Description:

This book is a fine study of the Franciscan Spirituals and of their influence on the origins of the Capuchins. The study was completed in the early 1960's as a doctoral dissertation a the Gregorianum University in Rome. This book is both a good characterization of the Spirituals and an interesting starting point for the study of thee Capuchin reform. 

The analysis of the Spirituals who initiated the first reform movement of the Franciscan Order in the last quarter of the 13th century and the first decades of the 14th is as incisive and comprehensive a study as found anywhere. With the clear characterization of the Spirituals in hand, the author then proceeds to distinguish between the points in the Spiritual policies that the Capuchins modeled themselves on and the attitudes that they shunned. Since this study was completed, the intervening years have only served to give the work greater appeal and relevance.