Chapter XI. Of the similitude which he set forth before the Pope

16. At the time when Francis presented himself with his followers before Pope Innocent 1 to ask for a Rule for their life, the Pope, who saw that Francis' proposed way of life was beyond his strength, being a man of the utmost discernment, said to him, "Pray, my son, to Christ, that through thee He may show us His will; and when we know it we shall be able more safely to comply with thy pious desires". The Saint obeyed the Supreme Pastor's bidding and confidently flew to Christ. He prayed earnestly and encouraged his companions to pray devoutly to God. To be brief, he obtained an answer by prayer and imparted to his sons news of salvation. Christ's familiar discourse was made known in parables: "Francis," He said, "thus shalt thou say to the Pope: A poor but beautiful woman dwelt in a wilderness. A king loved her for her exceeding comeliness. He married her gladly, and begat beauteous sons by her. When they were grown and had been nobly brought up their mother said to them, ' Be not ashamed, beloved, that ye are poor, for ye are all sons of that great king. Go there-¹ fore gladly to his court and ask him for all that ye need.' As they heard this, they wondered and rejoiced; and, heartened by the assurance of their royal origin, deemed all want to be riches, knowing that they would be heirs. They boldly presented themselves to the king nor feared the face of him whose image they bore. The king, recognising his own likeness in them, inquired with wonder whose sons they were. And while they affirmed that they were the sons of that poor woman dwelling in the wilderness, the king embraced them and said, ' Ye are my sons and heirs, fear not. For if strangers are fed from my table it is the more just that I should cause them to be fed for whom my whole inheritance is reserved by law.' So the king sent to the woman bidding her despatch all the sons whom he had begotten to be nourished at his court." The Saint was glad and rejoiced at the parable, and straightway reported the sacred oracle to the Pope.

17. This woman was Francis, fruitful in many sons not fashioned in softness. The wilderness was the world, at that time untilled and barren in the teaching of virtue. The beauteous and ample progeny of sons was the multitude of the brethren adorned with every virtue. The king was the Son of God, to Whom they, resembling Him in holy poverty, correspond in appearance; and they receive nourishment from the king's table, despising all cowardly shame, for that, content to imitate Christ, and living on alms, they know, amid the reproaches of the world, that they are to be blessed.

The Lord Pope wondered at the parable put before him, and acknowledged without hesitation that Christ had spoken in the man. He recalled a vision that he had himself seen a few days before, and affirmed, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, that it also would be fulfilled in this man. He had seen in his sleep that the Lateran basilica was on the point of falling and that a certain Religious, a man small and despised, was propping it on his own back, that it might not fall. "Surely," said he, "this is he who by his acts and teaching shall prop the Church of Christ." Whence it was that that lord so readily yielded to his request, and that, filled with devotion to God, he ever loved Christ's servant with special affection. And so he quickly granted what he had been asked, and earnestly promised to grant yet greater things than these. And thenceforth by virtue of the authority conferred on him Francis began to scatter the seeds of virtue, preaching yet more fervently as he went about the cities and fortresses.