[326] Lib. v. Ep. iv.; cf. Jer. xiii.

[327] Ep. iv. 11 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 313).

[328] He died in 1072, a year before Hildebrand was made pope.

[329] Opusc. xvii., De coelibatu; Opusc. xviii., Contra intemperantes clericos; Opusc. xxii., Contra clericos aulicos, etc.

[330] Lib. iv. Ep. 5 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 300).

[331] Lib. v. Ep. 3 (Migne 144, col. 343).

[332] Lib. v. Ep. 2 (Migne 144, col. 340). Damiani’s Rhythmus poenitentis monachi (Migne, Pat. Lat. 145, col. 971) expresses the passionate remorse of a sinful monk.

[333] Post, Chapter XIX.

[334] Lib. vii. Ep. 18 (Migne 144, col. 458).

[335] Much is contained in the eighth book of his letters. The third letter of this book is addressed to a nobleman who did not treat his mother as Peter would have had him. The whole family situation is given in two sentences: “But you may say: ‘My mother exasperates me often, and with her rasping words worries me and my wife. We cannot endure such reproaches, nor tolerate the burden of her severity and interference.’ But for this, your reward will be the richer, if you return gentleness for contumely, and mollify her with humility when you are sprinkled with the salt of her abuse” (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 467). Some sentences from this letter are given post, Chapter XXXI., as examples of Latin style.

The next letter is addressed to the same nobleman and his wife on the death of their son. It gently points out to them that his migration to the coelestia regna, where among the angels he has put on the garment of immortality, is cause for joy.

[336] Opusc. ix., De eleemosyna (Migne 145, col. 207 sqq.).

[337] Opusc. ix., De eleemosyna, cap. i.

[338] Seneca, De vita beata, 20.

[339] Lib. viii. Ep. 8 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 144, col. 476). Cf. ante, p. 260.

[340] Extracts will be given post, Chapter XVI., together with Damiani’s remarkable Life of Romuald.

[341] Migne 158, col. 50 sqq.

[342] Anselm was born in 1033 and died in 1109. His works are in Migne 158, 159. See also Domet de Vorges, S. Anselme (Les grands Philosophes, 1901).

[343] “Districtio ordinis,” Vita, i. 6. This indicates that liberal studies were not favoured in Cluny at this time, cir. 1060.

[344] In a convent where there is an abbot, the prior is the officer directly under him.

[345] Ante, Chapter X.

[346] Cur Deus homo, i. 1 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 158, col. 361).

[347] In the Cur Deus homo, i. 2, Anselm has his approved disciple state the same point of view: “As the right order prescribes that we should believe the profundities of the Christian Faith, before presuming to discuss them by reason, so it seems to me neglect if after we are confirmed in faith we do not study to understand what we believe. Wherefore, since by the prevenient grace of God, I deem myself to hold the faith of our redemption, so that even if I could by no reason comprehend what I believe, there is nothing that could pluck me from it, I ask from thee, as many ask, that thou wouldst set forth to me, as thou knowest it, by what necessity and reason, God, being omnipotent, should have assumed the humility and weakness of human nature for its restoration.”

[348] There is indeed an early treatise, De grammatico (Migne 158, col. 561-581), in which Anselm seems to abandon himself to dialectic concerned with an academic topic. The question is whether grammaticus, a grammarian, is to be subsumed under the category of substance or quality; dialectically is a grammarian a man or an incident?

[349] Cf. Kaulich, Ges. der scholastischen Philosophie, i. 293-332; Hauréau, Histoire de la philosophie scholastique, i. 242-288; Stöckl, Philosophie des Mittelalters, i. 151-208; De Wulf, History of Medieval Philosophy, 3rd ed. (Longmans, 1909), p. 162 sqq., and authorities.

[350] The locus classicus is Proslogion, cap. 2.

[351] Cur Deus homo, i. 12.

[352] Ibid. i. 5.

[353] Ibid. i. 7.

[354] Examples of Anselm’s prose are given post, Chapter XXXI.

[355] On Gerbert see Lettres de Gerbert publiées avec une introduction, etc., par Julien Havet (Paris: Picard, 1889; I have cited them according to this edition); Œuvres de Gerbert, ed. by Olleris (Clermont and Paris, 1867); also in Migne, Pat. Lat. 139; Richerus, Historiarum libri IV. (especially lib. iii. cap. 55 sqq.); Mon. Germ. script. iii. 561 sqq.; Migne, Pat. Lat. 138, col. 17 sqq. Also Picavet, Gerbert, une pape philosophe (Paris: Leroux, 1897); Cantor, Ges. der Mathematik, i. 728-751 (Leipzig, 1880); Prantl, Ges. der Logik, ii. 53-57 (Leipzig, 1861).

[356] Ep. 12.

[357] Mon. Germ. scriptores, iii. 686.

[358] Ep. 44.

[359] Presumably Gerbert’s German-speaking scholars are meant.

[360] Ep. 45, Raimundo monacho.

