[22.] "Audiens enim semel quorundam fratrum enormes excessus, ut fr. Thomas de Celano scribit, et malum exemplum per eos secularibus datum." Laur. MS., fo 13b. The passage which follows evidently refers to 2 Cel., 3, 93 and 112.
[23.] "Et fecerunt de regula prima ministri removeri capitulum istud de prohibitionibus sancti evangelii, sicut frater Leo scribit." Laur. Ms. fo 12b. Cf. Spec., 9a, see p. 248. "Nam cum rediisset de partibus ultramarinis, minister quidam loquebatur cum eo, ut frater Leo refert, de capitulo paupertatis," fo 13a, cf. Spec., 9a, "S. Franciscus, teste fr. Leone, frequenter et cum multo studio recitabat fabulam ... quod oportebat finaliter ordinem humiliari et ad sue humilitatis principia confitenda et tenenda reduci." Archiv., ii., p. 129.
There is only one point of contact between the Legend of the Three Companions, such as it is to-day, and these passages; but we find on the contrary revised accounts in the Speculum and in the other collections, where they are cited as coming from Brother Leo.
[24.] Clareno, for example, holds that the Cardinal Ugolini had sustained St. Francis without approving of the first Rule, in concert with Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo. This is possible, since Ugolini was created cardinal in 1198 (Vide Cardella: Memorie storiche de' Cardinali, 9 vols., 8vo, Rome, 1792-1793, t. i., pt. 2, p. 190). Besides this would better explain the zeal with which he protected the divers Orders founded by St. Francis, from 1217. The chapter where Clareno tells how St. Francis wrote the Rule shows the working over of the legend, but it is very possible that he has borrowed it in its present form from Brother Leo. It is to be noted that we do not find in this document a single allusion to the Indulgences of Portiuncula.
[25.] The manuscripts and editions are well-nigh innumerable. M. Luigi Manzoni has studied them with a carefulness that makes it much to be desired that he continue this difficult work. Studi sui Fioretti: Miscelenea, 1888, pp. 116-119, 150-152, 162-168; 1889, 9-15, 78-84, 132-135. When shall we find some one who can and will undertake to make a scientific edition of them? Those which have appeared during our time in the various cities of Italy are insignificant from a critical point of view. See Mazzoni Guido, Capitoli inediti dei Fioretti di S. Francesco, in the Propugnatore, Bologna, 1888, vol. xxi., pp. 396-411.
[26.] Vide A. SS., p. 865: "Floretum non legi, nec curandum putavi." Cf. 553f: "Floretum ad manum non habeo."
[27.] Bartolommeo di Pisa compiled it in 1385; then certain manuscripts of the Fioretti are earlier. Besides, in the stories that the Conformities borrow from the Fioretti, we perceive Bartolommeo's work of abbreviation.
[28.] I am speaking here only of the fifty-three chapters which form the true collection of the Fioretti.
[29.] The province of the March of Ancona counted seven custodias: 1, Ascoli; 2, Camerino; 3, Ancona; 4, Jesi; 5, Fermo; 6, Fano; 7, Felestro. The Fioretti mention at least six of the monasteries of the custodia of Fermo: Moliano, 51, 53; Fallerone, 32, 51; Bruforte and Soffiano, 46, 47; Massa, 51; Penna, 45; Fermo, 41, 49, 51.
[30.] At each page we are reminded of those groves which were originally the indispensable appendage of the Franciscan monasteries: La selva ch' era allora allato a S. M. degli Angeli, 3, 10, 15, 16, etc. La selva d' un luogo deserto del val di Spoleto (Carceri?), 4; selva di Forano, 42. di Massa, 51, etc.