powerful not only in affairs
of the Church, but also in those of the Empire. Frederic II., who seemed
to be groping his way, and in whose mind were germinating dreams of
religious reformation, and the desire of placing his power at the
service of the truth, treated him as a friend, and spoke of him with
unbounded admiration.[13]

In his reflections upon the remedies to be applied to the woes of
Christianity, the cardinal came at last to think that one of the most
efficacious would be the substitution of bishops taken from the two new
Orders, for the feudal episcopate almost always recruited from local
families in which ecclesiastical dignities were, so to speak,
hereditary. In the eyes of Ugolini such bishops were usually wanting in
two essential qualities of a good prelate: religious zeal and zeal for
the Church.

He believed that the Preaching and the Minor Friars would not only
possess those virtues which were lacking in the others, but that in the
hands of the papacy they might become a highly centralized hierarchy,
truly catholic, wholly devoted to the interests of the Church at large.
The difficulties which might occur on the part of the chapters which
should elect the bishops, as well as on the side of the high secular
clergy, would be put to flight by the enthusiasm which the people would
feel for pastors whose poverty would recall the days of the primitive
Church.

At the close of his interviews with Francis and Dominic, he
communicated to them some of these thoughts, asking their advice as to
the elevation of their friars to prelatures. There was a pious contest
between the two saints as to which should answer first. Finally, Dominic
said simply that he should prefer to see his companions remain as they
were. In his turn, Francis showed that the very name of his institute
made the thing impossible. "If my friars have been called _Minores_," he
said, "it is not that they may become _Majores_. If you desire that they
become fruitful in the Church of God, leave them alone, and keep them in
the estate into which God has called them. I pray you, father, do not so
act that their poverty shall become a motive for pride, nor elevate them
to prelatures which would move them to insolence toward others."[14]

The ecclesiastical policy followed by the popes was destined to render
this counsel of the two founders wholly useless.[15]

Francis and Dominic parted, never again to meet. The _Master_ of the
Preaching Fria