Arrived at maturity when he put on the habit, he appears in some degree the senior of this apostolic college.

He knew how to obey St.Francis and remain faithful to the very end to the ideal of the early days; but he had no longer that privilege of the young--of Brother Leo, for example--of being able to transform himself almost entirely into the image of him whom he admired.

His physiognomy has not that touch of juvenile originality, of poetic fancy, which is so great a charm of the others.
Toward this epoch two Brothers entered the Order, men such as the successors of St.Francis never received, whose history throws a bright light on the simplicity of the early days.

It will be remembered with what zeal Francis had repaired several churches; his solicitude went further; he saw a sort of profanation in the negligence with which most of them were kept; the want of cleanliness of the sacred objects, ill-concealed by tinsel, gave him a sort of pain, and it often happened that when he was going to preach somewhere he secretly called together the priests of the locality and implored them to look after the decency of the service.

But even in these cases he was not content to preach only in words; binding together some stalks of heather he would make them into brooms for sweeping out the churches.
One day in the suburbs of Assisi he was performing this task when a peasant appeared, who had left his oxen and cart out in the fields while he came to gaze at him.
"Brother," said he on entering, "give me the broom.