Life of St. Francis of Assisi
[38] At the chapter held at Bologna at Whitsunday, 1220. The
bull _Religiosam vitam_ (Privilege of Notre Dame de Prouille) of
March 30, 1218, enumerates the possessions of the Dominicans.
Ripolli, _Bull. Praed._, t. i., p. 6. Horoy, _Honorii opera_, t.
ii., col. 684.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIII
ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS
The Egyptian Mission. Summer 1218-Autumn 1220
Art and poetry have done well in inseparably associating St. Dominic and
St. Francis; the glory of the first is only a reflection of that of the
second, and it is in placing them side by side that we succeed best in
understanding the genius of the Poverello. If Francis is the man of
inspiration, Dominic is that of obedience to orders; one may say that
his life was passed on the road to Rome, whither he continually went to
ask for instructions. His legend was therefore very slow to be formed,
although nothing forbade it to blossom freely; but neither the zeal of
Gregory IX. for his memory nor the learning of his disciples were able
to do for the _Hammer of heretics_ that which the love of the people did
for the _Father of the poor_. His legend has the two defects which so
soon weary the readers of hagiographical writings, when the question is
of the saints whose worship the Church has commanded.[1] It is
encumbered with a spurious supernaturalism, and with incidents borrowed
right and left from earlier legends. The Italian people, who hailed in
Francis the angel of all their hopes, and who showed themselves so
greedy for his relics, did not so much as dream of taking up the corpse
of the founder of the Order of Preaching Friars, and allowed him to wait
twelve years for the glories of canonization.[2]
We have already seen the efforts of Cardinal Ugolini to unite the two
Orders, and the reasons he had for this course. He went to the
Whitsunday chapter-general which met at Portiuncula (June 3, 1218), to
which came also St. Dominic with several of his disciples. The
ceremonial of these solemnities appears to have been always about the
same since 1216; the Brothers Minor went in procession to meet the
cardinal, who immediately dismounted from his horse and lavished
expressions of affection upon them. An altar was set up in the open air,
at which he said mass, Francis performing the functions of deacon.[3]
It is easy to imagine the emotion which overcame those present when in
its beautiful setting of the Umbrian landscape burst forth that part of
the Pentecostal service, that most exciting, the most apocalyptic of the
whole Catholic liturgy, the anthem _Alleluia, Alleluia, Emitte Spiritum
tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae_. _Alleluia_,[4] does
not this include the whole Franciscan dream?
But what especially amazed Dominic was the absence of material cares.
Francis had advised his brethren not to disquiet themselves in any
respect about food and drink; he knew by experience that they might
fearlessly trust all that to the love of the neighboring population.
This want of carefulness had greatly surprised Dominic, who thought it
exaggerated; he was able to reassure himself, when meal-time arrived, by
seeing the inhabitants of the district hastening in crowds to bring far
larger supplies of provisions than were needed for the several thousands
of friars, and holding it an honor to wait upon them.
The joy of the Franciscans, the sympathy of the populace with them, the
poverty of the huts of Portiuncula, all this impressed him deeply; so
much was he moved by it that in a burst of enthusiasm he announced his
resolution to embrace gospel poverty.[5]
Ugolini, though also moved, even to tears,[6] did not forget his
former anxieties; the Order was too numerous not to include a group of
malcontents; a few friars who before their conversion had studied in the
universities began to condemn the extreme simplicity laid upon them as a
duty. To men no longer sustained by enthusiasm the short precepts of the
Rule appeared a charter all too insufficient for a vast association;
they turned with envy toward the monumental abbeys of the Benedictines,
the regular Canons, the Cistercians, and toward the ancient monastic
legislations. They had no difficulty in perceiving in Ugolini a powerful
ally, nor in confiding their observations to him.
The latter deemed the propitious moment arrived, and in a private
conversation with Francis made a few suggestions: Ought he not give to
his disciples, especially to the educated among them, a greater share of
the burdens? consult them, gain inspiration from their views? was there
not room to profit by the experience of the older orders? Though all
this was said casually and with the greatest possible tact, Francis felt
himself wounded to the quick, and without answering he drew the cardinal
to the very midst of the chapter.
"My brothers," said he with fire, "the Lord has called me into the ways
of simplicity and humility. In them he has shown me the truth for myself
and for those who desire to believe and follow me; do not, then, come
speaking to me of the Rule of St. Benedict, of St. Augustine, of St.
Bernard, or of any other, but solely of that which God in his mercy has
seen fit to show to me, and of which he has told me that he would, by
its means, make a new covenant with the world, and he does not will that
we should have any other. But by your learning and your wisdom God will
bring you to confusion. For I am persuaded that God will chastise you;
whether you will or no you will be forced to come to repentance, and
nothing will remain for you but confusion."[7]
This warmth in defending and affirming his ideas profoundly astonished
Ugolini, who added not a word. As to Dominic, what he had just seen at
Portiuncula was to him a revelation. He felt, indeed, that his zeal for
the Church could not be greater, but he also perceived that he could
serve her with more success by certain changes in his weapons.
