Chapter XCVIII. And Firstly, how the Demon Entered a Pillow which he had Under his Head

When blessed Francis was staying in the hermitage of Greccio for prayer in the last cell beyond the greater cell, on a certain night in his first slumber he called his fellow who was sleeping near him. And this fellow, rising, went to the door of the cell where the blessed man was sleeping. And the saint said to him, "Brother, I have not been able to sleep this night, neither to stand erect at prayer, for my head and my legs tremble very much, and it seems to me that I must have eaten some darnel bread." And when his fellow spoke to him in compassionate words, the holy man said, "But I believe that the devil is in that pillow which I have at my head." (For though he had never wished to sleep on feathers, or to have a feather pillow since he left the world; yet against his will the friars forced him to have that pillow then on account of the weakness of his eyes.) So he threw it to his fellow. His fellow, taking it, set it on his left shoulder, and when he had gone out of the porch of that cell, forthwith he lost his speech, and was not able to put down the pillow or move his arms, but stood there erect, unable to move himself from that place, and feeling nothing in him. But when for some space of time he had stood thus, by the grace of God the holy Father called him; and immediately he returned to himself, letting the pillow fall behind his back. And when he had returned to the blessed man, he told him all things that had happened to him. And the saint said, "In the evening, when I was saying Complines, I felt the devil come into the cell; whence I see that this devil is very astute, because when he could not hurt my soul, he wished to hinder the necessity of the body; so that I could not sleep nor stand erect at prayer, and that thus he would hinder the devotion and joy of my heart, and through this I should murmur at my infirmity."