About this book

Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Paul Sabatier

phraseology to perceive that after all the Holy See had simply consented to suspend judgment in view of the uprightness of their intentions and the purity of their faith.[25] The flowers of clerical rhetoric hid from them the shackles which had been laid upon them. The curia, in fact, was not satisfied with Francis's vow of fidelity, it desired in addition to stamp the Penitents with the seal of the Church: the Cardinal of San Paolo was deputed to confer upon them the tonsure. From this time they were all under the spiritual authority of the Roman Church. The thoroughly lay creation of St. Francis had become, in spite of himself, an ecclesiastical institution: it must soon degenerate into a clerical institution. All unawares, the Franciscan movement had been unfaithful to its origin. The prophet had abdicated in favor of the priest, not indeed without possibility of return, for when a man has once reigned, I would say, thought, in liberty--what other kingdom is there on this earth?--he makes but an indifferent slave; in vain he tries to submit; in spite of himself it happens at times that he lifts his head proudly, he rattles his chains, he remembers the struggles, sadness, anguish of the days of liberty, and weeps their loss. Among the sons of St. Francis many were destined to weep their lost liberty, many to die to conquer it again. FOOTNOTES: [1] The date usually fixed for the approval of the Rule by Innocent III. is the month of August, 1209. The Bollandists had thought themselves able to infer it from the account where Thomas of Celano (1 Cel., 43) refers to the passage through Umbria of the Emperor Otho IV., on his way to be crowned at Rome (October 4, 1209). Upon this journey see Boehmer-Ficker, _Regesta Imperii. Dei Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV._, etc., Insbruck, 1879, 4to, pp. 96 and 97. As this account follows that of the approval, they conclude that the latter was earlier. But Thomas of Celano puts this account there because the context led up to it, and not in order to fix its date. Everything leads to the belief that the Brothers retired (_recolligebat_, 1 Cel., 42) to Rivo-Torto before and after their journey to Rome. Besides, the time between April 23d and the middle of August, 1209, is much too short for all that the biographers tell us about the life of the Brothers before their visit to Innocent III. The mission to Florence took place in winter, or at least in a very cold month. But the decisive argument is that Innocent III. quitted Rome toward the end of May, 1209, and went to Viterbo, returning only to crown Otho, October 4th (Potthast, 3727-3803). It is therefore absolutely necessary to postpone to the summer of 1210 the visit of the Penitents to the pope. This is also the date which Wadding arrives at. [2] 3 Soc., 35. [3] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 51; Bon., 34. Cf. _Test. B. Fr._ M. K. Mueller of Halle, in his _Anfaenge_, has made a very remarkable study of the Rule of 1221, whence he deduces an earlier Rule, which he believes to be that of 1209 (1210). For once I find myself entirely in accord with him, except that the Rule thus reconstructed (Vide _Anfaenge_, pp. 14-25, 184-188) appears to me to be not that of 1210, which was very short, but another, drawn up between 1210 and 1221. The _plures regulas fecit_ of the 3 Soc., 35, authorizes us to believe that he made perhaps as many as four--1st, 1210, very short, containing little more than the three passages of the vocation; 2d, 1217 (?), substantially that proposed by M. Mueller; 3d, 1221, that of which we shall speak at length farther on; 4th, 1226, the Will, which if not a Rule is at least an appendix to the Rule. If from 1221-1226 he had time to make two Rules and the Will, as is universally admitted, there is nothing surprising in his having made two from 1210-1221. Perhaps we have a fragment of that of 1217 in the regulation of hermitages. Vide below, p. 109. [4] Thomas of Celano's list. 1, _Quidam pium gerens animum_; 2, _Bernardus_; 3, _Vir alter_; 4, _AEgidius_; 5, _Unus alius appositus_; 6, _Philippus_; 7, _Alius bonus vir_; 8, 9, 10, 11, _Quatuor boni et idonei viri_. 1 Cel., 24, 25, 29, 31. The Rinaldi-Amoni text says nothing of the last four. Three Companions: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, _Petrus_; 3, _AEgidius_; 4, _Sabbatinus_; 5, _Moritus_; _Johannes Capella_; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Disciples received by the brethren in their missions. 3 Soc., 33, 35, 41, 46, 52. Bonaventura: 1, _Bernardus_; 2, ... 3, _AEgidius_; 4, 5, ... 