The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction.
• Part I: Admonitions, Rules, Etc
• I.: Words of Admonition of Our Holy Father St. Francis.
• II.: Salutation of the Virtues.
• III.: On Reverence For the Lord’s Body and On the Cleanliness of the Altar.
• IV.: Rules of the Friars Minor.
• V. Fragments From the Rule of the Sisters of St Clare.
• VI.: Testament of the Holy Father St Francis.
• VII: Of Living Religiously In a Hermitage
• Part II.: Six Letters of St. Francis
• I.: Letter to All the Faithful.
• II.: Letter to All the Friars.
• III: To a Certain Minister.
• IV.: To the Rulers of the People.
• V.: To All the Custodes
• VI.: To Brother Leo.
• Part III: Prayers of St. Francis
• I.: The Praises.
• II.: Salutation of the Blessed Virgin.
• III.: Prayer to Obtain Divine Love.
• Praises of God.
• The Blessing of Brother Leo.
• V.: The Canticle of the Sun
• VI.: The Office of the Passion.
• Appendix Some Lost, Doubtful, and Spurious Writings
• Bibliography

VI.

The Office of the Passion.

Although the early biographies of St Francis are silent as to this opuscule, its authenticity is guaranteed by the Legend of St. Clare written by Thomas of Celano toward the end of his life.1 In reference to the holy abbess’ devotion to the Passion we are told by Celano that she “learned and frequently recited with attachment the Office of the Cross which Francis, the lover of the Cross, had instituted.”2 This passage was rightly understood by Wadding as referring to the Office of the Passion which many early MSS attribute to St. Francis, and the character of which altogether squares with the Saint’s writings. Composed, as it is, of a simple and devout combination of Scriptural texts, this document is at once a witness to St. Francis’ ardent devotion to the Crucified and a precious example of his method of prayer. It comprises five parts:

1. For the three last days of Holy Week and for week-days throughout the year.

2. For the Paschal season.

3. For Sundays and feast-days throughout the year.

4 For Advent.

5 For Christmas and the days following, to the close of the Epiphany octave.

The text of the Office given in the Quaracchi edition is that of the Assisi MS. 338, only a few rubrical notes having been omitted. The Office may also be found in MSS. at Oxford,1 Berlin,2 and Liegnitz3 already described4 It has never before, so far as I know, been translated into English. Here it is:—

OFFICE OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

Here begin the Psalms which our most blessed Father Francis arranged to reverence and recall and praise the Passion of the Lord. And they begin from Compline on Maundy Thursday because on that night our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed and taken captive. And note that the Blessed Francis was wont to say this office thus: First he said the Prayer which the Lord and Master taught us: Our Father most holy,5 with the Praises, to wit, Holy, Holy, Holy.6 When he had finished the Praises with the Prayer he began this antiphon, namely. Holy Mary First he said the Psalms of the holy Virgin; besides he said other Psalms which he had selected, and at the end of all the Psalms which he said, he said the Psalms of the Passion, the Psalm being finished he said the antiphon, namely, Holy Virgin Mary When this antiphon was finished, the office was completed.

I.—

AT COMPLINE.
Ant. Holy Virgin Mary.

Note that the foregoing antiphon is said at all the Hours and it is said for antiphon, chapter, hymn, versicle, and prayer, and at Matins and at all the Hours likewise. He said nothing else in them except this antiphon with its Psalms. At the completion of the office Blessed Francis always said: Let us bless the Lord God living and true; let us refer praise, glory, honor, blessing and all praise to Him, always. Amen. Amen. Fiat. Fiat.

AT MATINS.
Ant. Holy Virgin Mary.

AT PRIME.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT TIERCE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT SEXT.
Ant Holy Mary.

AT NONES.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT VESPERS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

It is said up to this place daily from Good Friday until the feast of the Ascension On the feast of the Ascension, however, these versicles are added over and above:

And note that from the Ascension until the Advent of the Lord this Psalm is said daily in the same manner, namely: “O clap your hands,” with the foregoing versicles, “Glory be to the Father” being said where the Psalm ends, namely, “for He will come to judge with justice.”

