Life of St. Francis of Assisi

1. 3 Soc., 57; cf. An. Perus., A. SS., p. 599.

2. Rev. xxi.; 1 Cel., 46; 3 Soc., 57-59; An. Perus., A. SS., p. 600.

3. 1 Cel., 55 and 56; Bon., 129-132.

4.Fior., 7; Spec., 96; Conform., 223a, 2. The fact of Francis's sojourn on an island in this lake is made certain by 1 Cel., 60.

5. Vide below, p. 400. Cf. A. SS., pp. 823 f.

6. At present Sasso-Feltrio, between Conca and Marecchio, south of and about two hours' walk from San Marino.

7. The happiness that I expect is so great that all pain is joyful to me. All the documents give Francis's text in Italian, which is enough to prove that it was the language not only of his poems but also of his sermons. Spec. 92a ff. Conform. 113a, 2; 231a, 1; Fior., Prima consid.

8. See p. 400.

9. 2 Cel., 3, 85; Bon., 82.

10. 1 Cel., 56; Bon., 132.

11. Vide Wadding, ann. 1213-1215. Cf. A. SS., pp. 602, 603, 825-831. Mark of Lisbon, lib. i., cap. 45, pp. 78-80; Papini, Storia di S. Francesco, i., p. 79 ff. (Foligno, 1825, 2 vols., 4to). It is surprising to see Father Suysken giving so much weight to the argumentum a silentio.

12. From Pentecost, 1213, to that of 1214.—Post non multum vero temporis versus Marochium iter arripuit, says Thomas of Celano (1 Cel., 56), after having mentioned the return from Slavonia. Taking into account the author's usus loquendi the phrase appears to establish a certain interval between the two missions.

13.Conform., 110b, 1; Spec., 62b; Fior., 16; Bon., 170-174.

14. Village about two leagues S. W. from Assisi. The time is indirectly fixed by Bon., 173, and 1 Cel., 58.

15. 1 Cel. 58; Bon., 109 and 174; Fior., 16; Spec., 62b; Conform., 114b, 2.

16. About halfway between Orvieto and Narni.

17. 1 Cel., 59; Bon., 175.

18.Ad hæc, ut ipse dicebat ... 1 Cel., 58.

19. Francis has been compared in this regard to certain of his contemporaries, but the similarity of the words only makes more evident the diversity of inspiration. Honorius III. may say: Forma rosæ est inferius angusta, superius ampla et significat quod Christus pauper fuit in mundo, sed est Dominus super omnia et implet universa. Nam sicut forma rosæ, etc. (Horoy, t. i., col. xxiv. and 804), and make a whole sermon on the symbolism of the rose; these overstrained dissertations have nothing to do with the feeling for nature. It is the arsenal of mediæval rhetoric used to dissect a word. It is an intellectual effort, not a song of love. The Imitation would say: If thy heart were right all creatures would be for thee a mirror of life and a volume of holy doctrine, lib. ii., cap. 2. The simple sentiment of the beauty of creation is absent here also; the passage is a pedagogue in disguise.

20.Spec., 157. Fior.; 22.

21. 2 Cel., 2, 16; Conform., 148a, 1, 183b, 2. Cf. the story of the sheep of Portiuncula: Bon., 111.

22. Village in the valley of Rieti, two hours' walk from that town, on the road to Terni.

23. 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113.

24. 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114.

25. 2 Cel., 3, 54; Bon., 109; 2 Cel., 3; 103 ff.; Bon., 116 ff.; Bon., 110; 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114, 113, 115; 1 Cel., 79; Fior., 13, etc.

26. 2 Cel., 3, 101 ff.; Bon., 123.

27. 2 Cel., 3, 59; 1 Cel., 80 and 81.

28. 2 Cel., 3, 101; Spec., 136a; 1 Cel., 81.

29. This is the scene in his life most often reproduced by the predecessors of Giotto. The unknown artist who (before 1236) decorated the nave of the Lower Church of Assisi gives five frescos to the history of Jesus and five to the life of St. Francis. Upon the latter he represents: 1, the renunciation of the paternal inheritance; 2, Francis upholding the Lateran church; 3, the sermon to the birds; 4, the stigmata; 5, the funeral. This work, unhappily very badly lighted, and about half of it destroyed at the time of the construction of the chapels of the nave, ought to be engraved before it completely disappears. The history of art in the time of Giunta Pisano is still too much enveloped in obscurity for us to neglect such a source of information. M. Thode (Franz von Assisi und die Anfänge der Kunst, Berlin, 1885, 8vo. illust.) and the Rev. Father Fratini (Storia della Basilica d'Assisi, Prato, 1882, 8vo) are much too brief so far as these frescos are concerned.

30. It is needless to say that I do not claim that Francis was the only initiator of this movement, still less that he was its creator; he was its most inspired singer, and that may suffice for his glory. If Italy was awakened it was because her sleep was not so sound as in the tenth century; the mosaics of the façade of the Cathedral of Spoleto (the Christ between the Virgin and St. John) already belong to the new art. Still, the victory was so little final that the mural paintings of St. Lawrence without the walls and of the Quattro Coronate, which are subsequent to it by half a score of years, relapse into a coarse Byzantinism. See also those of the Baptistery of Florence.

31. Hence the more or less subtile explanations with which they adorn these incidents.—As to the part of animals in thirteenth century legends consult Cæsar von Heisterbach, Strange's edition, t. ii., pp. 257 ff.

32. 1 Cel., 80-83.

33. 1 Cel., 83; Conform., 111a. M. Thode (Anfänge, pp. 76-94) makes a study of some thirty portraits. The most important are reproduced in Saint François (1 vol., 4to, Paris, 1885); 1, contemporary portrait, by Brother Eudes, now at Subiaco (loc. cit., p. 30); 2, portrait dating about 1230, by Giunta Pisano (?); preserved at Portiuncula (loc. cit., p. 384); 3, finally, portrait dated 1235, by Bon. Berlinghieri, and preserved at Pescia, in Tuscany (loc. cit., p. 277). In 1886 Prof. Carattoli studied with great care a portrait which dates from about those years and of which he gives a picture (also preserved of late years at Portiuncula). Miscellanea francescana t. i., pp. 44-48; cf. pp. 160, 190, and 1887, p. 32. M. Bonghi has written some interesting papers on the iconography of St. Francis (Francesco di Assisi, 1 vol., 12mo, Citta di Castello, Lapi, 1884. Vide pp. 103-113).