FRANCIS OF ASSISI

francis of assisi, st. (1181 or 1182-1226), founder of the franciscans (q.v.), was born in 1181 or 1182 at assisi, one of the independent municipal towns of umbria. he came from the upper middle class, his father, named pietro bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of the city. bernardone's commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, and it was from the fact that the father was in france at the time of his son's birth that the latter was called francesco. his education appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. it is difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers imply that his youth was not free from irregularities; in any case, he was the recognized leader of the young men of the town in their revels; he was, however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. when he was twenty (1201) the neighbouring and rival city of perugia attempted to restore by force of arms the nobles who had been expelled from assisi by the burghers and the populace, and francis took part in the battle fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men of assisi were defeated and francis was among the prisoners. he spent a year in prison at perugia, and when peace was made at the end of 1202 he returned to assisi and recommenced his old life. soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during which he entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. on his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the first day's march he fell ill, and had to stay at spoleto and return to assisi. this disappointment brought on again the spiritual crisis he had experienced in his illness, and for a considerable time the conflict went on within him. one day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after it they sallied forth with torches, singing through the streets, francis being crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in a trance or reverie, a permanently altered man. he devoted himself to solitude, prayer and the service of the poor, and before long went on a pilgrimage to rome. finding the usual crowd of beggars before st peter's, he exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering joy in spending the day begging among the rest. the determining episode of his life followed soon after his return to assisi; as he was riding he met a leper who begged an alms; francis had always had a special horror of lepers, and turning his face he rode on; but immediately an heroic act of self-conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, gave the leper all the money he had about him, and kissed his hand. from that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the hospitals. to the confusion of his father and brothers he went about dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud. things soon came to a climax with his father: in consequence of his profuse alms to the poor and to the restoration of the ruined church of st damian, his father feared his property would be dissipated, so he took francis before the bishop of assisi to have him legally disinherited; but without waiting for the documents to be drawn up, francis cast off his clothes and gave them back to his father, declaring that now he had better reason to say "our father which art in heaven," and having received a cloak from the bishop, he went off into the woods of mount subasio singing a french song; some brigands accosted him and he told them he was the herald of the great king (1206). the next three years he spent in the neighbourhood of assisi in abject poverty and want, ministering to the lepers and the outcasts of society. it was now that he began to frequent the ruined little chapel of st mary of the angels, known as the portiuncula, where much of his time was passed in prayer. one day while mass was being said therein, the words of the gospel came to francis as a call: "everywhere on your road preach and say--the kingdom of god is at hand. cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. freely have you received, freely give. carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your girdles, nor bag, nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his hire" (matt. x. 7-10). he at once felt that this was his vocation, and the next day, layman as he was, he went up to assisi and began to preach to the poor (1209). disciples joined him, and when they were twelve in number francis said: "let us go to our mother, the holy roman church, and tell the pope what the lord has begun to do through us, and carry it out with his sanction." they obtained the sanction of innocent iii., and returning to assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic preaching and work among the poor. the character and development of the order are traced in the article franciscans; here the story of francis's own life and the portrayal of his personality will be attempted. to delineate in a few words the character of the poverello of assisi is indeed a difficult task. there is such a many-sided richness, such a tenderness, such a poetry, such an originality, such a distinction revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in the memoirs of his disciples, that his personality is brought home to us as one of the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. it is probably true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to imitate the life of christ and to carry out so literally christ's work in christ's own way. this was the secret of his love of poverty as manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed to our lord: "poverty was in the crib and like a faithful squire she kept herself armed in the great combat