Francis and the Immaculata

Watching Maximillian, Saint of Auschwitz, out of the corner of my ear…
A line about how "we Franciscans" have supported the belief in the Immaculate Conception for "seven centuries."
Huh?
Gotsta look it up (yeah, yeah, yeah, my knowledge of the HISTORY of doctrine, as opposed to knowledge of doctrine itself, comes almost exclusively from Hollywood... a dim-witted Jennifer Jones admitting she had no idea what was the meaning of the words spoken by the Lady in Blue.)
So, anyone who knows anything of the relationship of the Fransicans to the doctrine of the Immaculata, and cares to help fill my empty brain, please do (my connection is very slow and more than usually tenuous today, Googling will not be productive.)
By the way, despite the staginess (it has prompting my opening the conversation with Himself yet again, that rather than decrying the lack of scope/outlet/opportunity, he would be well advised to work on a one man show,) (ButIDigress,) it is much superior to de Fillipis' other movie that I have seen, it moves much faster than Therese (and, because it is only the one on-screen performer, the acting is uniformly better...)