Mendicant orders

The term "mendicant" is also used with acknowledgment to some non-Christian religions to denote holy persons dedicated to an ascetic lifestyle, which may put members of religious orders and individual holy persons.

Origins of the friars

What is called the mendicant movement in Church history arose primarily in the 13th century in Western Europe. Until that time the monks of Europe worked at their trade in their monastery. Renouncing personal property, they owned any things in common as a community after the example of chapters 2 and 4 of the Acts of the Apostles.

With the rise of Western monasticism, monasteries attracted not only individuals aspiring to become monks and nuns, but also property, buildings and hence riches. In the view of some, the idea that Christ came down to earth poor and that the true Church must be the church of the poor clashed with this phenomenon. The desire for true Christian authenticity was thus seen by some to contrast to the empirical reality of the Church.

The twelfth century saw great make different in western Europe. As commerce revived, urban centers arose and with them an urban middle class. New directions in spirituality were called for. Church changes became a major theme of the cultural revival of this era. In response to this, there emerged the new mendicant orders founded by Francis of Assisi c. 1181–1226 and Dominic Guzman c. 1170–1221.

The mendicant friars were bound by a vow of poverty and committed to an ascetic way of life, renouncing property and travelling the world to preach. Their survival was dependent upon the expediency will and material support of their listeners. It was this way of life that offered them their name, "mendicant", derived from the Latin mendicare, meaning "to beg".

The mendicant movement had started in France and Italy and became popular in the poorer towns and cities of Europe at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The refusal of the mendicants to own property—and therefore to pay taxes—was seen as threatening the stability of the creation Church which was then planning a crusade, to be financed by tithes. For this and other reasons some mendicant orders were officially suppressed by Pope Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 and others were reformed, so as to be capable of contributing funds or men to support the war effort.

While on a visit to southern France, Saint Dominic met the Albigensians, a religious sect which had a great popularity partly because of the economic situation of the times. Dominic, who had begun as a secular canon, responded to a desperate need for informed preaching by founding the grouping of Preachers and thus embarking on a new make-up of religious life, the life of the friar. ago this time, religious life had been monastic, but with Dominic the secluded monastery submission way to priories in the cities. By the time of his death in 1221, the grouping had spread through Western Europe, hundreds of young men had joined, and the presence of the Order of Preachers was felt at the major universities of the time.

Francis came to this species of life through a period of personal conversion. The Franciscans spread far and wide the devotion to the humanity of Christ, with the commitment to imitate the Lord. many of them were priests and men of learning whose contributions were notable in the rapid evolution and innovative relevance of the movement. Notable Franciscans put Anthony of Padua, who were inspirations to the formation of Christian mendicant traditions.