Franciscan Poverty

4. John of Parma and Bonaventura

4 John of Parma and Bonaventura It would have been remarkable if the developments outlined in the previous chapter had not caused disquiet in some quarters within the order. II Celano, which was published in 1246, reveals the anxiety felt by the companions about the state of the order. The chapter-general of Lyons, which absolved Crescenzio from office, elected in his place, whether by accident or design, a man opposed to the modification of poverty, whose chief aim was to recall the order to the days of its primitive purity. The new general, John Buralli of Parma, was the first to succeed St. Francis whom the companions could greet as one of their own kind. Giles, recalling his less sympathetic predecessors, said to him: “Well and opportunely have you come, but you have come late.” 1 Above all, no doubt, Giles was thinking of the personal qualities of John, which earned him beatification in the eighteenth century—the genius for personal relations, the quality of curialitas, so much like Francis’s own, the humility, the rigour of his private life. John of Parma was on close terms with Hugues de Digne, a friar of Provence who has been called “the father of the Spirituals.” 2 Salimbene, John’s fellow townsman and admirer, who gave a full account of him in his chronicle, said of this relationship: “ Brother Hugues de Digne in all things and through all things had the same view as brother John.” 3 According to the witness of the late Spiritual historian, Angelo da Clareno, John shared the rigorists’ view of the Testament as the vital key to the understanding of the Rule. Angelo quoted him as saying: “And it is not possible for anyone who rejects the Testament to have a spiritual understanding of the Rule or to observe it faithfully.” 4 Angelo’s tradition may have misunderstood John of Parma and his attitude to the Testament. Conceivably for John, the Testament appeared more as a source of 1 Angelo da Clareno, Historia, ed. Ehrle, ALKG II, 263; the best account of John of Parma is in Brooke, Government, pp. 255 - 71. 2 Hugues de Digne, De Finibus Paupertatis, ed. C. Florovsky, AFH v (1912), 279. 3 Cronica, ed. Holder-Egger, p. 232. 4 Historia, ed. Ehrle. p. 275. 110 Franciscan Poverty inspiration than as a direct, binding authority. His friend, Hugues de Digne, in his Exposition on the Rule written during John’s generalate, did not believe that the Testament bound the friars. He wrote: “We are bound, not to blessed Francis’s intention (which we do not know) but a common rational understanding of the rule which we vow.” 5 John, as we shall see, accepted the role of study in the order and so did Hugues de Digne. Manual labour, Hugues believed, was no longer appropriate: John of Parma, for his labour, copied manuscripts. 6 One of the first things to strike one about his generalate, when compared with that of his predecessors, is the great stress John laid on personal methods. His predecessors had generally ruled the order from the centre, sending round deputies to fulfil their visitation duty. Elias had been immersed in the building of the basilica, Crescenzio had been too old, Haymo, though he made some visitations, had generally been preoccupied with putting into effect the new regulations of 1239. But John, soon after taking office, began the systematic visitation of the provinces. He was the first general ever to do this. Salimbene describes with admiration how, travelling on foot, he wore out his companions and had to be supplied with secretaries in relays. 7 Angelo, writing from the traditions of the Spirituals, also describes these astonishing journeys. This is what he says: So in the first three years of his administration, clad in one tunic and a habit of poor cloth, which he kept right to the end of his life, he visited the whole order; he never used an ass or a horse or any vehicle, was content with one companion or two at most, and was so humble and insignificant in appearance as he went, that the great men whom he happened to salute by the roadside thought him unworthy of acknowledgement. 8 He goes on to describe how John would arrive unawares in different provinces as a simple brother, see for himself the state of the observance, and correct abuses on the spot. He would always say his hours erect, and 5 D. Flood, Hugh...