Ugolini no doubt only encouraged him in this view, and Dominic, beset
with new anxieties, set out a few months later for Spain. The intensity
of the crisis through which he passed has not been sufficiently
noticed; the religious writers recount at length his sojourn in the
grotto of Segovia, but they see only the ascetic practices, the prayers,
the genuflexions, and do not think of looking for the cause of all this.
From this epoch it might be said that he was unceasingly occupied in
copying Francis, if the word had not a somewhat displeasing sense.
Arrived at Segovia he follows the example of the Brothers Minor, founds
a hermitage in the outskirts of the city, hidden among the rocks which
overlook the town, and thence he descends from time to time to preach to
the people. The transformation in his mode of life was so evident that
several of his companions rebelled and refused to follow him in the new
way.
Popular sentiment has at times its intuitions; a legend grew up around
this grotto of Segovia, and it was said that St. Dominic there received
the stigmata. Is there not here an unconscious effort to translate into
an image within the comprehension of all, that which actually took place
in this cave of the Sierra da Guaderrama?[8]
Thus St. Dominic also arrived at the poverty of the gospel, but the road
by which he reached it was different indeed from that which St. Francis
had followed; while the latter had soared to it as on wings, had seen in
it the final emancipation from all the anxieties which debase this life,
St. Dominic considered it only as a means; it was for him one more
weapon in the arsenal of the host charged with the defence of the
Church. We must not see in this a mere vulgar calculation; his
admiration for him whom he thus imitated and followed afar off was
sincere and profound, but genius is not to be copied. This sacred malady
was not his; he has transmitted to his sons a sound and robust blood,
thanks to which they have known nothing of those paroxysms of hot
fever, those lofty flights, those sudden returns which make the story
of the Franciscans the story of the most tempest-tossed society which
the world has ever known, in which glorious chapters are mingled with
pages trivial and grotesque, sometimes even coarse.
At the chapter of 1218 Francis had other causes for sadness than the
murmurs of a group of malcontents; the missionaries sent out the year
before to Germany and Hungary had returned completely discouraged. The
account of the sufferings they had endured produced so great an effect
that from that time many of the friars added to their prayers the
formula: "Lord preserve us from the heresy of the Lombards and the
ferocity of the Germans."[9]
This explains how Ugolini at last succeeded in convincing Francis of his
duty to take the necessary measures no longer to expose the friars to be
hunted down as heretics. It was decided that at the end of the next
chapter the missionaries should be armed with a papal brief, which
should serve them as ecclesiastical passport. Here is the translation of
this document:
Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the
archbishops, bishops, abbots, deacons, archdeacons, and other
ecclesiastical superiors, salutation and the apostolic blessing.
Our dear son, brother Francis, and his companions of the life
and the Order of the Brothers Minor, having renounced the
vanities of this world to choose a mode of life which has
merited the approval of the Roman Church, and to go out after
the example of the Apostles to cast in various regions the seed
of the word of God, we pray and exhort you by these apostolic
letters to receive as good catholics the friars of the above
mentioned society, bearers of these presents, warning you to be
favorable to them and treat them with kindness for the honor of
God and out of consideration for us.
Given (at Rieti) this third day of the ides of June (June 11,
1219), in the third year of our pontificate.[10]
It is evident that this bull was calculated to avoid awakening Francis's
susceptibilities. To understand precisely in what it differs from the
first letters usually accredited to new Orders it is necessary to
compare it with them; that which had instituted the Dominicans had been,
like the others, a veritable privilege;[11] here there is nothing of
the kind.
The assembly which was opened at Whitsunday of 1219 (May 26) was of
extreme importance.[12] It closed the series of those primitive
chapters in which the inspiration and fancy of Francis were given free
course. Those which followed, presided over by the vicars, have neither
the same cheerfulness nor the same charm; the crude glare of full day
has driven away the hues of dawn and the indescribable ardors of nature
at its awakening.
The summer of 1219 was the epoch fixed by Honorius III. for making a new
effort in the East, and directing upon Egypt all the forces of the
Crusaders.[13] Francis thought the moment arrived for realizing the
project which he had not been able to execute in 1212. Strangely enough,
Ugolini who, two years before had hindered his going to France, now left
him in entire liberty to carry out this new expedition.[14] Several
authors have deemed that Francis, having found in him a true protector,
felt himself reassured as to the future of the Order; he might indeed
have thought thus, but the history of the troubles which burst out
immediately after his departure, the astounding story of the kind
reception given by the court of Rome to some meddlers who took the
opportunity of his absence to imperil his Order, would suffice to show
how much the Church was embarrassed by him, and with what ardor she
longed for the transformation of his work. We shall find later on the