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

that Francis encouraged the study of theology, as both Bonaventura and Felder
argued. All the evidence they quote from Celano consists of anecdotes which
convey the admonitions of Francis to his friars to read the Gospel. 29 Certainly, it
is quite unthinkable that Francis ever opposed the reading of Scripture. It was
precisely the Bible that told him about the life of Christ. However, the study of
theology in the Middle Ages was much more complicated than simply reading
the Bible. These complications were what made the study of theology an
undertaking impossible without violating the fundamentals of Francis’s view of
the order’s vocation, foremost of all, evangelical poverty.
The examination of the Rule of 1223 and the Testament from this
perspective makes it impossible to think of Francis as in favor of schooling his
friars. A number of items in the Rule makes it infeasible to pursue learning: most
of all, the prohibitions on the acceptance of money, the possession of any books
except breviary and Bible, and on having permanent convents. 30 It is clear that,
when putting these items into the Rule, the saint could never have envisaged that
the Order might fervently join the intellectual world, need money to buy books,
establish permanent convents and keep libraries. Rather, he was regulating a
body of wandering preachers, simple men like himself, who would depend
strictly on divine providence for both their material and spiritual needs. 31
29 Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, Epistola de Tribus Quaestionibus ad magistrum innominatum in
Opera Omnia, 8, p. 334. Felder, Geschichte, p. 65 3n, 4n.
30 For prohibition on acceptance of money see RB, ch. 4, on possessions and convents see ch. 6.
31 R. Manselli, Francesco e i suoi compagni (Roma, 1995), p. 34. Manselli, a renown scholar of
Francis’s spirituality argued that the faith in divine providence was fundamental to the religious
attitude of Francis.
30