Chapter VIII: Part 8

AUTHORITIES.--For the official acts of the reign, the _Catalogue des
actes de Francois I^er_, published by the Academie des Sciences
morales et politiques (Paris, 1887-1907), is a valuable guide. The
_Bibliotheque Nationale_, the _National Archives_, &c., contain a mass
of unpublished documents. Of the published documents, see N. Camuzat,
_Meslanges historiques_ ... (Troyes, 1619); G. Ribier, _Lettres et
memoires d'estat_ (Paris, 1666); _Letters de Marguerite d'Angouleme_,
ed. by F. Genin (Paris, 1841 and 1842); the _Correspondence of
Castillon and Marillac_ (ed. by Kaulek, Paris, 1885), of _Odet de
Selve_ (ed. by Lefevre-Pontalis, Paris, 1888), and of _Guillaume
Pellicier_ (ed. by Tausserat-Radel, Paris, 1900); _Captivite du roi
Francois I^er_, and _Poesies de Francois I^er_ (both ed. by
Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1847, of doubtful authenticity); _Relations
des ambassadeurs venitiens_, &c. Of the memoirs and chronicles, see
the journal of Louise of Savoy in S. Guichenon's _Histoire de la
maison de Savoie_, vol. iv. (ed. of 1778-1780); _Journal de Jean
Barillon_, ed. by de Vaissiere (Paris, 1897-1899); _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, ed. by Lalanne (Paris, 1854); _Cronique du roy
Francois I^er_, ed. by Guiffrey (Paris, 1868); and the memoirs of
Fleuranges, Montluc, Tavannes, Vieilleville, Brantome and especially
Martin du Bellay (coll. Michaud and Poujoulat). Of the innumerable
secondary authorities, see especially Paulin Paris, _Etudes sur le
regne de Francois I^er_ (Paris, 1885), in which the apologetic
tendency is excessive; and H. Lemonnier in vol. v. (Paris, 1903-1904)
of E. Lavisse's _Histoire de France_, which gives a list of the
principal secondary authorities. There is a more complete
bibliographical study by V.L. Bourrilly in the _Revue d'histoire
moderne et contemporaine_, vol. iv. (1902-1903). The printed sources
have been catalogued by H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de
France, XVI^e siecle_, tome ii. (Paris, 1907). (J. I.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1]On this point see Paulin Paris, _Etudes sur le regne de Francois
I^er_.

FRANCIS II. (1544-1560), king of France, eldest son of Henry II. and of Catherine de' Medici, was born at Fontainebleau on the 19th of January 1544. He married the famous Mary Stuart, daughter of James V. of Scotland, on the 25th of April 1558, and ascended the French throne on the 10th of July 1559. During his short reign the young king, a sickly youth and of feeble understanding, was the mere tool of his uncles Francis, duke of Guise, and Charles, cardinal of Lorraine, into whose hands he virtually delivered the reins of government. The exclusiveness with which they were favoured, and their high-handed proceedings, awakened the resentment of the princes of the blood, Anthony king of Navarre and Louis prince of Conde, who gave their countenance to a conspiracy (conspiracy of Amboise) with the Protestants against the house of Guise. It was, however, discovered shortly before the time fixed for its execution in March 1560, and an ambush having been prepared, most of the conspirators were either killed or taken prisoners. Its leadership and organization had been entrusted to Godfrey de Barri, lord of la Renaudie (d. 1560); and the prince of Conde, who was not present, disavowed all connexion with the plot. The duke of Guise was now named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, but his Catholic leanings were somewhat held in check by the chancellor Michel de l'Hopital, through whose mediation the edict of Romorantin, providing that all cases of heresy should be decided by the bishops, was passed in May 1560, in opposition to a proposal to introduce the Inquisition. At a meeting of the states-general held at Orleans in the December following, the prince of Conde, after being arrested, was condemned to death, and extreme measures were being enacted against the Huguenots; but the deliberations of the Assembly were broken off, and the prince was saved from execution, by the king's somewhat sudden death, on the 5th of the month, from an abscess in the ear.

PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES.--"Lettres de Catherine de Medicis," edited by
Hector de la Ferriere (1880 seq.), and "Negociations ... relatives au
regne de Francois II," edited by Louis Paris (1841), both in the
_Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoire de France_; notice of
Francis, duke of Guise, in the _Nouvelle Collection des memoires pour
servir a l'histoire de France_, edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F.
Poujoulat, series i. vol. vi. (1836 seq.); _Memoires de Conde servant
d'eclaircissement ... a l'histoire de M. de Thou_, vols. i and ii.
(1743); Pierre de la Place, _Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et
de la republique sous les rois Henri II, Francois II, Charles IX_
(1565); and Louis Regnier de la Planche, _Histoire de l'estat de
France ... sous ... Francois II (Pantheon litteraire_, new edition,
1884). See also Ernest Lavisse, _Histoire de France_ (vol. vi. by J.H.
Mariejol, 1904), which contains a bibliography.

FRANCIS I. (1777-1830), king of the Two Sicilies, was the son of Ferdinand IV. (I.) and Maria Carolina of Austria. He married Clementina, daughter of the emperor Leopold II. of Austria, in 1796, and at her death Isabella, daughter of Charles IV. of Spain. After the Bourbon family fled from Naples to Sicily in 1806, and Lord William Bentinck, the British resident, had established a constitution and deprived Ferdinand IV. of all power, Francis was appointed regent (1812). On the fall of Napoleon his father returned to Naples and suppressed the Sicilian constitution and autonomy, incorporating his two kingdoms into that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis then assumed the revived title of duke of Calabria. While still heir-apparent he professed liberal ideas, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1820 he accepted the regency apparently in a friendly spirit towards the new constitution. But he was playing a double game and proved to be the accomplice of his father's treachery. On succeeding to the throne in 1825 he cast aside the mask of liberalism and showed himself as reactionary as his father. He took little part in the government, which he left in the hands of favourites and police officials, and lived with his mistresses, surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread of assassination. During his reign the only revolutionary movement was the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), savagely repressed by the marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal turned reactionary.

