As to the two famous hymns Amor de caritade[28] and In foco l'amor mi mise,[29] they cannot be attributed to St. Francis, at least in their present form.
It belongs to M. Monaci and his numerous and learned emulators to throw light upon these delicate questions by publishing in a scientific manner the earliest monuments of Italian poetry.
I have already spoken of several tracts of which assured traces have been found, though they themselves are lost. They are much more numerous than would at first be supposed. In the missionary zeal of the early years the Brothers would not concern themselves with collecting documents. We do not write our memoirs in the fulness of our youth.
We must also remember that Portiuncula had neither archives nor library. It was a chapel ten paces long, with a few huts gathered around it. The Order was ten years old before it had seen any other than a single book: a New Testament. The Brothers did not even keep this one. Francis, having nothing else, gave it to a poor woman who asked for alms, and when Pietro di Catania, his vicar, expressed his surprise at this prodigality: "Has she not given her two sons to the Order?" replied the master[30] quickly.
FOOTNOTES
[1.] Collected first by Wadding (Antwerp, 1623, 4to), they have been published many times since then, particularly by De la Haye (Paris, 1641, fo). These two editions having become scarce, were republished—in a very unsatisfactory manner—by the Abbé Horoy: S. Francisci Assisiatis opera omnia (Paris, 1880, 4to). For want of a more exact edition, that of Father Bernardo da Fivizzano is the most useful: Opuscoli di S. Francesco d'Assisi, 1 vol., 12mo, pp. 564, Florence, 1880. The Latin text is accompanied by an Italian translation.
[2.] "Die Briefe, die unter seinem Namen gehen, mögen theilweise ächt sein. Aber sie tragen kaum etwas zur näheren Kenntniss bei und können daher fast ganz ausser Acht bleiben." Müller, Die Anfänge des Minoritenordens, Freiburg, 1 vol., 8vo, 1885, p. 3.
[3.] Pieces have been often attributed to St. Francis which do not belong to him; but those are unintentional errors and made without purpose. The desire for literary exactness is relatively of recent date, and it was easier for those who were ignorant of the author of certain Franciscan writings to attribute them to St. Francis than to admit their ignorance or to make deep researches.
[4.] For example, the first Rule; probably also a few canticles; a letter to the Brothers in France, Eccl., 6; another to the Brothers in Bologna: "Prædixerat per litteram in qua fuit plurimum latinum," Eccl., ib.; a letter to Antony of Padua, other than the one we have, since on the witness of Celano it was addressed: Fratri Antonio episcopo meo (2 Cel., 3, 99); certain letters to St. Clara: "Scripsit Claræ et sororibus ad consolationem litteram in quâ dabat benedictionem suam et absolvebat," etc. Conform., fo. 185a, 1; cf. Test. B. Claræ. A. SS., Augusti, t. ii., p. 767: "Plura scripta tradidit nobis, ne post mortem suam declinaremus a paupertate;" certain letters to Cardinal Ugolini, 3 Soc., 67.
It is not to negligence alone that we must attribute the loss of many of the epistles: "Quod nephas est cogitare, in provincia Marchie et in pluribus aliis locis testamentum beati Francisci mandaverunt (prelati ordinis) districte per obedientiam ab omnibus auferi et comburi. Et uni fratri devoto et sancto, cujus nomen est N. de Rocanato combuxerunt dicum testamentum super caput suum. Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti, annulare scripta beati patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de observantia regule declaratur." Ubertino di Casali, apud Archiv., iii., pp. 168-169.