Church orders: Dominicans, Franciscans, Templars, Teutonic Order, Jesuits. Franciscan Order - mendicant customers of beauty

III. Traditional forms of activity of the Franciscans

1. Apostolic activity.

Missionary service

Pastoral work among young people

Work in parishes

Publishing activities

Confession and spiritual guidance

2. Social and charitable activities.

Ransom of prisoners and spiritual guardianship over them

Help those in need

Public education (fight against illiteracy)

3. Activities in the field of science and art.

Science

Art

IV. The main spiritual centers of the Franciscans

Padua

V. Franciscans in Russia - history and modernity

VI. Monastic training

VII. Conclusion

In the history of Christianity, a special place is occupied by orders - communities of individuals united by a common goal and special rules of life.

In fact, the “crusaders” are representatives of not one, but several spiritual knightly orders that arose during the Crusades.

In addition to spiritual knightly orders, there were monastic orders, that is, communities of monks whose members observed the general rules of the monastery and took solemn vows. Unlike the militant knightly orders, the monastic orders devoted time free from prayer, charity and helping those in need.

Orders began to appear during the early Middle Ages and continued to form until the 20th century, and their total number is in the dozens. The names of some say little to our contemporaries, while others have gained, without exaggeration, worldwide fame.

Order of the Knights Templar

For what purpose did it appear: After the end of the First Crusade, a group of knights led by a French knight Hugh de Payns established a military monastic order, the purpose of which was to protect pilgrims during their pilgrimage to holy places in the Middle East.

When created: The order, founded in 1119 and originally called the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, was officially recognized by the church in 1128.

Known for: Ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Baldwin II allocated the knights in the southeastern wing of the Jerusalem Temple, in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a place for headquarters. Since then, the order began to be called the Order of the Temple, and the knights - the Templars (Templars).

Thanks to the order’s successful recruitment in Europe, the Templars, who initially did not have large financial resources, became the owners of a lot of money and lands donated by recruits. In March 1139 Pope even issued a bull in which the Templars were allowed to freely cross any borders, not pay taxes, and obey only the Pope and no one else. Such easy conditions contributed to the rapid development of the “crusader business.”

Photo: flickr.com/chris white

Until 1291, the Templars participated in battles in the Middle East, while simultaneously successfully engaging in business activities. But after defeat by the Muslims and expulsion from Palestine, they concentrated on trade and usury.

At the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries, the Templars reached the pinnacle of power. The Order possessed enormous wealth; its debtors included the powers that be, including kings.

End of story: Despite the fact that it was not possible to get the Templars to admit guilt anywhere except France, in 1312 Clement V, with his bull, abolished the order as having dishonored itself. The order's property was confiscated and transferred to the Hospitaller Order. King Philip IV the Fair also received his share. Last Grand Master of the Order Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake on March 18, 1314.

Order of the Hospitallers

For what purpose did it appear: Back in 600, at the behest Pope Gregory the Great Construction of a hospital began in Jerusalem, the task of which was to treat and care for Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Immediately after the First Crusade Gerard the Blessed The Military Hospitable Order of St. John was founded, whose task was to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Initially, the order's activities were centered around a hospital in Jerusalem, which gave the organization the unofficial name "Hospitaliers".

When created: The formation of the order in 1113 was approved by a bull Pope Paschal II.

Photo: flickr.com/Spencer Means

Along with the Templars, the Order of Hospitallers became the main military force of Christians in the Middle East. During the heyday of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers owned 7 major fortresses and 140 other settlements in the region. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Hospitallers, like other Christian orders, were driven out of the Holy Land. After a short stay in the Kingdom of Cyprus, the seat of the order was moved to the island of Rhodes. After the abolition of the Templar Order, the Hospitallers inherited the vast estates of their “competitors.” In Rhodes, the Hospitallers fought North African pirates as well as the growing activity of the Ottoman Empire. In 1522, the army of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent captured Rhodes, forever ousting the order from the island.

