Franciscan Family Movement Part I, Series No. 1

Dear Voices in the Wilderness,

Peace and all good!

I want to share with you, in parts, these write-ups, collation and compilation I have gathered.  These series are to be given to our postulants this coming January 11 to 13, 2016, if God permits, since I am having my weekly chemotherapy of my pancreatic cancer.  Anyway, I hope you will enjoy reading these series of the Franciscan Family movement.

PART 1.
Series No. 1.

HISTORY OF THE FRANCISCAN FAMILY

First Order, Second Order, Third Order Secular and Regular,

and the Franciscanists

For the OFM-Postulants

Custody of St. Anthony of Padua-Philippines

January 11-13, 2016

By: Fr. Eufrosino C. Solibar, OFM

HISTORY OF THE FRANCISCAN FAMILY

First Order

Part I: From St. Francis of Assisi (1226) to the 

            Generalate of St. Bonaventure (1257-1274)

INTRODUCTION

            The History of the Franciscan Movement covers a long period of eight centuries.  It is impossible to cover all the relevant materials of Franciscan history in a few days. The bibliographical indications will certainly help you, Postulants, to further your knowledge in any particular theme or historical event.  For example, you may read the book written by Omer Englebert entitled Saint Francis of Assisi A Biography. One has to understand that, without a basic knowledge of the history of the Middle Ages in Europe, and particularly without a basic knowledge of Church history, it is impossible to form clear ideas about the historical unfolding of the Movement initiated by St. Francis of Assisi that grew into a Franciscan family – the OFMs, OSC, OFS, TOR-Regular (Male and Female) and the Franciscanists. 

            Keeping all this in mind, we shall now proceed to give an overall view of the History of the Franciscan Movement, from the death of St. Francis in 226 until 1517, the year which marks the division of the First Franciscan Order into two separate branches – the Conventuals and the Regular Observants.

A.  St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

            St. Francis (Giovanni di Bernardone) of Assisi died on 3 October 1226 at the Porziuncola.  The following day, 4 October, his mortal remains were carried to Assisi, and temporarily buried in the church of San Giorgio.  His Vicar General, Brother Elias, wrote a letter to all the brothers throughout the world, in which he announced the death of Francis.

            Br. Elias had been Vicar since the Chapter of Pentecost of 1221.  During the Chapter of 1227, on 30 May, he was replaced by Giovanni Parenti, who was Minister Provincial of Spain, and who became the successor of St. Francis as Minister General of the Orders of Minors.

            During the same year, on 19 March 1227, Cardinal Hugolino, Protector of the Order, was elected Pope, and took the name Gregory IX.  One of his first priorities was to render glory to Francis.  On 29 April 1228, he issued the Bull: Recolentes, in which he announced that it was his intention to build a “specialis ecclesia” in honor of Francis, where his mortal remains would be enshrined. Br. Elias was nominated as architect to direct this immense task of building a burial crypt and a monastic church.

            On 16 July 1228 Pope Gregory IX canonized St. Francis in Assisi, and on 19 July issued the Bull of Canonization: Mira circa nos.  In the same period he placed the foundation stone of the new basilica, which he declared to be the property of the Pope, and asked Brother Thomas of Celano to write an official biography of the saint.

            In 1230 the burial crypt or lower basilica was ready. The relics of St. Francis were transported to the new church on 25 May 1230 during a solemn procession.  Br. Elias hastily buried the relics in this new church, which Pope Gregory IX declared “caput et mater” (head and mother) of the Order of Minors.

            During the General Chapter of Pentecost 1230, Br. Elias tried to take into his hands the government of the Order, but the friars re-elected Giovanni Parenti. 

            A delegation composed of, among others, Anthony of Padua, went to Rome and asked Pope Gregory IX for an authentic interpretation of the Rule and the Testament of St. Francis.  The Pope answered with the Bull: Quo elongati (28 September 1230), in which, among other things, he declared that the Testament did not bind the friars to observe it in conscience, and that the friars were authorized to have a “nuntius” and “spiritual friends” in order to provide for their daily needs, as the Later Rule (RB 1223) states, but that the friars were not to possess anything, but only make an “usus pauper” (use according to the vow of poverty) of what they received.

