Life of St. Francis of Assisi

1. Bull Quo elongati of September 28, 1230. See p. 336.

2. It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.

3. The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body of the work.

4. Eccl., 13. Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc. An. fr., t. i., p. 241. Cf. Mon. Germ. hist. Script., t., 28, p. 564.

5. The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. The Instrumentum donationis is still preserved at Assisi: Piece No. 1 of the twelfth package of Instrumenta diversa pertinentia ad Sacrum Conventum. It has been published by Thode: Franz von Assisi, p. 359.

On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper church was finished. It was already decorated with a first series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).

6.Spec., 167a. Cf. An. fr., ii., p. 45 and note.

7. The Bollandists followed the text (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 683-723) of a manuscript of the Cistercian abbey of Longpont in the diocese of Soissons. It has since been published in Rome in 1806, without the name of the editor (in reality by the Convent Father Rinaldi), under the title: Seraphici viri S. Francisci Assisiatis vitæ dual auctore B. Thoma de Celano, according to a manuscript (of Fallerone, in the March of Ancona) which was stolen in the vicinity of Terni by brigands from the Brother charged with bringing it back. The second text was reproduced at Rome in 1880 by Canon Amoni: Vita prima S. Francisci, auctore B. Thoma de Celano. Roma, tipografia della pace, 1880, in 8vo, 42 pp. The citations will follow the divisions made by the Bollandists, but in many important passages the Rinaldi-Amoni text gives better readings than that of the Bollandists. The latter has been here and there retouched and filled out. See, for example, 1 Cel., 24 and 31. As for the manuscripts, Father Denifle thinks that the oldest of those which are known is that at Barcelona: Archivo de la corona de Aragon, Ripoll, n. 41 (Archiv., t. i., p. 148). There is one in the National Library of Paris, Latin alcove, No. 3817, which includes a curious note: "Apud Perusium felix domnus papa Gregorius nonus gloriosi secundo pontificus sui anno, quinto kal. martii (February 25, 1229) legendam hanc recepit, confirmavit et censuit fore tenendam."

Another manuscript, which merits attention, both because of its age, thirteenth century, and because of the correction in the text, and which appears to have escaped the researches of the students of the Franciscans, is the one owned by the École de Médicine at Montpellier, No. 30, in vellum folio: Passionale vetus ecclesiæ S. Benigni divionensis. The story of Celano occupies in it the fos. 257a-271b. The text ends abruptly in the middle of paragraph 112 with supiriis ostendebant. Except for this final break it is complete. Cf. Archives Pertz, t. vii., pp. 195 and 196. Vide General catalogue of the manuscripts of the public libraries of the departments, t. i., p. 295.

8. Vide 1 Cel., Prol. Jubente domino et glorioso Papa Gregorio. Celano wrote it after the canonization (July 16, 1228) and before February 25, 1229, for the date indicated above raises no difficulty.

9. 1 Cel., 56. Perhaps he was the son of that Thomas, Count of Celano, to whom Ryccardi di S. Germano so often made allusion in his chronicle: 1219-1223. See also two letters of Frederick II. to Honorius III., on April 24 and 25, 1223, published in Winckelmann: Acta imperii inedita, t. i., p. 232.

10. Giord., 19.

11. Giord., 30 and 31.

12. Giord., 59. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1230. The question whether he is the author of the Dies iræ would be out of place here.

13. This is so true that the majority of historians have been brought to believe in two generalates of Elias, one in 1227-1230, the other in 1236-1239. The letter Non ex odio of Frederick II. (1239) gives the same idea: Revera papa iste quemdam religiosum et timoratum fratrem Helyam, ministrum ordinis fratrum minorum ab ipso beato Francisco patre ordinis migrationis suæ tempore constitutum ... in odium nostrum ... deposuit. Huillard-Breholles: Hist. dipl. Fred. II., t. v., p. 346.

14. He is named only once, 1 Cel., 48.

15. 1 Cel., 95, 98, 105, 109. The account of the Benediction is especially significant. Super quem inquit (Franciscus) tenes dexteram meam? Super fratrem Heliam, inquiunt. Et ego sic volo, sit.... 1 Cel., 108. Those last words obviously disclose the intention. Cf. 2 Cel., 3, 139.

16. 1 Cel., 102; cf. 91 and 109. Brother Leo is not even named in the whole work. Nor Angelo, Illuminato, Masseo either!

17. 1 Cel., Prol., 73-75; 99-101; 121-126. Next to St. Francis, Gregory IX. and Brother Elias (1 Cel., 69; 95; 98; 105; 108; 109) are in the foreground.

18. 1 Cel., 18 and 19; 116 and 117.

19. Those which occurred during the absence of Francis (1220-1221). He overlooks the difficulties met at Rome in seeking the approbation of the first Rule; he mentions those connected neither with the second nor the third, and makes no allusion to the circumstances which provoked them. He recognized them, however, having lived in intimacy with Cæsar of Speyer, the collaborator of the second (1221).

20. For example, Francis's journey to Spain.

21. 1 Cel., 1, 88. Et sola quæ necessaria magis occurrunt ad præsens intendimus adnotare. It is to be observed that in the prologue he speaks in the singular.

22. In 1238 he had sent Elias to Cremona, charged with a mission for Frederick II. Salembeni, ann. 1229. See also the reception given by Gregory IX. to the appellants against the General. Giord., 63.

23. See the letter of Frederick II. to Elias upon the translation of St. Elizabeth, May, 1236. Winkelmann, Acta i., p. 299. Cf. Huillard-Bréholles, Hist. dipl. Intr. p. cc.

