Life of St. Francis of Assisi
demanding new liberties, which the nobles and burghers would yield to
them only under the pressure of fear. Francis took up the cause of the
weak, the _minores_, and succeeded in reconciling them with the rich,
the _majores_.
His spiritual family had not as yet, properly speaking, a name, for,
unlike those too hasty spirits who baptize their productions before they
have come to light, he was waiting for the occasion that should reveal
the true name which he ought to give it.[19] One day someone was
reading the Rule in his presence. When he came to the passage, "Let the
brethren, wherever they may find themselves called to labor or to serve,
never take an office which shall put them over others, but on the
contrary, let them be always under (_sint minores_) all those who may be
in that house,"[20] these words _sint minores_ of the Rule, in the
circumstances then existing in the city, suddenly appeared to him as a
providential indication. His institution should be called the Order of
the Brothers Minor.
We may imagine the effect of this determination. The _Saint_, for
already this magic word had burst forth where he appeared,[21] the
Saint had spoken. It was he who was about to bring peace to the city,
acting as arbiter between the two factions which rent it.
We still possess the document of this _pace civile_, exhumed, so to
speak, from the communal archives of Assisi by the learned and pious
Antonio Cristofani.[22] The opening lines are as follows:
"In the name of God!
"May the supreme grace of the Holy Spirit assist us! To the
honor of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Virgin Mary, the
Emperor Otho, and Duke Leopold.
"This is the statute and perpetual agreement between the
_Majori_ and _Minori_ of Assisi.
"Without common consent there shall never be any sort of
alliance either with the pope and his nuncios or legates, or
with the emperor, or with the king, or with their nuncios or
legates, or with any city or town, or with any important person,
except with a common accord they shall do all which there may be
to do for the honor, safety, and advantage of the commune of
Assisi."
What follows is worthy of the beginning. The lords, in consideration of
a small periodical payment, should renounce all the feudal rights; the
inhabitants of the villages subject to Assisi were put on a par with
those of the city, foreigners were protected, the assessment of taxes
was fixed. On Wednesday, November 9, 1210, this agreement was signed and
sworn to in the public place of Assisi; it was made in such good faith
that exiles were able to return in peace, and from this day we find in
the city registers the names of those _emigres_ who, in 1202, had
betrayed their city and provoked the disastrous war with Perugia.
Francis might well be happy. Love had triumphed, and for several years
there were at Assisi neither victors nor vanquished.
In the mystic marriages which here and there in history unite a man to a
people, something takes place of which the transports of sense, the
delirium of love, seem to be the only symbol; a moment comes in which
saints, or men of genius, feel unknown powers striving mightily within
them; they strive, they seek, they struggle until, triumphing over all
obstacles, they have forced trembling, swooning humanity to conceive by
them.
This moment had come to St. Francis.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1 Cel., 34; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 39.
[2] Probably at Otricoli, which lies on the high-road between
Rome and Spoleto. Orte is an hour and a half further on. It is
the ancient _Otriculum_, where many antiquities have been found.
[3] 1 Cel., 35; Bon., 40 and 41.
[4] The only road connecting Celano with Rome, as well as with
all Central and Northern Italy, passes by Aquila, Rieti, and
Terni, where it joins the high-roads leading from the north
toward Rome.
[5] 1 Cel., 36 and 37; 3 Soc., 54; Bon., 45-48.
[6] Isaiah, lv., 2.
[7] This Order deserves to be better known; it was founded under
Alexander III. and rapidly spread all over Central Italy and the
East. In Francis's lifetime it had in Italy and the Holy Land
about forty houses dedicated to the care of lepers. It is very
probable that it was at _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ that
Francis visited these unhappy sufferers. He there made the
particular acquaintance of a Cruciger named _Morico_. The latter
afterward falling ill, Francis sent him a remedy which would
cure him, informing him at the same time that he was to become
his disciple, which shortly afterward took place. The hospital
_San Salvatore_ has disappeared; it stood in the place now
called _Ospedaletto_, where a small chapel now stands half way
between Assisi and Santa Maria degli Angeli. It was from there
that the dying Francis blessed Assisi. For Morico vide 3 Soc.,
35; Bon., 49; 2 Cel., 3, 128; _Conform._, 63b.--For the hospital
vide Bon., 49; _Conform._, 135a, 1; _Honorii III. opera_, Horoy,
t. i., col. 206. Cf. Potthast, 7746; L. Auvray, _Registres de
Gregoire IX._, Paris, 1890, 4to, no. 209. For the Crucigeri in
the time of St. Francis vide the interesting bull _Cum tu fili
prior_, of July 8, 1203; Migne, _Inn. op._, t. ii., col. 125 ff.
Cf. Potthast, 1959, and _Cum pastoris_, April 5, 1204; Migne,
_loc. cit._, 319. Cf. Potthast, 2169 and 4474.
[8] 3 Soc., 55.
[9] All this yet remains in its primitive state. The road which
went from Assisi to the now ruined Abbey of Mount Subasio
(almost on the summit of the mountain) passed the Carceri, where
there was a little chapel built by the Benedictines.
[10] _Illi qui religiose volunt stare in eremis sint tres aut
quatuor ad plus. Duo ex ipsis sint matres, et habeant duos
filios, vel unum ad minus. Illi duo teneant vitam Marthae et alii
duo vitam Mariae Magdalenae._ Assisi MS., 338, 43a-b; text given
also in _Conf._, 143a, 1, from which Wadding borrows it for his
edition of the _Opuscules_ of St. Francis. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 113.
