part in these matters which is very difficult to understand. We see him

continually lavishing upon Francis and Clara expressions of affection

and admiration which appear to be absolutely sincere; and yet the

Franciscan ideal--regarded as the life of love at which one arrives by

freeing himself from all servitude to material things--has hardly had a

worse adversary than he.

In the month of May, 1228, Gregory IX. went to Assisi for the

preliminaries of the canonization of St. Francis. Before entering the

city he turned out of his way to visit St. Damian and to see Clara, whom

he had known for a long time, and to whom he had addressed letters

burning with admiration and paternal affection.[21]

How can we understand that at this time, the eve of the canonization

(July 16, 1228), the pontiff could have had the idea of urging her to be

faithless to her vows?

He represented to her that the state of the times made life impossible

to women who possess nothing, and offered her certain properties. As

Clara gazed at him in astonishment at this strange proposition, he said,

"If it is your vows which prevent you, we will release you from them."

"Holy Father," replied the Franciscan sister, "absolve me from my sins,

but I have no desire for a dispensation from following Christ."[22]

Noble and pious utterance, artless cry of independence, in which the

conscience proudly proclaims its autonomy! In these words is mirrored

at full length the spiritual daughter of the Poverello.

By one of those intuitions which often come to very enthusiastic and

very pure women, she had penetrated to the inmost depths of Francis's

heart, and felt herself inflamed with the same passion which burned in

him. She remained faithful to him to the end, but we perceive that it

was not without difficulty.

This is not the place in which to ask whether Gregory IX. was right in

desiring that religious communities should hold estates; he had a right

to his own views on the subject; but there is something shocking, to say

no more, in seeing him placing Francis among the saints at the very

moment when he was betraying his dearest ideals, and seeking to induce

those who had remained faithful to betray them.

Had Clara and Francis foreseen the difficulties which they would meet?

We may suppose so, for already under the pontificate of Innocent III.

she had obtained a grant of the privilege of poverty. The pope was so

much surprised at such a request that he desired to write with his own

hands the opening lines of this patent, the like of which had never been

asked for at the court of Rome.[23]

Under his successor, Honorius III., the most important personage of the

curia was this very Cardinal Ugolini. Almost a septuagenarian in 1216 he

inspired awe at first sight by the aspect of his person. He had that

singular beauty which distinguishes the old who have escaped the usury

of life; pious, enlightened, energetic, he felt himself made for great

undertakings. There is something in him which recalls Cardinal Lavigerie

and all the prelates whose red robes cover a soldier or a despot rather

than a priest.[24]

The Franciscan movement was attacked with violence[25] in various

quarters; he undertook to defend it, and a very long time before the

charge of protector of the Order was officially confided to him, he

exercised it with devouring zeal.[26] He felt an unbounded admiration

for Francis and Clara, and often manifested it in a touching manner. If

he had been a simple man he might have loved them and followed them.

Perhaps he even had thought of doing so.[27] Alas! he was a prince of

the Church; he could not help thinking of what he would do in case he

should be called to guide the ship of St. Peter.

He acted accordingly; was it calculation on his part or simply one of

those states of conscience in which a man absorbed in the end to be

attained hardly discusses the ways and means? I do not know, but we see

him immediately on the death of Innocent III., under pretext of

protecting the Clarisses, take their direction in hand, give them a

Rule, and substitute his own ideas for those of St. Francis.[28]

In the privilege which as legate he gave in favor of Monticelli, July

27, 1219, neither Clara nor Francis is named, and the Damianites become

as a congregation of Benedictines.[29]

We shall see farther on the wrath of Francis against Brother Philip, a

Zealot of the Poor Ladies, who had accepted this privilege in his

absence. His attitude was so firm that other documents of the same

nature granted by Ugolini at the same epoch were not indorsed by the

pope until three years later.

