the followers of the rule of St Francis, constituting one of the four orders of mendicant friars. In the beginning of the fourteenth century the whole Franciscan order was divided into two parties; one of which embraced the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St Francis, and were called spirituals; and the other, who insisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of their founder, were denominated brethren of the community.

The Life of St Francis was written by Bonaventura, and has often been published. But of all the writers who have given an account of this famous enthusiast, the most minute is Lucas Wadding, in his Annales Minorum. This work has been much enlarged by subsequent writers, the edition of 1731 and onwards extending to 18 vols. folio. See also the Life of St Francis in Sir James Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biographies. See Fraticelli.