heir efforts were bent.

In appearance it was a trifling matter, in reality it was much, for it
was the first movement of the old spirit against the new. It was the
effort of men who unconsciously, I am willing to think, made religion an
affair of rite and observance, instead of seeing in it, like St.
Francis, the conquest of the liberty which makes us free in all things,
and leads each soul to obey that divine and mysterious power which the
flowers of the fields adore, which the birds of the air bless, which the
symphony of the stars praises, and which Jesus of Nazareth called
_Abba_, that is to say, Father.

The first Rule was excessively simple in the matter of fasts. The friars
were to abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays; they might add
Mondays and Saturdays, but only on Francis's special authorization. The
vicars and their adherents complicated this rule in a surprising manner.
At the chapter-general held in Francis's absence (May 17, 1220), they
decided, first, that in times of feasting the friars were not to provide
meat, but if it were offered to them spontaneously they were to eat it;
second, that all should fast on Mondays as well as Wednesdays and
Fridays; third, that on Mondays and Saturdays they should abstain from
milk products unless by chance the adherents of the Order brought some
to them.[40]

These beginnings bear witness also to an effort to imitate the ancient
Orders, not without the vague hope that they would be substituted for
them. Brother Giordano has preserved to us only this decision of the
chapter of 1220, but the expressions of which he makes use sufficiently
prove that it was far from being the only one, and that the malcontents
had desired, as in the chapters of Citeaux and Monte Cassino, to put
forth veritable constitutions.

These modifications of the Rule did not pass, however, without arousing
the indignation of a part of the chapter; a lay brother made himself
their eager messenger, and set out for the East to entreat Francis to
return without delay, to take the measures called for by the
circumstances.

There were also other causes of disquiet. Brother Philip, a Zealot of
the Clarisses, had made haste to secure for them from Ugolini the
privileges which had already been under consideration.[41]

A certain Brother Giovanni di Conpello[42] had gathered together a
great number of lepers of both sexes, and written a Rule, intending to
form with them a new Order. He had aft