[1] In its original thirteenth-century application the zelanti were those members of the Franciscan Order who opposed any changes or relaxation to the Rule formulated by St. Francis of Assisi in 1221 and 1223.
[2] At the 1774–1775 papal conclave the College of Cardinals was generally divided into two blocs: curial, pro-Jesuit zelanti and political, temporizing faction, anti-Jesuit.
During the papacy of Pius VII the zelanti were more radically reactionary than the politicani and wanted a highly centralised Church with vehement opposition to the secularising reforms that had resulted in France from the Revolution,[3] which liberals were intent on spreading to the Papal States.
The politicani, though not liberal, were much more moderate and favoured a conciliatory approach to dealing with the problems new ideologies and the incipient Industrial Revolution were creating in the early nineteenth century.
[3] Carlo Agostino Fabroni JStor website Napoleon Bonaparte and the Restoration of Catholicism in France, article by Sr. M. Barbara, published in The Catholic Historical Review, Vol.