. IV, Anno 1256. Nos. 2 and 3.]

In view of his failure, Bonaventure's success is all the more
conspicuous. In order to appreciate this success at its proper value
we must consider briefly the difficulties that troubled the peace of
the Order. What precisely they were it is somewhat {32} difficult to
determine. They must be traced back to the influence of Brother Elias.
For a period, even during the lifetime of St. Francis, this man seems
to have exerted an influence in the Order second only to that of the
Saint himself. He was truly a remarkable man and the story of his life
is strange and sad.

An intimate friend and devoted disciple of St. Francis, he had been
deemed worthy by the latter to rule the Order during his absence in
Palestine. Though full of admiration for the Seraphic Father and
professing intense reverence for his saintly life and Christ-like
spirit, he appears never to have quite accepted his views concerning
the absolute poverty and rigorous mode of life he wished to impose
upon his followers. He seems to have considered that such austerity
would render impossible its uniform and continued observance by any
considerable body of men. Whilst a few chosen souls such as Francis
himself could live up to it, the heterogeneous multitude who were
flocking to the Order could not prudently be expected to do so. Hence
he advocated certain mitigations in the matter of poverty. What these
were we cannot definitely affirm. His views and actions are presented
to us from a thoroughly hostile standpoint. His biographers, generally
speaking, were his avowed opponents, and although they were men of
remarkable virtue and integrity of life, we can hardly believe that
they were free from the {33} influence of bias and party spirit. In
their eyes Elias was a wrecker--the enemy of their Order and the
destroyer of its high ideals. Hence their accounts of him must be
cautiously received and allowance made for the exaggerations of pious
zeal.

We are told that Elias sought to introduce the use of money; that in
visiting the Order he rode on horseback; that he wore a somewhat
elegant habit; that there was a general tendency to relaxation
discernible in his life. No doubt he was guilty of these things, but
in view of subsequent developments it is not easy to determine how far
they were incompatible with the spirit of the Rule. We are told that
he was a man of remarkable foresight and a born ruler. Perhaps he
wished to establis