In 1223, Pope Honorius III. approved the Order of Franciscans (Fratres Minores), to which, as already stated, Innocent III. had given a verbal sanction in 1210, and the Fourth Council of Lateran in 1215, whither, as Helyot informs us, St. Francis went to obtain the recognition of the Fathers. Pope Honorius gave them, at the same time, permission to preach and hear confessions anywhere in the Catholic world. But it was expected that they would preach not so much by word of mouth as by the light of their example.

When Francis made his voyage to Syria, he journeyed on to the Holy Sepulchre, where he left some of his brethren, who by consent of the sultan, before whom the saint preached, and with the approval of Clement VI. (A. D. 1342), have ever since remained the faithful custodians of that great Catholic shrine.

The gentle spirit pervading the Rule of St. Francis entitles it to a place among the most highly prized monuments of Christian ascetical literature. It prescribes that no one under the age of fifteen, or who has not passed a year in the novitiate, shall be admitted into the Order. It includes the three monastic vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty-the last requiring that the postulant shall not actually possess goods at the time of admission, and shall be incapacitated to possess them at any future time. It cautions the brethren against whatever may border on hypocrisy or a narrow-minded devotion, and exhorts them to be always cheerful, to rejoice in the Lord, to be ever ready to serve friends and enemies indiscriminately, to treat with equal kindness men of good and evil repute, and to make no distinction between the poor and the wealthy. Such, according to their founder, should be the character and conduct of Franciscans.

St. Clara of Assisi, the pupil and friend of St. Francis, had founded, in 1212, a female community, similar to the Order of Minorites. In 1224, Francis drew up a Rule1 for them and superintended the direction of their convent of St. Damian, in Assisi. They were called, after their foundress, the Order of St. Clara (Ordo Santae Clarae), but went at first under the

1 Holstenius-Brockie, T. III., p. 34 sq.; the Rule of the Third Order, ibid., p. 39 sq.

name of the Order of Poor Women (Ordo Dominarum Pauperum). They were also known as the Second Order of St. Francis. Although St. Francis was himself their spiritual director, he would never consent that any of his friars should serve this or any other convent of women.

There was also a Third Order of St. Francis (Tertius Ordo de Poenitentia, Tertiarii), established in 1221, comprising members who continued to live in the world, were not bound by the vows, and observed the spirit rather than the letter of the Rule. This gave an opportunity to many pious laymen, who could not sever family ties, to live a semi-religious life, and formed a link by which the Order was immediately connected with the outer world. These men were also called the Tertiaries. Among the other great gifts of St. Francis was that of preaching. "His words," says St. Bonaventura, " penetrated, like glowing fire, to the inmost depths of the heart." Upon one occasion he was to preach before the Pope and cardinals, and had prepared a carefully written discourse. When he had ascended the pulpit, his memory played him false, and he was unable to go on. Frankly avowing what had happened, he dismissed all thoughts of his manuscript, invoked the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and his soul found utterance in words that went home to every heart, as St. Bonaventura says, like coals of glowing fire.

St. Francis, like all great souls, was a sincere lover of nature.1 He looked upon it as a bond connecting his soul with all created things. He was wont to call the birds of the air and the beasts of the field his brothers and sisters. His hymns, which are among the earliest metrical specimens of the Italian language, are exceedingly simple, sometimes sublime, and always replete with the tenderest expressions of divine love. They are classed among the very best productions of Christian poetry. His prose is often more poetical than his poetry,

2

1 "Having," says Goerres, "subdued sin in himself, the consequences of original sin likewise disappeared. Nature even became his friend and obeyed the behests of his will. Between him and animals there was that confiding and frank intercourse which, as ancient traditions tell us, existed before the Fall.” (The Catholic.)

Goerres, Saint Francis, considered as a Troubadour. (The Catholic, 1826,

abounds in figures and personifications, and is written with ease and elegance.

The Church of Sta-Maria degli Angeli, called "Portiuncula," or the Little Inheritance, given to the Franciscans by the Benedictine Abbot of Subiaco, in the restoration of which St. Francis labored with his own hands, became the central house of the Order. It was here that the General Chapter was held in 1219, ten years after the foundation, called the Chapter of Mats, because the multitude, being so numerous that no house could contain them, was provided for in booths scattered here and there in the fields. The chapter was attended by five thousand friars, who, of course, did not represent the full number of members, as many were obliged to stay away to look after the interests of the different houses at a distance. Before the Order had existed a half a century, it numbered thirty-three provinces, eight thousand convents, and close upon two hundred thousand members of every degree.

The Church of St. Mary of the Angels, or Portiuncula,1 has always remained very dear to the Order. As has been said, St. Francis shared the labor of the workmen who set it to rights when it was going to ruin, and here he was accustomed to retire and give himself up to prayer and religious contemplation. To this church the Holy See, in 1223, granted the indulgences known as the "Indulgences of the Portiuncula,” which, on being extended to all the churches of the Order, gave rise to a special feast, celebrated on August 2d. It was further granted to the faithful, for all coming time, to gain these indulgences whenever ("toties quoties") prepared to carry out the requisite conditions.