Hospitaller equipment. Photo: flickr.com / Jason Lewis

In 1530, the Hospitallers settled in Malta, from where they continued their struggle against the expansion of Muslim possessions in the Mediterranean. But times changed, knightly orders lost their power. Gradually losing possessions and influence in Europe, the Order, also now called the Maltese Order, existed on the island until 1798, when Malta was captured Napoleon. The order was dispersed, and some of its members found refuge in Russia.

The fugitive Hospitallers located in St. Petersburg even elected the Russian Emperor Paul I Grand Master of the Order. The election of an Orthodox monarch as Master, however, was not approved by the Pope, so that formally Paul I was not the head of the Hospitallers. Starting from the first half of the 19th century, the order abandoned the military component, focusing on humanitarian and charitable activities.

End of story: The modern Order of Malta has the status of an observer organization at the UN, issues its own passports, prints its own currency, stamps and even issues car license plates. Today, about 13 thousand people are members of the order, of which about 10.5 thousand have its passports, recognized by several dozen countries around the world.

Warband

For what purpose did it appear: During the Third Crusade, the army of the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa besieged the fortress of Acre. Merchants from Lübeck and Bremen organized a field hospital for the wounded crusaders. King of Jerusalem Guy de Lusignan signed a charter, according to which the hospital was given the right to organize a hospice in Acre after the city was taken.

Teutonic Knights (Battle of Grunwald, 600th anniversary. July 17, 2010 in Grunwald, Poland). Photo: Shutterstock.com

When created: Pope Clement III with his bull of February 6, 1191, he proclaimed the hospital as the “Teutonic Brotherhood of the Church of St. Mary of Jerusalem.” The position of the “liberators of the Holy Sepulcher” in the Middle East has always been unstable. That is why military functions were also assigned to hospital monasteries. On March 5, 1196, a ceremony took place in the temple of Acre to transform the hospital into a spiritual order. At the end of the same year Pope Celestine issues a bull which recognizes the existence of the monastic Order of St. Mary of Germany of Jerusalem. The transformation of the hospital into a military monastic order was finally completed in 1199, when Pope Innocent III consolidates this status with his bull.

Known for: The Order very quickly acquired its own regular army, and military functions in its activities became the main ones. The order, unlike other crusaders, found an unexpected “direction of development” in the 13th century in Europe. The pagan (and Christian, but not Catholic) populations of Eastern Europe proved a convenient target for the “crusaders.” The order founded its castles on the conquered lands, consolidating itself in these territories “forever.” In 1255, Königsberg Castle was founded on Prussian lands.

Based on the edict of the Holy Roman Emperor and the bull Pope Prussia became the possession of the Teutonic Order. So the military monastic order turned into a whole state. This unique formation remained an influential player on the map of Europe until 1410, when the knights were defeated by Polish-Lithuanian troops at the Battle of Grunwald. From that moment on, the decline of the order began.

End of story: Formally, the order, having lost its territorial possessions and influence, existed until 1809 and was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars. The restoration of the order took place in 1834, but without political and military ambitions, it was only about charity and helping the sick. Today the Teutonic Order operates several hospitals and private sanatoriums in Austria and Germany. An interesting point is that the basis of the modern Teutonic Order is not brothers, but sisters.

Jesuit Order

For what purpose did it appear: The monastic order of the Jesuits arose during the period of the so-called Counter-Reformation - reforms within the Catholic Church caused by the fight against the Reformation. In fact, he was the “response” of supporters of Catholicism to the active spread of Protestant teachings.

When created: In 1534 Ignatius de Loyola and several of his like-minded people decided to create the “Society of Jesus,” whose task was declared to be active missionary activity. The order's charter was approved by the Pope in 1540.

Emblem of the Jesuit Order. Photo: flickr.com/Lawrence OP

Known for: The order was famous for its strict military discipline: the unquestioning obedience of the younger ones to the elders. The authority of the head was absolute - an elected general for life, subordinate directly to the Pope. The Jesuits sought to convert to the Catholic faith the masses who had previously gone to the Reformation or otherwise abandoned Catholicism. Missionary activity was also carried out among Jews, Muslims and pagans.

