The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society (The Medieval World)

Second impression 1995. This book studies the origins and impact (over their first 100 years) of the friars - the mendicant (= begging) preaching orders that emerged in the early 13th century to meet the challenge presented to the medieval Church by an increasingly secular society. This confident new secular culture (associated with the growth of towns, universities, and the rise of a literate laity), caused the Church to lose its monopolistic hold on the medieval mind: and throughout Christendom dissatisfaction and doubt led to heresy. The friars arose around the charismatic figures of St. Francis of Assisi (Franciscans) and St. Dominic (Dominicans). They were a new concept: preachers going out into the world to reclaim it for God, rather than escaping from the world into enclosed monasteries. The new movement was thus a revolutionary response to revolutionary developments and was itself nearly condemned as heretical at the outset. Lawrence's study is not primarily theological but social and political, studying the impact of the friars on their time. In doing so, he illuminates the secular world of the 13th and 14th centuries through which they moved. The creative role of visionaries like St Francis and St Dominic is given its due, but Lawrence emphasizes the role of the popes, whose patronage turned the armies of holy beggars into a disciplined pastoral force for orthodoxy. The central concern is with the friars' social impact their mission to the towns, their ubiquitous presence at the courts of kings, their many services to the papacy as inquisitors, nuncios and ambassadors to the east. The Author Finds The Roots Of The Mendicants In The Evangelical Movements Of The Twelfth Century And In The Ideas Of The Apostolic Life Which Shaped The Religious Experience Of Their Founders. Yet, While Fully Acknowledging The Creative Dynamism Of St. Francis And St. Dominic, He Shows How Much The Movement Also Owed To The Popes. It Was Their Steady Protection And Patronage That Turned The Armies Of Holy Beggars Into A Well-trained Pastoral Force Of Preachers And Confessors, Working Alongside The Secular Clergy. [back Cover]. Ch. 1. The Medieval Church In Crisis -- Ch. 2. St Francis Of Assisi And The Origins Of The Friars Minor -- Ch. 3. The Growth Of The Friars Minor, Crisis And Change -- Ch. 4. St Dominic And The Order Of Friars Preachers -- Ch. 5. New Brethren -- Ch. 6. The Mission To The Towns -- Ch. 7. The Capture Of The Schools -- Ch. 8. The Complaint Of The Clergy -- Ch. 9. In The Houses Of Kings -- Ch. 10. In The Service Of The Papacy -- Ch. 11. Afar Unto The Gentiles -- Epilogue: Loss And Gain. C.h. Lawrence. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations used in the footnotes vii Editor's Preface ix CHAPTER 1. The Medieval Church in Crisis 1 CHAPTER 2. St. Francis of Assisi and the Origins of the Friars Minor 26 CHAPTER 3. The Growth of the Friars Minor, Crisis and Change 43 CHAPTER 4. St. Dominic and the Order of Friars Preachers 65 CHAPTER 5. New Brethren 89 CHAPTER 6. The Mission to the Towns 102 CHAPTER 7. The Capture of the Schools 127 CHAPTER 8. The Complaint of the Clergy 152 CHAPTER 9. In the Houses of Kings 166 CHAPTER 10. In the Service of the Papacy 181 CHAPTER 11. Afar unto the Gentiles 202 Epilogue: Loss and Gain 218 General Bibliography 229 Index 237 A study of the origins, growth and influence of the mendicant preaching orders that arose in the early thirteenth century around the charismatic figures of St Francis and St Dominic, to help the medieval Church confront the challenge of an increasingly confident, secular and independent-minded age. Lawrence's approach is primarily social and he shows how papal patronage turned the armies of holy beggars into a disciplined force for orthodoxy, and he analyses the extraordinary impact they had on Western society in their first hundred years of existence. Hugh Lawrence concentrates on the first hundred years of the story, through to the mid-fourteenth century. He finds the spiritual roots of the Mendicants in the evangelical movements of the twelfth century, and in the ideas of the apostolic life which shaped the religious experience of their founders.