CHAPTER XIII

ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS

The Egyptian Mission. Summer 1218-Autumn 1220

Art and poetry have done well in inseparably associating St. Dominic and

St. Francis; the glory of the first is only a reflection of that of the

second, and it is in placing them side by side that we succeed best in

understanding the genius of the Poverello. If Francis is the man of

inspiration, Dominic is that of obedience to orders; one may say that

his life was passed on the road to Rome, whither he continually went to

ask for instructions. His legend was therefore very slow to be formed,

although nothing forbade it to blossom freely; but neither the zeal of

Gregory IX. for his memory nor the learning of his disciples were able

to do for the _Hammer of heretics_ that which the love of the people did

for the _Father of the poor_. His legend has the two defects which so

soon weary the readers of hagiographical writings, when the question is

of the saints whose worship the Church has commanded.[1] It is

encumbered with a spurious supernaturalism, and with incidents borrowed

right and left from earlier legends. The Italian people, who hailed in

Francis the angel of all their hopes, and who showed themselves so

greedy for his relics, did not so much as dream of taking up the corpse

of the founder of the Order of Preaching Friars, and allowed him to wait

twelve years for the glories of canonization.[2]

We have already seen the efforts of Cardinal Ugolini to unite the two

Orders, and the reasons he had for this course. He went to the

Whitsunday chapter-general which met at Portiuncula (June 3, 1218), to

which came also St. Dominic with several of his disciples. The

ceremonial of these solemnities appears to have been always about the

same since 1216; the Brothers Minor went in procession to meet the

cardinal, who immediately dismounted from his horse and lavished

expressions of affection upon them. An altar was set up in the open air,

at which he said mass, Francis performing the functions of deacon.[3]

It is easy to imagine the emotion which overcame those present when in

its beautiful setting of the Umbrian landscape burst forth that part of

the Pentecostal service, that most exciting, the most apocalyptic of the

whole Catholic liturgy, the anthem _Alleluia, Alleluia, Emitte Spiritum

tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terræ_. _Alleluia_,[4] does

not this include the whole Franciscan dream?

But what especially amazed Dominic was the absence of material cares.

Francis had advised his brethren not to disquiet themselves in any

respect about food and drink; he knew by experience that they might

fearlessly trust all that to the love of the neighboring population.

This want of carefulness had greatly surprised Dominic, who thought it

exaggerated; he was able to reassure himself, when meal-time arrived, by

seeing the inhabitants of the district hastening in crowds to bring far

larger supplies of provisions than were needed for the several thousands

of friars, and holding it an honor to wait upon them.

The joy of the Franciscans, the sympathy of the populace with them, the

poverty of the huts of Portiuncula, all this impressed him deeply; so

much was he moved by it that in a burst of enthusiasm he announced his

resolution to embrace gospel poverty.[5]

Ugolini, though also moved, even to tears,[6] did not forget his

former anxieties; the Order was too numerous not to include a group of

malcontents; a few friars who before their conversion had studied in the

universities began to condemn the extreme simplicity laid upon them as a

duty. To men no longer sustained by enthusiasm the short precepts of the

Rule appeared a charter all too insufficient for a vast association;

they turned with envy toward the monumental abbeys of the Benedictines,

the regular Canons, the Cistercians, and toward the ancient monastic

legislations. They had no difficulty in perceiving in Ugolini a powerful

ally, nor in confiding their observations to him.

The latter deemed the propitious moment arrived, and in a private

conversation with Francis made a few suggestions: Ought he not give to

his disciples, especially to the educated among them, a greater share of

the burdens? consult them, gain inspiration from their views? was there

not room to profit by the experience of the older orders? Though all

this was said casually and with the greatest possible tact, Francis felt

himself wounded to the quick, and without answering he drew the cardinal

to the very midst of the chapter.

"My brothers," said he with fire, "the Lord has called me into the ways

of simplicity and humility. In them he has shown me the truth for myself

and for those who desire to believe and follow me; do not, then, come

speaking to me of the Rule of St. Benedict, of St. Augustine, of St.

Bernard, or of any other, but solely of that which God in his mercy has

seen fit to show to me, and of which he has told me that he would, by

its means, make a new covenant with the world, and he does not will that

we should have any other. But by your learning and your wisdom God will

bring you to confusion. For I am persuaded that God will chastise you;

whether you will or no you will be forced to come to repentance, and

nothing will remain for you but confusion."[7]

This warmth in defending and affirming his ideas profoundly astonished

Ugolini, who added not a word. As to Dominic, what he had just seen at

Portiuncula was to him a revelation. He felt, indeed, that his zeal for

the Church could not be greater, but he also perceived that he could

serve her with more success by certain changes in his weapons.

