Origins of the Franciscan Order

Cajetan Esser, O.F.M.

• Publisher: Franciscan Institute Publications
• Year: 1970
• ISBN:
  9781576593110
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

A Study of the problems of the early history of the Franciscan ORder by one of the most important scholars of the ORder, this book seeks to contribute to a stronger historical understanding of the work of St. Francis byu looking into the debates and theories surrounding the formation of the Order, and the transformation of the "original ideals of St. Francis."

Chapter I

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW COMMUNITY

Even a cursory examination of the evidence contained in the sources presented in the Introduction reveals the perplexity and helplessness of contemporaries as they faced what was for them the obviously new phenomenon of the Franciscan Movement. Clearly, even as they narrate what they saw, such witnesses, including even officials of the Papal Curia, lack the categories in which to express the newness of this movement. Even the evidence from the late thirteenth century testifies to this fact.

1. They Leave the World

First of all, our witnesses are unanimous in saying that the Friars Minor “leave the world.” The expressions “to leave the world” (relinquere saeculum) and “to renounce the world” (saeculo renuntiare) recur in all possible variations. In 1216 James of Vitry testifies: “Many leave everything for the sake of Christ and flee the world. They are called Friars Minor” (F); “they save from the vanities of the world souls that go astray and lead them along” (F). In the Historia orientalis (1219-21) he expresses himself even more forcefully: “In them as in a crystal-clear mirror, the observer sees reflected true contempt for the vanity of the world” (H). He illustrates this with biblical ex amples, declaring that the Friars Minor forget what lies behind them and walk steadfastly the new way of the following of Christ, having severed all ties with whatever is of the world (H). In his sermons too he brings out how essential for the Friars Minor is this break with the world: “The less you hold on to of this world the more humble and ‘minor’ you seem. For you have nothing of this world” (HS 115). Buoncompagni the Rhetor, in 1220, says of the followers of St. Francis that they reject all worldly ambitions (J). Equally clear is the witness of Walter of Gisburn that many have followed St. Francis, “despising worldly show” (N).

The two chroniclers of St. Albans describe at length this process of “conversion” and note that it led great numbers to follow St. Francis: the name of St. Francis became so famous and widely known in all the regions of Italy that many nobles followed his example: “they left the world with its vices and lusts and became his willing pupils” (M). Even more explicitly this “conversion” of St. Francis is recounted in the Legenda choralis of Chartres (T): at first, as a cloth merchant, he was completely given to worldly pursuits (n. 1), but had then decided “to put off the world and all its burdens” (n. 3).

The process of conversion as a break with the world in order to lead a new life in the following of St. Francis is described very exactly by Thomas Tuscus. Writing about the conversion of Brother Pacificus, whom he himself knew well, he says that previously Pacificus was “still given to vanity” but becomes, as “a convert,” an outstanding “imitator of St. Francis.”¹ In much the same manner the renunciation of the world and the acceptance of a new life marked the vocation of all the followers of the Saint. The outward sign of such a break with the past was their complete disregard for all earthly, that is, worldly goods.

That this is a “real leaving the world” in the sense of joining a religious order, rather than of simply following a saint, is the testimony in 1224 of the Chronicon Montis Sereni. It states regretfully that the old orders have fallen into such disfavor “that their [way of life] is not considered sufficient for salvation by those who wish to renounce the world.” Therefore, those who really wanted to leave the world went over to the new orders of the Friars Minor and the Friars Preacher (E). In the same tenor, Honorius III declares in 1218 in his first writing on behalf of the young community that the men who live the religious life in the manner of the Order of Friars Minor “reject all the vanities of this world” (1, 2b).² The Pope expresses himself in similar terms in In eo quod audivimus (4 Oct. 1225): “He who enters the Order of the said Friars has left the world and totally renounced it; he may no longer be said to be the same person since he has separated from the world to be changed into a new man” (1, 23b). This concept could hardly be put more clearly.

