Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier (best historical biographies txt) 📕

/> Francis and his companions were too little familiar with Roman phraseology to perceive that after all the Holy See had simply consented to suspend judgment in view of the uprightness of their intentions and the purity of their faith.[25]

The flowers of clerical rhetoric hid from them the shackles which had been laid upon them. The curia, in fact, was not satisfied with Francis's vow of fidelity, it desired in addition to stamp the Penitents with the seal of the Church: the Cardinal of San Paolo was deputed to confer upon them the tonsure. From this time they were all under the spiritual authority of the Roman Church.

The thoroughly lay creation of St. Francis had become, in spite of himself, an ecclesiastical institution: it must soon degenerate into a clerical institution. All unawares, the Franciscan movement had been unfaithful to its origin. The prophet had abdicated in favor of the priest, not indeed without possibility of return, for when a man has once reigned, I would say, thought, in liberty--what other kingdom is there on this earth?--he makes but an indifferent slave; in vain he tries to submit; in spite of himself it happens at times that he lifts his head proudly, he rattles his chains, he remembers the struggles, sadness, anguish of the days of liberty, and weeps their loss. Among the sons of St. Francis many were destined to weep their lost liberty, many to die to conquer it again.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] The date usually fixed for the approval of the Rule by
Innocent III. is the month of August, 1209. The Bollandists had
thought themselves able to infer it from the account where
Thomas of Celano (1 Cel., 43) refers to the passage through
Umbria of the Emperor Otho IV., on his way to be crowned at Rome
(October 4, 1209). Upon this journey see Böhmer-Ficker, Regesta
Imperii. Dei Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV. ,
etc., Insbruck, 1879, 4to, pp. 96 and 97. As this account
follows that of the approval, they conclude that the latter was
earlier. But Thomas of Celano puts this account there because
the context led up to it, and not in order to fix its date.
Everything leads to the belief that the Brothers retired
( recolligebat , 1 Cel., 42) to Rivo-Torto before and after
their journey to Rome. Besides, the time between April 23d and
the middle of August, 1209, is much too short for all that the
biographers tell us about the life of the Brothers before their
visit to Innocent III. The mission to Florence took place in
winter, or at least in a very cold month. But the decisive
argument is that Innocent III. quitted Rome toward the end of
May, 1209, and went to Viterbo, returning only to crown Otho,
October 4th (Potthast, 3727-3803). It is therefore absolutely
necessary to postpone to the summer of 1210 the visit of the
Penitents to the pope. This is also the date which Wadding
arrives at.

[2] 3 Soc., 35.

[3] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 51; Bon., 34. Cf. Test. B. Fr. M. K.
Müller of Halle, in his Anfänge , has made a very remarkable
study of the Rule of 1221, whence he deduces an earlier Rule,
which he believes to be that of 1209 (1210). For once I find
myself entirely in accord with him, except that the Rule thus
reconstructed (Vide Anfänge , pp. 14-25, 184-188) appears to me
to be not that of 1210, which was very short, but another, drawn
up between 1210 and 1221. The plures regulas fecit of the 3
Soc., 35, authorizes us to believe that he made perhaps as many
as four--1st, 1210, very short, containing little more than the
three passages of the vocation; 2d, 1217 (?), substantially that
proposed by M. Müller; 3d, 1221, that of which we shall speak at
length farther on; 4th, 1226, the Will, which if not a Rule is
at least an appendix to the Rule. If from 1221-1226 he had time
to make two Rules and the Will, as is universally admitted,
there is nothing surprising in his having made two from
1210-1221. Perhaps we have a fragment of that of 1217 in the
regulation of hermitages. Vide below, p. 109.

