Part 47 (2/2)
8. The _Laudes Creaturarum_, or Canticle of the Sun[14] (fol. 33a).
9. A paraphrase of the _Pater_ introduced by the rubric: _Incipiunt laudes quas ordinavit. B. pater noster Franciscus et dicebat ipsas ad omnes horas diei et noctis et ante officium B. V. Mariae sic incipiens: Sanctissime Pater_[15] (fol. 34a).
10. The office of the Pa.s.sion (34b-43a). This office, where the psalms are replaced by several series of biblical verses, are designed to make him who repeats them follow, hour by hour, the emotions of the Crucified One from the evening of Holy Thursday.[16]
11. A rule for friars in retreat in hermitages[17] (fol. 43a-43b).
A glance over this list is enough to show that the works of Francis here collected are addressed to all the Brothers, or are a sort of encyclicals, which they are charged to pa.s.s on to those for whom they are destined.
The very order of these pieces shows us that we have in this ma.n.u.script the primitive library of the Brothers Minor, the collection of which each minister was to carry with him a copy. It was truly their viatic.u.m.
Matthew Paris tells us of his amazement at the sight of these foreign monks, clothed in patched tunics, and carrying their books in a sort of case suspended from their necks.[18]
The a.s.sisi ma.n.u.script was without doubt destined to this service; if it is silent on the subject of the journeys it has made, and of the Brothers to whom it has been a guide and an inspiration, it at least brings us, more than all the legends, into intimacy with Francis, makes us thrill in unison with that heart which never admitted a separation between joy, love, and poetry. As to the date of this ma.n.u.script, one must needs be a paleographer to determine. We have already found a hypothesis which, if well grounded, would carry it back to the neighborhood of 1240.[19]
Its contents seem to countenance this early date. In fact, it contains several pieces of which the _Manual of the Brother Minor_ very early rid itself.
Very soon they were content to have only the Rule to keep company with the breviary; sometimes they added the Will. But the other writings, if they did not fall entirely into neglect, ceased at least to be of daily usage.
Those of St. Francis's writings which are not of general interest or do not concern the Brothers naturally find no place in this collection. In this new category we must range the following doc.u.ments:
1. The Rule of 1221.[20]
2. The Rule of the Clarisses, which we no longer possess in its original form.[21]
3. A sort of special instruction for ministers-general.[22]
4. A letter to St. Clara.[23]
5. Another letter to the same.[24]
6. A letter to Brother Leo.[25]
7. A few prayers.[26]
8. The benediction of Brother Leo. The original autograph, which is preserved in the treasury of Sacro Convento, has been very well reproduced by heliograph.[27]
As to the two famous hymns _Amor de caritade_[28] and _In foco l'amor mi mise_,[29] they cannot be attributed to St. Francis, at least in their present form.
It belongs to M. Monaci and his numerous and learned emulators to throw light upon these delicate questions by publis.h.i.+ng in a scientific manner the earliest monuments of Italian poetry.
I have already spoken of several tracts of which a.s.sured traces have been found, though they themselves are lost. They are much more numerous than would at first be supposed. In the missionary zeal of the early years the Brothers would not concern themselves with collecting doc.u.ments. We do not write our memoirs in the fulness of our youth.
We must also remember that Portiuncula had neither archives nor library.
It was a chapel ten paces long, with a few huts gathered around it. The Order was ten years old before it had seen any other than a single book: a New Testament. The Brothers did not even keep this one. Francis, having nothing else, gave it to a poor woman who asked for alms, and when Pietro di Catania, his vicar, expressed his surprise at this prodigality: ”Has she not given her two sons to the Order?” replied the master[30] quickly.
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