See Nisco, _Il Reame di Napoli sotto Francesco I_ (Naples, 1893).

FRANCIS II. (1836-1894), king of the Two Sicilies, son of Ferdinand II. and Maria Cristina of Savoy, was the last of the Bourbon kings of Naples. His education had been much neglected and he proved a man of weak character, greatly influenced by his stepmother Maria Theresa of Austria, by the priests, and by the _Camarilla_, or reactionary court set. He ascended the throne on the death of his father (22nd of May 1859). As prime minister he at once appointed Carlo Filangieri, who, realizing the importance of the Franco-Piedmontese victories in Lombardy, advised Francis to accept the alliance with Piedmont proposed by Cavour. On the 7th of June a part of the Swiss Guard mutinied, and while the king mollified them by promising to redress their grievances, General Nunziante collected other troops, who surrounded the mutineers and shot them down. The incident resulted in the disbanding of the whole Swiss Guard, the strongest bulwark of the dynasty. Cavour again proposed an alliance to divide the papal states between Piedmont and Naples, the province of Rome excepted, but Francis rejected an idea which to him savoured of sacrilege. Filangieri strongly advocated a constitution as the only measure which might save the dynasty, and on the king's refusal he resigned. Meanwhile the revolutionary parties were conspiring for the overthrow of the Bourbons in Calabria and Sicily, and Garibaldi was preparing for a raid in the south. A conspiracy in Sicily was discovered and the plotters punished with brutal severity, but Rosalino Pilo and Francesco Crispi had organized the movement, and when Garibaldi landed at Marsala (May 1860) he conquered the island with astonishing ease. These events at last frightened Francis into granting a constitution, but its promulgation was followed by disorders in Naples and the resignation of ministers, and Liborio Romano became head of the government. The disintegration of the army and navy proceeded apace, and Cavour sent a Piedmontese squadron carrying troops on board to watch events. Garibaldi, who had crossed the straits of Messina, was advancing northwards and was everywhere received by the people as a liberator. Francis, after long hesitations and even an appeal to Garibaldi himself, left Naples (6th of September) with his wife Maria Sophia, the court, the diplomatic corps (the French and English ministers excepted), and went by sea to Gaeta, where a large part of the army was concentrated. The next day Garibaldi entered Naples, was enthusiastically welcomed, and formed a provisional government. King Victor Emmanuel had decided on the invasion of the papal states, and after occupying Romagna and the Marche entered the Neapolitan kingdom. Garibaldi's troops defeated the Neapolitan royalists on the Volturno (1st and 2nd of October), while the Piedmontese captured Capua. Only Gaeta, Messina, and Civitella del Tronto still held out, and the siege of the former by the Piedmontese began on the 6th of November 1860. Both Francis and Maria Sophia behaved with great coolness and courage, and even when the French fleet, whose presence had hitherto prevented an attack by sea, was withdrawn, they still resisted; it was not until the 12th of February 1861 that the fortress capitulated. Thus the kingdom of Naples was incorporated in that of Italy, and the royal pair from that time forth led a wandering life in Austria, France and Bavaria. Francis died on the 27th of December 1894 at Arco in Tirol. His widow survived him.

Francis II. was weak-minded, stupid and vacillating, but, although his short reign was stained with some cruel massacres and persecutions, he was less of a tyrant than his father. The courage and dignity he displayed during his reverses inspired pity and respect. But the fact that he protected brigandage in his former dominions and countenanced the most abominable crimes in the name of legitimism greatly diminished the sympathy which was felt for the fallen monarch.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--R. de Cesare, _La Fine d'un regno_, vol. ii. (Citta di
Castello, 1900) gives a detailed account of the reign of Francis II.,
while H.R. Whitehouse's _Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples_ (New York,
1899) may be recommended to English readers; Nisco's _Francesco II_
(Naples, 1887) should also be consulted. See under NAPLES; GARIBALDI;
BIXIO; CAVOUR; ITALY; FILANGIERI; &c. (L. V.*)

FRANCIS IV. (1779-1846) duke of Modena, was the son of the archduke Ferdinand, Austrian governor of Lombardy, who acquired the duchy of Modena through his wife Marie Beatrice, heiress of the house of Este as well as of many fiefs of the Malaspina, Pio da Carpi, Pico della Mirandola, Cibo, and other families. At the time of the French invasion (1796) Francis was sent to Vienna to be educated, and in 1809 was appointed governor of Galicia. Later he went to Sardinia, where the exiled King Victor Emmanuel I. and his wife Maria Theresa were living in retirement. The latter arranged a marriage between her daughter Marie Beatrice and Francis, and a secret family compact was made whereby if the king and his two brothers died without male issue, the Salic law would be changed so that Francis should succeed to the kingdom instead of Charles Albert of Carignano (N. Bianchi, _Storia della diplomazia europea in Italia_, i. 42-43). On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis received the duchy of Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his mother's advice was "to be above the law ... never to forgive the Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects, whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they are" (Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in _Rivista europea_, Florence, 1880).

