Life of St. Francis of Assisi

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, fo. 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 fo 148, 159.

40. Giord., 11. Cf. Spec., 34b. Fior., 4; Conform., 184a, 1.