Mendicants, Order of, also known as Begging Friars, is the name of several religious organizations within the boundaries of the Roman Catholic Church, intended to depend for support on the voluntary contri- butions of the laity. This sort- of society began in the 13th century, and the members of it, by the tenor of their institution, were to remain entirely destitute of all fixed revenues and possessions. Innocent III was the first of the popes who perceived the necessity of insti- tuting such an order; and though his far-seeing eye took in the possible dangers of fierce and ascetic enthu- siasm, he nevertheless felt constrained to give those mo- nastic societies making a profession of poverty the most distinguishing marks of his protection and favor. The peculiar state and circumstances of the time seem to have rendered such an establishment very essential for the preservation of the Church. The monastic orders then existing wallowed in opulence, and were by the cor- rupting influence of their ample possessions lulled into a luxurious indolence. They lost sight of all their re- ligious obligations, trampled upon the authority of their superiors, suffered heresy to triumph unrestrained, and the sectaries to form various assemblies; in short, they were incapable of promoting the true interests of the Church, and abandoned themselves, without either shame or remorse, to all sorts of crimes. On the other hand, the " heretics" of the Church, the sects which had left its communion, followed certain austere rules of life apd conduct, which formed a strong contrast between them and the religious orders, and contributed to render the licentiousness of the latter still more offensive and shock- ing to the people. These sects maintained that volun- tary poverty was the leading and essential quality- in a servant of Christ; obliged their doctors to imitate the simplicity of the apostles ; reproached the Church with its overgrown opulence, and the vices and corruptions of the clergy, that flowed thence as from their natural source; and, by their commendation of poverty and contempt of riches, acquired a high degree of respect, and gained a prodigious ascendency over the minds of
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the multitude. In consequence, the great desire of the Churoli was the formation of a society composed of a set of men who — by the austerity of their manners, their contempt of riches, and the external .gravity and sanc- tity of their conduct and maxims — might resemble those doctors that had gained such reputation for the heretical sects, and who might rise so far above the allurements of workily protit and pleasure as not to be seduced by ' the promises or threats of kings and princes from the performance of the duties which they owed to the Church, or from persevering in their subordination to the Roman pontiffs. I
The favors which the Mendicants received at the hands of Innocent III were extended to them likewise by his successors in the pontifical chair, as experience had demonstrated their public and extensive usefulness. But when it became generally known that they had such a peculiar jilaco in the esteem and protection of the rulers of the Church, their number grew to such an enormous and unwieldy multitude, and swarmed so pro- digiously in all the European provinces, that they be- came a burden, not only to the people, but to the Church itself. The great inconvenience that arose from the ex- cessive multiplication of the Mendicant orders was first attempted to be remedied by Gregory X in a general council which he assembled at Lyons in 1272 ; for here all the religious orders that had sprung up after the council held at Rome in 1215, under the pontificate of Innocent III, were suppressed; and the extravagant multitude of Mendicants, as Ciregory called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to four soci- eties or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Fran- ciscans, the Carmelites, and the A ur/ustines, or Hermits of St. Augustine (see each). As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thouglit proper, of conversing with persons of ev- crj' rank, of instructing the youth and multitude wher- ever they went, and as these monks exhibited in their outward appearance and manner of life more striking marks of gravity and holiness tlian were observable in the other monastic societies, they arose all at once to the very surrimit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration through all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanc- timonious beggars went so far that, as we learn from the most .authentic records, several cities were divided or cantoned out into four parts, with a view to these four orders : tlie first part being assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmel- ites, and the fourth to the Augustines. The ))cople were unwilling to receive the sacraments from any other hands than those of the Mendicants, to whose churches they crowded to perform their devotions while living, and were extremely desirous to deposit there their re- mains after death. Nor did the influence and credit of the Jlendicants end here, for we find in the history of this and the succeeding ages that they were employed not only in spiritual matters, but also in temporal and political affairs of the greatest consequence — in compos- ing the differences of princes, concluding treaties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet coun- cils, governing courts, levying taxes, ami other occupa- tions, not onh' remote from, but absolutely inconsistent with the monastic character and profession. However, the j)ow(r of the Dominicans and Franciscans greatly surpassed that of the other two orders, insomuch that these two orders were, before the Reformation, what the Jesuits have been since that period — the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of the state, the secret spring • of all the motions of the one and the other, and the au- thors and directors of every great and imi)ortant event, both in the religious and ]iolitical world.