Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (i am malala young readers edition TXT) 📖

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: "Prædixerat 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 Claræ et sororibus ad consolationem litteram in quâ dabat benedictionem suam et absolvebat," etc. Conform., fo. 185a, 1; cf. Test. B. Claræ. 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, archæologists, 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. Sanctissimæ 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. François, 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. Τ, 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 Alvernæ ad honorem Beatæ Virginia Mariæ matris Dei et beati Michael archangeli a festo assumptionis sanctæ Mariæ 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 feriæ sextæ 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.

Table of
Contents

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