[361] Ep. 46, ad Geraldum Abbatem.

[362] I.e. on the affairs of the monastery of Bobbio.

[363] A Greek doctor of Augustus’s time, who wrote on the diseases of the eye.

[364] Ep. 130.

[365] Ep. 167 (in Migne, Ep. 174).

[366] Richer, Hist. iii. 47, 48.

[367] Several of his compositions are extant.

[368] Richer, Hist. iii. 48-53.

[369] Richer, Hist. iii. cap. 55-65.

[370] See post, Chapter XXXV. If one should hesitate to find a phase of the veritable Gerbert in Richer’s report of the disputation with Otric, one may turn to Gerbert’s own philosophic or logical Libellus—de rationali et ratione uti (Migne 139, col. 159-168). It is addressed to Otto II., and the opening paragraph recalls to the emperor the disputation which we have been following. The Libellus is naturally more coherent than the disputation, in which Otric’s questions seem intended rather to trip his adversary than to lead a topic on to its proper end. It is devoted, however, to a problem exactly analogous to the point taken by Otric, that the term rational was not as broad as the term mortal. For the Libellus discusses whether the use of reason (ratione uti) can be predicated of the rational being (rationale). The concept of the predicate should be the broader one, but here it might seem less broad, since all reasonable beings do not exercise reason. The discussion closely resembles the dispute in the character of the intellectual interests disclosed, and its arguments are not more original than those employed against Otric. Disputation and Libellus alike represent necessary endeavours of the mind, which has reached a certain stage of tuition and development, to adjust itself with problems of logical order and method.

[371] Post, Chapter XV.

[372] Cf. Sackür, Die Cluniacenser, ii. 330 sqq.; Pfister. Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux, p. 2 sqq. (the latter takes an extreme view).

[373] Aimoin’s Vita Abbonis, cap. 7 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 139, col. 393). The same volume contains most of Abbo’s extant writings, and those of Aimoin. On Abbo see Sackür, Die Cluniacenser, ii. 345 sqq.

An incredibly large number of students are said to have attended Abbo’s lectures. His studies and teaching lay mainly in astronomy, mathematics, chronology, and grammar. The pupil Aimoin cultivated history and biography, compiling a History of the Francs and a History of the miracles of St. Benedict, the latter a theme worthy of the tenth century. One leaves it with a sigh of relief, so barren was it save for its feat of gestation in giving birth to Gerbert.

[374] Jotsaldus, Vita Odilonis (Migne 142, col. 1037).

[375] Odilo, Vita Maioli (Migne 142, col. 951).

[376] See Taylor, Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages, p. 74 sqq. One may compare the influence of Cicero’s De amicitia on the De amicitia Christiana of Peter of Blois (cir. 1200), Migne 207, col. 871-898.

[377] Vita Odilonis, chaps. vi.-xiii. (Migne 142, col. 909 sqq.).

[378] Bellum Gallicum, vi. 13.

[379] Migne 143, col. 1290.

[380] For a description of these works, see post, Chapter XXX. II.

[381] The substance of this sketch of the school of Chartres is taken chiefly from the Abbé Clerval’s exhaustive study, “Les Écoles de Chartres au moyen âge,” Mémoires de la Société archéologique d’Eure-et-Loir, xi., 1895. For the later fortunes of this school see post, Chapter XXX.

[382] The Histories of Gerbert’s pupil Richer are somewhat better, and show an imitation of Sallust.

[383] Cf. Molinier, Les Sources de l’histoire de France, v., lxix.

[384] Post, Chapters XXXIV.-XLII.

[385] Born 1078; king from 1108-1137.

[386] Ante, Chapter X.

[387] Ante, Chapter IX.

[388] On Notker see Piper, Die älteste Litteratur (Deutsche Nat. Lit.), pp. 337-340.

[389] Ante, Chapter XI., where something was said of Liutprand also. Ratherius was a restless intriguer and pamphleteer, a sort of stormy petrel, who was born in 890 near Liège. In the course of his career he was once bishop of that northern city, and three times bishop of Verona, where he died, an old man of angry soul and bitter tongue. Two years and more had he passed in a dungeon at Pavia—a sharpening experience for one already given overmuch to hate. There he compiled his rather dreary six books of Praeloquia (Migne 136, col. 145-344), preparatory discourses, perhaps precursive of another work, but at all events containing moral instruction for all orders of society. It was in the nature of a compilation, and yet touched with a strain of personal plaint, which sometimes makes itself clearly audible in words that show this work to have been its author’s prison consolatio: “Think what anguish impelled me to it, what calamity, what necessity showed me these paths of authorship. Dread of forgetting was my first reason for writing. Buried under all sorts of the rubbish of wickedness, surrounded by the darkness of evil, and distracted with the clamours of affairs, I feared that I should forget, and was delighted to find how much I could remember. Books were lacking, and friends to talk with, while sorrow gnawed the soul; so I used this book of mine as a friend to chat with, and was comforted by it as by a companion. Nor did I worry, asking who will read it; since I knew me for its reader, and as its lover, if it had none other” (Praeloq. vi. 26; Migne 136, col. 342). On Ratherius see Ebert, Ges. der Lit., iii. 375 sqq.

