CHAPTER XIX

THE LAST YEAR

September, 1225-End of September, 1226

What did Ugolini think when they told him that Francis was planning to

send his friars, transformed into _Joculatores Domini_, to sing up and

down the country the Canticle of Brother Sun? Perhaps he never heard of

it. His _protégé_ finally decided to accept his invitation and left St.

Damian in the course of the month of September.

The landscape which lies before the eyes of the traveller from Assisi,

when he suddenly emerges upon the plain of Rieti, is one of the most

beautiful in Europe. From Terni the road follows the sinuous course of

the Velino, passes not far from the famous cascades, whose clouds of

mist are visible, and then plunges into the defiles in whose depths the

torrent rushes noisily, choked by a vegetation as luxuriant as that of a

virgin forest. On all sides uprise walls of perpendicular rocks, and on

their crests, several hundred yards above your head, are feudal

fortresses, among others the Castle of Miranda, more giddy, more

fantastic than any which Gustave Doré's fancy ever dreamed.

After four hours of walking, the defile opens out and you find yourself

without transition in a broad valley, sparkling with light.

Rieti, the only city in this plain of several leagues, appears far away

at the other extremity, commanded by hills of a thoroughly tropical

aspect, behind which rise the mighty Apennines, almost always covered

with snow.

The highway goes directly toward this town, passing between tiny lakes;

here and there roads lead off to little villages which you see, on the

hillside, between the cultivated fields and the edge of the forests;

there are Stroncone, Greccio, Cantalice, Poggio-Buscone, and ten other

small towns, which have given more saints to the Church than a whole

province of France.

Between the inhabitants of the district and their neighbors of Umbria,

properly so called, the difference is extreme. They are all of the

striking type of the Sabine peasants, and they remain to this day entire

strangers to new customs. One is born a Capuchin there as elsewhere one

is born a soldier, and the traveller needs to have his wits about him

not to address every man he meets as Reverend Father.

Francis had often gone over this district in every direction. Like its

neighbor, the hilly March of Ancona, it was peculiarly prepared to

receive the new gospel. In these hermitages, with their almost

impossible simplicity, perched near the villages on every side, without

the least care for material comfort, but always where there is the

widest possible view, was perpetuated a race of Brothers Minor,

impassioned, proud, stubborn, almost wild, who did not wholly understand

their master, who did not catch his exquisite simplicity, his

impossibility of hating, his dreams of social and political renovation,

his poetry and delicacy, but who did understand the lover of nature and

of poverty.[1] They did more than understand him; they lived his

life, and from that Christmas festival observed in the woods of Greccio

down to to-day they have remained the simple and popular representatives

of the Strict Observance. From them comes to us the Legend of the Three

Companions, the most life-like and true of all the portraits of the

Poverello, and it was there, in a cell three paces long, that Giovanni

di Parma had his apocalyptic visions.

The news of Francis's arrival quickly spread, and long before he reached

Rieti the population had come out to meet him.

To avoid this noisy welcome he craved the hospitality of the priest of

St. Fabian. This little church, now known under the name of Our Lady of

the Forest, is somewhat aside from the road upon a grassy mound about a

league from the city. He was heartily welcomed, and desiring to remain

there for a little, prelates and devotees began to flock thither in the

next few days.

It was the time of the early grapes. It is easy to imagine the

disquietude of the priest on perceiving the ravages made by these

visitors among his vines, his best source of revenue, but he probably

exaggerated the damage. Francis one day heard him giving vent to his bad

humor. "Father," he said, "it is useless for you to disturb yourself for

what you cannot hinder; but, tell me, how much wine do you get on an

average?"

"Fourteen measures," replied the priest.

"Very well, if you have less than twenty, I undertake to make up the

difference."

This promise reassured the worthy man, and when at the vintage he

received twenty measures, he had no hesitation in believing in a

miracle.[2]

Upon Ugolini's entreaties Francis had accepted the hospitality of the

bishop's palace in Rieti. Thomas of Celano enlarges with delight upon

the marks of devotion lavished on Francis by this prince of the Church.

Unhappily all this is written in that pompous and confused style of

which diplomats and ecclesiastics appear to have by nature the secret.

Francis entered into the condition of a relic in his lifetime. The mania

for amulets displayed itself around him in all its excesses. People

quarrelled not only over his clothing, but even over his hair and the

parings of his nails.[3]

Did these merely exterior demonstrations disgust him? Did he sometimes

think of the contrast between these honors offered to his body, which he

picturesquely called Brother Ass, and the subversion of his ideal? We

cannot tell. If he had feelings of this kind those who surrounded him

were not the men to understand them, and it would be idle to expect any

expression of them from his pen.

Soon after he had a relapse, and asked to be removed to

Monte-Colombo,[4] a hermitage an hour distant from the city, hidden

amidst trees and scattered rocks. He had already retired thither several

times, notably when he was preparing the Rule of 1223.

The doctors, having exhausted the therapeutic arsenal of the time,

decided to resort to cauterization; it was decided to draw a rod of

white-hot iron across his forehead.

