HERESY AND THE FRIARS
[Sidenote: The question of the character of the mediæval clergy.]
84. It is natural to ask whether the commanders of the great army which
made up the Church proved valiant leaders in the eternal warfare against
evil. Did they, on the whole, resist the temptations which their almost
limitless power and wealth constantly placed in their way? Did they use
their vast resources to advance the cause of the Great Leader whose
humble followers and servants they claimed to be? Or were they, on the
contrary, selfish and corrupt, turning the teachings of the Church to
their own advantage, and discrediting its doctrines in the eyes of the
people by flagrant maladministration and personal wickedness?
[Sidenote: The debt of western Europe to the church.]
No simple answer to this question is possible. One who realizes how
completely the Church dominated every human interest and influenced
every department of life in the Middle Ages must hesitate to attempt to
balance the good and evil to be placed to its account. That the Church
conferred incalculable benefits upon western Europe, few will question.
To say nothing of its chief mission,--the moral uplifting of mankind
through the Christian religion,--we have seen how, under its auspices,
the barbarians were civilized and brought into the family of nations,
how violence was checked by the "Truce of God," and how an educated
class was maintained during the centuries when few laymen could either
read or write. These are only the more obvious of its achievements; the
solace and protection which it afforded to the weak, the wretched, and
the heart-sore, no one can assume to estimate.
[Sidenote: The corruption of the clergy.]
On the other hand, no one can read the sources of our knowledge of the
history of the Church without perceiving that there were always bad
clergymen who abused their high prerogatives. Many bishops and priests
were no more worthy to be intrusted with their extensive powers than the
unscrupulous office-seekers to whom high stations in our modern
governments sometimes fall.
[Sidenote: Tendency to exaggerate the evil in the Church.]
Yet as we read the fiery denunciations of the clergy's evil practices,
which may be found in the records of nearly every age, we must not
forget that the critic is always prone to take the good for granted and
to dwell upon the evil. This is particularly true in dealing with a
great religious institution, where corruption is especially shocking.
One wicked bishop, or one form of oppression or immorality among the
clergy, made a far deeper impression than the humble virtues of a
hundred dutiful and God-fearing priests. If, however, we make all due
allowance for the good which escaped the writers of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, it must be admitted by all who read their
testimony that they give us a gloomy picture of the life of many
prelates, priests, and monks, and of the startling variety of abuses
which developed in the Church.
[Sidenote: Temptations to corruption among the clergy.]
Gregory VII imagined that the reason for the existence of bad clergymen
was that the kings and feudal lords forced their favorites into the
offices of the Church. The root of the difficulty lay, however, in the
wealth and power of the Church itself. It would have needed saints
always to exercise righteously the tremendous powers which the clergy
had acquired, and to resist the temptations to which they were
subjected. When we consider the position of a rich prelate, it is not
surprising that corruption abounded. The offices of the Church offered
the same possibilities of money-making that civil offices, especially
those in the great American cities, offer to the mere schemer to-day.
The descriptions of some of the churchmen of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries remind us far more of the professional politician than of a
modern clergyman, whether Catholic or Protestant.
[Sidenote: The chief forms of corruption in the Church.]
85. At least a brief description of the more notorious forms of
corruption among the clergy will be necessary to an understanding of the
various heresies or revolts against the Church. These began seriously to
threaten its power in the twelfth century and culminated in the
successful Protestant revolt of the sixteenth. The vices of the clergy
serve to account also for the appearance of the begging monks, the
Franciscans and Dominicans, and to explain the need of the great reform
which they undertook in the thirteenth century.
[Sidenote: Simony.]
[Sidenote: The worldly and immoral lives of many bishops and abbots.]
In the first place, there was simony, a disease so deep-seated and
persistent that Innocent III declared it incurable. This has already
been described in an earlier chapter. Even boys were made bishops and
abbots through the influence of their friends and relatives. Wealthy
bishoprics and monasteries were considered by feudal lords an admirable
means of support for their younger sons, since the eldest born usually
inherited the fief. The life led by bishops and abbots was often merely
that of a feudal prince. If a prelate had a taste for fighting, he
organized military expeditions for conquest or to satisfy a grudge
against a neighbor, exactly as if he belonged to the bellicose laity of
the period.
