JOHN PARENTI'S period of office was brief, and the sources tell us very little about him. Consequently he has suffered from neglect and superficial treatment at the hands of some modern historians, who considered him a nonentity and awarded the responsibility for the developments which occurred in his Generalate to Elias. Yet he was Minister of the Order at a most crucial moment in its history and might have exercised a far-reaching influence by virtue of his office. The death of St Francis left the Friars Minor troubled and divided, in a state perhaps inevitable when a body of men of widely differing upbringing attempt to realise an ideal. St Francis himself had been unable entirely to stem the flood of good intentions which threatened to quench his purer flame. The tide was rising strongly, and, were it not quickly and vigorously fought, might prove irresistible. The future depended upon the attitude and abilities of those in control immediately after the inspiration of the saint had been removed. Were the Franciscans to be as a light, revealing the Gospel truth, or were they to be as water, which cleanses but at the cost of sullying its own purity? We know how this question was answered, but the reasons for that answer are not so easy to determine. In seeking these the part played by John Parenti must not be left out of account. Simply because he was the first Minister General to be elected, he was, whether positively or negatively, in some degree responsible for what happened.