CHAPTER XII

THE CHAPTER-GENERAL OF 1217[1]

After Whitsunday of 1217 chronological notes of Francis's life are

numerous enough to make error almost impossible. Unhappily, this is not

the case for the eighteen months which precede it (autumn of

1215-Whitsunday, 1217). For this period we are reduced to conjecture, or

little better.

As Francis at that time undertook no foreign mission, he doubtless

employed his time in evangelizing Central Italy and in consolidating the

foundations of his institution. His presence at Rome during the Lateran

Council (November 11-30, 1215) is possible, but it has left no trace in

the earliest biographies. The Council certainly took the new Order into

consideration,[2] but it was to renew the invitation made to it five

years before by the supreme pontiff, to choose one of the Rules already

approved by the Church.[3] St. Dominic, who was then at Rome to beg

for the confirmation of his institute, received the same counsel and

immediately conformed to it. The Holy See would willingly have conceded

special constitutions to the Brothers Minor, if they had adopted for a

base the Rule of St. Benedict; thus the Clarisses, except those of St.

Damian, while preserving their name and a certain number of their

customs, were obliged to profess the Benedictine rule.

In spite of all solicitations, Francis insisted upon retaining his own

Rule. One is led to believe that it was to confer upon these questions

that we find him at Perugia in July, 1216, when Innocent III. died.[4]

However this may be, about this epoch the chapters took on a great

importance. The Church, which had looked on at the foundation of the

Order with somewhat mixed feelings, could no longer rest content with

being the mere spectator of so profound a movement; it saw the need of

utilizing it.

Ugolini was marvellously well prepared for such a task. Giovanni di San

Paolo, Bishop of the Sabine, charged by Innocent III. to look after the

Brothers, died in 1216, and Ugolini was not slow to offer his

protection to Francis, who accepted it with gratitude. This

extraordinary offer is recounted at length by the Three Companions.[5]

It must certainly be fixed in the summer of 1216[6] immediately after

the death of Giovanni di San Paolo.

It is very possible that the first chapter held in the presence of this

cardinal took place on May 29, 1216. By an error very common in history,

most of the Franciscan writers have referred to a single date all the

scattered incidents concerning the first solemn assizes of the Order,

and have called this typical assembly the _Chapter of the Mats_. In

reality for long years all the gatherings of the Brothers Minor deserved

this name.[7]

Coming together at the season of the greatest heat, they slept in the

open air or sheltered themselves under booths of reeds. We need not pity

them. There is nothing like the glorious transparency of the summer

night in Umbria; sometimes in Provence one may enjoy a foretaste of it,

but if at Baux, upon the rock of Doms, or at St. Baume, the sight is

equally solemn and grandiose, it still wants the caressing sweetness,

the effluence of life which in Umbria give the night a bewitching charm.

The inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages flocked to these

meetings in crowds, at once to see the ceremonies, to be present when

their relatives or friends assumed the habit, to listen to the appeals

of the Saint and to furnish to the friars the provisions of which they

might have need. All this is not without some analogy with the

camp-meeting so dear to Americans. As to the figures of several

thousands of attendants given in the legends, and furnishing even to a

Franciscan, Father Papini, the occasion for pleasantries of doubtful

taste, it is perhaps not so surprising as might be supposed.[8]

These first meetings, to which all the Brothers eagerly hastened, held

in the open air in the presence of crowds come together from distant

places, have then nothing in common with the subsequent

chapters-general, which were veritable conclaves attended by a small

number of delegates, and the majority of the work of which, done in

secret, was concerned only with the affairs of the Order.

During Francis's lifetime the purpose of these assemblies was

essentially religious. Men attended them not to talk business, or

proceed to the nomination of the minister-general, but in mutual

communion to gain new strength from the joys, the example, and the

sufferings of the other brethren.[9]

The four years which followed the Whitsunday of 1216 form a stage in the

evolution of the Umbrian movement; that during which Francis was

battling for autonomy. We find here pretty delicate shades of

distinction, which have been misunderstood by Church writers as much as

by their adversaries, for if Francis was particular not to put himself

in the attitude of revolt, he would not compromise his independence, and

he felt with an exquisite divination that all the privileges which the

court of Rome could heap upon him were worth nothing in comparison with

liberty. Alas, he was soon forced to resign himself to these gilded

bonds, against which he never ceased to protest, even to his last

sigh;[10] but to shut one's eyes to the moral violence which the papacy

did him in this matter is to condemn oneself to an entire

misapprehension of his work.

