The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi

PART I. ADMONITIONS, RULES, ETC

I. WORDS OF ADMONITION OF OUR HOLY FATHER ST. FRANCIS.

Under this title a precious series of spiritual counsels on the religious life has come down to us from the pen of St Francis The early Legends afford no indication of the time or circumstances of the composition of these Admonitions; nor is it possible to determine by whom they were collected. But they accord so completely with the Saint's genuine works and are so redolent of his spirit that their authenticity is admitted by all. 1 Moreover, the various codices in which these Admonitions may be found are unanimous in attributing them to St. Francis, while the number of the Admonitions 2 and the order in which they are given in the different codices are almost the same as in the Laurentian codex at Florence, dating from the thirteenth century.

Codices containing the Admonitions of St. Francis are to be found at the following places 1. Assist (Munic. lib. cod. 338, fol. 18),-2. Berlin (Royal lib. cod. lat. 196, fol. 101);-3. Florence (Laurentian lib.cod. X. Plut XIX dextr., fol. 448),-4. Florence (cod. of the Convent of Ognissanti, fol. 5);-5. St. Floriano (monast lib. cod XI 148, fol 38);-6. Foligno (cod. of Capuchin Conv., fol. 21),-7. Lemberg (Univ. lib. cod. 131, fol 331),-8 Liegnitz 1 (lib. of SS Peter and Paul cod. 12, fol 131),-9. Luttich (Munic. lib. cod. 343, fol. 154),-10. Munich (Royal lib. cod. lat. 11354, fol 25, number 1 only);-11. Naples (Nation lib. cod XII. F. 32, folio antepaen. numbers 6-27),-12 Oxford 2 (Bodl. lib. cod. Canon miscell. 525, fol. 93);-13 Paris (Nat. lib. cod 18327, fol. 154),-14, 15. Paris (Mazarin lib. cod 1743, fol. 134, and cod. 989, fol 191),-16. Paris (codex at lib. of the Prot. theol faculty, fol. 86);-17. Prague (Metrop. lib. cod B XC., fol. 244),-18. Rome (codex at St. Antony's Coll., 3 fol. 77),-19, 20. Rome (archiv. of St Isidore's College, cod. 1/25 , fol. 14, and cod. 1/78 , fol 11);-21, 22. Rome (Vatic. lib. cod. 4354, fol. 39, and cod. 7650, fol. 10);-23. Toledo (capit. lib. cod. Cai. 25, no. 11, fol. 65) and-24 Volterra (Guarnacci lib. cod 225, fol. 141).

Of the foregoing codices that in the Laurentian Library at Florence dates from the thirteenth century; those at Ognissanti, Florence, at Assisi, Berlin, St Floriano, Oxford, Rome (St. Antony's, St. Isidore's, and the Vatican codex 4354), Toledo, and Volterra date from the fourteenth, and the others from the fifteenth century.

For the Quaracchi edition of the Admonitions, upon which the present translation is based, the two oldest of all these codices, to wit, those of the LaurentianLibrary at Florence and of the Municipal Library at Assisi, 1 have been used Those at St Isidore's, Rome, and Ognissanti, Florence, have also been consulted, besides the editions of the Admonitions found in the Monumenta Ordinis Minorum (Salamanca, 1511, tract. 11, fol. 276 r), the Firmamenta Trium Ordinum 2 (Paris, 1512, P. I, fol. 19 r), and the Liber Conformitatum of Bartholomew of Pisa (Milan, 1510, fruct. XII, P. 11). But for the titles and paragraphing, which differ more or less in different codices, the Laurentian codex has been followed 3

So much by way of preface to the

ADMONITIONS.

