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CLARES, POOR

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 436 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLARES, POOR , otherwise Clarisses, Franciscan nuns, so called from their foundress, St See also:Clara (q.v.). She was professed by St See also:Francis in the Portiuncula in 1212, and two years later she and her first companions were established in the See also:convent of St Damian's at See also:Assisi. The nuns formed the " Second See also:Order of St Francis," the friars being the " First Order," and the See also:Tertiaries (q.v.) the " Third." Before Clara's See also:death in 1253,• the Second Order had spread all over See also:Italy and into See also:Spain, See also:France and See also:Germany; in See also:England they were introduced c. 1293 and established in See also:London, outside Aldgate, where their name of Minoresses survives in the Minories; there were only two other See also:English houses before the See also:Dissolution. St Francis gave the nuns no See also:rule, but only a " See also:Form of See also:Life " and a " Last Will," each only five lines See also:long, and coming to no more than an inculcation of his See also:idea of evangelical poverty. Something more than this became necessary as soon as the See also:institute began to spread; and during Francis's See also:absence in the See also:East, 1219, his supporter See also:Cardinal Hugolino composed a rule which made the Franciscan nuns practically a See also:species of unduly strict See also:Benedictines, St Francis's See also:special characteristics being eliminated. St Clara made it her life See also:work to have this rule altered, and to get the Franciscan See also:character of the Second Order restored; in 1247 a " Second Rule " was approved which went a long way towards satisfyingher desires, and finally in 1253 a " Third," which practically gave what she wanted. This rule has come to be known as the " Rule of the Clares "; it is one of See also:great poverty, seclusion and austerity of life. Most of the convents adopted it, but several clung to that of 1247. To bring about conformity, St See also:Bonaventura, while See also:general (1264), obtained papal permission to modify the rule of 1253, somewhat mitigating its austerities and allowing the convents to have fixed incomes,—thus assimilating them to the Conventual See also:Franciscans as opposed to the Spirituals. This rule was adopted in many convents, but many more adhered to the strict rule of 1253. Indeed a See also:counter-tendency towards a greater strictness set in, and a number of reforms were initiated, introducing an appalling austerity of life.

The most important of these reforms were the Coletines (St Colette, c. 1400) and the Capucines (c. 1540; see See also:

CAPUCHINS). The See also:half-dozen forms of the Franciscan rule for See also:women here mentioned are still in use in different convents, and there are also a great number of religious institutes for women based on the rule of the Tertiaries. By the See also:term " Poor Clares " the Coletine nuns are now commonly understood; there are various convents of these nuns, as of other Franciscans, in • England and See also:Ireland. Franciscan nuns have always been very numerous; there are now about 150 convents of the various observances of the Second Order, in every See also:part of the See also:world, besides innumerable institutions of Tertiaries. See See also:Helyot, Hist. See also:des ordres religieux (1792), vii. ce. 25-28 and 38-42; Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon (2nd ed.), See also:art. Clara "; Max Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1896), i. §§ 47, 48, who gives references to all the literature. For a scientific study of the beginnings see Lempp, " See also:Die Anfange des Klarissenordens in Zeitschrift See also:fur Kirchengeschichte, xiii. (1892), 181 if.

(E. C.

End of Article: CLARES, POOR

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