In just the first decade and a half of activity, the Jesuits acquired missions in the territory from Japan to Brazil. Educational activities helped them promote their ideas - members of the order also acted as teachers who taught various scientific disciplines. At the same time, they defended the principle of the supremacy of the power of the Pope in all spheres, up to the deposition of monarchs who dared to contradict the pontiff. This radicalism became one of the reasons for the subsequent persecution of the Jesuits.

By the middle of the 18th century, the Jesuit Order had achieved great political influence in various European countries, as well as possessing great financial capabilities. Constant attempts by the Jesuits to influence the political course of European monarchs led to the fact that almost all European countries called for the cessation of the order.

End of story: July 21, 1773 Pope Clement XIV, who sought to normalize relations with European monarchs, issued a papal letter abolishing the Jesuit order. Property was subject to confiscation in favor of secular authorities. True, in the territory of some countries, including Prussia and Russia (until 1820), the missions of the order continued to exist.

In 1814 Pope Pius VII restored the Society of Jesus to all its rights and privileges. Currently, the Jesuits continue their activities in 112 states.

March 13, 2013 Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected . The new pontiff, who took the name Francis, became the first representative of the Jesuit order to become a Roman pontiff.

Franciscan Order

For what purpose did it appear: The emergence of the so-called mendicant orders, which included the Franciscan Order, occurred at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. The reason for their appearance was the need for priests who were not involved in secular affairs, who despised secular goods and were able to demonstrate the purity of faith to their flock by personal example. In addition, the church needed dogmatists capable of waging an irreconcilable struggle against various heresies.

When created: In 1209 Giovanni, son of a wealthy merchant from Assisi Petra Bernardone, who became a traveling preacher, united followers around himself and created a charter for a new order based on obedience, chastity and complete mendicancy. Giovanni's plan, nicknamed Francis for his penchant for using French, was approved by Pope Innocent III.

Known for: Complete renunciation of earthly goods and strictness in faith contributed to the rapid growth of the authority of the Franciscans. Already by 1264, 8 thousand monasteries and 200 thousand monks were subordinated to the Franciscan general. By the 18th century, the Franciscan Order united 1,700 monasteries and 25 thousand monks. From the 13th to the 16th centuries, representatives of the order were the confessors of most European monarchs, which helped them influence the policies of entire states.

There was also a “secular” branch of the Franciscans - the order of the Terzari, intended for secular persons who would like, without leaving the world and their usual activities, to lead a purer lifestyle and in some way find a monastery in their own home.

Franciscan symbol. Photo: flickr.com / Alwyn Ladell

In 1256, the papacy granted Franciscans the right to teach in universities. They created their own system of theological education, giving rise to a whole galaxy of thinkers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. During the New Age, Franciscans were actively engaged in missionary and research activities, working in Spanish possessions in the New World and in the countries of the East. Along with their opponents in dogmatic matters, the Dominicans, the Franciscans were endowed with the functions of the Inquisition, which they carried out in central Italy, Dalmatia and Bohemia, as well as in a number of provinces of France.

End of story: Currently, the order with its branches has about 30 thousand monks and several hundred thousand lay tertiaries: in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the USA, Turkey, Brazil, Paraguay and other countries. The Franciscans control a number of universities, colleges, and have their own publishing houses.

Dominican Order

For what purpose did it appear: The mendicant order of the Dominicans, which arose at the same time as the Franciscan Order, had a slightly different direction of activity. Hispanic Domingo Guzman, who received the rank of archdeacon in Castile, was outraged by the growing number of heretics in southern France. Thus, the founder of the order became one of the ideologists of the campaign against the Albigenses, which lasted for two decades and led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of people accused of heresy.

When created: In 1214, Domingo Guzman, later called Saint Dominic, founded the first community of like-minded people in Toulouse. In 1216 Pope Honorius III approved the order's charter.

Known for: The most important activity of the Dominicans was an in-depth study of theology with the aim of preparing competent preachers. The centers of the order were Paris and Bologna, the two largest university cities in Europe.

Over time, the main and main task of the Dominican Order became the fight against heresies. The main functions of the Inquisition were concentrated in their hands. The coat of arms of the order depicts a dog carrying a burning torch in its mouth to express the dual purpose of the order: to faithfully protect the faith of the Church from heresy and to enlighten the world with the preaching of Divine Truth.