When the poor patient saw them bringing in the brazier and the

instruments he had a moment of terror; but immediately making the sign

of the cross over the glowing iron, "Brother fire," he said, "you are

beautiful above all creatures; be favorable to me in this hour; you know

how much I have always loved you; be then courteous to-day."

Afterward, when his companions, who had not had the courage to remain,

came back he said to them, smiling, "Oh, cowardly folk, why did you go

away? I felt no pain. Brother doctor, if it is necessary you may do it

again."

This experiment was no more successful than the other remedies. In vain

they quickened the wound on the forehead, by applying plasters, salves,

and even by making incisions in it; the only result was to increase the

pains of the sufferer.[5]

One day, at Rieti, whither he had again been carried, he thought that a

little music would relieve his pain. Calling a friar who had formerly

been clever at playing the guitar, he begged him to borrow one; but the

friar was afraid of the scandal which this might cause, and Francis gave

it up.

God took pity upon him; the following night he sent an invisible angel

to give him such a concert as is never heard on earth.[6] Francis,

hearing it, lost all bodily feeling, say the Fioretti, and at one moment

the melody was so sweet and penetrating that if the angel had given one

more stroke of the bow, the sick man's soul would have left his

body.[7]

It seems that there was some amelioration of his state when the doctors

left him; we find him during the months of this winter, 1225-1226, in

the most remote hermitages of the district, for as soon as he had a

little strength he was determined to begin preaching again.

He went to Poggio-Buscone[8] for the Christmas festival. People

flocked thither in crowds from all the country round to see and hear

him. "You come here," he said, "expecting to find a great saint; what

will you think when I tell you that I ate meat all through Advent?"[9]

At St. Eleutheria,[10] at a time of extreme cold which tried him much,

he had sewn some pieces of stuff into his own tunic and that of his

companion, so as to make their garments a little warmer. One day his

companion came home with a fox-skin, with which in his turn he proposed

to line his master's tunic. Francis rejoiced much over it, but would

permit this excess of consideration for his body only on condition that

the piece of fur should be placed on the outside over his chest.

All these incidents, almost insignificant at a first view, show how he

detested hypocrisy even in the smallest things.

We will not follow him to his dear Greccio,[11] nor even to the

hermitage of St. Urbano, perched on one of the highest peaks of the

Sabine.[12] The accounts which we have of the brief visits he made

there at this time tell us nothing new of his character or of the

history of his life. They simply show that the imaginations of those who

surrounded him were extraordinarily overheated; the least incidents

immediately took on a miraculous coloring.[13]

The documents do not say how it came about that he decided to go to

Sienna. It appears that there was in that city a physician of great fame

as an oculist. The treatment he prescribed was no more successful than

that of the others; but with the return of spring Francis made a new

effort to return to active life. We find him describing the ideal

Franciscan monastery,[14] and another day explaining a passage in the

Bible to a Dominican.

Did the latter, a doctor in theology, desire to bring the rival Order

into ridicule by showing its founder incapable of explaining a somewhat

difficult verse? It appears extremely likely. "My good father," he said,

"how do you understand this saying of the prophet Ezekiel, 'If thou dost

not warn the wicked of his wickedness, I will require his soul of thee?'

I am acquainted with many men whom I know to be in a state of mortal

sin, and yet I am not always reproaching them for their vices. Am I,

then, responsible for their souls?"

At first Francis excused himself, alleging his ignorance, but urged by

his interlocutor he said at last: "Yes, the true servant unceasingly

rebukes the wicked, but he does it most of all by his conduct, by the

truth which shines forth in his words, by the light of his example, by

all the radiance of his life."[15]

He soon suffered so grave a relapse that the Brothers thought his last

hour had come. They were especially affrighted by the hemorrhages, which

reduced him to a state of extreme prostration. Brother Elias hastened to

him. At his arrival the invalid felt in himself such an improvement that

they could acquiesce in his desire to be taken back to Umbria. Toward

the middle of April they set out, going in the direction of Cortona. It

is the easiest route, and the delightful hermitage of that city was one

of the best ordered to permit of his taking some repose. He doubtless

remained there a very short time: he was in haste to see once more the

skies of his native country, Portiuncula, St. Damian, the Carceri, all

those paths and hamlets which one sees from the terraces of Assisi and

which recalled to him so many sweet memories.

Instead of going by the nearest road, they made a long circuit by Gubbio

and Nocera, to avoid Perugia, fearing some attempt of the inhabitants to

get possession of the Saint. Such a relic as the body of Francis lacked

little of the value of the sacred nail or the sacred lance.[16] Battles

were fought for less than that.

They made a short halt near Nocera, at the hermitage of Bagnara, on the

slopes of Monte-Pennino.[17] His companions were again very much

disturbed. The swelling which had shown itself in the lower limbs was

rapidly gaining the upper part of the body. The Assisans learned this,

and wishing to be prepared for whatever might happen sent their

men-at-arms to protect the Saint and hasten his return.

Bringing Francis back with them they stopped for food at the hamlet of

Balciano,[18] but in vain they begged the inhabitants to sell them

provisions. As the escort were confiding their discomfiture to the

friars, Francis, who knew these good peasants, said: "If you had asked

for food without offering to pay, you would have found all you wanted."

