The Bishop of Assisi, to whom the man of God often went for advice, received him kindly, and said to him: 'Your life - I mean possessing nothing in the world - seems to me hard and rough.' The Bishop of Assisi, to whom the man of God often went for advice, received him kindly, and said to him: 'Your life - I mean possessing nothing in the world - seems to me hard and rough.'
'My lord,' answered the holy man, 'if we had possessions, we should need arms for our protection; for thence spring questions and disputes, and the love of God and of one's neighbour is wont to be hindered thereby in many ways; and that is why we will not possess any temporal things in this world.' And the Bishop was much pleased by the answer of the man of God, who despised all transitory things, and especially money, to such a degree that in all his Rules he chiefly commended poverty, and made all the brethren careful to avoid money. In one of his Rules he said, in detestation of money: 'Let us who have left all things beware of losing the kingdom of heaven for so little. And if we find money anywhere, let us care no more for it than for the dust which we tread with our feet.'
- text taken from Franciscan Days: being selections for every day in the year from ancient Franciscan writings, translated and arranged by Alan George Ferrers Howell