[Sidenote: Corruption in the ecclesiastical courts.]
Besides simony and the scandalous lives of many of the clergy, there
were other evils which brought the Church into disrepute. While the
popes themselves, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were usually
excellent men and sometimes distinguished statesmen, who honestly
endeavored to exalt the vast institution over which they presided, their
officials, who tried the innumerable cases which were brought to the
papal court, had a reputation for grave corruption.[147] It was
generally believed that the decision was always in favor of him who
could pay most and that the poor received scant attention. The bishops'
courts were notorious for their oppression, since a considerable portion
of the bishop's income, like that of the feudal lord, came from the
fines imposed upon those condemned by his officials. The same person was
sometimes summoned to different courts at the same time and then fined
for neglecting to appear at one or the other.
[Sidenote: The parish priests often no better than their superiors.]
As for the parish priests, they appear often to have followed the
demoralizing example set by their superiors. The acts of church councils
indicate that the priest sometimes turned his parsonage into a shop and
sold wine or other commodities. He further increased his income, as we
have seen, by demanding fees for merely doing his duty in baptizing,
confessing, absolving, marrying, and burying his parishioners.
The monks of the twelfth century, with some remarkable exceptions, did
little to supply the deficiencies of the secular clergy.[148] Instead of
instructing the people and setting before them an example of a pure and
holy life, they enjoyed no better reputation than the bishops and
priests. Efforts were made, however, by newly founded orders in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries--like that of the Cistercians to which
St. Bernard belonged--to reform the monks.
[Sidenote: Corruption and abuses recognized and condemned by the better
element in the clergy itself.]
The universal impression of selfishness and depravity which the corrupt
churchmen made upon all observers is reflected in innumerable writings
of the time,--in the letters of the popes, in the exhortations of holy
men like St. Bernard, in the acts of the councils, in the satirical
poems of the popular troubadours and the sprightly versifiers of the
courts.[149] All agree in denouncing the iniquity of the clergy, their
greed, and their reckless disregard of their sacred duties. St. Bernard
sadly asks, "Whom can you show me among the prelates who does not seek
rather to empty the pockets of his flock than to subdue their vices?"
[Sidenote: The lay critics of the Church.]
86. The evils which the churchmen themselves so frankly admitted could
not escape the notice and comment of laymen. But while the better
element among the clergy vigorously urged a reform of the existing
abuses, no churchman dreamed of denying the truth of the Church's
doctrines or the efficacy of its ceremonies. Among the laity, however,
certain popular leaders arose who declared that the Church was the
synagogue of Satan; that no one ought any longer to rely upon it for his
salvation; that all its elaborate ceremonies were worse than useless;
that its masses, holy water, and relics were mere money-getting devices
of a depraved priesthood and helped no one to heaven. These bold rebels
against the Church naturally found a hearing among those who felt that
the ministrations of a wicked priest could not possibly help a sinner,
as well as among those who were exasperated by the tithes and other
ecclesiastical dues.
[Sidenote: Heresy.]
Those who questioned the teachings of the Church and proposed to cast
off its authority were, according to the accepted view of the time,
guilty of the supreme crime of heresy. To the orthodox believer nothing
could exceed the guilt of one who committed treason against God by
rejecting the religion which had been handed down in the Roman Church
from the immediate followers of his Son. Moreover, doubt and unbelief
were not merely sin, they were revolt against the most powerful social
institution of the time, which, in spite of the depravity of some of its
officials, continued to be venerated by people at large throughout
western Europe. The extent and character of the heresies of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries and the efforts of the Church to suppress them
by persuasion, by fire and sword, and by the stern court of the
Inquisition, form a strange and terrible chapter in mediæval history.
[Sidenote: Two classes of heretics.]
