Neither  individuals  nor  even  the  society,  united  as
it  was  for  a  truly  Christ-like  life,  was  to  possess
property  of  any  kind.  "Go  sell  all  that  thou  hast."
Life  in  God.  suffering  along  with  His  Son.  love  for
His  creatures,  human  and  other,  service  even  to  the
sacrifice  of  one's  own  life,  the  riches  of  the  soul,


Adolph  von  Ilarnack:  Trends  in  Western  Monasticism


which  possesses  nothing  but  the  Saviour — such  was
the  Gospel  of  St.  Francis.  If  any  man  ever  realised
in  his  life  what  he  preached,  St.  Francis  was  that
man.  And — what  is  the  characteristic  mark  of  this
Western  movement — intense  as  this  asceticism  was,
heartfelt  as  this  religion  was,  it  did  not  drive  its
disciples  into  solitude  or  the  desert,  but  the  reverse.
Christendom,  nay,  the  whole  world,  was  to  be  won
for  this  new  and  yet  old  Christianity  of  repentance,
renunciation,  and  love.  A  Christian  world — this
conception,  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  cen-
tury, had  a  quite  other  content  than  in  the  sixth
and  eleventh;  not  only  because  the  geographical
horizon  had  extended  itself  for  the  West,  but  to  a
higher  degree  because  the  poor  and  the  ordinarv
man  were  now  to  be  reckoned  as  part  of  that  world.
