St Francis Order of Penance

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ST FRANCIS' ORDER OF PENANCE (summary)

Origins and development in the 13th century, by Fray Jose Vicente Ciurana, OFMCap

The origins of the Franciscan Order of Penance are still shrouded in much darkness. During the twelfth century, the old penitent life assumed two new characteristics. In the first place, it is no longer just a question of individual cases, but of groups or fraternities, that is, of people who, without necessarily living together, adopt a Way of life, relate to each other and accept a certain control of the authorities of the group. Secondly, this way of life is accessible to married people who, once accepted the Purpose, can continue to live married life, while celibates who enter the fraternity are obliged to continence.

In 1221 Pope Honorius III approved such a Purpose. Thus, these groups of Penitents found their place in the legal system of the Church. This Rule of Penitents, known by the Latin title of Memoriale propositi fratrum et sororum de Poenitentia in domibus propriisexistentium (Memorial of the purpose of the brothers and sisters of Penance who live in their own homes), has come down to us encompassed in its second redaction, of 1228.[24] The 1221 Memoriale is considered to be the first Rule of the Order of Penance of St. Francis. It is somewhat peacefully admitted by scholars of this matter that the common Rule of the Order of Penance was also the Rule of Franciscan Penitents.

But here the questions arise: Is it true that Francis instituted» this Order? How, when and where did you institute it? What relationship exists between the old Order of Penance and the Franciscan? What relationship exists between the first Franciscan Penitents and the Third Order organized at the end of the 13th century?

The answers to these questions divide the opinions of scholars quite irreconcilably. One of the causes of this, in my opinion, is in the different way of considering ancient sources and in how little we know about the existence of groups of Franciscan penitents in towns and cities in the 13th century. There is still a lot of search work to be done in the archives.

Testimonies of early Franciscan sources

The first testimony, chronologically, is offered to us by Thomas of Celano in his First Life of Saint Francis, written in 1228-1229:

“Everywhere resounded hymns of gratitude and praise; so much so that many, leaving the cares of the things of the world, found, in the life and teachings of Blessed Father Francisco, self-knowledge and encouragement to love and venerate the Creator. Many townspeople, nobles and commoners, clerics and laymen, touched by divine inspiration, came to S. Francisco, eager to be a soldier always under his direction and teaching. Like a mighty river of heavenly grace, the saint of God drenched all of them with the water of his charisms and adorned the garden of their hearts with flowers of virtues. That magnificent worker! Just by proclaiming its way of life, its rule and doctrine, it contributes to the renewal of the Church of Christ in the faithful of both sexes and the triumph of the triple militia of those who are to be saved. To all he gave a norm of life and correctly pointed out the way of salvation according to the state of each one» (1 Cel 37).

The text, then, supposes a commitment to a special religious life in the clerics and laity who address Francis, and that the Saint gave them a rule of life. Unfortunately, Thomas of Celano does not specify what such a rule consisted of, nor does he offer information on how these groups were organized and how they were spiritually attended. Given the itinerant character of the early minority fraternity, it is difficult to imagine that this spiritual attention was continuous.

Julian of Speyer, in 1231-1232, composed, for the feast of the Saint, a liturgical text known as the Rhythmic Office of St. Francis. In the responsory of the II Nocturne, the author makes a comparison between the three churches restored by Francis (San Damián, San Pedro de la Spina and La Porziuncola) and the three orders founded by him: «Under the figure of three Orders, by mandate prior to God, he erected three churches.”[30] More explicit is in the third antiphon of Lauds:

«This organized three Orders: the first is called Friars Minor, the second of Poor Ladies, the third of Penitents, which includes both sexes».[31]

Later this author also wrote a Life of St. Francis (1232-1235), having in view the first Life of Celano. Here too there is a clear indication that Francis founded an Order of Penitents:

"Learned men admired in him the force of his words, which no man had taught him, seeing how nobles and commoners, rich and poor, flocked to him in droves, and addressed him as a new star that shines in the night. darkness. To all order, condition, age and sex conveniently gave documents of salvation; He gave everyone a rule of life that, followed as a happy guide by both sexes, makes the Church today enjoy triumphing through the triple militia of those chosen for salvation. As we said above, he organized three Orders; the first of which, by profession and habit, he had extraordinarily above all, which he called, as he had written in the Rule, the Order of Friars Minor. The second, he remembered before, of the poor and virgin Ladies, took happy origin from him. The third, of no less perfection, is called the Order of Penitents, which healthily includes people of both sexes, clerics and laymen, virgins, continents and married.”[32]

It is clearly seen in these texts how Francis appears linked with a bond of spiritual fatherhood with lay religious groups.

Important for our theme is the statement made by Pope Gregory IX, a great friend of St. Francis when he was still a cardinal, in a letter addressed to Blessed Agnes of Prague, in 1238; in it the pope clearly states that Francis instituted three Orders: the Friars Minor, the Recluse Sisters (the Poor Clares) and groups of Penitents.[33]

The Legend of the three companions, written by the brothers León, Ángel and Rufino in 1246,[34] contains very interesting indications regarding the Order of Penance of St. Francis:

Likewise, married men and women, who were prevented by marriage law from separating, dedicated themselves, on the healthy advice of their brothers, to a life of austere penance in their own homes. In this way, through blessed Francis, most devoted to the Holy Trinity, the Church of God is renewed through three Orders, as was signified in the repair of three churches that he carried out previously. Each of these Orders was confirmed in due course by the Supreme Pontiff” (TC 60).

Although not found in a biography of St. Francis, the fact that the Saint founded an Order of Penitents is indicated in a very old writing. This is the Exposition of the Apocalypse by a Franciscan friar named Alexander, who finished writing in 1249. It goes like this:

“The eleventh is the hyacinth, which is blue in color, dark in the dark and bright in the light. By him is designated the Order of Penitents, which is in eleventh place. Well, according to the stories of St. Francis, after the Orders of the Friars Minor and of the Poor Ladies, he instituted their Order».[35]

Saint Bonaventure deals several times with the Order of Penance of Saint Francis in his life of the Poverello, known as the Major Legend, written between 1260-1263. Since he follows Thomas of Celano and Julian of Speyer almost literally, I do not transcribe the texts (cf. LM 2,8; 4,6). But I will adduce a paragraph from a sermon of his on St. Francis, which he delivered on October 4, 1267:

«He instituted three Orders: the first was the Order of Friars Minor; the second, the 1st Order of the Sisters of Saint Clare, who were previously called the Poor Ladies of Saints Cosme and Damian, and who after the canonization of Saint Clare (1255) are called the Sisters of Saint Clare. And he instituted a third Order, which is called the Order of Penitents, who are called Continent Brothers. He instituted these three Orders as three daughters, and they are ordered to the praise of God».[36]

Some more texts could be adduced, prior to the bull of Nicholas IV approving the Rule of the Order of Penance (1289), but those indicated are sufficient. Trying to synthesize, we see how the testimonies adduced clearly attribute to Francis the paternity of his Order of Penance. This constitutes an integral part of the Franciscan movement. Born as a spontaneous resonance of the preaching of Francis exhorting to penance, although it has its roots in a movement prior to the Saint, it received an indelible and unmistakable imprint of the Poverello's religious charisma. He made the Christian laity participate, in their secular condition and without ecclesiastical or social distinctions, in the life of evangelical penance; united him in a spirit of fraternal communion, overcoming social barriers, and pushed him to a more intense interiority and piety. It does not seem, therefore, that the credibility of the first biographers and their historical information can be questioned, although they obviously tend to idealize people and institutions to the extent that they move away from the narrated events.