Note that the foregoing Psalms are said from Good Friday until Easter Sunday: they are said in the same manner from the octave of Whitsunday until the Advent of the Lord and from the octave of the Epiphany until Maundy Thursday,1 except on Sundays, and the principal feasts, on which they are not said: on the other days however they are said daily.

HOLY SATURDAY AT COMPLINE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

It is said daily at Compline until the octave of Pentecost.

EASTER SUNDAY AT MATINS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

It is said up to this place daily from Easter Sunday to the feast of the Ascension at all the Hours except at Vespers and Compline and Prime. On the night of the Ascension these verses are added:—

And note that this Psalm is said daily from the Ascension of the Lord until the octave of Whitsunday with the foregoing versicles at Matins and Tierce and Sext and Nones. “Glory be to the Father,” being said where “Blessed be God” is said, and not elsewhere. Also note that it is said in the same manner only at Matins on Sundays and the principal feasts, from the octave of Whitsunday until Maundy Thursday because on that day the Lord ate the Pasch with His disciples, or the other Psalm may be said at Matins or at Vespers when one wishes, to wit, “I will extol Thee, O Lord,” as it is in the Psalter, and this from Easter Sunday to the feast of the Ascension and not longer.

AT PRIME.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. Have mercy on me, etc.—as above, p. 159.

AT TIERCE, SEXT AND NONES

Psalm. Sing ye to the Lord, etc.—as above, p. 167

AT VESPERS.

Psalm O clap your hands, etc.—as above, p. 164.

Here begin the other psalms which our most blessed Father Francis likewise arranged which are to be said in place of the foregoing psalms of the Passion of the Lord on Sunday and the principal festivities from the octave of Whitsunday until Advent and from the octave of the Epiphany until Maundy Thursday.

AT COMPLINE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. O God, etc. (Ps 69),—as it is in the Psalter.

AT MATINS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. Sing ye to the Lord, etc.,—as above, p. 167.

AT PRIME.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. Have mercy on me, etc.,—as above, p. 159.

AT TIERCE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT SEXT.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT NONES.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT VESPERS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. O clap your hands. . . as above, p. 164.

Here begin other Psalms which our most blessed Father Francis likewise arranged, which are to be said in place of the foregoing Psalms of the Passion of the Lord from the Advent of the Lord until Christmas eve and not longer.

AT COMPLINE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. How long, O Lord (Ps. 12), as it is found in the Psalter.

AT MATINS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

AT PRIME.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm Have mercy on me, etc.—as above, p. 159.

AT TIERCE.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. Shout with joy, etc.—as above, p. 169.

AT SEXT.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. May the Lord hear thee in the day, etc.—as above, p. 170.

AT NONES.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped—as above, p. 171.

AT VESPERS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

Psalm. O clap your hands, etc.—as above, p. 164.

Also note that the whole Psalm is not said but up to the verse, “Let all the earth be moved”; understand however that the whole verse “Bring your own bodies” must be said. At the end of this verse “Glory be to the Father” is said. And thus it is said daily at Vespers from Advent until Christmas eve.

CHRISTMAS DAY AT VESPERS.
Ant. Holy Mary.

And note that this Psalm is said from Christmas until the octave of the Epiphany at all the Hours.

APPENDIX
SOME LOST, DOUBTFUL, AND SPURIOUS WRITINGS

DOUBTLESS we should have expected every fragment of St. Francis’ writings to have been preserved with loving care throughout the ages. But when we consider the conditions under which some of them were composed and the vicissitudes they afterwards passed through, we need not be surprised if all of them have not come down to us. On the contrary. For if we may believe such writers as Ubertino da Casale, serious attempts were made in certain quarters toward the close of the thirteenth century to suppress altogether part of the Saint’s writings.1 Be this as it may, it is certain that several of these precious documents disappeared in the course of time. Among such lost treasures we must reckon the primitive Rule of the Friars in the form approved by Innocent III in 1209.2 Again only two fragments seem to have survived of the “many writings” which, as has been already mentioned, St. Francis addressed to the Poor Ladies at St. Damian’s.1 Whether or not either of these fragments is to be identified with a letter written by St. Francis to console the Clares, of which we read in the Speculum and the Conformities, it is well nigh impossible to determine.2 Celano speaks3 of a letter to St. Antony of Padua, different apparently from the one known to us, and of others to Cardinal Ugolino.4 So, too, Eccleston5 tells of letters written to the brothers in France and at Bologna.6

