ty and
strong." We hear of him preaching to the birds, and bidding them be
thankful for their feather-clothes and wings.

Soon other men joined themselves to him to live and teach as he did,
and they were called Franciscans, the Monks of St. Francis; and
sometimes the Grey Friars, because, like St. Francis, they wore grey
gowns; and they are also called the Begging Friars, because they too
had taken Poverty for their bride, and might own neither houses nor
lands; even food they must earn by the labour of their own hands, or
kindly people must give it to them. All their time, all their thoughts
must be given to helping the poor, the sick, and the wretched; and
where they were, there the Friars must go, so they made their homes
chiefly in the towns; and at first, while they kept the rules of St.
Francis very strictly, even these homes did not really belong to them.

In 1224 nine Franciscans came to England--the very first to come here.
Four of them went straight {34} to London. There the poorer people
lived on the marshy land near the Thames, huddled together in huts
built of mud and wattle; and in such homes there must have been plenty
of sickness and misery. For a short time the four Grey Friars lived on
Cornhill. Perhaps they thought they had no right to live in so
pleasant a place when there was such great misery down by the river;
certainly, soon so many people came about them that this first home was
too small for them. Now, a London citizen had some property "in
Stynkyng Lane and in the parish of St. Nicholas Shambles." Do you know
what shambles are? In them animals are killed for food; they cannot be
nice places to live in. This property the citizen gave to the Friars,
and there they made their new home. By their good deeds they must very
quickly have won the respect of the Londoners, for some gave them more
lands, and others helped in building a church and monastery for them.
This monastery was close to the place where the London General Post
Office now stands.

In those days the monasteries did most of the work which is now done by
schools, libraries, hospitals, hotels, and workhouses; no doubt the
Franciscans did their full share of it in London. But as the years
passed on and the first monks died, the younger men who took their
places became less strict in keeping the rules of St. Francis; many
people gave money and lands to the Order, and it became rich and great,
and changed very much. Before