"There is, as in so many other points in the life of St. Francis, not a small amount of doubt and controversy about the Rule of St. Francis. Whether St. Francis wrote several rules or one rule only, with several versions, whether he received it directly from heaven through revelation, or whether it was the fruit of long experience, whether he gave it the last touch or whether its definite form is due to the influence of others, all these are questions which find different answers. However in some cases, it is more a question of words than of facts. We may speak of three successive rules or of three successive versions of the same rule; that makes little difference, since the spirit in the three cases is the same. For clearness, we [...] speak simply of the three rules, the first of which is of the year 1209, the second of 1221, the third of 1223; [...] more especially the one of 1223, as this is properly the Rule of St. Francis." —"Rule of Saint Francis," by Livarius Oliger in Catholic Encyclopedia, (ed.) by Charles G. Herbermann and others, New York: The Encyclopaedia Press (1913)
English-language translations of Rule of Saint Francis include:
