RISE OF THE MENDICANT ORDERS IN THE CHURCH
OUTLINE: I.--Monasticism before the Crusades. II.--Effect of
the Crusades on monasticism. III.--Origin of the begging
orders. IV.--Rise and influence of the Dominicans. V.--Origin
and power of the Franciscans. VI.--Wide-spread results of
mediæval monasticism. VII.--Sources.
The rise of monasticism[510:1] and the monastic reformation[510:2] have
already been considered. The spirit of the Clugniac and Hildebrandine
reformation was projected into the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
through new monastic orders.
1. The order of Grammont, founded by Stephen of Tigerno in 1073 with the
sanction of Gregory VII., spread rapidly over France as a reform
society. The order lived under an oral rule until 1143, when it was
written out by Stephen of Lisiac. Revised under Innocent III., the rule
lasted until the seventeenth century. The order included more lay than
spiritual brethren, also had three women's cloisters, and was generally
recognised as a reform organisation.[510:3]
2. The Carthusians, founded at Chartreuse near Grenoble in 1084 by Bruno
of Cologne, were peculiarly ascetic. They still boast that their order
is the only one never reformed.
3. The order of Fontevraud, founded for both monks and nuns in 1093 by
Robert of Arbrissel in Poitou, sent its members through the country
preaching penance and practising rigidly ascetic lives.
4. The Cistercians, founded at Citeaux near Dijon in Burgundy in 1098 by
Robert of Molesme, a Benedictine abbot, who, despairing of reforming the
loose and frivolous life of the old order, resolved to found a new one
for the purpose of leading a life of austere asceticism. The order
spread rapidly and reached its culmination in the thirteenth century,
when its cloisters numbered eight hundred.[511:1] In opposition to the
wealthy monasteries about them, the Cistercians had unpretentious
buildings, simple furniture, plain clothing, no pictures, images, or
decorations, and a brief, unpretentious ritual. The greatest man in the
order was St. Bernard[511:2] and under his leadership heretics like
Abélard, Arnold of Brescia, and the Cathari were crushed, and the Second
Crusade was preached.[511:3]
5. The order of Prémontré founded by St. Norbert in 1121--the only
German originator of a monastic order after Bruno and who was converted
from a rich worldly canon to a pious monk,--combined the life of monk
and canon, soon spread through all countries, and had at one time a
thousand abbeys for males and five hundred for females. The rules were
those of Augustine, the religious practices were as severe, flesh was
altogether forbidden as food, and fasts and scourgings were frequent.
Norbert dressed himself in plain sheep skins and walked about barefooted
among the poor people preaching and teaching. In 1126 he was appointed
Archbishop of Magdeburg, where he carried on the reforms so dear to his
heart.
6. The Gilbertines, an order originated in 1148 by Gilbert, an English
ecclesiastic of noble origin, and intended at first for women only but
later opened to men, planted many cloisters throughout England with
poorhouses, hospitals, and orphanages attached.[512:1]
7. The Celestines, founded by Pope Celestine V. in 1294, spread over
Italy, France, and the Netherlands.
8. The Humiliati, founded by John Oldratus, a nobleman of Milan (died
1159), included men and women in the same house. This order was the
outgrowth of the pietistic-socialistic movement in northern Italy and
was a pronounced forerunner of the begging orders.
9. The Serviten, founded in 1233 at Florence by seven devotees who
consecrated themselves to the Virgin Mary, spread to France, the
Netherlands, and Germany and in 1424 was given the privileges of a
begging order.
The Crusades produced two new forms of monasticism--the military orders
and the convents of women established on the basis of useful activity
and not idle contemplation. The military orders were a peculiar union of
monk and knight whose purpose was, through charity and war, to protect
pilgrims to the Holy Land, to care for the sick and to feed and house
the tired and hungry.
1. The order of St. John had its origin in a hospital founded in 1065 at
Jerusalem for sick pilgrims of both sexes by Maurus, a rich man of
Amalfi. A master and lay brethren conducted it. In 1099, after the
victory of the First Crusade, many knights joined it, hence to the
hospital duties was now added armed protection for pilgrims. Soon a new
and larger hospital was built near the church of St. John the Baptist
from which the order was named. In 1121 Raymond de Puy gave the
brotherhood a fixed rule which required the vows of monasticism, ascetic
practices, and the duty of armed protection.[513:1] The order had two
thousand members by 1160 and had received great wealth from Popes,
princes, and private persons. Soon many affiliated branches were planted
on land and on islands of the sea. In the thirteenth century the total
income of the order was eighteen times as great as that of the King of
France. After 1187 the order withdrew to Ptolemais and kept up the
contest with the Saracens for a century when in 1291 it again withdrew
first to the Isle of Cyprus, then in 1309 to the Isle of Rhodes, and,
finally, in 1350 to the Isle of Malta where it remained until disbanded
in 1797 by Napoleon.
2. Two companions of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1118 united with seven other
knights to protect and guide pilgrims to the Holy Land. To the three
monastic vows which they took was added a fourth, namely, to fight the
"infidels." King Baldwin II. gave them a residence in the Temple of
Solomon, hence the order came to be called the Templars.[513:2] The
membership soon increased and a rule was drawn up. St. Bernard
championed the order and Pope Honorius II. favoured it. Burghers soon
joined the knights, but the hospital duties were obscured by the feats
of arms. They withdrew in 1291 to Cypress and then to France where
through royal and papal favours they soon numbered twenty thousand
knights and possessed vast wealth. Under Philip IV. of France they were
disbanded and robbed in 1307.
3. The Teutonic Knights date from the Third Crusade and derived their
name from a German hospital founded in 1128 at Jerusalem, which fell in
1187. The intense sufferings at the siege of Acre in 1190 led some of
the German merchants to revive the work of the hospital by making tents
out of the sails of their ships and caring for the sick. In 1200 these
hospital attendants organised themselves as a military order, adopted
monastic vows, promised to help the sick and wounded, bound themselves
to fight the Mohammedans and pagans, and were soon favoured by the Pope
and Emperor. At first the members were all Germans of honourable birth
but later priests and burghers were admitted. The order became powerful
and wealthy and in 1237 absorbed the order of Brothers of the Sword. The
order removed first to Venice in 1291, and then to Marienburg in 1309 to
wage a crusade against the pagan Prussians. Napoleon in 1809 suppressed
the order. In Spain to fight the Moors were organised the order of
Calatrava, the order of Aleontera, and the order of Montesta. In
Portugal appeared the order of Christ and the order of Avis.
