Franciscans is the common name used to designate a variety of mendicant religious orders of men or women tracing their origin to Francis of Assisi and following the Rule of St. Francis. The official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum.
Important Franciscans
A sermon which Francis heard in 1209 on Matt. x. 9
made such an impression on him that he decided to
devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty.
Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and,
after the Evangelical precept, without
staff or scrip, he began to preach
repentance.
He was soon joined by a
prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo
di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to
the work, and by other companions, who are said
to have reached the number of eleven within a
year. The brothers lived in the deserted
lazar-house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent
much of their time traveling through the
mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and
full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their
hearers by their earnest exhortations. Their life was
extremely ascetic, though such practises were
apparently not prescribed by the first rule which Francis
gave them (probably as early as 1209), which
seems to have been nothing more than a collection
of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of
poverty.
In spite of the obvious similarity
between this principle and the fundamental ideas of
the followers of Peter Waldo, the brotherhood of
Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of
Pope Innocent III. Many legends have clustered
around the decisive audience of Francis with the
pope. The realistic account in Matthew Paris,
according to which the pope originally sent the
shabby saint off to keep swine, and only
recognized his real worth by his ready obedience, has,
in spite of its improbability, a certain historical
interest, since it shows the natural antipathy of
the older Benedictine monasticism to the plebeian
mendicant orders.
It was not, however, a life of idle mendicancy on
which the brothers entered when they set out in
1210 with the papal approbation, but one of
diligent labor. Their work embraced devoted
service in the abodes of sickness and poverty, earnest
preaching by both priests and lay
brothers, and missions in an ever
widening circle, which finally included
heretics and Mohammedans. They
came together every year at
Pentecost in the little church of the Portiuncula at Assisi,
to report on their experiences and strengthen
themselves for fresh efforts.
Francis had to suffer from the dissensions just
alluded to and the transformation which they
operated in the originally simple constitution of the
brotherhood, making it a regular order under strict
supervision from Rome. Especially after Cardinal
Ugolino had been assigned as
protector of the order by Pope Honorius III-- it
is said at Francis' own request-- he
saw himself forced further and further
away from his original plan. Even the independent
direction of his brotherhood was, it seems,
finally withdrawn from him; at least after about
1223 it was practically in the hands of Brother
Elias of Crotona, an ambitious politician who
seconded the attempts of the cardinal-protector to
transform the character of the order.
However,
in the external successes of the brothers, as they
were reported at the yearly general chapters, there
was much to encourage Francis. Caesarius of
Speyer, the first German provincial, a zealous
advocate of the founder's strict principle of poverty,
began in 1221 from Augsburg, with twenty-five
companions, to win for the order the land watered
by the Rhine and the Danube; and a few years
later the Franciscan propaganda, starting from
Cambridge, embraced the principal towns of
England.
Among Franciscan celebrities of the later
Middle Ages may be mentioned Nicholas of Lyra,
the Biblical commentator, Bernardin of Sienna,
John of Capistrano, Mollard and Menot as
preachers, and the famous canonists Astesanus,
Alvarus Pelagius, and
William of Occam. Later again came sound
historical investigators such as Luke Wadding and
Pagi.
In the field of Christian art, during the
later Middle Ages, the Franciscan movement
exercised considerable influence, especially in Italy.
Several great painters of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, especially Cimabue and Giotto,
were spiritual sons of Francis in the wider sense,
and the plastic masterpieces of the latter, as well
as the architectural conceptions of both himself
and his school, show the influence of Franciscan
ideals. The Italian Gothic style, whose earliest
important monument is the great convent church
at Assisi (built 1228-53), was cultivated as a rule
principally by members of the order or men under
their influence.
The early spiritual poetry of Italy
was inspired by Francis himself, who was followed
by Thomas of Celano, Bonaventura, and Jacopone da Todi;
and in a certain sense even Dante may be
included within the sphere of Franciscan influence
(cf. especially Paradiso, xi. 50).
The Tertiary rule which
passes under the name of St. Francis not only can
not have been drawn up by him, but does not even
show a basis of his original instructions. There
must have been, however, in his lifetime a
following of devout laity who composed a sort of third
order, beside the Friars Minor and the
Clarisses.
