It happened one time that the Brothers were serving the lepers and the sick in a hospital, near to the place where St. Francis was. Among them was a leper who was so impatient, so cross-grained, so unendurable, that everyone believed him to bepossessed by the devil, and rightly enough, for he heaped insults and blows upon those who waited upon him, and what was worse, he continually insulted and blasphemed the blessed Christ and his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, so that there was no longer anyone who could or would wait upon him. The Brothers would willingly have endured the insults and abuse which he lavished upon them, in order to augment the merit of their patience, but their souls could not consent to hear those which he uttered against Christ and his Mother. They therefore resolved to abandon this leper, but not without having told the whole story exactly to St. Francis, who at that time was dwelling not far away.When they told him St. Francis betook himself to the wicked leper; "May God give thee peace, my most dear brother," he said to him as he drew near."And what peace," asked the leper, "can I receive from God, who has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my body a mass of stinking and corruption?"St. Francis said to him: "My brother, be patient, for God gives us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great merit to us.""How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and do not take care of me as they ought."Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to pray for him. Then returning he said to him: "My son, since you are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you.""That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than they?""I will do whatever you wish.""Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell so badly that I disgust myself."Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his might: "Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for myimpatience and my blasphemies."
It happened one time that the Brothers were serving the lepers and the sick in a hospital, near to the place where St. Francis was. Among them was a leper who was so impatient, so cross-grained, so unendurable, that everyone believed him to bepossessed by the devil, and rightly enough, for he heaped insults and blows upon those who waited upon him, and what was worse, he continually insulted and blasphemed the blessed Christ and his most holy Mother the Virgin Mary, so that there was no longer anyone who could or would wait upon him. The Brothers would willingly have endured the insults and abuse which he lavished upon them, in order to augment the merit of their patience, but their souls could not consent to hear those which he uttered against Christ and his Mother. They therefore resolved to abandon this leper, but not without having told the whole story exactly to St. Francis, who at that time was dwelling not far away.
When they told him St. Francis betook himself to the wicked leper; "May God give thee peace, my most dear brother," he said to him as he drew near.
"And what peace," asked the leper, "can I receive from God, who has taken away my peace and every good thing, and has made my body a mass of stinking and corruption?"
St. Francis said to him: "My brother, be patient, for God gives us diseases in this world for the salvation of our souls, and when we endure them patiently they are the fountain of great merit to us."
"How can I endure patiently continual pains which torture me day and night? And it is not only my disease that I suffer from, but the friars that you gave me to wait upon me are unendurable, and do not take care of me as they ought."
Then St. Francis perceived that this leper was possessed by the spirit of evil, and he betook himself to his knees in order to pray for him. Then returning he said to him: "My son, since you are not satisfied with the others, I will wait upon you."
"That is all very well, but what can you do for me more than they?"
"I will do whatever you wish."
"Very well; I wish you to wash me from head to foot, for I smell so badly that I disgust myself."
Then St. Francis made haste to heat some water with many sweet-smelling herbs; next he took off the leper's clothes and began to bathe him, while a Brother poured out the water. And behold, by a divine miracle, wherever St. Francis touched him with his holy hands the leprosy disappeared and the flesh became perfectly sound. And in proportion as the flesh was healed the soul of the wretched man was also healed, and he began to feel a lively sorrow for his sins, and to weep bitterly.... And being completely healed both in body and soul, he cried with all his might: "Woe unto me, for I have deserved hell for the abuses and outrages which I have said and done to the Brothers, for myimpatience and my blasphemies."
One day, Brother John, whose simplicity we have already seen, and who had been especially put in charge of a certain leper, took him for a walk to Portiuncula, as if he had not been the victim of a contagious malady. Reproaches were not spared him; the leper heard them and could not hide his sadness and distress; it seemed to him like being a second time banished from the world. Francis was quick to remark all this and to feel sharp remorse for it; the thought of having saddened one ofGod's patientswas unendurable; he not only begged his pardon, but he caused food to be served, and sitting down beside him he shared his repast, eating from the same porringer.40We see with what perseverance he pursued by every means the realization of his ideal.
The details just given show the Umbrian movement, as it appears to me, to be one of the most humble and at the same time the most sincere and practical attempts to realize the kingdom of God on earth. How far removed we are here from the superstitious vulgarity of the mechanical devotion, the deceitful miracle-working of certain Catholics; how far also from the commonplace, complacent, quibbling, theorizing Christianity of certain Protestants!
Francis is of the race of mystics, for no intermediary comes between God and his soul; but his mysticism is that of Jesus leading his disciples to the Tabor of contemplation; but when, overflooded with joy, they long to build tabernacles that they may remain on the heights and satiate themselves with the raptures of ecstasy, "Fools," he says to them, "ye know not what ye ask," and directing their gaze to the crowds wandering like sheep having no shepherd, he leads them back to theplain, to the midst of those who moan, who suffer, who blaspheme.
The higher the moral stature of Francis the more he was exposed to the danger of being understood only by the very few, and disappointed by those who were nearest to him. Reading the Franciscan authors, one feels every moment how the radiant beauty of the model is marred by the awkwardness of the disciple. It could not have been otherwise, and this difference between this master and the companions is evident from the very beginnings of the Order. The greater number of the biographers have drawn the veil of oblivion over the difficulties created by certain Brothers as well as those which came from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by this almost universal silence.
Here and there we find indications all the more precious for being, so to say, involuntary. Brother Rufino, for example, the same who was destined to become one of the intimates of Francis's later days, assumed an attitude of revolt shortly after his entrance into the Order. He thought it foolish in Francis when, instead of leaving the friars to give themselves unceasingly to prayer, he sent them out in all directions to wait upon lepers.41His own ideal was the life of the hermits of the Thebaïde, as it is related in the then popular legends of St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Paconius, and twenty others. He once passed Lent in one of the grottos of the Carceri. Holy Thursday having arrived, Francis, who was also there, summoned all the brethren who were dispersed about the neighborhood, whether in grottos or huts, to observe with him the memories to which this day was consecrated. Rufino refused to come; "For that matter," he added, "I have decided to follow him no longer;I mean to remain here and live solitary, for in this way I shall be more surely saved than by submitting myself to this man and his nonsense."