The hospital orders without military service arose in the West and were
brotherhoods of common people patterned after the order of St. John and
patronised by Popes:
1. The order of Cross Bearers arose in 1160 at Bologna and in 1238 in
Bohemia.
2. The order of Anthony was endowed by a French noble and authorised by
Urban II. in 1095 at Clermont.
3. The order of the Holy Ghost was founded at Montpellier in 1170 and
regularly organised by Innocent III. in 1198.
4. The order of St. Lazarus probably began in the Holy Land and in the
twelfth century spread over the West.
5. The order of the Trinity was created by a priest and a hermit and
chartered in 1198 by Innocent III.
6. The order of Knights of Emancipation was formed in 1228 to free
Christian slaves.
7. The Bridge Brothers were pledged to build and protect bridges for
pilgrims as well as to care for the sick.
8. Various associations of women were attached to both classes of orders
to serve in poorhouses and hospitals as nurses and assistants of all
kinds.
This rapid multiplication of orders and their marvellous increase of
wealth was followed by equally rapid degeneration and decay, so that the
original purpose of the monastic organisation was lost after a few
generations. The Popes granted them many exemptions. The members of
these various orders became more estranged from the humbler classes and
were in consequence unpopular, suspected, and hated. The vows of poverty
were eluded; the narrow cell became a grand cloister; the deserts became
parks, and the hermits, princely abbots; and the inmates of the
monastery changed into a worldly aristocracy under a religious name. The
promise of chastity was forgotten, the abbeys became centres of
corruption and the nunneries almost houses of prostitution.[515:1]
Monasticism resembled feudalism in which the abbot and his monks lived
riotously and waged war upon their neighbours. Such men as Gilbert, the
Abbot of Gemblours, confessed with shame that monachism had become an
oppression and a scandal--a hissing and a reproach to all men.[516:1]
St. Bernard said in 1147 of the region of the Count of Toulouse.
The churches are without people, the people are without
priests, the priests without the reverence due them, and the
Christians without Christ. The churches are regarded as
synagogues, the sanctuary of the Lord is no longer holy; the
sacraments are no longer held sacred; feast days are without
solemnity; men die in their sins and their souls are hurried
to the dread tribunal, neither reconciled by penance nor
fortified by the holy communion.[516:2]
Furthermore the state and the nobility stepped in and attempted to
control the monastic system and particularly the appointment of
abbots.[516:3] The obligation of obedience to superior authority seemed
to be utterly disregarded.
The old form of monasticism, at its best, thought only of the salvation
of its own members and not of the world. Here, then, was an opportunity
for a great revolution and also a crying need for it. Everywhere
monasteries were rapidly obtaining exemptions from the bishops and
subjecting themselves to the successor of St. Peter. While this
strengthened the Pope, it stimulated conventual degeneracy, relaxed
monastic discipline, denationalised monasticism, aroused popular
hostility, and spread the report that a little gold would purchase any
privilege.[516:4] Under these conditions it was perhaps natural that the
inmates of monasteries were frequently recruited from the worst and
most vicious classes. Such motives as sickness, poverty, crime, mortal
danger, dread of hell, and desire of heaven would not furnish the best
class of devotees.[517:1] In one French cloister the inmates were all
professional highway robbers. Furthermore, the name monk was rendered
still more despicable by the crowds of tramps palming themselves off as
monks. Bearded, tonsured, and dressed in the religious habit, they
swarmed throughout all parts of Christendom, begging, stealing,
deceiving, and peddling false relics, and were often taken in crime and
slain without mercy.[517:2] The secular priests hated the monks and the
people mistrusted and despised both.[517:3] The intense speculative
spirit of the age tended to create disbelief in the Church and to
produce new sects which the Papacy tried in vain to suppress by force.
The secular clergy were also in bad condition--the upper clergy wealthy,
powerful, immoral, and worldly; the lower clergy characterised by sloth
and incapacity. The need of reformation was generally recognised, but
who would do it? "The Church had made no real effort at internal reform;
it was still grasping, licentious, covetous, and a strange desire for
something--they knew not exactly what--began to take possession of men's
hearts and spread like an epidemic from village to village and from land
to land."[517:4] Heresy, likewise, was making rapid strides and was
propagated by sects whose austere lives and serviceable conduct were
popular because in such a striking contrast to those of the monks and
clergy.
The general purpose of the begging orders, which grew out of these
conditions, was (1) to reform the Church from within and not by
revolution; (2) to avoid the evils and corruptions of wealth by making
poverty an object of admiration and sanctification; (3) to send their
members out to save the Church and the world instead of shutting them up
in monasteries for the selfish purpose of saving their own souls; (4) to
supervise the whole system and to keep the order in a harmonious working
condition by a rigidly organised monarchial government; and (5) to set
on foot a great reformatory home movement which would win the Church
away from the corrupting idols back to a purer and more primitive
Christianity.[518:1] The two prominent begging orders were both Romanic
in origin and not Germanic.
The way for the begging orders was partially prepared by antecedent
reformers and orders. Conspicuous among the individuals who were
forerunners of St. Francis and St. Dominic was (1) St. Bernard
(1091-1153) who advocated poverty and denounced the abuses of his day.
(2) Arnold of Brescia (_c._ 1100-1155), a priest and follower of
Abélard, assailed the Pope's temporal power, attacked the wealth of the
clergy, urged the secularisation of ecclesiastical property, and led a
popular revolt in Rome for a republic. He was hanged, burned, and his
ashes were thrown into the Tiber.[518:2] (3) Gerach of Reichersberg
(1093-1169), a German monk and canon of Augsburg, left his position
disgusted at the irregularity of the lives of the canons, went to Rome
in 1125, and was officially appointed by Honorius II. to reform the
canonry. As the head of the canonry of Reichersberg (1132) he became an
active and rigorous reformer.[519:1] (4) Foulques de Neuilly (died
1202), an obscure, ignorant priest, whose mighty conviction of the sins
of the world and the Church made him a great preacher, was licensed by
Innocent III. as a missionary. He converted thousands from wayward
lives, reclaimed lost women and founded a convent for them at Paris,
denounced the clergy without mercy, and struck at every evil in the
Church. His reformation, however, was lost in the crusading zeal and he
himself helped to preach the Fourth Crusade.[519:2]
Among the movements laying the foundations for the begging orders were
(1) the "Poor Men," or Arnoldists, who were founded in Italy after the
death of Arnold of Brescia[519:3]; (2) the "Poor Men of Lyons"[519:4];
and (3) the "Poor Catholics," who were founded by Duran de Husce, a
Spaniard and disciple of St. Dominic. These "Poor Catholics" based their
organisation on poverty and self-abnegation, sought to convert heretics,
and were approved by Innocent III. although fought by the clergy. They
appear to have been lost in the forcible effort to exterminate
heresy.[519:5] (4) The Beghards and Beguins were founded in the
Netherlands about 1180. At first companies of women were formed in the
Belgian cities to care for the sick, to perform other acts of charity,
and to aid the widows and orphans of the Crusaders. They lived together
in a common house, led a pious life according to a few simple rules,
but took no vows. They were called Beguins. Early in the thirteenth
century similar companies of men were formed and called Beghards.
