Life of St. Francis of Assisi, Paul Sabatier [ebook reader with android os txt] 📗

88, the eulogy made upon him by
Honorius III. Forma decorus et venustus aspectu ... zelator
fidei, disciplina virtutis, ... castitatis amator et totius
sanctitatis exemplar : Muratori, Scriptores rer. Ital. , iii.,
1, 575.

[25] 1 Cel., 74.

[26] The bull Litteræ tuæ of August 27, 1218, shows him
already favoring the Clarisses. Sbaralea, i., p. 1. Vide 3 Soc.,
61. Offero me ipsum, dixit Hugolinus, vobis, auxilium et
consilium, atque protectionem paratus impendere.

[27] In the Conformities, 107a, 2, there is a curious story
which shows Ugolini going to the Carceri to find Francis, and
asking him if he ought to enter his Order. Cf. Spec. , 217.

[28] He succeeded so well that Thomas of Celano himself seems to
forget that, at least at St. Damian, the Clarisses followed the
Rule given by St. Francis himself: Ipsorum vita mirifica et
institutio gloriosa a domino Papa Gregorio, tunc Hostiensi
episcopo. 1 Cel. 20. Cf. Honorii Opera Horoy, t. iii., col.
363; t. iv., col. 218; Potthast, 6179 and 6879 ff.

[29] This privilege is inserted in the bull Sacrosancta of
December 9, 1219. Honorii opera , Horoy, t. iii., col. 363 ff.

[30] G. Levi, Registri dei Cardinali , no. 125. Vide below, p.
400. Cf. Campi, Hist. eccl. di Piacenza , ii., 390.

[31] See, for example, the letter given by Wadding: Annals, ii.,
p. 16 (Rome, 1732). Tanta me amaritudo cordis, abundantia
lacrymarum et immanitas doloris invasit, quod nisi ad pedes
Jesu, consolationem solitæ pietatis invenirem, spiritus meus
forte deficeret et penitus anima liquefieret. Wadding's text
should be corrected by that of the Riccardi MS., 279. f^o 80a
and b. Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 185; Sbaralea, i., p. 37.

[32] Bull Angelis gaudium of May 11, 1238; it may be found in
Sbaralea, i., p. 242. Cf. Palacky, Literarische Reise nach
Italien , Prague, 1838, 4to, no. 147. Potthast, 10,596; cf.
11,175.

[33] A. SS., Vit. Clar. , p. 762. Cf. Conform. , 84b, 2.

[34] A. SS., Aprilis , t. iii., p. 239a; Conform. , 54a, 1;
177a, 2.

[35] A. SS., Vit. Clar. , p. 764d.

[36] The bull of canonization says nothing of the Saracens whom
she put to flight. Her life in the A. SS. relates the fact, but
shows her simply in prayer before the Holy Sacrament. Cf.
Conform. , 84b, 1. Mark of Lisbon t. i., part 2, pp. 179-181.
None of these accounts represents Clara as going to meet them
with a monstrance.

[37] Bon., 173; Fior. 16; Spec. , 62b; Conform. , 84b, 2;
110b 1; 49a, 1. With these should be compared Spec. , 220b:
Frater Leo narravit quod Sanctus Franciscus surgens orare
(sic) venit ad fratres suos dicens: "Ite ad sæculum et
dimittatis habitum, licentio vos. "

[38] 2 Cel., 3, 134.

* * * * *


CHAPTER X

FIRST ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE INFIDELS

Autumn, 1212-Summer, 1215


The early Brothers Minor had too much need of the encouragement and example of Francis not to have very early agreed with him upon certain fixed periods when they would be sure to find him at Portiuncula. Still it appears probable that these meetings did not become true Chapters-General until toward 1216. There were at first two a year, one at Whitsunday, the other at Michaelmas (September 29th). Those of Whitsunday were the most important; all the Brothers came together to gain new strength in the society of Francis, to draw generous ardor and grand hopes from him with his counsels and directions.

The members of the young association had everything in common, their joys as well as their sorrows; their uncertainties as well as the results of their experiences. At these meetings they were particularly occupied with the Rule, the changes that needed to be made in it, and above all, how they might better and better observe it;[1] then, in perfect harmony, they settled the allotment of the friars to the various provinces.

