{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18787/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18787","id":"gutenberg_18787","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18787","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian saints -- Biography","Francis, of Assisi, Saint, 1182-1226"],"text":"Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Victoria Woosley and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLIFE OF\n\nST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI\n\nBY\n\nPAUL SABATIER\n\n\n_Quivere monachus est nihil\nreputat esse suum nisi citharam_\n\nGIOACCHINO DI FIORE _in Apoc. 182 a 2_\n\n\nTRANSLATED BY\n\nLOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON\n\nLONDON\nHODDER & STOUGHTON\n\n1919\n\n\nCopyright, 1894, by Charles Scribner's Sons, for the\nUnited States of America.\n\nPrinted by the Scribner Press\nNew York, U.S.A.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n_TO THE STRASBURGHERS_\n\n\n_Friends!_\n\n\n_At last here is this book which I told you about so long ago. The\nresult is small indeed in relation to the endeavor, as I, alas! see\nbetter than anyone. The widow of the Gospel put only one mite into the\nalms-box of the temple, but this mite, they tell us, won her Paradise.\nAccept the mite that I offer you to-day as God accepted that of the poor\nwoman, looking not at her offering, but at her love_, Feci quod potui,\nomnia dedi.\n\n_Do not chide me too severely for this long delay, for you are somewhat\nits cause. Many times a day at Florence, at Assisi, at Rome, I have\nforgotten the document I had to study. Something in me seemed to have\ngone to flutter at your windows, and sometimes they opened.... One\nevening at St. Damian I forgot myself and remained long after sunset. An\nold monk came to warn me that the sanctuary was closed._ \"Per Bacco!\"\n_he gently murmured as he led me away, all ready to receive my\nconfidence_, \"sognava d'amore o di tristitia?\" _Well, yes. I was\ndreaming of love and of sadness, for I was dreaming of Strasbourg._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\n                                                        PAGE\nINTRODUCTION,                                             xi\n\n                          CHAPTER I.\nYOUTH,                                                     1\n\n\n                          CHAPTER II.\nSTAGES OF CONVERSION,                                     15\n\n\n                          CHAPTER III.\nTHE CHURCH ABOUT 1209,                                    28\n\n\n                          CHAPTER IV.\nSTRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS,                                   53\n\n                          CHAPTER V.\nFIRST YEAR OF APOSTOLATE,                                 71\n\n                          CHAPTER VI.\nST. FRANCIS AND INNOCENT III.,                            88\n\n                          CHAPTER VII.\nRIVO-TORTO,                                              103\n\n                          CHAPTER VIII.\nPORTIUNCULA,                                             120\n\n                          CHAPTER IX.\nSANTA CLARA,                                             147\n\n                          CHAPTER X.\nFIRST ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE INFIDELS,                    168\n\n                          CHAPTER XI.\nTHE INNER MAN AND WONDER-WORKING,                        183\n\n                          CHAPTER XII.\nTHE CHAPTER-GENERAL OF 1217,                             198\n\n                          CHAPTER XIII.\nST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS,                             217\n\n                          CHAPTER XIV.\nTHE CRISIS OF THE ORDER,                                 239\n\n                          CHAPTER XV.\nTHE RULE OF 1221,                                        252\n\n                          CHAPTER XVI.\nTHE BROTHERS MINOR AND LEARNING,                         271\n\n                          CHAPTER XVII.\nTHE STIGMATA,                                            287\n\n                          CHAPTER XVIII.\nTHE CANTICLE OF THE SUN,                                 297\n\n                          CHAPTER XIX.\nTHE LAST YEAR,                                           308\n\n                          CHAPTER XX.\nFRANCIS'S WILL AND DEATH,                                333\n\n\nCRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES,                           347\n\n                           APPENDIX.\nCRITICAL STUDY OF THE STIGMATA AND OF THE INDULGENCE\n    OF AUGUST 2,                                         433\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nIn the renascence of history which is in a manner the characteristic of\nour time, the Middle Ages have been the object of peculiar fondness with\nboth criticism and erudition. We rummage all the dark corners of the\nlibraries, we bring old parchments to light, and in the zeal and ardor\nwe put into our search there is an indefinable touch of piety.\n\nThese efforts to make the past live again reveal not merely our\ncuriosity, or the lack of power to grapple with great philosophic\nproblems, they are a token of wisdom and modesty; we are beginning to\nfeel that the present has its roots in the past, and that in the fields\nof politics and religion, as in others, slow, modest, persevering toil\nis that which has the best results.\n\nThere is also a token of love in this. We love our ancestors of five or\nsix centuries ago, and we mingle not a little emotion and gratitude with\nthis love. So, if one may hope everything of a son who loves his\nparents, we must not despair of an age that loves history.\n\nThe Middle Ages form an organic period in the life of humanity. Like all\npowerful organisms the period began with a long and mysterious\ngestation; it had its youth, its manhood, its decrepitude. The end of\nthe twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth mark its full\nexpansion; it is the twentieth year of life, with its poetry, its\ndreams, its enthusiasm, its generosity, its daring. Love overflowed with\nvigor; men everywhere had but one desire--to devote themselves to some\ngreat and holy cause.\n\nCuriously enough, though Europe was more parcelled out than ever, it\nfelt a new thrill run through its entire extent. There was what we might\ncall a state of European consciousness.\n\nIn ordinary periods each people has its own interests, its tendencies,\nits tears, and its joys; but let a time of crisis come, and the true\nunity of the human family will suddenly make itself felt with a strength\nnever before suspected. Each body of water has its own currents, but\nwhen the hurricane is abroad they mysteriously intermingle, and from the\nocean to the remotest mountain lake the same tremor will upheave them\nall.\n\nIt was thus in '89, it was thus also in the thirteenth century.\n\nNever was there less of frontier, never, either before or since, such a\nmingling of nationalities; and at the present day, with all our highways\nand railroads, the people live more apart.[1]\n\nThe great movement of thought of the thirteenth century is above all a\nreligious movement, presenting a double character--it is popular and it\nis laic. It comes out from the heart of the people, and it looks athwart\nmany uncertainties at nothing less than wresting the sacred things from\nthe hands of the clergy.\n\nThe conservatives of our time who turn to the thirteenth century as to\nthe golden age of authoritative faith make a strange mistake. If it is\nespecially the century of saints, it is also that of heretics. We shall\nsoon see that the two words are not so contradictory as might appear; it\nis enough for the moment to point out that the Church had never been\nmore powerful nor more threatened.\n\nThere was a genuine attempt at a religious revolution, which, if it had\nsucceeded, would have ended in a universal priesthood, in the\nproclamation of the rights of the individual conscience.\n\nThe effort failed, and though later on the Revolution made us all kings,\nneither the thirteenth century nor the Reformation was able to make us\nall priests. Herein, no doubt, lies the essential contradiction of our\nlives and that which periodically puts our national institutions in\nperil. Politically emancipated, we are not morally or religiously\nfree.[2]\n\nThe thirteenth century with juvenile ardor undertook this revolution,\nwhich has not yet reached its end. In the north of Europe it became\nincarnate in cathedrals, in the south, in saints.\n\nThe cathedrals were the lay churches of the thirteenth century. Built by\nthe people for the people, they were originally the true common house of\nour old cities. Museums, granaries, chambers of commerce, halls of\njustice, depositories of archives, and even labor exchanges, they were\nall these at once.\n\nThat art of the Middle Ages which Victor Hugo and Viollet-le-Duc have\ntaught us to understand and love was the visible expression of the\nenthusiasm of a people who were achieving communal liberty. Very far\nfrom being the gift of the Church, it was in its beginning an\nunconscious protest against the hieratic, impassive, esoteric art of the\nreligious orders. We find only laymen in the long list of master-workmen\nand painters who have left us the innumerable Gothic monuments which\nstud the soil of Europe. Those artists of genius who, like those of\nGreece, knew how to speak to the populace without being common, were for\nthe most part humble workmen; they found their inspiration not in the\nformulas of the masters of monastic art, but in constant communion with\nthe very soul of the nation. Therefore this renascence, in its most\nprofound features, concerns less the archaeology or the architecture than\nthe history of a country.\n\nWhile in the northern countries the people were building their own\nchurches, and finding in their enthusiasm an art which was new,\noriginal, complete, in the south, above the official, clerical\npriesthood of divine right they were greeting and consecrating a new\npriesthood, that of the saints.\n\nThe priest of the thirteenth century is the antithesis of the saint, he\nis almost always his enemy. Separated by the holy unction from the rest\nof mankind, inspiring awe as the representative of an all-powerful God,\nable by a few signs to perform unheard-of mysteries, with a word to\nchange bread into flesh and wine into blood, he appeared as a sort of\nidol which can do all things for or against you and before which you\nhave only to adore and tremble.\n\nThe saint, on the contrary, was one whose mission was proclaimed by\nnothing in his apparel, but whose life and words made themselves felt in\nall hearts and consciences; he was one who, with no cure of souls in the\nChurch, felt himself suddenly impelled to lift up his voice. The child\nof the people, he knew all their material and moral woes, and their\nmysterious echo sounded in his own heart. Like the ancient prophet of\nIsrael, he heard an imperious voice saying to him: \"Go and speak to the\nchildren of my people.\" \"Ah, Lord God, I am but a child, I know not how\nto speak.\" \"Say not, I am but a child, for thou shalt go to all those to\nwhom I shall send thee. Behold I have set thee to-day as a strong city,\na pillar of iron and a wall of brass against the kings of Judah, against\nits princes and against its priests.\"\n\nThese thirteenth-century saints were in fact true prophets. Apostles\nlike St. Paul, not as the result of a canonical consecration, but by the\ninterior order of the Spirit, they were the witnesses of liberty against\nauthority.\n\nThe Calabrian seer, Gioacchino di Fiore, hailed the new-born revolution;\nhe believed in its success and proclaimed to the wondering world the\nadvent of a new ministry. He was mistaken.\n\nWhen the priest sees himself vanquished by the prophet he suddenly\nchanges his method. He takes him under his protection, he introduces his\nharangues into the sacred canon, he throws over his shoulders the\npriestly chasuble. The days pass on, the years roll by, and the moment\ncomes when the heedless crowd no longer distinguishes between them, and\nit ends by believing the prophet to be an emanation of the clergy.\n\nThis is one of the bitterest ironies of history.\n\nFrancis of Assisi is pre-eminently the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing\nnothing to church or school he was truly _theodidact_,[3] and if he\nperhaps did not perceive the revolutionary bearing of his preaching, he\nat least always refused to be ordained priest. He divined the\nsuperiority of the spiritual priesthood.\n\nThe charm of his life is that, thanks to reliable documents, we find the\nman behind the wonder worker. We find in him not merely noble actions,\nwe find in him a life in the true meaning of the word; I mean, we feel\nin him both development and struggle.\n\nHow mistaken are the annals of the Saints in representing him as from\nthe very cradle surrounded with aureole and nimbus! As if the finest and\nmost manly of spectacles were not that of the man who conquers his soul\nhour after hour, fighting first against himself, against the suggestions\nof egoism, idleness, discouragement, then at the moment when he might\nbelieve himself victorious, finding in the champions attracted by his\nideal those who are destined if not to bring about its complete ruin, at\nleast to give it its most terrible blows. Poor Francis! The last years\nof his life were indeed a _via dolorosa_ as painful as that where his\nmaster sank down under the weight of the cross; for it is still a joy to\ndie for one's ideal, but what bitter pain to look on in advance at the\napotheosis of one's body, while seeing one's soul--I would say his\nthought--misunderstood and frustrated.\n\nIf we ask for the origins of his idea we find them exclusively among the\ncommon people of his time; he is the incarnation of the Italian soul at\nthe beginning of the thirteenth century, as Dante was to be its\nincarnation a hundred years later.\n\nHe was of the people and the people recognized themselves in him. He had\ntheir poetry and their aspirations, he espoused their claims, and the\nvery name of his institute had at first a political signification: in\nAssisi as in most other Italian towns there were _majores_ and\n_minores_, the _popolo grasso_ and the _popolo minuto_; he resolutely\nplaced himself among the latter. This political side of his apostolate\nneeds to be clearly apprehended if we would understand its amazing\nsuccess and the wholly unique character of the Franciscan movement in\nits beginning.\n\nAs to its attitude toward the Church, it was that of filial obedience.\nThis may perhaps appear strange at first as regards an unauthorized\npreacher who comes speaking to the world in the name of his own\nimmediate personal inspiration. But did not most of the men of '89\nbelieve themselves good and loyal subjects of Louis XVI.?\n\nThe Church was to our ancestors what the fatherland is to us; we may\nwish to remodel its government, overturn its administration, change its\nconstitution, but we do not think ourselves less good patriots for that.\n\nIn the same way, in an age of simple faith when religious beliefs seemed\nto be in the very fibre and flesh of humanity, Dante, without ceasing to\nbe a good Catholic, could attack the clergy and the court of Rome with a\nviolence that has never been surpassed. St. Francis so surely believed\nthat the Church had become unfaithful to her mission that he could speak\nin his symbolic language of the widowhood of his Lady Poverty, who from\nChrist's time to his own had found no husband. How could he better have\ndeclared his purposes or revealed his dreams?\n\nWhat he purposed was far more than the foundation of an order, and it is\nto do him great wrong thus to restrict his endeavor. He longed for a\ntrue awakening of the Church in the name of the evangelical ideal which\nhe had regained. All Europe awoke with a start when it heard of these\npenitents from a little Umbrian town. It was reported that they had\ncraved a strange privilege from the court of Rome: that of possessing\nnothing. Men saw them pass by, earning their bread by the labor of their\nhands, accepting only the bare necessities of bodily sustenance from\nthem to whom they had given with lavish hands the bread of life. The\npeople lifted up their heads, breathing in with deep inspirations the\nairs of a springtime upon which was already floating the perfume of new\nflowers.\n\nHere and there in the world there are many souls capable of all heroism,\nif only they can see before them a true leader. St. Francis became for\nthese the guide they had longed for, and whatever was best in humanity\nat that time leaped to follow in his footsteps.\n\nThis movement, which was destined to result in the constitution of a new\nfamily of monks, was in the beginning anti-monastic. It is not rare for\nhistory to have similar contradictions to record. The meek Galilean who\npreached the religion of a personal revelation, without ceremonial or\ndogmatic law, triumphed only on condition of being conquered, and of\npermitting his words of spirit and life to be confiscated by a church\nessentially dogmatic and sacerdotal.\n\nIn the same way the Franciscan movement was originally, if not the\nprotest of the Christian consciousness against monachism, at least the\nrecognition of an ideal singularly higher than that of the clergy of\nthat time. Let us picture to ourselves the Italy of the beginning of the\nthirteenth century with its divisions, its perpetual warfare, its\ndepopulated country districts, the impossibility of tilling the fields\nexcept in the narrow circle which the garrisons of the towns might\nprotect; all these cities from the greatest to the least occupied in\nwatching for the most favorable moment for falling upon and pillaging\ntheir neighbors; sieges terminated by unspeakable atrocities, and after\nall this, famine, speedily followed by pestilence to complete the\ndevastation. Then let us picture to ourselves the rich Benedictine\nabbeys, veritable fortresses set upon the hill-tops, whence they seemed\nto command all the surrounding plains. There was nothing surprising in\ntheir prosperity. Shielded by their inviolability, they were in these\ndisordered times the only refuge of peaceful souls and timid hearts.[4]\nThe monks were in great majority deserters from life, who for motives\nentirely aside from religion had taken refuge behind the only walls\nwhich at this period were secure.\n\nOverlook this as we may, forget as we may the demoralization and\nignorance of the inferior clergy, the simony and the vices of the\nprelates, the coarseness and avarice of the monks, judging the Church of\nthe thirteenth century only by those of her sons who do her the most\nhonor; none the less are these the anchorites who flee into the desert\nto escape from wars and vices, pausing only when they are very sure that\nnone of the world's noises will interrupt their meditations. Sometimes\nthey will draw away with them hundreds of imitators, to the solitudes of\nClairvaux, of the Chartreuse, of Vallombrosa, of the Camaldoli; but even\nwhen they are a multitude they are alone; for they are dead to the world\nand to their brethren. Each cell is a desert, on whose threshold they\ncry\n\n  O beata solitudo.\n  O sola beatitudo.\n\nThe book of the Imitation is the picture of all that is purest in this\ncloistered life.\n\nBut is this abstinence from action truly Christian?\n\nNo, replied St. Francis. He for his part would do like Jesus, and we may\nsay that his life is an imitation of Christ singularly more real than\nthat of Thomas a Kempis.\n\nJesus went indeed into the desert, but only that he might find in prayer\nand communion with the heavenly Father the inspiration and strength\nnecessary for keeping up the struggle against evil. Far from avoiding\nthe multitude, he sought them out to enlighten, console, and convert\nthem.\n\nThis is what St. Francis desired to imitate. More than once he felt the\nseduction of the purely contemplative life, but each time his own spirit\nwarned him that this was only a disguised selfishness; that one saves\noneself only in saving others.\n\nWhen he saw suffering, wretchedness, corruption, instead of fleeing he\nstopped to bind up, to heal, feeling in his heart the surging of waves\nof compassion. He not only preached love to others; he himself was\nravished with it; he sang it, and what was of greater value, he lived\nit.\n\nThere had indeed been preachers of love before his day, but most\ngenerally they had appealed to the lowest selfishness. They had thought\nto triumph by proving that in fact to give to others is to put one's\nmoney out at a usurious interest. \"Give to the poor,\" said St. Peter\nChrysologus,[5] \"that you may give to yourself; give him a crumb in\norder to receive a loaf; give him a shelter to receive heaven.\"\n\nThere was nothing like this in Francis; his charity is not selfishness,\nit is love. He went, not to the whole, who need no physician, but to the\nsick, the forgotten, the disdained. He dispensed the treasures of his\nheart according to the need and reserved the best of himself for the\npoorest and the most lost, for lepers and thieves.\n\nThe gaps in his education were of marvellous service to him. More\nlearned, the formal logic of the schools would have robbed him of that\nflower of simplicity which is the great charm of his life; he would have\nseen the whole extent of the sore of the Church, and would no doubt have\ndespaired of healing it. If he had known the ecclesiastical discipline\nhe would have felt obliged to observe it; but thanks to his ignorance he\ncould often violate it without knowing it,[6] and be a heretic quite\nunawares.\n\nWe can now determine to what religious family St. Francis belongs.\n\nLooking at the question from a somewhat high standpoint we see that in\nthe last analysis minds, like religious systems, are to be found in two\ngreat families, standing, so to say, at the two poles of thought. These\ntwo poles are only mathematical points, they do not exist in concrete\nreality; but for all that we can set them down on the chart of\nphilosophic and moral ideas.\n\nThere are religions which look toward divinity and religions which look\ntoward man. Here again the line of demarcation between the two families\nis purely ideal and artificial; they often so mingle and blend with one\nanother that we have much difficulty in distinguishing them, especially\nin the intermediate zone in which our civilization finds its place; but\nif we go toward the poles we shall find their characteristics growing\ngradually distinct.\n\nIn the religions which look toward divinity all effort is concentrated\non worship, and especially on sacrifice. The end aimed at is a change in\nthe disposition of the gods. They are mighty kings whose support or\nfavor one must purchase by gifts.\n\nMost pagan religions belong to this category and pharisaic Judaism as\nwell. This is also the tendency of certain Catholics of the old school\nfor whom the great thing is to appease God or to buy the protection of\nthe Virgin and the saints by means of prayers, candles, and masses.\n\nThe other religions look toward man; their effort is directed to the\nheart and conscience with the purpose of transforming them. Sacrifice\ndisappears, or rather it changes from the exterior to the interior. God\nis conceived of as a father, always ready to welcome him who comes to\nhim. Conversion, perfection, sanctification become the pre-eminent\nreligious acts. Worship and prayer cease to be incantations and become\nreflection, meditation, virile effort; while in religions of the first\nclass the clergy have an essential part, as intermediaries between\nheaven and earth, in those of the second they have none, each conscience\nentering into direct relations with God.\n\nIt was reserved to the prophets of Israel to formulate, with a precision\nbefore unknown, the starting-point of spiritual worship.\n\n  Bring no more vain offerings;\n  I have a horror of incense,\n  Your new moons, your Sabbaths, and your assemblies;\n  When you multiply prayers I will not hearken.\n  Your hands are full of blood,\n  Wash you, make you clean,\n  Put away from before my eyes the evil of your ways,\n  Cease to do evil,\n  Learn to do well.[7]\n\nWith Isaiah these vehement apostrophes are but flashes of genius, but\nwith Jesus the interior change becomes at once the principle and the end\nof the religious life. His promises were not for those who were right\nwith the ceremonial law, or who offered the greatest number of\nsacrifices, but for the pure in heart, for men of good will.\n\nThese considerations are not perhaps without their use in showing the\nspiritual ancestry of the Saint of Assisi.\n\nFor him, as for St. Paul and St. Augustine, conversion was a radical and\ncomplete change, the act of will by which man wrests himself from the\nslavery of sin and places himself under the yoke of divine authority.\nThenceforth prayer, become a necessary act of life, ceases to be a magic\nformula; it is an impulse of the heart, it is reflection and meditation\nrising above the commonplaces of this mortal life, to enter into the\nmystery of the divine will and conform itself to it; it is the act of\nthe atom which understands its littleness, but which desires, though\nonly by a single note, to be in harmony with the divine symphony.\n\n_Ecce adsum Domine, ut faciam voluntatem tuam._\n\nWhen we reach these heights we belong not to a sect, but to humanity; we\nare like those wonders of nature which the accident of circumstances has\nplaced upon the territory of this or that people, but which belong to\nall the world, because in fact they belong to no one, or rather they are\nthe common and inalienable property of the entire human race. Homer,\nShakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Michael Angelo, Rembrandt belong to us all\nas much as the ruins of Athens or Rome, or, rather, they belong to\nthose who love them most and understand them best.\n\nBut that which is a truism, so far as men of genius in the domain of\nimagination or thought are concerned, still appears like a paradox when\nwe speak of men of religious genius. The Church has laid such absolute\nclaim to them that she has created in her own favor a sort of right. It\ncannot be that this arbitrary confiscation shall endure forever. To\nprevent it we have not to perform an act of negation or demolition: let\nus leave to the chapels their statues and their relics, and far from\nbelittling the saints, let us make their true grandeur shine forth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is time to say a few words concerning the difficulties of the work\nhere presented to the public. History always embraces but a very feeble\npart of the reality: ignorant, she is like the stories children tell of\nthe events that have occurred before their eyes; learned, she reminds us\nof a museum organized with all the modern improvements. Instead of\nmaking you see nature with its external covering, its diffuse life, its\nmysterious echoes in your own heart, they offer you a herbarium.\n\nIf it is difficult to narrate an ordinary event of our own time, it is\nfar more so to describe the great crises where restless humanity is\nseeking its true path.\n\nThe first duty of the historian is to forget his own time and country\nand become the sympathetic and interested contemporary of what he\nrelates; but if it is difficult to give oneself the heart of a Greek or\na Roman, it is infinitely more so to give oneself a heart of the\nthirteenth century. I have said that at that period the Middle Age was\ntwenty years old, and the feelings of the twentieth year are, if not the\nmost fugitive, at least the most difficult to note down. Everyone knows\nthat it is impossible to recall the feelings of youth with the same\nclearness as those of childhood or mature age. Doubtless we may have\nexternal facts in the memory, but we cannot recall the sensations and\nthe sentiments; the confused forces which seek to move us are then all\nat work at once, and to speak the language of beyond the Rhine, it is\n_the essentially phenomenal hour of the phenomena that we are;_\neverything in us crosses, intermingles, collides, in desperate conflict:\nit is a time of diabolic or divine excitement. Let a few years pass, and\nnothing in the world can make us live those hours over again. Where was\nonce a volcano, we perceive only a heap of blackened ashes, and\nscarcely, at long intervals, will a chance meeting, a sound, a word,\nawaken memory and unseal the fountain of recollection; and even then it\nis only a flash; we have had but a glimpse and all has sunk back into\nshadow and silence.\n\nWe find the same difficulty when we try to take note of the fiery\nenthusiasms of the thirteenth century, its poetic inspirations, its\namorous and chaste visions--all this is thrown up against a background\nof coarseness, wretchedness, corruption, and folly.\n\nThe men of that time had all the vices except triviality, all the\nvirtues except moderation; they were either ruffians or saints. Life was\nrude enough to kill feeble organisms; and thus characters had an energy\nunknown to-day. It was forever necessary to provide beforehand against a\nthousand dangers, to take those sudden resolutions in which one risks\nhis life. Open the chronicle of Fra Salimbeni and you will be shocked to\nfind that the largest place is taken up with the account of the annual\nexpeditions of Parma against the neighboring cities, or of the\nneighboring cities against Parma. What would it have been if this\nchronicle, instead of being written by a monk of uncommonly open mind, a\nlover of music, at certain times an ardent Joachimite, an indefatigable\ntraveller, had been written by a warrior? And this is not all; these\nwars between city and city were complicated with civil dissensions,\nplots were hatched periodically, conspirators were massacred if they\nwere discovered, or massacred and exiled others in their turn if they\nwere triumphant.[8] When we picture to ourselves this state of things\ndominated by the grand struggles of the papacy against the empire,\nheretics, and infidels, we may understand how difficult it is to\ndescribe such a time.\n\nThe imagination being haunted by horrible or entrancing pictures like\nthose of the frescos in the _Campo Santo_ of Pisa, men were always\nthinking of heaven and hell; they informed themselves about them with\nthe feverish curiosity of emigrants, who pass their days on shipboard in\ntrying to picture that spot in America where in a few days they will\npitch their tent.\n\nEvery monk of any notoriety must have gone through this. Dante's poem is\nnot an isolated work; it is the noblest result of a condition which had\ngiven birth to hundreds of compositions, and Alighieri had little more\nto do than to co-ordinate the works of his predecessors and vivify them\nwith the breath of his own genius.\n\nThe unsettled state of men's minds was unimaginable. That unhealthy\ncuriosity which lies at the bottom of the human heart, and which at the\npresent day impels men to seek for refined and even perverse enjoyments,\nimpelled men of that time to devotions which seem like a defiance to\ncommon sense.\n\nNever had hearts been shaken with such terrors, nor ever thrilled with\nsuch radiant hopes. The noblest hymns of the liturgy, the _Stabat_ and\nthe _Dies Irae_, come to us from the thirteenth century, and we may well\nsay that never has the human plaint been more agonized.\n\nWhen we look through history, not to find accounts of battles or of the\nsuccession of dynasties, but to try to grasp the evolution of ideas and\nfeelings, when we seek above all to discover the heart of man and of\nepochs, we perceive, on arriving at the thirteenth century, that a fresh\nwind has blown over the world, the human lyre has a new string, the\nlowest, the most profound; one which sings of woes and hopes to which\nthe ancient world had not vibrated.\n\nIn the breast of the men of that time we think sometimes we feel the\nbeating of a woman's heart; they have exquisite sentiments, delightful\ninspirations, with absurd terrors, fantastic angers, infernal cruelties.\nWeakness and fear often make them insincere; they have the idea of the\ngrand, the beautiful, the ugly, but that of order is wanting; they fast\nor feast; the notion of the laws of nature, so deeply graven in our own\nminds, is to them entirely a stranger; the words possible and impossible\nhave for them no meaning. Some give themselves to God, others sell\nthemselves to the devil, but not one feels himself strong enough to walk\nalone, strong enough to have no need to hold on by some one's skirt.\n\nPeopled with spirits and demons nature appeared to them singularly\nanimated; in her presence they have all the emotions which a child\nexperiences at night before the trees on the roadside and the vague\nforms of the rocks.\n\nUnfortunately, our language is a very imperfect instrument for rendering\nall this; it is neither musical nor flexible; since the seventeenth\ncentury it has been deemed seemly to keep one's emotions to oneself, and\nthe old words which served to note states of the soul have fallen into\nneglect; the Imitation and the Fioretti have become untranslatable.\n\nMore than this, in a history like the present one, we must give a large\nplace to the Italian spirit; it is evident that in a country where they\ncall a chapel _basilica_ and a tiny house _palazzo_, or in speaking to a\nseminarist say \"Your Reverence,\" words have not the same value as on\nthis side of the Alps.\n\nThe Italians have an imagination which enlarges and simplifies. They see\nthe forms and outlines of men and things more than they grasp their\nspirit. What they most admire in Michael Angelo is gigantic forms, noble\nand proud attitudes, while we better understand his secret thoughts,\nhidden sorrows, groans, and sighs.\n\nPlace before their eyes a picture by Rembrandt, and more often than not\nit will appear to them ugly; its charm cannot be caught at a glance as\nin those of their artists; to see it you must examine it, make an\neffort, and with them effort is the beginning of pain.\n\nDo not ask them, then, to understand the pathos of things, to be touched\nby the mysterious and almost fanciful emotion which northern hearts\ndiscover and enjoy in the works of the Amsterdam master. No, instead of\na forest they want a few trees, standing out clearly against the\nhorizon; instead of a multitude swarming in the penumbra of reality, a\nfew personages, larger than nature, forming harmonious groups in an\nideal temple.\n\nThe genius of a people[9] is all of a piece: they apply to history the\nsame processes that they apply to the arts. While the Germanic spirit\nconsiders events rather in their evolution, in their complex becoming,\nthe Italian spirit takes them at a given moment, overlooks the shadows,\nthe clouds, the mists, everything that makes the line indistinct, brings\nout the contour sharply, and thus constructs a very lucid story, which\nis a delight to the eyes, but which is little more than a symbol of the\nreality.\n\nAt other times it takes a man, separates him from the unnamed crowd, and\nby a labor often unconscious, makes him the ideal type of a whole\nepoch.[10]\n\nCertainly there is in every people a tendency to give themselves a\ncircle of divinities and heroes who are, so to say, the incarnation of\nits instincts; but generally that requires the long labor of centuries.\nThe Italian character will not suffer this slow action; as soon as it\nrecognizes a man it says so, it even shouts it aloud if that is\nnecessary, and makes him enter upon immortality while still alive. Thus\nlegend almost confounds itself with history, and it becomes very\ndifficult to reduce men to their true proportions.\n\nWe must not, then, ask too much of history. The more beautiful is the\ndawn, the less one can describe it. The most beautiful things in nature,\nthe flower and the butterfly, should be touched only by delicate hands.\n\nThe effort here made to indicate the variegated, wavering tints which\nform the atmosphere in which St. Francis lived is therefore of very\nuncertain success. It was perhaps presumptuous to undertake it.\n\nHappily we are no longer in the time when historians thought they had\ndone the right thing when they had reduced everything to its proper\nsize, contenting themselves with denying or omitting everything in the\nlife of the heroes of humanity which rises above the level of our\nevery-day experience.\n\nNo doubt Francis did not meet on the road to Sienna three pure and\ngentle virgins come from heaven to greet him; the devil did not overturn\nrocks for the sake of terrifying him; but when we deny these visions and\napparitions, we are victims of an error graver, perhaps, than that of\nthose who affirm them.\n\nThe first time that I was at Assisi I arrived in the middle of the\nnight. When the sun rose, flooding everything with warmth and light, the\nold basilica[11] seemed suddenly to quiver; one might have said that it\nwished to speak and sing. Giotto's frescos, but now invisible, awoke to\na strange life, you might have thought them painted the evening before\nso much alive they were; everything was moving without awkwardness or\njar.\n\nI returned six months later. A scaffold had been put up in the middle of\nthe nave; upon it an art critic was examining the paintings, and as the\nday was overcast he threw upon the walls the beams of a lamp with a\nreflector. Then you saw arms thrown out, faces grimacing, without unity,\nwithout harmony; the most exquisite figures took on something fantastic\nand grotesque.\n\nHe came down triumphant, with a portfolio stuffed with sketches; here a\nfoot, there a muscle, farther on a bit of face, and I could not refrain\nfrom musing on the frescos as I had seen them bathed in sunlight.\n\nThe sun and the lamp are both deceivers; they transform what they show;\nbut if the truth must be told I own to my preference for the falsehoods\nof the sun.\n\nHistory is a landscape, and like those of nature it is continually\nchanging. Two persons who look at it at the same time do not find in it\nthe same charm, and you yourself, if you had it continually before your\neyes, would never see it twice alike. The general lines are permanent,\nbut it needs only a cloud to hide the most important ones, as it needs\nonly a jet of light to bring out such or such a detail and give it a\nfalse value.\n\nWhen I began this page the sun was disappearing behind the rains of the\nCastle of Crussol and the splendors of the sunset gave it a shining\naureola; the light flooded everything, and you no longer saw anywhere\nthe damage which wars have inflicted upon the old feudal manor. I\nlooked, almost thinking I could perceive at the window the figure of the\nchatelaine ... Twilight has come, and now there is nothing up there but\ncrumbling walls, a discrowned tower, nothing but ruins and rubbish,\nwhich seem to beg for pity.\n\nIt is the same with the landscapes of history. Narrow minds cannot\naccommodate themselves to these perpetual transformations: they want an\nobjective history in which the author will study the people as a chemist\nstudies a body. It is very possible that there may be laws for historic\nevolution and social transformations as exact as those of chemical\ncombinations, and we must hope that in the end they will be discovered;\nbut for the present there is no purely objective truth of history.\n\nTo write history we must think it, and to think it is to transform it.\nWithin a few years, it is true, men have believed they had found the\nsecret of objectivity, in the publication of original documents. This is\na true progress which renders inestimable service, but here again we\nmust not deceive ourselves as to its significance. All the documents on\nan epoch or an event cannot usually be published, a selection must be\nmade, and in it will necessarily appear the turn of mind of him who\nmakes it. Let us admit that all that can be found is published; but\nalas, the most unusual movements have generally the fewest documents.\nTake, for instance, the religious history of the Middle Ages: it is\nalready a pretty delicate task to collect official documents, such as\nbulls, briefs, conciliary canons, monastic constitutions, etc., but do\nthese documents contain all the life of the Church? Much is still\nwanting, and to my mind the movements which secretly agitated the masses\nare much more important, although to testify to them we have only a few\nfragments.\n\nPoor heretics, they were not only imprisoned and burned, but their books\nwere destroyed and everything that spoke of them; and more than one\nhistorian, finding scarcely a trace of them in his heaps of documents,\nforgets these prophets with their strange visions, these poet-monks who\nfrom the depths of their cells made the world to thrill and the papacy\nto tremble.\n\nObjective history is then a utopia. We create God in our own image, and\nwe impress the mark of our personality in places where we least expect\nto find it again.\n\nBut by dint of talking about the tribunal of history we have made most\nauthors think that they owe to themselves and their readers definitive\nand irrevocable judgments.\n\nIt is always easier to pronounce a sentence than to wait, to reserve\none's opinion, to re-examine. The crowd which has put itself out to be\npresent at a trial is almost always furious with the judges when they\nreserve the case for further information; its mind is so made that it\nrequires precision in things which will bear it the least; it puts\nquestions right and left, as children do; if you appear to hesitate or\nto be embarrassed you are lost in its estimation, you are evidently only\nan ignoramus.\n\nBut perhaps below the Areopagites, obliged by their functions to\npronounce sentence, there is place at the famous tribunal for a simple\nspectator who has come in by accident. He has made out a brief and would\nlike very simply to tell his neighbors his opinion.\n\nThis, then, is not a history _ad probandum_, to use the ancient formula.\nIs this to say that I have only desired to give the reader a moment of\ndiversion? That would be to understand my thought very ill. In the grand\nspectacles of history as in those of nature there is something divine;\nfrom it our minds and hearts gain a virtue at once pacifying and\nencouraging, we experience the salutary sensation of littleness, and\nseeing the beauties and the sadnesses of the past we learn better how to\njudge the present hour.\n\nIn one of the frescos of the Upper Church of Assisi, Giotto has\nrepresented St. Clara and her companions coming out from St. Damian all\nin tears, to kiss their spiritual father's corpse as it is being carried\nto its last home. With an artist's liberty he has made the chapel a rich\nchurch built of precious marbles.\n\nHappily the real St. Damian is still there, nestled under some\nolive-trees like a lark under the heather; it still has its ill-made\nwalls of irregular stones, like those which bound the neighboring\nfields. Which is the more beautiful, the ideal temple of the artist's\nfancy, or the poor chapel of reality? No heart will be in doubt.\n\nFrancis's official historians have done for his biography what Giotto\ndid for his little sanctuary. In general they have done him ill-service.\nTheir embellishments have hidden the real St. Francis, who was, in fact,\ninfinitely nobler than they have made him to be. Ecclesiastical writers\nappear to make a great mistake in thus adorning the lives of their\nheroes, and only mentioning their edifying features. They thus give\noccasion, even to the most devout, to suspect their testimony. Besides,\nby thus surrounding their saints with light they make them superhuman\ncreatures, having nothing in common with us; they are privileged\ncharacters, marked with the divine seal; they are, as the litanies say,\nvials of election, into which God has poured the sweetest perfumes;\ntheir sanctity is revealed almost in spite of themselves; they are born\nsaints as others are born kings or slaves, their life is set out against\nthe golden background of a tryptich, and not against the sombre\nbackground of reality.\n\nBy such means the saints, perhaps, gain something in the respect of the\nsuperstitious; but their lives lose something of virtue and of\ncommunicable strength. Forgetting that they were men like ourselves, we\nno longer hear in our conscience the command, \"Go and do likewise.\"\n\nIt is, then, a work of piety to seek behind the legend for the history.\nIs it presumptuous to ask our readers to try to understand the\nthirteenth century and love St. Francis? They will be amply rewarded for\nthe effort, and will soon find an unexpected charm in these too meagre\nlandscapes, these incorporate souls, these sickly imaginations which\nwill pass before their eyes. Love is the true key of history.\n\nA book has always a great number of authors, and the following pages owe\nmuch to the researches of others; I have tried in the notes to show the\nwhole value of these debts.\n\nI have also had colaborers to whom it will be more difficult for me to\nexpress my gratitude. I refer to the librarians of the libraries of\nItaly and their assistants; it is impossible to name them all, their\nfaces are better known to me than their names, but I would here say that\nduring long months passed in the various collections of the Peninsula,\nall, even to the most humble employees, have shown a tireless\nhelpfulness even at those periods of the year when the number of\nattendants was the smallest.\n\nProfessor Alessandro Leto, who, barely recovered from a grave attack of\ninfluenza, kindly served as my guide among the archives of Assisi,\ndeserves a very particular mention. To the Syndic and municipality of\nthat city I desire also to express my gratitude.\n\nI cannot close without a warm remembrance to the spiritual sons of St.\nFrancis dispersed in the mountains of Umbria and Tuscany.\n\nDear dwellers in St. Damian, Portiuncula, the Carceri, the Verna, Monte\nColombo, you perhaps remember the strange pilgrim who, though he wore\nneither the frock nor the cord, used to talk with you of the Seraphic\nFather with as much love as the most pious Franciscan; you used to be\nsurprised at his eagerness to see everything, to look at everything, to\nthread all the unexplored paths. You often tried to restrain him by\ntelling him that there was not the smallest relic, the most meagre\nindulgence in the far-away grottos to which he was dragging you, but you\nalways ended by going with him, thinking that none but a Frenchman could\nbe possessed by a devotion so fervent and so imprudent.\n\nThank you, pious anchorites of Greccio, thank you for the bread that you\nwent out and begged when I arrived at your hermitage benumbed with cold\nand hunger. If you read these lines, read here my gratitude and also a\nlittle admiration. You are not all saints, but nearly all of you have\nhours of saintliness, flights of pure love.\n\nIf some pages of this book give you pain, turn them over quickly; let me\nthink that others of them will give you pleasure, and will make the name\nyou bear, if possible, still more precious to you than it now is.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The mendicant orders were in their origin a true\n       _International_. When in the spring of 1216 St. Dominic\n       assembled his friars at Notre Dame de la Prouille, they were\n       found to be sixteen in number, and among them Castilians,\n       Navarese, Normans, French, Languedocians, and even English and\n       Germans.\n\n       Heretics travelled all over Europe, and nowhere do we find them\n       checked by the diversity of languages. Arnold of Brescia, for\n       example, the famous Tribune of Rome, appeared in France and\n       Switzerland and in the heart of Germany.\n\n   [2] The Reformation only substituted the authority of the book\n       for that of the priest; it is a change of dynasty and nothing\n       more. As to the majority of those who to-day call themselves\n       free-thinkers, they confuse religious freedom with irreligion;\n       they choose not to see that in religion as in politics, between\n       a royalty based on divine right and anarchy there is room for a\n       government which may be as strong as the first and a better\n       guarantee of freedom than the second. The spirit of the older\n       time put God outside of the world; the sovereignty outside of\n       the people; authority outside of the conscience. The spirit of\n       the new times has the contrary tendency: it denies neither God\n       nor sovereignty nor authority, but it sees them where they\n       really are.\n\n   [3] _Nemo ostendebat mihi quod deberem facere, sed ipse\n       Altissimus revelavit mihi quod deberem vivere secundem formam\n       sancti Evangelii._ Testamentum Fr.\n\n   [4] The wealthiest monasteries of France are of the twelfth\n       century or were enlarged at that time: Arles, S. Gilles, S.\n       Sernin, Cluny, Vezelay, Brioude, Issoire, Paray-le-Monial. The\n       same was the case in Italy.\n\n       Down to the year 1000, 1,108 monasteries had been founded in\n       France. The eleventh century saw the birth of 326 and the\n       twelfth of 702. The convents of Mount Athos in their present\n       state give us a very accurate notion of the great monasteries of\n       Europe at the close of the twelfth century.\n\n   [5] St. Petrus Chrysologus, sermo viii., de jejunio et\n       eleemosyna. _Da pauperi ut des tibi: da micam ut accipias totum\n       panem; da tectum, accipe coelum._\n\n   [6] By what right did he begin to preach? By what right did he,\n       a mere deacon, admit to profession and cut off the hair of a\n       young girl of eighteen? That is an episcopal function, one which\n       can only devolve even upon priests by an express commission.\n\n   [7] Isaiah i. 10-17. Cf. Joel 2, Psalm 50.\n\n   [8] The chronicles of Orvieto (_Archivio, storico italiano_, t.\n       i., of 1889, pp. 7 and following) are nothing more than a list,\n       as melancholy as they are tedious of wars, which, during the\n       thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all the places of that\n       region carried on, from the greatest to the smallest.\n\n   [9] Do not forget that in the thirteenth century Italy was not a\n       mere geographical expression. It was of all the countries of\n       Europe the one which, notwithstanding its partitions, had the\n       clearest consciousness of its unity. The expression _profectus\n       et honor Italiae_ often appeared from the pen of Innocent III.\n       See, for instance, the bull of April 16, 1198, _Mirari cogimur_,\n       addressed particularly to the Assisans.\n\n  [10] Note what the Fioretti say of Brother Bernard: \"_Stava solo\n       sulle cime dei monti altissimi contemplando le cose celesti._\"\n       Fior., 28. The learned historian of Assisi, Mr. Cristofani, has\n       used similar expressions; speaking of St. Francis, he says:\n       \"_Nuovo Christo in somma e pero degno d'essere riguardoto come\n       la piu gigantesca, la piu splendida, la piu cara tra le grandi\n       figure campeggianti nell' aere del medio evo_\" (_Storia\n       d'Assisi_, t. i., p. 70, ed. of 1885).\n\n  [11] It remains open all night.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n              LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nYOUTH\n\n\nAssisi is to-day very much what it was six or seven hundred years ago.\nThe feudal castle is in ruins, but the aspect of the city is just the\nsame. Its long-deserted streets, bordered by ancient houses, lie in\nterraces half-way up the steep hill-side. Above it Mount Subasio[1]\nproudly towers, at its feet lies outspread all the Umbrian plain from\nPerugia to Spoleto. The crowded houses clamber up the rocks like\nchildren a-tiptoe to see all that is to be seen; they succeed so well\nthat every window gives the whole panorama set in its frame of rounded\nhills, from whose summits castles and villages stand sharply out against\na sky of incomparable purity.\n\nThese simple dwellings contain no more than five or six little\nrooms,[2] but the rosy hues of the stone of which they are built give\nthem a wonderfully cheerful air. The one in which, according to the\nstory, St. Francis was born has almost entirely disappeared, to make\nroom for a church; but the street is so modest, and all that remains of\nthe _palazzo dei genitori di San Francesco_ is so precisely like the\nneighboring houses that the tradition must be correct. Francis entered\ninto glory in his lifetime; it would be surprising if a sort of worship\nhad not from the first been centred around the house in which he saw the\nlight and where he passed the first twenty-five years of his life.\n\nHe was born about 1182.[3] The biographies have preserved to us few\ndetails about his parents.[4] His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a\nwealthy cloth-merchant. We know how different was the life of the\nmerchants of that period from what it is to-day. A great portion of\ntheir time was spent in extensive journeys for the purchase of goods.\nSuch tours were little short of expeditions. The roads being insecure, a\nstrong escort was needed for the journey to those famous fairs where,\nfor long weeks at a time, merchants from the most remote parts of Europe\nwere gathered together. In certain cities, Montpellier for example, the\nfair was perpetual. Benjamin of Tudela shows us that city frequented by\nall nations, Christian and Mohammedan. \"One meets there merchants from\nAfrica, from Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Gaul, Spain, and England,\nso that one sees men of all languages, with the Genoese and the Pisans.\"\n\nAmong all these merchants the richest were those who dealt in textile\nstuffs. They were literally the bankers of the time, and their heavy\nwagons were often laden with the sums levied by the popes in England or\nFrance.\n\nTheir arrival at a castle was one of the great events. They were kept as\nlong as possible, everyone being eager for the news they brought. It is\neasy to understand how close must have been their relations with the\nnobility; in certain countries, Provence for example, the merchants were\nconsidered as nobles of a second order.[5]\n\nBernardone often made these long journeys; he went even as far as\nFrance, and by this we must surely understand Northern France, and\nparticularly Champagne, which was the seat of commercial exchange\nbetween Northern and Southern Europe.\n\nHe was there at the very time of his son's birth. The mother, presenting\nthe child at the font of San Rufino,[6] had him baptized by the name of\nJohn, but the father on his return chose to call him Francis.[7] Had\nhe already determined on the education he was to give the child; did he\nname him thus because he even then intended to bring him up after the\nFrench fashion, to make a little Frenchman of him? It is by no means\nimprobable. Perhaps, indeed, the name was only a sort of grateful homage\ntendered by the Assisan burgher to his noble clients beyond the Alps.\nHowever this may be, the child was taught to speak French, and always\nhad a special fondness for both the language and the country.[8]\n\nThese facts about Bernardone are of real importance; they reveal the\ninfluences in the midst of which Francis grew up. Merchants, indeed,\nplay a considerable part in the religious movements of the thirteenth\ncentury. Their calling in some sense forced them to become colporters of\nideas. What else could they do, on arriving in a country, but answer\nthose who asked for news? And the news most eagerly looked for was\nreligious news, for men's minds were turned upon very different subjects\nthen from now. They accommodated themselves to the popular wish,\nobserving, hearkening everywhere, keeping eyes and ears open, glad to\nfind anything to tell; and little by little many of them became active\npropagandists of ideas concerning which at first they had been simply\ncurious.\n\nThe importance of the part thus played by the merchants as they came\nand went, everywhere sowing the new ideas which they had gathered up in\ntheir travels, has not been put in a clear enough light; they were\noften, unconsciously and quite involuntarily, the carriers of ideas of\nall kinds, especially of heresy and rebellion. It was they who made the\nsuccess of the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Humiliati, and many other\nsects.\n\nThus Bernardone, without dreaming of such a thing, became the artisan of\nhis son's religious vocation. The tales which he brought home from his\ntravels seemed at first, perhaps, not to have aroused the child's\nattention, but they were like germs a long time buried, which suddenly,\nunder a warm ray of sunlight, bring forth unlooked-for fruit.\n\nThe boy's education was not carried very far;[9] the school was in\nthose days overshadowed by the church. The priests of San Giorgio were\nhis teachers,[10] and taught him a little Latin. This language was\nspoken in Umbria until toward the middle of the thirteenth century;\nevery one understood it and spoke it a little; it was still the language\nof sermons and of political deliberations.[11]\n\nHe learned also to write, but with less success; all through his life we\nsee him take up the pen only on rare occasions, and for but a few\nwords.[12] The autograph of Sacro-Convento, which appears to be\nentirely authentic, shows extreme awkwardness; in general he dictated,\nsigning his letters by a simple [Greek: tau], the symbol of the cross of\nJesus.[13]\n\nThat part of his education which was destined to have most influence\nupon his life was the French language,[14] which he perhaps spoke in his\nown family. It has been rightly said that to know two languages is to\nhave two souls; in learning that of France the boy felt his heart thrill\nto the melody of its youthful poetry, and his imagination was\nmysteriously stirred with dreams of imitating the exploits of the French\ncavaliers.\n\nBut let us not anticipate. His early life was that of other children of\nhis age. In the quarter of the town where his house is still shown no\nvehicles are ever seen; from morning till night the narrow streets are\ngiven over to the children. They play there in many groups, frolicking\nwith an exquisite charm, very different from the little Romans, who,\nfrom the time they are six or seven years old, spend hours at a time\nsquatting behind a pillar, or in a corner of a wall or a ruin, to play\ndice or \"morra,\" putting a passionate ferocity even into their play.\n\nIn Umbria, as in Tuscany, children love above all things games in which\nthey can make a parade; to play at soldiers or procession is the supreme\ndelight of Assisan children. Through the day they keep to the narrow\nstreets, but toward evening they go, singing and dancing, to one of the\nopen squares of the city. These squares are one of the charms of Assisi.\nEvery few paces an interval occurs between the houses looking toward the\nplain, and you find a delightful terrace, shaded by a few trees, the\nvery place for enjoying the sunset without losing one of its splendors.\nHither no doubt came often the son of Bernardone, leading one of those\n_farandoles_ which you may see there to this day: from his very babyhood\nhe was a prince among the children.\n\nThomas of Celano draws an appalling picture of the education of that\nday. He describes parents inciting their children to vice, and driving\nthem by main force to wrong-doing. Francis responded only too quickly to\nthese unhappy lessons.[15]\n\nHis father's profession and the possibly noble origin of his mother\nraised him almost to the level of the titled families of the country;\nmoney, which he spent with both hands, made him welcome among them. Well\npleased to enjoy themselves at his expense, the young nobles paid him a\nsort of court. As to Bernardone, he was too happy to see his son\nassociating with them to be niggardly as to the means. He was miserly,\nas the course of this history will show, but his pride and self-conceit\nexceeded his avarice.\n\nPica, his wife, gentle and modest creature,[16] concerning whom the\nbiographers have been only too laconic, saw all this, and mourned over\nit in silence, but though weak as mothers are, she would not despair of\nher son, and when the neighbors told her of Francis's escapades, she\nwould calmly reply, \"What are you thinking about? I am very sure that,\nif it pleases God, he will become a good Christian.\"[17] The words were\nnatural enough from a mother's lips, but later on they were held to have\nbeen truly prophetic.\n\nHow far did the young man permit himself to be led on? It would be\ndifficult to say. The question which, as we are told, tormented Brother\nLeo, could only have suggested itself to a diseased imagination.[18]\nThomas of Celano and the Three Companions agree in picturing him as\ngoing to the worst excesses. Later biographers speak with more\ncircumspection of his worldly career. A too widely credited story\ngathered from Celano's narrative was modified by the chapter-general of\n1260,[19] and the frankness of the early biographers was, no doubt, one\nof the causes which most effectively contributed to their definitive\ncondemnation three years later.[20]\n\nTheir statements are in no sense obscure; according to them the son of\nBernardone not only patterned himself after the young men of his age, he\nmade it a point of honor to exceed them. What with eccentricities,\nbuffooneries, pranks, prodigalities, he ended by achieving a sort of\ncelebrity. He was forever in the streets with his companions, compelling\nattention by his extravagant or fantastic attire. Even at night the\njoyous company kept up their merrymakings, causing the town to ring\nwith their noisy songs.[21]\n\nAt this very time the troubadours were roaming over the towns of\nNorthern Italy[22] and bringing brilliant festivities and especially\nCourts of Love into vogue. If they worked upon the passions, they also\nmade appeal to feelings of courtesy and delicacy; it was this that saved\nFrancis. In the midst of his excesses he was always refined and\nconsiderate, carefully abstaining from every base or indecent\nutterance.[23] Already his chief aspiration was to rise above the\ncommonplace. Tortured with the desire for that which is far off and\nhigh,[24] he had conceived a sort of passion for chivalry, and fancying\nthat dissipation was one of the distinguishing features of nobility, he\nhad thrown himself into it with all his soul.\n\nBut he who, at twenty, goes from pleasure to pleasure with the heart not\nabsolutely closed to good, must now and then, at some turning of the\nroad, become aware that there are hungry folk, who could live a month on\nwhat he spends in a few hours on frivolity. Francis saw them, and with\nhis impressionable nature for the moment forgot everything else. In\nthought he put himself in their place, and it sometimes happened that he\ngave them all the money he had about him and even his clothes.\n\nOne day he was busy with some customers in his father's shop, when a man\ncame in, begging for charity in the name of God. Losing his patience\nFrancis sharply turned him away; but quickly reproaching himself for his\nharshness he thought, \"What would I not have done if this man had asked\nsomething of me in the name of a count or a baron? What ought I not to\nhave done when he came in the name of God? I am no better than a clown!\"\nLeaving his customers he ran after the beggar.[25]\n\nBernardone had been well pleased with his son's commercial aptitude in\nthe early days when the young man was first in his father's employ.\nFrancis was only too proficient in spending money; he at least knew well\nhow to make it.[26] But this satisfaction did not last long. Francis's\nbad companions were exercising over him a most pernicious influence. The\ntime came when he could no longer endure to be separated from them; if\nhe heard their call, nothing could keep him, he would leave everything\nand go after them.[27]\n\nAll this time political events were hurrying on in Umbria and Italy;\nafter a formidable struggle the allied republics had forced the empire\nto recognize them. By the immortal victory of Legnano (May 29, 1176) and\nthe Peace of Constance (June 25, 1183) the Lombard League had wrested\nfrom Frederick Barbarossa almost all the prerogatives of power; little\nwas left to the emperor but insignia and outward show.\n\nFrom one end of the Peninsula to the other visions of liberty were\nmaking hearts beat high. For an instant it seemed as if all Italy was\nabout to regain consciousness of its unity, was about to rise up as one\nman and hurl the foreigner from its borders; but the rivalries of the\ncities were too strong for them to see that local liberty without a\ncommon independence is precarious and illusory. Henry VI., the successor\nof Barbarossa (1183-1196), laid Italy under a yoke of iron; he might\nperhaps in the end have assured the domination of the empire, if his\ncareer had not been suddenly cut short by a premature death.\n\nYet he had not been able to put fetters upon ideas. The communal\nmovement which was shaking the north of France reverberated beyond the\nAlps.\n\nAlthough a city of second rank, Assisi had not been behind in the great\nstruggles for independence.[28] She had been severely chastised, had\nlost her franchise, and was obliged to submit to Conrad of Suabia, Duke\nof Spoleto, who from the heights of his fortress kept her in subjection.\n\nBut when Innocent III. ascended the pontifical throne (January 8, 1199)\nthe old duke knew himself to be lost. He made a tender to him of money,\nmen, his faith even, but the pontiff refused them all. He had no desire\nto appear to favor the Tedeschi, who had so odiously oppressed the\ncountry. Conrad of Suabia was forced to yield at mercy, and to go to\nNarni to put his submission into the hands of two cardinals.\n\nLike the practical folk that they were, the Assisans did not hesitate an\ninstant. No sooner was the count on the road to Narni than they rushed\nto the assault of the castle. The arrival of envoys charged to take\npossession of it as a pontifical domain by no means gave them pause. Not\none stone of it was left upon another.[29] Then, with incredible\nrapidity they enclosed their city with walls, parts of which are still\nstanding, their formidable ruins a witness to the zeal with which the\nwhole population labored on them.\n\nIt is natural to think that Francis, then seventeen years old, was one\nof the most gallant laborers of those glorious days, and it was perhaps\nthere that he gained the habit of carrying stones and wielding the\ntrowel which was destined to serve him so well a few years later.\n\nUnhappily his fellow-citizens had not the sense to profit by their\nhard-won liberty. The lower classes, who in this revolution had become\naware of their strength, determined to follow out the victory by taking\npossession of the property of the nobles. The latter took refuge in\ntheir fortified houses in the interior of the city, or in their castles\nin the suburbs. The townspeople burned down several of the latter,\nwhereupon counts and barons made request of aid and succor from the\nneighboring cities.\n\nPerugia was at this time at the apogee of its power,[30] and had already\nmade many efforts to reduce Assisi to submission. It therefore received\nthe fugitives with alacrity, and making their cause its own, declared\nwar upon Assisi. This was in 1202. An encounter took place in the plain\nabout half way between the two cities, not far from _Ponte San\nGiovanni_. Assisi was defeated, and Francis, who was in the ranks, was\nmade prisoner.[31]\n\nThe treachery of the nobles had not been universal; a few had fought\nwith the people. It was with them and not with the _popolani_ that\nFrancis, in consideration of the nobility of his manners,[32] passed the\ntime of his captivity, which lasted an entire year. He greatly\nastonished his companions by his lightness of heart. Very often they\nthought him almost crazy. Instead of passing his time in wailing and\ncursing he made plans for the future, about which he was glad to talk to\nany one who came along. To his fancy life was what the songs of the\ntroubadours had painted it; he dreamed of glorious adventures, and\nalways ended by saying: \"You will see that one day I shall be adored by\nthe whole world.\"[33]\n\nDuring these long months Francis must have been pretty rudely undeceived\nwith respect to those nobles whom from afar he had so heartily admired.\nHowever that may be, he retained with them not only his frankness of\nspeech, but also his full freedom of action. One of them, a knight, had\nalways held aloof from the others, out of vanity and bad temper.\nFrancis, far from leaving him to himself, always showed him affection,\nand finally had the joy of reconciling him with his fellow-captives.\n\nA compromise was finally arrived at between the counts and the people of\nAssisi. In November, 1203, the arbitrators designated by the two parties\nannounced their decision. The commons of Assisi were to repair in a\ncertain measure the damage done to the lords, and the latter agreed, on\ntheir part, to make no further alliances without authorization of the\ncommons.[34] Rural serfage was maintained, which proves that the\nrevolution had been directed by the burghers, and for their own profit.\nTen years more were not, however, to elapse before the common people\nalso would succeed in achieving liberty. In this cause we shall again\nsee Francis fighting on the side of the oppressed, earning the title of\n_Patriarch of religious democracy_ which has been accorded him by one of\nhis compatriots.[35]\n\nThe agreement being made the prisoners detained at Perugia were\nreleased, and Francis returned to Assisi. He was twenty-two years old.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Eleven hundred and one metres above the level of the sea;\n       the plain around Assisi has an average of two hundred, and the\n       town of two hundred and fifty, metres above.\n\n   [2] As in the majority of Tuscan cities the dimensions of the\n       houses were formerly fixed by law.\n\n   [3] The biographies say that he died (October 3, 1226) in his\n       forty-fifth year. But the terms are not precise enough to make\n       the date 1181 improbable. For that matter the question is of\n       small importance. A Franciscan of Erfurt, about the middle of\n       the thirteenth century, fixes the date at 1182. Pertz, vol.\n       xxiv., p. 193.\n\n   [4] A number of different genealogies have been fabricated for\n       Francis; they prove only one thing, the wreck of the Franciscan\n       idea. How little they understood their hero, who thought to\n       magnify and glorify him by making him spring from a noble\n       family! \"_Quae rero_,\" says Father Suysken, S. J., \"_de ejus\n       gentilitio insigni disserit Waddingus, non lubet mihi attingere.\n       Factis et virtutibus eluxit S. Franciscus non proavorum\n       insignibus aut titulis, quos nec desideravit_.\" (A. SS. p.\n       557a.) It could not be better said.\n\n       In the fourteenth century a whole cycle of legends had gathered\n       about his birth. It could not have been otherwise. They all grow\n       out of the story that tells of an old man who comes knocking at\n       the parents' door, begging them to let him take the infant in\n       his arms, when he announces that it will do great things. Under\n       this form the episode certainly presents nothing impossible, but\n       very soon marvellous incidents begin to gather around this\n       nucleus until it becomes unrecognizable. Bartholomew of Pisa has\n       preserved it in almost its primitive form. _Conform_., 28a 2.\n       Francis certainly had several brothers [3 Soc., 9. _Mater_ ...\n       _quae cum prae ceteris filiis diligebat_], but they have left no\n       trace in history except the incident related farther on. Vide p.\n       44. Christofani publishes several official pieces concerning\n       _Angelo_, St. Francis's brother, and his descendants: _Storie\n       d'Assisi_, vol. i., p. 78 ff. In these documents Angelo is called\n       _Angelus Pice_, and his son _Johannectus olim Angeli domine\n       Pice_, appellations which might be cited in favor of the noble\n       origin of Pica.\n\n   [5] Documentary History of Languedoc, iii., p. 607.\n\n   [6] The Cathedral of Assisi. To this day all the children of the\n       town are baptized there; the other churches are without fonts.\n\n   [7] 3 Soc., 1; 2 Cel., 1, 1. Vide also 3 Soc., edition of\n       Pesaro, 1831.\n\n   [8] The _langue d'oil_ was at this epoch the international\n       language of Europe; in Italy it was the language of games and\n       tourneys, and was spoken in the petty princely courts of\n       Northern Italy. Vide Dante, _De vulgari eloquio_, lib. I., cap.\n       x. Brunetto Latini wrote in French because \"the speech of France\n       is more delectable and more common to all people.\" At the other\n       end of Europe the Abbot of Stade, in Westphalia, spoke of the\n       _nobility of the Gallic dialect_. _Ann._ 1224 _apud_ Pertz,\n       Script. xvi. We shall find St. Francis often making allusions to\n       the tales of the Round Table and the _Chanson de Roland_.\n\n   [9] We must not be led astray by certain remarks upon his\n       ignorance, from which one might at first conclude that he knew\n       absolutely nothing; for example, 2 Cel., 3, 45: _Quamvis homo\n       iste beatus nullis fuerit scientiae studiis innutritus_. This\n       evidently refers to science such as the Franciscans soon came to\n       apprehend it, and to theology in particular.\n\n       The close of the passage in Celano is itself an evident proof of\n       this.\n\n  [10] Bon., 219; Cf. A. SS., p. 560a. 1 Cel., 23.\n\n  [11] Ozanam, _Documents inedits pour servir a l'histoire\n       litteraire d'Italie du VIIIe au XIIIe siecle_. Paris, 1851, 8vo,\n       pp. 65, 68, 71, 73. Fauriel, _Dante et les origines de la\n       litterature italienne_. Paris, 1854, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 332,\n       379, 429.\n\n  [12] V. 3 Soc., 51 and 67; 2 Cel., 3, 110; Bon., 55; 2 Cel., 3,\n       99; Eccl., 6. Bernard de Besse, Turin MS., fo. 96a, calls\n       Brother Leo the secretary of St. Francis.\n\n  [13] See page 357, n. 8. Bon., 51 and 308.\n\n  [14] 1 Cel., 16; 3 Soc., 10; 23; 24; 33; 2 Cel., 1, 8; 3, 67.\n       See also the Testament of St. Clara and the Speculum, 119a.\n\n  [15] _Primum namque cum fari vel balbutire incipiunt, turpia\n       quaedam et execrabilia valde signis et vocibus edocentur pueri ii\n       nondum nati: et cum tempus ablactationis advenerit quaedam luxu\n       et lascivia plena non solum fari sed et operari coguntur.... Sed\n       et cum paulo plusculum aetate profecerint, se ipsis impellentibus,\n       semper ad deteriora opera dilabuntur._ 1 Cel., 1.\n\n  [16] 2 Cel., 1. Cf. _Conform._, 14a, 1. There is nothing\n       impossible in her having been of Provencal origin, but there is\n       nothing to indicate it in any document worthy of credence. She\n       was no doubt of noble stock, for official documents always give\n       her the title _Domina_. Cristofani I., p. 78 ff. Cf. _Matrem\n       honestissimam habuit_. 3 Soc., Edition of Pesaro, 1831, p. 17.\n\n  [17] The reading given by the _Conform_., 14a, 1, _Meritorum\n       gratia dei filium ipsum noveritis affuturum_, seems better than\n       that of 2 Cel., 1, 1, _Multorum gratia Dei filiorum patrem ipsum\n       noveritis affuturum_. Cf. 3 Soc., 2.\n\n  [18] Bernardo of Besse, Turin MS., 102 b.: _An integer carne\n       desiderans ... quod non extorsisset a Sancto ... meruit obtinere\n       a Deo quod virgo esset_. Cf. _Conform_., 211a, 1, and A. SS., p.\n       560f.\n\n  [19] \"_In illa antiphona quae incipit: Hic vir in vanitatibus\n       nutritus insolenter, fiat talis mutatis: Divinis karismatibus\n       preventus est clementer.\" Archiv._, vi., p. 35.\n\n  [20] Vide p. 395, the decision of the chapter of 1263 ordaining\n       the destruction of legends earlier than that of Bonaventura.\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 1 and 2; 89; 3 Soc., 2. Cf. A. SS., 560c. Vincent\n       of Beauvais, _Spec. hist. lib._, 29, cap. 97.\n\n  [22] Pierre Vidal was at the court of Boniface, Marquis of\n       Montferrat, about 1195, and liked his surroundings so well that\n       he desired to establish himself there. K. Bartsch, _Piere\n       Vidal's Lieder_, Berlin, 1857, n. 41. Ern. Monaci, _Testi\n       antichi provenzali_, Rome, 1889, col. 67. One should read this\n       piece to have an idea of the fervor with which this poet shared\n       the hopes of Italy and desired its independence. This political\n       note is found again in a _tenzon_ of Manfred II. Lancia,\n       addressed to Pierre Vidal. (V. Monaci, _loc. cit._, col.\n       68.)--Gaucelme Faidit was also at this court as well as Raimbaud\n       of Vacqueyras (1180-1207).--Folquet de Romans passed nearly all\n       his life in Italy. Bernard of Ventadour (1145-1195), Peirol of\n       Auvergne (1180-1220), and many others abode there a longer or\n       shorter time. Very soon the Italians began to sing in Provencal,\n       among others this Manfred Lancia, and Albert Marquis of\n       Malaspina (1162-1210), Pietro della Caravana, who in 1196\n       stirred up the Lombard towns against Henry VI., Pietro della\n       Mula, who about 1200 was at the court of Cortemiglia. Fragments\n       from these poets may be found in Monaci, _op. cit._, col. 69 ff.\n\n  [23] Soc., 3; 2 Cel., 1, 1.\n\n  [24] _Cum esset gloriosus animo et nollet aliquem se\n       praecellere_, Giord. 20.\n\n  [25] 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc., 3; Bon., 7. Cf. A. SS., p. 562.\n\n  [26] 1 Cel., 2; Bon., 6; _Vit. sec. apud_, A. SS., p. 560.\n\n  [27] 3 Soc., 9.\n\n  [28] In 1174 Assisi was taken by the chancellor of the empire,\n       Christian, Archbishop of Mayence. A. Cristofani, i., p. 69.\n\n  [29] All these events are related in the _Gesta Innocentii III.\n       ab auctore coaetaneo_, edited by Baluze: Migne, _Inn. op._, vol.\n       i., col. xxiv. See especially the letter of Innocent,\n       _Rectoribus Tusciae: Mirari cogimur_, of April 16, 1198. Migne,\n       vol. i., col. 75-77. Potthast, No. 82.\n\n  [30] See Luigi Bonazzi, _Storia di Perugia_, 2 vols., 8vo.\n       Perugia, 1875-1879 vol. i., cap. v., pp. 257-322.\n\n  [31] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1. Cristofani, _op. cit._, i., p. 88\n       ff.; Bonazzi, _op. cit._, p. 257.\n\n  [32] 3 Soc., 4.\n\n  [33] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1.\n\n  [34] See this arbitration in Cristofani, _op. cit._, p. 93 ff.\n\n  [35] Cristofani, _loc. cit._, p. 70.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nSTAGES OF CONVERSION\n\nSpring 1204-Spring 1206\n\n\nOn his return to Assisi Francis at once resumed his former mode of life;\nperhaps he even tried in some degree to make up for lost time. Fetes,\ngames, festivals, and dissipations began again. He did his part in them\nso well that he soon fell gravely ill.[1] For long weeks he looked\ndeath so closely in the face that the physical crisis brought about a\nmoral one. Thomas of Celano has preserved for us an incident of\nFrancis's convalescence. He was regaining strength little by little and\nhad begun to go about the house, when one day he felt a desire to walk\nabroad, to contemplate nature quietly, and so take hold again of life.\nLeaning on a stick he bent his steps toward the city gate.\n\nThe nearest one, called _Porta Nuova_, is the very one which opens upon\nthe finest scenery. Immediately on passing through it one finds one's\nself in the open country; a fold of the hill hides the city, and cuts\noff every sound that might come from it. Before you lies the winding\nroad to Foligno; at the left the imposing mass of Mount Subasio; at the\nright the Umbrian plain with its farms, its villages, its cloud-like\nhills, on whose slopes pines, cedars, oaks, the vine, and the olive-tree\nshed abroad an incomparable brightness and animation. The whole country\nsparkles with beauty, a beauty harmonious and thoroughly human, that is,\nmade to the measure of man.\n\nFrancis had hoped by this sight to recover the delicious sensations of\nhis youth. With the sharpened sensibility of the convalescent he\nbreathed in the odors of the spring-time, but spring-time did not come,\nas he had expected, to his heart. This smiling nature had for him only a\nmessage of sadness. He had believed that the breezes of this beloved\ncountry-side would carry away the last shudders of the fever, and\ninstead he felt in his heart a discouragement a thousand-fold more\npainful than any physical ill. The miserable emptiness of his life\nsuddenly appeared before him; he was terrified at his solitude, the\nsolitude of a great soul in which there is no altar.\n\nMemories of the past assailed him with intolerable bitterness; he was\nseized with a disgust of himself, his former ambitions seemed to him\nridiculous or despicable. He went home overwhelmed with the weight of a\nnew suffering.\n\nIn such hours of moral anguish man seeks a refuge either in love or in\nfaith. Unhappily the family and friends of Francis were incapable of\nunderstanding him. As to religion, it was for him, as for the greater\nnumber of his contemporaries, that crass fetichism with Christian\nterminology which is far from having entirely disappeared. With certain\nmen, in fact, piety consists in making one's self right with a king more\npowerful than any other, but also more severe and capricious, who is\ncalled God. One proves one's loyalty to him as to other sovereigns, by\nputting his image more or less everywhere, and punctually paying the\nimposts levied by his ministers. If you are stingy, if you cheat, you\nrun the risk of being severely chastised, but there are courtiers around\nthe king who willingly render services. For a reasonable recompense\nthey will seize a favorable moment to adroitly make away with the\nsentence of your condemnation or to slip before the prince a form of\nplenary absolution which in a moment of good humor he will sign without\nlooking at it.[2]\n\nSuch was the religious basis upon which Francis had lived up to this\ntime. He did not so much as dream of seeking the spiritual balm which he\nneeded for the healing of his wounds. By a holy violence he was to\narrive at last at a pure and virile faith; but the road to this point is\nlong, and sown thick with obstacles, and at the moment at which we have\narrived he had not yet entered upon it, he did not even suspect its\nexistence; all he knew was that pleasure leads to nothingness, to\nsatiety and self-contempt.\n\nHe knew this, and yet he was about to throw himself once more into a\nlife of pleasure. The body is so weak, so prone to return to the old\npaths, that it seeks them of itself, the moment an energetic will does\nnot stop it. Though no longer under any illusion with respect to it,\nFrancis returned to his former life. Was he trying to divert his mind,\nto forget that day of bitter thought? We might suppose so, seeing the\nardor with which he threw himself into his new projects.[3]\n\nAn opportunity offered itself for him to realize his dreams of glory. A\nknight of Assisi, perhaps one of those who had been in captivity with\nhim at Perugia, was preparing to go to Apulia under orders from Count\nGentile.[4] The latter was to join Gaultier de Brienne, who was in the\nsouth of Italy fighting on the side of Innocent III. Gaultier's renown\nwas immense all through the Peninsula; he was held to be one of the most\ngallant knights of the time. Francis's heart bounded with joy; it seemed\nto him that at the side of such a hero he should soon cover himself with\nglory. His departure was decided upon, and he gave himself up, without\nreserve, to his joy.\n\nHe made his preparations with ostentatious prodigality. His equipment,\nof a princely luxury, soon became the universal subject of conversation.\nIt was all the more talked about because the chief of the expedition,\nruined perhaps by the revolution of 1202 or by the expenses of a long\ncaptivity, was constrained to order things much more modestly.[5] But\nwith Francis kindliness was much stronger than love of display. He gave\nhis sumptuous clothing to a poor knight. The biographies do not say\nwhether or not it was to the very one whom he was to accompany.[6] To\nsee him running hither and thither in all the bustle of preparation one\nwould have thought him the son of a great lord. His companions were\ndoubtless not slow to feel chafed by his ways and to promise themselves\nto make him cruelly expiate them. As for him, he perceived nothing of\nthe jealousies which he was exciting, and night and day he thought only\nof his future glory. In his dreams he seemed to see his parents' house\ncompletely transformed. Instead of bales of cloth he saw there only\ngleaming bucklers hanging on the walls, and arms of all kinds as in a\nseignorial castle. He saw himself there, beside a noble and beautiful\nbride, and he never suspected that in this vision there was any presage\nof the future which was reserved for him. Never had any one seen him so\ncommunicative, so radiant; and when he was asked for the hundredth time\nwhence came all this joy, he would reply with surprising assurance: \"I\nknow that I shall become a great prince.\"[7]\n\nThe day of departure arrived at last. Francis on horseback, the little\nbuckler of a page on his arm, bade adieu to his natal city with joy, and\nwith the little troop took the road to Spoleto which winds around the\nbase of Mount Subasio.\n\nWhat happened next? The documents do not say. They confine themselves to\nreporting that that very evening Francis had a vision which decided him\nto return to Assisi.[8] Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to\nconjecture that once fairly on the way the young nobles took their\nrevenge on the son of Bernardone for his airs as of a future prince. At\ntwenty years one hardly pardons things like these. If, as we are often\nassured, there is a pleasure unsuspected by the profane in getting even\nwith a stranger, it must be an almost divine delight to get even with a\nyoung coxcomb upon whom one has to exercise so righteous a vengeance.\n\nArriving at Spoleto, Francis took to his bed. A fever was consuming him;\nin a few hours he had seen all his dreams crumble away. The very next\nday he took the road back to Assisi.[9]\n\nSo unexpected a return made a great stir in the little city, and was a\ncruel blow to his parents. As for him, he doubled his charities to the\npoor, and sought to keep aloof from society, but his old companions came\nflocking about him from all quarters, hoping to find in him once more\nthe tireless purveyor of their idle wants. He let them have their way.\n\nNevertheless a great change had taken place in him. Neither pleasures\nnor work could long hold him; he spent a portion of his days in long\ncountry rambles, often accompanied by a friend most different from those\nwhom until now we have seen about him. The name of this friend is not\nknown, but from certain indications one is inclined to believe that he\nwas Bombarone da Beviglia, the future Brother Elias.[10]\n\nFrancis now went back to his reflections at the time of his recovery,\nbut with less of bitterness. His own heart and his friend agreed in\nsaying to him that it is possible no longer to trust either in pleasure\nor in glory and yet to find worthy causes to which to consecrate one's\nlife. It is at this moment that religious thought seems to have awaked\nin him. From the moment that he saw this new way of life his desire to\nrun in it had all the fiery impetuosity which he put into all his\nactions. He was continually calling upon his friend and leading him\napart into the most sequestered paths.\n\nBut intense conflicts are indescribable. We struggle, we suffer alone.\nIt is the nocturnal wrestling of Bethel, mysterious and solitary. The\nsoul of Francis was great enough to endure this tragic duel. His friend\nhad marvellously understood his part in this contest. He gave a few rare\ncounsels, but much of the time he contented himself with manifesting his\nsolicitude by following Francis everywhere and never asking to know more\nthan he could tell him.\n\nOften Francis directed his steps to a grotto in the country near Assisi,\nwhich he entered alone. This rocky cave concealed in the midst of the\nolive trees became for faithful Franciscans that which Gethsemane is for\nChristians. Here Francis relieved his overcharged heart by heavy groans.\nSometimes, seized with a real horror for the disorders of his youth, he\nwould implore mercy, but the greater part of the time his face was\nturned toward the future; feverishly he sought for that higher truth to\nwhich he longed to dedicate himself, that pearl of great price of which\nthe gospel speaks: \"Whosoever seeks, finds; he who asks, receives; and\nto him who knocks, it shall be opened.\"\n\nWhen he came out after long hours of seclusion the pallor of his\ncountenance, the painful tension of his features told plainly enough of\nthe intensity of his asking and the violence of his knocks.[11]\n\nThe inward man, to borrow the language of the mystics, was not yet\nformed in him, but it needed only the occasion to bring about the final\nbreak with the past. The occasion soon presented itself.\n\nHis friends were making continual efforts to induce him to take up his\nold habits again. One day he invited them all to a sumptuous banquet.\nThey thought they had conquered, and as in old times they proclaimed him\nking of the revels. The feast was prolonged far into the night, and at\nits close the guests rushed out into the streets, which they filled with\nsong and uproar. Suddenly they perceived that Francis was no longer with\nthem. After long searching they at last discovered him far behind them,\nstill holding in his hand his sceptre of king of misrule, but plunged in\nso profound a revery that he seemed to be riveted to the ground and\nunconscious of all that was going on.\n\n\"What is the matter with you?\" they cried, bustling about him as if to\nawaken him.\n\n\"Don't you see that he is thinking of taking a wife?\" said one.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Francis, arousing himself and looking at them with a\nsmile which they did not recognize. \"I am thinking of taking a wife\nmore beautiful, more rich, more pure than you could ever imagine.\"[12]\n\nThis reply marks a decisive stage in his inner life. By it he cut the\nlast links which bound him to trivial pleasures. It remains for us to\nsee through what struggles he was to give himself to God, after having\ntorn himself free from the world. His friends probably understood\nnothing of all that had taken place, but he had become aware of the\nabyss that was opening between them and him. They soon accepted the\nsituation.\n\nAs for himself, no longer having any reason for caution, he gave himself\nup more than ever to his passion for solitude. If he often wept over his\npast dissipations and wondered how he could have lived so long without\ntasting the bitterness of the dregs of the enchanted cup, he never\nallowed himself to be overwhelmed with vain regrets.\n\nThe poor had remained faithful to him. They gave him an admiration of\nwhich he knew himself to be unworthy, yet which had for him an infinite\nsweetness. The future grew bright to him in the light of their\ngratitude, of the timid, trembling affection which they dared not utter\nbut which his heart revealed to him; this worship which he does not\ndeserve to-day he will deserve to-morrow, at least he promises himself\nto do all he can to deserve it.\n\nTo understand these feelings one must understand the condition of the\npoor of a place like Assisi. In an agricultural country poverty does\nnot, as elsewhere, almost inevitably involve moral destitution, that\ndegeneration of the entire human being which renders charity so\ndifficult. Most of the poor persons whom Francis knew were in straits\nbecause of war, of bad harvests, or of illness. In such cases material\nsuccor is but a small part. Sympathy is the thing needed above all.\nFrancis had treasures of it to lavish upon them.\n\nHe was well requited. All sorrows are sisters; a secret intelligence\nestablishes itself between troubled hearts, however diverse their\ngriefs. The poor people felt that their friend also suffered; they did\nnot precisely know with what, but they forgot their own sorrows in\npitying their benefactor. Suffering is the true cement of love. For men\nto love each other truly, they must have shed tears together.\n\nAs yet no influence strictly ecclesiastic had been felt by Francis.\nDoubtless there was in his heart that leaven of Christian faith which\nenters one's being without his being aware; but the interior\ntransformation which was going on in him was as yet the fruit of his own\nintuition. This period was drawing to a close. His thought was soon to\nfind expression, and by that very act to receive the stamp of external\ncircumstances. Christian instruction will give a precise form to ideas\nof which as yet he has but vague glimpses, but he will find in this form\na frame in which his thought will perhaps lose something of its\noriginality and vigor; the new wine will be put into old wine-skins.\n\nBy degrees he was becoming calm, was finding in the contemplation of\nnature joys which up to this time he had sipped but hastily, almost\nunconsciously, and of which he was now learning to relish the flavor. He\ndrew from them not simply soothing; in his heart he felt new compassions\nspringing into life, and with these the desire to act, to give himself,\nto cry aloud to these cities perched upon the hill-tops, threatening as\nwarriors who eye one another before the fray, that they should be\nreconciled and love one another.\n\nCertainly, at this time Francis had no glimpse of what he was some time\nto become; but these hours are perhaps the most important in the\nevolution of his thought; it is to them that his life owes that air of\nliberty, that perfume of the fields which make it as different from the\npiety of the sacristy as from that of the drawing-room.\n\nAbout this time he made a pilgrimage to Rome, whether to ask counsel of\nhis friends, whether as a penance imposed by his confessor, or from a\nmere impulse, no one knows. Perhaps he thought that in a visit to the\n_Holy Apostles_, as people said then, he should find the answers to all\nthe questions which he was asking himself.\n\nAt any rate he went. It is hardly probable that he received from the\nvisit any religious influence, for his biographers relate the pained\nsurprise which he experienced when he saw in Saint Peter's how meagre\nwere the offerings of pilgrims. He wanted to give everything to the\nprince of the apostles, and emptying his purse he threw its entire\ncontents upon the tomb.\n\nThis journey was marked by a more important incident. Many a time when\nsuccoring the poor he had asked himself if he himself was able to endure\npoverty; no one knows the weight of a burden until he has carried it, at\nleast for a moment, upon his own shoulders. He desired to know what it\nis like to have nothing, and to depend for bread upon the charity or the\ncaprice of the passer by.[13]\n\nThere were swarms of beggars crowding the Piazza before the great\nbasilica. He borrowed the rags of one of them, lending him his garment\nin exchange, and a whole day he stood there, fasting, with outstretched\nhand. The act was a great victory, the triumph of compassion over\nnatural pride. Returning to Assisi, he doubled his kindnesses to those\nof whom he had truly the right to call himself the brother. With such\nsentiments he could not long escape the influence of the Church.\n\nOn all the roadsides in the environs of the city there were then, as\nnow, numerous chapels. Very often he must have heard mass in these\nrustic sanctuaries, alone with the celebrant. Recognizing the tendency\nof simple natures to bring home to themselves everything that they hear,\nit is easy to understand his emotion and agitation when the priest,\nturning toward him, would read the gospel for the day. The Christian\nideal was revealed to him, bringing an answer to his secret anxieties.\nAnd when, a few moments later, he would plunge into the forest, all his\nthoughts would be with the poor carpenter of Nazareth, who placed\nhimself in his path, saying to him, even to him, \"Follow thou me.\"\n\nNearly two years had passed since the day when he felt the first shock;\na life of renunciation appeared to him as the goal of his efforts, but\nhe felt that his spiritual novitiate was not yet ended. He suddenly\nexperienced a bitter assurance of the fact.\n\nHe was riding on horseback one day, his mind more than ever possessed\nwith the desire to lead a life of absolute devotion, when at a turn of\nthe road he found himself face to face with a leper. The frightful\nmalady had always inspired in him an invincible repulsion. He could not\ncontrol a movement of horror, and by instinct he turned his horse in\nanother direction.\n\nIf the shock had been severe, the defeat was complete. He reproached\nhimself bitterly. To cherish such fine projects and show himself so\ncowardly! Was the knight of Christ then going to give up his arms? He\nretraced his steps and springing from his horse he gave to the astounded\nsufferer all the money that he had; then kissed his hand as he would\nhave done to a priest.[14] This new victory, as he himself saw, marked\nan era in his spiritual life.[15]\n\nIt is far indeed from hatred of evil to love of good. Those are more\nnumerous than we think who, after severe experience, have renounced what\nthe ancient liturgies call the world, with its pomps and lusts; but the\ngreater number of them have not at the bottom of their hearts the\nsmallest grain of pure love. In vulgar souls disillusion leaves only a\nfrightful egoism.\n\nThis victory of Francis had been so sudden that he desired to complete\nit; a few days later he went to the lazaretto.[16] One can imagine the\nstupefaction of these wretches at the entrance of the brilliant\ncavalier. If in our days a visit to the sick in our hospitals is a real\nevent awaited with feverish impatience, what must not have been the\nappearance of Francis among these poor recluses? One must have seen\nsufferers thus abandoned, to understand what joy may be given by an\naffectionate word, sometimes even a simple glance.\n\nMoved and transported, Francis felt his whole being vibrate with\nunfamiliar sensations. For the first time he heard the unspeakable\naccents of a gratitude which cannot find words burning enough to express\nitself, which admires and adores the benefactor almost like an angel\nfrom heaven.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 1 Cel., 3; cf. Bon., 8, and A. SS., p. 563c.\n\n   [2] It is enough to have lived in the country of Naples to know\n       that there is nothing exaggerated in this picture. I am much\n       surprised that intelligent and good men fancy that to change the\n       religious formula of these people would suffice to transform\n       them. What a mistake! To-day, as in the time of Jesus, the\n       important matter is not to adore on Mount Moriah or Mount Zion,\n       but to adore in spirit and in truth.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 3 and 4.\n\n   [4] 3 Soc., 5. In the existing state of the documents it is\n       impossible to know whom this name designates, for at that time\n       it was borne by a number of counts who are only to be\n       distinguished by the names of their castles. The three following\n       are possible: 1. _Gentile comes de Campilio_, who in 1215 paid\n       homage for his property to the commune of Orvieto: _Le antiche\n       cronache di Orvieto, Arch. stor. ital._, 5th series., 1889,\n       iii., p. 47. 2. _Gentilis comes filius Alberici_, who with\n       others had made donation of a monastery to the Bishop of\n       Foligno: Confirmatory Bull _In eminenti_ of April 10, 1210:\n       Ughelli, _Italia Sacra_, 1, p. 697; Potthast, 3974. 3. _Gentilis\n       comes Manupelli_; whom we find in July, 1200, assuring to\n       Palermo the victory over the troops sent by Innocent III.\n       against Marckwald; Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._, i. p., 46\n       ff. Cf. Potthast, 1126. _Gesta Innocenti_, Migne, vol. i.,\n       xxxii, ff. Cf. Huillard-Breholles, _loc. cit._, pages 60, 84,\n       89, 101. It is wrong to consider that Gentile could here be a\n       mere adjective; the 3 Soc. say _Gentile nomine_.\n\n   [5] 1 Cel., 4; 3 Soc., 5.\n\n   [6] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 8.\n\n   [7] 1 Cel., 5; 3 Soc., 5; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 9.\n\n   [8] 3 Soc., 6; Bon., 9; 2 Cel., 1, 2.\n\n   [9] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2.\n\n  [10] These days are recalled by Celano with a very particular\n       precision. It is very improbable that Francis, usually so\n       reserved as to his personal experience, should have told him\n       about them (2 Cel., 3, 68 and 42, cf. Bon., 144). On the other\n       hand, nothing forbids his having been informed on this matter by\n       Brother Elias. (I strongly suspect the legend which tells of an\n       old man appearing on the day Francis was born and begging\n       permission to take the child in his arms, saying, \"To-day, two\n       infants were born--this one, who will be among the best of men,\n       and another, who will be among the worst\"--of having been\n       invented by the _zelanti_ against Brother Elias. It is evident\n       that such a story is aimed at some one. Whom, if not him who was\n       afterward to appear as the Anti-Francis?) We have sufficient\n       details about the eleven first disciples to know that none of\n       them is here in question. There is nothing surprising in the\n       fact that Elias does not appear in the earliest years of the\n       Order (1209-1212), because after having practised at Assisi his\n       double calling of schoolmaster and carriage-trimmer (_suebat\n       cultras et docebat puerulos psalterium legere_, Salimbene, p.\n       402) he was _scriptor_ at Bologna (Eccl., 13). And from the\n       psychological point of view this hypothesis would admirably\n       explain the ascendency which Elias was destined always to\n       exercise over his master. Still it remains difficult to\n       understand why Celano did not name Elias here, but the passage,\n       1 Cel., 6, differs in the different manuscripts (cf. A. SS. and\n       Amoni's edition, p. 14) and may have been retouched after the\n       latter's fall.\n\n       Beviglia is a simple farm three-quarters of an hour northwest of\n       Assisi, almost half way to Petrignano. Half an hour from Assisi\n       in the direction of Beviglia is a grotto, which may very well be\n       that of which we are about to speak.\n\n  [11] 1 Cel., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 5; 3 Soc., 8, 12; Bon., 10, 11, 12.\n\n  [12] 3 Soc., 7; 1 Cel., 7; 2 Cel., 1, 3; 3 Soc., 13.\n\n  [13] 3 Soc., 8-10; Bon., 13, 14; 2 Cel., 1, 4.\n\n  [14] To this day in the centre and south of Italy they kiss the\n       hand of priests and monks.\n\n  [15] See the Will. Cf. 3 Soc., 11; 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; A. SS.,\n       p. 566.\n\n  [16] 3 Soc., 11; Bon., 13.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE CHURCH ABOUT 1209\n\n\nSt. Francis was inspired as much as any man may be, but it would be a\npalpable error to study him apart from his age and from the conditions\nin which he lived.\n\nWe know that he desired and believed his life to be an imitation of\nJesus, but what we know about the Christ is in fact so little, that St.\nFrancis's life loses none of its strangeness for that. His conviction\nthat he was but an imitator preserved him from all temptation to pride,\nand enabled him to proclaim his views with incomparable vigor, without\nseeming in the least to be preaching himself.\n\nWe must therefore neither isolate him from external influences nor show\nhim too dependent on them. During the period of his life at which we are\nnow arrived, 1205-1206, the religious situation of Italy must more than\nat any other time have influenced his thought and urged him into the\npath which he finally entered.\n\nThe morals of the clergy were as corrupt as ever, rendering any serious\nreform impossible. If some among the heresies of the time were pure and\nwithout reproach, many were trivial and impure. Here and there a few\nvoices were raised in protest, but the prophesyings of Gioacchino di\nFiore had no more power than those of St. Hildegarde to put a stop to\nwickedness. Luke Wadding, the pious Franciscan annalist, begins his\nchronicle with this appalling picture. The advance in historic research\npermits us to retouch it somewhat more in detail, but the conclusion\nremains the same; without Francis of Assisi the Church would perhaps\nhave foundered and the Cathari would have won the day. The _little poor\nman_, driven away, cast out of doors by the creatures of Innocent III.,\nsaved Christianity.\n\nWe cannot here make a thorough study of the state of the Church at the\nbeginning of the thirteenth century; it will suffice to trace some of\nits most prominent features.\n\nThe first glance at the secular clergy brings out into startling\nprominence the ravages of simony; the traffic in ecclesiastical places\nwas carried on with boundless audacity; benefices were put up to the\nhighest bidder, and Innocent III. admitted that fire and sword alone\ncould heal this plague.[1] Prelates who declined to be bought by\n_propinae_, fees, were held up as astounding exceptions![2]\n\n\"They are stones for understanding,\" it was said of the officers of the\nRoman _curia_, \"wood for justice, fire for wrath, iron for forgiveness;\ndeceitful as foxes, proud as bulls, greedy and insatiate as the\nminotaur.\"[3] The praises showered upon Pope Eugenius III. for\nrebuffing a priest who, at the beginning of a lawsuit, offered him a\ngolden mark, speak only too plainly as to the morals of Rome in this\nrespect.[4]\n\nThe bishops, on their part, found a thousand methods, often most out of\nkeeping with their calling, for extorting money from the simple\npriests.[5] Violent, quarrelsome, contentious, they were held up to\nridicule in popular ballads from one end of Europe to the other.[6] As\nto the priests, they bent all their powers to accumulate benefices, and\nsecure inheritances from the dying, stooping to the most despicable\nmeasures for providing for their bastards.[7]\n\nThe monastic orders were hardly more reputable. A great number of these\nhad sprung up in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; their reputation\nfor sanctity soon stimulated the liberality of the faithful, and thus\nfatally brought about their own decadence. Few communities had shown the\ndiscretion of the first monks of the Order of Grammont in the diocese of\nLimoges. When Stephen de Muret, its founder, began to manifest his\nsanctity by giving sight to a blind man, his disciples took alarm at the\nthought of the wealth and notoriety which was likely to come to them\nfrom this cause. Pierre of Limoges, who had succeeded Stephen as prior,\nwent at once to his tomb, praying:\n\n    \"O servant of God, thou hast shown us the way of poverty, and\n    behold, thou wouldst make us leave the strait and difficult path\n    of salvation, and wouldst set us in the broad road of eternal\n    death. Thou hast preached to us (the virtues of) solitude, and\n    thou art about to change this place into a fair and a\n    market-place. We know well that thou art a saint! Thou hast no\n    need to prove it to us by performing miracles which will destroy\n    our humility. Be not so zealous for thy reputation as to augment\n    it to the injury of our salvation. This is what we ask of thee,\n    expecting it of thy love. If not, we declare unto thee by the\n    obedience which we once owed to thee, we will unearth thy bones\n    and throw them into the river.\"\n\nStephen obeyed up to the time of his canonization (1189), but from that\ntime forward ambition, avarice, and luxury made such inroads upon the\nsolitude of Grammont that its monks became the byword and scoff of the\nChristian world.[8]\n\nPierre of Limoges was not entirely without reason in fearing that his\nmonastery would be transformed into a fair-ground; members of the\nchapters of most of the cathedrals kept wine-shops literally under their\nshadows, and certain monasteries did not hesitate to attract custom by\njugglers of all kinds and even by courtesans.[9]\n\nTo form an idea of the degradation of the greater number of the monks it\nis not enough to read the oratorical and often exaggerated reproofs of\npreachers obliged to strike hard in order to produce an effect. We must\nrun through the collection of bulls, where appeals to the court of Rome\nagainst assassinations, violations, incests, adulteries, recur on\nalmost every page. It is easy to see that even an Innocent III. might\nfeel himself helpless and tempted to yield to discouragement, in the\nface of so many ills.[10]\n\nThe best spirits were turning toward the Orient, asking themselves if\nperchance the Greek Church might not suddenly come forward to purify all\nthese abuses, and receive for herself the inheritance of her sister.[11]\n\nThe clergy, though no longer respected, still overawed the people\nthrough their superstitious terror of their power. Here and there might\nhave been perceived many a forewarning of direful revolts; the roads to\nRome were crowded with monks hastening to claim the protection of the\nHoly See against the people among whom they lived. The Pope would\npromptly declare an interdict, but it was not to be expected that such a\nresource would avail forever.[12]\n\nTo maintain the privileges of the Church the papacy was often obliged to\nspread the mantle of its protection over those who deserved it least.\nIts clients were not always as interesting as the unfortunate\nIngelburge. It would be easier to give unreserved admiration to the\nconduct of Innocent III. if in this matter one could feel certain that\nhis only interest was to maintain the cause of a poor abandoned woman.\nBut it is only too evident that he desired above all to keep up the\necclesiastical immunities. This is very evident in his intervention in\nfavor of Waldemar, Bishop of Schleswig.\n\nYet we must not assume that all was corrupt in the bosom of the Church;\nthen, as always, the evil made more noise than the good, and the voices\nof those who desired a reformation aroused only passing interest.\n\nAmong the populace there was superstition unimaginable; the pulpit,\nwhich ought to have shed abroad some little light, was as yet open only\nto the bishops, and the few pastors who did not neglect their duty in\nthis regard accomplished very little, being too much absorbed in other\nduties. It was the birth of the mendicant orders which obliged the\nentire body of secular clergy to take up the practice of preaching.\n\nPublic worship, reduced to liturgical ceremonies, no longer preserved\nanything which appealed to the intelligence; it was more and more\nbecoming a sort of self-acting magic formula. Once upon this road, the\nabsurd was not far distant. Those who deemed themselves pious told of\nmiracles performed by relics with no need of aid from the moral act of\nfaith.\n\nIn one case a parrot, being carried away by a kite, uttered the\ninvocation dear to his mistress, \"_Sancte Thoma adjuva me_,\" and was\nmiraculously rescued. In another, a merchant of Groningen, having\npurloined an arm of St. John the Baptist, grew rich as if by enchantment\nso long as he kept it concealed in his house, but was reduced to beggary\nso soon as, his secret being discovered, the relic was taken away from\nhim and placed in a church.[13]\n\nThese stories, we must observe, do not come from ignorant enthusiasts,\nhidden away in obscure country places; they are given us by one of the\nmost learned monks of his time, who relates them to a novice by way of\nforming his mind!\n\nRelics, then, were held to be neither more nor less than talismans. Not\nalone did they perform miracles upon those who were in no special state\nof faith or devotion, the more potent among them healed the sick in\nspite of themselves. A chronicler relates that the body of Saint Martin\nof Tours had in 887 been secretly transported to some remote hiding\nplace for fear of the Danish invasion. When the time came for bringing\nit home again, there were in Touraine two impotent men who, thanks to\ntheir infirmity, gained large sums by begging. They were thrown into\ngreat terror by the tidings that the relics were being brought back:\nSaint Martin would certainly heal them and take away their means of\nlivelihood. Their fears were only too well founded. They had taken to\nflight, but being too lame to walk fast they had not yet crossed the\nfrontier of Touraine when the saint arrived and healed them!\n\nHundreds of similar stories might be collected, statistics might be made\nup to show, at the accession of Innocent III., the greater number of\nepiscopal thrones occupied by unworthy bishops, the religious houses\npeopled with idle and debauched monks; but would this give a truly\naccurate picture of the Church at this epoch? I do not think so. In the\nfirst place, we must reckon with the choice spirits, who were without\ndoubt more numerous than is generally supposed. Five righteous men would\nhave saved Sodom; the Almighty did not find them there, but he perhaps\nmight have found them had He Himself made search for them instead of\ntrusting to Lot. The Church of the thirteenth century had them, and it\nwas for their sakes that the whirlwind of heresy did not sweep it away.\n\nBut this is not all: the Church of that time offered a noble spectacle\nof moral grandeur. We must learn to lift our eyes from the wretched\nstate of things which has just been pointed out and fix them on the\npontifical throne and recognize the beauty of the struggle there going\non: a power wholly spiritual undertaking to command the rulers of the\nworld, as the soul masters the body, and triumphing in the end. It is\ntrue that both soldiers and generals of this army were often little\nbetter than ruffians, but here again, in order to be just, we must\nunderstand the end they aimed at.\n\nIn that iron age, when brute force was the only force, the Church,\nnotwithstanding its wounds, offered to the world the spectacle of\npeasants and laboring men receiving the humble homage of the highest\npotentates of earth, simply because, seated on the throne of Saint\nPeter, they represented the moral law. This is why Alighieri and many\nothers before and after him, though they might heap curses on wicked\nministers, yet in the depths of their heart were never without an\nimmense compassion and an ardent love for the Church which they never\nceased to call their mother.\n\nStill, everybody was not like them, and the vices of the clergy explain\nthe innumerable heresies of that day. All of them had a certain success,\nfrom those which were simply the outcry of an outraged conscience, like\nthat of the Waldenses, to the most absurd of them all, like that of Eon\nde l'Etoile. Some of these movements were for great and sacred causes;\nbut we must not let our sympathies be so moved by the persecutions\nsuffered by heretics as to cloud our judgment. It would have been better\nhad Rome triumphed by gentleness, by education and holiness, but\nunhappily a soldier may not always choose his weapons, and when life is\nat stake he seizes the first he finds within his reach. The papacy has\nnot always been reactionary and obscurantist; when it overthrew the\nCathari, for example, its victory was that of reason and good sense.\n\nThe list of the heresies of the thirteenth century is already long, but\nit is increasing every day, to the great joy of those erudite ones who\nare making strenuous efforts to classify everything in that tohu-bohu of\nmysticism and folly. In that day heresy was very much alive; it was\nconsequently very complex and its powers of transformation infinite. One\nmay indicate its currents, mark its direction, but to go farther is to\ncondemn oneself to utter confusion in this medley of impulsive,\npassionate, fantastic movements which were born, shot upward, and fell\nto earth again, at the caprice of a thousand incomprehensible\ncircumstances. In certain counties of England there are at the present\nday villages having as many as eight and ten places of worship for a few\nhundreds of inhabitants. Many of these people change their denomination\nevery three or four years, returning to that they first quitted, leaving\nit again only to enter it anew, and so on as long as they live. Their\nleaders set the example, throwing themselves enthusiastically into each\nnew movement only to leave it before long. They would all alike find it\ndifficult to give an intelligible reason for these changes. They say\nthat the Spirit guides them, and it would be unfair to disbelieve them,\nbut the historian who should investigate conditions like these would\nlose his head in the labyrinth unless he made a separate study of each\nof these Protean movements. They are surely not worth the trouble.\n\nIn a somewhat similar condition was a great part of Christendom under\nInnocent III.; but while the sects of which I have just spoken move in a\nvery narrow circle of dogmas and ideas, in the thirteenth century every\nsort of excess followed in rapid succession. Without the slightest\npause of transition men passed through the most contradictory systems of\nbelief. Still, a few general characteristics may be observed; in the\nfirst place, heresies are no longer metaphysical subtleties as in\nearlier days; Arius and Priscillian, Nestorius and Eutychus are dead\nindeed. In the second place, they no longer arise in the upper and\ngoverning class, but proceed especially from the inferior clergy and the\ncommon people. The blows which actually threatened the Church of the\nMiddle Ages were struck by obscure laboring men, by the poor and the\noppressed, who in their wretchedness and degradation felt that she had\nfailed in her mission.