Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/736

 700 F K A F R A of Collettc, a French sister, adhered to the second rule, that of Francis ; while the large proportion of the nuns followed the new rule of Urban. The Capuchin movement within the Franciscan order also affected the Minorite nuns, and the Capuchin nuns soon be came a large and prosperous community. The only other important reform was that set in motion by Peter of Alcantara. The sisters who followed him are called the Poor Clares of the Strictest Observance. They take the vow of perpetual silence. III. The Tertiaries consist of lay brethren and sisters in the Franciscan monasteries, confraternities who keep the third rule of St Francis, and men and women living in .society who have taken the third rule. The Tertiaries of the begging monks have become so famous that many are disposed to trace their origin to Francis and Dominic, but the class of penitents existed in connexion with other and older orders. The third rule was intended to suit the re quirements of all those who wished to live a higher religious life, and who could not from their circumstances embrace the monastic life. It is said that the origin of the Francis can Tertiaries dates from Francis preaching at Canari, a small town near Assisi, where the whole population wished en masse to enter the Franciscan order and desert their life and duties in society. Francis refused to permit tliis, but to assist them framed a third rule to serve as a religious guide. Its provisions resemble the rules commonly found in pious books with which the present ritualistic movement has made us familiar, and the associations of Tertiaries may be compared with the guilds now found in connexion with many High Church congregations. These Tertiaries believed that they were imitating not Christ but his early disciples ; they had to spend some time in novitiate, and then vowed obedience to the third rule, which enjoined that they were to wear poor clothing of an unobtrusive colour, without worldly ornament of any kind. It forbade them to bear arms save for the defence of the church or their country. It prohibited attendance at fetes, balls, dancing parties, and the theatre. It forbade meat on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It enjoined fasting at Lent and Advent, and at other times only two meals a-day. The hours of devotion and the devotional exercises were pre scribed. Tertiaries were bound to attend mass and preach ing at least once a month, to go to confession and holy communion at least thrice a year, and to attend the funerals of their fellows. This third order was very successful, but it is worth noticing that the common people, after the first burst of enthusiasm, seemed unable to distinguish the Tertiaries from the Fratricelli and Beghards, who professed a somewhat similar mode of life, and had been condemned by various popes. At some period of their existence, when it is difficult to say, many of the Tertiaries began to practise the monastic life, and to take the vow of chastity in addition to the third rule. Convents of the third rule were in existence in the 15th century, and in 1433 brethren living under this rule were permitted to choose a general. The earlier bulls per mitting such confraternities were at first generally addressed to penitents living in particular countries, and the divisions of the brethren take generally a local name. There were, for example, the religious penitents of the third order of St Francis of the regular observance in Italy, in Sicily, Dal- matia, and Istria, and in the Low Countries ; these three were united in the congregation of Lombardy. There were besides the congregations of Germany, Spain, Portugal, and France. Congregations were also formed to observe the rula with complete and literal strictness. The Tertiaries included women as well as men, and these also began to take a special vow of chastity and live in cloisters. One branch of these includes the lay sisters in the ordinary con vents of the Poor Clares, who devote themselves to menial work. Their foundress was Elizabeth of Hungary. Another branch was founded by Angeline of Corbaro, and has convents of its own. There are also the Grey Sisters, the Recollectines, and several other congregations, who live in cloisters under regular government, but practise the third and not the second rule. From the beginning of the move ment the Tertiaries were charged to take special care of the poor, the sick, and the aged ; and several confraternities, both of men and of women, have been formed, who live; under the third rule, and devote themselves to hospital work. Besides these three orders of Friars, Knns, and Tertiaries, the Franciscans may also be said to include one or two orders of minor importance which trace their origin to Francis, such, for example, as the Chevaliers of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and the Archiconfraternity of the Stigmata of St Francis, but they are of minor importance. The Franciscan soon became one of the most important of the medieval monastic orders, It had a peculiar charac ter, and attracted minds of the sympathetic mystical cast. This led to its curious connexion with many of the mediieval heretical sects. The Franciscan theology was also peculiar. It had the same Pelagian characteristics that distinguish the modern Jesuit theology, which has done little move than develop the Franciscan ideas on the immaculate con ception, the doctrines of freedom and grace, Ac. During the Middle Ages the Franciscans, however, furnished many strong opponents to the papal theology and ecclesiastical claims. The order has produced a long array of distin guished theologians and churchmen, Bonaventura, Alex ander of Hales, John Duns Scotus, and William of Occam were all Franciscans. W r adding, the great historian of the Franciscans, has filled a folio volume with names of distin guished members of the order. Authorities. &quot;Wadding, Annalcs Minorum, 22 vols. fol., and Brother Anthony s Supplement; Tossinian, Historia Srraphicn- ; Dominic de Gubernatis, Orbis Sfraphicns ; Helyot, Histoirc des Ordrcs Monastiqucs, vol. vii. ; Jl arianus, Chronic. Obscrr. Strictior. ct llrftrm. ; Bovcrius, Annal. Fr. F. Min. Capucinorum ; Brewer s Monument a Franciscana ; Hase, Franz v. Assisi, tin Heiligcnbild, 1864; Mrs Oliphant s Life of Francis of Assist ; Maclcav s History of Christian Missions in the. Middle Ages (where the mission work of St Francis has been well described, chap. 16); Mrs Jameson s Legends of the Monastic Orders as represented in the Fine Arts; Milman s Latin Christianity, bk. ix. chap. 9. (T. M. L. ) FRANCISQUE. Jean Francois Millet (c, 1644-1680), commonly called Francisque, was born at Antwerp about 1644, and is generally classed amongst the painters of Flanders on account of the accident of his birth. But his father was a Frenchman, a turner in ivory of Dijon, who took service with the prince of Cond6, and probably re turned after a time to his native country. He remained long enough in Antwerp to apprentice his son to an obscure member of a painter family called Laurent, pupil of Gabriel Franck. AVith Laurent Franck Francisque left Antwerp for Paris, and there settled after marrying his master s daughter, He was received a member of the Academy of Painting at Paris in 1673, and after gaining consideration as an imitator of the Poussins he died in 1680, bequeathing his art and some of his talents to one of his sons. Fran cisque probably knew, as well as imitated, Nicolas Poussin, Caspar Dughet, and Sebastian Bourdon ; and it is doubt less because of his acquaintance with these travelled artists that, being himself without familiarity with the classic lands of Italy and Greece, he was able to imagine and reproduce Italian and Arcadian scenery with considerable grace and effectiveness. It is indeed surprising to observe, oven at this day, how skilfully he executed these imaginary sub jects, enlivened them with appropriate figures, and shed