Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best historical biographies txt) π
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great victory, the triumph of compassion over natural pride. Returning to Assisi, he doubled his kindnesses to those of whom he had truly the right to call himself the brother. With such sentiments he could not long escape the influence of the Church.
On all the roadsides in the environs of the city there were then, as now, numerous chapels. Very often he must have heard mass in these rustic sanctuaries, alone with the celebrant. Recognizing the tendency of simple natures to bring home to themselves everything that they hear, it is easy to understand his emotion and agitation when the priest, turning toward him, would read the gospel for the day. The Christian ideal was revealed to him, bringing an answer to his secret anxieties. And when, a few moments later, he would plunge into the forest, all his thoughts would be with the poor carpenter of Nazareth, who placed himself in his path, saying to him, even to him, "Follow thou me."
Nearly two years had passed since the day when he felt the first shock; a life of renunciation appeared to him as the goal of his efforts, but he felt that his spiritual novitiate was not yet ended. He suddenly experienced a bitter assurance of the fact.
He was riding on horseback one day, his mind more than ever possessed with the desire to lead a life of absolute devotion, when at a turn of the road he found himself face to face with a leper. The frightful malady had always inspired in him an invincible repulsion. He could not control a movement of horror, and by instinct he turned his horse in another direction.
If the shock had been severe, the defeat was complete. He reproached himself bitterly. To cherish such fine projects and show himself so cowardly! Was the knight of Christ then going to give up his arms? He retraced his steps and springing from his horse he gave to the astounded sufferer all the money that he had; then kissed his hand as he would have done to a priest.[14] This new victory, as he himself saw, marked an era in his spiritual life.[15]
It is far indeed from hatred of evil to love of good. Those are more numerous than we think who, after severe experience, have renounced what the ancient liturgies call the world, with its pomps and lusts; but the greater number of them have not at the bottom of their hearts the smallest grain of pure love. In vulgar souls disillusion leaves only a frightful egoism.
This victory of Francis had been so sudden that he desired to complete it; a few days later he went to the lazaretto.[16] One can imagine the stupefaction of these wretches at the entrance of the brilliant cavalier. If in our days a visit to the sick in our hospitals is a real event awaited with feverish impatience, what must not have been the appearance of Francis among these poor recluses? One must have seen sufferers thus abandoned, to understand what joy may be given by an affectionate word, sometimes even a simple glance.
Moved and transported, Francis felt his whole being vibrate with unfamiliar sensations. For the first time he heard the unspeakable accents of a gratitude which cannot find words burning enough to express itself, which admires and adores the benefactor almost like an angel from heaven.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1 Cel., 3; cf. Bon., 8, and A. SS., p. 563c.
[2] It is enough to have lived in the country of Naples to know
that there is nothing exaggerated in this picture. I am much
surprised that intelligent and good men fancy that to change the
religious formula of these people would suffice to transform
them. What a mistake! To-day, as in the time of Jesus, the
important matter is not to adore on Mount Moriah or Mount Zion,
but to adore in spirit and in truth.
[3] 1 Cel., 3 and 4.
[4] 3 Soc., 5. In the existing state of the documents it is
impossible to know whom this name designates, for at that time
it was borne by a number of counts who are only to be
distinguished by the names of their castles. The three following
are possible: 1. Gentile comes de Campilio , who in 1215 paid
homage for his property to the commune of Orvieto: Le antiche
cronache di Orvieto, Arch. stor. ital. , 5th series., 1889,
iii., p. 47. 2. Gentilis comes filius Alberici , who with
others had made donation of a monastery to the Bishop of
Foligno: Confirmatory Bull In eminenti of April 10, 1210:
Ughelli, Italia Sacra , 1, p. 697; Potthast, 3974. 3. Gentilis
comes Manupelli ; whom we find in July, 1200, assuring to
Palermo the victory over the troops sent by Innocent III.
against Marckwald; Huillard-BrΓ©holles, Hist. dipl. , i. p., 46
ff. Cf. Potthast, 1126. Gesta Innocenti , Migne, vol. i.,
xxxii, ff. Cf. Huillard-BrΓ©holles, loc. cit. , pages 60, 84,
89, 101. It is wrong to consider that Gentile could here be a
mere adjective; the 3 Soc. say Gentile nomine .
[5] 1 Cel., 4; 3 Soc., 5.
[6] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 8.
[7] 1 Cel., 5; 3 Soc., 5; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 9.
[8] 3 Soc., 6; Bon., 9; 2 Cel., 1, 2.
[9] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2.
