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Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Paul Sabatier

important manuscript resembles that of the Vatican 4354. There are two at the Mazarin Library, 904 and 1350, dated 1459 and 1460, one at Berlin (MS. theol. lat., 4to, no. 196 saec. 14). Vide Ehrle, _Zeitschrift_. t. vii. (1883), p. 392f; _Analecta fr._, t. i., p. xi.; _Miscellanea_, 1888, pp. 119. 164. Cf. A. SS., pp. 550-552. The chapters are numbered in the first 72 folios only, but these numbers teem with errors; fo. 38b. caput lix., 40b, lix., 41b, lxi. ibid., lxii., 42a, lx., 43a, lxi. Besides at fos. 46b and 47b there are two chapters lxvi. There are two lxxi., two lxxii., two lxxiii., etc. [46] For example, the history of the brigands of Monte-Casale, fos. 46b, and 58b. The remarks of Brother Elias to Francis, who is continually singing, 136b and 137a. The visit of Giacomina di Settesoli, 133a and 138a. The autograph benediction given to Brother Leo, 87a; 188a. [47] At fo. 20b we read: _Tertium capitulam de charitate et compassione et condescensione ad proximum. Capitulum_ xxvi. Cf. 26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are similar indications. [48] Fo. 5b: _Incipit Speculum vitae b. Francesci et sociorum ejus_. Fo. 7b; _Incipit Speculum perfectionis_. [49] We should search for it in vain in the other pieces of the Speculum, and it reappears in the fragments of Brother Leo cited by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno. [50] Fo. 8b, 11a, 12a, 15a, 18b, 21b, 23b, 26a, 29a, 33b, 43b, 41a, 48b, 118a, 129a, 130a, 134a, 135a, 136a. [51] Does not Thomas de Celano say in the prologue of the Second Life: "_Oramus ergo, benignissime pater, ut laboris hujus non contemnenda munuscula ... vestra benedictione consecrare velitis, corrigendo errata et superflua resecantes_." [52] The legend of 3 Soc. was preserved in the Convent of Assisi: "_Omnia ... fuerunt conscripta ... per Leonem, ... in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio_." Ubertini, _Archiv._, iii., p. 168. Later, Brother Leo seems to have gone more into detail as to certain facts; he confided these new manuscripts to the Clarisses: "_In rotulis ejus quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem fratres Leonis conscriptis_," ibid. Cf. p. 178. "_Quod sequitur a sancto fratre Conrado predicto et viva voce audivit a sancto fratre Leone qui presens erat et regulam scripsit. Et hoc ipsum in quibusdam rotulis manu sua conscriptis quos commendavit in monasterio S. Clarae custodiendos.... In illis multa scripsit ... quae industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulae publice monstrabatur et nolebat fratres ante tempus in famare._" _Arbor._, lib. v., cap 5. Cf. _Antiquitates_, p. 146. Cf. _Speculum_, 50b. "_Infra scripta verba, frater Leo socius et Confessor B. Francisci, Conrado de Offida, dicebat se habuisse ex ore Beati Patris nostri Francisci, quae idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum Damianum prope Assisium._" Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both the book of Brother Leo and his _rotuli_; he added to it certain oral information (_Arbor, vit. cruc._, lib. v., cap. 3), and so perhaps composed the collection so often cited by the Conformists under the title of _Legenda Antiqua_ and reproduced in part in the Speculum. The numbering of the chapters, which the Speculum has awkwardly inserted without noting that they were not in accord with his own division, were vestiges of the division adopted by Conrad di Offida. It may well be that, after the interdiction of his book and its confiscation at the Sacro Convento, Brother Leo repeated in his _rotuli_ a large part of the facts already made, so that the same incident, while coming solely from Brother Leo, could be presented under two different forms, according as it would be copied from the book or the _rotuli_. [53] Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the Simple, and Speculum, f^o 37a. From the account of Thomas de Celano, one does not understand what drew John to St. Francis; in the Speculum everything is explained, but Celano has not dared to depict Francis going about preaching with a broom upon his shoulder to sweep the dirty churches. [54] It was published for the first time at Rome, in 1806, by Father Rinaldi, following upon the First Life (vide above, p. 365, note 2), and restored in 1880 by Abbe Amoni: _Vita secunda S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus discipulo. Romae, tipografia della pace_, 1880, 8vo, 152 pp. The citations are from this last edition, which I collated at Assisi with the most important of the rare manuscripts at present known: Archives of Sacro Convento, MS. 686, on parchment of the end of the thirteenth century, if I do not mistake, 130 millim. by 142; 102 numbered pages. Except for the fact that the book is divided into two parts instead of three, the last two forming only one, I have not found that it noticeably differs from the text published by Amoni; the chapters are divided only by a paragraph and a red letter, but they have in the table which occupies the first seven pages of the volume the same titles as in the edition Amoni. This Second Life escaped the researches of the Bollandists. It is impossible to explain how these students ignored the worth of the manuscript which Father Theobaldi, keeper of the records of Assisi, mentioned to them, and of which he offered them a copy (A. SS., _Oct._, t. ii., p. 546f). Father Suysken was thus thrown into inextricable difficulties, and exposed to a failure to understand the lists of biographies of St. Francis arranged by the annalists of the Order; he was at the same time deprived of one of the most fruitful sources of information upon the acts and works of the Saint. Professor Mueller (_Die Anfaenge_, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me narrow and extreme. Cf. _Analecta_ fr., t. ii., pp. xvii.