\n\nNo sooner was a voice uplifted, preaching austerity and simplicity, than\nit drew together not the laity only, but members of the clergy as well.\nToward the close of the twelfth century we find a certain Pons rousing\nall Perigord, preaching evangelical poverty before the coming of St.\nFrancis.[14]\n\nTwo great currents are apparent: on one side the Cathari, on the other,\ninnumerable sects revolting from the Church by very fidelity to\nChristianity and the desire to return to the primitive Church.\n\nAmong the sects of the second category the close of the twelfth century\nsaw in Italy the rise of the _Poor Men_, who without doubt were a part\nof the movement of Arnold of Brescia; they denied the efficacy of\nsacraments administered by unworthy hands.[15]\n\nA true attempt at reform was made by the Waldenses. Their history,\nalthough better known, still remains obscure on certain sides; their\nname, _Poor Men of Lyons_, recalls the former movement, with which they\nwere in close agreement, as also with the Humiliants. All these names\ninvoluntarily suggest that by which St. Francis afterward called his\nOrder. The analogy between the inspiration of Peter Waldo and that of\nSt. Francis was so close that one might be tempted to believe the latter\na sort of imitation of the former. It would be a mistake: the same\ncauses produced in all quarters the same effects; ideas of reform, of a\nreturn to gospel poverty, were in the air, and this helps us to\nunderstand how it was that before many years the Franciscan preaching\nreverberated through the entire world. If at the outset the careers of\nthese two men were alike, their later lives were very different. Waldo,\ndriven into heresy almost in spite of himself, was obliged to accept the\nconsequences of the premises which he himself had laid down;[16] while\nFrancis, remaining the obedient son of the Church, bent all his efforts\nto develop the inner life in himself and his disciples. It is indeed\nmost likely that through his father Francis had become acquainted with\nthe movement of the _Poor Men of Lyons_. Hence his oft-repeated counsels\nto his friars of the duty of submission to the clergy. When he went to\nseek the approbation of Innocent III., it is evident that the prelates\nwith whom he had relations warned him, by the very example of Waldo, of\nthe dangers inherent in his own movement.[17]\n\nThe latter had gone to Rome in 1179, accompanied by a few followers, to\nask at the same time the approbation of their translation of the\nScriptures into the vulgar tongue and the permission to preach. They\nwere granted both requests on condition of gaining for their preaching\nthe authorization of their local clergy. Walter Map ([Cross] 1210), who was\ncharged with their examination, was constrained, while ridiculing their\nsimplicity, to admire their poverty and zeal for the apostolic life.[18]\nTwo or three years later they met a very different reception at Rome,\nand in 1184 they were anathematized by the Council of Verona. From that\nday nothing could stop them, even to the forming of a new Church. They\nmultiplied with a rapidity hardly exceeded afterward by the Franciscans.\nBy the end of the twelfth century we find them spread abroad from\nHungary to Spain; the first attempts to hunt them down were made in the\nlatter country. Other countries were at first satisfied with treating\nthem as excommunicated persons.\n\nObliged to hide themselves, reduced to the impossibility of holding\ntheir chapters, which ought to have come together once or twice a year,\nand which, had they done so, might have maintained among them a certain\nunity of doctrine, the Waldenses rapidly underwent a change according to\ntheir environment; some obstinately insisting upon calling themselves\ngood Catholics, others going so far as to preach the overthrow of the\nhierarchy and the uselessness of sacraments.[19] Hence that multiplicity\nof differing and even hostile branches which seemed to develop almost\nhourly.\n\nA common persecution brought them nearer to the Cathari and favored the\nfusion of their ideas. Their activity was inconceivable. Under pretext\nof pilgrimages to Rome they were always on the road, simple and\ninsinuating. The methods of travel of that day were peculiarly favorable\nto the diffusion of ideas. While retailing news to those whose\nhospitality they received, they would speak of the unhappy state of the\nChurch and the reforms that were needed. Such conversations were a means\nof apostleship much more efficacious than those of the present day, the\nbook and the newspaper; there is nothing like the _viva vox_[20] for\nspreading thought.\n\nMany vile stories have been told of the Waldenses; calumny is far too\nfacile a weapon not to tempt an adversary at bay. Thus they have been\ncharged with the same indecent promiscuities of which the early\nChristians were accused. In reality their true strength was in their\nvirtues, which strongly contrasted with the vices of the clergy.\n\nThe most powerful and determined enemies of the Church were the Cathari.\nSincere, audacious, often learned and keen in argument, having among\nthem some choice spirits and men of great intellectual powers, they were\npre-eminently the heretics of the thirteenth century. Their revolt did\nnot bear upon points of detail and questions of discipline, like that of\nthe early Waldenses; it had a definite doctrinal basis, taking issue\nwith the whole body of Catholic dogma. But, although this heresy\nflourished in Italy and under the very eyes of St. Francis, there is\nneed only to indicate it briefly. His work may have received many\ninfiltrations from the Waldensian movement, but Catharism was wholly\nforeign to it.\n\nThis is naturally explained by the fact that St. Francis never consented\nto occupy himself with questions of doctrine. For him faith was not of\nthe intellectual but the moral domain; it is the consecration of the\nheart. Time spent in dogmatizing appeared to him time lost.\n\nAn incident in the life of Brother Egidio well brings out the slight\nesteem in which theology was held by the early Brothers Minor. One day,\nin the presence of St. Bonaventura, he cried, perhaps not without a\ntouch of irony, \"Alas! what shall we ignorant and simple ones do to\nmerit the favor of God?\" \"My brother,\" replied the famous divine, \"you\nknow very well that it suffices to love the Lord.\" \"Are you very sure of\nthat?\" replied Egidio; \"do you believe that a simple woman might please\nHim as well as a master in theology?\" Upon the affirmative response of\nhis interlocutor, he ran out into the street and calling to a beggar\nwoman with all his might, \"Poor old creature,\" he exclaimed, \"rejoice,\nfor if you love God, you may have a higher place in the kingdom of\nheaven than Brother Bonaventura!\"[21]\n\nThe Cathari, then, had no direct influence upon St. Francis,[22] but\nnothing could better prove the disturbance of thought at this epoch\nthan that resurrection of Manicheism. To what a depth of lassitude and\nfolly must religious Italy have fallen for this mixture of Buddhism,\nMazdeism, and gnosticism to have taken such hold upon it! The Catharist\ndoctrine rested upon the antagonism of two principles, one bad, the\nother good. The first had created matter; the second, the soul, which,\nfor generation after generation passes from one body to another until it\nachieves salvation. Matter is the cause and the seat of evil; all\ncontact with it constitutes a blemish,[23] consequently the Cathari\nrenounced marriage and property and advocated suicide. All this was\nmixed up with most complicated cosmogonical myths.\n\nTheir adherents were divided into two classes--the pure or perfect, and\nthe believers, who were proselytes in the second degree, and whose\nobligations were very simple. The adepts, properly so called, were\ninitiated by the ceremony of the _consolamentum_ or imposition of hands,\nwhich induced the descent upon them of the Consoling Spirit. Among them\nwere enthusiasts who after this ceremony placed themselves in\n_endura_--that is to say, they starved themselves to death in order not\nto descend from this state of grace.\n\nIn Languedoc, where this sect went by the name of Albigenses, they had\nan organization which embraced all Central Europe, and everywhere\nsupported flourishing schools attended by the children of the nobles. In\nItaly they were hardly less powerful; Concorrezo, near Monza in\nLombardy, and Bagnolo, gave their names to two congregations slightly\ndifferent from those in Languedoc.[24]\n\nBut it was especially from Milan[25] that they spread abroad over all\nthe Peninsula, making proselytes even in the most remote districts of\nCalabria. The state of anarchy prevailing in the country was very\nfavorable to them. The papacy was too much occupied in baffling the\nspasmodic efforts of the Hohenstaufen, to put the necessary perseverance\nand system into its struggles against heresy. Thus the new ideas were\npreached under the very shadow of the Lateran; in 1209, Otho IV., coming\nto Rome to be crowned, found there a school in which Manicheism was\npublicly taught.[26]\n\nWith all his energy Innocent III. had not been able to check this evil\nin the States of the Church. The case of Viterbo tells much of the\ndifficulty of repressing it; in March, 1199, the pope wrote to the\nclergy and people of this town to recall to their minds, and at the same\ntime to increase, the penalties pronounced against heresy. For all that,\nthe Patarini had the majority in 1205, and succeeded in naming one of\nthemselves consul.[27]\n\nThe wrath of the pontiff at this event was unbounded; he fulminated a\nbull menacing the city with fire and sword, and commanding the\nneighboring towns to throw themselves upon her if within a fortnight she\nhad not given satisfaction.[28] It was all in vain: the Patarini were\ndealt with only as a matter of form; it needed the presence of the pope\nhimself to assure the execution of his orders and obtain the demolition\nof the houses of the heretics and their abettors (autumn of 1207).[29]\n\nBut stifled at one point the revolt burst out at a hundred others; at\nthis moment it was triumphant on all sides; at Ferrara, Verona, Rimini,\nFlorence, Prato, Faenza, Treviso, Piacenza. The clergy were expelled\nfrom this last town, which remained more than three years without a\npriest.[30]\n\nViterbo is twenty leagues from Assisi, Orvieto only ten, and\ndisturbances in this town were equally grave. A noble Roman, Pietro\nParentio, the deputy of the Holy See in this place, endeavored to\nexterminate the Patarini. He was assassinated.[31]\n\nBut Francis needed not to go even so far as Orvieto to become acquainted\nwith heretics. In Assisi the same things were going on as in the\nneighboring cities. In 1203 this town had elected for podesta a heretic\nnamed Giraldo di Gilberto, and in spite of warnings from Rome had\npersisted in keeping him at the head of affairs until the expiration of\nhis term of office (1204). Innocent III., who had not yet been obliged\nto use vigor with Viterbo, resorted to persuasion and despatched to\nUmbria the Cardinal Leo di Santa Croce, who will appear more than once\nin this history.[32] The successor of Giraldo and fifty of the principal\ncitizens made the _amende honorable_ and swore fidelity to the Church.\n\nIt is easy to perceive in what a state of ferment Italy was during these\nearly years of the thirteenth century. The moral discredit of the clergy\nmust have been deep indeed for souls to have turned toward Manicheism\nwith such ardor.\n\nItaly may well be grateful to St. Francis; it was as much infected with\nCatharism as Languedoc, and it was he who wrought its purification. He\ndid not pause to demonstrate by syllogisms or theological theses the\nvanity of the Catharist doctrines; but soaring as on wings to the\nreligious life, he suddenly made a new ideal to shine out before the\neyes of his contemporaries, an ideal before which all these fantastic\nsects vanished as birds of the night take flight at the first rays of\nthe sun.\n\nA great part of St. Francis's power came to him thus through his\nsystematic avoidance of polemics. The latter is always more or less a\nform of spiritual pride; it only deepens the chasm which it undertakes\nto fill up. Truth needs not to be proved; it is its own witness.\n\nThe only weapon which he would use against the wicked was the holiness\nof a life so full of love as to enlighten and revive those about him,\nand compel them to love.[33] The disappearance of Catharism in Italy,\nwithout an upheaval, and above all without the Inquisition, is thus an\nindirect result of the Franciscan movement, and not the least important\namong them.[34]\n\nAt the voice of the Umbrian reformer Italy roused herself, recovered her\ngood sense and fine temper; she cast out those doctrines of pessimism\nand death, as a robust organism casts out morbid substances.\n\nI have already endeavored to show the strong analogy between the initial\nefforts of Francis and those of the Poor Men of Lyons. His thought\nripened in an atmosphere thoroughly saturated with their ideas;\nunconsciously to himself they entered into his being.\n\nThe prophecies of the Calabrian abbot exerted upon him an influence\nquite as difficult to appreciate, but no less profound.\n\nStanding on the confines of Italy and as it were at the threshold of\nGreece, Gioacchino di Fiore[35] was the last link in a chain of monastic\nprophets, who during nearly four hundred years succeeded one another in\nthe monasteries and hermitages of Southern Italy. The most famous among\nthem had been St. Nilo, a sort of untamed John the Baptist, living in\ndesert places, but suddenly emerging from them when his duties of\nmaintaining the right called him elsewhere. We see him on one occasion\nappearing in Rome itself, to announce to pope and emperor the unloosing\nof the divine wrath.[36]\n\nScattered in the Alpine solitudes of Basilicata these Calabrian hermits\nwere continually obliged to retreat higher and higher into the mountain\nfastnesses to escape the populace, who, pursued by pirates, were taking\nrefuge in these mountains. They thus passed their lives between heaven\nand earth, with two seas for their horizon. Disquieted by fear of the\ncorsairs, and by the war-cries whose echoes reached even to them, they\nturned their thoughts toward the future. The ages of great terror are\nalso the ages of great hope; it is to the captivity of Babylon that we\nowe, with the second part of Isaiah, those pictures of the future which\nhave not yet ceased to charm the soul of man; Nero's persecutions gave\nus the Apocalypse of St. John, and the paroxysms of the twelfth century\nthe eternal Gospel.\n\nConverted after a life of dissipation, Gioacchino di Fiore travelled\nextensively in the Holy Land, Greece, and Constantinople. Returning to\nItaly he began, though a layman, to preach in the outskirts of Rende and\nCosenza. Later on he joined the Cistercians of Cortale, near Catanzaro,\nand there took vows. Shortly after elected abbot of the monastery in\nspite of refusal and even flight, he was seized after a few years with\nthe nostalgia of solitude, and sought from Pope Lucius III. a discharge\nfrom his functions (1181), that he might consecrate all his time to the\nworks which he had in mind. The pope granted his request, and even\npermitted him to go wherever he might deem best in the interest of his\nwork. Then began for Gioacchino a life of wandering from convent to\nconvent, which carried him even as far as Lombardy, to Verona, where we\nfind him with Pope Urban III.\n\nWhen he returned to the south, a group of disciples gathered around him\nto hear his explanations of the most obscure passages of the Bible.\nWhether he would or no he was obliged to receive them, to talk with\nthem, to give them a rule, and, finally, to instal them in the very\nheart of the Sila, the Black Forest of Italy,[37] over against the\nhighest peak, in gorges where the silence is interrupted only by the\nmurmurs of the Arvo and the Neto, which have their source not far from\nthere. The new Athos received the name of Fiore (flower), transparent\nsymbol of the hopes of its founder.[38] It was there that he put the\nfinishing touch to writings which, after fifty years of neglect, were to\nbecome the starting-point of all heresies, and the aliment of all souls\nburdened with the salvation of Christendom. The men of the first half of\nthe thirteenth century, too much occupied with other things, did not\nperceive that the spiritual streams at which they were drinking\ndescended from the snowy mountain-tops of Calabria.\n\nIt is always thus with mystical influences. There is in them something\nvague, tenuous, and penetrating which escapes an exact estimation. Let\ntwo choice souls meet, and they will find it a difficult thing to\nanalyze and name the impressions which each has received from the other.\nIt is so with an epoch; it is not always those who speak to her the\noftenest and loudest whom she best understands; nor even those at whose\nfeet she sits, a faithful pupil, day after day. Sometimes, while on the\nway to her accustomed masters, she suddenly meets a stranger; she barely\ncatches a few words of what he says; she knows not whence he comes nor\nwhither he goes; she never sees him again, but those few words of his go\non surging in the depths of her soul, agitating and disquieting her.\n\nThus it was for a long while with Gioacchino di Fiore. His teachings,\nscattered here and there by enthusiastic disciples, were germinating\nsilently in many hearts.[39] Giving back hope to men, they restored to\nthem strength also. To think is already to act; alone under the shadow\nof the hoary pines which surrounded his cell, the cenobite of Fiore was\nlaboring for the renovation of the Church with as much vigor as the\nreformers who came after him.\n\nHe was, however, far from attaining the height of the prophets of\nIsrael; instead of soaring like them to the very heavens, he always\nremained riveted to the text, upon which he commented in the allegorical\nmethod, and whence by this method he brought out the most fantastic\nimprobabilities. A few pages of his books would wear out the most\npatient reader, but in these fields, burnt over by theological arguments\nmore drying than the winds of the desert, fields where one at first\nperceives only stones and thistles, one comes at last to the charming\noasis, with repose and dreams in its shade.\n\nThe exegesis of Gioacchino di Fiore in fact led up to a sort of\nphilosophy of history; its grand lines were calculated to make a\nstriking appeal to the imagination. The life of humanity is divided into\nthree periods: in the first, under the reign of the Father, men lived\nunder the rigor of the law; in the second, reigned over by the Son, men\nlive under the rule of grace; in the third, the Spirit shall reign and\nmen shall live in the plenitude of love. The first is the period of\nservile obedience; the second, that of filial obedience; the third, that\nof liberty. In the first, men lived in fear; in the second, they rest in\nfaith; in the third, they shall burn with love. The first saw the\nshining of the stars; the second sees the whitening of the dawn; the\nthird will behold the glory of the day. The first produced nettles, the\nsecond gives roses, the third will be the age of lilies.\n\nIf now we consider that in the thought of Gioacchino the third period,\nthe Age of the Spirit, was about to open, we shall understand with what\nenthusiasm men hailed the words which restored joy to hearts still\ndisturbed with millenarian fears.\n\nIt is evident that St. Francis knew these radiant hopes. Who knows even\nthat it was not the Calabrian Seer who awoke his heart to its transports\nof love? If this be so, Gioacchino was not merely his precursor; he was\nhis true spiritual father. However this may be, St. Francis found in\nGioacchino's thought many of the elements which, unconsciously to\nhimself, were to become the foundation of his institute.\n\nThe noble disdain which he shows for all men of learning, and which he\nsought to inculcate upon his Order, was for Gioacchino one of the\ncharacteristics of the new era. \"The truth which remains hidden to the\nwise,\" he says, \"is revealed to babes; dialectics closes that which is\nopen, obscures that which is clear; it is the mother of useless talk, of\nrivalries and blasphemy. Learning does not edify, and it may destroy, as\nis proved by the scribes of the Church, swollen with pride and\narrogance, who by dint of reasoning fall into heresy.\"[40]\n\nWe have seen that the return to evangelical simplicity had become a\nnecessity; all the heretical sects were on this point in accord with\npious Catholics, but no one spoke in a manner so Franciscan as\nGioacchino di Fiore. Not only did he make voluntary poverty one of the\ncharacteristics of the age of lilies, but he speaks of it in his pages\nwith so profound, so living an emotion, that St. Francis could do little\nmore than repeat his words. The ideal monk whom he describes,[41] whose\nonly property is a lyre, is a true Franciscan before the letter, him of\nwhom the _Poverello_ of Assisi always dreamed.\n\nThe feeling for nature also bursts forth in him with incomparable vigor.\nOne day he was preaching in a chapel which was plunged in almost total\ndarkness, the sky being quite overcast with clouds. Suddenly the clouds\nbroke away, the sun shone, the church was flooded with light. Gioacchino\npaused, saluted the sun, intoned the _Veni Creator_, and led his\ncongregation out to gaze upon the landscape.\n\nIt would be by no means surprising if toward 1205 Francis should have\nheard of this prophet, toward whom so many hearts were turning, this\nanchorite who, gazing up into heaven, spoke with Jesus as a friend talks\nwith his friend, yet knew also how to come down to console men and warm\nthe faces of the dying at his own breast.\n\nAt the other end of Europe, in the heart of Germany, the same causes had\nproduced the same effects. From the excess of the people's sufferings\nand the despair of religious souls was being born a movement of\napocalyptic mysticism which seemed to have secret communication with\nthat which was rousing the Peninsula. They had the same views of the\nfuture, the same anxious expectation of new cataclysms, joined with a\nprospect of a reviving of the Church.\n\n\"Cry with a loud voice,\" said her guardian angel to St. Elizabeth of\nSchonau ([Cross] 1164), \"cry to all nations: Woe! for the whole world has\nbecome darkness. The Lord's vine has withered, there is no one to tend\nit. The Lord has sent laborers, but they have all been found idle. The\nhead of the Church is ill and her members are dead.... Shepherds of my\nChurch, you are sleeping, but I shall awaken you! Kings of the earth,\nthe cry of your iniquity has risen even to me.\"[42]\n\n\"Divine justice,\" said St. Hildegarde ([Cross] 1178), \"shall have its hour;\nthe last of the seven epochs symbolized by the seven days of creation\nhas arrived, the judgments of God are about to be accomplished; the\nempire and the papacy, sunk into impiety, shall crumble away\ntogether.... But upon their ruins shall appear a new nation of God, a\nnation of prophets illuminated from on high, living in poverty and\nsolitude. Then the divine mysteries shall be revealed, and the saying\nof Joel shall be fulfilled; the Holy Spirit shall shed abroad upon the\npeople the dew of his prophecies, of his wisdom and holiness; the\nheathen, the Jews, the worldly and the unbelieving shall be converted\ntogether, spring-time and peace shall reign over a regenerated world,\nand the angels will return with confidence to dwell among men.\"\n\nThese hopes were not wholly confounded. In the evening of his days the\nprophet of Fiore was able, like a new Simeon, to utter his _Nunc\ndimittis_, and for a few years Christendom could turn in amazement to\nAssisi as to a new Bethlehem.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Bull of June 8, 1198, _Quamvis_. Migne, i., col. 220;\n       Potthast, 265.\n\n   [2] For example, Pierre, Cardinal of St. Chryzogone and former\n       Bishop of Meaux, who in a single election refused the dazzling\n       offer of five hundred silver marks. Alexander III., Migne's\n       edition, _epist._ 395.\n\n   [3] _Fasciculus rerum expetend. et fugiend._, t. ii., 7, pp.\n       254, 255 (Brown, 1690).\n\n   [4] John of Salisbury, _Policrat._ Migne, v. 15.\n\n   [5] Among their sources of revenue we find the right of\n       _collagium_, by payment of which clerics acquired the right to\n       keep a concubine. Pierre le Chantre, _Verb. abbrev._, 24.\n\n   [6] Vide _Carmina Burana_, Breslau, 8vo, 1883; Political Songs\n       of England, published by Th. Wright, London, 8vo, 1893; _Poesies\n       populaires latines du moyen age_, du Meril, Paris, 1847. See\n       also Raynouard, _Lexique roman_, i., 446, 451, 464, the fine\n       poems of the troubadour Pierre Cardinal, contemporary of St.\n       Francis, upon the woes of the Church, and Dante, _Inferno_, xix.\n       If one would gain an idea of what the bishop of a small city in\n       those days cost his flock, he has only to read the bull of\n       February 12, 1219, _Justis petentium_, addressed by Honorius\n       III. to the Bishop of Terni, and including the contract by which\n       the inhabitants of that city settled the revenues of the\n       episcopal see. Horoy, t. iii., col. 114, or the _Bullarium\n       romanum_, t. iii., p. 348, Turin.\n\n   [7] _Conosco sacerdoti che fanno gli usura per formare un\n       patrimonio da lasciare ai loro spurii; altri che tengono osteria\n       coll' insegna del collare e vendono vino_ ... Salimbene,\n       Cantarelli, Parma, 1882, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 307.\n\n   [8] Vide _Brevis historia Prior._ _Grandimont.--Stephani\n       Tornacensis._ Epist. 115, 152, 153, 156, 162; Honorius III.,\n       Horoy's edition, lib. i., 280, 284, 286-288; ii., 12, 130, 136,\n       383-387.\n\n   [9] Guerard, _Cartulaire de N. D. de Paris_, t. i., p. cxi; t.\n       ii., p. 406. Cf. Honorius III., Bull _Inter statuta_ of July 25,\n       1223, Horoy, t. iv., col. 401. See also canon 23 of the Council\n       of Beziers, 1233; Guibert de Gemblours, _epist._ 5 and 6\n       (Migne); Honorius III., lib. ix., 32, 81; ii., 193; iv., 10;\n       iii., 253 and 258; iv., 33, 27, 70, 144; v., 56, 291, 420, 430;\n       vi., 214, 132, 139, 204; vii., 127; ix., 51.\n\n  [10] Vide Bull _Postquam vocante Domino_ of July 11, 1206.\n       Potthast 2840.\n\n  [11] V. _Annales Stadenses_ [_Monumenta Germaniae historica,\n       Scriptorum_, t. 16], _ad ann. 1237_. Among the comprehensive\n       pictures of the situation of the Church in the thirteenth\n       century, there is none more interesting than that left us by the\n       Cardinal Jacques de Vitry in his _Historia occidentalis: Libri\n       duo quorum prior Orientalis, alter Occidentalis historiae nomine\n       inscribitur Duaci_, 1597, 16mo. pp. 259-480.\n\n  [12] V. Honorius III., Horoy's edition, lib. i., ep. 109, 125,\n       135, 206, 273; ii., 128, 164; iv., 120, etc.\n\n  [13] _Dialogus miraculorum_ of Cesar of Heisterbach [Strange's\n       edition, Cologne, 1851, 2 vols., 8vo], t. ii., pp. 255 and 125.\n       This book, with the Golden Legend of Giacomo di Varaggio, gives\n       the best idea of the state of religious thought in the\n       thirteenth century.\n\n  [14] _Recueil des historiens de France._ Bouquet, t. xii., pp.\n       550, 551.\n\n  [15] Bonacorsi: _Vitae haereticorum_ [d'Achery, _Spicilegium_, t.\n       i., p. 215] Cf. Lucius III., epist. 171, Migne.\n\n  [16] Vide Bernard Gui, _Practica inquisitionis_, Douai edition,\n       4to, Paris, 1886 p. 244 ff., and especially the Vatican MS.,\n       2548, folio 71.\n\n  [17] A chronicle of St. Francis's time makes this same\n       comparison: Burchard, Abbot of Urspurg ([Cross] 1226) [_Burchardi et\n       Cuonradi chronicon. Monum. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 23], has\n       left us an account of the approbation of Francis by the Pope,\n       all the more precious for being that of a contemporary. _Loc.\n       cit._, p. 376.\n\n  [18] _De nugis Curialium_, Dist. 1, cap. 31, p. 64, Wright's\n       edition. Cf. _Chronique de Laon_, Bouquet xiii., p. 680.\n\n  [19] See, for example, the letter of the Italian branch of the\n       Poor Men of Lyons [_Pauperos Lombardi_] to their brethren of\n       Germany, there called Leonistes. In it they show the points in\n       which they are not in harmony with the French Waldenses.\n       Published by Preger: _Abhandlungen der K. bayer. Akademie der\n       Wiss. Hist. Cl._, t. xiii., 1875, p. 19 ff.\n\n  [20] These continual journeyings sometimes gained for them the\n       name of _Passagieni_, as in the south of France the preachers of\n       certain sects are to-day called _Courriers_. The term, however,\n       specially designates a Judaizing sect who returned to the\n       literal observation of the Mosaic law: Doellinger, _Beitraege_, t.\n       ii., pp. 327 and 375. They should therefore be identified with\n       the _Circonsisi_ of the constitution of Frederic II.\n       (Huillard-Breholles, t. v., p. 280). See especially the fine\n       monograph of M. C. Molinier: _Memoires de l'Academie de\n       Toulouse_, 1888.\n\n  [21] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., p. 238d.\n\n  [22] I would say that between the inspiration of Francis and the\n       Catharian doctrines there is an irreconcilable opposition; but\n       it would not be difficult to find acts and words of his which\n       recall the contempt for matter of the Cathari; for example, his\n       way of treating his body. Some of his counsels to the friars:\n       _Unusquisque habet in potestate sua inimicum suum videlicit\n       corpus, per quod peccat._ Assisi MS. 338, folio 20b. Conform.\n       138, b. 2.--_Cum majorem inimicum corpore non habeam._ 2 Cel.,\n       3, 63. These are momentary but inevitable obscurations, moments\n       of forgetfulness, of discouragement, when a man is not himself,\n       and repeats mechanically what he hears said around him. The real\n       St. Francis is, on the contrary, the lover of nature, he who\n       sees in the whole creation the work of divine goodness, the\n       radiance of the eternal beauty, he who, in the Canticle of the\n       Creatures, sees in the body not the Enemy but a brother: _Caepit\n       hilariter loqui ad corpus; Gaude, frater corpus._ 2 Cel., 3,\n       137.\n\n  [23] _Quodam die, dicta fabrissa dixit ipsi testi praegnanti,\n       quod rogaret Deum, ut liberaret eam a Daemone, quem habebat in\n       ventre ... Gulielmus dixit quod ita magnum peccatum erat jacere\n       cum uxore sua quam cum concubina._ Doellinger, _loc. cit._, pp.\n       24, 35.\n\n  [24] Those of the _Concorrezenses_ and _Bajolenses_. In Italy\n       _Cathari_ becomes _Gazzari_; for that matter, each country had\n       its special appellatives; one of the most general in the north\n       was that of the _Bulgari_, which marks the oriental origin of\n       the sect, whence the slang term Boulgres and its derivatives\n       (vide Matthew Paris, ann. 1238). Cf. Schmit, _Histoire des\n       Cathares_, 8vo, 2 vols, Paris, 1849.\n\n  [25] The most current name in Italy was that of the _Patarini_,\n       given them no doubt from their inhabiting the quarter of\n       second-hand dealers in Milan: _la contrada dei Patari_, found in\n       many cities. _Patari!_ is still the cry of the ragpickers in the\n       small towns of Provence. In the thirteenth century Patarino and\n       Catharo were synonyms. But before that the term Patarini had an\n       entirely different sense. See the very remarkable study of M.\n       Felice Tocco on this subject in his _Eresia net medio evo_,\n       12mo, Florence, 1884.\n\n  [26] Cesar von Heisterbach, _Dial. mirac._, t. i., p. 309,\n       Strange's edition.\n\n  [27] _Innocentii opera_, Migne, t. i., col. 537; t. ii., 654.\n\n  [28] _Computruistis in peccatis sicut jumenta in stercore suo ut\n       fumus ac fimus putrefactionis vestrae jam fere circumadjacentes\n       regionis infecerit, ac ipsum Dominum ut credimus ad nauseam\n       provocaverit._ _Loc. cit._, col. 654. Cf. 673; Potthast, 2532,\n       2539.\n\n  [29] _Gesta Innocentii_, Migne, t. i., col. clxii. Cf. _epist._\n       viii., 85 and 105.\n\n  [30] Campi, _Historia Ecclesiastica di Piacenza_, parte ii., p.\n       92 ff. Cf. _Innoc., epist._ ix., 131, 166-169; x., 54, 64, 222.\n\n  [31] A. SS., Maii, t. v., p. 87.\n\n  [32] Bull of June 6, 1205, Potthast, 2237; Migne, vii., 83. This\n       Cardinal Leo (of the presbyterial title of Holy Cross of\n       Jerusalem) was one most valued by Innocent III. To him and\n       Ugolini, the future Gregory IX., he at this epoch confided the\n       most delicate missions (for example, in 1209, they were named\n       legates to Otho IV.). This embassy shows in what importance the\n       pope held the affairs of Assisi, though it was a very small\n       city.\n\n  [33] Not once do we find him fighting heretics. The early\n       Dominicans, on the contrary, are incessantly occupied with\n       arguing. See 2 Cel., 3, 46.\n\n  [34] It need not be said that I do not assert that no trace of\n       it is to be found after the ministry of St. Francis, but it was\n       no longer a force, and no longer endangered the very existence\n       of the Church.\n\n  [35] This strange personality will charm historians and\n       philosophers for a long while to come. I know nothing more\n       learned or more luminous than M. Felice Tocco's fine study in\n       his _Eresia nel medio evo_, Florence, 1884, 1 vol., 12mo, pp.\n       261-409.\n\n  [36] A. SS., Sept., t. vii., p. 283 ff.\n\n  [37] A. SS., Maii, vii.; Vincent de Beauvais, _Speculum\n       historiale_, _lib._ 29, _cap._ 40. La Sila is a wooded mountain,\n       situated eastward from Cosenza, which the peasants call _Monte\n       Nero_. The summits are nearly 2,000 metres above the sea.\n\n  [38] Toward 1195. Gioacchino died there, March 30, 1202.\n\n  [39] A whole apochryphal literature has blossomed out around\n       Gioacchino; certain hypercritics have tried to prove that he\n       never wrote anything. These are exaggerations. Three large works\n       are certainly authentic: _The Agreement of the Old and New\n       Testaments_, _The Commentary on the Apocalypse_, and _The\n       Psaltery of Ten Strings_, published in Venice, the first in\n       1517, the two others in 1527. His prophecies were so well known,\n       even in his lifetime, that an English Cistercian, Rudolph, Abbot\n       of Coggeshall ([Cross] 1228), coming to Rome in 1195, sought a\n       conference with him and has left us an interesting account of\n       it. Martene, _Amplissima Collectio_, t. v., p. 839.\n\n  [40] _Comm. in apoc._, folio 78, b. 2.\n\n  [41] _Qui vere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi\n       citharam:_ Apoc., ib., folio 183. a. 2.\n\n  [42] E. Roth, _Die Visionen der heiligen Elisabeth von Schoenau_:\n       Bruenn, 1884, pp. 115-117.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nSTRUGGLES AND TRIUMPH\n\nSpring of 1206-February 24, 1209\n\n\nThe biographies of St. Francis have preserved to us an incident which\nshows how great was the religious ferment even in the little city of\nAssisi. A stranger was seen to go up and down the streets saying to\nevery one he met, \"Peace and welfare!\" (_Pax et bonum._)[1] He thus\nexpressed in his own way the disquietude of those hearts which could\nneither resign themselves to perpetual warfare nor to the disappearance\nof faith and love; artless echo, vibrating in response to the hopes and\nfears that were shaking all Europe!\n\n_\"Vox clamantis in deserto!\"_ it will be said. No, for every heart-cry\nleaves its trace even when it seems to be uttered in empty air, and that\nof the Unknown of Assisi may have contributed in some measure to\nFrancis's definitive call.\n\nSince his abrupt return from Spoleto, life in his father's house had\nbecome daily more difficult. Bernardone's self-love had received from\nhis son's discomfiture such a wound as with commonplace men is never\nhealed. He might provide, without counting it, money to be swallowed up\nin dissipation, that so his son might stand on an equal footing with the\nyoung nobles; he could never resign himself to see him giving with\nlavish hands to every beggar in the streets.\n\nFrancis, continually plunged in reverie and spending his days in lonely\nwanderings in the fields, was no longer of the least use to his father.\nMonths passed, and the distance between the two men grew ever wider; and\nthe gentle and loving Pica could do nothing to prevent a rupture which\nfrom this time appeared to be inevitable. Francis soon came to feel only\none desire, to flee from the abode where, in the place of love, he found\nonly reproaches, upbraidings, anguish.\n\nThe faithful confidant of his earlier struggles had been obliged to\nleave him, and this absolute solitude weighed heavily upon his warm and\nloving heart. He did what he could to escape from it, but no one\nunderstood him. The ideas which he was beginning timidly to express\nevoked from those to whom he spoke only mocking smiles or the\nhead-shakings which men sure that they are right bestow upon him who is\nmarching straight to madness. He even went to open his mind to the\nbishop, but the latter understood no more than others his vague,\nincoherent plans, filled with ideas impossible to realize and possibly\nsubversive.[2] It was thus that in spite of himself Francis was led to\nask nothing of men, but to raise himself by prayer to intuitive\nknowledge of the divine will. The doors of houses and of hearts were\nalike closing upon him, but the interior voice was about to speak out\nwith irresistible force and make itself forever obeyed.\n\nAmong the numerous chapels in the suburbs of Assisi there was one which\nhe particularly loved, that of St. Damian. It was reached by a few\nminutes' walk over a stony path, almost trackless, under olive trees,\namid odors of lavender and rosemary. Standing on the top of a hillock,\nthe entire plain is visible from it, through a curtain of cypresses and\npines which seem to be trying to hide the humble hermitage and set up\nan ideal barrier between it and the world.\n\nServed by a poor priest who had scarcely the wherewithal for necessary\nfood, the sanctuary was falling into ruin. There was nothing in the\ninterior but a simple altar of masonry, and by way of reredos one of\nthose byzantine crucifixes still so numerous in Italy, where through the\nwork of the artists of the time has come down to us something of the\nterrors which agitated the twelfth century. In general the Crucified\nOne, frightfully lacerated, with bleeding wounds, appears to seek to\ninspire only grief and compunction; that of St. Damian, on the contrary,\nhas an expression of inexpressible calm and gentleness; instead of\nclosing the eyelids in eternal surrender to the weight of suffering, it\nlooks down in self-forgetfulness, and its pure, clear gaze says, not \"_I\nsuffer_,\" but, \"_Come unto me_.\"[3]\n\nOne day Francis was praying before the poor altar: \"Great and glorious\nGod, and thou, Lord Jesus, I pray ye, shed abroad your light in the\ndarkness of my mind.... Be found of me, Lord, so that in all things I\nmay act only in accordance with thy holy will.\"[4]\n\nThus he prayed in his heart, and behold, little by little it seemed to\nhim that his gaze could not detach itself from that of Jesus; he felt\nsomething marvellous taking place in and around him. The sacred victim\ntook on life, and in the outward silence he was aware of a voice which\nsoftly stole into the very depths of his heart, speaking to him an\nineffable language. Jesus accepted his oblation. Jesus desired his\nlabor, his life, all his being, and the heart of the poor solitary was\nalready bathed in light and strength.[5]\n\nThis vision marks the final triumph of Francis. His union with Christ is\nconsummated; from this time he can exclaim with the mystics of every\nage, \"My beloved is mine, and I am his.\"\n\nBut instead of giving himself up to transports of contemplation he at\nonce asks himself how he may repay to Jesus love for love, in what\naction he shall employ this life which he has just offered to him. He\nhad not long to seek. We have seen that the chapel where his spiritual\nespousals had just been celebrated was threatened with ruin. He believed\nthat to repair it was the work assigned to him.\n\nFrom that day the remembrance of the Crucified One, the thought of the\nlove which had triumphed in immolating itself, became the very centre of\nhis religious life and as it were the soul of his soul. For the first\ntime, no doubt, Francis had been brought into direct, personal, intimate\ncontact with Jesus Christ; from belief he had passed to faith, to that\nliving faith which a distinguished thinker has so well defined: \"To\nbelieve is to look; it is a serious, attentive, and prolonged look; a\nlook more simple than that of observation, a look which looks, and\nnothing more; artless, infantine, it has all the soul in it, it is a\nlook of the soul and not the mind, a look which does not seek to analyze\nits object, but which receives it as a whole into the soul through the\neyes.\" In these words Vinet unconsciously has marvellously characterized\nthe religious temperament of St. Francis.\n\nThis look of love cast upon the crucifix, this mysterious colloquy with\nthe compassionate victim, was never more to cease. At St. Damian, St.\nFrancis's piety took on its outward appearance and its originality. From\nthis time his soul bears the stigmata, and as his biographers have said\nin words untranslatable, _Ab illa hora vulneratum et liquefactum est\ncor ejus ed memoriam Dominicae passionis._[6]\n\nFrom that time his way was plain before him. Coming out from the\nsanctuary, he gave the priest all the money he had about him to keep a\nlamp always burning, and with ravished heart he returned to Assisi. He\nhad decided to quit his father's house and undertake the restoration of\nthe chapel, after having broken the last ties that bound him to the\npast. A horse and a few pieces of gayly colored stuffs were all that he\npossessed. Arrived at home he made a packet of the stuffs, and mounting\nhis horse he set out for Foligno. This city was then as now the most\nimportant commercial town of all the region. Its fairs attracted the\nwhole population of Umbria and the Sabines. Bernardone had often taken\nhis son there,[7] and Francis speedily succeeded in selling all he had\nbrought. He even parted with his horse, and full of joy set out upon the\nroad to Assisi.[8]\n\nThis act was to him most important; it marked his final rupture with the\npast; from this day on his life was to be in all points the opposite of\nwhat it had been; the Crucified had given himself to him; he on his side\nhad given himself to the Crucified without reserve or return. To\nuncertainty, disquietude of soul, anguish, longing for an unknown good,\nbitter regrets, had succeeded a delicious calm, the ecstasy of the lost\nchild who finds his mother, and forgets in a moment the torture of his\nheart.\n\nFrom Foligno he returned direct to St. Damian; it was not necessary to\npass through the city, and he was in haste to put his projects into\nexecution.\n\nThe poor priest was surprised enough when Francis handed over to him the\nwhole product of his sale. He doubtless thought that a passing quarrel\nhad occurred between Bernardone and his son, and for greater prudence\nrefused the gift; but Francis so insisted upon remaining with him that\nhe finally gave him leave to do so. As to the money, now become useless,\nFrancis cast it as a worthless object upon a window-seat in the\nchapel.[9]\n\nMeanwhile Bernardone, disturbed by his son's failure to return, sought\nfor him in all quarters, and was not long in learning of his presence at\nSt. Damian. In a moment he perceived that Francis was lost to him.\nResolved to try every means, he collected a few neighbors, and furious\nwith rage hastened to the hermitage to snatch him away, if need were, by\nmain force.\n\nBut Francis knew his father's violence. When he heard the shouts of\nthose who were in pursuit of him he felt his courage fail and hurried to\na hiding-place which he had prepared for himself for precisely such an\nemergency. Bernardone, no doubt ill seconded in the search, ransacked\nevery corner, but was obliged at last to return to Assisi without his\nson. Francis remained hidden for long days, weeping and groaning,\nimploring God to show him the path he ought to follow. Notwithstanding\nhis fears he had an infinite joy at heart, and at no price would he have\nturned back.[10]\n\nThis seclusion could not last long. Francis perceived this, and told\nhimself that for a newly made knight of the Christ he was cutting a very\npitiful figure. Arming himself, therefore, with courage, he went one day\nto the city to present himself before his father and make known to him\nhis resolution.\n\nIt is easy to imagine the changes wrought in his appearance by these\nfew weeks of seclusion, passed much of them in mental anguish. When he\nappeared, pale, cadaverous, his clothes in tatters, upon what is now the\n_Piazza Nuova_, where hundreds of children play all day long, he was\ngreeted with a great shout, \"_Pazzo, Pazzo_!\" (A madman! a madman!) \"_Un\npazzo ne fa cento_\" (One madman makes a hundred more), says the proverb,\nbut one must have seen the delirious excitement of the street children\nof Italy at the sight of a madman to gain an idea how true it is. The\nmoment the magic cry resounds they rush into the street with frightful\ndin, and while their parents look on from the windows, they surround the\nunhappy sufferer with wild dances mingled with songs, shouts, and savage\nhowls. They throw stones at him, fling mud upon him, blindfold him; if\nhe flies into a rage, they double their insults; if he weeps or begs for\npity, they repeat his cries and mimic his sobs and supplications without\nrespite and without mercy.[11]\n\nBernardone soon heard the clamor which filled the narrow streets, and\nwent out to enjoy the show; suddenly he thought he heard his own name\nand that of his son, and bursting with shame and rage he perceived\nFrancis. Throwing himself upon him, as if to throttle him, he dragged\nhim into the house and cast him, half dead, into a dark closet. Threats,\nbad usage, everything was brought to bear to change the prisoner's\nresolves, but all in vain. At last, wearied out and desperate, he left\nhim in peace, though not without having firmly bound him.[12]\n\nA few days after he was obliged to be absent for a short time. Pica, his\nwife, understood only too well his grievances against Francis, but\nfeeling that violence would be of no avail she resolved to try\ngentleness. It was all in vain. Then, not being able longer to see him\nthus tortured, she set him at liberty.\n\nHe returned straight to St. Damian.[13]\n\nBernardone, on his return, went so far as to strike Pica in punishment\nfor her weakness. Then, unable to tolerate the thought of seeing his son\nthe jest of the whole city, he tried to procure his expulsion from the\nterritory of Assisi. Going to St. Damian he summoned him to leave the\ncountry. This time Francis did not try to hide. Boldly presenting\nhimself before his father, he declared to him that not only would\nnothing induce him to abandon his resolutions, but that, moreover,\nhaving become the servant of Christ, he had no longer to receive orders\nfrom him.[14] As Bernardone launched out into invective, reproaching\nhim with the enormous sums which he had cost him, Francis showed him by\na gesture the money which he had brought back from the sale at Foligno\nlying on the window-ledge. The father greedily seized it and went away,\nresolving to appeal to the magistrates.\n\nThe consuls summoned Francis to appear before them, but he replied\nsimply that as servant of the Church he did not come under their\njurisdiction. Glad of this response, which relieved them of a delicate\ndilemma, they referred the complainant to the diocesan authorities.[15]\n\nThe matter took on another aspect before the ecclesiastical tribunal; it\nwas idle to dream of asking the bishop to pronounce a sentence of\nbanishment, since it was his part to preserve the liberty of the\nclerics. Bernardone could do no more than disinherit his son, or at\nleast induce him of his own accord to renounce all claim upon his\ninheritance. This was not difficult.\n\nWhen called upon to appear before the episcopal tribunal[16] Francis\nexperienced a lively joy; his mystical espousals to the Crucified One\nwere now to receive a sort of official consecration. To this Jesus, whom\nhe had so often blasphemed and betrayed by word and conduct, he would\nnow be able with equal publicity to promise obedience and fidelity.\n\nIt is easy to imagine the sensation which all this caused in a small\ntown like Assisi, and the crowd that on the appointed day pressed toward\nthe Piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the bishop pronounced\nsentence.[17] Every one held Francis to be assuredly mad, but they\nanticipated with relish the shame and rage of Bernardone, whom every one\ndetested, and whose pride was so well punished by all this.\n\nThe bishop first set forth the case, and advised Francis to simply give\nup all his property. To the great surprise of the crowd the latter,\ninstead of replying, retired to a room in the bishop's palace, and\nimmediately reappeared absolutely naked, holding in his hand the packet\ninto which he had rolled his clothes; these he laid down before the\nbishop with the little money that he still had kept, saying: \"Listen,\nall of you, and understand it well; until this time I have called Pietro\nBernardone my father, but now I desire to serve God. This is why I\nreturn to him this money, for which he has given himself so much\ntrouble, as well as my clothing, and all that I have had from him, for\nfrom henceforth I desire to say nothing else than '_Our Father, who art\nin heaven_.'\"\n\nA long murmur arose from the crowd when Bernardone was seen to gather up\nand carry off the clothing without the least evidence of compassion,\nwhile the bishop was fain to take under his mantle the poor Francis,\nwho was trembling with emotion and cold.[18]\n\nThe scene of the judgment hall made an immense impression; the ardor,\nsimplicity, and indignation of Francis had been so profound and sincere\nthat scoffers were disconcerted. On that day he won for himself a secret\nsympathy in many souls. The populace loves such abrupt conversions, or\nthose which it considers such. Francis once again forced himself upon\nthe attention of his fellow-citizens with a power all the greater for\nthe contrast between his former and his new life.\n\nThere are pious folk whose modesty is shocked by the nudity of Francis;\nbut Italy is not Germany nor England, and the thirteenth century would\nhave been astonished indeed at the prudery of the Bollandists. The\nincident is simply a new manifestation of Francis's character, with its\ningenuousness, its exaggerations, its longing to establish a complete\nharmony, a literal correspondence, between words and actions.\n\nAfter emotions such as he had just experienced he felt the need of being\nalone, of realizing his joy, of singing the liberty he had finally\nachieved along all the lines where once he had so deeply suffered, so\nardently struggled. He would not, therefore, return immediately to St.\nDamian. Leaving the city by the nearest gate, he plunged into the\ndeserted paths which climb the sides of Mount Subasio.\n\nIt was the early spring. Here and there were still great drifts of snow,\nbut under the ardor of the March sun winter seemed to own itself\nvanquished. In the midst of this mysterious and bewildering harmony the\nheart of Francis felt a delicious thrill, all his being was calmed and\nuplifted, the soul of things caressed him gently and shed upon him\npeace. An unwonted happiness swept over him; he made the forest to\nresound with his hymns of praise.\n\nMen utter in song emotions too sweet or too deep to be expressed in\nordinary language, but unworded music is in this respect superior to\nsong, it is above all things the language of the ineffable. Song gains\nalmost the same value when the words are only there as a support for the\nvoice. The great beauty of the psalms and hymns of the Church lies in\nthe fact that being sung in an unknown tongue they make no appeal to the\nintelligence; they say nothing, but they express everything with\nmarvellous modulations like a celestial accompaniment, which follows the\nbeliever's emotions from the most agonizing struggles to the most\nunspeakable ecstasies.\n\nSo Francis went on his way, deeply inhaling the odors of spring, singing\nat the top of his voice one of those songs of French chivalry which he\nhad learned in days gone by.\n\nThe forest in which he was walking was the usual retreat of such people\nof Assisi and its environs as had any reason for hiding. Some ruffians,\naroused by his voice, suddenly fell upon him. \"Who are you?\" they asked.\n\"I am the herald of the great King,\" he answered \"but what is that to\nyou?\"\n\nHis only garment was an old mantle which the bishop's gardener had lent\nhim at his master's request. They stripped it from him, and throwing him\ninto a ditch full of snow, \"There is your place, poor herald of God,\"\nthey said.\n\nThe robbers gone, he shook off the snow which covered him, and after may\nefforts succeeded in extricating himself from the ditch. Stiff with\ncold, with no other covering than a worn-out shirt, he none the less\nresumed his singing, happy to suffer and thus to accustom himself the\nbetter to understand the words of the Crucified One.[19]\n\nNot far away was a monastery. He entered and offered his services. In\nthose solitudes, peopled often by such undesirable neighbors, people\nwere suspicious. The monks permitted him to make himself useful in the\nkitchen, but they gave him nothing to cover himself with and hardly\nanything to eat. There was nothing for it but to go away; he directed\nhis steps toward Gubbio, where he knew that he should find a friend.\nPerhaps this was he who had been his confidant on his return from\nSpoleto. However this may be, he received from him a tunic, and a few\ndays after set out to return to his dear St. Damian.[20]\n\nHe did not, however, go directly thither; before beginning to restore\nthe little sanctuary, he desired to see again his friends, the lepers,\nto promise them that he would love them even better than in the past.\n\nSince his first visit to the leper-house the brilliant cavalier had\nbecome a poor beggar; he came with empty hands but with heart\noverflowing with tenderness and compassion. Taking up his abode in the\nmidst of these afflicted ones he lavished upon them the most touching\ncare, washing and wiping their sores, all the more gentle and radiant as\ntheir sores were more repulsive.[21] The neglected sufferer is as much\nblinded by love of him who comes to visit him as the child by its love\nfor its mother. He believes him to be all powerful; at his approach the\nmost painful sufferings are eased or disappear.\n\nThis love inspired by the sympathy of an affectionate heart may become\nso deep as to appear at times supernatural; the dying have been known to\nrecover consciousness in order to look for the last time into the face,\nnot of some member of the family, but of the friend who has tried to be\nthe sunshine of their last days. The ties of pure love are stronger than\nthe bonds of flesh and blood. Francis had many a time sweet experience\nof this; from the time of his arrival at the leper-house he felt that if\nhe had lost his life he was about to find it again.\n\nEncouraged by his sojourn among the lepers, he returned to St. Damian\nand went to work, filled with joy and ardor, his heart as much in the\nsunshine as the Umbrian plain in this beautiful month of May. After\nhaving fashioned for himself a hermit's dress, he began to go into the\nsquares and open places of the city. There having sung a few hymns, he\nwould announce to those who gathered around him his project of restoring\nthe chapel. \"Those who will give me one stone,\" he would add with a\nsmile, \"shall have a reward; those who give me two shall have two\nrewards, and those who give me three shall have three.\"\n\nMany deemed him mad, but others were deeply moved by the remembrance of\nthe past. As for Francis, deaf to mockery, he spared himself no labor,\ncarrying upon his shoulders, so ill-fitted for severe toil, the stones\nwhich were given him.[22]\n\nDuring this time the poor priest of St. Damian felt his heart swelling\nwith love for this companion who had at first caused him such\nembarrassment, and he strove to prepare for him his favorite dishes.\nFrancis soon perceived it. His delicacy took alarm at the expense which\nhe caused his friend, and, thanking him, he resolved to beg his food\nfrom door to door.\n\nIt was not an easy task. The first time, when at the end of his round he\nglanced at the broken food in his wallet, he felt his courage fail him.\nBut the thought of being so soon unfaithful to the spouse to whom he had\nplighted his faith made his blood run cold with shame and gave him\nstrength to eat ravenously.[23]\n\nEach hour, so to speak, brought to him a new struggle. One day he was\ngoing through the town begging for oil for the lamps of St. Damian, when\nhe arrived at a house where a banquet was going on; the greater number\nof his former companions were there, singing and dancing. At the sound\nof those well-known voices he felt as if he could not enter; he even\nturned away, but very soon, filled with confusion by his own cowardice,\nhe returned quickly upon his steps, made his way into the banquet-hall,\nand after confessing his shame, put so much earnestness and fire into\nhis request that every one desired to co-operate in this pious\nwork.[24]\n\nHis bitterest trial however was his father's anger, which remained as\nviolent as ever. Although he had renounced Francis, Bernardone's pride\nsuffered none the less at seeing his mode of life, and whenever he met\nhis son he overwhelmed him with reproaches and maledictions. The tender\nheart of Francis was so wrung with sorrow that he resorted to a sort of\nstratagem for charming away the spell of the paternal imprecations.\n\"Come with me,\" he said to a beggar; \"be to me as a father, and I will\ngive you a part of the alms which I receive. When you see Bernardone\ncurse me, if I say, 'Bless me, my father,' you must sign me with the\ncross and bless me in his stead.\"[25] His brother was prominent in the\nfront rank of those who harassed him with their mockeries. One winter\nmorning they met in a church; Angelo leaned over to a friend who was\nwith him, saying: \"Go, ask Francis to sell you a farthing's worth of his\nsweat.\" \"No,\" replied the latter, who overheard. \"I shall sell it much\ndearer to my God.\"\n\nIn the spring of 1208 he finished the restoration of St. Damian; he had\nbeen aided by all people of good will, setting the example of work and\nabove all of joy, cheering everybody by his songs and his projects for\nthe future. He spoke with such enthusiasm and contagious warmth of the\ntransformation of his dear chapel, of the grace which God would accord\nto those who should come there to pray, that later on it was believed\nthat he had spoken of Clara and her holy maidens who were to retire to\nthis place four years later.[26]\n\nThis success soon inspired him with the idea of repairing the other\nsanctuaries in the suburbs of Assisi. Those which had struck him by\ntheir state of decay were St. Peter and Santa Maria, of the\n_Portiuncula_, called also Santa Maria degli Angeli. The former is not\notherwise mentioned in his biographies.[27] As to the second, it was to\nbecome the true cradle of the Franciscan movement.\n\nThis chapel, still standing at the present day after escaping\nrevolutions and earthquakes, is a true Bethel, one of those rare spots\nin the world on which rests the mystic ladder which joins heaven to\nearth; there were dreamed some of the noblest dreams which have soothed\nthe pains of humanity. It is not to Assisi in its marvellous basilica\nthat one must go to divine and comprehend St. Francis; he must turn his\nsteps to Santa Maria degli Angeli at the hours when the stated prayers\ncease, at the moment when the evening shadows lengthen, when all the\nfripperies of worship disappear in the obscurity, when all the nation\nseems to collect itself to listen to the chime of the distant church\nbells. Doubtless it was Francis's plan to settle there as a hermit. He\ndreamed of passing his life there in meditation and silence, keeping up\nthe little church and from time to time inviting a priest there to say\nmass. Nothing as yet suggested to him that he was in the end to become a\nreligious founder. One of the most interesting aspects of his life is in\nfact the continual development revealing itself in him; he is of the\nsmall number to whom to live is to be active, and to be active to make\nprogress. There is hardly anyone, except St. Paul, in whom is found to\nthe same degree the devouring need of being always something more,\nalways something better, and it is so beautiful in both of them only\nbecause it is absolutely instinctive.\n\nWhen he began to restore the Portiuncula his projects hardly went beyond\na very narrow horizon; he was preparing himself for a life of penitence\nrather than a life of activity. But these works once finished it was\nimpossible that this somewhat selfish and passive manner of achieving\nhis own salvation should satisfy him long. At the memory of the\nappearance of the Crucified One his heart would swell with overpowering\nemotions, and he would melt into tears without knowing whether they were\nof admiration, pity, or desire.[28]\n\nWhen the repairs were finished meditation occupied the greater part of\nhis days. A Benedictine of the Abbey of Mont Subasio[29] came from time\nto time to say mass at Santa Maria; these were the bright hours of St.\nFrancis's life. One can imagine with what pious care he prepared himself\nand with what faith he listened to the divine teachings.\n\nOne day, it was probably February 24, 1209, the festival of St.\nMatthias, mass was being celebrated at the Portiuncula.[30] When the\npriest turned toward him to read the words of Jesus, Francis felt\nhimself overpowered with a profound agitation. He no longer saw the\npriest; it was Jesus, the Crucified One of St. Damian, who was speaking:\n\"Wherever ye go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal\nthe sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. Freely ye have received,\nfreely give. Provide neither silver nor gold nor brass in your purses,\nneither scrip nor two coats, nor shoes nor staff, for the laborer is\nworthy of his meat.'\"\n\nThese words burst upon him like a revelation, like the answer of Heaven\nto his sighs and anxieties.\n\n\"This is what I want,\" he cried, \"this is what I was seeking; from this\nday forth I shall set myself with all my strength to put it in\npractice.\" Immediately throwing aside his stick, his scrip, his purse,\nhis shoes, he determined immediately to obey, observing to the letter\nthe precepts of the apostolic life.\n\nIt is quite possible that some allegorizing tendencies have had some\ninfluence upon this narrative.[31] The long struggle through which\nFrancis passed before becoming the apostle of the new times assuredly\ncame to a crisis in the scene at Portiuncula; but we have already seen\nhow slow was the interior travail which prepared for it.\n\nThe revelation of Francis was in his heart; the sacred fire which he was\nto communicate to the souls of others came from within his own, but the\nbest causes need a standard. Before the shabby altar of the Portiuncula\nhe had perceived the banner of poverty, sacrifice, and love, he would\ncarry it to the assault of every fortress of sin; under its shadow, a\ntrue knight of Christ, he would marshal all the valiant warriors of a\nspiritual strife.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 3 Soc., 26.\n\n   [2] 3 Soc., 10.\n\n   [3] This crucifix is preserved in the sacristy of Santa Chiara,\n       whither the sisters carried it when they left St. Damian.\n\n   [4] _Opuscula B. Francisci, Oratio I._\n\n   [5] 3 Soc., 13; 2 Cel., 1, 6; Bon., 12; 15; 16.\n\n   [6] 3 Soc., 14.\n\n   [7] This incident is found in the narrative of 1 Cel., 8: _Ibi\n       ex more venditis_.\n\n   [8] 1 Cel., 8; 3 Soc., 16; Bon. 16. Foligno is a three hours'\n       walk from Assisi.\n\n   [9] 1 Cel., 9; 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 6. Cf. A. SS., p. 567.\n\n  [10] 1 Cel., 10; 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 17, A. SS.; p. 568.\n\n  [11] 1 Cel., 11.\n\n  [12] 1 Cel., 12; 3 Soc., 17; Bon., 18.\n\n  [13] 1 Cel., 13; 3 Soc., 18.\n\n  [14] 1 Cel., 13. It is possible that at this epoch he had\n       received the lesser order, and that thus he might be subject to\n       the jurisdiction of the Church.\n\n  [15] 3 Soc., 18 and 19; 1 Cel., 14; Bon., 19.\n\n  [16] From 1204 until after the death of St. Francis the\n       episcopal throne of Assisi was occupied by Guido II. Vide\n       Cristofano, 1, 169 ff.\n\n  [17] _Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore o del vescovado._\n       Everything has remained pretty nearly in the same state as in\n       the thirteenth century.\n\n  [18] 1 Cel., 15; 3 Soc., 20; Bon., 20.\n\n  [19] 3 Soc., 16; Bon., 21.\n\n  [20] 1 Cel., 16; Bon., 21. The curious will read with interest\n       an article by M. Mezzatinti upon the journey to Gubbio entitled\n       _S. Francesco e Frederico Spadalunga da Gubbio_. [Miscellanea,\n       t. v., pp. 76-78.] This Spadalunga da Gubbio was well able to\n       give a garment to Francis, but it is very possible that the gift\n       was made much later and that this solemn date in the saint's\n       life has been fixed by an optical illusion, almost inevitable\n       because of the identity of the fact with the name of the\n       locality.\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; 13; 21; 22; 3 Soc., 11; A. SS., p.\n       575.\n\n  [22] 1 Cel., 18; 3 Soc., 21; Bon., 23.\n\n  [23] 3 Soc., 22; 2 Cel., 1, 9.\n\n  [24] 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 8; _Spec._, 24.\n\n  [25] 3 Soc., 23; 2 Cel., 7.\n\n  [26] 3 Soc., 24; _Testament de Claire_, Wadding, _ann. 1253_ v.\n\n  [27] Cel., 21; Bon., 24.\n\n  [28] 3 Soc., 14; 2 Cel., i., 6.\n\n  [29] Portiuncula was a dependence of this abbey.\n\n  [30] This is the date adopted by the Bollandists, because the\n       ancient missals mark the pericope, Matt. x., for the gospel of\n       this day. This entails no difficulty and in any case it cannot\n       be very far distant from the truth. A. SS., p. 574.\n\n  [31] See in particular Bon., 25 and 26. Cf. A. SS., p. 577d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nFIRST YEAR OF APOSTOLATE\n\nSpring of 1209-Summer of 1210\n\n\nThe very next morning Francis went up to Assisi and began to preach. His\nwords were simple, but they came so straight from the heart that all who\nheard him were touched.\n\nIt is not easy to hear and apply to one's self the exhortations of\npreachers who, aloft in the pulpit, seem to be carrying out a mere\nformality; it is just as difficult to escape from the appeals of a\nlayman who walks at our side. The amazing multitude of Protestant sects\nis due in a great degree to this superiority of lay preaching over\nclerical. The most brilliant orators of the Christian pulpit are bad\nconverters; their eloquent appeals may captivate the imagination and\nlead a few men of the world to the foot of the altar, but these results\nare not more brilliant than ephemeral. But let a peasant or a workingman\nspeak to those whom he meets a few simple words going directly to the\nconscience, and the man is always impressed, often won.\n\nThus the words of Francis seemed to his hearers like a flaming sword\npenetrating to the very depths of their conscience. His first attempts\nwere the simplest possible; in general they were merely a few words\naddressed to men whom he knew well enough to recognize their weak points\nand strike at them with the holy boldness of love. His person, his\nexample, were themselves a sermon, and he spoke only of that which he\nhad himself experienced, proclaiming repentance, the shortness of life,\na future retribution, the necessity of arriving at gospel\nperfection.[1] It is not easy to realize how many waiting souls there\nare in this world. The greater number of men pass through life with\nsouls asleep. They are like virgins of the sanctuary who sometimes feel\na vague agitation; their hearts throb with an infinitely sweet and\nsubtile thrill, but their eyelids droop; again they feel the damp cold\nof the cloister creeping over them; the delicious but baneful dream\nvanishes; and this is all they ever know of that love which is stronger\nthan death.\n\nIt is thus with many men for all that belongs to the higher life.\nSometimes, alone in the wide plain at the hour of twilight, they fix\ntheir eyes on the fading lights of the horizon, and on the evening\nbreeze comes to them another breath, more distant, fainter, and almost\nheavenly, awaking in them a nostalgia for the world beyond and for\nholiness. But the darkness falls, they must go back to their homes; they\nshake off their reverie; and it often happens that to the very end of\nlife this is their only glimpse of the Divine; a few sighs, a few\nthrills, a few inarticulate murmurs--this sums up all our efforts to\nattain to the sovereign good.\n\nYet the instinct for love and for the divine is only slumbering. At the\nsight of beauty love always awakes; at the appeal of holiness the divine\nwitness within us at once responds; and so we see, streaming from all\npoints of the horizon to gather around those who preach in the name of\nthe inward voice, long processions of souls athirst for the ideal. The\nhuman heart so naturally yearns to offer itself up, that we have only to\nmeet along our pathway some one who, doubting neither himself nor us,\ndemands it without reserve, and we yield it to him at once. Reason may\nunderstand a partial gift, a transient devotion; the heart knows only\nthe entire sacrifice, and like the lover to his beloved, it says to its\nvanquisher, \"Thine alone and forever.\"\n\nThat which has caused the miserable failure of all the efforts of\nnatural religion is that its founders have not had the courage to lay\nhold upon the hearts of men, consenting to no partition. They have not\nunderstood the imperious desire for immolation which lies in the depths\nof every soul, and souls have taken their revenge in not heeding these\ntoo lukewarm lovers.\n\nFrancis had given himself up too completely not to claim from others an\nabsolute self-renunciation. In the two years and more since he had\nquitted the world, the reality and depth of his conversion had shone out\nin the sight of all; to the scoffings of the early days had gradually\nsucceeded in the minds of many a feeling closely akin to admiration.\n\nThis feeling inevitably provokes imitation. A man of Assisi, hardly\nmentioned by the biographers, had attached himself to Francis. He was\none of those simple-hearted men who find life beautiful enough so long\nas they can be with him who has kindled the divine spark[2] in their\nhearts. His arrival at Portiuncula gave Francis a suggestion; from that\ntime he dreamed of the possibility of bringing together a few companions\nwith whom he could carry on his apostolic mission in the neighborhood.\n\nAt Assisi he had often enjoyed the hospitality of a rich and prominent\nman named Bernardo di Quintavalle,[3] who took him to sleep in his own\nchamber; it is easy to see how such an intimacy would favor confidential\noutpourings. When in the silence of the early night an ardent and\nenthusiastic soul pours out to you its disappointments, wounds, dreams,\nhopes, faith, it is difficult indeed not to be carried along, especially\nwhen the apostle has a secret ally in your soul, and unconsciously meets\nyour most secret aspirations.\n\nOne day Bernardo begged Francis to pass the following night with him, at\nthe same time giving him to understand that he was about to make a grave\nresolution upon which he desired to consult him. The joy of Francis was\ngreat indeed as he divined his intentions. They passed the night without\nthinking of sleep; it was a long communion of souls. Bernardo had\ndecided to distribute his goods to the poor and cast in his lot with\nFrancis. The latter desired his friend to pass through a sort of\ninitiation, pointing out to him that what he himself practised, what he\npreached, was not his own invention, but that Jesus himself had\nexpressly ordained it in his word.\n\nAt early dawn they bent their steps to the St. Nicholas Church,\naccompanied by another neophyte named Pietro, and there, after praying\nand hearing mass, Francis opened the Gospels that lay on the altar and\nread to his companions the portion which had decided his own vocation:\nthe words of Jesus sending forth his disciples on their mission.\n\n\"Brethren,\" he added, \"this is our life and our Rule, and that of all\nwho may join us. Go then and do as you have heard.\"[4]\n\nThe persistence with which the Three Companions relate that Francis\nconsulted the book three times in honor of the Trinity, and that it\nopened of its own accord at the verses describing the apostolic life,\nleads to the belief that these passages became the Rule of the new\nassociation, if not that very day at least very soon afterward.\n\n    If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to\n    the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and\n    follow me.\n\n    Jesus having called to him the Twelve, gave them power and\n    authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them\n    to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said\n    unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor\n    scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats\n    apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and\n    thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go\n    out of that city shake off the very dust from your feet for a\n    testimony against them. And they departed and went through the\n    towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.\n\n    Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after\n    me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.\n    For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever\n    will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man\n    profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own\n    soul?[5]\n\nAt first these verses were hardly more than the official Rule of the\nOrder; the true Rule was Francis himself; but they had the great merit\nof being short, absolute, of promising perfection, and of being taken\nfrom the Gospel.\n\nBernardo immediately set to work to distribute his fortune among the\npoor. Full of joy, his friend was looking on at this act, which had\ndrawn together a crowd, when a priest named Sylvester, who had formerly\nsold him some stones for the repairs of St. Damian, seeing so much money\ngiven away to everyone who applied for it, drew near and said:\n\n\"Brother, you did not pay me very well for the stones which you bought\nof me.\"\n\nFrancis had too thoroughly killed every germ of avarice in himself not\nto be moved to indignation by hearing a priest speak thus. \"Here,\" he\nsaid, holding out to him a double handful of coins which he took from\nBernardo's robe, \"here; are you sufficiently paid now?\"\n\n\"Quite so,\" replied Sylvester, somewhat abashed by the murmurs of the\nbystanders.[6]\n\nThis picture, in which the characters stand out so strongly, must have\ntaken strong hold upon the memory of the bystanders: the Italians only\nthoroughly understand things which they make a picture of. It taught\nthem, better than all Francis's preachings, what manner of men these new\nfriars would be.\n\nThe distribution finished, they went at once to Portiuncula, where\nBernardo and Pietro built for themselves cabins of boughs, and made\nthemselves tunics like that of Francis. They did not differ much from\nthe garment worn by the peasants, and were of that brown, with its\ninfinite variety of shades, which the Italians call beast color. One\nfinds similar garments to-day among the shepherds of the most remote\nparts of the Apennines.\n\nA week later, Thursday, April 23, 1209,[7] a new disciple of the name\nof Egidio presented himself before Francis. Of a gentle and submissive\nnature, he was of those who need to lean on someone, but who, the needed\nsupport having been found and tested, lift themselves sometimes even\nabove it. The pure soul of brother Egidio, supported by that of Francis,\ncame to enjoy the intoxicating delights of contemplation with an\nunheard-of ardor.[8]\n\nHere we must be on our guard against forcing the authorities, and asking\nof them more than they can give. Later, when the Order was definitely\nconstituted and its convents organized, men fancied that the past had\nbeen like the present, and this error still weighs upon the picture of\nthe origins of the Franciscan movement. The first brothers lived as did\nthe poor people among whom they so willingly moved; Portiuncula was\ntheir favorite church, but it would be a mistake to suppose that they\nsojourned there for any long periods. It was their place of meeting,\nnothing more. When they set forth they simply knew that they should meet\nagain in the neighborhood of the modest chapel. Their life was that of\nthe Umbrian beggars of the present day, going here and there as fancy\ndictated, sleeping in hay-lofts, in leper hospitals, or under the porch\nof some church. So little had they any fixed domicile that Egidio,\nhaving decided to join them, was at considerable trouble to learn where\nto find Francis, and accidentally meeting him in the neighborhood of\nRivo-Torto[9] he saw in the fact a providential leading.\n\nThey went up and down the country, joyfully sowing their seed. It was\nthe beginning of summer, the time when everybody in Umbria is out of\ndoors mowing or turning the grass. The customs of the country have\nchanged but little. Walking in the end of May in the fields about\nFlorence, Perugia, or Rieti, one still sees, at nightfall, the bagpipers\nentering the fields as the mowers seat themselves upon the hay-cocks for\ntheir evening meal; they play a few pieces, and when the train of\nhaymakers returns to the village, followed by the harvest-laden carts,\nit is they who lead the procession, rending the air with their sharpest\nstrains.\n\nThe joyous Penitents who loved to call themselves _Joculatores Domini_,\nGod's _jongleurs_, no doubt often did the same.[10] They did even\nbetter, for not willing to be a charge to anyone, they passed a part of\nthe day in aiding the peasants in their field work.[11] The inhabitants\nof these districts are for the most part kindly and sedate; the friars\nsoon gained their confidence by relating to them first their history and\nthen their hopes. They worked and ate together; field-hands and friars\noften slept in the same barn, and when with the morrow's dawn the friars\nwent on their way, the hearts of those they left behind had been\ntouched. They were not yet converted, but they knew that not far away,\nover toward Assisi, were living men who had renounced all worldly goods,\nand who, consumed with zeal, were going up and down preaching penitence\nand peace.\n\nTheir reception was very different in the cities. If the peasant of\nCentral Italy is mild and kindly the townsfolk are on a first\nacquaintance scoffing and ill disposed. We shall shortly see the friars\nwho went to Florence the butt of all sorts of persecutions.\n\nOnly a few weeks had passed since Francis began to preach, and already\nhis words and acts were sounding an irresistible appeal in the depths of\nmany a heart. We have arrived at the most unique and interesting period\nin the history of the Franciscans. These first months are for their\ninstitution what the first days of spring are for nature, days when the\nalmond-tree blossoms, bearing witness to the mysterious labor going on\nin the womb of the earth, and heralding the flowers that will suddenly\nenamel the fields. At the sight of these men--bare footed, scantily\nclothed, without money, and yet so happy--men's minds were much divided.\nSome held them to be mad, others admired them, finding them widely\ndifferent from the vagrant monks,[12] that plague of Christendom.\n\nSometimes, however, the friars found success not responding to their\nefforts, the conversion of souls not taking form with enough rapidity\nand vigor. To encourage them, Francis would then confide to them his\nvisions and his hopes. \"I saw a multitude of men coming toward us,\nasking that they might receive the habit of our holy religion, and lo,\nthe sound of their footsteps still echoes in my ears. I saw them coming\nfrom every direction, filling all the roads.\"\n\nWhatever the biographies may say, Francis was far from foreseeing the\nsorrows that were to follow this rapid increase of his Order. The maiden\nleaning with trembling rapture on her lover's arm no more dreams of the\npangs of motherhood than he thought of the dregs he must drain after\nquaffing joyfully the generous wine of the chalice.[13]\n\nEvery prosperous movement provokes opposition by the very fact of its\nprosperity. The herbs of the field have their own language for cursing\nthe longer-lived plants that smother them out; one can hardly live\nwithout arousing jealousy; in vain the new fraternity showed itself\nhumble, it could not escape this law.\n\nWhen the brethren went up to Assisi to beg from door to door, many\nrefused to give to them, reproaching them with desiring to live on the\ngoods of others after having squandered their own. Many a time they had\nbarely enough not to starve to death. It would even seem that the clergy\nwere not entirely without part in this opposition. The Bishop of Assisi\nsaid to Francis one day: \"Your way of living without owning anything\nseems to me very harsh and difficult.\" \"My lord,\" replied he, \"if we\npossessed property we should have need of arms for its defence, for it\nis the source of quarrels and lawsuits, and the love of God and of one's\nneighbor usually finds many obstacles therein; this is why we do not\ndesire temporal goods.\"[14]\n\nThe argument was unanswerable, but Guido began to rue the encouragement\nwhich he had formerly offered the son of Bernardone. He was very nearly\nin the situation and consequently in the state of mind of the Anglican\nbishops when they saw the organizing of the Salvation Army. It was not\nexactly hostility, but a distrust which was all the deeper for hardly\ndaring to show itself. The only counsel which the bishop could give\nFrancis was to come into the ranks of the clergy, or, if asceticism\nattracted him, to join some already existing monastic order.[15]\n\nIf the bishop's perplexities were great, those of Francis were hardly\nless so. He was too acute not to foresee the conflict that threatened to\nbreak out between the friars and the clergy. He saw that the enemies of\nthe priests praised him and his companions beyond measure simply to set\noff their poverty against the avarice and wealth of the ecclesiastics,\nyet he felt himself urged on from within to continue his work, and could\nwell have exclaimed with the apostle, _\"Woe is me if I preach not the\ngospel!\"_ On the other hand, the families of the Penitents could not\nforgive them for having distributed their goods among the poor, and\nattacks came from this direction with all the bitter language and the\ndeep hatred natural to disappointed heirs. From this point of view the\nbrotherhood appeared as a menace to families, and many parents trembled\nlest their sons should join it. Whether the friars would or no, they\nwere an unending subject of interest to the whole city. Evil rumors,\nplentifully spread abroad against them, simply defeated themselves;\nflying from mouth to mouth they speedily found contradictors who had no\ndifficulty in showing their absurdity. All this indirectly served their\ncause and gained to their side those hearts, more numerous than is\ngenerally believed, who find the defence of the persecuted a necessity.\n\nAs to the clergy, they could not but feel a profound distrust of these\nlay converters, who, though they aroused the hatred of some interested\npersons, awakened in more pious souls first astonishment and then\nadmiration. Suddenly to see men without title or diploma succeed\nbrilliantly in the mission which has been officially confided to\nourselves, and in which we have made pitiful shipwreck, is cruel\ntorture. Have we not seen generals who preferred to lose a battle rather\nthan gain it with the aid of guerrillas?\n\nThis covert opposition has left no characteristic traces in the\nbiographies of St. Francis. It is not to be wondered at; Thomas of\nCelano, even if he had had information of this matter, would have been\nwanting in tact to make use of it. The clergy, for that matter, possess\na thousand means of working upon public opinion without ceasing to show\na religious interest in those whom they detest.\n\nBut the more St. Francis shall find himself in contradiction with the\nclergy of his time, the more he will believe himself the obedient son of\nthe Church. Confounding the gospel with the teaching of the Church, he\nwill for a good while border upon heresy, but without ever falling into\nit. Happy simplicity, thanks to which he had never to take the attitude\nof revolt!\n\nIt was five years since, a convalescent leaning upon his staff, he had\nfelt himself taken possession of by a loathing of material pleasures.\nFrom that time every one of his days had been marked by a step in\nadvance.\n\nIt was again the spring-time. Perfectly happy, he felt himself more and\nmore impelled to bring others to share his happiness and to proclaim in\nthe four corners of the world how he had attained it. He resolved,\ntherefore, to undertake a new mission. A few days were spent in\npreparing for it. The Three Companions have preserved for us the\ndirections which he gave to his disciples:\n\n    \"Let us consider that God in his goodness has not called us\n    merely for our own salvation, but also for that of many men,\n    that we may go through all the world exhorting men, more by our\n    example than by our words, to repent of their sins and bear the\n    commandments in mind. Be not fearful on the ground that we\n    appear little and ignorant, but simply and without disquietude\n    preach repentance. Have faith in God, who has overcome the\n    world, that his Spirit will speak in you and by you, exhorting\n    men to be converted and keep his commandments.\n\n    \"You will find men full of faith, gentleness, and goodness, who\n    will receive you and your words with joy; but you will find\n    others, and in greater numbers, faithless, proud, blasphemers,\n    who will speak evil of you, resisting you and your words. Be\n    resolute, then, to endure everything with patience and\n    humility.\"\n\n    Hearing this, the brethren began to be agitated. St. Francis\n    said to them: \"Have no fear, for very soon many nobles and\n    learned men will come to you; they will be with you preaching to\n    kings and princes and to a multitude of peoples. Many will be\n    converted to the Lord, all over the world, who will multiply and\n    increase his family.\"\n\nAfter he had thus spoken he blessed them, saying to each one the word\nwhich was in the future to be his supreme consolation:\n\n    \"My brother, commit yourself to God with all your cares, and he\n    will care for you.\"\n\n    Then the men of God departed, faithfully observing his\n    instructions, and when they found a church or a cross they bowed\n    in adoration, saying with devotion, \"We adore thee, O Christ,\n    and we bless thee here and in all churches in the whole world,\n    for by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world.\" In fact\n    they believed that they had found a holy place wherever they\n    found a church or a cross.\n\n    Some listened willingly, others scoffed, the greater number\n    overwhelmed them with questions. \"Whence come you?\" \"Of what\n    order are you?\" And they, though sometimes it was wearisome to\n    answer, said simply, \"We are penitents, natives of the city of\n    Assisi.\"[16]\n\nThis freshness and poetry will not be found in the later missions. Here\nthe river is still itself, and if it knows toward what sea it is\nhastening, it knows nothing of the streams, more or less turbid, which\nshall disturb its limpidity, nor the dykes and the straightenings to\nwhich it will have to submit.\n\nA long account by the Three Companions gives us a picture from life of\nthese first essays at preaching:\n\n    Many men took the friars for knaves or madmen and refused to\n    receive them into their houses for fear of being robbed. So in\n    many places, after having undergone all sorts of bad usage, they\n    could find no other refuge for the night than the porticos of\n    churches or houses. There were at that time two brethren who\n    went to Florence. They begged all through the city but could\n    find no shelter. Coming to a house which had a portico and under\n    the portico a bench, they said to one another, \"We shall be very\n    comfortable here for the night.\" As the mistress of the house\n    refused to let them enter, they humbly asked her permission to\n    sleep upon the bench.\n\n    She was about to grant them permission when her husband\n    appeared. \"Why have you permitted these lewd fellows to stay\n    under our portico?\" he asked. The woman replied that she had\n    refused to receive them into the house, but had given them\n    permission to sleep under the portico where there was nothing\n    for them to steal but the bench.\n\n    The cold was very sharp; but taking them for thieves no one gave\n    them any covering.\n\n    As for them, after having enjoyed on their bench no more sleep\n    than was necessary, warmed only by divine warmth, and having for\n    covering only their Lady Poverty, in the early dawn they went to\n    the church to hear mass.\n\n    The lady went also on her part, and seeing the friars devoutly\n    praying she said to herself: \"If these men were rascals and\n    thieves as my husband said, they would not remain thus in\n    prayer.\" And while she was making these reflections behold a man\n    of the name of Guido was giving alms to the poor in the church.\n    Coming to the friars he would have given a piece of money to\n    them as to the others, but they refused his money and would not\n    receive it. \"Why,\" he asked, \"since you are poor, will you not\n    accept like the others?\" \"It is true that we are poor,\" replied\n    Brother Bernardo, \"but poverty does not weigh upon us as upon\n    other poor people; for by the grace of God, whose will we are\n    accomplishing, we have voluntarily become poor.\"\n\n    Much amazed, he asked them if they had ever had anything, and\n    learned that they had possessed much, but that for the love of\n    God they had given everything away.... The lady, seeing that the\n    friars had refused the alms, drew near to them and said that\n    she would gladly receive them into her house if they would be\n    pleased to lodge there. \"May the Lord recompense to you your\n    good will,\" replied the friars, humbly.\n\n    But Guido, learning that they had not been able to find a\n    shelter, took them to his own house, saying, \"Here is a refuge\n    prepared for you by the Lord; remain in it as long as you\n    desire.\"\n\n    As for them, they gave thanks to God and spent several days with\n    him, preaching the fear of the Lord by word and example, so that\n    in the end he made large distributions to the poor.\n\n    Well treated by him, they were despised by others. Many men,\n    great and small, attacked and insulted them, sometimes going so\n    far as to tear off their clothing; but though despoiled of their\n    only tunic, they would not ask for its restitution. If, moved to\n    pity, men gave back to them what they had taken away, they\n    accepted it cheerfully.\n\n    There were those who threw mud upon them, others who put dice\n    into their hands and invited them to play, and others clutching\n    them by the cowl made them drag them along thus. But seeing that\n    the friars were always full of joy in the midst of their\n    tribulations, that they neither received nor carried money, and\n    that by their love for one another they made themselves known as\n    true disciples of the Lord, many of them felt themselves\n    reproved in their hearts and came asking pardon for the offences\n    which they had committed. They, pardoning them with all their\n    heart, said, \"The Lord forgive you,\" and gave them pious\n    counsels for the salvation of their souls.\n\nA translation can but imperfectly give all the repressed emotion, the\ncandid simplicity, the modest joy, the fervent love which breathe in the\nfaulty Latin of the Three Companions. Yet these scattered friars sighed\nafter the home-coming and the long conversations with their spiritual\nfather in the tranquil forests of the suburbs of Assisi. Friendship\namong men, when it overpasses a certain limit, has something deep, high,\nideal, infinitely sweet, to which no other friendship attains. There was\nno woman in the Upper Chamber when, on the last evening of his life,\nJesus communed with his disciples and invited the world to the eternal\nmarriage supper.\n\nFrancis, above all, was impatient to see his young family once more.\nThey all arrived at Portiuncula almost at the same time, having already,\nbefore reaching it, forgotten the torments they had endured, thinking\nonly of the joy of the meeting.[17]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 1 Cel., 23; 3 Soc., 25 and 26; Bon., 27. Cf. _Auct. Vit.\n       Sec. ap._, A. SS., p. 579.\n\n   [2] 1 Cel., 24. We must correct the Bollandist text: _Inter quos\n       quidam de Assisio puer ac simplicem animum gerens_, by: _quidam\n       de Assisio pium ac simplicem_, etc. The period at which we have\n       arrived is very clear as a whole: the picture which the Three\n       Companions give us is true with a truth which forces conviction\n       at first sight; but neither they nor Celano are giving an\n       official report. Later on men desired to know precisely in what\n       order the early disciples came, and they tortured the texts to\n       find an answer. The same course was followed with regard to the\n       first missionary journeys. But on both sides they came up\n       against impossibilities and contradictions. What does it matter\n       whether there were two, three, or four missions before the papal\n       approbation? Of what consequence are the names of those early\n       disciples who are entirely secondary in the history of the\n       Franciscan movement? All these things took place with much more\n       simplicity and spontaneity than is generally supposed. There is\n       a wide difference between the plan of a house drawn up by an\n       architect and a view of the same house painted by an artist. The\n       second, though abounding in inexactitudes, gives a more just\n       notion of the reality than the plan. The same is true of the\n       Franciscan biographies.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 24. Bernard de Besse is the first to call him B. di\n       Quintavalle: _De laudibus_, fo. 95 h.; cf. upon him Mark of\n       Lisbon, t. i., second part, pp. 68-70; _Conform._, 47; _Fior._,\n       1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 28; 3 Soc., 27, 30, 39; 2 Cel., 1, 10; 2, 19;\n       Bon., 28; 1 Cel., 30; Salimbeni, ann. 1229, and _Tribul. Arch._,\n       ii., p. 278, etc.\n\n   [4] 1 Cel., 24; 3 Soc., 27, 28, 29; 2 Cel., 1, 10; 3, 52; Bon.,\n       28; A. SS., p. 580. It is evident that the tradition has been\n       worked over here: it soon came to be desired to find a miracle\n       in the manner in which Francis found the passage for reading.\n       The St. Nicholas Church is no longer in existence; it stood upon\n       the piece of ground now occupied by the barracks of the\n       _gendarmerie_ (_carabinieri reali_).\n\n   [5] Matt., xix., 21; Luke, ix., 1-6; Matt., xvi., 24-26. The\n       agreement of tradition upon these passages is complete. 3 Soc.,\n       29; 2 Cel., 1, 10; Bon., 28; _Spec._, 5b.; _Conform._, 37b. 2,\n       47a. 2; _Fior._, 2; Glassberger and the Chronicle of the xxiv.\n       generals reversing the order (Analecta, fr., t. ii., p. 5) as\n       well as the Conformities in another place, 87b, 2.\n\n   [6] 3 Soc., 30. Cf. _Anon. Perus._, A. SS., p. 581a. This scene\n       is reported neither by Celano nor by St. Bonaventura.\n\n   [7] This date is given in the life of Brother Egidio; A. SS.,\n       _Oct._, t. ii., p. 572; _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 220. It fits well\n       with the accounts. Through it we obtain the approximate date of\n       the definitive conversion of Francis two full years earlier.\n\n   [8] 1 Cel., 25; 3 Soc., 23; Bon. 29. Cf. _Anon. Perus._, A. SS.,\n       p. 582, and A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 220 ff.\n\n   [9] _Spec._, 25a: _Qualiter dixit fratri Egidio priusquam esset\n       receptus ut daret mantellum ciudam pauperi. In primordio\n       religionis cum maneret apud Regum Tortum cum duobus fratribus\n       quos tunc tantum habehat._ If we compare this passage with 3\n       Soc., 44, we shall doubtless arrive at the conclusion that the\n       account in the Speculum is more satisfactory. It is in fact very\n       easy to understand the optical illusion by which later on the\n       Portiuncula was made the scene of the greater number of the\n       events of St. Francis's life, while it would be difficult to see\n       why there should have been any attempt to surround Rivo-Torto\n       with an aureola. The Fioretti say: _Ando inverso lo spedale dei\n       lebbrosi_, which confirms the indication of Rivo-Torto. _Vita d'\n       Egidio_, Sec. 1.\n\n  [10] _An. Perus_, A. SS., p. 582. Cf. _Fior._, _Vita di Egidio_,\n       1; _Spec._, 124, 136; 2 Cel., 3, 68; A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii.,\n       p. 227.\n\n  [11] _Spec._, 34a; _Conform._, 219b, 1; _Ant. fr._, p. 96.\n\n  [12] The Gyrovagi. Tr.\n\n  [13] 3 Soc. 32-34; 1 Cel., 27 and 28; Bon., 31.\n\n  [14] 3 Soc., 35. Cf. _Anon. Perus._; A. SS., p. 584.\n\n  [15] Later on, naturally, it was desired that Francis should\n       have had no better supporter than Guido; some have even made him\n       out to be his spiritual director (St. Francois, Plon, p. 24)! We\n       have an indirect but unexceptionable proof of the reserve with\n       which these pious traditions must be accepted; Francis did not\n       even tell his bishop (_pater et dominus animarum_, 3 Soc., 29)\n       of his design of having his Rule approved by the pope. This is\n       the more striking because the bishop would have been his natural\n       advocate at the court of Rome, and because in the absence of any\n       other reason the most elementary politeness required that he\n       should have been informed. Add to this that bishops in Italy are\n       not, as elsewhere, _functionaries_ approached with difficulty by\n       the common run of mortals. Almost every village in Umbria has\n       its bishop, so that their importance is hardly greater than that\n       of the cure of a French canton. Furthermore, several pontifical\n       documents throw a sombre light on Guido's character. In a\n       chapter of the decretals of Honorius III. (_Quinta compil._,\n       lib. ii., tit. iii., cap. i.) is given a complaint against this\n       bishop, brought before the curia by the Crucigeri of the\n       hospital _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ (suburbs of Assisi), of\n       having maltreated two of their number, and having stolen a part\n       of the wine belonging to the convent: _pro eo quod Aegidium\n       presbyterum, et fratrem eorem conversum violentas manus\n       injecerat ... adjiciens quod idem hospitale quadam vini\n       quantitate fuerat per eumdem episcopum spoliatum._ _Honorii\n       opera_, Horoy's edition, t. i., col. 200 ff. Cf. Potthast, 7746.\n       The mention of the hospital _de Pariete_ proves beyond question\n       that the Bishop of Assisi is here concerned and not the Bishop\n       of Osimo, as some critics have suggested.\n\n       Another document shows him at strife with the Benedictines of\n       Mount Subasio (the very ones who afterward gave Portiuncula to\n       Francis), and Honorius III. found the bishop in the wrong: Bull\n       _Conquerente oeconomo monasterii ap_. Richter, _Corpus juris\n       canonici_. Leipzig, 1839, 4to, Horoy, _loc. cit._, t. i., col.\n       163; Potthast, 7728.\n\n  [16] 3 Soc., 36 and 37. Cf. _Anon. Perus. ap._, A. SS., p. 585;\n       _Test. B. Francisci_.\n\n  [17] 3 Soc., 38-41.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nST. FRANCIS AND INNOCENT III\n\nSummer 1210[1]\n\n\nSeeing the number of his friars daily increasing, Francis decided to\nwrite the Rule of the Order and go to Rome to procure its approval by\nthe Pope.\n\nThis resolution was not lightly taken. It would be a mistake in fact to\ntake Francis for one of those inspired ones who rush into action upon\nthe strength of unexpected revelations, and, thanks to their faith in\ntheir own infallibility, overawe the multitude. On the contrary, he was\nfilled with a real humility, and if he believed that God reveals himself\nin prayer, he never for that absolved himself from the duty of\nreflection nor even from reconsidering his decisions. St. Bonaventura\ndoes him great wrong in picturing the greater number of his important\nresolutions as taken in consequence of dreams; this is to rob his life\nof its profound originality, his sanctity of its choicest blossom. He\nwas of those who struggle, and, to use one of the noblest expressions of\nthe Bible, of those who _by their perseverance conquer their souls_.\nThus we shall see him continually retouching the Rule of his institute,\nunceasingly revising it down to the last moment, according as the growth\nof the Order and experience of the human heart suggested to him\nmodifications of it.[2]\n\nThe first Rule which he submitted to Rome has not come down to us; we\nonly know that it was extremely simple, and composed especially of\npassages from the Gospels. It was doubtless only the repetition of those\nverses which Francis had read to his first companions, with a few\nprecepts about manual labor and the occupations of the new\nbrethren.[3]\n\nIt will be well to pause here and consider the brethren who are about to\nset out for Rome. The biographies are in agreement as to their number;\nthey were twelve, including Francis; but the moment they undertake to\ngive a name to each one of them difficulties begin to arise, and it is\nonly by some exegetical sleight of hand that they can claim to have\nreconciled the various documents. The table given below[4] briefly\nshows these difficulties. The question took on some importance when in\nthe fourteenth century men undertook to show an exact conformity between\nthe life of St. Francis and that of Jesus. It is without interest to us.\nThe profiles of two or three of these brethren stand out very clearly in\nthe picture of the origins of the Order; others remind one of the\npictures of primitive Umbrian masters, where the figures of the\nbackground have a modest and tender grace, but no shadow of personality.\nThe first Franciscans had all the virtues, including the one which is\nnearly always wanting, willingness to remain unknown.\n\nIn the Lower Church of Assisi there is an ancient fresco representing\nfive of the companions of St. Francis. Above them is a Madonna by\nCimabue, upon which they are gazing with all their soul. It would be\nmore true if St. Francis were there in the place of the Madonna; one is\nalways changed into the image of what one admires, and they resemble\ntheir master and one another.[5] To attempt to give them a name is to\nmake a sort of psychological error and become guilty of infidelity to\ntheir memory; the only name they would have desired is that of their\nfather. His love changed their hearts and shed over their whole persons\na radiance of light and joy. These are the true personages of the\n_Fioretti_, the men who brought peace to cities, awakened consciences,\nchanged hearts, conversed with birds, tamed wolves. Of them one may\ntruly say: \"Having nothing, yet possessing all things\" (_Nihil habentes,\nomnia possidentes_).\n\nThey quitted Portiuncula full of joy and confidence. Francis was too\nmuch absorbed in thought not to desire to place in other hands the\ndirection of the little company.\n\n    \"Let us choose,\" he said, \"one from among ourselves to guide us,\n    and let him be to us as the vicar of Jesus Christ. Wherever it\n    may please him to go we will go, and when he may wish to stop\n    anywhere to sleep there we will stop.\" They chose Brother\n    Bernardo and did as Francis had said. They went on full of joy,\n    and all their conversations had for their object only the glory\n    of God and the salvation of their souls.\n\n    Their journey was happily accomplished. Everywhere they found\n    kindly souls who sheltered them, and they felt beyond a doubt\n    that God was taking care of them.[6]\n\nFrancis's thoughts were all fixed upon the purpose of their journey; he\nthought of it day and night, and naturally interpreted his dreams with\nreference to it. One time, in his dream, he saw himself walking along a\nroad beside which was a gigantic and wonderfully beautiful tree. And,\nbehold, while he looked upon it, filled with wonder, he felt himself\nbecome so tall that he could touch the boughs, and at the same time the\ntree bent down its branches to him.[7] He awoke full of joy, sure of a\ngracious reception by the sovereign pontiff.\n\nHis hopes were to be somewhat blighted. Innocent III. had now for twelve\nyears occupied the throne of St. Peter. Still young, energetic,\nresolute, he enjoyed that superfluity of authority given by success.\nComing after the feeble Celestine III., he had been able in a few years\nto reconquer the temporal domain of the Church, and so to improve the\npapal influence as almost to realize the theocratic dreams of Gregory\nVII. He had seen King Pedro of Aragon declaring himself his vassal and\nlaying his crown upon the tomb of the apostles, that he might take it\nback at his hands. At the other end of Europe, John Lackland had been\nobliged to receive his crown from a legate after having sworn homage,\nfealty, and an annual tribute to the Holy See. Preaching union to the\ncities and republics of Italy, causing the cry ITALIA! ITALIA! to\nresound like the shout of a trumpet, he was the natural representative\nof the national awakening, and appeared to be in some sort the suzerain\nof the emperor, as he was already that of other kings. Finally, by his\nefforts to purify the Church, by his indomitable firmness in defending\nmorality and law in the affair of Ingelburge and in many others, he was\ngaining a moral strength which in times so disquieted was all the more\npowerful for being so rare.\n\nBut this incomparable power had its hidden dangers. Occupied with\ndefending the prerogatives of the Holy See, Innocent came to forget that\nthe Church does not exist for herself, that her supremacy is only a\ntransitory means; and one part of his pontificate may be likened to\nwars, legitimate in the beginning, in which the conqueror keeps on with\ndepredations and massacres for no reason, except that he is intoxicated\nwith blood and success.\n\nAnd so Rome, which canonized the petty Celestine V., refused this\nsupreme consecration to the glorious Innocent III. With exquisite tact\nshe perceived that he was rather king than priest, rather pope than\nsaint.\n\nWhen he suppressed ecclesiastical disorders it was less for love of good\nthan for hatred of evil; it was the judge who condemns or threatens,\nhimself always supported by the law, not the father who weeps his son's\noffence. This priest did not comprehend the great movement of his\nage--the awakening of love, of poetry, of liberty. I have already said\nthat at the opening of the thirteenth century the Middle Age was twenty\nyears old. Innocent III. undertook to treat it as if it were only\nfifteen. Possessed by his civil and religious dogmas as others are by\ntheir educational doctrines, he never suspected the unsatisfied\nlongings, the dreams, unreasoning perhaps, but beneficent and divine,\nthat were dumbly stirring in the depths of men's hearts. He was a\nbeliever, although certain sayings of the historians[8] open the door\nto some doubts on this point, but he drew his religion rather from the\nOld Testament than from the New, and if he often thought of Moses, the\nleader of his people, nothing reminded him of Jesus, the shepherd of\nsouls. One cannot be everything; a choice intelligence, an iron\nwill[9] are a sufficient portion even for a _priest-god_; he lacked\nlove. The death of this pontiff, great among the great ones, was\ndestined to be saluted with songs of joy.[10]\n\nHis reception of Francis furnished to Giotto, the friend of Dante, one\nof his most striking frescos; the pope, seated on his throne, turns\nabruptly toward Francis. He frowns, for he does not understand, and yet\nhe feels a strange power in this mean and despised man, _vilis et\ndespectus_; he makes a real but futile effort to comprehend, and now I\nsee in this pope, who lived upon lemons,[11] something that recalls\nanother choice mind, theocratic like his own, sacrificed like him to his\nwork: Calvin. One might think that the painter had touched his lips to\nthe Calabrian Seer's cup, and that in the attitude of these two men he\nsought to symbolize a meeting of representatives of the two ages of\nhumanity, that of Law and that of Love.[12]\n\nA surprise awaited the pilgrims on their arrival in Rome: they met the\nBishop of Assisi,[13] quite as much to his astonishment as to their\nown. This detail is precious because it proves that Francis had not\nconfided his plans to Guido. Notwithstanding this the bishop, it is\nsaid, offered to make interest for them with the princes of the Church.\nWe may suspect that his commendations were not very warm. At all events\nthey did not avail to save Francis and his company either from a\nsearching inquiry or from the extended fatherly counsels of Cardinal\nGiovanni di San Paolo[14] upon the difficulties of the Rule, counsels\nwhich strongly resemble those of Guido himself.[15]\n\nWhat Francis asked for was simple enough; he claimed no privilege of any\nsort, but only that the pope would approve of his undertaking to lead a\nlife of absolute conformity to the precepts of the gospel. There is a\ndelicate point here which it is quite worth while to see clearly. The\npope was not called upon to approve the Rule, since that came from Jesus\nhimself; at the very worst all that he could do would be to lay an\necclesiastical censure upon Francis and his companions for having acted\nwithout authority, and to enjoin them to leave to the secular and\nregular clergy the task of reforming the Church.\n\nCardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, to whom the Bishop of Assisi presented\nthem, had informed himself of the whole history of the Penitents. He\nlavished upon them the most affectionate tokens of interest, even going\nso far as to beg for a mention in their prayers. But such assurances,\nwhich appear to have been always the small change of the court of Rome,\ndid not prevent his examining them for several successive days,[16] and\nputting to them an infinite number of questions, of which the conclusion\nwas always the advice to enter some Order already existing.\n\nTo this the unlucky Francis would reply as best he could, often not\nwithout embarrassment, for he had no wish to appear to think lightly of\nthe cardinal's counsels, and yet he felt in his heart the imperious\ndesire to obey his vocation. The prelate would then return to the\ncharge, insinuating that they would find it very hard to persevere, that\nthe enthusiasm of the early days would pass away, and again pointing out\na more easy course. He was obliged in the end to own himself vanquished.\nThe persistence of Francis, who had never weakened for an instant nor\ndoubted his mission, begat in him a sort of awe, while the perfect\nhumility of the Penitents and their simple and striking fidelity to the\nRoman Church reassured him in the matter of heresy.\n\nHe announced to them, therefore, that he would speak of them to the\npope, and would act as their advocate with him. According to the Three\nCompanions he said to the pope: \"I have found a man of the highest\nperfection, who desires to live in conformity with the Holy Gospel and\nobserve evangelical perfection in all things. I believe that by him the\nLord intends to reform the faith of the Holy Church throughout the whole\nworld.\"[17]\n\nOn the morrow he presented Francis and his companions to Innocent III.\nNaturally, the pope was not sparing of expressions of sympathy, but he\nalso repeated to them the remarks and counsels which they had already\nheard so often. \"My dear children,\" he said, \"your life appears to me\ntoo severe; I see indeed that your fervor is too great for any doubt of\nyou to be possible, but I ought to consider those who shall come after\nyou, lest your mode of life should be beyond their strength.\"[18]\n\nAdding a few kind words, he dismissed them without coming to any\ndefinite conclusion, promising to consult the cardinals, and advising\nFrancis in particular to address himself to God, to the end that he\nmight manifest his will.\n\nFrancis's anxiety must have been great; he could not understand these\ndilatory measures, these expressions of affection which never led to a\ncategorical approbation. It seemed to him that he had said all that he\nhad to say. For new arguments he had only one resource--prayer.\n\nHe felt his prayer answered when in his conversation with Jesus the\nparable of poverty came to him; he returned to lay it before the pope.\n\n    There was in the desert a woman who was very poor, but\n    beautiful. A great king, seeing her beauty, desired to take her\n    for his wife, for he thought that by her he should have\n    beautiful children. The marriage contracted and consummated,\n    many sons were born to him. When they were grown up, their\n    mother spoke to them thus: \"My sons, you have no cause to blush,\n    for you are the sons of the king; go, therefore, to his court,\n    and he will give you everything you need.\"\n\n    When they arrived at the court the king admired their beauty,\n    and finding in them his own likeness he asked, \"Whose sons are\n    you?\" And when they replied that they were the sons of a poor\n    woman who lived in the desert, the king clasped them to his\n    heart with joy saying, \"Have no fear, for you are my sons; if\n    strangers eat at my table, much more shall you who are my lawful\n    sons.\" Then the king sent word to the woman to send to his court\n    all the sons which she had borne, that they might be nourished\n    there.\n\n    \"Very holy father,\" added Francis, \"I am this poor woman whom\n    God in his love has deigned to make beautiful, and of whom he\n    has been pleased to have lawful sons. The King of Kings has told\n    me that he will provide for all the sons which he may have of\n    me, for if he sustains bastards, how much more his legitimate\n    sons.\"[19]\n\nSo much simplicity, joined with such pious obstinacy, at last conquered\nInnocent. In the humble mendicant he perceived an apostle and prophet\nwhose mouth no power could close. Successor of St. Peter and vicar of\nJesus Christ that he felt himself, he saw in the mean and despised man\nbefore him one who with the authority of absolute faith proclaimed\nhimself the root of a new lineage of most legitimate Christians.\n\nThe biographers have held that by this parable Francis sought above all\nthings to tranquillize the pope as to the future of the brethren; they\nfind in it a reply to the anxieties of the pontiff, who feared to see\nthem starve to death. There can be no doubt that its original meaning\nwas totally different. It shows that with all his humility Francis knew\nhow to speak out boldly, and that all his respect for the Church could\nnot hinder his seeing, and, when necessary, saying, that he and his\nbrethren were the lawful sons of the gospel, of which the members of the\nclergy were only _extranei_. We shall find in the course of his life\nmore than one example of this indomitable boldness, which disarmed\nInnocent III. as well as the future Gregory IX.\n\nIn a consistory which doubtless was held between the two audiences some\nof the cardinals expressed the opinion that the initiative of the\nPenitents of Assisi was an innovation, and that their mode of life was\nentirely beyond human power. \"But,\" replied Giovanni di San Paolo, \"if\nwe hold that to observe gospel perfection and make profession of it is\nan irrational and impossible innovation, are we not convicted of\nblasphemy against Christ, the author of the gospel?