THIRD
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THIRD
the three branches of the First Order: Friars Minor,
Conventuals, Capuchins, and to the Regular Third
Order. By delegation, confraternities can be estab-
lished and directed by any parish priest. Those who
for serious reasons cannot join a confraternity may be
received as single tertiaries. Finally, great spiritual
privileges are granted to all members of the Third
Order.
The beneficent influonrc of the secular Third Order of St. Francis cannot be liinhly enough appreciated. Through the prohibition against carrying arms a deadly blow was given to the feudal system and to the ever-fighting factions of Italian municipalities: through the admission of ijoor and rich, nobles and common people, the social classes were brought nearer each other. How far the religious ideal of St. Francis was carried out by the secular Third Order we may judge from the great number (about 75) of saints and blessed of every condition it produced. It ma^' suffice to mention: St. Elizabeth of Hungary; St. Louis, King of France; St. Ferdinand, King of Castile; St. Elizabeth of Portugal; St. Rosa of Viterbo; St. Mar- garet of Cortona; Bl. Umiliana Cerchi; Bl. Angela of Fohgno; Bl. Raymond LuUus; Bl. Luchesius of Pog- gibonsi, who passes as the first tertiary received by St. Francis; St. Ivo; and in our times Bl. Jean-Bap- tiste Vianney, the cure of Ars; of names celebrated in history for literature, arts, politics, inventions, etc., Dante, Giotto, Petrarch, Cola di Rienzo, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Thomas More, Galvani, Volta, Garcia Moreno, Liszt, and, finally. Lady Georgiana FuUerton. Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII were members of the Third Order, as also is Pope Pius X. Since the adaptation of the rule by Leo XIII the Third Order has grown more active than ever. At present the total number of members is esteemed about two and a half millions, spread all over the world. National and local congresses have been held in different countries: seven in the period from 189-1 to 190S in France, others in Belgium, some in Italy, the first general congress in Assisi (1895), many local ones from 1909 to 1911; others have been held in Spain, the last one at Santiago in 1909; in Argentina the last one at Buenos Aires in 1906; in India, Canada, and in Germany and Austria, in the last two instances in connexion with general congresses of Catholics. There exist almost in all civihzed lan- guages numerous monthly periodicals which, whilst keeping up the union amongst the different confrater- nities, serve also for the instruction and edification of its members. The "Acta Ordinis Frat. Min.", XXVI, Quaracchi, 1907, 255-58, gives the names of 122 such periodicals. French periodicals are indicated by P. B. Ginnet, O.F.M., "Le Tiers Ordre et le Pre- tre", Vanves, 1911, p. 51 sq.; German periodicals by MoU, O.M. Cap., "Wegweiser in die Literatur des Dritten Ordens", Ratisbon, 1911. In Italy even a regular newspaper was founded, "Rinascita Frances- cana", Bologna, 1910; another in Germany, "AUge- meine deutsche Tertiaren-Zcitung", Wiesbaden, 1911. — We may mention also the special organs for direc- tors of the Third Order, e. g. "Der Ordensdirektor", published at Innsbruck by the Tyrolese Franciscans, "Revue sacerdotale du Tiers-Ordre de Saint Fran- cois", published by French Capuchins. Both reviews appear once every two months.
B. Third Order Reoui,.\r (Male, and Female). (1) Its origin and general development till Leo X. — The origin of the Regular Third Order, both male and female, can be traced back to the second half of the thirteenth century, but no precise date can be indi- cated. It was organized, in different forms, in the Netherlands, in the south of France, in Germany, and in Italy. Probably some secular tertiaries, who in many cases had their house of meeting, gradually withdrew entirely from the world and so formed religious communities, but without the three sub-
stantial vows of religious orders. Other religious
associations such as the Beguines (women) and Beg-
hards (men) in the Netherlands, sometimes passed
over to the Third Order, as has been clearly shown
from recent study. Towards the end of the thir-
teenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century
some suspicion of heretical opinions fell on some of
these free religious unions of the Third Order (6i-
zocchi), as we can infer from the Bull of John XXII
"Sancta Romana", Dec, 1317 (Bull. Franc, V, 134).
More than a century later St. John of Capistran
(1456) had to defend the Tertiaries in a special
treatise: "Defensorium tertii ordinis d. Francisci",
printed with other minor works of the saint at Venice
in 1580. Throughout the fourteenth century the
regular tertiaries of both sexes had in the most cases
no common organization; only in the following cen-
tury we can observe single well-ordered religious com-
munities with solemn vows and a common head.
Martin V submitted in 1428 all tertiaries, regular and
secular, to the direction of the Minister-General of the
Friars Minor (Bull. Franc, VII, 715), but this dispo-
sition was soon revoked by his successor Eugene IV.
We meet thus in the same fifteenth century with
numerous independent male congregations of regular
tertiaries with the three vows in Italy, Sicily, Dal-
matia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and in the
Netherlands. Contemporaneously there existed sis-
ter congregations of the Third Order with solemn
vows, for instance, the Grey sisters of the Third
Order, serving in hospitals, spread in France and the
Netherlands, whose remarkable statutes of 1483 have
recently been published by H. Lemartre in "Arch.
Franc. Hist.", IV, 1911, 713-31, and the congregation
still existing founded at Foligno in 1397 by Blessed
Angelina of Marsciano (1435). Leo X, in order to in-
troduce uniformity into the numerous congregations,
gave in 1521 a new form to the rule, now in ten
chapters, retaining of the rule as published by
Nicholas IV all that could serve the purpose, adding
new points, especially the three solemn vows, and
insisting on subjection to the First Order of St.
Francis. For this last disposition the Rule of Leo X
met with resistance, and never was accepted by some
congregations, whilst it serves till the present day as
the basis of the constitutions of many later congrega-
tions, especially of numerous communities of sisters.
(2) Single congregations after Leo X, of women. —
The two Italian congregations, the Lombardic and
SiciUan, which had constituted themselves in the
course of the fifteenth century, were united by Paul
III, and since Sixtus V enjoyed entire independence
from the First Order. It had then already 11 prov-
inces. In the seventeenth century the congrega-
tions of Dalmatia and the Netherlands (of Zeppern)
were united with the ItaUan family. In 1734 Clem-
ent XIII confirmed their statutes. Whilst the French
Revolution swept away all similar congregations, the
Italian survived with four provinces, of which one was
in Dalmatia. In 1906 a small congregation of Ter-
tiary lay brothers in the Balearic I.^lands and a little
later two convents with colleges in the United States
joined the same congregation, which in 1908 num-
bered about 360 members. The dress is that of the
Conventuals, from whom they can hardly be distin-
guished. The residence of the minister-general is at
Rome, near the Church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian.
.\fter the time of Leo X the Spanish congregation
often had troubles on the question of its submission
to the First Onler. After Pius V (1568) had put the
whole Third Order again under the care of the Minis-
ter-General of the Friars Minor, the superiors of the
three provinces constituted in Spain could, after
1625, partake at the General Chapters of the Friars
Minor and since 1670 they have had even a definitor-
general to represent them. The French congrega-
tion, named from their house at Paris "of Picpus",
