Later on it is related that Francis had seen in a dream a multitude of starving friars, and himself unable to satisfy their wants, because though all around him lay innumerable crumbs of bread, they disappeared between his fingers when he would give them to those about him.

Then a voice from heaven said to him: "Francis, make of these crumbs a wafer; with that thou shalt feed these starving ones." There is little hazard in assuming that this is the picturesque echo of the conferences which took place at this time between Francis and the cardinal; the latter might have suggested to him by such a comparison the essential defects of his project.

All this, no doubt, took place during Francis's stay in Rome, in the beginning of 1221.[4] Before going there, we must cast a glance over the similarity in inspiration and even in style which allies the Rule of 1221 with another of St.Francis's works, that which is known under the title of The Admonitions.[5] This is a series of _spiritual counsels_ with regard to the religious life; it is closely united both in matter and form with the work which we have just examined.

The tone of voice is so perfectly the same that one is tempted to see in it parts of the original draft of the Rule, separated from it as too prolix to find place in a Rule.
However it may be with this hypothesis, we find in The Admonitions all the anxieties with which the soul of Francis was assailed in this uncertain and troubled hour.

Some of these counsels sound like bits from a private journal.