The Franciscan order has been the parent of many other religious institutes. The -earliest of these is that of the " observantists," or " brethren of more strict observance." The origin of this body has been already indicated. The party in this order which contended for the more rigid observance of the rule, after a protracted struggle—in which disaffection to the church itself was often strongly exhibited—obtained a sepa rate organization, which may be said to have been finally settled at the time of Leo X. The less rigid party, under the name of " Conventuals," obtained a distinct general, and an authorization for their mitigated observance of the rule. Their churches and con vents admit greater richness of architecture and decoration; and they are at liberty to acquire and retain, in the name of the order, the property of these and similar posses sions, all of which are renounced by the observant Franciscans. The latter community nearly 150 provinces. Their constitution is that.of the original rule, as already comprises -explained. A second offshoot of the Franciscan order, and in the same direction of rigor ism, is that known as the " Capuchin," founded by Matteo di Basio, a Franciscan brother of the observant rule in the early part of the 16th century. Believing himself -divinely called to revive the old spirit of his order, and learning that the modern habit of the brethren was different from that of St. Francis, he began with externals, and procured for himself, and obtained the papal permission to introduce (1528), the pecu liar habit, with a pointed hood or cowl (capute), from which the name of the reformed order is derived. Along with this habit, however, Matteo adopted a very rigorous and mortified course of life, in which he was joined by others of the brethren; and the reform spread so rapidly among the community, that in the year 1536 a general chap ter of the new congregation was held. They were subject, however, to the jurisdiction of the general of the Franciscan order. One of the first generals of the new reform was Bernardino Ochino, afterwards notable by his defection to Calvinism. After the 'council of .Trent, the Capuchins multiplied rapidly, though they were not introduced in France till the end of that century. A similar reform, to which the name of " Recol lets" was given (introduced in Spain by John de Guadaloupe, in 1500), was approved by Clement VII. in 1532; and many of the new brethren were among the first Spanish missionaries to the new world. A further development of the rigoristic spirit is the congregation of " Discaled" or "Barefooted" (q.v.) Franciscans. The author of this reform was a Spanish Capuchin, Peter of Alcantara. In his capacity of provincial of Peter introduced many reforms; and in 1555 obtained the approval of pope Julius III. for a new rule, which was afterwards confirmed by Pius IV.
The notice of the Franciscan institute would be incomplete without the mention of the several orders of nuns; as those of St. Clare, the Capuchinesses, the Urbanist nuns,
-etc., which formed part of the same general organization. None of these, however, calls for any detailed explanation, or presents any very fair characteristic features.
The Franciscan order, in these several branches, has at all times maintained its popularity in the Roman Catholic church. When Ilelyot, in the of the 18th c., published his great History of Religious Orders, the Franciscan order numbered nearly 120,000 friars, distributed over above 7,000 convents, and nearly 30,000 nuns, occupying about 900 convents. Since the French revolution, the number has of course been very much diminished, the order having been suppressed in more than one kingdom; but it is still one of the most numerous in the Roman Catholic church. Many of the foreign missions are mainly supplied by Franciscans, and they possess convents in almost every part of the world.
As a literary order, the Franciscans have chiefly been eminent in the theological sciences. The great school of the Scotists takes its name from John Duns Scotus (see Scorns), a Franciscan friar, and it has been the pride of this order to maintain his dis tinctive doctrines both in philosophy and in theology against the rival school of the Thomists, to which the Dominican order gave its allegiance. See THOMISTS. In the Nominalistic controversy, theThomists were for the most part conceptualists; the Fran ciscans adhered to the rigid realism. See NOMINALISM. In the free-will question, the Franciscans strenuously resisted the Thomist doctrine of " predetermining decrees." Indeed, all the greatest names of the early Scotist school are the Franciscan St. Bona venture, Alexander de Hales, and Ockham. The single name of Roger Bacon, the marvel of medieval letters, the divine, the philosopher, the linguist, the experimentalist, the practical mechanician; would in itself have sufficed to make the reputation of his order,. had his contemporaries not failed to appreciate his merit. Two centuries later, the great. cardinal Ximenes was a member of this order. The popes Nicholas IV., Alexander V., Sextus IV., the still more celebrated Sixtus V., and the well-known Ganganelli, Clement XIV., also belonged to the institute of St. Francis. In history, this order is less dis tinguished; but its own annalist, Luke Wadding, an Irish Franciscan, bears a deservedly high reputation as a historian. In lighter literature, and particularly poetry, we have already named the founder himself as a sacred poet. Jacopone da Todi, a Frandiscan, is one of -the most characteristic of the medieval hymn-writers; and in later times, the celebrated Lope de Vega closed his eventful career as a member of the third order of St. Francis. We may add that in the revival of art the Franciscan order bore an active and, it must be confessed, a liberal and enlightened part. See Wadding, Annales• F,'atruot, 8 vols. ; see also Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. v.