[21] These were the first troubadours to visit the Italian courts, driven from Provence by the crusades against the Albigenses. [22] A certain Bernardo Moriconi, leaving his brother to carry on the business at Lucca, then famous for its manufacture of silk stuffs, came and settled at Assisi where he got the nickname Bernardone--the big Bernard. Whether in allusion to his person or to his prosperity, we cannot say, but the family name was lost sight of and his son was known as Pietro Bernardone. [23] Celano. _Vita_ I. cap. 1. [24] Ruskin. _The two paths_: Lecture III. [25] Celano. _Vita_ I. cap. 2. [26] "Le vide lamentable de sa vie lui était tout à coup apparu; il était effrayé de cette solitude d'une grande âme, dans laquelle il n'y a point d'autel." Paul Sabatier. _Vie de S. François d'Assise_, p. 17. [27] From a 15th century translation of the will of St. Francis. See _Monumenta Franciscana_. Chronicles edited by J. S. Brewer vol. iv. p. 562. [28] Life of Beato Egidio in the _Little Flowers of St. Francis_. [29] Life of Beato Egidio in the _Little Flowers of St. Francis_. [30] One of the most beautiful stories in the _Fioretti_ (chapter xxxiv.) recounts how St. Louis, King of France, visited Beato Egidio at Perugia. The king and the poor friar kneeling together in the courtyard of the convent, embracing each other like familiar friends, is a picture such as only Umbrian literature could have left us. There was absolute silence between the two, yet we are told St. Louis returned to his kingdom and Egidio to his cell with "marvellous content and consolation" in their souls. [31] See _Suprà_, p. 47. [32] Quoted by Sigonius in his work on the Bishops of Bologna. _Opera omnia_, v. iii., translated by Canon Knox Little. _Life of St. Francis of Assisi_, p. 179. [33] _Speculum Perfectionis_, cap. cv., edited by Paul Sabatier. [34] _Fioretti_, cap. xiii. [35] To franciscan influence must surely be traced the rise of the Flagellants at Perugia in 1265. [36] See _Histoire de Sainte Elizabeth_, Comte de Montalembert, pp. 71, 72. [37] It is related that when in 1216 some Franciscans went on a mission to Germany the only word they knew was "Ja," which they used upon every occasion. In one town they were asked if they were heretics preaching a rival faith to catholicism, and as they continued to say "Ja, Ja," the citizens threw them into prison, and after beating them cruelly drove them ignominiously from the country. The account they gave of their experience to the other friars at Assisi created such a panic that they were often heard in their prayers to implore God to deliver them from the barbarity of the Teutons. [38] Celano. _Vita_ I. cap. xxi. [39] Paul Sabatier. _Vie de S. Francis d'Assise_, p. 205. [40] _Vita di S. Francesco_, p. 76. Edizione Amoni (1888. Roma).