church history to the reformation ch506 ormation ef o the r t … · 2019-09-13 · dun scotus,...

Church History to the Reformation

Transcript - CH506 Church History to the Reformation © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

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LESSON 21 of 24CH506

The Rise of Religious Orders

Church History to the Reformation

Lecture twenty-one—The Rise of Religious Orders. Greetings once again in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and let me invite you to join me in prayer as we begin our class together today. Let us pray. Good and gracious Lord, we come to you once again in our need, asking that you would open up our minds and hearts to that which you have to teach us today. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.

Today I would like for us to think together about the emergence and the development of the religious orders within the life of the church. What I’m referring to here are those groups of men and women, usually, though not always, Roman Catholic who are committed to a particular religious life. Within Catholicism a distinction is made between what are called religious orders on the one side and religious congregations on the other. Both groupings are committed to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, although members of religious orders take what are called solemn vows; whereas, members of religious congregations are required to take what have been come to be known as simple vows. Members of religious orders, moreover, are not allowed to own private property; whereas, members of religious congregations may do so. Normally folk from both of these categories are called in the church religious—men or women, religious.

Historically there are a variety of classifications or types of religious orders. For example, one grouping would include the military orders. Groups like the Knights of St. John, founded by Raymond du Puy in 1113 AD in Jerusalem. The purpose of this order was to care for and protect the pilgrims on their many pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They also became involved in fighting in the Crusades. In 1530 AD, they came to be known as the Knights of Malta and are better known in that nomenclature today.

Garth M. Rosell, PhD Experience: Professor of Church History

and Director Emeritus, Ockenga Institute at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary



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Another one of the military orders is the Knights Templar, founded in 1119 by Hugues de Payens and Godfrey Saint-Omer in Jerusalem. The purpose of this order was to defend pilgrims by the use of force and arms. Another of the groupings here are the Teutonic Knights, founded by German pilgrims in Acre in 1190 AD for the purpose of maintaining hospitals in the Holy Land and doing missionary work throughout Germany.

So you have on the one side, the military orders; you also have the classic Benedictine orders. The original Benedictines were founded in 529 AD by Benedict of Nursia, and you can recall in our discussions of that period some of the early development of that Monastic community. It’s based, of course, upon the famous Benedictine Rule, which, as you know now, had become a kind of model rule for most of the orders. It included such notable leaders as the Great Venerable Bede, the early church historian, and Boniface, the great missionary pope.

Among the Benedictines are also the Cluniacs, founded by William of Aquitaine in 910 AD in Cluny, France. This was a kind of resurgent and somewhat reformed Benedictine order. Within the Benedictine orbit is also the order called the Cistercians, founded in 1098 AD by Robert Molesme in Citeaux, France. It included such notable figures as Bernard of Clairvaux with whom we are quite familiar now, and, of course, Benedict the XII. The Trappist Monks whom we run into periodically in our own day are a branch this order.

Along with the military orders and the Benedictine orders are the Augustinian orders, those who follow the rule of St. Augustine. This includes such notable figures as Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther, the great reformer, and Gregory of Rimini. The Premonstrants, founded by Norbert in 1119 AD, is another example of one of the Augustinian orders.

In addition to those categories are the independent orders—groups such as the Carthusians, founded by Bruno in 1082 AD. They followed their own particular rule, which was extremely strict in its orientation, including the regular practice of flagellation. Among the independents, we also find the Carmelites, founded in 1156 on Mt. Carmel, from which they take their name, of course. And among their notable figures is Theresa of Avila.

Another grouping of orders is represented by The Society of Jesus. We know them better today as the Jesuits, founded in 1540 AD



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by Ignatius Loyola in Rome. Their rule was taken from Loyola’s spiritual exercises. They were active in missions and education, and they became an important part of what we have come to call the Counter-Reformation against Protestantism in the 16th Century. Probably as much or more than any other order, they were committed to the absolute authority of the pope and notable among figures in their history are Francis Xavier, Roberto de Nobili, and Matteo Ricci.

