RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Francis, Saint
session and usufruct. The bull was received respectfully by Bonagratia and the next two generals, Arlotto of Prato (1285-87) and Matthew of Aqua Sparta (1287-89) ; but the Spiritual party under the leadership of the fanatical apocalyptic Pierre Jean Olivi (q.v.) 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 (1289-96), and of the Franciscan pope Nicholas IV (1288-92). 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. 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 Boniface in 1302. The leader of the Observantists, Olivi, who spent his last years in the Franciscan house at Narbonne and died there in 1298, had pronounced against the extremer " 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.
Under Clement V (1305-14) 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 (q.v.), the leader, ra5r,Tempo- after Olivi's death, of the stricter
f th°CeSB Par*y' wno was a memDer °f the com- Stricter mission, induced the Council of Vienne Party. Per- *° arrive at a decision in the main secution. favoring his views, and the papal constitution Exivi de paradiso (1313) was on the whole conceived in the same sense. Clement's successor, John XXII. (1316-34), favored the laxer or conventual party. By the bull Quorundam exigit he modified several provisions of the constitution Exivi, 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 (1318). Shortly before this all the separate houses of the Observantists had been suppressed.
A few years later a new controversy, this time theoretical, broke out on the question of poverty. The Spirituals contended eagerly for the view that Christ and his apostles had possessed absolutely nothing, either separately or jointly. This proposition had been declared heretical in a trial before an inquisitor. A protest was now made against this
decision by the chapter held at Perugia in 1322, as well as by such influential members of the order as William Occam (q.v.), the English Controversy ProvinTcial> and Bonagratia of Bergaon the m0- Jo"n XXH- ranged himself de- Question of cidedly with the Dominicans, who Poverty. combated the theory, and by the bull Cum inter nonnullos of 1322 declared it erroneous and heretical. Appealing from this decision, Bonagratia, Occam, and Michael of Cesena were imprisoned at Avignon for four years, until they escaped by the help of the Emperor Louis the Bavarian. Supported by him, they carried on a literary war against the papal and Dominican denial of the absolute poverty of Christ and his apostles. The pope deposed Cesena and Occam from their offices in the order, and excommunicated them with the Franciscan antipope Peter of Corvara (Nicholas V.) and all their adherents. Only a small part of the order, however, joined them, and at a general chapter held in Paris (1329) the majority of all the houses declared their submission to the pope. The same step was taken in the following year by the antipope, later by the ex-general Cesena, and finally, just before his death, by Occam.
Out of all these dissensions in the fourteenth century sprang a number of separate congregations, almost of sects. To say nothing of the heretical parties of the Beghards and Fraticelli (qq.v.), some which developed within the order on both _ hermit and cenobitic principles may
Qon here be mentioned: (1) The Clareni
tions. or Clarenini, an association of hermits established on the river Clareno in the march of Ancona by Angelo di Clareno after the suppression of the Franciscan Celestines by Boniface VIII. It maintained the principles of Olivi, and, outside of Umbria, spread also in the kingdom of Naples, where Angelo died in 1337 Like several other smaller congregations, it was obliged in 1568 under Pius V to unite with the general body of Observantists. (2) The Minorites of Narbonne. As a separate congregation, this originated through the union of a number of houses which followed Olivi after 1308. It was limited to southwestern France and, its members being accused of the heresy of the Beghards, was suppressed by the Inquisition during the controversies under John XXII. (3) The Reform of Johannes de Vallibus, founded in the hermitage of St. Bartholomew at Brugliano near Foligno in 1334. The congregation was suppressed by the Franciscan general chapter in 1354; reestablished in 1368 by Paolo de' Trinci of Foligno; confirmed by Gregory XI. in 1373, and spread rapidly from Central Italy to France, Spain, Hungary and elsewhere. Most of the Observantist nouses joined this congregation by degrees, so that it became known simply as the " brothers of the regular Observance.'' It acquired the favor of the popes by its energetic opposition to the heretical Fraticelli, and was expressly recognized by the Council of Constance (1415). It was allowed to have a special vicar-general of its own and legislate for its members without reference to the conventual
Francis, Saint