II. a wonder' to a proud and turbulent and luxurious age. The power of the example soon made itself felt. Francis drew to him without effort and without any conscious plan a few followers who found in the new life the Gospel for which they looked, the Gospel for the poor. No wretchedness was too deep for their hope: no effort was too great for their faith. They did not affect the Reg.ii.§ 2. right of judging others: it was enough to bless God for what He had taught them. They sought to teach by deed rather than by word, yet not so as to appear better than their fellow men. Their Coll. 12. hope was to lift the fallen up to a higher level by quickening the germ of life within them through the spectacle of God's power in themselves. In this way their work grew with amazing rapidity. The brethren were sent to and fro in every direction with the salutation of peace to bear the message of repentance and faith abroad. They went as missionaries to the Saracens, and, above all, as missionaries to the miserable multitudes who sought shelter in the large towns. They settled among the lowest. Once again they brought thought into life, and theology to the people. The peace of the cloister, securely guarded from the storms of common cares, had no charm for them. They would win peace in the market II. and in the crowd. And they won it by self-sacrifice. 'You ask me', Francis said, 'whether prayer Coll. 14. 'or preaching is more pleasing to God. It is a 'hard question...In praying we speak to God and 'hear Him, and live, as it were with angels, the 'life of angels: in preaching we must bring our'selves down to a low level in dealing with men, 'and live among them in the ways of men, and 'think men's thoughts and see with men's eyes, 'and hear and use men's words. But one con'sideration is decisive. The only Son of God came down from the Bosom of the Father for 'the salvation of souls. We, too, must follow 'His pattern. We must give up our quiet and go forth to toil.' Such teaching, such lives, stirred the masses of men. Crowds of eager inquirers gathered round Francis and demanded what they must do, bound as they were by the duties of home and state? In answer to their prayers he drew up a rule for men and women living in the world. Those who pp. 94 ff. subscribed it were bound to renounce all illgotten gains to abstain from aggressive war, and litigation to observe the utmost simplicity in dress and intercourse and amusements: to give themselves according to their opportunity to works of devotion: to meet from time to time for common worship and almsgiving. There was nothing : II. strained or fantastic in the provisions which pro- By the institution of this Third Order of the brothers and sisters of penitence', as they were called, the work of Francis was consummated. It seemed for a short space as if the Kingdom of God were indeed about to be established on earth. Then followed a swift decline. Even in the lifetime of Francis the simplicity of his rule was marred. After his death came the corruptions of ambition and controversy. Mendicancy was made the rule instead of the exception. Fictions were devised to justify the acceptance of property. The privileges of the secular clergy were disregarded. The Franciscans disputed with the Dominicans the supremacy of the schools, and carried Theology back to words. But even II. while the Order failed to realise the ideal of their founder, the spiritual forces which he had called out were still fertile for good. The intense sympathy of Francis with the life of Nature gave a fresh impulse to art, and the splendid church which rose over his tomb within seventeen years of his death received some of the earliest treasures of Italian painting, and fresh masters, as they rose to fame, delighted to add their tribute to his honour. Francis had discouraged learn- Coll. 15. ing, but his scholars were forced to meet the keen questionings of men for whom life was a real battle. In such encounters they were disciplined in the search for knowledge and in the use of it. Day by day, in the streets and the hospitals, they were forced to consider the changing circumstances of life, and to deal with sickness and suffering. In such service they learnt to question nature patiently, and laid the foundation of inductive science. In thought and work the sense of a divine communion was their strength, and they kindled in innumerable homes that fire of piety which saved Europe in the age of the Renaissance. But still the Order, as a type of the Divine. Kingdom, failed, and I believe that it was doomed to failure by the very principles of its Founder. Francis aimed at an ideal which ne 40. II. glected essential facts of life. He sought to destroy individuality. It is said that he once ordered a disobedient brother to be stripped and placed in an open grave. The earth was then heaped round him, and when his head alone was uncovered, Francis came near and said, 'Art thou 'Yes,' the peni Colloqu. dead, brother? art thou dead?' tent replied, 'I am dead now.' Rise then,' he said, '... I will have dead men, not living, for my followers.' Francis paused, that is, at the first stage in the transformation of the Christian. The death of perfect self-surrender is the condition of resurrection to the power of a new life; but life, deeper, fuller, intenser, must flow from the completed sacrifice. Every gift, every faculty, every circumstance of personal being is transformed by that death, and given back to be used with nobler energy and keener responsibility. The living God seeks the service of living men. Francis disregarded the sacred individuality of men. He disregarded also the divine office of nations for the race. He strove, in a word, to seize the conception of humanity without recognising the form of life through which God is pleased to reveal to us the rich fulness of the whole. So it came to pass that his Friars were made from the first the agents of papal exac |