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

group. In any case, probably 1209 was too early for a written approval, and for
sending a cicular letter to all clergy, since there was no certainty that Francis
would gather more followers.
It seems that even before he sought the approval of the pope, Francis had
embraced an orthodox mode of lay preaching, urging peace and penance for the
remission of sins. 55 This might be the reason why Guido, Bishop of Assisi never
opposed Francis’s and the friars’ preaching before they received papal approval
in 1210. 56 Landini draws our attention to the Anonymi Perusini Legenda S.
Francisci, where the author of the legenda writes that at this time Francis was not
preaching, but exhorting men and women to fear and love the Creator of the
heaven and sky and to do penance for their sins. 57 It should be noted, that both
Legenda Perusini and Celano’s Vita Prima do not even use the word praedicatio
while referring to the preaching done by Francis. Similarly, Innocent III also
avoids the use of the term when he approves the propositum of the lay wing of
Humiliati. 58 The fact that from the time of oral approval, until the official letter of
papal recognition, Cum dilecti filii in 1219, friars were never charged with heresy
55 In the very early years, when the friars only numbered eight, Francis sent them away to preach
with the following words: “Ite, charissimi, bini et bini per diversas partes orbis, annuntiantes
hominibus pacem et poenitentiam in remissionem peccatorum”: Celano I, p. 24. For the preaching
of Francis concentrating on peace, repentance and praise to God, see Carlo Delcorno,
“Predicazione Francescana” in Francesco d’Assisi e Francescanesimo dal 1216 al 1226, Atti del
IV Convegno Internazionale, Assisi, 15-17 ottobre 1976 (Assisi, 1977), pp. 125-60.
56 The argument that Guido did not oppose Francis is deduced from the fact that no historical
source mentions such an occasion, and Guido helped Francis to see the Pope when he arrived
Rome in 1210.
57 Landini, Causes, p. 28. “Adhuc non praedicabat populo vir Dei. Quando tamen per civitates et
castellas transitum faciebat, hortabatur viros et mulieres ut timerent et amarent Creatorem caeli et
terrae et paenitentiam agerent de peccatis suis. Frater vero Aegidius respondebat dicens: Optime
dicit; credatis ei”: “Legenda S. Francisci Anonymi Perusini”, ed. Fr. van Ortroy, MF, 9 (1902), p.
35.
58 See footnote 51
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