CLARES, POOR, otherwise CLARISSES, Franciscan nuns, so called from their foundress, St. Clara (q.v.) . She was professed by St. Francis in the Portiuncula in 1212, and two years later she and her first companions were established in the convent of St. Damian at Assisi. The nuns formed the "Second Order of St. Francis," the friars being the "First Order," and the Tertiaries (q.v.) the "Third." Before Clara's death in 1253, the Second Order had spread all over Italy and into Spain, France and Germany; in England they were introduced c. 1293 and established in London, outside Aldgate, where their name of Minoresses survives in the Minories; there were only two other English houses before the Dissolution. St. Francis gave the nuns no rule, but only a "Form of Life" and a "Last Will," each only five lines long, and coming to no more than an inculcation of his idea of evangelical poverty. Something more than this became necessary as soon as the institute began to spread ; and during Francis's absence in the East, 1219, his supporter Cardinal Hugo lino composed a rule which made the Franciscan nuns practically a species of unduly strict Benedictines, St. Francis's special char acteristics being eliminated. St. Clara made it her life work to have this rule altered, and to get the Franciscan character of the ' Second Order restored; in 1247 a "Second Rule" was approved which went a long way towards satisfying her desires, and finally in 1253 a "Third," which practically gave what she wanted. This rule has come to be known as the "Rule of the Clcres"; it is one of great poverty, seclusion and austerity of life. Most of the convents adopted it, but several clung to that of 1247. To bring about conformity, St. Bonaventura, while general ob tained papal permission to modify the rule of 1253, somewhat mitigating its austerities and allowing the convents to have fixed incomes. This rule was adopted in many convents, but many more adhered to the strict rule of 1253. Indeed a counter-tendency towards a greater strictness set in, and a number of reforms were initiated, introducing an appalling austerity of life.
See Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1896), i. §§ 47, 48, who gives references to all the literature; and Catholic Encyclopaedia, art. "Clares."