Ugolini no doubt only encouraged him in this view, and Dominic, beset

with new anxieties, set out a few months later for Spain. The intensity

of the crisis through which he passed has not been sufficiently

noticed; the religious writers recount at length his sojourn in the

grotto of Segovia, but they see only the ascetic practices, the prayers,

the genuflexions, and do not think of looking for the cause of all this.

From this epoch it might be said that he was unceasingly occupied in

copying Francis, if the word had not a somewhat displeasing sense.

Arrived at Segovia he follows the example of the Brothers Minor, founds

a hermitage in the outskirts of the city, hidden among the rocks which

overlook the town, and thence he descends from time to time to preach to

the people. The transformation in his mode of life was so evident that

several of his companions rebelled and refused to follow him in the new

way.

Popular sentiment has at times its intuitions; a legend grew up around

this grotto of Segovia, and it was said that St. Dominic there received

the stigmata. Is there not here an unconscious effort to translate into

an image within the comprehension of all, that which actually took place

in this cave of the Sierra da Guaderrama?[8]

Thus St. Dominic also arrived at the poverty of the gospel, but the road

by which he reached it was different indeed from that which St. Francis

had followed; while the latter had soared to it as on wings, had seen in

it the final emancipation from all the anxieties which debase this life,

St. Dominic considered it only as a means; it was for him one more

weapon in the arsenal of the host charged with the defence of the

Church. We must not see in this a mere vulgar calculation; his

admiration for him whom he thus imitated and followed afar off was

sincere and profound, but genius is not to be copied. This sacred malady

was not his; he has transmitted to his sons a sound and robust blood,

thanks to which they have known nothing of those paroxysms of hot

fever, those lofty flights, those sudden returns which make the story

of the Franciscans the story of the most tempest-tossed society which

the world has ever known, in which glorious chapters are mingled with

pages trivial and grotesque, sometimes even coarse.

At the chapter of 1218 Francis had other causes for sadness than the

murmurs of a group of malcontents; the missionaries sent out the year

before to Germany and Hungary had returned completely discouraged. The

account of the sufferings they had endured produced so great an effect

that from that time many of the friars added to their prayers the

formula: "Lord preserve us from the heresy of the Lombards and the

ferocity of the Germans."[9]

This explains how Ugolini at last succeeded in convincing Francis of his

duty to take the necessary measures no longer to expose the friars to be

hunted down as heretics. It was decided that at the end of the next

chapter the missionaries should be armed with a papal brief, which

should serve them as ecclesiastical passport. Here is the translation of

this document:

Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the

archbishops, bishops, abbots, deacons, archdeacons, and other

ecclesiastical superiors, salutation and the apostolic blessing.

Our dear son, brother Francis, and his companions of the life

and the Order of the Brothers Minor, having renounced the

vanities of this world to choose a mode of life which has

merited the approval of the Roman Church, and to go out after

the example of the Apostles to cast in various regions the seed

of the word of God, we pray and exhort you by these apostolic

letters to receive as good catholics the friars of the above

mentioned society, bearers of these presents, warning you to be

favorable to them and treat them with kindness for the honor of

God and out of consideration for us.

Given (at Rieti) this third day of the ides of June (June 11,

1219), in the third year of our pontificate.[10]

It is evident that this bull was calculated to avoid awakening Francis's

susceptibilities. To understand precisely in what it differs from the

first letters usually accredited to new Orders it is necessary to

compare it with them; that which had instituted the Dominicans had been,

like the others, a veritable privilege;[11] here there is nothing of

the kind.

The assembly which was opened at Whitsunday of 1219 (May 26) was of

extreme importance.[12] It closed the series of those primitive

chapters in which the inspiration and fancy of Francis were given free

course. Those which followed, presided over by the vicars, have neither

the same cheerfulness nor the same charm; the crude glare of full day

has driven away the hues of dawn and the indescribable ardors of nature

at its awakening.

The summer of 1219 was the epoch fixed by Honorius III. for making a new

effort in the East, and directing upon Egypt all the forces of the

Crusaders.[13] Francis thought the moment arrived for realizing the

project which he had not been able to execute in 1212. Strangely enough,

Ugolini who, two years before had hindered his going to France, now left

him in entire liberty to carry out this new expedition.[14] Several

authors have deemed that Francis, having found in him a true protector,

felt himself reassured as to the future of the Order; he might indeed

have thought thus, but the history of the troubles which burst out

immediately after his departure, the astounding story of the kind

reception given by the court of Rome to some meddlers who took the

opportunity of his absence to imperil his Order, would suffice to show

how much the Church was embarrassed by him, and with what ardor she

longed for the transformation of his work. We shall find later on the

detailed account of these facts.

