Franciscan Studies

THE FRANCISCAN SPIRIT AS REVEALED IN THE LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS OF FRANCIS THOMPSON The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that Francis Thompson's literary contributions reflected and embody the Franciscan spirit. Many parallels are noticeable, not only in the writings of St. Francis and of his nineteenth century namesake, but also in the character, temperament, spirituality and mode of life of the two. Frequently, attempts are made to draw comparisons or find parallels in the lives of two individuals where none exists. In the case of St. Francis and of Francis Thompson these similarities are so evident that to neglect making any reference to them would be to present an unbalanced picture, since the writings of both of these men were affected so largely by the events which were similar in the lives of each. It is likewise the writer's desire to prove that no small measure of Francis Thompson's greatness derives from the Franciscan spirit which pervades the bulk of his work. That there is a unique Franciscan spirit is indisputable. This divina partícula aurae which is so peculiarly his own, is the ideal of the Gospel followed by St. Francis: This is the life of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to live in obedience, in chastity, and without property, and to follow the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who said, 'If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me.' 1 NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH FRANCISCANISM The Franciscans arrived in England in 1224, and their influence was immediately made manifest in almost every department of life. St. Francis represented a new ideal which belonged cxclusivly to no class or party. The Friars not only attended several of the leading Universities, but later taught in the Universities of Oxford and 1. Hilarin Felder, O.F.M. Cap., The Ideals of St. Francis, Translated by Berchmans Bittle, O.F.M. Cap. New York: Benziger Brothers. 1925. p. 11. 21 22THE FRANCISCAN SPIRIT Cambridge. Early foundations in England were at Canterbury, London, Oxford, Northampton, and Cambridge. Within the relatively short space of thirty years, Friar Eccleston records that The Order had increased in England to well over twelve hundred members , drawn from all ranks of society, living in forty-nine houses throughout the kingdom and exerting their influence in the university and the court, in the castle, and on Cheapside, in the pulpit and the confessional. 2 These early friars were referred to as the "Grey Friars," since the original habit of St. Francis was of ash-gray, and not of brown. Hutton, speaking of the next century relates: The years of the fourteenth century which had seen the friars at the highest point of their fortunes in England in the Oxford of Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, in the London which saw their great church founded and built for them by four queens, . . . partly as a result of the Black Death, witnessed also their full decadence which was never really stayed until the Reformation swept them, as an Order, out of England altogether. 3 In 1533, when Cranmer pronounced the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon null and void, the chief house of the Observants at Greenwich was suppressed and turned over to the Augustinian Friars, whose London prior had proclaimed Anne Boleyn queen. 4 The other Observant convents suffered the same fate. By 1539 all of the convents of the Friars had been suppressed and many of the friars thrown into prison or exiled. Some, however , remained in England in disguise; others returned from time to time to help the persecuted and poor Catholics as much as they could. It was under strong Recollect tutelage that the Second English province came into being in 1629, through the labors of Father John Gennings; and it was again from the Belgian recollects that Franciscan life was renewed in England in the mid-nineteenth century. The nineteenth century, with its revolutions and secularizations, not only decimated the Order, but also caused such confusion that 2.Reverend Henry Senft. O.F.M. Conv., "The Influence of Franciscaniem...