The heretics were of two sorts. One class merely abjured the practices
and some of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church while they
remained Christians and endeavored to imitate as nearly as possible the
simple life of Christ and the apostles. On the other hand, there were
popular leaders who taught that the Christian religion was false. They
held that there were two principles in the universe, the good and the
evil, which were forever fighting for the victory. They asserted that
the Jehovah of the Old Testament was really the evil power, and that it
was, therefore, the evil power whom the Catholic Church worshiped.
[Sidenote: The Albigenses.]
This latter heresy was a very old one, by which even St. Augustine had
been fascinated in his early years. It was revived in Italy in the
eleventh century and became very popular, especially in southern France,
in the twelfth. Its adherents called themselves _Cathari_ (the pure),
but we shall call them _Albigenses_, a name derived from the town of
Albi in southern France, where they were very numerous.[150]
[Sidenote: The Waldensians.]
Among those who continued to accept the Christian faith but refused to
obey the clergy on account of their wickedness, the most important sect
was that of the Waldensians. These were followers of Peter Waldo of
Lyons, who gave up all their property and lived a life of apostolic
poverty. They went about preaching the Gospel and expounding the
Scriptures, which they translated into the language of the people. They
made many converts, and before the end of the twelfth century there were
great numbers of them scattered throughout western Europe.
The Church did not wish to condemn the efforts of good and simple men to
imitate as exactly as possible the life of Christ and the apostles.
Nevertheless these laymen, who claimed the right to preach and hear
confession, and who asserted that prayer was quite as efficacious when
uttered in bed or in a stable as in a church, seemed clearly to call in
question the general belief in the Church as the exclusive agent of
salvation, and seriously to threaten its influence among the people.
[Sidenote: Beginning of the fight against heresy.]
Before the end of the twelfth century the secular rulers began to take
notice of heresy. Henry II of England, in 1166, ordered that no one
should harbor heretics in England, and that any house in which they were
received should be burned. The king of Aragon decreed (1194) that any
one who listened to the preaching of the Waldensians, or even gave them
food, should suffer the penalties for treason and should have his
property confiscated by the state. These are the beginnings of a series
of pitiless decrees which even the most enlightened kings of the
thirteenth century issued against all who should be convicted of
belonging either to the Albigenses or the Waldensians. The Church and
the civil government agreed that heretics were dangerous to the welfare
of both, and that they were criminals deserving the terrible death of
burning alive.[151]
[Sidenote: Heresy regarded as treason.]
It is very difficult for us who live in a tolerant age to understand the
universal and deep-rooted horror of heresy which prevailed not only in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but also down at least to the
eighteenth. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the fact that heresy was
considered treason against an institution which practically all, both
the learned and the unlearned, agreed was not only essential to
salvation but was necessary also to order and civilization. Frank
criticism of the evil lives of the clergy, not excluding the pope
himself, was common enough. But this did not constitute heresy. One
might believe that the pope and half the bishops were bad men, and yet
in no way question the necessity for the Church's existence or the truth
of every one of its dogmas; just as nowadays we might call particular
rulers and government officials fools or knaves, without being
suspected of repudiating government altogether. The heretic was the
anarchist of the Middle Ages. He did not simply denounce the immorality
of the officers of the Church; he claimed that the Church was worse than
useless. He sought to lead people to throw off their allegiance to it
and to disregard its laws and commands. The Church and the civil
government consequently proceeded against him as against an enemy of
society and order. Heresy was, moreover, a contagious disease, and
spread rapidly and unobserved, so that to the rulers of the times even
the harshest measures appeared justifiable in order to prevent its
dissemination.
[Sidenote: Different methods of opposing heresy.]
[Sidenote: Internal reform.]
87. There were several ways of opposing heresy. First, a reform of the
character of the clergy and a suppression of the abuses in the Church
would have removed a great cause of that discontent to which the writers
of the time attributed the rapid growth of heresy. The attempt of
Innocent III to improve the conditions in the Church by summoning a
great council at Rome in 1215 failed, however, and, according to his
successor, matters grew worse rather than better.
