habit consists of a tunic fastened around the waist with a thin white cord, along with a large cape which is round in front and pointed behind with a small hood attached.

Some friars settled in the urban slums, or the suburbs of the medieval neighbourhoods where the huts and shacks of the poorest were built outside the safety of the city walls.

Robert Grosseteste, then Bishop of Lincoln, marvelled that the people "run to the friars for instruction as well as for confession and direction.

As the Franciscan Order became increasingly centered in larger communities (“convents”) and engaged in pastoral work there, many friars started questioning the utility of the vow of poverty.

The literal and unconditional observance of poverty came to appear impracticable by the great expansion of the order, its pursuit of learning, and the accumulated property of the large cloisters in the towns.

After the founder's death, they began the task of translating Francis's earthly existence into what they saw as a more socially relevant spiritual message for current and future generations.

The Conventual Franciscans nestled their large group homes into small areas of land surrounded by poverty.

The Conventuals received papal dispensations, or permissions, to build their communities in the cities in order to preach the Gospel and serve the poor.

[7][3] In 1517, Pope Leo X called a meeting of the entire Franciscan Order in Rome to end this dispute about the vow of poverty and reunite the two factions.

Recognizing the impasse, Leo X decided to officially divide the two factions into separate fraternities: In 1565 the Conventuals accepted the Tridentine indult allowing mendicant orders to own property corporately, and their chapter held at Florence in that year drew up statutes containing several important reforms which Pope Pius IV subsequently approved.

These constitutions, which were subsequently promulgated by Pope Urban VIII, are known as the "Constitutiones Urbanæ" and are of importance, since at their profession the Conventuals then vowed to observe the Rule of St. Francis in accordance with them, that is to say, by admitting the duly authorized dispensations therein set forth.