Reform of a Different Order

1. Reform of a Different Order From Monks to Friars

2. Saint Dominic (1170-1221) • Encountered heretics in Southern France • Heretics lived lives of ‘apostolic poverty’ • Believed Cistercians who were preaching against the heretics should give up their trappings of wealth to look and act ‘like Christ’ as the heretics did

4. Domini canes

6. Order of Preachers • Dominican order established in 1215 • Spread rapidly • Dedicated to preaching against heresy • Heavily involved in growing educational institutions in Europe • Mendicant tradition of apostolic poverty

7. Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) • Son of wealthy merchant • Spiritual crisis at the age of 20 or so • Visions of God led him to renounce wealth • Publicly renounced his claim on his father’s wealth (in dramatic fashion) following Christ’s example of absolute poverty

11. Francis and the Devil

12. Franciscan Order • Francis attracted followers • Order founded 1209/1210 • Grew rapidly • First rule-collection of Gospel sayings • Second rule- more organization but remained true to Franciscan ideals

13. Personal, Experiential Religion • Emphasis on experiencing the nativity • Received the stigmata in 1223 and felt the pain of those wounds for the rest of his life • Francis as a Second Christ?

14. Franciscans and Dominicans • Similarities • Mendicants • Preachers • Widespread movement • Differences • Different ways of demonstrating faith intellectual vsexperiential • The orders do become more similar by the 14thc century

15. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) • Moved by Francis message of apostolic poverty and dedication to God • 1212 dedicated herself to finding an order of nuns based on Franciscan ideals • Cloistered, perhaps against her wishes • Continued to fight for the idea of corporate poverty for her nuns • Imitated Christ but most biographers insinuated she imitated Mary

17. Poor Clares • Monasteries of Poor Claresfounded throughout Europe in Clare’s lifetime • She herself was venerated as a living saint

18. 13th century?- earlier roots New approach to religion Both lay and clerical Direct visions of God Direct access to God Mysticism

19. Tithe Prioress Bingenestablished 1147 Wrote medical treatises, music, dramas and Scivias Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

21. 23 rd child? 1364: Dominican tertiary Visions Asceticism Betrothal 1461: Canonization 1970: Doctor of the church Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

22. The Challenge of Mysticism

23. Mystics must have confessors Mystical voices stifled or at least filtered by male confessors Lives of mystics written to conform to prescribed roles for women The Church’s Response