[507] The present chapter is intended as an appreciation of the personality of Francis; incidents of his life are used for illustration. I have endeavoured to confine myself to such as are generally accepted as authentic, and to those parts of the sources which are confirmed by corroborative testimony. The reader doubtless is aware that the sources of Franciscan history are abundant, but that there is still much critical and even polemic controversy touching their trustworthiness. Of the Speculum perfectionis, edited by Sabatier, I would make this remark: many of its narratives contain such wisdom and human truth as seem to me to bring them very close to the acts and words of some great personality, i.e. Francis. This is no sure proof of their authenticity, and yet is a fair reason for following their form of statement of some of the incidents in Francis’s life, the human value of which perhaps appears narrowed and deflected in other accounts.
The chief sources for the life of St. Francis of Assisi are first his own compositions, edited conveniently under the title of Opuscula sancti patris Francisci Assisiensis, by the Franciscans of Quarrachi (1904). They have been translated by P. Robinson (Philadelphia, The Dolphin Press, 1906). Next in certainty of authenticity come the two Lives by Celano, i.e. Vita prima S. Francisci Assisiensis, auctore B. Thoma de Celano, ejus discipulo, Bollandi Acta sanctorum, tome 46 (Oct. tome 2), pp. 683-723; also edited by Canon Amoni (Rome, 1880); Vita secunda seu appendix ad Vitam primam, ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). Better editions than Amoni’s are those of Edouard d’Alençon (Rome, 1906), and H. G. Rosedale (Dent, London, 1904). Of great importance also is the Legenda trium sociorum (Leo, Rufinus, Angelus), Bollandi Acta sanctorum, t. 46 (Oct. t. 2), pp. 723-742; also ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). (Amoni’s texts differ somewhat from those of the Bollandist.) It is also edited by Pulignani (Foligno, 1898), and edited and hypothetically completed from the problematical Italian version, by Marcellino da Civezza and Teofilo Domenichelli (Rome, 1899). Perhaps most vivid of all the early sources is the so-called Speculum perfectionis seu S. Francisci Assisiensis legenda antiquissima auctore fratre Leone, as edited by Paul Sabatier (Paris, 1898). It has been translated into English several times. Its date and authenticity are still under violent discussion. One may conveniently refer to the article “Franciscan Literature” in the Edinburgh Review for January 1904, and to P. Robinson’s Short Introduction to Franciscan Literature (New York, 1907) for further references, which the student must supplement for himself from the mass of recent literature in books and periodicals touching the life of Francis and its sources. See also Fierens, La Question franciscaine, etc. (Louvain, 1909). Among modern Lives, that of Sabatier is probably known to all readers of this note. The Lives by Bonghi and Le Monnier may be referred to. Gebhard’s Italie mystique is interesting in connection with Francis.
[508] Consciousness of direct authority from God speaks in the saint’s unquestionably authentic Testament: “And after the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live according to the model of the holy Gospel.” It is also rendered with picturesque vehemence in a scene (Speculum perfectionis, ed. Sabatier, ch. 68) which may or may not be authentic. At a general meeting of the Order, certain wise brethren had persuaded the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia to advise Francis to follow their counsel, and had adduced certain examples from the monastic rule of Benedict and others. “When the Cardinal had related these matters to the blessed Francis, in the way of admonition, the blessed Francis answered nothing, but took him by the hand and led him before the assembled brothers, and spoke to the brothers in the fervour and power of the Holy Spirit, thus: ‘My brothers, my brothers, the Lord called me in the way of simplicity and humility, and showed me in truth this way for myself and for those who wish to believe and imitate me. And therefore I desire that you will not name any rule to me, neither the rule of St. Benedict, nor that of St. Augustine or St. Bernard, or any other rule or model of living except that which was mercifully shown and given me by the Lord. And the Lord said that He wished me to be a new covenant (pactum) in the world, and did not wish us to live by any other way save by that knowledge.’”
[509] These songs (none of which survive) were apparently in the langue d’oïl and not in the langue d’oc. The phrases used by the biographers are lingua francigena (1 Cel. i. 7) and lingua gallica (III. Soc. iii.) or gallice cantabat (Spec. perf. vii. 93).
[510] In fact this is vouched for in III. Soc. i.
[511] St. Martin of Tours had done the same.
[512] III. Soc. v. par. 13, 14.
[513] III. Soc. vi. par. 20.
[514] “Sancta paupertas,” “domina paupertas” are the phrases. The first is used by St. Bernard.
[515] III. Soc. viii.; 1 Cel. ix.