Strictly speaking, in canonical language, the Third Order is not a “Religious Order,” since it does not realize the condition requisite for the religious state, viz., the practice of poverty, chastity, and obedience under the sanction of perpetual vows (except where members of the Third Order unite to live in community, and add these vows to the original requirements of the Rule). Yet its name, which has been confirmed to it by all the Popes of the last six centuries**, from its origin until now, clearly points to a state of greater perfection than is implied in any simple association, congregation, or confraternity. The Third Order, in fact, occupies a position midway between life in the world and in the cloister. Without releasing its members from the duties of their condition and position in the world, it yet makes them members of a religious society entirely distinct from the rest of Christendom—a society of which the bond is entirely spiritual, and which deserves to be connected, not merely by name, but by real and intimate relationship, with the two first Orders of S. Francis. Of these later it does not share the austerities, and yet is bound to share in the spirit; it has not the labours, but yet participates in the merits.

(The Franciscan Annals, Vol. VI. No. 61, January, 1882. p. 1.)