" We read in the _Fioretti_ (perhaps the oldest
popular collection of poems in existence) that he expressly prohibited
asceticism as a principle; an idea too foreign to the spirit of the age
to have been an invention. He also disapproved of the secluded monastic
life, then the universal ideal of the _vita contemplativa_, and
insisted on his followers living in the world, radiating love and
sustaining life by the charity of their fellow-men.
There is an anecdote contained in the _Fioretti_, reflecting the great
superiority and lucidity of his mind. On a cold winter's day he and
Brother Leo were tramping through the deep snow. "Brother Leo," said St.
Francis, "if we could restore sight to all blind men, heal all cripples,
expel evil spirits and recall the dead to life--it would not be perfect
joy." And after a while: "And if we knew all the secrets of science, the
course of the stars, the ways of the beasts--it would not be perfect
joy--and if by our preaching we could convert all infidels to the true
faith--even that would not be perfect joy.
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