DOI article:
Flood, David: Franciscans at Work
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31468#0301
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300 | David Flood
Francis of Assisi had every reason to celebrate poverty in Rule 6. It sanctioned
the brotherhood’s distance to the world, it embraced the consequences of their
critical relationship to the Lord; it kept them all in his company as the journey continued.
He and his brothers knew and rejected the strategies of society and held to
the role they had assumed within the working population. Those who were holding
to course with Francis had proven themselves and had proven the validity of their
commitment. When they reflected on their Rule and reviewed how it summarized
their journey to the poverty and humility of Rule 6, they understood what Francis
said when he warned against change to their vita. He hoped he had laid it to rest
with Rule 6. He had not. Francis said the whole worked well and it did. Rule 6 was
clear to those who had passed through the struggles of the Early Rule: think John
Parenti at the 1230 chapter. It was not clear, and how could it be?, to those who
wanted a different institution.
The learned clerics got their institution after several turbulent decades. It is summed
up in Rubrica I, 3 of the Constitutions of 1260. ²² It is summed up, no less, in a
subordinate clause, the one that begins I, 3.
In summary we can say that work compensated, going for alms, and poverty:
these three fit together into the simple service brought to others, both rich and poor.
22 Constitutiones generales narbonenses (1260), in: Constitutiones generales ordinis fratrum minorum, ed.
Cesare Cenci/Georges Mailleux, vol. 1: Saeculum XIII (Analecta Franciscana 13), Grottaferrata 2007,
pp. 65 –103, see p. 70.
Francis of Assisi had every reason to celebrate poverty in Rule 6. It sanctioned
the brotherhood’s distance to the world, it embraced the consequences of their
critical relationship to the Lord; it kept them all in his company as the journey continued.
He and his brothers knew and rejected the strategies of society and held to
the role they had assumed within the working population. Those who were holding
to course with Francis had proven themselves and had proven the validity of their
commitment. When they reflected on their Rule and reviewed how it summarized
their journey to the poverty and humility of Rule 6, they understood what Francis
said when he warned against change to their vita. He hoped he had laid it to rest
with Rule 6. He had not. Francis said the whole worked well and it did. Rule 6 was
clear to those who had passed through the struggles of the Early Rule: think John
Parenti at the 1230 chapter. It was not clear, and how could it be?, to those who
wanted a different institution.
The learned clerics got their institution after several turbulent decades. It is summed
up in Rubrica I, 3 of the Constitutions of 1260. ²² It is summed up, no less, in a
subordinate clause, the one that begins I, 3.
In summary we can say that work compensated, going for alms, and poverty:
these three fit together into the simple service brought to others, both rich and poor.
22 Constitutiones generales narbonenses (1260), in: Constitutiones generales ordinis fratrum minorum, ed.
Cesare Cenci/Georges Mailleux, vol. 1: Saeculum XIII (Analecta Franciscana 13), Grottaferrata 2007,
pp. 65 –103, see p. 70.