thou didst wage for our redemption. during thy passion she alone did not forsake thee. mary thy mother stopped at the foot of the cross, but poverty mounted it with thee and clasped thee in her embrace unto the end; and when thou wast dying of thirst, as a watchful spouse she prepared for thee the gall. thou didst expire in the ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave thee when dead, o lord jesus, for she allowed not thy body to rest elsewhere than in a borrowed grave. o poorest jesus, the grace i beg of thee is to bestow on me the treasure of the highest poverty. grant that the distinctive mark of our order may be never to possess anything as its own under the sun for the glory of thy name, and to have no other patrimony than begging" (in the _legenda 3 soc._). this enthusiastic love of poverty is certainly the keynote of st francis's spirit; and so one of his disciples in an allegorical poem (translated into english as _the lady of poverty_ by montgomery carmichael, 1901), and giotto in one of the frescoes at assisi, celebrated the "holy nuptials of francis with lady poverty." another striking feature of francis's character was his constant joyousness; it was a precept in his rule, and one that he enforced strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the lord. he retained through life his early love of song, and during his last illness he passed much of his time in singing. his love of nature, animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested itself in ways that appear somewhat naive. his preaching to the birds is a favourite representation of st francis in art. all creatures he called his "brothers" or "sisters"--the chief example is the poem of the "praises of the creatures," wherein "brother sun," "sister moon," "brother wind," and "sister water" are called on to praise god. in his last illness he was cauterized, and on seeing the burning iron he addressed "brother fire," reminding him how he had always loved him and asking him to deal kindly with him. it would be an anachronism to think of francis as a philanthropist or a "social worker" or a revivalist preacher, though he fulfilled the best functions of all these. before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic--an ascetic who, though gentle to others, wore out his body by self-denial, so much so that when he came to die he begged pardon of "brother ass the body" for having unduly ill treated it: a mystic irradiated with the love of god, endowed in an extraordinary degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his heart by the hour in the tenderest affections to god and our lord. st francis was a deacon but not a priest. from the return of francis and his eleven companions from rome to assisi in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful manner. the effect of their preaching, and their example and their work among the poor, made itself felt throughout umbria and brought about a great religious revival. great numbers came to join the new order which responded so admirably to the needs of the time. in 1212 francis invested st clara (q.v.) with the franciscan habit, and so instituted the "second order," that of the nuns. as the friars became more and more numerous their missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over italy, and then to other countries. francis himself set out, probably in 1212, for the holy land to preach the gospel to the saracens, but he was shipwrecked and had to return. a year or two later he went into spain to preach to the moors, but had again to return without accomplishing his object (1215 probably). after another period of preaching in italy and watching over the development of the order, francis once again set out for the east (1219). this time he was successful; he made his way to egypt, where the crusaders were besieging damietta, got himself taken prisoner and was led before the sultan, to whom he openly preached the gospel. the sultan sent him back to the christian camp, and he passed on to the holy land. here he remained until september 1220. during his absence were manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that were to attain to such magnitude after his death. the circumstances under which, at an extraordinary general chapter convoked by him shortly after his return, he resigned the office of minister-general (september 1220) are explained in the article franciscans: here, as illustrating the spirit of the man, it is in place to cite the words in which his abdication was couched: "lord, i give thee back this family which thou didst entrust to me. thou knowest, most sweet jesus, that i have no more the power and the qualities to continue to take care of it. i entrust it, therefore, to the ministers. let them be responsible before thee at the day of judgment, if any brother by their negligence, or their bad example, or by a too severe punishment, shall go astray." these words seem to contain the mere truth: francis's peculiar religious genius was probably not adapted for the government of an enormous society spread over the world, as the friars minor had now become. the chief works of the next years were the revision and final redaction of the rule and the formation or organization of the "third order" or "brothers and sisters of penance," a vast confraternity of lay men and women who tried to carry out, without withdrawing from the world, the fundamental principles of franciscan life (see tertiaries). if for no other reason than the prominent place they hold in art, it would not be right to pass by the stigmata without a special mention. the story is well known; two years before his death francis went up mount alverno in the apennines with some of