It appears that a Romagnol brother Christopher was at this same chapter

nominated provincial of Gascony; he lived there after the customs of the

early Franciscans, working with his hands, living in a narrow cell made

of the boughs of trees and potter's earth.[15]

Egidio set out for Tunis with a few friars, but a great disappointment

awaited them there; the Christians of this country, in the fear of being

compromised by their missionary zeal, hurried them into a boat and

constrained them to recross the sea.[16]

If the date of 1219 for these two missions has little other basis than

conjecture, the same is not the case as to the departure of the friars

who went to Spain and Morocco. The discovery has recently been made of

the account of their last preachings and of their tragic death, made by

an eye-witness.[17] This document is all the more precious because it

confirms the general lines of the much longer account given by Mark of

Lisbon. It would be out of place to give a summary of it here, because

it but very indirectly concerns the life of St. Francis, but we must

note that these _acta_ have beyond their historic value a truly

remarkable psychological--one must almost say pathological--significance;

never was the mania for martyrdom better characterized than in these

long pages, where we see the friars forcing the Mahometans to pursue

them and make them win the heavenly palm. The forbearance which

Miramolin as well as his fellow religionists at first show gives an

idea of the civilization and the good qualities of these infidels, all

the higher that very different sentiments would be natural in the

vanquished ones of the plains of Tolosa.

It is impossible to call by the name of sermons the collections of rude

apostrophes which the missionaries addressed to those whom they wished

to convert; at this paroxysm the thirst for martyrdom becomes the

madness of suicide. Is this to say that friars Bernard, Pietro, Adjutus,

Accurso, and Otho have no right to the admiration and worship with which

they have been surrounded? Who would dare say so? Is not devotion always

blind? That a furrow should be fecund it must have blood, it must have

tears, such tears as St. Augustine has called the blood of the soul. Ah,

it is a great mistake to immolate oneself, for the blood of a single man

will not save the world nor even a nation; but it is a still greater

mistake not to immolate oneself, for then one lets others be lost, and

is oneself lost first of all.

I greet you, therefore, Martyrs of Morocco; you do not regret your

madness, I am sure, and if ever some righteous pedant gone astray in the

groves of paradise undertakes to demonstrate to you that it would have

been better worth while to remain in your own country, and found a

worthy family of virtuous laborers, I fancy that Miramolin, there become

your best friend, will take the trouble to refute him.

You were mad, but I envy such madness, for you felt that the essential

thing in this world is not to serve this ideal or that one, but with all

one's soul to serve the ideal which one has chosen.

When, a few months after, the story of their glorious end arrived at

Assisi, Francis discerned a feeling of pride among his companions and

reproached them in lively terms; he who would so have envied the lot of

the martyrs felt himself humbled because God had not judged him worthy

to share it. As the story was mingled with some words of eulogy of the

founder of the Order, he forbade the further reading of it.[18]

Immediately after the chapter he had himself undertaken a mission of the

same kind as he had confided to the Brothers of Morocco, but he had

proceeded in it in an entirely different manner: his was not the blind

zeal which courts death in a sort of frenzy and forgets all the rest;

perhaps he already felt that the persistent effort after the better, the

continual immolation of self for truth, is the martyrdom of the strong.

This expedition, which lasted more than a year, is mentioned by the

biographers in a few lines.[19] Happily we have a number of other

papers regarding it; but their silence suffices to prove the sincerity

of the primitive Franciscan authors; if they had wanted to amplify the

deeds of their subject, where could they have found an easier

opportunity or a more marvellous theme? Francis quitted Portiuncula in

the middle of June and went to Ancona, whence the Crusaders were to set

sail for Egypt on St. John's Day (June 24th).

Many friars joined him--a fact which was not without its inconveniences

for a journey by sea, where they were obliged to depend upon the charity

of the owners of the boats, or of their fellow-travellers.

