The Franciscan Order; a Victim of Its Own Success

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 Bernardone, 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 himselfÐ'...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 usus 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