He knew that the cares of riches make men ill-conditioned and wretched, and that coming into the world poor and naked, they would be happy, if only they would live as they were born. He was poor and merry-hearted.
His delight was in obedience; and renouncing the making of plans of any sort for the future, he relished the bread of the heart. For the weight of human actions is a heavy load, and we are trees bearing poisoned fruit. He was afraid to act, for is not all effort painful and useless?
He was afraid to think, for thought is evil.
He was very humble, knowing how men have nothing of their own that they should boast of, and that pride hardens the heart. He knew, moreover, that they who possess for all wealth only the riches of the spirit, if they make boast of their treasure, so far lower themselves to the level of the great ones of the earth.
And Fra Giovanni outdid in humility all the Monks of the House of Viterbo. The Superior of the Monastery, the holy Brother Silvester, was less righteous than he, forasmuch as the master is less righteous than the servant, the mother less innocent than the babe.
Observing that Fra Giovanni had a way of stripping himself of his gown to clothe the suffering members of Jesus Christ, the Superior forbade him, in the name of holy obedience, to give away his garments to the poor. Now the same day this command was laid on him, Giovanni went, as his wont was, to pray in the woods that cover the slopes of Monte Cunino. It was Winter time; snow was falling, and the wolves coming down into the villages.
Fra Giovanni kneeling down at the foot of an oak, spoke to G.o.d, as might one friend to another, and besought Him to take pity on all orphans, prisoners and captives, to take pity on the master of the fields sorely harried by the Lombard usurers, to take pity on the stags and hinds of the forest chased by the hunters, and on all trapped creatures, whether of fur or feathers. And lo! he was rapt away in an ecstasy, and saw a hand pointing in the sky.
When presently the sun had slipped behind the mountains, the man of G.o.d arose from his knees and took the path to the Monastery. On the white, silent road thither, he met a beggar, who asked him an alms for the love of G.o.d.
"Alas!" he told him, "I have nothing but my gown, and the Superior has forbidden me to cut it in two so as to give away the half. Therefore I cannot divide it with you. But if you love me, my son, you will take it off me whole and undivided."
On hearing these words, the beggar promptly stripped the Friar of his gown.
So Fra Giovanni went on his way naked under the falling snow, and entered the city. As he was crossing the Piazza with nothing on but a linen cloth about his loins, the children who were running at play in the Great Square made mock at him. In derision, they shook their fists in his face with the thumb stuck between the first and middle fingers, and threw snow at him mixed with mud and small stones.
Now there lay in the Great Square some logs of timber for the woodwork of a house, and one of the logs happened to be balanced across another.
Two children ran and took their places, one at each end of the beam, and began playing see-saw--two of the same children who had made mock of the holy man and thrown stones at him.
He went up to them now smiling, and said:
"Dear little children, will you suffer me to share your game?"
And sitting down on one end of the beam, he see-sawed up and down against the two little ones.
And some of the citizens happening to pa.s.s that way, said, wondering:
"Truly and indeed the man is out of his wits."
But after the bells had rung the _Ave Maria_, Fra Giovanni was still at see-saw. And it chanced that certain Priests from Rome, who had come to Viterbo to visit the Mendicant Friars, whose fame was great through the world, just then crossed the Great Square. And hearing the children shouting, "Look! little Brother Giovanni"s here," the Priests drew near the Monk, and saluted him very respectfully. But the holy man never returned their salute, but making as though he did not see them, went on see-sawing on the swaying beam. So the Priests said to each other:
"Come away; the fellow is a mere dunce and dullard!"
Then was Fra Giovanni glad, and his heart overflowed with joy. For these things he did out of humility and for the love of G.o.d. And he put his joy in the scorn of men, as the miser shuts his gold in a cedarn chest, locked with a triple lock.
At nightfall he knocked at the Monastery door, and being admitted, appeared among the Brethren naked, bleeding, and covered with mire. He smiled and said:
"A kind thief took my gown, and some children deemed me worthy to play with them."
