III Diplomatic Documents
In this category we place all the acts having a character of public authenticity, particularly those which were drawn up by the pontifical cabinet.
This source of information, where each document has its date, is precisely the one which has been most neglected up to this time.
I. Donation of the Verna
The Instrumentum donationis Montis Alvernæ, a notarial document preserved in the archives of Borgo San Sepolcro,1 not only gives the name of the generous friend of Francis, and many picturesque details, but it fixes with precision a date all the more important because it occurs in the most obscure period of the Saint’s life. It was on May 8, 1213, that Orlando dei Catani, Count of Chiusi in Casentino, gave the Verna to Brother Francis.
II. Registers of Cardinal Ugolini
The documents of the pontifical chancellery addressed to Cardinal Ugolini, the future Gregory IX., and those which emanate from the hand of the latter during his long journeys as apostolic legate,2 are of first rate importance.
It would be too long to give even a simple enumeration of them. Those which mark important facts have been carefully indicated in the course of this work. It will suffice to say that by bringing together these two series of documents, and interposing the dates of the papal bulls countersigned by Ugolini, we are able to follow almost day by day this man, who was, perhaps without even excepting St. Francis, the one whose will most profoundly fashioned the Franciscan institute. We see also the pre-eminent part which the Order had from the beginning in the interest of the future pontiff, and we arrive at perfect accuracy as to the dates of his meetings with St. Francis.
III. Bulls
The pontifical bulls concerning the Franciscans were collected and published in the last century by the monk Sbaralea.3 But from these we gain little help for the history of the origins of the Order.4
The following is a compendious list; the details have been given in the course of the work:
No. 1. August 18, 1218.—Bull Literæ tuæ addressed to Ugolini. The pope permits him to accept donations of landed property in behalf of women fleeing the world (Clarisses) and to declare that these monasteries are holden by the Apostolic See.
No. 2. June 11, 1219.—Cum delecti filii. This bull, addressed in a general way to all prelates, is a sort of safe conduct for the Brothers Minor.
No. 3. December 19, 1219.—Sacrosancta romana. Privileges conceded to the Sisters (Clarisses) of Monticelli, near Florence.
No. 4. May 29, 1220.—Pro dilectis. The pope prays the prelates of France to give a kindly reception to the Brothers Minor.
No. 5. September 22, 1220.—Cum secundum. Honorius III. prescribes a year of noviciate before the entry into the Order.
No. 6. December 9, 1220.—Constitutus in præsentia. This bull concerns a priest of Constantinople who had made a vow to enter the Order. As there is question here of frater Lucas Magister fratrum Minorem de partibus Romaniæ we have here indirect testimony, all the more precious for that reason, as to the period of the establishment of the Order in the Orient.
No. 7. February 13, 1221.—New bull for the same priest.
No. 8. December 16, 1221.—Significatum est nobis. Honorius III. recommends to the Bishop of Rimini to protect the Brothers of Penitence (Third Order).
No. 9. March 22, 1222.5—Devotionis vestræ. Concession to the Franciscans, under certain conditions, to celebrate the offices in times of interdict.
No. 10. March 29, 1222.—Ex parte Universitatis. Mission given to the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Brothers of the Troops of San Iago in Lisbon.
Nos. 11, 12, and 13.—September 19, 1222.—Sacrosancta Romana. Privileges for the monasteries (Clarisses) of Lucca, Sienna, and Perugia.
No. 14. November 29, 1223.—Solet annuere. Solemn approbation of the Rule, which is inserted in the bull.
No. 15. December 18, 1223.—Fratrum Minorum. Concerns apostates from the Order.
No. 16. December 1, 1224.—Cum illorum. Authorization given to the Brothers of Penitence to take part in the offices in times of interdict, etc.
No. 17. December 3, 1224.—Quia populares tumultus. Concession of the portable altar.
No. 18. August 28, 1225.—In hiis. Honorius explains to the Bishop of Paris and the Archbishop of Rheims the true meaning of the privileges accorded to the Brothers Minor.
No. 19. October 7, 1225.—Vineae Domini. This bull contains divers authorizations in favor of the Brothers who are going to evangelize Morocco.
This list includes only those of Sbaralea’s bulls which may directly or indirectly throw some light upon the life of St. Francis and his institute. Sbaralea’s nomenclature is surely incomplete and should be revised when the Registers of Honorius III. shall have been published in full.6
Footnotes
1. It was published by Sbaralea, Bull., t. iv., p. 156, note h. This act was drawn up July 9, 1274, at a time when the son of Orlando as well as the Brothers Minor desired to authenticate the donation, which until then had been verbal.
2. See Registri dei Cardinali Ugolino d’Ostia e Ottaviano degli Ubaldini pubblicati a cura di Guido Levi dall’Istituto storico italiano.—Fonti per la storia d’Italia, Roma, 1890, 1 vol., 4to, xxviii. and 250 pp. This edition follows the manuscript of the National Library, Paris: Ancien fonds Colbert lat., 5152A. We must draw attention to a very beautiful work due also to Mr. G. Levi: Documenti ad illustrazione del Registro del Card. Ugolino, in the Archivio della societa Romana di storia patria, t. xii. (1889), pp. 241-326.
3. Bullarium franciscanum seu Rom. Pontificum constitutiones epistolæ diplomata ordinibus Minorum, Clarissarum et Pœnitentium concessa, edidit Joh. Hyac. Sbaralea ord. min. conv., 4 vols., fol., Rome, t. i. (1759), t. ii. (1761), t. iii. (1763), t iv., (1768)—Supplementum ab Annibale de Latera ord. min. obs. Romæ, 1780.—Sbaralea had a comparatively easy task, because of the number of collections made before his. I shall mention only one of those which I have before me. It is, comparatively, very well done, and appears to have escaped the researches of the Franciscan bibliographers: Singularissimum eximiumque opus universis mortalibus sacratissimi ordinis seraphici patris nostri Francisci a Domino Jesu mirabili modo approbati necnon a quampluribus nostri Redemptoris sanctissimis vicariis romanis pontificabus multipharie declarati notitiam habere cupientibus profecto per necessarium. Speculum Minorum... per Martinum Morin... Rouen, 1509. It is 8vo, with numbered folios, printed with remarkable care. It contains besides the bulls the principal dissertations upon the Rule, elaborated in the thirteenth century, and a Memoriale ordinis (first part, fo 60-82), a kind of catalogue of the ministers-general, which would have prevented many of the errors of the historians, if it had been known.
4. The Bollandists themselves have entirely overlooked those sources of information, thinking, upon the authority of a single badly interpreted passage, that the Order had not obtained a single bull before the solemn approval of Honorius III., November 29, 1223.
5. And not March 29, as Sbaralea has it. The original, which I have had under my eyes in the archives of Assisi, bears in fact: Datum Anagnie XI. Kal. aprilis pontificatus nostri anno sexto.
6. The Abbé Horoy has indeed published in five volumes what he entitles the Opera omnia of Honorius III., but he omits, without a word of explanation, a great number of letters, certain of which are brought forward in the well-known collection of Potthast. The Abbé Pietro Pressuti has undertaken to publish a compendium of all the bulls of this pope according to the original Registers of the Vatican. I regesti del Pontifice Onorio III. Roma, t. i., 1884. Volume i. only has as yet appeared.