The duke was well received at Modena; inordinately ambitious, strong-willed, immensely rich, avaricious but not unintelligent, he soon proved one of the most reactionary despots in Italy. He still hoped to acquire either Piedmont or some other part of northern Italy, and he was in touch with the Sanfedisti and the Concistoro, reactionary Catholic associations opposed to the Carbonari, but not always friendly to Austria. Against the Carbonari and other Liberals he issued the severest edicts, and although there was no revolt at Modena in 1821 as in Piedmont and Naples, he immediately instituted judicial proceedings against the supposed conspirators. Some 350 persons were arrested and tortured, 56 being condemned to death (only a few of them were executed) and 237 to imprisonment; a large number, however, escaped, including Antonio Panizzi (afterwards director of the British Museum). The ferocious police official Besini who conducted the trials was afterwards murdered. The duke actually proposed to Prince Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, an agreement whereby the various Italian rulers were to arrest every Liberal in the country on a certain day, but the project fell through owing to opposition from the courts of Florence and Rome. At the congress of Verona Metternich made another attempt to secure the Piedmontese succession for Francis, but without success. The duke became ever more despotic; Modena swarmed with spies and informers, education was hampered, feudalism strengthened; for the duke hoped to consolidate his power by means of the nobility, and the least expression of liberalism, or even failure to denounce a Carbonaro, involved arrest and imprisonment. But strange to say, in 1830 we find Francis actually coquetting with revolution. Having lost all hope of acquiring the Piedmontese throne, he entered into negotiations with the French Orleanist party with a view to obtaining its support in his plans for extending his dominions. He was thus brought into touch with Ciro Menotti (1798-1831) and the Modenese Liberals; what the nature of the connexion was is still obscure, but it was certainly short-lived and merely served to betray the Carbonari. As soon as Francis learned that a conspiracy was on foot to gain possession of the town, he had Menotti and several other conspirators arrested on the night of the 3rd of February 1831, and sent the famous message to the governor of Reggio: "The conspirators are in my hands; send me the hangman" (there is some doubt as to the authenticity of the actual words). But the revolt broke out in other parts of the duchy and in Romagna, and Francis retired to Mantua with Menotti. A provisional government was formed at Modena which proclaimed that "Italy is one," but the duke returned a few weeks later with Austrian troops, and resistance was easily quelled. Then the political trials began; Menotti and two others were executed, and hundreds condemned to imprisonment. The population was now officially divided into four classes, viz. "very loyal, loyal, less loyal, and disloyal," and the reaction became worse than ever, the duke interfering in the minutest details of administration, such as hospitals, schools, and roads. New methods of procedure were introduced to deal with political trials, but the ministerial cabal by which the country was administered intrigued and squabbled to such an extent that it had to be dismissed.

On the 20th of February 1846 Francis died. Although he had many domestic virtues and charming manners, was charitable in times of famine, and was certainly the ablest of the Italian despots, Liberalism was in his eyes the most heinous of crimes, and his reign is one long record of barbarous persecution. (L. V.*)

FRANCIS V. (1819-1875), duke of Modena, son of Francis IV., succeeded his father in 1846. Although less cruel and also less intelligent than his father, he had an equally high opinion of his own authority. His reign began with disturbances at Fivizzano and Pontremoli, which Tuscany surrendered to him according to treaty but against the wishes of the inhabitants (1847), and at Massa and Carrara, where the troops shot down the people. Feeling his position insecure, the duke asked for and obtained an Austrian garrison, but on the outbreak of revolution throughout Italy and at Vienna in 1848, further disorders occurred in the duchy, and on the 20th of March he fled with his family to Mantua. A provisional government was formed, and volunteers were raised who fought with the Piedmontese against Austria. But after the Piedmontese defeat Francis returned to Modena, with Austrian assistance, in August and conferred many appointments on Austrian officers. Like his father, he interfered in the minutest details of administration, and instituted proceedings against all who were suspected of Liberalism. Not content with the severity of his judges, he overrode their sentences in favour of harsher punishments. The disturbances at Carrara were ruthlessly suppressed, and the prisons filled with politicals. In 1859 numbers of young Modenese fled across the frontier to join the Piedmontese army, as war with Austria seemed imminent; and after the Austrian defeat at Magenta the duke left Modena to lead his army in person against the Piedmontese, taking with him the contents of the state treasury and many valuable books, pictures, coins, tapestries and furniture from the palace. The events of 1859-1860 made his return impossible; and after a short spell of provisional government the duchy was united to Italy. He retired to Austria, and died at Munich in November 1875.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--N. Bianchi, _I Ducati Estensi_ (Turin, 1852); Galvani,
_Memorie di S.A.R. Francesco IV_ (Modena, 1847); _Documenti
riguardanti il governo degli Austro-Estensi in Modena_ (Modena, 1860);
C. Tivaroni, _L'Italia durante il dominio austriaco_, i. 606-653
(Turin, 1892), and _L'Italia degli Italiani_, i. 114-125 (Turin,
1895); Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in the _Rivista europea_ (Florence,
1880); F.A. Gualterio, _Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani_ (Florence,
1850); Bayard de Volo, _Vita di Francesco V_ (4 vols., Modena,
1878-1885). (L. V.*)

FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. (1181 or 1182-1226), founder of the Franciscans (q.v.), was born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one of the independent municipal towns of Umbria. He came from the upper middle class, his father, named Pietro Bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of the city. Bernardone's commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, and it was from the fact that the father was in France at the time of his son's birth that the latter was called Francesco. His education appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. It is difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers imply that his youth was not free from irregularities; in any case, he was the recognized leader of the young men of the town in their revels; he was, however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. When he was twenty (1201) the neighbouring and rival city of Perugia attempted to restore by force of arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by the burghers and the populace, and Francis took part in the battle fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men of Assisi were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. He spent a year in prison at Perugia, and when peace was made at the end of 1202 he returned to Assisi and recommenced his old life.

Soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during which he entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. On his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the first day's march he fell ill, and had to stay at Spoleto and return to Assisi. This disappointment brought on again the spiritual crisis he had experienced in his illness, and for a considerable time the conflict went on within him. One day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after it they sallied forth with torches, singing through the streets, Francis being crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in a trance or reverie, a permanently altered man. He devoted himself to solitude, prayer and the service of the poor, and before long went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Finding the usual crowd of beggars before St Peter's, he exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering joy in spending the day begging among the rest. The determining episode of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as he was riding he met a leper who begged an alms; Francis had always had a special horror of lepers, and turning his face he rode on; but immediately an heroic act of self-conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, gave the leper all the money he had about him, and kissed his hand. From that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the hospitals. To the confusion of his father and brothers he went about dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud. Things soon came to a climax with his father: in consequence of his profuse alms to the poor and to the restoration of the ruined church of St Damian, his father feared his property would be dissipated, so he took Francis before the bishop of Assisi to have him legally disinherited; but without waiting for the documents to be drawn up, Francis cast off his clothes and gave them back to his father, declaring that now he had better reason to say "Our Father which art in heaven," and having received a cloak from the bishop, he went off into the woods of Mount Subasio singing a French song; some brigands accosted him and he told them he was the herald of the great king (1206).

The next three years he spent in the neighbourhood of Assisi in abject poverty and want, ministering to the lepers and the outcasts of society. It was now that he began to frequent the ruined little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, known as the Portiuncula, where much of his time was passed in prayer. One day while Mass was being said therein, the words of the Gospel came to Francis as a call: "Everywhere on your road preach and say--The kingdom of God is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. Freely have you received, freely give. Carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your girdles, nor bag, nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his hire" (Matt. x. 7-10). He at once felt that this was his vocation, and the next day, layman as he was, he went up to Assisi and began to preach to the poor (1209). Disciples joined him, and when they were twelve in number Francis said: "Let us go to our Mother, the holy Roman Church, and tell the pope what the Lord has begun to do through us, and carry it out with his sanction." They obtained the sanction of Innocent III., and returning to Assisi they gave themselves up to their life of apostolic preaching and work among the poor.

The character and development of the order are traced in the article FRANCISCANS; here the story of Francis's own life and the portrayal of his personality will be attempted. To delineate in a few words the character of the Poverello of Assisi is indeed a difficult task. There is such a many-sided richness, such a tenderness, such a poetry, such an originality, such a distinction revealed by the innumerable anecdotes in the memoirs of his disciples, that his personality is brought home to us as one of the most lovable and one of the strongest of men. It is probably true to say that no one has ever set himself so seriously to imitate the life of Christ and to carry out so literally Christ's work in Christ's own way. This was the secret of his love of poverty as manifested in the following beautiful prayer which he addressed to our Lord: "Poverty was in the crib and like a faithful squire she kept herself armed in the great combat Thou didst wage for our redemption. During Thy passion she alone did not forsake Thee. Mary Thy Mother stopped at the foot of the Cross, but poverty mounted it with Thee and clasped Thee in her embrace unto the end; and when Thou wast dying of thirst, as a watchful spouse she prepared for Thee the gall. Thou didst expire in the ardour of her embraces, nor did she leave Thee when dead, O Lord Jesus, for she allowed not Thy body to rest elsewhere than in a borrowed grave. O poorest Jesus, the grace I beg of Thee is to bestow on me the treasure of the highest poverty. Grant that the distinctive mark of our Order may be never to possess anything as its own under the sun for the glory of Thy name, and to have no other patrimony than begging" (in the _Legenda 3 Soc._). This enthusiastic love of poverty is certainly the keynote of St Francis's spirit; and so one of his disciples in an allegorical poem (translated into English as _The Lady of Poverty_ by Montgomery Carmichael, 1901), and Giotto in one of the frescoes at Assisi, celebrated the "holy nuptials of Francis with Lady Poverty."

Another striking feature of Francis's character was his constant joyousness; it was a precept in his rule, and one that he enforced strictly, that his friars should be always rejoicing in the Lord. He retained through life his early love of song, and during his last illness he passed much of his time in singing. His love of nature, animate and inanimate, was very keen and manifested itself in ways that appear somewhat naive. His preaching to the birds is a favourite representation of St Francis in art. All creatures he called his "brothers" or "sisters"--the chief example is the poem of the "Praises of the Creatures," wherein "brother Sun," "sister Moon," "brother Wind," and "sister Water" are called on to praise God. In his last illness he was cauterized, and on seeing the burning iron he addressed "brother Fire," reminding him how he had always loved him and asking him to deal kindly with him. It would be an anachronism to think of Francis as a philanthropist or a "social worker" or a revivalist preacher, though he fulfilled the best functions of all these. Before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic--an ascetic who, though gentle to others, wore out his body by self-denial, so much so that when he came to die he begged pardon of "brother Ass the body" for having unduly ill treated it: a mystic irradiated with the love of God, endowed in an extraordinary degree with the spirit of prayer, and pouring forth his heart by the hour in the tenderest affections to God and our Lord. St Francis was a deacon but not a priest.

