Franciscan Advice to the Papacy in the Middle Ages

The famous image of Francis of Assisi holding up the falling Church has come to symbolise the nature of the relationship between the Franciscans and the papacy in the thirteenth century. Deliberately manufactured by Franciscan propagandists at a time when they were becoming indispensable in almost every area of Christian activity, it represented a complex set of ideas about medieval spirituality, power and responsibility. This article investigates the ideals, concerns and ambitions of the order through examination of a number of occasions on which prominent Franciscans offered criticism and advice to the papal curia. In the process, light is shed on the anxieties of Christendom in an age of crisis.