' ;' / ' ', 'v- r Ji .'Ji;' )V '>:'' ')!'"')!' ' 
 
 TffiEFEQF 
 
 SC!S OF RSSISI
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 
 
 LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA $ fi Lf
 
 FRANCIS OF ASSIST
 
 LITTLE BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 DANTE . . . B y PAGET TOITNBEE 
 
 SAVONAROLA . . . By E. L. S. HORSBURGH 
 
 JOHN HOWARD . By E. C. S. GIBSON, D.D. 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH . By I. A. TAYLOR 
 
 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON By A. C. BENSON 
 
 ERASMUS . . . By E. F. H. CAPET 
 
 GOETHE . . . By H. G. ATKINS 
 
 CANNING . . By W. ALISON PHILLIPS 
 
 LORD CHATHAM . By A. S. McDoWALL 
 
 THE YOUNG PRETENDER . By C. S. TEBBY 
 
 ROBERT BURNS . . By T. F. HENDERSON
 
 PORTRAIT OK BROTHER FRANCIS 
 In Hit Church of the Sacra Sfeco, Subiaco
 
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 BT 
 
 ANNA M. STODDART 
 
 WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 METHUEN & CO. 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1903
 
 TO 
 
 MY FRIEND AND PASTOR 
 ROBERT FORMAN HORTON
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book is meant to be a popular account 
 of St. Francis of Assisi, of his ideal and his 
 attainment, relieved on a background of history 
 essential to its full understanding. It has no 
 pretension to be a work for students of the period 
 and its most important movement. But it has 
 been written in Rome and Assisi with constant in- 
 debtedness to the researches of living Franciscan 
 scholars. 
 
 Not only has the writer profited by what M. 
 Paul Sabatier and his colleagues have brought 
 to light, but she has enjoyed the rare advantage 
 of M. Sabatier's personal interest in her work, 
 and of his careful revision of a large portion of her 
 manuscript, and his cordial encouragement. To 
 him her grateful acknowledgment of such price- 
 less stimulus and assistance is first due. 
 
 She wishes to thank her friend Miss Pipe and 
 Count Antonio Fiumi, President of the Inter- 
 national Society of Franciscan Study, for their 
 valued help in choosing and securing illustrations.
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 To Signer Oreste Rossi, of the Hotel Subasio, 
 she offers her sincere recognition of his constant 
 kindness in supplying her with local information 
 and in lending her books of the greatest use to 
 her work. 
 
 Many other distinguished Assisans helped her 
 in details, and of these she would like to mention 
 here Professor Alessandri, Professor Casali and 
 Father Luigi Fratini.
 
 CONTENTS 
 PART I. HISTORICAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAQE 
 POTERTY AND HOLINESS I 
 
 Poverty and Holiness Brahmanic Conception Begging 
 Students Abuses The Sophists The First Roman 
 Christians The Hermits St. Jerome The Bene- 
 dictines In England Their Decay and Reform The 
 Augustinians Influence of the Papacy. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CEN- 
 TURIES --...-.--13 
 
 Early System Growth of Hierarchical Body Rome the 
 Seat of Ecclesiastical Power Change in the Character 
 of the Church Its Feudal Possessions Its Decadence 
 in the Ninth Century Its Restoration by Henry III. 
 Gregory VII. Investitures Struggle between 
 Papacy and Empire Arnold of Brescia The Peace 
 of Venice.
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 27 
 
 Three Popes in Exile Clement III. and the Romans The 
 Great Crusade Henry VI. Celestine III. Tus- 
 culum Innocent III. The Emperor Otto Francis 
 at the Lateran Assisi in the Remote Past Under 
 Rome Its First Christian Martyrs Goths, Huns, 
 Lombards and Germans in Assisi Its Troubled Civic 
 History. 
 
 PART II. BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE. 1181 1204 - - 48 
 
 Birth of Francis His Parents Peter Waldo Childhood 
 of Francis At School As a Youth The Commune 
 of Assisi Francis as Citizen and Soldier Prisoner in 
 Perugia His Return. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CONVERSION. 1204 1206 - - - -- - -67 
 
 Illness The Porta Nuova Walter of Brienne The 
 Expedition from Assisi Return Penitence The 
 Vision of Poverty Farewell to Friends The Poor 
 At Rome Heresies San Damiano Renuncia- 
 tion. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR. 1206 1210 86 
 
 The Benedictine Convent Gubbio Cesena San Dami- 
 ano again Santa Maria degli Angeli Francis be- 
 gins to Preach His First Followers The First 
 Mission A Crisis The Second Mission Pope Inno- 
 cent III. and the Order.
 
 CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE THREE ORDERS, izio 1212 109 
 
 The Return from Rome Orte Rivo Torto Santa Maria 
 degli Angeli The Career! Increase of the Order 
 The Order of Penitents Clare degli Sciffi The 
 Poor Ladies of Penitence San Damiano Rule of 
 the Second Order. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 YEARS OF INCREASE. 1212 1218 *-;, h-i, - 128 I 
 
 Failure of First Attempts at Foreign Missions Monte 
 Alverna given to the Order Increase of the Sisters 
 of Poverty Accession of Scholars Cannara and 
 Bevagna Sermon to the Birds First Visit to Monte 
 Alverna Missionary Itinerary through Central Italy 
 God's Minstrels Lateran Council of 1215 Decree 
 affecting the New Orders Innocent's Death Ugolino 
 The Pentecostal Chapters Foreign Missions 
 Brother Elias Francis in Rome St. Dominic 
 Subiaco and Oldest Portrait of Francis Chapter of 
 1218 First Murmurs against the Rule Dominic 
 and Poverty. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE. 1218 1223 150 
 
 Chapter of 1218 Francis in Egypt and Palestine Changes 
 made during his Absence His Return At Bologna 
 Ugolino's Management Michaelmas Chapter of 1220 
 The New Rule Pietro de Cattani appointed General 
 Francis and Dominic in Rome Rule for the Third 
 Order Elias appointed General The Revolution of 
 the Order The Rule of 1223.
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LAST YEARS. 1223 1226 ........ 173 
 
 The Rule of 1223 The Praesepio of Greccio The Friars 
 in England Monte Alverna The Stigmata Canticle 
 of the Sun Rieti Siena Bagnara Assisi Bishop 
 and Magnates at Variance Francis makes Peace. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH AND CANONISATION. 1226 1230 - 194 
 
 Francis at the Vescovado Laudes Domini His Pre- 
 occupation with the Future of the Order Mental 
 Agony Letter to the Order Welcome Sister Death 
 Letter and Message to Clare Benediction of Assisi 
 The Testament Jacopa dei Settisoli Death Funeral 
 Procession San Damiano San Giorgio Letter 
 written by Elias The Collis Inferni Speculum 
 Perfectionis Gregory IX. Elias Deposed Building 
 of San Francesco Canonisation of St. Francis 
 Completion of the Lower Church The Saint's Body 
 hidden by Elias. 
 
 PART III 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 219 
 
 The Earliest Biographical Frescoes The First Portraits 
 St. Francis by Cimabue By Lorenzetti Giotto's 
 Frescoes in the Upper Church Above the High Altar 
 in the Lower Church Santa Croce in Florence 
 Fra Angelico Benozzo Gozzoli at Montefalco 
 Ghirlandaio Benedetto da Maiano Donatello 
 Andrea Delia Robbia Garofalo Agostino Carracci.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Portrait of Brother Francis in the Church of the Sacro Speco, 
 
 Subiaco ....... Frontispiece 
 
 Incident in the youth of Francis (from Oiotto' s fresco in the 
 
 Upper Church at Assisi) .... to face p. 62 
 The Crucifix of San Damiano .... to face p. 81 
 The Renunciation (from Oiotto' s fresco in the Upper Church 
 
 at Assisi) to face p. 85 
 
 Pope Innocent IIL's Dream (from Oiotto' s fresco in the 
 
 Upper Church at Assisi) .... to face p. 106 
 
 Francis and His First Followers presenting the Rule to 
 Pope Innocent III. (from Giotto's fresco in the Upper 
 Church at Assisi) to face p. 108 
 
 Sermon to the Birds (from Giotto's fresco in the Upper 
 Church at Assisi) to face p. 135 
 
 Francis Preaching before Pope Honorius III. (from Giotto's 
 fresco in the Upper Church at Assisi) . . to face p. 144 
 
 Francis before the Sultan of Egypt (from Giotto's fresco in 
 the Church of Santa Croce, Florence) . . to face p. 152 
 
 Presentation of the Rule of 1223 to Pope Honorius IIL 
 (from Ghirlandaio' s fresco in the Church of Santa 
 Trinit^, Florence) to face p. 173 
 
 The Benediction of Brother Leo (from the original in 
 the Sacristy of the Upper Church at Assisi) to face p. 180 
 
 Francis Blessing Assisi (from the picture by Benouvile 
 in the Louvre) to face p. 202
 
 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Death of Francis (from Giotto's fresco in the Church, 
 of Santa Grace, Florence) . . . .to face p. 206 
 
 Appearance of Francis just after Death to the Bishop of 
 Assisi, and to a Dying Friar (from Giotto's fresco 
 in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence) to face p. 208 
 
 Early Portrait of Francis (now in the Sacristy of the Upper 
 Church at Assisi) . . . . ..to face p. 221 
 
 Statue of Francis by Donatello (in the Church of S. 
 Antonio, Padua) ... . . .to face p. 236
 
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 PART I 
 HISTORICAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 
 
 Poverty and Holiness Brahmanic Conception Begging 
 Students Abuses The Sophists The First Roman 
 Christians The Hermits St. Jerome The Benedic- 
 tines In England Their Decay and Reform The 
 Augustinians Influence of the Papacy. 
 
 T)OVERTY and holy living have always been asso- 
 J_ ciated in those European and Asiatic civilisa- 
 tions capable of conceiving the spiritual life. "In 
 the wide East, where all wisdom sprung," poverty 
 and holiness were united by an indissoluble tie. No 
 code of morals, no philosophy, no benediction could 
 be received as genuine from men dwelling in luxury, 
 however exalted their office, however eagerly sought 
 their material gifts and influence. The line of 
 demarcation was absolute the gifts of this world 
 came from its own princes and potentates, the gifts 
 from above from those who had abandoned the 
 things of this world, and, having food and clothing, 
 were content to seek after the spiritual life and 
 1
 
 2 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 the wisdom that is given to its votaries. Brahmans 
 and Buddhists alike maintained the impossibility of 
 reconciling God and Mammon. If we constrain our 
 minds into an effort to realise what Brahmanism 
 was in its earliest course, we shall find in the still 
 limpid waters of its fountain-head a sense of the 
 presence of God in the sphere of man's obligations, 
 and along with it the experience that this mar- 
 vellous presence became obscured when men sought 
 wealth, luxury, even comfort each accession to 
 material well-being acting as a veil fold on fold to 
 blind the spiritual vision. 
 
 Thus, the sacred rites which initiated the Brah- 
 man novice involved a long period of poverty ; 
 without poverty his faculties were inadequate to 
 penetrate the mysteries of spirituality. During 
 many years of study he begged his bread, and 
 others honoured their own domestic life by filling 
 his bowl with rice and adding what could be spared 
 of savoury condiment. It is an indication, too, of 
 the position of women in those remote ages, that he 
 was enjoined to beg from the woman, the mistress 
 of all household economies, not from her husband, 
 whose labour provided them. Some perception 
 there was, before the wide-spread degradation of 
 oriental womanhood, of the greater purity, the more 
 delicate spirituality of the pristine feminine nature. 
 
 " Bhavate Bhiksham Dehi," the student begged at 
 the door, and there was no taint of squalor, failure, 
 imposture about the words, for it was well under- 
 stood that he was in his novitiate, learning to
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 3 
 
 apprehend, to meditate, to preserve his soul in 
 perfect peace, unentangled by the cares of the 
 trivial, workaday, transitory world, for whose help 
 and guidance he was necessary. 
 
 The act, indeed, was part of his study, for it 
 assisted him in the toilsome achievement of self- 
 effacement. 
 
 The whole custom, revered as it was throughout 
 the civilised East, served as a national endowment 
 of research, perhaps better in its effects upon the 
 nobler students than are the costly colleges of our 
 Western world. Even now, the Brahman has in 
 him a two- fold capacity that of sharing in the 
 practical life of to-day, profiting by its chances, 
 manipulating its possibilities, rising to wealth, power 
 and political importance, and that of renouncing all 
 these at the call of his spiritual nature and retiring 
 to poverty, meditation and seclusion. 
 
 Of course, the further we follow the Brahmanic 
 conception down the long stream of time, the 
 more we become conscious of its decay, and of the 
 increasing multitude of beggars little hallowed by 
 sanctity of life. It was inevitable that as popula- 
 tions increased, their idler and lazier constituents 
 should make the life of sacred poverty a means of 
 mere brazen beggary. Such abuses are incident 
 to all creeds inculcating what we call charity. In 
 every Christian country how many are there who 
 maintain themselves by unabashed and mendacious 
 mendicancy without any return whatever except 
 cynical ingratitude. Every great age fallen into
 
 4 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 decay shows like symptoms. Thus, in Greece, 
 when seers, thinkers, lawgivers, and patriots were 
 a splendid memory, the heritage of their deeds and 
 wisdom dwindled to a residuum of cant phrases, 
 and in every household might be seen a professor 
 of wisdom and poetry, maintained as a kind of 
 family adviser, although little meriting his main- 
 tenance. What had been the free gift of the 
 world's greatest thinkers degenerated to a com- 
 pendium of sophistries cleverly handled by beggars. 
 Influences from the East abounded in imperial 
 Rome, and this principle of the separation of the 
 spiritual from the physical life was well known. 
 And as Christianity made its way amongst slaves 
 and paupers, the association of poverty with faith 
 in the Man of poverty and of sorrow was inevitable. 
 Such wealthy Romans as joined the humble wor- 
 shippers of our Lord made valid their confession 
 by sharing their goods amongst their fellow- 
 Christians, by voluntary abnegation of wealth, by 
 tending the sick and the dying, by care for the 
 decorous burial of the dead. The exquisite stories 
 of saints and martyrs, who lived and laboured 
 during the centuries of persecution, bear full testi- 
 mony that the Christian life was lived in Christ's 
 way by His genuine followers. For Christ Himself 
 not only preached a gospel infinitely more con- 
 soling to the poor than to the rich, but He indicated 
 on more than one occasion that it was a gospel 
 difficult of acceptance by the rich. And His own 
 methods were those of the East. Followed by a
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 5 
 
 group of men, either labourers, or having sacrificed 
 lucrative posts for His sake, He passed from village 
 to village, healing, consoling, teaching, living on 
 the hospitality of the villagers, not refusing that of 
 the wealthy, but alert to point out the immeasur- 
 ably greater value of the gifts of the poor. 
 
 The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of 
 mutual help constantly given in the commerce of 
 daily life. It is not the gospel of individual 
 accumulation of material wealth, against which He 
 hurled His most scathing invective, " Thou fool ! '* 
 And for this reason, that He knew what wealth does 
 for the spirits of men, devitalising, impoverishing, 
 perhaps quenching for ever. 
 
 It was not wonderful, therefore, that in the 
 decadence of Rome, when her life was corrupt to 
 the core, Christian men and women fled into the 
 wilderness to practise the poverty and holiness 
 impossible in the cities, and that hermits became 
 the forerunners of the monastic orders. 
 
 Nor was it wonderful that the sanctity, learning 
 and curative skill of the early hermits obtained for 
 them a prestige which heralded degeneration. 
 Because, when the idle and the vicious found that, 
 by simulating sanctity and seeking solitude, they 
 received veneration and support from the country 
 people around their caves and huts, they hastened 
 to assume a virtue which they did not practise, and 
 in time brought contempt and suspicion upon the 
 whole system. From its inadequacy sprang the 
 earliest of the monastic orders.
 
 6 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Perhaps St. Jerome may be accounted as the 
 first of the monks of the West, although he began 
 as a hermit in Egypt. But, in response to the 
 petition of certain patrician Romans, he founded a 
 primitive monastery at Bethlehem, where both men 
 and women practised the life of self-denial and 
 devotion under his direction. In later centuries 
 the small order of the Jeronomites perpetuated his 
 Rule, which admitted of industry, manufacture and 
 gradual wealth. But St. Jerome is not so intimately 
 associated as is Benedict with the institution of 
 what became one of the most powerful and en- 
 during systems of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Benedict, who was born at Norcia in Umbria, 
 belonged to the end of the fifth and first half of 
 the sixth centuries. It was an age when the 
 hermit life seemed to be the only refuge from 
 depravity and violence, and in his school-boy years 
 at Rome he revolted from the corruption around 
 him. Wealth, rank and power seemed to be only 
 agents of vice, cruelty and effeminacy, and his pure 
 young spirit turned from all to seek in poverty and 
 solitude that communion with the immortal and 
 invisible, which was not denied to him. But as the 
 fame of his holiness and its supernatural efficacy 
 went abroad, numbers of refugees collected about 
 him, and he was forced to organise them into 
 communities of twelve, each under a superior, in 
 simple accord with the example of Christ and His 
 disciples. And on the summit of Monte Cassino he 
 founded his chief monastery, whose Rule comprised
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 7 
 
 not only the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience 
 already known to the hermits, but daily manual 
 labour for seven hours and a novitiate lasting a 
 whole year before the final vows might be taken. 
 The metropolis of monasticism was founded in 
 poverty and for poverty poverty and hard work 
 being clearly recognised as tutelary against corporeal 
 and mental backsliding. 
 
 Already, however, a missionary colony in an 
 island of the northern seas, which had not heard of 
 Benedict, was practising a missionary Rule on the 
 lines laid down by Christ Himself, and from lona 
 brothers went two by two throughout Scotland and 
 Northern England, crossing the dangerous seas in 
 fragile coracles, living with the wild and lonely 
 Caledonians, Scots, Picts and Angles, carrying 
 neither purse nor scrip, but bearing in their hearts 
 the love of men ; in their memories and on their 
 lips the story of salvation ; in their hands power to 
 heal, to help, to work with the toiling poor amongst 
 whom they sojourned. 
 
 The Benedictines slowly degenerated from the 
 practice of their founder's Rule, and by the end of 
 the ninth century had almost forgotten his injunc- 
 tions. Laziness and idleness triumphed as usual, 
 where Christ was no longer the example. And worse 
 than these, although inevitable to these, crimes of 
 the blackest character so that the better monks, 
 who sought to restore the primitive Rule, ran con- 
 stant risk of murder, and left the monasteries for 
 the hermitage again. A great resuscitation of the
 
 8 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 hermit system belongs to the ninth, tenth and 
 eleventh centuries. 
 
 The last of these was an age of monastic reform, 
 and many offshoots from Benedictinism began in the 
 full inspiration of poverty and sanctity, to forget 
 and betray both when their reputation brought 
 offerings and bequests of land and wealth. 
 
 Gregory the Great sent Benedictine missionaries 
 to England, who came into collision with the 
 Christian Church amongst the Britons of various 
 Celtic stocks. These were gifted with a somewhat 
 critical spirituality, and preferred the life and teach- 
 ing of our Lord to ecclesiastical authority ; they 
 were obtuse therefore to the advantages of a super- 
 imposed code and hierarchy. This element in the 
 mixed population prevented the absolute domination 
 of Rome in Great Britain, maintaining a wholesome 
 resistance which shaped the national life, although 
 it contained the germs of future schisms and dis- 
 ruptions. But these were almost invariably a 
 protest against the worldliness of the Church and 
 an effort to restore the simple worship of apostolic 
 times. 
 
 The other great monastic order took its name, 
 although scarcely its origin, from St. Augustine, 
 Bishop of Hippo. Its communities appeared in the 
 ninth century, when Pope Leo and the Emperor 
 Lothaire collected all the clergy who were outside 
 of the Benedictine Rule and placed them under a 
 Rule said to have been promulgated by St. Augus- 
 tine. Four centuries later the hermits and other
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 9 
 
 free lances of the life of poverty and contemplation 
 had become less a help than a hindrance to the 
 Church, as they evaded discipline, and were mere 
 bold beggars, whose practice was less devotion 
 than squalor. These the Popes forced into the 
 Augustinian Order, and Alexander IV. added the 
 scourge to their penitential exercises. 
 
 From this order sprang many branches, amongst 
 them the Knights Templars and the Knights of 
 St. John, for it appealed more to the noble classes 
 than did the Benedictines, beloved of the poor. It 
 is, therefore, somewhat astonishing to discover that 
 when the Mendicant Orders arose they adopted 
 the Rule of Augustine rather than of Benedict. 
 
 Of the sources of decay in these communities 
 much has been written. It may be taken as 
 indubitable that the chief agent in their failure 
 was the Papacy, its example, its struggle to become 
 a world power, its success, and its consequent re- 
 moval of the Church from the sphere within whose 
 limits the Divine Founder had placed its functions 
 and aspirations. But the almost incredible per- 
 versity of the Popes in steadily disregarding Christ's 
 injunctions belongs to the history of their conflict 
 with the Empire, and in this chapter we can only 
 glance at its disastrous operation upon every organ 
 and function of the visible Church. 
 
 It is difficult to make a whole generation see 
 what the one witness to God can see during its 
 existence, but had the Head of the Church on earth 
 been that witness, how different now would be its
 
 10 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 relation to God and its influence upon men. A 
 line of Popes spiritually descended from Gregory 
 the First might have saved the Church from its 
 materialism, its polytheism, its despotism, its wars, 
 cruelties and crimes, might have kept its light clear, 
 fed by the Divine oil of humility, charity and 
 unworldliness, not quenched by assumptions and 
 dogmas founded on impious forgery and unholy 
 ambition. 
 
 " My Kingdom is not of this world," proclaimed 
 Christ, and it was this kingdom which the Popes 
 declined to establish, preferring to yield to just 
 those temptations which our Lord in the wilderness 
 repelled and overcame. 
 
 Almost every so-called heresy from the ninth 
 century onwards was a courageous protest against 
 the materialism, arrogance, ambition and luxurious 
 living of the whole hierarchical body and a demand 
 for the Church's return to the simple organisation of 
 apostolic times. 
 
 The Cathari, or Albigenses, the Poor Men of 
 Lyons, the Arnoldists, the followers of Pons of 
 Perigord, laid long and apparently futile siege to 
 the false foundations of the mighty ecclesiastical 
 fortress, and if, for the most part, they were ruth- 
 lessly crushed, still their mines and galleries facili- 
 tated the explosion when it came in the form of 
 the Protestant disruption. That some of these 
 courageous men were affected by the Oriental 
 doctrine of the suppression of all human duties, 
 relationships and necessities, in order to attain a
 
 POVERTY AND HOLINESS 11 
 
 spiritual exaltation which placed them en rapport 
 with the other world, seems to be certain, and these 
 extremists were, of course, dangerous to the daily 
 life and conduct consecrated by Christ. But others, 
 as Peter Waldo, Arnold of Brescia and his stern 
 persecutor, Bernard of Clairvaux, attacked the 
 shameful lives of the clergy, their greed, luxury and 
 immorality, and demanded a return to the poverty 
 enjoined by Christ on all whom He consecrated to 
 preach the gospel. How furiously the Church 
 assailed its critics is matter of history. Where they 
 were poor and unprotected they were slain by the 
 sword, as in the case of the Albigenses, rooted out 
 by command of Innocent III., who dared to call 
 himself the Vicar of Christ ! 
 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that the monastic 
 orders grew wealthy, luxurious, haughty. We may 
 be thankful that some of them grew learned also, 
 that before the invention of printing they collected 
 manuscripts and copied them, and that they pre- 
 served the Bible by means of constant transcrip- 
 tions. To learned monks we owe most of the 
 history of Europe, the preservation of the classics, 
 of books of doctrine, patristic and theological ; the 
 beginnings of education, the early arts, the rudi- 
 mentary sciences or pseudo-sciences. And, espe- 
 cially in England, the convents were the only 
 centres of charity to the poor, of healing and 
 nursing, of consolation and of escape from the 
 turbulence and cruelties of pre-reformation times. 
 
 But their spiritual influence was at a minimum,
 
 12 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 and they encouraged rather than over-bridged the 
 gulf between the secular and the monastic life, 
 making a bequest to their order the price for 
 death-bed repentance and absolution, although the 
 life of the testator had been a prolonged defiance of 
 every one of God's commandments. 
 
 What worth for the world they retained was due 
 to the spirit in which they had been founded, and 
 to the rule prescribed, although too often relaxed. 
 What spiritual failure they suffered was due to the 
 precepts, example and influence of the Roman 
 Curia.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH 
 CENTURIES 
 
 Early System Growth of Hierarchical Body Rome the Seat 
 of Ecclesiastical Power Change in the Character of 
 Church Its Feudal Possessions Its Decadence in 
 Ninth Century Its Restoration by Henry III. Gregory 
 VII. Investitures Struggle between Papacy and 
 Empire Arnold of Brescia The Peace of Venice. 
 
 THE simple congregational system of apostolic 
 times passed away with the Apostles. As 
 Christianity spread and new congregations were 
 formed, it became necessary to call general meet- 
 ings of their representatives at some convenient 
 centre for each district. The president at such a 
 meeting, chosen for his personal worth, became by 
 common consent the spiritual overseer of his dis- 
 trict, and these overseers formed the first episcopal 
 body. The overseer in the city gradually grew in 
 importance as his area of supervision became more 
 densely populated, more complicated intellectually, 
 morally and politically, than that of his colleague in 
 the country. The ecclesiastical hierarchy hastened 
 to its full equipment. 
 
 Why the Bishop of Rome should have over- 
 shadowed the bishops of other cities and other 
 (13)
 
 14 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 countries it is not difficult to understand. Chris- 
 tianity began in Judea, and it might have been 
 reasonably expected that the Bishop of Jerusalem 
 should rise to be head of the Church government, 
 but Judea was a province of the Roman Empire, 
 and some centuries elapsed during which the 
 Christian hierarchy was under the ban of the 
 Empire and Palestine under its heel. That mar- 
 vellous centralisation of power in the City of Rome 
 not only long outlasted its virtual sway, but left be- 
 hind it a prestige, a legend, to which the minds of 
 men succumbed for fifteen centuries. 
 
 When the Emperor removed to Constantinople 
 after sanctioning Christianity, that prestige became 
 the heritage of the Church, which began to wield 
 it in a manner altogether similar to the methods by 
 which the Romans had consolidated their authority. 
 The erewhile humble and saintly Bishops of Rome 
 became potentates, and for the most part the 
 change wrecked their humility and their saintliness. 
 The hierarchical confederacy furthered their aims 
 in all parts of the world to which Christianity had 
 penetrated. Submission to the Church, faith in its 
 dogmas, tribute to its treasury, took the place of the 
 old-world attitude to the Empire. Its dogmas 
 ceased to be the commands of Christ, or became 
 perverted versions of His commands ; traditions 
 supplemented and almost replaced the Apostolic 
 Scriptures ; inventions and forgeries welded into 
 tyranny the double authority assumed by the 
 Bishops of Rome ; men were taught an elaborate
 
 CHURCH IN. ELEVENTH CENTURY 15 
 
 paganism of angels and fiends, of miracles and 
 judgment, to supply the gap of prescribed deities, 
 nymphs, satyrs, and portents, instead of being led 
 to recognise the working of the Holy Spirit, and of 
 being strengthened in the life immortal and invis- 
 ible proclaimed by St. Paul. 
 
 A policy of expediency in times of almost incon- 
 ceivable difficulty extended and materialised the 
 influence of the Church. It attempted to unite the 
 legacy of Christ with the heritage of the Empire, 
 and it succeeded in combining the domination of 
 the latter with a terrifying assumption of super- 
 natural authority, wherein there was little of Christ, 
 but a great deal of the mysterious influence 
 exercised upon superstitious and ignorant multi- 
 tudes by every determined priesthood. 
 
 It had become, after some centuries of increasing 
 power, the aim of the Roman Church no longer to 
 preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God, His 
 Fatherhood, His adoption of men willing to believe 
 in His Son, but to preach the Church's acceptance 
 of all who acknowledged her authority and bowed 
 to her dogmas. Yet, even in these days, men and 
 women averted the calamitous declension by indi- 
 vidual return to the precepts and example of Christ, 
 and the proud and worldly organisation has ever 
 been prompt to display those exceptional lives as 
 the flower and fruit of her teaching. 
 
 Lands and wealth were bequeathed to the Church 
 by nobles, princes and emperors, till the Bishop of 
 Rome was suzerain in many parts of Italy, in Sicily
 
 16 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 and Corsica, in Gaul, in the north of Africa and in 
 Asia. It was becoming a world-power, made its 
 own alliances as with the Prankish Kingdom 
 defended its territories with the sword ; disputed 
 its own throne, two or three pretenders struggling 
 at once for what was called the Chair of St. Peter ; 
 drew up its own codes of jurisdiction, based upon 
 audacious forgeries, and shared in the disorders of 
 the terrible years which brought the ninth century 
 to a close. 
 
 During the succeeding century the power of the 
 Papacy shrank to its minimum, and could scarcely 
 claim from its vassals recognition of its feudal 
 supremacy, losing Sicily and Southern Italy to 
 Saracens and Normans. A like anarchy prevailed 
 in the Empire of the West, but it revived with Otho 
 of Saxony, son of Henry the Fowler, who made 
 himself feared as King of Germany and Emperor 
 of the Romans, head of both State and Church 
 within his dominions. This great Emperor came 
 to Rome to put his supremacy in force, and found 
 the Church suffering from a Pope so profligate, 
 reckless and irresponsible, that we recognise in him 
 the authentic heir of that insanity which befel many 
 of the Roman Emperors, when in their own person 
 they assumed the position and received the homage 
 due both to the Deity and to the sovereign. On 
 representations made to him by the Synod, which 
 he convened at St. Peter's, Otho deposed Pope 
 John XII. and raised Leo VIII. to the Papacy. 
 But the Romans, ever capricious, changed their
 
 CHURCH IN ELEVENTH CENTURY l? 
 
 minds and revolted against the Germans, and Otho 
 was obliged to use force for their submission. In 
 the end he established the imperial right to control 
 papal elections, as well as to receive the homage of 
 the Romans, and until the middle of the eleventh 
 century his successors maintained their authority so 
 far as it was possible over treacherous Pontiffs and 
 turbulent citizens. One of them indeed, the 
 brilliant Otho III., aimed at making Rome his 
 capital, and but for his early and violent death 
 might have succeeded in realising this great con- 
 ception. 
 
 The Papacy continued to be a scorn and a 
 derision in the hands of infamous or incompetent 
 Popes, three of whom Henry III. deposed early in 
 the eleventh century, nominating one German 
 bishop after another to the pontifical chair, and 
 superintending the reform which these commenced 
 in the lives of the degenerate clergy. With that 
 reform, however, began unconsciously the gradual 
 growth of the arrogance inseparable from actual 
 power, which led to the restoration of the temporal 
 power, to the vast and imperial pretensions of a 
 line of determined Popes, to the bloody struggle 
 with the very Empire which had re-established, 
 protected, and in some respects reformed the 
 Papacy, a struggle lasting two centuries, and 
 although almost successful for the latter, still the 
 essential cause of its downfall. 
 
 The Church, at Henry III.'s death, was still 
 bound to the Empire, not only by ties of gratitude, 
 2
 
 18 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 but by an understood subjection to its head. But 
 as the latter depended on the co-operation of Rome 
 for the coronation which legalised his title of 
 Emperor, the Popes, once more restored to the 
 respect of Christianity, realised how powerful was 
 this prerogative for the furtherance of their ambi- 
 tions. Nicholas II. summoned a Council in 1059, 
 which excluded the Emperor as elector to the 
 Papacy, as well as both nobles and burgesses of 
 Rome, and which revolutionised the existing con- 
 stitution. His successor, Gregory VII., who had 
 counselled this step, was thus furnished with the 
 preliminary means towards his audacious aim of 
 freeing the Papacy from secular intervention. No 
 longer were Empire and Church to work together 
 as body and soul for the civilisation and Christiani- 
 sation of the world, but the Church was to sway 
 the destinies of its kingdoms, unhindered by the 
 voice of their sovereigns, or the vote of their 
 Councils. 
 
 Fortunately, strong sovereigns were on some of 
 the thrones thus menaced, such as Norman William, 
 who laughed the attempt to convert England into 
 a Papal fief to scorn. 
 
 The Romans, too, were a perpetual thorn in the 
 Pontiffs side, and nothing testifies so irrefragably to 
 the spiritual futility of the Roman Church as its 
 powerlessness to deal with its immediate difficulties. 
 Whatever impression of holiness it might maintain 
 beyond Rome's ring of city-studded mountains, 
 within that circle familiarity with its methods, its
 
 CHURCH IN ELEVENTH CENTURY 19 
 
 hypocrisies, its cruelties and its greed had bred 
 immortal contempt. Gregory VII. re founded the 
 Church, not upon the Rock Christ Jesus, but upon 
 the absolute power of the Papacy. He asserted 
 the supremacy of the Popes, not alone in ecclesi- 
 astical, but in political matters, and as to spiritual 
 matters, he and his successors were greater adepts 
 at wielding a spiritual terrorism than at making 
 Christian precept influential. The man's love of 
 power was unbounded ; it had the harsh Teutonic 
 quality, which eventuates in tyranny, and it was 
 this overweening and unspiritual humanity which 
 he forced into the mediaeval conception of the 
 Papacy. 
 
 Great as was his apparent success, it was flawed 
 and rent with the strain to which he subjected 
 the system, and from his time the Western world 
 rocked and reeled above the tremors of doubt and 
 repulsion, which heralded the inevitable outbreak 
 in the countries of slow-broadening freedom. That 
 it was an outbreak of volcanic force and not a 
 reformation from within was due to Gregory VII. 
 and his successors, whose assumption of infallibility 
 for the Church destroyed its need and its faculty 
 for critical introspection, and armed it with a ready 
 sword, with tortures and with death against the 
 very men who might have recalled it to its first and 
 forgotten purity. The Popes, who clung to their 
 lands and their wealth, who equipped armies and 
 cursed nations, made the outbreak a terrible necessity. 
 
 Gregory VII. dared to use the anathema for
 
 20 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 purely worldly purposes, and conquered by virtue 
 of the blight which interdict and excommunication 
 effected. And if the papal weapons could terrorise 
 the very Emperor, how natural it was that the 
 feudal vassals of the Empire, who resented con- 
 trol, should seek alliance with the power which 
 wielded them. The very existence of the Popes, 
 secularised into aggressive politicians, while retain- 
 ing in the imaginations of men this blasting poten- 
 tiality, was a menace to the States of Europe. It 
 was more than a menace to Henry IV., against 
 whom Gregory employed every artifice of priest- 
 craft, every treason that man can practise against 
 man, every sacrilegious use of the terrors whose 
 exercise he dared to arrogate. 
 
 But he planted two strong seeds and watered 
 them with blood detestation of the Papacy in 
 Germany and the war between Papacy and Empire. 
 
 The struggle began on the question of investiture. 
 It was the prerogative of Henry IV.'s predecessors 
 to appoint the prelates and dignitaries who ruled 
 the German Church, and if he abused this pre- 
 rogative and sold these high places to unworthy 
 clerics, he did what Popes had done before him 
 and what his training under corrupt Pope-chosen 
 ecclesiastics had taught him to do. Recovering 
 from the penance imposed upon him, he appointed 
 an anti-pope and began to lay siege to the papal 
 fiefs, so that Gregory was forced to call the terrible 
 sword of Robert Guiscard to his aid, and himself 
 died in exile.
 
 CHURCH IN TWELFTH CENTURY 21 
 
 His successors carried on the strife and perpetu- 
 ated the use of intrigue and treachery so associated 
 with the practice of the Roman Curia, while the 
 Emperors learned to emulate their craft and could 
 devastate Italy with larger armies. 
 
 Sixteen Popes, with but few exceptions, were in 
 arms against the Emperors during the course of the 
 twelfth century, and five anti-popes testify to the 
 occasional success of the latter. They were fight- 
 ing for their very existence as Emperors, the Popes 
 for their very existence as territorial Lords. It 
 was the tremendous question between temporal 
 suzerainty and a spiritual suzerainty bent as well on 
 temporal supremacy. 
 
 Many of the papal temporalities were based upon 
 a forgery known as the " Donation of Constaiitine," 
 a document literally conceived in iniquity and 
 expressed in blasphemy, while its claim to be the 
 tribunal at which kings and emperors must be 
 judged was based on the " Decretal Epistles," a 
 clever collection of forgeries, here and there pro- 
 vided with a genuine pastoral letter. Without 
 these two foundation stones, the temporal power, 
 which has betrayed the spiritual, could not have 
 been erected. Neither one nor the other suggests 
 the Rock Christ Jesus. 
 
 The very schemes, which the Popes evolved for 
 the occupation of Christendom and the restoration 
 of their Asiatic fiefs, were educating men into 
 larger views, into more logical conception of the 
 Divine intention for both Church and nations.
 
 22 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 This spectacle of an armed and death-dealing 
 Papacy intent on territorial possession, concerned 
 not at all for the souls and bodies of men, under- 
 mined the imposing structure. Every secession 
 marked an acute perception of the monstrous 
 anomaly displayed by the Papacy. Even its most 
 zealous supporters brought home charges of luxury, 
 ostentation, vice and idleness against its clergy, 
 and Bernard of Clairvaux, who persecuted its op- 
 ponents and conciliated its schisms, spoke bravely 
 against its pride, avarice, secularisation and corrup- 
 tion. The strife was at its culminating point during 
 the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, and when Hadrian 
 IV. and Alexander III. were Popes, that is, from the 
 middle of the twelfth century till about 1180. 
 
 Eugenius III. succeeded Lucius II. in 1145, and 
 inherited his strife with the Romans, who, under 
 Arnold of Brescia, had almost succeeded in secur- 
 ing their civic independence of both Pope and 
 Emperor. Lucius, indeed, died a soldier's death 
 at the head of his mercenaries, storming the 
 Capitol, where the Romans had established their 
 government. Arnold was perhaps more formidable 
 to the Papacy than both the dynasties of Saxon 
 and Hohenstaufen emperors. A Brescian by birth, 
 a student at Paris, where he acquired the art of 
 rhetoric, the practice of logical reasoning, dialec- 
 tics and liberal theology under Abelard, blameless 
 in life and attractive in person, with flawless courage 
 both physical and moral, he discerned the root of 
 every monstrous evil which had sprung from papal
 
 CHURCH IN TWELFTH CENTURY 23 
 
 misguidance. Brescia was already accustomed to 
 plain speaking and to discontent with the luxury 
 and arrogance of its own prelate and priests, whom, 
 as Gregorovius has said, " words failed to describe, 
 but whom neither councils nor monastic orders 
 could cure". 
 
 Arnold plunged into the fray, declaring with 
 acute diagnosis that neither property nor power 
 could righteously belong to the clergy, but that 
 holy living would entitle them to receive tithes 
 from those whom they spiritually benefited. In 
 support of this doctrine was the adolescent mind 
 of Northern Italy and of Germany, for the crusa- 
 ders had effected much in liberating, informing 
 and maturing the intelligence of the West. 
 
 His war-cry was, " Let the temporal power of 
 the prelates come to an end " and it was echoed 
 wherever light had dawned on the minds of men, 
 and wherever was felt the tyrannous pressure of 
 the sovereign curia. Above all, at its very gates, 
 in Rome itself, the citizens and nobles maintained 
 a constant contention with the Dominium Temporale, 
 and when Arnold appeared amongst them they wel- 
 comed his cause as one with which they had been 
 long familiar, and secured his assistance in estab- 
 lishing the civic independence on which they were 
 bent. For it was the birth-time of the burgher 
 rights, and industries, arts and crafts were sending 
 into the broad field of the world powers that made 
 for liberty, scarcely aware of whose banner they 
 had hoisted.
 
 24 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 One Pope had already in half-hearted fashion 
 acknowledged the anomaly of the feudal position 
 of prelates and priests, but his attempt to reform 
 it did not seek to purge the Papacy from the evil 
 which he condemned, and it broke down. But 
 that the canker had, in some of its symptoms, 
 been admitted by Paschal II., might have been 
 pushed home had Bernard of Clairvaux and Arnold 
 been able to combine on a common ground of 
 action. Unfortunately, Arnold was too much ali- 
 enated by the hopeless corruption of the Church 
 to admit that even ecclesiastically its hierarchy 
 was fitted for government, and Bernard was as 
 much convinced of its spiritual potentiality as he 
 was concerned about its moral degeneracy. He 
 was Arnold's unrelenting foe, and had pursued him 
 with stern denunciation wherever he had taken 
 refuge. 
 
 In the new outbreak of Rome against the Pope, 
 Arnold was protected by the citizens, and when 
 Lucius died, Eugenius III. practised a crafty states- 
 manship, which, while flattering the Romans, slowly 
 undermined their resistance and depreciated their 
 enthusiasm for its leader. And Hadrian inherited 
 what his predecessor's craft effected, when his op- 
 portunity arrived. 
 
 A cardinal was murdered in a Roman brawl, and 
 Pope Hadrian laid the city under interdict until 
 Arnold was banished. Alas ! he too was the victim 
 of the men whom he tried to help, and they be- 
 trayed him because Eugenius had bought their
 
 CHURCH IN TWELFTH CENTURY 25 
 
 good-will with alms and Hadrian had paralysed 
 their cowardly souls. But, while he lived, that 
 one pure spirit, whom money could not purchase 
 nor papal thunders terrify, Popes sat uneasy on 
 their throne, and Hadrian made him the price of 
 Barbarossa's coronation. Rather the man of fire 
 and sword, who could be fought by hirelings, kept 
 at bay by diplomacy, managed by invocation of all 
 the infernal terrors, than the voice speaking in 
 the wilderness, which called men to repentance, 
 and whose owner practised the simplicity, the au- 
 sterity, the pitifulness of Christ. 
 
 Into a new era Empire and Papacy carried the old 
 war. But there was scarcely any rag of spiritual 
 pretension left with which to veil its violence. 
 The casus belli was the fair domain in Northern Italy 
 claimed alike by Pope and Emperor. Other mo- 
 tives, indeed, mingled with this, and while Frederick 
 appealed to authority ancient as the Roman power 
 and deriving from the Ruler of Heaven and earth, 
 Hadrian curbed his vaulting ambition with the 
 reminder that, unconsecrated by the Pope, his 
 imperial state was a figment of the imagination. 
 The only English Pope held his dominion very 
 briefly, but his successor, Alexander III., although 
 harassed by Frederick's anti-popes and threatened 
 by his determined effort to recover the control 
 wielded by Otho and Henry III., maintained an 
 unyielding resistance, and secured both the papal 
 chair and the ultimate victory over Frederick. 
 This great event was signalised by the Peace of
 
 26 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Venice, on 1st August, 1177. It was precipitated 
 by the defeat suffered by Frederick from the 
 Lombard cities, whose League the Pope approved 
 and blessed, helping civic liberty when it was use- 
 ful against his foe. There were more signatories 
 to the Peace than the two principals, for the great 
 republics sent their envoys, and both Sicily and 
 Constantinople furnished their rulers to the con- 
 gress assembled by Sebastian Ziani, the Doge of 
 Venice. 
 
 And Alexander III. emerged triumphant from 
 his perplexities, the independent ruler of Rome, 
 the feudal lord of his Patrimonium, pardoning with 
 dramatic impressiveness his mighty foe, whom awe 
 of the invisible had shaken into penitence. 
 
 Then stubborn Rome yielded to the infection 
 and begged the Pope's return to the Lateran, 
 where he took prompt measures to ensure the 
 papal elections once for all against secular inter- 
 vention and against the scandal of anti-popes from 
 which he had just been delivered. He called an 
 CEcumenical Council and issued its decree, that 
 two-thirds of the votes of the College of Cardinals 
 should henceforth elect a Pope, and that neither 
 Emperor, nor prince nor burgess might vote at all. 
 
 Two years more of trouble and exile he endured, 
 and then in 1181 Alexander III. died at Civita 
 Castellana, bequeathing that strange combination 
 of power abroad and impotence at home to his 
 successor.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 
 
 Three Popes in Exile Clement III. and the Romans The 
 Great Crusade Henry VI. Celestine III. Tusculum 
 Innocent III. The Emperor Otho Francis at the 
 Lateran Assisi in the Remote Past Under Rome Its 
 First Christian Martyrs Goths, Huns, Lombards and 
 Germans in Assisi Its Troubled Civic History. 
 