He was right, for, following his advice, they received for nothing all

that they desired.[19]

The arrival of the party at Assisi was hailed with frantic joy. This

time Francis's fellow-citizens were sure that the Saint was not going to

die somewhere else.[20]

Customs in this matter have changed too much for us to be able

thoroughly to comprehend the good fortune of possessing the body of a

saint. If you are ever so unlucky as to mention St. Andrew before an

inhabitant of Amalfi, you will immediately find him beginning to shout

"_Evviva San Andrea! Evviva San Andrea!_" Then with extraordinary

volubility he will relate to you the legend of the _Grande Protettore_,

his miracles past and present, those which he might have done if he had

chosen, but which he refrained from doing out of charity because St.

Januarius of Naples could not do as much. He gesticulates, throws

himself about, hustles you, more enthusiastic over his relic and more

exasperated by your coldness than a soldier of the Old Guard before an

enemy of the Emperor.

In the thirteenth century all Europe was like that.

We shall find here several incidents which we may be tempted to consider

shocking or even ignoble, if we do not make an effort to put them all

into their proper surroundings.

Francis was installed in the bishop's palace; he would have preferred to

be at Portiuncula, but the Brothers were obliged to obey the injunctions

of the populace, and to make assurance doubly sure, guards were placed

at all the approaches of the palace.

The abode of the Saint in this place was much longer than had been

anticipated. It perhaps lasted several months (July to September). This

dying man did not consent to die. He rebelled against death; in this

centre of the work his anxieties for the future of the Order, which a

little while before had been in the background, now returned, more

agonizing and terrible than ever.

"We must begin again," he thought, "create a new family who will not

forget humility, who will go and serve lepers and, as in the old times,

put themselves always, not merely in words, but in reality, below all

men."[21]

To feel that implacable work of destruction going on against which the

most submissive cannot keep from protesting: "My God, my God, why? why

hast thou forsaken me?" To be obliged to look on at the still more

dreaded decomposition of his Order; he, the lark, to be spied upon by

soldiers watching for his corpse--there was quite enough here to make

him mortally sad.

During these last weeks all his sighs were noted. The disappearance of

the greater part of the legend of the Three Companions certainly

deprives us of some touching stories, but most of the incidents have

been preserved for us, notwithstanding, in documents from a second hand.

Four Brothers had been especially charged to lavish care upon him: Leo,

Angelo, Rufino, and Masseo. We already know them; they are of those

intimate friends of the first days, who had heard in the Franciscan

gospel a call to love and liberty. And they too began to complain of

everything.[22]

One day one of them said to the sick man: "Father, you are going away to

leave us here; point out to us, then, if you know him, the one to whom

we might in all security confide the burden of the generalship."

Alas, Francis did not know the ideal Brother, capable of assuming such a

duty; but he took advantage of the question to sketch the portrait of

the perfect minister-general.[23]

We have two impressions of this portrait, the one which has been

retouched by Celano, and the original proof, much shorter and more

vague, but showing us Francis desiring that his successor shall have but

a single weapon, an unalterable love.

It was probably this question which suggested to him the thought of

leaving for his successors, the generals of the Order, a letter which

they should pass on from one to another, and where they should find, not

directions for particular cases, but the very inspiration of their

activity.[24]

To the Reverend Father in Christ, N ..., Minister-General of the

entire Order of the Brothers Minor. May God bless thee and keep

thee in his holy love.

Patience in all things and everywhere, this, my Brother, is what

I specially recommend. Even if they oppose thee, if they strike

thee, thou shouldst be grateful to them and desire that it

should be thus and not otherwise.

In this will be manifest thy love for God and for me, his

servant and thine; that there shall not be a single friar in the

world who, having sinned as much as one can sin, and coming

before thee, shall go away without having received thy pardon.

And if he does not ask it, do thou ask it for him, whether he

wills or not.

And if he should return again a thousand times before thee, love

him more than myself, in order to lead him to well-doing. Have

pity always on these Brothers.

These words show plainly enough how in former days Francis had directed

the Order; in his dream the ministers-general were to stand in a

relation of pure affection, of tender devotion toward those under them;

but was this possible for one at the head of a family whose branches

extended over the entire world? It would be hazardous to say, for among

his successors have not been wanting distinguished minds and noble

hearts; but save for Giovanni di Parma and two or three others, this

ideal is in sharp contrast with the reality. St. Bonaventura himself

will drag his master and friend, this very Giovanni of Parma, before an

ecclesiastical tribunal, will cause him to be condemned to perpetual

imprisonment, and it will need the intervention of a cardinal outside of

the Order to secure the commutation of this sentence.[25]

The agonies of grief endured by the dying Francis over the decadence of

the Order would have been less poignant if they had not been mingled

with self-reproaches for his own cowardice. Why had he deserted his

post, given up the direction of his family, if not from idleness and

selfishness? And now it was too late to take back this step; and in

hours of frightful anguish he asked himself if God would not hold him

responsible for this subversion of his ideal.

