Angelo's vision of renewal is encapsulated in these words. He exercised a powerful influence on those who paved the way for the reforms initiated by John de Valle, the first of three friars who established the friary at Brugliano and created a platform for the revitalisation of the order in Umbria.

An order in need of purification

Religious orders constantly seek a greater fidelity to their Rule. The friars did not escape the pain and division that visited the older orders. The friars' critics were united in their observation that the movement had fallen seriously short of its lofty ideals. A persistent charge was that friars spent too much time with the rich to the neglect of the needy. The order's large conventual buildings bore a monastic stamp, which tended to merge and confuse the insights of Sts Benedict and Francis. While the ample friaries with their double or triple cloisters gave the impression of grandeur and comfort on some of the most valuable urban sites, their churches turned friars into the rivals of the secular clergy. John Wyclif protested in the 1370s that the friars' new churches and cloisters were detrimental to the life of the parish churches, which were falling into ruin. The secular clergy's objections were twofold: one, the lack of pastoral care, and two, the haemorrhaging of support from the parish church.