One of Francis's most frequent counsels bore upon the respect due to the clergy; he begged his disciples to show a very particular deference to the priests, and never to meet them without kissing their hands. He saw only too well that the Brothers, having renounced everything, were in danger of being unjust or severe toward the rich and powerful of the earth; he, therefore, sought to arm them against this tendency, often concluding his counsels with these noble words: "There are men who to-day appear to us to be members of the devil who one day shall be members of Christ."

"Our life in the midst of the world," said he again, "ought to be such that, on hearing or seeing us, every one shall feel constrained to praise our heavenly Father. You proclaim peace; have it in your hearts. Be not an occasion of wrath or scandal to anyone, but by your gentleness may all be led to peace, concord, and good works."

It was especially when he undertook to cheer his disciples, to fortify them against temptations and deliver them from their power, that Francis was most successful. However anxious a soul might be, his words brought it back to serenity. The earnestness which he showed in calming sadness became fiery and terrible in reproving those who fell away, but in these days of early fervor he seldom had occasion to show severity; more often he needed gently to reprove the Brothers whose piety led them to exaggerate penances and macerations.

When all was finished and each one had had his part in this banquet of love, Francis would bless them, and they would disperse in all directions like strangers and travellers. They had nothing, but already they thought they saw the signs of the grand and final regeneration. Like the exile on Patmos they saw "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, like a bride adorned for her husband ... and the throne upon which is seated the Desired of all nations, the Messiah of the new times, he who is to make all things new."[2]

Yet all eyes were turned toward Syria, where a French knight, Jean de Brienne, had just been declared King of Jerusalem (1210), and toward which were hastening the bands of the children's crusade.

The conversion of Francis, radical as it was, giving a new direction to his thoughts and will, had not had power to change the foundation of his character. "In a great heart everything is great." In vain is one changed at conversion--he remains the same. That which changes is not he who is converted, but his surroundings; he is suddenly introduced into a new path, but he runs in it with the same ardor. Francis still remained a knight, and it is perhaps this which won for him in so high a degree the worship of the finest souls of the Middle Ages. There was in him that longing for the unknown, that thirst for adventures and sacrifices, which makes the history of his century so grand and so attractive, in spite of many dark features.

Those who have a genius for religion have generally the privilege of illusion. They never quite see how large the world is. When their faith has moved a mountain they thrill with rapture, like the old Hebrew prophets, and it seems to them that they see the dawning of the day "when the glory of the Lord will appear, when the wolf and the lamb will feed together." Blessed illusion, that fires the blood like a generous wine, so that the soldiers of righteousness hurl themselves against the most terrific fortresses, believing that these once taken the war will be ended.

Francis had found such joys in his union with poverty that he held it for proven that one needed only to be a man to aspire after the same happiness, and that the Saracens would be converted in crowds to the gospel of Jesus, if only it were announced to them in all its simplicity. He therefore quitted Portiuncula for this new kind of crusade. It is not known from what port he embarked. It was probably in the autumn of 1212. A tempest having cast the ship upon the coast of Slavonia, he was obliged to resign himself either to remain several months in those parts or to return to Italy; he decided to return, but found much difficulty in securing a passage on a ship which was about to sail for Ancona. He had no ill-will against the sailors, however, and the stock of food falling short he shared with them the provisions with which his friends had overloaded him.

No sooner had he landed than he set out on a preaching tour, in which souls responded to his appeals[3] with even more eagerness than in times past. We may suppose that he returned from Slavonia in the winter of 1212-1213, and that he employed the following spring in evangelizing Central Italy. It was perhaps during this Lent that he retired to an island in Lake Trasimeno, making a sojourn there which afterward became famous in his legend.[4] However that may be, a perfectly reliable document shows him to have been in the Romagna in the month of May, 1213.[5] One day Francis and his companion, perhaps Brother Leo, arrived at the chateau of Montefeltro,[6] between Macerata and San Marino. A grand fête was being given for the reception of a new knight, but the noise and singing did not affright them, and without hesitation they entered the court, where all the nobility of the country was assembled. Francis then taking for his text the two lines,

Tanto è il bene ch' aspetto
Ch'ogni pena m'è diletto,[7]

preached