Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/124

82 wants, his affections towards piety, his desire of martyrdom, his study, and virtuous orations, his skill in Scripture and spirit of prophecy, his efficacious predicatements, his sacred marks, and holy chastisements of his body, his patience in undergoing the pangs of death, 4th Oct. 1226, that in this place I have only room to name them. And as a surplusage thereto, St. Bonaventure, as also Alosi Lepomani, Bishop of Seville, ascribe to St. Francis, before and after his death, the doing of no less than 113 miracles, or supernatural acts, which, I think, are more than are recorded by the sacred writings to be done by our Saviour Jesus.

But, notwithstanding all that is done and said by St. Bonaventure in praise of St. Francis, he did not much rely upon the merit of him or any other Saint, since it is an established sanction at the end of all his hymns pertaining to this order of Franciscans,

Soli gloria tibi, Domine, qui natus es de Virgine. Now though this Order of St. Francis, after convents were erected and endowed, for the most part lived in convents under these rules as aforesaid, without alms or begging, yet a particular sort of them went abroad to preach the Gospel in parochial churches and free chapels, where the rector, vicar, curate, or chaplain was no preacher, and administered the sacraments as occasion required; having, moreover, committed to their charge or jurisdiction, by the Pope, the commutation of penance for sins committed; and, because by their rule they were not to take money, they took the same in corn, wool, fruits, fields, goods, and chattels, for their Superior. Those kind of missionaries were called Friars Observants, and went at large as supervisors, who pretended to a stricter observation of their rule than the master conventuals that went not abroad. What revenues this stately church of St. Francis at Bodmin had at its dissolution I know not, neither doth the Monasticon Anglicanum inform me; besides five quarterly pence, and