\"[20]\n\nThese words struck Innocent III. with great force; he knew better than\nany one that the possessions of the ecclesiastics were the great\nobstacles to the reform of the Church, and that the threatened success\nof the Albigensian heresy was especially due to the fact that it\npreached the doctrine of poverty.\n\nTwo years before he had accorded his approbation to a group of\nWaldensians, who under the name _Poor Catholics_ had desired to remain\nfaithful to the Church;[21] he therefore gave his approval to the\nPenitents of Assisi, but, as a contemporary chronicler has well\nobserved, it was in the hope that they would wrest the banner from\nheresy.[22]\n\nYet his doubts and hesitations were not entirely dissipated. He reserved\nhis definitive approbation, therefore, while lavishing upon the brothers\nthe most affectionate tokens of interest. He authorized them to continue\ntheir missions everywhere, after having gained the consent of their\nordinaries. He required, however, that they should give themselves a\nresponsible superior to whom the ecclesiastical authorities could always\naddress themselves. Naturally, Francis was chosen.[23] This fact, so\nhumble in appearance, definitively constituted the Franciscan family.\n\nThe mystics whom we saw going from village to village transported with\nlove and liberty accepted the yoke almost without thinking about it.\nThis yoke will preserve them from the disintegration of the heretics,\nbut it will make itself sharply felt by those pure souls; they will one\nday look back to the early days of the Order as the only time when their\nlife was truly conformed to the gospel.\n\nWhen Francis heard the words of the supreme pontiff he prostrated\nhimself at his feet, promising the most perfect obedience with all his\nheart. The pope blessed them, saying: \"Go, my brethren, and may God be\nwith you. Preach penitence to everyone according as the Lord may deign\nto inspire you. Then when the All-powerful shall have made you multiply\nand go forward, you will refer to us; we will concede what you ask, and\nwe may then with greater security accord to you even more than you\nask.\"[24]\n\nFrancis and his companions were too little familiar with Roman\nphraseology to perceive that after all the Holy See had simply consented\nto suspend judgment in view of the uprightness of their intentions and\nthe purity of their faith.[25]\n\nThe flowers of clerical rhetoric hid from them the shackles which had\nbeen laid upon them. The curia, in fact, was not satisfied with\nFrancis's vow of fidelity, it desired in addition to stamp the Penitents\nwith the seal of the Church: the Cardinal of San Paolo was deputed to\nconfer upon them the tonsure. From this time they were all under the\nspiritual authority of the Roman Church.\n\nThe thoroughly lay creation of St. Francis had become, in spite of\nhimself, an ecclesiastical institution: it must soon degenerate into a\nclerical institution. All unawares, the Franciscan movement had been\nunfaithful to its origin. The prophet had abdicated in favor of the\npriest, not indeed without possibility of return, for when a man has\nonce reigned, I would say, thought, in liberty--what other kingdom is\nthere on this earth?--he makes but an indifferent slave; in vain he\ntries to submit; in spite of himself it happens at times that he lifts\nhis head proudly, he rattles his chains, he remembers the struggles,\nsadness, anguish of the days of liberty, and weeps their loss. Among the\nsons of St. Francis many were destined to weep their lost liberty, many\nto die to conquer it again.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The date usually fixed for the approval of the Rule by\n       Innocent III. is the month of August, 1209. The Bollandists had\n       thought themselves able to infer it from the account where\n       Thomas of Celano (1 Cel., 43) refers to the passage through\n       Umbria of the Emperor Otho IV., on his way to be crowned at Rome\n       (October 4, 1209). Upon this journey see Boehmer-Ficker, _Regesta\n       Imperii. Dei Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV._,\n       etc., Insbruck, 1879, 4to, pp. 96 and 97. As this account\n       follows that of the approval, they conclude that the latter was\n       earlier. But Thomas of Celano puts this account there because\n       the context led up to it, and not in order to fix its date.\n       Everything leads to the belief that the Brothers retired\n       (_recolligebat_, 1 Cel., 42) to Rivo-Torto before and after\n       their journey to Rome. Besides, the time between April 23d and\n       the middle of August, 1209, is much too short for all that the\n       biographers tell us about the life of the Brothers before their\n       visit to Innocent III. The mission to Florence took place in\n       winter, or at least in a very cold month. But the decisive\n       argument is that Innocent III. quitted Rome toward the end of\n       May, 1209, and went to Viterbo, returning only to crown Otho,\n       October 4th (Potthast, 3727-3803). It is therefore absolutely\n       necessary to postpone to the summer of 1210 the visit of the\n       Penitents to the pope. This is also the date which Wadding\n       arrives at.\n\n   [2] 3 Soc., 35.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 51; Bon., 34. Cf. _Test. B. Fr._ M. K.\n       Mueller of Halle, in his _Anfaenge_, has made a very remarkable\n       study of the Rule of 1221, whence he deduces an earlier Rule,\n       which he believes to be that of 1209 (1210). For once I find\n       myself entirely in accord with him, except that the Rule thus\n       reconstructed (Vide _Anfaenge_, pp. 14-25, 184-188) appears to me\n       to be not that of 1210, which was very short, but another, drawn\n       up between 1210 and 1221. The _plures regulas fecit_ of the 3\n       Soc., 35, authorizes us to believe that he made perhaps as many\n       as four--1st, 1210, very short, containing little more than the\n       three passages of the vocation; 2d, 1217 (?), substantially that\n       proposed by M. Mueller; 3d, 1221, that of which we shall speak at\n       length farther on; 4th, 1226, the Will, which if not a Rule is\n       at least an appendix to the Rule. If from 1221-1226 he had time\n       to make two Rules and the Will, as is universally admitted,\n       there is nothing surprising in his having made two from\n       1210-1221. Perhaps we have a fragment of that of 1217 in the\n       regulation of hermitages. Vide below, p. 109.\n\n   [4] Thomas of Celano's list. 1, _Quidam pium gerens animum_; 2,\n       _Bernardus_; 3, _Vir alter_; 4, _AEgidius_; 5, _Unus alius\n       appositus_; 6, _Philippus_; 7, _Alius bonus vir_; 8, 9, 10, 11,\n       _Quatuor boni et idonei viri_. 1 Cel., 24, 25, 29, 31. The\n       Rinaldi-Amoni text says nothing of the last four. Three\n       Companions: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, _Petrus_; 3, _AEgidius_; 4,\n       _Sabbatinus_; 5, _Moritus_; _Johannes Capella_; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,\n       Disciples received by the brethren in their missions. 3 Soc.,\n       33, 35, 41, 46, 52. Bonaventura: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, ... 3,\n       _AEgidius_; 4, 5, ... 6, _Silvestro_; 7, _Alius bonus viri_; 8,\n       9, 10, 11, _Quatuor viri honesti_. Bon., 28, 29, 30, 31, 33. The\n       Fioretti, while insisting on the importance of the twelve\n       Franciscan apostles, cite only six in their list: Giovanni di\n       Capella, Egidio, Philip, Silvestro, Bernardo, and Rufino.\n       _Fior._, 1. We must go to the Conformities to find the\n       traditional list, f^o 46b 1: 1, _Bernardus de Quintavalle_; 2,\n       _Petrus Chatanii_; 3, _Egidius_; 4, _Sabatinus_; 5, _Moricus_;\n       6, _Johannes de Capella_; 7, _Philippus Longus_; 8, _Johannes de\n       Sancto Constantio_; 9, _Barbarus_; 10, _Bernardus de\n       Cleviridante_ (sic); 11, _Angelus Tancredi_; 12, _Sylvester_. As\n       will be seen, in the last two documents twelve disciples are in\n       question, while in the preceding ones there are only eleven.\n       This is enough to show a dogmatic purpose. This list reappears\n       exactly in the _Speculum_, with the sole difference that Francis\n       being there included Angelo di Tancrede is the twelfth brother\n       and Silvestro disappears. _Spec._, 87a.\n\n   [5] According to tradition, the five _compagni del Santo_ buried\n       there beside their master are Bernardo, Silvestro, William (an\n       Englishman), Eletto, and Valentino(?)\n\n   [6] 3 Soc., 46; 1 Cel., 32; Bon., 34.\n\n   [7] 1 Cel., 33; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 35.\n\n   [8] St. Ludgarde (1182-1246) sees him condemned to Purgatory\n       till the Last Judgment. Life of this saint by Thomas of Catimpre\n       in Surius: _Vitae SS._ (1618), vi., 215-226.\n\n   [9] _Vir clari ingenii, magnae probitatis et sapientiae, cui\n       nullus secundus tempore suo:_ Rigordus, _de gestis Philippi\n       Augusti_ in Duchesne. _Historiae Francorum scriptores coaetanei_,\n       t. v., p. 60.--_Nec similem sui scientia, facundia, decretorum\n       et legum perititia, strenuitate, judiciorum nec adhuc visus est\n       habere sequentem._ Cf. Mencken, _Script. rer. Sax._, Leipzig,\n       1728, t. iii., p. 252. _Innocentius, qui vere stupor mundi erat\n       et immutator saeculi._ Cotton, _Hist. Anglicana_, Luard, 1859, p.\n       107.\n\n  [10] _Cujus finis laetitiem potius quam tristitiam generavit\n       subjectis._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane. Leibnitz, _Accessiones\n       historicae_, t. ii., p. 492.\n\n  [11] _Decidit in acutam (febrem) quam cum multis diebus fovisset\n       nec a citris quibus in magna quantitatae et ex consuetudine\n       vescebatur ... minime abstineret ... ad ultimum in lethargia\n       prolapsus vitam finivit._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane, _loc. cit._\n\n  [12] Fresco in the great nave of the Upper Church of Assisi.\n\n  [13] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 47.\n\n  [14] Of the Colonna family; he died in 1216. Cf. 3 Soc., 61.\n       Vide Cardella, _Memorie storiche de' Cardinali_, 9 vols., 8vo,\n       Rome, 1792 ff., t. i., p. 177. He was at Rome in the summer of\n       1210, for on the 11th of August he countersigned the bull\n       _Religiosem vitam_. Potthast, 4061. Angelo Clareno relates the\n       approbation with more precision in certain respects: _Cum vero\n       Summo Pontifici ea quae postulabat [Franciscus] ardua valde et\n       quasi impossibilia viderentur infirmitate hominum sui temporis,\n       exhortabatur eum, quod aliquem ordinem vel regulam de approbatis\n       assumeret, at ipse se a Christo missum ad talem vitam et non\n       aliam postulandam constanter affirmans, fixus in sua petitione\n       permansit. Tunc dominus Johannes de Sancto Paulo episcopus\n       Sabinensis et dominus Hugo episcopus Hostiensis Dei spiritu moti\n       assisterunt Sancto Francisco et pro his quae petebat coram summo\n       Pontifice et Cardinalibus plura proposuerunt rationabilia et\n       efficacia valde. Tribul._ Laurentinian MS., f^o 6a. This\n       intervention of Ugolini is mentioned in no other document. It\n       is, however, by no means impossible. He also was in Rome in the\n       summer of 1210. (Vide Potthast, p. 462.)\n\n  [15] 1 Cel., 32 and 33; 3 Soc., 47 and 48. Cf. _An. Per._, A.\n       SS., p. 590.\n\n  [16] 1 Cel., 33.\n\n  [17] 3 Soc., 48.\n\n  [18] 3 Soc., 49; 1 Cel., 33; Bon., 35 and 36. All this has been\n       much worked over by tradition and gives us only an echo of the\n       reality. It would certainly have needed very little for the\n       Penitents to meet the same fate before Innocent III. as the\n       Waldenses before Lucius III. Traces of this interview are found\n       in two texts which appear to me to be too suspicious to warrant\n       their insertion in the body of the narrative. The first is a\n       fragment of Matthew Paris: _Papa itaque in fratre memorato\n       habitum deformem, vultum despicabilem, barbam prolixam, capillos\n       incultos, supercilia pendentia et nigra diligenter considerans;\n       cum petitionem ejus tam arduam et executione impossibilem\n       recitare fecisset, despexit cum et dixit: Vade frater, et quaere\n       porcus, quibus potius debes quam hominibus comparari, et involve\n       te cum eis in volutabro, et regulam illis a te commentatam\n       tradens, officium tuae praedicationis impende. Quod audiens\n       Franciscus inclinato capite exixit et porcis tandem inventis, in\n       luto se cum eis tamdiu involvit quousque a planta pedis usque ad\n       verticem, corpus suum totum cum ipso habitu polluisset. Sicque\n       ad consistorium revertens Papae se conspectibus praesentavit\n       dicens: Domine feci sicut praecepisti exaudi nunc obsecro\n       petitionem meam_. Ed. Wats, p. 340. The incident has a real\n       Franciscan color, and should have some historic basis.\n       Curiously, it in some sort meets a passage in the legend of\n       Bonaventura which is an interpolation of the end of the\n       thirteenth century. See A. SS., p. 591.\n\n  [19] 3 Soc., 50 and 51; Bon., 37; 2 Cel., 1, 11; Bernard de\n       Besse, Turin MS., f^o 101b. Ubertini di Casali (_Arbor vitae\n       crucifixae_, Venice, 1485, lib. v., cap. iii.) tells a curious\n       story in which he depicts the indignation of the prelates\n       against Francis. _Quaenam haec est doctrina nova quam infers\n       auribus nostris? Quis potest vivere sine temporalium\n       possessione? Numquid tu melior es quam patres nostri qui\n       dederunt nobis temporalia et in temporalibus abundantes\n       ecclesias possiderunt?_ Then follows the fine prayer inserted by\n       Wadding in Francis's works. The central idea is the same as in\n       the parable of poverty. This story, though not referable to any\n       source, has nevertheless its importance, since it shows how in\n       the year 1300 a man who had all the documents before his eyes,\n       represented to himself Francis's early steps.\n\n  [20] Bon., 36.\n\n  [21] The attempt of Durand of Huesca to create a mendicant order\n       has not yet been studied with sufficient minuteness. Chief of\n       the Waldenses of Aragon, he was present in 1207 at the\n       conference of Pamiers, and decided to return to the Church.\n       Received with kindness by the pope he at first had a great\n       success, and by 1209 had established communities in Aragon, at\n       Carcassonne, Narbonne, Beziers, Nimes, Uzes, Milan. We find in\n       this movement all the lineaments of the institute of St.\n       Dominic; it was an order of priests to whom theological studies\n       were recommended. They disappeared almost completely in the\n       storm of the Albigensian crusade. Innocent III., _epistolae_,\n       xi., 196, 197, 198; xii., 17, 66; xiii., 63, 77, 78, 94; xv.,\n       82, 83, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 137, 146. The first of these\n       bulls contains the very curious Rule of this ephemeral order.\n       Upon its disappearance vide Ripoli, _Bullarium Praedicatorum_, 8\n       vols., folio, Rome, 1729-1740, t. i., p. 96. Cf. Elie Berger,\n       _Registres d'Innocent IV._, 2752.\n\n  [22] Burchard, of the order of the Premostrari, who died in\n       1226. See below, p. 234.\n\n  [23] 3 Soc., 52; Bon., 38.\n\n  [24] 3 Soc., 52 and 49.\n\n  [25] St. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, saw very clearly that\n       it was _quaedam concessio simplex habitus et modi illius vivendi\n       et quasi permissio_. A. SS., p. 839. The expression \"approbation\n       of the Rule\" by which the act of Innocent III. is usually\n       designated is therefore erroneous.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRIVO-TORTO\n\n1210-1211\n\n\nThe Penitents of Assisi were overflowing with joy. After so many\nmortally long days spent in that Rome, so different from the other\ncities that they knew, exposed to the ill-disguised suspicions of the\nprelates and the jeers of pontifical lackeys, the day of departure\nseemed to them like a deliverance. At the thought of once more seeing\ntheir beloved mountains they were seized by that homesickness of the\nchild for its native village which simple and kindly souls preserve till\ntheir latest breath.\n\nImmediately after the ceremony they prayed at the tomb of St. Peter, and\nthen crossing the whole city they quitted Rome by the Porta Salara.\n\nThomas of Celano, very brief as to all that concerns Francis's sojourn\nin the Eternal City, recounts at full length the light-heartedness of\nthe little band on quitting it. Already it began to be transfigured in\ntheir memory; pains, fatigues, fears, disquietude, hesitations were all\nforgotten; they thought only of the fatherly assurances of the supreme\npontiff--the vicar of Christ, the lord and father of the Christian\nuniverse--and promised themselves to make ever new efforts to follow the\nRule with fidelity.\n\nFull of these thoughts they had set out, without provisions, to cross\nthe Campagna of Rome, whose few inhabitants never venture out in the\nheat of the day. The road stretches away northward, keeping at some\ndistance from the Tiber; on the left the jagged crest of Soracte, bathed\nin mists formed by the exhalations of the earth, looms up\ndisproportionately as it fades in the distance; on the right, the\neverlasting undulations of the hillocks with their wide pastures\nseparated by thickets so parched and ragged that they seemed to cry for\nmercy and pardon. Between them the dusty road which goes straight\nforward, implacable, showing, as far as the eye can reach, nothing but\nthe quivering of the fiery air. Not a house, not a tree, not a passing\nbreeze, nothing to sustain the traveller under the disquietude which\ncreeps over him. Here and there are a few abandoned huts, their ruins\nlooking like the corpses of departed civilizations, and on the edge of\nthe horizon the hills rising up like gigantic and unsurmountable walls.\n\nThere are no words to describe the physical and moral sufferings to\nwhich he is exposed who undertakes without proper preparation to cross\nthis inhospitable district. To the weakness caused by lack of air soon\nsucceeds an insurmountable lassitude. The feet sink in a soft, tenuous\ndust which every step sends up in clouds; it covers you, penetrates your\nskin, and parches your mouth even more than thirst. Little by little all\nenergy ebbs away, a dumb dejection seizes you, sight and thought become\nalike confused, fever ensues, and you cast yourself down by the\nroadside, unable to take another step.\n\nIn their haste to leave Rome Francis and his companions had forgotten\nall this, and had imprudently set forth. They would have succumbed if a\nchance traveller had not brought them succor. He was obliged to leave\nthem before they had shaken off the last hallucinations of fever,\nleaving them amazed with the unexpected succor which Providence had sent\nthem.[1]\n\nThey were so severely shattered that on arriving at Orte they were\nobliged to stop awhile. In a desert spot not far from this city they\nfound a shelter admirably adapted to serve them for refuge;[2] it was\none of those Etruscan tombs so common in that country, whose chambers\nserve to this day as a shelter for beggars and gypsies. While some of\nthe brethren hastened to the city to beg for food, the others remained\nin this solitude enjoying the happiness of being together, forming a\nthousand plans, and more than ever delighting in the charm of freedom\nfrom care and renunciation of material goods.\n\nThis place had so strong an attraction for them that it required an\neffort of will to quit it at the end of a fortnight. The seduction of a\nlife purely contemplative assailed Francis, and he asked himself if\ninstead of preaching to the multitudes he would not do better to live in\nretreat, solely mindful of the inward dialogue between the soul and\nGod.[3]\n\nThis aspiration for the selfish repose of the cloister came back to him\nseveral times in his life; but love always won the victory. He was too\nmuch the child of his time not to be at times tempted by that happiness\nwhich the Middle Ages regarded as the supreme bliss of the elect in\nparadise--peace. _Beati mortui quia quiescunt!_ His distinguishing\npeculiarity is that he never gave way to it.\n\nThe reflections of Francis and his companions during their stay at Orte\nonly made their apostolic mission more clear and imperative to them. He,\nabove all, seemed to be filled with a new ardor, and like a valiant\nknight he burned to throw himself into the thick of the fray.\n\nTheir way now led through the valley of the Nera. The contrast between\nthese cool glens, awake with a thousand voices, and the desolation of\nthe Roman Campagna, must have struck them vividly; the stream is only a\nswollen torrent, but it runs so noisily over pebbles and rocks that it\nseems to be conversing with them and with the trees of the neighboring\nforest. In proportion as they had felt themselves alone on the road from\nRome to Otricoli, they now felt themselves compassed about with the\nlife, the fecundity, the gayety of the country.\n\nThe account of Thomas of Celano becomes so animated as it describes the\nlife of Francis at this epoch that one cannot help thinking that at this\ntime he must have seen him, and that this first meeting remained always\nin his memory as the radiant dawn of his spiritual life.[4]\n\nThe Brothers had taken to preaching in such places as they came upon\nalong their route. Their words were always pretty much the same, they\nshowed the blessedness of peace and exhorted to penitence. Emboldened by\nthe welcome they had received at Rome, which in all innocence they might\nhave taken to be more favorable than it really was, they told the story\nto everyone they met, and thus set all scruples at rest.\n\nThese exhortations, in which Francis spared not his hearers, but in\nwhich the sternest reproaches were mingled with so much of love,\nproduced an enormous effect. Man desires above all things to be loved,\nand when he meets one who loves him sincerely he very seldom refuses him\neither his love or his admiration.\n\nIt is only a low understanding that confounds love with weakness and\ncompliance. We sometimes see sick men feverishly kissing the hand of\nthe surgeon who performs an operation upon them; we sometimes do the\nsame for our spiritual surgeons, for we realize all that there is of\nvigor, pity, compassion in the tortures which they inflict, and the\ncries which they force from us are quite as much of gratitude as of\npain.\n\nMen hastened from all parts to hear these preachers who were more severe\nupon themselves than on anyone else. Members of the secular clergy,\nmonks, learned men, rich men even, often mingled in the impromptu\naudiences gathered in the streets and public places. All were not\nconverted, but it would have been very difficult for any of them to\nforget this stranger whom they met one day upon their way, and who in a\nfew words had moved them to the very bottom of their hearts with anxiety\nand fear.\n\nFrancis was in truth, as Celano says, the bright morning star. His\nsimple preaching took hold on consciences, snatched his hearers from the\nmire and blood in which they were painfully trudging, and in spite of\nthemselves carried them to the very heavens, to those serene regions\nwhere all is silent save the voice of the heavenly Father. \"The whole\ncountry trembled, the barren land was already covered with a rich\nharvest, the withered vine began again to blossom.\"[5]\n\nOnly a profoundly religious and poetic soul (is not the one the other?)\ncan understand the transports of joy which overflowed the souls of St.\nFrancis's spiritual sons.\n\nThe greatest crime of our industrial and commercial civilization is that\nit leaves us a taste only for that which may be bought with money, and\nmakes us overlook the purest and truest joys which are all the time\nwithin our reach. The evil has roots far in the past. \"Wherefore,\" said\nthe God of old Isaiah, \"do you weigh money for that which is not meat?\nwhy labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken unto me, and ye shall\neat that which is good, and your soul shall delight itself in\nfatness.\"[6]\n\nJoys bought with money--noisy, feverish pleasures--are nothing compared\nwith those sweet, quiet, modest but profound, lasting, and peaceful\njoys, enlarging, not wearying the heart, which we too often pass by on\none side, like those peasants whom we see going into ecstasies over the\nfireworks of a fair, while they have not so much as a glance for the\nglorious splendors of a summer night.\n\nIn the plain of Assisi, at an hour's walk from the city and near the\nhighway between Perugia and Rome, was a ruinous cottage called\nRivo-Torto. A torrent, almost always dry, but capable of becoming\nterrible in a storm, descends from Mount Subasio and passes beside it.\nThe ruin had no owner; it had served as a leper hospital before the\nconstruction by the Crucigeri[7] of their hospital San Salvatore\ndelle Pareti; but since that time it had been abandoned. Now came\nFrancis and his companions to seek shelter there.[8] It is one of the\nquietest spots in the suburbs of Assisi, and from thence they could\neasily go out into the neighborhood in all directions; it being about an\nequal distance from Portiuncula and St. Damian. But the principal motive\nfor the choice of the place seems to have been the proximity of the\n_Carceri_, as those shallow natural grottos are called which are found\nin the forests, half way up the side of Mount Subasio. Following up the\nbed of the torrent of Rivo-Torto one reaches them in an hour by way of\nrugged and slippery paths where the very goats do not willingly venture.\nOnce arrived, one might fancy oneself a thousand leagues from any human\nbeing, so numerous are the birds of prey which live here quite\nundisturbed.[9]\n\nFrancis loved this solitude and often retired thither with a few\ncompanions. The brethren in that case shared between them all care of\ntheir material wants, after which, each one retiring into one of these\ncaves, they were able for a few days to listen only to the inner voice.\n\nThese little hermitages, sufficiently isolated to secure them from\ndisturbance, but near enough to the cities to permit their going thither\nto preach, may be found wherever Francis went. They form, as it were, a\nseries of documents about his life quite as important as the written\nwitnesses. Something of his soul may still be found in these caverns in\nthe Apennine forests. He never separated the contemplative from the\nactive life. A precious witness to this fact is found in the\nregulations for the brethren during their sojourn in hermitage.[10]\n\nThe return of the Brothers to Rivo-Torto was marked by a vast increase\nof popularity. The prejudiced attacks to which they had formerly been\nsubjected were lost in a chorus of praises. Perhaps men suspected the\nill-will of the bishop and were happy to see him checked. However this\nmay be, a lively feeling of sympathy and admiration was awakened; the\npeople recalled to mind the indifference manifested by the son of\nBernardone a few months before with regard to Otho IV. going to be\ncrowned at Rome. The emperor had made a progress through Italy with a\nnumerous suite and a pomp designed to produce an effect on the minds of\nthe populace; but not only had Francis not interrupted his work to go\nand see him, he had enjoined upon his friars also to abstain from going,\nand had merely selected one of them to carry to the monarch a reminder\nof the ephemeral nature of worldly glory. Later on it was held that he\nhad predicted to the emperor his approaching excommunication.\n\nThis spirited attitude made a vivid impression on the popular\nimagination.[11] Perhaps it was of more service in forming general\nopinion than anything he had done thus far. The masses, who are not\noften alive to delicate sentiments, respond quickly to those who,\nwhether rightly or wrongly, do not bow down before power. This time they\nperceived that where other men would see the poor, the rich, the noble,\nthe common, the learned, Francis saw only souls, which were to him the\nmore precious as they were more neglected or despised.\n\nNo biographer informs us how long the Penitents remained at Rivo-Torto.\nIt seems probable, however, that they spent there the latter part of\n1210 and the early months of 1211, evangelizing the towns and villages\nof the neighborhood.\n\nThey suffered much; this part of the plain of Assisi is inundated by\ntorrents nearly every autumn, and many times the poor friars, blockaded\nin the lazaretto, were forced to satisfy their hunger with a few roots\nfrom the neighboring fields.\n\nThe barrack in which they lived was so narrow that, when they were all\nthere at once, they had much difficulty not to crowd one another. To\nsecure to each one his due quota of space, Francis wrote the name of\neach brother upon the column which supports the building. But these\nminor discomforts in no sense disturbed their happiness. No apprehension\nhad as yet come to cloud Francis's hopes; he was overflowing with joy\nand kindliness; all the memories which Rivo-Torto has left with the\nOrder are fresh and sweet pictures of him.[12]\n\nOne night all the brethren seemed to be sleeping, when he heard a\nmoaning. It was one of his sheep, to speak after the manner of the\nFranciscan biographer, who had denied himself too rigorously and was\ndying of hunger. Francis immediately rose, called the brother to him,\nbrought forth the meagre reserve of food, and himself began to eat to\ninspire the other with courage, explaining to him that if penitence is\ngood it is still necessary to temper it with discretion.[13]\n\nFrancis had that tact of the heart which divines the secrets of others\nand anticipates their desires. At another time, still at Rivo-Torto, he\ntook a sick brother by the hand, led him to a grape-vine, and,\npresenting him with a fine cluster, began himself to eat of it. It was\nnothing, but the simple act so bound to him the sick man's heart that\nmany years after the brother could not speak of it without emotion.[14]\n\nBut Francis was far from neglecting his mission. Ever growing more sure,\nnot of himself but of his duty toward men, he took part in the political\nand social affairs of his province with the confidence of an upright and\npure heart, never able to understand how stupidity, perverseness, pride,\nand indolence, by leaguing themselves together, may check the finest and\nmost righteous impulses. He had the faith which removes mountains, and\nwas wholly free from that touch of scepticism, so common in our day,\nwhich points out that it is of no more use to move mountains than to\nchange the place of difficulties.\n\nWhen the people of Assisi learned that his Rule had been approved by the\npope there was strong excitement; every one desired to hear him preach.\nThe clergy were obliged to give way; they offered him the Church of St.\nGeorge, but this church was manifestly insufficient for the crowds of\nhearers; it was necessary to open the cathedral to him.\n\nSt. Francis never said anything especially new; to win hearts he had\nthat which is worth more than any arts of oratory--an ardent conviction;\nhe spoke as compelled by the imperious need of kindling others with the\nflame that burned within himself. When they heard him recall the horrors\nof war, the crimes of the populace, the laxity of the great, the\nrapacity which dishonored the Church, the age-long widowhood of\nPoverty, each one felt himself taken to task in his own conscience.\n\nAn attentive or excited crowd is always very impressionable, but this\npeculiar sensitiveness was perhaps stronger in the Middle Ages than at\nany other time. Nervous disturbances were in the air, and upon men thus\nprepared the will of the preacher impressed itself in a manner almost\nmagnetic.\n\nTo understand what Francis's preaching must have been like we must\nforget the manners of to-day, and transport ourselves for a moment to\nthe Cathedral of Assisi in the thirteenth century; it is still standing,\nbut the centuries have given to its stones a fine rust of polished\nbronze, which recalls Venice and Titian's tones of ruddy gold. It was\nnew then, and all sparkling with whiteness, with the fine rosy tinge of\nthe stones of Mount Subasio. It had been built by the people of Assisi a\nfew years before in one of those outbursts of faith and union which were\nalmost everywhere the prelude of the communal movement. So, when the\npeople thronged into it on their high days, they not merely had none of\nthat vague respect for a holy place which, though it has passed into the\ncustoms of other countries, still continues to be unknown in Italy, but\nthey felt themselves at home in a palace which they had built for\nthemselves. More than in any other church they there felt themselves at\nliberty to criticise the preacher, and they had no hesitation in proving\nto him, either by murmurs of dissatisfaction or by applause, just what\nthey thought of his words. We must remember also that the churches of\nItaly have neither pews nor chairs, that one must listen standing or\nkneeling, while the preacher walks about gesticulating on a platform;\nadd to this the general curiosity, the clamorous sympathies of many, the\ndisguised opposition of some, and we shall have a vague notion of the\nconditions under which Francis first entered the pulpit of San Rufino.\n\nHis success was startling. The poor felt that they had found a friend, a\nbrother, a champion, almost an avenger. The thoughts which they hardly\ndared murmur beneath their breath Francis proclaimed at the top of his\nvoice, daring to bid all, without distinction, to repent and love one\nanother. His words were a cry of the heart, an appeal to the consciences\nof all his fellow-citizens, almost recalling the passionate utterances\nof the prophets of Israel. Like those witnesses for Jehovah the \"little\npoor man\" of Assisi had put on sackcloth and ashes to denounce the\niniquities of his people, like theirs was his courage and heroism, like\ntheirs the divine tenderness in his heart.\n\nIt seemed as if Assisi were about to recover again the feeling of Israel\nfor sin. The effect of these appeals was prodigious; the entire\npopulation was thrilled, conquered, desiring in future to live only\naccording to Francis's counsels; his very companions, who had remained\nbehind at Rivo-Torto, hearing of these marvels, felt in themselves an\nanswering thrill, and their vocation took on a new strength; during the\nnight they seemed to see their master in a chariot of fire, soaring to\nheaven like a new Elijah.[15]\n\nThis almost delirious enthusiasm of a whole people was not perhaps so\ndifficult to arouse as might be supposed: the emotional power of the\nmasses was at that time as great all over Europe as it was in Paris\nduring certain days of the Revolution. We all know the tragic and\ntouching story of those companies of children from the north of Europe\nwho appeared in 1212 in troops of several thousands, boys and girls\nmingled together pell-mell. Nothing could stop them, a mania had\novertaken them, in all good faith they believed that they were to\ndeliver the Holy Land, that the sea would be dried up to let them pass.\nThey perished, we hardly know how, perhaps being sold into slavery.[16]\nThey were accounted martyrs, and rightly; popular devotion likened them\nto the Holy Innocents, dying for a God whom they knew not. Those\nchildren of the crusade also perished for an unknown ideal, false no\ndoubt; but is it not better to die for an unknown and even a false ideal\nthan to live for the vain realities of an utterly unpoetic existence? In\nthe end of time we shall be judged neither by philosophers nor by\ntheologians, and if we were, it is to be hoped that even in this case\nlove would cover a multitude of sins and pass by many follies.\n\nCertainly if ever there was a time when religious affections of the\nnerves were to be dreaded, it was that which produced such movements as\nthese. All Europe seemed to be beside itself; women appeared stark naked\nin the streets of towns and villages, slowly walking up and down, silent\nas phantoms.[17] We can understand now the accounts which have come\ndown to us, so fantastic at the first glance, of certain popular orators\nof this time; of Berthold of Ratisbon, for example, who drew together\ncrowds of sixteen thousand persons, or of that Fra Giovanni Schio di\nVicenza, who for a time quieted all Northern Italy and brought Guelphs\nand Ghibellines into one another's arms.[18]\n\nThat popular eloquence which was to accomplish so many marvels in 1233\ncomes down in a straight line from the Franciscan movement. It was St.\nFrancis who set the example of those open-air sermons given in the\nvulgar tongue, at street corners, in public squares, in the fields.\n\nTo feel the change which he brought about we must read the sermons of\nhis contemporaries; declamatory, scholastic, subtile, they delighted in\nthe minutiae of exegesis or dogma, serving up refined dissertations on\nthe most obscure texts of the Old Testament, to hearers starving for a\nsimple and wholesome diet.\n\nWith Francis, on the contrary, all is incisive, clear, practical. He\npays no attention to the precepts of the rhetoricians, he forgets\nhimself completely, thinking only of the end desired, the conversion of\nsouls. And conversion was not in his view something vague and\nindistinct, which must take place only between God and the hearer. No,\nhe will have immediate and practical proofs of conversion. Men must give\nup ill-gotten gains, renounce their enmities, be reconciled with their\nadversaries.\n\nAt Assisi he threw himself valiantly into the thick of civil\ndissensions. The agreement of 1202 between the parties who divided the\ncity had been wholly ephemeral. The common people were continually\ndemanding new liberties, which the nobles and burghers would yield to\nthem only under the pressure of fear. Francis took up the cause of the\nweak, the _minores_, and succeeded in reconciling them with the rich,\nthe _majores_.\n\nHis spiritual family had not as yet, properly speaking, a name, for,\nunlike those too hasty spirits who baptize their productions before they\nhave come to light, he was waiting for the occasion that should reveal\nthe true name which he ought to give it.[19] One day someone was\nreading the Rule in his presence. When he came to the passage, \"Let the\nbrethren, wherever they may find themselves called to labor or to serve,\nnever take an office which shall put them over others, but on the\ncontrary, let them be always under (_sint minores_) all those who may be\nin that house,\"[20] these words _sint minores_ of the Rule, in the\ncircumstances then existing in the city, suddenly appeared to him as a\nprovidential indication. His institution should be called the Order of\nthe Brothers Minor.\n\nWe may imagine the effect of this determination. The _Saint_, for\nalready this magic word had burst forth where he appeared,[21] the\nSaint had spoken. It was he who was about to bring peace to the city,\nacting as arbiter between the two factions which rent it.\n\nWe still possess the document of this _pace civile_, exhumed, so to\nspeak, from the communal archives of Assisi by the learned and pious\nAntonio Cristofani.[22] The opening lines are as follows:\n\n    \"In the name of God!\n\n    \"May the supreme grace of the Holy Spirit assist us! To the\n    honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin Mary, the\n    Emperor Otho, and Duke Leopold.\n\n    \"This is the statute and perpetual agreement between the\n    _Majori_ and _Minori_ of Assisi.\n\n    \"Without common consent there shall never be any sort of\n    alliance either with the pope and his nuncios or legates, or\n    with the emperor, or with the king, or with their nuncios or\n    legates, or with any city or town, or with any important person,\n    except with a common accord they shall do all which there may be\n    to do for the honor, safety, and advantage of the commune of\n    Assisi.\"\n\nWhat follows is worthy of the beginning. The lords, in consideration of\na small periodical payment, should renounce all the feudal rights; the\ninhabitants of the villages subject to Assisi were put on a par with\nthose of the city, foreigners were protected, the assessment of taxes\nwas fixed. On Wednesday, November 9, 1210, this agreement was signed and\nsworn to in the public place of Assisi; it was made in such good faith\nthat exiles were able to return in peace, and from this day we find in\nthe city registers the names of those _emigres_ who, in 1202, had\nbetrayed their city and provoked the disastrous war with Perugia.\nFrancis might well be happy. Love had triumphed, and for several years\nthere were at Assisi neither victors nor vanquished.\n\nIn the mystic marriages which here and there in history unite a man to a\npeople, something takes place of which the transports of sense, the\ndelirium of love, seem to be the only symbol; a moment comes in which\nsaints, or men of genius, feel unknown powers striving mightily within\nthem; they strive, they seek, they struggle until, triumphing over all\nobstacles, they have forced trembling, swooning humanity to conceive by\nthem.\n\nThis moment had come to St. Francis.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 1 Cel., 34; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 39.\n\n   [2] Probably at Otricoli, which lies on the high-road between\n       Rome and Spoleto. Orte is an hour and a half further on. It is\n       the ancient _Otriculum_, where many antiquities have been found.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 35; Bon., 40 and 41.\n\n   [4] The only road connecting Celano with Rome, as well as with\n       all Central and Northern Italy, passes by Aquila, Rieti, and\n       Terni, where it joins the high-roads leading from the north\n       toward Rome.\n\n   [5] 1 Cel., 36 and 37; 3 Soc., 54; Bon., 45-48.\n\n   [6] Isaiah, lv., 2.\n\n   [7] This Order deserves to be better known; it was founded under\n       Alexander III. and rapidly spread all over Central Italy and the\n       East. In Francis's lifetime it had in Italy and the Holy Land\n       about forty houses dedicated to the care of lepers. It is very\n       probable that it was at _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ that\n       Francis visited these unhappy sufferers. He there made the\n       particular acquaintance of a Cruciger named _Morico_. The latter\n       afterward falling ill, Francis sent him a remedy which would\n       cure him, informing him at the same time that he was to become\n       his disciple, which shortly afterward took place. The hospital\n       _San Salvatore_ has disappeared; it stood in the place now\n       called _Ospedaletto_, where a small chapel now stands half way\n       between Assisi and Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was from there\n       that the dying Francis blessed Assisi. For Morico vide 3 Soc.,\n       35; Bon., 49; 2 Cel., 3, 128; _Conform._, 63b.--For the hospital\n       vide Bon., 49; _Conform._, 135a, 1; _Honorii III. opera_, Horoy,\n       t. i., col. 206. Cf. Potthast, 7746; L. Auvray, _Registres de\n       Gregoire IX._, Paris, 1890, 4to, no. 209. For the Crucigeri in\n       the time of St. Francis vide the interesting bull _Cum tu fili\n       prior_, of July 8, 1203; Migne, _Inn. op._, t. ii., col. 125 ff.\n       Cf. Potthast, 1959, and _Cum pastoris_, April 5, 1204; Migne,\n       _loc. cit._, 319. Cf. Potthast, 2169 and 4474.\n\n   [8] 3 Soc., 55.\n\n   [9] All this yet remains in its primitive state. The road which\n       went from Assisi to the now ruined Abbey of Mount Subasio\n       (almost on the summit of the mountain) passed the Carceri, where\n       there was a little chapel built by the Benedictines.\n\n  [10] _Illi qui religiose volunt stare in eremis sint tres aut\n       quatuor ad plus. Duo ex ipsis sint matres, et habeant duos\n       filios, vel unum ad minus. Illi duo teneant vitam Marthae et alii\n       duo vitam Mariae Magdalenae._ Assisi MS., 338, 43a-b; text given\n       also in _Conf._, 143a, 1, from which Wadding borrows it for his\n       edition of the _Opuscules_ of St. Francis. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 113.\n       It is possible that we have here a fragment of the Rule, which\n       must have been composed toward 1217.\n\n  [11] 1 Cel., 42 and 43; 3 Soc., 55; Bon., 41.\n\n  [12] 1 Cel., 42-44.\n\n  [13] 2 Cel., 1, 15; Bon., 65. These two authors do not say where\n       the event took place; but there appears to be no reason for\n       suspecting the indication of Rivo-Torto given by the _Speculum_,\n       fo. 21a.\n\n  [14] 2 Cel., 3, 110. Cf. _Spec._, 22a.\n\n  [15] 1 Cel., 47; Bon., 43.\n\n  [16] There are few events of the thirteenth century that offer\n       more documents or are more obscure than this one. The\n       chroniclers of the most different countries speak of it at\n       length. Here is one of the shortest but most exact of the\n       notices, given by an eye-witness (Annals of Genoa of the years\n       1197-1219, _apud Mon. Germ. hist. Script_., t. 18): 1212 _in\n       mense Augusti, die Sabbati, octava Kalendarum Septembris,\n       intravit civitatem Janue quidam puer Teutonicus nomine Nicholaus\n       peregrinationis causa, et cum eo multitudo maxima pelegrinorum\n       defferentes cruces et bordonos atque scarsellas ultra septem\n       millia arbitratu boni viri inter homines et feminas et puellos\n       et puellas. Et die dominica sequenti de civitate exierunt_.--Cf.\n       Giacomo di Viraggio: Muratori, t. ix., col. 46: _Dicebant quod\n       mare debebat apud Januam siccari et sic ipsi debebant in\n       Hierusalem proficisci. Multi autem inter eos erant filii\n       Nobilium, quos ipsi etiam cum meretricibus destinarunt (!_) The\n       most tragic account is that of Alberic, who relates the fate of\n       the company that embarked at Marseilles. _Mon. Ger. hist.\n       Script_., t. 23, p. 894.\n\n  [17] The Benedictine chronicler, Albert von Stade (_Mon. Ger.\n       hist. Script_., t. 16, pp. 271-379), thus closes his notice of\n       the children's crusade: _Adhuc quo devenerint ignorantur sed\n       plurimi redierunt, a quibus cum quaereretur causa cursus dixerunt\n       se nescire. Nudae etiam mulieres circa idem tempus nihil\n       loquentes per villas et civitates cucurrerunt._ _Loc. cit._,\n       p. 355.\n\n  [18] _Chron. Veronese, ann. 1238_ (Muratori, _Scriptores Rer.\n       Ital._, t. viii., p. 626). Cf. Barbarano de' Mironi: _Hist.\n       Eccles. di Vicenza_, t. ii., pp. 79-84.\n\n  [19] The Brothers were at first called _Viri paenitentiales de\n       civitate Assisii_ (3 Soc., 37); it appears that they had a\n       momentary thought of calling themselves _Pauperes de Assisio_,\n       but they were doubtless dissuaded from this at Rome, as too\n       closely resembling that of the _Pauperes de Lugduno_. Vide\n       _Burchardi chronicon._, p. 376; vide Introd., cap. 5.\n\n  [20] Vide Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7. Cf. 1 Cel., 38, and Bon., 78.\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 36.\n\n  [22] _Storia d'Assisi_, t. i., pp. 123-129.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nPORTIUNCULA\n\n1211\n\n\nIt was doubtless toward the spring of 1211 that the Brothers quitted\nRivo-Torto. They were engaged in prayer one day, when a peasant appeared\nwith an ass, which he noisily drove before him into the poor shelter.\n\n\"Go in, go in!\" he cried to his beast; \"we shall be most comfortable\nhere.\" It appeared that he was afraid that if the Brothers remained\nthere much longer they would begin to think this deserted place was\ntheir own.[1] Such rudeness was very displeasing to Francis, who\nimmediately arose and departed, followed by his companions.\n\nNow that they were so numerous the Brothers could no longer continue\ntheir wandering life in all respects as in the past; they had need of a\npermanent shelter and above all of a little chapel. They addressed\nthemselves in vain first to the bishop and then to the canons of San\nRufino for the loan of what they needed, but were more fortunate with\nthe abbot of the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who ceded to them in\nperpetuity the use of a chapel already very dear to their hearts, Santa\nMaria degli Angeli or the Portiuncula.[2]\n\nFrancis was enchanted; he saw a mysterious harmony, ordained by God\nhimself, between the name of the humble sanctuary and that of his Order.\nThe brethren quickly built for themselves a few huts; a quickset hedge\nserved as enclosing wall, and thus in three or four days was organized\nthe first Franciscan convent.\n\nFor ten years they were satisfied with this. These ten years are the\nheroic period of the Order. St. Francis, in full possession of his\nideal, will seek to inculcate it upon his disciples and will succeed\nsometimes; but already the too rapid multiplication of the brotherhood\nwill provoke some symptoms of relaxation.\n\nThe remembrance of the beginning of this period has drawn from the lips\nof Thomas of Celano a sort of canticle in honor of the monastic life. It\nis the burning and untranslatable commentary of the Psalmist's cry:\n\"_Behold how sweet and pleasant it is to be brethren and to dwell\ntogether._\"\n\nTheir cloister was the forest which then extended on all sides of\nPortiuncula, occupying a large part of the plain. There they gathered\naround their master to receive his spiritual counsels, and thither they\nretired to meditate and pray.[3] It would be a gross mistake, however,\nto suppose that contemplation absorbed them completely during the days\nwhich were not consecrated to missionary tours: a part of their time was\nspent in manual labor.\n\nThe intentions of St. Francis have been more misapprehended on this\npoint than on any other, but it may be said that nowhere is he more\nclear than when he ordains that his friars shall gain their livelihood\nby the work of their hands. He never dreamed of creating a _mendicant_\norder, he created a _laboring_ order. It is true we shall often see him\nbegging and urging his disciples to do as much, but these incidents\nought not to mislead us; they are meant to teach that when a friar\narrived in any locality and there spent his strength for long days in\ndispensing spiritual bread to famished souls, he ought not to blush to\nreceive material bread in exchange. To work was the rule, to beg the\nexception; but this exception was in nowise dishonorable. Did not Jesus,\nthe Virgin, the disciples live on bread bestowed? Was it not rendering a\ngreat service to those to whom they resorted to teach them charity?\n\nFrancis in his poetic language gave the name of _mensa Domini_, the\ntable of the Lord, to this table of love around which gathered the\n_little poor ones_. The bread of charity is the bread of angels; and it\nis also that of the birds, which reap not nor gather into barns.\n\nWe are far enough, in this case, from that mendicity which is understood\nas a means of existence and the essential condition of a life of\nidleness. It is the opposite extreme, and we are true and just to St.\nFrancis and to the origin of the mendicant orders only when we do not\nseparate the obligation of labor from the praise of mendicity.[4]\n\nNo doubt this zeal did not last long, and Thomas of Celano already\nentitles his chapters, \"_Lament before God over the idleness and\ngluttony of the friars_;\" but we must not permit this speedy and\ninevitable decadence to veil from our sight the holy and manly beauty of\nthe origin.\n\nWith all his gentleness Francis knew how to show an inflexible severity\ntoward the idle; he even went so far as to dismiss a friar who refused\nto work.[5] Nothing in this matter better shows the intentions of the\nPoverello than the life of Brother Egidio, one of his dearest\ncompanions, him of whom he said with a smile: \"He is one of the paladins\nof my Round Table.\"\n\nBrother Egidio had a taste for great adventures, and is a living example\nof a Franciscan of the earliest days; he survived his master twenty-five\nyears, and never ceased to obey the letter and spirit of the Rule with\nfreedom and simplicity.\n\nWe find him one day setting out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.\nArrived at Brindisi, he borrowed a water-jug that he might carry water\nwhile he was awaiting the departure of the ship, and passed a part of\nevery day in crying through the streets of the city: \"_Alla fresca! Alla\nfresca!_\" like other water-carriers. But he would change his trade\naccording to the country and the circumstances; on his way back, at\nAncona, he procured willow for making baskets, which he afterward sold,\nnot for money but for his food. It even happened to him to be employed\nin burying the dead.\n\nSent to Rome, every morning after finishing his religious duties, he\nwould take a walk of several leagues, to a certain forest, whence he\nbrought a load of wood. Coming back one day he met a lady who wanted to\nbuy it; they agreed on a price, and Egidio carried it to her house. But\nwhen he arrived at the house she perceived him to be a friar, and would\nhave given him more than the price agreed upon. \"My good lady,\" he\nreplied, \"I will not permit myself to be overcome by avarice,\" and he\ndeparted without accepting anything at all.\n\nIn the olive season he helped in the gathering; in grape season he\noffered himself as vintager. One day on the Piazza di Roma, where men\nare hired for day's work, he saw a _padrone_ who could not find a man to\nthrash his walnut tree; it was so high that no one dared risk himself\nin it. \"If you will give me part of the nuts,\" said Egidio, \"I will do\nit willingly.\" The bargain struck and the tree thrashed, there proved to\nbe so many nuts that he did not know where to put his share. Gathering\nup his tunic he made a bag of it and full of joy returned to Rome, where\nhe distributed them among all the poor whom he met.\n\nIs not this a charming incident? Does it not by itself alone reveal the\nfreshness, the youth, the kindness of heart of the first Franciscans?\nThere is no end to the stories of the ingenuousness of Brother Egidio.\nAll kinds of work seemed good to him provided he had time enough in the\nmorning for his religious duties. Now he is in the service of the\nCellarer of the Four Crowns at Rome, sifting flour and carrying water to\nthe convent from the well of San Sisto. Now he is at Rieti, where he\nconsents to remain with Cardinal Nicholas, bringing to every meal the\nbread which he had earned, notwithstanding the entreaties of the master\nof the house, who would gladly have provided for his wants. One day it\nrained so hard that Brother Egidio could not think of going out; the\ncardinal was already making merry over the thought that he would be\nforced to accept bread that he had not earned. But Egidio went to the\nkitchen, and finding that it needed cleaning he persuaded the cook to\nlet him sweep it, and returned triumphant with the bread he had earned,\nwhich he ate at the cardinal's table.[6]\n\nFrom the very beginning Egidio's life commanded respect; it was at once\nso original, so gay, so spiritual,[7] and so mystical, that even in\nthe least exact and most expanded accounts his legend has remained\nalmost free from all addition. He is, after St. Francis, the finest\nincarnation of the Franciscan spirit.\n\nThe incidents which are here cited are all, so to speak, illustrations\nof the Rule; in fact there is nothing more explicit than its commands\nwith respect to work.\n\nThe Brothers, after entering upon the Order, were to continue to\nexercise the calling which they had when in the world, and if they had\nnone they were to learn one. For payment they were to accept only the\nfood that was necessary for them, but in case that was insufficient they\nmight beg. In addition they were naturally permitted to own the\ninstruments of their calling.[8] Brother Ginepro, whose acquaintance\nwe shall make further on, had an awl, and gained his bread wherever he\nwent by mending shoes, and we see St. Clara working even on her\ndeath-bed.\n\nThis obligation to work with the hands merits all the more to be brought\ninto the light, because it was destined hardly to survive St. Francis,\nand because to it is due in part the original character of the first\ngeneration of the Order. Yet this was not the real reason for the being\nof the Brothers Minor. Their mission consisted above all in being the\nspouses of Poverty.\n\nTerrified by the ecclesiastical disorders of the time, haunted by\npainful memories of his past life, Francis saw in money the special\ninstrument of the devil; in moments of excitement he went so far as to\nexecrate it, as if there had been in the metal itself a sort of magical\npower and secret curse. Money was truly for him the sacrament of evil.\n\nThis is not the place for asking if he was wrong; grave authors have\ndemonstrated at length the economic troubles which would have been let\nloose upon the world if men had followed him. Alas! his madness, if\nmadness it were, is a kind of which one need not fear the contagion.\n\nHe felt that in this respect the Rule could not be too absolute, and\nthat if unfortunately the door was opened to various interpretations of\nit, there would be no stopping-point. The course of events and the\nperiodical convulsions which shook his Order show clearly enough how\nrightly he judged.\n\nI do not know nor desire to know if theologians have yet come to a\nscientific conclusion with regard to the poverty of Jesus, but it seems\nevident to me that poverty with the labor of the hands is the ideal held\nup by the Galilean to the efforts of his disciples.\n\nStill it is easy to see that Franciscan poverty is neither to be\nconfounded with the unfeeling pride of the stoic, nor with the stupid\nhorror of all joy felt by certain devotees; St. Francis renounced\neverything only that he might the better possess everything. The lives\nof the immense majority of our contemporaries are ruled by the fatal\nerror that the more one possesses the more one enjoys. Our exterior,\ncivil liberties continually increase, but at the same time our inward\nfreedom is taking flight; how many are there among us who are literally\npossessed by what they possess?[9]\n\nPoverty not only permitted the Brothers to mingle with the poor and\nspeak to them with authority, but, removing from them all material\nanxiety, it left them free to enjoy without hindrance those hidden\ntreasures which nature reserves for pure idealists.\n\nThe ever-thickening barriers which modern life, with its sickly search\nfor useless comfort, has set up between us and nature did not exist for\nthese men, so full of youth and life, eager for wide spaces and the\nouter air. This is what gave St. Francis and his companions that quick\nsusceptibility to Nature which made them thrill in mysterious harmony\nwith her. Their communion with Nature was so intimate, so ardent, that\nUmbria, with the harmonious poetry of its skies, the joyful outburst of\nits spring-time, is still the best document from which to study them.\nThe tie between the two is so indissoluble, that after having lived a\ncertain time in company with St. Francis, one can hardly, on reading\ncertain passages of his biographers, help _seeing_ the spot where the\nincident took place, hearing the vague sounds of creatures and things,\nprecisely as, when reading certain pages of a beloved author, one hears\nthe sound of his voice.\n\nThe worship of Poverty of the early Franciscans had in it, then, nothing\nascetic or barbarous, nothing which recalls the Stylites or the Nazirs.\nShe was their bride, and like true lovers they felt no fatigues which\nthey might endure to find and remain near her.\n\n  La lor concordia e lor lieti sembianti,\n  Amor e maraviglia e dolce sguardo\n  Facean esser cagion de' pensier santi.[10]\n\nTo draw the portrait of an ideal knight at the beginning of the\nthirteenth century is to draw Francis's very portrait, with this\ndifference, that what the knight did for his lady, he did for Poverty.\nThis comparison is not a mere caprice; he himself profoundly felt it and\nexpressed it with perfect clearness, and it is only by keeping it\nclearly present in the mind that we can see into the very depth of his\nheart.[11]\n\nTo find any other souls of the same nature one must come down to\nGiovanni di Parma and Jacoponi di Todi. The life of St. Francis as\ntroubadour has been written; it would have been better to write it as\nknight, for this is the explanation of his whole life, and as it were\nthe heart of his heart. From the day when, forgetting the songs of his\nfriends and suddenly stopped in the public place of Assisi, he met\nPoverty, his bride, and swore to her faith and love, down to that\nevening when, naked upon the naked earth of Portiuncula, he breathed out\nhis life, it may be said that all his thoughts went out to this lady of\nhis chaste loves. For twenty years he served her without faltering,\nsometimes with an artlessness which would appear infantine, if something\ninfinitely sincere and sublime did not arrest the smile upon the most\nsceptical lips.\n\nPoverty agreed marvellously with that need which men had at that time,\nand which perhaps they have lost less than they suppose, the need of an\nideal very high, very pure, mysterious, inaccessible, which yet they may\npicture to themselves in concrete form. Sometimes a few privileged\ndisciples saw the lovely and pure Lady descend from heaven to salute her\nspouse, but, whether visible or not, she always kept close beside her\nUmbrian lover, as she kept close beside the Galilean; in the stable of\nthe nativity, upon the cross at Golgotha, and even in the borrowed tomb\nwhere his body lay.\n\nDuring several years this ideal was not alone that of St. Francis, but\nalso of all the Brothers. In poverty the _gente poverelle_ had found\nsafety, love, liberty; and all the efforts of the new apostles are\ndirected to the keeping of this precious treasure.\n\nTheir worship sometimes might seem excessive. They showed their spouse\nthose delicate attentions, those refinements of courtesy so frequent in\nthe morning light of a betrothal, but which one gradually forgets till\nthey become incomprehensible.[12]\n\nThe number of disciples continually increased; almost every week brought\nnew recruits; the year 1211 was without doubt devoted by Francis to a\ntour in Umbria and the neighboring provinces. His sermons were short\nappeals to conscience; his heart went out to his hearers in ineffable\ntones, so that when men tried to repeat what they had heard they found\nthemselves incapable.[13] The Rule of 1221 has preserved for us a\nsummary of these appeals:\n\n    \"Here is an exhortation which all the Brothers may make when\n    they think best: Fear and honor God, praise and bless him. Give\n    thanks unto him. Adore the Lord, Almighty God, in Trinity and\n    unity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Repent and make\n    fruits meet for repentance, for you know that we shall soon die.\n    Give, and it shall be given unto you. Forgive, and you shall be\n    forgiven; for if you forgive not, God will not forgive you.\n    Blessed are they who die repenting, for they shall be in the\n    kingdom of heaven.... Abstain carefully from all evil, and\n    persevere in the good until the end.\"[14]\n\nWe see how simple and purely ethical was the early Franciscan preaching.\nThe complications of dogma and scholasticism are entirely absent from\nit. To understand how new this was and how refreshing to the soul we\nmust study the disciples that came after him.\n\nWith St. Anthony of Padua ([Cross] June 13, 1231; canonized in 1233[15]),\nthe most illustrious of them all, the descent is immense. The distance\nbetween these two men is as great as that which separates Jesus from\nSt. Paul.\n\nI do not judge the disciple; he was of his time in not knowing how to\nsay simply what he thought, in always desiring to subtilize it, to\nextract it from passages in the Bible turned from their natural meaning\nby efforts at once laborious and puerile; what the alchemists did in\ntheir continual making of strange mixtures from which they fancied that\nthey should bring out gold, the preachers did to the texts, in order to\nbring out the truth.\n\nThe originality of St. Francis is only the more brilliant and\nmeritorious; with him gospel simplicity reappeared upon the earth.[16]\nLike the lark with which he so much loved to compare himself,[17] he\nwas at his ease only in the open sky. He remained thus until his death.\nThe epistle to all Christians which he dictated in the last weeks of his\nlife repeats the same ideas in the same terms, perhaps with a little\nmore feeling and a shade of sadness. The evening breeze which breathed\nupon his face and bore away his words was their symbolical\naccompaniment.\n\n\"I, Brother Francis, the least of your servants, pray and conjure you by\nthat Love which is God himself, willing to throw myself at your feet and\nkiss them, to receive with humility and love these words and all others\nof our Lord Jesus Christ, to put them to profit and carry them out.\"\n\nThis was not a more or less oratorical formula. Hence conversions\nmultiplied with an incredible rapidity. Often, as formerly with Jesus, a\nlook, a word sufficed Francis to attach to himself men who would follow\nhim until their death. It is impossible, alas! to analyze the best of\nthis eloquence, all made of love, intimate apprehension, and fire. The\nwritten word can no more give an idea of it than it can give us an idea\nof a sonata of Beethoven or a painting by Rembrandt. We are often\namazed, on reading the memoirs of those who have been great conquerors\nof souls, to find ourselves remaining cold, finding in them all no trace\nof animation or originality. It is because we have only a lifeless relic\nin the hand; the soul is gone. It is the white wafer of the sacrament,\nbut how shall that rouse in us the emotions of the beloved disciple\nlying on the Lord's breast on the night of the Last Supper?\n\nThe class from which Francis recruited his disciples was still about the\nsame; they were nearly all young men of Assisi and its environs, some\nthe sons of agriculturists, and others nobles; the School and the Church\nwas very little represented among them.[18]\n\nEverything still went on with an unheard-of simplicity. In theory,\nobedience to the superior was absolute; in practice, we can see Francis\ncontinually giving his companions complete liberty of action.[19] Men\nentered the Order without a novitiate of any sort; it sufficed to say to\nFrancis that they wanted to lead with him a life of evangelical\nperfection, and to prove it by giving all that they possessed to the\npoor. The more unpretending were the neophytes, the more tenderness he\nhad for them. Like his Master, he had a partiality for those who were\nlost, for men whom regular society casts out of its limits, but who with\nall their crimes and scandals are nearer to sainthood than mediocrities\nand hypocrites.\n\n    One day St. Francis, passing by the desert of Borgo San Sepolcro\n    came to a place called Monte-Casale,[20] and behold a noble and\n    refined young man came to him. \"Father,\" he said, \"I would\n    gladly be one of your disciples.\"\n\n    \"My son,\" said St. Francis, \"you are young, refined, and noble;\n    you will not be able to follow poverty and live wretched like\n    us.\"\n\n    \"But, my father, are not you men like me? What you do I can do\n    with the grace of Jesus.\" This reply was well-pleasing to St.\n    Francis, who, giving him his blessing, incontinently received\n    him into the Order under the name of Brother Angelo.\n\n    He conducted himself so well that a little while after he was\n    made guardian[21] of Monte-Casale. Now, in those times there\n    were three famous robbers who did much evil in the country. They\n    came to the hermitage one day to beg Brother Angelo to give them\n    something to eat; but he replied to them with severe reproaches:\n    \"What! robbers, evil-doers, assassins, have you not only no\n    shame for stealing the goods of others, but you would farther\n    devour the alms of the servants of God, you who are not worthy\n    to live, and who have respect neither for men nor for God your\n    Creator. Depart, and let me never see you here again!\"\n\n    They went away full of rage. But behold, the Saint returned,\n    bringing a wallet of bread and a bottle of wine which had been\n    given him, and the guardian told him how he had sent away the\n    robbers; then St. Francis reproved him severely for showing\n    himself so cruel.... \"I command thee by thine obedience,\" said\n    he, \"to take at once this loaf and this wine and go seek the\n    robbers by hill and dell until you have found them, to offer\n    them this as from me, and to kneel there before them and humbly\n    ask their pardon, and pray them in my name no longer to do wrong\n    but to fear God; and if they do it, I promise to provide for all\n    their wants, to see that they always have enough to eat and\n    drink. After that you may humbly return hither.\"\n\n    Brother Angelo did all that had been commanded him, while St.\n    Francis on his part prayed God to convert the robbers. They\n    returned with the brother, and when St. Francis gave them the\n    assurance of the pardon of God, they changed their lives and\n    entered the Order, in which they lived and died most\n    holily.[22]\n\nWhat has sometimes been said of the voice of the blood is still more\ntrue of the voice of the soul. When a man truly wakens another to moral\nlife, he gains for himself an unspeakable gratitude. The word _master_\nis often profaned, but it can express the noblest and purest of earthly\nties.\n\nWho are those among us, who in the hours of manly innocence when they\nexamine their own consciences, do not see rising up before them from out\nof the past the ever beloved and loving face of one who, perhaps without\nknowing it, initiated them into spiritual things? At such a time we\nwould throw ourselves at the feet of this father, would tell him in\nburning words of our admiration and gratitude. We cannot do it, for the\nsoul has its own bashfulness; but who knows that our disquietude and\nembarrassment do not betray us, and unveil, better than words could do,\nthe depths of our heart? The air they breathed at Portiuncula was all\nimpregnated with joy and gratitude like this.\n\nTo many of the Brothers, St. Francis was truly a saviour; he had\ndelivered them from chains heavier than those of prisons. And therefore\ntheir greatest desire was in their turn to call others to this same\nliberty.\n\nWe have already seen Brother Bernardo on a mission to Florence a few\nmonths after his entrance into the Order. Arrived at maturity when he\nput on the habit, he appears in some degree the senior of this apostolic\ncollege. He knew how to obey St. Francis and remain faithful to the very\nend to the ideal of the early days; but he had no longer that privilege\nof the young--of Brother Leo, for example--of being able to transform\nhimself almost entirely into the image of him whom he admired. His\nphysiognomy has not that touch of juvenile originality, of poetic fancy,\nwhich is so great a charm of the others.\n\nToward this epoch two Brothers entered the Order, men such as the\nsuccessors of St. Francis never received, whose history throws a bright\nlight on the simplicity of the early days. It will be remembered with\nwhat zeal Francis had repaired several churches; his solicitude went\nfurther; he saw a sort of profanation in the negligence with which most\nof them were kept; the want of cleanliness of the sacred objects,\nill-concealed by tinsel, gave him a sort of pain, and it often happened\nthat when he was going to preach somewhere he secretly called together\nthe priests of the locality and implored them to look after the decency\nof the service. But even in these cases he was not content to preach\nonly in words; binding together some stalks of heather he would make\nthem into brooms for sweeping out the churches.\n\nOne day in the suburbs of Assisi he was performing this task when a\npeasant appeared, who had left his oxen and cart out in the fields while\nhe came to gaze at him.\n\n    \"Brother,\" said he on entering, \"give me the broom. I will help\n    you,\" and he swept out the rest of the church.\n\n    When he had finished, \"Brother,\" he said to Francis, \"for a long\n    time I have decided to serve God, especially when I heard men\n    speak of you. But I never knew how to find you. Now it has\n    pleased God that we should meet, and henceforth I shall do\n    whatever you may please to command me.\"\n\n    Francis seeing his fervor felt a great joy; it seemed to him\n    that with his simplicity and honesty he would become a good\n    friar.\n\nIt appears indeed that he had only too much simplicity, for after his\nreception he felt himself bound to imitate every motion of the master,\nand when the latter coughed, spat, or sighed, he did the same. At last\nFrancis noticed it and gently reproved him. Later he became so perfect\nthat the other friars admired him greatly, and after his death, which\ntook place not long after, St. Francis loved to relate his conversion,\ncalling him not Brother John, but Brother St. John.[23]\n\nGinepro is still more celebrated for his holy follies.\n\nOne day he went to see a sick Brother and offered him his services. The\npatient confessed that he had a great longing to eat a pig's foot; the\nvisitor immediately rushed out, and armed with a knife ran to the\nneighboring forest, where, espying a troop of pigs, he cut off a foot of\none of them, returning to the monastery full of pride over his trophy.\n\nThe owner of the pigs shortly followed, howling like mad, but Ginepro\nwent straight to him and pointed out with so much volubility that he had\ndone him a great service, that the man, after overwhelming him with\nreproaches, suddenly begged pardon, killed the pig and invited all the\nBrothers to feast upon it. Ginepro was probably less mad than the story\nwould lead us to suppose; Franciscan humility never had a more sincere\ndisciple; he could not endure the tokens of admiration which the\npopulace very early lavished on the growing Order, and which by their\nextravagance contributed so much to its decadence.\n\nOne day, as he was entering Rome, the report of his arrival spread\nabroad, and a great crowd came out to meet him. To escape was\nimpossible, but he suddenly had an inspiration; near the gate of the\ncity some children were playing at see-saw; to the great amazement of\nthe Romans Ginepro joined them, and, without heeding the salutations\naddressed to him, remained so absorbed in his play that at last his\nindignant admirers departed.[24]\n\nIt is clear that the life at Portiuncula must have been very different\nfrom that of an ordinary convent. So much youth,[25] simplicity, love,\nquickly drew the eyes of men toward it. From all sides they were turned\nto those thatched huts, where dwelt a spiritual family whose members\nloved one another more than men love on earth, leading a life of labor,\nmirth, and devotion. The humble chapel seemed a new Zion destined to\nenlighten the world, and many in their dreams beheld blind humanity\ncoming to kneel there and recover sight.[26]\n\nAmong the first disciples who joined themselves to St. Francis we must\nmention Brother Silvestro, the first priest who entered the Order, the\nvery same whom we have already seen the day that Bernardo di Quintevalle\ndistributed his goods among the poor. Since then he had not had a\nmoment's peace, bitterly reproaching himself for his avarice; night and\nday he thought only of that, and in his dreams he saw Francis exorcising\na horrid monster which infested all the region.[27]\n\nBy his age and the nature of the memory he has left behind him Silvestro\nresembles Brother Bernardo. He was what is usually understood by a holy\npriest, but nothing denotes that he had the truly Franciscan love of\ngreat enterprises, distant journeys, perilous missions. Withdrawn into\none of the grottos of the Carceri, absorbed in the contemplative life,\nhe gave spiritual counsels to his brethren as occasion served.[28]\n\nThe typical Franciscan priest is Brother Leo. The date of his entrance\ninto the Order is not exactly known, but we are probably not far from\nthe truth in placing it about 1214. Of a charming simplicity, tender,\naffectionate, refined, he is, with Brother Elias, the one who plays the\nnoblest part during the obscure years in which the new reform was being\nelaborated. Becoming Francis's confessor and secretary, treated by him\nas his favorite son, he excited much opposition, and was to the end of\nhis long life the head of the strict observance.[29]\n\n    One winter's day, St. Francis was going with Brother Leo from\n    Perugia to Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the cold, being\n    intense, made them shiver; he called Brother Leo, who was\n    walking a little in advance, and said: \"O Brother Leo, may it\n    please God that the Brothers Minor all over the world may give a\n    great example of holiness and edification; write, however, and\n    note with care, that not in this is the perfect joy.\"\n\n    St. Francis, going on a little farther, called him a second\n    time: \"O Brother Leo, if the Brothers Minor gave sight to the\n    blind, healed the infirm, cast out demons, gave hearing to the\n    deaf, or even what is much more, if they raised the four days\n    dead, write that not in this is the perfect joy.\"\n\n    Going on a little farther he cried: \"O Brother Leo, if the\n    Brother Minor knew all languages, all science, and all\n    scriptures, if he could prophesy and reveal not only future\n    things but even the secrets of consciences and of souls, write\n    that not in this consists the perfect joy.\"\n\n    Going a little farther St. Francis called to him again: \"O\n    Brother Leo, little sheep of God, if the Brother Minor could\n    speak the language of angels, if he knew the courses of the\n    stars and the virtues of plants, if all the treasures of earth\n    were revealed to him, and he knew the qualities of birds,\n    fishes, and all animals, of men, trees, rocks, roots, and\n    waters, write that not in these is the perfect joy.\"\n\n    And advancing still a little farther St. Francis called loudly\n    to him: \"O Brother Leo, if the Brother Minor could preach so\n    well as to convert all infidels to the faith of Christ, write\n    that not in this is the perfect joy.\"\n\n    While speaking thus they had already gone more than two miles,\n    and Brother Leo, full of surprise, said to him: \"Father, I pray\n    you in God's name tell me in what consists the perfect joy.\"\n\n    And St. Francis replied: \"When we arrive at Santa Maria degli\n    Angeli, soaked with rain, frozen with cold, covered with mud,\n    dying of hunger, and we knock and the porter comes in a rage,\n    saying, 'Who are you?' and we answer, 'We are two of your\n    brethren,' and he says, 'You lie, you are two lewd fellows who\n    go up and down corrupting the world and stealing the alms of the\n    poor. Go away from here!' and he does not open to us, but leaves\n    us outside shivering in the snow and rain, frozen, starved, till\n    night; then, if thus maltreated and turned away, we patiently\n    endure all without murmuring against him, if we think with\n    humility and charity that this porter really knows us truly and\n    that God makes him speak thus to us, then, O Brother Leo, write\n    that in this is the perfect joy.... Above all the graces and all\n    the gifts which the Holy Spirit gives to his friends is the\n    grace to conquer oneself, and willingly to suffer pain,\n    outrages, disgrace, and evil treatment, for the love of\n    Christ!\"[30]\n\nAlthough by its slight and somewhat playful character this story recalls\nthe insipid statues of the fourteenth century, it has justly become\ncelebrated, its spirit is thoroughly Franciscan; that transcendent\nidealism, which sees in perfection and joy two equivalent terms, and\nplaces perfect joy in the pure and serene region of the perfecting of\noneself; that sublime simplicity which so easily puts in their true\nplace the miracle-worker and the scholar, these are perhaps not entirely\nnew;[31] but St. Francis must have had singular moral strength to\nimpose upon his contemporaries ideas in such absolute contradiction to\ntheir habits and their hopes; for the intellectual aristocracy of the\nthirteenth century with one accord found the perfect joy in knowledge,\nwhile the people found it in miracles.\n\nDoubtless we must not forget those great mystical families, which, all\nthrough the Middle Ages, were the refuge of the noblest souls; but they\nnever had this fine simplicity. The School is always more or less the\ngateway to mysticism; it is possible only to an elect of subtile minds;\na pious peasant seldom understands the Imitation.\n\nIt may be said that all St. Francis's philosophy is contained in this\nchapter of the Fioretti.[32] From it we foresee what will be his\nattitude toward learning, and are helped to understand how it happens\nthat this famous saint was so poor a miracle-worker.\n\nTwelve centuries before, Jesus had said, \"Blessed are the poor in\nspirit. Blessed are they who suffer.\" The words of St. Francis are only\na commentary, but this commentary is worthy of the text.\n\nIt remains to say a word concerning two disciples who were always\nclosely united with Brother Leo in the Franciscan memorials--Rufino and\nMasseo.\n\nBorn of a noble family connected with that of St. Clara, the former was\nsoon distinguished in the Order for his visions and ecstasies, but his\ngreat timidity checked him as soon as he tried to preach: for this\nreason he is always to be found in the most isolated hermitages--Carceri,\nVerna, Greccio.[33]\n\nMasseo, of Marignano, a small village in the environs of Assisi, was his\nvery opposite; handsome, well made, witty, he attracted attention by his\nfine presence and his great facility of speech; he occupies a special\nplace in popular Franciscan tradition. He deserves it. St. Francis, to\ntest his humility, made him the porter and cook of the hermitage,[34]\nbut in these functions Masseo showed himself to be so perfectly a\n_Minor_ that from that time the master particularly loved to have him\nfor companion in his missionary journeys.\n\nOne day they were travelling together, when they arrived at the\nintersection of the roads to Sienna, Arezzo, and Florence.\n\n\"Which one shall we take?\" asked Masseo.\n\n\"Whichever one God wills.\"\n\n\"But how shall we know which one God wills?\"\n\n\"You shall see. Go and stand at the crossing of the roads, turn round\nand round as the children do, and do not stop until I bid you.\"\n\nBrother Masseo began to turn; seized with a vertigo, he was nearly\nfalling, but caught himself up at once. Finally Francis called out,\n\"Stop! which way are you facing?\"\n\n\"Toward Sienna.\"\n\n\"Very well; God wills that we go to Sienna.\"[35]\n\nSuch a method of making up one's mind is doubtless not for the daily\nneeds of life, but Francis employed still others, like it, if not in\nform at least in fact.\n\nUp to this time we have seen the brethren living together in their\nhermitages or roving the highways, preaching repentance. It would,\nhowever, be a mistake to think that their whole lives were passed thus.\nTo understand the first Franciscans we must absolutely forget what they\nmay have been since that time, and what monks are in general; if\nPortiuncula was a monastery it was also a workshop, where each brother\npractised the trade which had been his before entering the Order; but\nwhat is stranger still to our ideas, the Brothers often went out as\nservants.[36]\n\nBrother Egidio's case was not an exception, it was the rule. This did\nnot last long, for very soon the friars who entered a house as domestics\ncame to be treated as distinguished guests; but in the beginning they\nwere literally servants, and took upon themselves the most menial\nlabors. Among the works which they might undertake Francis recommended\nabove all the care of lepers. We have already seen the important part\nwhich these unfortunates played in his conversion; he always retained\nfor them a peculiar pity, which he sought to make his disciples share.\n\nFor several years the Brothers Minor may be said to have gone from\nlazaretto to lazaretto, preaching by day in the towns and villages, and\nretiring at night to these refuges, where they rendered to these\n_patients of God_ the most repugnant services.\n\nThe Crucigeri, who took charge of the greater number of leper-houses,\nalways welcomed these kindly disposed aides, who, far from asking any\nsort of recompense, were willing to eat whatever the patients might have\nleft.[37] In fact, although created solely for the care of lepers, the\nBrothers of this Order sometimes lost patience when the sufferers were\ntoo exacting, and instead of being grateful had only murmurs or even\nreproaches for their benefactors. In these desperate cases the\nintervention of Francis and his disciples was especially precious. It\noften happened that a Brother was put in special charge of a single\nleper, whose companion and servant he continued to be, sometimes for a\nlong period.[38]\n\nThe following narrative shows Francis's love for these unfortunates, and\nhis method with them.[39]\n\n    It happened one time that the Brothers were serving the lepers\n    and the sick in a hospital, near to the place where St. Francis\n    was. Among them was a leper who was so impatient, so\n    cross-grained, so unendurable, that everyone believed him to be\n    possessed by the devil, and rightly enough, for he heaped\n    insults and blows upon those who waited upon him, and what was\n    worse, he continually insulted and blasphemed the blessed Christ\n    and his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, so that there was no\n    longer anyone who could or would wait upon him. The Brothers\n    would willingly have endured the insults and abuse which he\n    lavished upon them, in order to augment the merit of their\n    patience, but their souls could not consent to hear those which\n    he uttered against Christ and his Mother. They therefore\n    resolved to abandon this leper, but not without having told the\n    whole story exactly to St. Francis, who at that time was\n    dwelling not far away.\n\n    When they told him St. Francis betook himself to the wicked\n    leper; \"May God give thee peace, my most dear brother,\" he said\n    to him as he drew near.\n\n    \"And what peace,\" asked the leper, \"can I receive from God, who\n    has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my\n    body a mass of stinking and corruption?\"\n\n    St. Francis said to him: \"My brother, be patient, for God gives\n    us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and\n    when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great\n    merit to us.\"\n\n    \"How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day\n    and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but\n    the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and\n    do not take care of me as they ought.\"\n\n    Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the\n    spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to\n    pray for him. Then returning he said to him: \"My son, since you\n    are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you.\"\n\n    \"That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than\n    they?\"\n\n    \"I will do whatever you wish.\"\n\n    \"Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell\n    so badly that I disgust myself.\"\n\n    Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many\n    sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and\n    began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And\n    behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him\n    with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became\n    perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the\n    soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a\n    lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being\n    completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his\n    might: \"Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and\n    outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for my\n    impatience and my blasphemies.\"\n\nOne day, Brother John, whose simplicity we have already seen, and who\nhad been especially put in charge of a certain leper, took him for a\nwalk to Portiuncula, as if he had not been the victim of a contagious\nmalady. Reproaches were not spared him; the leper heard them and could\nnot hide his sadness and distress; it seemed to him like being a second\ntime banished from the world. Francis was quick to remark all this and\nto feel sharp remorse for it; the thought of having saddened one of\n_God's patients_ was unendurable; he not only begged his pardon, but he\ncaused food to be served, and sitting down beside him he shared his\nrepast, eating from the same porringer.[40] We see with what\nperseverance he pursued by every means the realization of his ideal.\n\nThe details just given show the Umbrian movement, as it appears to me,\nto be one of the most humble and at the same time the most sincere and\npractical attempts to realize the kingdom of God on earth. How far\nremoved we are here from the superstitious vulgarity of the mechanical\ndevotion, the deceitful miracle-working of certain Catholics; how far\nalso from the commonplace, complacent, quibbling, theorizing\nChristianity of certain Protestants!\n\nFrancis is of the race of mystics, for no intermediary comes between God\nand his soul; but his mysticism is that of Jesus leading his disciples\nto the Tabor of contemplation; but when, overflooded with joy, they long\nto build tabernacles that they may remain on the heights and satiate\nthemselves with the raptures of ecstasy, \"Fools,\" he says to them, \"ye\nknow not what ye ask,\" and directing their gaze to the crowds wandering\nlike sheep having no shepherd, he leads them back to the plain, to the\nmidst of those who moan, who suffer, who blaspheme.\n\nThe higher the moral stature of Francis the more he was exposed to the\ndanger of being understood only by the very few, and disappointed by\nthose who were nearest to him. Reading the Franciscan authors, one feels\nevery moment how the radiant beauty of the model is marred by the\nawkwardness of the disciple. It could not have been otherwise, and this\ndifference between this master and the companions is evident from the\nvery beginnings of the Order. The greater number of the biographers have\ndrawn the veil of oblivion over the difficulties created by certain\nBrothers as well as those which came from the ecclesiastical hierarchy,\nbut we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by this almost universal\nsilence.\n\nHere and there we find indications all the more precious for being, so\nto say, involuntary. Brother Rufino, for example, the same who was\ndestined to become one of the intimates of Francis's later days, assumed\nan attitude of revolt shortly after his entrance into the Order. He\nthought it foolish in Francis when, instead of leaving the friars to\ngive themselves unceasingly to prayer, he sent them out in all\ndirections to wait upon lepers.[41] His own ideal was the life of the\nhermits of the Thebaide, as it is related in the then popular legends of\nSt. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Paconius, and twenty others. He once passed\nLent in one of the grottos of the Carceri. Holy Thursday having arrived,\nFrancis, who was also there, summoned all the brethren who were\ndispersed about the neighborhood, whether in grottos or huts, to observe\nwith him the memories to which this day was consecrated. Rufino refused\nto come; \"For that matter,\" he added, \"I have decided to follow him no\nlonger; I mean to remain here and live solitary, for in this way I\nshall be more surely saved than by submitting myself to this man and his\nnonsense.\"\n\nYoung and enthusiastic for the most part, it was not always without\ndifficulty that the Brothers formed the habit of keeping their work in\nthe background. Agreeing with their master as to fundamentals, they\nwould have liked to make more of a stir, attract public attention by\nmore obvious devotion; there were some among them whom it did not\nsatisfy to be saints, but who also wished to appear such.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55.\n\n   [2] 3 Soc., 56; _Spec._, 32b; _Conform._, 217b, 1; _Fior. Bibl.\n       Angel._, Amoni, p. 378.\n\n   [3] This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have\n       been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41.\n\n   [4] Vide Angelo Clareno, _Tribul._ cod. Laur., 3b.\n\n   [5] 2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite\n       textually 97 as coming from the _Legenda Antiqua_. Cf. _Spec._,\n       64b.--2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf. _Conform._, 171a, 1; _Spec._, 19b. See\n       especially Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7; Rule of 1223, _cap._ 5; the\n       Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage, _liceat eis habere ferramenta\n       et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria_, sufficiently proves\n       that certain friars had real trades.\n\n   [6] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248; _Fior. Vita\n       d'Egidio_; _Spec._, 158 ff; _Conform._, 53-60.\n\n   [7] Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall\n       here his sally: \"The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners\n       for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she\n       is what she is!\" A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 234.\n\n   [8] The passage of the Will, _firmiter volo quod omnes\n       laborent_, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis\n       renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from\n       the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39; _Conform._,\n       219b. 1: _Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et\n       ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei._ _Spec._, 34; 69. Vide\n       also _Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2\n       Cel., 1, 12.\n\n   [9] _Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset\n       in Domino possidere._ B. de Besse, 102a.\n\n  [10] Their concord and their joyous semblances\n       The love, the wonder and the sweet regard\n       They made to be the cause of holy thought.\n\n       DANTE: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.\n\n\n  [11] _Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad\n       horam patitur non esse muritus._ 2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35;\n       51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87;\n       _Fior._ 13.\n\n  [12] Bon., 93.--_Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne\n       poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quae debebat dare\n       fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud\n       verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino._ _Spec._,\n       15.\n\n  [13] 2 Cel., 3, 50.\n\n  [14] _Cap._, 21. Cf. _Fior., I. consid._, 18; 30; _Conform._,\n       103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Mueller, _Anfaenge_, p.\n       187.\n\n  [15] Vide his _Opera omnia postillis illustrata_, by Father de\n       la Haye, 1739, f^o. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged\n       and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the\n       Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The\n       Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliotheque Nationale gives one\n       which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of\n       Paris: _Saint Antoine de Padone, sa legende primitive_,\n       Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Pres, 1890, 1 vol.,\n       8vo. Cf. _Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii saeculo xiii\n       concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniae bibliothecae_ a P.M. Antonio\n       Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo.\n\n  [16] This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in\n       relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25;\n       34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93.\n\n  [17] _Spec._, 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128.\n\n  [18] The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time\n       it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no\n       difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle,\n       _Archiv._, iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from\n       northern countries which has especially changed it in this\n       matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that\n       laymen should be excluded from all charges; _laicos ad officia\n       inhabilitavit, quae usque tunc ut clerici exercebant_. (_Chron._\n       xxiv. _gen._ cod. Gadd. relig., 53, f^o 110a). Among the early\n       Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did\n       so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain\n       all the cases. There were also with certain of them\n       revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the\n       prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that\n       of the priests: _Fior._, 27. _Frate Pellegrino non volle mai\n       andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto\n       litterato e grande decretalista._ Cf. _Conform._, 71a., 2. _Fr.\n       Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium\n       cogeretur._ _Conform._, 124b, 2.\n\n  [19] See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo. Cf.\n       _Conform._, 53b, 2. _Fratri Egidio dedit licentiam liberam ut\n       iret quocumque vellet et staret ubicumque sibi placeret._\n\n  [20] The hermitage of Monte-Casale, at two hours walk northeast\n       from Borgo San Sepolero, still exists in its original state. It\n       is one of the most significant and curious of the Franciscan\n       deserts.\n\n  [21] The office of guardian (superior of a monastery) naturally\n       dates from the time when the Brothers stationed themselves in\n       small groups in the villages of Umbria--that is to say, most\n       probably from the year 1211. A few years later the monasteries\n       were united to form a custodia. Finally, about 1215, Central\n       Italy was divided unto a certain number of provinces with\n       provincial ministers at their head. All this was done little by\n       little, for Francis never permitted himself to regulate what did\n       not yet exist.\n\n  [22] _Fior._, 26; Conform., 119b, 1. Cf. Rule of 1221, cap. vii.\n       _Quicumque ad eos (fratres) venerint, amicus vel adversarius,\n       fur vel latro benigne recipiatur._\n\n  [23] 2 Cel., 3, 120; _Spec._, 37; _Conform._, 53a, 1. See below,\n       p. 385, n. 1.\n\n  [24] _Fior._, Vita di fra Ginepro; _Spec._, 174-182; _Conform._,\n       62b.\n\n  [25] A. SS., p. 600.\n\n  [26] 3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 13; Bon., 24.\n\n  [27] Bon., 30; 3 Soc., 30, 31; 2 Cel., 3, 52. Cf. _Fior._, 2.\n       The dragon of this dream perhaps symbolizes heresy.\n\n  [28] Bon., 83; 172; _Fior._, 1, 16; _Conform._, 49a, 1, and\n       110b, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 51.\n\n  [29] Bernard de Besse, _De laudibus_, Turin MS., f^o. 102b and\n       96a. He died November 15, 1271. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 221.\n\n  [30] _Fior._, 8; _Spec._, 89b ff.; _Conform._, 30b, 2, and 140a,\n       2.\n\n  [31] I need not here point out the analogy in form between this\n       chapter and St. Paul's celebrated song of love, 1 Cor. xiii.\n\n  [32] We find the same thoughts in nearly the same terms in\n       _cap._ v. of the _Verba sacrae admonitionis_.\n\n  [33] He is the second of the Three Companions. 3 Soc., 1; cf. 1\n       Cel., 95; _Fior._, 1; 29, 30, 31; Eccleston, 12; _Spec._,\n       110a-114b; _Conform._, 51b ff.; cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4.\n\n  [34] Very probably that of the Carceri, though the name is not\n       indicated Vide 3 Soc., 1; _Fior._, 4; 10; 11; 12; 13; 16; 27;\n       32; _Conform._, 51b, 1 ff; _Tribul. Archiv._, t. ii., p. 263.\n\n  [35] _Fior._, 11; _Conform._, 50b, 2; _Spec._, 104a.\n\n  [36] Rule of 1221, chap. 7. _Omnes fratres, in quibuscumque\n       locis fuerint apud aliquos ad serviendum, vel ad laborandum, non\n       sint camerarii, nec cellarii, nec praesint in domibus corum\n       quibus serviunt._ Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 40; A. SS., p. 606.\n\n  [37] 1 Cel., 103; 39; _Spec._, 28; Reg. 1221, ix.; _Giord._, 33\n       and 39.\n\n  [38] Vide _Spec._, 34b.; _Fior._, 4.\n\n  [39] All the details of this story lead me to think that it\n       refers to Portiuncula and the hospital _San Salvatore delle\n       Pareti_. The story is given by the _Conform._, 174b, 2, as taken\n       from the _Legenda Antiqua_. Cf. _Spec._, 56b; _Fior._, 25.\n\n  [40] In the _Speculum_, f^o 41a, this story ends with the\n       phrase: _Qui vidit haec scripsit et testimonium perhibet de\n       hiis_. The brother is here called _Frater Jacobus simplex_. Cf.\n       _Conform._, 174b.\n\n  [41] _Conform._, 51b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4; _Spec._, 110b;\n       _Fior._, 29.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nSANTA CLARA\n\n\nPopular piety in Umbria never separates the memory of St. Francis from\nthat of Santa Clara. It is right.\n\nClara[1] was born at Assisi in 1194, and was consequently about twelve\nyears younger than Francis. She belonged to the noble family of the\nSciffi. At the age when a little girl's imagination awakes and stirs,\nshe heard the follies of the son of Bernardone recounted at length. She\nwas sixteen when the Saint preached for the first time in the cathedral,\nsuddenly appearing like an angel of peace in a city torn by intestine\ndissensions. To her his appeals were like a revelation. It seemed as if\nFrancis was speaking for her, that he divined her secret sorrows, her\nmost personal anxieties, and all that was ardent and enthusiastic in the\nheart of this young girl rushed like a torrent that suddenly finds an\noutlet into the channel indicated by him. For saints as for heroes the\nsupreme stimulus is woman's admiration.\n\nBut here, more than ever, we must put away the vulgar judgment which can\nunderstand no union between man and woman where the sexual instinct has\nno part. That which makes the union of the sexes something almost divine\nis that it is the prefiguration, the symbol, of the union of souls.\nPhysical love is an ephemeral spark, designed to kindle in human hearts\nthe flame of a more lasting love; it is the outer court of the temple,\nbut not the most holy place; its inestimable value is precisely that it\nleaves us abruptly at the door of the holiest of all as if to invite us\nto step over the threshold.\n\nThe mysterious sigh of nature goes out for the union of souls. This is\nthe unknown God to whom debauchees, those pagans of love, offer their\nsacrifices, and this sacred imprint, even though effaced, though soiled\nby all pollutions, often saves the man of the world from inspiring as\nmuch disgust as the drunkard and the criminal.\n\nBut sometimes--more often than we think--there are souls so pure, so\nlittle earthly, that on their first meeting they enter the most holy\nplace, and once there the thought of any other union would be not merely\na descent, but an impossibility. Such was the love of St. Francis and\nSt. Clara.\n\nBut these are exceptions. There is something mysterious in this supreme\npurity; it is so high that in holding it up to men one risks speaking to\nthem in an unknown tongue, or even worse.\n\nThe biographers of St. Francis have clearly felt the danger of offering\nto the multitude the sight of certain beauties which are far beyond\nthem, and this is for us the great fault of their works. They try to\ngive us not so much the true portrait of Francis as that of the perfect\nminister-general of the Order such as they conceive it, such as it must\nneeds be to serve as a model for his disciples; thus they have made this\nmodel somewhat according to the measure of those whom it is to serve, by\nomitting here and there features which, stupidly interpreted, might have\nfurnished material for the malevolence of unscrupulous adversaries, or\nfrom which disciples little versed in spiritual things could not have\nfailed to draw support for permitting themselves dangerous intimacies.\nThus the relations of St. Francis with women in general and St. Clara in\nparticular, have been completely travestied by Thomas of Celano. It\ncould not have been otherwise, and we must not bear him a grudge for it.\nThe life of the founder of an Order, when written by a monk, in the very\nnature of things becomes always a sort of appendix to or illustration of\nthe Rule. And the Rule, especially if the Order has its thousands of\nmembers, is necessarily made not for the elect, but for the average, for\nthe majority of the flock.[2]\n\nHence this portrait, in which St. Francis is represented as a stern\nascetic, to whom woman appears to be a sort of incarnate devil! The\nbiographers even go so far as to assure us that he knew only two women\nby sight. These are manifest exaggerations, or rather the opposite of\nthe truth.[3]\n\nWe are not reduced to conjecture to discover the true attitude of the\nUmbrian prophet in this matter. Without suspecting it, Celano himself\ngives details enough for the correction of his own errors, and there are\nbesides a number of other documents whose scattered hints correspond and\nagree with one another in a manner all the more marvellous that it is\nentirely unintentional, giving, when they are brought together, almost\nall one could desire to know of the intercourse of these two beautiful\nsouls.\n\nAfter the sermons of Francis at St. Rufino, Clara's decision was\nspeedily taken; she would break away from the trivialities of an idle\nand luxurious life and make herself the servant of the poor; all her\nefforts should be bent to make each day a new advance in the royal way\nof love and poverty; and for this she would have only to obey him who\nhad suddenly revealed it to her.\n\nShe sought him out and opened to him her heart. With that exaltation, a\nunion of candor and delicacy, which is woman's fine endowment, and to\nwhich she would more readily give free course if she did not too often\ndivine the pitfalls of base passion and incredulity, Clara offered\nherself to Francis.\n\nIt is one of the privileges of saints to suffer more than other men, for\nthey feel in their more loving hearts the echo of all the sorrows of the\nworld; but they also know joys and delights of which common men never\ntaste. What an inexpressible song of joy must have burst forth in\nFrancis's heart when he saw Clara on her knees before him, awaiting,\nwith his blessing, the word which would consecrate her life to the\ngospel ideal.\n\nWho knows if this interview did not inspire another saint, Fra Angelico,\nto introduce into his masterpiece those two elect souls who, already\nradiant with the light of the heavenly Jerusalem, stop to exchange a\nkiss before crossing its threshold?\n\nSouls, like flowers, have a perfume of their own which never deceives.\nOne look had sufficed for Francis to go down into the depths of this\nheart; he was too kind to submit Clara to useless tests, too much an\nidealist to prudently confine himself to custom or arbitrary decorum; as\nwhen he founded the Order of Friars, he took counsel only of himself and\nGod. In this was his strength; if he had hesitated, or even if he had\nsimply submitted himself to ecclesiastical rules, he would have been\nstopped twenty times before he had done anything. Success is so powerful\nan argument that the biographers appear not to have perceived how\ndetermined Francis was to ignore the canonical laws. He, a simple\ndeacon, arrogated to himself the right to receive Clara's vows and admit\nher to the Order without the briefest novitiate. Such an act ought to\nhave drawn down upon its author all the censures of the Church, but\nFrancis was already one of those powers to whom much is forgiven, even\nby those who speak in the name of the holy Roman Church.\n\nFrancis had decided that on the night between Palm Sunday and Holy\nMonday (March 18-19, 1212) Clara should secretly quit the paternal\ncastle and come with two companions to Portiuncula, where he would await\nher, and would give her the veil. She arrived just as the friars were\nsinging matins. They went out, the story goes, carrying candles in their\nhands, to meet the bride, while from the woods around Portiuncula\nresounded songs of joy over this new bridal. Then Mass was begun at that\nsame altar where, three years before, Francis had heard the decisive\ncall of Jesus; he was kneeling in the same place, but surrounded now\nwith a whole spiritual family.\n\nIt is easy to imagine Clara's emotion. The step which she had just taken\nwas simply heroic, for she knew to what persecutions from her family she\nwas exposing herself, and what she had seen of the life of the Brothers\nMinor was a sufficient warning of the distresses to which she was\nexposing herself in espousing poverty. No doubt she interpreted the\nwords of the service in harmony with her own thoughts:\n\n  \"Surely they are my people,\" said Jehovah.\n  \"Children who will not be faithless!\"\n   And he was for them a saviour.\n   In none of their afflictions were they without succor.\n   And the angel that is before his face saved them.[4]\n\nThen Francis read again the words of Jesus to his disciples; she vowed\nto conform her life to them; her hair was cut off; all was finished. A\nfew moments after, Francis conducted her to a house of Benedictine\nnuns[5] at an hour's distance, where she was to remain provisionally\nand await the progress of events.\n\nThe very next morning Favorino, her father, arrived with a few friends,\ninveighing, supplicating, abusing everybody. She was unmovable, showing\nso much courage that at last they gave up the thought of carrying her\noff by main force.\n\nShe was not, however, at the end of her tribulations. Had this scene\nfrightened the Benedictines? We cannot tell, but less than a fortnight\nafter we find her in another convent, that of Sant-Angelo in Panso, at\nAssisi.[6] A week after Easter, Agnes, her younger sister, joined her\nthere, decided in her turn to serve poverty. Francis received her into\nthe Order. This time the father's fury was horrible. With a band of\nrelatives he invaded the convent, but neither abuse nor blows could\nsubdue this child of fourteen. In spite of her cries they dragged her\naway. She fainted, and the little inanimate body suddenly seemed to them\nso heavy that they abandoned it in the midst of the fields, some\nlaborers looking with pity on the painful scene, until Clara, whose cry\nGod had heard, hastened to succor her sister.\n\nTheir sojourn in this convent was of very short duration. It appears\nthat they did not carry away a very pleasant impression of it.[7]\nFrancis knew that several others were burning to join his two women\nfriends; he therefore set himself to seek out a retreat where they\ncould live under his direction and in all liberty practise the gospel\nrule.\n\nHe had not long to seek; the Benedictine monks of Mount Subasio always\nseized every possible opportunity to make themselves popular. They\nbelonged to that congregation of Camaldoli, whom the common people\nappear to have particularly detested, and several of whose convents had\nlately been pillaged.[8] The abbey no longer counted more than eight\nmonks, who were trying to save the wreck of their riches and privileges\nby partial sacrifices; on the 22d of April, 1212, they had given to the\ncommune of Assisi for a communal house a monument which is standing this\nday, the temple of Minerva.[9]\n\nFrancis, who already was their debtor for Portiuncula, once more\naddressed himself to them. Happy in this new opportunity to render\nservice to one who was the incarnation of popular claims, they gave him\nthe chapel of St. Damian; perhaps they were well pleased, by favoring\nthe new Order, to annoy Bishop Guido, of whom they had reason to\ncomplain.[10] However this may be, in this hermitage, so well adapted\nfor prayer and meditation, Francis installed his spiritual\ndaughters.[11] In this sanctuary, repaired by his own hands, at the\nfeet of this crucifix which had spoken to him, Clara was henceforward to\npray. It was the house of God; it was also in good measure that of\nFrancis. Crossing its threshold, Clara doubtless experienced that\nfeeling, at once so sweet and so poignant, of the wife who for the first\ntime enters her husband's house, trembling with emotion at the radiant\nand confused vision of the future.\n\nIf we are not entirely to misapprehend these beginnings, we must\nremember with what rapidity external influences transformed the first\nconception of St. Francis. At this moment he no more expected to found a\nsecond order than he had desired to found the first one. In snatching\nClara from her family he had simply acted like a true knight who rescues\nan oppressed woman, and takes her under his protection. In installing\nher at St. Damian he was preparing a refuge for those who desired to\nimitate her and apart from the world practise the gospel Rule. But he\nnever thought that the perfection of which he and his disciples were the\napostles and missionaries, and which Clara and her companions were to\nrealize in celibacy, was not practicable in social positions also;\nthence comes what is wrongly called the _Tertiari_, or Third Order, and\nwhich in its primitive thought was not separated from the first. This\nThird Order had no need to be instituted in 1221, for it existed from\nthe moment when a single conscience resolved to practise his teachings,\nwithout being able to follow him to Portiuncula.[12] The enemy of the\nsoul for him as for Jesus was avarice, understood in its largest\nsense--that is to say, that blindness which constrains men to consecrate\ntheir hearts to material preoccupations, makes them the slave of a few\npieces of gold or a few acres of land, renders them insensible to the\nbeauties of nature, and deprives them of infinite joys which they alone\ncan know who are the disciples of poverty and love.\n\nWhoever was free at heart from all material servitude, whoever was\ndecided to live without hoarding, every rich man who was willing to\nlabor with his hands and loyally distribute all that he did not consume\nin order to constitute the common fund which St. Francis called _the\nLord's table_, every poor man who was willing to work, free to resort,\nin the strict measure of his wants, to this table of the Lord, these\nwere at that time true Franciscans.\n\nIt was a social revolution.\n\nThere was then at that time neither one Order nor several.[13] The\ngospel of the Beatitudes had been found again, and, as twelve centuries\nbefore, it could accommodate itself to all situations.\n\nAlas! the Church, personified by Cardinal Ugolini, was about, if not to\ncause the Franciscan movement to miscarry, at least so well to hedge\nabout it that a few years later it would have lost nearly its whole\noriginal character.\n\nAs has been seen, the word poverty expresses only very imperfectly St.\nFrancis's point of view, since it contains an idea of renunciation, of\n_abstinence_, while in thought the vow of poverty is a vow of liberty.\nProperty is the cage with gilded wires, to which the poor larks are\nsometimes so thoroughly accustomed that they no longer even think of\ngetting away in order to soar up into the blue.[14]\n\nFrom the beginning St. Damian was the extreme opposite to what a convent\nof Clarisses of the strict observance is now; it is still to-day very\nmuch as Francis saw it. We owe thanks to the Brothers Minor for having\npreserved intact this venerable and charming hermitage, and not spoiling\nit with stupid embellishments. This little corner of Umbrian earth will\nbe for our descendants like Jacob's well whereon Christ sat himself down\nfor an instant, one of the favorite courts of the worship in spirit and\nin truth.\n\nIn installing Clara there Francis put into her hands the Rule which he\nhad prepared for her,[15] which no doubt resembled that of the Brothers\nsave for the precepts with regard to the missionary life. He accompanied\nit with the engagement[16] taken by himself and his brothers to supply\nby labor or alms all the needs of Clara and her future companions. In\nreturn they also were to work and render to the Brothers all the\nservices of which they might be capable. We have seen the zeal which\nFrancis had brought to the task of making the churches worthy of the\nworship celebrated in them; he could not endure that the linen put to\nsacred uses should be less than clean. Clara set herself to spinning\nthread for the altar-cloths and corporals which the Brothers undertook\nto distribute among the poor churches of the district.[17] In addition,\nduring the earlier years, she also nursed the sick whom Francis sent to\nher, and St. Damian was for some time a sort of hospital.[18]\n\nOne or two friars, who were called _Zealots of the Poor Ladies_, were\nespecially charged with the care of the Sisters, making themselves huts\nbeside the chapel, after the model of those of Portiuncula. Francis was\nalso near at hand; a sort of terrace four paces long overlooks the\nhermitage; Clara made there a tiny garden, and when, at twilight, she\nwent thither to water her flowers, she could see, hardly half a league\ndistant, Portiuncula standing out against the aureola of the western\nsky.