[4] Thomas of Celano's list. 1, Quidam pium gerens animum ; 2,
Bernardus ; 3, Vir alter ; 4, Ægidius ; 5, Unus alius
appositus ; 6, Philippus ; 7, Alius bonus vir ; 8, 9, 10, 11,
Quatuor boni et idonei viri . 1 Cel., 24, 25, 29, 31. The
Rinaldi-Amoni text says nothing of the last four. Three
Companions: 1, Bernardus ; 2, Petrus ; 3, Ægidius ; 4,
Sabbatinus ; 5, Moritus ; Johannes Capella ; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
Disciples received by the brethren in their missions. 3 Soc.,
33, 35, 41, 46, 52. Bonaventura: 1, Bernardus ; 2, ... 3,
Ægidius ; 4, 5, ... 6, Silvestro ; 7, Alius bonus viri ; 8,
9, 10, 11, Quatuor viri honesti . Bon., 28, 29, 30, 31, 33. The
Fioretti, while insisting on the importance of the twelve
Franciscan apostles, cite only six in their list: Giovanni di
Capella, Egidio, Philip, Silvestro, Bernardo, and Rufino.
Fior. , 1. We must go to the Conformities to find the
traditional list, f^o 46b 1: 1, Bernardus de Quintavalle ; 2,
Petrus Chatanii ; 3, Egidius ; 4, Sabatinus ; 5, Moricus ;
6, Johannes de Capella ; 7, Philippus Longus ; 8, Johannes de
Sancto Constantio ; 9, Barbarus ; 10, Bernardus de
Cleviridante (sic); 11, Angelus Tancredi ; 12, Sylvester . As
will be seen, in the last two documents twelve disciples are in
question, while in the preceding ones there are only eleven.
This is enough to show a dogmatic purpose. This list reappears
exactly in the Speculum , with the sole difference that Francis
being there included Angelo di Tancrede is the twelfth brother
and Silvestro disappears. Spec. , 87a.

[5] According to tradition, the five compagni del Santo buried
there beside their master are Bernardo, Silvestro, William (an
Englishman), Eletto, and Valentino(?)

[6] 3 Soc., 46; 1 Cel., 32; Bon., 34.

[7] 1 Cel., 33; 3 Soc., 53; Bon., 35.

[8] St. Ludgarde (1182-1246) sees him condemned to Purgatory
till the Last Judgment. Life of this saint by Thomas of Catimpré
in Surius: Vitæ SS. (1618), vi., 215-226.

[9] Vir clari ingenii, magnæ probitatis et sapientiæ, cui
nullus secundus tempore suo: Rigordus, de gestis Philippi
Augusti in Duchesne. Historiæ Francorum scriptores coætanei ,
t. v., p. 60.-- Nec similem sui scientia, facundia, decretorum
et legum perititia, strenuitate, judiciorum nec adhuc visus est
habere sequentem. Cf. Mencken, Script. rer. Sax. , Leipzig,
1728, t. iii., p. 252. Innocentius, qui vere stupor mundi erat
et immutator sæculi. Cotton, Hist. Anglicana , Luard, 1859, p.
107.

[10] Cujus finis lætitiem potius quam tristitiam generavit
subjectis. Alberic delle Tre Fontane. Leibnitz, Accessiones
historicæ , t. ii., p. 492.

[11] Decidit in acutam (febrem) quam cum multis diebus fovisset
nec a citris quibus in magna quantitatæ et ex consuetudine
vescebatur ... minime abstineret ... ad ultimum in lethargia
prolapsus vitam finivit. Alberic delle Tre Fontane, loc. cit.

[12] Fresco in the great nave of the Upper Church of Assisi.

[13] 1 Cel., 32; 3 Soc., 47.

[14] Of the Colonna family; he died in 1216. Cf. 3 Soc., 61.
Vide Cardella, Memorie storiche de' Cardinali , 9 vols., 8vo,
Rome, 1792 ff., t. i., p. 177. He was at Rome in the summer of
1210, for on the 11th of August he countersigned the bull
Religiosem vitam . Potthast, 4061. Angelo Clareno relates the