A glance over the collection of bulls addressed to the Franciscans

suffices to show with what ardor he struggled against favors so eagerly

sought by the monastic orders.[11]

A great number of legendary anecdotes put Francis's disdain of

privileges in the clearest light. Even his dearest friends did not

always understand his scruples.

"Do you not see," they said to him one day, "that often the

bishops do not permit us to preach, and make us remain several

days without doing anything before we are permitted to proclaim

the word of God? It would be better worth while to obtain for

this end a privilege from the pope, and it would be for the good

of souls."

"I would first convert the prelates by humility and respect," he

replied quickly; "for when they have seen us humble and

respectful toward them, they themselves will beg us to preach

and convert the people. As for me, I ask of God no privilege

unless it be that I may have none, to be full of respect for all

men, and to convert them, as our Rule ordains, more by our

example than by our speech."[12]

The question whether Francis was right or wrong in his antipathy to the

privileges of the curia does not come within the domain of history; it

is evident that this attitude could not long continue; the Church knows

only the faithful and rebels. But the noblest hearts often make a stand

at compromises of this kind; they desire that the future should grow out

of the past without convulsion and without a crisis.

The chapter of 1217 was notable for the definitive organization of the

Franciscan missions. Italy and the other countries were divided off into

a certain number of _provinces_, having each its provincial minister.

Immediately upon his accession Honorius III. had sought to revive the

popular zeal for the crusades. He had not stopped at preaching it, but

appealed to prophecies which had proclaimed that under his pontificate

the Holy Land would be reconquered.[13] The renewal of fervor which

ensued, and of which the rebound was felt as far as Germany, had a

profound influence on the Brothers Minor. This time Francis, perhaps

from humility, did not put himself at the head of the friars charged

with a mission to Syria; for leader he gave them the famous Elias,

formerly at Florence, where he had had opportunity to show his high

qualities.[14]

This Brother, who from this time appears in the foreground of this

history, came from the most humble ranks of society; the date and the

circumstances of his entrance into the Order are unknown, and hence

conjecture has come to see in him that friend of the grotto who had been

Francis's confidant shortly before his decisive conversion. However this

may be, in his youth he had earned his living in Assisi, making

mattresses and teaching a few children to read; then he had spent some

time in Bologna as _scriptor_; then suddenly we find him among the

Brothers Minor, charged with the most difficult missions.

His adversaries vie with one another in asserting that he was the finest

mind of his century, but unhappily it is very difficult, in the existing

state of the documents, to pronounce as to his actions; learned and

energetic, eager to play the leading part in the work of the

reformation of religion, and having made his plan beforehand as to the

proper mode of realizing it, he made straight for his goal, half

political, half religious. Full of admiration for Francis and gratitude

toward him, he desired to regulate and consolidate the movement for

renovation. In the inner Franciscan circle, where Leo, Ginepro, Egidio,

and many others represent the spirit of liberty, the religion of the

humble and the simple, Elias represents the scientific and

ecclesiastical spirit, prudence and reason.

He had great success in Syria and received into the Order one of the

disciples most dear to Francis, Cæsar of Speyer, who later on was to

make the conquest of all Southern Germany in less than two years

(1221-1223), and who in the end sealed with his blood his fidelity to

the strict observance, which he defended against the attacks of Brother

Elias himself.[15]

Cæsar of Speyer offers a brilliant example of those suffering souls

athirst for the ideal, so numerous in the thirteenth century, who

everywhere went up and down, seeking first in learning, then in the

religious life, that which should assuage the mysterious thirst which

tortured them. Disciple of the scholastic Conrad, he had felt himself

overpowered with the desire to reform the Church; while still a layman

he had preached his ideas, not without some success, since a certain

number of ladies of Speyer had begun to lead a new life; but their

husbands disapproving, he was obliged to escape their vengeance by

taking refuge at Paris, and thence he went to the East, where in the

preaching of the Brothers Minor he found again his hopes and his dreams.