The Beginning of the Brotherhood
Work and Extension of the Brotherhood
The Last Years of Francis
The Three Rules of the Order and the Testament of Saint Francis
The First Rule
The oldest rule, referred to
above, no longer preserved in its original form,
seems to have contained not much more than the
three Scriptural commands in Matt. xix. 21; Luke
ix. 3; and Matt. xvi. 24. The
attempted reconstruction by Muller
ascribes to it too extensive a content,
though Sabatier goes too far in the other direction
when he limits it to these three sayings of Christ,
which, according to Thomas of Celano, formed the kernel of
the rule, surrounded by certain other more detailed
prescriptions. Sabatier's theory that these were
gradual accretions, depending especially on
decisions of the yearly general chapter, needs further
evidence to confirm it; the oldest biographers say
nothing of any intermediate stage between the
primitive rule and that of 1221. The former, based
upon the idea of poverty and self-denying labor in
the cause of Christ, was intended for an
association of a similar kind to the Pauperes Catholici or
"Poor Men of Lyons." It had little or nothing in
common with the older monastic rules, Benedictine
or Augustinian.
The Third Rule
The third rule, confirmed by Honorius III on
November 29, 1223, has still less of Francis' own work
in it. The edifying tone, the citation of the
Scriptural texts, have disappeared from it. Instead of
the strong emphasis upon Christ's admonitions to
his disciples with which the rule of 1221 had begun,
the enumeration of the three
traditional monastic vows is here
substituted. The character of the order as a
mendicant order, pledged to an ideal of the strictest
poverty, comes out here, it is true; but these
concessions to the spirit of the earlier rules are
intermingled with a number of other prescriptions
which clearly show the externally official character
of the new statutes, framed in the interest of the
papacy and in conformity with the other organs
of the hierarchy. A cardinal appointed by the
pope as protector of the whole order was to
supervise its activity. The conditions for entrance are
more definitely laid down; the Roman Breviary
is expressly named as the obligatory basis of the
daily devotions of priests belonging to it; and the
preaching brothers have a more dependent position
than before. In a word, the life here regulated is
no longer the old free, wandering life of the first
years, marked by apostolic poverty and loving,
simple-hearted devotion to the Lord, but rather a
carefully arranged quasi-monastic system, shorn
of much of its original freedom.
The Testament
Francis, as may be seen from more than one
passage in the accounts of his last years, was
unhappy about these changes. As a demonstration
against them, he left what is called his
"Testament," whose occasional reading
together with the rule was enjoined on
the brethren. Its tone is rather plaintive
than angry; it looks back in a spirit of regret
to the primitive days of the first love. It urges
unswerving obedience to the pope and the heads
of the order, but at the same time emphasizes the
necessity of following its principles, especially the
imitation of the poverty of Christ. The brethren
are commanded to oppose the introduction of any
future secularizing influences, and at the same time
are forbidden to ask for any special privileges from
the pope. In spite of the direct command in the
"Testament" against considering it as a new
rule, the Observantist section of the Franciscans
practically regarded it as even more binding than
the formal rule, while the advocates of a less strict
observance paid little attention to it, especially to
its prohibition of asking for ecclesiastical privileges.Development of the Order after the Death of Francis
Dissentions During the Life of Francis
The controversy about poverty which
extends through the first three centuries of
Franciscan history began in the lifetime of the founder.
The ascetic brothers Matthew of Narni and
Gregory of Naples, to whom Francis had
entrusted the direction of the order
during his absence, carried through
at a chapter which they held certain
stricter regulations in regard to
fasting and the reception of alms, which really
departed from the spirit of the original rule. It did
not take Francis long, on his return, to suppress
this insubordinate tendency; but he was less
successful in regard to another of an opposite nature
which soon came up. Elias of Crotona originated
a movement for the increase of the worldly
consideration of the order and the adaptation of its
system to the plans of the hierarchy which
conflicted with the original notions of the founder and
helped to bring about the successive changes in the
rule already described. Francis was not alone in
opposition to this lax and secularizing tendency. On
the contrary, the party which clung to his original
views and after his death took his "Testament"
for their guide, known as Observantists or Zelanti,
was at least equal in numbers and activity to the
followers of Elias. The conflict between the two
lasted many years, and the Zelanti won several
notable victories, in spite of the favor shown to
their opponents by the papal administration-- until
finally the reconciliation of the two points of view
was seen to be impossible, and the order was
actually split into halves.
Development to 1239. The Laxer Party
St. Anthony of Padua has usually been
regarded as the first leader of the Observantists; but
recent investigations have shown that he was
inclined to the opposite side. When Elias sent a
delegation to Rome in 1230 to obtain papal
sanction for his views, Anthony was one
of the envoys; and there is little doubt
that the bull Quo elongati of Pope Gregory IX, favoring this side, was due in
large measure to his influence. The
earliest leader of the strict party was rather Brother
Leo, the witness of the ecstasies of Francis on
Monte Alverno and the author of the Speculum
perfectionis, a strong polemic against the laxer
party. Next to him came John Parens, the first
successor of Francis in the headship of the order.
