The Making of Franciscan Poverty

Abstract

The identification of Francis of Assisi with poverty earned him the nickname « Poverello » (little poor man) and recently inspired Cardinal Bergoglio in his choice of a papal name. This association was forged in the Middle Ages, but not by Francis himself or in the first phase of the movement he inspired. Unquestionably, poverty was part of the early Franciscan movement, but it was Franciscan scholars and theologians who, from the 1230s onwards, invented « Franciscan poverty ». They defined it as the solemn and perpetual renunciation of property rights, accompanied by poor living and begging. They declared it to be the gateway to salvation and the heart of evangelical perfection, and saw it as the hallmark of their order. Analysis of texts produced from 1230 to 1250 (treatises, the first commentary on the Rule, sermons, and constitutions) reveals this process of invention. What followed was ironic. As poverty invaded Franciscan identity at the expense of other virtues advocated by Francis such as simplicity, its observance became a major point of contention among friars, contributing to a falling out with the papacy, bitter internal disputes in the Order, and its eventual split.