1, 10; 3, 52; Bon., + 28; A. SS., p. 580. It is evident that the tradition has been + worked over here: it soon came to be desired to find a miracle + in the manner in which Francis found the passage for reading. + The St. Nicholas Church is no longer in existence; it stood upon + the piece of ground now occupied by the barracks of the + _gendarmerie_ (_carabinieri reali_). + + [5] Matt., xix., 21; Luke, ix., 1-6; Matt., xvi., 24-26. The + agreement of tradition upon these passages is complete. 3 Soc., + 29; 2 Cel., 1, 10; Bon., 28; _Spec._, 5b.; _Conform._, 37b. 2, + 47a. 2; _Fior._, 2; Glassberger and the Chronicle of the xxiv. + generals reversing the order (Analecta, fr., t. ii., p. 5) as + well as the Conformities in another place, 87b, 2. + + [6] 3 Soc., 30. Cf. _Anon. Perus._, A. SS., p. 581a. This scene + is reported neither by Celano nor by St. Bonaventura. + + [7] This date is given in the life of Brother Egidio; A. SS., + _Oct._, t. ii., p. 572; _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 220. It fits well + with the accounts. Through it we obtain the approximate date of + the definitive conversion of Francis two full years earlier. + + [8] 1 Cel., 25; 3 Soc., 23; Bon. 29. Cf. _Anon. Perus._, A. SS., + p. 582, and A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 220 ff. + + [9] _Spec._, 25a: _Qualiter dixit fratri Egidio priusquam esset + receptus ut daret mantellum ciudam pauperi. In primordio + religionis cum maneret apud Regum Tortum cum duobus fratribus + quos tunc tantum habehat._ If we compare this passage with 3 + Soc., 44, we shall doubtless arrive at the conclusion that the + account in the Speculum is more satisfactory. It is in fact very + easy to understand the optical illusion by which later on the + Portiuncula was made the scene of the greater number of the + events of St. Francis's life, while it would be difficult to see + why there should have been any attempt to surround Rivo-Torto + with an aureola. The Fioretti say: _Ando inverso lo spedale dei + lebbrosi_, which confirms the indication of Rivo-Torto. _Vita d' + Egidio_, Sec. 1. + + [10] _An. Perus_, A. SS., p. 582. Cf. _Fior._, _Vita di Egidio_, + 1; _Spec._, 124, 136; 2 Cel., 3, 68; A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., + p. 227. + + [11] _Spec._, 34a; _Conform._, 219b, 1; _Ant. fr._, p. 96. + + [12] The Gyrovagi. Tr. + + [13] 3 Soc. 32-34; 1 Cel., 27 and 28; Bon., 31. + + [14] 3 Soc., 35. Cf. _Anon. Perus._; A. SS., p. 584. + + [15] Later on, naturally, it was desired that Francis should + have had no better supporter than Guido; some have even made him + out to be his spiritual director (St. Francois, Plon, p. 24)! We + have an indirect but unexceptionable proof of the reserve with + which these pious traditions must be accepted; Francis did not + even tell his bishop (_pater et dominus animarum_, 3 Soc., 29) + of his design of having his Rule approved by the pope. This is + the more striking because the bishop would have been his natural + advocate at the court of Rome, and because in the absence of any + other reason the most elementary politeness required that he + should have been informed. Add to this that bishops in Italy are + not, as elsewhere, _functionaries_ approached with difficulty by + the common run of mortals. Almost every village in Umbria has + its bishop, so that their importance is hardly greater than that + of the cure of a French canton. Furthermore, several pontifical + documents throw a sombre light on Guido's character. In a + chapter of the decretals of Honorius III. (_Quinta compil._, + lib. ii., tit. iii., cap. i.) is given a complaint against this + bishop, brought before the curia by the Crucigeri of the + hospital _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ (suburbs of Assisi), of + having maltreated two of their number, and having stolen a part + of the wine belonging to the convent: _pro eo quod Aegidium + presbyterum, et fratrem eorem conversum violentas manus + injecerat ... adjiciens quod idem hospitale quadam vini + quantitate fuerat per eumdem episcopum spoliatum._ _Honorii + opera_, Horoy's edition, t. i., col. 200 ff. Cf. Potthast, 7746. + The mention of the hospital _de Pariete_ proves beyond question + that the Bishop of Assisi is here concerned and not the Bishop + of Osimo, as some critics have suggested. + + Another document shows him at strife with the Benedictines of + Mount Subasio (the very ones who afterward gave Portiuncula to + Francis), and Honorius III. found the bishop in the wrong: Bull + _Conquerente oeconomo monasterii ap_. Richter, _Corpus juris + canonici_. Leipzig, 1839, 4to, Horoy, _loc. cit._, t. i., col. + 163; Potthast, 7728. + + [16] 3 Soc., 36 and 37. Cf. _Anon. Perus. ap._, A. SS., p. 585; + _Test. B. Francisci_. + + [17] 3 Soc., 38-41. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ST. FRANCIS AND INNOCENT III + +Summer 1210[1] + + +Seeing the number of his friars daily increasing, Francis decided to +write the Rule of the Order and go to Rome to procure its approval by +the Pope. + +This resolution was not lightly taken. It would be a mistake in fact to +take Francis for one of those inspired ones who rush into action upon +the strength of unexpected revelations, and, thanks to their faith in +their own infallibility, overawe the multitude. On the contrary, he was +filled with a real humility, and if he believed that God reveals himself +in prayer, he never for that absolved himself from the duty of +reflection nor even from reconsidering his decisions. St. Bonaventura +does him great wrong in picturing the greater number of his important +resolutions as taken in consequence of dreams; this is to rob his life +of its profound originality, his sanctity of its choicest blossom. He +was of those who struggle, and, to use one of the noblest expressions of +the Bible, of those who _by their perseverance conquer their souls_. +Thus we shall see him continually retouching the Rule of his institute, +unceasingly revising it down to the last moment, according as the growth +of the Order and experience of the human heart suggested to him +modifications of it.[2] + +The first Rule which he submitted to Rome has not come down to us; we +only know that it was extremely simple, and composed especially of +passages from the Gospels. It was doubtless only the repetition of those +verses which Francis had read to his first companions, with a few +precepts about manual labor and the occupations of the new +brethren.[3] + +It will be well to pause here and consider the brethren who are about to +set out for Rome. The biographies are in agreement as to their number; +they were twelve, including Francis; but the moment they undertake to +give a name to each one of them difficulties begin to arise, and it is +only by some exegetical sleight of hand that they can claim to have +reconciled the various documents. The table given below[4] briefly +shows these difficulties. The question took on some importance when in +the fourteenth century men undertook to show an exact conformity between +the life of St. Francis and that of Jesus. It is without interest to us. +The profiles of two or three of these brethren stand out very clearly in +the picture of the origins of the Order; others remind one of the +pictures of primitive Umbrian masters, where the figures of the +background have a modest and tender grace, but no shadow of personality. +The first Franciscans had all the virtues, including the one which is +nearly always wanting, willingness to remain unknown. + +In the Lower Church of Assisi there is an ancient fresco representing +five of the companions of St. Francis. Above them is a Madonna by +Cimabue, upon which they are gazing with all their soul. It would be +more true if St. Francis were there in the place of the Madonna; one is +always changed into the image of what one admires, and they resemble +their master and one another.[5] To attempt to give them a name is to +make a sort of psychological error and become guilty of infidelity to +their memory; the only name they would have desired is that of their +father. His love changed their hearts and shed over their whole persons +a radiance of light and joy. These are the true personages of the +_Fioretti_, the men who brought peace to cities, awakened consciences, +changed hearts, conversed with birds, tamed wolves. Of them one may +truly say: "Having nothing, yet possessing all things" (_Nihil habentes, +omnia possidentes_). + +They quitted Portiuncula full of joy and confidence. Francis was too +much absorbed in thought not to desire to place in other hands the +direction of the little company. + + "Let us choose," he said, "one from among ourselves to guide us, + and let him be to us as the vicar of Jesus Christ. Wherever it + may please him to go we will go, and when he may wish to stop + anywhere to sleep there we will stop." They chose Brother + Bernardo and did as Francis had said. They went on full of joy, + and all their conversations had for their object only the glory + of God and the salvation of their souls. + + Their journey was happily accomplished. Everywhere they found + kindly souls who sheltered them, and they felt beyond a doubt + that God was taking care of them.[6] + +Francis's thoughts were all fixed upon the purpose of their journey; he +thought of it day and night, and naturally interpreted his dreams with +reference to it. One time, in his dream, he saw himself walking along a +road beside which was a gigantic and wonderfully beautiful tree. And, +behold, while he looked upon it, filled with wonder, he felt himself +become so tall that he could touch the boughs, and at the same time the +tree bent down its branches to him.[7] He awoke full of joy, sure of a +gracious reception by the sovereign pontiff. + +His hopes were to be somewhat blighted. Innocent III. had now for twelve +years occupied the throne of St. Peter. Still young, energetic, +resolute, he enjoyed that superfluity of authority given by success. +Coming after the feeble Celestine III., he had been able in a few years +to reconquer the temporal domain of the Church, and so to improve the +papal influence as almost to realize the theocratic dreams of Gregory +VII. He had seen King Pedro of Aragon declaring himself his vassal and +laying his crown upon the tomb of the apostles, that he might take it +back at his hands. At the other end of Europe, John Lackland had been +obliged to receive his crown from a legate after having sworn homage, +fealty, and an annual tribute to the Holy See. Preaching union to the +cities and republics of Italy, causing the cry ITALIA! ITALIA! to +resound like the shout of a trumpet, he was the natural representative +of the national awakening, and appeared to be in some sort the suzerain +of the emperor, as he was already that of other kings. Finally, by his +efforts to purify the Church, by his indomitable firmness in defending +morality and law in the affair of Ingelburge and in many others, he was +gaining a moral strength which in times so disquieted was all the more +powerful for being so rare. + +But this incomparable power had its hidden dangers. Occupied with +defending the prerogatives of the Holy See, Innocent came to forget that +the Church does not exist for herself, that her supremacy is only a +transitory means; and one part of his pontificate may be likened to +wars, legitimate in the beginning, in which the conqueror keeps on with +depredations and massacres for no reason, except that he is intoxicated +with blood and success. + +And so Rome, which canonized the petty Celestine V., refused this +supreme consecration to the glorious Innocent III. With exquisite tact +she perceived that he was rather king than priest, rather pope than +saint. + +When he suppressed ecclesiastical disorders it was less for love of good +than for hatred of evil; it was the judge who condemns or threatens, +himself always supported by the law, not the father who weeps his son's +offence. This priest did not comprehend the great movement of his +age--the awakening of love, of poetry, of liberty. I have already said +that at the opening of the thirteenth century the Middle Age was twenty +years old. Innocent III. undertook to treat it as if it were only +fifteen. Possessed by his civil and religious dogmas as others are by +their educational doctrines, he never suspected the unsatisfied +longings, the dreams, unreasoning perhaps, but beneficent and divine, +that were dumbly stirring in the depths of men's hearts. He was a +believer, although certain sayings of the historians[8] open the door +to some doubts on this point, but he drew his religion rather from the +Old Testament than from the New, and if he often thought of Moses, the +leader of his people, nothing reminded him of Jesus, the shepherd of +souls. One cannot be everything; a choice intelligence, an iron +will[9] are a sufficient portion even for a _priest-god_; he lacked +love. The death of this pontiff, great among the great ones, was +destined to be saluted with songs of joy.[10] + +His reception of Francis furnished to Giotto, the friend of Dante, one +of his most striking frescos; the pope, seated on his throne, turns +abruptly toward Francis. He frowns, for he does not understand, and yet +he feels a strange power in this mean and despised man, _vilis et +despectus_; he makes a real but futile effort to comprehend, and now I +see in this pope, who lived upon lemons,[11] something that recalls +another choice mind, theocratic like his own, sacrificed like him to his +work: Calvin. One might think that the painter had touched his lips to +the Calabrian Seer's cup, and that in the attitude of these two men he +sought to symbolize a meeting of representatives of the two ages of +humanity, that of Law and that of Love.[12] + +A surprise awaited the pilgrims on their arrival in Rome: they met the +Bishop of Assisi,[13] quite as much to his astonishment as to their +own. This detail is precious because it proves that Francis had not +confided his plans to Guido. Notwithstanding this the bishop, it is +said, offered to make interest for them with the princes of the Church. +We may suspect that his commendations were not very warm. At all events +they did not avail to save Francis and his company either from a +searching inquiry or from the extended fatherly counsels of Cardinal +Giovanni di San Paolo[14] upon the difficulties of the Rule, counsels +which strongly resemble those of Guido himself.[15] + +What Francis asked for was simple enough; he claimed no privilege of any +sort, but only that the pope would approve of his undertaking to lead a +life of absolute conformity to the precepts of the gospel. There is a +delicate point here which it is quite worth while to see clearly. The +pope was not called upon to approve the Rule, since that came from Jesus +himself; at the very worst all that he could do would be to lay an +ecclesiastical censure upon Francis and his companions for having acted +without authority, and to enjoin them to leave to the secular and +regular clergy the task of reforming the Church. + +Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, to whom the Bishop of Assisi presented +them, had informed himself of the whole history of the Penitents. He +lavished upon them the most affectionate tokens of interest, even going +so far as to beg for a mention in their prayers. But such assurances, +which appear to have been always the small change of the court of Rome, +did not prevent his examining them for several successive days,[16] and +putting to them an infinite number of questions, of which the conclusion +was always the advice to enter some Order already existing. + +To this the unlucky Francis would reply as best he could, often not +without embarrassment, for he had no wish to appear to think lightly of +the cardinal's counsels, and yet he felt in his heart the imperious +desire to obey his vocation. The prelate would then return to the +charge, insinuating that they would find it very hard to persevere, that +the enthusiasm of the early days would pass away, and again pointing out +a more easy course. He was obliged in the end to own himself vanquished. +The persistence of Francis, who had never weakened for an instant nor +doubted his mission, begat in him a sort of awe, while the perfect +humility of the Penitents and their simple and striking fidelity to the +Roman Church reassured him in the matter of heresy. + +He announced to them, therefore, that he would speak of them to the +pope, and would act as their advocate with him. According to the Three +Companions he said to the pope: "I have found a man of the highest +perfection, who desires to live in conformity with the Holy Gospel and +observe evangelical perfection in all things. I believe that by him the +Lord intends to reform the faith of the Holy Church throughout the whole +world."[17] + +On the morrow he presented Francis and his companions to Innocent III. +Naturally, the pope was not sparing of expressions of sympathy, but he +also repeated to them the remarks and counsels which they had already +heard so often. "My dear children," he said, "your life appears to me +too severe; I see indeed that your fervor is too great for any doubt of +you to be possible, but I ought to consider those who shall come after +you, lest your mode of life should be beyond their strength."[18] + +Adding a few kind words, he dismissed them without coming to any +definite conclusion, promising to consult the cardinals, and advising +Francis in particular to address himself to God, to the end that he +might manifest his will. + +Francis's anxiety must have been great; he could not understand these +dilatory measures, these expressions of affection which never led to a +categorical approbation. It seemed to him that he had said all that he +had to say. For new arguments he had only one resource--prayer. + +He felt his prayer answered when in his conversation with Jesus the +parable of poverty came to him; he returned to lay it before the pope. + + There was in the desert a woman who was very poor, but + beautiful. A great king, seeing her beauty, desired to take her + for his wife, for he thought that by her he should have + beautiful children. The marriage contracted and consummated, + many sons were born to him. When they were grown up, their + mother spoke to them thus: "My sons, you have no cause to blush, + for you are the sons of the king; go, therefore, to his court, + and he will give you everything you need." + + When they arrived at the court the king admired their beauty, + and finding in them his own likeness he asked, "Whose sons are + you?" And when they replied that they were the sons of a poor + woman who lived in the desert, the king clasped them to his + heart with joy saying, "Have no fear, for you are my sons; if + strangers eat at my table, much more shall you who are my lawful + sons." Then the king sent word to the woman to send to his court + all the sons which she had borne, that they might be nourished + there. + + "Very holy father," added Francis, "I am this poor woman whom + God in his love has deigned to make beautiful, and of whom he + has been pleased to have lawful sons. The King of Kings has told + me that he will provide for all the sons which he may have of + me, for if he sustains bastards, how much more his legitimate + sons."[19] + +So much simplicity, joined with such pious obstinacy, at last conquered +Innocent. In the humble mendicant he perceived an apostle and prophet +whose mouth no power could close. Successor of St. Peter and vicar of +Jesus Christ that he felt himself, he saw in the mean and despised man +before him one who with the authority of absolute faith proclaimed +himself the root of a new lineage of most legitimate Christians. + +The biographers have held that by this parable Francis sought above all +things to tranquillize the pope as to the future of the brethren; they +find in it a reply to the anxieties of the pontiff, who feared to see +them starve to death. There can be no doubt that its original meaning +was totally different. It shows that with all his humility Francis knew +how to speak out boldly, and that all his respect for the Church could +not hinder his seeing, and, when necessary, saying, that he and his +brethren were the lawful sons of the gospel, of which the members of the +clergy were only _extranei_. We shall find in the course of his life +more than one example of this indomitable boldness, which disarmed +Innocent III. as well as the future Gregory IX. + +In a consistory which doubtless was held between the two audiences some +of the cardinals expressed the opinion that the initiative of the +Penitents of Assisi was an innovation, and that their mode of life was +entirely beyond human power. "But," replied Giovanni di San Paolo, "if +we hold that to observe gospel perfection and make profession of it is +an irrational and impossible innovation, are we not convicted of +blasphemy against Christ, the author of the gospel?"[20] + +These words struck Innocent III. with great force; he knew better than +any one that the possessions of the ecclesiastics were the great +obstacles to the reform of the Church, and that the threatened success +of the Albigensian heresy was especially due to the fact that it +preached the doctrine of poverty. + +Two years before he had accorded his approbation to a group of +Waldensians, who under the name _Poor Catholics_ had desired to remain +faithful to the Church;[21] he therefore gave his approval to the +Penitents of Assisi, but, as a contemporary chronicler has well +observed, it was in the hope that they would wrest the banner from +heresy.[22] + +Yet his doubts and hesitations were not entirely dissipated. He reserved +his definitive approbation, therefore, while lavishing upon the brothers +the most affectionate tokens of interest. He authorized them to continue +their missions everywhere, after having gained the consent of their +ordinaries. He required, however, that they should give themselves a +responsible superior to whom the ecclesiastical authorities could always +address themselves. Naturally, Francis was chosen.[23] This fact, so +humble in appearance, definitively constituted the Franciscan family. + +The mystics whom we saw going from village to village transported with +love and liberty accepted the yoke almost without thinking about it. +This yoke will preserve them from the disintegration of the heretics, +but it will make itself sharply felt by those pure souls; they will one +day look back to the early days of the Order as the only time when their +life was truly conformed to the gospel. + +When Francis heard the words of the supreme pontiff he prostrated +himself at his feet, promising the most perfect obedience with all his +heart. The pope blessed them, saying: "Go, my brethren, and may God be +with you. Preach penitence to everyone according as the Lord may deign +to inspire you. Then when the All-powerful shall have made you multiply +and go forward, you will refer to us; we will concede what you ask, and +we may then with greater security accord to you even more than you +ask."[24] + +Francis and his companions were too little familiar with Roman +phraseology to perceive that after all the Holy See had simply consented +to suspend judgment in view of the uprightness of their intentions and +the purity of their faith.[25] + +The flowers of clerical rhetoric hid from them the shackles which had +been laid upon them. The curia, in fact, was not satisfied with +Francis's vow of fidelity, it desired in addition to stamp the Penitents +with the seal of the Church: the Cardinal of San Paolo was deputed to +confer upon them the tonsure. From this time they were all under the +spiritual authority of the Roman Church. + +The thoroughly lay creation of St. Francis had become, in spite of +himself, an ecclesiastical institution: it must soon degenerate into a +clerical institution. All unawares, the Franciscan movement had been +unfaithful to its origin. The prophet had abdicated in favor of the +priest, not indeed without possibility of return, for when a man has +once reigned, I would say, thought, in liberty--what other kingdom is +there on this earth?--he makes but an indifferent slave; in vain he +tries to submit; in spite of himself it happens at times that he lifts +his head proudly, he rattles his chains, he remembers the struggles, +sadness, anguish of the days of liberty, and weeps their loss. Among the +sons of St. Francis many were destined to weep their lost liberty, many +to die to conquer it again. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The date usually fixed for the approval of the Rule by + Innocent III. is the month of August, 1209. The Bollandists had + thought themselves able to infer it from the account where + Thomas of Celano (1 Cel., 43) refers to the passage through + Umbria of the Emperor Otho IV., on his way to be crowned at Rome + (October 4, 1209). Upon this journey see Boehmer-Ficker, _Regesta + Imperii. Dei Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV._, + etc., Insbruck, 1879, 4to, pp. 96 and 97. As this account + follows that of the approval, they conclude that the latter was + earlier. But Thomas of Celano puts this account there because + the context led up to it, and not in order to fix its date. + Everything leads to the belief that the Brothers retired + (_recolligebat_, 1 Cel., 42) to Rivo-Torto before and after + their journey to Rome. Besides, the time between April 23d and + the middle of August, 1209, is much too short for all that the + biographers tell us about the life of the Brothers before their + visit to Innocent III. The mission to Florence took place in + winter, or at least in a very cold month. But the decisive + argument is that Innocent III. quitted Rome toward the end of + May, 1209, and went to Viterbo, returning only to crown Otho, + October 4th (Potthast, 3727-3803). It is therefore absolutely + necessary to postpone to the summer of 1210 the visit of the + Penitents to the pope. This is also the date which Wadding + arrives at. + + [2] 3 Soc., 35. + + [3] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 51; Bon., 34. Cf. _Test. B. Fr._ M. K. + Mueller of Halle, in his _Anfaenge_, has made a very remarkable + study of the Rule of 1221, whence he deduces an earlier Rule, + which he believes to be that of 1209 (1210). For once I find + myself entirely in accord with him, except that the Rule thus + reconstructed (Vide _Anfaenge_, pp. 14-25, 184-188) appears to me + to be not that of 1210, which was very short, but another, drawn + up between 1210 and 1221. The _plures regulas fecit_ of the 3 + Soc., 35, authorizes us to believe that he made perhaps as many + as four--1st, 1210, very short, containing little more than the + three passages of the vocation; 2d, 1217 (?), substantially that + proposed by M. Mueller; 3d, 1221, that of which we shall speak at + length farther on; 4th, 1226, the Will, which if not a Rule is + at least an appendix to the Rule. If from 1221-1226 he had time + to make two Rules and the Will, as is universally admitted, + there is nothing surprising in his having made two from + 1210-1221. Perhaps we have a fragment of that of 1217 in the + regulation of hermitages. Vide below, p. 109. + + [4] Thomas of Celano's list. 1, _Quidam pium gerens animum_; 2, + _Bernardus_; 3, _Vir alter_; 4, _AEgidius_; 5, _Unus alius + appositus_; 6, _Philippus_; 7, _Alius bonus vir_; 8, 9, 10, 11, + _Quatuor boni et idonei viri_. 1 Cel., 24, 25, 29, 31. The + Rinaldi-Amoni text says nothing of the last four. Three + Companions: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, _Petrus_; 3, _AEgidius_; 4, + _Sabbatinus_; 5, _Moritus_; _Johannes Capella_; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, + Disciples received by the brethren in their missions. 3 Soc., + 33, 35, 41, 46, 52. Bonaventura: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, ... 3, + _AEgidius_; 4, 5, ... 6, _Silvestro_; 7, _Alius bonus viri_; 8, + 9, 10, 11, _Quatuor viri honesti_. Bon., 28, 29, 30, 31, 33. The + Fioretti, while insisting on the importance of the twelve + Franciscan apostles, cite only six in their list: Giovanni di + Capella, Egidio, Philip, Silvestro, Bernardo, and Rufino. + _Fior._, 1. We must go to the Conformities to find the + traditional list, f^o 46b 1: 1, _Bernardus de Quintavalle_; 2, + _Petrus Chatanii_; 3, _Egidius_; 4, _Sabatinus_; 5, _Moricus_; + 6, _Johannes de Capella_; 7, _Philippus Longus_; 8, _Johannes de + Sancto Constantio_; 9, _Barbarus_; 10, _Bernardus de + Cleviridante_ (sic); 11, _Angelus Tancredi_; 12, _Sylvester_. As + will be seen, in the last two documents twelve disciples are in + question, while in the preceding ones there are only eleven. + This is enough to show a dogmatic purpose. This list reappears + exactly in the _Speculum_, with the sole difference that Francis + being there included Angelo di Tancrede is the twelfth brother + and Silvestro disappears. _Spec._, 87a. + + [5] According to tradition, the five _compagni del Santo_ buried + there beside their master are Bernardo, Silvestro, William (an + Englishman), Eletto, and Valentino(?) + + [6] 3 Soc., 46; 1 Cel., 32; Bon., 34. + + [7] 1 Cel., 33; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 35. + + [8] St. Ludgarde (1182-1246) sees him condemned to Purgatory + till the Last Judgment. Life of this saint by Thomas of Catimpre + in Surius: _Vitae SS._ (1618), vi., 215-226. + + [9] _Vir clari ingenii, magnae probitatis et sapientiae, cui + nullus secundus tempore suo:_ Rigordus, _de gestis Philippi + Augusti_ in Duchesne. _Historiae Francorum scriptores coaetanei_, + t. v., p. 60.--_Nec similem sui scientia, facundia, decretorum + et legum perititia, strenuitate, judiciorum nec adhuc visus est + habere sequentem._ Cf. Mencken, _Script. rer. Sax._, Leipzig, + 1728, t. iii., p. 252. _Innocentius, qui vere stupor mundi erat + et immutator saeculi._ Cotton, _Hist. Anglicana_, Luard, 1859, p. + 107. + + [10] _Cujus finis laetitiem potius quam tristitiam generavit + subjectis._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane. Leibnitz, _Accessiones + historicae_, t. ii., p. 492. + + [11] _Decidit in acutam (febrem) quam cum multis diebus fovisset + nec a citris quibus in magna quantitatae et ex consuetudine + vescebatur ... minime abstineret ... ad ultimum in lethargia + prolapsus vitam finivit._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane, _loc. cit._ + + [12] Fresco in the great nave of the Upper Church of Assisi. + + [13] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 47. + + [14] Of the Colonna family; he died in 1216. Cf. 3 Soc., 61. + Vide Cardella, _Memorie storiche de' Cardinali_, 9 vols., 8vo, + Rome, 1792 ff., t. i., p. 177. He was at Rome in the summer of + 1210, for on the 11th of August he countersigned the bull + _Religiosem vitam_. Potthast, 4061. Angelo Clareno relates the + approbation with more precision in certain respects: _Cum vero + Summo Pontifici ea quae postulabat [Franciscus] ardua valde et + quasi impossibilia viderentur infirmitate hominum sui temporis, + exhortabatur eum, quod aliquem ordinem vel regulam de approbatis + assumeret, at ipse se a Christo missum ad talem vitam et non + aliam postulandam constanter affirmans, fixus in sua petitione + permansit. Tunc dominus Johannes de Sancto Paulo episcopus + Sabinensis et dominus Hugo episcopus Hostiensis Dei spiritu moti + assisterunt Sancto Francisco et pro his quae petebat coram summo + Pontifice et Cardinalibus plura proposuerunt rationabilia et + efficacia valde. Tribul._ Laurentinian MS., f^o 6a. This + intervention of Ugolini is mentioned in no other document. It + is, however, by no means impossible. He also was in Rome in the + summer of 1210. (Vide Potthast, p. 462.) + + [15] 1 Cel., 32 and 33; 3 Soc., 47 and 48. Cf. _An. Per._, A. + SS., p. 590. + + [16] 1 Cel., 33. + + [17] 3 Soc., 48. + + [18] 3 Soc., 49; 1 Cel., 33; Bon., 35 and 36. All this has been + much worked over by tradition and gives us only an echo of the + reality. It would certainly have needed very little for the + Penitents to meet the same fate before Innocent III. as the + Waldenses before Lucius III. Traces of this interview are found + in two texts which appear to me to be too suspicious to warrant + their insertion in the body of the narrative. The first is a + fragment of Matthew Paris: _Papa itaque in fratre memorato + habitum deformem, vultum despicabilem, barbam prolixam, capillos + incultos, supercilia pendentia et nigra diligenter considerans; + cum petitionem ejus tam arduam et executione impossibilem + recitare fecisset, despexit cum et dixit: Vade frater, et quaere + porcus, quibus potius debes quam hominibus comparari, et involve + te cum eis in volutabro, et regulam illis a te commentatam + tradens, officium tuae praedicationis impende. Quod audiens + Franciscus inclinato capite exixit et porcis tandem inventis, in + luto se cum eis tamdiu involvit quousque a planta pedis usque ad + verticem, corpus suum totum cum ipso habitu polluisset. Sicque + ad consistorium revertens Papae se conspectibus praesentavit + dicens: Domine feci sicut praecepisti exaudi nunc obsecro + petitionem meam_. Ed. Wats, p. 340. The incident has a real + Franciscan color, and should have some historic basis. + Curiously, it in some sort meets a passage in the legend of + Bonaventura which is an interpolation of the end of the + thirteenth century. See A. SS., p. 591. + + [19] 3 Soc., 50 and 51; Bon., 37; 2 Cel., 1, 11; Bernard de + Besse, Turin MS., f^o 101b. Ubertini di Casali (_Arbor vitae + crucifixae_, Venice, 1485, lib. v., cap. iii.) tells a curious + story in which he depicts the indignation of the prelates + against Francis. _Quaenam haec est doctrina nova quam infers + auribus nostris? Quis potest vivere sine temporalium + possessione? Numquid tu melior es quam patres nostri qui + dederunt nobis temporalia et in temporalibus abundantes + ecclesias possiderunt?_ Then follows the fine prayer inserted by + Wadding in Francis's works. The central idea is the same as in + the parable of poverty. This story, though not referable to any + source, has nevertheless its importance, since it shows how in + the year 1300 a man who had all the documents before his eyes, + represented to himself Francis's early steps. + + [20] Bon., 36. + + [21] The attempt of Durand of Huesca to create a mendicant order + has not yet been studied with sufficient minuteness. Chief of + the Waldenses of Aragon, he was present in 1207 at the + conference of Pamiers, and decided to return to the Church. + Received with kindness by the pope he at first had a great + success, and by 1209 had established communities in Aragon, at + Carcassonne, Narbonne, Beziers, Nimes, Uzes, Milan. We find in + this movement all the lineaments of the institute of St. + Dominic; it was an order of priests to whom theological studies + were recommended. They disappeared almost completely in the + storm of the Albigensian crusade. Innocent III., _epistolae_, + xi., 196, 197, 198; xii., 17, 66; xiii., 63, 77, 78, 94; xv., + 82, 83, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 137, 146. The first of these + bulls contains the very curious Rule of this ephemeral order. + Upon its disappearance vide Ripoli, _Bullarium Praedicatorum_, 8 + vols., folio, Rome, 1729-1740, t. i., p. 96. Cf. Elie Berger, + _Registres d'Innocent IV._, 2752. + + [22] Burchard, of the order of the Premostrari, who died in + 1226. See below, p. 234. + + [23] 3 Soc., 52; Bon., 38. + + [24] 3 Soc., 52 and 49. + + [25] St. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, saw very clearly that + it was _quaedam concessio simplex habitus et modi illius vivendi + et quasi permissio_. A. SS., p. 839. The expression "approbation + of the Rule" by which the act of Innocent III. is usually + designated is therefore erroneous. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RIVO-TORTO + +1210-1211 + + +The Penitents of Assisi were overflowing with joy. After so many +mortally long days spent in that Rome, so different from the other +cities that they knew, exposed to the ill-disguised suspicions of the +prelates and the jeers of pontifical lackeys, the day of departure +seemed to them like a deliverance. At the thought of once more seeing +their beloved mountains they were seized by that homesickness of the +child for its native village which simple and kindly souls preserve till +their latest breath. + +Immediately after the ceremony they prayed at the tomb of St. Peter, and +then crossing the whole city they quitted Rome by the Porta Salara. + +Thomas of Celano, very brief as to all that concerns Francis's sojourn +in the Eternal City, recounts at full length the light-heartedness of +the little band on quitting it. Already it began to be transfigured in +their memory; pains, fatigues, fears, disquietude, hesitations were all +forgotten; they thought only of the fatherly assurances of the supreme +pontiff--the vicar of Christ, the lord and father of the Christian +universe--and promised themselves to make ever new efforts to follow the +Rule with fidelity. + +Full of these thoughts they had set out, without provisions, to cross +the Campagna of Rome, whose few inhabitants never venture out in the +heat of the day. The road stretches away northward, keeping at some +distance from the Tiber; on the left the jagged crest of Soracte, bathed +in mists formed by the exhalations of the earth, looms up +disproportionately as it fades in the distance; on the right, the +everlasting undulations of the hillocks with their wide pastures +separated by thickets so parched and ragged that they seemed to cry for +mercy and pardon. Between them the dusty road which goes straight +forward, implacable, showing, as far as the eye can reach, nothing but +the quivering of the fiery air. Not a house, not a tree, not a passing +breeze, nothing to sustain the traveller under the disquietude which +creeps over him. Here and there are a few abandoned huts, their ruins +looking like the corpses of departed civilizations, and on the edge of +the horizon the hills rising up like gigantic and unsurmountable walls. + +There are no words to describe the physical and moral sufferings to +which he is exposed who undertakes without proper preparation to cross +this inhospitable district. To the weakness caused by lack of air soon +succeeds an insurmountable lassitude. The feet sink in a soft, tenuous +dust which every step sends up in clouds; it covers you, penetrates your +skin, and parches your mouth even more than thirst. Little by little all +energy ebbs away, a dumb dejection seizes you, sight and thought become +alike confused, fever ensues, and you cast yourself down by the +roadside, unable to take another step. + +In their haste to leave Rome Francis and his companions had forgotten +all this, and had imprudently set forth. They would have succumbed if a +chance traveller had not brought them succor. He was obliged to leave +them before they had shaken off the last hallucinations of fever, +leaving them amazed with the unexpected succor which Providence had sent +them.[1] + +They were so severely shattered that on arriving at Orte they were +obliged to stop awhile. In a desert spot not far from this city they +found a shelter admirably adapted to serve them for refuge;[2] it was +one of those Etruscan tombs so common in that country, whose chambers +serve to this day as a shelter for beggars and gypsies. While some of +the brethren hastened to the city to beg for food, the others remained +in this solitude enjoying the happiness of being together, forming a +thousand plans, and more than ever delighting in the charm of freedom +from care and renunciation of material goods. + +This place had so strong an attraction for them that it required an +effort of will to quit it at the end of a fortnight. The seduction of a +life purely contemplative assailed Francis, and he asked himself if +instead of preaching to the multitudes he would not do better to live in +retreat, solely mindful of the inward dialogue between the soul and +God.[3] + +This aspiration for the selfish repose of the cloister came back to him +several times in his life; but love always won the victory. He was too +much the child of his time not to be at times tempted by that happiness +which the Middle Ages regarded as the supreme bliss of the elect in +paradise--peace. _Beati mortui quia quiescunt!_ His distinguishing +peculiarity is that he never gave way to it. + +The reflections of Francis and his companions during their stay at Orte +only made their apostolic mission more clear and imperative to them. He, +above all, seemed to be filled with a new ardor, and like a valiant +knight he burned to throw himself into the thick of the fray. + +Their way now led through the valley of the Nera. The contrast between +these cool glens, awake with a thousand voices, and the desolation of +the Roman Campagna, must have struck them vividly; the stream is only a +swollen torrent, but it runs so noisily over pebbles and rocks that it +seems to be conversing with them and with the trees of the neighboring +forest. In proportion as they had felt themselves alone on the road from +Rome to Otricoli, they now felt themselves compassed about with the +life, the fecundity, the gayety of the country. + +The account of Thomas of Celano becomes so animated as it describes the +life of Francis at this epoch that one cannot help thinking that at this +time he must have seen him, and that this first meeting remained always +in his memory as the radiant dawn of his spiritual life.[4] + +The Brothers had taken to preaching in such places as they came upon +along their route. Their words were always pretty much the same, they +showed the blessedness of peace and exhorted to penitence. Emboldened by +the welcome they had received at Rome, which in all innocence they might +have taken to be more favorable than it really was, they told the story +to everyone they met, and thus set all scruples at rest. + +These exhortations, in which Francis spared not his hearers, but in +which the sternest reproaches were mingled with so much of love, +produced an enormous effect. Man desires above all things to be loved, +and when he meets one who loves him sincerely he very seldom refuses him +either his love or his admiration. + +It is only a low understanding that confounds love with weakness and +compliance. We sometimes see sick men feverishly kissing the hand of +the surgeon who performs an operation upon them; we sometimes do the +same for our spiritual surgeons, for we realize all that there is of +vigor, pity, compassion in the tortures which they inflict, and the +cries which they force from us are quite as much of gratitude as of +pain. + +Men hastened from all parts to hear these preachers who were more severe +upon themselves than on anyone else. Members of the secular clergy, +monks, learned men, rich men even, often mingled in the impromptu +audiences gathered in the streets and public places. All were not +converted, but it would have been very difficult for any of them to +forget this stranger whom they met one day upon their way, and who in a +few words had moved them to the very bottom of their hearts with anxiety +and fear. + +Francis was in truth, as Celano says, the bright morning star. His +simple preaching took hold on consciences, snatched his hearers from the +mire and blood in which they were painfully trudging, and in spite of +themselves carried them to the very heavens, to those serene regions +where all is silent save the voice of the heavenly Father. "The whole +country trembled, the barren land was already covered with a rich +harvest, the withered vine began again to blossom."[5] + +Only a profoundly religious and poetic soul (is not the one the other?) +can understand the transports of joy which overflowed the souls of St. +Francis's spiritual sons. + +The greatest crime of our industrial and commercial civilization is that +it leaves us a taste only for that which may be bought with money, and +makes us overlook the purest and truest joys which are all the time +within our reach. The evil has roots far in the past. "Wherefore," said +the God of old Isaiah, "do you weigh money for that which is not meat? +why labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken unto me, and ye shall +eat that which is good, and your soul shall delight itself in +fatness."[6] + +Joys bought with money--noisy, feverish pleasures--are nothing compared +with those sweet, quiet, modest but profound, lasting, and peaceful +joys, enlarging, not wearying the heart, which we too often pass by on +one side, like those peasants whom we see going into ecstasies over the +fireworks of a fair, while they have not so much as a glance for the +glorious splendors of a summer night. + +In the plain of Assisi, at an hour's walk from the city and near the +highway between Perugia and Rome, was a ruinous cottage called +Rivo-Torto. A torrent, almost always dry, but capable of becoming +terrible in a storm, descends from Mount Subasio and passes beside it. +The ruin had no owner; it had served as a leper hospital before the +construction by the Crucigeri[7] of their hospital San Salvatore +delle Pareti; but since that time it had been abandoned. Now came +Francis and his companions to seek shelter there.[8] It is one of the +quietest spots in the suburbs of Assisi, and from thence they could +easily go out into the neighborhood in all directions; it being about an +equal distance from Portiuncula and St. Damian. But the principal motive +for the choice of the place seems to have been the proximity of the +_Carceri_, as those shallow natural grottos are called which are found +in the forests, half way up the side of Mount Subasio. Following up the +bed of the torrent of Rivo-Torto one reaches them in an hour by way of +rugged and slippery paths where the very goats do not willingly venture. +Once arrived, one might fancy oneself a thousand leagues from any human +being, so numerous are the birds of prey which live here quite +undisturbed.[9] + +Francis loved this solitude and often retired thither with a few +companions. The brethren in that case shared between them all care of +their material wants, after which, each one retiring into one of these +caves, they were able for a few days to listen only to the inner voice. + +These little hermitages, sufficiently isolated to secure them from +disturbance, but near enough to the cities to permit their going thither +to preach, may be found wherever Francis went. They form, as it were, a +series of documents about his life quite as important as the written +witnesses. Something of his soul may still be found in these caverns in +the Apennine forests. He never separated the contemplative from the +active life. A precious witness to this fact is found in the +regulations for the brethren during their sojourn in hermitage.[10] + +The return of the Brothers to Rivo-Torto was marked by a vast increase +of popularity. The prejudiced attacks to which they had formerly been +subjected were lost in a chorus of praises. Perhaps men suspected the +ill-will of the bishop and were happy to see him checked. However this +may be, a lively feeling of sympathy and admiration was awakened; the +people recalled to mind the indifference manifested by the son of +Bernardone a few months before with regard to Otho IV. going to be +crowned at Rome. The emperor had made a progress through Italy with a +numerous suite and a pomp designed to produce an effect on the minds of +the populace; but not only had Francis not interrupted his work to go +and see him, he had enjoined upon his friars also to abstain from going, +and had merely selected one of them to carry to the monarch a reminder +of the ephemeral nature of worldly glory. Later on it was held that he +had predicted to the emperor his approaching excommunication. + +This spirited attitude made a vivid impression on the popular +imagination.[11] Perhaps it was of more service in forming general +opinion than anything he had done thus far. The masses, who are not +often alive to delicate sentiments, respond quickly to those who, +whether rightly or wrongly, do not bow down before power. This time they +perceived that where other men would see the poor, the rich, the noble, +the common, the learned, Francis saw only souls, which were to him the +more precious as they were more neglected or despised. + +No biographer informs us how long the Penitents remained at Rivo-Torto. +It seems probable, however, that they spent there the latter part of +1210 and the early months of 1211, evangelizing the towns and villages +of the neighborhood. + +They suffered much; this part of the plain of Assisi is inundated by +torrents nearly every autumn, and many times the poor friars, blockaded +in the lazaretto, were forced to satisfy their hunger with a few roots +from the neighboring fields. + +The barrack in which they lived was so narrow that, when they were all +there at once, they had much difficulty not to crowd one another. To +secure to each one his due quota of space, Francis wrote the name of +each brother upon the column which supports the building. But these +minor discomforts in no sense disturbed their happiness. No apprehension +had as yet come to cloud Francis's hopes; he was overflowing with joy +and kindliness; all the memories which Rivo-Torto has left with the +Order are fresh and sweet pictures of him.[12] + +One night all the brethren seemed to be sleeping, when he heard a +moaning. It was one of his sheep, to speak after the manner of the +Franciscan biographer, who had denied himself too rigorously and was +dying of hunger. Francis immediately rose, called the brother to him, +brought forth the meagre reserve of food, and himself began to eat to +inspire the other with courage, explaining to him that if penitence is +good it is still necessary to temper it with discretion.[13] + +Francis had that tact of the heart which divines the secrets of others +and anticipates their desires. At another time, still at Rivo-Torto, he +took a sick brother by the hand, led him to a grape-vine, and, +presenting him with a fine cluster, began himself to eat of it. It was +nothing, but the simple act so bound to him the sick man's heart that +many years after the brother could not speak of it without emotion.[14] + +But Francis was far from neglecting his mission. Ever growing more sure, +not of himself but of his duty toward men, he took part in the political +and social affairs of his province with the confidence of an upright and +pure heart, never able to understand how stupidity, perverseness, pride, +and indolence, by leaguing themselves together, may check the finest and +most righteous impulses. He had the faith which removes mountains, and +was wholly free from that touch of scepticism, so common in our day, +which points out that it is of no more use to move mountains than to +change the place of difficulties. + +When the people of Assisi learned that his Rule had been approved by the +pope there was strong excitement; every one desired to hear him preach. +The clergy were obliged to give way; they offered him the Church of St. +George, but this church was manifestly insufficient for the crowds of +hearers; it was necessary to open the cathedral to him. + +St. Francis never said anything especially new; to win hearts he had +that which is worth more than any arts of oratory--an ardent conviction; +he spoke as compelled by the imperious need of kindling others with the +flame that burned within himself. When they heard him recall the horrors +of war, the crimes of the populace, the laxity of the great, the +rapacity which dishonored the Church, the age-long widowhood of +Poverty, each one felt himself taken to task in his own conscience. + +An attentive or excited crowd is always very impressionable, but this +peculiar sensitiveness was perhaps stronger in the Middle Ages than at +any other time. Nervous disturbances were in the air, and upon men thus +prepared the will of the preacher impressed itself in a manner almost +magnetic. + +To understand what Francis's preaching must have been like we must +forget the manners of to-day, and transport ourselves for a moment to +the Cathedral of Assisi in the thirteenth century; it is still standing, +but the centuries have given to its stones a fine rust of polished +bronze, which recalls Venice and Titian's tones of ruddy gold. It was +new then, and all sparkling with whiteness, with the fine rosy tinge of +the stones of Mount Subasio. It had been built by the people of Assisi a +few years before in one of those outbursts of faith and union which were +almost everywhere the prelude of the communal movement. So, when the +people thronged into it on their high days, they not merely had none of +that vague respect for a holy place which, though it has passed into the +customs of other countries, still continues to be unknown in Italy, but +they felt themselves at home in a palace which they had built for +themselves. More than in any other church they there felt themselves at +liberty to criticise the preacher, and they had no hesitation in proving +to him, either by murmurs of dissatisfaction or by applause, just what +they thought of his words. We must remember also that the churches of +Italy have neither pews nor chairs, that one must listen standing or +kneeling, while the preacher walks about gesticulating on a platform; +add to this the general curiosity, the clamorous sympathies of many, the +disguised opposition of some, and we shall have a vague notion of the +conditions under which Francis first entered the pulpit of San Rufino. + +His success was startling. The poor felt that they had found a friend, a +brother, a champion, almost an avenger. The thoughts which they hardly +dared murmur beneath their breath Francis proclaimed at the top of his +voice, daring to bid all, without distinction, to repent and love one +another. His words were a cry of the heart, an appeal to the consciences +of all his fellow-citizens, almost recalling the passionate utterances +of the prophets of Israel. Like those witnesses for Jehovah the "little +poor man" of Assisi had put on sackcloth and ashes to denounce the +iniquities of his people, like theirs was his courage and heroism, like +theirs the divine tenderness in his heart. + +It seemed as if Assisi were about to recover again the feeling of Israel +for sin. The effect of these appeals was prodigious; the entire +population was thrilled, conquered, desiring in future to live only +according to Francis's counsels; his very companions, who had remained +behind at Rivo-Torto, hearing of these marvels, felt in themselves an +answering thrill, and their vocation took on a new strength; during the +night they seemed to see their master in a chariot of fire, soaring to +heaven like a new Elijah.[15] + +This almost delirious enthusiasm of a whole people was not perhaps so +difficult to arouse as might be supposed: the emotional power of the +masses was at that time as great all over Europe as it was in Paris +during certain days of the Revolution. We all know the tragic and +touching story of those companies of children from the north of Europe +who appeared in 1212 in troops of several thousands, boys and girls +mingled together pell-mell. Nothing could stop them, a mania had +overtaken them, in all good faith they believed that they were to +deliver the Holy Land, that the sea would be dried up to let them pass. +They perished, we hardly know how, perhaps being sold into slavery.[16] +They were accounted martyrs, and rightly; popular devotion likened them +to the Holy Innocents, dying for a God whom they knew not. Those +children of the crusade also perished for an unknown ideal, false no +doubt; but is it not better to die for an unknown and even a false ideal +than to live for the vain realities of an utterly unpoetic existence? In +the end of time we shall be judged neither by philosophers nor by +theologians, and if we were, it is to be hoped that even in this case +love would cover a multitude of sins and pass by many follies. + +Certainly if ever there was a time when religious affections of the +nerves were to be dreaded, it was that which produced such movements as +these. All Europe seemed to be beside itself; women appeared stark naked +in the streets of towns and villages, slowly walking up and down, silent +as phantoms.[17] We can understand now the accounts which have come +down to us, so fantastic at the first glance, of certain popular orators +of this time; of Berthold of Ratisbon, for example, who drew together +crowds of sixteen thousand persons, or of that Fra Giovanni Schio di +Vicenza, who for a time quieted all Northern Italy and brought Guelphs +and Ghibellines into one another's arms.[18] + +That popular eloquence which was to accomplish so many marvels in 1233 +comes down in a straight line from the Franciscan movement. It was St. +Francis who set the example of those open-air sermons given in the +vulgar tongue, at street corners, in public squares, in the fields. + +To feel the change which he brought about we must read the sermons of +his contemporaries; declamatory, scholastic, subtile, they delighted in +the minutiae of exegesis or dogma, serving up refined dissertations on +the most obscure texts of the Old Testament, to hearers starving for a +simple and wholesome diet. + +With Francis, on the contrary, all is incisive, clear, practical. He +pays no attention to the precepts of the rhetoricians, he forgets +himself completely, thinking only of the end desired, the conversion of +souls. And conversion was not in his view something vague and +indistinct, which must take place only between God and the hearer. No, +he will have immediate and practical proofs of conversion. Men must give +up ill-gotten gains, renounce their enmities, be reconciled with their +adversaries. + +At Assisi he threw himself valiantly into the thick of civil +dissensions. The agreement of 1202 between the parties who divided the +city had been wholly ephemeral. The common people were continually +demanding new liberties, which the nobles and burghers would yield to +them only under the pressure of fear. Francis took up the cause of the +weak, the _minores_, and succeeded in reconciling them with the rich, +the _majores_. + +His spiritual family had not as yet, properly speaking, a name, for, +unlike those too hasty spirits who baptize their productions before they +have come to light, he was waiting for the occasion that should reveal +the true name which he ought to give it.[19] One day someone was +reading the Rule in his presence. When he came to the passage, "Let the +brethren, wherever they may find themselves called to labor or to serve, +never take an office which shall put them over others, but on the +contrary, let them be always under (_sint minores_) all those who may be +in that house,"[20] these words _sint minores_ of the Rule, in the +circumstances then existing in the city, suddenly appeared to him as a +providential indication. His institution should be called the Order of +the Brothers Minor. + +We may imagine the effect of this determination. The _Saint_, for +already this magic word had burst forth where he appeared,[21] the +Saint had spoken. It was he who was about to bring peace to the city, +acting as arbiter between the two factions which rent it. + +We still possess the document of this _pace civile_, exhumed, so to +speak, from the communal archives of Assisi by the learned and pious +Antonio Cristofani.[22] The opening lines are as follows: + + "In the name of God! + + "May the supreme grace of the Holy Spirit assist us! To the + honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin Mary, the + Emperor Otho, and Duke Leopold. + + "This is the statute and perpetual agreement between the + _Majori_ and _Minori_ of Assisi. + + "Without common consent there shall never be any sort of + alliance either with the pope and his nuncios or legates, or + with the emperor, or with the king, or with their nuncios or + legates, or with any city or town, or with any important person, + except with a common accord they shall do all which there may be + to do for the honor, safety, and advantage of the commune of + Assisi." + +What follows is worthy of the beginning. The lords, in consideration of +a small periodical payment, should renounce all the feudal rights; the +inhabitants of the villages subject to Assisi were put on a par with +those of the city, foreigners were protected, the assessment of taxes +was fixed. On Wednesday, November 9, 1210, this agreement was signed and +sworn to in the public place of Assisi; it was made in such good faith +that exiles were able to return in peace, and from this day we find in +the city registers the names of those _emigres_ who, in 1202, had +betrayed their city and provoked the disastrous war with Perugia. +Francis might well be happy. Love had triumphed, and for several years +there were at Assisi neither victors nor vanquished. + +In the mystic marriages which here and there in history unite a man to a +people, something takes place of which the transports of sense, the +delirium of love, seem to be the only symbol; a moment comes in which +saints, or men of genius, feel unknown powers striving mightily within +them; they strive, they seek, they struggle until, triumphing over all +obstacles, they have forced trembling, swooning humanity to conceive by +them. + +This moment had come to St. Francis. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1 Cel., 34; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 39. + + [2] Probably at Otricoli, which lies on the high-road between + Rome and Spoleto. Orte is an hour and a half further on. It is + the ancient _Otriculum_, where many antiquities have been found. + + [3] 1 Cel., 35; Bon., 40 and 41. + + [4] The only road connecting Celano with Rome, as well as with + all Central and Northern Italy, passes by Aquila, Rieti, and + Terni, where it joins the high-roads leading from the north + toward Rome. + + [5] 1 Cel., 36 and 37; 3 Soc., 54; Bon., 45-48. + + [6] Isaiah, lv., 2. + + [7] This Order deserves to be better known; it was founded under + Alexander III. and rapidly spread all over Central Italy and the + East. In Francis's lifetime it had in Italy and the Holy Land + about forty houses dedicated to the care of lepers. It is very + probable that it was at _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ that + Francis visited these unhappy sufferers. He there made the + particular acquaintance of a Cruciger named _Morico_. The latter + afterward falling ill, Francis sent him a remedy which would + cure him, informing him at the same time that he was to become + his disciple, which shortly afterward took place. The hospital + _San Salvatore_ has disappeared; it stood in the place now + called _Ospedaletto_, where a small chapel now stands half way + between Assisi and Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was from there + that the dying Francis blessed Assisi. For Morico vide 3 Soc., + 35; Bon., 49; 2 Cel., 3, 128; _Conform._, 63b.--For the hospital + vide Bon., 49; _Conform._, 135a, 1; _Honorii III. opera_, Horoy, + t. i., col. 206. Cf. Potthast, 7746; L. Auvray, _Registres de + Gregoire IX._, Paris, 1890, 4to, no. 209. For the Crucigeri in + the time of St. Francis vide the interesting bull _Cum tu fili + prior_, of July 8, 1203; Migne, _Inn. op._, t. ii., col. 125 ff. + Cf. Potthast, 1959, and _Cum pastoris_, April 5, 1204; Migne, + _loc. cit._, 319. Cf. Potthast, 2169 and 4474. + + [8] 3 Soc., 55. + + [9] All this yet remains in its primitive state. The road which + went from Assisi to the now ruined Abbey of Mount Subasio + (almost on the summit of the mountain) passed the Carceri, where + there was a little chapel built by the Benedictines. + + [10] _Illi qui religiose volunt stare in eremis sint tres aut + quatuor ad plus. Duo ex ipsis sint matres, et habeant duos + filios, vel unum ad minus. Illi duo teneant vitam Marthae et alii + duo vitam Mariae Magdalenae._ Assisi MS., 338, 43a-b; text given + also in _Conf._, 143a, 1, from which Wadding borrows it for his + edition of the _Opuscules_ of St. Francis. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 113. + It is possible that we have here a fragment of the Rule, which + must have been composed toward 1217. + + [11] 1 Cel., 42 and 43; 3 Soc., 55; Bon., 41. + + [12] 1 Cel., 42-44. + + [13] 2 Cel., 1, 15; Bon., 65. These two authors do not say where + the event took place; but there appears to be no reason for + suspecting the indication of Rivo-Torto given by the _Speculum_, + fo. 21a. + + [14] 2 Cel., 3, 110. Cf. _Spec._, 22a. + + [15] 1 Cel., 47; Bon., 43. + + [16] There are few events of the thirteenth century that offer + more documents or are more obscure than this one. The + chroniclers of the most different countries speak of it at + length. Here is one of the shortest but most exact of the + notices, given by an eye-witness (Annals of Genoa of the years + 1197-1219, _apud Mon. Germ. hist. Script_., t. 18): 1212 _in + mense Augusti, die Sabbati, octava Kalendarum Septembris, + intravit civitatem Janue quidam puer Teutonicus nomine Nicholaus + peregrinationis causa, et cum eo multitudo maxima pelegrinorum + defferentes cruces et bordonos atque scarsellas ultra septem + millia arbitratu boni viri inter homines et feminas et puellos + et puellas. Et die dominica sequenti de civitate exierunt_.--Cf. + Giacomo di Viraggio: Muratori, t. ix., col. 46: _Dicebant quod + mare debebat apud Januam siccari et sic ipsi debebant in + Hierusalem proficisci. Multi autem inter eos erant filii + Nobilium, quos ipsi etiam cum meretricibus destinarunt (!_) The + most tragic account is that of Alberic, who relates the fate of + the company that embarked at Marseilles. _Mon. Ger. hist. + Script_., t. 23, p. 894. + + [17] The Benedictine chronicler, Albert von Stade (_Mon. Ger. + hist. Script_., t. 16, pp. 271-379), thus closes his notice of + the children's crusade: _Adhuc quo devenerint ignorantur sed + plurimi redierunt, a quibus cum quaereretur causa cursus dixerunt + se nescire. Nudae etiam mulieres circa idem tempus nihil + loquentes per villas et civitates cucurrerunt._ _Loc. cit._, + p. 355. + + [18] _Chron. Veronese, ann. 1238_ (Muratori, _Scriptores Rer. + Ital._, t. viii., p. 626). Cf. Barbarano de' Mironi: _Hist. + Eccles. di Vicenza_, t. ii., pp. 79-84. + + [19] The Brothers were at first called _Viri paenitentiales de + civitate Assisii_ (3 Soc., 37); it appears that they had a + momentary thought of calling themselves _Pauperes de Assisio_, + but they were doubtless dissuaded from this at Rome, as too + closely resembling that of the _Pauperes de Lugduno_. Vide + _Burchardi chronicon._, p. 376; vide Introd., cap. 5. + + [20] Vide Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7. Cf. 1 Cel., 38, and Bon., 78. + + [21] 1 Cel., 36. + + [22] _Storia d'Assisi_, t. i., pp. 123-129. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PORTIUNCULA + +1211 + + +It was doubtless toward the spring of 1211 that the Brothers quitted +Rivo-Torto. They were engaged in prayer one day, when a peasant appeared +with an ass, which he noisily drove before him into the poor shelter. + +"Go in, go in!" he cried to his beast; "we shall be most comfortable +here." It appeared that he was afraid that if the Brothers remained +there much longer they would begin to think this deserted place was +their own.[1] Such rudeness was very displeasing to Francis, who +immediately arose and departed, followed by his companions. + +Now that they were so numerous the Brothers could no longer continue +their wandering life in all respects as in the past; they had need of a +permanent shelter and above all of a little chapel. They addressed +themselves in vain first to the bishop and then to the canons of San +Rufino for the loan of what they needed, but were more fortunate with +the abbot of the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who ceded to them in +perpetuity the use of a chapel already very dear to their hearts, Santa +Maria degli Angeli or the Portiuncula.[2] + +Francis was enchanted; he saw a mysterious harmony, ordained by God +himself, between the name of the humble sanctuary and that of his Order. +The brethren quickly built for themselves a few huts; a quickset hedge +served as enclosing wall, and thus in three or four days was organized +the first Franciscan convent. + +For ten years they were satisfied with this. These ten years are the +heroic period of the Order. St. Francis, in full possession of his +ideal, will seek to inculcate it upon his disciples and will succeed +sometimes; but already the too rapid multiplication of the brotherhood +will provoke some symptoms of relaxation. + +The remembrance of the beginning of this period has drawn from the lips +of Thomas of Celano a sort of canticle in honor of the monastic life. It +is the burning and untranslatable commentary of the Psalmist's cry: +"_Behold how sweet and pleasant it is to be brethren and to dwell +together._" + +Their cloister was the forest which then extended on all sides of +Portiuncula, occupying a large part of the plain. There they gathered +around their master to receive his spiritual counsels, and thither they +retired to meditate and pray.[3] It would be a gross mistake, however, +to suppose that contemplation absorbed them completely during the days +which were not consecrated to missionary tours: a part of their time was +spent in manual labor. + +The intentions of St. Francis have been more misapprehended on this +point than on any other, but it may be said that nowhere is he more +clear than when he ordains that his friars shall gain their livelihood +by the work of their hands. He never dreamed of creating a _mendicant_ +order, he created a _laboring_ order. It is true we shall often see him +begging and urging his disciples to do as much, but these incidents +ought not to mislead us; they are meant to teach that when a friar +arrived in any locality and there spent his strength for long days in +dispensing spiritual bread to famished souls, he ought not to blush to +receive material bread in exchange. To work was the rule, to beg the +exception; but this exception was in nowise dishonorable. Did not Jesus, +the Virgin, the disciples live on bread bestowed? Was it not rendering a +great service to those to whom they resorted to teach them charity? + +Francis in his poetic language gave the name of _mensa Domini_, the +table of the Lord, to this table of love around which gathered the +_little poor ones_. The bread of charity is the bread of angels; and it +is also that of the birds, which reap not nor gather into barns. + +We are far enough, in this case, from that mendicity which is understood +as a means of existence and the essential condition of a life of +idleness. It is the opposite extreme, and we are true and just to St. +Francis and to the origin of the mendicant orders only when we do not +separate the obligation of labor from the praise of mendicity.[4] + +No doubt this zeal did not last long, and Thomas of Celano already +entitles his chapters, "_Lament before God over the idleness and +gluttony of the friars_;" but we must not permit this speedy and +inevitable decadence to veil from our sight the holy and manly beauty of +the origin. + +With all his gentleness Francis knew how to show an inflexible severity +toward the idle; he even went so far as to dismiss a friar who refused +to work.[5] Nothing in this matter better shows the intentions of the +Poverello than the life of Brother Egidio, one of his dearest +companions, him of whom he said with a smile: "He is one of the paladins +of my Round Table." + +Brother Egidio had a taste for great adventures, and is a living example +of a Franciscan of the earliest days; he survived his master twenty-five +years, and never ceased to obey the letter and spirit of the Rule with +freedom and simplicity. + +We find him one day setting out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. +Arrived at Brindisi, he borrowed a water-jug that he might carry water +while he was awaiting the departure of the ship, and passed a part of +every day in crying through the streets of the city: "_Alla fresca! Alla +fresca!_" like other water-carriers. But he would change his trade +according to the country and the circumstances; on his way back, at +Ancona, he procured willow for making baskets, which he afterward sold, +not for money but for his food. It even happened to him to be employed +in burying the dead. + +Sent to Rome, every morning after finishing his religious duties, he +would take a walk of several leagues, to a certain forest, whence he +brought a load of wood. Coming back one day he met a lady who wanted to +buy it; they agreed on a price, and Egidio carried it to her house. But +when he arrived at the house she perceived him to be a friar, and would +have given him more than the price agreed upon. "My good lady," he +replied, "I will not permit myself to be overcome by avarice," and he +departed without accepting anything at all. + +In the olive season he helped in the gathering; in grape season he +offered himself as vintager. One day on the Piazza di Roma, where men +are hired for day's work, he saw a _padrone_ who could not find a man to +thrash his walnut tree; it was so high that no one dared risk himself +in it. "If you will give me part of the nuts," said Egidio, "I will do +it willingly." The bargain struck and the tree thrashed, there proved to +be so many nuts that he did not know where to put his share. Gathering +up his tunic he made a bag of it and full of joy returned to Rome, where +he distributed them among all the poor whom he met. + +Is not this a charming incident? Does it not by itself alone reveal the +freshness, the youth, the kindness of heart of the first Franciscans? +There is no end to the stories of the ingenuousness of Brother Egidio. +All kinds of work seemed good to him provided he had time enough in the +morning for his religious duties. Now he is in the service of the +Cellarer of the Four Crowns at Rome, sifting flour and carrying water to +the convent from the well of San Sisto. Now he is at Rieti, where he +consents to remain with Cardinal Nicholas, bringing to every meal the +bread which he had earned, notwithstanding the entreaties of the master +of the house, who would gladly have provided for his wants. One day it +rained so hard that Brother Egidio could not think of going out; the +cardinal was already making merry over the thought that he would be +forced to accept bread that he had not earned. But Egidio went to the +kitchen, and finding that it needed cleaning he persuaded the cook to +let him sweep it, and returned triumphant with the bread he had earned, +which he ate at the cardinal's table.[6] + +From the very beginning Egidio's life commanded respect; it was at once +so original, so gay, so spiritual,[7] and so mystical, that even in +the least exact and most expanded accounts his legend has remained +almost free from all addition. He is, after St. Francis, the finest +incarnation of the Franciscan spirit. + +The incidents which are here cited are all, so to speak, illustrations +of the Rule; in fact there is nothing more explicit than its commands +with respect to work. + +The Brothers, after entering upon the Order, were to continue to +exercise the calling which they had when in the world, and if they had +none they were to learn one. For payment they were to accept only the +food that was necessary for them, but in case that was insufficient they +might beg. In addition they were naturally permitted to own the +instruments of their calling.[8] Brother Ginepro, whose acquaintance +we shall make further on, had an awl, and gained his bread wherever he +went by mending shoes, and we see St. Clara working even on her +death-bed. + +This obligation to work with the hands merits all the more to be brought +into the light, because it was destined hardly to survive St. Francis, +and because to it is due in part the original character of the first +generation of the Order. Yet this was not the real reason for the being +of the Brothers Minor. Their mission consisted above all in being the +spouses of Poverty. + +Terrified by the ecclesiastical disorders of the time, haunted by +painful memories of his past life, Francis saw in money the special +instrument of the devil; in moments of excitement he went so far as to +execrate it, as if there had been in the metal itself a sort of magical +power and secret curse. Money was truly for him the sacrament of evil. + +This is not the place for asking if he was wrong; grave authors have +demonstrated at length the economic troubles which would have been let +loose upon the world if men had followed him. Alas! his madness, if +madness it were, is a kind of which one need not fear the contagion. + +He felt that in this respect the Rule could not be too absolute, and +that if unfortunately the door was opened to various interpretations of +it, there would be no stopping-point. The course of events and the +periodical convulsions which shook his Order show clearly enough how +rightly he judged. + +I do not know nor desire to know if theologians have yet come to a +scientific conclusion with regard to the poverty of Jesus, but it seems +evident to me that poverty with the labor of the hands is the ideal held +up by the Galilean to the efforts of his disciples. + +Still it is easy to see that Franciscan poverty is neither to be +confounded with the unfeeling pride of the stoic, nor with the stupid +horror of all joy felt by certain devotees; St. Francis renounced +everything only that he might the better possess everything. The lives +of the immense majority of our contemporaries are ruled by the fatal +error that the more one possesses the more one enjoys. Our exterior, +civil liberties continually increase, but at the same time our inward +freedom is taking flight; how many are there among us who are literally +possessed by what they possess?[9] + +Poverty not only permitted the Brothers to mingle with the poor and +speak to them with authority, but, removing from them all material +anxiety, it left them free to enjoy without hindrance those hidden +treasures which nature reserves for pure idealists. + +The ever-thickening barriers which modern life, with its sickly search +for useless comfort, has set up between us and nature did not exist for +these men, so full of youth and life, eager for wide spaces and the +outer air. This is what gave St. Francis and his companions that quick +susceptibility to Nature which made them thrill in mysterious harmony +with her. Their communion with Nature was so intimate, so ardent, that +Umbria, with the harmonious poetry of its skies, the joyful outburst of +its spring-time, is still the best document from which to study them. +The tie between the two is so indissoluble, that after having lived a +certain time in company with St. Francis, one can hardly, on reading +certain passages of his biographers, help _seeing_ the spot where the +incident took place, hearing the vague sounds of creatures and things, +precisely as, when reading certain pages of a beloved author, one hears +the sound of his voice. + +The worship of Poverty of the early Franciscans had in it, then, nothing +ascetic or barbarous, nothing which recalls the Stylites or the Nazirs. +She was their bride, and like true lovers they felt no fatigues which +they might endure to find and remain near her. + + La lor concordia e lor lieti sembianti, + Amor e maraviglia e dolce sguardo + Facean esser cagion de' pensier santi.[10] + +To draw the portrait of an ideal knight at the beginning of the +thirteenth century is to draw Francis's very portrait, with this +difference, that what the knight did for his lady, he did for Poverty. +This comparison is not a mere caprice; he himself profoundly felt it and +expressed it with perfect clearness, and it is only by keeping it +clearly present in the mind that we can see into the very depth of his +heart.[11] + +To find any other souls of the same nature one must come down to +Giovanni di Parma and Jacoponi di Todi. The life of St. Francis as +troubadour has been written; it would have been better to write it as +knight, for this is the explanation of his whole life, and as it were +the heart of his heart. From the day when, forgetting the songs of his +friends and suddenly stopped in the public place of Assisi, he met +Poverty, his bride, and swore to her faith and love, down to that +evening when, naked upon the naked earth of Portiuncula, he breathed out +his life, it may be said that all his thoughts went out to this lady of +his chaste loves. For twenty years he served her without faltering, +sometimes with an artlessness which would appear infantine, if something +infinitely sincere and sublime did not arrest the smile upon the most +sceptical lips. + +Poverty agreed marvellously with that need which men had at that time, +and which perhaps they have lost less than they suppose, the need of an +ideal very high, very pure, mysterious, inaccessible, which yet they may +picture to themselves in concrete form. Sometimes a few privileged +disciples saw the lovely and pure Lady descend from heaven to salute her +spouse, but, whether visible or not, she always kept close beside her +Umbrian lover, as she kept close beside the Galilean; in the stable of +the nativity, upon the cross at Golgotha, and even in the borrowed tomb +where his body lay. + +During several years this ideal was not alone that of St. Francis, but +also of all the Brothers. In poverty the _gente poverelle_ had found +safety, love, liberty; and all the efforts of the new apostles are +directed to the keeping of this precious treasure. + +Their worship sometimes might seem excessive. They showed their spouse +those delicate attentions, those refinements of courtesy so frequent in +the morning light of a betrothal, but which one gradually forgets till +they become incomprehensible.[12] + +The number of disciples continually increased; almost every week brought +new recruits; the year 1211 was without doubt devoted by Francis to a +tour in Umbria and the neighboring provinces. His sermons were short +appeals to conscience; his heart went out to his hearers in ineffable +tones, so that when men tried to repeat what they had heard they found +themselves incapable.[13] The Rule of 1221 has preserved for us a +summary of these appeals: + + "Here is an exhortation which all the Brothers may make when + they think best: Fear and honor God, praise and bless him. Give + thanks unto him. Adore the Lord, Almighty God, in Trinity and + unity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Repent and make + fruits meet for repentance, for you know that we shall soon die. + Give, and it shall be given unto you. Forgive, and you shall be + forgiven; for if you forgive not, God will not forgive you. + Blessed are they who die repenting, for they shall be in the + kingdom of heaven.... Abstain carefully from all evil, and + persevere in the good until the end."[14] + +We see how simple and purely ethical was the early Franciscan preaching. +The complications of dogma and scholasticism are entirely absent from +it. To understand how new this was and how refreshing to the soul we +must study the disciples that came after him. + +With St. Anthony of Padua ([Cross] June 13, 1231; canonized in 1233[15]), +the most illustrious of them all, the descent is immense. The distance +between these two men is as great as that which separates Jesus from +St. Paul. + +I do not judge the disciple; he was of his time in not knowing how to +say simply what he thought, in always desiring to subtilize it, to +extract it from passages in the Bible turned from their natural meaning +by efforts at once laborious and puerile; what the alchemists did in +their continual making of strange mixtures from which they fancied that +they should bring out gold, the preachers did to the texts, in order to +bring out the truth. + +The originality of St. Francis is only the more brilliant and +meritorious; with him gospel simplicity reappeared upon the earth.[16] +Like the lark with which he so much loved to compare himself,[17] he +was at his ease only in the open sky. He remained thus until his death. +The epistle to all Christians which he dictated in the last weeks of his +life repeats the same ideas in the same terms, perhaps with a little +more feeling and a shade of sadness. The evening breeze which breathed +upon his face and bore away his words was their symbolical +accompaniment. + +"I, Brother Francis, the least of your servants, pray and conjure you by +that Love which is God himself, willing to throw myself at your feet and +kiss them, to receive with humility and love these words and all others +of our Lord Jesus Christ, to put them to profit and carry them out." + +This was not a more or less oratorical formula. Hence conversions +multiplied with an incredible rapidity. Often, as formerly with Jesus, a +look, a word sufficed Francis to attach to himself men who would follow +him until their death. It is impossible, alas! to analyze the best of +this eloquence, all made of love, intimate apprehension, and fire. The +written word can no more give an idea of it than it can give us an idea +of a sonata of Beethoven or a painting by Rembrandt. We are often +amazed, on reading the memoirs of those who have been great conquerors +of souls, to find ourselves remaining cold, finding in them all no trace +of animation or originality. It is because we have only a lifeless relic +in the hand; the soul is gone. It is the white wafer of the sacrament, +but how shall that rouse in us the emotions of the beloved disciple +lying on the Lord's breast on the night of the Last Supper? + +The class from which Francis recruited his disciples was still about the +same; they were nearly all young men of Assisi and its environs, some +the sons of agriculturists, and others nobles; the School and the Church +was very little represented among them.[18] + +Everything still went on with an unheard-of simplicity. In theory, +obedience to the superior was absolute; in practice, we can see Francis +continually giving his companions complete liberty of action.[19] Men +entered the Order without a novitiate of any sort; it sufficed to say to +Francis that they wanted to lead with him a life of evangelical +perfection, and to prove it by giving all that they possessed to the +poor. The more unpretending were the neophytes, the more tenderness he +had for them. Like his Master, he had a partiality for those who were +lost, for men whom regular society casts out of its limits, but who with +all their crimes and scandals are nearer to sainthood than mediocrities +and hypocrites. + + One day St. Francis, passing by the desert of Borgo San Sepolcro + came to a place called Monte-Casale,[20] and behold a noble and + refined young man came to him. "Father," he said, "I would + gladly be one of your disciples." + + "My son," said St. Francis, "you are young, refined, and noble; + you will not be able to follow poverty and live wretched like + us." + + "But, my father, are not you men like me? What you do I can do + with the grace of Jesus." This reply was well-pleasing to St. + Francis, who, giving him his blessing, incontinently received + him into the Order under the name of Brother Angelo. + + He conducted himself so well that a little while after he was + made guardian[21] of Monte-Casale. Now, in those times there + were three famous robbers who did much evil in the country. They + came to the hermitage one day to beg Brother Angelo to give them + something to eat; but he replied to them with severe reproaches: + "What! robbers, evil-doers, assassins, have you not only no + shame for stealing the goods of others, but you would farther + devour the alms of the servants of God, you who are not worthy + to live, and who have respect neither for men nor for God your + Creator. Depart, and let me never see you here again!" + + They went away full of rage. But behold, the Saint returned, + bringing a wallet of bread and a bottle of wine which had been + given him, and the guardian told him how he had sent away the + robbers; then St. Francis reproved him severely for showing + himself so cruel.... "I command thee by thine obedience," said + he, "to take at once this loaf and this wine and go seek the + robbers by hill and dell until you have found them, to offer + them this as from me, and to kneel there before them and humbly + ask their pardon, and pray them in my name no longer to do wrong + but to fear God; and if they do it, I promise to provide for all + their wants, to see that they always have enough to eat and + drink. After that you may humbly return hither." + + Brother Angelo did all that had been commanded him, while St. + Francis on his part prayed God to convert the robbers. They + returned with the brother, and when St. Francis gave them the + assurance of the pardon of God, they changed their lives and + entered the Order, in which they lived and died most + holily.