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The Franciscan and Dominican friars were the two great mendicant orders of the High Middle Ages. The Franciscans, founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226), and the Dominicans, founded by St. Dominic (1170–1221), emerged in the early thirteenth century in response to the new urban and commercial society of the period. Unlike the Benedictine and Cistercian monks, who lived in rural monasteries and supported themselves by the labor of their own communities, the mendicant friars lived in towns, supported themselves by begging (hence the term mendicant), and devoted themselves to preaching, teaching, and pastoral work. The mendicant friars played a major role in the religious, intellectual, and pastoral life of the late medieval Church, and they contributed to some of the most important developments in medieval thought and culture.
The standard English-language treatments are David Burr, “The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis” (Pennsylvania, 2001), and William Hinnebusch, “The Dominicans: A Short History” (Staten Island, 1975). The Rule of St Francis (1221) and the Dominican Constitutions of 1228 are the primary founding documents.
St. Francis and the Founding of the Franciscans
St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226) was the son of a wealthy merchant of Assisi in central Italy. As a young man, Francis enjoyed a life of comfort and leisure, and he participated in the military adventures of his time. Francis’s life was transformed by a series of visions and spiritual experiences, and he gradually renounced his wealth and social position to live a life of poverty and preaching. Francis embraced leprosy sufferers, kissed lepers, ministered to the sick, and preached in the streets and markets of Assisi and the surrounding region.
The followers of Francis grew rapidly, and the early Franciscan community was formally recognized by Pope Innocent III in 1209 or 1210. The Franciscan Rule, approved by the pope, prescribed a life of poverty, chastity, obedience, and preaching, and the Franciscans were forbidden to own property individually or collectively. The early Franciscans lived by begging and by the alms of the faithful, and they devoted themselves to preaching the Gospel to the poor and the marginalized of the medieval towns.
The Franciscans grew rapidly in the early thirteenth century, and the Order expanded across Europe in a few decades. The expansion of the Order produced internal tensions over the issue of poverty, with the Spiritual Franciscans insisting on a strict observance of the Rule of poverty and the Conventual Franciscans accepting a looser interpretation of the Rule. The tensions were resolved at the Council of Lyon in 1274, with a papal decree that allowed the Franciscans to own property collectively but not individually.
St. Dominic and the Founding of the Dominicans
St. Dominic (1170–1221) was a Spanish canon regular who had been involved in the mission to the Cathars of southern France. The mission to the Cathars was difficult and dangerous, and the success of the mission was limited. The Cathar movement continued to grow, and the Catholic clergy struggled to respond to the Cathar critique of the Church. Dominic decided to found a new religious order dedicated to the defense of the faith and the conversion of heretics, and he established the Order of Preachers (the Dominican Order) in 1216.
The Dominican Order was formally recognized by Pope Honorius III in 1216 and 1217, and the Dominican Rule was based on the Rule of St. Augustine, modified to accommodate the preaching and teaching mission of the Order. The Dominicans were forbidden to own property individually but allowed to own property collectively, and the Order was organized with a strong centralized government that ensured uniformity of practice across the Order. The Dominican emphasis on preaching and teaching was central to the mission of the Order, and the Dominicans established studia (houses of study) in the major universities of Europe to train their friars in theology and philosophy.
The Dominican Order grew rapidly in the thirteenth century, and the Order expanded across Europe and into the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. The Dominicans were major intellectual forces in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and they produced some of the greatest theologians and philosophers of the period — St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Albert the Great, Blessed John of Vercelli, Raymond of Penyafort, and many others. The Dominicans were also major pastoral forces, and they served as chaplains, confessors, and preachers in the parish churches, the royal courts, and the papal court of the period.
The Mendicant Movement
The Franciscan and Dominican friars were the two great mendicant orders of the High Middle Ages, but they were not the only mendicant orders of the period. The Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Servites, the Trinitarians, and several other orders were also founded in the thirteenth century as mendicant orders dedicated to preaching, teaching, and pastoral work. The mendicant movement was a major feature of the religious life of the High Middle Ages, and the mendicant orders played a major role in the transformation of the medieval Church.
The mendicant movement was a response to the new urban and commercial society of the High Middle Ages. The growth of towns and the expansion of trade had created a new social class — the bourgeoisie — and a new social problem — the urban poor. The parish system of the medieval Church was designed to serve the rural population, and it was often unable to reach the urban poor. The mendicant orders filled the gap, and they played a major role in the pastoral care of the urban population of medieval Europe.
The Friars and the Universities
The mendicant orders were major intellectual forces in the High Middle Ages, and they played a major role in the development of the medieval universities. The Dominicans and the Franciscans established studia (houses of study) in the major universities of Europe — Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne — and the mendicant masters dominated the theology faculties of the universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The mendicant masters included some of the greatest theologians and philosophers of the period: St. Thomas Aquinas (a Dominican), St. Bonaventure (a Franciscan), St. Albert the Great (a Dominican), Blessed John Duns Scotus (a Franciscan), William of Ockham (a Franciscan), and many others.
The mendicant contribution to the medieval universities was controversial, and the mendicant masters clashed with the secular masters of the universities on several issues. The mendicants claimed the right to award degrees in theology and to occupy chairs in the theology faculties of the medieval period, and the secular masters resisted these claims. The conflict was partially resolved by papal decrees in the thirteenth century, and the mendicant masters were granted the right to occupy chairs in the theology faculties but subject to certain limitations.
The Friars and the Pastoral Care
The mendicant orders played a major role in the pastoral care of the medieval population, and they served the Church in many capacities. The mendicant friars served as chaplains in the royal courts of Europe, and they served as confessors to the popes and the kings of the period. The mendicant friars served as inquisitors in the medieval Inquisition, and they played a major role in the persecution of heresy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The mendicant friars served as preachers in the parish churches and the public squares of the medieval towns, and they played a major role in the religious instruction of the laity.
The mendicant emphasis on preaching and pastoral care had a major impact on the religious life of the medieval laity. The mendicant preachers developed a new style of preaching that was direct, vernacular, and emotionally engaging, and they used parables, examples, and anecdotes to illustrate their points. The mendicant preachers also used the vernacular languages of Europe to reach the laity, and they contributed to the development of the vernacular literatures of Europe. The mendicant emphasis on pastoral care also contributed to the reform of the parish system and the improvement of the religious instruction of the laity.
The Friars and the Arts
The mendicant orders were major patrons of the arts in the High Middle Ages, and they played a major role in the development of the visual and literary culture of the period. The mendicant friars commissioned major works of architecture — the great Franciscan and Dominican churches of Assisi, Florence, Paris, Oxford, and many other cities — and they commissioned major works of sculpture, painting, and illumination for their churches and convents. The mendicant emphasis on direct communication with the laity stimulated the development of a new style of religious art that was emotionally engaging and intellectually accessible.
The mendicant orders also contributed to the development of vernacular literature in Europe. The mendicant preachers used the vernacular languages to preach to the laity, and they contributed to the development of a rich vernacular preaching tradition. The mendicant mystics — Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso, Johannes Tauler, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Catherine of Siena — wrote works in the vernacular that were widely read and influential, and they contributed to the development of the vernacular mystical tradition of Europe.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- C. H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages (Longman, 1984).
Further reading:
- André Vauchez, La Spiritualité du Moyen Âge occidental (1975).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).