A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Fraticelli

FRATICELLI, i. e. Little Brothers, a sect which appeared in Italy about 1298, and spread all over Europe. They pretended that ecclesiastics ought to have no possessions of their own. This term had been honourably applied, as we have seen, to the spiritual or stricter kind of Franciscans; but, when used in reference to the Catharists and Waldenses, was considered as a term of reproach and ridicule.