The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society

by C.H. Lawrence

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.

Genres: Medieval History, Nonfiction, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite parts in this is actually a quote from a letter of John of Montecorvino establishing a church in China reporting back to China about fifteen years later his departure from Italy: 'I expect you were astonished, not without cause, at not receiving any letters from me, I having been so many years in such a distant place. But I am equally astonished that I have never, except this year, received a latter or a greeting from any brother or friend; nor does it seem that anyone has remembered me. I believe rumours had reached you that I was dead.'

[Ron Nurmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief look at the history of the early mendicant movement and their place in the 13th century. How the founders St. Dominic and St Francis shaped a new movement and how it affected the history of the Medieval Church.

[Anatolikon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawrence’s friars are a response to a crisis in Christian life in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries caused by the new secular culture of growing urban centres and a loss of charismatic authority by the clergy following the Gregorian reforms. The formation and institutionalization of the two main mendicant orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, is a response to these problem. Lawrence argues that they made headway towards solving spiritual and ecclesiastical issues in the new urban areas through a combination of ascetic charisma and education.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picking up on a theme he addressed in an earlier book, here Lawrence focuses specifically on the mendicant movement. This is a great book to learn about the men behind the myth that has accrued around Dominic and Francis, and their respective monastic movements.

[Guillaume Dohmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating HISTORY

An excellent study of the Church in the Middle Ages. It shows how the trust's refreshed Christianity in Western Europe. The Friars through their preaching and their study of theology to a great extent changed the Church.