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

Pietro Maranesi, O.F.M. investigated the problem from a different angle,
concentrating on a single phrase in the Rule of 1223: “ne curent nescientes
litteras, litteras discere”. He proposed that Francis did not actually oppose the
intellectual development of the Order, but strongly “advised” a simple and lowly
life, particularly for those who had not yet initiated studies. 20 In his analysis of
Francis’s comments concerning learning and study, K. Esser, O.F.M. reached the
conclusion that St. Francis was only against the type of study which did not help
the improvement of the human soul, and did not lead to the spirit of Christ but
was performed out of sheer curiosity and desire of fame and thus increased vanity
and worldly profit.. 21 So, the problem, as Esser stated it, was not “was getan wird,
sondern wie es getan wird.” 22
In the most recent work on Franciscan education Bert Roest, referring to
the Actus Beati Francisci and Legenda Trium Sociorum as hagiographical
collections, asserted that it was the later generations of Spirituals who drew an
image of Francis as an enemy of learning. He argued that even a Spiritual like
Ubertino would acknowledge that the historical Francis of the 1220s was “rather
more nuanced if not ambivalent in his attitude towards learning”. 23 Both Roest
and Esser based their arguments on the passage in the Testament, where Francis
20 Maranesi, “San Francesco e Gli Studi”, approaches the phrase with a certain degree of textual
criticism, concentrating on the notion of this being advice and not an order.
21 K. Esser, “Studium und Wissenschaft im Geiste des hl. Franziskus von Assisi”, Wissenschaft
und Weisheit, 39 (1976), pp. 26-41. See also K. Esser, Das Testament des heiligen Franziskus
von Assisi: eine Untersuchung über seine Echtheit und seine Bedeutung (Münster, 1949), p. 159.
22 Esser, “Studium..”, p. 41.
23 Roest, A History, p. 4.
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