This instance shows how general was the waiting condition of souls when

the Franciscan gospel blazed forth, and how its way had been everywhere

prepared.

But it is time to return to the chapter of 1217: the friars who went to

Germany under conduct of Giovanni di Penna were far from having the

success of Elias and his companions; they were completely ignorant of

the language of the country which they had undertaken to evangelize.

Perhaps Francis had not taken into account the fact that though Italian

might, in case of need, suffice in all the countries bathed by the

Mediterranean, this could not be the case in Central Europe.[16]

The lot of the party going to Hungary was not more happy. Very often it

came to pass that the missionaries were fain to give up their very

garments in the effort to appease the peasants and shepherds who

maltreated them. But no less incapable of understanding what was said to

them than of making themselves understood, they were soon obliged to

think of returning to Italy. We may thank the Franciscan authors for

preserving for us the memory of these checks, and not attempting to

picture the friars as suddenly knowing all languages by a divine

inspiration, as later on was so often related.[17]

Those who had been sent to Spain had also to undergo persecutions. This

country, like the south of France, was ravaged by heresy; but already at

that time it was vigorously repressed. The Franciscans, suspected of

being false Catholics and therefore eagerly hunted out, found a refuge

with Queen Urraca of Portugal, who permitted them to establish

themselves at Coimbra, Guimarraens, Alenquero, and Lisbon.[18]

Francis himself made preparations for going to France.[19] This country

had a peculiar charm for him because of his fervent love of the Holy

Sacrament. Perhaps also he was unwittingly drawn toward this country to

which he owed his name, the chivalrous dreams of his youth, all of

poetry, song, music, delicious dream that had come into his life.

Something of the emotion that thrilled through him on undertaking this

new mission has passed into the story of his biographers; one feels

there the thrill at once sweet and agonizing, the heart-throb of the

brave knight who goes forth all harnessed in the early dawn to scan the

horizon, dreading the unknown and yet overflowing with joy, for he knows

that the day will be consecrated to love and to the right.

The Italian poet has given the one name of "pilgrimages of love" to the

farings forth of chivalry and the journeys undertaken by dreamers,

artists, or saints to those parts of the earth which forever mirror

themselves before their imagination and remain their chosen

fatherland.[20] Such a pilgrimage as this was Francis undertaking.

"Set forth," said he to the Brothers who accompanied him, "and

walk two and two, humble and gentle, keeping silence until after

tierce, praying to God in your hearts, carefully avoiding every

vain or useless word. Meditate as much while on this journey as

if you were shut up in a hermitage or in your cell, for wherever

we are, wherever we go, we carry our cell with us; Brother body

is our cell, and the soul is the hermit who dwells in it, there

to pray to the Lord and to meditate."

Arrived at Florence he found there Cardinal Ugolini, sent by the pope as

legate to Tuscany to preach the crusade and take all needful measures

for assuring its success.[21] Francis was surely far from expecting

the reception which the prelate gave him. Instead of encouraging him,

the cardinal urged him to give up his project.

"I am not willing, my brother, that you should cross the

mountains; there are many prelates who ask nothing better than

to stir up difficulties for you with the court of Rome. But I

and the other cardinals who love your Order desire to protect

and aid you, on the condition, however, that you do not quit

this province."

"But, monsignor, it would be a great disgrace for me to send my

brethren far away while I remained idly here, sharing none of

the tribulations which they must undergo."

"Wherefore, then, have you sent your brethren so far away,

exposing them thus to starvation and all sorts of perils?"

"Do you think," replied Francis warmly, and as if moved by

prophetic inspiration, "that God raised up the Brothers for the

sake of this country alone? Verily, I say unto you, God has

raised them up for the awakening and the salvation of all men,

and they shall win souls not only in the countries of those who

believe, but also in the very midst of the infidels."[22]

The surprise and admiration which these words awoke in Ugolini were not

enough to make him change his mind. He insisted so strongly that Francis

turned back to Portiuncula, the inspiration of his work not even shaken.