We can understand Francis's embarrassment on arriving at Ancona and

finding himself obliged to leave behind a number of those who so

earnestly longed to go with him. The Conformities relate here an

incident for which we might desire an earlier authority, but which is

certainly very like Francis; he led all his friends to the port and

explained to them his perplexities. "The people of the boat," he told

them, "refuse to take us all, and I have not the courage to make choice

among you; you might think that I do not love you all alike; let us then

try to learn the will of God." And he called a child who was playing

close by, and the little one, charmed to take the part of Providence put

upon him, pointed out with his finger the eleven friars who were to set

sail.[20]

We do not know what itinerary they followed. A single incident of the

journey has come down to us: that of the chastisement inflicted in the

isle of Cyprus on Brother Barbaro, who had been guilty of the fault

which the master detested above all others--evil-speaking. He was

implacable with regard to the looseness of language so customary among

pious folk, and which often made a hell of religious houses apparently

the most peaceful. The offence this time appeared to him the more grave

for having been uttered in the presence of a stranger, a knight of that

district. The latter was stupefied on hearing Francis command the guilty

one to eat a lump of ass's dung which lay there, adding: "The mouth

which has distilled the venom of hatred against my brother must eat this

excrement." Such indignation, no less than the obedience of the unhappy

offender, filled him with admiration.[21]

It is very probable, as Wadding has supposed, that the missionaries

debarked at St. Jean d'Acre. They arrived there about the middle of

July.[22] In the environs of this city, doubtless, Brother Elias had

been established for one or two years. Francis there told off a few of

his companions, whom he sent to preach in divers directions, and a few

days afterward he himself set out for Egypt, where all the efforts of

the Crusaders were concentrated upon Damietta.

From the first he was heart-broken with the moral condition of the

Christian army. Notwithstanding the presence of numerous prelates and of

the apostolic legate, it was disorganized for want of discipline. He was

so affected by this that when there was talk of battle he felt it his

duty to advise against it, predicting that the Christians would

infallibly be beaten. No one heeded him, and on August 29th the

Crusaders, having attacked the Saracens, were terribly routed.[23]

His predictions won him a marvellous success. It must be owned that the

ground was better prepared than any other to receive the new seed; not

surely that piety was alive there, but in this mass of men come together

from every corner of Europe, the troubled, the seers, the enlightened

ones, those who thirsted for righteousness and truth, were elbowed by

rascals, adventurers, those who were greedy for gold and plunder,

capable of much good or much evil, the sport of fleeting impulses,

loosed from the bonds of the family, of property, of the habits which

usually twine themselves about man's will, and only by exception permit

a complete change in his manner of life; those among them who were

sincere and had come there with generous purposes were, so to speak,

predestined to enter the peaceful army of the Brothers Minor. Francis

was to win in this mission fellow-laborers who would assure the success

of his work in the countries of northern Europe.

Jacques de Vitry, in a letter to friends written a few days later, thus

describes the impression produced on him by Francis:

"I announce to you that Master Reynier, Prior of St. Michael,

has entered the Order of the Brothers Minor, an Order which is

multiplying rapidly on all sides, because it imitates the

primitive Church and follows the life of the Apostles in

everything. The master of these Brothers is named Brother

Francis; he is so lovable that he is venerated by everyone.

Having come into our army, he has not been afraid, in his zeal

for the faith, to go to that of our enemies. For days together

he announced the word of God to the Saracens, but with little

success; then the sultan, King of Egypt, asked him in secret to

entreat God to reveal to him, by some miracle, which is the best

religion. Colin, the Englishman, our clerk, has entered the same

Order, as also two others of our companions, Michael and Dom

Matthew, to whom I had given the rectorship of the Sainte

Chapelle. Cantor and Henry have done the same, and still others

whose names I have forgotten."[24]

The long and enthusiastic chapter which the same author gives to the

Brothers Minor in his great work on the Occident is too diffuse to find

a place here. It is a living and accurate picture of the early times of

the Order; in it Francis's sermon before the sultan is again related. It

was written at a period when the friars had still neither monasteries

nor churches, and when the chapters were held once or twice a year; this

gives us a date anterior to 1223, and probably even before 1221. We have

here, therefore, a verification of the narratives of Thomas of Celano

and the Three Companions, and they find in it their perfect

confirmation.

As to the interviews between Francis and the sultan, it is prudent to

keep to the narratives of Jacques de Vitry and William of Tyre.[25]

Although the latter wrote at a comparatively late date (between 1275 and

1295), he followed a truly historic method, and founded his work on

authentic documents; we see that he knows no more than Jacques de Vitry

of the proposal said to have been made by Francis to pass through a fire

if the priests of Mahomet would do as much, intending so to establish

the superiority of Christianity.

We know how little such an appeal to signs is characteristic of St.

Francis. Perhaps the story, which comes from Bonaventura, is born of a

misconception. The sultan, like a new Pharaoh, may have laid it upon the

strange preacher to prove his mission by miracles. However this may be,

Francis and his companions were treated with great consideration, a fact

the more meritorious that hostilities were then at their height.

