Saint Francis of Assisi, a biography

Front matter

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Book One

FRANCIS THE CHURCH BUILDER CHAPTER I, Francis’ Sickness. 1204. Re-convalescence. The Vanity of AIP LRINGSS OM vistas ool te: | Geka ic, toteatee wet ce

II. Francis’ Ancestry. Birth, 1182. Name. Early youth. La Gaya Scienza. Generosity to his friends and to the poor

III. Local History. War between Assisi and Perugia. Francis is taken prisoner at Ponte San Giovanni and is a prisoner 1202- TIO Suite Mra OR ACME TMs sor lsenivet| Toe holga at ce

IV. State of the Times. War between Emperor and Pope. Francis wants to enlist under Walter of Brienne, 1205. The Vision in Foligno. Francis returns home. New festivities. Francis thinks of taking a Bride . ......

V. Francis’ frequent prayers in a cave outside the City. Goes to Rome and begs at the door of St. Peter’s. Begins to take care OlgthesLenersp. wee a siaieiaeeecrs cise —eaete

VI. Francis prays in San Damiano. “Go hence and build up My House, for it is falling down!” Francis retires to a cave near San Damiano, 1207. .

VII. Francis imprisoned by his Father is released by his Mother. He gives his clothes back to his Father and goes out into the world, April, 1207, as the Heraid of God. He goes to Gubbio, takes care of the Lepers, returns to Assisi, begs from door to door. He rebuilds the churches of S. Damiano, S. Pietro, and Portiuncula. On February 24, 1209, he hears the priest in Portiuncula read Matth. x. 7-13, and decides to live by those Words.

Book Two Francis The Evangelist

I. Francis preaches in Assisi. The first Disciples. Bernard of Quintavalle, Pietro dei Cattani, Giles. The first Mission Journeys. Bernard and Giles in Florence, Francis in Rieti. He hears in Poggio Bustone that his sins are forgiven .

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Contents

II. The Shed at Rivo Torto. Francis writes a forma vite and goes,

1210, to Rome with eleven Brothers to have it ratified by Innocent III. He only obtainsaverbalapproval . ... .

TI. Temptations to become a Hermit. The twelfth Disciple: the

BOOK THREE Gop’s SINGER

I. The Italian Mission of 1211-1212. Cortona, Arezzo, Florence.

John Parenti.‘ Francis tries to evade the homage of the people. Lent of 1211 on Lake Thrasimene, winter of same year in Hermitage of Sarteano. What is God’s will? Francis asks the advice of Clara and Silvester, gets the answer that his call is to preach. He preaches to the birds

II. Francis wants to preach to the Heathen. He goes to Rome, meets

Jacopa de Settesoli, On the way to the Holy Land is wrecked on the coast of Slavonia and goes thence as a stowaway to Ancona. In S. Severino converts the “Verse King,” Guglielmo Divino. Francis’ relations to the learned, to thieves, and robbers. He preaches, May 8, 1213, in Monte Feltro, converts Count Orlando dei Cattani and receives Mount Alverna as a gift. In the winter of 1213-1214 he visits Spain and is present at the Fourth Lateran Council. Jacques de Vitry’s picture of the Order in 1216 .....

CONTENTS II. The PortiunculaIndulgence . . . . . . . 6. et a 166

IV. Constitution of the Franciscan Order. The Chapter-Assemblies. Francis’ Admonitions at them. The movement grows. Franeiseckelielp tocdirect ibs (028) 2G), cei Glee. as

V. Cardinal Hugolin. Pentecost Chapter of 1217. Missions are sent beyond the frontiers of Italy. Francis decides to go to France. On his way there visits Hugolin in Florence and is deterred from going. Hugolin organizes the Clares. The development of the Order of Clares up to1253. . . . . . 48t

VI. Missions in France, Germany, and Hungary not successful. Francis goes in the winter of 1217-1218 with Hugolin to Rome and has an audience with Honorius III. He meets St. Dominic. At the Pentecost Chapter of 1218 Hugolin is present for the first time as Protector of the Order. New missionaries sent out May 26, 1219. Honorius issues his Letters of Protection for the missionaries, June 11, 1219. Missions in Tunis and in Morocco. The first five martyrs. . . . . . . ...« 192