Who knows whether the joy which he would have felt in seeing France did

not confirm him in the idea that he ought to renounce this plan? Souls

athirst with the longing for sacrifice often have scruples such as

these; they refuse the most lawful joys that they may offer them to

God. We cannot tell whether it was immediately after this interview or

not till the following year that Francis put Brother Pacifico at the

head of the missionaries sent into France.[23]

Pacifico, who was a poet of talent, had before his conversion been

surnamed Prince of Poesy and crowned at the capital by the emperor. One

day while visiting a relative who was a nun at San Severino in the March

of Ancona, Francis also arrived at the monastery, and preached with such

a holy impetuosity that the poet felt himself pierced with the sword of

which the Bible speaks, which penetrates between the very joints and

marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.[24] On the

morrow he assumed the habit and received his symbolical surname.[25]

He was accompanied to France by Brother Agnello di Pisa, who was

destined to be put at the head of the first mission to England in

1224.[26]

Francis, on sending them forth, was far from dreaming that from this

country, which exerted such a fascination over him, was to come forth

the influence which was to compromise his dream--that Paris would be the

destruction of Assisi; and yet the time was not very far distant; a few

years more and the Poverello would see a part of his spiritual family

forgetting the humility of their name, their origin, and their

aspirations, to run after the ephemeral laurels of learning.

We have already seen that the habit of the Franciscans of this time was

to make their abode within easy reach of great cities; Pacifico and his

companions established themselves at St. Denis.[27] We have no

particulars of their work; it was singularly fruitful, since it

permitted them a few years later to attack England with full success.

Francis passed the following year (1218) in evangelizing tours in Italy.

It is naturally impossible to follow him in these travels, the itinerary

of which was fixed by his daily inspirations, or by indications as

fanciful as the one which had formerly determined his going to Sienna.

Bologna,[28] the Verna, the valley of Rieti, the Sacro-Speco of St.

Benedict at Subiaco,[29] Gaeta;[30] San Michele on Mount Gargano[31]

perhaps received him at this time, but the notes of his presence in

these places are too sparse and vague to permit their being included in

any scheme of history.

It is very possible that he also paid a visit to Rome during this time;

his communications with Ugolini were much more frequent than is

generally supposed. We must not permit the stories of biographers to

deceive us in this matter; it is a natural tendency to refer all that we

know of a man to three or four especially striking dates. We forget

entire years of the life of those whom we have known the best and loved

the most and group our memories of them around a few salient events

which shine all the more brilliantly the deeper we make the surrounding

obscurity. The words of Jesus spoken on a hundred different occasions

came at last to be formed into a single discourse, the Sermon on the

Mount. It is in such cases that criticism needs to be delicate, to

mingle a little divination with the heavy artillery of scientific

argument.

The texts are sacred, but we must not make fetiches of them;

notwithstanding St. Matthew, no one to-day dreams of representing Jesus

as uttering the Sermon on the Mount all at one time. In the same way, in

the narratives concerning the relations between St. Francis and Ugolini,

we find ourselves every moment shut up in no-thoroughfares, coming up

against contradictory indications, just so long as we try to refer

everything to two or three meetings, as we are at first led to do.

With a simple act of analysis these difficulties disappear and we find

each of the different narratives bringing us fragments which, being

pieced together, furnish an organic story, living, psychologically true.

From the moment at which we have now arrived, we must make a much larger

place for Ugolini than in the past; the struggle has definitively opened

between the Franciscan ideal--chimerical, perhaps, but sublime--and the

ecclesiastical policy, to go on until the day when, half in humility,

half in discouragement, Francis, heartsick, abdicates the direction of

his spiritual family.

Ugolini returned to Rome at the end of 1217. During the following winter

his countersign is found at the bottom of the most important bulls;[32]

he devoted this time to the special study of the question of the new

orders, and summoned Francis before him. We have seen with what

frankness he had declared to him at Florence that many of the prelates

would do anything to discredit him with the pope.[33] It is evident the

success of the Order, its methods, which in spite of all protestations

to the contrary seemed to savor of heresy, the independence of Francis,

who had scattered his friars in all the four corners of the globe

without trying to gain a confirmation of the verbal and entirely

provisional authorization accorded him by Innocent III.--all these

things were calculated to startle the clergy.

Ugolini, who better than any one else knew Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia, the

March of Ancona, all those regions where the Franciscan preaching had

been most successful, was able by himself to judge of the power of the

new movement and the imperious necessity of directing it; he felt that

the best way to allay the prejudices which the pope and the sacred

college might have against Francis was to present him before the curia.

