Page:Robinson Writings of St Francis Assisi.djvu/117



he opuscule which St. Francis called his Testament is a precious document of the highest authority. Renan forsooth denied its authenticity, but rashly, for, as M. Sabatier rightly remarks, this is not to be questioned. The Testament corresponds throughout with the other writings of St. Francis, and moreover reveals his character and spirit in every line. But we are not reduced to internal proofs for its genuinity. All the historians, including Thomas of Celano, and St. Bonaventure, mention it, while Gregory IX cites it textually in his bull Quo elongati of September 28, 1230. We know from this bull that the Saint's Testament was published a few days only before his death. Everything seems to point to its having been written at the hermitage of the Celle near Cortona, during St. Francis' last visit there (summer of 1226), though some think it was dictated to Angelo Tancredi, one of the Three Companions, in the little hut nearest the Portiuncula which served as an infirmary and in which St. Francis died.

According to M. Sabatier, St. Francis wrote more than one testament. Indeed, the French critic goes so far as to say that at the end of each of his crises the Saint made his will anew, and in support of this assertion cites Chapter 87 of his own edition of the