[Sidenote: Extermination by the sword.]
A second plan was to organize an expedition against the rebels and
annihilate them by the sword. This policy was only possible if a large
number of heretics could be found in a single district. In southern
France there were many adherents of both the Albigenses and the
Waldensians, especially in the county of Toulouse. At the beginning of
the thirteenth century there was in this region an open contempt for the
Church and a bold defense of heretical teachings even among the higher
classes.
[Sidenote: Albigensian crusade.]
Against the people of this flourishing land Innocent III preached a
crusade in 1208. An army under Simon de Montfort[152] marched from
northern France into the doomed region and, after one of the most
atrocious and bloody wars upon record, suppressed the heresy by
wholesale slaughter. At the same time the war checked the civilization
and destroyed the prosperity of the most enlightened portion of France.
[Sidenote: The Inquisition.]
The third and most permanent defense against heresy was the
establishment, under the headship of the pope, of a system of tribunals
designed to ferret out secret cases of unbelief and bring the offenders
to punishment. These courts of experts, who devoted their whole
attention to the discovery and conviction of heresy, constituted the
Holy Inquisition, which gradually took form after the Albigensian
crusade. We cannot stop to describe these courts, which became
especially notorious in Spain some two centuries after their
establishment. The unfairness of the trials and the cruel treatment to
which those suspected of heresy were subjected, through long
imprisonment or torture--inflicted with the hope of forcing them to
confess their crime or implicate others--have rendered the name of the
Inquisition infamous.
Without by any means attempting to defend the methods employed, it may
be remarked that the inquisitors were often earnest and upright men
whose feelings were not unlike those of a New England judge presiding at
a witch trial in the seventeenth century. The methods of procedure of
the Inquisition were not more cruel than those used in the secular
courts of the period.
The assertion of the suspected person that he was not a heretic did not
receive any attention, for it was assumed that he would naturally deny
his guilt, as would any other criminal. A person's belief had,
therefore, to be judged by outward acts. Consequently one might fall
into the hands of the Inquisition by mere inadvertent conversation with
a heretic, by some unintentional neglect to show due respect toward the
Church rites, or by the malicious testimony of one's neighbors. This is
really the most dreadful aspect of the Inquisition and its procedure.
It put a premium on talebearing and resorted to most cruel means to
convict those who earnestly denied that their beliefs were different
from those of the Church.
[Sidenote: Fate of the convicted heretic.]
If the suspected person confessed his guilt and abjured his heresy, he
was forgiven and received back into the Church; but a penance of life
imprisonment was imposed upon him as a fitting means of wiping away the
unspeakable sin of which he had been guilty. If he remained impenitent,
he was "relaxed to the secular arm"[153]; that is to say, the Church,
whose law forbade it to shed blood, handed over the convicted person to
the civil power, which burned him alive without further trial.
[Sidenote: Founding of the mendicant orders.]
88. We may now turn to that far more cheerful and effective method of
meeting the opponents of the Church, which may be said to have been
discovered by St. Francis of Assisi. His teachings and the example of
his beautiful life probably did far more to secure continued allegiance
to the Church than all the hideous devices of the Inquisition.
We have seen how the Waldensians tried to better the world by living
simple lives and preaching the Gospel. Owing to the disfavor of the
church authorities, who declared their teachings erroneous and
dangerous, they were prevented from publicly carrying on their
missionary work. Yet all conscientious men agreed with the Waldensians
that the world was in a sad plight owing to the negligence and the
misdeeds of the clergy. St. Francis and St. Dominic strove to meet the
needs of their time by inventing a new kind of clergyman, the begging
brother, or mendicant friar (Latin, _frater_, brother). He was to do
just what the bishops and parish priests ordinarily failed to
do,--namely, lead a holy life of self-sacrifice, defend the orthodox
beliefs against the reproaches and attacks of the heretics, and awaken
the people at large to a new spiritual life. The founding of the
mendicant orders is one of the most important and interesting events of
the Middle Ages.
