Chapter VI

. of the Rule of the Damianites approved by Innocent IV., August 8, 1253.) 3. The bull of canonization, given September 26, 1255--that is to say, two years after Clara's death; it is much longer than these documents ordinarily are, and relates the principal incidents of her life. A. SS., _loc. cit._, p. 749; Potthast, 16,025. 4. Her correspondence. Unhappily we have only fragments of it; the Bollandists, without saying whence they drew them, have inserted four of her letters in the _Acta_ of St. Agnes of Bohemia, to whom they were addressed. (A. SS., _Martii_, t. i., pp. 506-508.)

[2] Reading the Chronicle of Fra Salimbeni, which represents the average Franciscan character about 1250, one sees with what reason the Rule had multiplied minute precautions for keeping the Brothers from all relations with women.

The desire of Celano to present the facts in the life of Francis as the norm of the acts of the friars appears still more in the chapters concerning St. Clara than in all the others. Vide 2 Cel., 3, 132: _Non credatis, charissimi (dixit Franciscus), quodeas perfecte non diligam.... Sed exemplum do vobis, ut quemadmodum ego facio, ita et vos faciatis._ Cf. ibid., 134.

[3] 2 Cel., 3, 55. _Fateor veritatem ... nullam me si aspicerem recogniturum in facie nisi duas_. This chapter and the two following give us a sort of caricature, in which Francis is represented as so little sure of himself that he casts down his eyes for fear of yielding to desire. The stories of Francis and Jacqueline of Settesoli give a very different picture of the relations between the Brothers and the women in the origin of the Order from that which was given later. Bernard de Besse (Turin MS., f^o. 113) relates at length the coming of Jacqueline to Portiuncula to be present at St. Francis's death. Cf. _Spec._, 107; 133; Bon., 112. Also Clara's repast at Portiuncula. _Fior._, 15; _Spec._, 139b.; A. SS. _Aug. Vita Clar._, No. 39 ff.

[4] Isaiah, lxiii., 8 and 9 (Ségond's [French] translation). At the Mass on Holy Monday Isaiah lxiii. is read for the Epistle and Mark xiv. for the Gospel.

[5] San Paolo on the Chiasco, near Bastia.

[6] At the present day diocesan seminary of Assisi, "_Seminarium seraphicum_." In the thirteenth century the north gate of the city was there. The houses which lie between there and the Basilica form the new town, which is rapidly growing and will unite the city with Sacro Convento.

[7] _Nam steteramus in alio loco, licet parum. Test. Clar._ It is truly strange that there is not a word here for the house where the first days of her religious life were passed. Cf. _Vit._, no. 10: _S. Angelus de Panse ... ubi cum non plene mens ejus quiesceret._

[8] Mittarelli, _Annales Camaldulenses_ (Venice, 1755-1773, 9 vols., f^o.), t. iv., app. 431 and 435. Cf. 156.

[9] The act of donation is still in the archives of Assisi. An analysis of it will be found in Cristofani, t. i., p. 133. Their munificence remained without result; the bull _Ab Ecclesia_ of July 27, 1232, shows that they were suppressed less than twenty years after. _Sbaralea_, t. 1, p. 81. Potthast, 8984. Cf., ib., p. 195, note c, and 340, note a, and the bulls which are there indicated.

[10] See p. 81, note ii.

[11] 1 Cel., 18; 21; 3 Soc., 24; 2 Cel., 1, 8.

[12] _An. Perus._, A. SS., p. 600. Cf. 3 Soc., 60. The three Orders are contemporary, one might even say, the four, including among them the one that miscarried among the secular priests (see below).

In a letter St. Clara speaks of her Order as making only a part with that of the Brothers: _Sequaris consilia Reverendi Patris nostri fratris Eliæ Ministri generalis totius ordinis_. A. SS., Martii, t. i., p. 507.

[13] This point of view is brought into relief by an anecdote in the _De laudibus_ of Bernard of Besse (Turin MS., 113a). This is how he ends chap. vii. on the three Orders: _Nec Santus his contentus ordinibus satagebat omnium generi salutis et penitentiæ viam dare. Unde parochiali cuidam sacerdoti dicenti sibi quod vellet suus, retenta tamen ecclesia. Frater esse, dato vivendi et induendi modo, dicitur indixisse ut annuatim, collectis Eclesiæ fructibus daret pro Deo, quod de præteritis superesset._

[14] See the lovely story in the _Fior._, 13. Cf. _Spec._, 65a; _Conform._, 168b. 1.

[15] The text of it was doubtless formerly inserted in