From the return of Francis and his eleven companions from Rome to Assisi in 1209 or 1210, their work prospered in a wonderful manner. The effect of their preaching, and their example and their work among the poor, made itself felt throughout Umbria and brought about a great religious revival. Great numbers came to join the new order which responded so admirably to the needs of the time. In 1212 Francis invested St Clara (q.v.) with the Franciscan habit, and so instituted the "Second Order," that of the nuns. As the friars became more and more numerous their missionary labours extended wider and wider, spreading first over Italy, and then to other countries. Francis himself set out, probably in 1212, for the Holy Land to preach the Gospel to the Saracens, but he was shipwrecked and had to return. A year or two later he went into Spain to preach to the Moors, but had again to return without accomplishing his object (1215 probably). After another period of preaching in Italy and watching over the development of the order, Francis once again set out for the East (1219). This time he was successful; he made his way to Egypt, where the crusaders were besieging Damietta, got himself taken prisoner and was led before the sultan, to whom he openly preached the Gospel. The sultan sent him back to the Christian camp, and he passed on to the Holy Land. Here he remained until September 1220. During his absence were manifested the beginnings of the troubles in the order that were to attain to such magnitude after his death. The circumstances under which, at an extraordinary general chapter convoked by him shortly after his return, he resigned the office of minister-general (September 1220) are explained in the article FRANCISCANS: here, as illustrating the spirit of the man, it is in place to cite the words in which his abdication was couched: "Lord, I give Thee back this family which Thou didst entrust to me. Thou knowest, most sweet Jesus, that I have no more the power and the qualities to continue to take care of it. I entrust it, therefore, to the ministers. Let them be responsible before Thee at the Day of Judgment, if any brother by their negligence, or their bad example, or by a too severe punishment, shall go astray." These words seem to contain the mere truth: Francis's peculiar religious genius was probably not adapted for the government of an enormous society spread over the world, as the Friars Minor had now become.

The chief works of the next years were the revision and final redaction of the Rule and the formation or organization of the "Third Order" or "Brothers and Sisters of Penance," a vast confraternity of lay men and women who tried to carry out, without withdrawing from the world, the fundamental principles of Franciscan life (see TERTIARIES).

If for no other reason than the prominent place they hold in art, it would not be right to pass by the Stigmata without a special mention. The story is well known; two years before his death Francis went up Mount Alverno in the Apennines with some of his disciples, and after forty days of fasting and prayer and contemplation, on the morning of the 14th of September 1224 (to use Sabatier's words), "he had a vision: in the warm rays of the rising sun he discerned suddenly a strange figure. A seraph with wings extended flew towards him from the horizon and inundated him with pleasure unutterable. At the centre of the vision appeared a cross, and the seraph was nailed to it. When the vision disappeared Francis felt sharp pains mingling with the delights of the first moment. Disturbed to the centre of his being he anxiously sought the meaning of it all, and then he saw on his body the Stigmata of the Crucified." The early authorities represent the Stigmata not as bleeding wounds, the holes as it were of the nails, but as fleshy excrescences resembling in form and colour the nails, the head on the palm of the hand, and on the back as it were a nail hammered down. In the first edition of the _Vie_, Sabatier rejected the Stigmata; but he changed his mind, and in the later editions he accepts their objective reality as an historically established fact; in an appendix he collects the evidence: there exists what is according to all probability an autograph of Br. Leo, the saint's favourite disciple and companion on Mount Alverno at the time, which describes the circumstances of the stigmatization; Elias of Cortona (q.v.), the acting superior, wrote on the day after his death a circular letter wherein he uses language clearly implying that he had himself seen the Stigmata, and there is a considerable amount of contemporary authentic second hand evidence. On the strength of this body of evidence Sabatier rejects all theories of fraud or hallucination, whatever may be the explanation of the phenomena.

Francis was so exhausted by the sojourn on Mount Alverno that he had to be carried back to Assisi. The remaining months of his life were passed in great bodily weakness and suffering, and he became almost blind. However, he worked on with his wonted cheerfulness and joyousness. At last, on the 3rd of October 1226, he died in the Portiuncula at the age of forty-five. Two years later he was canonized by Gregory IX., whom, as Cardinal Hugolino of Ostia, he had chosen to be the protector of his order.

The works of St Francis consist of the Rule (in two redactions), the Testament, spiritual admonitions, canticles and a few letters. They were first edited by Wadding in 1623. Two critical editions were published in 1904, one by the Franciscans of Quaracchi near Florence, the other (in a longer and a shorter form) by Professor H. Boehmer of Bonn. Sabatier and Goetz (see below) have investigated the authenticity of the several works; and the four lists, while exhibiting slight variations, are in substantial accord. Besides the works, properly so called, there is a considerable amount of traditional matter--anecdotes, sayings, sermons--preserved in the biographies and in the _Fioretti_;[1] a great deal of this matter is no doubt substantially authentic, but it is not possible to subject it to any critical sifting.

_Note on Sources._--The sources for the life of St Francis and early
Franciscan history are very numerous, and an immense literature has
grown up around them. Any attempt to indicate even a selection of this
literature would here be impossible and also futile; for the discovery
of new documents has by no means ceased, and the criticism of the
materials is still in full progress, nor can it be said that final
results have yet emerged from the discussion. Students will find the
chief materials in the following collections: _Archiv fuer Litteratur
und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters_ (ed. by Ehrle and Denifle,
1885, &c.); publications of the Franciscans of Quaracchi (list to be
obtained from Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau); and the two series edited
by Paul Sabatier, _Collection d'etudes et de documents sur l'histoire
religieuse et litteraire du moyen age_ (5 vols. published up to 1906)
and _Opuscules de critique historique_ (12 fascicules): the easiest
and most consecutive way of following the controversy is by the aid of
the "Bulletin Hagiographique" in _Analecta Bollandiana_. Relatively
popular accounts of the most important sources are supplied in the
introductory chapters of Sabatier's _Vie de S. Francois_ and _Speculum
perfectionis_, and Lempp's _Frere Elie de Cortone_.

