Franciscans
FRANCISCANS
A religious order founded by St. Francis in the year 1209. Francis was the son of a merchant of Assisi, in the province of Umbria, who, having led a dissolute life, was reclaimed by a fit of sickness, and afterwards fell into an extravagant devotion that looked less like religion than alienation of mind. Soon after this, viz. in the year 1208, hearing the passage repeated in which Christ addresses his apostles, Provide neither gold nor silver, &c. Mat 10:9-10. he was led to consider a voluntary and absolute poverty as the essence of the Gospel, and to prescribe this poverty as a sacred rule both to himself and to the few that followed him. This new society, which appeared to Innocent III. extremely adapted to the present state of the church, and proper to restore its declining credit, was solemnly approved and confirmed by Honoprius IIi. in 1223, and had made a considerable progress before the death of its founder in 1226. Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks of his order to be called fratres, 1:e. brethren or friars; but fraterculi, 1:e. little brethren, or friars minor, by which denomination they have been generally since distinguished. The Franciscans and Dominicans were zealous and active friends to the papal hierarchy, and in return were distinguished by peculiar privileges and honourable employments.
The Franciscans, in particular, were invested with the treasure of ample and extensive indulgences, the distribution of which was committed to them by the popes as a mean of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for their voluntary poverty. In consequence of this grant, the rule of the founder, which absolutely prohibited both personal and collective property so that neither the individual nor the community were to possess either fund, revenue, or any worldly goods, was considered as too strict and severe, and dispensed with soon after his death. In 1231, Gregory IX. published an interpretation of this rule, mitigating its rigour; which was farther confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1245, and by Alexander Iv. in 1247. These milder operations were zealously opposed by a branch of the Franciscans, called the spiritual; and their complaints were regarded by Nicholas III. who, in 1279 published a famous constitution, confirming the rule of St. Francis, and containing an elaborate explication of the maxims he recommended, and the duties he prescribed. In 1287, Matthew, of Aqua Sparta, being elected general of the order, discouraged the ancient discipline of the Franciscans, and indulged his monks in abandoning even the appearance of poverty; and this conduct inflamed the indignation of the spiritual or austere Franciscans; so that, from the year 1290, seditions and schisms arose in an order that had been so famous for its pretended disinterestedness and humility.
Such was the enthusiastic frenzy of the Franciscans, that they impiously maintained that the founder of their order was a second Christ, in all respects similar to the first, and that their institution and discipline were the true Gospel of Jesus. Accordingly Albizi, a Franciscan, of Pisa, published a book in 1383, with the applause of his order, entitled the Book of the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ. In the beginning of this century the whole Franciscan order was divided into two parties; the one embracing the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, and were called spirituals; and the other, who insisted on mitigating, the austere injunctions of their founder, were denominated brethren of the community. These wore long, loose, and good habits, with large hoods; the former were clad in a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending that this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that no power on earth had a right to alter it.
Neither the moderation of Clement V. nor the violence of John XXII. could appease the tumult occasioned by these two parties: however, their rage subsided from the year 1329. In 1368 these two parties were formed into two large bodies, comprehending the whole Franciscan order, viz. the conventual brethren, and the brethren of the observance, or observation, from whom sprang the Capuchins and Recollects. The general opinion is, that the Franciscans came into England in the year 1224, and had their first house at Canterbury, and their second at London; but there is no certain account of their being here till king Henry VII. built two or three houses for them. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the conventual Franciscans had about fifty-five houses, which were under seven custodies or wardenships, viz. those of London, Worcester, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Franciscans
Part of the First Order of Saint Francis, commonly called Franciscans, formed by Saint Francis of Assisi, 1207-1208, and legally established, 1209. In 1517, all early reforms of the order, such as the Clareni, Colletani, etc., were united in one body henceforward known as Friars Minor of Saint Francis, or Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, and the Conventual friars were constituted a separate order, the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals ). In 1897 a reunion of later reforms of the order, and comprising the Observants, Recollects (1570), Reformati (1532), and Alcantarines (1496), was effected and approved by Pope Leo XIII. The Franciscan habit is dark brown, confined by a white cord; sandals are substituted for shoes, except in cases of necessity. Activities of the order embrace an extensive field. The friars have served as preachers, missioners, confessors, ambassadors, mediators, legates, and inquisitors against heresy; they hold a noteworthy record in the cultivation of the sciences, and have also devoted themselves to the support of the poor and the care of the sick and orphans. See also the Order’s web site .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Franciscans
the name of several monastic orders which follow the rule of Francis ofAssisi (q.v.). Francis himself founded three orders: an order of friars, called Minorites (Fratres Miinores), an order of nuns, SEE CLARISSES, and an order of Tertiaries (q.v.). These orders split into a large number of divisions, some of which even assumed other names, and became entirely independent of the original Franciscans. SEE MINIMS; SEE CAPUCHINS.