Young and enthusiastic for the most part, it was not always without difficulty that the Brothers formed the habit of keeping their work in the background. Agreeing with their master as to fundamentals, they would have liked to make more of a stir, attract public attention by more obvious devotion; there were some among them whom it did not satisfy to be saints, but who also wished to appear such.
FOOTNOTES1.1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55.2.3 Soc., 56;Spec., 32b;Conform., 217b, 1;Fior. Bibl. Angel., Amoni, p. 378.3.This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41.4.Vide Angelo Clareno,Tribul.cod. Laur., 3b.5.2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite textually 97 as coming from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 64b.—2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf.Conform., 171a, 1;Spec., 19b. See especially Rule of 1221,cap.7; Rule of 1223,cap.5; the Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage,liceat eis habere ferramenta et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria, sufficiently proves that certain friars had real trades.6.A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248;Fior. Vita d'Egidio;Spec., 158 ff;Conform., 53-60.7.Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall here his sally: "The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she is what she is!" A. SS.,loc. cit., p. 234.8.The passage of the Will,firmiter volo quod omnes laborent, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39;Conform., 219b. 1:Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei.Spec., 34; 69. Vide alsoArchiv., t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2 Cel., 1, 12.9.Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset in Domino possidere.B. de Besse, 102a.10.Their concord and their joyous semblancesThe love, the wonder and the sweet regardThey made to be the cause of holy thought.Dante: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.11.Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad horam patitur non esse muritus.2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35; 51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87;Fior.13.12.Bon., 93.—Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quæ debebat dare fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino.Spec., 15.13.2 Cel., 3, 50.14.Cap., 21. Cf.Fior., I. consid., 18; 30;Conform., 103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Müller,Anfänge, p. 187.15.Vide hisOpera omnia postillis illustrata, by Father de la Haye, 1739, fo. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliothèque Nationale gives one which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of Paris:Saint Antoine de Padone, sa légende primitive, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Prés, 1890, 1 vol., 8vo. Cf.Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii sæculo xiii concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniæ bibliothecæa P.M. Antonio Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo.16.This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25; 34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93.17.Spec., 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128.18.The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle,Archiv., iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from northern countries which has especially changed it in this matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that laymen should be excluded from all charges;laicos ad officia inhabilitavit, quæ usque tunc ut clerici exercebant. (Chron.xxiv.gen.cod. Gadd. relig., 53, fo110a). Among the early Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain all the cases. There were also with certain of them revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that of the priests:Fior., 27.Frate Pellegrino non volle mai andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto litterato e grande decretalista.Cf.Conform., 71a., 2.Fr. Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium cogeretur.Conform., 124b, 2.19.See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo. Cf.Conform., 53b, 2.Fratri Egidio dedit licentiam liberam ut iret quocumque vellet et staret ubicumque sibi placeret.20.The hermitage of Monte-Casale, at two hours walk northeast from Borgo San Sepolero, still exists in its original state. It is one of the most significant and curious of the Franciscan deserts.21.The office of guardian (superior of a monastery) naturally dates from the time when the Brothers stationed themselves in small groups in the villages of Umbria—that is to say, most probably from the year 1211. A few years later the monasteries were united to form a custodia. Finally, about 1215, Central Italy was divided unto a certain number of provinces with provincial ministers at their head. All this was done little by little, for Francis never permitted himself to regulate what did not yet exist.22.Fior., 26; Conform., 119b, 1. Cf. Rule of 1221, cap. vii.Quicumque ad eos (fratres) venerint, amicus vel adversarius, fur vel latro benigne recipiatur.23.2 Cel., 3, 120;Spec., 37;Conform., 53a, 1. See below, p. 385,n. 1.24.Fior., Vita di fra Ginepro;Spec., 174-182;Conform., 62b.25.A. SS., p. 600.26.3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 13; Bon., 24.27.Bon., 30; 3 Soc., 30, 31; 2 Cel., 3, 52. Cf.Fior., 2. The dragon of this dream perhaps symbolizes heresy.28.Bon., 83; 172;Fior., 1, 16;Conform., 49a, 1, and 110b, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 51.29.Bernard de Besse,De laudibus, Turin MS., fo. 102b and 96a. He died November 15, 1271. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 221.30.Fior., 8;Spec., 89b ff.;Conform., 30b, 2, and 140a, 2.31.I need not here point out the analogy in form between this chapter and St. Paul's celebrated song of love, 1 Cor. xiii.32.We find the same thoughts in nearly the same terms incap.v. of theVerba sacræ admonitionis.33.He is the second of the Three Companions. 3 Soc., 1; cf. 1 Cel., 95;Fior., 1; 29, 30, 31; Eccleston, 12;Spec., 110a-114b;Conform., 51b ff.; cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4.34.Very probably that of the Carceri, though the name is not indicated Vide 3 Soc., 1;Fior., 4; 10; 11; 12; 13; 16; 27; 32;Conform., 51b, 1 ff;Tribul. Archiv., t. ii., p. 263.35.Fior., 11;Conform., 50b, 2;Spec., 104a.36.Rule of 1221, chap. 7.Omnes fratres, in quibuscumque locis fuerint apud aliquos ad serviendum, vel ad laborandum, non sint camerarii, nec cellarii, nec præsint in domibus corum quibus serviunt.Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 40; A. SS., p. 606.37.1 Cel., 103; 39;Spec., 28; Reg. 1221, ix.;Giord., 33 and 39.38.VideSpec., 34b.;Fior., 4.39.All the details of this story lead me to think that it refers to Portiuncula and the hospitalSan Salvatore delle Pareti. The story is given by theConform., 174b, 2, as taken from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 56b;Fior., 25.40.In theSpeculum, fo41a, this story ends with the phrase:Qui vidit hæc scripsit et testimonium perhibet de hiis. The brother is here calledFrater Jacobus simplex. Cf.Conform., 174b.41.Conform., 51b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4;Spec., 110b;Fior., 29.
