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

contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth this
Declaratio , against which, not without regret, the Zealots
found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by
Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of any Declaratio
( Archiv. , ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by
a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), f^o 62a: In hoc
capitulo (Narbonnæ) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D.
Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in Capitulo METENSI.
Et præceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus
expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit.

[36] Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F.
Ehrle, S. J., in his studies Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von
Vienne . Archiv. , ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.

[37] See, for example, Archiv. , iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76.
Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in
legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis
sanctæ memoriæ fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut
ab ore beati Francisci audivit. Ib., p. 85.

[38] Hæc omnia patent per sua [B. Francisci] verba expressa per
sanctum fratrem virum Leonem ejus socium tam de mandato sancti
patris quam etiam de devotione prædicti fratris fuerunt
solemniter conscripta, in libro qui habetur in armario fratrum
de Assisio et in rotulis ejus, quos apud me habeo, manu ejusdem
fratris Leonis conscriptis. Archiv. , iii., p. 168. Cf. p. 178.

[39] 3 Soc., Prol. Non contenti narrare solum miracula ...
conversationis insignia et pii beneplaciti voluntatem .

[40] Leggenda di S. Francesco, tipografia Morici et Badaloni ,
Recanati, 1856, 1 vol., 8vo.

[41] See Father Stanislaus's preface.

[42] 3 Soc., 68-73.

[43] The book lacks little of representing St. Francis as taking
up the work of Jesus, interrupted (by the fault of the secular
clergy) since the time of the apostles. The viri evangelici
consider the members of the clergy filios extraneos. 3 Soc.,
48 and 51. Cf. 3 Soc., 48. Inveni virum ... per quem, credo
Dominus velit in toto mundo fedem sanctæ Ecclesiæ reformare .
Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 141. Videbatur revera fratri et omnium
comitatium turbæ quod Christi et b. Francisci una persona
foret .

[44] A. SS. p. 552.

[45] Venetiis, expensis domini Jordani de Dinslaken per Simonem
de Luere , 30 januarii, 1504. Impressum Metis per Jasparem
Hochffeder , Anno Domini 1509. These two editions are identical,
small 12mos, of 240 folios badly numbered. Edited under the same
title by Spoelberch, Antwerp, 1620, 2 tomes in one volume, 8vo,
208 and 192 pages, with a mass of alterations. The most
important manuscript resembles that of the Vatican 4354. There
are two at the Mazarin Library, 904 and 1350, dated 1459 and
1460, one at Berlin (MS. theol. lat., 4to, no. 196 sæc. 14).
Vide Ehrle, Zeitschrift . t. vii. (1883), p. 392f; Analecta
fr. , t. i., p. xi.; Miscellanea , 1888, pp. 119. 164. Cf. A.
SS., pp. 550-552.

The chapters are numbered in the first 72 folios only, but these
numbers teem with errors; fo. 38b. caput lix., 40b, lix., 41b,
lxi. ibid., lxii., 42a, lx., 43a, lxi. Besides at fos. 46b and
47b there are two chapters lxvi. There are two lxxi., two
lxxii., two lxxiii., etc.

[46] For example, the history of the brigands of Monte-Casale,
fos. 46b, and 58b. The remarks of Brother Elias to Francis, who
is continually singing, 136b and 137a. The visit of Giacomina di
Settesoli, 133a and 138a. The autograph benediction given to
Brother Leo, 87a; 188a.

[47] At fo. 20b we read: Tertium capitulam de charitate et
compassione et condescensione ad proximum. Capitulum xxvi. Cf.
26a, 83a, 117b, 119a, 122a, 128b, 133b, 136b, where there are
similar indications.

[48] Fo. 5b: Incipit Speculum vitæ b. Francesci et sociorum
ejus . Fo. 7b; Incipit Speculum perfectionis .

[49] We should search for it in vain in the other pieces of the
Speculum, and it reappears in the fragments of Brother Leo cited
by Ubertini di Casali and Angelo Clareno.

[50] Fo. 8b, 11a, 12a, 15a, 18b, 21b, 23b, 26a, 29a, 33b, 43b,
41a, 48b, 118a, 129a, 130a, 134a, 135a, 136a.

[51] Does not Thomas de Celano say in the prologue of the Second
Life: " Oramus ergo, benignissime pater, ut laboris hujus non
contemnenda munuscula ... vestra benedictione consecrare
velitis, corrigendo errata et superflua resecantes ."

[52] The legend of 3 Soc. was preserved in the Convent of
Assisi: " Omnia ... fuerunt conscripta ... per Leonem, ... in
libro qui habetur in armario fratrum de Assisio ." Ubertini,
Archiv. , iii., p. 168. Later, Brother Leo seems to have gone
more into detail as to certain facts; he confided these new
manuscripts to the Clarisses: " In rotulis ejus quos apud me
habeo, manu ejusdem fratres Leonis conscriptis ," ibid. Cf. p.
178. " Quod sequitur a sancto fratre Conrado predicto et viva
voce audivit a sancto fratre Leone qui presens erat et regulam
scripsit. Et hoc ipsum in quibusdam rotulis manu sua conscriptis
quos commendavit in monasterio S. Claræ custodiendos.... In
illis multa scripsit ... quæ industria fr. Bonaventura omisit et
noluit in legenda publice scribere, maxime quia aliqua erant ibi
in quibus ex tunc deviatio regulæ publice monstrabatur et
nolebat fratres ante tempus in famare. " Arbor. , lib. v., cap
5. Cf. Antiquitates , p. 146. Cf. Speculum , 50b. " Infra
scripta verba, frater Leo socius et Confessor B. Francisci,
Conrado de Offida, dicebat se habuisse ex ore Beati Patris
nostri Francisci, quæ idem Frater Conradus retulit, apud Sanctum
Damianum prope Assisium. " Conrad di Offidia copied, then, both
the book of Brother Leo and his rotuli ; he added to it certain
oral information ( Arbor, vit. cruc. , lib. v., cap. 3), and so
perhaps composed the collection so often cited by the
Conformists under the title of Legenda Antiqua and reproduced
in part in the Speculum. The numbering of the chapters, which
the Speculum has awkwardly inserted without noting that they
were not in accord with his own division, were vestiges of the
division adopted by Conrad di Offida.

It may well be that, after the interdiction of his book and its
confiscation at the Sacro Convento, Brother Leo repeated in his
rotuli a large part of the facts already made, so that the
same incident, while coming solely from Brother Leo, could be
presented under two different forms, according as it would be
copied from the book or the rotuli .

[53] Compare, for example, 2 Cel., 120: Vocation of John the
Simple, and Speculum, f^o 37a. From the account of Thomas de
Celano, one does not understand what drew John to St. Francis;
in the Speculum everything is explained, but Celano has not
dared to depict Francis going about preaching with a broom upon
his shoulder to sweep the dirty churches.

[54] It was published for the first time at Rome, in 1806, by
Father Rinaldi, following upon the First Life (vide above, p.
365, note 2), and restored in 1880 by Abbé Amoni: Vita secunda
S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus
discipulo. Romæ, tipografia