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Franciscans

Franciscans

The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans) is a mendicant religious order of men tracing their origin to Francis of Assisi and following the Rule of St. Francis. The official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum (literally, "Order of Little Brothers"); Francis thus referred to his followers as "Fraticelli", meaning "Little Brothers". Franciscan brothers are informally called friars. The order has historically been known as the greyfriars. Among the most important Franciscans are its founder, Francis, as well as Anthony of Padua, Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon, Alexander of Hales, William of Ockham, and Giovanni da Pian del Carpini.

The beginning of the brotherhood

A sermon which Francis heard in 1209 on Matt. x. 9 made such an impression on him that he decided to devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty. Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work, and by other companions, who are said to have reached the number of eleven within a year. The brothers lived in the deserted lazar-house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time traveling through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations. Their life was extremely ascetic, though such practises were apparently not prescribed by the first rule which Francis gave them (probably as early as 1209), which seems to have been nothing more than a collection of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty. In spite of the obvious similarity between this principle and the fundamental ideas of the followers of Peter Waldo, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III. What seems to have impressed first the Bishop of Assisi, Guido, then Cardinal John of St. Paul and finally Innocent himself, was their utter loyalty to the Church and her clergy. Innocent probably saw in them a possible answer to his desire for an orthodox preaching force to counter heresy. Many legends have clustered around the decisive audience of Francis with the Pope. The realistic account in Matthew Paris, according to which the Pope originally sent the shabby saint off to keep swine, and only recognized his real worth by his ready obedience, has, in spite of its improbability, a certain historical interest, since it shows the natural antipathy of the older Benedictine monasticism to the plebeian mendicant orders.

Work and extension of the brotherhood

Benedictine It was not, however, a life of idle mendicancy on which the brothers entered when they set out in 1210 with the papal approbation, but one of diligent labor. Their work embraced devoted service in the abodes of sickness and poverty, earnest preaching by both priests and lay brothers, and missions in an ever widening circle, which finally included heretics and Muslims. They came together every year at Pentecost in the little church of the Portiuncula at Assisi, to report on their experiences and strengthen themselves for fresh efforts.

The last years of Francis

Francis had to suffer from the dissensions just alluded to and the transformation which they operated in the originally simple constitution of the brotherhood, making it a regular order under strict supervision from Rome. Exasperated by the demands of running a growing and fractious Order, Francis asked Pope Honorius III for help in 1219. He was assigned Cardinal Ugolino as protector of the order by the Pope. Francis resigned the day to day running of the Order into the hands of others but retained the power to shape the Order's legislation, writing a Rule in 1221 which he revised and had approved in 1223. At least after about 1223 the day to day running of the Order was in the hands of Brother Elias of Cortona, an able friar who would be elected as leader of the friars a few years after Francis' death but who aroused much opposition because of his autocratic style of leadership. In the external successes of the brothers, as they were reported at the yearly general chapters, there was much to encourage Francis. Caesarius of Speyer, the first German provincial, a zealous advocate of the founder's strict principle of poverty, began in 1221 from Augsburg, with twenty-five companions, to win for the order the land watered by the Rhine and the Danube. In 1224 Agnellus of Pisa led a small group of friars to England. Beginning at Canterbury, the ecclesiastical capital, they moved on to London, the political capital and Oxford, the intellectual capital. From these three bases the Franciscans swiftly expanded to embrace the principal towns of England.

The three rules of the order and the testament of Saint Francis

The first rule

The oldest "rule", referred to above, no longer preserved in its original form, seems to have contained not much more than the three Scriptural commands in Matt. xix. 21; Luke ix. 3; and Matt. xvi. 24. Thus it was more a propositum vitae, a life project, than a rule as traditionally understood. The attempted reconstruction by Muller ascribes to it too extensive a content, though Sabatier goes too far in the other direction when he limits it to these three sayings of Christ, which, according to Tommaso da Celano, formed the kernel of the rule, surrounded by certain other more detailed prescriptions. Sabatier's theory that these were gradual accretions, depending especially on decisions of the yearly general chapter, needs further evidence to confirm it although Oktavian Schmucki has discerned definite stages in the development of the 1221 Rule. The oldest biographers say nothing of any intermediate stage between the primitive rule and that of 1221. The former, based upon the idea of poverty and self-denying labor in the cause of Christ, was intended for an association of a similar kind to the Pauperes Catholici or "Poor Men of Lyons." It had little or nothing in common with the older monastic rules, Benedictine or Augustinian.

The rule of 1221

The rule of 1221 is more adapted to the needs of a monastic order intended to further the general ends of the Church and based upon the three usual vows, but laying special stress on that of poverty. It was drawn up by Francis himself, but under the influence of Cardinal Ugolino, as well as of the learned and practical Caesarius of Speyer and apparently of Brother Leo, who from 1220 on was the constant companion of the founder. The matter of the primitive rule was included in it, but scattered among a large part of detailed directions, besides many edifying thoughts and pious outpourings of the heart, probably the work of Francis. But there is much in the new rule which breathes a different spirit. The humble founder, though refusing the title of general of the order, and appearing simply as "minister-general," sometimes with the addition "the servant of the whole brotherhood," appears now at the head of a regular monastic hierarchy, consisting of provincial ministers over the provinces, custodes over smaller districts. Definite rules for the novitiate, the habit, hours of prayer, and the discipline of the houses were modeled after the older monastic tradition. In place of the informal yearly gatherings of the brotherhood, there are now regular chapters at fixed times. Of special interest are the provisions for apostolic poverty and the ascetic life in general, which show this rule to be essentially a development of the older discipline, with the obligation of poverty made more strict while that of other ascetic practises was mitigated, partly for the reason that the new Fratres minores were expected to be diligently occupied in exhausting labors.

The later rule

The Later Rule, confirmed by Honorius III on November 29, 1223, is a distillation of the 1221 Rule written in the more terse style of a canonist. The edifying tone, the citation of the Scriptural texts, have disappeared from it. Instead of the strong emphasis upon Christ's admonitions to his disciples with which the rule of 1221 had begun, the enumeration of the three traditional monastic vows is here substituted. The character of the order as a mendicant order, pledged to an ideal of the strictest poverty, is retained and the prescriptions on poverty strengthened as the support of the lay Franciscan penitents allowed the brothers to dispense with reliance on money in any form. The spirit of the earlier rules is intermingled with a number of other prescriptions which clearly show the official character of the new statutes, framed so that the order can serve the church in the interest of the papacy and in conformity with the other organs of the hierarchy. A cardinal appointed by the Pope as protector of the whole order was to support the elected Minister General in his governance of the order. The conditions for entrance are more definitely laid down; the Roman Breviary is expressly named as the obligatory basis of the daily devotions of priests belonging to it; and the preaching brothers have a more dependent position than before. In a word, the life here regulated is no longer the old free, wandering life of the first years, marked by apostolic poverty and loving, simple-hearted devotion to the Lord, but rather it is tamed to a more sedate quasi-monastic system, shorn of much of its original freedom but with a sustainability that the original ideals had failed to provide.

The "Testament"

Francis, as may be seen from more than one passage in the accounts of his last years, was unhappy about some of the changes that occurred as the order grew. As a demonstration against them, he left what is called his "Testament", whose occasional reading together with the rule was enjoined on the brethren. Its tone is rather plaintive than angry; it looks back in a spirit of regret to the primitive days of the first love. It urges unswerving obedience to the Pope and the heads of the order, but at the same time emphasizes the necessity of following its principles, especially the imitation of the poverty of Christ. The brethren are commanded to oppose the introduction of any future secularizing influences, and at the same time are forbidden to ask for any special privileges from the Pope. In spite of the direct command in the "Testament" against considering it as a new rule, the Observantist section of the Franciscans practically regarded it as even more binding than the formal rule, while the advocates of a less strict observance paid little attention to it, especially to its prohibition of asking for ecclesiastical privileges.