VII. Francis and Pietro dei Cattani start for the Holy Land, June 24, 1219, preach among the Crusaders in Egypt, and before the Sultan Malek el Kamel. Francis’ two vicars, Gregory of Naples and Matthew of Narni, hold a Chapter, at which they try to change the Rule of the Order. Brother Stephen brings this news to Francis, and Francis returns. He goes at once to Rome and calls a Chapter for Pentecost, 1221. Honorius, in accordance with Francis, ordains a novitiate of the Order, September 22, 1220. Francis resigns his leadership and names Pietro dei Cattani as his vicar and after him Elias of Cortona. “The Chapter of Mats.” The new German Mission. An- ChomygOibad Wakes i cum sition. icte-cate cotton em tans tts tees AOS

VIII. Francis and Caesar of Speier work on a new Rule of the Order. Development of the Rule. Francis’ Admonitiones. Rule for hermitages. Rule for Portiuncula. The original Rule and the COR UL Cr Oleh 2 20 ase Mn Ore a ae ale ame eet le to Mee ea Ge ie, TS

IX. Disputes about the final Rule from May 30, 1221, to November 29,1223. Opposition to Francis. Peter Stacia. Francis’ contest for evangelical simplicity and evangelical poverty. Francis and Anthony of Padua. Francis in Bologna August, Rt Hee eae ee So Se ah Sea ae, hee ae «228

X%. The new movement and the older Franciscans. Brother Giles. The English Franciscans. The “Third Order.” Contest between the Brothers of Penance and the authorities . . . . 236 xiv CONTENTS

XI. Co-operation of Francis and Hugolin, and of Francis and Elias of Cortona. Francis’ letter to Elias. The Rule is perfected. Francis at Fonte Colombo. The final Rule. . . .

XII. Honorius approves the Rule, 1223. Francis and ‘Brother Jacoba.”” The Lambs and Francis. Francis with Cardinal Leo. He leaves Rome, celebrates Christmas, 1223, in Greccio. The. first‘ChristmasGribs cacy gco se el es circ toe

Book Four Francis The Hermit

, I. Francis’ Sickness. His literary activity. His five Circulars. etter to, Brother cor @:si.,,5 ake ee Wolk me Cu ee

II. Francis Preaches by his example. His truthfulness. Zeal for Poverty. His Alms. Easter in Greccio. Francis and the Demons s.( 53-3 es vat aes: vk epee eee ee a

III. Francis and his intimates. Brother Rufino’s temptation. “The ideal Friar Minor.”’ The Spanish Franciscans. Francis reads in the hearts of men. Francis and obedience. Francis and prayer. The Evangelic Joy. Francis’ ecstasy . . . . .

IV. Francis goes in the summer of 1224 to Mount Alverna. Francis and Brother Leo. The Stigmatization, September 14, 1224 .

V. Francis’ Song of Praise in thanks for the Stigmatization. The Blessing for Brother Leo. He leaves Mount Alverna, passes through Borgo S. Sepolcro and Citta di Castello to Portiuncula. Begins again to take care of the Lepers .

VI. Francis’ Blindness. Francis at San Damiano in the Summer of 1225. His love of nature. He composes the Sun Song

VII. Francis goes to Rieti. The vineyard in S. Fabiano. An angel plays for him at night in Rieti. He is treated by physicians for his eyes, goes to Siena, writes his first Testament to the Brothers. Brother Elias takes him to Celle, thence to Assisi. He lies sick in the Bishop’s residence, makes peace between the Bishop and the Podesta. He sends his farewell to St. Clara, dictates his Testament. He lets himself be taken down to Portiuncula, blessing Assisi on the way. In Portiuncula he receives a visit from Jacopa de Settesoli, breaks bread with the Brothers. He dies October 3, 1226

VIII. The Funeral Procession. Jacopa de Settesoli . .

CONTENTS.

