Ugolini himself his best friend, his born defender, and yet had not
Francis forced him to lay aside the influence to which his love for the
friars, his position in the Church, and his great age gave him such just
title? Yes, he had been forced to leave Francis to needlessly expose his
disciples to all sorts of danger, to send them on missions as perilous
as they had proved to be ineffectual, and all for what? For the most
trivial point of honor, because the Brothers Minor were determined not
to enjoy the smallest privileges. They were not heretics, but they
disturbed the Church as much as the heretics did. How many times had he
not been reminded that a great association, in order to exist, must have
precise and detailed regulations? It had all been labor lost! Of course
Francis's humility was doubted by no one, but why not manifest it, not
only in costume and manner of living, but in all his acts? He thought
himself obeying God in defending his own inspiration, but does not the
Church speak in the name of God? Are not the words of her
representatives the words of Jesus forever perpetuated on earth? He
desired to be a man of the Gospel, an apostolic man, but was not the
best way of becoming such to obey the Roman pontiff, the successor of
Peter? With an excess of condescension they had let him go on in his own
way, and the result was the saddest of lessons. But the situation was
not desperate, there was still time to find a remedy; to do that he had
only to throw himself at the feet of the pope, imploring his blessing,
his light, and his counsel.

Reproaches such as these, mingled with professions of love and
admiration on the part of the prelate, could not but profoundly disturb
a sensitive heart like that of Francis. His conscience bore him good
witness, but with the modesty of noble minds he was ready enough to
think that he might have made many mistakes.