Chapter XX: Francis's Will and Death (1)

End of September-October 3, 1226

The last days of Francis's life are of radiant beauty. He went to meet death, singing,[1] says Thomas of Celano, summing up the impression of those who saw him then.

To be once more at Portiuncula after so long a detention at the bishop's palace was not only a real joy to his heart, but the pure air of the forest must have been much to his physical well-being; does not the Canticle of the Creatures seem to have been made expressly to be sung in the evening of one of those autumn days of Umbria, so soft and luminous, when all nature seems to retire into herself to sing her own hymn of love to Brother Sun?

We see that Francis has come to that almost entire cessation of pain, that renewing of life, which so often precedes the approach of the last catastrophe.

He took advantage of it to dictate his Will.[2]

It is to these pages that we must go to find the true note for a sketch of the life of its author, and an idea of the Order as it was in his dreams.

In this record, which is of an incontestable authenticity, the most solemn manifestation of his thought, the Poverello reveals himself absolutely, with a virginal candor.

His humility is here of a sincerity which strikes one with awe; it is absolute, though no one could dream that it was exaggerated. And yet, wherever his mission is concerned, he speaks with tranquil and serene assurance. Is he not an ambassador of God? Does he not hold his message from Christ himself? The genesis of his thought here shows itself to be at once wholly divine and entirely personal. The individual conscience here proclaims its sovereign authority. "No one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live conformably to his holy gospel."

When a man has once spoken thus, submission to the Church has been singularly encroached upon. We may love her, hearken to her, venerate her, but we feel ourselves, perhaps without daring to avow it, superior to her. Let a critical hour come, and one finds himself heretic without knowing it or wishing it.

"Ah, yes," cries Angelo Clareno, "St. Francis promised to obey the pope and his successors, but they cannot and must not command anything contrary to the conscience or to the Rule."[3]

For him, as for all the spiritual Franciscans, when there is conflict between what the inward voice of God ordains and what the Church wills, he has only to obey the former.[4]

If you tell him that the Church and the Order are there to define the true signification of the Rule, he appeals to common sense, and to that interior certitude which is given by a clear view of truth.

The Rule, as also the gospel, of which it is a summary, is above all ecclesiastical power, and no one has the right to say the last word in their interpretation.[5]

The Will was not slow to gain a moral authority superior even to that of the Rule. Giovanni of Parma, to explain the predilection of the Joachimites for this document, points out that after the impression of the stigmata the Holy Spirit was in Francis with still greater plenitude than before.[6]

Did the innumerable sects which disturbed the Church in the thirteenth century perceive that these two writings--the Rule and the Testament--the one apparently made to follow and support the other, substantially identical as it was said, proceeded from two opposite inspirations? Very confusedly, no doubt, but guided by a very sure instinct, they saw in these pages the banner of liberty.

They were not mistaken. Even to-day, thinkers, moralists, mystics may arrive at solutions very different from those of the Umbrian prophet, but the method which they employ is his, and they may not refuse to acknowledge in him the precursor of religious subjectivism.

The Church, too, was not mistaken. She immediately understood the spirit that animated these pages.

Four years later, perhaps to the very day, September 28, 1230, Ugolini, then Gregory IX., solemnly interpreted the Rule, in spite of the precautions of Francis, who had forbidden all gloss or commentary on the Rule or the Will, and declared that the Brothers were not bound to the observation of the Will.[7]

What shall we say of the bull in which the pope alleges his familiar relations with the Saint to justify his commentary, and in which the clearest passages are so distorted as to change their sense completely. "One is stupefied," cries Ubertini of Casali, "that a text so clear should have need of a commentary, for it suffices to have common sense and to know grammar in order to understand it." And this strange monk dares to add: "There is one miracle which God himself cannot do; it is to make two contradictory things true."[8]

Certainly the Church should be mistress in her own house; it would have been nothing wrong had Gregory IX. created an Order conformed to his views and ideas, but when we go through Sbaralea's folios and the thousands of bulls accorded to the spiritual sons of him who in the clearest and most solemn manner had forbidden them to ask any privilege of the court of Rome, we cannot but feel a bitter sadness.

Thus upheld by the papacy, the Brothers of the Common Observance made the Zelanti sharply expiate their attachment to Francis's last requests. Cæsar of Speyer died of violence from the Brother placed in charge of him;[9] the first disciple, Bernardo di Quintavalle, hunted like a wild beast, passed two years in the forests of Monte-Sefro, hidden by a wood-cutter;[10] the other first companions who did not succeed in flight had to undergo the severest usage. In the March of Ancona, the home of the Spirituals, the victorious party used a terrible violence. The Will was confiscated and destroyed; they went so far as to burn it over the head of a friar who persisted in desiring to observe it.[11]

WILL (LITERAL TRANSLATION).

See in what manner God gave it to me, to me, Brother Francis, to
begin to do penitence; when I lived in sin, it was very painful
to me to see lepers, but God himself led me into their midst,
and I remained here a little while.[12] When I left them, that
which had seemed to me bitter had become sweet and easy.

A little while after I quitted the world, and God gave me such a
faith in his churches that I would kneel down with simplicity
and I would say: "We adore thee, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in
all thy churches which are in the world, and we bless thee that
by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world."

Besides, the Lord gave me and still gives me so great a faith in
priests who live according to the form of the holy Roman Church,
because of their sacerdotal character, that even if they
persecuted me I would have recourse to them. And even though I
had all the wisdom of Solomon, if I should find poor secular
priests, I would not preach in their parishes without their
consent. I desire to respect them like all the others, to love
them and honor them as my lords. I will not consider their
sins, for in them I see the Son of God and they are my lords. I
do this because here below I see nothing, I perceive nothing
corporally of the most high Son of God, if not his most holy
Body and Blood, which they receive and they alone distribute to
others. I desire above all things to honor and venerate all
these most holy mysteries and to keep them precious. Whenever I
find the sacred names of Jesus or his words in indecent places,
I desire to take them away, and I pray that others take them
away and put them in some decent place. We ought to honor and
revere all the theologians and those who preach the most holy
word of God, as dispensing to us spirit and life.

