The dates and details of the successive Rules drawn up by Francis are involved in considerable obscurity. The subject has been discussed with much acuteness by Karl Müller, op. cit.
[231] B. Francisci Regul. II.
[232] Lib. Conformitatum Lib. II. Fruct. 5, fol. 155b.
[233] Bonavent. Vit. Francis, c. 8.—Lib. Conformitatum Lib. I. Fruct. 1, fol. 13a; Lib. III. Fruct. 3, fol. 210a.—Thomæ de Eccleston de Adventu Minorum Collat. XII.—Alex. PP. IV. Bull. Quia longum ann. 1259—Wadding, ann. 1256, No. 19.—Mag. Bull. Roman. I. 79, 108.—Potthast Regesta No. 10308.—See also Mr. J.S. Brewer’s eloquent tribute to the Franciscans in his preface to the Monumenta Franciscana (M.R. Series).
In 1496 the University of Paris condemned as scandalous and savoring of heresy the attempts of the Franciscans to assimilate their patron to Christ.—(D’Argentré, Coll. Judic. de nov. Error. I. ii. 318.)
When the Dominicans claimed for St. Catharine of Siena the honor of the Stigmata, Sixtus IV., in 1475, issued a bull prohibiting her being represented with them, as they were reserved for St. Francis (Martene Ampliss. Collect. VI. 1386). They had not as yet been vulgarized by La Cadière and Louise Lateau.
[234] S. Francis. de Perfecta Lætitia; Ejusd. Epistt. xi., xv.—Waddingi Annal. ann. 1298, No. 24-40.—Cantù, Eretici d’Italia, I. 128.
[235] Lib. Conform. Lib. I. Fruct. 8, fol. 47.—Thom. de Eccleston Collat. I.—Frat. Jordani Chron. c. 27 (Analecta Franciscana I. 10).—S. Francis. Collat. Monasticæ, Collat. 20.
[236] Waddingi Annal. ann. 1262, No. 3, 4, 8; ann. 1273, No. 12.
[237] S. Francis. Collat. Monast. Collat. 5.—Ejusd. pro Paupertate obtinenda Oratio.—Lib. Conform. Lib. III. Fruct. 4, fol. 215a.