As to the famous letter of St. Francis to St. Antony commissioning the latter to teach theology, there is no small diversity of opinion. It is given for the first time in the Liber Miraculorum,7 and also in the Chron XXIV Generalium.8 M Sabatier, who was, I believe, the first to call the authenticity of this letter into question,9 now seems less inclined to reject it.1 Professor Goetz2 has decided for, and Professor Boehmer3 against it. The Quaracchi editors, in excluding this letter from their edition of the Opuscula, by no means intended to deny that St. Francis wrote to fratri Antonio,4 but they were unable to determine which if any of the three different forms of this letter now in circulation might be the genuine one. Since the matter is sub judice,5 so to say, I think, with Mr. Carmichael, this letter might find a place among the “Doubtful Works” of St. Francis.6

Apropos of the Saint’s doubtful works it seems proper to say a word as to the Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance. Although this Rule—like that of the Clares—is wanting in all the early MS. collections of St. Francis’ writings, we know from Bernard of Besse7 that St. Francis, with the cooperation of Cardinal Ugolino, wrote a Rule for these Tertiaries. What became of this document? It is generally conceded that the Rule of this Third Order as it stands in the Bull Supra montem of Nicholas IV in 12891 is not the handiwork of St. Francis; and for the rest the early history of the Third Order is uncertain, as all Franciscan students are aware2 But what are we to think of the much older text of this Rule published by M. Sabatier in 1901, after MS. XX of the convent at Capistran in the Abruzzi?3 Father Mandonnet, O.P., has tried to prove that the first twelve of the thirteen chapters comprising this document discovered by M. Sabatier, represent the Rule of 1221 in its primitive state.4 I would fain share the opinion of the learned Dominican on this head, but the objection raised against it by the Quaracchi editors seems to me insuperable. It amounts to this: In Chapter VI, § 4, of this Regula Antiqua there is a clear allusion to a Bull of March 30, 1228,1 which it is difficult to regard as an interpolation. Moreover, as Fr. Ubald d’Alençon points out,2 the mention of coin in circulation at Ravenna is also hard to explain in an Umbrian writer. Perhaps this document may prove to be St Francis’ Rule for Tertiaries put into legislative form, with the addition of a few minor regulations. Meanwhile, following the example of the Quaracchi editors, I have abstained from including it among the authentic writings of St. Francis.3

Coming next to St Francis’ poems, although he doubtless wrote some few canticles besides the Canticle of the Sun, the two others given by Wadding can hardly be accepted as his, at least in their present form. I refer to the Amor de caritade4 and In foco l’amor mi misc.5 True, they are both attributed to St. Francis by St. Bernardine of Siena,6 but they are also found among the works of Jacopone da Todi,7 although Ozanam thinks that at most they were only retouched by the latter.8 The tendency nowadays is to ascribe all the early Franciscan poetry to Jacopone. When the critical edition of this extraordinary man’s works is published at Quaracchi, some needed light will no doubt be thrown on this delicate question; then too, perhaps, Pacifico, the “King of Verses,” and “most courtly doctor of singers,” may at length come into his own. Meanwhile a number of poems found in a fifteenth century manuscript at the National Library at Naples, once at the convent of Aquila in the Abruzzi, and lately ascribed to St. Francis, are clearly apocryphal, as Professor Ildebrando della Giovanna has sufficiently demonstrated