\n\nFor several years the relations between the two houses were continual,\nfull of charm and freedom. The companions of Francis who received\nBrothers received Sisters also, at times returning from their preaching\ntours with a neophyte for St. Damian.[19]\n\nBut such a situation could not last long. The intimacy of Francis and\nClara, the familiarity of the earlier friars and Sisters would not do as\na model for the relations of the two Orders when each had some hundreds\nof members. Francis himself very soon perceived this, though not so\nclearly as his sister-friend. Clara survived him nearly twenty-seven\nyears, and thus had time to see the shipwreck of the Franciscan ideal\namong the Brothers, as well as in almost every one of the houses which\nhad at first followed the Rule of St. Damian. She herself was led by the\npressure of events to lay down rules for her own convent, but to her\nvery death-bed she contended for the defence of the true Franciscan\nideas, with a heroism, a boldness, at once intense and holy, by which\nshe took a place in the first rank of witnesses for conscience.\n\nIs it not one of the loveliest pictures in religious history, that of\nthis woman who for more than half a century sustains moment by moment a\nstruggle with all the popes who succeed one another in the pontifical\nthrone, remaining always equally respectful and immovable, not\nconsenting to die until she has gained her victory?[20]\n\nTo relate her life is to relate this struggle; the greater number of its\nvicissitudes may be found in the documents of the Roman _curia_.\nFrancis had warded off many a danger from his institution, but he had\ngiven himself guardians who were little disposed to yield any of their\nrights; Cardinal Ugolini in particular, the future Gregory IX., took a\npart in these matters which is very difficult to understand. We see him\ncontinually lavishing upon Francis and Clara expressions of affection\nand admiration which appear to be absolutely sincere; and yet the\nFranciscan ideal--regarded as the life of love at which one arrives by\nfreeing himself from all servitude to material things--has hardly had a\nworse adversary than he.\n\nIn the month of May, 1228, Gregory IX. went to Assisi for the\npreliminaries of the canonization of St. Francis. Before entering the\ncity he turned out of his way to visit St. Damian and to see Clara, whom\nhe had known for a long time, and to whom he had addressed letters\nburning with admiration and paternal affection.[21]\n\nHow can we understand that at this time, the eve of the canonization\n(July 16, 1228), the pontiff could have had the idea of urging her to be\nfaithless to her vows?\n\nHe represented to her that the state of the times made life impossible\nto women who possess nothing, and offered her certain properties. As\nClara gazed at him in astonishment at this strange proposition, he said,\n\"If it is your vows which prevent you, we will release you from them.\"\n\n\"Holy Father,\" replied the Franciscan sister, \"absolve me from my sins,\nbut I have no desire for a dispensation from following Christ.\"[22]\n\nNoble and pious utterance, artless cry of independence, in which the\nconscience proudly proclaims its autonomy! In these words is mirrored\nat full length the spiritual daughter of the Poverello.\n\nBy one of those intuitions which often come to very enthusiastic and\nvery pure women, she had penetrated to the inmost depths of Francis's\nheart, and felt herself inflamed with the same passion which burned in\nhim. She remained faithful to him to the end, but we perceive that it\nwas not without difficulty.\n\nThis is not the place in which to ask whether Gregory IX. was right in\ndesiring that religious communities should hold estates; he had a right\nto his own views on the subject; but there is something shocking, to say\nno more, in seeing him placing Francis among the saints at the very\nmoment when he was betraying his dearest ideals, and seeking to induce\nthose who had remained faithful to betray them.\n\nHad Clara and Francis foreseen the difficulties which they would meet?\nWe may suppose so, for already under the pontificate of Innocent III.\nshe had obtained a grant of the privilege of poverty. The pope was so\nmuch surprised at such a request that he desired to write with his own\nhands the opening lines of this patent, the like of which had never been\nasked for at the court of Rome.[23]\n\nUnder his successor, Honorius III., the most important personage of the\ncuria was this very Cardinal Ugolini. Almost a septuagenarian in 1216 he\ninspired awe at first sight by the aspect of his person. He had that\nsingular beauty which distinguishes the old who have escaped the usury\nof life; pious, enlightened, energetic, he felt himself made for great\nundertakings. There is something in him which recalls Cardinal Lavigerie\nand all the prelates whose red robes cover a soldier or a despot rather\nthan a priest.[24]\n\nThe Franciscan movement was attacked with violence[25] in various\nquarters; he undertook to defend it, and a very long time before the\ncharge of protector of the Order was officially confided to him, he\nexercised it with devouring zeal.[26] He felt an unbounded admiration\nfor Francis and Clara, and often manifested it in a touching manner. If\nhe had been a simple man he might have loved them and followed them.\nPerhaps he even had thought of doing so.[27] Alas! he was a prince of\nthe Church; he could not help thinking of what he would do in case he\nshould be called to guide the ship of St. Peter.\n\nHe acted accordingly; was it calculation on his part or simply one of\nthose states of conscience in which a man absorbed in the end to be\nattained hardly discusses the ways and means? I do not know, but we see\nhim immediately on the death of Innocent III., under pretext of\nprotecting the Clarisses, take their direction in hand, give them a\nRule, and substitute his own ideas for those of St. Francis.[28]\n\nIn the privilege which as legate he gave in favor of Monticelli, July\n27, 1219, neither Clara nor Francis is named, and the Damianites become\nas a congregation of Benedictines.[29]\n\nWe shall see farther on the wrath of Francis against Brother Philip, a\nZealot of the Poor Ladies, who had accepted this privilege in his\nabsence. His attitude was so firm that other documents of the same\nnature granted by Ugolini at the same epoch were not indorsed by the\npope until three years later.\n\nThe cardinal's ardor to profit by the enthusiasm which the Franciscan\nideas everywhere excited was so great that we find, in the register of\nhis legation of 1221, a sort of formula all prepared for those who would\nfound convents like those of the Sisters of St. Damian; but even there\nwe search in vain for the name of Francis or Clara.[30]\n\nThis old man had, however, a truly mystical passion for the young\nabbess; he wrote to her, lamenting the necessity of being far from her,\nin words which are the language of love, respect, and admiration.[31]\nThere were at least two men in Ugolini: the Christian, who felt himself\nsubdued before Clara and Francis; the prelate, that is, a man whom the\nglory of the Church sometimes caused to forget the glory of God.\n\nFrancis, though almost always resisting him, appears to have kept a\nfeeling of ingenuous gratitude toward him to the very end. Clara, on the\ncontrary, had too long a struggle to be able to keep any illusions as to\nthe attitude of her protector. After 1230 there is no trace of any\nrelations between them.\n\nAll the efforts of the pope to mitigate the rigor of Clara's vow of\npoverty had remained vain. Many other nuns desired to practise strictly\nthe Rule of St. Francis. Among them was the daughter of the King of\nBohemia, Ottokar I., who was in continual relations with Clara. But\nGregory IX., to whom she addressed herself, was inflexible. While\npouring eulogies upon her he enjoined upon her to follow the Rule which\nhe sent to her--that is, the one which he had composed while he was yet\ncardinal. The Rule of the Poverello was put among the utopias, not to\nsay heresies.[32] He never, however, could induce St. Clara to\ncompletely submit herself. One day, indeed, she rebelled against his\norders, and it was the pope who was obliged to yield: he had desired to\nbring about a wider separation between the friars and the Sisters than\nhad formerly prevailed; for a long time after the death of Francis a\ncertain familiarity had continued between St. Damian and Portiuncula;\nClara especially loved these neighborly relations, and often begged one\nor another Brother to come and preach. The pope thought ill of this, and\nforbade, under the severest penalty, that any friar of Portiuncula\nshould go to St. Damian without express permission of the Holy See.\n\nThis time Clara became indignant. She went to the few friars attached to\nher monastery, and thanking them for their services, \"Go,\" she said;\n\"since they deprive us of those who dispense to us spiritual bread, we\nwill not have those who procure for us our material bread.\" He who wrote\nthat \"_the necks of kings and princes are bowed at the feet of the\npriests_\" was obliged to bow before this woman and raise his\nprohibition.[33]\n\nSt. Damian had too often echoed with St. Francis's hymns of love and\nliberty to forget him so soon and become an ordinary convent. Clara\nremained surrounded with the master's early companions; Egidio, Leo,\nAngelo, Ginepro never ceased to be assiduous visitors. These true lovers\nof poverty felt themselves at home there, and took liberties which would\nelsewhere have given surprise. One day an English friar, a celebrated\ntheologian, came according to the minister's orders to preach at St.\nDamian. Suddenly Egidio, though a simple layman, interrupted him: \"Stop,\nbrother, let me speak,\" he said to him. And the master in theology,\nbowing his head, covered himself with his cowl as a sign of obedience,\nand sat down to listen to Egidio.\n\nClara felt a great joy in this; it seemed to her that she was once again\nliving in St. Francis's days.[34] The little coterie was kept up until\nher death; she expired in the arms of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Ginepro.\nIn her last sufferings and her dying visions she had the supreme\nhappiness of being surrounded by those who had devoted their lives to\nthe same ideal as she.[35]\n\nIn her will her life shows itself that which we have seen it--a daily\nstruggle for the defence of the Franciscan idea. We see how courageous\nand brave was this woman who has always been represented as frail,\nemaciated, blanched like a flower of the cloister.[36]\n\nShe defended Francis not only against others, but also against himself.\nIn those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly\ndisturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was\nbeside him to show him his way. When he doubted his mission and thought\nof fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who\nshowed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men\ngoing astray with no shepherd to lead them, and drew him once again into\nthe train of the Galilean, into the number of those who _give their\nlives a ransom for many_.[37]\n\nYet this love with which at St. Damian Francis felt himself surrounded\nfrightened him at times. He feared that his death, making too great a\nvoid, would imperil the institution itself, and he took pains to remind\nthe sisters that he would not be always with them. One day when he was\nto preach to them, instead of entering the pulpit he caused some ashes\nto be brought, and after having spread them around him and scattered\nsome on his head, he intoned the _Miserere_, thus reminding them that he\nwas but dust and would soon return to dust.[38]\n\nBut in general it is at St. Damian that St. Francis is the most\nhimself; it is under the shade of its olive-trees, with Clara caring for\nhim, that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called\nthe most perfect utterance of modern religious sentiment, the \"Canticle\nof the Sun.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Easy as it is to seize the large outlines of her life, it is\n       with difficulty that one makes a detailed and documentary study\n       of it. There is nothing surprising in this, for the Clarisses\n       felt the rebound of the struggles which divided and rapidly\n       transformed the Order of the Brothers Minor. The greater number\n       of the documents have disappeared; we give summary indication of\n       those which will most often be cited: 1. Life of St. Clara by an\n       anonymous author. A. SS., _Aug._, t. ii., pp. 739-768. 2. Her\n       Will, given by Wadding (_Annales_, 1253, No. 5), but which does\n       not appear to be free from alteration. (Compare, for example,\n       the opening of this will with Chapter VI. of the Rule of the\n       Damianites approved by Innocent IV., August 8, 1253.) 3. The\n       bull of canonization, given September 26, 1255--that is to say,\n       two years after Clara's death; it is much longer than these\n       documents ordinarily are, and relates the principal incidents of\n       her life. A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 749; Potthast, 16,025. 4. Her\n       correspondence. Unhappily we have only fragments of it; the\n       Bollandists, without saying whence they drew them, have inserted\n       four of her letters in the _Acta_ of St. Agnes of Bohemia, to\n       whom they were addressed. (A. SS., _Martii_, t. i., pp.\n       506-508.)\n\n   [2] Reading the Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni, which represents the\n       average Franciscan character about 1250, one sees with what\n       reason the Rule had multiplied minute precautions for keeping\n       the Brothers from all relations with women.\n\n       The desire of Celano to present the facts in the life of Francis\n       as the norm of the acts of the friars appears still more in the\n       chapters concerning St. Clara than in all the others. Vide 2\n       Cel., 3, 132: _Non credatis, charissimi (dixit Franciscus),\n       quodeas perfecte non diligam.... Sed exemplum do vobis, ut\n       quemadmodum ego facio, ita et vos faciatis._ Cf. ibid., 134.\n\n   [3] 2 Cel., 3, 55. _Fateor veritatem ... nullam me si aspicerem\n       recogniturum in facie nisi duas_. This chapter and the two\n       following give us a sort of caricature, in which Francis is\n       represented as so little sure of himself that he casts down his\n       eyes for fear of yielding to desire. The stories of Francis and\n       Jacqueline of Settesoli give a very different picture of the\n       relations between the Brothers and the women in the origin of\n       the Order from that which was given later. Bernard de Besse\n       (Turin MS., f^o. 113) relates at length the coming of Jacqueline\n       to Portiuncula to be present at St. Francis's death. Cf.\n       _Spec._, 107; 133; Bon., 112. Also Clara's repast at\n       Portiuncula. _Fior._, 15; _Spec._, 139b.; A. SS. _Aug. Vita\n       Clar._, No. 39 ff.\n\n   [4] Isaiah, lxiii., 8 and 9 (Segond's [French] translation). At\n       the Mass on Holy Monday Isaiah lxiii. is read for the Epistle\n       and Mark xiv. for the Gospel.\n\n   [5] San Paolo on the Chiasco, near Bastia.\n\n   [6] At the present day diocesan seminary of Assisi, \"_Seminarium\n       seraphicum_.\" In the thirteenth century the north gate of the\n       city was there. The houses which lie between there and the\n       Basilica form the new town, which is rapidly growing and will\n       unite the city with Sacro Convento.\n\n   [7] _Nam steteramus in alio loco, licet parum. Test. Clar._ It\n       is truly strange that there is not a word here for the house\n       where the first days of her religious life were passed. Cf.\n       _Vit._, no. 10: _S. Angelus de Panse ... ubi cum non plene mens\n       ejus quiesceret._\n\n   [8] Mittarelli, _Annales Camaldulenses_ (Venice, 1755-1773, 9\n       vols., f^o.), t. iv., app. 431 and 435. Cf. 156.\n\n   [9] The act of donation is still in the archives of Assisi. An\n       analysis of it will be found in Cristofani, t. i., p. 133. Their\n       munificence remained without result; the bull _Ab Ecclesia_ of\n       July 27, 1232, shows that they were suppressed less than twenty\n       years after. _Sbaralea_, t. 1, p. 81. Potthast, 8984. Cf., ib.,\n       p. 195, note c, and 340, note a, and the bulls which are there\n       indicated.\n\n  [10] See p. 81, note ii.\n\n  [11] 1 Cel., 18; 21; 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 1, 8.\n\n  [12] _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 600. Cf. 3 Soc., 60. The three\n       Orders are contemporary, one might even say, the four, including\n       among them the one that miscarried among the secular priests\n       (see below).\n\n       In a letter St. Clara speaks of her Order as making only a part\n       with that of the Brothers: _Sequaris consilia Reverendi Patris\n       nostri fratris Eliae Ministri generalis totius ordinis_. A. SS.,\n       Martii, t. i., p. 507.\n\n  [13] This point of view is brought into relief by an anecdote in\n       the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of Besse (Turin MS., 113a). This is\n       how he ends chap. vii. on the three Orders: _Nec Santus his\n       contentus ordinibus satagebat omnium generi salutis et\n       penitentiae viam dare. Unde parochiali cuidam sacerdoti dicenti\n       sibi quod vellet suus, retenta tamen ecclesia. Frater esse, dato\n       vivendi et induendi modo, dicitur indixisse ut annuatim,\n       collectis Eclesiae fructibus daret pro Deo, quod de praeteritis\n       superesset._\n\n  [14] See the lovely story in the _Fior._, 13. Cf. _Spec._, 65a;\n       _Conform._, 168b. 1.\n\n  [15] The text of it was doubtless formerly inserted in chapter\n       vi. of the Rule granted to the Clarisses of St. Damian, August\n       9, 1253, by the bull _Solet annuere_. Potthast, 15,086. But this\n       chapter has been completely changed in many editions. The text\n       of the _Speculum_, Morin, Rouen 1509, should be read. _Tract_\n       iii., 226b. The critical study to be made upon this text by\n       comparing the indications given by the bull _Angelis guadium_ of\n       May 11, 1238, Sbaralea, i., p. 242, is too long to find a place\n       here.\n\n  [16] 2 Cel., 3, 132. Cf. _Test. B. Clar._\n\n  [17] _In illa gravi infirmitate ... faciebat se erigi ... et\n       sedens filabat._ A. SS., 760e. _Sic vult eas [sorores] operare\n       manibus suis._ Ib. 762a.\n\n  [18] _Fior._ 33.\n\n  [19] Rule of 1221, chap xii. _Et nulla penitus mulier ab aliquo\n       frater recipiatur ad obedientiam, sed dato sibi consilio\n       spirituali, ubi voluerit agat penitentiam._ Cf. below, p. 252,\n       note 1, the remainder of this chapter and the indication of the\n       sources. This proves, 1, that the friars had received women into\n       the Order; 2, that at the beginning they said The Order in the\n       singular, and under this appellation included Sisters as well as\n       Brothers. We see how far the situation was, even at the end of\n       1221, from being what it became a few years later. It is to be\n       noted that in all the reforming sects of the commencement of the\n       thirteenth century the two sexes were closely united. (Vide\n       _Burchardi chronicon_, Pertz, 1, 23, p. 376. Cf. Potthast, 2611,\n       bull _Cum otim_ of Nov. 25, 1205.)\n\n       On the 7th of June, 1201 (bull _Incunubit nobis_), Innocent III.\n       had approved the Rule of the Humiliants. This was a religious\n       association whose members continued to live in their own homes,\n       and who offer surprising points of contact with the Franciscan\n       Order, though they took no vow of poverty. From them issued a\n       more restricted association which founded convents where they\n       worked in wool; these convents received both men and women. Vide\n       Jacques de Vitry, _Hist. Occidentalis_, cap. 28. _De religione\n       et regula Humiliatorum_ (Douai, 1597, pp. 334-337). The time\n       came when from these two Orders issued a third, composed solely\n       of priests. These _Humiliati_ are too little known, though they\n       have had a historian whose book is one of the noble works of the\n       eighteenth century: Tiraboschi, _Vetera Humiliatorum monumenta_\n       (Milan, 3 vols., 4to, 1766-1768). Toward 1200 they had\n       monopolized _l'arte della lana_ in all upper Italy as far as to\n       Florence; it is evident, therefore, that Francis's father must\n       have had relations with them.\n\n  [20] The bull approving the Rule of St. Damian is of August 9,\n       1253. Clara died two days later.\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 122. Cf. Potthast, 8194 ff.; cf. ib., 709.\n\n  [22] A. SS., _Vita Cl._, p. 758. Cf. bull of canonization.\n\n  [23] _Vit. S. Clar._, A. SS., p. 758. This petition was surely\n       made by the medium of Francis; and there are several indications\n       of his presence in Perugia in the latter part of the life of\n       Innocent III. _In obitu suo [Alexandri papae] omnes familiares\n       sui deseruerunt eum praeter fratres Minores. Et similiter Papam\n       Gregorium et Honorium et Innocentium in cujus obitu fuit\n       praesentialiter S. Franciscus._ Eccl. xv. _Mon. Germ. hist.\n       Script._, t. 28 p. 568. Sbaralea puts forth doubts as to the\n       authenticity of this privilege, the text of which he gives;\n       wrongly, I think, for Clara alludes to it in her will, A. SS.,\n       p. 747.\n\n  [24] He was born about 1147, created cardinal in 1198. Vide\n       Raynald, _ann._, 1217, Sec. 88, the eulogy made upon him by\n       Honorius III. _Forma decorus et venustus aspectu ... zelator\n       fidei, disciplina virtutis, ... castitatis amator et totius\n       sanctitatis exemplar_: Muratori, _Scriptores rer. Ital._, iii.,\n       1, 575.\n\n  [25] 1 Cel., 74.\n\n  [26] The bull _Litterae tuae_ of August 27, 1218, shows him\n       already favoring the Clarisses. Sbaralea, i., p. 1. Vide 3 Soc.,\n       61. _Offero me ipsum, dixit Hugolinus, vobis, auxilium et\n       consilium, atque protectionem paratus impendere._\n\n  [27] In the Conformities, 107a, 2, there is a curious story\n       which shows Ugolini going to the Carceri to find Francis, and\n       asking him if he ought to enter his Order. Cf. _Spec._, 217.\n\n  [28] He succeeded so well that Thomas of Celano himself seems to\n       forget that, at least at St. Damian, the Clarisses followed the\n       Rule given by St. Francis himself: _Ipsorum vita mirifica et\n       institutio gloriosa a domino Papa Gregorio, tunc Hostiensi\n       episcopo._ 1 Cel. 20. Cf. _Honorii Opera_ Horoy, t. iii., col.\n       363; t. iv., col. 218; Potthast, 6179 and 6879 ff.\n\n  [29] This privilege is inserted in the bull _Sacrosancta_ of\n       December 9, 1219. _Honorii opera_, Horoy, t. iii., col. 363 ff.\n\n  [30] G. Levi, _Registri dei Cardinali_, no. 125. Vide below, p.\n       400. Cf. Campi, _Hist. eccl. di Piacenza_, ii., 390.\n\n  [31] See, for example, the letter given by Wadding: Annals, ii.,\n       p. 16 (Rome, 1732). _Tanta me amaritudo cordis, abundantia\n       lacrymarum et immanitas doloris invasit, quod nisi ad pedes\n       Jesu, consolationem solitae pietatis invenirem, spiritus meus\n       forte deficeret et penitus anima liquefieret._ Wadding's text\n       should be corrected by that of the Riccardi MS., 279. f^o 80a\n       and b. Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 185; Sbaralea, i., p. 37.\n\n  [32] Bull _Angelis gaudium_ of May 11, 1238; it may be found in\n       Sbaralea, i., p. 242. Cf. Palacky, _Literarische Reise nach\n       Italien_, Prague, 1838, 4to, no. 147. Potthast, 10,596; cf.\n       11,175.\n\n  [33] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 762. Cf. _Conform._, 84b, 2.\n\n  [34] A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 239a; _Conform._, 54a, 1;\n       177a, 2.\n\n  [35] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 764d.\n\n  [36] The bull of canonization says nothing of the Saracens whom\n       she put to flight. Her life in the A. SS. relates the fact, but\n       shows her simply in prayer before the Holy Sacrament. Cf.\n       _Conform._, 84b, 1. Mark of Lisbon t. i., part 2, pp. 179-181.\n       None of these accounts represents Clara as going to meet them\n       with a monstrance.\n\n  [37] Bon., 173; _Fior._ 16; _Spec._, 62b; _Conform._, 84b, 2;\n       110b 1; 49a, 1. With these should be compared _Spec._, 220b:\n       _Frater Leo narravit quod Sanctus Franciscus surgens orare_\n       (sic) _venit ad fratres suos dicens: \"Ite ad saeculum et\n       dimittatis habitum, licentio vos._\"\n\n  [38] 2 Cel., 3, 134.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nFIRST ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE INFIDELS\n\nAutumn, 1212-Summer, 1215\n\n\nThe early Brothers Minor had too much need of the encouragement and\nexample of Francis not to have very early agreed with him upon certain\nfixed periods when they would be sure to find him at Portiuncula. Still\nit appears probable that these meetings did not become true\nChapters-General until toward 1216. There were at first two a year, one\nat Whitsunday, the other at Michaelmas (September 29th). Those of\nWhitsunday were the most important; all the Brothers came together to\ngain new strength in the society of Francis, to draw generous ardor and\ngrand hopes from him with his counsels and directions.\n\nThe members of the young association had everything in common, their\njoys as well as their sorrows; their uncertainties as well as the\nresults of their experiences. At these meetings they were particularly\noccupied with the Rule, the changes that needed to be made in it, and\nabove all, how they might better and better observe it;[1] then, in\nperfect harmony, they settled the allotment of the friars to the various\nprovinces.\n\nOne of Francis's most frequent counsels bore upon the respect due to the\nclergy; he begged his disciples to show a very particular deference to\nthe priests, and never to meet them without kissing their hands. He saw\nonly too well that the Brothers, having renounced everything, were in\ndanger of being unjust or severe toward the rich and powerful of the\nearth; he, therefore, sought to arm them against this tendency, often\nconcluding his counsels with these noble words: \"There are men who\nto-day appear to us to be members of the devil who one day shall be\nmembers of Christ.\"\n\n\"Our life in the midst of the world,\" said he again, \"ought to be such\nthat, on hearing or seeing us, every one shall feel constrained to\npraise our heavenly Father. You proclaim peace; have it in your hearts.\nBe not an occasion of wrath or scandal to anyone, but by your gentleness\nmay all be led to peace, concord, and good works.\"\n\nIt was especially when he undertook to cheer his disciples, to fortify\nthem against temptations and deliver them from their power, that Francis\nwas most successful. However anxious a soul might be, his words brought\nit back to serenity. The earnestness which he showed in calming sadness\nbecame fiery and terrible in reproving those who fell away, but in these\ndays of early fervor he seldom had occasion to show severity; more often\nhe needed gently to reprove the Brothers whose piety led them to\nexaggerate penances and macerations.\n\nWhen all was finished and each one had had his part in this banquet of\nlove, Francis would bless them, and they would disperse in all\ndirections like strangers and travellers. They had nothing, but already\nthey thought they saw the signs of the grand and final regeneration.\nLike the exile on Patmos they saw \"the holy city, the new Jerusalem,\ncoming down from God out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband\n... and the throne upon which is seated the Desired of all nations, the\nMessiah of the new times, he who is to make all things new.\"[2]\n\nYet all eyes were turned toward Syria, where a French knight, Jean de\nBrienne, had just been declared King of Jerusalem (1210), and toward\nwhich were hastening the bands of the children's crusade.\n\nThe conversion of Francis, radical as it was, giving a new direction to\nhis thoughts and will, had not had power to change the foundation of his\ncharacter. \"In a great heart everything is great.\" In vain is one\nchanged at conversion--he remains the same. That which changes is not he\nwho is converted, but his surroundings; he is suddenly introduced into a\nnew path, but he runs in it with the same ardor. Francis still remained\na knight, and it is perhaps this which won for him in so high a degree\nthe worship of the finest souls of the Middle Ages. There was in him\nthat longing for the unknown, that thirst for adventures and sacrifices,\nwhich makes the history of his century so grand and so attractive, in\nspite of many dark features.\n\nThose who have a genius for religion have generally the privilege of\nillusion. They never quite see how large the world is. When their faith\nhas moved a mountain they thrill with rapture, like the old Hebrew\nprophets, and it seems to them that they see the dawning of the day\n\"when the glory of the Lord will appear, when the wolf and the lamb will\nfeed together.\" Blessed illusion, that fires the blood like a generous\nwine, so that the soldiers of righteousness hurl themselves against the\nmost terrific fortresses, believing that these once taken the war will\nbe ended.\n\nFrancis had found such joys in his union with poverty that he held it\nfor proven that one needed only to be a man to aspire after the same\nhappiness, and that the Saracens would be converted in crowds to the\ngospel of Jesus, if only it were announced to them in all its\nsimplicity. He therefore quitted Portiuncula for this new kind of\ncrusade. It is not known from what port he embarked. It was probably in\nthe autumn of 1212. A tempest having cast the ship upon the coast of\nSlavonia, he was obliged to resign himself either to remain several\nmonths in those parts or to return to Italy; he decided to return, but\nfound much difficulty in securing a passage on a ship which was about to\nsail for Ancona. He had no ill-will against the sailors, however, and\nthe stock of food falling short he shared with them the provisions with\nwhich his friends had overloaded him.\n\nNo sooner had he landed than he set out on a preaching tour, in which\nsouls responded to his appeals[3] with even more eagerness than in\ntimes past. We may suppose that he returned from Slavonia in the winter\nof 1212-1213, and that he employed the following spring in evangelizing\nCentral Italy. It was perhaps during this Lent that he retired to an\nisland in Lake Trasimeno, making a sojourn there which afterward became\nfamous in his legend.[4] However that may be, a perfectly reliable\ndocument shows him to have been in the Romagna in the month of May,\n1213.[5] One day Francis and his companion, perhaps Brother Leo,\narrived at the chateau of Montefeltro,[6] between Macerata and San\nMarino. A grand fete was being given for the reception of a new knight,\nbut the noise and singing did not affright them, and without hesitation\nthey entered the court, where all the nobility of the country was\nassembled. Francis then taking for his text the two lines,\n\n  Tanto e il bene ch' aspetto\n  Ch'ogni pena m'e diletto,[7]\n\npreached so touching a sermon that several of those present forgot for a\nmoment the tourney for which they had come. One of them, Orlando dei\nCattani, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, was so much moved that, drawing\nFrancis aside, \"Father,\" he said to him, \"I desire much to converse with\nyou about the salvation of my soul.\" \"Very willingly,\" replied Francis;\n\"but go for this morning, do honor to those friends who have invited\nyou, eat with them, and after that we will converse as much as you\nplease.\"\n\nSo it was done. The count came back and concluded the interview by\nsaying, \"I have in Tuscany a mountain especially favorable to\ncontemplation; it is entirely isolated and would well suit anyone who\ndesired to do penance far from the noises of the world; if it pleased\nyou I would willingly give it to you and your brethren for the salvation\nof my soul.\"\n\nFrancis accepted it joyfully, but as he was obliged to be at Portiuncula\nfor the Whitsunday chapter he postponed the visit to the Verna[8] to a\nmore favorable time.\n\nIt was perhaps in this circuit that he went to Imola; at least nothing\nforbids the supposition. Always courteous, he had gone immediately on\nhis arrival to present himself to the bishop, and ask of him authority\nto preach. \"I am not in need of anyone to aid me in my task,\" replied\nthe bishop dryly. Francis bowed and retired, more polite and even more\ngentle than usual. But in less than hour he had returned. \"What is it,\nbrother, what do you want of me again?\" \"Monsignor,\" replied Francis,\n\"when a father drives his son out at the door he returns by the window.\"\n\nThe bishop, disarmed by such pious persistence, gave the desired\nauthorization.[9]\n\nThe aim of Francis at that time, however, was not to evangelize Italy;\nhis friars were already scattered over it in great numbers; and he\ndesired rather to gain them access to new countries.\n\nNot having been able to reach the infidels in Syria, he resolved to seek\nthem in Morocco. Some little time before (July, 1212), the troops of the\nAlmohades had met an irreparable defeat in the plains of Tolosa; beaten\nby the coalition of the Kings of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile,\nMohammed-el-Naser had returned to Morocco to die. Francis felt that this\nvictory of arms would be nothing if it were not followed by a peaceful\nvictory of the gospel spirit.\n\nHe was so full of his project, so much in haste to arrive at the end of\nhis journey, that very often he would forget his companion, and\nhastening forward would leave him far behind. The biographers are\nunfortunately most laconic with regard to this expedition; they merely\nsay that on arriving in Spain he was so seriously ill that a return home\nwas imperative. Beyond a few local legends, not very well attested, we\npossess no other information upon the labors of the Saint in this\ncountry, nor upon the route which he followed either in going or\nreturning.[10]\n\nThis silence is not at all surprising, and ought not to make us\nundervalue the importance of this mission. The one to Egypt, which took\nplace six years later, with a whole train of friars, and at a time when\nthe Order was much more developed, is mentioned only in a few lines by\nThomas of Celano; but for the recent discovery of the Chronicle of\nBrother Giordano di Giano and the copious details given by Jacques de\nVitry, we should be reduced to conjectures upon that journey also. The\nSpanish legends, to which allusion has just been made, cannot be\naltogether without foundation, any more than those which concern the\njourney of St. Francis through Languedoc and Piedmont; but in the actual\ncondition of the sources it is impossible to make a choice, with any\nsort of authority, between the historic basis and additions to it wholly\nwithout value.\n\nThe mission in Spain doubtless took place between the Whitsunday of 1214\nand that of 1215.[11] Francis, I think, had passed the previous\nyear[12] in Italy. Perhaps he was then going to see the Verna. The\nMarch of Ancona and the Valley of Rieti would naturally have attracted\nhim equally about this epoch, and finally the growth of the two branches\nof the Order must have made necessary his presence at Portiuncula and\nSt. Damian. The rapidity and importance of these missions ought in no\nsense to give surprise, nor awaken exaggerated critical doubts. It took\nonly a few hours to become a member of the fraternity, and we may not\ndoubt the sincerity of these vocations, since their condition was the\nimmediate giving up of all property of whatever kind, for the benefit\nof the poor. The new friars were barely received when they in their turn\nbegan to receive others, often becoming the heads of the movement in\nwhatever place they happened to be. The way in which we see things going\non in Germany in 1221, and in England in 1224, gives a very living\npicture of this spiritual germination.\n\nTo found a monastery it was enough that two or three Brothers should\nhave at their disposition some sort of a shelter, whence they radiated\nout into the city and the neighboring country. It would, therefore, be\nas much an exaggeration to describe St. Francis as a man who passed his\nlife in founding convents, as to deny altogether the local traditions\nwhich attribute to him the erection of a hundred monasteries. In many\ncases a glance is enough to show whether these claims of antiquity are\njustified; before 1220 the Order had only hermitages after the pattern\nof the Verna or the Carceri, solely intended for the Brothers who\ndesired to pass some time in retreat.\n\nReturned to Assisi, Francis admitted to the Order a certain number of\nlearned men, among whom was perhaps Thomas of Celano. The latter, in\nfact, says that God at that time mercifully remembered him, and he adds\nfurther on: \"The blessed Francis was of an exquisite nobility of heart\nand full of discernment; with the greatest care he rendered to each one\nwhat was due him, with wisdom considering in each case the degree of\ntheir dignities.\"\n\nThis does not harmonize very well with the character of Francis as we\nhave sketched it; one can hardly imagine him preserving in his Order\nsuch profound distinctions as were at that time made between the\ndifferent social ranks, but he had that true and eternal politeness\nwhich has its roots in the heart, and which is only an expression of\ntact and love. It could not be otherwise with a man who saw in courtesy\none of the qualities of God.\n\nWe are approaching one of the most obscure periods of his life. After\nthe chapter of 1215 he seems to have passed through one of those crises\nof discouragement so frequent with those who long to realize the ideal\nin this world. Had he discovered the warning signs of the misfortunes\nwhich were to come upon his family? Had he come to see that the\nnecessities of life were to sully and blight his dream? Had he seen in\nthe check of his missions in Syria and Morocco a providential indication\nthat he had to change his method? We do not know. But about this time he\nfelt the need of turning to St. Clara and Brother Silvestro for counsel\non the subject of the doubts and hesitations which assailed him; their\nreply restored to him peace and joy. God by their mouth commanded him to\ncontinue his apostolate.[13]\n\nImmediately he rose and set forth in the direction of Bevagna,[14] with\nan ardor which he had never yet shown. In encouraging him to persevere\nClara had in some sort inoculated him with a new enthusiasm. One word\nfrom her had sufficed to give him back all his courage, and from this\npoint in his life we find in him more poetry, more love, than ever\nbefore.\n\nFull of joy, he was going on his way when, perceiving some flocks of\nbirds, he turned aside a little from the road to go to them. Far from\ntaking flight, they flocked around him as if to bid him welcome.\n\"Brother birds,\" he said to them then, \"you ought to praise and love\nyour Creator very much. He has given you feathers for clothing, wings\nfor flying, and all that is needful for you. He has made you the noblest\nof his creatures; he permits you to live in the pure air; you have\nneither to sow nor to reap, and yet he takes care of you, watches over\nyou and guides you.\" Then the birds began to arch their necks, to spread\nout their wings, to open their beaks, to look at him, as if to thank\nhim, while he went up and down in their midst stroking them with the\nborder of his tunic, sending them away at last with his blessing.[15]\n\nIn this same evangelizing tour, passing through Alviano,[16] he spoke a\nfew exhortations to the people, but the swallows so filled the air with\ntheir chirping that he could not make himself heard. \"It is my turn to\nspeak,\" he said to them; \"little sister swallows, hearken to the word of\nGod; keep silent and be very quiet until I have finished.\"[17]\n\nWe see how Francis's love extended to all creation, how the diffused\nlife shed abroad upon all things inspired and moved him. From the sun to\nthe earthworm which we trample under foot, everything breathed in his\near the ineffable sigh of beings that live and suffer and die, and in\ntheir life as in their death have a part in the divine work.\n\n\"Praised be thou, Lord, with all thy creatures, especially for my\nbrother Sun which gives us the day and by him thou showest thy light. He\nis beautiful and radiant with great splendor; of thee, Most High, he is\nthe symbol.\"\n\nHere again, Francis revives the Hebrew inspiration, the simple and\ngrandiose view of the prophets of Israel. \"Praise the Lord!\" the royal\nPsalmist had sung, \"praise the Lord, fire and frost, snow and mists,\nstormy winds that do his will, mountains and all hills, fruit-trees and\nall cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and fowls with wings,\nkings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth,\nyoung men and maidens, old men and children, praise the Lord, praise ye\nthe Lord!\"\n\nThe day of the birds of Bevagna remained in his memory as one of the\nmost beautiful of his whole life, and though usually so reserved he\nalways loved to tell of it;[18] it was because he owed to Clara these\npure ardors which brought him into a secret and delicious communion with\nall beings; it was she who had revived him from sadness and hesitation;\nin his heart he bore an immense gratitude to her who, just when he\nneeded it, had known how to return to him love for love, inspiration for\ninspiration.\n\nFrancis's sympathy for animals, as we see it shining forth here, has\nnone of that sentimentalism, so often artificial and exclusive of all\nother love, which certain associations of his time noisily displayed; in\nhim it is only a manifestation of his feeling for nature, a deeply\nmystical, one might say pantheistic, sentiment, if the word had not a\ntoo definitely philosophical sense, quite opposite to the Franciscan\nthought.\n\nThis sentiment, which in the poets of the thirteenth century is so often\nfalse and affected, was in him not only true, but had in it something\nalive, healthy, robust.[19] It is this vein of poetry which awoke\nItaly to self-consciousness, made her in a few years forget the\nnightmare of Catharist ideas, and rescued her from pessimism. By it\nFrancis became the forerunner of the artistic movement which preceded\nthe Renaissance, the inspirer of that group of Pre-Raphaelites, awkward,\ngrotesque in drawing though at times they were, to whom we turn to-day\nwith a sort of piety, finding in their ungraceful saints an inner life,\na moral feeling which we seek for elsewhere in vain.\n\nIf the voice of the Poverello of Assisi was so well understood it was\nbecause in this matter, as in all others, it was entirely\nunconventional. How far we are, with him, from the fierce or Pharisaic\npiety of those monks which forbids even the females of animals to enter\ntheir convent! His notion of chastity in no sense resembles this\nexcessive prudery. One day at Sienna he asked for some turtle-doves, and\nholding them in the skirt of his tunic, he said: \"Little sisters\nturtle-doves, you are simple, innocent, and chaste; why did you let\nyourselves be caught? I shall save you from death, and have nests made\nfor you, so that you may bring forth young and multiply according to the\ncommandment of our Creator.\"\n\nAnd he went and made nests for them all, and the turtle-doves began to\nlay eggs and bring up their broods under the eyes of the Brothers.[20]\n\nAt Rieti a family of red-breasts were the guests of the monastery, and\nthe young birds made marauding expeditions on the very table where the\nBrothers were eating.[21] Not far from there, at Greccio,[22] they\nbrought to Francis a leveret that had been taken alive in a trap. \"Come\nto me, brother leveret,\" he said to it. And as the poor creature, being\nset free, ran to him for refuge, he took it up, caressed it, and finally\nput it on the ground that it might run away; but it returned to him\nagain and again, so that he was obliged to send it to the neighboring\nforest before it would consent to return to freedom.[23]\n\nOne day he was crossing the Lake of Rieti. The boatman in whose bark he\nwas making the passage offered him a tench of uncommon size. Francis\naccepted it with joy, but to the great amazement of the fisherman put it\nback into the water, bidding it bless God.[24]\n\nWe should never have done if we were to relate all the incidents of this\nkind,[25] for the sentiment of nature was innate with him; it was a\nperpetual communion which made him love the whole creation.[26] He is\nravished with the witchery of great forests; he has the terrors of a\nchild when he is alone at prayer in a deserted chapel, but he tastes\nineffable joy merely in inhaling the perfume of a flower, or gazing into\nthe limpid water of a brook.[27]\n\nThis perfect lover of poverty permitted one luxury--he even commanded it\nat Portiuncula--that of flowers; the Brother was bidden not to sow\nvegetables and useful plants only; he must reserve one corner of good\nground for our sisters, the flowers of the fields. Francis talked with\nthem also, or rather he replied to them, for their mysterious and gentle\nlanguage crept into the very depth of his heart.[28]\n\nThe thirteenth century was prepared to understand the voice of the\nUmbrian poet; the sermon to the birds[29] closed the reign of Byzantine\nart and of the thought of which it was the image. It is the end of\ndogmatism and authority; it is the coming in of individualism and\ninspiration; very uncertain, no doubt, and to be followed by obstinate\nreactions, but none the less marking a date in the history of the human\nconscience.[30] Many among the companions of Francis were too much the\nchildren of their century, too thoroughly imbued with its theological\nand metaphysical methods, to quite understand a sentiment so simple and\nprofound.[31] But each in his degree felt its charm. Here Thomas of\nCelano's language rises to an elevation which we find in no other part\nof his works, closing with a picture of Francis which makes one think of\nthe Song of Songs.[32]\n\nOf more than middle height, Francis had a delicate and kindly face,\nblack eyes, a soft and sonorous voice. There was in his whole person a\ndelicacy and grace which made him infinitely lovely. All these\ncharacteristics are found in the most ancient portraits.[33]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 3 Soc., 57; cf. _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 599.\n\n   [2] Rev. xxi.; 1 Cel., 46; 3 Soc., 57-59; _An. Perus._, A. SS.,\n       p. 600.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 55 and 56; Bon., 129-132.\n\n   [4] _Fior._, 7; _Spec._, 96; _Conform._, 223a, 2. The fact of\n       Francis's sojourn on an island in this lake is made certain by 1\n       Cel., 60.\n\n   [5] Vide below, p. 400. Cf. A. SS., pp. 823 f.\n\n   [6] At present Sasso-Feltrio, between Conca and Marecchio, south\n       of and about two hours' walk from San Marino.\n\n   [7] The happiness that I expect is so great that all pain is\n       joyful to me. All the documents give Francis's text in Italian,\n       which is enough to prove that it was the language not only of\n       his poems but also of his sermons. _Spec._ 92a ff. _Conform._\n       113a, 2; 231a, 1; _Fior., Prima consid._\n\n   [8] See p. 400.\n\n   [9] 2 Cel., 3, 85; Bon., 82.\n\n  [10] 1 Cel., 56; Bon., 132.\n\n  [11] Vide Wadding, _ann. 1213-1215_. Cf. A. SS., pp. 602, 603,\n       825-831. Mark of Lisbon, _lib._ i., _cap._ 45, pp. 78-80;\n       Papini, _Storia di S. Francesco_, i., p. 79 ff. (Foligno, 1825,\n       2 vols., 4to). It is surprising to see Father Suysken giving so\n       much weight to the _argumentum a silentio_.\n\n  [12] From Pentecost, 1213, to that of 1214.--_Post non multum\n       vero temporis versus Marochium iter arripuit_, says Thomas of\n       Celano (1 Cel., 56), after having mentioned the return from\n       Slavonia. Taking into account the author's _usus loquendi_ the\n       phrase appears to establish a certain interval between the two\n       missions.\n\n  [13] _Conform._, 110b, 1; _Spec._, 62b; _Fior._, 16; Bon.,\n       170-174.\n\n  [14] Village about two leagues S. W. from Assisi. The time is\n       indirectly fixed by Bon., 173, and 1 Cel., 58.\n\n  [15] 1 Cel. 58; Bon., 109 and 174; _Fior._, 16; _Spec._, 62b;\n       _Conform._, 114b, 2.\n\n  [16] About halfway between Orvieto and Narni.\n\n  [17] 1 Cel., 59; Bon., 175.\n\n  [18] _Ad haec, ut ipse dicebat_ ... 1 Cel., 58.\n\n  [19] Francis has been compared in this regard to certain of his\n       contemporaries, but the similarity of the words only makes more\n       evident the diversity of inspiration. Honorius III. may say:\n       _Forma rosae est inferius angusta, superius ampla et significat\n       quod Christus pauper fuit in mundo, sed est Dominus super omnia\n       et implet universa. Nam sicut forma rosae_, etc. (Horoy, t. i.,\n       col. xxiv. and 804), and make a whole sermon on the symbolism of\n       the rose; these overstrained dissertations have nothing to do\n       with the feeling for nature. It is the arsenal of mediaeval\n       rhetoric used to dissect a word. It is an intellectual effort,\n       not a song of love. The Imitation would say: _If thy heart were\n       right all creatures would be for thee a mirror of life and a\n       volume of holy doctrine_, lib. ii., cap. 2. The simple sentiment\n       of the beauty of creation is absent here also; the passage is a\n       pedagogue in disguise.\n\n  [20] _Spec._, 157. _Fior._; 22.\n\n  [21] 2 Cel., 2, 16; _Conform._, 148a, 1, 183b, 2. Cf. the story\n       of the sheep of Portiuncula: Bon., 111.\n\n  [22] Village in the valley of Rieti, two hours' walk from that\n       town, on the road to Terni.\n\n  [23] 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113.\n\n  [24] 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114.\n\n  [25] 2 Cel., 3, 54; Bon., 109; 2 Cel., 3; 103 ff.; Bon., 116\n       ff.; Bon., 110; 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114, 113, 115; 1 Cel., 79;\n       _Fior._, 13, etc.\n\n  [26] 2 Cel., 3, 101 ff.; Bon., 123.\n\n  [27] 2 Cel., 3, 59; 1 Cel., 80 and 81.\n\n  [28] 2 Cel., 3, 101; _Spec._, 136a; 1 Cel., 81.\n\n  [29] This is the scene in his life most often reproduced by the\n       predecessors of Giotto. The unknown artist who (before 1236)\n       decorated the nave of the Lower Church of Assisi gives five\n       frescos to the history of Jesus and five to the life of St.\n       Francis. Upon the latter he represents: 1, the renunciation of\n       the paternal inheritance; 2, Francis upholding the Lateran\n       church; 3, the sermon to the birds; 4, the stigmata; 5, the\n       funeral. This work, unhappily very badly lighted, and about half\n       of it destroyed at the time of the construction of the chapels\n       of the nave, ought to be engraved before it completely\n       disappears. The history of art in the time of Giunta Pisano is\n       still too much enveloped in obscurity for us to neglect such a\n       source of information. M. Thode (_Franz von Assisi und die\n       Anfaenge der Kunst_, Berlin, 1885, 8vo. illust.) and the Rev.\n       Father Fratini (_Storia della Basilica d'Assisi_, Prato, 1882,\n       8vo) are much too brief so far as these frescos are concerned.\n\n  [30] It is needless to say that I do not claim that Francis was\n       the only initiator of this movement, still less that he was its\n       creator; he was its most inspired singer, and that may suffice\n       for his glory. If Italy was awakened it was because her sleep\n       was not so sound as in the tenth century; the mosaics of the\n       facade of the Cathedral of Spoleto (the Christ between the\n       Virgin and St. John) already belong to the new art. Still, the\n       victory was so little final that the mural paintings of St.\n       Lawrence without the walls and of the Quattro Coronate, which\n       are subsequent to it by half a score of years, relapse into a\n       coarse Byzantinism. See also those of the Baptistery of\n       Florence.\n\n  [31] Hence the more or less subtile explanations with which they\n       adorn these incidents.--As to the part of animals in thirteenth\n       century legends consult Caesar von Heisterbach, Strange's\n       edition, t. ii., pp. 257 ff.\n\n  [32] 1 Cel., 80-83.\n\n  [33] 1 Cel., 83; _Conform._, 111a. M. Thode (_Anfaenge_, pp.\n       76-94) makes a study of some thirty portraits. The most\n       important are reproduced in _Saint Francois_ (1 vol., 4to,\n       Paris, 1885); 1, contemporary portrait, by Brother Eudes, now at\n       Subiaco (_loc. cit._, p. 30); 2, portrait dating about 1230, by\n       Giunta Pisano (?); preserved at Portiuncula (_loc. cit._, p.\n       384); 3, finally, portrait dated 1235, by Bon. Berlinghieri, and\n       preserved at Pescia, in Tuscany (_loc. cit._, p. 277). In 1886\n       Prof. Carattoli studied with great care a portrait which dates\n       from about those years and of which he gives a picture (also\n       preserved of late years at Portiuncula). _Miscellanea\n       francescana_ t. i., pp. 44-48; cf. pp. 160, 190, and 1887, p.\n       32. M. Bonghi has written some interesting papers on the\n       iconography of St. Francis (_Francesco di Assisi_, 1 vol., 12mo,\n       Citta di Castello, Lapi, 1884. Vide pp. 103-113).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE INNER MAN AND WONDER-WORKING\n\n\nThe missionary journey, undertaken under the encouragement of St. Clara\nand so poetically inaugurated by the sermon to the birds of Bevagna,\nappears to have been a continual triumph for Francis.[1] Legend\ndefinitively takes possession of him; whether he will or no, miracles\nburst forth under his footsteps; quite unawares to himself the objects\nof which he has made use produce marvellous effects; folk come out from\nthe villages in procession to meet him, and the biographer gives us to\nhear the echo of those religious festivals of Italy--merry, popular,\nnoisy, bathed in sunshine--which so little resemble the fastidiously\narranged festivals of northern peoples.\n\nFrom Alviano Francis doubtless went to Narni, one of the most charming\nlittle towns in Umbria, busy with building a cathedral after the\nconquest of their communal liberties. He seems to have had a sort of\npredilection for this city as well as for its surrounding villages.[2]\nFrom thence he seems to have plunged into the valley of Rieti, where\nGreccio, Fonte-Colombo, San Fabiano, Sant-Eleuthero, Poggio-Buscone\nretain even stronger traces of him than the environs of Assisi.\n\nThomas of Celano gives us no particulars of the route followed, but, on\nthe other hand, he goes at length into the success of the apostle in the\nMarch of Ancona, and especially at Ascoli. Did the people of these\ndistricts still remember the appeals which Francis and Egidio had made\nto them six years before (1209), or must we believe that they were\npeculiarly prepared to understand the new gospel? However this may be,\nnowhere else was a like enthusiasm shown; the effect of the sermons was\nso great that some thirty neophytes at once received the habit of the\nOrder.\n\nThe March of Ancona ought to be held to be the Franciscan province _par\nexcellence_. There are Offida, San-Severino, Macerata, Fornaro, Cingoli,\nFermo, Massa, and twenty other hermitages where, during more than a\ncentury, poverty was to find its heralds and its martyrs; from thence\ncame Giovanni della Verna, Jacopo di Massa, Conrad di Offida, Angelo\nClareno, and those legions of nameless revolutionists, dreamers, and\nprophets, who since the _extirpes_ in 1244 by the general of the Order,\nCrescentius of Jesi, never ceased to make new recruits, and by their\nproud resistance to all powers filled one of the finest pages of\nreligious history in the Middle Ages.\n\nThis success, which bathed the soul of Francis with joy, did not arouse\nin him the smallest movement of pride. Never has man had a greater power\nover hearts, because never preacher preached himself less. One day\nBrother Masseo desired to put his modesty to the test.\n\n    \"Why thee? Why thee? Why thee?\" he repeated again and again, as\n    if to make a mock of Francis. \"What are you saying?\" cried\n    Francis at last. \"I am saying that everybody follows thee,\n    everyone desires to see thee, hear thee, and obey thee, and yet\n    for all that thou art neither beautiful, nor learned, nor of\n    noble family. Whence comes it, then, that it should be thee whom\n    the world desires to follow?\"\n\n    On hearing these words the blessed Francis, full of joy, raised\n    his eyes to heaven, and after remaining a long time absorbed in\n    contemplation he knelt, praising and blessing God with\n    extraordinary fervor. Then turning toward Masseo, \"Thou wishest\n    to know why it is I whom men follow? Thou wishest to know? It is\n    because the eyes of the Most High have willed it thus; he\n    continually watches the good and the wicked, and as his most\n    holy eyes have not found among sinners any smaller man, nor any\n    more insufficient and more sinful, therefore he has chosen me to\n    accomplish the marvellous work which God has undertaken; he\n    chose me because he could find no one more worthless, and he\n    wished here to confound the nobility and grandeur, the strength,\n    the beauty, and the learning of this world.\"\n\nThis reply throws a ray of light upon St. Francis's heart; the message\nwhich he brought to the world is once again the glad tidings announced\nto the poor; its purpose is the taking up again of that Messianic work\nwhich the Virgin of Nazareth caught a glimpse of in her _Magnificat_,\nthat song of love and liberty, the sighs of which breathe the vision of\na new social state. He comes to remind the world that the welfare of\nman, the peace of his heart, the joy of his life, are neither in money,\nnor in learning, nor in strength, but in an upright and sincere will.\nPeace to men of good will.\n\nThe part which he had taken at Assisi in the controversies of his\nfellow-citizens he would willingly have taken in all the rest of Italy,\nfor no man has ever dreamed of a more complete renovation; but if the\nend he sought was the same as that of many revolutionaries who came\nafter him, their methods were completely different; his only weapon was\nlove.\n\nThe event has decided against him. Apart from the _illuminati_ of the\nMarch of Ancona and the _Fraticelli_ of our own Provence his disciples\nhave vied with one another to misunderstand his thought.[3]\n\nWho knows if some one will not arise to take up his work? Has not the\npassion for worm-eaten speculations yet made victims enough? Are there\nnot many among us who perceive that luxury is a delusion, that if life\nis a battle, it is not a slaughter-house where ferocious beasts wrangle\nover their prey, but a wrestling with the divine, under whatever form it\nmay present itself--truth, beauty, or love? Who knows whether this\nexpiring nineteenth century will not arise from its winding-sheet to\nmake _amende honorable_ and bequeath to its successor one manly word of\nfaith?\n\nYes, the Messiah will come. He who was announced by Gioacchino di Fiore\nand who is to inaugurate a new epoch in the history of humanity will\nappear. _Hope maketh not ashamed._ In our modern Babylons and in the\nhuts on our mountains are too many souls who mysteriously sigh the hymn\nof the great vigil, _Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant\nJustum_,[4] for us not to be on the eve of a divine birth.\n\nAll origins are mysterious. This is true of matter, but yet more true of\nthat life, superior to all others, which we call holiness; it was in\nprayer that Francis found the spiritual strength which he needed; he\ntherefore sought for silence and solitude. If he knew how to do battle\nin the midst of men in order to win them to the faith, he loved, as\nCelano says, to fly away like a bird going to make its nest upon the\nmountain.[5]\n\nWith men truly pious the prayer of the lips, the formulated prayer, is\nhardly other than an inferior form of true prayer. Even when it is\nsincere and attentive, and not a mechanical repetition, it is only a\nprelude for souls not dead of religious materialism.\n\nNothing resembles piety so much as love. Formularies of prayer are as\nincapable of speaking the emotions of the soul as model love-letters of\nspeaking the transports of an impassioned heart. To true piety as well\nas to profound love, the formula is a sort of profanation.\n\nTo pray is to talk with God, to lift ourselves up to him, to converse\nwith him that he may come down to us. It is an act of meditation, of\nreflection, which presupposes the effort of all that is most personal in\nus.\n\nLooked at in this sense, prayer is the mother of all liberty and all\nfreedom.\n\nWhether or no it be a soliloquy of the soul with itself, the soliloquy\nwould be none the less the very foundation of a strong individuality.\n\nWith St. Francis as with Jesus, prayer has this character of effort\nwhich makes of it the greatest moral act. In order to truly know such\nmen one must have been able to go with them, to follow Jesus up to the\nmountain where he passed his nights. Three favored ones, Peter, James,\nJohn, followed him thither one day; but to describe what they saw, all\nthat a manly _sursum corda_ added to the radiance and the mysterious\ngrandeur of him whom they adored, they were obliged to resort to the\nlanguage of symbols.\n\nIt was so with St. Francis. For him as for his Master the end of prayer\nis communion with the heavenly Father, the accord of the divine with the\nhuman; or rather it is man who puts forth his strength to do the work of\nGod, not saying to him a mere passive, resigned, powerless _Fiat_, but\ncourageously raising his head: \"Behold me, Lord, I delight to do thy\nwill.\"\n\n\"There are unfathomable depths in the human soul, because at the bottom\nis God himself.\" Whether this God be transcendent or immanent, whether\nhe be One, the Creator, the eternal and immutable Principle, or whether\nhe be, as say the doctors beyond the Rhine, the ideal objectivation of\nour Me, is not the question for the heroes of humanity. The soldier in\nthe thick of battle does not philosophize as to how much truth or\nfalsehood there is in the patriotic sentiment; he takes his arms and\nfights at the peril of his life. So the soldiers of spiritual conflicts\nseek for strength in prayer, in reflection, contemplation, inspiration;\nall, poets, artists, teachers, saints, legislators, prophets, leaders of\nthe people, learned men, philosophers, all draw from this same source.\n\nBut it is not without difficulty that the soul unites itself to God, or\nif one prefers, that it finds itself. A prayer ends at last in divine\ncommunion only when it began by a struggle. The patriarch of Israel,\nasleep near Bethel, had already divined this: the God who passes by\ntells his name only to those who stop him and do him violence to learn\nit. He blesses only after long hours of conflict.\n\nThe gospel has found an untranslatable word to characterize the prayers\nof Jesus, it compares the conflict which preceded the voluntary\nimmolation of Christ to the death-struggle: _Factus in agonia_.[6] We\nmight say of his life that it had been a long temptation, a struggle, a\nprayer, since these words only express different moments of spiritual\nactivity.\n\nLike their Master, the disciples and successors of Christ can conquer\ntheir own souls only through perseverance. But these words, empty of\nmeaning for devout conventicles, have had a tragic sense for men of\nreligious genius.\n\nNothing is more false, historically, than the saints that adorn our\nchurches, with their mincing attitude, their piteous expression, that\nindescribably anaemic and emaciated--one may almost say emasculated--air\nwhich shows in their whole nature; they are pious seminarists brought up\nunder the direction of St. Alphonso di Liguori or of St. Louis di\nGonzagua; they are not saints, not the violent who take the kingdom of\nheaven by force.\n\nWe have come to one of the most delicate features of the life of\nFrancis--his relations with diabolical powers. Customs and ideas have so\nprofoundly changed in all that concerns the existence of the devil and\nhis relations with men, that it is almost impossible to picture to\noneself the enormous place which the thought of demons occupied at that\ntime in the minds of men.\n\nThe best minds of the Middle Ages believed without a doubt in the\nexistence of the perverse spirit, in his perpetual transformations in\nthe endeavor to tempt men and cause them to fall into his snares. Even\nin the sixteenth century, Luther, who undermined so many beliefs, had no\nmore doubt of the personal existence of Satan than of sorcery,\nconjurations, or possessions.[7]\n\nFinding in their souls a wide background of grandeur and wretchedness,\nwhence they sometimes heard a burst of distant harmonies calling them to\na higher life, soon to be overpowered by the clamors of the brute, our\nancestors could not refrain from seeking the explanation of this duel.\nThey found it in the conflict of the demons with God.\n\nThe devil is the prince of the demons, as God is the prince of the\nangels; capable of all transformations, they carry on to the end of time\nterrible battles which will end in the victory of God, but meantime each\nman his whole life long is contended for by these two adversaries, and\nthe noblest souls are naturally the most disputed.\n\nThis is how St. Francis, with all men of his time, explained the\ndisquietudes, terrors, anguish, with which his heart was at times\nassailed, as well as the hopes, consolations, joys in which in general\nhis soul was bathed. Wherever we follow his steps local tradition has\npreserved the memory of rude assaults of the tempter which he had to\nundergo.\n\nIt is no doubt useless to recall here the elementary fact that if\nmanners change with the times, man himself is quite as strangely\nmodified. If, according to education, and the manner of life, such or\nsuch a sense may develop an acuteness which confounds common\nexperience--hearing in the musician, touch with the blind, etc.--we may\nestimate by this how much sharper certain senses may have been then than\nnow. Several centuries ago visual delusion was with adults what it is\nnow with children in remotest country parts. A quivering leaf, a\nnothing, a breath, an unexplained sound creates an image which they see\nand in the reality of which they believe absolutely. Man is all of a\npiece; the hyperaesthesia of the will presupposes that of the\nsensibility, one is conditioned on the other, and it is this which makes\nmen of revolutionary epochs so much greater than nature. It would be\nabsurd under pretext of truth to try to bring them back to the common\nmeasures of our contemporary society, for they were veritably demigods\nfor good as for evil.\n\nLegends are not always absurd. The men of '93 are still near to us, but\nit is nevertheless with good right that legend has taken possession of\nthem, and it is pitiable to see these men who, ten times a day, had to\ntake resolutions where everything was at stake--their destiny, that of\ntheir ideas, and sometimes that of their country--judged as if they had\nbeen mere worthy citizens, with leisure to discuss at length every\nmorning the garments they were to wear or the _menu_ of a dinner. Most\nof the time historians have perceived only a part of the truth about\nthem; for not only were there two men in them, almost all of them are at\nthe same time poets, demagogues, prophets, heroes, martyrs. To write\nhistory, then, is to translate and transpose almost continually. The men\nof the thirteenth century could not bring themselves to not refer to an\nexterior cause the inner motions of their souls. In what appears to us\nas the result of our own reflections they saw inspiration; where we say\ndesires, instincts, passions, they said temptation, but we must not\npermit these differences of language to make us overlook or tax with\ntrickery a part of their spiritual life, bringing us thus to the\nconclusions of a narrow and ignorant rationalism.\n\nSt. Francis believed himself to have many a time fought with the devil;\nthe horrible demons of the Etruscan Inferno still haunted the forests of\nUmbria and Tuscany; but while for his contemporaries and some of his\ndisciples apparitions, prodigies, possessions, are daily phenomena, for\nhim they are exceptional, and remain entirely in the background. In the\niconography of St. Benedict, as in that of most of the popular saints,\nthe devil occupies a preponderant place; in that of St. Francis he\ndisappears so completely that in the long series of Giotto's frescos at\nAssisi he is not seen a single time.[8]\n\nIn the same way all that is magic and miracle-working occupies in his\nlife an entirely secondary rank. Jesus in the Gospels gave his apostles\npower to cast out evil spirits, and to heal all sickness and all\ninfirmity.[9] Francis surely took literally these words, which made a\npart of his Rule. He believed that he could work miracles, and he willed\nto do so; but his religious thought was too pure to permit him to\nconsider miracles otherwise than as an entirely exceptional means of\nrelieving the sufferings of men. Not once do we see him resorting to\nmiracle to prove his apostolate or to bolster up his ideas. His tact\ntaught him that souls are worthy of being won by better means. This\nalmost complete absence of the marvellous[10] is by so much the more\nremarkable that it is in absolute contradiction with the tendencies of\nhis time.[11]\n\nOpen the life of his disciple, St. Anthony of Padua ([Cross] 1231); it is a\ntiresome catalogue of prodigies, healings, resurrections. One would say\nit was rather the prospectus of some druggist who had invented a new\ndrug than a call to men to conversion and a higher life. It may interest\ninvalids or devotees, but neither the heart nor the conscience is\ntouched by it. It must be said in justice to Anthony of Padua that his\nrelations with Francis appear to have been very slight. Among the\nearliest disciples who had time to fathom their master's thought to the\nvery depths we find traces of this noble disdain of the marvellous; they\nknew too well that the perfect joy is not to astound the world with\nprodigies, to give sight to the blind, nor even to revive those who have\nbeen four days dead, but that it lives in the love that goes even to\nself-immolation. _Mihi absit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini._[12]\n\nThus Brother Egidio asked of God grace not to perform miracles; he saw\nin them, as in the passion for learning, a snare in which the proud\nwould be taken, and which would distract the Order from its true\nmission.[13]\n\nSt. Francis's miracles are all acts of love; the greater number of them\nare found in the healing of nervous maladies, those apparently\ninexplicable disquietudes which are the cruel afflictions of critical\ntimes. His gentle glance, at once so compassionate and so strong, which\nseemed like a messenger from his heart, often sufficed to make those who\nmet it forget all their suffering.\n\nThe evil eye is perhaps a less stupid superstition than is generally\nfancied. Jesus was right in saying that a look sufficed to make one an\nadulterer; but there is also a look--that of the contemplative Mary, for\nexample--which is worth all sacrifices, because it includes them all,\nbecause it gives, consecrates, immolates him who looks.\n\nCivilization dulls this power of the glance. A part of the education the\nworld gives us consists in teaching our eyes to deceive, in making them\nexpressionless, in extinguishing their flames; but simple and\nstraightforward natures never give up using this language of the heart,\n\"which brings life and health in its beams.\"\n\n\"A Brother was suffering unspeakable tortures; sometimes he would roll\nupon the ground, striking against whatever lay in his way, frothing at\nthe mouth, horrible to see; at times he would become rigid, and again,\nafter remaining stark outstretched for a moment, would roll about in\nhorrible contortions; sometimes lying in a heap on the ground, his feet\ntouching his head, he would bound upward as high as a man's head.\"\nFrancis came to see him and healed him.[14]\n\nBut these are exceptions, and the greater part of the time the Saint\nwithdrew himself from the entreaties of his companions when they asked\nmiracles at his hands.\n\nTo sum up, if we take a survey of the whole field of Francis's piety, we\nsee that it proceeds from the secret union of his soul with the divine\nby prayer; this intuitive power of seeing the ideal classes him with the\nmystics. He knew, indeed, both the ecstasy and the liberty of mysticism,\nbut we must not forget those features of character which separate him\nfrom it, particularly his apostolic fervor. Besides this his piety had\ncertain peculiar qualities which it is necessary to point out.\n\nAnd first, liberty with respect of observances: Francis felt all the\nemptiness and pride of most religious observance. He saw the snare that\nlies hidden there, for the man who carefully observes all the minutiae of\na religious code risks forgetting the supreme law of love. More than\nthis, the friar who lays upon himself a certain number of supererogatory\nfacts gains the admiration of the ignorant, but the pleasure which he\nfinds in this admiration actually transforms his pious act into sin.\nThus, strangely enough, contrary to other founders of orders, he was\ncontinually easing the strictness of the various rules which he laid\ndown.[15] We may not take this to be a mere accident, for it was only\nafter a struggle with his disciples that he made his will prevail; and\nit was precisely those who were most disposed to relax their vow of\npoverty who were the most anxious to display certain bigoted observances\nbefore the public eye.\n\n\"The sinner can fast,\" Francis would say at such times; \"he can pray,\nweep, macerate himself, but one thing he cannot do, he cannot be\nfaithful to God.\" Noble words, not unworthy to fall from the lips of him\nwho came to preach a worship in spirit and in truth, without temple or\npriest; or rather that every fireside shall be a temple and every\nbeliever a priest.\n\nReligious formalism, in whatever form of worship, always takes on a\nforced and morose manner. Pharisees of every age disfigure their faces\nthat no one may be unaware of their godliness. Francis not merely could\nnot endure these grimaces of false piety, he actually counted mirth and\njoy in the number of religious duties.\n\nHow shall one be melancholy who has in the heart an inexhaustible\ntreasure of life and truth which only increases as one draws upon it?\nHow be sad when in spite of falls one never ceases to make progress?\nThe pious soul which grows and develops has a joy like that of the\nchild, happy in feeling its weak little limbs growing strong and\npermitting it every day a further exertion.\n\nThe word joy is perhaps that which comes most often to the pen of the\nFranciscan authors;[16] the master went so far as to make it one of the\nprecepts of the Rule.[17] He was too good a general not to know that a\njoyous army is always a victorious army. In the history of the early\nFranciscan missions there are bursts of laughter which ring out high and\nclear.[18]\n\nFor that matter, we are apt to imagine the Middle Ages as much more\nmelancholy than they really were. Men suffered much in those days, but\nthe idea of grief being never separated from that of penalty, suffering\nwas either an expiation or a test, and sorrow thus regarded loses its\nsting; light and hope shine through it.\n\nFrancis drew a part of his joy from the communion. He gave to the\nsacrament of the eucharist that worship imbued with unutterable emotion,\nwith joyful tears, which has aided some of the noblest of human souls to\nendure the burden and heat of the day.[19] The letter of the dogma was\nnot fixed in the thirteenth century as it is to-day, but all that is\nbeautiful, true, potent, eternal in the mystical feast instituted by\nJesus was then alive in every heart.\n\nThe eucharist was truly the viaticum of the soul. Like the pilgrims of\nEmmaus long ago, in the hour when the shades of evening fall and a vague\nsadness invades the soul, when the phantoms of the night awake and seem\nto loom up behind all our thoughts, our fathers saw the divine and\nmysterious Companion coming toward them; they drank in his words, they\nfelt his strength descending upon their hearts, all their inward being\nwarmed again, and again they whispered, \"Abide with us, Lord, for the\nday is far spent and the night approacheth.\"\n\nAnd often their prayer was heard.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] 1 Cel., 62.\n\n   [2] 1 Cel., 66; cf. Bon., 180; 1 Cel., 67; cf. Bon., 182; 1\n       Cel., 69; Bon., 183. After St. Francis's death the Narniates\n       were the first to come to pray at his tomb. 1 Cel., 128, 135,\n       136, 138, 141; Bon., 275.\n\n   [3] As concerning: 1, fidelity to Poverty; 2, prohibition of\n       modifying the Rule; 3, the equal authority of the Will and the\n       Rule; 4, the request for privileges at the court of Rome; 5, the\n       elevation of the friars to high ecclesiastical charges; 6, the\n       absolute prohibition of putting themselves in opposition to the\n       secular clergy; 7, the interdiction of great churches and rich\n       convents. On all these points and many others infidelity to\n       Francis's will was complete in the Order less than twenty-five\n       years after his death. We might expatiate on all this; the Holy\n       See in interpreting the Rule had canonical right on its side,\n       but Ubertino di Casali in saying that it was perfectly clear and\n       had no need of interpretation had good sense on his side; let\n       that suffice! _Et est stupor quare queritur expositio super\n       litteram sic apertam quia nulla est difficultas in regulae\n       intelligentia. Arbor vitae crucifixae_, Venice, 1485. lib. v.,\n       cap. 3. _Sanctus vir Egidius tanto ejulatu clamabat super regulae\n       destructionem quam videbat quod ignorantibus viam spiritus quasi\n       videbatur insanus. Id. ibid._\n\n   [4] _Heavens drop down your dew, and let the clouds rain down\n       the Just One._ Anthem for Advent.\n\n   [5] _In foramibus petrae nidificabat._ 1 Cel., 71. Upon the\n       prayers of Francis vide ibid., 71 and 72; 2 Cel., 3, 38-43;\n       Ben., 139-148. Cf. 1 Cel., 6; 91; 103; 3 Soc., 8; 12; etc.\n\n   [6] Luke, xxii. 44.\n\n   [7] Felix Kuhn: _Luther, sa vie et son oeuvre_, Paris, 1883, 3\n       vols., 8vo. t. i., p. 128; t. ii., p. 9; t. iii., p. 257.\n       Benvenuto Cellini does not hesitate to describe a visit which he\n       made one day to the Coliseum in company with a magician whose\n       words evoked clouds of devils who filled the whole place. B.\n       Cellini, _La vita scritta da lui medesimo_, Bianchi's edition,\n       Florence, 1890, 12mo, p. 33.\n\n   [8] On the devil and Francis vide 1 Cel., 68, 72; 3 Soc., 12; 2\n       Cel., 1, 6; 3, 10; 53; 58-65; Bon., 59-62. Cf. Eccl., 3; 5; 13;\n       _Fior._, 29; _Spec._, 110b. To form an idea of the part taken by\n       the devil in the life of a monk at the beginning of the\n       thirteenth century, one must read the _Dialogus miraculorium_ of\n       Caesar von Heisterbach.\n\n   [9] Matthew, x. 1.\n\n  [10] Miracles occupy only ten paragraphs (61-70) in 1 Cel., and\n       of this number there are several which can hardly be counted as\n       Francis's miracles, since they were performed by objects which\n       had belonged to him.\n\n  [11] Heretics often took advantage of this thirst for the\n       marvellous to dupe the catholics. The Cathari of Moncoul made a\n       portrait of the Virgin representing her as one eyed and\n       toothless, saying that in his humility Christ had chosen a very\n       ugly woman for mother. They had no difficulty in healing several\n       cases of disease by its means; the image became famous, was\n       venerated almost everywhere, and accomplished many miracles\n       until the day when the heretics divulged the deception, to the\n       great scandal of the faithful. Egbert von Schoenau, _Contra\n       Catharos_. Serm. I. cap. 2. (Patrol. lat. Migne t. 195.) Cf.\n       Heisterbach, _loc. cit._, v. 18. Luc de Tuy, _De altera Vita_,\n       lib. ii. 9; iii. 9, 18 (Patrol. Migne., 208).\n\n  [12] \"But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of\n       our Lord Jesus Christ.\" Gal. vi. 14. This is to this day the\n       motto of the Brothers Minor.\n\n  [13] _Spec._, 182a; 200a; 232a. Cf. 199a.\n\n  [14] 1 Cel., 67.\n\n  [15] _Secundum primam regulam fratres feria quarta et sexta et\n       per licentiam beati Francisci feria secunda et sabbato\n       jejunabant. Giord. 11. cf. Reg. 1221, cap. 3_ and _Reg. 1223,\n       cap. 3_, where Friday is the only fast day retained.\n\n  [16] 1 Cel., 10; 22; 27; 31; 42; 80; 2 Cel., 1, 1; 3, 65-68;\n       Eccl., 5; 6; _Giord._, 21; _Spec._, 119a; _Conform._, 143a, 2.\n\n  [17] _Caveant fratres quod non ostendant se tristes extrinsecus\n       nubilosos et hypocritas; sed ostendant se gaudentis in Domine,\n       hilares et convenientes gratiosos._\n\n  [18] Eccl., _loc. cit._; Giord., _loc. cit._\n\n  [19] Vide _Test._; 1 Cel., 46; 62; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 129; _Spec._,\n       44a.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE CHAPTER-GENERAL OF 1217[1]\n\n\nAfter Whitsunday of 1217 chronological notes of Francis's life are\nnumerous enough to make error almost impossible. Unhappily, this is not\nthe case for the eighteen months which precede it (autumn of\n1215-Whitsunday, 1217). For this period we are reduced to conjecture, or\nlittle better.\n\nAs Francis at that time undertook no foreign mission, he doubtless\nemployed his time in evangelizing Central Italy and in consolidating the\nfoundations of his institution. His presence at Rome during the Lateran\nCouncil (November 11-30, 1215) is possible, but it has left no trace in\nthe earliest biographies. The Council certainly took the new Order into\nconsideration,[2] but it was to renew the invitation made to it five\nyears before by the supreme pontiff, to choose one of the Rules already\napproved by the Church.[3] St. Dominic, who was then at Rome to beg\nfor the confirmation of his institute, received the same counsel and\nimmediately conformed to it. The Holy See would willingly have conceded\nspecial constitutions to the Brothers Minor, if they had adopted for a\nbase the Rule of St. Benedict; thus the Clarisses, except those of St.\nDamian, while preserving their name and a certain number of their\ncustoms, were obliged to profess the Benedictine rule.\n\nIn spite of all solicitations, Francis insisted upon retaining his own\nRule. One is led to believe that it was to confer upon these questions\nthat we find him at Perugia in July, 1216, when Innocent III. died.[4]\n\nHowever this may be, about this epoch the chapters took on a great\nimportance. The Church, which had looked on at the foundation of the\nOrder with somewhat mixed feelings, could no longer rest content with\nbeing the mere spectator of so profound a movement; it saw the need of\nutilizing it.\n\nUgolini was marvellously well prepared for such a task. Giovanni di San\nPaolo, Bishop of the Sabine, charged by Innocent III. to look after the\nBrothers, died in 1216, and Ugolini was not slow to offer his\nprotection to Francis, who accepted it with gratitude. This\nextraordinary offer is recounted at length by the Three Companions.[5]\nIt must certainly be fixed in the summer of 1216[6] immediately after\nthe death of Giovanni di San Paolo.\n\nIt is very possible that the first chapter held in the presence of this\ncardinal took place on May 29, 1216. By an error very common in history,\nmost of the Franciscan writers have referred to a single date all the\nscattered incidents concerning the first solemn assizes of the Order,\nand have called this typical assembly the _Chapter of the Mats_. In\nreality for long years all the gatherings of the Brothers Minor deserved\nthis name.[7]\n\nComing together at the season of the greatest heat, they slept in the\nopen air or sheltered themselves under booths of reeds. We need not pity\nthem. There is nothing like the glorious transparency of the summer\nnight in Umbria; sometimes in Provence one may enjoy a foretaste of it,\nbut if at Baux, upon the rock of Doms, or at St. Baume, the sight is\nequally solemn and grandiose, it still wants the caressing sweetness,\nthe effluence of life which in Umbria give the night a bewitching charm.\n\nThe inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages flocked to these\nmeetings in crowds, at once to see the ceremonies, to be present when\ntheir relatives or friends assumed the habit, to listen to the appeals\nof the Saint and to furnish to the friars the provisions of which they\nmight have need. All this is not without some analogy with the\ncamp-meeting so dear to Americans. As to the figures of several\nthousands of attendants given in the legends, and furnishing even to a\nFranciscan, Father Papini, the occasion for pleasantries of doubtful\ntaste, it is perhaps not so surprising as might be supposed.[8]\n\nThese first meetings, to which all the Brothers eagerly hastened, held\nin the open air in the presence of crowds come together from distant\nplaces, have then nothing in common with the subsequent\nchapters-general, which were veritable conclaves attended by a small\nnumber of delegates, and the majority of the work of which, done in\nsecret, was concerned only with the affairs of the Order.\n\nDuring Francis's lifetime the purpose of these assemblies was\nessentially religious. Men attended them not to talk business, or\nproceed to the nomination of the minister-general, but in mutual\ncommunion to gain new strength from the joys, the example, and the\nsufferings of the other brethren.[9]\n\nThe four years which followed the Whitsunday of 1216 form a stage in the\nevolution of the Umbrian movement; that during which Francis was\nbattling for autonomy. We find here pretty delicate shades of\ndistinction, which have been misunderstood by Church writers as much as\nby their adversaries, for if Francis was particular not to put himself\nin the attitude of revolt, he would not compromise his independence, and\nhe felt with an exquisite divination that all the privileges which the\ncourt of Rome could heap upon him were worth nothing in comparison with\nliberty. Alas, he was soon forced to resign himself to these gilded\nbonds, against which he never ceased to protest, even to his last\nsigh;[10] but to shut one's eyes to the moral violence which the papacy\ndid him in this matter is to condemn oneself to an entire\nmisapprehension of his work.\n\nA glance over the collection of bulls addressed to the Franciscans\nsuffices to show with what ardor he struggled against favors so eagerly\nsought by the monastic orders.[11]\n\nA great number of legendary anecdotes put Francis's disdain of\nprivileges in the clearest light. Even his dearest friends did not\nalways understand his scruples.\n\n    \"Do you not see,\" they said to him one day, \"that often the\n    bishops do not permit us to preach, and make us remain several\n    days without doing anything before we are permitted to proclaim\n    the word of God? It would be better worth while to obtain for\n    this end a privilege from the pope, and it would be for the good\n    of souls.\"\n\n    \"I would first convert the prelates by humility and respect,\" he\n    replied quickly; \"for when they have seen us humble and\n    respectful toward them, they themselves will beg us to preach\n    and convert the people. As for me, I ask of God no privilege\n    unless it be that I may have none, to be full of respect for all\n    men, and to convert them, as our Rule ordains, more by our\n    example than by our speech.\"[12]\n\nThe question whether Francis was right or wrong in his antipathy to the\nprivileges of the curia does not come within the domain of history; it\nis evident that this attitude could not long continue; the Church knows\nonly the faithful and rebels. But the noblest hearts often make a stand\nat compromises of this kind; they desire that the future should grow out\nof the past without convulsion and without a crisis.\n\nThe chapter of 1217 was notable for the definitive organization of the\nFranciscan missions. Italy and the other countries were divided off into\na certain number of _provinces_, having each its provincial minister.\nImmediately upon his accession Honorius III. had sought to revive the\npopular zeal for the crusades. He had not stopped at preaching it, but\nappealed to prophecies which had proclaimed that under his pontificate\nthe Holy Land would be reconquered.[13] The renewal of fervor which\nensued, and of which the rebound was felt as far as Germany, had a\nprofound influence on the Brothers Minor. This time Francis, perhaps\nfrom humility, did not put himself at the head of the friars charged\nwith a mission to Syria; for leader he gave them the famous Elias,\nformerly at Florence, where he had had opportunity to show his high\nqualities.[14]\n\nThis Brother, who from this time appears in the foreground of this\nhistory, came from the most humble ranks of society; the date and the\ncircumstances of his entrance into the Order are unknown, and hence\nconjecture has come to see in him that friend of the grotto who had been\nFrancis's confidant shortly before his decisive conversion. However this\nmay be, in his youth he had earned his living in Assisi, making\nmattresses and teaching a few children to read; then he had spent some\ntime in Bologna as _scriptor_; then suddenly we find him among the\nBrothers Minor, charged with the most difficult missions.\n\nHis adversaries vie with one another in asserting that he was the finest\nmind of his century, but unhappily it is very difficult, in the existing\nstate of the documents, to pronounce as to his actions; learned and\nenergetic, eager to play the leading part in the work of the\nreformation of religion, and having made his plan beforehand as to the\nproper mode of realizing it, he made straight for his goal, half\npolitical, half religious. Full of admiration for Francis and gratitude\ntoward him, he desired to regulate and consolidate the movement for\nrenovation. In the inner Franciscan circle, where Leo, Ginepro, Egidio,\nand many others represent the spirit of liberty, the religion of the\nhumble and the simple, Elias represents the scientific and\necclesiastical spirit, prudence and reason.\n\nHe had great success in Syria and received into the Order one of the\ndisciples most dear to Francis, Caesar of Speyer, who later on was to\nmake the conquest of all Southern Germany in less than two years\n(1221-1223), and who in the end sealed with his blood his fidelity to\nthe strict observance, which he defended against the attacks of Brother\nElias himself.[15]\n\nCaesar of Speyer offers a brilliant example of those suffering souls\nathirst for the ideal, so numerous in the thirteenth century, who\neverywhere went up and down, seeking first in learning, then in the\nreligious life, that which should assuage the mysterious thirst which\ntortured them. Disciple of the scholastic Conrad, he had felt himself\noverpowered with the desire to reform the Church; while still a layman\nhe had preached his ideas, not without some success, since a certain\nnumber of ladies of Speyer had begun to lead a new life; but their\nhusbands disapproving, he was obliged to escape their vengeance by\ntaking refuge at Paris, and thence he went to the East, where in the\npreaching of the Brothers Minor he found again his hopes and his dreams.\nThis instance shows how general was the waiting condition of souls when\nthe Franciscan gospel blazed forth, and how its way had been everywhere\nprepared.\n\nBut it is time to return to the chapter of 1217: the friars who went to\nGermany under conduct of Giovanni di Penna were far from having the\nsuccess of Elias and his companions; they were completely ignorant of\nthe language of the country which they had undertaken to evangelize.\nPerhaps Francis had not taken into account the fact that though Italian\nmight, in case of need, suffice in all the countries bathed by the\nMediterranean, this could not be the case in Central Europe.[16]\n\nThe lot of the party going to Hungary was not more happy. Very often it\ncame to pass that the missionaries were fain to give up their very\ngarments in the effort to appease the peasants and shepherds who\nmaltreated them. But no less incapable of understanding what was said to\nthem than of making themselves understood, they were soon obliged to\nthink of returning to Italy. We may thank the Franciscan authors for\npreserving for us the memory of these checks, and not attempting to\npicture the friars as suddenly knowing all languages by a divine\ninspiration, as later on was so often related.[17]\n\nThose who had been sent to Spain had also to undergo persecutions. This\ncountry, like the south of France, was ravaged by heresy; but already at\nthat time it was vigorously repressed. The Franciscans, suspected of\nbeing false Catholics and therefore eagerly hunted out, found a refuge\nwith Queen Urraca of Portugal, who permitted them to establish\nthemselves at Coimbra, Guimarraens, Alenquero, and Lisbon.[18]\n\nFrancis himself made preparations for going to France.[19] This country\nhad a peculiar charm for him because of his fervent love of the Holy\nSacrament. Perhaps also he was unwittingly drawn toward this country to\nwhich he owed his name, the chivalrous dreams of his youth, all of\npoetry, song, music, delicious dream that had come into his life.\n\nSomething of the emotion that thrilled through him on undertaking this\nnew mission has passed into the story of his biographers; one feels\nthere the thrill at once sweet and agonizing, the heart-throb of the\nbrave knight who goes forth all harnessed in the early dawn to scan the\nhorizon, dreading the unknown and yet overflowing with joy, for he knows\nthat the day will be consecrated to love and to the right.\n\nThe Italian poet has given the one name of \"pilgrimages of love\" to the\nfarings forth of chivalry and the journeys undertaken by dreamers,\nartists, or saints to those parts of the earth which forever mirror\nthemselves before their imagination and remain their chosen\nfatherland.[20] Such a pilgrimage as this was Francis undertaking.\n\n    \"Set forth,\" said he to the Brothers who accompanied him, \"and\n    walk two and two, humble and gentle, keeping silence until after\n    tierce, praying to God in your hearts, carefully avoiding every\n    vain or useless word. Meditate as much while on this journey as\n    if you were shut up in a hermitage or in your cell, for wherever\n    we are, wherever we go, we carry our cell with us; Brother body\n    is our cell, and the soul is the hermit who dwells in it, there\n    to pray to the Lord and to meditate.\"\n\nArrived at Florence he found there Cardinal Ugolini, sent by the pope as\nlegate to Tuscany to preach the crusade and take all needful measures\nfor assuring its success.[21] Francis was surely far from expecting\nthe reception which the prelate gave him. Instead of encouraging him,\nthe cardinal urged him to give up his project.\n\n    \"I am not willing, my brother, that you should cross the\n    mountains; there are many prelates who ask nothing better than\n    to stir up difficulties for you with the court of Rome. But I\n    and the other cardinals who love your Order desire to protect\n    and aid you, on the condition, however, that you do not quit\n    this province.\"\n\n    \"But, monsignor, it would be a great disgrace for me to send my\n    brethren far away while I remained idly here, sharing none of\n    the tribulations which they must undergo.\"\n\n    \"Wherefore, then, have you sent your brethren so far away,\n    exposing them thus to starvation and all sorts of perils?\"\n\n    \"Do you think,\" replied Francis warmly, and as if moved by\n    prophetic inspiration, \"that God raised up the Brothers for the\n    sake of this country alone? Verily, I say unto you, God has\n    raised them up for the awakening and the salvation of all men,\n    and they shall win souls not only in the countries of those who\n    believe, but also in the very midst of the infidels.\"[22]\n\nThe surprise and admiration which these words awoke in Ugolini were not\nenough to make him change his mind. He insisted so strongly that Francis\nturned back to Portiuncula, the inspiration of his work not even shaken.\nWho knows whether the joy which he would have felt in seeing France did\nnot confirm him in the idea that he ought to renounce this plan? Souls\nathirst with the longing for sacrifice often have scruples such as\nthese; they refuse the most lawful joys that they may offer them to\nGod. We cannot tell whether it was immediately after this interview or\nnot till the following year that Francis put Brother Pacifico at the\nhead of the missionaries sent into France.[23]\n\nPacifico, who was a poet of talent, had before his conversion been\nsurnamed Prince of Poesy and crowned at the capital by the emperor. One\nday while visiting a relative who was a nun at San Severino in the March\nof Ancona, Francis also arrived at the monastery, and preached with such\na holy impetuosity that the poet felt himself pierced with the sword of\nwhich the Bible speaks, which penetrates between the very joints and\nmarrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.[24] On the\nmorrow he assumed the habit and received his symbolical surname.[25]\n\nHe was accompanied to France by Brother Agnello di Pisa, who was\ndestined to be put at the head of the first mission to England in\n1224.[26]\n\nFrancis, on sending them forth, was far from dreaming that from this\ncountry, which exerted such a fascination over him, was to come forth\nthe influence which was to compromise his dream--that Paris would be the\ndestruction of Assisi; and yet the time was not very far distant; a few\nyears more and the Poverello would see a part of his spiritual family\nforgetting the humility of their name, their origin, and their\naspirations, to run after the ephemeral laurels of learning.\n\nWe have already seen that the habit of the Franciscans of this time was\nto make their abode within easy reach of great cities; Pacifico and his\ncompanions established themselves at St. Denis.[27] We have no\nparticulars of their work; it was singularly fruitful, since it\npermitted them a few years later to attack England with full success.\n\nFrancis passed the following year (1218) in evangelizing tours in Italy.\nIt is naturally impossible to follow him in these travels, the itinerary\nof which was fixed by his daily inspirations, or by indications as\nfanciful as the one which had formerly determined his going to Sienna.\nBologna,[28] the Verna, the valley of Rieti, the Sacro-Speco of St.\nBenedict at Subiaco,[29] Gaeta;[30] San Michele on Mount Gargano[31]\nperhaps received him at this time, but the notes of his presence in\nthese places are too sparse and vague to permit their being included in\nany scheme of history.\n\nIt is very possible that he also paid a visit to Rome during this time;\nhis communications with Ugolini were much more frequent than is\ngenerally supposed. We must not permit the stories of biographers to\ndeceive us in this matter; it is a natural tendency to refer all that we\nknow of a man to three or four especially striking dates. We forget\nentire years of the life of those whom we have known the best and loved\nthe most and group our memories of them around a few salient events\nwhich shine all the more brilliantly the deeper we make the surrounding\nobscurity. The words of Jesus spoken on a hundred different occasions\ncame at last to be formed into a single discourse, the Sermon on the\nMount. It is in such cases that criticism needs to be delicate, to\nmingle a little divination with the heavy artillery of scientific\nargument.\n\nThe texts are sacred, but we must not make fetiches of them;\nnotwithstanding St. Matthew, no one to-day dreams of representing Jesus\nas uttering the Sermon on the Mount all at one time. In the same way, in\nthe narratives concerning the relations between St. Francis and Ugolini,\nwe find ourselves every moment shut up in no-thoroughfares, coming up\nagainst contradictory indications, just so long as we try to refer\neverything to two or three meetings, as we are at first led to do.\n\nWith a simple act of analysis these difficulties disappear and we find\neach of the different narratives bringing us fragments which, being\npieced together, furnish an organic story, living, psychologically true.\n\nFrom the moment at which we have now arrived, we must make a much larger\nplace for Ugolini than in the past; the struggle has definitively opened\nbetween the Franciscan ideal--chimerical, perhaps, but sublime--and the\necclesiastical policy, to go on until the day when, half in humility,\nhalf in discouragement, Francis, heartsick, abdicates the direction of\nhis spiritual family.\n\nUgolini returned to Rome at the end of 1217. During the following winter\nhis countersign is found at the bottom of the most important bulls;[32]\nhe devoted this time to the special study of the question of the new\norders, and summoned Francis before him. We have seen with what\nfrankness he had declared to him at Florence that many of the prelates\nwould do anything to discredit him with the pope.[33] It is evident the\nsuccess of the Order, its methods, which in spite of all protestations\nto the contrary seemed to savor of heresy, the independence of Francis,\nwho had scattered his friars in all the four corners of the globe\nwithout trying to gain a confirmation of the verbal and entirely\nprovisional authorization accorded him by Innocent III.--all these\nthings were calculated to startle the clergy.\n\nUgolini, who better than any one else knew Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia, the\nMarch of Ancona, all those regions where the Franciscan preaching had\nbeen most successful, was able by himself to judge of the power of the\nnew movement and the imperious necessity of directing it; he felt that\nthe best way to allay the prejudices which the pope and the sacred\ncollege might have against Francis was to present him before the curia.\n\nFrancis was at first much abashed at the thought of preaching before the\nVicar of Jesus Christ, but upon the entreaties of his protector he\nconsented, and for greater security he learned by heart what he had to\nsay.\n\nUgolini himself was not entirely at ease as to the result of this step;\nThomas of Celano pictures him as devoured with anxiety; he was troubled\nabout Francis, whose artless eloquence ran many a risk in the halls of\nthe Lateran Palace; he was also not without some more personal\nanxieties, for the failure of his _protege_ might be most damaging to\nhimself. He was in all the greater anxiety when, on arriving at the feet\nof the pontiff, Francis forgot all he had intended to say; but he\nfrankly avowed it, and seeking a new discourse from the inspiration of\nthe moment, spoke with so much warmth and simplicity that the assembly\nwas won.[34]\n\nThe biographers are mute as to the practical result of this audience. We\nare not to be surprised at this, for they write with the sole purpose of\nedification. They wrote after the apotheosis of their master, and would\nwith very bad grace have dwelt upon the difficulties which he met during\nthe early years.[35]\n\nThe Holy See must have been greatly perplexed by this strange man,\nwhose faith and humility were evident, but whom it was impossible to\nteach ecclesiastical obedience.\n\nSt. Dominic happened to be in Rome at the same time,[36] and was\noverwhelmed with favors by the pope. It is a matter of history that\nInnocent III. having asked him to choose one of the Rules already\napproved by the Church, he had returned to his friars at Notre Dame de\nProuille, and after conferring with them had adopted that of St.\nAugustine; Honorius therefore was not sparing of privileges for him. It\nis hardly possible that Ugolini did not try to use the influence of his\nexample with St. Francis.\n\nThe curia saw clearly that Dominic, whose Order barely comprised a few\ndozen members, was not one of the moral powers of the time, but its\nsentiments toward him were by no means so mixed as those it experienced\nwith regard to Francis.\n\nTo unite the two Orders, to throw over the shoulders of the Dominicans\nthe brown cassock of the Poor Men of Assisi, and thus make a little of\nthe popularity of the Brothers Minor to be reflected upon them, to leave\nto the latter their name, their habit, and even a semblance of their\nRule, only completing it with that of St. Augustine, such a project\nwould have been singularly pleasing to Ugolini, and with Francis's\nhumility would seem to have some chance of success.\n\nOne day Dominic by dint of pious insistance induced Francis to give him\nhis cord, and immediately girded himself with it. \"Brother,\" said he, \"I\nearnestly long that your Order and mine might unite to form one sole and\nsame institute[37] in the Church.\" But the Brother Minor wished to\nremain as he was, and declined the proposition. So truly was he inspired\nwith the needs of his time and of the Church that less than three years\nafter this Dominic was drawn by an irresistible influence to transform\nhis Order of Canons of St. Augustine into an order of mendicant monks,\nwhose constitutions were outlined upon those of the Franciscans.[38]\n\nA few years later the Dominicans took, so to speak, their revenge, and\nobliged the Brothers Minor to give learning a large place in their work.\nThus, while hardly come to youth's estate, the two religious families\nrivalled one another, impressed, influenced one another, yet never so\nmuch so as to lose all traces of their origin--summed up for the one in\npoverty and lay preaching, for the other in learning and the preaching\nof the clergy.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The commencement of the great missions and the institution\n       of provincial ministers is usually fixed either at 1217 or 1219,\n       but both these dates present great difficulties. I confess that\n       I do not understand the vehemence with which partisans of either\n       side defend their opinions. The most important text is a passage\n       in the 3 Soc., 62: _Expletis itaque undecim annis ab inceptione\n       religionis, et multiplicatis numero et merito fratribus, electi\n       fuerant ministri, et missi cum aliquot fratribus quasi per\n       universas mundi provincias in quibus fides catholica colitur et\n       servatur._ What does this expression, _inceptio religionis_,\n       mean? At a first reading one unhesitatingly takes it to refer to\n       the foundation of the Order, which occurred in April, 1209, by\n       the reception of the first Brothers; but on adding eleven full\n       years to this date we reach the summer of 1220. This is\n       manifestly too late, for the 3 Soc. say that the brethren who\n       went out were persecuted in most of the countries beyond the\n       mountains, as being accredited by no pontifical letter; but the\n       bull _Cum dilecti_, bears the date of June 11, 1219. We are thus\n       led to think that the eleven years are not to be counted from\n       the reception of the first Brothers, but from Francis's\n       conversion, which the authors might well speak of as _inceptio\n       religionis_, and 1206 + 11 = 1217. The use of this expression to\n       designate conversion is not entirely without example.\n       Glassberger says (_An. fr._, p. 9): _Ordinem minorum incepit\n       anno 1206._ Those who admit 1219 are obliged (like the\n       Bollandists, for example), to attribute an inaccuracy to the\n       text of the 3 Soc., that of having counted eleven years as\n       having passed when there had been only ten. We should notice\n       that in the two other chronological indications given by the 3\n       Soc. (27 and 62) they count from the conversion, that is from\n       1206, as also Thomas of Celano, 88, 105, 119, 97, 88, 57, 55,\n       21. Curiously, the Conformities reproduce the passage of the 3\n       Soc. (118b, 1), but with the alteration: _Nono anno ab\n       inceptione religionis_. Giordano di Giano opens the door to many\n       scruples: _Anno vero Domini_ 1219 _et anno conversionis ejus\n       decimo frater Franciscus ... misit fratres in Franciam, in\n       Theutoniam, in Hungariam, in Hespaniam_, Giord., 3. As a little\n       later the same author properly harmonizes 1219 with the\n       thirteenth year from Francis's conversion, everyone is in\n       agreement in admitting that the passage cited needs correction;\n       we have unfortunately only one manuscript of this chronicle.\n       Glassberger, who doubtless had another before him, substitutes\n       1217, but he may have drawn this date from another document. It\n       is noteworthy that Brother Giordano gives as simultaneous the\n       departure of the friars for Germany, Hungary, and France; but,\n       as to the latter country, it certainly took place in 1217. So\n       the Speculum, 44a.\n\n       The chronicle of the xxiv. generals and Mark of Lisbon (Diola's\n       ed., t. i., p. 82) holds also to 1217, so that, though not\n       definitely established, it would appear that this date should be\n       accepted until further information. Starting from slightly\n       different premises, the learned editors of the _Analecta_ arrive\n       at the same conclusion (t. ii., pp. 25-36). Cf. Evers, _Analecta\n       ad Fr. Minorum historiam_, Leipsic, 1882, 4to, pp. 7 and 11.\n       That which appears to me decidedly to tip the balance in favor\n       of 1217, is the fact that the missionary friars were persecuted\n       because they had no document of legitimation; and in 1219 they\n       would have had the bull _Cum dilecti_, from June 11th of that\n       year. The Bollandists, who hold for 1219, have so clearly seen\n       this argument that they have been obliged to deny the\n       authenticity of the bull (or at least to suppose it wrongly\n       dated). A. SS., p. 839.\n\n   [2] Vide A. SS., p. 604. Cf. Angelo Clareno, _Tribul. Archiv._,\n       i., p. 559. _A papa Innocentis fuit omnibus annuntiatum in\n       concilio generali ... sicut sanctus vir fr. Leo scribit et fr.\n       Johannes de Celano._ These lines have not perhaps the\n       significance which one would be led to give them at the first\n       glance, their author having perhaps confounded _consilium_ and\n       _consistorium_. The Speculum, 20b says: _Eam (Regulam\n       Innocentius) approvabit et concessit et postea in consistorio\n       omnibus annuntiavit._\n\n   [3] _Ne nimia Religionem diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei\n       confusionem inducat, firmiter prohibemus, ne quis de\n       coetero novam Religionem inveniat; sed quicumque voluerit\n       ad Religionem converti, unam de approbatis assumat._ Labbe and\n       Cossart: _Sacrosancta concilia_, Paris, 1672, t. xi., col. 165.\n\n   [4] Eccl., 15 (_An. franc._, t. 1, p. 253): _Innocentium in\n       cujus obitu fuit presentialiter S. Franciscus_.\n\n   [5] 3 Soc., 61; cf. _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 606f.\n\n   [6] Thomas of Celano must be in error when he declares that\n       Francis was not acquainted with Cardinal Ugolini before the\n       visit which he made him at Florence (summer of 1217): _Nondum\n       alter alteri erat praecipua familiaritate conjunctus_ (1 Cel., 74\n       and 75). The Franciscan biographer's purpose was not historic;\n       chronological indications are given in profusion; what he seeks\n       is the _apta junctura_. Tradition has preserved the memory of a\n       chapter held at Portiuncula in presence of Ugolini during a stay\n       of the curia at Perugia (_Spec._, 137b.; _Fior_., 18;\n       _Conform._, 207a; 3 Soc., 61). But the curia did not come back\n       to Perugia between 1216 and Francis's death. It is also to be\n       noted that according to Angelo Clareno, Ugolini was with Francis\n       in 1210, supporting him in the presence of Innocent III. Vide\n       below, p. 413. Finally the bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9,\n       1219, witnesses that already during his legation in Florence\n       (1217) Ugolini was actually interesting himself for the\n       Clarisses.\n\n   [7] See, for example, the description of the chapter of 1221 by\n       Brother Giordano. Giord., 16.\n\n   [8] With regard to the figure of five thousand attendants given\n       by Bonaventura (Bon., 59) Father Papini writes: _Io non credo\n       stato capace alcuno di dare ad intendere al S. Dottore simil\n       fanfaluca, ne capace lui di crederla_.\n\n       _... In somma il numero quinque millia et ultra non e del Santo,\n       incapace di scrivere una cosa tanto improbabile e relativamente\n       impossibile. Storia di S. Fr._, i., pp. 181 and 183. This\n       figure, five thousand, is also indicated by Eccl., 6. All this\n       may be explained and become possible by admitting the presence\n       of the Brothers of Penitence, and it seems very difficult to\n       contest it, since in the Order of the Humiliants, which much\n       resembles that of the Brothers Minor (equally composed of three\n       branches approved by three bulls given June, 1201), the\n       chapters-general annually held were frequented by the brothers\n       of the three Orders. Tiraboschi t. ii., p. 144. Cf. above, p.\n       158.\n\n   [9] Vide 2 Cel., 3, 121; _Spec._, 42b; 127b.\n\n  [10] _Praecipio firmiter per obedientiam fratribus universis quod\n       ubicunque sunt, non audeant petere aliquam litteram in Curia\n       Romana._ _Test. B. Fr._\n\n  [11] A comparison with the Bullary of the Preaching Friars is\n       especially instructive: from their first chapter at Notre Dame\n       de Prouille, in 1216, they are about fifteen; we find there at\n       this time absolutely nothing that can be compared to the\n       Franciscan movement, which was already stirring up all Italy.\n       But while the first bull in favor of the Franciscans bears the\n       date of June 11, 1219, and the approbation properly so called\n       that of November 29, 1223, we find Honorius already in the end\n       of 1216 lavishing marks of affection upon the Dominicans;\n       December 22, 1216, _Religiosam vitam_. Cf. Pressuti, _I regesti,\n       del Pontefice Onorio III._, Roma, 1884, t. i., no. 175; same\n       date; _Nos attendentes_, ibid., no. 176; January 21, 1217,\n       _gratiarum omnium_, ib., no. 243. Vide 284, 1039, 1156, 1208. It\n       is needless to continue this enumeration. Very much the same\n       could be done for the other Orders; whence the conclusion that\n       if the Brothers Minor alone are forgotten in this shower of\n       favors, it is because they decidedly wished to be. It must be\n       admitted that immediately upon Francis's death they made up for\n       lost time.\n\n  [12] The authenticity of this passage is put beyond doubt by\n       Ubertino di Casal's citation. _Archiv._, iii., p. 53. Cf.\n       _Spec._, 30a; _Conform._, 111b, 1; 118b, 1; Ubertino, _Arbor\n       vitae cruc._, iii., 3.\n\n  [13] _Burchardi chronicon ann. 1217_, _loc. cit._, p. 377. See\n       also the bulls indicated by Potthast, 5575, 5585-92.\n\n  [14] Before 1217 the office of minister virtually existed,\n       though its definitive institution dates only from 1217. Brother\n       Bernardo in his mission to Bologna, for example (1212?),\n       certainly held in some sort the office of minister.\n\n  [15] Imprisoned by order of Elias, he died in consequence of\n       blows given him one day when he was taking the air outside of\n       his prison. _Tribul._, 24a.\n\n  [16] Giord., 5 and 6; 3 Soc., 62.\n\n  [17] Of Giovanni di Parma, Clareno, Anthony of Padua, etc.\n\n  [18] Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 82. Cf. p. 79, t. ii., p. 86,\n       Glassberger _ann._, 1217. _An. fr._, ii., pp. 9 ff.; _Chron\n       xxiv. gen._, MS. of Assisi, no. 328, f^o 2b.\n\n  [19] _Spec._, 44a.; _Conform._, 119a, 2; 135a; 181b, 1; 1 Cel.,\n       74 and 75.\n\n  [20] Cel., 3, 129. _Diligebat Franciam ... volebat in ea mori_.\n\n  [21] V. bull of January 23, 1217, _Tempus acceptabile_,\n       Potthast, no. 5430, given in Horoy, t. ii., col. 205 ff.; cf.\n       Pressuti, i., p. 71. This bull and those following fix without\n       question the time of the journey to Florence. Potthast, 5488,\n       5487, and page 495.\n\n  [22] It is superfluous to point out the error of the Bollandist\n       text in the phrase _Monuit (Cardinalis Franciscum) coeptum non\n       perficere iter_, where the _non_ is omitted, A. SS., p. 704.\n       Cf., p. 607 and 835, which has led Suysken into several other\n       errors.\n\n  [23] Bon., 51. Cf. Glassberger, _ann_. 1217; _Spec._, 45b.\n\n  [24] Heb., iv., 12; 2 Cel., 3, 49; Bon., 50 and 51.