[22] + +What has sometimes been said of the voice of the blood is still more +true of the voice of the soul. When a man truly wakens another to moral +life, he gains for himself an unspeakable gratitude. The word _master_ +is often profaned, but it can express the noblest and purest of earthly +ties. + +Who are those among us, who in the hours of manly innocence when they +examine their own consciences, do not see rising up before them from out +of the past the ever beloved and loving face of one who, perhaps without +knowing it, initiated them into spiritual things? At such a time we +would throw ourselves at the feet of this father, would tell him in +burning words of our admiration and gratitude. We cannot do it, for the +soul has its own bashfulness; but who knows that our disquietude and +embarrassment do not betray us, and unveil, better than words could do, +the depths of our heart? The air they breathed at Portiuncula was all +impregnated with joy and gratitude like this. + +To many of the Brothers, St. Francis was truly a saviour; he had +delivered them from chains heavier than those of prisons. And therefore +their greatest desire was in their turn to call others to this same +liberty. + +We have already seen Brother Bernardo on a mission to Florence a few +months after his entrance into the Order. Arrived at maturity when he +put on the habit, he appears in some degree the senior of this apostolic +college. He knew how to obey St. Francis and remain faithful to the very +end to the ideal of the early days; but he had no longer that privilege +of the young--of Brother Leo, for example--of being able to transform +himself almost entirely into the image of him whom he admired. His +physiognomy has not that touch of juvenile originality, of poetic fancy, +which is so great a charm of the others. + +Toward this epoch two Brothers entered the Order, men such as the +successors of St. Francis never received, whose history throws a bright +light on the simplicity of the early days. It will be remembered with +what zeal Francis had repaired several churches; his solicitude went +further; he saw a sort of profanation in the negligence with which most +of them were kept; the want of cleanliness of the sacred objects, +ill-concealed by tinsel, gave him a sort of pain, and it often happened +that when he was going to preach somewhere he secretly called together +the priests of the locality and implored them to look after the decency +of the service. But even in these cases he was not content to preach +only in words; binding together some stalks of heather he would make +them into brooms for sweeping out the churches. + +One day in the suburbs of Assisi he was performing this task when a +peasant appeared, who had left his oxen and cart out in the fields while +he came to gaze at him. + + "Brother," said he on entering, "give me the broom. I will help + you," and he swept out the rest of the church. + + When he had finished, "Brother," he said to Francis, "for a long + time I have decided to serve God, especially when I heard men + speak of you. But I never knew how to find you. Now it has + pleased God that we should meet, and henceforth I shall do + whatever you may please to command me." + + Francis seeing his fervor felt a great joy; it seemed to him + that with his simplicity and honesty he would become a good + friar. + +It appears indeed that he had only too much simplicity, for after his +reception he felt himself bound to imitate every motion of the master, +and when the latter coughed, spat, or sighed, he did the same. At last +Francis noticed it and gently reproved him. Later he became so perfect +that the other friars admired him greatly, and after his death, which +took place not long after, St. Francis loved to relate his conversion, +calling him not Brother John, but Brother St. John.[23] + +Ginepro is still more celebrated for his holy follies. + +One day he went to see a sick Brother and offered him his services. The +patient confessed that he had a great longing to eat a pig's foot; the +visitor immediately rushed out, and armed with a knife ran to the +neighboring forest, where, espying a troop of pigs, he cut off a foot of +one of them, returning to the monastery full of pride over his trophy. + +The owner of the pigs shortly followed, howling like mad, but Ginepro +went straight to him and pointed out with so much volubility that he had +done him a great service, that the man, after overwhelming him with +reproaches, suddenly begged pardon, killed the pig and invited all the +Brothers to feast upon it. Ginepro was probably less mad than the story +would lead us to suppose; Franciscan humility never had a more sincere +disciple; he could not endure the tokens of admiration which the +populace very early lavished on the growing Order, and which by their +extravagance contributed so much to its decadence. + +One day, as he was entering Rome, the report of his arrival spread +abroad, and a great crowd came out to meet him. To escape was +impossible, but he suddenly had an inspiration; near the gate of the +city some children were playing at see-saw; to the great amazement of +the Romans Ginepro joined them, and, without heeding the salutations +addressed to him, remained so absorbed in his play that at last his +indignant admirers departed.[24] + +It is clear that the life at Portiuncula must have been very different +from that of an ordinary convent. So much youth,[25] simplicity, love, +quickly drew the eyes of men toward it. From all sides they were turned +to those thatched huts, where dwelt a spiritual family whose members +loved one another more than men love on earth, leading a life of labor, +mirth, and devotion. The humble chapel seemed a new Zion destined to +enlighten the world, and many in their dreams beheld blind humanity +coming to kneel there and recover sight.[26] + +Among the first disciples who joined themselves to St. Francis we must +mention Brother Silvestro, the first priest who entered the Order, the +very same whom we have already seen the day that Bernardo di Quintevalle +distributed his goods among the poor. Since then he had not had a +moment's peace, bitterly reproaching himself for his avarice; night and +day he thought only of that, and in his dreams he saw Francis exorcising +a horrid monster which infested all the region.[27] + +By his age and the nature of the memory he has left behind him Silvestro +resembles Brother Bernardo. He was what is usually understood by a holy +priest, but nothing denotes that he had the truly Franciscan love of +great enterprises, distant journeys, perilous missions. Withdrawn into +one of the grottos of the Carceri, absorbed in the contemplative life, +he gave spiritual counsels to his brethren as occasion served.[28] + +The typical Franciscan priest is Brother Leo. The date of his entrance +into the Order is not exactly known, but we are probably not far from +the truth in placing it about 1214. Of a charming simplicity, tender, +affectionate, refined, he is, with Brother Elias, the one who plays the +noblest part during the obscure years in which the new reform was being +elaborated. Becoming Francis's confessor and secretary, treated by him +as his favorite son, he excited much opposition, and was to the end of +his long life the head of the strict observance.[29] + + One winter's day, St. Francis was going with Brother Leo from + Perugia to Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the cold, being + intense, made them shiver; he called Brother Leo, who was + walking a little in advance, and said: "O Brother Leo, may it + please God that the Brothers Minor all over the world may give a + great example of holiness and edification; write, however, and + note with care, that not in this is the perfect joy." + + St. Francis, going on a little farther, called him a second + time: "O Brother Leo, if the Brothers Minor gave sight to the + blind, healed the infirm, cast out demons, gave hearing to the + deaf, or even what is much more, if they raised the four days + dead, write that not in this is the perfect joy." + + Going on a little farther he cried: "O Brother Leo, if the + Brother Minor knew all languages, all science, and all + scriptures, if he could prophesy and reveal not only future + things but even the secrets of consciences and of souls, write + that not in this consists the perfect joy." + + Going a little farther St. Francis called to him again: "O + Brother Leo, little sheep of God, if the Brother Minor could + speak the language of angels, if he knew the courses of the + stars and the virtues of plants, if all the treasures of earth + were revealed to him, and he knew the qualities of birds, + fishes, and all animals, of men, trees, rocks, roots, and + waters, write that not in these is the perfect joy." + + And advancing still a little farther St. Francis called loudly + to him: "O Brother Leo, if the Brother Minor could preach so + well as to convert all infidels to the faith of Christ, write + that not in this is the perfect joy." + + While speaking thus they had already gone more than two miles, + and Brother Leo, full of surprise, said to him: "Father, I pray + you in God's name tell me in what consists the perfect joy." + + And St. Francis replied: "When we arrive at Santa Maria degli + Angeli, soaked with rain, frozen with cold, covered with mud, + dying of hunger, and we knock and the porter comes in a rage, + saying, 'Who are you?' and we answer, 'We are two of your + brethren,' and he says, 'You lie, you are two lewd fellows who + go up and down corrupting the world and stealing the alms of the + poor. Go away from here!' and he does not open to us, but leaves + us outside shivering in the snow and rain, frozen, starved, till + night; then, if thus maltreated and turned away, we patiently + endure all without murmuring against him, if we think with + humility and charity that this porter really knows us truly and + that God makes him speak thus to us, then, O Brother Leo, write + that in this is the perfect joy.... Above all the graces and all + the gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to his friends is the + grace to conquer oneself, and willingly to suffer pain, + outrages, disgrace, and evil treatment, for the love of + Christ!"[30] + +Although by its slight and somewhat playful character this story recalls +the insipid statues of the fourteenth century, it has justly become +celebrated, its spirit is thoroughly Franciscan; that transcendent +idealism, which sees in perfection and joy two equivalent terms, and +places perfect joy in the pure and serene region of the perfecting of +oneself; that sublime simplicity which so easily puts in their true +place the miracle-worker and the scholar, these are perhaps not entirely +new;[31] but St. Francis must have had singular moral strength to +impose upon his contemporaries ideas in such absolute contradiction to +their habits and their hopes; for the intellectual aristocracy of the +thirteenth century with one accord found the perfect joy in knowledge, +while the people found it in miracles. + +Doubtless we must not forget those great mystical families, which, all +through the Middle Ages, were the refuge of the noblest souls; but they +never had this fine simplicity. The School is always more or less the +gateway to mysticism; it is possible only to an elect of subtile minds; +a pious peasant seldom understands the Imitation. + +It may be said that all St. Francis's philosophy is contained in this +chapter of the Fioretti.[32] From it we foresee what will be his +attitude toward learning, and are helped to understand how it happens +that this famous saint was so poor a miracle-worker. + +Twelve centuries before, Jesus had said, "Blessed are the poor in +spirit. Blessed are they who suffer." The words of St. Francis are only +a commentary, but this commentary is worthy of the text. + +It remains to say a word concerning two disciples who were always +closely united with Brother Leo in the Franciscan memorials--Rufino and +Masseo. + +Born of a noble family connected with that of St. Clara, the former was +soon distinguished in the Order for his visions and ecstasies, but his +great timidity checked him as soon as he tried to preach: for this +reason he is always to be found in the most isolated hermitages--Carceri, +Verna, Greccio.[33] + +Masseo, of Marignano, a small village in the environs of Assisi, was his +very opposite; handsome, well made, witty, he attracted attention by his +fine presence and his great facility of speech; he occupies a special +place in popular Franciscan tradition. He deserves it. St. Francis, to +test his humility, made him the porter and cook of the hermitage,[34] +but in these functions Masseo showed himself to be so perfectly a +_Minor_ that from that time the master particularly loved to have him +for companion in his missionary journeys. + +One day they were travelling together, when they arrived at the +intersection of the roads to Sienna, Arezzo, and Florence. + +"Which one shall we take?" asked Masseo. + +"Whichever one God wills." + +"But how shall we know which one God wills?" + +"You shall see. Go and stand at the crossing of the roads, turn round +and round as the children do, and do not stop until I bid you." + +Brother Masseo began to turn; seized with a vertigo, he was nearly +falling, but caught himself up at once. Finally Francis called out, +"Stop! which way are you facing?" + +"Toward Sienna." + +"Very well; God wills that we go to Sienna."[35] + +Such a method of making up one's mind is doubtless not for the daily +needs of life, but Francis employed still others, like it, if not in +form at least in fact. + +Up to this time we have seen the brethren living together in their +hermitages or roving the highways, preaching repentance. It would, +however, be a mistake to think that their whole lives were passed thus. +To understand the first Franciscans we must absolutely forget what they +may have been since that time, and what monks are in general; if +Portiuncula was a monastery it was also a workshop, where each brother +practised the trade which had been his before entering the Order; but +what is stranger still to our ideas, the Brothers often went out as +servants.[36] + +Brother Egidio's case was not an exception, it was the rule. This did +not last long, for very soon the friars who entered a house as domestics +came to be treated as distinguished guests; but in the beginning they +were literally servants, and took upon themselves the most menial +labors. Among the works which they might undertake Francis recommended +above all the care of lepers. We have already seen the important part +which these unfortunates played in his conversion; he always retained +for them a peculiar pity, which he sought to make his disciples share. + +For several years the Brothers Minor may be said to have gone from +lazaretto to lazaretto, preaching by day in the towns and villages, and +retiring at night to these refuges, where they rendered to these +_patients of God_ the most repugnant services. + +The Crucigeri, who took charge of the greater number of leper-houses, +always welcomed these kindly disposed aides, who, far from asking any +sort of recompense, were willing to eat whatever the patients might have +left.[37] In fact, although created solely for the care of lepers, the +Brothers of this Order sometimes lost patience when the sufferers were +too exacting, and instead of being grateful had only murmurs or even +reproaches for their benefactors. In these desperate cases the +intervention of Francis and his disciples was especially precious. It +often happened that a Brother was put in special charge of a single +leper, whose companion and servant he continued to be, sometimes for a +long period.[38] + +The following narrative shows Francis's love for these unfortunates, and +his method with them.[39] + + It happened one time that the Brothers were serving the lepers + and the sick in a hospital, near to the place where St. Francis + was. Among them was a leper who was so impatient, so + cross-grained, so unendurable, that everyone believed him to be + possessed by the devil, and rightly enough, for he heaped + insults and blows upon those who waited upon him, and what was + worse, he continually insulted and blasphemed the blessed Christ + and his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, so that there was no + longer anyone who could or would wait upon him. The Brothers + would willingly have endured the insults and abuse which he + lavished upon them, in order to augment the merit of their + patience, but their souls could not consent to hear those which + he uttered against Christ and his Mother. They therefore + resolved to abandon this leper, but not without having told the + whole story exactly to St. Francis, who at that time was + dwelling not far away. + + When they told him St. Francis betook himself to the wicked + leper; "May God give thee peace, my most dear brother," he said + to him as he drew near. + + "And what peace," asked the leper, "can I receive from God, who + has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my + body a mass of stinking and corruption?" + + St. Francis said to him: "My brother, be patient, for God gives + us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and + when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great + merit to us." + + "How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day + and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but + the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and + do not take care of me as they ought." + + Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the + spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to + pray for him. Then returning he said to him: "My son, since you + are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you." + + "That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than + they?" + + "I will do whatever you wish." + + "Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell + so badly that I disgust myself." + + Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many + sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and + began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And + behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him + with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became + perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the + soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a + lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being + completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his + might: "Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and + outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for my + impatience and my blasphemies." + +One day, Brother John, whose simplicity we have already seen, and who +had been especially put in charge of a certain leper, took him for a +walk to Portiuncula, as if he had not been the victim of a contagious +malady. Reproaches were not spared him; the leper heard them and could +not hide his sadness and distress; it seemed to him like being a second +time banished from the world. Francis was quick to remark all this and +to feel sharp remorse for it; the thought of having saddened one of +_God's patients_ was unendurable; he not only begged his pardon, but he +caused food to be served, and sitting down beside him he shared his +repast, eating from the same porringer.[40] We see with what +perseverance he pursued by every means the realization of his ideal. + +The details just given show the Umbrian movement, as it appears to me, +to be one of the most humble and at the same time the most sincere and +practical attempts to realize the kingdom of God on earth. How far +removed we are here from the superstitious vulgarity of the mechanical +devotion, the deceitful miracle-working of certain Catholics; how far +also from the commonplace, complacent, quibbling, theorizing +Christianity of certain Protestants! + +Francis is of the race of mystics, for no intermediary comes between God +and his soul; but his mysticism is that of Jesus leading his disciples +to the Tabor of contemplation; but when, overflooded with joy, they long +to build tabernacles that they may remain on the heights and satiate +themselves with the raptures of ecstasy, "Fools," he says to them, "ye +know not what ye ask," and directing their gaze to the crowds wandering +like sheep having no shepherd, he leads them back to the plain, to the +midst of those who moan, who suffer, who blaspheme. + +The higher the moral stature of Francis the more he was exposed to the +danger of being understood only by the very few, and disappointed by +those who were nearest to him. Reading the Franciscan authors, one feels +every moment how the radiant beauty of the model is marred by the +awkwardness of the disciple. It could not have been otherwise, and this +difference between this master and the companions is evident from the +very beginnings of the Order. The greater number of the biographers have +drawn the veil of oblivion over the difficulties created by certain +Brothers as well as those which came from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, +but we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by this almost universal +silence. + +Here and there we find indications all the more precious for being, so +to say, involuntary. Brother Rufino, for example, the same who was +destined to become one of the intimates of Francis's later days, assumed +an attitude of revolt shortly after his entrance into the Order. He +thought it foolish in Francis when, instead of leaving the friars to +give themselves unceasingly to prayer, he sent them out in all +directions to wait upon lepers.[41] His own ideal was the life of the +hermits of the Thebaide, as it is related in the then popular legends of +St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Paconius, and twenty others. He once passed +Lent in one of the grottos of the Carceri. Holy Thursday having arrived, +Francis, who was also there, summoned all the brethren who were +dispersed about the neighborhood, whether in grottos or huts, to observe +with him the memories to which this day was consecrated. Rufino refused +to come; "For that matter," he added, "I have decided to follow him no +longer; I mean to remain here and live solitary, for in this way I +shall be more surely saved than by submitting myself to this man and his +nonsense." + +Young and enthusiastic for the most part, it was not always without +difficulty that the Brothers formed the habit of keeping their work in +the background. Agreeing with their master as to fundamentals, they +would have liked to make more of a stir, attract public attention by +more obvious devotion; there were some among them whom it did not +satisfy to be saints, but who also wished to appear such. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55. + + [2] 3 Soc., 56; _Spec._, 32b; _Conform._, 217b, 1; _Fior. Bibl. + Angel._, Amoni, p. 378. + + [3] This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have + been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41. + + [4] Vide Angelo Clareno, _Tribul._ cod. Laur., 3b. + + [5] 2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite + textually 97 as coming from the _Legenda Antiqua_. Cf. _Spec._, + 64b.--2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf. _Conform._, 171a, 1; _Spec._, 19b. See + especially Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7; Rule of 1223, _cap._ 5; the + Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage, _liceat eis habere ferramenta + et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria_, sufficiently proves + that certain friars had real trades. + + [6] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248; _Fior. Vita + d'Egidio_; _Spec._, 158 ff; _Conform._, 53-60. + + [7] Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall + here his sally: "The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners + for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she + is what she is!" A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 234. + + [8] The passage of the Will, _firmiter volo quod omnes + laborent_, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis + renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from + the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39; _Conform._, + 219b. 1: _Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et + ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei._ _Spec._, 34; 69. Vide + also _Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2 + Cel., 1, 12. + + [9] _Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset + in Domino possidere._ B. de Besse, 102a. + + [10] Their concord and their joyous semblances + The love, the wonder and the sweet regard + They made to be the cause of holy thought. + + DANTE: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation. + + + [11] _Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad + horam patitur non esse muritus._ 2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35; + 51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87; + _Fior._ 13. + + [12] Bon., 93.--_Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne + poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quae debebat dare + fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud + verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino._ _Spec._, + 15. + + [13] 2 Cel., 3, 50. + + [14] _Cap._, 21. Cf. _Fior., I. consid._, 18; 30; _Conform._, + 103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Mueller, _Anfaenge_, p. + 187. + + [15] Vide his _Opera omnia postillis illustrata_, by Father de + la Haye, 1739, f^o. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged + and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the + Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The + Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliotheque Nationale gives one + which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of + Paris: _Saint Antoine de Padone, sa legende primitive_, + Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Pres, 1890, 1 vol., + 8vo. Cf. _Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii saeculo xiii + concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniae bibliothecae_ a P.M. Antonio + Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo. + + [16] This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in + relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25; + 34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93. + + [17] _Spec._, 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128. + + [18] The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time + it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no + difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle, + _Archiv._, iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from + northern countries which has especially changed it in this + matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that + laymen should be excluded from all charges; _laicos ad officia + inhabilitavit, quae usque tunc ut clerici exercebant_. (_Chron._ + xxiv. _gen._ cod. Gadd. relig., 53, f^o 110a). Among the early + Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did + so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain + all the cases. There were also with certain of them + revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the + prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that + of the priests: _Fior._, 27. _Frate Pellegrino non volle mai + andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto + litterato e grande decretalista._ Cf. _Conform._, 71a., 2. _Fr. + Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium + cogeretur._ _Conform._, 124b, 2. + + [19] See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo. Cf. + _Conform._, 53b, 2. _Fratri Egidio dedit licentiam liberam ut + iret quocumque vellet et staret ubicumque sibi placeret._ + + [20] The hermitage of Monte-Casale, at two hours walk northeast + from Borgo San Sepolero, still exists in its original state. It + is one of the most significant and curious of the Franciscan + deserts. + + [21] The office of guardian (superior of a monastery) naturally + dates from the time when the Brothers stationed themselves in + small groups in the villages of Umbria--that is to say, most + probably from the year 1211. A few years later the monasteries + were united to form a custodia. Finally, about 1215, Central + Italy was divided unto a certain number of provinces with + provincial ministers at their head. All this was done little by + little, for Francis never permitted himself to regulate what did + not yet exist. + + [22] _Fior._, 26; Conform., 119b, 1. Cf. Rule of 1221, cap. vii. + _Quicumque ad eos (fratres) venerint, amicus vel adversarius, + fur vel latro benigne recipiatur._ + + [23] 2 Cel., 3, 120; _Spec._, 37; _Conform._, 53a, 1. See below, + p. 385, n. 1. + + [24] _Fior._, Vita di fra Ginepro; _Spec._, 174-182; _Conform._, + 62b. + + [25] A. SS., p. 600. + + [26] 3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 13; Bon., 24. + + [27] Bon., 30; 3 Soc., 30, 31; 2 Cel., 3, 52. Cf. _Fior._, 2. + The dragon of this dream perhaps symbolizes heresy. + + [28] Bon., 83; 172; _Fior._, 1, 16; _Conform._, 49a, 1, and + 110b, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 51. + + [29] Bernard de Besse, _De laudibus_, Turin MS., f^o. 102b and + 96a. He died November 15, 1271. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 221. + + [30] _Fior._, 8; _Spec._, 89b ff.; _Conform._, 30b, 2, and 140a, + 2. + + [31] I need not here point out the analogy in form between this + chapter and St. Paul's celebrated song of love, 1 Cor. xiii. + + [32] We find the same thoughts in nearly the same terms in + _cap._ v. of the _Verba sacrae admonitionis_. + + [33] He is the second of the Three Companions. 3 Soc., 1; cf. 1 + Cel., 95; _Fior._, 1; 29, 30, 31; Eccleston, 12; _Spec._, + 110a-114b; _Conform._, 51b ff.; cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4. + + [34] Very probably that of the Carceri, though the name is not + indicated Vide 3 Soc., 1; _Fior._, 4; 10; 11; 12; 13; 16; 27; + 32; _Conform._, 51b, 1 ff; _Tribul. Archiv._, t. ii., p. 263. + + [35] _Fior._, 11; _Conform._, 50b, 2; _Spec._, 104a. + + [36] Rule of 1221, chap. 7. _Omnes fratres, in quibuscumque + locis fuerint apud aliquos ad serviendum, vel ad laborandum, non + sint camerarii, nec cellarii, nec praesint in domibus corum + quibus serviunt._ Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 40; A. SS., p. 606. + + [37] 1 Cel., 103; 39; _Spec._, 28; Reg. 1221, ix.; _Giord._, 33 + and 39. + + [38] Vide _Spec._, 34b.; _Fior._, 4. + + [39] All the details of this story lead me to think that it + refers to Portiuncula and the hospital _San Salvatore delle + Pareti_. The story is given by the _Conform._, 174b, 2, as taken + from the _Legenda Antiqua_. Cf. _Spec._, 56b; _Fior._, 25. + + [40] In the _Speculum_, f^o 41a, this story ends with the + phrase: _Qui vidit haec scripsit et testimonium perhibet de + hiis_. The brother is here called _Frater Jacobus simplex_. Cf. + _Conform._, 174b. + + [41] _Conform._, 51b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4; _Spec._, 110b; + _Fior._, 29. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SANTA CLARA + + +Popular piety in Umbria never separates the memory of St. Francis from +that of Santa Clara. It is right. + +Clara[1] was born at Assisi in 1194, and was consequently about twelve +years younger than Francis. She belonged to the noble family of the +Sciffi. At the age when a little girl's imagination awakes and stirs, +she heard the follies of the son of Bernardone recounted at length. She +was sixteen when the Saint preached for the first time in the cathedral, +suddenly appearing like an angel of peace in a city torn by intestine +dissensions. To her his appeals were like a revelation. It seemed as if +Francis was speaking for her, that he divined her secret sorrows, her +most personal anxieties, and all that was ardent and enthusiastic in the +heart of this young girl rushed like a torrent that suddenly finds an +outlet into the channel indicated by him. For saints as for heroes the +supreme stimulus is woman's admiration. + +But here, more than ever, we must put away the vulgar judgment which can +understand no union between man and woman where the sexual instinct has +no part. That which makes the union of the sexes something almost divine +is that it is the prefiguration, the symbol, of the union of souls. +Physical love is an ephemeral spark, designed to kindle in human hearts +the flame of a more lasting love; it is the outer court of the temple, +but not the most holy place; its inestimable value is precisely that it +leaves us abruptly at the door of the holiest of all as if to invite us +to step over the threshold. + +The mysterious sigh of nature goes out for the union of souls. This is +the unknown God to whom debauchees, those pagans of love, offer their +sacrifices, and this sacred imprint, even though effaced, though soiled +by all pollutions, often saves the man of the world from inspiring as +much disgust as the drunkard and the criminal. + +But sometimes--more often than we think--there are souls so pure, so +little earthly, that on their first meeting they enter the most holy +place, and once there the thought of any other union would be not merely +a descent, but an impossibility. Such was the love of St. Francis and +St. Clara. + +But these are exceptions. There is something mysterious in this supreme +purity; it is so high that in holding it up to men one risks speaking to +them in an unknown tongue, or even worse. + +The biographers of St. Francis have clearly felt the danger of offering +to the multitude the sight of certain beauties which are far beyond +them, and this is for us the great fault of their works. They try to +give us not so much the true portrait of Francis as that of the perfect +minister-general of the Order such as they conceive it, such as it must +needs be to serve as a model for his disciples; thus they have made this +model somewhat according to the measure of those whom it is to serve, by +omitting here and there features which, stupidly interpreted, might have +furnished material for the malevolence of unscrupulous adversaries, or +from which disciples little versed in spiritual things could not have +failed to draw support for permitting themselves dangerous intimacies. +Thus the relations of St. Francis with women in general and St. Clara in +particular, have been completely travestied by Thomas of Celano. It +could not have been otherwise, and we must not bear him a grudge for it. +The life of the founder of an Order, when written by a monk, in the very +nature of things becomes always a sort of appendix to or illustration of +the Rule. And the Rule, especially if the Order has its thousands of +members, is necessarily made not for the elect, but for the average, for +the majority of the flock.[2] + +Hence this portrait, in which St. Francis is represented as a stern +ascetic, to whom woman appears to be a sort of incarnate devil! The +biographers even go so far as to assure us that he knew only two women +by sight. These are manifest exaggerations, or rather the opposite of +the truth.[3] + +We are not reduced to conjecture to discover the true attitude of the +Umbrian prophet in this matter. Without suspecting it, Celano himself +gives details enough for the correction of his own errors, and there are +besides a number of other documents whose scattered hints correspond and +agree with one another in a manner all the more marvellous that it is +entirely unintentional, giving, when they are brought together, almost +all one could desire to know of the intercourse of these two beautiful +souls. + +After the sermons of Francis at St. Rufino, Clara's decision was +speedily taken; she would break away from the trivialities of an idle +and luxurious life and make herself the servant of the poor; all her +efforts should be bent to make each day a new advance in the royal way +of love and poverty; and for this she would have only to obey him who +had suddenly revealed it to her. + +She sought him out and opened to him her heart. With that exaltation, a +union of candor and delicacy, which is woman's fine endowment, and to +which she would more readily give free course if she did not too often +divine the pitfalls of base passion and incredulity, Clara offered +herself to Francis. + +It is one of the privileges of saints to suffer more than other men, for +they feel in their more loving hearts the echo of all the sorrows of the +world; but they also know joys and delights of which common men never +taste. What an inexpressible song of joy must have burst forth in +Francis's heart when he saw Clara on her knees before him, awaiting, +with his blessing, the word which would consecrate her life to the +gospel ideal. + +Who knows if this interview did not inspire another saint, Fra Angelico, +to introduce into his masterpiece those two elect souls who, already +radiant with the light of the heavenly Jerusalem, stop to exchange a +kiss before crossing its threshold? + +Souls, like flowers, have a perfume of their own which never deceives. +One look had sufficed for Francis to go down into the depths of this +heart; he was too kind to submit Clara to useless tests, too much an +idealist to prudently confine himself to custom or arbitrary decorum; as +when he founded the Order of Friars, he took counsel only of himself and +God. In this was his strength; if he had hesitated, or even if he had +simply submitted himself to ecclesiastical rules, he would have been +stopped twenty times before he had done anything. Success is so powerful +an argument that the biographers appear not to have perceived how +determined Francis was to ignore the canonical laws. He, a simple +deacon, arrogated to himself the right to receive Clara's vows and admit +her to the Order without the briefest novitiate. Such an act ought to +have drawn down upon its author all the censures of the Church, but +Francis was already one of those powers to whom much is forgiven, even +by those who speak in the name of the holy Roman Church. + +Francis had decided that on the night between Palm Sunday and Holy +Monday (March 18-19, 1212) Clara should secretly quit the paternal +castle and come with two companions to Portiuncula, where he would await +her, and would give her the veil. She arrived just as the friars were +singing matins. They went out, the story goes, carrying candles in their +hands, to meet the bride, while from the woods around Portiuncula +resounded songs of joy over this new bridal. Then Mass was begun at that +same altar where, three years before, Francis had heard the decisive +call of Jesus; he was kneeling in the same place, but surrounded now +with a whole spiritual family. + +It is easy to imagine Clara's emotion. The step which she had just taken +was simply heroic, for she knew to what persecutions from her family she +was exposing herself, and what she had seen of the life of the Brothers +Minor was a sufficient warning of the distresses to which she was +exposing herself in espousing poverty. No doubt she interpreted the +words of the service in harmony with her own thoughts: + + "Surely they are my people," said Jehovah. + "Children who will not be faithless!" + And he was for them a saviour. + In none of their afflictions were they without succor. + And the angel that is before his face saved them.[4] + +Then Francis read again the words of Jesus to his disciples; she vowed +to conform her life to them; her hair was cut off; all was finished. A +few moments after, Francis conducted her to a house of Benedictine +nuns[5] at an hour's distance, where she was to remain provisionally +and await the progress of events. + +The very next morning Favorino, her father, arrived with a few friends, +inveighing, supplicating, abusing everybody. She was unmovable, showing +so much courage that at last they gave up the thought of carrying her +off by main force. + +She was not, however, at the end of her tribulations. Had this scene +frightened the Benedictines? We cannot tell, but less than a fortnight +after we find her in another convent, that of Sant-Angelo in Panso, at +Assisi.[6] A week after Easter, Agnes, her younger sister, joined her +there, decided in her turn to serve poverty. Francis received her into +the Order. This time the father's fury was horrible. With a band of +relatives he invaded the convent, but neither abuse nor blows could +subdue this child of fourteen. In spite of her cries they dragged her +away. She fainted, and the little inanimate body suddenly seemed to them +so heavy that they abandoned it in the midst of the fields, some +laborers looking with pity on the painful scene, until Clara, whose cry +God had heard, hastened to succor her sister. + +Their sojourn in this convent was of very short duration. It appears +that they did not carry away a very pleasant impression of it.[7] +Francis knew that several others were burning to join his two women +friends; he therefore set himself to seek out a retreat where they +could live under his direction and in all liberty practise the gospel +rule. + +He had not long to seek; the Benedictine monks of Mount Subasio always +seized every possible opportunity to make themselves popular. They +belonged to that congregation of Camaldoli, whom the common people +appear to have particularly detested, and several of whose convents had +lately been pillaged.[8] The abbey no longer counted more than eight +monks, who were trying to save the wreck of their riches and privileges +by partial sacrifices; on the 22d of April, 1212, they had given to the +commune of Assisi for a communal house a monument which is standing this +day, the temple of Minerva.[9] + +Francis, who already was their debtor for Portiuncula, once more +addressed himself to them. Happy in this new opportunity to render +service to one who was the incarnation of popular claims, they gave him +the chapel of St. Damian; perhaps they were well pleased, by favoring +the new Order, to annoy Bishop Guido, of whom they had reason to +complain.[10] However this may be, in this hermitage, so well adapted +for prayer and meditation, Francis installed his spiritual +daughters.[11] In this sanctuary, repaired by his own hands, at the +feet of this crucifix which had spoken to him, Clara was henceforward to +pray. It was the house of God; it was also in good measure that of +Francis. Crossing its threshold, Clara doubtless experienced that +feeling, at once so sweet and so poignant, of the wife who for the first +time enters her husband's house, trembling with emotion at the radiant +and confused vision of the future. + +If we are not entirely to misapprehend these beginnings, we must +remember with what rapidity external influences transformed the first +conception of St. Francis. At this moment he no more expected to found a +second order than he had desired to found the first one. In snatching +Clara from her family he had simply acted like a true knight who rescues +an oppressed woman, and takes her under his protection. In installing +her at St. Damian he was preparing a refuge for those who desired to +imitate her and apart from the world practise the gospel Rule. But he +never thought that the perfection of which he and his disciples were the +apostles and missionaries, and which Clara and her companions were to +realize in celibacy, was not practicable in social positions also; +thence comes what is wrongly called the _Tertiari_, or Third Order, and +which in its primitive thought was not separated from the first. This +Third Order had no need to be instituted in 1221, for it existed from +the moment when a single conscience resolved to practise his teachings, +without being able to follow him to Portiuncula.[12] The enemy of the +soul for him as for Jesus was avarice, understood in its largest +sense--that is to say, that blindness which constrains men to consecrate +their hearts to material preoccupations, makes them the slave of a few +pieces of gold or a few acres of land, renders them insensible to the +beauties of nature, and deprives them of infinite joys which they alone +can know who are the disciples of poverty and love. + +Whoever was free at heart from all material servitude, whoever was +decided to live without hoarding, every rich man who was willing to +labor with his hands and loyally distribute all that he did not consume +in order to constitute the common fund which St. Francis called _the +Lord's table_, every poor man who was willing to work, free to resort, +in the strict measure of his wants, to this table of the Lord, these +were at that time true Franciscans. + +It was a social revolution. + +There was then at that time neither one Order nor several.[13] The +gospel of the Beatitudes had been found again, and, as twelve centuries +before, it could accommodate itself to all situations. + +Alas! the Church, personified by Cardinal Ugolini, was about, if not to +cause the Franciscan movement to miscarry, at least so well to hedge +about it that a few years later it would have lost nearly its whole +original character. + +As has been seen, the word poverty expresses only very imperfectly St. +Francis's point of view, since it contains an idea of renunciation, of +_abstinence_, while in thought the vow of poverty is a vow of liberty. +Property is the cage with gilded wires, to which the poor larks are +sometimes so thoroughly accustomed that they no longer even think of +getting away in order to soar up into the blue.[14] + +From the beginning St. Damian was the extreme opposite to what a convent +of Clarisses of the strict observance is now; it is still to-day very +much as Francis saw it. We owe thanks to the Brothers Minor for having +preserved intact this venerable and charming hermitage, and not spoiling +it with stupid embellishments. This little corner of Umbrian earth will +be for our descendants like Jacob's well whereon Christ sat himself down +for an instant, one of the favorite courts of the worship in spirit and +in truth. + +In installing Clara there Francis put into her hands the Rule which he +had prepared for her,[15] which no doubt resembled that of the Brothers +save for the precepts with regard to the missionary life. He accompanied +it with the engagement[16] taken by himself and his brothers to supply +by labor or alms all the needs of Clara and her future companions. In +return they also were to work and render to the Brothers all the +services of which they might be capable. We have seen the zeal which +Francis had brought to the task of making the churches worthy of the +worship celebrated in them; he could not endure that the linen put to +sacred uses should be less than clean. Clara set herself to spinning +thread for the altar-cloths and corporals which the Brothers undertook +to distribute among the poor churches of the district.[17] In addition, +during the earlier years, she also nursed the sick whom Francis sent to +her, and St. Damian was for some time a sort of hospital.[18] + +One or two friars, who were called _Zealots of the Poor Ladies_, were +especially charged with the care of the Sisters, making themselves huts +beside the chapel, after the model of those of Portiuncula. Francis was +also near at hand; a sort of terrace four paces long overlooks the +hermitage; Clara made there a tiny garden, and when, at twilight, she +went thither to water her flowers, she could see, hardly half a league +distant, Portiuncula standing out against the aureola of the western +sky. + +For several years the relations between the two houses were continual, +full of charm and freedom. The companions of Francis who received +Brothers received Sisters also, at times returning from their preaching +tours with a neophyte for St. Damian.[19] + +But such a situation could not last long. The intimacy of Francis and +Clara, the familiarity of the earlier friars and Sisters would not do as +a model for the relations of the two Orders when each had some hundreds +of members. Francis himself very soon perceived this, though not so +clearly as his sister-friend. Clara survived him nearly twenty-seven +years, and thus had time to see the shipwreck of the Franciscan ideal +among the Brothers, as well as in almost every one of the houses which +had at first followed the Rule of St. Damian. She herself was led by the +pressure of events to lay down rules for her own convent, but to her +very death-bed she contended for the defence of the true Franciscan +ideas, with a heroism, a boldness, at once intense and holy, by which +she took a place in the first rank of witnesses for conscience. + +Is it not one of the loveliest pictures in religious history, that of +this woman who for more than half a century sustains moment by moment a +struggle with all the popes who succeed one another in the pontifical +throne, remaining always equally respectful and immovable, not +consenting to die until she has gained her victory?[20] + +To relate her life is to relate this struggle; the greater number of its +vicissitudes may be found in the documents of the Roman _curia_. +Francis had warded off many a danger from his institution, but he had +given himself guardians who were little disposed to yield any of their +rights; Cardinal Ugolini in particular, the future Gregory IX., took a +part in these matters which is very difficult to understand. We see him +continually lavishing upon Francis and Clara expressions of affection +and admiration which appear to be absolutely sincere; and yet the +Franciscan ideal--regarded as the life of love at which one arrives by +freeing himself from all servitude to material things--has hardly had a +worse adversary than he. + +In the month of May, 1228, Gregory IX. went to Assisi for the +preliminaries of the canonization of St. Francis. Before entering the +city he turned out of his way to visit St. Damian and to see Clara, whom +he had known for a long time, and to whom he had addressed letters +burning with admiration and paternal affection.[21] + +How can we understand that at this time, the eve of the canonization +(July 16, 1228), the pontiff could have had the idea of urging her to be +faithless to her vows? + +He represented to her that the state of the times made life impossible +to women who possess nothing, and offered her certain properties. As +Clara gazed at him in astonishment at this strange proposition, he said, +"If it is your vows which prevent you, we will release you from them." + +"Holy Father," replied the Franciscan sister, "absolve me from my sins, +but I have no desire for a dispensation from following Christ."[22] + +Noble and pious utterance, artless cry of independence, in which the +conscience proudly proclaims its autonomy! In these words is mirrored +at full length the spiritual daughter of the Poverello. + +By one of those intuitions which often come to very enthusiastic and +very pure women, she had penetrated to the inmost depths of Francis's +heart, and felt herself inflamed with the same passion which burned in +him. She remained faithful to him to the end, but we perceive that it +was not without difficulty. + +This is not the place in which to ask whether Gregory IX. was right in +desiring that religious communities should hold estates; he had a right +to his own views on the subject; but there is something shocking, to say +no more, in seeing him placing Francis among the saints at the very +moment when he was betraying his dearest ideals, and seeking to induce +those who had remained faithful to betray them. + +Had Clara and Francis foreseen the difficulties which they would meet? +We may suppose so, for already under the pontificate of Innocent III. +she had obtained a grant of the privilege of poverty. The pope was so +much surprised at such a request that he desired to write with his own +hands the opening lines of this patent, the like of which had never been +asked for at the court of Rome.[23] + +Under his successor, Honorius III., the most important personage of the +curia was this very Cardinal Ugolini. Almost a septuagenarian in 1216 he +inspired awe at first sight by the aspect of his person. He had that +singular beauty which distinguishes the old who have escaped the usury +of life; pious, enlightened, energetic, he felt himself made for great +undertakings. There is something in him which recalls Cardinal Lavigerie +and all the prelates whose red robes cover a soldier or a despot rather +than a priest.[24] + +The Franciscan movement was attacked with violence[25] in various +quarters; he undertook to defend it, and a very long time before the +charge of protector of the Order was officially confided to him, he +exercised it with devouring zeal.[26] He felt an unbounded admiration +for Francis and Clara, and often manifested it in a touching manner. If +he had been a simple man he might have loved them and followed them. +Perhaps he even had thought of doing so.[27] Alas! he was a prince of +the Church; he could not help thinking of what he would do in case he +should be called to guide the ship of St. Peter. + +He acted accordingly; was it calculation on his part or simply one of +those states of conscience in which a man absorbed in the end to be +attained hardly discusses the ways and means? I do not know, but we see +him immediately on the death of Innocent III., under pretext of +protecting the Clarisses, take their direction in hand, give them a +Rule, and substitute his own ideas for those of St. Francis.[28] + +In the privilege which as legate he gave in favor of Monticelli, July +27, 1219, neither Clara nor Francis is named, and the Damianites become +as a congregation of Benedictines.[29] + +We shall see farther on the wrath of Francis against Brother Philip, a +Zealot of the Poor Ladies, who had accepted this privilege in his +absence. His attitude was so firm that other documents of the same +nature granted by Ugolini at the same epoch were not indorsed by the +pope until three years later. + +The cardinal's ardor to profit by the enthusiasm which the Franciscan +ideas everywhere excited was so great that we find, in the register of +his legation of 1221, a sort of formula all prepared for those who would +found convents like those of the Sisters of St. Damian; but even there +we search in vain for the name of Francis or Clara.[30] + +This old man had, however, a truly mystical passion for the young +abbess; he wrote to her, lamenting the necessity of being far from her, +in words which are the language of love, respect, and admiration.[31] +There were at least two men in Ugolini: the Christian, who felt himself +subdued before Clara and Francis; the prelate, that is, a man whom the +glory of the Church sometimes caused to forget the glory of God. + +Francis, though almost always resisting him, appears to have kept a +feeling of ingenuous gratitude toward him to the very end. Clara, on the +contrary, had too long a struggle to be able to keep any illusions as to +the attitude of her protector. After 1230 there is no trace of any +relations between them. + +All the efforts of the pope to mitigate the rigor of Clara's vow of +poverty had remained vain. Many other nuns desired to practise strictly +the Rule of St. Francis. Among them was the daughter of the King of +Bohemia, Ottokar I., who was in continual relations with Clara. But +Gregory IX., to whom she addressed herself, was inflexible. While +pouring eulogies upon her he enjoined upon her to follow the Rule which +he sent to her--that is, the one which he had composed while he was yet +cardinal. The Rule of the Poverello was put among the utopias, not to +say heresies.[32] He never, however, could induce St. Clara to +completely submit herself. One day, indeed, she rebelled against his +orders, and it was the pope who was obliged to yield: he had desired to +bring about a wider separation between the friars and the Sisters than +had formerly prevailed; for a long time after the death of Francis a +certain familiarity had continued between St. Damian and Portiuncula; +Clara especially loved these neighborly relations, and often begged one +or another Brother to come and preach. The pope thought ill of this, and +forbade, under the severest penalty, that any friar of Portiuncula +should go to St. Damian without express permission of the Holy See. + +This time Clara became indignant. She went to the few friars attached to +her monastery, and thanking them for their services, "Go," she said; +"since they deprive us of those who dispense to us spiritual bread, we +will not have those who procure for us our material bread." He who wrote +that "_the necks of kings and princes are bowed at the feet of the +priests_" was obliged to bow before this woman and raise his +prohibition.[33] + +St. Damian had too often echoed with St. Francis's hymns of love and +liberty to forget him so soon and become an ordinary convent. Clara +remained surrounded with the master's early companions; Egidio, Leo, +Angelo, Ginepro never ceased to be assiduous visitors. These true lovers +of poverty felt themselves at home there, and took liberties which would +elsewhere have given surprise. One day an English friar, a celebrated +theologian, came according to the minister's orders to preach at St. +Damian. Suddenly Egidio, though a simple layman, interrupted him: "Stop, +brother, let me speak," he said to him. And the master in theology, +bowing his head, covered himself with his cowl as a sign of obedience, +and sat down to listen to Egidio. + +Clara felt a great joy in this; it seemed to her that she was once again +living in St. Francis's days.[34] The little coterie was kept up until +her death; she expired in the arms of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Ginepro. +In her last sufferings and her dying visions she had the supreme +happiness of being surrounded by those who had devoted their lives to +the same ideal as she.[35] + +In her will her life shows itself that which we have seen it--a daily +struggle for the defence of the Franciscan idea. We see how courageous +and brave was this woman who has always been represented as frail, +emaciated, blanched like a flower of the cloister.[36] + +She defended Francis not only against others, but also against himself. +In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly +disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was +beside him to show him his way. When he doubted his mission and thought +of fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who +showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men +going astray with no shepherd to lead them, and drew him once again into +the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who _give their +lives a ransom for many_.[37] + +Yet this love with which at St. Damian Francis felt himself surrounded +frightened him at times. He feared that his death, making too great a +void, would imperil the institution itself, and he took pains to remind +the sisters that he would not be always with them. One day when he was +to preach to them, instead of entering the pulpit he caused some ashes +to be brought, and after having spread them around him and scattered +some on his head, he intoned the _Miserere_, thus reminding them that he +was but dust and would soon return to dust.[38] + +But in general it is at St. Damian that St. Francis is the most +himself; it is under the shade of its olive-trees, with Clara caring for +him, that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called +the most perfect utterance of modern religious sentiment, the "Canticle +of the Sun." + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Easy as it is to seize the large outlines of her life, it is + with difficulty that one makes a detailed and documentary study + of it. There is nothing surprising in this, for the Clarisses + felt the rebound of the struggles which divided and rapidly + transformed the Order of the Brothers Minor. The greater number + of the documents have disappeared; we give summary indication of + those which will most often be cited: 1. Life of St. Clara by an + anonymous author. A. SS., _Aug._, t. ii., pp. 739-768. 2. Her + Will, given by Wadding (_Annales_, 1253, No. 5), but which does + not appear to be free from alteration. (Compare, for example, + the opening of this will with Chapter VI. of the Rule of the + Damianites approved by Innocent IV., August 8, 1253.) 3. The + bull of canonization, given September 26, 1255--that is to say, + two years after Clara's death; it is much longer than these + documents ordinarily are, and relates the principal incidents of + her life. A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 749; Potthast, 16,025. 4. Her + correspondence. Unhappily we have only fragments of it; the + Bollandists, without saying whence they drew them, have inserted + four of her letters in the _Acta_ of St. Agnes of Bohemia, to + whom they were addressed. (A. SS., _Martii_, t. i., pp. + 506-508.) + + [2] Reading the Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni, which represents the + average Franciscan character about 1250, one sees with what + reason the Rule had multiplied minute precautions for keeping + the Brothers from all relations with women. + + The desire of Celano to present the facts in the life of Francis + as the norm of the acts of the friars appears still more in the + chapters concerning St. Clara than in all the others. Vide 2 + Cel., 3, 132: _Non credatis, charissimi (dixit Franciscus), + quodeas perfecte non diligam.... Sed exemplum do vobis, ut + quemadmodum ego facio, ita et vos faciatis._ Cf. ibid., 134. + + [3] 2 Cel., 3, 55. _Fateor veritatem ... nullam me si aspicerem + recogniturum in facie nisi duas_. This chapter and the two + following give us a sort of caricature, in which Francis is + represented as so little sure of himself that he casts down his + eyes for fear of yielding to desire. The stories of Francis and + Jacqueline of Settesoli give a very different picture of the + relations between the Brothers and the women in the origin of + the Order from that which was given later. Bernard de Besse + (Turin MS., f^o. 113) relates at length the coming of Jacqueline + to Portiuncula to be present at St. Francis's death. Cf. + _Spec._, 107; 133; Bon., 112. Also Clara's repast at + Portiuncula. _Fior._, 15; _Spec._, 139b.; A. SS. _Aug. Vita + Clar._, No. 39 ff. + + [4] Isaiah, lxiii., 8 and 9 (Segond's [French] translation). At + the Mass on Holy Monday Isaiah lxiii. is read for the Epistle + and Mark xiv. for the Gospel. + + [5] San Paolo on the Chiasco, near Bastia. + + [6] At the present day diocesan seminary of Assisi, "_Seminarium + seraphicum_." In the thirteenth century the north gate of the + city was there. The houses which lie between there and the + Basilica form the new town, which is rapidly growing and will + unite the city with Sacro Convento. + + [7] _Nam steteramus in alio loco, licet parum. Test. Clar._ It + is truly strange that there is not a word here for the house + where the first days of her religious life were passed. Cf. + _Vit._, no. 10: _S. Angelus de Panse ... ubi cum non plene mens + ejus quiesceret._ + + [8] Mittarelli, _Annales Camaldulenses_ (Venice, 1755-1773, 9 + vols., f^o.), t. iv., app. 431 and 435. Cf. 156. + + [9] The act of donation is still in the archives of Assisi. An + analysis of it will be found in Cristofani, t. i., p. 133. Their + munificence remained without result; the bull _Ab Ecclesia_ of + July 27, 1232, shows that they were suppressed less than twenty + years after. _Sbaralea_, t. 1, p. 81. Potthast, 8984. Cf., ib., + p. 195, note c, and 340, note a, and the bulls which are there + indicated. + + [10] See p. 81, note ii. + + [11] 1 Cel., 18; 21; 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 1, 8. + + [12] _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 600. Cf. 3 Soc., 60. The three + Orders are contemporary, one might even say, the four, including + among them the one that miscarried among the secular priests + (see below). + + In a letter St. Clara speaks of her Order as making only a part + with that of the Brothers: _Sequaris consilia Reverendi Patris + nostri fratris Eliae Ministri generalis totius ordinis_. A. SS., + Martii, t. i., p. 507. + + [13] This point of view is brought into relief by an anecdote in + the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of Besse (Turin MS., 113a). This is + how he ends chap. vii. on the three Orders: _Nec Santus his + contentus ordinibus satagebat omnium generi salutis et + penitentiae viam dare. Unde parochiali cuidam sacerdoti dicenti + sibi quod vellet suus, retenta tamen ecclesia. Frater esse, dato + vivendi et induendi modo, dicitur indixisse ut annuatim, + collectis Eclesiae fructibus daret pro Deo, quod de praeteritis + superesset._ + + [14] See the lovely story in the _Fior._, 13. Cf. _Spec._, 65a; + _Conform._, 168b. 1. + + [15] The text of it was doubtless formerly inserted in chapter + vi. of the Rule granted to the Clarisses of St. Damian, August + 9, 1253, by the bull _Solet annuere_. Potthast, 15,086. But this + chapter has been completely changed in many editions. The text + of the _Speculum_, Morin, Rouen 1509, should be read. _Tract_ + iii., 226b. The critical study to be made upon this text by + comparing the indications given by the bull _Angelis guadium_ of + May 11, 1238, Sbaralea, i., p. 242, is too long to find a place + here. + + [16] 2 Cel., 3, 132. Cf. _Test. B. Clar._ + + [17] _In illa gravi infirmitate ... faciebat se erigi ... et + sedens filabat._ A. SS., 760e. _Sic vult eas [sorores] operare + manibus suis._ Ib. 762a. + + [18] _Fior._ 33. + + [19] Rule of 1221, chap xii. _Et nulla penitus mulier ab aliquo + frater recipiatur ad obedientiam, sed dato sibi consilio + spirituali, ubi voluerit agat penitentiam._ Cf. below, p. 252, + note 1, the remainder of this chapter and the indication of the + sources. This proves, 1, that the friars had received women into + the Order; 2, that at the beginning they said The Order in the + singular, and under this appellation included Sisters as well as + Brothers. We see how far the situation was, even at the end of + 1221, from being what it became a few years later. It is to be + noted that in all the reforming sects of the commencement of the + thirteenth century the two sexes were closely united. (Vide + _Burchardi chronicon_, Pertz, 1, 23, p. 376. Cf. Potthast, 2611, + bull _Cum otim_ of Nov. 25, 1205.) + + On the 7th of June, 1201 (bull _Incunubit nobis_), Innocent III. + had approved the Rule of the Humiliants. This was a religious + association whose members continued to live in their own homes, + and who offer surprising points of contact with the Franciscan + Order, though they took no vow of poverty. From them issued a + more restricted association which founded convents where they + worked in wool; these convents received both men and women. Vide + Jacques de Vitry, _Hist. Occidentalis_, cap. 28. _De religione + et regula Humiliatorum_ (Douai, 1597, pp. 334-337). The time + came when from these two Orders issued a third, composed solely + of priests. These _Humiliati_ are too little known, though they + have had a historian whose book is one of the noble works of the + eighteenth century: Tiraboschi, _Vetera Humiliatorum monumenta_ + (Milan, 3 vols., 4to, 1766-1768). Toward 1200 they had + monopolized _l'arte della lana_ in all upper Italy as far as to + Florence; it is evident, therefore, that Francis's father must + have had relations with them. + + [20] The bull approving the Rule of St. Damian is of August 9, + 1253. Clara died two days later. + + [21] 1 Cel., 122. Cf. Potthast, 8194 ff.; cf. ib., 709. + + [22] A. SS., _Vita Cl._, p. 758. Cf. bull of canonization. + + [23] _Vit. S. Clar._, A. SS., p. 758. This petition was surely + made by the medium of Francis; and there are several indications + of his presence in Perugia in the latter part of the life of + Innocent III. _In obitu suo [Alexandri papae] omnes familiares + sui deseruerunt eum praeter fratres Minores. Et similiter Papam + Gregorium et Honorium et Innocentium in cujus obitu fuit + praesentialiter S. Franciscus._ Eccl. xv. _Mon. Germ. hist. + Script._, t. 28 p. 568. Sbaralea puts forth doubts as to the + authenticity of this privilege, the text of which he gives; + wrongly, I think, for Clara alludes to it in her will, A. SS., + p. 747. + + [24] He was born about 1147, created cardinal in 1198. Vide + Raynald, _ann._, 1217, Sec. 88, the eulogy made upon him by + Honorius III. _Forma decorus et venustus aspectu ... zelator + fidei, disciplina virtutis, ... castitatis amator et totius + sanctitatis exemplar_: Muratori, _Scriptores rer. Ital._, iii., + 1, 575. + + [25] 1 Cel., 74. + + [26] The bull _Litterae tuae_ of August 27, 1218, shows him + already favoring the Clarisses. Sbaralea, i., p. 1. Vide 3 Soc., + 61. _Offero me ipsum, dixit Hugolinus, vobis, auxilium et + consilium, atque protectionem paratus impendere._ + + [27] In the Conformities, 107a, 2, there is a curious story + which shows Ugolini going to the Carceri to find Francis, and + asking him if he ought to enter his Order. Cf. _Spec._, 217. + + [28] He succeeded so well that Thomas of Celano himself seems to + forget that, at least at St. Damian, the Clarisses followed the + Rule given by St. Francis himself: _Ipsorum vita mirifica et + institutio gloriosa a domino Papa Gregorio, tunc Hostiensi + episcopo._ 1 Cel. 20. Cf. _Honorii Opera_ Horoy, t. iii., col. + 363; t. iv., col. 218; Potthast, 6179 and 6879 ff. + + [29] This privilege is inserted in the bull _Sacrosancta_ of + December 9, 1219. _Honorii opera_, Horoy, t. iii., col. 363 ff. + + [30] G. Levi, _Registri dei Cardinali_, no. 125. Vide below, p. + 400. Cf. Campi, _Hist. eccl. di Piacenza_, ii., 390. + + [31] See, for example, the letter given by Wadding: Annals, ii., + p. 16 (Rome, 1732). _Tanta me amaritudo cordis, abundantia + lacrymarum et immanitas doloris invasit, quod nisi ad pedes + Jesu, consolationem solitae pietatis invenirem, spiritus meus + forte deficeret et penitus anima liquefieret._ Wadding's text + should be corrected by that of the Riccardi MS., 279. f^o 80a + and b. Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 185; Sbaralea, i., p. 37. + + [32] Bull _Angelis gaudium_ of May 11, 1238; it may be found in + Sbaralea, i., p. 242. Cf. Palacky, _Literarische Reise nach + Italien_, Prague, 1838, 4to, no. 147. Potthast, 10,596; cf. + 11,175. + + [33] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 762. Cf. _Conform._, 84b, 2. + + [34] A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 239a; _Conform._, 54a, 1; + 177a, 2. + + [35] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 764d. + + [36] The bull of canonization says nothing of the Saracens whom + she put to flight. Her life in the A. SS. relates the fact, but + shows her simply in prayer before the Holy Sacrament. Cf. + _Conform._, 84b, 1. Mark of Lisbon t. i., part 2, pp. 179-181. + None of these accounts represents Clara as going to meet them + with a monstrance. + + [37] Bon., 173; _Fior._ 16; _Spec._, 62b; _Conform._, 84b, 2; + 110b 1; 49a, 1. With these should be compared _Spec._, 220b: + _Frater Leo narravit quod Sanctus Franciscus surgens orare_ + (sic) _venit ad fratres suos dicens: "Ite ad saeculum et + dimittatis habitum, licentio vos._" + + [38] 2 Cel., 3, 134. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FIRST ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE INFIDELS + +Autumn, 1212-Summer, 1215 + + +The early Brothers Minor had too much need of the encouragement and +example of Francis not to have very early agreed with him upon certain +fixed periods when they would be sure to find him at Portiuncula. Still +it appears probable that these meetings did not become true +Chapters-General until toward 1216. There were at first two a year, one +at Whitsunday, the other at Michaelmas (September 29th). Those of +Whitsunday were the most important; all the Brothers came together to +gain new strength in the society of Francis, to draw generous ardor and +grand hopes from him with his counsels and directions. + +The members of the young association had everything in common, their +joys as well as their sorrows; their uncertainties as well as the +results of their experiences. At these meetings they were particularly +occupied with the Rule, the changes that needed to be made in it, and +above all, how they might better and better observe it;[1] then, in +perfect harmony, they settled the allotment of the friars to the various +provinces. + +One of Francis's most frequent counsels bore upon the respect due to the +clergy; he begged his disciples to show a very particular deference to +the priests, and never to meet them without kissing their hands. He saw +only too well that the Brothers, having renounced everything, were in +danger of being unjust or severe toward the rich and powerful of the +earth; he, therefore, sought to arm them against this tendency, often +concluding his counsels with these noble words: "There are men who +to-day appear to us to be members of the devil who one day shall be +members of Christ." + +"Our life in the midst of the world," said he again, "ought to be such +that, on hearing or seeing us, every one shall feel constrained to +praise our heavenly Father. You proclaim peace; have it in your hearts. +Be not an occasion of wrath or scandal to anyone, but by your gentleness +may all be led to peace, concord, and good works." + +It was especially when he undertook to cheer his disciples, to fortify +them against temptations and deliver them from their power, that Francis +was most successful. However anxious a soul might be, his words brought +it back to serenity. The earnestness which he showed in calming sadness +became fiery and terrible in reproving those who fell away, but in these +days of early fervor he seldom had occasion to show severity; more often +he needed gently to reprove the Brothers whose piety led them to +exaggerate penances and macerations. + +When all was finished and each one had had his part in this banquet of +love, Francis would bless them, and they would disperse in all +directions like strangers and travellers. They had nothing, but already +they thought they saw the signs of the grand and final regeneration. +Like the exile on Patmos they saw "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, +coming down from God out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband +... and the throne upon which is seated the Desired of all nations, the +Messiah of the new times, he who is to make all things new."[2] + +Yet all eyes were turned toward Syria, where a French knight, Jean de +Brienne, had just been declared King of Jerusalem (1210), and toward +which were hastening the bands of the children's crusade. + +The conversion of Francis, radical as it was, giving a new direction to +his thoughts and will, had not had power to change the foundation of his +character. "In a great heart everything is great." In vain is one +changed at conversion--he remains the same. That which changes is not he +who is converted, but his surroundings; he is suddenly introduced into a +new path, but he runs in it with the same ardor. Francis still remained +a knight, and it is perhaps this which won for him in so high a degree +the worship of the finest souls of the Middle Ages. There was in him +that longing for the unknown, that thirst for adventures and sacrifices, +which makes the history of his century so grand and so attractive, in +spite of many dark features. + +Those who have a genius for religion have generally the privilege of +illusion. They never quite see how large the world is. When their faith +has moved a mountain they thrill with rapture, like the old Hebrew +prophets, and it seems to them that they see the dawning of the day +"when the glory of the Lord will appear, when the wolf and the lamb will +feed together." Blessed illusion, that fires the blood like a generous +wine, so that the soldiers of righteousness hurl themselves against the +most terrific fortresses, believing that these once taken the war will +be ended. + +Francis had found such joys in his union with poverty that he held it +for proven that one needed only to be a man to aspire after the same +happiness, and that the Saracens would be converted in crowds to the +gospel of Jesus, if only it were announced to them in all its +simplicity. He therefore quitted Portiuncula for this new kind of +crusade. It is not known from what port he embarked. It was probably in +the autumn of 1212. A tempest having cast the ship upon the coast of +Slavonia, he was obliged to resign himself either to remain several +months in those parts or to return to Italy; he decided to return, but +found much difficulty in securing a passage on a ship which was about to +sail for Ancona. He had no ill-will against the sailors, however, and +the stock of food falling short he shared with them the provisions with +which his friends had overloaded him. + +No sooner had he landed than he set out on a preaching tour, in which +souls responded to his appeals[3] with even more eagerness than in +times past. We may suppose that he returned from Slavonia in the winter +of 1212-1213, and that he employed the following spring in evangelizing +Central Italy. It was perhaps during this Lent that he retired to an +island in Lake Trasimeno, making a sojourn there which afterward became +famous in his legend.[4] However that may be, a perfectly reliable +document shows him to have been in the Romagna in the month of May, +1213.[5] One day Francis and his companion, perhaps Brother Leo, +arrived at the chateau of Montefeltro,[6] between Macerata and San +Marino. A grand fete was being given for the reception of a new knight, +but the noise and singing did not affright them, and without hesitation +they entered the court, where all the nobility of the country was +assembled. Francis then taking for his text the two lines, + + Tanto e il bene ch' aspetto + Ch'ogni pena m'e diletto,[7] + +preached so touching a sermon that several of those present forgot for a +moment the tourney for which they had come. One of them, Orlando dei +Cattani, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, was so much moved that, drawing +Francis aside, "Father," he said to him, "I desire much to converse with +you about the salvation of my soul." "Very willingly," replied Francis; +"but go for this morning, do honor to those friends who have invited +you, eat with them, and after that we will converse as much as you +please." + +So it was done. The count came back and concluded the interview by +saying, "I have in Tuscany a mountain especially favorable to +contemplation; it is entirely isolated and would well suit anyone who +desired to do penance far from the noises of the world; if it pleased +you I would willingly give it to you and your brethren for the salvation +of my soul." + +Francis accepted it joyfully, but as he was obliged to be at Portiuncula +for the Whitsunday chapter he postponed the visit to the Verna[8] to a +more favorable time. + +It was perhaps in this circuit that he went to Imola; at least nothing +forbids the supposition. Always courteous, he had gone immediately on +his arrival to present himself to the bishop, and ask of him authority +to preach. "I am not in need of anyone to aid me in my task," replied +the bishop dryly. Francis bowed and retired, more polite and even more +gentle than usual. But in less than hour he had returned. "What is it, +brother, what do you want of me again?" "Monsignor," replied Francis, +"when a father drives his son out at the door he returns by the window." + +The bishop, disarmed by such pious persistence, gave the desired +authorization.[9] + +The aim of Francis at that time, however, was not to evangelize Italy; +his friars were already scattered over it in great numbers; and he +desired rather to gain them access to new countries. + +Not having been able to reach the infidels in Syria, he resolved to seek +them in Morocco. Some little time before (July, 1212), the troops of the +Almohades had met an irreparable defeat in the plains of Tolosa; beaten +by the coalition of the Kings of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile, +Mohammed-el-Naser had returned to Morocco to die. Francis felt that this +victory of arms would be nothing if it were not followed by a peaceful +victory of the gospel spirit. + +He was so full of his project, so much in haste to arrive at the end of +his journey, that very often he would forget his companion, and +hastening forward would leave him far behind. The biographers are +unfortunately most laconic with regard to this expedition; they merely +say that on arriving in Spain he was so seriously ill that a return home +was imperative. Beyond a few local legends, not very well attested, we +possess no other information upon the labors of the Saint in this +country, nor upon the route which he followed either in going or +returning.[10] + +This silence is not at all surprising, and ought not to make us +undervalue the importance of this mission. The one to Egypt, which took +place six years later, with a whole train of friars, and at a time when +the Order was much more developed, is mentioned only in a few lines by +Thomas of Celano; but for the recent discovery of the Chronicle of +Brother Giordano di Giano and the copious details given by Jacques de +Vitry, we should be reduced to conjectures upon that journey also. The +Spanish legends, to which allusion has just been made, cannot be +altogether without foundation, any more than those which concern the +journey of St. Francis through Languedoc and Piedmont; but in the actual +condition of the sources it is impossible to make a choice, with any +sort of authority, between the historic basis and additions to it wholly +without value. + +The mission in Spain doubtless took place between the Whitsunday of 1214 +and that of 1215.[11] Francis, I think, had passed the previous +year[12] in Italy. Perhaps he was then going to see the Verna. The +March of Ancona and the Valley of Rieti would naturally have attracted +him equally about this epoch, and finally the growth of the two branches +of the Order must have made necessary his presence at Portiuncula and +St. Damian. The rapidity and importance of these missions ought in no +sense to give surprise, nor awaken exaggerated critical doubts. It took +only a few hours to become a member of the fraternity, and we may not +doubt the sincerity of these vocations, since their condition was the +immediate giving up of all property of whatever kind, for the benefit +of the poor. The new friars were barely received when they in their turn +began to receive others, often becoming the heads of the movement in +whatever place they happened to be. The way in which we see things going +on in Germany in 1221, and in England in 1224, gives a very living +picture of this spiritual germination. + +To found a monastery it was enough that two or three Brothers should +have at their disposition some sort of a shelter, whence they radiated +out into the city and the neighboring country. It would, therefore, be +as much an exaggeration to describe St. Francis as a man who passed his +life in founding convents, as to deny altogether the local traditions +which attribute to him the erection of a hundred monasteries. In many +cases a glance is enough to show whether these claims of antiquity are +justified; before 1220 the Order had only hermitages after the pattern +of the Verna or the Carceri, solely intended for the Brothers who +desired to pass some time in retreat. + +Returned to Assisi, Francis admitted to the Order a certain number of +learned men, among whom was perhaps Thomas of Celano. The latter, in +fact, says that God at that time mercifully remembered him, and he adds +further on: "The blessed Francis was of an exquisite nobility of heart +and full of discernment; with the greatest care he rendered to each one +what was due him, with wisdom considering in each case the degree of +their dignities." + +This does not harmonize very well with the character of Francis as we +have sketched it; one can hardly imagine him preserving in his Order +such profound distinctions as were at that time made between the +different social ranks, but he had that true and eternal politeness +which has its roots in the heart, and which is only an expression of +tact and love. It could not be otherwise with a man who saw in courtesy +one of the qualities of God. + +We are approaching one of the most obscure periods of his life. After +the chapter of 1215 he seems to have passed through one of those crises +of discouragement so frequent with those who long to realize the ideal +in this world. Had he discovered the warning signs of the misfortunes +which were to come upon his family? Had he come to see that the +necessities of life were to sully and blight his dream? Had he seen in +the check of his missions in Syria and Morocco a providential indication +that he had to change his method? We do not know. But about this time he +felt the need of turning to St. Clara and Brother Silvestro for counsel +on the subject of the doubts and hesitations which assailed him; their +reply restored to him peace and joy. God by their mouth commanded him to +continue his apostolate.[13] + +Immediately he rose and set forth in the direction of Bevagna,[14] with +an ardor which he had never yet shown. In encouraging him to persevere +Clara had in some sort inoculated him with a new enthusiasm. One word +from her had sufficed to give him back all his courage, and from this +point in his life we find in him more poetry, more love, than ever +before. + +Full of joy, he was going on his way when, perceiving some flocks of +birds, he turned aside a little from the road to go to them. Far from +taking flight, they flocked around him as if to bid him welcome. +"Brother birds," he said to them then, "you ought to praise and love +your Creator very much. He has given you feathers for clothing, wings +for flying, and all that is needful for you. He has made you the noblest +of his creatures; he permits you to live in the pure air; you have +neither to sow nor to reap, and yet he takes care of you, watches over +you and guides you." Then the birds began to arch their necks, to spread +out their wings, to open their beaks, to look at him, as if to thank +him, while he went up and down in their midst stroking them with the +border of his tunic, sending them away at last with his blessing.[15] + +In this same evangelizing tour, passing through Alviano,[16] he spoke a +few exhortations to the people, but the swallows so filled the air with +their chirping that he could not make himself heard. "It is my turn to +speak," he said to them; "little sister swallows, hearken to the word of +God; keep silent and be very quiet until I have finished."[17] + +We see how Francis's love extended to all creation, how the diffused +life shed abroad upon all things inspired and moved him. From the sun to +the earthworm which we trample under foot, everything breathed in his +ear the ineffable sigh of beings that live and suffer and die, and in +their life as in their death have a part in the divine work. + +"Praised be thou, Lord, with all thy creatures, especially for my +brother Sun which gives us the day and by him thou showest thy light. He +is beautiful and radiant with great splendor; of thee, Most High, he is +the symbol." + +Here again, Francis revives the Hebrew inspiration, the simple and +grandiose view of the prophets of Israel. "Praise the Lord!" the royal +Psalmist had sung, "praise the Lord, fire and frost, snow and mists, +stormy winds that do his will, mountains and all hills, fruit-trees and +all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and fowls with wings, +kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, +young men and maidens, old men and children, praise the Lord, praise ye +the Lord!" + +The day of the birds of Bevagna remained in his memory as one of the +most beautiful of his whole life, and though usually so reserved he +always loved to tell of it;[18] it was because he owed to Clara these +pure ardors which brought him into a secret and delicious communion with +all beings; it was she who had revived him from sadness and hesitation; +in his heart he bore an immense gratitude to her who, just when he +needed it, had known how to return to him love for love, inspiration for +inspiration. + +Francis's sympathy for animals, as we see it shining forth here, has +none of that sentimentalism, so often artificial and exclusive of all +other love, which certain associations of his time noisily displayed; in +him it is only a manifestation of his feeling for nature, a deeply +mystical, one might say pantheistic, sentiment, if the word had not a +too definitely philosophical sense, quite opposite to the Franciscan +thought. + +This sentiment, which in the poets of the thirteenth century is so often +false and affected, was in him not only true, but had in it something +alive, healthy, robust.