 TWO Popes in exile wore the tiara, but could 
 not sit in St. Peter's Chair, kept'at bay by the 
 Romans, whom they cursed in vain. It was into 
 Christendom, so vexed for lack of Christ, that 
 Francis was born, shortly after Pope Alexander's 
 death, and while Lucius III. was branding his 
 Romans as heretics from the safe distance of 
 Verona, where, on his death, Urban III. kept such 
 state as was possible outside the Lateran and St. 
 Peter's. He prosecuted the feud with Barbarossa's 
 son, who would not slacken hold on Matilda's 
 lands, and refused to crown him. So, in right of 
 his wife, Henry assumed the suzerainty as well as 
 the possession of Sicily, got himself crowned by 
 the Patriarch of Aquileia, and commenced to harass 
 the Papal States. Urban died after two years of 
 disaster, and his successor, Gregory VIII., anxious 
 (27)
 
 28 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 for peace and for a new crusade to recover Jeru- 
 salem, had scarcely time to make his wishes known 
 when he too died, and a man of Roman birth and 
 sterner character was raised to the Papacy as 
 Clement III. He entered into negotiations with 
 Rome as with a separate Power, and for certain 
 payments and permission to destroy the City of 
 Tusculum, so often the refuge of Popes from the 
 Romans, he was allowed to return to the Lateran, 
 but with his secular power reduced to a minimum. 
 However, that was a matter which time might 
 remedy, and for the present there was Jerusalem to 
 be recaptured and the sovereigns of Europe to be 
 managed to that end, an easier matter than keep- 
 ing his citizens in order. So Barbarossa, Philip of 
 France and Richard of England, with a host of 
 minor princes and dukes, made alliance, and sailed 
 for the East, the first to his death by misadventure, 
 the last to failure and captivity on his homeward 
 way. No one of them visited the Pope on the out- 
 ward journey, although they were as close to Rome 
 as Ostia and Messina. On Barbarossa's death, 
 Clement was prepared to crown Henry emperor, 
 but he died before the Easter of 1191, which he 
 had fixed for the ceremony. A fortnight later, his 
 successor, Celestine III., was ordained, and crowned 
 Henry VI. the following day ; but the Romans had 
 exacted as price of the hallowing the complete 
 destruction of Tusculum by the German soldiers, 
 and together they made of the ancient and powerful 
 city a melancholy desert, a few heaps of scattered
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 29 
 
 and unrecognisable stones. Such requital its lords 
 received for long years of loyalty to the Curia. 
 This atrocity was completed two days after the 
 Emperor's coronation, three after the Pope's ordina- 
 tion. Celestine let the Romans do much as they 
 liked, so long as he might hold the Lateran and 
 the Leonine City, but their incessant feuds and the 
 habitual indolence of a pleasure-loving populace, 
 ready for revolts and ready for the pageantries of 
 peace, without determination and without union, 
 made it impossible for Rome to attain the dignity 
 founded on industry, energy and civic responsi- 
 bility which obtained in Lombardy and Tuscany. 
 Its Senate was already in the hands of the nobles, 
 and a succession of revolutions fills the Roman 
 chronicles of this time. 
 
 Henry VI. had suppressed Sicily and secured 
 Spoleto, Romagna and the Marches before his 
 sudden and early death in September, 1197, and 
 Celestine had no time to seize the opportunity 
 which this event afforded, for a few months later 
 he, too, ended his vexed and hampered life in the 
 beginning of 1198. 
 
 The eighteen years of his successor's sway form 
 the most remarkable period of papal pretension, 
 audacity and political influence. Innocent III., a 
 man who, as far as mere vice was concerned, was 
 blameless, but in whom it is impossible to deny 
 the vigorous existence of every spiritual sin which 
 can lead the soul astray from the Divine intention, 
 made himself literally arbiter of the kings and
 
 30 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 governments of Western Europe. His first care was 
 to purchase terms with the Romans ; his next, to re- 
 gain the papal suzerainty over Campania, the Mari- 
 tima, the Sabina and Tuscany. The disturbed state 
 of the Empire gave him his next opportunity, and 
 he played the impressive part of liberator from the 
 hated German yoke, attracting the cities to his 
 banner and forcing the German princes to surrender 
 and even to leave Italy. Scarcely six months a 
 Pope, he was able to make a royal progress and 
 to receive the homage of many a city long accus- 
 tomed to give grudging service to imperial governors. 
 For the first time Perugia, on the Umbrian hills, 
 bent to a sovereign Pontiff, and received from his 
 hands the communal franchise already granted by 
 Henry VI. Assisi he claimed and won from Count 
 Conrad, its people gladly consenting, and tearing 
 down their castle walls that they might never again 
 harbour a foreign master. Francis was sixteen years 
 old then, a fascinating lad, gay in his father's 
 cloths and silks from the markets of Southern 
 France, ruffling it with the younger nobles of Assisi, 
 taking part, we may be sure, in all the gala doings 
 of that day of liberation, doubtless receiving into 
 his sub-consciousness that object-lesson of Innocent, 
 Vicar of Christ, with hand to sword, chasing away 
 his foes with a mere arm of flesh, anomalously rein- 
 forced, somehow, by an incalculable mysterious 
 power to send their souls to hell. Florence, Lucca 
 and Siena were matured in civic liberty, and would 
 not grant him political ascendency, so that, in spite
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 31 
 
 of his masterly treatment of the role elected, he 
 played it to their suspicious burghers with too much 
 intention to secure their confidence. In Tuscany, 
 therefore, he was a name rather than a power, and 
 its cities kept that portion of Matilda's heritage 
 which they had wrested from Barbarossa. From the 
 Marches to Latium he placed his provinces in the 
 care of his own officers, protected by powerful for- 
 tresses securely garrisoned. The strife for the 
 imperial throne between the houses of Hohenstaufen 
 and Saxony gave him a further chance, promptly 
 converted into an unscrupulous but brilliant diplo- 
 matic advantage ; and while either side sought his 
 suffrage, he played one against the other, noting and 
 rising upon the weaknesses of both. All the time 
 he held in the background the little Frederick, 
 Barbarossa's grandson, neglected by the rivals and 
 apparently of no account to Innocent, but at the 
 right moment to be produced for the discomfiture 
 of the unmanageable pretenders and for the further- 
 ance of his own purposes. For he had carefully 
 seen to the boy's corruption, and had discounted his 
 inheritance of mind and craft from the Hohenstau- 
 fen line. That Frederick lived to be a thorn in 
 the side of the Papacy was not merely one of time's 
 revenges, but a proof that even the most daring, 
 far-seeing and provident of intriguers cannot always 
 cope with the future he has himself contrived. 
 
 It was ever as the friend of freedom that Inno- 
 cent posed, taking advantage of the discord between 
 thrones and nations at the time, as he had taken
 
 32 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 advantage of the strife between the Italian cities 
 and the Empire. How great a freedom he would 
 have granted had all power been his may be com- 
 puted from his menaces, his persecutions, his inter- 
 ventions, his interdicts and his excommunications. 
 He ripened the Papacy for the Inquisition, for the 
 systems of espionage and betrayal which have 
 made it odious and which have been the startling 
 and conclusive evidence of its spiritual decay. 
 
 But the Romans gave him scant domestic rest, 
 although he tried to buy it at the cost of Viterbo, 
 helping them with troops and money to subdue 
 that unhappy city with which they were at war. 
 He had his own reasons for this alliance. Italy 
 swarmed with heretics who exalted renunciation 
 and poverty, and taught a recalcitrant attitude 
 towards the wealthy land-owning hierarchy. Not 
 alone were the Waldensians giving trouble, but 
 Patarins and Cathari were sedulously spreading 
 their antagonism to doctrines essential to the 
 Church's supremacy. They revived the Oriental 
 creeds of poverty and mysticism combined, of the 
 conflict of principles good and evil, of the spiritual 
 in opposition to the carnal ; they encouraged re- 
 nunciation, even of life itself in certain cases, of 
 marriage, industry and commerce. Milan and 
 Viterbo were their headquarters in Italy, and 
 thence they sent their missionaries, winning to 
 their numbers some of the finest minds of the 
 Peninsula, and some of its nobles estranged by the 
 materialism of the court and clergy of Rome. In-
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 33 
 
 nocent himself dictated the peace which made 
 Viterbo vassal to the Roman Commune. 
 
 He paid himself for this singular alliance by 
 seizing the lands of Count Odo of Poli, who had 
 offered them to the Romans for sale, and by con- 
 ferring them on his brother. This rapacious act 
 roused the ready suspicion of the citizens, amongst 
 whom the old hatred broke out in tumult and 
 fighting. Innocent had to fly to Palestrina, where, 
 lord of the civilised world, he was tossed to and 
 fro like a puppet in the hands of conflicting parties 
 at home, shifting from one side to the other, nobles, 
 senators, people, alive only to their own interest, 
 while the Pope had to bide his opportunity. Five 
 years were occupied in this domestic quarrel, and 
 Rome was in a state so deplorable that at last 
 the people cried aloud for peace, and Innocent, 
 knowing acutely the civic temperament, found the 
 moment opportune for copious bribery, and although 
 the resolute citizen Capocci protested against sur- 
 render, papal tactics and the papal soldiery made 
 brief work of the enfeebled resistance. Innocent 
 triumphed and returned, his umpires yielding to 
 him the right of electing the Roman Senate. The 
 city was worn out, and until he died this constitu- 
 tion was maintained. Papal greed had roused the 
 strife and papal greed revived with its close, but 
 this time Innocent seized the territories of the 
 child king of Sicily, who could not defend them, 
 nor even dispute his usurpation. He gave his 
 brother Richard the title of Count of Sora, and 
 3
 
 34 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 bestowed upon him not only the lands of the 
 Counts of Poli, but Sora, Arpino, Arce and I sola, 
 to be held as fiefs of the Church. It was after this 
 act of dishonourable spoliation that he crowned 
 Otho of Saxony emperor, who forthwith fell to 
 making treaties against him, intent upon recon- 
 quering the imperial fiefs. But Innocent promptly 
 excommunicated him, a fact which was of waning 
 significance in Italy and of none at all in Rome, 
 but which retained its baleful power in Germany, 
 and Otho returned thither after two years of further 
 conflict during which the Umbrian cities were faith- 
 ful to Innocent. 
 
 It was in the summer of 1210, three months 
 before he launched this excommunication, while he 
 was receiving news of Otho's successes in Southern 
 Italy, where even Naples surrendered to the Em- 
 peror, and while his haughty and rapacious spirit 
 was infuriated at the losses inflicted upon the 
 Papacy by its minion, whose discomfiture he medi- 
 tated by that thunderbolt that Francis was brought 
 face to face with Innocent. 
 
 It was one of the most impressive interviews 
 which history records, and reminds us of our Lord 
 before King Herod. But Herod was a trifler com- 
 pared to the able Pontiff and our Lord was no 
 suppliant at his paltry court. We can picture that 
 crowned nonentity growing restless and ill at ease 
 in presence of so majestic a silence. 
 
 Nor was the stupendous contrast between Inno- 
 cent and Francis conceivable in their time. It is
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 35 
 
 only now, almost seven centuries since it happened, 
 that we see it in the full depth of its shadow, the 
 full radiance of its light. On the papal throne, the 
 world incarnate ; at its foot, the one man who be- 
 lieved that Christ's Rule of living was the only Rule 
 possible for the health of humanity. For there was 
 no Rule practically held by the Curia to be so foolish, 
 so undesirable as Christ's Rule, and to the illumined 
 soul of Francis there was none so wise and so to be 
 desired. 
 
 This man came from Assisi, which had done 
 homage to Pope Innocent twelve years earlier, had 
 flung off the imperial suzerainty and discarded its 
 Count-Governor. No older city sits upon the 
 Umbrian hills. That it was important in the time 
 of Augustus, and earlier, is proved by its beautiful 
 portico of the ancient Temple of Minerva now lead- 
 ing to a Christian church ; by its extensive forum 
 buried under the modern piazza ; by its amphitheatre 
 and stadium, whose grass-grown seats still circle round 
 what forms a kind of village green in the Piazza 
 Nuova, houses interrupting their tiers ; by Roman 
 sculptures, reliefs and inscriptions, collected in its 
 Pinacoteca, its public gardens, its municipal palace. 
 
 Some of these date from about three centuries B.C., 
 when Assisi came under the power of Rome with 
 the other cities of Umbria. But she had a history 
 of her own before her subjection to the invincible 
 republic. 
 
 If we may credit Pliny and Dionysius, it was in 
 ages hardly calculable and prior to the siege of
 
 36 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Troy that the Ombri had been chased from Sicily 
 by the Siculi, and had swarmed up the Italian 
 peninsula and over the plains that lie west of the 
 Adriatic. Thence the Etruscans drove them to seek 
 safety within the Apennines, and they settled where 
 that great plain, to which they gave their name, 
 forms a table-land about 1,100 feet above the sea 
 level, uplifted by mountain walls which enclose it 
 on every side. Here they built towns upon the 
 lower slopes, simple towns of little huts compacted 
 of wood and clay or mud. They seem to have 
 been an agricultural and pastoral people when they 
 fled from their plains, but the mountain air hardened 
 them into warriors and the exigencies of their lot 
 completed the transformation. It was a time of 
 restless movement, and the Etruscans followed them 
 into Umbria and possessed themselves of one of 
 these simple towns, building Perugia on its site 
 and overlooking the wide plain with masterful and 
 covetous eyes. Assisi was the nearest Umbrian 
 city, and its neighbours made periodical attacks 
 upon its inhabitants, which, at first, they evaded 
 by withdrawing, with all their goods, into the bowels 
 of Monte Subasio, upon an outlying slope of which 
 their homes were built, and whose mass was pierced 
 by caves and galleries. But in time they braced 
 themselves up to conflict with the Etruscans, and 
 became strong and gallant soldiers, aggressive as 
 well as defensive, and the rivalry went on vigorously 
 between them. 
 
 Then came the Romans at the end of the fourth
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 37 
 
 century before Christ, and Perugia allied herself to 
 the cities of Umbria, in brave but unavailing resist- 
 ance. Fabius, the consular general, conquered 
 Umbria, and Rome established her garrisons in 
 every city and commenced her educative processes. 
 It is more than probable that Assisi had already 
 acquired some of the arts of civilisation from her 
 long though hostile intercourse with Perugia, and 
 that prisoners there returned to their homes with 
 knowledge of architecture and other civic advan- 
 tages, which they proceeded to use. There exist 
 massive remains of what might very well have been 
 drains in the Etruscan manner, evidently older than 
 the Roman occupation, and at Santa Maria delle 
 Rose great Etruscan blocks still support an arch 
 built and decorated in the time of Charlemagne. 
 But it is certain that Assisi was rebuilt in the 
 years that followed its subjection, and that it be- 
 came in time a singularly beautiful and richly 
 decorated city. Its historian, Antonio Cristofani, 
 helps us to reconstruct the old forum. Its chief 
 ornament must have been the Temple of Minerva, 
 whom a myth associates with the founding of the 
 town by Dardanus, for Roman historians loved to 
 support these pious frauds. Palladio considered 
 the Corinthian columns which remain as the type 
 of architectural perfection. Another temple, of 
 Doric construction, was sacred to Apollo, and 
 there are remains of more, of which three were 
 dedicated to Jove, Hercules and Esculapius. 
 Others rose in different parts of the romanised
 
 .38 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 city, and the temple of Janus has left its name 
 in the Porta Mojano. 
 
 Remains of walls, columns, capitals, friezes and 
 foundations attest the splendour of Assisi in im- 
 perial times, while numerous inscriptions supply 
 dates and other details, and on these is based 
 Cristofani's admirable account. 
 
 It was in Assisi, about the middle of the century 
 before the Christian era, that the Latin poet, Pro- 
 pertius, was born, and, although educated at Rome 
 and spending there the years of his literary and 
 social success, he returned to " Umbria rich in 
 fertile plains " so soon as his family property was 
 restored to him, and spent the last lustrum of his 
 brief life in simple domestic happiness "where 
 misty Mevania stands among the dews of the 
 hill-girt plain, and the waters of the Umbrian 
 lake grow warm the summer through ". 
 
 Morning mists still crown Bevagna, and Bastia's 
 old name of Isola Romanesca marks the site of 
 Umbria's vanished lake. Many inscriptions attest 
 the residence of the Propertius family in Assisi, 
 most of them carefully stored under the portico 
 of Minerva. 
 
 We find that during the decline of Rome its 
 luxury penetrated into Assisi, where the nobles 
 became conspicuous by their absence, preferring 
 the pleasures of the capital to their duties at 
 home, and where even the middle classes and 
 the labourers fell into idle and effeminate ways. 
 Agriculture was neglected ; what industry there
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 39 
 
 was took the shape of the manufacture of luxuries, 
 such as litters, of which so many were made that 
 the workmen were united in a guild or college. 
 In the second century the once flourishing town 
 was impoverished by the combined influences of 
 fashion and taxation, and it became necessary to 
 maintain the children of its poorer inhabitants by 
 public charity. 
 
 But even during this decadence the first breath 
 of the new spirit was felt. We cannot accept the 
 tradition that St. Peter, during his alleged episco- 
 pate, sent a special band of evangelists into Um- 
 bria, but it is certain that by the beginning of 
 the third century evangelists were there, and that 
 amongst the Assisans a small Christian community 
 existed, leading the precarious lives of that age of 
 persecution. The first bishop mentioned in local 
 tradition was Rufino, one of these evangelists who 
 had preached the gospel in Spoleto before he came 
 to Assisi. Faithful to the Cross, when he was be- 
 trayed he confessed Christ in the presence of his 
 judges, and was condemned to the flames, which 
 died out, so that his half-scorched and suffering 
 body was flung into the river Chiaggio on the 
 other side of the plain. His followers drew it 
 from the water, and gave it first burial near at 
 hand, but when the reign of terror passed it was 
 secretly transported up to the city, where now 
 stands the old Duomo of San Rufino. 
 
 Nor do the first impressive annals end here. 
 The second bishop, Vittorino, suffered martyrdom
 
 40 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 about the middle of the same century, and the 
 first years of the next witnessed the imprisonment, 
 the cruel torture and the death by bastinado of 
 Bishop Savino. But with him is connected an 
 incident so beautiful that we must linger over it 
 more fully to understand the legends of the Assi- 
 san Church, told to the little Francis by Madonna 
 Pica, which sowed in his tender mind seed that 
 blossomed into the most Christ-like life of Chris- 
 tendom, whose fruit is still for the healing of the 
 nations. 
 
 Betrayed to the prefect Venustiano, Savino and 
 two of his deacons confessed Christ and challenged 
 the governor to produce an idol comparable to the 
 Lord of Heaven and earth. The prefect sent for a 
 little image of Jove set in coral, which Savino, 
 getting leave to hold it in his hands, flung with 
 all his strength upon the marble floor, so that it 
 broke into pieces. The furious governor bade a 
 soldier cut off his hands, and dismissed him to 
 prison for future torture, while the deacons, em- 
 boldened by such courage, refused to deny their 
 Lord and were flung into the Chiaggio to die. 
 
 While Savino lingered in prison, a woman from 
 Spoleto sought him out and asked him to heal 
 her little nephew, who was blind. The saint 
 called upon Christ and implored Him to show 
 His saving health to the heathen, and then touch- 
 ing the child's eyes restored them to sight. The 
 boy gave the glory to Christ, and eleven bystanders, 
 including the gaoler, heathen hitherto, joined in
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 41 
 
 His praises, knelt down to confess His name, and 
 received baptism from the bishop. Just at this 
 time Venustiano suffered from acute spasms of pain 
 in his eyes, from which no remedy gave him relief. 
 Hearing of this cure he sent for the boy and learned 
 all its details. Savino was brought from prison, and 
 when the boy led him in, the prefect wept before 
 him, asking his pardon and his help. The old man 
 raised his eyes to heaven and prayed : " He will 
 give thee light, who lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world, but thou must believe in 
 Jesus Christ." Then the prefect ground the pieces 
 of his once cherished idol into powder and flung it 
 away. So Savino took water and sprinkled him 
 with all the members of his family, baptising them 
 in the new name, and with the water came light, 
 and his eyes were whole again. In a transport of 
 gratitude the prefect flung himself at Savino's feet, 
 and asked him to entreat God's pardon for the 
 cruelty he had shown, and most tenderly the 
 bishop assured and comforted him. The news 
 was quickly carried to Maximian at Rome, and 
 he sent the tribune Lucius with orders to put 
 Venustiano, his wife and his children to death, 
 the Roman's death by decapitation. Their fellow- 
 Christians in Assisi gave them burial. But Savino 
 was beaten to death. 
 
 Assisi had her full share in the sufferings of the 
 fifth and sixth centuries, when Italy was the battle- 
 field of Goths, Huns, Franks, Alemannians and 
 Lombards. Like some other cities of the peninsula,
 
 42 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 she called in the assistance of the Byzantine Em- 
 peror and was ruled by his delegate, a Gothic 
 soldier, who oddly enough took service in the Greek 
 army. This man, called Siegfried, led the towns- 
 people in a heroic resistance against Totila, and 
 made sorties from the gates in gallant attack. In 
 one of these he fell, and the citizen levy, disheart- 
 ened, fled back, surrendering Assisi to the Huns, 
 who tore down its walls, temples and public build- 
 ings. 
 
 But again we get a glimpse of a heroic bishop, 
 no longer the head of a persecuted remnant, but 
 the overseer of the local church, and the man who, 
 when Siegfried fell, seems to have come forward to 
 negotiate with Totila. Aventius was his name, and 
 the conqueror respected him sufficiently to make him 
 his legate to the Byzantine court, although we know 
 neither his mission nor its success. Perhaps Totila 
 asked for alliance and for recognition as lord of the 
 Italian cities which he had conquered. If so, 
 Justinian refused to listen to terms from the bar- 
 barian, and sent first unfortunate Belisarius and 
 then Narses, who broke the power of the Huns 
 and recovered Italy for the Eastern Empire. 
 
 But scarcely were the horrors of this time at an 
 end, when Italy was again invaded from the north, 
 and to the misery of war renewed were added floods, 
 earthquakes and pestilence. The unhappy country 
 was enfeebled by disease and starvation, its popula- 
 tions were reduced, and the only consolation left 
 was the rapid death of its foes, menaced more by
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 43 
 
 plague than by the sword of Narses. This was the 
 moment when the fierce Lombards fell upon its 
 length and breadth as far as Rome, possessing them- 
 selves of Umbria as they passed. Assisi perhaps 
 made terms with Spoleto, whose Lombard Duke 
 Ariulfo rose to considerable power and even 
 threatened Rome. But for centuries the annals 
 of Assisi are almost dumb, and we hear nothing of 
 her civic and political condition, so that her prob- 
 able relation to the Duchy of Spoleto is conjecture. 
 
 The name of her bishop Aquilino appears amongst 
 those summoned to Pope Martin I.'s Council in 659. 
 Her Church seems to have become infected with 
 the Arianism of her Lombard neighbours and 
 Charlemagne desired to restore Umbria to Roman 
 Christianity. He took Assisi by surprise in 773, 
 first levelling its walls and then rebuilding them, 
 and his chief care was to import a colony of Roman 
 Christians. But the old citizens were almost annihi- 
 lated because of their gallant resistance, and the 
 civil wars that followed renewed miseries from 
 which they had been recovering. 
 
 Either during this restoration of Assisi, or im- 
 mediately after, the castle, or Rocca d' Assisi, was 
 raised at the top of the hill, which forms a buttress 
 to the broad-based Subasio, and up which the town 
 climbs towards its now ruined fortress. Built for 
 protection, the castle with its towers and keep and 
 ramparts, its walls descending on either flank of 
 the city to encircle it with fortifications, proved to 
 be a lure inviting attack, and during the fierce
 
 44 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 hostility between Popes and Emperors poor Assisi 
 was the objective of many a German adventurer, 
 who knew better than her citizens how to occupy 
 and defend the beautiful fortress which the latter 
 had built. Charles the Great had presented the 
 cities of Umbria and the Exarchate of Ravenna to 
 the Papal Curia, then glad enough of imperial pat- 
 ronage and gifts, so that Assisi counted as part of 
 the Papal States, and for that sufficient reason was 
 in constant danger from the Germans. 
 
 The city slipped back soon after the eighth 
 century into tributary alliance with Spoleto, and 
 for the greater part of the two succeeding centuries 
 claimed judgment from the Duke of Spoleto in the 
 numerous disputes between her ecclesiastics and 
 the rural counts, who had possessed themselves of 
 suburban lands, and were in constant litigation with 
 both Church and town. 
 
 Documents belonging to the annals of the ninth, 
 tenth and eleventh centuries are very numerous, 
 but relate more to the attendance of her bishops 
 at Lateran Councils in Rome ; to the exchange, 
 sale and purchase of property ; to the prominence, 
 as castellan, of this and that Lombard and German 
 count, or to the disputes between counts and abbots 
 as to the ownership of certain lands, than to matters 
 of more immediate interest. But some of them 
 celebrate the building of churches and monasteries, 
 and, amongst the latter, of the large and wealthy 
 monastery of St. Benedict, which was raised upon 
 the southern slope of Monte Subasio, at some dis-
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 45 
 
 tance east of the town, in 1041, and whose abbot, 
 Aginaldo, founded the church and nunnery of St. 
 Paul down in the plain thirty years later. Earlier 
 in the century the church of St. Peter had been 
 built, perhaps by one of the Lombard counts, and 
 during its whole course religious settlements were 
 established within and without the walls, the 
 Benedictines predominating as founders. The 
 bishops encouraged their spread. One of these, 
 Bishop Hugo, whose episcopate lasted from 1036 
 to 1050, revived local interest in San Rufino and 
 San Savino, building a church to the latter on the 
 site of the ruined Temple of Janus, and raising the 
 cathedral of San Runno over the little oratory 
 beneath which his bones had rested for eight 
 centuries. He transferred the episcopal chair to 
 this church and established a college of canons in 
 a neighbouring cloister. This pious and venerable 
 prelate was succeeded by one less worthy, Bishop 
 Agino, who enriched himself by the tenure of 
 abbacies and other benefices, following the scan- 
 dalous example of contemporary ecclesiastics. We 
 find him in far greater repute than his humble 
 predecessors, appointed arbitrator in a court held 
 by the Duchess of Perugia, wife of Geoffrey, Duke 
 of Spoleto, at which was present her daughter 
 Matilda, afterwards the great countess. The lust 
 of power, which had taken possession of the court 
 of Rome, had spread far and wide. The old rivalry 
 with Perugia broke out before the death of Bishop 
 Hugo, and Todi with Foligno took part on the
 
 46 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 side of Assisi, a sign of advancing civic inde- 
 pendence, but the long strife in Italy and the 
 constant usurpation and tyranny of imperial ad- 
 venturers delayed even while they stimulated the 
 popular longing for its development. 
 
 Five bishops held the see during the twelfth 
 century, men interested in the advancement of 
 Assisi, for to their time belong both the hospital of 
 San Rufino and the school opened in San Giorgio 
 for educating the children of its townspeople. 
 
 It was the period of the Lombard League, which 
 checked imperial ambition, although before the 
 battle of Legnano, Barbarossa's chancellor, Arch- 
 bishop Christian, invaded Umbria and possessed 
 himself of both Spoleto and Assisi, an event which 
 once more delayed the slow-maturing commune. 
 Until he entered the city, much as Charlemagne 
 had done three centuries earlier, by a drain, Assisi 
 was only nominally subject to Barbarossa, and there 
 are indications of an understanding between the 
 commune and her nobles, an alliance for defensive 
 purposes, celebrated in 1160 by a donation to the 
 citizens of land and castles on the part of Count 
 OfFreduccio, and accepted by Bishop Ranieri in 
 their name at an assembly of the nobles, clergy 
 and townspeople held in the cathedral, on the sole 
 condition that Assisi should help the donor in the 
 perils of that time. 
 
 But Christian's siege and capture followed soon 
 after, and was the Emperor's answer to so manifest 
 an intention of home rule.
 
 CLIMAX OF THE PAPAL POWER 47 
 
 Apparently the great Hohenstaufen was himself 
 in Assisi from the middle of December, 1177, till 
 after the new year, his son Henry with him. The 
 Emperor took all authority from the native nobles 
 and invested Conrad of Liitzen, whom he had 
 already made Duke of besieged and despoiled 
 Spoleto, with the government and title of Count 
 of Assisi. He was less of a tyrant than most of 
 the Emperor's deputies, had certain whims which 
 secured him the nickname of " Conrad Fly in his 
 Head," but he allowed the town to join the 
 Umbrian League and, as we have seen, he sub- 
 mitted to Innocent III. in 1198. Pier Bernardone's 
 house stood a few steps behind the upper corner of 
 the piazza, and he must have witnessed the imperial 
 state that Christmas-tide, four years before his son's 
 birth, and have shared in the civic discontent with 
 the new ruler.
 
 PART II 
 BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 
 1181 1204 
 
 Birth of Francis His Parents Peter Waldo Childhood of 
 Francis At School As a Youth The Commune of 
 Assisi Francis as Citizen and Soldier Prisoner in 
 Perugia His Release. 
 
 FRANCIS, son of Pier Bernardone, was bom 
 towards the end of the year 1181, just four 
 years after Barbarossa's visit, and shortly after the 
 death of Pope Alexander III., to whom the proud 
 Hohenstaufen had knelt in St. Mark's. 
 
 September the twenty-sixth is celebrated in As- 
 sisi as the exact date of his birth, but it cannot be 
 certified. 
 
 His father was a merchant in silks and cloths, 
 making long journeys for sale and purchase. 
 
 Umbrian silk was a more important manufacture 
 then than now, although the mulberry still flourishes 
 for the double purpose of feeding the silkworm and 
 (48)
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 4.9 
 
 supporting the vine. But the quality of silken 
 tissue made in the present day is inferior to that 
 of other silk-weaving districts in Italy, perhaps 
 because leaves of the elm are used as well as of 
 the mulberry. Pier Bernardone, an Assisan him- 
 self, married a lady known to us as Pica, perhaps 
 a foreigner and of gentle birth, but content to be 
 the wealthy merchant's wife. Indeed, the mer- 
 chants of that time were rising everywhere into 
 importance, and M. Sabatier has reminded us of 
 the conspicuous part which they played in the 
 middle ages and later, travelling with their valu- 
 able wares in strong companies from market to 
 market, from castle to castle, where not alone their 
 silks and velvets made them welcome, but also their 
 knowledge of what was going on in the countries 
 traversed by their caravans. It was usual for 
 them to receive shelter and hospitality where 
 they halted ; to carry oral messages and missives 
 of political import; to be the special agents of 
 princes and papal legates. The position of such 
 men cannot be confounded with that of petty 
 tradesmen, as their necessary conversance with 
 other languages than their own, their use of 
 courtly manners, and their value in those days 
 when the exchange of despatches and the con- 
 veyance of money or jewels was beset with difficul- 
 ties, must have given them both personal dignity 
 and exceptional knowledge of the world. 
 
 Proven9al was the language in all probability 
 most familiar to Bernardone, and it is surmised 
 4
 
 50 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 that Madonna Pica had been wooed and won in 
 Southern France, in the gay accents of her native 
 tongue. For Southern France was Bernardone's 
 goal when he set out with bales and escort, and 
 we can picture him at the fairs of its cities, where 
 the world's commerce was transacted, and where, 
 as at Venice and in the towns of Southern Ger- 
 many, men of all nations met each other for barter 
 and to exchange news from England on the West 
 to Egypt on the East. 
 
 In Southern France, during the years before his 
 son's birth, there was much talk of heresy. A 
 money-lender called Peter Waldo, who had made 
 a great fortune by his dubious trade, was stricken 
 with contrition on hearing the story of St. Alexius 
 from a traveller, probably a pilgrim. This was in 
 the city of Lyons, and in the year 1171. The 
 death of the saint, who had given up all that he 
 might not be drawn into a worldly life, and who 
 returned to his wife and parents as a dying men- 
 dicant, unrecognised by them till the last, made 
 so profound an impression upon Waldo, that he 
 consulted a master of theology as to what he 
 should do to be saved. The divine spoke Christ's 
 word to the man of many possessions : " Go, sell 
 all that thou hast, give it to the poor and come 
 follow Me." 
 
 Peter Waldo received the command with child- 
 like faith and obedience. He settled his house 
 and lands upon his wife, with money sufficient for 
 her maintenance, and put aside funds to provide
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 51 
 
 for his little daughters as nuns in the order of 
 Fontevraux. He then realised all that remained 
 of his fortune and began to distribute it to the 
 poor. A famine was desolating the country dur- 
 ing that summer, and three times a week he gave 
 bread, vegetables and meat to all who came to 
 him. But on 15th August, not satisfied that he 
 was fully carrying out Christ's injunction, he went 
 amongst the poor on the streets, flinging money 
 to them and calling aloud : " No man can serve 
 two masters, God and Mammon." 
 
 The people crowded about him thinking him 
 mad, but he declared that when they found him 
 accumulating money they might call him mad, for 
 only he was mad who trusted to wealth and forbore 
 to trust in God. 
 
 Then, having given away all that he possessed, 
 he went to a friend to beg bread, who gave it wil- 
 lingly and promised it for his life-time. Waldo's 
 wife was deeply wounded that her husband should 
 seek for maintenance from any one but herself, 
 and went to the Archbishop, who recognised her 
 right, and granted her permission to provide for his 
 daily needs, but more than meagre fare and simplest 
 clothing the penitent would not accept. His next 
 step was to make himself acquainted with the 
 Holy Scriptures and the Patristic writings. Two 
 priests aided him in this, as he did not know 
 Latin. He grew familiar with Christ's methods 
 of proclaiming the gospel, and of organising, in- 
 structing and consecrating its missionaries. This
 
 .52 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 opened to him the next stage on the path of 
 obedience. Men and women of the poorer classes 
 crowded to him, confident that his holy poverty 
 meant some definite hope for them, at a time 
 when the poor were crushed under the arrogant 
 heal of authority. Already he had a band of fol- 
 lowers, willing to trust the spiritual rather than 
 the material providence, and becoming confident 
 that the latter was assured in sufficient measure. 
 
 Waldo and his disciples began to preach repent- 
 ance and obedience to Christ's commands in the 
 streets of Lyons. After a short time he sent them, 
 two by two, to the outlying towns and villages, 
 where they were welcomed into the houses and 
 even into the churches. Lyons and its neighbour- 
 hood were soon ringing with the forgotten teaching 
 of Jesus, which had lain in cerements of Latin for 
 a thousand years. The people listened gladly, for 
 beautiful in all ages are the feet of the messengers 
 of peace. 
 
 In all things our Lord's instructions were followed. 
 Two by two, the Waldensians went from place to 
 place, from country to country. They wore sandals 
 of wood, a simple tunic of woollen cloth, and car- 
 ried neither purse nor scrip, trusting to the hospi- 
 tality of those to whom they preached. They 
 renounced possessions and settled homes, since the 
 Son of Man had not where to lay His head. It was 
 these preachers and teachers who were called Wal- 
 densians, not the people to whom they ministered. 
 The latter might form congregations and accept
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 53 
 
 evangelical creed and practice, but, unless they de- 
 sired to become missionary brethren, they were not 
 called upon to give up their trades and homes, for 
 Christ had consecrated home life, and only demanded 
 poverty and renunciation from those whom He com- 
 missioned to teach and preach. This must be kept 
 strictly in mind, because these so-called heretics 
 were a protest against that wealth, material power 
 and worldly authority which cankered Curia, hier- 
 archy and monastic life. When men spoke of the 
 Waldensians, they meant these poor preachers 
 whom Waldo sent out from Lyons. 
 
 We have not space in which to narrate their ex- 
 traordinaiy success throughout Southern France and 
 Switzerland, Savoy and Lombardy. In two years 
 the importance of their work was recognised in 
 Rome, and some of them were summoned to the 
 Lateran Council held by Alexander III. in 1179- 
 Peter Waldo placed a translation into the vernacular 
 of the Psalms and several other Scriptures before 
 the Pope, and asked his permission to preach. Our 
 bishop, Walter Map, was deputed with two others to 
 examine Waldo and his colleagues, and foreseeing 
 the effect of preaching a life of holy poverty upon 
 the popular attitude towards his own wealthy and 
 luxurious order, he sought to enmesh them in the 
 subtleties of scholastic theology, and prevented 
 Alexander from granting their request on the 
 ground of their incompetence. So, although the 
 Pope embraced Waldo, moved to tears by his 
 humility, he made pretext after pretext for delay,
 
 54 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 and died without giving the desired permission. 
 For Waldo did not wish to leave the Church, nor to 
 place himself in opposition to its authority. Like 
 John Wesley, six centuries later in England, he 
 longed to serve the Church through Christ's com- 
 mission. But the hierarchy would have nought of 
 Christ, and bishops and archbishops industriously 
 followed Walter Map's initiative, until the Walden- 
 sians were in such ill odour at Rome that Lucius 
 III. placed them under the papal ban in 1184, as 
 one of the thirty-two heretical sects against which 
 his Bull was promulgated. 
 
 Persecution was the incentive which, while exil- 
 ing them from the Church, opened their eyes to 
 the contrast between the authority wielded by the 
 Curia and the authority given to the Apostles by our 
 Lord. Never did Rome pursue a more impolitic 
 course than when it emphasised this contrast by re- 
 pudiating those who followed implicitly the instruc- 
 tions of Christ. A later Pope, led by one of his 
 wisest cardinals, refrained from repeating Alexan- 
 der's blunder when a similar crisis arose. 
 
 But the Waldensian influence spread and matured 
 into an evangelical Church, which neither misprision 
 nor persecution has availed to destroy, and now that 
 more than seven centuries have passed, the Church 
 of the Waldensians is the most actire and honoured 
 of those which are opposed to the ecclesiastical 
 domination of the Curia. 
 
 These " Poor Men of Lyons " made a consider- 
 able stir during the final quarter of the twelfth
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 55 
 
 century, and Pier Bernardone must have met them 
 as he travelled in Southern France and in Lom- 
 bardy, faring two by two on their preaching tours. 
 He would hear of all that befel them, and would 
 know well that the " common people heard them 
 gladly ". On his return to Assisi, doubtless he would 
 tell, amongst much else, the story of these gospel 
 mendicants, perhaps laughing at their infatuation, 
 perhaps with some not unkindly compassion for 
 their sufferings. The movement was too conspicuous 
 to be ignored by one who went and came through 
 Lombardy and the valleys to Southern France. So 
 while Francis was a child, a boy, a youth, he would 
 hear from year to year of these men. 
 
 Of his childhood we know very little. Legends 
 gathered round the story of his infancy, but they 
 were almost inevitable in the time and to the people, 
 when books did not exist, and accuracy had small 
 chance beside loving imagination. But Francis 
 needs no tender legends of angelic voices, angelic 
 predictions, angelic sponsor at his baptism, which 
 took place in the cathedral of San Rufino, probably 
 a few days after his birth, and in the absence of his 
 father, who was visiting the autumn fairs. The 
 name given to him at the font was Giovanni, and 
 perhaps the Baptist was his patron saint, the herald 
 of Christ, who went out into the wilderness to call 
 men to repentance. 
 
 But when Bernardone returned from France he 
 picked up the babe with a gay greeting to his 
 " little Frenchman," and Francesco became the
 
 56 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 home name, the life name, the everlasting name. 
 It was unique at the time, though kings and em- 
 perors were proud to bear it in generations that 
 followed. This incident strengthens the surmise 
 that Madonna Pica came from Provence. 
 
 Her first-born inherited his mother's nature, 
 rather than that of his burly, business-like, dom- 
 ineering father, to whom his younger brother Angelus 
 seems to have had a greater resemblance. From 
 her he must have drawn both the delicate body 
 and gracious nature which distinguished him. And 
 from her he learned the earliest lessons of life, the 
 manners and dainty fastidiousness by which he first 
 expressed his instinctive making for perfection as it 
 revealed its climbing steps. From her, too, he 
 received in gentle hints, example and absorbing 
 story that education of his intuitive reverence and 
 devotion, which grew into steady saintliness. Hand 
 in hand the mother and child would walk down 
 the steep streets from Bernardone's house behind 
 the municipal palace, and through the olive garths, 
 to the tiny church of St. Mary of the Little Portion, 
 most cherished of suburban shrines in those days. 
 For it had a history nearly as old as the Assisan 
 Church. Built early in the sixth century by St. 
 Benedict during a pilgrimage over his native 
 Umbria, for the settlement of brotherhoods belong- 
 ing to his order, it was, even before his days, a 
 place where prayer was wont to be made, for a 
 little oratory existed there, shaped like a tomb, 
 which perhaps it was, and legend ascribed the ruin
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 57 
 
 to palmers from the East, who had placed in it a 
 relic from the Virgin Mary's sepulchre. Benedict 
 found their ruined oratory, and caused the sanc- 
 tuary to be built, and of his erection a wide door 
 and the bases of its walls exist still in spite of scathe 
 and pillage through fourteen centuries till now. For 
 its walls were made of stout blocks of travertine, 
 and local veneration prompted repair when earth- 
 quake or barbarian had unroofed them, so that the 
 angels never ceased to abide there, or to guard 
 their hallowed memories. For since it was a shrine 
 built for the peasants and the poor, where the con- 
 trite might know the presence of God, it had no 
 lure to distract from single-minded worship. 
 
 Hither Madonna Pica would lead her boy, and as 
 they climbed home again, she doubtless told him 
 the sweet stories of old, and pointed out to him the 
 remote Chiaggio, in which so many of Assisi's sons 
 had passed into life eternal for the sake of Christ. 
 
 Other instructions he had as he grew into boy- 
 hood, for a little down the hill from his father's house, 
 towards the great plain, stood the beautiful Church 
 of San Giorgio, now incorporated in Santa Chiara, 
 where the clerical school for Assisan boys had been 
 opened a century before his birth. Here he learned 
 to read and write, and was taught Latin sufficiently 
 well to enable him to use it in after years, if not 
 with perfect facility, still in a style not far behind 
 that of the ecclesiastics themselves. Another im- 
 portant accomplishment acquired at San Giorgio 
 was the best Italian vernacular of the Middle Ages,
 
 58 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 which he, long before Dante, was to use as an 
 exquisite poetic medium. At home, if Madonna 
 Pica was a native of Provence, the Proven9al which 
 came so naturally to Francis would be his mother- 
 tongue, and Pica perhaps taught her boy its dainty 
 canticles and chants d' amour, which were the chief 
 literary expression of that day, echoing from country 
 to country, in Southern Germany and even in Eng- 
 land, and caught up with sympathetic rapture in 
 Italy, where, even now, the plains and fields are 
 filled with long, lingering cadences first heard a 
 millennium ago. 
 
 As he grew older, he may have gone with Ber- 
 nardone on his rounds, although we have no evidence 
 on which to rest the conjecture, except his familiarity 
 with the Troubadour contests of song, the Courts of 
 Love, the rondels and chansonnettes in which royal 
 and knightly rivals delighted to celebrate the beauty 
 of some chosen damsel. 
 
 To a strain of gentle birth may be attributed his 
 preference of the beautiful, the romantic, to the 
 homely realities of life. As he passed from boyhood 
 to youth, these tastes became so marked as to single 
 him out, even amongst the young nobles of Assisi, 
 for fastidiousness in food, dress and personal clean- 
 liness. This last characteristic clung to him through 
 life, in spite of the poverty which he wooed, and we 
 find it in the exquisite stanza of his Canticle of the 
 Sun, composed nearly at the end of his life, where he 
 praises God for " our sister water, who is very useful, 
 lowly, valuable and clean".
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 59 
 
 His intense solicitude for the cleanliness of 
 churches, pyxes and awmbries, of all vessels con- 
 nected with the Church celebrations, is another 
 proof of its presence in him to the end. For there 
 was too great a tendency to neglect and disorder 
 in such matters then, and to Francis this was a 
 constant source of regret. But in his youth the 
 loftier uses of cleanliness were less pressing than 
 the more immediate, and he spent much pains on 
 his slim and graceful person, investing it in tunics 
 and mantles of beautiful texture and colour, and 
 loving the sheen and flash of jewelled clasp and 
 brooch. The same daintiness characterised his use 
 of food, and we learn that he shrank from meat and 
 messes, and liked cakes and sweets and delicate 
 dishes. 
 
 What he loved best of all in those days was the 
 world of romance, and he was leader in the mimic 
 tournaments of song and jest which occupied the 
 young Assisan 'nobles. The sons of Lombard 
 counts, perhaps of German, certainly of Assisan 
 fief-holders, liegemen of the Empire, whose de- 
 scendants still occupy the ancient palaces and 
 gardens, had been his school-fellows. His gaiety, 
 graciousness, genius, and the wealth which enabled 
 him to go choicely clad, made him their favourite 
 companion, a fact which reconciled the miserly 
 Bernardone to his extravagance, although on one 
 occasion he reprimanded him not unnaturally for 
 some excessive expenditure. 
 
