(Jonventual Franciscan.
Observant Fiancisctm.
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 Colet- tans, founded Ijy tlie Clarisse Colette of Corbie, in Savoy ; the Minorite Amadeists, founded by the Span- iard Amadeo in 1457. Some congregations became extinct before tlie sixteenth century ; thus the ]Minor- ites of Philip of Bcrbegal (Minorites of the Little Cowl, della Capucciola) existed only from 142G-1434, the Minorites Caperolans from 1475 to 1481, the Minorites of Anthon}'- of Castel St. Jean, who were suppressed soon after their foundation in 1475. The Minorites of Mathias of Tivoli, founded in 1495, were united with tlio Conventuals. The Minorites of Juan de la Puebla, founded in Spain in 1489, joined in 15GG, when they CDUntod fourteen convents, the Observants, but contiii' ued to remain a separate province with a number of peculiarities. Tlie IMinoritcs of John of Guadeloupe (a disciple of Juan de la Puebla), also called Discalceate Minorites of the Cowl, or Minorites of the Holy Gos- pel, were founded in Spain in 1494, and united with the Observants in 1517 ; but they assumed the name Reformed Observants, and formed two separate prov- inces, which gradualh" increased to twelve (in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and America). Tliej- still have a proc- urator general at Home. An Italian Congregation of the Strict Observance (^R'formati) was founded ♦n 1525, and still exists ; a French Congregation, called Recollets, by the Duke of Nevers in 1592. The most rigorous among the congregations of Reformed Ob- servants was that founded !>}' Peter of Alcantara in 1540. It sjiread especially in Italy and Spain, was joined liy the Paschasites, or Reformed Minorites of St. Paschasius, and then formed into a province, which was afterwards divided into several. Tliis branch of the Reformed Observants had also in Rome a procura- tor general. At present it has onlj^ 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 b}' the Prussian government. The Fran- ciscan friars have always been, and still are, very nu- merous. In the eighteenth century they counted more than 180,000 members, in 9000 convents. The Conventuals, bj' far the less numerous, had in 1789 about 30 provinces, with about 15,000 monks.
"As a literarj'^ 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 l)een the pride of this order to maintain his distinctive doctrines both in philosophy and in theology against
FRANCISCANS
G52
FRANCKE
the rival school of the Thomists, to which the Domin- ican order gave its allegiance. Sec Thomists. In tlie Noininalistic controversy the Thomists were for the must i)art Conceptualists ; the Franciscans adhered to the rigid Kealism. See No.-minalism. In the Free-will question the Franciscans strenuous]}' resisted tlie Tliomist doctrine of ' predetermining decrees.' In- deed, all the greatest names of the early Scotist school arc the Franciscans, St. Bonaventure, Alexander de Hales, and Ockham. The single name of Roger Ba- con, the marvel of mediiBval letters, the divine, the ])hilosoplier, the linguist, the experimentalist, the practical mechanician, would in itself have snfficed to make the reputation of his order, had his contempora- ries 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 Wad- ding, an Irish Franciscan, bears a deservedly high reputation as a historian. In lighter literature, and particularlj' poetry, we have already named the found- er himself as a sacred poet. Jacopone da Todi, a Franciscan, is one of the most characteristic of the mediajval hymn-writers ; and in later times the cele- brated Lope de Vega closed his eventful career as a member of the third order of St. Francis. We may add tliat in the revival of art tlie Franciscan order bore an active, and, it must be confessed, a liberal and enlightened part" (Chambers, C;/clopcedi.a, s.v.).
No order of monlvs, save the Benedictines, has had so man}' members as that of the Franciscans. About fift}' years after its foundation it reckoned no fewer tlian o3 '"provinces," the aggregate number of con- vents in which exceeded 80C0, while the members fell little, if at all, short of 200,000. Some idea, indeed, of tlie extraordinary extension of this remarkable in- stitute may be formed from the startling fact that, in the dreadful plague of the Blaclc Death in the follow- ing century, no fewer than 124,000 Franciscans are said to have fallen A'ictims to their zeal for the care of the sick, and for the spiritual ministration to the dj-- ing ! The lieformatiou destroyed a large number of its convents; but, on the other liand, it spread so rap- idh' tliat at the beginning of the ISth century it still numbered 115,000 monks in 7000 monasteries, and 28,000 nuns in 1000 convents.