Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
§ 98.10. =The other Mendicant Orders.=--The brilliant success
of the Franciscans and Dominicans led other societies, either
previously existing, or only now called into being, to adopt the
character of mendicants. Only three of them succeeded, though in
a much less degree than their models, in gaining position, name
and extension throughout the West. The first of these was the
=Carmelite Order=. It owed its origin to the crusader Berthold,
Count of Limoges, who in A.D. 1156 founded a monastery at
the brook of Elias on Mount Carmel, to which in A.D. 1209
the patriarch of Jerusalem prescribed the rule of St. Basil
(§ 44, 3). Hard pressed by the Saracens, the Carmelites
emigrated in A.D. 1238 to the West, where as a mendicant
order, under the name of _Frates Mariæ de Monte Carmelo_, with
unexampled hardihood they repudiated their founder Berthold, and
maintained that the prophet Elias had been himself their founder,
and that the Virgin Mary had been a sister of their order. What
they most prided themselves on was the sacred scapular which the
Mother of God herself had bestowed upon Simon Stock, the general
of the order in A.D. 1251, with the promise that whosoever should
die wearing it should be sure of eternal blessedness. Seventy
years later, according to the legends of the order, the Virgin
appeared to Pope John XXII. and told him she descended every
Saturday into purgatory, in order to take such souls to herself
into heaven. In the 17th century, when violent controversies
on this point had arisen, Paul V. authenticated the miraculous
qualities of this scapular, always supposing that the prescribed
fasts and prayers were not neglected. Among the Carmelites,
just as among the Franciscans, laxer principles soon became
current, causing controversies and splits which continued down
to the 16th century (§ 149, 6).--=The Order of Augustinians=
arose out of the combination of several Italian monkish societies.
Innocent IV. in A.D. 1243 prescribed to them the rule of
St. Augustine (§ 45, 1) as the directory of their common life.
It was only under Alexander IV. in A.D. 1256 that they were
welded together into one order as _Ordo Fratrum Eremitarum
S. Augustini_, with the duties and privileges of mendicant
monks. Their order spread over the whole West, and enjoyed
the special favour of the papal chair, which conferred
upon its members the permanent distinction of the office
of sacristan to the papal chapel and of chaplain to the Holy
Father (Continuation, § 112, 5).--Finally, as the fifth in the
series of mendicant orders, we meet with the =Order of Servites=,
_Servi b. Virg._, devoted to the Virgin, and founded in A.D. 1233
by seven pious Florentines. It was, however, first recognised as
a mendicant order by Martin V., and had equal rank with the four
others granted it only in A.D. 1567 by Pius V.
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