t part Francis still
took in the direction of the Order. Pietro di Catana and later Brother
Elias are sometimes called ministers-general, sometimes vicars; the two
terms often occur successively, as in the preceding narrative. It is
very probable that this confusion of terms corresponds to a like
confusion of facts. Perhaps it was even intentional. After the chapter
of September, 1220, the affairs of the Order pass into the hands of him
whom Francis had called minister-general, though the friars as well as
the papacy gave him only the title of vicar. It was essential for the
popularity of the Brothers Minor that Francis should preserve an
appearance of authority, but the reality of government had slipped from
his hands.

The ideal which he had borne in his body until 1209 and had then given
birth to in anguish, was now taking its flight, like those sons of our
loins whom we see suddenly leaving us without our being able to help it,
since that is life, yet not without a rending of our vitals. _Mater
dolorosa!_ Ah, no doubt they will come back again, and seat themselves
piously beside us at the paternal hearth; perhaps even, in some hour of
moral distress, they will feel the need of taking refuge in their
mother's arms as in the old days; but these fleeting returns, with their
feverish haste, only reopen the wounds of the poor parents, when they
see how the children hasten to depart again--they who bear their name
but belong to them no longer.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Giord., 14; _Tribul._, f^o 10.

[2] Any other date is impossible, since Francis in open chapter
relinquished the direction of the Order in favor of Pietro di
Catana, who died March 10, 1221.

[3] This too short fragment is found in Sec. vi. of the Rule of the
Damianites (August 9, 1253): Speculum, Morin, Tract. iii., 226b.

[4] 2 Cel., 2, 3; Bon., 162; cf. _Conform._, 184b, 2, and 62b, 1.

[5] Sigonius, _Opera_, t. iii. col. 220; cf. Potthast, 5516, and
6086.

[6] 2 Cel., 3, 4; _Spec._, 11a; _Tribul._, 13a; _Conform._,
169b, 2.

[7] Died in 1229. Cf. Mazzetti, _Repertorio di tutti i
professori di Bologna_, Bologna, 1847, p. 11.

[8] See _Mon. Germ. hist. Script._, t. 28, p. 635, and the
notes.

[9] Wadding, _ann. 1220_, no. 9. Cf. A. SS., p. 823.

[10] 2 Cel., 1, 16; _Spec._, 100a-101b.

[11] Giord., 14; cf. 2 Cel., 1, 17; _Spec._, 102; 3 Soc., 56 and 63.

[12] _Cu