 He was essential to every banquet, every merry-
 
 60 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 making, where his quick repartee, gift of song and 
 joyousness radiated good-fellowship. And when he 
 headed the fantastic processions and mummeries 
 of the time, he would improvise new lays of love 
 and go singing down the streets at the head of his 
 band of friends a brilliant spectacle, which brought 
 the townsfolk to their windows and doors to look 
 and listen. But nearly every biographer, from 
 the thii'teenth century till to-day, testifies to his 
 freedom from all vicious excess, to the essential 
 purity of his life. As he shrank from the coarser 
 adjuncts of existence, so he shrank from vice. 
 Mind, spirit and body were in harmony, loving all 
 things that were pure and lovely and of good 
 report. He had not yet discovered that plane of 
 inspiration where our eyes open to things immortal, 
 and we reverse our appraisal of the things that 
 perish, but he refused to descend to that dark 
 plane where men wallow in things carnal and 
 destructive. 
 
 He was sixteen years old when the last im- 
 perial ceremony was held in Assisi. In 1197 Count 
 Conrad, who had finally abandoned Spoleto, where 
 the Guelfs had become stronger than the Ghibel- 
 lines, began to feel the growing influence of the 
 communal spirit in Assisi, which his own laxity 
 had fostered. He remained in the castle with his 
 retinue and garrison. Its great strength induced 
 the widow of Henry VI. to commit the little 
 Frederick II. to Conrad's care. The child was 
 only three years old, and the Assisans witnessed
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 6l 
 
 his baptism in San Rufino, in the font where, six- 
 teen years before, Francis had been immersed. 
 " It was," says Cristofani, " the last flash of imperial 
 splendour." Fifteen bishops and cardinals helped 
 to christen Frederick, who was to give the Papacy 
 more trouble than any of his predecessors. But 
 who that visits San Rufino thinks now of the heir 
 of the Empire of the West ? It is Francis, heir 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven and entered into his 
 heritage, that draws us thither. 
 
 Early next year Innocent III. became Pope, and 
 Perugia, Assisi, Foligno, Trevi, Spoleto and Rieti 
 declared for his sovereignty. His legate took over, 
 not only the castle of Assisi, which the townsmen 
 attacked and wrested from its imperial garrison, 
 but also the guardianship of the child-king of 
 Sicily in Innocent's name. Conrad tendered his 
 submission at Narni, and surrendered all lands, 
 cities and castles, which he had held for the 
 Empire. The Assisans set themselves to the work 
 of pulling down their castle, its double walls and 
 towers, determined in their new-found freedom 
 from the foreigner to offer no eyrie for another 
 bird of prey, but they strengthened the walls that 
 girded their city and built towers of massive form 
 and foundations to protect the lands restored to 
 them. 
 
 Pope Innocent required a very absolute subjec- 
 tion from his Umbriaii cities, and signified that his 
 love and patronage depended on their obedience, 
 and it is grimly entertaining to note that along
 
 62 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 with the loyal protestation towards his Holiness, 
 they prosecuted these labours and appointed their 
 consuls and deliberated their own affairs. The 
 people were now the masters, although they gladly 
 admitted to their commune and its privileges such 
 of the nobles as had been loyal to the town, 
 making them consuls and conceding to them the 
 right of forming a body of cavalry in times of war. 
 They attacked those nobles, however, who placed 
 themselves in haughty opposition to the commune, 
 and who kept bands of retainers to infest the 
 suburbs and harass the citizens. 
 
 In all these doings Francis doubtless had his share, 
 for we find him, after this revolution, mounted like 
 a young noble of the commune, and ready to take 
 his part in cavalry expeditions. Till 1202 Assisi 
 was engaged in these historical and domestic 
 affairs, and it must have been a time of strenu- 
 ous education for her citizens, and amongst 
 them for Francis, the most observed of her 
 jeunesse doree. He was twenty-one years old by 
 the time the new fortifications were finished, the 
 castles of the suburban counts destroyed and civic 
 peace restored for a short interval. We might also 
 venture to surmise that he had borne a gallant part 
 in those years of energy and revival, for the anec- 
 dote of a man, accounted a character in the town, 
 who would spread his mantle for Francis to tread 
 upon, and bid men note him as a youth called to 
 future greatness, seems to point already to distinc- 
 tion. Giotto painted the incident, apparently well
 
 INCIDENT IN THE YOUTH OF FKANCIS 
 From Giotto's fresco in the Ufper Church at Assist
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 63 
 
 known in Assisi, emphasising the gentle humourous- 
 ness with which Francis accepts the attention, as of 
 one saying : " Why are you doing this ? " 
 
 He was busy, too, in his father's shop, and showed 
 considerable commercial aptitude, which disposed 
 Bernardone to leniency when he was extravagant. 
 Madonna Pica grieved over her son's tastes and 
 caprices. She feared that they might lead him 
 into places more dangerous than the wayward 
 paths of romance and chivalry. She prayed for 
 him without ceasing, and comfort was vouchsafed 
 to her anxious mother-heart, for when the neigh- 
 bours gossiped to her of his mad doings, she 
 answered calmly : " I have hope, that if it please 
 God, he will become a good Christian." 
 
 And, indeed, his compassion for the poor betrayed 
 his preservation from that worst of ills, the blunting 
 of human tenderness, the hardening of the heart so 
 often incident to those who live for pleasure. 
 
 It was a time when few were rich and many were 
 poor. The crusaders had filled all countries with 
 the disbanded remnants of armies consecrated to 
 conquest, doomed to failure. The oppression of for- 
 eigners had forced poverty on the masses. Lands 
 were left uncultivated ; the troubles of those days 
 checked industry and commerce ; pestilence fol- 
 lowed war, and famine was the handmaid of pes- 
 tilence. Malarial fevers and plagues abounded. 
 The refugees from the East brought leprosy and 
 ophthalmia with them. Wherever men came and 
 went blind, emaciated, covered with sores, in
 
 64 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 rags summer and winter the beggars chanted 
 their doleful demand. 
 
 Francis, with that sensitive sympathy for sorrow 
 which belonged to a nature responsive to every 
 human emotion, was prone to constant charity, 
 even in those days of careless mirth and festivity. 
 His compassion would possess him like a sudden 
 flame, to be quenched only by bountiful giving, 
 and years before his conversion we hear of his 
 frequent charity, even to the parting with his 
 robes and mantles when cold storms from the 
 east covered the mountains with snow and men- 
 dicants shivered by the wayside. 
 
 One day, when his father's shop was full of 
 customers, a persistent beggar annoyed him with 
 asking for the love of God. Francis repulsed him 
 in a moment of pressure and impatience, but his 
 tender conscience reproached him with the reminder 
 that, had the man begged in this count's name 
 or that baron's, he would not have sent him 
 away, and yet he had driven from the door one 
 who begged in the name of God. So he ran after 
 him to tender alms and ask his pardon. 
 
 But in 1202 Assisi was again involved in war. 
 The suburban counts, whose castles she had de- 
 stroyed as far as Nocera, at that time within the 
 radius of her suzerainty, conspired to avenge their 
 wrongs upon the valiant little commune. Amongst 
 them was Count Girardo di Gislerio, who, having 
 lands near Perugia, made submission to its podesta, 
 and conspired with seven other dispossessed nobles
 
 FRANCIS, SON OF PIER BERNARDONE 65 
 
 to secure its assistance against Assisi. His castle 
 of Sasso Rosso had not only been damaged, but, 
 with its lands, had been given to Count Favorino 
 degli Sciffi, an Assisan of rank. 
 
 The opportunity was eagerly accepted, for Peru- 
 gia longed to place the hated town under her 
 griffin's claw. The Assisans flew to arms, refused 
 to reinstate the Lombard and German counts, 
 whom they no longer accounted fellow-townsmen, 
 and boldly advanced across the plain to meet their 
 foes. 
 
 Francis rode in the body of patriotic cavalry. 
 The encounter took place between Bastia and 
 Ponte di San Giovanni, about midway between 
 the hostile cities, and proved to be a defeat for 
 Assisi, and their foes returned to Perugia with the 
 spoils of victory and many prisoners, amongst whom 
 was Francis. For a whole year he and his com- 
 panions were kept in custody. While the others 
 lamented and grumbled, he retained his cheerful- 
 ness, made plans of glorious adventure for the 
 future, boasted even a little in his humourous 
 fashion. "One day," he said, "you shall see 
 how the whole world will adore me." His day- 
 dreams were of glory and success, although we 
 cannot judge what he exactly meant at a time 
 when young imaginations found nothing impossible 
 in heaven or on earth. But he spoke straight to 
 the grumblers, and refused to share in their un- 
 kindness to a fellow-captive whom they disliked 
 and whom he consoled and reconciled to the rest. 
 5
 
 66 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 After their fellow-townsmen had suffered a year's 
 imprisonment, the Assisans agreed to submit the 
 difference to arbitration, and the judges sentenced 
 them to repair the castles, to restore the lands 
 despoiled, and to receive the exiles back again, on 
 condition that they made no further attacks on the 
 citizens, and pledged themselves to enter into no 
 alliance with their enemies in future. So about 
 the end of 1203 Francis returned to Assisi with 
 his fellow-captives.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CONVERSION 
 1204 1 '206 
 
 Illness The Porta Nuova Walter of Brienne The Ex- 
 pedition from Assisi Return Penitence The Vision 
 of Poverty Farewell to Friends The Poor At Rome 
 Heresies San Damiano Renunciation. 
 
 SOME slight demoralisation had taken place in 
 his nature. Prison fare and monotony must 
 have been not only distasteful, but positively harm- 
 ful to his health and mind, and the close companion- 
 ship of men more vicious in habits and conversation 
 may have tainted him with cynicism, since he could 
 scarcely have isolated himself from his comrades. 
 We find him plunging more recklessly than ever 
 into the gaiety from which he and they had fasted 
 perforce so long. And it may be that this excess 
 hazarded evil as well as fantastic extravagance. If 
 we accept Celano's first biography, we are bound to 
 believe his sinister account. But we shall do well 
 to remember that it was written under the influence 
 of Brother Elias, who seems to have been at once 
 artisan and schoolmaster in Assisi during this time, 
 not included in the doings of its leisured youth, 
 (67)
 
 68 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 and perhaps disposed to account their conspicuous 
 follies as altogether evil. And even if his ungentle 
 disposition did not wilfully deepen the shadows, he 
 may have in some tortuous manner suggested them 
 as a contrast to the life which was to follow, so as 
 to make more resplendent the change from spiritual 
 death to life. Francis, weakened physically by 
 captivity, could not stand the strain of this out- 
 break of dissipation, and fell seriously ill. For 
 weeks he lay in danger, but his mother's prayers 
 and nursing helped him through the crisis, and 
 slowly he returned to a measure of health. In the 
 dark house below the main piazza he lay helpless 
 through the first months of 1204, until the days 
 began to lengthen, and the sun rose earlier behind 
 Foligno and sank later behind Perugia. 
 
 We know nothing detailed of this illness, but are 
 perhaps justified in accounting it the true turning- 
 point of his life. He had aspired to the best as 
 he understood it. He had touched his goal and 
 had known the delights of the life that now is 
 a dazzling social success, the stress and strain of 
 great events, the joy of battle with his peers. But 
 the glamour passed at the touch of adversity. He 
 had seen the gallant bearing of his friends turn 
 into squalid peevishness ; he had learnt that the 
 brilliance of rank, wealth and youth faded under 
 the sullen cloud of failure. It was a semblance 
 then and unreal. The 6lan of battle was not forti- 
 tude. There were apparent virtues which could 
 not endure the shock of opposition. They were
 
 CONVERSION 69 
 
 phantasms. Some such despair may have possessed 
 him as he slowly rallied, and underlying its oppres- 
 sion there may have germinated that seed whose 
 increase is of God. 
 
 When he was once more able to walk he took 
 the level road leading to Porta Nuova, least difficult 
 for an invalid, and went to where the gate opens 
 upon the grim shoulders of Monte Subasio, upon 
 the high Apennines beyond Foligno, upon the lower 
 range on whose slopes glitter Trevi and Spoleto, 
 and upon the olive-yards and mulberries descending 
 to the plain, all perchance, that spring afternoon, 
 steeped in bluest atmosphere. He tried to recover 
 his former rapture in the scene, but could not. 
 His very love of natural beauty had lost its thrill. 
 His youth had been wasted on shadows, and not 
 even nature could console him. Nor did there 
 seem for the moment any other source of consola- 
 tion. For, though the hand of God was upon him, 
 he knew it not. The Divine processes are slow, and 
 most of us scarcely attain to be unweaned babes in 
 the spiritual life. 
 
 Francis turned sick at heart from the dregs of 
 the emptied cup, finding them bitter to his taste, 
 but to drink the living water was not yet in all his 
 thoughts. Religion was a duty, doubtless, but not 
 yet the breath of his being. There were, however, 
 possibilities in which he might recover his old joie 
 de vivre, and these, in the opinion of that age, were 
 hallowed by the sanction and example of the Curia. 
 
 Restored to health, he resumed his rich vestments
 
 70 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 and his habit of riding out of the city to the plain. 
 One evening he found at the wayside an old ac- 
 quaintance reduced to beggary. He dismounted 
 and clothed him in his own rich mantle, providing 
 for his immediate wants. It seems to have been 
 from this man that he learned of the victories 
 gained in Puglia by Walter de Brienne, who was 
 fighting for the restoration of the papal fiefs in the 
 south of Italy, favoured by Innocent IIL's benedic- 
 tion. The Pope's champion was a hero in the eyes 
 of all Guelfs, for he had overcome the German army 
 twice against great odds, and he was regarded as 
 a leader specially protected by God. Francis was 
 easily induced to accompany the poor knight whom 
 he had befriended, and who intended to seek service 
 under Count Walter. So he was occupied in fitting 
 out his friend and himself with the arms and trap- 
 pings necessary for their expedition. 
 
 Its object was almost a crusade ; nothing could 
 have been more attractive to a mind regaining its 
 health without recovering its content with his daily 
 conditions. Filled as his imagination was with day- 
 dreams of glory in the tented field, it is not wonder- 
 ful that his sleep was haunted by visions of arms and 
 banners. Some faith in his destiny he had always 
 manifested half humourously, no doubt but 
 caught from his popularity, from portents and pre- 
 dictions, and none the less real because it had not 
 spoilt his sweet and gracious bearing. But in the 
 vision recorded by his biographers there is an 
 element absent from mere reflection of the day's
 
 CONVERSION 71 
 
 preoccupation. Some one seemed to show him a 
 many-storied palace, whose arcaded chambers were 
 filled with shields and arms and banners, marked 
 with the Cross of Christ, and when he asked to 
 whom these belonged, his guide replied : " They 
 are for thee and for thy knights." 
 
 Arms they were for Christ* s service, which he did 
 not yet understand, but towards their use his reason 
 was gradually to be directed. For the moment he 
 was intoxicated with the thought that he was de- 
 signed by God to be a great leader in battle for the 
 Church. 
 
 Madonna Pica's heart must have bled to see him 
 so joyous at the thought of leaving home for the 
 perils of war once more, and his friends rallied him 
 on his spirits and ridiculed his confident assertion ; 
 " I know that I shall become a great prince." Still, 
 some of them agreed to go with him and to follow 
 the Assisan count, who proposed to mend his ruined 
 fortunes by the venture. 
 
 Francis was appointed his page. The party 
 started one morning for Spoleto by the road which 
 wound round Monte Subasio, passing below the 
 Benedictine monastery and the Castle of Sasso Rosso, 
 both on the flanks of the grey old mountain. At 
 Spoleto the first halt was called. But excitement, 
 fatigue, and perhaps some return of fever, shattered 
 Francis, and he was left behind next morning with 
 half insulting raillery on the part of the others. 
 Another dream had signalised that night for ever. 
 " Francis," called the voice of God, " who can make
 
 72 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 thee the better knight, the Master or the servant, the 
 rich man or the poor ? " " The Master," said Francis, 
 " not the servant, the rich man, not the poor." 
 
 Then said the voice : " But thou leavest the 
 Master for the servant and the rich man for the 
 poor." 
 
 And Francis said : " What dost Thou will that I 
 should do, O my Lord ? " 
 
 And the Lord said : " Turn thee back to thy own 
 land, for the vision that thou didst see meant 
 heavenly and not earthly equipment, and it shall be 
 given thee by God and not by man." 
 
 Obedient to the vision, Francis gave up all 
 thought of rejoining the band of Assisan soldiers, 
 and rode slowly home that day, revolving in his 
 mind this grace vouchsafed of direction in the path 
 of the Spirit. It must have been from this time 
 that he felt it was to no mundane glory he was being 
 guided, but rather to the glory which vanquishes 
 the world. One wonders how the struggle shaped 
 itself, how keen were the pangs which moved him, 
 as one fair temporal hope after another took on the 
 likeness of a phantasm and trembled into nothing- 
 ness at the potent presence of these unwonted and 
 unseen realities. One wonders how his spirit stirred 
 and shook as their amazing intervention became 
 indubitable ; how the unequal contest agonised and 
 astounded him ; how, step by step, the spiritual 
 gained upon the temporal, whilst his shrinking flesh 
 cried aloud in the suffering of death. 
 
 Only this we know : he obeyed, and, in obedi-
 
 CONVERSION 73 
 
 ence to the Will, he fount! the Way, the way of the 
 Cross, Christ Jesus, from which he never swerved. 
 But when he returned to Assisi, this stage was in- 
 cipient, not attained, and he was still in the throes 
 of bewilderment and upheaval. 
 
 His parents and friends were astonished at his 
 return ; his father was indignant, for he had paid 
 for the costly accoutrements on which Francis in- 
 sisted for his friend as well as himself, and the least 
 he expected was loyalty to the enterprise and some 
 glory for his son on which to plume himself. But 
 here he was back again, the victim, too, of a new 
 eccentricity with which the paternal purse had to 
 reckon, but which in no way gratified the paternal 
 ambition. For Francis was now possessed by a 
 passionate charity towards the poor, and by a grow- 
 ing distaste for the society of the rich, so that his 
 extravagances brought in no interest of distinction, 
 and were doubtless the cause of increasing displea- 
 sure at home, where his brother Angelus, careful in 
 expenditure and keen in bargaining, had ingratiated 
 himself with Bernardone. 
 
 Charity and solitude to these Francis seemed 
 vowed already, although he did not yet realise that 
 charity could not be done with the goods of another, 
 but must be purchased with self-sacrifice. He had 
 no experience of a material want unsatisfied, and 
 he could not yet discern the difference of value of 
 the satisfaction of a moral want. 
 
 In the meantime he sought lonely paths and re- 
 treats, and found a sheltering cave on the way to
 
 74 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Beviglie, a mile or two north-west of Assist, where 
 he could spend long hours of penitent prayer and 
 of waiting for God's next mandate. For a constant 
 penitence began to characterise his mental attitude 
 towards God. We are told that a man of Assisi 
 was much with him in those days, to whom perhaps 
 he owed the new light upon those gay doings of his 
 youth which he now deplored. 
 
 There is just a possibility, indeed almost a proba- 
 bility, that this friend was Bombarone, afterwards 
 Brother Elias, of whom we last heard as mattress- 
 maker and schoolmaster. Now, all the indications 
 brought together by Dr. Lempp, in his recent 
 Biographical Study of Elias, point to his possession 
 of a powerful, persistent, and dominant mind, of a 
 character made austere by circumstances, which had 
 encouraged the growth of bitterness in his nature ; 
 and we can well imagine his impressing upon the 
 sensitive Francis the enormity of those masques and 
 revels of which he had been the soul for seven or 
 eight years. Constant weeping, constant penitential 
 prayer altered the whole mien of Bernardone's once 
 brilliant son, and to these God left him for a time. 
 Too gi*acious to turn his back upon the old com- 
 rades, he sought indirectly to avoid them. But he 
 did not yet abandon all his old habits of costly 
 dress and knightly manners, of riding down to the 
 plain, where forest trees clustered more thickly than 
 now, and where his horse might pace under the 
 shadow of oaks and elms, whilst its rider was lost in 
 self-accusing thought.
 
 CONVERSION 75 
 
 One day a leper accosted him as he rode along 
 one of the ancient ways, now little used, except as 
 short cuts to the fields and olive-yards. The man 
 seemed hardly human in his deformity, and for a 
 moment Francis shrank from so gruesome a spec- 
 tacle. But recalling Christ's gentleness to lepers, 
 and his own contrition for that leprosy of the soul 
 which he believed himself to have contracted, in 
 deep humility he dismounted and embraced the 
 mendicant, kissing the disfigured hand, which he 
 filled with money. And then, as he regained his 
 seat, he looked round for the leper, who had 
 vanished, perhaps among the trees, and he rode 
 on convinced that God had bidden him sacrifice 
 for ever all those delicacies of feeling and habit 
 which hindered his perfect obedience. From that 
 day he was aware of a new vision flitting through 
 his vigils, haunting his dreams the vision of 
 Poverty, without whose constant presence he could 
 not fulfil the complete behest of God. He pondered 
 over this vision until it sank into his very soul. 
 Poverty had been the bride of Christ upon earth, 
 had trod the dusty ways of Galilee at His side, so 
 that never had He turned from the abject, the out- 
 cast, the diseased, but having no place where to lay 
 His head, He had given healing and hope to the 
 despised and rejected of men. Nigh twelve cen- 
 turies had passed since the Apostles died and left 
 Poverty to the care of them who were like-minded 
 with the Master, but she was fallen on evil times, 
 for Church and State strove for wealthy brides and
 
 76 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 esteemed nothing so little as Christ's beloved. To 
 him,. perchance, she was bequeathed, that in true 
 union with her he might go and come as God di- 
 rected him, nothing hindering him, since the sweet 
 ministrations of that bride must fortify him against 
 all needs, must preserve him unentangled in the 
 cares of this world. 
 
 He would remember the story of Peter Waldo, 
 whom the Church had banned, and begin to think 
 out some humble way in which one might be an 
 apostle of the poverty of Christ and yet be in the 
 Church and serve it. Not even to the man who 
 sought him on the plain did he tell all that was in 
 his heart, for his aforetime expansiveness had de- 
 serted him and he was learning that there is only 
 One to whom all things can be told, and had begun 
 to seek that mystic communion which grants the 
 needed sympathy and betrays not at all. Down in 
 his retreat near Beviglie he spent long hours in 
 prayer, in cries for guidance, for a Divine commis- 
 sion. 
 
 His friends were puzzled at his altered mien and 
 habits ; they thought him scarcely recovered from 
 fever ; they could not suppose themselves to be 
 no longer sought as his companions. One day, 
 however, he invited them all to a banquet, and 
 they rejoiced to think that his gaiety was restored, 
 and that once more he would be the lavish king 
 of their revels. They sat long at the table that 
 night, while he ministered with all his old grace 
 and hospitality then, rising with songs, and shout-
 
 CONVERSION 77 
 
 ing, they surged out into the piazza to fill it with 
 their festal clamour. But Francis was no longer 
 with them, and when they turned back to claim his 
 company they found him standing lost in reverie, 
 his spirit far from them. "Ah!" they cried, "he 
 thinks of some fair lady, who has rapt away his 
 heart ; wilt thou marry, Francis ? " 
 
 " Yes," he answered, a look in his dark eyes 
 which no man had seen illumine them before, " I 
 think of a spouse lovelier, richer, purer than you 
 can possibly imagine." 
 
 It was his leave-taking. Doubtless they thought 
 him mad, for they troubled him no more. They 
 fell from him by the inevitable law which groups 
 the spirits of men into those who seek the temporal 
 and those whose eyes begin to apprehend the 
 eternal. They knew well that it was of no earthly 
 spouse he spoke, and they had no mind to follow 
 him into the heavenly places. 
 
 But the moment for his unity with poverty had 
 not yet been indicated, and he spent days upon his 
 knees in solitary places. 
 
 I f the friends of his thoughtless years were gone, 
 there remained to him such friends as Jesus had 
 the blind, the lame, the leper, the poor. More and 
 more he spent his time, his money, his affection 
 upon them, and was astonished at their gratitude, 
 for they counted him as little less than an angel, 
 and that they treated him so proves what no words 
 can represent that personal charm which, even to 
 these hardened outcasts, prevailed over the fact of
 
 78 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 his generosity and meant for them far more than his 
 giving what they demanded. From the cave, from 
 the Portiuncula, that little chapel amongst the 
 trees, from San Damiano, higher up the slope, but 
 on the city verge and not within its walls he went 
 amongst them, his eyes shining with the light of 
 prayer, his voice thrilling with the joy of doing 
 the very work Christ chose to do, and they knew 
 that he was not as other men who flung them 
 careless alms. For God gave him daily freshness 
 of love for the friends of Christ. 
 
 We do not know how far he received guidance 
 from the Church at this time. His confessor is 
 not so much as mentioned, nor do we hear of his 
 seeking the Duomo or even San Giorgio for de- 
 votional purposes. Many churches Assisi has always 
 possessed, and of those within whose walls her 
 people still kneel when the Host is raised, still make 
 meek confession and receive assurance of God's 
 pardon, there are some where he too must have 
 adored, whose ancient bells he must have known 
 when they rang out their call to worship. Such 
 are the Duomo, San Giorgio included now in 
 Santa Chiara San Pietro, San Paolo, San Damiano, 
 San Nicola, San Giacomo, and in the belfries of 
 Santa Maria Maggiore and San Stefano swing to 
 this very day bells to which he must have listened. 
 
 But it is of humble shrines and impoverished 
 churches that we hear as his favourite resorts, and 
 of no priest at all for the present, only of the 
 unknown man, who may have been Bombarone.
 
 CONVERSION 79 
 
 How lonely he must have been unwelcome at 
 home, except to his sorrowing mother, who was 
 not wholly unconsoled. Bernardone's anger against 
 him waxed as the summer waned, taking on a note 
 of fierce contempt for the madnes-s which had be- 
 fallen him. 
 
 We do not know by whose persuasion he went to 
 Rome, whether Madonna Pica sent him thither for 
 the counsel refused at Assisi, but he rode to Rome 
 in the autumn of 1205, doubtless after his father 
 had set out for the north and west. There his 
 objective was St. Peter's, at whose tomb he pro- 
 strated himself, emptying his purse upon its altar. 
 As he left the basilica he found, crouched upon its 
 steps, a host of beggars. Surely in that prayer at 
 the tomb he had vowed himself to their service, had 
 betrothed himself for ever to the Lady of his vision 
 for he asked one of them to change tunics with 
 him, and, like a knight before his initiation, he 
 passed a vigil, lasting all that day, down upon the 
 steps, begging from the passers-by, tasting the bitter- 
 sweet cup of renunciation. It was both his vigil and 
 his sacring, and from that day he was the knight of 
 poverty, the champion of the unchampioned, the 
 hero of a tourney whose umpire is Christ Jesus, 
 whose prize is life everlasting. 
 
 On his return he occupied himself wholly with 
 the poor, and especially with those whom leprosy 
 had banished from the city and the villages, and 
 who were herded together in squalid communities 
 here and there upon the plain. Perhaps it is true
 
 80 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 that he appealed to the Bishop of Assisi to give 
 him some light, even some authorisation in minis- 
 tering to those outcasts, but probably the bishop 
 saw in Francis one led astray by heretical teaching 
 and refused to assist him in his work amongst the 
 lepers. For strange missionaries were going to 
 and fro, sent out of Viterbo, and there is a record 
 of a voice lifted up in Assisi calling men to a 
 mysterious peace. It is certain that Francis was 
 more and more left to himself, and that he had 
 no help except the growing assurance that what 
 he did was well-pleasing to God. 
 
 The Church was indeed sick nigh unto death, 
 distracted by war without, exhausted by defection, 
 betrayed by internal corruption, while no period 
 of its existence was ever more signalised by papal 
 pretensions and spiritual impotence. 
 
 One day Francis went down the rough path, 
 which leads to the small sanctuary of San Damiano, 
 hidden then more effectually than now by a thicket 
 and falling to pieces from neglect and the poverty 
 of its worshippers. As he passed through the 
 olives, whose size and beauty are greater on this 
 slope than lower down, and felt the sweet in- 
 fluences of these visionary trees whose shadow 
 on the ground is as the shadow of a shadow, 
 whose silvery foliage gleams and glooms in quick 
 response to sun and cloud ; who seem to sigh and 
 smile with sorrows and raptures of their own, as if 
 they were acquainted with unseen woes and wel- 
 comed celestial visitants he may have almost
 
 THIS CRUCIFIX OF SAN DO.MINICO
 
 CONVERSION 81 
 
 looked for an angel amongst them, for some radi- 
 ance with a message to guide him. Certain it is 
 that, with mind remoter from the world than com- 
 mon, he kneeled to pray at the foot of a painted 
 crucifix, old even then and beautiful to-day, where 
 it hangs in San Giorgio, as it was to him. " Send 
 Thy light into my darkness," he implored ; " O 
 Christ, my Lord, let me know Thy holy will." 
 And in the silence he saw the figure of the 
 Crucified quicken into life, and lo ! Christ spake 
 to him : " Francis, go and restore My falling 
 Church." 
 
 Then he knew that his cry had been answered, 
 that he was God's accepted servant, commissioned 
 to do a mighty work. 
 
 He did not yet realise the wreck within the 
 Church, whose imposing structure blinded men to 
 its real condition, nor was he fully aware that faith 
 was an outcast from its palaces, whence poverty 
 had long been driven, and that patience, chastity 
 and hope had followed them into the wilderness. 
 
 So, eager to obey, and that at once, he looked 
 about him at the crumbling sanctuary, and remem- 
 bered how San Pietro was time-worn and no longer 
 proof against the weather, and how the chapel be- 
 loved of his mother, Santa Maria degli Angeli, was 
 falling into ruin. This, he reasoned, must be his 
 work to repair God's sanctuaries and to make 
 them fit for His presence. His purse was nearly 
 empty. Pier Bernardone was at home and did not 
 care to supply him with money, sure to be squan- 
 6
 
 82 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 dered on the lepers. So he gave the priest of San 
 Damiano all that remained to him. He was used 
 to take what costly stuffs he needed for his cloth- 
 ing. It did not occur to him that he was not 
 entitled to them for a purpose infinitely more 
 sacred and more pressing. Bernardone was not 
 in his shop at the south-east corner of the 
 piazza, so he took some pieces of the finest cloths 
 and silks, made them into a parcel, mounted his 
 horse and rode to Foligno, ten miles away. There 
 he sold both merchandise and horse and came 
 back to San Damiano on foot, intent on taking up 
 his abode with its priest and on providing for its 
 repair. The priest, however, knew Bernardone's 
 character, and, although he willingly allowed 
 Francis to stay, he refused to take the money. 
 With some movement of petulance Francis flung 
 the rejected coins out of the window, since they 
 were not deemed worthy of acceptance. Bernar- 
 done missed the stuffs and heard the story of their 
 disappearance. He waited in vain for his son's 
 return, and as the evening darkened into night he 
 realised that Francis had left his home. A search 
 for the fugitive began, and soon Bernardone knew 
 that he was at San Damiano. With a crowd of 
 followers he hurried down the slope to drag him 
 home. But Francis heard the clamour as it neared 
 and fled to some concealment prepared for this 
 emergency. For days he hid from his father's rage, 
 scarcely knowing what to do, until the resolution 
 came to him to go back, declare his firm deter-
 
 CONVERSION 83 
 
 mination to obey Christ's call, to give up his life 
 at home and to consecrate himself to the work of 
 repairing the neglected sanctuaries. 
 
 As he climbed to the piazza, pale with sleepless- 
 ness and fasting, a crowd of children followed him, 
 shouting in mockery : " The madman ! the mad- 
 man ! " hurling stones at him in savage delirium, 
 covering him with mud, mimicking his gestures 
 and his words of entreaty. Bernardone came to 
 the door of his house, drawn by their tumult, to 
 find his son its centre, a pitiable object, bruised, 
 bleeding and in rags, while his tormentors howled 
 with delight. The furious merchant seized Francis 
 by the throat, drew him out of the street and flung 
 him into a cellar in the staircase. To what public 
 disgrace had the reprobate brought his wealthy and 
 respectable father ? Either he was mad indeed, or 
 so perverted that imprisonment in the dark was the 
 only treatment likely to bring him to his senses. 
 But the treatment failed, for neither abuse nor 
 blows served to change his mind. He was re- 
 solved to leave father and mother, to take up his 
 cross and to follow Christ. His cross was already 
 well bound to his shoulders, and its weight was 
 rapture as he realised that just such sorrows were 
 the very signs of his acceptance. At last Bernar- 
 done left him alone, but locked the door upon 
 him. Three days later he quitted Assisi on busi- 
 ness, and Madonna Pica went to her son with 
 gentle entreaties for his return to filial duty. But 
 he was pledged to God, and the old life seemed to
 
 84 FRANCIS OF ASSIS1 
 
 him no more than dust in the balance compared to 
 the new. His mother let him out of the cellar, 
 and he went straight to San Damiano. There he 
 braced himself by prayer for the coming struggle. 
 His father returned, and it is said that he struck 
 his wife a cowardly blow when she confessed her 
 share in their son's escape. Then, in an excess of 
 rage, he hurried to San Damiano bent in forcing 
 Francis to leave Assisi. But prayer and guidance 
 had fortified the latter, and he met his father out- 
 side the sanctuary with calm and happy face : " Do 
 not think," he said, "that anything in the world 
 can turn me from the love of Christ, for whose sake 
 I gladly suffer all things." 
 
 Bernardone angrily demanded the money paid for 
 his stuffs, and Francis showed him where it lay be- 
 neath a grating. Picking up the coins, and consoled 
 by their touch, he sought to tempt his son by pro- 
 mises of wealth and indulgence to return with him. 
 But Francis said : " I desire no other wealth than 
 the poverty of Christ." "Then that thou shalt 
 have," cried Bernardone ; " come with me before 
 the bishop and renounce all right to thy mother's 
 dowry, all claim to what I might have given thee." 
 
 With joy Francis followed him to the bishop's 
 palace in the little piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore. 
 Guido was then Bishop of Assisi, second of his 
 name, a wise, learned and impulsive man. The 
 angry father came before him, followed by Francis, 
 who was radiant with the joy of suffering for Christ's 
 sake. A crowd of citizens pressed round them to
 
 THE RENUNCIATION 
 From Giotto's fresco in the Upper Church at Assist
 
 CONVERSION 85 
 
 hear the matter, but, before it could be judicially 
 discussed, Francis went into a room, stripped him- 
 self of all he wore and returned with a bundle of 
 his garments, which he handed to his father, saying : 
 "Now have I no father for ever, but our Father 
 who is in Heaven." The bishop, moved to tears, 
 embraced him and covered him with his own 
 mantle until a servant brought a coarse tunic in 
 which to clothe him. And then the people, seeing 
 the bishop's care for him and his own happiness, 
 and knowing well the greedy, ambitious and iras- 
 cible nature of Bernardone, were smitten with 
 wondering admiration for the grace which God 
 had done in their midst, calling from amongst them 
 and setting His seal upon the spoilt darling of their 
 city, the gay comrade, cavalier and soldier, whose 
 career was as familiar to them as their own from 
 his birth till that day in the winter of 1206.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 
 12061210 
 
 The Benedictine Convent Gubbio Cesena San Damiano 
 again Santa Maria degli Angeli Francis Begins to 
 Preach His First Followers The First Mission A 
 Crisis The Second Mission Pope Innocent III. and 
 the Order. 
 
 1 ^RANCIS had given up father and mother and 
 X wealth for Christ's sake. We can only sur- 
 mise what that meant to his tender heart ; but the 
 sacrifice was complete ; he was now Christ's alone, 
 and the joy of that transfer filled his mouth with 
 praise. 
 
 He left Assisi, perhaps in obedience to some 
 word of counsel from Bishop Guido, which he under- 
 stood to be Divine direction. He took a rough path 
 on the flanks of Monte Subasio, through the woods, 
 which darkened as the March afternoon closed. 
 Snow lay on the mountain and drifted into the 
 wood ; his feet were bare and only a coarse garment 
 covered him ; but he was singing with all his might, 
 for on the breast of his tunic he had drawn a cross 
 in chalk, the badge of a Master whose service is 
 (86)
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 87 
 
 perfect freedom from earthly care. As he climbed 
 and sang, his voice reached the ears of a band of 
 robber-outcasts who lurked in the wood. They 
 came down upon him and roughly asked him who 
 he was. " I am a herald of the Great King," said 
 he, "and nothing more that can concern you." 
 They shouted with laughter, dealt him blow after 
 blow and, stripping off his garment, flung him into 
 a snowdrift, crying as they left : " There, that's 
 the place for the herald of God." 
 
 When they had gone, Francis rose and went on 
 his way, singing as loudly as ever, although chilled 
 to the bone and almost naked. Further east, and 
 still higher up the slope of Monte Subasio, stood 
 the Benedictine monastery built nearly two centuries 
 earlier. To its gate he bent his steps in the dark- 
 ness. But when a lay brother opened and heard 
 his petition for food and shelter, he was not greatly 
 attracted by the shivering, beaten and unclad 
 beggar before him. The monks sent him to their 
 kitchen, gave him a dry crust of bread and a ragged 
 shirt, and set him to earn these bounties by acting 
 as scullion to their cook. But he felt their suspicion 
 of his veracity and suffered from their meanness, 
 which went to the verge of starving him. So after 
 a few days he left them and made his way to 
 Gubbio, where he stayed a short time with a friend 
 called Spadalunga, who cared for his necessities. 
 It is on the site of this friend's house and garden 
 that the beautiful church of San Francesco, at 
 Gubbio, stands. He used his absence from Assisi
 
 88 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 in seeking advice and experience, but we do not 
 know exactly how long the interval lasted, nor 
 where he spent its greater part. When he left 
 Gubbio, it is probable that he sought counsel from 
 the holier hermits in its neighbourhood. There 
 existed for a century after his life a common report 
 amongst the peasants of Romagna that he dwelt 
 for more than a year in a hermitage near Cesena. 
 This spot lay in the shelter of a thick wood, cover- 
 ing an ascending valley, which separates the slopes 
 of two hills. Both wood and hermitage have been 
 swept away to make room for vines and corn, but 
 Signor Finali, who has described the place for us, 
 often passed in his boyhood under the shady oaks 
 to the cell, of which no vestige now remains, except 
 a ruined fountain surmounted by a rude figure in 
 terra-cotta. Here, in the time of Francis, lived a 
 holy hermit, a Mantuan by birth, Giovanni Bono. 
 He was one of those who practised the Rule of St. 
 Augustine, so-called, a gospel Rule, which prescribed 
 poverty, prayer and charity. His dress was a tunic 
 of the common grey cloth worn by the peasants. 
 The hermits of this order, as well as the Dominicans, 
 maintained, somewhat to the annoyance of the 
 Franciscans, that St. Francis wore the grey habit 
 and professed the hermit's Rule for some time 
 before returning to Assisi. If their contention is 
 true, he must have acquired the first principles of 
 his own Rule from the good and much venerated 
 Giovanni Bono, whom the peasants loved because 
 of his ministrations amongst them, and because
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 89 
 
 when food was brought to him, he shared it with 
 those who had none. But whatever probability 
 there is in the tradition, Francis needed no di- 
 rection but Christ's in all that pertained to such 
 ministration, for he had already surpassed the 
 hermit's care for the poor in his work amongst 
 the lepers outside Assisi. Wherever he may have 
 been, he recovered strength, serenity, the full use 
 of his great faculties, mental, practical and spiritual. 
 When he returned to Assisi he was joyous, alert, 
 decided, sure of what God meant him to do, pre- 
 pared to be led step by step into spiritual service 
 that service of which the Church and the world 
 stood in such desperate need. 
 
 His first visit was to the leper settlement near 
 Santa Maria degli Angeli, where still the two field 
 chapels of Santa Maria Maddalena and San Rufino 
 d'Arce in old times known as San Lazzaro 
 mark the shrines where these poor outcasts of both 
 sexes knelt for worship. They received him with 
 joy, and he returned to San Damiano prepared to 
 take up the work which he had temporarily 
 quitted, no longer as the young and wealthy citizen 
 of Assisi, but as the spouse of poverty, clad in a 
 grey habit, begging for others. The poor priest 
 with whom he lived soon loved him as a son, and 
 would cook little delicacies for him at meal times, 
 until Francis entreated him not to spend money 
 upon such things, since bread and water were 
 sufficient. 
 
 He was bent on restoring the three churches
 
 90 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 fallen into disrepair, and set about collecting stones 
 from the citizens, for which he paid by singing like 
 a wandering minstrel. Some of these still main- 
 tained that he was mad, and his sorest trial was 
 meeting Bernardone, who never failed to curse him. 
 But he allowed nothing to discourage him in col- 
 lecting stones and mortar, which he carried on his 
 back to San Damiano. At other times he asked 
 food and alms for his sick and poor, and what little 
 was necessary for himself, so that he might not 
 bring expense upon his friend, the poor priest, and 
 when, in going his rounds, he met his old com- 
 panions, or was aware of them assembled at some 
 banquet, he would overcome his shyness and go 
 to them to seek a gift in the name of Jesus whom 
 he served. He chose a poor townsman to go about 
 with him, so that when he flinched from his father's 
 curses, the man might bless him and restore his 
 spirit. 
 
 His brother Angelo made a mock of him when- 
 ever they met. Once this happened in a church on 
 a cold day of winter. Francis was shivering in his 
 grey tunic, while the other was warmly wrapped in 
 ftir-lined mantle over a long robe of cloth. " Go to 
 Francis," said Angelo to a friend, " and buy a 
 ha'porth of his sweat." " No," said Francis, "it 
 is of greater value to God." 
 
 What Madonna Pica thought, if she still lived, 
 we know not. Doubtless she said nothing, but 
 pondered all these things in her heart, like the 
 blessed mother of our Lord, that woman of perfect
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 91 
 
 dignity and of perfect wisdom, a miracle amongst 
 women. 
 
 It was at first very hard for him to overcome his 
 repugnance to the scraps and leavings of food which 
 he brought home, and he had to put his fastidious- 
 ness under the control of his spirit. So he called 
 his meals the " table of the Lord," and ate what 
 was before him with words of praise. He had con- 
 quered, one by one, his love of company, of fine 
 clothes, of rank and wealth ; his aversion to squalor, 
 disease and misery ; his daintiness in food and sur- 
 roundings. All were laid upon the altar of obedience, 
 and for all God gave him a thousand-fold of their 
 anti-types in the spiritual life for parents and 
 friends, His own continual presence ; for rank, son 
 ship of the King of kings ; for garments, the robe of 
 righteousness ; for wealth, " all things " ; for per- 
 sonal fastidiousness, a purity, tenderness and joy 
 which lifted him above the annoyances of daily ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The weapons marked with the cross were gaining 
 him the victory. His vision was in course of fulfil- 
 ment. 
 
 For some time he laboured at his double charge 
 of repairing the churches and of tending the lepers. 
 There was another settlement of these besides the 
 rough lazar-houses near the Portiuncula. This was 
 at a considerable distance from San Damiano, some 
 seven miles westwards, at Collistrada, where cy- 
 presses mark a burial ground on a hill to the left of 
 the road going to Perugia, while a cluster of stone
 
 92 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 pines, rare in Umbria, attracts our eyes on the 
 other side of a group of buildings, one of which 
 may have been the hospital. Hither he bent his 
 steps from time to time, carrying food and alms for 
 its wretched inmates, and here, too, he was known 
 and loved. 
 
 His labours at San Pietro and San Damiano came 
 to an end, and he began to restore the little church 
 of the Portiuncula. Day after day he toiled down 
 from the quarries with his burden of stones and 
 mortar, and fitted them into the breaches made by 
 storms and time and rough usage. As the winter 
 of 1208 passed he completed his undertaking, and 
 Santa Maria degli Angeli was not only weather- 
 proof, but swept and cleansed with that delicate 
 care which he practised, and later enjoined, regard- 
 ing all things used for the service of God. 
 
 He grew more and more attached to this humble 
 sanctuary, and spent much of his time in prayer 
 and meditation within its walls. Some features of 
 the hermit life characterised this period. So many 
 hours of work, so many hours of tending the lepers, 
 so many hours of solitude, prayer and contempla- 
 tion, with tears of penitence, of praise and of 
 patient waiting upon God's further will. 
 
 Santa Maria degli Angeli belonged to the Bene- 
 dictines on Monte Subasio, and one of them came 
 to say an occasional mass at its altar. One day in 
 February, 1209, mass was being celebrated there. 
 Francis was the sole worshipper, and the monk 
 turned towards him as he read the gospel for the
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 93 
 
 day from St. Matthew : " As ye go, preach, saying, 
 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, 
 cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils ; 
 freely ye have received, freely give. Provide 
 neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, 
 nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither 
 shoes, nor yet staves ; for the workman is worthy of 
 his meat." 
 