However, the biographical sources deprive us of concrete information on exactly when the Franciscan Third Order was born, what its initial legal status was, what its subsequent evolution was and its relationships in the First Order. Hence the need for a confrontation and complementation between historical-narrative sources and legal documents.

In order to answer the initial question of whether Saint Francis founded an Order of Penance, the following basic historical facts must be taken into account: 1) the canonical penitential state prior to Francis; 2) the real influence that such movement had on him, mainly in the phase of his conversion, and on his nascent evangelical fraternity; 3) the penitential exhortation by Francis and his first followers in his apostolate; 4) the desire expressed by many lay people - among them certainly not a few members of the canonical state of penance - to be participants, as lay people, in their life of evangelical penance; 5) the charismatic-free characteristic that Francis gave to such a spontaneous movement, not worrying about predetermined schemes and legal structures; 6) the character of spiritual instruction that presumably assumed the form of life given to his Penitents; 7) the lack of adequate and constant assistance to the Penitents, something almost impossible given the itinerant lifestyle of the primitive minority fraternity.

For all these reasons, Francis is not the founder of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis in the sense that he invented the canonical state of penitence or gave a defined organization to the penitential movement he aroused. However, it cannot be denied that he gave an initial impetus to a spiritual form, using already existing elements.

The defect, in my opinion, of Meersseman and Roggen is in taking the concept of founder in an eminently legal sense. We know nothing about the organization by Francis of the groups of penitents raised by him; No legislative text written by the Saint for penitents has been preserved. But do you need all this to be a founder? Isn't it enough for a group to gather around one person to lead an evangelical lifestyle? The early Franciscan sources we have examined clearly show this fact.

On the other hand, it must also be said that the term founder is not univocal. In Francis we have a typical example of this affirmation. The Poverello cannot be considered founder in the same sense for the Friars Minor, for the Poor Ladies (the Ctarisas) and for the Franciscan Third Order.

THE LETTERS OF SAINT FRANCIS TO THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF PENANCE

In the Franciscan sources examined, it is repeated several times that Francis gave a norm of life, a rule, to the people who came to him to experience penance. Unfortunately such a text has not come down to us. Most authors believe that this rule should not have been something eminently legal, but rather spiritual exhortations to guide the lives of these penitents. Hence the tendency to consider the two letters of Francis addressed to penitents, known as Letters to the Faithful, as a reflection of what would be the rule for the Brothers of Penance, and an example of the pastoral action of the Saint with groups of penitents.[37] Although the title of both writings speaks of Letter to the faithful (we must not forget that the titles of the writings of St. Francis are not original to him), in reality, the content reveals that they are not intended for all Christians in general, but to religious Christians, men and women, who live in the world, that is, to people who have embraced the state of Penance.

1. The “Letter to the faithful” (first draft)[38]

The subtitle that K. Esser rightly gave to this letter clearly describes its content: "Exhortation to the brothers and sisters of Penance."[39] Francis wants to show the recipients of this writing the content and consequences of living in penance and not living it. Hence the two parts of which it consists: "Those who do penance" and "Those who do not do penance."

The first part is a spiritual description of what living in penance means and where it leads. Whoever loves God totally and his neighbor, hates the evil that exists in his own heart, receives the body of Christ and produces fruits of penance, has the spirit of the Lord.[40] The relationship that arises between the Father and Christ and the Christian is described by Francis in an experiential way, overcoming the dryness of the scholastic textbooks. Whoever has the spirit of the Lord is a son of the heavenly Father, whose works he does, and is the husband, brother and mother of our Lord Jesus Christ (1LtF 1,6-7). Next, the Saint explains what he understands by being the husband, brother and mother of Christ. I believe that the best comment does not replace the direct reading of his words:

“We are spouses when the faithful soul is united, by the Holy Spirit, to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are brothers when we fulfill the will of the Father, who is in heaven (Mt 12,50). Mothers, when we carry it in our hearts and in our bodies (cf. 1 Cor 6:20) out of divine love and out of a pure and sincere conscience, and we give birth to it through holy works, which must be light for example of others (cf. Mt 5,16). Oh, how glorious it is to have such a consoling, handsome, admirable husband! Oh, how holy and how beloved it is to have such a brother and such a son, agreeable, humble, peaceable, sweet, kind, and above all things desirable, our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1CtaF 1.8-13).

The second part is the reverse of the medal. Whoever does not live in penance, does not receive the body of Christ, does evil, does not observe what he promised the Lord (this expression is interesting, because it is a typical formula to indicate the commitment of penitential life), is a child of the devil and blind , because he does not see the true light that is Christ. Death will come and he will have to leave all the things in which he had set his heart.

Thus, the letter is certainly a "document of salvation" that Francis addressed to the brothers and sisters of Penance, as ancient biographers of the Saint tell us; however, we cannot say that they had precisely this card in mind when they used that expression.

2. The “Letter to the faithful” (second draft)[41]

In this second version we find a more developed program of spiritual life. Certain more doctrinal themes also appear, which are not found in the first draft. It gives the impression that Francis wants to warn the addressees against certain doctrines of the heretics, mainly Cathars and Waldensians, although he does not expressly name them.

Francis has a special relationship with the recipients of the letter; he calls himself "their servant and subject" (v. 1); “your least servant” (v. 87). He feels obliged to visit them, and, unable to due to illness, writes them the letter:

“Since I am the servant of all, I have to serve all and administer the fragrant words of my Lord. For this reason, seeing that I cannot personally visit each one of you due to the illness and weakness of my body, I proposed, through these letters and through messengers, to manifest to you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of the Father, and the words of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit and life (Jn 6,64)» (vv. 2-3).

These men and women are called to follow Christ in a special way, living according to the Gospel:

"We must observe the precepts and counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 40). "These and other words of our Lord Jesus Christ you must receive with humility and charity and put them into practice and observe" (v. 87).

The recipients were gathered in groups, headed by a superior. Francis wants these, as in the First Order, to be and act as servants of all:

«To whom obedience has been entrusted and who is considered greater, be like the lesser (Lk 22,26) and servant of the other brothers. And do and be merciful to each one of your brothers, as you would want to be done with him if he found himself in the same situation. And do not be angry with your brother because of a brother's crime, but admonish him and support him kindly with all patience and humility” (vv. 42-44).

This second draft of the Letter to the faithful, as has been said before, has a strongly anti-Cathar and anti-Valdensian tone. Where this attitude is most apparent is in the doctrinal part (vv. 4-18) and in the statutory part (vv. 19-48), which are typical of this second wording. Francis rectifies the Cathar ideas about the incarnation and passion of Christ, strongly insisting on the physical reality of both. Against the Waldenses, he insists that only the priests have the power to bind and loose, to celebrate the Eucharist and to preach.