[390] Vita Brunonis, caps. 4, 6.

[391] Vita Brunonis, cap. 8.

[392] Cf. post, Chapter XXXII., III.

[393] Enough will be found regarding Hrotsvitha and her works in Ebert, Allgem. Ges. der Lit., iii. 285-329.

[394] Vita Bernwardi, 6 (Migne 140, col. 397), by Thangmar, who was Bernward’s teacher and outlived him to write his Life.

[395] Migne 141, col. 1229.

[396] See Froumundus, Ep. 9, 11, 13 (Migne 141, col. 1288 sqq.). A number of his poems are published by F. Seiler, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, Bd. 14, pp. 406-442.

[397] Migne 141, col. 1292. I am not sure that I have caught Froumund’s meaning.

[398] Mon. Ger. Scriptores, v. 134 sqq. (Migne, Pat. Lat. 146, col. 1027 sqq.).

[399] Vita Hermanni (Migne 143, col. 29).

[400] The writings of Hermannus Contractus are in Migne, Pat. Lat. 143. The poem is reprinted from Du Meril’s Poésies populaires; a more complete text is in Bd XI. of the Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum.

[401] Ante, Chapter XII., 1.

[402] Prantl, Ges. Logik, ii. 83.

[403] Cf. Endres, “Othloh’s von St. Emmeram Verhältnis zu den freien Kunsten,” Philos. Jahrbuch, 1904.

[404] Liber visionum.

[405] Othloh’s works are all in tome 146 of Migne’s Patrologia Latina.

[406] Ante, Chapter XII. 11.

[407] Ante, Chapters VIII., IX.

[408] Printed in Migne, Pat. Lat. 139, col. 871 sqq. and elsewhere. For editions see Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, 6th ed. i. 485.

[409] Post, Chapter XVI.

[410] Cf. Taylor, Ancient Ideals, chaps. xv., xvi.; Classical Heritage, chaps. ii., iii.

[411] Hosea i.-iii.

[412] Sulpicius Severus, Epist. iii.

[413] These words occur in Jerome’s famous letter (Ep. xiv.), in which he exhorts the wavering Heliodoras to sever all ties and affections: “Do not mind the entreaties of those dependent on you, come to the desert and fight for Christ’s name. If they believe in Christ, they will encourage you; if they do not,—let the dead bury their dead. A monk cannot be perfect in his own land; not to wish to be perfect is a sin; leave all, and come to the desert. The desert loves the naked. O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! O solitude, whence are brought the stones of the city of the Great King! O wilderness rejoicing close to God! What would you, brother, in the world,—you that are greater than the world? How long are the shades of roofs to oppress you? How long the dungeon of a city’s smoke? Believe me, I see more of light! Do you fear poverty? Christ called the poor “blessed.” Are you terrified at labour? No athlete without sweat is crowned. Do you think of food? Faith fears not hunger. Do you dread the naked ground for limbs consumed with fasts? The Lord lies with you. Does the infinite vastness of the desert fright you? In the mind walk abroad in Paradise. Does your skin roughen without baths? Who is once washed in Christ needs not to wash again. And in a word, hear the apostle answering: The sufferings of the present time are not to be compared with the glory to come which shall be revealed in us!”

[414] In my Classical Heritage, pp. 136-197, I have given an account of the origins of monasticism, and of its distinctive western features. There I have also set out the Rule of Benedict, with sketches of the early monastic character.

[415] Cyprian said in the third century, addressing himself to Christian virgins: “Dominus vester et caput Christus est ad instar ad vicem masculi” (De habitu virginum, 22). To realize how near to the full human relationship was this wedded love of Christ, one should read the commentaries and sermons upon Canticles. Those of a later time—St. Bernard’s, for example—are the best, because they sum up so much that had been gathering fervour through the centuries. One might look further to those mediaeval instances that break through mysticism to a sensuousness in which the man Christ becomes an almost too concrete husband for ecstatic women. See post, Chapter XIX.

[416] The whole Christian love, first the love of God and then the love of man, is felt and set forth by Augustine. “Thou hast made us toward thee, and unquiet is our heart until it rests in thee.... That is the blessed life to rejoice toward thee, concerning thee and because of thee.... Give me thyself, my God.... All my plenty which is not my God is need.” With his love of God his love for man accords. “This is true love, that cleaving to truth we may live aright; and for that reason we contemn all mortal things except the love of men, whereby we wish them to live aright. Thus can we profitably be prepared even to die for our brethren, as the Lord Jesus Christ taught us by His example.... It is love which unites good angels and servants of God in the bond of holiness, joins us to them and them to us, and subjoins all unto God.” These passages are from the Confessions and from the De Trinitate.

[417] Cf. Classical Heritage, p. 123 sqq.

[418] Augustine, Epp. 155, c. 13.

