Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (i am malala young readers edition TXT) 📖
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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.
1. Mortem cantando suscepit. 2 Cel., 3, 139.
2. The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS., 338 (fo 16a-18a). It is also to be found in Firmamentum, fo 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 ... papæ ... et successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis præcipere 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 conscientiæ 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. Claræ; 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, fo 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. Eliæ.
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 clôture of the convent St. Clara. Vide Miscellanea 1, pp. 44-48, a very interesting study by Prof. Carattoli upon the coffin of St. Francis.
Table of
Contents
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.
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 exists3 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 Collège 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
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