Francis of Assisi.

Front matter

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Introduction

XV affection of the brethren urged me on, and the unanimous wish of the General Chapter induced me, and that reverence which I am bound to bear to the holy father compelled me inasmuch as having been through his prayers and merits, as I ever cherish in my memory, snatched in my childhood from the jaws of death—should I be silent in publishing his praise, I fear the charge of wickedness, as ungrateful. I have too this chief cause of taking upon me this labour, that I, who recognize the life of body and soul as preserved to me by God through him, and know his virtue through my own experience, although I may not fully be able, shall collect as far as possible the virtues of his life, his acts, and words, as fragments partly neglected, partly scattered, that they might not perish with the death of those who had lived with the servant of God.

‘In order, then, that the truth of his life, to be handed down to posterity, should appear to me more certainly and clearly, going to the place of the birth, life, and death (departure) of the holy man, I held frequent and diligent conference with his companions who still survive, and especially with certain who knew him well, and were chief followers of his holiness, to whom, on account of their known truth and approved virtue, unhesitating credit must be given.”

This is the last of the biographies which can be called contemporary. From those which are simply legendary, produced by the gradually expanding superstition of the Order, and its desire to raise its Founder to the highest fabulous rank of sainthood, or rather of semi-deity, we have not quoted at all. It is needless to desecrate a fine and noble life with any shadow of such impious attempts ata false glorification; and the authentic materials are abundant enough to take away all temptation on the part of the student te draw from their profane and polluted sources. The only legendary authority from which we have taken anything is the beautiful

XV1 INTRODUCTION.

collection of popular stories read and loved in Italy to this day, which is called the Froretts di San Francesco—the Little Flowers of St. Francis. The tiny little unbound volume in the worst type and rudest paper, costing a few bajocchi only, from which we have quoted, is in itself evidence enough how these most touching chronicles have kept hold of the heart of the Italian people. This book is not contemporary; it is generally believed to belong in its present form to the first half of the fourteenth century, but has every appearance of having existed under the form of oral legend long before. In quoting from it we have been scrupulous never to build upon its facts as authentic, but simply to take advantage of the fresh and delightful variety of life and circumstance which it throws upon the tale.

It would be unjust not to acknowledge, at the same time, the service rendered to the student by the painstaking labours of the Bollandist father who has edited the three contemporary biographies of Francis as they appear in the Acta Sanctorum,—collating them with the further information contained in the Annals of the Order, compiled by the learned priest Luke Wadding—and examining every fact and every inference with a calm elaboration, not to say tediousness, of critical judgment which are simply invaluable. Father Suysken is not so interesting as Celano, as Leo and his brothers, or the poetic and eloquent Bonaventura, but his careful discussion over and over of every incident, his elaborate comparisons and examinations of date and evidence, are of the highest importance, and cannot be over-estimated.

Of modern works on the subject, the chief referred

INTRODUCTION. xvii to have been the Life of Francis of Assisi, by Dr. Karl Hase, a painstaking and valuable volume: and Ozanam’s eloquent sketches, Les Poétes Franciscains.

This is perhaps scarcely the place in which to render private acknowledgments, but the writer cannot end this introductory note without offering her thanks, and more than thanks, to the ‘indefatigable and kindest friend who has aided her ignorance in many a tedious hour's reading and weary night's work—who even now will not wish to be named—but to whom she owes the deepest gratitude, oe ' Tee (ea tisk ek ¥ al ir "

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