1.1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55.2.3 Soc., 56;Spec., 32b;Conform., 217b, 1;Fior. Bibl. Angel., Amoni, p. 378.3.This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41.4.Vide Angelo Clareno,Tribul.cod. Laur., 3b.5.2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite textually 97 as coming from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 64b.—2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf.Conform., 171a, 1;Spec., 19b. See especially Rule of 1221,cap.7; Rule of 1223,cap.5; the Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage,liceat eis habere ferramenta et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria, sufficiently proves that certain friars had real trades.6.A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248;Fior. Vita d'Egidio;Spec., 158 ff;Conform., 53-60.7.Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall here his sally: "The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she is what she is!" A. SS.,loc. cit., p. 234.8.The passage of the Will,firmiter volo quod omnes laborent, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39;Conform., 219b. 1:Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei.Spec., 34; 69. Vide alsoArchiv., t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2 Cel., 1, 12.9.Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset in Domino possidere.B. de Besse, 102a.10.Their concord and their joyous semblancesThe love, the wonder and the sweet regardThey made to be the cause of holy thought.Dante: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.11.Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad horam patitur non esse muritus.2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35; 51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87;Fior.13.12.Bon., 93.—Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quæ debebat dare fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino.Spec., 15.13.2 Cel., 3, 50.14.Cap., 21. Cf.Fior., I. consid., 18; 30;Conform., 103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Müller,Anfänge, p. 187.15.Vide hisOpera omnia postillis illustrata, by Father de la Haye, 1739, fo. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliothèque Nationale gives one which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of Paris:Saint Antoine de Padone, sa légende primitive, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Prés, 1890, 1 vol., 8vo. Cf.Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii sæculo xiii concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniæ bibliothecæa P.M. Antonio Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo.16.This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25; 34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93.17.Spec., 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128.18.The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle,Archiv., iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from northern countries which has especially changed it in this matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that laymen should be excluded from all charges;laicos ad officia inhabilitavit, quæ usque tunc ut clerici exercebant. (Chron.xxiv.gen.cod. Gadd. relig., 53, fo110a). Among the early Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain all the cases. There were also with certain of them revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that of the priests:Fior., 27.Frate Pellegrino non volle mai andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto litterato e grande decretalista.Cf.Conform., 71a., 2.Fr. Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium cogeretur.Conform., 124b, 2.19.See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo. Cf.Conform., 53b, 2.Fratri Egidio dedit licentiam liberam ut iret quocumque vellet et staret ubicumque sibi placeret.20.The hermitage of Monte-Casale, at two hours walk northeast from Borgo San Sepolero, still exists in its original state. It is one of the most significant and curious of the Franciscan deserts.21.The office of guardian (superior of a monastery) naturally dates from the time when the Brothers stationed themselves in small groups in the villages of Umbria—that is to say, most probably from the year 1211. A few years later the monasteries were united to form a custodia. Finally, about 1215, Central Italy was divided unto a certain number of provinces with provincial ministers at their head. All this was done little by little, for Francis never permitted himself to regulate what did not yet exist.22.Fior., 26; Conform., 119b, 1. Cf. Rule of 1221, cap. vii.Quicumque ad eos (fratres) venerint, amicus vel adversarius, fur vel latro benigne recipiatur.23.2 Cel., 3, 120;Spec., 37;Conform., 53a, 1. See below, p. 385,n. 1.24.Fior., Vita di fra Ginepro;Spec., 174-182;Conform., 62b.25.A. SS., p. 600.26.3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 13; Bon., 24.27.Bon., 30; 3 Soc., 30, 31; 2 Cel., 3, 52. Cf.Fior., 2. The dragon of this dream perhaps symbolizes heresy.28.Bon., 83; 172;Fior., 1, 16;Conform., 49a, 1, and 110b, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 51.29.Bernard de Besse,De laudibus, Turin MS., fo. 102b and 96a. He died November 15, 1271. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 221.30.Fior., 8;Spec., 89b ff.;Conform., 30b, 2, and 140a, 2.31.I need not here point out the analogy in form between this chapter and St. Paul's celebrated song of love, 1 Cor. xiii.32.We find the same thoughts in nearly the same terms incap.v. of theVerba sacræ admonitionis.33.He is the second of the Three Companions. 3 Soc., 1; cf. 1 Cel., 95;Fior., 1; 29, 30, 31; Eccleston, 12;Spec., 110a-114b;Conform., 51b ff.; cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4.34.Very probably that of the Carceri, though the name is not indicated Vide 3 Soc., 1;Fior., 4; 10; 11; 12; 13; 16; 27; 32;Conform., 51b, 1 ff;Tribul. Archiv., t. ii., p. 263.35.Fior., 11;Conform., 50b, 2;Spec., 104a.36.Rule of 1221, chap. 7.Omnes fratres, in quibuscumque locis fuerint apud aliquos ad serviendum, vel ad laborandum, non sint camerarii, nec cellarii, nec præsint in domibus corum quibus serviunt.Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 40; A. SS., p. 606.37.1 Cel., 103; 39;Spec., 28; Reg. 1221, ix.;Giord., 33 and 39.38.VideSpec., 34b.;Fior., 4.39.All the details of this story lead me to think that it refers to Portiuncula and the hospitalSan Salvatore delle Pareti. The story is given by theConform., 174b, 2, as taken from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 56b;Fior., 25.40.In theSpeculum, fo41a, this story ends with the phrase:Qui vidit hæc scripsit et testimonium perhibet de hiis. The brother is here calledFrater Jacobus simplex. Cf.Conform., 174b.41.Conform., 51b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4;Spec., 110b;Fior., 29.
