§ 70. ST. FRANCIS D'ASSISI. 407
He may not have possessed great strength of intellect. He lacked the gifts of the ecclesiastical diplomat, but he certainly possessed glowing fervor of heart and a magnetic personality, due to consuming love for men. He was not a theological thinker, but he was a man of practical religious sympathies to which his deeds corresponded. He spoke and acted as one who feels full confidence in his divinely appointed mission.1 He spoke to the Church as no one after him did till Luther came.
Few men of history have made so profound an impression as did Francis. His personality shed light far and near in his own time. But his mission extends to all the centuries. He was riot a foreigner in his own age by any protest in matters of ritual or dogma, but he is at home in all ages by reason of his Apostolic simplicity and his artless gentleness. Our admiration for him turns not to devotion as for a per fect model of the ideal life. Francis' piety, after all, has a mediaeval glow. But, so far as we can know, he stands well among those of all time who have discerned the meaning of Christ's words and breathed His spirit. So Harnack can call him the " wonderful saint of Assisi," and Sabatier utter the lofty praise "that it was given to him to divine the superiority of the spiritual priesthood." 2
THE CANTICLE OP THE SUN
0 most high, almighty, good Lord God, to Thee belong praise, glory, honor, and all blessing !
Praised be my Lord God with all His creatures, and specially our brother the sun, who brings us the day and who brings us the light ; fair is he and shines with a very great splendor : O Lord he signifies to us Thee !
Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the stars, the which He has set clear and lovely in heaven.
V Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind and for air and cloud, calms and all weather by the which Thou upholdest life in all creatures.
Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very serviceable unto us and humble and precious and clean.
1 In his will he refers again and again to his divine appointment. Deus mihi dedit, " God has given to me."
2 Monasticism, Engl. trans., p. 67, and S. Franqois, p. viii.
408 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through whom Thou givest us light in the darkness ; and he is bright and pleasant and very mighty and strong.
Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which doth sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits and flowers of many colors, and grass.
Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another for His love's sake, and who endure weakness and tribulation ; blessed are they who peaceably shall endure, for Thou, 0 most Highest, shalt give them a crown.
Praised be my Lord for our sister, the death of the body, from which no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in mortal sin ! Blessed are they who are found walking by the most holy will, for the second death shall have no power to do them harm.
Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give thanks unto Him and serve Him with great humility.1
§ 71. The Franciscans.
"Sweet Francis of Assisi, would that he were here again 1"
— TENNYSON.
The Brethren Minor — fratres minores, or Minorites, the official title of the Franciscans — got their name from the democratic faction in Assisi, the Minores, whom Francis at a time of feud reconciled to the party of the aristocrats. Before the curia at Rome, Francis insisted upon the appli cation of the name as a warning to the members not to aspire after positions of distinction.2 They spread rapidly in Italy and beyond ; but before the generation had passed away to which Francis belonged, the order was torn by internal strife, growing out of the attempt to conserve the principles originally laid down by Francis. The history of no other order has anything to show like this protracted conflict within its own membership over a question of prin ciple. The protracted dispute has an almost unique place in the polemic theology of the Middle Ages.
According to the Rule of 1210 and Francis' last will they
1 The version of Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, 1st series. A recent translation is given in Robinson ; the Writings of St. Francis, pp. 150 sqq., by the Franciscan, Stephen Donovan. Boehmer, p. 65, gives the Latin text.
2 Speculum, p. 76. Domine, said Francis, minores ideo vocati sunt fratres mei ut majores fieri non prcesumant.