He divined the superiority of the spiritual priesthood.
The charm of his life is that, thanks to reliable documents, we find the man behind the wonder worker.

We find in him not merely noble actions, we find in him a life in the true meaning of the word; I mean, we feel in him both development and struggle.
How mistaken are the annals of the Saints in representing him as from the very cradle surrounded with aureole and nimbus! As if the finest and most manly of spectacles were not that of the man who conquers his soul hour after hour, fighting first against himself, against the suggestions of egoism, idleness, discouragement, then at the moment when he might believe himself victorious, finding in the champions attracted by his ideal those who are destined if not to bring about its complete ruin, at least to give it its most terrible blows.

Poor Francis! The last years of his life were indeed a _via dolorosa_ as painful as that where his master sank down under the weight of the cross; for it is still a joy to die for one's ideal, but what bitter pain to look on in advance at the apotheosis of one's body, while seeing one's soul--I would say his thought--misunderstood and frustrated.
If we ask for the origins of his idea we find them exclusively among the common people of his time; he is the incarnation of the Italian soul at the beginning of the thirteenth century, as Dante was to be its incarnation a hundred years later.
He was of the people and the people recognized themselves in him.

He had their poetry and their aspirations, he espoused their claims, and the very name of his institute had at first a political signification: in Assisi as in most other Italian towns there were _majores_ and _minores_, the _popolo grasso_ and the _popolo minuto_; he resolutely placed himself among the latter.

This political side of his apostolate needs to be clearly apprehended if we would understand its amazing success and the wholly unique character of the Franciscan movement in its beginning.
As to its attitude toward the Church, it was that of filial obedience.
This may perhaps appear strange at first as regards an unauthorized preacher who comes speaking to the world in the name of his own immediate personal inspiration.