Returned to the Crusading camp, they remained there until after the

taking of Damietta (November 5, 1219). This time the Christians were

victorious, but perhaps the heart of the _gospel man_ bled more for this

victory than for the defeat of August 29th. The shocking condition of

the city, which the victors found piled with heaps of dead bodies, the

quarrels over the sharing of booty, the sale of the wretched creatures

who had not succumbed to the pestilence,[26] all these scenes of

terror, cruelty, greed, caused him profound horror. The "human beast"

was let loose, the apostle's voice could no more make itself heard in

the midst of the savage clamor than that of a life-saver over a raging

ocean.

He set out for Syria[27] and the Holy Places. How gladly would we

follow him in this pilgrimage, accompany him in thought through Judea

and Galilee, to Bethlehem, to Nazareth, to Gethsemane! What was said to

him by the stable where the Son of Mary was born, the workshop where he

toiled, the olive-tree where he accepted the bitter cup? Alas! the

documents here suddenly fail us. Setting out from Damietta very shortly

after the siege (November 5, 1219) he may easily have been at Bethlehem

by Christmas. But we know nothing, absolutely nothing, except that his

sojourn was more prolonged than had been expected.

Some of the Brothers who were present at Portiuncula at the

chapter-general of 1220 (Whitsunday, May 17th) had time enough to go to

Syria and still find Francis there;[28] they could hardly have arrived

much earlier than the end of June. What had he been doing those eight

months? Why had he not gone home to preside at the chapter? Had he been

ill?[29] Had he been belated by some mission? Our information is too

slight to permit us even to venture upon conjecture.

Angelo Clareno relates that the Sultan of Egypt, touched by his

preaching, gave command that he and all his friars should have free

access to the Holy Sepulchre without the payment of any tribute.[30]

Bartholomew of Pisa on his part says incidentally that Francis, having

gone to preach in Antioch and its environs, the Benedictines of the

Abbey of the Black Mountain,[31] eight miles from that city, joined the

Order in a body, and gave up all their property to the Patriarch.

These indications are meagre and isolated indeed, and the second is to

be accepted only with reserve. On the other hand, we have detailed

information of what went on in Italy during Francis's absence. Brother

Giordano's chronicle, recently discovered and published, throws all the

light that could be desired upon a plot laid against Francis by the very

persons whom he had commissioned to take his place at Portiuncula, and

this, if not with the connivance of Rome and the cardinal protector, at

least without their opposition. These events had indeed been narrated by

Angelo Clareno, but the undisguised feeling which breathes through all

his writings and their lack of accuracy had sufficed with careful

critics to leave them in doubt. How could it be supposed that in the

very lifetime of St. Francis the vicars whom he had instituted could

take advantage of his absence to overthrow his work? How could it be

that the pope, who during this period was sojourning at Rieti, how that

Ugolini, who was still nearer, did not impose silence on these

agitators?[32]

Now that all the facts come anew to light, not in an oratorical and

impassioned account, but brief, precise, cutting, dated, with every

appearance of notes taken day by day, we must perforce yield to

evidence.

Does this give us reason clamorously to condemn Ugolino and the pope? I

do not think so. They played a part which is not to their honor, but

their intentions were evidently excellent. If the famous aphorism that

the end justifies the means is criminal where one examines his own

conduct, it becomes the first duty in judging that of others. Here are

the facts:

On July 25th, about one month after Francis's departure for Syria,

Ugolini, who was at Perugia, laid upon the Clarisses of Monticelli

(Florence), Sienna, Perugia, and Lucca that which his friend had so

obstinately refused for the friars, the Benedictine Rule.[33]

At the same time, St. Dominic, returning from Spain full of new ardor

after his retreat in the grotto of Segovia, and fully decided to adopt

for his Order the rule of poverty, was strongly encouraged in this

purpose and overwhelmed with favors.[34] Honorius III. saw in him the

providential man of the time, the reformer of the monastic Orders; he

showed him unusual attentions, going so far, for example, as to transfer

to him a group of monks belonging to other Orders, whom he appointed to

act as Dominic's lieutenants on the preaching tours which he believed it

to be his duty to undertake, and to serve, under his direction, an

apprenticeship in popular preaching.[35]

That Ugolini was the inspiration of all this, the bulls are here to

witness. His ruling purpose at that time was so clearly to direct the

two new Orders that he chose a domicile with this end in view, and we

find him continually either at Perugia--that is to say, within three

leagues of Portiuncula--or at Bologna, the stronghold of the Dominicans.