So intimate and intense was the sympathy of St. Francis with the sufferings endured by the Savior while on earth, that the latter appeared to him, under the form of a seraph, and imprinted upon his person the marks (stigmata) of the Five

nro. 4.) Ibid., Transl. of his poems, by Schlosser, and, above all, the Sun-rise. The canticles in Germ. and Ital. (by Schlosser), Frankfort on the Main, 1842; 2 ed., Mentz, 1854; and Schlosser, The Church and her Hymns, 2 ed., Freiburg, 1863, Vol. II., pp. 360, 412. Hase, Francis of Assisi, Vol. VIII., p. 609 sq. 1Cf. Freiburg Cyclopaed., Vol. VIII., p. 609 sq.

Wounds. This was on September 17th, in the year 1224, two years previous to his death, and during this interval his soul was constantly on fire in an ecstasy of divine love, and his flesh the victim of a ceaseless martyrdom. The scene of the event is Monte Alverno, which has ever since been enshrined in the traditions of the Friars Minor.

When Francis felt the approach of death, he had himself carried on a bier to the church, where he was, by his own orders, laid on the bare ground and covered with an old habit, which the custos or guardian of the convent threw over him. While lying here he exhorted his brethren to love God, to cherish poverty, and practice patience, and closed by giving them his last blessing. He then had the Passion of our Lord according to St. John read to him, and, after reciting the one hundred and fortieth Psalm, yielded up his pure angelic soul to God, October 4, 1226. He was canonized in 1228 by Pope Gregory IX.

In 1304, Benedict XI. established the feast of Stigmata (festum stigmatum Sancti Francisci), and his successors—Sixtus IV., Sixtus V., and Paul V.-extended the celebration of it to the whole Church, on September 17th.

The leading events in the life of St. Francis have been transferred to mural paintings and canvas in the Church of the Portiuncula by some of the most celebrated artists.2

The constitutions of the two Mendicant Orders are substantially the same. The supreme government of each Order is vested in a General (minister generalis, magister ordinis generalis), who resides at Rome. Under him, again, is a Provincial, who presides over the brethren of a province; and, finally, among the Franciscans is a Guardian (Custos), who is at the head of a single convent; and among the Dominicans, the officer having similar duties to perform is called a Prior. The supreme legislative authority of each Order is vested in the General Chapter, and in the Provincial Chapter for each

1

1 Raynald. ad an. 1237, nro. 60. Christian Mysticism, Vol. II., p. 240.

1158 -1162.

Wadding, ed. Rom., T. II., p. 429. Görres, *Freiburg Eccl. Cyclopaed., Vol. XII., p.

2 Piccolomini, Solemn Translation of the Relics of St. Francis of Assisi, Landshut, 1844, particularly p. 67-86.

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province. These bodies each appoint four "Definers” (Definitores), whose office is to give counsel to and exercise a supervision over the Provincial or the General, as the case may be. Previously to his death, Dominic threatened severe imprecations against any one who should attempt to endow his Order. He died August 4, 1221. The last words of this virginal patriarch to his spiritual children were: “Love one another, be humble, and never give up the practice of voluntary poverty." He was canonized by Gregory IX., July 12, 1234. The grateful Bolognese took a pride in adorning the tomb of the noble Guzman, and the most distinguished artists, from Nicholas of Pisa to Michael Angelo Buonanarotti, have paid the tribute of their genius to the worth and virtue of this great saint, and their splendid creations have largely contributed to immortalize both him and themselves. Even the austere Dante praised, in felicitous and vigorous verse, these two founders of the Mendicant Orders, representing them as the veritable heroes, the pride and glory of their century.2

§ 248. Influence of the Mendicant Orders-Opposition Raised against Them.

When the Mendicant Friars, strong in the special privileges accorded them, and still more so in the warm and living spirit of faith inherited from their holy founders, set about the work of gaining souls to Christ, it seemed as if the youth, the vigor, and the enthusiastic devotion of the early Church had been revived. They were everywhere received with universal respect.3 Their generals, as was fitting, took up ther residence at Rome, and lent the influence of their Orders to the support of the Papacy. The greatest source of their power was the teaching office, which the Dominicans, in particular, were not

1The Order received permission to accept endowments in 1245. (TR.)

2"L'un (Francis) fu tutto serafico in ardore,

L'altro (Dominic) per sapienza in terra fue

Di cherubico luce uno splendore."

-Dante, Parad., canto xi., v. 38-40. (Tr.)

3 Matth. Par. ad an. 1243 and 1246. Cf. Emm. Roderici nova coll. Privilegior. apost. Regular. mendicant., Antverp, 1623 f.