BOOK III

He goes to Perugia, to consult the cardinal protector--His opinion on the promotion of his friars to ecclesiastical dignities--He returns to S. Mary of the Angels--His thoughts on these dignities--More than five thousand Friars Minors are present at the chapter he had appointed--He addresses the assembly, and forbids them troubling themselves about their food--Assistance comes to him from all sides--He receives more than five hundred novices during this chapter--He forbids indiscreet mortifications--The devils are incensed against him and his Order--He cautions his friars, and upon that gives them some instruction--He humbles them to preserve them from vainglory--He confounds those who wish the Rule mitigated--He wishes not for privileges which can engender disputes--He gives his friars instructions about their conduct to ecclesiastics--He obtains from the Pope letters apostolical confirming the approval of the Order--What he decrees in the chapter--He sends his friars through the whole world--The travels of his Friars in various parts of the world--In Greece--In Africa--In Spain and Portugal--In France--In the Low Countries--He himself prepares to go to the Levant--On the government of the monastery of S. Damian, and other houses of the same order--He sends six of his friars to Morocco--What he says to them--He starts on his voyage to Syria, with twelve companions--He rejects a postulant too much attached to his parents--A house at Ancona is given to him--He appoints, by means of a child inspired by God, those who are to accompany him to Syria--He embarks at Ancona and anchors at the isle of Cyprus--Arrives at Acre--Distributes his companions in different parts of Syria, and comes to the army before Damietta--He arrives at the camp before Damietta, and predicts the ill-success of the battle the Crusaders are about to give--His prediction is accomplished--He finds out the sultan of Egypt--Announces to him the truths of the faith, and offers to throw himself into the fire to prove them--He refuses the sultan's presents--Is esteemed and respected--The good dispositions with which he inspires the sultan--He obtains permission to preach in his States--He receives some disciples from the army of the Crusaders--Visits the holy places--Some whole monasteries of religious embrace his Institute--He returns to Italy--Establishes his Order in various places--Preaches at Bologna with great success--What he says and does on seeing a house of his Order too much ornamented--He makes a retreat at Camaldoli--Returns to S. Mary of the Angels--Reads the thoughts of his companion--Confounds the vanity of Brother Elias--Abolishes the novelties introduced into the Order by Brother Elias--In a vision the fortunes of his Order are made known to him--He holds the chapter in which he deposes Brother Elias, and in his place substitutes Peter of Catania--He renounces the generalship--Will not receive anything from novices entering his Order--He learns the news of the martyrdom of the friars he had sent to Morocco--What he says on the subject of their martyrdom--The martyrdom of these friars is the cause of the vocation of S. Antony of Padua--His friars pass into England--He visits some convents--Receives the Vicar General's resignation, and re-appoints, by the command of God, Brother Elias to his place--He holds a chapter, and sends missionaries to Germany