Apostles like St.Paul, not as the result of a canonical consecration, but by the interior order of the Spirit, they were the witnesses of liberty against authority.
The Calabrian seer, Gioacchino di Fiore, hailed the new-born revolution; he believed in its success and proclaimed to the wondering world the advent of a new ministry.

He was mistaken.
When the priest sees himself vanquished by the prophet he suddenly changes his method.

He takes him under his protection, he introduces his harangues into the sacred canon, he throws over his shoulders the priestly chasuble.

The days pass on, the years roll by, and the moment comes when the heedless crowd no longer distinguishes between them, and it ends by believing the prophet to be an emanation of the clergy.
This is one of the bitterest ironies of history.
Francis of Assisi is pre-eminently the saint of the Middle Ages.

Owing nothing to church or school he was truly _theodidact_,[3] and if he perhaps did not perceive the revolutionary bearing of his preaching, he at least always refused to be ordained priest.