In 1232, however, Elias succeeded him, and
administered the affairs of the order in the interest of
his own, party for seven years. Much external
progress was made during these years; many new
houses were founded, especially in Italy, and in
them, without regard to the founder's depreciation
of secular learning, special attention was paid to
education. The somewhat earlier settlements of
Franciscan teachers at the universities (in Oxford,
for example, where Alexander of Hales was teaching)
continued to develop. Contributions toward
the promotion of the order's work came in
abundantly, and Elias authorized his subordinates to get
around the provision of the rule against the receiving
of money, usually by the appointment of agents
outside the order, who had the custody of the
funds. Elias pursued with great severity the
principal leaders of the opposition, and even Bernardo
di Quintavalle, the founder's first disciple, was
obliged to conceal himself for years in the forest of
Monte Sefro.
To 1274. Bonaventure
At last, however, the reaction came. At the
general chapter of 1239, held in Rome under the
personal presidency of Gregory IX., Elias was
deposed in favor of Albert of Pisa, the former
provincial of England, a moderate
Observantist. None the less, Elias'
attitude remained widely prevalent in the
order. The next two ministers-general
Haymo of Faversham (1240-44) and Crescentius of Jesi (1244-47), governed to a great extent in this
sense, and had the new Pope Innocent IV on their
side. In a bull of November 14, 1245, he even
sanctioned an extension of the system of financial
agents, and declared the funds in their custody the
property of the Church, to be held at the disposal
of the cardinal-protector and not to be alienated
without his permission. The Observantist party
took a strong stand in opposition to this ruling,
and carried on so successfully an agitation against
the lax general that in 1247, at a chapter held in
Lyons, where Innocent IV. was then residing, he
was replaced by the strict Observantist [[John of
Parma]] (1247-57). Elias, who had been
excommunicated and taken under the
protection of Frederick II., was now forced to give up all hope of
recovering his power in the order. He died in
1253, after succeeding by recantation in obtaining
the removal of his censures. Under John of
Parma, who enjoyed the favor of Innocent IV. and
Pope Alexander IV, the influence of the order was
notably increased, especially by the provisions of the
latter pope in regard to the academic activity of
the brothers. He not only sanctioned the
theological institutes in Franciscan houses, but did all
he could to facilitate the entrance of their teachers
to the universities, especially Paris, the
headquarters of theological study. It was due to the action
of his representatives, who were obliged to threaten
the university authorities with excommunication,
that the degree of doctor of theology was conceded
to the Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the
Franciscan Bonaventure (1257), who had previously
been able to lecture only as licentiates. In the
same year Bonaventura succeeded John of Parma.
In spite of his adherence to Observantist
principles, Bonaventura took a decided stand against
the teaching of Joachim of Fiore, which John of
Parma had been inclined to favor. Not a few of
the "Spiritual" party, as they were now coming
to be called, were condemned to lifelong
imprisonment; and for the purpose of discouraging their
extreme tendency a new life of the founder was
compiled by Bonaventura, at the request of the
general chapter held at Narbonne in 1260, and
authorized by that of Pisa three years later as the
only approved biography. Apart from the severe
measures taken against Joachim's followers,
Bonaventura seems to have ruled (1257-74) in a
moderate spirit, which is represented also by various works
produced by the order in his time-- especially by
the Expositio regulae written by David of Augsburg
(q.v.) soon after 1260.
To 1300. Continued Dissensions
The successor of Bonaventura, Jerome of Ascoli
(1274-79), the future Pope Nicholas IV, and his
successor, Bonagratia (1279-85), also followed a
middle course. Severe measures were taken
against certain extreme Spirituals who, on the
strength of the rumor that [[Pope Gregory
X]] was intending at the [[Council of
Lyons]] (1274-75) to force the mendicant
orders to tolerate the possession
of property, threatened both pope and council
with the renunciation of allegiance. Attempts
were made, however, to satisfy the reasonable
demands of the Spiritual party, as in the bull Exiit
qui seminiat of Pope Nicholas III (1279), which
pronounced the principle of complete poverty
meritorious and holy, but interpreted it in the way of
a somewhat sophistical distinction between pos-
session and usufruct. The bull was received
respectfully by Bonagratia and the next two
generals, Arlotto of Prato (1285-87) and Matthew of Aqua Sparta (1287-89); but the Spiritual party under
the leadership of the fanatical apocalyptic [[Peter Olivi|Pierre
Jean Olivi]] regarded its provisions for the
dependence of the friars upon the pope and the division
between brothers occupied in manual labor and those
employed on spiritual missions as a corruption of
the fundamental principles of the order. They were
not won over by the conciliatory attitude of the
next general, Raymond Gaufredi (1289-96), and
of the Franciscan Pope Nicholas IV (1288-92).
