but on the other side there had been acquired something of a desire towards the extension to, and operation of the same on, the masses. This new monastic culture would not shut itself up in the solitary cells of a Cloister; it desired to come more nearly to the primitive form of Christianity; it would not only imitate the life of the Apostolic brotherhood, but the life of the disciples themselves in its first communion with their Master-Christ. The eye and heart were directed to Christ; as He mixed with the people, as He sent forth His disciples, supplied with nothing else then the might of His name; the new brothers wished thus to go among the people, to move from place to place, to penetrate the masses and win them to Christ.

It is this thought, which obtains in the life and practice of Francis of Assissi The thought is interwoven with much that is morbid and encircled with much that is fantastic; its origin rests in the peculiar disposition and bent of mind, which reigned in the middle ages. It is no new development of the evangelical, but a beautiful efflorescence of the mediaeval, spirit, which bursts forth in him; still there is nevertheless such a direct genuine appearance of piety which meets us here, such a pure and complete love of Christ, such a noble power of self-denial, a heroic endurance of work and suffering, that among the forms which memory raises up in the Christian Church, that of Francis of Assissi dare not be wanting. The glow and sincerity of his personal piety, even Luther acknowledged, when he felt himself obliged to censure partly the fundamental errors which were found in him and partly the degeneracy of the later brothers of the Order. And the Defence of the Augsburg Confession, in the Article on the Mass, appealed to Francis as to a witness of the truth, even though it is only on a secondary point.

Francis was born, September 27, 1182, in Assissi, a town of middle Italy in the delegation of Spoleto. He was the son of Pietro and Pica Bernardone. Properly his name was Gwianni (John); but his father, who as a prominent merchant had much business in France, called him Francesco (Francis), which name was retained by him during life as well as in history. Intended to pursue his father's calling, his youth passed away in the ordinary preparations for this purpose, and also in manifold pleasures and amusements which commonly filled up the days of wanton youth in a gay Italian city. Singing and shouting they passed through the streets, but they did not neglect knightly exercises; in the front Francis was found, sharing with all indeed profusely, amiably grasping life in a light way. Thus passed the flower of his youth. In his eighteenth year, in a contest with the people of Penegia, he and many of his companions fell into the hands of the enemy; but even here, throughout an imprisonment of four years, his gay spirit did not desert him, and it was a source of comfort and consolation at the same time for his fellow prisoners. Having returned home, he was seized with a serious attack of sickness, which brought him to the confines of death. This was the principal indication of an incipient

change of thought. When he looked, for the first time after his recovery, at the places, that had delighted his heart and mind with their beauty, he remarked to his own astonishment, that they no longer made any impression on him. Even beautiful clothing, for which he had before so great a delight, was no longer to his taste. When he appeared on the street for the first time, clad as was customary, in beautiful garments, he chanced to meet a poor man to whom he gave his clothing. On a subsequent evening a remarkable vision appeared to him. He saw a magnificent hall full of armor bearing the sign of the cross. To his question, for whom are these? he heard a voice reply: "They are for thee and thy warriors." He interpreted these words literally and resolved thenceforward to follow in the footsteps of Count Walter of Brienne, who was meditating a hostile incursion in Apuleà. But another

vision prevented him He hears the voice of Christ warning him from preferring the servant to the Lord. Then he observes that the knighthood, to which he is called, is a spiritual one. He returns to Assissi, awaiting and praying for further illumination. Above all, he is now zealous in the practice of godliness and self-denial. He devotes himself particularly to the care of Lepers, and he also shows himself inexhaustible in deeds of charity. His piety drives him to Rome, to see the world-renowned holy city. But there what captivates him most are those living pictures of his Saviour-the poor. To them he gives his good clothing, exchanging for it such as is torn and soiled; he selects the poor and poverty itself, as a bride, for the love of his heart. He returns home from this pious journey, and as he prays fervently in an old decayed church, a new voice comes to him, as though from the crucifix, and thrice orders him: "Go and repair my House, which is falling to ruins." Again he interprets this voice literally, although his later scholars believed that they recognized in it the announcement of the divine call, that he should repair spiritually the spiritual habitation of the Church. He seeks to obtain money to reconstruct the fallen Church. He bring goods of his father to the market at Foligno, in order to sell them along with his own horse and then applies the proceeds to the building up of this Church. Full of anger his father hastens after him, the son conceals himself for forty days in a cave; at length, strengthened by prayer and pious exercises, he returns voluntarily to his native place. There ignominy and scorn from his fellow citizens await him, and punishment from his father, who beats him and shuts him up in a dark room. The mother who had all along rested all her love and hope in her son, whom she believed destined for great things, comforts him and sets him free when his father was obliged to make a journey on account of business. He hastens back to his beloved church and declares to his father, who seeks him there and wishes to take him back, that he is determined to submit patiently to everything that his father may order, but that his determination was just as fixed to devote himself entirely to God. Without complaint he incurs both the curse of his father and disinheritance, and begs as an antidote to the

