"As Bonaventure was on his way to the General Chapter of Assisi, it
happened that a poor spiritually afflicted Brother, named Fulginas,
was very desirous of speaking to him but could not do so because of
the numbers that surrounded him and engaged his attention. The poor
Brother went along in advance of the Saint until he came almost to the
walls of Assisi and there awaited him. On his approach he cried out:
'Reverend Father, I should like very much to speak with you for my
consolation, and I humbly beseech you not to despise your poor subject
though he is beneath notice'. Bonaventure immediately left the company
that surrounded him and seating himself on the ground beside the poor
Brother, listened with great patience and kindness to his long and
tedious recital, and consoled him with much compassion and sympathy.
His {70} companions, impatient at his long absence, expressed their
disapproval of his action. But he said: 'I could not do otherwise. I
am the minister and servant--the poor Brother my lord and master. I
often recall those words of the Rule: 'Let the Ministers receive the
Brothers charitably and kindly, and show themselves so familiar
towards them that they (_the Brothers_) may speak and act with them
like masters with their servants.' I, being the servant, should obey
the will of my master and solace the misery of that poor sufferer."

This other anecdote illustrates this virtue of humility quite as
forcibly, and has the advantage of being more authentic. Salimbene,
[Footnote 32] a contemporary chronicler, is our authority. "Brother
Mark," he wrote, "was my special friend, and to such a degree did he
love Brother Bonaventure, that he would frequently burst into tears on
recalling (after his father's death) the learning and heavenly graces
that had crowned his life. When Brother Bonaventure, the
Minister-General, was about to preach to the clergy, this same brother
Mark would say to him: 'You are indeed a hireling,' or, 'On former
occasions you have preached without knowing precisely what you were
talking about. I sincerely hope you are not going to do that now.'
Brother Mark acted thus to incite the General to more painstaking
efforts. His depreciation was merely {71} affected and in no way
genuine, for Mark reported all the sermons of his master and treasured
them greatly. Brother Bonaventure _rejoiced_ at his friend's reproaches,
and that for five reasons. First, because his was a kindly-hearted and
lon