1.1 Cel., 44; 3 Soc., 55.
2.3 Soc., 56;Spec., 32b;Conform., 217b, 1;Fior. Bibl. Angel., Amoni, p. 378.
3.This forest has disappeared. Some of Francis's counsels have been collected in the Admonitions. See 1 Cel., 37-41.
4.Vide Angelo Clareno,Tribul.cod. Laur., 3b.
5.2 Cel., 3, 97 and 98. The Conformities, 142a, 1, cite textually 97 as coming from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 64b.—2 Cel., 3, 21. Cf.Conform., 171a, 1;Spec., 19b. See especially Rule of 1221,cap.7; Rule of 1223,cap.5; the Will and 3 Soc. 41. The passage,liceat eis habere ferramenta et instrumenta suis artibus necessaria, sufficiently proves that certain friars had real trades.
6.A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., pp. 220-248;Fior. Vita d'Egidio;Spec., 158 ff;Conform., 53-60.
7.Other examples will be found below; it may suffice to recall here his sally: "The glorious Virgin Mother of God had sinners for parents, she never entered any religious order, and yet she is what she is!" A. SS.,loc. cit., p. 234.
8.The passage of the Will,firmiter volo quod omnes laborent, ... has a capital importance because it shows Francis renewing in the most solemn manner injunctions already made from the origin of the Order. Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 39;Conform., 219b. 1:Juvabant Fratres pauperes homines in agris eorum et ipsi dabant postea eis de pane amore Dei.Spec., 34; 69. Vide alsoArchiv., t. ii., pp. 272 and 299; Eccleston, 1 and 15; 2 Cel., 1, 12.
9.Nihil volebat proprietatis habere ut omnia plenius posset in Domino possidere.B. de Besse, 102a.
10.
Their concord and their joyous semblancesThe love, the wonder and the sweet regardThey made to be the cause of holy thought.Dante: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.
Their concord and their joyous semblancesThe love, the wonder and the sweet regardThey made to be the cause of holy thought.Dante: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.
Their concord and their joyous semblancesThe love, the wonder and the sweet regardThey made to be the cause of holy thought.
Dante: Paradiso, canto xi., verses 76-78. Longfellow's translation.
11.Amor factus ... castis eam, stringit amplexibus nec ad horam patitur non esse muritus.2 Cel., 3, 1; cf. 1 Cel., 35; 51; 75; 2 Cel., 3, 128; 3 Soc., 15; 22; 33; 35; 50; Bon., 87;Fior.13.
12.Bon., 93.—Prohibuit fratrem qui faciebat coquinam ne poneret legumina de sero in aqua calida quæ debebat dare fratribus ad manducandum die sequenti ut observaverint illud verbum Evangelii: Nolite solliciti esse de crastino.Spec., 15.
13.2 Cel., 3, 50.
14.Cap., 21. Cf.Fior., I. consid., 18; 30;Conform., 103a, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 99; 100; 121. Vide Müller,Anfänge, p. 187.
15.Vide hisOpera omnia postillis illustrata, by Father de la Haye, 1739, fo. For his life, Surius and Wadding arranged and mutilated the sources to which they had access; the Bollandists had only a legend of the fifteenth century. The Latin manuscript 14,363 of the Bibliothèque Nationale gives one which dates from the thirteenth. Very Rev. Father Hilary, of Paris:Saint Antoine de Padone, sa légende primitive, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Imprimerie Notre-Dame-des-Prés, 1890, 1 vol., 8vo. Cf.Legenda seu vita et miracula S. Antonii sæculo xiii concinnata ex cod. memb. antoniæ bibliothecæa P.M. Antonio Maria Josa min. comv. Bologna, 1883, 1 vol., 8vo.
16.This evangelical character of his mission is brought out in relief by all his biographers. 1 Cel., 56; 84; 89; 3 Soc. 25; 34; 40; 43; 45; 48; 51; 57; 2 Cel., 3, 8; 50; 93.
17.Spec., 134; 2 Cel., 3, 128.
18.The Order was at first essentially lay (at the present time it is, so far as I know, the only one in which there is no difference of costume between laymen and priests). Vide Ehrle,Archiv., iii., p. 563. It is the influence of the friars from northern countries which has especially changed it in this matter. General Aymon, of Faversham (1240-1243), decided that laymen should be excluded from all charges;laicos ad officia inhabilitavit, quæ usque tunc ut clerici exercebant. (Chron.xxiv.gen.cod. Gadd. relig., 53, fo110a). Among the early Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain all the cases. There were also with certain of them revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that of the priests:Fior., 27.Frate Pellegrino non volle mai andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto litterato e grande decretalista.Cf.Conform., 71a., 2.Fr. Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium cogeretur.Conform., 124b, 2.
19.See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo. Cf.Conform., 53b, 2.Fratri Egidio dedit licentiam liberam ut iret quocumque vellet et staret ubicumque sibi placeret.
20.The hermitage of Monte-Casale, at two hours walk northeast from Borgo San Sepolero, still exists in its original state. It is one of the most significant and curious of the Franciscan deserts.
21.The office of guardian (superior of a monastery) naturally dates from the time when the Brothers stationed themselves in small groups in the villages of Umbria—that is to say, most probably from the year 1211. A few years later the monasteries were united to form a custodia. Finally, about 1215, Central Italy was divided unto a certain number of provinces with provincial ministers at their head. All this was done little by little, for Francis never permitted himself to regulate what did not yet exist.
22.Fior., 26; Conform., 119b, 1. Cf. Rule of 1221, cap. vii.Quicumque ad eos (fratres) venerint, amicus vel adversarius, fur vel latro benigne recipiatur.
23.2 Cel., 3, 120;Spec., 37;Conform., 53a, 1. See below, p. 385,n. 1.
24.Fior., Vita di fra Ginepro;Spec., 174-182;Conform., 62b.
25.A. SS., p. 600.
26.3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 13; Bon., 24.