curse, the paternal blessing of an old pauper. Free now from all the bonds of the world, he lives alone for his God. His activity continues to be directed towards the restoration of the fallen Church. He not only renews the Church of St. Damianus, but also that of Mary at the Portiuncula. The latter indeed was his favorite residence. It was here on the 18th of October, 1208, being twentysix years old, he heard the Gospel for the day (Matt. 10: 9, 10) read: "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves." These words became the watchwords of his life. Here the figure of poverty, which he had carried as an ideal in his heart, comes out in clear, definite outline before him In accordance with it, yes, in it he clothes himself from this time forward. But he also does the work, which should be done in this form of pover ty by a disciple; he goes thence to preach repentance and love to Christ-the only Being worthy of love.

Success is not wanting to his preaching. A respectable townsman and several priests joined with him. There was formed a community, and he prepared to give fixed rules to the same. These were based on the words of the Lord: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor; and come and follow me; and, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself." To be without worldly possessions-this is, in addition to the ordinary vows, the most distinctive feature of this new fraternity. Poverty in imitation of the lowly life of Jesus, and Humility connected with it as spiritual poverty, these are its characteristics. Hence they are called inferior brothers-Minorites. No one was called Prior; there were only servants, no superiors, among them. To every one, even thieves and robbers, the heart was open, full of sympathetic, forgiving, suffering, helping love. Nothing was to be more avoided than the use of money. Whatever was necessary for the support of life they begged as alms. The more you are in want, the nearer you are to perfection. But this poverty and act of privation, which give man power over persons and things, must always be united with love, and the latter must ever be love in deed and in truth. No one should intrude his pious exercises and self-denials on the world. The countenance should be joyous and friendly amid fastings and mortification. With special emphasis

they are to hold to the purity of the Catholic faith. This seemed so much the more necessary, since similar practical intentions were pursued by Peter Waldus, but he, partly through the unskillful management of his superiors, and partly urged by his own peculi arity of spirit, turned off into ways, which no longer chimed in with the existing form of the Church. Whilst Peter Waldus kept before his eyes not only personal poverty, and also the form of humility in the Church, Francis embraced with his inmost soul the glory of the visible Church, its divine services and orders. He made it the duty of his followers to confess to the priest, when he declared it as lawful in a case of necessity for one brother to confess his sins to another. It was of first importance with him to

hold the body, the abode of sins, in subjection, and to subdue it, and on the other hand to implant the Word of God, the seed of life, into the soul. Moreover not only the mere words, but the things signified should be learned. He is a teacher of the Word, who has been ordained thereto; no one is entitled to claim the office of teacher except one set apart for it. Whoever desires, through divine instigation, to go as missionary among the Saracens and the Heathen, must not do this without permission of his superiors (or in the language of the Order-his fellow servants). Great prudence is enjoined in intercourse with females. In all severity pride is to be avoided, which looks down upon others, despising and judging them. Finally, there is needed true faith and penitence, otherwise no man can be saved. These first rules of Francis are full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures, and indeed are fre quently composed entirely of its phrases. They end with a spiritual, hymn-like address of praise to God.