This coat of arms, as well as a peculiar play on words, contributed to the emergence of another unofficial name for the Dominicans. Dominic's followers were also called in Latin Domini Canes, which means "Dogs of the Lord."

Stained glass window with the symbol of the Dominican Order (“Dogs of the Lord”). Photo: flickr.com/Lawrence OP

Representatives of the Dominican Order were the philosopher and theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas, legendary Grand Inquisitor of Spain Thomas Torquemada and creator of the Witches Hammer Jacob Sprenger. At its peak, the Dominican Order had up to 150,000 members in 45 provinces (11 of them outside Europe). Later, the Dominicans were pushed back by the Jesuits from schools and preaching at courts, and partly from missionary activities.

End of story: The modern Dominican Order continues to preach the Gospel, study the sciences, educate and fight heresies. True, the Dominicans, of course, do not use the methods of their medieval predecessors.

The male branch of the order today numbers about 6,000 monks, the female branch - about 3,700.

Dominicans

The order was founded in 1216 by the Spaniard Dominic de Guzman. The goal of the order was to fight the Albigensian heresy, which had spread in France, Germany and Italy. The Albigensians opposed the Catholic Church, which hindered the development of cities. A crusade was declared against the Albigensians, which ended in the defeat of the heretics. The Dominicans also fought the heresy of the Cathars and other movements opposed to the Catholic Church, showing particular cruelty and uncompromisingness.

Dominicans take a vow of poverty, abstinence and obedience, and are forbidden to eat meat. The requirement of poverty applies only to individuals, not to congregations. The emblem of the order is a dog with a lit torch in its teeth. They call themselves “dogs of the Lord.” In 1232 they were given leadership of the Inquisition. They become censors of Catholic orthodoxy. In their activities, the Dominicans used torture, executions, and prisons. They abandoned physical labor in favor of teaching and scientific work. Prominent Catholic theologians emerged from the ranks of the order, including Thomas Aquinas, as well as several popes. Dominican clothing consists of a white cassock with a white hood. When going outside, they put on a black robe with a black hood.

Franciscans (“minorites”, “lesser brothers”)

The monastery was founded by Francis of Assisi in 1207-1209. in Italy near Assisi. Francis of Assisi spoke out against the acquisitiveness of the papal hierarchs, against the distribution of positions by the pope to his relatives, and against simony (the buying and selling of church positions). He preached the benevolence of poverty, the renunciation of all property, sympathy for the poor, and a cheerful, poetic attitude towards nature. His mysticism was permeated with love for people. These ideas became very popular and in a short time gained recognition in other European countries. Francis of Assisi created the “Order of Friars Minor” - a religious and moral community. Minorites - “the least of all people” - lived not in monasteries, but in the world, wandered, preached in the language of the common people, and were engaged in charity.

The renunciation of property aroused suspicion among the pope. At first, Francis of Assisi was forbidden to preach, then in 1210 he was allowed, but demanded to abandon the call to poverty. Francis did not comply. After his death, the order split. The extreme followers of Francis, the fratinelli (brothers), were declared heretics, and many were burned. The remaining moderate followers became the pope's support. In 1525, the Capuchins (pointed hoods) emerged from the Franciscans to counter the Reformation. Since 1619, the Capuchins became an independent order.

Templars or Templars

The Order of the Templars or Templars arose at the beginning of the 12th century. in the Holy Land by a small group of knights led by Hugh de Payns after the First Crusade. It was named for the location of his residence near King Solomon's Temple. The distinctive feature of the order was a white cloak with a red cross. In the XII-XIII centuries, the order was very rich; it owned extensive land holdings both in the states created by the crusaders in Palestine and Syria, and in Europe. The Order also possessed broad ecclesiastical and legal privileges, granted to it by the Pope, to whom the Order was directly subordinate, as well as by the monarchs, on whose lands it had possessions and real estate. The Order often performed the functions of military defense of the states created by the Crusaders in the East, although the primary goal declared at its establishment was the protection of pilgrims to the Holy Land.