Another category of orders are the famous Mendicant Orders. The two dominant groups there are the Dominicans and the Franciscans. The Dominicans founded by Dominic in 1216 AD in Spain. They basically followed a modified rule or order of St. Augustine. They helped to conduct the Spanish Inquisition. They were used by the pope to help root out heresy. Notable members of this group are Thomas Aquinas, John Tauler, Bartolome de las Casas, and Savonarola. The Franciscans about whom I want to talk more in depth in a moment, were founded by St. Francis of Assisi in Italy in the thirteenth century. They follow a rule drawn directly from Scripture. They stressed strongly the vow of absolute poverty and simplicity of life. In 1525 they produced the Capuchins. Notable members of this group include Bonaventure, Dun Scotus, William of Ockham, Roger Bacon, Nicholas of Lyra, and so on.

I’m going to come back in a moment to talk about the Franciscans, particularly these Mendicant folk, as an illustration of the development of religious orders, but first I want to comment more generally upon the nature of religious orders and try to point out why it’s important especially for evangelical Christians to know more about them.

The earliest members of a religious order here in the Americas that we know about were the Franciscans, those who accompanied Columbus on his famous explorations. In fact, the Franciscan missionaries in California named many of the places that would later become the state’s largest cities. The Jesuits were among the earliest explorers here in the new world, primarily in the areas of the Midwest and the Southwest. Catholics tended to be largely unwelcomed in many of the English colonies, but Jesuits ministered to the early Catholic settlers, for example, in Maryland.

The role and importance of religious orders greatly expanded during the enormous immigration period here in America in the nineteenth century. In fact, many of the orders in America



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continued to grow and prosper until they reached their peak in the period between 1945 and 1965. Following the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, however, there has been a kind of steady decline in membership and influence within religious orders. This is due in part to the new emphasis on lay ministry which came out of Vatican II, and in part to the growing dissatisfaction among Catholics regarding the requirements for celibacy, which are so much integrated parts of the order structure. Currently there are 109 religious orders for Roman Catholic clerics and twenty-eight orders for Roman Catholic lay brothers operating here in America. In the clerical orders, most members are either priests or seminarians studying for the priesthood. Orders for brothers, of course, don’t have any priests. Most of these folk are involved in education or healthcare.

The largest and best known orders are those founded way back in the Middle Ages, the period that we have been studying. These by and large have their headquarters in Rome and include several provinces as basic administrative units here in the United States and throughout the world. At the head of each province there is usually a provincial superior under whom the superiors of the various houses or communities serve. In some orders the structure is very hierarchical with authority derived from a general superior who resides in Rome. Other orders are much more democratic and effective power lies within the local units. Aside from small orders which are confined to a single dioceses and answer to its bishop, all orders come over papal control through the sacred congregation of religious—one of the administrative units of the papal curia.

The largest single order in the United States today is the Society of Jesus—Jesuits. In 1986 there were 5,226 American Jesuits living in ten different provinces. Even more numerous in actuality are the Franciscans, but they’re divided into three separate families or orders—the orders of Friars Minor, the Conventuals, and the Capuchins. Less numerous are other Medieval orders such as Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and Servites. Individual houses of the older Monastic order such as the Benedictine, Cistercians, Carthusians, and so on are usually autonomous.

Most of the United States orders were founded in the nineteenth century, especially in France and Italy, and came to America to help the immigrant church. Among these are probably groups you’ve probably bumped into here or there—the Assumptionists, the Claretians, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the Fathers



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of Mercy, the La Salette Fathers, the Marianists, the Marists, the Resurrectionists, the Palatines, the Salesians, and the Salvatorians. Others were founded right here in America, including the Glen Mary Missionaries, the Maryknoll Fathers, the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles, the Paulinists, and the Servants of the Paraclete.

Protestants are often puzzled by strange letters which appear behind the names of some of these individuals. Initials, of course, denote the order or congregation to which that individual belongs. For example, if you see A. A. after a name, this person is tied to the Augustinian of the Assumption Order, or the Assumptionists. If you see C. S. C., they belong to the Congregation of the Holy Cross; or O. S. A, the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine; or the F. M. S., the Marists Brothers; or the M. M., Maryknoll Missionaries, or O. M. F. (you’ll see that very frequently). These are the Franciscans. Or the O. F. M. C. A. P. These are the Capuchins. Or the O. S. B.—the Benedictines; or the O. S. F., the Franciscan Brothers. Or the R. S. M., the Sisters of Charity. Very often you’ll see the S. J.; these are Jesuits.