It now becomes manifest that just as the fraternity instituted by

Francis was truly the fruit of his body, flesh of his flesh, so does

the Order of the Preaching Friars emanate from the papacy, and St.

Dominic is only its putative father. This character is expressed in

one word by one of the most authoritative of contemporary annalists,

Burchard of Ursperg ([Cross] 1226). "The pope," he says, "_instituted_

and confirmed the Order of the Preachers."[36]

Francis on his journey in the Orient had taken for special companion a

friar whom we have not yet met, Pietro di Catana or _dei Cattani_. Was

he a native of the town of Catana? There is no precise indication of it.

It appears more probable that he belonged to the noble family _dei

Cattani_, already known to Francis, and of which Orlando, Count of

Chiusi in Casentino, who gave him the Verna, was a member. However that

may be, we must not confound him with the Brother Pietro who assumed the

habit in 1209, at the same time with Bernardo of Quintavallo, and died

shortly afterward. Tradition, in reducing these two men to a single

personage, was influenced not merely by the similarity of the names, but

also by the very natural desire to increase the prestige of one who in

1220-1221 was to play an important part in the direction of the

Order.[37]

At the time of his departure for the East Francis had left two vicars in

his place, the Brothers Matteo of Narni and Gregorio of Naples. The

former was especially charged to remain at Portiuncula to admit

postulants;[38] Gregorio of Naples, on the other hand, was to pass

through Italy to console the Brothers.[39]

The two vicars began at once to overturn everything. It is inexplicable

how men still under the influence of their first fervor for a Rule which

in the plenitude of their liberty they had promised to obey could have

dreamed of such innovations if they had not been urged on and upheld by

those in high places. To alleviate the vow of poverty and to multiply

observances were the two points toward which their efforts were bent.

In appearance it was a trifling matter, in reality it was much, for it

was the first movement of the old spirit against the new. It was the

effort of men who unconsciously, I am willing to think, made religion an

affair of rite and observance, instead of seeing in it, like St.

Francis, the conquest of the liberty which makes us free in all things,

and leads each soul to obey that divine and mysterious power which the

flowers of the fields adore, which the birds of the air bless, which the

symphony of the stars praises, and which Jesus of Nazareth called

_Abba_, that is to say, Father.

The first Rule was excessively simple in the matter of fasts. The friars

were to abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays; they might add

Mondays and Saturdays, but only on Francis's special authorization. The

vicars and their adherents complicated this rule in a surprising manner.

At the chapter-general held in Francis's absence (May 17, 1220), they

decided, first, that in times of feasting the friars were not to provide

meat, but if it were offered to them spontaneously they were to eat it;

second, that all should fast on Mondays as well as Wednesdays and

Fridays; third, that on Mondays and Saturdays they should abstain from

milk products unless by chance the adherents of the Order brought some

to them.[40]

These beginnings bear witness also to an effort to imitate the ancient

Orders, not without the vague hope that they would be substituted for

them. Brother Giordano has preserved to us only this decision of the

chapter of 1220, but the expressions of which he makes use sufficiently

prove that it was far from being the only one, and that the malcontents

had desired, as in the chapters of Citeaux and Monte Cassino, to put

forth veritable constitutions.

These modifications of the Rule did not pass, however, without arousing

the indignation of a part of the chapter; a lay brother made himself

their eager messenger, and set out for the East to entreat Francis to

return without delay, to take the measures called for by the

circumstances.

There were also other causes of disquiet. Brother Philip, a Zealot of

the Clarisses, had made haste to secure for them from Ugolini the

privileges which had already been under consideration.[41]

A certain Brother Giovanni di Conpello[42] had gathered together a

great number of lepers of both sexes, and written a Rule, intending to

form with them a new Order. He had afterward presented himself before

the supreme pontiff with a train of these unfortunates to obtain his

approbation.

Many other distressing symptoms, upon which Brother Giordano does not

dwell, had manifested themselves. The report of Francis's death had even

been spread abroad, so that the whole Order was disturbed, divided, and

in the greatest peril. The dark presentiments which Francis seems to

have had were exceeded by the reality.[43] The messenger who brought

him the sad news found him in Syria, probably at St. Jean d'Acre. He at

once embarked with Elias, Pietro di Catana, Cæsar of Speyer, and a few

others, and returned to Italy in a vessel bound for Venice, where he

might easily arrive toward the end of July.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] One proof of the obscurity in which Dominic remained so long

as Rome did not apotheosize him, is that Jacques de Vitry, who

consecrates a whole chapter of his _Historia Occidentalis_ to

the Preaching Friars (27, p. 333) does not even name the

founder. This is the more significant since a few pages farther

on, the chapter given to the Brothers Minor is almost entirely

filled with the person of St. Francis. This silence about St.