But the card is not primarily defensive in purpose. In it Francis presents an ideal of the new man, which is realized by living in penance. This new man lives in love, because he has tasted how good the Lord is (v. 18); responds to God's call with adoration, prayer, participation in the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist (vv. 19-25). This love of God is associated with love of neighbor (vv. 26-31). Francis views this love realistically; hence his original words:

«Let us love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mt 22,29). And if someone does not want to love them as himself, at least do not cause him harm, but do him good” (vv. 26-27).

But the central core of the letter is found in vv. 45-62. In these verses, as in the first draft of the letter, Francis' thoughts on the spirit of the Lord are found. In no writing of the Saint is there a text in which he shows with such depth and intimacy his experience of the mystery of the Trinity and his experience of the relationship with Christ as in these Letters to the faithful.

Thus, the plan of life that Francis outlines in these letters is much more demanding than that of the Memoriale; they are an exhortation to live penance in a total sense. For this reason, although we do not possess the rule that, according to primitive Franciscan sources, he gave to his penitents, these letters should serve as the basis for the living of the Franciscan ideal by the Third Order today and as a model for the pastoral action that the Third Order carries out. First Order has to perform with the Brothers of Penance.

THE PRIMITIVE LEGISLATION OF THE ORDER OF PENANCE: THE “MEMORIALE PROPOSITI” (1221)

In the previous section we have seen how Saint Francis' Letters to the faithful cannot be considered strictly as rules of the Franciscan Penitents. We do not know if the Saint wrote a rule for them, as the early Franciscan sources say, since no text has come down to us to prove it. All in all, the Penitentes have had their legislation, and we are going to dwell on it now.[42]

1. The editors of the «Memoriale»

The oldest rule of the Order of Penance that we have is, as we have already said, the Memoriale (Memorial of the purpose of the brothers and sisters of Penance living in their own houses), which was approved by Honorius III in 1221. We do not have the text of 1221, which has only come down to us integrated in the second draft of the same, of 1228. It should also be noted that said Memoriale is not exclusive to the Franciscan Penitents, but is addressed to the entire Order of Penance in overall.[43]

There are three editions of the Memoriale, with its own additions in each of them. The oldest is the one known by the name of Veneta, for having belonged to the Dominican convent in Venice, and was published by Benvenuto Bughetti in 1921; it is 1228.[44] The other two are a little later, approximately from 1260. One of them is called Capestrano, for having been found in the Franciscan convent of Capestrano (Italy), and was published in 1901 by the Protestant Franciscanophile, Paul Sabatier.[45] The other is that of Königsberg, published by Leonardo Lemmens in 1913.[46] The additions proper to each wording show us that the Memoriale, although the same for all the penitents, was adapted to each fraternity.

2. The content of the "Memorial"

The importance of the Memoriale lies, in addition to being the oldest legislative text of the Order of Penance, in its content. He allows us to glimpse what life was like in the Penitentes fraternities. Here is a brief summary of said content, which does not want to save the direct reading of the text, but rather stimulate it. To do this I will use what was written in this regard by Frelegando de Antwerp.[47] The Memoriale can be summed up in thirteen themes.

1) Modesty and decency in dress (vv. 1-4):[48]

The male Penitents wear vile and colorless cloth, the price of which does not exceed six Ravenna salaries a fathom, unless they have obtained a dispensation from it. The capes and other clothing they wear do not have necklines or openings, but are completely closed; also the sleeves will be closed. The Penitentes use the same kind of cloth, and wear a long mantle, or at least a white or black skirt under the mantle; they may also wear other loose and flowing clothing, but without folds, the cost of which does not exceed twelve Ravenna sous a fathom, unless they have been excused. Do not wear silk or colored cords; and both men and women wear only sheepskins, leather bags and belts without seams or other silk trimmings. Finally, everyone is willing to get rid of any superfluous adornment that may be judged and disposed of by the Visitor.

2) The amusements (v. 5):

Do not attend immoral parties, shows and dances, or help keep comedians close to you, separating your family from all this.

3) Abstinence from meat, moderation in food and blessing of the table (vv. 6-7):

Refrain from eating meat every day except Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, or because of sickness, weakness, or going on a journey. They are also exempt from abstinence on the following holidays: Christmas with the following two days. New Year, Epiphany, Easter with the following days, Saints Peter and Paul, Saint John the Baptist, Assumption of the Virgin, All Saints and Saint Martin, bishop. On days when fasting is not required, they may have eggs and cheese. They will be content with two meals a day: lunch and dinner, except those who are weak, sick or travelling. Let the healthy be moderate in eating and drinking. Before lunch and dinner they will pray the Our Father, and give thanks at the end.

4) Fasting (vv. 8-11):

The brothers and sisters of Penitence will fast every Friday from Easter to the feast of All Saints, also observing the fasts prescribed by the Church. Likewise, they will fast, except for illness or necessity, the Lent of Advent, which begins on the feast of Saint Martin and lasts until Christmas, and all of Lent, from Quincuagesima to Easter. This section on fasting ends with some dispensatory rules for it, which look at three specific cases; They are a sample of the delicacy of feelings with the mothers of the family and of a diligent request with the workers. Pregnant Penitent Sisters are dispensed until the day of their purification from all prescribed mortifications and exercises, except wearing the dress of Penance and reciting the prayers. Workers will be able to eat three times a day from Easter to the feast of San Miguel; Due to the dates, it can be seen that agricultural work is taken into account, whose main season is summer. Those who work in other people's houses will be able to eat whatever is put in front of them, except on Fridays and fast days ordered by the Church.

5) The divine office, confession and communion (vv. 11-15):

Each day they will pray the canonical hours. Clerics, like other clerics; those who know how to read the psalter will say the psalms corresponding to each hour. When you don't go to church, say at Matins the psalms ordered by the Church, or another 18 psalms, or Our Fathers, like those who can't read. The sick are not obliged to pray the divine office. They will go to confession three times a year, and receive communion for Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.

6) Reconciliation, weapons and oaths (vv. 152-18):

They will reconcile with their neighbor and restore what belongs to others; They will pay tithes, even those who are late. They will not take up arms against anyone nor will they carry them with them. They will refrain from solemn oaths, except in cases determined by the pope,[49] namely: peace, defense of the faith, rejection of any slander, and testimony in a fair trial. They will avoid all oaths in normal conversation, and whoever incurs them will pray at night, when he thinks about what he did, three Our Fathers. The first verse 182 has nothing to do with the above since it is about each one making an effort to lead his family to serve God.

7) The monthly meeting (vv. 19-212):

Every month the brothers and sisters of any city or town will meet on the day and church determined by the ministering brother. The plan to follow in these meeting days will be as follows: mass, preaching, divine office and prayer, during which the brothers will remain silent; only those who hold a position in the fraternity may speak. The following details are given about preaching: that one of them who is instructed should do it,[50] if it is easy to do so; let it be an exhortation to penance, perseverance and works of mercy. At the monthly meeting, each Penitent will pay a fee in money; This collected money will be distributed, in agreement with the ministers, in the following way: a part, for brothers and sisters in need, especially if they are sick; another, for the obsequies of the deceased poor; and the rest will be divided between the poor and the church in which they celebrate the monthly meetings.

