Under the generalate of Giovanni di Parma (1247-1257) the Franciscan parties underwent modifications, in consequence of which their opposition became still more striking than before.
The Zelanti, with the minister-general at their head, enthusiastically adopted the views of Gioacchino di Fiore. The predictions of the Calabrian abbot corresponded too well with their inmost convictions for any other course to be possible: they seemed to see Francis, as a new Christ, inaugurating the third era of the world.
For a few years these dreams moved all Europe; the faith of the Joachimites was so ardent that it made its way by its own force; sceptics like Salimbeni told themselves that on the whole it was surely wiser not to be taken unawares by the great catastrophe of 1260, and hastened in crowds to the cell of Hyères to be initiated by Hugues de Digne in the mysteries of the new times: as to the people, they waited, trembling, divided between hope and terror. Nevertheless their adversaries did not consider themselves beaten, and the Liberal party still remained the most numerous. Of an angelic purity, Giovanni di Parma believed in the omnipotence of example: events showed how mistaken he was; at the close of his term of office scandals were not less flagrant than ten years earlier.75
Between these two extreme parties, against which he was to proceed with equal rigor, stood that of the Moderates, to which belonged St. Bonaventura.76
A mystic, but of a formal and orthodox mysticism, he saw the revolution toward which the Church was hastening if the party of the eternal Gospel was to triumph; itsvictory would not be that of this or that heresy in detail, it would be, with brief delay, the ruin of the entire ecclesiastical edifice; he was too perspicacious not to see that in the last analysis the struggle then going on was that of the individual conscience against authority. This explains, and up to a certain point gains him pardon for, his severities against his opponents; he was supported by the court of Rome and by all those who desired to make the Order a school at once of piety and of learning.
No sooner was he elected general than, with a purpose that never knew hesitation, and a will whose firmness made itself everywhere felt, he took his steps to forward this double aim. On the very morrow of his nomination he sketched the programme of reforms against the Liberal party, and at the same time secured the summons of the Joachimite Brothers before an ecclesiastical tribunal at Città-della-Pieve. This tribunal condemned them to perpetual imprisonment, and it needed the personal intervention of Cardinal Ottobonus, the future Adrian V., for Giovanni di Parma to be left free to retire to the Convent of Greccio.
The first chapter held under the presidence of Bonaventura, in the extended decisions of which we find everywhere tokens of his influence, assembled at Narbonne in 1260. He was then commissioned to compose a new life of St. Francis.77
We easily understand the anxieties to which this decisionof the Brothers was an answer. The number of legends had greatly increased, for besides those which we have first studied or noted there were others in existence which have completely disappeared, and it had become equally difficult for the Brothers who went forth on missions either to make a choice between them or to carry them all.
The course of the new historian was therefore clearly marked out: he must do the work of compiler and peacemaker. He failed in neither. His book is a true sheaf, or rather it is a millstone under which the indefatigable author has pressed, somewhat at hazard, the sheaves of his predecessors. Most of the time he inserts them just as they are, confining himself to the work of harvesting them and weeding out the tares.
Therefore, when we reach the end of this voluminous work we have a very vague impression of St. Francis. We see that he was a saint, a very great saint, since he performed an innumerable quantity of miracles, great and small; but we feel very much as if we had been going through a shop of objects of piety. All these statues, whether they are called St. Anthony the Abbot, St. Dominic, St. Theresa, or St. Vincent de Paul, have the same expression of mincing humility, of a somewhat shallow ecstasy. These are saints, if you please, miracle-workers; they are not men; he who made them made them by rule, by process; he has put nothing of his heart in these ever-bowed foreheads, these lips with their wan smile.
God forbid that I should say or think that St. Bonaventura was not worthy to write a life of St. Francis, but the circumstances controlled his work, and it is no injustice to him to say that it is fortunate for Francis, and especially for us, that we have another biography of the Poverello than that of the Seraphic Doctor.
Three years after, in 1263, he brought his completed work to the chapter-general convoked under his presidence at Pisa. It was there solemnly approved.78
It is impossible to say whether they thought that the presence of the new legend would suffice to put the old ones out of mind, but it seems that at this time nothing was said about the latter.
It was not so at the following chapter. This one, held at Paris, came to a decision destined to have disastrous results for the primitive Franciscan documents. This decree, emanating from an assembly presided over by Bonaventura in person, is too important not to be quoted textually: "Item, the Chapter-general ordains on obedience that all the legends of the Blessed Francis formerly made shall be destroyed. The Brothers who shall find any without the Order must try to make away with them since the legend made by the General is compiled from accounts of three who almost always accompanied the Blessed Francis; all that they could certainly know and all that is proven has been carefully inserted therein."79It would have been difficult to be more precise. We see the perseverance with which Bonaventura carried on his struggle against the extreme parties. This decree explains the almost complete disappearance of the manuscripts of Celano and the Three Companions, since in certain collections even those of Bonaventura's legend are hardly to be found.
As we have seen, Bonaventura aimed to write a sort of official or canonical biography; he succeeded only too well. Most of the accounts that we already know have gone into his collection, but not without at times suffering profound mutilations. We are not surprised to find him passing over Francis's youth with more discretion than Celano in the First Life, but we regret to find him ornamenting and materializing some of the loveliest incidents of the earlier legends.
It is not enough for him that Francis hears the crucifix of St. Daraian speak; he pauses to lay stress on the assertion that he heard itcorporeis auribusand that no one was in the chapel at that moment! Brother Monaldo at the chapter of Arles sees St. Francis appearcorporeis oculis. He often abridges his predecessors, but this is not his invariable rule. When he reaches the account of the stigmata he devotes long pages to it,80relates a sort of consultation held by St. Francis as to whether he could conceal them, and adds several miracles due to these sacred wounds; further on he returns to the subject to show a certain Girolamo, Knight of Assisi, desiring to touch with his hands the miraculous nails.81On the other hand, he uses a significant discretion wherever the companions of the Saint are in question. Henames only three of the first eleven disciples,82and no more mentions Brothers Leo, Angelo, Rufino, Masseo, than their adversary, Brother Elias.