[419] Ante, Chapter V.

[420] Ante, Chapter IX.

[421] Alcuin, Ep. 40 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 100, col. 201).

[422] Cf. Odo’s Collationes, in Migne 133, and Chapter XII. II., ante. Gregory was Odo’s favourite author.

[423] Before Constantine’s reign there had been few Christian basilicas; Christian art was sepulchral, drawing upon the galleries of the Catacombs, in meagre and monotonous designs, the symbols of the soul’s deliverance from death. These designs were antique in style and poor in execution.

[424] See Taylor, Classical Heritage, chap. x. sec. 2.

[425] See Classical Heritage, p. 267, and cf. ibid. chap. ix. sec. 1.

[426] See post, Chapter XXXII. II.

[427] The account of the evolution of the hymn from the prose sequence is given post, Chapter XXXII. III.

[428] Further illustrations of the mediaeval emotionalizing of Latin Christianity could be made from the history of certain Christian conceptions, angels for example:—the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha contain the revelation of their functions; next, their natures are defined in the works of the Fathers and the Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The matter is gone over at great length, and their nature and functions logically perfected, by the schoolmen of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But, all the while, religious feeling, popular credences, and the imagination of poet and artist went on investing with beauty and loveliness these guardian spirits who carried out God’s care of man. Thus angels became the realities they were felt to be.

[429] Hartmann belongs to that great group of courtly German poets whose lives surround the year 1200. He was the translator of Chrètien de Troye’s Erec and Ivain. See Bech’s Hartmann von Aue (Deutsche klassiker). The verses quoted can hardly be rendered; but the meaning is as follows:

“My joys were never free from care until the day which showed me the flowers of Christ which I wear here (i.e. the Crusader’s cross). They herald a summer-time leading to sweet pastures of delight. God help us thither! The world has treated me so that my spirit yearns therefor;—well for me! God has been good to me, so that I am released from cares which tie the feet of many, chaining them here, while I in Christ’s band with blissful joys fare on.”

These lines carry that same yearning of the simple soul for heaven, its home, which was expressed, some centuries before, in Otfried’s Evangelienbuch (ante, Chapter IX.). The words and their connotations (augenweide, wünneclich) are utterly German. Yet the author lived in a literary atmosphere of translation from the French.

[430] Post, Chapter XXV.

[431] The makers of love poems borrowed expressions from poems to the Virgin. Cf. Wilmanns, Leben und Dichtung Walter’s Von der Vogelweide, p. 179. Touches of mortal passion sometimes appear in the adoration of men for the Blessed Virgin. See Caesar of Heisterbach, vii. 32 and 50, and viii. 58. Of course, many suggestions were drawn also from the antique literature. See post, Chapter XXXII. IV. The subject of courtly and romantic love will come up properly for treatment in Chapter XXIII.

[432] One will bear in mind that much mediaeval phraseology goes back to the Fathers. For example, in monkish vilification of woman there is no phrase more common than janua diaboli, and it was Tertullian’s, who died in the first part of the third century.

[433] For the different meanings of the term clericus see Du Cange, Glossarium, under that word.

[434] For the meanings of this term also see Du Cange, Glossarium, under that word.

[435] Regular clergy are the monks, who live under a regula.

[436] Dialogus miraculorum, ed. J. Strange, iv. i. (Cologne, 1851). Of course Caesar was a monk.

[437] Ante, Chapter XIV.

[438] See Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, etc., passim, and Bd. II. 464 (Halle, 1892).

[439] On the differences between Cluny and Citeaux see Vacandard, Vie de St Bernard, chap. iv. (2nd ed., Paris, 1897), and Zöckler, Askese und Mönchtum, 2nd ed. pp. 406-415 (Frankfurt a. M., 1897).

[440] Migne, Pat. Lat. 166, col. 1377-1384.

[441] In fact, paragraph 15 provides that at the Chapter accusations against an abbot shall be brought only by an abbot.

[442] It is interesting to observe how much of Stephen of Bourbon’s description of the Poor of Lyons applies to Franciscan beginnings, and how much more of it would have applied had not St. Francis possessed the gift of obedience among his other virtues. Stephen was a Dominican of the first half of the thirteenth century, and himself an inquisitor. Thus he describes these misled people: “The Waldenses are called after the author of this heresy, whose name was Waldensis. They are also called the Poor of Lyons, because there they first professed poverty. Likewise they call themselves the Poor in Spirit, because the Lord says: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit....’ Waldensis, who lived in Lyons, was a man of wealth, but of little education. Hearing the Gospels, and curious to understand their meaning, he bargained with two priests that they should make a translation in the vulgar tongue. This they did, with other books of the Bible and many precepts from the writings of the saints. When this townsman had read the Gospel till he knew it by heart, he set out to follow apostolic perfection, just as the Apostles themselves. So, selling all his goods, in contempt of the world, he tossed his money like dirt to the poor. Then he presumed to usurp the office of the Apostles, and preached the Gospels in the open streets. He led many men and women to do the same, exercising them in the Gospels. He also sent them to preach in the neighbouring villages. These ignorant men and women running through villages, entering houses, and preaching in the open places as well as the churches, drew others to the same ways.”

