Note 3 — Letter from Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano to the King

The discalced Franciscans were founded by St. Francis of Assisi, under the name Friars Minor, and the rule was very binding and strict. Under the immediate successor of St. Francis, Elias of Cortona, sprang up a branch of the order, made up of former members who wished a less strict rule, and those who wished to preserve the strict rule were persecuted. The members of the relaxed branch became known as “Conventuals” or “Minors Conventual” in contradistinction to the Friars Minor (or Minorites), who are known also as “Observants” or “Observantines.” Three great branches sprang later from the Friars Minor: Reformed Minors, founded in 1419, by St. Bernardino of Siena; the Recollects, founded in 1500, by John of Guadalupe; and the Alcantarines, founded in 1555, by St. Peter of Alcantára—but all under one head or chief superior, termed minister-general. The Alcantarines wore a white habit, the others brown, except in England and Spanish countries, where they wear gray. In 1897, Pope [92n] Leo XIII, by his Bull Felicitate quadam ordered the Observants, Reformed, Discalced, or Alcantarines, and the Recollects, to unite under the same general superior, to use the same constitutions, to wear the same habit, and to bear the same name, viz., “Friars Minor.” The Conventuals and Capuchins were to remain distinct orders as heretofore. The term paño in the text refers to the Conventuals, the less strict branch of the Franciscans, who were wont to dress in what one might call “fine raiment”—habits of cloth, as distinguished from the coarse serge-like stuff of the others. Cf. Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary.—Rev. T.C. Middleton.