When the Lord gave me some brothers no one showed me what I
ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I
ought to live according to the model of the holy gospel. I
caused a short and simple formula to be written, and the lord
pope confirmed it for me.

Those who presented themselves to observe this kind of life
distributed all that they might have to the poor. They contented
themselves with a tunic, patched within and without, with the
cord and breeches, and we desired to have nothing more.

The clerks said the office like other clerks, and the laymen
_Pater noster_.

We loved to live in poor and abandoned churches, and we were
ignorant and submissive to all. I worked with my hands and would
continue to do, and I will also that all other friars work at
some honorable trade. Let those who have none learn one, not for
the purpose of receiving the price of their toil, but for their
good example and to flee idleness. And when they do not give us
the price of the work, let us resort to the table of the Lord,
begging our bread from door to door. The Lord revealed to me the
salutation which we ought to give: "God give you peace!"

Let the Brothers take great care not to receive churches,
habitations, and all that men build for them, except as all is
in accordance with the holy poverty which we have vowed in the
Rule, and let them not receive hospitality in them except as
strangers and pilgrims.

I absolutely interdict all the brothers, in whatever place they
may be found, from asking any bull from the court of Rome,
whether directly or indirectly, under pretext of church or
convent or under pretext of preachings, nor even for their
personal protection. If they are not received anywhere let them
go elsewhere, thus doing penance with the benediction of God.

I desire to obey the minister-general of this fraternity, and
the guardian whom he may please to give me. I desire to put
myself entirely into his hands, to go nowhere and do nothing
against his will, for he is my lord.

Though I be simple and ill, I would, however, have always a
clerk who will perform the office, as it is said in the Rule;
let all the other brothers also be careful to obey their
guardians and to do the office according to the Rule. If it come
to pass that there are any who do not the office according to
the Rule, and who desire to make any other change, or if they
are not Catholics, let all the Brothers, wherever they may be,
be bound by obedience to present them to the nearest custode.
Let the custodes be bound by obedience to keep him well guarded
like a man who is in bonds night and day, so that he may not
escape from their hands until they personally place him in the
minister's hands. And let the minister be bound by obedience to
send him by brothers who will guard him as a prisoner day and
night until they shall have placed him in the hands of the Lord
Bishop of Ostia, who is the lord, the protector, and the
correcter of all the Fraternity.[13]

And let the Brothers not say: "This is a new Rule;" for this is
a reminder, a warning, an exhortation; it is my Will, that I,
little Brother Francis, make for you, my blessed Brothers, in
order that we may observe in a more catholic way the Rule which
we promised the Lord to keep.

Let the ministers-general, all the other ministers and the
custodes be held by obedience to add nothing to and take nothing
from these words. Let them always keep this writing near them,
beside the Rule; and in all the chapters which shall be held,
when the Rule is read let these words be read also.

I interdict absolutely, by obedience, all the Brothers, clerics
and layman, to introduce glosses in the Rule, or in this Will,
under pretext of explaining it. But since the Lord has given me
to speak and to write the Rule and these words in a clear and
simple manner, without commentary, understand them in the same
way, and put them in practice until the end.

And may whoever shall have observed these things be crowned in
heaven with the blessings of the heavenly Father, and on earth
with those of his well-beloved Son and of the Holy Spirit the
consoler, with the assistance of all the heavenly virtues and
all the saints.

And I, little Brother Francis, your servitor, confirm to you so
far as I am able this most holy benediction. Amen.

After thinking of his Brothers Francis thought of his dear Sisters at St. Damian and made a will for them.

It has not come down to us, and we need not wonder; the Spiritual Brothers might flee away, and protest from the depths of their retreats, but the Sisters were completely unarmed against the machinations of the Common Observance.[14]

In the last words that he addressed to the Clarisses, after calling upon them to persevere in poverty and union, he gave them his benediction.[15] Then he recommended them to the Brothers, supplicating the latter never to forget that they were members of one and the same religious family.[16] After having done all that he could for those whom he was about to leave, he thought for a moment of himself.

He had become acquainted in Rome with a pious lady named Giacomina di Settisoli. Though rich, she was simple and good, entirely devoted to the new ideas; even the somewhat singular characteristics of Francis pleased her. He had given her a lamb which had become her inseparable companion.[17]

Unfortunately all that concerns her has suffered much from later retouchings of the legend. The perfectly natural conduct of the Saint with women has much embarrassed his biographers; hence heavy and distorted commentaries tacked on to episodes of a delicious simplicity.

Before dying Francis desired to see again this friend, whom he smilingly called Brother Giacomina. He caused a letter to be written her to come to Portiuncula; we can imagine the dismay of the narrators at this far from monastic invitation.

But the good lady had anticipated his appeal: at the moment when the messenger with the letter was about to leave for Rome, she arrived at Portiuncula and remained there until the last sigh of the Saint.[18] For one moment she thought of sending away her suite; the invalid was so calm and joyful that she could not believe him dying, but he himself advised her to keep her people with her. This time he felt with no possible doubt that his captivity was about to be ended.

He was ready, he had finished his work.

Did he think then of the day when, cursed by his father, he had renounced all earthly goods and cried to God with an ineffable confidence, "Our Father who art in heaven!" We cannot say; but he desired to finish his life by a symbolic act which very closely recalls the scene in the bishop's palace.

