Francis gave no new doctrine to the world; what was new in his message was wholly in his love, in his direct call to the evangelical life, to an ideal of moral vigor, of labor, and of love.
Naturally, there were soon found men who did not understand this true and simple beauty; they fell into observances and devotions, imitated, while living in the world, the life of the cloister to which for one reason or another they were not able to retire; but it would be unjust to picture to ourselves the _Brothers of Penitence_ as modelled after them.
Did they receive a Rule from St.Francis?
It is impossible to say.

The one which was given[20] them in 1289 by Pope Nicholas IV.

is simply the recasting and amalgamation of all the rules of lay fraternities which existed at the end of the thirteenth century.

To attribute this document to Francis is nothing less than the placing in a new building of certain venerated stones from an ancient edifice.

It is a matter of facade and ornamentation, nothing more.
Notwithstanding this absence of any Rule emanating from Francis himself, it is clear enough what, in his estimation, this association ought to be.