 He listened with wonder ; it was an endorse- 
 ment of the rule of poverty, but it seemed to 
 include more than that. It meant not the repose 
 of the hermit's life, not the mere working out of 
 his own salvation. As he went on his way he must 
 preach and say : " The Kingdom of Heaven is at 
 hand." It was the new direction from above, and 
 the voice was the voice of Christ. Again he was 
 ready to obey. Not in vain had he called himself 
 the herald of God. On the very next day he went 
 up to Assisi and began to preach. He had divested 
 himself of all forbidden in the gospel, and with bare 
 feet, and a rope tied round his grey tunic instead of 
 a belt, he entered the church of San Giorgio, salut- 
 ing all whom he found there with the words : " My 
 brothers, God give you peace." And then in 
 simple language he proclaimed the coming of 
 Christ and called on all to repent. He used no 
 rhetoric, no eloquence ; but every word uttered 
 came like a flame of pure light from that illu- 
 mined spirit, and the listeners knew that for him 
 all things were nought save only Christ, and Him 
 crucified. A change of feeling towards Francis had
 
 94 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 been at work during the years after his renuncia- 
 tion, especially influenced by his labour amongst 
 the lepers and at the ruined churches. Men were 
 ceasing to think him mad and had begun to realise 
 that he was God-inspired. They listened to him 
 now as to one of the Divine oracles, so that he 
 never lacked a congregation when he entered one 
 of the many churches of Assisi with his greeting of 
 God's peace. 
 
 Peace was much needed in the city, where inter- 
 nal dissensions prevailed. The Assisans had been 
 slow to satisiy the conditions concluded with Peru- 
 gia ; many of the exiled counts were still living 
 there awaiting the restoration of their castles, and 
 discussion was hot as to their return. We have 
 reason to believe that from the time of his preach- 
 ing Francis was consulted by the commune on these 
 matters, and gave advice always on the side of 
 righteous fulfilment of obligations, the events 
 which followed being marked by a sense of re- 
 sponsibility to God very unusual in the settlement 
 of altercations at that time. That their outcome 
 was both peaceable and orderly we shall find three 
 years later, when mutual concessions were made 
 both by nobles and people. 
 
 At this time the church of Santa Maria Maggiore 
 was restored, and engraved on the outer wall of its 
 apse are the words : " In the time of Bishop Guido 
 and of Brother Francis" surely a contemporary 
 testimony to the extraordinary personal influence 
 exerted by the "poor wise man" in his city.
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 95 
 
 Indeed, his life, known and read of all men, 
 rayed out power wherever it was encountered and 
 felt, and the old sovereignty of personal charm and 
 wit was transformed into a new sovereignty of holi- 
 ness and wisdom from above. 
 
 We can therefore better understand the effect of 
 his call to the life of prayer and labour on those of 
 his hearers in whose hearts 'there pulsed already a 
 deep longing for God. We are not surprised to 
 learn that two out of his three first followers were 
 " simple men ". And when we read in the Aclus 
 how the third was converted, we are constrained 
 to believe that had he not been a wealthy noble 
 the chroniclers would have called Bernard of Quin- 
 tavalle a "simple man" as well. For all three 
 were transparently honest, full of faith in the un- 
 seen, humble and teachable, just such as God loves 
 and men are prone to despise. They were, in the 
 order of their coming to St. Francis, Peter of Assisi, 
 Bernard of Quintavalle and Egidio, the last perhaps 
 the simplest of all, but destined to confound the 
 wise and console the mourning, to convince the 
 doubting and convert the unbelieving. To no 
 one of the early Franciscans does the tradition of 
 heavenly-mindedness so impressively belong as to 
 Brother Egidio, a man of such contrite heart that 
 God dwelt very visibly with him. But he was the 
 third to join, and the Rule of the " little flock" was 
 decided before his adhesion. 
 
 When Bernard of Quintavalle, convinced of the 
 rare grace granted by God to Francis, and longing
 
 96 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 to come under its power, determined to join him, 
 the saint, notwithstanding his joy, gave proof of 
 that sound judgment upon which the commune 
 had learned to draw, by proposing that since the 
 life of renunciation was hard, they must lay the 
 whole matter before the Lord, who would Himself 
 be its judge and their counsellor. So they repaired 
 to St. Nicholas' Church, whose door is still to be 
 seen on the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, and, after 
 the office, knelt long in prayer for guidance. The 
 curate of St. Nicholas was their friend, and he con- 
 sulted the gospel text when their minds were pre- 
 pared to accept its mandates. The first time he 
 opened it these words met his eyes : " Go thy 
 way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the 
 poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven : 
 and come, take up thy cross, and follow Me." 
 The second time, the very gospel which had lately 
 impelled Francis to preach was on the open page, 
 while the third test of Bernard's faith was found to 
 be the great and strenuous commandment : " If any 
 man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and 
 take up his cross daily, and follow Me." 
 
 Bernard bowed his head in obedience to all three, 
 and leaving the church, he and Francis at once set 
 about selling his houses and possessions, and bestow- 
 ing the money realised on hospitals, poor monas- 
 teries, the neediest townsfolk, conquering by their 
 action the heart of a miserly priest, who joined 
 them later as Brother Sylvester. Then, having 
 finished this affair, the brothers passed down to the
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 97 
 
 plain, and a new stage in the Franciscan movement 
 was initiated. 
 
 The passages read in the church of St. Nicholas 
 were adopted as their Rule, and so without novitiate, 
 without function, with a dignified directness which 
 passed by the tedious preliminaries of monastic 
 custom, they proceeded to obey its injunctions. 
 This was the only Rule whose vital importance 
 Francis ever recognised, and the additions and 
 alterations incorporated later were wrung from his 
 bleeding heart by persons and circumstances as yet 
 unforeseen. For to him Christ, and Christ alone, 
 was the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Light, and 
 he sought to rescue his little flock from the " many 
 inventions " by which the Church had obscured, 
 weakened, falsified His commandments. Francis 
 was His servant, following in His steps, never side 
 by side making footprints on the way which men 
 might mistake for his Master's. For there is no 
 parallel possible between Francis and our Lord ; 
 they are sundered by the Godhead itself. Christ 
 was no penitent ; not for His own sins did He 
 atone upon the Cross. Francis was always a 
 penitent, for the errors of his youth, for the blun- 
 ders of his twenty years of saintliness. His service 
 to the world was to make Christ's will the first and 
 last and only rule of conduct ; to prove all things 
 by that rule, and so to choose and reject. His 
 crucible was scathing, and much shining metal 
 dimmed and shrivelled in its flame. 
 
 The three brothers, soon joined by Egidio, took 
 7
 
 98 FRANCIS OF ASSlSl 
 
 up their residence close to the Portiuncula. Their 
 dress consisted of two garments, an under shirt and 
 a tunic of the home-woven grey cloth used by the 
 peasants, with a cape and narrow hood, and fastened 
 round the waist by a cord. Francis could not im- 
 pose four guests on the poor priest at San Damiano, 
 and apparently their first homes were built of mud 
 and roofed with wood after the old Umbrian plan. 
 He was an experienced builder, and must have been 
 both architect and overseer of this work, although 
 we may be sure that he gave far less care to the 
 construction of these rude shelters than he had 
 given to the sanctuaries. 
 
 The brothers had no thought of relapsing into 
 the tranquillity of hermit life. They were the 
 heralds of the great King and knew their marching 
 orders. No sooner were these simple preparations 
 completed than they left two by two for the March 
 of Ancona and for Tuscany. 
 
 Francis took Egidio with him, Bernard's com- 
 panion was Pietro. From village to village, from 
 city to city, from castle to castle, climbing the hills 
 and visiting every corner where humble homes were 
 built, the missionaries called to repentance, exhorted 
 to the life of holiness, proclaimed the Kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Francis was filled with joy, and when they re- 
 turned to the Portiuncula to count up their gains 
 for the Master, he could hardly restrain himself 
 from predictions of a world-wide success. From 
 solitude he had been planted in a family, from the
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 99 
 
 despite of men he had been raised into their honour, 
 from penitential weeping he had been transferred 
 to the gladness of accepted service. As they 
 journeyed, they sang ; they encountered all with 
 joyous smiles ; for a morsel of bread, for a few 
 hours' rest in an outhouse, or under the shadow of 
 a tree, they tendered the bread of heaven, the 
 peace that passeth understanding. And men 
 listened and welcomed their message. Some 
 mocked, but that was the very sign of God's pre- 
 sence with them. " Happy are ye when men shall 
 persecute you and shall say all manner of evil 
 against you for My sake." This pledge of accept- 
 ance was not denied them. 
 
 They had just entered upon a crisis, which only 
 that invincible attitude could withstand. Three 
 others joined the brotherhood, men who sold all 
 they had, gave it to the poor and came down to 
 the plain. The matter was becoming serious. 
 Those who expected to inherit were indignant. 
 Had any man the right to disappoint his heirs by 
 scattering abroad during his life what should accrue 
 to them at his death ? This new development, 
 unconventual, unauthorised, threatened to destroy 
 the very foundations of civilised life, to attack the 
 time-honoured institution of adding field to field, 
 of storing wealth which should ensure unearned 
 privileges for generations of descendants. There 
 was a reaction against Francis and his followers. 
 Even the bishop, who had given him a cautious 
 measure of protection, was alarmed at this aspect
 
 100 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 of his influence, for the dissipation of large sums 
 amongst the needy was no gain to the Church and 
 might disturb her authority. Unless these men 
 could be haltered and reined by monasticism, their 
 growth into a numerous body was a menace. 
 
 The matter excited a passionate interest, and the 
 bishop decided to intervene. Francis was sent 
 for. Guido remonstrated with him on his manner 
 of life, its want of responsibility, its uncompromising 
 poverty. Doubtless this last rankled in the clerical 
 mind, and induced the priests to make common 
 cause with the laity. Devotion to the name of 
 Christ was all very well, but devotion to His 
 poverty and preaching was extremely inconvenient, 
 and must be diverted into cloistered silences, where 
 it could do no harm. But Francis stood, unap- 
 proachable as a celestial being, clothed in Christ 
 Jesus, gentle, humble, aware. " If we had posses- 
 sions," he answered, " we should need arms to 
 defend them ; for from them arise questionings 
 and strife ; and thus the love of God and of our 
 neighbour is hindered. And for this cause, we 
 desire no worldly wealth." What an impeachment 
 of the Curia, busy then with armed resistance to 
 Otho in the south, lurked in these unanswerable 
 words. For Guido found no further argument 
 against their manner of life, and contented himself 
 with forbidding his preaching in Assisi, where the 
 matter raged for a brief interval incited by indis- 
 creeter men, both priests and laymen. Amongst 
 the gentler people there was a growing affection
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 101 
 
 for Francis, as if in him and his followers Christ 
 were lifted up, and drew others by a magnetism 
 greater than they knew. But with the controversy 
 the brothers occupied themselves not at all. 
 
 They were eight now, and it was the spring of 
 1210. It was time to go forth in different directions 
 to save men by example and by precept. Francis 
 sent away six and took the eighth himself, each 
 couple going towards one of the cardinal points. 
 " Go," he said, " preach repentance to all men, 
 without concern that ye are of little account and 
 ignorant, for God, who has overcome the world, 
 will speak in you and by you to the converting of 
 many. But fear not when men oppose you and re- 
 fuse your message, for soon even the nobles and the 
 wise will be with you, preaching to kings and to 
 princes and to the nations." And blessing them 
 one by one " Cast all your care upon God, who 
 careth for you " he said to each. 
 
 This time Bernard took Egidio with him and 
 turned towards Frorence, while the others, two by 
 two, went on their respective ways. The adventures 
 of the brothers in Florence are given by the Three 
 Companions, and vividly represent their faring and 
 its incidents. One point stands out in relief from 
 the simple narrative, and that concerns the attitude 
 of the first brothers towards alms. St. Francis is 
 constantly accused of converting the Umbrians, if 
 not the Italians, into a horde of beggars. It is 
 quite certain that the Church has done so by 
 hindering industrial development and independ-
 
 102 FRANCIS OF ASSIS1 
 
 ence, by making it meritorious to give to all who 
 ask without the laborious processes which constitute 
 effective charity, so that idleness and professional 
 vagabondage have been studiously encouraged. 
 Assisi was, as we have noted in her history, a 
 pauper city a thousand years before Francis was 
 born, and her misfortunes increased the percentage 
 of her begging population. This was, indeed, the 
 very evil which Francis sought to remedy by the 
 practical means of adopting poverty and giving an 
 example of how it should be used. Of all things, 
 he contemned idleness and wanton beggary most. 
 To his thinking they were more shameful than 
 wealth, for just as surely did the squalid material 
 preoccupations of mendicancy estrange the soul 
 from God, as did great riches. Therefore work 
 was ordained as an equivalent for whatever men 
 gave to the brothers, and they were not permitted 
 to accept more than was immediately needed. 
 Their daily hunger must be satisfied, the garments 
 from time to time must be renewed, but both these 
 needs were reduced to their minimum, and for sup- 
 plies a fair return was made in the cornfields, the 
 vineyards, at the olive gathering, in building, repair- 
 ing, portage. We constantly meet with instances 
 of money refused, or flung aside with contempt, a 
 difficult lesson to teach, but strenuously insisted on. 
 And we discover in this artless account of Bernard's 
 and Egidio's preaching in Florence a proof of their 
 care for "the dignity of the Lady Poverty," when 
 in a Florentine church they declined to receive
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 103 
 
 money from Messer Guido, because they had be- 
 come voluntarily poor by the grace of God, and for 
 that reason were not troubled by their poverty at 
 all, as those were upon whom it weighed like a load. 
 Hospitality they accepted in the form of simplest 
 food and shelter, and they gently declined all super- 
 fluity. For the true Lady Poverty has her delicacies 
 and reserves, and is, indeed, a dame of highest birth 
 and breeding. 
 
 For the peace of God, which they bestowed as 
 His almoners, they accepted the slight return of 
 a meal and a shelter. Sometimes these were not 
 forthcoming, and then they bore their temporary 
 discomfort with cheerful patience. Whining was 
 unknown in those glorious days of the initiation of 
 the order. 
 
 If they had gone forth with ardour, they re- 
 turned to the Portiuncula with joy, and perhaps we 
 may fix the season of Pentecost as the date of their 
 glad reunion. 
 
 But some of his experiences, and amongst them 
 the prohibition to preach in Assisi, had decided 
 Francis to take a step of the utmost importance. 
 Apparently they brought back three new adherents, 
 or were joined by these on their arrival. Including 
 Francis, the poor penitents of the Portiuncula had 
 attained the number of Christ's disciples. He knew 
 that as they increased difficulties of the kind already 
 met would increase also. He could not contemplate 
 monasticism as a solution of these difficulties, for 
 the work which God had called him to do was in
 
 104 FRANCIS OF ASS1SI 
 
 the wide field of the world, not in walled seclusion. 
 But that he might silence rancour and avoid failure, 
 he must be possessed of authority, to which his 
 detractors would bow. The brotherhood was to be- 
 come a pattern to the world, for nothing is so much 
 emphasised by his early biographers as his insist- 
 ence upon such behaviour in all things as should 
 commend and adorn what they preached. Indeed, 
 so sensitive was he 011 this point that he constantly 
 trusted to example alone, forgetting that it is a 
 sermon which reaches the few and eludes the many, 
 who may emotionally admire goodness without a 
 single effort to practise its stern behests. Fortun- 
 ately, of those silent sermons his companions took 
 note, and they are eloquent to-day. He believed 
 that the humility, simplicity and forbearance of 
 the brothers would prove their safeguard, so he de- 
 vised for them the name of Brothers Minor when 
 it became clear to him that some such title was 
 necessary to their organisation. " A new people " 
 they were to be, " and an humble," the " little 
 flock " which Christ desired of the Father. 
 
 This point being settled, he wrote out the 
 gospel Rule, which so many leadings had indicated 
 and confirmed as their guide of conduct, hid it in 
 the breast of his tunic, and calling his company 
 together joyfully started for Rome. A happy dream 
 gave him courage, and commending themselves to 
 God the twelve poor men took the way southwards 
 in August, 1210, just when the days were hottest, 
 but when, too, the shadow of thick foliage lay on
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 105 
 
 the narrow roads leading straight as a dart from 
 point to point. We do not know exactly how they 
 went, probably by Spoleto, Narni and Civita Castel- 
 lana, but we do know that they were filled with 
 hope of a speedy return, bearing their credentials 
 with them. And their hope did not make them 
 ashamed, although its realisation was vouchsafed 
 from the very crisis of despair. 
 
 When they reached Rome they sought out Bishop 
 Guido, of Assisi, who was there at the time. He 
 was glad that his words to Francis had so far taken 
 effect, and expected that the Brothers Minor would 
 be placed under his authority, so that he might 
 guard them from zeal beyond discretion. He wel- 
 comed them, therefore, and secured for them the 
 countenance of Cardinal Colonna, one of the most 
 influential members of the college, doubtless 
 acquainting him with the difficulties of the case 
 and with their leader's prepossession in favour of a 
 non-monastic, but evangelical and missionary, Rule. 
 The cardinal, full of questions and obstacles, lis- 
 tened to all that Francis had to urge on behalf of 
 his vocation, but, while praising his manner of life, 
 he sought delicately to suggest its conversion into 
 monasticism. He confronted the unassailable atti- 
 tude which had already blunted assaults from 
 many would-be advisers. Francis answered gently 
 that he had received both call and Rule from Christ 
 Himself, and that his obedience was to Him. 
 Again, that pure flame of faith was triumphant, 
 and Cardinal Colonna knew the presence of one
 
 106 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 whom the Master needed. He promised his 
 support with Innocent, who, as we have seen, 
 was in no mood to waste audiences upon obscure 
 suppliants. 
 
 But he granted them one on the terrace of the 
 Lateran known as the " Moving Mirror," and they 
 knelt before him while he gave a scanty attention 
 to their plea out of courtesy to Cardinal Colonna. 
 He was by no means prepossessed with their 
 appearance, and took them for some new faction 
 of the Patarenes or Albigenses, with whom he waged 
 an exterminating war in Languedoc. They were 
 curtly dismissed as his impression took this form, 
 and Francis left the Lateran stunned with dis- 
 appointment, although scarcely in need of the 
 Pontiffs farewell admonition to ask God to make 
 known His will. He and his followers, reeling 
 under this blow, betook themselves naturally to 
 prayer. 
 
 God was on their side, for Innocent, a few nights 
 earlier, had been startled by a dream of the Church 
 of St. John Lateran, which seemed to be falling to 
 the ground, except for a poor man who bore up its 
 walls with arm and shoulder. Somewhere in that 
 haughty spirit there must have stirred an accusing 
 consciousness of the Church's decadence, whence 
 rose this threatening dream. It returned to his 
 recollection, nor could he forget the suppliant 
 brother's arresting face. Perhaps it recalled his 
 vision, which proved to be a prevision. By what- 
 ever means God ruled his mind, it is certain that
 
 POPE INNOCENT III S DREAM 
 From Giotto's fresco in the Upper Church at Assist
 
 THE BROTHERS MINOR 107 
 
 he decided to see Francis again. Some of the 
 cardinals objected, but Cardinal Colonna talked 
 over the situation with him and recalled the 
 blunder made by Alexander III. when Peter Waldo 
 was dismissed. 
 
 So Francis, found at work in the Leper Hospital, 
 was sent for. He had received new inspiration 
 from prayer, and when Innocent turned upon him 
 a face more favouring and more expectant than on 
 the previous day, he spoke this parable, which 
 came from his lips almost as if his Master breathed 
 it, so wholly was it in the manner of Him who 
 spake as never man spake. 
 
 " In the desert dwelt a woman very poor, but 
 very fair. A great king espoused her, knowing 
 that her children would be fair as she was, and she 
 abode with them in the wilderness. But when the 
 eldest were tall, she said to them : ' My children, 
 you have no cause to blush, for you are the sons of 
 the king ; go, then, to his court and he will supply 
 all your need.' When they were come to the 
 court the king wondered at their beauty and at 
 their likeness to himself. ' Whose sons are you ? ' 
 he asked, and when they told of their mother who 
 lived in the desert he pressed them to his bosom, 
 saying : ' Fear not, for you are my sons ; if bastards 
 sit at my table, shall not you who are my well- 
 begotten ? ' And he sent messengers to the poor 
 woman bidding her send the others too. I am, 
 most Holy Father," said Francis, " the poor woman, 
 whom God's love has rendered fair and my sons
 
 108 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 are begotten of God. The King of kings will 
 nourish these my sons, for if He receives even 
 bastards, will He not far more gladly take care 
 of His own ? " 
 
 It was a bold word, for did he not claim for the 
 children of his Lady Poverty alone the lawful be- 
 getting of the sons of God, and how scathingly did 
 he class the luxurious princes of the Church as 
 " bastards ". 
 
 But it convinced some tortuous depth in Pope 
 Innocent's mind, which hoped to win the new 
 order as an accredited force against heresy, and he 
 granted them authority as preachers and mission- 
 aries, making Francis superior of the Brothers 
 Minor, who were required to submit to the tonsure. 
 It is possible that the saint was ordained deacon at 
 this time. The Pope, full of affectionate protesta- 
 tion, took every step, short of alarming their leader, 
 to mark them as his own.
 
 FRANCIS AND HIS KIRST FOLLOWERS PRF.SENTING THE RULE TO 
 I'Ol'E INNOCENT III 
 
 From Giotto's /res 
 
 the Uffer Church at Assisi
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 
 12101212 
 
 The Return from Rome Orte Rivo Torto Santa Maria 
 degli Angeli The Career! Increase of the Order The 
 Third Order Clare degli Sciffi The Poor Sisters of 
 Penitence San Damiano Rule of the Second Order. 
 
 r I A HEIR long delay in Rome ended at last, and, 
 J_ forgetful of all else but their freedom to re- 
 turn, the Brothers Minor set out from the Porta 
 Salaria by the summer-parched, sun-smitten road to 
 the north. They might have perished on the way 
 had not a traveller given them food. Their modest 
 triumph at the Curia had been discounted by in- 
 credulity, mockery and contempt, but out of the 
 furnace they had snatched authority to exist, to 
 preach, to go out beyond the seas with the gospel 
 message. In their simplicity they did not realise 
 that the grip of the Pope was upon them. They 
 were not even concerned that their gospel Rule 
 had not received his endorsement, bore no pendent 
 seal of authorisation. It was Christ's Rule, and, 
 with its clauses, His Vicar might not meddle. Had 
 there been a flaw in their faith they could hardly 
 (109)
 
 110 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 have survived that terrible journey in the glare and 
 malaria of early autumn. As it was, they were ex- 
 hausted by the time they reached Orte and took 
 refuge from the heat in some ancient tombs in its 
 neighbourhood. In their cool depths they recovered 
 physical equilibrium, and from prayer and praise 
 they drew renewed moral and spiritual strength. 
 For a brief moment it seemed to them good to 
 abide where these tabernacles were provided, and 
 where they could forget, as in a hermitage, the 
 clamour and distressful worldliness which they had 
 left behind at Rome, and a measure of which 
 awaited them even on the beloved Umbrian plain. 
 Here in quietness they might pass their days, and 
 the nearness of the place to the world in which their 
 spirits loved to dwell, the presence of God which 
 gladdens every solitude, almost overcame their re- 
 solution. For, in a nature so exalted as that of 
 Francis, retreat to a desert place to pray held out a 
 constant allurement battling in his mind with that 
 call to work which he obeyed. Indeed, the tradition 
 that he practised a Lenten fast and meditation nine 
 times a year grew doubtless from his growing need 
 of such retirement to recruit those spiritual forces 
 which were exhausted in the desperate pressure of 
 his duties. 
 
 They stayed a fortnight here, going two by two 
 to the town and villages to preach, now armed with 
 Innocent's sanction and listened to with respect. 
 Their simplicity, directness and cheerfulness acted 
 like a charm on the peasants and the poorer towns-
 
 THE THREE ORDERS ill 
 
 folk. We can hardly realise how great an influence 
 that authority to preach the poverty of Christ must 
 have exerted upon those oppressed with indigence 
 and toil, to whom heretofore no consolation had 
 been offered. Priests, monks and dignitaries they 
 knew, but never one of them unwilling to add 
 to his possessions, disposed to lay up treasure 
 in heaven. The men who decried such and lived 
 laborious days were under the Pope's ban, went to 
 and fro with their lives in their hands. But these 
 happy pilgrims, messengers from Christ truly, had, 
 what was even more impressive, the Pope's leave to 
 teach that it was a Christ-like thing to be content 
 with bread and water, to give brotherly aid at the 
 vintage and with the plough, asking a crust, a hand- 
 ful of grapes for recompense ; to comfort mourners 
 and to preach the coming of righteousness, peace 
 and joy. Wherever they went or tarried men and 
 women gathered round them, wondering and listen- 
 ing to what had been spoken twelve centuries 
 earlier, but had been silenced. Their homeward 
 journey lengthened into a missionary itinerary, and 
 when they reached the Portiuncula at last, it was 
 to pour out their praise and gratitude for the first 
 fruits vouchsafed. 
 
 Francis knew of a deserted lazar-house, called 
 Rivo Torto, of which they might make a dormitory. 
 With a good deal of crowding, each brother could 
 find in it space to lie down and sleep, and he 
 assigned to each his post. The settlement was 
 close to a torrent from Monte Subasio, some bend
 
 112 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 in whose course gave it the name of Crooked Bank, 
 but both stream and bend have disappeared. In 
 turn, the brothers cleansed and swept their dwell- 
 ing, which was little more than a shelter for meals 
 and sleep. The "table of the Lord" was not 
 always furnished with food, but they cheerfully 
 ignored their lack. Faithfully they ministered to 
 the lepers, providing first for them. Their number 
 continued to increase, so that some of them went 
 out to heal the sick in other villages far and near, 
 where they were welcomed as leeches not unskilled 
 in binding up wounds, in the use of herbs, in the 
 treatment of familiar ailments. 
 
 They acted as a new hope and a new consolation, 
 and carried about in their own persons a new pat- 
 tern of life not merely a stolid endurance of 
 suffering, but an ardour for toil and destitution as 
 if they were a privilege hitherto unrecognised. So 
 they cast out the devils of discontent and selfish- 
 ness, and filled with songs of praise men's mouths, 
 that had railed against God and their neighbours. 
 
 What the appearance of St. Francis in the pea- 
 sants' houses and the little towns meant for all 
 who hurried to greet him and gaze on him, we may 
 gather from that volume of story known as the 
 Actus, collected perhaps in the fourteenth century, 
 perhaps earlier, from many sources, some of true 
 biographical value, others legendary, but bearing 
 the seal of verisimilitude, others wholly mythical, 
 and yet loyal to the impression made by the saint's 
 charm and hallowed gaiety. They have been
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 113 
 
 recently published by M. Sabatier from a beautiful 
 and ancient manuscript in his possession. From 
 the Actus Brother Ugolino of Monte Giorgio trans- 
 lated into Italian that collection of its chapters 
 known as the Fioretti, in which we find St. Francis 
 more truly and sweetly limned than in all the 
 biographies a collection made a century after his 
 death, but to-day reverenced and read in Italy as 
 its most precious classic. The Fioretti express what 
 the people of Italy meant by their beloved saint, 
 and are his apotheosis in their heart. 
 
 We have already noted his influence in Assisi. 
 The compact between nobles and people, referred 
 to in our last chapter, belongs to the close of 1210, 
 and the very terms used to express its two con- 
 tracting parties point to St. Francis as their source, 
 for they are no longer sundered as nobles and 
 common people, but united as the greater and the 
 minor members of the community. To the minors, 
 thus delicately distinguished, he gave the name of 
 those whom Christ has chosen from the wise and 
 noble, and to whose company might belong such 
 of both as were willing to give up all for His sake. 
 
 Other towns followed this example and the 
 influence of the Brothers Minor in civic politics 
 became a memorable factor throughout Italy. 
 
 Several popular stories refer to their short stay 
 in the lazar-house of Rivo Torto. Hither came 
 the Emperor Otho to seek an interview with 
 Francis, who warned him of his brief term of 
 power, a prediction fulfilled with the appearance 
 8
 
 114 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 of Frederick II. Here, too, the brothers were 
 aware, one Saturday night, of a vision of celestial 
 light, which they knew to be the spirit of their 
 beloved superior, who was sojourning two miles 
 away in a little arbour made for him by the canons 
 of the cathedral, whose greater comfort he would 
 not share, since his companions were huddled within 
 the narrow walls of Rivo Torto. Permission to 
 preach in Assisi was restored. He had turned the 
 tables upon those who founded their opposition to 
 the Brothers Minor upon their want of legalised 
 organisation, for the Pope had granted them license 
 to preach and had not meddled with their doctrine. 
 
 Some of the earliest adherents sought to emulate 
 their superior's abstinence with zeal beyond discre- 
 tion. One night they were roused by loud groan- 
 ing, and Francis, finding that it came from a brother 
 sleepless on account of starvation, took what re- 
 mained of the day's store, and ate with him that 
 he might not feel convicted of carnal appetite 
 bidding him temper his fasts with common sense, 
 since it availed little for the spirit if the body 
 broke down altogether. We hear, too, how he 
 coaxed another brother, invalided and suffering, 
 out in the early morning to a vineyard, where he 
 began himself to eat ripe grapes, and to encourage 
 him to do the like, as they were wholesome for his 
 malady. This must have happened soon after their 
 return from Orte, about the time of vintage. 
 
 Perhaps the winter months were responsible for 
 their occasional semi - starvation, for the rains
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 115 
 
 stopped all industry, and a handful of turnips or 
 beans provided but a scanty meal. 
 
 In spring, 1211, they were driven from the lazar- 
 house by a rough peasant, who wanted it as a stable 
 for his ass, and Francis decided to beg from the 
 Benedictines on Monte Subasio the little church 
 of the Portiuncula, with its adjacent clearing in 
 the woods. His friends at the Duomo had no 
 spare land to bestow upon the order, but the 
 Benedictine Abbot, Maccabeo, gave him the sanc- 
 tuary of Santa Maria degli Angeli, on condition 
 that it should remain to all time the metropolitan 
 of the Brothers Minor. Joyfully did the saint agree 
 to so sympathetic a contract, and he voluntarily 
 undertook to send a yearly rent, consisting of a 
 creel of "the little fishes which be called roaches," 
 to the monastery. Once a year some gentle brother 
 had a good day's fishing, perhaps in the Chiaggio 
 across the plain, or in the Topino close to Bevagna 
 memorable streams, for one had quieted in death 
 the tortured body of Assisi's bishop-martyr, and 
 the other is immortalised in Dante's Paradiso. 
 Even Izaak Walton could scarcely have taken a 
 basketful out of the Tescio. We may be sure, 
 however, that the happy angler used no bait temp- 
 tingly disposed upon a hook while Francis lived, 
 and that short work with a net would put bounds 
 to his sport. 
 
 Thankfully the brothers flitted to their "little 
 portion". They built huts of wood and clay after 
 the old Umbrian pattern, each with a tiny herb-
 
 116 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 garden at its rear. According to an old print, 
 there were two rows of huts facing each other, 
 between the first pair of which stood the church, 
 and behind it a hut for infirmary purposes, some- 
 what larger than the others. As new members 
 swelled their number, huts were added, but not 
 till much later was the double fence or hedge 
 planted to serve as a boundary wall. All round 
 grew the forest, and from their enclosure the 
 brothers coming and going could look up to Assisi 
 and her castle. But the print is little more than 
 two centuries old, and we cannot trust its details as 
 correctly picturing the first settlement, although it 
 may preserve its plan. The hut assigned to Francis 
 is placed to the right of the church and close to the 
 infirmary. Down at the spot we recapture no im- 
 pression of its first simplicity. A huge and inhar- 
 monious basilica covers the sanctuary, which has 
 itself been desecrated by modern frescoes, so that 
 but one part of its outer wall is unspoilt, that 
 entered by St. Benedict's door. Within things 
 are a little better : the altar is less tawdry than 
 usual, and we can reverently touch the bare walls 
 which Francis restored before his call to preach. 
 For these rough walls constrain us to our knees in 
 humble seeking after the God who dwelt with the 
 Brothers Minor. 
 
 Here then at last was a rest for the soles of 
 their feet, a centre for their gatherings twice in 
 the year. For they desired no abiding city, since 
 it was their business to go out into the whole world.
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 117 
 
 But, even for these pilgrim apostles, some tryst was 
 essential, and they found it here. It must have 
 been about the same time, or earlier, that good 
 Maccabeo gave them leave to seek the caves of the 
 Carceri for meditation and prayer. It was certainly 
 while the order was in its infancy, for the hermits 
 of the Carceri were St. Francis and his first com- 
 panions. Between the third and fourth shoulders 
 of Subasio a deep ravine has been worn by a 
 vanished torrent ; trees climb its steep walls, rem- 
 nant of the forest which once covered the moun- 
 tain's massive flanks. Here, on a morsel of plateau, 
 the Benedictines had built a couple of chapels, 
 where the office might be said and sung, and in 
 one of them they hung above the altar a sweet 
 Byzantine picture of the Madonna, old as the cruci- 
 fix of San Damiano. Themselves reduced in num- 
 bers, they were unable to spare monks for so many 
 settlements. So they willingly opened its retreats 
 to the Brothers Minor, who found caves to sleep in 
 amongst rocks which overhang the gorge. The 
 noise of the torrent, the rustle of ilex and plane- 
 trees, the song of birds, the bark of some nocturnal 
 fox, perhaps the howl of a wolf in winter-time, were 
 the only sounds to distract their thoughts. Santa 
 Maria dei Carceri Francis called the spot, and 
 climbed thither from the plain when his recur- 
 rent hour of panting for the living God called 
 him away. For, like his Master, he needed the 
 wilderness for prayer, and amongst his followers 
 he rated highest, not the busiest and most bustl-
 
 118 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 ing, but those who steeped themselves from time 
 to time in holy solitude and spent long days and 
 nights in prayer for themselves and all the world. 
 They were his "paladins of the Round Table," 
 whose going forth was victory. His own cave lies 
 below the chapels, while the others are on either 
 side the ravine. He could pass from it into the 
 woods, where cyclamens and pinks, yellow orchids 
 and white stitchwort, honeysuckle, citisus and 
 broom still recall the spring and summer jewels 
 which gleamed for his delight. And on the trees 
 perched his little brothers, the birds, who gathered 
 about him as about a presence harmless and be- 
 loved, and whom he included in 'his gospel 
 preached to all "creatures," for did they not 
 day and night praise God and outweary the very 
 saint himself, when he tried to cap their strophe 
 with his antistrophe ? 
 
 Here he filled his soul with restoring peace, and 
 here he fought out those spiritual battles, known 
 now as then by every farer on the narrow way, 
 but which then seemed to take the form of a hand- 
 to-hand combat with the very prince of darkness. 
 To his sensitive conscience the faintest longing for 
 physicial comfort, the merest stumble on the rough 
 way of the Cross, was nothing short of diabolic 
 temptation, to be resisted unto death. 
 
 Abbot Maccabeo's generosity to the Poor Peni- 
 tents continued in later times by Benedictines to 
 Franciscans is all the more interesting to us that 
 it doubtless sprang from the Umbrian birth of their
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 119 
 
 own great founder and saint, and we may infer from 
 these repeated benefactions their conviction that 
 Francis, too, was a saint. Green Umbria gave to 
 the Christian world her two greatest reformers, 
 and although seven centuries lay between their 
 actual lives, the recognition of the later by the 
 disciples of the former is a striking testimony to 
 his worth. 
 
 New adherents joined the Brothers Minor from 
 Assisi, the villages, the peasant homes. Amongst 
 these was Brother Leo, who, with Brother Sylvester, 
 represented the clergy. More fortunate was Francis 
 herein than his Master, to whom came no priest 
 even by night. But with increase followed diffi- 
 culty, for some were recalcitrant at times. Thus 
 Brothers Sylvester and Kufiims loved the passive 
 better than the active side of his Rule made happy 
 hermits, but poor labourers and unwilling mission- 
 aries. Brother Egidio was the exemplar of his 
 " Round Table," humble, prayerful, obedient, de- 
 voted to the service of Lady Poverty, ministering 
 joyfully whether as day labourer, as menial at the 
 lazar-houses, as gospel herald, as messenger on 
 business of the order. 
 
 When rich young men sought admission, Francis 
 warned them forcefully of the hardships to which 
 they must submit ; when the poor desired this life 
 of perfection, he rejoiced that for them its way was 
 not so narrow, not so rough. But numbers flocked 
 to him of rich and poor alike. Some, too, whom 
 years and duties prevented from becoming Brothers
 
 120 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Minor, petitioned for acceptance as members prac- 
 tising the Christ-life "in the world, but not of the 
 world/' and during those glorious years many men 
 and women thus obeyed the doctrine. This de- 
 velopment was a sign of the glad welcome given 
 to the teaching and example of the friars. Francis 
 gave little heed to the organisation of these in- 
 formal adherents. To him they meant that the 
 Kingdom of God was come, and he did not enrol 
 them as devotees, but as men and women who 
 obeyed the call to repentance. 
 
 It was not till ten years later that the Pope 
 subjected them to a Rule and to observances, which 
 bound them together for convenient employment 
 by the Church. No longer, after 1221, were they 
 to be considered as leaven whose contact would 
 spread abroad the gospel fermentation, but rather 
 as a body set apart for definite devotional purposes 
 not to be expected from the world at large. After 
 the saint's death they were still further separated 
 and constrained, and we may accept M. Sabatier's 
 surmise, based upon exhaustive research, that the 
 date of this second and stricter organisation belongs 
 to one of the years between March, 1228, and No- 
 vember, 1234. St. Francis was averse to their first 
 enrolment, and only submitted to Cardinal LJgolino's 
 advice because of some laxity in the so - called 
 "Third Order," due to his absence in the East, but 
 his consent to every step taken for the furtherance 
 of papal control was wrung from his unaccording 
 judgment by force majeure.
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 121 
 
 But during the first months of 1212 he found 
 himself face to face with a new departure. Near 
 the church of San Giorgio rose upon massive 
 foundations the storied palace of Favorino degli 
 Sciffi, Count of San Savino and of Sasso Rosso. To 
 this day its walls endure, arching across the street 
 on both of whose sides they stand. Close to the 
 Communal Palace, to the Duomo, to the Porta 
 Nuova, its site commanded all municipal stir and 
 movement as well as the southern and eastern 
 gates of Assisi. 
 
 Count Favorino was a strong man, who possessed 
 himself of Sasso Rosso after the expulsion of the 
 Gisleri, and held it for himself or for the commune. 
 During winter he lived in the town with his family, 
 of whose members we become acquainted with four. 
 These were his wife a lady of the old house of 
 Fiume, her own name Ortolana and his three 
 daughters, Clare, Agnes and Beatrice. The eldest 
 of these, Clare, was now eighteen years of age. 
 From childhood she had manifested an exceptional 
 devoutness, coupled with great tenderness towards 
 the needy and suffering, as well as much strength 
 of character, by which she impressed and even 
 swayed those in contact with her. Clare was 
 familiar with the whole history of Bernardone's 
 son, although but a child when he renounced the 
 world. She, too, felt the hunger within for more 
 than meat. She went to hear him preach in San 
 Giorgio and in the Duomo, whither she was accom- 
 panied by her aunt, Pacifica dei Guelfucci, a pious
 
 122 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 woman, to whom she could confide her spiritual 
 longings. Some home trouble increased her aver- 
 sion to the world ; probably Count Favorino's inten- 
 tion to wed her to a suitor whom her beauty and 
 dower attracted, but who was antipathetic to her 
 nature. Her heart was given to God, the life of 
 poverty filled her day-dreams as a shining pathway 
 to the world of light ; perhaps her 'home offered no 
 counter-attraction. She longed to leave a sphere 
 where she was little needed, and which could not 
 satisfy her ardent mind. With what expansion of 
 soul she would walk in the way found by Francis, 
 if only she might be admitted. She meditated his 
 words of flame, his conviction, his joy. He was 
 the one human being she had ever seen in whom 
 Christ was lifted up, the one man in whom faith 
 throbbed, about whom a celestial light trembled, 
 who bore in his very aspect the credentials of God's 
 herald. And his message was a Divine command. 
 She induced her aunt to go with her to Francis, 
 to whom she told her need. He bade her wait 
 and pray. Again she saw him and entreated for 
 admittance into the service of poverty. He pointed 
 out its hardships, its austerities inconceivable to one 
 so gently nurtured, but her eyes glowed at the pro- 
 spect and he understood that she was called of God. 
 So at last he consented, and fixed the night of 
 Easter Sunday, 18th March, 1212, for her reception. 
 Her aunt and a friend called Madonna Bona agreed 
 to bring her to the Portiuncula. Apparently Count 
 Favorino was ignorant of his daughter's resolution,
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 123 
 
 but we can hardly imagine that her mother knew 
 nothing, for she herself was a devout woman, whose 
 heart turned altogether in later years towards the 
 same life of poverty and labour. For Francis the 
 moment must have been critical. He was a deacon 
 in orders, it is true, but there was no provision made 
 in his plan for the admission of a woman. M. 
 Sabatier calls our attention to his masterly treat- 
 ment of the situation. Brother Sylvester was Clare's 
 relative, and another follower was a friend of her 
 family. Perhaps he took counsel with them, but 
 it is more likely that he understood at once the 
 value of such an adhesion, the need of holy woman- 
 hood to complete and perfect the work of holy 
 manhood, the infinitely greater influence on the 
 world of a spirituality to which both minds, con- 
 secrated and sanctified, might contribute all that 
 makes each the complement of the other. Women 
 were the healers and consolers of men when these 
 were bruised and baffled. They were skilled in 
 nursing, in cooking, in needlework. Their hearts 
 went out in sympathy, their minds were swift, their 
 powers of observation keen. They were more open 
 to the light from heaven than men, capable of in- 
 sight for which they could not account, and if apt 
 to peril their souls in the world, surely blessed with 
 a celestial purity when they lived within the fear 
 and the love of God. He had looked into the 
 depths of Clare's candid nature. He saw more 
 there than the qualities common to all women 
 whose gifts have not been wasted on paltry and
 
 124 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 selfish aims. He recognised her lofty mind, her 
 power of enduring for Christ's sake, her wisdom 
 and restraint, her courage and supreme spiritual 
 health. He felt that she was given by God to lead 
 women into the way of Christ as he led men. 
 
 There was no hindrance to her admission, for her 
 father's consent was not required, but it was neces- 
 sary to find a home for her until the new way 
 opened. So he went to San Paolo, near Bastia, 
 and made arrangements with the Benedictine 
 prioress for her residence until a permanent settle- 
 ment could be secured. 
 
 After midnight, Clare and her companions left 
 her father's house, stealing out of an arched door- 
 way, still pointed out amongst several close together 
 and the narrowest of them all. Silently they passed 
 down to the Porta Mojano, whence the road led, 
 with two sharp turns, to the Portiuncula. How 
 solemn their flight must have been, shrouded in 
 darkness, amongst the spectral olives, the budding 
 oaks and elms, past a farmhouse or two, and past 
 the hospital of San Salvatore delle Pareti built 
 by the congregation of the Cross-bearers half-way 
 between the city and Santa Maria degli Angeli 
 the young girl absorbed with the joy of her voca- 
 tion, the older women half afraid but wholly 
 dominated by her will. Along the mile of straight 
 road they sped, reaching the sanctuary just as 
 Francis and his followers were at matins in the first 
 hours of Easter Monday. The brothers, with lighted 
 candles in their hands, came out two by two to
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 125 
 
 receive her, and led her to the altar. There Francis 
 celebrated mass, and there they knelt until the last 
 " Amen " rose to heaven. And then he read aloud 
 the stern law of poverty and labour, the gospel 
 Rule, whose clauses might not be violated. Clare 
 bowed her head in token of obedience, an obedi- 
 ence unrelaxed during her forty-one years of further 
 life. Francis, on whom the tonsure had been forced 
 by Innocent, cut off her hair and left it on the altar. 
 Her rich robes and mantle were relinquished, and, 
 clad in a grey gown and black veil, Clare began to 
 live a poor Sister of Penitence. Surely some spasm 
 of pain wrung the heart of Francis as he consecrated 
 her to poverty in the morning of her youth and 
 beauty, but he had no misgiving about the step, for 
 he had none about God's will. 
 
 The two trembling women bade their charge fare- 
 well and turned back to the city, apprehension at 
 their hearts. And Francis led Clare westwards on 
 their long walk to San Paolo, while the dawn stole 
 up behind Foligno and Trevi and lighted them as 
 they stood at the convent door. 
 
 How these two hours were occupied we long to 
 know perhaps for most of the way in holy silence 
 and in prayer, and towards the end in gentle en- 
 couragement and counsel from Saint Francis. 
 Nothing is so saintly as a saint's bearing towards 
 women, that mingled appreciation, affection and 
 reverence divine in its character, which a pure 
 womanly soul repays with devotion untainted by 
 vanity or earthly soilure. Such a friendship is filled 
 with God and is immortal.
 