[Sidenote: St. Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226.]
There is no more lovely and fascinating figure in all history than St.
Francis. He was born (probably in 1182) at Assisi, a little town in
central Italy. He was the son of a well-to-do merchant, and during his
early youth he lived a very gay life, spending his father's money
freely. He read the French romances of the time and dreamed of imitating
the brave knights whose adventures they described. Although his
companions were wild and reckless, there was a delicacy and chivalry in
Francis' own make-up which made him hate all things coarse and
heartless. When later he voluntarily became a beggar, his ragged coat
still covered a true poet and knight.
[Sidenote: Francis forsakes his life of luxury and his inheritance and
becomes a hermit.]
The contrast between his own life of luxury and the sad state of the
poor early afflicted him. When he was about twenty, after a long and
serious illness which made a break in his gay life and gave him time to
think, he suddenly lost his love for the old pleasures and began to
consort with the destitute, above all with the lepers. Now Francis,
being delicately organized and nurtured, especially loathed these
miserable creatures, but he forced himself to kiss their hands, as if
they were his friends, and to wash their sores. So he gained a great
victory over himself, and that which seemed bitter to him became, as he
says, "sweet and easy."
His father does not appear to have had any fondness whatever for
beggars, and the relations between him and his son grew more and more
strained. When finally he threatened to disinherit the young man,
Francis cheerfully agreed to surrender all right to his inheritance.
Stripping off his clothes and giving them back to his father, he
accepted the worn-out garment of a gardener and became a homeless
hermit, busying himself in repairing the dilapidated chapels near
Assisi.
[Sidenote: He believes he receives a direct message from Heaven.]
One day in February, 1209, as he was listening to Mass, the priest,
turning toward him by chance, read: "And as ye go, preach, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is at hand.... Get you no gold, nor silver, nor brass
in your purses, no wallet for your journey, neither two coats, nor
shoes, nor staff; for the laborer is worthy of his food" (Matt. x.
7-10). This seemed to the expectant Francis the answer of Christ himself
to his longings for guidance. Here was a complete programme laid out for
him. He threw aside his stick, wallet, and shoes and resolved thereafter
to lead, literally and absolutely, the life the apostles had led.
[Sidenote: Francis begins to preach and to attract followers.]
He began to preach in a simple way, and before long a rich
fellow-townsman resolved to sell all and give to the poor, and follow
Francis' example. Others soon joined them, and these joyous penitents,
free of worldly burdens, calling themselves "God's troubadours," went
barefoot and moneyless about central Italy preaching the Gospel. Some of
those they met "listened willingly, others scoffed, the greater number
overwhelmed them with questions, 'Whence come you? Of what order are
you?' and they, though sometimes it was wearisome to answer, said
simply, 'We are penitents, natives of the city of Assisi.'"
[Sidenote: Seeks and obtains the approval of the pope.]
When, with a dozen followers, Francis appealed to the pope in 1210 to
approve his plan, Innocent III hesitated. He did not believe that any
one could lead a life of absolute poverty. Then might not these ragged,
ill-kempt vagabonds appear to condemn the Church by adopting a life so
different from that of the rich and comfortable clergy? Yet if he
disapproved the friars, he would seem to disapprove at the same time
Christ's directions to his apostles. He finally decided to give his oral
sanction and to authorize the brethren to continue their missions. They
were to receive the tonsure, and to come under the spiritual authority
of the Roman Church.
[Sidenote: Missionary work undertaken.]
89. Seven years later, when Francis' followers had greatly increased,
missionary work was begun on a large scale, and brethren were dispatched
to Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, and even to Syria. It was not long
before an English chronicler was telling with wonder of the arrival in
his country of these barefoot men, in their patched gowns and with ropes
about their waists, who, with Christian faith, took no thought for the
morrow, believing that their Heavenly Father knew what things they had
need of.
[Sidenote: Francis did not desire to found a powerful order.]
