cherish and keep us, and produces various fruits with coloured flowers and the grass.
Be praised, my Lord, for those who forgive for love of thee, and endure sickness and tribulation; blessed are they who endure in peace; for by thee, Most High, shall they be crowned.
Be praised, my Lord, for our bodily death, from which no living man can escape; woe unto those who die in mortal sin.
Blessed are they that have found thy most holy will, for the second death shall do them no hurt.
Praise and bless my Lord, and render thanks, and serve Him with great humility.[1]
The self-expression of the more personal parts of the Testament supplement these utterances:
"Thus the Lord gave to me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance: because while I was in sins, it seemed too bitter to me to see lepers; and the Lord himself led me among them, and I did mercy with them. And departing from them, that which seemed to me bitter, was turned for me into sweetness of soul and body. And a little afterwards I went out of the world.
"And the Lord gave me such faith in churches, that thus simply I should pray and say: 'We adore thee, Lord Jesus Christ, and in all thy churches which are in the whole world, and we bless thee, because through thy holy cross thou hast redeemed the world.'
"Afterwards the Lord gave and gives me so great faith in priests who live after the model of the holy Roman Church according to their order, that if they should persecute me I will still turn to them. And if I should have as great wisdom as Solomon had, and should have found the lowliest secular priests in the parishes where they dwell, I do not wish to preach contrary to their wish. And them and all others I wish to fear and honour as my lords; and I do not wish to consider sin in them, because I see the Son of God in them and they are my lords.
"And the reason I do this is because corporeally I see nothing in this world of that most high Son of God except His most holy body and most holy blood, which they receive and which they alone administer. And I wish these most holy mysteries to be honoured above all and revered, and to be placed together in precious places. Wherever I shall find His most holy names and His written words in unfit places, I wish to collect them, and I ask that they be collected and placed in a proper place; and all theologians and those who administer the most holy divine words, we ought to honour and venerate, as those who administer to us spirit and life.
- ↑ Translated from the text as given in E. Monaci's Crestomasia italiana dei primi secoli. Substantially the same text is given in Spec. perf. 120.
