[Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier]@TWC D-Link book
Life of St. Francis of Assisi

CHAPTER XIII
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The account of the sufferings they had endured produced so great an effect that from that time many of the friars added to their prayers the formula: "Lord preserve us from the heresy of the Lombards and the ferocity of the Germans."[9] This explains how Ugolini at last succeeded in convincing Francis of his duty to take the necessary measures no longer to expose the friars to be hunted down as heretics.

It was decided that at the end of the next chapter the missionaries should be armed with a papal brief, which should serve them as ecclesiastical passport.

Here is the translation of this document: Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, deacons, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical superiors, salutation and the apostolic blessing.
Our dear son, brother Francis, and his companions of the life and the Order of the Brothers Minor, having renounced the vanities of this world to choose a mode of life which has merited the approval of the Roman Church, and to go out after the example of the Apostles to cast in various regions the seed of the word of God, we pray and exhort you by these apostolic letters to receive as good catholics the friars of the above mentioned society, bearers of these presents, warning you to be favorable to them and treat them with kindness for the honor of God and out of consideration for us.
Given (at Rieti) this third day of the ides of June (June 11, 1219), in the third year of our pontificate.[10] It is evident that this bull was calculated to avoid awakening Francis's susceptibilities.

To understand precisely in what it differs from the first letters usually accredited to new Orders it is necessary to compare it with them; that which had instituted the Dominicans had been, like the others, a veritable privilege;[11] here there is nothing of the kind.
The assembly which was opened at Whitsunday of 1219 (May 26) was of extreme importance.[12] It closed the series of those primitive chapters in which the inspiration and fancy of Francis were given free course.

Those which followed, presided over by the vicars, have neither the same cheerfulness nor the same charm; the crude glare of full day has driven away the hues of dawn and the indescribable ardors of nature at its awakening.
The summer of 1219 was the epoch fixed by Honorius III.


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