Part 31 (2/2)

It is difficult enough to ascertain precisely what part Francis still took in the direction of the Order. Pietro di Catana and later Brother Elias are sometimes called ministers-general, sometimes vicars; the two terms often occur successively, as in the preceding narrative. It is very probable that this confusion of terms corresponds to a like confusion of facts. Perhaps it was even intentional. After the chapter of September, 1220, the affairs of the Order pa.s.s into the hands of him whom Francis had called minister-general, though the friars as well as the papacy gave him only the t.i.tle of vicar. It was essential for the popularity of the Brothers Minor that Francis should preserve an appearance of authority, but the reality of government had slipped from his hands.

The ideal which he had borne in his body until 1209 and had then given birth to in anguish, was now taking its flight, like those sons of our loins whom we see suddenly leaving us without our being able to help it, since that is life, yet not without a rending of our vitals. _Mater dolorosa!_ Ah, no doubt they will come back again, and seat themselves piously beside us at the paternal hearth; perhaps even, in some hour of moral distress, they will feel the need of taking refuge in their mother's arms as in the old days; but these fleeting returns, with their feverish haste, only reopen the wounds of the poor parents, when they see how the children hasten to depart again--they who bear their name but belong to them no longer.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Giord., 14; _Tribul._, f^o 10.

[2] Any other date is impossible, since Francis in open chapter relinquished the direction of the Order in favor of Pietro di Catana, who died March 10, 1221.

[3] This too short fragment is found in -- vi. of the Rule of the Damianites (August 9, 1253): Speculum, Morin, Tract. iii., 226b.

[4] 2 Cel., 2, 3; Bon., 162; cf. _Conform._, 184b, 2, and 62b, 1.

[5] Sigonius, _Opera_, t. iii. col. 220; cf. Potthast, 5516, and 6086.

[6] 2 Cel., 3, 4; _Spec._, 11a; _Tribul._, 13a; _Conform._, 169b, 2.

[7] Died in 1229. Cf. Mazzetti, _Repertorio di tutti i professori di Bologna_, Bologna, 1847, p. 11.

[8] See _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 635, and the notes.

[9] Wadding, _ann. 1220_, no. 9. Cf. A. SS., p. 823.

[10] 2 Cel., 1, 16; _Spec._, 100a-101b.

[11] Giord., 14; cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102; 3 Soc., 56 and 63.

[12] _c.u.m secundum._ The original is at a.s.sisi with _Datum apud Urbem Veterem X. Kal. Oct. pont. nostri anno quinto_ (September 22, 1220). It is therefore by an error that Sbaralea and Wadding make it date from Viterbo, which is the less explicable that all the bulls of this epoch are dated from Orvieto. Wadding, _ann.

1220_, 57; Sbaralea, vol. i., p. 6; Potthast, 6561.

[13] 2 Cel., 3, 118; Ubertin, _Arbor. V._, 2; _Spec._, 26; 50; 130b; _Conform._, 136a, 2; 143a, 2.

[14] 2 Cel., 3, 83; Bon. 77. One should read this account in the _Conform._ according to the _Antigua Legenda_, 142a, 2; 31a, 1; _Spec._ 43b.

[15] _Tribul._ Laur. MS., 12b; Magl. MS., 71b.

[16] Luke, ix., 1-6. _Tribul._, 12b: _Et fecerunt de regula prima ministri removere_.... This must have taken place at the chapter of September 29, 1220, since the suppression is made in the Rule of 1221.

[17] 2 Cel., 3, 81; _Spec._, 26; _Conform._, 175b, 1; 53a; Bon., 76; A. SS., p. 620.

[18] The epitaph on his tomb, which still exists at S. M. dei Angeli bears this date: see _Portiuncula, von P. Barnabas aus dem Elsa.s.s_, Rixheim, 1884, p. 11. Cf. A. SS., p. 630.

[19] _Spec._, 9b; _Arbor. V._, 3; _Conform._, 170a, 1; 2 Cel., 3, 124. Cf. Ubertini, _Archiv._, iii., pp. 75 and 177.

CHAPTER XV

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