Preach penitence to everyone according as the Lord may deign to inspire you.

Then when the All-powerful shall have made you multiply and go forward, you will refer to us; we will concede what you ask, and we may then with greater security accord to you even more than you ask."[24] Francis and his companions were too little familiar with Roman phraseology to perceive that after all the Holy See had simply consented to suspend judgment in view of the uprightness of their intentions and the purity of their faith.[25] The flowers of clerical rhetoric hid from them the shackles which had been laid upon them.

The curia, in fact, was not satisfied with Francis's vow of fidelity, it desired in addition to stamp the Penitents with the seal of the Church: the Cardinal of San Paolo was deputed to confer upon them the tonsure.

From this time they were all under the spiritual authority of the Roman Church.
The thoroughly lay creation of St.Francis had become, in spite of himself, an ecclesiastical institution: it must soon degenerate into a clerical institution.

All unawares, the Franciscan movement had been unfaithful to its origin.