his disciples, and after forty days of fasting and prayer and contemplation, on the morning of the 14th of september 1224 (to use sabatier's words), "he had a vision: in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a strange figure. a seraph with wings extended flew towards him from the horizon and inundated him with pleasure unutterable. at the centre of the vision appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed to it. when the vision disappeared francis felt sharp pains mingling with the delights of the first moment. disturbed to the centre of his being he anxiously sought the meaning of it all, and then he saw on his body the stigmata of the crucified." the early authorities represent the stigmata not as bleeding wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences resembling in form and colour the nails, the head on the palm of the hand, and on the back as it were a nail hammered down. in the first edition of the _vie_, sabatier rejected the stigmata; but he changed his mind, and in the later editions he accepts their objective reality as an historically established fact; in an appendix he collects the evidence: there exists what is according to all probability an autograph of br. leo, the saint's favourite disciple and companion on mount alverno at the time, which describes the circumstances of the stigmatization; elias of cortona (q.v.), the acting superior, wrote on the day after his death a circular letter wherein he uses language clearly implying that he had himself seen the stigmata, and there is a considerable amount of contemporary authentic second hand evidence. on the strength of this body of evidence sabatier rejects all theories of fraud or hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of the phenomena. francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on mount alverno that he had to be carried back to assisi. the remaining months of his life were passed in great bodily weakness and suffering, and he became almost blind. however, he worked on with his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. at last, on the 3rd of october 1226, he died in the portiuncula at the age of forty-five. two years later he was canonized by gregory ix., whom, as cardinal hugolino of ostia, he had chosen to be the protector of his order. the works of st francis consist of the rule (in two redactions), the testament, spiritual admonitions, canticles and a few letters. they were first edited by wadding in 1623. two critical editions were published in 1904, one by the franciscans of quaracchi near florence, the other (in a longer and a shorter form) by professor h. boehmer of bonn. sabatier and goetz (see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight variations, are in substantial accord. besides the works, properly so called, there is a considerable amount of traditional matter--anecdotes, sayings, sermons--preserved in the biographies and in the _fioretti_;[1] a great deal of this matter is no doubt substantially authentic, but it is not possible to subject it to any critical sifting. _note on sources._--the sources for the life of st francis and early franciscan history are very numerous, and an immense literature has grown up around them. any attempt to indicate even a selection of this literature would here be impossible and also futile; for the discovery of new documents has by no means ceased, and the criticism of the materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said that final results have yet emerged from the discussion. students will find the chief materials in the following collections: _archiv fuer litteratur und kirchengeschichte des mittelalters_ (ed. by ehrle and denifle, 1885, &c.); publications of the franciscans of quaracchi (list to be obtained from herder, freiburg im breisgau); and the two series edited by paul sabatier, _collection d'etudes et de documents sur l'histoire religieuse et litteraire du moyen age_ (5 vols. published up to 1906) and _opuscules de critique historique_ (12 fascicules): the easiest and most consecutive way of following the controversy is by the aid of the "bulletin hagiographique" in _analecta bollandiana_. relatively popular accounts of the most important sources are supplied in the introductory chapters of sabatier's _vie de s. francois_ and _speculum perfectionis_, and lempp's _frere elie de cortone_. concerning the life of st francis and the beginnings of the order, the chief documents that come under discussion are: the two _lives_ by thomas of celano (1228 and 1248 respectively; eng. trans. with introduction by a.g. ferrers howell, 1908), of which the only critical edition is that of friar ed. d'alencon (1906); the so-called _legenda trium sociorum_; the _speculum perfectionis_, discovered by paul sabatier and edited in 1898 (eng. trans. by sebastian evans, _mirror of perfection_, 1899). sabatier's theory as to the nature of these documents was, in brief, that the _speculum perfectionis_ was the first of all the lives of the saint, written in 1227 by br. leo, his favourite and most intimate disciple, and that the _legenda 3 soc._ is what it claims to be--the handiwork of leo and the two other most intimate companions of francis, compiled in 1246; these are the most authentic and the only true accounts, thomas of celano's lives being written precisely in opposition to them, in the interests of the majority of the order that favoured mitigations of the rule especially in regard to poverty. for ten years the domain of franciscan origins was explored and discussed by a number of scholars; and then the whole ground was reviewed by professor w. goetz of munich in a study entitled _die quellen zur geschichte des hl. franz von assisi_ (1904). his conclusions are substantially the same as those of pere van ortroy, the bollandist, and friar lemmens, an observant franciscan, and are the direct contrary of sabatier's: the _legenda 3 soc._ is a forgery; the _speculum perfectionis_ is a compilation made in the 14th century, also in large measure a forgery, but containing an element (not to be precisely determined) derived from br. leo; on the other hand, thomas of celano's two lives are free from the "tendencies" ascribed to them by sabatier, and that of 1248 was written with the collaboration of leo and the other companions; thus the best sources of information are those portions of the _speculum_ that can with certainty be carried back to br. leo, and the lives by thomas of celano, especially the second _life_. goetz's criticism of the documents is characterized by exceeding carefulness and sobriety. of course he does not suppose that his conclusions are in all respects final; but his investigations show that the time has not yet come when a biography of st francis could be produced answering to the demands of modern historical criticism. the official life of st francis is st bonaventura's _legenda_, published in a convenient form by the franciscans of quaracchi (1898); goetz's estimate of it (op. cit.) is much more favourable than sabatier's. paul sabatier's fascinating and in many ways sympathetic _vie de s. francois_ (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; eng. trans, by l.s. houghton, 1901) will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the ordinary reader as a substantially correct portrait of st francis; and yet goetz declares that the most competent and independent critics have without any exception pronounced that sabatier has depicted st francis a great deal too much from the standpoint of modern religiosity, and has exaggerated his attitude in face of the church (op. cit. p. 5). in articles in the _hist. vierteljahrsschrift_ (1902, 1903) goetz has shown that sabatier's presentation of st francis's relations with the ecclesiastical authority in general, and with cardinal hugolino (gregory ix.) in particular, is largely based on misconception; that the development of the order was not forced on francis against his will; and that the differences in the order did not during francis's lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to cause him during his last years the suffering depicted by sabatier. this from a protestant historian like goetz is most valuable criticism. in truth sabatier's st francis is an anachronism--a man at heart, a modern pietistic french protestant of the most liberal type, with a veneer of 13th century catholicism. of lives of st francis in english may be mentioned those by mrs oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by canon knox little (1897). for general information and references to the literature of the subject, see otto zoeckler, _askese und moenchtum_ (1897), ii. 470-493, and his article in herzog's _realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3), "franz von assisi" (1899); also max heimbucher, _orden und kongregationen_ (1896), i. sec. 38. the chapter on st francis in emile gebhart's _italie mystique_ (ed. 3, 1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as little ecclesiastically-minded as sabatier himself, his general picture of the state of religion in italy at the time is far truer; here also sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to exalt their hero by depreciating everybody else. (e. c. b.) footnote: [1] _the little flowers of st francis._ francis of mayrone [franciscus de mayronis] (d. 1325), scholastic philosopher, was born at mayrone in provence. he entered the franciscan order and subsequently went to paris, where he was a pupil of duns scotus. at the sorbonne he acquired a great reputation for ability in discussion, and was known as the _doctor illuminatus_ and _magister acutus_. he became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the discussions on the nature of universals. following duns scotus, he adopted the platonic theory of ideas, and denied that aristotle had made any contribution to metaphysical speculation. it is a curious commentary on the theories of duns scotus that one pupil, francis, should have taken this course, while another pupil, occam, should have used his arguments in a diametrically opposite direction and ended in extreme nominalism. his works were collected and published at venice in 1520 under the title _praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta illuminati doctoris francisci de mayronis, &c._ francis of paola (or paula), st, founder of the minims, a religious order in the catholic church, was born of humble parentage at paola in calabria in 1416, or according to the bollandists 1438. as a boy he entered a franciscan friary, but left it and went to live as a hermit in a cave on the seashore near paola. soon disciples joined him, and with the bishop's approval he built a church and monastery. at first they called themselves "hermits of st francis"; but the object they proposed to themselves was to go beyond even the strict franciscans in fasts and bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and in humility; and therefore, as the franciscans were the minors (_minores_, less), the new order took the name of minims (_minimi_, least). by 1474 a number of houses had been established in southern italy and sicily, and the order was recognized and approved by the pope. in 1482 louis xi. of france, being on his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of francis, sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope's command he travelled to paris. on this occasion philip de comines in his _memoirs_ says: "i never saw any man living so holily, nor out of whose mouth the holy ghost did more manifestly speak." he remained with louis till his death, and louis' successor, charles viii., held him in such high esteem that he kept him in paris, and enabled him to found various houses of his order in france; in spain and germany, too, houses were founded during francis's lifetime. he never left france, and died in 1507 in the monastery of his order at plessis-les-tours. the rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm it in its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. the most special feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual lent of the strictest kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products--eggs, milk, butter, cheese, dripping--being forbidden, so that the diet was confined to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. thus in matter of diet the minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the west, and probably all permanently organized orders in the east. the strongly ascetical spirit of the minims manifested itself in the title borne by the superiors of the houses--not abbot (father), or prior, or guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and the general superior is the corrector general. notwithstanding its extreme severity the order prospered. at the death of the founder it had five provinces--italy, france, tours, germany, spain. later there were as many as 450 monasteries, and some missions in india. there never was a minim house in england or ireland. it ranks as one of the mendicant orders. in 1909 there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in sicily, but one in rome (s. andrea delle fratte), and one in naples, in marseilles and in cracow. there have been minim nuns (only one convent has survived, till recently at marseilles) and minim tertiaries, in imitation of the franciscan tertiaries. the habit of the minims is black. see helyot, _hist. des ordres religieux_ (1714), vii. c. 56; max heimbucher, _orden und kongregationen_ (1896), i. sec. 52; the article "franz von paula" in wetzer und welte, _kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and in herzog, _realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3); catholic _dictionary_, art. "minims." (e. c. b.) francis (francois) of sales, st (1567-1622), bishop of geneva and doctor of the church (1877), was born at the castle of sales, near annecy, savoy. his father, also francois, comte de sales, but better known as m. de boisy, a nobleman and soldier, had been employed in various affairs of state, but in 1560, at the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his ancestral estates and married francoise de sionnay, a savoyard like himself, and an heiress. st francis, the first child of this union, was born in august 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. m. de boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, and both parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, charity to the poor, qualities which early showed themselves in their eldest son. he received his education first at la roche, in the arve valley, then at the college of annecy, founded by eustace chappius, ambassador in england of charles v., in 1549. at the age of thirteen or fourteen he went to the jesuit college of clermont at paris, where he stayed till the summer of 1588, and where he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while perfecting himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a life of exemplary virtue. at this time also he developed an ardent love of france, a country which was politically in antagonism with his own, though so closely linked to it geographically, socially and by language. at the end of 1588 he went to padua, to take his degree in canon and civil law, a necessary prelude in savoy at that time to distinction in a civil career. his heart, however, especially from the date of his receiving the tonsure (1578), was already turned towards the church, and he gave his attention even more to theology, under the great masters antonio possevino, s.j., and gesualdo, afterwards general of the friars minor, than to his legal course. "at padua," he said to a friend, "i studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself." in that licentious university francis found the greatest difficulty in resisting attacks on his virtue, and once at least had to draw his sword to defend his personal safety against a band of ruffians. the gentleness for which he was already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong character. he returned to savoy in 1592, and, while seeking the occasion to overcome his father's resistance to his resolution of embracing the ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma of advocate to the senate. meantime, without his knowledge, his friends procured for him the post of provost of the chapter of geneva, an honour which reconciled m. de boisy to the sacrifice of more ambitious hopes. after a year of zealous work as preacher and director he was sent by the bishop, claude de granier, to try and win back the province of chablais, which had embraced calvinism when usurped by bern in 1535, and had retained it even after its restitution to savoy in 1564. at first the people refused to listen to him, for he was represented to them as an instrument of satan, and all who had dealings with him were threatened with the vengeance of the consistory. he therefore wrote out his message on sheets which were passed from hand to hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues and disinterestedness, soon produced a strong effect. the sheets just spoken of still exist in the chigi library at rome, and were published, though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of _les controverses_. this must be considered the first work of st francis. the re-erection of a wayside cross in annemasse, at the gates of geneva, amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event which closed the three years of his apostolate, led to the composition of the _defense ... de la croix_, published in 1600. an illness brought on by toil and privation forced him to leave his work to others for nearly a year, but in august 1598 he returned to his field of labour, and in october of that year practically the whole country was catholic again. up to that time preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. the stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions are incorrect.