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25 q Chapter 1 The Formative Years, 1219–1244 In September 1219, Brother Pacifico1 arrived at the gates of Paris hoping to find a place in that city for his brothers in religion, the Friars Minor.2 This arrival marks the beginning of a history to be told in these pages, the history of the rise of learning in the Order of the Friars Minor. The Friars Minor originated in central Italy, made up largely of laymen in pursuit of a penitential life in apostolic poverty and simplicity. Had Paris been just another settlement of this evangelical fraternity in France,perhaps Pacifico’s journey would not have special significance, but it was one of the earliest settlements in France, and one of the earliest settlements outside Italy. What could Paris, a large and growing city in the process of becoming a true capital of the kingdom of the Franks, and the seat of what was already the most famous university in Christendom, offer to these poor, semi-eremitical Italians that all other towns on the way from Italy to northern France did not? What brought Pacifico so far from home? 1. Also known as Guglielmo di Lisciano, a famous versificator and composer of songs in the Marches of Ancona. See II Celano, 106; Brooke, Scripta Leonis, 23. 2. For the date of arrival at Paris, see Laure Beaumont-Maillet, Le Grand Couvent des Cordeliers de Paris: Étude historique et archéologique du XIIIe siècle à nos jours (Paris: H. Champion, 1975), 10. See also Francesca Joyce Mapelli, L’amministrazione francescana di Inghilterra e Francia: personale di governo e strutture dell’Ordine fino al Concilio diVienne (1311) (Rome: Pontificio Anteneo Antonianum, 2003), 112 and 395. 26 Chapter 1 The Friars Minor were formed around the holy man known as Francis of Assisi. In 1209, when Francis had a dozen followers, he had written a simple Rule for them to follow, known as Regula Primitiva or protoregula.3 The text of this earliest Rule does not survive, but it is believed to have been very short and based on quotes from the Bible,summarizing the basic tenets of the evangelical life.4 Francis, quite firm on remaining obedient to the Church, took his Rule to Pope Innocent III (1198–1216), who sanctioned it orally and informally.5 According to Francis’s medieval biographer, Thomas Celano, Innocent simply said, “Go with the Lord, brothers, and as the Lord will deign to inspire you, preach penance to all.”6 Innocent may well have consulted with Guido, bishop of Assisi, then at the Curia, and learned that Francis and his brothers were harmless penitents7 who had been living in the vicinity of Assisi for two years.8 The pope could not really disapprove of Francis’s Rule, since it was simply a summary of the vita apostolica as described in Acts 4:22:the brothers would earn the means of their existence by the work of their hands or by begging;all things were to be used in common;they would renounce money and all property;and they would preach repentance. The arrival of the Franciscans in Paris in 1219 is generally believed to have been the very first settlement of the Order in Gaul. As far as we know, Francis himself had originally wished to lead this French expedition.9 Some twenty 3. Laurentius Casutt,Untersuchungen zur Regula Prima sine Bulla (Graz:Verlag Styria,1955),11–62, established that Francis definitely produced a written Rule sometime in 1209 or 1210. See also Kajetan Esser, Anfänge und Ursprüngliche Zielsetzungen des Ordens der Minderbrüder (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), 25–26. 4. For the reconstruction of the Regula primitiva, see Dominik Mandić,De Protoregula Ordinis Fratrum Minorum (Mostar: Ex Typ. croatica Franciscanae provinciae, 1923), and De legislatione antiqua Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, vol. 1, Legislatio francescana ab an. 1210–1221 (Mostar: Ex Typ. croatica Franciscanae provinciae 1924). 5. Since Innocent’s approval was verbal,we know it only through chronicles and later references. See I Celano,32. Pope Honorius III’s letter,Solet annuere of November 29,1223,describes the Franciscan Rule as “regula, a bonae memorie Innocentio Papa praedecessore nostro, approbata” (BF , 1:15). The chronicler of the Franciscan settlement in Germany, Jordan of Giano writes, “Regulam authenticam utpote a sede apostolica confirmatam” (Jordan of Giano, 4). Leo, Angelo, and Rufino, Francis’s three companions, date the approval of the first Rule to the Lateran Council of 1215. Brooke, Scripta Leonis, 204. For...

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