thought to be summed up in poverty. That Francis was a hero of this type
of religion has been universally admitted. The virtues were just the
ones which the Roman court did not show. Jacques de Vitry, an
enthusiastic preacher against the Albigenses, went through Italy to
Palestine in 1216. He left a journal[448] in which he recorded his
sadness at observing that, at the papal court, all were busy with
secular affairs, kings and kingdoms, quarrels and lawsuits, so that it
was almost impossible to speak about spiritual matters. He greatly
admired the Franciscans, who were trying to renew primitive Christianity
and save souls, thus shaming the prelates, who were "dogs who do not
bark." The Count of Chiusi gave to Francis the mountain La Verna for
retirement and meditation. Armed men were necessary to take possession
of it against the beasts and robbers who had possession of it.[449]
Carmichael believes that Francis received the stigmata, which he
describes in detail. The Francis of tradition is a fabulous person,
created out of the pet ideas of his time.[450] The historical person was
a visionary. Dominic was a zealot. He wanted to convert all heretics by
preaching or other means.

+218. Other mendicant orders.+ De Vitry found Humiliati in
Lombardy, who were living by ideas like those of Francis. The
Augustinian hermits were founded in 1256, the Carmelites in 1245,
and the Servites, or Servants of Mary, about 1275.[451] These
were all mendicants, and they bear witness to the character of
the notions of the time about poverty. It was a mania, and is
fully expressed in the _Romaunt de la Rose_. Perhaps Francis did
not mean to "found an order." He wanted to live in a certain way
with a few friends. The spontaneous and very rapid spread of his
order proves that it was concordant with a great popular taste.
Francis was a dreamer and enthusiast, not a politician or
organizer at all. In his testament he says: "After the Lord had
given me care of the brethren, no one showed me what I ought to
do, but the Highest Himself revealed to me that I ought to live
according to the mode of the Holy Gospel." He was not thwarted
and subjugated by the curia during his life, but his ideals were
not maintained by the men in the order. The man who was later
pope Gregory IX aided him to organize the order and to make it
practically efficient, that is, to take the enthusiasm out of it
an