Most American Roman Catholic parishes are served actually by diocesan clergy, but members of religious orders often take parishes that have special needs; for example, those in the inner city or among the African Americans or Native Americans or other ethnic groups. The greatest contribution of the religious orders in America has been to this great network of Catholic universities. Most of these were founded in the nineteenth century, but blossomed to full-blown university status after 1945. The Jesuits, as a matter of fact, founded nineteenth universities, including Georgetown, Fordham, Boston College, St. Louis, Marquette, and three of the Loyolas. Other notable Roman Catholic universities include Dayton, founded by the Marianists, De Paul, Niagara, and St. John’s, founded by the Vincentians, La Salle by the Christian Brothers, Notre Dame by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and Villanova founded by the Augustinians.

After education foreign missions are the most significant involvement of the male religious. In 1988 there were 2,473 American order priests and 532 brothers working in missionary activity around the world, over 2,000 of these in Latin America; about 1,300 in the Far East, and nearly 1,000 in Africa. Among these were 513 Jesuits serving in forty-two different countries. 504 Maryknoll Fathers working in twenty-five countries, and 390 Franciscans working all over the world. Other involvements for male religious are leading retreats (this has been a very rapidly



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growing area of involvement) publishing religious magazines and journals, working in hospitals or nursing homes, or serving as military chaplains. Some of them, including the Trappists and the Carthusians, devote their life almost completely to prayer.

What about women in religious orders? As you’ve probably gathered already, membership in religious orders is not confined to men. Let me say just a little bit about women’s involvement. From the very earliest years, women have been active in Monastic life. You’ll remember way back in the early development of Monasticism through the Solitaries, the Hermits, so called of the desert areas. Among these were many women, oftentimes dressing up as men to avoid the kind of scandal of women living alone out in the desert. Women were also very active in the development of the early Monastic communities, as we discovered in our earlier discussions. So you have male and female Monastic settlements, just as you have male and female orders developing in the Middle Ages.

The first women’s order founded here in America was actually established in 1790 in Port Tobacco, Maryland by five Carmelite nuns who had come over from Antwerp. In 1799, the Irish-born Teresa Lalor and her companions formed the Georgetown Visitation Academy, the very first Catholic women’s school here in America. Six more groups formed before 1830, all of which continue to exist today—the Sisters of Charity, founded by Elizabeth Ann Seton, the Sister of Loretto, the Sisters of the Charity of Nazareth, in Kentucky the Oblate Sisters of Providence (this was actually the first community established by African American women) and the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady in South Carolina. Women religious group rapidly in the nineteenth century, often helping to meet the growing needs of immigrant churches.

The major involvement of women religious has been educational, at first in boarding academies and later in parochial schools. It might be of some interest to you to know that the Roman Catholic parochial school system is the very largest private system of religious education in the world today. Sisters are also involved in healthcare. Many have given their life completely to prayer. A number of these independent houses, these women’s orders, are tied together today by what is called The Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the USA. It connects over 300 different communities. Total membership today in Catholic sisterhoods in the US alone is 112,489. The fact is also that not all members of orders are Roman Catholic. In fact, there are a number of



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Protestant religious orders. The revival of the religious life in the churches of the Protestant Reformation is one of those really significant spiritual movements of modern time.

In the sixteenth century Monasticism came under rather severe criticism with the Protestant Reformers as being nonevangelical and religious houses were suppressed or eventually declined in Protestant regions. The principle of religious community life, however, had not been rejected outright by the Reformers and new ventures in communal life made their appearance with Protestant growth and development in the more modern centuries, often fostered by groups like Pietists of Europe.

Among the early experiments of Monastic nature in North America, were the Labadist Settlement on the Bohemia Manor in 1683 on the Chesapeake Bay and the Wissahickon Hermitage, 1696, near Philadelphia. The first well-known community was Ephrata Cloister, founded in 1732 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, actually a Seventh Day Baptist settlement. One can also cite such groups as the Moravian Brethren or the Shakers of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, we have a wide variety of communities, including the Rappites and Zorites and others.

Among Episcopalians, the Sisterhood of the Holy Community in New York was established in 1852 as an evangelical association of women who lived without vows, but who devoted themselves to works of charity. From this group in 1865 came the first regular order of women—the Community of St. Mary in New York. And by 1900 some twenty-three separate sisterhoods had been established. During the late nineteenth century, orders of deaconesses also were established in many of the Protestant denominations. This movement was inspired by the German deaconess community at Kaiserswerth and was introduced to America by Lutherans in 1849. Between 1870 and 1900, over 140 deaconess houses were organized by Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others. Since 1945, there’s been a whole new flowering of community life within American Protestantism. Many of these have been inspired by contemporary liturgical and ecumenical movement. We see examples of these in the Koinonia Farm, found in 1950 in America’s Georgia, or the Congregation of Servants of Christ, founded in 1958 in Oxford, Michigan, or the Reba Place Fellowship, 1957, Evanston, Illinois, or the Ecumenical Institute, 1968, in Chicago, or the Sojourners Community, 1975, in Washington, DC.