The cardinal's ardor to profit by the enthusiasm which the Franciscan

ideas everywhere excited was so great that we find, in the register of

his legation of 1221, a sort of formula all prepared for those who would

found convents like those of the Sisters of St. Damian; but even there

we search in vain for the name of Francis or Clara.[30]

This old man had, however, a truly mystical passion for the young

abbess; he wrote to her, lamenting the necessity of being far from her,

in words which are the language of love, respect, and admiration.[31]

There were at least two men in Ugolini: the Christian, who felt himself

subdued before Clara and Francis; the prelate, that is, a man whom the

glory of the Church sometimes caused to forget the glory of God.

Francis, though almost always resisting him, appears to have kept a

feeling of ingenuous gratitude toward him to the very end. Clara, on the

contrary, had too long a struggle to be able to keep any illusions as to

the attitude of her protector. After 1230 there is no trace of any

relations between them.

All the efforts of the pope to mitigate the rigor of Clara's vow of

poverty had remained vain. Many other nuns desired to practise strictly

the Rule of St. Francis. Among them was the daughter of the King of

Bohemia, Ottokar I., who was in continual relations with Clara. But

Gregory IX., to whom she addressed herself, was inflexible. While

pouring eulogies upon her he enjoined upon her to follow the Rule which

he sent to her--that is, the one which he had composed while he was yet

cardinal. The Rule of the Poverello was put among the utopias, not to

say heresies.[32] He never, however, could induce St. Clara to

completely submit herself. One day, indeed, she rebelled against his

orders, and it was the pope who was obliged to yield: he had desired to

bring about a wider separation between the friars and the Sisters than

had formerly prevailed; for a long time after the death of Francis a

certain familiarity had continued between St. Damian and Portiuncula;

Clara especially loved these neighborly relations, and often begged one

or another Brother to come and preach. The pope thought ill of this, and

forbade, under the severest penalty, that any friar of Portiuncula

should go to St. Damian without express permission of the Holy See.

This time Clara became indignant. She went to the few friars attached to

her monastery, and thanking them for their services, "Go," she said;

"since they deprive us of those who dispense to us spiritual bread, we

will not have those who procure for us our material bread." He who wrote

that "_the necks of kings and princes are bowed at the feet of the

priests_" was obliged to bow before this woman and raise his

prohibition.[33]

St. Damian had too often echoed with St. Francis's hymns of love and

liberty to forget him so soon and become an ordinary convent. Clara

remained surrounded with the master's early companions; Egidio, Leo,

Angelo, Ginepro never ceased to be assiduous visitors. These true lovers

of poverty felt themselves at home there, and took liberties which would

elsewhere have given surprise. One day an English friar, a celebrated

theologian, came according to the minister's orders to preach at St.

Damian. Suddenly Egidio, though a simple layman, interrupted him: "Stop,

brother, let me speak," he said to him. And the master in theology,

bowing his head, covered himself with his cowl as a sign of obedience,

and sat down to listen to Egidio.

Clara felt a great joy in this; it seemed to her that she was once again

living in St. Francis's days.[34] The little coterie was kept up until

her death; she expired in the arms of Brothers Leo, Angelo, and Ginepro.

In her last sufferings and her dying visions she had the supreme

happiness of being surrounded by those who had devoted their lives to

the same ideal as she.[35]

In her will her life shows itself that which we have seen it--a daily

struggle for the defence of the Franciscan idea. We see how courageous

and brave was this woman who has always been represented as frail,

emaciated, blanched like a flower of the cloister.[36]

She defended Francis not only against others, but also against himself.

In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly

disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was

beside him to show him his way. When he doubted his mission and thought

of fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who

showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men

going astray with no shepherd to lead them, and drew him once again into

the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who _give their

lives a ransom for many_.[37]

Yet this love with which at St. Damian Francis felt himself surrounded

frightened him at times. He feared that his death, making too great a

void, would imperil the institution itself, and he took pains to remind

the sisters that he would not be always with them. One day when he was

to preach to them, instead of entering the pulpit he caused some ashes

to be brought, and after having spread them around him and scattered

some on his head, he intoned the _Miserere_, thus reminding them that he

was but dust and would soon return to dust.[38]