1. Of the Lord's Body.

The Lord Jesus said to His disciples: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me you would, without doubt, have known My Father also: and from henceforth you shallknow Him, and you have seen Him. Philip saith to Him: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you and have you not known Me? Philip, he that seeth Me seeth [My] Father also. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father?" 1 The Father "inhabiteth light inaccessible," 2 and "God is a spirit," 3 and "no man hath seen God at any time." 4 Because God is a spirit, therefore it is only by the spirit He can be seen, for "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." 5 For neither is the Son, inasmuch as He is equal to the Father, seen by any one other than by the Father, other than by the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, all those who saw the Lord Jesus Christ according to humanity and did not see and believe according to the Spirit and the Divinity, that He was the Son of God, were condemned. In like manner, all those who behold the Sacrament of the Body of Christ which is sanctified by the word of the Lord upon the altar by the hands of the priest in the form of bread and wine, and who do not see and believe according to the Spirit and Divinity that It is really the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned, He the Most High having declared it when He said, "This is My Body, and the Blood of the New Testament," 6 and "he that eateth MyFlesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting life." 1

Wherefore [he who has] 2 the Spirit of the Lord which dwells in His faithful, he it is who receives the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord: all others who do not have this same Spirit and who presume to receive Him, eat and drink judgment to themselves. 3 Wherefore, "O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart?" 4 Why will you not know the truth and "believe in the Son of God?" 5 Behold daily He humbles Himself as when from His "royal throne" 6 He came into the womb of the Virgin; daily He Himself comes to us with like humility; daily He descends from the bosom of His Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. And as He appeared in true flesh to the Holy Apostles, so now He shows Himself to us in the sacred Bread; and as they by means of their fleshly eyes saw only His flesh, yet contemplating Him with their spiritual eyes, believed Him to be God, so we, seeing bread and wine with bodily eyes, see and firmly believe it to be His most holy Body and true and living Blood And in this way our Lord is ever with His faithful, as He Himself says: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." 7

2. The Evil of Self-will.

The Lord God said to Adam: "Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat." 1 Adam therefore might eat of every tree of paradise and so long as he did not offend against obedience he did not sin. For one eats of the tree of knowledge of good who appropriates to himself his own will 2 and prides himself upon the goods which the Lord publishes and works in him and thus, through the suggestion of the devil and transgression of the commandment, he finds the apple of the knowledge of evil; wherefore, it behooves that he suffer punishment.

3. Of Perfect and Imperfect Obedience.

The Lord says in the Gospel: he "that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be" a "disciple" 3 and "he that will save his life, shall lose it." 4 That man leaves all he possesses and loses his body and his soul who abandons himself wholly to obedience in the hands of his superior, and whatever he does and says-provided he himself knows that what he does is good and not contrary to his [the superior's] will-is true obedience. And if at times a subject sees things which would be better or more useful to his soul than those which thesuperior commands him, let him sacrifice his will to God, let him strive to fulfil the work enjoined by the superior. This is true and charitable obedience which is pleasing to God and to one's neighbor.

If, however, a superior command anything to a subject that is against his soul it is permissible for him to disobey, but he must not leave him [the superior], and if in consequence he suffer persecution from some, he should love them the more for God's sake. For he who would rather suffer persecution than wish to be separated from his brethren, truly abides in perfect obedience because he lays down his life for his brothers. 1 For there are many religious who, under pretext of seeing better things than those which their superiors command, look back 2 and return to the vomit of their own will. 3 These are homicides and by their bad example cause the loss of many souls.

4. That no one should take Superiorship upon himself.

I did "not come to be ministered unto, but to minister," says the Lord. 4 Let those who are set above others glory in this superiority only as much as if they had been deputed to wash the feet of the brothers; and if they are more perturbed by the loss of their superiorship than they would be by losing the office of washing feet, so muchthe more do they lay up treasures to the peril of their own soul.

5. That no one should glory save in the Cross of the Lord.

Consider, O man, how great the excellence in which the Lord has placed you because He has created and formed you to the image of His beloved Son according to the body and to His own likeness according to the spirit. 1 And all the creatures that are under heaven serve and know and obey their Creator in their own way better than you And even the demons did not crucify Him, but you together with them crucified Him and still crucify Him by taking delight in vices and sins. Wherefore then can you glory? For if you were so clever and wise that you possessed all science, and if you knew how to interpret every form of language and to investigate...