The provincial ministers, of whom he appears to have been thinking when he thus spoke, were only instruments in the hands of the clever Brother Elias; and he--what else was he doing but putting his intelligence and address at Cardinal Ugolini's service?
Far from finding any consolation in those around him, Francis was constantly tortured by the confidences of his companions, who, impelled by mistaken zeal, aggravated his pain instead of calming it.[26] "Forgive me, Father," said one of them to him one day, "but many people have already thought what I am going to say to you.

You know how, in the early days, by God's grace the Order walked in the path of perfection; for all that concerns poverty and love, as well as for all the rest, the Brothers were but one heart and one soul.

But for some time past all that is entirely changed: it is true that people often excuse the Brothers by saying that the Order has grown too large to keep up the old observances; they even go so far as to claim that infidelities to the Rule, such as the building of great monasteries, are a means of edification of the people, and so the primitive simplicity and poverty are held for nothing.

Evidently all these abuses are displeasing to you; but then, people ask, why do you tolerate them ?" "God forgive you, brother." replied Francis.

"Why do you lay at my door things with which I have nothing to do?
So long as I had the direction of the Order, and the Brothers persevered in their vocation I was able, in spite of weakness, to do what was needful.