Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Part I John Moorman and His Franciscan Studies
- Part II The Order of Friars Minor in England
- Part III The Friars and the Schools
- Appendix: The Moorman Letters in the Archive of the Collegio San Bonaventura (Quaracchi/Grottaferrata/Rome)
- Index
10 - English Franciscans and their Influence on the Early History of the Order
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Part I John Moorman and His Franciscan Studies
- Part II The Order of Friars Minor in England
- Part III The Friars and the Schools
- Appendix: The Moorman Letters in the Archive of the Collegio San Bonaventura (Quaracchi/Grottaferrata/Rome)
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Thomas of Eccleston celebrates the friars’ arrival in England and their contribution to the Christian life of the country, stressing the friars’ exemplary conduct and their commitment to the apostolate. The chronicler dwells on the high standards of religious observance that prevailed in England and the friars’ zeal in defending the spiritual patrimony of St Francis. Professor Şenocak assembles information on the ways in which the influence of the English province reached beyond Dover and began to have a wider influence on the order. English friars promoted the ideals of il poverello in their commission's report on how the Rule should be observed. Similarly, William of Nottingham, minister provincial (1240–1254), spearheaded the movement to resist the relaxations of Innocent IV's Ordinem vestrum where it exceeded the terms of Gregory IX's Quo elongati at the general chapter of Genoa in 1251. The English friars’ commitment to the study of theology was extended to the rest of the order as a whole.
Keywords: English province, Francis of Assisi, Friars of the Observance, Haymo of Faversham, Innocent IV, Ordinem vestrum, William of Nottingham
The Franciscan order was founded in Italy in 1209 and for the first decade of its existence it remained an Italian fraternity. The first Franciscans arrived in Paris in 1219 and from there launched the mission to England in 1224. As such, the English settlement was late compared to the provinces in other parts of Europe, such as Germany, France, or Spain. However, despite this delay, the English Franciscans were highly influential in shaping the identity and mission of the order, and contributed greatly to the execution of this new mission in its first century. The present study concerns itself with the specifically English contributions to the development of the order in its first century.
Pursuit of Learning
Perhaps the single greatest influence of the English friars on the historical development of the Franciscan order was in the sphere of the integration of learning into the order's evangelical mission. Although the Italian friars were seemingly uninterested in studying, although not hostile to study, it was eventually the particular culture of study that was rather advanced among the English friars that dominated the order and shaped both its values and the way it was administered.
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- The Franciscan Order in the Medieval English , pp. 211 - 228Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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