O wealth unknown! O good that is so fruitful!
Giles goes barefoot, and Sylvester,
behind the groom—the bride delights them so.^a

Then Francis—father, master—goes his way
with both his lady and his family,
the lowly cord already round their waists.

Nor did he lower his eyes in shame because
he was the son of Pietro Bernardone,
nor for the scorn and wonder he aroused;

but like a sovereign, he disclosed in full
to Innocent—the sternness of his rule;
from him he had the first seal of his order.^b

And after many of the poor had followed
Francis, whose wondrous life was better sung
by glory's choir in the Empyrean,

the sacred purpose of this chief of shepherds ^c
was then encircled with a second crown
by the Eternal Spirit through Honorius.^d

And after, in his thirst for martyrdom,
within the presence of the haughty Sultan,
he preached of Christ and those who followed Him.^e

But, finding hearers who were too unripe
to be converted, he—not wasting time—
returned to harvest the Italian fields;

there, on the naked crag between the Arno
and Tiber, he received the final seal
from Christ; and this, his limbs bore for two years.^f

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