[10] These days are recalled by Celano with a very particular
precision. It is very improbable that Francis, usually so
reserved as to his personal experience, should have told him
about them (2 Cel., 3, 68 and 42, cf. Bon., 144). On the other
hand, nothing forbids his having been informed on this matter by
Brother Elias. (I strongly suspect the legend which tells of an
old man appearing on the day Francis was born and begging
permission to take the child in his arms, saying, "To-day, two
infants were born--this one, who will be among the best of men,
and another, who will be among the worst"--of having been
invented by the zelanti against Brother Elias. It is evident
that such a story is aimed at some one. Whom, if not him who was
afterward to appear as the Anti-Francis?) We have sufficient
details about the eleven first disciples to know that none of
them is here in question. There is nothing surprising in the
fact that Elias does not appear in the earliest years of the
Order (1209-1212), because after having practised at Assisi his
double calling of schoolmaster and carriage-trimmer ( suebat
cultras et docebat puerulos psalterium legere , Salimbene, p.
402) he was scriptor at Bologna (Eccl., 13). And from the
psychological point of view this hypothesis would admirably
explain the ascendency which Elias was destined always to
exercise over his master. Still it remains difficult to
understand why Celano did not name Elias here, but the passage,
1 Cel., 6, differs in the different manuscripts (cf. A. SS. and
Amoni's edition, p. 14) and may have been retouched after the
latter's fall.
Beviglia is a simple farm three-quarters of an hour northwest of
Assisi, almost half way to Petrignano. Half an hour from Assisi
in the direction of Beviglia is a grotto, which may very well be
that of which we are about to speak.
[11] 1 Cel., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 5; 3 Soc., 8, 12; Bon., 10, 11, 12.
[12] 3 Soc., 7; 1 Cel., 7; 2 Cel., 1, 3; 3 Soc., 13.
[13] 3 Soc., 8-10; Bon., 13, 14; 2 Cel., 1, 4.
[14] To this day in the centre and south of Italy they kiss the
hand of priests and monks.
[15] See the Will. Cf. 3 Soc., 11; 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; A. SS.,
p. 566.
[16] 3 Soc., 11; Bon., 13.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III
THE CHURCH ABOUT 1209
St. Francis was inspired as much as any man may be, but it would be a palpable error to study him apart from his age and from the conditions in which he lived.
We know that he desired and believed his life to be an imitation of Jesus, but what we know about the Christ is in fact so little, that St. Francis's life loses none of its strangeness for that. His conviction that he was but an imitator preserved him from all temptation to pride, and enabled him to proclaim his views with incomparable vigor, without seeming in the least to be preaching himself.
We must therefore neither isolate him from external influences nor show him too dependent on them. During the period of his life at which we are now arrived, 1205-1206, the religious situation of Italy must more than at any other time have influenced his thought and urged him into the path which he finally entered.
The morals of the clergy were as corrupt as ever, rendering any serious reform
On all the roadsides in the environs of the city there were then, as now, numerous chapels. Very often he must have heard mass in these rustic sanctuaries, alone with the celebrant. Recognizing the tendency of simple natures to bring home to themselves everything that they hear, it is easy to understand his emotion and agitation when the priest, turning toward him, would read the gospel for the day. The Christian ideal was revealed to him, bringing an answer to his secret anxieties. And when, a few moments later, he would plunge into the forest, all his thoughts would be with the poor carpenter of Nazareth, who placed himself in his path, saying to him, even to him, "Follow thou me."
Nearly two years had passed since the day when he felt the first shock; a life of renunciation appeared to him as the goal of his efforts, but he felt that his spiritual novitiate was not yet ended. He suddenly experienced a bitter assurance of the fact.
He was riding on horseback one day, his mind more than ever possessed with the desire to lead a life of absolute devotion, when at a turn of the road he found himself face to face with a leper. The frightful malady had always inspired in him an invincible repulsion. He could not control a movement of horror, and by instinct he turned his horse in another direction.
If the shock had been severe, the defeat was complete. He reproached himself bitterly. To cherish such fine projects and show himself so cowardly! Was the knight of Christ then going to give up his arms? He retraced his steps and springing from his horse he gave to the astounded sufferer all the money that he had; then kissed his hand as he would have done to a priest.[14] This new victory, as he himself saw, marked an era in his spiritual life.[15]
It is far indeed from hatred of evil to love of good. Those are more numerous than we think who, after severe experience, have renounced what the ancient liturgies call the world, with its pomps and lusts; but the greater number of them have not at the bottom of their hearts the smallest grain of pure love. In vulgar souls disillusion leaves only a frightful egoism.
This victory of Francis had been so sudden that he desired to complete it; a few days later he went to the lazaretto.[16] One can imagine the stupefaction of these wretches at the entrance of the brilliant cavalier. If in our days a visit to the sick in our hospitals is a real event awaited with feverish impatience, what must not have been the appearance of Francis among these poor recluses? One must have seen sufferers thus abandoned, to understand what joy may be given by an affectionate word, sometimes even a simple glance.
Moved and transported, Francis felt his whole being vibrate with unfamiliar sensations. For the first time he heard the unspeakable accents of a gratitude which cannot find words burning enough to express itself, which admires and adores the benefactor almost like an angel from heaven.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1 Cel., 3; cf. Bon., 8, and A. SS., p. 563c.