However, in 1291, the Crusaders were expelled from Palestine by the Egyptian Sultan, and the Templars switched to usury and trade, accumulated significant valuables, and found themselves in complex property relations with the kings of European states and the Pope. The Knights of the Order of the Temple were professional military men and some of the best financiers in Europe. After the fall of Jerusalem, the order moved to Cyprus, then to France. In 1307-1314, members of the order were arrested, tortured and executed by the French king Philip IV, major feudal lords and the Roman Catholic Church, as a result of which the order was abolished by Pope Clement V in 1312. The knights were burned, the property passed to the king, and the order was abolished. Insignia - white cloak with a red cross.

Warband

In the 12th century. In 1190, German crusaders created a military monastic order in Palestine, based on the hospital of the Holy Virgin Mary - the Teutonic Order - after the name of the German tribe. At the beginning of the 13th century. he was transferred to the Baltic states, where he launched military activities in Prussia. The Order carried out a policy of feudal-Catholic expansion in the Baltic states and the northwestern Russian principalities. The difference between the Teutons was a white cloak with a black cross. tasks of the order: protecting German knights, treating the sick, fighting the enemies of the Catholic Church. The Order was subject to the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Jesuits

The name comes from Lat. -- "Society of Jesus." The order was formed in 1534, approved by the pope in 1540. The founder was a Spanish Basque, nobleman, former brave officer, crippled in battle, Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). The purpose of the order is to fight the Reformation, spread Catholicism, and unquestioning submission to the pope. The basic principles of building the order: strict discipline, strict centralization, unquestioning obedience of juniors to elders, the absolute authority of the head - an elected general for life (the “black pope”), subordinate directly to the Pope. Members of the Society of Jesus, along with the three traditional vows (poverty, obedience and chastity), also make a fourth - obedience to the Pope “in matters of missions.” The Jesuits are characterized by a strictly hierarchical structure, headed by a general subordinate to the pope. The Order is engaged in worldwide missionary activities. In the Middle Ages, the Jesuits actively used casuistry (cunning in arguments when proving dubious or false ideas), the system of probabilism, and also used various techniques to interpret things in a way favorable to themselves, in particular mental reservations. In everyday language, the word “Jesuit” has become synonymous with a cunning, two-faced person.

The first mendicant orders, which served as a model for others, were the Franciscan and Dominican orders. (In the 12th century, the orders of the Carmelites and the Augustinian hermits also arose, both founded in 1156, but transformed into mendicant orders only a century later: the Carmelite - by Pope Innocent IV in 1254, the Augustinian - by Alexander IV in 1256)

The Franciscan and Dominican orders were founded almost simultaneously, and if St. Francis of Assisi had wished, they would have formed one whole. They owe their appearance primarily to two reasons.

On the one hand, the Western European flock needed leaders truly filled with the spirit of the Gospel. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 13th century. the white clergy, having enriched themselves more than was useful, were still, despite the reform, more occupied with secular interests than with spiritual affairs. The black clergy, concentrated in monasteries, which were always located outside the cities, in very remote areas, were too isolated from secular society and, in addition, also lost the purity of morals due to the growth of their wealth. Thus, neither the white clergy nor monasticism could provide the people with the necessary leaders. For this, people were needed who would treat worldly goods with complete contempt, who would lead a strict lifestyle among their brothers and who would tirelessly preach repentance and self-denial, both by word and by personal example. This was the main idea that inspired the creation of the mendicant Order of St. Francis.

On the other hand, the Catholic faith was shaken by the dangerous heresies of the Cathars and Waldensians, which crept into minds, giving themselves the appearance of a higher form of Christianity, and which threatened to distort the purity of dogma. Meanwhile, the secular clergy in the era when universities were just beginning to form often lacked the education necessary to fight heretics. As for the monastic clergy, even if they were not deprived of education, their remoteness from cities and their tendency to engage more in divine services than in theology allowed them to act only in exceptional cases. To combat the danger, people were needed who, by virtue of their rank, would be obliged to study and preach dogma. This was the main idea that inspired the creation of the mendicant order Saint Dominic. But if these two new orders were somewhat different from each other in their tasks, since the Franciscans sought more to correct morals, and the Dominicans - the faith, then, in general, they pursued the same goal: to transform secular society. Both Franciscans and Dominicans used the same means for this: renunciation of worldly goods in order to be more independent of the conditions of their time; life in the city to be in closer relationship with the flock; constant preaching to impart religious education; finally - the foundation "third order" (tertiary), in order to acquire assistants in the midst of secular society itself, imbued with their spirit.

