The Friars

A detailed Summary of The Friars


Lawrence's works details how the mendicant orders arose before and during the thirteenth century. Europe supported the establishment of the church, implemented change and reform leading to heresy and separation. Lawrence regards the "revolutionary situation" (page 225), as one resulting partly by the growth of towns and the general population. Due to social changes within medieval Europe itself it sought control and threatened the stability of the Church and of the religious beliefs of the people.

In a way, the rise of the mendicant orders at this time is an answer to the problems in this situation. Mendicant orders are seen by Lawrence as "a revolutionary answer to a potentially revolutionary situation" (page 225) because of the long-term effect to help preserve the church hierarchy. This sometimes was in conflict and even become partly incorporated into that hierarchy themselves. Although, to some extent the mendicant orders were innovative, they cannot be seen as itself revolutionary. In order to be considered revolutionary, they would have had to overthrow the previous church order and perhaps replacing it with a new one. But mendicant order did nothing of the so


1. Guralnik, David B. "Catastrophe". Websters New

In intellectual, economic and social uproar, the cities were productive areas for heresy. "The literate a laity, who formed the upper strata of the new urban society... aware of the educational and moral shortcomings of secular clergy, were a natural forcing - ground both for orthodox criticism of the Church and for radical dissent." (Page 3). For this reason, the Church was faced with a potentially revolutionary situation. The situation developed to an extent not again until the Reformation. So the Cathars in southern France were able, to field their own clerical hierarchy, and eventually oppose to that of the Catholic Church.

rt. The establishment of monasteries and schools allowed them to later become part of the Catholic Church, government system.

Thus, the power of the clergy and the church was also in question. It was only a question of time before the secular nobility would become more and more independent of the church. We can see that even at the time of Albigensian Crusade, political and military leaders such as the Count of Toulose were not hesitant to openly oppose church policies.

The Dark Ages

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Approximate Word count = 797
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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