He was tender of conscience and strong of faith, this good Fra
Francesco; always sad, but never stern toward Fra Paolo's failure to
hold a belief implicit as his own in some doctrines of his beloved
Church which he held to be vital. Yet his reverence for Fra Paolo's
great knowledge and holy life made him unwilling to criticize where he
unconsciously questioned. It was the severest test of friendship to keep
his faith and affectionate devotion in one who was taking so prominent a
part in a movement opposing papal authority; but sometimes, when Fra
Paolo had uttered many things he would not have tolerated in any other
priest, Fra Francesco said only to himself, in great sadness, "It is God
who maketh men different; we do not know the why!"
The gentle friar sometimes wondered in himself that he could not openly
say to Fra Paolo when they met, after matins, the many things which had
lain hot in his heart through the night--for how _could_ it be right to
oppose the supreme authority? But when the placid face of his friend met
his, bathed in the fresh benediction of his altar service--new each
morning and never omitted--he forgot the horror with which he had been
reasoning that Fra Paolo was hastening the curse upon Venice.
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