8) The visit to the sick brothers, attendance at their funerals and suffrages (vv. 22-25):

When a brother or sister becomes ill, if the minister brother has been notified, the latter will visit him personally or through another once a week; he will exhort him to penance, and, from the common funds of the fraternity, he will attend to his needs as seems most convenient. If he should die, the brothers and sisters of the city or town will be notified to attend the funeral, and they will not leave until the mass is celebrated and the deceased is buried. And within the following eight days it will be said for the deceased brother: the priests, three masses; those who know how to read the psalter, 50 psalms; those who cannot read, 50 Our Fathers. Siblings should try to make a will before they die; they will do so within three months of the profession.

9) Tasks of the brother minister of the fraternity (vv. 26-28):

The ministering brothers try to ensure that there is peace between the brothers and between strangers, advising for this, if the case requires it, with the bishop. They will also consult with him when they have to defend the rights of the fraternities before the civil authorities. No one is reluctant to accept the position of minister or other office, and try to exercise them faithfully; however, you can rest one year after holding office.

10) The admission and perseverance in the fraternity (vv. 29-34):

If someone asks to be admitted to the fraternity, the ministers will examine his condition and office and explain his obligations to the fraternity. The candidates, to be received, must return ill-acquired goods, pay debts and tithes, and reconcile with their neighbors. After a year of probation, if he seems suitable, the candidate will promise to keep the rules of the fraternity for his whole life. If he acts against the way of life of a Penitent, questioned by the minister, he must satisfy as determined by the Visitor. The promise will be in writing. No one can leave the fraternity except to enter a religious order. No heretic or defamed as a heretic will be admitted; if he is only suspected of heresy, he may be received after making a profession of faith before the bishop. Married women need their husband's permission to enter. Incorrigible brothers and sisters expelled from the fraternity will not be admitted again, unless the majority of the brothers deem it convenient.

11) The Visitor (vv. 35-37):

The minister must reveal to the Visitor the public faults of the brothers and sisters. And if someone is incorrigible, the Visitor, with the advice of the brothers, will expel him from the fraternity. This fact will be made known in the general meeting of the fraternity, and, if it is a man, it will also be communicated to the civil authorities. Whoever knows that a brother is committing a scandal will communicate it to the minister and the Visitor; but this norm does not apply between spouses. The Visitor has the power to waive all regulations, as he deems appropriate.

12) Election of positions (v. 38):

The ministers, at the end of the year, elect two ministers and a trusted treasurer; the latter will attend to the needs of the brothers and the poor. Another position of the fraternity is the messenger ("nuntius"), whose mission is, in today's parlance, to take charge of public relations: to notify the fraternity of decisions taken and events that have occurred.

13) Mandatory nature of these norms (v. 39):

The Memoriale does not bind under mortal guilt, but in case of transgression, the sentence or punishment imposed must be served. If there is no submission to the penalty imposed by the Visitor, admonished twice by the brother minister, if one does not want to obey, one becomes guilty of sin.

These are, broadly speaking, the norms that modeled the life of the primitive Order of Penitence. Although they have a juridical accent that slightly veils the spiritual richness of the groups of Penitentes, nevertheless, they allow us to glimpse their primitive organization and their insertion in the social and political life of their time.

DEVELOPMENT AND LEGAL PERSONALITY OF THE ORDER OF PENANCE OF S. FRANCISCO IN THE 13TH CENTURY

It is not an easy thing to try to describe in a concrete way, that is, with exact places and dates, the origins and expansion of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis in the 13th century. In the previous topics we have been able to confirm that the early Franciscan sources tell us nothing about when, how and where the Secular Franciscan penitential movement began. These gaps have been filled by later legends, which deserve little credit to scholars, since it is impossible to gauge what is historical in them. The surest way, although without a doubt the most arid, to answer the previous questions is detailed research, seeing when the fraternities of Franciscan Penitents have appeared in each town and city. A document is worth a thousand legends.

1. The beginnings of the Order of Penance of St. Francis in Italy

Several cities dispute the title of being the cradle of the Order of Penance of St. Francis: Cannara, Poggibonsi, Florence, Alviano, Faenza, etc.[51] The first two Franciscan Penitents are also considered to be the married couple Lucchesio de Poggibonsi and Buonadonna, both of whom died in 1260, on whom Francis himself had imposed the habit of Penance.[52] Now all of these claims are hard to prove convincingly; hence scholars are divided in their assessments.

According to Meersseman[53] voluntary Penitents were rare in Umbria, Tuscany, the Marche and Lombardy between 1209 and 1211. The number grew considerably with the preaching of Francis and his companions, with a strong increase being noted around 1215. A certain fact about the Penitents Franciscans is offered to us by the document found by the Capuchin Mariano d'Alatri in Orvieto, in the State Archives.[54] On January 22, 1269, the Franciscan inquisitor, Benvenuto of Orvieto, condemned a certain Domenico di Pietro Rosse for sympathizing with the Cathar heresy. In said document it is expressly stated that this Domenico was a brother "of the most holy Order of Penitents founded by our father Saint Francis." Thus, according to this document, whose authenticity cannot be doubted, there was already in 1269 in Orvieto a fraternity of Franciscan Penitents.

The history of the Florence Penitents has been more successful, since it has received the attention of several scholars.[55] As almost always, it is impossible to give an exact date of his birth; but what can be affirmed with certainty is that from 1224 the Penitentes dedicated themselves to running the hospital in the square of the church of Santa María Novella, as well as other small hospitals scattered around the city. At first they were in very good relations with the Dominicans, who a few years before, in 1221, had established themselves in the aforementioned church; the Penitentes were the ones who administered the goods and donations in favor of the Dominicans of the city. They must have enjoyed great prestige in Florence and be a pacifying element among the various groups, deserving the congratulations of Innocent IV in 1246 for their work, encouraging them to continue along that path. The social class of the majority of our Florentine Penitents was upper-middle, made up of merchants, artisans, pharmacists, etc.

During the decade 1240-50 a mutual estrangement between Penitentes and Dominicans is noted. At the same time, the pontifical curia invites the bishops to exercise vigilance, through visitors, over the lay associations, which have a great economic strength to be able to attend to the great works of public assistance to which they were dedicated: the sick, the poor , old. There were many people who gave them their alms to carry out this work that the civil authority had almost abandoned.

In 1275 there are already two groups within the penitential fraternity of Florence, the "blacks" and the "grays" (according to the color of the habit), without us knowing anything about the relations between the two groups. From 1280, on the contrary, we have news of tensions between them.

The existence of this division among the Florentine Penitents is explained by scholars in different ways. For Meersseman, the diversity of colors in the dress would correspond to the spiritual direction exercised by the Dominicans on the "blacks" and by the Franciscans on the "greys". On the other hand, for Benvenuti, the diversity of the color black, which corresponded to the majority of the Fraternity, is a sign that the Penitents were dependent on the secular clergy. Perhaps this existing division was a reflection of the great divisions that existed in the city of Florence.