Members could leave the order at will, marry or enter any occupation
after leaving. These orders had their own little houses, each one
distinct in its organisation, which were frequently endowed by rich
burghers. The inmates were also given to hand labour and did not neglect
education, although their chief work was soul saving and charity. They
spread rapidly from the Netherlands to Germany, to France, to Italy, and
to Bohemia and Poland. As these associations increased, their members
began to wander through the countries, begging and performing acts of
mercy. After the middle of the thirteenth century, charges of heresy
were made against them and they were persecuted by the Church.[520:1]
(5) The Carmelites, one of the mendicant orders, according to its
legendary history was founded by Elijah on Mount Carmel. The first
disciples were Jonah, Micah, and Obadiah; and the wife of Obadiah was
the first abbess. Even Pythagoras, Mary, and Jesus were considered
members. The real origin, however, seems to lie in the fact that Phocas,
a Greek monk from Patmos, in 1185 saw the ruins of a monastery on Mount
Carmel and there an association of hermits was formed. The Patriarch of
Jerusalem in 1209 gave the association a rule and in 1224 this rule was
confirmed by Honorius III. The order played an active part during the
Crusades until 1238, when it was removed to Sicily and later to England
and France, where it followed the custom and became a mendicant order in
1247.
The founder of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, was Dominic de Guzman,
born in 1170 in old Castile of noble ancestry. Many miraculous tales
were told about his mother and his infancy.[521:1] At the age of seven
he was given over to his uncle, who was archpresbyter at Gumyel de Ycan.
At the age of fourteen he entered the University of Palencia,[521:2]
where he remained ten years as a "laborious, devout, abstemious"
student. Theology was his chief subject and he became a distinguished
theologian. While a student, it was said that he sold his clothes to
feed the poor in a time of famine, and on another occasion he offered to
redeem a sad woman's brother from slavery by taking his place. At the
age of twenty-four (1194), after having studied ten years at the
University, he became a canon of the Bishop of Osma, where he helped to
introduce the rules of St. Augustine. Soon he was made sub-prior of the
chapter, became very active in ecclesiastical affairs, excelled in
asceticism, which was inspired no doubt by reading Cassian's famous work
on monasticism, and became a zealous and eloquent missionary among the
Mohammedans and Jews of the neighbourhood.
In 1203 he went with the Bishop of Osma to southern France to secure a
bride for the King's son. In this diplomatic venture they were
successful, but the bride died before she could go to Spain. Here it was
that Dominic got his first view of the aggressive Albigensian
heretics.[521:3] From southern France he accompanied the Bishop of Osma
to Rome, where the bishop begged Innocent III. to permit him to go as a
missionary to the Huns, or the Saracens, but the request was refused.
The task of converting the heretics of southern France had been
intrusted to the Cistercians, but they had utterly failed to accomplish
it. As Dominic and the bishop were returning to France, they met at
Montpellier three of these Cistercian abbots, who had been sent out by
the Pope to superintend the duties intrusted to their order. The pomp
and splendour of the abbots called forth this bold rebuke from Dominic:
"It is not by the display of pomp and power, cavalcades of retainers and
richly houseled palfreys, nor by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win
proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by
austerity and seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by
humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by
preaching truth."[522:1] The abbots were advised to send out for the
great work men who were imbued with apostolic poverty and zeal. The
abbots accepted the advice and joined Dominic and his companion in their
new conception of missionary work, but apparently their labours were
checked in 1208 by the crusade waged against the Albigenses.
During the efforts to exterminate these revolters against the faith and
authority of Rome, there are two accounts of the activity of
Dominic,--first, that that he was a fiery leader of the crusading
parties, and, secondly, that he strongly denounced the war. The
probability seems to be that he lived quietly in his monastery at
Prouille endeavouring to convert the heretics without taking part in
the war.[523:1] Whatever the fact may have been however, so far as the
historical sources go, for the next eight years his life is a blank. No
doubt he was wisely planning for the future. In 1206 the Bishop of
Toulouse presented "to Dominic of Osma the church of St. Mary's of
Prouille and the adjacent land to the extent of thirty feet" for the use
of his women converts, who at first were nine noble ladies for whom he
drew up a monastic rule. The convent soon became wealthy and
influential. At the close of the war in 1214 Dominic, now forty-four
years old, had made but little progress. His converts were few, his
influence small, but the seeds were being sowed which would return a
rich harvest. His character at this time reveals a man of earnest,
resolute purpose; of deep, unalterable conviction; full of burning
faith; kind of heart and ever cheerful; of winning manner and charitable
beyond reason; yet given to scourgings and vigils till nature was nearly
exhausted.[523:2]
Through the gift of Peter Cella, a rich man of Toulouse, Dominic founded
in 1214 the monastery of St. Rouen near Toulouse which was the home of
the Inquisition for over a hundred years. There he gathered some devout
souls about him and they began to live like monks. The Bishop of
Toulouse gave them one sixth of the tithes for their work. This was the
beginning of the great Dominican order. The next step was to get papal
sanction for the new organisation and for this purpose Dominic went with
the Bishop of Toulouse to Rome. Innocent III., won through a
dream,[524:1] consented to sanction the order provided some known rule
should be adopted. Consequently Dominic organised his monks according to
the canons regular of St. Augustine, which was Dominic's own order. That
rule, however, was almost immediately modified to meet the boundless
plans and scope of the work which held Dominic captive. A grand master
was put at the head of the order as absolute ruler and under him were
provincial priors, elected during good behaviour. The friars were held
to implicit obedience, as soldiers of Christ, but poverty was not at
first a part of the rule. It was adopted only after the Franciscans had
made it so attractive (1220). At stated times general and provincial
assemblies were to be held to further the prosperity of the order.