\n\n  [25] Brother Pacifico interests us [the French people]\n       particularly as the first minister of the Order in France;\n       information about him is abundant: Bon., 79; 2 Cel., 3, 63;\n       _Spec._, 41b.: _Conform._, 38a, 1; 43a, 1; 71b; 173b, 1, and\n       176; 2 Cel., 8, 27; _Spec._, 38b; _Conform._, 181b; 2 Cel., 3,\n       76; _Fior._, 46; _Conform._, 70a. I do not indicate the general\n       references found in Chevalier's Bibliography. The Miscellanea,\n       t. ii. (1887), p. 158, contains a most precise and interesting\n       column about him. Gregory IX. speaks of him in the bull _Magna\n       sicut dicitur_ of August 12, 1227. Sbaralea, Bull, fr., i., p.\n       33 (Potthast, 8007). Thomas of Tuscany, _socius_ of St.\n       Bonaventura, knew him and speaks of him in his _Gesta\n       Imperatorum (Mon. germ. hist. script._, t. 22, p. 492).\n\n  [26] Eccl., 1; _Conform._, 113b, 1.\n\n  [27] Toward 1224 the Brothers Minor desired to draw nearer and\n       build a vast convent near the walls of Paris in the grounds\n       called Vauvert, or Valvert (now the Luxembourg Garden), (Eccl.,\n       10; cf. _Top. hist. du vieux Paris_, by Berty and Tisserand, t.\n       iv., p. 70). In 1230 they received at Paris from the\n       Benedictines of Saint-Germain-des-Pres a certain number of\n       houses _in parocchia SS. Cosmae et Damiani infra muros domini\n       regis prope portam de Gibardo (Chartularium Universitatis\n       Parisiensis_, no. 76. Cf. _Topographie historique du vieux\n       Paris; Region occid. de l'univ._, p. 95; Felibien, _Histoire de\n       la ville de Paris_, i., p. 115). Finally, St. Louis installed\n       them in the celebrated Convent of the Cordeliers, the refectory\n       of which still exists, transformed into the Dupuytren Museum.\n       The Dominicans, who arrived in Paris September 12, 1217, went\n       straight to the centre of the city, near the bishop's palace on\n       the _Ile de la Cite_, and on August 6, 1218, were installed in\n       the Convent of St. Jacques.\n\n  [28] _Fior._, 27; _Spec._, 148b; _Conform._, 71a and 113a, 2;\n       Bon., 182.\n\n  [29] The traces of Francis's visit here are numerous. A Brother\n       Eudes painted his portrait here.\n\n  [30] Bon., 177.\n\n  [31] Vide A. SS., pp. 855 and 856. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 136.\n\n  [32] Among others those of December 5, 1217, Potthast, 5629;\n       February 8, March 30, April 7, 1218, Potthast, 5695, 5739, 5747.\n\n  [33] 1 Cel., 74. _O quanti maxime in principio cum haec agerentur\n       novellae plantationi ordinis insidiabantur ut perderent._ Cf. 2\n       Cel., 1, 16. _Videbat Franciscus luporum more sevire\n       quamplures._\n\n  [34] 1 Cel., 73 (cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102a); 3 Soc., 64;\n       Bon., 78. The fixing of this scene in the winter of 1217-1218\n       seems hardly to be debatable; Giordano's account (14) in fact\n       determines the date at which Ugolini became _officially_\n       protector of the Order; it supposes earlier relations between\n       Honorius, Francis, and Ugolini. We are therefore led to seek a\n       date at which these three personages may have met in Rome, and\n       we arrive thus at the period between December, 1217, and April,\n       1218.\n\n  [35] A word of Brother Giordano's opens the door to certain\n       conjectures. \"My lord,\" said Francis to Honorius III., in 1220,\n       \"you have given me many fathers (popes) give me a single one to\n       whom I may turn with the affairs of my Order.\" (Giord., 14,\n       _Multos mihi papas dedisti da unum_, ... etc.)\n\n       Does not this suggest the idea that the pontiff had perhaps\n       named a commission of cardinals to oversee the Brothers Minor?\n       Its deliberations and the events to be related in the following\n       chapter might have impelled him to issue the bull _Cum dilecti_\n       of June 11, 1219, which was not an approbation properly so\n       called, but a safe-conduct in favor of the Franciscans.\n\n  [36] He took possession of St. Sabine on February 28, 1218.\n\n  [37] 2 Cel., 3, 87. The literal meaning of the phrase is\n       somewhat ambiguous. The text is: _Vellem, frater Francisce, unam\n       fieri religionem tuam et meam et in Ecclesia pari forma nos\n       vivere_. _Spec._ 27b. The echo of this attempt is found in\n       Thierry d'Apolda, _Vie de S. Dominique_ (A. SS., Augusti, t. i.,\n       p. 572 d): _S. Dominicus in oscula sancta ruens et sinceros\n       amplexus, dixit: Tu es socius meus, tu curres pariter mecum,\n       stemus simul, nullus adversarius praevalebit_. Bernard of Besse\n       says: _B. Dominicus tanta B. Francisco devotione cohesit ut\n       optatam ab eo cordam sub inferiori tunica devotissimi cingeret,\n       cujus et suam Religionem unam velle fieri diceret, ipsumque pro\n       sanctitate caeteris sequendem religiosis assereret._ Turin MS.,\n       102b.\n\n  [38] At the chapter held at Bologna at Whitsunday, 1220. The\n       bull _Religiosam vitam_ (Privilege of Notre Dame de Prouille) of\n       March 30, 1218, enumerates the possessions of the Dominicans.\n       Ripolli, _Bull. Praed._, t. i., p. 6. Horoy, _Honorii opera_, t.\n       ii., col. 684.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS\n\nThe Egyptian Mission. Summer 1218-Autumn 1220\n\n\nArt and poetry have done well in inseparably associating St. Dominic and\nSt. Francis; the glory of the first is only a reflection of that of the\nsecond, and it is in placing them side by side that we succeed best in\nunderstanding the genius of the Poverello. If Francis is the man of\ninspiration, Dominic is that of obedience to orders; one may say that\nhis life was passed on the road to Rome, whither he continually went to\nask for instructions. His legend was therefore very slow to be formed,\nalthough nothing forbade it to blossom freely; but neither the zeal of\nGregory IX. for his memory nor the learning of his disciples were able\nto do for the _Hammer of heretics_ that which the love of the people did\nfor the _Father of the poor_. His legend has the two defects which so\nsoon weary the readers of hagiographical writings, when the question is\nof the saints whose worship the Church has commanded.[1] It is\nencumbered with a spurious supernaturalism, and with incidents borrowed\nright and left from earlier legends. The Italian people, who hailed in\nFrancis the angel of all their hopes, and who showed themselves so\ngreedy for his relics, did not so much as dream of taking up the corpse\nof the founder of the Order of Preaching Friars, and allowed him to wait\ntwelve years for the glories of canonization.[2]\n\nWe have already seen the efforts of Cardinal Ugolini to unite the two\nOrders, and the reasons he had for this course. He went to the\nWhitsunday chapter-general which met at Portiuncula (June 3, 1218), to\nwhich came also St. Dominic with several of his disciples. The\nceremonial of these solemnities appears to have been always about the\nsame since 1216; the Brothers Minor went in procession to meet the\ncardinal, who immediately dismounted from his horse and lavished\nexpressions of affection upon them. An altar was set up in the open air,\nat which he said mass, Francis performing the functions of deacon.[3]\n\nIt is easy to imagine the emotion which overcame those present when in\nits beautiful setting of the Umbrian landscape burst forth that part of\nthe Pentecostal service, that most exciting, the most apocalyptic of the\nwhole Catholic liturgy, the anthem _Alleluia, Alleluia, Emitte Spiritum\ntuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae_. _Alleluia_,[4] does\nnot this include the whole Franciscan dream?\n\nBut what especially amazed Dominic was the absence of material cares.\nFrancis had advised his brethren not to disquiet themselves in any\nrespect about food and drink; he knew by experience that they might\nfearlessly trust all that to the love of the neighboring population.\nThis want of carefulness had greatly surprised Dominic, who thought it\nexaggerated; he was able to reassure himself, when meal-time arrived, by\nseeing the inhabitants of the district hastening in crowds to bring far\nlarger supplies of provisions than were needed for the several thousands\nof friars, and holding it an honor to wait upon them.\n\nThe joy of the Franciscans, the sympathy of the populace with them, the\npoverty of the huts of Portiuncula, all this impressed him deeply; so\nmuch was he moved by it that in a burst of enthusiasm he announced his\nresolution to embrace gospel poverty.[5]\n\nUgolini, though also moved, even to tears,[6] did not forget his\nformer anxieties; the Order was too numerous not to include a group of\nmalcontents; a few friars who before their conversion had studied in the\nuniversities began to condemn the extreme simplicity laid upon them as a\nduty. To men no longer sustained by enthusiasm the short precepts of the\nRule appeared a charter all too insufficient for a vast association;\nthey turned with envy toward the monumental abbeys of the Benedictines,\nthe regular Canons, the Cistercians, and toward the ancient monastic\nlegislations. They had no difficulty in perceiving in Ugolini a powerful\nally, nor in confiding their observations to him.\n\nThe latter deemed the propitious moment arrived, and in a private\nconversation with Francis made a few suggestions: Ought he not give to\nhis disciples, especially to the educated among them, a greater share of\nthe burdens? consult them, gain inspiration from their views? was there\nnot room to profit by the experience of the older orders? Though all\nthis was said casually and with the greatest possible tact, Francis felt\nhimself wounded to the quick, and without answering he drew the cardinal\nto the very midst of the chapter.\n\n\"My brothers,\" said he with fire, \"the Lord has called me into the ways\nof simplicity and humility. In them he has shown me the truth for myself\nand for those who desire to believe and follow me; do not, then, come\nspeaking to me of the Rule of St. Benedict, of St. Augustine, of St.\nBernard, or of any other, but solely of that which God in his mercy has\nseen fit to show to me, and of which he has told me that he would, by\nits means, make a new covenant with the world, and he does not will that\nwe should have any other. But by your learning and your wisdom God will\nbring you to confusion. For I am persuaded that God will chastise you;\nwhether you will or no you will be forced to come to repentance, and\nnothing will remain for you but confusion.\"[7]\n\nThis warmth in defending and affirming his ideas profoundly astonished\nUgolini, who added not a word. As to Dominic, what he had just seen at\nPortiuncula was to him a revelation. He felt, indeed, that his zeal for\nthe Church could not be greater, but he also perceived that he could\nserve her with more success by certain changes in his weapons.\n\nUgolini no doubt only encouraged him in this view, and Dominic, beset\nwith new anxieties, set out a few months later for Spain. The intensity\nof the crisis through which he passed has not been sufficiently\nnoticed; the religious writers recount at length his sojourn in the\ngrotto of Segovia, but they see only the ascetic practices, the prayers,\nthe genuflexions, and do not think of looking for the cause of all this.\nFrom this epoch it might be said that he was unceasingly occupied in\ncopying Francis, if the word had not a somewhat displeasing sense.\nArrived at Segovia he follows the example of the Brothers Minor, founds\na hermitage in the outskirts of the city, hidden among the rocks which\noverlook the town, and thence he descends from time to time to preach to\nthe people. The transformation in his mode of life was so evident that\nseveral of his companions rebelled and refused to follow him in the new\nway.\n\nPopular sentiment has at times its intuitions; a legend grew up around\nthis grotto of Segovia, and it was said that St. Dominic there received\nthe stigmata. Is there not here an unconscious effort to translate into\nan image within the comprehension of all, that which actually took place\nin this cave of the Sierra da Guaderrama?[8]\n\nThus St. Dominic also arrived at the poverty of the gospel, but the road\nby which he reached it was different indeed from that which St. Francis\nhad followed; while the latter had soared to it as on wings, had seen in\nit the final emancipation from all the anxieties which debase this life,\nSt. Dominic considered it only as a means; it was for him one more\nweapon in the arsenal of the host charged with the defence of the\nChurch. We must not see in this a mere vulgar calculation; his\nadmiration for him whom he thus imitated and followed afar off was\nsincere and profound, but genius is not to be copied. This sacred malady\nwas not his; he has transmitted to his sons a sound and robust blood,\nthanks to which they have known nothing of those paroxysms of hot\nfever, those lofty flights, those sudden returns which make the story\nof the Franciscans the story of the most tempest-tossed society which\nthe world has ever known, in which glorious chapters are mingled with\npages trivial and grotesque, sometimes even coarse.\n\nAt the chapter of 1218 Francis had other causes for sadness than the\nmurmurs of a group of malcontents; the missionaries sent out the year\nbefore to Germany and Hungary had returned completely discouraged. The\naccount of the sufferings they had endured produced so great an effect\nthat from that time many of the friars added to their prayers the\nformula: \"Lord preserve us from the heresy of the Lombards and the\nferocity of the Germans.\"[9]\n\nThis explains how Ugolini at last succeeded in convincing Francis of his\nduty to take the necessary measures no longer to expose the friars to be\nhunted down as heretics. It was decided that at the end of the next\nchapter the missionaries should be armed with a papal brief, which\nshould serve them as ecclesiastical passport. Here is the translation of\nthis document:\n\n    Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the\n    archbishops, bishops, abbots, deacons, archdeacons, and other\n    ecclesiastical superiors, salutation and the apostolic blessing.\n\n    Our dear son, brother Francis, and his companions of the life\n    and the Order of the Brothers Minor, having renounced the\n    vanities of this world to choose a mode of life which has\n    merited the approval of the Roman Church, and to go out after\n    the example of the Apostles to cast in various regions the seed\n    of the word of God, we pray and exhort you by these apostolic\n    letters to receive as good catholics the friars of the above\n    mentioned society, bearers of these presents, warning you to be\n    favorable to them and treat them with kindness for the honor of\n    God and out of consideration for us.\n\n    Given (at Rieti) this third day of the ides of June (June 11,\n    1219), in the third year of our pontificate.[10]\n\nIt is evident that this bull was calculated to avoid awakening Francis's\nsusceptibilities. To understand precisely in what it differs from the\nfirst letters usually accredited to new Orders it is necessary to\ncompare it with them; that which had instituted the Dominicans had been,\nlike the others, a veritable privilege;[11] here there is nothing of\nthe kind.\n\nThe assembly which was opened at Whitsunday of 1219 (May 26) was of\nextreme importance.[12] It closed the series of those primitive\nchapters in which the inspiration and fancy of Francis were given free\ncourse. Those which followed, presided over by the vicars, have neither\nthe same cheerfulness nor the same charm; the crude glare of full day\nhas driven away the hues of dawn and the indescribable ardors of nature\nat its awakening.\n\nThe summer of 1219 was the epoch fixed by Honorius III. for making a new\neffort in the East, and directing upon Egypt all the forces of the\nCrusaders.[13] Francis thought the moment arrived for realizing the\nproject which he had not been able to execute in 1212. Strangely enough,\nUgolini who, two years before had hindered his going to France, now left\nhim in entire liberty to carry out this new expedition.[14] Several\nauthors have deemed that Francis, having found in him a true protector,\nfelt himself reassured as to the future of the Order; he might indeed\nhave thought thus, but the history of the troubles which burst out\nimmediately after his departure, the astounding story of the kind\nreception given by the court of Rome to some meddlers who took the\nopportunity of his absence to imperil his Order, would suffice to show\nhow much the Church was embarrassed by him, and with what ardor she\nlonged for the transformation of his work. We shall find later on the\ndetailed account of these facts.\n\nIt appears that a Romagnol brother Christopher was at this same chapter\nnominated provincial of Gascony; he lived there after the customs of the\nearly Franciscans, working with his hands, living in a narrow cell made\nof the boughs of trees and potter's earth.[15]\n\nEgidio set out for Tunis with a few friars, but a great disappointment\nawaited them there; the Christians of this country, in the fear of being\ncompromised by their missionary zeal, hurried them into a boat and\nconstrained them to recross the sea.[16]\n\nIf the date of 1219 for these two missions has little other basis than\nconjecture, the same is not the case as to the departure of the friars\nwho went to Spain and Morocco. The discovery has recently been made of\nthe account of their last preachings and of their tragic death, made by\nan eye-witness.[17] This document is all the more precious because it\nconfirms the general lines of the much longer account given by Mark of\nLisbon. It would be out of place to give a summary of it here, because\nit but very indirectly concerns the life of St. Francis, but we must\nnote that these _acta_ have beyond their historic value a truly\nremarkable psychological--one must almost say pathological--significance;\nnever was the mania for martyrdom better characterized than in these\nlong pages, where we see the friars forcing the Mahometans to pursue\nthem and make them win the heavenly palm. The forbearance which\nMiramolin as well as his fellow religionists at first show gives an\nidea of the civilization and the good qualities of these infidels, all\nthe higher that very different sentiments would be natural in the\nvanquished ones of the plains of Tolosa.\n\nIt is impossible to call by the name of sermons the collections of rude\napostrophes which the missionaries addressed to those whom they wished\nto convert; at this paroxysm the thirst for martyrdom becomes the\nmadness of suicide. Is this to say that friars Bernard, Pietro, Adjutus,\nAccurso, and Otho have no right to the admiration and worship with which\nthey have been surrounded? Who would dare say so? Is not devotion always\nblind? That a furrow should be fecund it must have blood, it must have\ntears, such tears as St. Augustine has called the blood of the soul. Ah,\nit is a great mistake to immolate oneself, for the blood of a single man\nwill not save the world nor even a nation; but it is a still greater\nmistake not to immolate oneself, for then one lets others be lost, and\nis oneself lost first of all.\n\nI greet you, therefore, Martyrs of Morocco; you do not regret your\nmadness, I am sure, and if ever some righteous pedant gone astray in the\ngroves of paradise undertakes to demonstrate to you that it would have\nbeen better worth while to remain in your own country, and found a\nworthy family of virtuous laborers, I fancy that Miramolin, there become\nyour best friend, will take the trouble to refute him.\n\nYou were mad, but I envy such madness, for you felt that the essential\nthing in this world is not to serve this ideal or that one, but with all\none's soul to serve the ideal which one has chosen.\n\nWhen, a few months after, the story of their glorious end arrived at\nAssisi, Francis discerned a feeling of pride among his companions and\nreproached them in lively terms; he who would so have envied the lot of\nthe martyrs felt himself humbled because God had not judged him worthy\nto share it. As the story was mingled with some words of eulogy of the\nfounder of the Order, he forbade the further reading of it.[18]\n\nImmediately after the chapter he had himself undertaken a mission of the\nsame kind as he had confided to the Brothers of Morocco, but he had\nproceeded in it in an entirely different manner: his was not the blind\nzeal which courts death in a sort of frenzy and forgets all the rest;\nperhaps he already felt that the persistent effort after the better, the\ncontinual immolation of self for truth, is the martyrdom of the strong.\n\nThis expedition, which lasted more than a year, is mentioned by the\nbiographers in a few lines.[19] Happily we have a number of other\npapers regarding it; but their silence suffices to prove the sincerity\nof the primitive Franciscan authors; if they had wanted to amplify the\ndeeds of their subject, where could they have found an easier\nopportunity or a more marvellous theme? Francis quitted Portiuncula in\nthe middle of June and went to Ancona, whence the Crusaders were to set\nsail for Egypt on St. John's Day (June 24th).\n\nMany friars joined him--a fact which was not without its inconveniences\nfor a journey by sea, where they were obliged to depend upon the charity\nof the owners of the boats, or of their fellow-travellers.\n\nWe can understand Francis's embarrassment on arriving at Ancona and\nfinding himself obliged to leave behind a number of those who so\nearnestly longed to go with him. The Conformities relate here an\nincident for which we might desire an earlier authority, but which is\ncertainly very like Francis; he led all his friends to the port and\nexplained to them his perplexities. \"The people of the boat,\" he told\nthem, \"refuse to take us all, and I have not the courage to make choice\namong you; you might think that I do not love you all alike; let us then\ntry to learn the will of God.\" And he called a child who was playing\nclose by, and the little one, charmed to take the part of Providence put\nupon him, pointed out with his finger the eleven friars who were to set\nsail.[20]\n\nWe do not know what itinerary they followed. A single incident of the\njourney has come down to us: that of the chastisement inflicted in the\nisle of Cyprus on Brother Barbaro, who had been guilty of the fault\nwhich the master detested above all others--evil-speaking. He was\nimplacable with regard to the looseness of language so customary among\npious folk, and which often made a hell of religious houses apparently\nthe most peaceful. The offence this time appeared to him the more grave\nfor having been uttered in the presence of a stranger, a knight of that\ndistrict. The latter was stupefied on hearing Francis command the guilty\none to eat a lump of ass's dung which lay there, adding: \"The mouth\nwhich has distilled the venom of hatred against my brother must eat this\nexcrement.\" Such indignation, no less than the obedience of the unhappy\noffender, filled him with admiration.[21]\n\nIt is very probable, as Wadding has supposed, that the missionaries\ndebarked at St. Jean d'Acre. They arrived there about the middle of\nJuly.[22] In the environs of this city, doubtless, Brother Elias had\nbeen established for one or two years. Francis there told off a few of\nhis companions, whom he sent to preach in divers directions, and a few\ndays afterward he himself set out for Egypt, where all the efforts of\nthe Crusaders were concentrated upon Damietta.\n\nFrom the first he was heart-broken with the moral condition of the\nChristian army. Notwithstanding the presence of numerous prelates and of\nthe apostolic legate, it was disorganized for want of discipline. He was\nso affected by this that when there was talk of battle he felt it his\nduty to advise against it, predicting that the Christians would\ninfallibly be beaten. No one heeded him, and on August 29th the\nCrusaders, having attacked the Saracens, were terribly routed.[23]\n\nHis predictions won him a marvellous success. It must be owned that the\nground was better prepared than any other to receive the new seed; not\nsurely that piety was alive there, but in this mass of men come together\nfrom every corner of Europe, the troubled, the seers, the enlightened\nones, those who thirsted for righteousness and truth, were elbowed by\nrascals, adventurers, those who were greedy for gold and plunder,\ncapable of much good or much evil, the sport of fleeting impulses,\nloosed from the bonds of the family, of property, of the habits which\nusually twine themselves about man's will, and only by exception permit\na complete change in his manner of life; those among them who were\nsincere and had come there with generous purposes were, so to speak,\npredestined to enter the peaceful army of the Brothers Minor. Francis\nwas to win in this mission fellow-laborers who would assure the success\nof his work in the countries of northern Europe.\n\nJacques de Vitry, in a letter to friends written a few days later, thus\ndescribes the impression produced on him by Francis:\n\n    \"I announce to you that Master Reynier, Prior of St. Michael,\n    has entered the Order of the Brothers Minor, an Order which is\n    multiplying rapidly on all sides, because it imitates the\n    primitive Church and follows the life of the Apostles in\n    everything. The master of these Brothers is named Brother\n    Francis; he is so lovable that he is venerated by everyone.\n    Having come into our army, he has not been afraid, in his zeal\n    for the faith, to go to that of our enemies. For days together\n    he announced the word of God to the Saracens, but with little\n    success; then the sultan, King of Egypt, asked him in secret to\n    entreat God to reveal to him, by some miracle, which is the best\n    religion. Colin, the Englishman, our clerk, has entered the same\n    Order, as also two others of our companions, Michael and Dom\n    Matthew, to whom I had given the rectorship of the Sainte\n    Chapelle. Cantor and Henry have done the same, and still others\n    whose names I have forgotten.\"[24]\n\nThe long and enthusiastic chapter which the same author gives to the\nBrothers Minor in his great work on the Occident is too diffuse to find\na place here. It is a living and accurate picture of the early times of\nthe Order; in it Francis's sermon before the sultan is again related. It\nwas written at a period when the friars had still neither monasteries\nnor churches, and when the chapters were held once or twice a year; this\ngives us a date anterior to 1223, and probably even before 1221. We have\nhere, therefore, a verification of the narratives of Thomas of Celano\nand the Three Companions, and they find in it their perfect\nconfirmation.\n\nAs to the interviews between Francis and the sultan, it is prudent to\nkeep to the narratives of Jacques de Vitry and William of Tyre.[25]\nAlthough the latter wrote at a comparatively late date (between 1275 and\n1295), he followed a truly historic method, and founded his work on\nauthentic documents; we see that he knows no more than Jacques de Vitry\nof the proposal said to have been made by Francis to pass through a fire\nif the priests of Mahomet would do as much, intending so to establish\nthe superiority of Christianity.\n\nWe know how little such an appeal to signs is characteristic of St.\nFrancis. Perhaps the story, which comes from Bonaventura, is born of a\nmisconception. The sultan, like a new Pharaoh, may have laid it upon the\nstrange preacher to prove his mission by miracles. However this may be,\nFrancis and his companions were treated with great consideration, a fact\nthe more meritorious that hostilities were then at their height.\n\nReturned to the Crusading camp, they remained there until after the\ntaking of Damietta (November 5, 1219). This time the Christians were\nvictorious, but perhaps the heart of the _gospel man_ bled more for this\nvictory than for the defeat of August 29th. The shocking condition of\nthe city, which the victors found piled with heaps of dead bodies, the\nquarrels over the sharing of booty, the sale of the wretched creatures\nwho had not succumbed to the pestilence,[26] all these scenes of\nterror, cruelty, greed, caused him profound horror. The \"human beast\"\nwas let loose, the apostle's voice could no more make itself heard in\nthe midst of the savage clamor than that of a life-saver over a raging\nocean.\n\nHe set out for Syria[27] and the Holy Places. How gladly would we\nfollow him in this pilgrimage, accompany him in thought through Judea\nand Galilee, to Bethlehem, to Nazareth, to Gethsemane! What was said to\nhim by the stable where the Son of Mary was born, the workshop where he\ntoiled, the olive-tree where he accepted the bitter cup? Alas! the\ndocuments here suddenly fail us. Setting out from Damietta very shortly\nafter the siege (November 5, 1219) he may easily have been at Bethlehem\nby Christmas. But we know nothing, absolutely nothing, except that his\nsojourn was more prolonged than had been expected.\n\nSome of the Brothers who were present at Portiuncula at the\nchapter-general of 1220 (Whitsunday, May 17th) had time enough to go to\nSyria and still find Francis there;[28] they could hardly have arrived\nmuch earlier than the end of June. What had he been doing those eight\nmonths? Why had he not gone home to preside at the chapter? Had he been\nill?[29] Had he been belated by some mission? Our information is too\nslight to permit us even to venture upon conjecture.\n\nAngelo Clareno relates that the Sultan of Egypt, touched by his\npreaching, gave command that he and all his friars should have free\naccess to the Holy Sepulchre without the payment of any tribute.[30]\n\nBartholomew of Pisa on his part says incidentally that Francis, having\ngone to preach in Antioch and its environs, the Benedictines of the\nAbbey of the Black Mountain,[31] eight miles from that city, joined the\nOrder in a body, and gave up all their property to the Patriarch.\n\nThese indications are meagre and isolated indeed, and the second is to\nbe accepted only with reserve. On the other hand, we have detailed\ninformation of what went on in Italy during Francis's absence. Brother\nGiordano's chronicle, recently discovered and published, throws all the\nlight that could be desired upon a plot laid against Francis by the very\npersons whom he had commissioned to take his place at Portiuncula, and\nthis, if not with the connivance of Rome and the cardinal protector, at\nleast without their opposition. These events had indeed been narrated by\nAngelo Clareno, but the undisguised feeling which breathes through all\nhis writings and their lack of accuracy had sufficed with careful\ncritics to leave them in doubt. How could it be supposed that in the\nvery lifetime of St. Francis the vicars whom he had instituted could\ntake advantage of his absence to overthrow his work? How could it be\nthat the pope, who during this period was sojourning at Rieti, how that\nUgolini, who was still nearer, did not impose silence on these\nagitators?[32]\n\nNow that all the facts come anew to light, not in an oratorical and\nimpassioned account, but brief, precise, cutting, dated, with every\nappearance of notes taken day by day, we must perforce yield to\nevidence.\n\nDoes this give us reason clamorously to condemn Ugolino and the pope? I\ndo not think so. They played a part which is not to their honor, but\ntheir intentions were evidently excellent. If the famous aphorism that\nthe end justifies the means is criminal where one examines his own\nconduct, it becomes the first duty in judging that of others. Here are\nthe facts:\n\nOn July 25th, about one month after Francis's departure for Syria,\nUgolini, who was at Perugia, laid upon the Clarisses of Monticelli\n(Florence), Sienna, Perugia, and Lucca that which his friend had so\nobstinately refused for the friars, the Benedictine Rule.[33]\n\nAt the same time, St. Dominic, returning from Spain full of new ardor\nafter his retreat in the grotto of Segovia, and fully decided to adopt\nfor his Order the rule of poverty, was strongly encouraged in this\npurpose and overwhelmed with favors.[34] Honorius III. saw in him the\nprovidential man of the time, the reformer of the monastic Orders; he\nshowed him unusual attentions, going so far, for example, as to transfer\nto him a group of monks belonging to other Orders, whom he appointed to\nact as Dominic's lieutenants on the preaching tours which he believed it\nto be his duty to undertake, and to serve, under his direction, an\napprenticeship in popular preaching.[35]\n\nThat Ugolini was the inspiration of all this, the bulls are here to\nwitness. His ruling purpose at that time was so clearly to direct the\ntwo new Orders that he chose a domicile with this end in view, and we\nfind him continually either at Perugia--that is to say, within three\nleagues of Portiuncula--or at Bologna, the stronghold of the Dominicans.\n\nIt now becomes manifest that just as the fraternity instituted by\nFrancis was truly the fruit of his body, flesh of his flesh, so does\nthe Order of the Preaching Friars emanate from the papacy, and St.\nDominic is only its putative father. This character is expressed in\none word by one of the most authoritative of contemporary annalists,\nBurchard of Ursperg ([Cross] 1226). \"The pope,\" he says, \"_instituted_\nand confirmed the Order of the Preachers.\"[36]\n\nFrancis on his journey in the Orient had taken for special companion a\nfriar whom we have not yet met, Pietro di Catana or _dei Cattani_. Was\nhe a native of the town of Catana? There is no precise indication of it.\nIt appears more probable that he belonged to the noble family _dei\nCattani_, already known to Francis, and of which Orlando, Count of\nChiusi in Casentino, who gave him the Verna, was a member. However that\nmay be, we must not confound him with the Brother Pietro who assumed the\nhabit in 1209, at the same time with Bernardo of Quintavallo, and died\nshortly afterward. Tradition, in reducing these two men to a single\npersonage, was influenced not merely by the similarity of the names, but\nalso by the very natural desire to increase the prestige of one who in\n1220-1221 was to play an important part in the direction of the\nOrder.[37]\n\nAt the time of his departure for the East Francis had left two vicars in\nhis place, the Brothers Matteo of Narni and Gregorio of Naples. The\nformer was especially charged to remain at Portiuncula to admit\npostulants;[38] Gregorio of Naples, on the other hand, was to pass\nthrough Italy to console the Brothers.[39]\n\nThe two vicars began at once to overturn everything. It is inexplicable\nhow men still under the influence of their first fervor for a Rule which\nin the plenitude of their liberty they had promised to obey could have\ndreamed of such innovations if they had not been urged on and upheld by\nthose in high places. To alleviate the vow of poverty and to multiply\nobservances were the two points toward which their efforts were bent.\n\nIn appearance it was a trifling matter, in reality it was much, for it\nwas the first movement of the old spirit against the new. It was the\neffort of men who unconsciously, I am willing to think, made religion an\naffair of rite and observance, instead of seeing in it, like St.\nFrancis, the conquest of the liberty which makes us free in all things,\nand leads each soul to obey that divine and mysterious power which the\nflowers of the fields adore, which the birds of the air bless, which the\nsymphony of the stars praises, and which Jesus of Nazareth called\n_Abba_, that is to say, Father.\n\nThe first Rule was excessively simple in the matter of fasts. The friars\nwere to abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays; they might add\nMondays and Saturdays, but only on Francis's special authorization. The\nvicars and their adherents complicated this rule in a surprising manner.\nAt the chapter-general held in Francis's absence (May 17, 1220), they\ndecided, first, that in times of feasting the friars were not to provide\nmeat, but if it were offered to them spontaneously they were to eat it;\nsecond, that all should fast on Mondays as well as Wednesdays and\nFridays; third, that on Mondays and Saturdays they should abstain from\nmilk products unless by chance the adherents of the Order brought some\nto them.[40]\n\nThese beginnings bear witness also to an effort to imitate the ancient\nOrders, not without the vague hope that they would be substituted for\nthem. Brother Giordano has preserved to us only this decision of the\nchapter of 1220, but the expressions of which he makes use sufficiently\nprove that it was far from being the only one, and that the malcontents\nhad desired, as in the chapters of Citeaux and Monte Cassino, to put\nforth veritable constitutions.\n\nThese modifications of the Rule did not pass, however, without arousing\nthe indignation of a part of the chapter; a lay brother made himself\ntheir eager messenger, and set out for the East to entreat Francis to\nreturn without delay, to take the measures called for by the\ncircumstances.\n\nThere were also other causes of disquiet. Brother Philip, a Zealot of\nthe Clarisses, had made haste to secure for them from Ugolini the\nprivileges which had already been under consideration.[41]\n\nA certain Brother Giovanni di Conpello[42] had gathered together a\ngreat number of lepers of both sexes, and written a Rule, intending to\nform with them a new Order. He had afterward presented himself before\nthe supreme pontiff with a train of these unfortunates to obtain his\napprobation.\n\nMany other distressing symptoms, upon which Brother Giordano does not\ndwell, had manifested themselves. The report of Francis's death had even\nbeen spread abroad, so that the whole Order was disturbed, divided, and\nin the greatest peril. The dark presentiments which Francis seems to\nhave had were exceeded by the reality.[43] The messenger who brought\nhim the sad news found him in Syria, probably at St. Jean d'Acre. He at\nonce embarked with Elias, Pietro di Catana, Caesar of Speyer, and a few\nothers, and returned to Italy in a vessel bound for Venice, where he\nmight easily arrive toward the end of July.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] One proof of the obscurity in which Dominic remained so long\n       as Rome did not apotheosize him, is that Jacques de Vitry, who\n       consecrates a whole chapter of his _Historia Occidentalis_ to\n       the Preaching Friars (27, p. 333) does not even name the\n       founder. This is the more significant since a few pages farther\n       on, the chapter given to the Brothers Minor is almost entirely\n       filled with the person of St. Francis. This silence about St.\n       Dominic has been remarked and taken up by Moschus, who finds no\n       way to explain it. Vide _Vitam J. de Vitriaco_, at the head of\n       the Douai edition of 1597.\n\n   [2] Francis, who died in 1226, is canonized in 1228; Anthony of\n       Padua, 1231 and 1233; Elisabeth of Thuringia, 1231 and 1235;\n       Dominic, 1221 and 1234.\n\n   [3] 3 Soc., 61.\n\n   [4] Shed abroad, Lord, thy Spirit, and all shall be created, and\n       thou shalt renew the face of the earth.\n\n   [5] 2 Cel., 3. 87; _Spec._, 132b; _Conform._, 207a, 112a;\n       _Fior._, 18. The historians of St. Dominic have not received\n       these details kindly, but an incontestable point gained from\n       diplomatic documents is that in 1218 Dominic, at Rome, procured\n       privileges in which the properties of his Order were indicated,\n       and that in 1220 he led his friars to profess poverty.\n\n   [6] 2 Cel., 3, 9; _Spec._, 17a.\n\n   [7] _Spec._, 49a; _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 11a-12b; _Spec._, 183a;\n       _Conform._, 135b 1.\n\n   [8] The principal sources are indicated in A. SS., Augusti, t.\n       i., pp. 470 ff.\n\n   [9] Giord., 18; 3 Soc., 62.\n\n  [10] Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i, p. 2; Potthast, 6081: Wadding,\n       _ann. 1219_, No. 28, indicates the works where the text may be\n       found. Cf. A. SS., p. 839.\n\n  [11] The title sufficiently indicated the contents: _Domenico\n       priori S. Romani tolosani ejusque fratribus, eos in protectionem\n       recipit eorumque Ordinem cum bonis et privilegiis confirmat_.\n       _Religiosam vitam_: December 22, 1216; Pressuti, t. i., 175,\n       text in Horoy t. ii., col. 141-144.\n\n  [12] Vide A. SS., pp. 608 ff. and 838 ff.\n\n  [13] Vide Bull _Multi divinae_ of August 13, 1218. Horoy, t.\n       iii., col. 12; Potthast, 5891.\n\n  [14] The contradiction is so striking that the Bollandists have\n       made of it the principal argument for defending the error in\n       their manuscript (1 Cel., 75), and insisting in the face of, and\n       against everything that Francis had taken that journey. A. SS.,\n       607.\n\n  [15] He died at Cahors, October 31, 1272. His legend is found in\n       MS. Riccardi, 279, f^o. 69a. _Incipit vita f. Christophori quam\n       compilavit fr. Bernardus de Bessa custodiae Caturcensis: Quasi\n       vas auri solidum._ Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., pp. 106-113, t.\n       iii., p. 212, and Glassberger, _An. fr._, t. ii., p. 14.\n\n  [16] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., p. 224; _Conform._, 118b, 1; 54a;\n       Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 1--Brother Luke had been sent to\n       Constantinople, in 1219, at latest. Vide _Constitutus_ of\n       December 9, 1220. Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i., p. 6; Potthast,\n       6431.\n\n  [17] We owe to M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_, p. 207) the honor of this\n       publication, copied from a manuscript of the Cottoniana.\n\n  [18] Giord., 8.\n\n  [19] 1 Cel., 57; Bon., 133-138; 154 and 155; 2 Cel., 2, 2;\n       _Conform._, 113b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 55b; _Fior._, 24.\n\n  [20] _Conform._, 113b, 2; cf. A. SS., p. 611.\n\n  [21] 2 Cel., 3, 92; _Spec._, 30b. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115.\n       _Conform._, 142b, 1. This incident may possibly have taken place\n       on the return.\n\n  [22] With the facilities of that period the voyage required from\n       twenty to thirty days. The _diarium_ of a similar passage may be\n       found in Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. Dipl._, t. i., 898-901. Cf.\n       _Ibid._, Introd., p. cccxxxi.\n\n  [23] 2 Cel., 22; Bon 154, 155; cf. A. SS., p. 612.\n\n  [24] Jacques de Vitry speaks only incidentally of Francis here\n       in the midst of salutations; from the critical point of view\n       this only enhances the value of his words. See the Study of the\n       Sources, p. 428.\n\n  [25] Vide below, the Study of the Sources, p. 430.\n\n  [26] All this is related at length by Jacques de Vitry.\n\n  [27] \"Cil hom qui comenca l'ordre des Freres Mineurs, si ot nom\n       frere Francois ... vint en l'ost de Damiate, e i fist moult de\n       bien, et demora tant que la ville fut prise. Il vit le mal et le\n       peche qui comenca a croistre entre les gens de l'ost, si li\n       desplot, par quoi il s'en parti, e fu une piece en Surie, et\n       puis s'en rala en son pais.\" Historiens des Croisades, ii.\n       _L'Est de Eracles Empereur_, liv. xxxii., chap. xv. Cf. Sanuto;\n       _Secreta fid. cruc._, lib. iii., p. xi., cap. 8, in Bongars.\n\n  [28] Giord., Chron., 11-14.\n\n  [29] The episode of Brother Leonard's complaints, related below,\n       gives some probability to this hypothesis.\n\n  [30] _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 9b. Cf. 10b: _Sepulcro Domini\n       visitato festinat ad Christianorum terram_.\n\n  [31] Upon this monastery see a letter _ad familiares_ of Jacques\n       de Vitry, written in 1216 and published in 1847 by Baron Jules\n       de St. Genois in t. xiii. of the _Memoires de l'Academie royale\n       des sciences et des beaux arts de Bruxelles_ (1849). _Conform._,\n       106b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 184.\n\n  [32] A. SS., pp. 619-620, 848, 851, 638.\n\n  [33] Vide Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219. Cf. those of\n       September 19, 1222; Sbaralea, i., p. 3, 11 ff.; Potthast, 6179,\n       6879a, b, c.\n\n  [34] Vide Potthast, 6155, 6177, 6184, 6199, 6214, 6217, 6218,\n       6220, 6246. See also _Chartularium Universitatis Par._, t. i.,\n       487.\n\n  [35] Bull _Quia qui seminant_ of May 12, 1220. Ripalli, _Bul.\n       Praed._, t. i., p. 10 (Potthast, 6249).\n\n  [36] _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 23, p. 376. This passage is\n       of extreme importance because it sums up in a few lines the\n       ecclesiastical policy of Honorius III. After speaking of the\n       perils with which the _Humiliati_ threatened the Church,\n       Burchard adds: _Quae volens corrigere dominus papa ordinem\n       Predicatorum instituit et confirmavit._ Now these _Humiliati_\n       were an approved Order. But Burchard, while classing them with\n       heretics beside the Poor Men of Lyons, expresses in a word the\n       sentiments of the papacy toward them; it had for them an\n       invincible repugnance, and not wishing to strike them directly\n       it sought a side issue. Similar tactics were followed with\n       regard to the Brothers Minor, with that overplus of caution\n       which the prodigious success of the Order inspired. It all\n       became useless when in 1221 Brother Elias became Francis's\n       vicar, and especially when, after the latter's death, he had all\n       the liberty necessary for directing the Order according to the\n       views of Ugolini, now become Gregory IX.\n\n  [37] 1 Cel., 25; cf. A. SS., p. 581. Pietro di Catana had the\n       title of doctor of laws, Giord., 11, which entirely disagrees\n       with what is related of Brother Pietro, 3 Soc., 28 and 29. Cf.\n       Bon., 28 and 29; _Spec._, 5b; _Fior._, 2; _Conform._, 47; 52b,\n       2; _Petrus vir litteratus erat et nobilis_, Giord., 12.\n\n  [38] We know nothing more of him except that after his death he\n       had the gift of miracles. Giord., 11; _Conform._, 62a, 1.\n\n  [39] He was not an ordinary man; a remarkable administrator and\n       orator (Eccl., 6), he was minister in France before 1224 and\n       again in 1240, thanks to the zeal with which he had adopted the\n       ideas of Brother Elias. He was nephew of Gregory IX., which\n       throws some light upon the practices which have just been\n       described. After having been swept away in Elias's disgrace and\n       condemned to prison for life, he became in the end Bishop of\n       Bayeux. I note for those who take an interest in those things\n       that manuscripts of two of his sermons may be found in the\n       National Library of Paris. The author of them being indicated\n       simply as _fr. Gr. min._, it has only lately become known whose\n       they were. These sermons were preached in Paris on Holy Thursday\n       and Saturday. MS. new. acq., Lat., 338 f^o 148, 159.\n\n  [40] Giord., 11. Cf. _Spec._, 34b. _Fior._, 4; _Conform._, 184a, 1.\n\n  [41] Giord., 12. Cf. Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219.\n\n  [42] Giord., 12. Ought we, perhaps, to read di Campello? Half\n       way between Foligno and Spoleto there is a place of this name.\n       On the other hand, the 3 Soc., 35, indicate the entrance into\n       the Order of a Giovanni di Capella who in the legend became the\n       Franciscan Judas. _Invenit abusum capelle et ab ipsa denominatus\n       est: ab ordine recedens factus leprosus laqueo ut Judas se\n       suspendit._ _Conform._, 104a, 1. Cf. _Bernard de Besse_, 96a;\n       _Spec._, 2; _Fior._, 1. All this is much mixed up. Perhaps we\n       should believe that Giovanni di Campello died shortly afterward,\n       and that later on, when the stories of this troubled time were\n       forgotten, some ingenious Brother explained the note of infamy\n       attached to his memory by a hypothesis built upon his name\n       itself.\n\n  [43] Giord., 12, 13, and 14.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE CRISIS OF THE ORDER[1]\n\nAutumn, 1220\n\n\nOn his arrival in Venice Francis informed himself yet more exactly\nconcerning all that had happened, and convoked the chapter-general at\nPortiuncula for Michaelmas (September 29, 1220).[2] His first care was\ndoubtless to reassure his sister-friend at St. Damian; a short fragment\nof a letter which has been preserved to us gives indication of the sad\nanxieties which filled his mind:\n\n    \"I, little Brother Francis, desire to follow the life and the\n    poverty of Jesus Christ, our most high Lord, and of his most\n    holy Mother, persevering therein until the end; and I beg you\n    all and exhort you to persevere always in this most holy life\n    and poverty, and take good care never to depart from it upon the\n    advice or teachings of any one whomsoever.\"[3]\n\nA long shout of joy sounded up and down all Italy when the news of his\nreturn was heard. Many zealous brethren were already despairing, for\npersecutions had begun in many provinces; so when they learned that\ntheir spiritual father was alive and coming again to visit them their\njoy was unbounded. From Venice Francis went to Bologna. The journey was\nmarked by an incident which once more shows his acute and wise goodness.\nWorn out as much by emotion as by fatigue, he one day found himself\nobliged to give up finishing the journey on foot. Mounted upon an ass,\nhe was going on his way, followed by Brother Leonard of Assisi, when a\npassing glance showed him what was passing in his companion's mind. \"My\nrelatives,\" the friar was thinking, \"would have been far enough from\nassociating with Bernardone, and yet here am I, obliged to follow his\nson on foot.\"\n\nWe may judge of his astonishment when he heard Francis saying, as he\nhastily dismounted from his beast: \"Here, take my place; it is most\nunseemly that thou shouldst follow me on foot, who art of a noble and\npowerful lineage.\" The unhappy Leonard, much confused, threw himself at\nFrancis's feet, begging for pardon.[4]\n\nScarcely arrived at Bologna, Francis was obliged to proceed against\nthose who had become backsliders. It will be remembered that the Order\nwas intended to possess nothing, either directly or indirectly. The\nmonasteries given to the friars did not become their property; so soon\nas the proprietor should desire to take them back or anyone else should\nwish to take possession of them, they were to be given up without the\nleast resistance; but on drawing near to Bologna he learned that a house\nwas being built, which was already called _The house of the Brothers_.\nHe commanded its immediate evacuation, not even excepting the sick who\nhappened to be there. The Brothers then resorted to Ugolini, who was\nthen in that very city for the consecration of Santa Maria di\nRheno.[5] He explained to Francis at length that this house did not\nbelong to the Order; he had declared himself its proprietor by public\nacts; and he succeeded in convincing him.[6]\n\nBolognese piety prepared for Francis an enthusiastic reception, the echo\nof which has come down even to our times:\n\n    \"I was studying at Bologna, I, Thomas of Spalato, archdeacon in\n    the cathedral church of that city, when in the year 1220, the\n    day of the Assumption, I saw St. Francis preaching on the piazza\n    of the Lesser Palace, before almost every man in the city. The\n    theme of his discourse was the following: Angels, men, the\n    demons. He spoke on all these subjects with so much wisdom and\n    eloquence that many learned men who were there were filled with\n    admiration at the words of so plain a man. Yet he had not the\n    manner of a preacher, his ways were rather those of\n    conversation; the substance of his discourse bore especially\n    upon the abolition of enmities and the necessity of making\n    peaceful alliances. His apparel was poor, his person in no\n    respect imposing, his face not at all handsome; but God gave\n    such great efficacy to his words that he brought back to peace\n    and harmony many nobles whose savage fury had not even stopped\n    short before the shedding of blood. So great a devotion was felt\n    for him that men and women flocked after him, and he esteemed\n    himself happy who succeeded in touching the hem of his garment.\"\n\nWas it at this time that the celebrated Accurso the Glossarist,[7]\nchief of that famous dynasty of jurisconsults who during the whole\nthirteenth century shed lustre upon the University of Bologna, welcomed\nthe Brothers Minor to his villa at Ricardina, near the city?[8] We do\nnot know.\n\nIt appears that another professor, Nicolas dei Pepoli, also entered the\nOrder.[9] Naturally the pupils did not lag behind, and a certain\nnumber asked to receive the habit. Yet all this constituted a danger;\nthis city, which in Italy was as an altar consecrated to the science of\nlaw, was destined to exercise upon the evolution of the Order the same\ninfluence as Paris; the Brothers Minor could no more hold aloof from it\nthan they could keep aloof from the ambient air.\n\nThis time Francis remained here but a very short time. An ancient\ntradition, of which his biographers have not preserved any trace, but\nwhich nevertheless appears to be entirely probable, says that Ugolini\ntook him to pass a month in the Camaldoli, in the retreat formerly\ninhabited by St. Romuald in the midst of the Casentino forest, one of\nthe noblest in Europe, within a few hours' walk of the Verna, whose\nsummit rises up gigantic, overlooking the whole country.\n\nWe know how much Francis needed repose. There is no doubt that he also\nlonged for a period of meditation in order to decide carefully in\nadvance upon his line of conduct, in the midst of the dark conjectures\nwhich had called him home. The desire to give him the much-needed rest\nwas only a subordinate purpose with Ugolini. The moment for vigorous\naction appeared to him to have come. We can easily picture his responses\nto Francis's complaints. Had he not been seriously advised to profit by\nthe counsels of the past, by the experience of those founders of Orders\nwho have been not only saints but skilful leaders of men? Was not\nUgolini himself his best friend, his born defender, and yet had not\nFrancis forced him to lay aside the influence to which his love for the\nfriars, his position in the Church, and his great age gave him such just\ntitle? Yes, he had been forced to leave Francis to needlessly expose his\ndisciples to all sorts of danger, to send them on missions as perilous\nas they had proved to be ineffectual, and all for what? For the most\ntrivial point of honor, because the Brothers Minor were determined not\nto enjoy the smallest privileges. They were not heretics, but they\ndisturbed the Church as much as the heretics did. How many times had he\nnot been reminded that a great association, in order to exist, must have\nprecise and detailed regulations? It had all been labor lost! Of course\nFrancis's humility was doubted by no one, but why not manifest it, not\nonly in costume and manner of living, but in all his acts? He thought\nhimself obeying God in defending his own inspiration, but does not the\nChurch speak in the name of God? Are not the words of her\nrepresentatives the words of Jesus forever perpetuated on earth? He\ndesired to be a man of the Gospel, an apostolic man, but was not the\nbest way of becoming such to obey the Roman pontiff, the successor of\nPeter? With an excess of condescension they had let him go on in his own\nway, and the result was the saddest of lessons. But the situation was\nnot desperate, there was still time to find a remedy; to do that he had\nonly to throw himself at the feet of the pope, imploring his blessing,\nhis light, and his counsel.\n\nReproaches such as these, mingled with professions of love and\nadmiration on the part of the prelate, could not but profoundly disturb\na sensitive heart like that of Francis. His conscience bore him good\nwitness, but with the modesty of noble minds he was ready enough to\nthink that he might have made many mistakes.\n\nPerhaps this is the place to ask what was the secret of the friendship\nof these two men, so little known to one another on certain sides. How\ncould it last without a shadow down to the very death of Francis, when\nwe always find Ugolini the very soul of the group who are compromising\nthe Franciscan ideal? No answer to this question is possible. The same\nproblem presents itself with regard to Brother Elias, and we are no\nbetter able to find a satisfactory answer. Men of loving hearts seldom\nhave a perfectly clear intelligence. They often become fascinated by\nmen the most different from themselves, in whose breasts they feel none\nof those feminine weaknesses, those strange dreams, that almost sickly\npity for creatures and things, that mysterious thirst for pain which is\nat once their own happiness and their torment.\n\nThe sojourn at Camaldoli was prolonged until the middle of September,\nand it ended to the cardinal's satisfaction. Francis had decided to go\ndirectly to the pope, then at Orvieto, with the request that Ugolini\nshould be given him as official protector intrusted with the direction\nof the Order.\n\nA dream which he had once had recurred to his memory; he had seen a\nlittle black hen which, in spite of her efforts, was not able to spread\nher wings over her whole brood. The poor hen was himself, the chickens\nwere the friars. This dream was a providential indication commanding him\nto seek for them a mother under whose wings they could all find a place,\nand who could defend them against the birds of prey. At least so he\nthought.[10]\n\nHe repaired to Orvieto without taking Assisi in his way, since if he\nwent there he would be obliged to take some measures against the\nfomentors of disturbance; he now proposed to refer everything directly\nto the pope.\n\nDoes his profound humility, with the feeling of culpability which\nUgolini had awakened in him, suffice to explain his attitude with regard\nto the pope, or must we suppose that he had a vague thought of\nabdicating? Who knows whether conscience was not already murmuring a\nreproach, and showing him how trivial were all the sophisms which had\nbeen woven around him?\n\n    \"Not daring to present himself in the apartments of so great a\n    prince, he remained outside before the door, patiently waiting\n    till the pope should come out. When he appeared St. Francis made\n    a reverence and said:\n\n    \"'Father Pope, may God give you peace.' 'May God bless you, my\n    son,' replied he. 'My lord,' then said St. Francis to him, 'you\n    are great and often absorbed by great affairs; poor friars\n    cannot come and talk with you as often as they need to do; you\n    have given me many popes; give me a single one to whom I may\n    address myself when need occurs, and who will listen in your\n    stead, and discuss my affairs and those of the Order.' 'Whom do\n    you wish I should give you, my son?' 'The Bishop of Ostia.' And\n    he gave him to him.\"[11]\n\nConferences with Ugolini now began again; he immediately accorded\nFrancis some amends; the privilege granted the Clarisses was revoked;\nGiovanni di Conpello was informed that he had nothing to hope from the\n_curia_, and last of all leave was given to Francis himself to compose\nthe Rule of his Order. Naturally he was not spared counsel on the\nsubject, but there was one point upon which the curia could not brook\ndelay, and of which it exacted the immediate application--the obligation\nof a year's novitiate for the postulants.\n\nAt the same time a bull was issued not merely for the sake of publishing\nthis ordinance, but especially to mark in a solemn manner the\ncommencement of a new era in the relations of the Church and the\nFranciscans. The fraternity of the Umbrian Penitents became an Order in\nthe strictest sense of the word.\n\n    Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Brother\n    Francis and the other priors or custodes of the Brothers Minor,\n    greeting and the apostolic benediction.\n\n    In nearly all religious Orders it has been wisely ordained that\n    those who present themselves with the purpose of observing the\n    regular life shall make trial of it for a certain time, during\n    which they also shall be tested, in order to leave neither place\n    nor pretext for inconsiderate steps. For these reasons we\n    command you by these presents to admit no one to make profession\n    until after one year of novitiate; we forbid that after\n    profession any brother shall leave the Order, and that any one\n    shall take back again him who has gone out from it. We also\n    forbid that those wearing your habit shall circulate here and\n    there without obedience, lest the purity of your poverty be\n    corrupted. If any friars have had this audacity, you will\n    inflict upon them ecclesiastical censures until repentance.[12]\n\nIt is surely only by a very decided euphemism that such a bull can be\nconsidered in the light of a privilege. It was in reality the laying of\nthe strong hand of the papacy upon the Brothers Minor.\n\nFrom this time, in the very nature of things it became impossible for\nFrancis to remain minister-general. He felt it himself. Heart-broken,\nsoul-sick, he would fain, in spite of all, have found in the energy of\nhis love those words, those glances which up to this time had taken the\nplace of rule or constitution, giving to his earliest companions the\nintuition of what they ought to do and the strength to accomplish it;\nbut an administrator was needed at the head of this family which he\nsuddenly found to be so different from what it had been a few years\nbefore, and he sadly acknowledged that he himself was not in the\nslightest degree such a person.[13]\n\nAh, in his own conscience he well knew that the old ideal was the true,\nthe right one; but he drove away such thoughts as the temptations of\npride. The recent events had not taken place without in some degree\nweakening his moral personality; from being continually talked to about\nobedience, submission, humility, a certain obscurity had come over this\nluminous soul; inspiration no longer came to it with the certainty of\nother days; the prophet had begun to waver, almost to doubt of himself\nand of his mission. Anxiously he searched himself to see if in the\nbeginning of his work there had not been some vain self-complacency. He\npictured to himself beforehand the chapter which he was about to open,\nthe attack, the criticisms of which it would be the object, and labored\nto convince himself that if he did not endure them with joy he was not a\ntrue Brother Minor.[14] The noblest virtues are subject to scruples,\nthat of perfect humility more than any other, and thus it is that\nexcellent men religiously betray their own convictions to avoid\nasserting themselves. He resolved then to put the direction of the Order\ninto the hands of Pietro di Catana. It is evident that there was nothing\nspontaneous in this decision, and the fact that this brother was a\ndoctor of laws and belonged to the nobility squarely argues the\ntransformation of the Franciscan institute.\n\nIt is not known whether or not Ugolini was present at the chapter of\nSeptember 29, 1220, but if he was not there in person he was assuredly\nrepresented by some prelate, charged to watch over the debates.[15] The\nbull which had been issued a week before was communicated to the friars,\nto whom Francis also announced that he was about to elaborate a new\nRule. With reference to this matter there were conferences in which the\nministers alone appear to have had a deliberative voice. At these\nconferences the essential points of the new Rule were settled as to\nprinciple, leaving to Francis the care of giving them proper form at his\nleisure. Nothing better reveals the demoralized state into which he had\nfallen than the decision which was taken to drop out one of the\nessential passages of the old Rule, one of his three fundamental\nprecepts, that which began with these words, \"_Carry nothing with\nyou_.\"[16]\n\nHow did they go to work to obtain from Francis this concession which, a\nlittle while before, he would have looked upon as a denial of his call,\na refusal to accept in its integrity the message which Jesus had\naddressed to him? It is the secret of history, but we may suppose there\nwas in his life at this time one of those moral tempests which overbear\nthe faculties of the strongest, leaving in their wounded hearts only an\nunutterable pain.\n\nSomething of this pain has passed into the touching narrative of his\nabdication which the biographers have given us.\n\n    \"From henceforth,\" he said to the friars, \"I am dead for you,\n    but here is Brother Pietro di Catana, whom you and I will all\n    obey.\" And prostrating himself before him he promised him\n    obedience and submission. The friars could not restrain their\n    tears and lamentations when they saw themselves thus becoming in\n    some sort orphans, but Francis arose, and, clasping his hands,\n    with eyes upraised to heaven: \"Lord,\" he said, \"I return to thee\n    this family which thou hast confided to me. Now, as thou\n    knowest, most sweet Jesus, I have no longer strength nor ability\n    to keep on caring for them; I confide them, therefore, to the\n    ministers. May they be responsible before thee at the day of\n    judgment if any brother, by their negligence or bad example, or\n    by a too severe discipline, should ever wander away.\"[17]\n\nThe functions of Pietro di Catana were destined to continue but a very\nshort time; he died on March 10, 1221.[18]\n\nInformation abounds as to this period of a few months; nothing is more\nnatural, since Francis remained at Portiuncula to complete the task\nconfided to him, living there surrounded with brethren who later on\nwould recall to mind all the incidents of which they were witnesses.\nSome of them reveal the conflict of which his soul was the arena.\nDesirous of showing himself submissive, he nevertheless found himself\ntormented by the desire to shake off his chains and fly away as in\nformer days, to live and breathe in God alone. The following artless\nrecord deserves, it seems to me, to be better known.[19]\n\n   One day a novice who could read the psalter, though not without\n   difficulty, obtained from the minister general--that is to say,\n   from the vicar of St. Francis--permission to have one. But as he\n   had learned that St. Francis desired the brethren to be covetous\n   neither for learning nor for books, he would not take his psalter\n   without his consent. So, St. Francis having come to the monastery\n   where the novice was, \"Father,\" said he, \"it would be a great\n   consolation to have a psalter; but though the minister-general\n   has authorized me to get it, I would not have it unknown to you.\"\n   \"Look at the Emperor Charles,\" replied St. Francis with fire,\n   \"Roland, and Oliver and all the paladins, valorous heroes and\n   gallant knights, who gained their famous victories in fighting\n   infidels, in toiling and laboring even unto death! The holy\n   martyrs, they also have chosen to die in the midst of battle for\n   the faith of Christ! But now there are many of those who aspire\n   to merit honor and glory simply by relating their feats. Yes,\n   among us also there are many who expect to receive glory and\n   honor by reciting and preaching the works of the saints, as if\n   they had done them themselves!\"\n\n   ... A few days after, St. Francis was sitting before the fire,\n   and the novice drew near to speak to him anew about his psalter.\n\n   \"When you have your psalter,\" said Francis to him, \"you will want\n   a breviary, and when you have a breviary you will seat yourself\n   in a pulpit like a great prelate and will beckon to your\n   companion, 'Bring me my breviary!'\"\n\n   St. Francis said this with great vivacity, then taking up some\n   ashes he scattered them over the head of the novice, repeating,\n   \"There is the breviary, there is the breviary!\"\n\n   Several days after, St. Francis being at Portiuncula and walking\n   up and down on the roadside not far from his cell, the same\n   Brother came again to speak to him about his psalter. \"Very well,\n   go on,\" said Francis to him, \"you have only to do what your\n   minister tells you.\" At these words the novice went away, but\n   Francis began to reflect on what he had said, and suddenly\n   calling to the friar, he cried, \"Wait for me! wait for me!\" When\n   he had caught up to him, \"Retrace your steps a little way. I beg\n   you,\" he said. \"Where was I when I told you to do whatever your\n   minister told you as to the psalter?\" Then falling upon his knees\n   on the spot pointed out by the friar, he prostrated himself at\n   his feet: \"Pardon, my brother, pardon!\" he cried, \"for he who\n   would be Brother Minor ought to have nothing but his clothing.\"\n\nThis long story is not merely precious because it shows us, even to the\nsmallest particular, the conflict between the Francis of the early\nyears, looking only to God and his conscience, and the Francis of 1220,\nbecome a submissive monk in an Order approved by the Roman Church, but\nalso because it is one of those infrequent narratives where his method\nshows itself with its artless realism. These allusions to the tales of\nchivalry, and this freedom of manner which made a part of his success\nwith the masses, were eliminated from the legend with an incredible\nrapidity. His spiritual sons were perhaps not ashamed of their father in\nthis matter, but they were so bent upon bringing out his other qualities\nthat they forgot a little too much the poet, the troubadour, the\n_joculator Domini_.\n\nCertain fragments, later than Thomas of Celano by more than a century,\nwhich relate some incidents of this kind, bear for that very reason the\nstamp of authenticity.\n\nIt is difficult enough to ascertain precisely what part Francis still\ntook in the direction of the Order. Pietro di Catana and later Brother\nElias are sometimes called ministers-general, sometimes vicars; the two\nterms often occur successively, as in the preceding narrative. It is\nvery probable that this confusion of terms corresponds to a like\nconfusion of facts. Perhaps it was even intentional. After the chapter\nof September, 1220, the affairs of the Order pass into the hands of him\nwhom Francis had called minister-general, though the friars as well as\nthe papacy gave him only the title of vicar. It was essential for the\npopularity of the Brothers Minor that Francis should preserve an\nappearance of authority, but the reality of government had slipped from\nhis hands.\n\nThe ideal which he had borne in his body until 1209 and had then given\nbirth to in anguish, was now taking its flight, like those sons of our\nloins whom we see suddenly leaving us without our being able to help it,\nsince that is life, yet not without a rending of our vitals. _Mater\ndolorosa!_ Ah, no doubt they will come back again, and seat themselves\npiously beside us at the paternal hearth; perhaps even, in some hour of\nmoral distress, they will feel the need of taking refuge in their\nmother's arms as in the old days; but these fleeting returns, with their\nfeverish haste, only reopen the wounds of the poor parents, when they\nsee how the children hasten to depart again--they who bear their name\nbut belong to them no longer.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Giord., 14; _Tribul._, f^o 10.\n\n   [2] Any other date is impossible, since Francis in open chapter\n       relinquished the direction of the Order in favor of Pietro di\n       Catana, who died March 10, 1221.\n\n   [3] This too short fragment is found in Sec. vi. of the Rule of the\n       Damianites (August 9, 1253): Speculum, Morin, Tract. iii., 226b.\n\n   [4] 2 Cel., 2, 3; Bon., 162; cf. _Conform._, 184b, 2, and 62b, 1.\n\n   [5] Sigonius, _Opera_, t. iii. col. 220; cf. Potthast, 5516, and\n       6086.\n\n   [6] 2 Cel., 3, 4; _Spec._, 11a; _Tribul._, 13a; _Conform._,\n       169b, 2.\n\n   [7] Died in 1229. Cf. Mazzetti, _Repertorio di tutti i\n       professori di Bologna_, Bologna, 1847, p. 11.\n\n   [8] See _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 635, and the\n       notes.\n\n   [9] Wadding, _ann. 1220_, no. 9. Cf. A. SS., p. 823.\n\n  [10] 2 Cel., 1, 16; _Spec._, 100a-101b.\n\n  [11] Giord., 14; cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102; 3 Soc., 56 and 63.\n\n  [12] _Cum secundum._ The original is at Assisi with _Datum apud\n       Urbem Veterem X. Kal. Oct. pont. nostri anno quinto_ (September\n       22, 1220). It is therefore by an error that Sbaralea and Wadding\n       make it date from Viterbo, which is the less explicable that all\n       the bulls of this epoch are dated from Orvieto. Wadding, _ann.\n       1220_, 57; Sbaralea, vol. i., p. 6; Potthast, 6561.\n\n  [13] 2 Cel., 3, 118; Ubertin, _Arbor. V._, 2; _Spec._, 26; 50;\n       130b; _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2.\n\n  [14] 2 Cel., 3, 83; Bon. 77. One should read this account in the\n       _Conform._ according to the _Antigua Legenda_, 142a, 2; 31a, 1;\n       _Spec._ 43b.\n\n  [15] _Tribul._ Laur. MS., 12b; Magl. MS., 71b.\n\n  [16] Luke, ix., 1-6. _Tribul._, 12b: _Et fecerunt de regula\n       prima ministri removere_.... This must have taken place at the\n       chapter of September 29, 1220, since the suppression is made in\n       the Rule of 1221.\n\n  [17] 2 Cel., 3, 81; _Spec._, 26; _Conform._, 175b, 1; 53a; Bon.,\n       76; A. SS., p. 620.\n\n  [18] The epitaph on his tomb, which still exists at S. M. dei\n       Angeli bears this date: see _Portiuncula, von P. Barnabas aus\n       dem Elsass_, Rixheim, 1884, p. 11. Cf. A. SS., p. 630.\n\n  [19] _Spec._, 9b; _Arbor. V._, 3; _Conform._, 170a, 1; 2 Cel.,\n       3, 124. Cf. Ubertini, _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE RULE OF 1221[1]\n\n\nThe winter of 1220-1221 was spent by Francis chiefly in fixing his\nthought by writing. Until now he had been too much the man of action to\nhave been able to give much thought to anything but the _living word_,\nbut from this time his exhausted forces compelled him to satisfy his\nlonging for souls by some other means than evangelizing tours. We have\nseen that the chapter of September 29, 1220, on one side, and the bull\n_Cum secundum_ on the other, had fixed in advance a certain number of\npoints. For the rest, complete liberty had been given him, not indeed to\nmake a final and unchangeable statement of his ideas, but to set them\nforth. The substance of legislative power had passed into the hands of\nthe ministers.[2]\n\nThat which we call the Rule of 1221 is, then, nothing more than a\nproposed law, submitted to a representative government at its\nparliament. The head of authority will one day give it to the world, so\nthoroughly modified and altered that Francis's name at the head of such\na document will give but small promise, and quite indirectly, that it\nwill contain his personal opinion.\n\nNever was man less capable of making a Rule than Francis. In reality,\nthat of 1210 and the one which the pope solemnly approved in November\n29, 1223, had little in common except the name. In the former all is\nalive, free, spontaneous; it is a point of departure, an inspiration; it\nmay be summed up in two phrases: the appeal of Jesus to man, \"Come,\nfollow me,\" the act of man, \"He left all and followed him.\" To the call\nof divine love man replies by the joyful gift of himself, and that quite\nnaturally, by a sort of instinct. At this height of mysticism any\nregulation is not only useless, it is almost a profanation; at the very\nleast it is the symptom of a doubt. Even in earthly loves, when people\ntruly love each other nothing is asked, nothing promised.\n\nThe Rule of 1223, on the other hand, is a reciprocal contract. On the\ndivine side the call has become a command; on the human, the free\nimpulse of love has become an act of submission, by which life eternal\nwill be earned.\n\nAt the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under the reign\nof law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome task,\nbut paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our wages.\n\nUnder the rule of love we are the sons of God, and coworkers with him;\nwe give ourselves to him without bargaining and without expectation; we\nfollow Jesus, not because this is well, but because we can do no\notherwise, because we feel that he has loved us and we love him in our\nturn. An inward flame draws us irresistibly toward him: _Et Spiritus et\nSponsa dicunt: Veni_.\n\nIt is necessary to dwell a little on the antithesis between these two\nRules. That of 1210 alone is truly Franciscan; that of 1223 is\nindirectly the work of the Church, endeavoring to assimilate with\nherself the new movement, which with one touch she transforms and turns\nwholly from its original purpose.\n\nThat of 1221 marks an intermediate stage. It is the clash of two\nprinciples, or rather of two spirits; they approach, they touch, but\nthey are not merged in one another; here and there is a mixture, but\nnowhere combination; we can separate the divers elements without\ndifficulty. Their condition is the exact reflection of what was going on\nin Francis's soul, and of the rapid evolution of the Order.\n\nTo aid him in his work Francis joined to himself Brother Caesar of\nSpeyer, who would be especially useful to him by his profound\nacquaintance with the sacred texts.\n\nWhat strikes us first, on glancing over this Rule of 1221, is its\nextraordinary length; it covers not less than ten folio pages, while\nthat of 1223 has no more than three. Take away from it the passages\nwhich emanate from the papacy and those which were fixed at the previous\nchapter, you will hardly have shortened it by a column; what remains is\nnot a Rule, but a series of impassioned appeals, in which the father's\nheart speaks, not to command but to convince, to touch, to awaken in\nhis children the instinct of love.\n\nIt is all chaotic and even contradictory,[3] without order, a medley\nof outbursts of joy and bitter sobs, of hopes and regrets. There are\npassages in which the passion of the soul speaks in every possible tone,\nruns over the whole gamut from the softest note to the most masculine,\nfrom those which are as joyous and inspiring as the blast of a clarion,\nto those which are agitated, stifled, like a voice from beyond the tomb.\n\n    \"By the holy love which is in God, I pray all the friars,\n    ministers as well as others, to put aside every obstacle, every\n    care, every anxiety, that they may be able to consecrate\n    themselves entirely to serve, love, and honor the Lord God, with\n    a pure heart and a sincere purpose, which is what he asks above\n    all things. Let us have always in ourselves a tabernacle and a\n    home for him who is the Lord God most mighty, Father, Son, and\n    Holy Spirit, who says, 'Watch and pray always, that you may be\n    found worthy to escape all the things which will come to pass,\n    and to appear upright before the Son of man.'\n\n    \"Let us then keep in the true way, the life, the truth, and the\n    holy Gospel of Him who has deigned for our sake to leave his\n    Father that he may manifest his name to us, saying, 'Father, I\n    have manifested thy name to those whom thou hast given me, and\n    the words which thou hast given me I have given also unto them.\n    They have received them, and they have known that I am come from\n    thee, and they believe that thou hast sent me. I pray for them;\n    I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me,\n    that they may be one as we are one. I have said these things,\n    being still in the world, that they may have joy in themselves.\n    I have given them thy words, and the world hath hated them,\n    because they are not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst\n    take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from\n    the evil. Sanctify them through the truth; thy word is truth. As\n    thou hast sent me into the world I have also sent them into the\n    world, and for their sake I sanctify myself that they may\n    themselves be sanctified in the truth; and neither pray I for\n    these alone, but for all those who shall believe on me through\n    their words, that we all may be one, and that the world may know\n    that thou hast sent me, and that thou lovest them as thou hast\n    loved me. I have made known unto them thy name, that the love\n    wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.'\n\n\n    PRAYER.\n\n    \"Almighty, most high and sovereign God, holy Father, righteous\n    Lord, King of heaven and earth, we give thee thanks for thine\n    own sake, in that by thy holy will, and by thine only Son and\n    thy Holy Spirit thou hast created all things spiritual and\n    corporeal, and that after having made us in thine image and\n    after thy likeness, thou didst place us in that paradise which\n    we lost by our sin. And we give thee thanks because after having\n    created us by thy Son, by that love which is thine, and which\n    thou hast had for us, thou hast made him to be born very God and\n    very man of the glorious and blessed Mary, ever Virgin, and\n    because by his cross, his blood, and his death thou hast willed\n    to ransom us poor captives. And we give thee thanks that thy Son\n    is to return in his glorious majesty to send to eternal fire the\n    accursed ones, those who have not repented and have not known\n    thee; and to say to those who have known and adored thee and\n    served thee by repentance, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father,\n    inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation\n    of the world.' And since we, wretched and sinful, are not worthy\n    to name thee, we humbly ask our Lord Jesus Christ, thy\n    well-beloved Son, in whom thou art well pleased, that he may\n    give thee thanks for everything; and also the Holy Spirit, the\n    Paraclete, as it may please thee and them; for this we\n    supplicate him who has all power with thee, and by whom thou\n    hast done such great things for us. Alleluia.\n\n    \"And we pray the glorious Mother, the blessed Mary, ever Virgin,\n    St. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and all the choir of blessed\n    Spirits, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities\n    and Powers, Virtues and Angels, Archangels, John the Baptist,\n    John the Evangelist, Peter, Paul, and the holy Patriarchs, the\n    Prophets, the Holy Innocents, Apostles, Evangelists, Disciples,\n    Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, the blessed ones, Elijah and\n    Enoch, and all the saints who have been, shall be, and are, we\n    humbly pray them by thy love to give thee thanks for these\n    things, as it pleases thee, sovereign, true, eternal and living\n    God, and also to thy Son, our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, and\n    to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, forever and ever. Amen.\n    Alleluia.\n\n    \"And we supplicate all those who desire to serve the Lord God,\n    in the bosom of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, all priests,\n    deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes and exorcists, readers, porters,\n    all clerks, all monks and nuns, all children and little ones,\n    paupers and exiles, kings, and princes, workmen and laborers,\n    servants and masters, the virgins, the continent and the\n    married, laics, men and women, all children, youths, young men\n    and old men, the sick and the well, the small and the great, the\n    peoples of every tribe and tongue and nation, all men in every\n    part of the world whatsoever, who are or who shall be, we pray\n    and beseech them, all we Brothers Minor, unprofitable servants,\n    that all together, with one accord we persevere in the true\n    faith and in penitence, for outside of these no person can be\n    saved.\n\n    \"Let us all, with all our heart and all our thought, and all our\n    strength, and all our mind, with all our vigor, with all our\n    effort, with all our affection, with all our inward powers, our\n    desires, and our wills, love the Lord God, who has given to us\n    all his body, all his soul, all his life, and still gives them\n    every day to each one of us. He created us, he saved us by his\n    grace alone; he has been, he still is, full of goodness to us,\n    us wicked and worthless, corrupt and offensive, ungrateful,\n    ignorant, bad. We desire nothing else, we wish for nothing else;\n    may nothing else please us, or have any attraction for us,\n    except the Creator, the Redeemer, the Saviour, sole and true\n    God, who is full of goodness, who is all goodness, who is the\n    true and supreme good, who alone is kind, pious, and merciful,\n    gracious, sweet, and gentle, who alone is holy, righteous, true,\n    upright, who alone has benignity, innocence, and purity; of\n    whom, by whom, and in whom is all the pardon, all the grace, all\n    the glory of all penitents, of all the righteous and all the\n    saints who are rejoicing in heaven.\n\n    \"Then let nothing again hinder, let nothing again separate,\n    nothing again retard us, and may we all, so long as we live, in\n    every place, at every hour, at every time, every day and\n    unceasingly, truly and humbly believe. Let us have in our\n    hearts, let us love, adore, serve, praise, bless, glorify,\n    exalt, magnify, thank the most high, sovereign, eternal God,\n    Trinity and Unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Creator of all\n    men, both of those who believe and hope in him and of those who\n    love him. He is without beginning and without end, immutable and\n    invisible, ineffable, incomprehensible, indiscernible, blessed,\n    lauded, glorious, exalted, sublime, most high, sweet, lovely,\n    delectable, and always worthy of being desired above all things,\n    in all the ages of ages. Amen.\"\n\nHave not these artless repetitions a mysterious charm which steals\ndeliciously into the very depths of the heart? Is there not in them a\nsort of sacrament of which the words are only the rude vehicle? Francis\nis taking refuge in God, as the child throws itself upon its mother's\nbosom, and in the incoherence of its weakness and its joy stammers out\nall the words it knows, repeating by them all only the eternal \"I am\nthine\" of love and faith.\n\nThere is in them also something which recalls, not only by citations,\nbut still more by the very inspiration of the thought, that which we\ncall the sacerdotal prayer of Christ. The apostle of poverty appears\nhere as if suspended between earth and heaven by the very strength of\nhis love, consecrated the priest of a new worship by the inward and\nirresistible unction of the Spirit. He does not offer sacrifice like the\npriest of the past time; he sacrifices himself, and carries in his body\nall the woes of humanity.\n\nThe more beautiful are these words from the mystical point of view, the\nless do they correspond with what is expected in a Rule; they have\nneither the precision nor the brief and imperative forms of one. The\ntransformations which they were to undergo in order to become the code\nof 1223 were therefore fatal when we consider the definitive\nintervention of the Church of Rome to direct the Franciscan movement.\n\nIt is probable that this rough draft of a Rule, such as we have it now,\nis that which was distributed in the chapter of Whitsunday, 1221. The\nvariants, sometimes capital, which are found in the different texts, can\nbe nothing other than outlines of the corrections proposed by the\nprovincial ministers. Once admit the idea of considering this document\nas a rough draft, we are very soon brought to think that it had already\nundergone a rapid preliminary revision, a sort of pruning, in which\necclesiastical authority has caused to disappear all that was in\nflagrant contradiction with its own projects for the Order.\n\nIf it is asked, who could have made these curtailments, one name springs\nat once to our lips--Ugolini. He criticised its exaggerated proportions,\nits want of unity and precision. Later on it is related that Francis had\nseen in a dream a multitude of starving friars, and himself unable to\nsatisfy their wants, because though all around him lay innumerable\ncrumbs of bread, they disappeared between his fingers when he would give\nthem to those about him. Then a voice from heaven said to him: \"Francis,\nmake of these crumbs a wafer; with that thou shalt feed these starving\nones.\"\n\nThere is little hazard in assuming that this is the picturesque echo of\nthe conferences which took place at this time between Francis and the\ncardinal; the latter might have suggested to him by such a comparison\nthe essential defects of his project. All this, no doubt, took place\nduring Francis's stay in Rome, in the beginning of 1221.[4]\n\nBefore going there, we must cast a glance over the similarity in\ninspiration and even in style which allies the Rule of 1221 with another\nof St. Francis's works, that which is known under the title of The\nAdmonitions.[5] This is a series of _spiritual counsels_ with regard\nto the religious life; it is closely united both in matter and form with\nthe work which we have just examined. The tone of voice is so perfectly\nthe same that one is tempted to see in it parts of the original draft of\nthe Rule, separated from it as too prolix to find place in a Rule.\n\nHowever it may be with this hypothesis, we find in The Admonitions all\nthe anxieties with which the soul of Francis was assailed in this\nuncertain and troubled hour. Some of these counsels sound like bits from\na private journal. We see him seeking, with the simplicity of perfect\nhumility, for reasons for submitting himself, renouncing his ideas, and\nnot quite succeeding in finding them. He repeats to himself the\nexhortations that others had given him; we feel the effort to understand\nand admire the ideal monk whom Ugolini and the Church have proposed to\nhim for an example:\n\n    The Lord says in the Gospels: \"He who does not give up all that\n    he has cannot be my disciple. And he who would save his life\n    shall lose it.\" One gives up all he possesses and loses his life\n    when life gives himself entirely into the hands of his superior,\n    to obey him.... And when the inferior sees things which would be\n    better or more useful to his soul than those which the superior\n    commands him, let him offer to God the sacrifice of his will.\n\nReading this one might think that Francis was about to join the ranks of\nthose to whom submission to ecclesiastical authority is the very essence\nof religion. But no; even here his true feeling is not wholly effaced,\nhe mingles his words with parentheses and illustrations, timid, indeed,\nbut revealing his deepest thought; always ending by enthroning the\nindividual conscience as judge of last resort.[6]\n\nAll this shows clearly enough that we must picture to ourselves moments\nwhen his wounded soul sighs after passive obedience, the formula of\nwhich, _perinde ac cadaver_, goes apparently much farther back than the\nCompany of Jesus. These were moments of exhaustion, when inspiration was\nsilent.\n\n   One day he was sitting with his companions, when he began to\n   groan and say: \"There is hardly a monk upon earth who perfectly\n   obeys his superior.\" His companions, much astonished, said:\n   \"Explain to us, father, what is perfect and supreme obedience.\"\n   Then, comparing him who obeys to a corpse, he replied: \"Take a\n   dead body, and put it where you will, it will make no resistance;\n   when it is in one place it will not murmur, when you take it away\n   from there it will not object; put it in a pulpit, it will not\n   look up but down; wrap it in purple, it will only be doubly\n   pale.\"[7]\n\nThis longing for corpse-like obedience witnesses to the ravages with\nwhich his soul had been laid waste; it corresponds in the moral domain\nto the cry for annihilation of great physical anguish.\n\nThe worst was that he was absolutely alone. Everywhere else the\nFranciscan obedience is living, active, joyful.[8]\n\nHe drank this cup to the very dregs, holding sacred the revolts dictated\nby conscience. One day in the later years of his life a German friar\ncame to see him, and after having long discussed with him pure\nobedience:\n\n    \"I ask you one favor,\" he said to him, \"it is that if the\n    Brothers ever come to live no longer according to the Rule you\n    will permit me to separate myself from them, alone or with a few\n    others, to observe it in its completeness.\" At these words\n    Francis felt a great joy. \"Know,\" said he, \"that Christ as well\n    as I authorize what you have just been asking;\" and laying hands\n    upon him, \"Thou art a priest forever,\" he added, \"after the\n    order of Melchisedec.\"[9]\n\nWe have a yet more touching proof of his solicitude to safeguard the\nspiritual independence of his disciples: it is a note to Brother\nLeo.[10] The latter, much alarmed by the new spirit which was gaining\npower in the Order, opened his mind thereupon to his master, and\ndoubtless asked of him pretty much the same permission as the friar from\nGermany. After an interview in which he replied _viva voce_, Francis,\nnot to leave any sort of doubt or hesitation in the mind of him whom he\nsurnamed his little sheep of God, _pecorella di Dio_, wrote to him\nagain:\n\n    Brother Leo, thy brother Francis wishes thee peace and health.\n\n    I reply _yes_, my son, as a mother to her child. This word sums\n    up all we said while walking, as well as all my counsels. If\n    thou hast need to come to me for counsel, it is my wish that\n    thou shouldst do it. Whatever may be the manner in which thou\n    thinkest thou canst please the Lord God, follow it, and live in\n    poverty. Do this (faites le[11]), God will bless thee and I\n    authorize it. And if it were necessary for thy soul, or for thy\n    consolation that thou shouldst come to see me, or if thou\n    desirest it, my Leo, come.\n\n    Thine in Christ.\n\nSurely we are far enough here from the corpse of a few pages back.\n\nIt would be superfluous to pause over the other admonitions. For the\nmost part they are reflections inspired by circumstances. Counsels as to\nhumility recur with a frequency which explains both the personal\nanxieties of the author, and the necessity of reminding the brothers of\nthe very essence of their profession.\n\nThe sojourn of St. Francis at Rome, whither he went in the early months\nof 1221, to lay his plan before Ugolini, was marked by a new effort of\nthe latter to bring him and St. Dominic together.[12]\n\nThe cardinal was at this time at the apogee of his success. Everything\nhad gone well with him. His voice was all powerful not only in affairs\nof the Church, but also in those of the Empire. Frederic II., who seemed\nto be groping his way, and in whose mind were germinating dreams of\nreligious reformation, and the desire of placing his power at the\nservice of the truth, treated him as a friend, and spoke of him with\nunbounded admiration.[13]\n\nIn his reflections upon the remedies to be applied to the woes of\nChristianity, the cardinal came at last to think that one of the most\nefficacious would be the substitution of bishops taken from the two new\nOrders, for the feudal episcopate almost always recruited from local\nfamilies in which ecclesiastical dignities were, so to speak,\nhereditary. In the eyes of Ugolini such bishops were usually wanting in\ntwo essential qualities of a good prelate: religious zeal and zeal for\nthe Church.\n\nHe believed that the Preaching and the Minor Friars would not only\npossess those virtues which were lacking in the others, but that in the\nhands of the papacy they might become a highly centralized hierarchy,\ntruly catholic, wholly devoted to the interests of the Church at large.\nThe difficulties which might occur on the part of the chapters which\nshould elect the bishops, as well as on the side of the high secular\nclergy, would be put to flight by the enthusiasm which the people would\nfeel for pastors whose poverty would recall the days of the primitive\nChurch.\n\nAt the close of his interviews with Francis and Dominic, he\ncommunicated to them some of these thoughts, asking their advice as to\nthe elevation of their friars to prelatures. There was a pious contest\nbetween the two saints as to which should answer first. Finally, Dominic\nsaid simply that he should prefer to see his companions remain as they\nwere. In his turn, Francis showed that the very name of his institute\nmade the thing impossible. \"If my friars have been called _Minores_,\" he\nsaid, \"it is not that they may become _Majores_. If you desire that they\nbecome fruitful in the Church of God, leave them alone, and keep them in\nthe estate into which God has called them. I pray you, father, do not so\nact that their poverty shall become a motive for pride, nor elevate them\nto prelatures which would move them to insolence toward others.\"[14]\n\nThe ecclesiastical policy followed by the popes was destined to render\nthis counsel of the two founders wholly useless.[15]\n\nFrancis and Dominic parted, never again to meet. The _Master_ of the\nPreaching Friars shortly after set out for Bologna, where he died on\nAugust 6th following, and Francis returned to Portiuncula, where Pietro\ndi Catana had just died (March 10, 1221). He was replaced at the head of\nthe Order by Brother Elias. Ugolini was doubtless not without influence\nin this choice.\n\nDetained by his functions of legate, he could not be present at the\nWhitsunday chapter (May 30, 1221).[16] He was represented there by\nCardinal Reynerio,[17] who came accompanied by several bishops and by\nmonks of various orders.[18] About three thousand friars were there\nassembled, but so great was the eagerness of the people of the\nneighborhood to bring provisions, that after a session of seven days\nthey were obliged to remain two days longer to eat up all that had been\nbrought. The sessions were presided over by Brother Elias, Francis\nsitting at his feet and pulling at his robe when there was anything that\nhe wished to have put before the Brothers.\n\nBrother Giordani di Giano, who was present, has preserved for us all\nthese details and that of the setting out of a group of friars for\nGermany. They were placed under the direction of Caesar of Speyer, whose\nmission succeeded beyond all expectation. Eighteen months after, when he\nreturned to Italy, consumed with the desire to see St. Francis again,\nthe cities of Wurzburg, Mayence, Worms, Speyer, Strasburg, Cologne,\nSalzburg, and Ratisbon had become Franciscan centres, from whence the\nnew ideas were radiating into all Southern Germany.\n\nThe foundation of the Tertiaries, or Third Order, generally in the\noldest documents called Brotherhood of Penitence, is usually fixed as\noccurring in the year 1221; but we have already seen that this date is\nmuch too recent, or rather that it is impossible to fix any date, for\nwhat was later called, quite arbitrarily, the Third Order is evidently\ncontemporary with the First.[19]\n\nFrancis and his companions desired to be the apostles of their time; but\nthey, no more than the apostles of Jesus, desired to have all men enter\ntheir association, which was necessarily somewhat restricted, and which,\naccording to the gospel saying, was meant to be the leaven of the rest\nof humanity. In consequence, their life was literally the _apostolic\nlife_, but the ideal which they preached was the _evangelical life_,\nsuch as Jesus had preached it.\n\nSt. Francis no more condemned the family or property than Jesus did; he\nsimply saw in them ties from which the _apostle_, and the apostle alone,\nneeds to be free.\n\nIf before long sickly minds fancied that they interpreted his thought in\nmaking the union of the sexes an evil, and all that concerns the\nphysical activity of man a fall; if unbalanced spirits borrowed the\nauthority of his name to escape from all duty; if married persons\ncondemned themselves to the senseless martyrdom of virginity, he should\ncertainly not be made responsible. These traces of an unnatural\nasceticism come from the dualist ideas of the Catharists, and not from\nthe inspired poet who sang nature and her fecundity, who made nests for\ndoves, inviting them to multiply under the watch of God, and who imposed\nmanual labor on his friars as a sacred duty.\n\nThe bases of the corporation of the _Brothers and Sisters of Penitence_\nwere very simple. Francis gave no new doctrine to the world; what was\nnew in his message was wholly in his love, in his direct call to the\nevangelical life, to an ideal of moral vigor, of labor, and of love.\n\nNaturally, there were soon found men who did not understand this true\nand simple beauty; they fell into observances and devotions, imitated,\nwhile living in the world, the life of the cloister to which for one\nreason or another they were not able to retire; but it would be unjust\nto picture to ourselves the _Brothers of Penitence_ as modelled after\nthem.\n\nDid they receive a Rule from St. Francis? It is impossible to say. The\none which was given[20] them in 1289 by Pope Nicholas IV. is simply the\nrecasting and amalgamation of all the rules of lay fraternities which\nexisted at the end of the thirteenth century. To attribute this document\nto Francis is nothing less than the placing in a new building of certain\nvenerated stones from an ancient edifice. It is a matter of facade and\nornamentation, nothing more.\n\nNotwithstanding this absence of any Rule emanating from Francis himself,\nit is clear enough what, in his estimation, this association ought to\nbe. The Gospel, with its counsels and examples, was to be its true Rule.\nThe great innovation designed by the Third Order was concord; this\nfraternity was a union of peace, and it brought to astonished Europe a\nnew truce of God. Whether the absolute refusal to carry arms[21] was an\nidea wholly chimerical and ephemeral, the documents are there to prove,\nbut it is a fine thing to have had the power to bring it about for a few\nyears.\n\nThe second essential obligation of the Brothers of Penitence appears to\nhave been that of reducing their wants so far as possible, and while\npreserving their fortunes to distribute to the poor at proper intervals\nthe free portion of the revenue after contenting themselves with the\nstrictly necessary.[22]\n\nTo do with joy the duties of their calling; to give a holy inspiration\nto the slightest actions; to find in the infinitely littles of\nexistence, things apparently the most commonplace, parts of a divine\nwork; to keep pure from all debasing interest; to use things as not\npossessing them, like the servants in the parable who would soon have to\ngive account of the talents confided to them; to close their hearts to\nhatred, to open them wide to the poor, the sick, to all abandoned ones,\nsuch were the other essential duties of the Brothers and Sisters of\nPenitence.\n\nTo lead them into this royal road of liberty, love, and responsibility,\nFrancis sometimes appealed to the terrors of hell and the joys of\nparadise, but interested love was so little a part of his nature that\nthese considerations and others of the same kind occupy an entirely\nsecondary place in those of his writings which remain, as also in his\nbiographies.\n\nFor him the gospel life is natural to the soul. Whoever comes to know it\nwill prefer it; it has no more need to be proved than the outer air and\nthe light. It needs only to lead prisoners to it, for them to lose all\ndesire to return to the dungeons of avarice, hatred, or frivolity.\n\nFrancis and his true disciples make the painful ascent of the mountain\nheights, impelled solely, but irresistibly, by the inner voice. The only\nforeign aid which they accept is the memory of Jesus, going before them\nupon these heights and mysteriously living again before their eyes in\nthe sacrament of the eucharist.\n\nThe letter to all Christians in which these thoughts break forth is a\nliving souvenir of St. Francis's teachings to the Tertiaries.\n\nTo represent these latter to ourselves in a perfectly concrete form we\nmay resort to the legend of St. Lucchesio, whom tradition makes the\nfirst Brother of Penitence.[23]\n\nA native of a little city of Tuscany he quitted it to avoid its\npolitical enmities, and established himself at Poggibonsi, not far from\nSienna, where he continued to trade in grain. Already rich, it was not\ndifficult for him to buy up all the wheat, and, selling it in a time of\nscarcity, realize enormous profits. But soon overcome by Francis's\npreaching, he took himself to task, distributed all his superfluity to\nthe poor, and kept nothing but his house with a small garden and one\nass.\n\nFrom that time he was to be seen devoting himself to the cultivation of\nthis bit of ground, and making of his house a sort of hostelry whither\nthe poor and the sick came in swarms. He not only welcomed them, but he\nsought them out, even to the malaria-infected Maremma, often returning\nwith a sick man astride on his back and preceded by his ass bearing a\nsimilar burden. The resources of the garden were necessarily very\nlimited; when there was no other way, Lucchesio took a wallet and went\nfrom door to door asking alms, but most of the time this was needless,\nfor his poor guests, seeing him so diligent and so good, were better\nsatisfied with a few poor vegetables from the garden shared with him\nthan with the most copious repast. In the presence of their benefactor,\nso joyful in his destitution, they forgot their own poverty, and the\nhabitual murmurs of these wretches were transformed into outbursts of\nadmiration and gratitude.\n\nConversion had not killed in him all family ties; Bona Donna, his wife,\nbecame his best co-laborer, and when in 1260 he saw her gradually fading\naway his grief was too deep to be endured. \"You know, dear companion,\"\nhe said to her when she had received the last sacraments, \"how much we\nhave loved one another while we could serve God together; why should we\nnot remain united until we depart to the ineffable joy? Wait for me. I\nalso will receive the sacraments, and go to heaven with you.\"\n\nSo he spoke, and called back the priest to administer them to him. Then\nafter holding the hands of his dying companion, comforting her with\ngentle words, when he saw that her soul was gone he made over her the\nsign of the cross, stretched himself beside her, and calling with love\nupon Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis, he fell asleep for eternity.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Text in _Firmamentum_, 10; _Spec._, 189; _Spec._, Morin.\n       Tract., iii., 2b. M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_) has made a study of the\n       Rule of 1221 which is a masterpiece of _exegetical scent_.\n       Nevertheless if he had more carefully collated the different\n       texts he would have arrived at still more striking results,\n       thanks to the variants which he would have been able to\n       establish. I cite a single example.\n\n           Text _Firm_.--Wadding, adopted by Mr. M.\n\n           _Omnes fratres ubicunque sunt vel vadunt, caveant sibi a\n           malo visu et frequentia mulierum et nullus cum eis\n           consilietur solus. Sacerdos honeste loquatur cum eis\n           dando penitentiam vel aliud spirituale consilium._\n\n           Text of the _Speculum_, 189 ff.\n\n           _Omnes fratres ubicunque sunt et vadunt caveant se a malo\n           visu et frequentia mulierum et nullus cum eis concilietur\n           aut per viam vadat solus aut ad mensam in una paropside\n           comedat. (!!) Sacerdos honeste loquatur cum eis dando ...\n           etc._\n\n       This passage is sufficient to show the superiority of the text\n       of the Speculum, which is to be preferred also in other\n       respects, but this is not the place for entering into these\n       details. It is evident that the phrase in which we see the\n       earliest friars sometimes sharing the repast of the sisters and\n       eating from their porringer is not a later interpolation.\n\n   [2] _Tribul._, 12b; _Spec._, 54b; _Arbor._ V., 3; _Spec._, 8b.\n\n   [3] Cf. _cap._ 17 and 21.\n\n   [4] 2 Cel., 3, 136.\n\n   [5] See below, p. 354, text in the _Firmamentum_, 19 ff.;\n       _Speculum_, Morin, tract. iii., 214a ff.; cf. _Conform._,\n       137 ff.\n\n   [6] _Cum facit (subditus) voluntatem (praelati) dummodo benefacit\n       vera obedientia est. Admon._, iii.; _Conform._, 139_a_, 2.--_Si\n       vero praelatus subdito aliquid contra animam praecipiat licet ei\n       non obediat tamen ipsum non dimittat._, Ibid.--_Nullus tenetur\n       ad obedientiam in eo ubi committitus delictum vel peccatum.\n       Epist._, ii.\n\n   [7] 2 Cel., 3, 89; _Spec._, 29b; _Conform._, 176b, 1; Bon., 77.\n\n   [8] _Per caritatem spiritus voluntarii serviant et obediant\n       invicem. Et haec est vera et sancta obedientia. Reg._, 1221, v.\n\n   [9] _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 14b; _Spec._, 125a; _Conform._, 107b, 1;\n       184b, 1.\n\n  [10] Wadding gives it (_Epist._ xvi.), after the autograph\n       preserved in the treasury of the Conventuals of Spoleto. The\n       authenticity of this piece is evident.\n\n  [11] This plural, which perplexed Wadding, shows plainly that\n       Brother Leo had spoken in the name of a group.\n\n  [12] This date for the new communications between them seems\n       incontestable, though it has never been proposed; in fact, we\n       are only concerned to find a time when all three could have met\n       at Rome (2 Cel., 3, 86; _Spec._, 27a), between December 22, 1216\n       (the approbation of the Dominicans), and August 6, 1221 (death\n       of Dominic). Only two periods are possible: the early months of\n       1218 (Potthast, 5739 and 5747) and the winter of 1220-1221. At\n       any other time one of the three was absent from Rome.\n\n       On the other hand we know that Ugolini was in Rome in the winter\n       of 1220-1221 (Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._, ii., pp. 48,\n       123, 142. Cf. Potthast, 6589).--For Dominic see A. SS., Aug.,\n       vol. i., p. 503. The later date is imperative because Ugolini\n       could not offer prelatures to the Brothers Minor before their\n       explicit approbation (June 11, 1219), and this offer had no\n       meaning with regard to the Dominicans until after the definitive\n       establishment of their Order.\n\n  [13] See the imperial letters of February 10, 1221;\n       Huillard-Breholles, vol. ii., pp. 122-127.\n\n  [14] 2 Cel., 3, 86; Bon., 78; _Spec._, 27b.\n\n  [15] Vide K. Eubel: _Die Bischoefe, Cardinaele und Paepste aus dem\n       Minoritenorden bis_ 1305, 8vo, 1889.\n\n  [16] He was in Northern Italy. Vide _Registri: Doc._, 17-28.\n\n  [17] Reynerius, cardinal-deacon with the title of S. M. in\n       Cosmedin, Bishop of Viterbo (cf. Innocent III., _Opera_, Migne,\n       1, col. ccxiii), 1 Cel., 125. He had been named rector of the\n       Duchy of Spoleto, August 3, 1220. Potthast, 6319.\n\n  [18] Giord, 16. The presence of Dominic at an earlier chapter\n       had therefore been quite natural.\n\n  [19] This view harmonizes in every particular with the witness\n       of 1 Cel., 36 and 37, which shows the Third Order as having been\n       quite naturally born of the enthusiasm excited by the preaching\n       of Francis immediately after his return from Rome in 1210 (cf.\n       _Auctor vit. sec._; A. SS., p. 593b). Nothing in any other\n       document contradicts it; quite the contrary. Vide 3 Soc., 60.\n       Cf. _Anon. Perus._; A. SS., p. 600; Bon., 25, 46. Cf. A. SS.,\n       pp. 631-634. The first bull which concerns the Brothers of\n       Penitence (without naming them) is of December 16, 1221,\n       _Significatum est_. If it really refers to them, as Sbaralea\n       thinks, with all those who have interested themselves in the\n       question to M. Mueller inclusively--but which, it appears, might\n       be contested--it is because in 1221 they had made appeal to the\n       pope against the podestas of Faenza and the neighboring cities.\n       This evidently supposes an association not recently born.\n       Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, 1, p. 8; Horoy, vol. iv., col. 49;\n       Potthast, 6736.\n\n  [20] Bull _Supra montem_ of August 17, 1289, Potthast. 23044. M.\n       Mueller has made a luminous study of the origin of this bull; it\n       may be considered final in all essential points (_Anfaenge_, pp.\n       117-171). By this bull Nicholas IV.--minister-general of the\n       Brothers Minor before becoming pope--sought to draw into the\n       hands of his Order the direction of all associations of pious\n       laics (Third Order of St. Dominic, the Gaudentes, the Humiliati.\n       etc.). He desired by that to give a greater impulse to those\n       fraternities which depended directly on the court of Rome, and\n       augment their power by unifying them.\n\n  [21] Vide Bull _Significatum est_ of December 16, 1221. Cf.\n       _Supra montem_, chap. vii.\n\n  [22] The Rule of the Third Order of the Humiliati, which dates\n       from 1201, contains a similar clause. Tiraboschi, vol. ii., p.\n       132.\n\n  [23] In the A. SS., Aprilis, vol. ii. p. 600-616. Orlando di\n       Chiusi also received the habit from the hands of Francis. Vide\n       _Instrumentum_, etc., below, p. 400. The Franciscan fraternity,\n       under the influence of the other third orders, rapidly lost its\n       specific character. As to this title, Third Order, it surely had\n       originally a hierarchical sense, upon which little by little a\n       chronological sense has been superposed. All these questions\n       become singularly clearer when they are compared with what is\n       known of the Humiliati.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE BROTHERS MINOR AND LEARNING\n\nAutumn, 1221-December, 1223\n\n\nAfter the chapter of 1221 the evolution of the Order hurried on with a\nrapidity which nothing was strong enough to check.\n\nThe creation of the ministers was an enormous step in this direction; by\nthe very pressure of things the latter came to establish a residence;\nthose who command must have their subordinates within reach, must know\nat all times where they are; the Brothers, therefore, could no longer\ncontinue to do without convents properly so-called. This change\nnaturally brought about many others; up to this time they had had no\nchurches. Without churches the friars were only itinerant preachers, and\ntheir purpose could not but be perfectly disinterested; they were, as\nFrancis had wished, the friendly auxiliaries of the clergy. With\nchurches it was inevitable that they should first fatally aspire to\npreach in them and attract the crowd to them, then in some sort erect\nthem into counter parishes.[1]\n\nThe bull of March 22, 1222,[2] shows us the papacy hastening these\ntransformations with all its power. The pontiff accords to Brother\nFrancis and the other friars the privilege of celebrating the sacred\nmysteries in their churches in times of interdict, on the natural\ncondition of not ringing the bells, of closing the door, and previously\nexpelling those who were excommunicated.\n\nBy an astonishing inadvertence the bull itself bears witness to its\nuselessness, at least for the time in which it was given: \"We accord to\nyou,\" it runs, \"the permission to celebrate the sacraments in times of\ninterdict in your churches, _if you come to have any_.\" This is a new\nproof that in 1222 the Order as yet had none; but it is not difficult to\nsee in this very document a pressing invitation to change their way of\nworking, and not leave this privilege to be of no avail.\n\nAnother document of the same time shows a like purpose, though\nmanifested in another direction. By the bull _Ex parte_ of March 29,\n1222, Honorius III. laid upon the Preachers and Minors of Lisbon\nconjointly a singularly delicate mission; he gave them full powers to\nproceed against the bishop and clergy of that city, who exacted from the\nfaithful that they should leave to them by will one-third of their\nproperty, and refused the Church's burial service to those who\ndisobeyed.[3]\n\nThe fact that the pope committed to the Brothers the care of choosing\nwhat measures they should take proves how anxious they were at Rome to\nforget the object for which they had been created, and to transform them\ninto deputies of the Holy See. It is, therefore, needless to point out\nthat the mention of Francis's name at the head of the former of these\nbulls has no significance. We do not picture the Poverello seeking a\nprivilege for circumstances not yet existing! We perceive here the\ninfluence of Ugolini,[4] who had found the Brother Minor after his own\nheart in the person of Elias.\n\nWhat was Francis doing all this time? We have no knowledge, but the very\nabsence of information, so abundant for the period that precedes as well\nas for that which follows, shows plainly enough that he has quitted\nPortiuncula, and gone to live in one of those Umbrian hermitages that\nhad always had so strong an attachment for him.[5] There is hardly a\nhill in Central Italy that has not preserved some memento of him. It\nwould be hard to walk half a day between Florence and Rome without\ncoming upon some hut on a hillside bearing his name or that of one of\nhis disciples.\n\nThere was a time when these huts were inhabited, when in these leafy\nbooths Egidio, Masseo, Bernardo, Silvestro, Ginepro, and many others\nwhose names history has forgotten, received visits from their spiritual\nfather, coming to them for their consolation.[6]\n\nThey gave him love for love and consolation for consolation. His poor\nheart had great need of both, for in his long, sleepless nights it had\ncome to him at times to hear strange voices; weariness and regret were\nlaying hold on him, and looking over the past he was almost driven to\ndoubt of himself, his Lady Poverty, and everything.