There were now the two great families of the first order, the Observants and the Con ventuals, these latter being governed, as said above, by a master-general, and notwithstanding their dispensations in regard to poverty, they have always rendered important services to the Church. The great Pope Sixtus V was himself a Conventual. In 1525 there arose a third family, known as the Capuchins (q.v.).
The Franciscans did not devote themselves exclusively to the apostolic life. From the first they took an active and leading part in the study of Holy Scripture and in all the branches of sacred and secular learning. They have filled with honor the first chairs in the most celebrated universities. Such great names occur among them as Alexander of Hales, Saint Bonaven ture ("the Seraphic Doctoe), Blessed John Duns Scotus, called ((the Subtle Doctor,'" who as defender of the Immaculate Conception be came the leader of the Franciscan school, Francis Mayronis and Nicholas de Lyre. In England during the centuries immediately pre ceding the Reformation, there were 67 friars professors at Oxford and 73 at Cambridge, among them being Adam de Marisco, Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon, the pioneer of the modern discoveries in the physical sciences. Thomas de Celano, who wrote 'Dies Irm,) and Jacopone da Todi, author of (Stabat Mater,' were Fran ciscans. Nuncios, legates, archbishops, many cardinals and several popes have been chosen from among the Franciscans.
The relations of the Franciscans with Amer ica began with its very discovery. Father Juan Perez, guardian of the Franciscan monastery at La Rabida, the adviser and personal friend of Columbus, with several companions, accom panied the discoverer in 1493, The first con vent was erected for them at what is now the city of Santo Domingo, on Haiti; another arose at La Vega, on the same island. Connected with these convents were the first schools in the western hemisphere.
Owing to the enthusiasm among the re ligious in Spain, and to the docility of the Indians, the order spread so rapidly in the West Indies that King Ferdinand found it advisable to issue a decree forbidding the erection of a new convent except at a di tance of at least five leagues from one already existing. In 1505, only 13 years after the dis covery, there was a sufficient number of convents to form a province, under the name of Holy Cross. The first diocese to be erected was Santo Domingo, in 1504; its first bishop was Father Juan de Padilla, a Franciscan.
After the Spaniards had set foot on the mainland, the king, ever anxious for the spirit ual welfare of the aborigines, sent over a great number of friars under the leadership of Father Juan de Quevedo, who was appointed bishop of Darien, the first bishop on the American conti nent: The Franciscans entered Venezuela in 1508, Brazil in 1519; in 1535 they were able to form a province in Peru, whence were founded the missions farther south in the Andes and Pampas. Saint Francis Solanus, called the
Apostle of Peru on account of his extraor dinary missionary labors, evangelized these regions; he died at Lima in 1610.
In 1521, if not before, the first Franciscans came to Mexico. Together with 12 friars known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, there labored here from 1533 to 1572 the famous Brother Gante. He wrote a catechism in the Aztec language, erected over 100 churches and with one companion frequently baptized 8,000 Indians in one day. Many schools were erected, in which often as many as 600 and 800 boys received an elementary education. Owing to their stainless lives, abstinences and contempt for gold, the friars obtained marvelous results among the natives. In 1535 the 70 convents in Mexico were organized into a province. At the end of the 16th century there were three provinces; others have been formed since then, besides several missionary colleges, whence zealous missionaries set out to convert the natives to the north, notably in Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California.
Florida was the first of the States that be held the Franciscan garb. Five friars came with Narvaez in 1528; their superior, Father Juan Suarez, was the first bishop in the United States. In the course of time the missionaries succeeded, though not without heavy sacrifices of life and labor, in establishing flourishing missions all along the coast and in the interior as far•west as Mississippi and as far north as Georgia. In 1634 there were 34 friars, who maintained 44 mission stations, where they at tended to about 30,000 converts. These mis sions suffered greatly by invasions from Caro lina and Georgia, and when Florida was ceded to the English in 1763 they ceased to exist Arizona and New Mexico were first visited by Franciscans in 1539; in the.course of time a great many missions and churches were es tablished, to most of which were attached schools for boys, as we learn from an official report of 1632. Beginning with 1689, about 160 friars labored in Texas up to the time of the Mexican independence, when the missions were ruined.