Poverty in the necessary things we use

15 Poverty, the foundation of the Franciscan Order 16 Austerity of the habit 17 The use of the mantle 18 Sandals 19 The opinion of the seculars about these things

(15) Enlightened by the Holy Spirit those venerable Fathers knew that the true foundation of our Order is nothing other than the observance of holy poverty. This is obvious with our Father Saint Francis. It was so rooted in his heart that in the Rule he takes away and forbids all ownership over things. Not only that. He forbids us the use of things that are superfluous or unfitting for our state. Therefore in the Rule and in the written discourses he gave to his Friars he often talks with such affection about most high poverty that it seemed he had no greater zeal for anything else.

(16) This was the reason that those early Fathers strove to observe holy poverty in all the things they used, as in clothing. For when the general chapter at Saint Euphemia had been celebrated, the Most Illustrious Marchioness of Pescara, Lady Victoria Colonna bought many pieces of natural wool cloth. It is the meanest cloth to be found – coarse, harsh and despised. She did this so that in those Provinces where they couldn’t get it, the whole Congregation could be clothed the same way in natural wool. So for many years the whole Congregation wore nothing but that cloth which was more useful as a hairshirt than for keeping warm, as can be seen in the Provinces of Sicily and the kingdom of Naples. The fervour of the Friars at that time was such that they didn’t want to dress in any other kind. It as procured in Rome, Genoa, Romagna and in other parts, wherever it could be had. However when they began to look for wool to make clothing according to the wools available in their own Provinces this quite austere clothing largely went into decline. Nonetheless the Friars compensated by making the clothes lowly by attaching pieces of sackcloth and other kinds. It was something amazing. Although the poorer cloths do not last more than a year, out of zeal for holy poverty the Friars repaired them with patches so that they usually made them last four years. None of the habits was more than eighteen spans wide. Most of them were happy with ten spans.

(17) The austerity of dress in those early Fathers was such that learned and judicious Friars believed that such strict poverty of dress was never observed in the time of Saint Francis nor at the beginning of any other Reform. Nor would you have found anyone in the Congregation who wore three garments even if he were old or very weak, except in the case of sickness. However they met their needs by applying patches. They abhorred the use of three garments so much, that everyone in general firmly believed that wearing three garments is against the precept of the Rule. Those Fathers gave many sermons about this because according to the expositors (of the Rule), both the Supreme Pontiffs and the Doctors of the Order – all defined that it was against the Rule.

Therefore strict poverty of dress was inviolably observed in conformity with the will of our Father Saint Francis. As the Doctors of the Order say, it consists in the lowliness, roughness, colour and price. This is obvious in the habits of our Father Saint Francis and his companions kept as relics. They are from coarse and mean cloth and some of them are mostly covered with pieces of sack. Those who say that wearing the tunic rather than the mantle is more in conformity with the Rule and what the early Fathers used to do are greatly mistaken, as is obvious from the Chronicles of the Order. After the death of Father Saint Francis, Brother Elias prohibited the Companions of Francis from wearing the mantle. He called the sect of mantle wearers. There it says that those holy men Brother Caesarius of Camerino, Blessed Bernard and Blessed Giles and others resisted. They claimed that Father Saint Francis had taught them that it was more in accordance with the Rule to wear the mantle rather than the tunic, while both are permissible. However, whoever the tunic and wears the mantle on journeys may often find that he is wearing three garments without real need, and the Rule does not allow the use of more than two garments. These holy men wore the mantle on journeys but never in the friary.

Saint Francis and his Companions wore nothing other than a patched habit, as he says in the Testament: “We were content with one tunic patched inside and out.” Nor did any of them ever wear the tunic, but mantles which Father Saint Francis often gave them for the love of God. He wore the mantle with the same freedom that he put in the rule to be able to wear a second tunic by taking the mantle as a tunic. The freedom is not about what the garments are called. Instead the Rule allows us the use just of two garments and no more. If this is not enough it grants us the freedom to be able to patch it.

(18) Those first Fathers of ours all went barefoot generally in summer and winter. However when they could not do this because of weakness or age they always allowed sandals. No one was ever forced to go barefoot, but it was something they did voluntarily. The sandals were simple. Often along they found big boots along the roads. They collected these and made sandals with cords.

(19) When the seculars saw them in such austerity, they took fright. When they saw them go barefoot in the snow and deep cold they were stunned. There were different opinions about them. Some said, “In the world these have been terrible men: soldiers, captains, murderers – killers of every kind. They have been brought back to penitence. This kind of hermit has never ever been seen before.” Others said, “These are all gentlemen, lords and great personages who have adopted this life in order to save their souls. They haven’t become Friars in order to eat. God has called these because they are predestined. Blessed are those who save themselves.” When women and children saw them they fled. Seeing them with long beards and so austere, they worried about being snatched by them. Their austerity in dress and footwear was such that it was impossible to be more austere.