Founding of the Franciscan Order

In 1209, Giovanni, nicknamed Francis for his penchant for using French, began to implement this plan. Born in 1182, the son of a wealthy merchant in Assisi (in Italy), Peter Bernardone, was initially destined for trading activities and until the age of 23 led a rather absent-minded lifestyle. Then, suddenly renouncing the world and driven away by his father, he began to wander through the East and West, feeding on alms, preaching repentance everywhere and meeting either honor or ridicule. When several people, carried away by his fiery speech, joined him, he drew up a charter based on obedience, chastity and complete beggary (1209); such was his humble origins Order of Minorites (Franciscans). In 1212, Francis, by his example and advice, persuaded his compatriot Clara of Assisi to take monastic vows; Clara soon gathered around her several pious women, who formed the core of the order. Poor Clarisses (Clarisses). For several years, the number of followers of St. Francis and followers of St. Clara increased so much that two Franciscan orders were formed - male and female, and St. Francis was forced to draw up more detailed rules for them. The charter of the mendicant order of minorities was approved in 1223 by the pope HonoriusIII, who granted this order, as before the Dominicans, the right to preach and confess everywhere; The charter of the Clarissas, drawn up in 1224, was approved in 1251 by Pope Innocent IV. In addition, in 1221, Saint Francis, seeing the desire of the masses to come under his leadership, and fearing, as he said, to deprive the province of population by opening his monasteries to them, added the so-called third order (ordo tertius de poenitentia) – tertiary, intended for secular persons who would like, without leaving the world and their usual activities, to lead a purer lifestyle and in some way find a monastery in their own home. Soon after the organization of these three orders was completed, on October 4, 1226, Francis of Assisi died prostrate on the platform of the Church of the Porciuncula, his favorite seat, near Assisi. Two years later, Gregory IX canonized the founder of the Franciscan order.

Lifetime image of Francis of Assisi. XIII century

Founding of the Dominican Order

Under completely different circumstances, the Dominican Order arose. Dominic Guzman, born in 1170 in Calagorra, in the diocese of Osma in Spain, from childhood showed great zeal in prayer and a desire for an ascetic life, which should have led him to clergy. After spending 4 years at the University of Valencia, he was ordained a priest by the Bishop of Osma Diego and became a canon-monk of that city. Arriving in France in 1206 with his bishop, he was overcome with sadness at the sight of success Albigensian heresy in Languedoc and decided from that time on to devote his life to the conversion of heretics. For ten years he remained in southern France, almost alone and without much success fighting heresy; but his peaceful crusade provided a comforting contrast to the bloody crusade, which was undertaken at the same time by the knights of Northern France. In 1215, after much deliberation, he went to Rome and presented to the pope InnocentIII his project for founding a society of preachers who, subject to the monastic rules, would perform the same duties as the white clergy. Innocent III approved the project and subordinated the new mendicant order of the Dominicans to the charter of St. Augustine. The following year, the new Pope Honorius III granted Dominic and his followers the title of Brothers Preachers and the right to preach and confess everywhere. Around this time, Dominic's famous meeting with Francis of Assisi took place, at which the former proposed merging both of their orders into one. St. Francis chose to leave them separated, but St. Dominic did not give up his plan. At the first general chapter, which he assembled at Bologna in 1220, he abandoned the Augustinian rite and adopted the Franciscan rite in its main features. He died the following year (August 6, 1221), leaving the second mendicant order fully organized and with it the same women's order and a third order for the laity. But in its final form, the Dominican charter was drawn up only in 1238 by the third general of the order, Saint Raymond of Pennafort.