Up to this point we are close to the Franciscans. But now the Archbishop of Lyons forbids these ignorant irregular evangelists to preach. Their leader answers for them, that they must obey God rather than man, and Scripture says to preach the Gospel to every creature. Thus they fell into disobedience, contumacy, and incurred excommunication, says Stephen (Anecdotes, etc., d’Étienne de Bourbon, edited by Lecoy de la Marche (Soc. de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1877), cap. 342).

[443] The rôle of Franciscans and Dominicans in the spread of philosophic knowledge in the thirteenth century will be considered post, Chapter XXXVII. Chapter XVIII., post, is devoted to the personal qualities of Francis.

[444] Peter Damiani, De contemptu saeculi, cap. 32 (Migne 145, col. 287).

[445] On Damiani, see ante, Chapter XI. IV.

[446] Peter Damiani, Opusc. xi., Dominus vobiscum, cap. 19 (Migne 145, col. 246).

[447] Peter Damiani, De contemptu saeculi, cap. 25 (Migne 145, col. 278).

[448] Peter Damiani, De perfectione monachi, caps. 2, 3 (Migne 145, col. 294).

[449] De perfectione monachi, cap. 8 (Migne 145, col. 303).

[450] De perf. mon. cap. 13 (Migne 145, col. 307).

[451] De ins. ord. eremitarum, cap. 26 (Migne 145, col. 358). On the distraction from the vita contemplativa involved in an abbot’s duties see Damiani’s verses, De abbatum miseria, ante, Chapter XI. IV.

For such as have feeling for these matters, I give the following extracts from Damiani’s Opusc. xiii., De perfectione monachi, caps. 12, 13: “Let the brother love fasting and cherish privation, let him flee the sight of men, withdraw from affairs, keep his mouth from vain conversation, seek the hiding-place of his mind wherein with his whole strength he burns to see the face of his Creator; and let him pant for tears, and beset God for them with daily prayer. For the dew of tears cleanses the soul from every stain and makes fruitful the meadows of our hearts so that they bring forth the sprouts of virtue. For often as under an icy frost the wretched soul sheds its foliage, and, grace departing, it is left to itself barren and stripped of its shortlived blossoms. But anon tears given by the Tester of hearts burst forth, and this same soul is loosed from the cold of its slothful torpor, and becomes green again with the renewed leafage of its virtues, as a tree in spring kindled by the south wind.

“Tears, moreover, which are from God, with fidelity approach the tribunal of divine hearing, and quickly obtaining what they ask, assure us of the remission of our sins. Tears are intermediaries in concluding peace between God and men; they are the truthful and the very wisest (doctissimae) teachers in the dubiousness of human ignorance. For when we are in doubt whether something may be pleasing to God, we can reach no better certitude than through prayer, weeping truthfully. We need never again hesitate as to what our mind has decided on under such conditions.

“Tears,” continues Damiani, “washed the noisomeness of her guilt from the Magdalen, saved the Apostle who denied his Lord, restored King David after deadly sin, added three years to Hezekiah’s life, preserved inviolate the chastity of Judith, and won for her the head of Holophernes. Why mention the centurion Cornelius, why mention Susanna? indeed were I to tell all the deeds of tears, the day would close before my task were ended. For it is they that purify the sinner’s soul, confirm his inconstant heart, prepare joy out of grief, and, breaking forth from our eyes of flesh, raise us to the hope of supernal beatitude. For their petition may not be set aside, so mighty are their voices in the Creator’s ears. Before the pious Judge they hesitate at nothing, but vindicate their claim to mercy as a right, and exult confident of having obtained what they implore.

“O ye tears, joys of the spirit, sweeter than honey, sweeter than nectar! which with a sweet and pleasant taste refresh minds lifted up to God, and water consumed and arid hearts with a flood of penetrating grace from heaven. Weeping eyes terrify the devil; he fears the onslaught of tears bursting forth, as one would flee a tempest of hail driven by the fury of all the winds. As the torrent’s rush cleanses the river-bed, the flowing tears purge the weeper’s mind from the devil’s tares and every pest of sin.”

[452] De inst. ord. er. cap. 1 (Migne 145, col. 337).

[453] The Vita Romualdi is printed in Migne 144, col. 950-1008.

[454] Romuald died in 1027; lustrum here may mean four years, which would bring the time of writing to 1039.

