Franciscan Studies

BERNARD OF BESSE: PRAISES OF BLESSED FRANCIS (LIBER DE LAUDIBUS BEATI FRANCISCI) INTRODUCTION I Bernard's Life.1 The Chronica XXIV Generalium Ordinis Minorum (Chronicle of the XXIV Generals) completed in 1378, is the earliest source to mention Bernard, calling him "Bernard of Besse of the Province of Aquitaine."2 In the seventeenth century, Luke Wadding notes that Bernard was a member of the Franciscan Custody of Cahors of the Province of Aquitaine, and also was a travelling companion and secretary to the Minister General, St. Bonaventure (1257-1274).» It is difficult to determine exactly Bernard's place of origin. Sbaralea in his Castigatio lists several places in France as possibili1 This study and translation was made possible by a grant from the Younger Scholars Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The following abbreviations have been employed throughout: AF, Analecta Franciscana; AFH, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum; AP, Anonymous of Perugia, ed. Lorenzo di Fonzo, O.F.M. Conv., L'anonimo perugino tra Ie fonti francescane del sec. XIII (Roma: Ed. Miscellanea Francescana, 1972) 435-65, trans. Anonymous of Perugia by Eric Kahn in Damien Isabell, Workbook for Franciscan Studies (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1979); LM, St. Bonaventure, Legenda maior AF 10: 555-652, trans. Ewert Cousins, Bonaventure (New York: Paulist Press, 1978) 117-327; MF, Miscellanea Francescana; 1 CeI, Thomas of Celano, Vita prima s. Francisci, AF 10: 1-117, trans. Placid Hermann in Marion A. Habig (ed.) St. Francis of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies: English Omnibus..., 4th rev. ed. (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983) 225-356; 2 CeI, Thomas of Celano, Vita secunda s. Francisci, AF 10: 127-160, trans. Hermann in Habig, Omnibus, 357-543; 3 CeI, Thomas of Celano, Tractatus de miraculis beati Francisci, AF 10: 269-331, excerpts trans. Hermann in Omnibus, 545-54. 2 AF 3: 262. The Province of Aquitaine refers to the Franciscan Province. 3 Luke Wadding, Annales Minorum (Ad Claras Aquas [Quaracchi], 1931) 5:55 (references to Wadding indicate marginal numbers). A Franciscan custody is a subdivision of a province. 214DAVID AMICO ties.4 The most likely of these is "a town called Besse in the Province of Aquitaine," that probably corresponds to a present-day town called Besse in the Department of Puy de Dôme, part of the Aquitaine of earlier days. This town is very near Cahors, to which custody Bernard belonged, and it seems logical that he would have entered the Order near his place of origin. We know little of Bernard's early days in the Order. Jacques Cambell in his article on Bernard in the New Catholic Encyclopedia says that he was probably residing in the convent of Limoges in January, 1250, but he does not cite his source for this.8 We do know, however, that Bernard held a significant office in the Order as a secretary to the Minister General, St. Bonaventure, one of the most briUiant theologians of his day. That he had the confidence of St. Bonaventure speaks well both for Bernard's competence and his access to information concerning the history he narrates. Indeed, as SaUmbene remarks in his Chronicle, secretaries to the Minister General were known to be "intelligent, well-read, good speakers, excellent writers, good walkers to accompany the General on his visitations, and men of great authority.6 Bernard, therefore, must have possessed many of these characteristics. As secretary, he probably carried out the normal duties of the office, and in fact he himself says that he "travelled through parts of Germany and Flanders with the distinguished Minister General." Beyond this, though, we are not sure of any specific activities. The early sources do not give a date for Bernard's death, but modern scholars place it sometime between 1300 and 1304.7 II Bernard's Works. The Chronicle of the XXIV Generals lists all but one of the six works ascribed to Bernard of Besse.8 It notes, first of all, that Bernard "wrote a Chronicle"—sometimes called a 4 Joannes H. Sbaralea, Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores trium Ordinum ed. Attilio Nardecchia (Rome, 1908) 2: 141-42. 8 Jacques Cambell, "Bernard of Besse," New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967). • Salimbene de Adam, Crónica ed. Giuseppe...