He caused himself to be stripped of his clothing and laid upon the ground, for he wished to die in the arms of his Lady Poverty. With one glance he embraced the twenty years that had glided by since their union: "I have done my duty," he said to the Brothers, "may the Christ now teach you yours!"[19]

This was Thursday, October 1.[20]

They laid him back upon his bed, and, conforming to his wishes, they again sang to him the Canticle of the Sun.

At times he added his voice to those of his Brothers,[21] and came back with preference to Psalm 142, _Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi_.[22]

With my voice I cry unto the Lord,
With my voice I implore the Lord,
I pour out my complaint before him,
I tell him all my distress.
When my spirit is cast down within me,
Thou knowest my path.
Upon the way where I walk
They have laid a snare for me,
Cast thine eyes to the right and look!
No one recognizes me;
All refuge is lost for me,
No one takes thought for my soul.
Lord, unto thee I cry;
I say: Thou art my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
Be attentive to my cries!
For I am very unhappy.
Deliver me from those who pursue me!
For they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of its prison
That I may praise thy name.
The righteous shall compass me about
When thou hast done good unto me!

The visits of death are always solemn, but the end of the just is the most moving _sursum corda_ that we can hear on earth. The hours flowed by and the Brothers would not leave him. "Alas, good Father," said one of them to him, unable longer to contain himself, "your children are going to lose you, and be deprived of the true light which lightened them: think of the orphans you are leaving and forgive all their faults, give to them all, present and absent, the joy of your holy benediction."

"See," replied the dying man, "God is calling me. I forgive all my Brothers, present and absent, their offences and faults, and absolve them according to my power. Tell them so, and bless them all in my name."[23]

Then crossing his arms he laid his hands upon those who surrounded him. He did this with peculiar emotion to Bernard of Quintavalle: "I desire," he said, "and with all my power I urge whomsoever shall be minister-general of the Order, to love and honor him as myself; let the provincials and all the Brothers act toward him as toward me."[24]

He thought not only of the absent Brothers but of the future ones; love so abounded in him that it wrung from him a groan of regret for not seeing all those who should enter the Order down to the end of time, that he might lay his hand upon their brows, and make them feel those things that may only be spoken by the eyes of him who loves in God.[25]

He had lost the notion of time; believing that it was still Thursday he desired to take a last meal with his disciples. Some bread was brought, he broke it and gave it to them, and there in the poor cabin of Portiuncula, without altar and without a priest, was celebrated the Lord's Supper.[26]

A Brother read the Gospel for Holy Thursday, _Ante diem festum Paschæ_: "Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come to go from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world he loved them unto the end."

The sun was gilding the crests of the mountains with his last rays, there was silence around the dying one. All was ready. The angel of death might come.

Saturday, October 3, 1226, at nightfall, without pain, without struggle, he breathed the last sigh.

The Brothers were still gazing on his face, hoping yet to catch some sign of life, when innumerable larks alighted, singing, on the thatch of his cell,[27] as if to salute the soul which had just taken flight and give the Little Poor Man the canonization of which he was most worthy, the only one, doubtless, which he would ever have coveted.

On the morrow, at dawn, the Assisans came down to take possession of his body and give it a triumphant funeral.

By a pious inspiration, instead of going straight to the city they went around by St. Damian, and thus was realized the promise made by Francis to the Sisters a few weeks before, to come once more to see them.

Their grief was heart-rending.

These women's hearts revolted against the absurdity of death;[28] but there were tears on that day at St. Damian only. The Brothers forgot their sadness on seeing the stigmata, and the inhabitants of Assisi manifested an indescribable joy on having their relic at last. They deposited it in the Church St. George.[29]

Less than two years after, Sunday, July 26, 1228, Gregory IX. came to Assisi to preside in person over the ceremonies of canonization, and to lay, on the morrow, the first stone of the new church dedicated to the Stigmatized.

Built under the inspiration of Gregory IX. and the direction of Brother Elias, this marvellous basilica is also one of the documents of this history, and perhaps I have been wrong in neglecting it.

Go and look upon it, proud, rich, powerful, then go down to Portiuncula, pass over to St. Damian, hasten to the Carceri, and you will understand the abyss that separates the ideal of Francis from that of the pontiff who canonized him.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Mortem cantando suscepit._ 2 Cel., 3, 139.

[2] The text here taken as a basis is that of the Assisi MS.,
338 (f^o 16a-18a). It is also to be found in _Firmamentum_, f^o
19, col. 4; _Speculum_, Morin, _tract._ iii., 8a; Wadding, _ann.
1226_, 35; A. SS., p. 663; Amoni, _Legenda Trium Sociorum_;
Appendix, p. 110. Everything in this document proclaims its
authenticity, but we are not reduced to internal proof. It is
expressly cited in 1 Cel., 17 (before 1230); by the Three
Companions (1246), 3 Soc., 11; 26; 29; by 2 Cel., 3, 99 (1247).
These proofs would be more than sufficient, but there is another
of even greater value: the bull _Quo elongati_ of September 28,
1230, where Gregory IX. cites it textually and declares that the
friars are not bound to observe it.

[3] _Promittet Franciscus obedientiam ... papæ ... et
successoribus ... qui non possunt nec debent eis præcipere
aliquid quod sit contra animam et regulam._ _Archiv._, _i_, p.
563.

[4] _Quod si quando a quocumque ... pontifice aliquid ...
mandaretur quod esset contra fidem ... et caritatem et fructus
ejus tunc obediet Deo magis quam hominibus._ Ib., p. 561.

