come to Rome begging for papal sanction to their missionary plans;
they met with little favour, and vanished from the scene. But they
too declaimed against endowments--they too were to live on alms. The
Gospel of Poverty was "_in the air_."

In 1219 the Franciscans held their second general Chapter. It was
evident that they were taking the world by storm; evident, too, that
their astonishing success was due less to their preaching than to
their self-denying lives. It was abundantly plain that this vast army
of fervent missionaries could live from day to day and work wonders
in evangelizing the masses without owning a rood of land, or having
anything to depend upon but the perennial stream of bounty which
flowed from the gratitude of the converts. If the Preaching Friars
were to succeed at such a time as this, they could only hope to do so
by exhibiting as sublime a faith as the Minorites displayed to the
world. Accordingly, in the very year after the second Chapter of the
Franciscans was held at Assisi, a general Chapter of the Dominicans
was held at Bologna, and there the profession of poverty was formally
adopted, and the renunciation of all means of support, except such as
might be offered from day to day, was insisted on. Henceforth the two
orders were to labour side by side in magnificent rivalry--mendicants
who went forth like Gideon's host with empty pitchers to fight the
battles of the Lord, and whose desires, as far as the good things of
this world went, were summed up in the simple petition, "Give us this
day our daily bread!"

* * * * * * *

Thus far the friars had scarcely been heard of in England. The
Dominicans--trained men of education, addressing themselves mainly to