The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

[88] See II Cor. 12: 5.

[89] See John 10: 11; Heb. 12: 2; John 10: 4; Rom. 8: 35.

[90] II Cor. 3: 6.

[91] I Cor. 12: 3.

[92] Ps. 52: 4.

[93] Matt. 5: 44.

[94] This Admonition is wanting in codex An., but is found in the Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Lemmens. See Documenta Antiqua Franciscana, P. II, p. 84.

[95] See Rom. 2: 5.

[96] Matt. 22: 21.

[97] Cod. O. and Is. read: “If therefore his body is puffed up, he has not the Spirit of God. If, however, he becomes rather viler in his own sight, then he truly has the Spirit of God.”

[98] Cod. O. reads: “so long as he enjoys everything according to his wish and necessity.”

[99] Matt. 5: 3.

[100] See Matt. 5: 39.

[101] Matt. 5: 9.

[102] Matt. 5: 8.

[103] See Matt. 25: 18.

[104] Luke 8: 18.

[105] See Bonav. Leg. Maj., VI, 1: “And he had these words continually in his mouth: ‘what a man is in the eyes of God, so much he is, and no more.’” See also Imitation of Christ, Bk. III, Chap. L, where the same saying of St. Francis is quoted.

[106] See Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Sabatier, p. 189.

[107] This Admonition (like No. 11) is wanting in Cod. An., but is found in the Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Lemmens. See Doc. Act. Franc., P. II, p. 84.

[108] Prov. 29: 20.

[109] In Cod. O. numbers 23 and 24 are not divided.

[110] Cod. An. reads: “Blessed is that superior . . . “

[111] Matt. 24: 45.

[112] Cod. O. omits this sentence.

[113] See Matt. 6: 20.

[114] St. Francis would often say to his brethren: “When a servant of God receives any divine inspiration in prayer, he ought to say, ‘This consolation, O Lord, Thou hast sent from heaven to me, a most unworthy sinner, and I commit it to Thy care, for I know that I should be but a thief of Thy treasure.’ And when he returns to prayer, he ought to bear himself as a little one and a sinner, as if he had received no new grace from God.”—St. Bonaventure, Leg. Maj., X, 4.

[115] “Wherefore,” he writes of St. Francis, “in the praises of the virtues which he composed he says ‘Hail! queen wisdom, God save Thee with Thy sister pure, holy simplicity.’” See 2 Cel. 3, 119, for this Incipit.

[116] In the text of the Conformities (which for the most part agrees with that of the Ognissanti MS.) the Salutation is preceded by No. 27 of the Admonitions and begins with the words “There is absolutely no man,” etc.

[117] Ed. of Venice, 1504, and of Metz, 1509.

[118] Opuscula, Antwerp, 1623.

[119] In the Assisi codex (as in that of Liegnitz) the title reads: (Notes 6 and 7 carried forward to next page.) p. 21 ”Of the virtues with which the Blessed Virgin Mary was adorned and with which a holy soul ought also to be adorned,” whereas in the Ognissanti codex and others of the same class, the title is: “Salutation of the Virtues and of their efficacy in confounding Vice.” (See Introduction.)

[120] Cod. As. omits “Hail.”

[121] Wadding, following Mariano of Florence, prefaces the letter with the following Salutation: “To my reverend masters in Christ; to all the clerics who are in the world and live conformably to the rules of the Catholic faith: brother Francis, their least one and unworthy servant, sends greeting with the greatest respect and kissing their feet. Since I am become the servant of all, but cannot, on account of my infirmities, address you personally and viva voce, I beg you to receive, with all love and charity, this remembrance of me and exhortation which I write briefly.” Wadding also (p. 45) adds at the end of this instruction the following words: “May our Lord Jesus Christ fill all my masters with His holy grace and comfort them.”

[122] Father Ubald d’Alençon (Opuscules de Saint François, p. 21) is inclined, with M. Sabatier, to regard this instruction as a kind of postscript to St. Francis’ letter to the General Chapter and to all the Friars. (See Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Sabatier, p. clxvi.)

[123] Mgr. Faloci has edited the Instruction after this codex; see Misc. Francescana, t. VI, p. 95.

[124] See I Cor. 2: 14.

[125] See Bonav. Leg. Maj., III, 8. See also 1 Cel. 1, 5, and the Vita S. Francisci, by Julian of Spires, cap. iv.

[126] Although M. Sabatier (Vie de S. François, p. 100), following Wadding (Annales ad an. 1210, n. 220 seq.), fixes this event in the summer of 1210, it is far more probable that the approbation of the Rule took place on April 23, 1209, the date given by the Bollandists and the Seraphic Breviary. This latter date is not only more conformable to the ancient tradition of the Order (see Anal. Franciscana, t. III, p. 713) but involves no historic difficulties (see Appunti critici sulla cronologia della Vita di S. Francesco, by Father Leo Patrem, O.F.M., in the Oriente Serafico, Assisi, 1895, Vol. vii, nn. 4-12.

[127] See Bonav. Leg. Maj., IV, 11.