Chapter CVI. His words against those covetous of office: and description of a Lesser Brother

145. Now when he saw that some were panting after office, whom in addition to other things their mere eagerness for power alone rendered unworthy, he used to say that they were not Lesser Brethren but that they had fallen from glory, having forgotten the vocation wherewith they had been called. And when some wretched men resented being removed from office (since it was the honour, not the burden of it, they sought) he would silence them by many discourses. He once said to his companion: "I should not seem to myself a Lesser Brother unless I were in the state which I will describe to thee". And he said: "Suppose that, being set over the brethren, I go to the chapter, and preach to them and admonish them and at the end they speak against me, saying, 1 An unlettered and contemptible man will not do for us: therefore we will not have thee to reign over us, because thou art uneloquent, simple and ignorant,' and finally I am expelled with obloquy and despised by them all. I tell thee that unless I heard these words with unchanged looks, with unchanged gladness of mind, and with unchanged purpose of sanctity, I should by no means be a Lesser Brother." And he would add, "Office is an occasion of falling, praise, of headlong destruction; the soul's gain lies in the humility of subjection". Why then do we pursue danger rather than gain, when time has been given us that we may make gain?