Development of the order after the death of Francis

Dissentions during the life of Francis

The controversy about poverty which extends through the first three centuries of Franciscan history began in the lifetime of the founder. The ascetic brothers Matthew of Narni and Gregory of Naples, to whom Francis had entrusted the direction of the order during his absence, carried through at a chapter which they held certain stricter regulations in regard to fasting and the reception of alms, which really departed from the spirit of the original rule. It did not take Francis long, on his return, to suppress this insubordinate tendency; but he was less successful in regard to another of an opposite nature which soon came up. Elias of Crotona originated a movement for the increase of the worldly consideration of the order and the adaptation of its system to the plans of the hierarchy which conflicted with the original notions of the founder and helped to bring about the successive changes in the rule already described. Francis was not alone in opposition to this lax and secularizing tendency. On the contrary, the party which clung to his original views and after his death took his "Testament" for their guide, known as Observantists or Zelanti, was at least equal in numbers and activity to the followers of Elias. The conflict between the two lasted many years, and the Zelanti won several notable victories, in spite of the favor shown to their opponents by the papal administration -- until finally the reconciliation of the two points of view was seen to be impossible, and the order was actually split into halves.

Development to 1239. The laxer party

St. Anthony of Padua has usually been regarded as the first leader of the Observantists; but recent investigations have shown that he was inclined to the opposite side. When Elias sent a delegation to Rome in 1230 to obtain papal sanction for his views, Anthony was one of the envoys; and there is little doubt that the bull Quo elongati of Pope Gregory IX, favoring this side, was due in large measure to his influence. The earliest leader of the strict party was rather Brother Leo, the witness of the ecstasies of Francis on Monte Alverno and the author of the Speculum perfectionis, a strong polemic against the laxer party. Next to him came John Parenti, the first successor of Francis in the headship of the order. In 1232, however, Elias succeeded him, and administered the affairs of the order in the interest of his own party for seven years. Much external progress was made during these years; many new houses were founded, especially in Italy, and in them, without regard to the founder's depreciation of secular learning, special attention was paid to education. The somewhat earlier settlements of Franciscan teachers at the universities (in Oxford, for example, where Alexander of Hales was teaching) continued to develop. Contributions toward the promotion of the order's work came in abundantly, and Elias authorized his subordinates to get around the provision of the rule against the receiving of money, usually by the appointment of agents outside the order, who had the custody of the funds. Elias pursued with great severity the principal leaders of the opposition, and even Bernardo di Quintavalle, the founder's first disciple, was obliged to conceal himself for years in the forest of Monte Sefro.

To 1274. Bonaventure

At last, however, the reaction came. At the general chapter of 1239, held in Rome under the personal presidency of Gregory IX., Elias was deposed in favor of Albert of Pisa, the former provincial of England, a moderate Observantist. None the less, Elias' attitude remained widely prevalent in the order. The next two ministers-general Haymo of Faversham (1240-44) and Crescentius of Jesi (1244-47), governed to a great extent in this sense, and had the new Pope Innocent IV on their side. In a bull of November 14, 1245, he even sanctioned an extension of the system of financial agents, and declared the funds in their custody the property of the Church, to be held at the disposal of the cardinal-protector and not to be alienated without his permission. The Observantist party took a strong stand in opposition to this ruling, and carried on so successfully an agitation against the lax general that in 1247, at a chapter held in Lyons, where Innocent IV. was then residing, he was replaced by the strict Observantist John of Parma (1247-57). Elias, who had been excommunicated and taken under the protection of Frederick II., was now forced to give up all hope of recovering his power in the order. He died in 1253, after succeeding by recantation in obtaining the removal of his censures. Under John of Parma, who enjoyed the favor of Innocent IV. and Pope Alexander IV, the influence of the order was notably increased, especially by the provisions of the latter pope in regard to the academic activity of the brothers. He not only sanctioned the theological institutes in Franciscan houses, but did all he could to facilitate the entrance of their teachers to the universities, especially Paris, the headquarters of theological study. It was due to the action of his representatives, who were obliged to threaten the university authorities with excommunication, that the degree of doctor of theology was conceded to the Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Bonaventure (1257), who had previously been able to lecture only as licentiates. In the same year Bonaventura succeeded John of Parma. In spite of his adherence to Observantist principles, Bonaventura took a decided stand against the teaching of Joachim of Fiore, which John of Parma had been inclined to favor. Not a few of the "Spiritual" party, as they were now coming to be called, were condemned to lifelong imprisonment; and for the purpose of discouraging their extreme tendency a new life of the founder was compiled by Bonaventura, at the request of the general chapter held at Narbonne in 1260, and authorized by that of Pisa three years later as the only approved biography. Apart from the severe measures taken against Joachim's followers, Bonaventura seems to have ruled (1257-74) in a moderate spirit, which is represented also by various works produced by the order in his time -- especially by the Expositio regulae written by David of Augsburg (q.v.) soon after 1260.

To 1300. Continued dissensions

The successor of Bonaventura, Jerome of Ascoli (1274-79), the future Pope Nicholas IV, and his successor, Bonagratia (1279-85), also followed a middle course. Severe measures were taken against certain extreme Spirituals who, on the strength of the rumor that Pope Gregory X was intending at the Council of Lyons (1274-75) to force the mendicant orders to tolerate the possession of property, threatened both pope and council with the renunciation of allegiance. Attempts were made, however, to satisfy the reasonable demands of the Spiritual party, as in the bull Exiit qui seminiat of Pope Nicholas III (1279), which pronounced the principle of complete poverty meritorious and holy, but interpreted it in the way of a somewhat sophistical distinction between possession 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 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, 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. 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.

Temporary success of the stricter party. Persecution

Under Pope 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, the leader, after Olivi's death, of the stricter party, who was a member of the commission, induced the Council of Vienne to arrive at a decision in the main favoring his views, and the papal constitution Exivi de paradiso (1313) was on the whole conceived in the same sense. Clement's successor, Pope 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!

Renewed controversy on the question of poverty

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 of Ockham, the English provincial, and Bonagratia of Bergamo. John XXII ranged himself decidedly with the Dominicans, who combated the theory, and by the papal bull Cum inter nonnullos of 1322 declared the Franciscan doctrine of the poverty of Christ 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 Cessna and Occam from their offices in the order, and excommunicated them with the Franciscan Anti-Pope 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.

Separate congregations

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, some which developed within the order on both hermit and cenobitic principles may here be mentioned:

The Clareni

or Clarenini, an association of hermits established on the river Clareno in the march of Ancona by Angelo da 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 Pope Pius V to unite with the general body of Observantists.

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.

The reform of Johannes de Vallibus

This was 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 houses 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 part of the order. Through the work of such men as Bernardin of Siena, Giovanni da Capistrano, and Dietrich Coelde (b. 1435? at Munster; was a member of the Brethren of the Common Life, died December 11, 1515), it gained great prominence during the fifteenth century. By the end of the Middle Ages, the Observantists, with 1,400 houses, comprised nearly half of the entire order. Their influence brought about attempts at reform even among the Conventuals, including the Observantists of the Common Life, founded by Boniface de Ceva and spreading principally in France and Germany; the reformed congregation founded in 1426 by the Spaniard Philip de Berbegal and distinguished by the special importance they attached to the little hood (cappuciola); the Neutri, a group of reformers originating about 1463 in Italy, who tried to take a middle ground between the Conventuals and Observantists, but refused to obey the heads of either, until they were compelled by the Pope to affiliate with the regular Observantists, or with those of the Common Life; the Caperolani, a congregation founded about 1470 in North Italy by Peter Caperolo, but dissolved again on the death of its founder in 1480; the Amadeists, founded by the noble Portuguese Amadeo, who entered the Franciscan order at Assisi in 1452, gathered around him a number of adherents to his fairly strict principles (numbering finally twenty-six houses) and, died in the odor of sanctity in 1482.

