[2199] Little, St. Francis of Assisi, 138. Carmichael (In Tuscany, 228) is satisfied that Francis received the stigmata. He says: "No serious person any longer seeks to dispute the fact." The stigmata were imparted by an angel and consisted in "long nails of a black, hard, fleshy substance. The round heads of the nails showed close against the palms, and from out the backs of the hands came the points of the nails, bent back as if they had pierced through wood and then been clinched." The wounds caused pain so great that Francis could not walk. Little does not reject all the fabulous details in the life of the saint as the legends have brought it down.
[2200] Lea, Inquis., III, 29.
[2201] Michael, Gesch. des Deutschen Volkes, II, 78.
[2202] Lea, Inquis., III, 33.
[2203] Ibid., 30.
[2204] Ibid., 51.
[2205] Ibid., II, 75, 99.
[2206] Ibid., 59.
[2207] Lea, Inquis., I, 541.
[2208] Ibid., III, 172, 179.