B. The General Ministers

1. Generalate of Br. Elias (1232-1239)

q In the General Chapter of Rieti, 1232, Br. Elias was elected Minister General. He had finished building the Basilica of St. Francis. The huge complex also included a large conventus for the friars (Sacro Convento), and a papal residence.

q Br. Elias was a man of government. He was a lay brother, but took to heart the spreading of the Order. He gave permission to build large conventual churches and friaries in the cities, encouraged the centers of study of the Order, especially in Paris, and sent friars in the missions of the Order.

q During this time the residences of the friars began to be distinguished between loca conventualia and loca non conventualis, according to whether they were large friaries in the cities or simple hermitages in the mountains.

q The conventual churches were to acquire various privileges as time went on, such as the right of burial, the choir for the chanting of the divine office, rights of preaching, etc.  This would, in the end, create tensions between the friars and the secular clergy, which are already evident in the Bull: Nimis iniqua (1231) of Pope Gregory IX.

q During this same period the friars began to express the Franciscan ideal in differing ways, according to their way of life of residences.  The friars of the Community tended to live in the large friaries, to encourage studies and preaching.  They observed the Rule according to the interpretations given from time to time by the Pope, and were normally chosen to govern the Order.

q The friars known as Zelanti, later on Spirituals preferred the hermitages and wanted to observe the Rule spiritually, and more strictly.

q These two tendencies were to play a vital role in the unfolding of the Order’s history from the late 13th to the 15th centuries, but they were already present in a subtle way during the first half of the 13th century.

q Although Br. Elias was highly competent as a man of government, he was to end in disgrace.  During his generalate (1232-1239) he never summoned a General Chapter, used despotic means, especially through the visitators he sent in the Provinces. 

q The Franciscan Masters of the University of Paris tried to find a remedy for the scandals he was causing by his attitude.  Alexander of Hales, Jean de la Rochelle, and Haymo of Faversham succeeded in making Pope Gregory IX summon a General Chapter in Rome on 15 May 1239, in which Br. Elias was deposed as Minister General.  As a result Br. Elias joined forces with the Emperor Frederick II and was excommunicated by the Pope and expelled from the Order. He retreated with some of his faithful followers at Cortona, where he died  in 1253, reconciled with the Order and with the Church  He is buried in the church of San Francesco in Cortona.

2. The English Ministers General (Alberto da Pisa-1239-1240) and Haymo Faversham-1240-1243) and the Clericalization of the Order

q The next Minister General Alberto da Pisa (1239-1240), Minister Provincial in England.  After his death Haymo of Faversham (1240-1243) was elected Minister General. He excluded all lay brothers from holding posts of government in the Order due to their experience with Br. Elias.  The process of clericalization of the Order was underway.

q The next Minister General was Crescenzio da Jesi (or Iesi), from the Marche region in Italy (1243-1247).  On 14 November 1245 Pope Innocent IV promulgated the Bull: Ordinem vestrum.  In it he gave authority to the “nuntius” to hold money on behalf of the friars not only for necessity, but also for convenience.  The ownership of the order’s possessions remained in the hands of the Pope unless the donor expressly reserved for himself the right of ownership.

q During the General Chapter of Genoa in 1244, Crescenzio asked the friars who had known St. Francis personally to hand in their written memories to him.  On 11 August 1246, the three companions of St. Francis, Leo, Rufino and Angelo, from the hermitage of Greccio, sent a letter to the Minister General, together with the material they wrote (“florilegium”).

q During the same time Crescenzio asked Br. Tomas of Celano to write a second biography of St. Francis, which was ready the following year.  Celano certainly made use of the documentary evidence of the three companions.  Although this evidence is lost, Franciscan scholars have tried to trace it in various late 13th century compilations; L3S, LegPer, AC, SpecPerf, as well as in IICel. 

q In 1242 the four Masters of the University of Paris – Alexander of Hales, Jean de la Rochelle, Robert of Bascia, and Eudes Rigaud, wrote the Expositio Quatuor Magistrorum super Regulam Fratrum Minorum, a famous commentary on the Franciscan Rule.