[5] _Est [Regula] et stat et intelligitur super eos ... Cum spei
fiducia pace fruemur cum conscientiæ et Christi spiritus
testimonio certo._ Ib., pp. 563 and 565.

[6] _Archiv._, ii., p. 274.

[7] _Ad mandatum illud vos dicimus non teneri: quod sine
consensu Fratrum maxime ministrorum, quos universos tangebat
obligare nequivit nec successorem suum quomodolibet obligavit;
cum non habeat imperium par in parem._ The sophism is barely
specious; Francis was not on a par with his successors; he did
not act as minister-general, but as founder.

[8] _Arbor vit. cruc._, _lib._ v., _cap._ 3 and 5. See above, p.
185.

[9] _Tribul._, Laur., 25b; _Archiv._, i., p. 532.

[10] At the summit of the Apennines, about half way between
Camerino and Nocera (Umbria). _Tribul._, Laur., 26b; Magl.,
135b.

[11] _Declaratio Ubertini_, _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. This fact
is not to be questioned, since it is alleged in a piece
addressed to the pope, in response to the liberal friars, to
whom it was to be communicated.

[12] _Feci moram cum illis._, MS., 338. Most of the printed
texts give _miseracordiam_, which gives a less satisfactory
meaning. Cf. Miscellanea iii. (1888), p. 70; 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc.,
11.

[13] It is evident that heresy is not here in question. The
Brothers who were infected with it were to be delivered to the
Church.

[14] Urban IV. published, October 18, 1263, Potthast (18680), a
Rule for the Clarisses which completely changed the character of
this Order. Its author was the cardinal protector Giovanni degli
Ursini (the future Nicholas III.), who by way of precaution
forbade the Brothers Minor under the severest penalties to
dissuade the Sisters from accepting it. "It differs as much from
the first Rule," said Ubertini di Casali "as black and white,
the savory and the insipid." _Arbor. vit. cruc. lib._ v., _cap._
vi.

[15] V. _Test. B. Claræ_; _Conform._, 185a 1; Spec., 117b.

[16] 2 Cel., 3, 132.

[17] Bon., 112.

[18] The Bollandists deny this whole story, which they find in
opposition to the prescriptions of Francis himself. A. SS., p.
664 ff. But it is difficult to see for what object authors who
take great pains to explain it could have had for inventing it.
_Spec._, 133a; _Fior._ iv.; _consid._; _Conform._, 240a. I have
borrowed the whole account from Bernard of Besse: _De Laudibus_,
f^o 113b. It appears that Giacomina settled for the rest of her
life at Assisi, that she might gain edification from the first
companions of Francis. _Spec._, 107b. (What a lovely scene, and
with what a Franciscan fragrance!) The exact date of her death
is not known. She was buried in the lower church of the basilica
of Assisi, and on her tomb was engraved: _Hic jacit Jacoba
sancta nobilisque romana_. Vide Fratini: _Storia della
basilica_, p. 48. Cf. Jacobilli: _Vite dei Santi e Beati dell'
Umbria_, Foligno, 3 vols., 4to, 1647; i., p. 214.

[19] 2 Cel., 3, 139; Bon., 209, 210; _Conform._, 171b, 2.

[20] 2 Cel., 3, 139: _Cum me videritis ... sicut me nudius
tertius nudum vidistis._

[21] 1 Cel., 109; 2 Cel., 3, 139.

[22] 1 Cel., 109; Bon., 212.

[23] 1 Cel., 109. Cf. _Epist. Eliæ._

[24] _Tribul._ Laur., 22b. Nothing better shows the historic
value of the chronicle of the Tribulations than to compare its
story of these moments with that of the following documents:
_Conform._, 48b, 1; 185a, 2; _Fior._, 6.; _Spec._, 86a.

[25] 2 Cel., 3, 139; _Spec._, 116b; _Conform._, 224b, 1.

[26] 2 Cel., 3, 139. A simple comparison between this story in
the _Speculum_ (116b) and that in the _Conformities_ (224b, 1)
is enough to show how in certain of its parts the _Speculum_
represents a state of the legend anterior to 1385.

[27] Bon., 214. This cell has been transformed into a chapel and
may be found a few yards from the little church of Portiuncula.
Church and chapel are now sheltered under the great Basilica of
Santa Maria degli Angeli. See the picture and plan, A. SS., p.
814, or better still in _P. Barnabas aus dem Elsass, Portiuncula
oder Geschichte U. L. F. v. den Engeln_. Rixheim, 1884, 1 vol.,
8vo, pp. 311 and 312.

[28] 1 Cel., 116 and 117; Bon., 219; _Conform._ 185a, 1.

[29] To-day in the _clôture_ of the convent St. Clara. Vide
Miscellanea 1, pp. 44-48, a very interesting study by Prof.
Carattoli upon the coffin of St. Francis.

* * * * *

CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES

* * * * *

SUMMARY

I. ST. FRANCIS'S WORKS.

II. BIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED.

1. Preliminary Note.

2. First Life by Thomas of Celano.

3. Review of the History of the Order 1230-1244.

4. Legend of the Three Companions.

5. Fragments of the Suppressed Portion of the Legend.

6. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. First Part.

7. Second Life by Thomas of Celano. Second Part.

8. Documents of Secondary Importance:

Biography for Use of the Choir.
Life in Verse.
Biography by Giovanni di Ceperano.
Life by Brother Julian.

9. Legend of St. Bonaventura.

10. De Laudibus of Bernard of Besse.

III. DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS.

1. Donation of the Verna.

2. Registers of Cardinal Ugolini.

3. Bulls.

IV. CHRONICLERS OF THE ORDER.

1. Chronicle of Brother Giordano di Giano.

2. Eccleston: Arrival of the Friars in England.

3. Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni.