Wadding himself regarded the seven sermons of St Francis he gives as of doubtful authenticity. And rightly, for they are from the work of Fr. Louis Rebolledo, already mentioned1 The twenty-eight Collationes are, pace Fr. Mandonnet, who regards them as genuine,2 rightly rejected by Professor Goetz, who points out how Wadding compiled them from various sources.3 Many are translated from an Italian MS. at Fano in the Marches of which we know neither the age nor the parentage.4 But they seem to be mere transcripts from the early legends. Thus Collatio I is an adaptation of Celano (1, 2) and Collatio XIV is taken almost verbatim from St. Bonaventure, while Collatio V is an accommodation of Celano and St. Bonaventure, XXVI and XXVIII are abridged from the Speculum, XXIV is found in the Chron. XXIV Gen, and so on. It is therefore to the authors of these works and not to St. Francis that these conferences are to be ascribed.

At the end of his edition of the Opuscula Wadding has collected several “Prayers of St Francis” of which the text is more than doubtful. Let us see why. Take for example the prayers said to have been used by St. Francis “at the beginning of his conversion” or “in time of sickness” or “at the elevation” One searches in vain among the early MS. collections for any trace of these prayers, nor is mention of them to be found1 elsewhere. As regards the prayer “to obtain Poverty,” it has long been known that it was not written by St. Francis himself. Wadding found it in the Arbor Vitae (l. v., cap. iii), but Ubertino da Casale is there quoting from the Sacrum Commercium B. Francisci cum Domina Paupertate.2 The latter work is not an historical narrative, but an exquisite allegory in which St Francis’ own tale of his mystic espousals with the Lady Poverty is most poetically expanded by one of his followers,1 and consequently Ubertino did not pretend in citing such a work to give this prayer as the actual composition of Francis.2

In some MS. collections and library catalogues certain works may be found ascribed to St. Francis which are obviously spurious. For example, the Epistola B. Francisci ad Fr. Bernardum, found in at least two fifteenth century codices,3 is nothing else but the letter of St. Bonaventure continens XXV memoralia.4

Sbaralea5 mentions copies of a book of the “Sayings” of St Francis as existing at Assisi and Ferrara,6 but a careful search has failed to reveal any trace of them. He also refers to a MS. (B. 31) in the Vallicellian Library at Rome in which “the sayings of St. Francis are found with the Rule,”7 but this codex is also missing. In this library, however, there is a codex (B. 82, fol. 141 r) which contains a “Sermon delivered by St. Francis at the end of his life.”8 The number of patristic citations this work contains is alone sufficient to demonstrate its spuriousness.

The Francisci Collationes cum fratribus, catalogued among the Latin MSS of the Royal Library at Munich1 as being contained in a fifteenth century MS. at that library (cod. 11354), are a selection from the Dicta of the Blessed Brother Giles, as is evident from the Incipit of the prologue and the text of the first collation.2 Their attribution to St. Francis is therefore an error of the catalogue. The Verba S. Francisci de Paupertate, mentioned in the same catalogue as contained in Cod. 5998, fol. 189, are an excerpt from Chap. VI of the Second Rule of the Friars Minor.3

This attribution of writings to St. Francis which clearly do not belong to him is rarely intentional; it is often the result of error. For the rest, it was easiest for compilers and librarians unacquainted with the authorship of certain Franciscan works, and not eager to undertake deep researches as to their origin, to ascribe them to the common father of all Franciscan literature and the source of its inspiration.

Since every new revelation of St. Francis must be a priceless gain, it is devoutly to be wished that the present energetic research work among the sources of Franciscan history may happily bring to light some of St. Francis’ writings not known to us save through the formal attestation of the early legends and chronicles, or at least put us in possession of complete copies of such as have come down to us only in frag mentary form

Meanwhile I conclude this volume by wishing its readers their full share in the blessing which St. Francis himself has promised to those who receive his words kindly: Omnes illi et illac, qui ea benigne recipient, benedicat eis Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list of works is intentionally limited. Its aim is to give collectively and in alphabetical order a fuller reference to the principal and most accessible sources of information cited in the course of the present volume.

Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, collegit Joannes Bollandus, etc. (ed. 3).

Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum ejus. Ed Sabatier, Paris, 1902.

Prof. Alessandri: Inventario dei Manoscritti della biblioteca del conv. di S. Francesco di Assisi. Forli, 1894.

Analecta Bollandiana.1 Brussels.

Analecta Franciscana. Quaracchi.

Matthew Arnold: Essays in Criticism. Macmillan, 1875.

Reginald Balfour: The Seraphic Keepsake. Burns & Oates, 1905.

Fr. Francisci Bartholi, O.F.M.: Tractatus de Indulgentia S. Mariae de Portiuncula. Ed. Sabatier, Paris, 1900.

Fr. Bartholomaeus Pisanus, O.F.M.: De Conformitate Vitae B. Francisci ad vitam D. N. Jesu Christi. Milan, 1510.2

Fr Bernardus de Bessa, O.F.M.: Liber de Laudibus B. Francisci. In Anal. Franc., t. III.

Fr. Bernardo da Fivizzano, O.M.Cap.: Oposcoli di S. Francesco. Florence, 1880.

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina antiquae et mediae aetatis. Ed. Socii Bollandiani. Brussels.

Prof. H. Boehmer: Analekten zur Geschichte des Franciscus von Assisi. Tubingen and Leipzig (Mohr), 1904

Bullettino Critico di Cose Francescane. Florence

S. Bonaventura. Legendae duae de Vita S. Francisci. Quaracchi, 1898. (English translation by Miss Lockhart. Washbourne, 1898.)

Bullarium Franciscanum. Ed. F. F. Hyacinth Sbaralea and Conrad Eubel, O.M.Conv. 1759 and 1898.

Montgomery Carmichael: La Benedizione di San Francesco. Livorno, 1900. “The Origin of the Rule of St. Francis,” in Dublin Review, Vol CXXXIV, 1904, pp. 357-385. “The Writings of St. Francis,” in the Month, January, 1904, t. CIII, pp. 156-164. See also under Sacrum Commercium.

Fr. Thomas de Celano, O.F.M.: Vita Prima S. Francisci. Ed. Suyskens, S.J., in Acta S.S., Oct., II.

Vita Secunda S. Francisci. Ed. Amoni. Rome, 1880.

Tractatus de Miraculis. Ed. Van Ortroy, S.J., in Anal. Boll., t. XVIII, 1899.

Vita S. Clarae. Ed. Sedulius, O.F.M. Antwerp, 1613.

Fr. Leopold de Chérancé: S. François d’Assise. Paris, 1892. (English translation by R. F. O’Connor: Burns & Oates, 1901.)

Fr. Bernard Christen, O M Cap.: Leben des hl. Franciscus von Assisi. Innsbruck, 1899.

Chronica XXIV Generalium in Anal. Francis., t. III.

Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C. See under Eccleston.

G. Cozza-Luzi: Chiara di Assisi ed Innocenzo IV. Rome, 1887.

Lina Duff Gordon: The Story of Assisi. Dent, 1901.

Fr. Thomas Eccleston, O.F.M.: De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam in Anal. Franc., t. I; see Monumenta Franc. Ed. Brewer. Rolls series. (English translation by Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C.: The Friars and how they came to England. Sands, 1903.)

Fr. Edouard d’Alençon, O.M.Cap:1Epistola S. Francisci ad Ministrum Generalem in sua forma authentica. Rome, 1899. La Benediction de S. François. Paris, 1896. See also Sacrum Commercium.

Fr. Ehrle, S.J.: “Die Historischen Handschriften von S. Francesco in Assisi” in the Archiv furLitteratur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, t. I, pp 484 seq. “Controversen uber die Anfange des Minoritenordens” in Zeitschrift fur Katholische Theologie, t. XI, pp 725 seq.

Mgr. Faloci-Pulignani: “Tre Autografi di S. Francesco” in Misc. Francescana, t. VI, pp 33 seq., and “La Calligrafia di S. Francesco,” l. c., t. VII, pp 67 seq.