As to the incidents which we find for the first time in this collection, they hardly make us regret the unknown sources which must have been at the service of the famous Doctor; it would appear that the healing of Morico, restored to health by a few pellets of bread soaked in the oil of the lamp which burned before the altar of the Virgin,83has little more importance for the life of St. Francis than the story of the sheep given to Giacomina di Settesoli which awakened its mistress to summon her to go to mass.84What shall we think of that other sheep, of Portiuncula, which hastened to the choir whenever it heard the psalmody of the friars, and kneeled devoutly for the elevation of the Holy Sacrament?85
All these incidents, the list of which might be enlarged,86betrays the working-over of the legend. St. Francis becomes a great thaumaturgist, but his physiognomy loses its originality.
The greatest fault of this work is, in fact, the vagueness of the figure of the Saint. While in Celano there are the large lines of a soul-history, a sketch of the affecting drama of a man who attains to the conquest of himself, with Bonaventura all this interior action disappears before divine interventions; his heart is, so to speak, the geometrical locality of a certain number of visitants; he is a passive instrument in the hands of God, and we really cannot see why he should have been chosen rather than another.
And yet Bonaventura was an Italian; he had seen Umbria; he must have knelt and celebrated the sacred mysteries in Portiuncula, that cradle of the noblest of religious reformations; he had conversed with Brother Egidio, and must have heard from his lips an echo of the first Franciscan fervor; but, alas! nothing of that rapture passed into his book, and if the truth must be told, I find it quite inferior to much later documents, to the Fioretti, for example; for they understood, at least in part, the soul of Francis; they felt the throbbing of that heart, with all its sensitiveness, admiration, indulgence, love, independence, and absence of carefulness.
Bonaventura's work did not discourage the biographers. The historic value of their labor is almost nothing, and we shall not even attempt to catalogue them.
Bernard of Besse, a native probably of the south of France88and secretary of Bonaventura,89made a summary of the earlier legends. This work, which brings us no authentic historic indication, is interesting only for the care with which the author has noted the places whererepose the Brothers who died in odor of sanctity, and relates a mass of visions all tending to prove the excellence of the Order.90
Still the publication of this document will perform the valuable office of throwing a little light upon the difficult question of the sources. Several passages of theDe laudibusappear again textually in the Speculum,91and as a single glance is enough to show that the Speculum did not copy theDe laudibus, it must be that Bernard of Besse had before him a copy, if not of the Speculum at least of a document of the same kind.
FOOTNOTES1.BullQuo elongatiof September 28, 1230. See p. 336.2.It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.3.The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body of the work.4.Eccl., 13.Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc.An. fr., t. i., p. 241. Cf.Mon. Germ. hist. Script., t., 28, p. 564.5.The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. TheInstrumentum donationisis still preserved at Assisi: Piece No. 1 of the twelfth package ofInstrumenta diversa pertinentia ad Sacrum Conventum. It has been published by Thode:Franz von Assisi, p. 359.On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper church was finished. It was already decorated with a first series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).6.Spec., 167a. Cf.An. fr., ii., p. 45 and note.7.The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title:Seraphici viri S. Francisci Assisiatis vitæ dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano, according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona) which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni:Vita prima S. Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della pace, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those which are known is that at Barcelona:Archivo de la corona de Aragon, Ripoll, n. 41 (Archiv., t. i., p. 148). There is one in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which includes a curious note: "Apud Perusium felix domnus papa Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit, confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam." Another manuscript, which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth century, and because of the correction in the text, and which appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the Franciscans, is the one owned by the École de Médicine at Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio:Passionale vetus ecclesiæ S. Benigni divionensis. The story of Celano occupies in it the fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of paragraph 112 withsupiriis ostendebant. Except for this final break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and 196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295.8.Vide 1 Cel., Prol.Jubente domino et glorioso Papa Gregorio. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16, 1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above raises no difficulty.9.1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II. to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in Winckelmann:Acta imperii inedita, t. i., p. 232.10.Giord., 19.11.Giord., 30 and 31.12.Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question whether he is the author of theDies iræwould be out of place here.13.This is so true that the majority of historians have been brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in 1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letterNon ex odioof Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea:Revera papa iste quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis migrationis suæ tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ... deposuit. Huillard-Breholles:Hist. dipl. Fred. II., t. v., p. 346.14.He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48.15.1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is especially significant.Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo, sit....1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139.16.1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either!17.1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis, Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108; 109) are in the foreground.18.1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117.19.Those which occurred during the absence of Francis (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized them, however, having lived in intimacy with Cæsar of Speyer, the collaborator of the second (1221).20.For example, Francis's journey to Spain.21.1 Cel., 1, 88.Et sola quæ necessaria magis occurruntad præsensintendimus adnotare. It is to be observed that in the prologue he speaks in the singular.22.In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the General. Giord., 63.23.See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann,Actai., p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. dipl.Intr. p. cc.24.The authorities for this story are:Catalogus ministrorumof Bernard of Besse,apEhrle,Zeitschrift, vol. 7 (1883), p. 339;Speculum, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13; Giord., 61-63;Speculum, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b.25.Asserabat etiam ipse prædictus frater Helyas ... papam ... fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terræ Sanctæ, scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas, multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit domino papæ ponens os suum in celo. Matth. Paris,Chron. Maj.,ann. 1239,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 28, p. 182. Cf. Ficker, n. 2685.26.Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano,Chron.,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239): Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. Dipl., v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the Bull,Attendite ad petram, at the end of February, 1240, ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849.27.He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily, afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano,loc. cit.,ann.1223 and 1224.28.Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., ii., p. 68.Speculum, Morin, tract. i., 61b.29.Catalogus ministrorum, edited by Ehrle:Zeitschrift, t. 7 (1883). no. 5. Cf.Spec., 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand, in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381) is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: "Dyalogus sanctorum fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt xiii."30.The text was published for the first time by the Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be found, except the last, due to Abbé Amoni. This one, unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184) under the title:Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quæ dicitur Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr.Biblioth. Vatic. num. 7339.31.2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84; Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10.32.Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there almost entirely until his death (1288).Tribul.,Archiv., vol. ii. (1886), p. 286.33.3 Soc., 25-67.34.3 Soc., 68-73.35.The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been held by M. Müller (Anfänge, p. 180); but that learned scholar is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots (Archiv., t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast, 11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull stating that the Basilica of Assisi wasCaput et Mater ordinis, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12;Conform., 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., p. 69; Sbaralea,Bull. fr., i., p. 502 ff;Conform., 121b. 1.) M. Müller has been led into error through a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (An. fr., i., p. 235). It is evident that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced against theDeclaratio Regulæpublished November 14, 1245. On the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth thisDeclaratio, against which, not without regret, the Zealots found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of anyDeclaratio(Archiv., ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), fo62a:In hoc capitulo (Narbonnæ) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D. Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in CapituloMETENSI.Et præceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit.36.Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F. Ehrle, S. J., in his studiesZur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne.Archiv., ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.37.See, for example,Archiv., iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76.Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis sanctæ memoriæ fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut ab ore beati Francisci audivit.Ib., p. 85.38.Hæc omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti patris quam etiam de devotione prædicti fratris fuerunt solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv., iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178.39.3 Soc., Prol.Non contenti narrare solum miracula ... conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem.40.Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni, Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo.41.See Father Stanislaus's preface.42.3 Soc., 68-73.43.The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular clergy) since the time of the apostles. Theviri evangeliciconsider the members of the clergyfilios extraneos.3 Soc., 48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48.Inveni virum ... per quem, credo Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctæ Ecclesiæ reformare. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141.Videbatur revera fratri et omnium comitatium turbæ quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona foret.44.A. SS. p. 552.45.Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem de Luere, 30 januarii, 1504.Impressum Metis per Jasparem Hochffeder, Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical, small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo, 208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most 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 sæc. 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. Capitulumxxvi. Cf. 26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are similar indications.48.Fo. 5b:Incipit Speculum vitæ 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. Claræ custodiendos.... In illis multa scripsit ... quæ industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulæ 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, quæ idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum Damianum prope Assisium." Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both the book of Brother Leo and hisrotuli; 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 ofLegenda Antiquaand 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 hisrotulia 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 therotuli.53.Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the Simple, and Speculum, fo37a. 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 Abbé Amoni:Vita secunda S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus discipulo. Romæ, 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 Müller (Die Anfänge, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me narrow and extreme. Cf.Analectafr., 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) hæc pauca quæ 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 nostræ injungere, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered them:Cum de mandato prœteriti capituli fratres teneantur ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestræ intimare.3 Soc., Prol.57.Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.58.Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium supernæ 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 præcipit fr. Thomæ de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati Francisci quæ 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 quæ incipit: Religiosa vestra sollicitudo eidem generali misit.This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify it, as M. Müller suggests (Anfänge, p. 177), with the second part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life: 1o, epistleReligiosa vestra sollicitudodoes not have it; 2o, 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 entitledFrancis a prophet, but notFrancis a thaumaturgus.63.In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.)Insignia patrumthe 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 theArchiv., 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. Barnabé,Portiuncula, p. 15. Cf.Analecta fr., t. ii., p. xxi.Zeitschrift für 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, fo95a.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 præter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti præconium ediderunt.Opening of theDe laudibusof Bernard of Besse. See below,p. 413. Laur. MS., fo95a. 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., fo213a.76.Salimbeni, ann. 1248, p. 131. TheChronica tribulationumgives a long and dramatic account of these events:Archiv., t. ii., pp. 283 ff. "Tunc enim sapientia et sanctitas fratris Bonaventuræ eclipsata paluit et obscurata est et ejus manswetudo (sic) ab agitante spiritu in furorum et iram defecit." Ib., p. 283.77.Bon., 3. 1. At the same chapter were collected the constitutions of the Order according to edicts of the preceding chapters; new ones were added to them and all were arranged. In the first of the twelve rubrics the chapter prescribed that, upon the publication of the account, all the old constitutions should be destroyed. The text was published in theFirmamentum trium ordinum, fo7b, and restored lately by Father Ehrle:Archiv., t. vi. (1891), in his beautiful workDie ältesten Redactionen der General-constitutionen des Franziskanerordens. Cf.SpeculumMorin, fo. 195b of tract. iii.78.TheLegenda Minorof Bonaventura was also approved at this time; it is simply an abridgment of theLegenda Majorarranged for use of the choir on the festival of St. Francis and its octave.79."Item præcipit Generale capitulum per obedientiam quod omnes legenæ de B. Francisco olim factæ deleantur et ubi inveniri poterant extra ordinem ipsas fratres studeant amovere, cum illa legenda quæ facta est per Generalem sit compilata prout ipse habuit ab ore illorum qui cum B. Francisco quasi semper fuerunt et cuncta certitudinaliter sciverint et probata ibi sint posita diligenter." This precious text has been found and published by Father Rinaldi in his preface to the text of Celano:Seraphici viri Francisci vitæ duæ, p. xi. Wadding seems to have known of it, at least indirectly, for he says: "Utramque Historiam, longiorem et breviorem, obtulit (Bonaventura) triennio post in comitiis Pisanis patribus Ordinis, quas reverentur cum gratiarum actione,SUPRESSIS ALIIS QUIBUSQUE LEGENDIS, ADMISERUNT." Ad ann., 1260, no. 18. Cf. Ehrle,Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii. (1883), p. 386.