“to wit a time of peace and quiet, of joy, jollity and merry-making, of praise and jubilee; because wars were over. Horse and foot, townsfolk and rustics, youths and virgins, old and young, sang songs and hymns. There was such devotion in all the cities of Italy. And I saw that each quarter of the city would have its banner in the procession, a banner on which was painted the figure of its martyr-saint. And men and women, boys and girls, thronged from the villages to the city with their flags, to hear the preaching, and praise God. They had branches of trees and lighted candles. There was preaching morning, noon, and evening, and stationes arranged in churches and squares; and they lifted their hands to God to praise and bless Him forever. Nor could they cease, so drunk were they with love divine. There was no wrath among them, or disquiet or rancour. Everything was peaceful and benign; I saw it with my eyes.”[634]
And then Salimbene tells of all the famous preachers, and the lovely hymns, and Ave Marias; Frater So-and-so, from Bologna; Frater So-and-so from somewhere else; Minorite and Preaching friar.
One might almost fancy himself in the Florence of Savonarola. Like enough this season of soul outpour and tears and songs of joy first stirred the religious temper of this quickly moved youth. These were also the great days of dawning for the Friars. Dominic was not yet sainted; yet his Order of the Preaching Friars was growing. The blessed Francis had been canonized;—sainted had he been indeed before his death! And the world was turning to these novel, open, sympathetic brethren who were pouring themselves through Europe. Love’s mendicancy, envied but not yet discredited, was before men’s eyes and in men’s thoughts; and what opportunity it offered of helping people, of saving one’s own soul, and of seeing the world! We can guess how Salimbene’s temper was drawn by it. We know at least that one of these friars, Brother Girard of Modena, who preached at this jubilee in Parma, was the man who made petition five years later for Salimbene, so that the Minister-General of the Minorites, Brother Elias, being then at Parma, received the seventeen-year-old boy into the Order, in the year 1238.
Salimbene’s father was frantic at the loss of his heir. Never while he lived did he cease to lament it. He at once began strenuous appeals to have his son returned to him. Salimbene’s account of this, exhibits himself, his father, and the situation.
“He complained to the emperor (Frederick II.), who had come to Parma, that the brothers Minorites had taken his son from him. The emperor wrote to Brother Elias that if he held his favour dear, he should listen to him and return me to my father. Then my father went to Assisi, where Brother Elias was, and placed in his hands the emperor’s letter, which began: ‘In order to mitigate the sighs of our faithful Guido de Adam,’ and so forth. Brother Illuminatus, Brother Elias’s scribe, showed me this letter long afterwards, when I was with him in the convent at Siena.
“When the imperial letter had been read, Brother Elias wrote at once to the brethren of the convent at Fano, where I dwelt, that if I wished it, they should return me to my father without delay; but that if I did not wish to go with my father, they should guard and keep me as the pupil of his eye.
“A number of knights came with my father to Fano, to see the end of my affair. There was I and my salvation made the centre of the spectacle. The brethren were assembled, with them of the world; and there was much talk. My father produced the letter of the minister-general, and showed it to the brothers. When it was read, Brother Jeremiah, who was in charge of me, answered my father in the hearing of all: ‘Lord Guido, we sympathize with your distress, and are prepared to obey the letter of our father. Behold, here is your son; he is old enough; let him speak for himself. Ask him; if he wishes to go with you, let him in God’s name; if not, we cannot force him.’
“My father asked me whether I wished to go with him or not. I replied, No; because the Lord says, ‘No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.’
“And father said to me: ‘Thou carest not for thy father and mother, who are afflicted with many griefs for thee.’
“I replied: ‘Truly I do not care, because the Lord says, Who loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. But of thee He also says: Who loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Thou oughtest to care, father, for Him who hung on the cross for us, that He might give us eternal life. For it is himself who says: I am come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes are they of his household.’