Note 186 — Chapter III · THE MINSTREL LIFE

Speculum Perfectionis (ed. Sabatier), 197. When Francis had finished his Canticle of the Sun, he thought for a moment of summoning ‘frater Pacificus qui in saeculo vocabatur rex versuum et fuit valde curialis doctor cantorum,’ and giving him a band of friars who might sing it to the people at the end of their sermons: ‘finitis autem laudibus volebat quod praedicator diceret populo: “Nos sumus ioculatores Domini, et pro his volumus remunerari a vobis, videlicet ut stetis in vera paenitentia.” Et ait: “Quid enim sunt servi Dei nisi quidam ioculatores eius qui corda hominum erigere debent et movere ad laetitiam spiritualem.”’ Cf. Sabatier, Life of St. Francis, 9, 51, 307. Perhaps Francis may have heard of Joachim of Flora, his contemporary, who wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, f. 183. a. 2 ‘qui vere monachus est nihil reputat esse suum nisi citharam.’