FRANCISCANS is the common designation for a number of religious communities professing to live according to the ideals of Francis of Assisi (1181/1182–1226). In 1206 Francis withdrew to the margins of society to adopt the life of a penitent hermit. His vocation received a decisive focus in 1208, when others joined him and he was inspired to "live according to the pattern of the Holy Gospel," as he called it, "following the footsteps and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Testament, 14; Earlier Rule, 1.1 [Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, I: 63-64, 125]). Within Francis's lifetime his followers organized into three distinct but related orders: his own Lesser Brothers; communities of contemplative women under the leadership of Clare of Assisi (d. 1253), known now as Poor Clare nuns; and the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, laypersons who wished to remain in the midst of society, later commonly known as the Third Order. Although they differed...