[455] Vita Romualdi, caps. 8, 9. Damiani does not say this here, but quite definitely suggests it in cap. 64. The lives of these eastern hermits were known to Romuald; hermits in Italy had imitated them; and the connection with the knowledge of the Orient was not severed. See Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, etc., i. 324 sqq. Thus for their models these Italian hermits go behind the Regula Benedicti to the anchorite examples of Cassian and the East. Cf. Taylor, Classical Heritage, p. 160. A good example was St. Nilus, a Calabrian, perhaps of Greek stock. As Abbot of Crypta-Ferrata in Agro-Tusculano, he did not cease from his austerities, and still dwelt in a cave. He died in 1005 at the alleged age of ninety-five. His days are thus described: from dawn to the third hour he copied rapidly, filling a τετραδεῖον (quaternion) each day. From the third to the sixth hour he stood before the Cross of the Lord, reciting psalms and making genuflections; from the sixth to the ninth, he sat and read—no profane book we may be sure. When the ninth hour was come, he addressed his evening hymn to God and went out to walk and study Him in His works. See his Vita, from the Greek, in Acta sanctorum, sept. t. vii. pp. 279-343, especially page 293.

[456] Vita Romualdi, cap. 13.

[457] Ibid. cap. 20.

[458] Vita Romualdi, cap. 51.

[459] Vita Romualdi, cap. 35.

[460] Ibid. cap. 40.

[461] Ibid. cap. 45.

[462] Vita, caps. 49, 50.

[463] The Syrian region famous for its early anchorites.

[464] Vita Romualdi, cap. 64.

[465] Cf. Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, i. 328 note.

[466] Vita Romualdi, 69.

[467] Peter Damiani, Vitae SS. Rodulphi et Dominici loricati, cap. 8 (Migne 144, col. 1015.)

[468] Ibid. cap. 10 (Migne 144, col. 1017).

[469] This story is told in all the early lives of Bruno, the Vita antiquior, the Vita altera, and the Vita tertia (Migne, Pat. Lat. 152, col. 482, 493, and 525). These lives, especially the Vita altera, are interesting illustrations of the ascetic spirit, which, as might be expected, also moulds Bruno’s thoughts and his understanding of Scripture. All of which appears in his long Expositio in Psalmos (Migne, Pat. Lat. 152). To us, for example, the note of the twenty-third (in the Vulgate the twenty-second) psalm is love; to Bruno it is disciplinary guidance: the Lord guides me in the place of pasture, that is, He is my guide lest I go astray in the Scriptures, where the souls of the faithful are fed; I shall not want, that is an understanding of them shall not fail me. Thy rod, that is the lesser tribulation; thy staff, that is the greater tribulation, correct and chastise me.

[470] Guigo was born in 1083 at St. Romain near Valence, of noble family (like most monks of prominence). There was close sympathy between him and St. Bernard, as their letters show. Cf. post, Chapter XVII.

[471] Migne 153, col. 601-631.

[472] A bibliography of what has been written on Bernard would make a volume. His own writings and the Vitae and Acta (as edited by Mabillon) are printed in Migne, tomes 182-185. The Vie de Saint Bernard, by the abbé Vacandard, in two volumes, is to be recommended (2nd ed., Paris, 1897).

[473] Vita prima, iii. cap. 1 (Migne, Pat. Lat. 185). This Vita was written by contemporaries of the saint who knew him intimately. But one must be on one’s guard as to these apparently close descriptions of the saints in their vitae; for they are commonly conventionalized. This description of Bernard, excepting perhaps the colour of his hair, would have fitted Francis of Assisi.

[474] Vita prima, iii. 3. Bernard himself said that his aim in preaching was not so much to expound the words (of Scripture) as to move his hearers’ hearts (Sermo xvi. in Cantica canticorum). That his preaching was resistless is universally attested.

[475] See, e.g., Vacandard, o.c. chap. i.

[476] Post, Chapter XLIII.

[477] Vita prima, i. cap. 11. This William became Abbot of St. Thierry and one of Bernard’s biographers.

[478] E.g. Ep. 107.

[479] Ep. 2.

[480] Ep. 110 (this is the whole letter).

[481] Ep. 112 (the entire letter). The Latin of this letter is given post, Chapter XXXI.

[482] Ep. 111.

[483] Ep. 152, ad Innocentium papam, A.D. 1135.

[484] Ep. 170, ad Ludovicum. Written in 1138.

[485] Ep. 191.

[486] Cf. post, Chapter XXXVI. I., regarding this instance of Bernard’s zeal. His position is critically set out in Wilhelm Meyer’s “Die Anklagesätze des h. Bernard gegen Abaelard,” Göttingische gelehrte Nachrichten, philol. hist. Klasse, 1898, pp. 397-468.

[487] Ep. 196, ad Guidonen; cf. Ep. 195 (A.D. 1140). See for the Latin of this letter post, Chapter XXXI.

[488] Ep. 147, to Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny (A.D. 1138).

[489] Ep. 101, ad religiosos; cf. also Ep. 136.

[490] Ep. 300.

[491] Vita prima, lib. vii. cap. 15.

[492] It was Bernard’s third absence in Italy.

[493] Ep. 144, ad suos Clarae-Vallenses.

[494] Vita prima, lib. iii. cap. 7.

[495] Sermo xxvi. in Cantica.

[496] “Finem verborum indicunt lacrymae; tu illis, Domine, finem modumque indixeris.”

