ord., 16.

[8] With regard to the figure of five thousand attendants given
by Bonaventura (Bon., 59) Father Papini writes: _Io non credo
stato capace alcuno di dare ad intendere al S. Dottore simil
fanfaluca, ne capace lui di crederla_.

_... In somma il numero quinque millia et ultra non e del Santo,
incapace di scrivere una cosa tanto improbabile e relativamente
impossibile. Storia di S. Fr._, i., pp. 181 and 183. This
figure, five thousand, is also indicated by Eccl., 6. All this
may be explained and become possible by admitting the presence
of the Brothers of Penitence, and it seems very difficult to
contest it, since in the Order of the Humiliants, which much
resembles that of the Brothers Minor (equally composed of three
branches approved by three bulls given June, 1201), the
chapters-general annually held were frequented by the brothers
of the three Orders. Tiraboschi t. ii., p. 144. Cf. above, p.
158.

[9] Vide 2 Cel., 3, 121; _Spec._, 42b; 127b.

[10] _Praecipio firmiter per obedientiam fratribus universis quod
ubicunque sunt, non audeant petere aliquam litteram in Curia
Romana._ _Test. B. Fr._

[11] A comparison with the Bullary of the Preaching Friars is
especially instructive: from their first chapter at Notre Dame
de Prouille, in 1216, they are about fifteen; we find there at
this time absolutely nothing that can be compared to the
Franciscan movement, which was already stirring up all Italy.
But while the first bull in favor of the Franciscans bears the
date of June 11, 1219, and the approbation properly so called
that of November 29, 1223, we find Honorius already in the end
of 1216 lavishing marks of affection upon the Dominicans;
December 22, 1216, _Religiosam vitam_. Cf. Pressuti, _I regesti,
del Pontefice Onorio III._, Roma, 1884, t. i., no. 175; same
date; _Nos attendentes_, ibid., no. 176; January 21, 1217,
_gratiarum omnium_, ib., no. 243. Vide 284, 1039, 1156, 1208. It
is needless to continue this enumeration. Very much the same
could be done for the other Orders; whence the conclusion that
if the Brothers Minor alone are forgotten in this shower of
favors, it is because they decidedly wished to be. It must be
admitted that immediately upon Francis