Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/45

Rh bald uncomfortable patch on the vertex about the size of a cheeseplate, a symbol, it is said, of the crown of thorns of Christ’s passion. The brown tunic is also symbolical of the passion, for it is made in the form of a cross, the body being of the same width from neck to foot, and the wide sleeves branching out at right angles. However, the symbolism is an outgrowth of more modern piety. Francis of Assisi made no fantastic choice of a costume; casting aside his rich garments at his conversion he merely adopted the costume of the Italian beggar of his time a rough tunic and hood, girded with a knotted cord, and sandals to his feet. The habit which excites so much comment on the modern friar is thus merely an Italian beggar’s costume of the thirteenth century; substantially, at least, for it has fallen under the iron law of evolution. In fact the point of vital importance on which the two great branches of the Franciscan Order diverge is the sartorial question, what was the original form of the habit of St. Francis? The Capuchins hold that his hood (or ‘capuce’) was long and pointed, and that he cultivated (or rather, neglected) a beard; their rivals—the Observantes, Recollecti, and Reformati—dissent, and their age-long and unfraternal strife on the subject became as fierce and alarming as the historical controversy of the Dominicans and Jesuits of the sixteenth century on the nature of grace. The Roman authorities had to intervene and stop the flow of literature and