—"Communicaverat sanctus Franciscus plurima sociis suis et fratribus antiquis, que oblivioni tradita sunt, tum quia que scripta erant in legenda prima, nova edita a fratre. Bonaventura deleta et destructa sunt,ipsojubentetum quia..."Chronica tribul.,Archiv., t. ii., p. 256.80.Bon., 188-204.81.Bon., 218.82.Bernardo (Bon., 28), Egidio (Bon., 29), and Silvestro (Bon., 30).83.Bon., 49.84.Bon., 112.85.Bon., 111.86.Vide Bon., 115; 99, etc. M. Thode has enumerated the stories relating especially to Bonaventura: (Franz von Assisi, p. 535).87.Manuscript I, iv., 33, of the library of the University of Turin. It is a 4to upon parchment of the close of the fourteenth century, 124 ff. It comprises first the biography of St. Francis by St. Bonaventura and a legend of St. Clara, afterwards at fo95 theDe laudibus. The text will soon be published in theAnalecta franciscanaof the Franciscans of Quaracchi, near Florence.88.In reading it we quickly discover that he was specially well acquainted with the convents of the Province of Aquitania, and noted with care everything that concerned them.89.Wadding, ann. 1230, no. 7. Many passages prove at least that he accompanied Bonaventura in his travels: "Hoc enim(the special aid of Brother Egidio)in iis quæ ad bonum animæ pertinent devotus Generalis et Cardinalis predictus ... nos docuit." Fo96a.Jamdudum ego per Theutoniæ partes et Flandriæ cum Ministro transiens Generali.Ibid., fo106a.90.Bernard de Besse is the author of many other writings, notably an importantCalalogus Ministrorum generaliumpublished after the Turin manuscript by Father Ehrle (Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii., pp. 338-352), with a very remarkable critical introduction (ib., pp. 323-337). Cf.Archiv für Litt. u. Kirchg., i., p. 145.—Bartolommeo di Pisa, when writing hisConformities, had before him a part of his works, fo148b, 2; 126a, 1; but he calls the author sometimesBernardus de Blesa, then againJohannes de Blesa. See also Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 212, and Hauréau,Notices et extraits, t. vi., p. 153.91."Denique primos Francisci xii. discipulos ... omnes sanctos fuisse audirimus preter unum qui Ordinem exiens leprosus factus laqueo vel alter Judas interiit, ne Francisco cum Christo vel in discipulis similitudo deficeret," fo96a.
1.BullQuo elongatiof September 28, 1230. See p. 336.2.It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.3.The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body of the work.4.Eccl., 13.Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc.An. fr., t. i., p. 241. Cf.Mon. Germ. hist. Script., t., 28, p. 564.5.The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. TheInstrumentum donationisis still preserved at Assisi: Piece No. 1 of the twelfth package ofInstrumenta diversa pertinentia ad Sacrum Conventum. It has been published by Thode:Franz von Assisi, p. 359.On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper church was finished. It was already decorated with a first series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).6.Spec., 167a. Cf.An. fr., ii., p. 45 and note.7.The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title:Seraphici viri S. Francisci Assisiatis vitæ dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano, according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona) which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni:Vita prima S. Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della pace, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those which are known is that at Barcelona:Archivo de la corona de Aragon, Ripoll, n. 41 (Archiv., t. i., p. 148). There is one in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which includes a curious note: "Apud Perusium felix domnus papa Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit, confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam." Another manuscript, which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth century, and because of the correction in the text, and which appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the Franciscans, is the one owned by the École de Médicine at Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio:Passionale vetus ecclesiæ S. Benigni divionensis. The story of Celano occupies in it the fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of paragraph 112 withsupiriis ostendebant. Except for this final break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and 196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295.8.Vide 1 Cel., Prol.Jubente domino et glorioso Papa Gregorio. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16, 1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above raises no difficulty.9.1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II. to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in Winckelmann:Acta imperii inedita, t. i., p. 232.10.Giord., 19.11.Giord., 30 and 31.12.Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question whether he is the author of theDies iræwould be out of place here.13.This is so true that the majority of historians have been brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in 1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letterNon ex odioof Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea:Revera papa iste quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis migrationis suæ tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ... deposuit. Huillard-Breholles:Hist. dipl. Fred. II., t. v., p. 346.14.He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48.15.1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is especially significant.Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo, sit....1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139.16.1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either!17.1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis, Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108; 109) are in the foreground.18.1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117.19.Those which occurred during the absence of Francis (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized them, however, having lived in intimacy with Cæsar of Speyer, the collaborator of the second (1221).20.For example, Francis's journey to Spain.21.1 Cel., 1, 88.Et sola quæ necessaria magis occurruntad præsensintendimus adnotare. It is to be observed that in the prologue he speaks in the singular.22.In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the General. Giord., 63.23.See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann,Actai., p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. dipl.Intr. p. cc.24.The authorities for this story are:Catalogus ministrorumof Bernard of Besse,apEhrle,Zeitschrift, vol. 7 (1883), p. 339;Speculum, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13; Giord., 61-63;Speculum, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b.25.Asserabat etiam ipse prædictus frater Helyas ... papam ... fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terræ Sanctæ, scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas, multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit domino papæ ponens os suum in celo. Matth. Paris,Chron. Maj.,ann. 1239,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 28, p. 182. Cf. Ficker, n. 2685.26.Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano,Chron.,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239): Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. Dipl., v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the Bull,Attendite ad petram, at the end of February, 1240, ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849.27.He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily, afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano,loc. cit.,ann.1223 and 1224.28.Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., ii., p. 68.Speculum, Morin, tract. i., 61b.29.Catalogus ministrorum, edited by Ehrle:Zeitschrift, t. 7 (1883). no. 5. Cf.Spec., 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand, in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381) is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: "Dyalogus sanctorum fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt xiii."30.The text was published for the first time by the Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be found, except the last, due to Abbé Amoni. This one, unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184) under the title:Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quæ dicitur Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr.Biblioth. Vatic. num. 7339.31.2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84; Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10.32.Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there almost entirely until his death (1288).Tribul.,Archiv., vol. ii. (1886), p. 286.33.3 Soc., 25-67.34.3 Soc., 68-73.35.The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been held by M. Müller (Anfänge, p. 180); but that learned scholar is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots (Archiv., t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast, 11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull stating that the Basilica of Assisi wasCaput et Mater ordinis, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12;Conform., 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., p. 69; Sbaralea,Bull. fr., i., p. 502 ff;Conform., 121b. 1.) M. Müller has been led into error through a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (An. fr., i., p. 235). It is evident that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced against theDeclaratio Regulæpublished November 14, 1245. On the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth thisDeclaratio, against which, not without regret, the Zealots found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of anyDeclaratio(Archiv., ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), fo62a:In hoc capitulo (Narbonnæ) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D. Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in CapituloMETENSI.Et præceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit.36.Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F. Ehrle, S. J., in his studiesZur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne.Archiv., ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.37.See, for example,Archiv., iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76.Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis sanctæ memoriæ fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut ab ore beati Francisci audivit.Ib., p. 85.38.Hæc omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti patris quam etiam de devotione prædicti fratris fuerunt solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv., iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178.39.3 Soc., Prol.Non contenti narrare solum miracula ... conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem.40.Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni, Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo.41.See Father Stanislaus's preface.42.3 Soc., 68-73.43.The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular clergy) since the time of the apostles. Theviri evangeliciconsider the members of the clergyfilios extraneos.3 Soc., 48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48.Inveni virum ... per quem, credo Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctæ Ecclesiæ reformare. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141.Videbatur revera fratri et omnium comitatium turbæ quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona foret.44.A. SS. p. 552.45.Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem de Luere, 30 januarii, 1504.Impressum Metis per Jasparem Hochffeder, Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical, small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo, 208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most 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 sæc. 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. Capitulumxxvi. Cf. 26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are similar indications.48.Fo. 5b:Incipit Speculum vitæ 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. Claræ custodiendos.... In illis multa scripsit ... quæ industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulæ 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, quæ idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum Damianum prope Assisium." Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both the book of Brother Leo and hisrotuli; 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 ofLegenda Antiquaand 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 hisrotulia 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 therotuli.53.Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the Simple, and Speculum, fo37a. 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 Abbé Amoni:Vita secunda S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus discipulo. Romæ, 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 Müller (Die Anfänge, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me narrow and extreme. Cf.Analectafr., 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) hæc pauca quæ 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 nostræ injungere, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered them:Cum de mandato prœteriti capituli fratres teneantur ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestræ intimare.3 Soc., Prol.57.Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.58.Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium supernæ 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 præcipit fr. Thomæ de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati Francisci quæ 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 quæ incipit: Religiosa vestra sollicitudo eidem generali misit.This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify it, as M. Müller suggests (Anfänge, p. 177), with the second part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life: 1o, epistleReligiosa vestra sollicitudodoes not have it; 2o, 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 entitledFrancis a prophet, but notFrancis a thaumaturgus.63.In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.)Insignia patrumthe 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 theArchiv., 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. Barnabé,Portiuncula, p. 15. Cf.Analecta fr., t. ii., p. xxi.Zeitschrift für 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, fo95a.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 præter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti præconium ediderunt.Opening of theDe laudibusof Bernard of Besse. See below,p. 413. Laur. MS., fo95a. 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., fo213a.76.Salimbeni, ann. 1248, p. 131. TheChronica tribulationumgives a long and dramatic account of these events:Archiv., t. ii., pp. 283 ff. "Tunc enim sapientia et sanctitas fratris Bonaventuræ eclipsata paluit et obscurata est et ejus manswetudo (sic) ab agitante spiritu in furorum et iram defecit." Ib., p. 283.77.Bon., 3. 1. At the same chapter were collected the constitutions of the Order according to edicts of the preceding chapters; new ones were added to them and all were arranged. In the first of the twelve rubrics the chapter prescribed that, upon the publication of the account, all the old constitutions should be destroyed. The text was published in theFirmamentum trium ordinum, fo7b, and restored lately by Father Ehrle:Archiv., t. vi. (1891), in his beautiful workDie ältesten Redactionen der General-constitutionen des Franziskanerordens. Cf.SpeculumMorin, fo. 195b of tract. iii.78.TheLegenda Minorof Bonaventura was also approved at this time; it is simply an abridgment of theLegenda Majorarranged for use of the choir on the festival of St. Francis and its octave.79."Item præcipit Generale capitulum per obedientiam quod omnes legenæ de B. Francisco olim factæ deleantur et ubi inveniri poterant extra ordinem ipsas fratres studeant amovere, cum illa legenda quæ facta est per Generalem sit compilata prout ipse habuit ab ore illorum qui cum B. Francisco quasi semper fuerunt et cuncta certitudinaliter sciverint et probata ibi sint posita diligenter." This precious text has been found and published by Father Rinaldi in his preface to the text of Celano:Seraphici viri Francisci vitæ duæ, p. xi. Wadding seems to have known of it, at least indirectly, for he says: "Utramque Historiam, longiorem et breviorem, obtulit (Bonaventura) triennio post in comitiis Pisanis patribus Ordinis, quas reverentur cum gratiarum actione,SUPRESSIS ALIIS QUIBUSQUE LEGENDIS, ADMISERUNT." Ad ann., 1260, no. 18. Cf. Ehrle,Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii. (1883), p. 386.—"Communicaverat sanctus Franciscus plurima sociis suis et fratribus antiquis, que oblivioni tradita sunt, tum quia que scripta erant in legenda prima, nova edita a fratre. Bonaventura deleta et destructa sunt,ipsojubentetum quia..."Chronica tribul.,Archiv., t. ii., p. 256.80.Bon., 188-204.81.Bon., 218.82.Bernardo (Bon., 28), Egidio (Bon., 29), and Silvestro (Bon., 30).83.Bon., 49.84.Bon., 112.85.Bon., 111.86.Vide Bon., 115; 99, etc. M. Thode has enumerated the stories relating especially to Bonaventura: (Franz von Assisi, p. 535).87.Manuscript I, iv., 33, of the library of the University of Turin. It is a 4to upon parchment of the close of the fourteenth century, 124 ff. It comprises first the biography of St. Francis by St. Bonaventura and a legend of St. Clara, afterwards at fo95 theDe laudibus. The text will soon be published in theAnalecta franciscanaof the Franciscans of Quaracchi, near Florence.88.In reading it we quickly discover that he was specially well acquainted with the convents of the Province of Aquitania, and noted with care everything that concerned them.89.Wadding, ann. 1230, no. 7. Many passages prove at least that he accompanied Bonaventura in his travels: "Hoc enim(the special aid of Brother Egidio)in iis quæ ad bonum animæ pertinent devotus Generalis et Cardinalis predictus ... nos docuit." Fo96a.Jamdudum ego per Theutoniæ partes et Flandriæ cum Ministro transiens Generali.Ibid., fo106a.90.Bernard de Besse is the author of many other writings, notably an importantCalalogus Ministrorum generaliumpublished after the Turin manuscript by Father Ehrle (Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii., pp. 338-352), with a very remarkable critical introduction (ib., pp. 323-337). Cf.Archiv für Litt. u. Kirchg., i., p. 145.—Bartolommeo di Pisa, when writing hisConformities, had before him a part of his works, fo148b, 2; 126a, 1; but he calls the author sometimesBernardus de Blesa, then againJohannes de Blesa. See also Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 212, and Hauréau,Notices et extraits, t. vi., p. 153.91."Denique primos Francisci xii. discipulos ... omnes sanctos fuisse audirimus preter unum qui Ordinem exiens leprosus factus laqueo vel alter Judas interiit, ne Francisco cum Christo vel in discipulis similitudo deficeret," fo96a.
