ABSTRACT

The order of the Francisans was founded in the thirteenth century by Francis of Assisi, a man of much talent and great enthusiasm. After sowing an abundance of wild oats he was at length converted, and resolved to renounce the world, and became as energetic in his religious career as he had formerly been in profligacy, excelling in every kind of mortification—spiritual and bodily. He ran naked through the streets, ate hay like a horse, and thistles like an ass, allowing the street boys to cudgel him. During his early years his father tried in vain to beat common sense into him. One day his father thrashed him so severely that he lost all patience, and throwing off his garments, even to his shirt, reproached his parent in an eloquent speech for his unchristian cruelty.