Order Many Of The More Extreme Factions example essay topic

The Franciscan movement was a religious order that arose out of one man's ideologies and beliefs. St. Francis of Assisi's ideals of absolute poverty, obedience, humility, and simplicity were uncomplicated and basic, but during his life and even shortly after his death these ideologies were gradually shifting and causing a great amount of debate. The immense size of the Franciscan Order combined with the mass amount of popularity that the Order gained made changes in the ideology and objectives of Francis' messages and teaching almost an inevitable necessity. Some could argue that in many ways the Franciscan Order's original ideologies were a victim of the movement's success. This is evident in the main rules of the Order, what the rules were initially like during the life of Francis, and what they became after his death. Saint Francis of Assisi was born in 1182 into a wealth family.

His father was Peter Bernard one, a wealthy cloth merchant. Throughout Francis' childhood he experienced many of the physical pleasures in life; however, gradually he began to have visions from the divine. The first vision appeared when he was fighting with knights against Assisi's enemies, the second during a night of merriment and celebration, and a third when he was praying at the ruined Church of San Damiano. During the latter vision, Francis heard a voice coming from the crucifix telling him to rebuild the Church. Francis sold many of his father's assets and gave the money to San Damiano, but his father was unimpressed.

Francis publicly denounced his father, striping naked and throwing his clothes at his father, saying that his only father from that point on was the divine. For a time Francis wandered unsure of what to do, until he had his fourth divine vision on February 28, 1206. He realized that his true mission in life was the imitation of the life of Christ. Francis took to begging, and wandering from town to town, caring for those less fortunate than himself, and taking only what was necessary for his survival. After a time, Francis accumulated a small number of followers and soon realized that some rules would have to be formulated to govern his order. On April 6th 1209 the order began when Francis said, "He that will come after me, let him deny himself...

This, my brothers, is our life and rule and that of all those who shall wish to join our society". By 1221 the order had grown immense in popularity and size, and the Order was already starting to experience trouble in upholding St. Francis' ideals. Francis was able to maintain his ideals only by the use of his influence and reputation. Shortly after Francis' death on October 3rd, 1226 changes were rapidly being made to the various rules in the Order. As the Order grew and expanded Francis became more and more isolated from the group. At one point in time he was even quoted to have proclaimed himself dead to them.

As the Order became larger, new rules were formulated to keep track with the ever growing number of friars. The main problem with the Order was its size. In the beginning when the number of friars had been small it was easy for Francis to keep strong ties and loyalty with the group. Likewise, it was simpler to impose the austere standards of poverty, humility, and simplicity on the smaller numbers of members. As the numbers increased into the thousands, these standards became harder and harder to deal with. During this time, when Francis was still alive, the Order was experiencing many different problems that directly affected what the Order had originally stood for.

For example, when the group was small poverty was easy, however as the group grew it was felt that there was a greater need for security. Similarly, Francis was strongly against any kind of privilege, he felt that his order was lowly, without any right or claim to society, but as the Order grew, many learned holy men began to join who felt that they must exercise their ministry. This was impossible without privilege. With priests joining the Order, a problem began to develop between the two kinds of friars, the priest-friars and the lay-friars. Francis did not want any kind of class distinction in his Order. However, as the priests became more in number, so did their demands for books and altars.

And lastly was the matter of study, Francis was against any kind of studying, he felt that it interfered with the notion of absolute poverty and humility, but none of the priest-friars were open to the idea of being entirely cut-off from any form of intellectual pursuit. They argued that education was required in order to preach, convert and prevent heresy. The sheer size of the Order, accompanied by the feelings of many of the new members with no direct loyalty to Francis made it nearly impossible for his followers to maintain Francis' ideals and objectives while he was still alive. New members in distance provinces had no real or physical connection with the saint except for the popular piety that his order had evoked. Many wanted rules within the Order changed, and with the large number of reformers, it became more difficult for Francis to maintain the direction of the Order he had founded. These were just the initial problems that the Franciscan Order faced, after the death of Francis in 1226 many of the rules dealing with main ideologies began to shift from austere to lax, and as a result there was a splitting and shifting in the faction.

Another problem with the Order was the ideal to live a life like Christ, to be a lowly person and to be humble. As the Order became more and more popular, so did its use by the higher clergy. The Popes of the thirteenth century regarded the Franciscans as trustworthy men capable of serving in many papal offices. Franciscans began to serve in a number of different ways. Some took offices as bishops, others as inquisitors, and even others as school masters. These offices created many problems and contradictions to Francis' original ideas on humility, poverty, and simplicity.

