Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/554

 544 Rez'iezus of Books Collection de Doaimcnts pour i Histoire Religieiise et Litterairc dn Moye7i Age : Tome I. Specidum Perfectionis, sen Sancti Francisci Assisiensis Le- genda Aniiqiussima. Nunc primum integre edidit Paul Saba- TiER. (Paris : Fischbacher. 1898. Pp. ccxiv, 376.) Tome II. Fratris Francisci Bartholi de Assisio Tractatus de Iiidid- gentia S. Marine de Portiuncula. Nunc primum integre edidit Paul Sabatier. (Paris: Fischbacher. 1900. Pp. clxxxiv, 204.) In the first of these volumes, Sabatier prints a document which he argues is not only the oldest biography of Francis of Assisi, but also the one in which the character of the saint is portrayed most vigorously and poetically. He maintains that it was written by Brother Leo, less than a year after the death of St. Francis, and was finished May 11, 1227, at Portiuncula. He is especially interested in it because it is almost iden- tical with the document which he reconstructed by internal criticism from the Speculum Vitae of 1509 and which he used as one of the sources for his Life of St. Francis. The document, as he reconstructed it by inter- nal evidence, contained 118 chapters. Of these, 116 are in the actual Speculum Perfectionis, which contains in addition 8 more. Sabatier may well be pleased with such a proof of the soundness of his method in in- ternal criticism. It is too early as yet to pronounce a judgment upon his claims as to the date, authenticity and authorship. His arguments have been controverted by some of the ablest specialists, and as yet there is no unanimity of opinion. In the second volume, in addition to the treatise of Bartholus, Saba- tier prints the more ancient sources for the history of the famous indul- gence of the Portiuncula. In the Life of St. Francis, Sabatier wrote : "With the patience of four Benedictines (of the best days) we should doubtless be able to find our way in the medley of documents, more or less corrupted, from which it comes to us, and little by little we might find the starting-point of this dream in a friar who sees blinded humanity kneeling around Portiuncula to recover sight." This is a task that he has undertaken. In his laborious and loving study he has been led to change his opinion as to the origin of the indulgence. When he wrote the Life, he believed that the indulgence had " no direct con- nection with the history of St. Francis." On p. 444 of the English translation his opinion was stated even more positively. "Did Francis ask this indulgence and did Honorius III. grant it? Merely to reduce it to these simple proportions is to be brought to answer it with a cate- gorical No." The study of the earliest documents has led him to change this opinion, and in his zeal for truth he does not hesitate to confess what he believes to have been his error. A brief summary cannot do justice to his point of view, and can merely indicate the chief outlines of his