Francis was at first much abashed at the thought of preaching before the

Vicar of Jesus Christ, but upon the entreaties of his protector he

consented, and for greater security he learned by heart what he had to

say.

Ugolini himself was not entirely at ease as to the result of this step;

Thomas of Celano pictures him as devoured with anxiety; he was troubled

about Francis, whose artless eloquence ran many a risk in the halls of

the Lateran Palace; he was also not without some more personal

anxieties, for the failure of his _protégé_ might be most damaging to

himself. He was in all the greater anxiety when, on arriving at the feet

of the pontiff, Francis forgot all he had intended to say; but he

frankly avowed it, and seeking a new discourse from the inspiration of

the moment, spoke with so much warmth and simplicity that the assembly

was won.[34]

The biographers are mute as to the practical result of this audience. We

are not to be surprised at this, for they write with the sole purpose of

edification. They wrote after the apotheosis of their master, and would

with very bad grace have dwelt upon the difficulties which he met during

the early years.[35]

The Holy See must have been greatly perplexed by this strange man,

whose faith and humility were evident, but whom it was impossible to

teach ecclesiastical obedience.

St. Dominic happened to be in Rome at the same time,[36] and was

overwhelmed with favors by the pope. It is a matter of history that

Innocent III. having asked him to choose one of the Rules already

approved by the Church, he had returned to his friars at Notre Dame de

Prouille, and after conferring with them had adopted that of St.

Augustine; Honorius therefore was not sparing of privileges for him. It

is hardly possible that Ugolini did not try to use the influence of his

example with St. Francis.

The curia saw clearly that Dominic, whose Order barely comprised a few

dozen members, was not one of the moral powers of the time, but its

sentiments toward him were by no means so mixed as those it experienced

with regard to Francis.

To unite the two Orders, to throw over the shoulders of the Dominicans

the brown cassock of the Poor Men of Assisi, and thus make a little of

the popularity of the Brothers Minor to be reflected upon them, to leave

to the latter their name, their habit, and even a semblance of their

Rule, only completing it with that of St. Augustine, such a project

would have been singularly pleasing to Ugolini, and with Francis's

humility would seem to have some chance of success.

One day Dominic by dint of pious insistance induced Francis to give him

his cord, and immediately girded himself with it. "Brother," said he, "I

earnestly long that your Order and mine might unite to form one sole and

same institute[37] in the Church." But the Brother Minor wished to

remain as he was, and declined the proposition. So truly was he inspired

with the needs of his time and of the Church that less than three years

after this Dominic was drawn by an irresistible influence to transform

his Order of Canons of St. Augustine into an order of mendicant monks,

whose constitutions were outlined upon those of the Franciscans.[38]

A few years later the Dominicans took, so to speak, their revenge, and

obliged the Brothers Minor to give learning a large place in their work.

Thus, while hardly come to youth's estate, the two religious families

rivalled one another, impressed, influenced one another, yet never so

much so as to lose all traces of their origin--summed up for the one in

poverty and lay preaching, for the other in learning and the preaching

of the clergy.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The commencement of the great missions and the institution

of provincial ministers is usually fixed either at 1217 or 1219,

but both these dates present great difficulties. I confess that

I do not understand the vehemence with which partisans of either

side defend their opinions. The most important text is a passage

in the 3 Soc., 62: _Expletis itaque undecim annis ab inceptione

religionis, et multiplicatis numero et merito fratribus, electi

fuerant ministri, et missi cum aliquot fratribus quasi per

universas mundi provincias in quibus fides catholica colitur et

servatur._ What does this expression, _inceptio religionis_,

mean? At a first reading one unhesitatingly takes it to refer to

the foundation of the Order, which occurred in April, 1209, by

the reception of the first Brothers; but on adding eleven full

years to this date we reach the summer of 1220. This is

manifestly too late, for the 3 Soc. say that the brethren who

went out were persecuted in most of the countries beyond the

mountains, as being accredited by no pontifical letter; but the

bull _Cum dilecti_, bears the date of June 11, 1219. We are thus

led to think that the eleven years are not to be counted from

the reception of the first Brothers, but from Francis's

conversion, which the authors might well speak of as _inceptio

religionis_, and 1206 + 11 = 1217. The use of this expression to

designate conversion is not entirely without example.

