Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/734

 G98 F A F R A none the less its most energetic promoter, supplying his friends Burke and Sheridan with all the materials for their eloquent orations and burning invectives. At the general election of 1 790 he was returned a member for Bletchingley. In common with all English politicians he found his atten tion very strongly called to the events which were then oc curring in France ; his sympathies were strongly with the revolutionary party, and he opposed in parliament all the measures of the Government against reformers and Jacobins at home. In 1793 he supported Mr (afterwards Lord) Grey s motion for a return to the old constitutional system of representation, and so earned the title to be regarded as one of the earliest promoters of the cause of parliamentary reform. He rendered further services to the same cause by repeated vindications of the Society of the Friends of the People in the days of its unpopularity. The acquittal of Hastings in April 1795 again disappointed Francis of the governor-generalship, and in 1798 he had to submit to the additional mortification of a defeat in the general election. He was once more successful, however, in 1802, when he sat for Appleby, and it seemed as if the great ambitions of his life were about to be realized when the Whig party came into power in 1806. His disappointment was great when the governor-generalship was, owing to party exigen cies, conferred on Sir Gilbert Elliot (Lord Minto) ; he declined, it is said, soon afterwards the government of the Cape, but accepted a knight companionship of the order of the Bath. Though re-elected for Appleby in 1806, he failed to secure a seat in the following year ; and the re mainder of his life was spent in comparative privacy. In 1814 he married his second wife, Miss Emma Watkins, who long survived him, and who has left voluminous manu scripts relating to his biography. He died on the 23d of December 1818. Among the later productions of his pen were, besides the Plan of a Reform in the Election of the House of Commons, a pamphlet entitled Reflections on the Abund ance of Paper in Circulation and the Scarcity of Specie (1810), and a Letter to Earl Grey on the Policy of Great Britain and the Allies toioards Norway (1814). His Memoirs, ivith Correspondence and Journals, commenced by the late Joseph Parkes, and completed and edited by Mr Herman Merivale, were published in two volumes in 1867. They help the reader to form a tolerably vivid conception of the man, and show that in his domestic relations he was exemplary, and that he lived on terms of mutual affection with a wide circle of friends. They indicate at the same time, however, that he was far from incapable of vindictiveness, dissimulation, and treachery. His biographers are firmly convinced of his identity with Junius, and bring a great body of circumstantial proof in support of their belief. FRANCISCANS. The Franciscan orders include the three orders of the Minorites, and all the less important associations who trace their rule to Francis of Assisi. The three orders of the Minorites, or Franciscans proper, include (1) the Minorite friars, properly so-called, under a succes sion of generals of the whole order from the foundation; (2) the order of the Poor Ladies or Poor Clares the Fran ciscan nuns ; (3) the order of Penitent Men and Women, which includes (a) all those who dwell in Franciscan cloisters and keep the third rule, (6) those who live in cloisters of their own, keeping the third rule, and (c) the Tertiaries properly so-called. All these three orders of Friars, Nuns, and Tertiaries are more or less under the jurisdiction of the general-minister of the Franciscan order. I. The Minorite friars, or the first order, are divided into two &quot; families,&quot; Cismontana, or convents in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Syria, and Palestine, and Ultramontana, or convents in France, Spain, the Low Countries, Saxony, the Islands of the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, and the Indies the one ruled directly by the minister-general, and the other by a commissary-general. Each family is divided into provinces ruled over by a pro vincial. The Cisrnontane has sixty-six provinces, and the Ultramontane has eighty-one. A province is the union of a certain number of convents under a chief directly respon sible to the minister-general. Besides provinces the order originally contained vicarates and custodia. The vicarates were a number of convents united together, but too few to be counted a province. The custodia were at first subdivi sions of provinces, but since Leo X. the custodia are like the old vicaratos, and are governed by a vicar or custos directly responsible to the minister-general. The convents of the order in partibus injidelium are governed by prefects. The minister-general is chosen in full chapter for a term of six years, and if he dies or removes to a higher office during his term, the &quot; discreet perpetual fathers &quot; choose a deputy for the remainder of the term. The minister-general is chosen from the two families alternately, and the chapter at the same time elects a commissary-general for the other family. The rule originally prescribed by St Francis was very strict, and, rigidly enforced, would have made all the mem bers of the order pious beggars. This was the founder s idea, but when the order became popular it was found that few of its members could act up to its requirements ; and even in the life-time of the founder attempts were made to relax them. The relaxations sanctioned by the decrees of popes and by general usage were repeatedly fought against by small but zealous minorities, and these struggles gave rise to various divisions in the order. Since the time of Leo X. and his union bull these divisions have been re duced to three, the Observants, the Conventuals, and the Capuchins, all of whom belong to the first order of the Franciscans ; and they are the survivals of a much more numerous division. The Observants are supposed to keep the rule of Francis with some strictness, and they take the first rank among the Franciscans ; their minister-general has pre-eminence. The Conventuals follow the rule of Francis with certain relaxations permitted by successive popes. Their general has to be confirmed by the great minister- general, but otherwise they are independent. Since 1528 the Capuchins have had an independent general under the minister-general. 1. The Observants. The relaxation of the rule of Francis and attempts at reformation to the original simplicity and strictness date from the time of Elias, successor as minister- general to Francis himself. Some of these reforms were unsuccessful, and only resulted in small schisms condemned by the general and by the pope ; others were successful, and resulted in the formation of separate congregations more or less independent, until they were all abolished or rather brought together under one rule by Leo X. The Ccesarins were the followers of Csesarinus of Spires, who revolted against the relaxations and innovations of Elias. After varying fortunes the reformers were punished as rebels. They gradually returned to the ranks of the order, and ceased to exist separately in 1256. The Celestines were the followers of Peter of Macerata, who calJed himself Liberatus, and Peter of Fossombrone, called Angelus, from his frequent fellowship with angels. They taught and professed a life of the strictest poverty and solitude, and were permitted to live separately from the rest of the order by Pope Celestine V. in 1294. The permission was recalled by later popes, and after many struggles the Celestine hermits were reckoned schismatics and heretics (see CELESTINES). From them came the Fratricelli (see FRATRICELLI). The Congregation of Narbonne, the Spirit- uales, were mainly followers of Peter John cle Oliva. They