Dear Jessalynn,
What always struck me as especially interesting about the (painterly) scene of
'S. Francis before the Sultan' was the offer of an ordeal by fire, precisely
the sort of thing the Fourth Lateran no longer tolerated. If I recall
correctly, Bonaventure made a special point of interviewing Fra Illuminato at
Assisi when the former was writing his *vita major* of Francis (summer of
1260). So even if the use of the information was hagiographic and Illuminato's
story may have grown with the telling over the years, Bonaventure's source was
the companion of Francis.
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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