FRANCIS
225
FRANCIS
new fasts upon the friars, more severe than the rule Friars" and because a stadium liatl been instituted
required. Moreover, Cardinal Ugolino had conferred there. He moreover bade all the friars, even those
on the Poor Ladies a written rule which was practi- who were ill, quit it at once, and it was only .some time
cally that of the Benedictine nuns, and Brother Philip, after, when Cardinal Ugolino had publicly declared
whom Francis had charged with their interests, had the hou.se to be his own property, that Knincis suffered
accepted it. To make matters worse, John of Capella, his brethren to re-enter it. Yet stnmg and dclinite as
one of the saint's first companions, had assembled a the saint's convictions were, and determinedly as his
large nutnber of lepers, both men and women, with a line was taken, he was never a slave to a theory in
view to forming them into a new religious order, and regard to the observance of poverty or anything else;
had set out for Rome to seek approval for the rule he about him, indeed, there was nothing narrow or fanat-
had drawn up for these unfortunates. Finally a ical. As for his attitude towards study, Francis desid-
rumour had been spread abroad that Francis was erated for his friars only such theological knowledge as
dead, so that when the saint returned to Italy with was conformable to the mission of the order, which
Brother Elias — he a])pears to have arrived at Venice was before all else a mission of example. Hence he
in .Inly }99.n — n, general feeling of unr est prevailed regarded the accumulation of books as being at vari-
among the friars. .Apart from these difficulties, the ance with the poverty his friars professed, and he
order was then passing tlirough a period of transition, resisted the eager desire for mere book-learning, so
It had become evident that the simple, familiar, and prevalent in his time, in so far as it struck at the roots
unceremonious ways which had marked the Francis- of that simplicity which entered so largely into the
can movement at its begin
ning were gradually disappear-
ing, and that the heroic pov-
erty practised by Francis and
his companions at the outset
became less easy as the friars
with amazing rapidity in-
creased in number. And this
Francis could not help seeing
on his return. Cardinal Ugo-
lino had already undertaken
the task "of reconciling in-
spirations so unstudied and
so free with an order of things
they had outgrown". This
remarkable man, who after-
wards ascended the papal
throne as Gregory IX, was
deeply attached to Francis,
whom he venerated as a saint
and also, some writers tell us,
managed as an enthusiast.
That Cardinal Ugolino had no
small share in bringing
Francis's lofty ideals " within
range and compass" seems
beyond dispute, and it is not
difficult to recognize his hand
in the important changes made
in the organization of the
order in the so-called Chapter of Mats. At this fa- mous assembly, held at Porziuncola at Whitsun- tide, 1220 or 1221 (there is seemingly much room for doubt as to the exact date and number of the early chapters) , about 5000 friars are said to have been present, besides some 500 applicants for admission to the order. Huts of wattle and mud afforded sl'.elter for this multitude. Francis had purposely made no annuere"). This Second Rule
essence of his life and ideal and
threatened to stifle the spirit
of prayer, which he accounted
preferable to all the rest.
In 1221, .so some writers tell us, Francis drew up a new rule fur the Friars Minor. Others regard this so-called Rule of 1221 not as a new rule, but as the first one which Innocent III had orally approved; not, indeed, itsoriginal form, which we do not possess, but with such additions and modifica- tions as it had suffered during the course of twelve years. However this may be, the composition called by some the Rule of 1221 is very unlike any conventional rule ever made. It was too lengthy and imprecise to become a formal rule, and two years later Francis retired to Fonte Col- ombo, a hermitage near Rieti, and rewrote the rule in more compendious form. This re- vised draft he entrusted to Brother Elias, who not long after declared he had lost it through negligence. Francis thereupon returned to the solitude of Fonte Colombo, and recast the rule on the same lines as before, its twenty-three chapters being reduced to twelve and some of its precepts being modified in certain details at the instance of Cardinal Ugolino. In this form the rule was solemnlv ajiproved bv Honorius TIT, 2fl N nvpmlipr ^■>■r^ (j'jtt. "Solet
St. Francis of Assisi
nabue, S. Francesco, Assisi
provision for them, but the charity of the neighbour- o r Regula BiiUatn of the frinrs Alin7
it IS usniillv ca
ing towns supplied them with food, while knights and
nobles waited upon them gladly. It was on this occa-
sion that Francis, harassed no doubt and disheartened
at the tendency betrayed by a large number of the
friars to relax the rigours of the rule, according to the
promptings of human prudence, and feeling, perhaps,
unfitted for a place which now called largely for
organizing abilities, relinquished his position as gen-
eral of the order in favour of Peter of Cattaneo. But
since professed throughout tlte^^Eira
trancis (see Fr-\ncis, Rule of S.mni). It is b;
_0n the three vows of obe dipnpp pnvprty nnti clristify, s[icci:il ^t less however beings laid oii poverty, which I'l:ilu'i< M)ll;iht tn r7inke thP spppi'il nlinr'iptpristip i^f liis order, . nid w hich becime the si gn to lie co ntra- dicte d. Jhis vow of absolute poverty in the first and second orders and the reconciliation of the religious with the secular state in the Third Order of Penance
the latter died in less than a year, being succeeded as are the chief novelties introduced by Francis in mon-
vicar-general by the unhappy Brother Elias (see Elias astic regulation.
OF CoRTON'.\), who continued in that office until the It was during Christmastide of this year (1223) that
death of Francis. The saint, meanwhile, during the the saint conceived the idea of celebrating the \ativ-
few years that remained to him, sought to impress on ity "in a new manner", by reproducing in a church at
the friars by the silent teaching of personal example of Greccio the prasepio of Bethlehem, and he has thus
what sort he would fain have them to be. Already, come to be regarded as having inaugurated the popu-
while passing through Bologna on his return from the lar devotion of the Crib. Christmn g ippp'ir.; in.li-pil tn
East, Francis had refused to enter the convent there have b een the favourite feast of Francis, and he wished
because he had heart! it called the " House of the to persuade the emperor to make a sppci.il law that VI.— 15
