Read complete books and articles on: Franciscan Order

Franciscans - frănsĭsˈkənz, members of several Roman Catholic religious orders following the rule of St. Francis (approved by Honorius III, 1223). There are now three organizations of Franciscan friars: the Friars Minor [Lat. abbr., O.F.M.] (the second largest order in the Roman Catholic Church; only the Jesuit order is larger), formerly called the Observants; the Friars Minor Capuchin (see Capuchins), the fourth largest of the great religious orders; and the Friars Minor Conventual [Lat. abbr., O.M.C.]. Within 50 years of St. Francis's foundation, the order had a very strong wing of zealots—the Spirituals, who advocated absolute poverty, thus deploring the convents or any settled life. They allied themselves with the anarchical monks who were preaching the teachings of Joachim of Fiore. St. Bonaventure tried to reconcile the factions of the order, but the Spirituals grew stronger and saw one of their heroes made pope as St. Celestine V. His abdication made their agitation one of the major social and religious problems of Italy. So far as the order was concerned, John XXII settled (1322) the matter by putting the Franciscans on a level with every other order with respect to owning property corporately. He also put a stop (1323) to a Franciscan boast that their way was more nearly perfect than any other. However, within the order there still remained a desire for reform, and in the following years a movement developed toward restoring primitive practice. The friars of this tendency (Observants) gained recognition within the order and eventually were made independent (1517) by Leo X. Soon afterward a movement among the Observants established the Capuchins (1525) as a still stricter adherence to the rule. All the Franciscan orders have shared in home and foreign missions; the Franciscans were in many parts of America the dominant missionaries. They have had a continuous role in education and were leaders in medieval university life. They have had a major place in preaching among Catholics: from them come the Stations of the Cross and the Christmas Crib. Since the 15th cent. the Observants have been charged with the care of Roman Catholic interests in the Holy Places in Palestine. Besides the friars, the Franciscans include the Poor Clares, the order of nuns founded by St. Clare, and countless members of the third order (see tertiary), an order consisting of both men and women, some of whom live in communities and many of whom live in the world. There are scores of religious communities of sisters of every sort of charitable mission who are regular Franciscan tertiaries. Of canonized and beatified saints, far more have been Franciscans than members of any other order. The best-known of them is perhaps St. Anthony of Padua. The Franciscans were called Gray Friars. Their habit is now typically brown. For the place of Franciscans among orders, see monasticism.

See studies by J. Moorman (1968), K. Esser (tr. 1970), and T. MacVicar (1986).

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Franciscan Order

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Franciscans in England, 1224-1538 (1926) » Read Now
by Edward Hutton. 334 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...first historian of the Franciscan Order in England, was himself...very days, the holiest the Order was ever to know, the Franciscans came to these shores. The...preacher...
2.

The Misadventure of Francis of Assisi: Toward a Historical Use of the Franciscan Legends » Read Now
by Jacques Dalarun, Edward Hagman. 295 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
3.

The History of Franciscan Theology » Read Now
by Kenan B. Osborne. 345 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
4.

Revisiting the Franciscan Doctrine of Christ, in Theological Studies » Read Now
by Ilia Delio. 20 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
5.

The Evolution of Medieval Thought (Chap. Nineteen "The Franciscan School at Paris") » Read Now
by David Knowles, D. E. Luscombe, C. N. L. Brooke. 342 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, Entire Library

...designation as a monk of the order of Camaldoli now seems to be...Chapters 19-22: The Franciscan School at Paris; Albert the...Thomist conceptions of divine order and of...
6.

Angels & Angelology in the Middle Ages (Chap. Seven "Franciscan Angelology and the Crises of the Franciscan Order") » Read Now
by David Keck. 264 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Recently angels have made a remarkable comeback in the popular imagination; their real heyday, however, was the Middle Ages. From the great shrines dedicated to Michael the Archangel at Mont-St-Michel and Monte Garano to the elaborate metaphysical speculations of the great thirteenth-century...
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Recently angels have made a remarkable comeback in the popular imagination; their real heyday, however, was the Middle Ages. From the great shrines dedicated to Michael the Archangel at Mont-St-Michel and Monte Garano to the elaborate metaphysical speculations of the great thirteenth-century scholastics, angels dominated the physical, temporal, and intellectual landscape of the medieval West. This book offers a full-scale study of angels and angelology in the Middle Ages. Seeking to discover how and why angels became so important in medieval society, David Keck considers a wide range of fascinating questions such as: Why do angels appear on baptismal fonts? How and why did angels become normative for certain members of the church? How did they become a required course of study? Did popular beliefs about angels diverge from the angelologies of the theologians? Why did some heretics claim to derive their authority from heavenly spirits? Keck spreads his net wide in the attempt to catch traces of angels and angelic beliefs in as many portions of the medieval world as possible. Metaphysics and mystery plays, prayers and pilgrimages, Cathars and cathedrals-all these and many more disparate sources taken together reveal a society deeply engaged with angels on all its levels and in some unlikely ways.
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7.