27.Bon., 30; 3 Soc., 30, 31; 2 Cel., 3, 52. Cf.Fior., 2. The dragon of this dream perhaps symbolizes heresy.
28.Bon., 83; 172;Fior., 1, 16;Conform., 49a, 1, and 110b, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 51.
29.Bernard de Besse,De laudibus, Turin MS., fo. 102b and 96a. He died November 15, 1271. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 221.
30.Fior., 8;Spec., 89b ff.;Conform., 30b, 2, and 140a, 2.
31.I need not here point out the analogy in form between this chapter and St. Paul's celebrated song of love, 1 Cor. xiii.
32.We find the same thoughts in nearly the same terms incap.v. of theVerba sacræ admonitionis.
33.He is the second of the Three Companions. 3 Soc., 1; cf. 1 Cel., 95;Fior., 1; 29, 30, 31; Eccleston, 12;Spec., 110a-114b;Conform., 51b ff.; cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4.
34.Very probably that of the Carceri, though the name is not indicated Vide 3 Soc., 1;Fior., 4; 10; 11; 12; 13; 16; 27; 32;Conform., 51b, 1 ff;Tribul. Archiv., t. ii., p. 263.
35.Fior., 11;Conform., 50b, 2;Spec., 104a.
36.Rule of 1221, chap. 7.Omnes fratres, in quibuscumque locis fuerint apud aliquos ad serviendum, vel ad laborandum, non sint camerarii, nec cellarii, nec præsint in domibus corum quibus serviunt.Cf. 1 Cel., 38 and 40; A. SS., p. 606.
37.1 Cel., 103; 39;Spec., 28; Reg. 1221, ix.;Giord., 33 and 39.
38.VideSpec., 34b.;Fior., 4.
39.All the details of this story lead me to think that it refers to Portiuncula and the hospitalSan Salvatore delle Pareti. The story is given by theConform., 174b, 2, as taken from theLegenda Antiqua. Cf.Spec., 56b;Fior., 25.
40.In theSpeculum, fo41a, this story ends with the phrase:Qui vidit hæc scripsit et testimonium perhibet de hiis. The brother is here calledFrater Jacobus simplex. Cf.Conform., 174b.
41.Conform., 51b, 1. Cf. 2 Cel., 2, 4;Spec., 110b;Fior., 29.
Popular piety in Umbria never separates the memory of St. Francis from that of Santa Clara. It is right.
Clara1was born at Assisi in 1194, and was consequently about twelve years younger than Francis. She belonged to the noble family of the Sciffi. At the age when a little girl's imagination awakes and stirs, she heard the follies of the son of Bernardone recounted at length. She was sixteen when the Saint preached for the first time in the cathedral, suddenly appearing like an angel of peace in a city torn by intestine dissensions.To her his appeals were like a revelation. It seemed as if Francis was speaking for her, that he divined her secret sorrows, her most personal anxieties, and all that was ardent and enthusiastic in the heart of this young girl rushed like a torrent that suddenly finds an outlet into the channel indicated by him. For saints as for heroes the supreme stimulus is woman's admiration.
But here, more than ever, we must put away the vulgar judgment which can understand no union between man and woman where the sexual instinct has no part. That which makes the union of the sexes something almost divine is that it is the prefiguration, the symbol, of the union of souls. Physical love is an ephemeral spark, designed to kindle in human hearts the flame of a more lasting love; it is the outer court of the temple, but not the most holy place; its inestimable value is precisely that it leaves us abruptly at the door of the holiest of all as if to invite us to step over the threshold.
The mysterious sigh of nature goes out for the union of souls. This is the unknown God to whom debauchees, those pagans of love, offer their sacrifices, and this sacred imprint, even though effaced, though soiled by all pollutions, often saves the man of the world from inspiring as much disgust as the drunkard and the criminal.
But sometimes—more often than we think—there are souls so pure, so little earthly, that on their first meeting they enter the most holy place, and once there the thought of any other union would be not merely a descent, but an impossibility. Such was the love of St. Francis and St. Clara.
But these are exceptions. There is something mysterious in this supreme purity; it is so high that in holding it up to men one risks speaking to them in an unknown tongue, or even worse.
The biographers of St. Francis have clearly felt the danger of offering to the multitude the sight of certain beauties which are far beyond them, and this is for us the great fault of their works. They try to give us not so much the true portrait of Francis as that of the perfect minister-general of the Order such as they conceive it, such as it must needs be to serve as a model for his disciples; thus they have made this model somewhat according to the measure of those whom it is to serve, by omitting here and there features which, stupidly interpreted, might have furnished material for the malevolence of unscrupulous adversaries, or from which disciples little versed in spiritual things could not have failed to draw support for permitting themselves dangerous intimacies. Thus the relations of St. Francis with women in general and St. Clara in particular, have been completely travestied by Thomas of Celano. It could not have been otherwise, and we must not bear him a grudge for it. The life of the founder of an Order, when written by a monk, in the very nature of things becomes always a sort of appendix to or illustration of the Rule. And the Rule, especially if the Order has its thousands of members, is necessarily made not for the elect, but for the average, for the majority of the flock.2
Hence this portrait, in which St. Francis is represented as a stern ascetic, to whom woman appears to be a sort ofincarnate devil! The biographers even go so far as to assure us that he knew only two women by sight. These are manifest exaggerations, or rather the opposite of the truth.3
We are not reduced to conjecture to discover the true attitude of the Umbrian prophet in this matter. Without suspecting it, Celano himself gives details enough for the correction of his own errors, and there are besides a number of other documents whose scattered hints correspond and agree with one another in a manner all the more marvellous that it is entirely unintentional, giving, when they are brought together, almost all one could desire to know of the intercourse of these two beautiful souls.
After the sermons of Francis at St. Rufino, Clara's decision was speedily taken; she would break away from the trivialities of an idle and luxurious life and make herself the servant of the poor; all her efforts should be bent to make each day a new advance in the royal way of love and poverty; and for this she would have only to obey him who had suddenly revealed it to her.
