Rosalind B. Brooke - Böcker

The early historians of the Franciscan order traced the causes of the troubles of the order in their time to Elias, a contemporary and friend of St Francis and an early Minister General. Elias was blamed for opening the way to all relaxations of discipline and disregard of the founder's teaching, and all conflicts and persecutions. Mrs Brooke shows that responsibility cannot be placed on one man, but on many of the early friars. She gives a more historical account of Elias, showing that he was never as dominant a figure as has been supposed. The early conflicts of the order are shown to have been more complex, more interesting and more probable than the fourteenth-century controversialists would allow. The second part of the book describes the achievements of Elias's successors as Minister General, and the important laws they passed. Mrs Brooke has been able to reconstruct the early constitutions, now lost, in greater detail than has previously been attempted.

An important new study of the way in which St Francis's image was recorded in literature, documents, architecture and art. St Francis was a man whose personality was deliberately stamped on his Order and Rosalind Brooke explores how the stories told by Francis's companions were at once brilliantly vivid portrayals of the man as well as guides to how the Franciscan way of life ought to be led. She also examines how after St Francis's death a great monument was erected to him in the Basilica at Assisi and how this came to reflect in stone and stained glass and fresco the manner in which some Popes and leading friars believed his memory should be fostered. Highly illustrated throughout, including colour and black and white plates, this book will be essential reading for medievalists and art historians as well as anyone interested in St Francis and the Franciscan movement.

Originally published in 1975, this book helps students understand why the Movements of the 12th century remained much more enclosed and monastic or turned to heresy; How much the new orders of Friars owed to the earlier movements and to what extent they arose from the personal inspiration of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic. The introduction is arranged to help the documents to speak for themselves: it opens with a direct confrontation with Francis then goes back to search the religious experience of the 10th to 12th centuries for movements and especially well documented individuals who can help explain the development of fashions and ideas. There are sections on precursors, both monks and heretics, and on the papal policies towards these movements, and the introduction closes with a chapter on Dominic and an epilogue on the impact of the Friars.