We are beggars too,
and we too have not where to lay our heads. Christ sent us to you.
Yes. Christ the crucified, whose we are, and whose you are. Be not
wroth with us, we will help you if we can."
As they spoke, so they lived. They _were_ less than the least,
as St. Francis told them they must strive to be. Incredulous cynicism
was put to silence. It was wonderful, it was inexplicable, it was
disgusting, it was anything you please; but where there were
outcasts, lepers, pariahs, there, there were these penniless
Minorites tending the miserable sufferers with a cheerful look, and
not seldom with a merry laugh. As one reads the stories of those
earlier Franciscans, one is reminded every now and then of the
extravagances of the Salvation Army.
The heroic example set by these men at first startled, and then
fascinated the upper classes. While labouring to save the lowest,
they took captive the highest. The Brotherhood grew in numbers day by
day; as it grew, new problems presented themselves. How to dispose of
all the wealth renounced, how to employ the energies of all the
crowds of brethren. Hardest of all, what to do with the earnest,
highly-trained, and sometimes erudite convert who could not divest
himself of the treasures of learning which he had amassed. "Must I
part with my books?" said the scholar, with a sinking heart.
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