In 1284, Caro of Florence, a Franciscan from the convent of Santa Croce, drafted a rule in order to unite the two groups of Florentine Penitents.[56] This rule is nothing but a more systematic reorganization of the old Memoriale of 1221, with some additions. The tension escalated when Caro, invested with the authority of Apostolic Visitor, forced a Penitent, under penalty of excommunication, to change the black habit he was wearing for a gray one. This, before submitting, asked Caro to show him the pontifical document that constituted him as Visitor of the Penitents of Florence. Caro, for his part, most likely because he did not have it, refused, so the Penitente did not accept Caro's mandate either. Moreover, he appealed to Martin IV against the excommunication Caro had struck down on him, and the pope commissioned two prelates from Lucca to investigate the incident.

In 1286, Canon Andrea dei Mozzi, who sympathized with the Black Penitents, was appointed bishop of Florence, which was not going to facilitate reconciliation. We do not know the result of the pontifical survey mentioned above, but the tension must have been increasing, as evidenced by the disagreements that arose with the publication, by Nicholas IV, of the Regula bullada of the Order of Penance, in 1289, which we will deal with later.

2. The beginnings of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis in France

The influence of the Friars Minor among the people of southern France has been witnessed since ancient times.[58] In 1248 there was in Hyeres a large group of Penitents who listened with pleasure to the Minors when they preached, and of whom they were admirers. Douceline de Digne herself († 1273) and her beguines[59] from Roubaud were influenced by Franciscan spirituality; they led a common life, but did not legally belong to any Order. It cannot be said that all these groups of sympathizers were Penitents of Saint Francis, despite the fact that they were commonly known in France, at the end of the 13th century, by the name of "beguines" and "beguines".

Certain data on the Order of Penance of Saint Francis, we find on the occasion of the dissensions born within the First Order with the movement of the Spirituals. This is not the moment to study such an exciting chapter of Franciscan history. One of the foci of the pauperistic rigorism of the Spirituals current arose precisely in southern France, its leader being P. J. Olivi. The ideas of the Spirituals also passed to the Franciscan Penitents.

The Dominican inquisitor, Bernardo Gui, in his Practica Inquisitionis hereticae pravitatis (written between 1323 and 1324), describes for us the sect commonly called Beguinos and Beguines.[60] They are called Poor Brothers of Penance of the Third Order of Saint Francis; some live in community, and call their residences Houses of poverty; They gather there on Sundays and holidays, both those who live in common and those who live at home, together with their relatives and friends, to read Olivi's writings. They celebrated with great festivity the anniversary of the death of said Franciscan (March 14, 1289), whom they venerated as a saint.

However, according to the testimony of Bernardo Gui himself, not all the Franciscan Penitents of southern France were in this same line. There were also many who had not been seduced by the doctrines of the Spirituals. But this will be considered later.

3. The legal personality of the Penance Order

In the 13th century we find a series of pontifical documents that try to define and defend the legal personality of the Penitents. Until recently, these documents were considered to be addressed to the Order of Penance of Saint Francis. However, this interpretation can no longer be sustained today. No papal bull prior to 1289 concerns the Franciscan Penitents as such, but rather all Penitents in general. This means that, to the extent that there are such Franciscan Penitents, they are also addressed to them. What can be affirmed is that these pontifical documents also configured the legal personality of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis once it began to exist.

The popes always defended the exemption of the Penitents from the civil authorities as something essential for the life of this movement. For this reason, the Penitentes were not obliged to take the oath of fidelity to the feudal lord or to the municipal authorities. The first claim of this prerogative is that of Honorius III in favor of the Penitents of Faenza in 1221.[62] The pope declares them free from the oath made before entering the Order of Penance, and exempt from the obligation to take up arms and accompany their lord to war. In 1227, Gregory IX extended this determination to all the Penitents of Italy, specifying that only in four cases would it be lawful for them to take an oath: for peace, for faith, to disprove some slander and to bear witness to the truth.

The first practical consequence of the release from the oath of allegiance was military exemption. Honorius III had already proclaimed it in 1221, the year of the approval of the Memoriale, which determines that the Penitents do not carry defensive weapons, as we have already seen. Gregory IX declared all Italian Penitents exempt from military service in 1227.[64] Subsequent popes always maintained this exemption, defending it against the opposition of the civil authorities. Innocent IV renewed in 1252 the determinations of his predecessors in this regard.

However, in the Regula bullada de los Penitentes, of 1289, Nicholas IV mitigated in part the prohibition of wielding weapons: «The brothers do not carry offensive weapons, unless it is for the defense of the Roman Church, the Christian faith, its countries, or with the permission of their ministers” (Reg. bul., 28).

The exemption of the Penitentes was not limited to military service, but also extended to various trades in social life. Certain public offices were incompatible with the state of Penitentes, although the civil authorities wanted them to be in charge of them, since their performance required people of absolute trust. These trades were generally those of custodian of the public treasury, municipal debt administrator, court cashier, guarding the property of outlaws, remaining at the gates of the city as collectors of consumption or as police officers, collectors of taxes etc.

That the civil authorities tried to impose these burdens on the Penitents is attested to by the pontifical documents. In 1227, Gregory IX mentions it, prohibiting it.

However, it would be wrong to conclude that, with all these determinations, the Penitentes disregarded their civic obligations. The same pontifical documents recall that the fraternities of Penitents were obliged to pay taxes on the goods they owned and tithes.

Another of the prerogatives recognized by Gregory IX to the fraternities of Penitentes, in 1227, was the right to freely dispose of the product of their property in favor of whomever they wanted.[68] There were, in fact, flourishing fraternities that owned quite a few assets, with the income from which they supported important social works, mainly hospitals.

The civil exemption of the Penitents also had a judicial side: they could not be judged by another court than the ecclesiastical one. This explains why the popes always turned to the bishops when asking for justice for the Penitents. The Memoriale already reminds that the Penitent minister brothers go to the bishops in the disagreements of some Penitent with strangers, if the case requires it.

But in addition to the civil exemption, the Penitents also enjoyed certain ecclesiastical privileges. The main one was immunity from interdict, that is, from the prohibition to celebrate mass, administration of the sacraments and ecclesiastical burial in a territory. In 1225 Honorius III granted them this immunity, provided that they personally were not also guilty of said penalty. Gregory IX repeated the same thing again in 1229 and 1231.

Sometimes, however, this privilege was restricted or suspended by popes because the Penitents did not always use it well. This was done, for example, by Clement V, who prohibited the Friars Minor in 1306 from admitting Penitents to their churches during interdict times. John XXII provisionally suspended the use of this privilege in the diocese of Speyer in 1322, until the discord arising on this account between the secular clergy and the Friars Minor was resolved. But, after the anomalous circumstances, the Penitentes continued to enjoy immunity from interdict.

Thus, these determinations of the popes granting the Penitents the exemption from the oath of fidelity, from military service, from certain public offices and from the civil forum, together with some ecclesiastical privileges, configured the legal personality of the Order of Penance in the twentieth century. XIII, making it a religious Order without diminishing its secularity.

BEGINNINGS OF THE FRANCIS' ORDER OF PENANCE IN SPAIN

The existence of the Order of Penitents of Saint Francis in Spain in the thirteenth century is, to say the least, problematic. Fr. Isidoro de Villapadierna, in a study dedicated to this subject, reaches the conclusion that there is "no concrete and certain proof of the existence of organized brotherhoods of the Third Order within that century."[74] In the Spain of this time, two political and religious zones must be distinguished: the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. Let's see what safe data we can find.