\n\nBetween Chiusi and Radicofani--an hour's walk from the village of\nSartiano--a few Brothers had made a shelter which served them by way of\nhermitage, with a little cabin for Francis in a retired spot. There he\npassed one of the most agonizing nights of his life. The thought that he\nhad exaggerated the virtue of asceticism and not counted enough upon the\nmercy of God assailed him, and suddenly he came to regret the use he had\nmade of his life. A picture of what he might have been, of the tranquil\nand happy home that might have been his, rose up before him in such\nliving colors that he felt himself giving way. In vain he disciplined\nhimself with his hempen girdle until the blood came; the vision would\nnot depart.\n\nIt was midwinter; a heavy fall of snow covered the ground; he rushed out\nwithout his garment, and gathering up great heaps of snow began to make\na row of images. \"See,\" he said, \"here is thy wife, and behind her are\ntwo sons and two daughters, with the servant and the maid carrying all\nthe baggage.\"\n\nWith this child-like representation of the tyranny of material cares\nwhich he had escaped, he finally put away the temptation.[7]\n\nThere is nothing to show whether or not we should fix at the same epoch\nanother incident which legend gives as taking place at Sartiano. One day\na brother of whom he asked, \"Whence do you come?\" replied, \"From your\ncell.\" This simple answer was enough to make the vehement lover of\nPoverty refuse to occupy it again. \"Foxes have holes,\" he loved to\nrepeat, \"and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man had not\nwhere to lay his head. When the Lord spent forty days and forty nights\npraying and fasting in the desert, he built himself neither cell nor\nhouse, but made the side of a rock his shelter.\"[8]\n\nIt would be a mistake to think, as some have done, that as time went on\nFrancis changed his point of view. Certain ecclesiastical writers have\nassumed that since he desired the multiplication of his Order, he for\nthat very reason consented to its transformation. The suggestion is\nspecious, but in this matter we are not left to conjecture; almost\neverything which was done in the Order after 1221 was done either\nwithout Francis's knowledge or against his will. If one were inclined to\ndoubt this, it would need only to glance over that most solemn and also\nmost adequate manifesto of his thought--his Will. There he is shown\nfreed from all the temptations which had at times made him hesitate in\nthe expression of his ideas, bravely gathering himself up to summon back\nthe primitive ideal, and set it up in opposition to all the concessions\nwhich had been wrung from his weakness.\n\nThe Will is not an appendix to the Rule of 1223, it is almost its\nrevocation. But it would be a mistake to see in it the first attempt\nmade to return to the early ideal. The last five years of his life were\nonly one incessant effort at protest, both by his example and his words.\n\nIn 1222 he addressed to the brethren of Bologna a letter filled with sad\nforebodings. In that city, where the Dominicans, overwhelmed with\nattentions, were occupied with making themselves a stronghold in the\nsystem of instruction, the Brothers Minor were more than anywhere else\ntempted to forsake the way of simplicity and poverty. Francis's warnings\nhad put on such dark and threatening colors that after the famous\nearthquake of December 23, 1222, which spread terror over all northern\nItaly, there was no hesitation in believing that he had predicted the\ncatastrophe.[9] He had indeed predicted a catastrophe which was none\nthe less horrible for being wholly moral, and the vision of which forced\nfrom him the most bitter imprecations:\n\n    \"Lord Jesus, thou didst choose thine apostles to the number of\n    twelve, and if one of them did betray thee, the others,\n    remaining united to thee, preached thy holy gospel, filled with\n    one and the same inspiration; and behold now, remembering the\n    former days, thou hast raised up the Religion of the Brothers in\n    order to uphold faith, and that by them the mystery of thy\n    gospel may be accomplished. Who will take their place if,\n    instead of fulfilling their mission and being shining examples\n    for all, they are seen to give themselves up to works of\n    darkness? Oh! may they be accursed by thee, Lord, and by all the\n    court of heaven, and by me, thine unworthy servant, they who by\n    their bad example overturn and destroy all that thou didst do in\n    the beginning and ceasest not to do by the holy Brothers of this\n    Order.\"[10]\n\nThis passage from Thomas of Celano, the most moderate of the\nbiographers, shows to what a pitch of vehemence and indignation the\ngentle Francis could be worked up.\n\nIn spite of very natural efforts to throw a veil of reserve over the\nanguish of the founder with regard to the future of his spiritual\nfamily, we find traces of it at every step. \"The time will come,\" he\nsaid one day, \"when our Order will so have lost all good renown that its\nmembers will be ashamed to show themselves by daylight.\"[11]\n\nHe saw in a dream a statue with the head of pure gold, the breast and\narms of silver, the body of crystal, and the legs of iron. He thought it\nwas an omen of the future in store for his institute.[12]\n\nHe believed his sons to be attacked with two maladies, unfaithful at\nonce to poverty and humility; but perhaps he dreaded for them the demon\nof learning more than the temptation of riches.\n\nWhat were his views on the subject of learning? It is probable that he\nnever examined the question as a whole, but he had no difficulty in\nseeing that there will always be students enough in the universities,\nand that if scientific effort is an homage offered to God, there is no\nrisk of worshippers of this class being wanting; but in vain he looked\nabout him on all sides, he saw no one to fulfil the mission of love and\nhumility reserved for his Order, if the friars came to be unfaithful to\nit.\n\nTherefore there was something more in his anguish than the grief of\nseeing his hopes confounded. The rout of an army is nothing in\ncomparison with the overthrow of an idea; and in him an idea had been\nincarnated, the idea of peace and happiness restored to mankind, by the\nvictory of love over the trammels of material things.\n\nBy an ineffable mystery he felt himself the Man of his age, him in whose\nbody are borne all the efforts, the desires, the aspirations of men;\nwith him, in him, by him humanity yearns to be renewed, and to use the\nlanguage of the gospel, born again.\n\nIn this lies his true beauty. By this, far more than by a vain\nconformity, an exterior imitation, he is a Christ.\n\nHe also bears the affliction of the world, and if we will look into the\nvery depths of his soul we must give this word affliction the largest\npossible meaning for him as for Jesus. By their pity they bore the\nphysical sufferings of humanity, but their overwhelming anguish was\nsomething far different from this, it was the birth-throes of the\ndivine. They suffer, because in them the Word is made flesh, and at\nGethsemane, as under the olive-trees of Greccio, they are in agony\n\"because their own received them not.\"\n\nYes, St. Francis forever felt the travail of the transformation taking\nplace in the womb of humanity, going forward to its divine destiny, and\nhe offered himself, a living oblation, that in him might take place the\nmysterious palingenesis.\n\nDo we now understand his pain? He was trembling for the mystery of the\ngospel. There is in him something which reminds us of the tremor of life\nwhen it stands face to face with death, something by so much the more\npainful as we have here to do with moral life.\n\nThis explains how the man who would run after ruffians that he might\nmake disciples of them could be pitiless toward his fellow-laborers who\nby an indiscreet, however well-intentioned, zeal forgot their vocation\nand would transform their Order into a scientific institute.\n\nUnder pretext of putting learning at the service of God and of religion,\nthe Church had fostered the worst of vices, pride. According to some it\nis her title to glory, but it will be her greatest shame.\n\nMust we renounce the use of this weapon against the enemies of the\nfaith? she asks. But can you imagine Jesus joining the school of the\nrabbins under the pretext of learning how to reply to them, enfeebling\nhis thought by their dialectic subtleties and fantastic exegesis? He\nmight perhaps have been a great doctor, but would he have become the\nSaviour of the world? You feel that he would not.\n\nWhen we hear preachers going into raptures over the marvellous spread of\nthe gospel preached by twelve poor fishermen of Galilee, might we not\npoint out to them that the miracle is at once more and less astounding\nthan they say? More--for among the twelve several returned to the shores\nof their charming lake, and forgetful of the mystic net, thought of the\nCrucified One, if they thought of him at all, only to lament him, and\nnot to raise him from the dead by continuing his work in the four\nquarters of the world; less--for if even now, in these dying days of the\nnineteenth century, preachers would go forth beside themselves with\nlove, sacrificing themselves for each and all as in the old days their\nMaster did, the miracle would be repeated again.\n\nBut no; theology has killed religion. The clergy repeat to satiety that\nwe must not confound the two; but what good does this do if in practice\nwe do not distinguish them?\n\nNever was learning more eagerly coveted than in the thirteenth century.\nThe Empire and the Church were anxiously asking of it the arguments with\nwhich they might defend their opposing claims. Innocent III. sends the\ncollection of his Decretals to the University of Bologna and heaps\nfavors upon it. Frederick II. founds that of Naples, and the Patarini\nthemselves send their sons from Tuscany and Lombardy to study at Paris.\n\nWe remember the success of Francis's preaching at Bologna,[13] in\nAugust, 1220; at the same period he had strongly reprimanded Pietro\nStaccia, the provincial minister and a doctor of laws, not only for\nhaving installed the Brothers in a house which appeared to belong to\nthem, but especially for having organized a sort of college there.\n\nIt appears that the minister paid no attention to these reproaches. When\nFrancis became aware of his obstinacy he cursed him with frightful\nvehemence; his indignation was so great that when, later on, Pietro\nStaccia was about to die and his numerous friends came to entreat\nFrancis to revoke his malediction, all their efforts were in vain.[14]\n\nIn the face of this attitude of the founder it is very difficult to\nbelieve in the authenticity of the note purporting to be addressed to\nAnthony of Padua:\n\n    \"To my very dear Anthony, brother Francis, greetings in Christ.\n\n    \"It pleases me that you interpret to the Brothers the sacred\n    writings and theology, in such a way, however (conformably to\n    our Rule), that the spirit of holy prayer be not extinguished\n    either in you or in the others, which I desire earnestly.\n    Greetings.\"\n\nMust we see in this a pious fraud to weaken the numberless clear\ndeclarations of Francis against learning?\n\nIt is difficult to picture to ourselves the rivalry which existed at\nthis time between the Dominicans and Franciscans in the attempt to draw\nthe most illustrious masters into their respective Orders. Petty\nintrigues were organized, in which the devotees had each his part, to\nlead such or such a famous doctor to assume the habit.[15] If the\nobject of St. Francis had been scientific, the friars of Bologna, Paris,\nand Oxford could not have done more.[16]\n\nThe current was so strong that the elder Orders were swept away in it\nwhether they would or no; twenty years later the Cistercians also\ndesired to become legists, theologians, decretalists, and the rest.\n\nPerhaps Francis did not in the outset perceive the gravity of the\ndanger, but illusion was no longer possible, and from this time he\nshowed, as we have seen, an implacable firmness. If later on his thought\nwas travestied, the guilty ones--the popes and most of the\nministers-general--were obliged to resort to feats of prestidigitation\nthat are not to their credit. \"Suppose,\" he would say, \"that you had\nsubtility and learning enough to know all things, that you were\nacquainted with all languages, the courses of the stars, and all the\nrest, what is there in that to be proud of? A single demon knows more on\nthese subjects than all the men in this world put together.[17] But\nthere is one thing that the demon is incapable of, and which is the\nglory of man: to be faithful to God.\"[18]\n\nDefinite information with regard to the chapters of 1222 and 1223 is\nwanting. The proposed modifications of the project of 1221 were\ndiscussed by the ministers[19] and afterward definitively settled by\nCardinal Ugolini. The latter had long conferences on the subject with\nFrancis, who has himself given us the account of them.[20]\n\nThe result of them all was the Rule of 1223. Very soon a swarm of\nmarvellous stories, which it would be tedious to examine in detail, came\nto be clustered around the origin of this document; all that we need to\nretain of them is the memory that they keep of the struggles of Francis\nagainst the ministers for the preservation of his ideal.\n\nBefore going to Rome to ask for the final approbation he had meditated\nlong in the solitude of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. This hill was soon\nrepresented as a new Sinai, and the disciples pictured their master on\nits heights receiving another Decalogue from the hands of Jesus\nhimself.[21]\n\nAngelo Clareno, one of the most complacent narrators of these\ntraditions, takes upon himself to point out their slight value; he shows\nus Honorious III. modifying an essential passage in the plan at the last\nmoment.[22] I have already so far described this Rule that there is no\nneed to return to the subject here.\n\nIt was approved November 25, 1223.[23] Many memories appear to have\nclustered about the journey of Francis to Rome. One day Cardinal\nUgolini, whose hospitality he had accepted, was much surprised, and his\nguests as well, to find him absent as they were about to sit down at\ntable, but they soon saw him coming, carrying a quantity of pieces of\ndry bread, which he joyfully distributed to all the noble company. His\nhost, somewhat abashed by the proceeding, having undertaken after the\nmeal to reproach him a little, Francis explained that he had no right to\nforget, for a sumptuous feast, the bread of charity on which he was fed\nevery day, and that he desired thus to show his brethren that the\nrichest table is not worth so much to the poor in spirit as this table\nof the Lord.[24]\n\nWe have seen that during the earlier years the Brothers Minor had been\nin the habit of earning their bread by going out as servants. Some of\nthem, a very small number, had continued to do so. Little by little, in\nthis matter also all had been changed. Under color of serving, the\nfriars entered the families of the highest personages of the pontifical\ncourt, and became their confidential attendants; instead of submitting\nthemselves to all, as the Rule of 1221 ordained, they were above\neveryone.\n\nEntirely losing sight of the apostolic life, they became courtiers of a\nspecial type; their character, half ecclesiastic and half lay, rendered\nthem capable of carrying out a number of delicate missions and of\nplaying a part in the varied intrigues for which the greater number of\nRoman prelates have always seemed to live.[25] By way of protest\nFrancis had only one weapon, his example.\n\n    One day, the Speculum relates, the Blessed Francis came to Rome\n    to see the Bishop of Ostia (Ugolini), and after having remained\n    some time at his house, he went also to visit Cardinal Leo, who\n    had a great devotion for him.\n\n    It was winter; the cold, the wind, the rain made any journey\n    impossible, so the cardinal begged him to pass a few days in his\n    house and to take his food there, like the other poor folk who\n    came there to eat. ... \"I will give you,\" he added, \"a good\n    lodging, quite retired, where if you like you may pray and eat.\"\n    Then Brother Angelo, one of the twelve first disciples, who\n    lived with the cardinal, said to Francis: \"There is, close by\n    here, a great tower standing by itself and very quiet; you will\n    be there as in a hermitage.\" Francis went to see it and it\n    pleased him. Then, returning to the cardinal, \"Monsignor,\" he\n    said, \"it is possible that I may pass a few days with you.\" The\n    latter was very joyful, and Brother Angelo went to prepare the\n    tower for the Blessed Francis and his companion.\n\n    But the very first night, when he would have slept, the demons\n    came and smote him. Calling then to his companion, \"Brother,\" he\n    said, \"the demons have come and smitten me with violence; remain\n    near me, I beg, for I am afraid here alone.\"\n\n    He was trembling in all his members, like one who has a fever.\n    They passed the night both without sleeping. \"The demons are\n    commissioned with the chastisements of God,\" said Francis; \"as a\n    podesta sends his executioner to punish the criminal, so God\n    sends demons, who in this are his ministers.... Why has he sent\n    them to me? Perhaps this is the reason: The cardinal desired to\n    be kind to me, and I have truly great need of repose, but the\n    Brothers who are out in the world, suffering hunger and a\n    thousand tribulations, and also those others who are in\n    hermitages or in miserable houses, when they hear of my sojourn\n    with a cardinal will be moved to repine. 'We endure all\n    privations,' they will say, 'while he has all that he can\n    desire; 'but I ought to give them a good example--that is my\n    true mission.\" ...\n\n    Early next morning, therefore he quitted the tower, and having\n    told the cardinal all, took leave of him and returned to the\n    hermitage of Monte Colombo, near Rieti. \"They think me a holy\n    man,\" he said, \"and see, it needed demons to cast me out of\n    prison.\"[26]\n\nThis story, notwithstanding its strange coloring, shows plainly how\nstrong was his instinct for independence. To compare the hospitality of\na cardinal to an imprisonment! He spoke better than he knew,\ncharacterizing in one word the relation of the Church to his Order.\n\nThe lark was not dead; in spite of cold and the north wind it gayly took\nits flight to the vale of Rieti.\n\nIt was mid-December. An ardent desire to observe to the life the\nmemories of Christmas had taken possession of Francis. He opened his\nheart to one of his friends, the knight Giovanni di Greccio, who\nundertook the necessary preparations.\n\nThe imitation of Jesus has in all times been the very centre of\nChristianity; but one must be singularly spiritual to be satisfied with\nthe imitation of the heart. With most men there is need that this should\nbe preceded and sustained by an external imitation. It is indeed the\nspirit that gives life, but it is only in the country of the angels that\none can say that the flesh profiteth nothing.\n\nIn the Middle Ages a religious festival was before all things else a\nrepresentation, more or less faithful, of the event which it recalled;\nhence the _santons_ of Provence, the processions of the _Palmesel_, the\nHoly Supper of Maundy Thursday, the Road to the Cross of Good Friday,\nthe drama of the Resurrection of Easter, and the flaming tow of\nWhitsunday. Francis was too thoroughly Italian not to love these\nfestivals where every visible thing speaks of God and of his love.\n\nThe population of Greccio and its environs was, therefore, convoked, as\nwell as the Brothers from the neighboring monasteries. On the evening of\nthe vigil of Christmas one might have seen the faithful hastening to the\nhermitage by every path with torches in their hands, making the forests\nring with their joyful hymns.\n\nEveryone was rejoicing--Francis most of all. The knight had prepared a\nstable with straw, and brought an ox and an ass, whose breath seemed to\ngive warmth to the poor _bambino_, benumbed with the cold. At the sight\nthe saint felt tears of pity bedew his face; he was no longer in\nGreccio, his heart was in Bethlehem.\n\nFinally they began to chant matins; then the mass was begun, and\nFrancis, as deacon, read the Gospel. Already hearts were touched by the\nsimple recital of the sacred legend in a voice so gentle and so fervent,\nbut when he preached, his emotion soon overcame the audience; his voice\nhad so unutterable a tenderness that they also forgot everything, and\nwere living over again the feeling of the shepherds of Judea who in\nthose old days went to adore the God made man, born in a stable.[27]\n\nToward the close of the thirteenth century, the author of the _Stabat\nMater dolorosa_, Giacopone dei Todi, that Franciscan of genius who spent\na part of his life in dungeons, inspired by the memory of Greccio,\ncomposed another Stabat, that of joy, _Stabat Mater speciosa_. This hymn\nof Mary beside the manger is not less noble than that of Mary at the\nfoot of the cross. The sentiment is even more tender, and it is hard to\nexplain its neglect except by an unjust caprice of fate.\n\n  Stabat Mater speciosa\n  Juxtum foenum gaudiosa\n  Dum jacebat parvulus.\n\n  Quae gaudebat et ridebat\n  Exsultabat cum videbat\n  Nati partum inclyti.\n\n  Fac me vere congaudere\n  Jesulino cohaerere\n  Donec ego vixero.[28]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] All this took place with prodigious rapidity. The dimensions\n       of the Basilica of Assisi, the plans of which were made in 1228,\n       no more permits it to be considered as a conventual chapel than\n       Santa-Croce in Florence, San Francesco in Sienna, or the\n       Basilica San Antonio at Padua, monuments commenced between 1230\n       and 1240. Already before 1245 one party of the episcopate utters\n       a cry of alarm, in which he speaks of nothing less than of\n       closing the door of the secular churches, which have become\n       useless. He complains with incredible bitterness that the Minor\n       and Preaching Friars have absolutely supplanted the parochial\n       clergy. This letter may be found in Pierre de la Vigne,\n       addressed at once to Frederick II. and the Council of Lyons:\n       _Epistolae_, Basle, 1740, 2 vols., vol. i., pp. 220-222. It is\n       much to be desired that a critical text should be given. See\n       also the satire against the two new Orders, done in rhyme about\n       1242 by Pierre de la Vigne, and of which, allowing for possible\n       exaggerations, the greater number of the incidents cannot have\n       been invented: E. du Meril, _Poesies pop. lat._, pp. 153-177,\n       Paris, 8vo, 1847.\n\n   [2] And not of the 29th, as Sbaralea will have it. _Bull. fr._,\n       vol. i., n. 10. Horoy, vol. iv., col. 129; the original, still\n       in the archives of Assisi, bears the title: _Datum Anagnie 11\n       Kalendas Aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto_.\n\n   [3] Potthast, 6809; Horoy, iv., col. 129. See also the bull\n       _Ecce Venit Deus_ of July 14, 1227; L. Auvray: _Registres de\n       Gregoire IX._, no. 129; cf. 153; Potthast, 8027 and 8028, 8189.\n\n   [4] He had finished his mission as legate in Lombardy toward the\n       close of September, 1221 (see his register; cf. Boehmer, _Acta\n       imp. sel. doc._, 951). In the spring of 1222 we find him\n       continually near the pope at Anagni, Veroli, Alatri (Potthast,\n       6807, 6812, 6849). The Holy See had still at that time a marked\n       predilection for the Preachers; the very trite privilege of\n       power to celebrate the offices in times of interdict had been\n       accorded them March 7, 1222, but instead of the formula usual in\n       such cases, a revised form had been made expressly for them,\n       with a handsome eulogy. Ripolli, _Bull. Praed._, t. i., p. 15.\n\n   [5] 2 Cel., 3, 93: _Subtrahebat se a consortio fratrum._\n\n   [6] It is needless to say that local traditions, in this case,\n       though as to detail they must be accepted only with great\n       reserve, yet on the whole are surely true. The geography of St.\n       Francis's life is yet to be made.\n\n   [7] 2 Cel., 3, 59; Bon., 60; _Conform._, 122b, 2.\n\n   [8] 2 Cel., 3, 5; _Spec._, 12a; _Conform._, 169b, 2.\n\n   [9] Eccl., 6. Vide Liebermann's text, _Mon. Germ. hist.\n       Script._, t. 28, p. 663.\n\n  [10] 2 Cel., 3, 93; Bon., 104 and 105; _Conform._, 101a, 2.\n\n  [11] 2 Cel., 3, 93; _Spec._, 49b; 182a; _Conform._, 182a, 1;\n       _Tribul._, f^o 5a; 2 Cel., 3, 98; 113; 115; 1 Cel., 28, 50; 96;\n       103; 104; 108; 111; 118.\n\n  [12] 2 Cel., 3, 27; _Spec._, 38b; _Conform._, 181b, 1;\n       _Tribul._, 7b. Cf. _Spec._, 220b; _Conform._, 103b.\n\n  [13] Francis's successors were nearly all without exception\n       students of Bologna. Pietro di Catana was doctor of laws, as\n       also Giovanni Parenti (Giord., 51).--Elias had been _scriptor_\n       at Bologna.--Alberto of Pisa had been minister there (Eccl.,\n       6).--Aymon had been reader there (Eccl., 6).--Crescentius wrote\n       works on jurisprudence (_Conform._, 121b, 1, etc., etc.).\n\n  [14] This name cannot be warranted; he is called Giovanni di\n       Laschaccia in a passage of the _Conformities_ (104a, 1); Pietro\n       Schiaccia in the Italian MS. of the _Tribulations_ (f^o 75a);\n       Petrus Stacia in the Laurentinian MS. (13b; cf. _Archiv._, ii.,\n       p. 258). _Tribul._, 13b; _Spec._, 184b. This story has been much\n       amplified in other places. _Spec._, 126a; _Conform._, 104b, 1.\n\n  [15] Vide Eccl., 3: History of the entrance of Adam of Oxford\n       into the Order. Cf., _Chartularium Univ. Par._, t. i., nos. 47\n       and 49.\n\n  [16] Eccleston's entire chronicle is a living witness to this.\n\n  [17] _Admonitio_, v.; cf. _Conform._, 141a.\n\n       Compare the _Constitutiones antiquae_ (_Speculum_, Morin, iii.,\n       f^o 195b-206) with the Rule. From the opening chapters the\n       contradiction is apparent: _Ordinamus quod nullus recipiatur in\n       ordine nostro nisi sit talis clericus qui sit competenter\n       instructus in grammatica vel logica; aut nisi sit talis laicus\n       de cujus ingressu esset valde celebris et edificatio in populo\n       et in clero_. This is surely far from the spirit of him who\n       said: _Et quicumque venerit amicus vel adversarius fur vel latro\n       benigne recipiatur_. Rule of 1221, cap. vii. See also the\n       Exposition of the Rule of Bonaventura. _Speculum_, Morin, iii.,\n       f^o 21-40.\n\n  [18] Upon Francis's attitude toward learning see _Tribul._,\n       Laur., 14b; _Spec._, 184a; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 48; 100; 116; 119;\n       120-124. Bon., chap. 152, naturally expresses only Bonaventura's\n       views. See especially Rule of 1221, cap. xvii.; of 1223, cap. x.\n\n  [19] _Spec._, 7b: _Fecit Franciscus regulam quam papa Honorius\n       confirmavit cum bulla, de qua regula multa fuerunt extracta per\n       ministros contra voluntatem b. Francisci_. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 136.\n\n  [20] Bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28, 1230; Sbaralea, i., p.\n       56.\n\n  [21] Bon., 55 and 56 [3 Soc., 62]; _Spec._, 76; 124a; _Tribul._,\n       Laur., 17b-19b; Ubertini, _Arbor. V._, 5; _Conform._, 88a, 2.\n\n  [22] _Tribul._, Laur., 19a; _Archiv._, t. iii., p. 601. Cf. A.\n       SS., p. 638e.\n\n  [23] Potthast, 7108.--The work of this bull was completed by\n       that of December 18, 1223. (The original of the _Sacro Convento_\n       bears _Datum Laterani XV. Kal. jan._) _Fratrem Minorum_:\n       Potthast, 7123.\n\n  [24] 2 Cel., 3, 19; Bon., 95; _Spec._, 18b; _Conform._, 171a, 1.\n\n  [25] 2 Cel., 3, 61 and 62. Cf. Eccl., 6, the account of Rod. de\n       Rosa.\n\n  [26] _Spec._, 47b ff.; 2 Cel., 3, 61; Bon., 84 and 85.\n\n  [27] 1 Cel., 84-87; Bon., 149.\n\n  [28] This little poem was published entire by M. Ozanam in vol.\n       v. of his works, p. 184.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE STIGMATA\n\n1224\n\n\nThe upper valley of the Arno forms in the very centre of Italy a country\napart, the Casentino, which through centuries had its own life, somewhat\nlike an island in the midst of the ocean.\n\nThe river flows out from it by a narrow defile at the south, and on all\nother sides the Apennines encircle it with a girdle of inaccessible\nmountains.[1]\n\nThis plain, some ten leagues in diameter, is enlivened with picturesque\nvillages, finely posted on hillocks at the base of which flows the\nstream; here are Bibbiena, Poppi, the antique Romena sung by Dante, the\nCamaldoli, and up there on the crest Chiusi, long ago the capital of the\ncountry, with the ruins of Count Orlando's castle.\n\nThe people are charming and refined; the mountains have sheltered them\nfrom wars, and on every side we see the signs of labor, prosperity, a\ngentle gayety. At any moment we might fancy ourselves transported into\nsome valley of the Vivarais or Provence. The vegetation on the borders\nof the Arno is thoroughly tropical; the olive and the mulberry marry\nwith the vine. On the lower hill-slopes are wheat fields divided by\nmeadows; then come the chestnuts and the oaks, higher still the pine,\nthe fir, the larch, and above all the bare rock.\n\nAmong all the peaks there is one which especially attracts the\nattention; instead of a rounded and so to say flattened top, it uplifts\nitself slender, proud, isolated; it is the Verna.[2]\n\nOne might think it an immense rock fallen from the sky. It is in fact an\nerratic block set there, a little like a petrified Noah's ark on the\nsummit of Mount Ararat. The basaltic mass, perpendicular on all sides,\nis crowned with a plateau planted with pines and gigantic beeches, and\naccessible only by a footpath.[3]\n\nSuch was the solitude which Orlando had given to Francis, and to which\nFrancis had already many a time come for quiet and contemplation.\n\nSeated upon the few stones of the Penna,[4] he heard only the\nwhispering of the wind among the trees, but in the splendor of the\nsunrise or the sunset he could see nearly all the districts in which he\nhad sown the seed of the gospel: the Romagna and the March of Ancona,\nlosing themselves on the horizon in the waves of the Adriatic; Umbria,\nand farther away, Tuscany, vanishing in the waters of the Mediterranean.\n\nThe impression on this height is not crushing like that which one has in\nthe Alps: a feeling infinitely calm and sweet flows over you; you are\nhigh enough to judge of men from above, not high enough to forget their\nexistence.\n\nBesides the wide horizons, Francis found there other objects of delight;\nin this forest, one of the noblest in Europe, live legions of birds,\nwhich never having been hunted are surprisingly tame.[5] Subtile\nperfumes arise from the ground, and in the midst of borage and lichens\nfrail and exquisite cyclamens blossom in fantastic variety.\n\nHe desired to return thither after the chapter of 1224. This meeting,\nheld in the beginning of June, was the last at which he was present. The\nnew Rule was there put into the hands of the ministers, and the mission\nto England decided upon.\n\nIt was in the early days of August that Francis took his way toward\nVerna. With him were only a few Brothers, Masseo, Angelo, and Leo. The\nfirst had been charged to direct the little band, and spare him all\nduties except that of prayer.[6]\n\nThey had been two days on the road when it became necessary to seek for\nan ass for Francis, who was too much enfeebled to go farther on foot.\n\nThe Brothers, in asking for this service, had not concealed the name of\ntheir master, and the peasant, to whom they had addressed themselves\nrespectfully, asked leave to guide the beast himself. After going on a\ncertain time, \"Is it true,\" he said, \"that you are Brother Francis of\nAssisi?\" \"Very well,\" he went on, after the answer in the affirmative,\n\"apply yourself to be as good as folk say you are, that they may not be\ndeceived in their expectation; that is my advice.\" Francis immediately\ngot down from his beast and, prostrating himself before the peasant,\nthanked him warmly.[7]\n\nMeanwhile the warmest hour of the day had come on. The peasant,\nexhausted with fatigue, little by little forgot his surprise and joy;\none does not feel the burning of thirst the less for walking beside a\nsaint. He had begun to regret his kindness, when Francis pointed with\nhis finger to a spring, unknown till then, and which has never since\nbeen seen.[8]\n\nAt last they arrived at the foot of the last precipice. Before scaling\nit they paused to rest a little under a great oak, and immediately\nflocks of birds gathered around them, testifying their joy by songs and\nflutterings of their wings. Hovering around Francis, they alighted on\nhis head, his shoulders, or his arms. \"I see,\" he said joyfully to his\ncompanions, \"that it is pleasing to our Lord Jesus that we live in this\nsolitary mount, since our brothers and sisters the birds have shown such\ngreat delight at our coming.\"[9]\n\nThis mountain was at once his Tabor and his Calvary. We must not wonder,\nthen, that legends have flourished here even more numerously than at any\nother period of his life; the greater number of them have the exquisite\ncharm of the little flowers, rosy and perfumed, which hide themselves\nmodestly at the feet of the fir-trees of Verna.\n\nThe summer nights up there are of unparalleled beauty: nature, stifled\nby the heat of the sun, seems then to breathe anew. In the trees, behind\nthe rocks, on the turf, a thousand voices rise up, sweetly harmonizing\nwith the murmur of the great woods; but among all these voices there is\nnot one which forces itself upon the attention, it is a melody which you\nenjoy without listening. You let your eyes wander over the landscape,\nstill for long hours illumined with hieratic tints by the departed star\nof day, and the peaks of the Apennines, flooded with rainbow hues, drop\ndown into your soul what the Franciscan poet called the nostalgia of the\neverlasting hills.[10]\n\nMore than anyone Francis felt it. The very evening of their arrival,\nseated upon a mound in the midst of his Brothers, he gave them his\ndirections for their dwelling-place.\n\nThe quiet of nature would have sufficed to sow in their hearts some\ngerms of sadness, and the voice of the master harmonized with the\nemotion of the last gleams of light; he spoke with them of his\napproaching death, with the regret of the laborer overtaken by the\nshades of evening before the completion of his task, with the sighs of\nthe father who trembles for the future of his children.[11]\n\nFor himself he desired from this time to prepare himself for death by\nprayer and contemplation; and he begged them to protect him from all\nintrusion. Orlando,[12] who had already come to bid them welcome and\noffer his services, had at his request hastily caused a hut of boughs to\nbe made, at the foot of a great beech. It was there that he desired to\ndwell, at a stone's throw from the cells inhabited by his companions.\nBrother Leo was charged to bring him each day that which he would need.\n\nHe retired to it immediately after this memorable conversation, but\nseveral days later, embarrassed no doubt by the pious curiosity of the\nfriars, who watched all his movements, he went farther into the woods,\nand on Assumption Day he there began the Lent which he desired to\nobserve in honor of the Archangel Michael and the celestial host.\n\nGenius has its modesty as well as love. The poet, the artist, the saint,\nneed to be alone when the Spirit comes to move them. Every effort of\nthought, of imagination, or of will is a prayer, and one does not pray\nin public.\n\nAlas for the man who has not in his inmost heart some secret which may\nnot be told, because it cannot be spoken, and because if it were spoken\nit could not be understood. SECRETUM MEUM MIHI! Jesus felt it deeply:\nthe raptures of Tabor are brief; they may not be told.\n\nBefore these soul mysteries materialists and devotees often meet and are\nof one mind in demanding precision in those things which can the least\nendure it.\n\nThe believer asks in what spot on the Verna Francis received the\nstigmata; whether the seraph which appeared to him was Jesus or a\ncelestial spirit; what words were spoken as he imprinted them upon\nhim;[13] and he no more understands that hour when Francis swooned with\nwoe and love than the materialist, who asks to see with his eyes and\ntouch with his hands the gaping wound.\n\nLet us try to avoid these extremes. Let us hear what the documents give\nus, and not seek to do them violence, to wrest from them what they do\nnot tell, what they cannot tell.\n\nThey show us Francis distressed for the future of the Order, and with an\ninfinite desire for new spiritual progress.\n\nHe was consumed with the fever of saints, that need of immolation which\nwrung from St. Theresa the passionate cry, \"Either to suffer or to die!\"\nHe was bitterly reproaching himself with not having been found worthy of\nmartyrdom, not having been able to give himself for Him who gave himself\nfor us.\n\nWe touch here upon one of the most powerful and mysterious elements of\nthe Christian life. We may very easily not understand it, but we may not\nfor all that deny it. It is the root of true mysticism.[14] The really\nnew thing that Jesus brought into the world was that, feeling himself in\nperfect union with the heavenly Father, he called all men to unite\nthemselves to him and through him to God: \"I am the vine, and ye are the\nbranches; he who abides in me and I in him brings forth much fruit, for\napart from me ye can do nothing.\"\n\nThe Christ not only preached this union, he made it felt. On the evening\nof his last day he instituted its sacrament, and there is probably no\nsect which denies that communion is at once the symbol, the principle,\nand the end of the religious life. For eighteen centuries Christians who\ndiffer on everything else cannot but look with one accord to him who in\nthe upper chamber instituted the rite of the new times.\n\nThe night before he died he took the bread and brake it and distributed\nit to them, saying, \"TAKE AND EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY.\"\n\nJesus, while presenting union with himself as the very foundation of the\nnew life,[15] took care to point out to his brethren that this union\nwas before all things a sharing in his work, in his struggles, and his\nsufferings: \"Let him that would be my disciple take up his cross and\nfollow me.\"\n\nSt. Paul entered so perfectly into the Master's thought in this respect\nthat he uttered a few years later this cry of a mysticism that has never\nbeen equalled: \"I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live ... or\nrather, it is not I who live, but Christ who liveth in me.\" This\nutterance is not an isolated exclamation with him, it is the very centre\nof his religious consciousness, and he goes so far as to say, at the\nrisk of scandalizing many a Christian: \"I fill up in my body that which\nis lacking of the sufferings of Christ, for his body's sake, which is\nthe Church.\"\n\nPerhaps it has not been useless to enter into these thoughts, to show to\nwhat point Francis during the last years of his life, where he renews in\nhis body the passion of Christ, is allied to the apostolic tradition.\n\nIn the solitudes of the Verna, as formerly at St. Damian, Jesus\npresented himself to him under his form of the Crucified One, the man of\nsorrows.[16]\n\nThat this intercourse has been described to us in a poetic and inexact\nform is nothing surprising. It is the contrary that would be surprising.\nIn the paroxysms of divine love there are _ineffabilia_ which, far from\nbeing able to relate them or make them understood, we can hardly recall\nto our own minds.\n\nFrancis on the Verna was even more absorbed than usual in his ardent\ndesire to suffer for Jesus and with him. His days went by divided\nbetween exercises of piety in the humble sanctuary on the mountain-top\nand meditation in the depths of the forest. It even happened to him to\nforget the services, and to remain several days alone in some cave of\nthe rock, going over in his heart the memories of Golgotha. At other\ntimes he would remain for long hours at the foot of the altar, reading\nand re-reading the Gospel, and entreating God to show him the way in\nwhich he ought to walk.[17]\n\nThe book almost always opened of itself to the story of the Passion, and\nthis simple coincidence, though easy enough to explain, was enough of\nitself to excite him.\n\nThe vision of the Crucified One took the fuller possession of his\nfaculties as the day of the Elevation of the Holy Cross drew near\n(September 14th), a festival now relegated to the background, but in the\nthirteenth century celebrated with a fervor and zeal very natural for a\nsolemnity which might be considered the patronal festival of the\nCrusades.\n\nFrancis doubled his fastings and prayers, \"quite transformed into Jesus\nby love and compassion,\" says one of the legends. He passed the night\nbefore the festival alone in prayer, not far from the hermitage. In the\nmorning he had a vision. In the rays of the rising sun, which after the\nchill of night came to revive his body, he suddenly perceived a strange\nform.\n\nA seraph, with outspread wings, flew toward him from the edge of the\nhorizon, and bathed his soul in raptures unutterable. In the centre of\nthe vision appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed upon it. When\nthe vision disappeared, he felt sharp sufferings mingling with the\necstasy of the first moments. Stirred to the very depths of his being,\nhe was anxiously seeking the meaning of it all, when he perceived upon\nhis body the stigmata of the Crucified.[18]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The passes that give access to the Casentino have all about\n       one thousand metres of altitude. Until the most recent years\n       there was no road properly so called.\n\n   [2] In France Mount Aiguille, one of the seven wonders of\n       Dauphiny, presents the same aspect and the same geological\n       formation. St. Odile also recalls the Verna, but is very much\n       smaller.\n\n   [3] The summit has an altitude of 1269 metres. In Italian they\n       call it the _Verna_, in Latin _Alvernus_. The etymology, which\n       has tested the acuteness of the learned, appears to be very\n       simple; the verb _vernare_, used by Dante, signifies make cold,\n       freeze.\n\n   [4] Name of the highest point on the plateau. Hardly\n       three-quarters of an hour from the monastery, and not two hours\n       and a half, as these worthy anchorites believed. This is said\n       for the benefit of tourists ... and pilgrims.\n\n   [5] The forest has been preserved as a relic. Alexander IV.\n       fulminated excommunication against whomever should cut down the\n       firs of Verna. As to the birds, it is enough to pass a day at\n       the monastery to be amazed at their number and variety. M. C.\n       Beni has begun at Stia (in Casentino) an ornithological\n       collection which already includes more than five hundred and\n       fifty varieties.\n\n   [6] 1 Cel., 91; Bon., 188; _Fior. i., consid._\n\n   [7] _Fior. i., consid.;_ _Conform._, 176b, 1.\n\n   [8] Cel., 2, 15; Bon., 100. _Fior. i., consid._\n\n   [9] Bon., 118. _Fior. i., consid._\n\n  [10] 2 Cel., 100.\n\n  [11] _Fior. ii., consid._\n\n  [12] The ruins of the castle of Chiusi are three quarters of an\n       hour from Verna.\n\n  [13] _Fior. iv. and v. consid._ These two considerations appear\n       to be the result of a reworking of the primitive document. The\n       latter no doubt included the three former, which the continuer\n       has interpolated and lengthened. Cf. _Conform._, 231a, 1;\n       _Spec._, 91b, 92a, 97; A. SS., pp. 860 ff.\n\n  [14] In current language we often include under the word\n       mysticism all the tendencies--often far from Christian--which\n       give predominance in the religious life to vague poetic\n       elements, impulses of the heart. The name of mystic ought to be\n       applied only to those Christians to whom _immediate_ relations\n       with Jesus form the basis of the religious life. In this sense\n       St. Paul (whose theologico-philosophical system is one of the\n       most powerful efforts of the human mind to explain sin and\n       redemption) is at the same time the prince of mystics.\n\n  [15] He did not desire to institute a religion, for he felt the\n       vanity of observances and dogmas. (The apostles continued to\n       frequent the Jewish temple. Acts, ii., 46; iii., 1; v., 25;\n       xxi., 26.) He desired to inoculate the world with a new life.\n\n  [16] 2 Cel., 3, 29; cf. 1 Cel., 115; 3 Soc., 13 and 14; 2 Cel.,\n       1, 6; 2 Cel., 3, 123 and 131; Bon., 57; 124; 203; 204; 224; 225;\n       309; 310; 311; _Conform._, 229b ff.\n\n  [17] 1 Cel., 91-94; Bon., 189, 190.\n\n  [18] See the annotations of Brother Leo upon the autograph of\n       St. Francis (Crit. Study, p. 357) and 1 Cel., 94, 95; Bon., 191,\n       192, 193 (3 Soc., 69, 70); _Fior. iii. consid._ Cf. _Auct. vit.\n       sec._; A. SS. p. 649. It is to be noted that Thomas of Celano (1\n       Cel., 95), as well as all the primitive documents, describe the\n       stigmata as being fleshy excrescences, recalling in form and\n       color the nails with which the limbs of Jesus were pierced. No\n       one speaks of those gaping, sanguineous wounds which were\n       imagined later. Only the mark at the side was a wound, whence at\n       times exuded a little blood. Finally, Thomas of Celano says that\n       after the seraphic vision _began to appear, coeperunt apparere\n       signa clavorum_. Vide Appendix: Study of the Stigmata.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE CANTICLE OF THE SUN\n\nAutumn, 1224-Autumn, 1225\n\n\nThe morning after St. Michael's Day (September 30, 1224) Francis quitted\nVerna and went to Portiuncula. He was too much exhausted to think of\nmaking the journey on foot, and Count Orlando put a horse at his\ndisposal.\n\nWe can imagine the emotion with which he bade adieu to the mountain on\nwhich had been unfolded the drama of love and pain which had consummated\nthe union of his entire being with the Crucified One.\n\n  Amor, amor, Gesu desideroso,\n  Amor voglio morire,\n  Te abrazando\n  Amor, dolce Gesu, meo sposo,\n  Amor, amor, la morte te domando,\n  Amor, amor, Gesu si pietoso\n  Tu me te dai in te transformato\n  Pensa ch'io vo spasmando\n  Non so o io me sia\n  Gesu speranza mia\n  Ormai va, dormi in amore.\n\nSo sang Giacopone dei Todi in the raptures of a like love.[1]\n\nIf we are to believe a recently published document,[2] Brother Masseo,\none of those who remained on the Verna, made a written account of the\nevents of this day.\n\nThey set out early in the morning. Francis, after having given his\ndirections to the Brothers, had had a look and a word for everything\naround; for the rocks, the flowers, the trees, for brother hawk, a\nprivileged character which was authorized to enter his cell at all\ntimes, and which came every morning, with the first glimmer of dawn, to\nremind him of the hour of service.[3]\n\nThen the little band set forth upon the path leading to\nMonte-Acuto.[4] Arrived at the gap from whence one gets the last sight\nof the Verna, Francis alighted from his horse, and kneeling upon the\nearth, his face turned toward the mountain, \"Adieu,\" he said, \"mountain\nof God, sacred mountain, _mons coagulatus, mons pinguis, mons in quo\nbene placitum est Deo habitare_; adieu Monte-Verna, may God bless thee,\nthe Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; abide in peace; we shall never\nsee one another more.\"\n\nHas not this artless scene a delicious and poignant sweetness? He must\nsurely have uttered these words, in which suddenly the Italian does not\nsuffice and Francis is obliged to resort to the mystical language of\nthe breviary to express his feelings.\n\nA few minutes later the rock of the ecstacy had disappeared. The descent\ninto the valley is rapid. The Brothers had decided to spend the night at\nMonte-Casale, the little hermitage above Borgo San-Sepolcro. All of\nthem, even those who were to remain on the Verna, were still following\ntheir master. As for him, absorbed in thought he had become entirely\noblivious to what was going on, and did not even perceive the noisy\nenthusiasm which his passage aroused in the numerous villages along the\nTiber.\n\nAt Borgo San-Sepolcro he received a real ovation without even then\ncoming to himself; but when they had some time quitted the town, he\nseemed suddenly to awake, and asked his companion if they ought not soon\nto arrive there.[5]\n\nThe first evening at Monte Casale was marked by a miracle. Francis\nhealed a friar who was possessed.[6] The next morning, having decided\nto pass several days in this hermitage, he sent the brothers back to the\nVerna, and with them Count Orlando's horse.\n\nIn one of the villages through which they had passed the day before a\nwoman had been lying several days between death and life unable to give\nbirth to her child. Those about her had only learned of the passage of\nthe saint through their village when he was too far distant to be\novertaken. We may judge of the joy of these poor people when the rumor\nwas spread that he was about to return. They went to meet him, and were\nterribly disappointed on finding only the friars. Suddenly an idea\noccurred to them: taking the bridle of the horse consecrated by the\ntouch of Francis's hands, they carried it to the sufferer, who, having\nlaid it upon her body, gave birth to her child without the slightest\npain.[7]\n\nThis miracle, established by narratives entirely authentic, shows the\ndegree of enthusiasm felt by the people for the person of Francis. As\nfor him, after a few days at Monte-Casale, he set out with Brother Leo\nfor Citta di Castello. He there healed a woman suffering from frightful\nnervous disorders, and remained an entire month preaching in this city\nand its environs. When he once more set forth winter had almost closed\nin. A peasant lent him his ass, but the roads were so bad that they were\nunable to reach any sort of shelter before nightfall. The unhappy\ntravellers were obliged to pass the night under a rock; the shelter was\nmore than rudimentary, the wind drifted the snow in upon them, and\nnearly froze the unlucky peasant, who with abominable oaths heaped\ncurses on Francis; but the latter replied with such cheerfulness that he\nmade him at last forget both the cold and his bad humor.\n\nOn the morrow the saint reached Portiuncula. He seems to have made only\na brief halt there, and to have set forth again almost immediately to\nevangelize Southern Umbria.\n\nIt is impossible to follow him in this mission. Brother Elias\naccompanied him, but so feeble was he that Elias could not conceal his\nuneasiness as to his life.[8]\n\nEver since his return from Syria (August, 1220), he had been growing\ncontinually weaker, but his fervor had increased from day to day.\nNothing could check him, neither suffering nor the entreaties of the\nBrothers; seated on an ass he would sometimes go over three or four\nvillages in one day. Such excessive toil brought on an infirmity even\nmore painful than any he had hitherto suffered from: he was threatened\nwith loss of sight.[9]\n\nMeanwhile a sedition had forced Honorius III. to leave Rome (end of\nApril, 1225). After passing a few weeks at Tivoli, he established\nhimself at Rieti, where he remained until the end of 1226.[10]\n\nThe pope's arrival had drawn to this city, with the entire pontifical\ncourt, several physicians of renown; Cardinal Ugolini, who had come in\nthe pope's train, hearing of Francis's malady, summoned him to Rieti for\ntreatment. But notwithstanding Brother Elias's entreaties Francis\nhesitated a long time as to accepting the invitation.[11] It seemed to\nhim that a sick man has but one thing to do; place himself purely and\nsimply in the hands of the heavenly Father. What is pain to a soul that\nis fixed in God![12]\n\nElias, however, at last overcame his objections, and the journey was\ndetermined upon, but first Francis desired to go and take leave of\nClara, and enjoy a little rest near her.\n\nHe remained at St. Damian much longer than he had proposed to do[13]\n(end of July to beginning of September, 1225). His arrival at this\nbeloved monastery was marked by a terrible aggravation of his malady.\nFor fifteen days he was so completely blind that he could not even\ndistinguish light. The care lavished upon him produced no result, since\nevery day he passed long hours in weeping--tears of penitence, he said,\nbut also of regret.[14] Ah, how different they were from those tears\nof his moments of inspiration and emotion, which had flowed over a\ncountenance all illumined with joy! They had seen him, in such moments,\ntake up two bits of wood, and, accompanying himself with this rustic\nviolin, improvise French songs in which he would pour out the abundance\nof his heart.[15]\n\nBut the radiance of genius and hope had become dimmed. Rachel weeps for\nher children, and will not be comforted because they are not. There are\nin the tears of Francis this same _quia non sunt_ for his spiritual\nsons.\n\nBut if there are irremediable pains there are none which may not be at\nonce elevated and softened, when we endure them at the side of those who\nlove us.\n\nIn this respect his companions could not be of much help to him. Moral\nconsolations are possible only from our peers, or when two hearts are\nunited by a mystical passion so great that they mingle and understand\none another.\n\n\"Ah, if the Brothers knew what I suffer,\" St. Francis said a few days\nbefore the impression of the stigmata, \"with what pity and compassion\nthey would be moved!\"\n\nBut they, seeing him who had laid cheerfulness upon them as a duty\nbecoming more and more sad and keeping aloof from them, imagined that he\nwas tortured with temptations of the devil.[16]\n\nClara divined that which could not be uttered. At St. Damian her friend\nwas looking back over all the past: what memories lived again in a\nsingle glance! Here, the olive-tree to which, a brilliant cavalier, he\nhad fastened his horse; there, the stone bench where his friend, the\npriest of the poor chapel, used to sit; yonder, the hiding-place in\nwhich he had taken refuge from the paternal wrath, and, above all, the\nsanctuary with the mysterious crucifix of the decisive hour.\n\nIn living over these pictures of the radiant past, Francis aggravated\nhis pain; yet they spoke to him of other things than death and regret.\nClara was there, as steadfast, as ardent as ever. Long ago transformed\nby admiration, she was now transfigured by compassion. Seated at the\nfeet of him whom she loved with more than earthly love she felt the\nsoreness of his soul, and the failing of his heart. After that, what did\nit matter that Francis's tears became more abundant to the point of\nmaking him blind for a fortnight? Soothing would come; the sister of\nconsolation would give him peace once more.\n\nAnd first she kept him near her, and, herself taking part in the labor,\nshe made him a large cell of reeds in the monastery garden, that he\nmight be entirely at liberty as to his movements.\n\nHow could he refuse a hospitality so thoroughly Franciscan? It was\nindeed only too much so: legions of rats and mice infested this retired\nspot; at night they ran over Francis's bed with an infernal uproar, so\nthat he could find no repose from his sufferings. But he soon forgot all\nthat when near his sister-friend. Once again she gave back to him faith\nand courage. \"A single sunbeam,\" he used to say, \"is enough to drive\naway many shadows!\"\n\nLittle by little the man of the former days began to show himself, and\nat times the Sisters would hear, mingling with the murmur of the olive\ntrees and pines, the echo of unfamiliar songs, which seemed to come from\nthe cell of reeds.\n\nOne day he had seated himself at the monastery table after a long\nconversation with Clara. The meal had hardly begun when suddenly he\nseemed to be rapt away in ecstasy.\n\n\"_Laudato sia lo Signore!_\" he cried on coming to himself. He had just\ncomposed the Canticle of the Sun.[17]\n\n\nTEXT[18]\n\n    INCIPIUNT LAUDES CREATURARUM\n    QUAS FECIT BEATUS FRANCISCUS AD LAUDEM ET HONOREM\n    DEI\n    CUM ESSET INFIRMUS AD SANCTUM DAMIANUM.\n\n      ALTISSIMU, onnipotente, bon signore,\n    tue so le laude la gloria e l'onore et onne benedictione.\n    Ad te sole, altissimo, se konfano\n    et nullu homo ene dignu te mentovare.\n      Laudato sie, mi signore, cum tucte le tue creature\n    spetialmente messor lo frate sole,\n    lo quale jorna, et illumini per lui;\n    Et ellu e bellu e radiante cum grande splendore;\n    de te, altissimo, porta significatione.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per sora luna e le stelle,\n    in celu l' ai formate clarite et pretiose et belle.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per frate vento\n    et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,\n    per le quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per sor acqua,\n    la quale e multo utile et humele et pretiosa et casta.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu,\n    per lo quale ennallumini la nocte,\n    ed ello e bello et jucundo et robustoso et forte.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra matre terra,\n    la quale ne sustenta et governa\n    et produce diversi fructi con colorite flori et herba.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per quilli ke perdonano per lo tuo amore\n    et sosteugo infirmitate et tribulatione,\n    beati quilli ke sosterrano in pace,\n    ka da te, altissimo, sirano incoronati.\n      Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra morte corporale,\n    de la quale nullu homo vivente po skappare:\n    guai a quilli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali;\n    beati quilli ke se trovara ne le tue sanctissime voluntati,\n    ka la morte secunda nol farra male.\n      Laudate et benedicete mi signore et rengratiate\n    et serviteli cum grande humilitate.\n\n\nTRANSLATION.[19]\n\n    O most high, almighty, good Lord God, to thee belong praise,\n    glory, honor, and all blessing! {To thee alone, Most High, do\n    they belong, and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce thy\n    Name.}\n\n    Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures, and specially our\n    brother the sun, who brings us the day and who brings us the\n    light; fair is he and shines with a very great splendor: O Lord,\n    he signifies to us thee!\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the stars,\n    the which he has set clear and lovely in heaven.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind, and for air and\n    cloud, calms and all weather by the which thou upholdest life in\n    all creatures.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very serviceable\n    unto us and humble and precious and clean.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through whom thou\n    givest us light in the darkness; and he is bright and pleasant\n    and very mighty and strong.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which doth\n    sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits and\n    flowers of many colors, and grass.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another for his\n    love's sake, and who endure weakness and tribulation; blessed\n    are they who peaceably shall endure, for thou, O most Highest,\n    shalt give them a crown.\n\n    Praised be my Lord for our sister, the death of the body, from\n    which no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in mortal sin!\n    Blessed are they who are found walking by thy most holy will,\n    for the second death shall have no power to do them harm.\n\n    Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give thanks unto him and serve\n    him with great humility.\n\nJoy had returned to Francis, joy as deep as ever. For a whole week he\nforsook his breviary and passed his days in repeating the Canticle of\nthe Sun.\n\nDuring a night of sleeplessness he had heard a voice saying to him, \"If\nthou hadst faith as a grain of mustard seed, thou wouldst say to this\nmountain, 'Be thou removed from there,' and it would move away.\" Was not\nthe mountain that of his sufferings, the temptation to murmur and\ndespair? \"Be it, Lord, according to thy word,\" he had replied with all\nhis heart, and immediately he had felt that he was delivered.[20]\n\nHe might have perceived that the mountain had not greatly changed its\nplace, but for several days he had turned his eyes away from it, he had\nbeen able to forget its existence.\n\nFor a moment he thought of summoning to his side Brother Pacifico, the\nKing of Verse, to retouch his canticle; his idea was to attach to him a\ncertain number of friars, who would go with him from village to village,\npreaching. After the sermon they would sing the Hymn of the Sun; and\nthey were to close by saying to the crowd gathered around them in the\npublic places, \"We are God's jugglers. We desire to be paid for our\nsermon and our song. Our payment shall be that you persevere in\npenitence.\"[21]\n\n\"Is it not in fact true,\" he would add, \"that the servants of God are\nreally like jugglers, intended to revive the hearts of men and lead them\ninto spiritual joy?\"\n\nThe Francis of the old raptures had come back, the layman, the poet, the\nartist.\n\nThe Canticle of the Creatures is very noble: it lacks, however, one\nstrophe; if it was not upon Francis's lips, it was surely in his heart:\n\n    Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; thou hast made her silent,\n    active, and sagacious, and by her thy light shines in our\n    hearts.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Thirty-sixth and last strophe of the song\n\n        _Amor de caritade\n         Perche m' hai si ferito?_\n\n       found in the collection of St. Francis's works.\n\n   [2] By the Abbe Amoni, at the close of his edition of the Fioretti,\n       Rome, 1 vol., 12mo, 1889, pp. 390-392. We can but once more\n       regret the silence of the editor as to the manuscript whence\n       he has drawn these charming pages. Certain indications seem\n       unfavorable to the author having written it before the second\n       half of the thirteenth century; on the other hand, the object\n       of a forgery is not evident. An apochryphal piece always\n       betrays itself by some interested purpose, but here the story\n       is of an infantine simplicity.\n\n   [3] 2 Cel., 3, 104; Bon., 119; _Fior. ii. consid._\n\n   [4] _Parti san Francesco per Monte-Acuto prendendo la via di\n       Monte-Arcoppe e del foresto._ This road from the Verna to Borgo\n       San-Sepolero is far from being the shortest or the easiest, for\n       instead of leading directly to the plain it lingers for long\n       hours among the hills. Is not all Francis in this choice?\n\n   [5] 2 Cel., 3, 41; Bon., 141; _Fior. iv. consid._\n\n   [6] 1 Cel., 63 and 64; _Fior. iv. consid._\n\n   [7] 1 Cel., 70; _Fior. iv. consid._\n\n   [8] 1 Cel., 109; 69; Bon. 208. Perhaps we must refer to this\n       circuit the visit to Celano. 2 Cel., 3, 30; _Spec._, 22; Bon.,\n       156 and 157.\n\n   [9] 1 Cel., 97 and 98; 2 Cel., 3, 137; Bon., 205 and 206.\n\n  [10] Richard of St. Germano, _ann. 1225_. Cf. Potthast, 7400 ff.\n\n  [11] 1 Cel., 98 and 99; 2 Cel., 3, 137; _Fior._, 19.\n\n  [12] 2 Cel., 3, 110; Rule of 1221, _cap._ 10.\n\n  [13] See the reference to the sources after the Canticle of the\n       Sun.\n\n  [14] 2 Cel., 3, 138.\n\n  [15] This incident appeared to the authors so peculiar that they\n       emphasized it with an _ut oculis videmus_. 2 Cel., 3, 67;\n       _Spec._, 119a.\n\n  [16] _Spec._, 123a; 2 Cel., 3, 58.\n\n  [17] I have combined Celano's narrative with that of the\n       Conformities. The details given in the latter document appear to\n       me entirely worthy of faith. It is easy to see, however, why\n       Celano omitted them, and it would be difficult to explain how\n       they could have been later invented. 2 Cel., 3, 138; _Conform._,\n       42b, 2; 119b, 1; 184b, 2; 239a, 2; _Spec._, 123a ff.; _Fior._,\n       19.\n\n  [18] After the Assisan MS., 338, f^o 33a. Vide p. 354. Father\n       Panfilo da Magliano has already published it after this\n       manuscript: _Storia compendiosa di San Francesco_, Rome, 2\n       vols., 18mo, 1874-1876. The Conformities, 202b, 2-203a 1, give a\n       version of it which differs from this only by insignificant\n       variations. The learned philologue Monaci has established a very\n       remarkable critical text in his _Crestomazia italiana dei primi\n       secoli_. Citta di Castello, fas. i., 1889, 8vo, pp. 29-31. This\n       thoroughly scrupulous work dispenses me from indicating\n       manuscripts and editions more at length.\n\n  [19] Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, First Series.\n       Macmillan & Company, 1883.\n\n  [20] 2 Cel., 3, 58; _Spec._, 123a.\n\n  [21] _Spec._, 124a. Cf. _Miscellanea_ (1889), iv., p. 88.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nTHE LAST YEAR\n\nSeptember, 1225-End of September, 1226\n\n\nWhat did Ugolini think when they told him that Francis was planning to\nsend his friars, transformed into _Joculatores Domini_, to sing up and\ndown the country the Canticle of Brother Sun? Perhaps he never heard of\nit. His _protege_ finally decided to accept his invitation and left St.\nDamian in the course of the month of September.\n\nThe landscape which lies before the eyes of the traveller from Assisi,\nwhen he suddenly emerges upon the plain of Rieti, is one of the most\nbeautiful in Europe. From Terni the road follows the sinuous course of\nthe Velino, passes not far from the famous cascades, whose clouds of\nmist are visible, and then plunges into the defiles in whose depths the\ntorrent rushes noisily, choked by a vegetation as luxuriant as that of a\nvirgin forest. On all sides uprise walls of perpendicular rocks, and on\ntheir crests, several hundred yards above your head, are feudal\nfortresses, among others the Castle of Miranda, more giddy, more\nfantastic than any which Gustave Dore's fancy ever dreamed.\n\nAfter four hours of walking, the defile opens out and you find yourself\nwithout transition in a broad valley, sparkling with light.\n\nRieti, the only city in this plain of several leagues, appears far away\nat the other extremity, commanded by hills of a thoroughly tropical\naspect, behind which rise the mighty Apennines, almost always covered\nwith snow.\n\nThe highway goes directly toward this town, passing between tiny lakes;\nhere and there roads lead off to little villages which you see, on the\nhillside, between the cultivated fields and the edge of the forests;\nthere are Stroncone, Greccio, Cantalice, Poggio-Buscone, and ten other\nsmall towns, which have given more saints to the Church than a whole\nprovince of France.\n\nBetween the inhabitants of the district and their neighbors of Umbria,\nproperly so called, the difference is extreme. They are all of the\nstriking type of the Sabine peasants, and they remain to this day entire\nstrangers to new customs. One is born a Capuchin there as elsewhere one\nis born a soldier, and the traveller needs to have his wits about him\nnot to address every man he meets as Reverend Father.\n\nFrancis had often gone over this district in every direction. Like its\nneighbor, the hilly March of Ancona, it was peculiarly prepared to\nreceive the new gospel. In these hermitages, with their almost\nimpossible simplicity, perched near the villages on every side, without\nthe least care for material comfort, but always where there is the\nwidest possible view, was perpetuated a race of Brothers Minor,\nimpassioned, proud, stubborn, almost wild, who did not wholly understand\ntheir master, who did not catch his exquisite simplicity, his\nimpossibility of hating, his dreams of social and political renovation,\nhis poetry and delicacy, but who did understand the lover of nature and\nof poverty.[1] They did more than understand him; they lived his\nlife, and from that Christmas festival observed in the woods of Greccio\ndown to to-day they have remained the simple and popular representatives\nof the Strict Observance. From them comes to us the Legend of the Three\nCompanions, the most life-like and true of all the portraits of the\nPoverello, and it was there, in a cell three paces long, that Giovanni\ndi Parma had his apocalyptic visions.\n\nThe news of Francis's arrival quickly spread, and long before he reached\nRieti the population had come out to meet him.\n\nTo avoid this noisy welcome he craved the hospitality of the priest of\nSt. Fabian. This little church, now known under the name of Our Lady of\nthe Forest, is somewhat aside from the road upon a grassy mound about a\nleague from the city. He was heartily welcomed, and desiring to remain\nthere for a little, prelates and devotees began to flock thither in the\nnext few days.\n\nIt was the time of the early grapes. It is easy to imagine the\ndisquietude of the priest on perceiving the ravages made by these\nvisitors among his vines, his best source of revenue, but he probably\nexaggerated the damage. Francis one day heard him giving vent to his bad\nhumor. \"Father,\" he said, \"it is useless for you to disturb yourself for\nwhat you cannot hinder; but, tell me, how much wine do you get on an\naverage?\"\n\n\"Fourteen measures,\" replied the priest.\n\n\"Very well, if you have less than twenty, I undertake to make up the\ndifference.\"\n\nThis promise reassured the worthy man, and when at the vintage he\nreceived twenty measures, he had no hesitation in believing in a\nmiracle.[2]\n\nUpon Ugolini's entreaties Francis had accepted the hospitality of the\nbishop's palace in Rieti. Thomas of Celano enlarges with delight upon\nthe marks of devotion lavished on Francis by this prince of the Church.\nUnhappily all this is written in that pompous and confused style of\nwhich diplomats and ecclesiastics appear to have by nature the secret.\n\nFrancis entered into the condition of a relic in his lifetime. The mania\nfor amulets displayed itself around him in all its excesses. People\nquarrelled not only over his clothing, but even over his hair and the\nparings of his nails.[3]\n\nDid these merely exterior demonstrations disgust him? Did he sometimes\nthink of the contrast between these honors offered to his body, which he\npicturesquely called Brother Ass, and the subversion of his ideal? We\ncannot tell. If he had feelings of this kind those who surrounded him\nwere not the men to understand them, and it would be idle to expect any\nexpression of them from his pen.\n\nSoon after he had a relapse, and asked to be removed to\nMonte-Colombo,[4] a hermitage an hour distant from the city, hidden\namidst trees and scattered rocks. He had already retired thither several\ntimes, notably when he was preparing the Rule of 1223.\n\nThe doctors, having exhausted the therapeutic arsenal of the time,\ndecided to resort to cauterization; it was decided to draw a rod of\nwhite-hot iron across his forehead.\n\nWhen the poor patient saw them bringing in the brazier and the\ninstruments he had a moment of terror; but immediately making the sign\nof the cross over the glowing iron, \"Brother fire,\" he said, \"you are\nbeautiful above all creatures; be favorable to me in this hour; you know\nhow much I have always loved you; be then courteous to-day.\"\n\nAfterward, when his companions, who had not had the courage to remain,\ncame back he said to them, smiling, \"Oh, cowardly folk, why did you go\naway? I felt no pain. Brother doctor, if it is necessary you may do it\nagain.\"\n\nThis experiment was no more successful than the other remedies. In vain\nthey quickened the wound on the forehead, by applying plasters, salves,\nand even by making incisions in it; the only result was to increase the\npains of the sufferer.[5]\n\nOne day, at Rieti, whither he had again been carried, he thought that a\nlittle music would relieve his pain. Calling a friar who had formerly\nbeen clever at playing the guitar, he begged him to borrow one; but the\nfriar was afraid of the scandal which this might cause, and Francis gave\nit up.\n\nGod took pity upon him; the following night he sent an invisible angel\nto give him such a concert as is never heard on earth.[6] Francis,\nhearing it, lost all bodily feeling, say the Fioretti, and at one moment\nthe melody was so sweet and penetrating that if the angel had given one\nmore stroke of the bow, the sick man's soul would have left his\nbody.[7]\n\nIt seems that there was some amelioration of his state when the doctors\nleft him; we find him during the months of this winter, 1225-1226, in\nthe most remote hermitages of the district, for as soon as he had a\nlittle strength he was determined to begin preaching again.\n\nHe went to Poggio-Buscone[8] for the Christmas festival. People\nflocked thither in crowds from all the country round to see and hear\nhim. \"You come here,\" he said, \"expecting to find a great saint; what\nwill you think when I tell you that I ate meat all through Advent?\"[9]\nAt St. Eleutheria,[10] at a time of extreme cold which tried him much,\nhe had sewn some pieces of stuff into his own tunic and that of his\ncompanion, so as to make their garments a little warmer. One day his\ncompanion came home with a fox-skin, with which in his turn he proposed\nto line his master's tunic. Francis rejoiced much over it, but would\npermit this excess of consideration for his body only on condition that\nthe piece of fur should be placed on the outside over his chest.\n\nAll these incidents, almost insignificant at a first view, show how he\ndetested hypocrisy even in the smallest things.\n\nWe will not follow him to his dear Greccio,[11] nor even to the\nhermitage of St. Urbano, perched on one of the highest peaks of the\nSabine.[12] The accounts which we have of the brief visits he made\nthere at this time tell us nothing new of his character or of the\nhistory of his life. They simply show that the imaginations of those who\nsurrounded him were extraordinarily overheated; the least incidents\nimmediately took on a miraculous coloring.[13]\n\nThe documents do not say how it came about that he decided to go to\nSienna. It appears that there was in that city a physician of great fame\nas an oculist. The treatment he prescribed was no more successful than\nthat of the others; but with the return of spring Francis made a new\neffort to return to active life. We find him describing the ideal\nFranciscan monastery,[14] and another day explaining a passage in the\nBible to a Dominican.\n\nDid the latter, a doctor in theology, desire to bring the rival Order\ninto ridicule by showing its founder incapable of explaining a somewhat\ndifficult verse? It appears extremely likely. \"My good father,\" he said,\n\"how do you understand this saying of the prophet Ezekiel, 'If thou dost\nnot warn the wicked of his wickedness, I will require his soul of thee?'\nI am acquainted with many men whom I know to be in a state of mortal\nsin, and yet I am not always reproaching them for their vices. Am I,\nthen, responsible for their souls?\"\n\nAt first Francis excused himself, alleging his ignorance, but urged by\nhis interlocutor he said at last: \"Yes, the true servant unceasingly\nrebukes the wicked, but he does it most of all by his conduct, by the\ntruth which shines forth in his words, by the light of his example, by\nall the radiance of his life.\"[15]\n\nHe soon suffered so grave a relapse that the Brothers thought his last\nhour had come. They were especially affrighted by the hemorrhages, which\nreduced him to a state of extreme prostration. Brother Elias hastened to\nhim. At his arrival the invalid felt in himself such an improvement that\nthey could acquiesce in his desire to be taken back to Umbria. Toward\nthe middle of April they set out, going in the direction of Cortona. It\nis the easiest route, and the delightful hermitage of that city was one\nof the best ordered to permit of his taking some repose. He doubtless\nremained there a very short time: he was in haste to see once more the\nskies of his native country, Portiuncula, St. Damian, the Carceri, all\nthose paths and hamlets which one sees from the terraces of Assisi and\nwhich recalled to him so many sweet memories.\n\nInstead of going by the nearest road, they made a long circuit by Gubbio\nand Nocera, to avoid Perugia, fearing some attempt of the inhabitants to\nget possession of the Saint. Such a relic as the body of Francis lacked\nlittle of the value of the sacred nail or the sacred lance.[16] Battles\nwere fought for less than that.\n\nThey made a short halt near Nocera, at the hermitage of Bagnara, on the\nslopes of Monte-Pennino.[17] His companions were again very much\ndisturbed. The swelling which had shown itself in the lower limbs was\nrapidly gaining the upper part of the body. The Assisans learned this,\nand wishing to be prepared for whatever might happen sent their\nmen-at-arms to protect the Saint and hasten his return.\n\nBringing Francis back with them they stopped for food at the hamlet of\nBalciano,[18] but in vain they begged the inhabitants to sell them\nprovisions. As the escort were confiding their discomfiture to the\nfriars, Francis, who knew these good peasants, said: \"If you had asked\nfor food without offering to pay, you would have found all you wanted.\"\n\nHe was right, for, following his advice, they received for nothing all\nthat they desired.[19]\n\nThe arrival of the party at Assisi was hailed with frantic joy. This\ntime Francis's fellow-citizens were sure that the Saint was not going to\ndie somewhere else.[20]\n\nCustoms in this matter have changed too much for us to be able\nthoroughly to comprehend the good fortune of possessing the body of a\nsaint. If you are ever so unlucky as to mention St. Andrew before an\ninhabitant of Amalfi, you will immediately find him beginning to shout\n\"_Evviva San Andrea! Evviva San Andrea!_\" Then with extraordinary\nvolubility he will relate to you the legend of the _Grande Protettore_,\nhis miracles past and present, those which he might have done if he had\nchosen, but which he refrained from doing out of charity because St.\nJanuarius of Naples could not do as much. He gesticulates, throws\nhimself about, hustles you, more enthusiastic over his relic and more\nexasperated by your coldness than a soldier of the Old Guard before an\nenemy of the Emperor.\n\nIn the thirteenth century all Europe was like that.\n\nWe shall find here several incidents which we may be tempted to consider\nshocking or even ignoble, if we do not make an effort to put them all\ninto their proper surroundings.\n\nFrancis was installed in the bishop's palace; he would have preferred to\nbe at Portiuncula, but the Brothers were obliged to obey the injunctions\nof the populace, and to make assurance doubly sure, guards were placed\nat all the approaches of the palace.\n\nThe abode of the Saint in this place was much longer than had been\nanticipated. It perhaps lasted several months (July to September). This\ndying man did not consent to die. He rebelled against death; in this\ncentre of the work his anxieties for the future of the Order, which a\nlittle while before had been in the background, now returned, more\nagonizing and terrible than ever.\n\n\"We must begin again,\" he thought, \"create a new family who will not\nforget humility, who will go and serve lepers and, as in the old times,\nput themselves always, not merely in words, but in reality, below all\nmen.\"[21]\n\nTo feel that implacable work of destruction going on against which the\nmost submissive cannot keep from protesting: \"My God, my God, why? why\nhast thou forsaken me?\" To be obliged to look on at the still more\ndreaded decomposition of his Order; he, the lark, to be spied upon by\nsoldiers watching for his corpse--there was quite enough here to make\nhim mortally sad.\n\nDuring these last weeks all his sighs were noted. The disappearance of\nthe greater part of the legend of the Three Companions certainly\ndeprives us of some touching stories, but most of the incidents have\nbeen preserved for us, notwithstanding, in documents from a second hand.\n\nFour Brothers had been especially charged to lavish care upon him: Leo,\nAngelo, Rufino, and Masseo. We already know them; they are of those\nintimate friends of the first days, who had heard in the Franciscan\ngospel a call to love and liberty. And they too began to complain of\neverything.[22]\n\nOne day one of them said to the sick man: \"Father, you are going away to\nleave us here; point out to us, then, if you know him, the one to whom\nwe might in all security confide the burden of the generalship.\"\n\nAlas, Francis did not know the ideal Brother, capable of assuming such a\nduty; but he took advantage of the question to sketch the portrait of\nthe perfect minister-general.[23]\n\nWe have two impressions of this portrait, the one which has been\nretouched by Celano, and the original proof, much shorter and more\nvague, but showing us Francis desiring that his successor shall have but\na single weapon, an unalterable love.\n\nIt was probably this question which suggested to him the thought of\nleaving for his successors, the generals of the Order, a letter which\nthey should pass on from one to another, and where they should find, not\ndirections for particular cases, but the very inspiration of their\nactivity.[24]\n\n    To the Reverend Father in Christ, N ..., Minister-General of the\n    entire Order of the Brothers Minor. May God bless thee and keep\n    thee in his holy love.\n\n    Patience in all things and everywhere, this, my Brother, is what\n    I specially recommend. Even if they oppose thee, if they strike\n    thee, thou shouldst be grateful to them and desire that it\n    should be thus and not otherwise.\n\n    In this will be manifest thy love for God and for me, his\n    servant and thine; that there shall not be a single friar in the\n    world who, having sinned as much as one can sin, and coming\n    before thee, shall go away without having received thy pardon.\n    And if he does not ask it, do thou ask it for him, whether he\n    wills or not.\n\n    And if he should return again a thousand times before thee, love\n    him more than myself, in order to lead him to well-doing. Have\n    pity always on these Brothers.\n\nThese words show plainly enough how in former days Francis had directed\nthe Order; in his dream the ministers-general were to stand in a\nrelation of pure affection, of tender devotion toward those under them;\nbut was this possible for one at the head of a family whose branches\nextended over the entire world? It would be hazardous to say, for among\nhis successors have not been wanting distinguished minds and noble\nhearts; but save for Giovanni di Parma and two or three others, this\nideal is in sharp contrast with the reality. St. Bonaventura himself\nwill drag his master and friend, this very Giovanni of Parma, before an\necclesiastical tribunal, will cause him to be condemned to perpetual\nimprisonment, and it will need the intervention of a cardinal outside of\nthe Order to secure the commutation of this sentence.[25]\n\nThe agonies of grief endured by the dying Francis over the decadence of\nthe Order would have been less poignant if they had not been mingled\nwith self-reproaches for his own cowardice. Why had he deserted his\npost, given up the direction of his family, if not from idleness and\nselfishness? And now it was too late to take back this step; and in\nhours of frightful anguish he asked himself if God would not hold him\nresponsible for this subversion of his ideal.\n\n\"Ah, if I could go once again to the chapter-general,\" he would sigh, \"I\nwould show them what my will is.\"\n\nShattered as he was by fever, he would suddenly rise up in his bed,\ncrying with a despairing intensity: \"Where are they who have ravished\nmy brethren from me? Where are they who have stolen away my family?\"\n\nAlas, the real criminals were nearer to him than he thought. The\nprovincial ministers, of whom he appears to have been thinking when he\nthus spoke, were only instruments in the hands of the clever Brother\nElias; and he--what else was he doing but putting his intelligence and\naddress at Cardinal Ugolini's service?\n\nFar from finding any consolation in those around him, Francis was\nconstantly tortured by the confidences of his companions, who, impelled\nby mistaken zeal, aggravated his pain instead of calming it.[26]\n\n    \"Forgive me, Father,\" said one of them to him one day, \"but many\n    people have already thought what I am going to say to you. You\n    know how, in the early days, by God's grace the Order walked in\n    the path of perfection; for all that concerns poverty and love,\n    as well as for all the rest, the Brothers were but one heart and\n    one soul. But for some time past all that is entirely changed:\n    it is true that people often excuse the Brothers by saying that\n    the Order has grown too large to keep up the old observances;\n    they even go so far as to claim that infidelities to the Rule,\n    such as the building of great monasteries, are a means of\n    edification of the people, and so the primitive simplicity and\n    poverty are held for nothing. Evidently all these abuses are\n    displeasing to you; but then, people ask, why do you tolerate\n    them?\"\n\n    \"God forgive you, brother.\" replied Francis. \"Why do you lay at\n    my door things with which I have nothing to do? So long as I had\n    the direction of the Order, and the Brothers persevered in their\n    vocation I was able, in spite of weakness, to do what was\n    needful. But when I saw that, without caring for my example or\n    my teaching, they walked in the way you have described, I\n    confided them to the Lord and to the ministers. It is true that\n    when I relinquished the direction, alleging my incapacity as the\n    motive, if they had walked in the way of my wishes I should not\n    have desired that before my death they should have had any other\n    minister than myself; though ill, though bedridden, even, I\n    should have found strength to perform the duties of my charge.\n    But this charge is wholly spiritual; I will not become an\n    executioner to strike and punish as political governors\n    must.\"[27]\n\nFrancis's complaints became so sharp and bitter that, to avoid scandal,\nthe greatest prudence was exercised with regard to those who were\npermitted to see him.[28]\n\nDisorder was everywhere, and every day brought its contingent of\nsubjects for sorrow. The confusion of ideas as to the practice of the\nRule was extreme; occult influences, which had been working for several\nyears, had succeeded in veiling the Franciscan ideal, not only from\ndistant Brothers, or those who had newly joined the Order, but even from\nthose who had lived under the influence of the founder.[29]\n\nUnder circumstances such as these, Francis dictated the letter to all\nthe members of the Order, which, as he thought would be read at the\nopening of chapters and perpetuate his spiritual presence in them.[30]\n\nIn this letter he is perfectly true to himself; as in the past, he\ndesires to influence the Brothers, not by reproaches but by fixing their\neyes on the perfect holiness.\n\n    To all the revered and well-beloved Brothers Minor, to Brother A\n    ...,[31] minister-general, its Lord, and to the\n    ministers-general who shall be after him, and to all the\n    ministers, custodians, and priests of this fraternity, humble in\n    Christ, and to all the simple and obedient Brothers, the oldest\n    and the most recent, Brother Francis, a mean and perishing man,\n    your little servant, gives greeting!\n\n    Hear, my Lords, you who are my sons and my brothers, give ear to\n    my words. Open your hearts and obey the voice of the Son of God.\n    Keep his commandments with all your hearts, and perfectly\n    observe his counsels. Praise him, for he is good, and glorify\n    him by your works.\n\n    God has sent you through all the world, that by your words and\n    example you may bear witness of him, and that you may teach all\n    men that he alone is all powerful. Persevere in discipline and\n    obedience, and with an honest and firm will keep that which you\n    have promised.\n\nAfter this opening Francis immediately passes to the essential matter of\nthe letter, that of the love and respect due to the Sacrament of the\naltar; faith in this mystery of love appeared to him indeed as the\nsalvation of the Order.\n\nWas he wrong? How can a man who truly believes in the real presence of\nthe God-Man between the fingers of him who lifts up the host, not\nconsecrate his life to this God and to holiness? One has some difficulty\nin imagining.\n\nIt is true that legions of devotees profess the most absolute faith in\nthis dogma, and we do not see that they are less bad; but faith with\nthem belongs in the intellectual sphere; it is the abdication of\nreason, and in sacrificing their intelligence to God they are most happy\nto offer to him an instrument which they very much prefer not to use.\n\nTo Francis the question presented itself quite differently; the thought\nthat there could be any merit in believing could never enter his mind;\nthe fact of the real presence was for him of almost concrete evidence.\nTherefore his faith in this mystery was an energy of the heart, that the\nlife of God, mysteriously present upon the altar, might become the soul\nof all his actions.\n\nTo the eucharistic transubstantiation, effected by the words of the\npriest, he added another, that of his own heart.\n\n    God offers himself to us as to his children. This is why I beg\n    you, all of you, my brothers, kissing your feet, and with all\n    the love of which I am capable, to have all possible respect for\n    the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nThen addressing himself particularly to the priests:\n\n    Hearken, my brothers, if the blessed Virgin Mary is justly\n    honored for having carried Jesus in her womb, if John the\n    Baptist trembled because he dared not touch the Lord's head, if\n    the sepulchre in which for a little time he lay is regarded with\n    such great adoration, oh, how holy, pure, and worthy should be\n    the priest who touches with his hands, who receives into his\n    mouth and into his heart, and who distributes to others the\n    living, glorified Jesus, the sight of whom makes angels rejoice!\n    Understand your dignity, brother priests, and be holy, for he is\n    holy. Oh! what great wretchedness and what a frightful infirmity\n    to have him there present before you and to think of other\n    things. Let each man be struck with amazement, let the whole\n    earth tremble, let the heavens thrill with joy when the Christ,\n    the Son of the living God, descends upon the altar into the\n    hands of the priest. Oh, wonderful profundity! Oh, amazing\n    grace! Oh, triumph of humility! See, the Master of all things,\n    God, and the Son of God, humbles himself for our salvation, even\n    to disguising himself under the appearance of a bit of bread.\n\n    Contemplate, my brothers, this humility of God, and enlarge your\n    hearts before him; humble yourselves as well, that you, even\n    you, may be lifted up by him. Keep nothing for yourselves, that\n    he may receive you without reserve, who has given himself to you\n    without reserve.\n\nWe see with what vigor of love Francis's heart had laid hold upon the\nidea of the communion.\n\nHe closes with long counsels to the Brothers, and after having conjured\nthem faithfully to keep their promises, all his mysticism breathes out\nand is summed up in a prayer of admirable simplicity.\n\n    God Almighty, eternal, righteous, and merciful, give to us poor\n    wretches to do for thy sake all that we know of thy will, and to\n    will always what pleases thee; so that inwardly purified,\n    enlightened, and kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we may\n    follow in the footprints of thy well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus\n    Christ.\n\nWhat separates this prayer from the effort to discern duty made by\nchoice spirits apart from all revealed religion? Very little in truth;\nthe words are different, the action is the same.\n\nBut Francis's solicitudes reached far beyond the limits of the Order.\nHis longest epistle is addressed to all Christians; its words are so\nliving that you fancy you hear a voice speaking behind you; and this\nvoice, usually as serene as that which from the mountain in Galilee\nproclaimed the law of the new times, becomes here and there unutterably\nsweet, like that which sounded in the upper chamber on the night of the\nfirst eucharist.\n\nAs Jesus forgot the cross that was standing in the shadows, so Francis\nforgets his sufferings, and, overcome with a divine sadness, thinks of\nhumanity, for each member of which he would give his life; he thinks of\nhis spiritual sons, the Brothers of Penitence, whom he is about to leave\nwithout having been able to make them feel, as he would have had them\nfeel, the love for them with which he burns: \"Father, I have given them\nthe words which thou hast given me.... For them I pray!\"\n\nThe whole Franciscan gospel is in these words, but to understand the\nfascination which it exerted we must have gone through the School of the\nMiddle Ages, and there listened to the interminable tournaments of\ndialectics by which minds were dried up; we must have seen the Church of\nthe thirteenth century, honeycombed by simony and luxury, and only able,\nunder the pressure of heresy or revolt, to make a few futile efforts to\nscotch the evil.\n\n    To all Christians, monks, clerics, or laymen, whether men or\n    women, to all who dwell in the whole world, Brother Francis,\n    their most submissive servitor, presents his duty and wishes the\n    true peace of heaven, and sincere love in the Lord.\n\n    Being the servitor of all men, I am bound to serve them and to\n    dispense to them the wholesome words of my Master. This is why,\n    seeing I am too weak and ill to visit each one of you in\n    particular, I have resolved to send you my message by this\n    letter, and to offer you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the\n    Word of God, and of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit and life.\n\nIt would be puerile to expect here new ideas either in fact or form.\nFrancis's appeals are of value only by the spirit which animates them.\n\nAfter having briefly recalled the chief features of the gospel, and\nurgently recommended the communion, Francis addresses himself in\nparticular to certain categories of hearers, with special counsels.\n\n    Let the podestas, governors, and those who are placed in\n    authority, exercise their functions with mercy, as they would be\n    judged with mercy by God....\n\n    Monks in particular, who have renounced the world, are bound to\n    do more and better than simple Christians, to renounce all that\n    is not necessary to them, and to have in hatred the vices and\n    sins of the body.... They should love their enemies, do good to\n    them who hate them, observe the precepts and counsels of our\n    Redeemer, renounce themselves, and subdue their bodies. And no\n    monk is bound to obedience, if in obeying he would be obliged to\n    commit a fault or a sin....\n\n    Let us not be wise and learned according to the flesh, but\n    simple, humble, and pure.... We should never desire to be above\n    others, but rather to be below, and to obey all men.\n\nHe closes by showing the foolishness of those who set their hearts on\nthe possession of earthly goods, and concludes by the very realistic\npicture of the death of the wicked.\n\n    His money, his title, his learning, all that he believed himself\n    to possess, all are taken from him; his relatives and his\n    friends to whom he has given his fortune will come to divide it\n    among themselves, and will end by saying: \"Curses on him, for he\n    might have given us more and he has not done it; he might have\n    amassed a larger fortune, and he has done nothing of the kind.\"\n    The worms will eat his body and the demons will consume his\n    soul, and thus he will lose both soul and body.\n\n    I, Brother Francis, your little servitor, I beg and conjure you\n    by the love that is in God, ready to kiss your feet, to receive\n    with humility and love these and all other words of our Lord\n    Jesus Christ and to conform your conduct to them. And let those\n    who devoutly receive them and understand them pass them on to\n    others. And if they thus persevere unto the end, may they be\n    blessed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.[32]\n\nIf Francis ever made a Rule for the Third Order it must have very nearly\nresembled this epistle, and until this problematical document is found,\nthe letter shows what were originally these associations of Brothers of\nPenitence. Everything in these long pages looks toward the development\nof the mystic religious life in the heart of each Christian. But even\nwhen Francis dictated them, this high view had become a Utopia, and the\nThird Order was only one battalion more in the armies of the papacy.\n\nWe see that the epistles which we have just examined proceed definitely\nfrom a single inspiration. Whether he is leaving instructions for his\nsuccessors, the ministers-general, whether he is writing to all the\npresent and future members of his Order, to all Christians or even to\nthe clergy,[33] Francis has only one aim, to keep on preaching after\nhis death, and perhaps, too, by putting into writing his message of\npeace and love, to provide that he shall not be entirely travestied or\nmisunderstood.\n\nConsidered in connection with those sorrowful hours which saw their\nbirth, they form a whole whose import and meaning become singularly\nenergetic. If we would find the Franciscan spirit, it is here, in the\nRule of 1221, and in the Will that we must seek for it.\n\nNeglect, and especially the storms which later overwhelmed the Order,\nexplain the disappearance of several other documents which would cast a\nglimmer of poetry and joy over these sad days;[34] Francis had not\nforgotten his sister-friend at St. Damian. Hearing that she had been\ngreatly disquieted by knowing him to be so ill, he desired to reassure\nher: he still deceived himself as to his condition, and wrote to her\npromising soon to go to see her.\n\nTo this assurance he added some affectionate counsels, advising her and\nher companions not to go to extremes with their macerations. To set her\nan example of cheerfulness he added to this letter a Laude in the\nvulgar tongue which he had himself set to music.[35]\n\nIn that chamber of the episcopal palace in which he was as it were\nimprisoned he had achieved a new victory, and it was doubtless that\nwhich inspired his joy. The Bishop of Assisi, the irritable Guido,\nalways at war with somebody, was at this time quarrelling with the\npodesta of the city; nothing more was needed to excite in the little\ntown a profound disquiet. Guido had excommunicated the podesta, and the\nlatter had issued a prohibition against selling and buying or making any\ncontract with ecclesiastics.\n\nThe difference grew more bitter, and no one appeared to dream of\nattempting a reconciliation. We can the better understand Francis's\ngrief over all this by remembering that his very first effort had been\nto bring peace into his native city, and that he considered the return\nof Italy to union and concord to be the essential aim of his apostolate.\n\nWar in Assisi would be the final dissolution of his dream; the voice of\nevents crying brutally to him, \"Thou hast wasted thy life!\"\n\nThe dregs of this cup were spared him, thanks to an inspiration in which\nbreaks forth anew his natural play of imagination. To the Canticle of\nthe Sun he added a new strophe:\n\n  Be praised, Lord, for those who forgive for love of thee,\n  and bear trials and tribulations;\n  happy they who persevere in peace,\n  by thee, Most high, shall they be crowned.\n\nThen, calling a friar, he charged him to beg the governor to betake\nhimself, with all the notables whom he could assemble, to the paved\nsquare before the bishop's palace. The magistrate, to whom legend gives\nthe nobler part in the whole affair, at once yielded to the saint's\nrequest.\n\n    When he arrived and the bishop had come forth from the palace,\n    two friars came forward and said: \"Brother Francis has made to\n    the praise of God a hymn to which he prays you to listen\n    piously,\" and immediately they began to sing the Hymn of Brother\n    Sun, with its new strophe.\n\n    The governor listened, standing in an attitude of profound\n    attention, copiously weeping, for he dearly loved the blessed\n    Francis.\n\n    When the singing was ended, \"Know in truth,\" said he, \"that I\n    desire to forgive the lord bishop, that I wish and ought to look\n    upon him as my lord, for if one had even assassinated my brother\n    I should be ready to pardon the murderer.\" With these words he\n    threw himself at the bishop's feet, and said: \"I am ready to do\n    whatsoever you would, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and\n    his servant Francis.\"\n\n    Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, lifted him up and said,\n    \"With my position it would become me to be humble, but since I\n    am naturally too quick to wrath, thou must pardon me.\"[36]\n\nThis unexpected reconciliation was immediately looked upon as\nmiraculous, and increased still more the reverence of the Assisans for\ntheir fellow-citizen.\n\nThe summer was drawing to a close. After a few days of relative\nimprovement Francis's sufferings became greater than ever: incapable of\nmovement, he even thought that he ought to give up his ardent desire to\nsee St. Damian and Portiuncula once more, and gave the brothers all his\ndirections about the latter sanctuary: \"Never abandon it,\" he would\nrepeat to them, \"for that place is truly sacred: it is the house of\nGod.\"[37]\n\nIt seemed to him that if the Brothers remained attached to that bit of\nearth, that chapel ten feet long, those thatched huts, they would there\nfind the living reminder of the poverty of the early days, and could\nnever wander far from it.\n\nOne evening he grew worse with frightful rapidity; all the following\nnight he had hemorrhages which left not the slightest hope; the Brothers\nhastening to him, he dictated a few lines in form of a Will and gave\nthem his blessing: \"Adieu, my children; remain all of you in the fear of\nGod, abide always united to Christ; great trials are in store for you,\nand tribulation draws nigh. Happy are they who persevere as they have\nbegun; for there will be scandals and divisions among you. As for me, I\nam going to the Lord and my God. Yes, I have the assurance that I am\ngoing to him whom I have served.\"[38]\n\nDuring the following days, to the great surprise of those who were about\nhim, he again grew somewhat better; no one could understand the\nresistance to death offered by this body so long worn out by suffering.\n\nHe himself began to hope again. A physician of Arezzo whom he knew well,\nhaving come to visit him, \"Good friend,\" Francis asked him, \"how much\nlonger do you think I have to live?\"\n\n\"Father,\" replied the other reassuringly, \"this will all pass away, if\nit pleases God.\"\n\n\"I am not a cuckoo,\"[39] replied Francis smiling, using a popular\nsaying, \"to be afraid of death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit I am so\nintimately united to God that I am equally content to live or to die.\"\n\n\"In that case, father, from the medical point of view, your disease is\nincurable, and I do not think that you can last longer than the\nbeginning of autumn.\"\n\nAt these words the poor invalid stretched out his hands as if to call on\nGod, crying with an indescribable expression of joy, \"Welcome, Sister\nDeath!\" Then he began to sing, and sent for Brothers Angelo and Leo.\n\nOn their arrival they were made, in spite of their emotion, to sing the\nCanticle of the Sun. They were at the last doxology when Francis,\nchecking them, improvised the greeting to death:\n\n  Be praised, Lord, for our Sister the Death of the body,\n  whom no man may escape;\n  alas for them who die in a state of mortal sin;\n  happy they who are found conformed to thy most holy will,\n  for the second death will do to them no harm.\n\nFrom this day the palace rang unceasingly with his songs. Continually,\neven through the night, he would sing the Canticle of the Sun or some\nother of his favorite compositions. Then, when wearied out, he would beg\nAngelo and Leo to go on.\n\nOne day Brother Elias thought it his duty to make a few remarks on the\nsubject. He feared that the nurses and the people of the neighborhood\nwould be scandalized; ought not a saint to be absorbed in meditation in\nthe face of death, to await it with fear and trembling instead of\nindulging in a gayety that might be misinterpreted?[40] Perhaps Bishop\nGuido was not entirely a stranger to these reproaches; it seems not\nimprobable that to have his palace crowded with Brothers Minor all these\nlong weeks had finally put him a little out of humor. But Francis would\nnot yield; his union with God was too sweet for him to consent not to\nsing it.\n\nThey decided at last to remove him to Portiuncula. His desire was to be\nfulfilled; he was to die beside the humble chapel where he had heard\nGod's voice consecrating him apostle.\n\nHis companions, bearing their precious burden, took the way through the\nolive-yards across the plain. From time to time the invalid, unable to\ndistinguish anything, asked where they were. When they were half way\nthere, at the hospital of the Crucigeri, where long ago he had tended\nthe leper, and from whence there was a full view of all the houses of\nthe city, he begged them to set him upon the ground with his face toward\nAssisi, and raising his hand he bade adieu to his native place and\nblessed it.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The following is the list of monasteries which, according to\n       Rodolfo di Tossignano, accepted the ideas of Angelo Clareno\n       before the end of the thirteenth century: Fermo, Spoleto,\n       Camerino, Ascoli, Rieti, Foligno, Nursia, Aquila, Amelia:\n       _Historiarum seraphicae religionis, libri tres_, Venice, 1586, 1\n       vol., f^o, 155a.\n\n   [2] _Spec._, 129b; _Fior._, 19. In some of the stories of this\n       period the evidence is clear how certain facts have been, little\n       by little, transformed into miracles. Compare, for example, the\n       miracle of St. Urbano in Bon., 68, and 1 Cel., 61. See also 2\n       Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159.\n\n   [3] 1 Cel., 87; 2 Cel., 2, 11; _Conform._, 148a, 2; Bon., 99.\n       Upon this visit see 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159; 2 Cel., 2,\n       11; 2 Cel., 3, 36.\n\n   [4] The present Italian name of the monastery which has also\n       been called _Monte-Rainerio_ and _Fonte-Palumbo_.\n\n   [5] 1 Cel., 101; 2 Cel., 3, 102; Bon., 67; _Spec._, 134a.\n\n   [6] 2 Cel., 3, 66; Bon., 69.\n\n   [7] _Fior. ii. consid._ Cf. Roger Bacon, Opus tertium (_ap. Mon.\n       Germ. hist._, _Script._ t. 28, p. 577). _B. Franciscus jussit\n       fratri cythariste ut dulcius personaret, quatenus mens\n       excitaretur ad harmonias coelestes quas pluries andivit. Mira\n       enim musicae super omnes scientias et spectanda potestas._\n\n   [8] Village three hours' walk northward from Rieti. Francis's\n       cell still remains on the mountain, three-quarters of an hour\n       from the place.\n\n   [9] 2 Cel., 3, 71; cf. _Spec._, 43a.\n\n  [10] Chapel still standing, a few minutes' walk from Rieti. 2\n       Cel., 3, 70; _Spec._, 15a, 43a.\n\n  [11] 2 Cel., 2, 14; Bon., 167; 2 Cel., 3, 10; Bon., 58; _Spec._,\n       122b.\n\n  [12] Wadding, _ann. 1213_, n. 14, rightly places St. Urbano in\n       the county of Narni. _L'Eremo di S. Urbano_ is about half an\n       hour from the village of the same name, on Mount San Pancrazio\n       (1026 m.), three leagues south of Narni. The panorama is one of\n       the finest in Central Italy. The Bollandists allowed themselves\n       to be led into error by an interested assertion when they placed\n       San Urbano near to Jesi (pp. 623f and 624a). 1 Cel., 61; Bon.,\n       68. (Vide Bull _Cum aliqua_ of May 15, 1218, where mention is\n       made of San Urbano.)\n\n  [13] As much may be said of the apparition of the three virgins\n       between Campilia and San Quirico. 2 Cel., 3, 37; Bon., 93.\n\n  [14] _Spec._, 12b; _Conform._, 169a, 1.\n\n  [15] 2 Cel., 3, 46; Bon., 153; _Spec._, 31b; Ezek., xxxiii., 9.\n\n  [16] Two years after, the King of France and all his court\n       kissed and revered the pillow which Francis had used during his\n       illness. 1 Cel., 120.\n\n  [17] Bagnara is near the sources of the Topino, about an hour\n       east of Nocera. These two localities were then dependents of\n       Assisi.\n\n  [18] And not Sartiano. Balciano still exists, about half way\n       between Nocera and Assisi.\n\n  [19] 2 Cel., 3, 23; Bon., 98; _Spec._, 17b; _Conform._, 239a,\n       2f.\n\n  [20] 2 Cel., 3, 33; 1 Cel., 105, is still more explicit: \"The\n       multitude hoped that he would die very soon, and that was the\n       subject of their joy.\"\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 103 and 104.\n\n  [22] 1 Cel., 102; _Spec._, 83b.\n\n  [23] 2 Cel., 3, 116; _Spec._, 67a; _Conform._, 143b, 1, and\n       225b, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 117; _Spec._, 130a.\n\n  [24] For the text vide _Conform._, 136b, 2; 138b, 2; 142 b, 1.\n\n  [25] _Tribul., Archiv._, ii., pp. 285 ff.\n\n  [26] 2 Cel., 3, 118.\n\n  [27] These words are borrowed from a long fragment cited by\n       Ubertini di Casali, as coming from Brother Leo: _Arbor vit.\n       cruc., lib._ v., _cap._ 3. It is surely a bit of the Legend of\n       the Three Companions; it may be found textually in the\n       Tribulations, Laur., f^o 16b, with a few more sentences at the\n       end. Cf. _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2; _Spec._, 8b; 26b; 50a;\n       130b; 2 Cel., 3, 118.\n\n  [28] _Tribul._, Laur., 17b.\n\n  [29] See, for example, Brother Richer's question as to the\n       books: Ubertini, _Loc. cit._ Cf. _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and\n       177; _Spec._, 8a; _Conform._, 71b, 2. See also: Ubertini,\n       _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177; _Tribul._, 13a; _Spec._, 9a;\n       _Conform._, 170a, 1. It is curious to compare the account as it\n       found in the documents with the version of it given in 2 Cel.,\n       3, 8.\n\n  [30] Assisi MS., 338, f^o 28a-31a, with the rubric: _De lictera\n       et ammonitione beatissimi patris nostri Francisci quam misit\n       fratribus ad capitulum quando erat infirmus._ This letter was\n       wrongly divided into three by Rodolfo di Tossignano (f^o 237),\n       who was followed by Wadding (Epistolae x., xi., xii.). The text\n       is found without this senseless division in the manuscript cited\n       and in _Firmamentum_, f^o 21; _Spec._, Morin, iii., 217a;\n       Ubertini, _Arbor vit. cruc._, v., 7.\n\n  [31] This initial (given only by the Assisi MS.) has not failed\n       to excite surprise. It appears that there ought to have been\n       simply an N ... This letter then would have been replaced by the\n       copyist, who would have used the initial of the minister general\n       in charge at the time of his writing. If this hypothesis has any\n       weight it will aid to fix the exact date of the manuscript.\n       (Alberto of Pisa minister from 1239-1240; Aimon of Faversham,\n       1240-1244.)\n\n  [32] This epistle also was unskilfully divided into two distinct\n       letters by Rodolfo di Tossignano, f^o 174a, who was followed by\n       Wadding. See Assisi MS., 338, 23a-28a; _Conform._, 137a, 1 ff.\n\n  [33] The letter to the clergy only repeats the thoughts already\n       expressed upon the worship of the holy sacrament. We remember\n       Francis sweeping out the churches and imploring the priests to\n       keep them clean; this epistle has the same object: it is found\n       in the Assisi MS., 338, f^o 31b-32b, with the rubric: _De\n       reverentia Corporis Domini et de munditia altaris ad omnes\n       clericos_. Incipit: _Attendamus omnes_. Explicit: _fecerint\n       exemplari_. This, therefore, is the letter given by Wadding\n       xiii., but without address or salutation.\n\n  [34] We need not despair of finding them. The archives of the\n       monasteries of Clarisses are usually rudimentary enough, but\n       they are preserved with pious care.\n\n  [35] _Spec._, 117b; _Conform._, 185a 1; 135b, 1. Cf. _Test. B.\n       Clarae_, A. SS., Aug., ii., p. 747.\n\n  [36] This story is given in the _Spec._, 128b, as from\n       eye-witnesses. Cf. _Conform._, 184b, 1; 203a, 1.\n\n  [37] 1 Cel., 106. These recommendations as to Portiuncula were\n       amplified by the Zelanti, when, under the generalship of\n       Crescentius (Bull _Is qui ecclesiam_, March 6, 1245), the\n       Basilica of Assisi was substituted for Santa Maria degli Angeli\n       as _mater et caput_ of the Order. Vide _Spec._, 32b, 69b-71a;\n       _Conform._, 144a, 2; 218a, 1; 3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 12 and 13;\n       Bon., 24, 25; see the Appendix, the Study of the Indulgence of\n       August 2.\n\n  [38] 2 Cel., 108. As will be seen (below, p. 367) the remainder\n       of Celano's narrative seems to require to be taken with some\n       reserve. Cf. _Spec._, 115b; _Conform._, 225a, 2; Bon., 211.\n\n  [39] _Non sum cuculus_, in Italian _cuculo_.\n\n  [40] _Spec._, 136b; _Fior. iv. consid._ It is to be noted that\n       Guido, instead of waiting at Assisi for the certainly impending\n       death of Francis, went away to Mont Gargano. 2 Cel., 3, 142.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nFRANCIS'S WILL AND DEATH\n\nEnd of September-October 3, 1226\n\n\nThe last days of Francis's life are of radiant beauty. He went to meet\ndeath, singing,[1] says Thomas of Celano, summing up the impression of\nthose who saw him then.\n\nTo be once more at Portiuncula after so long a detention at the bishop's\npalace was not only a real joy to his heart, but the pure air of the\nforest must have been much to his physical well-being; does not the\nCanticle of the Creatures seem to have been made expressly to be sung in\nthe evening of one of those autumn days of Umbria, so soft and luminous,\nwhen all nature seems to retire into herself to sing her own hymn of\nlove to Brother Sun?\n\nWe see that Francis has come to that almost entire cessation of pain,\nthat renewing of life, which so often precedes the approach of the last\ncatastrophe.\n\nHe took advantage of it to dictate his Will.[2]\n\nIt is to these pages that we must go to find the true note for a sketch\nof the life of its author, and an idea of the Order as it was in his\ndreams.\n\nIn this record, which is of an incontestable authenticity, the most\nsolemn manifestation of his thought, the Poverello reveals himself\nabsolutely, with a virginal candor.\n\nHis humility is here of a sincerity which strikes one with awe; it is\nabsolute, though no one could dream that it was exaggerated. And yet,\nwherever his mission is concerned, he speaks with tranquil and serene\nassurance. Is he not an ambassador of God? Does he not hold his message\nfrom Christ himself? The genesis of his thought here shows itself to be\nat once wholly divine and entirely personal. The individual conscience\nhere proclaims its sovereign authority. \"No one showed me what I ought\nto do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live\nconformably to his holy gospel.\"\n\nWhen a man has once spoken thus, submission to the Church has been\nsingularly encroached upon. We may love her, hearken to her, venerate\nher, but we feel ourselves, perhaps without daring to avow it, superior\nto her. Let a critical hour come, and one finds himself heretic without\nknowing it or wishing it.\n\n\"Ah, yes,\" cries Angelo Clareno, \"St. Francis promised to obey the pope\nand his successors, but they cannot and must not command anything\ncontrary to the conscience or to the Rule.\"[3]\n\nFor him, as for all the spiritual Franciscans, when there is conflict\nbetween what the inward voice of God ordains and what the Church wills,\nhe has only to obey the former.[4]\n\nIf you tell him that the Church and the Order are there to define the\ntrue signification of the Rule, he appeals to common sense, and to that\ninterior certitude which is given by a clear view of truth.\n\nThe Rule, as also the gospel, of which it is a summary, is above all\necclesiastical power, and no one has the right to say the last word in\ntheir interpretation.[5]\n\nThe Will was not slow to gain a moral authority superior even to that of\nthe Rule. Giovanni of Parma, to explain the predilection of the\nJoachimites for this document, points out that after the impression of\nthe stigmata the Holy Spirit was in Francis with still greater plenitude\nthan before.[6]\n\nDid the innumerable sects which disturbed the Church in the thirteenth\ncentury perceive that these two writings--the Rule and the\nTestament--the one apparently made to follow and support the other,\nsubstantially identical as it was said, proceeded from two opposite\ninspirations? Very confusedly, no doubt, but guided by a very sure\ninstinct, they saw in these pages the banner of liberty.