Concerning the life of St Francis and the beginnings of the order, the
chief documents that come under discussion are: the two _Lives_ by
Thomas of Celano (1228 and 1248 respectively; Eng. trans. with
introduction by A.G. Ferrers Howell, 1908), of which the only critical
edition is that of Friar Ed. d'Alencon (1906); the so-called _Legenda
trium sociorum_; the _Speculum perfectionis_, discovered by Paul
Sabatier and edited in 1898 (Eng. trans. by Sebastian Evans, _Mirror
of Perfection_, 1899). Sabatier's theory as to the nature of these
documents was, in brief, that the _Speculum perfectionis_ was the
first of all the Lives of the saint, written in 1227 by Br. Leo, his
favourite and most intimate disciple, and that the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is
what it claims to be--the handiwork of Leo and the two other most
intimate companions of Francis, compiled in 1246; these are the most
authentic and the only true accounts, Thomas of Celano's Lives being
written precisely in opposition to them, in the interests of the
majority of the order that favoured mitigations of the Rule especially
in regard to poverty. For ten years the domain of Franciscan origins
was explored and discussed by a number of scholars; and then the whole
ground was reviewed by Professor W. Goetz of Munich in a study
entitled _Die Quellen zur Geschichte des hl. Franz von Assisi_ (1904).
His conclusions are substantially the same as those of Pere van
Ortroy, the Bollandist, and Friar Lemmens, an Observant Franciscan,
and are the direct contrary of Sabatier's: the _Legenda 3 Soc._ is a
forgery; the _Speculum perfectionis_ is a compilation made in the 14th
century, also in large measure a forgery, but containing an element
(not to be precisely determined) derived from Br. Leo; on the other
hand, Thomas of Celano's two Lives are free from the "tendencies"
ascribed to them by Sabatier, and that of 1248 was written with the
collaboration of Leo and the other companions; thus the best sources
of information are those portions of the _Speculum_ that can with
certainty be carried back to Br. Leo, and the Lives by Thomas of
Celano, especially the second _Life_. Goetz's criticism of the
documents is characterized by exceeding carefulness and sobriety. Of
course he does not suppose that his conclusions are in all respects
final; but his investigations show that the time has not yet come when
a biography of St Francis could be produced answering to the demands
of modern historical criticism. The official life of St Francis is St
Bonaventura's _Legenda_, published in a convenient form by the
Franciscans of Quaracchi (1898); Goetz's estimate of it (op. cit.) is
much more favourable than Sabatier's.

Paul Sabatier's fascinating and in many ways sympathetic _Vie de S.
Francois_ (1894; 33rd ed., 1906; Eng. trans, by L.S. Houghton, 1901)
will probably for a long time to come be accepted by the ordinary
reader as a substantially correct portrait of St Francis; and yet
Goetz declares that the most competent and independent critics have
without any exception pronounced that Sabatier has depicted St Francis
a great deal too much from the standpoint of modern religiosity, and
has exaggerated his attitude in face of the church (op. cit. p. 5). In
articles in the _Hist. Vierteljahrsschrift_ (1902, 1903) Goetz has
shown that Sabatier's presentation of St Francis's relations with the
ecclesiastical authority in general, and with Cardinal Hugolino
(Gregory IX.) in particular, is largely based on misconception; that
the development of the order was not forced on Francis against his
will; and that the differences in the order did not during Francis's
lifetime attain to such a magnitude as to cause him during his last
years the suffering depicted by Sabatier. This from a Protestant
historian like Goetz is most valuable criticism. In truth Sabatier's
St Francis is an anachronism--a man at heart, a modern pietistic
French Protestant of the most liberal type, with a veneer of 13th
century Catholicism.

Of lives of St Francis in English may be mentioned those by Mrs
Oliphant (2nd ed., 1871) and by Canon Knox Little (1897). For general
information and references to the literature of the subject, see Otto
Zoeckler, _Askese und Moenchtum_ (1897), ii. 470-493, and his article in
Herzog's _Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3), "Franz von Assisi" (1899); also
Max Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. Sec. 38. The
chapter on St Francis in Emile Gebhart's _Italie mystique_ (ed. 3,
1899) is very remarkable; indeed, though this writer is as little
ecclesiastically-minded as Sabatier himself, his general picture of
the state of religion in Italy at the time is far truer; here also
Sabatier has given way to the usual temptation of biographers to exalt
their hero by depreciating everybody else. (E. C. B.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _The Little Flowers of St Francis._

FRANCIS OF MAYRONE [FRANCISCUS DE MAYRONIS] (d. 1325), scholastic philosopher, was born at Mayrone in Provence. He entered the Franciscan order and subsequently went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Duns Scotus. At the Sorbonne he acquired a great reputation for ability in discussion, and was known as the _Doctor Illuminatus_ and _Magister Acutus_. He became a professor of philosophy, and took part in the discussions on the nature of Universals. Following Duns Scotus, he adopted the Platonic theory of ideas, and denied that Aristotle had made any contribution to metaphysical speculation. It is a curious commentary on the theories of Duns Scotus that one pupil, Francis, should have taken this course, while another pupil, Occam, should have used his arguments in a diametrically opposite direction and ended in extreme Nominalism.

