The Medieval ChurcJi at its IleigJit 485 publicly carrying on their missionary work. Yet all conscientious men agreed with the Waldensians that the world was in a sad plight, owing to the negligence and the misdeeds of the clergy. St. Francis and St. Dominic strove to meet the needs of their time by inventing a new kind of clergyman, the begging brother, or "mendicant friar" (from the .2Xf rater, " brother"). He was to do just what the bishops and parish priests often failed to do — namely, lead a holy life of self-sacrifice, defend the Church's beliefs against the attacks of the heretics, and awaken the people to a new religious life. The founding of the mendicant orders is one of the most interesting events of the Middle Ages. There is no more lovely and fascinating figure in all history St. Francis than St. Francis. He was born (probably in 1182) at Assisi, a 1182-1226 little town in central Italy. He was the son of a well-to-do merchant, and during his early youth he lived a very gay life, spending his father's money freely. He read the French romances of the time and dreamed of imitating the brave knights whose adventures they described. Although his com- panions were wild and reckless, there was a delicacy and chivahy in Francis's own make-up which made him hate all things coarse and heartless. When later he voluntarily became a beggar, his ragged cloak still covered a true poet and knight. The contrast between his own life of luxury and the sad state Francis for- of the poor early afflicted him. When he was about twenty, of luxury after a long and serious illness which made a break in his gay fn^eJ^tance life and sjave him time to think, he suddenly lost his love for the and becomes ^ ' -^ . a hermit old pleasures and began to consort with the destitute, above all with lepers. His father does not appear to have had any fond- ness whatever for beggars, and the relations between him and his son grew more and more strained. When finally he threatened to disinherit the young man, Francis cheerfully agreed to sur- render all right to his inheritance. Stripping off his clothes and giving them back to his father, he accepted the worn-out garment of a gardener and became a homeless hermit, busying himself in repairing the dilapidated chapels near Assisi.