\n\nThey were not mistaken. Even to-day, thinkers, moralists, mystics may\narrive at solutions very different from those of the Umbrian prophet,\nbut the method which they employ is his, and they may not refuse to\nacknowledge in him the precursor of religious subjectivism.\n\nThe Church, too, was not mistaken. She immediately understood the spirit\nthat animated these pages.\n\nFour years later, perhaps to the very day, September 28, 1230, Ugolini,\nthen Gregory IX., solemnly interpreted the Rule, in spite of the\nprecautions of Francis, who had forbidden all gloss or commentary on the\nRule or the Will, and declared that the Brothers were not bound to the\nobservation of the Will.[7]\n\nWhat shall we say of the bull in which the pope alleges his familiar\nrelations with the Saint to justify his commentary, and in which the\nclearest passages are so distorted as to change their sense completely.\n\"One is stupefied,\" cries Ubertini of Casali, \"that a text so clear\nshould have need of a commentary, for it suffices to have common sense\nand to know grammar in order to understand it.\" And this strange monk\ndares to add: \"There is one miracle which God himself cannot do; it is\nto make two contradictory things true.\"[8]\n\nCertainly the Church should be mistress in her own house; it would have\nbeen nothing wrong had Gregory IX. created an Order conformed to his\nviews and ideas, but when we go through Sbaralea's folios and the\nthousands of bulls accorded to the spiritual sons of him who in the\nclearest and most solemn manner had forbidden them to ask any privilege\nof the court of Rome, we cannot but feel a bitter sadness.\n\nThus upheld by the papacy, the Brothers of the Common Observance made\nthe Zelanti sharply expiate their attachment to Francis's last requests.\nCaesar of Speyer died of violence from the Brother placed in charge of\nhim;[9] the first disciple, Bernardo di Quintavalle, hunted like a\nwild beast, passed two years in the forests of Monte-Sefro, hidden by a\nwood-cutter;[10] the other first companions who did not succeed in\nflight had to undergo the severest usage. In the March of Ancona, the\nhome of the Spirituals, the victorious party used a terrible violence.\nThe Will was confiscated and destroyed; they went so far as to burn it\nover the head of a friar who persisted in desiring to observe it.[11]\n\nWILL (LITERAL TRANSLATION).\n\n    See in what manner God gave it to me, to me, Brother Francis, to\n    begin to do penitence; when I lived in sin, it was very painful\n    to me to see lepers, but God himself led me into their midst,\n    and I remained here a little while.[12] When I left them, that\n    which had seemed to me bitter had become sweet and easy.\n\n    A little while after I quitted the world, and God gave me such a\n    faith in his churches that I would kneel down with simplicity\n    and I would say: \"We adore thee, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in\n    all thy churches which are in the world, and we bless thee that\n    by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world.\"\n\n    Besides, the Lord gave me and still gives me so great a faith in\n    priests who live according to the form of the holy Roman Church,\n    because of their sacerdotal character, that even if they\n    persecuted me I would have recourse to them. And even though I\n    had all the wisdom of Solomon, if I should find poor secular\n    priests, I would not preach in their parishes without their\n    consent. I desire to respect them like all the others, to love\n    them and honor them as my lords. I will not consider their\n    sins, for in them I see the Son of God and they are my lords. I\n    do this because here below I see nothing, I perceive nothing\n    corporally of the most high Son of God, if not his most holy\n    Body and Blood, which they receive and they alone distribute to\n    others. I desire above all things to honor and venerate all\n    these most holy mysteries and to keep them precious. Whenever I\n    find the sacred names of Jesus or his words in indecent places,\n    I desire to take them away, and I pray that others take them\n    away and put them in some decent place. We ought to honor and\n    revere all the theologians and those who preach the most holy\n    word of God, as dispensing to us spirit and life.\n\n    When the Lord gave me some brothers no one showed me what I\n    ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I\n    ought to live according to the model of the holy gospel. I\n    caused a short and simple formula to be written, and the lord\n    pope confirmed it for me.\n\n    Those who presented themselves to observe this kind of life\n    distributed all that they might have to the poor. They contented\n    themselves with a tunic, patched within and without, with the\n    cord and breeches, and we desired to have nothing more.\n\n    The clerks said the office like other clerks, and the laymen\n    _Pater noster_.\n\n    We loved to live in poor and abandoned churches, and we were\n    ignorant and submissive to all. I worked with my hands and would\n    continue to do, and I will also that all other friars work at\n    some honorable trade. Let those who have none learn one, not for\n    the purpose of receiving the price of their toil, but for their\n    good example and to flee idleness. And when they do not give us\n    the price of the work, let us resort to the table of the Lord,\n    begging our bread from door to door. The Lord revealed to me the\n    salutation which we ought to give: \"God give you peace!\"\n\n    Let the Brothers take great care not to receive churches,\n    habitations, and all that men build for them, except as all is\n    in accordance with the holy poverty which we have vowed in the\n    Rule, and let them not receive hospitality in them except as\n    strangers and pilgrims.\n\n    I absolutely interdict all the brothers, in whatever place they\n    may be found, from asking any bull from the court of Rome,\n    whether directly or indirectly, under pretext of church or\n    convent or under pretext of preachings, nor even for their\n    personal protection. If they are not received anywhere let them\n    go elsewhere, thus doing penance with the benediction of God.\n\n    I desire to obey the minister-general of this fraternity, and\n    the guardian whom he may please to give me. I desire to put\n    myself entirely into his hands, to go nowhere and do nothing\n    against his will, for he is my lord.\n\n    Though I be simple and ill, I would, however, have always a\n    clerk who will perform the office, as it is said in the Rule;\n    let all the other brothers also be careful to obey their\n    guardians and to do the office according to the Rule. If it come\n    to pass that there are any who do not the office according to\n    the Rule, and who desire to make any other change, or if they\n    are not Catholics, let all the Brothers, wherever they may be,\n    be bound by obedience to present them to the nearest custode.\n    Let the custodes be bound by obedience to keep him well guarded\n    like a man who is in bonds night and day, so that he may not\n    escape from their hands until they personally place him in the\n    minister's hands. And let the minister be bound by obedience to\n    send him by brothers who will guard him as a prisoner day and\n    night until they shall have placed him in the hands of the Lord\n    Bishop of Ostia, who is the lord, the protector, and the\n    correcter of all the Fraternity.[13]\n\n    And let the Brothers not say: \"This is a new Rule;\" for this is\n    a reminder, a warning, an exhortation; it is my Will, that I,\n    little Brother Francis, make for you, my blessed Brothers, in\n    order that we may observe in a more catholic way the Rule which\n    we promised the Lord to keep.\n\n    Let the ministers-general, all the other ministers and the\n    custodes be held by obedience to add nothing to and take nothing\n    from these words. Let them always keep this writing near them,\n    beside the Rule; and in all the chapters which shall be held,\n    when the Rule is read let these words be read also.\n\n    I interdict absolutely, by obedience, all the Brothers, clerics\n    and layman, to introduce glosses in the Rule, or in this Will,\n    under pretext of explaining it. But since the Lord has given me\n    to speak and to write the Rule and these words in a clear and\n    simple manner, without commentary, understand them in the same\n    way, and put them in practice until the end.\n\n    And may whoever shall have observed these things be crowned in\n    heaven with the blessings of the heavenly Father, and on earth\n    with those of his well-beloved Son and of the Holy Spirit the\n    consoler, with the assistance of all the heavenly virtues and\n    all the saints.\n\n    And I, little Brother Francis, your servitor, confirm to you so\n    far as I am able this most holy benediction. Amen.\n\nAfter thinking of his Brothers Francis thought of his dear Sisters at\nSt. Damian and made a will for them.\n\nIt has not come down to us, and we need not wonder; the Spiritual\nBrothers might flee away, and protest from the depths of their retreats,\nbut the Sisters were completely unarmed against the machinations of the\nCommon Observance.[14]\n\nIn the last words that he addressed to the Clarisses, after calling upon\nthem to persevere in poverty and union, he gave them his\nbenediction.[15] Then he recommended them to the Brothers, supplicating\nthe latter never to forget that they were members of one and the same\nreligious family.[16] After having done all that he could for those\nwhom he was about to leave, he thought for a moment of himself.\n\nHe had become acquainted in Rome with a pious lady named Giacomina di\nSettisoli. Though rich, she was simple and good, entirely devoted to the\nnew ideas; even the somewhat singular characteristics of Francis pleased\nher. He had given her a lamb which had become her inseparable\ncompanion.[17]\n\nUnfortunately all that concerns her has suffered much from later\nretouchings of the legend. The perfectly natural conduct of the Saint\nwith women has much embarrassed his biographers; hence heavy and\ndistorted commentaries tacked on to episodes of a delicious simplicity.\n\nBefore dying Francis desired to see again this friend, whom he\nsmilingly called Brother Giacomina. He caused a letter to be written her\nto come to Portiuncula; we can imagine the dismay of the narrators at\nthis far from monastic invitation.\n\nBut the good lady had anticipated his appeal: at the moment when the\nmessenger with the letter was about to leave for Rome, she arrived at\nPortiuncula and remained there until the last sigh of the Saint.[18]\nFor one moment she thought of sending away her suite; the invalid was so\ncalm and joyful that she could not believe him dying, but he himself\nadvised her to keep her people with her. This time he felt with no\npossible doubt that his captivity was about to be ended.\n\nHe was ready, he had finished his work.\n\nDid he think then of the day when, cursed by his father, he had\nrenounced all earthly goods and cried to God with an ineffable\nconfidence, \"Our Father who art in heaven!\" We cannot say; but he\ndesired to finish his life by a symbolic act which very closely recalls\nthe scene in the bishop's palace.\n\nHe caused himself to be stripped of his clothing and laid upon the\nground, for he wished to die in the arms of his Lady Poverty. With one\nglance he embraced the twenty years that had glided by since their\nunion: \"I have done my duty,\" he said to the Brothers, \"may the Christ\nnow teach you yours!\"[19]\n\nThis was Thursday, October 1.[20]\n\nThey laid him back upon his bed, and, conforming to his wishes, they\nagain sang to him the Canticle of the Sun.\n\nAt times he added his voice to those of his Brothers,[21] and came back\nwith preference to Psalm 142, _Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi_.[22]\n\n  With my voice I cry unto the Lord,\n  With my voice I implore the Lord,\n  I pour out my complaint before him,\n  I tell him all my distress.\n  When my spirit is cast down within me,\n  Thou knowest my path.\n  Upon the way where I walk\n  They have laid a snare for me,\n  Cast thine eyes to the right and look!\n  No one recognizes me;\n  All refuge is lost for me,\n  No one takes thought for my soul.\n  Lord, unto thee I cry;\n  I say: Thou art my refuge,\n  My portion in the land of the living.\n  Be attentive to my cries!\n  For I am very unhappy.\n  Deliver me from those who pursue me!\n  For they are stronger than I.\n  Bring my soul out of its prison\n  That I may praise thy name.\n  The righteous shall compass me about\n  When thou hast done good unto me!\n\nThe visits of death are always solemn, but the end of the just is the\nmost moving _sursum corda_ that we can hear on earth. The hours flowed\nby and the Brothers would not leave him. \"Alas, good Father,\" said one\nof them to him, unable longer to contain himself, \"your children are\ngoing to lose you, and be deprived of the true light which lightened\nthem: think of the orphans you are leaving and forgive all their faults,\ngive to them all, present and absent, the joy of your holy benediction.\"\n\n\"See,\" replied the dying man, \"God is calling me. I forgive all my\nBrothers, present and absent, their offences and faults, and absolve\nthem according to my power. Tell them so, and bless them all in my\nname.\"[23]\n\nThen crossing his arms he laid his hands upon those who surrounded him.\nHe did this with peculiar emotion to Bernard of Quintavalle: \"I desire,\"\nhe said, \"and with all my power I urge whomsoever shall be\nminister-general of the Order, to love and honor him as myself; let the\nprovincials and all the Brothers act toward him as toward me.\"[24]\n\nHe thought not only of the absent Brothers but of the future ones; love\nso abounded in him that it wrung from him a groan of regret for not\nseeing all those who should enter the Order down to the end of time,\nthat he might lay his hand upon their brows, and make them feel those\nthings that may only be spoken by the eyes of him who loves in God.[25]\n\nHe had lost the notion of time; believing that it was still Thursday he\ndesired to take a last meal with his disciples. Some bread was brought,\nhe broke it and gave it to them, and there in the poor cabin of\nPortiuncula, without altar and without a priest, was celebrated the\nLord's Supper.[26]\n\nA Brother read the Gospel for Holy Thursday, _Ante diem festum Paschae_:\n\"Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come\nto go from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in\nthe world he loved them unto the end.\"\n\nThe sun was gilding the crests of the mountains with his last rays,\nthere was silence around the dying one. All was ready. The angel of\ndeath might come.\n\nSaturday, October 3, 1226, at nightfall, without pain, without struggle,\nhe breathed the last sigh.\n\nThe Brothers were still gazing on his face, hoping yet to catch some\nsign of life, when innumerable larks alighted, singing, on the thatch of\nhis cell,[27] as if to salute the soul which had just taken flight and\ngive the Little Poor Man the canonization of which he was most worthy,\nthe only one, doubtless, which he would ever have coveted.\n\nOn the morrow, at dawn, the Assisans came down to take possession of his\nbody and give it a triumphant funeral.\n\nBy a pious inspiration, instead of going straight to the city they went\naround by St. Damian, and thus was realized the promise made by Francis\nto the Sisters a few weeks before, to come once more to see them.\n\nTheir grief was heart-rending.\n\nThese women's hearts revolted against the absurdity of death;[28] but\nthere were tears on that day at St. Damian only. The Brothers forgot\ntheir sadness on seeing the stigmata, and the inhabitants of Assisi\nmanifested an indescribable joy on having their relic at last. They\ndeposited it in the Church St. George.[29]\n\nLess than two years after, Sunday, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. came to\nAssisi to preside in person over the ceremonies of canonization, and to\nlay, on the morrow, the first stone of the new church dedicated to the\nStigmatized.\n\nBuilt under the inspiration of Gregory IX. and the direction of Brother\nElias, this marvellous basilica is also one of the documents of this\nhistory, and perhaps I have been wrong in neglecting it.\n\nGo and look upon it, proud, rich, powerful, then go down to Portiuncula,\npass over to St. Damian, hasten to the Carceri, and you will understand\nthe abyss that separates the ideal of Francis from that of the pontiff\nwho canonized him.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] _Mortem cantando suscepit._ 2 Cel., 3, 139.\n\n   [2] The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS.,\n       338 (f^o 16a-18a). It is also to be found in _Firmamentum_, f^o\n       19, col. 4; _Speculum_, Morin, _tract._ iii., 8a; Wadding, _ann.\n       1226_, 35; A. SS., p. 663; Amoni, _Legenda Trium Sociorum_;\n       Appendix, p. 110. Everything in this document proclaims its\n       authenticity, but we are not reduced to internal proof. It is\n       expressly cited in 1 Cel., 17 (before 1230); by the Three\n       Companions (1246), 3 Soc., 11; 26; 29; by 2 Cel., 3, 99 (1247).\n       These proofs would be more than sufficient, but there is another\n       of even greater value: the bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28,\n       1230, where Gregory IX. cites it textually and declares that the\n       friars are not bound to observe it.\n\n   [3] _Promittet Franciscus obedientiam ... papae ... et\n       successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis praecipere\n       aliquid quod sit contra animam et regulam._ _Archiv._, _i_, p.\n       563.\n\n   [4] _Quod si quando a quocumque ... pontifice aliquid ...\n       mandaretur quod esset contra fidem ... et caritatem et fructus\n       ejus tunc obediet Deo magis quam hominibus._ Ib., p. 561.\n\n   [5] _Est [Regula] et stat et intelligitur super eos ... Cum spei\n       fiducia pace fruemur cum conscientiae et Christi spiritus\n       testimonio certo._ Ib., pp. 563 and 565.\n\n   [6] _Archiv._, ii., p. 274.\n\n   [7] _Ad mandatum illud vos dicimus non teneri: quod sine\n       consensu Fratrum maxime ministrorum, quos universos tangebat\n       obligare nequivit nec successorem suum quomodolibet obligavit;\n       cum non habeat imperium par in parem._ The sophism is barely\n       specious; Francis was not on a par with his successors; he did\n       not act as minister-general, but as founder.\n\n   [8] _Arbor vit. cruc._, _lib._ v., _cap._ 3 and 5. See above, p.\n       185.\n\n   [9] _Tribul._, Laur., 25b; _Archiv._, i., p. 532.\n\n  [10] At the summit of the Apennines, about half way between\n       Camerino and Nocera (Umbria). _Tribul._, Laur., 26b; Magl.,\n       135b.\n\n  [11] _Declaratio Ubertini_, _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. This fact\n       is not to be questioned, since it is alleged in a piece\n       addressed to the pope, in response to the liberal friars, to\n       whom it was to be communicated.\n\n  [12] _Feci moram cum illis._, MS., 338. Most of the printed\n       texts give _miseracordiam_, which gives a less satisfactory\n       meaning. Cf. Miscellanea iii. (1888), p. 70; 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc.,\n       11.\n\n  [13] It is evident that heresy is not here in question. The\n       Brothers who were infected with it were to be delivered to the\n       Church.\n\n  [14] Urban IV. published, October 18, 1263, Potthast (18680), a\n       Rule for the Clarisses which completely changed the character of\n       this Order. Its author was the cardinal protector Giovanni degli\n       Ursini (the future Nicholas III.), who by way of precaution\n       forbade the Brothers Minor under the severest penalties to\n       dissuade the Sisters from accepting it. \"It differs as much from\n       the first Rule,\" said Ubertini di Casali \"as black and white,\n       the savory and the insipid.\" _Arbor. vit. cruc. lib._ v., _cap._\n       vi.\n\n  [15] V. _Test. B. Clarae_; _Conform._, 185a 1; Spec., 117b.\n\n  [16] 2 Cel., 3, 132.\n\n  [17] Bon., 112.\n\n  [18] The Bollandists deny this whole story, which they find in\n       opposition to the prescriptions of Francis himself. A. SS., p.\n       664 ff. But it is difficult to see for what object authors who\n       take great pains to explain it could have had for inventing it.\n       _Spec._, 133a; _Fior._ iv.; _consid._; _Conform._, 240a. I have\n       borrowed the whole account from Bernard of Besse: _De Laudibus_,\n       f^o 113b. It appears that Giacomina settled for the rest of her\n       life at Assisi, that she might gain edification from the first\n       companions of Francis. _Spec._, 107b. (What a lovely scene, and\n       with what a Franciscan fragrance!) The exact date of her death\n       is not known. She was buried in the lower church of the basilica\n       of Assisi, and on her tomb was engraved: _Hic jacit Jacoba\n       sancta nobilisque romana_. Vide Fratini: _Storia della\n       basilica_, p. 48. Cf. Jacobilli: _Vite dei Santi e Beati dell'\n       Umbria_, Foligno, 3 vols., 4to, 1647; i., p. 214.\n\n  [19] 2 Cel., 3, 139; Bon., 209, 210; _Conform._, 171b, 2.\n\n  [20] 2 Cel., 3, 139: _Cum me videritis ... sicut me nudius\n       tertius nudum vidistis._\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 109; 2 Cel., 3, 139.\n\n  [22] 1 Cel., 109; Bon., 212.\n\n  [23] 1 Cel., 109. Cf. _Epist. Eliae._\n\n  [24] _Tribul._ Laur., 22b. Nothing better shows the historic\n       value of the chronicle of the Tribulations than to compare its\n       story of these moments with that of the following documents:\n       _Conform._, 48b, 1; 185a, 2; _Fior._, 6.; _Spec._, 86a.\n\n  [25] 2 Cel., 3, 139; _Spec._, 116b; _Conform._, 224b, 1.\n\n  [26] 2 Cel., 3, 139. A simple comparison between this story in\n       the _Speculum_ (116b) and that in the _Conformities_ (224b, 1)\n       is enough to show how in certain of its parts the _Speculum_\n       represents a state of the legend anterior to 1385.\n\n  [27] Bon., 214. This cell has been transformed into a chapel and\n       may be found a few yards from the little church of Portiuncula.\n       Church and chapel are now sheltered under the great Basilica of\n       Santa Maria degli Angeli. See the picture and plan, A. SS., p.\n       814, or better still in _P. Barnabas aus dem Elsass, Portiuncula\n       oder Geschichte U. L. F. v. den Engeln_. Rixheim, 1884, 1 vol.,\n       8vo, pp. 311 and 312.\n\n  [28] 1 Cel., 116 and 117; Bon., 219; _Conform._ 185a, 1.\n\n  [29] To-day in the _cloture_ of the convent St. Clara. Vide\n       Miscellanea 1, pp. 44-48, a very interesting study by Prof.\n       Carattoli upon the coffin of St. Francis.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n         CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nSUMMARY\n\n\nI. ST. FRANCIS'S WORKS.\n\n\nII. BIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED.\n\n    1. Preliminary Note.\n\n    2. First Life by Thomas of Celano.\n\n    3. Review of the History of the Order 1230-1244.\n\n    4. Legend of the Three Companions.\n\n    5. Fragments of the Suppressed Portion of the Legend.\n\n    6. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. First Part.\n\n    7. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. Second Part.\n\n    8. Documents of Secondary Importance:\n\n         Biography for Use of the Choir.\n         Life in Verse.\n         Biography by Giovanni di Ceperano.\n         Life by Brother Julian.\n\n    9. Legend of St. Bonaventura.\n\n   10. De Laudibus of Bernard of Besse.\n\n\nIII. DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS.\n\n    1. Donation of the Verna.\n\n    2. Registers of Cardinal Ugolini.\n\n    3. Bulls.\n\n\nIV. CHRONICLERS OF THE ORDER.\n\n    1. Chronicle of Brother Giordano di Giano.\n\n    2. Eccleston: Arrival of the Friars in England.\n\n    3. Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni.\n\n    4. Chronicle of the Tribulations.\n\n    5. The Fioretti and their Appendices.\n\n    6. Chronicle of the XXIV. Generals.\n\n    7. The Conformities of Bartolommeo di Pisa.\n\n    8. Glassberger's Chronicle.\n\n    9. Chronicle of Mark of Lisbon.\n\n\nV. CHRONICLERS NOT OF THE ORDER.\n\n    1. Jacques de Vitry.\n\n    2. Thomas of Spalato.\n\n    3. Divers Chroniclers.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES\n\n\nThere are few lives in history so abundantly provided with documents as\nthat of St. Francis. This will perhaps surprise the reader, but to\nconvince himself he has only to run over the preceding list, which,\nhowever, has been made as succinct as possible.\n\nIt is admitted in learned circles that the essential elements of this\nbiography have disappeared or have been entirely altered. The\nexaggeration of certain religious writers, who accept everything, and\namong several accounts of the same fact always choose the longest and\nmost marvellous, has led to a like exaggeration in the contrary sense.\n\nIf it were necessary to point out the results of these two excesses as\nthey affect each event, this volume would need to be twice and even four\ntimes as large as it is. Those who are interested in these questions\nwill find in the notes brief indications of the original documents on\nwhich each narrative is based.[1]\n\nTo close the subject of the errors which are current in the Franciscan\ndocuments, and to show in a few lines their extreme importance, I shall\ntake two examples. Among our own contemporaries no one has so well\nspoken on the subject of St. Francis as M. Renan; he comes back to him\nwith affecting piety, and he was in a better condition than any one to\nknow the sources of this history. And yet he does not hesitate to say in\nhis study of the Canticle of the Sun, Francis's best known work: \"The\nauthenticity of this piece appears certain, but we must observe that we\nhave not the Italian original. The Italian text which we possess is a\ntranslation of a Portuguese version, which was itself translated from\nthe Spanish.\"[2]\n\nAnd yet the primitive Italian exists[3] not only in numerous\nmanuscripts in Italy and France, particularly in the Mazarine\nLibrary,[4] but also in the well-known book of the _Conformities_.[5]\n\nAn error, grave from quite another point of view, is made by the same\nauthor when he denies the authenticity of St. Francis's Will; this piece\nis not only the noblest expression of its author's religious feeling, it\nconstitutes also a sort of autobiography, and contains the solemn and\nscarcely disguised revocation of all the concessions which had been\nwrung from him. We have already seen that its authenticity is not to be\nchallenged.[6] This double example will, I hope, suffice to show the\nnecessity of beginning this study by a conscientious examination of the\nsources.\n\nIf the eminent historian to whom I have alluded were still living, he\nwould have for this page his large and benevolent smile, that simple,\n_Oui, oui_, which once made his pupils in the little hall of the College\nde France to tremble with emotion.\n\nI do not know what he would think of this book, but I well know that he\nwould love the spirit in which it was undertaken, and would easily\npardon me for having chosen him for scape-goat of my wrath against the\nlearned men and biographers.\n\nThe documents to be examined have been divided into five categories.\n\nThe first includes _St. Francis's works_.\n\nThe second, _biographies properly so called_.\n\nThe third, _diplomatic documents_.\n\nThe fourth, _chronicles of the Order_.\n\nThe fifth, _chronicles of authors not of the Order_.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n  [1] If any student finds himself embarrassed by the extreme\n      rarity of certain works cited, I shall make it my duty and\n      pleasure to send them to him, as well as a copy of the Italian\n      manuscripts.\n\n  [2] E. Renan: _Nouvelles etudes d'histoire religieuse_, Paris,\n      1884, 8vo, p. 331.\n\n  [3] See above, pp. 304 ff.\n\n  [4] Mazarine Library, MS. 8531: _Speculum perfectionis S.\n      Francisci_; the Canticle is found at fo. 51. Cf. MS., 1350 (date\n      of 1459). That text was published by Boehmer in the _Romanische\n      Studien_, Halle, 1871. pp. 118-122. _Der Sonnengesang v. Fr.\n      d'A._\n\n  [5] _Conform._ (Milan, 1510), 202b, 2s. For that matter it is\n      correct that Diola, in the _Croniche degli ordini instituti da\n      S. Francisco_ (Venice, 1606, 3 vols. 4to), translated after the\n      Castilian version of the work composed in Portuguese by Mark of\n      Lisbon, was foolish enough to render into Italian this\n      translation of a translation.\n\n  [6] See pages 333 ff.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nST. FRANCIS'S WORKS\n\n\nThe writings of St. Francis[1] are assuredly the best source of\nacquaintance with him; we can only be surprised to find them so\nneglected by most of his biographers. It is true that they give little\ninformation as to his life, and furnish neither dates nor facts,[2]\nbut they do better, they mark the stages of his thought and of his\nspiritual development. The legends give us Francis as he appeared, and\nby that very fact suffer in some degree the compulsion of circumstances;\nthey are obliged to bend to the exigencies of his position as general of\nan Order approved by the Church, as miracle-worker, and as saint. His\nworks, on the contrary, show us his very soul; each phrase has not only\nbeen thought, but lived; they bring us the Poverello's emotions, still\nalive and palpitating.\n\nSo, when in the writings of the Franciscans we find any utterance of\ntheir master, it unconsciously betrays itself, sounding out suddenly in\na sweet, pure tone which penetrates to your very heart, awakening with a\nthrill a sprite that was sleeping there.\n\nThis bloom of love enduing St. Francis's words would be an admirable\ncriterion of the authenticity of those opuscules which tradition\nattributes to him; but the work of testing is neither long nor\ndifficult. If after his time injudicious attempts were here and there\nmade to honor him with miracles which he did not perform, which he would\nnot even have wished to perform, no attempt was ever made to burden his\nliterary efforts with false or supposititious pieces.[3] The best\nproof of this is that it is not until Wadding--that is to say, until the\nseventeenth century--that we find the first and only serious attempt to\ncollect these precious memorials. Several of them have been lost,[4]\nbut those which remain are enough to give us in some sort the refutation\nof the legends.\n\nIn these pages Francis gives himself to his readers, as long ago he gave\nhimself to his companions; in each one of them a feeling, a cry of the\nheart, or an aspiration toward the Invisible is prolonged down to our\nown time.\n\nWadding thought it his duty to give a place in his collection to several\nsuspicious pieces; more than this, instead of following the oldest\nmanuscripts that he had before him, he often permitted himself to be led\nastray by sixteenth-century writers whose smallest concern was to be\ncritical and accurate. To avoid the tedious and entirely negative task\nto which it would be necessary to proceed if I took him for my\nstarting-point I shall confine myself to a positive study of this\nquestion.\n\nAll the pieces which will be enumerated are found in his collection.\nThey are sometimes cut up in a singular way; but in proportion as each\ndocument is studied we shall find sufficient indications to enable us\nto make the necessary rectifications.\n\nThe archives of Sacro Convento of Assisi[5] possess a manuscript whose\nimportance is not to be overestimated. It has already been many times\nstudied,[6] and bears the number 338.\n\nIt appears, however, that a very important detail of form has been\noverlooked. It is this: that No. 338 is not _one_ manuscript, but _a\ncollection_ of manuscripts of very different periods, which were put\ntogether because they were of very nearly the same size, and have been\nfoliated in a peculiar manner.\n\nThis artificial character of the collection shows that each of the\npieces which compose it needs to be examined by itself, and that it is\nimpossible to say of it as a whole that it is of the thirteenth or the\nfourteenth century.\n\nThe part that interests us is perfectly homogeneous, is formed of three\nparchment books (fol. 12a-44b) and contains a part of Francis's works.\n\n1. The Rule, definitively approved by Honorius III., November 20,\n1223[7] (fol. 12a-16a).\n\n2. St. Francis's Will[8] (fol. 16a-18a).\n\n3. The Admonitions[9] (fol. 18a-23b).\n\n4. The Letter to all Christians[10] (fol. 23b-28a).\n\n5. The letter to all the members of the Order assembled in\nChapter-general[11] (fol. 28a-31a).\n\n6. Counsel to all clerics on the respect to be paid to the\nEucharist[12] (fol., 31b-32b).\n\n7. A very short piece preceded by the rubric: \"Of the virtues which\nadorn the Virgin Mary and which ought to adorn the holy soul\"[13] (fol.\n32b).\n\n8. The _Laudes Creaturarum_, or Canticle of the Sun[14] (fol. 33a).\n\n9. A paraphrase of the _Pater_ introduced by the rubric: _Incipiunt\nlaudes quas ordinavit. B. pater noster Franciscus et dicebat ipsas ad\nomnes horas diei et noctis et ante officium B. V. Mariae sic incipiens:\nSanctissime Pater_[15] (fol. 34a).\n\n10. The office of the Passion (34b-43a). This office, where the psalms\nare replaced by several series of biblical verses, are designed to make\nhim who repeats them follow, hour by hour, the emotions of the Crucified\nOne from the evening of Holy Thursday.[16]\n\n11. A rule for friars in retreat in hermitages[17] (fol. 43a-43b).\n\nA glance over this list is enough to show that the works of Francis here\ncollected are addressed to all the Brothers, or are a sort of\nencyclicals, which they are charged to pass on to those for whom they\nare destined.\n\nThe very order of these pieces shows us that we have in this manuscript\nthe primitive library of the Brothers Minor, the collection of which\neach minister was to carry with him a copy. It was truly their viaticum.\n\nMatthew Paris tells us of his amazement at the sight of these foreign\nmonks, clothed in patched tunics, and carrying their books in a sort of\ncase suspended from their necks.[18]\n\nThe Assisi manuscript was without doubt destined to this service; if it\nis silent on the subject of the journeys it has made, and of the\nBrothers to whom it has been a guide and an inspiration, it at least\nbrings us, more than all the legends, into intimacy with Francis, makes\nus thrill in unison with that heart which never admitted a separation\nbetween joy, love, and poetry. As to the date of this manuscript, one\nmust needs be a paleographer to determine. We have already found a\nhypothesis which, if well grounded, would carry it back to the\nneighborhood of 1240.[19]\n\nIts contents seem to countenance this early date. In fact, it contains\nseveral pieces of which the _Manual of the Brother Minor_ very early rid\nitself.\n\nVery soon they were content to have only the Rule to keep company with\nthe breviary; sometimes they added the Will. But the other writings, if\nthey did not fall entirely into neglect, ceased at least to be of daily\nusage.\n\nThose of St. Francis's writings which are not of general interest or do\nnot concern the Brothers naturally find no place in this collection. In\nthis new category we must range the following documents:\n\n1. The Rule of 1221.[20]\n\n2. The Rule of the Clarisses, which we no longer possess in its original\nform.[21]\n\n3. A sort of special instruction for ministers-general.[22]\n\n4. A letter to St. Clara.[23]\n\n5. Another letter to the same.[24]\n\n6. A letter to Brother Leo.[25]\n\n7. A few prayers.[26]\n\n8. The benediction of Brother Leo. The original autograph, which is\npreserved in the treasury of Sacro Convento, has been very well\nreproduced by heliograph.[27]\n\nAs to the two famous hymns _Amor de caritade_[28] and _In foco l'amor\nmi mise_,[29] they cannot be attributed to St. Francis, at least in\ntheir present form.\n\nIt belongs to M. Monaci and his numerous and learned emulators to throw\nlight upon these delicate questions by publishing in a scientific manner\nthe earliest monuments of Italian poetry.\n\nI have already spoken of several tracts of which assured traces have\nbeen found, though they themselves are lost. They are much more numerous\nthan would at first be supposed. In the missionary zeal of the early\nyears the Brothers would not concern themselves with collecting\ndocuments. We do not write our memoirs in the fulness of our youth.\n\nWe must also remember that Portiuncula had neither archives nor library.\nIt was a chapel ten paces long, with a few huts gathered around it. The\nOrder was ten years old before it had seen any other than a single book:\na New Testament. The Brothers did not even keep this one. Francis,\nhaving nothing else, gave it to a poor woman who asked for alms, and\nwhen Pietro di Catania, his vicar, expressed his surprise at this\nprodigality: \"Has she not given her two sons to the Order?\" replied the\nmaster[30] quickly.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Collected first by Wadding (Antwerp, 1623, 4to), they have\n       been published many times since then, particularly by De la Haye\n       (Paris, 1641, f^o). These two editions having become scarce,\n       were republished--in a very unsatisfactory manner--by the Abbe\n       Horoy: _S. Francisci Assisiatis opera omnia_ (Paris, 1880, 4to).\n       For want of a more exact edition, that of Father Bernardo da\n       Fivizzano is the most useful: _Opuscoli di S. Francesco\n       d'Assisi_, 1 vol., 12mo, pp. 564, Florence, 1880. The Latin text\n       is accompanied by an Italian translation.\n\n   [2] \"_Die Briefe, die unter seinem Namen gehen, moegen theilweise\n       aecht sein. Aber sie tragen kaum etwas zur naeheren Kenntniss bei\n       und koennen daher fast ganz ausser Acht bleiben_.\" Mueller, _Die\n       Anfaenge des Minoritenordens_, Freiburg, 1 vol., 8vo, 1885, p. 3.\n\n   [3] Pieces have been often attributed to St. Francis which do\n       not belong to him; but those are unintentional errors and made\n       without purpose. The desire for literary exactness is relatively\n       of recent date, and it was easier for those who were ignorant of\n       the author of certain Franciscan writings to attribute them to\n       St. Francis than to admit their ignorance or to make deep\n       researches.\n\n   [4] For example, the first Rule; probably also a few canticles;\n       a letter to the Brothers in France, Eccl., 6; another to the\n       Brothers in Bologna: \"_Praedixerat per litteram in qua fuit\n       plurimum latinum_,\" Eccl., ib.; a letter to Antony of Padua,\n       other than the one we have, since on the witness of Celano it\n       was addressed: _Fratri Antonio episcopo meo_ (2 Cel., 3, 99);\n       certain letters to St. Clara: \"_Scripsit Clarae et sororibus ad\n       consolationem litteram in qua dabat benedictionem suam et\n       absolvebat_,\" etc. _Conform._, f^o. 185a, 1; cf. _Test. B.\n       Clarae_. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 767: \"_Plura scripta\n       tradidit nobis, ne post mortem suam declinaremus a paupertate_;\"\n       certain letters to Cardinal Ugolini, 3 Soc., 67.\n\n       It is not to negligence alone that we must attribute the loss of\n       many of the epistles: \"_Quod nephas est cogitare, in provincia\n       Marchie et in pluribus aliis locis testamentum beati Francisci\n       mandaverunt (prelati ordinis) districte per obedientiam ab\n       omnibus auferi et comburi. Et uni fratri devoto et sancto, cujus\n       nomen est N. de Rocanato combuxerunt dicum testamentum super\n       caput suum. Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti, annulare scripta\n       beati patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de\n       observantia regule declaratur._\" Ubertino di Casali, _apud\n       Archiv._, iii., pp. 168-169.\n\n   [5] Italy is too obliging to artists, archaeologists, and\n       scholars not to do them the favor of disposing in a more\n       practical manner this trust, the most precious of all Umbria.\n       Even with the indefatigable kindness of the curator, M.\n       Alessandro, and of the municipality of Assisi, it is very\n       difficult to profit by these treasures heaped up in a dark room\n       without a table to write upon.\n\n   [6] In particular by Ehrle: _Die historischen Handschriften von\n       S. Francesco in Assisi._ _Archiv._, t. i., p. 484.\n\n   [7] See pages 252 ff ... and 283.\n\n   [8] See pages 333 ff.\n\n   [9] See pages 259 ff.\n\n  [10] See page 325 ff.\n\n  [11] See pages 322 ff.\n\n  [12] See page 327.\n\n  [13] I give it entire: \"_Regina sapientia, Dominus te salvet,\n       cum tua sorore sancta pura simplicitate.--Domina sancta\n       paupertas, Domimus te salvet, cum tua sorore sancta\n       humilitate.--Domina sancta caritas, Dominus te salvet, cum tua\n       sorrore sancta obedientia. Sanctissimae virtutes omnes, vos\n       salvet Dominus, a quo venitis et proceditis._\" Its authenticity\n       is guaranteed by a citation by Celano: 2 Cel., 3, 119. Cf. 126b\n       and 127a.\n\n  [14] See pages 304 f.\n\n  [15] I shall not recur to this: the text is in the Conformities\n       138a 2.\n\n  [16] The authenticity of this service, to which there is not a\n       single allusion in the biographies of St. Francis, is rendered\n       certain by the life of St. Clara: \"_Officium crucis, prout\n       crucis amator Franciscus instituerat (Clara) didicit et affectu\n       simili frequentavit._\" A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 761a.\n\n  [17] It begins: _Illi qui volunt stare in heremis_. This text is\n       also found in the Conformities, 143a, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 43; see\n       p. 97.\n\n  [18] _Nudis pedibus incedentes, funiculis cincti, tunicis\n       griseis et talaribus peciatis, insuto capucio utentes ... nihil\n       sibi ultra noctem reservantes ... libros continue suos ... in\n       forulis a collo dependentes bajulantes._ Historia Anglorum,\n       Pertz: _Script._, t. 28, p. 397. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 135; _Fior._, 5;\n       _Spec._, 45b.\n\n  [19] See page 322 n.\n\n  [20] See page 252.\n\n  [21] See page 157.\n\n  [22] See pages 318 ff.\n\n  [23] See page 239.\n\n  [24] See page 327.\n\n  [25] See page 262.\n\n  [26] _a._ _Sanctus Dominus Deus noster._ Cf. _Spec._, 126a;\n       _Firmamentum_, 18b, 2; _Conform._, 202b, 1.\n\n       _b._ _Ave Domina sancta._ Cf. _Spec._, 127a; _Conform._, 138a, 2.\n\n       _c._ _Sancta Maria virgo._ Cf. _Spec._, 126b; _Conform._, 202b,  2.\n\n  [27] Vide S. Francois, in 4to, Paris. 1885 (Plon), p. 233. The\n       authenticity of this benediction appears to be well established,\n       since it was already jealously guarded during the life of Thomas\n       of Celano. No one has ever dreamed of requiring historical proof\n       of this writing. Is this perhaps a mistake? The middle of the\n       sheet is taken up with the benediction which was dictated to\n       Brother Leo: _Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodiat te, ostendat\n       faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui convertat vultum suum ad te\n       et det tibi pacem._ At the bottom, Francis added the letter\n       _tau_. ~[Greek: Tau]~, which was, so to speak, his signature\n       (Bon., 51; 308), and the words: _Frater Leo Dominus benedicat te_.\n\n       Then when this memorial became a part of the relics of the\n       Saint, Brother Leo, to authenticate it in a measure, added the\n       following notes: toward the middle: _Beatus Franciscus\n       scripsit manu sua istam benedictionem mihi fratri Leoni_;\n       toward the close: _Simili modo fecit istud signum thau cum\n       capite manu sua_. But the most valuable annotation is found at\n       the top of the sheet: _Beatus Franciscus duobus annis ante\n       mortem suam fecit quadragesimam in loco Alvernae ad honorem\n       Beatae Virginia Mariae matris Dei et beati Michael archangeli a\n       festo assumptionis sanctae Mariae Virginis usque ad festum\n       sancti Michael septembris et facta est super eum manus Domini\n       per visionem et allucotionem seraphym et impressionem\n       stigmatum in corpore suo. Fecit has laudes ex alio latere\n       catule scriptas et manu, sua scripsit gratias agens Domino de\n       beneficio sibi collato._ Vide 2 Cel., 2, 18.\n\n  [28] Wadding gives the text according to St. Bernardino da\n       Siena. _Opera_, t. iv., _sermo_ 16, _extraord. et sermo feriae\n       sextae Parasceves_. Amoni: _Legenda trium sociorum_, p. 166.\n\n  [29] Wadding has drawn the text from St. Bernardino, _loc.\n       cit._, _sermo_ iv., _extraord._ It was also reproduced by Amoni,\n       _loc. cit._, p. 165. Two very curious versions may be found in\n       the Miscellanea, 1888, pp. 96 and 190.\n\n  [30] 2 Cel., 3, 35. This took place under the vicariat of Pietro\n       di Catania; consequently between September 29, 1220, and March\n       10, 1221.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nBIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED\n\n\nI. PRELIMINARY NOTE\n\nTo form a somewhat exact notion of the documents which are to occupy us,\nwe must put them back into the midst of the circumstances in which they\nappeared, study them in detail, and determine the special value of each\none.\n\nHere, more than anywhere else, we must beware of facile theories and\nhasty generalizations. The same life described by two equally truthful\ncontemporaries may take on a very different coloring. This is especially\nthe case if the man concerned has aroused enthusiasm and wrath, if his\ninmost thought, his works, have been the subject of discussion, if the\nvery men who were commissioned to realize his ideals and carry on his\nwork are divided, and at odds with one another.\n\nThis was the case with St. Francis. In his lifetime and before his own\neyes divergences manifested themselves, at first secretly, then in the\nlight of day.\n\nIn a rapture of love he went from cottage to cottage, from castle to\ncastle, preaching absolute poverty; but that buoyant enthusiasm, that\nunbounded idealism, could not last long. The Order of the Brothers Minor\nin process of growth was open not only to a few choice spirits aflame\nwith mystic fervor, but to all men who aspired after a religious\nreformation; pious laymen, monks undeceived as to the virtues of the\nancient Orders, priests shocked at the vices of the secular clergy, all\nbrought with them--unintentionally no doubt and even unconsciously--too\nmuch of their old man not by degrees to transform the institution.\n\nFrancis perceived the peril several years before his death, and made\nevery effort to avert it. Even in his dying hour we see him summoning\nall his powers to declare his Will once again, and as clearly as\npossible, and to conjure his Brothers never to touch the Rule, even\nunder pretext of commenting upon or explaining it. Alas! four years had\nnot rolled away when Gregory IX., at the prayer of the Brothers\nthemselves, became the first one of a long series of pontiffs who have\nexplained the Rule.[1]\n\nPoverty, as Francis understood it, soon became only a memory. The\nunexampled success of the Order brought to it not merely new recruits,\nbut money. How refuse it when there were so many works to found? Many of\nthe friars discovered that their master had exaggerated many things,\nthat shades of meaning were to be observed in the Rule, for example,\nbetween counsels and precepts. The door once opened to interpretations,\nit became impossible to close it. The Franciscan family began to be\ndivided into opposing parties often difficult to distinguish.\n\nAt first there were a few restless, undisciplined men who grouped\nthemselves around the older friars. The latter, in their character of\nfirst companions of the Saint, found a moral authority often greater\nthan the official authority of the ministers and guardians. The people\nturned to them by instinct as to the true continuers of St. Francis's\nwork. They were not far from right.\n\nThey had the vigor, the vehemence of absolute convictions; they could\nnot have temporized had they desired to do so. When they emerged from\ntheir hermitages in the Apennines, their eyes shining with the fever of\ntheir ideas, absorbed in contemplation, their whole being spoke of the\nradiant visions they enjoyed; and the amazed and subdued multitude\nwould kneel to kiss the prints of their feet with hearts mysteriously\nstirred.\n\nA larger group was that of those Brothers who condemned these methods\nwithout being any the less saints. Born far away from Umbria, in\ncountries where nature seems to be a step-mother, where adoration, far\nfrom being the instinctive act of a happy soul soaring upward to bless\nthe heavenly Father, is, on the contrary, the despairing cry of an atom\nlost in immensity, they desired above all things a religious\nreformation, rational and profound. They dreamed of bringing the Church\nback to the purity of the ancient days, and saw in the vow of poverty,\nunderstood in its largest sense, the best means of struggling against\nthe vices of the clergy; but they forgot the freshness, the Italian\ngayety, the sunny poetry that there had been in Francis's mission.\n\nFull of admiration for him, they yet desired to enlarge the foundations\nof his work, and for that they would neglect no means of influence,\ncertainly not learning.\n\nThis tendency was the dominant one in France, Germany, and England. In\nItaly it was represented by a very powerful party, powerful if not in\nthe number, at least in the authority, of its representatives. This was\nthe party favored by the papacy. It was the party of Brother Elias and\nall the ministers-general of the Order in the thirteenth century, if we\nexcept Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) and Raimondo Gaufridi (1289-1295).\n\nIn Italy a third group, the liberals, was much more numerous; men of\nmediocrity to whom monastic life appeared the most facile existence,\nvagrant monks happy to secure an aftermath of success by displaying the\nnew Rule, formed in this country the greater part of the Franciscan\nfamily.\n\nWe can understand without difficulty that documents emanating from such\ndifferent quarters must bear the impress of their origin. The men who\nare to bring us their testimony are combatants in the struggle over the\nquestion of poverty, a struggle which for two centuries agitated the\nChurch, aroused all consciences, and which had its monsters and its\nmartyrs.\n\nTo determine the value of these witnesses we must first of all discover\ntheir origin. It is evident that the narratives of the no-compromise\nparty of the right or the left can have but slender value where\ncontroverted points are concerned; whence the conclusion that the\nauthority of a narrator may vary from page to page, or even from line to\nline.\n\nThese considerations, so simple that one almost needs to beg pardon for\nuttering them, have not, however, guided those who have studied St.\nFrancis's life. The most learned, like Wadding and Papini, have brought\ntogether the narratives of different biographers, here and there pruning\nthose that are too contradictory; but they have done this at random,\nwith neither rule nor method, guided by the impression of the moment.\n\nThe long work of the Bollandist Suysken is vitiated by an analogous\nfault; fixed in his principle that the oldest documents are always the\nbest,[2] he takes his stand upon the first Life of Thomas of Celano as\nupon an impregnable rock, and judges all other legends by that one.[3]\n\nWhen we connect the documents with the disturbed circumstances which\nbrought them into being, some of them lose a little of their authority,\nothers which have been neglected, as being in contradiction with\nwitnesses who have become so to say official, suddenly recover credit,\nand in fact all gain a new life which doubles their interest.\n\nThis altered point of view in the valuation of the sources, this\ncriticism which I am inclined to call reciprocal and organic, brings\nabout profound alterations in the biography of St. Francis. By a\nphenomenon which may appear strange we end by sketching a portrait of\nhim much more like that which exists in the popular imagination of Italy\nthan that made by the learned historians above mentioned.\n\nWhen Francis died (1226) the parties which divided the Order had already\nentered into conflict. That event precipitated the crisis: Brother Elias\nhad been for five years exercising the functions of minister-general\nwith the title of vicar. He displayed an amazing activity. Intrenched in\nthe confidence of Gregory IX. he removed the _Zelanti_ from their\ncharges, strengthened the discipline even in the most remote provinces,\nobtained numerous privileges from the curia, and with incredible\nrapidity prepared for the building of the double basilica, destined for\nthe repose of the ashes of the Stigmatized Saint; but notwithstanding\nall his efforts, the chapter of 1227 set him aside and chose Giovanni\nParenti as minister-general.\n\nFurious at this check, he immediately set all influences to work to be\nchosen at the following chapter. It even seems as if he paid no\nattention to the nomination of Giovanni Parenti, and continued to go on\nas if he had been minister.[4]\n\nVery popular among the Assisans, who were dazzled by the magnificence of\nthe monument which was springing up on the _Hill of Hell_, now become\nthe _Hill of Paradise_, sure of being supported by a considerable party\nin the Order and by the pope, he pushed forward the work on the basilica\nwith a decision and success perhaps unique in the annals of\narchitecture.[5]\n\nAll this could not be done without arousing the indignation of the\nZealots of poverty. When they saw a monumental poor-box, designed to\nreceive the alms of the faithful, upon the tomb of him who had forbidden\nhis disciples the mere contact of money, it seemed to them that\nFrancis's prophecy of the apostasy of a part of the Order was about to\nbe fulfilled. A tempest of revolt swept over the hermitages of Umbria.\nMust they not, by any means, prevent this abomination in the holy place?\n\nThey knew that Elias was terrible in his severities, but his opponents\nfelt in themselves courage to go to the last extremity, and suffer\neverything to defend their convictions. One day the poor-box was found\nshattered by Brother Leo and his friends.[6]\n\nTo this degree of intensity the struggle had arrived. At this crisis the\nfirst legend appeared.\n\n\nII. First Life by Thomas of Celano[7]\n\nThomas of Celano, in writing this legend, to which he was later to\nreturn for its completion, obeyed an express order of Pope Gregory\nIX.[8]\n\nWhy did he not apply to one of the Brothers of the Saint's immediate\ncircle? The talent of this author might explain this choice, but\nbesides the fact that literary considerations would in this case hold a\nsecondary place, Brother Leo and several others proved later that they\nalso knew how to handle the pen.\n\nIf Celano was put in trust with the official biography, it is because,\nbeing equally in sympathy with Gregory IX. and Brother Elias, his\nabsence had kept him out of the conflicts which had marked the last\nyears of Francis's life. Of an irenic temper, he belonged to the\ncategory of those souls who easily persuade themselves that obedience is\nthe first of virtues, that every superior is a saint; and if unluckily\nhe is not, that we should none the less act as though he were.\n\nWe have some knowledge of his life. A native of Celano in the Abruzzi,\nhe discreetly observes that his family was noble, even adding, with a\ntouch of artless simplicity, that the master had a peculiar regard for\nnoble and educated Brothers. He entered the Order about 1215,[9] on\nthe return of Francis from Spain.\n\nAt the chapter of 1221 Caesar of Speyer, charged with the mission to\nGermany, took him among those who were to accompany him.[10] In 1223 he\nwas named custode of Mayence, Worms, Cologne, and Speyer. In April of\nthe same year, when Caesar returned to Italy, devoured with the longing\nto see St. Francis again, he commissioned Celano to execute his\nfunctions until the arrival of the new provincial.[11]\n\nWe have no information as to where he was after the chapter-general held\nat Speyer September 8, 1223. He must have been in Assisi in 1228, for\nhis account of the canonization is that of an eye-witness. He was there\nagain in 1230, and doubtless clothed with an important office, since he\ncould commit to Brother Giordano the relics of St. Francis.[12]\n\nWritten in a pleasing style, very often poetic, his work breathes an\naffecting admiration for his hero; his testimony at once makes itself\nfelt as sincere and true: when he is partial it is without intention and\neven without his knowledge. The weak point in this biography is the\npicture which it outlines of the relations between Brother Elias and the\nfounder of the Order: from the chapters devoted to the last two years we\nreceive a very clear impression that Elias was named by Francis to\nsucceed him.[13]\n\nNow if we reflect that at the time when Celano wrote, Giovanni Parenti\nwas minister-general, we at once perceive the bearing of these\nindications.[14] Every opportunity is seized to give a preponderating\nimportance to Elias.[15] It is a true manifesto in his favor.\n\nHave we reason to blame Celano? I think not. We must simply remember\nthat his work might with justice be called the legend of Gregory IX.\nElias was the pope's man, and the biography is worked up from the\ninformation he gave. He could not avoid dwelling with peculiar\nsatisfaction upon his intimacy with Francis.\n\nOn the other hand, we cannot expect to find here such details as might\nhave sustained the pretension of the adversaries of Elias, those unruly\nZealots who were already proudly adorning themselves with the title of\n_Companions of the Saint_ and endeavoring to constitute a sort of\nspiritual aristocracy in the Order. Among them were four who during the\nlast two years had not, so to say, quitted Francis. We can imagine how\ndifficult it was not to speak of them. Celano carefully omits to mention\ntheir names under pretext of sparing their modesty;[16] but by the\npraises lavished upon Gregory IX., Brother Elias,[17] St. Clara,[18]\nand even upon very secondary persons, he shows that his discretion is\nfar from being always so alert.\n\nAll this is very serious, but we must not exaggerate it. There is an\nevident partiality, but it would be unjust to go farther and believe, as\nmen did later, that the last part of Francis's life was an active\nstruggle against the very person of Elias. A struggle there surely was,\nbut it was against tendencies whose spring Francis did not perceive. He\ncarried with him to his tomb his delusion as to his co-laborer.\n\nFor that matter this defect is after all secondary so far as the\nphysiognomy of Francis himself is concerned. In Celano's Life, as in the\nThree Companions or the Fioretti, he appears with a smile for all joys,\nand floods of tears for all woes; we feel everywhere the restrained\nemotion of the writer; his heart is subjected by the moral beauty of his\nhero.\n\n\nIII. SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER FROM 1230-1244\n\nWhen Thomas of Celano closed his legend he perceived more than anyone\nthe deficiencies of his work, for which he had been able to collect but\ninsufficient material.\n\nElias and the other Assisan brothers had told him of Francis's youth and\nhis activity in Umbria; but besides that he would have preferred,\nwhether from prudence or from love of peace, to keep silence upon\ncertain events,[19] there were long periods upon which he had not\nreceived a single item of information.[20]\n\nHe therefore seems to indicate his intention of resuming and completing\nhis work.[21]\n\nThis is not the place to write the history of the Order, but a few facts\nare necessary to put the documents into their proper surroundings.\n\nElected minister-general in 1232, Brother Elias took advantage of the\nfact to labor with indomitable energy toward the realization of his own\nideas. In all the provinces new collections were organized for the\nBasilica of Assisi, the work upon which was pushed with an activity\nwhich however injured neither the strength of the edifice nor the\nbeauty of its details, which are as finished and perfect as those of any\nmonument in Europe.\n\nWe may conceive of the enormous sums which it had been necessary to\nraise in order to complete such an enterprise in so short a time. More\nthan that, Brother Elias exacted absolute obedience from all his\nsubordinates; naming and removing the provincial ministers according to\nhis personal views, he neglected to convoke the chapter-general, and\nsent his emissaries under the name of visitors into all the provinces to\nsecure the execution of his orders.\n\nThe moderate party in Germany, France, and England very soon found his\nyoke insupportable. It was hard for them to be directed by an Italian\nminister resident at Assisi, a small town quite aside from the highways\nof civilization, entirely a stranger to the scientific movement\nconcentred in the universities of Oxford, Paris, and Bologna.\n\nIn the indignation of the _Zelanti_ against Elias and his contempt for\nthe Rule, they found a decisive support. Very soon the minister had for\nhis defence nothing but his own energy, and the favor of the pope and of\nthe few Italian moderates. By a great increase of vigilance and severity\nhe repressed several attempts at revolt.\n\nHis adversaries, however, succeeded in establishing secret intelligence\nat the court of Rome; even the pope's confessor was gained; yet in spite\nof all these circumstances, the success of the conspiracy was still\nuncertain when the chapter of 1239 opened.\n\nGregory IX., still favorable to Elias,[22] presided. Fear gave sudden\ncourage to the conspirators; they threw their accusations in their\nenemy's face.\n\nThomas of Eccleston gives a highly colored narrative of what took place.\nElias was proud, violent, even threatening. There were cries and\nvociferations from both sides; they were about to come to blows when a\nfew words from the pope restored silence. He had made up his mind to\nabandon his _protege_. He asked for his resignation. Elias indignantly\nrefused.\n\nGregory IX. then explained that in keeping him in charge he had thought\nhimself acting in accordance with the wishes of the majority: that he\nhad no intention to dominate the Order, and, since the Brothers no\nlonger desired Elias, he declared him deposed from the generalate.\n\nThe joy of the victors, says Eccleston, was immense and ineffable. They\nchose Alberto di Pisa, provincial of England, to succeed him, and from\nthat time bent all their efforts to represent Elias as a creature of\nFrederick II.[23] The former minister wrote indeed to the pope to\nexplain his conduct, but the letter did not reach its destination. It\nmust have reached the hands of his successor, and not been sent forward;\nwhen Alberto of Pisa died it was found in his tunic.[24]\n\nAll the fury of the aged pontiff was unchained against Elias. One must\nread the documents to see to what a height his anger could rise. The\nfriar retorted with a virulence which though less wordy was far more\noverpowering.[25]\n\nThese events gained an indescribable notoriety[26] all over Europe and\nthrew the Order into profound disturbance. Many of the partisans of\nElias became convinced that they had been deceived by an impostor, and\nthey drew toward the group of Zealots, who never ceased to demand the\nobservance pure and simple of the Rule and the Will.\n\nThomas of Celano was of this number.[27] With profound sadness he saw\nthe innumerable influences that were secretly undermining the Franciscan\ninstitute and menacing it with ruin. Already a refrain was going the\nrounds of the convents, singing the victory of Paris over Assisi, that\nis, of learning over poverty.\n\nThe Zealots gained new courage. Unaccustomed to the subtleties of\necclesiastical politics, they did not perceive that the pope, while\ncondemning Brother Elias, had in nowise modified the general course\nwhich he had marked out for the Order. The ministers-general, Alberto di\nPisa, 1239-1240, Aymon of Faversham, 1240-1244, Crescentius de Jesi,\n1244-1247, were all, with different shades of meaning, representatives\nof the moderate party.\n\nThomas of Celano's first legend had become impossible. The prominence\nthere given to Elias was almost a scandal. The necessity of working it\nover and completing it became clearly evident at the chapter of Genoa\n(1244).\n\nAll the Brothers who had anything to tell about Francis's life were\ninvited to commit it to writing and send it to the minister Crescentius\nde Jesi.[28] The latter immediately caused a tract to be drawn up in\nthe form of a dialogue, commencing with the words: \"_Venerabilium gesta\nPatrum_.\" So soon after as the time of Bernard de Besse, only fragments\nof this were left.[29]\n\nBut happily several of the works which saw the light in consequence of\nthe decision of this chapter have been preserved to us. It is to this\nthat we owe the Legend of the Three Companions and the Second Life by\nThomas of Celano.\n\n\nIV. LEGEND OF THE THREE COMPANIONS[30]\n\nThe life of St. Francis which has come down to us under the name of the\nLegend of the Three Companions was finished on August 11, 1246, in a\nlittle convent in the vale of Rieti, which appears often in the course\nof this history, that of Greccio. This hermitage had been Francis's\nfavorite abode, especially in the latter part of his life. He had thus\nmade it doubly dear to the hearts of his disciples.[31] It naturally\nbecame, from the earliest days of the Order, the headquarters of the\nObservants,[32] and it remains through all the centuries one of the\npurest centres of Franciscan piety.\n\nThe authors of this legend were men worthy to tell St. Francis's story,\nand perhaps the most capable of doing it: the friars Leo, Angelo, and\nRufino. All three had lived in intimacy with him, and had been his\ncompanions through the most important years. More than this, they took\nthe trouble to go to others for further information, particularly to\nFilippo, the visitor of the Clarisses, to Illuminato di Rieti, Masseo di\nMarignano, John, the confidant of Egidio, and Bernardo di Quintavalle.\n\nSuch names as these promise much, and happily we are not disappointed in\nour expectation. As it has come down to us, this document is the only\none worthy from the point of view of history to be placed beside the\nFirst Life by Celano.\n\nThe names of the authors and the date of the composition indicate before\nexamination the tendency with which it is likely to be in harmony. It is\nthe first manifesto of the Brothers who remained faithful to the spirit\nand letter of the Rule. This is confirmed by an attentive reading; it is\nat least as much a panegyric of Poverty as a history of St. Francis.\n\nWe naturally expect to see the Three Companions relating to us with a\nvery particular delight the innumerable features of the legends of which\nGreccio was the theatre; we turn to the end of the volume, expecting to\nfind the story of the last years of which they were witnesses, and are\nlost in surprise to find nothing of the kind.\n\nWhile the first half of the work describes Francis's youth, filling out\nhere and there Celano's First Life, the second[33] is devoted to a\npicture of the early days of the Order, a picture of incomparable\nfreshness and intensity of life; but strangely enough, after having told\nus so much at length of Francis's youth and then of the first days of\nthe Order, the story abruptly leaps over from the year 1220 to the death\nand the canonization, to which after all only a few pages are\ngiven.[34]\n\nThis is too extraordinary to be the result of chance. What has happened?\nIt is evident that the Legend of the Three Companions as we have it\nto-day is only a fragment of the original, which was no doubt revised,\ncorrected, and considerably cut down by the authorities of the Order\nbefore they would permit it to be circulated.[35] If the authors had\nbeen interrupted in their work, and obliged to cut short the end, as\nmight have been the case, they would have said so in their letter of\nenvoy, but there are still other arguments in favor of our hypothesis.\n\nBrother Leo having had the first and principal part in the production of\nthe work of the Three Companions, it is often called Brother Leo's\nLegend; now Brother Leo's Legend is several times cited by Ubertini di\nCasali, arraigned before the court of Avignon by the party of the Common\nObservance. Evidently Ubertini would have taken good care not to appeal\nto an apocryphal document; a false citation would have been enough to\nbring him to confusion, and his enemies would not have failed to make\nthe most of his imprudence. We have at hand all the documents of the\ntrial,[36] attacks, replies, counter replies, and nowhere do we see the\nLiberals accuse their adversary of falsehood. For that matter, the\nlatter makes his citations with a precision that admits of no\ncavil.[37] He appeals to writings to be found in a press in the\nconvent of Assisi, of which he gives sometimes a copy, sometimes an\noriginal.[38] We are then authorized to conclude that we have here\nfragments which have survived the suppression of the last and most\nimportant part of the Legend of the Three Companions.\n\nIt is not surprising that the work of Francis's dearest friends should\nhave been so seriously mutilated. It was the manifesto of a party that\nCrescentius was hunting down with all his power.\n\nAfter the fleeting reaction of the generalate of Giovanni di Parma we\nshall see a man of worth like St. Bonaventura moving for the suppression\nof all the primitive legends that his own compilation may be substituted\nfor them.\n\nIt is truly singular that no one has perceived the fragmentary state of\nthe work of the Three Companions. The prologue alone might have\nsuggested this idea. Why should it take three to write a few pages? Why\nthis solemn enumeration of Brothers whose testimony and collaboration\nare asked for? There would be a surprising disproportion between the\neffort and the result.\n\nMore than all, the authors say that they shall not stop at relating the\nmiracles, but they desire above all to exhibit the ideas of Francis and\nhis life with the Brothers, but we search in vain for any account of\nmiracles in what we now have.[39]\n\nAn Italian translation of this legend, published by Father Stanislaus\nMelchiorri,[40] has suddenly given me an indirect confirmation of this\npoint of view. This monk is only its publisher, and has simply been able\nto discover that in 1577 it was taken from a very ancient manuscript by\na certain Muzio Achillei di San Severino.[41]\n\nThis Italian translation contained only the last chapters of the legend,\nthose which tell of the death, the stigmata, and the translation of the\nremains.[42] It was, then, made at a time when the suppressed portion\nhad not been replaced by a short summary of the other legends.\n\nFrom all this two conclusions emerge for the critics: 1. This final\nsummary has not the same authority as the rest of the work, since the\ntime when it was added is unknown. 2. Fragments of a legend by Brother\nLeo or by the Three Companions scattered through later compilations may\nbe perfectly authentic.\n\nIn its present condition this legend of the Three Companions is the\nfinest piece of Franciscan literature, and one of the most delightful\nproductions of the Middle Ages. There is something indescribably sweet,\nconfiding, chaste, in these pages, an energy of virile youth which the\nFioretti suggest but never attain to. At more than six hundred years of\ndistance the purest dream that ever thrilled the Christian Church seems\nto live again.\n\nThese friars of Greccio, who, scattered over the mountain, under the\nshade of the olive-trees, passed their days in singing the Hymn of the\nSun, are the true models of the primitive Umbrian Masters. They are all\nalike; they are awkwardly posed; everything in and around them sins\nagainst the most elementary rules of art, and yet their memory pursues\nyou, and when you have long forgotten the works of impeccable modern\nartists you recall without effort these creations of those unknown\npainters; for love calls for love, and these vapid personages have very\ntrue and pure hearts, a more than human love shines forth from their\nwhole being, they speak to you and make you better.\n\nSuch is this book, the first utterance of the Spiritual Franciscans, in\nwhich we already see the coming to life of some of those bold doctrines\nthat not only divided the Franciscan family into two hostile branches,\nbut which were to bring some of their defenders to the heretic's\nstake.[43]\n\n\nV. FRAGMENTS OF THE SUPPRESSED PART OF THE LEGEND OF THE THREE\nCOMPANIONS\n\nWe may now take a step forward and try to group the fragments of the\nLegend of the Three Companions, or of Brother Leo, which are to be found\nin later writings.\n\nWe must here be more than ever on our guard against absolute theories;\none of the most fruitful principles of historic criticism is to prefer\ncontemporary documents, or at least those which are nearest them; but\neven with these it is necessary to use a little discretion.\n\nIt seems impossible to attack the reasoning of the Bollandists, who\nrefuse to know anything of legends written after that of St. Bonaventura\n(1260), under pretext that, coming after several other authorized\nbiographies, he was better situated than anyone for getting information\nand completing the work of his predecessors.[44] In reality this is\nabsurd, for it assumes that Bonaventura undertook to write as a\nhistorian. This is to forget that he wrote not only for the purpose of\nedification, but also as minister-general of the Minor Brothers. From\nthis fact his first duty was to keep silent on many facts, and those not\nthe least interesting. What shall we say of a biography where Francis's\nWill is not even mentioned?\n\nIt is easy to turn away from a writing of the fourteenth century, on the\nground that the author did not see what was going on a hundred years\nbefore; still we must not forget that many books of the end of the\nMiddle Ages resemble those old mansions at which four or five generators\nhave toiled. An inscription on their front often only shows the touch of\nthe last restorer or the last destroyer, and the names which are set\nforth with the greatest complacency are not always those of the real\nworkmen.\n\nSuch have been many Franciscan books; to attribute them to any one\nauthor would be impracticable; very different hands have worked upon\nthem, and such an amalgam has its own charm and interest.\n\nTurning them over--I had almost said associating with them--we come to\nsee clearly into this tangled web, for every work of man bears the trace\nof the hand that made it: this trace may perhaps be of an almost\nimperceptible delicacy; it exists none the less, ready to reveal itself\nto practised eyes. What is more impersonal than the photograph of a\nlandscape or of a painting, and yet among several hundreds of proofs the\namateur will go straight to the work of the operator he prefers.\n\nThese reflections were suggested by the careful study of a curious book\nprinted many times since the sixteenth century, the _Speculum Vitae S.\nFrancisci et sociorum ejus_.[45] A complete study of this work, its\nsources, its printed editions, the numerous differences in the\nmanuscripts, would by itself require a volume and an epitome of the\nhistory of the Order. I can give here only a few notes, taking for base\nthe oldest edition, that of 1504.\n\nThe confusion which reigns here is frightful. Incidents in the life of\nFrancis and his companions are brought together with no plan; several of\nthem are repeated after the interval of a few pages in a quite different\nmanner;[46] certain chapters are so awkwardly introduced that the\ncompiler has forgotten to remove the number that they bore in the work\nfrom which he borrowed them;[47] finally, to our great surprise, we\nfind several _Incipit_.[48]\n\nHowever, with a little perseverance we soon perceive a few openings in\nthe labyrinth. In the first place, here are several chapters of the\nlegend of Bonaventura which seem to have been put in the van as if to\nprotect the rest of the book. If we abstract them and the whole series\nof chapters from the Fioretti, we shall have diminished the work by\nnearly three-quarters.\n\nIf we take away two more chapters taken from St. Bernard of Clairvaux\nand those containing Franciscan prayers, or various attestations\nconcerning the indulgence of Portiuncula, we finally arrive at a sort of\nresidue, if the expression may be forgiven, of a remarkable homogeneity.\n\nHere the style is very different from that in the surrounding pages,\nclosely recalling that of the Three Companions; a single thought\ninspires these pages, that the corner-stone of the Order is the love of\npoverty.\n\nWhy should we not have here some fragments of the original legend of the\nThree Companions? We find here nothing which does not fit in with what\nwe know, nothing which suggests the embellishments of a late tradition.\n\nTo confirm this hypothesis come different passages which we find cited\nby Ubertini di Casali and by Angelo Clareno as being by Brother Leo, and\nan attentive comparison of the text shows that these authors can neither\nhave drawn them from the Speculum nor the Speculum from them.\n\nThere is, besides, one phrase which, apart from the inspiration and\nstyle, will suffice at the first glance to mark the common origin of\nmost of these pieces.[49] _Nos qui cum ipso fuimus_. \"We who have been\nwith him.\" These words, which recur in almost every incident,[49] are\nin many cases only a grateful tribute to their spiritual father, but\nsometimes, too, they have a touch of bitterness. These hermits of\nGreccio suddenly recall to mind their rights. Are we not the only, the\ntrue interpreters of the Saint's instructions--we who lived continually\nwith him; we who, hour after hour, have meditated upon his words, his\nsighs, and his hymns?\n\nWe can understand that such pretensions were not to the taste of the\nCommon Observance, and that Crescentius, with an incontestable\nauthority, has suppressed nearly all this legend.[51]\n\nAs for the fragments that have been preserved to us, though they furnish\nmany details about the last years of St. Francis's life, they still are\nnot those whose loss is so much to be regretted. The authors who\nreproduce them were defending a cause. We owe them little more than the\nincidents which in one way or another concern the question of poverty.\nThey had nothing to do with the other accounts, as they were not writing\na biography. But even within these narrow limits these fragments are in\nthe first order of importance; and I have not hesitated to use them\nlargely. It is needless to say that while ascribing their origin to the\nThree Companions, and in particular to Brother Leo, we must not suppose\nthat we have the very letter in the texts which have come down to us.\nThe pieces given by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno are actual\ncitations, and deserve full confidence as such. As for those which are\npreserved to us in the Speculum, they may often have been abridged,\nexplanatory notes may have slipped into the text, but nowhere do we find\ninterpolations in the bad sense of the word.[52]\n\nFinally, if we compare the fragments with the corresponding accounts in\nthe Second Life of Celano, we see that the latter has often borrowed\nverbatim from Brother Leo, but generally he has considerably abridged\nthe passages, adding reflections here and there, especially retouching\nthe style to make it more elegant.\n\nSuch a comparison soon proves that Brother Leo's narratives are the\noriginal and that it is impossible to see in them a later amplification\nof those of Thomas of Celano, as we might at first be tempted to think\nthem.[53]\n\n\nVI. SECOND LIFE BY THOMAS OF CELANO[54]\n\n_First Part_\n\nIn consequence of the decision of the chapter of 1244 search was begun\nin all quarters for memorials of the early times of the Order. In view\nof the ardor of this inquiry, in which zeal for the glory of the\nFranciscan institute certainly cast the interests of history into the\nbackground, the minister-general, Crescentius, was obliged to take\ncertain precautions.\n\nMany of the pieces that he received were doing double duty; others might\ncontradict one another; many of them, under color of telling the life of\nthe Saint, had no other object than to oppose the present to the past.\n\nIt soon became imperative to constitute a sort of commission charged to\nstudy and cooerdinate all this matter.[55] What more natural than to put\nThomas of Celano at its head? Ever since the approbation of the first\nlegend by Gregory IX. he had appeared to be in a sense the official\nhistoriographer of the Order.[56]\n\nThis view accords perfectly with the contents of the seventeen chapters\nwhich contain the first part of the second legend. It offers itself at\nthe outset as a compilation. Celano is surrounded with companions who\nhelp him.[57] A more attentive examination shows that its principal\nsource is the Legend of the Three Companions, which the compilers\nworked over, sometimes filling out certain details, more often making\nlarge excisions.\n\nEverything that does not concern St. Francis is ruthlessly proscribed;\nwe feel the well-defined purpose to leave in the background the\ndisciples who so complacently placed themselves in the foreground.[58]\n\nThe work of the Three Companions had been finished August 11, 1246. On\nJuly 13, 1247, the chapter of Lyons put an end to the powers of\nCrescentius. It is, therefore, between these two dates that we must\nplace the composition of the first part of Thomas of Celano's Second\nLife.[59]\n\n\nVII. SECOND LIFE BY THOMAS OF CELANO[59]\n\n_Second Part_\n\nThe election of Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) as successor of\nCrescentius was a victory for the Zealots. This man, in whose work-table\nthe birds came to make their nests,[61] was to astonish the world by\nhis virtues. No one saw more deeply into St. Francis's heart, no one was\nmore worthy to take up and continue his work.\n\nHe soon asked Celano to resume his work.[62] The latter was perhaps\nalone at first, but little by little a group of collaborators formed\nitself anew about him.[63] Thenceforth nothing prevented his doing with\nthat portion of the work of the Three Companions which Crescentius had\nsuppressed what he had already done with the part he had approved.\n\nThe Legend of Brother Leo has thus come down to us, entirely worked over\nby Thomas of Celano, abridged and with all its freshness gone, but still\nof capital importance in the absence of the major part of the original.\n\nThe events of which we possess two accounts permit us to measure the\nextent of our loss. We find, in fact, in Celano's compilation all that\nwe expected to find in the Three Companions: the incidents belong\nespecially to the last two years of Francis's life, and the scene of\nmany of them is either Greccio or one of the hermitages of the vale of\nRieti;[64] according to tradition, Brother Leo was the hero of a great\nnumber of the incidents here related[65] and all the citations that\nUbertini di Casali makes from Brother Leo's book find their\ncorrespondents here.[66]\n\nThis second part of the Second Life perfectly reflects the new\ncircumstances to which it owes its existence. The question of Poverty\ndominates everything;[67] the struggle between the two parties in the\nOrder reveals itself on every page; the collaborators are determined\nthat each event narrated shall be an indirect lesson to the Liberals, to\nwhom they oppose the Spirituals; the popes had commented on the Rule in\nthe large sense; they, on their side, undertook to comment on it in a\nsense at once literal and spiritual, by the actions and words of its\nauthor himself.\n\nHistory has hardly any part here except as the vehicle of a thesis, a\nfact which diminishes nothing of the historic value of the information\ngiven in the course of these pages. But while in Celano's First Life and\nin the Legend of the Three Companions the facts succeed one another\norganically, here they are placed side by side. Therefore when we come\nto read this work we are sensible of a fall; even from the literary\npoint of view the inferiority makes itself cruelly felt. Instead of a\npoem we have before us a catalogue, very cleverly made, it is true, but\nwith no power to move us.\n\n\nVIII. NOTES ON A FEW SECONDARY DOCUMENTS\n\na. _Celano's Life of St. Francis for Use in the Choir._\n\nThomas of Celano made also a short legend for use in the choir. It is\ndivided into nine lessons and served for the Franciscan breviaries up to\nthe time when St. Bonaventura made his _Legenda Minor_.\n\nThat of Celano may be found in part (the first three lessons) in the\nAssisi MS. 338, fol. 52a-53b; it is preceded by a letter of envoy:\n\"_Rogasti me frater Benedicte, ut de legenda B. P. N. F. quaedam\nexciperem et in novem lectionum seriem ordinarem_ ... etc. _B.\nFranciscus de civitate Assisii ortus a puerilibus annis nutritus extitit\ninsolenter._\"\n\nThis work has no historic importance.\n\nb. _Life of St. Francis in Verse._\n\nIn the list of biographers has sometimes been counted a poem in\nhexameter verse[68] the text of which was edited in 1882 by the\nlamented Cristofani.[69]\n\nThis work does not furnish a single new historic note. It is the Life by\nCelano in verse and nothing more; the author's desire was to figure as a\npoet. It is superfluous, therefore, to concern ourselves with it.[69]\n\nc. _Biography of St. Francis by Giovanni di Ceperano._\n\nOne of the biographies which disappeared, no doubt in consequence of the\ndecision of the chapter of 1266,[71] is that of Giovanni di Ceperano.\nThe resemblance of his name to that of Thomas of Celano has occasioned\nmuch confusion.[72] The most precious information which we have\nrespecting him is given by Bernard of Besse in the opening of his _De\nlaudibus St. Francisci_: \"_Plenam virtutibus B. Francisci vitam scripsit\nin Italia exquisitae vir eloquentiae fr. Thomas jubente Domino Gregorio\npapa IX. et eam quae incipit: Quasi stella matutina vir venerabilis\nDominus et fertur Joannes, Apostolicae sedis notarius._\"[73]\n\nIn the face of so precise a text all doubt as to the existence of the\nwork of Giovanni di Ceperano is impossible. The Reverend Father Denifle\nhas been able to throw new light upon this question. In a manuscript\ncontaining the liturgy of the Brothers Minor and finished in 1256 he\nfound the nine lessons for the festival of St. Francis preceded by the\ntitle: _Ex gestis ejus abbreviatis quae sic incipiunt: Quasi stella_\n(_Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, vii., p. 710. Cf. _Archiv._, i., p.\n148). This summary of Ceperano's work gives, as we should expect, no new\ninformation; but perhaps we need not despair of finding the very work of\nthis author.\n\nd. _Life of St. Francis by Brother Julian._\n\nIt was doubtless about 1230 that Brother Julian, the Teuton, who had\nbeen chapel-master at the court of the King of France, was commissioned\nto put the finishing touches to the Office of St. Francis.[74]\nEvidently such a work would contain nothing original, and its loss is\nlittle felt.\n\n\nIX. LEGEND OF ST. BONAVENTURA\n\nUnder the generalate of Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) the Franciscan\nparties underwent modifications, in consequence of which their\nopposition became still more striking than before.\n\nThe Zelanti, with the minister-general at their head, enthusiastically\nadopted the views of Gioacchino di Fiore. The predictions of the\nCalabrian abbot corresponded too well with their inmost convictions for\nany other course to be possible: they seemed to see Francis, as a new\nChrist, inaugurating the third era of the world.\n\nFor a few years these dreams moved all Europe; the faith of the\nJoachimites was so ardent that it made its way by its own force;\nsceptics like Salimbeni told themselves that on the whole it was surely\nwiser not to be taken unawares by the great catastrophe of 1260, and\nhastened in crowds to the cell of Hyeres to be initiated by Hugues de\nDigne in the mysteries of the new times: as to the people, they waited,\ntrembling, divided between hope and terror. Nevertheless their\nadversaries did not consider themselves beaten, and the Liberal party\nstill remained the most numerous. Of an angelic purity, Giovanni di\nParma believed in the omnipotence of example: events showed how mistaken\nhe was; at the close of his term of office scandals were not less\nflagrant than ten years earlier.[75]\n\nBetween these two extreme parties, against which he was to proceed with\nequal rigor, stood that of the Moderates, to which belonged St.\nBonaventura.[76]\n\nA mystic, but of a formal and orthodox mysticism, he saw the revolution\ntoward which the Church was hastening if the party of the eternal Gospel\nwas to triumph; its victory would not be that of this or that heresy in\ndetail, it would be, with brief delay, the ruin of the entire\necclesiastical edifice; he was too perspicacious not to see that in the\nlast analysis the struggle then going on was that of the individual\nconscience against authority. This explains, and up to a certain point\ngains him pardon for, his severities against his opponents; he was\nsupported by the court of Rome and by all those who desired to make the\nOrder a school at once of piety and of learning.\n\nNo sooner was he elected general than, with a purpose that never knew\nhesitation, and a will whose firmness made itself everywhere felt, he\ntook his steps to forward this double aim. On the very morrow of his\nnomination he sketched the programme of reforms against the Liberal\nparty, and at the same time secured the summons of the Joachimite\nBrothers before an ecclesiastical tribunal at Citta-della-Pieve. This\ntribunal condemned them to perpetual imprisonment, and it needed the\npersonal intervention of Cardinal Ottobonus, the future Adrian V., for\nGiovanni di Parma to be left free to retire to the Convent of Greccio.\n\nThe first chapter held under the presidence of Bonaventura, in the\nextended decisions of which we find everywhere tokens of his influence,\nassembled at Narbonne in 1260. He was then commissioned to compose a new\nlife of St. Francis.[77]\n\nWe easily understand the anxieties to which this decision of the\nBrothers was an answer. The number of legends had greatly increased, for\nbesides those which we have first studied or noted there were others in\nexistence which have completely disappeared, and it had become equally\ndifficult for the Brothers who went forth on missions either to make a\nchoice between them or to carry them all.\n\nThe course of the new historian was therefore clearly marked out: he\nmust do the work of compiler and peacemaker. He failed in neither. His\nbook is a true sheaf, or rather it is a millstone under which the\nindefatigable author has pressed, somewhat at hazard, the sheaves of his\npredecessors. Most of the time he inserts them just as they are,\nconfining himself to the work of harvesting them and weeding out the\ntares.\n\nTherefore, when we reach the end of this voluminous work we have a very\nvague impression of St. Francis. We see that he was a saint, a very\ngreat saint, since he performed an innumerable quantity of miracles,\ngreat and small; but we feel very much as if we had been going through a\nshop of objects of piety. All these statues, whether they are called St.\nAnthony the Abbot, St. Dominic, St. Theresa, or St. Vincent de Paul,\nhave the same expression of mincing humility, of a somewhat shallow\necstasy. These are saints, if you please, miracle-workers; they are not\nmen; he who made them made them by rule, by process; he has put nothing\nof his heart in these ever-bowed foreheads, these lips with their wan\nsmile.\n\nGod forbid that I should say or think that St. Bonaventura was not\nworthy to write a life of St. Francis, but the circumstances controlled\nhis work, and it is no injustice to him to say that it is fortunate for\nFrancis, and especially for us, that we have another biography of the\nPoverello than that of the Seraphic Doctor.\n\nThree years after, in 1263, he brought his completed work to the\nchapter-general convoked under his presidence at Pisa. It was there\nsolemnly approved.[78]\n\nIt is impossible to say whether they thought that the presence of the\nnew legend would suffice to put the old ones out of mind, but it seems\nthat at this time nothing was said about the latter.\n\nIt was not so at the following chapter. This one, held at Paris, came to\na decision destined to have disastrous results for the primitive\nFranciscan documents. This decree, emanating from an assembly presided\nover by Bonaventura in person, is too important not to be quoted\ntextually: \"Item, the Chapter-general ordains on obedience that all the\nlegends of the Blessed Francis formerly made shall be destroyed. The\nBrothers who shall find any without the Order must try to make away with\nthem since the legend made by the General is compiled from accounts of\nthree who almost always accompanied the Blessed Francis; all that they\ncould certainly know and all that is proven has been carefully inserted\ntherein.\"[79] It would have been difficult to be more precise. We see\nthe perseverance with which Bonaventura carried on his struggle against\nthe extreme parties. This decree explains the almost complete\ndisappearance of the manuscripts of Celano and the Three Companions,\nsince in certain collections even those of Bonaventura's legend are\nhardly to be found.\n\nAs we have seen, Bonaventura aimed to write a sort of official or\ncanonical biography; he succeeded only too well. Most of the accounts\nthat we already know have gone into his collection, but not without at\ntimes suffering profound mutilations. We are not surprised to find him\npassing over Francis's youth with more discretion than Celano in the\nFirst Life, but we regret to find him ornamenting and materializing some\nof the loveliest incidents of the earlier legends.\n\nIt is not enough for him that Francis hears the crucifix of St. Daraian\nspeak; he pauses to lay stress on the assertion that he heard it\n_corporeis auribus_ and that no one was in the chapel at that moment!\nBrother Monaldo at the chapter of Arles sees St. Francis appear\n_corporeis oculis_. He often abridges his predecessors, but this is not\nhis invariable rule. When he reaches the account of the stigmata he\ndevotes long pages to it,[79] relates a sort of consultation held by\nSt. Francis as to whether he could conceal them, and adds several\nmiracles due to these sacred wounds; further on he returns to the\nsubject to show a certain Girolamo, Knight of Assisi, desiring to touch\nwith his hands the miraculous nails.[81] On the other hand, he uses a\nsignificant discretion wherever the companions of the Saint are in\nquestion. He names only three of the first eleven disciples,[82] and\nno more mentions Brothers Leo, Angelo, Rufino, Masseo, than their\nadversary, Brother Elias.\n\nAs to the incidents which we find for the first time in this collection,\nthey hardly make us regret the unknown sources which must have been at\nthe service of the famous Doctor; it would appear that the healing of\nMorico, restored to health by a few pellets of bread soaked in the oil\nof the lamp which burned before the altar of the Virgin,[83] has little\nmore importance for the life of St. Francis than the story of the sheep\ngiven to Giacomina di Settesoli which awakened its mistress to summon\nher to go to mass.[84] What shall we think of that other sheep, of\nPortiuncula, which hastened to the choir whenever it heard the psalmody\nof the friars, and kneeled devoutly for the elevation of the Holy\nSacrament?[85]\n\nAll these incidents, the list of which might be enlarged,[86] betrays\nthe working-over of the legend. St. Francis becomes a great\nthaumaturgist, but his physiognomy loses its originality.\n\nThe greatest fault of this work is, in fact, the vagueness of the figure\nof the Saint. While in Celano there are the large lines of a\nsoul-history, a sketch of the affecting drama of a man who attains to\nthe conquest of himself, with Bonaventura all this interior action\ndisappears before divine interventions; his heart is, so to speak, the\ngeometrical locality of a certain number of visitants; he is a passive\ninstrument in the hands of God, and we really cannot see why he should\nhave been chosen rather than another.\n\nAnd yet Bonaventura was an Italian; he had seen Umbria; he must have\nknelt and celebrated the sacred mysteries in Portiuncula, that cradle of\nthe noblest of religious reformations; he had conversed with Brother\nEgidio, and must have heard from his lips an echo of the first\nFranciscan fervor; but, alas! nothing of that rapture passed into his\nbook, and if the truth must be told, I find it quite inferior to much\nlater documents, to the Fioretti, for example; for they understood, at\nleast in part, the soul of Francis; they felt the throbbing of that\nheart, with all its sensitiveness, admiration, indulgence, love,\nindependence, and absence of carefulness.\n\n\nX. DE LAUDIBUS OF BERNARD OF BESSE[87]\n\nBonaventura's work did not discourage the biographers. The historic\nvalue of their labor is almost nothing, and we shall not even attempt to\ncatalogue them.\n\nBernard of Besse, a native probably of the south of France[88] and\nsecretary of Bonaventura,[89] made a summary of the earlier legends.\nThis work, which brings us no authentic historic indication, is\ninteresting only for the care with which the author has noted the places\nwhere repose the Brothers who died in odor of sanctity, and relates a\nmass of visions all tending to prove the excellence of the Order.[89]\n\nStill the publication of this document will perform the valuable office\nof throwing a little light upon the difficult question of the sources.\nSeveral passages of the _De laudibus_ appear again textually in the\nSpeculum,[91] and as a single glance is enough to show that the\nSpeculum did not copy the _De laudibus_, it must be that Bernard of\nBesse had before him a copy, if not of the Speculum at least of a\ndocument of the same kind.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] Bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28, 1230. See p. 336.\n\n   [2] It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in\n       opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of\n       criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.\n\n   [3] The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late\n       years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body\n       of the work.\n\n   [4] Eccl., 13. _Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat\n       venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc._ _An. fr., t.\n       i._, p. 241. Cf. _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t., 28, p. 564.\n\n   [5] The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March\n       29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. The\n       _Instrumentum donationis_ is still preserved at Assisi: Piece\n       No. 1 of the twelfth package of _Instrumenta diversa pertinentia\n       ad Sacrum Conventum_. It has been published by Thode: _Franz von\n       Assisi_, p. 359.\n\n       On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization,\n       Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years\n       afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230,\n       the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper\n       church was finished. It was already decorated with a first\n       series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size,\n       kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the\n       choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile\n       received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the\n       valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the\n       canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act\n       of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123\n       and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).\n\n   [6] _Spec._, 167a. Cf. _An. fr._, ii., p. 45 and note.\n\n   [7] The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii.,\n       pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont\n       in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome\n       in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the\n       Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title: _Seraphici viri S.\n       Francisci Assisiatis vitae dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano_,\n       according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona)\n       which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the\n       Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was\n       reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni: _Vita prima S.\n       Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della\n       pace_, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the\n       divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important\n       passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that\n       of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched\n       and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the\n       manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those\n       which are known is that at Barcelona: _Archivo de la corona de\n       Aragon_, Ripoll, n. 41 (_Archiv._, t. i., p. 148). There is one\n       in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which\n       includes a curious note: \"_Apud Perusium felix domnus papa\n       Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto\n       kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit,\n       confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam._\" Another manuscript,\n       which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth\n       century, and because of the correction in the text, and which\n       appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the\n       Franciscans, is the one owned by the Ecole de Medicine at\n       Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio: _Passionale vetus ecclesiae\n       S. Benigni divionensis_. The story of Celano occupies in it the\n       fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of\n       paragraph 112 with _supiriis ostendebant_. Except for this final\n       break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and\n       196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public\n       libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295.\n\n   [8] Vide 1 Cel., Prol. _Jubente domino et glorioso Papa\n       Gregorio_. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16,\n       1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above\n       raises no difficulty.\n\n   [9] 1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of\n       Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in\n       his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II.\n       to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in\n       Winckelmann: _Acta imperii inedita_, t. i., p. 232.\n\n  [10] Giord., 19.\n\n  [11] Giord., 30 and 31.\n\n  [12] Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question\n       whether he is the author of the _Dies irae_ would be out of place\n       here.\n\n  [13] This is so true that the majority of historians have been\n       brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in\n       1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letter _Non ex odio_ of\n       Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea: _Revera papa iste\n       quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum\n       ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis\n       migrationis suae tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ...\n       deposuit_. Huillard-Breholles: _Hist. dipl. Fred. II._, t. v.,\n       p. 346.\n\n  [14] He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48.\n\n  [15] 1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is\n       especially significant. _Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes\n       dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo,\n       sit...._ 1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the\n       intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139.\n\n  [16] 1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named\n       in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either!\n\n  [17] 1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis,\n       Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108;\n       109) are in the foreground.\n\n  [18] 1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117.\n\n  [19] Those which occurred during the absence of Francis\n       (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in\n       seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those\n       connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no\n       allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized\n       them, however, having lived in intimacy with Caesar of Speyer,\n       the collaborator of the second (1221).\n\n  [20] For example, Francis's journey to Spain.\n\n  [21] 1 Cel., 1, 88. _Et sola quae necessaria magis occurrunt_ ad\n       praesens _intendimus adnotare_. It is to be observed that in the\n       prologue he speaks in the singular.\n\n  [22] In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a\n       mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the\n       reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the\n       General. Giord., 63.\n\n  [23] See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the\n       translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann, _Acta_ i.,\n       p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. dipl._ Intr. p. cc.\n\n  [24] The authorities for this story are: _Catalogus ministrorum_\n       of Bernard of Besse, _ap_ Ehrle, _Zeitschrift_, vol. 7 (1883),\n       p. 339; _Speculum_, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13;\n       Giord., 61-63; _Speculum_, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b.\n\n  [25] _Asserabat etiam ipse praedictus frater Helyas ... papam ...\n       fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terrae Sanctae,\n       scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et\n       sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas,\n       multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit\n       domino papae ponens os suum in celo_. Matth. Paris, _Chron.\n       Maj._, _ann. 1239_, _ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 182.\n       Cf. Ficker, n. 2685.\n\n  [26] Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano, _Chron._, _ap Mon. Ger. hist.\n       Script._, t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick\n       complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239):\n       Huillard-Breholles, _Hist. Dipl._, v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the\n       Bull, _Attendite ad petram_, at the end of February, 1240,\n       ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849.\n\n  [27] He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of\n       the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of\n       Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily,\n       afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano, _loc. cit._, _ann._\n       1223 and 1224.\n\n  [28] Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf.\n       Glassberger, ann. 1244, _An. fr._, ii., p. 68. _Speculum_,\n       Morin, tract. i., 61b.\n\n  [29] _Catalogus ministrorum_, edited by Ehrle: _Zeitschrift_, t.\n       7 (1883). no. 5. Cf. _Spec._, 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it\n       a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to\n       Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand,\n       in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at\n       Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381)\n       is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: \"_Dyalogus sanctorum\n       fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta\n       patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me\n       quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt\n       xiii_.\"\n\n  [30] The text was published for the first time by the\n       Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a\n       manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It\n       is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions\n       published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be\n       found, except the last, due to Abbe Amoni. This one,\n       unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a\n       scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184)\n       under the title: _Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quae dicitur\n       Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr._ _Biblioth. Vatic. num.\n       7339._\n\n  [31] 2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84;\n       Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10.\n\n  [32] Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there\n       almost entirely until his death (1288). _Tribul._, _Archiv._,\n       vol. ii. (1886), p. 286.\n\n  [33] 3 Soc., 25-67.\n\n  [34] 3 Soc., 68-73.\n\n  [35] The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed\n       adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been\n       held by M. Mueller (_Anfaenge_, p. 180); but that learned scholar\n       is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the\n       Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as\n       to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots\n       (_Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute\n       the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in\n       the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast,\n       11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull\n       stating that the Basilica of Assisi was _Caput et Mater\n       ordinis_, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the\n       Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12;\n       _Conform._, 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann.\n       1244, _An. fr._, p. 69; Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, i., p. 502 ff;\n       _Conform._, 121b. 1.) M. Mueller has been led into error through\n       a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (_An. fr._, i., p. 235). It is evident\n       that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced\n       against the _Declaratio Regulae_ published November 14, 1245. On\n       the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth this\n       _Declaratio_, against which, not without regret, the Zealots\n       found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by\n       Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of any _Declaratio_\n       (_Archiv._, ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by\n       a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), f^o 62a: _In hoc\n       capitulo (Narbonnae) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D.\n       Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in Capitulo_ METENSI.\n       _Et praeceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus\n       expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit._\n\n  [36] Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F.\n       Ehrle, S. J., in his studies _Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von\n       Vienne_. _Archiv._, ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.\n\n  [37] See, for example, _Archiv._, iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76.\n       _Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in\n       legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis\n       sanctae memoriae fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut\n       ab ore beati Francisci audivit._ Ib., p. 85.\n\n  [38] _Haec omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per\n       sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti\n       patris quam etiam de devotione praedicti fratris fuerunt\n       solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum\n       de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem\n       fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv._, iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178.\n\n  [39] 3 Soc., Prol. _Non contenti narrare solum miracula ...\n       conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem_.\n\n  [40] _Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni_,\n       Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo.\n\n  [41] See Father Stanislaus's preface.\n\n  [42] 3 Soc., 68-73.\n\n  [43] The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking\n       up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular\n       clergy) since the time of the apostles. The _viri evangelici_\n       consider the members of the clergy _filios extraneos._ 3 Soc.,\n       48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48. _Inveni virum ... per quem, credo\n       Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctae Ecclesiae reformare_.\n       Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141. _Videbatur revera fratri et omnium\n       comitatium turbae quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona\n       foret_.\n\n  [44] A. SS. p. 552.\n\n  [45] _Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem\n       de Luere_, 30 januarii, 1504. _Impressum Metis per Jasparem\n       Hochffeder_, Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical,\n       small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same\n       title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo,\n       208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most\n       important manuscript resembles that of the Vatican 4354. There\n       are two at the Mazarin Library, 904 and 1350, dated 1459 and\n       1460, one at Berlin (MS. theol. lat., 4to, no. 196 saec. 14).\n       Vide Ehrle, _Zeitschrift_. t. vii. (1883), p. 392f; _Analecta\n       fr._, t. i., p. xi.; _Miscellanea_, 1888, pp. 119. 164. Cf. A.\n       SS., pp. 550-552.\n\n       The chapters are numbered in the first 72 folios only, but these\n       numbers teem with errors; fo. 38b. caput lix., 40b, lix., 41b,\n       lxi. ibid., lxii., 42a, lx., 43a, lxi. Besides at fos. 46b and\n       47b there are two chapters lxvi. There are two lxxi., two\n       lxxii., two lxxiii., etc.\n\n  [46] For example, the history of the brigands of Monte-Casale,\n       fos. 46b, and 58b. The remarks of Brother Elias to Francis, who\n       is continually singing, 136b and 137a. The visit of Giacomina di\n       Settesoli, 133a and 138a. The autograph benediction given to\n       Brother Leo, 87a; 188a.\n\n  [47] At fo. 20b we read: _Tertium capitulam de charitate et\n       compassione et condescensione ad proximum. Capitulum_ xxvi. Cf.\n       26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are\n       similar indications.\n\n  [48] Fo. 5b: _Incipit Speculum vitae b. Francesci et sociorum\n       ejus_. Fo. 7b; _Incipit Speculum perfectionis_.\n\n  [49] We should search for it in vain in the other pieces of the\n       Speculum, and it reappears in the fragments of Brother Leo cited\n       by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno.\n\n  [50] Fo. 8b, 11a, 12a, 15a, 18b, 21b, 23b, 26a, 29a, 33b, 43b,\n       41a, 48b, 118a, 129a, 130a, 134a, 135a, 136a.\n\n  [51] Does not Thomas de Celano say in the prologue of the Second\n       Life: \"_Oramus ergo, benignissime pater, ut laboris hujus non\n       contemnenda munuscula ... vestra benedictione consecrare\n       velitis, corrigendo errata et superflua resecantes_.\"\n\n  [52] The legend of 3 Soc. was preserved in the Convent of\n       Assisi: \"_Omnia ... fuerunt conscripta ... per Leonem, ... in\n       libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio_.\" Ubertini,\n       _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. Later, Brother Leo seems to have gone\n       more into detail as to certain facts; he confided these new\n       manuscripts to the Clarisses: \"_In rotulis ejus quos apud me\n       habeo, manu ejusdem fratres Leonis conscriptis_,\" ibid. Cf. p.