Chapter XXI. How My Lord of Ostia Wept and was Edified at the Poverty of the Friars

MY Lord of Ostia, who was afterwards Pope Gregory, when he had come to the chapter of the friars of St. Mary of the Portiuncula, entered the house to see the dormitory of the friars, with many knights and clerks. And seeing that the friars used to lie on the earth, and had nothing under them except a little straw and some pallets as if all broken, and no pillows, he began to weep sore before them all, saying, "Behold, here sleep the friars, but we wretched ones, how many superfluities do we use! What therefore shall happen to us? "Whence he and all others were much edified. Also he saw no table there, for that in that dwelling the friars were accustomed to eat on the earth.