Autograph of St. Francis.

xv APPENDIX ‘AUTHORITIES FOR THE BIOGRAPHY OF St. FRANCIS OF ASSISI Re Ee WIENS Fee 340 Religious Poems SMP olir re) rere Meee he “aj spe. vor mie de 341 LOSE WiTitineS) (eer) oe de, he ss 2 os) en ss 349 II. Biographers : ; Spite etc anes Gece ceo. 351 1. Thomas of Cano, Group. Sai ceenapRne Coie Pasa as 352 gerprothereo) Grouper een ee ae ee ee 3506 a. Legenda irium sociorum . . . . . « « « 356 b. Anonymus Perusinus. . . Me ch terats 367 c. Thomas of Celano’s Vita sccuads 5 eek ss 08 3. St. Bonaventure Group Beh rahe g eaten toe Matta 378 A SDeCIuUMUGTOUD eras. 6s al oe, hye 38r a. Speculum perfectonis ~. + . « 2 » «© « 384 b. Legenda antiqua AM See eee 309A GCA CLUSHCETOPCHL): Wire Go vo rise reel vel an ra Me 303 TI. Other Sources . . SCIP ORSD.o Se Rai Me ees 398, a. Histories of the Oriler, gies of hee toy eaters 395 b. Authorities outside of the Order Skee Re gets 400 Com rodern Works cane sed ee sell lee ied ken aden te - 407 BUND) EN Ceeae Sagrada ie cee noite” | 5e. lise aw Dee. Sek Tan a ces wk 4th ILLUSTRATIONS St. Francis or ASSsIst . . ares Frontispiece From the painting by Shaenotene in “ie Piles Reale, Genoa.

CONTEMPORARY PoRTRAIT OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI AT THE SACRO SPECO, SUBIACO . . Facing page 62 (From a photograph kindly lent by Fora es Cie, Paris.) Sr. CLarA oF AsSISI AND SCENES FROM HER LIFE. H “128 Altributed to Cimabue. Frescoin Church of Santa Chiara, Assisi. ’ Sr. Francis or ASSISI . . . : oats Lose wrtGs From the fresco, attributed to Covcdbute at ta ‘Tue BLEssiInc ofr BRoTHER LEO. . . . . +. « « « “346

Book One Francis The Church Builder

Now he hid himself in hermitages, now he piously devoted himself to the restoration of churches.

St. ANTONINUS OF FLORENCE

Chapter I The Convalescent

HERE awoke one morning in Assisi a young man who was just recovering from a severe illness. It was seven hundred years ago. The hour was an early one. The window blinds were not yet opened.

Out of doors the day’s business was in full blast; the bells for mass had long ago rung out from St. Marta del Vescovado, which lay almost under the windows. The strong morning light streamed in through the crack where the window blinds met.

The young man knew it all so well—one morning after another the long weeks of his convalescence had passed thus. Soon his mother would come in and would draw the shutters aside, and the light would enter in dazzling brightness. Then he would get his morning draught, and his bed would be made over; he used to lie on one side of the wide bed while the other was made up for him. And so he would lie there, tired, but at peace, and look out on the blue cloudless autumn sky, listening to the splashing on the stones of the street as the people of the neighborhood threw their waste water out of the windows. As the forenoon advanced the rays of the sun began to come in — first along the high wall of the window alcove—then right across the brick floor of the room, and when they approached the bed, it was time to take the midday meal. After midday the blinds were again closed, and he took his siesta in the quiet comfortable obscurity of theroom. Then he awoke and the blinds were again thrown open to admit the light; the sun had left the window — but if he raised himself up in the bed, he could see the mountains under a blue veil on the other side of the plain, and soon the crimson evening red of the late autumn day burned in the western sky. As the darkness quickly fell, he heard the - noise of sheep, which were driven bleating into the stable, and of peasants and peasant girls, who sang on their way home from the fields. They were the wonderful heart-gripping folk-songs of Umbria which the invalid heard — the songs which even to-day are in the people’s mouths and whose slow, wonderfully melancholy tones fill the soul with sadness till it is ready to burst with helpless longing and melancholy.

At last the songs ceased and it was night. Over the distant mountains gleamed a single bright star. When that showed itself, it was time to close the shutters and to light the night-lamp — the lamp which in the long nights of fever had constantly burned through the long hours of his uneasy dreams.

To-day there was to be a change — to-day at last he was to have permission to leave his bed. How glad he was to go into the other rooms, to see and touch all the things he had so long missed, and had been so near losing for ever. He must even venture down into the business offices — see the people come and do business, see the clerks measure the good Tuscan cloth with their yardsticks, and draw in the bright ringing coins.

Just as the young man was busy with these dreams the door opened. As on every morning of his illness, it was his mother who entered.: As she threw the shutters aside he saw that she carried, as she brought his morning meal, a suit of man’s clothes over her arm.

