[54.] It was published for the first time at Rome, in 1806, by Father Rinaldi, following upon the First Life (vide above, [p. 365, note 2]), and restored in 1880 by Abbé Amoni: Vita secunda S. Francisci Assisiensis auctore B. Thomade Celano ejus discipulo. Romæ, tipografia della pace, 1880, 8vo, 152 pp. The citations are from this last edition, which I collated at Assisi with the most important of the rare manuscripts at present known: Archives of Sacro Convento, MS. 686, on parchment of the end of the thirteenth century, if I do not mistake, 130 millim. by 142; 102 numbered pages. Except for the fact that the book is divided into two parts instead of three, the last two forming only one, I have not found that it noticeably differs from the text published by Amoni; the chapters are divided only by a paragraph and a red letter, but they have in the table which occupies the first seven pages of the volume the same titles as in the edition Amoni.
This Second Life escaped the researches of the Bollandists. It is impossible to explain how these students ignored the worth of the manuscript which Father Theobaldi, keeper of the records of Assisi, mentioned to them, and of which he offered them a copy (A. SS., Oct., t. ii., p. 546f). Father Suysken was thus thrown into inextricable difficulties, and exposed to a failure to understand the lists of biographies of St. Francis arranged by the annalists of the Order; he was at the same time deprived of one of the most fruitful sources of information upon the acts and works of the Saint. Professor Müller (Die Anfänge, pp. 175-184) was the first to make a critical study of this legend. His conclusions appear to me narrow and extreme. Cf. Analecta fr., t. ii., pp. xvii.-xx. Father Ehrle mentions two manuscripts, one in the British Museum, Harl., 47; the other at Oxford, Christ College, cod. 202. Zeitschrift, 1883, p. 390.
[55.] The Three Companions foresee the possibility of their legend being incorporated with other documents: quibus (legendis) hæc pauca quæ scribimus poleritis facere inseri, si vestra discretio viderit esse justum. 3 Soc, Prol.
[56.] One phrase of the Prologue (2 Cel.) shows that the author received an entirely special commission: Placuit ... robis ... parvitati nostræ injungere, while on the contrary the 3 Soc. shows that the decision of the chapter only remotely considered them: Cum de mandato prœteriti capituli fratres teneantur ... visum est nobis ... pauca de multis ... sanctitati vestræ intimare. 3 Soc., Prol.
[57.] Compare the Prologue of 2 Cel. with that of 1 Cel.
[58.] Longum esset de singulis persequi, qualiter bravium supernæ vocationis attigerit. 2 Cel., 1, 10.
[59.] This first part corresponds exactly to that portion of the legend of the 3 Soc., which Crescentius had authorized.
[60.] Observe that the Assisi MS. 686 divides the Second Life into two parts only by joining the last two.
[61.] Salimbeni, ann. 1248.
[62.] Glassberger, ann. 1253. An. fr. t. ii., p. 73. Frater Johannes de Parma minister generalis, multiplicatis litteris præcipit fr. Thomæ de Celano (cod. Ceperano), ut vitam beati Francisci quæ antiqua Legenda dicitur perficeret, quia solum de ejus conversatione et verbis in primo tractatu, de mandato, Fr. Crescentii olim generalis compilato, ommissis miraculis fecerat mentionem, et sic secundum tractatum de miraculis sancti Patris compilavit, quem cum epistola quæ incipit: Religiosa vestra sollicitudo eidem generali misit.