He is, after St.Francis, the finest incarnation of the Franciscan spirit.
The incidents which are here cited are all, so to speak, illustrations of the Rule; in fact there is nothing more explicit than its commands with respect to work.
The Brothers, after entering upon the Order, were to continue to exercise the calling which they had when in the world, and if they had none they were to learn one.

For payment they were to accept only the food that was necessary for them, but in case that was insufficient they might beg.

In addition they were naturally permitted to own the instruments of their calling.[8] Brother Ginepro, whose acquaintance we shall make further on, had an awl, and gained his bread wherever he went by mending shoes, and we see St.Clara working even on her death-bed.
This obligation to work with the hands merits all the more to be brought into the light, because it was destined hardly to survive St.Francis, and because to it is due in part the original character of the first generation of the Order.

Yet this was not the real reason for the being of the Brothers Minor.

Their mission consisted above all in being the spouses of Poverty.
Terrified by the ecclesiastical disorders of the time, haunted by painful memories of his past life, Francis saw in money the special instrument of the devil; in moments of excitement he went so far as to execrate it, as if there had been in the metal itself a sort of magical power and secret curse.