“T have had a new suit of clothes made for you, my Francis,”’ said she as she laid them down at the foot of the bed.

And as he finished his meal she sat down by the window while he dressed himself.

“What a lovely morning it is,” said she, almost as if she were talking to herself. ‘How brightly the sun shines! I see all the houses over in Bettona so clearly, although there is the whole extent of the broad plain between us, and out in the middle of the green vineyards, Isola Romanesca lies like d

THE CONVALESCENT 5 an island in a lake. And smoke is rising straight up from all the chimneys — as if from a censer in a church. Ah, it seems to me, my Francis, that on such a morning as this, heaven and earth are as beautiful.as a church on a feast-day, and that all creatures praise, love and thank God.”

To. these words Francis gave no answer but silence.

But a moment later he broke out, as he ceased his dressing:

“How weak I am!”

His mother changed the current of her remarks and their tone.

“Tt is always so, when one has been sick,” she said brightly. “As long as you lie in bed you think that you can do anything, but as soon as you get your feet from under the covers you find that it is different. I know this from my own experience, and therefore I had the foresight to bring a stick for you.”

And she went to the door and brought in a beautiful polished stick with an ivory handle. Soon after the mother and son together left the sick-room.

Some time passed before Francis could venture to go out of his home alone. He and his mother had visited all the rooms. They had been down in the shop, where the clerks had greeted them with a hearty and delighted “Good morning, Madonna Pica! Good morning and welcome back, Signorino Francesco!” But Francis had to go further than through rooms and shop, further than through the house — he must go out and greet the fields and vineyards, greet the open heaven and look far over the wide fertile plain.

And now he stood outside the city gate on the road which goes to Foligno along the foot of Monte Subasio. Here he stood, supported by his stick, and looked out. Directly in front of him was a vineyard; the vines were festooned from tree to tree; heavy blue bunches hung under the broad leaves; soon it will be the grape harvest and the beautiful time of wine-pressing. Further down the slope were the olive groves that extended over the plain and covered it with a silver-grey veil. Here and there appeared the white buildings and farmhouses under a veil cf mist which now towards midday began to rise out of the earth — the most distant buildings seemed hardly larger than little white stones.

Francis saw it all, yet not as he should have seen it. That — excess of delight, with which the sight of the landscape’s bright colors and of the mountain’s fine outline against the clear sky formerly affected him, was missing. It was as if the heart which formerly had beaten so young and strongly in his breast had suddenly grown old — it seemed to him as if he never again could enjoy anything. He felt too hot in the sun, and retreated to the shadow of a wall. His knees were too weak to let him go down the hill; he also was hungry and caught himself dreaming of a good dinner and of a glass of wine. And like a shudder the sensation went through him that his youth was gone — that the things which he had believed would constantly give him peace would now give him no joy — that all that he had thought to be a treasure which never could be taken from him: the sunshine, the blue heaven, the green fields — all that he in his convalescence’s weary days had so bitterly longed for like an exiled king for his kingdom — that all this in his hands was now worthless, smouldering and going to ashes, like the palms of Palm- Sunday burned and reduced to the ashes which the priest on Ash-Wednesday puts upon the heads of the faithful, with the sad and truthful words, ‘Remember, man, of dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”

It was all dust, dust and nothing but dust — and ashes, death and judgment, mortality and vanity—all was vanity!

Francis stood there a long time and looked into space — it was as though he saw the future blossoming before his eyes. Slowly he turned away, and, leaning heavily on his stick, went back to Assisi. .

For him the day was come of which the Lord spoke to the prophet: “TI will spread thy path with thorns” — the day when a mysterious hand writes words of death and corruption on the walls of the feast chamber.

But, like all who are in the first steps of their conversion, the young man immediately thought as much of the failings of others as of his own. For as he saw the change that had

THE CONVALESCENT 7 taken place in himself, his thoughts were directed to his friends with whom he had so often stood there and admired the beautiful view. “How foolish they are that they love perishable things,” he thought within himself with a sort of feeling of superiority as he went back to the city gate.!

1The material for this sketch is found undeveloped, but clearly enough expressed, in the first and second chapters of Thomas of Celano’s Vita prima — and the stick on which Francis rests himself is even included — also in Bonaventure (Legenda major, cap. I, n. 2) and Julian of Speier (Acta Sanctorum, Oct.

