The name Fraticelli is used for various sects, which appeared in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, principally in Italy,[3] that split from the Franciscan Order on account of the disputes concerning poverty.
Fraticelli is a diminutive of the Italian frate (plural frati),[3] itself derived from Latin Frater “brother”, often shortened to Fra when referring to members of religious orders.
The ideal of the founder of the Friars Minor, Saint Francis of Assisi, was that his disciples, by evangelical poverty, complete self-denial, and humility, should lead the world back to Jesus Christ.
[3] Early Franciscans were itinerant preachers, who, following their founder Francis of Assisi, took to heart Christ's injunction in Luke 9:3: “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.”[5] Living by such a rule required constant begging for alms, and over time this produced tensions, both with potential benefactors faced with repeated appeals from mendicant friars, and with established monastic orders accustomed to aid from the same pool of benefactors.
The Relaxati or Conventuals lived in convents in the towns, tending attached churches with the necessary liturgical furnishings and devoting themselves also to studying and preaching, which required the accumulation and use of books.
Angelo and several brethren from the March of Ancona had been sentenced in c. 1278 to life imprisonment, but were liberated by the general of the order, Raimondo Gaufredi (1289–1295) and sent to Armenia, where the king Hethum II welcomed them.
[7] They returned to Italy, where in 1294 Celestine V, noted for his asceticism but whose pontificate lasted scarcely six months, permitted them to live as hermits in the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Francis.
Seeking to defend themselves against this calumny, they returned to Italy where their leader, Fra Liberatus, attempted a vindication of their rights, first with Boniface VIII (d. 11 October 1303), and then with Benedict XI, who also died prematurely (7 July 1304).
He ably defended himself in his Epistola Excusatoria, but John XXII refused to approve the "Clareni" as a religious congregation, and compelled Angelo to adopt the habit of a Celestine hermit.
John XXII and his immediate successors issued numerous decrees against the Fraticelli in the March of Ancona, where the bishops and minor feudal barons defended them stubbornly and successfully in spite of papal threats.
[12] Angelo was able to move from Subiaco, heading towards the Kingdom of Naples, where the presence of Philip of Majorca and Provençal and Catalan Spirituals at the court of Queen Sancha guaranteed continuous assistance.
The "Poor Hermits" of Monte della Majella, near Sulmona, were adherents of Angelo da Clareno,[13] and at one time afforded protection to the famous tribune of the people, Cola di Rienzi (1349).
The origin of the Clareni, approved as true Franciscans by Sixtus IV in 1474, is unknown, nor is it clear whether they were “moderate” followers of Angelo who managed to remain within the bounds of orthodoxy, or schismatics who recanted after breaking communion with the papacy.
This Constitution contained an explanation of the Rule of Saint Francis along stricter lines than those of the bull Exiit qui seminat[15] of Nicholas III (14 August 1279), and justified the Spirituals in various matters.
In a letter of the same date addressed by the cardinals at Avignon to the entire hierarchy of Sicily, special stress was laid on the fact that the fugitives had elected a superior general, provincials, and guardians.
In 1321 the Dominican Inquisitor at Narbonne, John of Belna, declared heretical the teaching of an imprisoned Beghard of that region, who asserted that Christ and the Apostles owned nothing either individually or in common.
On this particular issue the Relaxati and Zelanti agreed citing the Bull of Nicholas III, Exiit qui seminat, which had defined the poverty of the Franciscans, both individually and collectively, as equivalent to that of the Apostles, and had therefore transferred to the Roman Church all their holdings in land and houses, as had already been enacted by Innocent IV (14 November 1245).
[17] Anticipating, on the advice of the Franciscan Cardinals Vitalis and Bertrand, the definitive decision of the pope, the chapter solemnly declared in favor of the "absolute poverty" of Christ (4 June 1322).
This pronunciamento was signed by the general, Michael of Cesena, the provincial ministers of Southern Germany, England (William of Nottingham, not Occam), Aquitania, Northern France, and others, as well as by several renowned scholars.
Indignant at the action of the chapter at Perugia, Pope John XXII published the bull Ad conditorem canonum (8 December 1322), in which he renounces the dominion of all the goods of the Friars Minor hitherto assumed by the Roman pontiffs.
In the name of the order Bonagrazia of Bergamo, a capable lawyer and up to that time a bitter enemy of the Zelanti, presented a daring protest against this Bull to the consistory of 14 January 1323.
Prominent among the followers of Michael were the more or less numerous Minorites in the monasteries of Todi and Amelia (against whom proceedings were instituted in 1329–30), of Cortona (1329), and of Pisa (1330), where, however, they appeared openly as late as 1354, and at Albigano, and Savonna (1329–1332).
The records of a process (1334) conducted in irregular form against the Fraticelli of the Franciscan monastery at Tauris, who had been reported by Dominicans, show that they inveighed openly against John XXII and upheld the views of Michael of Cesena, although in their apocalyptic manner they declared that the order of the Friars Minor was divided in three parts, and that only those would be saved who would journey to the East, i.e. themselves.
A letter is still extant which the Fraticelli of the Campagna (1353–1355) wrote to the magistrates of Narni when they heard that one of their number (Fra Stefano) had been cruelly imprisoned by the Inquisition of that city twelve or fifteen years before.
[19] In a letter dated 10 August 1333, the pope was obliged to settle some doubts of the queen relating to the observance of "holy poverty", and the king had even composed a treatise favouring the views of the Chapter of Perugia (1322).
It was due to the influence of the royal family that Fra Andrea of Galiano, a court chaplain at Naples, was acquitted in the process instituted against him at Avignon in 1338, as he still continued his intercourse with Michael of Cesena and with the fifty Michaelites who resided for some time under the king's protection in the castle of Lettere near Castellamare, but who later (1235) humbly submitted to their lawful superiors.
In 1336, "short-robed" Fraticelli still occupied the monastery of Santa Chiara at Naples, founded by Queen Sanzia, and were established in other parts of the kingdom; their expulsion was demanded on 24 June 1336 by Benedict XII (1334–1342).
Louis of Durazzo (a nephew of Robert, King of Naples) maintained a number of Fraticelli in a hospital adjoining his castle, Monte Sant' Angelo, and attended their services.
On 1 June 1428, he commanded the Bishop of Ancona to enforce his rulings strictly in Maiolati, to put all suspects to the rack, destroy their village, separate the children from heretical parents, and disperse the elder population.
A form of Fraticelli was also represented by Philip of Berbegni, a fanatical and eccentric Observant of Spain (1433), who attempted to establish a strict society de la Capuciola, but met vigorous opposition from John Capistran, who issued a dissertation against him.