4. Chronicle of the Tribulations.

5. The Fioretti and their Appendices.

6. Chronicle of the XXIV. Generals.

7. The Conformities of Bartolommeo di Pisa.

8. Glassberger's Chronicle.

9. Chronicle of Mark of Lisbon.

V. CHRONICLERS NOT OF THE ORDER.

1. Jacques de Vitry.

2. Thomas of Spalato.

3. Divers Chroniclers.

* * * * *

CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SOURCES

There are few lives in history so abundantly provided with documents as that of St. Francis. This will perhaps surprise the reader, but to convince himself he has only to run over the preceding list, which, however, has been made as succinct as possible.

It is admitted in learned circles that the essential elements of this biography have disappeared or have been entirely altered. The exaggeration of certain religious writers, who accept everything, and among several accounts of the same fact always choose the longest and most marvellous, has led to a like exaggeration in the contrary sense.

If it were necessary to point out the results of these two excesses as they affect each event, this volume would need to be twice and even four times as large as it is. Those who are interested in these questions will find in the notes brief indications of the original documents on which each narrative is based.[1]

To close the subject of the errors which are current in the Franciscan documents, and to show in a few lines their extreme importance, I shall take two examples. Among our own contemporaries no one has so well spoken on the subject of St. Francis as M. Renan; he comes back to him with affecting piety, and he was in a better condition than any one to know the sources of this history. And yet he does not hesitate to say in his study of the Canticle of the Sun, Francis's best known work: "The authenticity of this piece appears certain, but we must observe that we have not the Italian original. The Italian text which we possess is a translation of a Portuguese version, which was itself translated from the Spanish."[2]

And yet the primitive Italian exists[3] not only in numerous manuscripts in Italy and France, particularly in the Mazarine Library,[4] but also in the well-known book of the _Conformities_.[5]

An error, grave from quite another point of view, is made by the same author when he denies the authenticity of St. Francis's Will; this piece is not only the noblest expression of its author's religious feeling, it constitutes also a sort of autobiography, and contains the solemn and scarcely disguised revocation of all the concessions which had been wrung from him. We have already seen that its authenticity is not to be challenged.[6] This double example will, I hope, suffice to show the necessity of beginning this study by a conscientious examination of the sources.

If the eminent historian to whom I have alluded were still living, he would have for this page his large and benevolent smile, that simple, _Oui, oui_, which once made his pupils in the little hall of the Collège de France to tremble with emotion.

I do not know what he would think of this book, but I well know that he would love the spirit in which it was undertaken, and would easily pardon me for having chosen him for scape-goat of my wrath against the learned men and biographers.

The documents to be examined have been divided into five categories.

The first includes _St. Francis's works_.

The second, _biographies properly so called_.

The third, _diplomatic documents_.

The fourth, _chronicles of the Order_.

The fifth, _chronicles of authors not of the Order_.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] If any student finds himself embarrassed by the extreme
rarity of certain works cited, I shall make it my duty and
pleasure to send them to him, as well as a copy of the Italian
manuscripts.

[2] E. Renan: _Nouvelles études d'histoire religieuse_, Paris,
1884, 8vo, p. 331.

[3] See above, pp. 304 ff.

[4] Mazarine Library, MS. 8531: _Speculum perfectionis S.
Francisci_; the Canticle is found at fo. 51. Cf. MS., 1350 (date
of 1459). That text was published by Boehmer in the _Romanische
Studien_, Halle, 1871. pp. 118-122. _Der Sonnengesang v. Fr.
d'A._

[5] _Conform._ (Milan, 1510), 202b, 2s. For that matter it is
correct that Diola, in the _Croniche degli ordini instituti da
S. Francisco_ (Venice, 1606, 3 vols. 4to), translated after the
Castilian version of the work composed in Portuguese by Mark of
Lisbon, was foolish enough to render into Italian this
translation of a translation.

[6] See pages 333 ff.

* * * * *

I

ST. FRANCIS'S WORKS

The writings of St. Francis[1] are assuredly the best source of acquaintance with him; we can only be surprised to find them so neglected by most of his biographers. It is true that they give little information as to his life, and furnish neither dates nor facts,[2] but they do better, they mark the stages of his thought and of his spiritual development. The legends give us Francis as he appeared, and by that very fact suffer in some degree the compulsion of circumstances; they are obliged to bend to the exigencies of his position as general of an Order approved by the Church, as miracle-worker, and as saint. His works, on the contrary, show us his very soul; each phrase has not only been thought, but lived; they bring us the Poverello's emotions, still alive and palpitating.

So, when in the writings of the Franciscans we find any utterance of their master, it unconsciously betrays itself, sounding out suddenly in a sweet, pure tone which penetrates to your very heart, awakening with a thrill a sprite that was sleeping there.

This bloom of love enduing St. Francis's words would be an admirable criterion of the authenticity of those opuscules which tradition attributes to him; but the work of testing is neither long nor difficult. If after his time injudicious attempts were here and there made to honor him with miracles which he did not perform, which he would not even have wished to perform, no attempt was ever made to burden his literary efforts with false or supposititious pieces.[3] The best proof of this is that it is not until Wadding--that is to say, until the seventeenth century--that we find the first and only serious attempt to collect these precious memorials. Several of them have been lost,[4] but those which remain are enough to give us in some sort the refutation of the legends.

In these pages Francis gives himself to his readers, as long ago he gave himself to his companions; in each one of them a feeling, a cry of the heart, or an aspiration toward the Invisible is prolonged down to our own time.