1. Franciscan Friars. This order was founded in 1210; in that year, at least, Francis gave the rule which united his followers into a monastic community. As, however, their life in common commenced before that period, some historians assume the year 1208 or 1206 as the year of foundation. The origin of the Franciscans marks a turningpoint in the history of monasticism, for they were the first andfmost prominent representatives, of the mendicant (q.v.) orders. Francis with some difficulty obtained the papal approbation of his order, SEE FRANCIS OF ASSISI, in 1210, and in 1215 he received also the sanction of the Council of Lateran. The growth of the order was astonishingly rapid. At the first General Chapter, held in 1219, more than 5000 friars assembled, and it weas resolved to send out preachers of repentance to Germsany, France, Spain, England, Hungary, and Greece. In 1223 the rules of the order was written down, and at the same time the order received extensive privileges from Honorus III. Francis resigned the burden of the generalship in 1220. His first successors, Peter of Carbons, and Elias, assumed, however, only the title of ministers general, regarding Francis, notwithstanding his resignation, as the chief superior. Elias introduced various changes; the monks assumed a less coarse garb, built beautiful churches and convents, and commenced to cultivate science. Francis had severely censured these mitigations, but after his resignation they soon began to prevail. The advocates of the primitive rigor, at their head Anthony (q.v.) of Padua, succeeded, however, in enlisting the sympathy of pope Gregory IX, by whom Elias was deposed. But a few years later (1236) Elias was re- elected general, and returned to his old principles of mitigation.
The rigorous party, and especially their leader, Caesarius (q.v.) of Spires (hence their name, Caesarius), were subjected to a cruel persecution, by which Caesarius even lost his life (1239). This, however, caused the second deposition of Elias, and the first two of his saecessors favored the strict party. But Crescentius of Jesi, elected in 1244, followed the footsteps of Elias, and the Caesarines were again persecuted until Bonaventura (q.v.) ewas elected general in 1256. He gradually restored the strict discipline, and raised the order to a degree of prosperity which it had never enjoyed before. The ascendency of the strict party lasted until the generalship of Matheo di Aquas Spartas, who again sided with the other party, which henceforth remained predominant until the whole order permanently split into, two parties. The advocates of the primitive rigor sought to form themselves into independent congregations, such as the Celastines, the Minorites of Narbonne, and the Spirituals [SEE DISCALCEATI, 13], but they suffered from their opponents an almost uninterrupted persecution. The Celestines (established in 1294) were condemned by the Inquisition as heretics in 1307, the Miinorites of Narbonne and the Spirituals in 1318. The Minorite Clarenines, founded in 1302 by the ex-Celestine Angelo di Cordona, obtained toleration as an independent congregation, and existed as such until 1517, when they united with the Observants. Two other congregations, the Minorites of the Congregation of Philip of Majorca, and the Minorites of John of Valees and Gentile of Spoleto, were of very short duration. In 1368 Paoletto di Foligno founded a new congregation, which followed the unaltered rule of Francis, spread rapidly, was approved by the popes, and thus caused the order of Franciscan friars to split into two main branches, the Conventuals, who followed the mitigated rule, and the Observants who adhered to the primitive strict rules. The efforts of the Conventuals to suppress their opponents failed, for the latter were confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415, received the permission to hold General Chapters, and obtained possession of the church of Portiuncula, the celebrated birthplace of the order. From both the Observants and Conventuals other congregations branched off. The consequent confusions in the order induced pope Julius II to command by a bull all congregations to unite either with the Observants or Conventuals. The former received also, in 1517, from Leo X, the right to elect the general of the whole order, while the Conventuals could only elect a minister general, whose election had to be ratified by the general. Thee following independent congregations joined the Observants in consequence of the measures of Julius II and Leo X: the Minorites of Peter of Villacrezes, founded in 1390 upon Mount Celia; the Minorite Colettans, founded by the Clarisse Colette of Corbie, in Savoy; the Minorite Amadeists, founded by the Spaniard Amadeo in 1457.
