London
John Murray, Albemarle Street
1901
CONTENTS
| Introduction— | ||
| PAGE | ||
| [(a)] | Editions | xvii |
| [(b)] | Authorship and Date | xxviii |
| [(c)] | Translation and Scripture References | xlii |
| The Lady Poverty. | ||
| [I.] | In Praise of Poverty | 3 |
| [II.] | How the Blessed Francis made diligent search for the Lady Poverty | 8 |
| [III.] | How two old men showed the Blessed Francis where he might find the Lady Poverty | 14 |
| [IV.] | Of the First Companions of the Blessed Francis | 20 |
| [V.] | How the Blessed Francis and his Companions found the Lady Poverty on the Mountain | 24 |
| [VI.] | The Blessed Francis and his Companions, exalting her virtues in divers ways, beseech the Lady Poverty to abide with them forever | 28 |
| [VII.] | The Answer of My Lady Poverty | 41 |
| [VIII.] | Of the Apostles | 56 |
| [IX.] | Of the Successors of the Apostles | 59 |
| [X.] | That Times of Peace are unpropitious to Poverty | 62 |
| [XI.] | Of Persecution | 65 |
| [XII.] | Of the followers of a spurious Poverty | 70 |
| [XIII.] | Of Avarice | 73 |
| [XIV.] | How the Lady Poverty spoke of good Religious | 77 |
| [XV.] | How Avarice took the Name of Discretion | 80 |
| [XVI.] | How Avarice took the Name of Prudence | 84 |
| [XVII.] | How Avarice called in the aid of Sloth | 89 |
| [XVIII.] | Of the Religious who were conquered by Sloth | 92 |
| [XIX.] | How the Lady Poverty sorrowed over certain Religious who were poor in the World, and yet more prone than others to Self-indulgence in Religion | 99 |
| [XX.] | How the Lady Poverty showed the Blessed Francis the Perfect Walk in the Religious Life | 107 |
| [XXI.] | How the Blessed Francis made answer to the Lady Poverty | 114 |
| [XXII.] | How the Lady Poverty gave her consent | 118 |
| [XXIII.] | How the Blessed Francis thanked God for the consent of the Lady Poverty | 119 |
| [XXIV.] | Of the Sojourn of My Lady Poverty with the Brothers | 121 |
| [XXV.] | How My Lady Poverty blessed the Brothers, exhorting them to persevere in the Grace which they had received | 130 |
| On the Spiritual Significance of Evangelical Poverty, by Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C | 141 | |
| Appendices— | ||
| [I.] | A Prayer of the Blessed Francis to obtain Holy Poverty | 183 |
| [II.] | Paradiso. Canto XI. (lines 28-123) | 200 |
INTRODUCTION
EDITIONS
The “Sacrum Commercium” is an Allegory, simple in form and charming in conception, telling how St Francis wooed and won that most difficult of all Brides, my Lady Poverty. It was written some time in the thirteenth century (most probably in the year 1227) by an unknown Franciscan, and has been six times printed, thrice in Latin, and thrice in Italian.
♦The Latin Editions.♦ The first Latin edition was printed at Milan in 1539. It is of exceeding rarity, and has escaped the vigilance of Brunet and Græsse. Père François Van Ortroy, the noted Bollandist (whom few things escape), was the first to call attention to a copy in the Ambrosian Library, and it is the only copy known to exist. (See “Analecta Bollandiana,” xix. 460.)
The second Latin edition was published nearly 400 years later, in 1894, under the editorship of Professor Edoardo Alvisi, in the “Collezione di Opuscoli Danteschi inediti o rari diretta da G. L. Passerini.”[1] Professor Alvisi’s edition has no pretensions to being critical: his sole object in publishing it was to supply an illustration to part of Canto XI. of the “Paradiso.” This edition has, perhaps justly, been decried for its entire want of critical apparatus, but it at least served to call attention to a gem that had hitherto slumbered uncared-for in parchment Codexes.
The third Latin edition is exceptional from every point of view. It was published only last year by Père Edouard d’Alençon, the learned Archivist General of the Friars Minor Capuchins. Père Edouard has taken his version from a Codex (No. 3560) in the Casanatese Library in Rome, which he has carefully collated with three other Codexes (of Milan, Vincenza and Ravenna), noting all the variants at foot. There is but one fault to find with this scholarly edition: it does not attempt to give the numerous Scripture references.[2]