His works were collected and published at Venice in 1520 under the
title _Praeclarissima ac multum subtilia scripta Illuminati Doctoris
Francisci de Mayronis, &c._

FRANCIS OF PAOLA (or PAULA), ST, founder of the Minims, a religious order in the Catholic Church, was born of humble parentage at Paola in Calabria in 1416, or according to the Bollandists 1438. As a boy he entered a Franciscan friary, but left it and went to live as a hermit in a cave on the seashore near Paola. Soon disciples joined him, and with the bishop's approval he built a church and monastery. At first they called themselves "Hermits of St Francis"; but the object they proposed to themselves was to go beyond even the strict Franciscans in fasts and bodily austerities of all kinds, in poverty and in humility; and therefore, as the Franciscans were the Minors (_minores_, less), the new order took the name of Minims (_minimi_, least). By 1474 a number of houses had been established in southern Italy and Sicily, and the order was recognized and approved by the pope. In 1482 Louis XI. of France, being on his deathbed and hearing the reports of the holiness of Francis, sent to ask him to come and attend him, and at the pope's command he travelled to Paris. On this occasion Philip de Comines in his _Memoirs_ says: "I never saw any man living so holily, nor out of whose mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly speak." He remained with Louis till his death, and Louis' successor, Charles VIII., held him in such high esteem that he kept him in Paris, and enabled him to found various houses of his order in France; in Spain and Germany, too, houses were founded during Francis's lifetime. He never left France, and died in 1507 in the monastery of his order at Plessis-les-Tours.

The Rule was so strict that the popes long hesitated to confirm it in its entirety; not until 1506 was it finally sanctioned. The most special feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual Lent of the strictest kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products--eggs, milk, butter, cheese, dripping--being forbidden, so that the diet was confined to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. Thus in matter of diet the Minims surpassed in austerity all orders in the West, and probably all permanently organized orders in the East. The strongly ascetical spirit of the Minims manifested itself in the title borne by the superiors of the houses--not abbot (father), or prior, or guardian, or minister, or rector, but corrector; and the general superior is the corrector general. Notwithstanding its extreme severity the order prospered. At the death of the founder it had five provinces--Italy, France, Tours, Germany, Spain. Later there were as many as 450 monasteries, and some missions in India. There never was a Minim house in England or Ireland. It ranks as one of the Mendicant orders. In 1909 there were some twenty monasteries, mostly in Sicily, but one in Rome (S. Andrea delle Fratte), and one in Naples, in Marseilles and in Cracow. There have been Minim nuns (only one convent has survived, till recently at Marseilles) and Minim Tertiaries, in imitation of the Franciscan Tertiaries. The habit of the Minims is black.

See Helyot, _Hist. des ordres religieux_ (1714), vii. c. 56; Max
Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. Sec. 52; the article
"Franz von Paula" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and
in Herzog, _Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. 3); Catholic _Dictionary_, art.
"Minims." (E. C. B.)

FRANCIS (FRANCOIS) OF SALES, ST (1567-1622), bishop of Geneva and doctor of the Church (1877), was born at the castle of Sales, near Annecy, Savoy. His father, also Francois, comte de Sales, but better known as M. de Boisy, a nobleman and soldier, had been employed in various affairs of state, but in 1560, at the age of thirty-eight, settled down on his ancestral estates and married Francoise de Sionnay, a Savoyard like himself, and an heiress. St Francis, the first child of this union, was born in August 1567 when his mother was in her fifteenth year. M. de Boisy was renowned for his experience and sound judgment, and both parents were distinguished by piety, love of peace, charity to the poor, qualities which early showed themselves in their eldest son.

He received his education first at La Roche, in the Arve valley, then at the college of Annecy, founded by Eustace Chappius, ambassador in England of Charles V., in 1549. At the age of thirteen or fourteen he went to the Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris, where he stayed till the summer of 1588, and where he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge, while perfecting himself in the exercises of a young nobleman and practising a life of exemplary virtue. At this time also he developed an ardent love of France, a country which was politically in antagonism with his own, though so closely linked to it geographically, socially and by language. At the end of 1588 he went to Padua, to take his degree in canon and civil law, a necessary prelude in Savoy at that time to distinction in a civil career. His heart, however, especially from the date of his receiving the tonsure (1578), was already turned towards the Church, and he gave his attention even more to theology, under the great masters Antonio Possevino, S.J., and Gesualdo, afterwards general of the Friars Minor, than to his legal course. "At Padua," he said to a friend, "I studied law to please my father, and theology to please myself." In that licentious university Francis found the greatest difficulty in resisting attacks on his virtue, and once at least had to draw his sword to defend his personal safety against a band of ruffians. The gentleness for which he was already renowned was not that of a weak, but of a strong character. He returned to Savoy in 1592, and, while seeking the occasion to overcome his father's resistance to his resolution of embracing the ecclesiastical profession, took the diploma of advocate to the senate. Meantime, without his knowledge, his friends procured for him the post of provost of the chapter of Geneva, an honour which reconciled M. de Boisy to the sacrifice of more ambitious hopes. After a year of zealous work as preacher and director he was sent by the bishop, Claude de Granier, to try and win back the province of Chablais, which had embraced Calvinism when usurped by Bern in 1535, and had retained it even after its restitution to Savoy in 1564. At first the people refused to listen to him, for he was represented to them as an instrument of Satan, and all who had dealings with him were threatened with the vengeance of the consistory. He therefore wrote out his message on sheets which were passed from hand to hand, and these, with the spectacle of his virtues and disinterestedness, soon produced a strong effect. The sheets just spoken of still exist in the Chigi library at Rome, and were published, though with many alterations, in 1672, under the title of _Les Controverses_. This must be considered the first work of St Francis.