Apocalyptic Spirituality: Treatises and Letters of Lactantius, Adso of Montier-En-Der, Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan Spirituals, Savonarola (Part IV "The Franciscan Spirituals") » Read Now
by Bernard McGinn. 334 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
8.

Rabelais and the Franciscans » Read Now
by A. J. Krailsheimer. 338 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...in a specific branch of the Franciscan order at a specific time. This is...in the vernacular, for the Franciscan order was international, its missionary...put down your...
9.

Franciscan Beginnings in Colonial Peru » Read Now
by Antonine Tibesar. 162 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...which Herborn issued to the Franciscan Order after he had been elected commissary...unit under the laws of the Franciscan Order, and there is little doubt that...1532, the...
10.

After "The Year Eighty": The Demise of Franciscan Power in Spanish New Mexico » Read Now
by Jim Norris. 214 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

A study of how the Franciscan order struggled with & accommodated itself to a reduction in status & power in eighteenth-century New Mexico.
11.

Between Resistance and Adaptation: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonisation of Choco 1510-1753 (Chap. Four "Conversion and Control: The Franciscans in the Choco, 1673-1677") » Read Now
by Caroline A. Williams. 254 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
12.

The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom (Chap. Six "Franciscans on the Camino Real") » Read Now
by Grant D. Jones. 572 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

On March 13, 1697, Spanish troops from Yucatan attacked and occupied Nojpeten, the capital of the Maya people known as Itzas, the inhabitants of the last unconquered native New World kingdom. This political and ritual center -- located on a small island in a lake in the tropical forests of northern...
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On March 13, 1697, Spanish troops from Yucatan attacked and occupied Nojpeten, the capital of the Maya people known as Itzas, the inhabitants of the last unconquered native New World kingdom. This political and ritual center -- located on a small island in a lake in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala -- was densely covered with temples, royal palaces, and thatched houses, and its capture represented a decisive moment in the final chapter of the Spanish conquest of the Mayas.
The capture of Nojpeten climaxed more than two years of preparation by the Spaniards, after efforts by the military forces and Franciscan missionaries to negotiate a peaceful surrender with the Itzas had been rejected by the Itza ruling council and its ruler Ajaw Kan Ek'. The conquest, far from being final, initiated years of continued struggle between Yucatecan and Guatemalan Spaniards and native Maya groups for control over the surrounding forests. Despite protracted resistance from the native inhabitants, thousands of them were forced to move into mission towns, though in 1704 the Mayas staged an abortive and bloody rebellion that threatened to recapture Nojpeten from the Spaniards.
The first complete account of the conquest of the Itzas to appear since 1701, this book details the layers of political intrigue and action that characterized every aspect of the conquest and its aftermath. The author critically reexamines the extensive documentation left by the Spaniards, presenting much new information on Maya political and social organization and Spanish military and diplomatic strategy.
This is not only one of the most detailed studies of any Spanish conquest in the Americas but also one of the mostcomprehensive reconstructions of an independent Maya kingdom in the history of Maya studies. In presenting the story of the Itzas, the author also reveals much about neighboring lowland Maya groups with whom the Itzas intera
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13.

The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida, Vol. 2 (Chap. 6 "Implementation and Resistance: Rebolledo vs. the Franciscans") » Read Now
by John E. Worth. 276 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Incorporating the 13most current archaeological and historical investigation, this second volume of John Worth's substantial two-volume work studies the assimilation and eventual destruction of the indigenous Timucuan societies of interior Spanish Florida near St. Augustine, shedding new light on...
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Incorporating the 13most current archaeological and historical investigation, this second volume of John Worth's substantial two-volume work studies the assimilation and eventual destruction of the indigenous Timucuan societies of interior Spanish Florida near St. Augustine, shedding new light on the nature and function of La Florida's entire mission system.
Beginning in volume 1 with analysis of the late prehistoric chiefdoms, Worth traces the effects of European exploration and colonization in the late 1500s and describes the expansion of the mission frontier before 1630. As a framework for understanding the Timucuan rebellion of 1654 and its pacification, he explores the internal political and economic structure of the colonial system. In this volume, he shows that after the geographic and political restructuring of the Timucua mission province, the interior of Florida became a populated chain of way-stations along the royal road between St. Augustine and the Apalachee province. Finally, he describes rampant demographic collapse in the missions, followed by English-sponsored raids, setting a stage for their final years in Florida during the mid-1700s.
The culmination of nearly a decade of original research, these books incorporate many previously unknown or little-used Spanish documentary sources. As an analysis of both the Timucuan chiefdoms and their integration into the colonial system, they offer important discussion of the colonial experience for indigenous groups across the nation and the rest of the Americas.
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14.

Providence and Perdition: Fray Diego De Landa Justifies His Inquisition Against the Yucatecan Maya, in Church History » Read Now
by David E. Timmer. 12 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
15.

Christianization Among the Chumash: An Ethnohistoric Perspective, in American Indian Quarterly » Read Now
by James A. Sandos. 25 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library