Saint Dominic. 14th century fresco in the Basilica of St. Dominic, Bologna

Further history of the mendicant orders

By this time, both mendicant orders - the Franciscans and the Dominicans - had already achieved great popularity. They were met with undisguised sympathy by the masses, who felt in them greater closeness to themselves than in Benedictine orders, and became more aware of their beneficial influence, they spread throughout Europe. In 1264, 8 thousand monasteries and 200 thousand monks were subordinated to the Franciscan general. The general of the Dominican Order also commanded a real army, always ready to accept a mission even to the most distant countries; in 1280 there was a monastery of the Friars Preachers in Greenland. This astonishing success of the mendicant orders, at first encouraged by the papacy, soon pushed into the background the old monastic orders and was not slow in bringing about a clash with the secular clergy and the universities. On the one hand, the secular clergy was extremely dissatisfied with the extensive privileges that the minor mendicants and preachers received, and sometimes - as, for example, Guillaume de Saint-Amour in 1255 - complained bitterly about the illegal conduct of church services in their parishes. On the other hand, the Franciscans and Dominicans, considering teaching a private form of preaching, laid claim to the right to teach at universities and began a memorable struggle against them, which ended in favor of the penniless monks. Supported by public opinion and the enormous fame of some of their members, such as the Dominican Thomas Aquinas and the Franciscan Bonaventure(both died in 1274), they eventually concentrated in their hands almost all branches of public education.

But this extraordinary flourishing could not last. At the end of the 13th century. the Dominicans and Franciscans, forgetting the friendship that united their founders, begin to fight with each other; Moreover, discord arises among the Franciscans themselves. Even during the life of Saint Francis, two trends could be distinguished among his followers, differing in the degree of readiness to implement the idea of ​​beggary: the rigoristic, whose representative was Saint Francis himself, and the more moderate, led by Elijah of Cortona, his vicar and first successor. These two trends in the course of time gave rise to two hostile parties, which Bonaventure managed to reconcile during his abbotship, but after his death the antagonism between them was renewed. In 1279, Pope Nicholas III made a fruitless attempt to intervene in these discords, issuing the bull “Exiit quiseminat”, favorable to conventionalists , that is, for monks who are moderate in relation to the idea of ​​begging. Then the rigorist party, which bore the name spiritualists , rebelled against St. throne and seemed close to falling away from the church. Celestine V immediately separated it from the Franciscan Order and united it with the Order of Celestine Hermits that he had just founded; but his successor Boniface VIII, on the contrary, tirelessly pursued it and forced it to disband (1302).

In the middle of the 13th century, two more orders took a vow of absolute poverty: the Carmelite order, which spread throughout Western Europe from Palestine, and the congregation of Augustinian hermits, whose monasteries did not have common governance until then. The new mendicant orders acquired the same privileges as the first two, which remained, however, more powerful than them.

The role of the mendicant orders in the Catholic world

The mendicant Franciscans and Dominicans were the most zealous servants of papal power, through them the people learned to recognize the pope as the unconditional ruler of the church. For this, the Roman high priests rewarded them with great privileges and freed them from subordination to the bishops, so that they were subordinate only directly to the pope. Those monks of the past who wanted to observe apostolic poverty lived as hermits in forests, mountains or among the sandy steppes. Mendicant monks of the Franciscan and Dominican orders took an active part in public life; they walked around cities and villages, actively carrying out all sorts of instructions from the pope. They were missionaries, preachers of the Crusades; they informed the people of those bulls of excommunication that the local Catholic bishops did not want to make public; they were selling indulgences, collecting money for the papal treasury; they were collectors of Peter's denarius and other taxes going into the papal treasury; they begged for donations in favor of the pope, and were his spies and secret ambassadors. In particular, the Dominicans were inquisitors, the Franciscans moved among the common people and acted mainly as confessors. Sinners and sinners revealed their souls to a strange monk more easily than to a parish priest, because the strange monk would soon leave, and his own priest would meet with them constantly. Mendicant monks interfered in family affairs; The Franciscans were intermediaries in all sorts of matters for the common people, with whom most of them were close in their low level of education. The Dominicans behaved more proudly, boasted of their learning, and took professorships in universities; famous Catholic theologians of the Middle Ages, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, were Dominicans; but the Franciscans also had great theologians. With the emergence of the mendicant orders, the attitude of the Catholic Church towards the people changed significantly: with their poverty, they gave it popularity and made it look close to the ideal of pious people. Among their fellow members, the mendicant orders made no difference between noble and ignorant people; they gave talented commoners a path to achieving the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy.