An office in no way offered humility, because the individual was gaining prestige and power, an office did not support poverty as it provided an income, and an office did not provide simplicity as it added many facets to the basic life that a Franciscan Friar was supposed to lead. Soon becoming a Franciscan friar was a way of gaining worldly success rather than assisting other and imitating the life of Jesus Christ. These offices also bred contempt for the Order. They were gradually seen as hypocritical. One of the main issues faced with the Franciscan Order once Francis died was the idea of absolute poverty, or uses pauper. As the Order grew the idea of absolute poverty became less and less popular.

Francis had taught that money was untouchable, that no friar was to own land, and that all his followers were to live in absolute poverty. In his final Testament, which Francis wrote near death, he redefined his ideas of poverty. He stated that his Testament was final, and that all in his order were bound to follow it. Upon his death, the friars turned to the Pope Gregory to guide them. The Pope decided that Francis' Testament was not final and on September 28th, 1230 he wrote the bull Quo Elongate which stated that the Testament could not be binding. Also in this bull it was stated that friars needed houses to live in, and that they could have property or monetary gifts so long as officially and legally they belonged to someone else.

As the Order and its rules shifted more and more, to the point of Friars having vast estates, renting houses, enormous libraries, food in storage, and incredibly influential power and positions, and many followers began to feel that the Order had lost its original meaning. Followers began to question what absolute poverty or uses pauper really meant. The uses pauper controversy mainly centred on what absolute poverty and restricted use actually was. Certain factions felt that it meant a supremely austere life, and many turned into hermit sects. Others argued that the meaning of absolute poverty was debate able, and that Francis' meaning of the word was far too vague to actually know exactly what he meant.

Some felt that living with many luxuries did meet the requirements of Francis' absolute poverty. One of the great thinkers near the start of this controversy was Petrus Johann is Olivi who in 1279 wrote his book, Question on Usus Pauper. Olivi was a Franciscan friar in France. He saw much of the avarice around him, and questioned what had become of St. Francis' original teachings. Olivi felt that there was a need to return to Francis' message, to return to absolute poverty. He often argued that absolute poverty was exemplified not only in the way St. Francis lived, but in the way Jesus Christ lived.

To Olivi poverty was a part of totality, and totality a part of divinity. He argued that poverty lead to virtue, whereas all else lead to vice. Olivi's writing initially sparked an intellectual debate between those who wanted to return to St. Francis' original ideals and objectives ("Spirituals" or "Zelanti") and those who felt that the order was going in the proper direction and that the idea of absolute poverty was debate able ("Conventuals" or "the Community"). Throughout the late thirteenth century, Olivi continued to write many works about the issues that affected the Franciscans. Olivi argued that all monastic groups had some kind of restrictions placed on them, and therefore the uses pauper was a completely acceptable ideal. He further argued that since the Franciscans were to imitate the life of Jesus, that the idea of evangelical (holy) poverty which included uses pauper was their ideal.

The "Conventuals" argued that due to the wording used in Francis' Testament and Rules that it was impossible for them to know what uses pauper as well as absolute poverty was. Their argument was that they would never know what enough was or not and as such put their soul at risk of mortal sin. The arguments between Olivi and the "Conventuals" soon became more a power and survival struggle than just an intellectual debate. After the death of St. Francis, many of his ideologies and objectives became obscured by those who took charge of the Order after him. As the two groups of Franciscans struggled over issues dealing with property, food, learning, and even clothing, both sides became more and more reliant on the guidance of the Pope. During the early fourteenth century, the split between the Order was already occurring.

The Spirituals looking for a more austere life tended to move away from the Order, set up their own convents, or even maintain communities of hermits. Either way, the Conventuals and the Spirituals were often at odds and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold the Order together. The ability to do this rested completely on the Pope. Pope Clement V was one of the few Popes that worked relentlessly to maintain the Order.

Clement V wanted to settle the problem within the Order once and for all. He called upon the Spirituals to debate the notion of uses pauper, and as a result the Ex ivi de Paradiso was written in May 1312. This Papal Bull recommended to the Franciscan friars the ideal of living a more austere and harsh life, to return to the poverty that St. Francis had idealized and initiated. Moreover, Clement V tried to make both sides of the Order, the Spiritual and the Conventuals, gain a general respect for each other. On April 14th, 1314 Pope Clement V died, and the issue remained unresolved.

