In The
Major Legend of St. Francis, Saint Bonaventure shows that St. Francis of
Assisi led by example and that this example presented some solutions to the
difficulties faced by 13th Century culture. He does this through
relating incidents in St. Francis’ life and the way he interacted with the
culture surrounding him, allowing the stories to be the example. The solution
to the difficulties comes from the example itself – Bonaventure is not too
subtle in saying that St. Francis’ example needed only to be followed in order
for positive change to be effected. There are several themes prominent in
Bonaventure’s work under which St. Francis’ life can be organized.
The first thing that Bonaventure had to
do was make sure his readers understood that St. Francis had a special calling
from God and thus deserved attention. Bonaventure shows Francis as having a
good heart even before his perfect conversion; a man with which God has
something to work. His life before his conversion was relayed by Bonaventure as
a time in which he “was ignorant of God’s counsel for him” (531). Since God
wanted him for His work, though, He got Francis’ attention through affliction:
“Because affliction can enlighten spiritual awareness, the hand of the Lord was
upon him, and a change of the right hand of the Most High, afflicting his body
with prolonged illness in order to prepare his soul for the anointing of the
Holy Spirit” (531/2). This special calling from God was used by Bonaventure to
show that Francis had a unique place in culture and that he was to be an
example. Francis’ importance, Bonaventure was careful to show, was great enough
that God used a special calling to get his attention and make sure that Francis
would follow the path he had been called to follow.
Bonaventure was careful to show as well
that Francis was a clear benefit to society. He did this through showing his
compassion for others and willingness to help. His awareness of the needs of
others was shown in his clothing of a knight - a double action of giving more
dignity to a human as well as giving a noble man honor (532). In this action
Francis showed both that he was compassionate and trying to do the will of God
– which made him a good example. These were qualities that Bonaventure wanted
to emphasize in writing his book. The economic structure was that of an
emerging capitalist society – merchants were making money on trade, and the
old-fashioned money gain from land and rents was harder for the nobility to
maintain since people were moving to urban locations. The nobility were
gradually impoverished, becoming men such as the knight Francis helped – men
who were nobles and had lost both their money and their social status. Francis’
gift was not only one of clothing, but also of compassion to a man who was
insecure in his current social status. This example showed a solution to the
problem of social instability in uncertain times – show respect instead of
disregard to others, even if they are not currently as fortunate as you.
The capitalist culture that faced
Francis presented unique challenges. One of these was that there was a market
focus, which did not much lend itself to ideas of a life of poverty such as
Francis lived. Demanding poverty would have been detrimental to Francis’
success; a major asset to his work was Francis’ flexibility in his rule and
allowance of people to live lives other than the one he lived without
condemning them. While he felt that what he was doing was right for him, he
never insisted that everyone else or even anyone else live exactly the way he
lived – instead, he set the example of living according to his convictions
(533), and was concerned only that everyone else lived according to their own
convictions as well. The freedom this gave those who were attracted to his
lifestyle allowed many people to become his followers while still maintaining
their capitalist way of life. This was critical to the success of Francis’
influence. Had he been asking everyone to give up their way of life, his
example would have been less palatable and he would have greatly diminished his
effect. The result of his flexibility and insistence on personal relationship
with God served the purpose of allowing others to feel free to follow his
example, thus providing a solution to the difficulty of how to live a committed
Christian life in an increasingly capitalist society.
Furthermore, in an increasingly
individualistic society, Francis’ example was more than possible to follow – it
was appealing. The idea of a personal relationship with God was one that was
for the time – the urbanizing culture felt itself more and more independent of
the others around them, and the people who were out of their rural communities
for the first time were experiencing a new sense of identity as a very personal
thing. As a ‘spiritual merchant’, Francis’ first step in ‘selling’ his example was
making his life and actions results of personal decisions. He achieved this,
and passed it on to those who listened to him and followed his example. In this
way also, Bonaventure shows Francis as a solution difficulties arising in 13th
Century culture. The problem was the individualization of the urban society,
the solution was a personal relationship with Christ to match the personal
focus and keep the church centered in people’s lives. Francis is taking the way
the merchants viewed the world and showing them how to hold this in a spiritual
sense – telling them that they did not need to change everything about themselves
in order to be acceptable to God. Instead of telling them to change everything
about their lives, he told them that who they were as people was fine and only
needed to be converted in order to be totally right. This again allowed many
people to follow his example without asking that they follow his actions, and
it was appealing enough that many people took him up on it.
