HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

BIOGRAPHY 1000‒1350 371due authorization. 48 The conflict within the Franciscan order betweenConventuals and Spirituals concerning the interpretation of the Ruleled to the publication of several versions of Francis of Assisi’s lifeand the collection of the memoirs of his followers in order to putan end to arguments concerning the Seraphic Father’s intentions.Thomas of Celano’s (ca. 1190–ca. 1260) official Vita prima had beencomposed in 1228/29 at the request of Pope Gregory IX afterFrancis’s canonization, and reflected the points highlighted in thebull of canonization. It was followed by several other accounts, byJulian of Speyer and Henry of Avranches (a version of Celano’s workin Latin hexameters), among others. Celano’s work was based onthe recollections of those who knew the saint personally and containsmany lengthy quotations. In all likelihood, he also was authorizedby Pope Alexander IV to write a life of Clare of Assisi followingher canonization (1255).At the Franciscan General Chapter at Genoa in 1244, the Minister-General Crescenzio of Iesi issued an order for the collection of materialsfor a new biography. This led to the largely anecdotal memoir,the Legenda trium sociorum, composed at the hermitage of Greccio byFrancis’s three companions, Leo, Rufino, and Angelo. 49 Thomas ofCelano produced a Vita secunda (1246/47) and a Tractatus de miraculis(1250/53), voicing the stricter position of the Spirituals within theorder. Finally, the Minister-General Bonaventure’s Legenda maior (1260)was intended to be the authoritative life of the saint, although basedlargely on Celano’s earlier work; a shorter Vita minor followed. Hisaim was clearly to downplay conflicts within the order for the sakeof unity. The 1266 Chapter-General even went so far as to demandthe destruction of all earlier manuscripts of the saint’s life. But therewriting of Francis’s life continued, largely in order to remove anytaint of heresy from the order. Franciscan hagiography was to havea powerful influence among the wider circle of saints associated withpopular piety. The theme of imitatio Christi found its most spectacularexpression in the miracle of the stigmata, which had appearedon the body of Francis, and which began a tradition of saints whowere closely identified with the suffering Christ. Such biographies48Conrad of Eberbach, Exordium magnum Cisterciense sive narratio de initio Cisterciensisordinis, in PL, ed. J.-P. Migne, 185: 1198.49Moorman (1968), 278–94.