ABSTRACT
St Francis called himself and his followers Friars Minor. It was a new name, to signify, he once said, a company of people differing in humility and in poverty from all who had gone before, and content to possess Christ alone. He coined it in 1210 when, twelve in number like the apostles, they went at his instigation to Rome where he persuaded the Pope, Innocent III, to approve for them a simple Rule based on the Gospel. Though, as we shall see, he had precursors, advisers and helpers, St Francis was the originator of friars as distinct from other religious, and was himself in this sense the first friar. If we want to know what a friar essentially is, we cannot do better than begin with him.