1. The Crown of Castile

The news that we have about the Third Order in the Crown of Castile has come to us through chroniclers, who tend to consider Franciscan Penitents to be people, especially from the nobility, who favored the Franciscan Order and founded convents; all this, of course, without documentary basis.

An antihistorical and legendary fact is the existence, no less than in 1214, of a supposed tertiary. It is about a canon of Santiago de Compostela, called Juan, who treated Saint Francis when he came to the tomb of the apostle. Wishing for greater perfection, he retired to a mountain, giving himself up to penance and the apostolate. Francisco Gonzaga, in 1587, writes of him that "it is believed that he was of the Third Order"; Juan Bautista Moles, in 1596, affirms more categorically: «And so we understand he was of the third Order of penance of N. P. S. Francisco». In 1625 Lucas Wadding, doubtless disconcerted that in 1214 there was already a tertiary in Spain, is inclined to believe that he would take the habit of the First Order.

The statement that Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile and León, died in 1252, was a Franciscan Penitent must also be considered legendary. Let us see how this legend is formed. At the end of the 13th century, the Franciscan Juan Gil de Zamora wrote a short life of the Saint, but nowhere does it appear that he died wearing the Franciscan habit or that he belonged to the Order of Penance of Saint Francis. On February 4, 1671, Clement X, giving in to pressure from the Spanish court, which wanted at all costs a king of its own on the altars and also in order not to feel inferior to France, which had Saint Louis IX, cousin of Ferdinand III, canonized to this, or, rather, recognized his immemorial cult tributed in Seville, and extended it to all of Spain. In 1684 the Bollandists published a documented life of Saint Ferdinand; in it there is no mention that the Saint was buried with the Franciscan habit. After his canonization, the chroniclers continue to ignore the Franciscanism of Saint Ferdinand. However, in 1693 and 1698, the German Recollect Franciscan Fortunato Hueber simply made Saint Ferdinand a Penitent Franciscan, giving as a source of information the Saint's divine office lessons from 1675, which, however, They absolutely silence the king's Franciscanism.

But this affirmation is going to have fortune and it will happen to the following centuries. In 1858, a petition was sent to Pius IX requesting a plenary indulgence on the feast of Saint Ferdinand (May 30), which the pope granted on December 11. This indulgence, also granted on the feast of other non-Franciscan saints, makes Saint Ferdinand enter the breviary of the Franciscan families, with the specification "inscribed in the Third Order of Saint Francis" at the beginning of the fourth reading. It lasted like this until the reform of 1961, which left the party as a simple commemoration. In view of these data, it is not understood how modern Franciscan historians such as Heriberto Holzapfel, Fredegando de Antwerp, Lázaro Iriarte, etc., catalog Saint Fernando as a Franciscan Penitent, while non-Franciscan biographers completely ignore this tertiary affiliation of the Holy.

The case of Saint Ferdinand, supposedly considered a tertiary at the end of the 13th century without the slightest proof or historical justification, is not unique. The courts of Alfonso X el Sabio, Sancho IV el Bravo and Fernando IV el Emplazado have populated the chronicles of tertiary members of the royal families or of the nobility, without any documentary evidence.

2. The Crown of Aragon

As for the Crown of Aragon, the concrete existence of groups or fraternities of Franciscan Penitents is documented for the first decades of the 14th century. For this reason, the presence of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis at the end of the 13th century can be admitted, although we lack explicit documentary evidence. The affection of the kings of Aragon for the Franciscan Order in the 13th century was great, but from this it cannot be deduced, without further evidence, that they were Penitents of Saint Francis.

In Mallorca we have another famous person, Ramón Llull, who seems to have worn the habit of Penance of Saint Francis in 1295. This affiliation would also deserve a thorough critical examination.

The only concrete document of tertiary people at the end of the 13th century could be the tombstone, from the old convent of San Francisco in Barcelona (today in the Provincial Museum of Antiquities of the same city), which attests to having been buried in 1307 Doña Geralda , wife of the late Berenguer de Paula, and Doña María, their daughter, "who previously received the Third Rule of the Order of Saint Francis."

This is, then, what the documents that are currently in possession of the presence of the Order of Penance of Saint Francis in Spain in the 13th century reveal. This must be taken into account in order not to fall into the triumphalism of hastily affirming that the Order of Penance of Saint Francis immediately spread throughout the Christian West.

THE “REGLA BULADA” OF THE ORDER OF PENANCE OF NICOLÁS IV AND ITS ACCEPTANCE BY THE PENITENTS

The Memoriale of 1221 had the force of law for the Penitents until 1289. This year, Pope Nicholas IV published a new rule for them. This had a legal validity of six centuries until in 1883 Leo XIII published another new legislative text. The latter has remained in force until 1978, the date on which Paul VI approved the current norm of life for the OFS.

1. The legislative text of Nicholas IV

We have already seen how the Visitor of the Florentine Penitents, the Franciscan Caro of Florence, had drawn up a rule in 1284 in order to unite the "black" and "grey" Penitents of that city. Said rule consists of 20 chapters, and is fundamentally the Memoriale of 1221, with a more logical order of content, and with some additions.[82] This rule of Caro is the one that Nicholas IV had in mind, who had previously been Minister General of the Friars Minor, to write his Rule bulla, so called because said pope approved it on August 18, 1289 with the bull Supra montem.[83] ] In it the pope clearly states that the Order of Penance has St. Francis as its founder. Precisely here is where some authors support themselves to affirm that legally the founder of the TOF or OFS is Nicholas IV and not St. Francis, as seen above.

The differences between the rule of Caro of Florence and that of Nicholas IV are minimal: only three. The most important of these is the following addition, which is not found in Caro's text:

«Since the present way of life was instituted by Blessed Francis, we advise that the Visitors and Informants be chosen from the Order of Friars Minor, who will be designated by the Custodians or Guardians of the Order, when required to do so. And we don't want the congregation to be visited by a lay person from the congregation."

This determination will be the cause of the difficulties that Nicholas IV will find among the Penitents to get them to accept his rule. There will be groups of Penitents, especially in Florence, who will refuse to accept it.

2. Difficulties in accepting the "Bull Rule"

We saw earlier the tense situation between the Florentine Penitents, divided into two groups, "blacks" and grays, and, moreover, that the bishop of the city, Andrea dei Mozzi, was decidedly in favor of the "blacks." Nicholas IV's determination that the Penitents should elect a Friar Minor as visitor disliked the "blacks", most of whom refused to accept said determination. In addition, they branded the "greys apostates" for accepting the rule of the pope, since, according to them, it contained too many innovations. This is at least what emerges from the letter that Nicholas IV sent to the bishop of the city on November 20, 1291, reproaching him for allowing the "blacks" such outrage.

The pontifical reaction to such open disobedience appears indirectly in the bull Unigenitus Dei Filius, of 1290, addressed to all the Penitents of Italy, in which Nicholas IV labels as degenerate sons of St. Francis, not only those who do not accept his advice. to choose the visitor among the Minors, but also resist accepting the rule, even trying to prosecute the Penitents who thought in that way.

