Bon., 173, and 1 Cel., 58.

[15] 1 Cel. 58; Bon., 109 and 174; _Fior._, 16; _Spec._, 62b;
_Conform._, 114b, 2.

[16] About halfway between Orvieto and Narni.

[17] 1 Cel., 59; Bon., 175.

[18] _Ad haec, ut ipse dicebat_ ... 1 Cel., 58.

[19] Francis has been compared in this regard to certain of his
contemporaries, but the similarity of the words only makes more
evident the diversity of inspiration. Honorius III. may say:
_Forma rosae est inferius angusta, superius ampla et significat
quod Christus pauper fuit in mundo, sed est Dominus super omnia
et implet universa. Nam sicut forma rosae_, etc. (Horoy, t. i.,
col. xxiv. and 804), and make a whole sermon on the symbolism of
the rose; these overstrained dissertations have nothing to do
with the feeling for nature. It is the arsenal of mediaeval
rhetoric used to dissect a word. It is an intellectual effort,
not a song of love. The Imitation would say: _If thy heart were
right all creatures would be for thee a mirror of life and a
volume of holy doctrine_, lib. ii., cap. 2. The simple sentiment
of the beauty of creation is absent here also; the passage is a
pedagogue in disguise.

[20] _Spec._, 157. _Fior._; 22.

[21] 2 Cel., 2, 16; _Conform._, 148a, 1, 183b, 2. Cf. the story
of the sheep of Portiuncula: Bon., 111.

[22] Village in the valley of Rieti, two hours' walk from that
town, on the road to Terni.

[23] 1 Cel., 60; Bon., 113.

[24] 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114.

[25] 2 Cel., 3, 54; Bon., 109; 2 Cel., 3; 103 ff.; Bon., 116
ff.; Bon., 110; 1 Cel., 61; Bon., 114, 113, 115; 1 Cel., 79;
_Fior._, 13, etc.

[26] 2 Cel., 3, 101 ff.; Bon., 123.

[27] 2 Cel., 3, 59; 1 Cel., 80 and 81.

[28] 2 Cel., 3, 101; _Spec._, 136a; 1 Cel., 81.

[29] This is the scene in his life most often reproduced by the
predecessors of Giotto. The unknown artist who (before 1236)
decorated the nave of the Lower Church of Assisi gives five
frescos to the history of Jesus and five to the life of St.
Francis. Upon the latter he represents: 1, the renunciation of
the paternal inheritance; 2, Francis upholding the Lateran
church; 3, the sermon to the birds; 4, the stigmata; 5, the
funeral. This work, unhappily very badly lighted, and about half
of it destroyed at the time of