Unsuccessful attempts to unite the order

Projects for a union between the two main branches of the order were put forth not only by the Council of Constance but by several popes, without any positive result. By direction of Martin V., John of Capistrano drew up statutes which were to serve as a basis for reunion, and they were actually accepted by a general chapter at Assisi in 1430; but the majority of the Conventual houses refused to agree to them, and they remained without effect. At Capistrano's request Eugenius IV. put forth a bull (Ut sacra minorum, 1446) looking to the same result, but again nothing was accomplished. Equally unsuccessful were the attempts of the Franciscan Pope Sixtus IV., who bestowed a vast number of privileges on both the original mendicant orders, but by this very fact lost the favor of the Observantists and failed in his plans for reunion. Julius II. succeeded in doing away with some of the smaller branches, but left the division of the two great parties untouched. This division was finally legalized by Leo X., after a general chapter held in Rome, in connection with the reform-movement of the Fifth Lateran Council, had once more declared the impossibility of reunion. The less strict principles of the Conventuals, permitting the posesssion of real estate and the enjoyment of fixed revenues, were recognized as tolerable, while the Observantists, in contrast to this usus moderatus, were held strictly to their own usus arctus or pauper. The latter, as adhering more closely to the rule of the founder, were allowed to claim a certain superiority over the former. The Observantist general (elected now for six years, not for life) was to have the title of "Minister-General of the Whole Order of St. Francis" and the right to confirm the choice of a head for the Conventuals, who was known as "Master-General of the Friars Minor Conventual" -- although this privilege never became practically operative.

Spread of the order in modern times

See: Franciscan Order in modern times

Distinguished names

Although surpassed in the number of prominent and influential theological authors by the Jesuits and Dominicans, the order still boasts a number of distinguished names. The first century of its existence produced the three great scholastics Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, and Duns Scotus, the "Admirable Doctor" Roger Bacon, and the well-known mystic authors and popular preachers David of Augsburg and Berthold of Regensburg. Among Franciscan celebrities of the later Middle Ages may be mentioned Nicholas of Lyra, the Biblical commentator, Bernardin of Sienna, John of Capistrano, Mollard and Menot as preachers, and the famous canonists Astesanus, Alvarus Pelagius, and William of Ockham. Later again came sound historical investigators such as Luke Wadding and Pagi. In the field of Christian art, during the later Middle Ages, the Franciscan movement exercised considerable influence, especially in Italy. Several great painters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially Cimabue and Giotto, were spiritual sons of Francis in the wider sense, and the plastic masterpieces of the latter, as well as the architectural conceptions of both himself and his school, show the influence of Franciscan ideals. The Italian Gothic style, whose earliest important monument is the great convent church at Assisi (built 1228-53), was cultivated as a rule principally by members of the order or men under their influence. The early spiritual poetry of Italy was inspired by Francis himself, who was followed by Thomas of Celano, Bonaventura, and Jacopone da Todi; and in a certain sense even Dante may be included within the sphere of Franciscan influence (cf. especially Paradiso, xi. 50).

The Clarisses or Poor Clares

For the history of the female branch of the order, founded in the lifetime of Francis, see Poor Clares.

The third order

Origin and rule

The first Rule given to lay men and women passionate about following St. Francis was found in the Guarnacci Library in Volterra, Italy. This primitive Rule is known as the Earlier Exhortation or the Earlier Version of the Letter to All the Faithful and was likely composed before 1215. An expanded version, the Later Exhortation was completed by about 1220. Both have been established as having been composed by St. Francis. Both documents call the lay faithful to a life of penance, i.e. of turning away from sin and toward God. The first lay followers were known as the Brothers and Sisters of Penance. In the Earlier Exhortation, Francis describes the elements of the conversion process: 1) love God 2) love one's neighbor 3) turn away from their sinful tendencies 4)"receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ" and, as a result of the above, 5) producing worthy fruits of penance - a renewed life characterized of charity, forgiveness and compassion toward others. Francis speaks in ecstatic terms of those who embrace this way of life: "Oh, how happy and blessed are these men and women when they do these things and perservere in doing them since the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them and He will make His home and dwelling among them. They are children of the heavenly Father whose works they do, and they are spouses, brothers and mothers of Our Lord Jesus Christ." (source:"De Illis Qui Faciunt Penitentiam": The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order: Origins, Development, Interpretation, Robert M. Stewart, OFM) The rule of the Secular Franciscan Order was originally written by St. Francis of Assisi himself. He was concerned about the expansion of his order at the expense of families. He refused entrance to his order by married men (and the women from admission to the Poor Claires) who sought to follow the Franciscan way, because families should not suffer. He wrote a rule that was simple and clear so the lay person could live within the bonds of the Sacrament of Marriage and love and serve the Lord by serving their fellow men. This rule with few changes is still the framework of the present Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order. (source: Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order)(addition to this record by J.T. McF. Mood, SFO [jtmoodsfo@aol.com])

External links

- [http://www.ofm.org/ Ordo Fratrum Minorum], official website
- [http://www.ofmcap.org/ Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum], official website
- [http://www.nafra-sfo.org/ The National Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order - USA]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06217a.htm The Catholic Encyclopedia: The Franciscan Order]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06244b.htm The Catholic Encyclopedia: The Fraticelli]

Books

- A History of the Franciscan Order: From Its Origins to the Year 1517 by John Moorman ISBN 0198264259
- Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages (3rd Edition) by C.H. Lawrence, ISBN 0582404274
- The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis by David Burr. ISBN 0271021284 Category:Franciscan orders ja:フランシスコ会

Religious order

A religious order is an organization of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with religious devotion. The members of such orders, termed religious as a group, are usually distinct from both the laity and the clergy. They are often termed monks, friars or brothers if male, and nuns or sisters if female. Not all members of a religious order are clergy, and there may be lay members who have sworn an oath to the order or taken vows such as vows of poverty. Some orders practice literal isolation (cloistering) from the outside world; others remain engaged with the world in various ways, often teaching or serving in traditional roles, while maintaining their distinction in other ways (communal living, producing religious artwork and texts, designing and making vestments and writing religious instruction books as examples). All, however, may be distinguished by vows or disciplines they undertake as members of their orders. The best-known religious orders are Christian and Buddhist orders of monks and nuns. However, a form of ordered religious living is common also in many tribes of Africa and South America, though on a smaller scale. In Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Tibet, there exist strikingly large monastic orders. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

External links

- [http://www.fisheaters.com/religiouslife.html Brief History of Religious Life in the Catholic Church]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12748b.htm Religious Life] Catholic
- [http://geocities.com/clcing/3.html In the Wheat : Songs in Your Presence] Poetic Diary of a Young Monk Category:Religious organizations ja:修道会

Francis of Assisi

] Saint Francis of Assisi (born in Assisi, Italy, 1182; died there on October 3, 1226) founded the Franciscan Order or "Friars Minor". He is the patron saint of animals, merchants, Catholic action and the environment.