Chapter II Infancy And Youth

RANCESCO — or as we say in our language, Francis — had that morning just completed his twenty-second year and was the eldest son of one of the richest men of Assisi, the great cloth-merchant Pietro de Bernar-

done.

The family was not indigenous to Assisi — Pietro’s father Bernardone or ‘“‘great Bernhard” had come from Lucca, and belonged to the renowned Luccan family of weavers and merchants, the Moriconi. Francis’ mother, Lady Pica, was of still more distant origin; Ser Pietro had made her acquaintance on one of his business trips in beautiful legendary Provence, and took her home as his bride to the little Italian village under the mountain declivity of Subasio.!

Assisi is one of the oldest cities of Italy. Even in the books of Ptolemy it is called Aisision; and in the year 46 B.c. the Latin poet Propertius was born there. Christianity was

1 Ottavio, Bishop of Assisi, tells in his book, published in 1689, Lumi sulla Portiuncula, that he, during a visit to Lucca, had seen an old manuscript, whence he copied the following, word for word: “‘There were in Lucca two brothers who were merchants named Moriconi. One remained in the region, while the other with the surname, Bernardone, went to Umbria and settled in Assisi, married there and had a son whom he named Pietro. Pietro, who was heir to a considerable fortune, courted a young girl of noble family, named Pica, and was St. Francis’ father.” For Pica’s Provencal extraction see Régle du Tiers Ordre de la Pénitence . . . explained by R. P. Claude Frassen, Paris, 1752, and Annales Franciscaines, Oct., 1890. Wadding (Annales, I, p. 17) gives a family tree of the Moriconi, coming within the fourth degree of consanguinity of St. Francis. Also according to Wadding (ditto, p. 18) the priors in Assisi, February 3, 1534, testify that there lived two descendants of Pietro di Bernardone in the city, namely the brothers Antonio and Bernardone, both of whom supported themselves as beggars. See also A. SS., Oct. II, pp. 556-557, Cristofani: Storie d’Assisi, 1, pp. 78 et seq. Sabatier: Vie de St. F. (1905), p. 2, n. 2, le Monnier: Hist. de St. F., I (1891), pp. 1-6, Cherancé: St. F. d’A. (1900), Pp. 2-3.

INFANCY AND YOUTH 9 brought to this region by St. Crispolitus or Crispoldo—according to the legend a disciple of St. Peter as well as of St. Britius, Bishop of Spoleto, who at the command of the prince of the Apostles, in the year 58, is said to have consecrated St. Crispoldo as bishop in Vettona, now Bettona, and to have assigned him the charge over the whole district from Foligno in the south to Nocera in the north. Under the persecutions of Domitian, St. Crispoldo suffered martyrdom; the same fate overtook later three of Umbria’s bishops — St. Victorinus (about 240), St. Sabinus (303), and St. Rufinus who was the apostle of Assisi.

In honor of the last named there was erected in Assisi, in the middle of the twelfth century, the beautiful romanesque basilica of San Rufino, after the designs of John of Gubbio, and when it was completed it became the cathedral of the place, replacing the very old church by the Bishop’s palace — Santa Maria del Vescovado.

And in this church of San Rufino still stands the romanesque baptismal font in which the first-born of Ser Pietro and Madonna Pica received the water of holy baptism one day in September, 1182 (it is said to have been the 26th).

A legend which is not older than the fifteenth century says that while Madonna Pica’s hour with Francis was come the child could not be born. Then a pilgrim knocked at the door, and, when it was opened, said that the child would not be born until the mother left the beautiful bedroom, went into the stable, and there Jay upon straw in one of the stalls. This was done, and hardly was the change effected when the heartrending cries of the mother ceased, and she bore a son, whose first cradle, like that of the Saviour, was a manger full of straw in a stable.

Bartholomew of Pisa, who wrote in the end of the fourteenth century, and who in his work Liber Conformitatum goes very far in drawing analogies between Jesus Christ and Saint Francis, knew nothing of this story; yet it would have exactly suited the scope of his book. On the other hand, Benozzo Gozzoli in the year 1452 painted the birth in the

1 Ughelli: Italia sacra (1717), vol. I, col. 680; A. SS., 12. May: Analecta Franciscana, III (Quaracchi, 1897), p. 226, n. x.

