Klöster im Hochmittelalter

Franciscans at Work | 293
They made it an unwritten law by living it. That was the historical event of the moment.
That was in Umbria the novel sequence to the Decretists’ reasoning.
Francis and his associates developed their written accord to see to problems
and to spell out principles. For example, they had their own notion of work. They
understood it as service to others and concern for the common good. They also
wrote off any contact with money, one of the subinstitutions of the world they had
forsworn. At one moment they spelled out the nature of their relationship to those
among whom they lived. They were in a way driven to it by an understandable
development. As men of peace and good workers, they had begun drawing the admiration
of Christians who esteemed them; they were looked on as holy men and
moral exemplars. In sum, the brothers were being drawn back into the world whose
injustices and vanities they had fled. They were being treated as a confirmation of
that world. The brothers said clearly: They would not let themselves be honored
and absorbed by the spirit of the world (society). They were led by “the Spirit of
the Lord.” They claimed and believed that they were following God’s will on them.
At that moment, as a sanction of sorts of their rejection of the world and its
admiration, Francis and his brothers put clearly what they were about. They were
giving God back all good things (bona Deo reddere). At that time, the expression
stood for what we today call distributive justice. The brothers intended to pursue
the inclusion of all in the enjoyment of God’s good gifts, both of nature as well as
of the human hand. In its fine point, that meant using the wealth of the rich to humanize
the poor. They had picked up on the notion of the Decretists as regards the
things people need to survive and, as we would put it today, flourish. ⁴
Francis and his brothers supplied themselves with a set of Admonitions to help
them with living as they proposed. The two propositions of Early Rule 17 were
important enough to merit a set of six Admonitions, 7 to 12. Admonitions 9 to 11
encouraged the brothers to “give God back all good things” in spite of the opposition
they were encountering. ⁵
When we read early Franciscan history in the wake of the Decretists, we have
much evidence to work on. It arises, however, in the decisions the brothers make
and not in any sort of treatise. Enough, to their minds, and how disagree?, that
they do it. For historians, however, six meagre admonitions in support of a succinct
rejection of the world are not enough. Historians want expository prose and not
4 The propositions, on the brothers’ sense of themselves and on their basic purpose, we find in Early Rule
(note 3 above), cap. 17, 10 –16 and 17–19, p. 270.
5 See Francisci Assisiensis Scripta (note 3 above), pp. 360 –364. For the interpretation of Admonitions 7–12,
see: David Flood, Social Designs and Admonitions 9 –11 in: The Cord, 55, 2005, pp. 50 – 61. “The Cord”
is published by Franciscan Institute Publications at Saint Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New
York.