morials--Rufino and
Masseo.

Born of a noble family connected with that of St. Clara, the former was
soon distinguished in the Order for his visions and ecstasies, but his
great timidity checked him as soon as he tried to preach: for this
reason he is always to be found in the most isolated hermitages--Carceri,
Verna, Greccio.[33]

Masseo, of Marignano, a small village in the environs of Assisi, was his
very opposite; handsome, well made, witty, he attracted attention by his
fine presence and his great facility of speech; he occupies a special
place in popular Franciscan tradition. He deserves it. St. Francis, to
test his humility, made him the porter and cook of the hermitage,[34]
but in these functions Masseo showed himself to be so perfectly a
_Minor_ that from that time the master particularly loved to have him
for companion in his missionary journeys.

One day they were travelling together, when they arrived at the
intersection of the roads to Sienna, Arezzo, and Florence.

"Which one shall we take?" asked Masseo.

"Whichever one God wills."

"But how shall we know which one God wills?"

"You shall see. Go and stand at the crossing of the roads, turn round
and round as the children do, and do not stop until I bid you."

Brother Masseo began to turn; seized with a vertigo, he was nearly
falling, but caught himself up at once. Finally Francis called out,
"Stop! which way are you facing?"

"Toward Sienna."

"Very well; God wills that we go to Sienna."[35]

Such a method of making up one's mind is doubtless not for the daily
needs of life, but Francis employed still others, like it, if not in
form at least in fact.

Up to this time we have seen the brethren living together in their
hermitages or roving the highways, preaching repentance. It would,
however, be a mistake to think that their whole lives were passed thus.
To understand the first Franciscans we must absolutely forget what they
may have been since that time, and what monks are in general; if
Portiuncula was a monastery it was also a workshop, where each brother
practised the trade which had been his before entering the Order; but
what is stranger still to our ideas, the Brothers often went out as
servants.[36]

Brother Egidio's case was not an exception, it was the rule. This did
not last long, for very soon the friars who entered a house as domestics
came to be treated as distinguished guests; but in the beginning they
were literally serva