 126 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Next day Clare's father arrived at San Paolo, 
 accompanied by several friends, and determined to 
 take her home, but his reproaches and entreaties 
 were of no avail. The prioress, however, dis- 
 approved of such scenes, or perhaps feared Count 
 Favorino, and Clare was transferred to the convent 
 of Sant'Angelo in Panso, within the city, where 
 now stands the Diocesan Seminary. Hither, a week 
 later, her sister Agnes fled from the unquiet home 
 to join her, and received the tonsure from Saint 
 Francis. Count Favorino, with a number of male 
 relatives, rushed to the convent, and in his fury 
 struck the child repeatedly, dragging her away by 
 force. But Clare came to her rescue as she fainted, 
 and Favorino found her suddenly so heavy in his 
 arms that he dropped her in the field adjoining the 
 convent, which stood close to one of the city gates 
 towards the north. 
 
 There, too, the sisters were vexed by hostile 
 influences within the walls, as well as by their 
 father's anger. Francis was sore put to it to find 
 them a quiet retreat, where they could practise 
 their vows in peace. He thought of San Damiano, 
 secluded amongst trees, and applied once more to 
 his friend the Benedictine abbot. For the monks, 
 the time was one of crisis. Their number was 
 reduced to eight ; some of their monasteries had 
 been sacked by the people during recent years of 
 war and revolt ; they had sought in vaki to pro- 
 pitiate Assisi by the gift of the Portico of Minerva ; 
 they were anxious to reinstate themselves in popular
 
 THE THREE ORDERS 127 
 
 esteem forfeited by their degeneration from the early 
 standard of monastic life. Francis was venerated by 
 the citizens, and they gladly granted his request for 
 a building which they had ceased to use, and whose 
 ruined walls he had restored with his own hands. 
 
 To San Damiano the two sisters were conducted, 
 and there they were joined by several other noble 
 ladies of Assisi, and some years later by their sister 
 Beatrice, their mother and their Aunt Pacifica. 
 Clare was made Superior of the Poor Sisters of 
 Penitence, and part of the gospel Rule was assigned 
 to them for obedience. They were not required to 
 go from place to place to preach and call men to 
 repentance, but their duties were sufficient. Chief 
 amongst them were tending the sick, feeding the 
 hungry, making garments for the naked, distilling 
 medicines and soothing draughts all the gracious 
 ministrations which women know so well how to 
 render helpful, consolatory, tranquillising. They 
 made altar-cloths and napery for the little churches 
 used by the brothers, and for others fallen into 
 neglect, and those amongst them skilled in em- 
 broidery copied the flowers in Clare's little garden 
 and devised patterns for their work, since Francis 
 loved both beauty and order in the setting of God's 
 altars. His chivalry would not permit these Sisters 
 of Poverty to beg from door to door, and some of 
 his followers were appointed to do them that 
 service. They built their huts near San Damiano to 
 be at hand and to furnish bread and vegetables for 
 their daily need.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 
 12121218 
 
 Failure of First Attempts at Foreign Missions Mount 
 Alverna given to the Order Increase of the Sisters of 
 Poverty Accession of Scholars Cannara and Bevagna 
 Sermon to the Birds First Visit to Mount Alverna 
 Missionary Itinerary through Central Italy " God's 
 Minstrels" Lateran Council of 1215 Decree affecting 
 the New Orders Innocent's Death Ugolino, Bishop 
 of Ostia The Pentecostal Chapters Foreign Missions 
 Brother Elias Francis in Rome St. Dominic 
 Subiaco and Oldest Portrait of Francis Chapter of 
 1218 First Murmurs against the Rule Dominic and 
 Poverty. 
 
 THE year 1212 was destined both to encourage 
 Francis by an amazing development of the 
 movement which he had initiated, and to check his 
 premature efforts for its extension beyond the seas. 
 When the settlement at San Damiano was provided 
 for in every detail, and its young superior invested 
 with power to receive new applicants for admission, 
 the brothers were instructed to bring back such 
 women as they found truly desirous of the life of 
 poverty, labour and devotion, and their return from 
 preaching was from time to time so signalised. 
 (128)
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 129 
 
 Francis then, concluding that the moment for 
 missions outside Italy had arrived, made such plans 
 for the home work as were required and started for 
 the coast. This may have been in April or May, 
 although it was probably not till after Whitsuntide. 
 His longing was to convert the infidels in Palestine. 
 We are not told whether he had a brother with 
 him, for the details of this venture are very scanty, 
 but it may be regarded as certain, seeing Christ had 
 so ordained the conduct of missions. 
 
 From Ancona he took ship for the Levant, but 
 crossing the Adriatic a fierce wind drove the vessel 
 either on an island or on the coast of Dalmatia, 
 then part of Slavonia. Here Francis lingered, 
 hoping to find a passage to the East, but none was 
 forthcoming, and he had to abandon the enterprise. 
 A barque was being loaded for Ancona, and he asked 
 its master to take him on board. He was refused, 
 but, collecting a store of provisions from the people 
 to whom he ministered during this delay, he hid 
 himself amongst its bales, and the seamen were 
 well upon their way before he was discovered. 
 Storms drove them out of their course, and their 
 own food was exhausted, so that Francis, emerging 
 with enough for them all, was welcomed, and was 
 soon after landed at Ancona. He made his way 
 to the Portiuncula on foot, arriving in time for the 
 Christmas gathering of the brothers, who had spent 
 the months of his absence in home missions. Re- 
 storation to them consoled him for the failure of 
 this heroic attempt, for many new brothers had 
 9
 
 130 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 joined, amongst whom, perhaps, was Bombarone as 
 Brother Elias, who for some years was his zealous 
 disciple. 
 
 For 1213 he planned an extensive missionary 
 tour in Central Italy, assigning its districts to his 
 followers in pairs, and taking Brother Leo with 
 himself to Romagna. He is said to have spent the 
 Lent of this year in solitude, fasting and prayer, on 
 an island in Lake Thrasymene, subsisting on a half- 
 loaf during the whole period of forty days. After 
 Easter he resumed his itinerary, and arriving at the 
 Castle of Montefeltro with Brother Leo, he found 
 great bustle of preparation for a tournament about 
 to be held in honour of a newly-made knight. 
 Amongst the guests was Orlando dei Cattani, Count 
 of Chiusi, a man of large possessions in the Casen- 
 tino. Entering the castle court, Francis found it 
 filled with nobles gathered for the spectacle. He 
 seized his opportunity, and spoke to them on the 
 words : " So great a joy do I await that every toil 
 is my delight." The guests listened to him and 
 were touched by his sincerity. Count Orlando drew 
 him aside and asked to be admitted amongst those 
 who obeyed Christ's teaching at home, since his 
 years and duties forbade him to join the working 
 brothers. 
 
 After the tournament Francis held long converse 
 with him, and received him into the congregation of 
 faithful souls. Then Orlando offered him Monte 
 Alverna, an isolated peak in the Casentino, as a re- 
 treat for solitude, prayer and contemplation, to be
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 131 
 
 used by himself and the brothers, and the gift was 
 gladly accepted. 
 
 He returned to the Portiuncula for the Pente- 
 costal assembly, at which reports were made of 
 missionary success and failure in Central Italy, for 
 it may be noted that the early Brothers Minor 
 never cooked their reports, but faithfully recorded 
 their blunders and defeats as well as their achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 So large a body of followers was now with him 
 that he mooted a considerable enterprise for 1214. 
 He and his brothers spread themselves throughout 
 Italy, preaching the gospel to all who would listen, 
 up to Pentecost and after the general conference. 
 While he could trust them to carry on the home 
 mission, he made a second personal attempt as a 
 pioneer of foreign work. 
 
 The Kings of Arragon, Navarre and Castille had 
 two years earlier chased across the Sierra Nevada 
 their gallant Moorish invaders. Spain was left to 
 the Spaniard, all the richer in art, science and 
 education for its long period of submission to Arab 
 domination. The exploit roused all Christendom, 
 and was deemed a triumph against the infidel. 
 Francis longed to carry his evangel both to Spaniard 
 and Moor ; hoped, too, for martyrdom, which was 
 then the ideal goal of every saint. He took the 
 westward route through Piedmont and Languedoc 
 that autumn, and was away till the following spring. 
 This time we know that a brother accompanied 
 him, because the legend survives that, in his eager-
 
 132 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 ness to reach Spain, he used to outstrip his companion 
 and leave him far behind. But a veil falls here 
 over the enterprise, and we only learn that he was 
 so seriously ill that his companion brought him 
 back again. His health, broken ever since 1206, 
 when the rough treatment which he suffered on 
 Monte Subasio sowed the seeds of constant deli- 
 cacy, was not improved by fasts and fatigues. He 
 came home saddened by a second failure, but con- 
 vinced that God meant him for a time to work in 
 his own land and among his own people. 
 
 The home mission had achieved unusual success. 
 Large numbers had been convinced and converted ; 
 many had joined the order ; some new sisters had 
 been brought to San Damiano. Not only there, 
 but in other parts of Umbria, communities of these 
 ladies were formed, where sick persons were brought 
 to be nursed, where work and worship went hand- 
 in-hand, where cheerfulness and saintliness were 
 practised. These communities retained a certain 
 homeliness far removed from conventualism, and 
 were altogether different from the nunneries of 
 St. Clare, which took their place after her death. 
 Apparently the Brothers Minor were also greatly 
 increased in 1215, and their settlement must have 
 been enlarged. Amongst the new adherents were 
 men of every rank and character conciliated into 
 harmony by the graciousness of their superior, 
 whose discerning sympathy evoked from each all 
 that was finest. Thus, we hear of a peasant called 
 John, who, seeing Francis busy cleaning a dirty
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 133 
 
 church at Bastia, took the broom from him and 
 swept it out with a will, and then asked to be ad- 
 mitted to the order. His family grudged his loss, 
 but Francis won their consent by letting them keep 
 his portion of the common heritage. This John 
 became so true a follower in the way of the Cross 
 that Francis tenderly spoke of him as Saint John. 
 
 At the same season Thomas of Celano joined, a 
 man noted for his learning, who became one of the 
 saint's biographers after his death. Other scholars 
 were attracted to the order, and it is with some 
 amusement that we read how Thomas of Celano 
 believed himself and them to be the recipients 
 of a special respect from their superior, although 
 his precautionary measures against property in 
 manuscripts indicate that he found them inclined 
 to magnify their knowledge and to make of it a 
 hindrance to their obedience. It is possible that 
 Bombarone was the medium of their adhesion. 
 For some years prior to his own admission he lived 
 in Bologna, acting as a scrivener, and taking so 
 great advantage of its university teaching that 
 he was reckoned one of the most erudite men in 
 Italy. He had a passion for learning, crossed by 
 a counter-passion for devotion, both underlaid by 
 lust of power, intermittent at this stage, but per- 
 sistent as Francis lost ground, when the ebbing of 
 his strength gave Brother Elias an opportunity. 
 
 There can be little doubt that to this group of 
 scholars, with Brother Elias at their head, was 
 due the mutiny within the order which wrecked
 
 134 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 the saint's new covenant with God, and which 
 broke his heart some years before his death. 
 
 But, although the coming and going of grey 
 friars was now a daily spectacle on the roads in 
 Tuscany, the March, Umbria and Romagna, they 
 were not yet separated into filial colonies, as was 
 soon to be necessary. 
 
 When the Pentecostal meetings and duties were 
 ended, Francis, suffering from prostration, was for a 
 brief moment disposed to abandon the active side 
 of his vocation. He consulted Clare and Brother 
 Sylvester, and received from them such resolute 
 counsel to continue to save and to preach that he 
 accepted it as God's message, and much heartened 
 took the road once more. He went to Cannara, 
 five miles south of the Portiuncula, and his ser- 
 mons there were so effectual that the whole village 
 adopted Christ's Rule as their own. From Can- 
 nara he went further south, and east to Bevagna. 
 Brother Leo was his companion, and the sympathy 
 between them, the beauty of the ways bordered 
 with flowers amongst them the delicate blue and 
 white love-in-a-mist, which fringes the hedgerows 
 in June, blue cornflowers, rose-coloured vetches, 
 purple loose-strife, scarlet poppies, gay larkspurs 
 and sheets of feathery bedstraw the twitter of 
 birds upon the trees, the fields ripe to the harvest, 
 refreshed and uplifted his heart, so that his joy 
 welled over in song. Where the birds gathered 
 he paused, and, unalarmed, they clustered about 
 his feet and on the branches overhead. In an
 
 SERMON TO THIi BIKDS 
 From Giotto's fresco in the Upper Church, at Assist
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 135 
 
 ecstasy of tenderness for his " little brothers " he 
 spoke to them of their Creator, whose care for 
 them deserved their love and praise. " For He 
 has made you," he said, "the noblest of His 
 creatures ; He has given you the pure air for a 
 home : you need neither to sow nor to reap, for 
 He cares for you, He protects you, He leads you 
 whither you should go." And the birds rejoiced 
 at his words, opening their wings and fluttering 
 and chirping as if to thank him for rating them 
 so precious in God's sight. Then moving amongst 
 them, he blessed them and went on his way. 
 
 At Bevagna we see still the beautiful buildings 
 he looked upon, old San Sylvestro and San Michele, 
 over whose door is sculptured the mighty angel 
 destroying the dragon, eternal symbol of salvation, 
 and above the market-place is the Church of San 
 Francesco, built upon the spot where he was wont 
 to preach. The snowy oxen in the meadows by 
 the river Topi no, which the brothers would cross 
 and recross, the dark bastions of Monte Subasio, 
 perhaps cloud-capped as they returned, the blue 
 ranges opposite them, the greeting and welcome of 
 peasant and townsman, willing to listen to their 
 message, all must have cheered and stimulated him 
 to renewed exertions. About the middle of August, 
 he paid his first visit to the stern slopes and caverns 
 of Monte Alverna. Here he spent six weeks in 
 prayer and fasting, perhaps laying down at God's 
 feet his longings for work abroad, for martyrdom, 
 making a heroic sacrifice of those spiritual ambitions
 
 136 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 which he had been unable to realise. For, beyond 
 the offering up of all material aims, comes that 
 astonishing experience of the Will of God, the 
 surrender of sacred ardours and holy toils which 
 hasten in advance of His command. It is the 
 saint's keenest agony to withhold the uncommis- 
 sioned service, which his heart burns within him 
 to be about. 
 
 In October he renewed his itinerary, passing by 
 Alviano, where crowds gathered to hear him, and 
 where the wheeling swallows made so much noise 
 that his voice was drowned, until he bade them be 
 still and hear the word of God. Narni and the 
 villages in its neighbourhood ; Rieti and its beloved 
 valley ; Monte Colombo, where one Christmas Eve 
 he made the first praesepio of manger, ox, ass and 
 babe, and was himself astonished when the Child 
 smiled up in his face as the Infant Jesus might have 
 done; Sant, Eleuthero, Poggio-Buscone, were his 
 next halting-places. From them he passed to the 
 March of Ancona, where the Brothers Minor were 
 best received, and where already many hermitages 
 were filled with the apostles of poverty. The pro- 
 vince of Ascoli seems to have been visited late in 
 the autumn. About thirty new adherents formed 
 the immediate harvest of this mission, and amongst 
 them was Brother Pacifico, a poet and musician, 
 who was of great service to Francis in regulating 
 the music for their functions, and whom he en- 
 couraged in composing songs to be sung in the 
 market-places, so as to gather together the villagers
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 137 
 
 and townsfolk. " God's Minstrels " he called 
 Pacifico and his band. 
 
 In November, Pope Innocent held his famous 
 Council at the Lateran, when seventy decrees were 
 promulgated on Church discipline and doctrine, one 
 of them annulling all religious orders which were 
 not subservient to the Rule of either Augustine or 
 Benedict. St. Dominic was in Rome seeking the 
 Pope's authorisation of his new order, and in 
 obedience to this decree he accepted the Rule of 
 St. Augustine for his followers. We do not know 
 how Francis warded off the interference of this 
 ordinance, but it is certain that he escaped its 
 working. 
 
 Not long after the Council, civic hostility com- 
 pelled Innocent to leave Rome, and he found an 
 asylum in Perugia, where the papal court was 
 graphically depicted by Jacques de Vitry, who 
 visited it there, and who contrasts its infamies with 
 the charity, humility and orderliness of the Brothers 
 and Sisters of Poverty, to whom he was greatly 
 attracted. Francis was summoned to Perugia, pro- 
 bably because of his reluctance to obey the decree. 
 He and other friars were there when Innocent died 
 and when Honorius was elected Pope. The death- 
 bed was deserted, the corpse was denied the 
 commonest care. They were Brothers Minor who 
 washed and clothed his body, guarding it with 
 pious offices until the time of burial. Cardinal 
 Colonna had died in May, two months before Inno- 
 cent, bequeathing his care for Francis to Ugolino,
 
 138 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Bishop of Ostia, who became sincerely attached to 
 his charge. Already, in 121 6, he attended the 
 Pentecostal gatherings at Santa Maria degli Angeli. 
 The saint willingly accepted his friendship his 
 shrewdness somewhat at fault for he did not at 
 first detect beneath it Ugolino's far-sighted scheme, 
 carried out by means of unwearied patience, subtle 
 assault and the help of Brother Elias. 
 
 Up to this time the Whitsuntide Chapter had 
 consisted of a joyous reunion of all the brothers for 
 fellowship, spiritual refreshment, communion in 
 worship, counsel taken and given, interchange of 
 reports, receiving neophytes, and their superior's 
 guidance both in general and particular difficulties. 
 But from the time of Ugolino's patronage these 
 meetings slowly but surely changed their character. 
 M. Sabatier points out that the gradual transfor- 
 mation took place between the summers of 12l6 
 and 1220, by which latter year Francis found 
 himself enmeshed in a network of control, so skil- 
 fully woven that at first it seemed as fragile as a 
 summer gossamer. 
 
 His struggle for independence was vain. Papal 
 mandates could not bind him, but papal craft 
 availed. Not for several years did he recognise the 
 drift of Ugolino's gentle pressure ; but his dis- 
 covery of treachery within the camp, of discontent, 
 of needs and demands injurious to the " new 
 covenant," false to the espousal vows, disloyal to 
 the Lady Poverty, began earlier and was a pur- 
 gatorial agony. In the meantime Ugolino was
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 139 
 
 magnetised by his holy living, his rare spirituality, 
 and we find in his bearing towards Francis a per- 
 plexing mixture of personal devotion and of untir- 
 ing intrigue directed against the very work which 
 God had separated him from the world to do. What 
 Francis needed for that work was freedom ; what 
 the Curia could not tolerate was a power outside 
 their control. The order had become such a power, 
 and so the fiat went forth that it must be captured 
 and bridled and tamed. 
 
 The papal court was established for some time 
 at Perugia, where Honorius was elected Pope 
 on 18th July, 1216, immediately after Innocent's 
 death. This Pontiff, less haughty than his prede- 
 cessor, was eager for a new crusade, and his legates 
 were commissioned to rekindle European fervour 
 for the recovery of Palestine. His character was 
 venerable for its saintliness, the simplicity of his 
 personal habits, his dislike of pomp and display. 
 For a time Francis saw in him the saviour of the 
 Church. He felt sure of consideration and support 
 for his ideal from Honorius. 
 
 He had a new inspiration for the salvation of 
 souls, which required papal sanction. Santa Maria 
 degli Angeli was very dear to his heart ; its walls 
 repaired by his own hands were sacred as the walls 
 of Sion. God's purposes took shape within them. 
 Prayer there was never in vain. The presence of 
 the Most High filled the tiny temple, and when the 
 brothers knelt there they felt the pressure of His 
 hand upon their brows. Might it not become a
 
 140 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 mercy-seat, whence pardon would flow to the peni- 
 tent ? Might sinners not pass from its doors, sealed 
 with Divine forgiveness, and so set free to walk in 
 the way of life ? He took Brother Leo with him to 
 Perugia and sought an audience of the new Pope. 
 
 A week of devotion in remembrance of the con- 
 secration of Santa Maria degli Angeli was at hand. 
 He asked Honorius to grant a pardon to all its 
 worshippers during that week till the end of time. 
 As Vicar of Christ he must know Christ's mind upon 
 the matter. But Popes were not used to bestowing 
 spiritual gifts without money and without price, and 
 even Honorius was startled. Then, as the absolute 
 selflessness of Francis dawned on him, he was moved 
 by a like holy love to grant the boon required, 
 although at the complaining of the cardinals who 
 were indignant at such reckless waste he limited 
 its action to one day out of the seven. When, 
 radiant with joy, the saint turned to go, Honorius 
 cried : " Oh, simple one, whither dost thou hasten 
 without the charter of thy indulgence ? " 
 
 "If it is God's giving," said Francis, "He will 
 make it manifest. I need no testimonial. Let the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary be the charter, Christ the 
 notary and angels the witnesses." 
 
 At the Whitsuntide Chapter of 1217 so great a 
 crowd of friars assembled that huts of reeds and 
 canes were raised, roofed with branches and carpeted 
 with mats of woven rushes, for their accommodation. 
 
 We infer that these representatives came from 
 new communities of the Brothers Minor, but there
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 141 
 
 is yet no allusion to any except the original settle- 
 ment. We know nothing of what occupied Francis 
 from the summer of 12 16 to that of 1217, although 
 we may suppose that the astonishing increase in his 
 following made it necessary for him to send out 
 bodies of friars under trusted directors to such pro- 
 vinces as the March, Tuscany and Ascoli. 
 
 But all who know Umbria can form some idea of 
 the great gathering on the plain ; of colonies of 
 green shelters ; of the strangers present, drawn by 
 the extraordinary success of the movement ; of the 
 crowds of villagers from Bastia, Bevagna and Can- 
 nara, bringing bread and vegetables, oil and wine, 
 eggs and poultry, fruit and fodder ; of townspeople 
 from Spello, Foligno, Perugia, all in festal dress, 
 seeking the shrine which Francis and his com- 
 panions had made so sacred. And from Perugia, 
 too, rode daily Bishop Ugolino, the friars going 
 out in procession to meet him a little way from the 
 church, when he dismounted and walked at their 
 head to Santa Maria degli Angeli, celebrating high 
 mass there and preaching, while Francis chanted 
 the gospel for the day as his deacon. The bishop 
 was deeply impressed by the scene ; he saw the 
 brothers still moved by willing obedience to their 
 Rule, passing to and fro amongst the people, heal- 
 ing their sick, listening to their perplexities and 
 confessions, ministering to the lepers near at hand, 
 ever joyous, accessible, humble. "Truly," he said, 
 "these are the camps of God." A vast scheme of 
 foreign missions was proposed. Friars were sent
 
 142 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 to Spain, to Germany, to Hungary and to Syria. 
 Each party was placed under wise guidance, but 
 apparently Francis lost sight of the language diffi- 
 culty. For in Spain and France men spoke Pro- 
 ven9al, or some tongue akin to it, and he ignored 
 the backward civilisation of Germany and his 
 brothers' ignorance of its uncouth dialects. 
 
 Brother Elias comes to the front in these pre- 
 parations. He had shown great ability in his con- 
 duct of some business at Florence, and Francis gave 
 him charge of a special mission to the Holy Land. 
 The remembrance of his own failures weighed on 
 his mind and checked his going. In great humility 
 he decided to choose for himself a country nearer 
 home. France attracted him, because he was 
 already familiar with its southern provinces and 
 could use its language fluently. He selected some 
 of his followers to accompany him, particularly 
 Brother Pacifico and his minstrels. They prepared 
 in solitude and prayer, probably retiring to the caves 
 and shrines of the Carceri, for his words at starting 
 breathe the very spirit of retreat. " Go, two by 
 two," he said, " humble and gentle, keeping silence 
 until the third hour, praying to God in your hearts, 
 speaking no idle word. Be as withdrawn during 
 this journey as if you were shut up in a hermitage, 
 or in your cell, for wherever we are and go, we bear 
 our cell along with us : brother body is our cell and 
 the soul is its hermit praying to the Lord and medi- 
 tating within it." 
 
 But when they reached Florence, Ugolino, now
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 143 
 
 a cardinal and the Pope's legate in Tuscany, refused 
 to allow him to leave Italy on the ground of diffi- 
 culties at the papal court concerning his order. 
 In vain did Francis remonstrate with the cardinal, 
 arguing with sacred passion that not for Italy alone 
 were the friars called of God, but for all nations, 
 whether Christian or infidel. Ugolino was firm, and 
 convinced that he was bidden from above to re- 
 nounce this dear project, the saint gave way and 
 mournfully returned to the plain, there to await 
 the issue. 
 
 His companions were sent to France, Brother 
 Pacifico at their head, because his gifts of music 
 and poetic improvisation fitted him for a land 
 familiar with wandering troubadours, whose love- 
 lays might be replaced with the joyful chant of 
 salvation. " The Minstrels of God " would not fail 
 of a hearing in France. 
 
 When the various missionary parties returned 
 some had doleful failures to report. In Germany 
 and Hungary they were roughly treated, and their 
 language of gesture and kind deeds did not suffice 
 to explain their aim. In deep depression they re- 
 turned to the Umbrian plain. Those sent to Spain 
 fared somewhat better, for, although taken for here- 
 tics by the Spaniards, the Queen of Portugal received 
 them kindly and allowed them to form settlements 
 at Lisbon, Coimbra and elsewhere. 
 
 Pacifico and his companions succeeded best of 
 all. They passed up from Southern France to Paris 
 and settled at St. Denis, where so great was the
 
 144 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 attraction of their minstrelsy, their preaching and 
 their lives, that many gathered round them, and 
 they were able to send home an encouraging re- 
 port. This success led Francis to appoint Pacifico 
 director of the order in France, and four years later 
 to send one of his fellow-workers, Agnello di Pisa, 
 as head of a mission to England. 
 
 During that winter, probably early in 1218, 
 Francis was in Rome and preached before Pope 
 Honorius. At Cardinal Ugolino's suggestion, he 
 had for once carefully prepared his sermon, but 
 forgot it wholly in presence of his congregation, so, 
 with a cry to God for inspiration, he spoke as he 
 was moved by the Holy Ghost, and both Pope and 
 cardinals were melted to tears. Cardinal Ugolino 
 saw much of him, and was doubtless the cause of 
 his visit to the capital, for the Curia was occupied 
 with the question of the new orders, and the 
 Franciscan Missions, commissioned to preach the 
 gospel and not the crusade, made its members 
 uneasy. 
 
 Dominic, too, was in Rome, favoured by Honorius, 
 since his order was bridled by monastic Rule, al- 
 though appointed to go into all countries to pro- 
 claim the doctrines of the Church. But in 1218 
 the Dominicans were not a power in Europe as the 
 Franciscans had become. Ugolino pressed upon 
 Dominic the influence of poverty and self-denial, 
 and may have suggested his combining with Francis, 
 so as to modify the evangelistic fervour of the 
 Brothers Minor, and to induce them to adopt the
 
 FRANCIS 1'KEACHINU UEFOKK POl'E HONOK1US III 
 From Giotto's fresco in the Upper Church at Assisi
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 145 
 
 Rule of St. Augustine. This union Dominic pro- 
 posed to Francis, who gently refused it, aware of 
 what it involved. None the less, the two orders 
 were destined to interpenetrate and influence each 
 other, although not until Francis lost his power 
 over the Brothers Minor. But the founders loved 
 each other and edified each other, and Dominic 
 promised to be present at the Chapter of 1218. 
 
 It may have been in the spring of this year that 
 Francis went to Subiaco and spent some days or even 
 weeks in the monastery built over the cavern where 
 Benedict first found refuge from the world. He 
 had a friend there, Brother Oddo, a man acquainted 
 with Santa Maria degli Angeli, who perhaps once 
 lived in the monastery on Monte Subasio. 
 
 The chapel of San Gregorio was added to the 
 Middle Church of the Holy Cave by Cardinal 
 Ugolino when he became Pope Gregory IX., and 
 Brother Oddo, who was an artist, contributed a 
 portrait of St. Francis to its decoration, which was 
 the work of Benedictine monks. Different dates 
 have been assigned for this portrait, but although 
 we are led to infer that the chapel was not begun 
 till 1227, a year after his death, the fact that 
 Francis is represented with neither stigmata nor 
 halo indicates that Oddo must have painted it 
 from a portrait taken before 1224, and leads us 
 to regard this as his only authentic likeness. He 
 is called " Brother Francis," not St. Francis, in the 
 inscription. 
 
 It is low on the wall to our right as we enter 
 10
 
 146 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 the chapel. It is not more than thirty inches in 
 length, and shows him thin and fragile, clad in the 
 grey gown of his order, with its hood drawn over 
 his head, and a cord, whose ends are knotted seven 
 times, round his waist. His eyes are full of power, 
 and suggest a year prior to his blindness. His 
 right hand lies on his breast, his left arm hangs 
 down, the hand holding a scroll on which are the 
 words " Pax huic Domui ". A tiny figure kneels at 
 his feet, that of the aged monk who painted him, 
 and who, with Brother Romanus, executed most of 
 the frescoes on the chapel walls. Their names are 
 on an arch behind the present altar-piece, and 
 Frater Oddo has added to his the words: "Dies 
 Mei Transierunt ". So that he was an old man 
 when he bequeathed to us this priceless portrait. 
 
 There are traces of an itinerary still further south 
 in the spring of 1218, and of visits to the valley of 
 Rieti, to Siena and to Bologna. He and his com- 
 panion spent Lent at Monte Alverna. 
 
 The Chapter of Whitsuntide, 1218, was even more 
 important than that of the previous summer. It 
 was crowded with representatives from all Italy, 
 from France, from far Portugal and Syria. The 
 news from Palestine was most cheering. Brother 
 Elias and his colleagues were well received by the 
 Mussulmans, who recognised their methods and 
 would deem their poverty sacred. An important 
 recruit had been gained in the person of Caesar of 
 Speyer, who three years afterwards conducted a 
 mission to South Germany with amazing success.
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 147 
 
 His friendship for Elias at this time is a proof of 
 the latter's fidelity to the Rule, as later he bitterly 
 opposed him for revolutionising the order. But we 
 can read between the lines how Elias' temporary 
 absence from Francis and comparative independence 
 widened the little inevitable rift between their ideals. 
 Cardinal Ugolino and Dominic were present at 
 this Chapter and some five thousand Brothers 
 Minor and members of the Third Order. Ugolino 
 was anxious that Dominic should apprehend the 
 secret of this success, and he hoped to convince 
 Francis that the learning and research essential to 
 the Dominicans would be of use to the Franciscans. 
 Amongst the latter were some students, who re- 
 gretted the loss of their books, and who complained 
 that they were compelled to forego the possession 
 of even a psalter or a copy of the Scriptures. For 
 their superior " sorrowed to see the knowledge that 
 pufFeth up sought after to the neglect of godliness," 
 and said : " Many brethren there be that set all 
 their study and all their care upon acquiring know- 
 ledge, letting go their holy calling by wandering 
 forth in mind and body beyond the way of humility 
 and holy prayer ; who, when they have preached to 
 the people, and have learnt that some have thereby 
 been edified and converted to repentance, are in- 
 continent, puffed up, and extol themselves upon 
 their work and the gain of another, as if it had 
 been their own gain ; when nevertheless they have 
 preached rather to their own condemnation and 
 harm, and have done nothing for themselves accord-
 
 148 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 ing to the truth, save only as the instruments of 
 them through whom in truth the Lord has gathered 
 in this harvest, for them that they believe to be 
 edified and converted to repentance by their know- 
 ledge and preaching, the Lord doth in truth edify 
 and convert by the prayers of the holy, poor, 
 humble and simple brethren, albeit the holy bre- 
 thren for the most part know not aught thereof, 
 for thus is it the will of God they should not know, 
 lest haply they might pride themselves thereon." 
 
 Ugolino sympathised with the murmurs rather 
 than with these masterly arguments, cogent to-day 
 as they were then. He went to Francis, hoping to 
 make it clear to him that such an institution as 
 the Brothers Minor could not be worked on so 
 self-denying an ordinance as the gospel Rule. 
 " Surely," he urged, " your wisest and best edu- 
 cated followers should have some share in your 
 counsels should be consulted and give you the 
 help of their larger knowledge. Would it not be 
 well, indeed, to profit by the experience of the 
 ancient orders ? " 
 
 Francis was only too well acquainted with the 
 plea as with its source. He seized the cardinal's 
 hand and led him before the assembly. " My 
 brothers," he cried, in a voice vibrating with 
 emotion, "God called me into the way of simpli- 
 city and humility. In that path He has revealed 
 the truth for me and for those who wished to 
 follow me ; do not speak to me of the Rule of 
 St. Benedict, of St. Augustine, of St. Bernard, nor
 
 YEARS OF INCREASE 149 
 
 of any other saint, but of that only which God in 
 His mercy willed to show me, and through which 
 He told me that He would make a new covenant 
 with the world, and through no other. God will 
 confound you through your knowledge and your 
 wisdom. I have faith that God will chasten you, 
 and that, whether you will or no, you will be driven 
 to understand." 
 
 Dominic was amazed at the spectacle of this as- 
 sembly, and more and more impressed by the sanc- 
 tity and power of Francis. His trust in providence 
 when the question of food for such a multitude 
 arose, and its response when peasants and towns- 
 folk arrived with ample supplies ; the colony of 
 green huts, which gave to this meeting the name 
 of " Chapter of the Mats " a name suitable to 
 every Pentecostal gathering of those years ; the 
 cheerfulness and holiness of the brothers, for at 
 this time the grumblers were but a small faction ; 
 the missionary reports from distant lands, amongst 
 them his own Spain all told of the power latent 
 in this new covenant to save mankind. He de- 
 cided to make use of the precedent established by 
 Francis. The force of poverty adopted by the 
 heralds of God was an endorsement of Christ's 
 missionary methods. These had fallen into dis- 
 use, if not disrepute, but here they were trium- 
 phantly vindicated. 
 
 He embraced St. Francis with tears in his eyes, 
 acknowledged that clad in poverty the servants of 
 God were best equipped, and two years later he 
 adopted the vow of poverty for his own order.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 
 12181223 
 
 Chapter of 1218 Francis in Egypt and Palestine Changes 
 made during his Absence His Return At Bologna 
 Ugolino's Management Michaelmas Chapter of 1220 
 The New Rule Pietro de Cattani appointed General 
 Francis and Dominic in Rome Rule for the Third 
 Order Elias appointed Minister-General The Revo- 
 lution of the Order The Rule of 1223. 
 
 FRANCIS yielded to Cardinal Ugolino's counsel 
 on one point at the Chapter of 1218. 
 
 The brothers, rejected in Germany and Hungary, 
 made their pitiful report. Ugolino overbore the 
 saint's resistance and forced him to accept the pro- 
 tection of a pontifical brief for his missionary friars. 
 It was issued in the following year, and is dated 
 from Rieti, the llth of June, 1219. This month 
 was the trysting time of Frederick II. 's crusade, 
 joined by volunteers from all Christian countries. 
 The embarkation was fixed for St. John's Day, 24th 
 June, at Ancona. 
 
 Francis, encouraged by news from Brother Elias, 
 found this an opportune moment for joining him in 
 Syria, and this time no objection was interposed, 
 (150)
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 151 
 
 He had sent Brother Egidio to Tunis, Brother 
 Christopher to Gascony and a third mission to Spain 
 and Morocco. The first and third proved unsuc- 
 cessful, Egidio and his companions being driven 
 from the country and forced to recross the Mediter- 
 ranean, while five members of the band sent to 
 Morocco were martyred in the year following. The 
 second mission prospered, and for fifty years Brother 
 Christopher lived and laboured according to the 
 gospel Rule in Gascony. 
 
 It was not for Francis to shirk the dangers which 
 his brothers faced, and he set out for Ancona with 
 a large following. There it was impossible to find 
 passage room for so many. Francis called to his 
 side a child playing near and bade him choose 
 eleven of the friars to form the mission. These he 
 accepted, the rest returned to the Portiuncula. 
 Embarking for St. Jean d'Acre, they touched at 
 Cyprus on the way. There Brother Barbaro spoke 
 " idle words " of calumny against another in the 
 presence of a Cypriote gentleman. Francis inflicted 
 upon him the penance of eating dung, while he re- 
 peated : "It is fitting that a mouth, which has 
 distilled the venom of hatred against my brother, 
 should eat this excrement." 
 
 They reached St. Jean d'Acre, where Elias was 
 settled, about the middle of July. Francis divided 
 his company into two parts, left one of them to 
 reinforce Elias and to preach the gospel in Syria, 
 and started with the other for Egypt, whither the 
 crusaders had gone to besiege Damietta.
 
 152 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Here he found French, English and Germans, as 
 well as Italians. Jacques de Vitry, present at the 
 siege, tells us of the impression which he made : 
 " He is so lovable that all venerate him." But he 
 was powerless to prevent the rabble army from 
 attacking the Saracens in open battle, when it was 
 routed and humiliated as he had predicted, for his 
 experienced eye detected its want of discipline. He 
 was well known, too, amongst the Saracens capable 
 of understanding the saintliness of the " little poor 
 one ". 
 
 The Sultan of Egypt was Alkhamil, a man of 
 open mind and noble nature. Francis sought his 
 presence and told him of Christ, calling upon him 
 to test the heralds of God, Pietro de Cattani and 
 himself, who were willing to pass through flames if 
 his soothsayers and priests would do the same. But 
 these slunk away. Francis expounded the gospel 
 to Alkhamil, who asked him to pray that God 
 would, by a sign, reveal whether Mahomet or Christ 
 were the true prophet. He is said to have accepted 
 the saint's message, and to have received the last 
 offices from two friars when he died a few years 
 later. In the meantime, he gave Francis and his 
 companions a safe-conduct, and commended them 
 to his brother Almuazzam, the Sultan of Syria. 
 Damietta was taken by the crusaders, and a hideous 
 earnage ensued, dishonouring to their standard. 
 
 Francis left a scene where men's greed and cruelty 
 hindered his work, and went to Palestine. We 
 may surmise that he reached Bethlehem in time for
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 153 
 
 Christmas Eve, and that there his spirit, rapt in 
 visions of the Babe, recovered its joy and peace. 
 
 But we have only fragmentary and perhaps 
 legendary record of his seven months' stay in Pales- 
 tine. Absent from the Portiuncula for a whole 
 year, he knew nothing of what was happening 
 there. His arrangements for a lengthened separa- 
 tion had been most careful, but it is probable that 
 he hoped to return for the Whitsuntide Chapter of 
 1220, and was delayed by illness. There is a passing 
 record of such a hindrance, probably some form of 
 eye disease, such as ophthalmia. We may be sure 
 that those afflicted with such troubles, as well as 
 lepers, would be his special care, and that contact 
 would expose him to attack, while shelterless noons 
 and nights would leave him a prey to the poisonous 
 flies whose swarms plague both Egypt and Syria. 
 
 The Chapter was held without him, and revealed 
 a series of startling innovations and grave dis- 
 orders. 
 
 Pope Honorius, resident at Rieti when Francis 
 left, was in 1220 at Viterbo. Cardinal Ugolino 
 remained in Perugia, paying occasional visits to 
 Bologna, the headquarters of the Dominicans in 
 Italy. He was still occupied with the affairs of 
 both orders. The founder of the latter had 
 proved to be most manageable ; the founder of 
 the former was in the East by his own passionate 
 desire and unhindered by Ugolino. A nephew of 
 the cardinal's had joined Francis some time earlier, 
 although we are ignorant of the exact date of his
 
 154 FRANCIS OF ASSIS1 
 
 adhesion. Brother Gregory of Naples he was 
 called, and his capacity as a missionary director 
 had led Francis to appoint him itinerary super- 
 intendent during his absence. His duties were to 
 go from centre to centre of the work in Italy to 
 guide, encourage and console. Brother Matthew 
 of Narni was made resident director at the same 
 time to remain at the Portiuncula, receive new 
 adherents and carry on the local activities. 
 
 Just a month after Francis left for Syria, Ugolino 
 imposed the Benedictine Rule upon the Poor Sisters 
 at Florence, Siena, Perugia and Lucca. With Clare 
 at San Damiano he had no chance. From the first 
 he was much impressed with Clare's rare strength 
 of character and sanctity, and something almost 
 approaching to a friendship existed between them. 
 He visited San Damiano frequently, and must have 
 sought to convince her of the need of conventualism, 
 but Clare gently repelled all such suggestions and 
 maintained the sufficiency of the gospel Rule. 
 There is little doubt that in the other communi- 
 ties his counsels met with greater appreciation, for 
 we are told that it was at the instance of the sisters, 
 through Brother Filippo Longo, appointed to serve 
 them, that the Benedictine Rule was imposed. 
 
 Then, through Brother Gregory of Naples, an in- 
 novation was effected in the Rule of the Brothers 
 Minor. He and Brother Matthew added Monday 
 to the weekly fasts, and made new ordinances with 
 regard to the character of what they might eat on 
 other days. An attempt, too, was made to bring
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 155 
 
 the government into accord with the old monasti- 
 cism rather than with the "New Covenant". 
 
 When these changes were brought before the 
 Chapter of 17th May, 1220, the first companions 
 of St. Francis, who best understood their superior's 
 ideal, were indignant. Unfortunately, Gregory of 
 Naples, while discharging his functions, had been 
 able to influence many of the friars. But those 
 faithful to Francis, and uneasy at his protracted 
 absence which had given ground for a rumour of 
 his death sent one of their number to the East 
 to seek him out and to entreat his return. This 
 brother found him so quickly that it is pro- 
 bable he was about to embark for Italy at St. 
 Jean d'Acre. On hearing of his vicar's inter- 
 ference with the Rule, and of disorders initiated 
 by one of the friars who collected a body of 
 lepers, both men and women, and asked for papal 
 authority to unite them under a separate Rule he 
 was deeply distressed. He was aware of rebellious 
 elements within the brotherhood, but he had trusted 
 his vicars, and to them were due these revolutionary 
 steps, taken under the aegis of Pope and cardinal, 
 who were careful to keep their share in the changes 
 passive and unexpressed. 
 
 Francis took Pietro de Cattani, Brother Elias, 
 Caesar of Speyer (Spires) and others with him on 
 the homeward journey. They were landed at 
 Venice, whence they set out for Bologna, passing 
 by Padua, Brescia and Mantua. He sent a mes- 
 senger to Clare with a letter, of which only a few 
 lines have been recovered :
 
 156 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 " I, little Brother Francis, wish to follow the life 
 and the poverty of Jesus Christ, our exalted Saviour, 
 and of His holy mother, and to persevere therein 
 until the end ; and I entreat and exhort you all to 
 persevere always in this holy life and poverty. 
 And beware never to swerve from it, whoever 
 may counsel or teach you to that effect.'' 
 
 As he neared Bologna he was told that the pro- 
 vincial minister, Pietro Stacia, had placed his friars 
 in a house built for them, and had organised a 
 college for the pursuit of learning amongst them. 
 The house was known as belonging to the Brothers 
 Minor. This was opposed to the fundamental 
 principle of his order, which forbade all property, 
 and, as we have seen in the case of Rivo Torto, 
 demanded immediate cession of even a ruin to 
 whoever claimed it. His displeasure was so vehe- 
 ment that he cursed Brother Pietro Stacia, refusing 
 to revoke the curse when implored to do so. He 
 ordered the friars in residence to leave at once, 
 taking with them the sick persons whom they 
 were nursing. It is significant that they went to 
 Cardinal Ugolino, and that he was at pains to ex- 
 plain to Francis his personal proprietorship of the 
 building, which he permitted the friars to use. He, 
 too, was in Bologna, and they met daily. Francis 
 allowed himself to be over-ruled, but with what 
 agony he must have realised that the external 
 success of his order was to be its inward failure, 
 that Christ was to be betrayed afresh in the house 
 of His friends,
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 157 
 
 He was none the less willing to preach and to 
 call men to repentance, and, although the develop- 
 ment of his work was gone beyond him, he was still 
 beloved of all Italy, and the people crowded to 
 hear him on Assumption Day, when he addressed 
 them on the Piazza del Piccolo- Palazzo. An arch- 
 deacon of Bologna cathedral has left a vivid ac- 
 count of the occasion. He tells us that Francis 
 spoke on "angels, men and demons"; that his 
 garments were poor, his appearance was insigni- 
 ficant, his face without beauty ; but that God gave 
 such power to his words, which were not those of a 
 pulpit orator, but of one speaking heart to heart, 
 that wise men and nobles were filled with admira- 
 tion, and that blood-feuds in the city came to an 
 end because of his pleading for peace. The por- 
 trait is like that of his Master, in whom there was 
 no beauty that men should desire Him, but such a 
 power that they pressed to listen to Him. 
 
 After a few days Ugolino took him to the her- 
 mitage of San Romualdo, at Camaldoli, in the 
 Casentino deep in forest shades, and a short 
 distance from Monte Alverna. 
 
 Francis was in sore need of retreat, and Ugolino, 
 loving the man, but determined to vanquish his pre- 
 possession for such an inconvenient Rule as Christ's, 
 found the opportunity of passing St. Michael's Lent 
 together favourable to his purpose. 
 
 The tenor of the saint's preoccupation after quit- 
 ting Palestine is demonstrated by his pathetic dream 
 of the little black hen, whose chickens were so
 
 158 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 numerous that her wings could no longer shelter 
 them. And, indeed, his case was like his Master's, 
 who would fain have gathered His chickens together 
 "as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings," 
 but they would not. For to this it had come, that 
 many of the friars would not. 
 