1.BullQuo elongatiof September 28, 1230. See p. 336.
2.It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.
3.The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body of the work.
4.Eccl., 13.Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc.An. fr., t. i., p. 241. Cf.Mon. Germ. hist. Script., t., 28, p. 564.
5.The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. TheInstrumentum donationisis still preserved at Assisi: Piece No. 1 of the twelfth package ofInstrumenta diversa pertinentia ad Sacrum Conventum. It has been published by Thode:Franz von Assisi, p. 359.
On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper church was finished. It was already decorated with a first series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).
6.Spec., 167a. Cf.An. fr., ii., p. 45 and note.
7.The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title:Seraphici viri S. Francisci Assisiatis vitæ dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano, according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona) which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni:Vita prima S. Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della pace, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those which are known is that at Barcelona:Archivo de la corona de Aragon, Ripoll, n. 41 (Archiv., t. i., p. 148). There is one in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which includes a curious note: "Apud Perusium felix domnus papa Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit, confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam." Another manuscript, which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth century, and because of the correction in the text, and which appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the Franciscans, is the one owned by the École de Médicine at Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio:Passionale vetus ecclesiæ S. Benigni divionensis. The story of Celano occupies in it the fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of paragraph 112 withsupiriis ostendebant. Except for this final break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and 196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295.
8.Vide 1 Cel., Prol.Jubente domino et glorioso Papa Gregorio. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16, 1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above raises no difficulty.
9.1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II. to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in Winckelmann:Acta imperii inedita, t. i., p. 232.
10.Giord., 19.
11.Giord., 30 and 31.
12.Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question whether he is the author of theDies iræwould be out of place here.
13.This is so true that the majority of historians have been brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in 1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letterNon ex odioof Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea:Revera papa iste quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis migrationis suæ tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ... deposuit. Huillard-Breholles:Hist. dipl. Fred. II., t. v., p. 346.
14.He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48.
15.1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is especially significant.Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo, sit....1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139.
16.1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either!
17.1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis, Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108; 109) are in the foreground.
18.1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117.
19.Those which occurred during the absence of Francis (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized them, however, having lived in intimacy with Cæsar of Speyer, the collaborator of the second (1221).
20.For example, Francis's journey to Spain.
21.1 Cel., 1, 88.Et sola quæ necessaria magis occurruntad præsensintendimus adnotare. It is to be observed that in the prologue he speaks in the singular.
22.In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the General. Giord., 63.
23.See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann,Actai., p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. dipl.Intr. p. cc.
24.The authorities for this story are:Catalogus ministrorumof Bernard of Besse,apEhrle,Zeitschrift, vol. 7 (1883), p. 339;Speculum, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13; Giord., 61-63;Speculum, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b.
25.Asserabat etiam ipse prædictus frater Helyas ... papam ... fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terræ Sanctæ, scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas, multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit domino papæ ponens os suum in celo. Matth. Paris,Chron. Maj.,ann. 1239,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 28, p. 182. Cf. Ficker, n. 2685.
26.Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano,Chron.,ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239): Huillard-Bréholles,Hist. Dipl., v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the Bull,Attendite ad petram, at the end of February, 1240, ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849.
27.He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily, afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano,loc. cit.,ann.1223 and 1224.
28.Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., ii., p. 68.Speculum, Morin, tract. i., 61b.
29.Catalogus ministrorum, edited by Ehrle:Zeitschrift, t. 7 (1883). no. 5. Cf.Spec., 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand, in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381) is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: "Dyalogus sanctorum fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt xiii."
30.The text was published for the first time by the Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be found, except the last, due to Abbé Amoni. This one, unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184) under the title:Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quæ dicitur Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr.Biblioth. Vatic. num. 7339.
31.2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84; Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10.
32.Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there almost entirely until his death (1288).Tribul.,Archiv., vol. ii. (1886), p. 286.
33.3 Soc., 25-67.
34.3 Soc., 68-73.
35.The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been held by M. Müller (Anfänge, p. 180); but that learned scholar is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots (Archiv., t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast, 11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull stating that the Basilica of Assisi wasCaput et Mater ordinis, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12;Conform., 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann. 1244,An. fr., p. 69; Sbaralea,Bull. fr., i., p. 502 ff;Conform., 121b. 1.) M. Müller has been led into error through a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (An. fr., i., p. 235). It is evident that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced against theDeclaratio Regulæpublished November 14, 1245. On the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth thisDeclaratio, against which, not without regret, the Zealots found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of anyDeclaratio(Archiv., ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), fo62a:In hoc capitulo (Narbonnæ) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D. Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in CapituloMETENSI.Et præceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit.
