The Perfect Charity of the Brethren

If ever it happened that one brother said a word to another that might distress him he was so troubled by his conscience that he could not rest till he had owned his guilt, throwing himself humbly on the ground that he might let the foot of the offended brother be put upon his mouth. But if the offended brother would not put his foot on the other's mouth, in case the offending brother was a superior, that superior ordered the other to put his foot on his mouth; but in case the offending brother was an inferior, he caused the offended brother to be ordered to do so by his superior, and thus they made it their study that all rancour and wickedness might be put away from them, and that perfect love might ever be observed among them, busying themselves to the best of their power in opposing every vice by its contrary virtue, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ preventing and helping them.

- 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