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14

description

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Duan Gonmei
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Had it not been this idea that, together with that of freedom, had inspired the revolt of the

communes?
In rejecting the power of the feudal lords and erecting their cities as free communes, the people of the
towns aspired to new social relationships. The feudal regime only knew about relationships of vassalage:
men and women were always vassals of other men and women. The commune, as its name indicates,
promised social relationships that would be more democratic, freer, more fraternal. At least that was
what ordinary people hoped for. But this hope was quickly disappointed. In the free communes, the rule
of money, that of the rich merchants, replaced that of the lords. Thus the primitive Franciscan
movement re-lit, in the hearts of the poor, the hope of a true fraternity. What the communes had not
been able to realize, Francis and his brothers lived in the light of the Gospel. Small fraternities, those of
sisters as well as those of brothers, multiplied rapidly in Italy and then all across Western Europe. They
seemed like so many centers of peace and reconciliation. In truth, the friars lived a double fraternity:
between themselves, of course, but also with all the other men and women whom they met, and most
particularly with the poorest, the smallest. None of them was allowed to exercise the power of
domination (RegNB 5: 9). “We should never desire to be above others,” said Francis “but we ought
rather to be their servants...” (1EpFid 47). Coming from different

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