The Mirror of Perfection: To Wit, The Blessed Francis of Assisi

THE Blessed Francjs mac]e three Rules, to wit the one that p Innocent did r r i • confirm unto him . . ^ without a Bull; afterward he made another, briefer, and this was lost; afterward the one that Pope Honorius did confirm with a Bull, out of the which Rule were many things taken out by the ministers against the will of the Blessed Francis. But after the second Rule that the Blessed Francis made was lost, he went up into a certain mountain with brother Leo of Assisi and brother Bonyzo of Bologna that he might make another Rule the which by Christ’s teaching he made be written. But the more part of the ministers assembling them together unto brother Elias that was vicar of the Blessed Francis said unto him: “We have heard that this brother Francis maketh a new Rule, but we be feared lest he should make it too harsh, in such sort that we cannot observe it. Wherefore we will that thou go unto him and tell him that we will not be bound unto that Rule. Let him make it for himself and not for us.”