 Humble and self-distrustful, in ill-health and 
 prostrated in spirit by disappointment, he was in 
 just the case favourable to Ugolino's skilful treat- 
 ment. Francis loved the cardinal and leant upon 
 his hardened wisdom, feeling it to be a relief from 
 his own sensitiveness to successive impressions. Nor 
 can we doubt that his affection was amply returned, 
 and that Ugolino reverenced his saintliness and 
 acknowledged his spiritual power. He must have 
 convinced Francis of the peculiar virtue of authority 
 at such crises, for by the middle of September his 
 point was gained. A month of affectionate com- 
 panionship and superlative tact, of pressure to the 
 point with perhaps tender reproof that he forbore 
 to accept the whole will of God ended in victory 
 for the cardinal. He did not venture to ask for 
 more than one concession, but that sufficed. 
 
 Francis, realising his own inadequacy, accepted 
 him as protector of the order and went to Orvieto 
 to ask and to receive the Pope's sanction for this 
 appointment. Ugolino's negotiations had been con- 
 ducted with the far-sighted and patient policy of a 
 great statesman. He granted to Francis the redress 
 of every immediate grievance, released the Sisters 
 from St. Benedict's Rule, discouraged the Leper
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 159 
 
 Order, and enjoined upon him the drawing up of a 
 new Rule to include a novitiate of one year for all 
 candidates, a precaution whose need was endorsed 
 by the recent disorders. A Bull on this point was 
 issued, to be read at the Michaelmas Chapter of 
 1220, the first of a long series which controlled the 
 future concerns of the order, and the death-knell 
 of its independence. Francis was no longer able to 
 inspire his friars with his own mind, and there was 
 nothing for their subjection to discipline except 
 authority. While he ruled in their hearts Christ 
 ruled over their lives ; when they rebelled against 
 him they followed their own caprices and became a 
 hindrance rather than an example, more dangerous 
 than the heretics of Lombardy and Viterbo. 
 
 The Chapter took place on 29th September, and 
 during its sittings Francis began to prepare his 
 new Rule. He was obliged to admit to his counsels 
 the ministers of the order. Reduced to deep de- 
 pression by all that had happened, prone to blame 
 himself for the defects of others, he lacked the 
 certainty of God's election and revelation, which had 
 given such impetus to his first steps. The net was 
 closing round him. His interpretation of God's will 
 was no longer deemed final, and his humility under- 
 mined his assurance. He held deliberate conferences 
 with the ministers, and a Rule was decided upon, 
 which, while maintaining some of the original prin- 
 ciples, mitigated the vow of poverty, that vow which 
 was the mainspring of the first institution. For, as 
 poverty had " run to meet our Lord at His nativity,"
 
 160 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 had laid Him in a manger, had gone with Him 
 along the dusty roads of Galilee, had provided for 
 Him the desert place for dwelling, the wayside for 
 rest, the hours of toil, the scanty meal, the dungeon 
 and the cross so she had saved Him from betray- 
 ing the will of His Father, had kept Him wholly 
 God-like, a pattern to all who live for the salvation 
 of the world. Against this helpmeet of Christ the 
 blow was levelled when Francis was forced to omit 
 from the new Rule the passage from St. Luke 
 which prescribed garb, bearing and forbearing neces- 
 sary for those who were sent forth as lambs amongst 
 wolves. "Woe unto those brethren," he cried, 
 "that set themselves against me in this matter, 
 which I know of a certainty to be of the will of 
 God for the greater usefulness and need of the 
 whole religion, albeit I unwillingly condescend 
 unto their will." " Herein is my grief and my 
 affliction, that in these things which, with much 
 travail of prayer and meditation, I obtain of God 
 through His mercy for the welfare present and 
 future of the whole religion, and am by Himself 
 certified that they be in accordance with His will, 
 yet certain of the brethren on the authority of their 
 own knowledge and false forethought, do go 
 against me and make them void, saying : ' Such 
 and such things are to be kept and observed and 
 such others not.' " 
 
 But he cried in vain. He resolved to resign his 
 office of superior, using his waning influence to 
 appoint Pietro de Cattani in his stead. Before the
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 161 
 
 autumn Chapter of 1220 ended, he presented Brother 
 Pietro to the assembly, saying : " Henceforward 
 am I dead unto you, but see here Pietro de Cattani 
 unto whom I and all you will be obedient." Then 
 he knelt on the ground and promised his own 
 obedience, while the friars who loved him wept sore. 
 " Lord," he prayed aloud, " unto Thee do I com- 
 mend the family that hitherto Thou hast committed 
 unto me. And now, O Lord most sweet, on account 
 of those infirmities whereof Thou wottest, being 
 unable to have the care thereof, I do commend the 
 same unto the ministers, the which in the day of 
 judgment shall be held answerable before Thee, O 
 Lord, in case any brother shall perish through their 
 negligence or evil ensample, or too harsh correction." 
 The great renunciation was made ; he had yielded 
 up the care of his flock ; henceforth he went alone 
 by rocky paths and desert places to his home in 
 the heart of God, ascribing to the maladies which 
 beset him this new stern providence for himself, 
 but understanding well that his own friars thwarted 
 his ideal for the order. " For some there be among 
 the number of the superiors, that do draw them 
 aside to other things, setting before them the ex- 
 ample of the elders, and holding my advice as of 
 little account, but that which they themselves do, 
 and how they do it, will be made clearer in the 
 end." 
 
 Nothing was more contrary to his "new cove- 
 nant " than the gradual systematising of the 
 order into monasticism. He sought to bridge 
 11
 
 162 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 over the gulf between the religious and secular 
 classes, strained apart by the Church, and to apply 
 Christ's rule of living as the true rule of living for 
 all men alike, promising results for the world which 
 it had not hitherto attained. 
 
 But with Ugolino's friendship came the " rift 
 within the lute," and its harmonies were dying in 
 discord. The appointment of provincial ministers, 
 and of vicars to act in his absence, was the first step 
 taken in the new direction, and this seems to belong 
 to 1218 and 1219- Their vicarious authority became 
 a conspiracy against his administrative influence, 
 although they kept up an appearance of reverence 
 for his office, even to the extent of calling Pietro 
 de Cattani vicar rather than minister-general. This 
 was a concession to the popular veneration for the 
 dear Umbrian saint. 
 
 Francis chose Brother Caesar of Speyer (Spires) 
 to assist him in drawing up the new Rule, whose 
 chief clauses were defined at Michaelmas. A student 
 of the Scriptures and a devoted friend, his collabora- 
 tion must have partially comforted Francis. Their 
 work was completed by Christmas. It occupied ten 
 folio pages, of which one sufficed for the Rule itself, 
 whilst the others were filled with passionate appeals 
 to the friars to keep the gospel way, and with 
 prayers of adoration to the Holy Trinity, to the 
 Blessed Mother of our Lord, to the archangels and 
 choirs of cherubim and seraphim, to saints and 
 apostles. One passage implored all who belonged to 
 the Catholic and Apostolic Church, not alone its
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 163 
 
 ecclesiastics and their following, but all who wor- 
 shipped within its temples babes and children, the 
 poor and exiled, kings, princes and working men, 
 servants and masters, old and young, people of 
 every tribe and of every nation to persevere in the 
 true faith and in penitence along with the Brothers 
 Minor unprofitable servants for outside of faith 
 and penitence no one could be saved. And then, 
 again and again he recalled the friars to that living 
 within the love of God which is as essential to the 
 spiritual as is air to the bodily health ; to the lift- 
 ing up of humble hearts in praise of the most high, 
 sovereign and eternal God, who alone can purify 
 and empower their faculties. The poignant note 
 of grief, uncertainty, anxiety rings in these an- 
 guished repetitions. 
 
 Francis took this document to Rome early in 
 1221, but before presenting it to Honorius III. 
 he submitted it to Cardinal Ugolino for criticism 
 and correction. As M. Sabatier suggests, it must 
 have been at this time that he constrained himself 
 to unresisting obedience. " Take a lifeless body 
 and set it where you please. Ye will see that it re- 
 senteth not being moved, nor changeth its position, 
 nor crieth out when it is let go. If that it be set 
 upon a throne, it looketh not toward the highest 
 but the lowest. If it be clad in purple, then is it 
 doubly wan. This is the truly obedient, that asketh 
 no question wherefore he should be moved, careth 
 not where he is placed, urgeth not that he should 
 be changed elsewhere. Promoted to office, he
 
 164 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 holdeth his wonted humility ; and the more he is 
 honoured the more he thinketh him unworthy." 
 
 Perhaps a touch of hysterical irony lurks in this 
 simile, but it was in the spirit of this obedience that 
 he submitted to Cardinal Ugolino's judgment. 
 
 The discoveries of M. Sabatier and of Padre 
 Berardelli give us a Rule, drawn up at the same 
 time, for the Third Order of Penitents. Twelve 
 chapters or paragraphs comprise what belongs to 
 1221, for the thirteenth, subjoined to the copy 
 found in 1901 by M. Sabatier in the convent of San 
 Giovanni of Capestrano, in the Province of Aquila, 
 was added in 1228, and was the first of a series of 
 changes. These twelve paragraphs concern cloth- 
 ing, abstinence, fasting, prayer, confession, com- 
 munion, prohibition to carry arms and use oaths, 
 works of mercy, masses for departed members, the 
 making of wills, the treatment of heretics and the . 
 punishment of wrongdoing. The clauses are short 
 and incisive, and contain nothing of the essential 
 quality of the saint's compositions. Doubtless this 
 memorial for the Third Order of Penitents may be 
 referred to the cardinal. These had increased to 
 so great a number throughout Italy that their 
 organisation would commend itself to him, and his 
 action was hastened by numerous indiscretions due 
 to their lack of supervision. We have seen how 
 they meant for Francis and his first companions the 
 coming of God's kingdom throughout the world. 
 His preaching and influence attracted the first : 
 home missions added to their number. They lived
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 165 
 
 in their homes, the best of them simply obedient to 
 Christ's teaching. But want of direction was soon 
 manifest amongst them. This Rule places them 
 under four authorities, or ministers the visitor, the 
 spiritual adviser, the director, and finally the bishop 
 in whose diocese they dwelt. The visitor's functions 
 were judicial ; he reproved, corrected and punished 
 disorders. Throughout the thirteenth century this 
 Third Order gave the Franciscan generals consider- 
 able trouble, and the Rule of 1221 was altered and 
 enlarged in 1228, 1234- and 1289- 
 
 Cardinal Ugolino, the most influential member of 
 the college, friend for the moment of Frederick II., 
 powerful with Honorius III., was still much occu- 
 pied with the development of the Mendicant Orders. 
 He considered them complimentary to each other, 
 and wished to effect not only a close alliance between 
 them, but to invest them with authority, and to 
 strengthen the hierarchy from their ranks. His 
 imagination pictured them so firmly welded to the 
 Church that they would form a strong bulwark for 
 her power throughout the world. 
 
 Dominic was' in Rome at this time and met 
 Francis frequently in the cardinal's palace. Ugo- 
 lino suggested to both his project of choosing 
 bishops from their friars, but failed to win their 
 approval. " I would rather that my friars remain 
 as they are," said Dominic, and Francis refused 
 honour for his on the ground that minores could not 
 become major es. "If you would that they bring 
 forth fruit in the Church of God let them stay
 
 166 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 where God has called them. Let not their poverty 
 become an occasion of pride, and rather thrust them 
 down than allow them to climb on high." 
 
 They parted on the day when Dominic left for 
 Bologna to die a few months later and as they 
 bade each other farewell Dominic begged for the 
 cord which girded Francis and wore it under his 
 habit to the end. " Of a truth," he said to his 
 followers, " all the religious ought to imitate this 
 holy man Francis, so absolute is the perfection of 
 his holiness." 
 
 Pietro de Cattani's death on the 10th of March 
 recalled Francis to the Portiuncula, when he chose 
 Brother Elias to be minister-general. This act 
 marks emphatically his subjection to the papal 
 policy. Caesar of Speyer (Spires) was out of the 
 way, despatched to Southern Germany on mission 
 work shortly before Pietro's death. The Curia 
 could not have succeeded so well with him as with 
 Brother Elias, whose character the astute cardinal 
 readily gauged. Ugolino doubtless desired Francis 
 to make the appointment, because it owed nothing 
 to the suffrages of the friars assembled three months 
 later at the Whitsuntide Chapter. Beyond an occa- 
 sional convulsion of opposition or bitter cry of 
 disappointment, Francis made little effort to stem 
 the backward movement. He seems to have de- 
 voted himself to the cultivation of personal humility, 
 no longer exclusively towards God, but also towards 
 Ugolino and the ministers of the order, whose inter- 
 position between himself and the friars destroyed
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 167 
 
 their ere while relations of father and children, and 
 thwarted the gentle influence with which he had 
 once swayed their minds and their conduct. It 
 may have been suggested to him that he was to 
 blame for their disorders, and in the nervous crisis 
 produced by all these disasters the suggestion had 
 taken root and grown into a half-bewildered peni- 
 tence. Certainly his aim was to offer a constant 
 example of dumb obedience to Elias. The effort 
 induced an odd reaction of feeling, in which his 
 own shrewd intuitions turned and rent him. He 
 took an aversion to Elias which he could hardly 
 overcome and which he ascribed to a prevision of 
 his eternal damnation. But this was merely a 
 hysterical reason for his well-grounded distrust of 
 the new government, now passed into the hands 
 of the men of learning, the men who had sought 
 out many inventions, preferring them to the simple 
 Rule of which Christ had been sole mouthpiece. 
 
 At the Chapter of May -SOth, 1221, Francis took 
 his place humbly at Bombarone's feet. To him he 
 handed the new Rule for proclamation. Some 
 arrangement had been come to between Elias and 
 Ugolino, for the Rule disappeared a few days later. 
 Brother Elias said he had lost it ; more probably 
 he had sent it to the cardinal, who found himself 
 unable to be present, and who would take good 
 care to lose it, since he knew and disapproved of 
 its contents. So Francis, with some of his earliest 
 followers, Brothers Bernardo, Leo, Egidio, Bonizio, 
 retired to the hermitage at Monte Colombo and
 
 168 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 began to write out a second copy. When this was 
 known there was consternation amongst the friars 
 whose party was in authority. They came to Elias 
 complaining that Francis was making a Rule too 
 heavy to bear, and asking the minister-general to 
 interfere and to tell the saint that they would not 
 be bound by his Rule, so that he might make it for 
 himself but not for them. Elias declined the em- 
 bassy unless the malcontents were willing to go 
 with him. They consented to this, and seeking 
 Francis in his solitude, laid their objections to the 
 gospel Rule before him. These he repelled, re- 
 minding them that Christ Himself had called them 
 to obey this Rule, and suggesting that all those 
 friars who refused it should leave the order. But 
 his struggle was vain. Well did the rebels know 
 that Elias, Ugolino, the Pope were at their back ; 
 that until the document had been modified by 
 authority, their obedience could not be exacted ; 
 that its doom would be pronounced at the forth- 
 coming Chapter. 
 
 Whatever precautions were taken to veil their 
 policy from Francis and his faithful few, its further- 
 ance was resolved, and we are almost driven to 
 conjecture that their attitude towards him was one 
 of scarcely concealed impatience for his death. 
 Blow after blow fell upon the fair fabric of his plan. 
 No longer were the brothers to be as Christ was, 
 or as those whom Christ ordained. They were to 
 be gathered into communities, into houses, to have 
 privileges and possessions, to have churches of their
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 169 
 
 own, to be under strict command, to be employed 
 as papal messengers, agents, instruments. Not for 
 the salvation of the world were they to exist, but 
 for the endorsement of ecclesiastical authority. 
 The hermitages were to be abandoned ; the little 
 temporary homes of canes and branches, which 
 served them for brief shelter on their itineraries, 
 were to be disused. Solid structures were begun 
 to receive them permanently. No longer were the 
 humble and ancient sanctuaries to be their care ; 
 were they to fill churches in town and city ; were 
 they to gather peasants about them in the fields, 
 townsfolk in the piazzas. 
 
 Fine churches began to rise wherever their com- 
 panies were planted, to give them local importance, 
 to destroy the very foundations upon which their 
 order had been raised. For the things invisible 
 and eternal had once more come to judgment and 
 were decreed worthless beside the visible. 
 
 The friars were granted power to celebrate the 
 offices and functions of the Church in times of in- 
 terdict ; they were employed by the Court of Rome 
 against the regular clergy when these were de- 
 faulters. 
 
 This revolution was relentlessly carried out, while 
 Francis was kept in partial ignorance of its develop- 
 ment. He was reduced to fill the role of saint with- 
 out authority or influence. It was a tragic role, for 
 the shortcomings of his children recoiled upon him 
 as if they were his own, and he lamented them in 
 anguish, which preyed upon him,
 
 170 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 It was not till 1223 that the new Rule was pro- 
 mulgated, and its clauses betray the setting aside 
 of what he held to be essential. Even what of his 
 was retained is modified into futility, given as a 
 counsel of perfection, and then carefully disallowed. 
 Thus, his gospel precedent regarding friars con- 
 victed of sin, either mortal or venial, is disregarded, 
 and elaborate instructions take its place, giving 
 judicial functions to the provincial minister through 
 a priest of the order. 
 
 Then the minister-general is endowed with ulti- 
 mate administrative power. The Chapters are no 
 longer to be held biennially at Pentecost and 
 Michaelmas. Their assembling depends on the 
 good pleasure of the general. His government is 
 to be without reference to the Chapter, which is 
 to be convoked for administrative purposes only 
 when the general is inefficient. There is no doubt 
 that Ugolino and Elias framed this important clause 
 without reference to Francis, and that the complete 
 revolution of the order was effected by virtue of 
 its action. It stopped the mouths of all who were 
 loyal to the original purpose and organisation. 
 Some of these reproached Francis for doing nothing 
 to hinder this destruction of the old ideal, and his 
 answer indicates the advantage taken by cardinal 
 and minister-general of his enfeebled state. " For 
 so long as I held the office of superior over the 
 brethren and they did abide in their vocation and 
 profession, albeit that from the beginning of my 
 conversion I have ever been ailing, yet with such
 
 YEARS OF TROUBLE 171 
 
 small solicitude, as I could, did I endeavour to 
 satisfy them both by ensample and by preaching ; 
 but, after that, I perceived how the Lord did 
 multiply the number of the brethren, and how they 
 themselves, by reason of their lukewarmness and 
 want of spirit, did begin to decline from the right 
 way and safe wherein they had been wont to walk, 
 and treading the broader way that leadeth unto 
 death, would no longer pay heed unto their calling 
 and profession, nor to any good ensample, and were 
 not minded to forsake the perilous and deadly 
 journey they had emprised, by reason of any 
 preaching or admonition or ensample of mine that 
 I did ever manifest before them, I did, therefore, 
 resign the superiorship and the government of the 
 religion unto God and unto the ministers thereof. 
 Whence, albeit that at the time when I did renounce 
 mine office of superior over the brethren, I did 
 excuse me before the brethren in the Chapter 
 General for that, by reason of mine infirmities, I 
 was not able to undertake the charge of them ; yet, 
 natheless, were the brethren willing to walk ac- 
 cording to my will ; for their comfort and utility I 
 would that they should have none other minister 
 but me until my dying day. From the time that 
 a good and faithful subject knoweth and observeth 
 the will of his superior, little solicitude need the 
 superior have about him ; yea, so greatly should I 
 rejoice in the goodness of the brethren, by reason 
 of the gain unto them and the gain unto myself, 
 that if I were lying abed sick it would be no
 
 172 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 trouble unto me to satisfy them ; for that mine 
 office that is the office of superior is spiritual 
 only, to wit, to have the mastery over their evil 
 ways, and spiritually to correct and amend them. 
 But, seeing that I cannot correct and amend them 
 by preaching, admonition and example, I am not 
 minded to become an executioner to punish and 
 scourge them like the magistrates of this world. 
 For I trust in the Lord that the invisible enemies 
 that are the sergeants of the Lord, for punishing 
 the guilty in this world and in the world to come, 
 will get like vengeance on them that transgress 
 the commandments of God and the vow of their 
 profession, . . . that so they may be turned back 
 unto their own calling and profession."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 LAST YEARS 
 12231226 
 
 The Rule of 1223 The Praesepio of Greccio The Friars in 
 England Monte Alverna The Stigmata Farewell to 
 Monte Alverna Canticle of the Sun Rieti Siena 
 Bagnara Assisi Bishop and Magnates at Variance 
 Francis makes Peace. 
 
 THE Rule was finally passed by Cardinal Ugo- 
 lino and the ministers at the Michaelmas 
 Chapter of 1223. Francis took it to Monte 
 Colombo, and remained at the hermitage there 
 in prayer and fasting, before he went to Rome, 
 where he was the cardinal's guest. On Novem- 
 ber 25th, he was received at the Lateran, and 
 Honorius, after personally modifying one of its 
 clauses, bestowed upon the Rule his seal and 
 sanction. 
 
 It was during this visit that he one day shocked 
 his host by arriving rather late for dinner, with a 
 collection of crusts which he had begged, and which 
 he distributed to all at table, explaining afterwards 
 that for him and his true sons the table of the Lord 
 far outweighed the richest banquet. 
 (173)
 
 174 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Some strain of nervous excitability is obvious in 
 another incident, which recounts his painful ex- 
 periences in a tower near the palace of Cardinal 
 Leo, who had persuaded him to spend a few days 
 as his guest. He was either attacked by thieves 
 or suffered from a nightmare, in which he believed 
 himself to be beaten by demons on account of his 
 selfish disregard of the privations of the brethren, to 
 punish which God had sent these His sergeants for 
 his correction. So next morning he bade the car- 
 dinal farewell, and returned to Monte Colombo, his 
 solitude near Rieti. 
 
 The time approached Christmas Eve. Hallowed 
 memories of Bethlehem crowded upon him and 
 dispelled the strange terrors of an over-wrought 
 imagination, which had invaded even this peaceful 
 hermitage making him their prey one midnight 
 because the brothers insisted on his using a feather 
 pillow, for which his conscience reproached him. 
 In the neighbourhood lived a friend, John of 
 Greccio. Francis went to him and asked him to 
 help in carrying out an inspiration for the festival. 
 The good man provided a manger filled with hay, 
 an ox and an ass. From all the neighbouring 
 monasteries monks were bidden to come to the 
 hermitage, and the pathways up Monte Colombo 
 rang with their footsteps and chanting. As the 
 winter afternoon darkened, peasants, torch in hand, 
 hastened through the forest, laden with candles for 
 the praesepio. The cells were filled with light. 
 In the larger was placed the manger, the ox and ass
 
 LAST YEARS 175 
 
 were led to its side, and a babe was laid in it by 
 Francis himself; it turned in his arms and gazed 
 upon him smiling. He trembled with joy, while 
 tears of sorrow for the Babe of Bethlehem, laid 
 long ago by the Lady Poverty upon hay in a 
 manger, fell from his eyes. As midnight passed 
 the brothers joined in matins ; mass was sung, 
 and Francis read the gospel of Good Tidings and 
 preached upon the " Child of Bethlehem ". It 
 seemed to all that they were in Bethlehem, that 
 time and space were vanquished as they listened 
 and they adored the God who so loved the world 
 that He spared not His Son. 
 
 Joy returned to the desolate heart : the Babe of 
 Bethlehem had brought him peace. M. Sabatier 
 reminds us how this joy inspired Brother Jacopone 
 di Todi to write a second Stabat Mater, one in 
 which Mary's heart sings at the cradle of her 
 Son. 
 
 Stood the mother full of joy 
 By the hay where lay her Boy, 
 Very fair she was to see. 
 
 And she gloried all amazed, 
 A i id exulted as she gazed, 
 Worshipping the Babe she bore. 
 
 Make me glad in verity, 
 Little Jesus, one with Thee 
 All my life, I Thee implore. 
 
 At Pentecost, 1224, the new Rule was put into 
 the hands of the ministers. The copy brought back
 
 176 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 from Rome by Francis, to which is attached the 
 Pope's seal", is still in existence and can be seen in 
 the sacristy of San Francesco at Assisi. 
 
 A mission was despatched to England, reaching 
 Dover late in the autumn of that year. One of 
 Brother Pacifico's best workers in France, Brother 
 Agnello di Pisa, was placed at its head. Two by 
 two the friars made for the towns for Oxford and 
 London first of all and for their worst quarters, 
 where fevers, leprosy and misery were most at 
 home. Newgate was their choice in London, while 
 at Oxford they built their mud and wattle huts 
 amongst the river swamps. Rebuff and welcome 
 they accepted with equal mind, for these men were 
 still of true Franciscan spirit, and perhaps knew 
 nothing of the revolt. So, at all events, we are led 
 to believe from their ardent poverty and fidelity to 
 the Rule. It was not until they had attracted a 
 large body of adherents, until the first friars had 
 passed away, that the trend towards monasticism 
 and learning affected the order in England, and 
 even then we find its members in fullest sympathy 
 with the spirit of liberty, of light, of revolt against 
 papal tyranny. And in England, as elsewhere, they 
 quickened the current of tenderness for the wretched 
 and diseased, which had grown stagnant in the 
 Church as in the State. 
 
 Early in August Francis, taking Brothers Leo, 
 Angelo, Masseo and Illuminate with him, left for 
 Monte Alverna in the upper valley of the Arno. 
 There was no duty now to hold him back from
 
 LAST YEARS 177 
 
 those desert places, where he could commune with 
 God. They started on foot, but two days of toil- 
 some walking exhausted his powers, and a peasant 
 of the plain of Arezzo pressed upon his use an ass, 
 which he prepared to lead himself. The Arno flows 
 there amongst vines and mulberries, and the Apen- 
 nines circle round, rising three and four thousand 
 feet, their lower slopes corn and meadow land, 
 their mid-flanks clad with oaks and chestnuts, their 
 summits dark with pines. As they journeyed to- 
 wards the sternest of these mountain heights, the 
 peasant asked him if he were in truth that Francis 
 of Assisi of whom all men spoke, and, being as- 
 sured, he bade him take heed to be as good as men 
 accounted him, since it were pity that they should 
 be deceived. And Francis, rejoiced at his homely 
 sincerity, dismounted that he might the better 
 thank him on his knees for so congenial a counsel. 
 Monte Alverna, four thousand feet in height, was 
 ascended by a narrow path amongst bare rocks, 
 precipitous and unclad. But on its summit grew a 
 forest of pines, oaks and beeches, and under their 
 shade nestled wild flowers, belated cyclamens and 
 starry pyrolas. Amongst the trees, too, dwelt a 
 great colony of birds, from fierce falcons frequent- 
 ing the cliffs to little song-birds merle, mavis and 
 finch. For the Casentino is very rich in birds. As 
 the weary company rested under an oak, a flock of 
 songsters flew from the forest to greet St. Francis, 
 settling on his head and shoulders and hands, bid- 
 ding him welcome with shrill cries and fluttering 
 12
 
 178 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 wings. With gladdened mien he turned to his 
 companions, saying : " I see it seems good to our 
 Lord that we sojourn on this lonely mountain, since 
 our little sisters the birds meet us with such de- 
 light." 
 
 Then resuming their way, they toiled up to the 
 summit, and found there the preparations made by 
 Count Orlando for their stay. Caves supplied cells 
 for the brothers, and on the sward stood a hut 
 made and roofed of branches for Francis. But not 
 at once did he retire to solitude. The beauty of 
 the summer night, the balmy air, the rustle of 
 leaves, the fragrance all demanded a tribute of 
 acknowledgment, for all came direct from the 
 Creator. There were arrangements as well to be 
 made for the two months which he proposed to 
 spend there. A small sanctuary had been built for 
 their daily mass and offices, and Francis called it 
 Santa Maria degli Angioli, in memory of the be- 
 loved mother shrine at home. Times and seasons 
 were appointed for all services. As he sat upon a 
 rock with the faithful few around him, he talked 
 of his death as something with which he now stood 
 face to face, with no personal regret, but with 
 anxiety for them, lambs amongst wolves, whose 
 future he could not foresee. For them he was 
 willing still to live and suffer, to spend and be spent, 
 would that assure their safety in the narrow way. 
 The order had gone from him, but these and some 
 others were his "little flock, "and the kingdom was 
 given to them.
 
 LAST YEARS 179 
 
 For himself, he had sought Monte Alverna for 
 fasting and prayer, for meditation on the Passion 
 of his Master, which he understood now as he had 
 never done before. Christ had been forsaken by 
 His own, as Francis was now, without even a loyal 
 remnant to console Him in the dark hour of His 
 need. Towards mid-September would come the 
 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross ; he meant to 
 prepare himself for it by unremitting surrender of 
 mind and spirit to the Crucified One and His suf- 
 ferings. He bade his companions protect his 
 solitude ; do for all who came what was asked of 
 them, but suffer no secular visitor to interrupt him 
 as he wrestled in prayer. He gave Brother Leo 
 instructions to bring him bread and water daily. 
 
 His leafy hut was but a stone's throw from the 
 cells, and the brothers, hungering and thirsting for 
 their beloved father, were too near him, watched 
 him too closely. In a few days the Feast of the 
 Assumption was due, and it initiated what he called 
 St. Michael's Lent, which, ending with September, 
 he was used to observe in strict solitude and fasting. 
 So he sought a place of absolute seclusion. A chasm 
 in the Penna lay between an isolated mass of rock 
 and the cells of the brothers. It was crossed by a 
 log of wood, and Francis found on the other side a 
 supreme solitude, broken only by the falcon nesting 
 there, whom his presence did not disturb, and to 
 whose cries at dawn he trusted as a call to matins, 
 believing when the bird wheeled upwards in silence 
 that he forbore to waken him through pity of his
 
 180 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 prostration and this may well have been, since the 
 man and all God's creatures were at one. 
 
 Here a hut was built for him, and on the Feast 
 of the Assumption he began his fast. From time 
 to time Brother Leo was allowed to say matins with 
 him, and it may have been after this function that 
 one day he won from him that written benediction 
 still to be seen in the sacristy of San Francesco at 
 Assisi, all soiled at the folds with long carrying in 
 the Pecorello's tunic. In pain and blindness Francis 
 formed the letters on a little sheet of parchment, 
 about six inches in length and four in width. On 
 one side he wrote a number of verses from the 
 Laudes Creatoris, and on the other the beautiful 
 benediction from the sixth chapter of Numbers, 
 which God ordained for Aaron's use : 
 
 Benedicat tibi Dominus et custodial te : 
 Ostcndal faciem suam tibi et misereatur tui : 
 Convertat vultum suum ad te et det tibi pacem : 
 
 Then, to make it specially the Pecorello's own, he 
 wrote : 
 
 Dominus benedicat te Prater Leo : 
 
 and below this special consecration he sketched a 
 cross like a Greek Tau, the old form of the cross, 
 and placed beside it a recumbent friar, Brother Leo, 
 to remind him that he must lie low at the foot of 
 the cross all the days of his life. Some lines in red 
 ink written by Leo date this most pathetic docu- 
 ment after the event which befel Francis on the 
 morning of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
 
 THE BENEDICTION OF BROTHER LEO 
 From the original in tlte Sacristy of the Upper Church at Assist
 
 LAST YEARS 181 
 
 He had spent weekd in prayer and fasting, his 
 whole spirit absorbed with the sorrow of the Cross, 
 well understood by one betrayed, too, by his fol- 
 lowers to the priests. No man on earth ever 
 realised so keenly as did Francis what the Man of 
 Sorrows suffered before His crucifixion, and while 
 He hung upon the tree God's gift of the marks of 
 that final agony was but the Divine recognition of 
 his martyrdom. They were bestowed upon him 
 suddenly after his long vigil while he knelt before the 
 entrance of his hut praying for union with Christ's 
 sufferings. His face was turned towards the dawn, 
 whose light more radiant than common shone upon 
 him. For down its rays there sped a vision of One 
 nailed to a cross, flying to him with wings that beat 
 the air, while two wings covered his head and two 
 his feet. A moment the marvel rested above him 
 while he gazed, and then words fell from its lips, 
 and he understood that his martyrdom was accepted, 
 his prayer granted. When the glory faded he found 
 upon hands and feet and side the marks of the 
 Lord's body. From a wound on his right side 
 oozed a few drops of blood, and through his hands 
 and feet were fleshy growths, black in colour and 
 piercing from side to side. They resembled nails 
 exactly, and were not the mere wounds of modern 
 hysterical ecstaticism. 
 
 Celestial joy accompanied and followed this great 
 investiture, and recompensed him for all the pain 
 that went before. He abode in that joy a fort- 
 night longer, and on September 30th, the Festival
 
 182 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 of Saints Michael and Jerome, left Monte Alverna 
 for ever. The circumstances of his going are set 
 forth in a beautiful letter written long afterwards 
 by Brother Masseo for the edification of the order. 
 
 Masseo was more than ninety years old when he 
 died, and he spent seventy years of his long life in 
 humble obedience to the gospel Rule. He tells 
 how Francis called the brothers into the oratory 
 of Santa Maria degli Angioli early that morning, 
 and commended the sanctuary and the mountain 
 to their care, saying especially to Masseo : " Fra 
 Masseo, know that it is my mind that in this place 
 should abide those of the religious who fear God and 
 are the best of my order : the superiors, therefore, 
 must seek to place the best of the brothers here." 
 
 And then he sighed, remembering how few there 
 were now of such ! Then he bade Brothers An- 
 gelo, Sylvestro, Illuminato and Masseo take special 
 care of the spot where he had fasted and prayed. 
 These friars he left to care for Monte Alverna and its 
 shrines, but Brother Leo went with him Fra " Peco- 
 rello di Dio," as he tenderly called him the man 
 amongst them all who understood him best, who 
 has most lovingly portrayed him with least of 
 vain imagining, most of insight, and who alone at 
 that time knew of the stigmata. He bade the four 
 others farewell, each and all again and again. 
 " Adieu to all, adieu O mountain, adieu Monte 
 Alverna, adieu mount of angels, adieu thou 
 dearest ! Brother Falcon, I thank thee for the 
 kindness thou didst use to me ! Adieu, adieu sharp
 
 LAST YEARS 183 
 
 rock, I shall not come to visit thee again ! Adieu 
 rock, adieu, adieu, adieu rock, which didst receive 
 me into thy bowels, frustrating the cunning Evil 
 One ; we shall not see each other again ! Adieu 
 Santa Maria degli Angioli ; I commend to thee 
 my children, Mother of the Eternal Word ! " 
 
 A copy of this letter, made in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, was kept at San Damiano until the middle of 
 last century, when it was transferred to the monas- 
 tery on Monte Alverna, where it is read aloud on 
 every anniversary of the saint's departure. Count 
 Orlando sent a horse for his use, and after these 
 charges and farewells he mounted and began the 
 long descent towards Chiusi, where he probably 
 visited the count. Then riding by Monte Arcoppe 
 and the Foresto he came to the summit of Monte 
 Acuto, whence he could still see the sacred mountain, 
 and there dismounting, he knelt to bid a last farewell 
 to the " Mountain in which God is well pleased to 
 dwell. Adieu, Monte Alverna, may God the Father, 
 God the Son and God the Spirit bless thee, abide 
 in peace, for we shall see each other no more ! " 
 
 All the brothers went with him as far as Monte 
 Casale, where there was a little hermitage in which 
 he rested several days. At this point he dismissed 
 the four brothers, to whose care he had committed 
 Monte Alverna, and they took back Count Orlando's 
 horse to Chiusi. He was lost in meditation while 
 he passed from village to village, and did not 
 know that he was making a triumphal progress, 
 marked by miracles.
 
 184 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 At Citta di Castello he lingered, preaching and 
 healing for a whole month, and then winter coming 
 suddenly he started for the Umbrian plain on an 
 ass, led by the peasant who lent it, and whose 
 churlish temper he cured by his gaiety and gentle- 
 ness, during a rough night spent under a rock. 
 
 He stayed a few hours only at Santa Maria degli 
 Angeli, perhaps fearful that God's sacred grace of 
 the stigmata might become known. He went in 
 the strength of that grace on a missionary tour 
 in Umbria. But he was compelled to make it 
 mounted on an ass, because his physical force 
 failed daily. His growing blindness distressed all 
 those who loved him. Amongst them was Elias, 
 the vicar-general, in whose hands the government 
 of the order was becoming more firmly concen- 
 trated. He seems at this time to have used his 
 authority sparingly over Francis, but, although he 
 sought his company, and was with him during part 
 of this itinerary, the saint most carefully concealed 
 from him the Divine favour bestowed at Alverna. 
 They were at Foligno together when Elias spoke 
 of a vision, in which it had been revealed to him 
 that Francis had but two years more to live. Old 
 age had descended upon him suddenly. Not only 
 were his eyes darkened, but he suffered from 
 constant sickness and frequent spitting of blood. 
 Every physical organ was impaired, and he was 
 always in pain. Fasts and austerities and poignant 
 sorrow had accomplished this collapse. 
 
 While he could sing for joy the spare table of
 
 LAST YEARS 185 
 
 the Lord had sufficed to keep him in a measure of 
 health, but when grief invaded his heart the whole 
 fabric of the man broke down. 
 
 Intermittent strife between Honorius and the 
 Roman citizens forced the Pope into flight in the 
 spring of 1225, first to Tivoli, and then to Rieti, 
 where the papal court was established till the 
 end of 1226. With him were his physicians, 
 men whose small skill was made worthless by the 
 nature of their favourite remedies, prescribed by 
 the dogmatic teaching of centuries, but whose 
 pretensions gave them a credit to which they 
 were not entitled. Cardinal Ugolino was anxious 
 that Francis should come to Rieti to have his eyes 
 examined. He wrote an affectionate letter to this 
 effect, and Brother Elias seconding his appeal, 
 Francis was with much difficulty persuaded to ac- 
 cept his invitation. 
 
 His own forebodings were of death, for few could 
 hope to survive the surgical butcheries of that age. 
 He decided to pay Sister Clare a farewell visit 
 before going to Rieti. It was near the end of July 
 when he arrived at San Damiano. A few hours after- 
 wards he was seized with such acute pain that his 
 departure was delayed. Clare and the sisters nursed 
 him during the fortnight of his illness. He was 
 now quite blind, but desired more solitude and 
 greater freedom than were possible within the walls 
 of San Damiano. Clare with her own hands built 
 a large hut of reeds and rushes in her garden, to 
 which he was removed, and where, in spite of an
 
 186 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 invasion of rats and mice by day and night, which 
 let him neither eat nor sleep in peace, he recovered 
 the serenity of mind and the joyousness of spirit 
 which had so energised the first ten years of his 
 apostolate. For in the midst of trials, which the 
 childish mind of that age attributed to diabolic 
 annoyance, he was comforted once again by the 
 voice of his Master, who bade him rejoice greatly 
 in his tribulations and infirmities and heed nothing 
 but the priceless treasure which God had given him 
 in reward of them, as if already he had entered into 
 His kingdom. 
 
 His soul was filled with rapture and overflowed 
 in praise, and the sisters often heard his voice lifted 
 up in new songs while he walked under the olive- 
 trees. The vision within was rendered to him a 
 thousand-fold for the shadow fallen on his eyes. 
 
 One day he sat at table with the sisters and 
 talked to St. Clare. Then he passed into a rapture 
 away from them all. The Spirit was come upon 
 him with utterance for the Canticle of the Sun, a 
 Psalm of the Creator's glory : 
 
 Most high, almighty and good Lord, 
 
 To Thee belong lauds, glory, honour and all blessing ; 
 
 To Thee alone, most high, do they belong, 
 
 And none is worthy to speak forth Thy name. 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, through all Thy creatures, 
 And in especial for the lordly Brother Sun, 
 Through whom Thou givest light by day ; 
 For fair is he and radiant with great splendour, 
 And symbolises Tbee, O Thou most higb.
 
 LAST YEARS 187 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for Sister Moon, 
 And for the Stars placed in the heavens, 
 Clear-shining, of great value and beautiful. 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for Brother Wind, 
 
 And for the Air, and for the Cloud, and for all Weather, 
 
 Through which Thou givest bread unto Thy creatures. 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for Sister Water, 
 For she is very useful, lowly, valuable and clean. 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for Brother Fire, 
 
 Through whom Thou givest light by night, 
 
 For he is beautiful and glad, and brave and strong. 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for Sister Earth, our mother, 
 For she feeds us and maintains us 
 
 And grows the varied fruits, and tinted blossoms and the 
 grass. 
 
 He wished to send for Brother Pacifico to arrange 
 the Canticle of the Sun, so that his minstrels might 
 sing it everywhere. He rejoiced because the Lord 
 had given him songs of praise for heaviness. An- 
 other was composed at this time, for the comfort 
 and edification of the Sisters of Poverty, but it has 
 been lost. 
 
 When September was half-way through, he went 
 to Rieti, resting on the way with the poor priest of 
 San Fabiano, whose hospitality was strained by the 
 crowd of visitors seeking Francis, even prelates and 
 their following not disdaining to pluck his ripening 
 grapes, so that he feared for his vintage until the
 
 188 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 saint reassured him and promised him more than 
 the average measure of wine. 
 
 The Bishop of Rieti was his host, and showered 
 attentions upon him. Already the Church was 
 awake to his value, not as an inspiration and an 
 example, but as an article of merchandise, and he 
 had a sample of its solicitude for his remains in 
 eager demands for morsels of his clothing, for his 
 hair, for even the cuttings of his nails, which dis- 
 turbed his stay at the Vescovado. He asked to be 
 transferred to the hermitage of Monte Colombo. 
 Various remedies had been vainly tried for his eyes, 
 and the physicians decided on cautery. The heat 
 of the iron gave him a moment's panic, but making 
 over it the sign of the Cross, he cried : " Brother 
 Fire, beautiful amongst all creatures, show me 
 favour now ; thou knowest how I love thee, show 
 me courtesy this day." 
 
 And when the operation was over he rallied 
 the brothers, who had fled from witnessing it : 
 " O cowards, why did you flee ? I felt no pain. 
 Brother Doctor, if need be, begin again." 
 
 He was tortured with every contrivance of the 
 faculty, steeped then in Cimmerian darkness, hack- 
 ing, plastering, cauterising, and all in vain. He 
 was brought back to Rieti for their convenience, 
 and longed for some assuagement of his pain. He 
 asked a brother to borrow a guitar and play to him, 
 but the weakling would not do it lest it should be 
 counted as a scandal. So in the peace of midnight 
 an angel played to him upon a violin, and soothed
 
 LAST YEARS 189 
 
 him into joy unutterable with the melodies of 
 heaven. 
 
 When the cures were given up he felt a little 
 better, and eager to redeem the time, he went 
 from hermitage to hermitage in the valley of Rieti, 
 preaching to the peasants and townspeople in the 
 neighbourhood of each. He spent Christmas in a 
 cell near Poggio Buscone, whither crowds came 
 daily to listen to him. " You think me a great 
 saint, do you," he said to them ; " what will you 
 say when you know that I did not fast all Advent ? " 
 
 At Sant' Eleuterio, Greccio, Sant' Urbano, he 
 preached or kept solitude in the hermitage at 
 hand. The weather was cold and he sewed bits 
 of cloth upon his own tunic and that of his com- 
 panion. Some one gave him the skin of a fox 
 for lining, and although he gladly accepted it, he 
 sewed a bit of the fur outside, that all might see 
 how little he mortified the flesh. It may have been 
 during this winter that one day when he was near 
 a fire the flame caught his under-garment and his 
 companion put it out. " Nay, dear brother, harm 
 not Brother Fire," he said ; " if he wishes to eat my 
 clothes, why should he not ? " His joyous humour 
 had returned to him blind, enfeebled, in constant 
 pain, suffering cold and exposure because once 
 more he was about his Master's business. But the 
 time was short. 
 
 In spring he was urged to go to Siena to consult 
 a physician who had some fame as an oculist. 
 Four of the brothers accompanied him to a place
 
 190 , FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 given to the Franciscans by Bonaventure, where 
 Francis fell again grievously ill, vomiting blood in 
 such quantities that his companions wept with 
 mingled sorrow and terror, expecting his last hour. 
 He asked that a saintly brother living at Arezzo 
 might be sent for, and dictated to him a benediction 
 of all his friars. 
 
 Brother Elias hastened to Siena on receiving 
 news of his condition, and yielded to the saint's 
 desire to return to his beloved Umbrian plain. But 
 it was mid-April before he was fit to be carried in 
 a litter, and then the journey began by stages, 
 rendered very slow by his constant relapses. Cor- 
 tona was the first halting-place, for the way was 
 easy and the hermitage pleasant, but a seizure 
 followed this transit, and some days were lost be- 
 fore his bearers could remove him. A roundabout 
 route was chosen, for it was impossible to pass by 
 Perugia, where the citizens were on the watch to 
 possess themselves of the saint's body, dead or 
 alive, and were prepared to take it by violence. 
 So their passage from stage to stage had to be care- 
 fully and secretly chosen, and they made a long 
 loop by Gubbio and Nocera. He rested many 
 weeks at Bagnara, a hermitage above Nocera, 
 famous still for healing waters and fine air, whence 
 the Topino flows green as the sea down its shelv- 
 ing and rocky bed, to girdle Foligno's walls and to 
 cross the plain. 
 