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Now if I’ve whetted your appetite about these orders, let me suggest some excellent resources. For the Protestant developments, you might look at Donald Bloesch’s marvelous little book, Wellsprings of Renewal, published in 1974 or F. Biot’s, The Rise of Protestant Monasticism, 1963 or F. E. Stoeffler’s, Continental Pietism and Early American Christianity. Among the Roman Catholics, you might want to get hold of The Ministries of the Lord, a Roman Catholic resource guide published in 1985 or H. W. Homan’s Knights of Christ, 1957.

For the study of women religious, M. A. Neal’s Catholic Sisters in Transition, 1984 or E. Thomas’ Women’s Religious History Sources: A Guide to Repository of the US, which is a wonderful collection published in 1983.

The Franciscans, about whom I want to talk a bit more now, have some excellent resources available. Kajetan Esser’s Origin of the Franciscan Order, 1970, or Omer Englebert’s St. Francis of Assisi, 1965, or Julien Green’s more recent God’s Fool: The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi, 1983, or Rosalind B. Brooke’s The Coming of the Friars, 1975. These form a kind of foundation upon which I want to focus now for a few moments on one of the famous Medieval orders, one that emerged around the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi and his remarkable disciple, Clare of Assisi. These can serve as kind of illustration of the development of the key orders, those that I’ve been talking about as being very operative today and very important throughout the history of the church.

St. Francis was born in the small Umbrian town of Assisi in the year 1181, or possibly 1182—it’s difficult to date exactly. His father, Pietro, was a wealthy textile merchant. His mother, Pica, came from a distinguished French family. He was interested early in life in either a military career or one in the business world. However, he soon discovered a kind of mysterious spiritual calling within himself and following a chance meeting of a leper, he heard a voice from the cross at the little church of San Damiano. This led to his conversion, which included a renunciation of all his possessions and a deep commitment to a project of rebuilding churches, including that little parish of San Damiano.

On February 24, 1208, the Feast of St. Mathias, Francis heard a missionary discourse on the Great Commission from Matthew’s Gospel while he was working in a little church. He responded immediately and embarked upon a life as a poor itinerant preacher, proclaiming penance and peace. Others came to follow



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his lead and he formed these; he gathered these together, in a little brotherhood of obedience. Soon they set out to Rome to have this organization and this modest rule approved by the pope, which was done by Innocent III. Francis also, I think you might be interested to learn, wrote a plan for the sisters, the so-called Poor Ladies of San Damiano. They’ll come back into the store with Clare in just a moment.

At the heart of his concern was missions. He attempted to go as a missionary to Syria in 1212, but got shipwrecked and had to return. A second journey was an attempt to do missionary work in Morocco and it was thwarted by an illness which he contracted. A third in 1219 during the fifth crusade to Damietta succeeded, although Francis proved unsuccessful in trying to convert the Sultan of Egypt, Malik al-Kamil. But he and his followers by their example were already becoming a strong force for renewal within the church, and during the last years of his life he was blind and seriously ill. Yet he continued to preach, to minister to lepers, to guide brothers and sisters in the faith. He died in 1226. Two years later he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. In 1939 he was proclaimed the Patron of Italy, and in 1980, he was proclaimed the Patron of Ecology by Pope John Paul II.

He wrote twenty-eight separate works—“Letters to the Clergy,” “Letters to the Ruler of the People,” The Rule,” The Testament,” The Canticle of Brother Sun”, and so on. These are all contained in a wonderful little volume which has been put out in The Classics of Western Spirituality Series by Paulist Press. This volume titled Francis and Clare: The Complete Works published in 1982. I want to read just a brief section of that from his “Admonitions,” so called to give you some flavor of St. Francis’ interests. This is often called “The Franciscan Sermon on the Mount,” since it is very important to understanding Francis and is one of his key writings.

