Beginnings In 1209, a sermon Francis heard on
Matthew 10:9 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,
Bernard of Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work. Other companions joined, with Francis having 11 companions within a year. The brothers lived in the deserted
leper colony of Rivo Torto near
Assisi. They spent much of their time traveling through the mountainous districts of
Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations. Their life was extremely
ascetic. Probably as early as 1209, Francis gave them a first rule, a collection of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty. In spite of some similarities between this principle and some of the fundamental ideas of the followers of
Peter Waldo, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of
Pope Innocent III. What seems to have impressed first the
Bishop of Assisi, then
Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo and finally Innocent, was their utter loyalty to the Catholic Church and the clergy. Pope Innocent was responsible for helping to construct the church Francis was being called to rebuild. Innocent and the
Fourth Lateran Council helped maintain the church in Europe. Pope Innocent probably saw in them a possible answer to his desire for an orthodox preaching force to counter heresy. 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. The group was
tonsured, and Francis was ordained as a deacon, allowing him to proclaim Gospel passages and preach in churches during Mass.
Francis's last years and the Confirmation of the
Rule of Saint Francis,
Benozzo Gozzoli in 1219, after intense apostolic activity in Italy, Francis went to Egypt with the
Fifth Crusade to announce the
Gospel to the
Saracens. He met with the Sultan
Malik al-Kamil, initiating a spirit of dialogue and understanding between
Christianity and
Islam. The Franciscan presence in the
Holy Land started in 1217, when the province of
Syria was established, with Brother Elias as minister. By 1229, the friars had a small house near the fifth station of the
Via Dolorosa. In 1272, Sultan
Baibars allowed the Franciscans to settle in the
Cenacle on
Mount Zion. In 1309, they also settled in the
Holy Sepulchre and in
Bethlehem. In 1335, the king of Naples
Robert of Anjou () and his wife
Sancha of Majorca () bought the Cenacle and gave it to the Franciscans. In 1342,
Pope Clement VI by the Bulls
Gratias agimus and
Nuper charissimae, declared the Franciscans as the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church. The Franciscan
Custody of the Holy Land is still in force today. The controversy about how to follow the Gospel life of poverty, which extends through the first three centuries of Franciscan history, began in Francis' lifetime. The ascetic brothers Matthew of
Narni and Gregory of Naples, a nephew of Cardinal Ugolino, were the two vicars-general to whom Francis had entrusted the direction of the order during his time in Egypt. They carried through at a chapter which they held certain stricter regulations in regard to fasting and the reception of alms, which departed from the spirit of the original rule. It did not take Francis long, on his return, to suppress this insubordinate tendency. He was less successful in regard to another of an opposite nature which soon came up.
Elias of Cortona 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. This conflicted with the original notions of Francis 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 , was at least equal in numbers and activity to the followers of Elias. Approving the Rule of St.
Francis of Assisi'', Bartolome del Castro, c. 1500,
Philadelphia Museum of Art In 1219, exasperated by the demands of running a growing and fractious order, Francis asked
Pope Honorius III for help. He was assigned Cardinal
Ugolino as protector of the order by the pope. Francis resigned the day-to-day running of the order. Francis retained the power to shape legislation, writing a rule in 1221 which he revised and had approved in 1223. After about 1221, the day-to-day running of the order was in the hands of Brother
Elias of Cortona, who was elected as leader of the friars a few years after Francis's death in 1232 but who aroused much opposition because of his autocratic leadership style. He planned and built the
Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi in which Francis is buried, a building which includes the friary
Sacro Convento, still today the spiritual centre of the order. In the external successes of the brothers, as they were reported at the yearly general chapters, there was much to encourage Francis.
Caesar of Speyer, the first German
provincial, a zealous advocate of the founder's strict principle of poverty, began in 1221 from
Augsburg with 25 companions, to win for the order in the region of the
Rhine and the
Danube. In 1224,
Agnellus of Pisa led a small group of friars to England. The branch arriving in England became known as the "greyfriars". Beginning at
Greyfriars at
Canterbury, the ecclesiastical capital, they moved on to
London, the political capital, and
Oxford, the intellectual capital. From these three bases, the Franciscans swiftly expanded, to embrace the principal towns of England.
Development after Francis's death 1232–1239 () with the
Infant Christ, painting by
Antonio de Pereda () Elias was a lay friar, and encouraged other laymen to enter the order. This brought opposition from many ordained friars and ministers provincial, who also opposed increased centralization of the Order.
