Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations… (1817)
“ FRANCISCANS, an order of friars founded in 1209, by St Francis of Assini, who had led a dissolute life, but a fit of sickness produced an entire change in his method of living; and at the age of twenty one he solemnly determined to practise the most rigorous self-denial; and had the courage to support that resolution, without the least deviation, during a life of forty six years. Absolute poverty was his fundamental rule, which he rigorously enjoined on all his followers. ”