Floretum S. Francisci Assisiensis. Ed. Sabatier. Paris, 1902. A satisfactory Italian version of the Fioretti is that of Barbere, Florence, 1902. An excellent English translation, The Little Flowers of St. Francis, is published by Kegan Paul, 1905.

Etudes Franciscaines. Namur.

Joseph Gorres: Der hl. Franciscus von Assisi, ein Troubadour. Ratisbon, 1879.

Prof. Walter Goetz: Die Quellen zur Geschichte des hl. Franz von Assisi. Gotha, 1904.

Prof. John Herkless: Francis and Dominic and the Mendicant Orders. Scribner, 1901.

Fr. Jordani a Jano, O.F.M.: Chronica, in Anal. Franc., t. I.

Leon de Kerval: Sancti Antonii de Padua Vitae duae. Paris, 1904.

Fr. Leonard Lemmens, O.F.M.: “Die Anfänge des Clarissenordens” in Romische Quartalschrift, t. XVI, pp. 93 seq. Scripta Fratris Leonis, Quaracchi, 1901. See also under Speculum Perfectionis.

Abbé Leon Le Monnier: Histoire de S. Françoisd’Assise. (English translation by a Franciscan Tertiary. Kegan Paul, 1894.)

Prof. A. G. Little: Description de MS. Can. Misc. 525, de la Bibliothèque Bodleienne. Paris, 1903.

Canon Knox Little: St. Francis of Assisi: His Times, Life, and Work Isbister, 1904.

Anne Macdonnell: The Words of St. Francis. Dent, 1905.

Fr P. Mandonnet, O.P.: Les Origines de l’Ordo de Poenitentia (Freiburg, 1898). Les Regles et le Gouvernement de l’Ordo de Poenitentia au XIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1902).

Miscellanea Francescana di Storia di Lettere, di Arti. Foligno.

Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Berlin.

Prof. Karl Muller: Anfange des Minoritenordens und der Bussbruderschaften. Freiburg, 1885.

A. F. Ozanam: Les Poètes Franciscains en Italie au Treizième Siècle. Paris, 1882, 6th ed.

Opuscula S. P. Francisci Assisiensis. Edita a PP. Collegii S. Bonaventurae, Quaracchi, 1904.

Fr. Panfilo da Magliano, O.F.M.: Storia Compendiosa di San Francesco. Rome, 1874-1876.

Paul Sabatier: Vie de S. François d’Assise. Paris, 1894. (English translation by L. S. Houghton.) Regula antiqua Fratrum et Sororum de Poenitentia. Paris. (English translation in Adderley and Marsons’ Third Orders. Mowbray, 1902) Description du MS. Franciscain de Liegnitz. Paris, 1901. Examen de quelquesTravaux recents sur les Opuscules de Saint François. Paris, 1904 See also under Actus, Bartholi, and Speculum.

Fr. Hyacinth. Sbaralea, O M.Conv.: Supplementum et Castigatio ad Scriptores Trium Ordinum S. Francisci. Rome, 1806

Sacrum Commercium Beati Francisci cum Domina Paupertate. Ed. Fr. Ed. d’Alençon, O.M.Cap Rome, 1900. (English translation by Montgomery Carmichael, The Lady Poverty; Murray, 1901)

Emma Gurney Salter: Franciscan Legends in Italian Art. Dent, 1905.

Seraphicae Legislationis Textus Originales. Quaracchi, 1897.

Speculum Perfectionis. Ed. Lemmens: Quaracchi, 1901.

Speculum Perfectionis. Ed. Sabatier. Paris, 1898. (English translation of the text only, by the Countess de la Warr: The Mirror of Perfection. Burns & Oates, 1902.)

Luigi Suttina: Appunti Bibliografici di Studi Francescani. Padua, 1904.

H. Thode: Franz von Assisi und die Anfänge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien. Berlin, 1885 and 1904.

