Angelo da Clareno

Believing that the rule of St Francis was not being observed and interpreted according to the mind and spirit of the Seraphic Father, he retired to a hermitage with a few companions and formed a new branch of the order known as the "Clareni".

The influence of the prophetical writings of Joachim of Floris, a Calabrian abbot, on Angelo and his followers, and in fact on the "Spirituals" generally of the thirteenth century, cannot be overrated.

[1] By the Bull of Pope Sixtus IV, titled Dominus Noster Jesus Christus, the "Clareni" were ordered to unite to the main body of the Franciscans and placed under the obedience of the Minister General.

[2] Fearing that to leave them in the March of Ancona would likely expose them to continued persecution, Gaufredi sent them to Armenia Minor (Cilicia), where the king had made a request to the Pope for the services of some friars to instruct the people.

He returned to Avignon in the spring of 1313, but faced with the hostility of the Franciscans of Tuscany, took refuge in Sicily, under the protection of Federico III of Aragon.

Angelo was able to move from Subiaco, heading towards the Kingdom of Naples, where the presence of Philip of Majorca and Provencal and Catalan Spirituals at the court of Queen Sancia guaranteed continuous assistance.

It is likely that the Fraticelli whom Simone afterwards successfully defended against the Dominicans in the civil courts at Florence (c. 1355), where he was then preaching, were adherents of Clareno.

Angelo Clareno is the author, at least in great part, of the Chronica septem tribulationum Ordinis Minorum, which records the persecutions suffered by the "Spirituals",[8] beginning with the innovations made during St. Francis' sojourn in the East, and continuing under Elias, Crescentius, and Bonaventure.