" (Wolf 19) the author Kenneth Wolf in his work, the Poverty of Riches: St. Francis of Assisi Reconsidered, points out the irony that you had to be rich in the first place in order to truly choose to give away your worldly possessions. (20) in that sense, Francis' poverty was a "spiritually therapeutic exercise for men of means;" poor people were incapable of participating in this aspect fully because they could never really understand the "spiritual hardship" of giving up comfort. (Wolf 21)
For the children of wealthy families in thirteenth century Italy, Francis offered a path to meaning and purpose for lives filled with luxury. The conscious decision to give up the trappings of earthly pleasure was a very ostentatious and overt form of piety. In Rule VI of the final Rule of the Franciscan Order, it states:
This is that peak of the highest poverty which has made you, my dearest brothers, heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven, poor in things but rich in virtues. Let this be your portion. It leads into the land of the living and, adhering totally to it, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ wish never to have anything else in this world, beloved brothers. (St. Francis)
By calling voluntary poverty the "highest" form, this message certainly...
Wolf argues that this kind of sanctity would certainly have struck a chord with his fellow privileged members of society, as Catholic dogma preached justification through works, and what better way to prove your piety than to attempt a complete emulation and replication of the life of Christ. (79)
Although Francis came from the ranks of the merchant classes, and his message of voluntary poverty was tailored to their circumstances, his message also held great promise to the poor themselves. By preaching about the nobility of poverty, his order, in essence, put the poor up on a spiritual pedestal; this certainly would have drawn the lower classes to Francis and made him a heroic figure. Not only was the message powerful, but Francis himself was incredibly charismatic and fully committed to his ideals. As Wolf points out, his ability to "personify" Christ was surely key to his popularity and influence. (39) "In all of Christian sanctity, the line between the imitation of Christ and actual identification had never been so thin. (Wolf 41) for an audience of the medieval poor, who were mostly illiterate and unlearned, Francis' form of worship was very visceral and easy to understand. It was incredibly
