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

nothing to indicate it in any document worthy of credence. She
was no doubt of noble stock, for official documents always give
her the title Domina . Cristofani I., p. 78 ff. Cf. Matrem
honestissimam habuit . 3 Soc., Edition of Pesaro, 1831, p. 17.

[17] The reading given by the Conform ., 14a, 1, Meritorum
gratia dei filium ipsum noveritis affuturum , seems better than
that of 2 Cel., 1, 1, Multorum gratia Dei filiorum patrem ipsum
noveritis affuturum . Cf. 3 Soc., 2.

[18] Bernardo of Besse, Turin MS., 102 b.: An integer carne
desiderans ... quod non extorsisset a Sancto ... meruit obtinere
a Deo quod virgo esset . Cf. Conform ., 211a, 1, and A. SS., p.
560f.

[19] " In illa antiphona quæ incipit: Hic vir in vanitatibus
nutritus insolenter, fiat talis mutatis: Divinis karismatibus
preventus est clementer." Archiv. , vi., p. 35.

[20] Vide p. 395, the decision of the chapter of 1263 ordaining
the destruction of legends earlier than that of Bonaventura.

[21] 1 Cel., 1 and 2; 89; 3 Soc., 2. Cf. A. SS., 560c. Vincent
of Beauvais, Spec. hist. lib. , 29, cap. 97.

[22] Pierre Vidal was at the court of Boniface, Marquis of
Montferrat, about 1195, and liked his surroundings so well that
he desired to establish himself there. K. Bartsch, Piere
Vidal's Lieder , Berlin, 1857, n. 41. Ern. Monaci, Testi
antichi provenzali , Rome, 1889, col. 67. One should read this
piece to have an idea of the fervor with which this poet shared
the hopes of Italy and desired its independence. This political
note is found again in a tenzon of Manfred II. Lancia,
addressed to Pierre Vidal. (V. Monaci, loc. cit. , col.
68.)--Gaucelme Faidit was also at this court as well as Raimbaud
of Vacqueyras (1180-1207).--Folquet de Romans passed nearly all
his life in Italy. Bernard of Ventadour (1145-1195), Peirol of
Auvergne (1180-1220), and many others abode there a longer or
shorter time. Very soon the Italians began to sing in Provençal,
among others this Manfred Lancia, and Albert Marquis of
Malaspina (1162-1210), Pietro della Caravana, who in 1196
stirred up the Lombard towns against Henry VI., Pietro della
Mula, who about 1200 was at the court of Cortemiglia. Fragments
from these poets may be found in Monaci, op. cit. , col. 69 ff.

[23] Soc., 3; 2 Cel., 1, 1.

[24] Cum esset gloriosus animo et nollet aliquem se
præcellere , Giord. 20.

[25] 1 Cel., 17; 3 Soc., 3; Bon., 7. Cf. A. SS., p. 562.

[26] 1 Cel., 2; Bon., 6; Vit. sec. apud , A. SS., p. 560.

[27] 3 Soc., 9.

[28] In 1174 Assisi was taken by the chancellor of the empire,
Christian, Archbishop of Mayence. A. Cristofani, i., p. 69.

[29] All these events are related in the Gesta Innocentii III.
ab auctore coætaneo , edited by Baluze: Migne, Inn. op. , vol.
i., col. xxiv. See especially the letter of Innocent,
Rectoribus Tusciæ: Mirari cogimur , of April 16, 1198. Migne,
vol. i., col. 75-77. Potthast, No. 82.

[30] See Luigi Bonazzi, Storia di Perugia , 2 vols., 8vo.
Perugia, 1875-1879 vol. i., cap. v., pp. 257-322.

[31] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1. Cristofani, op. cit. , i., p. 88
ff.; Bonazzi, op. cit. , p. 257.

[32] 3 Soc., 4.

[33] 3 Soc., 4; 2 Cel., 1, 1.

[34] See this arbitration in Cristofani, op. cit. , p. 93 ff.

[35] Cristofani, loc. cit. , p. 70.

