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

Urbem Veterem X. Kal. Oct. pont. nostri anno quinto (September
22, 1220). It is therefore by an error that Sbaralea and Wadding
make it date from Viterbo, which is the less explicable that all
the bulls of this epoch are dated from Orvieto. Wadding, ann.
1220 , 57; Sbaralea, vol. i., p. 6; Potthast, 6561.

[13] 2 Cel., 3, 118; Ubertin, Arbor. V. , 2; Spec. , 26; 50;
130b; Conform. , 136a, 2; 143a, 2.

[14] 2 Cel., 3, 83; Bon. 77. One should read this account in the
Conform. according to the Antigua Legenda , 142a, 2; 31a, 1;
Spec. 43b.

[15] Tribul. Laur. MS., 12b; Magl. MS., 71b.

[16] Luke, ix., 1-6. Tribul. , 12b: Et fecerunt de regula
prima ministri removere .... This must have taken place at the
chapter of September 29, 1220, since the suppression is made in
the Rule of 1221.

[17] 2 Cel., 3, 81; Spec. , 26; Conform. , 175b, 1; 53a; Bon.,
76; A. SS., p. 620.

[18] The epitaph on his tomb, which still exists at S. M. dei
Angeli bears this date: see Portiuncula, von P. Barnabas aus
dem Elsass , Rixheim, 1884, p. 11. Cf. A. SS., p. 630.

[19] Spec. , 9b; Arbor. V. , 3; Conform. , 170a, 1; 2 Cel.,
3, 124. Cf. Ubertini, Archiv. , iii., pp. 75 and 177.

* * * * *


CHAPTER XV

THE RULE OF 1221[1]


The winter of 1220-1221 was spent by Francis chiefly in fixing his thought by writing. Until now he had been too much the man of action to have been able to give much thought to anything but the living word , but from this time his exhausted forces compelled him to satisfy his longing for souls by some other means than evangelizing tours. We have seen that the chapter of September 29, 1220, on one side, and the bull
Cum secundum on the other, had fixed in advance a certain number of points. For the rest, complete liberty had been given him, not indeed to make a final and unchangeable statement of his ideas, but to set them forth. The substance of legislative power had passed into the hands of the ministers.[2]

That which we call the Rule of 1221 is, then, nothing more than a proposed law, submitted to a representative government at its parliament. The head of authority will one day give it to the world, so thoroughly modified and altered that Francis's name at the head of such a document will give but small promise, and quite indirectly, that it will contain his personal opinion.

Never was man less capable of making a Rule than Francis. In reality, that of 1210 and the one which the pope solemnly approved in November 29, 1223, had little in common except the name. In the former all is alive, free, spontaneous; it is a point of departure, an inspiration; it may be summed up in two phrases: the appeal of Jesus to man, "Come, follow me," the act of man, "He left all and followed him." To the call of divine love man replies by the joyful gift of himself, and that quite naturally, by a sort of instinct. At this height of mysticism any regulation is not only useless, it is almost a profanation; at the very least it is the symptom of a doubt. Even in earthly loves, when people truly love each other nothing is asked, nothing promised.

The Rule of 1223, on the other hand, is a reciprocal contract. On the divine side the call has become a command; on the human, the free impulse of love has become an act of submission, by which life eternal will be earned.

At the bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. Under the reign of law we are the mercenaries of God, bound down to an irksome task, but paid a hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our wages.

Under the rule of love we are the sons of God, and coworkers with him; we give ourselves to him without bargaining and without expectation; we follow Jesus, not because this is well, but because we can do no otherwise, because we feel that he has loved us and we love him in our turn. An inward flame draws us irresistibly toward him: Et Spiritus et Sponsa dicunt: Veni .

It is necessary to dwell a little on the antithesis between these two Rules. That of 1210 alone is truly Franciscan; that of 1223 is indirectly the work of the Church, endeavoring to assimilate with herself the new movement, which with one touch she transforms and turns wholly from its original purpose.

That of 1221 marks an intermediate stage. It is the clash of two principles, or rather of two spirits; they approach, they touch, but they are not merged in one another; here and there is a mixture, but nowhere combination; we can separate the divers elements without difficulty. Their condition is the exact reflection of what was going on in Francis's soul, and of the rapid evolution of the Order.

To aid him in his work Francis joined to himself Brother Cæsar of Speyer, who would be especially useful to him by his profound acquaintance with the sacred texts.

What strikes us first, on glancing over this Rule of 1221, is its extraordinary length; it covers not less than ten folio pages, while that of 1223 has no more than three. Take away from it the passages which emanate from the papacy and those which were fixed at the previous chapter, you will hardly have shortened it by a column; what remains is not a Rule, but a series of impassioned appeals, in which the father's heart speaks, not to command but to convince, to touch, to awaken in his children the instinct of love.

It is all chaotic and even contradictory,[3] without order, a medley of outbursts of joy and bitter sobs, of hopes and regrets. There are passages in which the passion of the soul speaks in every possible tone, runs over the whole gamut from the softest note to the most masculine, from those which are as joyous and inspiring as the blast of a clarion, to those which are agitated, stifled, like a voice from beyond the tomb.

"By the holy love which is in God, I pray all the friars,
ministers as well as others, to put aside every obstacle, every
care, every anxiety, that they may be able to consecrate
themselves entirely to serve, love, and honor the Lord God, with
a pure heart and a sincere purpose, which is what he asks above
all things. Let us have always in ourselves a tabernacle and a
home for him who is the Lord God most mighty, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, who says, 'Watch and pray always, that you may be
found worthy to escape all the things which will come to pass,
and to appear upright before the Son of man.'

"Let us then keep in the true way, the life, the truth, and the
holy Gospel of Him who has deigned for our sake to leave his
Father that he may manifest his name to us, saying, 'Father, I
have manifested thy name to those whom thou hast given me, and
the words which thou hast given me I have given also unto them.
They have received them, and they have known that I am come from
thee, and they believe that thou hast sent me. I pray for them;
I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one as we are one. I have said these things,
being still in the world, that they may have joy in themselves.
I have given them thy words, and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou wilt keep them from
the evil. Sanctify them through the truth; thy word is truth. As
thou hast sent me into the world I have also sent them into the
world, and for their sake I sanctify myself that they may
themselves be sanctified in the truth; and neither pray I for
these alone, but for all those who shall believe on me through
their words, that we all may be one, and that the world may know
that thou hast sent me, and that thou lovest them as thou hast
loved me. I have made known unto them thy name, that the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.'


PRAYER.

"Almighty, most high and sovereign God, holy Father, righteous
Lord, King of heaven and earth, we give thee thanks for thine
own sake, in that by thy holy will, and by thine only Son and
thy Holy Spirit thou hast created all things spiritual and
corporeal, and that after having made us in thine image and
after thy likeness, thou didst place us in that paradise which
we lost by our sin. And we give thee thanks because after having
created us by thy Son, by that love which is thine, and which
thou hast had for us, thou hast made him to be born very God and
very man of the glorious and blessed Mary, ever Virgin, and
because by his cross, his blood, and his death thou hast willed
to ransom us poor captives. And we give thee thanks that thy Son
is to return in his glorious majesty to send to eternal fire the