Boyhood and early manhood

Born Giovanni Bernardone, commonly known as Francesco. He was either born in 1181 or 1182. His father, Pietro, was a wealthy cloth merchant. Of his mother, Pica, little is known. Francis was one of several children. Rebellious toward his father's business and pursuit of wealth, Francis would spend most of his youth lost in books (ironically, his father's wealth did afford his son an excellent education, and he became fluent in reading several languages including Latin). He was also known for drinking and enjoying the company of his many friends, who were usually the sons of nobles. His displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him became evident fairly early, one of which is shown in the story of the beggar. In this account, he found himself yet again out having fun with his friends one day when a beggar came along and asked for alms. While his friends ignored the beggar's cries, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his stupidity, and when he got home, his father scolded him in a rage. In 1201 he joined a military expedition against Perugia, was taken prisoner, and spent a year as a captive. It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. It is said that when he began to avoid the sports of his former companions, and they asked him laughingly if he was thinking of marrying, he answered "Yes, a fairer bride than any you have ever seen" - meaning his "lady poverty", as he afterward used to say. He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he had a vision in which he heard a voice calling upon him to restore the Church of Jesus which had fallen into decay. He thought this to mean the ruined church of St. Damian near Assisi and sold his horse together with some cloth from his father's store, giving the proceeds to the priest for this purpose. Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to bring him to his senses, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced all expectations from his father, laying aside even the garments received from him, and for a while was a homeless wanderer in the hills around Assisi. Returning to the town where he spent two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, Assisi, just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.

The beginning of the Brotherhood

St Mary of the Angels, Assisi At the end of this period (according to Jordanus, in 1209), a sermon which he heard on the Gospel of Matthew 10:9, where Christ tells his followers that they should go forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is upon them, and that they should take no money with them, that they should take no walking stick for the road, and that they should wear no shoes -- made such an impression on him that he decided to devote himself wholly to a life of apostolic poverty. Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Evangelical precept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance. He was soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributed all that he had to the work, and by other companions, who are said to have reached the number of eleven within a year, whom he called the "fratres minores", in Latin, "the lesser brothers". The Franciscans are sometimes called Friars, and this is a term derived from "fratres", or "brothers" in Latin. The brothers lived a simple life in the deserted lazar house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spent much of their time travelling through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations. Their life was ascetic, though such practices were apparently not prescribed by the first rule which Francis gave them (probably as early as 1209), which seems to have been nothing more than a collection of scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty. In 1209 Francis led his followers to Rome and asked the Pope's permission to found a new religious order and succeeded in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III. Many legends have clustered around the decisive audience of Francis with the Pope. The most common consists of an initial rejection of Francis' request, followed that night by a dream in which the church was crumbling apart and Francis appeared to hold it together, which caused the Pope to change his verdict the following day. The account in Matthew of Paris, according to which the Pope originally sent the shabby saint off to keep swine, and only recognized his real worth by his ready obedience, has, in spite of its improbability, a certain historical interest, since it shows the natural antipathy of the older Benedictine monasticism to the plebeian mendicant orders.

St. Francis, Nature and the Environment

Many of the stories that surround the life of St. Francis deal with his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates the Saint’s humility towards nature is recounted in the Fioretti (The Little Flowers), a collection of legends and folk-lore that sprang up after the saint’s death. It is said that one day while Francis was traveling with some companions they happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to “wait for me while I go a preach to my sisters the birds.” The birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew away. Francis spoke to them: “My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you…you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore…always seek to praise God.” Another legend from the Fioretti tells us that in the city of Gubbio, where Francis lived for some time, there was a wolf “terrifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as animals.” Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk, and went up into the hills to find the wolf, soon fear of the animal had caused all his companions to flee, but the saint pressed on and when he found the wolf he made the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously the wolf closed his jaws and lay down at the feet of St. Francis. “Brother Wolf, you do much harm in these parts and you have done great evil…” said Francis. “All these people accuse you and curse you…But brother wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people.” Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens he made a pact between them and the wolf, because the wolf had “done evil out of hunger” the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly, and in return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this manner Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator. Francis, ever the lover of animals, even makes a pact on behalf of the town dogs, that they will not bother the wolf again. This legends exemplifies the Franciscan mode of charity and poverty as well as the saint's love of the natural world. However, the academic establishment agrees that St. Francis actually had a rather conventional attitude towards his worldly environment. He did believe that the external world was inherently good as a sign and revelation of God's providence and goodness, its purpose being to inspire our respect and love, but this was not an unusual philosophy in the thirteenth century. His belief in the universal ability and duty of all animals to praise God is more unusual; however, it is far from the "sentimental pantheism" (G. K. Chesterton) suggested by Lynn White, and certainly bears no relation to current ecological or environmental sentiment.

Main sources for the life of St. Francis

- Friar Elias, Epistola Encyclica de Transitu Sancti Francisci, 1226.
- Pope Gregory IX, Bulla "Mira circa nos" for the canonisation of St. Francis, 19 July 1228.
- Friar Tommaso da Celano: Vita Prima Sancti Francisci, 1228; Vita Secunda Sancti Francisci, 1246–1247; Tractatus de Miraculis Sancti Francisci, 1252–1253.
- Friar Julian of Speyer, Vita Sancti Francisci, 1232–1239.
- St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Legenda Maior Sancti Francisci, 1260–1263.
- Ugolino da Montegiorgio, Actus Beati Francisci et sociorum eius, 1327–1342.
- Fioretti di San Francesco, the "Little Flowers of St. Francis", end of the 14th century: an anonymous Italian version of the Actus; the most popular of the sources, but very late and therefore not the best authority by any means. For an exhaustive list of sources, see [http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/fra/FRAmain.html].

Main writings by St. Francis

- Canticum Fratris Solis, the Canticle to Brother Sun.
- Prayer before the Crucifix, 1205 (extant in the original Umbrian dialect as well as in a contemporary Latin translation).
- Regula non bullata, the Earlier Rule, 1221.
- Regula bullata, the Later Rule, 1223.
- Testament, 1226.
- Admonitions. For a complete list, see [http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/fra/FRAwr02.html].

External links

- [http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/fra/FRAmain.html Franciscan Cyberspot: Sources for the Life of St. Francis]
- [http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Francis/default.asp St Francis of Assisi - Patron Saint of Animals and the Environment]
- [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=50 St Francis of Assisi]
- [http://rsparlourtricks.blogspot.com/2005/10/st-francis-of-assisi.html Ron Schuler's Parlour Tricks: St. Francis of Assisi] Category:Natives of Assisi
- Category:Saints Category:Italian saints Category:Stigmatics Category:Medieval philosophers Category:History of Mendicant orders Francis Francis Francis ja:アッシジのフランチェスコ

Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages, those being most notably Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. It is said that 80 percent of scholarly English words are derived from Latin (in a large number of cases by way of French). Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca, the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and thus the official national language of the Vatican. The Church used Latin as its primary liturgical language until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek roots) to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things. The modern study of Latin, along with Greek, is known as Classics.

