constant tradition, and some manuscripts of the thirteenth century,
which contain other testimonials from the companions of St. Francis,
and were published by contemporaries who lived with them, who collected
their very words, and who are worthy of credence. But the most
marvellous thing which he relates, relative to the actions of the
Saint, he has taken from the legends, as well as a great number of the
splendid miracles which were operated by his intercession after his
death, and of which Pope Gregory IX. was fully informed, as he declares
in the Bull of Canonization.

All modern authors who have given the Life of St. Francis in various
languages, have adhered mostly to Wading; in this work, also, we have
made a point of following him; and the learned, who have so much esteem
for that great man, will agree that we could not have taken a better
guide. Baillet admits that, among the writers of the Life of St.
Francis, Luke Wading is one of the most careful and most accurate; and
yet he taxes him with not having written methodically, when he adds:
"After all the labors of so many persons, who have been zealous for
his glory, we are still compelled to wish for a methodical history of
his life." Whoever may read the Annals of Wading, and his notes on the
works of St. Francis, will find in them as much method as research and
accuracy; but according to some ultra-critics, it is not considered
writing methodically, when marvels which they dislike are permitted
to find their way into history.

Baillet might have said that it has been long a subject of complaint
that we have not in our language a complete and methodical Life of St.
Francis. This complaint is the more just, as the saint had a particular
liking for France; he had learned the language with so much facility,
and spoke it so readily, that they gave him the name of Francis,