Chapter CIII. Of a Certain Man who Wept before the Blessed Francis that he Might be Received into the Order

AT the time when no one was received into the Order except by the leave of the blessed man, the son of a noble citizen of Lucca with many others, wishing to enter the Order, came to blessed Francis, who was then sick in the palace of the Bishop of Assisi. And when they all presented themselves to the blessed man, he bowed down before him and began to weep greatly, begging him to receive him. The blessed Father looking upon him said to him, "Oh wretched and carnal man; why dost thou lie to the Holy Spirit and to me? Thou weepest carnally and not spiritually." And as these things were said, his relations came on horseback outside the palace, wishing to take him away, and carry him off by force. But he, hearing the noise of the horses, looked through a window and saw his kinsmen and straightway went down to them, and as the blessed man had foreseen, returned to the world with them.