But in general it is at St. Damian that St. Francis is the most

himself; it is under the shade of its olive-trees, with Clara caring for

him, that he composes his finest work, that which Ernest Renan called

the most perfect utterance of modern religious sentiment, the "Canticle

of the Sun."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Easy as it is to seize the large outlines of her life, it is

with difficulty that one makes a detailed and documentary study

of it. There is nothing surprising in this, for the Clarisses

felt the rebound of the struggles which divided and rapidly

transformed the Order of the Brothers Minor. The greater number

of the documents have disappeared; we give summary indication of

those which will most often be cited: 1. Life of St. Clara by an

anonymous author. A. SS., _Aug._, t. ii., pp. 739-768. 2. Her

Will, given by Wadding (_Annales_, 1253, No. 5), but which does

not appear to be free from alteration. (Compare, for example,

the opening of this will with Chapter VI. of the Rule of the

Damianites approved by Innocent IV., August 8, 1253.) 3. The

bull of canonization, given September 26, 1255--that is to say,

two years after Clara's death; it is much longer than these

documents ordinarily are, and relates the principal incidents of

her life. A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 749; Potthast, 16,025. 4. Her

correspondence. Unhappily we have only fragments of it; the

Bollandists, without saying whence they drew them, have inserted

four of her letters in the _Acta_ of St. Agnes of Bohemia, to

whom they were addressed. (A. SS., _Martii_, t. i., pp.

506-508.)

[2] Reading the Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni, which represents the

average Franciscan character about 1250, one sees with what

reason the Rule had multiplied minute precautions for keeping

the Brothers from all relations with women.

The desire of Celano to present the facts in the life of Francis

as the norm of the acts of the friars appears still more in the

chapters concerning St. Clara than in all the others. Vide 2

Cel., 3, 132: _Non credatis, charissimi (dixit Franciscus),

quodeas perfecte non diligam.... Sed exemplum do vobis, ut

quemadmodum ego facio, ita et vos faciatis._ Cf. ibid., 134.

[3] 2 Cel., 3, 55. _Fateor veritatem ... nullam me si aspicerem

recogniturum in facie nisi duas_. This chapter and the two

following give us a sort of caricature, in which Francis is

represented as so little sure of himself that he casts down his

eyes for fear of yielding to desire. The stories of Francis and

Jacqueline of Settesoli give a very different picture of the

relations between the Brothers and the women in the origin of

the Order from that which was given later. Bernard de Besse

(Turin MS., f^o. 113) relates at length the coming of Jacqueline

to Portiuncula to be present at St. Francis's death. Cf.

_Spec._, 107; 133; Bon., 112. Also Clara's repast at

Portiuncula. _Fior._, 15; _Spec._, 139b.; A. SS. _Aug. Vita

Clar._, No. 39 ff.

[4] Isaiah, lxiii., 8 and 9 (Ségond's [French] translation). At

the Mass on Holy Monday Isaiah lxiii. is read for the Epistle

and Mark xiv. for the Gospel.

[5] San Paolo on the Chiasco, near Bastia.

[6] At the present day diocesan seminary of Assisi, "_Seminarium

seraphicum_." In the thirteenth century the north gate of the

city was there. The houses which lie between there and the

Basilica form the new town, which is rapidly growing and will

unite the city with Sacro Convento.

[7] _Nam steteramus in alio loco, licet parum. Test. Clar._ It

is truly strange that there is not a word here for the house

where the first days of her religious life were passed. Cf.

_Vit._, no. 10: _S. Angelus de Panse ... ubi cum non plene mens

ejus quiesceret._

[8] Mittarelli, _Annales Camaldulenses_ (Venice, 1755-1773, 9

vols., f^o.), t. iv., app. 431 and 435. Cf. 156.

[9] The act of donation is still in the archives of Assisi. An

analysis of it will be found in Cristofani, t. i., p. 133. Their

munificence remained without result; the bull _Ab Ecclesia_ of

July 27, 1232, shows that they were suppressed less than twenty

years after. _Sbaralea_, t. 1, p. 81. Potthast, 8984. Cf., ib.,

p. 195, note c, and 340, note a, and the bulls which are there

indicated.

[10] See p. 81, note ii.

