CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV.
The Religious of St. Clare—Book on Perfection of Life.
'¢Flores apparuerunt in terra .
. vox turturis audita est in terra nostra .
. vineae florentes dederunt odorem suum,''—CanT. ii. 12, 13.
ALONGSIDE with the great family of St. Francis, and under its shelter and protection, grew and multiplied another family, equally blessed by Heaven and dear to the Christian world.
A young daughter of St. Francis of Assisi had originated it, and he had seen it develop like a tree full of vigour, in the strengthening breath of his example and his words.
Clare, attracted by the brilliant virtues of St. Francis, had conceived a contempt for the world, and had pledged herself, under his direction, to a life of penitence and contemplation.
Soon all those fervent souls, who could not breathe freely in contact with the earth, sought out the humble virgin,
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and prayed her to guide them into the sacred paths of perfection, and to be their mother during the time of their pilgrimage to eternity.
Clare, whose heart, like that of Francis, was overflowing with charity, had gladly embraced these poor souls who came to warm themselves at the fire of her devotion. A family was formed, and soon it had establishments all over the world.
The Minor Friars had naturally been the directors of these houses up to the time of St.
Bonaventure, but without any definite law in the matter.
St. Francis had been pained by seeing in some of his religious too much eagerness about the new Order, and he feared that the cares of such direction might be injurious in the future to the well-being of his sons.
Therefore he would not impose any other obligation on them in this matter, save that of charity alone, and the children of St. Francis had carried out his desire, for, while willing to render these holy communities all the services which they required, they were yet free to refuse when such services could not, without evil to their own Order, be continued.
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During the disputes with the University of Paris, the Franciscans had been assailed with many calumnies on this account, but their virtue was beyond dispute.
The heroic life of the daughter of St. Clare, and the fidelity of the religious to the counsels of their Father, had deprived malice of the least excuse to doubt, and the reproaches which were made against them only served to make known to the world that which the charity of the brothers would have concealed.
For when people asked, " Why do you burden yourselves with the Order of St.
Clare, and thus shackle your liberty ?" St. Bonaventure replied : 'The Order of St. Clare is not servilely united to ours, nor are we under any obligation with regard to it; but at the request of the Cardinal, who is the real Superior of their
Order, our ministers have given them Confessors to administer the Sacraments of the Church, and visitors to correct abuses.
The other brothers are not obliged to do anything for the nuns, and if they do serve them they only do it as they would for any other friends of our Order, but as these religious live in the cloister, and under a uniform Rule, it is easy to direct them.
How-
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ever, if it were generally considered that such a charge is unsuited to us, we could easily relinquish it, for our Rule imposes on us no obligations but such as concern members of our
Order, and with regard to all other Orders it leaves us perfectly free."
The enemies of the Minorites, however, persisting in the belief that the daughters of St.
Clare were entirely under their government, raised another and a more important complaint against them.
They objected that many of the religious had brought a dowry with them, and _ that this was against the rigorous poverty which the Rules of both Communities enjoined.
To this charge the Saint replied:
"If any Communities should act in such a manner, it is their own affair, and does not concern us.
However, in order to satisfy those who inquire of us, we may say that there are four different ways in which people may be received into any Religious Order: /ivs¢, without money and purely for God, and this is the most perfect way, both in the sight of God and of men.
Second, with money, but not as a condition of admission, so that if the person gave nothing,
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he would be admitted all the same.
. Third, with money, but not for the sake of money, though, because of the poverty of the house, he could not be received without it, and here is nothing worthy of blame.
/ourth, for the sake of the money alone, so that they would prefer to receive the money without the person if possible, and this is simony.
. If, then, the money is received of a person whom they would willingly admit without it, if it were possible in that case to provide for his subsistence, there can be no simony in that.
. Therefore, the Sisters of St.
Clare are permitted to bring a dowry, when the resources of the monastery are not sufficient to provide suitably for all who desire to be received there."
However, as it seemed possible that their services, rendered in charity, should come to be considered as obligatory, the Brothers, when they had met at the General Chapter of Pisa in 1263, had resolved entirely to renounce the direction of the Sisters of St. Clare, and Pope
Urban IV. had accepted their reasons for this decision; but, the following year, at the earnest request of Cardinal Cajetan, St. Bona-
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venture consented once more to accept the charge of their direction, only requiring the Sisters occasionally to acknowledge, in writing, that the services rendered to them by the Minors were voluntary acts of charity, and not imposed on them by any obligation whatever.
After he had once taken these precautions, the good Superior gave full liberty to his zeal in his dealings with the holy daughters of St. Clare.
Many of them had held a high position in the world, and even the seclusion of the cloister could not entirely hide from those outside it the _ life of holiness that was held within its walls, thus many feeble souls were encouraged when they saw the self-sacrifices that such distinguished persons were ready to make for the love of God.
Much more, then, the soul of St.
Bonaventure rejoiced in the spectacle of these generous and holy lives, and he could not refuse them counsels of perfection, thus bringing to the purest flowers of Holy Church, streams of living water to refresh them and preserve their sweetness.
He, therefore, addressed to these holy Sisters a book entitled Zhe Perfection of Life, which
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he wrote at the request of one of them.
It speaks of the true knowledge of self, of humility, of perfect poverty, of silence, of prayer, of the Passion of Jesus Christ, of the love of God, and of final perseverance.
At the request of another religious of the Order of St. Clare, he wrote another well-known book of Meditations on the Life of Jesus Christ, which causes its reader ever new delight.
In our own century, one whose words carry great weight has cleared the Saint from the unjust aspersions of a former age.
'We do not know," says Cardinal Wiseman, "what to admire the most, in the excellent Meditations of St. Bonaventure on the Life of Jesus Christ: whether the riches of the imagination, that no poet has surpassed, or the tenderness of feeling, or the variety of applications.
After having led us through all the touching events of the Infancy and the Life of our Saviour, when he comes to the last scenes, so impressive, his step becomes slower, in consequence of his many beautiful, though melancholy thoughts.
Here he no longer proceeds from year to year, or from month to month, or even from day to
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165, day, but each hour even has its own meditation, and each act of the final tragedy furnishes him with matter for pathetic contemplation.
Lastly, he proposes a plan by which to reduce these holy thoughts to practice, and to this end he distributes them so that the time between Monday and Wednesday shall embrace the whole Life of the Saviour, and from Thursday to Sunday inclusively, each day is consecrated to the mystery which the Church, in the Holy
Week, has assigned to it.
It is thus that, as many others have done, he extends over the whole year, the solemn commemorations of the Holy Week, achieving, in the interests of individual piety and sanctification, that which the Church has done for the public good." ?
1 Conferences on the Offices of Holy Week.