Main features

Latin is a synthetic inflectional language: affixes (which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, which is called declension; and person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect in verbs, which is called conjugation. There are five declensions (declinationes) of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. There are six noun cases: #nominative (used as the subject of the verb or the predicate nominative), #genitive (used to indicate relation or possession, often represented by the English of or the addition of s to a noun), #dative (used of the indirect object of the verb, often represented by the English to or for), #accusative (used of the direct object of the verb, or object of the preposition in some cases), #ablative (separation, source, cause, or instrument, often represented by the English by, with, from), #vocative (used of the person or thing being addressed). In addition, some nouns have a locative case used to express location (otherwise expressed by the ablative with a preposition such as in), but this survival from Proto-Indo-European is found only in the names of lakes, cities, towns, small islands, and a few other words related to locations, such as "house", "ground", and "countryside". Latin itself, being a very old language, is far closer to Proto-Indo-European than are most modern Western European languages; it has, in fact, about the same relationship with PIE as modern Italian or French has to Latin. There are six general tenses in Latin (technically they are tense/aspect/mood complexes). The indicative mood can be used with all of them. The subjunctive mood, however, has only present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses. These tenses in the subjunctive mood do not completely correlate in meaning to the tenses in the indicative. The following examples are of the first conjugation verb "laudare" ("to praise") in the indicative mood and the active voice:
Primary sequence tenses
# present (laudo, "I praise") # imperfect (laudabam, "I was praising") # future (laudabo, "I shall praise," "I will praise")
Secondary sequence tenses
# perfect (laudavi, "I praised", "I have praised") # pluperfect (laudaveram, "I had praised") # future perfect (laudavero, "I shall have praised," "I will have praised") The future perfect tense can also imply a normal future idea (like in "When I will have run...") and so may also sometimes be included in the primary sequence.
Latin and Romance
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin evolved into the various Romance languages. These were for many centuries only spoken languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of common usage, which in turn evolved from an older speech which also produced the formal classical standard. Latin and Romance differ (for example) in that Romance had distinctive stress, whereas Latin had distinctive length of vowels. In Italian and Sardo logudorese, there is distinctive length of consonants and stress, in Spanish only distinctive stress, and in French even stress is no longer distinctive. Another major distinction between Romance and Latin is that all Romance languages, excluding Romanian, have lost their case endings in most words except for some pronouns. Romanian retains a direct case (nominative/accusative), an indirect case (dative/genitive), and vocative. In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject.
Latin and English
See Latin influence in English for a more complete exposition. English grammar is independent of Latin grammar, though prescriptive grammarians in English have been heavily influenced by Latin. Attempts to make English grammar follow Latin rules — such as the prohibition against the split infinitive — have not worked successfully in regular usage. However, as many as half the words in English were derived from Latin, including many words of Greek origin first adopted by the Romans, not to mention the thousands of French, hundreds of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words of Latin origin that have also enriched English. During the 16th and on through the 18th century English writers created huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn" or "inkpot" words (as if they had spilled from a pot of ink). Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some remain. Imbibe, extrapolate, dormant and inebriation are all inkhorn terms carved from Latin words. In fact, the word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymologia, meaning "true sense of the word." Latin was once taught in many of the schools in Britain with academic leanings - perhaps 25% of the total [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/]. However, the requirement for it was gradually abandoned in the professions such as the law and medicine, and then, from around the late 1960s, for admission to university. After the introduction of the Modern Language GCSE in the 1980s, it was gradually replaced by other languages, although it is now being taught by more schools along with other classical languages.
Latin education
The linguistic element of Latin courses offered in high schools or secondary schools, and in universities, is primarily geared toward an ability to translate Latin texts into modern languages, rather than using it in oral communication. As such, the skill of reading is heavily emphasized, whereas speaking and listening skills are barely touched upon. However, there is a growing movement, sometimes known as the Living Latin movement, whose supporters believe that Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, that is, as a means of both spoken and written communication. One of the most interesting aspects of such an approach is that it assists speculative insight into how many of the ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language stylistically; without understanding how the language is meant to be heard it is very difficult to identify patterns in Latin poetry. Institutions offering Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Britain the Classical Association encourages this approach, and there has been something of a vogue for books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus. In the United States there is a thriving competitive organization for high school Latin students, the National Junior Classical League (the second-largest youth organization in the world after the Boy Scouts), backed up by the Senior Classical League for college students. Many would-be international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin, and the moderately successful Interlingua considers itself to be the modernized and simplified version of the language (le latino moderne international e simplificate). Latin translations of modern literature such as Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, and The Cat in the Hat have also helped boost interest in the language.
See also

About the Latin language

- Latin grammar
- Latin spelling and pronunciation
- Latin declension
- Latin conjugation
- Latin alphabet
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- Latin verbs with English derivatives
- Latin nouns with English derivatives
- ablative absolute
- Word order in Latin
About the Latin literary heritage

- Latin literature
- Romance languages
- Loeb Classical Library
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin proverbs
- Brocard
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- Carmen Possum
Other related topics

- Roman Empire
- Internationalism
References

- Bennett, Charles E. Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, Chicago, 1908)
- N. Vincent: "Latin", in The Romance Languages, M. Harris and N. Vincent, eds., (Oxford Univ. Press. 1990), ISBN 0195208293
- Waquet, Françoise, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Verso, 2003) ISBN 1859844022; translated from the French by John Howe.
- Wheelock, Frederic. Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0060784237
External links

- [http://www.jambell.com/latin.html Latin Phrases for after dinner conversation (Thanks to Elaine Poole)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lat Ethnologue report for Latin]
- [http://forumromanum.org/literature/index.html Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum] is a comprehensive webography of Latin texts and their translations.
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Perseus Project] has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin an interactive Latin dictionary].
- [http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe words by William whitaker] is a dictionary program online capable of looking up various word forms.
- [http://retiarius.org/ Retiarius.Org] includes a Latin text search engine.
- [http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin-English dictionary and Latin grammar from U of Notre Dame]
- [http://latin-language.co.uk/ Latin language] History of Latin language, Latin texts with English translation and a collection of dictionaries.
- [http://augustinus.eresmas.net/scl/ Societas Circulorum Latinorum] gathers together Latin Circles all over the world.
- [http://www.learnlatin.tk LearnLatin.tk] - Free online course in Latin
- [http://www.latintests.net/ LatinTests.net] - Lets Latin learners test their grammar and vocabulary with self-checking quizzes.
- [http://thelatinlibrary.com/ The Latin Library] contains many Latin etexts
- [http://www.textkit.com/ Textkit] has Latin textbooks and etexts.
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Latin-english/ Latin–English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.language-reference.com/ Language reference] Cross-foreign-language lexicon powered by its own search engine. All cross combinations between Latin and French, German, Italian, Spanish.
- [http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/rhetor.html Rhetor by Gabriel Harvey] was originally published in 1577 and never again reprinted.
- [http://freewebs.com/omniamundamundis omniamundamundis] Latin hypertexts from fourteen ancient Roman authors.
- [http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm Pronunciation of Biological Latin, Including Taxonomic Names of Plants and Animals]
- [http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii Nuntii Latini (News in Latin)], written and spoken (RealAudio) news in latin. Weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
- [http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Replace%20Me&from=eng&to=ltt InterTran Latin], Translate from Latin to ENGLISH or vice versa.
- [http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate] The Latin and English of the Old & New Testaments in parallel, along with the Complete Sayings of Jesus in parallel Latin and English. Category:Classical languages Category:Ancient languages Category:Fusional languages Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Vatican City als:Latein zh-min-nan:Latin-gí ko:라틴어 ja:ラテン語 simple:Latin language th:ภาษาละติน

Bonaventure

:For other uses, see Bonaventure (disambiguation). Saint Bonaventura, John of Fidanza (1221 – July 15, 1274), was a Franciscan theologian.

Early life

He was born at Bagnarea in Tuscany, and was destined by his mother for the church. He is said to have received his cognomen of Bonaventura from St Francis of Assisi, who performed on him a miraculous cure. He entered the Franciscan order in 1243, and studied at Paris possibly under Alexander of Hales, and certainly under Alexander's successor, John of Rochelle, to whose chair he succeeded in 1253. Three years earlier his fame had gained for him permission to read upon the Sentences, and in 1255 he received the degree of doctor. So high was his reputation that in the following year he was elected general of his order. It was by his orders that Roger Bacon was interdicted from lecturing at Oxford, and compelled to put himself under the surveillance of the order at Paris. He was instrumental in procuring the election of Gregory X, who rewarded him with the titles of cardinal and bishop of Albano, and insisted on his presence at the great council of Lyons in the year 1274. At this meeting he died.

