Chapter VII. How he would Fain Destroy a Certain House which the Folk of Assisi had Made at St. Mary of the Portiuncula

When the Chapter-General was drawing near which took place each year at St. Mary of the Portiuncula, the people of Assisi, considering that the friars were daily multiplying, and that every year all were used to assemble together there, although they had but one small cell thatched with straw whose walls were of wattle and mud, having held their council, did in a few days with very great devotion and respect build there a great house of stone and lime, without the consent of blessed Francis, and in his absence. And when the blessed Father re turned from a certain province and came thither for the Chapter, he marvelled greatly at that house constructed there, and fearing lest by occasion of that house other friars would cause to be made likewise great houses in the places in which they dwelt and should dwell, and because he wished that place to be the form and example of all other places of the Order, before the Chapter was finished he went up on the roof of that house, and ordered the friars to come up with him, and together with those friars he began to throw down on the ground the laths with which the house had been covered, being fain to destroy it even to the foundations. But certain men-at-arms of Assisi who were there to guard the place on account of the crowds of rabble who had come together to see the Chapter of the Friars, seeing that blessed Francis with other friars wished to pull the house to pieces, forthwith went to him and said, "Brother, this house belongs to the Commune of Assisi, and we be here on the part of that Commune. Whence we forbid thee to destroy our house." Hearing this, blessed Francis said to them, "Therefore if it be yours, I will not touch it." And straightway he and the friars came down from it. (For which cause the folk of the City of Assisi made a law that from that time forth their Podesta, whoever he should be, should cause that house to be repaired. And every year for a long time this \aw was observed.)

The Perfection of Poverty 1 9 1