Success is so powerful an argument that the biographers appear not to have perceived how determined Francis was to ignore the canonical laws.

He, a simple deacon, arrogated to himself the right to receive Clara's vows and admit her to the Order without the briefest novitiate.

Such an act ought to have drawn down upon its author all the censures of the Church, but Francis was already one of those powers to whom much is forgiven, even by those who speak in the name of the holy Roman Church.
Francis had decided that on the night between Palm Sunday and Holy Monday (March 18-19, 1212) Clara should secretly quit the paternal castle and come with two companions to Portiuncula, where he would await her, and would give her the veil.

She arrived just as the friars were singing matins.

They went out, the story goes, carrying candles in their hands, to meet the bride, while from the woods around Portiuncula resounded songs of joy over this new bridal.