 News was sent to Assisi of his arrival and of his 
 renewed illness. It was certain now that the end
 
 LAST YEARS 191 
 
 was near. The Assisans sent soldiers to carry his 
 litter, and to defend its precious burden should 
 Perugia attempt to capture it. Down through 
 Nocera, and by the long descent leading over a low 
 pass between Subasio's bastions and the hill which 
 buttresses them on the east, the soldiers bore him, 
 turning towards Assisi on the southern slope and 
 taking the path which lies beneath Sasso Rosso 
 and the Benedictine Convent. A little way below 
 the Castle of Sasso Rosso they halted at midday to 
 rest and eat at a village on the slope walled and 
 under Assisi's lordship. Here a poor man gladly 
 gave Francis shelter, while his escort sought to 
 purchase food. But they returned to him empty- 
 handed, saying in jest : " Brother, needs must you 
 give us some of your alms, for here can we have 
 nought to eat." " No," said he, " for you put your 
 trust in your flies and pence and not in God. Turn 
 back and ask an alms for the love of God, and by 
 the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they will give 
 unto you abundantly." And so it came to pass that 
 the Lord's table was well supplied. 
 
 His maladies were now increased by dropsy and 
 his feet were swollen out of shape. 
 
 The Assisans came out to meet him with frenzied 
 joy that they had secured his dying body. He was 
 taken to the bishop's palace, in the piazza where 
 twenty years before he had renounced the world. 
 Guido was still in possession, and had a quarrel on 
 his hands with the podesta, or high bailiff, of 
 Assisi, whom he had excommunicated and forbidden
 
 192 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 to do commerce with his clergy. The town suffered 
 in pocket, and was agitated by the unseemly vari- 
 ance between its commercial and spiritual chiefs. 
 
 Into this disturbed atmosphere the tender, peace- 
 loving servant of the Prince of Peace was brought. 
 He pondered and prayed for such an inspiration as 
 should end the discord, and it came to him robed 
 in simplicity and grace. He composed a new stanza 
 for his canticle : 
 
 Praised be Thou, O my Lord, for those who forgive for 
 
 love of Thee, 
 
 And who bear infirmities and tribulations ; 
 Blessed are those who endure in peace, 
 For by Thee, O most High, shall they be crowned. 
 
 Then he sent to invite the high bailiff to come 
 into the piazza of the cloister with his fellow-mag- 
 nates, and asked the bishop to meet them there 
 with his canons. Francis could not be present, but 
 he sent two of the four brothers, whose charge it 
 was to tend him, Leo, Angelo, Rufino and Masseo, 
 and bade them sing to those gathered in the piazza 
 the Canticle of the Sun, with this new stanza at the 
 end, beginning with a message from himself : " The 
 blessed Francis in his sickness hath made a Lauds 
 of the Lord as concerning His creatures to the 
 praise of the Lord Himself and to the edification 
 of our neighbour. Whence he doth beseech you 
 that ye will hearken thereunto with great devout- 
 ness." 
 
 It happened that the high bailiff was especially
 
 LAST YEARS 193 
 
 devoted to the saint, and rising, he listened to their 
 singing with hands clasped as if in reverence, 
 and accepted the counsel of peace as coming from 
 the lips of God. " In truth I say unto you," he 
 cried weeping, "that not only my Lord Bishop, 
 whom I do desire and ought to have for my Lord, 
 but were it one that had slain mine own brother 
 or my son, him would I forgive." And then he 
 flung himself at the bishop's feet saying : " Behold, 
 I am ready to do all that thou dost wish, for the 
 love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His servant, 
 the blessed Francis." 
 
 The bishop raised him with both hands, saying : 
 " According to my office I should be humble, but 
 because I am naturally quick of temper thou must 
 needs forgive me." And embracing each other with 
 tenderness, they kissed each other. 
 
 13
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH AND CANONISATION 
 12261230 
 
 Francis at the Vescovado Laudes Domini His Preoccupa- 
 tion with the Future of the Order Mental Agony 
 Letter to the Order" Welcome Sister Death "Letter 
 and Message to St. Clare Benediction of Assist The 
 Testament Jacopa di Settisoli Death Funeral Pro- 
 cession San Damiano San Giorgio Letter written by 
 Elias The Collis Inferni Speculum Perfectionis 
 Gregory IX. Elias Deposed Building of San Francesco 
 Canonisation of St. Francis Completion of the Lower 
 Church The Saint's Body hidden by Elias. 
 
 FRANCIS remained in the agony of protracted 
 death for more than two months at the Vesco- 
 vado. The four brothers appointed to serve him 
 were, as we have seen, followers of the gospel Rule, 
 true sons of Poverty. The monastic brothers were 
 kept away from his presence, but enough of infor- 
 mation about the degeneration which had followed 
 organisation penetrated to his ears to make these 
 weeks a long drawn-out martyrdom. He was in all 
 things eager to submit to the will of God, but he 
 confessed that three days of such agony, bodily and 
 (194)
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 195 
 
 mental, were worse than any death the cruelty of 
 man could devise. 
 
 He was preoccupied with the future of the 
 order. In spite of betrayal and disappointment, 
 he cherished a hope that reaction would restore its 
 first simplicity. This hope was the inspiration of a 
 letter addressed to faithful souls, who might bring 
 back the happy days of obedience to Jesus Christ. 
 
 While he lay there soldiers watched the palace 
 day and night, relieved at intervals. This precau- 
 tion must have intensified his suffering, revealing 
 as it did such anxiety to keep the fragments to be 
 left by death, such indifference to the whole im- 
 mortal purpose of his spirit. But even this he bore 
 without complaining, bidding the brothers sing 
 aloud from time to time, that those who stood without 
 might be refreshed and edified. For himself there 
 was nothing so consoling as the praises of the Lord. 
 
 Indeed, his readiness to break out in these 
 brought upon him a reproof from Vicar-General 
 Elias, who deemed such cheerfulness a desecration 
 of the holy gloom religiously pertinent to death. 
 " Give me leave, brother," cried the saint, " to re- 
 joice in the Lord and in His praises, and in mine 
 own infirmities, seeing that by the grace of the 
 Holy Ghost I am so joined and made one with my 
 Lord, that, by His mercy, well may I be glad in 
 Him most Highest." 
 
 Alas ! these intervals of joy were few, for his 
 heart was burdened by a sorrow which his com- 
 panions rather quickened than assuaged.
 
 196 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 " Where are they who have taken my brothers 
 from me ? Where are they who have robbed me 
 of my children ? " So in fever crises he would 
 lament, and then he would reproach himself, as if 
 it were his fault alone, and his spirit would be 
 shaken at the thought that God would hold him 
 responsible for the cowardice and selfishness by 
 which he had wrecked the order. His cries of 
 agony troubled his entertainers. They were 
 awkward facts for all in authority, since it was 
 impossible to smother them, impossible to dissoci- 
 ate from his deathbed those anguished protests 
 against their action, or to misrepresent them as 
 humble acquiescence. The four brothers who were 
 his companions were witnesses to their truth, and 
 perhaps it was partly due to this that these men 
 were persecuted in after years by the friars. His 
 natural masterfulness asserted itself in one of these 
 outbreaks. 
 
 " Could I but be present at the Chapter-General 
 I would let them know my will." 
 
 We are forced to believe the worst of Ugolino and 
 Elias. The facts maintain that they had managed 
 Francis by means of the most daring duplicity, and 
 that he was led to believe that his intention for the 
 order would be all the more secured by its organisa- 
 tion on the lines of monasticism. Good men both 
 the average moral standard would admit them to 
 be, but guilty of sins of the soul as black as hell. 
 
 It was in these circumstances that he dictated 
 the letter already mentioned. It is addressed to
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 197 
 
 the entire Franciscan community, its ministers, di- 
 rectors, priests, friars and tertiaries. It begins : 
 " Listen, sirs, you who are my sons and my 
 brothers, give ear to my words. Open your hearts 
 and obey the voice of the Son of God. Keep His 
 commandments with all your heart and give per- 
 fect heed to His counsels. Praise Him for He is 
 good, and glorify Him in your actions. God has 
 sent you throughout the world, that by word and 
 example you may bear witness to Him and teach 
 all that He alone is omnipotent. Persevere in 
 discipline and in obedience, and hold to that which 
 you have promised Him with willing and firm 
 mind." There follow instructions to the priests, 
 amongst them this perfect counsel : " How holy, 
 pure and worthy should be the priest, who touches 
 with his hands, who receives into his mouth and 
 into his heart, who distributes to others Jesus, 
 living, glorified, the sight of Whom rejoices the 
 angels. Understand your dignity, brother priests, 
 and be holy, for He is holy." This section of the 
 letter ends with prayer. " All-powerful, eternal, 
 just and merciful God, give to us, to us unhappy 
 poor ones, to do for Thy sake, what we know to 
 be Thy will, and to will always that which pleases 
 Thee ; so that purified within, illuminated and made 
 ardent by the flame of the Holy Spirit, we may 
 follow in the footsteps of Thy beloved Son, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 But of still greater importance is the latter half 
 of this letter, addressed as it is to all Christians,
 
 198 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 whether clergy or laity, whether men or women, 
 to all those who live throughout the world. 
 
 These he entreats to go forward, to do far more 
 than if they were "simple Christians," for they 
 must renounce all that is not necessary, and not 
 alone must they abhor all vice and all fleshly 
 sins, but they must love their enemies, do good to 
 those who hate them, obey their Redeemer's pre- 
 cepts and counsels, deny themselves and keep 
 their body under control. " Be not wise after 
 the flesh," he wrote to them, "but simple, hum- 
 ble and pure." And after many such injunctions, 
 he ended : " I, Brother Francis, your little servant, 
 I pray and conjure you by that love which is God 
 I, ready to kiss your feet to receive with hu- 
 mility and love these words and all others which 
 our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken, and to conform 
 your conduct to them. And let those who receive 
 them devoutly, and who understand them, make 
 them known to others. And if they so persevere 
 unto the end, may they be blessed by Father, Son 
 and Holy Spirit. Amen." 
 
 Such was the saint's ideal for the conduct of those 
 born into the Kingdom of God, a reflection of its 
 Founder's laws. 
 
 Many beautiful incidents of this long, last illness 
 have been preserved, and chiefly by Brother Leo 
 in the Mirror of Perfection, which he wrote while 
 all was fresh in his memory. He tells us how 
 Francis sent for Brother Bernard to share a dainty 
 dish, which had been prepared for him, and how he
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 199 
 
 blessed him as the first brother given him by God, 
 and enjoined on the minister-general and the whole 
 order that he should be loved and honoured. This 
 benediction Brother Elias had the audacity to arro- 
 gate to himself, as we read in the first biography of 
 Francis, by Tomaso of Celano, written by order of 
 Gregory IX. in 1228, for the confutation of the 
 Mirror of Perfection, and mainly inspired by Elias. 
 We prefer to accept Brother Leo's account of the 
 incident. 
 
 How the saint's wish was fulfilled may be gathered 
 from the fact that later Bernard was hunted like a 
 wild beast from place to place, and was saved from 
 a violent death only through the kindness of a 
 wood-cutter, who kept him hidden for two years 
 in a forest upon the summit of Monte Sefro, not 
 far from Nocera. Francis foresaw these trials, but 
 predicted peace at the end for Brother Bernard, 
 as it befel. 
 
 One day an old friend from Arezzo came to see 
 him. He was a doctor, and Francis begged him 
 to speak candidly about his state. Thus pressed, 
 Bono told him that his infirmity was incurable, 
 and that by the end of September, or early in 
 October, he must die. Francis raised his hands to 
 heaven and said aloud : " Welcome, my Sister 
 Death ! " 
 
 He set himself cheerfully to care for the last 
 things, talking to one of the brothers, probably 
 Leo, who sought to gladden him more by re- 
 minding him that comfort and infinite joy would
 
 200 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 be his, " for thou shalt pass away from sore travail 
 unto everlasting peace, away from short poverty 
 unto endless wealth, away from brief death unto 
 the life that faileth not, wherein face to face thou 
 shalt behold thy Lord, whom thou hast here loved 
 with so great a love." 
 
 Whereat Francis began to offer praises to the 
 Lord, and bade the brother fetch Angelo to him, 
 that both might sing the Canticle of the Sun. They 
 chanted it while tears streamed from their eyes, 
 and as they sang he prepared a new stanza for 
 them, which they added to the rest. It ran : 
 
 Be Thou praised, O my Lord, for our Sister Death, 
 From whom the body of none living may escape ; 
 Woe unto them who die in mortal sin ; 
 Blessed they who shall be found according to Thy 
 
 most holy will, 
 Unto whom the second death can do uo hurt. 
 
 This they sang, and ended with a Doxology : 
 
 Praise ye and bless my Lord, 
 
 And thank and serve Him with a great humility. 
 
 It was probably before he left the Vescovado 
 that Clare entreated permission to see him, for she 
 herself was ill at the time and feared to die without 
 his prayers. Apparently the Poor Ladies did not 
 know how near to death he was himself, and he, 
 unwilling to give them pain, dictated a bright letter 
 for their spiritual consolation, and promised by word 
 of mouth that they should see him once more. He 
 bade them rest assured of pardon for all unconscious
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 201 
 
 negligence of the Rule, and he asked them not to 
 carry their austerities too far, but to keep up their 
 hearts and preserve a cheerful mind, putting from 
 them all superfluity of sorrow. And he composed 
 a song of praise in the vernacular, with music to 
 which they might sing it. All his thoughts were 
 turned to praise, and the sound of chanting filled 
 his chamber, to the bewilderment of the Assisans, 
 who held that a dying saint should be meditating 
 on mortality, with which that lovely spirit had no 
 commerce in life or in death. His joy was some- 
 what of a scandal to those earth-bound citizens, 
 and both because he wished to die at Santa Maria 
 degli Angeli, and because his host was scared at his 
 celestial indiscretions, it was decided to carry him 
 thither on a litter. 
 
 This was about the last week of September, when 
 Umbrian grapes hang ripe on the festooned trees 
 and the gatherers are busy for the vintage. He had 
 become suddenly worse. If he were to die at Santa 
 Maria degli Angeli the bearers must hasten. Their 
 way was the same that Clare followed on the memor- 
 able night when first she took her stand side by side 
 with Lady Poverty, but it was in the radiance and 
 warmth of a summer noon that they carried him 
 down from the Porta Mojano, through olive-garths 
 and past farmhouses, turning to the right by the 
 old road which led to the Hospital of San Salvatore 
 delle Pareti, built by the Congregation of the Cross- 
 bearers. Francis could see nothing of the sunlight, 
 of the olives, of the homesteads. He was borne by
 
 202 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 brothers whom he loved, and he sought to realise 
 the well-remembered road by asking them from time 
 to time what point they had reached. 
 
 When they set him down by the hospital to rest 
 awhile before they began the long, straight road, he 
 asked them to turn his litter so that his face might 
 be set towards Assisi. Then raising himself a little, 
 he lifted his hand in benediction, saying : " By 
 reason of Thine abundant mercy Thou hast shown 
 forth the multitude of Thy mercies in this city 
 above all other cities, and hast chosen her unto 
 Thyself to be the place and habitation of them that 
 in truth acknowledge Thee and give glory to Thy 
 holy name. Wherefore, I beseech Thee, O Lord 
 Jesus Christ, father of mercies, that she may be for 
 ever the place and habitation of them that do truly 
 acknowledge Thee and glorify Thy blessed and 
 most glorious name from everlasting unto everlast- 
 ing. Amen." 
 
 When he had so blessed Assisi, the procession 
 formed again, and he was borne to the infirmary 
 hut at Santa Maria degli Angeli. He revived in its 
 freshness and silence. An interval of power was 
 vouchsafed to him before the end. Meditating 
 on the road by which God had led him, and on the 
 revolt of the order, it occurred to him that to be- 
 queath an account of his call and his obedience of 
 the revealed will of God for him and his followers 
 might be well alike for those who loved him and for 
 the reconversion of the friars. The anxiety shown 
 to exalt his relics may have suggested to him that
 
 o * 
 
 2 
 
 % i 
 
 5 3
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 203 
 
 his ideal might in time secure acknowledgment ; 
 that the spirit of little Brother Francis might over- 
 come where his presence and example had failed. 
 When that time came it would help to have a clear 
 statement of his vocation and his purpose. In this 
 mind he dictated his testament, his bequest of 
 poverty to all faithful friars. He shows a pathetic 
 anxiety that this document should be accepted as 
 meaning simply what it says ; that no transforming 
 glosses should be applied to its text, twisting it out 
 of its intention. Well did he remember how the 
 gospel Rule had been manipulated, how the plain 
 directions of Christ had been belied into cunningly 
 devised fables. Nor did he ask that his testament 
 should take the place of the Rule of 1223, only that 
 it should be read at the Chapters-General as well as 
 that Rule, that the friars might remember his con- 
 ception of the gospel. 
 
 This clause led Elias and Pope Gregory to absolve 
 all the brethren from obedience to the testament, 
 for the one document contrasted too powerfully with 
 the other. He forbade the friars, too, to seek privi- 
 leges from the court of Rome, whether for pro- 
 tection, for preaching, for possession of church or 
 convent. 
 
 Indeed, no part of this testament could be pleas- 
 ing to authority, for throughout is the essential 
 quality of the Spouse of Poverty, tenacious obedi- 
 ence to the Lord who called him, tenacious disre- 
 gard for the power which has dared to belittle that 
 Lord.
 
 204 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 To all who shared this obedience he bequeathed 
 the blessing of God the Father in the world above, 
 the blessing of His beloved Son and of the Com- 
 forter in this world. " And I," he ended, " little 
 Brother Francis, your servant, I confirm as much as 
 I am able this most holy benediction." 
 
 Then he dictated a testament for the Sisters of 
 Poverty, blessing them too and commending them 
 to the brethren as members of one family in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 The end was near ; his thoughts were toward 
 those whose spiritual life he had helped, who were 
 dear to him as children to a father. Amongst 
 them was a Roman lady given to hospitality towards 
 him and his companions, a devout tertiary and his 
 personal friend. He felt some anxiety that she 
 should be acquainted with his condition, lest the 
 news of his death should too greatly grieve her. 
 So he dictated a letter to Brother Jacopa, as he 
 used to call her, praying her to come to Santa 
 Maria degli Angeli, bringing with her new cloth 
 of the colour of ashes, new cord to girdle his burial 
 garment, wax for the funeral lights, and, remem- 
 bering her delight in hospitality, he asked her to 
 make for him some little almond cakes, like some 
 which he had eaten in her house, called mostac- 
 cioli. 
 
 The letter was written and put on one side until a 
 messenger was found, but before he set out, there 
 came a knocking at the door, and lo ! the lady 
 herself stood without, her maid with her, carrying
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 205 
 
 just the things which Francis had asked her 
 to bring. For it had so happened that while she 
 was praying the day before his very thoughts had 
 been revealed to her, and she had gathered all 
 together, and had hastened to reach the plain ere 
 it was too late. Special permission was granted to 
 her to enter the hut and to serve him with the little 
 cakes, but he tasted them only, although he lay 
 upon his couch in radiant peace. Madonna Jacopa 
 stayed until the end ; his shroud-habit was made of 
 the grey cloth which she brought and the wax was 
 turned into candles. 
 
 September closed, and Thursday, 1st October, 
 was come. He desired that day to signify that he 
 passed from life into immortality the faithful Spouse 
 of Poverty, and bade his companions place him un- 
 clad upon the ground, where, lifting up his eyes to 
 heaven, he said : " I have done my duty, may Christ 
 teach you yours." But the brother appointed to 
 be his warden took a tunic and under garment and 
 clothed him, imposing obedience on him, as these 
 things had been given to him in alms, and he was 
 laid upon his bed again, whence he blessed them, 
 laying his hand upon each head in turn. All the 
 friars in residence at the Portiuncula were called to 
 his side to receive the blessing, and on this occasion 
 Brother Elias was present. Then he broke bread 
 and gave it to them all, bidding them eat it. After- 
 wards he asked Brothers Angelo and Leo to sing the 
 Canticle of the Sun, joining his failing voice to theirs. 
 Then he commenced to chant Psalm cxlii.
 
 206 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 " I cried unto the Lord with my voice ; with 
 my voice unto the Lord did I make my suppli- 
 cation." 
 
 Again, on their petition, he pardoned the errors 
 of his brethren, including those absent, and lay 
 through Friday until Saturday evening in the peace 
 of God, " his refuge and his portion in the land of 
 the living". Around him stood the faithful few, 
 weeping as they chanted songs of praise. On 
 Saturday evening, 3rd October, just after vespers, 
 a flock of crested larks wheeled about the infirmary 
 hut, and seemed to all like a winged choir sent 
 "to exalt the Lord along with him ". They were 
 his best loved birds, for " their intent seemed ever 
 toward the praise of God ". 
 
 When night fell Francis had gone to the presence 
 of his Lord. 
 
 " He hungers no more, neither thirsts any more, 
 and God has wiped away all tears from his eyes." 
 
 Next day, Sunday, 4th October, 1226, his body 
 was borne to the Church of San Giorgio, where it 
 was provisionally entombed. This haste was due 
 to Brother Elias, who seems to have made all his 
 preparations in advance of the expected death. 
 Francis had desired to be buried in the little church 
 of the Portiuncula, but the Assisans, who flocked 
 down to the plain when the tidings of his death 
 reached them at dawn, were determined that his 
 remains should be protected, lest the Perugians 
 took them by force. 
 
 The citizens formed themselves into a procession,
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 207 
 
 headed by Elias and the friars ; it resembled a 
 triumph rather than a funeral, so joyous were the 
 good people over their treasure, but some tears 
 were shed on the way. A detour was made to San 
 Damiano that Clare and her sisters might look 
 upon his face once more, and raising his body from 
 the bier the friars held it up to the opening where 
 the sisters were used to communicate, that they 
 might touch him and bid him farewell, which each 
 of them did with weeping and lamentation, " see- 
 ing themselves made orphans of the consolations 
 and admonitions of so dear a father ". 
 
 Then, waving the oak and olive branches which 
 they carried, and breaking out once more into 
 hymns of praise, the citizens climbed up through 
 the olive-yard and entered Assisi by the Porta 
 Mojano, moving slowly up to San Giorgio. Here, 
 where he had been taught in childhood, and where 
 his first sermon had been preached, he was laid in 
 an oblong marble urn covered with an iron grating, 
 and a guard was set by day and night. 
 
 Elias announced the death of St. Francis in a 
 Latin letter addressed to Brother Gregory of Naples 
 at that time Provincial Minister of France but 
 intended for the whole order. This letter, like 
 the sarcophagus at San Giorgio, was evidently pre- 
 pared before the event of which it treated. There 
 -ire no records of those most touching and inspiring 
 weeks at the Vescovado and the infirmary. We 
 gather, while spelling through its paragraphs, that 
 it was the result of his discovery of the stigmata,
 
 208 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 which on his bed of sickness Francis was no longer 
 able to conceal. Elias seizes on this miracle for his 
 purpose, not on the holy living and blessed dying. 
 This alone seems memorable to him, this glorifies 
 the father of the order, for this the brethren are 
 to praise God, not for the life lived, the example 
 given. He interpolates in haste, as writing a post- 
 script : " In the first hour of the night preceding 
 the fourth of October our father and brother Francis 
 passed to Christ." And then he resumes his in- 
 junctions to mourn, to pray, to say masses. 
 
 In fact, Francis sealed by the stigmata was a 
 more valuable relic than Francis the follower of 
 Christ, and this letter is the best commentary on 
 the saint's anxiety to keep the marks a secret. 
 Alas ! his care for the spiritual life of the order 
 was defeated now. The stigmata were matter of 
 common talk. Already crowds hastened to Assisi 
 and San Giorgio ; already miracles were ascribed 
 to the wasted frame which he had left behind. 
 
 Brother Elias rose to the height of his oppor- 
 tunity. For such a relic, should not a shrine be 
 built, which would draw devotees from every land 
 and make more illustrious an order which called 
 itself by the saint's name ? 
 
 His first intention was to build a commemorative 
 church down on the plain, perhaps to enclose Santa 
 Maria degli Angeli, or, as is more probable, the 
 infirmary hut where Francis died. It is possible 
 that this church was to have been small and after 
 the pattern preferred by the saint, but contrary to
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 209 
 
 his wishes nevertheless, since it was his express 
 provision that the friars were to possess no churches, 
 only to use those lent to them or for which they 
 paid a rent. Down at the settlement, however, the 
 companions and first followers of Francis resided 
 and watched the vicar-general's movements jea- 
 lously, and the Assisans were unwilling to let the 
 body be sepulchred outside their walls. A new 
 scheme presented itself to his ambition, and this 
 he proceeded to carry out. 
 
 Voluntary offerings were made daily at the tomb 
 in San Giorgio, some of them of great cost. It was 
 obvious that an appeal to the Christian world would 
 result in contributions large enough for the erection 
 of a church that would draw the gaze of Christen- 
 dom not alone to the saint, but to the order of 
 which Elias and the cardinal were determined to 
 allege him the founder. For it must not be for- 
 gotten that Francis did not found the order which 
 for nearly seven centuries has called itself Francis- 
 can. 
 
 A low hill divided from Assisi by a chasm com- 
 pleted the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is 
 said to have been used as a gallows-hill, and was 
 known as the Collis Inferni. 
 
 So it was attributed to Francis that in his humility 
 he had expressed a wish to be buried there. The 
 ground belonged to Messer Simon PuzzarelK, with 
 whom Elias entered into negotiations, but these 
 were not at first made public. 
 
 In the meantime, the brothers at Santa Maria 
 14
 
 210 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 degli Angeli were indignant alike because of what 
 they knew and of what they surmised. Brother 
 Leo, who was diligently engaged all winter and 
 spring with his Mirror of Perfection, revealed certain 
 aspects of Brother Elias in its pages, which shed 
 light on the opposition suffered by Francis from 
 both the man and the minister. This book was 
 finished on llth May, 1227, and was zealously 
 studied before and during the Chapter-General of 
 30th May. Its effect was considerable. Elias 
 was deposed and Giovanni Parent! elected vicar- 
 general. 
 
 Other influences had conspired towards this 
 crisis. Elias initiated the insane policy of treating 
 the zelators, as they were called, with harshness, 
 and Leo, the friend of Francis, was the first to be 
 so persecuted. 
 
 By the end of May his plans had so far ripened 
 that he placed a marble vase on the Collis Inferni 
 to receive money offerings for the church. This was 
 probably about the end of March, or early in April, 
 just after the death of Honorius and the election 
 to the Papacy of Cardinal Ugolino as Gregory IX. 
 The step was a flagrant defiance of the saint's 
 injunctions, and even of the Rule of 1223, and it 
 is evident that Elias was acting with the knowledge 
 of his protector, the Pope. It created a scandal 
 amongst the older brethren, which affected even 
 those who were in agreement with the new order. 
 Brother Leo sought Egidio's advice, but the latter 
 could suggest nothing, for interference meant per-
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 211 
 
 secution even unto death. But Leo was stimulated 
 to redoubled zeal in making known the saint's mind 
 about the building of churches and houses, which he 
 set in the forefront of his book with anxious repeti- 
 tion. He was stimulated also to an act of violence. 
 He and others of the companions went to the Collis 
 Inferni and knocked down the marble offertory, 
 breaking it in pieces, and this was the beginning of 
 trouble for Leo. 
 
 Elias was for a short time disconcerted by this 
 unexpected blow, but, aware of Giovanni Parenti's 
 feebleness, he went on with his work as if no 
 such minister existed. He corresponded with 
 Pope Gregory, used his influence with the ma- 
 jority of the order, and gradually won back his 
 dominance over the rest. Only the zelators re- 
 mained irreconcilable. It was difficult for those 
 friars, who had known Francis less intimately than 
 they, to resist the impression which Elias made 
 upon them, as one acting in concert with Gregory. 
 So he pushed on his preparations for the building, 
 towards which money poured in from all parts of 
 Europe -crowned heads, nobles and ecclesiastics 
 bringing and sending their gifts. Simon Puzza- 
 relli made over the Collis Inferni with eager 
 generosity to Brother Elias for the Pope, that 
 an "oratory or church for the most holy body 
 of St. Francis" might be built upon it, although 
 the deed of gift was not fully made out until after 
 the ceremony of canonisation in 1228. 
 
 At first Elias may have purposed to build a small
 
 212 FRANCIS OF ASSIS1 
 
 sanctuary over the tomb, but it is evident that the 
 wealth flowing in for the shrine altered his plan, 
 and that he began to design the beautiful upreared 
 basilica and the convent structures which now 
 dominate the plain. He secured the assistance 
 of Brother Filipo of Campello, an architect. He 
 seems to have been conversant with Gothic art, 
 and at once suggested that no other could har- 
 monise so well with the site, precipitous on either 
 side, and needing just such arched substructures as 
 were built in the eleventh century for the Bene- 
 dictine convents and churches at Subiaco. Pro- 
 bably Brother Filipo knew Santa Scolastica and 
 the Sacro Speco well, as it is pretty certain so 
 did Brother Elias, and had noted their fitness to 
 the rocky heights on which they were reared in 
 such wise as to become almost on integral part of 
 the mountain. Here in 1052 the French abbot, 
 Humbert, had rebuilt Santa Scolastica, its cathedral, 
 bell tower and cloister, all in the pointed style be- 
 loved in his native land ; while in 1 075 his successor, 
 Abbot John, although an Italian, carried out the 
 restoration by building the beautiful Gothic church 
 of the Holy Cave, the middle church, as we know 
 it, where Pope Gregory was completing the chapel 
 of San Gregorio, on one wall of which Brother Oddo 
 painted the portrait of his friend, Brother Francis. 
 Franciscans were well acquainted with St. Bene- 
 dict's Cave and its shrines. 
 
 Gothic art, too, had invaded Italy somewhat 
 during the generation prior to the founding of
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 213 
 
 the Assisan San Francesco, no fewer than three 
 Gothic Cistercian abbeys having been built be- 
 tween 1187 and 1217. It is most likely that 
 Elias and his assistant planned the two churches 
 of San Francesco with full knowledge of these, 
 and, as means were ample, that the former decided 
 to surpass in grandeur and beauty all the existing 
 churches in this style. Autumn and winter were 
 spent in these preliminaries. On 29th April, 1228, 
 Pope Gregory published a Bull announcing that it 
 was suitable that a church should be built to honour 
 the memory of the Blessed Francis and to receive 
 his body. He invited all the faithful to send offer- 
 ings to this end, requiting them with an indulgence 
 of forty days. Elias ordered the friars to be carriers 
 of these offerings from their various mission fields, 
 so we hear of contributions from even Jerusalem 
 and Morocco. 
 
 Francis was already canonised in the heart of the 
 Italian people, and the Pope decided to set his 
 formal seal and benediction upon their election. 
 At variance with Rome, it was a convenient mo- 
 ment for him to come to Assisi, and he reached 
 the world-famed city in the middle of July. The 
 great solemnity took place upon the l6th of that 
 month in the church of San Giorgio. 
 
 All the citizens trooped to see and hear his 
 Holiness. He played the role in masterly fashion. 
 Clad in cloth of gold and surrounded by cardinals, 
 he sat for their edification on his pontifical chair 
 until the moment arrived for his rising to deliver
 
 214 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 a eulogy of St. Francis. It was couched in re- 
 splendent metaphors, with sobs for emphasis. The 
 function ended with the papal benediction for Assisi. 
 
 The day after he crossed to the Collis Inferni 
 and laid the foundation-stone. Elias with his 
 workers had toiled to bring the ground into 
 sufficient order for this ceremony, and he derived 
 the fullest personal satisfaction from the power 
 with which it invested him. Gregory renamed 
 the spot Collis Paradisi. 
 
 In addition to these functions the Pope, instructed 
 concerning the harm done by Leo's book, which he 
 had doubtless read, gave orders that the learned 
 Tomaso di Celano should compile the authorised 
 biography of St. Francis. Celano had been in 
 Germany for some years, engaged in mission 
 work. He was, therefore, personally unacquainted 
 with the last as with _the first years of the saint's 
 apostolate, and could only know what happened 
 through those who had been present. But, as a 
 student, he was not in sympathy with the zelators, 
 and he was engaged to produce a life which should 
 present and misrepresent the events so simply told 
 by Brother Leo in such a way as to magnify Elias, 
 the Curia and the new order. Naturally, Elias was 
 his main authority for both matter and manner of 
 the earlier and later years. He was urged to com- 
 plete his biography as quickly as possible, and by 
 working all autumn and winter he did so by the 
 middle of February, 1229, so that it received 
 Gregory's sanction on the 25th of that month.
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 215 
 
 It appeared, therefore, nine months after the 
 Speculum Perfectionis, and put a new gloss on all 
 that had happened. 
 
 Elias remained in effect the untitled chief of the 
 new order, and he pushed on the building with 
 such imperious urgency that the lower church 
 was completed in two years. He commanded an 
 army of workmen, craftsmen, artists. His archi- 
 tect was Brother Filipo of Campello, unless we 
 adopt the latest view that he planned these su- 
 perb structures himself, and that Filipo's technical 
 knowledge alone was required. Architecture was 
 well understood in Assisi, which in the fifteenth 
 century possessed its own lodge of the Comacine 
 Guild, and where the beautiful churches of San 
 Rufino and San Pietro had been built in the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 Men crowded from the plain and the neighbouring 
 towns, eager to help the Assisans in an enterprise 
 which promised both spiritual and temporal reward, 
 many of them ready to toil for love of the saint, 
 whose coming and going amongst them were scarcely 
 become memories, so fresh and sweet were they to 
 think upon, while to this day they abide fresh in 
 Umbria. 
 
 Pope Gregoiy, informed of all, declared the new 
 church to be head and mother church of the order, 
 another despite done to Francis, who had pledged 
 himself and his followers to hold the Benedictine 
 Portiuncula as their centre and mother. Privileges, 
 too, were showered upon the basilica ; no interdict
 
 216 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 might interrupt its functions, its convent was made 
 inviolable. Little wonder that the testament was 
 suppressed and that the friars were exonerated from 
 obedience to its injunctions. 
 
 There remained the consecration of the edifice 
 and the translation of the saint's body to his tomb 
 beneath the high altar. The opening day of the 
 Pentecostal Chapter-General, which Giovanni Parenti 
 was to hold in the new convent, was chosen for 
 these ceremonies. To him the Pope gave the 
 translation in charge. He wished to be present 
 himself at the consecration, but was prevented by 
 political troubles. 
 
 The 25th of May dawned amidst the rejoicings of 
 an immense crowd of friars and tertiaries come to 
 Assisi from all parts of Italy. If the Chapter were 
 held in the convent, the assembly had to encamp 
 in the open air, as in times past. 
 
 The procession was formed at San Giorgio, before 
 whose door stood a car drawn by two white oxen 
 draped in purple cloth and garlanded with flowers. 
 The legates sent by Gregory assisted Brother Elias 
 to carry the sarcophagus from the church and place 
 it upon the car. It was covered with a piece of 
 rich brocade sent by the Queen Mother of France. 
 The car was guarded by the three legates and Elias, 
 while behind it came the friars two by two carrying 
 palms and lights, and followed by the clergy and 
 magistrates of Assisi. Down the long street they 
 passed, while flowers were showered from the 
 windows upon the car, and then slowly up to the
 
 TESTAMENT, DEATH, CANONISATION 217 
 
 Col Us Paradisi. Just as they were singing a hymn 
 in praise of St. Francis, composed by Gregory him- 
 self, and were nearing the wonderful new church, 
 an extraordinary incident occurred, expected, indeed, 
 by Elias and the magistrates, but wholly unforeseen 
 by the friars, the clergy and the people. It is 
 difficult to say whether the legates were privy to 
 it or not, but we may assume their ignorance. 
 Armed men suddenly invaded the crowd, seized 
 the sarcophagus and carried it into the church, 
 closely followed by Elias, who turned to shut and 
 fasten the door with heavy bolts and bars. 
 
 Once inside, he buried the saint deep in a 
 sepulchre prepared down in the mountain itself 
 and lined with huge blocks of travertine, far below 
 the high altar, and so marvellously concealed that 
 nearly six centuries passed without its discovery, 
 which took place only in 1818. 
 
 The baffled crowd was indignant ; the friars were 
 astounded ; the festival so long anticipated was 
 wrecked. Something like terror brooded over the 
 day, which was to have crowned Assisi's annals. 
 The magistrates slunk home knowing very well 
 that they would be exonerated from blame, and 
 that in the meantime this scandal had secured for 
 ever the great relic to their city. 
 
 But another comedy had to be played before the 
 matter ended. The legates, who had come laden 
 with Gregory's gifts and benedictions, returned to 
 him in consternation, followed by friars with loud 
 complaints, by Giovanni Parenti, by appeals from
 
 218 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 the outraged zelators. It was essential that the 
 grotesque drama should be acted out ; so Brother 
 Elias, the conventual friars, the church itself were 
 laid under interdict. The magistrates were sum- 
 moned before the Curia to explain their noii- 
 resistance to this sacrilege. Elias was scathingly 
 censured, and perhaps Gregory rather enjoyed 
 scolding his masterful tool. 
 
 For a time Brother Elias was under a cloud. 
 Giovanni Parenti was again elected vicar-general 
 in spite of a bold coup manque from his rival. When 
 time sufficient had elapsed, Pope Gregory pub- 
 lished the Bull Quo Elongati, by which Elias was 
 justified in all his actions, and the farce ended with 
 his triumph four months after his act of desecra- 
 tion. 
 
 He used it to resume work at the churches. By 
 1236 the upper church was roofed ; three years 
 later the bell-tower was full of bells. Fresco 
 painters were at work, and only Cimabue and 
 Giotto were awaited to make the walls of both 
 upper and lower sanctuaries as fair within as they 
 were without, the glory of Catholic Christendom and 
 its paradox.
 
 PART III 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 
 
 The Earliest Biographical Frescoes The First Portraits 
 St. Francis, by Cimabue By Lorenzetti Giotto's Fres- 
 coes in the Upper Church Above the High Altar in 
 the Lower Church Santa Croce in Florence Fra 
 Angelico Benozzo Gozzoli at Montefalco Ghirlandajo 
 Benedetto da Majano Donatello Andrea della 
 Robbia Garofalo Agostino Carracci. 
 
 THE subject of this chapter should be treated 
 in a volume rather than merely suggested 
 in a few pages, but no life of the saint can be 
 considered complete without at least a glance at 
 some of those representations in easel painting, in 
 fresco and in sculpture, which, from 1230 onwards, 
 sought to perpetuate his memory. In dealing with 
 the older pictures and frescoes we must not let slip 
 the historic sense. 
 
 When Francis died, books were the possession of 
 princes, monasteries and cathedrals, not of peoples, 
 as they are now. The uneducated had none, and 
 the main bulk of every people was uneducated, in 
 our modern sense, which makes book knowledge a 
 fundamental test of education, one-sided, inadequate 
 and misleading although it be. When a saint died, 
 (219)
 
 220 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 and it was deemed wise to prolong his memory in 
 such a form as might appeal to unlettered men, 
 women and children, the natural process was to 
 paint a memoir on the walls of the sanctuary raised 
 and dedicated to him, that all who came within 
 them might read and learn what manner of man he 
 had been. The frescoed churches are biographies, 
 and, since the lives of saints touched those of the 
 world's rulers as well, they are often histories too. 
 
 Brother Elias set fresco painters to work at the 
 lower church so soon as its walls were covered in. 
 There are remains of five of their attempts on the 
 left wall of the nave, and of a series on the opposite 
 wall, whose scenes are taken from the Passion of 
 our Lord, but only four of them can now be iden- 
 tified. The Franciscan incidents on the left wall 
 are somewhat clearer, and may be regarded as the 
 first effort to memorialise the saint. We detect his 
 renunciation of the world ; Pope Innocent's dream ; 
 the sermon to the birds ; the stigmata of which 
 only the seraphic vision is now visible and his 
 death. It is difficult to discover in the conflict of 
 critical surmises any sure clue to the artist of these 
 frescoes. Perhaps they were painted by the Pisan 
 Giunta, perhaps by some artist amongst the Brothers 
 Minor. Whoever executed them was still domi- 
 nated by Byzantine conventionalism, although they 
 contain a hint of struggle from its bondage, un- 
 couth and pathetic, which invests them with 
 interest. 
 
 With Giunta we come to the earliest portraits of
 
 EARLY PORTRAIT OF FRANCIS 
 N<rw in the Sacristy of the Upper Church at Assist
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 221 
 
 Francis. That by Brother Oddo at the Sagro Speco, 
 near Subiaco, we have already described, but there 
 are three said to belong to 1230, or a few years 
 later, attributed to this artist. One of these hangs 
 outside the chapel built round the infirmary hut at 
 Santa Maria degli Angeli ; a second is in the Fran- 
 ciscan Convent al Monte close to Perugia, where 
 Brother Egidio spent many years ; and the third is 
 preserved in the inner sacristy of San Francesco di 
 Assisi. 
 
 The first and second may be by Giunta Pisano, 
 because characteristics which distinguish his other 
 works are observable in them, especially the Byzan- 
 tine treatment of eyes and attitude ; but it is not so 
 easy to pronounce judgment as to the painter of the 
 third. It has greater delicacy and sweetness than 
 the others, and is referred by Father Giuseppe 
 Fratini to a Sienese artist, one of a group who suc- 
 ceeded the Pisan workers, and who, while excelling 
 these in freedom and grace, had not attained the 
 independence of Cimabue and his successors. If 
 this hypothesis have value, it belongs to a date later 
 than that usually attributed to it, probably to the 
 time of some artist from Siena, who was the fore- 
 runner of Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. 
 
 The tradition repeated to visitors is that this 
 portrait is painted on half of a slab of wood upon 
 which St. Francis was laid after death that his body 
 might be washed before it was robed for burial. 
 On the one half, we are told, his figure, with four 
 scenes representing miracles through his agency,
 
 222 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 was painted ; on the other half the unpleasing por- 
 trait of Santa Maria degli Angeli. But these two 
 are manifestly by different hands. Father Fratini 
 has a theory which seems better than the scanty 
 tradition. It is possible that Giunta painted on 
 two wooden panels the rough portraits of Santa 
 Maria degli Angeli and of San Francesco al Monte, 
 perhaps also that in San Bernardino's chapel ; but 
 an artist friar, or one of the Sienese school, painted 
 for the sepulchral altar of the lower church two 
 pictures on wood, St. Francis in the middle of each, 
 two scenes of miracles on either side of him, the 
 panels being placed back to back, and so framed that 
 the faithful kneeling at either back or front of the 
 altar might see the form of the great patriarch. In 
 the Vatican Gallery may be found a picture of St. 
 Francis painted on a panel of the same size, in the 
 same manner, and flanked, too, by scenes of miracles. 
 Fratini's speculation that this may once have been 
 the counterpart of the portrait in the sacristy is 
 strengthened by the fact that its four miracles are 
 different from those represented in the other. 
 
 We hear of another piece of wood besides that 
 on which his body was laid, one which covered his 
 rough sarcophagus in San Giorgio. It is probable, 
 however, that one slab served both purposes, and 
 the loose construction of even cherished traditions, 
 as well as of the most plausible criticism, leaves us 
 only sure that the portrait in the sacristy belongs 
 to the thirteenth century and to its second or third 
 quarter. It is a noteworthy portrait in spite of
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 223 
 
 this uncertainty. Whoever painted it understood 
 the angelic strain which etherialised the saint's 
 humanity, imparting to it a quality so celestial 
 that generations may be pardoned for accounting 
 him divine. We may almost believe that one who 
 knew and loved him limned those delicate fea- 
 tures, quickened them with sorrow and with joy. 
 
 Another point is of secondary interest. His 
 robe is coloured grey, rather deep and blackish, 
 but still indubitably grey, and in this resembles 
 the fresco of Subiaco, which is free, however, from 
 the darkening effect of altar smoke and incense. 
 Just such a tinge might be expected on a picture 
 which once stood on the high altar of a church. In 
 one hand Francis holds a cross, an attribute to which 
 he is entitled as Patriarch of the Franciscan Order ; 
 in the other a gospel, on whose open pages can be 
 read that principle of the saintly life, which to him 
 contained its very essence : Si vis perfectus esse, vade, 
 vende omnia que habes el da pauperibus. The stigmata 
 on hands and feet and the halo are clearly marked. 
 
