The Writings of Francis of Assisi: Letters and Prayers

Letter to the Clergy

lETTEr TO ThE ClErgy mIChaEl W. blaSTIC I. ESTablIShINg ThE TExT Three editions of the text of the Admonition to the Clergy exist.1 (1) The earliest form of the letter is found in a Benedictine Missal of the Monastery of St. Benedict in Subiaco, Italy. The Missal itself was written between 1215 and 1219, and is presently found in the Vallicelliana Library in Rome.2 This text is the oldest extant manuscript containing a writing of Francis. The letter was copied into the Missal between 1229 and 1238, and it includes the sign of the Tau. A chapel at this monastery contains one of the earliest frescoes of Francis depicted without the Stigmata. The FA:ED edition translates this as the Earlier Edition, and following Esser assigns it a date prior to 1219.3 Jan Hoeberichts has argued that the linkage of the“words and names”with the “body and the blood” of the Lord was influenced by Francis’s experience of Muslim reverence for the Qur’an and their devotion to the Ninety-Nine Names of Allah, which would necessarily date this text 1 Kajetan Esser, ed., Die Opuscula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi (Grottaferrata: Editiones Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1976), 163-64 provides an edition of both the Earlier Edition and the Later Edition of the text. 2 Codex B.24; Livarius Oliger published an edition of the text with a photocopy of the letter in “Textus antiquissimus epistolae S. Francisci De reverentia Corporis Domini in missali Sublacensi,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 6 (1913): 3-12. Also see Esser-Oliger, 81. 3 FA:ED 1, 52-53. The Writings of Francis of Assisi 102 after his return from the Middle East in the summer of 1220.4 In his recent study, Carlo Paolazzi has argued that Francis had a text of Sane cum olim before his eyes when he wrote this letter, dating it necessarily to after 1220, and provided a new critical edition of the text.5 (2) The Later Edition6 is established by a very strong manuscript tradition beginning with Assisi 338, and is present in collections of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Esser used a total of twenty-eight manuscripts to establish this version of the text.7 While some authors have disagreed with Esser’s decision to include this version among the authentic writings of Francis, Paolazzi supports Esser’s decision, and provides a new critical edition of the text.8 (3) Luke Wadding published an edition of the text in his Opuscula S. Francisci, which he completed by adding formal dimensions of the letter style to the manuscript editions which lack the same, thus changing the very nature of the text and disqualifying it as a writing of Francis.9 There is no question concerning the attribution of authorship of the Earlier Edition to Francis, but clearly the Later Edition and Wadding ’s edition have been manipulated somewhat. Esser presented the text as a letter, though it lacks the formal elements of a medieval letter .10 In the manuscripts, the letter carries the title De reverentia CorporisDominietdemunditiaaltaris :Adomnesclericus(OnReverenceforthe 4 Jan Hoeberichts, “The Authenticity of Admonition 27 of Francis of Assisi. A Discussion with Carlo Paolazzi and Beyond,” Collectanea Franciscana 75 (2005): 50822 . Carlo Paolazzi’s response does not challenge Hoebericht’s suggested dating; see Carlo Paolazzi, “Per l’authenticità della Admonitio XXVII e il lessico di frate Francesco : una risposta a Jan Hoeberichts,”Collectanea Franciscana 76 (2006): 475-505. 5 Carlo Paolazzi, “Le Epistole maggiore di frate Francesco, edizione critica ed emendamenti ai testi minori,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 101 (2008): 15-19. Edition of the text on page 38. FA:ED 1, 55, note a, contains a translation of Sane cum olim. 6 FA:ED 1, 54-55. 7 Esser, Opuscula, 157-63. 8 Carlo Paolazzi,“Le Epistole maggiore di frate Francesco,”20; edition at 39. 9 Luke Wadding, B. P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula. Nunc primum collecta tribus tomis distincta, notis et commentariis asceticis illustrata, Antverpiae, 43-45. 10 See Attilio Bartoli Langeli, Gli Autofgrafi di frate Francesco e di frate Leone. Corpus Christianorum, Autographa Medii Aevi V (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), 57-67 for an analysis of the Letters attributed to Francis. The Letter to the Clergy is the only letter among the writings that lacks formal elements of a letter. Note that the titles given in FA:ED 1, 52 are“Exhortations to the Clergy.” The...