She sought him out and opened to him her heart. With that exaltation, a union of candor and delicacy, which is woman's fine endowment, and to which she would more readily give free course if she did not toooften divine the pitfalls of base passion and incredulity, Clara offered herself to Francis.
It is one of the privileges of saints to suffer more than other men, for they feel in their more loving hearts the echo of all the sorrows of the world; but they also know joys and delights of which common men never taste. What an inexpressible song of joy must have burst forth in Francis's heart when he saw Clara on her knees before him, awaiting, with his blessing, the word which would consecrate her life to the gospel ideal.
Who knows if this interview did not inspire another saint, Fra Angelico, to introduce into his masterpiece those two elect souls who, already radiant with the light of the heavenly Jerusalem, stop to exchange a kiss before crossing its threshold?
Souls, like flowers, have a perfume of their own which never deceives. One look had sufficed for Francis to go down into the depths of this heart; he was too kind to submit Clara to useless tests, too much an idealist to prudently confine himself to custom or arbitrary decorum; as when he founded the Order of Friars, he took counsel only of himself and God. In this was his strength; if he had hesitated, or even if he had simply submitted himself to ecclesiastical rules, he would have been stopped twenty times before he had done anything. Success is so powerful an argument that the biographers appear not to have perceived how determined Francis was to ignore the canonical laws. He, a simple deacon, arrogated to himself the right to receive Clara's vows and admit her to the Order without the briefest novitiate. Such an act ought to have drawn down upon its author all the censures of the Church, but Francis was already one of those powers to whom much is forgiven, even by those who speak in the name of the holy Roman Church.
Francis had decided that on the night between Palm Sunday and Holy Monday (March 18-19, 1212) Clara should secretly quit the paternal castle and come with two companions to Portiuncula, where he would await her, and would give her the veil. She arrived just as the friars were singing matins. They went out, the story goes, carrying candles in their hands, to meet the bride, while from the woods around Portiuncula resounded songs of joy over this new bridal. Then Mass was begun at that same altar where, three years before, Francis had heard the decisive call of Jesus; he was kneeling in the same place, but surrounded now with a whole spiritual family.
It is easy to imagine Clara's emotion. The step which she had just taken was simply heroic, for she knew to what persecutions from her family she was exposing herself, and what she had seen of the life of the Brothers Minor was a sufficient warning of the distresses to which she was exposing herself in espousing poverty. No doubt she interpreted the words of the service in harmony with her own thoughts:
"Surely they are my people," said Jehovah."Children who will not be faithless!"In none of their afflictions were they without succor.And the angel that is before his face saved them.4
Then Francis read again the words of Jesus to his disciples; she vowed to conform her life to them; her hair was cut off; all was finished. A few moments after, Francis conducted her to a house of Benedictine nuns5at an hour's distance, where she was to remain provisionally and await the progress of events.
The very next morning Favorino, her father, arrived with a few friends, inveighing, supplicating, abusing everybody. She was unmovable, showing so much courage that at last they gave up the thought of carrying her off by main force.
She was not, however, at the end of her tribulations. Had this scene frightened the Benedictines? We cannot tell, but less than a fortnight after we find her in another convent, that of Sant-Angelo in Panso, at Assisi.6A week after Easter, Agnes, her younger sister, joined her there, decided in her turn to serve poverty. Francis received her into the Order. This time the father's fury was horrible. With a band of relatives he invaded the convent, but neither abuse nor blows could subdue this child of fourteen. In spite of her cries they dragged her away. She fainted, and the little inanimate body suddenly seemed to them so heavy that they abandoned it in the midst of the fields, some laborers looking with pity on the painful scene, until Clara, whose cry God had heard, hastened to succor her sister.
Their sojourn in this convent was of very short duration. It appears that they did not carry away a very pleasant impression of it.7Francis knew that several others were burning to join his two women friends; he therefore set himself to seek out a retreat where theycould live under his direction and in all liberty practise the gospel rule.
He had not long to seek; the Benedictine monks of Mount Subasio always seized every possible opportunity to make themselves popular. They belonged to that congregation of Camaldoli, whom the common people appear to have particularly detested, and several of whose convents had lately been pillaged.8The abbey no longer counted more than eight monks, who were trying to save the wreck of their riches and privileges by partial sacrifices; on the 22d of April, 1212, they had given to the commune of Assisi for a communal house a monument which is standing this day, the temple of Minerva.9
Francis, who already was their debtor for Portiuncula, once more addressed himself to them. Happy in this new opportunity to render service to one who was the incarnation of popular claims, they gave him the chapel of St. Damian; perhaps they were well pleased, by favoring the new Order, to annoy Bishop Guido, of whom they had reason to complain.10However this may be, in this hermitage, so well adapted for prayer and meditation, Francis installed his spiritual daughters.11In this sanctuary, repaired by his own hands, at the feet of this crucifix which had spoken to him, Clara was henceforward to pray. It was the house of God; it was also in good measure that of Francis. Crossing its threshold,Clara doubtless experienced that feeling, at once so sweet and so poignant, of the wife who for the first time enters her husband's house, trembling with emotion at the radiant and confused vision of the future.
If we are not entirely to misapprehend these beginnings, we must remember with what rapidity external influences transformed the first conception of St. Francis. At this moment he no more expected to found a second order than he had desired to found the first one. In snatching Clara from her family he had simply acted like a true knight who rescues an oppressed woman, and takes her under his protection. In installing her at St. Damian he was preparing a refuge for those who desired to imitate her and apart from the world practise the gospel Rule. But he never thought that the perfection of which he and his disciples were the apostles and missionaries, and which Clara and her companions were to realize in celibacy, was not practicable in social positions also; thence comes what is wrongly called theTertiari, or Third Order, and which in its primitive thought was not separated from the first. This Third Order had no need to be instituted in 1221, for it existed from the moment when a single conscience resolved to practise his teachings, without being able to follow him to Portiuncula.12The enemy of the soul for him as for Jesus was avarice, understood in its largest sense—that is to say, that blindness which constrains men to consecrate their hearts to material preoccupations, makes them the slave of a few pieces of gold or a few acres of land, rendersthem insensible to the beauties of nature, and deprives them of infinite joys which they alone can know who are the disciples of poverty and love.
