Chapter IX. How he would not Remain in a Specially Made Cell or in One which was Called his Own

A CERTAIN brother, right spiritual and much familiar with blessed Francis, caused to be made in the hermitage wherein he was staying, a certain cell a little remote, wherein blessed Francis might stay at prayer when he should come thither. But when the holy Father came to that place that friar led him to the cell; to whom said blessed Francis, "This cell is too fair." (But it was only made of planks, rough hewn with an axe and a hatchet.) "If therefore thou wouldst that I should remain there, cause to be made for it a covering within and without, of withies and branches of trees." (For the more poverty stricken were houses and cells, so much the more gladly would he remain there.) Which when that brother had done, blessed Francis remained there for some days. But on a day, when he had gone out of that cell, a certain friar went to see it, and afterward came to the place where blessed Francis was. And when the blessed Father saw him he said to him, "Whence comest thou, brother? "And he said, "I come from thy cell." And blessed Francis said, "For that thou hast called it mine, another shall stay there henceforth, and not I." But we who were with him often heard him saying that word, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. And again he said, "The Lord, when He remained in the open air and fasted forty days and forty nights, did not cause a cell to be made for Him there or a house, but lay under the rocks of the mountains." And there fore by His example he would have neither house nor cell which could be called his own, nor ever did he cause one to be made at all. If sometimes it happened that he said to the brethren, "Go and make ready that cell," he would not afterwards abide in it, because of that saying of the Holy Gospel, Be ye not anxious, etc. For even at the time of his death he made it to be written in his will that all the cells and houses of the friars should be of wood and mud only; for the better safeguard of poverty and humility.