Among the early Brothers who refused ordination there were surely some who did so from humility, but this sentiment is not enough to explain all the cases.

There were also with certain of them revolutionary desires and as it were a vague memory of the prophecies of Gioacchino di Fiore upon the age succeeding that of the priests: _Fior._, 27.

_Frate Pellegrino non volle mai andare come chierico, ma come laico, benche fassi molto litterato e grande decretalista._ Cf.

_Conform._, 71a., 2.

_Fr.
Thomas Hibernicus sibi pollecem amputavit ne ad sacerdotium cogeretur._ _Conform._, 124b, 2.
[19] See, for example, the letter to Brother Leo.