St. Francis says the same thing about himself when in his Testament he ends the description of his conversion with the key-phrase: “and I left the world.”³ Both he and all who followed him left the world to embrace a life that would measure up exactly to the exhortations of the Gospel, a life that would have nothing in common with life in the world — not even with a Christian life lived in the midst of the world.⁴ Francis says of himself and his Friars: “After we left the world.”⁵ In a medieval context, this means nothing less than embracing the religious life,⁶ as Francis himself clearly defined it: “Religious who have renounced the world.”⁷

2. Religious Life, or Not?

From the foregoing it is indisputably clear that the life of the Friars Minor was always seen by their contemporaries as a “religious life,” and their community as a “religious order.”⁸ Burchard of Ursperg already speaks of the Friars Minor as an Order (religio) approved by the Apostolic See, employing the same designation he applies to the Dominicans: “At that time, as the world was already growing old, there arose two Orders in the Church, whose youth is renewed as an eagle’s… namely, the Friars Minor and the Friars Preacher” (A). He was thus convinced that, through these two orders, the early days of the Church and the life of the primitive community were being revived. It is significant, too, in this context that he made the reproach against the heretical Poor Men of Lyons, whom he regarded as the antithesis of the Friars Minor, that they wore “cloaks in the manner of a religious Order.” For him, they had no right to dress as religious — a reproach he did not make in regard to the Friars Minor. All these details confirm the fact that Burchard looked on the Friars Minor as true religious, on an equal footing with the newly formed following of St. Dominic.

James of Vitry speaks more than once (F, G, H, HS) about the Order of Friars Minor. Already in 1216, again in 1220, and then at length in the Historia orientalis, he speaks of it in terms that could apply only to an Order-community. For him, without a doubt, the Friars Minor were religious. It is, however, quite clear to him that the Friars constitute a real “novum” among the Orders of the Church, a fact which he ascribes to God’s special operation (H). After having spoken of the “religiones” of hermits, of monks, and of canons, he adds: “So that the edifice of those living according to a religious Rule might stand foursquare on a firm foundation, the Lord added in those days a fourth principle of religion, the ornament of Order and sanctity of rule.”⁹ But since he was aware of the prohibition of new religious Rules issued at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), he continues: “It was not so much that he needed a new Rule as that he renewed the old,” since this Rule has renewed the life the primitive Church — an idea to which he had already given vivid expression in 1216 (F). In his sermons to the Friars Minor, moreover, he describes a whole series of elements which clearly indicate that he sees in them a community of religious held together by obedience to their superiors (HS 116 and 151), and set apart as well from “saeculares” and “laici” (HS 118a and 155b). For James, therefore, ever since he came to know the Friars Minor, from 1216 on, their community was to be considered an Order; one which, though completely new, could take its place as equal in worth and rights beside the existing forms of regular life in the Church. His witness carries all the more weight since it is based on events which took place before the point in time when the Roman Curia openly intervened in the inner development of the Franciscan movement.¹⁰ The constitutive elements of this development must have been such as to cause it to be seen by the men of their time as an Order from its very inception.

This assertion is confirmed also by the account in the Chronicon Montis Sereni, written in 1224, far from the actual historical scene. The Premonstratensian author describes the rapid growth of the “two Orders of a new tenor of life,” namely, of Preachers and Minors, and frankly asks what are the reasons which gave rise to these new types of Orders. In his opinion, these reasons are to be found, not in the old Rules themselves, but in their bad observance. “God forbid that, in saying these things, I should disparage the good intentions of any man, but it is to be deplored and greatly deplored that the primitive Orders have been reduced to such a sorry state by the inordinate conduct of those who have made profession in them” (E). The new Orders of the Friars Preacher and Friars Minor quite clearly rank with the “primitive Orders,” which follow the Rule of St. Augustine or of St. Benedict. From this one can only conclude that the Friars Minor were introduced into Germany in 1221 as a firmly established Order, and were considered by the older Orders as a new form of their life.