(Franciscan Order). One of the four orders of the “mendicant brothers” (Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians), founded in the 13th century. The emergence of new orders marked a confrontation with spiritual decline, growing urbanization and the rapid spread of heresies (especially in Northern France and Southern Italy). The Franciscan Order was founded by Francis of Assisi and blessed by Pope Innocent III in 1210. Unlike previous monasticism, the “mendicant brothers” lived in the world, preaching and spiritually caring for those in need.

Francis' deep distrust of official institutions, as well as the radicalism of his demands (he did not recognize any property for members of the order, not even touching money) caused fierce controversy. First, a conflict arose between the "zealots" who defended the strictest observance of the rules drawn up by Francis, and those factions that tried to adapt the life of the order to the demands of this world. In 1240, the Franciscan Order, under the patronage of the pope, received final organizational design as an international body, in which only clergy were assigned a responsible role (another example of betrayal of the spirit of Francis, who highly valued the laity). To circumvent the ban on property ownership, the order was allowed to register the so-called. guardianship. In 125774 Thanks to the balanced and peacemaking policy carried out by the then General of the Order Bonaventure, the intensity of the controversy noticeably decreased. An outstanding thinker, Bonaventure testified that the Franciscans were already joining the world of university knowledge.

After Bonaventure's death, the bitter debate about apostolic poverty was renewed. The extreme views of the Spiritualists (formerly "zealots" or "Zealots") were rejected by Pope John XXII, who in 1322 officially approved corporate ownership of property, indicating that Christ and His apostles owned property. The Spirituals broke away from the Franciscan Order. Even such outstanding Franciscans as Michael of Cesena and William of Ockham found themselves in exile and condemned the pope.

A number of difficult circumstances - the plague, wars, and the Great Schism - led to the decline of the Franciscan Order, but within its framework a new movement arose in support of a strict charter; his supporters were called "observants". Opposition to them came from more moderate “conventionalists,” who preferred city residences to remote hermitages. Unsuccessful attempts to reconcile these two movements forced Pope Leo XB in 1517 to officially divide the Franciscan order into two branches of Observants (with a strict charter) and Conventuals (with a moderate charter). However, soon the Observants themselves, driven by the reformist spirit, split into several movements of “barefoot”, “recollection”, “reformed” and Capuchins (who wore a pointed hood). The Capuchins played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation and by 1619 achieved complete independence. The new decline of the Franciscan Order was caused by both internal contradictions and external events, the advent of the Enlightenment and revolutionary upheavals in Europe. Only thanks to the tireless efforts of Pope Leo XIII in 1897, the unification of all Observants took place (with the exception of the Capuchins, who retained their independence).

Along with the Order of the "Little Friars", which included three independent formations of Observants, Conventuals and Capuchins, two more Franciscan orders arose: the Second Order of Nuns (Clarissa), founded by Francis and his follower Clara in 1212, and the Third Order (Tertiaries), consisting mainly from the laity.

The Franciscans, along with their rivals the Dominicans, represented a new spiritual force in the 13th-century Church. Defending the apostolic ideal of the life of a poor preacher, they met with understanding from the urban population, which was increasingly alienated from the church-monastery “establishment.” However, members of the Franciscan Order did not join the rebellious heretics, remaining faithful servants of the official Church. In addition to cities, the centers of their greatest activity were universities, where they prepared themselves for a worldwide mission to fight infidels, heretics and everyone who is indifferent to Christian truth. In fact, all the outstanding scientists of that time belonged to the “mendicant brothers”, incl. Franciscans Bonaventure, John Dune Scotus and William of Ockham. However, contrary to the spirit of Francis, the Franciscan order, in its attempts to consolidate Christian society, became closely associated with the repressive institution of the Inquisition and the anti-Jewish policies of the Western Church.