02. The convents of Mount Athos in their present
state give us a very accurate notion of the great monasteries of
Europe at the close of the twelfth century.

[5] St. Petrus Chrysologus, sermo viii., de jejunio et
eleemosyna. _Da pauperi ut des tibi: da micam ut accipias totum
panem; da tectum, accipe coelum._

[6] By what right did he begin to preach? By what right did he,
a mere deacon, admit to profession and cut off the hair of a
young girl of eighteen? That is an episcopal function, one which
can only devolve even upon priests by an express commission.

[7] Isaiah i. 10-17. Cf. Joel 2, Psalm 50.

[8] The chronicles of Orvieto (_Archivio, storico italiano_, t.
i., of 1889, pp. 7 and following) are nothing more than a list,
as melancholy as they are tedious of wars, which, during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all the places of that
region carried on, from the greatest to the smallest.

[9] Do not forget that in the thirteenth century Italy was not a
mere geographical expression. It was of all the countries of
Europe the one which, notwithstanding its partitions, had the
clearest consciousness of its unity. The expression _profectus
et honor Italiae_ often appeared from the pen of Innocent III.
See, for instance, the bull of April 16, 1198, _Mirari cogimur_,
addressed particularly to the Assisans.

[10] Note what the Fioretti say of Brother Bernard: "_Stava solo
sulle cime dei monti altissimi contemplando le cose celesti._"
Fior., 28. The learned historian of Assisi, Mr. Cristofani, has
used similar expressions; speaking of St. Francis, he says:
"_Nuovo Christo in somma e pero degno d'essere riguardoto come
la piu gigantesca, la piu splendida, la piu cara tra le grandi
figure campeggianti nell' aere del medio evo_" (_Storia
d'Assisi_, t. i., p. 70, ed. of 1885).

[11] It remains open all night.

* * * * *

LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS

* * * * *

CHAPTER I

YOUTH

Assisi is to-day very much what it was six or seven hundred years ago.
The feudal castle is in ruins, but the aspect of the city is just the
same. Its long-deserted streets, bordered by ancient houses, lie in
terraces half-way up the steep hill-side. Above it Mou