Some congregations became extinct before the sixteenth century; thus the Minorites of Philip of Berbegal (Minorites of the Little Cowl, della Capucciola) existed only from 1426-1434, the Minorites Caperolans from 1475 to 1481, the Minorites of Anthony of Castel St. Jean, who were suppressed soon after their foundation in 1475. The Minorites of Mathias of Timol, founded in 1495, were united with the Conventuals. The Minorites of Juan de la Puebla, founded in Spain in 1489, joined in 1566, when they counted fourteen convents, the Observants, but continued to remain a separate province with a number of peculiarities. The Minorites of John of Guadeloupe (a disciple of Juan de la Puebla), also called Discalceate Minorites of the Cowl, or Minorites of the Holy Gospel, were founded in Spain in 1494, and united with the Observants in 1517; but they assumed the name. Reformed Observants, and formed two separate provisces, which gradually increased to twelve (is Spain, Portugal, Italy, and America). They still have a procurator general at Rome. An Italians Congregation of the Strict Observance (Riformati) was founded in 1525, and still exists; a French Congregation, called Recollets, by the Duke of Nevers in 1592. The most rigorous among the congregations of Reformed Observants was that founded by Peter of Alcantara in 1540. It spread especially in Italy and Spain, was joined by the Paschasites, or Reformed Minorites of St. Paschasius, and then formed into a province, which was afterwards divided into several. This branch of the Reformed Observants had also in Rome a procurator general. At present it has only a small number of convents. In 1852 some Observants of Westphalia received papal permission to erect convents of this congregation in Germany, but they soon fell out with the bishops, and, then also with the pope and at the request of the bishops the incipient organization was suppressed by the Prussian government. The Franciscan friars have always been, and still are, very numerous. In the eighteenth century they counted more than 180,000 members, in 9000 convents.” The Conventuals, by far the less numerous, bad in 1789 about 30 provinces, with about 15,000 monks.
“As a literary order, the Franciscans have chiefly been eminent in the theological sciences. The great school of the Scotists takes its name from John Duns Scotus SEE SCOTUS, a Franciscan. friar, and it has been the pride of this order to maintain his distinctive doctrines both is philosophy and in theology against the rival school of the Thomists, to which the Dominican order gave its allegiance. SEE THOMISTS. In the Nominalistic controversy the Thomists were for the most part Conceptualists; the Franciscans adhered to the rigid Realism. SEE NOMINALISM. In the Freewill question the Franciscans strenuously resisted the Thomist doctrine of predetermining decrees.’ Indeed, all the greatest names of the early Scotist school are the Franciscans, St. Bonaventure, Alexander de Hales, and Ockham. The single name of Roger Bacon, the marvel of mediaeval letters, the divine, the philosopher, the linguist, the experimentalist, the practical mechanician, would in itself have sufficed to make the reputation of his order, had his contemporaries not failed to appreciate his merit. Two centuries later the great cardinal Ximenes was a member of this order. The popes Nicholas IV, Alexander V, Sixtus IV, the still more celebrated Sixtus V, and the well-known Ganganelli, Clement XIV, also belonged to the institute of St. Francis. In history this order is less distinguished; but its own annalist, Luke Wadding, an Irish Franciscan, bears a deservedly high reputation as a historian. In lighter literature, and particularly poetry, we have already named the founder himself as a sacred poet. Jacopone da’Todi, a Franciscan, is one of the most characteristic of the mediaeval hymn-writers; and in later times the celebrated Lope de Vega closed his eventful career as a member of the third order of St. Francis. We may add that in the revival of art the Franciscan order bore an active, and, it must be confessed, a liberal and enlightened part.”
