Bonaventura's work did not discourage the biographers. The historic value of their labor is almost nothing, and we shall not even attempt to catalogue them.
Bernard of Besse, a native probably of the south of France[88] and secretary of Bonaventura,[89] made a summary of the earlier legends. This work, which brings us no authentic historic indication, is interesting only for the care with which the author has noted the places where repose the Brothers who died in odor of sanctity, and relates a mass of visions all tending to prove the excellence of the Order.[90]
Still the publication of this document will perform the valuable office of throwing a little light upon the difficult question of the sources. Several passages of the De laudibus appear again textually in the Speculum,[91] and as a single glance is enough to show that the Speculum did not copy the De laudibus, it must be that Bernard of Besse had before him a copy, if not of the Speculum at least of a document of the same kind.
FOOTNOTES
[1.] Bull Quo elongati of September 28, 1230. See p. 336.
[2.] It is needless to say that I have no desire to put myself in opposition to that principle, one of the most fruitful of criticism, but still it should not be employed alone.
[3.] The learned works that have appeared in Germany in late years err in the same way. They will be found cited in the body of the work.
[4.] Eccl., 13. Voluerunt ipsi, quos ad capitulam concesserat venire frater Helias; nam omnes concessit, etc. An. fr., t. i., p. 241. Cf. Mon. Germ. hist. Script., t., 28, p. 564.
[5.] The death of Francis occurred on October 3, 1226. On March 29, 1228, Elias acquired the site for the basilica. The Instrumentum donationis is still preserved at Assisi: Piece No. 1 of the twelfth package of Instrumenta diversa pertinentia ad Sacrum Conventum. It has been published by Thode: Franz von Assisi, p. 359.
On July 17th of the same year, the day after the canonization, Gregory IX. solemnly laid the first stone. Less than two years afterward the Lower church was finished, and on May 25, 1230, the body of the Saint was carried there. In 1236 the Upper church was finished. It was already decorated with a first series of frescos, and Giunta Pisano painted Elias, life size, kneeling at the foot of the crucifix over the entrance to the choir. In 1239 everything was finished, and the campanile received the famous bells whose chimes still delight all the valley of Umbria. Thus, then, three months and a half before the canonization, Elias received the site of the basilica. The act of canonization commenced at the end of May, 1228 (1 Cel., 123 and 124. Cf. Potthast, 8194ff).