Whoever was free at heart from all material servitude, whoever was decided to live without hoarding, every rich man who was willing to labor with his hands and loyally distribute all that he did not consume in order to constitute the common fund which St. Francis calledthe Lord's table, every poor man who was willing to work, free to resort, in the strict measure of his wants, to this table of the Lord, these were at that time true Franciscans.
It was a social revolution.
There was then at that time neither one Order nor several.13The gospel of the Beatitudes had been found again, and, as twelve centuries before, it could accommodate itself to all situations.
Alas! the Church, personified by Cardinal Ugolini, was about, if not to cause the Franciscan movement to miscarry, at least so well to hedge about it that a few years later it would have lost nearly its whole original character.
As has been seen, the word poverty expresses only very imperfectly St. Francis's point of view, since it contains an idea of renunciation, ofabstinence, while in thought the vow of poverty is a vow of liberty. Property is the cage with gilded wires, to which the poor larks are sometimes so thoroughly accustomed that they no longereven think of getting away in order to soar up into the blue.14
From the beginning St. Damian was the extreme opposite to what a convent of Clarisses of the strict observance is now; it is still to-day very much as Francis saw it. We owe thanks to the Brothers Minor for having preserved intact this venerable and charming hermitage, and not spoiling it with stupid embellishments. This little corner of Umbrian earth will be for our descendants like Jacob's well whereon Christ sat himself down for an instant, one of the favorite courts of the worship in spirit and in truth.
In installing Clara there Francis put into her hands the Rule which he had prepared for her,15which no doubt resembled that of the Brothers save for the precepts with regard to the missionary life. He accompanied it with the engagement16taken by himself and his brothers to supply by labor or alms all the needs of Clara and her future companions. In return they also were to work and render to the Brothers all the services of which they might be capable. We have seen the zeal which Francis had brought to the task of making the churches worthy of the worship celebrated in them; he could not endure that the linen put to sacred uses should be less than clean. Clara set herself to spinning thread for thealtar-cloths and corporals which the Brothers undertook to distribute among the poor churches of the district.17In addition, during the earlier years, she also nursed the sick whom Francis sent to her, and St. Damian was for some time a sort of hospital.18
One or two friars, who were calledZealots of the Poor Ladies, were especially charged with the care of the Sisters, making themselves huts beside the chapel, after the model of those of Portiuncula. Francis was also near at hand; a sort of terrace four paces long overlooks the hermitage; Clara made there a tiny garden, and when, at twilight, she went thither to water her flowers, she could see, hardly half a league distant, Portiuncula standing out against the aureola of the western sky.
For several years the relations between the two houses were continual, full of charm and freedom. The companions of Francis who received Brothers received Sisters also, at times returning from their preaching tours with a neophyte for St. Damian.19
But such a situation could not last long. The intimacy of Francis and Clara, the familiarity of the earlier friars and Sisters would not do as a model for the relations of the two Orders when each had some hundreds of members. Francis himself very soon perceived this, though not so clearly as his sister-friend. Clara survived him nearly twenty-seven years, and thus had time to see the shipwreck of the Franciscan ideal among the Brothers, as well as in almost every one of the houses which had at first followed the Rule of St. Damian. She herself was led by the pressure of events to lay down rules for her own convent, but to her very death-bed she contended for the defence of the true Franciscan ideas, with a heroism, a boldness, at once intense and holy, by which she took a place in the first rank of witnesses for conscience.
Is it not one of the loveliest pictures in religious history, that of this woman who for more than half a century sustains moment by moment a struggle with all the popes who succeed one another in the pontifical throne, remaining always equally respectful and immovable, not consenting to die until she has gained her victory?20
To relate her life is to relate this struggle; the greater number of its vicissitudes may be found in the documentsof the Romancuria. Francis had warded off many a danger from his institution, but he had given himself guardians who were little disposed to yield any of their rights; Cardinal Ugolini in particular, the future Gregory IX., took a part in these matters which is very difficult to understand. We see him continually lavishing upon Francis and Clara expressions of affection and admiration which appear to be absolutely sincere; and yet the Franciscan ideal—regarded as the life of love at which one arrives by freeing himself from all servitude to material things—has hardly had a worse adversary than he.
In the month of May, 1228, Gregory IX. went to Assisi for the preliminaries of the canonization of St. Francis. Before entering the city he turned out of his way to visit St. Damian and to see Clara, whom he had known for a long time, and to whom he had addressed letters burning with admiration and paternal affection.21
How can we understand that at this time, the eve of the canonization (July 16, 1228), the pontiff could have had the idea of urging her to be faithless to her vows?
He represented to her that the state of the times made life impossible to women who possess nothing, and offered her certain properties. As Clara gazed at him in astonishment at this strange proposition, he said, "If it is your vows which prevent you, we will release you from them."
"Holy Father," replied the Franciscan sister, "absolve me from my sins, but I have no desire for a dispensation from following Christ."22
Noble and pious utterance, artless cry of independence, in which the conscience proudly proclaims its autonomy!In these words is mirrored at full length the spiritual daughter of the Poverello.
By one of those intuitions which often come to very enthusiastic and very pure women, she had penetrated to the inmost depths of Francis's heart, and felt herself inflamed with the same passion which burned in him. She remained faithful to him to the end, but we perceive that it was not without difficulty.
This is not the place in which to ask whether Gregory IX. was right in desiring that religious communities should hold estates; he had a right to his own views on the subject; but there is something shocking, to say no more, in seeing him placing Francis among the saints at the very moment when he was betraying his dearest ideals, and seeking to induce those who had remained faithful to betray them.