Dominic now wisely took up his residence at Rome, where he was made
court preacher, lived in the papal palace, and guided the activities of
his new order. Honorius III. in 1216 sanctioned the needed changes in
the rule, authorised the monks to preach and hear confessions
everywhere, and took the order under his special protection.[524:2]
Dominic's little band of sixteen followers--among whom were an
Englishman, a German, and some Spaniards--were sent out into the world
to begin the strenuous life of service. Laymen and ecclesiastics of all
ranks hastened to join the order. When the second general assembly was
held at Bologna in 1221 there were present representatives from sixty
convents and eight provinces, representing Spain, France, England,
Hungary, Poland, and Italy. This same year a secular organisation for
both men and women called "The Soldiers of Jesus Christ" was organised
to convert the laymen, to fight heretics, and to win unbelievers. The
members had a distinct dress and special rites and services.[525:1]
Dominic died in a monastery at Bologna in 1221 and twelve years later
was canonised.
A new constitution was adopted by the Dominicans in 1228 and revised and
completed in 1241 and 1252. Members of the order devoted themselves
exclusively to preaching, soul saving, fighting heresy, and in educating
the people in the true faith. From the schools founded by the order came
most of their recruits. They were the model preachers of the Middle Ages
and the keenest theologians of the day, producing such men as Peter
Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. Among their numbers were found popes,
cardinals, and famous doctors. The first Dominican to wear the papal
tiara was Innocent V. in 1276, and he was succeeded by three others. The
first cardinal to be chosen from their ranks was Hugh of Vienne in 1243,
and he was followed by fifty-nine more. Among the famous doctors of the
order were Albertus Magnus, Meister Echart, Johan Tauler, Henry Suso,
Savonarola, Las Casas, and Vincent Ferrier. The Dominicans could boast
of more than eight hundred bishops, one hundred and fifty archbishops,
and the number of martyrs belonging to their order between 1234 and 1334
was thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy. So influential did they
become and so dangerous to the prerogatives of the clergy[525:2] that
Innocent IV. (1254), Boniface VIII. (1300), and Clement VIII. (1311)
were forced to curtail their privileges. In 1228 the first Dominican
monk occupied a chair in the University of Paris and in 1230 another was
added and from this time on they attempted to monopolise learning in the
University. Scholasticism was largely the product of their minds. They
were very active in missionary work and in 1245 they were sent to the
Tartars by Innocent IV.; in 1249 to Persia by Louis IX.; in 1272 to
China by Gregory X.; and they laboured among the Jews and Saracens
in Spain, and in Poland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. They built
monasteries and churches; and art and architecture are deeply indebted
to them for many of the finest specimens produced in Europe.[526:1] The
history of theology, philosophy, and science until the Renaissance and
Reformation is little more than a petty controversial rivalry between
them and the Franciscans.
The founder of the Franciscans, or Minorites, or Grey Friars, was
Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182 at Assisi of a rich mercantile
family. He received a little learning from the parish priest, but
manifested no love for school instruction. He knew Latin and learned
some French while with his father on business in France. It was early
determined that he should be educated for business. Reports concerning
his early character show that he was cheerful and kind-hearted, careless
and indifferent to work, vain and fond of fine clothes, prone to join
comrades in dissipating carousals, and too fond of squandering his
father's money in banquets for his friends.[526:2]
At the age of twenty Francis joined a war party against Perugia. He was
taken captive and held for a year in prison and this seemed to sober him
somewhat. Two serious illnesses led him to change his life and a series
of visions determined his conduct (1208). He boldly and suddenly
deserted his worldly companions and started out passionately on the path
of self-denial. He was now twenty-six years of age. He declared that
poverty should be his bride, and resolved to go to Rome to throw all his
possessions on the altar of St. Peter. Upon his return journey he joined
a gang of beggars and exchanged his clothes for the filthiest rags among
them. Next he appropriated a quantity of his father's goods and sold
them, together with the horse, to restore the church of St. Damiani.
Then he hid a month in a cave and when he returned looking wild and
haggard he was hooted and stoned in the streets. His father, alarmed and
angered at his acts called him before the Bishop to force him to give up
his patrimony. Francis stripped off all his clothing but his hair shirt
and the Bishop covered him with an old cloak. Surrendering his
inheritance and even his very clothing to his father he exclaimed:
"Peter Bernardone was my father; I now have but one father, He that is
in heaven." This was the keynote of his whole life.[527:1] From now
henceforth he was consecrated to mendicancy, wandered about in a
hermit's attire, devoted himself to the lepers, helped restore with his
own hands four ruined churches, and resolved to work out his own
salvation in loving service for the weak and needy--an evidence of his
genuine conversion and a thing radically different from the Christianity
of that period. One day in February, 1209, the text rang in his ears:
"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither scrip
for your journey, neither two coats nor shoes nor staff, for the
labourer is worthy of his hire."[528:1] These strong words, coming from
the priest who was celebrating mass in one of the little churches which
Francis had helped to rebuild, pierced him like a revelation. "This is
what I want," he cried; "this is what I was seeking; from this day forth
I shall set myself with all my strength to put it in practice."
Accordingly he threw away his wallet, staff, and shoes, and put on a
rough grey tunic of coarse woollen cloth, girt by a hempen cord, and
went barefooted through the land preaching repentance.[528:2] He lived
now as a follower of the living Jesus,--"like the birds of the
air,"--and his childish simplicity and radiating face made him beloved
by the poor and a comfort to the troubled and sick.[528:3]
Francis did not have in mind at first the institution of a brotherhood;
his ideal was rather the solitary ascetic preaching repentance to a
world of sin, and his strange, fervoured piety soon made him famous in
the neighbourhood of Assisi. Gradually kindred spirits joined him and
begged to share his mission. Bernard of Quintavalle was the first to ask
to be associated with him, and in order to learn God's will Francis
opened the Bible at random and read Matthew xix., 21; vi., 8; xvi., 24.