[497] Ante, Chapter XVI.

[498] As Augustine before him. Cf. Taylor, The Classical Heritage, etc., pp. 129-131.

[499] Ep. 11, ad Guigonem. Bernard adds that when Paul says that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, it is not to be understood that the substance of flesh will not be there, but that every carnal necessity will have ceased; the love of flesh will be absorbed in the love of the spirit, and our weak human affections transformed into divine energies.

[500] Migne, Pat. Lat. 182, col. 973-1000.

[501] Love, fear, joy, sorrow.

[502] Migne 183, col. 785-1198.

[503] Sermo xx. in Cantica.

[504] Sermo lxxix. in Cantica.

[505] Sermo lxxxiii. in Cantica. This is nearly the whole of this sermon. Bernard’s sermons were not long. See post, Chapter XXXVI. II., as to Bernard’s use of the symbolism of the kiss.

[506] Post, Chapter XIX.

[507] The present chapter is intended as an appreciation of the personality of Francis; incidents of his life are used for illustration. I have endeavoured to confine myself to such as are generally accepted as authentic, and to those parts of the sources which are confirmed by corroborative testimony. The reader doubtless is aware that the sources of Franciscan history are abundant, but that there is still much critical and even polemic controversy touching their trustworthiness. Of the Speculum perfectionis, edited by Sabatier, I would make this remark: many of its narratives contain such wisdom and human truth as seem to me to bring them very close to the acts and words of some great personality, i.e. Francis. This is no sure proof of their authenticity, and yet is a fair reason for following their form of statement of some of the incidents in Francis’s life, the human value of which perhaps appears narrowed and deflected in other accounts.

The chief sources for the life of St. Francis of Assisi are first his own compositions, edited conveniently under the title of Opuscula sancti patris Francisci Assisiensis, by the Franciscans of Quarrachi (1904). They have been translated by P. Robinson (Philadelphia, The Dolphin Press, 1906). Next in certainty of authenticity come the two Lives by Celano, i.e. Vita prima S. Francisci Assisiensis, auctore B. Thoma de Celano, ejus discipulo, Bollandi Acta sanctorum, tome 46 (Oct. tome 2), pp. 683-723; also edited by Canon Amoni (Rome, 1880); Vita secunda seu appendix ad Vitam primam, ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). Better editions than Amoni’s are those of Edouard d’Alençon (Rome, 1906), and H. G. Rosedale (Dent, London, 1904). Of great importance also is the Legenda trium sociorum (Leo, Rufinus, Angelus), Bollandi Acta sanctorum, t. 46 (Oct. t. 2), pp. 723-742; also ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). (Amoni’s texts differ somewhat from those of the Bollandist.) It is also edited by Pulignani (Foligno, 1898), and edited and hypothetically completed from the problematical Italian version, by Marcellino da Civezza and Teofilo Domenichelli (Rome, 1899). Perhaps most vivid of all the early sources is the so-called Speculum perfectionis seu S. Francisci Assisiensis legenda antiquissima auctore fratre Leone, as edited by Paul Sabatier (Paris, 1898). It has been translated into English several times. Its date and authenticity are still under violent discussion. One may conveniently refer to the article “Franciscan Literature” in the Edinburgh Review for January 1904, and to P. Robinson’s Short Introduction to Franciscan Literature (New York, 1907) for further references, which the student must supplement for himself from the mass of recent literature in books and periodicals touching the life of Francis and its sources. See also Fierens, La Question franciscaine, etc. (Louvain, 1909). Among modern Lives, that of Sabatier is probably known to all readers of this note. The Lives by Bonghi and Le Monnier may be referred to. Gebhard’s Italie mystique is interesting in connection with Francis.

[508] Consciousness of direct authority from God speaks in the saint’s unquestionably authentic Testament: “And after the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live according to the model of the holy Gospel.” It is also rendered with picturesque vehemence in a scene (Speculum perfectionis, ed. Sabatier, ch. 68) which may or may not be authentic. At a general meeting of the Order, certain wise brethren had persuaded the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia to advise Francis to follow their counsel, and had adduced certain examples from the monastic rule of Benedict and others. “When the Cardinal had related these matters to the blessed Francis, in the way of admonition, the blessed Francis answered nothing, but took him by the hand and led him before the assembled brothers, and spoke to the brothers in the fervour and power of the Holy Spirit, thus: ‘My brothers, my brothers, the Lord called me in the way of simplicity and humility, and showed me in truth this way for myself and for those who wish to believe and imitate me. And therefore I desire that you will not name any rule to me, neither the rule of St. Benedict, nor that of St. Augustine or St. Bernard, or any other rule or model of living except that which was mercifully shown and given me by the Lord. And the Lord said that He wished me to be a new covenant (pactum) in the world, and did not wish us to live by any other way save by that knowledge.’”

[509] These songs (none of which survive) were apparently in the langue d’oïl and not in the langue d’oc. The phrases used by the biographers are lingua francigena (1 Cel. i. 7) and lingua gallica (III. Soc. iii.) or gallice cantabat (Spec. perf. vii. 93).

