CONCLUSION in a Rather Famous Lauda by the Franciscan Poet

CONCLUSION In a rather famous lauda by the Franciscan poet Jacopo Benedetti (c. 1236–1306), better known as Jacopone (Big John) da Todi, he assails his brethren in Paris who he says “demolish Assisi stone by stone.” “That’s the way it is, not a shred left of the spirit of the Rule! […] With all their theology they’ve led the Order down a crooked path.”1 It is a complaint to which Jacopone returns many times in his writing.2 “Assisi” in this case seems to reflect the spiritual or, as David Burr says, a rigorist’s view of Franciscan virtue, which was basically centered on the ideals of evangelical poverty, charity, and penance. “Paris,” on the other hand, represents the arrogance of educated Friars—“an elite with special status and privileges” who looked down on their brothers.3 The conflict of the 1290s, when most of Jacopone’s laude were written, sing of struggles within the Order that go back to the 1220s, to a time when the friars were first grappling with their identity; and, as I have shown, this involved their chanting and preaching—the two aspects of the Franciscan mission of music that I have examined in this study. In Chapter One we saw that while the Regula non Bullata (Earlier Rule) of 1221 required all Franciscan friars to celebrate the Divine Offices, albeit in distinctive forms, the Regula Bullata (Later Rule) of 1223 privileged the clerical brothers as singers of the rite according to the Roman church.4 The Earlier Rule would not exclude the lay brothers from preaching, so long as they did not preach against the rites and practices of the Church and had the permission of the minister.5 But this was emended in the Later Rule, making preaching incumbent only on friars who had been properly examined, approved, and had “the office of preacher […] 1 “Tale qual è, tal è;/ non ci è relïone./ Mal vedemo Parisi,/ che àne destrutt’Asisi:/ co la lor lettoria messo l’ò en mala via.” [That’s the way it is—not a shred left of the spirit of the Rule! In sorrow and grief I see Paris demolish Assisi, stone by stone. With all their theology they’ve led the Order down a crooked path.] Franco Mancini, Laude Iacopone da Todi. Scrittori d’Italia, no. 257 (Bari: G. Laterza, 1974), 293. Jacopone da Todi, The Lauds, trans. Serge and Elizabeth Hughes, The Classics of Western Spirituality (Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1982), 123. 2 See David Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), 102–7. 3 Ibid., 104. 4 The Earlier Rule, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, The Saint, 65. 5 Ibid., 75. 234 conclusion conferred upon him.”6 With these changes, as Lawrence Landini observes, “we begin to see an apostolate fundamental to Francis’ evangelical way of life slowly but surely being restricted to the clerics of the Order.”7 So, Jacopone had right. The clericalization of the Order seems to have played a major role in reorienting the Franciscan movement from “Assisi” to “Paris,” fundamentally affecting the musical nature of their calling. But my study of music has shown that Franciscan music theorists struggled with the identity of their Order throughout the thirteenth century, at first with what a calling to song and preaching should mean, and then when apply- ing their knowledge of science and the wisdom of the Ancients to put the will of “Assisi” into action. The result was an amalgam, a commixture of ideas. Despite Jacopone’s tirade, the works of art, theology, music theory, novice manuals, and other didactic literature we have examined show us that Franciscans were making an alloy of “Assisi” and “Paris.” Their “Parisian” psyche motivated Franciscan scholars to study Aristotle, Augustine, and their commenta- tors. They would also be inspired by more recent academics like Lotario dei Segni and Robert Grosseteste, whose writings transmitted models of liturgical exegesis and scientific analysis. So my reading of the evidence suggests that the study of music among the early Franciscans was aimed at substantiating the “Assisian” mentality—not subordinating it to their clerical mission, but establishing a more systematic and learned applica- tion of their calling. I propose that it was the regular obligations of young Franciscan clerics to sing the Divine Offices (and later the Mass), com- bined with the Fourth Lateran Council’s requirement that they preach, which sent Franciscan academics searching for a method that would combine science with practical musical instruction. With their strong affiliation to the medieval university, it comes as no surprise that knowledge should inform the essential practices of their mission. Much of this study has emphasized the contributions of outstanding individuals, beginning with St. Francis himself. Neither Robert Grosseteste nor Lotario dei Segni were Franciscans, of course; but having studied their writings within the context of their actual and legendary relationship with the Order, I think we are in a better position to appreciate how that relationship affected the friars’ identity as learned singers and 6 The Later Rule, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, The Saint, 104. 7 Lawrence C. Landini, The Causes of the Clericalization of the Order of Friars Minor (Chicago: Pontifica Universitas Gregoriana Facultas Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 1968), 41..

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