Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best novels of all time txt) 📖

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
Müller ( Die Anfänge , 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) hæc pauca quæ 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 nostræ 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 vestræ
intimare. 3 Soc., Prol.

[57] Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.

[58] Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium
supernæ 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
præcipit fr. Thomæ de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati
Francisci quæ 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 quæ incipit: Religiosa vestra
sollicitudo eidem generali misit .

This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify
it, as M. Müller suggests ( Anfänge , 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. Barnabé, Portiuncula , p.
15. Cf. Analecta fr. , t. ii., p. xxi. Zeitschrift für 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 præter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas
quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti
præconium 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
Bonaventuræ 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: