The Franciscan Fascination with the Word

Every Miracle from the Beginning of the World came about through Words1 Franciscans and Preaching The Franciscan Fascination with the Word On the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God in that year, 1222, when I was studying in Bologna, I saw Saint Francis preaching in the square in front of the public palace, where almost the entire city had assembled. His sermon began with: ‘Angels, men, and demons’; he treated these three spiritual and rational beings so well and so wisely that the well-educated in attendance became unrestrained in their admiration for the sermon of this unlettered man. Nevertheless, he did not possess a manner of preaching, but more that of political oratory. In truth, the substance of his words moved back and forth between the need to extinguish hostilities and to restore the peace treaty. His habit was dirty; as a person he was contemptible and his face was disgraceful looking. But God conferred such efficacy on his words that many noble families, among whom the tremendous madness of ancient hostilities had raged so that much blood was shed, were brought back to peaceful deliberations. Truly, there was such reverence and devotion for this man that men and women rushed him en masse, pressing in to either touch the fringes or grab some part of his little garment.2 Thomas of Spalato’s remarkable eyewitness account of Francis of Assisi’s preaching in Bologna offers a privileged glimpse of an accomplished “professional of the word” performing his craft in the early years of the 13th century.3 Moving back and forth with agility across the conceptual and affective landscapes of the audience, Francis labored to engage, impress, and persuade those in the square to take his penitential message to mind and heart. His words, undoubtedly, were accompanied by gestures intended to garner the immediate attention and eventual assent of those 1 “. . . omnia miracula facta a principio mundi fere facta sunt per verba.” Roger Bacon, Opus tertium in Opera Quaedam Hacentus Inedita, vol. 1 containing 1) Opus tertium 2) Opus minus 3) Compendium philosophiae, ed. J. S. Brewer (London, 18590, p. 96. 2 “Eodem anno – agit de anno 1222 – in die assumptionis De Genitricis, cum essem in Bononiae in studio, vidi sanctum Franciscum praedicantem in platea ante palatium publicum, ubi tota paene civitas convenerat. Fuit exordium sermonis eius: ‘Angeli, homines, daemones’; de his enim tribus spiritibus rationalibus ita bene et discrete proposuit, ut multis literatis, qui aderant, fieret admirationi non modicae sermo hominis idiotae; nec tamen ipse modum praedicationis tenuit, sed concionantis. Tota vero verborum eius discurrebat materies ad extinguendas inimicitas et ad pacis foedera reformanda. Sordidus erat habitus, persona contemptibilis et facies indecora; sed tantum Deus verbis illius contulit effficaciam, ut multae tribus nobilium, inter quas antiquarum inimicitiarum furor immanis multa sanguinis effusione fuerat debachatus, ad pacis consilium reducerentur. Erga ipsum vero tam magna erat reverentia hominum et devotio, ut viri et mulieres in eum catervatim ruerent, satagentes vel fimbriam ius tangere aut aliquid de panniculis eius auferre.” Thomas Spalatensis, Testimonia minora saeculi xiii, ed. Leonardus Lemmens (Florence, 1926), p. 10. Translation is by the author. 3 On this theme, see Carlo Delcorno, “Professionisti della parola: predicatori, giullari, concionatori” in Carlo Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’ Studi sulla predicazione medievale, eds. Giovanni Baffetti, Giorgio Forni, Silvia Serventi, Oriana Visani (Florence, 2009), pp. 3-21. 1 in attendance.4 His sermon venue was open to the public and outdoors while the content included theological subtleties and ethical exhortations suited to a church pulpit; the speaker was decidedly unattractive yet the crowd longed to touch whatever clothed his body; his striking oratory style was reminiscent of a secular politician whose powers of persuasion were enlivened, nonetheless, by the divine and fostered reconciliation among long-standing social enemies.5 While Thomas noted the seemingly contradictory elements of the events that played out in the streets of Bologna, the success of the endeavor was evident to him in the admiration and the remarkable transformation of many citizens, who heard Francis preach peace. This public preaching by Francis, according to André Vauchez, is best understood within the profound anthropological-religious shift taking place in the first decades of the 13th century when the word, be it spoken or written, emerged from the monasteries and cathedrals to become the privileged means of social communication and pastoral work throughout medieval society.6 The call to proclaim the word of God to the laity in particular, and the corresponding need for suitable preachers to seek them out wherever they lived, crystalized in the tenth canon of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.7 Francis and his early companions were ideally situated as itinerant mendicants to take up this challenge, and their pastoral potential did not escape the attention of Innocent III. While fiercely loyal to the Church, Francis displayed a familiarity with urban society and proven ability to preach repentance to those in the cities and towns of central Italy. Indeed, introduced to the evangelical life as a young layman in Assisi, Francis held on to this perspective and praxis even after his ordination as a deacon and exemplified the new cultural realities of 13th 4 On this account of Thomas of Spalato , Francis of Assisi, and the ars concionandi, see: Rauol Manselli, “il gesto come predicazione per San Francesco d’Assisi” in Collectanea Francescana 61 (1991), pp. 5-16. 5 Preaching and the appeal for civic peace is a hallmark of Franciscan as well as Dominican preaching in Italy throughout the Middle Ages, see: Carlo Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500)” in The Sermon, ed. Beverly Kienzle (Brepols, 2000), pp. 452-453. See also, Augustine Thompson, Revival Preachers and Politics in Thirteenth Century Italy: The Great Devotion of 1233 (Oxford, 1992). The call for peace is so crucial to Franciscan identity that Raoul Manselli claimed that the absence of this motif in the Sermones dominicales of Anthony of Padau demonstrated that they predated his entrance into Minorite Order, see; Raoul Manselli, “La coscienza minoritica di Antonio” in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani (Padova, 1982), pp. 31-32 On the desire of the audience to touch the preacher, see: Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Pescatori di uomini: Predicatori e piazze alla fine de Medievo (Bologna, 2005), pp. 126-131. 6 André Vauchez, François d'Assise: Entre histoire et mémoire, (Paris, 2009), pp. 439-443. On this 13th century phenomenon, see: Jacques Le Goff and Jean-Claude Schmitt, “Au xiiie siècle: parole nouvelle” in Histoire vécue de peuple chretien, ed. Jean Delumeau , 2 vols. (Toulouse, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 257-279. 7 On the tenth canon and the Lateran Council, see Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Preachers, Florilegia and Sermons (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1979), pp. 56-60. On the question of preaching with particular reference to lay preaching, see Rolf Zerfass, Der Streit um die Laienpredigt : Eine pastoralgeschichtliche. Untersuchung zum Verständnis des Predigtamtes und zu seiner Entwicklung im 12 u. 13 Jahrhundert (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1974), esp. pp. 230-244 with regard to Francis of Assisi. 2 century.8 He laid claim to the communicative, pastoral power of his own words, which he carefully wrote down or dictated, and likewise commanded to be preserved and read by his followers.9 This fascination for words was reflected even in his followers’ dedication to the production of texts, evidenced in what Attilio Bartoli Langeli described as the Franciscan “religion of the book.”10 Francis’s own appreciation of the written word, both from his own hand and that of the Sacred Scriptures, accompanied a keen sense of the possibilities and, admittedly, the limitations of the spoken word. While some brothers may be approved by the hierarchy, others were not sanctioned to do so; nevertheless, no one was absolved from the duty of preaching. The Earlier Rule (1221) insisted: “Let no brother preach contrary to the rite and practice of the Church or without the permission of his minister . . . Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.”11 Since their bodies were the locus of the incarnation, their lived example could become an efficacious, powerful word of salvation for those they encountered. While certainly a “professional of the word” who respected theologians as ministers of divine words,12 Francis neither wrote nor spoke as a master of Sacred Scripture. Nevertheless, his intuitive theological sense of the claim and consequences of the Johannine text, "The Word became flesh, and lived among us” (John 1:14), is essential to understanding Francis as a preacher, and the evangelical efforts of his confreres throughout the Middle Ages. He maintained that the outpouring of God’s love in the incarnation of the Son as the Word, witnessed initially throughout creation and most completely in the Eucharist, should not go answered.13 Faced with this radical, uncompromising self-gift of God, Francis responded in kind, and demonstrated that preaching encompassed the entire person and should avail itself of every potential manifestation of the divine to convey the Gospel. A manuscript fragment of the Earlier Rule found in Worchester Cathedral states “Let the brothers preach with integrity.”14 Here integrity denotes the moral entirety of the person. For Francis, proclamation was holistic performance, and every moment an opportunity to 8 Vauchez, François d'Assise, pp. 430-431. For example, see: LtR 9, FAED 1, p. 58, Fontes, p. 108; 1 LtCus 9, FAED 1, p. 57, Fontes, p.66; 2LtCus 6-7, FAED 1, p. 60, Fontes, p. 69; LtOrd 47-48, FAED 1, p. 120, Fontes, p. 103; ; Test 35-39, FAED 1, p. 127, Fontes, 231. 10 Attilio Bartoli Langeli, “I libri dei frati. La cultura scritta dell’Ordine dei Minori” in Francesco d’Assisi e il primo secolo di storia francescana (Torino, 1997), pp. 296-297, 11 ER 17:1-3, p. 75, Fontes, p. 200. 12 Test 13, FAED 1, p. 125, Fontes, p. 228. 13 On Francis as theologian and the incarnation, see: Alexander Gerken, “The Theological Intuition of St. Francis of Assisi” in Greyfriars Review 7/1 (1993), pp. 71-94, esp. pp. 72-74. 14 1 Frg 41, FAED 1, p. 89 reads, “Let the brothers preach in every way” while the Latin is “Omnes fratres moribus praedicent.” See Fontes, p. 127. 9 3 manifest the goodness of God. His willingness to adopt the rhetorical style of a public orator, to compose a vernacular poem to be sung by his brothers to promote reconciliation,15 to urge the birds near Bevagna to praise the Creator,16 to cross the battle lines into the camp of the Saracen sultan,17 to be dragged by the neck through the streets as a glutton,18 or to silently strew ashes in a gesture of penance while at San Damiano,19 reflected his conviction in the polyvalent nature of God’s word and the necessity and possibility to “. . . preach with integrity.” In the ensuing years of the 13th century and subsequent centuries, his followers sought, with varying degrees of fidelity and success, to follow the itinerant, creative, all-encompassing example of Francis.20 They would travel as far as court of the Great Khan, and discover a renewed reverence for words as they suffered the limits of their linguistic abilities and the aggravating shortcomings of their interpreters.21 If Roger Bacon, a mid-13th century confrere of Francis was correct in asserting, “The principle work of the rational soul is the word, in which it takes the greatest delight”22 and again “The greatest word . . . is revealed by God”23, the creative dynamic of preaching, evident in the life of Francis, could be considered a potential dialogue of delight between humanity and the divine, with the preacher as the intermediary.24 With Francis and his early companions, the locus of the dialogue shifted from ecclesial centers such as the monasteries into the public squares of urban areas, and with his scholastic confreres from the cathedral schools to the burgeoning universities. Franciscan philosophers like Bacon and theologians like Bonaventure reveled in 15 CtC, FAED 1, pp. 113-114, Fontes, pp. 39-41. 1 C 58, FAED 1, p. 234. Fontes, pp. 332-334. 17 1 C 57, FAED 1, p. 231, Fontes, pp. 328-332. 18 1 C 52, FAED 1, p. 228, Fontes, pp. 326-327. On spectacles and the performative nature of this event in medieval culture, see: Vauchez, François d'Assise, p. 104. On medieval preaching and performance, see: Beverly M. Kienzle, “Medieval Sermons and their Performance: Theory and Record” in Preacher, Sermon and Audience in the Middle Ages, ed. Carolyn Muessig (Brill, 2002), pp. 89-124, esp. pp. 108-109. 19 2 C 207, FAED 2, pp. 379-380, Fontes, pp. 622-623. 20 Not surprisingly, Francis was often the subject of Minorite sermons. In addition to the essays in this volume by Anderson and Nold, see: Jacques Dalarun, “Francesco nei sermoni: agiografia e predicazione” in La predicazione dei frati dalla metà del ‘200 alla fine del ‘300. Atti de; XXII Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 13-15 ottobre 1994 (Spoleto, 1995), pp. 339-504. 21 William of Rubruck lamented how his interpreter did not have the vocabulary to translate his preaching and compensated by simply uttered whatever came into his head or claimed he could not continue due to fatigue, see: The Mongol Mission, ed. Christopher Dawson, trans. Anonymous nun of Stanbrook Abbey (New York, 1955), pp. 113114; p. 141. 22 “Et opus animae rationalis praecipuum est verbum, et in quo maxime delectatur.” Opus tertium, p. 96. 23 “Optimum verbum . . . ipso Deo revelatum.” Opus tertium, p. 72. 24 On the preacher as intermediary, see: Beverly M. Kienzle, “Introduction” in The Sermon, ed. Beverly Kienzle, p. 154. 16 4 exploring the implications of a religious worldview permeated with a predilection for words – and the Word. Bacon noted in the Opus Tertium that taking delight in the word carries a corresponding responsibility, for words are potent.25 History demonstrates that there no miracles without words. They are strongest when knowledge and desire are united with confidence and the proper intention. Bonaventure also maintained the twofold nature of the word, both human and divine, and argued that every creature in the world is a “word of God”26 and creation is a divine book.27 In The Commentary on John, the young scholar further defined his notion of the divine word when he writes that there is no better designation than “Word” or “Verbum” for the second person of the Trinity.28 “Word” is preferred over “Son” since the latter is understood only in terms of the FatherSon relationship, but the former is polyvalent. “Word” references a relationship to the one speaking, the message conveyed through the word, the voice shrouding the word, and the knowledge produced in others through the mediation of the word. In a culture where words, in their myriad incarnations, were the preferred medium of social communication and pastoral work, this emphasis on the word should not be a complete surprise; nevertheless, Bonaventure’s particular delight in appealing to the word as a hermeneutical category echoed throughout his own pastoral praxis of teaching, writing, and preaching.29 The insights of Bacon and Bonaventure in the mid-13th century, while intellectually expansive and inclusive, marked a period when the opportunity and responsibility for preaching had already been restricted primarily to educated clerics. By 1279 all clerics would be required to attend a studium where they would receive a scholastic education.30 All the brothers could still “preach with their deeds” but they had to be careful of what they said, and where they said it, lest they run afoul of church authorities. Memories of uneducated albeit charismatic brothers, such Francis in Bologna, were relegated to the past and interpreted as analogous to the dawn of Christianity when poor fisherman proclaimed the Gospel, only to be followed by learned masters.31 As early as the 1230s’ the initial difference between the simple penitential preaching of the Minors 25 Opus tertium, p. 96. “Et duplex est verbum, quo recognoscimus omnia: verbum scilicet divinum et verbum humanum. Verbum divinum est omnia creatura, quia Deum loquitur; hoc verbum percipit oculus. Verbum humanum est vox prolata, et hoc percipit auris.” Comm Ec, c. 1, q. 2 (VI, 16b). 27 Comm Ec, c. 1, q. 2 (VI, 16b). 28 Comm Jn, c. 1, resp. (VI, 247b). 29 Bonaventure’s popularity is attested to in Nicole Bériou, L’avènement des maîtres de la Parole: La prédication à Paris au XIIIe siècle, vol. 1 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1998), p. 105 30 Luigi Pellegrini, L’incontro tra due ‘invenzioni’ medievali: Università e ordini mendicanti (Napoli, 2005), p. 139. 31 Epistola de tribus quaestionibus, n. 13(VIII, 336a-b). 26 5 and the scholarly sermons of the Dominicans was erased by Franciscans such John of Plano Carpini and Caesar of Speyer, who preached in Latin to cathedral clergy on both sides of the Alps.32 The clericalization of the Minors, which emphasized study and the acquisition of intellectual knowledge for preaching and confession,33 risked the institutional hierarchization of the sermon and the status of preachers. Alexander of Hales, who upon entering the Minorite Order became the bane of Bacon and the mentor of Bonaventure, delineated three levels of preaching in a disputation on this ecclesial office.34 The first is the simple teaching of the tenets of the Creed and the Our Father in narrative fashion, and, Alexander maintained, even an old woman could hold this office inasmuch as she can instruct children in the faith. The second is the office proper to deacons and priests, who offer pious explanation of doctrine grounded in a literal understanding of the biblical text. The third is the exclusive domain of those who hold the office and the knowledge required for the tropological, allegorical, and anagogical exposition of the Sacred Scriptures. In an educational system where their confreres’ sermons referred to them as “professionals of holiness” given their clerical status, young students were reminded that their world was that of heaven above, and the laity was on the earth below.35 Emphasis on the nuanced interpretation of the divine Word did not assure audiences of a more compelling sermon; in fact, Bacon lamented that the sophisticated knowledge of the young masters combined with the artificiality of their sermo modernus style of composition actually impeded the reception of the message.36 While it is impossible to verify his critique, his accusations suggested that the admonition of Francis in the Later Rule (1223) seemed to have been ignored, if not forgotten, by some, “Moreover, I admonish and exhort those brothers that when they preach their language be well-considered and chaste for the edification of the people, announcing to them vices and virtues, punishment and glory, with brevity, because our Lord when on earth kept his word brief.”37 Bacon singled out Berthold of Regensburg as one who was widely popular, and 32 Pellegrini, L’incontro tra due ‘invenzioni’ medievali, pp. 133-134. Jacques Bougerol, “Le origini e la finalità dello studio nell’ordine francescano” in Antonianum 53 (1978), pp. 405422 34 Alexander of Hales, “De officio praedications”, q. 24, resp. in Quaestiones disputatae ‘antequam esset frater’ in vol. 1 (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1960), pp. 518-519. 35 Jacques Bougerol, “Les sermons dans les ‘studia’ des mendiants” in Le scuole degli ordini mendicanti (Todi, 1978), pp. 256-257. 36 Opus tertium, p. 304. 37 LR 9:3, FAED 1, p. 105, Fontes, p. 178. 33 6 avoided the pitfalls of the emerging academic model.38 Anthony of Padua, according to a sermon from John of Rupella in 1242, also focused his efforts on condemning vice and lauding the blessing afforded to the virtuous.39 Rose of Viterbo (d. 1251/2), Angela of Foligno (d. 1309), and Angelina of Montegiove (d. 1435) proclaimed the Gospel without the benefits or burdens of a scholastic formation in somatic fashion.40 Lay confraternities throughout the 14th and 15th centuries evinced an aversion to the thematic approach, opting instead for simple explanations of biblical texts.41 Despite these examples and Bacon’s concerns, the sermo modernus remained the standard form of expression through the medieval period42 and the clerical members of the Order of Minors, as well as their Dominican counterparts, displayed a remarkable ability to communicate the complex teachings of their scholastic masters into the simple language required for successful popular preaching.43 While the focus varied due to cultural concerns and the growing interest in humanism, later Franciscans like Bernadine of Siena (d. 1444) retained the 13th century model. In doing so, however, they crafted their sermons with the embodied language reminiscent of Francis and his early companions44 and returned outside to the squares of European cities. The emergence of Bernadine of Siena together with John of Capistrano (d. 1456), John of the Marches (d. 1476), and Robert of Lecce (d. 1495), into the public spaces of 15th century European society suggested a return to an earlier Franciscan preaching paradigm, although the academic preparation of these itinerants separated them from Francis and his early companions. As Carlo Delcorno points out, Lapo Mazzei, who upon hearing the Dominic preacher, Giovanni Dominici, in the Florentine Duomo, observed that the Dominican sounded like a disciple of St. Francis.45 This account serves as a cautionary tale for those who might be tempted to draw broad distinctions between Franciscan and Dominican preaching, and justify their arguments by appealing to a priori religious charisms or common truisms about religious orders. While the early 38 Opus minus, p. 310. On Berthold, see also: Thomas Ertl, Religion und Disziplin. Selbstdeutung und Weltordnung im frühen deutschen Franziskanertum (Berlin, 2006), pp. 113-116. 39 Jacques Bougerol, “La struttura del ‘sermo’ antoniano” in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani, p. 104. 40 See the article by Darlene Pryds in this volume. 41 Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500), pp. 483-485. See also, David L. d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars: Sermons Diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 32-36 on the preaching in confraternities in the 13th century. 42 Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500), pp. 478-486. 43 Bougerol, “Les sermons dans les ‘studia’ des mendiants”, p. 280. 44 Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500), pp. 478-482. On the relative stability of preaching from the 13th to the 15th century, see also d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars, pp. 255-257. 45 Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500), pp. 481-482. 7 preaching of Francis may have lacked the sharp edge of Dominican sermons due to their focus on heresy,46 the rapid clericalization and education of the Franciscans assured a commonality of model sermon content with the Order of Preachers.47 While differing doctrinal positions were ascribed to the Dominicans and Franciscans, members of each did not necessarily agree among themselves and their sermons could reflect the perspectives generally ascribed to the other. Bonaventure, for example, was not a proponent of the Immaculate Conception like his Dominican counterpart, Thomas Aquinas, and later Minorite confrere, John Duns Scotus.48 That being said, Dominican opposition and Franciscan support of this Marian doctrine via the medium of preaching came into sharp relief in 15th century Castile.49 A 13th century Franciscan preacher like Servasanto da Faenza appealed to Aristotle, despite the tendency by some scholars to simply equate The Philosopher with the Dominicans.50 At best, an appeal to Wittgenstein’s famous insights into “family resemblances” allows for the recognition of similar themes, approaches, and concerns in Franciscan preaching51 without creating a premature synthesis. The studies in this volume are intended to serve this end and, when read in conjunction with other studies on Franciscan preaching in particular, and medieval preaching in general, hope to move this discussion forward and foster further investigation and debate.52 46 Vauchez, François d'Assise, p. 132. The commonality of model sermon content is evident in David L. d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars and David L d’Avray, Medieval Marriage Sermons: Mass Communication in a Culture without Print (Oxford, 2001). On the common educational goals of the mendicants, see: Alfono Maierú, “ Formazione culturale e tecniche d’insegnamento” in Studio e ‘Studia’: Le scuole degli ordini mendicanti tra xiii e xiv secolo, ed. Enrico Menestó (Spoleto, 20002), p. 11. On the question of exempla where different nuances between the two Orders can be observed, see: Jean-Claude Schmitt, “Recueils franciscains d''Exempla' et perfectionnement des techniques intellectuelles du XIIIe au XVe siècle” in Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes» 135 (1977), pp. 5-21 and Markus Schürer, Das Exemplum oder die erzählte Institution: Studien zum Beispelgebrauch bei den Dominikaner und Franziskaner des 13. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 2005), esp. pp. 300- 309. Special thanks to David d’Avray for his correspondence on this question. 48 On Bonaventure, preaching, and the Immaculate Conception, see: George H. Tavard, The Forthbringer of God (Chicago, 1988), esp. pp. 109-141. 49 See the essay in this volume by Francisco Javier Rojo-Alique. 50 David L. d’Avray, “Some Franciscan Ideas about the Body” in Modern Questions about Medieval Sermons: Essays Marriage, Death, History and Sanctity, eds. Nichole Beriou, David d’Avray (Spoleto, 1994), pp. 167-168. See aslo: David L. d’Avray, “Philosophy in Preaching: The Case of a Franciscan Based in Thirteenth-Century Florence (Servasanto da Faenza)” in Literature and religion in the Later Middle Ages. Philological Studies in Honour of Siegfried Wenzel, ed. R.G. Newhauser & J. Afford ( Binghamton, New York, 1995), pp. 263-73 51 Ludwig Wittgenstein speaks of “Familienähnlichkeiten” or “family-resemblances” as “a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing; sometimes overall similarities, sometimes similarities of detail” in Philosophical Investigations, trans. G.E.M. Anscome (Oxford, 2002) ns. 66–67, pp. 27–28. On Wittgenstein’s family resemblance concepts are useful when analyzing religious categories, see John Hick, An Interpretation of Religion (New Haven, 1992), pp. 3–5. 52 This methodology was also proposed as a manner of reading another volume in The Medieval Franciscan series, Franciscans at Prayer. See: Joseph P. Chinnici, “Forma Vivendi, Forma Orandi: Franciscan Forms of Living and Praying”, 8/2 (2008), pp. 173-181. The reviewer’s proposal for a more synthetic description of the uniqueness of the 47 8 This volume includes seventeen essays by both emerging and established scholars in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands and is the first sustained treatment of Franciscan preaching throughout the medieval period in English. The only study that has appeared on this general theme to date is the Italian La predicazione dei frati dalla metà del ‘200 alla fine del ‘300. Atti de; XXII Convegno Internazionale Assisi, 13-15 ottobre 1994 published in 1995 at the Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medievo in Spoleto, Italy. As the title indicates, the Italian essay collection focused exclusively on the first one hundred and fifty years of mendicant history. This volume, which is certainly in the debt of earlier scholarship, covers a broader period and focuses exclusively on the Franciscans. Every essay reflects the Franciscan fascination with the word, summarized by Roger Bacon in his claim, “Every miracle from the beginning of the world came about through words.” The first four essays by Michael Blastic, Darlene Pryds, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and Timothy J. Johnson provide readers insight into the early paradigm of Franciscan preaching, which underscored the relationship between preaching and example, and how this somatic approach was continued by Rose of Viterbo, Angela of Foligno, and Angelina of Montegiove, represented in the initial hagiography account of Thomas of Celano, and defended by Roger Bacon in the wake of the widespread acceptance of the sermo modernus as the new Minorite paradigm. Essays by C. Colt Anderson, Nicholas Youmans, Joshua Benson, and Patrick Nold in the second section examine the preaching of Franciscan schoolmen and prelates by exploring Bonaventure’s polemical appeal to St. Paul and utilization of erotic imagery in his Sunday Sermons, Mathew of Aquasparta’s take on theology as a science, and Bertrand de la Tour’s reading of Minorite history through the liturgy. This volume’s concern with Franciscan identity is accentuated in the essays in the third section by Alison Moore, Steven Mossman, and Michael Robson. Here the images of Clare of Assisi and Elizabeth of Hungary in the sermons of numerous Minorites, of Francis of Assisi among his later German confrères, and of the Order through the sermons of preachers other than Franciscans are treated. The religious and cultural concerns of Franciscan preachers in the Franciscan prayer remains problematic given the incredible diversity of Franciscans throughout the centuries. Analogous perhaps to efforts to define the experience of the divine within a “weak theology” in response to the phenomenological turn in religious studies, recourse here to resources such as Wittgenstein foster a more inclusive, albeit “weaker” hermeneutic for examining the contours and content of Franciscan identity. The clear advantage lies in including Franciscans who would be otherwise excluded. Cases in point – to name a few – with regard to prayer would be Roger Bacon, Peter John Olivi, and John Duns Scotus. 9 15th century constitute the fourth section. Amanda Quantz, Steven McMichael, and Francisco Javier Rojo-Alique explore Bernadine of Siena’s treatment of women and Jews, perception of Muslims, and the particularities of preaching in the Castilian town of Valladolid. In the fifth section, which is dedicated to preaching and the written-visual word, essays by Bert Roest, Jay M. Hammond, and Francesco Lucchini highlight the ars praedicandi literature of the Minorites, the art and architecture of the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi and the reliquary of St. Anthony’s tongue in Padua. The reliquary of St. Anthony remains a vivid memory of the embodied reality of Franciscan preaching. Thomas of Celano drew on such imagery when he wrote of Francis’s evangelical zeal, “[He] filled the whole world with the gospel of Christ; in the course of one day often visiting four or five towns and villages, proclaiming to everyone the good news of the kingdom of God, edifying his listeners by his example as much as by his words, as he made of his whole body a tongue.”53 Centuries later the French cultural theorist and historian, Michel Certeau, approached the story of Franciscan preaching from a different, yet equally somatic perspective, “It was a Franciscan dream: that a body might preach without speaking, and that in walking around it might make visible what lives within.”54 While a body might preach without speaking, speaking per se never constitutes preaching. These essays illustrate the lengths medieval Franciscans went to assure that every word they uttered, be it inscribed or proclaimed, silent or audible, affective or intellectual was indeed grounded in the Word made flesh, the source of “every miracle since the beginning of the world.” For my part, I would like to thank all those authors who contributed in both word and deed to this volume. I am indebted to Beverly M. Kienzle for accepting my invitation to write the foreword for this volume. Her commitment to study of medieval sermons is unparalleled, and her contribution is deeply appreciated. The decades-long friendship of the general editor, Steven J. McMichael, was crucial to both the inception and completion of this volume. This volume is dedicated to him and all the friars of Our Lady of Consolation Province; they were the first to reveal to me the power of Franciscan preaching years ago in the parish of St. Therese in Deephaven, Minnesota. Julian Diehl and Marcella Mulder from Brill Academic once again deftly guided me through the production process. The ever-resourceful Peggy Dyess in the Flagler 53 “Replebat omnem terram Evangelio Christi, ita ut una die quatuor aut quinque castella vel etiam civitates saepius circuiret, evangelizans unicuique regnum Dei, et non minus exemplo quam verbo aedificans audientes, de toto corpore fecerat linguam.”1C 97, FAED 1, p. 266; Fontes, p. 373. 54 Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable, trans. Michael B. Smith (Chicago, 1992), p. 88. 10 Library secured numerous sources necessary to the completion of this volume. I am particularly grateful to Katherine Wrisley for her incredibly generous offer to copyedit these collected essays. Her enthusiasm is surpassed only by her professionalism. As always, my deepest thanks go to my wife, Agnieszka, whose alchemical ability to meld words with deeds continues to create miracles all around me. She is my favorite Franciscan thaumaturgist. 11