The re-erection of a wayside cross in Annemasse, at the gates of Geneva, amid an enormous concourse of converts, an event which closed the three years of his apostolate, led to the composition of the _Defense ... de la Croix_, published in 1600. An illness brought on by toil and privation forced him to leave his work to others for nearly a year, but in August 1598 he returned to his field of labour, and in October of that year practically the whole country was Catholic again. Up to that time preaching and conference had been the only weapons employed. The stories of the use of soldiers to produce simulated conversions are incorrect.[1] Possibly the lamentable events of the campaigns of 1589 in Gex and Chablais have been applied to the period 1594-1598. In October of this last year, however, the duke of Savoy, who came then to assist in person at the great religious feasts which celebrated the return of the country to unity of faith, expatriated such of the leading men as obstinately refused even to listen to the Catholic arguments. He also forbade Calvinist ministers to reside in the Chablais, and substituted Catholic for Huguenot officials. St Francis concurred in these measures, and, three years later, even requested that those who, as he said, "follow their heresy, rather as a party than a religion," should be ordered either to conform or to leave their country, with leave to sell their goods. His conduct, judged not by a modern standard, but by the ideas of his age, will be found compatible with the highest Christian charity, as that of the duke with sound political prudence. At this time he was nominated to the pope as coadjutor of Geneva,[2] and after a visit to Rome he assisted Bishop de Granier in the administration of the newly converted countries and of the diocese at large.

In 1602 he made his second visit to the French capital, when his transcendent qualities brought him into the closest relations with the court of Henry IV., and made him the spiritual father of that circle of select souls who centred round Madame Acarie. Among the celebrated personages who became his life friends from this time were Pierre de Berulle, founder of the French Oratorians, Guillaume Duval, the scholar, and the duc de Bellegarde, the latter a special favourite of the king, who begged to be allowed to share the Saint's friendship. At this time also his gift as a preacher became fully recognized, and de Sanzea, afterwards bishop of Bethlehem, records that Duval exhorted all his students of the Sorbonne to listen to him and to imitate this, "the true and excellent method of preaching." His principles are expressed in the admirable letter to Andre Fremyot of October 1604.

De Granier died in September 1602, and the new bishop entered on the administration of his vast diocese, which, as a contemporary says, "he found brick and left marble." His first efforts were directed to securing a virtuous and well-instructed clergy, with its consequence of a people worthy of their pastors. All his time was spent in preaching, confessing, visiting the sick, relieving the poor. His zeal was not confined to his diocese. In concert with Jeanne Francoise Fremyot (1572-1641), widow of the baron de Chantal, whose acquaintance he made while preaching through Lent at Dijon in 1604, he founded the order of the Visitation, in favour of "strong souls with weak bodies," as he said, deterred from entering the orders already existing, by their inability to undertake severe corporal austerities. The institution rapidly spread, counting twenty houses before his death and eighty before that of St Jeanne. The care of his diocese and of his new foundation were not enough for his ardent charity, and in 1609 he published his famous _Introduction to a Devout Life_, a work which was at once translated into the chief European languages and of which he himself published five editions. In 1616 appeared his _Treatise on the Love of God_, which teaches that perfection of the spiritual life to which the former work is meant to be the "Introduction."

The important Lents of 1617 and 1618 at Grenoble were a prelude to a still more important apostolate in Paris, "the theatre of the world," as St Vincent de Paul calls it. This third visit to the great city lasted from the autumn of 1618 to that of 1619; the direct object of it was to assist in negotiating the marriage of the prince of Piedmont with Chretienne of France, but nearly all his time was spent in preaching and works of mercy, spiritual or corporal. He was regarded as a living saint. St Vincent scarcely left him, and has given the most extraordinary testimonies (as yet unpublished) of his heroic virtues. Mere Angelique Arnaud, who at this time put herself under his direction and wished to join the Order of the Visitation, attracted by its humility and sweetness, may be named as the most interesting of his innumerable penitents of this period. He returned to Savoy, and after three years more of unwearying labour died at Lyons on the 28th of December 1622. A universal outburst of veneration followed; indeed his cult had already begun, and after an episcopal inquiry the pontifical commission in view of his beatification was instituted by decree of the 21st of July 1626, a celerity unique in the annals of the Congregation of Rites. The depositions of witnesses were returned to Rome in 1632, but meantime the forms of the Roman chancery had been changed by Urban VIII., and the advocates could not at once continue their work. Eventually a new commission was issued in 1656, and on its report, into which were inserted nineteen of the former depositions, the "servant of God" was beatified in 1661. The canonization took place in 1665.

Besides the works which we have named, there were published
posthumously his _Entretiens_, i.e. a selection of the lectures given
to the Visitation, reported by the sisters who heard them, some of his
sermons, a large number of his letters, various short treatises of
devotion. The first edition of his united or so-called "Complete"
works was published at Toulouse in 1637. Others followed in 1641,
1647, 1652, 1663, 1669, 1685. The _Lettres_ and _Opuscules_ were
republished in 1768.

The only modern editions of the complete works which it is worth while
to name are those of Blaise (1821), Vires (1856-1858), Migne (1861),
and the critical edition published by the Visitation of Annecy, of
which the 14th volume appeared in 1905.