[510] In fact this is vouched for in III. Soc. i.

[511] St. Martin of Tours had done the same.

[512] III. Soc. v. par. 13, 14.

[513] III. Soc. vi. par. 20.

[514] “Sancta paupertas,” “domina paupertas” are the phrases. The first is used by St. Bernard.

[515] III. Soc. viii.; 1 Cel. ix.

[516] III. Soc. viii.; see 1 Cel. x. and 2 Cel. x.

[517] Spec. per. 3, 9, 19, 122. How truly he also felt their spirit is seen in the story of his words, at a somewhat later period, to a certain Dominican: “While he was staying at Siena, a certain doctor of theology, of the order of the Preachers, himself an humble and spiritual man, came to him. When they had spoken for a while about the words of the Lord, this master interrogated him concerning this text of Ezekiel: ‘If thou dost not declare to the wicked man his wickedness, I will require his soul of thy hand’ (Ezek. iii. 18). And he added: ‘I know many indeed, good father, in mortal sin, to whom I do not declare their wickedness. Will their souls be required at my hand?’

“To whom the blessed Francis humbly said that it was fitting that an ignorant person like himself should be taught by him rather than give answer upon the meaning of Scripture. Then that humble master replied: ‘Brother, albeit I have heard the exposition of this text from a number of the wise, still would I willingly make note of your understanding of it.’

“So the blessed Francis said: ‘If the text is to be understood generally, I take it to mean that the servant of God ought by his life and holiness so to burn and shine in himself, that the light of his example and the tenor of his holy conversation would reprove all wicked men. Thus I say will his splendour and the odour of his reputation declare their iniquities to all,’” Spec. perf. 53; also 2 Cel. iii. 46.

[518] As to the acquisition of the Portiuncula see Spec. perf. 55, and on Francis’s love of it see Spec. perf. 82-84, 124.

[519] 1 Cel. xi.

[520] This seems to be true of Francis’s great Exemplar.

[521] Spec. perf. 69; 2 Cel. iii. 124; III. Soc. 25.

[522] Francisci admonitiones, xx.

[523] Spec. perf. 62; 2 Cel. iii. 71.

[524] Spec. perf. 61; see 1 Cel. 19.

[525] 2 Cel. iii. 81; Spec. perf. 39.

[526] Spec. perf. 50.

[527] Spec. perf. 54; 2 Cel. iii. 84.

[528] Spec. perf. 44.

[529] Spec. perf. 64; III. Soc. 39; 2 Cel. iii. 83; cf. Admon. iii.

[530] Cf. Spec. perf. 22 and 23; 2 Cel. iii. 23.

[531] III. Soc. xii. 50, 51.

[532] Spec. perf. 18; cf. 2 Cel. iii. 20.

[533] Spec. perf. 25; 2 Cel. iii. 22.

[534] Spec. perf. 95; 2 Cel. iii. 65. But Francis condemned all vain and foolish words which move to laughter (Admon. xxi.; Spec. perf. 96).

[535] Spec. perf. 93; 2 Cel. iii. 67.

[536] Spec. perf. 34.

[537] Cf. Spec. perf. 108; 2 Cel. 132.

[538] Spec. perf. 27, 28, 33; cf. 2 Cel. i. 15; ibid. iii. 30 and 36.

[539] Spec. perf. 101. This is one of the apparently unsupported stories of the Speculum, that none would like to doubt.

[540] 2 Cel. iii. cap. 101.

[541] One is tempted to amuse oneself with paradox, and say: Not he of Vaucluse, who ascended a mountain for the view and left a record of his sentiments, but he of Assisi, who loved the sheep, the birds, the flowers, the stones, and fire and water, was “the first modern man.” But such statements are foolish; there was no “first modern man.”

[542] Spec. perf. 113.

[543] 1 Cel. xxi. 58.

[544] 1 Cel. cap. xxviii.

[545] 1 Cel. cap. xxix.

[546] 2 Cel. iii. 101. These matters are set forth more picturesquely in the Speculum perfectionis; if authentic, they throw a vivid light on this wonderful person. Here are examples:

“Francis had come to the hermitage of Fonte Palumbo, near Riete, to cure the infirmity of his eyes, as he was ordered on his obedience by the lord-cardinal of Ostia and by Brother Elias, minister-general. There the doctor advised a cautery over the cheek as far as the eyebrow of the eye that was in worse state. Francis wished to wait till brother Elias came, but when he was kept from coming Francis prepared himself. And when the iron was set in the fire to heat it, Francis, wishing to comfort his spirit, lest he be afraid, spoke to the fire: ‘My Brother Fire, noble and useful among other creatures, be courteous to me in this hour, since I have loved and will love thee for the love of Him who made thee. I also beseech our Creator, who made us both, that He may temper thy heat so that I may bear it.’ And when his prayer was finished he made the sign of the cross over the fire.