This evidently supposes an association not recently born.
Sbaralea, _Bull. fr._, 1, p. 8; Horoy, vol. iv., col. 49;
Potthast, 6736.

[20] Bull _Supra montem_ of August 17, 1289, Potthast. 23044. M.
Mueller has made a luminous study of the origin of this bull; it
may be considered final in all essential points (_Anfaenge_, pp.
117-171). By this bull Nicholas IV.--minister-general of the
Brothers Minor before becoming pope--sought to draw into the
hands of his Order the direction of all associations of pious
laics (Third Order of St. Dominic, the Gaudentes, the Humiliati.
etc.). He desired by that to give a greater impulse to those
fraternities which depended directly on the court of Rome, and
augment their power by unifying them.

[21] Vide Bull _Significatum est_ of December 16, 1221. Cf.
_Supra montem_, chap. vii.

[22] The Rule of the Third Order of the Humiliati, which dates
from 1201, contains a similar clause. Tiraboschi, vol. ii., p.
132.

[23] In the A. SS., Aprilis, vol. ii. p. 600-616. Orlando di
Chiusi also received the habit from the hands of Francis. Vide
_Instrumentum_, etc., below, p. 400. The Franciscan fraternity,
under the influence of the other third orders, rapidly lost its
specific character. As to this title, Third Order, it surely had
originally a hierarchical sense, upon which little by little a
chronological sense has been superposed. All these questions
become singularly clearer when they are compared with what is
known of the Humiliati.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XVI

THE BROTHERS MINOR AND LEARNING

Autumn, 1221-December, 1223

After the chapter of 1221 the evolution of the Order hurried on with a
rapidity which nothing was strong enough to check.

The creation of the ministers was an enormous step in this direction; by
the very pressure of things the latter came to establish a residence;
those who command must have their subordinates within reach, must know
at all times where they are; the Brothers, therefore, could no longer
continue to do without convents properly so-called. This change
naturally brought about many others; up to this time they had had no
churches. Without churches the friars were only itinerant preachers, and
their purpose could not but be perfectly disinterested; they