[1] possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in gex and chablais have been applied to the period 1594-1598. in october of this last year, however, the duke of savoy, who came then to assist in person at the great religious feasts which celebrated the return of the country to unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as obstinately refused even to listen to the catholic arguments. he also forbade calvinist ministers to reside in the chablais, and substituted catholic for huguenot officials. st francis concurred in these measures, and, three years later, even requested that those who, as he said, "follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion," should be ordered either to conform or to leave their country, with leave to sell their goods. his conduct, judged not by a modern standard, but by the ideas of his age, will be found compatible with the highest christian charity, as that of the duke with sound political prudence. at this time he was nominated to the pope as coadjutor of geneva,[2] and after a visit to rome he assisted bishop de granier in the administration of the newly converted countries and of the diocese at large. in 1602 he made his second visit to the french capital, when his transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations with the court of henry iv., and made him the spiritual father of that circle of select souls who centred round madame acarie. among the celebrated personages who became his life friends from this time were pierre de berulle, founder of the french oratorians, guillaume duval, the scholar, and the duc de bellegarde, the latter a special favourite of the king, who begged to be allowed to share the saint's friendship. at this time also his gift as a preacher became fully recognized, and de sanzea, afterwards bishop of bethlehem, records that duval exhorted all his students of the sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, "the true and excellent method of preaching." his principles are expressed in the admirable letter to andre fremyot of october 1604. de granier died in september 1602, and the new bishop entered on the administration of his vast diocese, which, as a contemporary says, "he found brick and left marble." his first efforts were directed to securing a virtuous and well-instructed clergy, with its consequence of a people worthy of their pastors. all his time was spent in preaching, confessing, visiting the sick, relieving the poor. his zeal was not confined to his diocese. in concert with jeanne francoise fremyot (1572-1641), widow of the baron de chantal, whose acquaintance he made while preaching through lent at dijon in 1604, he founded the order of the visitation, in favour of "strong souls with weak bodies," as he said, deterred from entering the orders already existing, by their inability to undertake severe corporal austerities. the institution rapidly spread, counting twenty houses before his death and eighty before that of st jeanne. the care of his diocese and of his new foundation were not enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he published his famous _introduction to a devout life_, a work which was at once translated into the chief european languages and of which he himself published five editions. in 1616 appeared his _treatise on the love of god_, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual life to which the former work is meant to be the "introduction." the important lents of 1617 and 1618 at grenoble were a prelude to a still more important apostolate in paris, "the theatre of the world," as st vincent de paul calls it. this third visit to the great city lasted from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; the direct object of it was to assist in negotiating the marriage of the prince of piedmont with chretienne of france, but nearly all his time was spent in preaching and works of mercy, spiritual or corporal. he was regarded as a living saint. st vincent scarcely left him, and has given the most extraordinary testimonies (as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues. mere angelique arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction and wished to join the order of the visitation, attracted by its humility and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his innumerable penitents of this period. he returned to savoy, and after three years more of unwearying labour died at lyons on the 28th of december 1622. a universal outburst of veneration followed; indeed his cult had already begun, and after an episcopal inquiry the pontifical commission in view of his beatification was instituted by decree of the 21st of july 1626, a celerity unique in the annals of the congregation of rites. the depositions of witnesses were returned to rome in 1632, but meantime the forms of the roman chancery had been changed by urban