With the death of the Pope, and the end to the guidance and compassion he showed the Order many of the more extreme factions saw an opportunity to impose and express their views on what the message of St. Francis truly was. The battle over the ideals of St. Francis became more and more physical as the Order progressed. This battle only served to fuel more hate and resentment for either side of the Franciscan Order; however, it was the Spirituals that tended to get the more brutal and punitive actions taken against them by both the Pope and the Order. In 1316 Pope John XXII was elected and he began to take a series of actions directed against the entirety of the Franciscan Order. Initially these actions were mainly directed at the Spirituals due to their embitterment of the papacy, but as time progressed the Pope directed bulls at the entire Order. John XXII seemed to agree with Francis' original notion of humility; John felt that all Franciscans should bow to the supreme authority of the Pope.

With the assistance of Michael of Cesena (the Minister General of the Franciscans), John XXII created a series of bulls and rules directed at the order touching on such things as reasonable poverty standards, what habits could be worn and the fact that all friars must wear the same, what churches could be built, issues dealing with property which was now the sole possession of the Franciscan Order, and that any new convents (such as the hermit sects of the Spirituals) were now dissolved and defunct. Further to this, John XXII decreed that anyone who disobeyed or challenged a bull was a heretic. With all this authority being pushed upon the Franciscans had little decision but to obey. Disobedience meant being claimed a heretic, imprisonment, or worse even death at the stake. The conflict in no way truly subsided due to John's abrasive rather than constructive attempt at reform. Many of the Spirituals clung to their beliefs in what Francis had meant, and many of the Conventuals were appalled by the actions John XXII was taking to impose his authority.

It was not even a century since the Saint's death, and already there were lives being taken on the basis of what Francis' teachings had meant. The actions of either Pope's were detrimental to the Order. During the time of Francis, the Order had more or less governed itself free to make its own decisions and rules. With the death of Francis and the greater reliance on the Popes of Western Europe not only for guidance but for power and support, the Franciscans embittered battle over ideology only worsened.

With the involvement of the Pope the Order only became a more and more worldly order, and as such became more disliked as a hypocritical order as well. The conflict between the factions of the Order continued for nearly three centuries after St. Francis' death. In 1517, under Pope Leo X, the separation of the two sects of the Franciscan Order was more or less cemented. The Order that Francis of Assisi had originally founded to be an imitation of Christ had begun to flounder in his life time. The Conflict within the Order was based primarily on principles and ideologies that Francis had put forth. With the death of Francis there was no one to interpret accurately what his teachings and writings had meant.

There was no one left to impose the pure 'Franciscan' view on his followers. The sheer size of the order itself made it nearly impossible for Francis to control during his life. After his death, the friars moved to a more comfortable and secure life; obtaining rent from houses, being commissioned to pray for the souls of wealthy people, working in various offices offered by the Pope. As the worldliness of the order increased, many of the friars felt that the Order was straying from Francis' message and undermining the principle (incorporated into their vow) of uses pauper. There was a call to return to the ideals of simplicity, poverty, and humility, largely fronted by Spiritual thinks like Olivi, but not all of the Order agreed.

Many of the members had become accustomed to the relaxed and reliable life that being a Franciscan friar offered and claimed that they met the expectations of uses pauper. Gradually the debate escalated into a battle that went so far as to get the Pope involved. Although some Popes were constructive in trying to reconnect the split factions of the Franciscan order, some like John XXII took more dogmatic and violent approaches. The conflict and inability to maintain the ideals and objectives Saint Francis were in many ways a result of the Order's size and popularity. With larger numbers of friars joining control became less and less possible; similar to this, size was almost always near the forefront of the ideal of poverty. The large size of the Order made it difficult to maintain the strict standards of uses pauper, and also made the Order increasingly difficult to govern.

This difficulty in governance often forced the Order to turn to the Pope for guidance, thus creating a dangerous reliance on the Pope and making the order submissive to a potentially oppressive and dogmatic power. Likewise, the popularity of the movement contributed to its size. The more popular the Order was the more people joined it. The popularity also contributed to the relaxing of the standards of poverty, humility and simplicity. Money and gifts were given to the Order, jobs with a degree of power and prestige were offered to members of the Order by the Pope, and many other circumstances. The Order itself had become a worldly institution rather than a wandering group of poor friars as Francis had intended.

With such undermining of the original ideals and objectives of St. Francis, a split in the Order seems almost inevitable. Final Word Count: 2971 Sources /

Bibliography

Burr, D. Olivi and Franciscan Poverty: The Usus Pauper Controversy. Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
Moorman, J. A History of the Franciscan Order. UK; Oxford University Press, 1968.