638 



M N A C H I S M. 





A.D. 1215. 



Mona- the Bishop of Chartres ; he adopted a more rigid and 

 ^ ^, austere mode of life. This sect renounced their worldly 

 possessions, all private property, and lived exactly as 

 the strictest order of monks did. This gave rise to the 

 iiar and ( jj 3 ti nc tion between the secular and regular canons. 

 The former observed the decree of Pope Nicholas II. 

 the latter followed the Bishop of Chartres ; they were 

 called the regular canons of St. Augustine, because they 

 were formed on the rules laid down by St. Augustine 

 in his Epistles. They kept public schools for the in- 

 struction of youth, and exercised a variety of other em- 

 ployments useful to the Church. A reform was effect- 

 ed in the Augustines by St. Norbert ; and as he presid- 

 ed over a convent at Primontre in Picardy, those monks 

 who adopted his rule, were called Primonstrabenses. 

 They spread throughout Europe with great rapidi- 

 ty- 



During this period, convents of nuns were establish- 

 ed, the institutes and regulations of which were simi- 

 lar to those adopted by the Benedictines and Augustines, 

 or to the reformed branches springing from those two 

 great orders. 



Mendicant fiU the thirteenth century, these were the only or- 

 ers> ders of monks ; at that period the Mendicant orders 

 arose : those were the Franciscans, Dominicans, Car- 

 melites, and the Hermits of St. Augustine. The esta- 

 blishments of the Mendicants seems to have been neces- 

 sary, as the other monks had greatly degenerated j they 

 were rich and indolent, and consequently totally unfit 

 for the objects for which they were instructed. Inno- 

 cent III. was the first Pope who perceived the necessi- 

 ty of instituting an order, who, " by the austerity of 

 their manners, their contempt of riches, and the exter- 

 nal gravity and sanctity of their conduct and man- 

 ners," might rescue the church from the reproach which 

 the monks had brought upon it. 



The Franciscans were founded by St. Francis ; he 



nans. was the son of a merchant, but, as was usual in those 



times, he possessed little or no learning ; the brethren 

 of his order were called Friars, minors, or the little 

 brethren. They chiefly were engaged in the more la- 

 borious parts of religion, in hospitals, in prisons, among 

 the lower orders of the poor, in short, where danger, 

 labour, or other causes, kept away the Benedictines 

 and Augustines, there they were to be found ; where 

 there was no hopes of remuneration, the Franciscan 

 friars were sure to be found. Many of them were 

 eminent for their learning, and some have been Popes. 

 Soon after the death of their founder, they were di- 

 vided into three orders ; the Conventual friars, who 

 admitted some relaxation into their original rule ; the 

 Observantine friars, who observed the rule more strict- 

 ly. In France, these were called Cordeliers, from the 

 cord with which they fastened their habit ; from the 

 Observantines sprung the Recollects, or Grey-friars, 

 and the Capuchins, so called from a patch worn by 

 them on the back of their habits. The Convent- 

 ual and the Observantine friars formed the first of 

 the three orders into which the followers of St. Fran- 

 cis were divided. The second order was remarka- 

 ble for its extreme severity, and was called the order 

 of the Poor Classes. The third order embraced per- 

 sons of both sexes ; they lived in the world, but were 

 united by certain rules ; this order was imitated by 

 the Dominicans and Carmelites. 



Domini. The Dominicans derived their name from St. Domi- 



caiis. nic ; at first he adopted the rule of the Canons' regular 



of St. Augustine; afterwards he adopted that of St. 

 Benedict ; but the alterations and additions he intro- 

 duced made it almost an entirely new rule. In a chap- 



3 



Mona- 

 chism. 



ter of his order at Bologna in 1220, he obliged the 

 brethren to take a vow of absolute poverty, and to 

 abandon entirely all their revenues and possessions. 

 The Dominicans were first called preaching friars, be. 

 cause public instruction was the chief object of their 

 institution. In England they were called black friars. 

 " During three centuries, the Franciscans and Domini- 

 cans governed, with an almost absolute and universal 

 sway, both state and church, filled the most emi- 

 nent posts both ecclesiastical and civil, taught in the 

 universities and churches with an authority, before 

 which all opposition was silent, and maintained the 

 pretended majesty and prerogatives of the Roman Pon- 

 tiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and heretics with 

 incredible ardour and equal success. These two cele- 

 brated orders restored the church from that declining 

 condition in which it had been languishing for many 

 years, by the zeal and activity with which they set 

 themselves to discover and extirpate heretics, to under- 

 take various negociations and embassies for the inter- 

 ests of the hierarchy, and to confirm the wavering mul- 

 titude in their implicit obedience to the Roman Pon- 

 tifts." TheCarmelite order was originallyinstituted in Pa- Carmeiitei. 

 lestine, whence in the thirteenth century it was brought 

 into Europe. A reform was introduced with this or- 

 der by St. Theresa ; the reformed, from their not 

 wearing shoes, were called the unshodden Carmelites. 

 Pope Alexander IV. observing that the Hermits were Hermits of 

 divided into many classes : some following the maxims St. Augui. 

 of Augustine, formed the design of uniting them into '' n *- 

 one religious order, and prescribed a rule for their go- 

 vernment; hence originated the Mendicant order of 

 the Hermits of Augustine. These, however, as well as 

 the Carmelites, were very inferior in number, reputa- 

 tion, and influence to the Franciscans and Dominicans. 

 The public attachment to all these mendicant orders 

 was so strong and prevalent, that several cities were 

 divided into four parts, for these four orders ; the Do- 

 minicans had the first part, the Franciscans the second ; 

 the Carmelites the third ; and the Hermits of Augus- 

 tine the fourth ; from no others except one of these 

 orders would the people receive the sacrament, and the 

 churches in which they preached were regularly and 

 constantly filled. The appellation of Friars given to 

 all these orders, whereas that of monks was given to 

 those which existed before them, points out the dis- 

 tinction between the meaning of these two appellations, 

 which are often confounded ; the monks never travel- 

 led through the country, and indeed never left their 

 monasteries ; the friars, on the contrary, spent their 

 time for the most part in travelling. 



We are informed by excellent authority, Mr. Charles 

 Butler, that these " four orders are the only orders 

 which the church has acknowledged to be Mendicant. 

 An order is considered to be Mendicant, in the proper 

 import of that word, when it has no fixed income, and 

 derives its whole subsistence from casual and uncertain 

 bounty, obtained by personal mendicity. To that St. 

 Francis did not wish his brethren to have recourse 

 till they had endeavoured to earn a competent subsist- 

 ance by labour, and found their earnings insufficient. 

 Bat soon after the decease of St. Francis, the exertions, 

 equally incessant and laborious, of his disciples for the 

 spiritual welfare of the faithful, appeared, in the uni. 

 versal opinion of the church, to be both incompatible 

 with manual labour, and much more than a compensa- 

 tion to the public for all they could possibly obtain 

 from it by mendicity. This opinion was unequivocally 

 expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas, and sanctioned by 

 a bull of Pope Nicholas III. ; since that time the friars 



