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Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Paul Sabatier

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. Mariae 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 Abbe 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, moegen theilweise aecht sein. Aber sie tragen kaum etwas zur naeheren Kenntniss bei und koennen daher fast ganz ausser Acht bleiben_." Mueller, _Die Anfaenge 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: "_Praedixerat 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 Clarae et sororibus ad consolationem litteram in qua dabat benedictionem suam et absolvebat_," etc. _Conform._, f^o. 185a, 1; cf. _Test. B. Clarae_. 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, archaeologists, 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. Sanctissimae 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.