\n       178. \"_Quod sequitur a sancto fratre Conrado predicto et viva\n       voce audivit a sancto fratre Leone qui presens erat et regulam\n       scripsit. Et hoc ipsum in quibusdam rotulis manu sua conscriptis\n       quos commendavit in monasterio S. Clarae custodiendos.... In\n       illis multa scripsit ... quae industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et\n       noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi\n       in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulae publice monstrabatur et\n       nolebat fratres ante tempus in famare._\" _Arbor._, lib. v., cap\n       5. Cf. _Antiquitates_, p. 146. Cf. _Speculum_, 50b. \"_Infra\n       scripta verba, frater Leo socius et Confessor B. Francisci,\n       Conrado de Offida, dicebat se habuisse ex ore Beati Patris\n       nostri Francisci, quae idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum\n       Damianum prope Assisium._\" Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both\n       the book of Brother Leo and his _rotuli_; he added to it certain\n       oral information (_Arbor, vit. cruc._, lib. v., cap. 3), and so\n       perhaps composed the collection so often cited by the\n       Conformists under the title of _Legenda Antiqua_ and reproduced\n       in part in the Speculum. The numbering of the chapters, which\n       the Speculum has awkwardly inserted without noting that they\n       were not in accord with his own division, were vestiges of the\n       division adopted by Conrad di Offida.\n\n       It may well be that, after the interdiction of his book and its\n       confiscation at the Sacro Convento, Brother Leo repeated in his\n       _rotuli_ a large part of the facts already made, so that the\n       same incident, while coming solely from Brother Leo, could be\n       presented under two different forms, according as it would be\n       copied from the book or the _rotuli_.\n\n  [53] Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the\n       Simple, and Speculum, f^o 37a. From the account of Thomas de\n       Celano, one does not understand what drew John to St. Francis;\n       in the Speculum everything is explained, but Celano has not\n       dared to depict Francis going about preaching with a broom upon\n       his shoulder to sweep the dirty churches.\n\n  [54] It was published for the first time at Rome, in 1806, by\n       Father Rinaldi, following upon the First Life (vide above, p.\n       365, note 2), and restored in 1880 by Abbe Amoni: _Vita secunda\n       S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus\n       discipulo. Romae, tipografia della pace_, 1880, 8vo, 152 pp. The\n       citations are from this last edition, which I collated at Assisi\n       with the most important of the rare manuscripts at present\n       known: Archives of Sacro Convento, MS. 686, on parchment of the\n       end of the thirteenth century, if I do not mistake, 130 millim.\n       by 142; 102 numbered pages. Except for the fact that the book is\n       divided into two parts instead of three, the last two forming\n       only one, I have not found that it noticeably differs from the\n       text published by Amoni; the chapters are divided only by a\n       paragraph and a red letter, but they have in the table which\n       occupies the first seven pages of the volume the same titles as\n       in the edition Amoni.\n\n       This Second Life escaped the researches of the Bollandists.\n       It is impossible to explain how these students ignored the\n       worth of the manuscript which Father Theobaldi, keeper of the\n       records of Assisi, mentioned to them, and of which he offered\n       them a copy (A. SS., _Oct._, t. ii., p. 546f). Father Suysken\n       was thus thrown into inextricable difficulties, and exposed\n       to a failure to understand the lists of biographies of St.\n       Francis arranged by the annalists of the Order; he was at the\n       same time deprived of one of the most fruitful sources of\n       information upon the acts and works of the Saint. Professor\n       Mueller (_Die Anfaenge_, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a\n       critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me\n       narrow and extreme. Cf. _Analecta_ fr., t. ii., pp. xvii.-xx.\n       Father Ehrle mentions two manuscripts, one in the British\n       Museum, Harl., 47; the other at Oxford, Christ College, cod.\n       202. _Zeitschrift_, 1883, p. 390.\n\n  [55] The Three Companions foresee the possibility of their\n       legend being incorporated with other documents: _quibus\n       (legendis) haec pauca quae scribimus poleritis facere inseri, si\n       vestra discretio viderit esse justum._ 3 Soc., Prol.\n\n  [56] One phrase of the Prologue (2 Cel.) shows that the author\n       received an entirely special commission: _Placuit ... robis ...\n       parvitati nostrae injungere_, while on the contrary the 3 Soc.\n       shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered\n       them: _Cum de mandato proeteriti capituli fratres teneantur\n       ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestrae\n       intimare._ 3 Soc., Prol.\n\n  [57] Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.\n\n  [58] _Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium\n       supernae vocationis attigerit_. 2 Cel., 1, 10.\n\n  [59] This first part corresponds exactly to that portion of the\n       legend of the 3 Soc., which Crescentius had authorized.\n\n  [60] Observe that the Assisi MS. 686 divides the Second Life\n       into two parts only by joining the last two.\n\n  [61] Salimbeni, ann. 1248.\n\n  [62] Glassberger, ann. 1253. _An. fr._ t. ii., p. 73. _Frater\n       Johannes de Parma minister generalis, multiplicatis litteris\n       praecipit fr. Thomae de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati\n       Francisci quae antiqua Legenda dicitur perficeret, quia solum de\n       ejus conversatione et verbis in primo tractatu, de mandato, Fr.\n       Crescentii olim generalis compilato, ommissis miraculis fecerat\n       mentionem, et sic secundum tractatum de miraculis sancti Patris\n       compilavit, quem cum epistola quae incipit: Religiosa vestra\n       sollicitudo eidem generali misit_.\n\n       This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify\n       it, as M. Mueller suggests (_Anfaenge_, p. 177), with the second\n       part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life:\n       1^o, epistle _Religiosa vestra sollicitudo_ does not have it;\n       2^o, this second part is not a collection of miracles, using\n       this word in the sense of miraculous cures which it had in the\n       thirteenth century. The twenty-two chapters of this second part\n       have a marked unity; they might be entitled _Francis a prophet_,\n       but not _Francis a thaumaturgus_.\n\n  [63] In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.) _Insignia patrum_ the\n       author speaks in the singular, while the Epilogue is written in\n       the name of a group of disciples.\n\n  [64] Greccio, 2 Cel., 2, 5; 14; 3, 7; 10; 103.--Rieti, 2 Cel.,\n       2, 10; 11; 12; 13; 3, 36; 37; 66; 103.\n\n  [65] St. Francis gives him an autograph, 2 Cel., 2, 18. Cf.\n       _Fior._ ii. _consid._; his tunic, 2 Cel., 2, 19; he predicts to\n       him a famine, 2 Cel., 2, 21; cf. _Conform._, 49b. Fr. Leo ill at\n       Bologna, 2 Cel., 3, 5.\n\n  [66] The text of Ubertini di Casali may be found in the\n       _Archiv._, t. iii., pp. 53, 75, 76, 85, 168, 178, where Father\n       Ehrle points out the corresponding passages of 2 Cel.\n\n  [67] It is the subject of thirty-seven narratives (1, 2 Cel., 3,\n       1-37), then come examples on the spirit of prayer (2 Cel., 3,\n       38-44), the temptations (2 Cel., 3, 58-64), true happiness (2\n       Cel., 3, 64-79), humility (2 Cel., 3, 79-87), submission (2\n       Cel., 3, 88, 91), etc.\n\n  [68] Le Monnier, t. i., p. xi.; F. Barnabe, _Portiuncula_, p.\n       15. Cf. _Analecta fr._, t. ii., p. xxi. _Zeitschrift fuer kath.\n       Theol._, vii. (1883), p. 397.\n\n  [69] _Il piu antico poema della vita di S. Francisco d'Assisi\n       scritto inanzi all' anno 1230 ora per la prima volta pubblicato\n       et tradotto da Antonio Cristofani_, Prato, 1882, 1 vol., 8vo.\n       288 pp.\n\n  [70] Note, however, two articles of the Miscellanea, one on the\n       manuscript of this biography which is found in the library at\n       Versailles, t. iv. (1889), p. 34 ff.; the other on the author of\n       the poem, t. v. (1890), pp. 2-4 and 74 ff.\n\n  [71] See below, p. 410.\n\n  [72] Vide Glassberger, ann. 1244; _Analecta_, t. ii., p. 68. Cf.\n       A. SS., p. 545 ff.\n\n  [73] Manuscript in the Library of Turin, J. vi., 33, f^o 95a.\n\n  [74] _Plenam virtutibus S. Francisci vitam scripsit in Italia\n       ... frater Thomas ... in Francia vero frater Julianus scientia\n       et sanctitate conspicuus qui etiam nocturnali sancti officium in\n       littera et cantu possuit praeter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas\n       quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti\n       praeconium ediderunt._ Opening of the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of\n       Besse. See below, p. 413. Laur. MS., f^o 95a. Cf. Giord., 53;\n       _Conform._, 75b.\n\n  [75] In proof of this is the circular letter, _Licet\n       insufficentiam nostram_, addressed by Bonaventura, April 23,\n       1257, immediately after his election, to the provincials and\n       custodes upon the reformation of the Order. Text: _Speculum_,\n       Morin, tract. iii., f^o 213a.\n\n  [76] Salimbeni, ann. 1248, p. 131. The _Chronica tribulationum_\n       gives a long and dramatic account of these events: _Archiv._, t.\n       ii., pp. 283 ff. \"_Tunc enim sapientia et sanctitas fratris\n       Bonaventurae eclipsata paluit et obscurata est et ejus manswetudo\n       (sic) ab agitante spiritu in furorum et iram defecit._\" Ib., p.\n       283.\n\n  [77] Bon., 3. 1. At the same chapter were collected the\n       constitutions of the Order according to edicts of the preceding\n       chapters; new ones were added to them and all were arranged. In\n       the first of the twelve rubrics the chapter prescribed that,\n       upon the publication of the account, all the old constitutions\n       should be destroyed. The text was published in the _Firmamentum\n       trium ordinum_, f^o 7b, and restored lately by Father Ehrle:\n       _Archiv._, t. vi. (1891), in his beautiful work _Die aeltesten\n       Redactionen der General-constitutionen des Franziskanerordens_.\n       Cf. _Speculum_ Morin, fo. 195b of tract. iii.\n\n  [78] The _Legenda Minor_ of Bonaventura was also approved at\n       this time; it is simply an abridgment of the _Legenda Major_\n       arranged for use of the choir on the festival of St. Francis and\n       its octave.\n\n  [79] \"_Item praecipit Generale capitulum per obedientiam quod\n       omnes legenae de B. Francisco olim factae deleantur et ubi\n       inveniri poterant extra ordinem ipsas fratres studeant amovere,\n       cum illa legenda quae facta est per Generalem sit compilata prout\n       ipse habuit ab ore illorum qui cum B. Francisco quasi semper\n       fuerunt et cuncta certitudinaliter sciverint et probata ibi sint\n       posita diligenter._\" This precious text has been found and\n       published by Father Rinaldi in his preface to the text of\n       Celano: _Seraphici viri Francisci vitae duae_, p. xi. Wadding\n       seems to have known of it, at least indirectly, for he says:\n       \"_Utramque Historiam, longiorem et breviorem, obtulit\n       (Bonaventura) triennio post in comitiis Pisanis patribus\n       Ordinis, quas reverentur cum gratiarum actione_, SUPRESSIS ALIIS\n       QUIBUSQUE LEGENDIS, ADMISERUNT.\" Ad ann., 1260, no. 18. Cf.\n       Ehrle, _Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, t. vii. (1883), p.\n       386.--\"_Communicaverat sanctus Franciscus plurima sociis suis et\n       fratribus antiquis, que oblivioni tradita sunt, tum quia que\n       scripta erant in legenda prima, nova edita a fratre. Bonaventura\n       deleta et destructa sunt_, IPSOJUBENTE _tum quia_ ...\" _Chronica\n       tribul._, _Archiv._, t. ii., p. 256.\n\n  [80] Bon., 188-204.\n\n  [81] Bon., 218.\n\n  [82] Bernardo (Bon., 28), Egidio (Bon., 29), and Silvestro\n       (Bon., 30).\n\n  [83] Bon., 49.\n\n  [84] Bon., 112.\n\n  [85] Bon., 111.\n\n  [86] Vide Bon., 115; 99, etc. M. Thode has enumerated the\n       stories relating especially to Bonaventura: (_Franz von Assisi_,\n       p. 535).\n\n  [87] Manuscript I, iv., 33, of the library of the University of\n       Turin. It is a 4to upon parchment of the close of the fourteenth\n       century, 124 ff. It comprises first the biography of St. Francis\n       by St. Bonaventura and a legend of St. Clara, afterwards at f^o\n       95 the _De laudibus_. The text will soon be published in the\n       _Analecta franciscana_ of the Franciscans of Quaracchi, near\n       Florence.\n\n  [88] In reading it we quickly discover that he was specially\n       well acquainted with the convents of the Province of Aquitania,\n       and noted with care everything that concerned them.\n\n  [89] Wadding, ann. 1230, no. 7. Many passages prove at least\n       that he accompanied Bonaventura in his travels: \"_Hoc enim_ (the\n       special aid of Brother Egidio) _in iis quae ad bonum animae\n       pertinent devotus Generalis et Cardinalis predictus ... nos\n       docuit_.\" F^o 96a. _Jamdudum ego per Theutoniae partes et\n       Flandriae cum Ministro transiens Generali._ Ibid., f^o 106a.\n\n  [90] Bernard de Besse is the author of many other writings,\n       notably an important _Calalogus Ministrorum generalium_\n       published after the Turin manuscript by Father Ehrle\n       (_Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, t. vii., pp. 338-352), with a\n       very remarkable critical introduction (ib., pp. 323-337). Cf.\n       _Archiv fuer Litt. u. Kirchg._, i., p. 145.--Bartolommeo di Pisa,\n       when writing his _Conformities_, had before him a part of his\n       works, f^o 148b, 2; 126a, 1; but he calls the author sometimes\n       _Bernardus de Blesa_, then again _Johannes de Blesa_. See also\n       Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 212, and Haureau, _Notices et\n       extraits_, t. vi., p. 153.\n\n  [91] \"_Denique primos Francisci xii. discipulos ... omnes\n       sanctos fuisse audirimus preter unum qui Ordinem exiens leprosus\n       factus laqueo vel alter Judas interiit, ne Francisco cum Christo\n       vel in discipulis similitudo deficeret_,\" f^o 96a.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nDIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS\n\n\nIn this category we place all the acts having a character of public\nauthenticity, particularly those which were drawn up by the pontifical\ncabinet.\n\nThis source of information, where each document has its date, is\nprecisely the one which has been most neglected up to this time.\n\n\nI. DONATION OF THE VERNA\n\nThe _Instrumentum donationis Montis Alvernae_, a notarial document\npreserved in the archives of Borgo San Sepolcro,[1] not only gives the\nname of the generous friend of Francis, and many picturesque details,\nbut it fixes with precision a date all the more important because it\noccurs in the most obscure period of the Saint's life. It was on May 8,\n1213, that _Orlando dei Catani_, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, gave the\nVerna to Brother Francis.\n\n\nII. REGISTERS OF CARDINAL UGOLINI\n\nThe documents of the pontifical chancellery addressed to Cardinal\nUgolini, the future Gregory IX., and those which emanate from the hand\nof the latter during his long journeys as apostolic legate,[2] are of\nfirst rate importance.\n\nIt would be too long to give even a simple enumeration of them. Those\nwhich mark important facts have been carefully indicated in the course\nof this work. It will suffice to say that by bringing together these two\nseries of documents, and interposing the dates of the papal bulls\ncountersigned by Ugolini, we are able to follow almost day by day this\nman, who was, perhaps without even excepting St. Francis, the one whose\nwill most profoundly fashioned the Franciscan institute. We see also\nthe pre-eminent part which the Order had from the beginning in the\ninterest of the future pontiff, and we arrive at perfect accuracy as to\nthe dates of his meetings with St. Francis.\n\n\nIII. BULLS\n\nThe pontifical bulls concerning the Franciscans were collected and\npublished in the last century by the monk Sbaralea.[3] But from these\nwe gain little help for the history of the origins of the Order.[4]\n\nThe following is a compendious list; the details have been given in the\ncourse of the work:\n\nNo. 1. August 18, 1218.--Bull _Literae tuae_ addressed to Ugolini. The\npope permits him to accept donations of landed property in behalf of\nwomen fleeing the world (Clarisses) and to declare that these\nmonasteries are holden by the Apostolic See.\n\nNo. 2. June 11, 1219.--_Cum delecti filii._ This bull, addressed in a\ngeneral way to all prelates, is a sort of safe conduct for the Brothers\nMinor.\n\nNo. 3. December 19, 1219.--_Sacrosancta romana._ Privileges conceded to\nthe Sisters (Clarisses) of Monticelli, near Florence.\n\nNo. 4. May 29, 1220.--_Pro dilectis._ The pope prays the prelates of\nFrance to give a kindly reception to the Brothers Minor.\n\nNo. 5. September 22, 1220.--_Cum secundum._ Honorius III. prescribes a\nyear of noviciate before the entry into the Order.\n\nNo. 6. December 9, 1220.--_Constitutus in praesentia._ This bull concerns\na priest of Constantinople who had made a vow to enter the Order. As\nthere is question here of _frater Lucas Magister fratrum Minorem de\npartibus Romaniae_ we have here indirect testimony, all the more precious\nfor that reason, as to the period of the establishment of the Order in\nthe Orient.\n\nNo. 7. February 13, 1221.--New bull for the same priest.\n\nNo. 8. December 16, 1221.--_Significatum est nobis._ Honorius III.\nrecommends to the Bishop of Rimini to protect the Brothers of Penitence\n(Third Order).\n\nNo. 9. March 22, 1222.[5]--_Devotionis vestrae._ Concession to the\nFranciscans, under certain conditions, to celebrate the offices in times\nof interdict.\n\nNo. 10. March 29, 1222.--_Ex parte Universitatis._ Mission given to the\nDominicans, Franciscans, and Brothers of the Troops of San Iago in\nLisbon.\n\nNos. 11, 12, and 13.--September 19, 1222.--_Sacrosancta Romana._\nPrivileges for the monasteries (Clarisses) of Lucca, Sienna, and\nPerugia.\n\nNo. 14. November 29, 1223.--_Solet annuere._ Solemn approbation of the\nRule, which is inserted in the bull.\n\nNo. 15. December 18, 1223.--_Fratrum Minorum._ Concerns apostates from\nthe Order.\n\nNo. 16. December 1, 1224.--_Cum illorum._ Authorization given to the\nBrothers of Penitence to take part in the offices in times of interdict,\netc.\n\nNo. 17. December 3, 1224.--_Quia populares tumultus._ Concession of the\nportable altar.\n\nNo. 18. August 28, 1225.--_In hiis._ Honorius explains to the Bishop of\nParis and the Archbishop of Rheims the true meaning of the privileges\naccorded to the Brothers Minor.\n\nNo. 19. October 7, 1225.--_Vineae Domini._ This bull contains divers\nauthorizations in favor of the Brothers who are going to evangelize\nMorocco.\n\nThis list includes only those of Sbaralea's bulls which may directly or\nindirectly throw some light upon the life of St. Francis and his\ninstitute. Sbaralea's nomenclature is surely incomplete and should be\nrevised when the Registers of Honorius III. shall have been published in\nfull.[6]\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] It was published by Sbaralea, Bull., t. iv., p. 156, note h.\n       This act was drawn up July 9, 1274, at a time when the son of\n       Orlando as well as the Brothers Minor desired to authenticate\n       the donation, which until then had been verbal.\n\n   [2] See _Registri dei Cardinali Ugolino d'Ostia e Ottaviano\n       degli Ubaldini pubblicati a cura di Guido Levi dall'Istituto\n       storico italiano.--Fonti per la storia d'Italia_, Roma, 1890, 1\n       vol., 4to, xxviii. and 250 pp. This edition follows the\n       manuscript of the National Library, Paris: Ancien fonds Colbert\n       lat., 5152A. We must draw attention to a very beautiful work due\n       also to Mr. G. Levi: _Documenti ad illustrazione del Registro\n       del Card. Ugolino_, in the _Archivio della societa Romana di\n       storia patria_, t. xii. (1889), pp. 241-326.\n\n   [3] _Bullarium franciscanum seu Rom. Pontificum constitutiones\n       epistolae diplomata ordinibus Minorum, Clarissarum et\n       Poenitentium concessa, edidit Joh. Hyac. Sbaralea ord. min.\n       conv._, 4 vols., fol., Rome, t. i. (1759), t. ii. (1761), t.\n       iii. (1763), t iv., (1768)--_Supplementum ab Annibale de Latera\n       ord. min. obs. Romae_, 1780.--Sbaralea had a comparatively easy\n       task, because of the number of collections made before his. I\n       shall mention only one of those which I have before me. It is,\n       comparatively, very well done, and appears to have escaped the\n       researches of the Franciscan bibliographers: _Singularissimum\n       eximiumque opus universis mortalibus sacratissimi ordinis\n       seraphici patris nostri Francisci a Domino Jesu mirabili modo\n       approbati necnon a quampluribus nostri Redemptoris sanctissimis\n       vicariis romanis pontificabus multipharie declarati notitiam\n       habere cupientibus profecto per necessarium. Speculum Minorum\n       ... per Martinum Morin ... Rouen_, 1509. It is 8vo, with\n       numbered folios, printed with remarkable care. It contains\n       besides the bulls the principal dissertations upon the Rule,\n       elaborated in the thirteenth century, and a _Memoriale ordinis_\n       (first part, f^o 60-82), a kind of catalogue of the\n       ministers-general, which would have prevented many of the errors\n       of the historians, if it had been known.\n\n   [4] The Bollandists themselves have entirely overlooked those\n       sources of information, thinking, upon the authority of a single\n       badly interpreted passage, that the Order had not obtained a\n       single bull before the solemn approval of Honorius III.,\n       November 29, 1223.\n\n   [5] And not March 29, as Sbaralea has it. The original, which I\n       have had under my eyes in the archives of Assisi, bears in fact:\n       _Datum Anagnie XI. Kal. aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto_.\n\n   [6] The Abbe Horoy has indeed published in five volumes what he\n       entitles the _Opera omnia_ of Honorius III., but he omits,\n       without a word of explanation, a great number of letters,\n       certain of which are brought forward in the well-known\n       collection of Potthast. The Abbe Pietro Pressuti has undertaken\n       to publish a compendium of all the bulls of this pope according\n       to the original Registers of the Vatican. _I regesti del\n       Pontifice Onorio III._ Roma, t. i., 1884. Volume i. only has as\n       yet appeared.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nCHRONICLERS OF THE ORDER\n\n\nI. CHRONICLE OF BROTHER GIORDANO DI GIANO[1]\n\nBorn at Giano, in Umbria, in the mountainous district which closes the\nsouthern horizon of Assisi, Brother Giordano was in 1221 one of the\ntwenty-six friars who, under the conduct of Caesar of Speyer, set out for\nGermany. He seems to have remained attached to this province until his\ndeath, even when most of the friars, especially those who held cures,\nhad been transferred, often to a distance of several months' journey,\nfrom one end of Europe to the other. It is not, then, surprising that he\nwas often prayed to commit his memories to writing. He dictated them to\nBrother Baldwin of Brandenburg in the spring of 1262. He must have done\nit with joy, having long before prepared himself for the task. He\nrelates with artless simplicity how in 1221, at the chapter-general of\nPortiuncula, he went from group to group questioning as to their names\nand country the Brothers who were going to set out on distant missions,\nthat he might be able to say later, especially if they came to suffer\nmartyrdom: \"I knew them myself!\"[2]\n\nHis chronicle bears the imprint of this tendency. What he desires to\ndescribe is the introduction of the Order into Germany and its early\ndevelopments there, and he does it by enumerating, with a complacency\nwhich has its own coquetry, the names of a multitude of friars[3] and\nby carefully dating the events. These details, tedious for the ordinary\nreader, are precious to the historian; he sees there the diverse\nconditions from which the friars were recruited, and the rapidity with\nwhich a handful of missionaries thrown into an unknown country were able\nto branch out, found new stations, and in five years cover with a\nnetwork of monasteries, the Tyrol, Saxony, Bavaria, Alsace, and the\nneighboring provinces.\n\nIt is needless to say that it is worth while to test Giordano's\nchronology, for he begins by praying the reader to forgive the errors\nwhich may have escaped him on this head; but a man who thus marks in his\nmemory what he desires later to tell or to write is not an ordinary\nwitness.\n\nReading his chronicle, it seems as if we were listening to the\nrecollections of an old soldier, who grasps certain worthless details\nand presents them with an extraordinary power of relief, who knows not\nhow to resist the temptation to bring himself forward, at the risk\nsometimes of slightly embellishing the dry reality.[4]\n\nIn fact this chronicle swarms with anecdotes somewhat personal, but very\nartless and welcome, and which on the whole carry in themselves the\ntestimony to their authenticity. The perfume of the Fioretti already\nexhales from these pages so full of candor and manliness; we can follow\nthe missionaries stage by stage, then when they are settled, open the\ndoor of the monastery and read in the very hearts of these men, many of\nwhom are as brave as heroes and harmless as doves.\n\nIt is true that this chronicle deals especially with Germany, but the\nfirst chapters have an importance for Francis's history that exceeds\neven that of the biographers. Thanks to Giordano of Giano, we are from\nthis time forward informed upon the crises which the institute of\nFrancis passed through after 1219; he furnishes us the solidly\nhistorical base which seems to be lacking in the documents emanating\nfrom the Spirituals, and corroborates their testimony.\n\n\nII. ECCLESTON: ARRIVAL OF THE FRIARS IN ENGLAND[5]\n\nOur knowledge of Thomas of Eccleston is very slight, for he has left no\nmore trace of himself in the history of the Order than of Simon of\nEsseby, to whom he dedicates his work. A native no doubt of Yorkshire,\nhe seems never to have quitted England. He was twenty-five years\ngathering the materials of his work, which embraces the course of events\nfrom 1224 almost to 1260. The last facts that he relates belong to years\nvery near to this date.\n\nOf almost double the length of that of Giordano, Eccleston's work is far\nfrom furnishing as interesting reading. The former had seen nearly\neverything that he described, and thence resulted a vigor in his story\nthat we cannot find in an author who writes on the testimony of others.\nMore than this, while Giordano follows a chronological order, Eccleston\nhas divided his incidents under fifteen rubrics, in which the same\npeople continually reappear in a confusion which at length becomes very\nwearisome. Finally, his document is amazingly partial: the author is not\ncontent with merely proving that the English friars are saints; he\ndesires to show that the province of England surpasses all others[6]\nby its fidelity to the Rule and its courage against the upholders of new\nways, Brother Elias in particular.\n\nBut these few faults ought not to make us lose sight of the true value\nof this document. It embraces what we may call the heroic period of the\nFranciscan movement in England, and describes it with extreme\nsimplicity.\n\nAside from all question of history, we have here enough to interest all\nthose who are charmed by the spectacle of moral conquest. On Monday,\nSeptember 10th, the Brothers Minor landed at Dover. They were nine in\nnumber: a priest, a deacon, two who had only the lesser Orders, and five\nlaymen. They visited Canterbury, London, Oxford, Cambridge, Lincoln, and\nless than ten months later all who have made their mark in the history\nof science or of sanctity had joined them; it may suffice to name Adam\nof Marisco, Richard of Cornwall, Bishop Robert Grossetete, one of the\nproudest and purest figures of the Middle Ages, and Roger Bacon, that\npersecuted monk who several centuries before his time grappled with and\nanswered in his lonely cell the problems of authority and method, with a\nfirmness and power which the sixteenth century would find it hard to\nsurpass.\n\nIt is impossible that in such a movement human weaknesses and passions\nshould not here and there reveal themselves, but we owe our chronicler\nthanks for not hiding them. Thanks to him, we can for a moment forget\nthe present hour, call to life again that first Cambridge chapel--so\nslight that it took a carpenter only one day to build it--listen to\nthree Brothers chanting matins that same night, and that with so much\nardor that one of them--so rickety that his two companions were obliged\nto carry him--wept for joy: in England as in Italy the Franciscan gospel\nwas a gospel of peace and joy. Moral ugliness inspired them with a pity\nwhich we no longer know. There are few historic incidents finer than\nthat of Brother Geoffrey of Salisbury confessing Alexander of\nBissingburn; the noble penitent was performing this duty without\nattention, as if he were telling some sort of a story; suddenly his\nconfessor melted into tears, making him blush with shame and forcing\ntears also from him, working in him so complete a revolution that he\nbegged to be taken into the Order.\n\nThe most interesting parts are those where Thomas gives us an intimate\nview of the friars: here drinking their beer, there hastening, in spite\nof the Rule, to buy some on credit for two comrades who have been\nmaltreated, or again clustering about Brother Solomon, who had just come\nin nearly frozen with cold, and whom they could not succeed in\nwarming--_sicut porcis mos est cum comprimendo foverunt_, says the pious\nnarrator.[7] All this is mingled with dreams, visions, numberless\napparitions,[8] which once more show us how different were the ideas\nmost familiar to the religious minds of the thirteenth century from\nthose which haunt the brains and hearts of to-day.\n\nThe information given by Eccleston bears only indirectly on this book,\nbut if he speaks little of Francis he speaks much at length of some of\nthe men who have been most closely mingled with his life.\n\n\nIII. CHRONICLE OF FRA SALIMBENI[9]\n\nAs celebrated as it is little known, this chronicle is of quite\nsecondary value in all that concerns the life of St. Francis. Its\nauthor, born October 9, 1221, entered the Order in 1238, and wrote his\nmemoirs in 1282-1287; it is therefore especially for the middle years of\nthe thirteenth century that his importance is capital. Notwithstanding\nthis, it is surprising how small a place the radiant figure of the\nmaster holds in these long pages, and this very fact shows, better than\nlong arguments could do, how profound was the fall of the Franciscan\nidea.\n\n\nIV. THE CHRONICLE OF THE TRIBULATIONS BY ANGELO CARENO[10]\n\nThis chronicle was written about 1330; we might therefore be surprised\nto see it appear among the sources to be consulted for the life of St.\nFrancis, dead more than a century before; but the picture which Clareno\ngives us of the early days of the Order gains its importance from the\nfact that in sketching it he made constant appeal to eye-witnesses, and\nprecisely to those whose works have disappeared.\n\nAngelo Clareno, earlier called Pietro da Fossombrone[11] from the name\nof his native town, and sometimes da Cingoli, doubtless from the little\nconvent where he made profession, belonged to the Zelanti of the March\nof Ancona as early as 1265. Hunted and persecuted by his adversaries\nduring his whole life, he died in the odor of sanctity June 15, 1339, in\nthe little hermitage of Santa Maria d' Aspro in the diocese of Marsico\nin Basilicata.\n\nThanks to published documents, we may now, so to speak, follow day by\nday not only the external circumstances of his life, but the inner\nworkings of his soul. With him we see the true Franciscan live again,\none of those men who, while desiring to remain the obedient son of the\nChurch, cannot reconcile themselves to permit the domain of the dream to\nslip away from them, the ideal which they have hailed. Often they are on\nthe borders of heresy; in these utterances against bad priests and\nunworthy pontiffs there is a bitterness which the sectaries of the\nsixteenth century will not exceed.[12] Often, too, they seem to\nrenounce all authority and make final appeal to the inward witness of\nthe Holy Spirit;[13] and yet Protestantism would be mistaken in seeking\nits ancestors among them. No, they desired to die as they had lived, in\nthe communion of that Church which was as a stepmother to them and which\nthey yet loved with that heroic passion which some of the _ci-devant_\nnobles brought in '93 to the love of France, governed though she was by\nJacobins, and poured out their blood for her.\n\nClareno and his friends not only believed that Francis had been a great\nSaint, but to this conviction, which was also that of the Brothers of\nthe Common Observance, they added the persuasion that the work of the\nStigmatized could only be continued by men who should attain to his\nmoral stature, to which men might arrive through the power of faith and\nlove. They were of the violent who take the kingdom of heaven by force;\nso when, after the frivolous and senile interests of every day we come\nface to face with them, we feel ourselves both humbled and exalted, for\nwe suddenly find unhoped-for powers, an unrecognized lyre in the human\nheart.\n\nThere is one of Jesus's apostles of whom it is difficult not to think\nwhile reading the chronicle of the Tribulations and Angelo Clareno's\ncorrespondence: St. John. Between the apostle's words about love and\nthose of the Franciscan there is a similarity of style all the more\nstriking because they were written in different languages. In both of\nthese the soul is that of the aged man, where all is only love, pardon,\ndesire for holiness, and yet it sometimes wakes with a sudden\nthrill--like that which stirred the soul of the seer of Patmos--of\nindignation, wrath, pity, terror, and joy, when the future unveils\nitself and gives a glimpse of the close of the great tribulation.\n\nClareno's works, then, are in the strictest sense of the word partisan;\nthe question is whether the author has designedly falsified the facts or\nmutilated the texts. To this question we may boldly answer, No. He\ncommits errors,[14] especially in his earlier pages, but they are not\nsuch as to diminish our confidence.\n\nLike a good Joachimite, he believed that the Order would have to\ntraverse seven tribulations before its final triumph. The pontificate of\nJohn XXII. marked, he thought, the commencement of the seventh; he set\nhimself, then, to write, at the request of a friend, the history of the\nfirst six.[15]\n\nHis account of the first is naturally preceded by an introduction, the\npurpose of which is to exhibit to the reader, taking the life of St.\nFrancis as a framework, the intention of the latter in composing the\nRule and dictating the Will.\n\nBorn between 1240 and 1250, Clareno had at his service the testimony of\nseveral of the first disciples;[16] he found himself in relations with\nAngelo di Rieti,[17] Egidio,[18] and with that Brother Giovanni,\ncompanion of Egidio, mentioned in the prologue of the Legend of the\nThree Companions.[19]\n\nHis chronicle, therefore, forms as it were the continuation of that\nlegend. The members of the little circle of Greccio are they who\nrecommend it to us; it has also their inspiration.\n\nBut writing long years after the death of these Brothers, Clareno feels\nthe need of supporting himself also on written testimony; he repeatedly\nrefers to the four legends from which he borrows a part of his\nnarrative; they are those of Giovanni di Ceperano, Thomas of Celano,\nBonaventura, and Brother Leo.[20] Bonaventura's work is mentioned only\nby way of reference; Clareno borrows nothing from him, while he cites\nlong passages from Giovanni di Ceperano,[21] Thomas of Celano[22] and\nBrother Leo.[23]\n\nClareno takes from these writers narratives containing several new and\nextremely curious facts.[24]\n\nI have dwelt particularly upon this document because its value appears\nto me not yet to have been properly appreciated. It is indeed partisan;\nthe documents of which we must be most wary are not those whose tendency\nis manifest, but those where it is skilfully concealed.\n\nThe life of St. Francis and a great part of the religious history of the\nthirteenth century will surely appear to us in an entirely different\nlight when we are able to fill out the documents of the victorious party\nby those of the party of the vanquished. Just as Thomas of Celano's\nfirst legend is dominated by the desire to associate closely St.\nFrancis, Gregory IX., and Brother Elias, so the Chronicle of the\nTribulations is inspired from beginning to end with the thought that the\ntroubles of the Order--to say the word, the apostasy--began so early as\n1219. This contention finds a striking confirmation in the Chronicle of\nGiordano di Giano.\n\n\nV. THE FIORETTI[25]\n\nWith the Fioretti we enter definitively the domain of legend. This\nliterary gem relates the life of Francis, his companions and disciples,\nas it appeared to the popular imagination at the beginning of the\nfourteenth century. We have not to discuss the literary value of this\ndocument, one of the most exquisite religious works of the Middle Ages,\nbut it may well be said that from the historic point of view it does not\ndeserve the neglect to which it has been left.\n\nMost authors have failed in courage to revise the sentence lightly\nuttered against it by the successors of Bollandus. Why make anything of\na book which Father Suysken did not even deign to read![26]\n\nYet that which gives these stories an inestimable worth is what for want\nof a better term we may call their atmosphere. They are legendary,\nworked over, exaggerated, false even, if you please, but they give us\nwith a vivacity and intensity of coloring something that we shall search\nfor in vain elsewhere--the surroundings in which St. Francis lived. More\nthan any other biography the Fioretti transport us to Umbria, to the\nmountains of the March of Ancona; they make us visit the hermitages, and\nmingle with the life, half childish, half angelic, which was that of\ntheir inhabitants.\n\nIt is difficult to pronounce upon the name of the author. His work was\nonly that of gathering the flowers of his bouquet from written and oral\ntradition. The question whether he wrote in Latin or Italian has been\nmuch discussed and appears to be not yet settled; what is certain is\nthat though this work may be anterior to the Conformities,[27] it is a\nlittle later than the Chronicle of the Tribulations, for it would be\nstrange that it made no mention of Angelo Clareno, if it was written\nafter his death.\n\nThis book is in fact an essentially local[28] chronicle; the author has\nin mind to erect a monument to the glory of the Brothers Minor of the\nMarch of Ancona. This province, which is evidently his own, \"does it\nnot resemble the sky blazing with stars? The holy Brothers who dwelt in\nit, like the stars in the sky, have illuminated and adorned the Order of\nSt. Francis, filling the world with their examples and teaching.\" He is\nacquainted with the smallest villages,[29] each having at a short\ndistance its monastery, well apart, usually near a torrent, in the edge\nof a wood, and above, near the hilltop, a few almost inaccessible cells,\nthe asylums of Brothers even more than the others in love with\ncontemplation and retirement.[30]\n\nThe chapters that concern St. Francis and the Umbrian Brothers are only\na sort of introduction; Egidio, Masseo, Leo on one side, St. Clara on\nthe other, are witnesses that the ideal at Portiuncula and St. Damian\nwas indeed the same to which in later days Giachimo di Massa, Pietro di\nMonticulo, Conrad di Offida, Giovanni di Penna, and Giovanni della Verna\nendeavored to attain.\n\nWhile most of the other legends give us the Franciscan tradition of the\ngreat convents, the Fioretti are almost the only document which shows it\nas it was perpetuated in the hermitages and among the people. In default\nof accuracy of detail, the incidents which are related here contain a\nhigher truth--their tone is true. Here are words that were never\nuttered, acts that never took place, but the soul and the heart of the\nearly Franciscans were surely what they are depicted here.\n\nThe Fioretti have the living truth that the pencil gives. Something is\nwanting in the physiognomy of the Poverello when we forget his\nconversation with Brother Leo on the perfect joy, his journey to Sienna\nwith Masseo, or even the conversion of the wolf of Gubbio.\n\nWe must not, however, exaggerate the legendary side of the Fioretti:\nthere are not more that two or three of these stories of which the\nkernel is not historic and easy to find. The famous episode of the wolf\nof Gubbio, which is unquestionably the most marvellous of all the\nseries, is only, to speak the engraver's language, the third state of\nthe story of the robbers of Monte Casale[31] mingled with a legend of\nthe Verna.\n\nThe stories crowd one another in this book like flocks of memories that\ncome upon us pell-mell, and in which insignificant details occupy a\nlarger place than the most important events; our memory is, in fact, an\novergrown child, and what it retains of a man is generally a feature, a\nword, a gesture. Scientific history is trying to react, to mark the\nrelative value of facts, to bring forward the important ones, to cast\ninto shade that which is secondary. Is it not a mistake? Is there such a\nthing as the important and the secondary? How is it going to be marked?\n\nThe popular imagination is right: what we need to retain of a man is the\nexpression of countenance in which lives his whole being, a heart-cry, a\ngesture that expresses his personality. Do we not find all of Jesus in\nthe words of the Last Supper? And all of St. Francis in his address to\nbrother wolf and his sermon to the birds?\n\nLet us beware of despising these documents in which the first\nFranciscans are described as they saw themselves to be. Unfolding under\nthe Umbrian sky at the foot of the olives of St. Damian, or the firs of\nthe March of Ancona, these wild flowers have a perfume and an\noriginality which we look for in vain in the carefully cultivated\nflowers of a learned gardener.\n\n\nAPPENDICES OF THE FIORETTI\n\nIn the first of these appendices the compiler has divided into five\nchapters all the information on the stigmata which he was able to\ngather. It is easy to understand the success of the Fioretti. The people\nfell in love with these stories, in which St. Francis and his companions\nappear both more human and more divine than in the other legends; and\nthey began very soon to feel the need of so completing them as to form a\nveritable biography.[32]\n\nThe second, entitled Life of Brother Ginepro, is only indirectly\nconnected with St. Francis; yet it deserves to be studied, for it offers\nthe same kind of interest as the principal collection, to which it is\ndoubtless posterior. In these fourteen chapters we find the principal\nfeatures of the life of this Brother, whose mad and saintly freaks still\nfurnish material for conversation in Umbrian monasteries. These\nunpretending pages discover to us one aspect of the Franciscan heart.\nThe official historians have thought it their duty to keep silence upon\nthis Brother, who to them appeared to be a supremely indiscreet\npersonage, very much in the way of the good name of the Order in the\neyes of the laics. They were right from their point of view, but we owe\na debt of gratitude to the Fioretti for having preserved for us this\npersonality, so blithe, so modest, and with so arch a good nature.\nCertainly St. Francis was more like Ginepro than like Brother Elias or\nSt. Bonaventura.[33]\n\nThe third, Life of Brother Egidio, appears to be on the whole the most\nancient document on the life of the famous Ecstatic that we possess. It\nis very possible that these stories might be traced to Brother Giovanni,\nto whom the Three Companions appeal in their prologue.\n\nIn the defective texts given us in the existing editions we perceive the\nhand of an annotator whose notes have slipped into the text,[34] but in\nspite of that this life is one of the most important of the secondary\ntexts. This always itinerant brother, one of whose principal\npreoccupations is to live by his labor, is one of the most original and\nagreeable figures in Francis's surroundings, and it is in lives of this\nsort that we must seek the true meaning of some of the passages of the\nRule, and precisely in those that have had the most to suffer from the\nenterprise of exegetes.\n\nThe fourth includes the favorite maxims of Brother Egidio; they have no\nother importance than to show the tendencies of the primitive Franciscan\nteaching. They are short, precise, practical counsels, saturated with\nmysticism, and yet in them good sense never loses its rights. The\ncollection, just as it is in the Fioretti, is no doubt posterior to\nEgidio, for in 1385 Bartolommeo of Pisa furnished a much longer\none.[35]\n\n\nVI. CHRONICLE OF THE XXIV. GENERALS[36]\n\nWe find here at the end of the life of Francis that of most of his\ncompanions, and the events that occurred under the first twenty-four\ngenerals.\n\nIt is a very ordinary work of compilation. The authors have sought to\ninclude in it all the pieces which they had succeeded in collecting, and\nthe result presents a very disproportioned whole. A thorough study of it\nmight be interesting and useful, but it would be possible only after its\npublication. This cannot be long delayed: twice (at intervals of fifteen\nmonths) when I have desired to study the Assisi manuscript it was found\nto be with the Franciscans of Quaracchi, who were preparing to print it.\n\nIt is difficult not to bring the epoch in which this collection was\nclosed near to that when Bartolommeo of Pisa wrote his famous work.\nPerhaps the two are quite closely related.\n\nThis chronicle was one of Glassberger's favorite sources.\n\n\nVII. THE CONFORMITIES OF BARTOLOMMEO OF PISA[37]\n\nThe Book of the Conformities, to which Brother Bartolommeo of Pisa\ndevoted more than fifteen years of his life,[38] appears to have been\nread very inattentively by most of the authors who have spoken of\nit.[39] In justice to them we must add that it would be hard to find a\nwork more difficult to read; the same facts reappear from ten to fifteen\ntimes, and end by wearying the least delicate nerves.\n\nIt is to this no doubt that we must attribute the neglect to which it\nhas been left. I do not hesitate, however, to see in it the most\nimportant work which has been made on the life of St. Francis. Of course\nthe author does not undertake historical criticism as we understand it\nto-day, but if we must not expect to find him a historian, we can boldly\nplace him in the front rank of compilers.[40]\n\nIf the Bollandists had more thoroughly studied him they would have seen\nmore clearly into the difficult question of the sources, and the authors\nwho have come after them would have been spared numberless errors and\ninterminable researches.\n\nStarting with the thought that Francis's life had been a perfect\nimitation of that of Jesus, Bartolommeo attempted to collect, without\nlosing a single one, all the instances of the life of the Poverello\nscattered through the diverse legends still known at that time.\n\nHe regretted that Bonaventura, while borrowing the narratives of his\npredecessors, had often abridged them,[41] and himself desired to\npreserve them in their original bloom. Better situated than any one for\nsuch a work, since he had at his disposal the archives of the Sacro\nConvento of Assisi, it may be said that he has omitted nothing of\nimportance and that he has brought into his work considerable pieces\nfrom nearly all the legends which appeared in the thirteenth and\nfourteenth centuries; they are there only in fragments, it is true, but\nwith perfect accuracy.[42]\n\nWhen his researches were unsuccessful he avows it simply, without\nattempting to fill out the written testimonies with his own\nconjectures.[43] He goes farther, and submits the documents he has\nbefore him to a real testing, laying aside those he considers\nuncertain.[44] Finally he takes pains to point out the passages in\nwhich his only authority is oral testimony.[45]\n\nAs he is almost continually citing the legends of Celano, the Three\nCompanions, and Bonaventura, and as the citations prove on verification\nto be literally accurate, as well as those of the Will, the divers\nRules, or the pontifical bulls, it seems natural to conclude that he was\nequally accurate with the citations which we cannot verify, and in which\nwe find long extracts from works that have disappeared.[46]\n\nThe citations which he makes from Celano present no difficulty; they are\nall accurate, corresponding sometimes with the First sometimes with the\nSecond Legend.[47]\n\nThose from the Legend of the Three Companions are accurate, but it\nappears that Bartolommeo drew them from a text somewhat different from\nthat which we have.[48]\n\nWith the citations from the _Legenda Antiqua_ the question is\ncomplicated and becomes a nice one. Was there a work of this name?\nCertain authors, and among them the Bollandist Suysken, seem to incline\ntoward the negative, and believe that to cite the _Legenda Antiqua_ is\nabout the same as to refer vaguely to tradition. Others among\ncontemporaries have thought that after the approbation and definitive\nadoption of Bonaventura's _Legenda Major_ by the Order the Legends\nanterior to that, and especially that of Celano, were called _Legenda\nAntiqua_. The Conformities permit us to look a little closer into the\nquestion. We find, in fact, passages from the _Legenda Antiqua_ which\nreproduce Celano's First Life.[49] Others present points of contact\nwith the Second, sometimes a literary exactitude,[50] but often these\nare the same stories told in too different a way for us to consider them\nborrowed.[51]\n\nFinally there are many of these extracts from the _Legenda Antiqua_ of\nwhich we find no source in any of the documents already discussed.[52]\nThis would suffice to show that the two are not to be confounded. It has\nabsorbed them and brought about certain changes while completing them\nwith others.[53]\n\nThe study of the fragments which Bartolommeo has preserved to us shows\nimmediately that this collection belonged to the party of the Zealots of\nPoverty; we might be tempted to see in it the work of Brother Leo.\n\nMost fortunately there is a passage where Bartolommeo di Pisa cites as\nbeing by Conrad di Offida a fragment which he had already cited before\nas borrowed from the _Legenda Antiqua_.[54] I would not exaggerate the\nvalue of an isolated instance, but it seems an altogether plausible\nhypothesis to make Conrad di Offida the author of this compilation. All\nthat we know of him, of his tendencies, his struggle for the strict\nobservance, accords with what the known fragments of the _Legenda\nAntiqua_ permit us to infer as to its author.[55]\n\nHowever this may be, it appears that in this collection the stories have\nbeen given us (the principal source being the Legend of Brother Leo or\nthe Three Companions before its mutilation) in a much less abridged form\nthan in the Second Life of Celano. This work is hardly more than a\nsecond edition of that of Brother Leo, here and there completed with a\nfew new incidents, and especially with exhortations to perseverance\naddressed to the persecuted Zealots.[56]\n\n\nVIII. CHRONICLE OF GLASSBERGER[57]\n\nEvidently this work, written about 1508, cannot be classed among the\nsources properly so called; but it presents in a convenient form the\ngeneral history of the Order, and thanks to its citations permits us to\nverify certain passages in the primitive legends of which Glassberger\nhad the MS. before his eyes. It is thus in particular with the chronicle\nof Brother Giordano di Giano, which he has inserted almost bodily in his\nown work.\n\n\nIX. CHRONICLE OF MARK OF LISBON[58]\n\nThis work is of the same character as that of Glassberger; it can only\nbe used by way of addition. There is, however, a series of facts in\nwhich it has a special value; it is when the Franciscan missions in\nSpain or Morocco are in question. The author had documents on this\nsubject which did not reach the friars in distant countries.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] _Chronica fratris Jordani a Giano._ The text was published\n       for the first time in 1870 by Dr. G. Voigt under the title:\n       \"_Die Denkwuerdigkeiten des Minoriten Jordanus von Giano_ in the\n       _Abhandlungen der philolog. histor. Cl. der Koenigl. saechsischen\n       Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_,\" pp. 421-545, Leipsic, by\n       Hirzel, 1870. Only one manuscript is known; it is in the royal\n       library at Berlin (Manuscript. theolog. lat., 4to, n. 196, saec.\n       xiv., foliorum 141). It has served as the base of the second\n       edition: _Analecta franciscana sive Chronica aliaque documenta\n       ad historiam minorum spectantia. Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi) ex\n       typographia collegii S. Bonaventurae_, 1885, t. i., pp. 1-19.\n       Except where otherwise noted, I cite entirely this edition, in\n       which is preserved the division into sixty-three paragraphs\n       introduced by Dr. Voigt.\n\n   [2] Giord., 81.\n\n   [3] He names more than twenty four persons.\n\n   [4] It does not seem to me that we can look upon the account of\n       the interview between Gregory IX. and Brother Giordano as\n       rigorously accurate. Giord., 63.\n\n   [5] _Liber de adventu Minorum in Angliam_, published under the\n       title of _Monumenta Franciscana_ (in the series of _Rerum\n       Britannicarum medii AEvi scriptores_, _Roll series_) in two\n       volumes, 8vo; the first through the care of J. S. Brewer (1858),\n       the second through that of R. Howlett (1882). This text is\n       reproduced without the scientific dress of the _Analecta\n       franciscana_, t. i., pp. 217-257. Cf. English Historical Review,\n       v. (1890), 754. He has published an excellent critical edition\n       of it, but unfortunately partial, in vol. xxviii., _Scriptorum_,\n       of the _Monumenta Germaniae Historica_ by Mr. Liebermann,\n       Hanover, 1888, folio, pp. 560-569.\n\n   [6] Eccl., 11; 13; 14; 15. Cf. Eccl., 14, where the author takes\n       pains to say that Alberto of Pisa died at Rome, surrounded by\n       English Brothers \"_inter Anglicos_.\"\n\n   [7] Eccl., 4; 12.\n\n   [8] Eccl., 4; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 13; 14; 15.\n\n   [9] It was published, but with many suppressions, in 1857, at\n       Parma. The Franciscans of Quaracchi prepared a new edition of\n       it, which appeared in the _Analecta Franciscana_. This work is\n       in manuscript in the Vatican under no. 7260. Vide Ehrle.\n       _Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._ (1883), t. vii., pp. 767 and 768.\n       The work of Mr. Cledat will be read with interest: _De fratre\n       Salembene et de ejus chronicae auctoritate_, Paris, 4to, 1877,\n       with fac simile.\n\n  [10] Father Ehrle has published it, but unfortunately not\n       entire, in the _Archiv._, t. ii., pp. 125-155, text of the close\n       of the fifth and of the sixth tribulation; pp. 256-327 text of\n       the third, of the fourth, and of the commencement of the fifth.\n       He has added to it introductions and critical notes. For the\n       parts not published I will cite the text of the Laurentian\n       manuscript (Plut. 20, cod. 7), completed where possible with the\n       Italian version in the National Library at Florence\n       (Magliabecchina, xxxvii.-28). See also an article of Professor\n       Tocco in the _Archivio storico italiano_, t. xvii. (1886), pp.\n       12-36 and 243-61, and one of Mr. Richard's: Library of the Ecole\n       des chartes, 1884, 5th livr. p. 525. Cf. Tocco, the _Eresia nel\n       medio Evo_, p. 419 ff. As to the text published by Doellinger in\n       his _Beitraege zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters_, Muenich,\n       1890, 2 vols., 8vo, II. _Theil Dokumente_, pp. 417-427, it is of\n       no use. It can only beget errors, as it abounds with gross\n       mistakes. Whole pages are wanting.\n\n  [11] _Archiv._, t. iii., pp. 406-409.\n\n  [12] Vide _Archiv._, i., p. 557 ... \"_Et hoc totum ex rapacitate\n       et malignitate luporum pastorum qui voluerunt esse pastores, sed\n       operibus negaverunt deum_,\" et seq. Cf., p. 562: \"_Avaritia et\n       symoniaca heresis absque pallio regnat et fere totum invasit\n       ecclesie corpus_.\"\n\n  [13] \"_Qui excommunicat et hereticat altissimam evangelii\n       paupertatem, excommunicatus est a Deo et hereticus coram\n       Christo, qui est eterna et in commutabilis veritas._\" _Arch._,\n       i., p. 509. \"_Non est potestas contra christum Dominum et contra\n       evangelium._\" Ib. p. 560. He closes one of his letters with a\n       sentence of a mysticism full of serenity, and which lets us see\n       to the bottom of the hearts of the Spiritual Brothers. \"_Totum\n       igitur studium esse debet quod unum inseparabiliter simus per\n       Franciscum in Christo._\" Ib., p. 564.\n\n  [14] For example in the list of the first six generals of the\n       Order.\n\n  [15] The first (1219-1226) extends from the departure of St.\n       Francis for Egypt up to his death; the second includes the\n       generalate of Brother Elias (1232-1239); the third that of\n       Crescentius (1244-1248); the fourth, that of Bonaventura\n       (1257-1274); the fifth commences with the epoch of the council\n       of Lyon (1274) and extends up to the death of the inquisitor,\n       Thomas d'Aversa (1204). And the sixth goes from 1308 to 1323.\n\n  [16] \"_Supererant adhuc multi de sociis b. Francisci ... et alii\n       non pauci de quibus ego vidi et ab ipsis audivi quae narro._\"\n       Laur. Ms., cod. 7, pl. xx., f^o 24a: \"_Qui passi sunt eam\n       (tribulationem tertiam) socii fundatoris fratres Aegdius et\n       Angelus, qui supererant me audiente referibant_.\" Laur. Ms., f^o\n       27b. Cf., Italian Ms., xxxvii., 28, Magliab., f^o 138b.\n\n  [17] The date of his death is unknown; on August 11, 1253, he\n       was present at the death-bed of St. Clara.\n\n  [18] Died April 23, 1261.\n\n  [19] \"_Quem (fratrem Jacobum de Massa) dirigente me fratre\n       Johanne socio fratris prefati Egidii videre laboravi. Hic enim\n       frater Johannes ... dixit mihi_....\" _Arch._, ii., p. 279.\n\n  [20] \" ... _Tribulationes preteritas memoravi, ut audivi ab\n       illis qui sustinuerunt eas et aliqua commemoravi de hiis que\n       didici in quatuor legendis quas vidi et legi._\" _Arch._, ii., p.\n       135.--\"_Vitam pauperis et humilis viri Dei Francisci trium\n       ordinum fundatoris quatuor solemnes personae scripserunt, fratres\n       videlicet scientia et sanctitate praeclari, Johannes et Thomas de\n       Celano, frater Bonaventura unus post Beatum Franciscum Generalis\n       Minister et vir mirae simplicitatis et sanctitatis frater Leo,\n       ejusdem sancti Francisci socius. Has quatuor descriptiones seu\n       historias qui legerit_....\" Laurent. MS., pl. xx., c. 7, f^o 1a.\n       Did the Italian translator think there was an error in this\n       quotation? I do not know, but he suppressed it. At f^o 12a of\n       manuscript xxxvii., 28, of the Magliabecchina, we read:\n       \"_Incominciano alcune croniche del ordine franciscano, come la\n       vita del povero e humile servo di Dio Francesco fondatore del\n       minorico ordine fu scripta da San Bonaventura e da quatro altri\n       frati. Queste poche scripture ovveramente hystorie quello il\n       quale diligentemente le leggiera, expeditamente potra cognoscere\n       ... la vocatione la santita di San Francisco._\"\n\n  [21] Laur. MS., f^o 4b ff. On the other hand we read in a letter\n       of Clareno: \"_Ad hanc (paupertatem) perfecte servandam Christus\n       Franciscum vocavit et elegit in hac hora novissima et precepit\n       ei evangelicam assumere regulam, et a papa Innocentio fuit\n       omnibus annuntiatum in concilio generali, quod de sua\n       auctoritate et obedientia sanctus Franciscus evangelicam vitam\n       et regulam assumpserat et Christo inspirante servare promiserat,\n       sicut sanctus vir fr. Leo scribit et fr. Johannes de Celano._\"\n       _Archiv._, i., p. 559.\n\n  [22] \"_Audiens enim semel quorundam fratrum enormes excessus, ut\n       fr. Thomas de Celano scribit, et malum exemplum per eos\n       secularibus datum._\" Laur. MS., f^o 13b. The passage which\n       follows evidently refers to 2 Cel., 3, 93 and 112.\n\n  [23] \"_Et fecerunt de regula prima ministri removeri capitulum\n       istud de prohibitionibus sancti evangelii, sicut frater Leo\n       scribit._\" Laur. Ms. f^o 12b. Cf. _Spec._, 9a, see p. 248. \"_Nam\n       cum rediisset de partibus ultramarinis, minister quidam\n       loquebatur cum eo, ut frater Leo refert, de capitulo\n       paupertatis_,\" f^o 13a, cf. _Spec._, 9a, \"_S. Franciscus, teste\n       fr. Leone, frequenter et cum multo studio recitabat fabulam ...\n       quod oportebat finaliter ordinem humiliari et ad sue humilitatis\n       principia confitenda et tenenda reduci_.\" _Archiv._, ii., p.\n       129.\n\n       There is only one point of contact between the Legend of the\n       Three Companions, such as it is to-day, and these passages; but\n       we find on the contrary revised accounts in the _Speculum_ and\n       in the other collections, where they are cited as coming from\n       Brother Leo.\n\n  [24] Clareno, for example, holds that the Cardinal Ugolini had\n       sustained St. Francis without approving of the first Rule, in\n       concert with Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo. This is possible,\n       since Ugolini was created cardinal in 1198 (Vide Cardella:\n       _Memorie storiche de' Cardinali_, 9 vols., 8vo, Rome, 1792-1793,\n       t. i., pt. 2, p. 190). Besides this would better explain the\n       zeal with which he protected the divers Orders founded by St.\n       Francis, from 1217. The chapter where Clareno tells how St.\n       Francis wrote the Rule shows the working over of the legend, but\n       it is very possible that he has borrowed it in its present form\n       from Brother Leo. It is to be noted that we do not find in this\n       document a single allusion to the Indulgences of Portiuncula.\n\n  [25] The manuscripts and editions are well-nigh innumerable. M.\n       Luigi Manzoni has studied them with a carefulness that makes it\n       much to be desired that he continue this difficult work. _Studi\n       sui Fioretti_: Miscelenea, 1888, pp. 116-119, 150-152, 162-168;\n       1889, 9-15, 78-84, 132-135. When shall we find some one who can\n       and will undertake to make a scientific edition of them? Those\n       which have appeared during our time in the various cities of\n       Italy are insignificant from a critical point of view. See\n       Mazzoni Guido, _Capitoli inediti dei Fioretti di S. Francesco_,\n       in the _Propugnatore_, Bologna, 1888, vol. xxi., pp. 396-411.\n\n  [26] Vide A. SS., p. 865: \"_Floretum non legi, nec curandum\n       putavi._\" Cf. 553f: \"_Floretum ad manum non habeo._\"\n\n  [27] Bartolommeo di Pisa compiled it in 1385; then certain\n       manuscripts of the Fioretti are earlier. Besides, in the stories\n       that the Conformities borrow from the Fioretti, we perceive\n       Bartolommeo's work of abbreviation.\n\n  [28] I am speaking here only of the fifty-three chapters which\n       form the true collection of the Fioretti.\n\n  [29] The province of the March of Ancona counted seven\n       custodias: 1, Ascoli; 2, Camerino; 3, Ancona; 4, Jesi; 5, Fermo;\n       6, Fano; 7, Felestro. The Fioretti mention at least six of the\n       monasteries of the custodia of Fermo: Moliano, 51, 53;\n       Fallerone, 32, 51; Bruforte and Soffiano, 46, 47; Massa, 51;\n       Penna, 45; Fermo, 41, 49, 51.\n\n  [30] At each page we are reminded of those groves which were\n       originally the indispensable appendage of the Franciscan\n       monasteries: _La selva ch' era allora allato a S. M. degli\n       Angeli_, 3, 10, 15, 16, etc. _La selva d' un luogo deserto del\n       val di Spoleto_ (Carceri?), 4; _selva di Forano_, 42. _di\n       Massa_, 51, etc.\n\n  [31] The _Speculum_, 46b, 58b, 158a, gives us three states. Cf.\n       _Fior._, 26 and 21; _Conform._, 119b, 2.\n\n  [32] This desire was so natural that the manuscript of the\n       Angelica Library includes many additional chapters, concerning\n       the gift of Portiuncula, the indulgence of August 2d, the birth\n       of St. Francis, etc. (Vide Amoni, Fioretti, Roma, 1889, pp. 266,\n       378-386.) It would be an interesting study to seek the origin of\n       these documents and to establish their relationship with the\n       Speculum and the Conformities. Vide _Conform._, 231a, 1; 121b;\n       _Spec._, 92-96.\n\n  [33] Ginepro was received into the Order by St. Francis. In 1253\n       he was present at St. Clara's death. A. SS., _Aug._, t. ii., p.\n       764d. The Conformities speak of him in detail, f^o 62b.\n\n  [34] The first seven chapters form a whole. The three which\n       follow are doubtless a first attempt at completing them.\n\n  [35] Conformities, f^o 55b, 1-60a, 1.\n\n  [36] See _Archiv._, t. i., p. 145, an article of Father Denifle:\n       _Zur Quellenkunde der Franziskaner Geschichte_, where he\n       mentions at least eight manuscripts of this work. Cf. Ehrle:\n       _Zeitschrift_, 1883, p. 324, note 3. I have studied only the two\n       manuscripts of Florence: Riccardi, 279, paper, 243 fos. of two\n       cols. recently numbered. The Codex of the Laurentian Gaddian.\n       rel., 53, is less careful. It is also on paper, 20 x 27, and\n       counts 254 fos. of 1 column. F^o 1 was formerly numbered 88. The\n       order of the chapters is not the same as in the preceding.\n\n  [37] The citations are always made from the edition of Milan,\n       1510, 4to of 256 folios of two columns. The best known of the\n       subsequent editions are those of Milan, 1513, and Bologna, 1590.\n\n  [38] He began it in 1385 (f^o 1), and it was authorized by the\n       chapter general August 2, 1399 (f^o 256a, 1). Besides, on f^o\n       150a, 1, he set down the date when he was writing. It was in\n       1390.\n\n  [39] I am not here concerned with the foolish attacks of certain\n       Protestant authors upon this life. That is a quarrel of the\n       theologians which in no way concerns history. Nowhere does\n       Bartolommeo of Pisa make St. Francis the equal of Jesus, and he\n       was able even to forestall criticism in this respect. The\n       Bollandists are equally severe: \"_Cum Pisanus fuerit scriptor\n       magis pius et credulus quam crisi severa usus_....\" A. SS., p.\n       551e.\n\n  [40] He has avoided the mistakes so unfortunately committed by\n       Wadding in his list of ministers general. Vide 66a. 2, 104a, 1,\n       118b, 2. He was lecturer on theology at Bologna, Padua, Pisa,\n       Sienna, and Florence. He preached for many years and with great\n       success in the principal villages of the Peninsula and could\n       thus take advantage of his travels by collecting useful notes.\n       Mark of Lisbon has preserved for us a notice of his life. Vide\n       _Croniche dei fratri Minori_, t. iii., p. 6 ff. of the Diola\n       edition. He died December 10, 1401. For further details see\n       Wadding, ann. 1399, vii., viii., and above all Sbaralea,\n       _Supplementum_, p. 109. He is the author of an exposition of the\n       Rule little known which can be found in the Speculum Morin,\n       Rouen, 1509, f^o 66b-83a, of part three.\n\n  [41] This opinion is expressed in a guarded manner. For example,\n       f^o 207a, 1, Bartolommeo relates the miracle of the Chapter of\n       the Mats, first following St. Bonaventura, then adding: \"_Et\n       quia non aliter tangit dicta pars (legendae majoris) hoc insigne\n       miraculum: antiqua legenda hoc refertur in hunc modum_.\" Cf.\n       225a, 2m. \"_Et quia fr. Bonaventura succincte multa tangit et in\n       brevi: pro evidentia prefatorum notandum est ... ut dicit\n       antiqua legenda._\"\n\n  [42] However, it is necessary to note that not only are there\n       considerable differences between the editions published, but\n       also that the first (that of Milan, 1510) has been completed and\n       revised by its editor. The judgments passed upon Raymond\n       Ganfridi, 104a, 1, and Boniface VIII., 103b, 1, show traces of\n       later corrections. (Cf. 125a, 1. At f^o 72a, 2m, is indicated\n       the date of the death of St. Bernardin, which was in 1444, etc.)\n       Besides, we are surprised to find beside the pages where the\n       sources are indicated with clearness others where stories follow\n       one another coming one knows not from whence.\n\n  [43] F^o 70a, 1: \"_Cujus nomen non reperi._\" 1a, 2: \"_Multaque\n       non ex industria sed quia ea noscere non valui omittendo._\"\n\n  [44] F^o 78a, 1: _Informationes quas non scribo quia imperfectas\n       reperi._ Cf. 229b, 2: \"_De aliis multis apparitionibus non\n       reperi scripturam, quare hic non pono._\"\n\n  [45] F^o 69a, 1: \"_Hec ut audivi posui quia ejus legendam non\n       vidi._\" Cf. 68b, 2m: _Fr. Henricus generalis minister mihi\n       magistro Bartholomeo dixit ipse oretenus._\n\n  [46] The citations from Bonaventura are decidedly more frequent.\n       We should not be surprised, since this story is the official\n       biography of St. Francis; the chapter from which Bartolommeo\n       takes his quotations is almost always indicated, and, naturally,\n       follows the old division in five parts. Opening the book at\n       hazard at folio 136a I find no less than six references to the\n       _Legenda Major_ in the first column. To give an idea of the\n       style of Bartolommeo of Pisa I shall give in substance the\n       contents of a page of his book. See, for example, f^o 111a (lib.\n       i., conform. x., pars. ii., Franciscus predicator). In the third\n       line he cites Bonaventura: \"_Fr. Bonaventura in quarta parte\n       majoris legende dicit quod b. Franciscus videbatur intuentibus\n       homo alterius seculi._\" Textual citation of Bonaventure, 45.\n       Three lines further on: \"_Verum qualis esset b. F. quoad\n       personam sic habetur in legenda antiqua ... homo facundissimus,\n       facie hilaris_, etc.\" The literal citation of the sketch of\n       Francis follows as 1 Celano, 83, gives it as far as: \"_inter\n       peccatores quasi unus ex illis_,\" and to mark the end of the\n       quotation Bartolommeo adds: \"_Hec legenda antiqua_.\" In the next\n       column paragraph 4 commences with the words: _B. Francisci\n       predicationem reddebat mirabilem et gloriosam ipsius sancti\n       loquutio: etenim legenda trium Sociorum dicit et Legenda major\n       parte tertia: B. Francisei eloquia erant non inania, neo risu\n       digna_, etc., which corresponds literally with 3 Soc., 25, and\n       Bon., 28. Then come two chapters of Bonaventura almost entire,\n       beginning with: _In duodecima parte legende majoris dicit Fr.\n       Bonaventura: Erat enim verbum ejus_, etc. Textual quotation of\n       Bon., 178 and 179. The page ends with another quotation from\n       Bonaventura: _Sic dicebat prout recitat Bonaventura in octava\n       parte Legende majoris: Hac officium patri misericordiarum_. Vide\n       Bonav., 102 end and 103 entire. This suffices without doubt to\n       show with what precision the authorities have been quoted in\n       this work, with what attention and confidence ought to be\n       examined those portions of documents lost or mislaid which he\n       has here preserved for us.\n\n  [47] F^o 31b, 2: _ut dicit fr. Thomas in sua legenda_, cf. 2\n       Cel., 3, 60.--140a, 2: _Fr. in leg. fr. Thome_, cf. 2 Cel., 3,\n       60.--140a 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3 16.--142b, 1: _Fr. in leg. Thome\n       capitulo de charitate_, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115.--144b, 1: _Fr. in\n       leg. fr. Thome capitulo de oratione_, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 40.--144b,\n       1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 65.--144b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 78.--176b, 2, cf.\n       2 Cel., 3, 79.--182b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 2, 1.--241b, 1, cf. 2 Cel.,\n       3, 141.--181a, 2, cf. 1 Cel., 27. It is needless to say that\n       these lists of quotations do not pretend to be complete.\n\n  [48] F^o 36b, 2. _Ut enim habetur in leg._ 3 Soc., cf. 3 Soc.,\n       10.--46b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 25-28.--38b 2, cf. 3 Soc. 3.--111a, 2,\n       cf. 3 Soc., 25.--134a, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 4.--142b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 57\n       and 58.--167b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 3 and 8.--168a, 1, cf. 3 Soc.,\n       10.--170b, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 39, 4.--175b, 2, cf. 3 Soc.,\n       59.--180b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 4.--181a, 1, cf. 3 Soc., 5, 7, 24, 33,\n       and 67.--181a. 2, cf. 3 Soc., 36.--229b, 2, cf. 3 Soc., 14. etc.\n       The reading of 3 Soc. which Bartolommeo had before his eyes was\n       pretty much the same we have to day, for he says, 181a, 2.\n       referring to 3 Soc., 67: \"_Ut habetur quasi in fine leg_. 3\n       _Soc._\"\n\n  [49] F^o 111a, 1, _Sic habetur in leg. ant._, corresponds\n       literally with 1 Cel., 83.--144a, 2. _Franciscus in leg. ant.\n       cap. v. de zelo ad religionem_, to 1 Cel. 106.\n\n  [50] F^o 111b, 1. _De predicantibus loqueus sic dicebat in ant.\n       leg._ Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 99 and 106. 140b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3,\n       84.--144b, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 45--144a, 1, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 95 and\n       15.--225b, 2, cf. 2 Cel., 3, 116.\n\n  [51] F^o 31a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 83.--143a, 2. Vide 2 Cel., 3,\n       65 and 116.--144a, 1. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 94.--170b. 1. Vide 2 Cel.,\n       3, 11.\n\n  [52] F^o 14a, 2.--32a. 1.--101a, 2.--169b, 1.--144b, 2.--142a,\n       2.--143b, 2.--168b, 1.--144b, 1.\n\n  [53] Chapters 18 (chapter of the mats) and 25 (lepers cured) of\n       the _Fioretti_ are found in Latin in the Conf. as borrowed from\n       the Leg. Ant. Vide 174b, 1, and 207a. 1.\n\n       Finally, according to f^o 168b, 2, it is also from the Leg. Ant.\n       that the description of the coat, such as we find at the end of\n       the _Chronique des Tribulations_, was borrowed. See _Archiv._,\n       t. ii., p. 153.\n\n  [54] F^o 182a, 2; cf. 51b, 1; 144a, 1.\n\n  [55] He died December 12, 1306, at Bastia, near Assisi. See upon\n       him _Chron. Tribul. Archiv._, ii.; 311 and 312; _Conform._, 60,\n       119, and 153.\n\n  [56] Although the history of the Indulgence of Portiuncula was\n       of all subjects the one most largely treated in the\n       Conformities, 151b, 2--157a, 2, not once does Bartolommeo of\n       Pisa refer to it in the _Legenda Antiqua_. It seems, then, that\n       this collection also was silent as to this celebrated pardon.\n\n  [57] Published with extreme care by the Franciscan Fathers of\n       the Observance in t. ii. of the _Analecta Franciscana, ad Clarae\n       Aquas_ (Quaracchi, near Florence), 1888, 1 vol., crown 8vo, of\n       xxxvi.-612 pp. This edition, as much from the critical point of\n       view of the text, its correctness, its various readings and\n       notes, as from the material point of view, is perfect and makes\n       the more desirable a publication of the chronicles of the xxiv.\n       generals and of Salimbeni by the same editors. The beginning up\n       to the year 1262 has been published already by Dr. Karl Evers\n       under the title _Analecta ad Fratrum Minorum historiam_,\n       Leipsic, 1882, 4to of 89 pp.\n\n  [58] I have been able only to procure the Italian edition\n       published by Horatio Diola under the title _Croniche degli\n       Ordini instituti dal P. S. Francesco_, 3 vols., 8vo, Venice,\n       1606.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nCHRONICLES OUTSIDE OF THE ORDER\n\n\nI. JACQUES DE VITRY\n\nThe following documents, which we can only briefly indicate, are of\ninestimable value; they emanate from men particularly well situated to\ngive us the impression which the Umbrian prophet produced on his\ngeneration.\n\nJacques de Vitry[1] has left extended writings on St. Francis. Like a\nprudent man who has already seen many religious madmen, he is at first\nreserved; but soon this sentiment disappears, and we find in him only a\nhumble and active admiration for the _Apostolic Man_.\n\nHe speaks of him in a letter which he wrote immediately after the taking\nof Damietta (November, 1219), to his friends in Lorraine, to describe it\nto them.[2] A few lines suffice to describe St. Francis and point out\nhis irresistible influence. There is not a single passage in the\nFranciscan biographers which gives a more living idea of the apostolate\nof the Poverello.\n\nHe returns to him more at length in his _Historia Occidentalis_,\ndevoting to him the thirty-second chapter of this curious work.[3]\nThese pages, vibrating with enthusiasm, were written during Francis's\nlifetime,[4] at the time when the most enlightened members of the\nChurch, who had believed themselves to be living in the evening of the\nworld, _in vespere mundi tendentis ad occasum_, suddenly saw in the\ndirection of Umbria the light of a new day.\n\n\nII. THOMAS OF SPALATO\n\nAn archdeacon of the Cathedral of Spalato, who in 1220 was studying at\nBologna, has left us a very living portrait of St. Francis and the\nmemory of the impression which his preachings produced in that learned\ntown.[5]\n\nSomething of his enthusiasm has passed into his story; we feel that that\nday, August 15, 1220, when he met the Poverello of Assisi, was one of\nthe best of his life.[6]\n\n\nIII. DIVERS CHRONICLES\n\nThe continuation of William of Tyre[7] brings us a new account of\nFrancis's attempt to conquer the Soudan. This narrative, the longest of\nall three we have on this subject, contains no feature essentially new,\nbut it gives one more witness to the historic value of the Franciscan\nlegends.\n\nFinally, there are two chronicles written during Francis's life, which,\nwithout giving anything new, speak with accuracy of his foundation, and\nprove how rapidly that religious renovation which started in Umbria was\nbeing propagated to the very ends of Europe. The anonymous chronicler of\nMonte Sereno[8] in fact wrote about 1225, and tells us, not without\nregret, of the brilliant conquests of the Franciscans.\n\nBurchard,[9] Abbot Premontre d'Ursberg (died in 1226), who was in Rome\nin 1211, leaves us a very curious criticism of the Order.\n\nThe Brothers Minor appeared to him a little like an orthodox branch of\nthe Poor Men of Lyons. He even desires that the pope, while approving\nthe Franciscans, should do so with a view to satisfy, in the measure of\nthe possible, the aspirations manifested by that heresy and that of the\nHumiliati.\n\nIt is impossible to attribute any value whatever to the long pages given\nto St. Francis by Matthew Paris.[10] His information is correct\nwherever the activities of the friars are concerned, and he could\nexamine the work around him.[11] They are absolutely fantastic when he\ncomes to the life of St. Francis, and we can only feel surprised to find\nM. Hase[12] adopting the English monk's account of the stigmata.\n\nThe notice which he gives of Francis contains as many errors as\nsentences; he makes him born of a family illustrious by its nobility,\nmakes him study theology from his infancy (_hoc didicerat in litteris et\ntheologicis disciplinis quibus ab aetate tenera incubuerat, usque ad\nnotitiam perfectam_), etc.[13]\n\nIt would be useless to enlarge this list and mention those chroniclers\nwho simply noticed the foundation of the Order, its approbation, and the\ndeath of St. Francis,[14] or those which spoke of him at length, but\nsimply by copying a Franciscan legend.[15]\n\nIt suffices to point out by way of memory the long chapter consecrated\nto St. Francis in the Golden Legend. Giachimo di Voraggio ([Cross]\n1298) there sums up with accuracy but without order the essential\nfeatures of the first legends and in particular the Second Life by\nCelano.[16]\n\nAs for the inscription of Santa Maria del Vescovado at Assisi it is too\nunformed to be anything but a simple object of curiosity.[17]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have given up preparing a complete bibliography of works concerning\nSt. Francis, that task having been very well done by the Abbe Ulysse\nChevalier in his _Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen age_,\nBio-Bibliographie, cols. 765-767 and 2588-2590, Paris, 1 vol., 4to,\n1876-1888. To it I refer my readers.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] He was born at Vitry sur Seine, became Cure of Argenteuil,\n       near Paris; Canon of Oignies, in the diocese of Namur, preached\n       the crusade against the Albigenses, and accompanied the\n       Crusaders to Palestine; having been made Bishop of Acre, he was\n       present in 1219 at the siege and at the capture of Damietta and\n       returned to Europe in 1225; created Cardinal-bishop of Frascati\n       in 1229, he died in 1244, leaving a number of writings. For his\n       life, see the preface of his _Historiae_, edition of Douai, 1597.\n\n   [2] This letter may be found in (Bongars) _Gesta Dei per\n       Francio_, pp. 1146-1149.\n\n   [3] _Jacobi de Vitriaco Libri duo quorum prior Orientalis, alter\n       Occidentalis Historiae nomine inscribitur studio Fr. Moschi Duaci\n       ex officina Balthazaris Belleri_, 1597, 16mo, 480 pp. Chapter\n       xxxii. fills pages 349-353, and is entitled _De ordine et\n       praedicatione fratrum Minorum_. See above, p. 229.\n\n   [4] This appears from the passage: _Videmus primus ordinis\n       fundatorem magestrum cui tanquam summo Priori suo omnes alii\n       obediunt._ _Loc. cit._, p. 352.\n\n   [5] It is inserted in the treatise of Sigonius on the bishops of\n       Bologna: _Caroli Sigonii de episcopis Bononiensibus libri\n       quinque cum notis L. C. Rabbii_, a work which occupies cols.\n       353-590 of t. iii. of his _Opera omnia_, Milan, 1732-1737, 6\n       vols., f^o. We find our fragment in col. 432.\n\n   [6] This passage will be found above, p. 241.\n\n   [7] _Guillelmi Tyrensis arch. Continuala belli sacri historia_\n       in Martene: _Amplissima Collectio_, t. v. pp. 584-572. The piece\n       concerning Francis is cols. 689-690.\n\n   [8] _Chronicon Montis Sereni_ (at present Petersberg, near\n       Halle), edited by Ehrenfeuchter in the _Mon. Germ. hist.\n       Script._, t. 23, pp. 130-226, 229.\n\n   [9] _Burchardi et Cuonradi Urspergensium chronicon_ ed., A. Otto\n       Abel and L. Weiland, _apud Mon. Germ, hist._, t. 23, pp.\n       333-383. The monastery of Ursperg was half-way between Ulm and\n       Augsburg. Vide p. 376.\n\n  [10] _Matthaei Parisiensis monachie Albanensis, Historia major_,\n       edition Watts, London, 1640. The Brothers Minor are first\n       mentioned in the year 1207, p. 222, then 1227, pp. 339-342.\n\n  [11] See the article, _Minores_, in the table of contents of the\n       _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. xxviii.\n\n  [12] _Franz von Assisi_, p. 168 ff.\n\n  [13] See above, p. 97, his story of the audience with Innocent\n       III.\n\n  [14] For example, _Chronica Albrici trium fontium_ in Pertz:\n       _Script._, t. 23, _ad ann. 1207_, 1226, 1228. Vide Fragment of\n       the chron. of Philippe Mousket ([Cross] before 1245). _Recueil des\n       historiens_, t. xxii., p. 71, lines 30347-30360. The number of\n       annalists in this century is appalling, and there is not one in\n       ten who has omitted to note the foundation of the Minor\n       Brothers.\n\n  [15] For example, Vincent de Beauvais ([Cross] 1264) gives in his\n       _Speculum historiale_, lib. 29, cap. 97-99, lib. 30, cap.\n       99-111, nearly every story given by the Bollandists under the\n       title of _Secunda legenda_ in their _Commentarium praevium_.\n\n  [16] _Legenda aurea_, Graesse, Breslau, 1890, pp. 662-674.\n\n  [17] A good reproduction of it will be found in the _Miscellanea\n       francescana_, t. ii., pp. 33-37, accompanied by a learned\n       dissertation by M. Faloci Pulignani.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nCRITICAL STUDY OF THE STIGMATA AND THE INDULGENCE OF AUGUST 2\n\n\nI. THE STIGMATA\n\nA dissertation upon the possibility of miracles would be out of place\nhere; a historic sketch is not a treatise on philosophy or dogmatics.\n\nStill, I owe the reader a few explanations, to enable him with thorough\nunderstanding to judge of my manner of viewing the subject.\n\nIf by miracle we understand either the suspension or subversion of the\nlaws of nature, or the intervention of the first cause in certain\nparticular cases, I could not concede it. In this negation physical and\nlogical reasons are secondary; the true reason--let no one be\nsurprised--is entirely religious; the miracle is immoral. The equality\nof all before God is one of the postulates of the religious\nconsciousness, and the miracle, that good pleasure of God, only degrades\nhim to the level of the capricious tyrants of the earth.\n\nThe existing churches, making, as nearly all of them do, this notion of\nmiracle the very essence of religion and the basis of all positive\nfaith, involuntarily render themselves guilty of that emasculation of\nmanliness and morality of which they so passionately complain. If God\nintervenes thus irregularly in the affairs of men, the latter can\nhardly do otherwise than seek to become courtiers who expect all things\nof the sovereign's _favor_.\n\nThe question changes its aspect, if we call miracle, as we most\ngenerally do, all that goes beyond ordinary experience.\n\nMany apologists delight in showing that the unheard of, the\ninexplicable, are met with all through life. They are right and I agree\nwith them, on condition that they do not at the close of their\nexplanation replace this new notion of the supernatural by the former\none.\n\nIt is thus that I have come to conclude the reality of the stigmata.\nThey may have been a unique fact without being more miraculous than\nother phenomena; for example, the mathematical powers or the musical\nability of an infant prodigy.\n\nThere are in the human creature almost indefinite powers, marvellous\nenergies; in the great majority of men these lie in torpid slumber, but\nawaking to life in a few, they make of them prophets, men of genius, and\nsaints who show humanity its true nature.\n\nWe have caught but fleeting glimpses into the domain of mental\npathology, so vast is it and unexplored; the learned men of the future\nwill perhaps make, in the realms of psychology and physiology, such\ndiscoveries as will bring about a complete revolution in our laws and\ncustoms.\n\nIt remains to examine the stigmata from the point of view of history.\nAnd though in this field there is no lack of difficulties, small and\ngreat, the testimony appears to me to be at once too abundant and too\nprecise not to command conviction.\n\nWe may at the outset set aside the system of those who hold that Brother\nElias helped on their appearance by a pious fraud. Such a claim might\nindeed be defended if these marks had been gaping wounds, as they are\nnow or in most cases have been represented to be; but all the testimony\nagrees in describing them, with the exception of the mark on the side,\nas blackish, fleshy excrescences, like the heads of nails, and in the\npalms of the hands like the points of nails clinched by a hammer. There\nwas no bloody exudation except at the side.\n\nOn the other hand, any deception on the part of Elias would oblige us to\nhold that his accomplices were actually the heads of the party opposed\nto him, Leo, Angelo, and Rufino. Such want of wit would be surprising\nindeed in a man so circumspect.\n\nFinally the psychological agreement between the external circumstances\nand the event is so close that an invention of this character would be\nas inexplicable as the fact itself. That which indeed almost always\nbetrays invented or unnatural incidents is that they do not fit into the\nframework of the facts. They are extraneous events, purely decorative\nelements whose place might be changed at will.\n\nNothing of the sort is the case here: Thomas of Celano is so veracious\nand so exact, that though holding the stigmata to be miraculous, he\ngives us all the elements necessary for explaining them in a\ndiametrically opposite manner.\n\n1. The preponderating place of the passion of Jesus in Francis's\nconscience ever since his conversion (1 Cel., 115; 2 Cel., 1, 6; 3, 29;\n49; 52).\n\n2. His sojourn in the Verna coincides with a great increase of mystical\nfervor.\n\n3. He there observes a Lent in honor of the archangel St. Michael.\n\n4. The festival of the exaltation of the cross comes on, and in the\nvision of the crucified seraph is blended the two ideas which have taken\npossession of him, the angels and the crucifix (1 Cel., 91-96,\n112-115).\n\nThis perfect congruity between the circumstances and the prodigy itself\nforms a moral proof whose value cannot be exaggerated.\n\nIt is time to pass the principal witnesses in review.\n\n1. Brother Elias, 1226. On the very day after the death of Francis,\nBrother Elias, in his capacity of vicar, sent letters to the entire\nOrder announcing the event and prescribing prayers.[1]\n\nAfter having expressed his sorrow and imparted to the Brothers the\nblessing with which the dying Francis had charged him for them, he adds:\n\"I announce to you a great joy and a new miracle. Never has the world\nseen such a sign, except on the Son of God who is the Christ God. For a\nlong time before his death our Brother and Father appeared as crucified,\nhaving in his body five wounds which are truly the stigmata of Christ,\nfor his hands and his feet bore marks as of nails without and within,\nforming a sort of scars; while at the side he was as if pierced with a\nlance, and often a little blood oozed from it.\"\n\n2. Brother Leo. We find that it is the very adversary of Elias who is\nthe natural witness, not only of the stigmata, but of the circumstances\nof their imprinting. This fact adds a peculiar value to his account.\n\nWe learned above (Critical Study, p. 377) the untoward fate of a part of\nthe Legend of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Rufino. The chapters with which\nit now closes (68-73) and in which the narrative of the miracle occurs,\nwere not originally a part of it. They are a summary added at a later\ntime to complete this document. This appendix, therefore, has no\nhistoric value, and we neither depend on it with the ecclesiastical\nauthors to affirm the miracle, nor with M. Hase to call it in question.\n\nHappily the testimony of Brother Leo has come down to us in spite of\nthat. We are not left even to seek for it in the Speculum, the Fioretti,\nthe Conformities, where fragments of his work are to be found; we find\nit in several other documents of incontestable authority.\n\nThe authenticity of the autograph of St. Francis preserved at Assisi\nappears to be thoroughly established (see Critical Study, p. 357); it\ncontains the following note by Brother Leo's hand: \"The Blessed Francis\ntwo years before his death kept on the Verna in honor of the B. V. Mary\nmother of God, and St. Michael Archangel, a Lent from the festival of\nthe Assumption of the B. V. M. to the festival of St. Michael in\nSeptember, and the hand of God was upon him by the vision and the\naddress of the seraph and the impression of the stigmata upon his body.\nHe made the laudes that are on the other side, ... etc.\"\n\nAgain, Eccleston (13) shows us Brother Leo complaining to Brother Peter\nof Tewkesbury, minister in England, that the legend is too brief\nconcerning the events on the Verna, and relating to him the greater\nnumber of the incidents which form the nucleus of the Fioretti on the\nstigmata. These memorials are all the more certain that they were\nimmediately committed to writing by Peter of Tewkesbury's companion,\nBrother Garin von Sedenfeld.\n\nFinally Salembeni, in his chronicle (ad ann. 1224) in speaking of\nEzzelino da Romano is led to oppose him to Francis. He suddenly\nremembers the stigmata and says, \"Never man on earth, but he, has had\nthe five wounds of Christ. His companion, Brother Leo, who was present\nwhen they washed the body before the burial, told me that he looked\nprecisely like a crucified man taken down from the cross.\"\n\n3. Thomas of Celano, before 1230. He describes them more at length than\nBrother Elias (1 Cel., 94, 95, 112).\n\nThe details are too precise not to suggest a lesson learned by heart.\nThe author nowhere assumes to be an eye-witness, yet he has the tone of\na legal deposition.\n\nThese objections are not without weight, but the very novelty of the\nmiracle might have induced the Franciscans to fix it in a sort of\ncanonical and so to say, stereotyped narrative.\n\n4. The portrait of Francis, by Berlinghieri, dated 1236,[2] preserved\nat Pescia (province of Lucca) shows the stigmata as they are described\nin the preceding documents.\n\n5. Gregory IX. in 1237. Bull of March 31; _Confessor Domini_ (Potthast,\n10307. Cf. 10315). A movement of opinion against the stigmata had been\nproduced in certain countries. The pope asks all the faithful to believe\nin them. Two other bulls of the same day, one addressed to the Bishop of\nOlmuetz, the other to the Dominicans, energetically condemns them for\ncalling the stigmata in question (Potthast, 10308 and 10309).\n\n6. Alexander IV., in his bull _Benigna operatio_ of October 29, 1255\n(Potthast, 16077), states that having formerly been the domestic\nprelate of Cardinal Ugolini, he knew St. Francis familiarly, and\nsupports his description of the stigmata by these relations.\n\nTo this pontiff are due several bulls declaring excommunicate all those\nwho deny them. These contribute nothing new to the question.\n\n7. Bonaventura (1260) repeats in his legend Thomas of Celano's\ndescription (Bon., 193; cf. 1 Cel. 94 and 95), not without adding some\nnew factors (Bon., 194-200 and 215-218), often so coarse and clumsy that\nthey inevitably awaken doubt (see for example, 201).\n\n8. Matthew Paris ([Cross] 1259). His discordant witness barely\ndeserves being cited by way of memoir (see Critical Study, p. 431). To\nbe able to forgive the fanciful character of his long disquisitions on\nSt. Francis, we are forced to recall to mind that he owed his\ninformation to the verbal account of some pilgrim. He makes the\nstigmata appear a fortnight before the Saint's death, shows them\ncontinually emitting blood, the wound on the side so wide open that\nthe heart could be seen. The people gather in crowds to see the sight,\nthe cardinals come also, and all together listen to Francis's strange\ndeclarations. (_Historia major_, Watts's edition London, 1 vol. fol.,\n1640, pp. 339-342.)\n\nThis list might be greatly lengthened by the addition of a passage from\nLuke bishop of Tuy (Lucas Tudensis) written in 1231;[3] based\nespecially on the Life by Thomas of Celano, and oral witnesses.\n\nThe statement of Brother Boniface, an eye-witness, at the chapter of\nGenoa (1254). (Eccl. 13.)\n\nFinally and especially, we should study the strophes relating to the\nstigmata in the proses, hymns, and sequences composed in 1228 by the\npope and several cardinals for the Office of St. Francis; but such a\nwork, to be done with accuracy, would carry us very far, and the\nauthorities already cited doubtless suffice without bringing in\nothers.[4]\n\nThe objections which have been opposed to these witnesses may be\nreduced, I think, to the following:[5]\n\n_a._ Francis's funeral took place with surprising precipitation. Dead on\nSaturday evening, he was buried Sunday morning.\n\n_b._ His body was enclosed in a coffin, which is contrary to Italian\nhabits.\n\n_c._ At the time of the removal, the body, wrested from the multitude,\nis so carefully hidden in the basilica that for centuries its precise\nplace has been unknown.\n\n_d._ The bull of canonization makes no mention of the stigmata.\n\n_e._ They were not admitted without a contest, and among those who\ndenied them were some bishops.\n\nNone of these arguments appears to me decisive.\n\n_a._ In the Middle Ages funerals almost always took place immediately\nafter death (Innocent III. dying at Perugia July 16, 1216, is interred\nthe 17th; Honorius III. dies March 18, 1227, and is interred the next\nday).\n\n_b._ It is more difficult than many suppose to know what were the habits\nconcerning funerals in Umbria in the thirteenth century. However that\nmay be, it was certainly necessary to put Francis's body into a coffin.\nHe being already canonized by popular sentiment, his corpse was from\nthat moment a relic for which a reliquary was necessary; nay more, a\nstrong box such as the secondary scenes in Berlinghieri's picture shows\nit to have been. Without such a precaution the sacred body would have\nbeen reduced to fragments in a few moments. Call to mind the wild\nenthusiasm that led the devotees to cut off the ears and even the\nbreasts of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. [_Quaedam aures illius truncabant,\netiam summitatem mamillarum ejus quidam praecidebant et pro reliquiis\nsibi servabant._--_Liber de dictis iv. ancillarum_, Mencken, vol. ii.,\np. 2032.]\n\n_c._ The ceremony of translation brought an innumerable multitude to\nAssisi. If Brother Elias concealed the body,[6] he may have been led\nto do so by the fear of some organized surprise of the Perugians to gain\npossession of the precious relic. With the customs of those days, such a\ntheft would have been in nowise extraordinary. These very Perugians a\nfew years later stole away from Bastia, a village dependent on Assisi,\nthe body of Conrad of Offida, which was performing innumerable miracles\nthere. (_Conform._, 60b, 1; cf. Giord., 50.) Similar affrays took place\nat Padua over the relics of St. Anthony. (Hilaire, _Saint Antoine de\nPadoue, sa legende primitive_, Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1 vol., 8vo, 1890, pp.\n30-40.)\n\n_d._ The bull of canonization, with the greater number of such\ndocuments, for that matter, makes no historic claim. In its wordy\nrhetoric we shall sooner learn the history of the Philistines, of\nSamson, or even of Jacob, than of St. Francis. Canonization here is only\na pretext which the old pontiff seizes for recurring to his favorite\nfigures.\n\nThis silence signifies nothing after the very explicit testimony of\nother bulls by the same pontiff in 1227, and after the part given to the\nstigmata in the liturgical songs which in 1228 he composed for the\noffice of St. Francis.\n\n_e._ These attacks by certain bishops are in nowise surprising; they are\nepisodes in the struggle of the secular clergy against the mendicant\norders.\n\nAt the time when these negations were brought forward (1237) the\nnarrative of Thomas of Celano was official and everywhere known; nothing\ntherefore would have been easier, half a score of years after the\nevents, than to bring witnesses to expose the fraud if there had been\nany; but the Bishop of Olmuetz and the others base their objections\nalways and only upon dogmatic grounds.\n\nAs to the attacks of the Dominicans, it is needless to recall the\nrivalry between the two Orders;[7] is it not then singular to find\nthese protestations coming from Silesia (!) and never from Central\nItaly, where, among other eye-witnesses, Brother Leo was yet living\n([Cross] 1271)?\n\nThus the witnesses appear to me to maintain their integrity. We might\nhave preferred them more simple and shorter, we could wish that they had\nreached us without details which awake all sorts of suspicions,[8] but\nit is very seldom that a witness does not try to prove his affirmations\nand to prop them up by arguments which, though detestable, are\nappropriate to the vulgar audience to which he is speaking.\n\n\nII. THE PARDON OF AUGUST 2D, CALLED INDULGENCE OF PORTIUNCULA[9]\n\nThis question might be set aside; on the whole it has no direct\nconnection with the history of St. Francis.\n\nYet it occupies too large a place in modern biographies not to require a\nfew words: it is related that Francis was in prayer one night at\nPortiuncula when Jesus and the Virgin appeared to him with a retinue of\nangels. He made bold to ask an unheard-of privilege, that of plenary\nindulgence of all sins for all those who, having confessed and being\ncontrite, should visit this chapel. Jesus granted this at his mother's\nrequest, on the sole condition that his vicar the pope would ratify it.\n\nThe next day Francis set out for Perugia, accompanied by Masseo, and\nobtained from Honorius the desired indulgence, but only for the day of\nAugust 2d.\n\nSuch, in a few lines, is the summary of this legend, which is surrounded\nwith a crowd of marvellous incidents.\n\nThe question of the nature and value of indulgences is not here\nconcerned. The only one which is here put is this: Did Francis ask this\nindulgence and did Honorius III. grant it?\n\nMerely to reduce it to these simple proportions is to be brought to\nanswer it with a categorical No.\n\nIt would be tedious to refer even briefly to the difficulties,\ncontradictions, impossibilities of this story, many a time pointed out\nby orthodox writers. In spite of all they have come to the affirmative\nconclusion: _Roma locuta est_.\n\nThose whom this subject may interest will find in the note above\ndetailed bibliographical indications of the principal elements of this\nnow quieted discussion. I shall confine myself to pointing out the\nimpossibilities with which tradition comes into collision; they are both\npsychological and historical. The Bollandists long since pointed out the\nsilence of Francis's early biographers upon this question. Now that the\npublished documents are much more numerous, this silence is still more\noverwhelming. Neither the First nor the Second Life by Thomas of Celano,\nnor the anonymous author of the second life given in the Acta Sanctorum,\nnor even the anonymous writer of Perugia, nor the Three Companions, nor\nBonaventura say a single word on the subject. No more do very much later\nworks mention it, which sin only by excessive critical scruples: Bernard\nof Besse, Giordiano di Giano, Thomas Eccleston, the Chronicle of the\nTribulations, the Fioretti, and even the Golden Legend.\n\nThis conspiracy of silence of all the writers of the thirteenth century\nwould be the greatest miracle of history if it were not absurd.\n\nBy way of explanation, it has been said that these writers refrained\nfrom speaking of this indulgence for fear of injuring that of the\nCrusade; but in that case, why did the pope command seven bishops to go\nto Portiuncula to proclaim it in his name?\n\nThe legend takes upon itself to explain that Francis refused a bull or\nany written attestation of this privilege; but, admitting this, it would\nstill be necessary to explain why no hint of this matter has been\npreserved in the papers of Honorius III. And how is it that the bulls\nsent to the seven bishops have left not the slightest trace upon this\npontiff's register?\n\nAgain, how does it happen, if seven bishops officially promulgated this\nindulgence in 1217, that St. Francis, after having related to Brother\nLeo his interview with the pope, said to him: \"_Teneas secretum hoc\nusque circa mortem tuam; quia non habet locum adhuc. Quia haec\nindulgentia occultabitur ad tempus; sed Dominus trahet eam extra et\nmanifestabitur._\" _Conform._, 153b, 2. Such an avowal is not wanting in\nsimplicity. It abundantly proves that before the death of Brother Leo\n(1271) no one had spoken of this famous pardon.\n\nAfter this it is needless to insist upon secondary difficulties; how is\nit that the chapters-general were not fixed for August 2d, to allow the\nBrothers to secure the indulgence?\n\nHow explain that Francis, after having received in 1216 a privilege\nunique in the annals of the Church, should be a stranger to the pope in\n1219!\n\nThere is, however, one more proof whose value exceeds all the\nothers--Francis's Will:\n\n\"I forbid absolutely all the Brothers by their obedience, in whatever\nplace they may be, to ask any bull of the court of Rome, whether\ndirectly or indirectly, nor under pretext of church or convent, nor\nunder pretext of preaching, nor even for their personal protection.\"\n\nBefore closing it remains for us to glance at the growth of this legend.\n\nIt was definitively constituted about 1330-1340, but it was in the air\nlong before. With the patience of four Benedictines (of the best days)\nwe should doubtless be able to find our way in the medley of documents,\nmore or less corrupted, from which it comes to us, and little by little\nwe might find the starting-point of this dream in a friar who sees\nblinded humanity kneeling around Portiuncula to recover sight.[10]\n\nIt is not difficult to see in general what led to the materialization of\nthis graceful fancy: people remembered Francis's attachment to the\nchapel where he had heard the decisive words of the gospel, and where\nSt. Clara in her turn had entered upon a new life.\n\nWhen the great Basilica of Assisi was built, drawing to itself pilgrims\nand privileges, an opposition of principles and of inspiration came to\nbe added to the petty rivalry between it and Portiuncula.\n\nThe zealots of poverty said aloud that though the Saint's body rested in\nthe basilica his heart was at Portiuncula.[11] By dint of repeating and\nexaggerating what Francis had said about the little sanctuary, they came\nto give a precise and so to say doctrinal sense to utterances purely\nmystical.\n\nThe violences and persecutions of the party of the Large Observance\nunder the generalship of Crescentius[12] (1244-1247) aroused a vast\nincrease of fervor among their adversaries. To the bull of Innocent IV.\ndeclaring the basilica thenceforth _Caput et Mater_ of the Order[13]\nthe Zealots replied by the narratives of Celano's Second Life and the\nlegends of that period.[14] They went so far as to quote a promise of\nFrancis to make it in perpetuity the _Mater et Caput_ of his\ninstitute.[15]\n\nIn this way the two parties came to group themselves around these two\nbuildings. Even to-day it is the same. The Franciscans of the Strict\nObservance occupy Portiuncula, while the Basilica of Assisi is in the\nhands of the Conventuals (Large Observance), who have adopted all the\ninterpretations and mitigations of the Rules; they are worthy folk, who\nlive upon their dividends. By a phenomenon, unique, I think, in the\nannals of the Church, they have pushed the freedom of their infidelity\nto the point of casting off the habit, the popular brown cassock.\nDressed all in black, shod and hatted, nothing distinguishes them from\nthe secular clergy except a modest little cord.\n\nPoor Francis! That he may have the joy of feeling his tomb brushed by a\ncoarse gown, some daring friar must overcome his very natural\nrepugnances, and come to kneel there. The indulgence of August 2d is\nthen the reply of the Zealots to the persecutions of their brothers.\n\nAn attentive study will perhaps show it emerging little by little under\nthe generalship of Raimondo Gaufridi (1289-1295); Conrad di Offida ([Cross]\n1306) seems to have had some effect upon it, but only with the next\ngeneration do we find the legend completed and avowed in open day.\n\nBegun in a misapprehension it ends by imposing itself upon the Church,\nwhich to-day guarantees it with its infallible authority, and yet in its\norigin it was a veritable cry of revolt against the decisions of Rome.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n   [1] The text was published in 1620 by Spoelberch (in his\n       _Speculum vitae B. Francisci_, Antwerp, 2 vols., 12mo, ii., pp.\n       103-106), after the copy addressed to Brother Gregory,\n       minister in France, and then preserved in the convent of the\n       Recollects in Valenciennes. It was reproduced by Wadding (Ann.\n       1226, no. 44) and the Bollandists (pp. 668 and 669).\n\n       So late an appearance of a capital document might have left\n       room for doubts; there is no longer reason for any, since the\n       publication of the chronicle of Giordano di Giano, who relates\n       the sending of this letter (Giord., 50). The Abbe Amoni has\n       also published this text (at the close of his _Legenda trium\n       Sociorum_, Rome, 1880, pp. 105-109), but according to his\n       deplorable habit, he neglects to tell whence he has drawn it.\n       This is the more to be regretted since he gives a variant of\n       the first order: _Nam diu ante mortem_ instead of _Non diu_,\n       as Spoelberch's text has it. The reading _Nam diu_ appears\n       preferable from a philological point of view.\n\n   [2] Engraved in Saint Francois d'Assise, Paris, 4to, 1885, p. 277.\n\n   [3] _Bibliotheca Patrum._ Lyons, 1677, xxv., _adv.\n       Albigenses_, lib. ii., cap. 11., cf. iii., 14 and 15.\n       Reproduced in the A. SS., p. 652.\n\n   [4] The curious may consult the following sources: Salimbeni,\n       ann. 1250--_Conform._, 171b 2, 235a 2; Bon., 200; Wadding,\n       _ann. 1228_, no. 78; A. SS., p. 800. Manuscript 340 of the\n       _Sacro Convento_ contains (fo. 55b-56b) four of these hymns.\n       Cf. _Archiv._ i., p. 485.\n\n   [5] See in particular Hase: _Franz v. Assisi_. Leipsic, 1\n       vol., 8vo., 1856. The learned professor devotes no less than\n       sixty closely printed pages to the study of the stigmata,\n       142-202.\n\n   [6] The more I think about it, the more incapable I become of\n       attributing any sort of weight to this argument from the\n       disappearance of the body; for in fact, if there had been any\n       pious fraud on Elias's part, he would on the contrary have\n       displayed the corpse.\n\n   [7] See, for example, 2 Cel., 3, 86, as well as the encyclical\n       of Giovanni di Parma and Umberto di Romano, in 1225.\n\n   [8] The following among many others: Francis had particularly\n       high breeches made for him, to hide the wound in the side\n       (Bon., 201). At the moment of the apparition, which took place\n       during the night, so great a light flooded the whole country,\n       that merchants lodging in the inns of Casentino saddled their\n       beasts and set out on their way. _Fior., iii. consid._\n\n       Hase, in his study, is continually under the weight of the bad\n       impression made upon him by Bonaventura's deplorable\n       arguments; he sees the other witness only through him. I think\n       that if he had read simply Thomas of Celano's first Life, he\n       would have arrived at very different conclusions.\n\n   [9] The most important document is manuscript 344 of the\n       archives of Sacro Convento at Assisi. _Liber indulgentiae S.\n       Mariae de Angelis sive de Portiuncula in quo libra ego fr.\n       Franciscus Bartholi de Assisio posui quidquid potui sollicite\n       invenire in legendis antiquis et novis b. Francisci et in\n       aliis dictis sociorum ejus de loco eodem et commendatione\n       ipsius loci et quidquid veritatis et certitudinis potui\n       invenire de sacra indulgentia prefati loci, quomodo scilicet\n       fuit impetrata et data b. Francisco de miraculis ipsius\n       indulgentiae quae ipsam declarant certam et veram._ Bartholi\n       lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. His work is\n       still unpublished, but Father Leo Patrem M. O. is preparing it\n       for publication. The name of this learned monk gives every\n       guaranty for the accuracy of this difficult work; meanwhile a\n       detailed description and long extracts may be found in the\n       Miscellanea (ii., 1887). _La storia del perdono di Francesco\n       de Bartholi_, by Don Michele Faloci Pulignani, pp. 149-153\n       (cf. _Archiv._, i., p. 486). See also in the Miscellanea (i.,\n       1886, p. 15) a bibliographical note containing a detailed list\n       of fifty-eight works (cf. ibid., pp. 48, 145). The legend\n       itself is found in the _Speculum_, 69b-83a, and in the\n       _Conformities_, 151b-157a. In these two collections it is\n       still found laboriously worked in and is not an integral part\n       of the rest of the work. In the latter, Bartolemmeo di Pisa\n       has carried accuracy so far as to copy from end to end all the\n       documents that he had before him, and as they belong to\n       different periods he thus gives us several phases of the\n       development of the tradition. The most complete work is that\n       of the Recollect Father Grouwel: _Historia critica S.\n       Indulgentiae B. Mariae Angelorum vulgo de Portiuncula ... contra\n       Libellos aliquos anonymo ac famosos nuper editos_, Antwerp,\n       1726, 1 vol., 8vo. pp. 510. The Bollandist Suysken also makes\n       a long study of it (A. SS., pp. 879-910), as also the\n       Recollect Father Candide Chalippe, _Vie de saint Francois\n       d'Assise_, 3 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1874 (the first edition is of\n       1720), vol. iii., pp. 190-327.\n\n       In each of these works we find what has been said in all the\n       others. The numerous writings against the Indulgence are\n       either a collection of vulgarities or dogmatic treatises; I\n       refrain from burdening these pages with them. The principal\n       ones are indicated by Grouwel and Chalippe.\n\n       Among contemporaries Father Barnabas of Alsace: _Portiuncula\n       oder Geschichte Unserer lieben Frau von den Engeln_ (Rixheim,\n       1 vol., 8vo. 1884), represents the tradition of the Order, and\n       the Abbe Le Monnier (_Histoire de Saint Francois_, 2 vols.,\n       8vo, Paris, 1889), moderate Catholic opinion in non-Franciscan\n       circles.\n\n       The best summary is that of Father Panfilo da Magliano in his\n       _Storia compendiosa_. It has been completed and amended in the\n       German translation: _Geschichte des h. Franciscus und der\n       Franziskaner uebersetzt und bearbeitet_ von Fr. Quintianus\n       Mueller, vol. i., Munich, 1883, pp. 233-259.\n\n  [10] 2 Cel., 1, 13; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 24.\n\n  [11] _Conform._, 239b, 2.\n\n  [12] See in particular _Archiv._, ii., p. 259, and the bull of\n       February 7, 1246. Potthast, 12007; Glassberger, _ann. 1244_\n       (_An. fr._ t. ii., p. 69).\n\n  [13] _Is qui ecclesiam_, March. 6, 1245, Potthast, 11576.\n\n  [14] 2 Cel., 1, 12 (cf. _Conform._, 218a, 1); 3 Soc., 56;\n       _Spec._, 32b ff.; 49b ff.; _Conform._, 144a, 2.\n\n  [15] _Conform._, 169a; 2, 217b. 1 ff. Cf. _Fior._, Amoni's ed.\n       (Appendix to the Codex of the Bib. Angelica), p. 378.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n\nTEXT CONVENTIONS\n\n   Text surrounded by underscores (_text_) indicates italics in the\n   original.\n\n   Text surrounded by tildes (~text~) indicates bold in the original.\n\n   'Folio' abbreviation: The original has two versions. 'F' or 'f'\n   followed by superscripted 'o' is transcribed F^o/f^o.\n   'fo.'/'fos.' is transcribed 'fo.'/'fos.'.\n\n   [Cross] is used where the text had a single character that resembled a\n   Maltese Cross, and denotes year of death.\n\n   Footnotes have been moved from the bottom of each page to the end\n   of each chapter, and renumbered by chapter.\n\nCHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL TEXT\n\n   In many spots in the scans, primarily in footnote citations,\n   periods and commas are partially or completely obscured, with\n   white space where the mark would logically appear. Where the scan\n   is unclear, punctuation has been transcribed to match the most\n   common use in the book. Where the punctuation is different from\n   common usage, but clearly present (i.e. no extra white space\n   after an abbreviation or full comma where a period seems to make\n   more sense), the scans have been replicated.\n\n   There were a number of incidences of missing closing quotation\n   marks, particularly for dialog or prayers. These have been\n   corrected without further comment.\n\n   Two lines missing from the translation of the prayer commonly\n   known as \"The Canticle of All Creatures\" (Chapter XVII) have been\n   added. The added text is shown in braces ({}).\n\n   'Analecta Fracniscana' in CRITICAL STUDY OF THE WORKS, Section IV,\n   Part III, Footnote 9 was changed to 'Analecta Franciscana'.\n\n   'Served by a poor priest who scarely' in Chapter IV was changed to\n   'Served by a poor priest who scarcely'.\n\n   In the original text, 'obediunt' was NOT italicized in the\n   following quotation: \"Videmus primus ordinis fundatorem magestrum\n   cui tanquam summo Priori suo omnes alii obediunt.\" (CRITICAL\n   STUDY OF THE WORKS, Section III, Part V, Footnote 4). It is\n   italicized here.\n\n   Chapter XV, footnote 4 had no anchor marker in the original text.\n   The placement of this marker in this transcription is not confirmed.","title":"Life of St. Francis of Assisi","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":156539}