Franciscan beggary rigourism

Abstract

The paper is an attemt to determine the locus and period of composition of a Croatian glagolithic poem S(ve)t se kon'ča (The World Ends). That is achieved through the analysis of the content of the poem, primarily its mythical layer. The author establishes the thematic connections with the Revelation, and identifies the archetipes which found their reflection in the poem as heterodox, apostolic and spiritual, especially Franciscan and apocaliptic. The mythical layer of the poem is most closely connected with the ideological and political events and personages of the transition period between the Middle Ages and the Modem world, especially because the Franciscan poverty battles of the time were fuul of apocaliptic symbolism, including the symbolism of numbers. It is the analysis of the numerical symbolic layer that has enabled the author to assert that the poem was composed in the first third of 14th century within the circle of Croatian Tertiary order of the Franciscans. Since at the time the glagolitic Tertiary Franciscans were situated in Zadar, their place of origin, the author infers that Zadar was the place of composition of the poem. The linguistic characteristics of the poem do not contradict the assumption, but give it added strength.