-xx. Father Ehrle mentions two manuscripts, one in the British Museum, Harl., 47; the other at Oxford, Christ College, cod. 202. _Zeitschrift_, 1883, p. 390. [55] The Three Companions foresee the possibility of their legend being incorporated with other documents: _quibus (legendis) haec pauca quae scribimus poleritis facere inseri, si vestra discretio viderit esse justum._ 3 Soc., Prol. [56] One phrase of the Prologue (2 Cel.) shows that the author received an entirely special commission: _Placuit ... robis ... parvitati nostrae injungere_, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered them: _Cum de mandato proeteriti capituli fratres teneantur ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestrae intimare._ 3 Soc., Prol. [57] Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel. [58] _Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium supernae vocationis attigerit_. 2 Cel., 1, 10. [59] This first part corresponds exactly to that portion of the legend of the 3 Soc., which Crescentius had authorized. [60] Observe that the Assisi MS. 686 divides the Second Life into two parts only by joining the last two. [61] Salimbeni, ann. 1248. [62] Glassberger, ann. 1253. _An. fr._ t. ii., p. 73. _Frater Johannes de Parma minister generalis, multiplicatis litteris praecipit fr. Thomae de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati Francisci quae antiqua Legenda dicitur perficeret, quia solum de ejus conversatione et verbis in primo tractatu, de mandato, Fr. Crescentii olim generalis compilato, ommissis miraculis fecerat mentionem, et sic secundum tractatum de miraculis sancti Patris compilavit, quem cum epistola quae incipit: Religiosa vestra sollicitudo eidem generali misit_. This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify it, as M. Mueller suggests (_Anfaenge_, p. 177), with the second part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life: 1^o, epistle _Religiosa vestra sollicitudo_ does not have it; 2^o, this second part is not a collection of miracles, using this word in the sense of miraculous cures which it had in the thirteenth century. The twenty-two chapters of this second part have a marked unity; they might be entitled _Francis a prophet_, but not _Francis a thaumaturgus_. [63] In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.) _Insignia patrum_ the author speaks in the singular, while the Epilogue is written in the name of a group of disciples. [64] Greccio, 2 Cel., 2, 5; 14; 3, 7; 10; 103.--Rieti, 2 Cel., 2, 10; 11; 12; 13; 3, 36; 37; 66; 103. [65] St. Francis gives him an autograph, 2 Cel., 2, 18. Cf. _Fior._ ii. _consid._; his tunic, 2 Cel., 2, 19; he predicts to him a famine, 2 Cel., 2, 21; cf. _Conform._, 49b. Fr. Leo ill at Bologna, 2 Cel., 3, 5. [66] The text of Ubertini di Casali may be found in the _Archiv._, t. iii., pp. 53, 75, 76, 85, 168, 178, where Father Ehrle points out the corresponding passages of 2 Cel. [67] It is the subject of thirty-seven narratives (1, 2 Cel., 3, 1-37), then come examples on the spirit of prayer (2 Cel., 3, 38-44), the temptations (2 Cel., 3, 58-64), true happiness (2 Cel., 3, 64-79), humility (2 Cel., 3, 79-87), submission (2 Cel., 3, 88, 91), etc. [68] Le Monnier, t. i., p. xi.; F. Barnabe, _Portiuncula_, p. 15. Cf. _Analecta fr._, t. ii., p. xxi. _Zeitschrift fuer kath. Theol._, vii. (1883), p. 397. [69] _Il piu antico poema della vita di S. Francisco d'Assisi scritto inanzi all' anno 1230 ora per la prima volta pubblicato et tradotto da Antonio Cristofani_, Prato, 1882, 1 vol., 8vo. 288 pp. [70] Note, however, two articles of the Miscellanea, one on the manuscript of this biography which is found in the library at Versailles, t. iv. (1889), p. 34 ff.; the other on the author of the poem, t. v. (1890), pp. 2-4 and 74 ff. [71] See below, p. 410. [72] Vide Glassberger, ann. 1244; _Analecta_, t. ii., p. 68. Cf. A. SS., p. 545 ff. [73] Manuscript in the Library of Turin, J. vi., 33, f^o 95a. [74] _Plenam virtutibus S. Francisci vitam scripsit in Italia ... frater Thomas ... in Francia vero frater Julianus scientia et sanctitate conspicuus qui etiam nocturnali sancti officium in littera et cantu possuit praeter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti praeconium ediderunt._ Opening of the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of Besse. See below, p. 413. Laur. MS., f^o 95a. Cf. Giord., 53; _Conform._, 75b. [75] In proof of this is the circular letter, _Licet insufficentiam nostram_, addressed by Bonaventura, April 23, 1257, immediately after his election, to the provincials and custodes upon the reformation of the Order. Text: _Speculum_, Morin, tract. iii., f^o 213a.