[11] 1 Cel., 18; 21; 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 1, 8.

[12] _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 600. Cf. 3 Soc., 60. The three

Orders are contemporary, one might even say, the four, including

among them the one that miscarried among the secular priests

(see below).

In a letter St. Clara speaks of her Order as making only a part

with that of the Brothers: _Sequaris consilia Reverendi Patris

nostri fratris Eliæ Ministri generalis totius ordinis_. A. SS.,

Martii, t. i., p. 507.

[13] This point of view is brought into relief by an anecdote in

the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of Besse (Turin MS., 113a). This is

how he ends chap. vii. on the three Orders: _Nec Santus his

contentus ordinibus satagebat omnium generi salutis et

penitentiæ viam dare. Unde parochiali cuidam sacerdoti dicenti

sibi quod vellet suus, retenta tamen ecclesia. Frater esse, dato

vivendi et induendi modo, dicitur indixisse ut annuatim,

collectis Eclesiæ fructibus daret pro Deo, quod de præteritis

superesset._

[14] See the lovely story in the _Fior._, 13. Cf. _Spec._, 65a;

_Conform._, 168b. 1.

[15] The text of it was doubtless formerly inserted in chapter

vi. of the Rule granted to the Clarisses of St. Damian, August

9, 1253, by the bull _Solet annuere_. Potthast, 15,086. But this

chapter has been completely changed in many editions. The text

of the _Speculum_, Morin, Rouen 1509, should be read. _Tract_

iii., 226b. The critical study to be made upon this text by

comparing the indications given by the bull _Angelis guadium_ of

May 11, 1238, Sbaralea, i., p. 242, is too long to find a place

here.

[16] 2 Cel., 3, 132. Cf. _Test. B. Clar._

[17] _In illa gravi infirmitate ... faciebat se erigi ... et

sedens filabat._ A. SS., 760e. _Sic vult eas [sorores] operare

manibus suis._ Ib. 762a.

[18] _Fior._ 33.

[19] Rule of 1221, chap xii. _Et nulla penitus mulier ab aliquo

frater recipiatur ad obedientiam, sed dato sibi consilio

spirituali, ubi voluerit agat penitentiam._ Cf. below, p. 252,

note 1, the remainder of this chapter and the indication of the

sources. This proves, 1, that the friars had received women into

the Order; 2, that at the beginning they said The Order in the

singular, and under this appellation included Sisters as well as

Brothers. We see how far the situation was, even at the end of

1221, from being what it became a few years later. It is to be

noted that in all the reforming sects of the commencement of the

thirteenth century the two sexes were closely united. (Vide

_Burchardi chronicon_, Pertz, 1, 23, p. 376. Cf. Potthast, 2611,

bull _Cum otim_ of Nov. 25, 1205.)

On the 7th of June, 1201 (bull _Incunubit nobis_), Innocent III.

had approved the Rule of the Humiliants. This was a religious

association whose members continued to live in their own homes,

and who offer surprising points of contact with the Franciscan

Order, though they took no vow of poverty. From them issued a

more restricted association which founded convents where they

worked in wool; these convents received both men and women. Vide

Jacques de Vitry, _Hist. Occidentalis_, cap. 28. _De religione

et regula Humiliatorum_ (Douai, 1597, pp. 334-337). The time

came when from these two Orders issued a third, composed solely

of priests. These _Humiliati_ are too little known, though they

have had a historian whose book is one of the noble works of the

eighteenth century: Tiraboschi, _Vetera Humiliatorum monumenta_

(Milan, 3 vols., 4to, 1766-1768). Toward 1200 they had

monopolized _l'arte della lana_ in all upper Italy as far as to

Florence; it is evident, therefore, that Francis's father must

have had relations with them.

[20] The bull approving the Rule of St. Damian is of August 9,

1253. Clara died two days later.

[21] 1 Cel., 122. Cf. Potthast, 8194 ff.; cf. ib., 709.

[22] A. SS., _Vita Cl._, p. 758. Cf. bull of canonization.

