[8] The _langue d'oil_ was at this epoch the international language of Europe; in Italy it was the language of games and tourneys, and was spoken in the petty princely courts of Northern Italy. Vide Dante, _De vulgari eloquio_, lib. I., cap. x. Brunetto Latini wrote in French because "the speech of France is more delectable and more common to all people." At the other end of Europe the Abbot of Stade, in Westphalia, spoke of the _nobility of the Gallic dialect_. _Ann._ 1224 _apud_ Pertz, Script. xvi. We shall find St. Francis often making allusions to the tales of the Round Table and the _Chanson de Roland_. [9] We must not be led astray by certain remarks upon his ignorance, from which one might at first conclude that he knew absolutely nothing; for example, 2 Cel., 3, 45: _Quamvis homo iste beatus nullis fuerit scientiae studiis innutritus_. This evidently refers to science such as the Franciscans soon came to apprehend it, and to theology in particular. The close of the passage in Celano is itself an evident proof of this. [10] Bon., 219; Cf. A. SS., p. 560a. 1 Cel., 23. [11] Ozanam, _Documents inedits pour servir a l'histoire litteraire d'Italie du VIIIe au XIIIe siecle_. Paris, 1851, 8vo, pp. 65, 68, 71, 73. Fauriel, _Dante et les origines de la litterature italienne_. Paris, 1854, 2 vols., 8vo, ii., p. 332, 379, 429. [12] V. 3 Soc., 51 and 67; 2 Cel., 3, 110; Bon., 55; 2 Cel., 3, 99; Eccl., 6. Bernard de Besse, Turin MS., fo. 96a, calls Brother Leo the secretary of St. Francis. [13] See page 357, n. 8. Bon., 51 and 308. [14] 1 Cel., 16; 3 Soc., 10; 23; 24; 33; 2 Cel., 1, 8; 3, 67. See also the Testament of St. Clara and the Speculum, 119a. [15] _Primum namque cum fari vel balbutire incipiunt, turpia quaedam et execrabilia valde signis et vocibus edocentur pueri ii nondum nati: et cum tempus ablactationis advenerit quaedam luxu et lascivia plena non solum fari sed et operari coguntur.... Sed et cum paulo plusculum aetate profecerint, se ipsis impellentibus, semper ad deteriora opera dilabuntur._ 1 Cel., 1. [16] 2 Cel., 1. Cf. _Conform._, 14a, 1. There is nothing impossible in her having been of Provencal origin, but there is nothing to indicate it in any document worthy of credence. She was no doubt of noble stock, for official documents always give her the title _Domina_. Cristofani I., p. 78 ff. Cf. _Matrem honestissimam habuit_. 3 Soc., Edition of Pesaro, 1831, p. 17. [17] The reading given by the _Conform_., 14a, 1, _Meritorum gratia dei filium ipsum noveritis affuturum_, seems better than that of 2 Cel., 1, 1, _Multorum gratia Dei filiorum patrem ipsum noveritis affuturum_. Cf. 3 Soc., 2.