[19] It is this vein of poetry which awoke +Italy to self-consciousness, made her in a few years forget the +nightmare of Catharist ideas, and rescued her from pessimism. By it +Francis became the forerunner of the artistic movement which preceded +the Renaissance, the inspirer of that group of Pre-Raphaelites, awkward, +grotesque in drawing though at times they were, to whom we turn to-day +with a sort of piety, finding in their ungraceful saints an inner life, +a moral feeling which we seek for elsewhere in vain. + +If the voice of the Poverello of Assisi was so well understood it was +because in this matter, as in all others, it was entirely +unconventional. How far we are, with him, from the fierce or Pharisaic +piety of those monks which forbids even the females of animals to enter +their convent! His notion of chastity in no sense resembles this +excessive prudery. One day at Sienna he asked for some turtle-doves, and +holding them in the skirt of his tunic, he said: "Little sisters +turtle-doves, you are simple, innocent, and chaste; why did you let +yourselves be caught? I shall save you from death, and have nests made +for you, so that you may bring forth young and multiply according to the +commandment of our Creator." + +And he went and made nests for them all, and the turtle-doves began to +lay eggs and bring up their broods under the eyes of the Brothers.[20] + +At Rieti a family of red-breasts were the guests of the monastery, and +the young birds made marauding expeditions on the very table where the +Brothers were eating.[21] Not far from there, at Greccio,[22] they +brought to Francis a leveret that had been taken alive in a trap. "Come +to me, brother leveret," he said to it. And as the poor creature, being +set free, ran to him for refuge, he took it up, caressed it, and finally +put it on the ground that it might run away; but it returned to him +again and again, so that he was obliged to send it to the neighboring +forest before it would consent to return to freedom.[23] + +One day he was crossing the Lake of Rieti. The boatman in whose bark he +was making the passage offered him a tench of uncommon size. Francis +accepted it with joy, but to the great amazement of the fisherman put it +back into the water, bidding it bless God.[24] + +We should never have done if we were to relate all the incidents of this +kind,[25] for the sentiment of nature was innate with him; it was a +perpetual communion which made him love the whole creation.[26] He is +ravished with the witchery of great forests; he has the terrors of a +child when he is alone at prayer in a deserted chapel, but he tastes +ineffable joy merely in inhaling the perfume of a flower, or gazing into +the limpid water of a brook.[27] + +This perfect lover of poverty permitted one luxury--he even commanded it +at Portiuncula--that of flowers; the Brother was bidden not to sow +vegetables and useful plants only; he must reserve one corner of good +ground for our sisters, the flowers of the fields. Francis talked with +them also, or rather he replied to them, for their mysterious and gentle +language crept into the very depth of his heart.[28] + +The thirteenth century was prepared to understand the voice of the +Umbrian poet; the sermon to the birds[29] closed the reign of Byzantine +art and of the thought of which it was the image. It is the end of +dogmatism and authority; it is the coming in of individualism and +inspiration; very uncertain, no doubt, and to be followed by obstinate +reactions, but none the less marking a date in the history of the human +conscience.[30] Many among the companions of Francis were too much the +children of their century, too thoroughly imbued with its theological +and metaphysical methods, to quite understand a sentiment so simple and +profound.[31] But each in his degree felt its charm. Here Thomas of +Celano's language rises to an elevation which we find in no other part +of his works, closing with a picture of Francis which makes one think of +the Song of Songs.[32] + +Of more than middle height, Francis had a delicate and kindly face, +black eyes, a soft and sonorous voice. There was in his whole person a +delicacy and grace which made him infinitely lovely. All these +characteristics are found in the most ancient portraits.[33] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 3 Soc., 57; cf. _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 599. + + [2] Rev. xxi.; 1 Cel., 46; 3 Soc., 57-59; _An. Perus._, A. SS., + p. 600. + + [3] 1 Cel., 55 and 56; Bon., 129-132. + + [4] _Fior._, 7; _Spec._, 96; _Conform._, 223a, 2. The fact of + Francis's sojourn on an island in this lake is made certain by 1 + Cel., 60. + + [5] Vide below, p. 400. Cf. A. SS., pp. 823 f. + + [6] At present Sasso-Feltrio, between Conca and Marecchio, south + of and about two hours' walk from San Marino. + + [7] The happiness that I expect is so great that all pain is + joyful to me. All the documents give Francis's text in Italian, + which is enough to prove that it was the language not only of + his poems but also of his sermons. _Spec._ 92a ff. _Conform._ + 113a, 2; 231a, 1; _Fior., Prima consid._ + + [8] See p. 400. + + [9] 2 Cel., 3, 85; Bon., 82. + + [10] 1 Cel., 56; Bon., 132. + + [11] Vide Wadding, _ann. 1213-1215_. Cf. A. SS., pp. 602, 603, + 825-831. Mark of Lisbon, _lib._ i., _cap._ 45, pp. 78-80; + Papini, _Storia di S. Francesco_, i., p. 79 ff. (Foligno, 1825, + 2 vols., 4to). It is surprising to see Father Suysken giving so + much weight to the _argumentum a silentio_. + + [12] From Pentecost, 1213, to that of 1214.--_Post non multum + vero temporis versus Marochium iter arripuit_, says Thomas of + Celano (1 Cel., 56), after having mentioned the return from + Slavonia. Taking into account the author's _usus loquendi_ the + phrase appears to establish a certain interval between the two + missions. + + [13] _Conform._, 110b, 1; _Spec._, 62b; _Fior._, 16; Bon., + 170-174. + + [14] Village about two leagues S. W. from Assisi. The time is + indirectly fixed by Bon., 173, and 1 Cel., 58. + + [15] 1 Cel. 58; Bon., 109 and 174; _Fior._, 16; _Spec._, 62b; + _Conform._, 114b, 2. + + [16] About halfway between Orvieto and Narni. + + [17] 1 Cel., 59; Bon., 175. + + [18] _Ad haec, ut ipse dicebat_ ... 1 Cel., 58. + + [19] Francis has been compared in this regard to certain of his + contemporaries, but the similarity of the words only makes more + evident the diversity of inspiration. Honorius III. may say: + _Forma rosae est inferius angusta, superius ampla et significat + quod Christus pauper fuit in mundo, sed est Dominus super omnia + et implet universa. Nam sicut forma rosae_, etc. (Horoy, t. i., + col. xxiv. and 804), and make a whole sermon on the symbolism of + the rose; these overstrained dissertations have nothing to do + with the feeling for nature. It is the arsenal of mediaeval + rhetoric used to dissect a word. It is an intellectual effort, + not a song of love. The Imitation would say: _If thy heart were + right all creatures would be for thee a mirror of life and a + volume of holy doctrine_, lib. ii., cap. 2. The simple sentiment + of the beauty of creation is absent here also; the passage is a + pedagogue in disguise. + + [20] _Spec._, 157. _Fior._; 22. + + [21] 2 Cel., 2, 16; _Conform._, 148a, 1, 183b, 2. Cf. the story + of the sheep of Portiuncula: Bon., 111. + + [22] Village in the valley of Rieti, two hours' walk from that + town, on the road to Terni. + + [23] 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113. + + [24] 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114. + + [25] 2 Cel., 3, 54; Bon., 109; 2 Cel., 3; 103 ff.; Bon., 116 + ff.; Bon., 110; 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114, 113, 115; 1 Cel., 79; + _Fior._, 13, etc. + + [26] 2 Cel., 3, 101 ff.; Bon., 123. + + [27] 2 Cel., 3, 59; 1 Cel., 80 and 81. + + [28] 2 Cel., 3, 101; _Spec._, 136a; 1 Cel., 81. + + [29] This is the scene in his life most often reproduced by the + predecessors of Giotto. The unknown artist who (before 1236) + decorated the nave of the Lower Church of Assisi gives five + frescos to the history of Jesus and five to the life of St. + Francis. Upon the latter he represents: 1, the renunciation of + the paternal inheritance; 2, Francis upholding the Lateran + church; 3, the sermon to the birds; 4, the stigmata; 5, the + funeral. This work, unhappily very badly lighted, and about half + of it destroyed at the time of the construction of the chapels + of the nave, ought to be engraved before it completely + disappears. The history of art in the time of Giunta Pisano is + still too much enveloped in obscurity for us to neglect such a + source of information. M. Thode (_Franz von Assisi und die + Anfaenge der Kunst_, Berlin, 1885, 8vo. illust.) and the Rev. + Father Fratini (_Storia della Basilica d'Assisi_, Prato, 1882, + 8vo) are much too brief so far as these frescos are concerned. + + [30] It is needless to say that I do not claim that Francis was + the only initiator of this movement, still less that he was its + creator; he was its most inspired singer, and that may suffice + for his glory. If Italy was awakened it was because her sleep + was not so sound as in the tenth century; the mosaics of the + facade of the Cathedral of Spoleto (the Christ between the + Virgin and St. John) already belong to the new art. Still, the + victory was so little final that the mural paintings of St. + Lawrence without the walls and of the Quattro Coronate, which + are subsequent to it by half a score of years, relapse into a + coarse Byzantinism. See also those of the Baptistery of + Florence. + + [31] Hence the more or less subtile explanations with which they + adorn these incidents.--As to the part of animals in thirteenth + century legends consult Caesar von Heisterbach, Strange's + edition, t. ii., pp. 257 ff. + + [32] 1 Cel., 80-83. + + [33] 1 Cel., 83; _Conform._, 111a. M. Thode (_Anfaenge_, pp. + 76-94) makes a study of some thirty portraits. The most + important are reproduced in _Saint Francois_ (1 vol., 4to, + Paris, 1885); 1, contemporary portrait, by Brother Eudes, now at + Subiaco (_loc. cit._, p. 30); 2, portrait dating about 1230, by + Giunta Pisano (?); preserved at Portiuncula (_loc. cit._, p. + 384); 3, finally, portrait dated 1235, by Bon. Berlinghieri, and + preserved at Pescia, in Tuscany (_loc. cit._, p. 277). In 1886 + Prof. Carattoli studied with great care a portrait which dates + from about those years and of which he gives a picture (also + preserved of late years at Portiuncula). _Miscellanea + francescana_ t. i., pp. 44-48; cf. pp. 160, 190, and 1887, p. + 32. M. Bonghi has written some interesting papers on the + iconography of St. Francis (_Francesco di Assisi_, 1 vol., 12mo, + Citta di Castello, Lapi, 1884. Vide pp. 103-113). + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE INNER MAN AND WONDER-WORKING + + +The missionary journey, undertaken under the encouragement of St. Clara +and so poetically inaugurated by the sermon to the birds of Bevagna, +appears to have been a continual triumph for Francis.[1] Legend +definitively takes possession of him; whether he will or no, miracles +burst forth under his footsteps; quite unawares to himself the objects +of which he has made use produce marvellous effects; folk come out from +the villages in procession to meet him, and the biographer gives us to +hear the echo of those religious festivals of Italy--merry, popular, +noisy, bathed in sunshine--which so little resemble the fastidiously +arranged festivals of northern peoples. + +From Alviano Francis doubtless went to Narni, one of the most charming +little towns in Umbria, busy with building a cathedral after the +conquest of their communal liberties. He seems to have had a sort of +predilection for this city as well as for its surrounding villages.[2] +From thence he seems to have plunged into the valley of Rieti, where +Greccio, Fonte-Colombo, San Fabiano, Sant-Eleuthero, Poggio-Buscone +retain even stronger traces of him than the environs of Assisi. + +Thomas of Celano gives us no particulars of the route followed, but, on +the other hand, he goes at length into the success of the apostle in the +March of Ancona, and especially at Ascoli. Did the people of these +districts still remember the appeals which Francis and Egidio had made +to them six years before (1209), or must we believe that they were +peculiarly prepared to understand the new gospel? However this may be, +nowhere else was a like enthusiasm shown; the effect of the sermons was +so great that some thirty neophytes at once received the habit of the +Order. + +The March of Ancona ought to be held to be the Franciscan province _par +excellence_. There are Offida, San-Severino, Macerata, Fornaro, Cingoli, +Fermo, Massa, and twenty other hermitages where, during more than a +century, poverty was to find its heralds and its martyrs; from thence +came Giovanni della Verna, Jacopo di Massa, Conrad di Offida, Angelo +Clareno, and those legions of nameless revolutionists, dreamers, and +prophets, who since the _extirpes_ in 1244 by the general of the Order, +Crescentius of Jesi, never ceased to make new recruits, and by their +proud resistance to all powers filled one of the finest pages of +religious history in the Middle Ages. + +This success, which bathed the soul of Francis with joy, did not arouse +in him the smallest movement of pride. Never has man had a greater power +over hearts, because never preacher preached himself less. One day +Brother Masseo desired to put his modesty to the test. + + "Why thee? Why thee? Why thee?" he repeated again and again, as + if to make a mock of Francis. "What are you saying?" cried + Francis at last. "I am saying that everybody follows thee, + everyone desires to see thee, hear thee, and obey thee, and yet + for all that thou art neither beautiful, nor learned, nor of + noble family. Whence comes it, then, that it should be thee whom + the world desires to follow?" + + On hearing these words the blessed Francis, full of joy, raised + his eyes to heaven, and after remaining a long time absorbed in + contemplation he knelt, praising and blessing God with + extraordinary fervor. Then turning toward Masseo, "Thou wishest + to know why it is I whom men follow? Thou wishest to know? It is + because the eyes of the Most High have willed it thus; he + continually watches the good and the wicked, and as his most + holy eyes have not found among sinners any smaller man, nor any + more insufficient and more sinful, therefore he has chosen me to + accomplish the marvellous work which God has undertaken; he + chose me because he could find no one more worthless, and he + wished here to confound the nobility and grandeur, the strength, + the beauty, and the learning of this world." + +This reply throws a ray of light upon St. Francis's heart; the message +which he brought to the world is once again the glad tidings announced +to the poor; its purpose is the taking up again of that Messianic work +which the Virgin of Nazareth caught a glimpse of in her _Magnificat_, +that song of love and liberty, the sighs of which breathe the vision of +a new social state. He comes to remind the world that the welfare of +man, the peace of his heart, the joy of his life, are neither in money, +nor in learning, nor in strength, but in an upright and sincere will. +Peace to men of good will. + +The part which he had taken at Assisi in the controversies of his +fellow-citizens he would willingly have taken in all the rest of Italy, +for no man has ever dreamed of a more complete renovation; but if the +end he sought was the same as that of many revolutionaries who came +after him, their methods were completely different; his only weapon was +love. + +The event has decided against him. Apart from the _illuminati_ of the +March of Ancona and the _Fraticelli_ of our own Provence his disciples +have vied with one another to misunderstand his thought.[3] + +Who knows if some one will not arise to take up his work? Has not the +passion for worm-eaten speculations yet made victims enough? Are there +not many among us who perceive that luxury is a delusion, that if life +is a battle, it is not a slaughter-house where ferocious beasts wrangle +over their prey, but a wrestling with the divine, under whatever form it +may present itself--truth, beauty, or love? Who knows whether this +expiring nineteenth century will not arise from its winding-sheet to +make _amende honorable_ and bequeath to its successor one manly word of +faith? + +Yes, the Messiah will come. He who was announced by Gioacchino di Fiore +and who is to inaugurate a new epoch in the history of humanity will +appear. _Hope maketh not ashamed._ In our modern Babylons and in the +huts on our mountains are too many souls who mysteriously sigh the hymn +of the great vigil, _Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant +Justum_,[4] for us not to be on the eve of a divine birth. + +All origins are mysterious. This is true of matter, but yet more true of +that life, superior to all others, which we call holiness; it was in +prayer that Francis found the spiritual strength which he needed; he +therefore sought for silence and solitude. If he knew how to do battle +in the midst of men in order to win them to the faith, he loved, as +Celano says, to fly away like a bird going to make its nest upon the +mountain.[5] + +With men truly pious the prayer of the lips, the formulated prayer, is +hardly other than an inferior form of true prayer. Even when it is +sincere and attentive, and not a mechanical repetition, it is only a +prelude for souls not dead of religious materialism. + +Nothing resembles piety so much as love. Formularies of prayer are as +incapable of speaking the emotions of the soul as model love-letters of +speaking the transports of an impassioned heart. To true piety as well +as to profound love, the formula is a sort of profanation. + +To pray is to talk with God, to lift ourselves up to him, to converse +with him that he may come down to us. It is an act of meditation, of +reflection, which presupposes the effort of all that is most personal in +us. + +Looked at in this sense, prayer is the mother of all liberty and all +freedom. + +Whether or no it be a soliloquy of the soul with itself, the soliloquy +would be none the less the very foundation of a strong individuality. + +With St. Francis as with Jesus, prayer has this character of effort +which makes of it the greatest moral act. In order to truly know such +men one must have been able to go with them, to follow Jesus up to the +mountain where he passed his nights. Three favored ones, Peter, James, +John, followed him thither one day; but to describe what they saw, all +that a manly _sursum corda_ added to the radiance and the mysterious +grandeur of him whom they adored, they were obliged to resort to the +language of symbols. + +It was so with St. Francis. For him as for his Master the end of prayer +is communion with the heavenly Father, the accord of the divine with the +human; or rather it is man who puts forth his strength to do the work of +God, not saying to him a mere passive, resigned, powerless _Fiat_, but +courageously raising his head: "Behold me, Lord, I delight to do thy +will." + +"There are unfathomable depths in the human soul, because at the bottom +is God himself." Whether this God be transcendent or immanent, whether +he be One, the Creator, the eternal and immutable Principle, or whether +he be, as say the doctors beyond the Rhine, the ideal objectivation of +our Me, is not the question for the heroes of humanity. The soldier in +the thick of battle does not philosophize as to how much truth or +falsehood there is in the patriotic sentiment; he takes his arms and +fights at the peril of his life. So the soldiers of spiritual conflicts +seek for strength in prayer, in reflection, contemplation, inspiration; +all, poets, artists, teachers, saints, legislators, prophets, leaders of +the people, learned men, philosophers, all draw from this same source. + +But it is not without difficulty that the soul unites itself to God, or +if one prefers, that it finds itself. A prayer ends at last in divine +communion only when it began by a struggle. The patriarch of Israel, +asleep near Bethel, had already divined this: the God who passes by +tells his name only to those who stop him and do him violence to learn +it. He blesses only after long hours of conflict. + +The gospel has found an untranslatable word to characterize the prayers +of Jesus, it compares the conflict which preceded the voluntary +immolation of Christ to the death-struggle: _Factus in agonia_.[6] We +might say of his life that it had been a long temptation, a struggle, a +prayer, since these words only express different moments of spiritual +activity. + +Like their Master, the disciples and successors of Christ can conquer +their own souls only through perseverance. But these words, empty of +meaning for devout conventicles, have had a tragic sense for men of +religious genius. + +Nothing is more false, historically, than the saints that adorn our +churches, with their mincing attitude, their piteous expression, that +indescribably anaemic and emaciated--one may almost say emasculated--air +which shows in their whole nature; they are pious seminarists brought up +under the direction of St. Alphonso di Liguori or of St. Louis di +Gonzagua; they are not saints, not the violent who take the kingdom of +heaven by force. + +We have come to one of the most delicate features of the life of +Francis--his relations with diabolical powers. Customs and ideas have so +profoundly changed in all that concerns the existence of the devil and +his relations with men, that it is almost impossible to picture to +oneself the enormous place which the thought of demons occupied at that +time in the minds of men. + +The best minds of the Middle Ages believed without a doubt in the +existence of the perverse spirit, in his perpetual transformations in +the endeavor to tempt men and cause them to fall into his snares. Even +in the sixteenth century, Luther, who undermined so many beliefs, had no +more doubt of the personal existence of Satan than of sorcery, +conjurations, or possessions.[7] + +Finding in their souls a wide background of grandeur and wretchedness, +whence they sometimes heard a burst of distant harmonies calling them to +a higher life, soon to be overpowered by the clamors of the brute, our +ancestors could not refrain from seeking the explanation of this duel. +They found it in the conflict of the demons with God. + +The devil is the prince of the demons, as God is the prince of the +angels; capable of all transformations, they carry on to the end of time +terrible battles which will end in the victory of God, but meantime each +man his whole life long is contended for by these two adversaries, and +the noblest souls are naturally the most disputed. + +This is how St. Francis, with all men of his time, explained the +disquietudes, terrors, anguish, with which his heart was at times +assailed, as well as the hopes, consolations, joys in which in general +his soul was bathed. Wherever we follow his steps local tradition has +preserved the memory of rude assaults of the tempter which he had to +undergo. + +It is no doubt useless to recall here the elementary fact that if +manners change with the times, man himself is quite as strangely +modified. If, according to education, and the manner of life, such or +such a sense may develop an acuteness which confounds common +experience--hearing in the musician, touch with the blind, etc.--we may +estimate by this how much sharper certain senses may have been then than +now. Several centuries ago visual delusion was with adults what it is +now with children in remotest country parts. A quivering leaf, a +nothing, a breath, an unexplained sound creates an image which they see +and in the reality of which they believe absolutely. Man is all of a +piece; the hyperaesthesia of the will presupposes that of the +sensibility, one is conditioned on the other, and it is this which makes +men of revolutionary epochs so much greater than nature. It would be +absurd under pretext of truth to try to bring them back to the common +measures of our contemporary society, for they were veritably demigods +for good as for evil. + +Legends are not always absurd. The men of '93 are still near to us, but +it is nevertheless with good right that legend has taken possession of +them, and it is pitiable to see these men who, ten times a day, had to +take resolutions where everything was at stake--their destiny, that of +their ideas, and sometimes that of their country--judged as if they had +been mere worthy citizens, with leisure to discuss at length every +morning the garments they were to wear or the _menu_ of a dinner. Most +of the time historians have perceived only a part of the truth about +them; for not only were there two men in them, almost all of them are at +the same time poets, demagogues, prophets, heroes, martyrs. To write +history, then, is to translate and transpose almost continually. The men +of the thirteenth century could not bring themselves to not refer to an +exterior cause the inner motions of their souls. In what appears to us +as the result of our own reflections they saw inspiration; where we say +desires, instincts, passions, they said temptation, but we must not +permit these differences of language to make us overlook or tax with +trickery a part of their spiritual life, bringing us thus to the +conclusions of a narrow and ignorant rationalism. + +St. Francis believed himself to have many a time fought with the devil; +the horrible demons of the Etruscan Inferno still haunted the forests of +Umbria and Tuscany; but while for his contemporaries and some of his +disciples apparitions, prodigies, possessions, are daily phenomena, for +him they are exceptional, and remain entirely in the background. In the +iconography of St. Benedict, as in that of most of the popular saints, +the devil occupies a preponderant place; in that of St. Francis he +disappears so completely that in the long series of Giotto's frescos at +Assisi he is not seen a single time.[8] + +In the same way all that is magic and miracle-working occupies in his +life an entirely secondary rank. Jesus in the Gospels gave his apostles +power to cast out evil spirits, and to heal all sickness and all +infirmity.[9] Francis surely took literally these words, which made a +part of his Rule. He believed that he could work miracles, and he willed +to do so; but his religious thought was too pure to permit him to +consider miracles otherwise than as an entirely exceptional means of +relieving the sufferings of men. Not once do we see him resorting to +miracle to prove his apostolate or to bolster up his ideas. His tact +taught him that souls are worthy of being won by better means. This +almost complete absence of the marvellous[10] is by so much the more +remarkable that it is in absolute contradiction with the tendencies of +his time.[11] + +Open the life of his disciple, St. Anthony of Padua ([Cross] 1231); it is a +tiresome catalogue of prodigies, healings, resurrections. One would say +it was rather the prospectus of some druggist who had invented a new +drug than a call to men to conversion and a higher life. It may interest +invalids or devotees, but neither the heart nor the conscience is +touched by it. It must be said in justice to Anthony of Padua that his +relations with Francis appear to have been very slight. Among the +earliest disciples who had time to fathom their master's thought to the +very depths we find traces of this noble disdain of the marvellous; they +knew too well that the perfect joy is not to astound the world with +prodigies, to give sight to the blind, nor even to revive those who have +been four days dead, but that it lives in the love that goes even to +self-immolation. _Mihi absit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini._[12] + +Thus Brother Egidio asked of God grace not to perform miracles; he saw +in them, as in the passion for learning, a snare in which the proud +would be taken, and which would distract the Order from its true +mission.[13] + +St. Francis's miracles are all acts of love; the greater number of them +are found in the healing of nervous maladies, those apparently +inexplicable disquietudes which are the cruel afflictions of critical +times. His gentle glance, at once so compassionate and so strong, which +seemed like a messenger from his heart, often sufficed to make those who +met it forget all their suffering. + +The evil eye is perhaps a less stupid superstition than is generally +fancied. Jesus was right in saying that a look sufficed to make one an +adulterer; but there is also a look--that of the contemplative Mary, for +example--which is worth all sacrifices, because it includes them all, +because it gives, consecrates, immolates him who looks. + +Civilization dulls this power of the glance. A part of the education the +world gives us consists in teaching our eyes to deceive, in making them +expressionless, in extinguishing their flames; but simple and +straightforward natures never give up using this language of the heart, +"which brings life and health in its beams." + +"A Brother was suffering unspeakable tortures; sometimes he would roll +upon the ground, striking against whatever lay in his way, frothing at +the mouth, horrible to see; at times he would become rigid, and again, +after remaining stark outstretched for a moment, would roll about in +horrible contortions; sometimes lying in a heap on the ground, his feet +touching his head, he would bound upward as high as a man's head." +Francis came to see him and healed him.[14] + +But these are exceptions, and the greater part of the time the Saint +withdrew himself from the entreaties of his companions when they asked +miracles at his hands. + +To sum up, if we take a survey of the whole field of Francis's piety, we +see that it proceeds from the secret union of his soul with the divine +by prayer; this intuitive power of seeing the ideal classes him with the +mystics. He knew, indeed, both the ecstasy and the liberty of mysticism, +but we must not forget those features of character which separate him +from it, particularly his apostolic fervor. Besides this his piety had +certain peculiar qualities which it is necessary to point out. + +And first, liberty with respect of observances: Francis felt all the +emptiness and pride of most religious observance. He saw the snare that +lies hidden there, for the man who carefully observes all the minutiae of +a religious code risks forgetting the supreme law of love. More than +this, the friar who lays upon himself a certain number of supererogatory +facts gains the admiration of the ignorant, but the pleasure which he +finds in this admiration actually transforms his pious act into sin. +Thus, strangely enough, contrary to other founders of orders, he was +continually easing the strictness of the various rules which he laid +down.[15] We may not take this to be a mere accident, for it was only +after a struggle with his disciples that he made his will prevail; and +it was precisely those who were most disposed to relax their vow of +poverty who were the most anxious to display certain bigoted observances +before the public eye. + +"The sinner can fast," Francis would say at such times; "he can pray, +weep, macerate himself, but one thing he cannot do, he cannot be +faithful to God." Noble words, not unworthy to fall from the lips of him +who came to preach a worship in spirit and in truth, without temple or +priest; or rather that every fireside shall be a temple and every +believer a priest. + +Religious formalism, in whatever form of worship, always takes on a +forced and morose manner. Pharisees of every age disfigure their faces +that no one may be unaware of their godliness. Francis not merely could +not endure these grimaces of false piety, he actually counted mirth and +joy in the number of religious duties. + +How shall one be melancholy who has in the heart an inexhaustible +treasure of life and truth which only increases as one draws upon it? +How be sad when in spite of falls one never ceases to make progress? +The pious soul which grows and develops has a joy like that of the +child, happy in feeling its weak little limbs growing strong and +permitting it every day a further exertion. + +The word joy is perhaps that which comes most often to the pen of the +Franciscan authors;[16] the master went so far as to make it one of the +precepts of the Rule.[17] He was too good a general not to know that a +joyous army is always a victorious army. In the history of the early +Franciscan missions there are bursts of laughter which ring out high and +clear.[18] + +For that matter, we are apt to imagine the Middle Ages as much more +melancholy than they really were. Men suffered much in those days, but +the idea of grief being never separated from that of penalty, suffering +was either an expiation or a test, and sorrow thus regarded loses its +sting; light and hope shine through it. + +Francis drew a part of his joy from the communion. He gave to the +sacrament of the eucharist that worship imbued with unutterable emotion, +with joyful tears, which has aided some of the noblest of human souls to +endure the burden and heat of the day.[19] The letter of the dogma was +not fixed in the thirteenth century as it is to-day, but all that is +beautiful, true, potent, eternal in the mystical feast instituted by +Jesus was then alive in every heart. + +The eucharist was truly the viaticum of the soul. Like the pilgrims of +Emmaus long ago, in the hour when the shades of evening fall and a vague +sadness invades the soul, when the phantoms of the night awake and seem +to loom up behind all our thoughts, our fathers saw the divine and +mysterious Companion coming toward them; they drank in his words, they +felt his strength descending upon their hearts, all their inward being +warmed again, and again they whispered, "Abide with us, Lord, for the +day is far spent and the night approacheth." + +And often their prayer was heard. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1 Cel., 62. + + [2] 1 Cel., 66; cf. Bon., 180; 1 Cel., 67; cf. Bon., 182; 1 + Cel., 69; Bon., 183. After St. Francis's death the Narniates + were the first to come to pray at his tomb. 1 Cel., 128, 135, + 136, 138, 141; Bon., 275. + + [3] As concerning: 1, fidelity to Poverty; 2, prohibition of + modifying the Rule; 3, the equal authority of the Will and the + Rule; 4, the request for privileges at the court of Rome; 5, the + elevation of the friars to high ecclesiastical charges; 6, the + absolute prohibition of putting themselves in opposition to the + secular clergy; 7, the interdiction of great churches and rich + convents. On all these points and many others infidelity to + Francis's will was complete in the Order less than twenty-five + years after his death. We might expatiate on all this; the Holy + See in interpreting the Rule had canonical right on its side, + but Ubertino di Casali in saying that it was perfectly clear and + had no need of interpretation had good sense on his side; let + that suffice! _Et est stupor quare queritur expositio super + litteram sic apertam quia nulla est difficultas in regulae + intelligentia. Arbor vitae crucifixae_, Venice, 1485. lib. v., + cap. 3. _Sanctus vir Egidius tanto ejulatu clamabat super regulae + destructionem quam videbat quod ignorantibus viam spiritus quasi + videbatur insanus. Id. ibid._ + + [4] _Heavens drop down your dew, and let the clouds rain down + the Just One._ Anthem for Advent. + + [5] _In foramibus petrae nidificabat._ 1 Cel., 71. Upon the + prayers of Francis vide ibid., 71 and 72; 2 Cel., 3, 38-43; + Ben., 139-148. Cf. 1 Cel., 6; 91; 103; 3 Soc., 8; 12; etc. + + [6] Luke, xxii. 44. + + [7] Felix Kuhn: _Luther, sa vie et son oeuvre_, Paris, 1883, 3 + vols., 8vo. t. i., p. 128; t. ii., p. 9; t. iii., p. 257. + Benvenuto Cellini does not hesitate to describe a visit which he + made one day to the Coliseum in company with a magician whose + words evoked clouds of devils who filled the whole place. B. + Cellini, _La vita scritta da lui medesimo_, Bianchi's edition, + Florence, 1890, 12mo, p. 33. + + [8] On the devil and Francis vide 1 Cel., 68, 72; 3 Soc., 12; 2 + Cel., 1, 6; 3, 10; 53; 58-65; Bon., 59-62. Cf. Eccl., 3; 5; 13; + _Fior._, 29; _Spec._, 110b. To form an idea of the part taken by + the devil in the life of a monk at the beginning of the + thirteenth century, one must read the _Dialogus miraculorium_ of + Caesar von Heisterbach. + + [9] Matthew, x. 1. + + [10] Miracles occupy only ten paragraphs (61-70) in 1 Cel., and + of this number there are several which can hardly be counted as + Francis's miracles, since they were performed by objects which + had belonged to him. + + [11] Heretics often took advantage of this thirst for the + marvellous to dupe the catholics. The Cathari of Moncoul made a + portrait of the Virgin representing her as one eyed and + toothless, saying that in his humility Christ had chosen a very + ugly woman for mother. They had no difficulty in healing several + cases of disease by its means; the image became famous, was + venerated almost everywhere, and accomplished many miracles + until the day when the heretics divulged the deception, to the + great scandal of the faithful. Egbert von Schoenau, _Contra + Catharos_. Serm. I. cap. 2. (Patrol. lat. Migne t. 195.) Cf. + Heisterbach, _loc. cit._, v. 18. Luc de Tuy, _De altera Vita_, + lib. ii. 9; iii. 9, 18 (Patrol. Migne., 208). + + [12] "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of + our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi. 14. This is to this day the + motto of the Brothers Minor. + + [13] _Spec._, 182a; 200a; 232a. Cf. 199a. + + [14] 1 Cel., 67. + + [15] _Secundum primam regulam fratres feria quarta et sexta et + per licentiam beati Francisci feria secunda et sabbato + jejunabant. Giord. 11. cf. Reg. 1221, cap. 3_ and _Reg. 1223, + cap. 3_, where Friday is the only fast day retained. + + [16] 1 Cel., 10; 22; 27; 31; 42; 80; 2 Cel., 1, 1; 3, 65-68; + Eccl., 5; 6; _Giord._, 21; _Spec._, 119a; _Conform._, 143a, 2. + + [17] _Caveant fratres quod non ostendant se tristes extrinsecus + nubilosos et hypocritas; sed ostendant se gaudentis in Domine, + hilares et convenientes gratiosos._ + + [18] Eccl., _loc. cit._; Giord., _loc. cit._ + + [19] Vide _Test._; 1 Cel., 46; 62; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 129; _Spec._, + 44a. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE CHAPTER-GENERAL OF 1217[1] + + +After Whitsunday of 1217 chronological notes of Francis's life are +numerous enough to make error almost impossible. Unhappily, this is not +the case for the eighteen months which precede it (autumn of +1215-Whitsunday, 1217). For this period we are reduced to conjecture, or +little better. + +As Francis at that time undertook no foreign mission, he doubtless +employed his time in evangelizing Central Italy and in consolidating the +foundations of his institution. His presence at Rome during the Lateran +Council (November 11-30, 1215) is possible, but it has left no trace in +the earliest biographies. The Council certainly took the new Order into +consideration,[2] but it was to renew the invitation made to it five +years before by the supreme pontiff, to choose one of the Rules already +approved by the Church.[3] St. Dominic, who was then at Rome to beg +for the confirmation of his institute, received the same counsel and +immediately conformed to it. The Holy See would willingly have conceded +special constitutions to the Brothers Minor, if they had adopted for a +base the Rule of St. Benedict; thus the Clarisses, except those of St. +Damian, while preserving their name and a certain number of their +customs, were obliged to profess the Benedictine rule. + +In spite of all solicitations, Francis insisted upon retaining his own +Rule. One is led to believe that it was to confer upon these questions +that we find him at Perugia in July, 1216, when Innocent III. died.[4] + +However this may be, about this epoch the chapters took on a great +importance. The Church, which had looked on at the foundation of the +Order with somewhat mixed feelings, could no longer rest content with +being the mere spectator of so profound a movement; it saw the need of +utilizing it. + +Ugolini was marvellously well prepared for such a task. Giovanni di San +Paolo, Bishop of the Sabine, charged by Innocent III. to look after the +Brothers, died in 1216, and Ugolini was not slow to offer his +protection to Francis, who accepted it with gratitude. This +extraordinary offer is recounted at length by the Three Companions.[5] +It must certainly be fixed in the summer of 1216[6] immediately after +the death of Giovanni di San Paolo. + +It is very possible that the first chapter held in the presence of this +cardinal took place on May 29, 1216. By an error very common in history, +most of the Franciscan writers have referred to a single date all the +scattered incidents concerning the first solemn assizes of the Order, +and have called this typical assembly the _Chapter of the Mats_. In +reality for long years all the gatherings of the Brothers Minor deserved +this name.[7] + +Coming together at the season of the greatest heat, they slept in the +open air or sheltered themselves under booths of reeds. We need not pity +them. There is nothing like the glorious transparency of the summer +night in Umbria; sometimes in Provence one may enjoy a foretaste of it, +but if at Baux, upon the rock of Doms, or at St. Baume, the sight is +equally solemn and grandiose, it still wants the caressing sweetness, +the effluence of life which in Umbria give the night a bewitching charm. + +The inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages flocked to these +meetings in crowds, at once to see the ceremonies, to be present when +their relatives or friends assumed the habit, to listen to the appeals +of the Saint and to furnish to the friars the provisions of which they +might have need. All this is not without some analogy with the +camp-meeting so dear to Americans. As to the figures of several +thousands of attendants given in the legends, and furnishing even to a +Franciscan, Father Papini, the occasion for pleasantries of doubtful +taste, it is perhaps not so surprising as might be supposed.[8] + +These first meetings, to which all the Brothers eagerly hastened, held +in the open air in the presence of crowds come together from distant +places, have then nothing in common with the subsequent +chapters-general, which were veritable conclaves attended by a small +number of delegates, and the majority of the work of which, done in +secret, was concerned only with the affairs of the Order. + +During Francis's lifetime the purpose of these assemblies was +essentially religious. Men attended them not to talk business, or +proceed to the nomination of the minister-general, but in mutual +communion to gain new strength from the joys, the example, and the +sufferings of the other brethren.[9] + +The four years which followed the Whitsunday of 1216 form a stage in the +evolution of the Umbrian movement; that during which Francis was +battling for autonomy. We find here pretty delicate shades of +distinction, which have been misunderstood by Church writers as much as +by their adversaries, for if Francis was particular not to put himself +in the attitude of revolt, he would not compromise his independence, and +he felt with an exquisite divination that all the privileges which the +court of Rome could heap upon him were worth nothing in comparison with +liberty. Alas, he was soon forced to resign himself to these gilded +bonds, against which he never ceased to protest, even to his last +sigh;[10] but to shut one's eyes to the moral violence which the papacy +did him in this matter is to condemn oneself to an entire +misapprehension of his work. + +A glance over the collection of bulls addressed to the Franciscans +suffices to show with what ardor he struggled against favors so eagerly +sought by the monastic orders.[11] + +A great number of legendary anecdotes put Francis's disdain of +privileges in the clearest light. Even his dearest friends did not +always understand his scruples. + + "Do you not see," they said to him one day, "that often the + bishops do not permit us to preach, and make us remain several + days without doing anything before we are permitted to proclaim + the word of God? It would be better worth while to obtain for + this end a privilege from the pope, and it would be for the good + of souls." + + "I would first convert the prelates by humility and respect," he + replied quickly; "for when they have seen us humble and + respectful toward them, they themselves will beg us to preach + and convert the people. As for me, I ask of God no privilege + unless it be that I may have none, to be full of respect for all + men, and to convert them, as our Rule ordains, more by our + example than by our speech."[12] + +The question whether Francis was right or wrong in his antipathy to the +privileges of the curia does not come within the domain of history; it +is evident that this attitude could not long continue; the Church knows +only the faithful and rebels. But the noblest hearts often make a stand +at compromises of this kind; they desire that the future should grow out +of the past without convulsion and without a crisis. + +The chapter of 1217 was notable for the definitive organization of the +Franciscan missions. Italy and the other countries were divided off into +a certain number of _provinces_, having each its provincial minister. +Immediately upon his accession Honorius III. had sought to revive the +popular zeal for the crusades. He had not stopped at preaching it, but +appealed to prophecies which had proclaimed that under his pontificate +the Holy Land would be reconquered.[13] The renewal of fervor which +ensued, and of which the rebound was felt as far as Germany, had a +profound influence on the Brothers Minor. This time Francis, perhaps +from humility, did not put himself at the head of the friars charged +with a mission to Syria; for leader he gave them the famous Elias, +formerly at Florence, where he had had opportunity to show his high +qualities.[14] + +This Brother, who from this time appears in the foreground of this +history, came from the most humble ranks of society; the date and the +circumstances of his entrance into the Order are unknown, and hence +conjecture has come to see in him that friend of the grotto who had been +Francis's confidant shortly before his decisive conversion. However this +may be, in his youth he had earned his living in Assisi, making +mattresses and teaching a few children to read; then he had spent some +time in Bologna as _scriptor_; then suddenly we find him among the +Brothers Minor, charged with the most difficult missions. + +His adversaries vie with one another in asserting that he was the finest +mind of his century, but unhappily it is very difficult, in the existing +state of the documents, to pronounce as to his actions; learned and +energetic, eager to play the leading part in the work of the +reformation of religion, and having made his plan beforehand as to the +proper mode of realizing it, he made straight for his goal, half +political, half religious. Full of admiration for Francis and gratitude +toward him, he desired to regulate and consolidate the movement for +renovation. In the inner Franciscan circle, where Leo, Ginepro, Egidio, +and many others represent the spirit of liberty, the religion of the +humble and the simple, Elias represents the scientific and +ecclesiastical spirit, prudence and reason. + +He had great success in Syria and received into the Order one of the +disciples most dear to Francis, Caesar of Speyer, who later on was to +make the conquest of all Southern Germany in less than two years +(1221-1223), and who in the end sealed with his blood his fidelity to +the strict observance, which he defended against the attacks of Brother +Elias himself.[15] + +Caesar of Speyer offers a brilliant example of those suffering souls +athirst for the ideal, so numerous in the thirteenth century, who +everywhere went up and down, seeking first in learning, then in the +religious life, that which should assuage the mysterious thirst which +tortured them. Disciple of the scholastic Conrad, he had felt himself +overpowered with the desire to reform the Church; while still a layman +he had preached his ideas, not without some success, since a certain +number of ladies of Speyer had begun to lead a new life; but their +husbands disapproving, he was obliged to escape their vengeance by +taking refuge at Paris, and thence he went to the East, where in the +preaching of the Brothers Minor he found again his hopes and his dreams. +This instance shows how general was the waiting condition of souls when +the Franciscan gospel blazed forth, and how its way had been everywhere +prepared. + +But it is time to return to the chapter of 1217: the friars who went to +Germany under conduct of Giovanni di Penna were far from having the +success of Elias and his companions; they were completely ignorant of +the language of the country which they had undertaken to evangelize. +Perhaps Francis had not taken into account the fact that though Italian +might, in case of need, suffice in all the countries bathed by the +Mediterranean, this could not be the case in Central Europe.[16] + +The lot of the party going to Hungary was not more happy. Very often it +came to pass that the missionaries were fain to give up their very +garments in the effort to appease the peasants and shepherds who +maltreated them. But no less incapable of understanding what was said to +them than of making themselves understood, they were soon obliged to +think of returning to Italy. We may thank the Franciscan authors for +preserving for us the memory of these checks, and not attempting to +picture the friars as suddenly knowing all languages by a divine +inspiration, as later on was so often related.[17] + +Those who had been sent to Spain had also to undergo persecutions. This +country, like the south of France, was ravaged by heresy; but already at +that time it was vigorously repressed. The Franciscans, suspected of +being false Catholics and therefore eagerly hunted out, found a refuge +with Queen Urraca of Portugal, who permitted them to establish +themselves at Coimbra, Guimarraens, Alenquero, and Lisbon.[18] + +Francis himself made preparations for going to France.[19] This country +had a peculiar charm for him because of his fervent love of the Holy +Sacrament. Perhaps also he was unwittingly drawn toward this country to +which he owed his name, the chivalrous dreams of his youth, all of +poetry, song, music, delicious dream that had come into his life. + +Something of the emotion that thrilled through him on undertaking this +new mission has passed into the story of his biographers; one feels +there the thrill at once sweet and agonizing, the heart-throb of the +brave knight who goes forth all harnessed in the early dawn to scan the +horizon, dreading the unknown and yet overflowing with joy, for he knows +that the day will be consecrated to love and to the right. + +The Italian poet has given the one name of "pilgrimages of love" to the +farings forth of chivalry and the journeys undertaken by dreamers, +artists, or saints to those parts of the earth which forever mirror +themselves before their imagination and remain their chosen +fatherland.[20] Such a pilgrimage as this was Francis undertaking. + + "Set forth," said he to the Brothers who accompanied him, "and + walk two and two, humble and gentle, keeping silence until after + tierce, praying to God in your hearts, carefully avoiding every + vain or useless word. Meditate as much while on this journey as + if you were shut up in a hermitage or in your cell, for wherever + we are, wherever we go, we carry our cell with us; Brother body + is our cell, and the soul is the hermit who dwells in it, there + to pray to the Lord and to meditate." + +Arrived at Florence he found there Cardinal Ugolini, sent by the pope as +legate to Tuscany to preach the crusade and take all needful measures +for assuring its success.[21] Francis was surely far from expecting +the reception which the prelate gave him. Instead of encouraging him, +the cardinal urged him to give up his project. + + "I am not willing, my brother, that you should cross the + mountains; there are many prelates who ask nothing better than + to stir up difficulties for you with the court of Rome. But I + and the other cardinals who love your Order desire to protect + and aid you, on the condition, however, that you do not quit + this province." + + "But, monsignor, it would be a great disgrace for me to send my + brethren far away while I remained idly here, sharing none of + the tribulations which they must undergo." + + "Wherefore, then, have you sent your brethren so far away, + exposing them thus to starvation and all sorts of perils?" + + "Do you think," replied Francis warmly, and as if moved by + prophetic inspiration, "that God raised up the Brothers for the + sake of this country alone? Verily, I say unto you, God has + raised them up for the awakening and the salvation of all men, + and they shall win souls not only in the countries of those who + believe, but also in the very midst of the infidels."[22] + +The surprise and admiration which these words awoke in Ugolini were not +enough to make him change his mind. He insisted so strongly that Francis +turned back to Portiuncula, the inspiration of his work not even shaken. +Who knows whether the joy which he would have felt in seeing France did +not confirm him in the idea that he ought to renounce this plan? Souls +athirst with the longing for sacrifice often have scruples such as +these; they refuse the most lawful joys that they may offer them to +God. We cannot tell whether it was immediately after this interview or +not till the following year that Francis put Brother Pacifico at the +head of the missionaries sent into France.[23] + +Pacifico, who was a poet of talent, had before his conversion been +surnamed Prince of Poesy and crowned at the capital by the emperor. One +day while visiting a relative who was a nun at San Severino in the March +of Ancona, Francis also arrived at the monastery, and preached with such +a holy impetuosity that the poet felt himself pierced with the sword of +which the Bible speaks, which penetrates between the very joints and +marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.[24] On the +morrow he assumed the habit and received his symbolical surname.[25] + +He was accompanied to France by Brother Agnello di Pisa, who was +destined to be put at the head of the first mission to England in +1224.[26] + +Francis, on sending them forth, was far from dreaming that from this +country, which exerted such a fascination over him, was to come forth +the influence which was to compromise his dream--that Paris would be the +destruction of Assisi; and yet the time was not very far distant; a few +years more and the Poverello would see a part of his spiritual family +forgetting the humility of their name, their origin, and their +aspirations, to run after the ephemeral laurels of learning. + +We have already seen that the habit of the Franciscans of this time was +to make their abode within easy reach of great cities; Pacifico and his +companions established themselves at St. Denis.[27] We have no +particulars of their work; it was singularly fruitful, since it +permitted them a few years later to attack England with full success. + +Francis passed the following year (1218) in evangelizing tours in Italy. +It is naturally impossible to follow him in these travels, the itinerary +of which was fixed by his daily inspirations, or by indications as +fanciful as the one which had formerly determined his going to Sienna. +Bologna,[28] the Verna, the valley of Rieti, the Sacro-Speco of St. +Benedict at Subiaco,[29] Gaeta;[30] San Michele on Mount Gargano[31] +perhaps received him at this time, but the notes of his presence in +these places are too sparse and vague to permit their being included in +any scheme of history. + +It is very possible that he also paid a visit to Rome during this time; +his communications with Ugolini were much more frequent than is +generally supposed. We must not permit the stories of biographers to +deceive us in this matter; it is a natural tendency to refer all that we +know of a man to three or four especially striking dates. We forget +entire years of the life of those whom we have known the best and loved +the most and group our memories of them around a few salient events +which shine all the more brilliantly the deeper we make the surrounding +obscurity. The words of Jesus spoken on a hundred different occasions +came at last to be formed into a single discourse, the Sermon on the +Mount. It is in such cases that criticism needs to be delicate, to +mingle a little divination with the heavy artillery of scientific +argument. + +The texts are sacred, but we must not make fetiches of them; +notwithstanding St. Matthew, no one to-day dreams of representing Jesus +as uttering the Sermon on the Mount all at one time. In the same way, in +the narratives concerning the relations between St. Francis and Ugolini, +we find ourselves every moment shut up in no-thoroughfares, coming up +against contradictory indications, just so long as we try to refer +everything to two or three meetings, as we are at first led to do. + +With a simple act of analysis these difficulties disappear and we find +each of the different narratives bringing us fragments which, being +pieced together, furnish an organic story, living, psychologically true. + +From the moment at which we have now arrived, we must make a much larger +place for Ugolini than in the past; the struggle has definitively opened +between the Franciscan ideal--chimerical, perhaps, but sublime--and the +ecclesiastical policy, to go on until the day when, half in humility, +half in discouragement, Francis, heartsick, abdicates the direction of +his spiritual family. + +Ugolini returned to Rome at the end of 1217. During the following winter +his countersign is found at the bottom of the most important bulls;[32] +he devoted this time to the special study of the question of the new +orders, and summoned Francis before him. We have seen with what +frankness he had declared to him at Florence that many of the prelates +would do anything to discredit him with the pope.[33] It is evident the +success of the Order, its methods, which in spite of all protestations +to the contrary seemed to savor of heresy, the independence of Francis, +who had scattered his friars in all the four corners of the globe +without trying to gain a confirmation of the verbal and entirely +provisional authorization accorded him by Innocent III.--all these +things were calculated to startle the clergy. + +Ugolini, who better than any one else knew Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia, the +March of Ancona, all those regions where the Franciscan preaching had +been most successful, was able by himself to judge of the power of the +new movement and the imperious necessity of directing it; he felt that +the best way to allay the prejudices which the pope and the sacred +college might have against Francis was to present him before the curia. + +Francis was at first much abashed at the thought of preaching before the +Vicar of Jesus Christ, but upon the entreaties of his protector he +consented, and for greater security he learned by heart what he had to +say. + +Ugolini himself was not entirely at ease as to the result of this step; +Thomas of Celano pictures him as devoured with anxiety; he was troubled +about Francis, whose artless eloquence ran many a risk in the halls of +the Lateran Palace; he was also not without some more personal +anxieties, for the failure of his _protege_ might be most damaging to +himself. He was in all the greater anxiety when, on arriving at the feet +of the pontiff, Francis forgot all he had intended to say; but he +frankly avowed it, and seeking a new discourse from the inspiration of +the moment, spoke with so much warmth and simplicity that the assembly +was won.[34] + +The biographers are mute as to the practical result of this audience. We +are not to be surprised at this, for they write with the sole purpose of +edification. They wrote after the apotheosis of their master, and would +with very bad grace have dwelt upon the difficulties which he met during +the early years.[35] + +The Holy See must have been greatly perplexed by this strange man, +whose faith and humility were evident, but whom it was impossible to +teach ecclesiastical obedience. + +St. Dominic happened to be in Rome at the same time,[36] and was +overwhelmed with favors by the pope. It is a matter of history that +Innocent III. having asked him to choose one of the Rules already +approved by the Church, he had returned to his friars at Notre Dame de +Prouille, and after conferring with them had adopted that of St. +Augustine; Honorius therefore was not sparing of privileges for him. It +is hardly possible that Ugolini did not try to use the influence of his +example with St. Francis. + +The curia saw clearly that Dominic, whose Order barely comprised a few +dozen members, was not one of the moral powers of the time, but its +sentiments toward him were by no means so mixed as those it experienced +with regard to Francis. + +To unite the two Orders, to throw over the shoulders of the Dominicans +the brown cassock of the Poor Men of Assisi, and thus make a little of +the popularity of the Brothers Minor to be reflected upon them, to leave +to the latter their name, their habit, and even a semblance of their +Rule, only completing it with that of St. Augustine, such a project +would have been singularly pleasing to Ugolini, and with Francis's +humility would seem to have some chance of success. + +One day Dominic by dint of pious insistance induced Francis to give him +his cord, and immediately girded himself with it. "Brother," said he, "I +earnestly long that your Order and mine might unite to form one sole and +same institute[37] in the Church." But the Brother Minor wished to +remain as he was, and declined the proposition. So truly was he inspired +with the needs of his time and of the Church that less than three years +after this Dominic was drawn by an irresistible influence to transform +his Order of Canons of St. Augustine into an order of mendicant monks, +whose constitutions were outlined upon those of the Franciscans.[38] + +A few years later the Dominicans took, so to speak, their revenge, and +obliged the Brothers Minor to give learning a large place in their work. +Thus, while hardly come to youth's estate, the two religious families +rivalled one another, impressed, influenced one another, yet never so +much so as to lose all traces of their origin--summed up for the one in +poverty and lay preaching, for the other in learning and the preaching +of the clergy. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The commencement of the great missions and the institution + of provincial ministers is usually fixed either at 1217 or 1219, + but both these dates present great difficulties. I confess that + I do not understand the vehemence with which partisans of either + side defend their opinions. The most important text is a passage + in the 3 Soc., 62: _Expletis itaque undecim annis ab inceptione + religionis, et multiplicatis numero et merito fratribus, electi + fuerant ministri, et missi cum aliquot fratribus quasi per + universas mundi provincias in quibus fides catholica colitur et + servatur._ What does this expression, _inceptio religionis_, + mean? At a first reading one unhesitatingly takes it to refer to + the foundation of the Order, which occurred in April, 1209, by + the reception of the first Brothers; but on adding eleven full + years to this date we reach the summer of 1220. This is + manifestly too late, for the 3 Soc. say that the brethren who + went out were persecuted in most of the countries beyond the + mountains, as being accredited by no pontifical letter; but the + bull _Cum dilecti_, bears the date of June 11, 1219. We are thus + led to think that the eleven years are not to be counted from + the reception of the first Brothers, but from Francis's + conversion, which the authors might well speak of as _inceptio + religionis_, and 1206 + 11 = 1217. The use of this expression to + designate conversion is not entirely without example. + Glassberger says (_An. fr._, p. 9): _Ordinem minorum incepit + anno 1206._ Those who admit 1219 are obliged (like the + Bollandists, for example), to attribute an inaccuracy to the + text of the 3 Soc., that of having counted eleven years as + having passed when there had been only ten. We should notice + that in the two other chronological indications given by the 3 + Soc. (27 and 62) they count from the conversion, that is from + 1206, as also Thomas of Celano, 88, 105, 119, 97, 88, 57, 55, + 21. Curiously, the Conformities reproduce the passage of the 3 + Soc. (118b, 1), but with the alteration: _Nono anno ab + inceptione religionis_. Giordano di Giano opens the door to many + scruples: _Anno vero Domini_ 1219 _et anno conversionis ejus + decimo frater Franciscus ... misit fratres in Franciam, in + Theutoniam, in Hungariam, in Hespaniam_, Giord., 3. As a little + later the same author properly harmonizes 1219 with the + thirteenth year from Francis's conversion, everyone is in + agreement in admitting that the passage cited needs correction; + we have unfortunately only one manuscript of this chronicle. + Glassberger, who doubtless had another before him, substitutes + 1217, but he may have drawn this date from another document. It + is noteworthy that Brother Giordano gives as simultaneous the + departure of the friars for Germany, Hungary, and France; but, + as to the latter country, it certainly took place in 1217. So + the Speculum, 44a. + + The chronicle of the xxiv. generals and Mark of Lisbon (Diola's + ed., t. i., p. 82) holds also to 1217, so that, though not + definitely established, it would appear that this date should be + accepted until further information. Starting from slightly + different premises, the learned editors of the _Analecta_ arrive + at the same conclusion (t. ii., pp. 25-36). Cf. Evers, _Analecta + ad Fr. Minorum historiam_, Leipsic, 1882, 4to, pp. 7 and 11. + That which appears to me decidedly to tip the balance in favor + of 1217, is the fact that the missionary friars were persecuted + because they had no document of legitimation; and in 1219 they + would have had the bull _Cum dilecti_, from June 11th of that + year. The Bollandists, who hold for 1219, have so clearly seen + this argument that they have been obliged to deny the + authenticity of the bull (or at least to suppose it wrongly + dated). A. SS., p. 839. + + [2] Vide A. SS., p. 604. Cf. Angelo Clareno, _Tribul. Archiv._, + i., p. 559. _A papa Innocentis fuit omnibus annuntiatum in + concilio generali ... sicut sanctus vir fr. Leo scribit et fr. + Johannes de Celano._ These lines have not perhaps the + significance which one would be led to give them at the first + glance, their author having perhaps confounded _consilium_ and + _consistorium_. The Speculum, 20b says: _Eam (Regulam + Innocentius) approvabit et concessit et postea in consistorio + omnibus annuntiavit._ + + [3] _Ne nimia Religionem diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei + confusionem inducat, firmiter prohibemus, ne quis de + coetero novam Religionem inveniat; sed quicumque voluerit + ad Religionem converti, unam de approbatis assumat._ Labbe and + Cossart: _Sacrosancta concilia_, Paris, 1672, t. xi., col. 165. + + [4] Eccl., 15 (_An. franc._, t. 1, p. 253): _Innocentium in + cujus obitu fuit presentialiter S. Franciscus_. + + [5] 3 Soc., 61; cf. _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 606f. + + [6] Thomas of Celano must be in error when he declares that + Francis was not acquainted with Cardinal Ugolini before the + visit which he made him at Florence (summer of 1217): _Nondum + alter alteri erat praecipua familiaritate conjunctus_ (1 Cel., 74 + and 75). The Franciscan biographer's purpose was not historic; + chronological indications are given in profusion; what he seeks + is the _apta junctura_. Tradition has preserved the memory of a + chapter held at Portiuncula in presence of Ugolini during a stay + of the curia at Perugia (_Spec._, 137b.; _Fior_., 18; + _Conform._, 207a; 3 Soc., 61). But the curia did not come back + to Perugia between 1216 and Francis's death. It is also to be + noted that according to Angelo Clareno, Ugolini was with Francis + in 1210, supporting him in the presence of Innocent III. Vide + below, p. 413. Finally the bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, + 1219, witnesses that already during his legation in Florence + (1217) Ugolini was actually interesting himself for the + Clarisses. + + [7] See, for example, the description of the chapter of 1221 by + Brother Giordano. Giord., 16. + + [8] With regard to the figure of five thousand attendants given + by Bonaventura (Bon., 59) Father Papini writes: _Io non credo + stato capace alcuno di dare ad intendere al S. Dottore simil + fanfaluca, ne capace lui di crederla_. + + _... In somma il numero quinque millia et ultra non e del Santo, + incapace di scrivere una cosa tanto improbabile e relativamente + impossibile. Storia di S. Fr._, i., pp. 181 and 183. This + figure, five thousand, is also indicated by Eccl., 6. All this + may be explained and become possible by admitting the presence + of the Brothers of Penitence, and it seems very difficult to + contest it, since in the Order of the Humiliants, which much + resembles that of the Brothers Minor (equally composed of three + branches approved by three bulls given June, 1201), the + chapters-general annually held were frequented by the brothers + of the three Orders. Tiraboschi t. ii., p. 144. Cf. above, p. + 158. + + [9] Vide 2 Cel., 3, 121; _Spec._, 42b; 127b. + + [10] _Praecipio firmiter per obedientiam fratribus universis quod + ubicunque sunt, non audeant petere aliquam litteram in Curia + Romana._ _Test. B. Fr._ + + [11] A comparison with the Bullary of the Preaching Friars is + especially instructive: from their first chapter at Notre Dame + de Prouille, in 1216, they are about fifteen; we find there at + this time absolutely nothing that can be compared to the + Franciscan movement, which was already stirring up all Italy. + But while the first bull in favor of the Franciscans bears the + date of June 11, 1219, and the approbation properly so called + that of November 29, 1223, we find Honorius already in the end + of 1216 lavishing marks of affection upon the Dominicans; + December 22, 1216, _Religiosam vitam_. Cf. Pressuti, _I regesti, + del Pontefice Onorio III._, Roma, 1884, t. i., no. 175; same + date; _Nos attendentes_, ibid., no. 176; January 21, 1217, + _gratiarum omnium_, ib., no. 243. Vide 284, 1039, 1156, 1208. It + is needless to continue this enumeration. Very much the same + could be done for the other Orders; whence the conclusion that + if the Brothers Minor alone are forgotten in this shower of + favors, it is because they decidedly wished to be. It must be + admitted that immediately upon Francis's death they made up for + lost time. + + [12] The authenticity of this passage is put beyond doubt by + Ubertino di Casal's citation. _Archiv._, iii., p. 53. Cf. + _Spec._, 30a; _Conform._, 111b, 1; 118b, 1; Ubertino, _Arbor + vitae cruc._, iii., 3. + + [13] _Burchardi chronicon ann. 1217_, _loc. cit._, p. 377. See + also the bulls indicated by Potthast, 5575, 5585-92. + + [14] Before 1217 the office of minister virtually existed, + though its definitive institution dates only from 1217. Brother + Bernardo in his mission to Bologna, for example (1212?), + certainly held in some sort the office of minister. + + [15] Imprisoned by order of Elias, he died in consequence of + blows given him one day when he was taking the air outside of + his prison. _Tribul._, 24a. + + [16] Giord., 5 and 6; 3 Soc., 62. + + [17] Of Giovanni di Parma, Clareno, Anthony of Padua, etc. + + [18] Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 82. Cf. p. 79, t. ii., p. 86, + Glassberger _ann._, 1217. _An. fr._, ii., pp. 9 ff.; _Chron + xxiv. gen._, MS. of Assisi, no. 328, f^o 2b. + + [19] _Spec._, 44a.; _Conform._, 119a, 2; 135a; 181b, 1; 1 Cel., + 74 and 75. + + [20] Cel., 3, 129. _Diligebat Franciam ... volebat in ea mori_. + + [21] V. bull of January 23, 1217, _Tempus acceptabile_, + Potthast, no. 5430, given in Horoy, t. ii., col. 205 ff.; cf. + Pressuti, i., p. 71. This bull and those following fix without + question the time of the journey to Florence. Potthast, 5488, + 5487, and page 495. + + [22] It is superfluous to point out the error of the Bollandist + text in the phrase _Monuit (Cardinalis Franciscum) coeptum non + perficere iter_, where the _non_ is omitted, A. SS., p. 704. + Cf., p. 607 and 835, which has led Suysken into several other + errors. + + [23] Bon., 51. Cf. Glassberger, _ann_. 1217; _Spec._, 45b. + + [24] Heb., iv., 12; 2 Cel., 3, 49; Bon., 50 and 51. + + [25] Brother Pacifico interests us [the French people] + particularly as the first minister of the Order in France; + information about him is abundant: Bon., 79; 2 Cel., 3, 63; + _Spec._, 41b.: _Conform._, 38a, 1; 43a, 1; 71b; 173b, 1, and + 176; 2 Cel., 8, 27; _Spec._, 38b; _Conform._, 181b; 2 Cel., 3, + 76; _Fior._, 46; _Conform._, 70a. I do not indicate the general + references found in Chevalier's Bibliography. The Miscellanea, + t. ii. (1887), p. 158, contains a most precise and interesting + column about him. Gregory IX. speaks of him in the bull _Magna + sicut dicitur_ of August 12, 1227. Sbaralea, Bull, fr., i., p. + 33 (Potthast, 8007). Thomas of Tuscany, _socius_ of St. + Bonaventura, knew him and speaks of him in his _Gesta + Imperatorum (Mon. germ. hist. script._, t. 22, p. 492). + + [26] Eccl., 1; _Conform._, 113b, 1. + + [27] Toward 1224 the Brothers Minor desired to draw nearer and + build a vast convent near the walls of Paris in the grounds + called Vauvert, or Valvert (now the Luxembourg Garden), (Eccl., + 10; cf. _Top. hist. du vieux Paris_, by Berty and Tisserand, t. + iv., p. 70). In 1230 they received at Paris from the + Benedictines of Saint-Germain-des-Pres a certain number of + houses _in parocchia SS. Cosmae et Damiani infra muros domini + regis prope portam de Gibardo (Chartularium Universitatis + Parisiensis_, no. 76. Cf. _Topographie historique du vieux + Paris; Region occid. de l'univ._, p. 95; Felibien, _Histoire de + la ville de Paris_, i., p. 115). Finally, St. Louis installed + them in the celebrated Convent of the Cordeliers, the refectory + of which still exists, transformed into the Dupuytren Museum. + The Dominicans, who arrived in Paris September 12, 1217, went + straight to the centre of the city, near the bishop's palace on + the _Ile de la Cite_, and on August 6, 1218, were installed in + the Convent of St. Jacques. + + [28] _Fior._, 27; _Spec._, 148b; _Conform._, 71a and 113a, 2; + Bon., 182. + + [29] The traces of Francis's visit here are numerous. A Brother + Eudes painted his portrait here. + + [30] Bon., 177. + + [31] Vide A. SS., pp. 855 and 856. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 136. + + [32] Among others those of December 5, 1217, Potthast, 5629; + February 8, March 30, April 7, 1218, Potthast, 5695, 5739, 5747. + + [33] 1 Cel., 74. _O quanti maxime in principio cum haec agerentur + novellae plantationi ordinis insidiabantur ut perderent._ Cf. 2 + Cel., 1, 16. _Videbat Franciscus luporum more sevire + quamplures._ + + [34] 1 Cel., 73 (cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102a); 3 Soc., 64; + Bon., 78. The fixing of this scene in the winter of 1217-1218 + seems hardly to be debatable; Giordano's account (14) in fact + determines the date at which Ugolini became _officially_ + protector of the Order; it supposes earlier relations between + Honorius, Francis, and Ugolini. We are therefore led to seek a + date at which these three personages may have met in Rome, and + we arrive thus at the period between December, 1217, and April, + 1218. + + [35] A word of Brother Giordano's opens the door to certain + conjectures. "My lord," said Francis to Honorius III., in 1220, + "you have given me many fathers (popes) give me a single one to + whom I may turn with the affairs of my Order." (Giord., 14, + _Multos mihi papas dedisti da unum_, ... etc.) + + Does not this suggest the idea that the pontiff had perhaps + named a commission of cardinals to oversee the Brothers Minor? + Its deliberations and the events to be related in the following + chapter might have impelled him to issue the bull _Cum dilecti_ + of June 11, 1219, which was not an approbation properly so + called, but a safe-conduct in favor of the Franciscans. + + [36] He took possession of St. Sabine on February 28, 1218. + + [37] 2 Cel., 3, 87. The literal meaning of the phrase is + somewhat ambiguous. The text is: _Vellem, frater Francisce, unam + fieri religionem tuam et meam et in Ecclesia pari forma nos + vivere_. _Spec._ 27b. The echo of this attempt is found in + Thierry d'Apolda, _Vie de S. Dominique_ (A. SS., Augusti, t. i., + p. 572 d): _S. Dominicus in oscula sancta ruens et sinceros + amplexus, dixit: Tu es socius meus, tu curres pariter mecum, + stemus simul, nullus adversarius praevalebit_. Bernard of Besse + says: _B. Dominicus tanta B. Francisco devotione cohesit ut + optatam ab eo cordam sub inferiori tunica devotissimi cingeret, + cujus et suam Religionem unam velle fieri diceret, ipsumque pro + sanctitate caeteris sequendem religiosis assereret._ Turin MS., + 102b. + + [38] At the chapter held at Bologna at Whitsunday, 1220. The + bull _Religiosam vitam_ (Privilege of Notre Dame de Prouille) of + March 30, 1218, enumerates the possessions of the Dominicans. + Ripolli, _Bull. Praed._, t. i., p. 6. Horoy, _Honorii opera_, t. + ii., col. 684. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS + +The Egyptian Mission. Summer 1218-Autumn 1220 + + +Art and poetry have done well in inseparably associating St. Dominic and +St. Francis; the glory of the first is only a reflection of that of the +second, and it is in placing them side by side that we succeed best in +understanding the genius of the Poverello. If Francis is the man of +inspiration, Dominic is that of obedience to orders; one may say that +his life was passed on the road to Rome, whither he continually went to +ask for instructions. His legend was therefore very slow to be formed, +although nothing forbade it to blossom freely; but neither the zeal of +Gregory IX. for his memory nor the learning of his disciples were able +to do for the _Hammer of heretics_ that which the love of the people did +for the _Father of the poor_. His legend has the two defects which so +soon weary the readers of hagiographical writings, when the question is +of the saints whose worship the Church has commanded.[1] It is +encumbered with a spurious supernaturalism, and with incidents borrowed +right and left from earlier legends. The Italian people, who hailed in +Francis the angel of all their hopes, and who showed themselves so +greedy for his relics, did not so much as dream of taking up the corpse +of the founder of the Order of Preaching Friars, and allowed him to wait +twelve years for the glories of canonization.[2] + +We have already seen the efforts of Cardinal Ugolini to unite the two +Orders, and the reasons he had for this course. He went to the +Whitsunday chapter-general which met at Portiuncula (June 3, 1218), to +which came also St. Dominic with several of his disciples. The +ceremonial of these solemnities appears to have been always about the +same since 1216; the Brothers Minor went in procession to meet the +cardinal, who immediately dismounted from his horse and lavished +expressions of affection upon them. An altar was set up in the open air, +at which he said mass, Francis performing the functions of deacon.[3] + +It is easy to imagine the emotion which overcame those present when in +its beautiful setting of the Umbrian landscape burst forth that part of +the Pentecostal service, that most exciting, the most apocalyptic of the +whole Catholic liturgy, the anthem _Alleluia, Alleluia, Emitte Spiritum +tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae_. _Alleluia_,[4] does +not this include the whole Franciscan dream? + +But what especially amazed Dominic was the absence of material cares. +Francis had advised his brethren not to disquiet themselves in any +respect about food and drink; he knew by experience that they might +fearlessly trust all that to the love of the neighboring population. +This want of carefulness had greatly surprised Dominic, who thought it +exaggerated; he was able to reassure himself, when meal-time arrived, by +seeing the inhabitants of the district hastening in crowds to bring far +larger supplies of provisions than were needed for the several thousands +of friars, and holding it an honor to wait upon them. + +The joy of the Franciscans, the sympathy of the populace with them, the +poverty of the huts of Portiuncula, all this impressed him deeply; so +much was he moved by it that in a burst of enthusiasm he announced his +resolution to embrace gospel poverty.[5] + +Ugolini, though also moved, even to tears,[6] did not forget his +former anxieties; the Order was too numerous not to include a group of +malcontents; a few friars who before their conversion had studied in the +universities began to condemn the extreme simplicity laid upon them as a +duty. To men no longer sustained by enthusiasm the short precepts of the +Rule appeared a charter all too insufficient for a vast association; +they turned with envy toward the monumental abbeys of the Benedictines, +the regular Canons, the Cistercians, and toward the ancient monastic +legislations. They had no difficulty in perceiving in Ugolini a powerful +ally, nor in confiding their observations to him. + +The latter deemed the propitious moment arrived, and in a private +conversation with Francis made a few suggestions: Ought he not give to +his disciples, especially to the educated among them, a greater share of +the burdens? consult them, gain inspiration from their views? was there +not room to profit by the experience of the older orders? Though all +this was said casually and with the greatest possible tact, Francis felt +himself wounded to the quick, and without answering he drew the cardinal +to the very midst of the chapter. + +"My brothers," said he with fire, "the Lord has called me into the ways +of simplicity and humility. In them he has shown me the truth for myself +and for those who desire to believe and follow me; do not, then, come +speaking to me of the Rule of St. Benedict, of St. Augustine, of St. +Bernard, or of any other, but solely of that which God in his mercy has +seen fit to show to me, and of which he has told me that he would, by +its means, make a new covenant with the world, and he does not will that +we should have any other. But by your learning and your wisdom God will +bring you to confusion. For I am persuaded that God will chastise you; +whether you will or no you will be forced to come to repentance, and +nothing will remain for you but confusion."[7] + +This warmth in defending and affirming his ideas profoundly astonished +Ugolini, who added not a word. As to Dominic, what he had just seen at +Portiuncula was to him a revelation. He felt, indeed, that his zeal for +the Church could not be greater, but he also perceived that he could +serve her with more success by certain changes in his weapons. + +Ugolini no doubt only encouraged him in this view, and Dominic, beset +with new anxieties, set out a few months later for Spain. The intensity +of the crisis through which he passed has not been sufficiently +noticed; the religious writers recount at length his sojourn in the +grotto of Segovia, but they see only the ascetic practices, the prayers, +the genuflexions, and do not think of looking for the cause of all this. +From this epoch it might be said that he was unceasingly occupied in +copying Francis, if the word had not a somewhat displeasing sense. +Arrived at Segovia he follows the example of the Brothers Minor, founds +a hermitage in the outskirts of the city, hidden among the rocks which +overlook the town, and thence he descends from time to time to preach to +the people. The transformation in his mode of life was so evident that +several of his companions rebelled and refused to follow him in the new +way. + +Popular sentiment has at times its intuitions; a legend grew up around +this grotto of Segovia, and it was said that St. Dominic there received +the stigmata. Is there not here an unconscious effort to translate into +an image within the comprehension of all, that which actually took place +in this cave of the Sierra da Guaderrama?[8] + +Thus St. Dominic also arrived at the poverty of the gospel, but the road +by which he reached it was different indeed from that which St. Francis +had followed; while the latter had soared to it as on wings, had seen in +it the final emancipation from all the anxieties which debase this life, +St. Dominic considered it only as a means; it was for him one more +weapon in the arsenal of the host charged with the defence of the +Church. We must not see in this a mere vulgar calculation; his +admiration for him whom he thus imitated and followed afar off was +sincere and profound, but genius is not to be copied. This sacred malady +was not his; he has transmitted to his sons a sound and robust blood, +thanks to which they have known nothing of those paroxysms of hot +fever, those lofty flights, those sudden returns which make the story +of the Franciscans the story of the most tempest-tossed society which +the world has ever known, in which glorious chapters are mingled with +pages trivial and grotesque, sometimes even coarse. + +At the chapter of 1218 Francis had other causes for sadness than the +murmurs of a group of malcontents; the missionaries sent out the year +before to Germany and Hungary had returned completely discouraged. The +account of the sufferings they had endured produced so great an effect +that from that time many of the friars added to their prayers the +formula: "Lord preserve us from the heresy of the Lombards and the +ferocity of the Germans."[9] + +This explains how Ugolini at last succeeded in convincing Francis of his +duty to take the necessary measures no longer to expose the friars to be +hunted down as heretics. It was decided that at the end of the next +chapter the missionaries should be armed with a papal brief, which +should serve them as ecclesiastical passport. Here is the translation of +this document: + + Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the + archbishops, bishops, abbots, deacons, archdeacons, and other + ecclesiastical superiors, salutation and the apostolic blessing. + + Our dear son, brother Francis, and his companions of the life + and the Order of the Brothers Minor, having renounced the + vanities of this world to choose a mode of life which has + merited the approval of the Roman Church, and to go out after + the example of the Apostles to cast in various regions the seed + of the word of God, we pray and exhort you by these apostolic + letters to receive as good catholics the friars of the above + mentioned society, bearers of these presents, warning you to be + favorable to them and treat them with kindness for the honor of + God and out of consideration for us. + + Given (at Rieti) this third day of the ides of June (June 11, + 1219), in the third year of our pontificate.[10] + +It is evident that this bull was calculated to avoid awakening Francis's +susceptibilities. To understand precisely in what it differs from the +first letters usually accredited to new Orders it is necessary to +compare it with them; that which had instituted the Dominicans had been, +like the others, a veritable privilege;[11] here there is nothing of +the kind. + +The assembly which was opened at Whitsunday of 1219 (May 26) was of +extreme importance.[12] It closed the series of those primitive +chapters in which the inspiration and fancy of Francis were given free +course. Those which followed, presided over by the vicars, have neither +the same cheerfulness nor the same charm; the crude glare of full day +has driven away the hues of dawn and the indescribable ardors of nature +at its awakening. + +The summer of 1219 was the epoch fixed by Honorius III. for making a new +effort in the East, and directing upon Egypt all the forces of the +Crusaders.