Franciscans

Franciscans (or ‘friars minor’ or ‘grey friars’) were a mendicant order founded by St Francis of Assisi (1181/2–1226), the son of a wealthy merchant, in 1209, when he gave his disciples, like him devoted to poverty, care of the sick, and meditation, the ‘Regula primitiva’, the first rule, heavily influenced by apostolic models. In 1212 a wealthy woman, Clare, joined Francis: she became abbess of a community of Franciscan nuns (‘Poor Clares’), like their male counterparts noted for their ascetic poverty. Francis was unwilling to regularize his rapidly growing band of itinerant preachers, and control soon passed from his hands. In 1223 Pope Honorius III confirmed a more institutionalized rule which emphasized total poverty. The friars were to live by their own labour or by begging. Later, following Dominican example, the Franciscans were organized into provincial and general chapters under the ultimate authority of the minister-general.

Thereafter the order expanded rapidly, appealing particularly to urban benefactors, and the Franciscans settled and preached primarily in towns, though they were also active in missionary work in the East. Tension between those who wished to follow the apostolic ideals of the founder (later known as the ‘Spirituals’), however impractical, and those who were prepared to compromise, particularly over the issues of property and corporate poverty (the ‘Conventuals’), soon emerged, bringing disunity to the order, particularly in the mid-13th and early 14th cents., when many of the more radical ‘Spirituals’ were condemned as heretics, while in 1368 a new group, the ‘Observants’, emerged in Italy demanding a return to the rule of 1223.

The first Franciscans under Agnello of Pisa were sent to England by Francis in 1224 and communities founded at Canterbury, London, and Oxford. Thereafter the Franciscans grew rapidly and there were some 60 houses by 1300. At Oxford the Franciscans soon acquired a reputation for their scholarship, first under Alexander of Hales, and were in the forefront of intellectual activity during the 13th and 14th cents., their number including Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Occam. There were also three successful houses of Franciscan nuns, of which the Minories, in London, was the most significant. At the end of the 15th cent. six houses of Observants were established, three being transfers from Conventual friaries. Observant friars were fierce opponents of Henry VIII's policies and many were executed or imprisoned during the 1530s. The English order was dissolved in 1538.

Brian Golding