The ill treatment which the friars received in their distant journeys
led them to appeal to the pope for a letter which should request the
faithful everywhere to treat them kindly, since they were good
Catholics. This was the beginning of numberless privileges from the
pope. It grieved Francis, however, to see his little band of companions
converted into a great and powerful order. He foresaw that they would
soon cease to lead their simple, holy life, and would become ambitious
and perhaps rich. "I, little Brother Francis," he writes, "desire to
follow the life and the poverty of Jesus Christ, persevering therein
until the end; and I beg you all and exhort you to persevere always in
this most holy life of poverty, and take good care never to depart from
it upon the advice and teachings of anyone whomsoever."
[Sidenote: Francis reluctantly draws up a new rule for the guidance of
the friars.]
Francis sorrowfully undertook to draw up a new and more elaborate
constitution to take the place of the few Gospel passages which he had
originally brought together as a guide. After many modifications, to
suit the ideas of the pope and the cardinals, the Franciscan Rule was
solemnly ratified (1228) by Honorius III. It provides that "The brothers
shall appropriate nothing to themselves, neither a house, nor a place,
nor anything; but as pilgrims and strangers in this world, in poverty
and humility serving God, they shall confidently seek alms. Nor need
they be ashamed, for the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world."
Yet the friars are to work if they are able and if their charitable and
religious duties leave them time to do so. They may be paid for this
labor in necessities for themselves or their brethren, but never may
they receive coin or money. Those may wear shoes who cannot get along
without them. They may repair their garments with sackcloth and other
remnants. They must live in absolute obedience to their superior and may
not, of course, marry nor may they leave the order.[154]
After the death of St. Francis (1226), many of the order, which now
numbered several thousand members, wished to maintain the simple rule of
absolute poverty. Others, including the new head of the order, believed
that much good might be done with the wealth which people were anxious
to give them. They argued that the individual friars might still remain
absolutely possessionless, even if the order had beautiful churches and
comfortable monasteries. A stately church was immediately constructed at
Assisi to receive the remains of their humble founder, who in his
lifetime had chosen a deserted hovel for his home; and a great chest was
set up in the church to receive offerings.
[Sidenote: St. Dominic.]
90. St. Dominic (b. 1170), the founder of the other great mendicant
order, was not a simple layman like Francis. He was a churchman and took
a regular course of instruction in theology for ten years in a Spanish
university. He then (1208) accompanied his bishop to southern France on
the eve of the Albigensian crusade and was deeply shocked to see the
prevalence of heresy. His host at Toulouse happened to be an
Albigensian, and Dominic spent the night in converting him. He then and
there determined to devote his life to the extirpation of heresy. The
little we know of him indicates that he was a man of resolute purpose
and deep convictions, full of burning zeal for the Christian faith, yet
kindly and cheerful, and winning in manner.
[Sidenote: Founding of the Dominican order.]
By 1214 a few sympathetic spirits from various parts of Europe had
joined Dominic, and they asked Innocent III to sanction their new order.
The pope again hesitated, but is said to have dreamed a dream in which
he saw the great Roman Church of the Lateran tottering and ready to fall
had not Dominic supported it on his shoulders. So he inferred that the
new organization might sometime become a great aid to the papacy and
gave it his approval. As soon as possible Dominic sent forth his
followers, of whom there were but sixteen, to evangelize the world, just
as the Franciscans were undertaking their first missionary journeys. By
1221 the Dominican order was thoroughly organized and had sixty
monasteries scattered over western Europe. "Wandering on foot over the
face of Europe, under burning suns or chilling blasts, rejecting alms in
money but receiving thankfully whatever coarse food might be set before
the wayfarer, enduring hunger in silent resignation, taking no thought
for the morrow, but busied eternally in the work of snatching souls from
Satan and lifting men up from the sordid cares of daily life, of
ministering to their infirmities and of bringing to their darkened souls
a glimpse of heavenly light" (Lea),--in this way did the early
Franciscans and Dominicans win the love and veneration of the people.
[Sidenote: Contrast between the mendicants and the older orders.]
