as written in 1227, and it is interesting to note that this little allegory is thus the first book ever written on St Francis, for Thomas of Celano’s “Legenda Prima,” was not completed until the following year.[12] There are, to my mind, two conclusive arguments, both adduced by Père Edouard,[13] against attributing the authorship to Giovanni da Parma. Fra Ubertino da Casale in a famous work[14] (“too famous,” it might justly be called), finished in 1305, is the first writer who expressly mentions the “Sacrum Commercium,” and he ascribes it merely to “a certain holy doctor,” giving no name. Now Ubertino well knew Giovanni (_ob._ 1289), and it seems impossible that he should not also have known and celebrated the Blessed as the author of the “Sacrum Commercium” had he really been so. Again Fra Salimbene da Parma (_ob._ 1287 or 1290) knew the Blessed Giovanni intimately, and alludes to him frequently in his Chronicle.[15] He even refers to writings of Giovanni’s, but there is never a hint of the “Sacrum Commercium.” The only theory on which it is possible to ascribe the authorship to Fra Giovanni is so wild as scarcely to be worthy of mention. We should have to suppose, seeing the unpopularity of the extremes of Poverty in a certain section of the Order, that he was afraid to acknowledge his work, and that he deliberately, and with much circumstance, falsified the date to secure his anonymity. But the Blessed Giovanni was not made of such poor stuff! He who endured hatred, persecution and imprisonment, to some extent by reason of his zeal for the Lady Poverty, was not the man to resort to so trivial a ruse. His deeds were far more unpopular (with some) than ever this little allegory could have made him. Père Edouard d’Alençon, with much ingenuity, seeks to credit Giovanni Parenti, St Francis’ immediate successor as Minister General (1227-1233), with the authorship. He gives an instance tending to show that there was a tradition that a Minister General had written the work, and then he points to the similarity between “Joannes Parenti” and “Joannes Parmensis.” All this proves his acumen and ingenuity, but he is too severely scientific a scholar to advance a clever theory as proof positive. For the present it is safest to admit frankly that the author of the “Sacrum Commercium” is unknown, and to conclude with Fra Ubertino da Casale that he was “quidam sanctus doctor hujus Sanctæ Paupertatis professor et zelator strenuus.” TRANSLATION AND SCRIPTURE REFERENCES