"Ah, if I could go once again to the chapter-general," he would sigh, "I

would show them what my will is."

Shattered as he was by fever, he would suddenly rise up in his bed,

crying with a despairing intensity: "Where are they who have ravished

my brethren from me? Where are they who have stolen away my family?"

Alas, the real criminals were nearer to him than he thought. The

provincial ministers, of whom he appears to have been thinking when he

thus spoke, were only instruments in the hands of the clever Brother

Elias; and he--what else was he doing but putting his intelligence and

address at Cardinal Ugolini's service?

Far from finding any consolation in those around him, Francis was

constantly tortured by the confidences of his companions, who, impelled

by mistaken zeal, aggravated his pain instead of calming it.[26]

"Forgive me, Father," said one of them to him one day, "but many

people have already thought what I am going to say to you. You

know how, in the early days, by God's grace the Order walked in

the path of perfection; for all that concerns poverty and love,

as well as for all the rest, the Brothers were but one heart and

one soul. But for some time past all that is entirely changed:

it is true that people often excuse the Brothers by saying that

the Order has grown too large to keep up the old observances;

they even go so far as to claim that infidelities to the Rule,

such as the building of great monasteries, are a means of

edification of the people, and so the primitive simplicity and

poverty are held for nothing. Evidently all these abuses are

displeasing to you; but then, people ask, why do you tolerate

them?"

"God forgive you, brother." replied Francis. "Why do you lay at

my door things with which I have nothing to do? So long as I had

the direction of the Order, and the Brothers persevered in their

vocation I was able, in spite of weakness, to do what was

needful. But when I saw that, without caring for my example or

my teaching, they walked in the way you have described, I

confided them to the Lord and to the ministers. It is true that

when I relinquished the direction, alleging my incapacity as the

motive, if they had walked in the way of my wishes I should not

have desired that before my death they should have had any other

minister than myself; though ill, though bedridden, even, I

should have found strength to perform the duties of my charge.

But this charge is wholly spiritual; I will not become an

executioner to strike and punish as political governors

must."[27]

Francis's complaints became so sharp and bitter that, to avoid scandal,

the greatest prudence was exercised with regard to those who were

permitted to see him.[28]

Disorder was everywhere, and every day brought its contingent of

subjects for sorrow. The confusion of ideas as to the practice of the

Rule was extreme; occult influences, which had been working for several

years, had succeeded in veiling the Franciscan ideal, not only from

distant Brothers, or those who had newly joined the Order, but even from

those who had lived under the influence of the founder.[29]

Under circumstances such as these, Francis dictated the letter to all

the members of the Order, which, as he thought would be read at the

opening of chapters and perpetuate his spiritual presence in them.[30]

In this letter he is perfectly true to himself; as in the past, he

desires to influence the Brothers, not by reproaches but by fixing their

eyes on the perfect holiness.

To all the revered and well-beloved Brothers Minor, to Brother A

...,[31] minister-general, its Lord, and to the

ministers-general who shall be after him, and to all the

ministers, custodians, and priests of this fraternity, humble in

Christ, and to all the simple and obedient Brothers, the oldest

and the most recent, Brother Francis, a mean and perishing man,

your little servant, gives greeting!

Hear, my Lords, you who are my sons and my brothers, give ear to

my words. Open your hearts and obey the voice of the Son of God.

Keep his commandments with all your hearts, and perfectly

observe his counsels. Praise him, for he is good, and glorify

him by your works.

God has sent you through all the world, that by your words and

example you may bear witness of him, and that you may teach all

men that he alone is all powerful. Persevere in discipline and

obedience, and with an honest and firm will keep that which you

have promised.

After this opening Francis immediately passes to the essential matter of

the letter, that of the love and respect due to the Sacrament of the

altar; faith in this mystery of love appeared to him indeed as the

salvation of the Order.

Was he wrong? How can a man who truly believes in the real presence of

the God-Man between the fingers of him who lifts up the host, not

consecrate his life to this God and to holiness? One has some difficulty

in imagining.

It is true that legions of devotees profess the most absolute faith in

this dogma, and we do not see that they are less bad; but faith with

them belongs in the intellectual sphere; it is the abdication of

reason, and in sacrificing their intelligence to God they are most happy

to offer to him an instrument which they very much prefer not to use.

To Francis the question presented itself quite differently; the thought

that there could be any merit in believing could never enter his mind;

the fact of the real presence was for him of almost concrete evidence.

Therefore his faith in this mystery was an energy of the heart, that the

life of God, mysteriously present upon the altar, might become the soul

of all his actions.

To the eucharistic transubstantiation, effected by the words of the

priest, he added another, that of his own heart.

God offers himself to us as to his children. This is why I beg

you, all of you, my brothers, kissing your feet, and with all

the love of which I am capable, to have all possible respect for

the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then addressing himself particularly to the priests:

Hearken, my brothers, if the blessed Virgin Mary is justly

honored for having carried Jesus in her womb, if John the

Baptist trembled because he dared not touch the Lord's head, if

the sepulchre in which for a little time he lay is regarded with

such great adoration, oh, how holy, pure, and worthy should be

the priest who touches with his hands, who receives into his

mouth and into his heart, and who distributes to others the

living, glorified Jesus, the sight of whom makes angels rejoice!

