The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation

order of women known as the

Poor Clares.

o Innocent III approved

Francis’s short rule for the

friars in 1209, and Francis

may have attended the

Fourth Lateran Council in

1215. The itinerant lifestyle
      of the Franciscans made
      them flexible instruments for
      many ministries.

o The history of the early order

is extraordinarily complex,

but out of Francis’s ideals

arose thousands of men

committed to evangelical

poverty, the care of the poor,

and the saving of souls.

o Almost inevitably, the order also gave rise to great theologians

and mystical teachers, including Duns Scotus (1265–1308) and

Bonaventura (1217–1274).

• Dominic de Guzmán (1170–1221) studied arts and theology, then
sold his possessions during a famine to help the poor; he joined
the canons regular in Osma and, after undertaking legations to
northern Europe, conceived of the ideal of preaching the gospel to
pagans. When he became engaged with the Albigensians, he and
his companions founded the Order of Preachers (1208), which was
approved by Innocent III in 1216 and fully recognized by Honorius
III in 1218.
o From the Latin dominicani came the tag “dogs of the Lord” for
the fiery preaching and disciplined zeal of the new order.

o Despite his zeal to oppose heresy, it is doubtful that Dominic

himself led the inquisition (the papal-led interrogation of those

The first of the mendicant

orders was founded by Francis

of assisi around the year 1209.

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