Others came until his disciples numbered eight. He received them and put
them under vows of poverty and preaching. The time had now come to
evangelise the world. These disciples were sent out in pairs to the four
points of the compass, with these words:
Go and preach two by two. Preach peace and patience; tend the
wounded and relieve the distressed; reclaim the erring; bless
them which persecute you and pray for them that despitefully
use you. Fear not because you are small and seem foolish. Have
confidence in the Lord who has vanquished the world. Some will
receive you and many proud will resist you. Bear all with
sweetness and patience. Soon the wise and noble will be with
us. The Lord hath given me to see this--I have in my ears the
sounds of the languages of all peoples who will come to
us--French, Spanish, German and English. The Lord will make us
a great people even to the end of the earth.
Upon their reuniting, four more were added to their number and Francis
gave them a rule of which poverty was the basic principle and chastity
and obedience were necessary requirements.
Papal confirmation was the next step. This Francis sought in 1210 from
Innocent III. in a friendly interview at Rome.[529:1] The Pope in doubt
submitted the question to the cardinals and it was carried in favour of
Francis. His rule was approved orally and the members thus came under
the spiritual authority of Rome and were authorised to receive the
tonsure and to preach the word of God. A second rule less severe than
the first was drawn up and approved by Honorius III. in 1223, and it
remained the unaltered constitution of the Franciscan order.[529:2] The
organisation according to this rule provided for a General Minister at
the head, provincial ministers, and brethren, or minorities. Applicants
were required to sell all their possessions for the poor, to promise to
live according to the gospel, and to take the absolute vows of chastity,
obedience, and poverty. Each monk was to have two gowns of vile cloth
which were to be patched as long as possible. No shoes were to be worn
except when absolutely necessary. All but the sick had to walk. No money
could be received save for the poor and the needy. All who were able
were compelled to labour and thus earn their food and clothing.
"Brethren," said Francis, "know that poverty is the special path of
salvation, the inciter to humility, and the root of perfection."[530:1]
A very simple ritual with one daily mass and but little music was
instituted.
Francis sent his disciples out over the whole world to preach his
gospel, while he continued the simplicity of his earlier life, living in
a little hut with a ground floor, preaching to and converting whole
multitudes who came to hear and to see him, and continuing his acts of
mercy and love. He founded a convent of women called the "Clarisses" or
"Poor Clares," who became almost as famous as the "Poor
Brothers."[530:2] In 1221 he established the "Brothers and Sisters of
Penitence," a lay order whose members, though living under a rule,
retained their social position and employments, but bound themselves to
abstain from all worldly dissipations like dancing, theatre-going, and
secular festivals, and to live godly lives.[530:3] This was a very
sensible arrangement because by it Francis enlisted all classes in
sympathetic co-operation.[530:4] Impelled by missionary zeal Francis
journeyed not only throughout Italy but to Illyria, Spain, and with
twelve brethren even went to the distant Holy Land, where he not only
converted thousands to Christianity, but even attempted to win the
Sultan himself. Failing in this he returned to Italy.[531:1] In his
relations with Rome Francis was the truest son of the Church and formed
an army trained in piety and absolute obedience which the Pope used
later to great advantage. For himself, however, he demanded freedom to
live and to act after his own heart. His life was spared to see his
order cover the world, but at length worn out by his labours and
consuming zeal he died in 1226 naked and in poverty.[531:2] After his
death it is said that the five wounds of the Saviour, called the
"stigmata," were found on his body.[531:3] He was canonised in 1228 by
Gregory IX.
Few persons in the world's history have stamped their character and
influence upon their age in a more marked manner than did St. Francis.
His life is hallowed by countless miracles and it is not always easy to
separate myth from truth. But a careful study of his career reveals the
fact that he felt the unity of the universe in God and preached it to
man in love and charity as a genuine religious philosopher. With an
unparalleled ardour and spiritual industry, he taught every one that the
salvation of a human soul comes through self-sacrifice. He and his
followers aimed to realise the simplicity of Christ and his apostles.
"No human creature since Christ has more fully incarnated the ideal of
Christianity than Francis."[531:4] His chief happiness was in
ministering to the needs of his fellow creatures. "The perfection of
gladness," he said "consists not in working miracles, in curing the
sick, expelling devils, or raising the dead; nor in learning and
knowledge of all things; nor in eloquence to convert the world, but in
bearing all ills and injuries and injustices and despiteful treatment
with patience and humility." Through his insane, extravagant asceticism
there shines forth a patience, humility, and depth of love necessary to
oppose the pride and cruelty of his age. He inculcated the gospel of
cheerfulness and declared that gloom and sadness were the deadly weapons
of Satan. He had a poetic soul, was passionately fond of animals and
flowers--called them his brothers and sisters--and preached some
beautiful sermons to the trees, the fish in the streams, the
birds,[532:1] and the posies. He wrote some rugged and touching
verse--"The first broken utterances of a new voice which was soon to
fill the world."[532:2] "Of all saints St. Francis was the most
blameless and gentle. Francis was emphatically the saint of the people,
of a poetic people, like the Italians."[532:3] In many ways he was the
forerunner of Dante. In prayer, in picture, and in song, the worship of
St. Francis vied with that of Jesus. In story and legend he soon
outstripped Christ.
It was in 1219 that St. Francis sent his disciples out to evangelise the
world. Those who went to Germany and Hungary were regarded as heretics
and roughly treated. In France at first they were mistaken for Cathari
and an appeal was made to the Pope concerning them. Five suffered
martyrdom in Morocco. They soon spread to all parts of the world and
many of them perished as martyrs in the cause they had espoused. When
St. Francis held his first chapter in 1221 three thousand members[533:1]
were present and Provincial Masters had been appointed in all European
countries. In 1260 there were thirty-three provinces, one hundred
eighty-two guardianships, eight thousand monasteries and two hundred
thousand friars. The order has produced five Popes and many cardinals,
bishops, theologians, writers, and poets.
A comparison of the two founders and their orders reveals some
interesting facts. Both leaders were born about the same time, St.
Dominic being the older by twelve years. Both were of Romance
origin--one of noble, the other of ignoble birth. The early life of each
was wholly dissimilar in disposition, education, and relation to the
Church. The causes operating to make them reformers were very different.
