France

Anciently Franc on i a , the country of the Franks, so called from the franc a , a kind of javelin with which they armed themselves when this people effected the conquest of Gaul. Francis cans. Friars of the Order of St Francis of A isi. Originally the Grey Friars, their habits are now brown. One of the rules laid down by their pious founder was that the brethren should always be clad like the poorest of the poor. He selected the loose sack of grey, undyed wool, bound round the waist by a cord of the Umbrian Shepherds. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the better cla es affected gaudy colours, and the poorer orders, imitating them so far as the use of dyed materials was concerned, took to wearing garments of sober brown. Hence the change in the colour of the Francis can habit.