Some may, perhaps, think that his virtues are too transcendent for imitation, and content themselves with admiring them, without gathering any fruit from them. A celebrated heresiarch admired them in this manner, in the last century. Bossuet remarks, in his excellent "History of the Variations," that "Luther reckoned among the saints not only St. Bernard, but also St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, and others of the thirteenth century; and that St. Francis, amongst all the rest, appeared to him to be an admirable character, animated with wonderful fervor of mind." But the faithful in admiring his virtues, must not think them not to be imitated, for they consisted in following the Gospel; and they are all obliged to live according to the precepts of the Gospel. REV. CANDIDE CHALIPPE, O.F.M. CONTENTS BOOK I His birth--Prediction of his future greatness--His studies--He applies himself to commerce--His purity, and affection for the poor--He is taken prisoner--He falls sick--His charity increases towards the poor--He has a mysterious dream--He wishes to go to the war--Jesus Christ dissuades him--He is rapt in spirit--His conversion--He kisses a leper--Jesus Christ crucified appears to him--Salutary effects of this apparition--He goes to Rome--Mingles with the poor--Is tempted by the devil--A voice from heaven commands him to restore the Church of S. Peter Damian--His devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ--He takes some pieces of cloth from his father's house, and sells them, to restore the Church of S. Damian--He escapes from the anger of his father, and retires to a cave--He appears in Assisi, where he is ill-treated--His father confines him--His mother delivers him, and he returns to S. Damian--He manifests his intention to his father, who appeals to justice, and cites him before the Bishop of Assisi--He renounces his inheritance, and gives back his clothes to his father--The poverty of his clothing--He is beaten by robbers--Retires to a monastery--They give him a hermit's habit--He devotes himself to the leprous--Receives the gift of healing, and returns to Assisi, where he searches for stone to restore the Church of Assisi--He toils at building as a laborer--He lives on alms--His father and brother exercise his patience--The victories he gains over himself--People begin to esteem and honor him--He predicts something which is fulfilled--He restores the Church of S. Peter and that of S. Mary of the Angels, or the Portiuncula--Dwells at S. Mary of the Angels, and is favored there with heavenly apparitions--He is called to the apostolical life--Renounces money and goes discalced--His poor and humble habit--God inspires him to preach--He weeps bitterly over the sufferings of Jesus Christ--Receives three disciples, and retires with them to a deserted cottage--He goes on a mission, and his disciples accompany him--the way they are treated--He receives three other disciples--He makes them