His example in humility was particularly
helpful in giving solutions to the difficulties faced by the culture. With so
many people coming so recently from being poor and now in a position of power
on level with or even above the noble classes, a lack of humility could be
detrimental to social peace. Francis’ teaching to be humble was a solution to
the problem of new class structure in society. He was not afraid to be honest
and admit himself as the greatest of sinners (573) which showed great humility
and was an example to those around him. This very humility would have kept
Francis from bragging on his accomplishments as leader of a new order and trend
in society. His success was that people adopted his ways of life – not that he
became a popular leader (although that was certainly the way his ministry ended
up, whether he was looking for it or not). He also did not fear rebuke and
spoke freely to all, regardless of their station. He got away with all this
since he was not a parish priest with the regular restrictions, and the pope
saw that what he was doing was working as solutions to the problems faced by
the church. His social position was vastly different from that of the
established clergy, and one of the reasons is that he was not tied to the old traditions.
Instead, he was able to move freely and set an example of a new kind of
Christianity.
Francis’ piety gave him a great love for
humanity and the created world, and set an example of how to treat others and
the world. He felt a passion for humanity, as well as things non-human and
created. He also felt particular compassion for urban people who were trying to
live with authenticity, and spoke words of gentle critique for those who were
trying to live his kind of life and were failing at it. However, his piety also
helped him to see problems among other people, and gave him a great desire to
fix those problems (588). He was deeply saddened by scandal and bad examples,
seeing that bad examples caused people to be led astray. Bonaventure also shows
that God reminded Francis that it was not his duty to make sure that the whole
world was all in place, and Francis’ lesson from that was that piety is also
knowing your own limits. Francis was set on fire by the perfect love that
drives out fear, and taught by example that others should go assist people who
need help since Christ loves them. This presented a solution to insensitivity
in a culture that was disconnected from the normal ways of caring for others.
Bonaventure is careful to point out to
his readers that they do not have to do exactly as Francis did in order to be
in line spiritually. Instead, he portrays Francis’ example as notable on
account of his fidelity to his beliefs, and makes the lesson about having a
personal calling and following that calling wholeheartedly. From this, then,
the example of Francis is clear and the solution to the instability in 13th
century culture is simply to follow God and to do what one knows to be the
right thing to do. He was not giving a way to get out of responsibilities –
that would not be a life of integrity and responsibility. Francis is advocating
a life of connectedness and living fully within the life he has chosen. After deciding
on a life, he taught, one should live it and live it with integrity. He did not
approve of anyone who “did not put on a heart of piety and was not seasoned
with the salt of discernment” (564). Living differently than Francis did was
fine – being too austere and missing the point, or being too carefree and not
holding to convictions, were both to be avoided.
Therefore, the example of Francis is
shown as a solution by showing a way of life that others could follow.
Bonaventure encourages his readers to take Francis’ life seriously as an
example, but not to venerate Francis’ personal life as the only way to live.
The point of Bonaventure’s writing was that Francis had a calling from God and
fulfilled it to the best of his ability – that is the example Bonaventure wants
to make sure his readers don’t miss. The solution that St. Francis presented to
the problems faced by the culture was typically Franciscan: not a book, a rule,
or a sermon, but a life lived; an example of humility, poverty, piety, and
great love for the created world. The personal engagement with Christian faith
and the natural world allowed the people of a new urban culture to find a place
and establish a new society, one based on individualism and devotion.
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