Dominic has been remarked and taken up by Moschus, who finds no

way to explain it. Vide _Vitam J. de Vitriaco_, at the head of

the Douai edition of 1597.

[2] Francis, who died in 1226, is canonized in 1228; Anthony of

Padua, 1231 and 1233; Elisabeth of Thuringia, 1231 and 1235;

Dominic, 1221 and 1234.

[3] 3 Soc., 61.

[4] Shed abroad, Lord, thy Spirit, and all shall be created, and

thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

[5] 2 Cel., 3. 87; _Spec._, 132b; _Conform._, 207a, 112a;

_Fior._, 18. The historians of St. Dominic have not received

these details kindly, but an incontestable point gained from

diplomatic documents is that in 1218 Dominic, at Rome, procured

privileges in which the properties of his Order were indicated,

and that in 1220 he led his friars to profess poverty.

[6] 2 Cel., 3, 9; _Spec._, 17a.

[7] _Spec._, 49a; _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 11a-12b; _Spec._, 183a;

_Conform._, 135b 1.

[8] The principal sources are indicated in A. SS., Augusti, t.

i., pp. 470 ff.

[9] Giord., 18; 3 Soc., 62.

[10] Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i, p. 2; Potthast, 6081: Wadding,

_ann. 1219_, No. 28, indicates the works where the text may be

found. Cf. A. SS., p. 839.

[11] The title sufficiently indicated the contents: _Domenico

priori S. Romani tolosani ejusque fratribus, eos in protectionem

recipit eorumque Ordinem cum bonis et privilegiis confirmat_.

_Religiosam vitam_: December 22, 1216; Pressuti, t. i., 175,

text in Horoy t. ii., col. 141-144.

[12] Vide A. SS., pp. 608 ff. and 838 ff.

[13] Vide Bull _Multi divinæ_ of August 13, 1218. Horoy, t.

iii., col. 12; Potthast, 5891.

[14] The contradiction is so striking that the Bollandists have

made of it the principal argument for defending the error in

their manuscript (1 Cel., 75), and insisting in the face of, and

against everything that Francis had taken that journey. A. SS.,

607.

[15] He died at Cahors, October 31, 1272. His legend is found in

MS. Riccardi, 279, f^o. 69a. _Incipit vita f. Christophori quam

compilavit fr. Bernardus de Bessa custodiæ Caturcensis: Quasi

vas auri solidum._ Cf. Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., pp. 106-113, t.

iii., p. 212, and Glassberger, _An. fr._, t. ii., p. 14.

[16] A. SS., Aprilis, t. iii., p. 224; _Conform._, 118b, 1; 54a;

Mark of Lisbon, t. ii., p. 1--Brother Luke had been sent to

Constantinople, in 1219, at latest. Vide _Constitutus_ of

December 9, 1220. Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, t. i., p. 6; Potthast,

6431.

[17] We owe to M. Müller (_Anfänge_, p. 207) the honor of this

publication, copied from a manuscript of the Cottoniana.

[18] Giord., 8.

[19] 1 Cel., 57; Bon., 133-138; 154 and 155; 2 Cel., 2, 2;

_Conform._, 113b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 55b; _Fior._, 24.

[20] _Conform._, 113b, 2; cf. A. SS., p. 611.

[21] 2 Cel., 3, 92; _Spec._, 30b. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 115.

_Conform._, 142b, 1. This incident may possibly have taken place

on the return.

[22] With the facilities of that period the voyage required from

twenty to thirty days. The _diarium_ of a similar passage may be

found in Huillard-Bréholles, _Hist. Dipl._, t. i., 898-901. Cf.

_Ibid._, Introd., p. cccxxxi.

[23] 2 Cel., 22; Bon 154, 155; cf. A. SS., p. 612.

[24] Jacques de Vitry speaks only incidentally of Francis here

in the midst of salutations; from the critical point of view

this only enhances the value of his words. See the Study of the

Sources, p. 428.

[25] Vide below, the Study of the Sources, p. 430.

[26] All this is related at length by Jacques de Vitry.

[27] "Cil hom qui comença l'ordre des Frères Mineurs, si ot nom

frère François ... vint en l'ost de Damiate, e i fist moult de

bien, et demora tant que la ville fut prise. Il vit le mal et le

péché qui comença à croistre entre les gens de l'ost, si li

desplot, par quoi il s'en parti, e fu une pièce en Surie, et

puis s'en rala en son pais." Historiens des Croisades, ii.