Philosophy & Works

Bonaventura's character seems not unworthy of the eulogistic title, "Doctor Seraphicus," bestowed on him by his contemporaries, and of the place assigned to him by Dante in his Paradiso. He was formally canonized in 1482 by Sixtus IV, and ranked as sixth among the great doctors of the church by Sixtus V in 1587. His works, as arranged in the Lyons edition (i vols., folio), consist of expositions and sermons, filling the first three volumes; of a commentary on the Sentences of Lombardus, in two volumes, celebrated among medieval theologians as incomparably the best exposition of the third part; and of minor treatises filling the remaining two volumes, and including a life of St Francis. The smaller works are the most important, and of them the best are the famous Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum, Breviloquium, De Reductione Arlium ad Theologiam, Soliloquium, and De septem itineribus aeternitatis, in which most of what is individual in his teaching is contained. In philosophy Bonaventura presents a marked contrast to his great contemporaries, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas. While these may be taken as representing respectively physical science yet in its infancy, and Aristotelian scholasticism in its most perfect form, he brings before us the mystical and Platonizing mode of speculation. Which had already to some extent found expression in Hugo and Richard of St. Victor, and in Bernard of Clairvaux. To him the purely intellectual element, though never absent, is of inferior interest when compared with the living power of the affections or the heart. He rejects the authority of Aristotle, to whose influence he ascribes much of the heretical tendency of the age, and some of whose cardinal doctrines--such as the eternity of the world--he combats vigorously. But the Platonism he received was Plato as understood by St Augustine, and as he had been handed down by the Alexandrian school and the author of the mystical works passing under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. Bonaventura accepts as Platonic the theory that ideas do not exist in rerum natura, but as thoughts of the divine mind, according to which actual things were formed; and this conception has no slight influence upon his philosophy. Like all the great scholastic doctors he starts with the discussion of the relations between reason and faith. All the sciences are but the handmaids of theology; reason can discover some of the moral truths which form the groundwork of the Christian system, but others it can only receive and apprehend through divine illumination. In order to obtain this illumination, the soul must employ the proper means, which are prayer, the exercise of the virtues, whereby it is rendered fit to accept the divine light, and meditation which may rise even to ecstatic union with God. The supreme end of life is such union, union in contemplation or intellect and in intense absorbing love; but it cannot be entirely reached in this life, and remains as a hope for futurity. The mind in contemplating God has three distinct aspects, stages or grades—the senses, giving empirical knowledge of what is without and discerning the traces (vestigia) of the divine in the world; the reason, which examines the soul itself, the image of the divine Being; and lastly, pure intellect (intelligentia), which, in a transcendent act, grasps the Being of the divine cause. To these three correspond the three kinds of theology-theologia symbolica, theologia propria and theologia mystica. Each stage is subdivided, for in contemplating the outer world we may use the senses or the imagination; we may rise to a knowledge of God per vestigia or in vestigiis. In the first case the three great properties of physical bodies—weight, number, measure,--in the second the division of created things into the classes of those that have merely physical existence, those that have life, and those that have thought, irresistibly lead us to conclude the power, wisdom and goodness of the Triune God. So in the second stage we may ascend to the knowledge of God, per imaginem, by reason, or in imagine, by the pure understanding (intellectus); in the one case the triple division—memory, understanding and will,--in the other the Christian virtues--faith, hope and charity,--leading again to the conception of a Trinity of divine qualities--eternity, truth and goodness. In the last stage we have first intelligentia, pure intellect, contemplating the essential being of God, and finding itself compelled by necessity of thought to hold absolute being as the first notion, for non-being cannot be conceived apart from being, of which it is but the privation. To this notion of absolute being, which is perfect and the greatest of all, objective existence must be ascribed. In its last and highest form of activity the mind rests in the contemplation of the infinite goodness of God, which is apprehended by means of the highest faculty, the apex mentis or synderesis. This spark of the divine illumination is common to all forms of mysticism, but Bonaventura adds to it peculiarly Christian elements. The complete yielding up of mind and heart to God is unattainable without divine grace, and nothing renders us so fit to receive this gift as the meditative and ascetic life of the cloister. The monastic life is the best means of grace. Bonaventura, however, is not merely a meditative thinker, whose works may form good manuals of devotion; he is a dogmatic theologian of high rank, and on all the disputed questions of scholastic thought, such as universals, matter, the principle of individualism, or the intellectus agens, he gives weighty and well-reasoned decisions. He agrees with Albertus Magnus in regarding theology as a practical science; its truths, according to his view, are peculiarly adapted to influence the affections. He discusses very carefully the nature and meaning of the divine attributes; considers universals to be the ideal forms pre-existing in the divine mind according to which things were shaped; holds matter to be pure potentiality which receives individual being and determinateness from the formative power of God, acting according to the ideas; and finally maintains that the intellectus agens has no separate existence. On these and on many other points of scholastic philosophy the Seraphic Doctor exhibits a combination of subtilty and moderation, which makes his works particularly valuable.

Namesakes

Ventura, California and Ventura County, California are named for Saint Bonaventure, as is Bonaventure, Quebec. St. Bonaventure University, the largest Franciscan university in the English-speaking world, is located in Western New York. Saint Bonaventure's College is a Roman Catholic prep school in Newfoundland. And St. Bonaventure College and High School is located in HOng Kong.

References

- Category:Medieval philosophers Category:Catholic philosophers Category:Saints Category:Franciscans Category:1221 births Category:1274 deaths Category:Doctors of the Church Category:Natives of Tuscany ko:보나벤투라 ja:ボナヴェントゥラ

John Duns Scotus

: This page is about John Duns Scotus, not John the Scot. John the Scot Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. 1266 – November 8, 1308) was a theologian, philosopher, and logician. Some argue that during his tenure at Oxford, the notion of what differentiates theology from philosophy and science began in earnest. He was born in Duns, Borders, Scotland. Ordained a priest in Northampton, England, he studied and taught at Oxford and Paris, and probably also at Cambridge. Finally, he came to Cologne, Germany, in 1307. Duns Scotus was one of the most important Franciscan theologians and was the founder of Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism. He was known as Doctor Subtilis because of his subtle merging of differing views. Later philosophers were not so complimentary about his work, and the modern word dunce comes from the name "Dunse" given to his followers. He died in Cologne and is buried in the Church of the Minorites in Cologne. His sarcophagus bears the Latin inscription: "Scotia me genuit. Anglia me suscepit. Gallia me docuit. Colonia me tenet." ("Scotland brought me forth. England sustained me. France taught me. Cologne holds me.") He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993.

Theology

Perhaps the most influential point of Duns Scotus' theology was his defense of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. At the time, there was a great deal of argument about the subject. The general opinion was that it was appropriate, but it could not be seen how to resolve the problem that only with Christ's death would the stain of original sin be removed. The great philosophers and theologians of the west were divided on the subject (indeed, it appears that even Thomas Aquinas sided with those who denied the doctrine, though some Thomists dispute this). The feast day had existed in the East since the seventh century and had been introduced in several dioceses in the West as well, even though the philosophical basis was lacking. Citing Anselm of Canterbury's principle, "potuit, decuit, ergo fecit" (God could do it, it was appropriate, therefore he did it), Duns Scotus devised the following argument: Mary was in need of redemption like all other human beings, but through the merits of Jesus' crucifixion, given in advance, she was conceived without the stain of original sin. This argument appears in Pope Pius IX's declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Pope John XXIII recommended the reading of Duns Scotus' theology to modern theology students. Scotus' is usually associated with voluntarism, the tendency to emphasize God's will and human freedom in all philosophical issues.

Logic

Scotus was perhaps one of the most influential medieval logicians, in the ranks of Peter Abelard and William of Ockham. He was the one of the first medieval logicians to break from the Aristotle's statistical model of possibility and necessity, and to consider instead the concept of logical possibility. His theory moves from considering modal notions with respect to different ways the actual world is arranged at certain times to one where modal notions are considered with respect to conceptual consistency. This interpretation of possiblity and necessity thus foreshadows Leibniz's possible worlds conception of modality. Duns Scotus also originated the concept of haecceity, or an entity's "thisness", its particularity, as oppose to quiddity, the entity's "whatness", its universality.