But the Brothers were angry, because he had dared to pa.s.s through the city in so undignified a plight.
"He feels no compunction," they declared, "about exposing the Holy Order of St. Francis to derision and disgrace. He deserves the most exemplary punishment."
The General of the Order, being warned a great scandal was ruining the sacred Society, called together all the Brethren of the Chapter, and made Fra Giovanni kneel humbly on his knees in the midst of them all.
Then, his face blazing with anger, he chid him harshly in a loud, rough voice. This done, he consulted the a.s.sembly as to the penance it was meet to impose on the guilty Brother.
Some were for having him put in prison or suspended in an iron cage from the Church steeple, while others advised he should be chained up for a madman.
And Fra Giovanni, beaming with satisfaction, told them:
"You are very right, my Brethren; I deserve these punishments, and worse ones still. I am good for nothing but foolishly to waste and squander the goods of G.o.d and of my Order."
And Brother Marcian, who was a man of great sternness both of life and doctrine, cried:
"Hear him! he talks like a hypocrite; that honeyed voice of his issues from a whited sepulchre."
And Fra Giovanni said again:
"Brother Marcian, I am indeed capable of every infamy--but for G.o.d"s good help."
Meantime the General was pondering over the strange behaviour of Fra Giovanni, and he besought the Holy Spirit to inspire the judgment he was to give. And lo! as he prayed, his anger was changed into admiration. He had known St. Francis in the days when that Angel of Heaven, born of a woman, was a sojourner in this world, and the ensample of the favourite follower of Christ had taught him the love of spiritual perfection.
So his soul was enlightened, and he recognized in the works of Fra Giovanni a divine innocency and beauty.
"My brethren," he said at length, "far from blaming our Brother, let us admire the grace he receives so abundantly from G.o.d. In very truth he is a better man than we. What he has done, he has done in imitation of Jesus Christ, who "suffered the little children to come unto Him," and let the Roman soldiers strip Him of His garments."
Then he thus addressed the kneeling Fra Giovanni:
"This, Brother, is the penance I lay upon you. In the name of that holy obedience you owe St. Francis, I command you go forth into the country, and the first beggar you meet, beg him to strip you of your tunic. Then, when he has left you naked, you must come back into the city, and play in the Public Square With the little children."
Having so said, the General of the Order came down from his chair of state, and, raising Fra Giovanni from the ground, fell on his own knees before him and kissed his feet. Then, turning to the a.s.sembled Monks, he said to them:
"In very truth, my Brethren, this man is the good G.o.d"s plaything."
II
THE LAMP
In those days the truth was revealed to Fra Giovanni that the riches of this world come from G.o.d and should be the heritage of the poor, who are the favourite children of Jesus Christ.
Christian folk were busy celebrating the Saviour"s birth; and Fra Giovanni had come to the town of a.s.sisi, which is set upon a mountain-top, and from this mountain first rose the Sun of Charity.
Now the day before Christmas eve, Fra Giovanni was kneeling in prayer before the Altar under which St. Francis sleeps in a stone coffin. And he was meditating, dreaming how St. Francis was born in a stable, like Jesus. And while he was pondering, the Sacristan came up to him and asked him of his goodness to look after the Church while he ate his supper. Church and Altar were both loaded with precious ornaments; gold and silver were there in abundance, for the sons of St. Francis had long fallen from their early poverty, and had received gifts from the Queens of the Earth.
Fra Giovanni a.s.sured the Sacristan:
"Go, Brother, and enjoy your meal. I will guard the Church, as Our Lord would have it guarded."
And so saying, he went on with his meditations. And as he knelt there alone in prayer, a poor woman entered the Church and asked an alms of him for the love of G.o.d.
"I have nothing," the holy man replied; "but the Altar is loaded with ornaments, and I will go see if I cannot find something to give you." A golden lamp hung above the Altar, decked about with silver bells.
Examining the lamp, he said to himself:
"Those little bells are but idle vanities. The true ornament of yonder Altar is the body of St. Francis, which reposes naked under the flags with a black stone for a pillow."