Klöster im Hochmittelalter

298 | David Flood
chapter, for it puts the brotherhood at the fine point of the common journey in late
1223, as mapped out by the Early Rule. I can imagine a number of brothers reading
it and letting it sink in, as they come slowly to suspect its great achievement, given
what was afoot in the brotherhood, and their hearts begin to warm. I limit myself to
three observations, for we are merely looking for the meaning of the word poverty.
Rule 6 breaks down into two parts. One celebrates poverty. The other (Rule 6,
7–9) summarizes, with three lines from the Early Rule, the brothers’ economics.
After exalting poverty, Francis sees to it that all are well housed (domestici). They
belong, not only as members of an organisation, but of the family, with a sure roof
and kitchen and with the appropriate affection. They enjoy as well the assurance of
care in sickness and in old age. ¹⁷ Each brother belongs to a Christian community
that can and will take care of him. If we look closely at Michel Mollat’s conclusion
on poverty in the Middle Ages, we have a summary that boils the abundant research
down to a simple factor. The poor man lacks social inclusion. ¹⁸ That is what has
been effectively banished from Franciscan life. The individual brother has the material
and spiritual support of a good life, of a life he can live down a long road of
seeking the face of God in service to those who do not enjoy his good fortune. The
economics of the Rule are those developed in the early years. So what is the poverty
celebrated by Francis of Assisi?
The term poverty entered the Franciscan vocabulary in circumstances that we
can lay out and which conclude to its meaning. It is the meaning Francis gives it
in the similar circumstances, although not as concrete, of Rule 6. First of all, when
seeking papal recognition, Francis and his brothers had to include the three vows
in their Rule. (In Rome in 1209, before Pope Innocent III and church dignitaries,
the brothers needed a rule and to receive recognition their rule had to include the
three vows, one of which was poverty.) They did so without hesitation, for though
perhaps not mentioned in their original text, they lived the three vows. When they
set out and some passed their days in service to the elderly and the sick in the
almshouses, ¹⁹ they regularly “went for alms” for their charges as well as for themselves.
That is where our story of poverty begins. The brothers were not received
by Christians who had gone to school under the Decretists. They encountered good
17 In his rule commentary, David of Augsburg reports on Brother Guardians who neglect care for old
brothers. He is taken aback and, in the late 1260s, serves notice. See David Flood, Die Regelerklärung
des David von Augsburg, in: Franziskanische Studien 75, 1993, pp. 201–242, see p. 227 f.
18 Michel Mollat, The Poor in the Middle Ages. An Essay in Social History, New Haven/London 1986,
p. 7: “The poor man was uprooted and alone.”
19 Early Rule (note 3 above), cap. 8, which tries to keep a sure distance from handling money, mentions
almshouses in a way that suggests they played an important role in the original occupations of the brothers.