St. Dominic dreamed of an aggressive, skilfully-trained body of
preachers of simple life to convert the heretics and to instruct the
orthodox, thus keeping them firm. St. Francis on the other hand made
poverty the first Christian grace and sought to lead all men back to
Jesus as the great model. One laboured for doctrinal orthodoxy, the
other for personal piety. Both applied to Innocent III. about the same
time for a permit to found a new order and both were successful. Each
order in its purpose was reformatory and in the monastic world
revolutionary.[533:2] In organisation the two orders were essentially
the same: each had a governor-general at Rome, provincial governors in
the provinces, priors or guardians over single cloisters, which were
simply "homes" and not convents in the old sense and demanded a certain
type of life for the members. The vows were essentially the same,
although the Franciscans originated and the Dominicans adopted that of
poverty. Both orders devoted themselves to preaching and to saving
souls.
Education, art, morality, and religion of the later Middle Ages were in
a large measure moulded by the influence of these two organisations.
Both had great scholars, preachers, teachers, higher clergy, and popes.
Whenever in the thirteenth century we find a man towering
above his fellows, we are almost sure to trace him to one of
the mendicant orders. Raymond of Pennaforte, Alexander Hales,
Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Roger Bacon, and
Duns Scotus are names which show how irresistibly the men of
highest gifts were glad to seek among the Dominicans or
Franciscans their ideal life.[534:1]
The Franciscans were realists and Scottists; the Dominicans, nominalists
and Thomists. The Franciscans believed in the immaculate conception; the
Dominicans denied it. Both came into conflict with the secular clergy.
They could not say mass, but were very popular confessors and thus
tended to deprive the clergy of support and revenues and even threatened
to supersede the old ecclesiastical system. Women and the pious as a
rule upheld the begging orders, while the state, the soldiers, and the
men took the part of the clergy. In both, the individual was compelled
to remain poor, while the society became dangerously rich. The
Dominicans were aristocratic; the Franciscans democratic.
Each order borrowed something from the other: St. Francis took St.
Dominic's idea of itinerant preachers; St. Dominic adopted St. Francis's
plan of poverty. Both became quickly popular and both had exemptions and
privileges showered upon them by Rome.[535:1] Their members could not be
excommunicated by any bishop and were exempt from all local jurisdiction
save that of their own order.[535:2] They had a right to live freely in
excommunicated lands. Being directly responsible to the Pope alone, they
were used by him to raise money, to preach crusades, to sell
indulgences, to execute excommunications, to serve as spies and secret
police, and to act as papal legates on all kinds of missions. In
addition to practically usurping and monopolising the functions of
preaching and confession and granting absolution, they were finally
permitted to celebrate mass on portable altars.[535:3] In return for
these privileges each order gave the Pope a vast army which overran
Europe in his name. Both orders helped to carry on the work of the
Inquisition.[535:4] Both laboured incessantly in the missionary field
and from the thirteenth century onward they were the great missionary
pioneers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Both had a tertiary order
of laymen which went far to remove the barrier between the ecclesiastic
and the people. From this comparison it will be seen that the
Franciscans and Dominicans were much more alike than unlike in their
origin, leaders, aims, methods, and results. After the thirteenth
century both departed from their original ideals, became corrupt,
worldly, and very unpopular.
A third begging order was created in 1243, when Pope Innocent IV.
authorised the organisation of a band of Italian monks under the rule of
St. Augustine. Lanfranc Septala of Milan was made general of the order
and provincial rulers were appointed for Italy, Spain, France, and
Germany. Under Alexander IV. in 1256 they assumed the rights and duties
of a mendicant order and in 1287 they were taken under the particular
protection of the Pope. They soon spread rapidly over western Europe and
by the fifteenth century covered forty-two provinces, had two thousand
monasteries, and thirty thousand monks. It was this order which young
Martin Luther entered in 1505 at Erfurt.
No better summary of the general results of the begging orders has ever
been made than that of Lea when he says:
The Mendicants came upon Christendom like a revelation--men
who had abandoned all that was enticing in life to imitate the
Apostles, to convert the sinner and unbeliever, to arouse the
slumbering sense of mankind, to instruct the ignorant, to
offer salvation to all; in short to do what the Church was
paid so enormously in wealth and privileges and power for
neglecting. 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, or 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--such was the aspect in which the earliest Dominicans
and Franciscans presented themselves to the eyes of men who
had been accustomed to see in the ecclesiastic only the
sensual worldling intent solely upon the indulgence of his
appetites.[537:1]
* * * * *
In the busy world of the 13th century there was then no agency
more active than that of the Mendicant Orders, for good and
for evil. On the whole perhaps the good preponderated, for
they undoubtedly aided in postponing a revolution for which
the world was not yet ready. Though the self-abnegation of
their earlier days was a quality too rare and perishable to be
long preserved, and though they soon sank to the level of the
social order around them, yet their work had not been
altogether lost.[537:2]
The degeneration which soon crept into both orders was not allowed to
increase without efforts of reformation. Within fifty years after the
death of St. Francis, Bonaventura, the governor-general who succeeded
him, complained that the vow of poverty had broken down, that the
Franciscans were more entangled in money matters than the older orders
and that vast sums were lavished on costly buildings. He declared that
the friars were idle, lazy beggars given to vice and so brazen that they
were feared as much as highway robbers. He said further that they made
undesirable acquaintances and thus gave rise to grave scandals, and that
they were too greedy of burial and legacy fees and thus encroached upon
the parochial clergy. St. Francis himself had been compelled to resign
his generalship on account of the abuses and offered to resume it only
on condition of reformation.[537:3] The second general, Elias, the
shrewdest politician in Italy, was removed by Pope Gregory IX. It was
high time therefore that a high-minded reformer like Bonaventura
appeared, for by a series of steps the Franciscans changed from a body
of pietists to a band of the boldest swindlers. As preaching and
soul-saving died out, the begging propensities were developed. As early
as 1233 Gregory IX. told the Dominicans that their poverty should be
genuine and not hypocritical.[538:1] The wide use of the friars by the
Pope for political purposes still further diverted them from their
spiritual functions and tended to make them worldly.
As a result the Franciscans soon broke into two parties: (1) The
liberals who were not averse to dropping the vow of poverty and
imitating the older monastic orders were very strong. (2) The reform
party who desired to adhere rigidly to the preaching and practice of St.