Gregory IX declared his intention to build a splendid church to house the body of Francis and the task fell to Elias, who at once began to lay plans for the erection of a great basilica at Assisi, to enshrine the remains of the
Poverello. At the chapter held in May 1227, Elias was rejected in spite of his prominence, and
Giovanni Parenti, Minister Provincial of Spain, was elected Minister General of the order. In 1232 Elias succeeded him, and under him the Order significantly developed its ministries and presence in the towns. Many new houses were founded, especially in Italy, and in many of them special attention was paid to education. The somewhat earlier settlements of Franciscan teachers at the universities (in
Paris, for example, where
Alexander of Hales was teaching) continued to develop. Contributions toward the promotion of the Order's work, and especially the building of the Basilica in Assisi, came in abundantly. Funds could only be accepted on behalf of the friars for determined, imminent, real necessities that could not be provided for from begging. When in 1230, the General Chapter could not agree on a common interpretation of the 1223 Rule it sent a delegation including
Anthony of Padua to
Pope Gregory IX for an authentic interpretation of this piece of papal legislation. The bull of Gregory IX declared that the Testament of St. Francis was not legally binding and offered an interpretation of poverty that would allow the Order to continue to develop. Gregory IX authorized agents of the Order to have custody of such funds where they could not be spent immediately. 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. The conflict between the two parties lasted many years and the 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.
1239–1274 Elias governed the Order from the center, imposing his authority on the provinces (as had Francis). A reaction to this centralized government was led from the provinces of England and Germany. 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. This chapter introduced General Statutes to govern the Order and devolved power from the
Minister General to the Ministers Provincial sitting in chapter. The next two Ministers General,
Haymo of Faversham (1240–1244) and
Crescentius of Jesi (1244–1247), consolidated this greater democracy in the Order but also led the Order towards a greater clericalization. The new
Pope Innocent IV supported them in this. In a bull of November 14, 1245, this pope even sanctioned an extension of the system of financial agents, and allowed the funds to be used not simply for those things that were necessary for the friars but also for those that were useful. The Observantist party took a strong stand in opposition to this ruling and agitated so successfully against the lax General that in 1247, at a chapter held in Lyon, France—where Innocent IV was then residing—he was replaced by the strict Observantist
John of Parma (1247–1257) and the Order refused to implement any provisions of Innocent IV that were laxer than those of Gregory IX. 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 support the friars in the Mendicant Controversy, when the secular Masters of the
University of Paris and the Bishops of France combined to attack the
mendicant orders. It was due to the action of
Alexander IV's envoys, who were obliged to threaten the university authorities with excommunication, that the degree of doctor of theology was finally conceded to the
Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan
Bonaventure (1257), who had previously been able to lecture only as licentiates. The Franciscan
Gerard of Borgo San Donnino at this time issued a Joachimite tract and
John of Parma was seen as favoring the condemned theology of
Joachim of Fiore. To protect the Order from its enemies, John was forced to step down and recommended Bonaventure as his successor. Bonaventure saw the need to unify the Order around a common ideology and both wrote a new life of the founder and collected the Order's legislation into the
Constitutions of Narbonne, so called because they were ratified by the Order at its chapter held at
Narbonne, France, in 1260. In the chapter of
Pisa three years later Bonaventure's was approved as the only biography of Francis and all previous biographies were ordered to be destroyed. Bonaventure ruled (1257–1274) in a moderate spirit, which is represented also by various works produced by the order in his timeespecially by the written by
David of Augsburg soon after 1260.
14th century 1274–1300 The successor to Bonaventure, Jerome of Ascoli or Girolamo Masci (1274–1279), (the future
Pope Nicholas IV), and his successor,
Bonagratia of Bologna (1279–1285), 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 Lyon (1274–1275) 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 seminat of
Pope Nicholas III (1279), which pronounced the principle of complete poverty to be meritorious and holy, but interpreted it in the way of a somewhat sophistical distinction between possession and usufruct. The bull was received respectfully by Bonagratia and the next two generals,
Arlotto of Prato (1285–1287) and
Matthew of Aqua Sparta (1287–1289); but the Spiritual party under the leadership of the Bonaventuran pupil and apocalyptic
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 (1289–1296), and of the Franciscan Pope Nicholas IV (1288–1292). The attempt made by the next 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 Pope Boniface VIII in 1302. The leader of the Observantists, Olivi, who spent his last years in the Franciscan house at Tarnius and died there in 1298, had pronounced against the more extreme "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.
Persecution Under
Pope Clement V (1305–1314) 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. The 1313 papal constitution was on the whole conceived in the same sense. Clement's successor,
Pope John XXII (1316–1334), favored the laxer or conventual party. By the bull he modified several provisions of the constitution , 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 in 1318. Shortly before this, all the separate houses of the Observantists had been suppressed.
