theological studies
were recommended. They disappeared almost completely in the
storm of the Albigensian crusade. Innocent III., _epistolae_,
xi., 196, 197, 198; xii., 17, 66; xiii., 63, 77, 78, 94; xv.,
82, 83, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 137, 146. The first of these
bulls contains the very curious Rule of this ephemeral order.
Upon its disappearance vide Ripoli, _Bullarium Praedicatorum_, 8
vols., folio, Rome, 1729-1740, t. i., p. 96. Cf. Elie Berger,
_Registres d'Innocent IV._, 2752.

[22] Burchard, of the order of the Premostrari, who died in
1226. See below, p. 234.

[23] 3 Soc., 52; Bon., 38.

[24] 3 Soc., 52 and 49.

[25] St. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, saw very clearly that
it was _quaedam concessio simplex habitus et modi illius vivendi
et quasi permissio_. A. SS., p. 839. The expression "approbation
of the Rule" by which the act of Innocent III. is usually
designated is therefore erroneous.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII

RIVO-TORTO

1210-1211

The Penitents of Assisi were overflowing with joy. After so many
mortally long days spent in that Rome, so different from the other
cities that they knew, exposed to the ill-disguised suspicions of the
prelates and the jeers of pontifical lackeys, the day of departure
seemed to them like a deliverance. At the thought of once more seeing
their beloved mountains they were seized by that homesickness of the
child for its native village which simple and kindly souls preserve till
their latest breath.

Immediately after the ceremony they prayed at the tomb of St. Peter, and
then crossing the whole city they quitted Rome by the Porta Salara.

Thomas of Celano, very brief as to all that concerns Francis's sojourn
in the Eternal City, recounts at full length the light-heartedness of
the little band on quitting it. Already it began to be transfigured in
their memory; pains, fatigues, fears, disquietude, hesitations were all
forgotten; they thought only of the fatherly assurances of the supreme
pontiff--the vicar of Christ, the lord and father of the Christian
universe--and promised themselves to make ever new efforts to follow the
Rule with fidelity.

Full of these thoughts they had set out, without provisions, to cross
the Campagna of Rome, whose few inhabitants never venture out in the
heat of the day. The road stretches away nor