3. John of Parma (1247-1257) and the Rise of Heresy in the Order

q The next Minister General was Giovanni Buralli from Parma, known as John of Parma (1247-1257).  He came from the Zelanti or Spiritual group of friars, but he was not against studies in the Order.  It was during his generalate that Thomas of Celano wrote the Treatise on the Miracles of St. Francis in 1252, that Clare of Assisi died at San Damiano in 11 August 1253 and that Pope Alexander IV declared her a saint in 15 August 1255.

q Giovanni da Parma was a very humble man.  He travelled on foot to visit the friars.  He was also a great preacher.  He held two General Chapters, one in Genoa (1251) and the other in Metz (1254), because Giovanni had insisted that the Chapters be held alternately north and south of the Alps.

q During this Chapter the Minister General  refused the request to draft new laws for the Order, and insisted that it was important to observe the already existing ones.

q In August 1246 Pope Innocent IV issued the Bull: Quanto studiosus, in which he gave the friars permission to appoint “procurators” on their behalf, without due recourse  to the Cardinal Protector, to buy, sell and administer all goods pertaining to the friars.  The Pope reserved only the principle that the Church had the property of the friars.

q Giovanni da Parma was a holy man, but his adherence to the group of the Spirituals was the cause of his resignation in 1257.  The Spirituals were being shown as followers of the writings of the Abbot Joachim of Fiori (1132-1220), who had been a Cistercian monk, and afterwards retreated to the Abbey of Fiori in Calabria.  He was author of various apocalyptic writings, which proclaimed an age of the Holy Spirit, when the Antichrist would appear and the Church would be reformed by two religious Orders, living  in apostolic poverty.  This doctrine fitted exactly in the new evangelical revival of the Friars Minor and the Friars Preacher, and many were interpreting it in this way.  The Franciscan Spirituals were no exception.

q  One of the Franciscan Spiritual fanatics of Joachimism was Br. Gerard from Borgo San Dannino.  In 1254, he wrote a treatise called Introductorius in Evangelium aeternum (Introduction to the Everlasting Gospel), which was attacked as being heretical by the secular masters of the University of Paris.  The mendicants at the university fell under heavy criticism.

q  Bonaventure was declared “magister regens” of the Franciscan school, as Thomas Aquinas had been for the Dominican school.  But the turbulent state of affairs was an impediment for any advancement of the mendicants in the university.

q  Gerard’s work was condemned by the Anagni Commission.  Giovanni da Parma himself was being pressured into resigning from the post of Minister General.

C.  Generalate of St. Bonaventure (1257-1274)

q  On 2 February 1257 the Pope called a General Chapter at the Aracoeli friary on the “campidoglio” hill in Rome.  Brother Giovanni da Parma was asked to resign, but he was given the choice to propose his successor in the person of Giovanni (Bonaventure) Fidanza from Bagnoregio, a Master in the University of Paris.  Giovnni da Parma was then sent to the hermitage of Greccio, and died in 1289.

q  Bonaventure was born in Bagnoregio in 1217.  He studied in Paris, where the friars had a chair in the university, after Alexander of Hales had become a Franciscan in 1235.

q  As Minister General, Bonaventure is sometimes known as “the second founder of the Order.” He possessed unique qualities of government, coupled with wisdom and holiness. On 23 April 1257 he wrote an encyclical letter to the friars, addressing some of the most important issues of their life.  He saw to it that the friars would be prepared for apostolic ministry through study, but at the same time, he insisted about the style of poverty which should characterize their life.  In 1259 he spent a period of retreat on La Verna, after which he wrote the famous treatise, Itinerarium mentis in Deum.  During the General Chapter of Narbonne (1260) he gave the Order its first General Constitutions (GGCC). The same Chapter asked Bonaventure to write a new biography of St. Francis.  The Legenda Maior S. Francisci was ready and presented to the Chapter of Pisa in 1263.  In 1266 a decree of the Chapter of Paris ordered the destruction of all other biographies precedigng the Legenda Maior (LegMaj).  The LegMaj was probably a political tool in the hands of Bonaventure, in order to reconcile the Community (Conventuals) with the Spirituals (Zelantis).

q  Bonaventure also defended the mendicants from the unjust attacks of the secular masters of Paris, especially tin his work Apologia pauperum (In defense of the poor), written in 1269.

q  He was made bishop of Albano in 1273 to pave the way for the Council of Lyon. 

q  He died during the Council (of Lyon, France), on 14 July 1274, and was declared saint and doctor of the Church by two Franciscan Popes, Sixtus IV (1482) and Sixtus V (1588).