The attempt made by the next pope, Pope Celestine V,
an old friend of the order, to end the strife by
uniting the Observantist party with his own order of
hermits (see Celestines) was scarcely more
successful. Only a part of the Spirituals joined the
new order, and the secession scarcely lasted beyond
the reign of the hermit-pope. Pope Boniface VIII
annulled Celestine's bull of foundation with his other
acts, deposed the general Raymond Gaufredi, and
appointed a man of laxer tendency, John de Murro,
in his place. The Benedictine section of the
Celestines was separated from the Franciscan section,
and the latter was formally suppressed by
Boniface in 1302. The leader of the Observantists,
Olivi, who spent his last years in the Franciscan
house at Narbonne and died there in 1298, had
pronounced against the extremer "Spiritual"
attitude, and given an exposition of the theory of
poverty which was approved by the more
moderate Observantists, and for a long time constituted
their principle.
Temporary Success of the Stricter Party. Persecution
Under Pope Clement V (1305-14) this party succeeded
in exercising some influence on papal decisions.
In 1309 Clement had a commission sit at Avignon
for the purpose of reconciling the conflicting parties.
Ubertino of Casale, the leader,
after Olivi's death, of the stricter
party, who was a member of the
commission, induced the Council of Vienne
to arrive at a decision in the main
favoring his views, and the papal
constitution Exivi de paradiso (1313) was
on the whole conceived in the same sense.
Clement's successor, Pope John XXII (1316-34), favored the
laxer or conventual party. By the bull
Quorundam exigit
he modified several provisions of the constitution
Exivi, and required the formal submission of
the Spirituals. Some of them, encouraged by the
strongly Observantist general Michael of Cesena,
ventured to dispute the pope's right so to deal
with the provisions of his predecessor. Sixty-four
of them were summoned to Avignon, and the most
obstinate delivered over to the Inquisition, four of
them being burned (1318). Shortly before this all
the separate houses of the Observantists had been
suppressed.
Renewed Controversy on the Question of Poverty
A few years later a new controversy, this time
theoretical, broke out on the question of poverty.
The Spirituals contended eagerly for the view that
Christ and his apostles had possessed absolutely
nothing, either separately or jointly. This
proposition had been declared heretical in a trial before an
inquisitor. A protest was now made against this
decision by the chapter held at Perugia in 1322,
as well as by such influential members of the order
as William of Occam, the English
provincial, and Bonagratia of
Bergamo. John XXII ranged himself
decidedly with the Dominicans, who
combated the theory, and by the
bull Cum inter nonnullos of 1322
declared it erroneous and heretical. Appealing
from this decision, Bonagratia, Occam, and Michael
of Cesena were imprisoned at Avignon for four
years, until they escaped by the help of the
Emperor Louis the Bavarian. Supported by him,
they carried on a literary war against the papal
and Dominican denial of the absolute poverty of
Christ and his apostles. The pope deposed Cessna
and Occam from their offices in the order, and
excommunicated them with the Franciscan antipope
Peter of Corvara (Nicholas V.) and all their
adherents. Only a small part of the order, however,
joined them, and at a general chapter held in Paris
(1329) the majority of all the houses declared their
submission to the pope. The same step was taken
in the following year by the antipope, later by the
ex-general Cesena, and finally, just before his death,
by Occam.
