[15] Later on, naturally, it was desired that Francis should have had no better supporter than Guido; some have even made him out to be his spiritual director (St. Francois, Plon, p. 24)! We have an indirect but unexceptionable proof of the reserve with which these pious traditions must be accepted; Francis did not even tell his bishop (_pater et dominus animarum_, 3 Soc., 29) of his design of having his Rule approved by the pope. This is the more striking because the bishop would have been his natural advocate at the court of Rome, and because in the absence of any other reason the most elementary politeness required that he should have been informed. Add to this that bishops in Italy are not, as elsewhere, _functionaries_ approached with difficulty by the common run of mortals. Almost every village in Umbria has its bishop, so that their importance is hardly greater than that of the cure of a French canton. Furthermore, several pontifical documents throw a sombre light on Guido's character. In a chapter of the decretals of Honorius III. (_Quinta compil._, lib. ii., tit. iii., cap. i.) is given a complaint against this bishop, brought before the curia by the Crucigeri of the hospital _San Salvatore delle Pareti_ (suburbs of Assisi), of having maltreated two of their number, and having stolen a part of the wine belonging to the convent: _pro eo quod Aegidium presbyterum, et fratrem eorem conversum violentas manus injecerat ... adjiciens quod idem hospitale quadam vini quantitate fuerat per eumdem episcopum spoliatum._ _Honorii opera_, Horoy's edition, t. i., col. 200 ff. Cf. Potthast, 7746. The mention of the hospital _de Pariete_ proves beyond question that the Bishop of Assisi is here concerned and not the Bishop of Osimo, as some critics have suggested. Another document shows him at strife with the Benedictines of Mount Subasio (the very ones who afterward gave Portiuncula to Francis), and Honorius III. found the bishop in the wrong: Bull _Conquerente oeconomo monasterii ap_. Richter, _Corpus juris canonici_. Leipzig, 1839, 4to, Horoy, _loc. cit._, t. i., col. 163; Potthast, 7728. [16] 3 Soc., 36 and 37. Cf. _Anon. Perus. ap._, A. SS., p. 585; _Test. B. Francisci_. [17] 3 Soc., 38-41. * * * * * CHAPTER VI ST. FRANCIS AND INNOCENT III Summer 1210[1] Seeing the number of his friars daily increasing, Francis decided to write the Rule of the Order and go to Rome to procure its approval by the Pope.