Wadding thought it his duty to give a place in his collection to several suspicious pieces; more than this, instead of following the oldest manuscripts that he had before him, he often permitted himself to be led astray by sixteenth-century writers whose smallest concern was to be critical and accurate. To avoid the tedious and entirely negative task to which it would be necessary to proceed if I took him for my starting-point I shall confine myself to a positive study of this question.

All the pieces which will be enumerated are found in his collection. They are sometimes cut up in a singular way; but in proportion as each document is studied we shall find sufficient indications to enable us to make the necessary rectifications.

The archives of Sacro Convento of Assisi[5] possess a manuscript whose importance is not to be overestimated. It has already been many times studied,[6] and bears the number 338.

It appears, however, that a very important detail of form has been overlooked. It is this: that No. 338 is not _one_ manuscript, but _a collection_ of manuscripts of very different periods, which were put together because they were of very nearly the same size, and have been foliated in a peculiar manner.

This artificial character of the collection shows that each of the pieces which compose it needs to be examined by itself, and that it is impossible to say of it as a whole that it is of the thirteenth or the fourteenth century.

The part that interests us is perfectly homogeneous, is formed of three parchment books (fol. 12a-44b) and contains a part of Francis's works.

1. The Rule, definitively approved by Honorius III., November 20, 1223[7] (fol. 12a-16a).

2. St. Francis's Will[8] (fol. 16a-18a).

3. The Admonitions[9] (fol. 18a-23b).

4. The Letter to all Christians[10] (fol. 23b-28a).

5. The letter to all the members of the Order assembled in Chapter-general[11] (fol. 28a-31a).

6. Counsel to all clerics on the respect to be paid to the Eucharist[12] (fol., 31b-32b).

7. A very short piece preceded by the rubric: "Of the virtues which adorn the Virgin Mary and which ought to adorn the holy soul"[13] (fol. 32b).

8. The _Laudes Creaturarum_, or Canticle of the Sun[14] (fol. 33a).

9. A paraphrase of the _Pater_ introduced by the rubric: _Incipiunt laudes quas ordinavit. B. pater noster Franciscus et dicebat ipsas ad omnes horas diei et noctis et ante officium B. V. Mariæ sic incipiens: Sanctissime Pater_[15] (fol. 34a).

10. The office of the Passion (34b-43a). This office, where the psalms are replaced by several series of biblical verses, are designed to make him who repeats them follow, hour by hour, the emotions of the Crucified One from the evening of Holy Thursday.[16]

11. A rule for friars in retreat in hermitages[17] (fol. 43a-43b).

A glance over this list is enough to show that the works of Francis here collected are addressed to all the Brothers, or are a sort of encyclicals, which they are charged to pass on to those for whom they are destined.

The very order of these pieces shows us that we have in this manuscript the primitive library of the Brothers Minor, the collection of which each minister was to carry with him a copy. It was truly their viaticum.

Matthew Paris tells us of his amazement at the sight of these foreign monks, clothed in patched tunics, and carrying their books in a sort of case suspended from their necks.[18]

The Assisi manuscript was without doubt destined to this service; if it is silent on the subject of the journeys it has made, and of the Brothers to whom it has been a guide and an inspiration, it at least brings us, more than all the legends, into intimacy with Francis, makes us thrill in unison with that heart which never admitted a separation between joy, love, and poetry. As to the date of this manuscript, one must needs be a paleographer to determine. We have already found a hypothesis which, if well grounded, would carry it back to the neighborhood of 1240.[19]

Its contents seem to countenance this early date. In fact, it contains several pieces of which the _Manual of the Brother Minor_ very early rid itself.

Very soon they were content to have only the Rule to keep company with the breviary; sometimes they added the Will. But the other writings, if they did not fall entirely into neglect, ceased at least to be of daily usage.

Those of St. Francis's writings which are not of general interest or do not concern the Brothers naturally find no place in this collection. In this new category we must range the following documents:

1. The Rule of 1221.[20]

2. The Rule of the Clarisses, which we no longer possess in its original form.[21]

3. A sort of special instruction for ministers-general.[22]

4. A letter to St. Clara.[23]

5. Another letter to the same.[24]

6. A letter to Brother Leo.[25]

7. A few prayers.[26]

8. The benediction of Brother Leo. The original autograph, which is preserved in the treasury of Sacro Convento, has been very well reproduced by heliograph.[27]

As to the two famous hymns _Amor de caritade_[28] and _In foco l'amor mi mise_,[29] they cannot be attributed to St. Francis, at least in their present form.

It belongs to M. Monaci and his numerous and learned emulators to throw light upon these delicate questions by publishing in a scientific manner the earliest monuments of Italian poetry.

I have already spoken of several tracts of which assured traces have been found, though they themselves are lost. They are much more numerous than would at first be supposed. In the missionary zeal of the early years the Brothers would not concern themselves with collecting documents. We do not write our memoirs in the fulness of our youth.

We must also remember that Portiuncula had neither archives nor library. It was a chapel ten paces long, with a few huts gathered around it. The Order was ten years old before it had seen any other than a single book: a New Testament. The Brothers did not even keep this one. Francis, having nothing else, gave it to a poor woman who asked for alms, and when Pietro di Catania, his vicar, expressed his surprise at this prodigality: "Has she not given her two sons to the Order?" replied the master[30] quickly.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Collected first by Wadding (Antwerp, 1623, 4to), they have
been published many times since then, particularly by De la Haye
(Paris, 1641, f^o). These two editions having become scarce,
were republished--in a very unsatisfactory manner--by the Abbé
Horoy: _S. Francisci Assisiatis opera omnia_ (Paris, 1880, 4to).
For want of a more exact edition, that of Father Bernardo da
Fivizzano is the most useful: _Opuscoli di S. Francesco
d'Assisi_, 1 vol., 12mo, pp. 564, Florence, 1880. The Latin text
is accompanied by an Italian translation.

