9. The all preached 10. They preached the Gospel 11. Bountiful apostolic fruitfulness

(9) When they began to preach, they all preached: Lay Friars, clerics and Priests. One time the Lay Friar Brother Giles from Orvieto came across a castle in the Roman countryside. When the farmers saw his beautiful beard they began to say, “He must be one those great preachers who have just come to light. It seems that they come from heaven. They have emerged from the woods and no one knows where they come from.” So then everyone wanted to hear him preach. However Brother Giles was worried that there may have been some educated person among them. He said to them, “Bring me some ink and some paper.” The farmers replied, “No one here knows anything about those things. There is neither ink nor paper.” Brother Giles replied, “Go and ring the bell for the sermon.” When they had rung the bell he went up and a countless number of people gathered. Brother Giles preached with such that he moved all the villages and castles round about to come to his preaching. And he accomplished there all the reconciliations that need to be done and the eight or terms sermons he gave there were amazingly fruitful. One Sunday a Master in the theology of Saint Augustine came and Brother Giles was worried that he would pick him up on some point. So he did all he could so that the Master would preach. However the farmers rose up and said, “We want no other preacher except Father Giles.” From then on they did not want to Master to preach any more.

(10) At that time the Capuchins preached the commandments of God, the Gospel and Sacred Scripture. The firmly reprimanded the vices and exalted and extolled the holy virtues. This amazed all Christendom because it was a new kind of preaching and so fervent that it inspired everyone. For at that time the only thing preached were the Questions of Scotus and Saint Thomas, and in sermon they always began by talking about a dream: Last night I felt that … etc. They preached philosophy or Aessop’s Fables and at the end always sang some verses from Petrarch or Ariosto. The Gospel or Sacred Scripture were never mentioned. So when the Capuchins came preaching the Scripture fervently, all the preachers of the other Orders had to accommodate themselves to the preaching of Sacred Scripture if they wanted to be accepted. The Friars produced this great fruit in the Church of God, namely, that from then on everyone preached the Scripture.

Religious spirit was so cold at the time that anyone who went to confession and Holy Communion once a year was considered a saint. The Capuchins restored in the Church frequent confession. They initiated many associations that fostered the most holy sacraments. They woke up all of Christendom.

Talk about reform began in the Orders. Prelates of the Church began to speak about a Council and reforms. There was a great innovation and a great restraint for all the Religious. Many lords converted to a good life and gave great alms and even bowed down to wash the feet of the poor. The preference to have a Capuchin preacher was so strong that few famous preachers went to preach except by means of Briefs, which first had to be obtained from His Holiness, those who had them. The brought peace to cities and reformed them. Such was everyone’s desire to hear them preach that they quite often had fifteen or twenty thousand people for their sermon. Such was the universal devotion towards them that no one could say no to them in all the reconciliations the Friars asked of them for the love of God.

(11) Once a great preacher was preaching in Perugia and two citizens had been in litigation together and there was great enmity between them because of the death of the brother of one of them. The dispute was already resolved by compensation of many thousands of scudi imposed on the one who had killed him. Nonetheless this poor gentleman went to see this preacher and said to him, “Father, I am ruined.” On telling him the whole story he said, “I have received the unfavourable judgement. If I lose this lawsuit I will have to go begging. This is not bad for me but for my four daughters whom I have to marry off and who will be destroyed.” The preacher replied, “Do you promise me to be a good Christian?” The gentleman answered, “Father, I not only promise for myself but also for my wife and daughters.” The preacher replied, “Go home and commend yourselves to God.” The preacher had the mans adversary called and said to him, “There is an honoured gentleman in this city who, however, has become so malevolent that he wants to send four marriageable girls from a good home to a brothel. Do you think he is doing the right thing?” That gentleman answered, “O Father, he would deserve to die.” The preacher replied, “That man is you. Know that if you press ahead with this litigation that you have with your adversary you will be sending the four poor girls to the brothel.” The gentleman answered, “May God watch over me, Father. I make a present to you of every good thing for the love of God.” Therefore he reconciled and put aside the whole matter. Afterwards he said many times, “I have never been unhappy about this and would do it all again for love of that holy man. I knew clearly that it was not him but the Holy Spirit who was speaking through his mouth.”

If I should want to recount the great marvels that God worked through His servants, I would take too long and bore the listeners.