Trium Sociorum, Legenda S. Francisci Assis. Ed. Faloci. Foligno, 1898. (English translation by E. Gurney Salter: The Legend of the Three Companions. Dent, 1902.)

Fr. Ubald d’Alençon, O.M.Cap.: Les Opuscules de S. François d’Assise. Paris, 1905.

Fr. Van Ortroy, S.J. For his article on the Opuscula of St. Francis, see Analecta Bollandiana, t xxiv, fasc. iii (1905), p. 411 seq.

Fr. Luke Wadding, O.F.M.: Annales Minorum.1B. P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula. Antwerp, 1623. Scriptores Ordinis Minorum. Rome, 1650.

[1 ]It was soon after the canonization of St Clare, about 1256, that Celano undertook the task of compiling this legend by order of Alexander IV

[2 ]See Acta S S, t II, Aug., p 761

[1 ]See Little in Opuscules, t I, p 276

[2 ]See Spec Perf (ed Sabatier), p cxcvi

[3 ]See Opuscules, t I, p 55 This MS contains only the first part of the Office, it ends with the words the “Lord hath reigned”

[4 ]See above, p 3-4 Other MSS containing the Office are enumerated by Wadding See also Boehmer’s Analekten

[5 ]See above, p 139

[6 ]See above, p 141

[1 ]The Oxford Codex here reads “until Easter Sunday”

[1 ]“Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti annulare scripta beati patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de observantia regulae declaratur”—See Archiv, III, pp 168-169

[2 ]See above, p 26

[1 ]We need not despair of finding others, the Clares’ archives have mostly escaped spoliation

[2 ]See Spec Perf (ed Sabatier), c 108, and ed Lemmens, c 18 See also the Conformities (I, fol 185), and above, p 75

[3 ]See 2 Cel 3, 99

[4 ]See 1 Cel 82 See also Leg III Soc, 67, where the Incipit of the letters is given

[5 ]De Adventu Minorum in Angliam See Mon Germ Hist, Script, t XXVIII, p 563, and Anal Franc, t I, p 232, note 4 See also Fr Cuthbert’s translation of Eccleston, p 64

[6 ]Prof Herkless in his Francis and Dominic, p 54, cites some passages from a letter which St Francis “wrote to his friends at Bologna” in 1228 One searches in vain for any trace of such a letter among the early collections of St Francis’ writings

[7 ]See ed Acta S S, no 20

[8 ]See Anal Franc., t III, p 132

[9 ]Vie de S François, p 322

[1 ]See Opuscules, fasc x, p 128, note 1

[2 ]Die Quellen, etc, p 20. He places its composition between 1222 and 1225

[3 ]Analekten, p vii

[4 ]In the Liegnitz MS and the Vatican Codex 4354 the present letter is addressed fratri Antonio episcopo meo, which corresponds with the direction given by Celano (2 Cel 3, 99)

[5 ]On this letter see also Papini (Storia, t I, p 118, n 1), Muller (Anfange, p. 103), Lempp (Zeitschrift, t. XII, pp 425, 438), Lepitre (S Antoine, p 73), and de Kerval (S Antonii, etc, p 259, n 1)

[6 ]Another less well known letter to St Antony, giving him permission “to build a church near the city wall of Patti,” is sometimes attributed to St Francis. But the text is most improbable and gives rise to colossal historic difficulties See Lepitre, S. Antoine, p. 120, note, and Fr Edouard d Alençon, Etudes Franc., t. XII, p 361.

[7 ]Liber de Laudibus in Anal Franc, t. III, p 686

[1 ]The text of this Rule (which was the one in force for Franciscan Tertiaries until the promulgation of the Apostolic Constitution Misericors Dei Filius, by Leo XIII, May 30, 1883) may be found in Seraph Legisl, pp 77-94 For the new Rule substituted by Leo XIII, see Acta ad Tertium Franciscalem Ordinem spectantia (Quaracchi, 1901), pp 72-87

[2 ]See Anal Boll, t xviii, p 294

[3 ]Regula Antiqua Fratrum et Sororum de Poenitentia See Opuscules, t. I, p 17 Boehmer also gives the text in his Analekten

[4 ]“La règle donnée en 1221 dans son état primitif” See his Les Règles et le gouvernement de l’ordo de poenitentia au XIIIe Siècle in Opuscules, t I, p 175.