36.Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F. Ehrle, S. J., in his studiesZur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne.Archiv., ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.
37.See, for example,Archiv., iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76.Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis sanctæ memoriæ fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut ab ore beati Francisci audivit.Ib., p. 85.
38.Hæc omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti patris quam etiam de devotione prædicti fratris fuerunt solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv., iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178.
39.3 Soc., Prol.Non contenti narrare solum miracula ... conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem.
40.Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni, Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo.
41.See Father Stanislaus's preface.
42.3 Soc., 68-73.
43.The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular clergy) since the time of the apostles. Theviri evangeliciconsider the members of the clergyfilios extraneos.3 Soc., 48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48.Inveni virum ... per quem, credo Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctæ Ecclesiæ reformare. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141.Videbatur revera fratri et omnium comitatium turbæ quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona foret.
44.A. SS. p. 552.
45.Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem de Luere, 30 januarii, 1504.Impressum Metis per Jasparem Hochffeder, Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical, small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo, 208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most 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 sæc. 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. Capitulumxxvi. Cf. 26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are similar indications.
48.Fo. 5b:Incipit Speculum vitæ 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. Claræ custodiendos.... In illis multa scripsit ... quæ industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulæ 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, quæ idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum Damianum prope Assisium." Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both the book of Brother Leo and hisrotuli; 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 ofLegenda Antiquaand 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 hisrotulia 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 therotuli.
53.Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the Simple, and Speculum, fo37a. 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 Abbé Amoni:Vita secunda S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus discipulo. Romæ, 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 Müller (Die Anfänge, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me narrow and extreme. Cf.Analectafr., 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) hæc pauca quæ 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 nostræ injungere, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered them:Cum de mandato prœteriti capituli fratres teneantur ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestræ intimare.3 Soc., Prol.
57.Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.
58.Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium supernæ 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 præcipit fr. Thomæ de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati Francisci quæ 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 quæ incipit: Religiosa vestra sollicitudo eidem generali misit.
This treatise on the miracles is lost, for one cannot identify it, as M. Müller suggests (Anfänge, p. 177), with the second part (counting three with the Amoni edition) of the Second Life: 1o, epistleReligiosa vestra sollicitudodoes not have it; 2o, 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 entitledFrancis a prophet, but notFrancis a thaumaturgus.
63.In the Prologue (2 Cel., 2, Prol.)Insignia patrumthe 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 theArchiv., 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. Barnabé,Portiuncula, p. 15. Cf.Analecta fr., t. ii., p. xxi.Zeitschrift für 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, fo95a.
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 præter hymnos et aliquas antiphonas quae summus ipse Pontifex et aliqui de Cardinalibus in sancti præconium ediderunt.Opening of theDe laudibusof Bernard of Besse. See below,p. 413. Laur. MS., fo95a. 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., fo213a.
76.Salimbeni, ann. 1248, p. 131. TheChronica tribulationumgives a long and dramatic account of these events:Archiv., t. ii., pp. 283 ff. "Tunc enim sapientia et sanctitas fratris Bonaventuræ eclipsata paluit et obscurata est et ejus manswetudo (sic) ab agitante spiritu in furorum et iram defecit." Ib., p. 283.
77.Bon., 3. 1. At the same chapter were collected the constitutions of the Order according to edicts of the preceding chapters; new ones were added to them and all were arranged. In the first of the twelve rubrics the chapter prescribed that, upon the publication of the account, all the old constitutions should be destroyed. The text was published in theFirmamentum trium ordinum, fo7b, and restored lately by Father Ehrle:Archiv., t. vi. (1891), in his beautiful workDie ältesten Redactionen der General-constitutionen des Franziskanerordens. Cf.SpeculumMorin, fo. 195b of tract. iii.
78.TheLegenda Minorof Bonaventura was also approved at this time; it is simply an abridgment of theLegenda Majorarranged for use of the choir on the festival of St. Francis and its octave.
79."Item præcipit Generale capitulum per obedientiam quod omnes legenæ de B. Francisco olim factæ deleantur et ubi inveniri poterant extra ordinem ipsas fratres studeant amovere, cum illa legenda quæ facta est per Generalem sit compilata prout ipse habuit ab ore illorum qui cum B. Francisco quasi semper fuerunt et cuncta certitudinaliter sciverint et probata ibi sint posita diligenter." This precious text has been found and published by Father Rinaldi in his preface to the text of Celano:Seraphici viri Francisci vitæ duæ, p. xi. Wadding seems to have known of it, at least indirectly, for he says: "Utramque Historiam, longiorem et breviorem, obtulit (Bonaventura) triennio post in comitiis Pisanis patribus Ordinis, quas reverentur cum gratiarum actione,SUPRESSIS ALIIS QUIBUSQUE LEGENDIS, ADMISERUNT." Ad ann., 1260, no. 18. Cf. Ehrle,Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii. (1883), p. 386.—"Communicaverat sanctus Franciscus plurima sociis suis et fratribus antiquis, que oblivioni tradita sunt, tum quia que scripta erant in legenda prima, nova edita a fratre. Bonaventura deleta et destructa sunt,ipsojubentetum quia..."Chronica tribul.,Archiv., t. ii., p. 256.
80.Bon., 188-204.
81.Bon., 218.
82.Bernardo (Bon., 28), Egidio (Bon., 29), and Silvestro (Bon., 30).
83.Bon., 49.
84.Bon., 112.
85.Bon., 111.
86.Vide Bon., 115; 99, etc. M. Thode has enumerated the stories relating especially to Bonaventura: (Franz von Assisi, p. 535).