Glassberger says (_An. fr._, p. 9): _Ordinem minorum incepit

anno 1206._ Those who admit 1219 are obliged (like the

Bollandists, for example), to attribute an inaccuracy to the

text of the 3 Soc., that of having counted eleven years as

having passed when there had been only ten. We should notice

that in the two other chronological indications given by the 3

Soc. (27 and 62) they count from the conversion, that is from

1206, as also Thomas of Celano, 88, 105, 119, 97, 88, 57, 55,

21. Curiously, the Conformities reproduce the passage of the 3

Soc. (118b, 1), but with the alteration: _Nono anno ab

inceptione religionis_. Giordano di Giano opens the door to many

scruples: _Anno vero Domini_ 1219 _et anno conversionis ejus

decimo frater Franciscus ... misit fratres in Franciam, in

Theutoniam, in Hungariam, in Hespaniam_, Giord., 3. As a little

later the same author properly harmonizes 1219 with the

thirteenth year from Francis's conversion, everyone is in

agreement in admitting that the passage cited needs correction;

we have unfortunately only one manuscript of this chronicle.

Glassberger, who doubtless had another before him, substitutes

1217, but he may have drawn this date from another document. It

is noteworthy that Brother Giordano gives as simultaneous the

departure of the friars for Germany, Hungary, and France; but,

as to the latter country, it certainly took place in 1217. So

the Speculum, 44a.

The chronicle of the xxiv. generals and Mark of Lisbon (Diola's

ed., t. i., p. 82) holds also to 1217, so that, though not

definitely established, it would appear that this date should be

accepted until further information. Starting from slightly

different premises, the learned editors of the _Analecta_ arrive

at the same conclusion (t. ii., pp. 25-36). Cf. Evers, _Analecta

ad Fr. Minorum historiam_, Leipsic, 1882, 4to, pp. 7 and 11.

That which appears to me decidedly to tip the balance in favor

of 1217, is the fact that the missionary friars were persecuted

because they had no document of legitimation; and in 1219 they

would have had the bull _Cum dilecti_, from June 11th of that

year. The Bollandists, who hold for 1219, have so clearly seen

this argument that they have been obliged to deny the

authenticity of the bull (or at least to suppose it wrongly

dated). A. SS., p. 839.

[2] Vide A. SS., p. 604. Cf. Angelo Clareno, _Tribul. Archiv._,

i., p. 559. _A papa Innocentis fuit omnibus annuntiatum in

concilio generali ... sicut sanctus vir fr. Leo scribit et fr.

Johannes de Celano._ These lines have not perhaps the

significance which one would be led to give them at the first

glance, their author having perhaps confounded _consilium_ and

_consistorium_. The Speculum, 20b says: _Eam (Regulam

Innocentius) approvabit et concessit et postea in consistorio

omnibus annuntiavit._

[3] _Ne nimia Religionem diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei

confusionem inducat, firmiter prohibemus, ne quis de

coetero novam Religionem inveniat; sed quicumque voluerit

ad Religionem converti, unam de approbatis assumat._ Labbé and

Cossart: _Sacrosancta concilia_, Paris, 1672, t. xi., col. 165.

[4] Eccl., 15 (_An. franc._, t. 1, p. 253): _Innocentium in

cujus obitu fuit presentialiter S. Franciscus_.

[5] 3 Soc., 61; cf. _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 606f.

[6] Thomas of Celano must be in error when he declares that

Francis was not acquainted with Cardinal Ugolini before the

visit which he made him at Florence (summer of 1217): _Nondum

alter alteri erat præcipua familiaritate conjunctus_ (1 Cel., 74

and 75). The Franciscan biographer's purpose was not historic;

chronological indications are given in profusion; what he seeks

is the _apta junctura_. Tradition has preserved the memory of a

chapter held at Portiuncula in presence of Ugolini during a stay

of the curia at Perugia (_Spec._, 137b.; _Fior_., 18;

_Conform._, 207a; 3 Soc., 61). But the curia did not come back

to Perugia between 1216 and Francis's death. It is also to be

noted that according to Angelo Clareno, Ugolini was with Francis

in 1210, supporting him in the presence of Innocent III. Vide

below, p. 413. Finally the bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9,

1219, witnesses that already during his legation in Florence

(1217) Ugolini was actually interesting himself for the

Clarisses.