Renewed controversy on the question of poverty , Poland A few years later a new controversy, this time theoretical, broke out on the question of
poverty. In his 14 August 1279 bull ,
Pope Nicholas III had confirmed the arrangement already established by
Pope Innocent IV, by which all property given to the Franciscans was vested in the
Holy See, which granted the friars the mere use of it. The bull declared that renunciation of ownership of all things "both individually but also in common, for God's sake, is meritorious and holy; Christ, also, showing the way of perfection, taught it by word and confirmed it by example, and the first founders of the church militant, as they had drawn it from the fountainhead itself, distributed it through the channels of their teaching and life to those wishing to live perfectly." Although
Exiit qui seminat banned the disputation of its contents, the decades that followed saw increasingly bitter disputes about the form of poverty to be observed by Franciscans, with the Spirituals (so called because associated with the Age of the Spirit that
Joachim of Fiore had said would begin in 1260) pitched against the
Conventual Franciscans.
Pope Clement V's bull of 20 November 1312 failed to effect a compromise between the two factions. and commissioned experts to examine the idea of poverty based on belief that Christ and the apostles owned nothing. The experts disagreed among themselves, but the majority condemned the idea on the grounds that it would condemn the church's right to have possessions. John XXII, declaring it ridiculous to pretend that every scrap of food given to the friars and eaten by them belonged to the pope, refused to accept ownership over the goods of the Franciscans in the future and granted them exemption from the rule that absolutely forbade ownership of anything even in common, thus forcing them to accept ownership. And, on 12 November 1323, he issued the short bull which declared "erroneous and heretical" the doctrine that Christ and his apostles had no possessions whatever. John XXII's actions thus demolished the fictitious structure that gave the appearance of absolute poverty to the life of the Franciscan friars. Influential members of the order protested, such as the minister general
Michael of Cesena, the English provincial
William of Ockham, and
Bonagratia of Bergamo. In 1324,
Louis the Bavarian sided with the Spirituals and accused the pope of heresy. In reply to the argument of his opponents that Nicholas III's bull was fixed and irrevocable, John XXII issued the bull on 10 November 1324 in which he declared that it cannot be inferred from the words of the 1279 bull that Christ and the apostles had nothing, adding: "Indeed, it can be inferred rather that the Gospel life lived by Christ and the Apostles did not exclude some possessions in common, since living 'without property' does not require that those living thus should have nothing in common." In 1328, Michael of Cesena was summoned to Avignon to explain the Order's intransigence in refusing the pope's orders and its complicity with Louis of Bavaria. Michael was imprisoned in Avignon, together with Francesco d'Ascoli, Bonagratia, and William of Ockham. In January of that year Louis of Bavaria entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor. Three months later he declared John XXII deposed and installed the Spiritual Franciscan
Pietro Rainalducci as
antipope. The Franciscan chapter that opened in
Bologna on 28 May reelected Michael of Cesena, who two days before had escaped with his companions from Avignon. But in August Louis the Bavarian and his pope had to flee Rome before an attack by
Robert, King of Naples. Only a small part of the Franciscan Order joined the opponents of John XXII, and at a general chapter held in
Paris in 1329 the majority of all the houses declared their submission to the Pope. With the bull of 16 November 1329, John XXII replied to Michael of Cesena's attacks on , , and . In 1330, Antipope Nicholas V submitted, followed later by the ex-general Michael, and finally, just before his death, by Ockham. The Franciscans had been involved in anti-heretical activities from the beginning simply by preaching and acting as living examples of the Gospel life. As official Inquisitors, they were authorized to use torture to extract confessions, as approved by
Pope Innocent IV in 1252 while
John of Parma was General Minister. throughout the Middle Ages and wrote their own manuals to guide Inquisitors, such as the 14th century
Codex Casanatensis for use by Inquisitors in Tuscany. As well as acting as prosecutors, many friars, particularly those associated with the
Spiritual Franciscans and even some
Observants, were also subject to interrogation and prosecution by the Inquisition at various stages in the 13th and 14th centuries. Notable cases from the Spirituals include
Angelo da Clareno and
Bernard Délicieux. Notable examples of Observants include the four burned during the suppression of the Observant houses in 1318 mentioned above. The Inquisition spread to the new world during the
Age of Discovery to root out heretics, leading further persecution and execution (e.g.,
Mexican Inquisition).
New World missions The work of the Franciscans in New Spain began in 1523, when three Flemish friars—Juan de Ayora, Pedro de Tecto, and Pedro de Gante—reached the central highlands. Their impact as missionaries was limited at first, since two of them died on
Cortés's expedition to Central America in 1524, but Fray Pedro de Gante initiated the evangelization process and studied the
Nahuatl language through his contacts with children of the Indian elite from the city of
Tetzcoco. In May 1524, the
Twelve Apostles of Mexico arrived, led by
Martín de Valencia. There they built the
Convento Grande de San Francisco, which became Franciscan headquarters for
New Spain for the next three hundred years. ==Contemporary organizations==