Early Franciscan Government: Ellias to Bonaventure

by Rosalind B. Brooke

Overview

The early historians of the Franciscan order traced the causes of the troubles of the order in their time to Elias, a contemporary and friend of St Francis and an early Minister General. Elias was blamed for opening the way to all relaxations of discipline and disregard of the founder's teaching, and all conflicts and persecutions. Mrs Brooke shows that responsibility cannot be placed on one man, but on many of the early friars. She gives a more historical account of Elias, showing that he was never as dominant a figure as has been supposed. The early conflicts of the order are shown to have been more complex, more interesting and more probable than the fourteenth-century controversialists would allow. The second part of the book describes the achievements of Elias's successors as Minister General, and the important laws they passed. Mrs Brooke has been able to reconstruct the early constitutions, now lost, in greater detail than has previously been attempted.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521547987
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/05/2004
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: New Series , #7
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; The Minister General, 1209–74; 1. Introduction: the narrative sources for the History of Elias; 2. Hugolino and the Ministers of St Francis; 3. The character and significance of John Parenti; 4. Elias' generalate, 1232–9; 5. Epilogue; 6. Prologue; 7. Albert of Pisa; 8. Haymo of Faversham; 9. The constitutions of 1239–60; Appendices; Index.