RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Frankfort Respite Fraticelli
shattered the Roman power in Gaul and extended their authority to the Loire; their victory over the Visigoths in 507 carried it to the Garonne, while on the east the overthrow of the Alemanni (496) and of the Thuringians (531) made the Neckar and the Rednitz the boundary of their kingdom. On the east bank of the Rhine the inhabitants remained purely Germanic, but in Gaul the Frankish element was speedily absorbed by the Roman and the Romanized Celtic.
The great episode in the advance of the Franks was the conversion of their king Clovis in the year 496. That he was from the beginning no enemy to Christianity is shown by the fact that his wife was of that faith and that his sons were baptized with his permission. His own conversion was primarily actuated by the belief that the step was necessary for the preservation of his kingdom. The common legend that Clovis while hard pressed in battle by the Alemanni made a vow of baptism if the god of the Christians would grant him victory finds no historical substantiation. On the contrary, his conversion seems to have been the result of deliberation and to have been hastened by the exhortations of his Christian wife. The baptism of Clovis is of primary importance in the history of the Church in that it rallied to its support the most powerful of the barbarian kingdoms and thus insured the triumph of Christianity among the Germanic tribes. Moreover, it marked the beginning of the end of Arianism and guaranteed the unity of the Church in the West. The conversion of the Frankish king was followed by that of his people, but the new faith made unequal progress in the different parts of his dominions, most in Gaul, least in the Germanic territories to the east of the Rhine, where, as late as the beginning of the eighth century, the greater part of Hesse was still pagan. The organization of the Church under Clovis remained unchanged. The Gallic and Rhenish bishoprics extended their influence across the Rhine where no new sees were created. The Church remained in possession of the rights which it had enjoyed under the Romans, but in the course of time the king succeeded in gaining the right of confirming the nomination of bishops and summoning the church assemblies, powers which, together with the restriction of the papal jurisdiction, made the Frankish Church a truly national one, a character which it retained throughout the Merovingian Period. (A. Hatjck.)
Bibliography: Sources are, Gregory of Tours, Opera, in MGH, Script, rer. Merov., vol. i,. 1885; Fredegar, Chronicarum libri, ib. vols. ii.-iii., 1888, 1896; MGH, Legum, Sect. II., Capitularia reg. Franc, vols, i.-ii., 1883, 1890 Diplomata reg. Franc., in MGH, Dipl., vol. i., 1872 MGH, Concilia cevi Merov., vol. i., 1892; Epistolm Merov., et Karoli aivi, in MGH, Epist., iii., vol. i., 1892; Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptores, ed. M. Bouquet, 23 vols., Paris, 1738-1876; E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrehennes de la Gaule, 2 vols., Paris, 1856-65.
Excellent modern reconstructions of history are found in Rettberg, KD, vol. i.; Friedrich, KD; Hauck, KD, i. 99 sqq. Consult further: Fustel de Coulanges, Hist, des institutions politiques de Vancienne France, Paris, 1875; H. Chevalier, Hist, de la France, 395-1270, ib. 1882; V Gantite, Renovation de Vhist. des Franks, Brussels, 1883, H. von Schubert, Die Unterwerfung der Alamannen unter die Franhen, Strasburg, 1884; J. Havet, Questions Merovingiennes, Paris, 1885; E. A. Freeman, Teutonic Con-
guest in Gaul, London, 1888; J. B. Lucotte, Etablissement du Christianisme dans les Gaules, Dijon, 1888; A. Thierry, Recits des temps Merovingiennes, London, 1888; I. Fave\ L'Empire des Francs, Paris, 1889; Melin, Hist, de la France, 395-1270, Moulins, 1890; W E. Collins, Early Hist, of Frisia, London, 1891; H. Froidevaux, Etude sur la "Lex dicta Francorum Chamavorum," Paris, 1891; B. L. H. Martin, Les Origines de la France, ib. 1891; M. Lipp, Die Marken des Frankenreiches unter Karl dem Grossen, Konigsberg, 1892; A. Schiber, Die frankischen und alemannischen Siedlungen in Gallien, Strasburg, 1894; F. Dahn, Die Franken unter den Merovingen und den Karolingen, Leipsic, 1895-99; O. Havard, Clovis. France au Ve. siede, Paris, 1896; G. Kurth, Clovis, Tours, 1896; M. Prou, La Gaule merovingienne, Paris, 1897; L. Sergeant, The Franks, London, 1898; P. Imbart de la Tour, Les Origines religieuses de la France, Paris, 1900.
FRATERNITIES. See Confraternities, Religious.
FRATICELLI: An antiecclesiastical sect which developed in the latter part of the thirteenth century from the Observantine Franciscans. The name of " little brothers " was originally applied to the strict Franciscan Observantines whom Celestine V had united with his own order in 1292 and who, after the suppression of the Celestines (q.v.) by Boniface VIII. ten years later, had continued their opposition to the Conventual Minorites. Later becoming a general designation of all separatistic Observantine Franciscans, the term Fraticelli gradually acquired a sinister connotation, being applied to heretics of the most dangerous type and equivalent to Beghards, Bizochi (" wallet-carrying vagabonds," from Fr. besace. "wallet "), Lollards, and similar epithets. The Fraticelli quickly spread throughout Italy, southern France, Flanders, and portions of Germany, despite the Inquisition. Their principal Italian leaders were the Observantine Angelus de Clareno in the eastcentral part, Enrico de Ceca in Tuscany, the Celestine hermits of Mount Majella in Abruzzi, and Duke Lodovico de Durazzo in southern Italy, while in Achffia and the Peloponnesus they were harbored by the Latin princes, forming both here and in the south of Italy an organized hierarchy under their own bishops in opposition to the Church.
In life and practise the Fraticelli differed from the Observantines chiefly in that they desired to be entirely independent both of the Minorites and of the Church and its hierarchy. Their garb was uncouth and they wore short cowls and dirty wallets to distinguish themselves from the Franciscans. They also rejected the Roman Catholic Church as fallen from Christian purity, and considered the popes since Celestine V. or at least since John XXII. as usurpers, while the sacraments administered by priests were held to be inefficacious and papal indulgences worthless. The Fraticelli were subjected to severe persecution as a result of the bull of condemnation issued by John XXII. on Jan. 23, 13 IS, especially in Toulouse and its vicinity, in Italy after 1321 and again after 1350, repeatedly in Flanders after 1322, and in Florence even in the fourteenth century, while a number were put to death in Rome as late as 1466. (O. Zockler-)-.)
Bibliography: F. Ehrle, in Archiv fiir Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte, i (1885), 509-570; li (1886), 106-164; iii (1887), 553-623; A. Limborch, Hist, of the Inquisition, 1816; H. C. Lea, Hist, of the Inquisition, vois. ii —iii. , New York,
Frayssinous Frederick III