[13] Francis thought the moment arrived for realizing the +project which he had not been able to execute in 1212. Strangely enough, +Ugolini who, two years before had hindered his going to France, now left +him in entire liberty to carry out this new expedition.[14] Several +authors have deemed that Francis, having found in him a true protector, +felt himself reassured as to the future of the Order; he might indeed +have thought thus, but the history of the troubles which burst out +immediately after his departure, the astounding story of the kind +reception given by the court of Rome to some meddlers who took the +opportunity of his absence to imperil his Order, would suffice to show +how much the Church was embarrassed by him, and with what ardor she +longed for the transformation of his work. We shall find later on the +detailed account of these facts. + +It appears that a Romagnol brother Christopher was at this same chapter +nominated provincial of Gascony; he lived there after the customs of the +early Franciscans, working with his hands, living in a narrow cell made +of the boughs of trees and potter's earth.[15] + +Egidio set out for Tunis with a few friars, but a great disappointment +awaited them there; the Christians of this country, in the fear of being +compromised by their missionary zeal, hurried them into a boat and +constrained them to recross the sea.[16] + +If the date of 1219 for these two missions has little other basis than +conjecture, the same is not the case as to the departure of the friars +who went to Spain and Morocco. The discovery has recently been made of +the account of their last preachings and of their tragic death, made by +an eye-witness.[17] This document is all the more precious because it +confirms the general lines of the much longer account given by Mark of +Lisbon. It would be out of place to give a summary of it here, because +it but very indirectly concerns the life of St. Francis, but we must +note that these _acta_ have beyond their historic value a truly +remarkable psychological--one must almost say pathological--significance; +never was the mania for martyrdom better characterized than in these +long pages, where we see the friars forcing the Mahometans to pursue +them and make them win the heavenly palm. The forbearance which +Miramolin as well as his fellow religionists at first show gives an +idea of the civilization and the good qualities of these infidels, all +the higher that very different sentiments would be natural in the +vanquished ones of the plains of Tolosa. + +It is impossible to call by the name of sermons the collections of rude +apostrophes which the missionaries addressed to those whom they wished +to convert; at this paroxysm the thirst for martyrdom becomes the +madness of suicide. Is this to say that friars Bernard, Pietro, Adjutus, +Accurso, and Otho have no right to the admiration and worship with which +they have been surrounded? Who would dare say so? Is not devotion always +blind? That a furrow should be fecund it must have blood, it must have +tears, such tears as St. Augustine has called the blood of the soul. Ah, +it is a great mistake to immolate oneself, for the blood of a single man +will not save the world nor even a nation; but it is a still greater +mistake not to immolate oneself, for then one lets others be lost, and +is oneself lost first of all. + +I greet you, therefore, Martyrs of Morocco; you do not regret your +madness, I am sure, and if ever some righteous pedant gone astray in the +groves of paradise undertakes to demonstrate to you that it would have +been better worth while to remain in your own country, and found a +worthy family of virtuous laborers, I fancy that Miramolin, there become +your best friend, will take the trouble to refute him. + +You were mad, but I envy such madness, for you felt that the essential +thing in this world is not to serve this ideal or that one, but with all +one's soul to serve the ideal which one has chosen. + +When, a few months after, the story of their glorious end arrived at +Assisi, Francis discerned a feeling of pride among his companions and +reproached them in lively terms; he who would so have envied the lot of +the martyrs felt himself humbled because God had not judged him worthy +to share it. As the story was mingled with some words of eulogy of the +founder of the Order, he forbade the further reading of it.[18] + +Immediately after the chapter he had himself undertaken a mission of the +same kind as he had confided to the Brothers of Morocco, but he had +proceeded in it in an entirely different manner: his was not the blind +zeal which courts death in a sort of frenzy and forgets all the rest; +perhaps he already felt that the persistent effort after the better, the +continual immolation of self for truth, is the martyrdom of the strong. + +This expedition, which lasted more than a year, is mentioned by the +biographers in a few lines.[19] Happily we have a number of other +papers regarding it; but their silence suffices to prove the sincerity +of the primitive Franciscan authors; if they had wanted to amplify the +deeds of their subject, where could they have found an easier +opportunity or a more marvellous theme? Francis quitted Portiuncula in +the middle of June and went to Ancona, whence the Crusaders were to set +sail for Egypt on St. John's Day (June 24th). + +Many friars joined him--a fact which was not without its inconveniences +for a journey by sea, where they were obliged to depend upon the charity +of the owners of the boats, or of their fellow-travellers. + +We can understand Francis's embarrassment on arriving at Ancona and +finding himself obliged to leave behind a number of those who so +earnestly longed to go with him. The Conformities relate here an +incident for which we might desire an earlier authority, but which is +certainly very like Francis; he led all his friends to the port and +explained to them his perplexities. "The people of the boat," he told +them, "refuse to take us all, and I have not the courage to make choice +among you; you might think that I do not love you all alike; let us then +try to learn the will of God." And he called a child who was playing +close by, and the little one, charmed to take the part of Providence put +upon him, pointed out with his finger the eleven friars who were to set +sail.[20] + +We do not know what itinerary they followed. A single incident of the +journey has come down to us: that of the chastisement inflicted in the +isle of Cyprus on Brother Barbaro, who had been guilty of the fault +which the master detested above all others--evil-speaking. He was +implacable with regard to the looseness of language so customary among +pious folk, and which often made a hell of religious houses apparently +the most peaceful. The offence this time appeared to him the more grave +for having been uttered in the presence of a stranger, a knight of that +district. The latter was stupefied on hearing Francis command the guilty +one to eat a lump of ass's dung which lay there, adding: "The mouth +which has distilled the venom of hatred against my brother must eat this +excrement." Such indignation, no less than the obedience of the unhappy +offender, filled him with admiration.[21] + +It is very probable, as Wadding has supposed, that the missionaries +debarked at St. Jean d'Acre. They arrived there about the middle of +July.[22] In the environs of this city, doubtless, Brother Elias had +been established for one or two years. Francis there told off a few of +his companions, whom he sent to preach in divers directions, and a few +days afterward he himself set out for Egypt, where all the efforts of +the Crusaders were concentrated upon Damietta. + +From the first he was heart-broken with the moral condition of the +Christian army. Notwithstanding the presence of numerous prelates and of +the apostolic legate, it was disorganized for want of discipline. He was +so affected by this that when there was talk of battle he felt it his +duty to advise against it, predicting that the Christians would +infallibly be beaten. No one heeded him, and on August 29th the +Crusaders, having attacked the Saracens, were terribly routed.[23] + +His predictions won him a marvellous success. It must be owned that the +ground was better prepared than any other to receive the new seed; not +surely that piety was alive there, but in this mass of men come together +from every corner of Europe, the troubled, the seers, the enlightened +ones, those who thirsted for righteousness and truth, were elbowed by +rascals, adventurers, those who were greedy for gold and plunder, +capable of much good or much evil, the sport of fleeting impulses, +loosed from the bonds of the family, of property, of the habits which +usually twine themselves about man's will, and only by exception permit +a complete change in his manner of life; those among them who were +sincere and had come there with generous purposes were, so to speak, +predestined to enter the peaceful army of the Brothers Minor. Francis +was to win in this mission fellow-laborers who would assure the success +of his work in the countries of northern Europe. + +Jacques de Vitry, in a letter to friends written a few days later, thus +describes the impression produced on him by Francis: + + "I announce to you that Master Reynier, Prior of St. Michael, + has entered the Order of the Brothers Minor, an Order which is + multiplying rapidly on all sides, because it imitates the + primitive Church and follows the life of the Apostles in + everything. The master of these Brothers is named Brother + Francis; he is so lovable that he is venerated by everyone. + Having come into our army, he has not been afraid, in his zeal + for the faith, to go to that of our enemies. For days together + he announced the word of God to the Saracens, but with little + success; then the sultan, King of Egypt, asked him in secret to + entreat God to reveal to him, by some miracle, which is the best + religion. Colin, the Englishman, our clerk, has entered the same + Order, as also two others of our companions, Michael and Dom + Matthew, to whom I had given the rectorship of the Sainte + Chapelle. Cantor and Henry have done the same, and still others + whose names I have forgotten."[24] + +The long and enthusiastic chapter which the same author gives to the +Brothers Minor in his great work on the Occident is too diffuse to find +a place here. It is a living and accurate picture of the early times of +the Order; in it Francis's sermon before the sultan is again related. It +was written at a period when the friars had still neither monasteries +nor churches, and when the chapters were held once or twice a year; this +gives us a date anterior to 1223, and probably even before 1221. We have +here, therefore, a verification of the narratives of Thomas of Celano +and the Three Companions, and they find in it their perfect +confirmation. + +As to the interviews between Francis and the sultan, it is prudent to +keep to the narratives of Jacques de Vitry and William of Tyre.[25] +Although the latter wrote at a comparatively late date (between 1275 and +1295), he followed a truly historic method, and founded his work on +authentic documents; we see that he knows no more than Jacques de Vitry +of the proposal said to have been made by Francis to pass through a fire +if the priests of Mahomet would do as much, intending so to establish +the superiority of Christianity. + +We know how little such an appeal to signs is characteristic of St. +Francis. Perhaps the story, which comes from Bonaventura, is born of a +misconception. The sultan, like a new Pharaoh, may have laid it upon the +strange preacher to prove his mission by miracles. However this may be, +Francis and his companions were treated with great consideration, a fact +the more meritorious that hostilities were then at their height. + +Returned to the Crusading camp, they remained there until after the +taking of Damietta (November 5, 1219). This time the Christians were +victorious, but perhaps the heart of the _gospel man_ bled more for this +victory than for the defeat of August 29th. The shocking condition of +the city, which the victors found piled with heaps of dead bodies, the +quarrels over the sharing of booty, the sale of the wretched creatures +who had not succumbed to the pestilence,[26] all these scenes of +terror, cruelty, greed, caused him profound horror. The "human beast" +was let loose, the apostle's voice could no more make itself heard in +the midst of the savage clamor than that of a life-saver over a raging +ocean. + +He set out for Syria[27] and the Holy Places. How gladly would we +follow him in this pilgrimage, accompany him in thought through Judea +and Galilee, to Bethlehem, to Nazareth, to Gethsemane! What was said to +him by the stable where the Son of Mary was born, the workshop where he +toiled, the olive-tree where he accepted the bitter cup? Alas! the +documents here suddenly fail us. Setting out from Damietta very shortly +after the siege (November 5, 1219) he may easily have been at Bethlehem +by Christmas. But we know nothing, absolutely nothing, except that his +sojourn was more prolonged than had been expected. + +Some of the Brothers who were present at Portiuncula at the +chapter-general of 1220 (Whitsunday, May 17th) had time enough to go to +Syria and still find Francis there;[28] they could hardly have arrived +much earlier than the end of June. What had he been doing those eight +months? Why had he not gone home to preside at the chapter? Had he been +ill?[29] Had he been belated by some mission? Our information is too +slight to permit us even to venture upon conjecture. + +Angelo Clareno relates that the Sultan of Egypt, touched by his +preaching, gave command that he and all his friars should have free +access to the Holy Sepulchre without the payment of any tribute.[30] + +Bartholomew of Pisa on his part says incidentally that Francis, having +gone to preach in Antioch and its environs, the Benedictines of the +Abbey of the Black Mountain,[31] eight miles from that city, joined the +Order in a body, and gave up all their property to the Patriarch. + +These indications are meagre and isolated indeed, and the second is to +be accepted only with reserve. On the other hand, we have detailed +information of what went on in Italy during Francis's absence. Brother +Giordano's chronicle, recently discovered and published, throws all the +light that could be desired upon a plot laid against Francis by the very +persons whom he had commissioned to take his place at Portiuncula, and +this, if not with the connivance of Rome and the cardinal protector, at +least without their opposition. These events had indeed been narrated by +Angelo Clareno, but the undisguised feeling which breathes through all +his writings and their lack of accuracy had sufficed with careful +critics to leave them in doubt. How could it be supposed that in the +very lifetime of St. Francis the vicars whom he had instituted could +take advantage of his absence to overthrow his work? How could it be +that the pope, who during this period was sojourning at Rieti, how that +Ugolini, who was still nearer, did not impose silence on these +agitators?[32] + +Now that all the facts come anew to light, not in an oratorical and +impassioned account, but brief, precise, cutting, dated, with every +appearance of notes taken day by day, we must perforce yield to +evidence. + +Does this give us reason clamorously to condemn Ugolino and the pope? I +do not think so. They played a part which is not to their honor, but +their intentions were evidently excellent. If the famous aphorism that +the end justifies the means is criminal where one examines his own +conduct, it becomes the first duty in judging that of others. Here are +the facts: + +On July 25th, about one month after Francis's departure for Syria, +Ugolini, who was at Perugia, laid upon the Clarisses of Monticelli +(Florence), Sienna, Perugia, and Lucca that which his friend had so +obstinately refused for the friars, the Benedictine Rule.[33] + +At the same time, St. Dominic, returning from Spain full of new ardor +after his retreat in the grotto of Segovia, and fully decided to adopt +for his Order the rule of poverty, was strongly encouraged in this +purpose and overwhelmed with favors.[34] Honorius III. saw in him the +providential man of the time, the reformer of the monastic Orders; he +showed him unusual attentions, going so far, for example, as to transfer +to him a group of monks belonging to other Orders, whom he appointed to +act as Dominic's lieutenants on the preaching tours which he believed it +to be his duty to undertake, and to serve, under his direction, an +apprenticeship in popular preaching.[35] + +That Ugolini was the inspiration of all this, the bulls are here to +witness. His ruling purpose at that time was so clearly to direct the +two new Orders that he chose a domicile with this end in view, and we +find him continually either at Perugia--that is to say, within three +leagues of Portiuncula--or at Bologna, the stronghold of the Dominicans. + +It now becomes manifest that just as the fraternity instituted by +Francis was truly the fruit of his body, flesh of his flesh, so does +the Order of the Preaching Friars emanate from the papacy, and St. +Dominic is only its putative father. This character is expressed in +one word by one of the most authoritative of contemporary annalists, +Burchard of Ursperg ([Cross] 1226). "The pope," he says, "_instituted_ +and confirmed the Order of the Preachers."[36] + +Francis on his journey in the Orient had taken for special companion a +friar whom we have not yet met, Pietro di Catana or _dei Cattani_. Was +he a native of the town of Catana? There is no precise indication of it. +It appears more probable that he belonged to the noble family _dei +Cattani_, already known to Francis, and of which Orlando, Count of +Chiusi in Casentino, who gave him the Verna, was a member. However that +may be, we must not confound him with the Brother Pietro who assumed the +habit in 1209, at the same time with Bernardo of Quintavallo, and died +shortly afterward. Tradition, in reducing these two men to a single +personage, was influenced not merely by the similarity of the names, but +also by the very natural desire to increase the prestige of one who in +1220-1221 was to play an important part in the direction of the +Order.[37] + +At the time of his departure for the East Francis had left two vicars in +his place, the Brothers Matteo of Narni and Gregorio of Naples. The +former was especially charged to remain at Portiuncula to admit +postulants;[38] Gregorio of Naples, on the other hand, was to pass +through Italy to console the Brothers.[39] + +The two vicars began at once to overturn everything. It is inexplicable +how men still under the influence of their first fervor for a Rule which +in the plenitude of their liberty they had promised to obey could have +dreamed of such innovations if they had not been urged on and upheld by +those in high places. To alleviate the vow of poverty and to multiply +observances were the two points toward which their efforts were bent. + +In appearance it was a trifling matter, in reality it was much, for it +was the first movement of the old spirit against the new. It was the +effort of men who unconsciously, I am willing to think, made religion an +affair of rite and observance, instead of seeing in it, like St. +Francis, the conquest of the liberty which makes us free in all things, +and leads each soul to obey that divine and mysterious power which the +flowers of the fields adore, which the birds of the air bless, which the +symphony of the stars praises, and which Jesus of Nazareth called +_Abba_, that is to say, Father. + +The first Rule was excessively simple in the matter of fasts. The friars +were to abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays; they might add +Mondays and Saturdays, but only on Francis's special authorization. The +vicars and their adherents complicated this rule in a surprising manner. +At the chapter-general held in Francis's absence (May 17, 1220), they +decided, first, that in times of feasting the friars were not to provide +meat, but if it were offered to them spontaneously they were to eat it; +second, that all should fast on Mondays as well as Wednesdays and +Fridays; third, that on Mondays and Saturdays they should abstain from +milk products unless by chance the adherents of the Order brought some +to them.[40] + +These beginnings bear witness also to an effort to imitate the ancient +Orders, not without the vague hope that they would be substituted for +them. Brother Giordano has preserved to us only this decision of the +chapter of 1220, but the expressions of which he makes use sufficiently +prove that it was far from being the only one, and that the malcontents +had desired, as in the chapters of Citeaux and Monte Cassino, to put +forth veritable constitutions. + +These modifications of the Rule did not pass, however, without arousing +the indignation of a part of the chapter; a lay brother made himself +their eager messenger, and set out for the East to entreat Francis to +return without delay, to take the measures called for by the +circumstances. + +There were also other causes of disquiet. Brother Philip, a Zealot of +the Clarisses, had made haste to secure for them from Ugolini the +privileges which had already been under consideration.[41] + +A certain Brother Giovanni di Conpello[42] had gathered together a +great number of lepers of both sexes, and written a Rule, intending to +form with them a new Order. He had afterward presented himself before +the supreme pontiff with a train of these unfortunates to obtain his +approbation. + +Many other distressing symptoms, upon which Brother Giordano does not +dwell, had manifested themselves. The report of Francis's death had even +been spread abroad, so that the whole Order was disturbed, divided, and +in the greatest peril. The dark presentiments which Francis seems to +have had were exceeded by the reality.[43] The messenger who brought +him the sad news found him in Syria, probably at St. Jean d'Acre. He at +once embarked with Elias, Pietro di Catana, Caesar of Speyer, and a few +others, and returned to Italy in a vessel bound for Venice, where he +might easily arrive toward the end of July. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] One proof of the obscurity in which Dominic remained so long + as Rome did not apotheosize him, is that Jacques de Vitry, who + consecrates a whole chapter of his _Historia Occidentalis_ to + the Preaching Friars (27, p. 333) does not even name the + founder. This is the more significant since a few pages farther + on, the chapter given to the Brothers Minor is almost entirely + filled with the person of St. Francis. This silence about St. + Dominic has been remarked and taken up by Moschus, who finds no + way to explain it. Vide _Vitam J. de Vitriaco_, at the head of + the Douai edition of 1597. + + [2] Francis, who died in 1226, is canonized in 1228; Anthony of + Padua, 1231 and 1233; Elisabeth of Thuringia, 1231 and 1235; + Dominic, 1221 and 1234. + + [3] 3 Soc., 61. + + [4] Shed abroad, Lord, thy Spirit, and all shall be created, and + thou shalt renew the face of the earth. + + [5] 2 Cel., 3. 87; _Spec._, 132b; _Conform._, 207a, 112a; + _Fior._, 18. The historians of St. Dominic have not received + these details kindly, but an incontestable point gained from + diplomatic documents is that in 1218 Dominic, at Rome, procured + privileges in which the properties of his Order were indicated, + and that in 1220 he led his friars to profess poverty. + + [6] 2 Cel., 3, 9; _Spec._, 17a. + + [7] _Spec._, 49a; _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 11a-12b; _Spec._, 183a; + _Conform._, 135b 1. + + [8] The principal sources are indicated in A. SS., Augusti, t. + i., pp. 470 ff. + + [9] Giord., 18; 3 Soc., 62. + + [10] Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i, p. 2; Potthast, 6081: Wadding, + _ann. 1219_, No. 28, indicates the works where the text may be + found. Cf. A. SS., p. 839. + + [11] The title sufficiently indicated the contents: _Domenico + priori S. Romani tolosani ejusque fratribus, eos in protectionem + recipit eorumque Ordinem cum bonis et privilegiis confirmat_. + _Religiosam vitam_: December 22, 1216; Pressuti, t. i., 175, + text in Horoy t. ii., col. 141-144. + + [12] Vide A. SS., pp. 608 ff. and 838 ff. + + [13] Vide Bull _Multi divinae_ of August 13, 1218. Horoy, t. + iii., col. 12; Potthast, 5891. + + [14] The contradiction is so striking that the Bollandists have + made of it the principal argument for defending the error in + their manuscript (1 Cel., 75), and insisting in the face of, and + against everything that Francis had taken that journey. A. SS., + 607. + + [15] He died at Cahors, October 31, 1272. His legend is found in + MS. Riccardi, 279, f^o. 69a. _Incipit vita f. Christophori quam + compilavit fr. Bernardus de Bessa custodiae Caturcensis: Quasi + vas auri solidum._ Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., pp. 106-113, t. + iii., p. 212, and Glassberger, _An. fr._, t. ii., p. 14. + + [16] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., p. 224; _Conform._, 118b, 1; 54a; + Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 1--Brother Luke had been sent to + Constantinople, in 1219, at latest. Vide _Constitutus_ of + December 9, 1220. Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i., p. 6; Potthast, + 6431. + + [17] We owe to M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_, p. 207) the honor of this + publication, copied from a manuscript of the Cottoniana. + + [18] Giord., 8. + + [19] 1 Cel., 57; Bon., 133-138; 154 and 155; 2 Cel., 2, 2; + _Conform._, 113b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 55b; _Fior._, 24. + + [20] _Conform._, 113b, 2; cf. A. SS., p. 611. + + [21] 2 Cel., 3, 92; _Spec._, 30b. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115. + _Conform._, 142b, 1. This incident may possibly have taken place + on the return. + + [22] With the facilities of that period the voyage required from + twenty to thirty days. The _diarium_ of a similar passage may be + found in Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. Dipl._, t. i., 898-901. Cf. + _Ibid._, Introd., p. cccxxxi. + + [23] 2 Cel., 22; Bon 154, 155; cf. A. SS., p. 612. + + [24] Jacques de Vitry speaks only incidentally of Francis here + in the midst of salutations; from the critical point of view + this only enhances the value of his words. See the Study of the + Sources, p. 428. + + [25] Vide below, the Study of the Sources, p. 430. + + [26] All this is related at length by Jacques de Vitry. + + [27] "Cil hom qui comenca l'ordre des Freres Mineurs, si ot nom + frere Francois ... vint en l'ost de Damiate, e i fist moult de + bien, et demora tant que la ville fut prise. Il vit le mal et le + peche qui comenca a croistre entre les gens de l'ost, si li + desplot, par quoi il s'en parti, e fu une piece en Surie, et + puis s'en rala en son pais." Historiens des Croisades, ii. + _L'Est de Eracles Empereur_, liv. xxxii., chap. xv. Cf. Sanuto; + _Secreta fid. cruc._, lib. iii., p. xi., cap. 8, in Bongars. + + [28] Giord., Chron., 11-14. + + [29] The episode of Brother Leonard's complaints, related below, + gives some probability to this hypothesis. + + [30] _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 9b. Cf. 10b: _Sepulcro Domini + visitato festinat ad Christianorum terram_. + + [31] Upon this monastery see a letter _ad familiares_ of Jacques + de Vitry, written in 1216 and published in 1847 by Baron Jules + de St. Genois in t. xiii. of the _Memoires de l'Academie royale + des sciences et des beaux arts de Bruxelles_ (1849). _Conform._, + 106b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 184. + + [32] A. SS., pp. 619-620, 848, 851, 638. + + [33] Vide Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219. Cf. those of + September 19, 1222; Sbaralea, i., p. 3, 11 ff.; Potthast, 6179, + 6879a, b, c. + + [34] Vide Potthast, 6155, 6177, 6184, 6199, 6214, 6217, 6218, + 6220, 6246. See also _Chartularium Universitatis Par._, t. i., + 487. + + [35] Bull _Quia qui seminant_ of May 12, 1220. Ripalli, _Bul. + Praed._, t. i., p. 10 (Potthast, 6249). + + [36] _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 23, p. 376. This passage is + of extreme importance because it sums up in a few lines the + ecclesiastical policy of Honorius III. After speaking of the + perils with which the _Humiliati_ threatened the Church, + Burchard adds: _Quae volens corrigere dominus papa ordinem + Predicatorum instituit et confirmavit._ Now these _Humiliati_ + were an approved Order. But Burchard, while classing them with + heretics beside the Poor Men of Lyons, expresses in a word the + sentiments of the papacy toward them; it had for them an + invincible repugnance, and not wishing to strike them directly + it sought a side issue. Similar tactics were followed with + regard to the Brothers Minor, with that overplus of caution + which the prodigious success of the Order inspired. It all + became useless when in 1221 Brother Elias became Francis's + vicar, and especially when, after the latter's death, he had all + the liberty necessary for directing the Order according to the + views of Ugolini, now become Gregory IX. + + [37] 1 Cel., 25; cf. A. SS., p. 581. Pietro di Catana had the + title of doctor of laws, Giord., 11, which entirely disagrees + with what is related of Brother Pietro, 3 Soc., 28 and 29. Cf. + Bon., 28 and 29; _Spec._, 5b; _Fior._, 2; _Conform._, 47; 52b, + 2; _Petrus vir litteratus erat et nobilis_, Giord., 12. + + [38] We know nothing more of him except that after his death he + had the gift of miracles. Giord., 11; _Conform._, 62a, 1. + + [39] He was not an ordinary man; a remarkable administrator and + orator (Eccl., 6), he was minister in France before 1224 and + again in 1240, thanks to the zeal with which he had adopted the + ideas of Brother Elias. He was nephew of Gregory IX., which + throws some light upon the practices which have just been + described. After having been swept away in Elias's disgrace and + condemned to prison for life, he became in the end Bishop of + Bayeux. I note for those who take an interest in those things + that manuscripts of two of his sermons may be found in the + National Library of Paris. The author of them being indicated + simply as _fr. Gr. min._, it has only lately become known whose + they were. These sermons were preached in Paris on Holy Thursday + and Saturday. MS. new. acq., Lat., 338 f^o 148, 159. + + [40] Giord., 11. Cf. _Spec._, 34b. _Fior._, 4; _Conform._, 184a, 1. + + [41] Giord., 12. Cf. Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219. + + [42] Giord., 12. Ought we, perhaps, to read di Campello? Half + way between Foligno and Spoleto there is a place of this name. + On the other hand, the 3 Soc., 35, indicate the entrance into + the Order of a Giovanni di Capella who in the legend became the + Franciscan Judas. _Invenit abusum capelle et ab ipsa denominatus + est: ab ordine recedens factus leprosus laqueo ut Judas se + suspendit._ _Conform._, 104a, 1. Cf. _Bernard de Besse_, 96a; + _Spec._, 2; _Fior._, 1. All this is much mixed up. Perhaps we + should believe that Giovanni di Campello died shortly afterward, + and that later on, when the stories of this troubled time were + forgotten, some ingenious Brother explained the note of infamy + attached to his memory by a hypothesis built upon his name + itself. + + [43] Giord., 12, 13, and 14. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CRISIS OF THE ORDER[1] + +Autumn, 1220 + + +On his arrival in Venice Francis informed himself yet more exactly +concerning all that had happened, and convoked the chapter-general at +Portiuncula for Michaelmas (September 29, 1220).[2] His first care was +doubtless to reassure his sister-friend at St. Damian; a short fragment +of a letter which has been preserved to us gives indication of the sad +anxieties which filled his mind: + + "I, little Brother Francis, desire to follow the life and the + poverty of Jesus Christ, our most high Lord, and of his most + holy Mother, persevering therein until the end; and I beg you + all and exhort you to persevere always in this most holy life + and poverty, and take good care never to depart from it upon the + advice or teachings of any one whomsoever."[3] + +A long shout of joy sounded up and down all Italy when the news of his +return was heard. Many zealous brethren were already despairing, for +persecutions had begun in many provinces; so when they learned that +their spiritual father was alive and coming again to visit them their +joy was unbounded. From Venice Francis went to Bologna. The journey was +marked by an incident which once more shows his acute and wise goodness. +Worn out as much by emotion as by fatigue, he one day found himself +obliged to give up finishing the journey on foot. Mounted upon an ass, +he was going on his way, followed by Brother Leonard of Assisi, when a +passing glance showed him what was passing in his companion's mind. "My +relatives," the friar was thinking, "would have been far enough from +associating with Bernardone, and yet here am I, obliged to follow his +son on foot." + +We may judge of his astonishment when he heard Francis saying, as he +hastily dismounted from his beast: "Here, take my place; it is most +unseemly that thou shouldst follow me on foot, who art of a noble and +powerful lineage." The unhappy Leonard, much confused, threw himself at +Francis's feet, begging for pardon.[4] + +Scarcely arrived at Bologna, Francis was obliged to proceed against +those who had become backsliders. It will be remembered that the Order +was intended to possess nothing, either directly or indirectly. The +monasteries given to the friars did not become their property; so soon +as the proprietor should desire to take them back or anyone else should +wish to take possession of them, they were to be given up without the +least resistance; but on drawing near to Bologna he learned that a house +was being built, which was already called _The house of the Brothers_. +He commanded its immediate evacuation, not even excepting the sick who +happened to be there. The Brothers then resorted to Ugolini, who was +then in that very city for the consecration of Santa Maria di +Rheno.[5] He explained to Francis at length that this house did not +belong to the Order; he had declared himself its proprietor by public +acts; and he succeeded in convincing him.[6] + +Bolognese piety prepared for Francis an enthusiastic reception, the echo +of which has come down even to our times: + + "I was studying at Bologna, I, Thomas of Spalato, archdeacon in + the cathedral church of that city, when in the year 1220, the + day of the Assumption, I saw St. Francis preaching on the piazza + of the Lesser Palace, before almost every man in the city. The + theme of his discourse was the following: Angels, men, the + demons. He spoke on all these subjects with so much wisdom and + eloquence that many learned men who were there were filled with + admiration at the words of so plain a man. Yet he had not the + manner of a preacher, his ways were rather those of + conversation; the substance of his discourse bore especially + upon the abolition of enmities and the necessity of making + peaceful alliances. His apparel was poor, his person in no + respect imposing, his face not at all handsome; but God gave + such great efficacy to his words that he brought back to peace + and harmony many nobles whose savage fury had not even stopped + short before the shedding of blood. So great a devotion was felt + for him that men and women flocked after him, and he esteemed + himself happy who succeeded in touching the hem of his garment." + +Was it at this time that the celebrated Accurso the Glossarist,[7] +chief of that famous dynasty of jurisconsults who during the whole +thirteenth century shed lustre upon the University of Bologna, welcomed +the Brothers Minor to his villa at Ricardina, near the city?[8] We do +not know. + +It appears that another professor, Nicolas dei Pepoli, also entered the +Order.[9] Naturally the pupils did not lag behind, and a certain +number asked to receive the habit. Yet all this constituted a danger; +this city, which in Italy was as an altar consecrated to the science of +law, was destined to exercise upon the evolution of the Order the same +influence as Paris; the Brothers Minor could no more hold aloof from it +than they could keep aloof from the ambient air. + +This time Francis remained here but a very short time. An ancient +tradition, of which his biographers have not preserved any trace, but +which nevertheless appears to be entirely probable, says that Ugolini +took him to pass a month in the Camaldoli, in the retreat formerly +inhabited by St. Romuald in the midst of the Casentino forest, one of +the noblest in Europe, within a few hours' walk of the Verna, whose +summit rises up gigantic, overlooking the whole country. + +We know how much Francis needed repose. There is no doubt that he also +longed for a period of meditation in order to decide carefully in +advance upon his line of conduct, in the midst of the dark conjectures +which had called him home. The desire to give him the much-needed rest +was only a subordinate purpose with Ugolini. The moment for vigorous +action appeared to him to have come. We can easily picture his responses +to Francis's complaints. Had he not been seriously advised to profit by +the counsels of the past, by the experience of those founders of Orders +who have been not only saints but skilful leaders of men? Was not +Ugolini himself his best friend, his born defender, and yet had not +Francis forced him to lay aside the influence to which his love for the +friars, his position in the Church, and his great age gave him such just +title? Yes, he had been forced to leave Francis to needlessly expose his +disciples to all sorts of danger, to send them on missions as perilous +as they had proved to be ineffectual, and all for what? For the most +trivial point of honor, because the Brothers Minor were determined not +to enjoy the smallest privileges. They were not heretics, but they +disturbed the Church as much as the heretics did. How many times had he +not been reminded that a great association, in order to exist, must have +precise and detailed regulations? It had all been labor lost! Of course +Francis's humility was doubted by no one, but why not manifest it, not +only in costume and manner of living, but in all his acts? He thought +himself obeying God in defending his own inspiration, but does not the +Church speak in the name of God? Are not the words of her +representatives the words of Jesus forever perpetuated on earth? He +desired to be a man of the Gospel, an apostolic man, but was not the +best way of becoming such to obey the Roman pontiff, the successor of +Peter? With an excess of condescension they had let him go on in his own +way, and the result was the saddest of lessons. But the situation was +not desperate, there was still time to find a remedy; to do that he had +only to throw himself at the feet of the pope, imploring his blessing, +his light, and his counsel. + +Reproaches such as these, mingled with professions of love and +admiration on the part of the prelate, could not but profoundly disturb +a sensitive heart like that of Francis. His conscience bore him good +witness, but with the modesty of noble minds he was ready enough to +think that he might have made many mistakes. + +Perhaps this is the place to ask what was the secret of the friendship +of these two men, so little known to one another on certain sides. How +could it last without a shadow down to the very death of Francis, when +we always find Ugolini the very soul of the group who are compromising +the Franciscan ideal? No answer to this question is possible. The same +problem presents itself with regard to Brother Elias, and we are no +better able to find a satisfactory answer. Men of loving hearts seldom +have a perfectly clear intelligence. They often become fascinated by +men the most different from themselves, in whose breasts they feel none +of those feminine weaknesses, those strange dreams, that almost sickly +pity for creatures and things, that mysterious thirst for pain which is +at once their own happiness and their torment. + +The sojourn at Camaldoli was prolonged until the middle of September, +and it ended to the cardinal's satisfaction. Francis had decided to go +directly to the pope, then at Orvieto, with the request that Ugolini +should be given him as official protector intrusted with the direction +of the Order. + +A dream which he had once had recurred to his memory; he had seen a +little black hen which, in spite of her efforts, was not able to spread +her wings over her whole brood. The poor hen was himself, the chickens +were the friars. This dream was a providential indication commanding him +to seek for them a mother under whose wings they could all find a place, +and who could defend them against the birds of prey. At least so he +thought.[10] + +He repaired to Orvieto without taking Assisi in his way, since if he +went there he would be obliged to take some measures against the +fomentors of disturbance; he now proposed to refer everything directly +to the pope. + +Does his profound humility, with the feeling of culpability which +Ugolini had awakened in him, suffice to explain his attitude with regard +to the pope, or must we suppose that he had a vague thought of +abdicating? Who knows whether conscience was not already murmuring a +reproach, and showing him how trivial were all the sophisms which had +been woven around him? + + "Not daring to present himself in the apartments of so great a + prince, he remained outside before the door, patiently waiting + till the pope should come out. When he appeared St. Francis made + a reverence and said: + + "'Father Pope, may God give you peace.' 'May God bless you, my + son,' replied he. 'My lord,' then said St. Francis to him, 'you + are great and often absorbed by great affairs; poor friars + cannot come and talk with you as often as they need to do; you + have given me many popes; give me a single one to whom I may + address myself when need occurs, and who will listen in your + stead, and discuss my affairs and those of the Order.' 'Whom do + you wish I should give you, my son?' 'The Bishop of Ostia.' And + he gave him to him."[11] + +Conferences with Ugolini now began again; he immediately accorded +Francis some amends; the privilege granted the Clarisses was revoked; +Giovanni di Conpello was informed that he had nothing to hope from the +_curia_, and last of all leave was given to Francis himself to compose +the Rule of his Order. Naturally he was not spared counsel on the +subject, but there was one point upon which the curia could not brook +delay, and of which it exacted the immediate application--the obligation +of a year's novitiate for the postulants. + +At the same time a bull was issued not merely for the sake of publishing +this ordinance, but especially to mark in a solemn manner the +commencement of a new era in the relations of the Church and the +Franciscans. The fraternity of the Umbrian Penitents became an Order in +the strictest sense of the word. + + Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Brother + Francis and the other priors or custodes of the Brothers Minor, + greeting and the apostolic benediction. + + In nearly all religious Orders it has been wisely ordained that + those who present themselves with the purpose of observing the + regular life shall make trial of it for a certain time, during + which they also shall be tested, in order to leave neither place + nor pretext for inconsiderate steps. For these reasons we + command you by these presents to admit no one to make profession + until after one year of novitiate; we forbid that after + profession any brother shall leave the Order, and that any one + shall take back again him who has gone out from it. We also + forbid that those wearing your habit shall circulate here and + there without obedience, lest the purity of your poverty be + corrupted. If any friars have had this audacity, you will + inflict upon them ecclesiastical censures until repentance.[12] + +It is surely only by a very decided euphemism that such a bull can be +considered in the light of a privilege. It was in reality the laying of +the strong hand of the papacy upon the Brothers Minor. + +From this time, in the very nature of things it became impossible for +Francis to remain minister-general. He felt it himself. Heart-broken, +soul-sick, he would fain, in spite of all, have found in the energy of +his love those words, those glances which up to this time had taken the +place of rule or constitution, giving to his earliest companions the +intuition of what they ought to do and the strength to accomplish it; +but an administrator was needed at the head of this family which he +suddenly found to be so different from what it had been a few years +before, and he sadly acknowledged that he himself was not in the +slightest degree such a person.[13] + +Ah, in his own conscience he well knew that the old ideal was the true, +the right one; but he drove away such thoughts as the temptations of +pride. The recent events had not taken place without in some degree +weakening his moral personality; from being continually talked to about +obedience, submission, humility, a certain obscurity had come over this +luminous soul; inspiration no longer came to it with the certainty of +other days; the prophet had begun to waver, almost to doubt of himself +and of his mission. Anxiously he searched himself to see if in the +beginning of his work there had not been some vain self-complacency. He +pictured to himself beforehand the chapter which he was about to open, +the attack, the criticisms of which it would be the object, and labored +to convince himself that if he did not endure them with joy he was not a +true Brother Minor.[14] The noblest virtues are subject to scruples, +that of perfect humility more than any other, and thus it is that +excellent men religiously betray their own convictions to avoid +asserting themselves. He resolved then to put the direction of the Order +into the hands of Pietro di Catana. It is evident that there was nothing +spontaneous in this decision, and the fact that this brother was a +doctor of laws and belonged to the nobility squarely argues the +transformation of the Franciscan institute. + +It is not known whether or not Ugolini was present at the chapter of +September 29, 1220, but if he was not there in person he was assuredly +represented by some prelate, charged to watch over the debates.[15] The +bull which had been issued a week before was communicated to the friars, +to whom Francis also announced that he was about to elaborate a new +Rule. With reference to this matter there were conferences in which the +ministers alone appear to have had a deliberative voice. At these +conferences the essential points of the new Rule were settled as to +principle, leaving to Francis the care of giving them proper form at his +leisure. Nothing better reveals the demoralized state into which he had +fallen than the decision which was taken to drop out one of the +essential passages of the old Rule, one of his three fundamental +precepts, that which began with these words, "_Carry nothing with +you_."[16] + +How did they go to work to obtain from Francis this concession which, a +little while before, he would have looked upon as a denial of his call, +a refusal to accept in its integrity the message which Jesus had +addressed to him? It is the secret of history, but we may suppose there +was in his life at this time one of those moral tempests which overbear +the faculties of the strongest, leaving in their wounded hearts only an +unutterable pain. + +Something of this pain has passed into the touching narrative of his +abdication which the biographers have given us. + + "From henceforth," he said to the friars, "I am dead for you, + but here is Brother Pietro di Catana, whom you and I will all + obey." And prostrating himself before him he promised him + obedience and submission. The friars could not restrain their + tears and lamentations when they saw themselves thus becoming in + some sort orphans, but Francis arose, and, clasping his hands, + with eyes upraised to heaven: "Lord," he said, "I return to thee + this family which thou hast confided to me. Now, as thou + knowest, most sweet Jesus, I have no longer strength nor ability + to keep on caring for them; I confide them, therefore, to the + ministers. May they be responsible before thee at the day of + judgment if any brother, by their negligence or bad example, or + by a too severe discipline, should ever wander away."[17] + +The functions of Pietro di Catana were destined to continue but a very +short time; he died on March 10, 1221.[18] + +Information abounds as to this period of a few months; nothing is more +natural, since Francis remained at Portiuncula to complete the task +confided to him, living there surrounded with brethren who later on +would recall to mind all the incidents of which they were witnesses. +Some of them reveal the conflict of which his soul was the arena. +Desirous of showing himself submissive, he nevertheless found himself +tormented by the desire to shake off his chains and fly away as in +former days, to live and breathe in God alone. The following artless +record deserves, it seems to me, to be better known.[19] + + One day a novice who could read the psalter, though not without + difficulty, obtained from the minister general--that is to say, + from the vicar of St. Francis--permission to have one. But as he + had learned that St. Francis desired the brethren to be covetous + neither for learning nor for books, he would not take his psalter + without his consent. So, St. Francis having come to the monastery + where the novice was, "Father," said he, "it would be a great + consolation to have a psalter; but though the minister-general + has authorized me to get it, I would not have it unknown to you." + "Look at the Emperor Charles," replied St. Francis with fire, + "Roland, and Oliver and all the paladins, valorous heroes and + gallant knights, who gained their famous victories in fighting + infidels, in toiling and laboring even unto death! The holy + martyrs, they also have chosen to die in the midst of battle for + the faith of Christ! But now there are many of those who aspire + to merit honor and glory simply by relating their feats. Yes, + among us also there are many who expect to receive glory and + honor by reciting and preaching the works of the saints, as if + they had done them themselves!" + + ... A few days after, St. Francis was sitting before the fire, + and the novice drew near to speak to him anew about his psalter. + + "When you have your psalter," said Francis to him, "you will want + a breviary, and when you have a breviary you will seat yourself + in a pulpit like a great prelate and will beckon to your + companion, 'Bring me my breviary!'" + + St. Francis said this with great vivacity, then taking up some + ashes he scattered them over the head of the novice, repeating, + "There is the breviary, there is the breviary!" + + Several days after, St. Francis being at Portiuncula and walking + up and down on the roadside not far from his cell, the same + Brother came again to speak to him about his psalter. "Very well, + go on," said Francis to him, "you have only to do what your + minister tells you." At these words the novice went away, but + Francis began to reflect on what he had said, and suddenly + calling to the friar, he cried, "Wait for me! wait for me!" When + he had caught up to him, "Retrace your steps a little way. I beg + you," he said. "Where was I when I told you to do whatever your + minister told you as to the psalter?" Then falling upon his knees + on the spot pointed out by the friar, he prostrated himself at + his feet: "Pardon, my brother, pardon!" he cried, "for he who + would be Brother Minor ought to have nothing but his clothing." + +This long story is not merely precious because it shows us, even to the +smallest particular, the conflict between the Francis of the early +years, looking only to God and his conscience, and the Francis of 1220, +become a submissive monk in an Order approved by the Roman Church, but +also because it is one of those infrequent narratives where his method +shows itself with its artless realism. These allusions to the tales of +chivalry, and this freedom of manner which made a part of his success +with the masses, were eliminated from the legend with an incredible +rapidity. His spiritual sons were perhaps not ashamed of their father in +this matter, but they were so bent upon bringing out his other qualities +that they forgot a little too much the poet, the troubadour, the +_joculator Domini_. + +Certain fragments, later than Thomas of Celano by more than a century, +which relate some incidents of this kind, bear for that very reason the +stamp of authenticity. + +It is difficult enough to ascertain precisely what part Francis still +took in the direction of the Order. Pietro di Catana and later Brother +Elias are sometimes called ministers-general, sometimes vicars; the two +terms often occur successively, as in the preceding narrative. It is +very probable that this confusion of terms corresponds to a like +confusion of facts. Perhaps it was even intentional. After the chapter +of September, 1220, the affairs of the Order pass into the hands of him +whom Francis had called minister-general, though the friars as well as +the papacy gave him only the title of vicar. It was essential for the +popularity of the Brothers Minor that Francis should preserve an +appearance of authority, but the reality of government had slipped from +his hands. + +The ideal which he had borne in his body until 1209 and had then given +birth to in anguish, was now taking its flight, like those sons of our +loins whom we see suddenly leaving us without our being able to help it, +since that is life, yet not without a rending of our vitals. _Mater +dolorosa!_ Ah, no doubt they will come back again, and seat themselves +piously beside us at the paternal hearth; perhaps even, in some hour of +moral distress, they will feel the need of taking refuge in their +mother's arms as in the old days; but these fleeting returns, with their +feverish haste, only reopen the wounds of the poor parents, when they +see how the children hasten to depart again--they who bear their name +but belong to them no longer. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Giord., 14; _Tribul._, f^o 10. + + [2] Any other date is impossible, since Francis in open chapter + relinquished the direction of the Order in favor of Pietro di + Catana, who died March 10, 1221. + + [3] This too short fragment is found in Sec. vi. of the Rule of the + Damianites (August 9, 1253): Speculum, Morin, Tract. iii., 226b. + + [4] 2 Cel., 2, 3; Bon., 162; cf. _Conform._, 184b, 2, and 62b, 1. + + [5] Sigonius, _Opera_, t. iii. col. 220; cf. Potthast, 5516, and + 6086. + + [6] 2 Cel., 3, 4; _Spec._, 11a; _Tribul._, 13a; _Conform._, + 169b, 2. + + [7] Died in 1229. Cf. Mazzetti, _Repertorio di tutti i + professori di Bologna_, Bologna, 1847, p. 11. + + [8] See _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 635, and the + notes. + + [9] Wadding, _ann. 1220_, no. 9. Cf. A. SS., p. 823. + + [10] 2 Cel., 1, 16; _Spec._, 100a-101b. + + [11] Giord., 14; cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102; 3 Soc., 56 and 63. + + [12] _Cum secundum._ The original is at Assisi with _Datum apud + Urbem Veterem X. Kal. Oct. pont. nostri anno quinto_ (September + 22, 1220). It is therefore by an error that Sbaralea and Wadding + make it date from Viterbo, which is the less explicable that all + the bulls of this epoch are dated from Orvieto. Wadding, _ann. + 1220_, 57; Sbaralea, vol. i., p. 6; Potthast, 6561. + + [13] 2 Cel., 3, 118; Ubertin, _Arbor. V._, 2; _Spec._, 26; 50; + 130b; _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2. + + [14] 2 Cel., 3, 83; Bon. 77. One should read this account in the + _Conform._ according to the _Antigua Legenda_, 142a, 2; 31a, 1; + _Spec._ 43b. + + [15] _Tribul._ Laur. MS., 12b; Magl. MS., 71b. + + [16] Luke, ix., 1-6. _Tribul._, 12b: _Et fecerunt de regula + prima ministri removere_.... This must have taken place at the + chapter of September 29, 1220, since the suppression is made in + the Rule of 1221. + + [17] 2 Cel., 3, 81; _Spec._, 26; _Conform._, 175b, 1; 53a; Bon., + 76; A. SS., p. 620. + + [18] The epitaph on his tomb, which still exists at S. M. dei + Angeli bears this date: see _Portiuncula, von P. Barnabas aus + dem Elsass_, Rixheim, 1884, p. 11. Cf. A. SS., p. 630. + + [19] _Spec._, 9b; _Arbor. V._, 3; _Conform._, 170a, 1; 2 Cel., + 3, 124. Cf. Ubertini, _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE RULE OF 1221[1] + + +The winter of 1220-1221 was spent by Francis chiefly in fixing his +thought by writing. Until now he had been too much the man of action to +have been able to give much thought to anything but the _living word_, +but from this time his exhausted forces compelled him to satisfy his +longing for souls by some other means than evangelizing tours. We have +seen that the chapter of September 29, 1220, on one side, and the bull +_Cum secundum_ on the other, had fixed in advance a certain number of +points. For the rest, complete liberty had been given him, not indeed to +make a final and unchangeable statement of his ideas, but to set them +forth. The substance of legislative power had passed into the hands of +the ministers.[2] + +That which we call the Rule of 1221 is, then, nothing more than a +proposed law, submitted to a representative government at its +parliament. The head of authority will one day give it to the world, so +thoroughly modified and altered that Francis's name at the head of such +a document will give but small promise, and quite indirectly, that it +will contain his personal opinion. + +Never was man less capable of making a Rule than Francis. In reality, +that of 1210 and the one which the pope solemnly approved in November +29, 1223, had little in common except the name. In the former all is +alive, free, spontaneous; it is a point of departure, an inspiration; it +may be summed up in two phrases: the appeal of Jesus to man, "Come, +follow me," the act of man, "He left all and followed him." To the call +of divine love man replies by the joyful gift of himself, and that quite +naturally, by a sort of instinct. At this height of mysticism any +regulation is not only useless, it is almost a profanation; at the very +least it is the symptom of a doubt. Even in earthly loves, when people +truly love each other nothing is asked, nothing promised. + +The Rule of 1223, on the other hand, is a reciprocal contract. On the +divine side the call has become a command; on the human, the free +impulse of love has become an act of submission, by which life eternal +will be earned. + +At the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under the reign +of law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome task, +but paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our wages. + +Under the rule of love we are the sons of God, and coworkers with him; +we give ourselves to him without bargaining and without expectation; we +follow Jesus, not because this is well, but because we can do no +otherwise, because we feel that he has loved us and we love him in our +turn. An inward flame draws us irresistibly toward him: _Et Spiritus et +Sponsa dicunt: Veni_. + +It is necessary to dwell a little on the antithesis between these two +Rules. That of 1210 alone is truly Franciscan; that of 1223 is +indirectly the work of the Church, endeavoring to assimilate with +herself the new movement, which with one touch she transforms and turns +wholly from its original purpose. + +That of 1221 marks an intermediate stage. It is the clash of two +principles, or rather of two spirits; they approach, they touch, but +they are not merged in one another; here and there is a mixture, but +nowhere combination; we can separate the divers elements without +difficulty. Their condition is the exact reflection of what was going on +in Francis's soul, and of the rapid evolution of the Order. + +To aid him in his work Francis joined to himself Brother Caesar of +Speyer, who would be especially useful to him by his profound +acquaintance with the sacred texts. + +What strikes us first, on glancing over this Rule of 1221, is its +extraordinary length; it covers not less than ten folio pages, while +that of 1223 has no more than three. Take away from it the passages +which emanate from the papacy and those which were fixed at the previous +chapter, you will hardly have shortened it by a column; what remains is +not a Rule, but a series of impassioned appeals, in which the father's +heart speaks, not to command but to convince, to touch, to awaken in +his children the instinct of love. + +It is all chaotic and even contradictory,[3] without order, a medley +of outbursts of joy and bitter sobs, of hopes and regrets. There are +passages in which the passion of the soul speaks in every possible tone, +runs over the whole gamut from the softest note to the most masculine, +from those which are as joyous and inspiring as the blast of a clarion, +to those which are agitated, stifled, like a voice from beyond the tomb. + + "By the holy love which is in God, I pray all the friars, + ministers as well as others, to put aside every obstacle, every + care, every anxiety, that they may be able to consecrate + themselves entirely to serve, love, and honor the Lord God, with + a pure heart and a sincere purpose, which is what he asks above + all things. Let us have always in ourselves a tabernacle and a + home for him who is the Lord God most mighty, Father, Son, and + Holy Spirit, who says, 'Watch and pray always, that you may be + found worthy to escape all the things which will come to pass, + and to appear upright before the Son of man.' + + "Let us then keep in the true way, the life, the truth, and the + holy Gospel of Him who has deigned for our sake to leave his + Father that he may manifest his name to us, saying, 'Father, I + have manifested thy name to those whom thou hast given me, and + the words which thou hast given me I have given also unto them. + They have received them, and they have known that I am come from + thee, and they believe that thou hast sent me. I pray for them; + I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me, + that they may be one as we are one. I have said these things, + being still in the world, that they may have joy in themselves. + I have given them thy words, and the world hath hated them, + because they are not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst + take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from + the evil. Sanctify them through the truth; thy word is truth. As + thou hast sent me into the world I have also sent them into the + world, and for their sake I sanctify myself that they may + themselves be sanctified in the truth; and neither pray I for + these alone, but for all those who shall believe on me through + their words, that we all may be one, and that the world may know + that thou hast sent me, and that thou lovest them as thou hast + loved me. I have made known unto them thy name, that the love + wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.' + + + PRAYER. + + "Almighty, most high and sovereign God, holy Father, righteous + Lord, King of heaven and earth, we give thee thanks for thine + own sake, in that by thy holy will, and by thine only Son and + thy Holy Spirit thou hast created all things spiritual and + corporeal, and that after having made us in thine image and + after thy likeness, thou didst place us in that paradise which + we lost by our sin. And we give thee thanks because after having + created us by thy Son, by that love which is thine, and which + thou hast had for us, thou hast made him to be born very God and + very man of the glorious and blessed Mary, ever Virgin, and + because by his cross, his blood, and his death thou hast willed + to ransom us poor captives. And we give thee thanks that thy Son + is to return in his glorious majesty to send to eternal fire the + accursed ones, those who have not repented and have not known + thee; and to say to those who have known and adored thee and + served thee by repentance, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, + inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation + of the world.' And since we, wretched and sinful, are not worthy + to name thee, we humbly ask our Lord Jesus Christ, thy + well-beloved Son, in whom thou art well pleased, that he may + give thee thanks for everything; and also the Holy Spirit, the + Paraclete, as it may please thee and them; for this we + supplicate him who has all power with thee, and by whom thou + hast done such great things for us. Alleluia. + + "And we pray the glorious Mother, the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, + St. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and all the choir of blessed + Spirits, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities + and Powers, Virtues and Angels, Archangels, John the Baptist, + John the Evangelist, Peter, Paul, and the holy Patriarchs, the + Prophets, the Holy Innocents, Apostles, Evangelists, Disciples, + Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, the blessed ones, Elijah and + Enoch, and all the saints who have been, shall be, and are, we + humbly pray them by thy love to give thee thanks for these + things, as it pleases thee, sovereign, true, eternal and living + God, and also to thy Son, our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, and + to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, forever and ever. Amen. + Alleluia. + + "And we supplicate all those who desire to serve the Lord God, + in the bosom of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, all priests, + deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes and exorcists, readers, porters, + all clerks, all monks and nuns, all children and little ones, + paupers and exiles, kings, and princes, workmen and laborers, + servants and masters, the virgins, the continent and the + married, laics, men and women, all children, youths, young men + and old men, the sick and the well, the small and the great, the + peoples of every tribe and tongue and nation, all men in every + part of the world whatsoever, who are or who shall be, we pray + and beseech them, all we Brothers Minor, unprofitable servants, + that all together, with one accord we persevere in the true + faith and in penitence, for outside of these no person can be + saved. + + "Let us all, with all our heart and all our thought, and all our + strength, and all our mind, with all our vigor, with all our + effort, with all our affection, with all our inward powers, our + desires, and our wills, love the Lord God, who has given to us + all his body, all his soul, all his life, and still gives them + every day to each one of us. He created us, he saved us by his + grace alone; he has been, he still is, full of goodness to us, + us wicked and worthless, corrupt and offensive, ungrateful, + ignorant, bad. We desire nothing else, we wish for nothing else; + may nothing else please us, or have any attraction for us, + except the Creator, the Redeemer, the Saviour, sole and true + God, who is full of goodness, who is all goodness, who is the + true and supreme good, who alone is kind, pious, and merciful, + gracious, sweet, and gentle, who alone is holy, righteous, true, + upright, who alone has benignity, innocence, and purity; of + whom, by whom, and in whom is all the pardon, all the grace, all + the glory of all penitents, of all the righteous and all the + saints who are rejoicing in heaven. + + "Then let nothing again hinder, let nothing again separate, + nothing again retard us, and may we all, so long as we live, in + every place, at every hour, at every time, every day and + unceasingly, truly and humbly believe. Let us have in our + hearts, let us love, adore, serve, praise, bless, glorify, + exalt, magnify, thank the most high, sovereign, eternal God, + Trinity and Unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Creator of all + men, both of those who believe and hope in him and of those who + love him. He is without beginning and without end, immutable and + invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, indiscernible, blessed, + lauded, glorious, exalted, sublime, most high, sweet, lovely, + delectable, and always worthy of being desired above all things, + in all the ages of ages. Amen." + +Have not these artless repetitions a mysterious charm which steals +deliciously into the very depths of the heart? Is there not in them a +sort of sacrament of which the words are only the rude vehicle? Francis +is taking refuge in God, as the child throws itself upon its mother's +bosom, and in the incoherence of its weakness and its joy stammers out +all the words it knows, repeating by them all only the eternal "I am +thine" of love and faith. + +There is in them also something which recalls, not only by citations, +but still more by the very inspiration of the thought, that which we +call the sacerdotal prayer of Christ. The apostle of poverty appears +here as if suspended between earth and heaven by the very strength of +his love, consecrated the priest of a new worship by the inward and +irresistible unction of the Spirit. He does not offer sacrifice like the +priest of the past time; he sacrifices himself, and carries in his body +all the woes of humanity. + +The more beautiful are these words from the mystical point of view, the +less do they correspond with what is expected in a Rule; they have +neither the precision nor the brief and imperative forms of one. The +transformations which they were to undergo in order to become the code +of 1223 were therefore fatal when we consider the definitive +intervention of the Church of Rome to direct the Franciscan movement. + +It is probable that this rough draft of a Rule, such as we have it now, +is that which was distributed in the chapter of Whitsunday, 1221. The +variants, sometimes capital, which are found in the different texts, can +be nothing other than outlines of the corrections proposed by the +provincial ministers. Once admit the idea of considering this document +as a rough draft, we are very soon brought to think that it had already +undergone a rapid preliminary revision, a sort of pruning, in which +ecclesiastical authority has caused to disappear all that was in +flagrant contradiction with its own projects for the Order. + +If it is asked, who could have made these curtailments, one name springs +at once to our lips--Ugolini. He criticised its exaggerated proportions, +its want of unity and precision. Later on it is related that Francis had +seen in a dream a multitude of starving friars, and himself unable to +satisfy their wants, because though all around him lay innumerable +crumbs of bread, they disappeared between his fingers when he would give +them to those about him. Then a voice from heaven said to him: "Francis, +make of these crumbs a wafer; with that thou shalt feed these starving +ones." + +There is little hazard in assuming that this is the picturesque echo of +the conferences which took place at this time between Francis and the +cardinal; the latter might have suggested to him by such a comparison +the essential defects of his project. All this, no doubt, took place +during Francis's stay in Rome, in the beginning of 1221.[4] + +Before going there, we must cast a glance over the similarity in +inspiration and even in style which allies the Rule of 1221 with another +of St. Francis's works, that which is known under the title of The +Admonitions.[5] This is a series of _spiritual counsels_ with regard +to the religious life; it is closely united both in matter and form with +the work which we have just examined. The tone of voice is so perfectly +the same that one is tempted to see in it parts of the original draft of +the Rule, separated from it as too prolix to find place in a Rule. + +However it may be with this hypothesis, we find in The Admonitions all +the anxieties with which the soul of Francis was assailed in this +uncertain and troubled hour. Some of these counsels sound like bits from +a private journal. We see him seeking, with the simplicity of perfect +humility, for reasons for submitting himself, renouncing his ideas, and +not quite succeeding in finding them. He repeats to himself the +exhortations that others had given him; we feel the effort to understand +and admire the ideal monk whom Ugolini and the Church have proposed to +him for an example: + + The Lord says in the Gospels: "He who does not give up all that + he has cannot be my disciple. And he who would save his life + shall lose it." One gives up all he possesses and loses his life + when life gives himself entirely into the hands of his superior, + to obey him.... And when the inferior sees things which would be + better or more useful to his soul than those which the superior + commands him, let him offer to God the sacrifice of his will. + +Reading this one might think that Francis was about to join the ranks of +those to whom submission to ecclesiastical authority is the very essence +of religion. But no; even here his true feeling is not wholly effaced, +he mingles his words with parentheses and illustrations, timid, indeed, +but revealing his deepest thought; always ending by enthroning the +individual conscience as judge of last resort.[6] + +All this shows clearly enough that we must picture to ourselves moments +when his wounded soul sighs after passive obedience, the formula of +which, _perinde ac cadaver_, goes apparently much farther back than the +Company of Jesus. These were moments of exhaustion, when inspiration was +silent. + + One day he was sitting with his companions, when he began to + groan and say: "There is hardly a monk upon earth who perfectly + obeys his superior." His companions, much astonished, said: + "Explain to us, father, what is perfect and supreme obedience." + Then, comparing him who obeys to a corpse, he replied: "Take a + dead body, and put it where you will, it will make no resistance; + when it is in one place it will not murmur, when you take it away + from there it will not object; put it in a pulpit, it will not + look up but down; wrap it in purple, it will only be doubly + pale."[7] + +This longing for corpse-like obedience witnesses to the ravages with +which his soul had been laid waste; it corresponds in the moral domain +to the cry for annihilation of great physical anguish. + +The worst was that he was absolutely alone. Everywhere else the +Franciscan obedience is living, active, joyful.[8] + +He drank this cup to the very dregs, holding sacred the revolts dictated +by conscience. One day in the later years of his life a German friar +came to see him, and after having long discussed with him pure +obedience: + + "I ask you one favor," he said to him, "it is that if the + Brothers ever come to live no longer according to the Rule you + will permit me to separate myself from them, alone or with a few + others, to observe it in its completeness." At these words + Francis felt a great joy. "Know," said he, "that Christ as well + as I authorize what you have just been asking;" and laying hands + upon him, "Thou art a priest forever," he added, "after the + order of Melchisedec."[9] + +We have a yet more touching proof of his solicitude to safeguard the +spiritual independence of his disciples: it is a note to Brother +Leo.[10] The latter, much alarmed by the new spirit which was gaining +power in the Order, opened his mind thereupon to his master, and +doubtless asked of him pretty much the same permission as the friar from +Germany. After an interview in which he replied _viva voce_, Francis, +not to leave any sort of doubt or hesitation in the mind of him whom he +surnamed his little sheep of God, _pecorella di Dio_, wrote to him +again: + + Brother Leo, thy brother Francis wishes thee peace and health. + + I reply _yes_, my son, as a mother to her child. This word sums + up all we said while walking, as well as all my counsels. If + thou hast need to come to me for counsel, it is my wish that + thou shouldst do it. Whatever may be the manner in which thou + thinkest thou canst please the Lord God, follow it, and live in + poverty. Do this (faites le[11]), God will bless thee and I + authorize it. And if it were necessary for thy soul, or for thy + consolation that thou shouldst come to see me, or if thou + desirest it, my Leo, come. + + Thine in Christ. + +Surely we are far enough here from the corpse of a few pages back. + +It would be superfluous to pause over the other admonitions. For the +most part they are reflections inspired by circumstances. Counsels as to +humility recur with a frequency which explains both the personal +anxieties of the author, and the necessity of reminding the brothers of +the very essence of their profession. + +The sojourn of St. Francis at Rome, whither he went in the early months +of 1221, to lay his plan before Ugolini, was marked by a new effort of +the latter to bring him and St. Dominic together.[12] + +The cardinal was at this time at the apogee of his success. Everything +had gone well with him. His voice was all powerful not only in affairs +of the Church, but also in those of the Empire. Frederic II., who seemed +to be groping his way, and in whose mind were germinating dreams of +religious reformation, and the desire of placing his power at the +service of the truth, treated him as a friend, and spoke of him with +unbounded admiration.[13] + +In his reflections upon the remedies to be applied to the woes of +Christianity, the cardinal came at last to think that one of the most +efficacious would be the substitution of bishops taken from the two new +Orders, for the feudal episcopate almost always recruited from local +families in which ecclesiastical dignities were, so to speak, +hereditary. In the eyes of Ugolini such bishops were usually wanting in +two essential qualities of a good prelate: religious zeal and zeal for +the Church. + +He believed that the Preaching and the Minor Friars would not only +possess those virtues which were lacking in the others, but that in the +hands of the papacy they might become a highly centralized hierarchy, +truly catholic, wholly devoted to the interests of the Church at large. +The difficulties which might occur on the part of the chapters which +should elect the bishops, as well as on the side of the high secular +clergy, would be put to flight by the enthusiasm which the people would +feel for pastors whose poverty would recall the days of the primitive +Church. + +At the close of his interviews with Francis and Dominic, he +communicated to them some of these thoughts, asking their advice as to +the elevation of their friars to prelatures. There was a pious contest +between the two saints as to which should answer first. Finally, Dominic +said simply that he should prefer to see his companions remain as they +were. In his turn, Francis showed that the very name of his institute +made the thing impossible. "If my friars have been called _Minores_," he +said, "it is not that they may become _Majores_. If you desire that they +become fruitful in the Church of God, leave them alone, and keep them in +the estate into which God has called them. I pray you, father, do not so +act that their poverty shall become a motive for pride, nor elevate them +to prelatures which would move them to insolence toward others."[14] + +The ecclesiastical policy followed by the popes was destined to render +this counsel of the two founders wholly useless.[15] + +Francis and Dominic parted, never again to meet. The _Master_ of the +Preaching Friars shortly after set out for Bologna, where he died on +August 6th following, and Francis returned to Portiuncula, where Pietro +di Catana had just died (March 10, 1221). He was replaced at the head of +the Order by Brother Elias. Ugolini was doubtless not without influence +in this choice. + +Detained by his functions of legate, he could not be present at the +Whitsunday chapter (May 30, 1221).[16] He was represented there by +Cardinal Reynerio,[17] who came accompanied by several bishops and by +monks of various orders.[18] About three thousand friars were there +assembled, but so great was the eagerness of the people of the +neighborhood to bring provisions, that after a session of seven days +they were obliged to remain two days longer to eat up all that had been +brought. The sessions were presided over by Brother Elias, Francis +sitting at his feet and pulling at his robe when there was anything that +he wished to have put before the Brothers. + +Brother Giordani di Giano, who was present, has preserved for us all +these details and that of the setting out of a group of friars for +Germany. They were placed under the direction of Caesar of Speyer, whose +mission succeeded beyond all expectation. Eighteen months after, when he +returned to Italy, consumed with the desire to see St. Francis again, +the cities of Wurzburg, Mayence, Worms, Speyer, Strasburg, Cologne, +Salzburg, and Ratisbon had become Franciscan centres, from whence the +new ideas were radiating into all Southern Germany. + +The foundation of the Tertiaries, or Third Order, generally in the +oldest documents called Brotherhood of Penitence, is usually fixed as +occurring in the year 1221; but we have already seen that this date is +much too recent, or rather that it is impossible to fix any date, for +what was later called, quite arbitrarily, the Third Order is evidently +contemporary with the First.[19] + +Francis and his companions desired to be the apostles of their time; but +they, no more than the apostles of Jesus, desired to have all men enter +their association, which was necessarily somewhat restricted, and which, +according to the gospel saying, was meant to be the leaven of the rest +of humanity. In consequence, their life was literally the _apostolic +life_, but the ideal which they preached was the _evangelical life_, +such as Jesus had preached it. + +St. Francis no more condemned the family or property than Jesus did; he +simply saw in them ties from which the _apostle_, and the apostle alone, +needs to be free. + +If before long sickly minds fancied that they interpreted his thought in +making the union of the sexes an evil, and all that concerns the +physical activity of man a fall; if unbalanced spirits borrowed the +authority of his name to escape from all duty; if married persons +condemned themselves to the senseless martyrdom of virginity, he should +certainly not be made responsible. These traces of an unnatural +asceticism come from the dualist ideas of the Catharists, and not from +the inspired poet who sang nature and her fecundity, who made nests for +doves, inviting them to multiply under the watch of God, and who imposed +manual labor on his friars as a sacred duty. + +The bases of the corporation of the _Brothers and Sisters of Penitence_ +were very simple. Francis gave no new doctrine to the world; what was +new in his message was wholly in his love, in his direct call to the +evangelical life, to an ideal of moral vigor, of labor, and of love. + +Naturally, there were soon found men who did not understand this true +and simple beauty; they fell into observances and devotions, imitated, +while living in the world, the life of the cloister to which for one +reason or another they were not able to retire; but it would be unjust +to picture to ourselves the _Brothers of Penitence_ as modelled after +them. + +Did they receive a Rule from St. Francis? It is impossible to say. The +one which was given[20] them in 1289 by Pope Nicholas IV. is simply the +recasting and amalgamation of all the rules of lay fraternities which +existed at the end of the thirteenth century. To attribute this document +to Francis is nothing less than the placing in a new building of certain +venerated stones from an ancient edifice. It is a matter of facade and +ornamentation, nothing more. + +Notwithstanding this absence of any Rule emanating from Francis himself, +it is clear enough what, in his estimation, this association ought to +be. The Gospel, with its counsels and examples, was to be its true Rule. +The great innovation designed by the Third Order was concord; this +fraternity was a union of peace, and it brought to astonished Europe a +new truce of God. Whether the absolute refusal to carry arms[21] was an +idea wholly chimerical and ephemeral, the documents are there to prove, +but it is a fine thing to have had the power to bring it about for a few +years. + +The second essential obligation of the Brothers of Penitence appears to +have been that of reducing their wants so far as possible, and while +preserving their fortunes to distribute to the poor at proper intervals +the free portion of the revenue after contenting themselves with the +strictly necessary.[22] + +To do with joy the duties of their calling; to give a holy inspiration +to the slightest actions; to find in the infinitely littles of +existence, things apparently the most commonplace, parts of a divine +work; to keep pure from all debasing interest; to use things as not +possessing them, like the servants in the parable who would soon have to +give account of the talents confided to them; to close their hearts to +hatred, to open them wide to the poor, the sick, to all abandoned ones, +such were the other essential duties of the Brothers and Sisters of +Penitence. + +To lead them into this royal road of liberty, love, and responsibility, +Francis sometimes appealed to the terrors of hell and the joys of +paradise, but interested love was so little a part of his nature that +these considerations and others of the same kind occupy an entirely +secondary place in those of his writings which remain, as also in his +biographies. + +For him the gospel life is natural to the soul. Whoever comes to know it +will prefer it; it has no more need to be proved than the outer air and +the light. It needs only to lead prisoners to it, for them to lose all +desire to return to the dungeons of avarice, hatred, or frivolity. + +Francis and his true disciples make the painful ascent of the mountain +heights, impelled solely, but irresistibly, by the inner voice. The only +foreign aid which they accept is the memory of Jesus, going before them +upon these heights and mysteriously living again before their eyes in +the sacrament of the eucharist. + +The letter to all Christians in which these thoughts break forth is a +living souvenir of St. Francis's teachings to the Tertiaries. + +To represent these latter to ourselves in a perfectly concrete form we +may resort to the legend of St. Lucchesio, whom tradition makes the +first Brother of Penitence.[23] + +A native of a little city of Tuscany he quitted it to avoid its +political enmities, and established himself at Poggibonsi, not far from +Sienna, where he continued to trade in grain. Already rich, it was not +difficult for him to buy up all the wheat, and, selling it in a time of +scarcity, realize enormous profits. But soon overcome by Francis's +preaching, he took himself to task, distributed all his superfluity to +the poor, and kept nothing but his house with a small garden and one +ass. + +From that time he was to be seen devoting himself to the cultivation of +this bit of ground, and making of his house a sort of hostelry whither +the poor and the sick came in swarms. He not only welcomed them, but he +sought them out, even to the malaria-infected Maremma, often returning +with a sick man astride on his back and preceded by his ass bearing a +similar burden. The resources of the garden were necessarily very +limited; when there was no other way, Lucchesio took a wallet and went +from door to door asking alms, but most of the time this was needless, +for his poor guests, seeing him so diligent and so good, were better +satisfied with a few poor vegetables from the garden shared with him +than with the most copious repast. In the presence of their benefactor, +so joyful in his destitution, they forgot their own poverty, and the +habitual murmurs of these wretches were transformed into outbursts of +admiration and gratitude. + +Conversion had not killed in him all family ties; Bona Donna, his wife, +became his best co-laborer, and when in 1260 he saw her gradually fading +away his grief was too deep to be endured. "You know, dear companion," +he said to her when she had received the last sacraments, "how much we +have loved one another while we could serve God together; why should we +not remain united until we depart to the ineffable joy? Wait for me. I +also will receive the sacraments, and go to heaven with you." + +So he spoke, and called back the priest to administer them to him. Then +after holding the hands of his dying companion, comforting her with +gentle words, when he saw that her soul was gone he made over her the +sign of the cross, stretched himself beside her, and calling with love +upon Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis, he fell asleep for eternity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Text in _Firmamentum_, 10; _Spec._, 189; _Spec._, Morin. + Tract., iii., 2b. M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_) has made a study of the + Rule of 1221 which is a masterpiece of _exegetical scent_. + Nevertheless if he had more carefully collated the different + texts he would have arrived at still more striking results, + thanks to the variants which he would have been able to + establish. I cite a single example. + + Text _Firm_.