[2] It is enough to have lived in the country of Naples to know
that there is nothing exaggerated in this picture. I am much
surprised that intelligent and good men fancy that to change the
religious formula of these people would suffice to transform
them. What a mistake! To-day, as in the time of Jesus, the
important matter is not to adore on Mount Moriah or Mount Zion,
but to adore in spirit and in truth.
[3] 1 Cel., 3 and 4.
[4] 3 Soc., 5. In the existing state of the documents it is
impossible to know whom this name designates, for at that time
it was borne by a number of counts who are only to be
distinguished by the names of their castles. The three following
are possible: 1. Gentile comes de Campilio , who in 1215 paid
homage for his property to the commune of Orvieto: Le antiche
cronache di Orvieto, Arch. stor. ital. , 5th series., 1889,
iii., p. 47. 2. Gentilis comes filius Alberici , who with
others had made donation of a monastery to the Bishop of
Foligno: Confirmatory Bull In eminenti of April 10, 1210:
Ughelli, Italia Sacra , 1, p. 697; Potthast, 3974. 3. Gentilis
comes Manupelli ; whom we find in July, 1200, assuring to
Palermo the victory over the troops sent by Innocent III.
against Marckwald; Huillard-BrΓ©holles, Hist. dipl. , i. p., 46
ff. Cf. Potthast, 1126. Gesta Innocenti , Migne, vol. i.,
xxxii, ff. Cf. Huillard-BrΓ©holles, loc. cit. , pages 60, 84,
89, 101. It is wrong to consider that Gentile could here be a
mere adjective; the 3 Soc. say Gentile nomine .
[5] 1 Cel., 4; 3 Soc., 5.
[6] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 8.
[7] 1 Cel., 5; 3 Soc., 5; 2 Cel., 1, 2; Bon., 9.
[8] 3 Soc., 6; Bon., 9; 2 Cel., 1, 2.
[9] 3 Soc., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 2.
[10] These days are recalled by Celano with a very particular
precision. It is very improbable that Francis, usually so
reserved as to his personal experience, should have told him
about them (2 Cel., 3, 68 and 42, cf. Bon., 144). On the other
hand, nothing forbids his having been informed on this matter by
Brother Elias. (I strongly suspect the legend which tells of an
old man appearing on the day Francis was born and begging
permission to take the child in his arms, saying, "To-day, two
infants were born--this one, who will be among the best of men,
and another, who will be among the worst"--of having been
invented by the zelanti against Brother Elias. It is evident
that such a story is aimed at some one. Whom, if not him who was
afterward to appear as the Anti-Francis?) We have sufficient
details about the eleven first disciples to know that none of
them is here in question. There is nothing surprising in the
fact that Elias does not appear in the earliest years of the
Order (1209-1212), because after having practised at Assisi his
double calling of schoolmaster and carriage-trimmer ( suebat
cultras et docebat puerulos psalterium legere , Salimbene, p.
402) he was scriptor at Bologna (Eccl., 13). And from the
psychological point of view this hypothesis would admirably
explain the ascendency which Elias was destined always to
exercise over his master. Still it remains difficult to
understand why Celano did not name Elias here, but the passage,
1 Cel., 6, differs in the different manuscripts (cf. A. SS. and
Amoni's edition, p. 14) and may have been retouched after the
latter's fall.
Beviglia is a simple farm three-quarters of an hour northwest of
Assisi, almost half way to Petrignano. Half an hour from Assisi
in the direction of Beviglia is a grotto, which may very well be
that of which we are about to speak.
[11] 1 Cel., 6; 2 Cel., 1, 5; 3 Soc., 8, 12; Bon., 10, 11, 12.
[12] 3 Soc., 7; 1 Cel., 7; 2 Cel., 1, 3; 3 Soc., 13.
[13] 3 Soc., 8-10; Bon., 13, 14; 2 Cel., 1, 4.
[14] To this day in the centre and south of Italy they kiss the
hand of priests and monks.
[15] See the Will. Cf. 3 Soc., 11; 1 Cel., 17; Bon., 11; A. SS.,
p. 566.
[16] 3 Soc., 11; Bon., 13.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III
THE CHURCH ABOUT 1209
St. Francis was inspired as much as any man may be, but it would be a palpable error to study him apart from his age and from the conditions in which he lived.
We know that he desired and believed his life to be an imitation of Jesus, but what we know about the Christ is in fact so little, that St. Francis's life loses none of its strangeness for that. His conviction that he was but an imitator preserved him from all temptation to pride, and enabled him to proclaim his views with incomparable vigor, without seeming in the least to be preaching himself.
We must therefore neither isolate him from external influences nor show him too dependent on them. During the period of his life at which we are now arrived, 1205-1206, the religious situation of Italy must more than at any other time have influenced his thought and urged him into the path which he finally entered.
The morals of the clergy were as corrupt as ever, rendering any serious reform
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