172 THE FRATICELLI. Ugolino, Lord of Foligno, a dungeon in which to gratify his thirst for asceticism. Though he had permission for this from his su- periors, he suffered much from the hostility of the laxer brethren, but his austerities gained him great popular reverence and many disciples. In 136S the General Farignano chanced to attend a pro- vincial chapter at Foligno, and was persuaded to ask of Ugolino a spot called Brulliano, in the mountains between Foligno and Camerino, as a hermitage for Paoluccio and his followers. After his request was granted he dreaded a schism in the Order and wished to recall it, but Ugolino held him to his purpose. The place was wild, rocky, marshy, unwholesome, infested with ser- pents, and almost uninhabited. Thither Paoluccio led his brethren, and they were forced to adopt the sabots or wooden shoes, which became the distinguishing foot-gear of their Order. Their repu- tation spread apace ; converts flocked to them ; their buildings required enlargement ; associate houses were founded in many places, and thus arose the Observantines, or Franciscans of strict observance — an event in the history of the Church only second in importance to the original foundation of the Mendicant Orders.* "When Paoluccio died, in 1390, he was already reckoned as a provincial within the Order. After an interval he was succeeded by his coadjutor, Giovanni Stronconi. In 1405 began the marvel- lous career of St. Bernardino of Siena, who counts as the formal founder of the Observantines. They had merely been called the Brethren of the Hermitages until the Council of Constance estab- lished them as an organization virtually independent of the Con- ventuals, when they took the name by which they have since been known. Everywhere their institution spread. Xew houses arose, or those of the Conventuals were reformed and given over to them. Thus in 1426 they were introduced into the province of Strassburg through the intervention of Matilda of Savoy, wife of the Palsgrave Louis the Bearded. Familiar in her youth with their virtues, she took occasion at Heidelberg to point out to her husband the Franciscans in their convent garden below them, amusing themselves with military exercises. It resulted in the reform of all the houses in his dominions and the introduction of the Observantine discipline, not without serious trouble. In 1453
- Wadding, ann. 1368, No. 10-13.