--Wadding, adopted by Mr. M. + + _Omnes fratres ubicunque sunt vel vadunt, caveant sibi a + malo visu et frequentia mulierum et nullus cum eis + consilietur solus. Sacerdos honeste loquatur cum eis + dando penitentiam vel aliud spirituale consilium._ + + Text of the _Speculum_, 189 ff. + + _Omnes fratres ubicunque sunt et vadunt caveant se a malo + visu et frequentia mulierum et nullus cum eis concilietur + aut per viam vadat solus aut ad mensam in una paropside + comedat. (!!) Sacerdos honeste loquatur cum eis dando ... + etc._ + + This passage is sufficient to show the superiority of the text + of the Speculum, which is to be preferred also in other + respects, but this is not the place for entering into these + details. It is evident that the phrase in which we see the + earliest friars sometimes sharing the repast of the sisters and + eating from their porringer is not a later interpolation. + + [2] _Tribul._, 12b; _Spec._, 54b; _Arbor._ V., 3; _Spec._, 8b. + + [3] Cf. _cap._ 17 and 21. + + [4] 2 Cel., 3, 136. + + [5] See below, p. 354, text in the _Firmamentum_, 19 ff.; + _Speculum_, Morin, tract. iii., 214a ff.; cf. _Conform._, + 137 ff. + + [6] _Cum facit (subditus) voluntatem (praelati) dummodo benefacit + vera obedientia est. Admon._, iii.; _Conform._, 139_a_, 2.--_Si + vero praelatus subdito aliquid contra animam praecipiat licet ei + non obediat tamen ipsum non dimittat._, Ibid.--_Nullus tenetur + ad obedientiam in eo ubi committitus delictum vel peccatum. + Epist._, ii. + + [7] 2 Cel., 3, 89; _Spec._, 29b; _Conform._, 176b, 1; Bon., 77. + + [8] _Per caritatem spiritus voluntarii serviant et obediant + invicem. Et haec est vera et sancta obedientia. Reg._, 1221, v. + + [9] _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 14b; _Spec._, 125a; _Conform._, 107b, 1; + 184b, 1. + + [10] Wadding gives it (_Epist._ xvi.), after the autograph + preserved in the treasury of the Conventuals of Spoleto. The + authenticity of this piece is evident. + + [11] This plural, which perplexed Wadding, shows plainly that + Brother Leo had spoken in the name of a group. + + [12] This date for the new communications between them seems + incontestable, though it has never been proposed; in fact, we + are only concerned to find a time when all three could have met + at Rome (2 Cel., 3, 86; _Spec._, 27a), between December 22, 1216 + (the approbation of the Dominicans), and August 6, 1221 (death + of Dominic). Only two periods are possible: the early months of + 1218 (Potthast, 5739 and 5747) and the winter of 1220-1221. At + any other time one of the three was absent from Rome. + + On the other hand we know that Ugolini was in Rome in the winter + of 1220-1221 (Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._, ii., pp. 48, + 123, 142. Cf. Potthast, 6589).--For Dominic see A. SS., Aug., + vol. i., p. 503. The later date is imperative because Ugolini + could not offer prelatures to the Brothers Minor before their + explicit approbation (June 11, 1219), and this offer had no + meaning with regard to the Dominicans until after the definitive + establishment of their Order. + + [13] See the imperial letters of February 10, 1221; + Huillard-Breholles, vol. ii., pp. 122-127. + + [14] 2 Cel., 3, 86; Bon., 78; _Spec._, 27b. + + [15] Vide K. Eubel: _Die Bischoefe, Cardinaele und Paepste aus dem + Minoritenorden bis_ 1305, 8vo, 1889. + + [16] He was in Northern Italy. Vide _Registri: Doc._, 17-28. + + [17] Reynerius, cardinal-deacon with the title of S. M. in + Cosmedin, Bishop of Viterbo (cf. Innocent III., _Opera_, Migne, + 1, col. ccxiii), 1 Cel., 125. He had been named rector of the + Duchy of Spoleto, August 3, 1220. Potthast, 6319. + + [18] Giord, 16. The presence of Dominic at an earlier chapter + had therefore been quite natural. + + [19] This view harmonizes in every particular with the witness + of 1 Cel., 36 and 37, which shows the Third Order as having been + quite naturally born of the enthusiasm excited by the preaching + of Francis immediately after his return from Rome in 1210 (cf. + _Auctor vit. sec._; A. SS., p. 593b). Nothing in any other + document contradicts it; quite the contrary. Vide 3 Soc., 60. + Cf. _Anon. Perus._; A. SS., p. 600; Bon., 25, 46. Cf. A. SS., + pp. 631-634. The first bull which concerns the Brothers of + Penitence (without naming them) is of December 16, 1221, + _Significatum est_. If it really refers to them, as Sbaralea + thinks, with all those who have interested themselves in the + question to M. Mueller inclusively--but which, it appears, might + be contested--it is because in 1221 they had made appeal to the + pope against the podestas of Faenza and the neighboring cities. + This evidently supposes an association not recently born. + Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, 1, p. 8; Horoy, vol. iv., col. 49; + Potthast, 6736. + + [20] Bull _Supra montem_ of August 17, 1289, Potthast. 23044. M. + Mueller has made a luminous study of the origin of this bull; it + may be considered final in all essential points (_Anfaenge_, pp. + 117-171). By this bull Nicholas IV.--minister-general of the + Brothers Minor before becoming pope--sought to draw into the + hands of his Order the direction of all associations of pious + laics (Third Order of St. Dominic, the Gaudentes, the Humiliati. + etc.). He desired by that to give a greater impulse to those + fraternities which depended directly on the court of Rome, and + augment their power by unifying them. + + [21] Vide Bull _Significatum est_ of December 16, 1221. Cf. + _Supra montem_, chap. vii. + + [22] The Rule of the Third Order of the Humiliati, which dates + from 1201, contains a similar clause. Tiraboschi, vol. ii., p. + 132. + + [23] In the A. SS., Aprilis, vol. ii. p. 600-616. Orlando di + Chiusi also received the habit from the hands of Francis. Vide + _Instrumentum_, etc., below, p. 400. The Franciscan fraternity, + under the influence of the other third orders, rapidly lost its + specific character. As to this title, Third Order, it surely had + originally a hierarchical sense, upon which little by little a + chronological sense has been superposed. All these questions + become singularly clearer when they are compared with what is + known of the Humiliati. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BROTHERS MINOR AND LEARNING + +Autumn, 1221-December, 1223 + + +After the chapter of 1221 the evolution of the Order hurried on with a +rapidity which nothing was strong enough to check. + +The creation of the ministers was an enormous step in this direction; by +the very pressure of things the latter came to establish a residence; +those who command must have their subordinates within reach, must know +at all times where they are; the Brothers, therefore, could no longer +continue to do without convents properly so-called. This change +naturally brought about many others; up to this time they had had no +churches. Without churches the friars were only itinerant preachers, and +their purpose could not but be perfectly disinterested; they were, as +Francis had wished, the friendly auxiliaries of the clergy. With +churches it was inevitable that they should first fatally aspire to +preach in them and attract the crowd to them, then in some sort erect +them into counter parishes.[1] + +The bull of March 22, 1222,[2] shows us the papacy hastening these +transformations with all its power. The pontiff accords to Brother +Francis and the other friars the privilege of celebrating the sacred +mysteries in their churches in times of interdict, on the natural +condition of not ringing the bells, of closing the door, and previously +expelling those who were excommunicated. + +By an astonishing inadvertence the bull itself bears witness to its +uselessness, at least for the time in which it was given: "We accord to +you," it runs, "the permission to celebrate the sacraments in times of +interdict in your churches, _if you come to have any_." This is a new +proof that in 1222 the Order as yet had none; but it is not difficult to +see in this very document a pressing invitation to change their way of +working, and not leave this privilege to be of no avail. + +Another document of the same time shows a like purpose, though +manifested in another direction. By the bull _Ex parte_ of March 29, +1222, Honorius III. laid upon the Preachers and Minors of Lisbon +conjointly a singularly delicate mission; he gave them full powers to +proceed against the bishop and clergy of that city, who exacted from the +faithful that they should leave to them by will one-third of their +property, and refused the Church's burial service to those who +disobeyed.[3] + +The fact that the pope committed to the Brothers the care of choosing +what measures they should take proves how anxious they were at Rome to +forget the object for which they had been created, and to transform them +into deputies of the Holy See. It is, therefore, needless to point out +that the mention of Francis's name at the head of the former of these +bulls has no significance. We do not picture the Poverello seeking a +privilege for circumstances not yet existing! We perceive here the +influence of Ugolini,[4] who had found the Brother Minor after his own +heart in the person of Elias. + +What was Francis doing all this time? We have no knowledge, but the very +absence of information, so abundant for the period that precedes as well +as for that which follows, shows plainly enough that he has quitted +Portiuncula, and gone to live in one of those Umbrian hermitages that +had always had so strong an attachment for him.[5] There is hardly a +hill in Central Italy that has not preserved some memento of him. It +would be hard to walk half a day between Florence and Rome without +coming upon some hut on a hillside bearing his name or that of one of +his disciples. + +There was a time when these huts were inhabited, when in these leafy +booths Egidio, Masseo, Bernardo, Silvestro, Ginepro, and many others +whose names history has forgotten, received visits from their spiritual +father, coming to them for their consolation.[6] + +They gave him love for love and consolation for consolation. His poor +heart had great need of both, for in his long, sleepless nights it had +come to him at times to hear strange voices; weariness and regret were +laying hold on him, and looking over the past he was almost driven to +doubt of himself, his Lady Poverty, and everything. + +Between Chiusi and Radicofani--an hour's walk from the village of +Sartiano--a few Brothers had made a shelter which served them by way of +hermitage, with a little cabin for Francis in a retired spot. There he +passed one of the most agonizing nights of his life. The thought that he +had exaggerated the virtue of asceticism and not counted enough upon the +mercy of God assailed him, and suddenly he came to regret the use he had +made of his life. A picture of what he might have been, of the tranquil +and happy home that might have been his, rose up before him in such +living colors that he felt himself giving way. In vain he disciplined +himself with his hempen girdle until the blood came; the vision would +not depart. + +It was midwinter; a heavy fall of snow covered the ground; he rushed out +without his garment, and gathering up great heaps of snow began to make +a row of images. "See," he said, "here is thy wife, and behind her are +two sons and two daughters, with the servant and the maid carrying all +the baggage." + +With this child-like representation of the tyranny of material cares +which he had escaped, he finally put away the temptation.[7] + +There is nothing to show whether or not we should fix at the same epoch +another incident which legend gives as taking place at Sartiano. One day +a brother of whom he asked, "Whence do you come?" replied, "From your +cell." This simple answer was enough to make the vehement lover of +Poverty refuse to occupy it again. "Foxes have holes," he loved to +repeat, "and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man had not +where to lay his head. When the Lord spent forty days and forty nights +praying and fasting in the desert, he built himself neither cell nor +house, but made the side of a rock his shelter."[8] + +It would be a mistake to think, as some have done, that as time went on +Francis changed his point of view. Certain ecclesiastical writers have +assumed that since he desired the multiplication of his Order, he for +that very reason consented to its transformation. The suggestion is +specious, but in this matter we are not left to conjecture; almost +everything which was done in the Order after 1221 was done either +without Francis's knowledge or against his will. If one were inclined to +doubt this, it would need only to glance over that most solemn and also +most adequate manifesto of his thought--his Will. There he is shown +freed from all the temptations which had at times made him hesitate in +the expression of his ideas, bravely gathering himself up to summon back +the primitive ideal, and set it up in opposition to all the concessions +which had been wrung from his weakness. + +The Will is not an appendix to the Rule of 1223, it is almost its +revocation. But it would be a mistake to see in it the first attempt +made to return to the early ideal. The last five years of his life were +only one incessant effort at protest, both by his example and his words. + +In 1222 he addressed to the brethren of Bologna a letter filled with sad +forebodings. In that city, where the Dominicans, overwhelmed with +attentions, were occupied with making themselves a stronghold in the +system of instruction, the Brothers Minor were more than anywhere else +tempted to forsake the way of simplicity and poverty. Francis's warnings +had put on such dark and threatening colors that after the famous +earthquake of December 23, 1222, which spread terror over all northern +Italy, there was no hesitation in believing that he had predicted the +catastrophe.[9] He had indeed predicted a catastrophe which was none +the less horrible for being wholly moral, and the vision of which forced +from him the most bitter imprecations: + + "Lord Jesus, thou didst choose thine apostles to the number of + twelve, and if one of them did betray thee, the others, + remaining united to thee, preached thy holy gospel, filled with + one and the same inspiration; and behold now, remembering the + former days, thou hast raised up the Religion of the Brothers in + order to uphold faith, and that by them the mystery of thy + gospel may be accomplished. Who will take their place if, + instead of fulfilling their mission and being shining examples + for all, they are seen to give themselves up to works of + darkness? Oh! may they be accursed by thee, Lord, and by all the + court of heaven, and by me, thine unworthy servant, they who by + their bad example overturn and destroy all that thou didst do in + the beginning and ceasest not to do by the holy Brothers of this + Order."[10] + +This passage from Thomas of Celano, the most moderate of the +biographers, shows to what a pitch of vehemence and indignation the +gentle Francis could be worked up. + +In spite of very natural efforts to throw a veil of reserve over the +anguish of the founder with regard to the future of his spiritual +family, we find traces of it at every step. "The time will come," he +said one day, "when our Order will so have lost all good renown that its +members will be ashamed to show themselves by daylight."[11] + +He saw in a dream a statue with the head of pure gold, the breast and +arms of silver, the body of crystal, and the legs of iron. He thought it +was an omen of the future in store for his institute.[12] + +He believed his sons to be attacked with two maladies, unfaithful at +once to poverty and humility; but perhaps he dreaded for them the demon +of learning more than the temptation of riches. + +What were his views on the subject of learning? It is probable that he +never examined the question as a whole, but he had no difficulty in +seeing that there will always be students enough in the universities, +and that if scientific effort is an homage offered to God, there is no +risk of worshippers of this class being wanting; but in vain he looked +about him on all sides, he saw no one to fulfil the mission of love and +humility reserved for his Order, if the friars came to be unfaithful to +it. + +Therefore there was something more in his anguish than the grief of +seeing his hopes confounded. The rout of an army is nothing in +comparison with the overthrow of an idea; and in him an idea had been +incarnated, the idea of peace and happiness restored to mankind, by the +victory of love over the trammels of material things. + +By an ineffable mystery he felt himself the Man of his age, him in whose +body are borne all the efforts, the desires, the aspirations of men; +with him, in him, by him humanity yearns to be renewed, and to use the +language of the gospel, born again. + +In this lies his true beauty. By this, far more than by a vain +conformity, an exterior imitation, he is a Christ. + +He also bears the affliction of the world, and if we will look into the +very depths of his soul we must give this word affliction the largest +possible meaning for him as for Jesus. By their pity they bore the +physical sufferings of humanity, but their overwhelming anguish was +something far different from this, it was the birth-throes of the +divine. They suffer, because in them the Word is made flesh, and at +Gethsemane, as under the olive-trees of Greccio, they are in agony +"because their own received them not." + +Yes, St. Francis forever felt the travail of the transformation taking +place in the womb of humanity, going forward to its divine destiny, and +he offered himself, a living oblation, that in him might take place the +mysterious palingenesis. + +Do we now understand his pain? He was trembling for the mystery of the +gospel. There is in him something which reminds us of the tremor of life +when it stands face to face with death, something by so much the more +painful as we have here to do with moral life. + +This explains how the man who would run after ruffians that he might +make disciples of them could be pitiless toward his fellow-laborers who +by an indiscreet, however well-intentioned, zeal forgot their vocation +and would transform their Order into a scientific institute. + +Under pretext of putting learning at the service of God and of religion, +the Church had fostered the worst of vices, pride. According to some it +is her title to glory, but it will be her greatest shame. + +Must we renounce the use of this weapon against the enemies of the +faith? she asks. But can you imagine Jesus joining the school of the +rabbins under the pretext of learning how to reply to them, enfeebling +his thought by their dialectic subtleties and fantastic exegesis? He +might perhaps have been a great doctor, but would he have become the +Saviour of the world? You feel that he would not. + +When we hear preachers going into raptures over the marvellous spread of +the gospel preached by twelve poor fishermen of Galilee, might we not +point out to them that the miracle is at once more and less astounding +than they say? More--for among the twelve several returned to the shores +of their charming lake, and forgetful of the mystic net, thought of the +Crucified One, if they thought of him at all, only to lament him, and +not to raise him from the dead by continuing his work in the four +quarters of the world; less--for if even now, in these dying days of the +nineteenth century, preachers would go forth beside themselves with +love, sacrificing themselves for each and all as in the old days their +Master did, the miracle would be repeated again. + +But no; theology has killed religion. The clergy repeat to satiety that +we must not confound the two; but what good does this do if in practice +we do not distinguish them? + +Never was learning more eagerly coveted than in the thirteenth century. +The Empire and the Church were anxiously asking of it the arguments with +which they might defend their opposing claims. Innocent III. sends the +collection of his Decretals to the University of Bologna and heaps +favors upon it. Frederick II. founds that of Naples, and the Patarini +themselves send their sons from Tuscany and Lombardy to study at Paris. + +We remember the success of Francis's preaching at Bologna,[13] in +August, 1220; at the same period he had strongly reprimanded Pietro +Staccia, the provincial minister and a doctor of laws, not only for +having installed the Brothers in a house which appeared to belong to +them, but especially for having organized a sort of college there. + +It appears that the minister paid no attention to these reproaches. When +Francis became aware of his obstinacy he cursed him with frightful +vehemence; his indignation was so great that when, later on, Pietro +Staccia was about to die and his numerous friends came to entreat +Francis to revoke his malediction, all their efforts were in vain.[14] + +In the face of this attitude of the founder it is very difficult to +believe in the authenticity of the note purporting to be addressed to +Anthony of Padua: + + "To my very dear Anthony, brother Francis, greetings in Christ. + + "It pleases me that you interpret to the Brothers the sacred + writings and theology, in such a way, however (conformably to + our Rule), that the spirit of holy prayer be not extinguished + either in you or in the others, which I desire earnestly. + Greetings." + +Must we see in this a pious fraud to weaken the numberless clear +declarations of Francis against learning? + +It is difficult to picture to ourselves the rivalry which existed at +this time between the Dominicans and Franciscans in the attempt to draw +the most illustrious masters into their respective Orders. Petty +intrigues were organized, in which the devotees had each his part, to +lead such or such a famous doctor to assume the habit.[15] If the +object of St. Francis had been scientific, the friars of Bologna, Paris, +and Oxford could not have done more.[16] + +The current was so strong that the elder Orders were swept away in it +whether they would or no; twenty years later the Cistercians also +desired to become legists, theologians, decretalists, and the rest. + +Perhaps Francis did not in the outset perceive the gravity of the +danger, but illusion was no longer possible, and from this time he +showed, as we have seen, an implacable firmness. If later on his thought +was travestied, the guilty ones--the popes and most of the +ministers-general--were obliged to resort to feats of prestidigitation +that are not to their credit. "Suppose," he would say, "that you had +subtility and learning enough to know all things, that you were +acquainted with all languages, the courses of the stars, and all the +rest, what is there in that to be proud of? A single demon knows more on +these subjects than all the men in this world put together.[17] But +there is one thing that the demon is incapable of, and which is the +glory of man: to be faithful to God."[18] + +Definite information with regard to the chapters of 1222 and 1223 is +wanting. The proposed modifications of the project of 1221 were +discussed by the ministers[19] and afterward definitively settled by +Cardinal Ugolini. The latter had long conferences on the subject with +Francis, who has himself given us the account of them.[20] + +The result of them all was the Rule of 1223. Very soon a swarm of +marvellous stories, which it would be tedious to examine in detail, came +to be clustered around the origin of this document; all that we need to +retain of them is the memory that they keep of the struggles of Francis +against the ministers for the preservation of his ideal. + +Before going to Rome to ask for the final approbation he had meditated +long in the solitude of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. This hill was soon +represented as a new Sinai, and the disciples pictured their master on +its heights receiving another Decalogue from the hands of Jesus +himself.[21] + +Angelo Clareno, one of the most complacent narrators of these +traditions, takes upon himself to point out their slight value; he shows +us Honorious III. modifying an essential passage in the plan at the last +moment.[22] I have already so far described this Rule that there is no +need to return to the subject here. + +It was approved November 25, 1223.[23] Many memories appear to have +clustered about the journey of Francis to Rome. One day Cardinal +Ugolini, whose hospitality he had accepted, was much surprised, and his +guests as well, to find him absent as they were about to sit down at +table, but they soon saw him coming, carrying a quantity of pieces of +dry bread, which he joyfully distributed to all the noble company. His +host, somewhat abashed by the proceeding, having undertaken after the +meal to reproach him a little, Francis explained that he had no right to +forget, for a sumptuous feast, the bread of charity on which he was fed +every day, and that he desired thus to show his brethren that the +richest table is not worth so much to the poor in spirit as this table +of the Lord.[24] + +We have seen that during the earlier years the Brothers Minor had been +in the habit of earning their bread by going out as servants. Some of +them, a very small number, had continued to do so. Little by little, in +this matter also all had been changed. Under color of serving, the +friars entered the families of the highest personages of the pontifical +court, and became their confidential attendants; instead of submitting +themselves to all, as the Rule of 1221 ordained, they were above +everyone. + +Entirely losing sight of the apostolic life, they became courtiers of a +special type; their character, half ecclesiastic and half lay, rendered +them capable of carrying out a number of delicate missions and of +playing a part in the varied intrigues for which the greater number of +Roman prelates have always seemed to live.[25] By way of protest +Francis had only one weapon, his example. + + One day, the Speculum relates, the Blessed Francis came to Rome + to see the Bishop of Ostia (Ugolini), and after having remained + some time at his house, he went also to visit Cardinal Leo, who + had a great devotion for him. + + It was winter; the cold, the wind, the rain made any journey + impossible, so the cardinal begged him to pass a few days in his + house and to take his food there, like the other poor folk who + came there to eat. ... "I will give you," he added, "a good + lodging, quite retired, where if you like you may pray and eat." + Then Brother Angelo, one of the twelve first disciples, who + lived with the cardinal, said to Francis: "There is, close by + here, a great tower standing by itself and very quiet; you will + be there as in a hermitage." Francis went to see it and it + pleased him. Then, returning to the cardinal, "Monsignor," he + said, "it is possible that I may pass a few days with you." The + latter was very joyful, and Brother Angelo went to prepare the + tower for the Blessed Francis and his companion. + + But the very first night, when he would have slept, the demons + came and smote him. Calling then to his companion, "Brother," he + said, "the demons have come and smitten me with violence; remain + near me, I beg, for I am afraid here alone." + + He was trembling in all his members, like one who has a fever. + They passed the night both without sleeping. "The demons are + commissioned with the chastisements of God," said Francis; "as a + podesta sends his executioner to punish the criminal, so God + sends demons, who in this are his ministers.... Why has he sent + them to me? Perhaps this is the reason: The cardinal desired to + be kind to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the + Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a + thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in + hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn + with a cardinal will be moved to repine. 'We endure all + privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can + desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example--that is my + true mission." ... + + Early next morning, therefore he quitted the tower, and having + told the cardinal all, took leave of him and returned to the + hermitage of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. "They think me a holy + man," he said, "and see, it needed demons to cast me out of + prison."[26] + +This story, notwithstanding its strange coloring, shows plainly how +strong was his instinct for independence. To compare the hospitality of +a cardinal to an imprisonment! He spoke better than he knew, +characterizing in one word the relation of the Church to his Order. + +The lark was not dead; in spite of cold and the north wind it gayly took +its flight to the vale of Rieti. + +It was mid-December. An ardent desire to observe to the life the +memories of Christmas had taken possession of Francis. He opened his +heart to one of his friends, the knight Giovanni di Greccio, who +undertook the necessary preparations. + +The imitation of Jesus has in all times been the very centre of +Christianity; but one must be singularly spiritual to be satisfied with +the imitation of the heart. With most men there is need that this should +be preceded and sustained by an external imitation. It is indeed the +spirit that gives life, but it is only in the country of the angels that +one can say that the flesh profiteth nothing. + +In the Middle Ages a religious festival was before all things else a +representation, more or less faithful, of the event which it recalled; +hence the _santons_ of Provence, the processions of the _Palmesel_, the +Holy Supper of Maundy Thursday, the Road to the Cross of Good Friday, +the drama of the Resurrection of Easter, and the flaming tow of +Whitsunday. Francis was too thoroughly Italian not to love these +festivals where every visible thing speaks of God and of his love. + +The population of Greccio and its environs was, therefore, convoked, as +well as the Brothers from the neighboring monasteries. On the evening of +the vigil of Christmas one might have seen the faithful hastening to the +hermitage by every path with torches in their hands, making the forests +ring with their joyful hymns. + +Everyone was rejoicing--Francis most of all. The knight had prepared a +stable with straw, and brought an ox and an ass, whose breath seemed to +give warmth to the poor _bambino_, benumbed with the cold. At the sight +the saint felt tears of pity bedew his face; he was no longer in +Greccio, his heart was in Bethlehem. + +Finally they began to chant matins; then the mass was begun, and +Francis, as deacon, read the Gospel. Already hearts were touched by the +simple recital of the sacred legend in a voice so gentle and so fervent, +but when he preached, his emotion soon overcame the audience; his voice +had so unutterable a tenderness that they also forgot everything, and +were living over again the feeling of the shepherds of Judea who in +those old days went to adore the God made man, born in a stable.[27] + +Toward the close of the thirteenth century, the author of the _Stabat +Mater dolorosa_, Giacopone dei Todi, that Franciscan of genius who spent +a part of his life in dungeons, inspired by the memory of Greccio, +composed another Stabat, that of joy, _Stabat Mater speciosa_. This hymn +of Mary beside the manger is not less noble than that of Mary at the +foot of the cross. The sentiment is even more tender, and it is hard to +explain its neglect except by an unjust caprice of fate. + + Stabat Mater speciosa + Juxtum foenum gaudiosa + Dum jacebat parvulus. + + Quae gaudebat et ridebat + Exsultabat cum videbat + Nati partum inclyti. + + Fac me vere congaudere + Jesulino cohaerere + Donec ego vixero.[28] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] All this took place with prodigious rapidity. The dimensions + of the Basilica of Assisi, the plans of which were made in 1228, + no more permits it to be considered as a conventual chapel than + Santa-Croce in Florence, San Francesco in Sienna, or the + Basilica San Antonio at Padua, monuments commenced between 1230 + and 1240. Already before 1245 one party of the episcopate utters + a cry of alarm, in which he speaks of nothing less than of + closing the door of the secular churches, which have become + useless. He complains with incredible bitterness that the Minor + and Preaching Friars have absolutely supplanted the parochial + clergy. This letter may be found in Pierre de la Vigne, + addressed at once to Frederick II. and the Council of Lyons: + _Epistolae_, Basle, 1740, 2 vols., vol. i., pp. 220-222. It is + much to be desired that a critical text should be given. See + also the satire against the two new Orders, done in rhyme about + 1242 by Pierre de la Vigne, and of which, allowing for possible + exaggerations, the greater number of the incidents cannot have + been invented: E. du Meril, _Poesies pop. lat._, pp. 153-177, + Paris, 8vo, 1847. + + [2] And not of the 29th, as Sbaralea will have it. _Bull. fr._, + vol. i., n. 10. Horoy, vol. iv., col. 129; the original, still + in the archives of Assisi, bears the title: _Datum Anagnie 11 + Kalendas Aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto_. + + [3] Potthast, 6809; Horoy, iv., col. 129. See also the bull + _Ecce Venit Deus_ of July 14, 1227; L. Auvray: _Registres de + Gregoire IX._, no. 129; cf. 153; Potthast, 8027 and 8028, 8189. + + [4] He had finished his mission as legate in Lombardy toward the + close of September, 1221 (see his register; cf. Boehmer, _Acta + imp. sel. doc._, 951). In the spring of 1222 we find him + continually near the pope at Anagni, Veroli, Alatri (Potthast, + 6807, 6812, 6849). The Holy See had still at that time a marked + predilection for the Preachers; the very trite privilege of + power to celebrate the offices in times of interdict had been + accorded them March 7, 1222, but instead of the formula usual in + such cases, a revised form had been made expressly for them, + with a handsome eulogy. Ripolli, _Bull. Praed._, t. i., p. 15. + + [5] 2 Cel., 3, 93: _Subtrahebat se a consortio fratrum._ + + [6] It is needless to say that local traditions, in this case, + though as to detail they must be accepted only with great + reserve, yet on the whole are surely true. The geography of St. + Francis's life is yet to be made. + + [7] 2 Cel., 3, 59; Bon., 60; _Conform._, 122b, 2. + + [8] 2 Cel., 3, 5; _Spec._, 12a; _Conform._, 169b, 2. + + [9] Eccl., 6. Vide Liebermann's text, _Mon. Germ. hist. + Script._, t. 28, p. 663. + + [10] 2 Cel., 3, 93; Bon., 104 and 105; _Conform._, 101a, 2. + + [11] 2 Cel., 3, 93; _Spec._, 49b; 182a; _Conform._, 182a, 1; + _Tribul._, f^o 5a; 2 Cel., 3, 98; 113; 115; 1 Cel., 28, 50; 96; + 103; 104; 108; 111; 118. + + [12] 2 Cel., 3, 27; _Spec._, 38b; _Conform._, 181b, 1; + _Tribul._, 7b. Cf. _Spec._, 220b; _Conform._, 103b. + + [13] Francis's successors were nearly all without exception + students of Bologna. Pietro di Catana was doctor of laws, as + also Giovanni Parenti (Giord., 51).--Elias had been _scriptor_ + at Bologna.--Alberto of Pisa had been minister there (Eccl., + 6).--Aymon had been reader there (Eccl., 6).--Crescentius wrote + works on jurisprudence (_Conform._, 121b, 1, etc., etc.). + + [14] This name cannot be warranted; he is called Giovanni di + Laschaccia in a passage of the _Conformities_ (104a, 1); Pietro + Schiaccia in the Italian MS. of the _Tribulations_ (f^o 75a); + Petrus Stacia in the Laurentinian MS. (13b; cf. _Archiv._, ii., + p. 258). _Tribul._, 13b; _Spec._, 184b. This story has been much + amplified in other places. _Spec._, 126a; _Conform._, 104b, 1. + + [15] Vide Eccl., 3: History of the entrance of Adam of Oxford + into the Order. Cf., _Chartularium Univ. Par._, t. i., nos. 47 + and 49. + + [16] Eccleston's entire chronicle is a living witness to this. + + [17] _Admonitio_, v.; cf. _Conform._, 141a. + + Compare the _Constitutiones antiquae_ (_Speculum_, Morin, iii., + f^o 195b-206) with the Rule. From the opening chapters the + contradiction is apparent: _Ordinamus quod nullus recipiatur in + ordine nostro nisi sit talis clericus qui sit competenter + instructus in grammatica vel logica; aut nisi sit talis laicus + de cujus ingressu esset valde celebris et edificatio in populo + et in clero_. This is surely far from the spirit of him who + said: _Et quicumque venerit amicus vel adversarius fur vel latro + benigne recipiatur_. Rule of 1221, cap. vii. See also the + Exposition of the Rule of Bonaventura. _Speculum_, Morin, iii., + f^o 21-40. + + [18] Upon Francis's attitude toward learning see _Tribul._, + Laur., 14b; _Spec._, 184a; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 48; 100; 116; 119; + 120-124. Bon., chap. 152, naturally expresses only Bonaventura's + views. See especially Rule of 1221, cap. xvii.; of 1223, cap. x. + + [19] _Spec._, 7b: _Fecit Franciscus regulam quam papa Honorius + confirmavit cum bulla, de qua regula multa fuerunt extracta per + ministros contra voluntatem b. Francisci_. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 136. + + [20] Bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28, 1230; Sbaralea, i., p. + 56. + + [21] Bon., 55 and 56 [3 Soc., 62]; _Spec._, 76; 124a; _Tribul._, + Laur., 17b-19b; Ubertini, _Arbor. V._, 5; _Conform._, 88a, 2. + + [22] _Tribul._, Laur., 19a; _Archiv._, t. iii., p. 601. Cf. A. + SS., p. 638e. + + [23] Potthast, 7108.--The work of this bull was completed by + that of December 18, 1223. (The original of the _Sacro Convento_ + bears _Datum Laterani XV. Kal. jan._) _Fratrem Minorum_: + Potthast, 7123. + + [24] 2 Cel., 3, 19; Bon., 95; _Spec._, 18b; _Conform._, 171a, 1. + + [25] 2 Cel., 3, 61 and 62. Cf. Eccl., 6, the account of Rod. de + Rosa. + + [26] _Spec._, 47b ff.; 2 Cel., 3, 61; Bon., 84 and 85. + + [27] 1 Cel., 84-87; Bon., 149. + + [28] This little poem was published entire by M. Ozanam in vol. + v. of his works, p. 184. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE STIGMATA + +1224 + + +The upper valley of the Arno forms in the very centre of Italy a country +apart, the Casentino, which through centuries had its own life, somewhat +like an island in the midst of the ocean. + +The river flows out from it by a narrow defile at the south, and on all +other sides the Apennines encircle it with a girdle of inaccessible +mountains.[1] + +This plain, some ten leagues in diameter, is enlivened with picturesque +villages, finely posted on hillocks at the base of which flows the +stream; here are Bibbiena, Poppi, the antique Romena sung by Dante, the +Camaldoli, and up there on the crest Chiusi, long ago the capital of the +country, with the ruins of Count Orlando's castle. + +The people are charming and refined; the mountains have sheltered them +from wars, and on every side we see the signs of labor, prosperity, a +gentle gayety. At any moment we might fancy ourselves transported into +some valley of the Vivarais or Provence. The vegetation on the borders +of the Arno is thoroughly tropical; the olive and the mulberry marry +with the vine. On the lower hill-slopes are wheat fields divided by +meadows; then come the chestnuts and the oaks, higher still the pine, +the fir, the larch, and above all the bare rock. + +Among all the peaks there is one which especially attracts the +attention; instead of a rounded and so to say flattened top, it uplifts +itself slender, proud, isolated; it is the Verna.[2] + +One might think it an immense rock fallen from the sky. It is in fact an +erratic block set there, a little like a petrified Noah's ark on the +summit of Mount Ararat. The basaltic mass, perpendicular on all sides, +is crowned with a plateau planted with pines and gigantic beeches, and +accessible only by a footpath.[3] + +Such was the solitude which Orlando had given to Francis, and to which +Francis had already many a time come for quiet and contemplation. + +Seated upon the few stones of the Penna,[4] he heard only the +whispering of the wind among the trees, but in the splendor of the +sunrise or the sunset he could see nearly all the districts in which he +had sown the seed of the gospel: the Romagna and the March of Ancona, +losing themselves on the horizon in the waves of the Adriatic; Umbria, +and farther away, Tuscany, vanishing in the waters of the Mediterranean. + +The impression on this height is not crushing like that which one has in +the Alps: a feeling infinitely calm and sweet flows over you; you are +high enough to judge of men from above, not high enough to forget their +existence. + +Besides the wide horizons, Francis found there other objects of delight; +in this forest, one of the noblest in Europe, live legions of birds, +which never having been hunted are surprisingly tame.[5] Subtile +perfumes arise from the ground, and in the midst of borage and lichens +frail and exquisite cyclamens blossom in fantastic variety. + +He desired to return thither after the chapter of 1224. This meeting, +held in the beginning of June, was the last at which he was present. The +new Rule was there put into the hands of the ministers, and the mission +to England decided upon. + +It was in the early days of August that Francis took his way toward +Verna. With him were only a few Brothers, Masseo, Angelo, and Leo. The +first had been charged to direct the little band, and spare him all +duties except that of prayer.[6] + +They had been two days on the road when it became necessary to seek for +an ass for Francis, who was too much enfeebled to go farther on foot. + +The Brothers, in asking for this service, had not concealed the name of +their master, and the peasant, to whom they had addressed themselves +respectfully, asked leave to guide the beast himself. After going on a +certain time, "Is it true," he said, "that you are Brother Francis of +Assisi?" "Very well," he went on, after the answer in the affirmative, +"apply yourself to be as good as folk say you are, that they may not be +deceived in their expectation; that is my advice." Francis immediately +got down from his beast and, prostrating himself before the peasant, +thanked him warmly.[7] + +Meanwhile the warmest hour of the day had come on. The peasant, +exhausted with fatigue, little by little forgot his surprise and joy; +one does not feel the burning of thirst the less for walking beside a +saint. He had begun to regret his kindness, when Francis pointed with +his finger to a spring, unknown till then, and which has never since +been seen.[8] + +At last they arrived at the foot of the last precipice. Before scaling +it they paused to rest a little under a great oak, and immediately +flocks of birds gathered around them, testifying their joy by songs and +flutterings of their wings. Hovering around Francis, they alighted on +his head, his shoulders, or his arms. "I see," he said joyfully to his +companions, "that it is pleasing to our Lord Jesus that we live in this +solitary mount, since our brothers and sisters the birds have shown such +great delight at our coming."[9] + +This mountain was at once his Tabor and his Calvary. We must not wonder, +then, that legends have flourished here even more numerously than at any +other period of his life; the greater number of them have the exquisite +charm of the little flowers, rosy and perfumed, which hide themselves +modestly at the feet of the fir-trees of Verna. + +The summer nights up there are of unparalleled beauty: nature, stifled +by the heat of the sun, seems then to breathe anew. In the trees, behind +the rocks, on the turf, a thousand voices rise up, sweetly harmonizing +with the murmur of the great woods; but among all these voices there is +not one which forces itself upon the attention, it is a melody which you +enjoy without listening. You let your eyes wander over the landscape, +still for long hours illumined with hieratic tints by the departed star +of day, and the peaks of the Apennines, flooded with rainbow hues, drop +down into your soul what the Franciscan poet called the nostalgia of the +everlasting hills.[10] + +More than anyone Francis felt it. The very evening of their arrival, +seated upon a mound in the midst of his Brothers, he gave them his +directions for their dwelling-place. + +The quiet of nature would have sufficed to sow in their hearts some +germs of sadness, and the voice of the master harmonized with the +emotion of the last gleams of light; he spoke with them of his +approaching death, with the regret of the laborer overtaken by the +shades of evening before the completion of his task, with the sighs of +the father who trembles for the future of his children.[11] + +For himself he desired from this time to prepare himself for death by +prayer and contemplation; and he begged them to protect him from all +intrusion. Orlando,[12] who had already come to bid them welcome and +offer his services, had at his request hastily caused a hut of boughs to +be made, at the foot of a great beech. It was there that he desired to +dwell, at a stone's throw from the cells inhabited by his companions. +Brother Leo was charged to bring him each day that which he would need. + +He retired to it immediately after this memorable conversation, but +several days later, embarrassed no doubt by the pious curiosity of the +friars, who watched all his movements, he went farther into the woods, +and on Assumption Day he there began the Lent which he desired to +observe in honor of the Archangel Michael and the celestial host. + +Genius has its modesty as well as love. The poet, the artist, the saint, +need to be alone when the Spirit comes to move them. Every effort of +thought, of imagination, or of will is a prayer, and one does not pray +in public. + +Alas for the man who has not in his inmost heart some secret which may +not be told, because it cannot be spoken, and because if it were spoken +it could not be understood. SECRETUM MEUM MIHI! Jesus felt it deeply: +the raptures of Tabor are brief; they may not be told. + +Before these soul mysteries materialists and devotees often meet and are +of one mind in demanding precision in those things which can the least +endure it. + +The believer asks in what spot on the Verna Francis received the +stigmata; whether the seraph which appeared to him was Jesus or a +celestial spirit; what words were spoken as he imprinted them upon +him;[13] and he no more understands that hour when Francis swooned with +woe and love than the materialist, who asks to see with his eyes and +touch with his hands the gaping wound. + +Let us try to avoid these extremes. Let us hear what the documents give +us, and not seek to do them violence, to wrest from them what they do +not tell, what they cannot tell. + +They show us Francis distressed for the future of the Order, and with an +infinite desire for new spiritual progress. + +He was consumed with the fever of saints, that need of immolation which +wrung from St. Theresa the passionate cry, "Either to suffer or to die!" +He was bitterly reproaching himself with not having been found worthy of +martyrdom, not having been able to give himself for Him who gave himself +for us. + +We touch here upon one of the most powerful and mysterious elements of +the Christian life. We may very easily not understand it, but we may not +for all that deny it. It is the root of true mysticism.[14] The really +new thing that Jesus brought into the world was that, feeling himself in +perfect union with the heavenly Father, he called all men to unite +themselves to him and through him to God: "I am the vine, and ye are the +branches; he who abides in me and I in him brings forth much fruit, for +apart from me ye can do nothing." + +The Christ not only preached this union, he made it felt. On the evening +of his last day he instituted its sacrament, and there is probably no +sect which denies that communion is at once the symbol, the principle, +and the end of the religious life. For eighteen centuries Christians who +differ on everything else cannot but look with one accord to him who in +the upper chamber instituted the rite of the new times. + +The night before he died he took the bread and brake it and distributed +it to them, saying, "TAKE AND EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY." + +Jesus, while presenting union with himself as the very foundation of the +new life,[15] took care to point out to his brethren that this union +was before all things a sharing in his work, in his struggles, and his +sufferings: "Let him that would be my disciple take up his cross and +follow me." + +St. Paul entered so perfectly into the Master's thought in this respect +that he uttered a few years later this cry of a mysticism that has never +been equalled: "I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live ... or +rather, it is not I who live, but Christ who liveth in me." This +utterance is not an isolated exclamation with him, it is the very centre +of his religious consciousness, and he goes so far as to say, at the +risk of scandalizing many a Christian: "I fill up in my body that which +is lacking of the sufferings of Christ, for his body's sake, which is +the Church." + +Perhaps it has not been useless to enter into these thoughts, to show to +what point Francis during the last years of his life, where he renews in +his body the passion of Christ, is allied to the apostolic tradition. + +In the solitudes of the Verna, as formerly at St. Damian, Jesus +presented himself to him under his form of the Crucified One, the man of +sorrows.[16] + +That this intercourse has been described to us in a poetic and inexact +form is nothing surprising. It is the contrary that would be surprising. +In the paroxysms of divine love there are _ineffabilia_ which, far from +being able to relate them or make them understood, we can hardly recall +to our own minds. + +Francis on the Verna was even more absorbed than usual in his ardent +desire to suffer for Jesus and with him. His days went by divided +between exercises of piety in the humble sanctuary on the mountain-top +and meditation in the depths of the forest. It even happened to him to +forget the services, and to remain several days alone in some cave of +the rock, going over in his heart the memories of Golgotha. At other +times he would remain for long hours at the foot of the altar, reading +and re-reading the Gospel, and entreating God to show him the way in +which he ought to walk.[17] + +The book almost always opened of itself to the story of the Passion, and +this simple coincidence, though easy enough to explain, was enough of +itself to excite him. + +The vision of the Crucified One took the fuller possession of his +faculties as the day of the Elevation of the Holy Cross drew near +(September 14th), a festival now relegated to the background, but in the +thirteenth century celebrated with a fervor and zeal very natural for a +solemnity which might be considered the patronal festival of the +Crusades. + +Francis doubled his fastings and prayers, "quite transformed into Jesus +by love and compassion," says one of the legends. He passed the night +before the festival alone in prayer, not far from the hermitage. In the +morning he had a vision. In the rays of the rising sun, which after the +chill of night came to revive his body, he suddenly perceived a strange +form. + +A seraph, with outspread wings, flew toward him from the edge of the +horizon, and bathed his soul in raptures unutterable. In the centre of +the vision appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed upon it. When +the vision disappeared, he felt sharp sufferings mingling with the +ecstasy of the first moments. Stirred to the very depths of his being, +he was anxiously seeking the meaning of it all, when he perceived upon +his body the stigmata of the Crucified.[18] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The passes that give access to the Casentino have all about + one thousand metres of altitude. Until the most recent years + there was no road properly so called. + + [2] In France Mount Aiguille, one of the seven wonders of + Dauphiny, presents the same aspect and the same geological + formation. St. Odile also recalls the Verna, but is very much + smaller. + + [3] The summit has an altitude of 1269 metres. In Italian they + call it the _Verna_, in Latin _Alvernus_. The etymology, which + has tested the acuteness of the learned, appears to be very + simple; the verb _vernare_, used by Dante, signifies make cold, + freeze. + + [4] Name of the highest point on the plateau. Hardly + three-quarters of an hour from the monastery, and not two hours + and a half, as these worthy anchorites believed. This is said + for the benefit of tourists ... and pilgrims. + + [5] The forest has been preserved as a relic. Alexander IV. + fulminated excommunication against whomever should cut down the + firs of Verna. As to the birds, it is enough to pass a day at + the monastery to be amazed at their number and variety. M. C. + Beni has begun at Stia (in Casentino) an ornithological + collection which already includes more than five hundred and + fifty varieties. + + [6] 1 Cel., 91; Bon., 188; _Fior. i., consid._ + + [7] _Fior. i., consid.;_ _Conform._, 176b, 1. + + [8] Cel., 2, 15; Bon., 100. _Fior. i., consid._ + + [9] Bon., 118. _Fior. i., consid._ + + [10] 2 Cel., 100. + + [11] _Fior. ii., consid._ + + [12] The ruins of the castle of Chiusi are three quarters of an + hour from Verna. + + [13] _Fior. iv. and v. consid._ These two considerations appear + to be the result of a reworking of the primitive document. The + latter no doubt included the three former, which the continuer + has interpolated and lengthened. Cf. _Conform._, 231a, 1; + _Spec._, 91b, 92a, 97; A. SS., pp. 860 ff. + + [14] In current language we often include under the word + mysticism all the tendencies--often far from Christian--which + give predominance in the religious life to vague poetic + elements, impulses of the heart. The name of mystic ought to be + applied only to those Christians to whom _immediate_ relations + with Jesus form the basis of the religious life. In this sense + St. Paul (whose theologico-philosophical system is one of the + most powerful efforts of the human mind to explain sin and + redemption) is at the same time the prince of mystics. + + [15] He did not desire to institute a religion, for he felt the + vanity of observances and dogmas. (The apostles continued to + frequent the Jewish temple. Acts, ii., 46; iii., 1; v., 25; + xxi., 26.) He desired to inoculate the world with a new life. + + [16] 2 Cel., 3, 29; cf. 1 Cel., 115; 3 Soc., 13 and 14; 2 Cel., + 1, 6; 2 Cel., 3, 123 and 131; Bon., 57; 124; 203; 204; 224; 225; + 309; 310; 311; _Conform._, 229b ff. + + [17] 1 Cel., 91-94; Bon., 189, 190. + + [18] See the annotations of Brother Leo upon the autograph of + St. Francis (Crit. Study, p. 357) and 1 Cel., 94, 95; Bon., 191, + 192, 193 (3 Soc., 69, 70); _Fior. iii. consid._ Cf. _Auct. vit. + sec._; A. SS. p. 649. It is to be noted that Thomas of Celano (1 + Cel., 95), as well as all the primitive documents, describe the + stigmata as being fleshy excrescences, recalling in form and + color the nails with which the limbs of Jesus were pierced. No + one speaks of those gaping, sanguineous wounds which were + imagined later. Only the mark at the side was a wound, whence at + times exuded a little blood. Finally, Thomas of Celano says that + after the seraphic vision _began to appear, coeperunt apparere + signa clavorum_. Vide Appendix: Study of the Stigmata. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CANTICLE OF THE SUN + +Autumn, 1224-Autumn, 1225 + + +The morning after St. Michael's Day (September 30, 1224) Francis quitted +Verna and went to Portiuncula. He was too much exhausted to think of +making the journey on foot, and Count Orlando put a horse at his +disposal. + +We can imagine the emotion with which he bade adieu to the mountain on +which had been unfolded the drama of love and pain which had consummated +the union of his entire being with the Crucified One. + + Amor, amor, Gesu desideroso, + Amor voglio morire, + Te abrazando + Amor, dolce Gesu, meo sposo, + Amor, amor, la morte te domando, + Amor, amor, Gesu si pietoso + Tu me te dai in te transformato + Pensa ch'io vo spasmando + Non so o io me sia + Gesu speranza mia + Ormai va, dormi in amore. + +So sang Giacopone dei Todi in the raptures of a like love.[1] + +If we are to believe a recently published document,[2] Brother Masseo, +one of those who remained on the Verna, made a written account of the +events of this day. + +They set out early in the morning. Francis, after having given his +directions to the Brothers, had had a look and a word for everything +around; for the rocks, the flowers, the trees, for brother hawk, a +privileged character which was authorized to enter his cell at all +times, and which came every morning, with the first glimmer of dawn, to +remind him of the hour of service.[3] + +Then the little band set forth upon the path leading to +Monte-Acuto.[4] Arrived at the gap from whence one gets the last sight +of the Verna, Francis alighted from his horse, and kneeling upon the +earth, his face turned toward the mountain, "Adieu," he said, "mountain +of God, sacred mountain, _mons coagulatus, mons pinguis, mons in quo +bene placitum est Deo habitare_; adieu Monte-Verna, may God bless thee, +the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; abide in peace; we shall never +see one another more." + +Has not this artless scene a delicious and poignant sweetness? He must +surely have uttered these words, in which suddenly the Italian does not +suffice and Francis is obliged to resort to the mystical language of +the breviary to express his feelings. + +A few minutes later the rock of the ecstacy had disappeared. The descent +into the valley is rapid. The Brothers had decided to spend the night at +Monte-Casale, the little hermitage above Borgo San-Sepolcro. All of +them, even those who were to remain on the Verna, were still following +their master. As for him, absorbed in thought he had become entirely +oblivious to what was going on, and did not even perceive the noisy +enthusiasm which his passage aroused in the numerous villages along the +Tiber. + +At Borgo San-Sepolcro he received a real ovation without even then +coming to himself; but when they had some time quitted the town, he +seemed suddenly to awake, and asked his companion if they ought not soon +to arrive there.[5] + +The first evening at Monte Casale was marked by a miracle. Francis +healed a friar who was possessed.[6] The next morning, having decided +to pass several days in this hermitage, he sent the brothers back to the +Verna, and with them Count Orlando's horse. + +In one of the villages through which they had passed the day before a +woman had been lying several days between death and life unable to give +birth to her child. Those about her had only learned of the passage of +the saint through their village when he was too far distant to be +overtaken. We may judge of the joy of these poor people when the rumor +was spread that he was about to return. They went to meet him, and were +terribly disappointed on finding only the friars. Suddenly an idea +occurred to them: taking the bridle of the horse consecrated by the +touch of Francis's hands, they carried it to the sufferer, who, having +laid it upon her body, gave birth to her child without the slightest +pain.[7] + +This miracle, established by narratives entirely authentic, shows the +degree of enthusiasm felt by the people for the person of Francis. As +for him, after a few days at Monte-Casale, he set out with Brother Leo +for Citta di Castello. He there healed a woman suffering from frightful +nervous disorders, and remained an entire month preaching in this city +and its environs. When he once more set forth winter had almost closed +in. A peasant lent him his ass, but the roads were so bad that they were +unable to reach any sort of shelter before nightfall. The unhappy +travellers were obliged to pass the night under a rock; the shelter was +more than rudimentary, the wind drifted the snow in upon them, and +nearly froze the unlucky peasant, who with abominable oaths heaped +curses on Francis; but the latter replied with such cheerfulness that he +made him at last forget both the cold and his bad humor. + +On the morrow the saint reached Portiuncula. He seems to have made only +a brief halt there, and to have set forth again almost immediately to +evangelize Southern Umbria. + +It is impossible to follow him in this mission. Brother Elias +accompanied him, but so feeble was he that Elias could not conceal his +uneasiness as to his life.[8] + +Ever since his return from Syria (August, 1220), he had been growing +continually weaker, but his fervor had increased from day to day. +Nothing could check him, neither suffering nor the entreaties of the +Brothers; seated on an ass he would sometimes go over three or four +villages in one day. Such excessive toil brought on an infirmity even +more painful than any he had hitherto suffered from: he was threatened +with loss of sight.[9] + +Meanwhile a sedition had forced Honorius III. to leave Rome (end of +April, 1225). After passing a few weeks at Tivoli, he established +himself at Rieti, where he remained until the end of 1226.[10] + +The pope's arrival had drawn to this city, with the entire pontifical +court, several physicians of renown; Cardinal Ugolini, who had come in +the pope's train, hearing of Francis's malady, summoned him to Rieti for +treatment. But notwithstanding Brother Elias's entreaties Francis +hesitated a long time as to accepting the invitation.[11] It seemed to +him that a sick man has but one thing to do; place himself purely and +simply in the hands of the heavenly Father. What is pain to a soul that +is fixed in God![12] + +Elias, however, at last overcame his objections, and the journey was +determined upon, but first Francis desired to go and take leave of +Clara, and enjoy a little rest near her. + +He remained at St. Damian much longer than he had proposed to do[13] +(end of July to beginning of September, 1225). His arrival at this +beloved monastery was marked by a terrible aggravation of his malady. +For fifteen days he was so completely blind that he could not even +distinguish light. The care lavished upon him produced no result, since +every day he passed long hours in weeping--tears of penitence, he said, +but also of regret.[14] Ah, how different they were from those tears +of his moments of inspiration and emotion, which had flowed over a +countenance all illumined with joy! They had seen him, in such moments, +take up two bits of wood, and, accompanying himself with this rustic +violin, improvise French songs in which he would pour out the abundance +of his heart.[15] + +But the radiance of genius and hope had become dimmed. Rachel weeps for +her children, and will not be comforted because they are not. There are +in the tears of Francis this same _quia non sunt_ for his spiritual +sons. + +But if there are irremediable pains there are none which may not be at +once elevated and softened, when we endure them at the side of those who +love us. + +In this respect his companions could not be of much help to him. Moral +consolations are possible only from our peers, or when two hearts are +united by a mystical passion so great that they mingle and understand +one another. + +"Ah, if the Brothers knew what I suffer," St. Francis said a few days +before the impression of the stigmata, "with what pity and compassion +they would be moved!" + +But they, seeing him who had laid cheerfulness upon them as a duty +becoming more and more sad and keeping aloof from them, imagined that he +was tortured with temptations of the devil.[16] + +Clara divined that which could not be uttered. At St. Damian her friend +was looking back over all the past: what memories lived again in a +single glance! Here, the olive-tree to which, a brilliant cavalier, he +had fastened his horse; there, the stone bench where his friend, the +priest of the poor chapel, used to sit; yonder, the hiding-place in +which he had taken refuge from the paternal wrath, and, above all, the +sanctuary with the mysterious crucifix of the decisive hour. + +In living over these pictures of the radiant past, Francis aggravated +his pain; yet they spoke to him of other things than death and regret. +Clara was there, as steadfast, as ardent as ever. Long ago transformed +by admiration, she was now transfigured by compassion. Seated at the +feet of him whom she loved with more than earthly love she felt the +soreness of his soul, and the failing of his heart. After that, what did +it matter that Francis's tears became more abundant to the point of +making him blind for a fortnight? Soothing would come; the sister of +consolation would give him peace once more. + +And first she kept him near her, and, herself taking part in the labor, +she made him a large cell of reeds in the monastery garden, that he +might be entirely at liberty as to his movements. + +How could he refuse a hospitality so thoroughly Franciscan? It was +indeed only too much so: legions of rats and mice infested this retired +spot; at night they ran over Francis's bed with an infernal uproar, so +that he could find no repose from his sufferings. But he soon forgot all +that when near his sister-friend. Once again she gave back to him faith +and courage. "A single sunbeam," he used to say, "is enough to drive +away many shadows!" + +Little by little the man of the former days began to show himself, and +at times the Sisters would hear, mingling with the murmur of the olive +trees and pines, the echo of unfamiliar songs, which seemed to come from +the cell of reeds. + +One day he had seated himself at the monastery table after a long +conversation with Clara. The meal had hardly begun when suddenly he +seemed to be rapt away in ecstasy. + +"_Laudato sia lo Signore!_" he cried on coming to himself. He had just +composed the Canticle of the Sun.[17] + + +TEXT[18] + + INCIPIUNT LAUDES CREATURARUM + QUAS FECIT BEATUS FRANCISCUS AD LAUDEM ET HONOREM + DEI + CUM ESSET INFIRMUS AD SANCTUM DAMIANUM. + + ALTISSIMU, onnipotente, bon signore, + tue so le laude la gloria e l'onore et onne benedictione. + Ad te sole, altissimo, se konfano + et nullu homo ene dignu te mentovare. + Laudato sie, mi signore, cum tucte le tue creature + spetialmente messor lo frate sole, + lo quale jorna, et illumini per lui; + Et ellu e bellu e radiante cum grande splendore; + de te, altissimo, porta significatione. + Laudato si, mi signore, per sora luna e le stelle, + in celu l' ai formate clarite et pretiose et belle. + Laudato si, mi signore, per frate vento + et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo, + per le quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento. + Laudato si, mi signore, per sor acqua, + la quale e multo utile et humele et pretiosa et casta. + Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu, + per lo quale ennallumini la nocte, + ed ello e bello et jucundo et robustoso et forte. + Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra matre terra, + la quale ne sustenta et governa + et produce diversi fructi con colorite flori et herba. + Laudato si, mi signore, per quilli ke perdonano per lo tuo amore + et sosteugo infirmitate et tribulatione, + beati quilli ke sosterrano in pace, + ka da te, altissimo, sirano incoronati. + Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra morte corporale, + de la quale nullu homo vivente po skappare: + guai a quilli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali; + beati quilli ke se trovara ne le tue sanctissime voluntati, + ka la morte secunda nol farra male. + Laudate et benedicete mi signore et rengratiate + et serviteli cum grande humilitate. + + +TRANSLATION.[19] + + O most high, almighty, good Lord God, to thee belong praise, + glory, honor, and all blessing! {To thee alone, Most High, do + they belong, and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce thy + Name.} + + Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures, and specially our + brother the sun, who brings us the day and who brings us the + light; fair is he and shines with a very great splendor: O Lord, + he signifies to us thee! + + Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the stars, + the which he has set clear and lovely in heaven. + + Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind, and for air and + cloud, calms and all weather by the which thou upholdest life in + all creatures. + + Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very serviceable + unto us and humble and precious and clean. + + Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through whom thou + givest us light in the darkness; and he is bright and pleasant + and very mighty and strong. + + Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which doth + sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits and + flowers of many colors, and grass. + + Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another for his + love's sake, and who endure weakness and tribulation; blessed + are they who peaceably shall endure, for thou, O most Highest, + shalt give them a crown. + + Praised be my Lord for our sister, the death of the body, from + which no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in mortal sin! + Blessed are they who are found walking by thy most holy will, + for the second death shall have no power to do them harm. + + Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give thanks unto him and serve + him with great humility. + +Joy had returned to Francis, joy as deep as ever. For a whole week he +forsook his breviary and passed his days in repeating the Canticle of +the Sun. + +During a night of sleeplessness he had heard a voice saying to him, "If +thou hadst faith as a grain of mustard seed, thou wouldst say to this +mountain, 'Be thou removed from there,' and it would move away." Was not +the mountain that of his sufferings, the temptation to murmur and +despair? "Be it, Lord, according to thy word," he had replied with all +his heart, and immediately he had felt that he was delivered.[20] + +He might have perceived that the mountain had not greatly changed its +place, but for several days he had turned his eyes away from it, he had +been able to forget its existence. + +For a moment he thought of summoning to his side Brother Pacifico, the +King of Verse, to retouch his canticle; his idea was to attach to him a +certain number of friars, who would go with him from village to village, +preaching. After the sermon they would sing the Hymn of the Sun; and +they were to close by saying to the crowd gathered around them in the +public places, "We are God's jugglers. We desire to be paid for our +sermon and our song. Our payment shall be that you persevere in +penitence."[21] + +"Is it not in fact true," he would add, "that the servants of God are +really like jugglers, intended to revive the hearts of men and lead them +into spiritual joy?" + +The Francis of the old raptures had come back, the layman, the poet, the +artist. + +The Canticle of the Creatures is very noble: it lacks, however, one +strophe; if it was not upon Francis's lips, it was surely in his heart: + + Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; thou hast made her silent, + active, and sagacious, and by her thy light shines in our + hearts. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Thirty-sixth and last strophe of the song + + _Amor de caritade + Perche m' hai si ferito?_ + + found in the collection of St. Francis's works. + + [2] By the Abbe Amoni, at the close of his edition of the Fioretti, + Rome, 1 vol., 12mo, 1889, pp. 390-392. We can but once more + regret the silence of the editor as to the manuscript whence + he has drawn these charming pages. Certain indications seem + unfavorable to the author having written it before the second + half of the thirteenth century; on the other hand, the object + of a forgery is not evident. An apochryphal piece always + betrays itself by some interested purpose, but here the story + is of an infantine simplicity. + + [3] 2 Cel., 3, 104; Bon., 119; _Fior. ii. consid._ + + [4] _Parti san Francesco per Monte-Acuto prendendo la via di + Monte-Arcoppe e del foresto._ This road from the Verna to Borgo + San-Sepolero is far from being the shortest or the easiest, for + instead of leading directly to the plain it lingers for long + hours among the hills. Is not all Francis in this choice? + + [5] 2 Cel., 3, 41; Bon., 141; _Fior. iv. consid._ + + [6] 1 Cel., 63 and 64; _Fior. iv. consid._ + + [7] 1 Cel., 70; _Fior. iv. consid._ + + [8] 1 Cel., 109; 69; Bon. 208. Perhaps we must refer to this + circuit the visit to Celano. 2 Cel., 3, 30; _Spec._, 22; Bon., + 156 and 157. + + [9] 1 Cel., 97 and 98; 2 Cel., 3, 137; Bon., 205 and 206. + + [10] Richard of St. Germano, _ann. 1225_. Cf. Potthast, 7400 ff. + + [11] 1 Cel., 98 and 99; 2 Cel., 3, 137; _Fior._, 19. + + [12] 2 Cel., 3, 110; Rule of 1221, _cap._ 10. + + [13] See the reference to the sources after the Canticle of the + Sun. + + [14] 2 Cel., 3, 138. + + [15] This incident appeared to the authors so peculiar that they + emphasized it with an _ut oculis videmus_. 2 Cel., 3, 67; + _Spec._, 119a. + + [16] _Spec._, 123a; 2 Cel., 3, 58. + + [17] I have combined Celano's narrative with that of the + Conformities. The details given in the latter document appear to + me entirely worthy of faith. It is easy to see, however, why + Celano omitted them, and it would be difficult to explain how + they could have been later invented. 2 Cel., 3, 138; _Conform._, + 42b, 2; 119b, 1; 184b, 2; 239a, 2; _Spec._, 123a ff.; _Fior._, + 19. + + [18] After the Assisan MS., 338, f^o 33a. Vide p. 354. Father + Panfilo da Magliano has already published it after this + manuscript: _Storia compendiosa di San Francesco_, Rome, 2 + vols., 18mo, 1874-1876. The Conformities, 202b, 2-203a 1, give a + version of it which differs from this only by insignificant + variations. The learned philologue Monaci has established a very + remarkable critical text in his _Crestomazia italiana dei primi + secoli_. Citta di Castello, fas. i., 1889, 8vo, pp. 29-31. This + thoroughly scrupulous work dispenses me from indicating + manuscripts and editions more at length. + + [19] Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, First Series. + Macmillan & Company, 1883. + + [20] 2 Cel., 3, 58; _Spec._, 123a. + + [21] _Spec._, 124a. Cf. _Miscellanea_ (1889), iv., p. 88. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE LAST YEAR + +September, 1225-End of September, 1226 + + +What did Ugolini think when they told him that Francis was planning to +send his friars, transformed into _Joculatores Domini_, to sing up and +down the country the Canticle of Brother Sun? Perhaps he never heard of +it. His _protege_ finally decided to accept his invitation and left St. +Damian in the course of the month of September. + +The landscape which lies before the eyes of the traveller from Assisi, +when he suddenly emerges upon the plain of Rieti, is one of the most +beautiful in Europe. From Terni the road follows the sinuous course of +the Velino, passes not far from the famous cascades, whose clouds of +mist are visible, and then plunges into the defiles in whose depths the +torrent rushes noisily, choked by a vegetation as luxuriant as that of a +virgin forest. On all sides uprise walls of perpendicular rocks, and on +their crests, several hundred yards above your head, are feudal +fortresses, among others the Castle of Miranda, more giddy, more +fantastic than any which Gustave Dore's fancy ever dreamed. + +After four hours of walking, the defile opens out and you find yourself +without transition in a broad valley, sparkling with light. + +Rieti, the only city in this plain of several leagues, appears far away +at the other extremity, commanded by hills of a thoroughly tropical +aspect, behind which rise the mighty Apennines, almost always covered +with snow. + +The highway goes directly toward this town, passing between tiny lakes; +here and there roads lead off to little villages which you see, on the +hillside, between the cultivated fields and the edge of the forests; +there are Stroncone, Greccio, Cantalice, Poggio-Buscone, and ten other +small towns, which have given more saints to the Church than a whole +province of France. + +Between the inhabitants of the district and their neighbors of Umbria, +properly so called, the difference is extreme. They are all of the +striking type of the Sabine peasants, and they remain to this day entire +strangers to new customs. One is born a Capuchin there as elsewhere one +is born a soldier, and the traveller needs to have his wits about him +not to address every man he meets as Reverend Father. + +Francis had often gone over this district in every direction. Like its +neighbor, the hilly March of Ancona, it was peculiarly prepared to +receive the new gospel. In these hermitages, with their almost +impossible simplicity, perched near the villages on every side, without +the least care for material comfort, but always where there is the +widest possible view, was perpetuated a race of Brothers Minor, +impassioned, proud, stubborn, almost wild, who did not wholly understand +their master, who did not catch his exquisite simplicity, his +impossibility of hating, his dreams of social and political renovation, +his poetry and delicacy, but who did understand the lover of nature and +of poverty.[1] They did more than understand him; they lived his +life, and from that Christmas festival observed in the woods of Greccio +down to to-day they have remained the simple and popular representatives +of the Strict Observance. From them comes to us the Legend of the Three +Companions, the most life-like and true of all the portraits of the +Poverello, and it was there, in a cell three paces long, that Giovanni +di Parma had his apocalyptic visions. + +The news of Francis's arrival quickly spread, and long before he reached +Rieti the population had come out to meet him. + +To avoid this noisy welcome he craved the hospitality of the priest of +St. Fabian. This little church, now known under the name of Our Lady of +the Forest, is somewhat aside from the road upon a grassy mound about a +league from the city. He was heartily welcomed, and desiring to remain +there for a little, prelates and devotees began to flock thither in the +next few days. + +It was the time of the early grapes. It is easy to imagine the +disquietude of the priest on perceiving the ravages made by these +visitors among his vines, his best source of revenue, but he probably +exaggerated the damage. Francis one day heard him giving vent to his bad +humor. "Father," he said, "it is useless for you to disturb yourself for +what you cannot hinder; but, tell me, how much wine do you get on an +average?" + +"Fourteen measures," replied the priest. + +"Very well, if you have less than twenty, I undertake to make up the +difference." + +This promise reassured the worthy man, and when at the vintage he +received twenty measures, he had no hesitation in believing in a +miracle.[2] + +Upon Ugolini's entreaties Francis had accepted the hospitality of the +bishop's palace in Rieti. Thomas of Celano enlarges with delight upon +the marks of devotion lavished on Francis by this prince of the Church. +Unhappily all this is written in that pompous and confused style of +which diplomats and ecclesiastics appear to have by nature the secret. + +Francis entered into the condition of a relic in his lifetime. The mania +for amulets displayed itself around him in all its excesses. People +quarrelled not only over his clothing, but even over his hair and the +parings of his nails.[3] + +Did these merely exterior demonstrations disgust him? Did he sometimes +think of the contrast between these honors offered to his body, which he +picturesquely called Brother Ass, and the subversion of his ideal? We +cannot tell. If he had feelings of this kind those who surrounded him +were not the men to understand them, and it would be idle to expect any +expression of them from his pen. + +Soon after he had a relapse, and asked to be removed to +Monte-Colombo,[4] a hermitage an hour distant from the city, hidden +amidst trees and scattered rocks. He had already retired thither several +times, notably when he was preparing the Rule of 1223. + +The doctors, having exhausted the therapeutic arsenal of the time, +decided to resort to cauterization; it was decided to draw a rod of +white-hot iron across his forehead. + +When the poor patient saw them bringing in the brazier and the +instruments he had a moment of terror; but immediately making the sign +of the cross over the glowing iron, "Brother fire," he said, "you are +beautiful above all creatures; be favorable to me in this hour; you know +how much I have always loved you; be then courteous to-day." + +Afterward, when his companions, who had not had the courage to remain, +came back he said to them, smiling, "Oh, cowardly folk, why did you go +away? I felt no pain. Brother doctor, if it is necessary you may do it +again." + +This experiment was no more successful than the other remedies. In vain +they quickened the wound on the forehead, by applying plasters, salves, +and even by making incisions in it; the only result was to increase the +pains of the sufferer.[5] + +One day, at Rieti, whither he had again been carried, he thought that a +little music would relieve his pain. Calling a friar who had formerly +been clever at playing the guitar, he begged him to borrow one; but the +friar was afraid of the scandal which this might cause, and Francis gave +it up. + +God took pity upon him; the following night he sent an invisible angel +to give him such a concert as is never heard on earth.[6] Francis, +hearing it, lost all bodily feeling, say the Fioretti, and at one moment +the melody was so sweet and penetrating that if the angel had given one +more stroke of the bow, the sick man's soul would have left his +body.[7] + +It seems that there was some amelioration of his state when the doctors +left him; we find him during the months of this winter, 1225-1226, in +the most remote hermitages of the district, for as soon as he had a +little strength he was determined to begin preaching again. + +He went to Poggio-Buscone[8] for the Christmas festival. People +flocked thither in crowds from all the country round to see and hear +him. "You come here," he said, "expecting to find a great saint; what +will you think when I tell you that I ate meat all through Advent?"[9] +At St. Eleutheria,[10] at a time of extreme cold which tried him much, +he had sewn some pieces of stuff into his own tunic and that of his +companion, so as to make their garments a little warmer. One day his +companion came home with a fox-skin, with which in his turn he proposed +to line his master's tunic. Francis rejoiced much over it, but would +permit this excess of consideration for his body only on condition that +the piece of fur should be placed on the outside over his chest. + +All these incidents, almost insignificant at a first view, show how he +detested hypocrisy even in the smallest things. + +We will not follow him to his dear Greccio,[11] nor even to the +hermitage of St. Urbano, perched on one of the highest peaks of the +Sabine.[12] The accounts which we have of the brief visits he made +there at this time tell us nothing new of his character or of the +history of his life. They simply show that the imaginations of those who +surrounded him were extraordinarily overheated; the least incidents +immediately took on a miraculous coloring.[13] + +The documents do not say how it came about that he decided to go to +Sienna. It appears that there was in that city a physician of great fame +as an oculist. The treatment he prescribed was no more successful than +that of the others; but with the return of spring Francis made a new +effort to return to active life. We find him describing the ideal +Franciscan monastery,[14] and another day explaining a passage in the +Bible to a Dominican. + +Did the latter, a doctor in theology, desire to bring the rival Order +into ridicule by showing its founder incapable of explaining a somewhat +difficult verse? It appears extremely likely. "My good father," he said, +"how do you understand this saying of the prophet Ezekiel, 'If thou dost +not warn the wicked of his wickedness, I will require his soul of thee?' +I am acquainted with many men whom I know to be in a state of mortal +sin, and yet I am not always reproaching them for their vices. Am I, +then, responsible for their souls?" + +At first Francis excused himself, alleging his ignorance, but urged by +his interlocutor he said at last: "Yes, the true servant unceasingly +rebukes the wicked, but he does it most of all by his conduct, by the +truth which shines forth in his words, by the light of his example, by +all the radiance of his life."[15] + +He soon suffered so grave a relapse that the Brothers thought his last +hour had come. They were especially affrighted by the hemorrhages, which +reduced him to a state of extreme prostration. Brother Elias hastened to +him. At his arrival the invalid felt in himself such an improvement that +they could acquiesce in his desire to be taken back to Umbria. Toward +the middle of April they set out, going in the direction of Cortona. It +is the easiest route, and the delightful hermitage of that city was one +of the best ordered to permit of his taking some repose. He doubtless +remained there a very short time: he was in haste to see once more the +skies of his native country, Portiuncula, St. Damian, the Carceri, all +those paths and hamlets which one sees from the terraces of Assisi and +which recalled to him so many sweet memories. + +Instead of going by the nearest road, they made a long circuit by Gubbio +and Nocera, to avoid Perugia, fearing some attempt of the inhabitants to +get possession of the Saint. Such a relic as the body of Francis lacked +little of the value of the sacred nail or the sacred lance.[16] Battles +were fought for less than that. + +They made a short halt near Nocera, at the hermitage of Bagnara, on the +slopes of Monte-Pennino.[17] His companions were again very much +disturbed. The swelling which had shown itself in the lower limbs was +rapidly gaining the upper part of the body. The Assisans learned this, +and wishing to be prepared for whatever might happen sent their +men-at-arms to protect the Saint and hasten his return. + +Bringing Francis back with them they stopped for food at the hamlet of +Balciano,[18] but in vain they begged the inhabitants to sell them +provisions. As the escort were confiding their discomfiture to the +friars, Francis, who knew these good peasants, said: "If you had asked +for food without offering to pay, you would have found all you wanted." + +He was right, for, following his advice, they received for nothing all +that they desired.[19] + +The arrival of the party at Assisi was hailed with frantic joy. This +time Francis's fellow-citizens were sure that the Saint was not going to +die somewhere else.[20] + +Customs in this matter have changed too much for us to be able +thoroughly to comprehend the good fortune of possessing the body of a +saint. If you are ever so unlucky as to mention St. Andrew before an +inhabitant of Amalfi, you will immediately find him beginning to shout +"_Evviva San Andrea! Evviva San Andrea!