Bibliography

- Opus Pariense (Paris Lectures)
- Opus Oxiense (Oxford Lectures)
- Tractatus de Primo Principio
- Quaestiones Quodlibetales
- De Rerum Principio (of the beginning of things)
- John Duns Scotus, Contingency and Freedom. Lectura I 39, transl., comment. and intro. by A. Vos Jaczn, H. Veldhuis, A.H. Looman-Graaskamp, E. Dekker and N.W. den Bok. The New Synthese Historical Library 4. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer, 1994.
- A. Vos, H. Veldhuis, E. Dekker, N.W. den Bok and A.J. Beck (ed.). Duns Scotus on Divine Love: Texts and Commentary on Goodness and Freedom, God and Humans, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
- N. Kretzmann, A. Kenny, & J. Pinborg, Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy Cambridge: 1982.

External links

- [http://www.dunsscotus.com Site about Duns Scotus of the Research Group John Duns Scotus (Utrecht, NL)]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry] Duns Scotus Duns Scotus Category:Beatified people Category:Franciscans Category:Natives of the Scottish Borders Category:Medieval logicians Category:Medieval philosophers Category:Scholastic philosophers Category:Scottish philosophers Category:Scottish theologians Category:Catholic philosophers Category:Scottish scholars ja:ヨハネス・ドゥンス・スコトゥス

Roger Bacon

:For the Nova Scotia premier see Roger Bacon (politician). Roger Bacon (politician)] Roger Bacon (c. 1214 – 1294), also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: "astounding teacher"), was one of the most famous Franciscan friars of his time. He was an English philosopher who placed considerable emphasis on empiricism, and has been presented as one of the earliest advocates of the modern scientific method; though later studies have emphasized his reliance on occult and alchemical traditions. He was intimately acquainted with the philosophical and scientific insights of the Arab world, one of the most advanced civilizations at the time.

Early life

Bacon was born near Ilchester in Somerset. His family appears to have been well-off, but, during the stormy reign of Henry III of England, their property was despoiled and several members of the family were driven into exile. Roger Bacon studied and later became a professor at Oxford, lecturing on Aristotle. He crossed over to France in 1241 to teach at the university of Paris, then the centre of intellectual life in Europe, where the teaching of Aristotle, till that time forbidden because Aristotle was not a Christian, had recently been resumed. As a professor of Oxford, Bacon was a natural choice for the post. He returned to Oxford in 1247 and studied intensively for many years, forgoing much of social and academic life, ordering expensive books (which had to be hand-copied at the time) and instruments. He later became a Franciscan friar. He probably took orders in 1253, after 10 years of study which had left him physically and mentally exhausted. The two great orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, were not long-established, and had begun to take the lead in theological discussion. Alexander of Hales led the Franciscans, while the rival order rejoiced in Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Bacon's abilities were soon recognised, and he enjoyed the friendship of such eminent men as Adam de Marisco and Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. In the course of his teaching and research, he performed and described various experiments.

Life and works

Lincoln The scientific training Bacon had received showed him the defects in existing academic debate. Aristotle was known only through poor translations; none of the professors would learn Greek. The same was true of Scripture. Physical science was not carried out by experiment in the Aristotelian way, but by arguments based on tradition. Bacon withdrew from the scholastic routine and devoted himself to languages and experimental research. The only teacher whom he respected was a certain Petrus de Maharncuria Picardus, or "of Picardie", probably identical with a certain mathematician, Petrus Peregrinus of Picardie, who is perhaps the author of a MS. treatise, De Magnete, contained in the Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris. The contrast between the obscurity of such a man and the fame enjoyed by the fluent young doctors roused Bacon's indignation. In the Opus Minus and Opus Tertium he pours forth a violent tirade against Alexander of Hales, and another professor, who, he says, acquired his learning by teaching others, and adopted a dogmatic tone, which caused him to be received at Paris with applause as the equal of Aristotle, Avicenna, or Averroes. Bacon was always an outspoken man who stated what he believed to be true and attacked whom he did not agree with, which repeatedly caused him great trouble. In 1256 a new head of the scientific branch of the Franciscan order in England was appointed (Richard of Cornwell) whom Bacon had strongly disagreed with in the past and it was not long before Bacon was transferred to a monastery in France where he could only have contact with his intellectual peers in writing for about 10 years. Bacon wrote to the Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques, who became interested in his ideas and asked him to produce a comprehensive treatise. Bacon, being constrained by a rule of the Franciscan order against publishing works out of the order without special permission, initially hesitated. The cardinal became Pope Clement IV and urged Bacon to ignore the prohibition and write the book in secret. Bacon complied and sent his work, the Opus Majus, a treatise on the sciences (grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and philosophy), to the pope in 1267. It was followed in the same year by the Opus Minus, a summary of the main thoughts from the first work. In 1268, he sent a third work, the Opus Tertium to the pope, who died the same year, apparently before even seeing the Opus Maius although it is known that the work reached Rome. Bacon fell out of favor, and was in fact later imprisoned by the Franciscan order for the second time in 1278 in Ancona as his dissemination of arab alchemy, and doubtless also his protests against the ignorance and immorality of the clergy, roused accusations of witchcraft. He stayed imprisoned for over ten years, until intercession of English noblemen secured his release. He died without important epigones or pupils and was quickly forgotten for a long time. In his writings, Bacon calls for a reform of theological study. Less emphasis should be placed on minor philosophical distinctions as in scholasticism, but instead the Bible itself should return to the center of attention and theologians should thoroughly study the languages in which their original sources were composed. He was fluent in several languages and lamented the corruption of the holy texts and the works of the Greek philosophers by numerous mistranslations and misinterpretations. Furthermore, he urged all theologians to study all sciences closely, and to add them to the normal university curriculum. He possessed one of the most commanding intellects of his age, or perhaps of any, and, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and discouragements to which he was subjected, made many discoveries, and came near to many others. He rejected the blind following of prior authorities, both in theological and scientific study. His "Opus Majus" contains treatments of mathematics and optics, alchemy and the manufacture of gunpowder, the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies, and anticipates later inventions such as microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, flying machines and steam ships. Bacon studied astrology and believed that the celestial bodies had an influence on the fate and mind of humans. He also wrote a criticism of the Julian calendar which was then still in use. He first recognized the visible spectrum in a glass of water, centuries before Sir Isaac Newton discovered that lenses could disassemble and reassemble white light. Roger Bacon is considered by some to be the author of the Voynich Manuscript, because of his studies in the fields of Alchemy, Astrology, and languages. Bacon is also the ascribed author of the Alchemical manual Speculum Alchemiae, which was translated into English as "The Mirror of Alchimy" in 1597. He was an enthusiastic proponent and practician of the experimental method of acquiring knowledge about the world. He planned to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia, but only fragments ever appeared.