With these rules, Francis in the year 1210 appeared before Innocence III, to secure their ratification. The Pope at first dismissed him abruptly, but was afterwards moved by a vision to take into consideration the request of the pious man, and to lay the subject before the Cardinals for examination. It is said, that to some of these the rules appeared as impossible, not adapted to humar endurance; on the other hand, Cardinal John Colonna declared that if they were to consider these rules as unreasonable and impossible, it would be to reject Christ Himself and His Gospel. The Pope in a general way only gave a verbal permission, reserving further action for the future. Francis then returned with his Disciples to Assissi, where he tormented his body, which he looked upon in his stern ascetic meditations as something foreign to himself bearing sins as a beast of burden, with hunger and thirst, cold and exposure, night-watchings and scourgings. Nevertheless, or probably we should rather say on that very account, he had to undergo new struggles and temptations, to which he opposed new and still severer penances. In the midst of these penitential exercises he heard a voice crying to him, that there was no sinner in the world that God would not forgive, if he turned to Him, but that he who imposed severe penances on his life should alone find no mercy. This voice he considered only the suggestion of the evil spirit. This was then very far from restraining him from a continuation of his rigorous customs; it only urged pious souls so much the more powerfully on, according to the spirit of the age. And as the idea of monasticism had always an influence on female souls and nunneries had been placed along side of monasteries from early times, so the new order of Ascetics, as it seemed to Francis, required its parallel formation of a female community. Clara Sciffi, the young and beautiful daughter of a rich and distinguished citizen, sincerely devoted from her childhood to the practices of piety, deeply excited by the appearance of Francis, fled from the house of her father to the church of the Portiuncula; there she had her long waving hair cut off, and remained true to her new

mode of life, although her brothers and relatives insisted upon her return to her father's house. She became (1212,) Founder of the Order of Clarisses. Francis furnished rules for these, which were in the main imitations of those for his own Order, differing only in special stress being laid on plainness of attire, on silence and labor.

In this way a staunch circle of disciples was collected around Francis; but now it was important to assign some work to these disciples. What is a disciple's work? The question was debated by Francis whether he was called to prayer or to preaching. He himself thought that he had the gift of prayer more than of preaching. He also supposed that he could advance further in sanctification by the exercise of prayer than by the use of sermons; prayer purifies and isolates us, preaching leads us out of ourselves; in prayer we enter into communion with God, in preaching we have intercourse with man. But as it seemed to be better to select that, in a spirit of self-denial, which appeared the more difficult and the less suited to one's nature, so also above all other things the thought, that Christ, the Son of God, came down from Heaven and preached the Gospel to the world, should impel him, thus reasoned Francis, to the business of preaching as his special calling. Indeed Francis would have mistaken himself, if he had wished to deny that an impulse to preaching had been deeply implanted in his own nature. Is it not the fire of love, of personal love for his Lord, in which he feels himself with all the tendrils of his life plunged? This love of Christ urges him to testify for his Lord; the sympathetic power, which is inherent with all love, draws him in all directions, where it is necessary to speak of and to praise Him, who has won his heart, and is to him the most beautiful of the children of men, the loveliest of all love, and nothing is more delightful than to be allowed, to spend his life in bearing testimony for the Beloved. Hence he sends his brothers, in pairs, as travelling preachers into the Italian Provinces. He himself travels to Tuscany. His first monasteries were established on this journey. His heart and desire impelled him still further. He sends six brothers to Morocco, five of whom (one having been sick was left in Spain,) found a voluntary martyr's death in their imprudent zeal. He himself is impelled towards Africa. He makes preparations, but is taken sick on the road in Spain, and this country becomes a new theatre for his preaching and the increase of his fraternity. Having returned to Italy to obtain a formal confirmation of his Order from the Pope, which had not yet been obtained, he observed with joy the very rapid increase of the Order, and new plans were devised for Gospel-missions. Messengers must be sent to all lands, according to the directions which the Lord Himself had given in the tenth chapter of Matthew. Domestic and foreign missions must be taken in hand. Missionaries were sent to England, Hungary (inhospitable Germany was alone avoided), Greece, Syria, Egypt and Africa. With twelve companions, among whom he divided the provinces imitating the old tradition of the Church,