ss thee that
by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world."

Besides, the Lord gave me and still gives me so great a faith in
priests who live according to the form of the holy Roman Church,
because of their sacerdotal character, that even if they
persecuted me I would have recourse to them. And even though I
had all the wisdom of Solomon, if I should find poor secular
priests, I would not preach in their parishes without their
consent. I desire to respect them like all the others, to love
them and honor them as my lords. I will not consider their
sins, for in them I see the Son of God and they are my lords. I
do this because here below I see nothing, I perceive nothing
corporally of the most high Son of God, if not his most holy
Body and Blood, which they receive and they alone distribute to
others. I desire above all things to honor and venerate all
these most holy mysteries and to keep them precious. Whenever I
find the sacred names of Jesus or his words in indecent places,
I desire to take them away, and I pray that others take them
away and put them in some decent place. We ought to honor and
revere all the theologians and those who preach the most holy
word of God, as dispensing to us spirit and life.

When the Lord gave me some brothers no one showed me what I
ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I
ought to live according to the model of the holy gospel. I
caused a short and simple formula to be written, and the lord
pope confirmed it for me.

Those who presented themselves to observe this kind of life
distributed all that they might have to the poor. They contented
themselves with a tunic, patched within and without, with the
cord and breeches, and we desired to have nothing more.

The clerks said the office like other clerks, and the laymen
_Pater noster_.

We loved to live in poor and abandoned churches, and we were
ignorant and submissive to all. I worked with my hands and would
continue to do, and I will also that all other friars work at
some honorable trade. Let those who have none learn one, not for
the purpose of receiving the price of their toil, but for their
good example and to flee idleness. And when they do not give us
the price of the work, let us resort to the table of the Lord,
begging our bread from door to door