Io SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI stable upon the walls of the church of St. Francis in Monte. falco, and Sedulius, whose Historia Seraphica appeared in

Antwerp in the year 1613, says that he saw the stable in ©

Assisi converted into a chapel.

Even to-day this chapel can be found in Assisi. It is called S. Francesco il piccolo (St. Francis the little), and over the door can be read the following inscription:

Hoc oratorium fuit bovis et asini stabulum In quo natus est Franciscus mundi speculum.

‘This oratory was the stable of ox and ass in which Francis the mirror of the world was born.”

The chapel is not far from the place where now the house of the father of St. Francis is shown, and where since the seventeenth century the chiesa nuova (new church) lifts its barocque walls. The Bollandists have propounded the theory that the chapel may be a part of Pietro di Bernardone’s original house, which the family later moved out of while Francis was still a child. Perhaps the name of the chapel, “Little Francis,” led to the development of the legend.!

Of the same legendary quality as that of the birth in the stable is another tradition that is first given by Wadding. This tells us that the same pilgrim who had given the good advice about the flight to the stable was also in the church at the time of the child’s baptism immediately after the birth, and held the child over the font. There is still shown in San Rufino’s church a stone on which are what resemble footprints. It is told by the guide who shows the stone that the pilgrim — or the angel in guise of a pilgrim — stood upon this stone when St. Francis was baptized.

The seed from which this legend has sprung is undoubtedly a tale, which still exists in a manuscript of the so-called Legend of the Three Brothers.

It is told in it that while the new-born Francis was being baptized, a pilgrim came and knocked at the door and asked to see the child. The maid who opened the door naturally refused this request, but the stranger declared that he would not go until he obtained his wish. Ser Pietro was not at

1 Acta sanctorum, Oct. II., pp. 556-558.

INFANCY AND YOUTH It home, and they told the lady of the house what was going on. To the astonishment of all, she ordered them to do what the pilgrim asked. The child was taken out, and as soon as the stranger saw the child he took it in his arms just as Simeon had taken the Divine Infant, and said: ‘To-day there have been born in this street two children, and one of them, namely this very child, shall be one of the best men in the world, but the other shall be one of the worst.” !

Bartholomew of Pisa adds that the pilgrim made the sign of a cross upon the right shoulder of the little one, warning the nurse to look well after the child, for the devil strove after its life. And when the stranger had said this, he disappeared before the eyes of all.

In baptism the son of Ser Pietro had received the name of John. The father was absent on a journey to France when the child was born, and one of the first things he undertook after his return was to change his first-born’s name from John to Francis. This name was then rare, although not entirely new. It was in use in the immediate neighborhood of Assisi, as the name of the road (via Francesca) which then ran along the west side of the town from S. Salvatore degli Pareti (now Casa Gualdi) and ended at S. Damiano. This road is referred to by name in a bull of Pope Innocent ITI, published May 26, 1198, when Francis was only fifteen years old, and not yet famous enough to have a road called after him. Many surmises have been made as to why Pietro di Bernardone changed his son’s name. The love of the merchant just returning from Provence for France must have been a principal motive; he wished his son to be a real Frenchman in nature and ways. A certain protest against the name-giving by the woman of the house may also have played its part. St. Bonaventure says explicitly that the name John was given him by his mother. ‘‘I wish no camel’shair John the Baptist, but a Frenchman with fine nature,” is what the father’s changing of the name may be thought to have meant.

1Tyes Socii, cap. 1, n. 2, in the Vatican MS. 7339, published in Pesaro,

1831. Barth, of Pisa’s Conformitates (Milano, 1513), fol. 12v, 13r, and 25r. Wadding, I, (Romae, 1731), pp. 20-21.

I2 SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Others hold that the name “the Frenchman” was first bestowed upon the youth as he grew up because of his skill in the French language —a skill which certainly was not very great, as he never could speak the language perfectly.

In any case, the youth became familiar from youth with the French tongue. He also learned Latin; this part of his education was undertaken by priests of the neighboring church of St. George.!

St. Francis’ first biographer, Thomas of Celano, gives us an unpleasant picture of the education of the period. He tells us that children were scarcely weaned before they were taught by their elders to both say and do improper things, and that from false human respect no one dared to behave honorably. And from so bad a twig no good and healthy tree naturally could spring. A wasted childhood was followed by a riotous youth. Christianity was only a name with the young, and all their ambition was simply in the direction of seeming worse than they were.”