[7] See, for example, the description of the chapter of 1221 by

Brother Giordano. Giord., 16.

[8] With regard to the figure of five thousand attendants given

by Bonaventura (Bon., 59) Father Papini writes: _Io non credo

stato capace alcuno di dare ad intendere al S. Dottore simil

fanfaluca, ne capace lui di crederla_.

_... In somma il numero quinque millia et ultra non è del Santo,

incapace di scrivere una cosa tanto improbabile e relativamente

impossibile. Storia di S. Fr._, i., pp. 181 and 183. This

figure, five thousand, is also indicated by Eccl., 6. All this

may be explained and become possible by admitting the presence

of the Brothers of Penitence, and it seems very difficult to

contest it, since in the Order of the Humiliants, which much

resembles that of the Brothers Minor (equally composed of three

branches approved by three bulls given June, 1201), the

chapters-general annually held were frequented by the brothers

of the three Orders. Tiraboschi t. ii., p. 144. Cf. above, p.

158.

[9] Vide 2 Cel., 3, 121; _Spec._, 42b; 127b.

[10] _Præcipio firmiter per obedientiam fratribus universis quod

ubicunque sunt, non audeant petere aliquam litteram in Curia

Romana._ _Test. B. Fr._

[11] A comparison with the Bullary of the Preaching Friars is

especially instructive: from their first chapter at Notre Dame

de Prouille, in 1216, they are about fifteen; we find there at

this time absolutely nothing that can be compared to the

Franciscan movement, which was already stirring up all Italy.

But while the first bull in favor of the Franciscans bears the

date of June 11, 1219, and the approbation properly so called

that of November 29, 1223, we find Honorius already in the end

of 1216 lavishing marks of affection upon the Dominicans;

December 22, 1216, _Religiosam vitam_. Cf. Pressuti, _I regesti,

del Pontefice Onorio III._, Roma, 1884, t. i., no. 175; same

date; _Nos attendentes_, ibid., no. 176; January 21, 1217,

_gratiarum omnium_, ib., no. 243. Vide 284, 1039, 1156, 1208. It

is needless to continue this enumeration. Very much the same

could be done for the other Orders; whence the conclusion that

if the Brothers Minor alone are forgotten in this shower of

favors, it is because they decidedly wished to be. It must be

admitted that immediately upon Francis's death they made up for

lost time.

[12] The authenticity of this passage is put beyond doubt by

Ubertino di Casal's citation. _Archiv._, iii., p. 53. Cf.

_Spec._, 30a; _Conform._, 111b, 1; 118b, 1; Ubertino, _Arbor

vitæ cruc._, iii., 3.

[13] _Burchardi chronicon ann. 1217_, _loc. cit._, p. 377. See

also the bulls indicated by Potthast, 5575, 5585-92.

[14] Before 1217 the office of minister virtually existed,

though its definitive institution dates only from 1217. Brother

Bernardo in his mission to Bologna, for example (1212?),

certainly held in some sort the office of minister.

[15] Imprisoned by order of Elias, he died in consequence of

blows given him one day when he was taking the air outside of

his prison. _Tribul._, 24a.

[16] Giord., 5 and 6; 3 Soc., 62.

[17] Of Giovanni di Parma, Clareno, Anthony of Padua, etc.

[18] Mark of Lisbon, t. i., p. 82. Cf. p. 79, t. ii., p. 86,

Glassberger _ann._, 1217. _An. fr._, ii., pp. 9 ff.; _Chron

xxiv. gen._, MS. of Assisi, no. 328, f^o 2b.

[19] _Spec._, 44a.; _Conform._, 119a, 2; 135a; 181b, 1; 1 Cel.,

74 and 75.

[20] Cel., 3, 129. _Diligebat Franciam ... volebat in ea mori_.

[21] V. bull of January 23, 1217, _Tempus acceptabile_,

Potthast, no. 5430, given in Horoy, t. ii., col. 205 ff.; cf.

Pressuti, i., p. 71. This bull and those following fix without

question the time of the journey to Florence. Potthast, 5488,

5487, and page 495.