Bishop Mozzi must not have felt alluded to by the pope's words, since he seized the titles kept at the headquarters of the Fraternity of Penitents in Florence. In response to this action, Nicholas IV wrote him a harsh letter, which we have already mentioned before, ordering him to restore everything he had stolen and to change his attitude towards the Penitents who accepted the rule. We do not know what decision the bishop took, but he was certainly not the right man to reunite the fraternity of Florentine Penitents who continued to be divided. In 1295, Boniface VIII moved him to Vicenza and appointed Francesco Monaldeschi to replace him.

Until this date, both the "black" and "grey" Penitents had continued their economic activities separately; each group had its hospital. The new bishop made the decision to end the existing division. He drew up a unification program that was to be completed on January 1, 1297. In said plan, which was read to each group on November 4, 1296, it is determined that they must adopt a common habit that is not that of either of the two. groups; unify administrative management; choose a visitor from among the members of an approved religious order; turn to the bishop in case of doubt. All this under the threat of excommunication, if it was not done.

The ability of the new bishop during the conversations for the unification was great, and on the scheduled date new ministers for the Penitents were appointed and thus the disputes ended. Later there was some slight tension, but with the intervention of the bishop it was resolved. On April 8, 1298, Cardinal Mateo de Aquasparta, who had previously been Minister General of the Friars Minor, definitively approved the statute of union.[88] Two days before, the same cardinal published in Siena a statute for the Penitents of Tuscany, in which the profession of the brothers and sisters of Penance was declared irrevocable; those who had been expelled from the Order for being incorrigible were prohibited from wearing the Penitent habit; Penitents were declared intangible like other religious; and indulgences were granted to those who attended the monthly meetings.

3. The Chapters of the Order of Penance

Unfortunately, not much documentation has come down to us about the meetings (Chapters was the name given to them at that time) that, at the local, provincial, regional or general level, the Penitents of the 13th century had. All of it is from 1289-1290 and is related to the problem of the acceptance or not of the Rule bulla of Nicholas IV. However, I think it is safe to say that the celebration of Chapters was already a common practice among the Penitents before 1289.

On August 26, 1289, eight days after the approval of the Bulada Rule, the Penitents of Città di Castello celebrated a local Chapter at the residence of the Friars Minor. In it they elected as a delegate to the Provincial Chapter, which was to be held in Marsciano on the 29th of the same month, a certain Tartarino, a pharmacist by profession. This Provincial Chapter dealt with the acceptance or not of the rule of Nicholas IV; Tartarino stated that the Penitents of Città di Castello accepted the pontifical text.

In November of the same year 1289, two Chapters were held in Bologna. The first included representatives from Bologna, Padua, Milan and Genoa. From the decisions taken, it seems that said Chapter was a preparatory session for the General Chapter that was to be held in Bologna itself on the 14th of the same month, and was attended by 35 Penitents from 24 Provinces of Italy. Here are some data culled from the determinations of this General Chapter: a certain Hugolino de' Medici is entrusted to everyone's prayers, because he has worked hard in the Roman Curia for the approval of the Bulada Rule; 12 councilors (definitors) were elected, who drew up statutes. There is also one thing worth mentioning concerning this Chapter. Even when the decisions taken presuppose the acceptance of the rule of Nicholas IV, however, said Chapter was not celebrated in the church of the Friars Minor, but in the parish of San Andrés; and it was not presided over by a Franciscan religious, but by the parish priest of that church.

Thus, the existence of these meetings is further proof of the autonomy and maturity of the Order of Penance. Burning problems, such as the acceptance or not of a pontifical text, were approached, with loyalty and without fear, by the Penitents themselves, without taking the comfortable position of solving the difficulties from above. I believe that this is a value that the current OFS must recover today.

THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE BROTHERS MINOR AND THE SAN FRANCISCO ORDER OF PENANCE IN THE 13TH CENTURY

The theme of the relations between the Friars Minor and the Franciscan Order of Penance seems interesting. One would expect to have vast amounts of data at one's disposal to show the strength of such relationships, but history is sparse on this point. Very little is known about the beginnings of such relationships. Moreover, there are periods in which the Friars Minor positively disregard the Order of Penance.

1. The fluctuating relationships of the beginnings

In the writings of St. Francis we find no support for thinking that the Friars Minor had the spiritual direction of the Penitents; rather they lead us to think the opposite. In the Rule not bullated (1210-1221) Francisco determines the following:

"No woman at all should be received into obedience by a brother, but, once spiritually advised, do penance wherever she wants" (1 R 12,4).

Nor does the 1221 Memoriale offer any basis for speaking of relations between Friars Minor and Penitents. For example, it does not say that monthly meetings are held in Franciscan churches. We know, on the contrary, that they were celebrated in parish churches, as evidenced by the indult of Honorius III of 1224, which orders the bishops of Italy to admit Penitents to their churches in times of interdict, provided that they are not also guilty.

Gradually this situation changes and relationships begin. The additions of the capestranense writing of the Memoriale, written around 1260, determine:

Likewise, the Visitor and the ministers of this fraternity ask the minister or custodian of the Friars Minor for a Friar Minor of the convent, with whose advice and the will of the brothers this fraternity governs and rules in all things. And when this brother changes his convent, ask for another in his place, in such a way that this fraternity, which was founded by blessed Francis, is always governed by the advice of the Friars Minor. Similarly, all the brothers meet on the first Sunday of each month for mass in the place of the Friars Minor, unless they are prevented for some legitimate reason, and with the permission of the Visitor and the ministers».

However, great consequences cannot be drawn from all this, since it could very well be that this text had value only for the Penitents of Capestrano, without prejudging anything about the relations existing in other places between Penitents and Friars Minor.

Fr. Elías, during his generalship (1232-1239), did not want the Friars Minor to take care of the Penitents. His successors followed in this same line, except John of Parma (I247-1257), who, on the contrary, asked Innocent IV to place the groups of Penitents under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor, which he obtained in 1247, by least as regards the canonical visitation of the Penitents of Italy and Sicily. But the following year, the same pope annulled the concession, placing the Penitents once again under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops. The reason for this change, according to the pope himself, was that the Penitents had not been consulted. In 1251, Tuscany also returned to the ancient practice that the office of visitor depended on the bishop, something that Alexander IV, between 1254 and 1261, reestablished for all of Italy.

San Buenaventura, successor of Juan de Parma in the generalship (1257-1274), did not want to deal with the Penitents either. During his mandate, for example, Urban IV granted the Penitents of San Geminiano, on July 5, 1274, to receive the sacraments in interdict time; but not in the church of the Friars Minor, but in the parish.

Why the friars did not have great interest in worrying about the Penitents, we can glimpse it in a writing attributed to S. Buenaventura, but that most authors consider after the Saint, although before 1290. Its title is: Why do the Friars Minor do not promote the Order of Penitents? There are twelve reasons, of which the most important are: the need to preserve freedom of action in the exercise of the apostolic ministry; the multiple difficulties they encounter, whether in the secular clergy or in the laity, to maintain the civil and military exemption and other privileges of the Penitents; the scandal that could originate on the occasion of visits, otherwise necessary, to the Penitent sisters; the suspicion of heresy, due to their attendance at more or less secret meetings and boards, presided over by seculars, generally married, where they act as teachers, with diminishing and discrediting of the ecclesiastical state.

