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this purpose estates were often donated, but the ad-
ministration of these presented difficulties. The pope
decided that Ugohno should accept these estates in the
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St. Clabe
Fresco by Simone Martini in the lower Church of San Francesco at Assiai
name of the Church and that the houses established thereon should be immediately subject to the pope. About 1219 Ugolino drew up a rule for these groups of women, taking the Rule of St. Benedict as a ground work, with severe regulations having, however, no dis- tinctively Franciscan element in them. His first foundation was the monastery of Monticello near Florence (1219). This rule was soon adopted by the monasteries at Perugia, Siena, Gattajola, and else- where. There is no evidence that it was ever accepted at San Damiano. It is noteworthy that it does not raise the question of the ownership of property by the various monasteries. This was a point on which St. Francis and Ugolino did not agree. The subsequent modifications which this rule underwent at the hands of Innocent IV in 1247, and of Urban IV in 1263, re- sulted in the triumph of Ugolino's view, while St. Francis's ideal of utter poverty found expression in a definitive rule, the confirmation of which St. Clare se- cured in 12.53. The opening words of Ugolino's Rule, "Regulam beatissimi Benedicti vobis tradimus obser- vandam", have been taken to indicate that the Poor Clares were an offshoot of the Benedictines. This conclusion, however, is unwarranted. The Lateran Council, a few years earlier, had decreed that new orders should adopt a rule already approved. The new order was not bound to the observance of the older rule, except in regard to the three customary vows. This was Ugolino's intention in drawing up the rule, and it is confirmed by a letter of Innocent IV to Agnes of Bohemia, in which he explains the meaning of the words in question (Sbaralea, I, p. Sl.'i).
After the death of St. Francis (1226) and the eleva- tion of Ugolino to the papal chair as Gregory IX (1227), certain changes were introduced in the practi- cal direction of conventual life. The pope offered to bestow possessions on the convent of San Damiano over which St. Clare presided. She firmly refused the offer and petitioned to be permitted to continue in the
spirit of St. Francis. In response to this request,
Gregory granted her (17 September, 1228) the "privi-
lege of most high poverty", namely, "ut recipere poB-
sessiones a nullo compelli possitis". The convents of
Perugia and Florence followed the example of San
Damiano. Other convents, however, gladly availed
themselves of the possessions which the pope offered
them, "propter eventus temporum ct pericula sepcu-
lorum". Thus were laid the foundation of the two
observances which obtain among the daughters of St.
Clare. The i)lea of Agnes of Bohemia for a new rule was
rejected by Gregory IX in 1238, and again by Inno-
cent IV in 1243. In 1247 Innocent IV, to secure unity
of observance and jjeace of conscience for the sisters,
modified the original ride in two points. In place of
the reference to the Rule of St. Benedict he inserted a
reference to the Rule of St . Francis, which, in the mean-
time, had been approved, and he embodied in the rule
regulations covering certain changes already intro-
duced in various convents by his predecessor or by
himself. Thus, the direction of the communities of
the order was placed in the hands of the general and
Ijrovincial of the Franciscans. The sisters were di-
rected to recite the Divine Office according to the cus-
tom of the Friars Minor. The regulations concerning
silence and abstinence were modified. The length of
novitiate was fixed at one year. The most notable
change is to be found in the express permission granted
to every convent to hold possessions, for the adminis-
tration of which a prudent procurator was to be se-
cured by each house. In the year 1263 the original
rule underwent a final modification at the hands of
Urban IV. On 18 October of that year the sovereign
pontiff issued the rule which is in the most general ob-
servance among the Poor Clares and which has given
the name "Urbanist" to a large division of the order.
It is noteworthy that in Urban's Rule the new com-
mimity received for the first time the official title of
]
- 1
Chdbch of San
"Order of St. Clare". In a few particulars the new
regulations were less severe than in the rule of 1247.
For instance, the abbess was empowered to dispense
with the obligation of silence during certain hours of
the day at her good pleasure. The sections of the rule