_L'Est de Eracles Empereur_, liv. xxxii., chap. xv. Cf. Sanuto;

_Secreta fid. cruc._, lib. iii., p. xi., cap. 8, in Bongars.

[28] Giord., Chron., 11-14.

[29] The episode of Brother Leonard's complaints, related below,

gives some probability to this hypothesis.

[30] _Tribul._, Laur. MS., 9b. Cf. 10b: _Sepulcro Domini

visitato festinat ad Christianorum terram_.

[31] Upon this monastery see a letter _ad familiares_ of Jacques

de Vitry, written in 1216 and published in 1847 by Baron Jules

de St. Genois in t. xiii. of the _Mémoires de l'Académie royale

des sciences et des beaux arts de Bruxelles_ (1849). _Conform._,

106b, 2; 114a, 2; _Spec._, 184.

[32] A. SS., pp. 619-620, 848, 851, 638.

[33] Vide Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219. Cf. those of

September 19, 1222; Sbaralea, i., p. 3, 11 ff.; Potthast, 6179,

6879a, b, c.

[34] Vide Potthast, 6155, 6177, 6184, 6199, 6214, 6217, 6218,

6220, 6246. See also _Chartularium Universitatis Par._, t. i.,

487.

[35] Bull _Quia qui seminant_ of May 12, 1220. Ripalli, _Bul.

Præd._, t. i., p. 10 (Potthast, 6249).

[36] _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 23, p. 376. This passage is

of extreme importance because it sums up in a few lines the

ecclesiastical policy of Honorius III. After speaking of the

perils with which the _Humiliati_ threatened the Church,

Burchard adds: _Quæ volens corrigere dominus papa ordinem

Predicatorum instituit et confirmavit._ Now these _Humiliati_

were an approved Order. But Burchard, while classing them with

heretics beside the Poor Men of Lyons, expresses in a word the

sentiments of the papacy toward them; it had for them an

invincible repugnance, and not wishing to strike them directly

it sought a side issue. Similar tactics were followed with

regard to the Brothers Minor, with that overplus of caution

which the prodigious success of the Order inspired. It all

became useless when in 1221 Brother Elias became Francis's

vicar, and especially when, after the latter's death, he had all

the liberty necessary for directing the Order according to the

views of Ugolini, now become Gregory IX.

[37] 1 Cel., 25; cf. A. SS., p. 581. Pietro di Catana had the

title of doctor of laws, Giord., 11, which entirely disagrees

with what is related of Brother Pietro, 3 Soc., 28 and 29. Cf.

Bon., 28 and 29; _Spec._, 5b; _Fior._, 2; _Conform._, 47; 52b,

2; _Petrus vir litteratus erat et nobilis_, Giord., 12.

[38] We know nothing more of him except that after his death he

had the gift of miracles. Giord., 11; _Conform._, 62a, 1.

[39] He was not an ordinary man; a remarkable administrator and

orator (Eccl., 6), he was minister in France before 1224 and

again in 1240, thanks to the zeal with which he had adopted the

ideas of Brother Elias. He was nephew of Gregory IX., which

throws some light upon the practices which have just been

described. After having been swept away in Elias's disgrace and

condemned to prison for life, he became in the end Bishop of

Bayeux. I note for those who take an interest in those things

that manuscripts of two of his sermons may be found in the

National Library of Paris. The author of them being indicated

simply as _fr. Gr. min._, it has only lately become known whose

they were. These sermons were preached in Paris on Holy Thursday

and Saturday. MS. new. acq., Lat., 338 f^o 148, 159.

[40] Giord., 11. Cf. _Spec._, 34b. _Fior._, 4; _Conform._, 184a, 1.

[41] Giord., 12. Cf. Bull _Sacrosancta_ of December 9, 1219.

[42] Giord., 12. Ought we, perhaps, to read di Campello? Half

way between Foligno and Spoleto there is a place of this name.

On the other hand, the 3 Soc., 35, indicate the entrance into

the Order of a Giovanni di Capella who in the legend became the

Franciscan Judas. _Invenit abusum capelle et ab ipsa denominatus

est: ab ordine recedens factus leprosus laqueo ut Judas se

suspendit._ _Conform._, 104a, 1. Cf. _Bernard de Besse_, 96a;

_Spec._, 2; _Fior._, 1. All this is much mixed up. Perhaps we

should believe that Giovanni di Campello died shortly afterward,

and that later on, when the stories of this troubled time were

forgotten, some ingenious Brother explained the note of infamy

attached to his memory by a hypothesis built upon his name

itself.

[43] Giord., 12, 13, and 14.

* * * * *