He calls his followers to obedience. “The Lord said to Adam,” he writes in “The Evil of Self-Will,” “Eat of Every Tree. Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was able to eat of every tree of paradise since he did not sin as along as he did not go against obedience. For the person eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good who appropriates to himself his own will and thus exalts himself over other good things which the Lord says and does in him. And thus, through the suggestion of the devil, and the transgression of the command, what he eats becomes for him the fruit of the knowledge of evil. Therefore, it is necessary that he bear the punishment.”



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Then he comes to the section on perfect obedience. “The Lord says in the Gospel, ‘He who does not renounce everything he possesses cannot be my disciple (Luke 14), and he who wishes to save his life must lose it (Luke 9).’ That person leaves everything he possesses and loses his body who surrenders his whole self to obedience at the hands of his prelate.” Then he encourages folk not to appropriate to themselves a role of being over others. “I did not come to be served, but to serve.” (Matthew 10) said the Lord. “Those who are placed over others should glory in such an office only as much as they would if they were assigned the task of washing the feet of the brothers, and the more they are upset about their office being taken from them, the same they ought to be upset over the loss of the office of washing feet, and, thereby, they store up for themselves treasures in heaven rather than on earth.”

Then it calls for an imitation of the Lord. “Let all of us brothers look to the Good Shepherd who suffered the passion of the cross to save His sheep. The sheep of the Lord followed Him in tribulation and persecution, in insult and hunger, in infirmity and temptation, and in everything else. And they have received everlasting life from the Lord because of these things. Therefore, it is a great shame for us servants of God, that while the saints actually did such things, we wished to receive glory and honor by merely recounting their deeds.” Interesting reflection.

Then he calls his followers to patience. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5). “The servant of God cannot know how much patience and humility he has within himself as long as everything goes well with him. But when the time comes in which those who should do him justice do quite the opposite to him, he has only as much patience and humility as he has on that occasion and no more.” Good insight.

Compassion for one’s neighbor. “Blessed is the person who bears with his neighbor in his weakness to the degree that he would wish to be sustained by him if he were in a similar situation. Blessed is the servant who attributes every good to the Lord God, for he who holds back something for himself, hides within himself the money of his Lord God, and that which he thought he had, shall be taken away from him.” Good practical wisdom here.

One final word. “Blessed is the servant who would love and respect his brother as much when he is far from him as he would when he is with him, and who would not say anything behind his



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back, which in charity he could not say to his face.” Some pretty good practical admonitions which Francis gives not only to the brothers of his order, but I think, in a sense, to all of us as well.

One of Francis’ most fervent disciples was a fascinating woman about whom very little is known within the life of the church; a woman named, Clare, eleven years younger than St. Francis. She’s often called the “Clear One,” the woman who lived out the Franciscan vision with a kind of simplicity and power and helped, thereby, to shape the spirituality of the thirteenth century. She, like Francis, gathered in community to live out a radical commitment to the Gospel, a life of poverty and service, and became, thereby, one of the great women of the Franciscan tradition. Her central vision was the call to revitalize not only her own life, but through her example, to help to renew the lives of others and, thereby, reenergize the life of the church.

Clare was the third of five children in a well-to-do family in Assisi. Early in life she began to practice compassion for the poor, dedicating herself to daily prayer and to giving her life as an offering of generosity to all who had need. She probably heard St. Francis first in Assisi around 1210 AD, this popular young man who had turned his back upon a very promising career and had given away his wealth, living in poverty and simplicity trying to follow the Gospel. She sought his advice after being pressed by her parents to get married. In those days, of course, marriages were arranged. He responded that she should renounce the world and give her life up to obedience to Christ. She followed that advice. Turned down the prospect of marriage, and on Palm Sunday, March 18, 1212, she dedicated herself to pursue the Gospel, living first among the Benedictine Nuns in the Monastery of San Paulo in Bastia.

Later she moved to the little San Damiano Parish, one of the very first churches that Francis had repaired. Remember he was called by God, he felt, to help repair churches. She remained there until her death some forty-two years later. Soon other women joined with her there, including her own sister, Agnes. These folk came to be called The Poor Ladies of Assisi, just as Francis and his followers had come to be called The Poor Men of Assisi. Life at San Damiano was lived under a rule, and it’s one of the interesting features of the literature of that period that we have the actual rule which was penned by Clare at the help of Francis and others and was adopted for use just a few days prior to Clare’s death and it brought her great joy on her deathbed that this had



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been approved and would be used now by the order.