_" Then with extraordinary +volubility he will relate to you the legend of the _Grande Protettore_, +his miracles past and present, those which he might have done if he had +chosen, but which he refrained from doing out of charity because St. +Januarius of Naples could not do as much. He gesticulates, throws +himself about, hustles you, more enthusiastic over his relic and more +exasperated by your coldness than a soldier of the Old Guard before an +enemy of the Emperor. + +In the thirteenth century all Europe was like that. + +We shall find here several incidents which we may be tempted to consider +shocking or even ignoble, if we do not make an effort to put them all +into their proper surroundings. + +Francis was installed in the bishop's palace; he would have preferred to +be at Portiuncula, but the Brothers were obliged to obey the injunctions +of the populace, and to make assurance doubly sure, guards were placed +at all the approaches of the palace. + +The abode of the Saint in this place was much longer than had been +anticipated. It perhaps lasted several months (July to September). This +dying man did not consent to die. He rebelled against death; in this +centre of the work his anxieties for the future of the Order, which a +little while before had been in the background, now returned, more +agonizing and terrible than ever. + +"We must begin again," he thought, "create a new family who will not +forget humility, who will go and serve lepers and, as in the old times, +put themselves always, not merely in words, but in reality, below all +men."[21] + +To feel that implacable work of destruction going on against which the +most submissive cannot keep from protesting: "My God, my God, why? why +hast thou forsaken me?" To be obliged to look on at the still more +dreaded decomposition of his Order; he, the lark, to be spied upon by +soldiers watching for his corpse--there was quite enough here to make +him mortally sad. + +During these last weeks all his sighs were noted. The disappearance of +the greater part of the legend of the Three Companions certainly +deprives us of some touching stories, but most of the incidents have +been preserved for us, notwithstanding, in documents from a second hand. + +Four Brothers had been especially charged to lavish care upon him: Leo, +Angelo, Rufino, and Masseo. We already know them; they are of those +intimate friends of the first days, who had heard in the Franciscan +gospel a call to love and liberty. And they too began to complain of +everything.[22] + +One day one of them said to the sick man: "Father, you are going away to +leave us here; point out to us, then, if you know him, the one to whom +we might in all security confide the burden of the generalship." + +Alas, Francis did not know the ideal Brother, capable of assuming such a +duty; but he took advantage of the question to sketch the portrait of +the perfect minister-general.[23] + +We have two impressions of this portrait, the one which has been +retouched by Celano, and the original proof, much shorter and more +vague, but showing us Francis desiring that his successor shall have but +a single weapon, an unalterable love. + +It was probably this question which suggested to him the thought of +leaving for his successors, the generals of the Order, a letter which +they should pass on from one to another, and where they should find, not +directions for particular cases, but the very inspiration of their +activity.[24] + + To the Reverend Father in Christ, N ..., Minister-General of the + entire Order of the Brothers Minor. May God bless thee and keep + thee in his holy love. + + Patience in all things and everywhere, this, my Brother, is what + I specially recommend. Even if they oppose thee, if they strike + thee, thou shouldst be grateful to them and desire that it + should be thus and not otherwise. + + In this will be manifest thy love for God and for me, his + servant and thine; that there shall not be a single friar in the + world who, having sinned as much as one can sin, and coming + before thee, shall go away without having received thy pardon. + And if he does not ask it, do thou ask it for him, whether he + wills or not. + + And if he should return again a thousand times before thee, love + him more than myself, in order to lead him to well-doing. Have + pity always on these Brothers. + +These words show plainly enough how in former days Francis had directed +the Order; in his dream the ministers-general were to stand in a +relation of pure affection, of tender devotion toward those under them; +but was this possible for one at the head of a family whose branches +extended over the entire world? It would be hazardous to say, for among +his successors have not been wanting distinguished minds and noble +hearts; but save for Giovanni di Parma and two or three others, this +ideal is in sharp contrast with the reality. St. Bonaventura himself +will drag his master and friend, this very Giovanni of Parma, before an +ecclesiastical tribunal, will cause him to be condemned to perpetual +imprisonment, and it will need the intervention of a cardinal outside of +the Order to secure the commutation of this sentence.[25] + +The agonies of grief endured by the dying Francis over the decadence of +the Order would have been less poignant if they had not been mingled +with self-reproaches for his own cowardice. Why had he deserted his +post, given up the direction of his family, if not from idleness and +selfishness? And now it was too late to take back this step; and in +hours of frightful anguish he asked himself if God would not hold him +responsible for this subversion of his ideal. + +"Ah, if I could go once again to the chapter-general," he would sigh, "I +would show them what my will is." + +Shattered as he was by fever, he would suddenly rise up in his bed, +crying with a despairing intensity: "Where are they who have ravished +my brethren from me? Where are they who have stolen away my family?" + +Alas, the real criminals were nearer to him than he thought. The +provincial ministers, of whom he appears to have been thinking when he +thus spoke, were only instruments in the hands of the clever Brother +Elias; and he--what else was he doing but putting his intelligence and +address at Cardinal Ugolini's service? + +Far from finding any consolation in those around him, Francis was +constantly tortured by the confidences of his companions, who, impelled +by mistaken zeal, aggravated his pain instead of calming it.[26] + + "Forgive me, Father," said one of them to him one day, "but many + people have already thought what I am going to say to you. You + know how, in the early days, by God's grace the Order walked in + the path of perfection; for all that concerns poverty and love, + as well as for all the rest, the Brothers were but one heart and + one soul. But for some time past all that is entirely changed: + it is true that people often excuse the Brothers by saying that + the Order has grown too large to keep up the old observances; + they even go so far as to claim that infidelities to the Rule, + such as the building of great monasteries, are a means of + edification of the people, and so the primitive simplicity and + poverty are held for nothing. Evidently all these abuses are + displeasing to you; but then, people ask, why do you tolerate + them?" + + "God forgive you, brother." replied Francis. "Why do you lay at + my door things with which I have nothing to do? So long as I had + the direction of the Order, and the Brothers persevered in their + vocation I was able, in spite of weakness, to do what was + needful. But when I saw that, without caring for my example or + my teaching, they walked in the way you have described, I + confided them to the Lord and to the ministers. It is true that + when I relinquished the direction, alleging my incapacity as the + motive, if they had walked in the way of my wishes I should not + have desired that before my death they should have had any other + minister than myself; though ill, though bedridden, even, I + should have found strength to perform the duties of my charge. + But this charge is wholly spiritual; I will not become an + executioner to strike and punish as political governors + must."[27] + +Francis's complaints became so sharp and bitter that, to avoid scandal, +the greatest prudence was exercised with regard to those who were +permitted to see him.[28] + +Disorder was everywhere, and every day brought its contingent of +subjects for sorrow. The confusion of ideas as to the practice of the +Rule was extreme; occult influences, which had been working for several +years, had succeeded in veiling the Franciscan ideal, not only from +distant Brothers, or those who had newly joined the Order, but even from +those who had lived under the influence of the founder.[29] + +Under circumstances such as these, Francis dictated the letter to all +the members of the Order, which, as he thought would be read at the +opening of chapters and perpetuate his spiritual presence in them.[30] + +In this letter he is perfectly true to himself; as in the past, he +desires to influence the Brothers, not by reproaches but by fixing their +eyes on the perfect holiness. + + To all the revered and well-beloved Brothers Minor, to Brother A + ...,[31] minister-general, its Lord, and to the + ministers-general who shall be after him, and to all the + ministers, custodians, and priests of this fraternity, humble in + Christ, and to all the simple and obedient Brothers, the oldest + and the most recent, Brother Francis, a mean and perishing man, + your little servant, gives greeting! + + Hear, my Lords, you who are my sons and my brothers, give ear to + my words. Open your hearts and obey the voice of the Son of God. + Keep his commandments with all your hearts, and perfectly + observe his counsels. Praise him, for he is good, and glorify + him by your works. + + God has sent you through all the world, that by your words and + example you may bear witness of him, and that you may teach all + men that he alone is all powerful. Persevere in discipline and + obedience, and with an honest and firm will keep that which you + have promised. + +After this opening Francis immediately passes to the essential matter of +the letter, that of the love and respect due to the Sacrament of the +altar; faith in this mystery of love appeared to him indeed as the +salvation of the Order. + +Was he wrong? How can a man who truly believes in the real presence of +the God-Man between the fingers of him who lifts up the host, not +consecrate his life to this God and to holiness? One has some difficulty +in imagining. + +It is true that legions of devotees profess the most absolute faith in +this dogma, and we do not see that they are less bad; but faith with +them belongs in the intellectual sphere; it is the abdication of +reason, and in sacrificing their intelligence to God they are most happy +to offer to him an instrument which they very much prefer not to use. + +To Francis the question presented itself quite differently; the thought +that there could be any merit in believing could never enter his mind; +the fact of the real presence was for him of almost concrete evidence. +Therefore his faith in this mystery was an energy of the heart, that the +life of God, mysteriously present upon the altar, might become the soul +of all his actions. + +To the eucharistic transubstantiation, effected by the words of the +priest, he added another, that of his own heart. + + God offers himself to us as to his children. This is why I beg + you, all of you, my brothers, kissing your feet, and with all + the love of which I am capable, to have all possible respect for + the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. + +Then addressing himself particularly to the priests: + + Hearken, my brothers, if the blessed Virgin Mary is justly + honored for having carried Jesus in her womb, if John the + Baptist trembled because he dared not touch the Lord's head, if + the sepulchre in which for a little time he lay is regarded with + such great adoration, oh, how holy, pure, and worthy should be + the priest who touches with his hands, who receives into his + mouth and into his heart, and who distributes to others the + living, glorified Jesus, the sight of whom makes angels rejoice! + Understand your dignity, brother priests, and be holy, for he is + holy. Oh! what great wretchedness and what a frightful infirmity + to have him there present before you and to think of other + things. Let each man be struck with amazement, let the whole + earth tremble, let the heavens thrill with joy when the Christ, + the Son of the living God, descends upon the altar into the + hands of the priest. Oh, wonderful profundity! Oh, amazing + grace! Oh, triumph of humility! See, the Master of all things, + God, and the Son of God, humbles himself for our salvation, even + to disguising himself under the appearance of a bit of bread. + + Contemplate, my brothers, this humility of God, and enlarge your + hearts before him; humble yourselves as well, that you, even + you, may be lifted up by him. Keep nothing for yourselves, that + he may receive you without reserve, who has given himself to you + without reserve. + +We see with what vigor of love Francis's heart had laid hold upon the +idea of the communion. + +He closes with long counsels to the Brothers, and after having conjured +them faithfully to keep their promises, all his mysticism breathes out +and is summed up in a prayer of admirable simplicity. + + God Almighty, eternal, righteous, and merciful, give to us poor + wretches to do for thy sake all that we know of thy will, and to + will always what pleases thee; so that inwardly purified, + enlightened, and kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we may + follow in the footprints of thy well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus + Christ. + +What separates this prayer from the effort to discern duty made by +choice spirits apart from all revealed religion? Very little in truth; +the words are different, the action is the same. + +But Francis's solicitudes reached far beyond the limits of the Order. +His longest epistle is addressed to all Christians; its words are so +living that you fancy you hear a voice speaking behind you; and this +voice, usually as serene as that which from the mountain in Galilee +proclaimed the law of the new times, becomes here and there unutterably +sweet, like that which sounded in the upper chamber on the night of the +first eucharist. + +As Jesus forgot the cross that was standing in the shadows, so Francis +forgets his sufferings, and, overcome with a divine sadness, thinks of +humanity, for each member of which he would give his life; he thinks of +his spiritual sons, the Brothers of Penitence, whom he is about to leave +without having been able to make them feel, as he would have had them +feel, the love for them with which he burns: "Father, I have given them +the words which thou hast given me.... For them I pray!" + +The whole Franciscan gospel is in these words, but to understand the +fascination which it exerted we must have gone through the School of the +Middle Ages, and there listened to the interminable tournaments of +dialectics by which minds were dried up; we must have seen the Church of +the thirteenth century, honeycombed by simony and luxury, and only able, +under the pressure of heresy or revolt, to make a few futile efforts to +scotch the evil. + + To all Christians, monks, clerics, or laymen, whether men or + women, to all who dwell in the whole world, Brother Francis, + their most submissive servitor, presents his duty and wishes the + true peace of heaven, and sincere love in the Lord. + + Being the servitor of all men, I am bound to serve them and to + dispense to them the wholesome words of my Master. This is why, + seeing I am too weak and ill to visit each one of you in + particular, I have resolved to send you my message by this + letter, and to offer you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the + Word of God, and of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit and life. + +It would be puerile to expect here new ideas either in fact or form. +Francis's appeals are of value only by the spirit which animates them. + +After having briefly recalled the chief features of the gospel, and +urgently recommended the communion, Francis addresses himself in +particular to certain categories of hearers, with special counsels. + + Let the podestas, governors, and those who are placed in + authority, exercise their functions with mercy, as they would be + judged with mercy by God.... + + Monks in particular, who have renounced the world, are bound to + do more and better than simple Christians, to renounce all that + is not necessary to them, and to have in hatred the vices and + sins of the body.... They should love their enemies, do good to + them who hate them, observe the precepts and counsels of our + Redeemer, renounce themselves, and subdue their bodies. And no + monk is bound to obedience, if in obeying he would be obliged to + commit a fault or a sin.... + + Let us not be wise and learned according to the flesh, but + simple, humble, and pure.... We should never desire to be above + others, but rather to be below, and to obey all men. + +He closes by showing the foolishness of those who set their hearts on +the possession of earthly goods, and concludes by the very realistic +picture of the death of the wicked. + + His money, his title, his learning, all that he believed himself + to possess, all are taken from him; his relatives and his + friends to whom he has given his fortune will come to divide it + among themselves, and will end by saying: "Curses on him, for he + might have given us more and he has not done it; he might have + amassed a larger fortune, and he has done nothing of the kind." + The worms will eat his body and the demons will consume his + soul, and thus he will lose both soul and body. + + I, Brother Francis, your little servitor, I beg and conjure you + by the love that is in God, ready to kiss your feet, to receive + with humility and love these and all other words of our Lord + Jesus Christ and to conform your conduct to them. And let those + who devoutly receive them and understand them pass them on to + others. And if they thus persevere unto the end, may they be + blessed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.[32] + +If Francis ever made a Rule for the Third Order it must have very nearly +resembled this epistle, and until this problematical document is found, +the letter shows what were originally these associations of Brothers of +Penitence. Everything in these long pages looks toward the development +of the mystic religious life in the heart of each Christian. But even +when Francis dictated them, this high view had become a Utopia, and the +Third Order was only one battalion more in the armies of the papacy. + +We see that the epistles which we have just examined proceed definitely +from a single inspiration. Whether he is leaving instructions for his +successors, the ministers-general, whether he is writing to all the +present and future members of his Order, to all Christians or even to +the clergy,[33] Francis has only one aim, to keep on preaching after +his death, and perhaps, too, by putting into writing his message of +peace and love, to provide that he shall not be entirely travestied or +misunderstood. + +Considered in connection with those sorrowful hours which saw their +birth, they form a whole whose import and meaning become singularly +energetic. If we would find the Franciscan spirit, it is here, in the +Rule of 1221, and in the Will that we must seek for it. + +Neglect, and especially the storms which later overwhelmed the Order, +explain the disappearance of several other documents which would cast a +glimmer of poetry and joy over these sad days;[34] Francis had not +forgotten his sister-friend at St. Damian. Hearing that she had been +greatly disquieted by knowing him to be so ill, he desired to reassure +her: he still deceived himself as to his condition, and wrote to her +promising soon to go to see her. + +To this assurance he added some affectionate counsels, advising her and +her companions not to go to extremes with their macerations. To set her +an example of cheerfulness he added to this letter a Laude in the +vulgar tongue which he had himself set to music.[35] + +In that chamber of the episcopal palace in which he was as it were +imprisoned he had achieved a new victory, and it was doubtless that +which inspired his joy. The Bishop of Assisi, the irritable Guido, +always at war with somebody, was at this time quarrelling with the +podesta of the city; nothing more was needed to excite in the little +town a profound disquiet. Guido had excommunicated the podesta, and the +latter had issued a prohibition against selling and buying or making any +contract with ecclesiastics. + +The difference grew more bitter, and no one appeared to dream of +attempting a reconciliation. We can the better understand Francis's +grief over all this by remembering that his very first effort had been +to bring peace into his native city, and that he considered the return +of Italy to union and concord to be the essential aim of his apostolate. + +War in Assisi would be the final dissolution of his dream; the voice of +events crying brutally to him, "Thou hast wasted thy life!" + +The dregs of this cup were spared him, thanks to an inspiration in which +breaks forth anew his natural play of imagination. To the Canticle of +the Sun he added a new strophe: + + Be praised, Lord, for those who forgive for love of thee, + and bear trials and tribulations; + happy they who persevere in peace, + by thee, Most high, shall they be crowned. + +Then, calling a friar, he charged him to beg the governor to betake +himself, with all the notables whom he could assemble, to the paved +square before the bishop's palace. The magistrate, to whom legend gives +the nobler part in the whole affair, at once yielded to the saint's +request. + + When he arrived and the bishop had come forth from the palace, + two friars came forward and said: "Brother Francis has made to + the praise of God a hymn to which he prays you to listen + piously," and immediately they began to sing the Hymn of Brother + Sun, with its new strophe. + + The governor listened, standing in an attitude of profound + attention, copiously weeping, for he dearly loved the blessed + Francis. + + When the singing was ended, "Know in truth," said he, "that I + desire to forgive the lord bishop, that I wish and ought to look + upon him as my lord, for if one had even assassinated my brother + I should be ready to pardon the murderer." With these words he + threw himself at the bishop's feet, and said: "I am ready to do + whatsoever you would, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and + his servant Francis." + + Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, lifted him up and said, + "With my position it would become me to be humble, but since I + am naturally too quick to wrath, thou must pardon me."[36] + +This unexpected reconciliation was immediately looked upon as +miraculous, and increased still more the reverence of the Assisans for +their fellow-citizen. + +The summer was drawing to a close. After a few days of relative +improvement Francis's sufferings became greater than ever: incapable of +movement, he even thought that he ought to give up his ardent desire to +see St. Damian and Portiuncula once more, and gave the brothers all his +directions about the latter sanctuary: "Never abandon it," he would +repeat to them, "for that place is truly sacred: it is the house of +God."[37] + +It seemed to him that if the Brothers remained attached to that bit of +earth, that chapel ten feet long, those thatched huts, they would there +find the living reminder of the poverty of the early days, and could +never wander far from it. + +One evening he grew worse with frightful rapidity; all the following +night he had hemorrhages which left not the slightest hope; the Brothers +hastening to him, he dictated a few lines in form of a Will and gave +them his blessing: "Adieu, my children; remain all of you in the fear of +God, abide always united to Christ; great trials are in store for you, +and tribulation draws nigh. Happy are they who persevere as they have +begun; for there will be scandals and divisions among you. As for me, I +am going to the Lord and my God. Yes, I have the assurance that I am +going to him whom I have served."[38] + +During the following days, to the great surprise of those who were about +him, he again grew somewhat better; no one could understand the +resistance to death offered by this body so long worn out by suffering. + +He himself began to hope again. A physician of Arezzo whom he knew well, +having come to visit him, "Good friend," Francis asked him, "how much +longer do you think I have to live?" + +"Father," replied the other reassuringly, "this will all pass away, if +it pleases God." + +"I am not a cuckoo,"[39] replied Francis smiling, using a popular +saying, "to be afraid of death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit I am so +intimately united to God that I am equally content to live or to die." + +"In that case, father, from the medical point of view, your disease is +incurable, and I do not think that you can last longer than the +beginning of autumn." + +At these words the poor invalid stretched out his hands as if to call on +God, crying with an indescribable expression of joy, "Welcome, Sister +Death!" Then he began to sing, and sent for Brothers Angelo and Leo. + +On their arrival they were made, in spite of their emotion, to sing the +Canticle of the Sun. They were at the last doxology when Francis, +checking them, improvised the greeting to death: + + Be praised, Lord, for our Sister the Death of the body, + whom no man may escape; + alas for them who die in a state of mortal sin; + happy they who are found conformed to thy most holy will, + for the second death will do to them no harm. + +From this day the palace rang unceasingly with his songs. Continually, +even through the night, he would sing the Canticle of the Sun or some +other of his favorite compositions. Then, when wearied out, he would beg +Angelo and Leo to go on. + +One day Brother Elias thought it his duty to make a few remarks on the +subject. He feared that the nurses and the people of the neighborhood +would be scandalized; ought not a saint to be absorbed in meditation in +the face of death, to await it with fear and trembling instead of +indulging in a gayety that might be misinterpreted?[40] Perhaps Bishop +Guido was not entirely a stranger to these reproaches; it seems not +improbable that to have his palace crowded with Brothers Minor all these +long weeks had finally put him a little out of humor. But Francis would +not yield; his union with God was too sweet for him to consent not to +sing it. + +They decided at last to remove him to Portiuncula. His desire was to be +fulfilled; he was to die beside the humble chapel where he had heard +God's voice consecrating him apostle. + +His companions, bearing their precious burden, took the way through the +olive-yards across the plain. From time to time the invalid, unable to +distinguish anything, asked where they were. When they were half way +there, at the hospital of the Crucigeri, where long ago he had tended +the leper, and from whence there was a full view of all the houses of +the city, he begged them to set him upon the ground with his face toward +Assisi, and raising his hand he bade adieu to his native place and +blessed it. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The following is the list of monasteries which, according to + Rodolfo di Tossignano, accepted the ideas of Angelo Clareno + before the end of the thirteenth century: Fermo, Spoleto, + Camerino, Ascoli, Rieti, Foligno, Nursia, Aquila, Amelia: + _Historiarum seraphicae religionis, libri tres_, Venice, 1586, 1 + vol., f^o, 155a. + + [2] _Spec._, 129b; _Fior._, 19. In some of the stories of this + period the evidence is clear how certain facts have been, little + by little, transformed into miracles. Compare, for example, the + miracle of St. Urbano in Bon., 68, and 1 Cel., 61. See also 2 + Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159. + + [3] 1 Cel., 87; 2 Cel., 2, 11; _Conform._, 148a, 2; Bon., 99. + Upon this visit see 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159; 2 Cel., 2, + 11; 2 Cel., 3, 36. + + [4] The present Italian name of the monastery which has also + been called _Monte-Rainerio_ and _Fonte-Palumbo_. + + [5] 1 Cel., 101; 2 Cel., 3, 102; Bon., 67; _Spec._, 134a. + + [6] 2 Cel., 3, 66; Bon., 69. + + [7] _Fior. ii. consid._ Cf. Roger Bacon, Opus tertium (_ap. Mon. + Germ. hist._, _Script._ t. 28, p. 577). _B. Franciscus jussit + fratri cythariste ut dulcius personaret, quatenus mens + excitaretur ad harmonias coelestes quas pluries andivit. Mira + enim musicae super omnes scientias et spectanda potestas._ + + [8] Village three hours' walk northward from Rieti. Francis's + cell still remains on the mountain, three-quarters of an hour + from the place. + + [9] 2 Cel., 3, 71; cf. _Spec._, 43a. + + [10] Chapel still standing, a few minutes' walk from Rieti. 2 + Cel., 3, 70; _Spec._, 15a, 43a. + + [11] 2 Cel., 2, 14; Bon., 167; 2 Cel., 3, 10; Bon., 58; _Spec._, + 122b. + + [12] Wadding, _ann. 1213_, n. 14, rightly places St. Urbano in + the county of Narni. _L'Eremo di S. Urbano_ is about half an + hour from the village of the same name, on Mount San Pancrazio + (1026 m.), three leagues south of Narni. The panorama is one of + the finest in Central Italy. The Bollandists allowed themselves + to be led into error by an interested assertion when they placed + San Urbano near to Jesi (pp. 623f and 624a). 1 Cel., 61; Bon., + 68. (Vide Bull _Cum aliqua_ of May 15, 1218, where mention is + made of San Urbano.) + + [13] As much may be said of the apparition of the three virgins + between Campilia and San Quirico. 2 Cel., 3, 37; Bon., 93. + + [14] _Spec._, 12b; _Conform._, 169a, 1. + + [15] 2 Cel., 3, 46; Bon., 153; _Spec._, 31b; Ezek., xxxiii., 9. + + [16] Two years after, the King of France and all his court + kissed and revered the pillow which Francis had used during his + illness. 1 Cel., 120. + + [17] Bagnara is near the sources of the Topino, about an hour + east of Nocera. These two localities were then dependents of + Assisi. + + [18] And not Sartiano. Balciano still exists, about half way + between Nocera and Assisi. + + [19] 2 Cel., 3, 23; Bon., 98; _Spec._, 17b; _Conform._, 239a, + 2f. + + [20] 2 Cel., 3, 33; 1 Cel., 105, is still more explicit: "The + multitude hoped that he would die very soon, and that was the + subject of their joy." + + [21] 1 Cel., 103 and 104. + + [22] 1 Cel., 102; _Spec._, 83b. + + [23] 2 Cel., 3, 116; _Spec._, 67a; _Conform._, 143b, 1, and + 225b, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 117; _Spec._, 130a. + + [24] For the text vide _Conform._, 136b, 2; 138b, 2; 142 b, 1. + + [25] _Tribul., Archiv._, ii., pp. 285 ff. + + [26] 2 Cel., 3, 118. + + [27] These words are borrowed from a long fragment cited by + Ubertini di Casali, as coming from Brother Leo: _Arbor vit. + cruc., lib._ v., _cap._ 3. It is surely a bit of the Legend of + the Three Companions; it may be found textually in the + Tribulations, Laur., f^o 16b, with a few more sentences at the + end. Cf. _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2; _Spec._, 8b; 26b; 50a; + 130b; 2 Cel., 3, 118. + + [28] _Tribul._, Laur., 17b. + + [29] See, for example, Brother Richer's question as to the + books: Ubertini, _Loc. cit._ Cf. _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and + 177; _Spec._, 8a; _Conform._, 71b, 2. See also: Ubertini, + _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177; _Tribul._, 13a; _Spec._, 9a; + _Conform._, 170a, 1. It is curious to compare the account as it + found in the documents with the version of it given in 2 Cel., + 3, 8. + + [30] Assisi MS., 338, f^o 28a-31a, with the rubric: _De lictera + et ammonitione beatissimi patris nostri Francisci quam misit + fratribus ad capitulum quando erat infirmus._ This letter was + wrongly divided into three by Rodolfo di Tossignano (f^o 237), + who was followed by Wadding (Epistolae x., xi., xii.). The text + is found without this senseless division in the manuscript cited + and in _Firmamentum_, f^o 21; _Spec._, Morin, iii., 217a; + Ubertini, _Arbor vit. cruc._, v., 7. + + [31] This initial (given only by the Assisi MS.) has not failed + to excite surprise. It appears that there ought to have been + simply an N ... This letter then would have been replaced by the + copyist, who would have used the initial of the minister general + in charge at the time of his writing. If this hypothesis has any + weight it will aid to fix the exact date of the manuscript. + (Alberto of Pisa minister from 1239-1240; Aimon of Faversham, + 1240-1244.) + + [32] This epistle also was unskilfully divided into two distinct + letters by Rodolfo di Tossignano, f^o 174a, who was followed by + Wadding. See Assisi MS., 338, 23a-28a; _Conform._, 137a, 1 ff. + + [33] The letter to the clergy only repeats the thoughts already + expressed upon the worship of the holy sacrament. We remember + Francis sweeping out the churches and imploring the priests to + keep them clean; this epistle has the same object: it is found + in the Assisi MS., 338, f^o 31b-32b, with the rubric: _De + reverentia Corporis Domini et de munditia altaris ad omnes + clericos_. Incipit: _Attendamus omnes_. Explicit: _fecerint + exemplari_. This, therefore, is the letter given by Wadding + xiii., but without address or salutation. + + [34] We need not despair of finding them. The archives of the + monasteries of Clarisses are usually rudimentary enough, but + they are preserved with pious care. + + [35] _Spec._, 117b; _Conform._, 185a 1; 135b, 1. Cf. _Test. B. + Clarae_, A. SS., Aug., ii., p. 747. + + [36] This story is given in the _Spec._, 128b, as from + eye-witnesses. Cf. _Conform._, 184b, 1; 203a, 1. + + [37] 1 Cel., 106. These recommendations as to Portiuncula were + amplified by the Zelanti, when, under the generalship of + Crescentius (Bull _Is qui ecclesiam_, March 6, 1245), the + Basilica of Assisi was substituted for Santa Maria degli Angeli + as _mater et caput_ of the Order. Vide _Spec._, 32b, 69b-71a; + _Conform._, 144a, 2; 218a, 1; 3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 12 and 13; + Bon., 24, 25; see the Appendix, the Study of the Indulgence of + August 2. + + [38] 2 Cel., 108. As will be seen (below, p. 367) the remainder + of Celano's narrative seems to require to be taken with some + reserve. Cf. _Spec._, 115b; _Conform._, 225a, 2; Bon., 211. + + [39] _Non sum cuculus_, in Italian _cuculo_. + + [40] _Spec._, 136b; _Fior. iv. consid._ It is to be noted that + Guido, instead of waiting at Assisi for the certainly impending + death of Francis, went away to Mont Gargano. 2 Cel., 3, 142. + + * * * * * + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +FRANCIS'S WILL AND DEATH + +End of September-October 3, 1226 + + +The last days of Francis's life are of radiant beauty. He went to meet +death, singing,[1] says Thomas of Celano, summing up the impression of +those who saw him then. + +To be once more at Portiuncula after so long a detention at the bishop's +palace was not only a real joy to his heart, but the pure air of the +forest must have been much to his physical well-being; does not the +Canticle of the Creatures seem to have been made expressly to be sung in +the evening of one of those autumn days of Umbria, so soft and luminous, +when all nature seems to retire into herself to sing her own hymn of +love to Brother Sun? + +We see that Francis has come to that almost entire cessation of pain, +that renewing of life, which so often precedes the approach of the last +catastrophe. + +He took advantage of it to dictate his Will.[2] + +It is to these pages that we must go to find the true note for a sketch +of the life of its author, and an idea of the Order as it was in his +dreams. + +In this record, which is of an incontestable authenticity, the most +solemn manifestation of his thought, the Poverello reveals himself +absolutely, with a virginal candor. + +His humility is here of a sincerity which strikes one with awe; it is +absolute, though no one could dream that it was exaggerated. And yet, +wherever his mission is concerned, he speaks with tranquil and serene +assurance. Is he not an ambassador of God? Does he not hold his message +from Christ himself? The genesis of his thought here shows itself to be +at once wholly divine and entirely personal. The individual conscience +here proclaims its sovereign authority. "No one showed me what I ought +to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live +conformably to his holy gospel." + +When a man has once spoken thus, submission to the Church has been +singularly encroached upon. We may love her, hearken to her, venerate +her, but we feel ourselves, perhaps without daring to avow it, superior +to her. Let a critical hour come, and one finds himself heretic without +knowing it or wishing it. + +"Ah, yes," cries Angelo Clareno, "St. Francis promised to obey the pope +and his successors, but they cannot and must not command anything +contrary to the conscience or to the Rule."[3] + +For him, as for all the spiritual Franciscans, when there is conflict +between what the inward voice of God ordains and what the Church wills, +he has only to obey the former.[4] + +If you tell him that the Church and the Order are there to define the +true signification of the Rule, he appeals to common sense, and to that +interior certitude which is given by a clear view of truth. + +The Rule, as also the gospel, of which it is a summary, is above all +ecclesiastical power, and no one has the right to say the last word in +their interpretation.[5] + +The Will was not slow to gain a moral authority superior even to that of +the Rule. Giovanni of Parma, to explain the predilection of the +Joachimites for this document, points out that after the impression of +the stigmata the Holy Spirit was in Francis with still greater plenitude +than before.[6] + +Did the innumerable sects which disturbed the Church in the thirteenth +century perceive that these two writings--the Rule and the +Testament--the one apparently made to follow and support the other, +substantially identical as it was said, proceeded from two opposite +inspirations? Very confusedly, no doubt, but guided by a very sure +instinct, they saw in these pages the banner of liberty. + +They were not mistaken. Even to-day, thinkers, moralists, mystics may +arrive at solutions very different from those of the Umbrian prophet, +but the method which they employ is his, and they may not refuse to +acknowledge in him the precursor of religious subjectivism. + +The Church, too, was not mistaken. She immediately understood the spirit +that animated these pages. + +Four years later, perhaps to the very day, September 28, 1230, Ugolini, +then Gregory IX., solemnly interpreted the Rule, in spite of the +precautions of Francis, who had forbidden all gloss or commentary on the +Rule or the Will, and declared that the Brothers were not bound to the +observation of the Will.[7] + +What shall we say of the bull in which the pope alleges his familiar +relations with the Saint to justify his commentary, and in which the +clearest passages are so distorted as to change their sense completely. +"One is stupefied," cries Ubertini of Casali, "that a text so clear +should have need of a commentary, for it suffices to have common sense +and to know grammar in order to understand it." And this strange monk +dares to add: "There is one miracle which God himself cannot do; it is +to make two contradictory things true."[8] + +Certainly the Church should be mistress in her own house; it would have +been nothing wrong had Gregory IX. created an Order conformed to his +views and ideas, but when we go through Sbaralea's folios and the +thousands of bulls accorded to the spiritual sons of him who in the +clearest and most solemn manner had forbidden them to ask any privilege +of the court of Rome, we cannot but feel a bitter sadness. + +Thus upheld by the papacy, the Brothers of the Common Observance made +the Zelanti sharply expiate their attachment to Francis's last requests. +Caesar of Speyer died of violence from the Brother placed in charge of +him;[9] the first disciple, Bernardo di Quintavalle, hunted like a +wild beast, passed two years in the forests of Monte-Sefro, hidden by a +wood-cutter;[10] the other first companions who did not succeed in +flight had to undergo the severest usage. In the March of Ancona, the +home of the Spirituals, the victorious party used a terrible violence. +The Will was confiscated and destroyed; they went so far as to burn it +over the head of a friar who persisted in desiring to observe it.[11] + +WILL (LITERAL TRANSLATION). + + See in what manner God gave it to me, to me, Brother Francis, to + begin to do penitence; when I lived in sin, it was very painful + to me to see lepers, but God himself led me into their midst, + and I remained here a little while.[12] When I left them, that + which had seemed to me bitter had become sweet and easy. + + A little while after I quitted the world, and God gave me such a + faith in his churches that I would kneel down with simplicity + and I would say: "We adore thee, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in + all thy churches which are in the world, and we bless thee that + by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world." + + Besides, the Lord gave me and still gives me so great a faith in + priests who live according to the form of the holy Roman Church, + because of their sacerdotal character, that even if they + persecuted me I would have recourse to them. And even though I + had all the wisdom of Solomon, if I should find poor secular + priests, I would not preach in their parishes without their + consent. I desire to respect them like all the others, to love + them and honor them as my lords. I will not consider their + sins, for in them I see the Son of God and they are my lords. I + do this because here below I see nothing, I perceive nothing + corporally of the most high Son of God, if not his most holy + Body and Blood, which they receive and they alone distribute to + others. I desire above all things to honor and venerate all + these most holy mysteries and to keep them precious. Whenever I + find the sacred names of Jesus or his words in indecent places, + I desire to take them away, and I pray that others take them + away and put them in some decent place. We ought to honor and + revere all the theologians and those who preach the most holy + word of God, as dispensing to us spirit and life. + + When the Lord gave me some brothers no one showed me what I + ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I + ought to live according to the model of the holy gospel. I + caused a short and simple formula to be written, and the lord + pope confirmed it for me. + + Those who presented themselves to observe this kind of life + distributed all that they might have to the poor. They contented + themselves with a tunic, patched within and without, with the + cord and breeches, and we desired to have nothing more. + + The clerks said the office like other clerks, and the laymen + _Pater noster_. + + We loved to live in poor and abandoned churches, and we were + ignorant and submissive to all. I worked with my hands and would + continue to do, and I will also that all other friars work at + some honorable trade. Let those who have none learn one, not for + the purpose of receiving the price of their toil, but for their + good example and to flee idleness. And when they do not give us + the price of the work, let us resort to the table of the Lord, + begging our bread from door to door. The Lord revealed to me the + salutation which we ought to give: "God give you peace!" + + Let the Brothers take great care not to receive churches, + habitations, and all that men build for them, except as all is + in accordance with the holy poverty which we have vowed in the + Rule, and let them not receive hospitality in them except as + strangers and pilgrims. + + I absolutely interdict all the brothers, in whatever place they + may be found, from asking any bull from the court of Rome, + whether directly or indirectly, under pretext of church or + convent or under pretext of preachings, nor even for their + personal protection. If they are not received anywhere let them + go elsewhere, thus doing penance with the benediction of God. + + I desire to obey the minister-general of this fraternity, and + the guardian whom he may please to give me. I desire to put + myself entirely into his hands, to go nowhere and do nothing + against his will, for he is my lord. + + Though I be simple and ill, I would, however, have always a + clerk who will perform the office, as it is said in the Rule; + let all the other brothers also be careful to obey their + guardians and to do the office according to the Rule. If it come + to pass that there are any who do not the office according to + the Rule, and who desire to make any other change, or if they + are not Catholics, let all the Brothers, wherever they may be, + be bound by obedience to present them to the nearest custode. + Let the custodes be bound by obedience to keep him well guarded + like a man who is in bonds night and day, so that he may not + escape from their hands until they personally place him in the + minister's hands. And let the minister be bound by obedience to + send him by brothers who will guard him as a prisoner day and + night until they shall have placed him in the hands of the Lord + Bishop of Ostia, who is the lord, the protector, and the + correcter of all the Fraternity.[13] + + And let the Brothers not say: "This is a new Rule;" for this is + a reminder, a warning, an exhortation; it is my Will, that I, + little Brother Francis, make for you, my blessed Brothers, in + order that we may observe in a more catholic way the Rule which + we promised the Lord to keep. + + Let the ministers-general, all the other ministers and the + custodes be held by obedience to add nothing to and take nothing + from these words. Let them always keep this writing near them, + beside the Rule; and in all the chapters which shall be held, + when the Rule is read let these words be read also. + + I interdict absolutely, by obedience, all the Brothers, clerics + and layman, to introduce glosses in the Rule, or in this Will, + under pretext of explaining it. But since the Lord has given me + to speak and to write the Rule and these words in a clear and + simple manner, without commentary, understand them in the same + way, and put them in practice until the end. + + And may whoever shall have observed these things be crowned in + heaven with the blessings of the heavenly Father, and on earth + with those of his well-beloved Son and of the Holy Spirit the + consoler, with the assistance of all the heavenly virtues and + all the saints. + + And I, little Brother Francis, your servitor, confirm to you so + far as I am able this most holy benediction. Amen. + +After thinking of his Brothers Francis thought of his dear Sisters at +St. Damian and made a will for them. + +It has not come down to us, and we need not wonder; the Spiritual +Brothers might flee away, and protest from the depths of their retreats, +but the Sisters were completely unarmed against the machinations of the +Common Observance.[14] + +In the last words that he addressed to the Clarisses, after calling upon +them to persevere in poverty and union, he gave them his +benediction.[15] Then he recommended them to the Brothers, supplicating +the latter never to forget that they were members of one and the same +religious family.[16] After having done all that he could for those +whom he was about to leave, he thought for a moment of himself. + +He had become acquainted in Rome with a pious lady named Giacomina di +Settisoli. Though rich, she was simple and good, entirely devoted to the +new ideas; even the somewhat singular characteristics of Francis pleased +her. He had given her a lamb which had become her inseparable +companion.[17] + +Unfortunately all that concerns her has suffered much from later +retouchings of the legend. The perfectly natural conduct of the Saint +with women has much embarrassed his biographers; hence heavy and +distorted commentaries tacked on to episodes of a delicious simplicity. + +Before dying Francis desired to see again this friend, whom he +smilingly called Brother Giacomina. He caused a letter to be written her +to come to Portiuncula; we can imagine the dismay of the narrators at +this far from monastic invitation. + +But the good lady had anticipated his appeal: at the moment when the +messenger with the letter was about to leave for Rome, she arrived at +Portiuncula and remained there until the last sigh of the Saint.[18] +For one moment she thought of sending away her suite; the invalid was so +calm and joyful that she could not believe him dying, but he himself +advised her to keep her people with her. This time he felt with no +possible doubt that his captivity was about to be ended. + +He was ready, he had finished his work. + +Did he think then of the day when, cursed by his father, he had +renounced all earthly goods and cried to God with an ineffable +confidence, "Our Father who art in heaven!" We cannot say; but he +desired to finish his life by a symbolic act which very closely recalls +the scene in the bishop's palace. + +He caused himself to be stripped of his clothing and laid upon the +ground, for he wished to die in the arms of his Lady Poverty. With one +glance he embraced the twenty years that had glided by since their +union: "I have done my duty," he said to the Brothers, "may the Christ +now teach you yours!"[19] + +This was Thursday, October 1.[20] + +They laid him back upon his bed, and, conforming to his wishes, they +again sang to him the Canticle of the Sun. + +At times he added his voice to those of his Brothers,[21] and came back +with preference to Psalm 142, _Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi_.[22] + + With my voice I cry unto the Lord, + With my voice I implore the Lord, + I pour out my complaint before him, + I tell him all my distress. + When my spirit is cast down within me, + Thou knowest my path. + Upon the way where I walk + They have laid a snare for me, + Cast thine eyes to the right and look! + No one recognizes me; + All refuge is lost for me, + No one takes thought for my soul. + Lord, unto thee I cry; + I say: Thou art my refuge, + My portion in the land of the living. + Be attentive to my cries! + For I am very unhappy. + Deliver me from those who pursue me! + For they are stronger than I. + Bring my soul out of its prison + That I may praise thy name. + The righteous shall compass me about + When thou hast done good unto me! + +The visits of death are always solemn, but the end of the just is the +most moving _sursum corda_ that we can hear on earth. The hours flowed +by and the Brothers would not leave him. "Alas, good Father," said one +of them to him, unable longer to contain himself, "your children are +going to lose you, and be deprived of the true light which lightened +them: think of the orphans you are leaving and forgive all their faults, +give to them all, present and absent, the joy of your holy benediction." + +"See," replied the dying man, "God is calling me. I forgive all my +Brothers, present and absent, their offences and faults, and absolve +them according to my power. Tell them so, and bless them all in my +name."[23] + +Then crossing his arms he laid his hands upon those who surrounded him. +He did this with peculiar emotion to Bernard of Quintavalle: "I desire," +he said, "and with all my power I urge whomsoever shall be +minister-general of the Order, to love and honor him as myself; let the +provincials and all the Brothers act toward him as toward me."[24] + +He thought not only of the absent Brothers but of the future ones; love +so abounded in him that it wrung from him a groan of regret for not +seeing all those who should enter the Order down to the end of time, +that he might lay his hand upon their brows, and make them feel those +things that may only be spoken by the eyes of him who loves in God.[25] + +He had lost the notion of time; believing that it was still Thursday he +desired to take a last meal with his disciples. Some bread was brought, +he broke it and gave it to them, and there in the poor cabin of +Portiuncula, without altar and without a priest, was celebrated the +Lord's Supper.[26] + +A Brother read the Gospel for Holy Thursday, _Ante diem festum Paschae_: +"Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come +to go from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in +the world he loved them unto the end." + +The sun was gilding the crests of the mountains with his last rays, +there was silence around the dying one. All was ready. The angel of +death might come. + +Saturday, October 3, 1226, at nightfall, without pain, without struggle, +he breathed the last sigh. + +The Brothers were still gazing on his face, hoping yet to catch some +sign of life, when innumerable larks alighted, singing, on the thatch of +his cell,[27] as if to salute the soul which had just taken flight and +give the Little Poor Man the canonization of which he was most worthy, +the only one, doubtless, which he would ever have coveted. + +On the morrow, at dawn, the Assisans came down to take possession of his +body and give it a triumphant funeral. + +By a pious inspiration, instead of going straight to the city they went +around by St. Damian, and thus was realized the promise made by Francis +to the Sisters a few weeks before, to come once more to see them. + +Their grief was heart-rending. + +These women's hearts revolted against the absurdity of death;[28] but +there were tears on that day at St. Damian only. The Brothers forgot +their sadness on seeing the stigmata, and the inhabitants of Assisi +manifested an indescribable joy on having their relic at last. They +deposited it in the Church St. George.[29] + +Less than two years after, Sunday, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. came to +Assisi to preside in person over the ceremonies of canonization, and to +lay, on the morrow, the first stone of the new church dedicated to the +Stigmatized. + +Built under the inspiration of Gregory IX. and the direction of Brother +Elias, this marvellous basilica is also one of the documents of this +history, and perhaps I have been wrong in neglecting it. + +Go and look upon it, proud, rich, powerful, then go down to Portiuncula, +pass over to St. Damian, hasten to the Carceri, and you will understand +the abyss that separates the ideal of Francis from that of the pontiff +who canonized him. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _Mortem cantando suscepit._ 2 Cel., 3, 139. + + [2] The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS., + 338 (f^o 16a-18a). It is also to be found in _Firmamentum_, f^o + 19, col. 4; _Speculum_, Morin, _tract._ iii., 8a; Wadding, _ann. + 1226_, 35; A. SS., p. 663; Amoni, _Legenda Trium Sociorum_; + Appendix, p. 110. Everything in this document proclaims its + authenticity, but we are not reduced to internal proof. It is + expressly cited in 1 Cel., 17 (before 1230); by the Three + Companions (1246), 3 Soc., 11; 26; 29; by 2 Cel., 3, 99 (1247). + These proofs would be more than sufficient, but there is another + of even greater value: the bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28, + 1230, where Gregory IX. cites it textually and declares that the + friars are not bound to observe it. + + [3] _Promittet Franciscus obedientiam ... papae ... et + successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis praecipere + aliquid quod sit contra animam et regulam._ _Archiv._, _i_, p. + 563. + + [4] _Quod si quando a quocumque ... pontifice aliquid ... + mandaretur quod esset contra fidem ... et caritatem et fructus + ejus tunc obediet Deo magis quam hominibus._ Ib., p. 561. + + [5] _Est [Regula] et stat et intelligitur super eos ... Cum spei + fiducia pace fruemur cum conscientiae et Christi spiritus + testimonio certo._ Ib., pp. 563 and 565. + + [6] _Archiv._, ii., p. 274. + + [7] _Ad mandatum illud vos dicimus non teneri: quod sine + consensu Fratrum maxime ministrorum, quos universos tangebat + obligare nequivit nec successorem suum quomodolibet obligavit; + cum non habeat imperium par in parem._ The sophism is barely + specious; Francis was not on a par with his successors; he did + not act as minister-general, but as founder. + + [8] _Arbor vit. cruc._, _lib._ v., _cap._ 3 and 5. See above, p. + 185. + + [9] _Tribul._, Laur., 25b; _Archiv._, i., p. 532. + + [10] At the summit of the Apennines, about half way between + Camerino and Nocera (Umbria). _Tribul._, Laur., 26b; Magl., + 135b. + + [11] _Declaratio Ubertini_, _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. This fact + is not to be questioned, since it is alleged in a piece + addressed to the pope, in response to the liberal friars, to + whom it was to be communicated. + + [12] _Feci moram cum illis._, MS., 338. Most of the printed + texts give _miseracordiam_, which gives a less satisfactory + meaning. Cf. Miscellanea iii. (1888), p. 70; 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc., + 11. + + [13] It is evident that heresy is not here in question. The + Brothers who were infected with it were to be delivered to the + Church. + + [14] Urban IV. published, October 18, 1263, Potthast (18680), a + Rule for the Clarisses which completely changed the character of + this Order. Its author was the cardinal protector Giovanni degli + Ursini (the future Nicholas III.), who by way of precaution + forbade the Brothers Minor under the severest penalties to + dissuade the Sisters from accepting it. "It differs as much from + the first Rule," said Ubertini di Casali "as black and white, + the savory and the insipid." _Arbor. vit. cruc. lib._ v., _cap._ + vi. + + [15] V. _Test. B. Clarae_; _Conform._, 185a 1; Spec., 117b. + + [16] 2 Cel., 3, 132. + + [17] Bon., 112. + + [18] The Bollandists deny this whole story, which they find in + opposition to the prescriptions of Francis himself. A. SS., p. + 664 ff. But it is difficult to see for what object authors who + take great pains to explain it could have had for inventing it. + _Spec._, 133a; _Fior._ iv.; _consid._; _Conform._, 240a. I have + borrowed the whole account from Bernard of Besse: _De Laudibus_, + f^o 113b. It appears that Giacomina settled for the rest of her + life at Assisi, that she might gain edification from the first + companions of Francis. _Spec._, 107b. (What a lovely scene, and + with what a Franciscan fragrance!) The exact date of her death + is not known. She was buried in the lower church of the basilica + of Assisi, and on her tomb was engraved: _Hic jacit Jacoba + sancta nobilisque romana_. Vide Fratini: _Storia della + basilica_, p. 48. Cf. Jacobilli: _Vite dei Santi e Beati dell' + Umbria_, Foligno, 3 vols., 4to, 1647; i., p. 214. + + [19] 2 Cel., 3, 139; Bon., 209, 210; _Conform._, 171b, 2. + + [20] 2 Cel., 3, 139: _Cum me videritis ... sicut me nudius + tertius nudum vidistis._ + + [21] 1 Cel., 109; 2 Cel., 3, 139. + + [22] 1 Cel., 109; Bon., 212. + + [23] 1 Cel., 109. Cf. _Epist. Eliae._ + + [24] _Tribul._ Laur., 22b. Nothing better shows the historic + value of the chronicle of the Tribulations than to compare its + story of these moments with that of the following documents: + _Conform._, 48b, 1; 185a, 2; _Fior._, 6.; _Spec._, 86a. + + [25] 2 Cel., 3, 139; _Spec._, 116b; _Conform._, 224b, 1. + + [26] 2 Cel., 3, 139. A simple comparison between this story in + the _Speculum_ (116b) and that in the _Conformities_ (224b, 1) + is enough to show how in certain of its parts the _Speculum_ + represents a state of the legend anterior to 1385. + + [27] Bon., 214. This cell has been transformed into a chapel and + may be found a few yards from the little church of Portiuncula. + Church and chapel are now sheltered under the great Basilica of + Santa Maria degli Angeli. See the picture and plan, A. SS., p. + 814, or better still in _P. Barnabas aus dem Elsass, Portiuncula + oder Geschichte U. L. F. v. den Engeln_. Rixheim, 1884, 1 vol., + 8vo, pp. 311 and 312. + + [28] 1 Cel., 116 and 117; Bon., 219; _Conform._ 185a, 1. + + [29] To-day in the _cloture_ of the convent St. Clara. Vide + Miscellanea 1, pp. 44-48, a very interesting study by Prof. + Carattoli upon the coffin of St. Francis. + + * * * * * + + + + + CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +SUMMARY + + +I. ST. FRANCIS'S WORKS. + + +II. BIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED. + + 1. Preliminary Note. + + 2. First Life by Thomas of Celano. + + 3. Review of the History of the Order 1230-1244. + + 4. Legend of the Three Companions. + + 5. Fragments of the Suppressed Portion of the Legend. + + 6. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. First Part. + + 7. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. Second Part. + + 8. Documents of Secondary Importance: + + Biography for Use of the Choir. + Life in Verse. + Biography by Giovanni di Ceperano. + Life by Brother Julian. + + 9. Legend of St. Bonaventura. + + 10. De Laudibus of Bernard of Besse. + + +III. DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS. + + 1. Donation of the Verna. + + 2. Registers of Cardinal Ugolini. + + 3. Bulls. + + +IV. CHRONICLERS OF THE ORDER. + + 1. Chronicle of Brother Giordano di Giano. + + 2. Eccleston: Arrival of the Friars in England. + + 3. Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni. + + 4. Chronicle of the Tribulations. + + 5. The Fioretti and their Appendices. + + 6. Chronicle of the XXIV. Generals. + + 7. The Conformities of Bartolommeo di Pisa. + + 8. Glassberger's Chronicle. + + 9. Chronicle of Mark of Lisbon. + + +V. CHRONICLERS NOT OF THE ORDER. + + 1. Jacques de Vitry. + + 2. Thomas of Spalato. + + 3. Divers Chroniclers. + + * * * * * + + + + +CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES + + +There are few lives in history so abundantly provided with documents as +that of St. Francis. This will perhaps surprise the reader, but to +convince himself he has only to run over the preceding list, which, +however, has been made as succinct as possible. + +It is admitted in learned circles that the essential elements of this +biography have disappeared or have been entirely altered. The +exaggeration of certain religious writers, who accept everything, and +among several accounts of the same fact always choose the longest and +most marvellous, has led to a like exaggeration in the contrary sense. + +If it were necessary to point out the results of these two excesses as +they affect each event, this volume would need to be twice and even four +times as large as it is. Those who are interested in these questions +will find in the notes brief indications of the original documents on +which each narrative is based.[1] + +To close the subject of the errors which are current in the Franciscan +documents, and to show in a few lines their extreme importance, I shall +take two examples. Among our own contemporaries no one has so well +spoken on the subject of St. Francis as M. Renan; he comes back to him +with affecting piety, and he was in a better condition than any one to +know the sources of this history. And yet he does not hesitate to say in +his study of the Canticle of the Sun, Francis's best known work: "The +authenticity of this piece appears certain, but we must observe that we +have not the Italian original. The Italian text which we possess is a +translation of a Portuguese version, which was itself translated from +the Spanish."[2] + +And yet the primitive Italian exists[3] not only in numerous +manuscripts in Italy and France, particularly in the Mazarine +Library,[4] but also in the well-known book of the _Conformities_.[5] + +An error, grave from quite another point of view, is made by the same +author when he denies the authenticity of St. Francis's Will; this piece +is not only the noblest expression of its author's religious feeling, it +constitutes also a sort of autobiography, and contains the solemn and +scarcely disguised revocation of all the concessions which had been +wrung from him. We have already seen that its authenticity is not to be +challenged.[6] This double example will, I hope, suffice to show the +necessity of beginning this study by a conscientious examination of the +sources. + +If the eminent historian to whom I have alluded were still living, he +would have for this page his large and benevolent smile, that simple, +_Oui, oui_, which once made his pupils in the little hall of the College +de France to tremble with emotion. + +I do not know what he would think of this book, but I well know that he +would love the spirit in which it was undertaken, and would easily +pardon me for having chosen him for scape-goat of my wrath against the +learned men and biographers. + +The documents to be examined have been divided into five categories. + +The first includes _St. Francis's works_. + +The second, _biographies properly so called_. + +The third, _diplomatic documents_. + +The fourth, _chronicles of the Order_. + +The fifth, _chronicles of authors not of the Order_. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] If any student finds himself embarrassed by the extreme + rarity of certain works cited, I shall make it my duty and + pleasure to send them to him, as well as a copy of the Italian + manuscripts. + + [2] E. Renan: _Nouvelles etudes d'histoire religieuse_, Paris, + 1884, 8vo, p. 331. + + [3] See above, pp. 304 ff. + + [4] Mazarine Library, MS. 8531: _Speculum perfectionis S. + Francisci_; the Canticle is found at fo. 51. Cf. MS., 1350 (date + of 1459). That text was published by Boehmer in the _Romanische + Studien_, Halle, 1871. pp. 118-122. _Der Sonnengesang v. Fr. + d'A._ + + [5] _Conform._ (Milan, 1510), 202b, 2s. For that matter it is + correct that Diola, in the _Croniche degli ordini instituti da + S. Francisco_ (Venice, 1606, 3 vols. 4to), translated after the + Castilian version of the work composed in Portuguese by Mark of + Lisbon, was foolish enough to render into Italian this + translation of a translation. + + [6] See pages 333 ff. + + * * * * * + + + + +I + +ST. FRANCIS'S WORKS + + +The writings of St. Francis[1] are assuredly the best source of +acquaintance with him; we can only be surprised to find them so +neglected by most of his biographers. It is true that they give little +information as to his life, and furnish neither dates nor facts,[2] +but they do better, they mark the stages of his thought and of his +spiritual development. The legends give us Francis as he appeared, and +by that very fact suffer in some degree the compulsion of circumstances; +they are obliged to bend to the exigencies of his position as general of +an Order approved by the Church, as miracle-worker, and as saint. His +works, on the contrary, show us his very soul; each phrase has not only +been thought, but lived; they bring us the Poverello's emotions, still +alive and palpitating. + +So, when in the writings of the Franciscans we find any utterance of +their master, it unconsciously betrays itself, sounding out suddenly in +a sweet, pure tone which penetrates to your very heart, awakening with a +thrill a sprite that was sleeping there. + +This bloom of love enduing St. Francis's words would be an admirable +criterion of the authenticity of those opuscules which tradition +attributes to him; but the work of testing is neither long nor +difficult. If after his time injudicious attempts were here and there +made to honor him with miracles which he did not perform, which he would +not even have wished to perform, no attempt was ever made to burden his +literary efforts with false or supposititious pieces.[3] The best +proof of this is that it is not until Wadding--that is to say, until the +seventeenth century--that we find the first and only serious attempt to +collect these precious memorials. Several of them have been lost,[4] +but those which remain are enough to give us in some sort the refutation +of the legends. + +In these pages Francis gives himself to his readers, as long ago he gave +himself to his companions; in each one of them a feeling, a cry of the +heart, or an aspiration toward the Invisible is prolonged down to our +own time. + +Wadding thought it his duty to give a place in his collection to several +suspicious pieces; more than this, instead of following the oldest +manuscripts that he had before him, he often permitted himself to be led +astray by sixteenth-century writers whose smallest concern was to be +critical and accurate. To avoid the tedious and entirely negative task +to which it would be necessary to proceed if I took him for my +starting-point I shall confine myself to a positive study of this +question. + +All the pieces which will be enumerated are found in his collection. +They are sometimes cut up in a singular way; but in proportion as each +document is studied we shall find sufficient indications to enable us +to make the necessary rectifications. + +The archives of Sacro Convento of Assisi[5] possess a manuscript whose +importance is not to be overestimated. It has already been many times +studied,[6] and bears the number 338. + +It appears, however, that a very important detail of form has been +overlooked. It is this: that No. 338 is not _one_ manuscript, but _a +collection_ of manuscripts of very different periods, which were put +together because they were of very nearly the same size, and have been +foliated in a peculiar manner. + +This artificial character of the collection shows that each of the +pieces which compose it needs to be examined by itself, and that it is +impossible to say of it as a whole that it is of the thirteenth or the +fourteenth century. + +The part that interests us is perfectly homogeneous, is formed of three +parchment books (fol. 12a-44b) and contains a part of Francis's works. + +1. The Rule, definitively approved by Honorius III., November 20, +1223[7] (fol. 12a-16a). + +2. St. Francis's Will[8] (fol. 16a-18a). + +3. The Admonitions[9] (fol. 18a-23b). + +4. The Letter to all Christians[10] (fol. 23b-28a). + +5. The letter to all the members of the Order assembled in +Chapter-general[11] (fol. 28a-31a). + +6. Counsel to all clerics on the respect to be paid to the +Eucharist[12] (fol., 31b-32b). + +7. A very short piece preceded by the rubric: "Of the virtues which +adorn the Virgin Mary and which ought to adorn the holy soul"[13] (fol. +32b). + +8. The _Laudes Creaturarum_, or Canticle of the Sun[14] (fol. 33a). + +9. A paraphrase of the _Pater_ introduced by the rubric: _Incipiunt +laudes quas ordinavit. B. pater noster Franciscus et dicebat ipsas ad +omnes horas diei et noctis et ante officium B. V. Mariae sic incipiens: +Sanctissime Pater_[15] (fol. 34a). + +10. The office of the Passion (34b-43a). This office, where the psalms +are replaced by several series of biblical verses, are designed to make +him who repeats them follow, hour by hour, the emotions of the Crucified +One from the evening of Holy Thursday.[16] + +11. A rule for friars in retreat in hermitages[17] (fol. 43a-43b). + +A glance over this list is enough to show that the works of Francis here +collected are addressed to all the Brothers, or are a sort of +encyclicals, which they are charged to pass on to those for whom they +are destined. + +The very order of these pieces shows us that we have in this manuscript +the primitive library of the Brothers Minor, the collection of which +each minister was to carry with him a copy. It was truly their viaticum. + +Matthew Paris tells us of his amazement at the sight of these foreign +monks, clothed in patched tunics, and carrying their books in a sort of +case suspended from their necks.[18] + +The Assisi manuscript was without doubt destined to this service; if it +is silent on the subject of the journeys it has made, and of the +Brothers to whom it has been a guide and an inspiration, it at least +brings us, more than all the legends, into intimacy with Francis, makes +us thrill in unison with that heart which never admitted a separation +between joy, love, and poetry. As to the date of this manuscript, one +must needs be a paleographer to determine. We have already found a +hypothesis which, if well grounded, would carry it back to the +neighborhood of 1240.[19] + +Its contents seem to countenance this early date. In fact, it contains +several pieces of which the _Manual of the Brother Minor_ very early rid +itself. + +Very soon they were content to have only the Rule to keep company with +the breviary; sometimes they added the Will. But the other writings, if +they did not fall entirely into neglect, ceased at least to be of daily +usage. + +Those of St. Francis's writings which are not of general interest or do +not concern the Brothers naturally find no place in this collection. In +this new category we must range the following documents: + +1. The Rule of 1221.[20] + +2. The Rule of the Clarisses, which we no longer possess in its original +form.[21] + +3. A sort of special instruction for ministers-general.[22] + +4. A letter to St. Clara.[23] + +5. Another letter to the same.[24] + +6. A letter to Brother Leo.[25] + +7. A few prayers.[26] + +8. The benediction of Brother Leo. The original autograph, which is +preserved in the treasury of Sacro Convento, has been very well +reproduced by heliograph.[27] + +As to the two famous hymns _Amor de caritade_[28] and _In foco l'amor +mi mise_,[29] they cannot be attributed to St. Francis, at least in +their present form. + +It belongs to M. Monaci and his numerous and learned emulators to throw +light upon these delicate questions by publishing in a scientific manner +the earliest monuments of Italian poetry. + +I have already spoken of several tracts of which assured traces have +been found, though they themselves are lost. They are much more numerous +than would at first be supposed. In the missionary zeal of the early +years the Brothers would not concern themselves with collecting +documents. We do not write our memoirs in the fulness of our youth. + +We must also remember that Portiuncula had neither archives nor library. +It was a chapel ten paces long, with a few huts gathered around it. The +Order was ten years old before it had seen any other than a single book: +a New Testament. The Brothers did not even keep this one. Francis, +having nothing else, gave it to a poor woman who asked for alms, and +when Pietro di Catania, his vicar, expressed his surprise at this +prodigality: "Has she not given her two sons to the Order?" replied the +master[30] quickly. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Collected first by Wadding (Antwerp, 1623, 4to), they have + been published many times since then, particularly by De la Haye + (Paris, 1641, f^o). These two editions having become scarce, + were republished--in a very unsatisfactory manner--by the Abbe + Horoy: _S. Francisci Assisiatis opera omnia_ (Paris, 1880, 4to). + For want of a more exact edition, that of Father Bernardo da + Fivizzano is the most useful: _Opuscoli di S. Francesco + d'Assisi_, 1 vol., 12mo, pp. 564, Florence, 1880. The Latin text + is accompanied by an Italian translation. + + [2] "_Die Briefe, die unter seinem Namen gehen, moegen theilweise + aecht sein. Aber sie tragen kaum etwas zur naeheren Kenntniss bei + und koennen daher fast ganz ausser Acht bleiben_." Mueller, _Die + Anfaenge des Minoritenordens_, Freiburg, 1 vol., 8vo, 1885, p. 3. + + [3] Pieces have been often attributed to St. Francis which do + not belong to him; but those are unintentional errors and made + without purpose. The desire for literary exactness is relatively + of recent date, and it was easier for those who were ignorant of + the author of certain Franciscan writings to attribute them to + St. Francis than to admit their ignorance or to make deep + researches. + + [4] For example, the first Rule; probably also a few canticles; + a letter to the Brothers in France, Eccl., 6; another to the + Brothers in Bologna: "_Praedixerat per litteram in qua fuit + plurimum latinum_," Eccl., ib.; a letter to Antony of Padua, + other than the one we have, since on the witness of Celano it + was addressed: _Fratri Antonio episcopo meo_ (2 Cel., 3, 99); + certain letters to St. Clara: "_Scripsit Clarae et sororibus ad + consolationem litteram in qua dabat benedictionem suam et + absolvebat_," etc. _Conform._, f^o. 185a, 1; cf. _Test. B. + Clarae_. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 767: "_Plura scripta + tradidit nobis, ne post mortem suam declinaremus a paupertate_;" + certain letters to Cardinal Ugolini, 3 Soc., 67. + + It is not to negligence alone that we must attribute the loss of + many of the epistles: "_Quod nephas est cogitare, in provincia + Marchie et in pluribus aliis locis testamentum beati Francisci + mandaverunt (prelati ordinis) districte per obedientiam ab + omnibus auferi et comburi. Et uni fratri devoto et sancto, cujus + nomen est N. de Rocanato combuxerunt dicum testamentum super + caput suum. Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti, annulare scripta + beati patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de + observantia regule declaratur._" Ubertino di Casali, _apud + Archiv._, iii., pp. 168-169. + + [5] Italy is too obliging to artists, archaeologists, and + scholars not to do them the favor of disposing in a more + practical manner this trust, the most precious of all Umbria. + Even with the indefatigable kindness of the curator, M. + Alessandro, and of the municipality of Assisi, it is very + difficult to profit by these treasures heaped up in a dark room + without a table to write upon. + + [6] In particular by Ehrle: _Die historischen Handschriften von + S. Francesco in Assisi._ _Archiv._, t. i., p. 484. + + [7] See pages 252 ff ... and 283. + + [8] See pages 333 ff. + + [9] See pages 259 ff. + + [10] See page 325 ff. + + [11] See pages 322 ff. + + [12] See page 327. + + [13] I give it entire: "_Regina sapientia, Dominus te salvet, + cum tua sorore sancta pura simplicitate.--Domina sancta + paupertas, Domimus te salvet, cum tua sorore sancta + humilitate.--Domina sancta caritas, Dominus te salvet, cum tua + sorrore sancta obedientia. Sanctissimae virtutes omnes, vos + salvet Dominus, a quo venitis et proceditis._" Its authenticity + is guaranteed by a citation by Celano: 2 Cel., 3, 119. Cf. 126b + and 127a. + + [14] See pages 304 f. + + [15] I shall not recur to this: the text is in the Conformities + 138a 2. + + [16] The authenticity of this service, to which there is not a + single allusion in the biographies of St. Francis, is rendered + certain by the life of St. Clara: "_Officium crucis, prout + crucis amator Franciscus instituerat (Clara) didicit et affectu + simili frequentavit._" A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 761a. + + [17] It begins: _Illi qui volunt stare in heremis_. This text is + also found in the Conformities, 143a, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 43; see + p. 97. + + [18] _Nudis pedibus incedentes, funiculis cincti, tunicis + griseis et talaribus peciatis, insuto capucio utentes ... nihil + sibi ultra noctem reservantes ... libros continue suos ... in + forulis a collo dependentes bajulantes._ Historia Anglorum, + Pertz: _Script._, t. 28, p. 397. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 135; _Fior._, 5; + _Spec._, 45b. + + [19] See page 322 n. + + [20] See page 252. + + [21] See page 157. + + [22] See pages 318 ff. + + [23] See page 239. + + [24] See page 327. + + [25] See page 262. + + [26] _a._ _Sanctus Dominus Deus noster._ Cf. _Spec._, 126a; + _Firmamentum_, 18b, 2; _Conform._, 202b, 1. + + _b._ _Ave Domina sancta._ Cf. _Spec._, 127a; _Conform._, 138a, 2. + + _c._ _Sancta Maria virgo._ Cf. _Spec._, 126b; _Conform._, 202b, 2. + + [27] Vide S. Francois, in 4to, Paris. 1885 (Plon), p. 233. The + authenticity of this benediction appears to be well established, + since it was already jealously guarded during the life of Thomas + of Celano. No one has ever dreamed of requiring historical proof + of this writing. Is this perhaps a mistake? The middle of the + sheet is taken up with the benediction which was dictated to + Brother Leo: _Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodiat te, ostendat + faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui convertat vultum suum ad te + et det tibi pacem._ At the bottom, Francis added the letter + _tau_. ~[Greek: Tau]~, which was, so to speak, his signature + (Bon., 51; 308), and the words: _Frater Leo Dominus benedicat te_. + + Then when this memorial became a part of the relics of the + Saint, Brother Leo, to authenticate it in a measure, added the + following notes: toward the middle: _Beatus Franciscus + scripsit manu sua istam benedictionem mihi fratri Leoni_; + toward the close: _Simili modo fecit istud signum thau cum + capite manu sua_. But the most valuable annotation is found at + the top of the sheet: _Beatus Franciscus duobus annis ante + mortem suam fecit quadragesimam in loco Alvernae ad honorem + Beatae Virginia Mariae matris Dei et beati Michael archangeli a + festo assumptionis sanctae Mariae Virginis usque ad festum + sancti Michael septembris et facta est super eum manus Domini + per visionem et allucotionem seraphym et impressionem + stigmatum in corpore suo. Fecit has laudes ex alio latere + catule scriptas et manu, sua scripsit gratias agens Domino de + beneficio sibi collato._ Vide 2 Cel., 2, 18. + + [28] Wadding gives the text according to St. Bernardino da + Siena. _Opera_, t. iv., _sermo_ 16, _extraord. et sermo feriae + sextae Parasceves_. Amoni: _Legenda trium sociorum_, p. 166. + + [29] Wadding has drawn the text from St. Bernardino, _loc. + cit._, _sermo_ iv., _extraord._ It was also reproduced by Amoni, + _loc. cit._, p. 165. Two very curious versions may be found in + the Miscellanea, 1888, pp. 96 and 190. + + [30] 2 Cel., 3, 35. This took place under the vicariat of Pietro + di Catania; consequently between September 29, 1220, and March + 10, 1221. + + * * * * * + + + + +II + +BIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED + + +I. PRELIMINARY NOTE + +To form a somewhat exact notion of the documents which are to occupy us, +we must put them back into the midst of the circumstances in which they +appeared, study them in detail, and determine the special value of each +one. + +Here, more than anywhere else, we must beware of facile theories and +hasty generalizations. The same life described by two equally truthful +contemporaries may take on a very different coloring. This is especially +the case if the man concerned has aroused enthusiasm and wrath, if his +inmost thought, his works, have been the subject of discussion, if the +very men who were commissioned to realize his ideals and carry on his +work are divided, and at odds with one another. + +This was the case with St. Francis. In his lifetime and before his own +eyes divergences manifested themselves, at first secretly, then in the +light of day. + +In a rapture of love he went from cottage to cottage, from castle to +castle, preaching absolute poverty; but that buoyant enthusiasm, that +unbounded idealism, could not last long. The Order of the Brothers Minor +in process of growth was open not only to a few choice spirits aflame +with mystic fervor, but to all men who aspired after a religious +reformation; pious laymen, monks undeceived as to the virtues of the +ancient Orders, priests shocked at the vices of the secular clergy, all +brought with them--unintentionally no doubt and even unconsciously--too +much of their old man not by degrees to transform the institution. + +Francis perceived the peril several years before his death, and made +every effort to avert it. Even in his dying hour we see him summoning +all his powers to declare his Will once again, and as clearly as +possible, and to conjure his Brothers never to touch the Rule, even +under pretext of commenting upon or explaining it. Alas! four years had +not rolled away when Gregory IX., at the prayer of the Brothers +themselves, became the first one of a long series of pontiffs who have +explained the Rule.[1] + +Poverty, as Francis understood it, soon became only a memory. The +unexampled success of the Order brought to it not merely new recruits, +but money. How refuse it when there were so many works to found? Many of +the friars discovered that their master had exaggerated many things, +that shades of meaning were to be observed in the Rule, for example, +between counsels and precepts. The door once opened to interpretations, +it became impossible to close it. The Franciscan family began to be +divided into opposing parties often difficult to distinguish. + +At first there were a few restless, undisciplined men who grouped +themselves around the older friars. The latter, in their character of +first companions of the Saint, found a moral authority often greater +than the official authority of the ministers and guardians. The people +turned to them by instinct as to the true continuers of St. Francis's +work. They were not far from right. + +They had the vigor, the vehemence of absolute convictions; they could +not have temporized had they desired to do so. When they emerged from +their hermitages in the Apennines, their eyes shining with the fever of +their ideas, absorbed in contemplation, their whole being spoke of the +radiant visions they enjoyed; and the amazed and subdued multitude +would kneel to kiss the prints of their feet with hearts mysteriously +stirred. + +A larger group was that of those Brothers who condemned these methods +without being any the less saints. Born far away from Umbria, in +countries where nature seems to be a step-mother, where adoration, far +from being the instinctive act of a happy soul soaring upward to bless +the heavenly Father, is, on the contrary, the despairing cry of an atom +lost in immensity, they desired above all things a religious +reformation, rational and profound. They dreamed of bringing the Church +back to the purity of the ancient days, and saw in the vow of poverty, +understood in its largest sense, the best means of struggling against +the vices of the clergy; but they forgot the freshness, the Italian +gayety, the sunny poetry that there had been in Francis's mission. + +Full of admiration for him, they yet desired to enlarge the foundations +of his work, and for that they would neglect no means of influence, +certainly not learning. + +This tendency was the dominant one in France, Germany, and England. In +Italy it was represented by a very powerful party, powerful if not in +the number, at least in the authority, of its representatives. This was +the party favored by the papacy. It was the party of Brother Elias and +all the ministers-general of the Order in the thirteenth century, if we +except Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) and Raimondo Gaufridi (1289-1295). + +In Italy a third group, the liberals, was much more numerous; men of +mediocrity to whom monastic life appeared the most facile existence, +vagrant monks happy to secure an aftermath of success by displaying the +new Rule, formed in this country the greater part of the Franciscan +family. + +We can understand without difficulty that documents emanating from such +different quarters must bear the impress of their origin. The men who +are to bring us their testimony are combatants in the struggle over the +question of poverty, a struggle which for two centuries agitated the +Church, aroused all consciences, and which had its monsters and its +martyrs. + +To determine the value of these witnesses we must first of all discover +their origin. It is evident that the narratives of the no-compromise +party of the right or the left can have but slender value where +controverted points are concerned; whence the conclusion that the +authority of a narrator may vary from page to page, or even from line to +line. + +These considerations, so simple that one almost needs to beg pardon for +uttering them, have not, however, guided those who have studied St. +Francis's life. The most learned, like Wadding and Papini, have brought +together the narratives of different biographers, here and there pruning +those that are too contradictory; but they have done this at random, +with neither rule nor method, guided by the impression of the moment. + +The long work of the Bollandist Suysken is vitiated by an analogous +fault; fixed in his principle that the oldest documents are always the +best,[2] he takes his stand upon the first Life of Thomas of Celano as +upon an impregnable rock, and judges all other legends by that one.