[23] _Vit. S. Clar._, A. SS., p. 758. This petition was surely

made by the medium of Francis; and there are several indications

of his presence in Perugia in the latter part of the life of

Innocent III. _In obitu suo [Alexandri papæ] omnes familiares

sui deseruerunt eum præter fratres Minores. Et similiter Papam

Gregorium et Honorium et Innocentium in cujus obitu fuit

præsentialiter S. Franciscus._ Eccl. xv. _Mon. Germ. hist.

Script._, t. 28 p. 568. Sbaralea puts forth doubts as to the

authenticity of this privilege, the text of which he gives;

wrongly, I think, for Clara alludes to it in her will, A. SS.,

p. 747.

[24] He was born about 1147, created cardinal in 1198. Vide

Raynald, _ann._, 1217, § 88, the eulogy made upon him by

Honorius III. _Forma decorus et venustus aspectu ... zelator

fidei, disciplina virtutis, ... castitatis amator et totius

sanctitatis exemplar_: Muratori, _Scriptores rer. Ital._, iii.,

1, 575.

[25] 1 Cel., 74.

[26] The bull _Litteræ tuæ_ of August 27, 1218, shows him

already favoring the Clarisses. Sbaralea, i., p. 1. Vide 3 Soc.,

61. _Offero me ipsum, dixit Hugolinus, vobis, auxilium et

consilium, atque protectionem paratus impendere._

[27] In the Conformities, 107a, 2, there is a curious story

which shows Ugolini going to the Carceri to find Francis, and

asking him if he ought to enter his Order. Cf. _Spec._, 217.

[28] He succeeded so well that Thomas of Celano himself seems to

forget that, at least at St. Damian, the Clarisses followed the

Rule given by St. Francis himself: _Ipsorum vita mirifica et

institutio gloriosa a domino Papa Gregorio, tunc Hostiensi

episcopo._ 1 Cel. 20. Cf. _Honorii Opera_ Horoy, t. iii., col.

363; t. iv., col. 218; Potthast, 6179 and 6879 ff.

[29] This privilege is inserted in the bull _Sacrosancta_ of

December 9, 1219. _Honorii opera_, Horoy, t. iii., col. 363 ff.

[30] G. Levi, _Registri dei Cardinali_, no. 125. Vide below, p.

400. Cf. Campi, _Hist. eccl. di Piacenza_, ii., 390.

[31] See, for example, the letter given by Wadding: Annals, ii.,

p. 16 (Rome, 1732). _Tanta me amaritudo cordis, abundantia

lacrymarum et immanitas doloris invasit, quod nisi ad pedes

Jesu, consolationem solitæ pietatis invenirem, spiritus meus

forte deficeret et penitus anima liquefieret._ Wadding's text

should be corrected by that of the Riccardi MS., 279. f^o 80a

and b. Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 185; Sbaralea, i., p. 37.

[32] Bull _Angelis gaudium_ of May 11, 1238; it may be found in

Sbaralea, i., p. 242. Cf. Palacky, _Literarische Reise nach

Italien_, Prague, 1838, 4to, no. 147. Potthast, 10,596; cf.

11,175.

[33] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 762. Cf. _Conform._, 84b, 2.

[34] A. SS., _Aprilis_, t. iii., p. 239a; _Conform._, 54a, 1;

177a, 2.

[35] A. SS., _Vit. Clar._, p. 764d.

[36] The bull of canonization says nothing of the Saracens whom

she put to flight. Her life in the A. SS. relates the fact, but

shows her simply in prayer before the Holy Sacrament. Cf.

_Conform._, 84b, 1. Mark of Lisbon t. i., part 2, pp. 179-181.

None of these accounts represents Clara as going to meet them

with a monstrance.

[37] Bon., 173; _Fior._ 16; _Spec._, 62b; _Conform._, 84b, 2;

110b 1; 49a, 1. With these should be compared _Spec._, 220b:

_Frater Leo narravit quod Sanctus Franciscus surgens orare_

(sic) _venit ad fratres suos dicens: "Ite ad sæculum et

dimittatis habitum, licentio vos._"

[38] 2 Cel., 3, 134.

* * * * *