Brother Giordano's chronicle, recently discovered and published, throws all the light that could be desired upon a plot laid against Francis by the very persons whom he had commissioned to take his place at Portiuncula, and this, if not with the connivance of Rome and the cardinal protector, at least without their opposition.

These events had indeed been narrated by Angelo Clareno, but the undisguised feeling which breathes through all his writings and their lack of accuracy had sufficed with careful critics to leave them in doubt.

How could it be supposed that in the very lifetime of St.Francis the vicars whom he had instituted could take advantage of his absence to overthrow his work?
How could it be that the pope, who during this period was sojourning at Rieti, how that Ugolini, who was still nearer, did not impose silence on these agitators ?[32] Now that all the facts come anew to light, not in an oratorical and impassioned account, but brief, precise, cutting, dated, with every appearance of notes taken day by day, we must perforce yield to evidence.
Does this give us reason clamorously to condemn Ugolino and the pope?
I do not think so.

They played a part which is not to their honor, but their intentions were evidently excellent.

If the famous aphorism that the end justifies the means is criminal where one examines his own conduct, it becomes the first duty in judging that of others.