* * * * *


CHAPTER II

STAGES OF CONVERSION

Spring 1204-Spring 1206


On his return to Assisi Francis at once resumed his former mode of life; perhaps he even tried in some degree to make up for lost time. Fêtes, games, festivals, and dissipations began again. He did his part in them so well that he soon fell gravely ill.[1] For long weeks he looked death so closely in the face that the physical crisis brought about a moral one. Thomas of Celano has preserved for us an incident of Francis's convalescence. He was regaining strength little by little and had begun to go about the house, when one day he felt a desire to walk abroad, to contemplate nature quietly, and so take hold again of life. Leaning on a stick he bent his steps toward the city gate.

The nearest one, called Porta Nuova , is the very one which opens upon the finest scenery. Immediately on passing through it one finds one's self in the open country; a fold of the hill hides the city, and cuts off every sound that might come from it. Before you lies the winding road to Foligno; at the left the imposing mass of Mount Subasio; at the right the Umbrian plain with its farms, its villages, its cloud-like hills, on whose slopes pines, cedars, oaks, the vine, and the olive-tree shed abroad an incomparable brightness and animation. The whole country sparkles with beauty, a beauty harmonious and thoroughly human, that is, made to the measure of man.

Francis had hoped by this sight to recover the delicious sensations of his youth. With the sharpened sensibility of the convalescent he breathed in the odors of the spring-time, but spring-time did not come, as he had expected, to his heart. This smiling nature had for him only a message of sadness. He had believed that the breezes of this beloved country-side would carry away the last shudders of the fever, and instead he felt in his heart a discouragement a thousand-fold more painful than any physical ill. The miserable emptiness of his life suddenly appeared before him; he was terrified at his solitude, the solitude of a great soul in which there is no altar.

Memories of the past assailed him with intolerable bitterness; he was seized with a disgust of himself, his former ambitions seemed to him ridiculous or despicable. He went home overwhelmed with the weight of a new suffering.

In such hours of moral anguish man seeks a refuge either in love or in faith. Unhappily the family and friends of Francis were incapable of understanding him. As to religion, it was for him, as for the greater number of his contemporaries, that crass fetichism with Christian terminology which is far from having entirely disappeared. With certain men, in fact, piety consists in making one's self right with a king more powerful than any other, but also more severe and capricious, who is called God. One proves one's loyalty to him as to other sovereigns, by putting his image more or less everywhere, and punctually paying the imposts levied by his ministers. If you are stingy, if you cheat, you run the risk of being severely chastised, but there are courtiers around the king who willingly render services. For a reasonable recompense they will seize a favorable moment to adroitly make away with the sentence of your condemnation or to slip before the prince a form of plenary absolution which in a moment of good humor he will sign without looking at it.[2]

Such was the religious basis upon which Francis had lived up to this time. He did not so much as dream of seeking the spiritual balm which he needed for the healing of his wounds. By a holy violence he was to arrive at last at a pure and virile faith; but the road to this point is long, and sown thick with obstacles, and at the moment at which we have arrived he had not yet entered upon it, he did not even suspect its existence; all he knew was that pleasure leads to nothingness, to satiety and self-contempt.

He knew this, and yet he was about to throw himself once more into a life of pleasure. The body is so weak, so prone to return to the old paths, that it seeks them of itself, the moment an energetic will does not stop it. Though no longer under any illusion with respect to it, Francis returned to his former life. Was he trying to divert his mind, to forget that day of bitter thought? We might suppose so, seeing the ardor with which he threw himself into his new projects.[3]

An opportunity offered itself for him to realize his dreams of glory. A knight of Assisi, perhaps one of those who had been in captivity with him at Perugia, was preparing to go to Apulia under orders from Count Gentile.[4] The latter was to join Gaultier de Brienne, who was in the south of Italy fighting on the side of Innocent III. Gaultier's renown was immense all through the Peninsula; he was held to be one of the most gallant knights of the time. Francis's heart bounded with joy; it seemed to him that at the side of such a hero he should soon cover himself with glory. His departure was decided upon, and he gave himself up, without reserve, to his joy.

He made his preparations with ostentatious prodigality. His equipment, of a princely luxury, soon became the universal subject of conversation. It was all the more talked about because the chief of the expedition, ruined perhaps by the revolution of 1202 or by the expenses of a long captivity, was constrained to order things much more modestly.[5] But with Francis kindliness was much stronger than love of display. He gave his sumptuous clothing to a poor knight. The biographies do not say whether or not it was to the very one whom he was to accompany.[6] To see him running hither and