24. The authorities for this story are: Catalogus ministrorum of Bernard of Besse, ap Ehrle, Zeitschrift, vol. 7 (1883), p. 339; Speculum, 207b, and especially 167a-170a; Eccl., 13; Giord., 61-63; Speculum, Morin., tract i., fo. 60b.

25.Asserabat etiam ipse prædictus frater Helyas ... papam ... fraudem facere de pecunia collecta ad succursum Terræ Sanctæ, scripta etiam ad beneplacitum suum in camera sua bullare clam et sine fratrum assensu et etiam cedulas vacuas, sed bullatas, multas nunciis suis traderet ... et alia multa enormia imposuit domino papæ ponens os suum in celo. Matth. Paris, Chron. Maj., ann. 1239, ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 28, p. 182. Cf. Ficker, n. 2685.

26. Vide Ryccardi di S. Germano, Chron., ap Mon. Ger. hist. Script., t. 19, p. 380, ann. 1239. The letter of Frederick complaining of the deposition of Elias (1239): Huillard-Bréholles, Hist. Dipl., v., pp. 346-349. Cf. the Bull, Attendite ad petram, at the end of February, 1240, ibid., pp. 777-779; Potthast, 10849.

27. He was without doubt one of the bitterest adversaries of the emperor. His village had been burnt in 1224, by order of Frederick II., and the inhabitants transported to Sicily, afterward to Malta. Ryccardi di S. Germano, loc. cit., ann. 1223 and 1224.

28. Vide the prologue to 2 Cel. and to the 3 Soc. Cf. Glassberger, ann. 1244, An. fr., ii., p. 68. Speculum, Morin, tract. i., 61b.

29.Catalogus ministrorum, edited by Ehrle: Zeitschrift, t. 7 (1883). no. 5. Cf. Spec., 208a. Mark of Lisbon speaks of it a little more at length, but he gives the honor of it to Giovanni of Parma, ed. Diola, t. ii., p. 38. On the other hand, in manuscript 691 of the archives of the Sacro-Convento at Assisi (a catalogue of the library of the convent made in 1381) is found, fo. 45a, a note of that work: "Dyalogus sanctorum fratrum cum postibus cujus principium est: Venerabilia gesta patrum dignosque memoria, finis vero; non indigne feram me quoque reperisse consortem. In quo libro omnes quaterni sunt xiii."

30. The text was published for the first time by the Bollandists (A. SS., Octobris, t. ii., pp. 723-742), after a manuscript of the convent of the Brothers Minor of Louvain. It is from this edition that we make our citations. The editions published in Italy in the course of this century, cannot be found, except the last, due to Abbé Amoni. This one, unfortunately, is too faulty to serve as the basis of a scientific study. It appeared in Rome in 1880 (8vo, pp. 184) under the title: Legenda S. Francisci Assisiensis quæ dicitur Legenda trium sociorum ex cod. membr. Biblioth. Vatic. num. 7339.

31. 2 Cel., 2, 5; 3, 7; 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113; 1 Cel., 84; Bon., 149; 2 Cel., 2, 14; 3, 10.

32. Giovanni di Parma retired thither in 1276 and lived there almost entirely until his death (1288). Tribul., Archiv., vol. ii. (1886), p. 286.

33. 3 Soc., 25-67.

34. 3 Soc., 68-73.

35. The minister-general Crescentius of Jesi was an avowed adversary of the Zealots of the Rule. The contrary idea has been held by M. Müller (Anfänge, p. 180); but that learned scholar is not, it appears, acquainted with the recitals of the Chronicle of the Tribulations, which leave not a single doubt as to the persecutions which he directed against the Zealots (Archiv., t. ii., pp. 257-260). Anyone who attempts to dispute the historical worth of this proof will find a confirmation in the bulls of August 5, 1244, and of February 7, 1246 (Potthast, 11450 and 12007). It was Crescentius, also, who obtained a bull stating that the Basilica of Assisi was Caput et Mater ordinis, while for the Zealots this rank pertained to the Portiuncula (1 Cel., 106; 3 Soc., 56; Bon., 23; 2 Cel., 1, 12; Conform., 217 ff). (See also on Crescentius, Glassberger, ann. 1244, An. fr., p. 69; Sbaralea, Bull. fr., i., p. 502 ff; Conform., 121b. 1.) M. Müller has been led into error through a blunder of Eccleston, 9 (An. fr., i., p. 235). It is evident that the chapter of Genoa (1244) could not have pronounced against the Declaratio Regulæ published November 14, 1245. On the contrary, it is Crescentius who called forth this Declaratio, against which, not without regret, the Zealots found a majority of the chapter of Metz (1249) presided over by Giovanni of Parma, a decided enemy of any Declaratio (Archiv., ii., p. 276). This view is found to be confirmed by a passage of the Speculum Morin (Rouen, 1509), fo 62a: In hoc capitulo (Narbonnæ) fuit ordinatum quod declaratio D.

Innocentii, p. iv., maneat suspensa sicut in Capitulo METENSI. Et præceptum est omnibus ne quis utatur ea in iis in quibus expositioni D. Gregorii IX. contradicit.

36. Published with all necessary scientific apparatus by F. Ehrle, S. J., in his studies Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne. Archiv., ii., pp. 353-416; iii., pp. 1-195.

37. See, for example, Archiv., iii., p. 53 ff. Cf. 76. Adduxi verba et facta b. Francisci sicut est aliquando in legenda et sicut a sociis sancti patris audivi et in cedulis sanctæ memoriæ fratris Leonis legi manu sua conscriptis, sicut ab ore beati Francisci audivit. Ib., p. 85.