D. Franciscans in the Universities

q  By the middle of the 13th century, the Franciscan Order had become one of the most learned institutions in the world.  By this time the office of “lector” was one of the established offices in the Order. Whole convents were dedicated to be study houses for friars, especially in the university cities of Europe.

q  In England the friars had arrived in 1224.  By 1229 they already had their own school in Oxford.  In Paris the friars had arrived in 1219.  By 1229 they are independent school of their own.  In both places they soon came into contact with the secular masters of the universities, who saw in the mendicants Franciscans and Dominicans a threat to their own advancement.  The mendicants, in fact, possessed a kind of “universitas” of their own, with proper lectors and students, lectures, disputations. 

q  The Friars Minor and Friars Preachers soon acquired chairs in the university, when some of the secular masters, such as Alexander of Hales and John of St. Giles became respectively, a Franciscan and a Dominican.

q  In 1250 Pope Innocent IV ordered the University of Paris to give the “Licentia docendi” upon qualified friars who could become regent masters. 

q  There were various instances of refusal to obey on the part of the secular masters, who were dismayed at the way of the Dominicans and Franciscans were attracting students to their schools.

q  Giovanni da Parma had tried to calm the situation in 1254.  But the question of the Joachimism tendencies in the Franciscan Order was a blow to his efforts, especially after Gerard Borgo San Donnino published his Liber introductorius. 

q  William of Saint Amour attacked the mendicants, and was answered by both Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas.  Gerard of Abbeville did the same in 1269, to be answered by Bonaventure with the Apologia pauperum, and by John Peckham with the Tractatus pauperis (1269-1270).  Nicholas of Lisieux renewed the controversy in 1271, to be answered by John Peckham. 

q  These secular masters refuted (disproved) voluntary poverty as being dangerous choice, contrary to what Christ and the apostles taught.  They attacked the mendicants, saying that they did not possess goods, but made use of them just the same.

q  Haymo of Faversham had joined the Franciscan Order in the early years of its presence in Paris.  When Alexander of Hales became a Franciscan in 1235 he took with him a number of students, among whom Jean de la Rochelle, Eudes Rigaud, William of Melitona and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.  These eventually succeeded his as masters.  The friars were at St. Denis in 1228, but in 1231 they moved in the university quarters and built the Grand Couvent des Cordiliers.

q  The Franciscan masters of Paris gained important positions in the Church and Order.  John Peckham became Archbishop of Canterbury and Giovanni (Bonaventure) di Bagnoregio, Matteo d’Aquasparta, Arlotto da Prato and Giovanni da Murrovalle, became Ministers General, Pierre Jean Olieu was one of the leaders of the Spirituals.

q  In Oxford the Franciscan school progressed with the personal interest of Alberto da Pisa, Minister Provincial of England, with the learned experienced of Robert Grossatesta, future bishop of Lincoln, who presided over the Franciscan school from 1229 to 1235 and left his rich library to the friars.

q  Among the Franciscan masters of Oxford we mention Adam Marsh, Thomas of York, John Peckham, Richard of Middletown, William of Ockham, and Roger Bacon. In Cambridge the friars had arrived in 1225, and there started a school in 1230.

q  Anthony of Padua taught theology to the friars at the University of Bologna. Haymo of Faversham and Giovanni da Parma were also lectors at this student house, which was always independent of the university, which did not possess a faculty of theology. Other scholars were in the University of Padua in 1222.

q  In Koln also the Franciscans had a student house, in which John Duns Scotus taught for some time before his death on 8 November 1308.  John was born in Scotland in 1266 and joined the Franciscans in Dumfries. He studied in Oxford, and was ordained on 17 March 1291 by the Bishop Oliver Sutton in Northampton.  He went to Paris to continue his studies in 1293-1297.  He lectured in Oxford, Paris and Cambridge.  While in Paris he failed to sign a “libellus” against Pope Boniface VIII in favor of the French king.  Thus he had to leave the university, but returned in 1304 upon the recommendation of Gonsalvus of Spain, Minister General, who had been his master.  In 1308 he was transferred to Koln, where he died.  His cult as blessed was confirmed “ab immemorabile” by Pope John Paul II on 6 July 1991.  Scotus is known for his doctrine regarding the universal predestination of Christ and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

End of Part 1, Series No. 1.


Fraternally yours,

Yosi, OFM