St. Bonaventura, Jacomino di Verona, and Jacopone di Todi, the author of the 'Stabat Mater,' were Franciscans who followed in his footsteps. "The Crusades were," to quote again, "defensive as well as offensive. The Sultan, whom St. Francis visited and filled with respect, was not far from Christendom." Frederick of Sicily, with his Saracens, menaced Assisi itself. Hideous doctrines and practices were rife; and the thirty thousand friars who soon enrolled themselves in the band of Francis gained the love of the people, preached Christianity anew, symbolized it rudely for folk that could not read, and, as St. Francis had done, they appealed to the imagination. The legends of St. Francis--one can find them in the 'Little Flowers,' of which there are at least two good English translations--became the tenderest poems of the poor. If St. Francis had been less of a poet, he would have been less of a saint. He died a poet, on October 4, 1226: he asked to be buried on the Infernal Hill of Assisi, where the crusaders were laid to rest; "and," he said, "sing my 'Canticle of the Sun,' so that I may add a song in praise of my sister Death. The lines," he added, "will be found at the end of the 'Cantico del Sole.'" Paul Sabatier's 'Life of St. Francis,' and Mrs. Oliphant's, are best known to English-speaking readers. The most exhaustive 'Life' is by the Abbe Leon Le Monnier, in two volumes. It has lately been translated into English. [Signature: Maurice Francis Egan] ORDER [_Our Lord Speaks_] And though I fill thy heart with hottest love, Yet in true order must thy heart love me, For without order can no virtue be; By thine own virtue, then, I from above Stand in thy soul; and so, most earnestly, Must love from turmoil be kept wholly free: The life of fruitful trees, the seasons of The circling year move gently as a dove: I measured all the things upon the earth; Love ordered them, and order kept them fair, And love to order must be truly wed. O soul, why all this heat of little worth? Why cast out order with no thought of care? For by love's heat must love be governed? Translation of Maurice Francis Egan. THE CANTICLE OF THE SUN [The title is 'Incipiunt Laudes Creaturarum quas fecit Franciscus ad Laudem et Honorem Dei cum esset Infirmus ad Sanctum Damianum.' It is sometimes called the 'Canticle of the Creatures.' It is in Italian, and it opens with these words:--"Altissimi, omnipotente, bon Signore, tue so le laude la gloria e l'onore et omne benedictione."] O Most High, Almighty, good Lord God, to thee belong praise, glory, honor, and all blessing. Praised be my Lord God, with all his creatures, and specially our brother the sun, who brings us the day and who brings us the light; fair is he, and he shines with a very great splendor. O Lord, he signifies to us thee!