In Portugal, too, from their first appearance there (about 1217), the Friars Minor were obviously regarded as a new Order. This can be seen from the oldest Vita of St. Anthony of Padua. As a young Augustinian Canon, he spoke to the Friars: “Dearest brothers, I will put on the habit of your Order with an eager spirit if you will promise to send me to the country of the Saracens as soon as I have entered” (5, 5). Anthony fully understood this step as a change from one Order to another. — Similarly, the eyewitness who describes the martyrdom of the Protomartyrs in Morocco speaks of “ordo fratrum Minorum” whose members go among the Saracens “according to the form of its Rule.”¹¹

The same holds true of England, as can be inferred from the official documents edited by Little (U: 168 et al.) and Brewer (V: 619 et al.) as well as from the clear and definite testimony of the Benedictine chroniclers (M).¹² Here, too, the Friars Minor were understood to be an Order among the other Orders. The testimony of these documents is corroborated by the way the Friars Minor in England regarded themselves as an Order: this is frequently and unequivocally expressed in the Chronicle of Thomas of Eccleston from its very first page. It is further confirmed by the summons used by Archbishop Stephen Langton (d. 9 July 1228) when he was about to ordain a Friar Minor as acolyte: “Let Brother Solomon of the Order of the Apostles come forward.”¹³

For France, we get the same impression from the proceedings which, according to the testimony of Jordan of Giano (4), took place in 1219 in the episcopal Curia of Paris concerning the Rule of this strange new Order. All misgivings, however, were dispelled by a papal brief. Thus freed from the suspicion of heresy, the Friars were accepted as a religious Order approved by the Church. The documents of the early history of the Order in France, published by A. Callebaut, lead to the same conclusion.¹⁴

All other witnesses follow the same pattern, even when the writers were not sympathetic towards the Friars Minor: “even the Order of Minors” (C), “The Order of Minors” (L), “Blessed Francis began the Order of Friars Minor” (N), “in the beginning of his Order” (O).¹⁵ Moreover, such statements naturally acquire special importance from the fact that almost all were made by clerics or by representatives of the old Church Orders. They all considered as an Order that community which owed its origin to Francis: it was undoubtedly new, yet it enjoyed equal rights with themselves. Even if some of them show little liking for the new Order, this should not weaken their testimony. Had the new community been lacking in anything then considered an essential characteristic of an Order, they would not have failed to point it out.

Alongside this clear, unanimous and unbroken line of evidence, stands the witness of the Roman Curia, equally clear and distinct. In his very first document concerning the Friars Minor (1218) Honorius III speaks “concerning the life and religion of the Friars Minor,” and of “the congregation of the aforesaid Friars” (I, 2b). To the bishops who had misgivings about this Order (“as though they have a scrupulous conscience about the Order itself …”),¹⁶ he wrote in May, 1220, still before the introduction of the novitiate for the Friars: “because we regard their Order as one of the approved ones and we know the Friars of this Order to be devout and Catholic men.” For that reason, he bade them admit the Friars to their dioceses as “truly faithful and religious” (I, 5b). Clearer still is the directive of the Bull Cum secundum consilium (22 Sept. 1220), which was suggested obviously by Francis himself: “After profession, however, let no friar dare to leave our Order, nor may it be lawful for anyone to keep the one who leaves …” The designation “Religion and Order of Friars Minor” becomes thereafter the standard expression in curial documents.

Even before the Final Rule was approved by papal bull, Honorius III wrote to the Abbots of the Cistercian Order that “no one from the Order of Friars Minor” could change over to their Order and no Cistercian to the Order of Friars Minor “without ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: THE SOURCES
• Chapter I: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW COMMUNITY
• Chapter II: THE “NOVELTY” OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR
• Chapter III: FIRST CRISES AND ATTEMPTS TO OVERCOME THEM
• Chapter IV: THE CHRISTIAN EXAMPLE OF THE NEW COMMUNITY
• BIBLIOGRAPHY