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FRANCIS

learn God's will in their regard by thrice opening at random the book of the Gospels on the altar. Each time it opened at passages where Christ told His dis- ciples to leave all things and follow Ilira. " This shall be our rule of life", exclaimed Francis, and led his companions to the public square, where they forthwith gave away all their belongings to the poor. After this they procured rough habits like that of Francis, and built themelves small huts near his at the Porziun- cola. A few days later Giles, afterwards the great ecstatic and sayer of "good words", became the third follower of Francis. The little band divitled and went about, two and two, making such an impression by their words and behaviour that before long several other disciples grouped themselves round Francis eager to share his poverty, among them being Sab- batinus, vir bonus at Jus- tus, Moricus, who had be- longed to the Crucigeri, John of Capella, who after- wards fell away, Philip " the Long", and four others of whom we know only the names. When the number of his companions had in- cre.ased to plevpn, Francis found it eypedient to draw up a written rule for t hem. This first rule, as it is called, of the Friars Minor has not come down to us in its origi- nal form, but it appears to have been very short and simple, a mere informal adaptation of the Gospel precepts already selected by Francis for the guidance of his first companions, and which he desired to prac- tise in all their perfection. When this rule was ready the Penitents of Assisi, as Francis and his followers styled themselves, set out for Rome to seek the ap- proval of the Holy See, al- though as yet no such ap- probation was obligatory. There are ditfering accounts of Francis's reception by Innocent III. It seems, however, that Guido, Bishop of Assisi, who was then in Rome, commended Francis to Cardinal John of St. Paul, and that at the instance of the latter, the pope recalled the saint whose first overtures he had, as it appears, somewhat rudely rejected. Moreover, in spite of the sinister predic- tioijs of others in the Sacred College, who regarded th e _niode of life_prppose d by francis as unsafe and im^ practicable. Innocent, moved it is said by a dream in which he beheld the Poor Man of Assisi upholding the tottering Lateran, gave a verbal sanction to the rule submitted by Francis and granted the saint and his companions leave to preach repentance everywhere. Befor e leaving Rome they all received the ecclesiastical tonsure, Francis hunseli being ordained deacon later on.

After their return to Assisi, the Friars Minor, for thus Francis had named his brethren — either after the minorcs, or lower classes, as some think, or as others believe,with reference to the Gospel (Matt., xxv, 40^5), and as a perpetual reminder of their humility — found shelter in a deserted hut at Rivo Torto in the plain below the city, but were forced to abandon this poor abode by a rough peasant who drove in his ass upon

St. Fhanc

Delia Robbla, in the cell wh

degli Angeli

them. About 1211 they obtained a permanent foot- hold near Assisi, through the generosity of the Bene- dictines of Monte Subasio, who gave them the little chapel of St. Mary of the Angels or the Porziuncola. Adjoining this humble sanctuary, already dear to Francis, the first Franciscan convent was formed by the erection of a few small huts or cells of wattle, straw, and mud. and enclosed by a hedge. From this settlement, which became the cradle of the Franciscan Order (Caput et Mater Onlinis) and the central spot in the life of IVancis, the Friars Minor went forth two by two exhorting the people of the surrounding country. Like children "careless of the day", they wandered from place to place singing in their joy, and calling themselves the Lord's min- strels. The wide world was their cloister; sleeping in haylofts, grottos, or church porches, they toiled with the labourers in the fields, and when none gave them work they would beg. In a short while Francis and his companions gained an im- mense influence, and men of tlifferent grades of life and ways of thought flocked to the order. Among the new recruits made about this time by Francis were the famous Three Com- panions, who afterwards wrote his life, namely: Angelus Tancredi, a noble cavalier; Leo, the saint's .secretary and confessor ; and Rufinus, a cousin of .St. Clare; besides Juniper, "the renowned jester of the Lord ".

During the Lent of 1212, a new joy, great as it was un- expected, came to Francis. (Mare, a young heiress of Assisi, mo ved hy the _saint/s jjreachliig at the church of St. Gcnri;e, smiglit Tiinroiit, :iiid bcL^yed to be alLiwed to .■ml.nioe tlie new manner I if life he luuT founded . By liis ailvice, ~Clare, wlio was then but eighteen, secretly left her father's house on the night following Palm Simday, and with two companions went to the Porziuncola, where the friars met her in procession, carrying lighted torches. Then Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in the Minorite habit and thus received her to a life of poverty, pen- ance, and seclusion. Clare stayed provisionally with some Benedictine nuns near Assisi, until Francis could provide a suitable retreat for her, and for St. Agnes, her sister, and the other pious maidens who had joined her. He eventually established them at St. Dami- an's, in a dwelling adjoining the chapel he had rebiiilt with his own hands, which was now given to the saint _by the Benedictines as a domicile for his spiritual daughters, and which thus became the first monastery of the Second Franciscan Order of Poor Ladies, now known as Poor Clares (see Clare of Assisi, Saint; Poor Clares).

In the autumn of the same year (1212) Francis's burning desire for the conversion of the Saracens led him to embark for Syria, but having been ship- wrecked on the coast of Slavonia, he had to return to Ancona. The following spring he devoted to evangel- izing Central Italy. About this time (1213) Francis

13 OF Assisi

sre St. Francis died, S. Maria

, near .\ssisi