To my family for giving me life and love - Bilkent University

attribution of Intentio Regule and Verba S. Francisci to Leo’s writings of 1246
has improved our understanding of the founder’s desires and visions with regard
to his Ordo Fratrum Minorum. Even before the publication of Moorman’s work,
Decima Douie had remarked that both Angelo da Clareno and Ubertino da Casale
always quoted from the Intentio and the Verba and never from the later version of
the Speculum Perfectionis. 16
Any historiographical approach towards the earlier generation of great
scholars should take into consideration the fact that they did not live to see the
new manuscript discoveries, or the detailed studies of textual criticism on the
historical sources of the life and intentions of Francis. Thus, their reading of the
other well-established sources like the two Rules, the Testament and Celano’s
Vitae was influenced largely by their own version of the “true Francis.”
Despite the new discoveries on the nature of the sources, recent
scholarship on this controversial subject has pictured Francis as having a rather
mild attitude towards the order’s involvement in intellectual activities. For
example, Lorenzo di Fonzo, O.F.M. Conv. argued that there was a shift over time
in the attitude of St. Francis towards intellectual activities in the Order; that
towards the end of his life Francis became more appreciative of the study of
theology by friars. 17
16
Decima Douie, The Nature and Effect of the Heresy of the Fraticelli (Manchester, 1932), p. 1
2n.
17
Lorenzo di Fonzo, “Apostolato intellettuale, componente essenziale del carisma francescanoconventuale”,
MF, 94 (1994), pp. 525-609.
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