Third Order of Saint Francis - Early History

Early History

The Third Order of St. Francis was, and still is, the best known and most widely distributed and has the greatest influence. About its origin there are two opposite opinions. According to Karl Müller (Church historian) (de) (Die Anfänge des Minoritenordens und der Bussbruderschaften), Mandonnet, and others, the Secular Third Order is a survival of the original ideal of Francis of Assisi, viz. a lay confraternity of penitents, from which, through the influence of the Church, the First and Second Orders of the Friars Minor and the Poor Clares have been detached. According to others, St. Francis merely lent his name to pre-existing penitential lay-confraternities, without having any special connection with or influence on them. The two opinions are equally at variance with the best texts we have on the subject. According to these sources, St. Francis really founded a Third Order and gave it a Rule. If we complete these notices with some early papal Bulls bearing on the penitential movement and with the account given by Mariano of Florence (end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century) we can state what follows:

The preaching of St. Francis, as well as his own living example and that of his first disciples, exercised such a powerful attraction on the people that many married men and women, even hermits, wanted to join the First or the Second Order.

Rule of St Francis

This being incompatible with their state of life, St. Francis found a middle way: he gave them a rule animated by the Franciscan spirit. In the composition of this rule St. Francis was assisted by his friend Cardinal Ugolino, later Gregory IX. As to the place where the Third Order was first introduced nothing certain is known. Of late however the preponderance of opinion is for Florence, chiefly on the authority of Mariano of Florence, or Faenza, for which the first papal Bull (Potthast, "Regesta Pontificum", 6736) known on the subject is given, whilst the "Fioretti" (ch. xvi), though not regarded as a historical authority, assigns Cannara, a small town two hours' walk from Porziuncola, as the birthplace of the Third Order. Mariano and the Bull for Faenza (16 December 1221) point to 1221 as the earliest date of the institution of the Third Order, and in fact, besides these and other sources, the oldest preserved rule bears this date at its head.

This rule was published by P. Sabatier and H. Boehmer (see bibliography), and contained originally twelve chapters, to which at the time of Gregory IX (1227) a thirteenth was added. It prescribes simplicity in dress (Chapter 1), considerable fasting and abstinence (Chapters 2-3), the canonical office or other prayers instead (Chapters 4-5), confession and communion thrice a year, and forbids carrying arms or taking solemn oaths without necessity (Chapter 6); every month the brothers and sisters have to assemble in a church designated by the ministers, and a religious has to give them an instruction (Chapter 7); they also exercise the works of charity with their brothers (Chapter 8); whenever a member dies the whole confraternity has to be present at the funeral and to pray for the departed (Chapter 9); everyone has to make his last will three months after his reception; dissensions among brothers and sisters or other persons are to be settled peaceably; if any troubles arise with local authorities the ministers ought to act with the counsel of the bishop (Chapter 10). No heretic or anyone suspected of heresy can be received, and women only with the consent of their husbands (Chapter 11); the ministers have to denounce shortcomings to the visitor, who will punish the culprits; every year two new ministers and a treasurer are to be elected; no point of the rule obliges under pain of sin (Chapter 12). On account of the prohibition of arms and unnecessary oaths, the followers of this rule came into conflict with local authorities, a fact of which we have evidence in many papal Bulls all through the thirteenth century, issued to safeguard the privileges of the Tertiaries (see list of these Bulls in Mandonnet, "Les Règles", 146-47).

Wadding ("Annales Min." ad a. 1321, n. 13) gives another longer redaction of the rule, which is almost identical with the one solemnly confirmed by Pope Nicholas IV through the Bull "Supra montem", 17 August 1289. This last form has for long been considered as the work of St. Francis, whilst Karl Müller denied any connection of St. Francis with it. If we compare the rule published and approved by Nicholas IV with the oldest text of 1221, we see that they substantially agree, slight modifications and different dispositions of chapters (here 20 in number) excepted. Through a most interesting text published by Golubovich (Arch. Franc. Hist., II, 1909, 20) we know now that this Rule of Nicholas IV was approved on the petition of some Italian Tertiaries. Another publication by Guerrini (Arch. Franc. Hist., I, 1908, 544 sq.) proves that there existed in the thirteenth century Third Order Confraternities with quite different rules. On the whole, it can safely be affirmed that until Nicholas IV there was no single Rule of the Third Order generally observed, but besides the one quoted above, and probably the most widely spread, there were others of more local character. The same might be said as to the government of the confraternities. Besides their own officials, they had to have a visitor, who seems to have been usually appointed by the bishop. In 1247 Innocent IV ordered that the Friars Minor were to assume the direction of the Tertiaries in Italy and Sicily (Bull Franc., I, 464), but about twenty years later when St. Bonaventure wrote his question: "Why do not the Friars Minor promote the Order of 'Penitents'?" (Op. om., VIII, 368) the contrary had practically prevailed. Nicholas IV introduced unity of rule and of direction into the Third Order, which henceforward was entrusted to the care of the Friars Minor.

By the 15th century, various individuals living under the Rule of the Third Order were living in small communities, many leading an eremetical life (cf. Celano). They had been living under the same rule as the married penitents leading more routine forms of life. A papal decree of 1447 formed these various communities into a new and separate religious Order with its own Rule of Life. From that point onward, one began to differentiate the members of the Order either as Third Order Regular (i.e., living under a Regula or "Rule"), or as the Third Order Secular for those members of Order who lived in the world. This Order of Regular Tertiaries came to be viewed as equivalent to the friars of the First Order in the latter life of the Franciscan movement.