habit in 1209, at the same time with Bernardo of Quintavallo, and died
shortly afterward. Tradition, in reducing these two men to a single
personage, was influenced not merely by the similarity of the names, but
also by the very natural desire to increase the prestige of one who in
1220-1221 was to play an important part in the direction of the
Order.[37]

At the time of his departure for the East Francis had left two vicars in
his place, the Brothers Matteo of Narni and Gregorio of Naples. The
former was especially charged to remain at Portiuncula to admit
postulants;[38] Gregorio of Naples, on the other hand, was to pass
through Italy to console the Brothers.[39]

The two vicars began at once to overturn everything. It is inexplicable
how men still under the influence of their first fervor for a Rule which
in the plenitude of their liberty they had promised to obey could have
dreamed of such innovations if they had not been urged on and upheld by
those in high places. To alleviate the vow of poverty and to multiply
observances were the two points toward which their 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.