§ 69. FRANCISCAN LITERATURE. 393
Tertiaries. The Speculum perfectionis is a life of Francis and, according to Sabatier (Introd. li.), is the first biography, dating back to 1227. The discovery of the document is one of the most interesting and remarkable of recent historical discoveries. The way it came to be found was this : —
Materials for the Life of Francis are contained in a volume entitled Speculum vitce St. Francisci et sociorum ejus, published first at Venice, 1504, and next at Paris, 1509. In studying the Paris edition of 1509, Sabatier discovered 118 chapters ascribed to no author and differing in spirit and style from the other parts. He used the document in the construction of his biography and was inclined to ascribe it to the three companions of Francis, — Leo, Angelo, and Rufino. See Vie de S. Franqois, pp. Ixxii. sq. At a later time he found that in several MSS. these chapters were marked as a distinct document. In the MS. in the Mazarin library he found 124 distinctive chap ters. In these are included the 16 of the Paris edition of 1509. These chapters Sabatier regards as a distinct volume, the Speculum perfectionis, written by Leo, the primary composition bearing on Francis' career and teachings. The date for its composition is derived from the Mazarin MS. which gives the date as MCCX XVIII. This date Sabatier finds confirmed by indications in the document itself, p. xxii. etc.
This sympathetic, lucid, and frank narrative puts Francis in a new light, as a martyr to the ambitious designs of Gregory IX. who set aside the rule of absolute poverty which was most dear to Francis' heart and placed over him a representative of his own papal views. Leo, so Sabatier contends (Introd. p. li.), wrote his work immediately after the announcement by Elias of Cortona of the intention to erect an imposing cathedral over the "Little Poor Man." Leo was unable to suppress his indignation and so uttered his protest against the violent manipulation of Francis' plan and memory.
Serious objection has been raised to Sabatier's date of the Speculum perfectionis. In agreement with Minocchi, — Tilemann, Goetz, and others have adopted the date given in the Ognissanti (a convent in Florence) MS. namely MCCCXVII, and by a careful study of the other lives of Francis conclude that the Speculum is a compilation. Some of its contents, how ever, they agree, antedate Thomas a Celano's Vita secunda or second Life of Francis or are still older. Muller, Lit.-zeitung, 1899, 49-52, 1902, p. 598, and Lempp, while not accepting the early date of 1227, place the document in the first half of the 13th century and regard it as an authority of the first rank, eine Quelle ersten Ranges. It shows a deep penetration into the real mind and soul of Francis, says Lempp, Lit.-zeitung, 1905, pp. 9 sq. Tile mann also ascribes to the document the highest value. For the numerous articles in Reviews, by Minocchi, van Ortroy, etc., see Tilemann, Speculum perfectionis, p. 4.
If Sabatier has given us the real Francis of history, as there is reason to believe he has, then the spectacle of Francis' loss of authority by the skilled hand of Cardinal Ugolino, Gregory IX., is one of the most pathetic spectacles in history and Francis stands out as one of the most unselfish and pureminded men of the Christian centuries.
394 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
§70. St. Francis cT Assisi.
;Not long the period from his glorious birth, When, with extraordinary virtue blest, This wondrous sun began to comfort earth,
Bearing, while yet a child, his father's ire, For sake of her whom all as death detest, And banish from the gate of their desire,
Before the court of heaven, before
His father, too, he took her for his own ;
From day to day, then loved her more and more,
Twelve hundred years had she remained, deprived Of her first spouse, deserted and unknown, And unsolicited till he arrived.
But lest my language be not clearly seen,
Know, that in speaking of these lovers twain, Francis and Poverty henceforth, I mean."
— DANTE, Paradiso XL, Wright's trans.
High up in the list of hagiography stands the name of Francis of Assisi, the founder of the order of the Francis cans. Of all the Italian saints, he is the most popular in Italy and beyond it.1
Francesco, — Francis, — Bernardone, 1182-1226, was born and died in Assisi. His baptismal name was Giovanni, John, and the name Francis seems to have been given him by his father, Pietro Bernardone, a rich dealer in textile fabrics,
1 The former unfavorable view of most Protestant historians concerning Francis is no longer held. Hallam, Middle Ages, II. 197, called him "a harmless enthusiast, pious and sincere, but hardly of sane mind." Lea, rep resenting the present tendency, goes far, when he says, " No human creature since Christ has more fully incarnated the ideal of Christianity than Fran cis." Hint, of Inquis., I. 260. Harnack says, " If ever a man practised what he preached, it was St. Francis." An anonymous writer, reviewing some of the Franciscan literature in the Independent, 1901, p. 2044, seriously pro nounced the judgment that " Since the Apostles, Francis received into his be ing the love of Christ toward men and the lower creatures more fully than any other man, and his appearance has been an epoch of spiritual history only less significant than that of the original Good Tidings." More judi cious is Sabatier's verdict, Vie de S. Franc., p. viii./'that Francis is pre-emi nently the saint of the Middle Ages. Owing nothing to the Church, he was truly theodidact."