87.Manuscript I, iv., 33, of the library of the University of Turin. It is a 4to upon parchment of the close of the fourteenth century, 124 ff. It comprises first the biography of St. Francis by St. Bonaventura and a legend of St. Clara, afterwards at fo95 theDe laudibus. The text will soon be published in theAnalecta franciscanaof the Franciscans of Quaracchi, near Florence.
88.In reading it we quickly discover that he was specially well acquainted with the convents of the Province of Aquitania, and noted with care everything that concerned them.
89.Wadding, ann. 1230, no. 7. Many passages prove at least that he accompanied Bonaventura in his travels: "Hoc enim(the special aid of Brother Egidio)in iis quæ ad bonum animæ pertinent devotus Generalis et Cardinalis predictus ... nos docuit." Fo96a.Jamdudum ego per Theutoniæ partes et Flandriæ cum Ministro transiens Generali.Ibid., fo106a.
90.Bernard de Besse is the author of many other writings, notably an importantCalalogus Ministrorum generaliumpublished after the Turin manuscript by Father Ehrle (Zeitschrift für kath. Theol., t. vii., pp. 338-352), with a very remarkable critical introduction (ib., pp. 323-337). Cf.Archiv für Litt. u. Kirchg., i., p. 145.—Bartolommeo di Pisa, when writing hisConformities, had before him a part of his works, fo148b, 2; 126a, 1; but he calls the author sometimesBernardus de Blesa, then againJohannes de Blesa. See also Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 212, and Hauréau,Notices et extraits, t. vi., p. 153.
91."Denique primos Francisci xii. discipulos ... omnes sanctos fuisse audirimus preter unum qui Ordinem exiens leprosus factus laqueo vel alter Judas interiit, ne Francisco cum Christo vel in discipulis similitudo deficeret," fo96a.
In this category we place all the acts having a character of public authenticity, particularly those which were drawn up by the pontifical cabinet.
This source of information, where each document has its date, is precisely the one which has been most neglected up to this time.
TheInstrumentum donationis Montis Alvernæ, a notarial document preserved in the archives of Borgo San Sepolcro,1not only gives the name of the generous friend of Francis, and many picturesque details, but it fixes with precision a date all the more important because it occurs in the most obscure period of the Saint's life. It was on May 8, 1213, thatOrlando dei Catani, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, gave the Verna to Brother Francis.
The documents of the pontifical chancellery addressed to Cardinal Ugolini, the future Gregory IX., and those which emanate from the hand of the latter during his long journeys as apostolic legate,2are of first rate importance.
It would be too long to give even a simple enumeration of them. Those which mark important facts have been carefully indicated in the course of this work. It will suffice to say that by bringing together these two series of documents, and interposing the dates of the papal bulls countersigned by Ugolini, we are able to follow almost day by day this man, who was, perhaps without even excepting St. Francis, the one whose willmost profoundly fashioned the Franciscan institute. We see also the pre-eminent part which the Order had from the beginning in the interest of the future pontiff, and we arrive at perfect accuracy as to the dates of his meetings with St. Francis.
The pontifical bulls concerning the Franciscans were collected and published in the last century by the monk Sbaralea.3But from these we gain little help for the history of the origins of the Order.4
The following is a compendious list; the details have been given in the course of the work:
No. 1. August 18, 1218.—BullLiteræ tuæaddressed to Ugolini. The pope permits him to accept donations of landed property in behalf of women fleeing the world(Clarisses) and to declare that these monasteries are holden by the Apostolic See.
No. 2. June 11, 1219.—Cum delecti filii.This bull, addressed in a general way to all prelates, is a sort of safe conduct for the Brothers Minor.
No. 3. December 19, 1219.—Sacrosancta romana.Privileges conceded to the Sisters (Clarisses) of Monticelli, near Florence.
No. 4. May 29, 1220.—Pro dilectis.The pope prays the prelates of France to give a kindly reception to the Brothers Minor.
No. 5. September 22, 1220.—Cum secundum.Honorius III. prescribes a year of noviciate before the entry into the Order.
No. 6. December 9, 1220.—Constitutus in præsentia.This bull concerns a priest of Constantinople who had made a vow to enter the Order. As there is question here offrater Lucas Magister fratrum Minorem de partibus Romaniæwe have here indirect testimony, all the more precious for that reason, as to the period of the establishment of the Order in the Orient.
No. 7. February 13, 1221.—New bull for the same priest.
No. 8. December 16, 1221.—Significatum est nobis.Honorius III. recommends to the Bishop of Rimini to protect the Brothers of Penitence (Third Order).
No. 9. March 22, 1222.5—Devotionis vestræ.Concession to the Franciscans, under certain conditions, to celebrate the offices in times of interdict.
No. 10. March 29, 1222.—Ex parte Universitatis.Mission given to the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Brothers of the Troops of San Iago in Lisbon.
Nos. 11, 12, and 13.—September 19, 1222.—Sacrosancta Romana.Privileges for the monasteries (Clarisses) of Lucca, Sienna, and Perugia.
No. 14. November 29, 1223.—Solet annuere.Solemn approbation of the Rule, which is inserted in the bull.
No. 15. December 18, 1223.—Fratrum Minorum.Concerns apostates from the Order.
No. 16. December 1, 1224.—Cum illorum.Authorization given to the Brothers of Penitence to take part in the offices in times of interdict, etc.
No. 17. December 3, 1224.—Quia populares tumultus.Concession of the portable altar.
No. 18. August 28, 1225.—In hiis.Honorius explains to the Bishop of Paris and the Archbishop of Rheims the true meaning of the privileges accorded to the Brothers Minor.
No. 19. October 7, 1225.—Vineae Domini.This bull contains divers authorizations in favor of the Brothers who are going to evangelize Morocco.
This list includes only those of Sbaralea's bulls which may directly or indirectly throw some light upon the life of St. Francis and his institute. Sbaralea's nomenclature is surely incomplete and should be revised when the Registers of Honorius III. shall have been published in full.6