Understand your dignity, brother priests, and be holy, for he is

holy. Oh! what great wretchedness and what a frightful infirmity

to have him there present before you and to think of other

things. Let each man be struck with amazement, let the whole

earth tremble, let the heavens thrill with joy when the Christ,

the Son of the living God, descends upon the altar into the

hands of the priest. Oh, wonderful profundity! Oh, amazing

grace! Oh, triumph of humility! See, the Master of all things,

God, and the Son of God, humbles himself for our salvation, even

to disguising himself under the appearance of a bit of bread.

Contemplate, my brothers, this humility of God, and enlarge your

hearts before him; humble yourselves as well, that you, even

you, may be lifted up by him. Keep nothing for yourselves, that

he may receive you without reserve, who has given himself to you

without reserve.

We see with what vigor of love Francis's heart had laid hold upon the

idea of the communion.

He closes with long counsels to the Brothers, and after having conjured

them faithfully to keep their promises, all his mysticism breathes out

and is summed up in a prayer of admirable simplicity.

God Almighty, eternal, righteous, and merciful, give to us poor

wretches to do for thy sake all that we know of thy will, and to

will always what pleases thee; so that inwardly purified,

enlightened, and kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, we may

follow in the footprints of thy well-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus

Christ.

What separates this prayer from the effort to discern duty made by

choice spirits apart from all revealed religion? Very little in truth;

the words are different, the action is the same.

But Francis's solicitudes reached far beyond the limits of the Order.

His longest epistle is addressed to all Christians; its words are so

living that you fancy you hear a voice speaking behind you; and this

voice, usually as serene as that which from the mountain in Galilee

proclaimed the law of the new times, becomes here and there unutterably

sweet, like that which sounded in the upper chamber on the night of the

first eucharist.

As Jesus forgot the cross that was standing in the shadows, so Francis

forgets his sufferings, and, overcome with a divine sadness, thinks of

humanity, for each member of which he would give his life; he thinks of

his spiritual sons, the Brothers of Penitence, whom he is about to leave

without having been able to make them feel, as he would have had them

feel, the love for them with which he burns: "Father, I have given them

the words which thou hast given me.... For them I pray!"

The whole Franciscan gospel is in these words, but to understand the

fascination which it exerted we must have gone through the School of the

Middle Ages, and there listened to the interminable tournaments of

dialectics by which minds were dried up; we must have seen the Church of

the thirteenth century, honeycombed by simony and luxury, and only able,

under the pressure of heresy or revolt, to make a few futile efforts to

scotch the evil.

To all Christians, monks, clerics, or laymen, whether men or

women, to all who dwell in the whole world, Brother Francis,

their most submissive servitor, presents his duty and wishes the

true peace of heaven, and sincere love in the Lord.

Being the servitor of all men, I am bound to serve them and to

dispense to them the wholesome words of my Master. This is why,

seeing I am too weak and ill to visit each one of you in

particular, I have resolved to send you my message by this

letter, and to offer you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

Word of God, and of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit and life.

It would be puerile to expect here new ideas either in fact or form.

Francis's appeals are of value only by the spirit which animates them.

After having briefly recalled the chief features of the gospel, and

urgently recommended the communion, Francis addresses himself in

particular to certain categories of hearers, with special counsels.

Let the podestàs, governors, and those who are placed in

authority, exercise their functions with mercy, as they would be

judged with mercy by God....

Monks in particular, who have renounced the world, are bound to

do more and better than simple Christians, to renounce all that

is not necessary to them, and to have in hatred the vices and

sins of the body.... They should love their enemies, do good to

them who hate them, observe the precepts and counsels of our

Redeemer, renounce themselves, and subdue their bodies. And no

monk is bound to obedience, if in obeying he would be obliged to

commit a fault or a sin....

Let us not be wise and learned according to the flesh, but

simple, humble, and pure.... We should never desire to be above

others, but rather to be below, and to obey all men.

He closes by showing the foolishness of those who set their hearts on

the possession of earthly goods, and concludes by the very realistic

picture of the death of the wicked.

His money, his title, his learning, all that he believed himself

to possess, all are taken from him; his relatives and his

friends to whom he has given his fortune will come to divide it

among themselves, and will end by saying: "Curses on him, for he

might have given us more and he has not done it; he might have

amassed a larger fortune, and he has done nothing of the kind."

The worms will eat his body and the demons will consume his

soul, and thus he will lose both soul and body.

I, Brother Francis, your little servitor, I beg and conjure you

by the love that is in God, ready to kiss your feet, to receive

with humility and love these and all other words of our Lord

Jesus Christ and to conform your conduct to them. And let those

who devoutly receive them and understand them pass them on to

others. And if they thus persevere unto the end, may they be

blessed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.[32]

If Francis ever made a Rule for the Third Order it must have very nearly

resembled this epistle, and until this problematical document is found,

the letter shows what were originally these associations of Brothers of

Penitence. Everything in these long pages looks toward the development

of the mystic religious life in the heart of each Christian. But even

when Francis dictated them, this high view had become a Utopia, and the

Third Order was only one battalion more in the armies of the papacy.

