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 FRANCIS

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FRANCIS

are questions which find dilTercnt answers. However, in some cases, it is more a question of words tlian of facts. We may speak of tliree successive rules or of three successive versions of the same rule ; that makes little difference, since the spirit in the three cases is the same. For clearness, we shall speak simply of the three rules, the first of which is of the year 1209, the second of 1221, the third of 1223; expounding more especially the one of 1223, as this is properly the Rule of St. Francis, the object of this article.

(a) The Rule of 1209.— This is the rule St. Francis presented to Innocent III for approval in the year 1209; its real text is not known. If, however, we regard the statements of Thomas of Celano (I Cel., i, 9 and 13, ed. d'Alengon, Rome, 1906) and St. Bonaventurc (Legenda major, c. iii), we are forced to conclude that this primitive rule was little more than some passages of the Gospel heard in 120S in the chapel of Portiuncula. From which Gospel precisely these words were taken, we do not know. The fol- lowing passages, Matt., xix, 21; Matt., xvi, 24; Luke, be, 3, occurring in the second rule (i and xiv), are con- sidered as a part of the original one of 1209. They enjoin apostolical life with all its renouncements and privations. The three vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, essential to any religious order, and some practical rules of conduct were added. Thomas of Celano says in this regard (I Cel., i, 13) :_ "Blessed Francis, seeing that the Lord God was daily increasing the number [of the brethren] for that very purpose, viTOte down simply and in few words for himself and for his brethren, both present and future, a pattern and rule of life, using chiefly the language of the holy Gospel after whose perfection alone he yearned " [ver- sion of Ferrers Howell (London, 1908), p. 31]. St. Bonaventure (loc. cit.) and the so-called "Legend of the Three Companions" (viii) repeat almost the same words. The fact can otherwise be gathered from the description of the early state of the order, made by St. Francis himself in the "Testament": "And when the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High Himself re- vealed to me that I should live according to the form of the holy Gospel. And I caused it to be written in few words and simply, and the Lord Pope confirmed it for me" (version of Paschal Robinson). These last words of St. Francis refer to the oral approval of the original rule, given by Innocent III, 1209. Angelo Clareno, in his (not printed) " Exposition of the Rule", alleges that this rule was approved in the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. But this is not certain; it is not even proved that St. Francis was in Rome at that time. Still, indirectly, Angelo Clareno is right, inas- much as the prohibition of founding new orders, de- creed at this council, was not applied to vSt. Francis's institute. Some letters of Honorius III, given 1219 (BuUarium Franciscanum, I, 2), may also be consid- ered as a general approbation of the life and rule of the friars. The text of the primitive rule seems to have perished very early, since Hugo of Digne (Expositio in Regulam, Prologus and c. xii) in the middle of the thirteenth century, Ubertino of Casale (Arbor Vita^, Bk. V, c. v, Venice, 1485, f. E. II, v., a) and Angelo Clar- eno (Expositio in Regulam, passim) in the beginning of the fourteenth century, quote constantly as the first rule, confirmed by Innocent III, the one written in 1221. However, endeavours of reconstruction have been made by Karl Miiller (Die Anfiinge des Minori- tenordens und der Busslirviderschatten, Freiburg im Br., 1885, 185-188), and by II. Bohmer (Analekten zur Geschichte des Franciscus von Assisi, Tubingen and Leipzig, 1901, SS-89). This first rule marks the stage of the order governed by St. Francis's personal au- thority, and it is quite natural that this first attempt could not be developed as later rules were. But to conclude hence that Francis did not intend to found an order properly so called, in other words, to write VI.— 14.

any religious rule at all, is quite different. All that can be said is this, that St. Francis did not take as his model any monastic order, but simply the life of Christ and His Apostles, the Gospel itself.

(b) The Rule of 1221. — If we give credit to Jacques de Vitry, in a letter written at Genoa, 1216 (Bohmer, loc. cit., 98), and to the traditional "Legend of the Three Companions" (c. xiv), the rule of 1209 was suc- cessively improved at the annual general chapter at Portiuncula by new statutes, the fruit of ever-growing experience. Jacques de Vitry (loc. cit.) writes: "The men of this Religion with great fruit assemble every year at a determined place, that they may rejoice in the Lord and take their meals, and by the counsel of good men they make and promulgate holy statutes, which are confirmed by the Pope." Indeed Thomas of Celano records one such statute (II Cel., ii, 91): "He [Francis], for a general commonition in a certain Chapter, caused these words to be written : ' Let the Friars take care not to appear gloomy and sad like hypocrites, but let them be jovial and merry, showing that they rejoice in the Lord, and becomingly courte- ous.' " This passage is literally found in the rule of 1221, c. vii. The traditional " Legend of the Three Companions" says (c. xiv): "At Whitsuntide [every year] all the brethren assembled unto St. Mary and consulted how best they might observe the Ride. Moreover St. Francis gave unto them admonition, re- bukes, and precepts, according as seemed good unto him by the counsel of the Lord." And c. Lx: "For he [St. Francis] made divers Rules, and essayed them, before he made that which at the last he left unto the brethren " (translation of Salter, London, 1902, p. 88, 60). During the years 1219-1220 in the absence of the holy founder in the East, some events happened which determined Francis to recast his rule, in order to prevent similar troubles in the future. The only author who informs us well on this point is Jordanua of Giano in his Chronicle (Analecta Franciscana, I, iv sq.; ed. Bohmer, Paris, 1908, 9 sq.). The vicars left in charge of the brothers by St. Francis having made some innovations against the spirit of the rule, and St. Francis having heard of this, he immediately returned to Italy and with the help of Cardinal Ugolino re- pressed the disorders. Jordanus (ed. Bohmer, p. 15) then goes on: "And thus the disturbers with the help of the Lord being kept down, he [St. Francis] re- formed the Order according to its statutes [alicis in- stitutions, Institutaj. And the blessed Francis seeing that brother Caesarms [of Spires] was learned in holy letters, he charged him to embellish with texts of the Gospel the Rule which he himself had written with simple words." The narrative of Jordanus, precious though it be, is incomplete. " Speculum perfect ionis " (ed. Sabatier, Paris, 1898, c. Lxviii), Angelo Clareno (Felice Tocco, " Le due prime Tribolazioni dell' Ordine Francescano", Rome, 1908, p. 36; Dollinger, "Sokten- geschichte", II, 440 sq.; and "Expositio in Regu- lam"), Bartholomew of Pisa [Liber Conformitatum fruct., XII, pars II, ed. Milan, 1510, f. cxxxv, v., a, Anal. Franc, IV (1906), 5S5] tell us that at some general chapter the ministers and custodes, alias the learned brethren, asked Cardinal Ugolino to use his friendship with St. Francis that he might introduce some organi- zation into the order according to the Rules of St. Augustine, St. Benedict, and St. Bernard, and that they might receive some influence. St. Francis being questioned, answered that he was called to walk by the way of simplicity, and that he would alwnys follow the folly of the Cross. The chapter at which this oc- curred was most likely the one of 1220.

The authority of the aforesaid sources may be con- tested, still, an allusion to those events may be seen in II Cel., ii, 141. At any rate in a Bull of Honorius III, Viterbo, 22 Sept., 1220 (Bull. Franc, I, 6), addressed "to the Priors or Custodes of the Friars Minor", one year of novitiate is intrndupec". ia ccLiv.rmity with