Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier
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page 33 of 591 (05%)
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panem; da tectum, accipe coelum._
[6] By what right did he begin to preach? By what right did he, a mere deacon, admit to profession and cut off the hair of a young girl of eighteen? That is an episcopal function, one which can only devolve even upon priests by an express commission. [7] Isaiah i. 10-17. Cf. Joel 2, Psalm 50. [8] The chronicles of Orvieto (_Archivio, storico italiano_, t. i., of 1889, pp. 7 and following) are nothing more than a list, as melancholy as they are tedious of wars, which, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all the places of that region carried on, from the greatest to the smallest. [9] Do not forget that in the thirteenth century Italy was not a mere geographical expression. It was of all the countries of Europe the one which, notwithstanding its partitions, had the clearest consciousness of its unity. The expression _profectus et honor ItaliƦ_ often appeared from the pen of Innocent III. See, for instance, the bull of April 16, 1198, _Mirari cogimur_, addressed particularly to the Assisans. [10] Note what the Fioretti say of Brother Bernard: "_Stava solo sulle cime dei monti altissimi contemplando le cose celesti._" Fior., 28. The learned historian of Assisi, Mr. Cristofani, has used similar expressions; speaking of St. Francis, he says: "_Nuovo Christo in somma e pero degno d'essere riguardoto come la piu gigantesca, la piu splendida, la piu cara tra le grandi figure campeggianti nell' aere del medio evo_" (_Storia |
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