Francis were probably a minority and were weakened by subdivisions. One
faction of the strict party was called Spirituales,[538:2] and in turn
was represented by the Cæsarins who revolted against the public activity
of Elias and were punished as rebels; the Celestines who were permitted
to exist as a separate order by Pope Celestine V. in 1294, and were
later denounced as heretics; the congregation of Narbonne which was
formed in 1282; the Clarenins who were accused of heresy in 1318; and
the congregation of Philip of Nyarca which was formed in 1308. A second
reform element within the rigid party were the Fratricelli, authorised
by Celestine V., who became revolutionists, repudiated the Papacy, left
the Church, joined the Beghards, thought that they were possessed with
the Holy Spirit and were exempt from sin, and repudiated the sacraments
of the Church. They were condemned as heretics and the Inquisition was
turned against them in Italy, Sicily, and southern France, but they
lasted until the Reformation. Later reform factions among the
Franciscans were the Capuchins (1526), Minims (1453), Observants (1415),
and Recollects. These internal reformers failed to change the order
because the rule of St. Francis was utterly incompatible with social
life in any form.
For three centuries the Franciscans and Dominicans practically ruled the
Church and state. They filled the highest civil ecclesiastical
positions; they taught authoritatively in the universities and churches;
they maintained the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiffs against kings,
bishops, and heretics; and they were to the Church before the
Reformation what the Jesuits were after the Reformation. The Mendicants
increased so rapidly however that they soon became a burden to the
Church and the people. Hence in 1272 Gregory X. in the Council of Lyons
suppressed the "extravagant multitude" by reducing them to four orders:
the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustinians.
SOURCES.
A.--PRIMARY:
1.--Gerard de Frachet, _Lives of the Brethren_.
2.--Eales, S. J., _Letters of St. Bernard_. Lond., 1888.
3.--Bonaventura, _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. Lond.,
1868.
4.--Brewer and Howlett, _Monumenta Franciscana_.
5.--Eccleston, _Arrival of the Friars in England_. Ed. by Brewer
and Howlett in _Pub. Rolls Ser._, 1882.
6.--_Legend of St. Francis by the Three Companions._ Tr. by E.
G. Salter. Lond., 1902.
7.--Brother Leo of Assisi, _S. Francis of Assisi, Mirror of
Perfection_. Tr. by S. Evans. Lond., 1898.
8.--_The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi._ Tr. by T. W.
Arnold. Lond., 1898. Several other translations.
9.--_Legends of St. Francis._ Cath. Penny Lib. Lond., 1901.
10.--_Manual of the Third Order of St. Francis._
11.--_Third Order._ Tr. by J. G. Adderley and C. L. Marson.
Lond., 1902.
12.--Parenti, P., _Commercium or My Lady's Poverty_. Tr. by
Carmichael.
13.--The Franciscan Fathers, _Spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, or
Maxims for Every Day in the Year_. Dub., 1888.
14.--_Works of the Seraphic Father, St. Francis of Assisi._ Tr.
by a Religious of the Order. Lond., 1890.
15.--Brother Leo of Assisi, _The Mirror of Perfection_. Tr. by
Countess De La Warr. Lond., 1902.
16.--Robinson, _Readings in European History_, i., 387, 391, 392.
17.--Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source-Book for Mediæval History_,
498, 504, 508.
18.--Ogg, A. F., _The Source-Book of Mediæval Europe_. N. Y.,
1908.
B.--SECONDARY:
I.--SPECIAL:
I.--DOMINICAN:
1.--Alemany, T., _Life of St. Dominic with a Sketch of the
Dominican Order_. N. Y., 1887.
2.--Drane, A. T., _The Spirit of the Dominican Order_. Lond.,
1896. _The History of St. Dominic._ Lond., 1891. _The
Life of St. Dominic._ Lond., 1891.
3.--Guirand, J., _Saint Dominic_. Tr. by Kath. de Mattos.
Lond., 1901.
4.--Herkless, J., _Francis and Dominic and the Mendicant
Orders_. Lond., 1901.
5.--Fletcher, W. D. G., _The Black Friars of Oxford_. Oxf.,
1882.
6.--Lacordaire, H. D., _Life of Saint Dominic._ Lond., 1883.
7.--_Short Lives of Dominican Saints._ Lond., 1901.
II.--FRANCISCANS:
1.--Adderley, J., _Francis, the Little Poor Man of Assisi_.
Lond., 1600. Has Rule of St. Francis.
2.--Baring-Gould, _Lives of the Saints_.
3.--De Chérancé, F. L., _Saint Francis of Assisi_. Tr. by R.
F. O'Connor. Lond., 1880.
4.--Cotton, A. L., _A Sketch of the Life of St. Francis of
Assisi_. Lond., 1885.
5.--Douglass, Cap., _Brother Francis, or Less than the Least_.
Lond., 1901.
6.--Faber, F. W., _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. 2 vols.
Lond., 1853-4.
7.--Lear, H. L. S., _Life of Francis of Assisi_. N. Y., 1888.
8.--Leon, Father, _Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the
Three Orders of St. Francis_. 5 vols. Taunton, 1885-8.
9.--_The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi; and a Sketch of the
Franciscan Order_, by a Religious of the Order. N. Y.,
1867.
10.--Little, W. J. K., _St. Francis of Assisi, his Times, Life
and Work_. Lond., 1897.
11.--Luther, M., _Preface to a Book of Selections from the
Legends of St. Francis_. Brighton, 1845.
12.--Le Monnier, Abbe Leon, _History of St. Francis of Assisi_.
Tr. by a Franciscan Tertiary. Lond., 1894.
13.--Muzzy, D. S., _The Spiritual Franciscans_. Wash., 1907.
14.--Oesterley, W. O. E., _St. Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1901.
15.--Oliphant, Mrs. M. O., _Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1870.
16.--Sabatier, P., _Life of St. Francis of Assisi_. Tr. by
Louise S. Houghton. N. Y., 1894.
17.--Westlake, N. H. J., _On the Authentic Portraiture of S.
Francis of Assisi_. Lond., 1897.
18.--Vernet, Abbe Felix, _The Inner Life of St. Francis of
Assisi_. Tr. by Father Stanislaus. Lond., 1900.
III.--MISCELLANEOUS:
1.--Browne, E. G. K., _Monastic Legends_. Lond.
2.--Brown, J. B., _Stoics and Saints_. Glasg., 1893.
3.--Butler, _Lives of the Saints_.
4.--Day, S. P., _Monastic Institutions_. Lond., 1865.
