St Francis, in his latest Rule, supposed two forms of work as the employment of his friars: the manual work of a craft, or its equivalent in domestic duties, and the preaching of the gospel in its simplest form. The first of these two employments soon ceased to exist as an alternative to the second, especially in the transalpine provinces, where recruitment and training were from the first predominantly clerical. Eccleston, indeed, relates that one of the first friars in England practised a craft in accordance with the Rule, but his language shows that by the time he wrote the fact had become something of a curiosity. The early friars no doubt long continued to do the simple domestic and garden work for themselves, but very soon this, too, passed to the remaining lay brothers and even to servants.

With the disappearance of craft or garden work as a regular employment preaching, with its accompaniment, for those in priest's orders, of hearing confessions, remained alone in the field as work for the rank and file of the Friars Minor, and this was throughout the middle ages their distinctive employment, though in the case of many, during the heyday of scholastic theology, its place was taken by study and lecturing. Unfortunately, no contemporary document gives any detailed account of the preaching journeys and experiences of the first English friars.