Omniana/Volume 2/Te Franciscum
185. Te Franciscum.
"We praise thee O Francis! we acknowledge thee to be our Patriarch.
All the Earth doth worship thee, the Father Seraphical.
To thee all Minorites cry aloud, the Heavens and all the corded families.
To thee the Seraphic Martyrs and Confessors continually do cry,
Holy, holy, holy Standard-bearer of the Lord God of Sabaoth!
Heaven and Earth are full of the miracles of thy grace.
The glorious company of the Franciscans praise thee;
The goodly fellowship of the Nuns praise thee;
The noble army of the Third Order praise thee; The Holy Seraphic Religion throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father of profoundest humility;
Thine honourable, true and Apostolic Institute;
Also thy holy spirit of poverty.
Thou art the Image of Christ the King of Glory.
Thou art, as it were, the second Son of the Father everlasting.
When thou tookest upon thee the Old Man thou didst not fear the severest sufferings of the Cross.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst stand in the Sepulchre, and like one living, look towards the Kingdom of Heaven.
Thou sittest on the Throne of Lucifer in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come to judgement with the Cross of the Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants whom thou hast gathered together with the precious blood of thy wounds.
Make them to be numbered with the Saints in glory everlasting.
Save thine Order of the Minors and bless thine inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we magnify thee.
And we praise thy name, because thou hast obtained for us an Indulgence which shall endure for ever.
Ask our Lord that he will vouchsafe to keep us this day without sin.
O Father have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
Let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee.
O Father, in thee have I trusted, obtain of the Lord that I may never be confounded."
This parody, which was published no farther back than 1733, under the sanction of the General and all the other authorities of the Order, and with the approbation of the Inquisition, is to be found at the end of the Primazia Serafica na Regiam da America by Fr. Appollinario da Conceicam, and is probably his work. It might serve as a L'envoy to the famous Liber Conformitatum. I possess a copy of that extraordinary book, the Bologna edition of 1590. It has a vignette at the beginning representing two arms nailed to one Cross, the right arm is that of Christ, the left that of St. Francis.