91. Unlike the Benedictine monks, each of the friars was under the
command not only of the head of his particular monastery, but also of
the "general" of the whole order. Like a soldier, he was liable to be
sent by his commander upon any mission that the work of the order
demanded. The friars indeed regarded themselves as soldiers of Christ.
Instead of devoting themselves to a life of contemplation apart from the
world, like the earlier monks, they were accustomed and required to mix
with all classes of men. They must be ready to dare and suffer all in
the interest of their work of saving not only themselves but their
fellow-men.
[Sidenote: Contrast between the Dominicans and the Franciscans.]
The Dominicans were called the "Preaching Friars" and were carefully
trained in theology in order the better to refute the arguments of the
heretics. The pope delegated to them especially the task of conducting
the Inquisition. They early began to extend their influence over the
universities, and the two most distinguished theologians and teachers of
the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, were
Dominicans. Among the Franciscans, on the other hand, there was always a
considerable party who were suspicious of learning and who showed far
more anxiety to remain absolutely poor than did the Dominicans. Yet as a
whole the Franciscans, like the Dominicans, accepted the wealth that
came to them, and they, too, contributed distinguished scholars to the
universities.
[Sidenote: Importance and influence of the new orders.]
The pope quickly recognized the importance of these new orders. He
granted them successive privileges which freed them from all control of
the bishops, and finally declared that they were to be bound only by
their own rules. What was still more important, he gave them the right,
if they were priests, to celebrate Mass everywhere, to preach and to
perform the ordinary functions of the parish priests, such as hearing
confession, granting absolution, and conducting burials. The friars
invaded every parish, and appear to have largely replaced the parish
priests. The laity believed them to be holier than the secular clergy
and therefore regarded their prayers and ministrations as more
efficient. Few towns were without a gray friars' (Franciscan) or a black
friars' (Dominican) cloister; few princes but had a Dominican or a
Franciscan confessor.
[Sidenote: Opposition of the secular clergy.]
It is hardly necessary to say that the secular clergy took these
encroachments very ill. They repeatedly appealed to the pope to abolish
the orders, or at least to prevent them from enriching themselves at the
expense of the parish priests. But they got little satisfaction. Once
the pope quite frankly told a great deputation of cardinals, bishops,
and minor clergy that it was their own vain and worldly lives which
made them hate the mendicant brothers, who spent the bequests they
received from the dying for the honor of God, instead of wasting it in
pleasure.
The mendicant orders have counted among their numbers men of the
greatest ability and distinction,--scholars like Thomas Aquinas,
reformers like Savonarola, artists like Fra Angelico and Fra
Bartolommeo, and scientists like Roger Bacon. In the busy world of the
thirteenth century there was no agency more active for good than the
friars. Yet their vagrant lives, free from the ordinary control of the
Church, and the great wealth which was showered upon them, afforded many
obvious temptations which they did not long withstand. Bonaventura, who
was made head of the Franciscan order in 1257, admits the general
dislike aroused by the greed, idleness, and vice of its degenerate
members, as well as by their importunate begging, which rendered the
friar more troublesome to the wayfarer than the robber. Nevertheless the
friars were preferred to the ordinary priests by high and low alike; it
was they, rather than the secular clergy, who maintained and cultivated
the religious life in both city and country.
General Reading.--The opening chapter of Lea's monumental work, _A
History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages_ (Harper Bros. & Co.,
3 vols., $10.00), gives a remarkable account of the mediæval Church
and the abuses which prevailed. The first volume also contains
unexcelled chapters upon the origin of both the Franciscan and
Dominican orders. For St. Francis, by far the best work is
Sabatier's beautiful biography, _St. Francis of Assisi_ (Charles
Scribner's Sons, $2.50). The earliest and best source for Francis
is _The Mirror of Perfection_ (Page, Boston, 75 cents), by Brother
Leo, which shows the love and admiration in which "Little Brother
Francis" was held by one of his companions. See also JESSOPP, _The
Coming of the Friars, and Other Historic Essays_ (G.P. Putnam's
Sons, $1.25), Chapter I.