COLLOQUY IX.
The Rule of the Friars Minor was not Composed by St. Francis, but given him by God.
The Sovereign Pontiff Honorius III., who solemnly confirmed the Rule of the Friars Minor in the eighth year of his pontificate, considered some precepts of the said Institute too hard and difficult for human weakness. He therefore exhorted St Francis to mitigate some points, to change others, and to do away with some altogether. But the holy lawgiver replied : ‘Most Blessed Father, it was not I who put those words and precepts into the Rule, but Christ, Who knows better than any what is useful and necessary for the salvation of the Brethren and the well-being and preservation of this Order; for all things that are to happen in the Church and in this Order are present and known to Him. I therefore must not and cannot change or efface the words of Christ’