[2] "_Die Briefe, die unter seinem Namen gehen, mögen theilweise
ächt sein. Aber sie tragen kaum etwas zur näheren Kenntniss bei
und können daher fast ganz ausser Acht bleiben_." Müller, _Die
Anfänge des Minoritenordens_, Freiburg, 1 vol., 8vo, 1885, p. 3.

[3] Pieces have been often attributed to St. Francis which do
not belong to him; but those are unintentional errors and made
without purpose. The desire for literary exactness is relatively
of recent date, and it was easier for those who were ignorant of
the author of certain Franciscan writings to attribute them to
St. Francis than to admit their ignorance or to make deep
researches.

[4] For example, the first Rule; probably also a few canticles;
a letter to the Brothers in France, Eccl., 6; another to the
Brothers in Bologna: "_Prædixerat per litteram in qua fuit
plurimum latinum_," Eccl., ib.; a letter to Antony of Padua,
other than the one we have, since on the witness of Celano it
was addressed: _Fratri Antonio episcopo meo_ (2 Cel., 3, 99);
certain letters to St. Clara: "_Scripsit Claræ et sororibus ad
consolationem litteram in quâ dabat benedictionem suam et
absolvebat_," etc. _Conform._, f^o. 185a, 1; cf. _Test. B.
Claræ_. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 767: "_Plura scripta
tradidit nobis, ne post mortem suam declinaremus a paupertate_;"
certain letters to Cardinal Ugolini, 3 Soc., 67.

It is not to negligence alone that we must attribute the loss of
many of the epistles: "_Quod nephas est cogitare, in provincia
Marchie et in pluribus aliis locis testamentum beati Francisci
mandaverunt (prelati ordinis) districte per obedientiam ab
omnibus auferi et comburi. Et uni fratri devoto et sancto, cujus
nomen est N. de Rocanato combuxerunt dicum testamentum super
caput suum. Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti, annulare scripta
beati patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de
observantia regule declaratur._" Ubertino di Casali, _apud
Archiv._, iii., pp. 168-169.

[5] Italy is too obliging to artists, archæologists, and
scholars not to do them the favor of disposing in a more
practical manner this trust, the most precious of all Umbria.
Even with the indefatigable kindness of the curator, M.
Alessandro, and of the municipality of Assisi, it is very
difficult to profit by these treasures heaped up in a dark room
without a table to write upon.

[6] In particular by Ehrle: _Die historischen Handschriften von
S. Francesco in Assisi._ _Archiv._, t. i., p. 484.

[7] See pages 252 ff ... and 283.

[8] See pages 333 ff.

[9] See pages 259 ff.

[10] See page 325 ff.

[11] See pages 322 ff.

[12] See page 327.

[13] I give it entire: "_Regina sapientia, Dominus te salvet,
cum tua sorore sancta pura simplicitate.--Domina sancta
paupertas, Domimus te salvet, cum tua sorore sancta
humilitate.--Domina sancta caritas, Dominus te salvet, cum tua
sorrore sancta obedientia. Sanctissimæ virtutes omnes, vos
salvet Dominus, a quo venitis et proceditis._" Its authenticity
is guaranteed by a citation by Celano: 2 Cel., 3, 119. Cf. 126b
and 127a.

[14] See pages 304 f.

[15] I shall not recur to this: the text is in the Conformities
138a 2.

[16] The authenticity of this service, to which there is not a
single allusion in the biographies of St. Francis, is rendered
certain by the life of St. Clara: "_Officium crucis, prout
crucis amator Franciscus instituerat (Clara) didicit et affectu
simili frequentavit._" A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 761a.

[17] It begins: _Illi qui volunt stare in heremis_. This text is
also found in the Conformities, 143a, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 43; see
p. 97.

[18] _Nudis pedibus incedentes, funiculis cincti, tunicis
griseis et talaribus peciatis, insuto capucio utentes ... nihil
sibi ultra noctem reservantes ... libros continue suos ... in
forulis a collo dependentes bajulantes._ Historia Anglorum,
Pertz: _Script._, t. 28, p. 397. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 135; _Fior._, 5;
_Spec._, 45b.

[19] See page 322 n.

[20] See page 252.

[21] See page 157.

[22] See pages 318 ff.

[23] See page 239.

[24] See page 327.

[25] See page 262.

[26] _a._ _Sanctus Dominus Deus noster._ Cf. _Spec._, 126a;
_Firmamentum_, 18b, 2; _Conform._, 202b, 1.

_b._ _Ave Domina sancta._ Cf. _Spec._, 127a; _Conform._, 138a, 2.

_c._ _Sancta Maria virgo._ Cf. _Spec._, 126b; _Conform._, 202b, 2.

[27] Vide S. François, in 4to, Paris. 1885 (Plon), p. 233. The
authenticity of this benediction appears to be well established,
since it was already jealously guarded during the life of Thomas
of Celano. No one has ever dreamed of requiring historical proof
of this writing. Is this perhaps a mistake? The middle of the
sheet is taken up with the benediction which was dictated to
Brother Leo: _Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodiat te, ostendat
faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui convertat vultum suum ad te
et det tibi pacem._ At the bottom, Francis added the letter
_tau_. ~[Greek: Tau]~, which was, so to speak, his signature
(Bon., 51; 308), and the words: _Frater Leo Dominus benedicat te_.

