as the Waldenses before Lucius III.

Traces of this interview are found in two texts which appear to me to be too suspicious to warrant their insertion in the body of the narrative.

The first is a fragment of Matthew Paris: _Papa itaque in fratre memorato habitum deformem, vultum despicabilem, barbam prolixam, capillos incultos, supercilia pendentia et nigra diligenter considerans; cum petitionem ejus tam arduam et executione impossibilem recitare fecisset, despexit cum et dixit: Vade frater, et quaere porcus, quibus potius debes quam hominibus comparari, et involve te cum eis in volutabro, et regulam illis a te commentatam tradens, officium tuae praedicationis impende.

Quod audiens Franciscus inclinato capite exixit et porcis tandem inventis, in luto se cum eis tamdiu involvit quousque a planta pedis usque ad verticem, corpus suum totum cum ipso habitu polluisset.

Sicque ad consistorium revertens Papae se conspectibus praesentavit dicens: Domine feci sicut praecepisti exaudi nunc obsecro petitionem meam_.Ed.Wats, p.340.The incident has a real Franciscan color, and should have some historic basis.
Curiously, it in some sort meets a passage in the legend of Bonaventura which is an interpolation of the end of the thirteenth century.