5.--Fosbroke, T. D., _British Monachism_.
6.--Fox, S., _Monks and Monasticism_. Lond., 1848.
7.--Gasquet, F. A., _Notes on Mediæval Monastic Libraries_.
Yevil, 1891. _Sketches of Mediæval Monastic Life_. Yevil,
1891.
8.--Griffin, _Grandmont; Stories of an Old Monastery_. N. Y.,
1895.
9.--Harnack, A., _Monasticism: Its Ideals and Its History_.
Lond., 1901.
10.--Hill, O. T., _English Monasticism_. Lond., 1867.
11.--Jameson, Mrs. A., _Legends of the Monastic Orders_. Lond.,
1880.
12.--Jessopp, A., _The Coming of the Friars_. N. Y., 1889.
13.--Lea, H. C., _History of the Inquisition_. 3 vols. _History
of Sacerdotal Celibacy_. Phil., 1884. 3d ed. 2 vols. N.
Y., 1907.
14.--Maclear, _History of Christian Missions in the Middle
Ages_.
15.--Montalembert, Count de, _Monks of the West_. 7 vols.
Lond., 1861-7.
16.--Wishart, A. D., _Short History of Monks and Monasticism_.
N. Y., 1900.
IV.--GENERAL:
Alzog, ii., 507-522. Adams, _Med. Civ._, 401. Cutts. Darras,
ii., 121 _ff._; iii., 337 _ff._ Döllinger, ch. 23-24. Fisher,
pd. 6, ch. 6. Fitzgerald, ii., 54-106. Foulkes, 398. Gieseler,
§ 67-72. Gilmartin, i., ch. 45; ii., ch. 9-10, 11-13, 14.
Hase, sec. 204-211. Hore, ch. 14. Hurst, i., 805 _ff._
Jennings, ii., ch. 12-13. Kurtz, ii., 64-67. Milman, v., bk.
9, ch. 9-10. Moeller, ii., 404 _ff._ Neander, pd. 5, sec. 2,
pt. 5, 268 _ff._ Robertson, bk. 5, ch. 7, 13. Tout, ch. 9, 18.
Workman, ch. 7-8.
FOOTNOTES:
[510:1] See Ch. XI.
[510:2] See Ch. XVIII.
[510:3] Migne, vol. 204, pp. 1005-1046.
[511:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. viii., ch. 4.
[511:2] Mabillon, _Life and Letters_, 2 vols.; Ogg, § 43, 44.
[511:3] Storrs, _Bernard of Clairvaux_; Eales, _St. Bernard_; Eales,
_The Works of St. Bernard_, 4 vols. See Chap. XX.
[512:1] _Dict. of Nat. Biog._
[513:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 266. Privileges granted by Anastasius
IV. in 1154.
[513:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 265a.
[515:1] Lea, _Hist. of Sacer. Celib._
[516:1] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 39, 53, 54.
[516:2] _Ibid._, i., 70.
[516:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 267.
[516:4] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 35.
[517:1] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 36, 37.
[517:2] _Ibid._, i., 37, 38.
[517:3] _Ibid._, i., 34.
[517:4] _Ibid._, i., 268.
[518:1] Sabatier, 28 _ff._
[518:2] _Mon. Ger._, xx., 537; Jaffé, i., 404; Hausrath, _Arnold of
Brescia_; Franke, _Arnold of Brescia_; Gregorovius, _Rome in M. A._
[519:1] Migne, 193, 194; _Mon. Ger._, iii., 131-525; Wattenbach,
_Geschichtsquellen_, ii., 308, 520.
[519:2] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 244.
[519:3] _Ibid._, i., 75.
[519:4] See Chap. XVIII.
[519:5] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 246.
[520:1] Mosheim, _The Beghards and Beguins_. In 1311 Clement V.
suppressed both orders.
[521:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. ix., 250. See Drane, _Hist. of St.
Dominic_, Lond., 1891, who narrates all these legends as true.
[521:2] Afterwards transferred to Salamanca.
[521:3] It is related that at Toulouse, Dominic's host was an
Albigensian and that the young religious enthusiast spent the night in
converting him.
[522:1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._, bk. ix., 242.
[523:1] The Inquisition was not organised until 1215. See Drane, 109;
Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 300.
[523:2] Lea, _Hist. of the Inq._, i., 250.
[524:1] In the dream the Pope saw the great Roman Church about to fall
had not Dominic upheld it.
[524:2] Conway, _Frachet's Lives of the Brethren_.
[525:1] The "Soldiers of Jesus Christ" later became the "Order of
Penance" and is now known as "The Third Order." There are many editions
in English of the _Tertiary Daily Manual_.
[525:2] Moeller, ii., 412 _ff._
[526:1] Jameson, _Legends of Monastic Orders as Represented in the Fine
Arts_.
[526:2] Sabatier, 8.
[527:1] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 387.
[528:1] Matt. x., 7-10.
[528:2] Sabatier, 70.
[528:3] See Ogg, § 63.
[529:1] Matthew of Paris, ed. by Watson, 340.
[529:2] Henderson, _Hist. Docs._, 344; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 269.
[530:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, vol. i., 264. See his curious prayer to
Christ.
[530:2] Read the legend of St. Clara in Butler, _Lives of Saints_.
[530:3] Milman, iv., 270.
[530:4] Maclear, _Hist. of Christ. Missions in the M. A._, ch. 16.
[531:1] Milman, iv., 267.
[531:2] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 270; Robinson, _Readings_, i., 392;
Ogg, § 64, gives the will of St. Francis.
[531:3] See Sabatier, 443 _ff._, Hase, and other authorities.
[531:4] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 260. See Jessopp, _The Coming of the
Friars_, 47 _ff._
[532:1] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 391.
[532:2] Read his "Song of Creation" in Mrs. Oliphant's Biography.
[532:3] Milman, iv., 268, 269.
[533:1] Moeller, i., 405.
[533:2] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 273.
[534:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 266.
[535:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 271, 272, 273. _Cf._ No. 268.
[535:2] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 274.
[535:3] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 271, 272, 273.
[535:4] _Ibid._, 299.
[537:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 266.
[537:2] _Ibid._, i., 304.
[537:3] _Ibid._, 295.
[538:1] See letter of Innocent III., about monastic simony in 1211.
Thatcher and McNeal, No. 267.
[538:2] Muzzy, _The Spiritual Franciscans_.