Thanks to George's daily calendar of saints (for 13 March), I was reminded
of how little I knew of Agnellus of Pisa, founder of the Franciscan
province of England (1224). And that little did not lead me to Lester K.,
but to a much older Little, A.G. Little, whose edition of the chronicle of
Thomas of Eccleston, *De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam* (Manchester
U.P., Manchester, 1951), has all the best 13thc.information about Agnellus.
So I was amazed that the Bollandists' *BHL* (the original ed.) and the
up-to-date *BHL Supplementum* both refer to Bartholomaeus de Pisis, *De
conformitate...* in *Anal. Fran.* 4 (1906), pp.329-31. Bartholomew of Pisa
is a late 14thc. source, who may have indirectly based his account of
Agnellus on Thomas of Eccleston (cf. Little, pp.xxviii-xxix).
On Agnellus, Eccleston is both historical and hagiographical.
After praising his virtues (but not in hagiographical terms) and describing
Agnellus's good death, Eccleston recounts two post-mortem manifestations of
sanctity. I quote from the translation by E. Gurney Salter, *The Coming of
the Friars Minor to England and Germany* (London, 1926), pp.92-3, which
renders Little's Latin text (p.77) accurately:
'Now it appeared to his companion, Brother Walter of Madeley, that there
lay in the choir a dead body, which looked as though it had just been taken
down from a cross. For it too had five bleeding wounds [quinque
vulnera...sanguinantia] after the likeness of Jesus Christ crucified. He
indeed thought that it was sweet Jesus Christ Himself, but, drawing near
and beholding it from close at hand, he saw that it was Brother Agnellus.
'After many years, when it was necessary for the Brethren to remove his
body--that is, when they had pulled down the chapel in the choir of which
he was buried before the altar, they found the leaden coffin in which he
lay, and the grave also, full of the purest oil [oleo purissimo], and the
body itself and its wrappings alike uncorrupted and giving forth a most
sweet odour [incorruptum et suavissime redolere].'
Both hagiographic motifs--the faithful friar imitating Francis as well as
Christ (the five wounds); and the odor of sanctity--are of interest.
For a good historiographical appreciation of Eccleston, see R.B. Brooke,
*Early Franciscan Government* (Cambridge, 1959), pp.27-45.
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|