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that the influences of religion might be brought to bear upon 
the outcasts of society and even upon heathen lands. It was the 
martial spirit of the Crusades transformed into the missionary 
zeal of the preacher. The Franciscan movement which did so 
much for the ignorant and poor in the great cities and towns of 
Europe had its origin in what at first sight seems almost an 
accident. One evening Pope Innocent III. was pacing the terrace 
of the Vatican palace engaged in deep meditation upon the world- 
wide schemes in which he was perpetually engaged. Suddenly 
his thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a mendicant 
dressed in the foulest rags, and who asked permission to reveal a 
scheme for the promotion of Religion among the lowest orders 
of mankind, and who offered to dedicate all his zeal and his 
best energies to the service of the Papal See. Innocent gave a 
ready ear to the story. Francis of Assisi then proceeded to tell 
the story of his life. He told how there was a time when he 
was the life and soul of a band of dissolute companions, of how 
his course had been stopped by a dangerous sickness, and how 
he had risen from his bed conscious of a great change which had 
come over him. At first there was only the sense of large, vague 
desires for the welfare of mankind and for the promotion of true 
religion. Then he called to mind the masses in the great towns 
oppressed by nobles and burghers, and uncared for by the prelates 
in the great monastic establishments. The enthusiast warned 
the Supreme Pontiff that amongst these neglected masses the 
influence of the Church was slowly, but surely passing away, 
and that the hearts of the people were being turned from the 
accredited ministers of religion by those who taught hitherto 
unknown doctrines, and who lived the life of the poor among 
whom they worked and taught. 
Aided by the approbation and fortified with the benediction of 
the Church, Francis of Assisi proposed to found an Order which 
should rival and surpass both the labours and the sufferings 
of those who were thus turning the affections of the people 
away from the Roman Pontiff. The wealth, power and mag- 
nificence of the great monastic orders had to a serious extent 
paralysed their spiritual influence, and he proposed that the new 
order should be wedded to poverty in its most repulsive form. 
There should not be in any of the worst parts of the poorest 
towns of Christendom any who should be poorer than these new 
teachers. So strict was to be their rule of life that even a 
breviary was to be forbidden them. A robe made from the 
coarsest possible materials and fastened round the waist with a 
common rope was to constitute all the wealth that any member 
was to possess, and they were to depend for their food entirely 
upon the alms of the faithful poor. It was forbidden that their 
churches should ever become stately, or be decorated in any way, 
