It was to haunts such as these that Francis had pointed his disciples, and the Grey Brethren at once fixed themselves in the meanest and poorest quarters of each town.

Their first work lay in the noisome lazar-houses; it was amongst the lepers that they commonly chose the site of their homes.

At London they settled in the shambles of Newgate; at Oxford they made their way to the swampy ground between its walls and the streams of Thames.

Huts of mud and timber, as mean as the huts around them, rose within the rough fence and ditch that bounded the Friary.

The order of Francis made a hard fight against the taste for sumptuous buildings and for greater personal comfort which characterized the time.