rld He has made
this compact, that we shall give the world a good example, and the
world shall make provision for our necessities."

Yet, though he preached repentance and sorrow for sin, never was it his
wish that men and women who had other duties should abandon those
duties and their calling to follow his example. Besides the Order of
the Lesser Brethren, he had founded an Order of holy women who should
pray and praise while the men went forth to teach; but well he knew
that all could not do as these had done, that the work of the world
must be carried on, the fields ploughed and reaped, and the vines
dressed, and the nets cast and drawn, and ships manned at sea, and
markets filled, and children reared, and aged people nourished, and the
dead laid in their graves; and when people were deeply moved by his
preaching and would fain have followed him, he would say: "Nay, be in
no unwise haste to leave your homes; there, too, you may serve God and
be devout and holy;" and, promising them a rule of life, he founded the
Third Order, into which, whatever their age or calling, all who desired
to be true followers of Christ Jesus might be admitted.

Even among those who gave themselves up wholly to the life spiritual he
discouraged excessive austerity, forbidding them to fast excessively or
to wear shirts of mail and bands of iron on their flesh, for these not
only injured their health and lessened their usefulness, but hindered
them in prayer and meditation and delight in the love of God. Once,
too, when it was revealed to him that a brother lay sleepless because
of his weakness and the pinch of hunger, St. Francis rose, and, taking
some bread with him, went to the brother's cell, and begged of him that
they might eat that frugal fare together. God gave us these bodies of
ours, not that we might torture them unwisely, but that we might use
their strength and comeliness in His service.

So, with little heed to his own comfort, but full of consideration and
gentleness for the weakness of others, he and his companions with him
went about, preaching and praising God; cheering and helping the
reapers and vintagers in the harvest time, and working with the
field-folk in the earlier season; supping and praying with them
afterwards; sleeping, when day failed, in barns or church porches or
leper-hospitals, or may be in an old Etruscan tomb or in the shelter of
a jutting rock, if no better chance befell; till at last they came to