FRANCIS
223
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 the new manner I if life he luuT founded . By liis ailvice, ~Clare, who 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