In fiction

Many writers of earlier times have been attracted to Roger Bacon as the epitome of a wise and subtle possessor of forbidden knowledge, similar to Faustus. A succession of legends and unverifiable stories have grown up about him, for example, that he created a brazen talking head which could answer any question. This has a central role in the play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay written by Robert Greene in about 1589. Many references to Roger Bacon occur in the novel The Name of the Rose by Italian author and professor of semiotics, Umberto Eco. In the text the main protagonist, the fictional monk William of Baskerville, refers to Bacon as his 'master'. He also alludes to many of his discoveries, including those in optics. Probably the most comprehensive and accessible description of Roger Bacon's life and times is contained in the book Doctor Mirabilis, written in 1964 by the science fiction writer James Blish. This is the second book in Blish's quasi-religious trilogy After Such Knowledge, and is a complete, at times autobiographical recounting of Bacon's life and struggle to develop a 'Universal Science'. Though thoroughly academically researched, with a host of accurate references, including extensive use of Bacon's own writings, the book is written in the style of a novel, and Blish himself refered to it as 'fiction' or 'a vision'. A greatly fictionalised version of Roger Bacon appears in the role-playing video game series Shadow Hearts, wherein Bacon is portrayed as an insane (but harmless) thousand-year-old hermit living in pre-World War I Europe. A villianous character claiming to be Roger Bacon appears earlier in the story but proves to be an imposter, and eventually the "real" Bacon assists the game's protaganists in disposing of the pretender. The children's paranormal author John Bellairs had characters refer to Roger Bacon when quoting esoteric knowledge. There was also a character named Roger Bacon in Bellairs' book The Face in the Frost, though this character , a wizard, has little or no connection to the historical figure.

References

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External link

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13111b.htm Roger Bacon] entry at the Catholic Encyclopedia Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger Bacon, Roger ja:ロジャー・ベーコン

William of Ockham

William of Ockham (also Occam or any of several other spellings) (c. 1285–1349) was an English Franciscan friar and philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in Surrey, near East Horsley. As a Franciscan, William was devoted to a life of extreme poverty. A pioneer of nominalism, some consider him the father of modern epistemology and modern philosophy in general, because of his strongly argued position that only individuals exist, rather than supra-individual universals, essences, or forms, and that universals are the products of abstraction from individuals by the human mind and have no extra-mental existence. Ockham is sometimes considered an advocate of conceptualism rather than nominalism, for whereas nominalists held that universals were merely names, i.e. words rather than existing realities, conceptualists held that they were mental concepts, i.e. the names were names of concepts, which do exist, although only in the mind. Ockham is also considered one of the greatest logicians of all time. One important contribution that he made to modern science and modern intellectual culture was through the principle of parsimony in explanation and theory building that came to be known as Ockham's razor, which states that one should always opt for an explanation in terms of the fewest possible number of causes, factors, or variables. Summoned to Avignon in 1324 by Pope John XXII on accusation of heresy, Ockham spent four years there in effect under house arrest while his teaching and writing were investigated. During this period, at the request of Brother Michael of Cesena, head of the Franciscan order, he investigated the controversy between the Franciscans and the Papacy on the doctrine of apostolic poverty, which had become central to Franciscan doctrine, but which was considered highly dubious and possibly heretical by both the Papacy and the Dominican order. He concluded that Pope John XXII was a heretic, a position that he later put forth in writing. Before a conclusion was reached about the heresy or orthodoxy of Ockham's philosophy, he fled Avignon on May 26, 1328 with Michael of Cesena and a few other friars. They sought the protection of Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria. After his declaration against the pope, Ockham is believed to have been excommunicated, although historical sources vary. He spent much of the remainder of his life writing about political issues, including the relative authority and rights of the spiritual and temporal powers. He died in a convent in Munich, Bavaria (now Germany), possibly as a result of the Black Death.

Works

Philosophy

- Summa logicae (Sum of Logic) (before 1327), Paris 1448, Bologna 1498, Venice 1508, Oxford 1675.
- Quaestiones in octo libros physicorum, (before 1327), Rome 1637.
- Summulae in octo libros physicorum, (before 1327), Venice 1506.
- Quodlibeta septem (before 1327), Paris 1487.
- Expositio aurea super totam artem veterem: quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum, Lyons 1495, Bologna 1496.
- Major summa logices, Venice 1521
- Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum, Lyons, 1495.
- Centilogium theologicum, Lyons 1495.

Religion

- Questiones earumque decisiones, Lyons 1483.
- Quodlibeta septem, Paris 1487, Strassburg 1491.
- Centilogium, Lyons 1494.
- De sacramento altaris and De corpore christi, Strassburg 1491, Venice 1516.
- Tractatus de sacramento allans

Politics

- Opus nonaginta dierum (1330-1332), Leuven 1481, Lyons 1495.
- Dialogus…de imperatorum et pontificum potestate, Lyons 1495.
- Compendium errorum Joannis XXII papae (1335–38), Paris 1476, Lyons 1495.
- Defensorium contra errores Johannem XXII papae (1335–39) Venice 1513.
- Super potestate summi pontificis octo quaeslionum decisiones (1339–42).
- Tractatus de dogmatibus Johannis XXII papae (1333–34).
- Adversus errores Johannis XXII, Leuven 1481, Lyons 1495.
- Epistola defensoria, Venice 1513.
- Decisiones octo quæstionum (after 1339), Lyons 1496.
- Dialogus in tres partes diatinctus (1342–43), Paris 1476.
- De jurisdictione imperatoris in causis matrimonialibus, Heidelberg 1598.
- De electione Caroli IV (last work)

In fiction

William of Ockham is an important source of the inspiration for the monastic detective William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, who used logic in a similar manner and, like William of Ockham, had faced charges of heresy.

External links

- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15636a.htm/ The Catholic Encyclopedia: William of Ockham]
- [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Ockham.html William of Ockham biography] at University of St Andrews, Scotland
- [http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/o/ockham.htm Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: William of Ockham]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry]
- [http://lgxserver.uniba.it/lei/filosofi/autori/occam-scheda.htm Biography and ideas] at SWIF/University of Bari, Italy Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of Ockham, William of ko:오컴의 윌리엄 ja:オッカムのウィリアム

1209

Events

- Albigensian Crusade against Cathars (1209-1218)
- the Franciscans are founded.
- Cambridge University founded.
- In August, Simon De Monfort, leader of Albigensian Crusade, takes over Carcassonne
- Genghis Khan conquers Turkestan

Births

- January 5 - Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1272)
- Hajji Bektash Wali, Turkish mystic (died 1271)

Deaths

- Daoji, Chinese buddhist monk (born 1130)
- Walter Map, Welsh writer (born 1137)
- Phillipe de Plessis, Grand Master of the Knights Templar (born 1165)
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Persian theologian and philosopher (born 1149) Category:1209 ko:1209년

Assisi

Assisi (Latin: Asisium) is a town and episcopal see in Italy in Perugia province, Italy, in the Umbria r

Franciscans

The beginning of the brotherhood

Work and extension of the brotherhood

The last years of Francis

The three rules of the order and the testament of Saint Francis

The first rule

The rule of 1221

The later rule

The "Testament"

Development of the order after the death of Francis

Dissentions during the life of Francis

Development to 1239. The laxer party

To 1274. Bonaventure

To 1300. Continued dissensions

Temporary success of the stricter party. Persecution

Renewed controversy on the question of poverty

Separate congregations

The Clareni

The Minorites of Narbonne

The reform of Johannes de Vallibus

Unsuccessful attempts to unite the order

Spread of the order in modern times

Distinguished names

The Clarisses or Poor Clares

The third order

Origin and rule

External links

Books

Religious order

See also

External links

Francis of Assisi

Boyhood and early manhood

The beginning of the Brotherhood

St. Francis, Nature and the Environment

Main sources for the life of St. Francis

Main writings by St. Francis

See also

External links

Latin

Main features

Primary sequence tenses

Secondary sequence tenses

Latin and Romance

Latin and English

Latin education

See also

About the Latin language

About the Latin literary heritage

Other related topics

References

External links

Bonaventure

Early life

Philosophy & Works

Namesakes

References

John Duns Scotus

Theology

Logic

See Also

Bibliography

External links

Roger Bacon

Early life

Life and works

In fiction

See Also

References

External link

William of Ockham

Works

Philosophy

Religion

Politics

In fiction

See also

External links

1209

Events