sel to all clerics on the respect to be paid to the
Eucharist[12] (fol., 31b-32b).

7. A very short piece preceded by the rubric: "Of the virtues which
adorn the Virgin Mary and which ought to adorn the holy soul"[13] (fol.
32b).

8. The _Laudes Creaturarum_, or Canticle of the Sun[14] (fol. 33a).

9. A paraphrase of the _Pater_ introduced by the rubric: _Incipiunt
laudes quas ordinavit. B. pater noster Franciscus et dicebat ipsas ad
omnes horas diei et noctis et ante officium B. V. Mariae sic incipiens:
Sanctissime Pater_[15] (fol. 34a).

10. The office of the Passion (34b-43a). This office, where the psalms
are replaced by several series of biblical verses, are designed to make
him who repeats them follow, hour by hour, the emotions of the Crucified
One from the evening of Holy Thursday.[16]

11. A rule for friars in retreat in hermitages[17] (fol. 43a-43b).

A glance over this list is enough to show that the works of Francis here
collected are addressed to all the Brothers, or are a sort of
encyclicals, which they are charged to pass on to those for whom they
are destined.

The very order of these pieces shows us that we have in this manuscript
the primitive library of the Brothers Minor, the collection of which
each minister was to carry with him a copy. It was truly their viaticum.

Matthew Paris tells us of his amazement at the sight of these foreign
monks, clothed in patched tunics, and carrying their books in a sort of
case suspended from their necks.[18]

The Assisi manuscript was without doubt destined to this service; if it
is silent on the subject of the journeys it has made, and of the
Brothers to whom it has been a guide and an inspiration, it at least
brings us, more than all the legends, into intimacy with Francis, makes
us thrill in unison with that heart which never admitted a separation
between joy, love, and poetry. As to the date of this manuscript, one
must needs be a paleographer to determine. We have already found a
hypothesis which, if well grounded, would carry it back to the
neighborhood of 1240.[19]

Its contents seem to countenance this early date. In fact, it contains
several pieces of which the _Manual of the Brother Minor_ very early rid
itself.

Very soon they were content to have only the Rule to keep company with
the breviary; sometimes they added the Will. But the other writings, if
they did not fall entirely into neglect, ceased at least to be of daily
usage.

Those o