Separate Congregations
Out of all these dissensions in the fourteenth
century sprang a number of separate
congregations, almost of sects. To say nothing of the
heretical parties of the Beghards and Fraticelli,
some which developed within the order on both
hermit and cenobitic principles may
here be mentioned:The Clareni
or Clarenini, an association of hermits
established on the river Clareno in
the march of Ancona by Angelo da Clareno
after the suppression of the Franciscan Celestines
by Boniface VIII. It maintained the principles
of Olivi, and, outside of Umbria, spread also
in the kingdom of Naples, where Angelo died
in 1337. Like several other smaller
congregations, it was obliged in 1568 under Pope Pius V to
unite with the general body of Observantists.The Minorites of Narbonne
As a separate
congregation, this originated through the
union of a number of houses which followed Olivi
after 1308. It was limited to southwestern France
and, its members being accused of the heresy
of the Beghards, was suppressed by the
Inquisition during the controversies under John XXII.The Reform of Johannes de Vallibus
This was founded
in the hermitage of St. Bartholomew at Brugliano
near Foligno in 1334. The congregation was
suppressed by the Franciscan general chapter in 1354;
reestablished in 1368 by Paolo de' Trinci of
Foligno; confirmed by Gregory XI. in 1373, and spread
rapidly from Central Italy to France, Spain,
Hungary and elsewhere. Most of the Observantist
houses joined this congregation by degrees, so that
it became known simply as the "brothers of the
regular Observance." It acquired the favor of
the popes by its energetic opposition to the
heretical Fraticelli, and was expressly recognized by the
Council of Constance (1415). It was allowed to
have a special vicar-general of its own and legislate
for its members without reference to the conventual
part of the order. Through the work of such men as
Bernardin of Siena John of Capistrano,
and Dietrich Coelde
(b. 1435? at Munster; was a member of the
Brethren of the Common Life, died December 11, 1515), it gained great prominence during the
fifteenth century. By the end of the Middle Ages,
the Observantists, with 1,400 houses, comprised
nearly half of the entire order. Their influence
brought about attempts at reform even among the
Conventuals, including the Observantists of the
Common Life, founded by Boniface de Ceva and
spreading principally in France and Germany; the
reformed congregation founded in 1426 by the
Spaniard Philip de Berbegal and distinguished by
the special importance they attached to the little
hood (cappuciola); the Neutri, a group of
reformers originating about 1463 in Italy, who tried
to take a middle ground between the Conventuals
and Observantists, but refused to obey the heads
of either, until they were compelled by the pope
to affiliate with the regular Observantists, or with
those of the Common Life; the Caperolani, a
congregation founded about 1470 in North Italy by
Peter Caperolo, but dissolved again on the death of
its founder in 1480; the Amadeists, founded by
the noble Portuguese Amadeo, who entered the
Franciscan order at Assisi in 1452, gathered around
him a number of adherents to his fairly strict
principles (numbering finally twenty-six houses) and,
died in the odor of sanctity in 1482.
Unsuccessful Attempts to Unite the Order
Projects for a union between the two main
branches of the order were put forth not only by
the Council of Constance but by several popes,
without any positive result. By direction of
Martin V., John of Capistrano drew
up statutes which were to serve as a
basis for reunion, and they were
actually accepted by a general chapter at
Assisi in 1430; but the majority of the
Conventual houses refused to agree to
them, and they remained without effect. At
Capistrano's request Eugenius IV. put forth a bull (Ut sacra
minorum, 1446) looking to the same result, but again
nothing was accomplished. Equally unsuccessful
were the attempts of the Franciscan pope Sixtus
IV., who bestowed a vast number of privileges on
both the original mendicant orders, but by this
very fact lost the favor of the Observantists and
failed in his plans for reunion. Julius II. succeeded
in doing away with some of the smaller branches,
but left the division of the two great parties
untouched. This division was finally legalized by
Leo X., after a general chapter held in Rome, in
connection with the reform-movement of the Fifth
Lateran Council, had once more declared the
impossibility of reunion. The less strict principles
of the Conventuals, permitting the posesssion of
real estate and the enjoyment of fixed revenues,
were recognized as tolerable, while the
Observantists, in contrast to this usus moderatus, were held
strictly to their own usus arctus or pauper. The
latter, as adhering more closely to the rule of the
founder, were allowed to claim a certain superiority
over the former. The Observantist general
(elected now for six years, not for life) was to have
the title of "Minister-General of the Whole Order
of St. Francis" and the right to confirm the choice
of a head for the Conventuals, who was known as
"Master-General of the Friars Minor Conventual"--
although this privilege never became practically
operative.Spread of the order in Modern Times
See: Franciscan Order in modern timesDistinguished Names
Although surpassed in the number of prominent
and influential theological authors by the Jesuits
and Dominicans, the order still boasts a number of
distinguished names. The first century of its
existence produced the three great scholastics
Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, and Duns Scotus,
the "Admirable Doctor" Roger Bacon, and the
well-known mystic authors and
popular preachers David of Augsburg and
Berthold of Regensburg. The Clarisses or Poor Clares
For the history
of the female branch of the order, founded in the
lifetime of Francis, see Poor Clares.The Third Order
Origin and Rule
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