No order of monks, save the Benedictines, has had so many members as that of the Franciscans. About fifty years after its foundation it reckoned no fewer than 33 provinces,” the aggregate number of convents in which exceeded 8000, while the members fell little, if at all, short of 200,000. Some idea, indeed, of the extraordinary extension of this remarkable institute may be formed from the startling fact that, in the dreadful plague of the Black Death in the following century, no fewer than 124,000 Franciscans are said to have fallen victims to their zeal for the care of the sick, and for the spiritual ministration to the dying! The Reformation destroyed a large number of its convents; but, on the other hand, it spread so rapidly that at the beginning of the 18th century it still numbered 115,000 monks in 7000 monasteries, and 28,000 nuns in 1000 convents.
“The supreme government of the Franciscan order, which is commonly said to be the especial embodiment of the democratic element in the Roman Catholic Church, is vested in an elective general, who resides at Rome. The subordinate superiors are, first, the ‘provincial,’ who presides over all the brethren in a province; and, secondly, the ‘guardian,’ who is the head of a single convent or community. These officers are elected only for two years. The provincial alone has power to admit candidates, who are subjected to a probation of two years, SEE NOVITIATE, after which they are, if approved, permitted to take the vows of the order. Those of the members who are advanced to holy orders undergo a preparatory course of study, during which they are called scholars;’ and if eventually promoted to the priesthood they are styled ‘fathers’ of the order, the title of the other members being ‘brother’ or ‘lay brother.”‘
2. Statistics. At present the number of Frarciscans is much smaller than it was in former times. It exists in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, England, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, Prussia, Bavaria, Poland (54 convents in 1843), Russia, Turkey, Ionian Isles, Greece, Mexico (60 convents in 1843), in most of the states of Central and South America, China, India, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, in Australia, and Polynesia. In the United States of America there are Observants in the dioceses of New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Alton, Cincinnati, and Louisville. The principal convent of the Regular Observants is Ara Coeli; that of the Reformed, St. Francisco a Ripa both at Rome. The Conventuals have convents in Italy, Austria (45 convents and 455 members in 1843), Bavaria, Switzerland, Poland, and the United States of America (in Philadelphia). Their principal convent is at Rome (the Twelve Apostles’). The superiors now residing in Rome are a general of the Observants, a minister general of the Conventuals, a procurator general of the Reformed Franciscans, a procurator general of the Alcantarines, a general of the Capuchins, and a general of the Tertiaries. Together, all these branches of Franciscans had in 1862 about 3600 houses and 50,000 members.
See Herzog, Real-Encyklopadie, 4:466; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen- Lexikon, 4:126; Henrion-Fehr, Gesch der Monchsorden, volume 1; Helyot, Odres Religieux, s.v.; Wadding, Annales Minorum (Rome, 1731-41, volume 1-17, reaching to 1540; continued by De Luca to the year 1553); Dom. de Gubernatis, Orbis Seraphicus, s. historia de tribus ordin. a S. Francisco institutis (Romans 1682); Ozanam, Les Poetes Franciscains en Italic au 13e siecle (Paris, 1852); P. Karl vom heil. Aloys, Jahrbuck der Kirche (Ratisbon, 1862), gives an alphabetical list of all the convents. (A.J.S.)