We see that the epistles which we have just examined proceed definitely

from a single inspiration. Whether he is leaving instructions for his

successors, the ministers-general, whether he is writing to all the

present and future members of his Order, to all Christians or even to

the clergy,[33] Francis has only one aim, to keep on preaching after

his death, and perhaps, too, by putting into writing his message of

peace and love, to provide that he shall not be entirely travestied or

misunderstood.

Considered in connection with those sorrowful hours which saw their

birth, they form a whole whose import and meaning become singularly

energetic. If we would find the Franciscan spirit, it is here, in the

Rule of 1221, and in the Will that we must seek for it.

Neglect, and especially the storms which later overwhelmed the Order,

explain the disappearance of several other documents which would cast a

glimmer of poetry and joy over these sad days;[34] Francis had not

forgotten his sister-friend at St. Damian. Hearing that she had been

greatly disquieted by knowing him to be so ill, he desired to reassure

her: he still deceived himself as to his condition, and wrote to her

promising soon to go to see her.

To this assurance he added some affectionate counsels, advising her and

her companions not to go to extremes with their macerations. To set her

an example of cheerfulness he added to this letter a Laude in the

vulgar tongue which he had himself set to music.[35]

In that chamber of the episcopal palace in which he was as it were

imprisoned he had achieved a new victory, and it was doubtless that

which inspired his joy. The Bishop of Assisi, the irritable Guido,

always at war with somebody, was at this time quarrelling with the

podestà of the city; nothing more was needed to excite in the little

town a profound disquiet. Guido had excommunicated the podestà, and the

latter had issued a prohibition against selling and buying or making any

contract with ecclesiastics.

The difference grew more bitter, and no one appeared to dream of

attempting a reconciliation. We can the better understand Francis's

grief over all this by remembering that his very first effort had been

to bring peace into his native city, and that he considered the return

of Italy to union and concord to be the essential aim of his apostolate.

War in Assisi would be the final dissolution of his dream; the voice of

events crying brutally to him, "Thou hast wasted thy life!"

The dregs of this cup were spared him, thanks to an inspiration in which

breaks forth anew his natural play of imagination. To the Canticle of

the Sun he added a new strophe:

Be praised, Lord, for those who forgive for love of thee,

and bear trials and tribulations;

happy they who persevere in peace,

by thee, Most high, shall they be crowned.

Then, calling a friar, he charged him to beg the governor to betake

himself, with all the notables whom he could assemble, to the paved

square before the bishop's palace. The magistrate, to whom legend gives

the nobler part in the whole affair, at once yielded to the saint's

request.

When he arrived and the bishop had come forth from the palace,

two friars came forward and said: "Brother Francis has made to

the praise of God a hymn to which he prays you to listen

piously," and immediately they began to sing the Hymn of Brother

Sun, with its new strophe.

The governor listened, standing in an attitude of profound

attention, copiously weeping, for he dearly loved the blessed

Francis.

When the singing was ended, "Know in truth," said he, "that I

desire to forgive the lord bishop, that I wish and ought to look

upon him as my lord, for if one had even assassinated my brother

I should be ready to pardon the murderer." With these words he

threw himself at the bishop's feet, and said: "I am ready to do

whatsoever you would, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and

his servant Francis."

Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, lifted him up and said,

"With my position it would become me to be humble, but since I

am naturally too quick to wrath, thou must pardon me."[36]

This unexpected reconciliation was immediately looked upon as

miraculous, and increased still more the reverence of the Assisans for

their fellow-citizen.

The summer was drawing to a close. After a few days of relative

improvement Francis's sufferings became greater than ever: incapable of

movement, he even thought that he ought to give up his ardent desire to

see St. Damian and Portiuncula once more, and gave the brothers all his

directions about the latter sanctuary: "Never abandon it," he would

repeat to them, "for that place is truly sacred: it is the house of

God."[37]

It seemed to him that if the Brothers remained attached to that bit of

earth, that chapel ten feet long, those thatched huts, they would there

find the living reminder of the poverty of the early days, and could

never wander far from it.

One evening he grew worse with frightful rapidity; all the following

night he had hemorrhages which left not the slightest hope; the Brothers

hastening to him, he dictated a few lines in form of a Will and gave

them his blessing: "Adieu, my children; remain all of you in the fear of

God, abide always united to Christ; great trials are in store for you,

and tribulation draws nigh. Happy are they who persevere as they have

begun; for there will be scandals and divisions among you. As for me, I

am going to the Lord and my God. Yes, I have the assurance that I am

going to him whom I have served."[38]

During the following days, to the great surprise of those who were about

him, he again grew somewhat better; no one could understand the

resistance to death offered by this body so long worn out by suffering.

He himself began to hope again. A physician of Arezzo whom he knew well,

having come to visit him, "Good friend," Francis asked him, "how much

longer do you think I have to live?"

"Father," replied the other reassuringly, "this will all pass away, if

it pleases God."

