INTRODUCTION This Book Offfers a General History of the Order of Poor

INTRODUCTION This book offfers a general history of the order of Poor Clares from its ‘Damianite’ beginnings in the early thirteenth century until the transfor- mation of the Catholic world in the early sixteenth century. By writing it, I aim to explain the complicated origin of this order of religious women, its intricate relations with the Franciscans and the papacy, and the many transformations this order underwent in the course of the later medieval period. I try to elucidate the role of Clare of Assisi (after whom the order is named), and that of Francis of Assisi (founder of the Franciscans or order of Friars Minor). My wish is to put to rest a number of enduring myths concerning the order’s foundation. The book also sheds light on the order’s expansion, its dynamic revitalization during the so-called ‘Observant reforms’ in the later fourteenth and fĳifteenth centuries, the shape of the religious life of the women involved, and their literary and artistic production. Traditionally, the beginnings of the order of Poor Clares are traced back to Clare of Assisi’s conversion to the evangelical life of poverty in 1211 or 1212, and her installation at San Damiano (near Assisi) by Francis of Assisi. This portrayal is backed up by the oldest legendary sources concerning Francis and Clare. It can also be read into Clare’s own written rule from 1253, which clearly states that her way of life was instituted by Francis of Assisi,1 and in many important visual representations, such as the fresco detail depicted on the cover of this book. Building on such documents and additional hagiographical and icono- graphical traditions, the order of Poor Clares has for a very long time been understood as a direct offfshoot of the Franciscan order, not unlike the so- called ‘Franciscan order of Tertiaries’, which also was linked in medieval documents and later hagiographical sources to the initiatives of Francis and his early companions. Thus, the neat but mythical concept of ‘three orders’ within one Franciscan order family has come into being, all due to the actions of Francis: the fĳirst order of Friars Minor, the second order of Poor Clares, and the third order of Tertiaries. This became an enduring 1 Rule of Clare, Chapter I: ‘Forma vitae Ordinis Sororum pauperum, quam beatus Franciscus instituit, haec est….’ Escritos, ed. Omaechevarría, 253; Ecrits, ed. Becker, Godet & Matura, 124. 2 introduction image, not only because it was a strong hagiographical topos, but also because it was largely reiterated in influential historical master narratives on Franciscan history since Mariano of Florence (fl. c. 1500).2 However, from the later nineteenth century onwards, order historians interested in the Friars Minor and the Poor Clares re-engaged with the early history of these movements, which led to the critical edition of many medieval documents and source-based studies about individual friaries and Clarissan settlements. Through this process, it became apparent that the received historical picture was too neat. It had obscured the involve- ment of other parties. Most importantly, it had failed to show that the emergence of the order of Poor Clares had been a conflict-ridden process, and that the role of the order of Friars Minor had not always been very conducive to the creation of a ‘second order’. All this has slowly changed our vision of the early history of the Poor Clares, or Damianites as they were called in many sources until 1263. The studies by Maria Pia Alberzoni, which have thoroughly revised our inter- pretation of the early history of the Damianites/Poor Clares up till the end of the thirteenth century, have been very important in this regard.3 Yet more wide-ranging independent historical surveys on the order of Poor Clares covering the whole medieval period in a comprehensive fashion have been slow to appear. Such overviews are still frequently part of hand- books on the history of the Franciscan order, such as Moorman’s famous A History of the Franciscan Order from 1968,4 and the more recent handbook issued by Grado Merlo.5 Despite their great merits such surveys still give the impression that the history of the Poor Clares is primarily a chapter in the development of the Friars Minor. This merits a survey that focuses strictly on the Poor Clares. This desideratum also follows from an evaluation of the available spe- cialist works that have appeared on the history of the Clarissan order itself. Most of them focus heavily on the early period.6 Too often, they lack a 2 The fĳirst Franciscan hagiographer who made Francis the founder of three orders might have been Julian of Speyer (c. 1200-c. 1250), who mentioned it in his Vita sancti Francisci, no. 23. See Fontes Franciscani, ed. Menestò, 1045. 3 Such as her works Chiara e il secondo Ordine. Il fenomeno francescano femminile nel Salento and La nascità di un’istituzione: l’ordine di S. Damiano nel XIII secolo. 4 Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Yea7r .151 5 Merlo, Nel nome di san Francesco. Storia dei frati Minori e del francescanesimo sino agli inizi del XVI secolo, esp. 118–134, 187–200. 6 See for instance Chiara e la difffusione delle Clarisse nel secolo XIII. There are, of course, good reasons for this ongoing focus on the thirteenth century, as it still needs a lot of additional scholarship..

Load more