Had Clara and Francis foreseen the difficulties which they would meet? We may suppose so, for already under the pontificate of Innocent III. she had obtained a grant of the privilege of poverty. The pope was so much surprised at such a request that he desired to write with his own hands the opening lines of this patent, the like of which had never been asked for at the court of Rome.23
Under his successor, Honorius III., the most important personage of the curia was this very Cardinal Ugolini. Almost a septuagenarian in 1216 he inspired awe at firstsight by the aspect of his person. He had that singular beauty which distinguishes the old who have escaped the usury of life; pious, enlightened, energetic, he felt himself made for great undertakings. There is something in him which recalls Cardinal Lavigerie and all the prelates whose red robes cover a soldier or a despot rather than a priest.24
The Franciscan movement was attacked with violence25in various quarters; he undertook to defend it, and a very long time before the charge of protector of the Order was officially confided to him, he exercised it with devouring zeal.26He felt an unbounded admiration for Francis and Clara, and often manifested it in a touching manner. If he had been a simple man he might have loved them and followed them. Perhaps he even had thought of doing so.27Alas! he was a prince of the Church; he could not help thinking of what he would do in case he should be called to guide the ship of St. Peter.
He acted accordingly; was it calculation on his part or simply one of those states of conscience in which a man absorbed in the end to be attained hardly discusses the ways and means? I do not know, but we see him immediately on the death of Innocent III., under pretext of protecting the Clarisses, take their direction in hand, givethem a Rule, and substitute his own ideas for those of St. Francis.28
In the privilege which as legate he gave in favor of Monticelli, July 27, 1219, neither Clara nor Francis is named, and the Damianites become as a congregation of Benedictines.29
We shall see farther on the wrath of Francis against Brother Philip, a Zealot of the Poor Ladies, who had accepted this privilege in his absence. His attitude was so firm that other documents of the same nature granted by Ugolini at the same epoch were not indorsed by the pope until three years later.
The cardinal's ardor to profit by the enthusiasm which the Franciscan ideas everywhere excited was so great that we find, in the register of his legation of 1221, a sort of formula all prepared for those who would found convents like those of the Sisters of St. Damian; but even there we search in vain for the name of Francis or Clara.30
This old man had, however, a truly mystical passion for the young abbess; he wrote to her, lamenting the necessity of being far from her, in words which are the language of love, respect, and admiration.31There were atleast two men in Ugolini: the Christian, who felt himself subdued before Clara and Francis; the prelate, that is, a man whom the glory of the Church sometimes caused to forget the glory of God.
Francis, though almost always resisting him, appears to have kept a feeling of ingenuous gratitude toward him to the very end. Clara, on the contrary, had too long a struggle to be able to keep any illusions as to the attitude of her protector. After 1230 there is no trace of any relations between them.
All the efforts of the pope to mitigate the rigor of Clara's vow of poverty had remained vain. Many other nuns desired to practise strictly the Rule of St. Francis. Among them was the daughter of the King of Bohemia, Ottokar I., who was in continual relations with Clara. But Gregory IX., to whom she addressed herself, was inflexible. While pouring eulogies upon her he enjoined upon her to follow the Rule which he sent to her—that is, the one which he had composed while he was yet cardinal. The Rule of the Poverello was put among the utopias, not to say heresies.32He never, however, could induce St. Clara to completely submit herself. One day, indeed, she rebelled against his orders, and it was the pope who was obliged to yield: he had desired to bring about a wider separation between the friars and the Sisters than had formerly prevailed; for a long time after the death of Francis a certain familiarity had continued between St. Damian and Portiuncula; Clara especially loved these neighborly relations, and often begged one or another Brother to come and preach. The pope thought ill of this, and forbade, under the severest penalty, thatany friar of Portiuncula should go to St. Damian without express permission of the Holy See.
This time Clara became indignant. She went to the few friars attached to her monastery, and thanking them for their services, "Go," she said; "since they deprive us of those who dispense to us spiritual bread, we will not have those who procure for us our material bread." He who wrote that "the necks of kings and princes are bowed at the feet of the priests" was obliged to bow before this woman and raise his prohibition.33
St. Damian had too often echoed with St. Francis's hymns of love and liberty to forget him so soon and become an ordinary convent. Clara remained surrounded with the master's early companions; Egidio, Leo, Angelo, Ginepro never ceased to be assiduous visitors. These true lovers of poverty felt themselves at home there, and took liberties which would elsewhere have given surprise. One day an English friar, a celebrated theologian, came according to the minister's orders to preach at St. Damian. Suddenly Egidio, though a simple layman, interrupted him: "Stop, brother, let me speak," he said to him. And the master in theology, bowing his head, covered himself with his cowl as a sign of obedience, and sat down to listen to Egidio.
Clara felt a great joy in this; it seemed to her that she was once again living in St. Francis's days.34The little coterie was kept up until her death; she expired in the arms of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Ginepro. In her last sufferings and her dying visions she had the supreme happiness of being surrounded by those who had devoted their lives to the same ideal as she.35
In her will her life shows itself that which we haveseen it—a daily struggle for the defence of the Franciscan idea. We see how courageous and brave was this woman who has always been represented as frail, emaciated, blanched like a flower of the cloister.36
She defended Francis not only against others, but also against himself. In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was beside him to show him his way. When he doubted his mission and thought of fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men going astray with no shepherd to lead them, and drew him once again into the train of the Galilean, into the number of those whogive their lives a ransom for many.37
Yet this love with which at St. Damian Francis felt himself surrounded frightened him at times. He feared that his death, making too great a void, would imperil the institution itself, and he took pains to remind the sisters that he would not be always with them. One day when he was to preach to them, instead of entering the pulpit he caused some ashes to be brought, and after having spread them around him and scattered some on his head, he intoned theMiserere, thus reminding them that he was but dust and would soon return to dust.38
But in general it is at St. Damian that St. Francis isthe most himself; it is under the shade of its olive-trees, with Clara caring for him, that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern religious sentiment, the "Canticle of the Sun."