It is recorded in the Verba S. Francisci (c. 5) that Cardinal Hugolino was present at a General Chapter at Assisi, ‘et dictum est capitulum sextoriorum, et fuerunt ibi quinque milia fratres… ’ and that it was on this occasion that he tried to make St Francis and his brothers accept an existing monastic rule. It is clear that this incident took place after the meeting of Francis and Hugolino at Florence (see above, p. 62), and it seems likely prima facie that Hugolino was already Cardinal Protector. Since this Chapter –traditionally called the Chapter of Mats, on the basis of this and related texts–has sometimes been dated as early as 1218, it has become entangled with the problem of the chronology of St Francis' relations with the cardinal. It is the purpose of this appendix to separate the threads: to show that the meeting at Florence can be dated to 1217 or 1218, and that the Chapter of Mats was a distinctly later event.

The terminus a quo for St Francis' meeting with Hugolino at Florence (1 Cel. 74, cf. above, pp. 61 fF.) is provided by Celano's information that Hugolino was then legate in Tuscany. He held that office on three occasions, in 1217, in 1218–19 and in 1221. Celano says that the meeting took place after a Whitsun Chapter, when St Francis was on his way to France. In 1219 Francis set out, not for France, but for the East; in 1220 he was still in the East at Whitsun and Hugolino was not legate; and by Whitsun 1221 Francis had obtained from Honorius III the appointment of Hugolino as official Protector (above, pp. 64–6).