"I am not a cuckoo,"[39] replied Francis smiling, using a popular

saying, "to be afraid of death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit I am so

intimately united to God that I am equally content to live or to die."

"In that case, father, from the medical point of view, your disease is

incurable, and I do not think that you can last longer than the

beginning of autumn."

At these words the poor invalid stretched out his hands as if to call on

God, crying with an indescribable expression of joy, "Welcome, Sister

Death!" Then he began to sing, and sent for Brothers Angelo and Leo.

On their arrival they were made, in spite of their emotion, to sing the

Canticle of the Sun. They were at the last doxology when Francis,

checking them, improvised the greeting to death:

Be praised, Lord, for our Sister the Death of the body,

whom no man may escape;

alas for them who die in a state of mortal sin;

happy they who are found conformed to thy most holy will,

for the second death will do to them no harm.

From this day the palace rang unceasingly with his songs. Continually,

even through the night, he would sing the Canticle of the Sun or some

other of his favorite compositions. Then, when wearied out, he would beg

Angelo and Leo to go on.

One day Brother Elias thought it his duty to make a few remarks on the

subject. He feared that the nurses and the people of the neighborhood

would be scandalized; ought not a saint to be absorbed in meditation in

the face of death, to await it with fear and trembling instead of

indulging in a gayety that might be misinterpreted?[40] Perhaps Bishop

Guido was not entirely a stranger to these reproaches; it seems not

improbable that to have his palace crowded with Brothers Minor all these

long weeks had finally put him a little out of humor. But Francis would

not yield; his union with God was too sweet for him to consent not to

sing it.

They decided at last to remove him to Portiuncula. His desire was to be

fulfilled; he was to die beside the humble chapel where he had heard

God's voice consecrating him apostle.

His companions, bearing their precious burden, took the way through the

olive-yards across the plain. From time to time the invalid, unable to

distinguish anything, asked where they were. When they were half way

there, at the hospital of the Crucigeri, where long ago he had tended

the leper, and from whence there was a full view of all the houses of

the city, he begged them to set him upon the ground with his face toward

Assisi, and raising his hand he bade adieu to his native place and

blessed it.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following is the list of monasteries which, according to

Rodolfo di Tossignano, accepted the ideas of Angelo Clareno

before the end of the thirteenth century: Fermo, Spoleto,

Camerino, Ascoli, Rieti, Foligno, Nursia, Aquila, Amelia:

_Historiarum seraphicæ religionis, libri tres_, Venice, 1586, 1

vol., f^o, 155a.

[2] _Spec._, 129b; _Fior._, 19. In some of the stories of this

period the evidence is clear how certain facts have been, little

by little, transformed into miracles. Compare, for example, the

miracle of St. Urbano in Bon., 68, and 1 Cel., 61. See also 2

Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159.

[3] 1 Cel., 87; 2 Cel., 2, 11; _Conform._, 148a, 2; Bon., 99.

Upon this visit see 2 Cel., 2, 10; Bon., 158 and 159; 2 Cel., 2,

11; 2 Cel., 3, 36.

[4] The present Italian name of the monastery which has also

been called _Monte-Rainerio_ and _Fonte-Palumbo_.

[5] 1 Cel., 101; 2 Cel., 3, 102; Bon., 67; _Spec._, 134a.

[6] 2 Cel., 3, 66; Bon., 69.

[7] _Fior. ii. consid._ Cf. Roger Bacon, Opus tertium (_ap. Mon.

Germ. hist._, _Script._ t. 28, p. 577). _B. Franciscus jussit

fratri cythariste ut dulcius personaret, quatenus mens

excitaretur ad harmonias coelestes quas pluries andivit. Mira

enim musicæ super omnes scientias et spectanda potestas._

[8] Village three hours' walk northward from Rieti. Francis's

cell still remains on the mountain, three-quarters of an hour

from the place.

[9] 2 Cel., 3, 71; cf. _Spec._, 43a.

[10] Chapel still standing, a few minutes' walk from Rieti. 2

Cel., 3, 70; _Spec._, 15a, 43a.

[11] 2 Cel., 2, 14; Bon., 167; 2 Cel., 3, 10; Bon., 58; _Spec._,

122b.

[12] Wadding, _ann. 1213_, n. 14, rightly places St. Urbano in

the county of Narni. _L'Eremo di S. Urbano_ is about half an

hour from the village of the same name, on Mount San Pancrazio

(1026 m.), three leagues south of Narni. The panorama is one of

the finest in Central Italy. The Bollandists allowed themselves

to be led into error by an interested assertion when they placed

San Urbano near to Jesi (pp. 623f and 624a). 1 Cel., 61; Bon.,

68. (Vide Bull _Cum aliqua_ of May 15, 1218, where mention is

made of San Urbano.)

[13] As much may be said of the apparition of the three virgins

between Campilia and San Quirico. 2 Cel., 3, 37; Bon., 93.

[14] _Spec._, 12b; _Conform._, 169a, 1.

[15] 2 Cel., 3, 46; Bon., 153; _Spec._, 31b; Ezek., xxxiii., 9.

[16] Two years after, the King of France and all his court

kissed and revered the pillow which Francis had used during his

illness. 1 Cel., 120.

