ABSTRACT
(See Lettres de Jacques de Vitry, ed. R. B. C. Huygens (Leiden, 1960), intro, and Epistolae I, VI, pp. 75–6, 131–3; also in L. Lemmens, Testimonia Minora (see no. 7), pp. 79–80; G. Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e délVoriente francescano, Vol. I (Quaracchi, 1906), pp. 2–8 (but Lemmens and Golubovich print a different text: see p. 204, n. 2.) Jacques de Vitry was an able and devoted French secular clerk, who became bishop of Acre in 1216 (1216–28), and later Cardinal-bishop of Frascati (1229–40). He may have met Francis when he was at the Curia at Perugia in 1216 for his consecration by Pope Honorius III to the frontier see of Acre, and certainly met him when Francis was visiting the Fifth Crusade and the Sultan in 1219–20. He is a vivid witness to the impact of the saint and of his Order in early days.
