t were just reward."
(XIV, 27.)

In this Heaven we hear the eulogy of St. Francis of Assisi pronounced
by a Dominican and the praises of St. Dominic sung by a
Franciscan--consummate art that is an indirect invitation to the
two orders of monks upon earth to avoid jealousy and to practice mutual
respect. It has been said that these narratives give us the essence of
what constitutes true biography, viz., a picture of the spiritual
element in man drawn in such words as ever to command the understanding
and elicit the respect of the reader of every period. The first speaker
is St. Thomas Aquinas, and his reference to the mystical marriage of St.
Francis and Lady Poverty will be the better understood if we have before
the mind's eye Giotto's painting which hangs over the tomb of the
founder of the Franciscans. The figures in the pictures are described
by Gardiner (Ten Heavens, p. 113): Christ, standing upon a rock, unites
St. Francis to his chosen bride, who is haggard and careworn, clothed in
ragged and patched garments, barefooted and girded with a cord. Roses
and lilies spring up behind her and encircle her head; she wears the
aureole and has wings, though weak; but thorns and briars are around her
feet. Hope and Love are her bridesmaids; Hope clothed in green with
uplifted hand and Love with flame-colored flowers and holding a burning
heart. A dog is barking at the Bride and boys are assaulting her with
sticks and stones, but all around are bands of angelic witnesses, their
flowing raiment and mighty wings glowing with rainbow hues. In these
days when money seems the ideal of thousands, Poverty, whose mystical
appeal is so glowingly painted, still speaks to great numbers of men and
women who give up material comforts and ease to embrace as monks and
nuns the state of voluntary poverty. Let us now hear how St. Thomas
recounts the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi:

"He was not yet much distant from his rising,
When his good influence 'gan to bless the earth.
A dame, to whom one openeth pleasure's gate
More than to death, was 'gainst his father's will,
His stripling choice; and he did make her his,
Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,
And in his father's sight: from day to day,
Then loved her more devoutly. She, bereaved
Of her first husband, slighted and obscure,
Thousand and hundred years and more, remain'd
Without a single suitor, till he came.
There concord and glad