[1 ]The Bull Detestanda humani generis of Gregory IX

[2 ]Opuscules de S François, p 28

[3 ]There is an English translation of it See Third Orders, etc., by Adderley and Marson (Mowbray, 1902)

[4 ]Rosetti translated part of this poem in his Dante and his Circle, attributing it to St. Francis

[5 ]See Misc. Franc., 1888, pp 96 and 190, for two interesting texts of this poem.

[6 ]Opera omnia, t IV, sermo 16 and 4 (see Acta S S, t II, Oct, p 1003)

[7 ]Jacopone, lib VI, chap XVI, and lib VII, chap VI.

[8 ]Les Poètes Franciscains, p 90

[1 ]See Wadding, Opusc, p 508 ff

[2 ]See his Les Origines de l’ordo de Poenitentia, see also the Révue Thomiste, pp 295-314

[3 ]Quellen, etc, XXII, 362 But see above, p 89, n 1 also

[4 ]“Codiculus quidam vestustus MS Italico idiomati exaratus mihi à Fano Piceni urbe, ad Metaurum amnem extructa, transmissus” See Wadding, Opusc, p 285

[1 ]The text of the prayer “in time of sickness” is given by Bonav Leg Maj, XIV, 2

[2 ]Latin text published in 1900 by Fr Ed d’Alençon, and English translation by Montgomery Carmichael (The Lady Poverty) in 1901

[1 ]See Chron XXIV Generalium in Anal Franc, t III, p 283

[2 ]It is none the less a pearl of Franciscan literature. See the beautiful rendering of it which forms the appendix to Mr Carmichael’s translation of the Sacrum Commercium.

[3 ]At Vicenza (Bertol lib cod G I 10 24, fol 89 r), also the Capistran MS XXI, fol 180 r

[4 ]See Bonav Opera omnia, t. VIII, p 491.

[5 ]Supplementum, p 244

[6 ]Liber Dictorum cujus initium Quid faciet homo et finis Oratio semper est praemittenda

[7 ]“Dicta S Francisci, cum regula extant,” he says

[8 ]It is entitled “Praedicatio quaedam quam fecit B Franciscus Fratribus suis circa finem mortis sui corporis.” It abounds in quotations from SS Basil, Chrysostom, Augustine, Isidore, Gregory, and Bernard.

[1 ]See Catal codicum latinorum, t II, P II, p 17, n 214

[2 ]See Dicta B Ægidii (Quaracchi, 1905), pp 1-51

[3 ]As to the “Perfectiones S Francisci, quas dedit fratri Junipero,” found at Paris (nat lib., cod. 18327, fol 158 r), see Monumenta, tr II, fol. 281 r.

[1 ]The space devoted by Fr Van Ortroy, S J, to Franciscan history in this periodical assumes larger proportions each year

[2 ]A critical edition of this work will form Vol IV of the Anal Franc

[1 ]When this volume is almost through the press, I learn of the publication of Fr Edouard’s long-promised edition of Celano’s works—S Francisci Assisiensis vita et miracula additis opusculis liturgicis auctore Fr Thoma de Celano Hanc editionem novam ad fidem mss recensuit P Eduardus Alenconiensis, Rome. Desclée, 1905.

[1 ]Wadding’s Annales appeared at Lyons in 8 vols in fol 1625-54 Fr Jos Man Fonseca published a new edition and a continuation of the Annales in 19 vols at Rome, 1731-45 The official Annalists of the Friars Minor have since added 6 vols (tom 20-25), which were issued at Naples, Ancona, and Quaracchi The last vol (t 25) edited by Fr Eusebius Fernandzin († 1899) extends to the year 1622 The Quaracchi Friars are now engaged on the 26th volume