Then when this memorial became a part of the relics of the
Saint, Brother Leo, to authenticate it in a measure, added the
following notes: toward the middle: _Beatus Franciscus
scripsit manu sua istam benedictionem mihi fratri Leoni_;
toward the close: _Simili modo fecit istud signum thau cum
capite manu sua_. But the most valuable annotation is found at
the top of the sheet: _Beatus Franciscus duobus annis ante
mortem suam fecit quadragesimam in loco Alvernæ ad honorem
Beatæ Virginia Mariæ matris Dei et beati Michael archangeli a
festo assumptionis sanctæ Mariæ Virginis usque ad festum
sancti Michael septembris et facta est super eum manus Domini
per visionem et allucotionem seraphym et impressionem
stigmatum in corpore suo. Fecit has laudes ex alio latere
catule scriptas et manu, sua scripsit gratias agens Domino de
beneficio sibi collato._ Vide 2 Cel., 2, 18.

[28] Wadding gives the text according to St. Bernardino da
Siena. _Opera_, t. iv., _sermo_ 16, _extraord. et sermo feriæ
sextæ Parasceves_. Amoni: _Legenda trium sociorum_, p. 166.

[29] Wadding has drawn the text from St. Bernardino, _loc.
cit._, _sermo_ iv., _extraord._ It was also reproduced by Amoni,
_loc. cit._, p. 165. Two very curious versions may be found in
the Miscellanea, 1888, pp. 96 and 190.

[30] 2 Cel., 3, 35. This took place under the vicariat of Pietro
di Catania; consequently between September 29, 1220, and March
10, 1221.

* * * * *

II

BIOGRAPHIES PROPERLY SO CALLED

I. PRELIMINARY NOTE

To form a somewhat exact notion of the documents which are to occupy us, we must put them back into the midst of the circumstances in which they appeared, study them in detail, and determine the special value of each one.

Here, more than anywhere else, we must beware of facile theories and hasty generalizations. The same life described by two equally truthful contemporaries may take on a very different coloring. This is especially the case if the man concerned has aroused enthusiasm and wrath, if his inmost thought, his works, have been the subject of discussion, if the very men who were commissioned to realize his ideals and carry on his work are divided, and at odds with one another.

This was the case with St. Francis. In his lifetime and before his own eyes divergences manifested themselves, at first secretly, then in the light of day.

In a rapture of love he went from cottage to cottage, from castle to castle, preaching absolute poverty; but that buoyant enthusiasm, that unbounded idealism, could not last long. The Order of the Brothers Minor in process of growth was open not only to a few choice spirits aflame with mystic fervor, but to all men who aspired after a religious reformation; pious laymen, monks undeceived as to the virtues of the ancient Orders, priests shocked at the vices of the secular clergy, all brought with them--unintentionally no doubt and even unconsciously--too much of their old man not by degrees to transform the institution.

Francis perceived the peril several years before his death, and made every effort to avert it. Even in his dying hour we see him summoning all his powers to declare his Will once again, and as clearly as possible, and to conjure his Brothers never to touch the Rule, even under pretext of commenting upon or explaining it. Alas! four years had not rolled away when Gregory IX., at the prayer of the Brothers themselves, became the first one of a long series of pontiffs who have explained the Rule.[1]

Poverty, as Francis understood it, soon became only a memory. The unexampled success of the Order brought to it not merely new recruits, but money. How refuse it when there were so many works to found? Many of the friars discovered that their master had exaggerated many things, that shades of meaning were to be observed in the Rule, for example, between counsels and precepts. The door once opened to interpretations, it became impossible to close it. The Franciscan family began to be divided into opposing parties often difficult to distinguish.

At first there were a few restless, undisciplined men who grouped themselves around the older friars. The latter, in their character of first companions of the Saint, found a moral authority often greater than the official authority of the ministers and guardians. The people turned to them by instinct as to the true continuers of St. Francis's work. They were not far from right.

They had the vigor, the vehemence of absolute convictions; they could not have temporized had they desired to do so. When they emerged from their hermitages in the Apennines, their eyes shining with the fever of their ideas, absorbed in contemplation, their whole being spoke of the radiant visions they enjoyed; and the amazed and subdued multitude would kneel to kiss the prints of their feet with hearts mysteriously stirred.

A larger group was that of those Brothers who condemned these methods without being any the less saints. Born far away from Umbria, in countries where nature seems to be a step-mother, where adoration, far from being the instinctive act of a happy soul soaring upward to bless the heavenly Father, is, on the contrary, the despairing cry of an atom lost in immensity, they desired above all things a religious reformation, rational and profound. They dreamed of bringing the Church back to the purity of the ancient days, and saw in the vow of poverty, understood in its largest sense, the best means of struggling against the vices of the clergy; but they forgot the freshness, the Italian gayety, the sunny poetry that there had been in Francis's mission.

Full of admiration for him, they yet desired to enlarge the foundations of his work, and for that they would neglect no means of influence, certainly not learning.

This tendency was the dominant one in France, Germany, and England. In Italy it was represented by a very powerful party, powerful if not in the number, at least in the authority, of its representatives. This was the party favored by the papacy. It was the party of Brother Elias and all the ministers-general of the Order in the thirteenth century, if we except Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) and Raimondo Gaufridi (1289-1295).

In Italy a third group, the liberals, was much more numerous; men of mediocrity to whom monastic life appeared the most facile existence, vagrant monks happy to secure an aftermath of success by displaying the new Rule, formed in this country the greater part of the Franciscan family.

We can understand without difficulty that documents emanating from such different quarters must bear the impress of their origin. The men who are to bring us their testimony are combatants in the struggle over the question of poverty, a struggle which for two centuries agitated the Church, aroused all consciences, and which had its monsters and its martyrs.

To determine the value of these witnesses we must first of all discover their origin. It is evident that the narratives of the no-compromise party of the right or the left can have but slender value where controverted points are concerned; whence the conclusion that the authority of a narrator may vary from page to page, or even from line to line.