[22] It is superfluous to point out the error of the Bollandist

text in the phrase _Monuit (Cardinalis Franciscum) coeptum non

perficere iter_, where the _non_ is omitted, A. SS., p. 704.

Cf., p. 607 and 835, which has led Suysken into several other

errors.

[23] Bon., 51. Cf. Glassberger, _ann_. 1217; _Spec._, 45b.

[24] Heb., iv., 12; 2 Cel., 3, 49; Bon., 50 and 51.

[25] Brother Pacifico interests us [the French people]

particularly as the first minister of the Order in France;

information about him is abundant: Bon., 79; 2 Cel., 3, 63;

_Spec._, 41b.: _Conform._, 38a, 1; 43a, 1; 71b; 173b, 1, and

176; 2 Cel., 8, 27; _Spec._, 38b; _Conform._, 181b; 2 Cel., 3,

76; _Fior._, 46; _Conform._, 70a. I do not indicate the general

references found in Chevalier's Bibliography. The Miscellanea,

t. ii. (1887), p. 158, contains a most precise and interesting

column about him. Gregory IX. speaks of him in the bull _Magna

sicut dicitur_ of August 12, 1227. Sbaralea, Bull, fr., i., p.

33 (Potthast, 8007). Thomas of Tuscany, _socius_ of St.

Bonaventura, knew him and speaks of him in his _Gesta

Imperatorum (Mon. germ. hist. script._, t. 22, p. 492).

[26] Eccl., 1; _Conform._, 113b, 1.

[27] Toward 1224 the Brothers Minor desired to draw nearer and

build a vast convent near the walls of Paris in the grounds

called Vauvert, or Valvert (now the Luxembourg Garden), (Eccl.,

10; cf. _Top. hist. du vieux Paris_, by Berty and Tisserand, t.

iv., p. 70). In 1230 they received at Paris from the

Benedictines of Saint-Germain-des-Prés a certain number of

houses _in parocchia SS. Cosmæ et Damiani infra muros domini

regis prope portam de Gibardo (Chartularium Universitatis

Parisiensis_, no. 76. Cf. _Topographie historique du vieux

Paris; Région occid. de l'univ._, p. 95; Félibien, _Histoire de

la ville de Paris_, i., p. 115). Finally, St. Louis installed

them in the celebrated Convent of the Cordeliers, the refectory

of which still exists, transformed into the Dupuytren Museum.

The Dominicans, who arrived in Paris September 12, 1217, went

straight to the centre of the city, near the bishop's palace on

the _Ile de la Cité_, and on August 6, 1218, were installed in

the Convent of St. Jacques.

[28] _Fior._, 27; _Spec._, 148b; _Conform._, 71a and 113a, 2;

Bon., 182.

[29] The traces of Francis's visit here are numerous. A Brother

Eudes painted his portrait here.

[30] Bon., 177.

[31] Vide A. SS., pp. 855 and 856. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 136.

[32] Among others those of December 5, 1217, Potthast, 5629;

February 8, March 30, April 7, 1218, Potthast, 5695, 5739, 5747.

[33] 1 Cel., 74. _O quanti maxime in principio cum hæc agerentur

novellæ plantationi ordinis insidiabantur ut perderent._ Cf. 2

Cel., 1, 16. _Videbat Franciscus luporum more sevire

quamplures._

[34] 1 Cel., 73 (cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102a); 3 Soc., 64;

Bon., 78. The fixing of this scene in the winter of 1217-1218

seems hardly to be debatable; Giordano's account (14) in fact

determines the date at which Ugolini became _officially_

protector of the Order; it supposes earlier relations between

Honorius, Francis, and Ugolini. We are therefore led to seek a

date at which these three personages may have met in Rome, and

we arrive thus at the period between December, 1217, and April,

1218.

[35] A word of Brother Giordano's opens the door to certain

conjectures. "My lord," said Francis to Honorius III., in 1220,

"you have given me many fathers (popes) give me a single one to

whom I may turn with the affairs of my Order." (Giord., 14,

_Multos mihi papas dedisti da unum_, ... etc.)

Does not this suggest the idea that the pontiff had perhaps

named a commission of cardinals to oversee the Brothers Minor?

Its deliberations and the events to be related in the following