Audacious Nuns: Institutionalizing the Franciscan Order of Saint Clare

Church History, March, 2000 by Lezlie Knox

II. CONFLICT, 1261-63

Cardinal Rainald continued to act as protector of both the Franciscan friars and the Order of San Damiano even after he ascended the papal throne as Pope Alexander IV in December 1254. This situation changed, however, when Alexander's successor, Pope Urban IV, appointed separate protectors for each group in 1261. At the friars' request, the new pontiff assigned Cardinal John Caetano Orsini to be protector of the Order of Friars Minor. He named Cardinal Stephen of Hungary to hold the same office for the women. Urban left no record as to why he made this decision. Perhaps as an outsider to Franciscan politics--unlike Gregory IX and Alexander IV, he had not held the office of cardinal protector prior to his ascension to the papal throne--he saw no reason not to grant the friars' request.(24) Yet this separation of the office of cardinal protector ignited a brutal legal battle between the Friars Minor and the Clarisses over the custom of the brothers' spiritual service to the sisters' houses.

Although he served as the nuns' protector, Cardinal Stephen's commission apparently allowed him (or was perceived to allow him) to compel the Friars Minor to provide spiritual care to the women's houses.(25) It is not known whether this entitlement was inserted independently by the papal chancery or whether the women caused it to be written. The latter seems possible: Philip of Perugia, writing four decades after the resolution of the conflict, disparaged the nuns' audacity in seeking to bind the friars to serve them.(26) Cardinal Stephen's authority in any case infuriated the brothers. In response, the friars recalled their brothers assigned to convents and the Franciscan order refused to provide any spiritual ministries to the nuns. They protested that their privileges had been impinged upon since they no longer had the freedom to decide to whom they would minister.(27) The friars then petitioned Pope Urban to allow them to withdraw completely from all responsibilities to the Order of San Damiano.

The Pope, though unwilling to alienate the friars by forcing their return to the sisters' houses, could not allow the Clarisses to be abandoned.(28) Urban instead sought a compromise between the two groups. The bull Inter personas (promulgated in August 1262) asked the friars to reinstate their customary association with the women's houses for one year until the next General Chapter. At that time their affiliation with the Order of San Damiano could be deliberated. He promised that if the friars would agree to provide pastoral care to the women, their ministry would not create a legal obligation and their service would be recognized as voluntary. If an agreement could not be reached, he would allow the friars to recuse themselves.(29)

Pope Urban also enlisted other means to persuade the friars to resume a pastoral relationship with the sisters. On 15 May 1263, he sent a letter, Spiritus Domini, to the General Chapter meeting in Pisa, which he hoped would act as moral persuasion. He entreated the friars to protect and guide the sisters, to nourish them with spiritual attention, and to aid them however they could. They should not be reluctant, he urged, but rather find glory in this service.(30) The pope made clear that his petition stemmed not merely from expediency, but equally from his understanding that these men and women shared a spiritual origin. He compared the friars to farmers who had sown flowers throughout the world.(31) Urban argued that they must be aware of what had grown from the seeds they had scattered: "Nor should you wonder, my sons, that you are such remarkable farmers, when you follow in the footsteps of the nurturing confessor who founded your order, who fostered your mission, and who brightened your pasture by the light of his blessing. For certainly, among the abundant fruits which your order has brought forth assiduously, it has produced the devoted maidservants of Christ, the Order of San Damiano. With you they are limbs of the same body. They serve manifestly, they shine with a beauty of merits, and they render their vows devotedly to the Lord.(32)