[3] + +When we connect the documents with the disturbed circumstances which +brought them into being, some of them lose a little of their authority, +others which have been neglected, as being in contradiction with +witnesses who have become so to say official, suddenly recover credit, +and in fact all gain a new life which doubles their interest. + +This altered point of view in the valuation of the sources, this +criticism which I am inclined to call reciprocal and organic, brings +about profound alterations in the biography of St. Francis. By a +phenomenon which may appear strange we end by sketching a portrait of +him much more like that which exists in the popular imagination of Italy +than that made by the learned historians above mentioned. + +When Francis died (1226) the parties which divided the Order had already +entered into conflict. That event precipitated the crisis: Brother Elias +had been for five years exercising the functions of minister-general +with the title of vicar. He displayed an amazing activity. Intrenched in +the confidence of Gregory IX. he removed the _Zelanti_ from their +charges, strengthened the discipline even in the most remote provinces, +obtained numerous privileges from the curia, and with incredible +rapidity prepared for the building of the double basilica, destined for +the repose of the ashes of the Stigmatized Saint; but notwithstanding +all his efforts, the chapter of 1227 set him aside and chose Giovanni +Parenti as minister-general. + +Furious at this check, he immediately set all influences to work to be +chosen at the following chapter. It even seems as if he paid no +attention to the nomination of Giovanni Parenti, and continued to go on +as if he had been minister.[4] + +Very popular among the Assisans, who were dazzled by the magnificence of +the monument which was springing up on the _Hill of Hell_, now become +the _Hill of Paradise_, sure of being supported by a considerable party +in the Order and by the pope, he pushed forward the work on the basilica +with a decision and success perhaps unique in the annals of +architecture.[5] + +All this could not be done without arousing the indignation of the +Zealots of poverty. When they saw a monumental poor-box, designed to +receive the alms of the faithful, upon the tomb of him who had forbidden +his disciples the mere contact of money, it seemed to them that +Francis's prophecy of the apostasy of a part of the Order was about to +be fulfilled. A tempest of revolt swept over the hermitages of Umbria. +Must they not, by any means, prevent this abomination in the holy place? + +They knew that Elias was terrible in his severities, but his opponents +felt in themselves courage to go to the last extremity, and suffer +everything to defend their convictions. One day the poor-box was found +shattered by Brother Leo and his friends.[6] + +To this degree of intensity the struggle had arrived. At this crisis the +first legend appeared. + + +II. First Life by Thomas of Celano[7] + +Thomas of Celano, in writing this legend, to which he was later to +return for its completion, obeyed an express order of Pope Gregory +IX.[8] + +Why did he not apply to one of the Brothers of the Saint's immediate +circle? The talent of this author might explain this choice, but +besides the fact that literary considerations would in this case hold a +secondary place, Brother Leo and several others proved later that they +also knew how to handle the pen. + +If Celano was put in trust with the official biography, it is because, +being equally in sympathy with Gregory IX. and Brother Elias, his +absence had kept him out of the conflicts which had marked the last +years of Francis's life. Of an irenic temper, he belonged to the +category of those souls who easily persuade themselves that obedience is +the first of virtues, that every superior is a saint; and if unluckily +he is not, that we should none the less act as though he were. + +We have some knowledge of his life. A native of Celano in the Abruzzi, +he discreetly observes that his family was noble, even adding, with a +touch of artless simplicity, that the master had a peculiar regard for +noble and educated Brothers. He entered the Order about 1215,[9] on +the return of Francis from Spain. + +At the chapter of 1221 Caesar of Speyer, charged with the mission to +Germany, took him among those who were to accompany him.[10] In 1223 he +was named custode of Mayence, Worms, Cologne, and Speyer. In April of +the same year, when Caesar returned to Italy, devoured with the longing +to see St. Francis again, he commissioned Celano to execute his +functions until the arrival of the new provincial.[11] + +We have no information as to where he was after the chapter-general held +at Speyer September 8, 1223. He must have been in Assisi in 1228, for +his account of the canonization is that of an eye-witness. He was there +again in 1230, and doubtless clothed with an important office, since he +could commit to Brother Giordano the relics of St. Francis.[12] + +Written in a pleasing style, very often poetic, his work breathes an +affecting admiration for his hero; his testimony at once makes itself +felt as sincere and true: when he is partial it is without intention and +even without his knowledge. The weak point in this biography is the +picture which it outlines of the relations between Brother Elias and the +founder of the Order: from the chapters devoted to the last two years we +receive a very clear impression that Elias was named by Francis to +succeed him.[13] + +Now if we reflect that at the time when Celano wrote, Giovanni Parenti +was minister-general, we at once perceive the bearing of these +indications.[14] Every opportunity is seized to give a preponderating +importance to Elias.[15] It is a true manifesto in his favor. + +Have we reason to blame Celano? I think not. We must simply remember +that his work might with justice be called the legend of Gregory IX. +Elias was the pope's man, and the biography is worked up from the +information he gave. He could not avoid dwelling with peculiar +satisfaction upon his intimacy with Francis. + +On the other hand, we cannot expect to find here such details as might +have sustained the pretension of the adversaries of Elias, those unruly +Zealots who were already proudly adorning themselves with the title of +_Companions of the Saint_ and endeavoring to constitute a sort of +spiritual aristocracy in the Order. Among them were four who during the +last two years had not, so to say, quitted Francis. We can imagine how +difficult it was not to speak of them. Celano carefully omits to mention +their names under pretext of sparing their modesty;[16] but by the +praises lavished upon Gregory IX., Brother Elias,[17] St. Clara,[18] +and even upon very secondary persons, he shows that his discretion is +far from being always so alert. + +All this is very serious, but we must not exaggerate it. There is an +evident partiality, but it would be unjust to go farther and believe, as +men did later, that the last part of Francis's life was an active +struggle against the very person of Elias. A struggle there surely was, +but it was against tendencies whose spring Francis did not perceive. He +carried with him to his tomb his delusion as to his co-laborer. + +For that matter this defect is after all secondary so far as the +physiognomy of Francis himself is concerned. In Celano's Life, as in the +Three Companions or the Fioretti, he appears with a smile for all joys, +and floods of tears for all woes; we feel everywhere the restrained +emotion of the writer; his heart is subjected by the moral beauty of his +hero. + + +III. SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER FROM 1230-1244 + +When Thomas of Celano closed his legend he perceived more than anyone +the deficiencies of his work, for which he had been able to collect but +insufficient material. + +Elias and the other Assisan brothers had told him of Francis's youth and +his activity in Umbria; but besides that he would have preferred, +whether from prudence or from love of peace, to keep silence upon +certain events,[19] there were long periods upon which he had not +received a single item of information.[20] + +He therefore seems to indicate his intention of resuming and completing +his work.[21] + +This is not the place to write the history of the Order, but a few facts +are necessary to put the documents into their proper surroundings. + +Elected minister-general in 1232, Brother Elias took advantage of the +fact to labor with indomitable energy toward the realization of his own +ideas. In all the provinces new collections were organized for the +Basilica of Assisi, the work upon which was pushed with an activity +which however injured neither the strength of the edifice nor the +beauty of its details, which are as finished and perfect as those of any +monument in Europe. + +We may conceive of the enormous sums which it had been necessary to +raise in order to complete such an enterprise in so short a time. More +than that, Brother Elias exacted absolute obedience from all his +subordinates; naming and removing the provincial ministers according to +his personal views, he neglected to convoke the chapter-general, and +sent his emissaries under the name of visitors into all the provinces to +secure the execution of his orders. + +The moderate party in Germany, France, and England very soon found his +yoke insupportable. It was hard for them to be directed by an Italian +minister resident at Assisi, a small town quite aside from the highways +of civilization, entirely a stranger to the scientific movement +concentred in the universities of Oxford, Paris, and Bologna. + +In the indignation of the _Zelanti_ against Elias and his contempt for +the Rule, they found a decisive support. Very soon the minister had for +his defence nothing but his own energy, and the favor of the pope and of +the few Italian moderates. By a great increase of vigilance and severity +he repressed several attempts at revolt. + +His adversaries, however, succeeded in establishing secret intelligence +at the court of Rome; even the pope's confessor was gained; yet in spite +of all these circumstances, the success of the conspiracy was still +uncertain when the chapter of 1239 opened. + +Gregory IX., still favorable to Elias,[22] presided. Fear gave sudden +courage to the conspirators; they threw their accusations in their +enemy's face. + +Thomas of Eccleston gives a highly colored narrative of what took place. +Elias was proud, violent, even threatening. There were cries and +vociferations from both sides; they were about to come to blows when a +few words from the pope restored silence. He had made up his mind to +abandon his _protege_. He asked for his resignation. Elias indignantly +refused. + +Gregory IX. then explained that in keeping him in charge he had thought +himself acting in accordance with the wishes of the majority: that he +had no intention to dominate the Order, and, since the Brothers no +longer desired Elias, he declared him deposed from the generalate. + +The joy of the victors, says Eccleston, was immense and ineffable. They +chose Alberto di Pisa, provincial of England, to succeed him, and from +that time bent all their efforts to represent Elias as a creature of +Frederick II.[23] The former minister wrote indeed to the pope to +explain his conduct, but the letter did not reach its destination. It +must have reached the hands of his successor, and not been sent forward; +when Alberto of Pisa died it was found in his tunic.[24] + +All the fury of the aged pontiff was unchained against Elias. One must +read the documents to see to what a height his anger could rise. The +friar retorted with a virulence which though less wordy was far more +overpowering.[25] + +These events gained an indescribable notoriety[26] all over Europe and +threw the Order into profound disturbance. Many of the partisans of +Elias became convinced that they had been deceived by an impostor, and +they drew toward the group of Zealots, who never ceased to demand the +observance pure and simple of the Rule and the Will. + +Thomas of Celano was of this number.[27] With profound sadness he saw +the innumerable influences that were secretly undermining the Franciscan +institute and menacing it with ruin. Already a refrain was going the +rounds of the convents, singing the victory of Paris over Assisi, that +is, of learning over poverty. + +The Zealots gained new courage. Unaccustomed to the subtleties of +ecclesiastical politics, they did not perceive that the pope, while +condemning Brother Elias, had in nowise modified the general course +which he had marked out for the Order. The ministers-general, Alberto di +Pisa, 1239-1240, Aymon of Faversham, 1240-1244, Crescentius de Jesi, +1244-1247, were all, with different shades of meaning, representatives +of the moderate party. + +Thomas of Celano's first legend had become impossible. The prominence +there given to Elias was almost a scandal. The necessity of working it +over and completing it became clearly evident at the chapter of Genoa +(1244). + +All the Brothers who had anything to tell about Francis's life were +invited to commit it to writing and send it to the minister Crescentius +de Jesi.[28] The latter immediately caused a tract to be drawn up in +the form of a dialogue, commencing with the words: "_Venerabilium gesta +Patrum_." So soon after as the time of Bernard de Besse, only fragments +of this were left.[29] + +But happily several of the works which saw the light in consequence of +the decision of this chapter have been preserved to us. It is to this +that we owe the Legend of the Three Companions and the Second Life by +Thomas of Celano. + + +IV. LEGEND OF THE THREE COMPANIONS[30] + +The life of St. Francis which has come down to us under the name of the +Legend of the Three Companions was finished on August 11, 1246, in a +little convent in the vale of Rieti, which appears often in the course +of this history, that of Greccio. This hermitage had been Francis's +favorite abode, especially in the latter part of his life. He had thus +made it doubly dear to the hearts of his disciples.[31] It naturally +became, from the earliest days of the Order, the headquarters of the +Observants,[32] and it remains through all the centuries one of the +purest centres of Franciscan piety. + +The authors of this legend were men worthy to tell St. Francis's story, +and perhaps the most capable of doing it: the friars Leo, Angelo, and +Rufino. All three had lived in intimacy with him, and had been his +companions through the most important years. More than this, they took +the trouble to go to others for further information, particularly to +Filippo, the visitor of the Clarisses, to Illuminato di Rieti, Masseo di +Marignano, John, the confidant of Egidio, and Bernardo di Quintavalle. + +Such names as these promise much, and happily we are not disappointed in +our expectation. As it has come down to us, this document is the only +one worthy from the point of view of history to be placed beside the +First Life by Celano. + +The names of the authors and the date of the composition indicate before +examination the tendency with which it is likely to be in harmony. It is +the first manifesto of the Brothers who remained faithful to the spirit +and letter of the Rule. This is confirmed by an attentive reading; it is +at least as much a panegyric of Poverty as a history of St. Francis. + +We naturally expect to see the Three Companions relating to us with a +very particular delight the innumerable features of the legends of which +Greccio was the theatre; we turn to the end of the volume, expecting to +find the story of the last years of which they were witnesses, and are +lost in surprise to find nothing of the kind. + +While the first half of the work describes Francis's youth, filling out +here and there Celano's First Life, the second[33] is devoted to a +picture of the early days of the Order, a picture of incomparable +freshness and intensity of life; but strangely enough, after having told +us so much at length of Francis's youth and then of the first days of +the Order, the story abruptly leaps over from the year 1220 to the death +and the canonization, to which after all only a few pages are +given.[34] + +This is too extraordinary to be the result of chance. What has happened? +It is evident that the Legend of the Three Companions as we have it +to-day is only a fragment of the original, which was no doubt revised, +corrected, and considerably cut down by the authorities of the Order +before they would permit it to be circulated.[35] If the authors had +been interrupted in their work, and obliged to cut short the end, as +might have been the case, they would have said so in their letter of +envoy, but there are still other arguments in favor of our hypothesis. + +Brother Leo having had the first and principal part in the production of +the work of the Three Companions, it is often called Brother Leo's +Legend; now Brother Leo's Legend is several times cited by Ubertini di +Casali, arraigned before the court of Avignon by the party of the Common +Observance. Evidently Ubertini would have taken good care not to appeal +to an apocryphal document; a false citation would have been enough to +bring him to confusion, and his enemies would not have failed to make +the most of his imprudence. We have at hand all the documents of the +trial,[36] attacks, replies, counter replies, and nowhere do we see the +Liberals accuse their adversary of falsehood. For that matter, the +latter makes his citations with a precision that admits of no +cavil.[37] He appeals to writings to be found in a press in the +convent of Assisi, of which he gives sometimes a copy, sometimes an +original.[38] We are then authorized to conclude that we have here +fragments which have survived the suppression of the last and most +important part of the Legend of the Three Companions. + +It is not surprising that the work of Francis's dearest friends should +have been so seriously mutilated. It was the manifesto of a party that +Crescentius was hunting down with all his power. + +After the fleeting reaction of the generalate of Giovanni di Parma we +shall see a man of worth like St. Bonaventura moving for the suppression +of all the primitive legends that his own compilation may be substituted +for them. + +It is truly singular that no one has perceived the fragmentary state of +the work of the Three Companions. The prologue alone might have +suggested this idea. Why should it take three to write a few pages? Why +this solemn enumeration of Brothers whose testimony and collaboration +are asked for? There would be a surprising disproportion between the +effort and the result. + +More than all, the authors say that they shall not stop at relating the +miracles, but they desire above all to exhibit the ideas of Francis and +his life with the Brothers, but we search in vain for any account of +miracles in what we now have.[39] + +An Italian translation of this legend, published by Father Stanislaus +Melchiorri,[40] has suddenly given me an indirect confirmation of this +point of view. This monk is only its publisher, and has simply been able +to discover that in 1577 it was taken from a very ancient manuscript by +a certain Muzio Achillei di San Severino.[41] + +This Italian translation contained only the last chapters of the legend, +those which tell of the death, the stigmata, and the translation of the +remains.[42] It was, then, made at a time when the suppressed portion +had not been replaced by a short summary of the other legends. + +From all this two conclusions emerge for the critics: 1. This final +summary has not the same authority as the rest of the work, since the +time when it was added is unknown. 2. Fragments of a legend by Brother +Leo or by the Three Companions scattered through later compilations may +be perfectly authentic. + +In its present condition this legend of the Three Companions is the +finest piece of Franciscan literature, and one of the most delightful +productions of the Middle Ages. There is something indescribably sweet, +confiding, chaste, in these pages, an energy of virile youth which the +Fioretti suggest but never attain to. At more than six hundred years of +distance the purest dream that ever thrilled the Christian Church seems +to live again. + +These friars of Greccio, who, scattered over the mountain, under the +shade of the olive-trees, passed their days in singing the Hymn of the +Sun, are the true models of the primitive Umbrian Masters. They are all +alike; they are awkwardly posed; everything in and around them sins +against the most elementary rules of art, and yet their memory pursues +you, and when you have long forgotten the works of impeccable modern +artists you recall without effort these creations of those unknown +painters; for love calls for love, and these vapid personages have very +true and pure hearts, a more than human love shines forth from their +whole being, they speak to you and make you better. + +Such is this book, the first utterance of the Spiritual Franciscans, in +which we already see the coming to life of some of those bold doctrines +that not only divided the Franciscan family into two hostile branches, +but which were to bring some of their defenders to the heretic's +stake.[43] + + +V. FRAGMENTS OF THE SUPPRESSED PART OF THE LEGEND OF THE THREE +COMPANIONS + +We may now take a step forward and try to group the fragments of the +Legend of the Three Companions, or of Brother Leo, which are to be found +in later writings. + +We must here be more than ever on our guard against absolute theories; +one of the most fruitful principles of historic criticism is to prefer +contemporary documents, or at least those which are nearest them; but +even with these it is necessary to use a little discretion. + +It seems impossible to attack the reasoning of the Bollandists, who +refuse to know anything of legends written after that of St. Bonaventura +(1260), under pretext that, coming after several other authorized +biographies, he was better situated than anyone for getting information +and completing the work of his predecessors.[44] In reality this is +absurd, for it assumes that Bonaventura undertook to write as a +historian. This is to forget that he wrote not only for the purpose of +edification, but also as minister-general of the Minor Brothers. From +this fact his first duty was to keep silent on many facts, and those not +the least interesting. What shall we say of a biography where Francis's +Will is not even mentioned? + +It is easy to turn away from a writing of the fourteenth century, on the +ground that the author did not see what was going on a hundred years +before; still we must not forget that many books of the end of the +Middle Ages resemble those old mansions at which four or five generators +have toiled. An inscription on their front often only shows the touch of +the last restorer or the last destroyer, and the names which are set +forth with the greatest complacency are not always those of the real +workmen. + +Such have been many Franciscan books; to attribute them to any one +author would be impracticable; very different hands have worked upon +them, and such an amalgam has its own charm and interest. + +Turning them over--I had almost said associating with them--we come to +see clearly into this tangled web, for every work of man bears the trace +of the hand that made it: this trace may perhaps be of an almost +imperceptible delicacy; it exists none the less, ready to reveal itself +to practised eyes. What is more impersonal than the photograph of a +landscape or of a painting, and yet among several hundreds of proofs the +amateur will go straight to the work of the operator he prefers. + +These reflections were suggested by the careful study of a curious book +printed many times since the sixteenth century, the _Speculum Vitae S. +Francisci et sociorum ejus_.[45] A complete study of this work, its +sources, its printed editions, the numerous differences in the +manuscripts, would by itself require a volume and an epitome of the +history of the Order. I can give here only a few notes, taking for base +the oldest edition, that of 1504. + +The confusion which reigns here is frightful. Incidents in the life of +Francis and his companions are brought together with no plan; several of +them are repeated after the interval of a few pages in a quite different +manner;[46] certain chapters are so awkwardly introduced that the +compiler has forgotten to remove the number that they bore in the work +from which he borrowed them;[47] finally, to our great surprise, we +find several _Incipit_.[48] + +However, with a little perseverance we soon perceive a few openings in +the labyrinth. In the first place, here are several chapters of the +legend of Bonaventura which seem to have been put in the van as if to +protect the rest of the book. If we abstract them and the whole series +of chapters from the Fioretti, we shall have diminished the work by +nearly three-quarters. + +If we take away two more chapters taken from St. Bernard of Clairvaux +and those containing Franciscan prayers, or various attestations +concerning the indulgence of Portiuncula, we finally arrive at a sort of +residue, if the expression may be forgiven, of a remarkable homogeneity. + +Here the style is very different from that in the surrounding pages, +closely recalling that of the Three Companions; a single thought +inspires these pages, that the corner-stone of the Order is the love of +poverty. + +Why should we not have here some fragments of the original legend of the +Three Companions? We find here nothing which does not fit in with what +we know, nothing which suggests the embellishments of a late tradition. + +To confirm this hypothesis come different passages which we find cited +by Ubertini di Casali and by Angelo Clareno as being by Brother Leo, and +an attentive comparison of the text shows that these authors can neither +have drawn them from the Speculum nor the Speculum from them. + +There is, besides, one phrase which, apart from the inspiration and +style, will suffice at the first glance to mark the common origin of +most of these pieces.[49] _Nos qui cum ipso fuimus_. "We who have been +with him." These words, which recur in almost every incident,[49] are +in many cases only a grateful tribute to their spiritual father, but +sometimes, too, they have a touch of bitterness. These hermits of +Greccio suddenly recall to mind their rights. Are we not the only, the +true interpreters of the Saint's instructions--we who lived continually +with him; we who, hour after hour, have meditated upon his words, his +sighs, and his hymns? + +We can understand that such pretensions were not to the taste of the +Common Observance, and that Crescentius, with an incontestable +authority, has suppressed nearly all this legend.[51] + +As for the fragments that have been preserved to us, though they furnish +many details about the last years of St. Francis's life, they still are +not those whose loss is so much to be regretted. The authors who +reproduce them were defending a cause. We owe them little more than the +incidents which in one way or another concern the question of poverty. +They had nothing to do with the other accounts, as they were not writing +a biography. But even within these narrow limits these fragments are in +the first order of importance; and I have not hesitated to use them +largely. It is needless to say that while ascribing their origin to the +Three Companions, and in particular to Brother Leo, we must not suppose +that we have the very letter in the texts which have come down to us. +The pieces given by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno are actual +citations, and deserve full confidence as such. As for those which are +preserved to us in the Speculum, they may often have been abridged, +explanatory notes may have slipped into the text, but nowhere do we find +interpolations in the bad sense of the word.[52] + +Finally, if we compare the fragments with the corresponding accounts in +the Second Life of Celano, we see that the latter has often borrowed +verbatim from Brother Leo, but generally he has considerably abridged +the passages, adding reflections here and there, especially retouching +the style to make it more elegant. + +Such a comparison soon proves that Brother Leo's narratives are the +original and that it is impossible to see in them a later amplification +of those of Thomas of Celano, as we might at first be tempted to think +them.[53] + + +VI. SECOND LIFE BY THOMAS OF CELANO[54] + +_First Part_ + +In consequence of the decision of the chapter of 1244 search was begun +in all quarters for memorials of the early times of the Order. In view +of the ardor of this inquiry, in which zeal for the glory of the +Franciscan institute certainly cast the interests of history into the +background, the minister-general, Crescentius, was obliged to take +certain precautions. + +Many of the pieces that he received were doing double duty; others might +contradict one another; many of them, under color of telling the life of +the Saint, had no other object than to oppose the present to the past. + +It soon became imperative to constitute a sort of commission charged to +study and cooerdinate all this matter.[55] What more natural than to put +Thomas of Celano at its head? Ever since the approbation of the first +legend by Gregory IX. he had appeared to be in a sense the official +historiographer of the Order.[56] + +This view accords perfectly with the contents of the seventeen chapters +which contain the first part of the second legend. It offers itself at +the outset as a compilation. Celano is surrounded with companions who +help him.[57] A more attentive examination shows that its principal +source is the Legend of the Three Companions, which the compilers +worked over, sometimes filling out certain details, more often making +large excisions. + +Everything that does not concern St. Francis is ruthlessly proscribed; +we feel the well-defined purpose to leave in the background the +disciples who so complacently placed themselves in the foreground.[58] + +The work of the Three Companions had been finished August 11, 1246. On +July 13, 1247, the chapter of Lyons put an end to the powers of +Crescentius. It is, therefore, between these two dates that we must +place the composition of the first part of Thomas of Celano's Second +Life.[59] + + +VII. SECOND LIFE BY THOMAS OF CELANO[59] + +_Second Part_ + +The election of Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) as successor of +Crescentius was a victory for the Zealots. This man, in whose work-table +the birds came to make their nests,[61] was to astonish the world by +his virtues. No one saw more deeply into St. Francis's heart, no one was +more worthy to take up and continue his work. + +He soon asked Celano to resume his work.[62] The latter was perhaps +alone at first, but little by little a group of collaborators formed +itself anew about him.[63] Thenceforth nothing prevented his doing with +that portion of the work of the Three Companions which Crescentius had +suppressed what he had already done with the part he had approved. + +The Legend of Brother Leo has thus come down to us, entirely worked over +by Thomas of Celano, abridged and with all its freshness gone, but still +of capital importance in the absence of the major part of the original. + +The events of which we possess two accounts permit us to measure the +extent of our loss. We find, in fact, in Celano's compilation all that +we expected to find in the Three Companions: the incidents belong +especially to the last two years of Francis's life, and the scene of +many of them is either Greccio or one of the hermitages of the vale of +Rieti;[64] according to tradition, Brother Leo was the hero of a great +number of the incidents here related[65] and all the citations that +Ubertini di Casali makes from Brother Leo's book find their +correspondents here.[66] + +This second part of the Second Life perfectly reflects the new +circumstances to which it owes its existence. The question of Poverty +dominates everything;[67] the struggle between the two parties in the +Order reveals itself on every page; the collaborators are determined +that each event narrated shall be an indirect lesson to the Liberals, to +whom they oppose the Spirituals; the popes had commented on the Rule in +the large sense; they, on their side, undertook to comment on it in a +sense at once literal and spiritual, by the actions and words of its +author himself. + +History has hardly any part here except as the vehicle of a thesis, a +fact which diminishes nothing of the historic value of the information +given in the course of these pages. But while in Celano's First Life and +in the Legend of the Three Companions the facts succeed one another +organically, here they are placed side by side. Therefore when we come +to read this work we are sensible of a fall; even from the literary +point of view the inferiority makes itself cruelly felt. Instead of a +poem we have before us a catalogue, very cleverly made, it is true, but +with no power to move us. + + +VIII. NOTES ON A FEW SECONDARY DOCUMENTS + +a. _Celano's Life of St. Francis for Use in the Choir._ + +Thomas of Celano made also a short legend for use in the choir. It is +divided into nine lessons and served for the Franciscan breviaries up to +the time when St. Bonaventura made his _Legenda Minor_. + +That of Celano may be found in part (the first three lessons) in the +Assisi MS. 338, fol. 52a-53b; it is preceded by a letter of envoy: +"_Rogasti me frater Benedicte, ut de legenda B. P. N. F. quaedam +exciperem et in novem lectionum seriem ordinarem_ ... etc. _B. +Franciscus de civitate Assisii ortus a puerilibus annis nutritus extitit +insolenter._" + +This work has no historic importance. + +b. _Life of St. Francis in Verse._ + +In the list of biographers has sometimes been counted a poem in +hexameter verse[68] the text of which was edited in 1882 by the +lamented Cristofani.[69] + +This work does not furnish a single new historic note. It is the Life by +Celano in verse and nothing more; the author's desire was to figure as a +poet. It is superfluous, therefore, to concern ourselves with it.[69] + +c. _Biography of St. Francis by Giovanni di Ceperano._ + +One of the biographies which disappeared, no doubt in consequence of the +decision of the chapter of 1266,[71] is that of Giovanni di Ceperano. +The resemblance of his name to that of Thomas of Celano has occasioned +much confusion.[72] The most precious information which we have +respecting him is given by Bernard of Besse in the opening of his _De +laudibus St. Francisci_: "_Plenam virtutibus B. Francisci vitam scripsit +in Italia exquisitae vir eloquentiae fr. Thomas jubente Domino Gregorio +papa IX. et eam quae incipit: Quasi stella matutina vir venerabilis +Dominus et fertur Joannes, Apostolicae sedis notarius._"[73] + +In the face of so precise a text all doubt as to the existence of the +work of Giovanni di Ceperano is impossible. The Reverend Father Denifle +has been able to throw new light upon this question. In a manuscript +containing the liturgy of the Brothers Minor and finished in 1256 he +found the nine lessons for the festival of St. Francis preceded by the +title: _Ex gestis ejus abbreviatis quae sic incipiunt: Quasi stella_ +(_Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, vii., p. 710. Cf. _Archiv._, i., p. +148). This summary of Ceperano's work gives, as we should expect, no new +information; but perhaps we need not despair of finding the very work of +this author. + +d. _Life of St. Francis by Brother Julian._ + +It was doubtless about 1230 that Brother Julian, the Teuton, who had +been chapel-master at the court of the King of France, was commissioned +to put the finishing touches to the Office of St. Francis.[74] +Evidently such a work would contain nothing original, and its loss is +little felt. + + +IX. LEGEND OF ST. BONAVENTURA + +Under the generalate of Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) the Franciscan +parties underwent modifications, in consequence of which their +opposition became still more striking than before. + +The Zelanti, with the minister-general at their head, enthusiastically +adopted the views of Gioacchino di Fiore. The predictions of the +Calabrian abbot corresponded too well with their inmost convictions for +any other course to be possible: they seemed to see Francis, as a new +Christ, inaugurating the third era of the world. + +For a few years these dreams moved all Europe; the faith of the +Joachimites was so ardent that it made its way by its own force; +sceptics like Salimbeni told themselves that on the whole it was surely +wiser not to be taken unawares by the great catastrophe of 1260, and +hastened in crowds to the cell of Hyeres to be initiated by Hugues de +Digne in the mysteries of the new times: as to the people, they waited, +trembling, divided between hope and terror. Nevertheless their +adversaries did not consider themselves beaten, and the Liberal party +still remained the most numerous. Of an angelic purity, Giovanni di +Parma believed in the omnipotence of example: events showed how mistaken +he was; at the close of his term of office scandals were not less +flagrant than ten years earlier.[75] + +Between these two extreme parties, against which he was to proceed with +equal rigor, stood that of the Moderates, to which belonged St. +Bonaventura.[76] + +A mystic, but of a formal and orthodox mysticism, he saw the revolution +toward which the Church was hastening if the party of the eternal Gospel +was to triumph; its victory would not be that of this or that heresy in +detail, it would be, with brief delay, the ruin of the entire +ecclesiastical edifice; he was too perspicacious not to see that in the +last analysis the struggle then going on was that of the individual +conscience against authority. This explains, and up to a certain point +gains him pardon for, his severities against his opponents; he was +supported by the court of Rome and by all those who desired to make the +Order a school at once of piety and of learning. + +No sooner was he elected general than, with a purpose that never knew +hesitation, and a will whose firmness made itself everywhere felt, he +took his steps to forward this double aim. On the very morrow of his +nomination he sketched the programme of reforms against the Liberal +party, and at the same time secured the summons of the Joachimite +Brothers before an ecclesiastical tribunal at Citta-della-Pieve. This +tribunal condemned them to perpetual imprisonment, and it needed the +personal intervention of Cardinal Ottobonus, the future Adrian V., for +Giovanni di Parma to be left free to retire to the Convent of Greccio. + +The first chapter held under the presidence of Bonaventura, in the +extended decisions of which we find everywhere tokens of his influence, +assembled at Narbonne in 1260. He was then commissioned to compose a new +life of St. Francis.[77] + +We easily understand the anxieties to which this decision of the +Brothers was an answer. The number of legends had greatly increased, for +besides those which we have first studied or noted there were others in +existence which have completely disappeared, and it had become equally +difficult for the Brothers who went forth on missions either to make a +choice between them or to carry them all. + +The course of the new historian was therefore clearly marked out: he +must do the work of compiler and peacemaker. He failed in neither. His +book is a true sheaf, or rather it is a millstone under which the +indefatigable author has pressed, somewhat at hazard, the sheaves of his +predecessors. Most of the time he inserts them just as they are, +confining himself to the work of harvesting them and weeding out the +tares. + +Therefore, when we reach the end of this voluminous work we have a very +vague impression of St. Francis. We see that he was a saint, a very +great saint, since he performed an innumerable quantity of miracles, +great and small; but we feel very much as if we had been going through a +shop of objects of piety. All these statues, whether they are called St. +Anthony the Abbot, St. Dominic, St. Theresa, or St. Vincent de Paul, +have the same expression of mincing humility, of a somewhat shallow +ecstasy. These are saints, if you please, miracle-workers; they are not +men; he who made them made them by rule, by process; he has put nothing +of his heart in these ever-bowed foreheads, these lips with their wan +smile. + +God forbid that I should say or think that St. Bonaventura was not +worthy to write a life of St. Francis, but the circumstances controlled +his work, and it is no injustice to him to say that it is fortunate for +Francis, and especially for us, that we have another biography of the +Poverello than that of the Seraphic Doctor. + +Three years after, in 1263, he brought his completed work to the +chapter-general convoked under his presidence at Pisa. It was there +solemnly approved.[78] + +It is impossible to say whether they thought that the presence of the +new legend would suffice to put the old ones out of mind, but it seems +that at this time nothing was said about the latter. + +It was not so at the following chapter. This one, held at Paris, came to +a decision destined to have disastrous results for the primitive +Franciscan documents. This decree, emanating from an assembly presided +over by Bonaventura in person, is too important not to be quoted +textually: "Item, the Chapter-general ordains on obedience that all the +legends of the Blessed Francis formerly made shall be destroyed. The +Brothers who shall find any without the Order must try to make away with +them since the legend made by the General is compiled from accounts of +three who almost always accompanied the Blessed Francis; all that they +could certainly know and all that is proven has been carefully inserted +therein."[79] It would have been difficult to be more precise. We see +the perseverance with which Bonaventura carried on his struggle against +the extreme parties. This decree explains the almost complete +disappearance of the manuscripts of Celano and the Three Companions, +since in certain collections even those of Bonaventura's legend are +hardly to be found. + +As we have seen, Bonaventura aimed to write a sort of official or +canonical biography; he succeeded only too well. Most of the accounts +that we already know have gone into his collection, but not without at +times suffering profound mutilations. We are not surprised to find him +passing over Francis's youth with more discretion than Celano in the +First Life, but we regret to find him ornamenting and materializing some +of the loveliest incidents of the earlier legends. + +It is not enough for him that Francis hears the crucifix of St. Daraian +speak; he pauses to lay stress on the assertion that he heard it +_corporeis auribus_ and that no one was in the chapel at that moment! +Brother Monaldo at the chapter of Arles sees St. Francis appear +_corporeis oculis_. He often abridges his predecessors, but this is not +his invariable rule. When he reaches the account of the stigmata he +devotes long pages to it,[79] relates a sort of consultation held by +St. Francis as to whether he could conceal them, and adds several +miracles due to these sacred wounds; further on he returns to the +subject to show a certain Girolamo, Knight of Assisi, desiring to touch +with his hands the miraculous nails.[81] On the other hand, he uses a +significant discretion wherever the companions of the Saint are in +question. He names only three of the first eleven disciples,[82] and +no more mentions Brothers Leo, Angelo, Rufino, Masseo, than their +adversary, Brother Elias. + +As to the incidents which we find for the first time in this collection, +they hardly make us regret the unknown sources which must have been at +the service of the famous Doctor; it would appear that the healing of +Morico, restored to health by a few pellets of bread soaked in the oil +of the lamp which burned before the altar of the Virgin,[83] has little +more importance for the life of St. Francis than the story of the sheep +given to Giacomina di Settesoli which awakened its mistress to summon +her to go to mass.[84] What shall we think of that other sheep, of +Portiuncula, which hastened to the choir whenever it heard the psalmody +of the friars, and kneeled devoutly for the elevation of the Holy +Sacrament?[85] + +All these incidents, the list of which might be enlarged,[86] betrays +the working-over of the legend. St. Francis becomes a great +thaumaturgist, but his physiognomy loses its originality. + +The greatest fault of this work is, in fact, the vagueness of the figure +of the Saint. While in Celano there are the large lines of a +soul-history, a sketch of the affecting drama of a man who attains to +the conquest of himself, with Bonaventura all this interior action +disappears before divine interventions; his heart is, so to speak, the +geometrical locality of a certain number of visitants; he is a passive +instrument in the hands of God, and we really cannot see why he should +have been chosen rather than another. + +And yet Bonaventura was an Italian; he had seen Umbria; he must have +knelt and celebrated the sacred mysteries in Portiuncula, that cradle of +the noblest of religious reformations; he had conversed with Brother +Egidio, and must have heard from his lips an echo of the first +Franciscan fervor; but, alas! nothing of that rapture passed into his +book, and if the truth must be told, I find it quite inferior to much +later documents, to the Fioretti, for example; for they understood, at +least in part, the soul of Francis; they felt the throbbing of that +heart, with all its sensitiveness, admiration, indulgence, love, +independence, and absence of carefulness. + + +X. DE LAUDIBUS OF BERNARD OF BESSE[87] + +Bonaventura's work did not discourage the biographers. The historic +value of their labor is almost nothing, and we shall not even attempt to +catalogue them. + +Bernard of Besse, a native probably of the south of France[88] and +secretary of Bonaventura,[89] made a summary of the earlier legends. +This work, which brings us no authentic historic indication, is +interesting only for the care with which the author has noted the places +where repose the Brothers who died in odor of sanctity, and relates a +mass of visions all tending to prove the excellence of the Order.[89] + +Still the publication of this document will perform the valuable office +of throwing a little light upon the difficult question of the sources. +Several passages of the _De laudibus_ appear again textually in the +Speculum,[91] and as a single glance is enough to show that the +Speculum did not copy the _De laudibus_, it must be that Bernard of +Besse had before him a copy, if not of the Speculum at least of a +document of the same kind. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28, 1230. See p. 336. + + [2] It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in + opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of + criticism, but still it should not be employed alone. + + [3] The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late + years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body + of the work. + + [4] Eccl., 13. _Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat + venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc._ _An. fr., t. + i._, p. 241. Cf. _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t., 28, p. 564. + + [5] The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March + 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. The + _Instrumentum donationis_ is still preserved at Assisi: Piece + No. 1 of the twelfth package of _Instrumenta diversa pertinentia + ad Sacrum Conventum_. It has been published by Thode: _Franz von + Assisi_, p. 359. + + On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, + Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years + afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, + the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper + church was finished. It was already decorated with a first + series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, + kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the + choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile + received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the + valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the + canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act + of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 + and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff). + + [6] _Spec._, 167a. Cf. _An. fr._, ii., p. 45 and note. + + [7] The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., + pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont + in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome + in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the + Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title: _Seraphici viri S. + Francisci Assisiatis vitae dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano_, + according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona) + which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the + Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was + reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni: _Vita prima S. + Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della + pace_, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the + divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important + passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that + of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched + and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the + manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those + which are known is that at Barcelona: _Archivo de la corona de + Aragon_, Ripoll, n. 41 (_Archiv._, t. i., p. 148). There is one + in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which + includes a curious note: "_Apud Perusium felix domnus papa + Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto + kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit, + confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam._" Another manuscript, + which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth + century, and because of the correction in the text, and which + appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the + Franciscans, is the one owned by the Ecole de Medicine at + Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio: _Passionale vetus ecclesiae + S. Benigni divionensis_. The story of Celano occupies in it the + fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of + paragraph 112 with _supiriis ostendebant_. Except for this final + break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and + 196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public + libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295. + + [8] Vide 1 Cel., Prol. _Jubente domino et glorioso Papa + Gregorio_. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16, + 1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above + raises no difficulty. + + [9] 1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of + Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in + his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II. + to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in + Winckelmann: _Acta imperii inedita_, t. i., p. 232. + + [10] Giord., 19. + + [11] Giord., 30 and 31. + + [12] Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question + whether he is the author of the _Dies irae_ would be out of place + here. + + [13] This is so true that the majority of historians have been + brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in + 1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letter _Non ex odio_ of + Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea: _Revera papa iste + quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum + ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis + migrationis suae tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ... + deposuit_. Huillard-Breholles: _Hist. dipl. Fred. II._, t. v., + p. 346. + + [14] He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48. + + [15] 1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is + especially significant. _Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes + dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo, + sit...._ 1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the + intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139. + + [16] 1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named + in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either! + + [17] 1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis, + Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108; + 109) are in the foreground. + + [18] 1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117. + + [19] Those which occurred during the absence of Francis + (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in + seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those + connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no + allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized + them, however, having lived in intimacy with Caesar of Speyer, + the collaborator of the second (1221). + + [20] For example, Francis's journey to Spain. + + [21] 1 Cel., 1, 88. _Et sola quae necessaria magis occurrunt_ ad + praesens _intendimus adnotare_. It is to be observed that in the + prologue he speaks in the singular. + + [22] In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a + mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the + reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the + General. Giord., 63. + + [23] See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the + translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann, _Acta_ i., + p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._ Intr. p. cc. + + [24] The authorities for this story are: _Catalogus ministrorum_ + of Bernard of Besse, _ap_ Ehrle, _Zeitschrift_, vol. 7 (1883), + p. 339; _Speculum_, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13; + Giord., 61-63; _Speculum_, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b. + + [25] _Asserabat etiam ipse praedictus frater Helyas ... papam ... + fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terrae Sanctae, + scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et + sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas, + multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit + domino papae ponens os suum in celo_. Matth. Paris, _Chron. + Maj._, _ann. 1239_, _ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 182. + Cf. Ficker, n. 2685. + + [26] Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano, _Chron._, _ap Mon. Ger. hist. + Script._, t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick + complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239): + Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. Dipl._, v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the + Bull, _Attendite ad petram_, at the end of February, 1240, + ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849. + + [27] He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of + the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of + Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily, + afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano, _loc. cit._, _ann._ + 1223 and 1224. + + [28] Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf. + Glassberger, ann. 1244, _An. fr._, ii., p. 68. _Speculum_, + Morin, tract. i., 61b. + + [29] _Catalogus ministrorum_, edited by Ehrle: _Zeitschrift_, t. + 7 (1883). no. 5. Cf. _Spec._, 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it + a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to + Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand, + in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at + Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381) + is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: "_Dyalogus sanctorum + fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta + patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me + quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt + xiii_." + + [30] The text was published for the first time by the + Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a + manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It + is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions + published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be + found, except the last, due to Abbe Amoni. This one, + unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a + scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184) + under the title: _Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quae dicitur + Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr._ _Biblioth. Vatic. num. + 7339._ + + [31] 2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84; + Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10. + + [32] Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there + almost entirely until his death (1288). _Tribul._, _Archiv._, + vol. ii. (1886), p. 286. + + [33] 3 Soc., 25-67. + + [34] 3 Soc., 68-73. + + [35] The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed + adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been + held by M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_, p. 180); but that learned scholar + is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the + Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as + to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots + (_Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute + the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in + the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast, + 11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull + stating that the Basilica of Assisi was _Caput et Mater + ordinis_, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the + Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12; + _Conform._, 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann. + 1244, _An. fr._, p. 69; Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, i., p. 502 ff; + _Conform._, 121b. 1.) M. Mueller has been led into error through + a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (_An. fr._, i., p. 235). It is evident + that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced + against the _Declaratio Regulae_ published November 14, 1245. On + the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth this + _Declaratio_, against which, not without regret, the Zealots + found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by + Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of any _Declaratio_ + (_Archiv._, ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by + a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), f^o 62a: _In hoc + capitulo (Narbonnae) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D. + Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in Capitulo_ METENSI. + _Et praeceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus + expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit._ + + [36] Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F. + Ehrle, S. J., in his studies _Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von + Vienne_. _Archiv._, ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195. + + [37] See, for example, _Archiv._, iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76. + _Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in + legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis + sanctae memoriae fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut + ab ore beati Francisci audivit._ Ib., p. 85. + + [38] _Haec omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per + sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti + patris quam etiam de devotione praedicti fratris fuerunt + solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum + de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem + fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv._, iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178. + + [39] 3 Soc., Prol. _Non contenti narrare solum miracula ... + conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem_. + + [40] _Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni_, + Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo. + + [41] See Father Stanislaus's preface. + + [42] 3 Soc., 68-73. + + [43] The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking + up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular + clergy) since the time of the apostles. The _viri evangelici_ + consider the members of the clergy _filios extraneos._ 3 Soc., + 48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48. _Inveni virum ... per quem, credo + Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctae Ecclesiae reformare_. + Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141. _Videbatur revera fratri et omnium + comitatium turbae quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona + foret_. + + [44] A. SS. p. 552. + + [45] _Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem + de Luere_, 30 januarii, 1504. _Impressum Metis per Jasparem + Hochffeder_, Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical, + small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same + title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo, + 208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most + important manuscript resembles that of the Vatican 4354. There + are two at the Mazarin Library, 904 and 1350, dated 1459 and + 1460, one at Berlin (MS. theol. lat., 4to, no. 196 saec. 14). + Vide Ehrle, _Zeitschrift_. t. vii. (1883), p. 392f; _Analecta + fr._, t. i., p. xi.; _Miscellanea_, 1888, pp. 119. 164. Cf. A. + SS., pp. 550-552. + + The chapters are numbered in the first 72 folios only, but these + numbers teem with errors; fo. 38b. caput lix., 40b, lix., 41b, + lxi. ibid., lxii., 42a, lx., 43a, lxi. Besides at fos. 46b and + 47b there are two chapters lxvi. There are two lxxi., two + lxxii., two lxxiii., etc. + + [46] For example, the history of the brigands of Monte-Casale, + fos. 46b, and 58b. The remarks of Brother Elias to Francis, who + is continually singing, 136b and 137a. The visit of Giacomina di + Settesoli, 133a and 138a. The autograph benediction given to + Brother Leo, 87a; 188a. + + [47] At fo. 20b we read: _Tertium capitulam de charitate et + compassione et condescensione ad proximum. Capitulum_ xxvi. Cf. + 26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are + similar indications. + + [48] Fo. 5b: _Incipit Speculum vitae b. Francesci et sociorum + ejus_. Fo. 7b; _Incipit Speculum perfectionis_. + + [49] We should search for it in vain in the other pieces of the + Speculum, and it reappears in the fragments of Brother Leo cited + by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno. + + [50] Fo. 8b, 11a, 12a, 15a, 18b, 21b, 23b, 26a, 29a, 33b, 43b, + 41a, 48b, 118a, 129a, 130a, 134a, 135a, 136a. + + [51] Does not Thomas de Celano say in the prologue of the Second + Life: "_Oramus ergo, benignissime pater, ut laboris hujus non + contemnenda munuscula ... vestra benedictione consecrare + velitis, corrigendo errata et superflua resecantes_." + + [52] The legend of 3 Soc. was preserved in the Convent of + Assisi: "_Omnia ... fuerunt conscripta ... per Leonem, ... in + libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio_." Ubertini, + _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. Later, Brother Leo seems to have gone + more into detail as to certain facts; he confided these new + manuscripts to the Clarisses: "_In rotulis ejus quos apud me + habeo, manu ejusdem fratres Leonis conscriptis_," ibid. Cf. p. + 178. "_Quod sequitur a sancto fratre Conrado predicto et viva + voce audivit a sancto fratre Leone qui presens erat et regulam + scripsit. Et hoc ipsum in quibusdam rotulis manu sua conscriptis + quos commendavit in monasterio S. Clarae custodiendos.... In + illis multa scripsit ... quae industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et + noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi + in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulae publice monstrabatur et + nolebat fratres ante tempus in famare._" _Arbor._, lib. v., cap + 5. Cf. _Antiquitates_, p. 146. Cf. _Speculum_, 50b. "_Infra + scripta verba, frater Leo socius et Confessor B. Francisci, + Conrado de Offida, dicebat se habuisse ex ore Beati Patris + nostri Francisci, quae idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum + Damianum prope Assisium._" Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both + the book of Brother Leo and his _rotuli_; he added to it certain + oral information (_Arbor, vit. cruc._, lib. v., cap. 3), and so + perhaps composed the collection so often cited by the + Conformists under the title of _Legenda Antiqua_ and reproduced + in part in the Speculum. The numbering of the chapters, which + the Speculum has awkwardly inserted without noting that they + were not in accord with his own division, were vestiges of the + division adopted by Conrad di Offida. + + It may well be that, after the interdiction of his book and its + confiscation at the Sacro Convento, Brother Leo repeated in his + _rotuli_ a large part of the facts already made, so that the + same incident, while coming solely from Brother Leo, could be + presented under two different forms, according as it would be + copied from the book or the _rotuli_. + + [53] Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the + Simple, and Speculum, f^o 37a. From the account of Thomas de + Celano, one does not understand what drew John to St. Francis; + in the Speculum everything is explained, but Celano has not + dared to depict Francis going about preaching with a broom upon + his shoulder to sweep the dirty churches. + + [54] It was published for the first time at Rome, in 1806, by + Father Rinaldi, following upon the First Life (vide above, p. + 365, note 2), and restored in 1880 by Abbe Amoni: _Vita secunda + S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus + discipulo. Romae, tipografia della pace_, 1880, 8vo, 152 pp. The + citations are from this last edition, which I collated at Assisi + with the most important of the rare manuscripts at present + known: Archives of Sacro Convento, MS. 686, on parchment of the + end of the thirteenth century, if I do not mistake, 130 millim. + by 142; 102 numbered pages. Except for the fact that the book is + divided into two parts instead of three, the last two forming + only one, I have not found that it noticeably differs from the + text published by Amoni; the chapters are divided only by a + paragraph and a red letter, but they have in the table which + occupies the first seven pages of the volume the same titles as + in the edition Amoni. + + This Second Life escaped the researches of the Bollandists. + It is impossible to explain how these students ignored the + worth of the manuscript which Father Theobaldi, keeper of the + records of Assisi, mentioned to them, and of which he offered + them a copy (A. SS., _Oct._, t. ii., p. 546f). Father Suysken + was thus thrown into inextricable difficulties, and exposed + to a failure to understand the lists of biographies of St. + Francis arranged by the annalists of the Order; he was at the + same time deprived of one of the most fruitful sources of + information upon the acts and works of the Saint. Professor + Mueller (_Die Anfaenge_, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a + critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me + narrow and extreme. Cf. _Analecta_ fr., t. ii., pp. xvii.-xx. + Father Ehrle mentions two manuscripts, one in the British + Museum, Harl., 47; the other at Oxford, Christ College, cod. + 202. _Zeitschrift_, 1883, p. 390. + + [55] The Three Companions foresee the possibility of their + legend being incorporated with other documents: _quibus + (legendis) haec pauca quae scribimus poleritis facere inseri, si + vestra discretio viderit esse justum._ 3 Soc., Prol. + + [56] One phrase of the Prologue (2 Cel.) shows that the author + received an entirely special commission: _Placuit ... robis ... + parvitati nostrae injungere_, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. + shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered + them: _Cum de mandato proeteriti capituli fratres teneantur + ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestrae + intimare._ 3 Soc., Prol. + + [57] Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel. + + [58] _Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium + supernae vocationis attigerit_. 2 Cel., 1, 10. + + [59] This first part corresponds exactly to that portion of the + legend of the 3 Soc., which Crescentius had authorized. + + [60] Observe that the Assisi MS. 686 divides the Second Life + into two parts only by joining the last two. + + [61] Salimbeni, ann. 1248. + + [62] Glassberger, ann. 1253. _An. fr._ t. ii., p. 73. _Frater + Johannes de Parma minister generalis, multiplicatis litteris + praecipit fr. Thomae de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati + Francisci quae antiqua Legenda dicitur perficeret, quia solum de + ejus conversatione et verbis in primo tractatu, de mandato, Fr. + Crescentii olim generalis compilato, ommissis miraculis fecerat + mentionem, et sic secundum tractatum de miraculis sancti Patris + compilavit, quem cum epistola quae incipit: Religiosa vestra + sollicitudo eidem generali misit_. + + This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify + it, as M. Mueller suggests (_Anfaenge_, p. 177), with the second + part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life: + 1^o, epistle _Religiosa vestra sollicitudo_ does not have it; + 2^o, this second part is not a collection of miracles, using + this word in the sense of miraculous cures which it had in the + thirteenth century. The twenty-two chapters of this second part + have a marked unity; they might be entitled _Francis a prophet_, + but not _Francis a thaumaturgus_. + + [63] In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.) _Insignia patrum_ the + author speaks in the singular, while the Epilogue is written in + the name of a group of disciples. + + [64] Greccio, 2 Cel., 2, 5; 14; 3, 7; 10; 103.--Rieti, 2 Cel., + 2, 10; 11; 12; 13; 3, 36; 37; 66; 103. + + [65] St. Francis gives him an autograph, 2 Cel., 2, 18. Cf. + _Fior._ ii. _consid._; his tunic, 2 Cel., 2, 19; he predicts to + him a famine, 2 Cel., 2, 21; cf. _Conform._, 49b. Fr. Leo ill at + Bologna, 2 Cel., 3, 5. + + [66] The text of Ubertini di Casali may be found in the + _Archiv._, t. iii., pp. 53, 75, 76, 85, 168, 178, where Father + Ehrle points out the corresponding passages of 2 Cel. + + [67] It is the subject of thirty-seven narratives (1, 2 Cel., 3, + 1-37), then come examples on the spirit of prayer (2 Cel., 3, + 38-44), the temptations (2 Cel., 3, 58-64), true happiness (2 + Cel., 3, 64-79), humility (2 Cel., 3, 79-87), submission (2 + Cel., 3, 88, 91), etc. + + [68] Le Monnier, t. i., p. xi.; F. Barnabe, _Portiuncula_, p. + 15. Cf. _Analecta fr._, t. ii., p. xxi. _Zeitschrift fuer kath. + Theol._, vii. (1883), p. 397. + + [69] _Il piu antico poema della vita di S. Francisco d'Assisi + scritto inanzi all' anno 1230 ora per la prima volta pubblicato + et tradotto da Antonio Cristofani_, Prato, 1882, 1 vol., 8vo. + 288 pp. + + [70] Note, however, two articles of the Miscellanea, one on the + manuscript of this biography which is found in the library at + Versailles, t. iv. (1889), p. 34 ff.; the other on the author of + the poem, t. v. (1890), pp. 2-4 and 74 ff. + + [71] See below, p. 410. + + [72] Vide Glassberger, ann. 1244; _Analecta_, t. ii., p. 68. Cf. + A. SS., p. 545 ff. + + [73] Manuscript in the Library of Turin, J. vi., 33, f^o 95a. + + [74] _Plenam virtutibus S. Francisci vitam scripsit in Italia + ... frater Thomas ... in Francia vero frater Julianus scientia + et sanctitate conspicuus qui etiam nocturnali sancti officium in + littera et cantu possuit praeter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas + quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti + praeconium ediderunt._ Opening of the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of + Besse. See below, p. 413. Laur. MS., f^o 95a. Cf. Giord., 53; + _Conform._, 75b. + + [75] In proof of this is the circular letter, _Licet + insufficentiam nostram_, addressed by Bonaventura, April 23, + 1257, immediately after his election, to the provincials and + custodes upon the reformation of the Order. Text: _Speculum_, + Morin, tract. iii., f^o 213a. + + [76] Salimbeni, ann. 1248, p. 131. The _Chronica tribulationum_ + gives a long and dramatic account of these events: _Archiv._, t. + ii., pp. 283 ff. "_Tunc enim sapientia et sanctitas fratris + Bonaventurae eclipsata paluit et obscurata est et ejus manswetudo + (sic) ab agitante spiritu in furorum et iram defecit._" Ib., p. + 283. + + [77] Bon., 3. 1. At the same chapter were collected the + constitutions of the Order according to edicts of the preceding + chapters; new ones were added to them and all were arranged. In + the first of the twelve rubrics the chapter prescribed that, + upon the publication of the account, all the old constitutions + should be destroyed. The text was published in the _Firmamentum + trium ordinum_, f^o 7b, and restored lately by Father Ehrle: + _Archiv._, t. vi. (1891), in his beautiful work _Die aeltesten + Redactionen der General-constitutionen des Franziskanerordens_. + Cf. _Speculum_ Morin, fo. 195b of tract. iii. + + [78] The _Legenda Minor_ of Bonaventura was also approved at + this time; it is simply an abridgment of the _Legenda Major_ + arranged for use of the choir on the festival of St. Francis and + its octave. + + [79] "_Item praecipit Generale capitulum per obedientiam quod + omnes legenae de B. Francisco olim factae deleantur et ubi + inveniri poterant extra ordinem ipsas fratres studeant amovere, + cum illa legenda quae facta est per Generalem sit compilata prout + ipse habuit ab ore illorum qui cum B. Francisco quasi semper + fuerunt et cuncta certitudinaliter sciverint et probata ibi sint + posita diligenter._" This precious text has been found and + published by Father Rinaldi in his preface to the text of + Celano: _Seraphici viri Francisci vitae duae_, p. xi. Wadding + seems to have known of it, at least indirectly, for he says: + "_Utramque Historiam, longiorem et breviorem, obtulit + (Bonaventura) triennio post in comitiis Pisanis patribus + Ordinis, quas reverentur cum gratiarum actione_, SUPRESSIS ALIIS + QUIBUSQUE LEGENDIS, ADMISERUNT." Ad ann., 1260, no. 18. Cf. + Ehrle, _Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, t. vii. (1883), p. + 386.--"_Communicaverat sanctus Franciscus plurima sociis suis et + fratribus antiquis, que oblivioni tradita sunt, tum quia que + scripta erant in legenda prima, nova edita a fratre. Bonaventura + deleta et destructa sunt_, IPSOJUBENTE _tum quia_ ..." _Chronica + tribul._, _Archiv._, t. ii., p. 256. + + [80] Bon., 188-204. + + [81] Bon., 218. + + [82] Bernardo (Bon., 28), Egidio (Bon., 29), and Silvestro + (Bon., 30). + + [83] Bon., 49. + + [84] Bon., 112. + + [85] Bon., 111. + + [86] Vide Bon., 115; 99, etc. M. Thode has enumerated the + stories relating especially to Bonaventura: (_Franz von Assisi_, + p. 535). + + [87] Manuscript I, iv., 33, of the library of the University of + Turin. It is a 4to upon parchment of the close of the fourteenth + century, 124 ff. It comprises first the biography of St. Francis + by St. Bonaventura and a legend of St. Clara, afterwards at f^o + 95 the _De laudibus_. The text will soon be published in the + _Analecta franciscana_ of the Franciscans of Quaracchi, near + Florence. + + [88] In reading it we quickly discover that he was specially + well acquainted with the convents of the Province of Aquitania, + and noted with care everything that concerned them. + + [89] Wadding, ann. 1230, no. 7. Many passages prove at least + that he accompanied Bonaventura in his travels: "_Hoc enim_ (the + special aid of Brother Egidio) _in iis quae ad bonum animae + pertinent devotus Generalis et Cardinalis predictus ... nos + docuit_." F^o 96a. _Jamdudum ego per Theutoniae partes et + Flandriae cum Ministro transiens Generali._ Ibid., f^o 106a. + + [90] Bernard de Besse is the author of many other writings, + notably an important _Calalogus Ministrorum generalium_ + published after the Turin manuscript by Father Ehrle + (_Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, t. vii., pp. 338-352), with a + very remarkable critical introduction (ib., pp. 323-337). Cf. + _Archiv fuer Litt. u. Kirchg._, i., p. 145.--Bartolommeo di Pisa, + when writing his _Conformities_, had before him a part of his + works, f^o 148b, 2; 126a, 1; but he calls the author sometimes + _Bernardus de Blesa_, then again _Johannes de Blesa_. See also + Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 212, and Haureau, _Notices et + extraits_, t. vi., p. 153. + + [91] "_Denique primos Francisci xii. discipulos ... omnes + sanctos fuisse audirimus preter unum qui Ordinem exiens leprosus + factus laqueo vel alter Judas interiit, ne Francisco cum Christo + vel in discipulis similitudo deficeret_," f^o 96a. + + * * * * * + + + + +III + +DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS + + +In this category we place all the acts having a character of public +authenticity, particularly those which were drawn up by the pontifical +cabinet. + +This source of information, where each document has its date, is +precisely the one which has been most neglected up to this time. + + +I. DONATION OF THE VERNA + +The _Instrumentum donationis Montis Alvernae_, a notarial document +preserved in the archives of Borgo San Sepolcro,[1] not only gives the +name of the generous friend of Francis, and many picturesque details, +but it fixes with precision a date all the more important because it +occurs in the most obscure period of the Saint's life. It was on May 8, +1213, that _Orlando dei Catani_, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, gave the +Verna to Brother Francis. + + +II. REGISTERS OF CARDINAL UGOLINI + +The documents of the pontifical chancellery addressed to Cardinal +Ugolini, the future Gregory IX., and those which emanate from the hand +of the latter during his long journeys as apostolic legate,[2] are of +first rate importance. + +It would be too long to give even a simple enumeration of them. Those +which mark important facts have been carefully indicated in the course +of this work. It will suffice to say that by bringing together these two +series of documents, and interposing the dates of the papal bulls +countersigned by Ugolini, we are able to follow almost day by day this +man, who was, perhaps without even excepting St. Francis, the one whose +will most profoundly fashioned the Franciscan institute. We see also +the pre-eminent part which the Order had from the beginning in the +interest of the future pontiff, and we arrive at perfect accuracy as to +the dates of his meetings with St. Francis. + + +III. BULLS + +The pontifical bulls concerning the Franciscans were collected and +published in the last century by the monk Sbaralea.[3] But from these +we gain little help for the history of the origins of the Order.[4] + +The following is a compendious list; the details have been given in the +course of the work: + +No. 1. August 18, 1218.--Bull _Literae tuae_ addressed to Ugolini. The +pope permits him to accept donations of landed property in behalf of +women fleeing the world (Clarisses) and to declare that these +monasteries are holden by the Apostolic See. + +No. 2. June 11, 1219.--_Cum delecti filii._ This bull, addressed in a +general way to all prelates, is a sort of safe conduct for the Brothers +Minor. + +No. 3. December 19, 1219.--_Sacrosancta romana._ Privileges conceded to +the Sisters (Clarisses) of Monticelli, near Florence. + +No. 4. May 29, 1220.--_Pro dilectis._ The pope prays the prelates of +France to give a kindly reception to the Brothers Minor. + +No. 5. September 22, 1220.--_Cum secundum._ Honorius III. prescribes a +year of noviciate before the entry into the Order. + +No. 6. December 9, 1220.--_Constitutus in praesentia._ This bull concerns +a priest of Constantinople who had made a vow to enter the Order. As +there is question here of _frater Lucas Magister fratrum Minorem de +partibus Romaniae_ we have here indirect testimony, all the more precious +for that reason, as to the period of the establishment of the Order in +the Orient. + +No. 7. February 13, 1221.--New bull for the same priest. + +No. 8. December 16, 1221.--_Significatum est nobis._ Honorius III. +recommends to the Bishop of Rimini to protect the Brothers of Penitence +(Third Order). + +No. 9. March 22, 1222.[5]--_Devotionis vestrae._ Concession to the +Franciscans, under certain conditions, to celebrate the offices in times +of interdict. + +No. 10. March 29, 1222.--_Ex parte Universitatis._ Mission given to the +Dominicans, Franciscans, and Brothers of the Troops of San Iago in +Lisbon. + +Nos. 11, 12, and 13.--September 19, 1222.--_Sacrosancta Romana._ +Privileges for the monasteries (Clarisses) of Lucca, Sienna, and +Perugia. + +No. 14. November 29, 1223.--_Solet annuere._ Solemn approbation of the +Rule, which is inserted in the bull. + +No. 15. December 18, 1223.--_Fratrum Minorum._ Concerns apostates from +the Order. + +No. 16. December 1, 1224.--_Cum illorum._ Authorization given to the +Brothers of Penitence to take part in the offices in times of interdict, +etc. + +No. 17. December 3, 1224.--_Quia populares tumultus._ Concession of the +portable altar. + +No. 18. August 28, 1225.--_In hiis._ Honorius explains to the Bishop of +Paris and the Archbishop of Rheims the true meaning of the privileges +accorded to the Brothers Minor. + +No. 19. October 7, 1225.--_Vineae Domini._ This bull contains divers +authorizations in favor of the Brothers who are going to evangelize +Morocco. + +This list includes only those of Sbaralea's bulls which may directly or +indirectly throw some light upon the life of St. Francis and his +institute. Sbaralea's nomenclature is surely incomplete and should be +revised when the Registers of Honorius III. shall have been published in +full.[6] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] It was published by Sbaralea, Bull., t. iv., p. 156, note h. + This act was drawn up July 9, 1274, at a time when the son of + Orlando as well as the Brothers Minor desired to authenticate + the donation, which until then had been verbal. + + [2] See _Registri dei Cardinali Ugolino d'Ostia e Ottaviano + degli Ubaldini pubblicati a cura di Guido Levi dall'Istituto + storico italiano.--Fonti per la storia d'Italia_, Roma, 1890, 1 + vol., 4to, xxviii. and 250 pp. This edition follows the + manuscript of the National Library, Paris: Ancien fonds Colbert + lat., 5152A. We must draw attention to a very beautiful work due + also to Mr. G. Levi: _Documenti ad illustrazione del Registro + del Card. Ugolino_, in the _Archivio della societa Romana di + storia patria_, t. xii. (1889), pp. 241-326. + + [3] _Bullarium franciscanum seu Rom. Pontificum constitutiones + epistolae diplomata ordinibus Minorum, Clarissarum et + Poenitentium concessa, edidit Joh. Hyac. Sbaralea ord. min. + conv._, 4 vols., fol., Rome, t. i. (1759), t. ii. (1761), t. + iii. (1763), t iv., (1768)--_Supplementum ab Annibale de Latera + ord. min. obs. Romae_, 1780.--Sbaralea had a comparatively easy + task, because of the number of collections made before his. I + shall mention only one of those which I have before me. It is, + comparatively, very well done, and appears to have escaped the + researches of the Franciscan bibliographers: _Singularissimum + eximiumque opus universis mortalibus sacratissimi ordinis + seraphici patris nostri Francisci a Domino Jesu mirabili modo + approbati necnon a quampluribus nostri Redemptoris sanctissimis + vicariis romanis pontificabus multipharie declarati notitiam + habere cupientibus profecto per necessarium. Speculum Minorum + ... per Martinum Morin ... Rouen_, 1509. It is 8vo, with + numbered folios, printed with remarkable care. It contains + besides the bulls the principal dissertations upon the Rule, + elaborated in the thirteenth century, and a _Memoriale ordinis_ + (first part, f^o 60-82), a kind of catalogue of the + ministers-general, which would have prevented many of the errors + of the historians, if it had been known. + + [4] The Bollandists themselves have entirely overlooked those + sources of information, thinking, upon the authority of a single + badly interpreted passage, that the Order had not obtained a + single bull before the solemn approval of Honorius III., + November 29, 1223. + + [5] And not March 29, as Sbaralea has it. The original, which I + have had under my eyes in the archives of Assisi, bears in fact: + _Datum Anagnie XI. Kal. aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto_. + + [6] The Abbe Horoy has indeed published in five volumes what he + entitles the _Opera omnia_ of Honorius III., but he omits, + without a word of explanation, a great number of letters, + certain of which are brought forward in the well-known + collection of Potthast. The Abbe Pietro Pressuti has undertaken + to publish a compendium of all the bulls of this pope according + to the original Registers of the Vatican. _I regesti del + Pontifice Onorio III._ Roma, t. i., 1884. Volume i. only has as + yet appeared. + + * * * * * + + + + +IV + +CHRONICLERS OF THE ORDER + + +I. CHRONICLE OF BROTHER GIORDANO DI GIANO[1] + +Born at Giano, in Umbria, in the mountainous district which closes the +southern horizon of Assisi, Brother Giordano was in 1221 one of the +twenty-six friars who, under the conduct of Caesar of Speyer, set out for +Germany. He seems to have remained attached to this province until his +death, even when most of the friars, especially those who held cures, +had been transferred, often to a distance of several months' journey, +from one end of Europe to the other. It is not, then, surprising that he +was often prayed to commit his memories to writing. He dictated them to +Brother Baldwin of Brandenburg in the spring of 1262. He must have done +it with joy, having long before prepared himself for the task. He +relates with artless simplicity how in 1221, at the chapter-general of +Portiuncula, he went from group to group questioning as to their names +and country the Brothers who were going to set out on distant missions, +that he might be able to say later, especially if they came to suffer +martyrdom: "I knew them myself!"[2] + +His chronicle bears the imprint of this tendency. What he desires to +describe is the introduction of the Order into Germany and its early +developments there, and he does it by enumerating, with a complacency +which has its own coquetry, the names of a multitude of friars[3] and +by carefully dating the events. These details, tedious for the ordinary +reader, are precious to the historian; he sees there the diverse +conditions from which the friars were recruited, and the rapidity with +which a handful of missionaries thrown into an unknown country were able +to branch out, found new stations, and in five years cover with a +network of monasteries, the Tyrol, Saxony, Bavaria, Alsace, and the +neighboring provinces. + +It is needless to say that it is worth while to test Giordano's +chronology, for he begins by praying the reader to forgive the errors +which may have escaped him on this head; but a man who thus marks in his +memory what he desires later to tell or to write is not an ordinary +witness. + +Reading his chronicle, it seems as if we were listening to the +recollections of an old soldier, who grasps certain worthless details +and presents them with an extraordinary power of relief, who knows not +how to resist the temptation to bring himself forward, at the risk +sometimes of slightly embellishing the dry reality.