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Medieval Eschatology and St. Francis of Assisi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Ray C. Petry
Affiliation:
Duke University, Durham, N. C.

Extract

Francis of Assisi has been made the subject of numerous studies in modern times. His dedication to absolute poverty has elicited praise from admirers of varied character. That same ideal has frequently been made the object of unfriendly strictures. All too many researchers have granted him tolerant dismissal as a naïve idealist. Such writers have damned him with the easy condescension of modern men. They have been too busy proclaiming his impracticability according to modern standards to appreciate what he was and accomplished as a medieval man.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1940

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References

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49 Loc. cit.,: “… missus et hic a Deo, ut universaliter per totum mundum, Apostolorum exemplo perhiberet testimonum veritati.”

50 Actus, X, 59Google Scholar; Cf. Clareno, Angelo, Expositio, cap. X, Oliger ed. 208209Google Scholar; Spec. Perf., LXXII.Google Scholar

51 Verb. Admon., 28Google Scholar; Bon., X, 4.Google Scholar

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53 Tres. Soc., (XIII), 54Google Scholar: “… hominem alterius saeculi.”

54 Père Charles Cahier in private correspondence once said: “A mon avis, ce chant flottait pour ainsi dire dans l'atmosphère chrétienne avant de se condenser sous sa forme actuelle.” Quoted by Clair, P. Charles, Le Die Irae: Histoire, Traduction, Commentaire (Paris, 1881), 14.Google Scholar

55 Compare the lines: Judex ergo quum sedebit,

Quidquid latet apparebit,

Nil inultum rémanebit

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58 I Reg., 23, 21.Google Scholar

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62 Opuscula., 135.Google Scholar

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65 I Reg., 5Google Scholar: “…, quia ‘<h> orrendum est ineidere in manus Dei viventis (Hebr. X, 31).’”

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68 I Reg., 16.Google Scholar

69 Compare with this and other like passages in I Reg., 16Google Scholar the undeniably eschatologieal references in the fuller contexts of Mark VIII, 35–38; Matt. V, X, XXIV; and Luke XXI.

70 I Reg., 22Google Scholar (Luke, XXI, 36Google Scholar): “‘Vigilate itaque omni tempore orantes, ut digni habeamini fugere omnia mala, que ventura sünt, et stare ante Filium hominis.’”

71 Epist. ad fideles, 12.Google Scholar

72 Spec. Perf., LXXIXGoogle Scholar: “… quod religio et professio fratrum Minorum non deficiet usque ad diem iudieii.”

73 Bart. Pisa, “De Conform.”, Fruct. IX, Anal. Fr. IV, 435436.Google Scholar