2. Intensification of relationships

In 1284 the situation changes, it is not known for what reasons. From this date we know the Visitor of the Penitents of Florence, the Franciscan Caro, whose vicissitudes and relations with the Penitents we have already seen previously. Since then, documents on the legal relationship between the two orders have become more frequent. These are generally "protests" against certain interference by the Friars Minor in the government of the Penitents. Thus, Cardinal Juan Buccamazzi, papal legate in Germany, orders in 1287, the papal seat vacant, to the German bishops to enforce the interdict imposed by him on the city of Strasbourg. The Penitentes, to avoid this punishment, went to the convent of the Minors. The cardinal opposes this because, he says, there is no reason for them to deal with the Penitents.

A step forward in these relations is taken with the Regula bullada of Nicholas IV, of 1289. We have already seen that in it it is determined that the Penitents choose the Friars Minor as visitors, and the reactions it provoked among the Penitents of Florence. Especially in Lombardy there was also quite a bit of reaction against it, since the Penitents considered themselves independent of both the bishops and the Friars Minor. The pope's answer to these questions is the bull Unigenitus of 1290. Nicholas IV again proclaims that Saint Francis is the founder of the Order of Penance and that its members must follow the prescribed norms, accepting the spiritual direction and teachings of the Brothers. Minors. Thus, at the end of the 13th century we already have clear and codified determinations of the relations between the Friars Minor and the Penitents.

THE PATRON SAINTS SAN FRANCIS' ORDER OF PENANCE

To finish these notes on the first century of the life of the Order of Penance of St. Francis, we are going to dedicate this last section to a problem of historical scholarship, which is not of great importance in terms of the spiritual renewal of the OFS. I am referring to the patronage that Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Louis IX, King of France, have over her. It is generally thought that this patronage is something immemorial. But is it really that old? And one more question: Were they truly Penitents of St. Francis?

1. Patronage dates back only to the 18th century

The Capuchin scholar Servus Gieben, from the Capuchin Historical Institute in Rome, has dedicated a work to our subject. The conclusion reached is that there is no document prior to the first quarter of the 18th century in which St. Elisabeth of Hungary and St. Louis of France are said to be the patrons of the OFS.

Nothing of this can be found in either the first or the second edition of the Franciscan Martyrology (Paris 1638 and 1653) by Arturo de Moustier. This author only affirms that the General Chapter of the Friars Minor of 1490 established to celebrate the feast of St. Elizabeth with a double rite, but that in his time said feast was only semi-double. That is to say, for those not understood in rubrics, that the feast of the Saint had lowered its liturgical category. The Capuchin breviary of 1704 celebrates the feast of the two saints, but makes no mention of their being patrons of the Order of Penance of St. Francis. Nor is there any trace of it in Fortunato Hueber's Menologio of 1698. The numerous manuals for the TOF of the early eighteenth century, while containing prayers for the feasts of the two saints, ignore their patronage. What does exist is a growing devotion to Saint Elizabeth and Saint Louis, as evidenced by a short treatise on the Rule of the Third Order, written in 1706. . Luis Rey de Francia, festa principalissima en la Tercera Orden» (August 25), and «S. Elisabet Reyna de Ungria, principal party in the Third Order”; but the reason for such importance is not given.

The patronage of our two saints is clearly mentioned for the first time in the 1741 breviary of the Conventuals. Order, Patrons of both sexes». Little by little this affirmation is spreading, and it can be said that in the second half of the 18th century the patronage of both saints is commonly accepted.

This belated recognition immediately raises a question: Could it be that neither Saint Elizabeth of Hungary nor Saint Louis of France belonged to the Order of Penance of Saint Francis?

2. Was Saint Elizabeth of Hungary a tertiary?

On the life of St. Elizabeth († 1231) we have a large number of ancient documents. It cannot be said that there is unanimity among scholars about the Saint's membership in the Order of Penance. Fr. Bihl, after studying the main documentation about her, reaches the conclusion that said documents do not positively substantiate that St. Elizabeth belonged to the Third Order. Now, she goes on to say, taking into account her ideals and the Franciscan environment in which she lived, it can be affirmed that she did belong to that Order.

This way of arguing, very typical among Franciscan authors, I think is not entirely correct. What is being discussed is not whether or not his spirituality is close to the Franciscan, but whether he really belonged to the Order of Penance. This is an example of how an inflation has been reached in the saints of the Third Order, introducing into it, without further ado, people whose ideals were similar or equal to those of the Franciscans, but without stopping too long to prove the reality of said belonging. .

Other authors, on the other hand, even admitting a Franciscan influence in Saint Elizabeth, affirm that she did not belong to any particular order, but that, using a current expression, she was a free Penitent. And there is no shortage of authors who deny even that alleged Franciscan influence in the saint, saying rather that it depends on the Cistercian spirituality of the Beguines of her time and that, moreover, she was greatly influenced by the mysticism of the Crusades.

From the ancient lives of the saint it is not clear that she was a Franciscan Penitent. It is true that she had great devotion to Saint Francis, as evidenced by the fact that she dedicated the adjoining chapel of the Marbourg hospital to him, erected by her, a few months after the Saint's canonization. But it is quite unlikely that he belonged to the Order of Penance of St. Francis.

3. Saint Louis of France was not a tertiary

Regarding Saint Louis, his non-membership of the Franciscan Penitents is much clearer. There is no document from the 13th and 14th centuries that speaks of it; although, yes, he was a great benefactor of the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The first to place it in a list of tertiaries was Saint John of Capistrano in 1440. The last defender of this idea was the Capuchin Hilary of Paris, but currently there is no historian who affirms it.

A sign of this change may be the well-known image of Giotto in the Bardi chapel in the Santa Croce in Florence. She represents St. Louis, and she had a Franciscan cord in her hand. In the last restoration of the chapel (1958-1961) the cord was removed, because it was an addition from the last century, from the previous restoration (1852-1853), and it was not found in the original, which is from around 1317.

CONCLUSION

After this extremely rapid and incomplete journey through the first century of existence of the Order of Penance of St. Francis, the reader, especially the tertiary, will have been able to ask himself many questions, contrasting the origins with the present of his movement. I believe that this will be the main result of these notes. To such questions I would add some. From the fourteenth century and up to our time, the OFS has known its splendor only when the Franciscan First Order has dedicated itself more intensely to it. Quite the contrary occurred in the 13th century, a time in which, at least legally speaking, the Penitents lived almost totally independent of the Friars Minor. I believe that the answer must be found in the dynamism that the Penitentes possessed. They considered it normal to run their own affairs without interference from anyone. Certainly, they felt the need for spiritual direction from the Church and, above all, from the new religious orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, since they revealed a more daring and radical evangelism. However, they did not want to be "subjected" to this or that Order. This would explain many of the reactions we have seen.

In the following centuries, the OFS has never been able to rediscover its original state, its direct impact on life and society, which it knew in the 13th century. With a view to the current renovation, this lesson of history must not be forgotten.