Approval of the Franciscan Rule

Timeline

1. 1221–1223Assisi · UmbriaFrancis further condensed and revised the 1221 non-bullated Rule, consulting curial jurists while maintaining the principle of extreme poverty and addressing the Church's concerns about religious discipline and organizational stability.
2. 1223Rome · LazioPope Honorius III formally approved the revised Rule by papal bull, known to history as the Regula bullata (bullated Rule), granting the Franciscans the same standing of formal canonical authority from the curia as the Dominicans and other orders.
3. 1224–1228Europe · EuropeThe bullated Rule was read aloud and enforced at the Franciscan general chapter, regulating the friars' life, methods of preaching, and obedience to Church authority, providing the institutional foundation for the order's rapid expansion and the canonization of St. Francis in 1228.