It is possible that we have here a fragment of the Rule, which
must have been composed toward 1217.
[11] 1 Cel., 42 and 43; 3 Soc., 55; Bon., 41.
[12] 1 Cel., 42-44.
[13] 2 Cel., 1, 15; Bon., 65. These two authors do not say where
the event took place; but there appears to be no reason for
suspecting the indication of Rivo-Torto given by the _Speculum_,
fo. 21a.
[14] 2 Cel., 3, 110. Cf. _Spec._, 22a.
[15] 1 Cel., 47; Bon., 43.
[16] There are few events of the thirteenth century that offer
more documents or are more obscure than this one. The
chroniclers of the most different countries speak of it at
length. Here is one of the shortest but most exact of the
notices, given by an eye-witness (Annals of Genoa of the years
1197-1219, _apud Mon. Germ. hist. Script_., t. 18): 1212 _in
mense Augusti, die Sabbati, octava Kalendarum Septembris,
intravit civitatem Janue quidam puer Teutonicus nomine Nicholaus
peregrinationis causa, et cum eo multitudo maxima pelegrinorum
defferentes cruces et bordonos atque scarsellas ultra septem
millia arbitratu boni viri inter homines et feminas et puellos
et puellas. Et die dominica sequenti de civitate exierunt_.--Cf.
Giacomo di Viraggio: Muratori, t. ix., col. 46: _Dicebant quod
mare debebat apud Januam siccari et sic ipsi debebant in
Hierusalem proficisci. Multi autem inter eos erant filii
Nobilium, quos ipsi etiam cum meretricibus destinarunt (!_) The
most tragic account is that of Alberic, who relates the fate of
the company that embarked at Marseilles. _Mon. Ger. hist.
Script_., t. 23, p. 894.
[17] The Benedictine chronicler, Albert von Stade (_Mon. Ger.
hist. Script_., t. 16, pp. 271-379), thus closes his notice of
the children's crusade: _Adhuc quo devenerint ignorantur sed
plurimi redierunt, a quibus cum quaereretur causa cursus dixerunt
se nescire. Nudae etiam mulieres circa idem tempus nihil
loquentes per villas et civitates cucurrerunt._ _Loc. cit._,
p. 355.
[18] _Chron. Veronese, ann. 1238_ (Muratori, _Scriptores Rer.
Ital._, t. viii., p. 626). Cf. Barbarano de' Mironi: _Hist.
Eccles. di Vicenza_, t. ii., pp. 79-84.
[19] The Brothers were at first called _Viri paenitentiales de
civitate Assisii_ (3 Soc., 37); it appears that they had a
momentary thought of calling themselves _Pauperes de Assisio_,
but they were doubtless dissuaded from this at Rome, as too
closely resembling that of the _Pauperes de Lugduno_. Vide
_Burchardi chronicon._, p. 376; vide Introd., cap. 5.
[20] Vide Rule of 1221, _cap._ 7. Cf. 1 Cel., 38, and Bon., 78.
[21] 1 Cel., 36.
[22] _Storia d'Assisi_, t. i., pp. 123-129.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII
PORTIUNCULA
1211
It was doubtless toward the spring of 1211 that the Brothers quitted
Rivo-Torto. They were engaged in prayer one day, when a peasant appeared
with an ass, which he noisily drove before him into the poor shelter.
"Go in, go in!" he cried to his beast; "we shall be most comfortable
here." It appeared that he was afraid that if the Brothers remained
there much longer they would begin to think this deserted place was
their own.[1] Such rudeness was very displeasing to Francis, who
immediately arose and departed, followed by his companions.
Now that they were so numerous the Brothers could no longer continue
their wandering life in all respects as in the past; they had need of a
permanent shelter and above all of a little chapel. They addressed
themselves in vain first to the bishop and then to the canons of San
Rufino for the loan of what they needed, but were more fortunate with
the abbot of the Benedictines of Mount Subasio, who ceded to them in
perpetuity the use of a chapel already very dear to their hearts, Santa
Maria degli Angeli or the Portiuncula.[2]
Francis was enchanted; he saw a mysterious harmony, ordained by God
himself, between the name of the humble sanctuary and that of his Order.
The brethren quickly built for themselves a few huts; a quickset hedge
served as enclosing wall, and thus in three or four days was organized
the first Franciscan convent.
For ten years they were satisfied with this. These ten years are the
heroic period of the Order. St. Francis, in full possession of his
ideal, will seek to inculcate it upon his disciples and will succeed
sometimes; but already the too rapid multiplication of the brotherhood
will provoke some symptoms of relaxation.
The remembrance of the beginning of this period has drawn from the lips
of Thomas of Celano a sort of canticle in honor of the monastic life. It
is the burning and untranslatable commentary of the Psalmist's cry:
"_Behold how sweet and pleasant it is to be brethren and to dwell
together._"
Their cloister was the forest which then extended on all sides of
Portiuncula, occupying a large part of the plain. There they gathered
around their master to receive his spiritual counsels, and thither they
retired to meditate and pray.[3] It would be a gross mistake, however,
to suppose that contemplation absorbed them completely during the days
which were not consecrated to missionary tours: a part of their time was
spent in manual labor.
The intentions of St. Francis have been more misapprehended on this
point than on any other, but it may be said that nowhere is he more