It was reported that they had craved a strange privilege from the court of Rome: that of possessing nothing.

Men saw them pass by, earning their bread by the labor of their hands, accepting only the bare necessities of bodily sustenance from them to whom they had given with lavish hands the bread of life.

The people lifted up their heads, breathing in with deep inspirations the airs of a springtime upon which was already floating the perfume of new flowers.
Here and there in the world there are many souls capable of all heroism, if only they can see before them a true leader.

St.Francis became for these the guide they had longed for, and whatever was best in humanity at that time leaped to follow in his footsteps.
This movement, which was destined to result in the constitution of a new family of monks, was in the beginning anti-monastic.

It is not rare for history to have similar contradictions to record.