 Another portrait belonging to the thirteenth 
 century is in the church of the San Sargiano, 
 near Arezzo, and is attributed to Margaritone of 
 Arezzo, who was born ten years after the saint 
 died, and who, therefore, followed the earlier 
 portraits, and more particularly that of the Holy 
 Cave, painting him with his pointed hood drawn 
 over his head. In all of these the robe is grey, 
 this colour having been used during nearly two 
 centuries for the Franciscan habit.
 
 224 FRANCIS OF ASSIST 
 
 By 1252 both upper and lower churches were 
 completed, and next year Pope Innocent IV. con- 
 secrated them with great splendour of function. 
 He came accompanied by a court of cardinals and 
 princes to Assisi in April, and took up his resi- 
 dence in the convent buildings for six months. 
 The solemnity was consummated on the fifth Sun- 
 day after Easter, and both sanctuaries received the 
 papal benediction. 
 
 In that year Cimabue was thirteen years old. 
 
 This long residence, and the privileges showered 
 upon convent and basilica, revived the interest of 
 Christendom, and contributions for fuller decora- 
 tion increased to such an extent that the friars 
 could dream of perfecting their church. But art 
 for the moment was in the trough of the wave. 
 Wearied of Byzantine tyranny, artists turned to- 
 wards the wind, which blew from the north, for 
 a deep inspiration. Already it had invigorated 
 Italian architecture ; it had ruffled the stagnant 
 art of Pisa ; it had awakened the dreamers of 
 Siena ; it stirred amongst the dry bones in Flor- 
 ence. The friars had to wait awhile, and in the 
 meantime their wealth accumulated. Even Assisi, 
 impoverished as it was by internal and external 
 commotions, made civic and individual sacrifices 
 for the church of its patron. 
 
 Renaissant art reached Assisi with Cimabue. 
 There is a disposition amongst our newest critics 
 to look upon this man as apocryphal, to sink 
 him in later fame ; but we may ignore them and
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 225 
 
 continue firm in the faith which was Vasari's, 
 Tuscany's, Italy's. 
 
 He came to work in the upper church, where 
 his great scriptural frescoes, his noble angels, pro- 
 phets, fathers of the church, have been cruelly 
 maltreated by time, and are suffering gradual 
 effacement from the damp, to which the mala- 
 droit interference of a government commission has 
 recklessly surrendered them. But with these we 
 have nothing to do. It is his sublime Madonna in 
 the lower church almost intact, except for the 
 encroachment on its left of a door leading into 
 St. Mary Magdalen's Chapel that includes a 
 figure of St. Francis, standing beyond the Queen 
 of Heaven and her angel courtiers, looking some- 
 what dwarfed beside her majesty, his face shorter 
 and rounder than in the first portraits, his lips 
 thick and ungainly, his eyes peaceful, almost 
 smiling, as if he were amused to find himself in 
 such great company, which, sooth to say, ignores 
 his presence absolutely. It is less attractive than 
 other portraits, and Cimabue seems to have made 
 it a point to differentiate the poverello in kind as 
 well as in degree. 
 
 Pleasanter is Lorenzetti's St. Francis in the tran- 
 sept to our left, as we face the high altar, but it 
 belongs to a date more than half a century later. 
 It is like Cimabue's in one respect only. The face 
 is rounder and shorter than in the earlier pictures. 
 But its features are refined, and the Madonna 
 points him out to her babe with a gesture of 
 15
 
 226 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 turned-back thumb peculiarly Italian, while Jesu- 
 lino, although much surprised at his appearance, 
 bestows upon him the benediction requested. On 
 the other side stands St. John the Evangelist, 
 truly companion to St. Francis in spirit, although 
 not his name-saint as was the other John, herald 
 of our Lord. This picture is very lovely, with 
 delicate treatment and golden background, and its 
 date is that of the second group of Sienese artists, 
 who filled up the spaces left by Giotto and his 
 disciples. 
 
 Fifty years earlier than Lorenzetti, Giotto arrived, 
 a lad of twenty, fresh from Cimabue's workshop. 
 Apparently the lower church, beneath which St. 
 Francis was sepulchred, was more precious to the 
 friars than the upper, whose roofs, transepts and 
 apse were now jewelled with Cimabue's creations, 
 for not until he had filled its nave with the story 
 of Francis was he permitted to work below. His 
 frescoes triumphantly testified his power, and he 
 was invited to obliterate all that was inadequate in 
 the lower church and to fill the spaces above the 
 high altar, the walls, roof, arch and shallow chapel 
 of San Nicholas with those inspirations of his 
 genius, which make this church one of the marvels 
 of Christendom. 
 
 Giotto was invited to come by the Franciscan 
 General, Brother Giovanni da Muro, whose term of 
 office lasted from 1296 to 1304, when he was made 
 a cardinal. These dates approximately fix the time 
 of his work in Assisi, where he not only compassed
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 227 
 
 the frescoes in San Francesco, but found time to 
 design and superintend those of the right transept 
 in Santa Chiara, the church raised and dedicated to 
 St. Clare after her death. 
 
 Cimabue and his pupils had not filled the walls 
 of the nave in the upper church. It is probable 
 that other commissions prevented his carrying out 
 this part of the scheme of decoration, and that he 
 commended his pupil Giotto as one able to fill these 
 with scenes from the saint's life as was desired. 
 Already there must have been an authoritative 
 sequence of incidents drawn up from San Bonaven- 
 tura's biography and from the Speculum Perfectionis, 
 now no longer in discredit as before the excom- 
 munication of Brother Elias. These were founded 
 on the testimony of witnesses, and were not yet old 
 enough to have become tradition, although some of 
 them were already slipping into its golden haze. 
 San Bonaventura's Life was as much inspired by 
 tenderness and insight as Leo's. It was in greater 
 repute at this time than Celano's, which had been 
 recast and considerably altered. Apparently it was 
 the main source for this sequence by Giotto, who, 
 with his colleagues, filled eight and twenty spaces 
 with these accredited scenes. They begin at the 
 end of the nave nearest the altar with the predic- 
 tion of greatness accorded to Francis in his worldly 
 youth, and continue through his conversion, voca- 
 tion, renunciation, reception by Innocent III., mini- 
 strations, missions, visions, miracles, stigmata, to 
 his death and canonisation. That every scene was
 
 228 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 planned and drawn by one master brain and hand 
 is evident except to decadent modern critics, whose 
 genius is that of Mephistopheles, a spirit of steady 
 denial. The composition far outsteps the conven- 
 tional grouping, from which even Cimabue could 
 not deliver his art. With Giotto, we are on the 
 way to Raphael, but our point of departure detains 
 us with a wealth of suggestion, subtlety, humour, 
 delicacy, sincerity, absent from our goal. Never 
 were pictures more imbued than these with one 
 mind, and that a very mirror of what it contem- 
 plated, magically reflecting in added grace, vivacity 
 and charm what Bonaventura in words, and the 
 piazzas, palaces, sanctuaries of Assisi, in the con- 
 crete, presented as material for translation into 
 etherial form and colour. 
 
 Giotto adopts in these beautiful pictures the 
 curved, oval face, which has been preferred by 
 many artists in depicting Francis. We do not 
 know whether he was cognisant of a cast reputed 
 to have been taken from the saint's features after 
 death, in whose authenticity it is difficult to be- 
 lieve. Used as the guide of sculptors and painters 
 in renaissance times, this cast indicates a short face, 
 delicately moulded, with great breadth of brow. 
 Giotto does not make breadth of brow a special 
 feature, but aims at a fine oval, thin even in his 
 presentments of the young son of Bernardone, 
 although never emaciated to the degree suggested 
 by the early portraits. 
 
 When Giovanni da Muro was satisfied that
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 229 
 
 Giotto's frescoes in the upper church were worthy 
 of their subject, he invited him to complete the 
 wall and roof decoration of the lower church, and 
 it is here that we find his masterpieces. Again, his 
 composition and colouring are dominant in the fres- 
 coes of right and left transepts, on roof and wall, 
 although Taddeo Gaddi and Puccio Capanna may 
 have carried out their execution. The first series 
 presents scenes in the life of the Madonna and the 
 infancy of our Lord, and Giotto's conceptions fill 
 the whole space except that occupied by Cimabue's 
 Madonna and by the Crucifixion next to it, said to 
 have been painted by Brother Martino under Giotto's 
 guidance. Simone Martini's exquisite figures of 
 Franciscan saints are below the frescoes. In the 
 Crucifixion we find St. Francis kneeling to the left 
 of the Cross. One of Simone Martini's saints is 
 meant for him, but it is the least attractive of the 
 five. 
 
 The left transept is covered with scenes from the 
 Passion of our Lord, and its decoration culminates 
 in another Crucifixion of fine workmanship, which 
 Fratini maintains to have been painted by Cavallini, 
 commissioned by Walter, Duke of Athens, and for 
 a time Tyrant of Florence, who tried to gain the 
 favour of the Minorites. 
 
 But we must go to the great triangular frescoes 
 over the high altar to find Francis once more. Here 
 Giotto allowed his imagination full play, and him- 
 self carried out its wonderful suggestions. The 
 saint's life had been storied, its analogy to that of
 
 230 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 his Lord and Master fully illustrated, but there 
 remained his work to chronicle in a manner which 
 would present both his ideal and his rigorous prac- 
 tice. For these allegories are realistic enough, and 
 to the genuine Franciscan are the only realities. 
 
 First, it was desired to have the apotheosis of 
 their patriarch facing the nave, so that all who 
 came towards the altar might see him throned 
 gloriously in glory. The central figure, dressed in 
 white dalmatic and mantle of dark brocade, is on a 
 throne, surrounded by rejoicing angels so full of 
 life, colour and almost sound, that we are conscious 
 of their longing to make up to him for his afflictions 
 here, with "an exceeding weight of glory " yonder. 
 When the high altar is lighted up, and we approach 
 it by the nave, this fresco glows with beauty. Op- 
 posite to it is the mystical marriage of Francis to 
 the Lady Poverty of his dreams in those years of 
 God's guidance in the wilderness. Christ Himself 
 unites the half-shrinking bridegroom to Poverty, 
 whose worn garments and faded beauty present no 
 lure to win the man, while they but thinly veil the 
 soul which Jesus loved on earth. For, vowed to 
 Poverty, what shall separate him from the love of 
 Christ ? And even while he gazes half- unwilling 
 on his bride, she reveals to him the blossoms 
 of a heavenly joy and purity, which their union 
 ensures to him for ever, and which far outweigh 
 the scorn of dogs, the contumely of men blind to 
 her immortal beauty. Beneath he reappears in 
 Giotto's scheme of thought, as parting gladly with
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 231 
 
 his mantle to the poor knight, his angel leading 
 him, while on the other side miser and worldlings 
 turn from their heavenly guide for ever. For the 
 pictures mean, as Francis meant, that man has 
 choice of the life that now is, or the life that is to 
 come, but that no man can have both unless he 
 has overcome in the life that now is those desires 
 of the eye and that pride of life in which Christ 
 had neither part nor lot. Such renunciation here 
 means glory there, and the one picture is the com- 
 plement of the other. 
 
 The side pictures illustrate the vows of chastity 
 and obedience incumbent on all who enter the 
 orders of penitence. There is no attempt to mini- 
 mise the difficulty of keeping these vows. Chastity 
 dwells on high ; to attain to her heavenly precincts 
 needs constant warfare against sin. The pilgrims 
 must be armed with fortitude, must climb under 
 the banner of purity. And it needs such suffering 
 as Christ's crucifixion to resist the alluring call from 
 every side. Warriors on earth, the faithful who 
 attain become glorified spirits when they reach the 
 courts of heaven where she dwells. On the left, 
 at the base of this fresco, St. Francis urges repre- 
 sentatives of his orders to the upward course, the 
 three figures being meant for Giovanni da Muro, 
 one of the Sisters of Poverty perhaps St. Clare 
 and a cordelier of the Third Order, for whom Dante 
 himself was Giotto's model. 
 
 The fresco illustrating obedience faces this, and 
 symbolises with a yoke imposed upon a kneeling
 
 232 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 friar with an unbridled centaur, who recoils from 
 the revelation made to him by his reflection in the 
 mirror of prudence, the need of restraint, the horror 
 of license, the beauty of voluntary submission, of 
 the will hallowed by obedience. And that this 
 obedience is unto God is shown by the figure of 
 St. Francis yoked and directed by the two hands 
 of Christ. 
 
 The church of the Holy Cross was begun in 
 Florence in 1294, Arnolfo being its architect. 
 Giotto did not start his work upon its walls until 
 long after Arnolfo's death, which happened in 1310. 
 His fame had greatly increased, and he was soon to 
 be ask ad to build his wonderful campanile beside 
 the Duomo, whose foundation-stone was laid in 
 1298, while he was busy at Assisi. After his work 
 there, he had, according to the high method of the 
 greatest artists in Italy, studied architecture, sculp- 
 ture, relief and mosaic, and could with his own 
 hand achieve masterpieces in each kind of art. 
 
 It was about 1320 that the Capella dei Bardi 
 della Liberta was put into his hands for decora- 
 tion, when he was well over forty years of age. 
 The Franciscans of Florence were anxious to se- 
 cure for its walls some incidents in their patriarch's 
 life, like those renowned over all Christendom, in 
 San Francesco di Assisi. They had already placed 
 over the high altar a portrait of Francis, said to 
 have been painted by Cimabue, which they tried 
 to consider an authentic likeness. On the vault- 
 ing of the Bardi Chapel is another portrait, and
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 233 
 
 Poverty, Chastity and Obedience are personified 
 on its remaining quarters. 
 
 Here, too, the four great saints of the order 
 other than Francis, one of them only just cano- 
 nised, were painted on each side of the window 
 by Giotto himself, and St. Louis, King of France, 
 beloved of the friars, remains there beautiful to- 
 day. But the artist's especial work was to fill the 
 spaces made by the Gothic arching with incidents 
 in the patriarch's life. He was hampered by want of 
 room, by difficulties of form, but he left six frescoes, 
 variants of six in the upper church at Assisi, remind- 
 ing us of these and yet different. Francis visiting 
 the Sultan of Egypt and recommending to him the 
 gospel of Christ is perhaps the finest of these, but 
 his renunciation rivals it in force and interest. 
 Giotto is faithful to his first conception of the saint. 
 
 A whole century passed ere St. Francis became 
 again a leading inspiration in art. It was natural 
 that he should appeal to the Dominican artist, Fra 
 Angelico, who has placed him facing St. Dominic 
 in the foreground of his Coronation of Mary. They 
 kneel on a lower plane than that where the Ma- 
 donna and our Lord are seated, and behind them 
 martyrs, apostles and doctors of the Church gaze 
 in rapture at the pearly heavens above them, 
 where Christ crowns His Blessed Mother. 
 
 But it was Fra Angelico's pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, 
 who made Francis the subject of a series of pictures 
 designed, like the frescoes of Giotto, to record the 
 incidents of his life.
 
 234 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 A Franciscan church had been built at Monte- 
 falco, a "city set upon a hill," which glows in the 
 sunset light, disappearing from view at noon if our 
 eyes seek it towards the south-east from Assisi. 
 The friars may have communicated with Fra 
 Angelico, who was at Orvieto in 1452. He sent 
 Benozzo Gozzoli to do the work. Gozzoli had 
 been painting for five years, but was still under 
 the influence of his master, not yet, as seven years 
 later, feeling his own temperament and giving 
 scope to its artistic impulses. 
 
 So the frescoes at Montefalco are of simple de- 
 sign, even clumsy when compared with Giotto's, 
 which were so much earlier. 
 
 He could not compass Fra Angelico's stately 
 lines, his purity of conception sufficing without 
 detail. So, although he gives a pleasant anima- 
 tion to the scenes and delightful colouring, they 
 lack both the tenderness of Giotto's frescoes and 
 the wealth of homely and natural detail which 
 distinguishes his own later masterpieces at the Ric- 
 cardi Palace and in the Pisan Campo Santo. His 
 pictures at Montefalco are seventeen in the bio- 
 graphical series, and figures of the first companions 
 round the arch of the choir. They follow Giotto's 
 sequence, but include a blessing of Montefalco by 
 the saint, which may very well have happened in 
 his life-time. In the fresco of Francis preaching 
 to the birds near Bevagna, he put a background 
 of Monte Subasio and Assisi. 
 
 Jn the portraits round the choir arch he makes
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 235 
 
 the number of first companions twelve, for by his 
 time the analogy between Christ's life on earth 
 and that of the patriarch was a Franciscan 
 dogma. 
 
 Nine years later Benozzo Gozzoli painted a small 
 easel picture for the Compagnia di San Marco in 
 Florence, which is now in our National Gallery. 
 Its Madonna is a copy of that painted by Fra 
 Angelico for the high altar-piece of San Marco, 
 now to be seen in the Academy of Florence. But 
 he gave rein to his delight in natural details, and 
 painted St. Francis kneeling amongst sweet flowers 
 such as Francis loved. 
 
 Later in the century, about 1485, Ghirlandajo 
 painted a beautiful set of pictures in the Sassetti 
 Chapel of the Church of the Trinity in Florence, 
 having the life of Francis for their subject, of which 
 the death scene is considered to be finest, although 
 his presentation of the Rule of 1223 to Pope Hon- 
 orius is quite as impressive, and Mrs. Jameson 
 selects Francis before the Soldan for special 
 notice. 
 
 About the same time Benedetto da Majano 
 executed the reliefs round the pulpit of Santa 
 Croce. 
 
 A chapel was built by San Bonaventura over the 
 infirmary hut where Francis died, and its walls 
 were decorated early in the sixteenth century with 
 figures of the first friars by Lo Spagna. About the 
 same date the altar was furnished with a beautiful 
 terra-cotta figure of Francis by Andrea della Robbia,
 
 236 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 which is, perhaps, the only really artistic present- 
 ment of the saint at Santa Maria degli Angeli. It 
 has been photographed by Signor Lunghi, and Miss 
 Duff Gordon uses it as a frontispiece to her charm- 
 ing Story of Assist. 
 
 Far nobler, however, is the splendid statue of St. 
 Francis belonging to the fifteenth century which is 
 on the high altar of Sant' Antonio in Padua. Dona- 
 tello was its sculptor, and placed it on the right of 
 our Lord and St. Antonio of Padua on His left, a 
 group so magnificent that its impression on the 
 mind can never be erased. 
 
 After the beginning of the sixteenth century Lo 
 Spagna, a pupil of Perugino's, Garofalo, Agostino 
 Carracci and Cigoli were the chief painters of 
 Franciscan subjects, and of these Garofalo and 
 Carracci were the best. The former decorated San 
 Francesco at Ferrara with a series about 1520. A 
 Madonna enthroned by Garofalo, which once deco- 
 rated the high altar of San Guglielmo in Ferrara, 
 is now in our National Gallery, and the saints in 
 attendance on Mary are Francis, Antony of Padua, 
 Clare and St. William, who was a Brother of Peni- 
 tence. 
 
 Agostino Carracci painted the finest example 
 known of the Stigmata, a subject popular with 
 painters of the sixteenth and later centuries, and 
 especially with Cigoli and the great Spanish master 
 Zurburan. Carracci's picture is at Vienna, but is 
 well known from engravings. Zurburan' s examples 
 are full of the gloomy rendering of suffering observ-
 
 STATUE OF FKANCIS BY DONATELLO 
 In the Church of S. Antonio, Padua
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 237 
 
 able in Spanish pictures. Many others might be 
 noted, for St. Francis is patron of many cities and 
 localities besides Umbria and Assisi in Umbria. 
 Cloth-weavers and menders, carpet-makers and 
 other cognate crafts adopted him as their protector. 
 But this brief chapter may do no more than suggest 
 the subject. The Franciscan art of recent centuries 
 lacks the ardent faith which gave value to the 
 earlier pictures. 
 
 Perhaps, seeing that our age has a new revelation 
 of the spirit of St. Francis, we may hope for a new 
 conception and a new artistic presentment of his 
 ideal, his failure, his coming victory.
 
 A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 HISTORICAL 
 
 Der Bettler von Assist, das Ritterthum, die Poesie und Kunst 
 
 seiner Zeit, Dr. H. v. Schmitz. 
 Die Waldenser, Prof. Muller. 
 Franz von Assist und Seine cultur-historische Bedeutung, J. 
 
 B. Heinrich. 
 Franz von Assist und die Anfange der Kunst der Renaissance, 
 
 H. Thode. 
 
 History of the Papacy, Dr. Creighton. 
 History of the Papacy, Canon Pennington. 
 History of Rome, Gregorovius. 
 Holy Roman Empire, J. Bryce. 
 Papal Monarchy, The, Dr. W. Barry. 
 Petrus Waldus und Franz von Assist, H. E. Schneider. 
 Storia delta Citta d'Assisi, A. Cristofani. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 Actus S. Francisci et Sociorum, ed. P. Sabatier. 
 
 Analecta Bollandiana. 
 
 Annales Minorum, E. Wadding. 
 
 B. P. Francisci Assisiensis Opusc., E. Wadding. 
 
 Brother Francis, Eileen Douglas. 
 
 Cantico al Sole di San Francesco comentato nella Divina 
 
 Commedia, Bonanni. 
 De Adventu Minorum, Eccleston. 
 
 Description of the Holy Mount of Alverna, T. Canevese. 
 Floretum S. Francisci Assisiensis, ed. P. Sabatier. 
 Francesco d' Assist e il Suo Secolo, F. Prudenzano. 
 Francis and Dominic and the Mendicant Orders, J. Herkless. 
 (239)
 
 240 FRANCIS OF ASSISI 
 
 Histoire de St. Francois d' Assist, Le Monnier. 
 
 Lady Poverty, The, translated from the Latin of P. Ed. 
 D'Alencon by M. Carmichael. 
 
 Legenda S. Francisci, St. Bonaventure. 
 
 Legenda Trium Sociorum, ed. Faloci-Palignani. 
 
 Legend of St. Francis, by the Three Companions, translated 
 by E. Gurney Salter. 
 
 Legende de St. Francois, dite des Trois Compagnons, De 
 V authenticity de la, P. Sabatier. 
 
 Les Poetes Franciscains, Ozanam. 
 
 L' Eresia net Media Evo, Tocco. 
 
 Mirror of Perfection, translated by Sebastian Evans. 
 
 Monumenta Franciscana, ed. Brewer (Rolls Series). 
 
 Notes concerning the death, burial, canonisation and transla- 
 tion of St. Francis of Assisi and the recovery of his 
 body collected by a member of the Conventual Brothers 
 Minor, N. Papini. 
 
 Regies (Les) et le Gouvernement de I'Ordo De Penitentia au 
 XII I Siecle, Rev. P. Mandonnet. 
 
 Regula Antiqua Fratrum et Sororum de Penitentia, ed. P. 
 Sabatier. 
 
 San Francesco di Assisi, Giulio Salvadori. 
 
 Sons of Francis, A. Macdonell. 
 
 Speculum Perfectionis, by Brother Leo, ed. P. Sabatier. 
 
 St. Francis and You, Father Cuthbert. 
 
 Storia di San Francesco, N. Papini. 
 
 Un Nouveau Chapitre de la Vie de St. Francois, P. Sabatier. 
 
 Vie de St. Francois, P. Sabatier. 
 
 Vie de Frere Elie, Prof. Lempp. 
 
 Vita Prima S. Francisci, Tomaso di Celano. 
 
 Vita Secunda S. Francisci, ditto, ed. by Amoni. 
 Vita di San Francesco, A. Cristofani. 
 
 ST. FRANCIS IN ART 
 
 Architecture, Painting and Printing at Subiaco, Dr. Croke. 
 Characteristics of Saints in Art, Abbe Cahier. 
 Monastic Orders, The, Mrs. Jameson.
 
 A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 
 
 On the Authentic Portraiture of St. Francis of Assist, N. H. 
 
 J. Westlake. 
 Storia delta Basilica e del Convento di San Francesco, P. 
 
 Giuseppe Fratini. 
 Umbrian Towns, The, J. W. and A. M. Cruikshank. 
 
 16
 
 INDEX 
 
 Actus, 113. 
 
 Agnes, Clare's sister, 121, 126. 
 
 Albigenses, the, n, 106. 
 
 Alexander III., Pope, 22, 25, 26, 
 45. 63. 
 
 Alkhamil, Sultan of Egypt, 152. 
 
 Almuazzam, Sultan of Syria, 152. 
 
 Alverna, Monte, given to Francis, 
 130, 131; his first visit to, 135, 
 136 ; his second visit to, 146, 
 157 ; his last visit, 176-183 ; 
 journey to, 177, 178; fast at, 
 179-181 ; stigmata bestowed at, 
 181 ; farewell to, 182, 183. 
 
 Ancona, 129, 136, 151. 
 
 Angeli, Santa Maria degli, 81 ; 
 leper settlement near, 89 ; Mass 
 at, 92,93, 115, 124; pardon of, 
 139, 140; Ugolino at, 141 ; re- 
 turn of Francis from Monte 
 Alverna to, 184; journey from 
 Vescovado to, 201, 202 ; Jacopa 
 dei Settisoli at, 202, 203; death 
 of Francis at, 206 ; first plan of 
 Elias regarding, 208 ; Andrea 
 della Robbia's figure of Francis 
 at, 235, 236. 
 
 Angelico, Fra, 233, 234. 
 
 Angelo, Brother, 182, 192,200,205. 
 
 Aquilino, Bishop, 43. 
 
 Aginaldo, Abbot, 45. 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, 11, 22-25. 
 
 Arnolfo, 232. 
 
 Assisi, 30 ; history of, 35-47 ; Fran- 
 cis born at, 48; last imperial 
 ceremony at, 60, 61 ; at war with 
 Perugia, 64-66 ; Francis in- 
 fluential in, 94, 95 ; compact 
 between nobles and people at, 
 113 ; Francis returns to, 191 ; 
 podesta of, 191-193 ; Francis 
 leaves, 201 ; blesses, 202 ; his 
 body borne to, 206, 207 ; Cima- 
 bue in, 224, 225 ; Giotto in, 226- 
 232; St. Francis, patron of, 237. 
 
 (243) 
 
 Assist, Bishop of, So, 84-86, 94 ; for- 
 bade Francis to preach, 100; in 
 Rome, 105; Francis in palace 
 of, 191-201 ; reconciled to po- 
 desta, 193. 
 
 Augustine, St., rule of, 148. 
 
 Aventius, Bishop, 42. 
 
 Bagnara, Francis at, 190. 
 Bardi, chapel of the, pictures in, 
 -232, 233. Z-f- 
 
 Bastia, 38, 65, 124 ; John of, 132. 
 Benedict, St., 6-9, 56, 116, 148., 
 Berardelli, Padre, 164. ' 
 
 Bernard, Brother, 95, 96, 98, 101, 
 
 198 ; persecution of, 199. 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, n, 22, 24. 
 Bernardone, Pier, 47-50, 55, 56, 
 
 59. 63, 73. 74. 79. 8 i- 8 5. 9- 
 Bevagna, 38, 115, 134, 135, 234. 
 Beviglie, 74, 76. 
 Bologna, 155-157, 166. 
 Bonaventura, St., 190 ; life of 
 
 Francis by, 227; chapel over 
 
 infirmary hut given by, 235. 
 Bono, Giovanni, 88, 89, 199. 
 Brescia, 23. 
 Brienne, Walter of, 70. 
 
 Caesar of Speyer joins the Order, 
 146 ; returns with Francis from 
 Palestine, 155 ; assists Francis 
 with new rule, 162 ; sent to 
 Germany, 166. 
 
 Canticle of the Sun, 186, 187, 192, 
 
 200. 
 
 Capanna, Puccio, 229. 
 Capocci, 33. 
 Caracci, Agostino, 236. 
 Carceri, the, 117, 118. 
 Cathari, the, 32. 
 
 Cattani, Orlando dei, 130, 176, 
 183.
 
 244 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cattani, Pietro dei, 155, 160, 161 ; 
 death of, 166. 
 
 Cavallini, 229. 
 
 Celano, Tomaso di, 133, 199, 214. 
 
 Celestine III., Pope, 28, 29. 
 
 Cesena, 88. 
 
 Charlemagne, 43. 
 
 Chiaggio, the river, 39, 115. 
 
 Christopher, Brother, in Gas- 
 cony, 151. 
 
 Cigoli, 236. 
 
 Cimabue, 218, 224, 225. 
 
 Citta di Castello, Francis at, 184. 
 
 Civita Castellana, 26. 
 
 Clare, St., 121-127; madesuperior 
 at San Damiano, 128 ; Cardinal 
 Ugolino and, 154 ; letter from 
 Francis to, 155, 156 ; Francis 
 visits, 185, 186; asks permission 
 to see Francis, 200; his body 
 brought to San Damiano, 207. 
 
 Clement III., Pope, 28. 
 
 Collis Inferni, 209, 211 ; name 
 changed, 214. 
 
 Collistrada, leper settlement at, 
 91. 
 
 Colombo, Monte, 167, 168, 173-175. 
 
 Colonna, Cardinal, 105-107, 137. 
 
 Conrad of LiiUen, 47, 6b, 61. 
 
 Cristofani, Antonio, 37. 
 
 Cyprus, 151. 
 
 Damiano, San, 78, 80-82, 84, 89, 
 117, 126-128, 132; Ugolino at, 
 154; Francis at, 185, 186; Can- 
 ticle of the Sun composed at, 
 186, 187 ; body brought to, 207. 
 
 Damietta, Francis at, 151, 152. 
 
 Decretal epistles, 21. 
 
 Dominic, St., in Rome, 137, 144 ; 
 present at Chapter of Mats, 147, 
 149 ; in Rome, 165 ; his parting 
 from Francis, 166 ; death, ib. 
 
 Donation of Constantine, 21. 
 
 Duke of Athens, Walter, 229. 
 
 Egidio, Brother, 95, 97, 98, 101, 
 119, 151. 
 
 Elias, Brother, 67, 74; joins the 
 Order, 130, 133, 134, 138; sent 
 to Holy Land, 142; news from, 
 150; wins Csesar of Speyer, 
 146, 147; at St. Jean d'Acre, 
 151 ; returns with Francis, 155 ; 
 made Minister-General, 166; in 
 power, 167 ; loses new Rule, ib. ; 
 
 at Monte Colombo, 168 ; with 
 Francis at Fpligno, 184, 185 ; at 
 Siena, 190; ^during last illness 
 of Francis, 195, 196, 199 ; 
 treatment of " Testament," 203 ; 
 present at breaking of bread, 
 205 ; preparations for funeral 
 of Francis, 206 ; letter after 
 death of Francis, 207, 208 ; 
 church planned by, 208, 209, 
 210 ; building of San Francesco, 
 211-213, 215 ; concealment of 
 saint's body, 217; under a cloud, 
 218 ; restored to favour, ib. ; 
 churches resumed, ib. ; sets 
 fresco-painters to work, 220. 
 Eugenius III., Pope, 22. 
 
 Filipo of Campello, Brother, 
 helps Elias in planning and 
 building San Francesco, 212, 
 213, 215. 
 
 Fioretti, the, 113. 
 
 Fiume, Ortolana dei, 121, 127. 
 
 Florence, 30 ; Ugolino and Francis 
 at, 142, 143; frescoes by Giotto 
 at, 232, 233 ; by Ghirlandajo at, 
 
 235- 
 
 Foligno, 45, 68, 69, 125, 141 ; Fran- 
 cis and Elias at, 184, 190. 
 
 Francis, 27, 30, 34, 35, 40 ; birth 
 of, 48; parentage of, 48, 49 ; 
 baptism of, 55 ; " Francesco," 
 ib. ; lessons learned from Pica 
 by_i 56, 57 ; education in San 
 Giorgio, 57, 58 ; fastidious- 
 ness, 58-60; as citizen, 62-65; 
 prisoner in Perugia, 65, 66 ; 
 release, 66 ; illness, 68, 69 ; 
 visions, 71, 72 ; conversion, 72- 
 76; amongst the lepers, 77, 78; 
 at St. Peter's, 79; the crucifix 
 of San Damiano, 80, 81 ; re- 
 nunciation, 84, 85 ; at the Be- 
 nedictine Monastery, 87 ; at 
 Gubbio, ib. ; Cesena, 88, 89 ; 
 return to San Damiano, 89 ; re- 
 storation of churches, 89, 92; 
 commissioned to preach, 92, 93 ; 
 influence in Assisi, 94, 95 ; first 
 followers, 95 ; Gospel Rule, 
 96, 97 ; first settlement, 98 ; 
 missions to March of Ancona 
 and Tuscany, ib. ; crisis, 99, 
 lop; forbidden to preach, 100; 
 mission to Tuscany, 101-103 ; 
 goes to Rome with followers.
 
 INDEX 245 
 
 103-105; interviews with Inno- 187; at Siena, 189, 190; returns to 
 
 cent III., 105-108; authority to Assist, 100-192; makes peace at 
 
 preach granted, 108 ; return Assisi, 192, 193; protracted illness, 
 
 journey, 109; at Orte, no, in; 194-206; distress about future of 
 
 Rivo Torto, 111-115; settle- Order, 195, 196; letter to Order, 
 
 ment at the Portiuncula, 115, 195-198; incidents of illness at 
 
 116; the Carceri, 117, 118; in- Vescovado, 198-201; leaves for 
 
 crease of followers, 119, 120; Santa Maria degli Angeli, 201 ; 
 
 Clare's adhesion, 121-127 ; fail- blesses Assisi, 202 ; at Infirmary 
 
 ure of first foreign mission, Hut, ib. ; his Testament, 203, 
 
 129; Monte Alverna granted 804; Jacopa dei Settisoli visits, 
 
 to, 130, 131; failure of second 204, 205; breaking of bread, 205 ; 
 
 foreign mission, 131, 132; at last hours, 206; body borne to 
 
 Cannara and Bevagna, 134, 135; San Giorgio, 206, 207; halt at 
 
 sermon to birds, ib., ib. ; at San Damiano, 207; canonised by 
 
 Monte Alverna, 135, 136; itine- Pope Gregory IX., 213, 214; 
 
 rary, 136; "God's Minstrels," body transferred to San Fran- 
 
 136, 137 ; in Perugia, 137 ; cesco, 216, 217 ; earliest por- 
 
 Cardinal Ugolino and, 137-139; traits of, 220-223; frescoes of 
 
 the Pardon, 139, 140; Cardinal life, 227, 228, 233-235 ; allegories 
 
 Ugolino at the Portiuncula, of work, 229-232. 
 
 141 ; forbidden to go to France, Fratini, Father, 229. 
 
 143 ; preaches before Pope Frederick, Barbarossa, 22, 25, 28, 
 Honorius III., 144 ; Dominic 31, 47. 
 
 and, 144, 145; at Subiaco, 145, Frederick II., 31, 60, 61, 114, 150. 
 146 ; murmurs at Chapter of 
 
 1218, 147-149 ; Dominic at 
 
 Chapter, ib., ib.; missions of Gaddi, Taddeo, 229. 
 
 1219, 150, 151; goes to Holy Garofalo, 236. 
 
 Land, 151 ; innovations in Giorgio, San, school in church of, 
 
 Order, 152-155; returns, 155 ; at 46, 57, 81 ; Francis preaches in, 
 
 Bologna, 156, 157 ; at Camaldoli 93,121; body of Francis borne 
 
 with Ugolino, 157, 158 ; accepts to, 206, 207; crowds at, 208, 
 
 Ugolino as Protector of Order, 209 ; ceremonial at, 213. 
 
 158, 159; New Rule, 158-164; Giotto, 218; his work at San 
 
 resignation, 161 ; Rule for Ter- Francesco, 226-232 ; at Santa 
 
 tiaries, 164, 165 ; parting from Croce in Florence, 232, 233. 
 
 Dominic, 166; disappearance of Giunta Pisano, 220-222. 
 
 Rule, 167 ; at Monte Colombo, Gozzoli, Benozzo, frescoes by, 
 
 167, 168 ; answer to malcontents, 233, 234. 
 
 168 ; revolution of Order by Greccio, John of, 174 ; Francis 
 
 Ugolino, 168-172 ; in Rome, 173, at, 189. 
 
 174; at Lateran with Rule of Gregory of Naples, Brother, 154, 
 
 1223,16.; returns to Monte Co- 156. 
 
 lombo, 174 ; his Prsesepio, 174, Gregory I., Pope, 8, 10. 
 
 175 ; mission sent to England, Gregory VII., Pope, 18-20. 
 
 176; leaves for Monte Alverna, Gregory VIII., Pope, 27. 
 
 ib. ; journey thither, 177, 178; Gregory IX., Pope, Ugolino 
 
 fasting and prayer, 179, 180 ; became, 210; Elias and, 211; 
 
 Benediction of Brother Leo, builds chapel at Subiaco, 212 ; 
 
 180 ; the stigmata, 181 ; his Bull regarding church of San 
 
 adieu to Monte Alverna, 182; Francesco, 213; Francis ca- 
 
 return to Santa Maria degli nonised by, 213, 214; appoints 
 
 Angeli, 183, 184 ; Umbrian mis- new church Metropolitan of 
 
 sion and illness, 184; visit to San Order, 215; legates and gifts 
 
 Damiano and Canticle of the from, 216,217; Bull, Quo Elon- 
 
 Sun, 185-187; at Rieti, 187-189; gati, by, 211. 
 
 preaching in the Valley of Rieti, Gubbio, Francis at, 87, 190.
 
 246 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Guelfucci, Pacifica dei, 124, 127. 
 Guiscard, Robert, 20. 
 
 Hadrian IV., Pope, 22, 24, 25. 
 
 Henry III., Emperor, 17, 25 
 
 Henry IV., Emperor, 20. 
 
 Henry VI., Emperor, 27-30. 
 
 Honorius III., Pope, at Perugia, 
 I 37" I 39 i grants Francis the 
 "Pardon," 139, 140; at Rieti, 
 150; in Viterbo, 153; in Orvieto, 
 158 ; Francis and, 158, 159 ; 
 Rule of 1223 sanctioned by, 
 173; at Rieti, 185. 
 
 Hugo, bishop of Assisi, 45. 
 
 Illuminate, Brother, 182. 
 Innocent III., Pope, n, 29-35, 61, 
 
 70, 106-108, no, 125, 137. 
 Innocent IV., Pope, at Assisi, 224. 
 
 Jacopa dei Settisoli visits Francis, 
 
 202, 203. 
 Jacques de Vitry, 137, 153. 
 
 Jerome, St., 6-. 
 ohn XII., Pope, 16. 
 
 Legnano, battle of, 46. 
 
 Lempp, Dr., Biographical Study 
 of Brother Elias by, 74. 
 
 Leo, Brother, 119, 130, 134, 
 140 ; benediction written by 
 Francis for, 180-182, 192, 198- 
 200, 205 ; busy with Mirror of 
 Perfection, 210 ; opposed to 
 Elias, 210, 211 ; Celano's Life 
 opposed to Mirror, 214, 215. 
 
 Leo, Pope, 8, 16. 
 
 Lorenzetti, 225, 226. 
 
 Lothaire, Emperor, 8. 
 
 Louis, King, of France, portrait 
 of, 233. 
 
 Lucca, 30. 
 
 Lucius II., Pope, 22. 
 
 Lucius III., Pope, 27, 54. 
 
 Maccabeo, Abbot, 115, 117, 118, 
 126. 
 
 Majano, Benedetto da, 235. 
 
 Map, Bishop Walter, 53, 54. 
 
 Maria Maggiore, Santa, Piazza of, 
 84; church of, old bell in, 78, 
 inscription on apse of, 94. 
 
 Martini, Simone, 229. 
 Martino, Brother, 229. 
 Masseo, Brother, 182, 192. 
 Matilda, Countess, 31, 45. 
 Matthew, Brother, 154. 
 Maximian, Emperor, 41. 
 Milan, 32. f 
 
 Mirror of Perfection, 198, 210, 214, 
 
 215. 
 
 Mojano, Porta, 38, 124, 207. 
 Monastery, Benedictine, 44, 71, 
 
 87, 115, 117, 126, 127. 
 Montefalco, frescoes at, 234, 235. 
 Montefeltro, castle of, Francis at, 
 
 130. 
 
 Morocco, mission to, 151. 
 Muro, Giovanni da, 226, 228, 231. 
 
 Naples, 34. 
 
 Narni, 61. 
 
 Nicholas II., Pope, 18. 
 
 Nicholas, St., church of, 96, 97. 
 
 Nocera, 64, 190, 191, 199. 
 
 Norcia, 6. 
 
 Odo, Count, 33. 
 
 Orte, Francis at, no, in. 
 
 Orvieto, Honorius and Francis at, 
 
 158, 234. 
 Otho of Saxony, 16, 17, 25, 34, 
 
 113- 
 
 Pacifico, Brother, 136, 137, 142; 
 sent to France, 143, 144, 176, 
 187. 
 
 Palladio, 37. 
 
 Paolo, St. Clare taken to San, 124. 
 
 Parenti, Giovanni, made minister- 
 general, 210; Elias and, 211, 
 216; re-elected, 218. 
 
 Patarins, the, 32, 106. 
 
 Perugia, 30, 45, 64-66, 68, 94 ; In- 
 nocent at, 137 ; Honorius at, ib., 
 139, 141. 
 
 Peter of Assisi, 95. 
 
 Pica, Madonna, 40, 49, 50, 56-58, 
 63, 7L 79, 83. 90, 91- 
 
 Pietro, San, church of, 45, 78. 
 
 Poggio Buscone, Francis at, 189. 
 
 Portiuncula, the, 56, 57, 78 ; leper 
 settlements near, 89, 91; Francis 
 at, 98, 103 ; granted to Francis, 
 115; settlement at, 115, 116; 
 Clare received at, 124, 129, 131, 
 153-
 
 INDEX 
 
 247 
 
 Ravenna, 44. 
 
 Rieti, Honorius at, 185 ; Francii 
 
 at, 187-189. 
 Rivo Torto, first Franciscan 
 
 settlement at, 111-115. 
 Robbia, Andrea delta, 235. 
 Romagna, 29, 88. 
 Romualdo, San, at Camaldoli, 
 
 Francis and Ugolino at, 157, 
 
 158. 
 
 Rufino, Brother, 119, 192. 
 Rufino, San, 39 ; church of, 45, 55. 
 
 Sabatier, M., 49, 113, 120, 123, 138, 
 
 163, 164, 175. 
 St. Jean d'Acre, 151, 155. 
 Salvatore, San, delle Pareti, 124. 
 Sant' Eleuterio, Francis at, 189. 
 Sasso Rosso, castle of, 55, 71, 121, 
 
 191. 
 
 Savino, San, 40, 41 ; church of, 45. 
 Sciffi, Favorino degli, 65, 121, 122, 
 
 126. 
 
 Siegfried, 42. 
 Siena, Francis at, 189. 
 Spadalunga, 87. 
 Spagna, Lo, 235, 236. 
 Spoleto, 29, 30, 43-45, 60, 69, 71. 
 Stacia, Pietro, 156. 
 Stigmata, the, 181. 
 Subasio, Monte, 36, 43, 44, 69, 71, 
 
 86, 87, in, 115, 117, 132, 135, 
 
 234- 
 Subiaco, Francis at, 145 ; portrait 
 
 at, 145, 146; churches at, 212. 
 Sylvestro, Brother, 96, 119, 123, 
 
 182. 
 
 Tertiaries, Rule for the, 164, 165. 
 Tescio, the river, 115. 
 Thrasymene, Lake, Lent at, 130. 
 
 Topino, the river, 115, 135, 190. 
 Totila, 42. 
 Tusculum, 28, 29. 
 
 Ugolino, Cardinal,i20,i37 ; patron 
 of Order, 138, 139; at Whitsun- 
 tide Chapter, 140, 141 ; at Flor- 
 ence, 142, 143 ; Dominic and, 
 
 144 ; at Chapter of Mats, 147- 
 149 ; builds chapel at Subiaco, 
 
 145 ; gradual victory over Fran- 
 cis, 150-158 ; his friendship for 
 Clare, 154 ; at Bologna, 156 ; at 
 Camaldoli with Francis, 157, 
 158 ; and new Rule, 163 ; con- 
 cerned with Mendicant Orders, 
 165 ; revolution of Order by, 
 166-172, 173 ; letter to Francis 
 from, 185 ; management of 
 Francis, 196 ; became Pope 
 Gregory IX., 210. 
 
 Umbria, 6, 35-37, 39, 43, 44, 46, 119, 
 
 141, 184. 
 Urban III., Pope, 27. 
 
 Venice, Peace of, 25, 26 ; markets 
 
 at, 50; Francis at, 155. 
 Venustiano, the Prefect, 40, 41. 
 Verona, 27. 
 
 Viterbo, 32, 33, 80, 153, 159. 
 Vittorino, San, 39. 
 
 Waldensians, the, 52-55. 
 
 Waldo, Peter, n ; account of, 50- 
 
 54.76- 
 Wesley, John, 54. 
 
 Ziani, Sebastian, 26. 
 Zurburan, 236, 237. 
 
 THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED
 
 r n -\ ' ''' "