Writings Concerning the Franciscan Order

Statutes Issued by the Chapter of Narbonne (1260)

Statutes Issued by the Chapter of Narbonne (1260) Besides approving Bonaventure's new edition of the general constitutions, the Chapter of Narbonne also passed a number o f additional statutes. Bonaventure's firm hand is certainly evident in the decrees. A good deal of this legislation would later be incorporated into the 1279 revision of the constitutions.1 There is one important omission, however, which needs to be mentioned. Virtually all modern studies state that the Chapter of Narbonne commissioned Bonaventure to write a new legend of St. Francis; however, no such decree is found among the acts of this chapter. It seems rather to h a v e emanated from the Chapter of Rome in 1257.2 Although Bonaventure may well have given a 'progress report' on his work to the Narbonne assembly, this would clearly indicate that the decree commissioning the new biography was not a result of his personal initiative a s General Minister and that the composition of the work was indeed a painstaking process which occupied him for several years.3 1Michael Bihl, "Statuta," AFH 34 (1941): 346. The present translation is based on the edition of Ferdinand Delorme, "Diffinitiones capituli generalis O.F.M. Narbonensis (1260)," AFH 3 (1910): 491-504, except for the liturgical statutes, where I have followed the more recent edition of S. J. P. van Dijk, SMRL, 2: 419-21. Cf. Distelbrink, pp. 33-34. 2For example, in the introduction to his excellent translation of the Legenda major, Ewert Cousins states: "At the General Chapter of Narbonne in 1260, Bonaventure was commissioned to write a biography of St. Francis. The chapter decreed as follows: 'Likewise, we order that one good legend of blessed Francis be compiled from all those already in existence'" (CWS, p. 37). However, the page cited in Cousin's supporting footnote does not actually refer to Delorme's edition of the Narbonne decrees (cf. n.1 above), but to an edition of the Franciscan ceremonial by Golubovich printed in the same volume of the AFH (3 [1910]: 76, no. 74). Ignatius Brady ("The Writings of St. Bonaventure," p. 99) makes the same error. Bonaventure does state that he wrote his Legenda at the "unanimous urging of the General Chapter" (Leg. maj. Prol. 3 [Cousins, p. 182]), but he does not specify which chapter; Wadding's Annales assumed that he was referring to the Narbonne assembly (AM, 4:137), a view accepted in turn by the Quaracchi editors (VIII, lxxxv). But Van Dijk's critical edition of the liturgical statutes concludes that the decree cited above by Cousins was in fact issued in 1257 (SMRL, 2: 417, no. 3); Desbonnets' discussion of the sources (p. 157) is correct here. 3 According to tradition, the Legenda was completed in 1261 (AF, 3: 328). The reference to Brother Leo in The Letter to the Abbess and Sisters of the Monastery of St. Clare in Assisi illustrates that Bonaventure was probably already engaged in the task of interviewing the companions of St. Francis on his visit to Italy in 1259. 138 / Dominic Monti, O.F.M. 1. Let every guardian diligently strive to keep a copy of the general constitutions in his house, which he should safeguard personally; he must take care not to loan it out under any circumstances whatsoever. He is to have these same constitutions read publicly once a month, especially the first seven chapters, which concern the whole community, at a time and place he deems appropriate. And once the new constitutions have been published, any old copies are to be destroyed.4 2. Before the next general chapter the ministers should see to it that the text of breviaries and missals be corrected on the basis of the more trustworthy exemplar, which is at their disposal, in accordance with the approved custom of the Order.5 3. The general minister, together with the whole general chapter, earnestly requests all the brothers to be content with one meal in the friary during the Lent of St. Francis in order to do away with many abuses and to obtain our father's blessing. The only exceptions should be those who have been bled, guests, and the elderly and infirm.6 4. We forbid the brothers in the future to accept any house where they cannot live without a store of grain and wine. Wherever there are such abuses, they are to be vigorously uprooted.7 4This was carried out so effectively that no copies of the earlier constitutions...