6, _Silvestro_; 7, _Alius bonus viri_; 8, 9, 10, 11, _Quatuor viri honesti_. Bon., 28, 29, 30, 31, 33. The Fioretti, while insisting on the importance of the twelve Franciscan apostles, cite only six in their list: Giovanni di Capella, Egidio, Philip, Silvestro, Bernardo, and Rufino. _Fior._, 1. We must go to the Conformities to find the traditional list, f^o 46b 1: 1, _Bernardus de Quintavalle_; 2, _Petrus Chatanii_; 3, _Egidius_; 4, _Sabatinus_; 5, _Moricus_; 6, _Johannes de Capella_; 7, _Philippus Longus_; 8, _Johannes de Sancto Constantio_; 9, _Barbarus_; 10, _Bernardus de Cleviridante_ (sic); 11, _Angelus Tancredi_; 12, _Sylvester_. As will be seen, in the last two documents twelve disciples are in question, while in the preceding ones there are only eleven. This is enough to show a dogmatic purpose. This list reappears exactly in the _Speculum_, with the sole difference that Francis being there included Angelo di Tancrede is the twelfth brother and Silvestro disappears. _Spec._, 87a. [5] According to tradition, the five _compagni del Santo_ buried there beside their master are Bernardo, Silvestro, William (an Englishman), Eletto, and Valentino(?) [6] 3 Soc., 46; 1 Cel., 32; Bon., 34. [7] 1 Cel., 33; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 35. [8] St. Ludgarde (1182-1246) sees him condemned to Purgatory till the Last Judgment. Life of this saint by Thomas of Catimpre in Surius: _Vitae SS._ (1618), vi., 215-226. [9] _Vir clari ingenii, magnae probitatis et sapientiae, cui nullus secundus tempore suo:_ Rigordus, _de gestis Philippi Augusti_ in Duchesne. _Historiae Francorum scriptores coaetanei_, t. v., p. 60.--_Nec similem sui scientia, facundia, decretorum et legum perititia, strenuitate, judiciorum nec adhuc visus est habere sequentem._ Cf. Mencken, _Script. rer. Sax._, Leipzig, 1728, t. iii., p. 252. _Innocentius, qui vere stupor mundi erat et immutator saeculi._ Cotton, _Hist. Anglicana_, Luard, 1859, p. 107. [10] _Cujus finis laetitiem potius quam tristitiam generavit subjectis._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane. Leibnitz, _Accessiones historicae_, t. ii., p. 492. [11] _Decidit in acutam (febrem) quam cum multis diebus fovisset nec a citris quibus in magna quantitatae et ex consuetudine vescebatur ... minime abstineret ... ad ultimum in lethargia prolapsus vitam finivit._ Alberic delle Tre Fontane, _loc. cit._ [12] Fresco in the great nave of the Upper Church of Assisi. [13] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 47. [14] Of the Colonna family; he died in 1216. Cf. 3 Soc., 61. Vide Cardella, _Memorie storiche de' Cardinali_, 9 vols., 8vo, Rome, 1792 ff., t. i., p. 177. He was at Rome in the summer of 1210, for on the 11th of August he countersigned the bull _Religiosem vitam_. Potthast, 4061. Angelo Clareno relates the approbation with more precision in certain respects: _Cum vero Summo Pontifici ea quae postulabat [Franciscus] ardua valde et quasi impossibilia viderentur infirmitate hominum sui temporis, exhortabatur eum, quod aliquem ordinem vel regulam de approbatis assumeret, at ipse se a Christo missum ad talem vitam et non aliam postulandam constanter affirmans, fixus in sua petitione permansit. Tunc dominus Johannes de Sancto Paulo episcopus Sabinensis et dominus Hugo episcopus Hostiensis Dei spiritu moti assisterunt Sancto Francisco et pro his quae petebat coram summo Pontifice et Cardinalibus plura proposuerunt rationabilia et efficacia valde. Tribul._ Laurentinian MS., f^o 6a. This intervention of Ugolini is mentioned in no other document. It is, however, by no means impossible. He also was in Rome in the summer of 1210. (Vide Potthast, p. 462.) [15] 1 Cel., 32 and 33; 3 Soc., 47 and 48. Cf. _An. Per._, A. SS., p. 590. [16] 1 Cel., 33. [17] 3 Soc., 48. [18] 3 Soc., 49; 1 Cel., 33; Bon., 35 and 36. All this has been much worked over by tradition and gives us only an echo of the reality. It would certainly have needed very little for the Penitents to meet the same fate before Innocent III. as the Waldenses before Lucius III. Traces of this interview are found in two texts which appear to me to be too suspicious to warrant their insertion in the body of the narrative. The first is a fragment of Matthew Paris: _Papa itaque in fratre memorato habitum deformem, vultum despicabilem, barbam prolixam, capillos incultos, supercilia pendentia et nigra diligenter considerans; cum petitionem ejus tam arduam et executione impossibilem recitare fecisset, despexit cum et dixit: Vade frater, et quaere porcus, quibus potius debes quam hominibus comparari, et involve te cum eis in volutabro, et regulam illis a te commentatam tradens, officium tuae praedicationis impende. Quod audiens Franciscus inclinato capite exixit et porcis tandem inventis, in luto se cum eis tamdiu involvit quousque a planta pedis usque ad verticem, corpus suum totum cum ipso habitu polluisset. Sicque ad consistorium revertens Papae se conspectibus praesentavit dicens: Domine feci sicut praecepisti exaudi nunc obsecro petitionem meam_. Ed. Wats, p. 340. The incident has a real Franciscan color, and should have some historic basis. Curiously, it in some sort meets a passage in the legend of Bonaventura which is an interpolation of the end of the thirteenth century. See A. SS., p. 591. [19] 3 Soc., 50 and 51; Bon., 37; 2 Cel., 1, 11; Bernard de Besse, Turin MS., f^o 101b. Ubertini di Casali (_Arbor vitae crucifixae_, Venice, 1485, lib. v., cap. iii.) tells a curious story in which he depicts the indignation of the prelates against Francis. _Quaenam haec est doctrina nova quam infers auribus nostris? Quis potest vivere sine temporalium possessione? Numquid tu melior es quam patres nostri qui dederunt nobis temporalia et in temporalibus abundantes ecclesias possiderunt?_ Then follows the fine prayer inserted by Wadding in Francis's works. The central idea is the same as in the parable of poverty. This story, though not referable to any source, has nevertheless its importance, since it shows how in the year 1300 a man who had all the documents before his eyes, represented to himself Francis's early steps. [20] Bon., 36. [21] The attempt of Durand of Huesca to create a mendicant order has not yet been studied with sufficient minuteness. Chief of the Waldenses of Aragon, he was present in 1207 at the