[17] Bagnara is near the sources of the Topino, about an hour

east of Nocera. These two localities were then dependents of

Assisi.

[18] And not Sartiano. Balciano still exists, about half way

between Nocera and Assisi.

[19] 2 Cel., 3, 23; Bon., 98; _Spec._, 17b; _Conform._, 239a,

2f.

[20] 2 Cel., 3, 33; 1 Cel., 105, is still more explicit: "The

multitude hoped that he would die very soon, and that was the

subject of their joy."

[21] 1 Cel., 103 and 104.

[22] 1 Cel., 102; _Spec._, 83b.

[23] 2 Cel., 3, 116; _Spec._, 67a; _Conform._, 143b, 1, and

225b, 2; 2 Cel., 3, 117; _Spec._, 130a.

[24] For the text vide _Conform._, 136b, 2; 138b, 2; 142 b, 1.

[25] _Tribul., Archiv._, ii., pp. 285 ff.

[26] 2 Cel., 3, 118.

[27] These words are borrowed from a long fragment cited by

Ubertini di Casali, as coming from Brother Leo: _Arbor vit.

cruc., lib._ v., _cap._ 3. It is surely a bit of the Legend of

the Three Companions; it may be found textually in the

Tribulations, Laur., f^o 16b, with a few more sentences at the

end. Cf. _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2; _Spec._, 8b; 26b; 50a;

130b; 2 Cel., 3, 118.

[28] _Tribul._, Laur., 17b.

[29] See, for example, Brother Richer's question as to the

books: Ubertini, _Loc. cit._ Cf. _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and

177; _Spec._, 8a; _Conform._, 71b, 2. See also: Ubertini,

_Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177; _Tribul._, 13a; _Spec._, 9a;

_Conform._, 170a, 1. It is curious to compare the account as it

found in the documents with the version of it given in 2 Cel.,

3, 8.

[30] Assisi MS., 338, f^o 28a-31a, with the rubric: _De lictera

et ammonitione beatissimi patris nostri Francisci quam misit

fratribus ad capitulum quando erat infirmus._ This letter was

wrongly divided into three by Rodolfo di Tossignano (f^o 237),

who was followed by Wadding (Epistolæ x., xi., xii.). The text

is found without this senseless division in the manuscript cited

and in _Firmamentum_, f^o 21; _Spec._, Morin, iii., 217a;

Ubertini, _Arbor vit. cruc._, v., 7.

[31] This initial (given only by the Assisi MS.) has not failed

to excite surprise. It appears that there ought to have been

simply an N ... This letter then would have been replaced by the

copyist, who would have used the initial of the minister general

in charge at the time of his writing. If this hypothesis has any

weight it will aid to fix the exact date of the manuscript.

(Alberto of Pisa minister from 1239-1240; Aimon of Faversham,

1240-1244.)

[32] This epistle also was unskilfully divided into two distinct

letters by Rodolfo di Tossignano, f^o 174a, who was followed by

Wadding. See Assisi MS., 338, 23a-28a; _Conform._, 137a, 1 ff.

[33] The letter to the clergy only repeats the thoughts already

expressed upon the worship of the holy sacrament. We remember

Francis sweeping out the churches and imploring the priests to

keep them clean; this epistle has the same object: it is found

in the Assisi MS., 338, f^o 31b-32b, with the rubric: _De

reverentia Corporis Domini et de munditia altaris ad omnes

clericos_. Incipit: _Attendamus omnes_. Explicit: _fecerint

exemplari_. This, therefore, is the letter given by Wadding

xiii., but without address or salutation.

[34] We need not despair of finding them. The archives of the

monasteries of Clarisses are usually rudimentary enough, but

they are preserved with pious care.

[35] _Spec._, 117b; _Conform._, 185a 1; 135b, 1. Cf. _Test. B.

Claræ_, A. SS., Aug., ii., p. 747.

[36] This story is given in the _Spec._, 128b, as from

eye-witnesses. Cf. _Conform._, 184b, 1; 203a, 1.

[37] 1 Cel., 106. These recommendations as to Portiuncula were

amplified by the Zelanti, when, under the generalship of

Crescentius (Bull _Is qui ecclesiam_, March 6, 1245), the

Basilica of Assisi was substituted for Santa Maria degli Angeli

as _mater et caput_ of the Order. Vide _Spec._, 32b, 69b-71a;

_Conform._, 144a, 2; 218a, 1; 3 Soc., 56; 2 Cel., 1, 12 and 13;

Bon., 24, 25; see the Appendix, the Study of the Indulgence of

August 2.

[38] 2 Cel., 108. As will be seen (below, p. 367) the remainder

of Celano's narrative seems to require to be taken with some

reserve. Cf. _Spec._, 115b; _Conform._, 225a, 2; Bon., 211.

[39] _Non sum cuculus_, in Italian _cuculo_.

[40] _Spec._, 136b; _Fior. iv. consid._ It is to be noted that

Guido, instead of waiting at Assisi for the certainly impending

death of Francis, went away to Mont Gargano. 2 Cel., 3, 142.

* * * * *