BOOK IV

S. Francis begins his Third Order of Penance--Draws up the rule for it--What his idea was in founding this Order--He returns to S. Mary of the Angels--Sends Agnes, the sister of Clare, to Florence, to be Abbess there--He obtains from Jesus Christ the Indulgence of S. Mary of the Angels or of the Portiuncula--Pope Honorius III. grants him the same indulgence--Clare and others, hearing him talk of God, are ravished in ecstasy--He cannot bear the distinction of persons which Brother Elias made--Makes a terrible prediction--He gives his blessings to seven of his brethren, to go and preach the faith to the Moors, and they are martyred--He makes a journey, which is attended with remarkable circumstances--Cures a cripple--Mixes with the poor, and eats with them--Foretells of an infant, that he would one day be Pope--He changes the bed of thorns into which S. Benedict had thrown himself, into a rose-bush, and performs other great miracles--Goes to honor the relics of S. Andrew, and those of S. Nicholas--Discovers a trick of the devil--He visits Mount Garganus--His presence silences a demoniac--He learns at S. Mary of the Angels the success of the German mission--Bids Antony preach--Gives Antony permission to teach theology to the brethren--Alexander Hales enters the Order--Jesus Christ appoints the day for the Indulgence of the Portiuncula--He obtains from the Pope a confirmation of the same day--Promulgates it, with seven bishops--He has a revelation about his Rule--God makes known to him that he must abridge it--The Holy Spirit dictates it to him--Some entreat him to moderate it--Jesus Christ tells him it must be kept to the very letter--His brethren receive it--He declares it comes from Jesus Christ, and speaks in praise of it--He obtains a bull from the Pope, in confirmation of the Rule--Is attacked by devils-- Celebrates the feast of Christmas with much fervor--Our Lord appears to him as an infant--His sentiments on the celebration of feasts--Discovers a stratagem of the devil--He commands one of his dead brethren to cease working miracles--Draws up a rule for Clare and her daughters--Appears with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross while S. Antony was preaching--Foretells a conversion which immediately came about--He goes into retreat on Mount Alvernus--His contemplation and raptures--Jesus Christ promises him special favors--He fasts rigorously--A piece of his writing delivers his companion from a temptation--What he had to suffer from the devil--He prepares for martyrdom--He receives extraordinary favors in prayer--His perfect conformity to the will of God--Jesus Christ crucified appears to him under the figure of a Seraphim--Receives the impression of the wounds of Jesus Christ--He composes canticles full of the love of God--Tells his brethren of the Stigmata--They are seen and touched--He leaves Mount Alvernus, to return to S. Mary of the Angels--Cures a child of dropsy--Other miracles which he performed on the way--He strengthens himself with new fervor in the service of God--His patience in great sufferings--His desires for the salvation of souls--His prayer in suffering--God assures him of his salvation--He thanks Him in a canticle--He learns the time of his death, and rejoices at it--He has various illnesses, and suffers extreme pain--He multiplies the grapes in a vineyard--God gives him sensible consolation--A heated iron is applied to the temple, and he feels no pain from it--He weeps incessantly, and says he does so to expiate for his sins--He prefers the danger of losing his sight to restraining his tears--His gratitude towards his physician--A miracle is worked by some of his hair, in favor of this physician--He miraculously heals a canon--His sufferings diminish--Goes to preach--Drives away a devil--Foretells a sudden death, and it comes about--Cures St. Bonaventura in his infancy--All his sufferings increase--Causes to be found for the love of God what could not be found for money--They take him back to Assisi--They take him to Sienna--He answers difficult questions, and foretells several things--He causes the blessing which he gave to his brethren to be written--They take him to Celles, and thence to Assisi--The bishop has him taken to his palace--The state of his Order at the time of his last illness