It reflects a lot of the elements of the life among Franciscan brothers and sisters. Let me give you a few examples, again reading from this Classics of Western Spirituality volume on Francis and Clare. “The form of life of the Order of the Poor Sisters, which the beloved Francis established, is this: To observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience without anything of our own and in chastity. If by divine inspiration anyone should come to us with a desire to embrace this life, the Abbess is required to seek the consent of all the sisters.” By the way, Clare at first declined to be the Abbess of this particular order, feeling that she would rather live in simplicity as one of the sisters rather than the head of the order. Francis ultimately twisted her arm to take on that responsibility, which she did at his request, but she didn’t want it. “If the majority of the sisters agree, having had the permission of our Lord Cardinal Protector, this person then can be received. And if she is suitable, let the words of the Holy Gospel be addressed to her, that she should go and sell all that she had and take care to distribute these to the poor. Afterwards, once her hair has been cut off around her head and her secular dress set aside, she is to be allowed three tunics and a mantle.” That’s the total possession of clothing. “Thereafter, she may not go outside of the monastery except for some useful, reasonable, evident, and approved purpose. When the year of probation is ended, let her be received into obedience, promising to observe our ways of life and our form of poverty. For the love of the most holy and beloved Child who is wrapped in the poorest of swaddling clothes and laid in a manger and of his most holy mother, I admonish and treat and exhort my sisters that they always wear the poorest of garments.

“The sisters are to fast at all times,” the rule continues. “On Christmas, however, no matter on what day it happens to fall, they may eat twice. The younger sisters, those who are weak, and those who are serving outside the monastery may be dispensed mercifully as the Abbess see fit, but in a time of evident necessity, the sisters are not bound to corporal fasting. The sisters should not acquire anything of their own; neither a house, nor a place, nor anything at all. Instead as pilgrims and strangers in the world who serve the Lord in poverty and humility, let them send confidently for alms. Nor should they feel ashamed, since the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world. This is that summit of highest poverty, which is established, you my dear sisters, as heirs and queens of the kingdom of heaven. It has made you poor in the things of this world, but has exalted you in virtue. Dedicating



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yourselves totally to this, my most beloved sisters, do not wish to have anything else for ever under heaven for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and His most holy mother.”

And then one final word from the rule. “If any sister at the instigation of the enemy shall have sinned mortally against the form of our profession and if after having been admonished two or three times by the Abbess or other sisters, she will not amend, she shall eat bread and water on the floor before all of the sisters in the refectory for as many days as she has been obstinate. And if it seems advisable to the Abbess, she shall undergo even greater punishment.” There were always problems within the orders because of human nature and you have all of the rules dealing with not only with the things they are to do positively, but with punishments that would come to those who would break the rules. These were austere and difficult commitments and many of these sisters, as well as the brothers, lived in such abject poverty and often with so little to eat and so little care would become ill and many of them died much earlier than they probably would have had otherwise.

In all, this rule not only gives us an insight into the Franciscans and into Clare in particular, but it also helps to teach us about the commitment of this order to chastity, humility, virginity, poverty, silence, abstinence, patience, contemplation.

Clare herself was frequently ill. For some twenty-eight years, she was largely confined to bed. We don’t know her precise illness, but likely it was complicated by her very severe lifestyle. On August 11, 1253, she died. She left only five genuine writings all of which are included in this little volume that I read from a moment ago—her rule of which we read directly, and four letters to Agnes of Prague. As a woman of deep faith, she not only inspired folk in her day, but continues like St. Francis himself to inspire all of us today.

What can we say then in conclusion about the religious orders? Well, I think for Protestants, for evangelical Christians in particular, we have too long either misunderstood or disregarded the importance that these orders have played in the history and life of the church; not only in the Middle Ages, when most of those historic bodies emerged, but also in our own day in our connections with not only our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters who are part of orders, but also in terms of this new fascinating movement of religious communities within Protestant-related churches. I


Christ-Centered Learning — Anytime, Anywhere

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think that we have an opportunity here not only to understand better what these folk are about, but to begin in that process of discussion and interaction and dialog which can be so fruitful in our day. And the foundation of that, of course, is coming to understand what the orders are all about themselves. I think it’s a remarkable element in the life of the church and one that we need to pay attention to and learn from for our own ministries today.

church history to the reformation ch506 ormation ef o the r t … · 2019-09-13 · dun scotus,...

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