[4] + +In fact this chronicle swarms with anecdotes somewhat personal, but very +artless and welcome, and which on the whole carry in themselves the +testimony to their authenticity. The perfume of the Fioretti already +exhales from these pages so full of candor and manliness; we can follow +the missionaries stage by stage, then when they are settled, open the +door of the monastery and read in the very hearts of these men, many of +whom are as brave as heroes and harmless as doves. + +It is true that this chronicle deals especially with Germany, but the +first chapters have an importance for Francis's history that exceeds +even that of the biographers. Thanks to Giordano of Giano, we are from +this time forward informed upon the crises which the institute of +Francis passed through after 1219; he furnishes us the solidly +historical base which seems to be lacking in the documents emanating +from the Spirituals, and corroborates their testimony. + + +II. ECCLESTON: ARRIVAL OF THE FRIARS IN ENGLAND[5] + +Our knowledge of Thomas of Eccleston is very slight, for he has left no +more trace of himself in the history of the Order than of Simon of +Esseby, to whom he dedicates his work. A native no doubt of Yorkshire, +he seems never to have quitted England. He was twenty-five years +gathering the materials of his work, which embraces the course of events +from 1224 almost to 1260. The last facts that he relates belong to years +very near to this date. + +Of almost double the length of that of Giordano, Eccleston's work is far +from furnishing as interesting reading. The former had seen nearly +everything that he described, and thence resulted a vigor in his story +that we cannot find in an author who writes on the testimony of others. +More than this, while Giordano follows a chronological order, Eccleston +has divided his incidents under fifteen rubrics, in which the same +people continually reappear in a confusion which at length becomes very +wearisome. Finally, his document is amazingly partial: the author is not +content with merely proving that the English friars are saints; he +desires to show that the province of England surpasses all others[6] +by its fidelity to the Rule and its courage against the upholders of new +ways, Brother Elias in particular. + +But these few faults ought not to make us lose sight of the true value +of this document. It embraces what we may call the heroic period of the +Franciscan movement in England, and describes it with extreme +simplicity. + +Aside from all question of history, we have here enough to interest all +those who are charmed by the spectacle of moral conquest. On Monday, +September 10th, the Brothers Minor landed at Dover. They were nine in +number: a priest, a deacon, two who had only the lesser Orders, and five +laymen. They visited Canterbury, London, Oxford, Cambridge, Lincoln, and +less than ten months later all who have made their mark in the history +of science or of sanctity had joined them; it may suffice to name Adam +of Marisco, Richard of Cornwall, Bishop Robert Grossetete, one of the +proudest and purest figures of the Middle Ages, and Roger Bacon, that +persecuted monk who several centuries before his time grappled with and +answered in his lonely cell the problems of authority and method, with a +firmness and power which the sixteenth century would find it hard to +surpass. + +It is impossible that in such a movement human weaknesses and passions +should not here and there reveal themselves, but we owe our chronicler +thanks for not hiding them. Thanks to him, we can for a moment forget +the present hour, call to life again that first Cambridge chapel--so +slight that it took a carpenter only one day to build it--listen to +three Brothers chanting matins that same night, and that with so much +ardor that one of them--so rickety that his two companions were obliged +to carry him--wept for joy: in England as in Italy the Franciscan gospel +was a gospel of peace and joy. Moral ugliness inspired them with a pity +which we no longer know. There are few historic incidents finer than +that of Brother Geoffrey of Salisbury confessing Alexander of +Bissingburn; the noble penitent was performing this duty without +attention, as if he were telling some sort of a story; suddenly his +confessor melted into tears, making him blush with shame and forcing +tears also from him, working in him so complete a revolution that he +begged to be taken into the Order. + +The most interesting parts are those where Thomas gives us an intimate +view of the friars: here drinking their beer, there hastening, in spite +of the Rule, to buy some on credit for two comrades who have been +maltreated, or again clustering about Brother Solomon, who had just come +in nearly frozen with cold, and whom they could not succeed in +warming--_sicut porcis mos est cum comprimendo foverunt_, says the pious +narrator.[7] All this is mingled with dreams, visions, numberless +apparitions,[8] which once more show us how different were the ideas +most familiar to the religious minds of the thirteenth century from +those which haunt the brains and hearts of to-day. + +The information given by Eccleston bears only indirectly on this book, +but if he speaks little of Francis he speaks much at length of some of +the men who have been most closely mingled with his life. + + +III. CHRONICLE OF FRA SALIMBENI[9] + +As celebrated as it is little known, this chronicle is of quite +secondary value in all that concerns the life of St. Francis. Its +author, born October 9, 1221, entered the Order in 1238, and wrote his +memoirs in 1282-1287; it is therefore especially for the middle years of +the thirteenth century that his importance is capital. Notwithstanding +this, it is surprising how small a place the radiant figure of the +master holds in these long pages, and this very fact shows, better than +long arguments could do, how profound was the fall of the Franciscan +idea. + + +IV. THE CHRONICLE OF THE TRIBULATIONS BY ANGELO CARENO[10] + +This chronicle was written about 1330; we might therefore be surprised +to see it appear among the sources to be consulted for the life of St. +Francis, dead more than a century before; but the picture which Clareno +gives us of the early days of the Order gains its importance from the +fact that in sketching it he made constant appeal to eye-witnesses, and +precisely to those whose works have disappeared. + +Angelo Clareno, earlier called Pietro da Fossombrone[11] from the name +of his native town, and sometimes da Cingoli, doubtless from the little +convent where he made profession, belonged to the Zelanti of the March +of Ancona as early as 1265. Hunted and persecuted by his adversaries +during his whole life, he died in the odor of sanctity June 15, 1339, in +the little hermitage of Santa Maria d' Aspro in the diocese of Marsico +in Basilicata. + +Thanks to published documents, we may now, so to speak, follow day by +day not only the external circumstances of his life, but the inner +workings of his soul. With him we see the true Franciscan live again, +one of those men who, while desiring to remain the obedient son of the +Church, cannot reconcile themselves to permit the domain of the dream to +slip away from them, the ideal which they have hailed. Often they are on +the borders of heresy; in these utterances against bad priests and +unworthy pontiffs there is a bitterness which the sectaries of the +sixteenth century will not exceed.[12] Often, too, they seem to +renounce all authority and make final appeal to the inward witness of +the Holy Spirit;[13] and yet Protestantism would be mistaken in seeking +its ancestors among them. No, they desired to die as they had lived, in +the communion of that Church which was as a stepmother to them and which +they yet loved with that heroic passion which some of the _ci-devant_ +nobles brought in '93 to the love of France, governed though she was by +Jacobins, and poured out their blood for her. + +Clareno and his friends not only believed that Francis had been a great +Saint, but to this conviction, which was also that of the Brothers of +the Common Observance, they added the persuasion that the work of the +Stigmatized could only be continued by men who should attain to his +moral stature, to which men might arrive through the power of faith and +love. They were of the violent who take the kingdom of heaven by force; +so when, after the frivolous and senile interests of every day we come +face to face with them, we feel ourselves both humbled and exalted, for +we suddenly find unhoped-for powers, an unrecognized lyre in the human +heart. + +There is one of Jesus's apostles of whom it is difficult not to think +while reading the chronicle of the Tribulations and Angelo Clareno's +correspondence: St. John. Between the apostle's words about love and +those of the Franciscan there is a similarity of style all the more +striking because they were written in different languages. In both of +these the soul is that of the aged man, where all is only love, pardon, +desire for holiness, and yet it sometimes wakes with a sudden +thrill--like that which stirred the soul of the seer of Patmos--of +indignation, wrath, pity, terror, and joy, when the future unveils +itself and gives a glimpse of the close of the great tribulation. + +Clareno's works, then, are in the strictest sense of the word partisan; +the question is whether the author has designedly falsified the facts or +mutilated the texts. To this question we may boldly answer, No. He +commits errors,[14] especially in his earlier pages, but they are not +such as to diminish our confidence. + +Like a good Joachimite, he believed that the Order would have to +traverse seven tribulations before its final triumph. The pontificate of +John XXII. marked, he thought, the commencement of the seventh; he set +himself, then, to write, at the request of a friend, the history of the +first six.[15] + +His account of the first is naturally preceded by an introduction, the +purpose of which is to exhibit to the reader, taking the life of St. +Francis as a framework, the intention of the latter in composing the +Rule and dictating the Will. + +Born between 1240 and 1250, Clareno had at his service the testimony of +several of the first disciples;[16] he found himself in relations with +Angelo di Rieti,[17] Egidio,[18] and with that Brother Giovanni, +companion of Egidio, mentioned in the prologue of the Legend of the +Three Companions.[19] + +His chronicle, therefore, forms as it were the continuation of that +legend. The members of the little circle of Greccio are they who +recommend it to us; it has also their inspiration. + +But writing long years after the death of these Brothers, Clareno feels +the need of supporting himself also on written testimony; he repeatedly +refers to the four legends from which he borrows a part of his +narrative; they are those of Giovanni di Ceperano, Thomas of Celano, +Bonaventura, and Brother Leo.[20] Bonaventura's work is mentioned only +by way of reference; Clareno borrows nothing from him, while he cites +long passages from Giovanni di Ceperano,[21] Thomas of Celano[22] and +Brother Leo.[23] + +Clareno takes from these writers narratives containing several new and +extremely curious facts.[24] + +I have dwelt particularly upon this document because its value appears +to me not yet to have been properly appreciated. It is indeed partisan; +the documents of which we must be most wary are not those whose tendency +is manifest, but those where it is skilfully concealed. + +The life of St. Francis and a great part of the religious history of the +thirteenth century will surely appear to us in an entirely different +light when we are able to fill out the documents of the victorious party +by those of the party of the vanquished. Just as Thomas of Celano's +first legend is dominated by the desire to associate closely St. +Francis, Gregory IX., and Brother Elias, so the Chronicle of the +Tribulations is inspired from beginning to end with the thought that the +troubles of the Order--to say the word, the apostasy--began so early as +1219. This contention finds a striking confirmation in the Chronicle of +Giordano di Giano. + + +V. THE FIORETTI[25] + +With the Fioretti we enter definitively the domain of legend. This +literary gem relates the life of Francis, his companions and disciples, +as it appeared to the popular imagination at the beginning of the +fourteenth century. We have not to discuss the literary value of this +document, one of the most exquisite religious works of the Middle Ages, +but it may well be said that from the historic point of view it does not +deserve the neglect to which it has been left. + +Most authors have failed in courage to revise the sentence lightly +uttered against it by the successors of Bollandus. Why make anything of +a book which Father Suysken did not even deign to read![26] + +Yet that which gives these stories an inestimable worth is what for want +of a better term we may call their atmosphere. They are legendary, +worked over, exaggerated, false even, if you please, but they give us +with a vivacity and intensity of coloring something that we shall search +for in vain elsewhere--the surroundings in which St. Francis lived. More +than any other biography the Fioretti transport us to Umbria, to the +mountains of the March of Ancona; they make us visit the hermitages, and +mingle with the life, half childish, half angelic, which was that of +their inhabitants. + +It is difficult to pronounce upon the name of the author. His work was +only that of gathering the flowers of his bouquet from written and oral +tradition. The question whether he wrote in Latin or Italian has been +much discussed and appears to be not yet settled; what is certain is +that though this work may be anterior to the Conformities,[27] it is a +little later than the Chronicle of the Tribulations, for it would be +strange that it made no mention of Angelo Clareno, if it was written +after his death. + +This book is in fact an essentially local[28] chronicle; the author has +in mind to erect a monument to the glory of the Brothers Minor of the +March of Ancona. This province, which is evidently his own, "does it +not resemble the sky blazing with stars? The holy Brothers who dwelt in +it, like the stars in the sky, have illuminated and adorned the Order of +St. Francis, filling the world with their examples and teaching." He is +acquainted with the smallest villages,[29] each having at a short +distance its monastery, well apart, usually near a torrent, in the edge +of a wood, and above, near the hilltop, a few almost inaccessible cells, +the asylums of Brothers even more than the others in love with +contemplation and retirement.[30] + +The chapters that concern St. Francis and the Umbrian Brothers are only +a sort of introduction; Egidio, Masseo, Leo on one side, St. Clara on +the other, are witnesses that the ideal at Portiuncula and St. Damian +was indeed the same to which in later days Giachimo di Massa, Pietro di +Monticulo, Conrad di Offida, Giovanni di Penna, and Giovanni della Verna +endeavored to attain. + +While most of the other legends give us the Franciscan tradition of the +great convents, the Fioretti are almost the only document which shows it +as it was perpetuated in the hermitages and among the people. In default +of accuracy of detail, the incidents which are related here contain a +higher truth--their tone is true. Here are words that were never +uttered, acts that never took place, but the soul and the heart of the +early Franciscans were surely what they are depicted here. + +The Fioretti have the living truth that the pencil gives. Something is +wanting in the physiognomy of the Poverello when we forget his +conversation with Brother Leo on the perfect joy, his journey to Sienna +with Masseo, or even the conversion of the wolf of Gubbio. + +We must not, however, exaggerate the legendary side of the Fioretti: +there are not more that two or three of these stories of which the +kernel is not historic and easy to find. The famous episode of the wolf +of Gubbio, which is unquestionably the most marvellous of all the +series, is only, to speak the engraver's language, the third state of +the story of the robbers of Monte Casale[31] mingled with a legend of +the Verna. + +The stories crowd one another in this book like flocks of memories that +come upon us pell-mell, and in which insignificant details occupy a +larger place than the most important events; our memory is, in fact, an +overgrown child, and what it retains of a man is generally a feature, a +word, a gesture. Scientific history is trying to react, to mark the +relative value of facts, to bring forward the important ones, to cast +into shade that which is secondary. Is it not a mistake? Is there such a +thing as the important and the secondary? How is it going to be marked? + +The popular imagination is right: what we need to retain of a man is the +expression of countenance in which lives his whole being, a heart-cry, a +gesture that expresses his personality. Do we not find all of Jesus in +the words of the Last Supper? And all of St. Francis in his address to +brother wolf and his sermon to the birds? + +Let us beware of despising these documents in which the first +Franciscans are described as they saw themselves to be. Unfolding under +the Umbrian sky at the foot of the olives of St. Damian, or the firs of +the March of Ancona, these wild flowers have a perfume and an +originality which we look for in vain in the carefully cultivated +flowers of a learned gardener. + + +APPENDICES OF THE FIORETTI + +In the first of these appendices the compiler has divided into five +chapters all the information on the stigmata which he was able to +gather. It is easy to understand the success of the Fioretti. The people +fell in love with these stories, in which St. Francis and his companions +appear both more human and more divine than in the other legends; and +they began very soon to feel the need of so completing them as to form a +veritable biography.[32] + +The second, entitled Life of Brother Ginepro, is only indirectly +connected with St. Francis; yet it deserves to be studied, for it offers +the same kind of interest as the principal collection, to which it is +doubtless posterior. In these fourteen chapters we find the principal +features of the life of this Brother, whose mad and saintly freaks still +furnish material for conversation in Umbrian monasteries. These +unpretending pages discover to us one aspect of the Franciscan heart. +The official historians have thought it their duty to keep silence upon +this Brother, who to them appeared to be a supremely indiscreet +personage, very much in the way of the good name of the Order in the +eyes of the laics. They were right from their point of view, but we owe +a debt of gratitude to the Fioretti for having preserved for us this +personality, so blithe, so modest, and with so arch a good nature. +Certainly St. Francis was more like Ginepro than like Brother Elias or +St. Bonaventura.[33] + +The third, Life of Brother Egidio, appears to be on the whole the most +ancient document on the life of the famous Ecstatic that we possess. It +is very possible that these stories might be traced to Brother Giovanni, +to whom the Three Companions appeal in their prologue. + +In the defective texts given us in the existing editions we perceive the +hand of an annotator whose notes have slipped into the text,[34] but in +spite of that this life is one of the most important of the secondary +texts. This always itinerant brother, one of whose principal +preoccupations is to live by his labor, is one of the most original and +agreeable figures in Francis's surroundings, and it is in lives of this +sort that we must seek the true meaning of some of the passages of the +Rule, and precisely in those that have had the most to suffer from the +enterprise of exegetes. + +The fourth includes the favorite maxims of Brother Egidio; they have no +other importance than to show the tendencies of the primitive Franciscan +teaching. They are short, precise, practical counsels, saturated with +mysticism, and yet in them good sense never loses its rights. The +collection, just as it is in the Fioretti, is no doubt posterior to +Egidio, for in 1385 Bartolommeo of Pisa furnished a much longer +one.[35] + + +VI. CHRONICLE OF THE XXIV. GENERALS[36] + +We find here at the end of the life of Francis that of most of his +companions, and the events that occurred under the first twenty-four +generals. + +It is a very ordinary work of compilation. The authors have sought to +include in it all the pieces which they had succeeded in collecting, and +the result presents a very disproportioned whole. A thorough study of it +might be interesting and useful, but it would be possible only after its +publication. This cannot be long delayed: twice (at intervals of fifteen +months) when I have desired to study the Assisi manuscript it was found +to be with the Franciscans of Quaracchi, who were preparing to print it. + +It is difficult not to bring the epoch in which this collection was +closed near to that when Bartolommeo of Pisa wrote his famous work. +Perhaps the two are quite closely related. + +This chronicle was one of Glassberger's favorite sources. + + +VII. THE CONFORMITIES OF BARTOLOMMEO OF PISA[37] + +The Book of the Conformities, to which Brother Bartolommeo of Pisa +devoted more than fifteen years of his life,[38] appears to have been +read very inattentively by most of the authors who have spoken of +it.[39] In justice to them we must add that it would be hard to find a +work more difficult to read; the same facts reappear from ten to fifteen +times, and end by wearying the least delicate nerves. + +It is to this no doubt that we must attribute the neglect to which it +has been left. I do not hesitate, however, to see in it the most +important work which has been made on the life of St. Francis. Of course +the author does not undertake historical criticism as we understand it +to-day, but if we must not expect to find him a historian, we can boldly +place him in the front rank of compilers.[40] + +If the Bollandists had more thoroughly studied him they would have seen +more clearly into the difficult question of the sources, and the authors +who have come after them would have been spared numberless errors and +interminable researches. + +Starting with the thought that Francis's life had been a perfect +imitation of that of Jesus, Bartolommeo attempted to collect, without +losing a single one, all the instances of the life of the Poverello +scattered through the diverse legends still known at that time. + +He regretted that Bonaventura, while borrowing the narratives of his +predecessors, had often abridged them,[41] and himself desired to +preserve them in their original bloom. Better situated than any one for +such a work, since he had at his disposal the archives of the Sacro +Convento of Assisi, it may be said that he has omitted nothing of +importance and that he has brought into his work considerable pieces +from nearly all the legends which appeared in the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries; they are there only in fragments, it is true, but +with perfect accuracy.[42] + +When his researches were unsuccessful he avows it simply, without +attempting to fill out the written testimonies with his own +conjectures.[43] He goes farther, and submits the documents he has +before him to a real testing, laying aside those he considers +uncertain.[44] Finally he takes pains to point out the passages in +which his only authority is oral testimony.[45] + +As he is almost continually citing the legends of Celano, the Three +Companions, and Bonaventura, and as the citations prove on verification +to be literally accurate, as well as those of the Will, the divers +Rules, or the pontifical bulls, it seems natural to conclude that he was +equally accurate with the citations which we cannot verify, and in which +we find long extracts from works that have disappeared.[46] + +The citations which he makes from Celano present no difficulty; they are +all accurate, corresponding sometimes with the First sometimes with the +Second Legend.[47] + +Those from the Legend of the Three Companions are accurate, but it +appears that Bartolommeo drew them from a text somewhat different from +that which we have.[48] + +With the citations from the _Legenda Antiqua_ the question is +complicated and becomes a nice one. Was there a work of this name? +Certain authors, and among them the Bollandist Suysken, seem to incline +toward the negative, and believe that to cite the _Legenda Antiqua_ is +about the same as to refer vaguely to tradition. Others among +contemporaries have thought that after the approbation and definitive +adoption of Bonaventura's _Legenda Major_ by the Order the Legends +anterior to that, and especially that of Celano, were called _Legenda +Antiqua_. The Conformities permit us to look a little closer into the +question. We find, in fact, passages from the _Legenda Antiqua_ which +reproduce Celano's First Life.[49] Others present points of contact +with the Second, sometimes a literary exactitude,[50] but often these +are the same stories told in too different a way for us to consider them +borrowed.[51] + +Finally there are many of these extracts from the _Legenda Antiqua_ of +which we find no source in any of the documents already discussed.[52] +This would suffice to show that the two are not to be confounded. It has +absorbed them and brought about certain changes while completing them +with others.[53] + +The study of the fragments which Bartolommeo has preserved to us shows +immediately that this collection belonged to the party of the Zealots of +Poverty; we might be tempted to see in it the work of Brother Leo. + +Most fortunately there is a passage where Bartolommeo di Pisa cites as +being by Conrad di Offida a fragment which he had already cited before +as borrowed from the _Legenda Antiqua_.[54] I would not exaggerate the +value of an isolated instance, but it seems an altogether plausible +hypothesis to make Conrad di Offida the author of this compilation. All +that we know of him, of his tendencies, his struggle for the strict +observance, accords with what the known fragments of the _Legenda +Antiqua_ permit us to infer as to its author.[55] + +However this may be, it appears that in this collection the stories have +been given us (the principal source being the Legend of Brother Leo or +the Three Companions before its mutilation) in a much less abridged form +than in the Second Life of Celano. This work is hardly more than a +second edition of that of Brother Leo, here and there completed with a +few new incidents, and especially with exhortations to perseverance +addressed to the persecuted Zealots.[56] + + +VIII. CHRONICLE OF GLASSBERGER[57] + +Evidently this work, written about 1508, cannot be classed among the +sources properly so called; but it presents in a convenient form the +general history of the Order, and thanks to its citations permits us to +verify certain passages in the primitive legends of which Glassberger +had the MS. before his eyes. It is thus in particular with the chronicle +of Brother Giordano di Giano, which he has inserted almost bodily in his +own work. + + +IX. CHRONICLE OF MARK OF LISBON[58] + +This work is of the same character as that of Glassberger; it can only +be used by way of addition. There is, however, a series of facts in +which it has a special value; it is when the Franciscan missions in +Spain or Morocco are in question. The author had documents on this +subject which did not reach the friars in distant countries. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] _Chronica fratris Jordani a Giano._ The text was published + for the first time in 1870 by Dr. G. Voigt under the title: + "_Die Denkwuerdigkeiten des Minoriten Jordanus von Giano_ in the + _Abhandlungen der philolog. histor. Cl. der Koenigl. saechsischen + Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_," pp. 421-545, Leipsic, by + Hirzel, 1870. Only one manuscript is known; it is in the royal + library at Berlin (Manuscript. theolog. lat., 4to, n. 196, saec. + xiv., foliorum 141). It has served as the base of the second + edition: _Analecta franciscana sive Chronica aliaque documenta + ad historiam minorum spectantia. Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) ex + typographia collegii S. Bonaventurae_, 1885, t. i., pp. 1-19. + Except where otherwise noted, I cite entirely this edition, in + which is preserved the division into sixty-three paragraphs + introduced by Dr. Voigt. + + [2] Giord., 81. + + [3] He names more than twenty four persons. + + [4] It does not seem to me that we can look upon the account of + the interview between Gregory IX. and Brother Giordano as + rigorously accurate. Giord., 63. + + [5] _Liber de adventu Minorum in Angliam_, published under the + title of _Monumenta Franciscana_ (in the series of _Rerum + Britannicarum medii AEvi scriptores_, _Roll series_) in two + volumes, 8vo; the first through the care of J. S. Brewer (1858), + the second through that of R. Howlett (1882). This text is + reproduced without the scientific dress of the _Analecta + franciscana_, t. i., pp. 217-257. Cf. English Historical Review, + v. (1890), 754. He has published an excellent critical edition + of it, but unfortunately partial, in vol. xxviii., _Scriptorum_, + of the _Monumenta Germaniae Historica_ by Mr. Liebermann, + Hanover, 1888, folio, pp. 560-569. + + [6] Eccl., 11; 13; 14; 15. Cf. Eccl., 14, where the author takes + pains to say that Alberto of Pisa died at Rome, surrounded by + English Brothers "_inter Anglicos_." + + [7] Eccl., 4; 12. + + [8] Eccl., 4; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 13; 14; 15. + + [9] It was published, but with many suppressions, in 1857, at + Parma. The Franciscans of Quaracchi prepared a new edition of + it, which appeared in the _Analecta Franciscana_. This work is + in manuscript in the Vatican under no. 7260. Vide Ehrle. + _Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._ (1883), t. vii., pp. 767 and 768. + The work of Mr. Cledat will be read with interest: _De fratre + Salembene et de ejus chronicae auctoritate_, Paris, 4to, 1877, + with fac simile. + + [10] Father Ehrle has published it, but unfortunately not + entire, in the _Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 125-155, text of the close + of the fifth and of the sixth tribulation; pp. 256-327 text of + the third, of the fourth, and of the commencement of the fifth. + He has added to it introductions and critical notes. For the + parts not published I will cite the text of the Laurentian + manuscript (Plut. 20, cod. 7), completed where possible with the + Italian version in the National Library at Florence + (Magliabecchina, xxxvii.-28). See also an article of Professor + Tocco in the _Archivio storico italiano_, t. xvii. (1886), pp. + 12-36 and 243-61, and one of Mr. Richard's: Library of the Ecole + des chartes, 1884, 5th livr. p. 525. Cf. Tocco, the _Eresia nel + medio Evo_, p. 419 ff. As to the text published by Doellinger in + his _Beitraege zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters_, Muenich, + 1890, 2 vols., 8vo, II. _Theil Dokumente_, pp. 417-427, it is of + no use. It can only beget errors, as it abounds with gross + mistakes. Whole pages are wanting. + + [11] _Archiv._, t. iii., pp. 406-409. + + [12] Vide _Archiv._, i., p. 557 ... "_Et hoc totum ex rapacitate + et malignitate luporum pastorum qui voluerunt esse pastores, sed + operibus negaverunt deum_," et seq. Cf., p. 562: "_Avaritia et + symoniaca heresis absque pallio regnat et fere totum invasit + ecclesie corpus_." + + [13] "_Qui excommunicat et hereticat altissimam evangelii + paupertatem, excommunicatus est a Deo et hereticus coram + Christo, qui est eterna et in commutabilis veritas._" _Arch._, + i., p. 509. "_Non est potestas contra christum Dominum et contra + evangelium._" Ib. p. 560. He closes one of his letters with a + sentence of a mysticism full of serenity, and which lets us see + to the bottom of the hearts of the Spiritual Brothers. "_Totum + igitur studium esse debet quod unum inseparabiliter simus per + Franciscum in Christo._" Ib., p. 564. + + [14] For example in the list of the first six generals of the + Order. + + [15] The first (1219-1226) extends from the departure of St. + Francis for Egypt up to his death; the second includes the + generalate of Brother Elias (1232-1239); the third that of + Crescentius (1244-1248); the fourth, that of Bonaventura + (1257-1274); the fifth commences with the epoch of the council + of Lyon (1274) and extends up to the death of the inquisitor, + Thomas d'Aversa (1204). And the sixth goes from 1308 to 1323. + + [16] "_Supererant adhuc multi de sociis b. Francisci ... et alii + non pauci de quibus ego vidi et ab ipsis audivi quae narro._" + Laur. Ms., cod. 7, pl. xx., f^o 24a: "_Qui passi sunt eam + (tribulationem tertiam) socii fundatoris fratres Aegdius et + Angelus, qui supererant me audiente referibant_." Laur. Ms., f^o + 27b. Cf., Italian Ms., xxxvii., 28, Magliab., f^o 138b. + + [17] The date of his death is unknown; on August 11, 1253, he + was present at the death-bed of St. Clara. + + [18] Died April 23, 1261. + + [19] "_Quem (fratrem Jacobum de Massa) dirigente me fratre + Johanne socio fratris prefati Egidii videre laboravi. Hic enim + frater Johannes ... dixit mihi_...." _Arch._, ii., p. 279. + + [20] " ... _Tribulationes preteritas memoravi, ut audivi ab + illis qui sustinuerunt eas et aliqua commemoravi de hiis que + didici in quatuor legendis quas vidi et legi._" _Arch._, ii., p. + 135.--"_Vitam pauperis et humilis viri Dei Francisci trium + ordinum fundatoris quatuor solemnes personae scripserunt, fratres + videlicet scientia et sanctitate praeclari, Johannes et Thomas de + Celano, frater Bonaventura unus post Beatum Franciscum Generalis + Minister et vir mirae simplicitatis et sanctitatis frater Leo, + ejusdem sancti Francisci socius. Has quatuor descriptiones seu + historias qui legerit_...." Laurent. MS., pl. xx., c. 7, f^o 1a. + Did the Italian translator think there was an error in this + quotation? I do not know, but he suppressed it. At f^o 12a of + manuscript xxxvii., 28, of the Magliabecchina, we read: + "_Incominciano alcune croniche del ordine franciscano, come la + vita del povero e humile servo di Dio Francesco fondatore del + minorico ordine fu scripta da San Bonaventura e da quatro altri + frati. Queste poche scripture ovveramente hystorie quello il + quale diligentemente le leggiera, expeditamente potra cognoscere + ... la vocatione la santita di San Francisco._" + + [21] Laur. MS., f^o 4b ff. On the other hand we read in a letter + of Clareno: "_Ad hanc (paupertatem) perfecte servandam Christus + Franciscum vocavit et elegit in hac hora novissima et precepit + ei evangelicam assumere regulam, et a papa Innocentio fuit + omnibus annuntiatum in concilio generali, quod de sua + auctoritate et obedientia sanctus Franciscus evangelicam vitam + et regulam assumpserat et Christo inspirante servare promiserat, + sicut sanctus vir fr. Leo scribit et fr. Johannes de Celano._" + _Archiv._, i., p. 559. + + [22] "_Audiens enim semel quorundam fratrum enormes excessus, ut + fr. Thomas de Celano scribit, et malum exemplum per eos + secularibus datum._" Laur. MS., f^o 13b. The passage which + follows evidently refers to 2 Cel., 3, 93 and 112. + + [23] "_Et fecerunt de regula prima ministri removeri capitulum + istud de prohibitionibus sancti evangelii, sicut frater Leo + scribit._" Laur. Ms. f^o 12b. Cf. _Spec._, 9a, see p. 248. "_Nam + cum rediisset de partibus ultramarinis, minister quidam + loquebatur cum eo, ut frater Leo refert, de capitulo + paupertatis_," f^o 13a, cf. _Spec._, 9a, "_S. Franciscus, teste + fr. Leone, frequenter et cum multo studio recitabat fabulam ... + quod oportebat finaliter ordinem humiliari et ad sue humilitatis + principia confitenda et tenenda reduci_." _Archiv._, ii., p. + 129. + + There is only one point of contact between the Legend of the + Three Companions, such as it is to-day, and these passages; but + we find on the contrary revised accounts in the _Speculum_ and + in the other collections, where they are cited as coming from + Brother Leo. + + [24] Clareno, for example, holds that the Cardinal Ugolini had + sustained St. Francis without approving of the first Rule, in + concert with Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo. This is possible, + since Ugolini was created cardinal in 1198 (Vide Cardella: + _Memorie storiche de' Cardinali_, 9 vols., 8vo, Rome, 1792-1793, + t. i., pt. 2, p. 190). Besides this would better explain the + zeal with which he protected the divers Orders founded by St. + Francis, from 1217. The chapter where Clareno tells how St. + Francis wrote the Rule shows the working over of the legend, but + it is very possible that he has borrowed it in its present form + from Brother Leo. It is to be noted that we do not find in this + document a single allusion to the Indulgences of Portiuncula. + + [25] The manuscripts and editions are well-nigh innumerable. M. + Luigi Manzoni has studied them with a carefulness that makes it + much to be desired that he continue this difficult work. _Studi + sui Fioretti_: Miscelenea, 1888, pp. 116-119, 150-152, 162-168; + 1889, 9-15, 78-84, 132-135. When shall we find some one who can + and will undertake to make a scientific edition of them? Those + which have appeared during our time in the various cities of + Italy are insignificant from a critical point of view. See + Mazzoni Guido, _Capitoli inediti dei Fioretti di S. Francesco_, + in the _Propugnatore_, Bologna, 1888, vol. xxi., pp. 396-411. + + [26] Vide A. SS., p. 865: "_Floretum non legi, nec curandum + putavi._" Cf. 553f: "_Floretum ad manum non habeo._" + + [27] Bartolommeo di Pisa compiled it in 1385; then certain + manuscripts of the Fioretti are earlier. Besides, in the stories + that the Conformities borrow from the Fioretti, we perceive + Bartolommeo's work of abbreviation. + + [28] I am speaking here only of the fifty-three chapters which + form the true collection of the Fioretti. + + [29] The province of the March of Ancona counted seven + custodias: 1, Ascoli; 2, Camerino; 3, Ancona; 4, Jesi; 5, Fermo; + 6, Fano; 7, Felestro. The Fioretti mention at least six of the + monasteries of the custodia of Fermo: Moliano, 51, 53; + Fallerone, 32, 51; Bruforte and Soffiano, 46, 47; Massa, 51; + Penna, 45; Fermo, 41, 49, 51. + + [30] At each page we are reminded of those groves which were + originally the indispensable appendage of the Franciscan + monasteries: _La selva ch' era allora allato a S. M. degli + Angeli_, 3, 10, 15, 16, etc. _La selva d' un luogo deserto del + val di Spoleto_ (Carceri?), 4; _selva di Forano_, 42. _di + Massa_, 51, etc. + + [31] The _Speculum_, 46b, 58b, 158a, gives us three states. Cf. + _Fior._, 26 and 21; _Conform._, 119b, 2. + + [32] This desire was so natural that the manuscript of the + Angelica Library includes many additional chapters, concerning + the gift of Portiuncula, the indulgence of August 2d, the birth + of St. Francis, etc. (Vide Amoni, Fioretti, Roma, 1889, pp. 266, + 378-386.) It would be an interesting study to seek the origin of + these documents and to establish their relationship with the + Speculum and the Conformities. Vide _Conform._, 231a, 1; 121b; + _Spec._, 92-96. + + [33] Ginepro was received into the Order by St. Francis. In 1253 + he was present at St. Clara's death. A. SS., _Aug._, t. ii., p. + 764d. The Conformities speak of him in detail, f^o 62b. + + [34] The first seven chapters form a whole. The three which + follow are doubtless a first attempt at completing them. + + [35] Conformities, f^o 55b, 1-60a, 1. + + [36] See _Archiv._, t. i., p. 145, an article of Father Denifle: + _Zur Quellenkunde der Franziskaner Geschichte_, where he + mentions at least eight manuscripts of this work. Cf. Ehrle: + _Zeitschrift_, 1883, p. 324, note 3. I have studied only the two + manuscripts of Florence: Riccardi, 279, paper, 243 fos. of two + cols. recently numbered. The Codex of the Laurentian Gaddian. + rel., 53, is less careful. It is also on paper, 20 x 27, and + counts 254 fos. of 1 column. F^o 1 was formerly numbered 88. The + order of the chapters is not the same as in the preceding. + + [37] The citations are always made from the edition of Milan, + 1510, 4to of 256 folios of two columns. The best known of the + subsequent editions are those of Milan, 1513, and Bologna, 1590. + + [38] He began it in 1385 (f^o 1), and it was authorized by the + chapter general August 2, 1399 (f^o 256a, 1). Besides, on f^o + 150a, 1, he set down the date when he was writing. It was in + 1390. + + [39] I am not here concerned with the foolish attacks of certain + Protestant authors upon this life. That is a quarrel of the + theologians which in no way concerns history. Nowhere does + Bartolommeo of Pisa make St. Francis the equal of Jesus, and he + was able even to forestall criticism in this respect. The + Bollandists are equally severe: "_Cum Pisanus fuerit scriptor + magis pius et credulus quam crisi severa usus_...." A. SS., p. + 551e. + + [40] He has avoided the mistakes so unfortunately committed by + Wadding in his list of ministers general. Vide 66a. 2, 104a, 1, + 118b, 2. He was lecturer on theology at Bologna, Padua, Pisa, + Sienna, and Florence. He preached for many years and with great + success in the principal villages of the Peninsula and could + thus take advantage of his travels by collecting useful notes. + Mark of Lisbon has preserved for us a notice of his life. Vide + _Croniche dei fratri Minori_, t. iii., p. 6 ff. of the Diola + edition. He died December 10, 1401. For further details see + Wadding, ann. 1399, vii., viii., and above all Sbaralea, + _Supplementum_, p. 109. He is the author of an exposition of the + Rule little known which can be found in the Speculum Morin, + Rouen, 1509, f^o 66b-83a, of part three. + + [41] This opinion is expressed in a guarded manner. For example, + f^o 207a, 1, Bartolommeo relates the miracle of the Chapter of + the Mats, first following St. Bonaventura, then adding: "_Et + quia non aliter tangit dicta pars (legendae majoris) hoc insigne + miraculum: antiqua legenda hoc refertur in hunc modum_." Cf. + 225a, 2m. "_Et quia fr. Bonaventura succincte multa tangit et in + brevi: pro evidentia prefatorum notandum est ... ut dicit + antiqua legenda._" + + [42] However, it is necessary to note that not only are there + considerable differences between the editions published, but + also that the first (that of Milan, 1510) has been completed and + revised by its editor. The judgments passed upon Raymond + Ganfridi, 104a, 1, and Boniface VIII., 103b, 1, show traces of + later corrections. (Cf. 125a, 1. At f^o 72a, 2m, is indicated + the date of the death of St. Bernardin, which was in 1444, etc.) + Besides, we are surprised to find beside the pages where the + sources are indicated with clearness others where stories follow + one another coming one knows not from whence. + + [43] F^o 70a, 1: "_Cujus nomen non reperi._" 1a, 2: "_Multaque + non ex industria sed quia ea noscere non valui omittendo._" + + [44] F^o 78a, 1: _Informationes quas non scribo quia imperfectas + reperi._ Cf. 229b, 2: "_De aliis multis apparitionibus non + reperi scripturam, quare hic non pono._" + + [45] F^o 69a, 1: "_Hec ut audivi posui quia ejus legendam non + vidi._" Cf. 68b, 2m: _Fr. Henricus generalis minister mihi + magistro Bartholomeo dixit ipse oretenus._ + + [46] The citations from Bonaventura are decidedly more frequent. + We should not be surprised, since this story is the official + biography of St. Francis; the chapter from which Bartolommeo + takes his quotations is almost always indicated, and, naturally, + follows the old division in five parts. Opening the book at + hazard at folio 136a I find no less than six references to the + _Legenda Major_ in the first column. To give an idea of the + style of Bartolommeo of Pisa I shall give in substance the + contents of a page of his book. See, for example, f^o 111a (lib. + i., conform. x., pars. ii., Franciscus predicator). In the third + line he cites Bonaventura: "_Fr. Bonaventura in quarta parte + majoris legende dicit quod b. Franciscus videbatur intuentibus + homo alterius seculi._" Textual citation of Bonaventure, 45. + Three lines further on: "_Verum qualis esset b. F. quoad + personam sic habetur in legenda antiqua ... homo facundissimus, + facie hilaris_, etc." The literal citation of the sketch of + Francis follows as 1 Celano, 83, gives it as far as: "_inter + peccatores quasi unus ex illis_," and to mark the end of the + quotation Bartolommeo adds: "_Hec legenda antiqua_." In the next + column paragraph 4 commences with the words: _B. Francisci + predicationem reddebat mirabilem et gloriosam ipsius sancti + loquutio: etenim legenda trium Sociorum dicit et Legenda major + parte tertia: B. Francisei eloquia erant non inania, neo risu + digna_, etc., which corresponds literally with 3 Soc., 25, and + Bon., 28. Then come two chapters of Bonaventura almost entire, + beginning with: _In duodecima parte legende majoris dicit Fr. + Bonaventura: Erat enim verbum ejus_, etc. Textual quotation of + Bon., 178 and 179. The page ends with another quotation from + Bonaventura: _Sic dicebat prout recitat Bonaventura in octava + parte Legende majoris: Hac officium patri misericordiarum_. Vide + Bonav., 102 end and 103 entire. This suffices without doubt to + show with what precision the authorities have been quoted in + this work, with what attention and confidence ought to be + examined those portions of documents lost or mislaid which he + has here preserved for us. + + [47] F^o 31b, 2: _ut dicit fr. Thomas in sua legenda_, cf. 2 + Cel., 3, 60.--140a, 2: _Fr. in leg. fr. Thome_, cf. 2 Cel., 3, + 60.--140a 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3 16.--142b, 1: _Fr. in leg. Thome + capitulo de charitate_, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115.--144b, 1: _Fr. in + leg. fr. Thome capitulo de oratione_, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 40.--144b, + 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 65.--144b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 78.--176b, 2, cf. + 2 Cel., 3, 79.--182b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 2, 1.--241b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., + 3, 141.--181a, 2, cf. 1 Cel., 27. It is needless to say that + these lists of quotations do not pretend to be complete. + + [48] F^o 36b, 2. _Ut enim habetur in leg._ 3 Soc., cf. 3 Soc., + 10.--46b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 25-28.--38b 2, cf. 3 Soc. 3.--111a, 2, + cf. 3 Soc., 25.--134a, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 4.--142b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 57 + and 58.--167b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 3 and 8.--168a, 1, cf. 3 Soc., + 10.--170b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 39, 4.--175b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., + 59.--180b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 4.--181a, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 5, 7, 24, 33, + and 67.--181a. 2, cf. 3 Soc., 36.--229b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 14. etc. + The reading of 3 Soc. which Bartolommeo had before his eyes was + pretty much the same we have to day, for he says, 181a, 2. + referring to 3 Soc., 67: "_Ut habetur quasi in fine leg_. 3 + _Soc._" + + [49] F^o 111a, 1, _Sic habetur in leg. ant._, corresponds + literally with 1 Cel., 83.--144a, 2. _Franciscus in leg. ant. + cap. v. de zelo ad religionem_, to 1 Cel. 106. + + [50] F^o 111b, 1. _De predicantibus loqueus sic dicebat in ant. + leg._ Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 99 and 106. 140b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, + 84.--144b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 45--144a, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 95 and + 15.--225b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 116. + + [51] F^o 31a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 83.--143a, 2. Vide 2 Cel., 3, + 65 and 116.--144a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 94.--170b. 1. Vide 2 Cel., + 3, 11. + + [52] F^o 14a, 2.--32a. 1.--101a, 2.--169b, 1.--144b, 2.--142a, + 2.--143b, 2.--168b, 1.--144b, 1. + + [53] Chapters 18 (chapter of the mats) and 25 (lepers cured) of + the _Fioretti_ are found in Latin in the Conf. as borrowed from + the Leg. Ant. Vide 174b, 1, and 207a. 1. + + Finally, according to f^o 168b, 2, it is also from the Leg. Ant. + that the description of the coat, such as we find at the end of + the _Chronique des Tribulations_, was borrowed. See _Archiv._, + t. ii., p. 153. + + [54] F^o 182a, 2; cf. 51b, 1; 144a, 1. + + [55] He died December 12, 1306, at Bastia, near Assisi. See upon + him _Chron. Tribul. Archiv._, ii.; 311 and 312; _Conform._, 60, + 119, and 153. + + [56] Although the history of the Indulgence of Portiuncula was + of all subjects the one most largely treated in the + Conformities, 151b, 2--157a, 2, not once does Bartolommeo of + Pisa refer to it in the _Legenda Antiqua_. It seems, then, that + this collection also was silent as to this celebrated pardon. + + [57] Published with extreme care by the Franciscan Fathers of + the Observance in t. ii. of the _Analecta Franciscana, ad Clarae + Aquas_ (Quaracchi, near Florence), 1888, 1 vol., crown 8vo, of + xxxvi.-612 pp. This edition, as much from the critical point of + view of the text, its correctness, its various readings and + notes, as from the material point of view, is perfect and makes + the more desirable a publication of the chronicles of the xxiv. + generals and of Salimbeni by the same editors. The beginning up + to the year 1262 has been published already by Dr. Karl Evers + under the title _Analecta ad Fratrum Minorum historiam_, + Leipsic, 1882, 4to of 89 pp. + + [58] I have been able only to procure the Italian edition + published by Horatio Diola under the title _Croniche degli + Ordini instituti dal P. S. Francesco_, 3 vols., 8vo, Venice, + 1606. + + * * * * * + + + + +V + +CHRONICLES OUTSIDE OF THE ORDER + + +I. JACQUES DE VITRY + +The following documents, which we can only briefly indicate, are of +inestimable value; they emanate from men particularly well situated to +give us the impression which the Umbrian prophet produced on his +generation. + +Jacques de Vitry[1] has left extended writings on St. Francis. Like a +prudent man who has already seen many religious madmen, he is at first +reserved; but soon this sentiment disappears, and we find in him only a +humble and active admiration for the _Apostolic Man_. + +He speaks of him in a letter which he wrote immediately after the taking +of Damietta (November, 1219), to his friends in Lorraine, to describe it +to them.[2] A few lines suffice to describe St. Francis and point out +his irresistible influence. There is not a single passage in the +Franciscan biographers which gives a more living idea of the apostolate +of the Poverello. + +He returns to him more at length in his _Historia Occidentalis_, +devoting to him the thirty-second chapter of this curious work.[3] +These pages, vibrating with enthusiasm, were written during Francis's +lifetime,[4] at the time when the most enlightened members of the +Church, who had believed themselves to be living in the evening of the +world, _in vespere mundi tendentis ad occasum_, suddenly saw in the +direction of Umbria the light of a new day. + + +II. THOMAS OF SPALATO + +An archdeacon of the Cathedral of Spalato, who in 1220 was studying at +Bologna, has left us a very living portrait of St. Francis and the +memory of the impression which his preachings produced in that learned +town.[5] + +Something of his enthusiasm has passed into his story; we feel that that +day, August 15, 1220, when he met the Poverello of Assisi, was one of +the best of his life.[6] + + +III. DIVERS CHRONICLES + +The continuation of William of Tyre[7] brings us a new account of +Francis's attempt to conquer the Soudan. This narrative, the longest of +all three we have on this subject, contains no feature essentially new, +but it gives one more witness to the historic value of the Franciscan +legends. + +Finally, there are two chronicles written during Francis's life, which, +without giving anything new, speak with accuracy of his foundation, and +prove how rapidly that religious renovation which started in Umbria was +being propagated to the very ends of Europe. The anonymous chronicler of +Monte Sereno[8] in fact wrote about 1225, and tells us, not without +regret, of the brilliant conquests of the Franciscans. + +Burchard,[9] Abbot Premontre d'Ursberg (died in 1226), who was in Rome +in 1211, leaves us a very curious criticism of the Order. + +The Brothers Minor appeared to him a little like an orthodox branch of +the Poor Men of Lyons. He even desires that the pope, while approving +the Franciscans, should do so with a view to satisfy, in the measure of +the possible, the aspirations manifested by that heresy and that of the +Humiliati. + +It is impossible to attribute any value whatever to the long pages given +to St. Francis by Matthew Paris.[10] His information is correct +wherever the activities of the friars are concerned, and he could +examine the work around him.[11] They are absolutely fantastic when he +comes to the life of St. Francis, and we can only feel surprised to find +M. Hase[12] adopting the English monk's account of the stigmata. + +The notice which he gives of Francis contains as many errors as +sentences; he makes him born of a family illustrious by its nobility, +makes him study theology from his infancy (_hoc didicerat in litteris et +theologicis disciplinis quibus ab aetate tenera incubuerat, usque ad +notitiam perfectam_), etc.[13] + +It would be useless to enlarge this list and mention those chroniclers +who simply noticed the foundation of the Order, its approbation, and the +death of St. Francis,[14] or those which spoke of him at length, but +simply by copying a Franciscan legend.[15] + +It suffices to point out by way of memory the long chapter consecrated +to St. Francis in the Golden Legend. Giachimo di Voraggio ([Cross] +1298) there sums up with accuracy but without order the essential +features of the first legends and in particular the Second Life by +Celano.[16] + +As for the inscription of Santa Maria del Vescovado at Assisi it is too +unformed to be anything but a simple object of curiosity.[17] + + * * * * * + +I have given up preparing a complete bibliography of works concerning +St. Francis, that task having been very well done by the Abbe Ulysse +Chevalier in his _Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age_, +Bio-Bibliographie, cols. 765-767 and 2588-2590, Paris, 1 vol., 4to, +1876-1888. To it I refer my readers. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] He was born at Vitry sur Seine, became Cure of Argenteuil, + near Paris; Canon of Oignies, in the diocese of Namur, preached + the crusade against the Albigenses, and accompanied the + Crusaders to Palestine; having been made Bishop of Acre, he was + present in 1219 at the siege and at the capture of Damietta and + returned to Europe in 1225; created Cardinal-bishop of Frascati + in 1229, he died in 1244, leaving a number of writings. For his + life, see the preface of his _Historiae_, edition of Douai, 1597. + + [2] This letter may be found in (Bongars) _Gesta Dei per + Francio_, pp. 1146-1149. + + [3] _Jacobi de Vitriaco Libri duo quorum prior Orientalis, alter + Occidentalis Historiae nomine inscribitur studio Fr. Moschi Duaci + ex officina Balthazaris Belleri_, 1597, 16mo, 480 pp. Chapter + xxxii. fills pages 349-353, and is entitled _De ordine et + praedicatione fratrum Minorum_. See above, p. 229. + + [4] This appears from the passage: _Videmus primus ordinis + fundatorem magestrum cui tanquam summo Priori suo omnes alii + obediunt._ _Loc. cit._, p. 352. + + [5] It is inserted in the treatise of Sigonius on the bishops of + Bologna: _Caroli Sigonii de episcopis Bononiensibus libri + quinque cum notis L. C. Rabbii_, a work which occupies cols. + 353-590 of t. iii. of his _Opera omnia_, Milan, 1732-1737, 6 + vols., f^o. We find our fragment in col. 432. + + [6] This passage will be found above, p. 241. + + [7] _Guillelmi Tyrensis arch. Continuala belli sacri historia_ + in Martene: _Amplissima Collectio_, t. v. pp. 584-572. The piece + concerning Francis is cols. 689-690. + + [8] _Chronicon Montis Sereni_ (at present Petersberg, near + Halle), edited by Ehrenfeuchter in the _Mon. Germ. hist. + Script._, t. 23, pp. 130-226, 229. + + [9] _Burchardi et Cuonradi Urspergensium chronicon_ ed., A. Otto + Abel and L. Weiland, _apud Mon. Germ, hist._, t. 23, pp. + 333-383. The monastery of Ursperg was half-way between Ulm and + Augsburg. Vide p. 376. + + [10] _Matthaei Parisiensis monachie Albanensis, Historia major_, + edition Watts, London, 1640. The Brothers Minor are first + mentioned in the year 1207, p. 222, then 1227, pp. 339-342. + + [11] See the article, _Minores_, in the table of contents of the + _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. xxviii. + + [12] _Franz von Assisi_, p. 168 ff. + + [13] See above, p. 97, his story of the audience with Innocent + III. + + [14] For example, _Chronica Albrici trium fontium_ in Pertz: + _Script._, t. 23, _ad ann. 1207_, 1226, 1228. Vide Fragment of + the chron. of Philippe Mousket ([Cross] before 1245). _Recueil des + historiens_, t. xxii., p. 71, lines 30347-30360. The number of + annalists in this century is appalling, and there is not one in + ten who has omitted to note the foundation of the Minor + Brothers. + + [15] For example, Vincent de Beauvais ([Cross] 1264) gives in his + _Speculum historiale_, lib. 29, cap. 97-99, lib. 30, cap. + 99-111, nearly every story given by the Bollandists under the + title of _Secunda legenda_ in their _Commentarium praevium_. + + [16] _Legenda aurea_, Graesse, Breslau, 1890, pp. 662-674. + + [17] A good reproduction of it will be found in the _Miscellanea + francescana_, t. ii., pp. 33-37, accompanied by a learned + dissertation by M. Faloci Pulignani. + + * * * * * + + + + +APPENDIX + +CRITICAL STUDY OF THE STIGMATA AND THE INDULGENCE OF AUGUST 2 + + +I. THE STIGMATA + +A dissertation upon the possibility of miracles would be out of place +here; a historic sketch is not a treatise on philosophy or dogmatics. + +Still, I owe the reader a few explanations, to enable him with thorough +understanding to judge of my manner of viewing the subject. + +If by miracle we understand either the suspension or subversion of the +laws of nature, or the intervention of the first cause in certain +particular cases, I could not concede it. In this negation physical and +logical reasons are secondary; the true reason--let no one be +surprised--is entirely religious; the miracle is immoral. The equality +of all before God is one of the postulates of the religious +consciousness, and the miracle, that good pleasure of God, only degrades +him to the level of the capricious tyrants of the earth. + +The existing churches, making, as nearly all of them do, this notion of +miracle the very essence of religion and the basis of all positive +faith, involuntarily render themselves guilty of that emasculation of +manliness and morality of which they so passionately complain. If God +intervenes thus irregularly in the affairs of men, the latter can +hardly do otherwise than seek to become courtiers who expect all things +of the sovereign's _favor_. + +The question changes its aspect, if we call miracle, as we most +generally do, all that goes beyond ordinary experience. + +Many apologists delight in showing that the unheard of, the +inexplicable, are met with all through life. They are right and I agree +with them, on condition that they do not at the close of their +explanation replace this new notion of the supernatural by the former +one. + +It is thus that I have come to conclude the reality of the stigmata. +They may have been a unique fact without being more miraculous than +other phenomena; for example, the mathematical powers or the musical +ability of an infant prodigy. + +There are in the human creature almost indefinite powers, marvellous +energies; in the great majority of men these lie in torpid slumber, but +awaking to life in a few, they make of them prophets, men of genius, and +saints who show humanity its true nature. + +We have caught but fleeting glimpses into the domain of mental +pathology, so vast is it and unexplored; the learned men of the future +will perhaps make, in the realms of psychology and physiology, such +discoveries as will bring about a complete revolution in our laws and +customs. + +It remains to examine the stigmata from the point of view of history. +And though in this field there is no lack of difficulties, small and +great, the testimony appears to me to be at once too abundant and too +precise not to command conviction. + +We may at the outset set aside the system of those who hold that Brother +Elias helped on their appearance by a pious fraud. Such a claim might +indeed be defended if these marks had been gaping wounds, as they are +now or in most cases have been represented to be; but all the testimony +agrees in describing them, with the exception of the mark on the side, +as blackish, fleshy excrescences, like the heads of nails, and in the +palms of the hands like the points of nails clinched by a hammer. There +was no bloody exudation except at the side. + +On the other hand, any deception on the part of Elias would oblige us to +hold that his accomplices were actually the heads of the party opposed +to him, Leo, Angelo, and Rufino. Such want of wit would be surprising +indeed in a man so circumspect. + +Finally the psychological agreement between the external circumstances +and the event is so close that an invention of this character would be +as inexplicable as the fact itself. That which indeed almost always +betrays invented or unnatural incidents is that they do not fit into the +framework of the facts. They are extraneous events, purely decorative +elements whose place might be changed at will. + +Nothing of the sort is the case here: Thomas of Celano is so veracious +and so exact, that though holding the stigmata to be miraculous, he +gives us all the elements necessary for explaining them in a +diametrically opposite manner. + +1. The preponderating place of the passion of Jesus in Francis's +conscience ever since his conversion (1 Cel., 115; 2 Cel., 1, 6; 3, 29; +49; 52). + +2. His sojourn in the Verna coincides with a great increase of mystical +fervor. + +3. He there observes a Lent in honor of the archangel St. Michael. + +4. The festival of the exaltation of the cross comes on, and in the +vision of the crucified seraph is blended the two ideas which have taken +possession of him, the angels and the crucifix (1 Cel., 91-96, +112-115). + +This perfect congruity between the circumstances and the prodigy itself +forms a moral proof whose value cannot be exaggerated. + +It is time to pass the principal witnesses in review. + +1. Brother Elias, 1226. On the very day after the death of Francis, +Brother Elias, in his capacity of vicar, sent letters to the entire +Order announcing the event and prescribing prayers.[1] + +After having expressed his sorrow and imparted to the Brothers the +blessing with which the dying Francis had charged him for them, he adds: +"I announce to you a great joy and a new miracle. Never has the world +seen such a sign, except on the Son of God who is the Christ God. For a +long time before his death our Brother and Father appeared as crucified, +having in his body five wounds which are truly the stigmata of Christ, +for his hands and his feet bore marks as of nails without and within, +forming a sort of scars; while at the side he was as if pierced with a +lance, and often a little blood oozed from it." + +2. Brother Leo. We find that it is the very adversary of Elias who is +the natural witness, not only of the stigmata, but of the circumstances +of their imprinting. This fact adds a peculiar value to his account. + +We learned above (Critical Study, p. 377) the untoward fate of a part of +the Legend of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Rufino. The chapters with which +it now closes (68-73) and in which the narrative of the miracle occurs, +were not originally a part of it. They are a summary added at a later +time to complete this document. This appendix, therefore, has no +historic value, and we neither depend on it with the ecclesiastical +authors to affirm the miracle, nor with M. Hase to call it in question. + +Happily the testimony of Brother Leo has come down to us in spite of +that. We are not left even to seek for it in the Speculum, the Fioretti, +the Conformities, where fragments of his work are to be found; we find +it in several other documents of incontestable authority. + +The authenticity of the autograph of St. Francis preserved at Assisi +appears to be thoroughly established (see Critical Study, p. 357); it +contains the following note by Brother Leo's hand: "The Blessed Francis +two years before his death kept on the Verna in honor of the B. V. Mary +mother of God, and St. Michael Archangel, a Lent from the festival of +the Assumption of the B. V. M. to the festival of St. Michael in +September, and the hand of God was upon him by the vision and the +address of the seraph and the impression of the stigmata upon his body. +He made the laudes that are on the other side, ... etc." + +Again, Eccleston (13) shows us Brother Leo complaining to Brother Peter +of Tewkesbury, minister in England, that the legend is too brief +concerning the events on the Verna, and relating to him the greater +number of the incidents which form the nucleus of the Fioretti on the +stigmata. These memorials are all the more certain that they were +immediately committed to writing by Peter of Tewkesbury's companion, +Brother Garin von Sedenfeld. + +Finally Salembeni, in his chronicle (ad ann. 1224) in speaking of +Ezzelino da Romano is led to oppose him to Francis. He suddenly +remembers the stigmata and says, "Never man on earth, but he, has had +the five wounds of Christ. His companion, Brother Leo, who was present +when they washed the body before the burial, told me that he looked +precisely like a crucified man taken down from the cross." + +3. Thomas of Celano, before 1230. He describes them more at length than +Brother Elias (1 Cel., 94, 95, 112). + +The details are too precise not to suggest a lesson learned by heart. +The author nowhere assumes to be an eye-witness, yet he has the tone of +a legal deposition. + +These objections are not without weight, but the very novelty of the +miracle might have induced the Franciscans to fix it in a sort of +canonical and so to say, stereotyped narrative. + +4. The portrait of Francis, by Berlinghieri, dated 1236,[2] preserved +at Pescia (province of Lucca) shows the stigmata as they are described +in the preceding documents. + +5. Gregory IX. in 1237. Bull of March 31; _Confessor Domini_ (Potthast, +10307. Cf. 10315). A movement of opinion against the stigmata had been +produced in certain countries. The pope asks all the faithful to believe +in them. Two other bulls of the same day, one addressed to the Bishop of +Olmuetz, the other to the Dominicans, energetically condemns them for +calling the stigmata in question (Potthast, 10308 and 10309). + +6. Alexander IV., in his bull _Benigna operatio_ of October 29, 1255 +(Potthast, 16077), states that having formerly been the domestic +prelate of Cardinal Ugolini, he knew St. Francis familiarly, and +supports his description of the stigmata by these relations. + +To this pontiff are due several bulls declaring excommunicate all those +who deny them. These contribute nothing new to the question. + +7. Bonaventura (1260) repeats in his legend Thomas of Celano's +description (Bon., 193; cf. 1 Cel. 94 and 95), not without adding some +new factors (Bon., 194-200 and 215-218), often so coarse and clumsy that +they inevitably awaken doubt (see for example, 201). + +8. Matthew Paris ([Cross] 1259). His discordant witness barely +deserves being cited by way of memoir (see Critical Study, p. 431). To +be able to forgive the fanciful character of his long disquisitions on +St. Francis, we are forced to recall to mind that he owed his +information to the verbal account of some pilgrim. He makes the +stigmata appear a fortnight before the Saint's death, shows them +continually emitting blood, the wound on the side so wide open that +the heart could be seen. The people gather in crowds to see the sight, +the cardinals come also, and all together listen to Francis's strange +declarations. (_Historia major_, Watts's edition London, 1 vol. fol., +1640, pp. 339-342.) + +This list might be greatly lengthened by the addition of a passage from +Luke bishop of Tuy (Lucas Tudensis) written in 1231;[3] based +especially on the Life by Thomas of Celano, and oral witnesses. + +The statement of Brother Boniface, an eye-witness, at the chapter of +Genoa (1254). (Eccl. 13.) + +Finally and especially, we should study the strophes relating to the +stigmata in the proses, hymns, and sequences composed in 1228 by the +pope and several cardinals for the Office of St. Francis; but such a +work, to be done with accuracy, would carry us very far, and the +authorities already cited doubtless suffice without bringing in +others.[4] + +The objections which have been opposed to these witnesses may be +reduced, I think, to the following:[5] + +_a._ Francis's funeral took place with surprising precipitation. Dead on +Saturday evening, he was buried Sunday morning. + +_b._ His body was enclosed in a coffin, which is contrary to Italian +habits. + +_c._ At the time of the removal, the body, wrested from the multitude, +is so carefully hidden in the basilica that for centuries its precise +place has been unknown. + +_d._ The bull of canonization makes no mention of the stigmata. + +_e._ They were not admitted without a contest, and among those who +denied them were some bishops. + +None of these arguments appears to me decisive. + +_a._ In the Middle Ages funerals almost always took place immediately +after death (Innocent III. dying at Perugia July 16, 1216, is interred +the 17th; Honorius III. dies March 18, 1227, and is interred the next +day). + +_b._ It is more difficult than many suppose to know what were the habits +concerning funerals in Umbria in the thirteenth century. However that +may be, it was certainly necessary to put Francis's body into a coffin. +He being already canonized by popular sentiment, his corpse was from +that moment a relic for which a reliquary was necessary; nay more, a +strong box such as the secondary scenes in Berlinghieri's picture shows +it to have been. Without such a precaution the sacred body would have +been reduced to fragments in a few moments. Call to mind the wild +enthusiasm that led the devotees to cut off the ears and even the +breasts of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. [_Quaedam aures illius truncabant, +etiam summitatem mamillarum ejus quidam praecidebant et pro reliquiis +sibi servabant._--_Liber de dictis iv. ancillarum_, Mencken, vol. ii., +p. 2032.] + +_c._ The ceremony of translation brought an innumerable multitude to +Assisi. If Brother Elias concealed the body,[6] he may have been led +to do so by the fear of some organized surprise of the Perugians to gain +possession of the precious relic. With the customs of those days, such a +theft would have been in nowise extraordinary. These very Perugians a +few years later stole away from Bastia, a village dependent on Assisi, +the body of Conrad of Offida, which was performing innumerable miracles +there. (_Conform._, 60b, 1; cf. Giord., 50.) Similar affrays took place +at Padua over the relics of St. Anthony. (Hilaire, _Saint Antoine de +Padoue, sa legende primitive_, Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1 vol., 8vo, 1890, pp. +30-40.) + +_d._ The bull of canonization, with the greater number of such +documents, for that matter, makes no historic claim. In its wordy +rhetoric we shall sooner learn the history of the Philistines, of +Samson, or even of Jacob, than of St. Francis. Canonization here is only +a pretext which the old pontiff seizes for recurring to his favorite +figures. + +This silence signifies nothing after the very explicit testimony of +other bulls by the same pontiff in 1227, and after the part given to the +stigmata in the liturgical songs which in 1228 he composed for the +office of St. Francis. + +_e._ These attacks by certain bishops are in nowise surprising; they are +episodes in the struggle of the secular clergy against the mendicant +orders. + +At the time when these negations were brought forward (1237) the +narrative of Thomas of Celano was official and everywhere known; nothing +therefore would have been easier, half a score of years after the +events, than to bring witnesses to expose the fraud if there had been +any; but the Bishop of Olmuetz and the others base their objections +always and only upon dogmatic grounds. + +As to the attacks of the Dominicans, it is needless to recall the +rivalry between the two Orders;[7] is it not then singular to find +these protestations coming from Silesia (!) and never from Central +Italy, where, among other eye-witnesses, Brother Leo was yet living +([Cross] 1271)? + +Thus the witnesses appear to me to maintain their integrity. We might +have preferred them more simple and shorter, we could wish that they had +reached us without details which awake all sorts of suspicions,[8] but +it is very seldom that a witness does not try to prove his affirmations +and to prop them up by arguments which, though detestable, are +appropriate to the vulgar audience to which he is speaking. + + +II. THE PARDON OF AUGUST 2D, CALLED INDULGENCE OF PORTIUNCULA[9] + +This question might be set aside; on the whole it has no direct +connection with the history of St. Francis. + +Yet it occupies too large a place in modern biographies not to require a +few words: it is related that Francis was in prayer one night at +Portiuncula when Jesus and the Virgin appeared to him with a retinue of +angels. He made bold to ask an unheard-of privilege, that of plenary +indulgence of all sins for all those who, having confessed and being +contrite, should visit this chapel. Jesus granted this at his mother's +request, on the sole condition that his vicar the pope would ratify it. + +The next day Francis set out for Perugia, accompanied by Masseo, and +obtained from Honorius the desired indulgence, but only for the day of +August 2d. + +Such, in a few lines, is the summary of this legend, which is surrounded +with a crowd of marvellous incidents. + +The question of the nature and value of indulgences is not here +concerned. The only one which is here put is this: Did Francis ask this +indulgence and did Honorius III. grant it? + +Merely to reduce it to these simple proportions is to be brought to +answer it with a categorical No. + +It would be tedious to refer even briefly to the difficulties, +contradictions, impossibilities of this story, many a time pointed out +by orthodox writers. In spite of all they have come to the affirmative +conclusion: _Roma locuta est_. + +Those whom this subject may interest will find in the note above +detailed bibliographical indications of the principal elements of this +now quieted discussion. I shall confine myself to pointing out the +impossibilities with which tradition comes into collision; they are both +psychological and historical. The Bollandists long since pointed out the +silence of Francis's early biographers upon this question. Now that the +published documents are much more numerous, this silence is still more +overwhelming. Neither the First nor the Second Life by Thomas of Celano, +nor the anonymous author of the second life given in the Acta Sanctorum, +nor even the anonymous writer of Perugia, nor the Three Companions, nor +Bonaventura say a single word on the subject. No more do very much later +works mention it, which sin only by excessive critical scruples: Bernard +of Besse, Giordiano di Giano, Thomas Eccleston, the Chronicle of the +Tribulations, the Fioretti, and even the Golden Legend. + +This conspiracy of silence of all the writers of the thirteenth century +would be the greatest miracle of history if it were not absurd. + +By way of explanation, it has been said that these writers refrained +from speaking of this indulgence for fear of injuring that of the +Crusade; but in that case, why did the pope command seven bishops to go +to Portiuncula to proclaim it in his name? + +The legend takes upon itself to explain that Francis refused a bull or +any written attestation of this privilege; but, admitting this, it would +still be necessary to explain why no hint of this matter has been +preserved in the papers of Honorius III. And how is it that the bulls +sent to the seven bishops have left not the slightest trace upon this +pontiff's register? + +Again, how does it happen, if seven bishops officially promulgated this +indulgence in 1217, that St. Francis, after having related to Brother +Leo his interview with the pope, said to him: "_Teneas secretum hoc +usque circa mortem tuam; quia non habet locum adhuc. Quia haec +indulgentia occultabitur ad tempus; sed Dominus trahet eam extra et +manifestabitur._" _Conform._, 153b, 2. Such an avowal is not wanting in +simplicity. It abundantly proves that before the death of Brother Leo +(1271) no one had spoken of this famous pardon. + +After this it is needless to insist upon secondary difficulties; how is +it that the chapters-general were not fixed for August 2d, to allow the +Brothers to secure the indulgence? + +How explain that Francis, after having received in 1216 a privilege +unique in the annals of the Church, should be a stranger to the pope in +1219! + +There is, however, one more proof whose value exceeds all the +others--Francis's Will: + +"I forbid absolutely all the Brothers by their obedience, in whatever +place they may be, to ask any bull of the court of Rome, whether +directly or indirectly, nor under pretext of church or convent, nor +under pretext of preaching, nor even for their personal protection." + +Before closing it remains for us to glance at the growth of this legend. + +It was definitively constituted about 1330-1340, but it was in the air +long before. With the patience of four Benedictines (of the best days) +we should doubtless be able to find our way in the medley of documents, +more or less corrupted, from which it comes to us, and little by little +we might find the starting-point of this dream in a friar who sees +blinded humanity kneeling around Portiuncula to recover sight.[10] + +It is not difficult to see in general what led to the materialization of +this graceful fancy: people remembered Francis's attachment to the +chapel where he had heard the decisive words of the gospel, and where +St. Clara in her turn had entered upon a new life. + +When the great Basilica of Assisi was built, drawing to itself pilgrims +and privileges, an opposition of principles and of inspiration came to +be added to the petty rivalry between it and Portiuncula. + +The zealots of poverty said aloud that though the Saint's body rested in +the basilica his heart was at Portiuncula.[11] By dint of repeating and +exaggerating what Francis had said about the little sanctuary, they came +to give a precise and so to say doctrinal sense to utterances purely +mystical. + +The violences and persecutions of the party of the Large Observance +under the generalship of Crescentius[12] (1244-1247) aroused a vast +increase of fervor among their adversaries. To the bull of Innocent IV. +declaring the basilica thenceforth _Caput et Mater_ of the Order[13] +the Zealots replied by the narratives of Celano's Second Life and the +legends of that period.[14] They went so far as to quote a promise of +Francis to make it in perpetuity the _Mater et Caput_ of his +institute.[15] + +In this way the two parties came to group themselves around these two +buildings. Even to-day it is the same. The Franciscans of the Strict +Observance occupy Portiuncula, while the Basilica of Assisi is in the +hands of the Conventuals (Large Observance), who have adopted all the +interpretations and mitigations of the Rules; they are worthy folk, who +live upon their dividends. By a phenomenon, unique, I think, in the +annals of the Church, they have pushed the freedom of their infidelity +to the point of casting off the habit, the popular brown cassock. +Dressed all in black, shod and hatted, nothing distinguishes them from +the secular clergy except a modest little cord. + +Poor Francis! That he may have the joy of feeling his tomb brushed by a +coarse gown, some daring friar must overcome his very natural +repugnances, and come to kneel there. The indulgence of August 2d is +then the reply of the Zealots to the persecutions of their brothers. + +An attentive study will perhaps show it emerging little by little under +the generalship of Raimondo Gaufridi (1289-1295); Conrad di Offida ([Cross] +1306) seems to have had some effect upon it, but only with the next +generation do we find the legend completed and avowed in open day. + +Begun in a misapprehension it ends by imposing itself upon the Church, +which to-day guarantees it with its infallible authority, and yet in its +origin it was a veritable cry of revolt against the decisions of Rome. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] The text was published in 1620 by Spoelberch (in his + _Speculum vitae B. Francisci_, Antwerp, 2 vols., 12mo, ii., pp. + 103-106), after the copy addressed to Brother Gregory, + minister in France, and then preserved in the convent of the + Recollects in Valenciennes. It was reproduced by Wadding (Ann. + 1226, no. 44) and the Bollandists (pp. 668 and 669). + + So late an appearance of a capital document might have left + room for doubts; there is no longer reason for any, since the + publication of the chronicle of Giordano di Giano, who relates + the sending of this letter (Giord., 50). The Abbe Amoni has + also published this text (at the close of his _Legenda trium + Sociorum_, Rome, 1880, pp. 105-109), but according to his + deplorable habit, he neglects to tell whence he has drawn it. + This is the more to be regretted since he gives a variant of + the first order: _Nam diu ante mortem_ instead of _Non diu_, + as Spoelberch's text has it. The reading _Nam diu_ appears + preferable from a philological point of view. + + [2] Engraved in Saint Francois d'Assise, Paris, 4to, 1885, p. 277. + + [3] _Bibliotheca Patrum._ Lyons, 1677, xxv., _adv. + Albigenses_, lib. ii., cap. 11., cf. iii., 14 and 15. + Reproduced in the A. SS., p. 652. + + [4] The curious may consult the following sources: Salimbeni, + ann. 1250--_Conform._, 171b 2, 235a 2; Bon., 200; Wadding, + _ann. 1228_, no. 78; A. SS., p. 800. Manuscript 340 of the + _Sacro Convento_ contains (fo. 55b-56b) four of these hymns. + Cf. _Archiv._ i., p. 485. + + [5] See in particular Hase: _Franz v. Assisi_. Leipsic, 1 + vol., 8vo., 1856. The learned professor devotes no less than + sixty closely printed pages to the study of the stigmata, + 142-202. + + [6] The more I think about it, the more incapable I become of + attributing any sort of weight to this argument from the + disappearance of the body; for in fact, if there had been any + pious fraud on Elias's part, he would on the contrary have + displayed the corpse. + + [7] See, for example, 2 Cel., 3, 86, as well as the encyclical + of Giovanni di Parma and Umberto di Romano, in 1225. + + [8] The following among many others: Francis had particularly + high breeches made for him, to hide the wound in the side + (Bon., 201). At the moment of the apparition, which took place + during the night, so great a light flooded the whole country, + that merchants lodging in the inns of Casentino saddled their + beasts and set out on their way. _Fior., iii. consid._ + + Hase, in his study, is continually under the weight of the bad + impression made upon him by Bonaventura's deplorable + arguments; he sees the other witness only through him. I think + that if he had read simply Thomas of Celano's first Life, he + would have arrived at very different conclusions. + + [9] The most important document is manuscript 344 of the + archives of Sacro Convento at Assisi. _Liber indulgentiae S. + Mariae de Angelis sive de Portiuncula in quo libra ego fr. + Franciscus Bartholi de Assisio posui quidquid potui sollicite + invenire in legendis antiquis et novis b. Francisci et in + aliis dictis sociorum ejus de loco eodem et commendatione + ipsius loci et quidquid veritatis et certitudinis potui + invenire de sacra indulgentia prefati loci, quomodo scilicet + fuit impetrata et data b. Francisco de miraculis ipsius + indulgentiae quae ipsam declarant certam et veram._ Bartholi + lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. His work is + still unpublished, but Father Leo Patrem M. O. is preparing it + for publication. The name of this learned monk gives every + guaranty for the accuracy of this difficult work; meanwhile a + detailed description and long extracts may be found in the + Miscellanea (ii., 1887). _La storia del perdono di Francesco + de Bartholi_, by Don Michele Faloci Pulignani, pp. 149-153 + (cf. _Archiv._, i., p. 486). See also in the Miscellanea (i., + 1886, p. 15) a bibliographical note containing a detailed list + of fifty-eight works (cf. ibid., pp. 48, 145). The legend + itself is found in the _Speculum_, 69b-83a, and in the + _Conformities_, 151b-157a. In these two collections it is + still found laboriously worked in and is not an integral part + of the rest of the work. In the latter, Bartolemmeo di Pisa + has carried accuracy so far as to copy from end to end all the + documents that he had before him, and as they belong to + different periods he thus gives us several phases of the + development of the tradition. The most complete work is that + of the Recollect Father Grouwel: _Historia critica S. + Indulgentiae B. Mariae Angelorum vulgo de Portiuncula ... contra + Libellos aliquos anonymo ac famosos nuper editos_, Antwerp, + 1726, 1 vol., 8vo. pp. 510. The Bollandist Suysken also makes + a long study of it (A. SS., pp. 879-910), as also the + Recollect Father Candide Chalippe, _Vie de saint Francois + d'Assise_, 3 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1874 (the first edition is of + 1720), vol. iii., pp. 190-327. + + In each of these works we find what has been said in all the + others. The numerous writings against the Indulgence are + either a collection of vulgarities or dogmatic treatises; I + refrain from burdening these pages with them. The principal + ones are indicated by Grouwel and Chalippe. + + Among contemporaries Father Barnabas of Alsace: _Portiuncula + oder Geschichte Unserer lieben Frau von den Engeln_ (Rixheim, + 1 vol., 8vo. 1884), represents the tradition of the Order, and + the Abbe Le Monnier (_Histoire de Saint Francois_, 2 vols., + 8vo, Paris, 1889), moderate Catholic opinion in non-Franciscan + circles. + + The best summary is that of Father Panfilo da Magliano in his + _Storia compendiosa_. It has been completed and amended in the + German translation: _Geschichte des h. Franciscus und der + Franziskaner uebersetzt und bearbeitet_ von Fr. Quintianus + Mueller, vol. i., Munich, 1883, pp. 233-259. + + [10] 2 Cel., 1, 13; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 24. + + [11] _Conform._, 239b, 2. + + [12] See in particular _Archiv._, ii., p. 259, and the bull of + February 7, 1246. Potthast, 12007; Glassberger, _ann. 1244_ + (_An. fr._ t. ii., p. 69). + + [13] _Is qui ecclesiam_, March. 6, 1245, Potthast, 11576. + + [14] 2 Cel., 1, 12 (cf. _Conform._, 218a, 1); 3 Soc., 56; + _Spec._, 32b ff.; 49b ff.; _Conform._, 144a, 2. + + [15] _Conform._, 169a; 2, 217b. 1 ff. Cf. _Fior._, Amoni's ed. + (Appendix to the Codex of the Bib. Angelica), p. 378. + + * * * * * + * * * * * + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +TEXT CONVENTIONS + + Text surrounded by underscores (_text_) indicates italics in the + original. + + Text surrounded by tildes (~text~) indicates bold in the original. + + 'Folio' abbreviation: The original has two versions. 'F' or 'f' + followed by superscripted 'o' is transcribed F^o/f^o. + 'fo.'/'fos.' is transcribed 'fo.'/'fos.'. + + [Cross] is used where the text had a single character that resembled a + Maltese Cross, and denotes year of death. + + Footnotes have been moved from the bottom of each page to the end + of each chapter, and renumbered by chapter. + +CHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL TEXT + + In many spots in the scans, primarily in footnote citations, + periods and commas are partially or completely obscured, with + white space where the mark would logically appear. Where the scan + is unclear, punctuation has been transcribed to match the most + common use in the book. Where the punctuation is different from + common usage, but clearly present (i.e. no extra white space + after an abbreviation or full comma where a period seems to make + more sense), the scans have been replicated. + + There were a number of incidences of missing closing quotation + marks, particularly for dialog or prayers. These have been + corrected without further comment. + + Two lines missing from the translation of the prayer commonly + known as "The Canticle of All Creatures" (Chapter XVII) have been + added. The added text is shown in braces ({}). + + 'Analecta Fracniscana' in CRITICAL STUDY OF THE WORKS, Section IV, + Part III, Footnote 9 was changed to 'Analecta Franciscana'. + + 'Served by a poor priest who scarely' in Chapter IV was changed to + 'Served by a poor priest who scarcely'. + + In the original text, 'obediunt' was NOT italicized in the + following quotation: "Videmus primus ordinis fundatorem magestrum + cui tanquam summo Priori suo omnes alii obediunt." (CRITICAL + STUDY OF THE WORKS, Section III, Part V, Footnote 4). It is + italicized here. + + Chapter XV, footnote 4 had no anchor marker in the original text. + The placement of this marker in this transcription is not confirmed. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Paul Sabatier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ST. 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